Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/99

 Ceremonies at Unveiling of Statue of General Lee. 93

which yielded, at last, to destruction rather than defeat — I challenge for Lee an exalted rank amongst the very greatest captains of the world.

The only obstacle which Lee encounters to the universal recog- nition of his greatness lies in the perverseness of human nature, which exacts, as compensation for the admiration accorded to great qualities, the privilege of criticising the faults, weaknesses, and excesses with which they are usually accompanied.

His freedom from eccentricities, the absence of merely personal ambition, and the simple and perfect equipoise of his temper, lead shallow minds to deny the force of his individuality, forgetting that these very qualities themselves constitute an ennobling eccentricity, shared in the same degree by no other military character, or by Washington alone.

Certainly the impression produced by him upon his contempo- raries was marvelous. As we have seen, his first commander, Win- field Scott, pronounced him " the greatest living soldier of America." His loftiest subordinate, Stonewall Jackson, whose splendid capaci- ties and achievements lifted him into rivalry with Lee himself, said of him : " Lee is a phenomenon — the only man I ever knew that I would be willing to follow blindfold." The estimate of him by his soldiers is illustrated by the commentary of two " learned Thebans " among them upon Darwin's theory of evolution, in which one said to the other : " Well, you and I and the rest of us may be descended from monkeys, but how are you to account for Marse Robert ? " Such was their sublime confidence in him that they regarded criti- cism of him as blasphemous, and were so blind even to his errors that they were like the disciple of Cato, who, when the philosopher died by his own hand, declared that " he would rather believe suicide to be right than that Cato could do anything wrong."

Let nothing I have said be construed as disparaging the valor of the Union troops, the skill of their leaders or the splendor of their achievements. On the contrary, the tribute I have paid to the genius of Lee and the heroism of his soldiers, only emblazons their triumph and lends to it a glory which, otherwise, it would not pos- sess. And equally is it the surest foundation of Lee's fame that his victories were won from " foemen worthy of his steel."

Away with such comparisons ! Returning from our voyage over historic seas, in quest of the golden fleece of noble deeds and heroic lives, we bring on shore " the riches of the ship," and cast them into the treasury of our common country. Sail forth, adventurers, on whatever sea, find such jewels where ye may, and whether their tint