USA > Virginia > Westmoreland County > Westmoreland County > Westmoreland County, Virginia : parts I and II : a short chapter and bright day in its history > Part 8
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"Virginia had been drawn into the struggle; and, though he recognized no necessity for the state of affairs, 'in my own per- son,' he wrote, 'I had to meet the question whether I should take part against my native State; I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home.' It may have been treason to take this position; the man who took it, uttering these words and sacrificing as he sacrificed. may have been technically a renegade to his flag, if you please, false to his allegiance; but he stands awaiting sentence at the bar of history in very respectable company. Associated with him are, for instance; William of Orange, known as the Silent; John Hampden, the original Pater Patriae; Oliver Cromwell, the Pro- tector of the English Commonwealth; Sir Harry Vane. once a Governor of Massachusetts, and George Washington, a Virginian of note. In the throng of other offenders I am also gratified to observe certain of those from whom I not unproudly claim de- scent. They were one and all, in the sense referred to, false to their oaths-forsworn. As to Robert E. Lee, individually, I can only repeat what I have already said,-if in all respects similarly
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circumstanced, I hope I should have been filial and unselfish enough to have done as Lee did. Such an utterance on my part may be 'traitorous,' but I' here render that homage.
"In Massachusetts, however, I could not even in 1861 have been so placed; for be it because of better or worse, Massachusetts was not Virginia ;- no more Virginia than England once was Scotland, or the Lowlands the Highlands. The environment, the ideals, were in no respect the same. In Virginia, Lee was Mac- gregor; and, where Macgregor sat, there was the head of the table." * * * * * *
"That he impressed himself on those about him in his profes- sional and public life to an uncommon extent; that the soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia as well as those of his staff and in high command felt not only implicit and unquestioning con- fidence in him, but to him a strong personal affection, is estab- lished by their concurrent testimony. He, too, might well have said with Brutus :
"My heart doth joy that yet in all my life I found no man but he was true to me I shall have glory by this losing day."
"Finally, one who knew him well has written of him: 'He had the quiet bearing of a powerful yet harmonious nature. An unruffled calm upon his countenance betokened the concentration and control of the whole being within. He was a kingly man whom all men who came into his presence expected to obey.' That he was gifted in a prominent degree with the mens aequa in arduis of the Roman poet, none deny
Another has said :
"Let our thoughts now turn to our dead. and first in our affec- tions should be President Davis. The Confederacy, looking for a man to lead it, chose him-why? Because he was the first amongst us. To us and to our cause he devoted his great ability. For us he lived, fought, and suffered, and dying, has bequeathed to us an example of pure patriotism, consistent statesmanship, forti- tude in suffering and absolute devotion to Truth and Duty. To us his memory is touchingly sacred and history will rank him among the good and great of the earth.
"Next comes Robert E. Lee. The glory and pathos of his life are like the sun as it rises and sets. The historian and writer
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have tried to describe him, and have found that he is beyond de- scription.
"After him another: Stonewall Jackson, the genius of the war, the exemplar of all the principles of true religion in its highest development, unique in manner, pure in thought, word and deed, gentle of heart, but terrible in battle.
"A hero came amongst us as we slept; At first he lowly knelt-then rose and wept; Then gathering up a thousand spears He swept across the field of Mars,
Then bowed farewell, and walked beyond the stars- In the land where we were dreaming."
Rev. E. C. De LaMoriniere, at Confederate Reunion, Mobile, Ala., 1910, said :
"We offer our homage next to him whose story and memory are linked with all the hopes and triumphs, the exultation and despair which of those four bitter, bloody, torturing years made an endless century.
"He was to us the incarnation of his cause, of what in it was noblest and knightliest, the Christian Chevalier whose white plume waves before us wherever we cast our eyes. No tongue, however gifted, can picture the lofty soul of the man who drew his sword, never in wrath, but for the principle ingrained in the core and fiber of his loyal nature, that his supreme allegiance was due to his mother State. He loved the flag he had borne with an ecstasy of devotion, and yet with absolute recognition of the hardships to be undergone, and the likelihood of defeat in the undertaking to be begun, with speechless grief for the evil days on which his country had fallen, he wended his way across the bridge of the land that gave him birth, looked with sadness on the beautiful home on the banks of the river that had sheltered his young manhood, and came to Richmond to offer his sword to the new born Confederacy.
"Upon the point of that sword he bore for four years the hopes of his people, baffling the chosen leaders of the enemy, beating back their hosts from field to field and securing the safety of the Capital which sat shaking under their guns."
"I speak of the man who, when the contest closed, and the curtains fell, was still the Christian knight, whose plume did not go down; the peerless citizen from whose lips no word of murmur ever came, whose pen never wrote a line in self-defence; who, when he had offered his sword to the conqueror too noble to accept it,
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called about him his war-worn veterans, his old guard, the com- panions of his toils, his feelings and his fame, delivered to them his final order, confided them to the keeping of his God and theirs, and turning from those fatal fields forever, went to the poverty and obscurity of the coming years, content if he might light with the splendid sunset of his heroic life the minds of Virginian boys and inspire their young hearts with the love of a reunited country. I speak of him who (in the words of Theodore Roosevelt) ranks the very greatest of all the great captains that the English speak- ing peoples have brought forth, the full equal of Marlborough and Wellington; of him than whom Cicero in the Roman Forum plead- ing for virtue and patriotism, Plato in the Academic Groves teach- ing the young Athenians lessons of wisdom, hold no higher place. "I speak of him whose dying words were: 'Let the tent be struck : Forward!' and passed to the front above. I speak of him whose body rests among the hills of Virginia he loved so well, but whose grave is your hearts and mine, and whose fame is sounded louder and louder every year from the trumpet of the wise and good throughout the wide world.
"A country which has given birth to that man and those who followed him, may look the chivalry of Europe in the face without shame; for the fatherlands of Sidney and Bavard never produced a nobler soldier, gentleman. and Christian than Robert Edward Lee."
The great scholar, George Long, Professor of Latin in the Uni- versity of London, and the first Professor of Ancient Languages in the University of Virginia, has the following note in his "Transla- tion of the Thoughts of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus."
"I have never dedicated a book to any man, and if I dedicated this, I should choose the man whose name seems to me to be most worthy to be joined to that of the Roman soldier and philosopher. I might dedicate this book to the successful general, who is now President of the United States [Grant]. with the hope that his in- tegrity and justice will restore peace and happiness, so far as he can, to those unhappy States that have suffered so much from war and the unrelenting hostility of wicked men. But as the Roman poet said, Victrix causa deis placuit, sed victa Catoni; and if I dedicated this little book to any man, I would dedicate it to him who led the Confederate armies against the powerful invader, and retired from an unequal contest defeated, but not dishonored ; to the noble Virginian soldier whose talents and virtues place him by the side of the best and wisest man who sat on the throne of the imperial Cæsars."
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Philip Stanhope Worsley, a brilliant scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who died young, translated the Iliad into Spen- serian stanza, and sent a copy to General Robert E. Lee, with the following inscription :
"To General R. E. Lee, the most stainless of living com- manders, and, except in fortune, the greatest, this volume is pre- sented with the writer's earnest sympathy and respectful admire tion.
.. οίος γάρ έρθετο" "Ιλιου "Εκτωρ'" -Iliad vi, 403.
1. "The grand old bard that never dies, Receive him in our English tongue ! I send thee, but with weeping eyes, The story that he sung.
2. "Thy Troy is fallen, thy dear land Is marred beneath the spoiler's heel, I cannot trust my trembling hand To write the things I feel.
3. "Ah, realm of tombs! but let her bear This blazon to the last of times ; No nation rose so white and fair, Or fell so pure of crimes.
4. "The widow's moan, the orphan's wail, Come round thee; yet in truth be strong ! Eternal right, though all else fail, Can never be made wrong.
5. "An angel's heart, an angel's mouth, Not Homer's. could alone for me Hymn well the great Confederate South- Virginia first,-and Lec."
MEMORIAE SACRUM. When the effigy of Washington In its bronze was reared on high 'Twas mine, with others, now long gone, Beneath a stormy sky, To utter to the multitude His name that cannot die.
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And here to-day, my countrymen, I tell you Lee shall ride With that great "rebel" down the years- Twin "rebels" side by side- And confronting such a vision All our grief gives place to pride.
These two shall ride immortal And shall ride abreast of time, Shall light up stately history And blaze in Epic Rhyme ! Both patriots, both Virginians true, Both "rebels," both sublime.
Our past is full of glory, It is a shut-in sea. The pillars overlooking it Are Washington and Lee ;- And a future spreads before us Not unworthy of the free.
And here and now, my countrymen, Upon this sacred sod, Let us feel : It was "our Father" Who above us held the rod, And from hills to sea, Like Robert Lee Bow reverently to God.
-Capt. James Barron Hope.
WASHINGTON MONUMENT AT WAKEFIELD, His Birth Place.
.
VII.
Speeches That Have Made Two Virginians Famous. The Sword of Lee by Father Ryan.
The Great Oration of Senator Daniel on General Lee at Washing- ton and Lee University-"The Sword of Lee," by Father Ryan-Judge Critcher in United States Congress in Reply to Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, on Westmoreland's Illus- trious Men.
Below we give an extract from the great oration of Senator John W. Daniel on General R. E. Lee at Washington and Lee Uni- versity, June 28, 1883, at the unveiling of the recumbent figure.
"UNDER WHICH FLAG."
"On the other hand stands the foremost and most powerful Republic of the earth, rich in all that handiwork can fashion or that gold can buy." * * * *
"A messenger comes from its President and from General Scott, Commander-in-Chief of its Army, to tender him supreme command of its forces. Did he accept it, and did he succeed, the conqueror's crown awaits him, and win or lose, he will remain the foremost man of a great established nation, with all honor and glory that riches and office and power and public applause can supply.
"Since the Son of Man stood upon the Mount, and saw 'all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory thereof' stretched before Him, and turned away from them to the agony and bloody sweat of Geth- semane, and to the cross of Calvary beyond, no follower of the meek and lowly Saviour can have undergone more trying ordeal, or met it with higher spirit of heroic sacrifice.
"There was naught on earth that could swerve Robert E. Lee from the path where, to his clear comprehension, honor and duty lay. To the statesman, Mr. Francis Preston Blair, who brought him the tender of supreme command, he answered: 'Mr. Blair, I look upon secession as anarchy. If I owned the four millions of slaves in the South, I would sacrifice them all to the Union. But how. can I draw my sword against Virginia?'
"Draw his sword against Virginia? Perish the thought ! Over all the voices that called him he heard the still small voice that ever whispers to the soul of the spot that gave it birth, and of her who gave it suck ; and over every ambitious dream there rose the face of the angel that guards the door of home.'
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"LEE DEVOTES HIS SWORD TO HIS NATIVE STATE."
"General Lee thus answered :
"Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention:
"Profoundly impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, for which I must say I was not prepared, I accept the position assigned me by your partiality. I would have preferred had your choice fallen upon an abler man. Trusting in Almighty God, an approv- ing conscience, and the aid of my fellow citizens, I devote myself to the service of my native State, in whose behalf alone will I ever again draw my sword."
"Thus came Robert E. Lee to the State of his birth and to the people of his blood in their hour of need ! Thus, with as chaste a heart as ever plighted its faith until death, for better or for worse, he came to do, to suffer, and to die for us, who to-day are gathered in awful reverence, and in sorrow unspeakable, to weep our bless- ings upon his tomb."
"THE RELATIONS BETWEEN LEE AND HIS MEN."
"When Jackson fell, Lee wrote to him : ' You are better off than I am, for while you have lost your left arm, I have lost my right arm.' And Jackson said of him : 'Lee is a phenomenon. He is the only man I would follow blindfold.'"
"MEDITATIONS OF DUTY."
"And now when an English nobleman presented him as a re- treat a splendid country seat in England, with a handsome annuity to correspond, he answered : 'I am deeply grateful, but I cannot consent to desert my native State in the hour of her adversity. I must abide her fortunes and share her fate.'"
THE FATE OF WAR.
"When he crossed the Pennsylvania line, he had announced in general orders, from the headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia, that he did not come to 'take vengeance;' that 'we make war only upon armed men,' and he therefore 'earnestly exhorted the troops to abstain with most scrupulous care from unnecessary or wanton injury of private property,' and 'enjoined upon all officers to arrest and bring to summary punishment all who should in any way offend against the orders on the subject.' No charred ruins, no devastated fields, no plundered homes marked the line of his
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march. On one occasion, to set a good example, he was seen to dismount from his horse and put up a farmer's fence. In the city of York, General Early had in general orders prohibited the burn- ing of buildings containing stores of war, lest fire might be com- municated to neighboring homes ; and General Gordon, in his public address, had declared: 'If a torch is applied to a single dwelling, or an insult offered to a female of your town by a soldier of this command, point me out the man, and you shall have his life."
"PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE."
"On the eve of acceptance, two propositions were made to Gen- eral Lee: one to become president of a large corporation, with a salary of $10,000 per annum; another to take the like office in an- other corporation, with a salary of $50,000. But he made up his mind to come here, and this is what he said to a friend who brought him the last munificent offer :
" 'I have a self-imposed task which I must accomplish. I have lead the young men of the South in battle; I have seen many of them fall under my standard. I shall devote my life now to train- ing young men to do their duty in life.'"
"THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL LEE."
"He was borne to his chamber, and skilled physicians and lov- ing hands did all that man could do for nearly a fortnight.
""Twixt night and morn upon the horizon verge, Between two worlds life hovered like a star.'
And thus on the morning of October 12th, the star of the morning sank into the sunrise of immortality, and Robert Lee passed hence to 'where beyond these voices there is peace.'
" 'Tell A. P. Hill to prepare for action,' was amongst the last words of Stonewall Jackson. 'Tell Hill he MUST come up,' were the last words of Lee. Their brave Lieutenant, who rests under the green turf of Hollywood, seems to have been latest in the minds of his great commanders, while their spirits yet in martial fancy, roamed again the fields of conflict, and ere they passed to where the soldier dreams of battlefields no more."
" DID HE SAVE HIS COUNTRY FROM CONQUEST."
"No. He saw his every foreboding of evil verified. He came to share the miseries of his people. He shared them, drinking every drop of sorrow's cup. His cause was lost, and the land for which he fought lives not amongst the nations. But the voice of history echoes the poet's song :
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"'Ah! realm of tombs! but let it bear This blazon to the last of times; No nation rose so white and fair, Or fell so pure from crimes.'
And he, its type, lived and died, teaching life's greatest lesson, 'to suffer and be strong,' and that 'misfortune nobly borne is good for- tune.' "
There is a rare exotic that blooms but once in a century, and then it fills the light with beauty and the air with fragrance. In each of the two centuries of Virginia's Statehood, there has sprung from the loins of her heroic race a son whose name and deeds will bloom throughout the ages. Each fought for Liberty and Inde- pendence; each against a people of his own race; each against the forms of established power. George Washington won against a kingdom whose seat was three thousand miles away, whose soldiers had to sail in ships across the deep, and he found in the boundless areas of his own land its strongest fortifications. August, beyond the reach of detraction, is the glory of his name. Robert Edward Lee made fiercer and bloodier fight against greater odds, and at greater sacrifice, and lost-against the greatest nation of modern history, armed with steam and electricity, and all the appliances of modern science; a nation which mustered its hosts at the very threshold of his door. But his life teaches the grandest lesson how manhood can rise transcendent over Adversity, and is in itself alone, under God, pre-eminent-the grander lesson, because as sorrow and misfortune are sooner or later the common lot-even that of him who is to-day the conqueror-he who bears them best is made of sterner stuff, and is the most useful and universal, and he is the greatest and noblest exemplar.
And now he has vanished from us forever. And is this all that is left of him-this handful of dust beneath the marble stone? No, the Ages answer as they rise from the gulfs of time, where lay the wrecks of kingdoms and estates, holding up in their hands as their only trophies, the names of those who have wrought for man in the love and fear of God, and in love unfearing for their fellowmen.
No! the present answers, bending by his tomb.
No! the future answers, as the breath of the morning fans its radiant brow, and its soul drinks in sweet inspirations from the lovely life of Lee.
No, methinks the very heavens echo, as melt into their depths the words of reverent love that voice the hearts of men to the tingling stars.
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CONCLUSION.
Come we then to-day in loyal love to sanctify our memories, to purify our hopes, to make strong all good intent by communion with spirit of him who, being dead, yet speaketh. Come, child, in thy spotless innocence; come, woman, in thy purity; come, youth, in thy prime; come, manhood, in thy strength; come, age, in thy ripe wisdom; come citizen, come soldier, let us strew the roses and lilies of June around his tomb, for he, like them, ex- haled in his life Nature's beneficence, and the grave has conse- crated that life, and given it to us all; let us crown his tomb with the oak, the emblem of his strength, and with the laurel, the emblem of his glory, and let these guns, whose voices he knew of old, awake the echoes of the mountains that Nature herself may join in his solemn requiem.
Come, for here he rests, and-
"On this green bank, by this fair stream, We set to-day a native stone, That memory may his deeds redeem, When, like our sires, our sons are gone."
Come, for here the genius of loftiest poesy in the artist's dream, and through the sculptor's touch, has restored his form and features-a Valentine has lifted the marble veil and disclosed him to us as we would love to look upon him-lying, the flower of knighthood in "Joyous Gard." His sword beside him is sheathed forever. But honor's seal is on his brow, and valor's star is on his breast, and the peace that passeth all understanding descends upon him. Here, not in the hour of his grandest triumph of earth, as when mid the battle roar, shouting battalions followed his trenchant sword, and bleeding veterans forgot their wounds to leap between him and his enemies-but here in victory, supreme over earth it- self, and over death, its conqueror, he rests, his warfare done.
And as we seem to gaze once more on him we loved and hailed as chief, in his sweet, dreamless sleep, the tranquil face is clothed with heaven's light, and the mute lips seem eloquent with the message that in life he spoke:
"THERE IS A TRUE GLORY AND A TRUE HONOR; THE GLORY OF DUTY DONE, THE HONOR OF THE INTEGRITY OF PRINCIPLE."
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After the conclusion of Major Daniel's oration, Father Ryan, at the request of General Early, recited his celebrated poem
THE SWORD OF LEE. Forth from its scabbard, pure and bright, Flashed the sword of Lee ! Far in the front of the deadly fight, High o'er the brave in the cause of right, Its stainless sheen, like a beacon-light, Led us to victory.
Out of its scabbard, where full long, It slumbered peacefully- Roused from its rest by the battle-song, Shielding the feeble, smiting the strong, Guarding the right, and avenging the wrong- Gleamed the sword of Lee!
Forth from its scabbard, high in air, Beneath Virginia's sky- And they who saw it gleaming there, And knew who bore it, knelt to swear That where that sword led they would dare To follow and to die.
Out of its scabbard! Never hand Waved sword from stain as free, Nor purer sword led braver band, Nor braver bled for a brighter land, Nor brighter land had a cause as grand, Nor cause, a chief like Lee !
Forth from its scabbard ! how we prayed That sword might victor be! And when our triumph was delayed, And many a heart grew sore afraid, We still hoped on, while gleamed the blade Of noble Robert Lee !
Forth from its scabbard ! all in vain! Forth flashed the sword of Lee! It sleeps the sleep of our noble slain, Defeated, yet without a stain, Proudly and peacefully. 'Tis shrouded now in its sheath again,
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From the Rappahannock Times, April 17, 1896.
PORTRAIT UNVEILING.
There will be an unveiling of portraits of distinguished men in the courthouse at Tappahannock, on next Monday, County Court day, at 1:30 P. M. All of the people are cordially invited, and the ladies will be honored with reserved seats, and are expected to attend.
The portraits will be unveiled by little Misses, who will be selected, and the ceremony will draw all the best talent of the Bar, and of the other leaders of thought in this section. The portraits already here, are as follows: One of James Roy Micou, the noble type of Virginia's history and civilization, and Clerk for fifty-seven years ; presented by Prof. James Roy Micou, of Washington College, Chestertown, Md. Judge Blakey, the brilliant Commonwealth's Attorney, and ex-Member House of Delegates Harrison South- worth, the present efficient Clerk, and nowhere excelled. Thomas Ritchie, known as "Father Ritchie," the great Napoleon of the Press ; presented by his honored kinsmen of Essex.
California has sent her golden nugget in a splendid oil, life- sized painting of Judge Selden S. Wright, who adorned the Bench in Mississippi and San Francisco; presented by his widow of said city.
John Critcher, Member of Congress and Circuit Judge. The splendid life-sized oil painting, presented by Judge Critcher's youngest daughter. Miss Critcher is an artist of the first magni- tude. She was awarded two medals at the Cooper Institute, New York, and the gold medal at the Corcoran Art School, Washington, D. C., and has recently received the compliment of a round-trip ticket to Europe during the summer on the Cunard line of steamers.
We clip from the Alexadria Gazette, of March 17, 1896, the following letter just received by Miss Catharine Critcher :
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