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An Honorable Man

Mike

Well-known member
“At the close of the war, offers of pecuniary assistance poured in upon him from all quarters, but he steadfastly re fused to receive them. An English nobleman, thinking that he would rejoice in some place of retreat, wrote to offer him a splendid country-seat and a handsome annuity. He replied: ‘I am deeply grateful, but I cannot consent to desert my native State in the hour of her adversity. I must abide her fortunes and share her fate.’"
“Soon after he went to Lexington, he was visited by an agent of a certain insurance company, who offered him their presidency, at a salary of ten thousand dollars per annum; he was then receiving only three thousand from the college. He told the agent that he could not give up the position he then held, and could not properly attend to the duties of both.
“‘But, General,’ said the agent, ‘We do not want you to discharge any duties. We simply wish the use of your name; that will abundantly compensate us.’ ‘Excuse me, sir,’ was the prompt and decided rejoinder; ‘I cannot consent to receive pay for services I do not render.’”
“The refusal of General Lee to receive presents or gratuities was but one of the many points in which he resembled George Washington, the Father of his Country. How far Lee differed from many of our leading public men of the present day, in this respect, we will not here discuss.”

Source: Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee, by John William Jones, 1875.
 

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