As a soldier he was always calm, cool, and self-possessed.  Those who have had experience in the ranks know that the bravest and best soldiers will falter and hesitate when they are without confidence in the ability, judgment, and foresight of their leader.  The soldiers who were ranged under the standard of Lee, believing that their noble commander was equal to all emergencies, followed him with unwavering trust, and their survivors testify to the affection in which a spirit so gentle and yet so brave was held.

No higher eulogy can be pronounced upon any man than to say of him that which can be truly alleged of Gen. LEE, that he was an honored and trusted leader in that splendid Army of Northern Virginia, which only failed where success was impossible.  They challenged the respect and admiration of the world, and of their great captain it has been said that “a country which has given birth to men like him and those who followed him may look the chivalry of Europe in the face without shame, for the fatherlands of Sidney and Bayard never produced a nobler soldier, gentleman, and Christian than Robert E. Lee.”

These meager details of our civil war have not been given with the purpose of reviving unpleasant memories or of perpetuating sectional animosities.  They have been related because they constitute an important part of the story of the life of him whom we mourn.

On both sides were displayed the highest qualities of the military leader, and illustrated as never before the pluck, endurance, and dash of the American soldier.  They were Americans all, and, without distinction of sections, we can claim part of the honor of their achievements and partake in the pride of their great names.  We have furnished to the world the indubitable proof that these States united are invincible.  When, at Appomattox, our arms were stacked and banners furled we returned to our homes with no divided allegiance.

We believe that in the safety of the Union is the safety of the States.  And we rejoice that “the gorgeous ensign of the Republic is still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster, not a stripe polluted or erased, not a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as ‘What is all this worth?’ Nor those other words of delusion and folly, ’Liberty first and Union afterwards,’ but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, ’Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.’”

But while entertaining these sentiments, we can not, we will not, forget our glorious dead.  The brave men against whom we fought neither expect nor desire such unnatural conduct.  Whether the cause for which they died was just or not it would be idle to discuss.  It is enough for us to know that—­