As a State senator he could be relied upon to support liberal and progressive measures; as president of the State Agricultural Society he did much to excite interest and develop improvements; as a trustee or visitor to educational institutions he rendered valuable practical service to the cause of popular enlightenment.  In political life he had sharp contests; friend was surprised and opponent discouraged when emergency brought forth the reserve forces of his character and ability.  If modesty cloaked his powers in retirement, opposition elicited them; and the fluency, tact, and ability with which he discussed issues and met exigencies were remarkable in one whose experiences of early life had separated him from civil pursuits and training.

If I have spoken of Gen. LEE’s ancestral distinctions, it was not because either he or his people have ever presumed upon them.  On the contrary, no people whom I have ever known have rested less of claim upon their antecedents or less sought to substitute reminiscences for achievements.  The independent, honest, and simple Republicans and Democrats of our country justly despise a pretender who boasts the shadow of a name; but that of which the individual may not boast becomes his country’s pride; and I count it great glory to our country that its institutions have nourished and the highest characteristic of our race that it has produced successive generations of men who preserve the continuity of sterling virtues.  I count also as the star of hope for this grand Republic that a distinguished soldier of a lost cause becomes the beloved statesman of the cause that won, and finds around him the old-time comrades and old-time foes, all his friends and each other’s friends united in the service of our common country.

No nobler words have been spoken of the late Gen. LEE than by soldiers who fought against him, and I respond to them with honor and praise.  The production of men who may maintain the rights their fathers won, and ever grow in liberal thought, noble character, and worthy achievement is the highest mission of republican institutions.  From Hastings, A.D. 1066, to Boston in 1776, the name of Lee was blended with the glories of our fatherland.  But from Boston to Appomattox it grew the more illustrious with grander opportunities.  Victorious through a track of eight hundred years to the 9th of April, 1865, it has been still more victorious since—­rising to the height of harder trials and sterner tasks and grander duties than those of leading embattled lines.  The glorious nation of which he was a type and the glorious band of which he was the son come forth from ruin and desolation on one side, moved by gracious institutions and magnanimous sentiments upon the other, taking their place in the reunited columns of parted friendship, cementing anew by adaptive virtues the broken ties, marching again with the mutual magnanimities of companionship at the head of column.