to those who have developed a superiority in any mental or physical excellence.  When in after life the members of a class meet on some public college anniversary or gather together at a reunion and the memories and traditions of college life are talked over anew, the merits of those who excelled in pleasant companionship, in kindly bearing, in generous conduct towards their associates, in outdoor games and sports requiring strength and dexterity, are pleasant subjects to dwell upon, even if the possessors failed to stand among the highest upon the roll of scholarship.

Thus it was that LEE established himself among his associates during the three years that he remained among us, and though he contented himself with a medium standing in scholarship and exhibited no ambition to gain a high rank upon the college rolls, he won the regard and confidence and respect of all his classmates and held a warm place in the hearts of those with whom he was most intimate.

Towards the close of our junior year, in the early part of 1857, upon the recommendation of Gen. Winfield Scott, he received a commission as second lieutenant in the Army, and was assigned to the Sixth Regiment of Infantry, which was ordered into active service on the Western frontier, and took part in the expedition to Utah which was commanded by Col.  Albert Sidney Johnston.  LEE accepted this appointment, closed his connection with the college, and our paths in life diverged for more than thirty years.

In 1887 we both became members of the Fiftieth Congress.  I well remember his coming to me, with kindly face and outstretched hand, on the first day of our session in December, as I sat in my seat in this Chamber, expressing pleasure at meeting me after so many years of separation and satisfaction that we were to have opportunities of renewing the acquaintance and friendship of our early days.  Though the exacting duties of Congressional life gave me fewer opportunities of associating with him than I could have wished, yet I saw much of him during the years we spent here together, and I shall always remember those occasions with satisfaction.  Sometimes it was only a word in passing, a shake of the hand, a brief conference on public business, but whether the interview was brief or prolonged his manner and conduct were always kind and friendly and sincere.

While we were together in Congress he often referred to our college life and its associations, and remembered them with evident satisfaction.  He became a member of the Harvard Club here in Washington, and I recall a pleasant evening when he was one of the after-dinner speakers there.  In the summer of 1888 he went to Cambridge, to revisit the old scenes and once more meet his friends and associates of the olden time.  He attended the commencement exercises and spoke pleasantly at the class supper.  His classmates who then met him will long cherish the remembrance of that last visit, his hearty greetings, his cordial manners, the interest he manifested.