I would not speak of him as a brilliant man.  He was more.  He was a wise and good and true man.  Gen. LEE was a representative of our racial history.  The story of his family began when his remote ancestor rode with the Norman knights at Hastings.  Another led a company of English volunteers with Coeur de Lion on the third crusade to the Holy Land, and was made the Earl of Litchfield.  Still another was that Richard Lee who, intense loyalist as he was, became a commissioner from Virginia and urged Charles II to fly for refuge to the Old Dominion when his throne was trembling under him.  Quarrel and fight as we may and as our fathers did before us, the continuity of race achievement is unbroken.

The growth of race ascendency and the expanse of race domination are unceasing.  The picture is unique and the nation one, however the theater enlarges, however the scenes shift, however the actors differ in the drama.  Gen. LEE was a representative democrat or republican, for I use the words in their generic sense.  His grandfather was that young American Capt.  Henry Lee, the ardent youth of nineteen, who at the head of his company of Virginia horse reported to Washington for duty when the first army of Continentals were ranging themselves upon the plains of Boston.  He was the first to break the record of his line for loyalty to the Crown of England in espousing the cause of American independence, the first to draw his sword for the new king proclaimed at Philadelphia—­the sovereign people.

As “Light-Horse Harry” Lee he goes down to history and renown; distinguished in general orders of the army and in promotion from Congress for one exploit, and for another with the thanks of Congress and a gold medal.  In statesmanship as in soldiership, he was the friend and follower of Washington.  In the Virginia legislature, when the resolutions of 1798 were debated, he took sides against them, and in his speech you may find nearly all the arguments which are used in favor of the Federal construction of the Constitution.  When Washington died he was a member of Congress, and pronounced upon him the memorable words, “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow-citizens.”  He was one of those virile men who could write, speak, and fight.

When Gen. Winfield Scott led the American Army to Mexico there rode by his side Capt.  Robert E. Lee, the son of Henry Lee, an officer of engineers upon his staff.  He was four times brevetted for gallant conduct and came back famous.  When Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston led the Utah expedition in 1858 there marched on foot in his columns Lieut.  WILLIAM HENRY FITZHUGH LEE, the son of Robert E. Lee.  He was not a soldier by education, but by instinct.  A graduate of Harvard College and the stroke oar of his class, he was well prepared for military life, and the third of his line to bear arms for the United States.  But no war ensued; the canker of a long peace was settling on military aspirations.