Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 17.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

In this sublime and pathetic epistle is vividly portrayed a lofty and intrepid spirit, softened by an almost womanly tenderness, and sanctified by the most exalted Christian principle.

This ended Lee's masterly defense of the South during four of the most memorable years of modern warfare. As to the merits of his operations it will suffice to refer to the opinion of the military critics and writers of Germany, of whom it has been said that, ‘having examined minutely the campaigns of Lee, they unite in the following judgment: Despite its adverse issue, the four years conduct of the war by Lee is the ablest that ever a war of defense has exhibited, with the exception of the Seven Years defensive war which Frederick the Great conducted in Saxony and Silesia.’ Thus, Lee is, by the most competent judges, calmly ranked with their national hero, Frederick, one of the most consummate captains the world has ever seen.

In reading the references to Lee in many United States papers, and the blatant and bombastic harangue of Mr. Senator Ingalls at the Gettysburg memorial services on the 30th ult., one cannot help re-echoing Cicero's lament—“O! Tempora, O! Mores.” Did they but know it, such writers and speakers are rending afresh a well-healed wound, and exposing themselves and their country to the merited contempt of every right-thinking, magnanimous nation upon earth. The seed of exalted patriotism, however, does not germinate in the breast of the petty politician. If this is all the forbearance