Part 7 (2/2)
Mr. PRESIDENT: The biography of WILLIAM H.F. LEE has been furnished by his colleagues and a.s.sociates. I do not propose to dwell upon the details of his public or private career, or that of his distinguished ancestors, who acted so conspicuous a part in the history of the American Colonies and in the trying times of the Revolution by which our independence was gained.
I had the good fortune to form the acquaintance of Gen. LEE and his estimable wife at the beginning of the Fiftieth Congress. I was strongly impressed with his n.o.ble presence, and his genial, modest, and dignified bearing. He seemed to me an ideal specimen of true American manhood. His wife was a lady whose appearance at once attracted attention and whose qualities of head and heart charmed and delighted friends and a.s.sociates. He was a devoted husband. His tender and gentle bearing toward his wife were natural and unaffected. The daily life and conduct of both were a conspicuous example of the benign influence of a husband and wife who love, honor, and respect each other.
My impressions of him were so favorable and agreeable as to create a desire on my part to cultivate his acquaintance and know more of his character. We met frequently, and discussed freely the social and political topics which engaged the attention of members of Congress at the national capital. He was modest and un.o.btrusive in the expression of his opinions; but as I knew him better I was profoundly impressed with the scope and breadth of his information.
His judgment of men and measures was as free from local prejudice and partisan bias as any man's I ever met. He was induced by his generous nature to attribute good rather than unworthy motives to those with whom he differed. He was honest, true, and unsuspicious. On all occasions he expressed attachment to the Union of the States, and manifested a patriotic devotion to the Const.i.tution as the charter of our liberties.
He was a brave soldier, and fought on the losing side in a war that convulsed the continent and astonished the civilized world; and as a brave soldier he accepted without reservation the verdict of the war. It is to be regretted that his heroic services were not on the side of the Union, but the conditions which placed him in hostility to the flag of the United States are forever removed. Every cause which produced that terrible conflict was eradicated and obliterated in carnage and blood.
The horrors of that fratricidal war are now history. The glorious results achieved are being realized in the abolition of slavery; in the Union of the States restored, strengthened, and cemented; in the respect, confidence, and just estimation of the people of all the sections for each other, and in the establishment beyond question of the capacity of the citizens of the Republic to dare and to do in great emergencies what to all the world seemed impossible.
To-day the virtue, the patriotism, and the renown of the fathers of the Revolution and the founders of our free inst.i.tutions are the common heritage of all the people, both North and South. The gallant and daring exploits of Legion Harry or Light-Horse Harry Lee, the grandsire of the deceased, inspire the same admiration and respect in the sons of the North as in the sons of the South. It is most gratifying that the descendants of the comrades in war and a.s.sociates in council who gained the independence and established the Government of the United States are again united in stronger bonds of interest, good fellows.h.i.+p, and respect than ever before existed.
Generations to come will enjoy not only the fruits of the Revolutionary struggle and the establishment of const.i.tutional liberty, but they will be blessed with liberty that knows no slavery and with a Union forever indivisible, and they will contemplate with no partisan feeling the sacrifices which were necessary to secure such results. The type of manly virtue of which our deceased friend was a conspicuous example is one of the best fruits of free inst.i.tutions. His death in the prime of his manhood and in the days of his usefulness was a great loss to the country and a bereavement to his family for which there is no earthly compensation. But he has left for them in his good name, his unimpeachable character, and his many virtues an inheritance more valuable than gold.
He has gone where all must soon follow. The wealth of his example is an inspiration to the living to emulate his virtues, enjoy a conscience void of offense, and leave to surviving relatives the inheritance of an honored name. Such an ambition is worthy of an American citizen, and the value to humanity of such a life as that of Gen. LEE can hardly be overestimated.
Why should death be regarded as a calamity? It is the inevitable fate of all the living. May it not be a part of life? The hope of immortality is the greatest boon conferred upon the living. On an occasion like this words will not soothe the grief of those who are near and dear to the deceased. Their consolation must be in the hope of reunion beyond the grave.
ADDRESS OF MR. COLQUITT, OF GEORGIA.
Mr. PRESIDENT: It is a difficult and delicate task to draw with justice and propriety the character of a public man. Fulsome panegyrics have often been p.r.o.nounced upon the character of the dead either out of flattery to the deceased or to gratify the ambitious desires of the living.
In paying a tribute to WILLIAM H.F. LEE I am not influenced by any such questionable views. To do honor to his memory I need only say what justice and truth dictate. There is little danger, in speaking of him, of committing the offense of exaggerated eulogy. There is more danger of doing the injustice of understatement in commemorating a character so rounded and symmetrical.
As a son, Gen. LEE's filial piety was so marked as to make him an example worthy of all imitation by the youth of his country. In every post of honor or trust to which he was called--and they were many and exalted ones--he met his engagements with such fidelity and courage as never to incur censure and seldom provoke criticism.
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 l.u.s.ter 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 a.s.serted 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.
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