Hon. Henry W. Flournoy was the orator of the evening and made a splendid speech, which was well punctuated with applause.
Judge Flournoy spoke for about fifteen minutes, dealing almost entirely with the life and character of
General Lee.
He laid great stress upon the fact that
General Lee was the only man of the century whose name is not now reproached by his bitterest enemy.
In speaking of the new
South he said that all of it that is good is an inheritance from the old
South.
There is no new
South worth the name, he declared, for the new
South of to-day, as it is called, is but the old
South under changed conditions.
It is a fact, he continued, that when
George Washington retired from the presidency of the
United States thirteen men under the leadership of
Andrew Jackson refused to vote for resolutions of respect and eulogy upon the man who when he died was styled ‘The Father of his Country.’
So stainless and so completely above all controversy was the life of
Robert Lee, that when he issued his farewell address to his surrendered army the hearts of his soldiers and his people were more united in devotion to him than when he led the columns of his incomparable army to victory.
