inwrought into our being by the venerable fathers and beloved mothers
with whom we had been blessed. The substratum of our beliefs was
precisely the same. And we found that we were not ashamed of that
substratum, that we were not given to apologizing for adhering to
so-called "obsolete" traditions or to creeds "that were passing out of
fashion."

We also found that on the political questions of the day we were
similarly in accord. We believed in the same political principles. And
so it was a very rare occurrence that when the roll was called in this
House we were not found voting, even on what seemed to be trivial
matters, upon the same side. It was not strange that with these
coincidences of belief and with our having both served in the
Confederate army and the local accident of the nearness of our seats
which threw us together, there grew up a regard greater than was
indicated by our association outside of this Hall.

If I were to select in my acquaintance him who, as much as any other,
deserved the title, I would say of Gen. LEE that he was a gentleman. All
that had concurred in producing him was of the best. The blood which
gave him life, the soil out of which he grew, the kindly influences
which always surrounded him, the molding powers to which he had been
subjected--all were of the noblest. A son of such houses, reared at such
knees, influenced by such powers, he passed early under the influences
of Harvard. Later he took his young experience as a soldier under Albert
Sidney Johnston. He began his civil life in a delicious home, with the
love of an exquisite young wife. And in the Confederate service he was
associated with the best and the bravest volunteers of the Old Dominion
herself.