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ed the praise and admiration of all military
critics. After the war he quietly turned to the duties of a citizen.
He became president of Washington College, which is now called in his
honor Washington and Lee University. He stands with Washington a model
for young men, and many monuments in marble and bronze attest the love
and devotion of the South to her great Chief.

WORKS.

 _Edited_ his father's Memoirs of the Revolution.
 Letters and Addresses.

General Lee was a soldier and a man who acted rather than spoke or
wrote. When, however, it was his duty to speak or write, he did it, as
he did everything else, excellently, striving to express in simplest
language the right and proper thing rather than draw attention and
admiration to himself by any effort at grace or beauty of style. Its
simplicity reminds us of Washington.

His life has been written by John Esten Cooke, John William Jones,
J. D. McCabe, Jr., and Fitz Hugh Lee, his nephew.

TO HIS SON.

Duty is the sublimest word in the English language.

At THE SURRENDER.

Human virtue should be equal to human calamity.

GENERAL LEE'S LAST ORDER.

(_Appomattox Court-House, April 10, 1865._)

After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and
fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield
to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the survivors
of so many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the
last, that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them;
but, feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that
would compensate for the loss that would have attended the
continuation of the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless
sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their
countrymen. By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return
to their homes, and remain there until exchanged.

You will take with you _the satisfaction that proceeds from the
consciousness of duty faithfully performed_; and I earnestly pray that
a merciful God will extend to you his blessing and protection. With an
unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your country,
and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration of
myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

[Illustration: ~Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.~]

LETTER ACCEPTING THE PRESIDENCY OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE.

 POWHATAN COUNTY, _August 24, 1865_.

GENTLEMEN:--I have delayed for some days replying to your letter of
the 5th instant informing me of my election, by the board of Trustees,
to the Presidency of Washington College, from a desire to give the
subject due consideration. Fully impressed with the responsibilities
of the office, I have feared that I should be unable to discharge its
duties to the satisfaction of the Trustees, or to the benefit of the
country. The proper education of youth requires not only great
ability, but, I fear, more strength than I now possess; for I do not
feel able to undergo the labor of conducting classes in regular
courses of instruction. I could not, therefore, undertake more than
the general administration and supervision of the institution.

There is another subject which has caused me serious reflection, and
is, I think, worthy of the consideration of the Board. Being excluded
from the terms of amnesty in the proclamation of the United States of
the 29th of May last, and an object of censure to a portion of the
country, I have thought it probable that my occupation of the position
of president might draw upon the college a feeling of hostility, and I
should therefore cause injury to an institution which it would be my
highest object to advance.

I think it the duty of every citizen, in the present condition of the
country, to do all in his power to aid in the restoration of peace and
harmony, and in no way to oppose the policy of the State or general
Government directed to that object. It is particularly incumbent on
those charged with the instruction of the young to set them an example
of submission to authority, and I could not consent to be the cause
of animadversion upon the college. Should you, however, take a
different view, and think that my services, in the position tendered
me by the Board, will be advantageous to the college and the country,
I will yield to your judgment and accept it; otherwise I must most
respectfully decline the offer.

Begging you to express to the Trustees of the college my heartfelt
gratitude for the honor conferred upon me, and requesting you to
accept my cordial thanks for the kind manner in which you have
communicated its decision, I am, gentlemen, your most obedient
servant,

 R. E. LEE.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

~1808=1889.~

JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Confederate States, was born in Todd
County, Kentucky, but his father removed to Mississippi soon
afterwards, and he was reared and partly educated in that state. Later
he attended Transylvania University in Kentucky, and in 1824 entered
West Point. He was graduated in 1828 and served seven years in the
army, being stationed in Missouri and Minnesota. On account of
ill-health he resigned in 1835 and travelled, and then settled on his
Mississippi plantation, "Brierfield."

He was elected to Congress in 1845; served in the Mexican War with
great distinction and was injured in eye and limb at the battle of
Buena Vista. He was Secretary of War in President Pierce's cabinet,
and was a Senator when Mississippi seceded from the Union.

He made his farewell to the Senate in January, 1861, and returned home
where he was at once appointed commander of the State troops. But he
had been elected president of the new Confederacy by the Convention at
Montgomery, and he was inaugurated, February 18, 1861. On the change
of the capital from Montgomery to Richmond, he removed to the latter
city and remained there until the war was ended.

He was imprisoned for two years at Fort Monroe, to be tried as a
traitor to the United States. Being finally released on bail, he went
for his health to England and Canada; and then he resided in Memphis
and at "Beauvoir," Mississippi, which latter place was his home when
he died. This home, "Beauvoir," he had arranged to purchase from Mrs.
Dorsey, who was a kind and devoted friend to his family and had
assisted him in his writing; but on her death in 1879, it was found
that she had left a will bequeathing it to him and to his daughter
Varina Anne. He, like Lee, had always declined the many offers of
homes and incomes made by their devoted and admiring friends.

On him, as President of the Confederacy, seems to have fallen in some
sense the whole odium of the failure of that cause; and this passage
from Winnie Davis' "An Irish Knight" has a touching application to his
case: "Thus died Ireland's true knight, sinking into the grave clothed
in all the bright promise of his youth; never to put on the sad livery
of age; never to feel the hopelessness of those who live to see the
principles 

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