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 by Various
page 69 of 113 (61%)
page 69 of 113 (61%)
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compliment. If the spirit of mortal be proud, it was not his spirit.
Courteous, sympathetic, unobtrusive, patriotic, knightly, and beneficent, he was a part of the soil of Virginia itself. He had the loving hospitality that would take all into the march of progress. How much of these qualities was innate, how much he drew from his high lineage, how much from the teachings of his illustrious father, can never be known, but he blended them in a halo that will not soon fade from his memory. Sir, others have spoken of the incidents of his life and of his unabated fidelity to its claims. I can not add to his record. I have met him in battle array; I have embraced him with a soldier's warmth. We entered Congress together; we have fought here side by side. It has fallen to my lot to eulogize him. This I will venture: It would mar the catalogue of bright names of which America is so proud if his were omitted from the roll. ADDRESS OF MR. COWLES, OF NORTH CAROLINA. Mr. SPEAKER: Truly "in the midst of life we are in death." There is scarcely one of the associates and colleagues of Gen. WILLIAM H.F. LEE who knew him here and up to the closing days of the late Congress who would have been deterred by the thought of personal risk from exchanging the chances of life or death with him for a few months; and yet, in so short a time the dread summoner, who soon or late is to call us all, has taken him from this life into that which fadeth not, neither does it |
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