He served one term in the senate of Virginia and declined a
renomination. He was afterwards elected from the Eighth Congressional
district of his State to the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses and
again returned by his constituency to the present Congress; but the hand
of death interposed, and he did not live to again take his seat in this
legislative hall.
The name of Lee, Mr. Speaker, has been an illustrious one in Virginia.
No one can with safety challenge the assertion that that old
Commonwealth has furnished, from the time of the Revolution, as many
great men, in peace and in war, as any of the States of our Union. When
the foundations of this great Republic were laid and constitutional
principles evolved, whether the sword of the warrior or the mind and
philosophy of the statesman were needed, you will find the marks and
handiwork of some son of that State.
Among those great men the ancestry of Gen. LEE were conspicuous. He
inherited from his great father a disposition that was frank, manly, and
chivalrous. Although with these distinguished surroundings, Gen. LEE had
no undue pride, reserve, or self-assertion. His nature, on the contrary,
was eminently amiable, generous, and sympathetic, and at the same time
he was dignified, manly, brave, and ever courteous.
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