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PREFACE

I never shall forget the sadness that filled my part of the country, when it was flashed over the wires, that General Lee was dead. We understood that he was not an old man, was in the matured manhood of a great and noble life. His example and counsel were expected to help the South through great and pressing dangers.

But the news came with a sudden shock. We heard that his noble frame had been racked with rheumatism, contracted in army service; and he was already gone, before we understood he had been a sufferer and was in extremis in his Virginia home.

The citizens of Cartersville moved as if by automatic force towards the court house to talk it over.

They were so bereaved that they were heart-sick with grief.

My deceased husband was the speaker of the occasion, as often happened when he was in the prime of manhood. Those who heard that impromptu address never forgot it. They remembered it with glad hearts so long as they lived. By urgent request, Dr. Felton was willing to take General Lee's name and memory as a text and give our citizens another discourse on the following Sunday.

I have a single copy left, after a lapse of forty-five years. To preserve it for those who loved him and who survive him, I decided to reprint the sermon, along with my own address - delivered a few weeks ado on a Memorial Day, in the presence of a large audience - and which I print for the same reason, namely, to gratify those who will survive me.

One has had nothing to do with the other in composition, in facts, or phraseology, but both were the outcome of an enthusiastic admiration for the greatest General of the Confederate times - the General who will go down in history along with General Washington, and a greater name in morals and manners than Cesar or the first Napoleon. To be really great there must be goodness as well as greatness of intellect or genius.

General Lee was good as well as great and I trust my descendants will never forget that their grandparents were always hoping that they might have goodness if greatness was denied them.

MRS. W. H. FELTON. May 14, 1915.

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SERMON DELIVERED BY REV. DR. W. H. FELTON IN CARTERSVILLE, GA.
Sunday, Oct. 17, 1870 on Life and Character of General Robert E. Lee.

Text. - And the King said unto his servants, "Know ye not that there is a Prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel." - II Samuel, 3-38.

These are the words of eulogy applied by King David to Abner, the military chieftain of the house of King Saul. Abner after exhausting all his resources, and finding that it was useless to prosecute the war any longer against David, determined to surrender all his forces. The terms of capitulation had been agreed upon - an interview between the rival captains had taken place. David at this interview extended to Abner and his body guard the hospitalities and courtesies which were due to a brave and generous enemy, and finally dismissed him with every mark of respect and esteem. But Abner had not proceeded far on his return home before he was arrested by the messengers of the envious and malignant Joab. He is carried back to Hebron, and Joab, while conversing with him under the guise of friendship, stabbed him so that he died.

David, when he hears of his death, drapes his household in mourning, and himself follows the bier to the grave, weeping like a child, and all the people wept at the grave of Abner. After the interment, when the King's servants insisted that he should "eat meat," he steadily refused "'till the sun be down," and said to them "Know ye not that there is a great man fallen this day in Israel?'

General Robert E. Lee was a Christian - a disciple of Christ - a recognized member of His church - a communicant at its altars, and it is fitting that the precious truths of the Gospel should be associated with his departure; that its promises should comfort us in our loss, and brighten the path that leads to the "inheritance of the saints," which he has obtained.

It is a sublime thought! that such a man is at rest! It is a sublimer thought that such a character is indestructible and undying!

That character was the result of long continued industry and unwavering adherence to principle - principle which had but one acknowledged standard, and that the high standard of Christian faith and morals. He was the architect of that character, before which men pause today in loving reverence. And it is consolatory to remember that while the intellect and the heart which reared this personal structure - colossal in its outlines, and symmetrical in all its parts - is removed from among men,

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yet the structure itself remains, and shall fill the whole earth with gratitude for its possession.

When an ordinary man dies, his immediate relatives mourn for him - his own home is desolated, and a few hearts are lighted. But he is a "great man," whose death clothes a nation in mourning, and carries sorrow to every manly heart in the civilized world.

The man of exalted birth and high official or social position may command at his death a funeral cortege, imposing and brilliant in its arrangements, but how seldom are such funeral processions sanctified by tears? Usually they are gilded pageants, cold mockeries of mortality, unadorned with a sigh - in which tender love has no place - the heart no sympathy.

Who imagines that Prussia wept over the splendid sarcophagus of Frederick II, falsely called the Great? It is true he startled all Europe by the boldness of his designs, and the rapidity with which he executed them. It is true he wrested Silesia and other provinces from their legitimate crowns, and transferred them to his hereditary state, Brandenburg. It is also true, that he devoted himself to the material prosperity of his subjects, but that prosperity was encouraged and fostered that it might be wasted in wars, having for their only object the aggrandizement of himself. He desired to make Prussia wealthy, that his coffers might be enriched. He sought the renown of Prussia, that Frederick might be esteemed the most successful chieftain of his age. He was a professional soldier, and fond of carnage. Every emotion of his soul was a trained and disciplined servant to his ambition. Every domestic virtue and social affection was either crushed in its birth, or subsidized to his personal interest.

He was successful, but who can believe that tears were shed over the friend and patron of Voltaire? Did human nature bring tears for him who sneered at all its finer sensibilities? Did wives weep for him who had never recognized his own amiable and true-hearted wife? Did soldiers weep over him whose severity of discipline - whose exacting cruelties on the drill - whose various oppressions made their lives a constant martyrdom, and drove hundreds to suicide, simply, that in a "charge on full gallop, one horse's head should not be a foot beyond another, and that the line should be so exactly straight Euclid, himself, could not detect an error?"

Who dreams that Marlborough, also falsely called the Great, with his brilliant victories and startling villanies, moved the hearts of his countrymen at his demise? His courage, his abilities, his noble and winning manners, the splendid success which had attended him on every occasion in which he commanded, made him a favorite with his brethren in arms. But he unblushingly sacrificed every principle for gold - he betrayed every trust for gold - he

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compromised every sovereign he owed allegiance, for gold. His deception, his hypocrisy, and his masterpieces of statecraft, are said to have been such "as Borgia would have envied, and such as Machiavel would have extolled to the skies." When he died, a master of the "art of war" died, but no man or government lost a friend.

We cannot conceive how love, which finds expression in tears, could have manifested itself in the multitude which some years ago followed the remains of Napoleon I, also falsely called the Great, from the point of landing in France, to the splendid mausoleum prepared for their reception. It it true, nave, choir, and transept of Notre Dame were in a blaze with innumerable waxlights - it is true, a gorgeous coffin, resting on a magnificent funeral car, drawn by horses appropriately draped, was followed by thousands in glittering uniform and badges of honor, amid the booming of distant minute guns, and surrounded by the battle-scarred eagles of his Italian campaign - but,

"O, shade of the mighty, where now are thy legions
That rushed but to conquer, when thou led'st them on?
Alas - they have perished in far hilly regions,
And all save the fame of their triumph is gone.
The trumpet may sound, and the loud cannon rattle
They heed not, they are free from all pain,
They sleep their last sleep, they have fought their last battle,
No sound can awake them to glory again!"

Who can conceive that ambition like his - which depopulated and impoverished - which wasted and scourged - that such ambition as it stands out in history, "wrapped in the solitude of its own originality," could command at its grave the "offering of a heart?"

To-day an entire people are in tears. The strong man weeps because he feels that he has lost a friend. The Woman brings her tribute of the heart, because she knows that the genius, courage, and constancy, which stood between her and ruined innocence, has gone to the grave. Children weep because General Lee, whom they loved as a father, is dead, as Southern children, they are orphans, indeed. It is sad when a child is deprived of its natural protection - the guardian of its rights - the watchful sentinel upon its dark and dangerous future - one who never sleeps nor slumbers when its interests are involved. Oh! there are tears in orphanage which may well "refuse to be comforted."

To-day the children of the State are in orphanage. - Maxima orbitas reipublicae - "the great orphanage of the commonwealth." The State mourns its benefactor - the faithful guardian of its rights - the watchman on its towers. Safe in counsel - wise in command - fearless in

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action - humble in the hour of victory - brave in defeat -counting not his life dear unto himself, so that he might bring happiness and security to his countrymen.

We propose to inquire: What Constitute a Great Man? David said Abner was a great man. We assert that General Lee was a great man. Are we correct? This word "great" is frequently upon our lips. He may be great in our estimation, but is he truly great? He may excel in some intellectual, moral or business pursuit, but is the whole man fitly joined together? Statesmen are not always great men. Successful warriors are not necessarily great, as men. Even a good man may not be entitled to the appellation of great - for he may be illiterate, obscure "loved and prized by God alone."

What, then, constitutes a great man? First, negatively - It does not consist in large earthly possessions - in material resources - nor in official position!

These are the elements of power, but not the constituents of greatness. They are the externals of fortune, not necessarily the accompaniments of true nobility. - They may co-exist with greatness, but they hang as loose robes around a great man. They are the outer garments - if you please, the toga virilis - "Roman gown of manhood"; but not the manhood itself. They are the paint - the stucco - the filagree-work of the edifice, but not the building. Time may deface them-misfortune may destroy them -but their departure only reveals the solidity of the masonry within.

At the outset of the war, General Lee had some of these externals of fortune - wealth - honorable connections - some official position, and the confidence of his associates. His mind was cultivated. He was master of his profession. The industry that had graduated him second in an unusually brilliant class at West Point, had also made him the most accomplished engineer in the "old army." He had some professional fame. Vera Cruz had fallen, by his professional skill. Cerro Gordo, Chepultepec, and Contreras were carried, as much by his professional learning as by the courage of the troops, for it was his learning and ability which directed the operations of those days, and brought about their successful results. All these things had given him some advantages - some prestige.

During "our war," he held high official position. Many of the externals of fortune seemed to hang around the loved old chieftain, but they were only chaplets and robes thrown over the statue of Hercules. When reverses had swept them all away - when his little wealth was all gone - when he was stripped of position, and despoiled of power, it was then the solid and elegant structure of his character was revealed. To be stripped of these things is what the world call ruin - what the world calls defeat

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- but this seeming ruin and defeat is the opportunity of true greatness.

Never did General Lee seem greater than when on the 12th of April, 1865 - after the surrender, which had been agreed upon two days before - when the seventy-five hundred men who still remained with him, had stacked their arms, and the ranks were for the first time broken in the presence of the enemy, there, surrounded by all these evidences of defeat - there, when the veterans of a hundred battle-fields are discharged from the control of their commanding officer - there, in full view of the stacked muskets which they had borne so gallantly at Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Richmond, Gettysburg, everywhere - there, in full view of their bullet torn flags, now furled and in the possession of others - there, with all the memories of the past, and all the fears for the future - these brave men are moved by but one impulse, and that was to grasp the hand of their beloved old chieftain, to shake it with all the fervor of love, while tears are streaming from the eyes that had never blinked in the storm of battle. They weep - not for themselves, but because they knew his "great soul" was pained. Their first and only thought in that supreme moment, was to minister consolation to him "whom they loved." Ah! it was Cato in ruins, receiving the tearful benedictions of all the Athenians. There he stands, deprived of his rank - a prisoner of war on parole, his hopes and labors all blasted, yet never was he so loved and honored - never was he so appreciated. He turned to the soldiers who gathered around him and said, "Men, we have fought through the war together, and I have done the best I could for you." With this noble consciousness of rectitude - a consciousness which was responded to by every young Southerner who had followed his flag, he mounted his horse, and in company with a few members of his staff, he rode back to Richmond. Blackened walls and smoking embers are around him, the streets are thronged with strangers; soldiers in Federal uniforms crowd the pavements; no familiar face is seen. Presently he is recognized - the cry is raised, "Lee! Lee!" Instantly friend and foe uncover, and start after the retiring Hero with shouts of love and applause. Soon he enters his humble house, and forever into the seclusion of private life. The smoke of battle is now dispersed, and the eye can take in the magnitude of the man - for the sunbeams are playing upon his brow, and every cloud that now floats over him only deepens the golden light that bathes his character.

Enemies investigate his character. Records are searched - prisoners are interrogated on oath. His companions in arms are cross- examined. Every device is employed to find something condemnatory of his official acts, and yet

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the verdict of his prosecutors is, "We find no fault in this man."

So then we are taught improperly that position constitutes greatness, and that wordly success is a test of merit. Under this teaching men frequently are induced to surrender all nobility of soul to acquire position, and will sacrifice all the elements of greatness to command success.

General Lee did not seek the chief command of the army of Virginia. He seemed to drift with the current of events, and yet his intellect and his rigid discharge of duty were all unconsciously to himself, controlling and shaping the current of events. When at Savannah, or in Northern Virginia, commanding a handful of men - while the Southern armies were gathering around Richmond - and in Tennessee under other leaders, there were no murmurs - no restless repinings. But like Fabius Maximus who, under the charge of inactivity was superseded by another, and went into a subordinate position, he said "This only affords me a more splendid opportunity of showing my zeal for the Republic." When he received the chief command of the army of Virginia, he seemed to fill a niche which nature had prepared for him. His genius, his intellect and moral qualifications, fitted the place. There was no discrepancy between his capacity and his duty. His resources were always equal to the demands made upon them. He adorned the office - the office revealed the man. He was to his office as an "apple of gold set in a picture of silver."

Who is a "great man?" One who, with high intellectual qualifications, fine moral perceptions, and untiring industry, devotes all his mental and moral endowment to the happiness of others. Selfishness makes no part of true greatness. Labor and exertion for selfish ends and purposes, dissolves and annuls a man's claim to greatness. He lives not unto himself. Living or dying, he belongs unto others. As the circle enlarges, and the number of those he benefits is multiplied, in that proportion he is great. When the recipients of his intellectual and moral beneficence embrace the citizens of a State, we have that highest grade of human greatness a "national benefactor."

General Lee lived not for himself. He never placed personal considerations in competition with the "public good." He was the servant of all, and thus he reached the Scriptural standard of greatness. "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them. - But it shall not be so among you, but whosoever would be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant." That is: Among the Gentiles, dominion and authority are the signs of greatness, but among Christians he is to be recognized

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as chief who devotes all his powers to the general happiness - forgets self-interest in promoting the interest of others. Is willing to be poor, that others may be rich - is willing to suffer that others may rejoice - consents to risk his life, and even to die, that others may live. The highest praise the enemies of the Blessed Savior ever gave him was the derisive taunt, "He saved others, himself he cannot save." The grandest words of patriotism that ever fell from human lips were Paul's: "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsman according to the flesh, who are Israelites."

It is said of Caius Gracchus, that he boasted of carrying casks full of wine in the provinces, and bringing them back empty, while others brought theirs back full of gold. Like him, General Lee carried a full purse into the struggle for Southern independence, and brought it out empty. He could have amassed millions for his private estate; he could have commanded every bale of cotton in the South; he could have found an outlet through every blockaded port on our coast - but while his countrymen suffered, it is said that a "simple slice of ham and cracker" was the extent of his table luxuries, and at the close of the war he was dependent upon his own exertions for his daily bread. Self was forgetten .

He was opposed to secession, but his individual opinions were not permitted to influence his duty to others. He was the son of Virginia, therefore the servant of Virginians. At the command of his old mother, he unsheathed his sword, and never did he surrender it until the Virginia of his fathers had ceased to exist. As long as she had power to issue her orders, so long, with sword in hand, was he ready "through rock and steel to smite." When she ceased to breathe, and her arms were folded in death, he had nothing to do but to die, and sleep upon her bosom.

He fought simply for the homes of his countrymen - for his Penates. His nature shrank from the carnage of battle. He found no "music," like Charles XII of Sweden, in "whistling bullets." He felt no sublimity in exploding shells, in the charge of cavalry, or in the shouts of captains. He knew that all these were messengers of death - of wounds - of desolation. His finely-wrought soul delighted in none of these things, for his was

"The kind and gentle heart
That feels another's woe."

He fought for no objects of ambition - no crown - no point of honor - no acquisition of territory - no traditional feud - no sectional hate. He carried into battle neither the red rose of Lancaster, nor the white rose of York. But with a "single eye" to defense, his motives were all summed up in the expression, "My people must be protected."

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When army after army which the Federal authorities sent against him, had gone down under his guns and his strategy like frost-work - when commander after commander had been driven back across the Potomac, and into retirement - when new levies of a half million of men were flocking to the Federal onset, like "eagles to the carcass," and the little band of young Southrons were rallying around their "old Leader" for the last death- struggle, it is said some foreign officer enquired of General Lee, "How long do you suppose the work of death will continue, and what will be the probable results of the war?" It is said that his only reply was, "Sir, my people must be protected." And we verily believe that his people to-day owe their tolerable condition not so much to the clemency of Northern politicians as they do to the stern and overwhelming resistance of Robert E. Lee.

In an earthquake it is usually the first wave which rushes over the city, and in its reflex sweeps everything lovely and beautiful to the bottom of the sea. If the city can escape the first wave, consequent on the first shock, then the monster force is found to subside gradually, and finally wastes its strength in harmless oscillations. So if the first wave of Northern vengeance, consequent on the firing upon Fort Sumter, and the first battle of Manassas, had swept unresisted over the South, it is probable the "desolations of war" would have been realized by us more than they were. But General Lee certainly gave the country time for reflection, and stayed the mad waves of revenge until the North had learned to respect the courage of the South. The State which produced him, and the soldiers he commanded, may be hated, but can never be despised. We repeat, that he consecrated all his powers to the happiness of his countrymen.

But this regard for the greatest good to the greatest number of his fellow men was manifested in his efforts to mitigate the horrors and cruelties of war.

The savage is never a "great man." The brave man is proverbial for his generosity and his chivalrous bearing towards the helpless and unarmed. He will lose an opportunity for success rather than stain his reputation for magnanimity. His place in history and the approval of his conscience, is more valuable to him than the applause of the multitude.

Never were these truisms more fully illustrated than they were by General Lee in his temporary invasion of Pennsylvania. It was thought when he entered that State he would retaliate for the many outrages which the enemy had committed upon the South. That he, also, would announce that "war is cruelty" and proceed to apply the torch. That in answer to the demands made upon him by some Southern journals, he would hoist the "black flag," and proceed to chase women and children from their burning

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homes, and drive them homeless and penniless refugees into the mountains and swamps of that State. But little did the men who entertained these expectations know of the grandeur of the Confederate Chieftain.

As soon as he entered that State he issued orders forbidding his troops from taking private property, unless paid for on the spot. That no private dwelling was to be entered without special authority. Grain fields were guarded by troops on starving horses. Store houses and barns were surrounded by ragged and bare-footed pickets to shield them from depredation. A few Dutchmen gathering up their mules and oxen pretended to fly before the rebels, but the vast majority of the citizens remained at home along the line of Lee's march, and the infant babe slept as sweetly upon its mother's breast as though no invading army had crossed the lines; and virgin innocence reposed as safely upon its nightly couch as though it had been resting in a father's arms. There were no smoking ruins left in his path - he issued no orders to destroy, and made no reports like the following, by General Sheridan: "I have destroyed over two thousand barns filled with wheat and hay and farming implements; over seventy mills filled with flour and wheat; have driven in front of the army over four thousand head of stock, and have killed and issued to the troops not less than three thousand head of sheep, and have made the country entirely untenable."

A writer on International Law says, "A belligerent prince, who should, in the present day, without necessity, ravage an enemy's country with fire and sword, and render it uninhabitable in order to make it serve as a barrier against the advance of the enemy, would justly be regarded as a modern Attila."

After he fought the battle of Gettysburg, and during his retreat - though that retreat was conducted in perfect order and unmolested by the enemy, yet there were no poor old Cassvilles in his rear, with every house in its incorporate limits reduced to ashes, except its three churches - there were no Cartersvilles, with every house on its public square left in cinders, and its Baptist church destroyed - there were no Mariettas - there were no Atlantas, with its inhabitants driven into exile, and their homes, "palace and hovel," left blackened monuments of barbarism and cowardice. There was no long track of embers and wrecks - no flying throngs of shrieking, wailing women, and starving children. There was no Columbia, with its churches - its halls of learning-its palaces of justice - its eighty squares of buildings all wrapped in flames - its insulted women - its desecrated graves - its sack, in which intoxicated soldiers and fire did the "work of hell" from dark to sunrise.

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Oh, no! There were none of these things - General Lee was in command of Southern troops. It was not Count Von Moltke, or the Crown Prince, carrying desolation to the harmless peasantry of Alsace and Lorraine. It was the Hero who had achieved greater victories than Gravelotte subjecting "war" to the high standards of humanity and Christian mercy. It was a man who gave no unnecessary pain - inflicted no gratuitous suffering - started no tears. He was a Knight tender as woman, and fearless as Bayard.

Lastly: Every great man fears God, and keeps his commandments.

Human greatness is estimated by its works. By their deeds will posterity judge the great of this world. Professions of friendship for the human race will only be esteemed valid, when sustained by the consecration of great intellectual and moral powers to the public good.

But the enemy of God was never a true friend to man. He who violates the law of God, and "teaches men so," is to the extent of his ability, at war with the public good. For the highest human happiness can only be reached through obedience to God. Christianity is the foundation of our civilization, and the only elevating and refining agency of our society. He who rejects Christianity undermines the intelligence and the virtue of the human race and attempts to force back the tide of civilization upon the sources of barbarism. A Christian is not necessarily a "great man;" he may not have the power to shape and mould his fellow- men; he may not have the tact to command the world's attention, he may be incapable of great thoughts and great actions, but every "great man" is a good man - a "God-fearing" man - a righteous man. For he cannot be a lover of men unless he be a lover of God in Christ Jesus.

As we have stated, General Lee was a Christian - a communicant at the altars of a Christian Church - partaker of the emblems of "Christ's broken body and shed blood" - a man of prayer - a man of faith - one who hung all his trophies, all his spoils "upon the Cross."

We can never forget his dispatches announcing to the country memorable victories - victories destined to live in history and song as long as great deeds are honored among men. They were in spirit but a repetition of the old doxologies: "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory." "Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks; unto thee do we give thanks, for that they name is near, thy wondrous works declare. O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten him the victory." "The Lord hath made known his salvation. And hath redeemed us from our enemies." It is probable that General Lee did not believe that battle was a decision of the "justice of God," or that the results of war determined

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the legal equities of an international cause. But he was deeply religious - he recognized the hand of God in everything - his heart was the trained and disciplined respondent of God's mercies, and he habitually attributed every success to the "Father of Lights."

When he parted with his troops at Appomattox, he dismissed them with these manly words: "I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you His blessing and protection." It was a father commending his children to the God who had watched over all his earthly pilgrimage. It was Israel in his last hours, reaching out his hands and laying them upon the heads of Ephraim and Manassah, saying, "The angel which redeemed me from evil, bless the lads." It was the Apostle committing his sons "to God, and the word of his grace." - who "kneeled down and prayed with them all." And they all wept sore, "sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they should see his face no more."

Grand old man! Great in all thy actions, but greatest and noblest in communion and fellowship with thy God! Thou wert not permitted to lead thy people to their coveted inheritance," but on "Nebo's lonely mountain" God handed thee gently and gloriously to thy grave!

Oh! ye coming historian! Write it upon thy future page, that the desolated South has produced the only Chieftain of the Nineteenth Century who by his acts in war, demonstrated his piety to God. Havelock, and our own Jackson, were subordinates. Like the Phoenix, which is said to renew itself from its own ashes, so these Southern States, when they were crumbling into ruins, developed and matured the sublimest specimen of a Christian Soldier known to his age.

The world does not produce many "great men" - only here and there, along the track of time, do they make their appearance. Heaven bestows its ordinary gifts lavishly, but its extraordinary endowments are given sparingly. There are not many stars of the first magnitude - diamonds are scarce among the sands of the earth. These "great men" seem to be given for our guidance. They are blazing monuments, by which the multitude may direct their aspirations and their actions. When one begins to grow dim with years, God raises up another, and to-day Robert E. Lee is Heaven's latest monument on the path of human existence.

Let us reach out as far as practicable towards this illustrious example. Let us, like him, submit quietly to the necessities of our situation, obey the laws, and by industry, economy and enterprise, restore the "waste places" of Georgia. Above all, let us by faith in Christ, secure the blessing of Almighty God.

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LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE.
An Address Delivered at Ashburn, Georgia, on April 26,
1915, Upon the Invitation of the United
Daughters of The Confederacy.
By Mrs. W. H. Felton, Cartersville, Ga.

Respected Audience: It is the principal token of civilization to remember with respect, and memorialize with accuracy and affection, the good and the great, who have preceded us, in the journey of life.

All nations of the earth, save benighted Africa, have numerous memorials, arches, temples, and tablets, for this worthy purpose. Even in heathen lands beautiful monuments remain, erected centuries ago. Inscriptions inside the Pyramids of Egypt, prove to us the respect that ancient Egyptians entertained for their dead Pharoahs .

In more modern times - there are monuments of various kinds, built of purest marble, hardest granite, enduring bronze, to commemorate the victories of Great Generals and notable Statesmen. Our National Capitol has its Hall of Fame. Among the great of America, the Commonwealth of Illinois has placed a marble statue of Miss Frances Willard, the great leader of the Temperance Cause in the United States and the World!

All over our country there are monuments being constantly erected to memorialize the victorious leaders in our Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

Georgia has made a legal holiday of the birthday of General Robert E. Lee. The United States Government had previously made legal holidays of the birthdays of General George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln. On those legal birthday holidays all business is suspended. The public schools give holidays, supposing that teacher and pupils will occupy the time in discussing the history of the three greatest men who ever lived in their respective states. Every American who travels in foreign lands is pleased to know that General Washington's name commands the respect of the residents of the Old World.

"Like a thread of gold
His life has wrought good a thousand fold!"

Thus it is in the South with the name of General Lee. He was a truly great man, and also a great soldier. He was a good citizen, a wise father, a devoted husband and a Christian gentleman. There is no taint of greed or corruption in his wonderful career. His example was always good in camp and field, in the lecture room, and wherever he was placed to illustrate his State and Nation. He died as he lived, a great and noble son of Virginia, a worthy son of worthy sires. He prized character above money.

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His former foes appreciate him - for his courage and his virtues. Before the smoke of battle had risen from the battlefields around Richmond, the finest writers in Europe bore testimony to their high regard for the defeated General of the collapsed Confederacy.

As the years roll on and the critics see clearer, their admiration increases. The better we in the South become acquainted with General Lee, the more we admire his beautiful loyalty and resplendent patriotism. If he ever made a military mistake, and he made some mistakes, he was able to rise in majesty of truth and justice and admit them. There is no greater test of noble character than to confess a fault. General Lee was true to others and true to himself.

Our Confederate experiences were sore and heavy toward the end. It was a tremendous responsibility to lead a forlorn hope in bloody battles. General Lee was apprised, from the beginning, that our chances were doubtful. No Southern General had such clear vision as to the resources of the Federal Army as General Lee. He had reached such prominence in the U. S. Army that General Winfield Scott had picked him for the Succeeding Commanding General.

He was reared as a soldier. He was the son of General Henry Lee, who commanded "Lee's Legion" in the Revolutionary War, and who was called "Light-Horse Harry Lee." It was he who delivered the celebrated eulogy on General Washington, in which he said: "First in war; first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." He served in Congress, was Governor of Virginia from 1792-95. In 1814, he was visiting in Baltimore when the house was attacked and General Lee defended his host and family, but the mob was victorious. He with his host and others were carried to the jail for safety. The mob broke into the jail, killed some, maimed others, among them General Henry Lee. He never recovered from those wounds. He sought health in the West Indies. Without improvement he tried to reach home, and reached our own Cumberland Island, Ga., where death found him. He died March 25, 1816, nearly one hundred years ago. His great son, Robert Edward, was only nine years of age when his father died. He was born at the family (Lee) homestead, named Stratford, which Richard Henry Lee, the signer of Independence, inherited - he who wrote that famous sentence, "That these Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, free and Independent States." Those of you who will ever take a boat-trip down the James River can have Stratford pointed out to you.

Our own great General Robert Lee was sixty-three years of age when he died suddenly from rheumatism, contracted from exposure in the Confederate war. He should

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have been in the prime of his life, but he lived only five years after the surrender at Appomattox.

He was much opposed to secession. He did not resign his position in the old Army until Virginia seceded in May, 1861. Georgia seceded in January, 1861. His wife (Mrs. Lee) wrote to General Scott, that "her husband had wept tears of blood" over the situation. General Lee wrote a letter to his own sister, which is extant, "I am grieved at my inability to see you. The whole South is in a state of revolution, into which Virginia has been drawn after a long struggle, and though I recognize no necessity for this state of things, and would have forborne and pleaded to the end for redress of grievances, real or supposed, yet I, as an individual had to make choice, whether I would act for or against the people of my native State. With all my devotion to the Union, and my loyalty as an American citizen, I have not been able to raise my hand against my relatives, my children and my home. Save in defense of my native State, I shall never draw my sword. I hope my poor services will never be needed, I know you will blame me but you must think of me as kindly as you can, and believe that I have endeavored to do what was right."

When Richmond became the Capitol and General Lee volunteered with a Virginia regiment he had a small position. Do not forget, he was going up head, under General Scott's good will as fast as he could advance. He had liberal army pay and owned Arlington, with other fortunes. Had he chosen to leave Virginia, honors would have been heaped upon him. His magnificent home would have been saved to him. He knew, as before said, what the South was rushing into unprepared. Our own fiery Georgia speakers told of this unpreparedness, and General Lee knew the chances were all against us. The whole civilized world, except Brazil, had abandoned the system of African slavery. It had "no dignity" in any powerful government. Yet General Lee saw with clear vision, with mammoth losses to himself at the very beginning, without his regular army pay; forced to abandon Arlington and take his large family of sons and young daughters into a rented house; he made these heroic sacrifices for his native State Virginia. He joined the Confederate army as a Brigadier General. When he reached Richmond, Governor Letcher conferred upon him the command of all Virginia troops with title of Major-General. A great mass-meeting was held at the State Capitol, with brass bands, fervid oratory and military processions. After General Lee had been formally intrusted with the Major- Generalship, he rose and modestly said: "I am grateful for this confidence, so kindly expressed on this, to me, most solemn occasion." He wished there had been a better one

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selected for the work, but he would do his and await results.

When Congress assembled at Richmond, a re-organization of the army was ordered and General Lee was set down as a Brigadier General for the second time, and placed under some political generals who had been active in pushing the crisis upon the country and who wished to win fame as martial heroes. General Wise and General Floyd got to quarreling in West Virginia and had to be separated. Everything went wrong. General Garnett was killed, his command destroyed, and when General Lee was ordered to the command, Pegram's artillery had been sacrificed and everything was hopeless. This defeat lost West Virginia to the Southern Confederacy, although General Lee held the forces intact during the long, dreadful winter of 1861-62.

As a quasi rebuke, he was removed to the Coast of Florida and Georgia, and held that inconsiderable appointment until the summer of 1862. He had no attention while the battle of Manassas was fought in July, 1861, but there was no complaint, no personal grievance ever exposed while he remained comparatively unnoticed in the Army by Confederate authorities. The absence of all resentment marks one of the finest traits in the character of General Lee.

Not until the Battle of Seven Pines in June, 1862, after General Joe Johnston was wounded and disabled, did the authorities turn to the consideration of the fitness and military capacity of General Lee. They did not seem to appreciate what was ready to their hand until that time. General Beauregard had gone out West to supervise the Western Army under command of General Albert Sidney Johnston. This was another case of glaring oversight. General Albert S. Johnston had been soundly abused for inactivity, etc., but when General Beauregard made his report he said he was astounded that there were only a little over 20,000 men. The Border States sent a number of enthusiastic Confederate troopers, but the masses of the people stayed at home and saved their stuff!

When General Lee was placed in command of the army of northern Virginia he had time to find out that he must have men who were trained in military affairs. Political generals, as a rule, had been a failure. Ever afterwards he kept Stonewall Jackson within reach. General A. P. Hill he knew to be sterling metal and he was kept in close touch. General Longstreet, the best trained soldier that Georgia ever raised, was never far away, but once, when he was dispatched with an army corps to assist General Bragg at the battle of Chickamauga. General D. H. Hill was a trained soldier, reliable to the core, only when he got angry or petulant with orders that he did not like,

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maybe did not understand. Major-General Ewell was also a great soldier.

I read some time ago of the seven days' battles that came in swift succession after the retirement of General Joe Johnston at Seven Pines. General Lee had swiftly organized his army under these trusted and trained men. General Jackson had been operating in the valley - and it was a season of heavy rains and flooded streams. General Lee summoned him to the defense of Richmond. McClellan was approaching with a large, well-equipped army, pressing on in great force. A battle was set for the 27th of June, near Mechanicsville, and Jackson was anxiously expected. The last word was that he had to repair Beaver Creek bridge to get his guns across. General Lee was in Hogan's house, with A. P. Hill and Longstreet near at hand and waiting. The lesser officers were sitting on steps of Hogan's house, and piazzas. General Lee was alone in a bed room, anxiously waiting for Jackson. The word that went around was, "Can Jackson reach us?" Those who saw General Lee's face said he was pale, but composed.

At length a courier came in sight, waving a piece of paper, his horse covered with sweat and foam. General Lee caught the paper from his hand, read the lines, mounted his horse and ordered A. P. Hill to charge, as "Jackson was coming!" Longstreet was held until Jackson came in sight - and then the battle was on!! Longstreet gave his troops General Lee's final command, and from two P. M. until dark the battle raged.

The victory remained with the Confederates. They saved the Capitol of the Confederacy from the enemy when McClellan was sure he had it in his very clutch. There were captured ten thousand prisoners, 35,000 stand of small arms, and 50 superior cannon and immense stores. General Lee said in his modest way: "We regret that more has not been accomplished but regret gives way to gratitude to the Sovereign ruler of the universe." Said General Stonewall Jackson: "Gratitude is due to God for this great victory."

As General Lee sat in Hogan's house he had utmost confidence in these Generals: Jackson, Longstreet, the two Hills, and General Ewell. On the 29th was the battle of Savage Station, on the 30th that of Frazier's Farm; on July 1st, of Malvern Hill.

It was no time or place for political generals. The time was too dangerous, and the crisis too great. He had also his old regiment of Virginia troops. They loved him, they were also close to him, night and day. I haven't time to go through the series of battles, the dreadful carnage, the varying fortunes of these troops, but it is a good time to say that Stonewall Jackson was shot down, to death, by a mistake, and by his own troops. General Longstreet

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was also shot by mistake of his own troops - and was troubled with his wounds to his dying day. General A. P. Hill was killed near the close of the war - and spared the trial of the final surrender. He was one of our greatest Confederate Generals. The battle of Sharpsburg was a mistake, as we see it now. General Lee was encouraged to go into Maryland with the hope that the Southern sympathizers would rally in force and recruit his army. The battle of Gettysburg was a similar mistake. General Lee was mistaken. He was not afraid to say so. Efforts have been made in various quarters to charge blame on one of his beloved Generals. The human heart is too prone to seek to fasten blame - in the heat of political fury.

At last came the fateful day at Appomattox. The end was near. General Lee could not postpone. His ragged, hungry and shoeless legions were depleted to but little over 25,000 men. The enemy was so near and had so completely surrounded him that he saw the hour had nearly come - when he could do nothing but surrender.

I had a tragic story of the last night before the end, from General Charles Field, who was in command of the Virginia troops, who went into the army with General Lee at the beginning of the Confederate war.

General Field said General Lee understood that General Grant was not far away and would propose terms of surrender on the following day. A Council of War was held in General Lee's tent, and matters discussed. After midnight, when the Council adjouned , General Lee asked General Longstreet to remain with him after the others had gone. He said he hoped there would be terms offered that he might reasonably accept for the army, but he could not listen to dishonorable terms, etc. He had made up his mind to try to cut his way into the mountains of Virginia, in such an exigency and die in the attempt. Looking General Longstreet full in the face he asked this question, "Will you go with me, in this event and lead the forlorn hope?" General Field said it was a wonderful interview, knowing both men as he knew them - both animated by the same courage, and same patriotism.

Longstreet grasped the hand of his chief and replied, "General Lee, I will go with you!" The terms were not dishonorable and the end came quietly. I am hoping that Georgians will in a coming day erect a suitable monument on the Capitol grounds in Atlanta and dedicate it to Lee and Longstreet. I wish it might come in my time, and that I could be there to see! Georgia owes it to them!

General Lee was never greater in his noble life than when he rode down the lines after the terms of surrender had been signed and bade good bye to his old soldiers. He wasted no words, he made no complaints, he reviled nobody, he accepted the inevitable as nobly as he had announced victory. "Men! we have fought through four

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years of bloody war. I have done the best I could for you."

He retired to his rented house in Richmond, with no income, nothing left of the fortune that he had sacrificed to remain with his kindred on the soil of Virginia. With a large family to care for, the future must have looked gloomy enough. After things had rested for some months, he entered upon his duties as president of a boy's college in his native State, and within less than five years he went to his Eternal reward! He was as much greater than his former property, as William of Orange when he opened the dykes of Holland to stop invading armies. He was greater in defeat than his conquerors were in victory, because of his self- poise, his calm endurance, and humble Christian Faith in the darkest hours of his life.

General Lee was a wonderful father. I have a letter written to his young son, then at school, before the war came on:

"My dear Son:

"I am just in the act of leaving home for New Mexico. My old regiment has been ordered to that distant region. I must hasten to see they are properly taken care of. I have but little to add in reply to your letters of March 26-27-28. Your letters breathe the true spirit of frankness. They have given your mother and myself great pleasure. You must study to be frank with the world. Frankness is the child of liberty and courage. Say what you mean to to on every occasion. I take it for granted you mean to do right. If a friend asks a favor you must grant it if it is reasonable.

"If not, plainly tell him you cannot. You will wrong him and wrong yourself by equivocations of any kind. Never do a wrong thing to make a friend. The man who requires you to do so is bought dearly at a sacrifice. Deal kindly, but firmly with your classmates. Above all do not appear to be to others what you are not. There is no more dangerous experiment than that of undertaking to be one thing before a man's face and another behind his back. We should live, act, and say nothing to the injury of any one. It is not only best as a matter of principle but it is the path to peace and honor.

"In regard to duty, let me in conclusion of this hasty letter inform you that nearly a hundred years ago, there was a day of remarkable gloom and darkness, still known as the Dark Day, when the light of the sun was slowly extinguished by an eclipse.

"The Legislature of Connecticut was in session and the members saw the sudden and unexpected darkening coming on. It was supposed by many to be the Last Day of Judgment. Some one in the confusion of the moment moved an adjournment. There was one old Puritan legislator, by name Davenport of Stamford. He arose and said, "If the Last Day has come, he desired to be found at his

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post of duty." He moved that candles be brought in, so that the House could proceed with its duty.

"There was a quietness in that man's mind of heavenly wisdom, and inflexible willingness to do present duty. Duty is the sublimest word in our language. You cannot do more. You should never desire to do less.

"Never let me or your mother wear a gray hair for lack of duty on your part.

"Your affectionate father.
"R. E. LEE."

I greatly wish that this letter might be read on the birthday of General Lee in our public schools, I am sure it would do good and how better could that holiday be celebrated?

General Lee had two or more sons in the Confederate Army. His son, Rob, was a private in Rockbridge Artillery and with Jackson in the Valley campaign. Rob was dirty, ragged, worn out with marching and crept under one of the gun caissons for a nap. Somebody roused him and said there was somebody wanting to see him. Half awake, he crawled out, and there was his father and his staff all in new uniforms. Sometime afterward Rob was promoted, but before that his mother asked General Lee to keep Rob near him. He replied he was opposed to officers surrounding themselves with near realtives . "It is wrong in principle that selecting should be made from private and social reasons, rather than from the public good. I prefer that Rob should remain in independent position in the line where he could rise by his own merit, and not through the favor of his own relatives."

His daughter, Annie, died in North Carolina in October, 1862, where she had gone for her health. He wrote to his wife: "The death of our dear Annie is to me a bitter pang, but the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In the quiet hours of night, when there is nothing to lighten the full weight of my grief I feel as if I shall be overwhelmed, but God, in this, has mingled his mercy with the blow in selecting that one best prepared to leave. May you be able to join me in saying God's Will be done!" When the army was near Charlottesville, in 1864, the officers in General Fitzhugh Lee's command gave a great ball, and sent General Lee a ticket. In a reply letter he wrote the only word of censure that appears in his writing: "This is a bad time for such things. We have too grave subjects on hand to engage in trivial amusements. I would rather the officers would entertain themselves in fattening their horses, healing their men and recruiting their regiments. There are too many Lees on that commitee. I like them to be present at battles, but can excuse them at balls. I think it would be better if Fitz Lee moved his camp further from Charlottesville.

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He and I are too old for such assemblies. I want him to write how his men are, his horses and what I can do to fill up his ranks."

After he was President of the College many girl friends visited his own daughters of whom there were several. There were callers every evening from students and young professors. Their house was small and the son writes: "If his daughters had guests, my father sat with my mother in the dining room, adjoining the drawing room. When the clock struck ten he would rise and close shutters carefully and slowly. If that did not succeed as a hint, he would simply say, "Good night, young gentlemen."

General Lee always held family prayers and they had to have breakfast at seven so he might reach the chapel at a quarter to eight, where prayers were held in College Chapel. That was early rising in the home, for prayers were held before breakfast. His daughter-in- law said "she did not believe General Lee would have had a high opinion of even General Washington (if he could return to earth) if he did not attend family prayers."

Some letters to his wife, written before Virginia seceded are pathetic. He did not believe secession advisable (and it was not) and yet he cast his lot with Virginia, knowing he had all to lose and nothing to gain. He speaks of Arlington being lost to them, but hopes they will have a farm that will yield cornbread and bacon, but he warns her that the war will not be a short one - that the South need not rely upon foreign aid, not even on account of the Trent affair, as the United States would give up Mason and Slidell rather than go to war with England, which came true.

This great man accepted poverty and defeat with a resignation that was wonderful, when we think of his large family of daughters and sons and loss of fortune and loss of Arlington, the elegant home of his family in days of peace. He never owned a home any more. I have a clipping from "The Youth's Companion," printed in Boston, February. 22, 1912, that shows that even his former foes accorded him great respect.

FEBRUARY 22, 1912.

GENERAL LEE.

"The whole life of General Robert E. Lee was a fine, although unobtrusive, protest against the worship of wealth. He stood, as Tennyson wrote of Wellington "four-square to all the winds that blew!" He was above money and beyond price. Here is the proof, from Mr. Charles Foster Smith's recent book, "Reminiscences and Sketches":

Owner of the baronial manor of Arlington and possessor otherwise of a princely fortune, General Lee had lost

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all in the cataclysm of civil war. And when he was thus impoverished, in the autumn of 1863, the city of Richmond voted him a house for his family; but he declined it, suggesting "that whatever means the city council may have to spare for this purpose may be devoted to the relief of the families of our soldiers in the field."

After the war an English nobleman offered him a country estate, with an annuity of three thousand pounds; but he declined, saying, "I must abide the fortunes and share the fate of my people."

In 1865 he accepted the presidency of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University,) at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year; but when General Ewell, in 1868, gave five hundred dollars to the college, on condition that it be added to General Lee's salary, the latter declined it, writing General Ewell, "I already receive from the college a larger amount than my poor services are worth."

He was invited to become the head of a firm in New York to represent Southern commerce, with a salary of fifty thousand dollars, but this, too, he declined. "I am grateful," he said, "but I have a self- imposed task which I must accomplish. I have led the young men of the South in battle; I have seen many of them die on the field, I shall devote my remaining energies to training young men to do their duty in life."

The presidency of the Southern Insurance Company, in which Hampton, Gordon, B. H. Hill, and other distinguished ex- Confederates were directors, was offered him at a salary of ten thousand dollars. But this also he declined, saying, "I feel that I ought not to abandon the position I hold at Washington College at this time, or as long as I can be of service to it."

The distinguished ex-Confederate officer sent to make him the offer said:

"We do not wish you to give up your present position general, or to discharge any duties in connection with our company. The truth is, we only want your name connected with the company. That would amply compensate us for the salary we offer you."

General Lee's face flushed. "I am sorry, sir," he replied "that you are so little acquainted with my character as to suppose that my name is for sale at any price.'

One of the general's biographers states that he "found his letter- book filled with replies to offers of this character."

In May, 1870, when General Lee was away seeking health, the board of trustees of the college deeded the president's house, which had been built under General Lee's supervision, to Mrs. Lee, with an annuity of thirty-five hundred dollars.

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But he declined it, saying, "I am unwilling that my family should become a tax on the college, but desire that all its funds should be devoted to the purposes of education. I know that my wishes on this subject are equally shared by my wife."

After the general's death, the trustees sent Mrs. Lee a check for the first quarter of the annuity, but she promptly returned it, with a beautiful letter of thanks, saying that she could not accept the annuity and was ready to give up the house to the new president whom they should elect.

The new president elected was her own son, and she died in the president's house.

There were famous Confederate Generals who did allow the use of their names in questionable enterprises. The Lottery Company of Louisiana was championed by General Beauregard and General Early. They secured large salaries for the use of their names, and eternity alone will tell how many thousands of dollars that went out of the pockets of Confederate soldiers into that terrible gambling concern and never returned them a penny in profit. There was universal regret that these Confederate Generals allowed the purchase of their names and influence. The time came when the strong arm of the U. S. Government had to be applied to squelching out this foul den of speculation and graft.

There were other Confederate Generals that many of us knew in person who were used in divers schemes that were also used to decoy Confederate soldiers into swindling enterprises. General Lee could not afford to do that. "His name was not for sale."

In conclusion, I believe I am authorized to say that the "Lost Cause" has still one jewel among its assets - one so valuable that the blight of Civil War does not discount, that age has not tarnished and Time will never corrode, namely the life and character of General Robert E:. Lee. It grows brighter each year that has passed and I esteem it a privilege to stand in this presence and say to this large company that I lived in General Lee's time and have been spared nearly fifty years since he passed on and I have never heard of the taint of gold in his history. He was a true-hearted Christian soldier and Southern gentleman!

With a word to the few remaining veterans who attend these exercises today, the lesson for us is a renewed covenant with ourselves to give inflexible adherence to duty - our present duty. The respect and confidence of the people of Georgia is lavished upon you. They intend to show you respect and confidence so long as you remain with them.

While you will never be called upon again to fight the battles of your country, you are expected to stand in your places, and acquit yourselves, like patriots and golden

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hearted citizens of Georgia. It is your privilege to pose as an example to the younger men of your State, to stand for the good things in civic righteousness that General Lee stood for in the sixties.

It is your especial duty to examine into the qualifications of your office seekers and to patriotically advise younger men to stand in their places and vote for good and true men, that your beloved State may enjoy the peaceable fruits of righteousness. There are new and untried conditions that are forcing themselves to the front. This European war will crowd a vast number of persons upon this country, who know nothing of our laws or our language. They can vote very early after an allotted time. Coming from a section where blood and carnage have run riot, they must be handled with exceeding care and patience, as well as justice, if this Republic is to be preserved.

As you were brave in war, show continued courage in meeting these coming dangers.

The time cannot be long for you or myself, but I implore you to cast your votes for clean government, and in behalf of human liberty. Nothing else is worth troubling about. As survivors, where so many of your comrades perished on the field of battle, in hospitals or with lingering wounds, you owe a duty to their widows and especially to their children and grandchildren.

You have been spared in the providence of God to remain nearly half a century. You must defend the Cause of Right, as your Great Commander was glad to do. Others have told you when and how these memorial days were instituted. They will be celebrated long after you and I have passed over the river.

As one who lived through the war-time, who suffered its privations and endured its dangers and difficulties, I wish for you the best things, here and hereafter, with a sincere prayer that at eventide, when the shadows come, it may be well with you and me!

"THE STRIPED PIG OF GEORGIA" IS WHAT MRS.
FELTON CALLS THE DISPENSARY AT ATHENS.
She Says It Is No Better Than a Noted New England
"Zebra," in Which Liquor Was Sold - Some
Warm Remarks Touching the
Pending Controversy.

Near Cartersville, Oct. 27, 1898.

To the Editor of The Journal:

I am in receipt of your letter asking for my views upon the following subject:

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"Is it right for a church member to sell whisky in a dispensary, under the conditions existing at Athens?"

I take it that you wish for my individual notions, and I will say I knew nothing of the aforesaid conditions at Athens until I read The Journal containing an elaborate exposition of the subject about a week ago. Being an humble member of the Methodist church, and an old-fashioned temperance woman, I do not think I could be induced to sell intoxicants to anybody, were the salary much larger than such a traffic affords in the city of Athens. I grant to every person the right to choose their own profession or calling in life, their conscience bearing witness, but a traffic that makes madmen of those who drink intoxicants - women-beaters and child-starvers, I feel safe in saying is an unenviable profession - for those who may be hereafter judged by "the deeds done in the body."

My astonishment was great when I read of the united action of the churches in Athens in favor of an open liquor shop where corn whisky was the favorite beverage, and presided over by a member of the Baptist church; with a Methodist assistant to hand out the liquor bottles and take in the money for the same. The salary is doubtless very satisfactory to all concerned. But a cold chill of apprehension passed over me when Manager Johnson declared that the "best ladies" in the city were his patrons, and said they called in person to purchase. Those bottled liquors are the sort of purchases they could only make in such an Athens dispensary. I wish the elect ladies of Athens, who neither buy nor drink his wares would rise up and clear their skirts of this unenviable reputation in the public prints, because I have strong faith in the women of Georgia and unlimited confidence in their sound judgment regarding the saloon system as carried out among us.

Perhaps Manager Johnson was misrepresented in this strange declaration, for Senator Turner disclaims the Athens dispensary bill, and says his bill no more resembled the Athens affair "than a house cat does a Bengal tiger."

I am a true, loyal friend to the university, but I think the hardest blow ever leveled at its progress was this open legalized dispensary in the public streets of Athens. Newton county voted out barrooms for the sake of Emory college. Bibb is now struggling in behalf of Mercer; but Athens with fatuous indifference to public sentiment, has opened a liquor shop with a new name right under the shadow of the time- honored State University, and forsooth, brings it forward as chaperoned by preachers and church members!

This discussion has thrown considerable light on the subject of university interests, and I do not hesitate to say that in my opinion the trustees should allow the people of

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Clarke county to make a speedy choice between the "corn whisky" business and the public education of the boys of Georgia, in the city of Athens.

I have heard that old story, namely, "that prohibition does not prohibit." Prohibition always prohibits unless courts officials are unworthy of trust, and grand juries are made up of incapable men. When men are courageous enough to execute the prohibition law, and whisky drinking officers are voted out - then there will be no trouble with prohibition.

But the idea of church members and preachers appointing bartenders, from the prominent churches in Athens, and chaperoning the sale of $70,000 worth of intoxicants within a single year, tells the story for Clarke county! That amount of liquor in the stomachs and brains of Clarke county citizens uncovers the dispensary project in its proper light. It is preposterous to claim this Athens liquor shop as a temperance measure.

In a New England prohibition town, once upon a time, there was set up a sort of animal show - and circulars issued for the public gave notice of a zebra, but when the knowing ones went inside they found a pig gaudily striped, and the whisky was handed out for what was paid as entrance fee. This Athens dispensary should go down in history as the striped pig of Georgia, for liquor selling is the same sort of thing whether it is managed by church members or by Beelzebub, the prince of devils! It is not the handling of the liquor that makes the evil, but the victims are the men who buy and drink it. Satan must have patted himself vigorously when he looked over the shoulders of preachers, church members and the "best ladies," and found his striped pig in clover - about the State University! Saints, angels and ministers of grace defend us!

I remember hearing of the heroic temperance pioneer speeches of Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin, in concert with Josiah Flournoy and Dubney P. Jones. It seems to me that Athens would be the last place in the world to go back on the record of distinguished citizens. Alas!

That Sarepta Baptist association perhaps retains a memory of the noble names that stood for righteousness and good government in the long ago. Thanks to those noble preachers. For myself, I would prefer plain open barrooms, with suggestive green blinds, and "No minors allowed in here," to the deceitful, Pecksniffian liquor traffic, that entraps both churchmen and innocent children - under the name of dispensary. And I have no patience with the use of the livery of heaven to secure enormous profits on liquor. Princeton had a lamentable experience with dispensary sales. Yale disgraced itself with the debauchery of students, meanwhile claiming perfect immunity from the evil. The snake is bad enough out in the

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open - where you can strike a fair blow at it. When you warm it at your hearthstone you endanger preachers and churchmen if you hit it - judging from the enormous affair set up in Athens. There is a state institution down at Milledgeville that tells us what will result from the unabridged sale and use of whisky. The state penitentiary and almost countless county chaingangs will verify that story. It surpasses belief that preachers and church members should claim public protection because it is handed over the counter by church people. If there is a sober brain to hire, the saloonist will get him to manage his cash box. The Liquor Dealers' political association is careful to nominate its sober but ambitious candidates to fill public offices and carry out its well-planned designs for self protection. But what about the poor drunkard who upsets his own mind and becomes a maniac, in his miserable cravings for the drink that destroys him? Who is accountable, the seller or the buyer?

"Who butchers his children and poisons his wife
Must be pitied, not blamed, though he forfeit his life.
For he could no more help doing what he has done
Than the train could hang back when the engine moves on."

In conclusion I would like to say that I fully believe the time is coming when our successors in life will look back with horror to a period in our history when a man could buy a license to debauch his fellow man. And if the history of the Athens dispensary shall travel down the stream of time it should be accompanied with an account of the sale of $70,000 worth of strong drink within three hundred and sixty-five days, in a small provincial town, "to point the moral - and adorn the tale." If the story should be illustrated with church members discussing religion across the counter, while the "best ladies" thronged the room to get a bottle, passing out "without insult," I guess the dispensary would be set down as a relic of the dark ages. Imagine John Wesley or Charles Spurgeon hunting up the brethren in a liquor shop - especially if they exhorted from the text, "Woe unto him that putteth the bottle to his brother's lips!"

I am informed that women and minors must keep out of Atlanta liquor shops. In Athens we are gravely told that anybody that is full grown - man or woman - white or black - can buy a bottle, but they must drink around the corner. It was a shallow pretense to compel the drink- loving student to hire some unscrupulous citizen to slip in and make for him his purchases. Why not allow him to go along with the "best ladies," in a more honorable way?

Who doubts for a moment his ability to buy any quantity "from a pint up," when he gets ready for it? I have claimed for Athens superior advantages as a place of education, when anxious mothers would tell me it was

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dangerous to sobriety and prudent conduct. If I had been earlier made aware of the exceeding accessibility of this dispensary business I should not have been found trying to pick a briar from a lame finger of excuse, but should have agreed at once that Athens had a cancer in its midst, sufficiently developed to disease the whole body politic.

In direct reply to your question, "under the conditions at Athens," I am oliged to say I am simply amazed and disheartened at the aforesaid "conditions." The state is paying high to provide dispensary victims - for seventy thousand dollars' worth of intoxicants in a single year carries along the evidence to sustain the fact of fearful work. Church membership thereabouts is evidently a thrifty policy. If I should ever foolishly resolve to make liquor selling my business in life I would join the church in Athens and call my dram shop a dispensary.

Respectfully, MRS. W. H. FELTON

WHY I AM A SUFFRAGIST?

The Subjection of Women and the Enfranchisement of Women.

Doubtless it is well to state that I have been moved to publish my views on this subject by the great number of letters that I receive from men and women all over Georgia, asking for information on the subject of Votes for Women.

Almost in touch with the eightieth mile-post of my life's journey, and understanding that there can be no selfish plea in my own heart, as I am only struggling for the good of those to come after me, I decided to publish my views on the subjection, as well as the enfranchisement of my own sex, as a convenient reply to these numerous appeals, and for the satisfaction of my own descendants, after I have passed on to my eternal reward.

Every sane and sensible reader of current events is already convinced that the march of progress will bring equality in the rights of citizenship to every State in the Union - time enough being given. In the year 1912, four millions of women were entitled to vote in County, State and National elections. This privilege was given them by the men voters of nine States and one territory. In 1914, under most unfavorable conditions, two other States were added to the enfranchised States. For many years, partial suffrage for women has been granted by the men voters in other partially enfranchised States. In every case it has been accomplished by the votes of men; and the result has been enthusiastically approved by the Governors,

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Senators and representatives of those free States. For lack of space I must omit these commendations at this time, but I have the data in hand and whenever my statements are disputed I will make suitable reply. There can be no retreat in this war. While the opposition is often rabid and in a manner insulting to those who see the end from the beginning and who have courage to express their honest and well substantiated convictions, we remember it is always so in reform movements. Twenty odd years ago, when Georgia was full of bar-rooms and liquor distilleries - I dared to go, upon request, to various towns and cities in Georgia and demand protection from the destruction that walked in darkness and wasted a noonday - and which destroyed thousands of Georgia homes - and crucified hopes of tens of thousands of mothers and wives in our own state. I was not only fought by those who were making fortunes out of the liquor traffic, but by politicians and even churchmen. I was often warned as to what would happen to me if I persisted. To-day, it is expected that temperance women shall publicly debate this subject, hold temperance prayer-meetings and openly oppose (with their limited influence) every liquor candidate for office. I have had knowledge of these things and I have decided that this terrible thing was voted in upon us by "big interests" and can only be voted out by giving the ballot to women - who are the chief victims. Woman Suffrage had its inception in this fight against Saloons. The W. C. T. U., the National Organization, is pledged to Woman Suffrage.

In discussing the equality of sex in citizenship it is well to go back, briefly, to the era of John Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer. I read their arguments nearly fifty years ago as presented in the celebrated British Reviews of that time. Following so closely upon the enfranchisement of the African race in the United States, the subject was interesting to me. I had seen the negro man given his freedom, (liberty to own himself) and also endowed with the ballot, to be able to hold fast to his liberty. I saw the 15th amendment adopted by the Georgia Legislature, and voted for by various men, who afterwards posed as rabid Democrats. The story appears in the Journal of the House, year 1869, and is beyond dispute. I noted also that our prominent politicians, those who were active in secession were also willing to see the 15th Amendment ratified, because, to quote Hon. A. H. Stephens, "Under it all the whites as well as the blacks are entitled to vote." These prominent statesmen had been disfranchised by Federal enactment. They had been very active in politics before the Civil War - had taken an oath to support the Federal Constitution, and later on took a similar oath to support the Confederate Constitution. For this reason it was deemed proper by our conquerors that they should be

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penalized to that extent. They were well-nigh frantic because of this disfranchisement. The arguments they used - the denunciations they hurled at their so-called oppressors - and their demands for a restoration of their liberties are most satisfactory arguments for those who now demand enfranchment of women. I lived in those stormy times. It is not hearsay with me. They repudiated their war debt without resistance. They adopted the 13th Amendment without demur, giving freedom to the negro race, because the results of the war settled that dispute. They fought the 14th and 15th Amendments until they became convinced that their own ballot restoration was contingent upon acceptance. I say without hesitation that they esteemed the ballot privilege superior to their contention of property rights in slaves - as of greater import than the billions of values that disappeared after Appomattox - and of such importance to themselves, as to compel them to give the ballot to their former slaves so as to be able to vote and especially to hold office under their State and Federal Governments. Perhaps it is this high estimate which has caused eleven states and one territory to give the ballot to their women.

Former Subjection of Women.

Savage tribes used physical force to manage their women. The club and the lash were their only arguments. Moslem fanatics go a step further in saying women have no souls. According to statistics these Mohammedans comprise about one-third of such religionists at this time. Athenian law allowed a man to sell his wife or sister under certain conditions. Feudal law allowed men to imprison their sisters in convents - while they used the property that was rightfully their sisters - in riotous living.

English law in the time of Herbert Spencer, allowed a man to beat his wife, and he could lock her in any room in his house, and keep her imprisoned until her will was subdued to his own. English law was copied by the Colonies of America. Lawyers will tell you now, that English law has been the basic stone of our laws - State and Federal. As late as the year 1857, a man in Georgia was allowed to beat his wife, provided the hickory withe was no larger than his thumb. I wish I knew the Georgian's name who introduced the bill for a married woman's relief in 1857, three years before secession. I would like to contribute to a fund to place a suitable tablet to his memory in our State Capitol.

As late as 1868 a Supreme Court Judge in North Carolina reiterated the law allowing a man to beat his wife, with a rod no bigger than his thumb. In his verdict (on a wife beating case) he said a man should make his wife behave herself, otherwise it would "engender insubordination."

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A woman in Georgia could not own her own wages - as late as 1897. Hon. W. H. Fleming introduced the bill to allow a married woman to receive and spend what she earned outside her home. Before that time "her man" could demand them from her employer on pain of compelling him to pay twice, and he could spend them where he pleased, in a dram shop or gambling den, or bawdy house - and she could not recover them to her own use. Before the Civil War, a married woman in Georgia could not own her own clothes. When she went to her new home she might carry a fortune in lands and slaves, but she did not really own a copper cent of their value. Thousands of slaves and lands belonging to ante-bellum women were sold for the husband's security debts. Sometimes her first information was received when the sheriff came to dispossess her. Sometimes a marriage contract was required by anxious parents, but the woman was made to suffer for it. I knew a young woman who declined a marriage contract, because her fiance told her it would be a reflection on himself and it would "break his heart" to be thus distrusted. Nevertheless he proved himself faithless - in mind, morals and her estate. A woman cannot practice law in Georgia today, no matter how well prepared by study and genius. There are scores of women doctors - but our legislators draw a line at the law.

Before the war her only chance lay in her foresight in accepting or finding for herself a good master. I have known the same privilege extended to favorite slaves - who were forced to sale for legal reasons. There were many, I trust, very many men of good character and proper self- respect, who did not push legal rights to the extent of the law, but there were thousands of two-legged brutes who used the lash on short notice. The prevalence of wife beating has had much to do with the coarse manners and insolent behavior of their own male progeny. As I understand the meaning of law, it is to provide against what an evil doer is apt to do, but our ante-bellum Georgia laws furnished the opportunity to brutal men to exercise their right as masters over wives as well as slaves. What is known as chivalry found no expression on the statute books of Georgia until the Civil War made changes. It exploited itself in courting days, in bowing and scraping in public company, and in personal encounters which were known as duels. An insult called for a challenge, and then pistols. Nevertheless the law of Georgia allowed any sort of a man to beat his wife, provided the switch was no bigger than his thumb. Glance down at your thumb, my dear reader, and then we will proceed a little further.

In the homes where the lash was used the sons either despised the father or concluded it was the proper way to treat women. The daughters, afraid and disgusted, took

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chances, hoping to do better in selecting kinder masters than their mothers had done.

Those who were fortunate were contented in their ignorance. Those who felt the lash were helpless before the law of the land.

In Georgia before the war, a woman might teach school as a genteel profession - if she was educated. If she was illiterate she could weave or sew, if her rich neighbors gave her such work to do. The school teacher generally married some man with slaves to wait on her. The illiterate woman went to the kitchen and cornfield, like the slave woman of the big plantations. The well-fed negroes made a standing joke on "po-white trash."

Consttiutional Convention of 1868.

This convention has been abused without mercy, as a radical body, controlled by scalawags and carpet-baggers, but it was the first state convention in Georgia to secure property rights to women who were married. It was said to be a selfish proposition because the vast majority of our men were hopelessly in debt when the war closed. If the woman could claim the property, then there would be a home, a living, and maintenance. Otherwise the dear good man would be in bondage to his obligations. It has proved to be a popular law for the men as well as the women. "Calico pensioners" are still plentiful. And if the man was mean and cruel he could make his wife turn over the proceeds - and if he was suave and polite, he could borrow and forget to pay back. If she was prosperous, he was more so - and he is still amusing himself by putting all things doubtful in "his wife's name." And the majority of these "calico pensioners" are almost rabid maniacs in opposition to votes for women!

Votes for Women - Some Objections as Printed in the Papers.

It is claimed that women should not vote, because she does not pay her husband's debts, while he is obliged to pay her debts. That is not correct. He can put a little "ad" in the newspapers and nobody will give her credit who sells dry goods or provisions. Others say she shirks jury duty. Georgia women have not had any jury opportunity. Again; she does not perform military duty. I think they are mistaken. The woman provides the material out of which soldiers are made and devotes sixteen years of hard toil towards their raising. Another objects that women can marry men younger than themselves - while men are interdicted in like matters. As the woman is always to be chosen and not the chooser, the objection is invalid. Again, a man cannot say "cuss words" on the street, in presence of women. Ninety-nine times out of

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a hundred - the foul-mouthed man will say a hundred times worse things in presence of his wife and daughter, and nobody cares to rebuke him. Again, it is urged that women are favored as to hours of labor. These favors have been wrung out of greed and indifference, by the votes of labor organizations, who demanded better treatment to wage-earning girls and married women - because of injured physical conditions. Being poor men with working women they had the votes and said so! It is understood that labor organizations are almost unanimous for Woman Suffrage, because they understand they would themselves be at the mercy of their employers without the ballot. I have seen white women on their all-fours, scrubbing the halls of the great Department in Washington City, thirty years ago, and nobody protested that these child-bearing women were out of their sphere. In the very shadow of the Capitol dome and in the very offices of the great leaders in political and social economy there is discrimination as to the pay of men and women. Equal Work fails to secure equal pay. The thing that is lacking is the vote, (compelling attention) and equity, (demanded at the ballot box.).

Is the Ballot a Right or a Favor.

It is an erroneous idea that has been actively promulgated for a purpose - that women have no claim to the ballot privilege, because they have no title to its possession. One objector says the ballot is a franchise and a dispensation, without any inherent or moral or legal right, as pertaining to women. I claim that they were born into all the rights that are the property of their brothers, born of the same parents and raised in the same home and educated in the same way. The law of inheritance, where parents die intestate, gives to each child, regardless of sex, equal shares in the inherited property, and when the property is divided dollar for dollar, the daughters own their parts as legally as the sons own their parts, but the law of the land gives to the males liberty to say how and when and by whom, that property shall be taxed, and denies to the females this essential and inherent right. The right to own property is allowed to every person in a republican form of government, regardless of sex, but the right to say how, or when, or by whom that property is to be taxed is denied to one half the citizens of the United States, except in the States which have been enfranchised by the good sense and common honesty of the men of those States - after due consideration, and with the chivalric instinct that differentiates the coarse brutal male from the gentlemen of our nation. Shall the men of the South be less generous, less chivalrous? They have given the Southern women more praise than the man of the West - but judged by their actions Southern men have

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been less sincere. Honeyed phrases are pleasant to listen to, but the sensible women of our country would prefer more substantial gifts.

For instance we hear a great deal about "witchery in our women." It is a honeyed phrase, but I remember that Salem, Mass., had a good deal to do with witchery and women. More than fifty persons were burned at the stake, hung from the gallows tree, and drowned in a near-by pond. And every one was a woman and the men called them "witches."

So long as women were denied property rights, denied higher education and kept in bondage by hickory withes no larger than a man's thumb - the women dared not ask for more than liberty to live and to bear their children in quiet homes, but with education and property rights and the ballot conferred on all negro men, who are not idiots or criminals, Southern women are not willing to be disfranchised when a dozen states of this Union have conferred the ballot on the wives, mothers and daughters of that section of our country. It would insult the average father, who delights in his young daughter as the ornament and the joy of his home, to tell him that she is the inferior of his son - that she is incompetent and too silly to know what she wishes to do with her own property - that she is obliged to marry some man, good, bad or in different to fill her proper sphere in life - that her place is subjection, because of her sex - that the Bible says, "Submit yourselves to your husbands," and that it means endure, suffer, forbear, obey and have no opportunity to do anything except as commanded or permited by a husband who can take her children from her - take her property away from her - and make life a torment to her with his infidelities, with drunken habits and horrid example for his own sons and daughters! "Is thy servant a dog" to accept such serfdom?

It is said that women are represented by their husbands at the ballot box. This is not true; of the ten millions of unmarried women who have nobody to vote for them, there are between eight and nine millions of unmarried men, who vote for nobody but themselves. And nobody votes for the drunkard's wife? There are as many widows in this country as widowers. As a rule they manage well their business affairs and they were forced to learn under difficulties. They deserve the ballot because their property is taxed to the limit and beyond, and they are not allowed to protest. Women make fine teachers. A callow youth can vote at 21, while his capable teacher, if a woman, is forbidden to vote. Women are the mainstays in public schools. They are not only forbidden the vote, but their pay is reduced because of their sex. They make superior stenographers, but while pay may reach fifty dollars a month the young man in trousers gets from seventy- five to

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a hundred, with no better work - and according to common report, not so reliable as to fidelity and regular habits. The more I think about these inequalities and this manifest injustice, the more I am tempted to eulogize the heathen, who lived on the Ganges river, and who drowned the girl babies, because they were unfit to live!

In this connection I desire to quote a significant paragraph taken from General T. R. R. Cobb's law book entitled: "Cobb on Slavery." I suppose you can find it in our State library. It is pertinent because our Anti-Suffrage men and women are continually appealing to our law-makers and our newspapers; to hark back to slavery times - to find the sort of laws and principles that should govern us, in the 20th Century. We are often called "traitors," if we disagree with the arguments that were used for secession. Says General Cobb, "In a slave-holding State the greatest evidence of wealth in the planter is the number of his slaves. The most desirable property for a remunerative income is slaves. The best property to leave his children and from which they will part with the greatest reluctance is slaves. Hence the planter invests his surplus income in slaves. The natural result is the lands are a secondary consideration. No surplus is left for their improvement. The homestead is valued only so long as the adjacent lands were profitable for cultivation. The planter, himself, having no local attachments, his children inherit none. On the contrary, he encourages in them a disposition to seek new lands. The valuable slave property he can easily move to fresh lands, much more easily than buying fertilizers to improve the old. The result is, as a class, they are never settled. Such a population is almost nomadic. It is useless to try to excite patriotic emotion in the land of your birth where self interest speaks so loudly. On the other hand, where no slavery exists and the planter's surplus cannot be invested in slaves, it is appropriated to the improvement or extension of his farms, the beautifying of his homestead, where his fathers are buried and where he hopes to lie."

General Cobb died on the battlefield of Fredericksburg. He did not live to see the end. It was "property rights in slaves" that forced on the War of Secession. It is now called "State's rights" but it was the desire of slave owners to protect their rights to slave ownership - and their determination to carry their slaves to richer lands in newer States - like Kansas And Nebraska, that made the bloody war of the Sixties. I can speak of this matter without embarassment. My Maryland forefathers were large slave owners - as far back as 1640. All of my family on both sides - paternal and maternal - were slave owners. The bulk of my own marriage portion was in slaves. My husband was a large slave owner, when I was married.