Various - Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of William H. F. Lee (A Representative from Virginia)

V >> Various >> Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of William H. F. Lee (A Representative from Virginia)

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His bearing as a private citizen was of such dignity and benevolence as
to secure the love, while it evoked the admiration, of all who knew him.

His character was made up of blended chivalry and courtesy and adorned
with the mild luster of a religious faith.

He was frank and open, plain and sincere, speaking only what he thought
without reserve, and promising only what he designed to perform.

As he was plain and sincere, so he was firm and steady in his purposes;
courteous and affable, he was not influenced by servile compliance to
his company, approving or condemning as might be most agreeable to them.
He was a man of courage and constancy, qualities which, after all, are
the ornaments and defense of a man.

He had in the highest degree the air, manners, and address of a man of
quality; politeness with ease, dignity without pride, and firmness
without the least alloy of roughness. He loved refined society, but he
had great respect and sympathy for those who had been reared in simple
habits and the toils of life.

He possessed an even and equal temper of mind. Those who best knew him
can testify of him what has often been asserted of his great father,
that they never heard an acrimonious speech fall from his lips; that his
whole temper was so controlled by justice and generosity that he was
never known to disparage with an envious breath the fame of another or
to withhold due praise of another's worth.

Mr. President, the friends of Gen. LEE do not claim for him brilliant
talents and the gifts of genius. It is doubtless a beneficent ordination
of Providence that the best interests of society are not solely
dependent on what in common parlance is called genius. Fortunately for
the good of mankind, great gifts and powers of mind are not
indispensable to our happiness or to a safe and salutary development of
social conditions.

Patient industry and impregnable virtue are the essential cardinal
qualities that make the man, in the vast majority of cases, worthy of
love and honor, and which conserve the best interests of the world.

That man who in his career and relations to society has gone on from day
to day and from trust to trust, never disappointing but always realizing
every just expectation, it seems to me is the character who deserves of
his fellow-men the highest meed of praise, and gives in his person and
example the surest guaranty that the world will be all the better for
his agency in shaping its affairs.

The friends of Gen. LEE enjoy the perfect assurance that in every walk
of life, on every occasion when duty called him, his responses were ever
marked by a dignified and intelligent performance of the tasks assigned
him.

What higher honor can we ask for him than this: that weighty as were the
responsibilities that devolved upon him by inheritance and high as the
expectations which were the natural implications of this inheritance, he
fully and nobly met them. Much as was expected of him, he more than
realized the claims and obligations of a noble lineage. His
fellow-citizens and his contemporaries regard his career as an honor and
his companionship as a delight and a resource that adds poignancy to
their grief in the loss of so loved and valued a friend.

I might refer to the incidents of his military career to illustrate his
courage and fidelity, but it may not be considered appropriate to the
time and the occasion. It is cheering, however, to believe that in this
exalted body there is not to be found that spirit of truculent
uncharitableness which refuses any credit to an honorable adversary.

Time, which touches all things with mellowing hand, has softened the
recollections of past contests, and they who looked upon him as a foe
now only remember the glory of the fight, and would join hands with us
to weave the garland of his fame.

Securely may the friends and admirers of this noble character rest in
the belief that his name for generations to come will be enrolled in the
glorious list of worthies that has for all time made the name of
Virginia illustrious and among the foremost of all the commonwealths of
the ages past.

ADDRESS OF MR. BUTLER, OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

It was my good fortune, Mr. President, to know Gen. WILLIAM H.F. LEE
with the intimacy of personal friendship for more than a quarter of a
century, and I can pass no higher encomium upon him than by saying he
had all the qualities that constitute a true gentleman, a gentleman in
the highest and best sense. He inherited from a very illustrious and
distinguished ancestry a prestige rarely enjoyed in this country, and
yet he was as unpretending, unaffected, and modest as the humblest man.
His self-contained dignity of character never deserted him. His placid,
well-balanced, well-poised equanimity always sustained him.

It would be extravagant to say he inherited the commanding abilities of
his illustrious father, but it would be entirely within the line of a
just criticism to affirm that he did inherit many of the highest
characteristics and qualities of that great man. In personal demeanor,
in that suave, gracious, considerate, self-respecting, and respectful
bearing which give assurance of the perfect gentleman he very much
resembled his father. He was always approachable and cordial, and yet I
doubt if any man ever attempted an improper liberty or ventured undue
familiarity with him. His high character and affability of manner
protected him against such relations.

In the late civil war we served side by side in the same cavalry corps
in the same army almost continuously from the beginning to the end. I
therefore had the best opportunities of forming a correct estimate of
him as a soldier and man, and it is within the bounds of just judgment
to place him among the most distinguished in that brilliant array of
American soldiers and men of that eventful period.

I recall with vivid recollection my first association with him at
Ashland, Va., in June, 1861, where he was stationed as a young captain
of cavalry at a school of instruction. Thence he rose by regular
gradations to major-general of division, resigning his sword with that
rank.

Gen. LEE never aspired to be what is sometimes called a "dashing"
soldier. He was quite content with the serious, earnest, steady
performance of his duties. It would be no compliment to say that a son
of Robert E. Lee and grandson of "Light-Horse" Harry Lee had courage.
Such a quality is a necessary ingredient of such a man's character. But
his courage was not of that frothy, noisy kind so often paraded to
attract attention. In battle he was as steady, firm, and immovable as
any soldier who ever wielded a sword or placed a squadron in the field.
In his relations to his subordinates he was the perfection of military
propriety, always considerate and kindly, but firm and impartial in the
enforcement of discipline.

Towards his equals and superiors in rank he bore himself with a knightly
chivalry that at once commanded respect and confidence. How could he
have been otherwise, descended from such a noble sire, with such an
example of courtly dignity and untarnished manhood?

After the close of hostilities, having discharged his whole duty as he
understood it with fidelity and courage, he retired to his native State,
to his farm, and there, by the same quiet, honorable, manly course of
conduct devoted himself to the duties of civil life, establishing by his
example a standard of citizenship worthy the great Republic to which he
renewed his allegiance.

The people of the Commonwealth of Virginia could not and did not permit
a man of his exalted character, sound intellectual qualities, and safe,
conservative judgment to remain in private life. His services and
example were too valuable to the public, and he was called into the
public service, first as senator in the State legislature, later into
the lower House of Congress.

There, as elsewhere, he soon took rank among the wisest and safest
legislators in the body pursuing the even, modest tenor of his way with
that faithful regard for his duty to his constituents and his country
that characterized every relation and position of his life.

Those of us, Mr. President, who were favored with his acquaintance
recall with a respect bordering on reverence his commanding figure as he
came in this Chamber, his courtly presence, his gentle bearing,
persuasive conversation, amiable, respectful manners. The consciousness
that we shall never see him again is a sad and depressing reflection,
and a mournful reminder that it is only a question of time--how long
mortal man can not foretell--when those of us who survive him must obey
a similar summons, and disappear, as he has done, from the scenes of
life forever.

In paying tributes of respect and affection to departed friends I know
how hard it is to impose restraint upon our partiality for them and how
strong the temptation to indulge in expressions of exaggerated eulogy.
Knowing Gen. LEE as I did, I can say of him with absolute sincerity and
truth that he was as free from the small and petty faults of our nature
as any man I have ever known. In his private relations he was literally
without guile or deceit. Straightforward, honorable, just in all his
dealings, he was a model citizen and faithful friend.

In his public life he proved himself equal to every station. Zealous,
attentive, conscientious, untiring, he met every responsibility with
fidelity and confidence. He never disappointed a friend, betrayed a
trust, or took unfair advantage of an opponent. In a word, Mr.
President, he lived a perfect gentleman, discharged faithfully every
duty of life, and died honored and beloved by his friends.

Others have spoken of the life and character of this distinguished man
more in detail, more eloquently, with more finished oratory, but I yield
to none in the sincerity of my humble tribute to his memory.

ADDRESS OF MR. DOLPH, OF OREGON.

Mr. PRESIDENT: The echoes of the voices of those who pronounced eulogies
upon the life and character of the late distinguished Senator from
Kansas have hardly died away in this Chamber, and we have again laid
business aside to pay our tributes to the memory of a late honored
member of the House of Representatives and a distinguished son of
Virginia.

These sorrowful occasions, which are deprecated by some as involving a
loss of the time of the Senate and needless expense to the Government, I
can not think are unprofitable to us or to the country. Surely in the
mad rush and hurry of business we may be permitted to halt long enough
to take notice of the invasion of our ranks by death and to voice our
esteem for a departed member. The death of an eminent member of the
Senate or of the House is not only a loss to his immediate constituency,
but to the whole country, and, in accordance with a long and honored
usage, demands from his former associates formal and appropriate action.

After such an hour spent in the contemplation of the common end of all
that live, in introspection and retrospection, who of us does not again
take up the burdens of life with renewed resolutions to redouble our
energies to faithfully discharge every public and private duty.

My acquaintance with Mr. LEE was not intimate. I frequently met him
socially, but he did not belong to the party with which I am affiliated,
and no fortuitous circumstance occurred to bring us together in the
discharge of public duties. The incidents of his life, his public
services, and his domestic relations have been fittingly alluded to by
others, and it only remains for me to cast an evergreen upon his grave,
to add my poor tribute to his memory, and give expression to the
emotions awakened by the occasion and the exercises of the hour. Coming
from a long line of distinguished ancestors, serving with marked
distinction in the Confederate army until the cause he championed was
hopelessly lost, honored by the people of his State by election to high
civil positions, in which he did credit to himself and honored them with
a rounded character and well-developed manhood, at once the incarnation
of gentleness, tenderness, and courage, it is not to be wondered at that
sorrow for his death hung over his State like a funeral pall, and all
parties vied with each other in giving expression to the universal sense
of private and public loss.

He was the son of a distinguished sire, who in life was the idol of the
people of Virginia; but he was held in the highest esteem by the people
of his State not so much on account of his illustrious father as on
account of his own ability and worth. His public services and his
blameless life, touching, tender, and beautiful, won the tributes to his
memory pronounced by his colleagues at the other end of this Capitol.
Fortunate, indeed, is the man who can win such admiration from his
associates.

What higher eulogy can be pronounced on any man than that in every
station, public and private, he was true to himself and faithful to the
people and was equal to the duties of his station? Not every man can
become great; genius is the gift of the few, but goodness and fidelity
to duty are within the reach of all. He has gone the way of all the
living. He has found the level of the grave. Our words of eulogy can not
reach him there.

Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or flatt'ry soothe the dull, cold ear of death?

Solomon, summing up this question, said:

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any
thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them
is forgotten.

Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished;
neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is
done under the sun.

To human reason the death of him we mourn was untimely. He was born May
31, 1837, and died October 15, 1891. He was therefore in the prime of
manhood, and apparently had many years of useful life before him. But
death sometimes strangely selects his victims. No season, no station, no
age is exempt from his fatal shafts. When death comes to the aged as the
end of a fully completed life we regard it as natural. But when death
comes to the young, the gifted, and the promising, we with our finite
vision look upon it as sad and mysterious. We are constantly reminded
that--

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

It is creditable to our humanity that at the grave animosities are
buried, and those who speak of the dead remember their virtues and pass
over their frailties.

Death is a mighty mediator. There all the flames of rage are
extinguished, hatred is appeased, and angelic pity, like a weeping
sister, bends with gentle and close embrace over the funeral urn.

The reconciling grave swallows distinction first that made us foes;
there all lie down in peace together.

To the grave, "the world's sweet inn from pain and wearisome turmoil,"
we are all hastening. Earth's highest station and meanest place ends in
the common receptacle to which we shall all be taken. Dark and gloomy
indeed would be the grave without a hope in a personal immortality, a
belief that the soul survives the body, and that to this immortal part
the tomb is the gate to heaven. When one feels like Theodore Parker when
he said:

When this stiffened body goes down to the tomb, sad, silent, and
remorseless, I feel there is no death for the man. That clod which
yonder dust shall cover is not my brother. The dust goes to its
place; man to his own. It is then I feel my immortality. I look
through the grave into heaven. I ask no miracle, no proof, no
reasoning for me; I ask no risen dust to teach me immortality. I am
conscious of eternal life.

Or like Byron when he wrote:

I feel my immortality oversweep all pains, all tears, all time, all
fears, and peal, like the eternal thunders of the deep into my ears
this truth--thou livest forever!

Death loses its terrors and the grave becomes a welcome goal for weary
and buffeted mariners on life's stormy sea--the gate to endless life.

By these oft-repeated scenes in this Chamber; by the frequent visits of
the stern messenger to both Houses of Congress to summon a member from
his field of labor here to the bar of the Supreme Ruler of the Universe
above; by the constant changes going on around us in obedience to the
inevitable law of nature, by which death everywhere succeeds to life,
we are reminded that we shall not long continue as we now are. It is
possible that as we are startled by the announcement of the death of an
associate we mentally ask ourselves, Who will be called next?

So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon; but sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

ADDRESS OF MR. DANIEL, OF VIRGINIA.

Mr. PRESIDENT: The late Gen. WILLIAM H.F. LEE was conspicuously
connected with the public affairs of his State for more than thirty
years. He was deservedly honored, loved, and trusted by the people. For
two terms he represented the Eighth district of Virginia in Congress and
he was elected for a third term, but when Congress met in December last
his chair was vacant. Surrounded by his beloved family and bemoaned by
all who knew him he peacefully breathed his last at Ravensworth, his
home, in Fairfax County, on the 15th day of October, 1891.

Thus, Mr. President, disappears one singularly endowed with the
qualities that win the confidence and affections of mankind. His noble,
honest face, beaming with intelligence and benevolence, was a true index
to his nature. Strength of character and sweetness of disposition made
him a man of mark and influence in all the relations of society. His
life was full of noble uses. Respect for the rights and tenderness for
the feelings of others stamped his conduct on every occasion. He
fulfilled Sidney's definition of a gentleman, "high thoughts seated in a
heart of courtesy," and I know of no better legacy that a father could
leave his household or a patriot leave his country than such a record as
he has left to attest his virtues.

I will not penetrate the sanctity of the home bereaved by his death. The
fond and noble wife and the sons who miss the husband and father, who
was representative to them of life's dearest boons, have in his memory
whatever earth can give them of consolation, and they learned from none
more than from him to look above in sorrow and affliction.

As a Representative in Congress Gen. LEE was diligent in the service of
his constituents and in behalf of policies which commended themselves to
his favor. He seldom spoke, but it was not because he could not speak
well and forcibly. He was not noted as the peculiar champion of any of
the great measures before Congress, but it was not because he did not
comprehend them nor take great interest in them, and I doubt if there be
many Representatives who have had a more wholesome or further-reaching
influence.

His fine character and engaging manner made friends for him and for his
people. His excellent judgment had great weight in council, his
political ideas were eminently liberal, and his tact and attention
reached results where perhaps more aggressive qualities would have been
ineffectual. On one occasion that I recall he was urging the passage of
the bill to pay for use and occupation of the Theological Seminary near
Alexandria during the war. He became the mark, in doing so, of inquiry
and badinage, and some one, meaning to disparage the claim by
intimation that the clerical professors of the institution had been
enemies of the Government, called out to him, "How did they pray?" He
answered instantly, "For all sinners." His ready pleasantry put
everybody in good humor and the bill was passed.

Gen. LEE was a representative man in a larger sense than that of
official designation. He was a representative country gentleman, and the
flavor of his native soil was in his character. He was born in the
country, at beautiful Arlington, with the woods and fields and streams
and mountain vistas around him. He lived in the country all his life,
and died in the country, at his home in Fairfax County, an owner of
land, loving the land; his home, a fine old country seat of colonial
pattern, the scene of domestic peace and love and hospitality; his
voice, that of the good people of his vicinage; his life, daily tasks,
intermingled with daily studies and contemplation; his aims, those of
the patriot and Christian, his country, God, and truth.

Gen. LEE was a representative American of broad gauge and vision. Many
of us--and I have felt myself amongst them--are quite provincial. We
know our own neighborhoods and their people, and we grow slowly into
knowledge of other sections and their people. Local caste, prejudice,
interest, and bias warp us and minify our usefulness. Gen. LEE was not
of this kind. There was no sectionalism in his caste, no bigotry in his
creeds. His strong local attachments, natural to a true nature, neither
dwarfed his opinions, soured his reflections, nor darkened his vision.
His was a ripe mind and his a generous nature. He understood men,
because he understood mankind. He had respect for all men, because he
respected manhood. He dealt considerately and justly with all men of all
races, creeds, opinions, and aspirations, because he respected men and
because he had a good man's sympathy, with the hopes of his race, his
country, and humanity.

I would not speak of him as a brilliant man. He was more. He was a wise
and good and true man. Gen. LEE was a representative of our racial
history. The story of his family began when his remote ancestor rode
with the Norman knights at Hastings. Another led a company of English
volunteers with Coeur de Lion on the third crusade to the Holy Land,
and was made the Earl of Litchfield. Still another was that Richard Lee
who, intense loyalist as he was, became a commissioner from Virginia and
urged Charles II to fly for refuge to the Old Dominion when his throne
was trembling under him. Quarrel and fight as we may and as our fathers
did before us, the continuity of race achievement is unbroken.

The growth of race ascendency and the expanse of race domination are
unceasing. The picture is unique and the nation one, however the theater
enlarges, however the scenes shift, however the actors differ in the
drama. Gen. LEE was a representative democrat or republican, for I use
the words in their generic sense. His grandfather was that young
American Capt. Henry Lee, the ardent youth of nineteen, who at the head
of his company of Virginia horse reported to Washington for duty when
the first army of Continentals were ranging themselves upon the plains
of Boston. He was the first to break the record of his line for loyalty
to the Crown of England in espousing the cause of American independence,
the first to draw his sword for the new king proclaimed at
Philadelphia--the sovereign people.

As "Light-Horse Harry" Lee he goes down to history and renown;
distinguished in general orders of the army and in promotion from
Congress for one exploit, and for another with the thanks of Congress
and a gold medal. In statesmanship as in soldiership, he was the friend
and follower of Washington. In the Virginia legislature, when the
resolutions of 1798 were debated, he took sides against them, and in his
speech you may find nearly all the arguments which are used in favor of
the Federal construction of the Constitution. When Washington died he
was a member of Congress, and pronounced upon him the memorable words,
"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his
fellow-citizens." He was one of those virile men who could write, speak,
and fight.

When Gen. Winfield Scott led the American Army to Mexico there rode by
his side Capt. Robert E. Lee, the son of Henry Lee, an officer of
engineers upon his staff. He was four times brevetted for gallant
conduct and came back famous. When Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston led the
Utah expedition in 1858 there marched on foot in his columns Lieut.
WILLIAM HENRY FITZHUGH LEE, the son of Robert E. Lee. He was not a
soldier by education, but by instinct. A graduate of Harvard College and
the stroke oar of his class, he was well prepared for military life, and
the third of his line to bear arms for the United States. But no war
ensued; the canker of a long peace was settling on military aspirations.

Lieut. LEE resigned, married, and settled on his farm, the White House,
on the Pamunkey. With the prattle of little children around his knees
and pastoral scenes before him, his prospects were those of domestic
tranquillity and joy.

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