n vain for a parallel. It is an easy task
for men who have accomplished all they desired to lay down their arms
and return to their homes and resume their former avocations.

The Southern soldier did all this after failure and defeat. The cause
was lost; his efforts availed nothing. The homes of many were in ashes;
sorrow was in every household; many were stripped of their all. The
labor system of the country was destroyed; commerce was dead. Many had
not seed to plant their lands. The workshop, the manufactory, the
shipyard were silent as the grave. The arts of peace seemed to have
perished. The soldiers were disbanded without the means of reaching
their homes, and the few survivors of those who went forth with bright
hopes, proud and confident in their strength, returned one by one weary
and footsore and disheartened.

The history of other nations would have suggested to the historian that
the result must be open riots and secret assassinations, a reign of
violence and terror, years of turbulence and lawlessness, before society
would settle down to its former condition. But how different was the
result. The parole upon which the soldier was released was in no
instance violated. The situation was accepted without a murmur or
complaint. The laws were obeyed. The terms imposed were acceded to. Soon
the busy hum of industry was heard through the land. The arts of peace
were revived. Agriculture and trade once again flourished, and our fair
country began to bloom again into something like its old-time beauty and
prosperity.

There were few Southern soldiers who returned to a greater desolation
than did our late associate, Gen. LEE. Fate seemed to have done its
worst. The beloved wife and the two dear children who had made his home
at the "White House" a paradise had died in 1863, while he was held as a
prisoner and a hostage at Fort Lafayette and Fort Monroe. The place had
been occupied by Union troops; the mansion, with all its surroundings,
had been destroyed by fire, and, as has been well said by another, there
was "not a blade of grass left to mark the culture of more than a
hundred years." Had he been an ordinary man he would have sunk with the
load of sorrow and trouble which weighed him down. But he had a brave
heart, which defeat and affliction and disaster with united effort could
not conquer.

With the same noble spirit which had actuated his father, the elder Lee,
he threw aside his discouragement and took u