Her eternal defiance.
Aye!
Virginia, not without self-reproach that she but follows where she should have led, yields her southern sister homage, in that when ‘cheap patriots,’ insolent by reason of success won by others, were seeking even in the halls of national legislation to dim with the breath of obloquy the stainless memory of our matchless leader, and to brand with infamy the cause for which he drew his sword, this grand old Commonwealth rang out her eternal defiance to their calumnies by placing the birthday of
Lee in her civic calendar alongside that of
Washington, and published to the world this glorious legislative enactment signed with the name of her battle-scarred Chief Executive — that brilliant soldier who for four years followed the tattered battle-flags of
Lee and of
Jackson—rising from simple captain, grade by grade, through sheer force of skill and daring until as commander of
Jackson's old corps he became
Lee's right arm in that wondrous final campaign which has claimed the admiration of the brave of every nation.
