“He was never violent; he never wrangled.  He was averse to quarrelling, and not a single difficulty marked his career; but all acknowledged his justness and wonderful evenness of mind.  Rare intelligence, combined with these qualities, served to make him a fit representative of his great prototype, General Washington.  He had been accomplished by every finish that a military education could bestow.

“I remember when General Lee was appointed lieutenant-colonel, at the same time that Sydney Johnston was appointed colonel, and General Scott thought that Lee should have been colonel.  I was talking with General Scott on the subject long before the late struggle between the North and South took place, and he then said that Lee was the greatest living soldier in America.  He did not object to the other commission, but he thought Lee should have been first promoted.  Finally, he said to me with emphasis, which you will pardon me for relating, ’I tell you that, if I were on my death-bed to-morrow, and the President of the United States should tell me that a great battle was to be fought for the liberty or slavery of the country, and asked my judgment as to the ability of a commander, I would say with my dying breath, let it be Robert E. Lee.’  Ah! great soldier that he was, princely general that he was, he has fulfilled his mission, and borne it so that no invidious tongue can level the shafts of calumny at the great character which he has left behind him.

“But, ladies and gentlemen, it was not in this that the matchless attributes of his character were found.  You have assembled here, not so much to do honor to General Lee, but to testify your appreciation of the worth of the principles governing his character; and if the minds of this assemblage were explored, you would find there was a gentleness and a grace in his character which had won your love and brought forth testimonials of universal admiration.  Take but a single instance.  At the battle of Gettysburg, after the attack on the cemetery, when his troops were repulsed and beaten, the men threw up their muskets and said, ’General, we have failed, and it is our fault.’  ‘No, my men,’ said he, knowing the style of fighting of General Stonewall Jackson, ’you have done well; ’tis my fault; I am to blame, and no one but me.’  What man is there that would not have gone to renewed death for such a leader?  So, when we examine his whole character, it is in his private life that you find his true greatness—­the Christian simplicity of his character and his great veneration for truth and nobility, the grand elements of his greatness.  What man could have laid down his sword at the feet of a victorious general with greater dignity than did he at Appomattox Court-House?  He laid down his sword with grace and dignity, and secured for his soldiers the best terms that fortune would permit.  In that he shows marked greatness seldom shown by great captains.