Mr. SPEAKER:  The House has already heard from his friend and successor the story of Gen. LEE’s life.  I shall not, therefore, repeat it even in briefest outline.  Enough for me to say that he was one in a long lineage of noted men, who by some innate force and virtue had stood forth in three generations as leaders of their fellow-men; that he was the son of the greatest of all who have borne the name, and that in early manhood he exhibited the soldierly instincts and the soldierly capacity that seemed to be historically associated with it.

With such a lineage and with such a history he came to this House, and I believe I can offer no higher tribute to his memory to-day than to say that in all his associations with us here he was the embodiment of gentleness and modesty.  Indeed, Mr. Speaker, as I now recall Gen. LEE, and explore with aching heart the memory of a close and cordial friendship with him, I can say with confidence that in the blending of these rare traits I have never known his equal.  They were a part of his nature, not more illustrated in business and social intercourse with fellow-members than in his relations with the page who did him service and who learned to regard himself in some way as the special friend and associate of Gen. LEE.

Many of us doubtless can recall the evident pride of the little fellow who occasionally placed upon our desks the roses which his kindly patron brought by the basketful in the spring mornings from his Virginia home to brighten the sittings of the House.  And this gentleness and modesty were the more attractive because they were the adornment of a sincere and manly character.  How much came to him as the rich legacy of ancestral blood and how much was wrought into his nature by the training of his youth it is idle to speculate.  In both respects he was lifted far above the common lot of men.  Of his mother it is said by those who knew her well that she was one of the most accomplished and at the same time most domestic, sensible, and practical of women.  Of his father’s influence and teaching, to say nothing of his lofty example, we have the striking proofs, if any were needed, in letters that have been published.  Let me cull but an occasional expression from these unaffected outpourings of the heart of Robert E. Lee toward the son he loved so well.  “My precious Roon,” as he was wont to call him.

When the boy was not yet ten years of age he closes a playful letter, adapted to such tender years, with these earnest words: 

     Be true, kind, and generous, and pray earnestly to God to enable
     you to keep His commandments and to walk in the same all the days
     of your life.

A year later, writing from the ship Massachusetts, off Lobos, to his two sons, a letter full of interest to boys, he urges them to diligence in study: