He was a man of courage and constancy, qualities which, after all, are
the ornaments and defense of a man.
He had in the highest degree the air, manners, and address of a man of
quality; politeness with ease, dignity without pride, and firmness
without the least alloy of roughness. He loved refined society, but he
had great respect and sympathy for those who had been reared in simple
habits and the toils of life.
He possessed an even and equal temper of mind. Those who best knew him
can testify of him what has often been asserted of his great father,
that they never heard an acrimonious speech fall from his lips; that his
whole temper was so controlled by justice and generosity that he was
never known to disparage with an envious breath the fame of another or
to withhold due praise of another's worth.
Mr. President, the friends of Gen. LEE do not claim for him brilliant
talents and the gifts of genius. It is doubtless a beneficent ordination
of Providence that the best interests of society are not solely
dependent on what in common parlance is called genius. Fortunately for
the good of mankind, great gifts and powers of mind are not
indispensable to our happiness or to a safe and salutary development of
social conditions.
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