We had learned a juster appreciation of ourselves as a whole people, and if this were all, it was worth the tuition.  But we had besides garnered into our storehouse of knowledge vast consignments for the use of liberal economic government.  We had infused into our laws, our language, and our institutions new vigor for conquest and for human enlightenment.  Venality, that dogs great efforts, undoubtedly there was.  But the high tide of the conflict showed no mercenary taint.  On both sides it was urged from the highest motives of patriotism and of honor and in defense of the popular principle.  That principle with us means local self-government and representative union.  The rebel yell was because they thought local government in peril.  The Federal huzza was for representative union.  Together they were cheering the same deeply embedded sentiment.

Those who would study the phenomenon must remember that where opinions approximate on parallel lines, but from some interest or sentiment refuse to coalesce, the passions are liable to ignite.  Fusion then takes place in a terrible heat.  The heat must be sufficient to remove the obstacles that the mass may become unified.  We have as a result a firmly established representative union of local self-governments.  The cooling and finishing process has left no flaw.  Sir, what sort of a soldier must he be who is not proud of having been tempered in such a trial?  If after the unmatched tournament this is not the spirit of victor and vanquished, then the lights of chivalry are burnt out and magnanimity is no more.

Mr. Speaker, I know of no greater praise of a life than to say it was one of honest endeavor.  Whatever faculties comprise it, this is the scope of human duty.  When to this is added a conscience adequate to all the suggestions of a great and busy career, the sum of human excellence has been reached All this I believe in my soul can be truthfully said of “ROONEY” LEE.  “Rooney” was his father’s term of endearment, which all who knew him, without distinction of age, race, or sex, delighted to apply to him when absent.  When present, it was always “general.”  A thorough soldier, there was an idyllic strain in his nature.  He was essentially rural in his tastes.  He loved the wheat fields and tobacco plantations of his native State.  Its very air seemed to inspire him.

The Blue Ridge was to him the perfection of natural beauty.  He was warm in his friendships and true to his kinships.  Always dignified, there was a heartiness in his greetings that was irresistible.  He was as broad as his acres.  Riding or driving over his vast estate or in its vicinity, his cheerful halloo rang in the ears of those who had not seen him, and the cheery swing of his hat, though paid to all, was a cherished compliment.  If the spirit of mortal be proud, it was not his spirit.  Courteous, sympathetic, unobtrusive, patriotic, knightly, and beneficent, he was a part of the soil of Virginia itself.  He had the loving hospitality that would take all into the march of progress.  How much of these qualities was innate, how much he drew from his high lineage, how much from the teachings of his illustrious father, can never be known, but he blended them in a halo that will not soon fade from his memory.