Tom’s Big Picture

It’s a crime that January 19, 2007, the 200th anniversary of Robert E. Lee’s birth, will pass almost unnoticed across the country and most tragically, among most Southerners. To quote Dabney, the efforts of Southern constitutional constructionists who gave their lives to prevent the tyranny of the federal government that continues to this day must seem, to the depraved post-modern mind, “as completely out-of-date to them as the ribs of Noah’s ark, bleaching amidst the eternal snows of Ararat, to his posterity, when engaged in building the Tower of Babel.”

I have in preparation a much longer post discussing my recent interest in literature of the War Between the States, but suffice it to say that I believe the essential feature of the Confederacy to be its anti-modern Christian agrarian basis of society. And that this basis was so offensive to the coming Spirit of the Age that she had to be murdered- not murdered because she was weak (as a small, weak Christian state could have been tolerated as a sort of preserved specimen), but precisely because she was strong. And that she came so close against such odds is a testament to the men who led her- unlike the North, whose leaders took the coward’s way out by buying a substitute, the South’s aristocracy was willing to pay in their own blood for their freedom; multi-millionaires raised their sword and led the sons of poor farmers into the very gates of hell (could anyone imagine Bill Gates leading men into battle?). Such a romantic anachronism, recalling the glorious warrior-kings of old, was an affront to the ugly standards of modernity.

This romanticism of the Confederate cause gave her many admirers abroad, particularly among the conservatives of England, who were too few in number at this point to mount any real resistance to modernity, but who vicariously gloried in this final, almost-successful rebellion of the old order against the new. These English aristocrats were never able to provide much beyond moral support in the war.

The following is a dedication of an 1865 English translation of The Odyssey by English poet Philip Stanhope Worsley, as told by Robert E. Lee’s son, including Lee’s reply to the poet:

Among the many tokens of respect and admiration, love,and sympathy which my father received from all over the world, therewas one that touched him deeply. It was a “Translation of Homer’s Iliad by Philip Stanhope Worsley, Fellow of Corpus Christi College,Oxford, England,” which the talented young poet and author sent him, through the General’s nephew, Mr. Edward Lee Childe, of Paris, a special friend of Mr. Worsley. I copy the latter’s letter to Mr. Childe, as it shows some of the motives influencing him in the dedication of his work:

“My Dear Friend:

You will allow me in dedicating this work to you,to offer it at the same time as a poor yet not altogether unmeaning tribute of my reverence for your brave and illustrious uncle, General Lee. He is the hero, like Hector of the Iliad, of the most glorious cause for which men fight, and some of the grandest passages in the poem come to me with yet more affecting power when I remember his lofty character and undeserved misfortunes. The great names that your country has bequeathed from its four lurid years of national life as examples to mankind can never be forgotten, and among these none will be more honoured, while history endures, by all true hearers, than that of your noble relative. I need not say more, for I know you must be aware how much I feel the honour of associating my work, however indirectly, with one whose goodness and genius are alike so admirable. Accept this token of my deepest sympathy and regard, and believe me,

“Ever most sincerely yours,

“P. S. Worsley.”

On the fly-leaf of the volume he sent my father was written the following beautiful inscription:

“To General Lee,
The most stainless of living commanders
and, except in fortune, the greatest,
this volume is presented
with the writer’s earnest sympathy
and respectful admiration
‘… oios yap epveto Idiov Ektwp.’

Iliad VI–403,”

and just beneath, by the same hand, the following beautiful verses:

“The grand old bard that never dies,
Receive him in our English tongue!
I send thee, but with weeping eyes,
The story that he sung.

“Thy Troy is fallen,–thy dear land
Is marred beneath the spoiler’s heel–
I cannot trust my trembling hand
To write the things I feel.

“Ah, realm of tears!–but let her bear
This blazon to the end of time:
No nation rose so white and fair,
None fell so pure of crime.

“The widow’s moan, the orphan’s wail,
Come round thee; but in truth be strong!
Eternal Right, though all else fail,
Can never be made Wrong.

“An Angel’s heart, an angel’s mouth,
Not Homer’s, could alone for me
Hymn well the great Confederate South–
Virginia first, and LEE.

“P. S. W.”

His letter of thanks…shows very plainly how much he was pleased:

“Lexington, Virginia, February 10, 1866.

“Mr. P. S. Worsley.

“My Dear Sir: I have received the copy of your translation of the Iliad which you so kindly presented to me. Its perusal has been my evening’s recreation, and I have never more enjoyed the beauty and grandeur of the poem than as recited by you. The translation is as truthful as powerful, and faithfully represents the imagery and rhythm of the bold original. The undeserved compliment in prose and verse, on the first leaves of the volume, I received as your tribute to the merit of my countrymen, who struggled for constitutional government.

“With great respect,

“Your obedient servant,

“R. E. Lee.”