The most touching remembrance we bear of Gen. LEE’s goodness of heart has reference to his custom in springtime of bringing to this Hall from his farm great quantities of lovely roses, and having them distributed to his associates of both political parties on this floor with his compliments.  Here we have a practical illustration that flowers are the interpreters of man’s best feelings.  In oriental lands the language of flowers was early studied and made expressive.  As Percival says: 

    Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers,
    On its leaves a mystic language bears.

With Gen. LEE they bore tidings of good will to partisan friend and partisan foe alike.  They bespoke in mute eloquence the expansive heart of one “that loved his fellow-men.”  Little, however, did he think at the time that these beautiful roses were especially speaking to him as emblems of a near immortality.  Awakening from their sleep of winter, they were also harbingers of a brighter day to him and of the bloom of a glorious resurrection.  The Germans have a saying that “he who loves flowers loves God.”  If this be applied to Gen. LEE, we have the blessed assurance that he has approached close to the celestial throne.

Gen. LEE belonged to one of the most historic families of America.  Looking back to the early settlement and the pioneer struggles of the peninsula and then through the plantation and colonial period of entire Virginia, we everywhere discover the genius, the dauntless courage, the independence, and the resolute patriotism of the Lees.  It has been well said, sir, that Virginia is the mother of Presidents; and this is true.  A momentary reflection does not suffice to demonstrate the various causes which combined to bestow upon the Old Dominion this prominence.  A mature study, however, will serve a double purpose.  It will teach us not only how Virginia more than any other State became the nursery for Presidents and statesmen, but how at the same time were given character and fame to its distinguished family—­the Lees.

The permanency and prosperity of states and political bodies are as much due to the character of their superstructures as are the strength and stability of the material edifice to the foundation upon which it rests.  The Argonauts of Virginia united in a remarkable degree the pride and culture and learning and loyalty of the Cavaliers with the conviction of purpose and martial courage and discipline of the followers of Cromwell.  First came the heroic vanguard—­the men like Capt.  John Smith—­who blazed the way through the forests of the James, the York, the Chickahominy, and Pamunkey.  Then followed the refined, enthusiastic, and chivalric gentlemen of the polished court of Charles I, with many of the clergy, who brought with them their intense loyalty to the Crown, as well as to the episcopal government and Anglican ritual.  Among these, too, were the proselyted royalists; old and honorable families after the defeat of Charles, seeking exile in the far distant yet faithful Virginia.  Then came those who triumphed at Naseby, and overthrew the kingly office and maintained the constitution of the realm and the integrity of Magna Charta and the Petition of Rights.