Various - Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of William H. F. Lee (A Representative from Virginia)
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Various >> Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of William H. F. Lee (A Representative from Virginia)
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8 [Illustration: Hon. W.H.F. Lee.]
MEMORIAL ADDRESSES
ON THE
LIFE AND CHARACTER
OF
WILLIAM H.F. LEE,
(A REPRESENTATIVE FROM VIRGINIA.)
DELIVERED IN THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND IN THE SENATE,
FIFTY-SECOND CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION.
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF CONGRESS.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1892
_Resolved by the House of Representatives_ (_the Senate
concurring_), That there be printed of the eulogies delivered in
Congress upon the Hon. W.H.F. LEE, late a Representative from the
State of Virginia, eight thousand copies, of which number two
thousand copies shall be delivered to the Senators and
Representatives of the State of Virginia, which shall include fifty
copies to be bound in full morocco, to be delivered to the family
of the deceased, and of those remaining two thousand shall be for
the use of the Senate and four thousand for the use of the House of
Representatives; and the Secretary of the Treasury is directed to
have engraved and printed a portrait of the said W.H.F. LEE to
accompany the said eulogies.
Agreed to in the House of Representatives March 23, 1892.
Agreed to in the Senate March 22, 1892.
PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF DEATH.
DECEMBER 23, 1891.
Mr. MEREDITH, of Virginia: Mr. Speaker, I rise to make the painful
announcement to the House of the death of Hon. WILLIAM H.F. LEE, a
Representative in the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses of the United
States and a Representative-elect to the Fifty-second Congress.
He died at his home, in Fairfax County, Va., on the 15th day of October
last, after a lingering illness. Later in the session I shall ask this
House to fix a day when his colleagues and friends can do justice to his
memory and express their appreciation of his high character.
It is only meet and fitting on this occasion that I should say that in
the death of Gen. LEE the State of Virginia has lost the services of one
of her most chivalrous and noble sons, and the district he so well
represented a faithful guardian of the interests of all its people.
I send to the desk and ask the adoption of these resolutions:
The Clerk read as follows:
_Resolved_, That the House has heard with deep regret and profound
sorrow of the death of Hon. W.H.F. LEE, a Representative from the
State of Virginia.
_Resolved_, That the Clerk be directed to communicate a copy of
these resolutions to the Senate.
_Resolved_, That as a further mark of respect the House do now
adjourn.
The resolutions were unanimously agreed to.
And accordingly (at 12 o'clock and 37 minutes p.m.) the House adjourned
until Tuesday, the 5th day of January next.
EULOGIES.
FEBRUARY 6, 1892.
The SPEAKER. The Clerk will report the special order.
The Clerk read as follows:
_Resolved_, That Saturday, February 6, beginning at 1 o'clock
afternoon, be set apart for paying tribute to the memory of Hon.
WILLIAM HENRY FITZHUGH LEE, late a member of the House of
Representatives from the Eighth district of the State of Virginia.
Mr. MEREDITH. Mr. Speaker, I offer the resolutions which I send to the
desk.
The resolutions were read, as follows:
_Resolved_, That the business of the House be now suspended, that
opportunity be given for tributes to the memory of Hon. WILLIAM
HENRY FITZHUGH LEE, late a Representative from the State of
Virginia.
_Resolved_, As a further mark of respect to the memory of the
deceased, and in recognition of his eminent ability and
distinguished public services, that the House, at the conclusion of
these memorial proceedings, shall stand adjourned.
_Resolved_, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the
Senate.
The resolutions were adopted.
ADDRESS OF MR. MEREDITH, OF VIRGINIA.
Mr. SPEAKER: This day having been set apart for the purpose of paying a
last tribute to the memory of one who so lately was a loved and honored
member of this House, I shall, in the brief remarks which I propose to
make, attempt nothing but a plain and truthful narrative of some of the
characteristics and public services of a Christian gentleman, who in my
judgment measured fully up to that standard which makes man the noblest
work of God.
On the 15th day of October, 1891, at Ravensworth, his beautiful home in
Fairfax County, Va., surrounded by those loved ones whose constant care
and tender nursing had done all that human power could do to stay the
hand of the fell Destroyer, all that was mortal of Hon. WILLIAM HENRY
FITZHUGH LEE passed from this earth, and his noble spirit returned to
the God who gave it.
If the earnest supplications to Almighty God, offered by the good people
of his native State upon their bended knees night and morning, during
the period of his lingering illness, could have availed, he would have
been restored to health and usefulness, and these melancholy proceedings
postponed for many a long year.
The great sorrow which made the heart of Virginia heavy and bowed in
grief the heads of her true sons and daughters when the sad intelligence
of his death was flashed over the electric wires was more genuinely
spontaneous than were the loud lamentations of the Roman populace (so
graphically described by Tacitus) when they beheld the widow of
Germanicus, with her weeping children entering the gates of the imperial
city. Nor was this sorrow confined to those of his own political faith.
Men of all parties vied with each other in their expressions of regret
at his death and in their sympathy for his bereaved family.
The blameless life he had led, his high character, his gentle and
unassuming manners, won for him not only the respect but the admiration
of all with whom he came in contact.
As gentle as a child and as tender as a woman, with the courage of a
hero and a faith that never faltered, he proved himself a worthy
descendant of that race of famous men from whom he sprang, and most
worthily bore a name which will be honored as long as a liberty-loving
people shall find a dwelling place upon the earth.
WILLIAM H.F. LEE was the son of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and was born at
Arlington, on the 31st day of May, 1837.
He was educated at Harvard, where he ranked not only as a good scholar,
but on account of his splendid size and strength became quite famous in
athletics, being "stroke oar" of the University Rowing Club.
His great ambition was to follow the profession of his father and to go
to West Point; but having had an older brother there, that fact was
considered in those days an insuperable obstacle. While still at
Harvard, completing his education, he was, through the interest taken in
him by Gen. Winfield Scott, who made the request as a special and
personal favor to himself, appointed in 1857 a second lieutenant in the
Sixth Regiment, United States Infantry, and inaugurated his military
career by taking a detachment of troops to Texas by sea and then by land
up the country to San Antonio.
In 1858 he accompanied his regiment, under the command of Col. Albert
Sidney Johnston, in the expedition to Utah against the Mormons, taking
an active part in that campaign, marching from Fort Leavenworth to Salt
Lake City, and then, when the troubles were quelled there, traveling on
foot to Fort Benicia, Cal. While on the Pacific coast he received a
letter from his father, written January 1, 1859, in which he said:
I can not express the gratification I felt in meeting Col. May in
New York, and at the encomiums he passed upon your soldiership,
zeal, and devotion to your duty. But I was more pleased at the
report of your conduct. I always thought and said there was stuff
in you for a good soldier, and I trust you will prove it.
Resigning his commission in the Army, he came home to be married to his
cousin, a Miss Wickham, and settled down as a farmer at the "White
House" (where Washington met Martha Custis and was married), a large
estate on the Pamunkey River, left him by his maternal grandfather, G.W.
Park Custis, of Arlington.
When that irrepressible conflict of 1861 was upon us, and Virginia
called upon her sons to defend her soil, he, sharing the faith of his
fathers, in the belief that his allegiance was due to his State, quickly
raised a company of cavalry, and was attached to the Army of Northern
Virginia. Serving in every grade successively from captain to
major-general of cavalry, he led his regiment in the famous raid around
McClellan's army, and was an active participant in all those brilliant
achievements which made the cavalry service so proficient.
In that terrific fight which occurred at Brandy Station, in June, 1863,
he was most severely wounded, and taken to the residence of Gen. William
C. Wickham, in Hanover County, where he was made a prisoner by a raiding
party, and was carried off, at the expense of great personal suffering,
to Fort Monroe. From the latter place he was conveyed to Fort Lafayette,
where he was confined until March, 1864, and treated with great
severity, being held, with Capt. R.H. Tyler, of the Eighth Virginia
Regiment, under sentence of death, as hostages for two Federal officers
who were prisoners in Richmond, and whom it was thought would be
executed for some retaliatory measure.
Exchanged in the spring of 1864, he returned, to find his young wife and
children dead, his beautiful home burned to the ground, his whole estate
devastated and laid waste by the ruthless hand of war; and yet almost
his first act on reaching Richmond was to go to Libby Prison, visit the
two Federal officers for whom he had been held as hostage, and who, like
himself, had been under apprehension of being hung, and shake hands with
and congratulate them.
Immediately joining his command, he led his division in every engagement
from the Rapidan to Appomattox, where, with his father, the greatest
soldier of modern times, he surrendered to the inevitable.
In a letter written by one of the most brilliant cavalry generals of the
late war, in speaking of Gen. W.H.F. LEE, he uses this language:
He was a zealous, conscientious, brave, and intelligent soldier,
who fully discharged all of his duties. He was one of those safe,
sound, judicious officers, and you always felt when you sent
instructions to him that they were going to be obeyed promptly and
to the letter.
What greater tribute could be paid a soldier?
Having been married to one of the most accomplished ladies in Virginia,
Miss Bolling, of Petersburg (who, with two sons, survives him) he
removed in 1874 to Ravensworth, and was the next year elected to the
senate of Virginia, where he made an honorable record.
He was elected to the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses, and served
his State with that fidelity which had characterized his every act
through life--faithful, conscientious, and painstaking--ever alert to
the interests of his constituents and seeking only how he could serve
them.
He was again reelected to the Fifty-second Congress, and though by the
will of Divine Providence he was not permitted to take his seat, he will
ever be held in grateful remembrance by his late constituents, and when
the long roll of Virginia's noble and heroic dead is called, the name of
WILLIAM H. FITZHUGH LEE will be mourned by his mother Commonwealth as
one of her noblest and truest sons.
In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I shall read, as the most fitting tribute I
have seen, an editorial from the Alexandria Gazette written the day
after the death of Gen. LEE:
Gen. WILLIAM HENRY FITZHUGH LEE, second son of Gen. Robert Edward
Lee, is dead. The bells here tolled late yesterday evening. A few
hours before the general had crossed over the river and was at rest
under his roof tree at Ravensworth, the southern sun lighted his
deathbed and the autumn breeze sang his requiem. Afterlife's fitful
fever he sleeps well. He was sick a long time, and as his disease
was incurable, death was a relief. No more pain for him now, but
the long and peaceful sleep of the just. His sorrowing family were
at his bedside, but he told them not good-bye, preferring to greet
them when they shall rejoin him in a better world. His death is
regretted by all the many who knew him; the more so by those who
knew him well.
Gen. LEE, like his father, was naturally quiet and retiring, and in
his intercourse with others, when right and principle were not
involved, invariably acted in accordance with the rule of _noblesse
oblige_, but when they were involved he was as firm in support of
his convictions as any other man could be. He stood foursquare to
all the winds that blow, but always with the propriety that
characterizes the perfect gentleman. He did his duty to his God,
his family, his State, and his country, and did it well, and
executed faithfully all the trusts committed to him in both
military and civil life. He liked the old manners and customs of
Virginia, but tried to conform to the new order of things with
becoming grace, and did so with no audible complaint and no useless
repinings. He served his State efficiently in her senate and in the
national Congress, and in the Confederate army he filled, by
merited promotion, every position from captain up to major-general
of cavalry. It was different once, but Virginia can ill-afford to
part with such a man now, and in his death, as in that of his
illustrious father, she has lost a true and gallant son, who when
not on duty was as gentle as a woman. Her fame has been increased
by having had such a son. May she have many more; like him.
ADDRESS OF MR. EDMUNDS, OF VIRGINIA.
Mr. SPEAKER: It is not my purpose to attempt any extended remarks upon
the life and character of Gen. WILLIAM H.F. LEE, late a Representative
from the Eighth Congressional district of Virginia, yet I can not permit
this occasion to pass and my hand and heart to fail to pay my humble
tribute to his memory. Gen. LEE's life had been spent after manhood in
arms or as a tiller of the soil. In early life he saw military service
as lieutenant in the Sixth Regiment, United States Infantry, and was
with Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston in the expedition in 1858 against the
Mormons.
Resigning from the Army, he returned to his native State of Virginia and
engaged in the pursuit of agriculture. Early in the late civil struggle
he raised a cavalry company, and rose from the position of company
commander to that of major-general, and followed the cause in which he
had enlisted until the end at Appomattox. There two great military
chieftains met, and one, his illustrious father, gave up to the other
his sword and the mutilated remnant of an army which had fought with the
utmost bravery and fortitude under a leader of unsurpassed skill and
fidelity.
Gen. LEE, after the struggle had ended, resuming his citizenship in
peace, returned to his farm and occupation of agriculture.
He was elected by his people from his senatorial district to the
legislature. He served one term in the senate of Virginia and declined a
renomination. He was afterwards elected from the Eighth Congressional
district of his State to the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses and
again returned by his constituency to the present Congress; but the hand
of death interposed, and he did not live to again take his seat in this
legislative hall.
The name of Lee, Mr. Speaker, has been an illustrious one in Virginia.
No one can with safety challenge the assertion that that old
Commonwealth has furnished, from the time of the Revolution, as many
great men, in peace and in war, as any of the States of our Union. When
the foundations of this great Republic were laid and constitutional
principles evolved, whether the sword of the warrior or the mind and
philosophy of the statesman were needed, you will find the marks and
handiwork of some son of that State.
Among those great men the ancestry of Gen. LEE were conspicuous. He
inherited from his great father a disposition that was frank, manly, and
chivalrous. Although with these distinguished surroundings, Gen. LEE had
no undue pride, reserve, or self-assertion. His nature, on the contrary,
was eminently amiable, generous, and sympathetic, and at the same time
he was dignified, manly, brave, and ever courteous.
Identified with the agricultural interests of his State, at one time
president of the State society, and himself a practical and successful
farmer and proud of his occupation, he mingled freely and congenially
with that great class of our citizens upon whose shoulders repose in
great measure the preservation and safety of the institutions of our
common country. While he was especially devoted to the interests of the
farmer, he was essentially a patriot, and loved his State and all its
diverse interests with an enthusiastic devotion and yearned for her
prosperity.
He was a faithful, able, and vigilant Representative, and had in the
greatest degree the confidence of his constituents and the people of his
entire State. No one who ever knew him could fail to implicitly trust
him. His State has lost a pure and noble son; the country a wise,
conservative, and faithful Representative. We who knew him here can
recall his manly robust form, his genial kindly face, his frank
accessible address, his unfailing gentleness of manner, his cheerful
friendly voice, as he walked along the aisles of this Hall.
A man of his character and bearing could but wield an influence for good
wherever his presence was.
In a republic, where the people are the state, the advice, the
suggestions, and the example of a citizen so high-minded and
incorruptible are of great value not only in the councils of the nation,
but in the everyday walks and details of life, in his beautiful rural
home, surrounded by and mingling with his country people; and it was
ever the pleasure and practice of Gen. LEE to associate freely and
unrestrainedly with the great body of the people. His generous and noble
heart had a sympathetic touch with them and their struggles, their
callings, their work.
But he has passed from us under the decree of the great Master to the
great hereafter, leaving the record of a life of singular purity,
directness of purpose, and freedom from guile; the record of a character
unblurred, untarnished, unshadowed by the least stain; the record of a
man high, noble, honorable, faithful to all the duties and relations of
life.
Mr. Speaker, Virginia, one of the oldest of the Commonwealths, within
whose borders lie the remains of many great names, and the energies and
reserved forces of whose people in times gone by have risen to great
heights, receives to her bosom her dead son and bows with sincere grief
over his grave; for to her, whether her hand wore the mailed gauntlet
or followed the gentler pursuits of peace, he had ever been faithful,
loyal, and true.
ADDRESS OF MR. TUCKER, OF VIRGINIA.
Mr. SPEAKER: I shall leave to others the task of portraying the life of
Gen. LEE in its diversified pursuits, and shall content myself with the
effort of giving to the House my conception of some of the
characteristics of our deceased friend which made him throughout his
life, wherever placed, a conspicuous actor in private and public
affairs.
In the early period of Virginia's history lived William Randolph, of
Turkey Island (a plantation some 15 or 20 miles from the city of
Richmond, near the scene of the terrific battle of Malvern Hill). He was
the ancestor of all of that name in Virginia, and from him was descended
in direct line Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and Robert E. Lee; the
last-named the father of our departed friend. How could _he_ have
manifested in his life less patriotism, justice, and courage with such
exemplars of these virtues ever before him?
His mother, as is well known, was a descendant from the wife of Gen.
Washington by her prior marriage with John Parke Custis. Sprung from
such a lineage; trained in a school where the amenities of life as well
as "the humanities" were taught in their highest excellence, he
practiced from his earliest childhood a scrupulous regard for the rights
and feelings of others, and an indulgence to all faults except his own.
With a self-control and equipoise which were never disturbed under the
most trying circumstances, and a graciousness of manner which broke
down all barriers, giving to the humblest as well as to the highest the
assurance of his friendly consideration, and a mind well disciplined by
education in the highest schools, it was impossible that he could have
been other than a man of mark and influence in his State.
It is not claiming too much to say that Gen. LEE was the natural product
of the civilization existing in Virginia during his boyhood and early
manhood, which, alas, except here and there in certain localities, is
fast passing away. The home, not the club, was its center; the family,
not each "new-hatched, unfledged comrade," its unit. The father was the
_head_ of the family, not the joint tenant with the wife of a house nor
the tenant at will of his wife. The wife and the mother was the queen of
the household, not merely a housekeeper for a husband and the family.
Obedience to those in authority was the first lesson exacted of the boy.
Inculcated with tenderness, it was enforced with severity, if need be,
until the word of the father or the expressed wish of the mother carried
with it the force of law as completely as the decree of a court or the
mandate of a king.
Reverence for superiors in age and deference to all, rather than
arrogant self-assertion, was magnified as a cardinal virtue, not as
teaching humility and enforcing a lack of proper self-respect, but
rather to exalt high ideals and stimulate an admiration for "the true,
the beautiful, and the good."
Fidelity to truth, the maintenance of personal honor, deference for the
opinions and feelings of others, without abating one's own or
aggressively thrusting them on others; a kindliness of manner to
dependents, a knightly courtesy to all, but with special and tender
regard in thought, word, and action toward woman, were in turn patiently
taught in all the lessons of the fireside and at the family altar, and
earnestly insisted upon in the formation of the character of a true
gentleman. "Any man will be polite to a beautiful young woman, but it
takes a gentleman to show the same respect to a homely old woman" was
the stinging rebuke of a father to his son who failed to remove his hat
in passing a forlorn old woman on the public highway.
The old-field school, the private tutor, the high school, whose
excellence in Virginia I can not praise too much, the college, the
university, led the young mind by easy stages to its full intellectual
maturity.
Nowhere was the principle "_Sana mens in sano corpore_" more
scrupulously taught than in Virginia. The rod and stream, the gun, the
"hounds and horns," the chase, with the music of the pack, the bounding
steed, all lent their ready aid in developing the physical manhood of
the boy. In the pure atmosphere of his country home, amid its broad
fields and virgin forests, contracted houses in narrow streets had no
charms for him. To join the chase was the first promotion to which the
boy looked as evidencing his permanent release from the nursery. The gun
and dog became his constant companions, while "Old Betsey," his father's
trusted double-barreled gun of many years' usage, standing in the
sitting-room corner or hanging on stag-horns or dog-wood forks on the
side of the wall, was the eloquent subject of nightly rehearsals of her
prowess and power in the annual deer hunt "over the mountains." Skill in
horsemanship was essential, and breaking colts was naturally followed by
broken limbs; but manhood found a race of trained horsemen, both
graceful and skillful in the saddle, unexcelled, I dare venture to
assert, by any civilized people. A child of nature, the Virginia boy
communed with her as his mother, and from her purest depths drew the
richest inspirations. To him no mountains were so blue as hers, no
streams so clear, no forests so enchanting, no homes so sweet.
While others hailed in distant skies the glories of the Union
He only saw the mountain bird stoop o'er his Old Dominion.
How vividly the picture comes to me now (never to be effaced) of a
learned professor in one of Virginia's highest schools, himself
three-score years and ten, a soldier of two wars, as he led the way
through a quiet Virginia town on horseback, followed by two sons,
distinguished ministers of the gospel, and they in turn by a younger son
and the grandson of the leader, with a goodly train of friends, amid the
blasts of horns and baying of hounds, who followed, eager for the chase
among the beautiful hills which surrounded the town of Lexington, even
as the mountains stand "round about Jerusalem."
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