Show ELOQUENT DEFENSE OF GEN ROBT E LEE southern general pronounced secession anarchy but fought in defense of his native state oxford ga jane 9 judge emery lapeer of macon delivered today the annual commencement addresses nac emery college ilia subject was the life and character of robert E lee and he gave a vivid and eloquent recital of the soldiers career buelling duelling du elling apon leea sublime telf boie and patience both in victory and defeat lef erring to leea mothes in entering the confederacy judge speer maids the time seems opportune for the american people to dispassionately inquire whether robert E lee ever merit rd the reprobation even of the epst ar adent advocate of our union loving our reunited country with all my heart L counting the long years I 1 have spent in ifft aa my chief honor I 1 yet con edid that rich as it i in military glory brilliant though the roll of its heroes it can no longer afford to question the military and personal honor of lee and his noble compatriots america with all lier acknowledged power cannot fail to appropriate that warlike renown glea on the and haz led in the tier ried of the aldier ol dier of the south kor do her greatest and her best longer question the one or put ah the onar to the constitution as he understood it M demonstrable that himself was not more devoted than le and his written and boken word in that day of ungovernable portray in the clearest light his immovable aversion to disunion why then it may be asked did lee draw his sword in maintenance of eedes acion which he he pronounced anarchy and which he foresaw and declared would inflict untold calamity upon the people the reply is that he did no such thing his purpose is declared in the letter to his on if the union is dissolved and the government disrupted I 1 shall return to my native stale and share the of my people and ave in defense will draw ray sword on none in his peroration judge beeer referred to the proposal by the stale of virginia to place a statue of general loc in statuary liall in the capitol at in this connection he said deny iee a place by washington ah h it sure it in the awful hour when the invading columns approached virginias soil the winds of the prophet had breathed upon the alain that they t wisht from the wall at mount vernon by the reincarnated hand of alie father of his country the defensive blade of washington would not have pica mod beside the baoni of lee repel then not my country the fervid love of sons who foughi with lee and of the children of their loina then honor him and in thy need on thoe who love him thou wilt not fall in vain and woe to thy too in the press of battle when the roul of lee hall fire their henita and hia bright biord hall point the charging column of thy bona |