[
293]
our reincarnated heroes are assembled, under the Stars and Bars, he is witnessing the homage rendering to his memory tonight.
Leigh Robinson, of
Washington, son of the late
Conway Robinson, one of the most eminent of American jurists, and nephew of
Moncure Robinson, accepted the portrait in an address, remarkable for its eloquence, epigram and sarcasm.
At the beginning of the war he at once crossed the
Potomac, and throughout our momentous struggle of four years, participated in the hardest service, being actively engaged in many battles.
He said:
Mr. Commander and Fellow-Soldiers:
The Lee Camp of Confederate veterans stands for a grand ideal.
In the throng of selfish contention, it is your prerogative to exist, as a shrine amid ruins, that you may preserve as in amber the memory of that bright sword which, among the swords of the captains, shines like yonder sentry of the skies, around whose serene light the stars obediently bend.
In an anarchial night time of transition this unswerving force burns in our heavens, like a word of command, whose authority we reverence, and whose speech is the ‘still small voice’ of duty.
As the commemoration thereof, this shrine shall be a guide post in the desert.