of the justice of the cause in which he had fought, to appear as a supplicant must have been inexpressibly painful.  He, nevertheless, took this mortifying step—­actuated entirely by that sense of duty which remained with him to the last, overmastering every other sentiment of his nature.  He seems in this, as in many other things, to have felt the immense import of his example.  The old soldiers of his army, and thousands of civilians, were obliged to apply for amnesty, or remain under civic disability.  Brave men, with families depending upon them, had been driven to this painful course, and General Lee seems to have felt that duty to his old comrades demanded that he, too, should swallow this bitter draught, and share their humiliation as he had shared their dangers and their glory.  If this be not the explanation of the motives controlling General Lee’s action, the writer is unable to account for the course which he pursued.  That it is the sole explanation, the writer no more doubts than he doubts the fact of his own existence.

XIX.

GENERAL LEE’S LAST YEARS AND DEATH.

For about five years—­from the latter part of 1865 nearly to the end of 1870—­General Lee continued to concentrate his entire attention and all his energies upon his duties as President of Washington College, to which his great name, and the desire of Southern parents to have their sons educated under a guide so illustrious, attracted, as we have said, more than five hundred students.  The sedentary nature of these occupations was a painful trial to one so long accustomed to lead a life of activity; but it was not in the character of the individual to allow personal considerations to interfere with the performance of his duty; and the laborious supervision of the education of this large number of young gentlemen continued, day after day, and year after year, to occupy his mind and his time, to the exclusion, wellnigh, of every other thought.  His personal popularity with the students was very great, and it is unnecessary to add that their respect for him was unbounded.  By the citizens of Lexington, and especially the graver and more pious portion, he was regarded with a love and admiration greater than any felt for him during the progress of his military career.

This was attributable, doubtless, to the franker and clearer exhibition by General Lee, in his latter years, of that extraordinary gentleness and sweetness, culminating in devoted Christian piety, which—­concealed from all eyes, in some degree, during the war—­now plainly revealed themselves, and were evidently the broad foundation and controlling influences of his whole life and character.  To speak first of his gentleness and moderation in all his views and utterances.  Of these eminent virtues—­eminent and striking, above all, in a defeated soldier with so much to embitter him—­General Lee presented a very remarkable illustration.  The result of the war seemed to