“It is proper that the people should pay a public tribute to the memory of a great man when he dies.  Not a ruler, not one who merely holds a great public position, but a great man, one who has served his day and generation.  It cannot benefit the dead, but it is eminently profitable to the living.  The consciousness than when we cease to live our memory will be cherished, is a noble incentive to live well.  This great popular demonstration is due to General Lee’s life and character.  It is not ordered by the Government—­the Government ignored him; but is rendered as a spontaneous tribute to the memory of an illustrious man—­good, true, and great.  He held no place in the Government, and since the war has had no military rank; but he was a true man.  After all, that is the noblest tribute you can pay to any man, to say of him he was a true man.

“General Lee’s character was eminently American.  In Europe they have their ideas, their standards of merit, their rewards for great exploits.  They cover one with decorations; they give him a great place in the government; they make him a marshal.  Wellington began his career with humble rank.  He was young Wellesley; he rose to be the Duke of Wellington.  In our country we have no such rewards for great deeds.  One must enjoy the patronage of the Government, or he must take the fortunes of private life.

“General Lee was educated at the great Military Academy, West Point.  He entered the army; was promoted from time to time for brilliant services; in Mexico fought gallantly under the flag of the United States; and was still advancing in his military career in 1861, when Virginia became involved in the great contest that then grew up between the States.  Virginia was his mother; she called him to her side to defend her, and, resigning his commission in the Army of the United States, not for a moment looking for advancement there, not counting the cost, not offering his sword to the service of power, nor yet laying it down at the feet of the Government—­he unsheathed it and took his stand in defence of the great principles asserted by Virginia in the Revolution, when she contended with Great Britain the right of every people to choose their own form of government.  Lost or won, to him the cause was always the same—­it was the cause of constitutional liberty.  He stood by it to the last.  What must have been the convictions of a man like General Lee, when, mounted on the same horse that had borne him in battle, upon which he was seated when the lines of battle formed by his own heroic men wavered, and he seized the standard to lead the charge; but his soldiers rushed to him, and laying their hands on his bridle, said, ’General, we cannot fire a gun unless you retire?’ What must have been his emotions as he rode, through his own lines at Appomattox, to the commander of the opposing army, and tendered his sword?  Search the annals of history, ancient and modern; consult the lives of heroes; study the examples of greatness recorded in Greece leading the way on the triumphs of popular liberty, or in Rome in the best days of her imperial rule; take statesmen, generals, or men of patient thought who outwatched the stars in exploring knowledge, and I declare to you that I do not find anywhere a sublimer sentiment than General Lee uttered when he said, ‘Human virtue ought to be equal to human calamity.’  It will live forever.