USA > Virginia > Albemarle County > Albemarle County > Memorial history of the John Bowie Strange Camp, United Confederate Veterans, including some account of others who served in the Confederate Armies from Albemarle County > Part 19
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Within a stone's throw of where I stood, magnificent pal- aces, filled with all that luxury and love of ease could ask, overlooked throngs of men and women who hurried on to the great marts, where lay exposed for sale "the merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones; of pearls and fine linen ; of purple and silk and scarlet; of all manner of vessels of
HON. R. T. W. DUKE, JR. LAWYER, POET, ORATOR Honorary member of John Bowie Strange Camp, C. V. Past Commander of R. T. W. Duke Camp, S. C. V.
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ivory, of most precious wood, and of brass and iron and mar- ble; of beasts and sheep; of horses and chariots, and of the souls of men." Luxuriousness and woe, idleness and toil, wealth greater than that of Croesus, and gaunt poverty and despair, elbowed one another in the crowded streets about me; and as I opened the telegram you-sent me, a great tumult of emotions swelled within my heart, and old-time memories flooded my eyes with unaccustomed tears. Back to me came the old days of a boyhood spent amidst the stern alarms of war. Years when suspense and agony, grim want and starva- tion chilled the young, bright heart, that should have had no thoughts save those of joy. Thoughts of the days which dragged so heavily, watching a mother's agony for him she deemed dead upon the field of battle, agony only growing less in degree when we knew that the prison house held him who could return we knew not when. Memories of a beautiful May night when you, old soldiers, young then with bright and happy hearts, amidst the blare of bugles and the shouts and plaudits of our little town, went forth with many, oh, so many! who came not back again. No empty sleeves then; no bowed heads over which had passed the shadow of a great despair ; no tears. How far off and strange it all looks now! For a moment I stood lost in thought, recalling all these things; re- calling my boyish recollections of Manassas, Petersburg and Appomattox ; recalling the storms of war, the lull of our hope- less peace, and then, with a recollection of almost yesterday, the clutching at the heart when the news came, "Lee is dead."
For a moment I hesitated, doubting whether amidst alien scenes and in the limited time given me, I could do any sub- ject justice ; but when I realized the full meaning of your mes- sage and felt how proud a privilege it was to speak to you upon this day, consecrated to the memory of that immortal man, I felt that I had no right to decline. He who today would refuse to lay his tribute upon the bier of our great chief- tain, would deserve a thousand times the reproach hurled at the sluggard by Polyxena's funeral pyre :
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"Thou drone! Dos't thou stand idly here? Hast thou no robe, no ornament,
Nothing to deck this high heroic spirit, This peerless excellence?"
And so I have come to you; and yet as I look upon your faces, remembering all that you have endured, all that you fought for, all that you have lost, all that so many of you still suffer, with a noble patience, I pause, well knowing that I can- not put in words that which makes "the mother swell up to- wards my heart."
You today, like myself, along with proud remembrance, taste many bitter thoughts. The great wealth of a great part of this nation had its foundation in your poverty. The great prosperity which spreads over north and west took root in soil watered by your blood! The victorious army that came from east and north and west has not knocked in vain at the door of a treasury enriched with your spoliation. For you no pension keeps the wolf from the door. No grand army bands you to- gether to demand from truckling politicians pay for that which to the true patriot can have no price.
You staked your life, your fortune and your sacred honor for the cause for which you fought. Life you imperilled, for- tune you lost, but honor, Oh, thank God! you brought back with you, crowning today your poverty with her laurel, and giving to your children the priceless legacy of your fame.
And now as I look upon you, old soldiers, many of you my own dear father's men; when I contrast our straightened means, our simple life and plain old-fashioned ways with the wealth, luxury and ambition I have just left, and remember the occasion that calls us all together, I feel no doubt nor hes- itance of the grandeur of the lives of my own people ; no fear of their future so long as they remain true to their old tradi- tions, and faithful to all that made a Lee possible to them ; and for my subject tonight I wish to speak to you of that great man in an aspect which may seem to you strangely familiar, and it may be deemed by some all too trite.
I shall not speak to you of Lee as the soldier. You followed him; you fought with him as such. Nor shall I speak to you
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of Lee in all the varied aspects of his life, such as have been the theme of poet and orator. You, who heard the oration, when in bronze his counterfeit was unveiled at Richmond, would tire of aught that I might say, contrasting it with those winged words. Tonight I wish to speak to you of-
"Lee, the Virginian."
You may well ask wherein Lee, as the Virginian, differs from Lee, the American; Lee, the man? I answer you: In no respect whatsoever. Then why, you ask again, is such a theme to be selected? I answer, the need is great. Today one dan- ger which threatens this great land of ours is that men are for- getting the allegiance they owe to their native states! Aye! are well-nigh forgetting there are such things as states; and it may not be a waste of time to recall, on an occasion like this, memories of what one man-a great exemplar-thought, acted, gave up, suffered and endured for his native state. Do not fear that I shall abuse your patience with theories political as to what are or what are not states' rights; nor that I shall counsel you to harbor unpatriotic thoughts against the great Union in which the states are now inseparably bound. Born in war, severed by war, welded now together, as it were by links forged with the sword, I trust to see those links yet grow more and more into cords of love, and the perpetuity for which. every true patriot yearns, become one perpetual union of hearts. I know that in speaking to you I speak to the truest patriots, and that if the flag against which you fought four long years should ever be threatened, no swords would leap sooner from their scabbards to its defense than the swords of Lee's own men.
But I wish, in recalling Lee as a Virginian, to recall to your minds, and to impress upon the minds of the generation younger than yours, the great importance of a proper appre- ciation of our own state, the necessity upon our part of a zealous regard for her proper position in the galaxy of states, and to speak to you and them of how much love they owe her,. and what they should be willing to give up for her welfare.
I know I shall lay myself open to criticism in much that I
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may say. I may be called vainglorious but I shall not be hypo- critical. I may be said to repeat things stale and trite. Some may laugh, as we all do when we hear a well-worn song or story, and smile at what may seem self-adulation. I believe, in the last few years-maybe months-one man has publicly thanked God he was not born in Virginia. In view of much that properly should be spoken somewhere else; in view of the littleness in high places; the partisan spirit in positions that should be above the low plane of politics, we may well thank God that one man was not.
Lee-Virginia! What a sunburst of glorious memory those two words call up. Lee-a name as old as the State, linked inseparably with her earliest days as a commonwealth, and in her later, wedded with her sublimest glory to the end of time. Virginia! Do you, my younger brethren, realize what the words mean ?
It has become rather popular of late to sneer at Virginia and things Virginian. "Oh, we know all about that," they say. "Your Washington and Madison and Jefferson and Henry and Monroe and Marshall, and all that sort of thing; but all that is gone now. The old State is played out-effete. Be- yond the time of the conception of great men." "Unus sed Leo," Aesop tells us was the reply of the lioness to the many- whelping ape. Show me any commonwealth that within one hundred years ended the century with a Washington, and in sixty years gave a Lee to the world, and I will admit I am wrong.
We are used to the privileges and liberties we enjoy ; we do not realize to what we owe them.
Religious freedom: Those two words alone-how pregnant with blessings to the children of men! It was Virginia that first made "conscience as free as the breath."
Independence-the freedom of man-the freedom of the colonies : Perhaps there are some of you younger men who think, like I once thought, under the influence of school books published in another section, that all these things first originated on Boston Common and in Philadelphia. It was in this old Commonwealth, beginning with Bacon, continuing at
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Williamsburg, and ending when a Virginian introduced the resolution that "these united Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states," that this idea first took root; and at Yorktown, on her own soil, the sword of one Virginian made a reality of the declaration drawn by another.
And the influence of these free colonies-these free states- this free America: Who can tell its influence, as far-reaching and continuing as it is? The world to-day is better, men are happier, oppression less, because America is free; and the origin of American freedom was due to the impulse given it by Virginia.
In the law: Virginia first originated the great change in the law of inheritance, once so unfair and conducive to wrong. And the greatest Chief Justice that ever sat upon the bench, and who gave tone and temper to the whole body of Federal law, drew his inspiration from a Virginian breast and lived his life on Virginian soil.
In Education : The Virginia idea-the elective system-to- day taking possession of every school and university in this Union-but followed out the idea of universal freedom of which she was the originator.
The Emancipation of the slave-since accomplished as a war measure, pure and simple, was a Virginia idea attempted by her at the foundation of this government to be carried into effect ; and the first actual, earnest political movement to eman- cipate the slave was commenced in Virginia, and was almost on the eve of success when the fanaticism of others in the North- ern states checked and destroyed the movement in this.
I do not say these things in any vainglorious spirit, but sim- ply to recall to you the fact that our state, as a state, has in the years of her existence done that which, should she never do another great act, would render her the pride of her children throughout all time. To Lee's generation-to your generation, old soldiers, these things I speak to you are household words. Woe to us when we forget them! We therefore must con- sider Lee, the Virginian, as he stood when Virginia's fate hung in the balance, and the question presented itself : "Where shall I go-with the Union, or with Virginia?"
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Lee had been raised amongst men who gave more attention to the question of the respective rights of the state and the Union thạn to any other political question. The spoils of of- fice, personal pecuniary benefits by means of politics, were un- known factors in their political arithmetic. They remembered that there had been a time when Virginia stood free in her own right, an independent colony, uniting with her sister colonies in defense against a common enemy. They were keen observ- ers of all the circumstances and conditions under which the state adopted the Federal Constitution and had the Bill of Rights at the tips of their mental fingers. They never doubted the axiom that governments were instituted deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that all rights not expressly delegated to the Federal Government, were ex- pressly reserved to the state. If any one state left the Union, the Union was thereby dissolved and the allegiance to the state followed as a matter of course.
In Lee's time, and in my recollection, aye up to the time of the birth of the youngest man who listens to me, there was no such thing as a citizen of the United States; for until the four- teenth amendment was adopted, citizenship in the United States only came by means of citizenship in the state. A man was a citizen of New York, Pennsylvania or Virginia, and be- ing such a citizen, was entitled to share in the rights and im- munities due to the citizen of a state in the Federal Govern- ment.
Being not a citizen of the Union but a citizen of the state of Virginia, Lee owed no other allegiance to the general govern- ment than that which he owed through the state government. When that state resumed her rank amongst the nations of the world, he remained her citizen and hers alone.
Thus much in passing to remind you that in Lee's mind, as is plainly shown both by his conduct and written expressions, there could necessarily have been not a question as to where his allegiance was due. But in order to realize what it cost him to do his duty and go with his native state, we must con- sider what Lee, the Virginian, gave up.
With the glories of the Union he had much in common. His
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ancestors had shared in them. He himself had done his part and was recognized as head and shoulders above any officer of his rank.
An offer had been made to him which might well have daz- zled any-even the purest minded man. The commandership of the armies of that Union he had loved so well; the adulation of thousands of his fellow beings; wealth, honor, fame, all were offered him, if he would accept that side on which lay the Union.
What was on the other side? Loss of fortune! He foresaw with prophetic eye that the beautiful home overlooking the Po- tomac would be taken from him. Privation, obscurity, sor- row and want! Never in the history of man has there been an occasion where so much was offered to tempt on one side and so much to deter on the other.
Yet, there never seemed to have been in Lee's mind one thought of hesitancy. Sorrow there was. Regret that it might not have been ordered otherwise; but of doubt or hes- itance there was not a thought. With an unswerving patri- otism, with a heroic soul as dauntless as ever faced death or depair, Lee, the Virginian, put behind him every thought but Virginia, little deeming that thereby he placed himself for all time to come as the first Virginian, the exemplar and pattern of her sons for all the ages. I have but two lessons to draw from his life tonight, and here I draw the first.
Young Virginian, old Virginian, you, who are thinking of leaving the old mother to better your fortune or to make your fame, to you tonight, Lee, though dead, yet speaks, and in his name I speak to you.
If the constant drain of our young men to other states goes on in the future as in the past, we may soon have an effete Virginia-a Virginia shorn of her glory and discrowned of her greatness. Come, let us reason together a little tonight, if there be any such here, and haply my voice may through you reach others. Why are you leaving, or thinking of leav- ing the old state? You answer, "She is poor; it is hard to make a living in her borders; we want riches, fame, wealth, and we must go elsewhere to get them." So said not Lee, at
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the supreme moment when wealth and fame and office bade him leave her. Can you not say the same? Far be it from me to discourage worthy ambition or desire for success. But I believe so firmly success can be won in Virginia as well as elsewhere, and so serious do I deem the drain of the young men from her borders that I bid you and them awaken to what you owe her, and give up something to help build her up. I have not without a purpose reminded you of her glorious past ; for with your help I believe her capable of as glorious a future. It may be you will have to work harder here than in the great West; endure more and have less pleasure than in the crowded cities where so many have gone, but it lies within your power by patterning after Lee's self-denial, by emulating his stern sense of duty, to build up the waste places in the old Commonwealth and make her bloom and blossom like the rose.
It may not be in your lot to be sublime figures in your coun- try's history, but in the ranks of those who made her great you will have your place, and surely he who does his duty well shall, if not here, at least hereafter, take his stand amongst those to whom the King will say, "Well done."
Lee, the Virginian-one other picture, one other lesson, and I am done.
From the private citizen up through gradations to the idol- ized commander of the grandest army the world ever saw, our hero has risen. Victory after victory, is his until over- whelmed by superior numbers and resources, the end comes. In all history I know not such a figure.
Returning to his home-alas! not his old home; of that he had been despoiled-he took up the burden of life again with an uncomplaining and heroic submission. Again wealth lured him to leave his native state. You know the story: how a nobleman in the grand little island from whence, I thank God, we draw our pure unmixed blood and our love of liberty-of- fered him a magnificent home and a competency.
A great corporation tendered him a salary larger than that of the President, for the simple use of his name.
"I cannot leave my people," he said.
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· Wealth and honor had failed to tempt him then. Wealth and honor could not tempt him now.
And here I draw my second and last lesson from the life of Lee, the Virginian.
There was no longer any doubt as to the result. When he made his former choice there was the element of uncertainty ; the risk of danger. Now, there was no doubt. Poverty had come; the utter wreck and ruin of all he held dear was around him, and again he refused to leave his people and his native state, preferring poverty with them to wealth and honor amongst others. With quiet dignity he chose a life of honest toil, refusing wealth and ease, and once again set an example to his people worthy to be followed. Here then let us emulate him again. This is the day of mad rushing after wealth and ease. In the struggle all is' forgotten, but the wealth that per- ishes. From the highest to the lowest we hear again the mock- ing quip of "honest" Iago. "Put money in thy purse." Patri- otism, state pride, old honest methods, integrity-these are but made subordinate to the acquisition of that which man heapeth up in vain and cannot tell who shall gather.
To the far-seeing patriot the generation now forging to the front in the South resembles, more than any other, that which followed the great change of the first French Revolution. Be- hind it was a past entirely destroyed, but still throbbing under its ruins ; before it the dawn, trembling on the horizon, the first gleam of the future. The present age, that which separated the past from the future, and was neither the one nor the other; which resembled both at the same time, and in which no one could tell at any step he made whether that upon which he trod was a springing seed or the fragment of ruin: of that gen- eration it is said three voices clamored aloud. The rich said: "There is nothing true but wealth. Everything else is a dream ; let us enjoy and die." And those of moderate fortune said: "There is nothing true but forgetfulness. All the rest is a dream; let us forget and die." And the poor said: "There is nothing true but misery. All the rest is a dream; let us blas- pheme and die."
Today it seems to me we hear the first voice crying in the
-
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street, and unlike wisdom all men regard her. And yet abroad throughout this land come now and then, dim mutterings that warn us that the other voices may yet come.
Virginians, shall they come to us? We are on the dawn of a new prosperity. We grow bright and cheerful with the thought that a new era, golden and glorious, begins to send its sun-rays over our mountain tops and into our deepest valleys. I would stay it not ; tiptoe I would stand to see the first beam, and welcome it as the traveller does the earliest sun in the Arctic. morn. But if gaining wealth, in gaining prosperity, we are to turn our backs upon all that has made us glorious in the past, then despite the temptation of worldly wealth, Oh God, grant us Lee's spirit. Thou gave us Lee, and let us, like our noble chieftain, choose the right, the true, the good, with Vir- ginians for Virginia: the old time honor, even with the old time poverty.
Well has his native State in her calendar set apart this day. Few festal days our lives have given us. One to the Child, im- mortal, eternal, invisible; one to the New Year's first light footsteps; one to the man Virginia gave the Union; one to the day Virginia gave the Declaration to the world; one to Thanks- giving for the fruits and harvest of the field. And now Vir- ginia adds to her calendar a day consecrated to her greatest modern son. She has done well. His memory consecrates the day; and you, who through fire and sword followed him, have done well to gather here. Would that some voice more fitting could have been chosen to sound his praises. And yet, how vain, how empty are idle words! Serenely placed beyond the need of praise, beyond the reach of blame, his majestic figure fills another niche in the great temple of Virginia's heroes. Lee, the Virginian! Long may the survivors of his hard- fought fields meet on this day to renew the memories of his glory. May they gather with them the generations that come after them, and teach them lessons of love for liberty, love for the Union, love for the cause they fought for, yet to triumph in the Union.
"Truth crushed to earth will rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers."
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I do not despair. Almost with prophetic eye I can see the day come when throughout all this land to have been a soldier of Lee will, by North as well as by South, be recognized as the highest crown of honor. When against the giant forces of centralization and paternalism in government shall arise the majesty of the States, the supreme will of the people; then will all recognize the grandeur of your struggle, the patriotism of your aim. Young men of my generation, of the generation younger than mine, never in your presence let a word of dis- paragement be spoken against Lee's cause, Lee's memory, or Lee's old men.
Old soldiers, to you my heart goes out in thanks for this op- portunity to tell you how I love you and how I shall teach my children to love you. To me in your gatherings there is a depth of pathos unspeakable. For the first time-perhaps for the last-I have spoken to you assembled Confederate Vet- erans. Day by day your ranks will thin and the time soon come when all shall stand to answer at the last great muster roll. But in the memory of a grateful land your names shall live as long as patriotism has a place or virtue holds her seat. When in the years to come I shall gather my children, and haply my children's children, about my knees, they shall learn the lessons of your noble lives. To them I shall leave as a priceless legacy the stainless sword my father wore, the grey coat consecrated by the years of war, and if honors may be mine, amongst them all I shall bid them count as one in no de- gree the least, that Lee's men bade me speak to them of Lee, and listened lovingly to every word I spoke.
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ADDRESS OF DR. GEORGE L. PETRIE.
Delivered before the John Bowie Strange Camp at their re- quest, in the Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville, Va., Sun- day, 8 P. M., Jan. 19th, 1902, by George L. Petrie, chaplain of the John Bowie Strange Camp.
Allow me, first of all, to express a deep sense of the honor conferred upon me in your request that I should address you on this occasion, the anniversary of General Lee's birth. It gives me great pleasure to greet the John Bowie Strange Camp on this memorable anniversary. The sacred day, the sacred place, the extraordinary hero commemorated, and the high calling in which it is my privilege to serve God, the church and mankind throw certain restrictions around me, and to some extent de- termine the course of my remarks.
I do not propose an extensive eulogy of General Robert E. Lee. For such a task I am not competent, and, were I compe- tent, he does not need it from me or from any other man. All verbal panegyrics fall too short of the illustrious subject to approve the vain attempt.
Ours is the humble effort, perhaps we may say the more sel- fish effort, to place ourselves in the light that radiates from his noble life: not to increase his glory, which we cannot aug- ment, but by it ourselves to be enriched. To know the great and good is an inestimable blessing: to come into contact with such is a benediction on human life.
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