EULOGY OF ROBERT E. LEE JOHN WARWICK DANIEL AN ORATION DELIVERED AT THE UNVEILING OF THE RECUMBENT FIGURE OF General Lee, at WashingTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY, LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA, JUNE 28, 1883. INTRODUCTION John Warwick Daniel, lawyer, politician, and orator, was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1842, and has since made that city his home. He fought on the Confederate side in the Civil War, and rose to the rank of colonel. After the war he studied law, and soon became active in politics. He was for some time a member of the state legislature, and since 1885 has been United States Senator from Virginia. Mr. Daniel has long enjoyed a reputation as one of the leading speakers in his section, and in the Senate and in Democratic national conventions his oratorical talents have commanded a wider hearing. Both he and Mr. Cockran have gained attention by crossing swords with Mr. Bryan in Democratic nominating conventions. Mr. Daniel's style, judged by the oration that follows, is somewhat florid, but perhaps this is in part explained by the subject and the occasion. The occasion, which was the unveiling of a statue of Robert E. Lee, brought together an audience of about ten thousand people, including a large number of ex-Confederates, all in thorough sympathy with the speaker. An ex-Confederate himself, Mr. Daniel was deeply moved by emotions of loyalty and love - emotions which found a ready response in the hearts of his hearers. The official report of the proceedings states that “ Major Daniel for three hours held his audience by the spell of his eloquence, moving it now to applause, and now to tears." 5 I. MR. PRESIDENT, MY COMRADES, AND COUNTRYMEN: There was no happier or lovelier home than that of Colonel Robert Edward Lee in the spring of 1861, when for the first time its threshold was darkened with the omens of civil war. 2. Crowning the green slopes of the Virginia hills that overlook the Potomac, and embowered in stately trees, stood the venerable mansion of Arlington, facing a prospect of varied and imposing beauty. Its broad porch and widespread wings held out open arms, as it were, to welcome the coming guest. 10 Its simple Doric columns graced domestic comfort with a classic air. Its halls and chambers were adorned with the portraits of patriots and heroes, and with illustrations and relics of the great Revolution, and of the Father of his Country. And within and without, history and tradition seemed to 15 breathe their legends upon a canvas as soft as a dream of peace. 3. The noble river, which in its history, as well as in its name, carries us back to the days when the red man trod its banks, sweeps in full and even flow along the forefront of the land20 scape; while beyond its waters stretch the splendid avenues and rise the gleaming spires of Washington; and over all, the great white dome of the National Capitol looms up against the eastern sky, like a glory in the air. 4. Southward and westward, toward the blue rim of the Alle25 ghenies, roll away the pine and oak clad hills, and the fields of the "Old Dominion," dotted here and there with the homes of a people of simple tastes and upright minds, renowned for their devotion to their native land, and for their fierce love of liberty; a people who had drunk into their souls with their 30 mother's milk, that man is of right, and ought to be, free. 5. On the one hand there was impressed upon the most casual eye that contemplated the pleasing prospect, the munificence and grandeur of American progress, the arts of industry and commerce, and the symbols of power. On the other hand, Nature seemed to woo the heart back to her sacred haunts, with vistas of sparkling waters, and verdant pastures, and many a wildwood scene; and to penetrate its deepest recesses with the halcyon charm that ever lingers about the thought of Home. 5 6. The head of the house established here was a man whom Nature had richly endowed with graces of person, and high qualities of head and heart. Fame had already bound his brow with her laurel, and Fortune had poured into his lap her golden horn. Himself a soldier, and colonel in the army of 10 the United States, the son of the renowned "Light Horse Harry Lee," who was the devoted friend and compatriot of Washington in the Revolutionary struggle, and whose memorable eulogy upon his august chief has become his epitaph; descended indeed from a long line of illustrious progenitors, 15 whose names are written on the brightest scrolls of English and American history, from the conquest of the Norman at Hastings to the triumph of the Continentals at Yorktown,he had already established his own martial fame at Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapul- 20 tepec, and Mexico, and had proved how little he depended upon any merit but his own. Such was his early distinction, that when but a captain, the Cuban Junta had offered to make him the leader of their revolutionary movement for the independence of Cuba, - a position which, as an American officer, he 25 felt it his duty to decline. And so deep was the impression made of his genius and his valor, that General Scott, Commander in Chief of the army in which he served, had declared that he "was the best soldier he ever saw in the field," "the greatest military genius in America"; that "if opportunity 30 offered, he would show himself the foremost captain of his times"; and that "if a great battle were to be fought for the liberty or slavery of the country, his judgment was that the commander should be Robert Lee.” - 7. Wedded to her who had been the playmate of his boyhood, and who was worthy in every relation to be the companion of his bosom, sons and daughters had risen up to call them blessed, and there, decorated with his country's honors and sur5 rounded by "love, obedience, and troops of friends," the host of Arlington seemed to have filled the measure of generous desire with whatever of fame or happiness fortune can add to virtue. And had the pilgrim started in quest of some happier spot than the Vale of Rasselas, well might he have paused 10 by this threshold and doffed his "sandal shoon." 8. So situated was Colonel Lee in the spring of 1861, upon the verge of the momentous revolution of which he became so mighty a pillar and so glorious a chieftain. But we cannot estimate the struggle it cost him to take up arms against the 15 Union, nor the sacrifice he made, nor the pure devotion with which he consecrated his sword to his native state, without looking beyond his physical surroundings, and following further the suggestions of his history and character, for the springs of action which prompted his course. Colonel Lee was emphatzo ically a Union man; and Virginia, to the crisis of dissolution, was a Union state. He loved the Union with a soldier's ardent loyalty to the government he served, and with a patriot's faith and hope in the institutions of his country. His ancestors had been among the most distinguished and revered of its 25 founders; his own life from youth upward had been spent and his blood shed in its service, and two of his sons, following his footsteps, held commissions in the army. 9. He was born in the same county, and descended from the same strains of English blood from which Washington 30 sprang, and was united in marriage with Mary Custis, the daughter of his adopted son. He had been reared in the school of simple manners and lofty thoughts which belonged to the elder generation; and with Washington as his exemplar of manhood and his ideal of wisdom, he reverenced his character and fame and work with a feeling as near akin to worship as any that man can have for aught that is human. 10. Unlike the statesmen of the hostile sections, who were constantly thrown into the provoking conflicts of political debate, he had been withdrawn by his military occupations 5 from scenes calculated to irritate or chill his kindly feelings toward the people of the North; and on the contrary—in camp, and field, and social circle - he had formed many ties of friendship with its most esteemed soldiers and citizens. With the reticence becoming his military office, he had taken 10 no part in the controversies which preceded the fatal rupture between the states-other than the good man's part, to "speak the soft answer that turns away wrath," and to plead for that forbearance and patience which alone might bring about a peaceful solution of the questions at issue. 15 II. Years of his professional life he had spent in Northern communities, and, always a close observer of men and things, he well understood the vast resources of that section, and the hardy, industrious, and resolute character of its people; and he justly weighed their strength as a military power. When 20 men spoke of how easily the South would repel invasion he said: "You forget that we are all Americans." And when they prophesied a battle and a peace, he predicted that it would take at least four years to fight out the impending conflict. None was more conscious than he that each side undervalued 25 and misunderstood the other. He was, moreover, deeply imbued with the philosophy of history and the course of its evolutions, and well knew that in an upheaval of government deplorable results would follow which were not thought of in the beginning, or, if thought of, would be disavowed, belittled 30 and deprecated. And eminently conservative in his cast of mind and character, every bias of his judgment, as every tendency of his history, filled him with yearning and aspiration for the peace of his country and the perpetuity of the Union. |