Newspaper Page Text
NEW -JEUIES.i
1 VOL. 11. ]
NO. U
[From Blackwood's Magazine.]
GENERAL LEE
More than a year has passed away
since the death of General Lee. In
ordinary times such an event could
hardly have happened without re
viving, if only tor a moment, much
of the reager interest with which,
between 1861 and 1865, the Old
World watched the Titgfiic Civil
War of the New. But during the
October of 1870, when General Lee
breathed his last, the seige of Paris
absorbed the thoughts and engrossed
the attention of civilized mankind.—
Little or no notice has therefore been
taken in England of the death of one
who, when his career, character, and
military genius are better known and
understood, will, in spite of his defeat,
be pronounced the greatest soldier,
with two exceptions, that any English
speaking nation has ever produced.—
Upon the other side of the Atlantic
circumstances have conspired to ob
scure the great deeds and spotless
purity of the noblest son to whom the
North American continent has hitherto
g;v hi* birth. A 4
Honert E. Lee’ Has indeed appeared*
from the pen of Mr. John Esten
Cooke, upon which we propose to make
a few comments, but it can in nfc sense
be regarded as more than an adumbra
tion of the man whom it professes to
delineate. Public expectation on the
other side of the Atlantic anticipates
much from a biography, already too
long delayed, of which Colonel Mar
shall, who for four years served at Gen.
Lee's right hand in the position which
corresponds in European armies to our
Chief of Stall', is to be the author.—
But in both sections of the recon
structed Union the passions and ani
mosities of the American War are
still so much alive that it is a political
necessity for General Lee’s conquerors
to darken his fame and sneer at his
achievements. In most of the public
papers and utterances which have
issued from the victors in the fratriei- j
dal strife, the writers and speakers i
have thought it expedient to brand
Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson •
Davis as men worthy to be ranked 1
with Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr.
Thus, for example, the Board of Visi
tors, to whom was committed the
annual supervision of the United!
States Military Academy af West |
Point—of which Board the present
American Envoy to England, General
Schenck, was President—employ the
following language:
“ Among many improvements"—
such are the questionable wofds of
this singular document—“made during
the administration of the present su-,
perintendent, is one of peculiar and!
touching interest: it is the device of
placing on'the walls of the chapel I
neat marble tablets, or mural monu
ments, inscribed with the names of
those dead army officers who in the j
past have buen made illustrious by!
rank or gallant deeds of arms, or have
fallen in battle. It was a happy;
thought to be executed at this particu-1
lar place. It is most lilting that the ;
United States Military Academy should
be made to perpetuate such names and
histories; thus, keeping before the
eyes and present in the memories of
young men educated here this noble!
example of faithful service and devo-!
tion to our common country.
BY THE CHRONICLE PUBLISHING COMPANY, AUGUSTA, GA.
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1872.
“The Board recommend that the
| tasteful and enduring record thus be
| gun shall V# continued, and that means
; be furnished to extend the same mark
of Vespect to all the officers of our
army, regulars and volunteers alike,
who have suffered and fallen in the
war just closed in a glorious and suc
cessful struggle to vindicate the honor
and maintain the life of the nation.—
Happy for the recreants who fought to
destroy their Government, if, in . tiie
light shed from such a brilliant roll of
i the faithful, - their names and treason
able career could be thrown into deeper
shadow of oblivion
Let us compare with this unseemly
and unnecessary passage the following
; extract from General Badeau’s excel
' lent ' Military History of General U.
'S. Grant.’ He tells us that—
“ When the first shot was fired at
Fort Sumter—the shot which inau
‘ gurated the American Civil War—the
standing army of the United States
numbered 15,433 men, or 10 regi
ments of -infantry, 4 of artillery, and
5 of cavalry. It was officered by
Southerners as well as by Northerners.
!_Uut of 1074 officers 270 were of
! .. r..:.. pi,,,,
jof the talent and distinction of the
army. Two hundred and two espoused
the Southern cause. When it became
apparent that war was inevitable, they
j resigned their commissions, and offered
their swords to their own sections,
; holding the authority of a State para
! mount to that of the Union. They
were followed into secession by fifty
others from Northern or border States,
; most of whom had married Southern
wives or acquired Southern property."
Nothing can be fairer than therea
j sons l>y which General Badeau explains
the secession of General Lee and his
Southern fellow-officers. To many of
them the struggle to decide whether
their State or the Union claimed
j u iority or allegiance was no less pain
■ ful than the struggle—so beautifully
described in Clarendon’s ‘ History of
! the English Rebellion’—which raged
!in the breast of Falkland. “When
there was any overture or hope of
peace,” says Lord Clarendon, “ Falk
1 land would be exceedingly solicitous
to press anything which lie thought
j might promote it; and, sitting among
j his friends, often, after a deep silence
I and frequent sighs, would with a
| shrill and sad accent ingeminate the
word Peace , P> we ; and would pas
sionately profess that the very agony
j of,the war, and the view of the calam
ities and desolation the kingdom did
i and must endure, took his sleep from
i him, and would shortly break his
heart. No one who served by General
j Lee's side during the war, or who
' had occasional opportunities of con
versing with him during the five years
| of’life which remained after his surren
! der at Appomattox Court House, can
entertain any doubt that he suffered no
less agony of the heart than the
young and accomplished Royalist who
died on the Held of Newbury. But to
brand him with infamy, and call him a
traitor and a recreant because he deem
ed it his duty to fight for the State
which sent him to West Point and
paid for his education, is -unworthy of
so brave and sensible a man as General
Schenck. Even in the report of Lieu
tenant-General U. S. Grant upon the
armies of the United States in 1804
and 1565, he has but one faint word of
approbation to bestow upoiLthe adver
sary who, having foughtjj with un
shaken fortitude ;ind Aelf-denial
throughout the war, becaa# the • most
patient and loyal of citizen/ when his
sword was surrendered* “ General
Lee’s great influence thrmjghout the
whole South,” says hiftSoonqnerer,
“caused his example! to flr followed,
and to day the regnlt jB that the
armies lately under his leadership are
at their homes, desiring,--pence and
quiet, and their arms areprthe hands
of our ordnance officew.” The patience,
humility, and modertUofy of General
Lee during the five cloaWyears of his
life extorted frequent ad ifp ration frpm
his late antagonists, but have hitherto
won from them no concerts fbns to' hi!
crushed and oppressed brethren ami
sisters in the South. Tim remnant of
the armies over which ho was supreme
“desired peace and quiet” as intensely
as their Northern conquerors ; but
after they had for three years been
ruled by the sword, :uid despoiled by
“ carpet baggers” and negroes, it was
natural that the discontent of a brave
and proud hwi* ,
there break
JSbiLfuSWIW mi ffif' i . "1 .
his speeches 0> liisf
Grant Duff, himself ail an IfHW jVorth--
erner, told them that
“Reconstruction is the readmission
of the seceding States to political
communion with the States which
remained true to the Union, and the
restoration to them of those powers of
self-government which, forfeited by
the war, had been replaced since their
defeat by military rule. But how was
this to be done 7 The majority of the
United States Legislature decided that
each of the States should choose anew
constitution for itselt, and that in
choosing it the old planters, the 'mean
whites,’ and the ex slaves should all
have an equal voice ; hut that all the
principal rebels, and the whites who
would not take a test-oath, should be
excluded. The effect of this has been
that the constitutions for the Southern
States have been prepared in the North,
and voted at the South over the heads
of white men by negro majorities.”
Mr. Anthony Trollope, whose North
ern proclivities during the war, were
not less pronounced than those of Mr.
Grant Duff or Professor Goldwin
Smith, call reconstruction, as under
stood and practiced by the Republican
party—
“A provision for a war of races, with
the express object of keeping down a
people, in order that that people may
be debarred from all political power in
the empire. In Georgia, the black men,
on those lines of reconstruction, would
have the power of making all laws for
the restraint of the white. But it has
never been intended to intrust thin
power to the negroes: the intention is
that, through the negroes, all political
power, both State and Federal, shall he
/n the hands of members of Congress
from the North—that the North shall I
have its heel upon the South, and that
the conquered shall be subject to the i
conquerors. Never has there been a
more terrible condition imposed upon
a fallen people. For an Italian to feel
an Austrian over him, for a Pole to
feel a Russian over him, lias been bad
indeed; but it has been left for the
political animosity of a Republican
from the North —a man who himself
rejects all contact with the negro—to
— ■ — y
subject the late Southern slave-owner
to dominion from the African who was
yesterday his slave.”
The oppression of the South, which
is today far worse than when these
words of Mr. Trollope were written,
wrung General Lee’s affectionate heart
as the loss of Calais weighed upon the
spirits of Our own Queen Mary. Lord
Macaulay tells us. that “ no ofifrature is
so revengeful as a proud man who has
humbled himself in vain ; but during
the concluding years of General Lee's
life* no symptoms of passion or vindic
tiveness were discernable in his daily
bearing.* He mourned over the abject
and oppressed condition of South Caro
lina-until death freed his soul from the
suffering which crushed him. Mr.
John Esten Cooke makes it abundant
ly evident that he died from a broken
heart. But in order that the virtues
of a singularly pure and noble charac
ter tfiay not be unrecorded in England,
we desire to foHow Mr. Cook through
some of the most notable passages ’of
his hero’s life, and to do what in Us
tlieif tomaije Robert E- Lee's memory
I* U' - eiS??MS“"po"iisi:slsbn *'if’liereVei' the
English tongue is'Spdken.
“The Lees of Virginia," says the
in Kiiglatm,- „„ |
to the fast anchored lsuPwiln vTaSBB
the Conqueror. One member of tfiisi
family, Lionel Lee, accompanied
Richard Coeur de Lion to .the Holy
Land, and displayed special gallantry
at the seige of Acre. The first of the
Virginia Lees, Richard by name, was
an ardent monarchist, and left the old
♦As an evidence of the present state of
affairs ia South Carolina, we quote the fol
lowing passage from a letter written in
November last by a resident of that State,
whose character for truth and honor is un
impeachable. He says:
“ One of my brothers lias been arrested
and thrown into the common jail of tlie
United Stales soldier- without charge or
accusation, without form or warrant of law,
without tne shadow of right or justice.
Before the suspension of the writ of habeas
corpus, profound quiet prevailed in this
section of the country. Men were pursutng
their avocations in the most peaceful man
ner, and a season of prosperity was begin
ning to dawn upon us; lmt now words are
almost inadequate to describe the reign of
terror existing among us. Bands of
United States soldiers are riding the coun
try, arresting citizens by wholesale, tearing
them from their homes in the night-time,
terrifying women and children, hurrying
the prisoners off to jail, and cramming
them in dungeons and filthy cells. These
arrests are made without warrant. Men
are ignorant of the offences for which they
are thrown into jail. No explanation is
given to the prisoner as to the cause of hits
| arrest, no hearing is allowed him. The
i innocent and guilty fare alike. The fury of j
! the Radicals is levelled against the best of
! our citizens. Old and young, grey-haired
! men incapable of committing outrages,
1 mere hoys innocent of crime, are arrested
j indiscriminately. In a time of profound
; peace, when farmers are engagul in gath
i ering in their corn and cotton, we are de
clared to he in a state of war. We are
suffering for crimes which have never been
committed ; we are punished for offences
of which we are not guilty ; we are warred
upon by the United States Government on
ac omit of a rebellion which has no exist
ence but in the imagination of President
Grant, and the vile politicians who have
poisoned his ears with false and malicious
re[iort?. There is no rebellion—there is no
hostility to the United States Government—
there is no resistance to lawful authority,
either Slate or Federal ; the reports of col
lisions between armed hands of Ku-Klux.
and Federal troops are utterly base, false,
and slanderous fabrications, invented for a
pdrposc.” j
(OLD SERIES,)
l VOL. 111. /
country in the troubled times of King
Charles the First- “It is not certainly
known,” says Mr. Cooke, “ whether
he sought refuge in Virginia alter the
failure of the King’s cause, or was
tempted to- emigrate with a view to
better his fortunes in the New World.”
Whatever may have been his motive
in repairing to Virginia, Richard Lee
undoubtedly brought with him from
England a number of followers and
servants, and took up extensive tracts
qf land in the Old Dominion. Among
the manor-houses which be there built
or commenced, was one at Stratford,
in the Virginian county of Westmore
land—within which county George
Washington himself was born. This
house having subsequently been de
stroyed by fire, was rebuilt—Queen
Anne herself having been a contribu
tor to the fund subscribed in England
and in the colony for its re-erection—
aud became at a later date the birth
place oviichard Henry Lee, and of his
distinguished son, Robert Edward.—
Richard Henry Lee, the father of the
great Confederate General, was one of
Wasmiigtoa'.s best subordinates; and
under the sobriquet of “ Light Horae
Harry,” gaiued couspfcubus>foute as
m cavalry general in the rev&mtionarv
-«*«■ of tho-Aim i.caa -okpie* agains:
whose admirable ~T"V
were always recapitulated with
pride by his still greater roii. In 1869
General R. E, Lee published anew
edition of his father’s ‘ Memoirs of the
War in the Southern Department,’ to
which he prefixed an unostentatious
life of its ai/tl>or. Richard Henry Lee
was twice married ; and by his second
wife, Anne Hill Carter, lie had three
sons and two daughters—Gluts. Carter,
Robert Edwaid Smith, Anne, and
Mildred. The old house at Stratford,
wherein the great American soldier
first saw the light, deserves a few pass
ing words of comment. It is one of
those Virginian manor-houses which so
wanned the heart and kindled the
fancy of .William Makepeace Thack
eray ; for in one of these, he loved to
say, that it would delight him to write
the history, which he always contem
plated but never executed, of the
times of good Queen Anne. The
bricks, paving-tiles, carvings, window
sashes, furniture, and decorations of
these stately old country houses, were
all transported from England to the
Old Dominion. English plasterers
moulded and spread the ceilings;
English masons upraised the Italian
mantlepieces which they brought with
them across the Atlantic; English car
penters made fast the window-sashes,
and set up the lintels of the doors.—
Their book shelves were filled with
the great English classics who flourish
ed in the Augustan age of Queen
Anne. Within the libraries of some
ot these houses Thackeray passed
many hours, enraptured to find himself
surrounded by the works of all the
English authors who were most to his
taste. There he again familiarized
himself with the tender grace of Ad
dison, the- rugged force of Smollett;
there he forgot the “wild relish and
vicious exuberance of» the too copious
present” by bending over the pages of
Swift, Pope, Arbuthnot, Bolingbroke,
Walsh, and Granville; and there for
the first time lie became acquainted
m. n