“Some may be surprised that I am here to eulogize Robert E. Lee.  It is well known that I did not agree with him in his political views.  At the beginning of the late war, and for many years preceding it, even from the foundation of this Government, two great questions agitated the greatest minds of this country.  Many believed that the allegiance of the citizen was due first to his State, and many were of the opinion that, according to the true reading of the Constitution, a State had no right to leave the Union and claim sovereign rights and the perpetual allegiance of her citizens.  I did not agree in the first-named opinion, but I knew it was honestly entertained.  I knew men of the purest character, of the highest ability, and of the most liberal and patriotic feelings, who conscientiously believed it.  Now the war is over, thank God! and to that thank I am sure this meeting will respond, it is the duty of every citizen of this land to seek to heal the wounds of the war, to forget past differences, and to forgive, as far as possible, the faults to which the war gave rise.  In no other way can the Union be truly and permanently restored.  We are now together as a band of brothers.  The soldiers of the Confederacy, headed by the great chief we now mourn, have expressed their willingness to abide by the issue of the contest.  What a spectacle to the world!  After years of military devastation, with tens of thousands dead on her battle-fields, with the flower of her children slain, with her wealth destroyed, her commerce swept away, her agricultural and mechanical pursuits almost ruined, the South yielded.  The North, victorious and strong, could not forget what she owed to liberty and human rights.  We may well swear now that as long as liberty is virtuous we will be brothers.

“Robert E. Lee is worthy of all praise.  As a man, he was peerless; as a soldier, he had no equal and no superior; as a humane and Christian soldier, he towers high in the political horizon.  You cannot imagine with what delight, when I had the honor to represent this country at the court of Great Britain, I heard the praises of his fame and character which came from soldiers and statesmen.  I need not speak of the comparative merits of General Lee and the Union generals who opposed him; this is not the place or time for a discussion of their respective successes and defeats; but I may say that, as far as I was able to judge of the sentiments of the military men of Great Britain, they thought none of the Union officers superior to General Robert E. Lee.  Their admiration for him was not only on account of his skill on the battle-field, and the skilful manner with which he planned and executed his campaigns, but the humane manner in which he performed his sad duty.  They alluded specially to his conduct when invading the territory of his enemy—­his restraint upon his men, telling them that the honor of the army depended upon the manner of conducting the war in the enemy’s country—­and