Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/224

 216 Southern Historical Society Papers

gratitude for his great services and sacrifices in the cause of the Southern people.

My chief object to day shall be to explain this seeming incon- sistency and make clear the significance of the work we have in hand, that we may be able to answer our children when they shall ask us, " What mean ye by this monument to an enemy of the Union • which you teach us to cherish and defend ? ' '

I have selected this subject as most appropriate to the occasion, because it seems to me that, however great the virtues and however exalted the character of him whose statue we prqpose to rear on this spot, and however great his deeds in war, his right to such a memo- rial will be tested also by the merits of the cause in which he was engaged.

It needs no eulogy to establish his title to the noblest monument that can be reared to great attributes of mind and soul, and to illus- trious deeds of war.

But history tears down statues and monuments to great attributes and illustrious deeds, unless those attributes be devoted to some noble end, and illustrious deeds be done in a righteous cause.

THE MERITS OF THE CAUSE.

It seems to me, therefore, becoming to the occasion to set before you, as plainly as I can, the merits of the cause in which General Lee rendered his great services, to correct the errors and misrepresenta- tions which have now obtained for so many years with reference to it, in some quarters, and to claim for it recognition as the cause of constitutional liberty, as unflerstood and applied by our fathers in the Constitution framed by them.

When the facts come to be fairly stated and rightly understood it will be seen that this statute will perpetuate no memory of infidelity to the Union as it was, and will teach no lesson inconsistent with a loyal and cheerful obedience to the authority of the Union as it is.

No one accepted the results of the war more frankly and unre- servedly than the illustrious man to whom we are now offering the tribute of our gratitude and love, and it would be impossible more grievously to mistake the teaching of his life and example than to draw from them encouragement to a renewal of sectional strife or a withholding of genuine fealty to the Federal Union as it is now es- tablished.

The exciting events of the great contest in which a peaceful people