Sir, others have spoken of the incidents of his life and of his unabated fidelity to its claims.  I can not add to his record.  I have met him in battle array; I have embraced him with a soldier’s warmth.  We entered Congress together; we have fought here side by side.  It has fallen to my lot to eulogize him.  This I will venture:  It would mar the catalogue of bright names of which America is so proud if his were omitted from the roll.

ADDRESS OF MR. COWLES, OF NORTH CAROLINA.

Mr. SPEAKER:  Truly “in the midst of life we are in death.”  There is scarcely one of the associates and colleagues of Gen. WILLIAM H.F.  LEE who knew him here and up to the closing days of the late Congress who would have been deterred by the thought of personal risk from exchanging the chances of life or death with him for a few months; and yet, in so short a time the dread summoner, who soon or late is to call us all, has taken him from this life into that which fadeth not, neither does it die.

    The hand of the reaper
      Takes the ears that are hoary,
    But the voice of the weeper
      Wails manhood in glory. 
    The autumn winds rushing
      Waft the leaves that are searest,
    But our flower was in flushing
      When blighting was nearest.

Yes, death, the unsolved and unsolvable mystery, has enveloped him, and he has passed from our view never more to be seen and known of men on this earth.  But yesterday the living, moving, brave, sympathetic, generous friend, and now, alas, but a memory—­and yet a memory dear to all who knew and appreciated his noble attributes of heart and mind; a memory which has left its impress upon his fellow-men for nobility of character; a memory which can not wholly fade, but must influence for good not only his own immediate posterity, but all those who may come after him.

My acquaintance with Gen. LEE began in the early part of the war between the States.  It was upon a night march, as we rode with the advance guard of the army, where we might expect at any moment a hostile volley.  He related to me in a low impressive tone of voice an experience which had occurred to him when his command by reason of surprise had met with some disaster.  What impressed me most at the time was that, although others must have been to some extent culpable, he took all the blame upon himself, and had not a word of complaint for either officer or man who served under him.

This trait of magnanimity, such a splendid companion to personal courage, I found afterwards to be characteristic of the man.

Though springing from a long line of heroic and patriotic ancestors, he had not a particle of pretentious pride, but to all men, privates in the ranks as well as officers, so that they were but brave and good soldiers, he always found “time enough for courtesy.”  He never tried to appropriate another man’s laurels, but he possessed in a high degree that quality of courage which is so well described by Emerson: