American adventure; Judas tree

Or. The best understanding of America begins or so it seems to us with the realization that this nation is young yet but she is still new and unfinished. But even now America is man's greatest adventure in time and space. The University of North Carolina presents American Adventure a study of man a new work his values and his characteristics who he is what he believes what he lives by American Adventure is produced on a grant in aid from the National Association of educational broadcasters made possible by the Educational Television and Radio Center written by Johnny Lee directed by John Clayton.

Today's program presents Tom Owen as Robert E. Lee and the Judas tree. There is the sound of defeat in tragedy embedded in the roll of drums. So it was back then on that beautiful morning in that beautiful country of the South as a tall man in gray on a gray horse rode down the ranks of the great army on his way to surrender. The drums described the faces of that army but not the eyes of that man. Nor can words do it. And perhaps it cannot be done. This which we shall try to do to tell you what lay behind the eyes of that man. Predates unformatted came back to lead count off soldier. Oh hold your fire. What's your name soldier Coleman. Who's the Yankee. An

officer from Grant's headquarters. I have a message for General Lee turnaround. Now see here sergeant this lieutenants do the respect turn around both of you. Turn around. All right Colonel Venable. Yes a messenger. Good morning. I made you a dude. Yes I brought you here there's early in the morning as Lieutenant has a message from General Grant or General Lee. Excuse me if General Lee is asleep. I'll be glad to wait of course. Sleep well I generally is done a morning's work by now Lieutenant casually figuring out how to bust up your whole army. I shouldn't be surprised if he was up all night then. Oh it doesn't take generally long. Four years has been a rather long time. But perhaps you southerners in your slow way consider that but a passing moment we feel it's a short just the beginning of a medium lean war.

All right Lieutenant. Make your report to General Lee yester the tenant Thompson the United States Army general reporting with the compliments of General Grant unease. Where's the message. Here sir. If there's any need for an answer I will especially my own officer yes or my regards to General Grant. Thank you sir. She then Lieutenant Thompson returns to his line safely major. How many battles. Yes and you see I didn't take more than a few seconds to lieutenant. No no no it didn't generally impress you Lieutenant Thompson. Well I didn't believe in him until he was there. How's that like a myth. It never occurred to me that he existed with the white beard the erect head and those eyes. There are you can see with the beard and all the eyes. Is it true he knows the names of all these men. Is he knows the names of them. They'd follow him anywhere. They'd follow general lead. Yes Sergeant. I've seen them. Let's mount major.

You'll see him again two lieutenants. It's not a bad message just what I think it is. The war's about over. And. Over. I wouldn't tell my men that if I were you. Let's go Lieutenant. All right. I'll not tell them yet sergeant. We're not aiming to surrender. We'll fight you from behind every tree in the south if that's call for we'll fight your man for man tell your men that Lieutenant General Lee ain't going to surrender. With. You. The tent flap open so it can have more light Colonel Larsen. Yes it is so down Venable. Yes it is a message from General Grant. Yeah let's see the results of the last week. Most convention of the hopelessness of the

resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia and the struggle I feel that it is so and regarded as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood by asking of you to surrender that portion of the Confederate Southern army known as the Army of Northern Virginia. Very respectfully your a BDM servant us craft. Well I've expected this but it stings even so. One word from you in general and the men will fight from every tree every I will never give that word. Do you have a pencil and piece of paper kind of marshal. Yes this is April 7 isn't it. Yes April 7th 1865. Did General Grant. Write up something like this and let me see it. I have received your note this day though not entirely

of the opinion you express of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia. I reciprocate your desire to avoid useless a fusion of blood. It would be nice to have peace in the country again wouldn't it. Unable to go home they'd burn Joe home general. Yes but the Custis place that overlooks Washington still stands. Your desire to avoid the use of fusion of blood. It's April time for planning putting in the crops so needs the food. The men are here producing war instead of corn. But a horse is a pulling supply wagons and cattle and spring never was a time for war it's a time for things to be boiled. Spring is an awakening. It's no time for killing to be new and not smell with gunpowder.

And we have done about all we can do. You don't say that we get weaker they get stronger. We have lost the war winning battles say we've lost it say reciprocate your desire to avoid the useless the fusion of blood and therefore. Before considering your proposition. Ask good terms he will offer on condition of surrender. There's a dogwood tree beginning to bloom just outside the tent of generally. And beside it stood a red Judas tree. Perhaps it was this which caught his eye as he looked through the open flap of his tent on the same morning as he sat alone. Perhaps his eyes rested on this the Judas Priest.

And perhaps his mind wandered back in time. Back. And. Forth the word traitor is not one to be bandied around particularly in your home kindly I hope. And by a guest. But George attitude is quite unusual isn't it. The states are succeeding and you admit this is a revolution. I admit the states have no legal right to secede. The preamble calls this a perpetual union which means secession is revolution. I have no objection to the word. It is a terrible thing whatever it is when a union which is produce strength for all should find itself so divided. But the division does exist and it behooves you to come to the defense of your flag and your country. You've been caught and here you are considering whether or not to resign your commission. And I understand you've been offered command of the Northern army but the rank of general. Is that right. That sir is a question you should not ask and which I will not answer and that it is correct. Major I have no answer to give you a look so I stood with you in Mexico and Texas.

I know how it burns inside you when you are passed over in rank by other men and how after twenty two years of service you were a tenant colonel with no hope of improvement. And now to be offered the rank of Major General and then be given the Union Army. And you mean to tell me you hesitate major I should hesitate a great long while before leading an army against my home. Do you wonder. I KNOW YOU LOVE THE UNION. I love her yes and I know that you love the army which you have served all your life. The union and the army are my own now so will you stand with them. Turn your back on their needs. Lekan said my friend do you believe that I am not. Consider then select the union not the side of slavery. I am not on the side of slavery so that's the great cry in some parts of the South. I hope it is not in many parts. I hope it is not in any part of Virginia. I tell you it is not in my home. I have freed my slaves and if I could free all I would but even President Lincoln says he does not know how that can be done. Well

I've had enough. I ride across the bridge to Washington now give my regards to Gen. Scott when you've seen I will tell him I'll report my decision as soon as it is made of course. As for you my friend has your ride back. Consider this. Whatever is of value is complex and it is no easy matter to decide what is loyalty to one's country and what is not. Did your friend leave. Yes dear. It's cooler out here isn't it. A bit. Shall I get your coat. I'm going in in a moment Robert. Just enjoying the view. Washington is always beautiful isn't it. The view from here is one of the nice features of this house. I hope nothing happens to it. We'll need to take some

steps to move the valuables of course. I should very much hate to lose all grandmothers things the China the glassware. Yes but I'm not sure they'll survive being moved either. Will the enemy burn the house Robert. Who is the enemy there. I guess I meant the Union soldiers. I don't know whether they would or not. But if I should decide to remain with the Union Army I know what Virginians might do to the house. How much do you love the Union Robert. How do you measure love by comparisons. I LOVE YOU MORE THAN I LOVE THE UNION. I know the light just went on in the president's house. Mr. Lincoln must be working like tonight. Perhaps he's wondering what you would do what would he tell me this Lincoln. There is no foreseeing what he would tell you. What would your grandfather tell me if he were alive. I cannot really say. But all the country knows. General Washington was a very fine Virginian. He also loved the

Union. Yes. But is there any question in your mind Robert of where he would stand at this moment. It is chilly. Shall we go in. I'll stay here for a while if you don't mind I'd like to look across the river at the White House and the Capitol. Well don't think too much. I fear that may be one trouble with Mr. Lincoln. Come in soon do you mean. I can see you Mr. President. My my commission. I can see you're sitting in the room and nothing else will stop us.

You consider the tragedy of this time. How did you come to this time in the Potomac runs between this is a boundary line. How do we get to this war we didn't have to fight. It's not honorable men who believe they cannot love. And so brings us to. And who knows how great a lost cause by the words of the demagogues inadequacies of the war. Right away right. We must fight our way. But will there never come a day when we are sufficiently Christianised to bear the absence of restraint and force. Now we have an interest. We have a stalemate mystically. What do you decide. My mind says but my instincts are for Virginia. And what are your duties.

After all you are automatically out of her tribe. What is America Mr Lincoln. I cannot understand her except as a Virginian. You what did you have missed the matter. Yes what do people think of when they say America of the Constitution. Go on the capital their favorite senators picture a map of the country. But these are symbols only. That's what the symbols are meant to be. They represent that which cannot be defeated. But when you go behind the symbols what is there. What do you write to me. America is what she is reveals herself to be and in my experience my family my home the servants who wait on my table the heritage my family left me this house was my wife's. This is the school I went to America is those things of herself which are close to me. That mission to help location.

Or you can define America. Your mother if you want to. Know your father's all of the order of the house you grew up in. But she's more than that she has not isolated things here in there nor is she first of all we maybe burst her but she is now a person so she has a massive unity in a way she is a proud man to man family to family the state which sais here we join in together by me stand by me as we can be. And it is this bond of unity which integrates our lives one with another and a community with community state with the state so that we know each other in abundance is responsible for priority is

ours and freedom is defendable. So we're proud of the law becomes a part of life and we said the neighbors I am perhaps a reverend because it is becoming meaningful in almost all we do in almost all our our all our lawyers are liars. Insulting my country and you insult my state my how my whole family and the. Big unity charity the Browns are broken they are being ripped away. That nation is staggering because a revolt is rising. The brothers older overridden by your state Mr. Levy. And I a very acute aboard down the river and restore the south proper play. Oh yes you're very persuasive

Mr. President. And it is this unity which I cannot bear to see ripped apart. It would serve all sections best to remain in the heart of the whole For there in lies our chances of greatness. And I love the union as my father did. My family helped to form it in my state I played no small part in the beginning of this nation Mr. President I am an Iraqi man and to see if you knowingly and then to be asked to take up arms against it. I tell you sir it tears at me and you side it makes me feel that you would take up painting and if I do Who Shall I lead an army down through Arlington as the wives of my neighbors come out to watch me pass. Shall I take an army and surround Richard. Shall I moving down in the heart of the cell to Hillsboro in Raleigh in Charleston. Robert no matter what you say Mr. President of my country has a meaning for me chiefly in those parts of her which she has given to me

and she has given me Virginia. And the voice and the feeling of the self. I was accepted by my nation. I thought about it was I have received our honors as a lever Jr. and now my state has seceded and by this act we have separated me from the other states for I have not changed. I am deeply rooted in Virginia but rooted in the crowd there is no union Mr. President there is a concept of one. There is a history of one but the union is now and harness them back together with weapons. Shall we hold the union together at the expense of honor of any of our members. Is it to be accomplished with Canada. No Mr. President my country is divided now into many parts and I am bound to serve a part which I love the most. That is my decisions when I don't know what I have.

What to say about that. But your name we have. Mr. LEE Mr. President you do understand. I think no man in the world loves his country more than I think not. Managed a mystery. But nevertheless we may be sending you. Yes and I will meet them but only in your fantasy is my statement I will not attack but I must defend my home. I wish I did not have to. I would say midway or Santa some man in the crowd. Generally Oh yes just what is it venerable. The message to General Grant.

Here it is ready to be signed. Oh yes thank you. I wonder what General Grant will reply. I believe I know his answer. You can't fight a man without learning a good deal about him. General McClellan and I got to know each other extremely well. And so with General Grant his terms will be such that a honorable man can accept them audible and then expect no cry of traitor no trials and hangings. I don't think there will be any. Still that's their decision. All we can do is keep clear in our own minds. But can a man decide this question for himself. Yes you see that Judas tree over there Colonel Venable. Yes sir. Legin is the Judas hanged himself on that type of tree. Yes. But consider when not after four years of fighting for his side not after self privation and near starvation boy's convictions in the matter but after a half day of remorse he hanged himself. Now Judas was a traitor. And what has this to do with us.

I regret having to surrender Colonel but I do not regret my actions in entering and fighting this war even though many men have died and though I dislike war as a means of deciding an issue I do not regret my part. The politicians took us to a place where war seemed necessary to the pride of the South. And I took the side of my home and my people. And we fought and we care and we did that. Oh yes we fought not just traitors but as patriots if we fought as traitors explained Fredericksburg to me are our Charlottesville of Vicksburg who called Stonewall Jackson a traitor. Tell me how great a price an hungry bodies and stillborn children and unborn children and burning houses and broken homes in smoking cities in trade lost and money gone. Tell me the price the men and women of the South have paid and then call them traitors and I will tell you traitors have taken on a manner in a strength which becomes them so that traitors may be stronger than Patriots. If we do not watch our use of

terms no real patriotism was involved. Will dispatch the message Colonel. Yes and no more talk. I would rather ride down the line in battle and be killed and right down the line to surrender. Let's not mention it again. No Scn and no more of how we got to this place or what we're doing here or what man brought us down to this humiliation. No such tiny ways will come. Now we must go to work to build it back. The south the Union. But it will not be easy. We are too proud and now the proud we must surrender. Yes but dispatch the message and say no more about it. We must lead in surrender as we lead in battle. It is harder. Yes it is hard. There's the sound of defeat and tragedy bedded in the Rhone drums.

So it was back then on that beautiful morning in that beautiful country of the South as a tall man in gray on a gray horse rode down the ranks of the gray army on his way to surrender. The drummer described the faces of that army but not the eyes of that man. Nor can words do it. Perhaps it cannot be done to tell you of the pride of that man as he rode down to surrender it. American Adventure is written by John Lee directed by John Clayton and is produced by the communications center of the University of North Carolina. Earlier when Director these programs are produced on a grant in aid from the National Association of educational broadcasters made possible by the educational radio and television center and independent agency established by the Ford Foundation.

Today's program the Judas tree presented Tom Owen as Robert E. Lee with Johnny Lee as Abraham Lincoln. Phil Johnston as Colonel Venable while or as Mrs. Lee and Hugh Downing as Colonel Marshall others in the cast were back Jack Spooner and Tom Gill. Though programs on American Adventure are in almost all cases based on actual events their primary purpose is not to report history. Rather they are an attempt in dramatic form to explore certain aspects of man in the New World. His values and his characteristics who he is what he believes what he lives by. This exploration is predicated on an assumption an assumption that the best understanding of America begins or so it seems to us with the realization that this nation is young yet that she is still new and unfinished that even now America is man's greatest adventure in

time and space. Our programs are intended for use by educational and commercial radio stations in this and other countries and by schools for in-school listening purposes. Consultants for American Adventure are the following professors of the University of North Carolina. Bernard H. Boyd German Department of Religion. John B professor of anthropology Fletcher M. Green chairman Department of History Everett W. Hall chairman of the Department of Philosophy Frank w him professor of law and.

Clifford the Lions professor of English the late Howard W. Odum chairman of the Department of Sociology William H petite assistant professor of philosophy and one summer professor of art history. The whole. Cast members of American Adventure are students professors and townspeople of the university community. American Adventure is produced and recorded in the studios of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ed

Zimmerman speaking. This is the end E.B. tape network.