Posted on 01/19/2002 5:03:13 PM PST by LadyJD
"The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman. The power which the strong have over the weak, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly-the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in a plain light. The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He cannot only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which impart sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others." --Robert E. Lee
**"There is no sacrifice that I am not willing to make for the preservation of Union save that of honor." –Robert E. Lee**
Here is the antidote as prescribed by General Lee:
“My Precious Life, I hope you will find time to read and improve your mind. Read history, works of truth, not novels and romances. Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and when summoned away, to leave without regret.” --Robert E. Lee to his daughter Mildred
”Stripped of all its covering, the naked question is, whether ours is a federal or consolidated government; a constitutional or absolute one; a government resting solidly on the basis of the sovereignty of the States, or on the unrestrained will of a majority; a form of government, as in all other unlimited ones, in which injustice, violence, and force must ultimately prevail." –Calhoun, 1831
"What was once a Constitutional Federal Republic, is now converted in reality into one as absolute as that of the autocrat of Russia, and as despotic in its tendency as any absolute government that ever existed." --John C. Calhoun, Southern statesman and visionary in his last speech to Congress, 1850
"Before you, in proud humility, is the embodiment of manhood; men whom neither toils and sufferings, nor the fact of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could bend from their resolve." --Union General Joshua Chamberlain to his troops at Appomattox, 1865.
I like that one; it has special meaning to me.
"Distance does not lend enchantment to the old fellow's greatness I assure you. The nearer he comes, the higher he looms up. It is plain, simple, unaffected greatness. It is just as natural and easy for him to be great as it is for me to be ordinary, and there is probably less affectation about it." ---General John Bratton, CSA, commenting on Robert E. Lee in a letter to his wife in 1865.
My father has a book of Gen. Lee's letters. I've enjoyed reading them. He was a great general and a great man.
Robert E. Lee to the shattered remnants of Pickett's division.
(Can anyone imagine William Jefferson Clinton ever uttering those words?)
I have found that what the men wrote home to their wives gives the best insight into their thoughts and character. In that day and age when sickness, disease, and the elements conspired to take many a soul to an early grave, the family men tended to express themselves very directly and very transparently.
Here is one about the unsung "Lee" of South Carolina:
"In one engagement he had seen one son fall; and, sending another son to his succor, had seen him fall, too, and had ridden back to kiss the dying youth and whisper in his ear -- then back to the fight and to sleep on the ground that night in the rain, not knowing the fate of his children." –On General Wade Hampton, CSA from “The Tragic Era” pg. 509
But your father did the right thing. If we, as a people, are to produce any more of them then our youth must first KNOW about them. You should commend your father and thank him.
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