Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/202

 194 Southern Historical Society Papers

chairman provided for an executive committee of each Southern State.

The co-operation of the ladies of the Hollywood Memorial Asso- ciation was also invited.

HOLLYWOOD ASSOCIATION'S APPEAL.

The following is a copy of the circular by which this collection was made :

sociation of Richmond, Va., respectfully request the friends and admirers of General Robert E. Lee, in our whole country and abroad, to unite with them in a contribution for an equestrian bronze statue of our chieftain, of the best workmanship, to be erected in the soldiers* portion of Hollywood cemetery.
 * ' The undersigned, connected with the Hollywood Memorial As-

'* A most eligible site, overlooking the whole section and in the centre of the part appropriated to remains of the dead from the fields of Gettysburg, has been offered by the Association to his family for his final resting place, under our loving and continual care and that of Virginia and the South. If the body should be elsewhere, it is still eminently fitting to erect a monument to his memory in the midst of the heroes who fell fighting under his leadership. It is proposed that on the days of religious worship observed throughout the South, every congregation, Christian and Hebrew, make their contributions for this object.

" It is hoped the requisite amount will be secured at once.

'• (Signed) Mrs. William H. Macfarland, Mrs. George W. Ran- dolph, Mrs. James Lyons, Mrs. William Brown and Miss E. B. Nicholas.*'

The next day. and of the same materials, was formed the Associa- tion of the Army of Northern Virginia, whose annual meetings have done so much to illustrate and to perpetuate the history of the South during the most brilliant and trying period of her existence.

Meantime the ladies* committee had not been idle. A request was made by them to all the churches in the South to take up a collec- tion on the fourth Sunday in November, being the 27th of that month.

Still under the glow of the patriotic devotion that followed the death of General Lee, it did not occur to the committee that many clergymen might regard this as the intrusion of a worldly matter in- to the holy precincts of the sanctuary. Many did very naturally take this view of the case. Nevertheless, the appeal resulted in the