Robert E. Lee’s Characterization of George Washington: His “virtues and sentiments are cherished & reverenced by all people”

Robert E. Lee was the son of Light Horse Harry Lee, one of the Continental Army’s finest cavalry officers. Leading his men on lightning raids against enemy supply trains, Harry attracted the attention and admiration of General George Washington and was rapidly promoted to colonel. After the war Lee was governor of Virginia, but was brought back to service by Washington to command the Federal troops called to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. Lee eulogized Washington to a crowd of 4,000 at the first President's funeral on December 26, 1799, as “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” These words proved immortal, and Washington’s name is forever connected to them.

While Robert E. Lee was stationed at Fort Monroe, he married Mary Anna Randolph Custis, great-granddaughter of Martha Washington (by her first husband Daniel Parke Custis), and step-great-granddaughter of George Washington. The newly married couple lived at Arlington House, which had been the home of Mary’s father, George Washington Parke Custis, the grandson of Martha Washington. Custis revered Washington, and at his Arlington House he had a huge collection of Washington memorabilia, and delighted in showing his “Washington Treasury” to all. Thus Lee grew up as a child admiring Washington, and his house was virtually a showcase to Washington’s memory. He and Mary named their first son George Washington Custis Lee.

The Alexandria Literary Association planned a dinner to remember Washington on his birthday, and invited Lee to attend. Alexandria is the town nearest Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, and is much associated with Washington’s life, so holding a dinner there was particularly fitting. Lee could not attend, but responded with a letter containing his own characterization of Washington.

Autograph letter signed, Lexington, Va., February 19, 1869, to the committee that had invited him, Messrs. Chapman Neale, James C. Hill, and K. Kemper. “I regret that it is out of my power to attend the supper to be given by the Alexandria Literary Association on the 22nd February in honor of the memory of Washington, whose virtues and sentiments are cherished & reverenced by all people.” Neale was the president of the organization, Hill was a major in the Confederate Army who had served under Lee and was later Virginia Railroad Commissioner, and Kemper was an Alexandria notary public. All were interested in literary and historical pursuits.

With his background, Lee’s views on Washington were necessarily colored by his illustrious father’s, and those of his wife and father-in-law. This characterization is therefore his, of course, but almost surely reflects the way Washington’s friends and relations saw him and his memory.

This is our first letter of Lee relating to Washington’s memory, and a search of public sale records going back 40 years fails to disclose even one other. This is thus a great rarity.