Sir, I believe not only in early training, but in the force of early surroundings and family traditions.  Sprung from an illustrious line of statesmen and patriots, who had left their impress on every page of the history, civil and military, of this country from the colonial days to the present; born on those beautiful heights overlooking this city at Arlington, where the house was filled with the sanctified relics and the very atmosphere he breathed in childhood was pregnant with the traditions and precepts of “the Father of his Country;” his mother being the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of the immortal Washington; his father that world-renowned military commander, the self-poised, calm, patient, dignified, glorious Gen. Robert E. Lee, it would be unnatural not to expect to find the impress of all these on the heart and mind and character and life of Gen. WILLIAM H.F.  LEE.

To some my words of eulogy may appear fulsome; but having known him in public and in private, at home by his own fireside, as well as abroad on the active field of life, I know that my poor words can but fail to do full justice to his true worth.  With him the performance of duty was accompanied by no harsh word or cynical expression; on the contrary, his calmness and uniform sweetness of manner were almost poetical.  I recall a notable instance in the Fiftieth Congress, when, pressing under the most trying circumstances the passage of a bill for the relief of the Episcopal high school near Alexandria, he was temperate and patient.  Standing on the Republican side of this Hall, among those who questioned him, his words fell softly and evenly as snowflakes on the turbulent House, which finally by an almost unanimous vote passed his bill.

He shrank from publicity; therefore he never spoke on this floor unless it was necessary to push a measure intrusted to his charge; then he always acquitted himself with credit.  In the committee and among his colleagues his influence was irresistible, because his judgment and integrity were above dispute.

With him a public office was a public trust, which he accepted and administered for his State and his constituents without regard to race, color, or party affiliation.  Many times have I seen him, when coming in from his country home in the morning, met at the depot by a dozen or more of his constituents, claiming his attention to their private matters with the Departments of the Government.

The patience and tender care with which he heard and looked after each were paternal and pathetic.  His love for little children was intense and beautiful.  Nothing made him happier than to fill some little fellow’s hands and pockets with candies and fruits, claiming only in return a shy caress.  In his home is where his perfectly balanced Christian character shone in its brightest light.  As father and husband he was indeed a model man.

I shall attempt no extended biographical sketch; that has already been well done by others.  Yet I can not refrain from saying that in every stage of his career Gen. LEE did his whole duty, actuated entirely and solely by the loftiest motives.