“But he failed.  The result is in the future.  It may be for better or for worse.  We hope for the better.  But this is not the test for his greatness and goodness.  Success often gilds the shallow man, but it is disaster alone that reveals the qualities of true greatness.  Was his life a failure?  Is only that man successful who erects a material monument of greatness by the enforcement of his ideas?  Is not that man successful also, who, by his valor, moderation, and courage, with all their associate virtues, presents to the world such a specimen of true manhood as his children and children’s children will be proud to imitate?  In this sense he was not a failure.

“Pardon me for having detained you so long.  I know there are here and there those who will reach out and attempt to pluck from his name the glory which surrounds it, and strike with malignant fury at the honors awarded to him; yet history will declare that the remains which repose in the vault beneath the little chapel in the lovely Virginia Valley are not only those of a valorous soldier, but those of a great and good American.”

General John W. Finnell next addressed the audience briefly, and was followed by.

GENERAL WILLIAM PRESTON.

“Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen:  I feel that it would be very difficult for me to add any eulogy to those which are contained in the resolutions of the committee, or a more merited tribute of praise than those which have already fallen from the lips of the gentlemen who have preceded me.  Yet, on an occasion like this, I am willing to come forward and add a word to testify my appreciation of the great virtues and admirable character of one that commands, not only our admiration, but that of the entire country.  Not alone of the entire country, but his character has excited more admiration in Europe than among ourselves.  In coming ages his name will be marked with lustre, and will be one of the richest treasures of the future.  I speak of one just gone down to death; ripe in all the noble attributes of manhood, and illustrious by deeds the most remarkable in character that have occurred in the history of America since its discovery.  It is now some two-and-twenty years since I first made the acquaintance of General Lee.  He was then in the prime of manhood, in Mexico, and I first saw him as the chief-engineer of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico.  I see around me two old comrades who then saw General Lee.  He was a man of remarkable personal beauty and great grace of body.  He had a finished form, delicate hands, graceful in person, while here and there a gray hair streaked with silver the dark locks with which Nature had clothed his noble brow.  There were discerning minds that appreciated his genius, and saw in him the coming Captain of America.  His commander and his comrades appreciated his ability.  To a club which was then organized he belonged, together with General McClellan, General Albert Sydney Johnston, General Beauregard, and a host of others.  They recognized in Lee a master-spirit..