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"THE MAN BEHIND 
 THE GUN" 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN WARNOCK ECHOLS 
 
 Member of the Bar of the U. S. Supreme Court 
 
 and the Supreme Courts of the District 
 
 of Columbia, Virginia, Georgia 
 
 and Pennsylvania 
 
 Before the Historical Society of Fairfax County 
 
 at Fairfax, Virginia, on the Anniversary 
 
 of Washington's Birthday 
 
 February 22, 1917 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 Press of Judd & Detweiler, Inc. 
 
 1917 
 
"THE MAN BEHIND 
 THE GUN" 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN WARNOCK ECHOLS 
 
 Member of the Bar of the U. S. Supreme Court 
 
 and the Supreme Courts of the District 
 
 of Columbia, Virginia, Georgia 
 
 and Pennsylvania 
 
 Before the Historical Society of Fairfax County 
 
 at Fairfax, Virginia, on the Anniversary 
 
 of Washington's Birthday 
 
 February 22, 1917 
 
 Washington, D. C 
 
 Press of Judd & Detweiler, Inc. 
 
 1917 
 
eta 
 
 S I Bis 
 
 
*o 
 
 * 
 
 
 c i 
 
 THE MAN BEHIND THE GUN." 
 
 Members of the Historical Society of Fairfax 
 County and Guests : 
 
 When, at a meeting recently of the executive 
 committee of this society, I was invited to be one 
 of the speakers at this annual assembly on the 
 anniversary of Washington's birthday, I was im- 
 mediately informed by my steering committee of 
 one that it was not expected that I should consume 
 more than ten minutes in expanding my views; 
 on the supposition, no doubt, that I would have 
 either exhausted my subject or my audience in 
 that length of time: which reminds me of an in- 
 cident that occurred in Alexandria in the days now 
 long since gone by. During the early days of 
 September, 1873, I was a guest of friends there, 
 and on a Sunday morning accompanied a young 
 girl friend to the Presbyterian Church, the pastor 
 of which was the venerable Dr. Bullock, and her 
 father one of the elders. After the services, in 
 which Dr. Bullock preached a sermon considerably 
 over an hour in length, he accepted an invitation 
 from the aforesaid elder, Mr. Stuart, to accompany 
 us to Mr. Stuart's home to dinner. While con- 
 suming the viands on the well-spread table, the 
 talk turned on the exhausting heat of the day, and 
 Dr. Bullock said to me: "I suppose, young man, 
 
 (3) 
 
4 "the max behind the gun 77 
 
 coming from the far South, the heat does not affect 
 you as it does us who live in the more temperate 
 zone." "Well, Doctor," I replied, "the heat in 
 church did not exhaust me as much as your long 
 sermon. ' ' After a laugh around the table, in which 
 the dear old Doctor heartily joined, he said :"It was 
 a little longer than usual today, I'll admit, but I 
 find it impossible to ever fully develop my text in 
 less than an hour. " " That may be, Doctor, ' ' 1 im- 
 pulsively shot back, "but I feel sure your congre- 
 gation think you could fully develop it in less than 
 half that time. " After another laugh at his expense, 
 lie rose equal to the occasion by telling an anecdote 
 of the Scotch parson wiio preached a sermon over 
 two hours in length and was, at the close of the 
 services, approached by one of his elders, who said : 
 "I ken ye'er vera tired wi' such a lang serma'!" 
 i ' Weel, mon, somewha ' sae, but it wad hae doon ye 
 glide to sae hoo tired me congregation war'!" 
 Later on that evening my girl friend said, "We 
 girls were so glad you dropped the Doctor so forci- 
 ble a hint we could have kissed you." They didn't, 
 though, I am sorry to confess ; it was only a threat. 
 
 The moral is, if "brevity is the soul of wit" and 
 you can't be witty, you can at least, be brief; and 
 I judge that was in the mind of my steering com- 
 mittee in limiting me to ten minutes. So, if I 
 should overstep the injunction, I will hope that if 
 you can't be altogether patient, you will be as 
 patient as you can. 
 
 The query in my mind today, and has been ever 
 
"the man behind the gun" 5 
 
 since the founding of this society, is, What should 
 be its true plans and purposes? Is its object 
 merely to touch upon and further illustrate the 
 few high points in this country's history ; to further 
 laud those whose names are already written high 
 on the walls of fame; or to deeper dig and bring 
 to light and honorable mention those staunch 
 foundations on which the more polished super- 
 structure of fame has been erected ? 
 
 "Where lies the justice of the case ; I always dig 
 deep for that," once said Justice Lumpkin, the first 
 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. 
 Where lies the true prosperity of any country? 
 Should we not always dig deep for that? Un- 
 hesitatingly the answer comes down the ages, "It 
 is the man behind the gun/' "Give me the men," 
 said Napoleon, "and I will make the generals!" 
 well knowing that without the men behind the 
 guns, the greatest general the world has ever 
 known would be of no greater force in war than 
 a gun without the cartridge — well appearing, per- 
 haps, and finely finished, but useless. Therefore, 
 while it may seem antipodal and even antagonistic 
 to denominate the subject given me for discussion, 
 viz., "The great men of Fairfax," as "the man 
 behind the gun," in truth and in reality the terms 
 are, or should be, synonymous. The motto of the 
 Prince of Wales, "Ich dien" (I serve) fully illus- 
 trates my point; for only they who have truly 
 served are truly fit to rule ; or, better still, to form 
 the foundations and raise the superstructure of 
 
6 "the man behind the gun" 
 
 individual and national prosperity — whether it be 
 in the armed camp or navy, or in the more honor- 
 able and peaceful pursuits of industry and mental 
 and moral development. Greatness and honor, as 
 defined by the masses of men, are only too often 
 ephemeral; the "Hail, Master," of today becomes 
 the ' i Crucify Him ' ' of the morrow. Only too often 
 the applause of the groundlings makes the judi- 
 cious grieve ; the approval of the judicious befogged 
 by the malice of the masses. So that it is ofttimes 
 only when the motto of the ancients, ' ' Speak only 
 well of the dead," brings to the front our better 
 natures that foibles are forgotten, mistakes 
 ignored, and all are alike willing to remember and 
 revere the greater good which so far eclipsed the 
 ills to which flesh is always prone and never en- 
 tirely overcomes. 
 
 This county of Fairfax furnishes many illus- 
 trious examples of the truth of my statement and 
 of the further fact that it is to the man behind the 
 gun that leadership is mostly, if not altogether, 
 indebted. Both Washington and Lee many times 
 "endured the slings and arrows of outrageous 
 fortune," not from lack of merit on their part, 
 but from lack of tried and true men behind the 
 guns to properly execute their well-laid plans ; and 
 thus exemplified the aphorism of Burns, that 
 "schemes o' mice and men aft gang aglee." Dur- 
 ing all the years of the Revolution and his terms 
 of office as President, Washington was abused in 
 the public press and by thousands of politicians 
 
"the man behind the gun" 
 
 and unprincipled partisans as never a man in 
 American public life had e'er been abused before. 
 It has been written of him that "a second time 
 Washington consented to hold the reins of power ; 
 and again, as in the Revolution, he felt the bitter- 
 ness of unpopularity. ' ' All the honor he had gained 
 could not protect him from the hasty wrath of a 
 people dissatisfied (just as at present with Presi- 
 dent Wilson) with his policy toward England. 
 Because he was striving for peace (again like 
 Wilson), he was roundly abused in terms scarcely 
 suited to a "Nero, a notorious pickpocket, or even 
 a common defaulter!" It saddened but did not 
 change him. He was only the more unwilling to 
 serve another term, and, when his eight years of 
 civil service ended, he said farewell to the people 
 he had served through a generation. He gave 
 them the simple advice that they most needed. 
 Tears coursed down his cheeks as he turned for 
 the last time from the throng that had listened to 
 him in love and sorrow. Three years he lingered 
 in retirement at Mount Vernon and then died, 
 December 14, 1799, as he had wished to live, 
 "amid the mild concerns of ordinary life." Once 
 again a man behind the gun ! 
 
 And it was only after his passing from scenes 
 terrestrial to life celestial and the sublime funeral 
 oration by Henry Lee before both houses of Con- 
 gress, a little later, in which occurred that famous 
 phrase that has ever since been ringing round the 
 world, "first in war, first in peace, and first in the 
 
8 "the man behind the gun" 
 
 hearts of his countrymen, ' ' that full justice has 
 been done his life's work and struggle for the good 
 of mankind. 
 
 And what of Lee? Was his life one round of 
 continued success, unmarred by criticism and 
 censure? Ah, no! He, too, "endured the slings 
 and arrows of outrageous fortune," the poison- 
 tipped tongue of slander, and the torture of un- 
 merited rebuke. The latter part of July, 1861, 
 after the Confederate forces in Western (now 
 West) Virginia had met repeated defeats at 
 Philippi, Rich Mountain, Carrick's Ford, Scarey 
 Creek, and Eomney, General Lee was assigned to 
 the command of all Confederate forces in Western 
 Virginia; but, owing to a lack of cohesion and 
 disinteredness of his division commanders and as 
 the result of the repeated defeats whereby the 
 men behind the guns had become discouraged and 
 demoralized, the campaign proved a failure ; and, 
 as one result, as one of his biographers states, "Lee 
 was greatly disappointed and deeply mortified at 
 his failure, and was under a cloud from which he 
 did not emerge till after he had succeeded to the 
 command of the Army of Northern Virginia, in 
 June, 1862." 
 
 That last clause is untrue. He did emerge sev- 
 eral months before then; but only after a most 
 galling, most soul-sickening, experience. Many 
 newspapers and politicians of the South took him 
 to task as being responsible for the failure of the 
 West Virginia campaign; and some newspapers 
 
"the man behind the gun" 9 
 
 of South Carolina and Georgia even accused him 
 of lukewarmness and disloyalty to the Confederate 
 cause, basing their attacks upon a letter he wrote 
 to his sister shortly after he resigned from the 
 U. S. Army, in which he said: "We are now in a 
 state of war which will yield to nothing. The 
 whole South is in a state of revolution into which 
 Virginia, after a long struggle, has been drawn; 
 and though I recognize no necessity for this state 
 of things, and would have forborne and placated 
 to the end for redress of grievances, real or sup- 
 posed, yet in my own person I had to meet the 
 question whether I should take part against my 
 native State. With all my devotion to the Union, 
 and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American 
 citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind 
 to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, 
 my home. I have therefore resigned my commis- 
 sion in the army, and, save in defense of my native 
 State — with the sincere hope that my poor services 
 may never be needed — I hope I may never be called 
 upon to draw my sword." 
 
 But now the side of the cloud's silver lining 
 comes to view; for every cloud has its silver 
 lining, if only we can view it from the side the 
 sun shines on! Sometimes we alone can reach 
 the cloud's sunny side ; ofttimes we need the aid of 
 helpful hearts and hands. And at this juncture 
 in the life of Lee, leading men of South Carolina 
 and Georgia importuned President Davis to assign 
 General Lee to take charge of the defenses of the 
 
10 "the man behind the gun 
 
 > J 
 
 coasts of those States. Their wishes were complied 
 with, and in October, 1861, he took command, and 
 soon, by his masterly skill and executive ability, 
 planned and partially constructed so marvelous a 
 line of coast defenses as to withstand all assaults 
 until nearly the close of the war. 
 
 The cloud's silver lining then appeared. His 
 devotion to duty, his great ability, his patience and 
 silence under fire of criticism and slander, aroused 
 universal applause throughout the South, silenced 
 his detractors, and soon they became conscience- 
 stricken; both in the news and editorial columns 
 of many papers apologies appeared; and never 
 after, throughout the South, was a line printed or 
 a word uttered disloyal to his life or memory, save 
 by a few disgruntled subordinates seeking by 
 censure to cover their own mistakes or insubordi- 
 nations. And when, in January, 1862, he became 
 President Davis' military adviser and, later on, 
 was assigned to the command of the Army of 
 Northern Virginia, he went "sans pear et sans re- 
 proche," and never by word or deed was his 
 knighthood sullied or his sword ignobly stained. 
 
 Thus far to show how leaders suffered by lack 
 of loyal men and true behind the guns in military 
 and civil affairs; in action and in discretion; by 
 reason of incompetency or, worse, by the tongue 
 of slander and the croakings of cravens. 
 
 But how about the loyal men and true behind the 
 guns? Have we awarded them the meed of praise 
 their loyalty, their devotion to duty, their share 
 
"the man behind the gun" 11 
 
 of victory, deserved? Is it not too often true that 
 we have praised the leaders, but have failed to 
 praise the led ? Take, for illustration, a recent oc- 
 currence. Only a few weeks ago a great admiral 
 passed across the bar, and the people, as one man, 
 joined to do honor to his memory, and everywhere 
 he was acclaimed the victor at, and the hero of, 
 Manila. He was, indeed, a victor at, and a hero 
 of, Manila ; but, in the last analysis which history 
 should award to fame, he was only one of the many 
 who were victors at, and heroes of, Manila. He 
 well fulfilled his part, but so did all his men who 
 fought that battle of the fleets. It was not Dewey, 
 but the men behind the guns, who really won that 
 fight — men who for months and years, poorly paid 
 and suffering, even in times of peace, hardships 
 unknown to their commanders, by persistent 
 practice of the art of gunnery, backed by loyalty 
 and courage, so aimed and shot as to, in a few 
 short hours, ( completely demolish the Spanish 
 fleet — a fleet commanded by men of tried courage 
 and ability, but lacking in the one great essential 
 of successful warfare — trained, tried, and true men 
 behind the guns. 
 
 How many of us ever heard the name of Dewey 
 until his "You may fire when ready, Gridley," 
 electrified the Nation? 
 
 And who ever before, and scarcely ever since, 
 heard the name of Gridley? And yet, he was 
 Dewey's chief executive officer, in command of the 
 flag-ship and, in the conning-tower, directed the 
 
12 "the man behind the gun" 
 
 movements of our fleet all through the battle. In 
 less than a month after that battle, while en route 
 home on sick-leave, his sickness being largely at- 
 tributed to concussion caused by shot or shots 
 hitting the conning-tower in which he was directing 
 the battle, he died at Kobe, Japan; and only a 
 short account of his death and burial in the news- 
 papers at the time, and still fewer lines in the 
 encyclopedias written since, round out the record 
 of a useful life and of a heroism as lofty, as that 
 of his superior officer. And as for the men behind 
 the guns in that eventful battle, who now recalls, 
 or ever recalled, their deeds of bravery, save the 
 few connected by ties of blood or of affinity 1 ? 
 
 Of the battle of the fleets off Santiago the same 
 must be said. Admiral Sampson was seventy 
 miles away when that battle was begun; and 
 Admiral Schley's famous loop-the-loop during the 
 conflict called for a court of inquiry to decide 
 whether his act was one of strategy or cowardice. 
 He was acquitted, but in an address years after, 
 before a fraternal society in Washington, he gave 
 the honor of that battle to the men behind the guns, 
 and it was his tribute in that address which has 
 led me to adopt that tribute as the key-note of these 
 remarks. 
 
 Another instance in lighter vein. Shortly be- 
 fore that battle of the fleets, in an impotent at- 
 tempt to bottle up the Spanish fleet in the harbor 
 of Santiago, volunteers were called for to take a 
 collier-ship and so sink it across the harbor's 
 
"the man behind the gun" 13 
 
 entrance as to block the channel. Richmond Pear- 
 son Hobson and seven others volunteered, per- 
 formed alike the required act of heroism, after- 
 wards attempted their escape in boats, were cap- 
 tured and held as prisoners in a Spanish fortress 
 for a month. All have heard of Hobson ! Accord- 
 ing to newspaper accounts and of eye-witnesses 
 (envious, no doubt!), he kissed his way, or was 
 kissed, by sweet- sixteens and fair-fat-and-forties, 
 clear across the continent ; was kissed to Congress, 
 where he made an ass of himself, occasionally, as 
 the average congressman is so apt to do. All of 
 which was very nice for Hobson, but what of the 
 other seven ? They, too, doubtless were kissed, but 
 even that act of heroism has never been recorded, 
 and their names have simply sunk into the ocean 
 of oblivion in company with the other men behind 
 the guns who fought and won the battles of Manila 
 and Santiago. 
 
 Is this right? Is it just? While we would not 
 tear off one leaf from the garlands of laurel crown- 
 ing the brows of all those whose acts of leadership 
 and bravery the world delights to honor, is it not 
 our duty, our privilege, to record, if not as in- 
 dividuals, at least in groups, the heroic deeds of 
 the men behind the guns % To change hero-worship 
 to heroes- worship ; from the singular to the plural 
 number? Instead of recording that Dewey won 
 the battle of Manila, and Sampson or Schley the 
 battle of Santiago; that Hobson sank the collier 
 in the harbor of Santiago, put it thus: Dewey's 
 
14 "the man behind the gun 
 
 ? > 
 
 fleet won the battle of Manila, Sampson's and 
 Schley's fleet that of Santiago, and Hobson and 
 his men performed an act of heroism in the harbor 
 of Santiago? Thus all will be alike honored and 
 patriotism increased without doing less honor to 
 the leaders, but more to the led; and when the 
 country calls for men, whether for defense or to 
 fill each and every avocation of civil life, response 
 will come more readily and heartily when all alike 
 feel sure their work and sacrifices will be appre- 
 ciated, whether fighting for their country or aiding 
 in its development. And then, too, the apprecia- 
 tion of the acts of heroism of the many, instead 
 of hero-worship of the individual, will lessen, if 
 not entirely prevent, a danger always menacing 
 organized society; for, while hero-worship of the 
 dead is never to be deplored, hero-worship of the 
 living is a peril to republican forms of govern- 
 ment. Every republic in the past has fallen through 
 its baleful effects. Three centuries before the 
 Christian era Greece, after long periods of suffer- 
 ing brought about by hero-worship, enacted the 
 law that, when voted affirmatively by the people, 
 any one performing an act ascribed as heroic 
 should be banished for a period of ten years, in 
 order to prevent that hero from grasping the reins 
 of government and becoming a tyrant. And so 
 long as Greece maintained that law, the republic 
 stood ; and only when it was abrogated did tyranny 
 once again prevail. France twice lost her repub- 
 lican form of government through hero-worship of 
 
"the man behind the gun" 15 
 
 the Napoleons; and the continued revolutions, in- 
 surrections and brigandage in Mexico, many of the 
 Latin countries of South America, Cuba and the 
 West India Islands generally, arise from the same 
 cause. And only a liberty-loving Washington, who 
 firmly believed in a "government of the people, by 
 the people and for the people," prevented this 
 Nation from becoming a monarchy instead of a 
 republic at the close of the Revolutionary War. 
 As set forth by one of his biographers, "Washing- 
 ton's service to his country was not to end with 
 Yorktown. As he had been ' first in war,' be- 
 cause he was most fitted, so his unique character 
 and pre-eminent place in American hearts fated 
 him to become 'first in peace.' " His last successes 
 had still more firmly fixed his power among the 
 people. Their thoughts and imaginations were 
 filled with him. With a discontented and in- 
 subordinate army still in arms and with no real 
 government in existence, Washington was the only 
 source of authority and law that had anything 
 more than a local influence. The weak Union 
 might have lost all cohesion, and America (just 
 as in Mexico today) might have degenerated into 
 a number of petty, feeble, and hostile States. 
 Worse than that, the hopes for an American re- 
 public might have been indefinitely delayed, for, 
 in the despair which settled upon many, there 
 seemed but one escape from the political storm 
 that threatened — they would make Washington 
 king! In the army this plan was gravely con- 
 
16 "the man behind the gun" 
 
 sidered, but, when broached to Washington, he ex- 
 pressed himself as pained that such ideas existed 
 in the army. "I am much at a loss to conceive 
 what part of my conduct could have given en- 
 couragement to an address which seems to me big 
 with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my 
 country/ ' To nobody could such a thought be 
 more disagreeable, he declared earnestly. "Let me 
 conjure you, if you have any regard for your 
 country, concern for yourselves, or respect for me, 
 to banish these thoughts from your mind." 
 
 And when, during the awful, unfortunate, un- 
 necessary, clash of arms between the States of this 
 Union, the other grand example I have chosen to 
 illustrate my subject was approached by General 
 Toombs, of Georgia, and his consent solicited to 
 aid in changing the form of the Confederacy to 
 that of a monarchy, giving as a reason that slavery 
 was an autocratic form of government, the control 
 of the many by the few, and could never long exist 
 within a democracy, General Lee nobly replied, 
 "then so much the worse for slavery, and before 
 I ever consent to such a change, I'll sheathe my 
 sword never to draw it again save in defense of 
 my native State against such an intolerable propo- 
 sition." This last statement has never, to my 
 knowledge, been recorded in history, but it is never- 
 theless a fact, told me by General Toombs himself, 
 and should be recorded as one other of the noble 
 utterances which ought to link Lee's name with 
 that of Washington's. 
 
"the man behind the gun" 17 
 
 But I fear the time allotted me and the patience 
 of my audience have more than reached the pre- 
 scribed limit. Another thought or two, therefore, 
 and I am done. Not being " native and to the 
 manner born," I must leave the recording of the 
 many who have wrought wisely and well for the 
 betterment of Fairfax County to minds better 
 qualified and pens better driven. 
 
 And there are many such whose acts are worthy 
 of record. Many who have passed to the silent 
 majority and many still on the firing-line of life's 
 battlefield. Not, perhaps, performing great acts 
 of heroism or deeds of daring ; but by making two 
 blades of grass grow where only one grew before ; 
 by aiding in building two miles of good roads 
 where never one existed before ; by beautifying the 
 homes of the living, and fencing in, and tenderly 
 caring for, the graves of the dead; by striving for 
 a higher moral, social and educational uplift in 
 our county ( and State, are acting well their part 
 in life and well deserve our plaudits and our 
 thanks. 
 
 And of the two great men whose lives were more 
 or less closely identified with this county's history, 
 and regarding whom I have endeavored to draw a 
 rough draft of their public lives and services ; of 
 the warp and woof of censure and success that was 
 constantly theirs to win and to endure, what of 
 their lives when they, too, joined the ranks of the 
 men behind the guns ? 
 
 Washington, retired to his farms at Mount 
 
18 "the man behind the gun" 
 
 Vernon and in the "simple concerns of ordinary 
 life," still continued to add to the advancement 
 and prosperity of his country. He imported 
 thoroughbred stock and improved seeds, sys- 
 tematized farming and was really the father of the 
 Department of Agriculture. And his death was 
 occasioned by devotion to duty ; an early morning 
 ride, the all-day overseeing of his farms during 
 a dismal, rainy, December day — and, life's fitful 
 fever long since o'er, he sleeps well; and his merits 
 and Ms memory ever remain enshrined in the 
 minds and hearts of his countrymen. 
 
 And Lee ! After the eventful strife between the 
 States had ceased, he withdrew at once from public 
 affairs, betaking himself to the work of a simple 
 citizen, not morosely or in sullen vexation of spirit, 
 but manfully and with a firm conviction of duty. 
 He frankly accepted the result and used his great 
 influence for the restoration of friendly relations 
 between the late warring sections, and spent the 
 remaining years of Ms life as a man behind the 
 gun — an educational gun, "teaching the young 
 ideas how to shoot!" And, in my opinion, those 
 years, between 1865 and 1870, were the greatest 
 and grandest of his life. He undertook the presi- 
 dency of Washington College, which had been 
 closed during the four years of the war, and by 
 his patience, his executive ability, his scholarly 
 qualities, and high ideals of scholarship, backed 
 by dignity of character and action, set a standard 
 
"the man behind the gun" 19 
 
 of success higher than the college had ever achieved 
 before. 
 
 During the spring of 1870, I spent a few days 
 at Lexington, Virginia, and on the morning of the 
 last day of my stay, attended the college chapel 
 services, at which General Lee presided. And that 
 scene will ever remain fixed in my memory. The 
 antics of the most frolicsome, mischievous, boy 
 ended for a time, as, with a hushed, a reverential 
 silence, all eyes were fastened on the noble face 
 and form of their president, while with dignified 
 mien and features alight with Christian devotion, 
 he read that chapter from Corinthians which be- 
 gins: "Tho' I speak with the tongues of men and 
 of angels and have not charity, I am become as 
 sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal" and which 
 ends, "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these 
 three; but the greatest of these is charity." And 
 then followed the prayer: that the God of Peace 
 (not the god of discord and of hate, as too many in 
 that day still wished would reign), would, in His 
 own good time, send peace and prosperity to our 
 still distracted country ; that He would put it into 
 the minds and hearts of our Nation's leaders to 
 end the conditions, worse even than war, still con- 
 tinuing throughout the South by reason of their 
 plan of reconstruction : that all might soon be led 
 to call each other brother and that "peace on earth 
 and good will toward men" should rule our land 
 hereafter. 
 
 I never again saw General Lee, but in 1890, 
 
20 "the man behind the gun" 
 
 while acting as chairman of the executive com- 
 mittee of the Scotch-Irish Society of America, I 
 paid a visit again to Lexington in the interests of 
 that society, and, soon after my arrival, went to 
 see the beautiful statue, The Recumbent Lee, the 
 work of my friend of, now, more than forty years 
 standing, Edward Virginius Valentine, of Rich- 
 mond, Virginia. And standing there, what mem- 
 ories came crowding to my mind! It seemed as 
 though the years that had passed since I saw Lee 
 in life were but as yesterday; that the marble 
 seemed endowed with life and that "though dead, 
 he yet speaketh." 
 
 How grandly Valentine expressed the very 
 thought and wish Lee would have uttered had he 
 been asked as to the form his monument should 
 take. Not like that of so many heroes of the past, 
 and as one now standing in Lafayette Square, 
 Washington, on horseback, with horse standing on 
 the toe of one hind foot, his head higher than the 
 rider's and decked out with the panoply of war; 
 nor even like a warrior taking his rest with his 
 martial-cloak around him; but, as so beautifully 
 expressed by Bryant, in the closing lines of his 
 Thanatopsis, "Soothed and sustained by an un- 
 faltering trust, approach thy grave like one who 
 wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies 
 down to pleasant dreams!" 
 
 And thus we leave him, well-knowing that a 
 gentler, nobler, kindlier, kinglier, man never lived, 
 and who, if standing before you today, was asked 
 
"the man behind the gun" 21 
 
 to express in two words his ideas regarding man's 
 true status in life, it would be "work and duty!" 
 Therefore I will close by reading some lines 
 which seem to me to express both Washington's 
 and Lee's ideals of life: 
 
 Life's every task calls loud for forceful man ; 
 
 The shirker, not the worker, mars God's perfect plan : 
 
 'Tis only he whose work fulfills life's role 
 
 The car of progress drives to fame's or fortune's goal. 
 
 Work well performed should be man's truest test ; 
 
 A conscience free from guile should be his soul's behest ; 
 
 Thus, doubly armed, he fears no foe or task, 
 
 And, labor o'er, in God's approving smile will bask. 
 
 Angels of Light, aid all to do the right; 
 Where duty calls for work or strife, lead thou us on ; 
 Tho' rough the way and dark and drear the night, 
 Grant strength to do and dare ; bid fear and sloth begone. 
 
 Work while 'tis day, fear not the coming night ; 
 
 For duty well performed no fortune's frost can blight ; 
 
 Tho' "Man ne'er is, but always to be, blest," 
 
 Act well thy part in life ; then God will do the rest. 
 
 (33689) 
 
WS4 
 

 

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