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Show THE STATUE OF LEE. That Senator Hc3'buru is by no means alono in the country as he was in the Senate in opposing the reception of tho statue of Gen. R. E. Lcc in Stntuarj-Hall, Stntuarj-Hall, has become abundantly evident. The Senator is the recipient of hundreds of letters commending his course; and many letters approving it appear in the nowspapers. Among the latter, here is one of peculiar directness that we find in the Now York Evening Post, from "An American Woman of the South:" An old English woman, over eighty years of age, once said to mo Indignantly, Indignant-ly, when I asked her to think over a statement she had made, "I don't think I feel!" Is not this condition of feeling without thinking what charactcrlzea the attitude of those Americans who ask that the statue of a man who fought to destroy the United Stales should now bo placed In tho Capitol of the United States? Tf any man. however virtuous In some ways, attempts to take my life, and I, with the help of other men, succeed suc-ceed In beating off this would-be destroyer, de-stroyer, should I not show myself In my dotage If I placed among the statues of my preservers the Image of him who tried to destroy ns all? Ono of the wise men of all time said, "Tho life which Is unexamined, Is not worth the living." Is not this lack of Intelligent examination of our principles princi-ples and practices that which makes so much of our llfo today comparatively worthless? Kobcrt E. Leo had many of the noble qualities which would have made him a blessing to his country, but he lacked that splendid moral courage which makes us faithful to the Right, though father and mother and sister and brother call ns to do wrong. Leo's fine Intelligence recognized tho full horror of human slavery; ho knew that the whole trouble between North and South arose from tho determination of the. Southern States to extend and maintain slavery, yet he lent hits whole splendid manhood to perpetuate an evil which ho ponrlomnod. We nil know his nlen h "fought for States' rights." But when our State Insists on doing what we see to bo wrong, should wo aid in her wrongdoing? wrong-doing? ' Lee said lo Jobn l.eyhurn, at Baltimore, that he had never boon an advocato of slavery, had emancipated most of his slaves beforo the war. and, after the war. rejoiced that slavery was abolished, adding. "I would cheerfully have lost all I have lost by tho war lo have this object attained." Let us sec men and things as they arc. Lot us never lower a. principle to exalt any man or woman. "Wo believe that this will appeal direct di-rect to the heart of every one of tho veterans of tho "War of tho Rebellion; and while thc3' mn' not all agreo that tho statue of Lee should bo rejected, they must all agree with tho principle stated, and admit that the would-bo destroyer of tho porpon, the homo, the State, or tho Nation, is not tho fit t3pe or idol lo be honored by that which ho would havo destroyed if ho could. Tt i3 likely that recurring illustrations illus-trations of the incongruity of perpetuating perpet-uating in marblo for National honor, the memory of those justly ranked during dur-ing the time when their activities were greatest and in which they won their fame, as cnomies of tho Republic, will lead to the abolition, of Slatuarj' Hall altogether, as ha 3 already been proposed. pro-posed. . |