Mr. SPEAKER: Great as is our country, its history is comparatively
brief. Though brief, it is exceedingly instructive. So far as there can
be an outcome in ever-recurring events, it is the outcome of a
tremendous social and political struggle. Sir, it hardly suits the
occasion to refer to the origin of this struggle or to trace its
progress, but the effort for popular government is discernible through
many centuries. As we come nearer to our time it becomes more
intelligent and determined. Our great Declaration was its best
pronunciamento. Our written Constitution was its most concise
expression. The events that produced them founded a normal school for
patriotism. In it was perfected a new departure. Fealty to lord and king
was supplanted by fealty to human rights. Proclaimed in the council
chamber, these rights had to be won in the field. Yorktown completed our
first endeavor at nation-making; we graduated masters at Appomattox. The
first proclaimed the prowess of the Confederation, the second testified
to the strength of the Union. Both astonished the world. Both transpired
in Virginia.
Conspicuous in this analogue of our history were the Lees of Virginia.
They have a lineage too illustrious for praise. Its escutcheons are too
bright for adornment. It reaches back for centuries loyal to honor and
to truth. Him we mourn to-day was a gifted scion of that great name. His
highest distinction was won in Confederate arms.
Thank God, I can now speak of our civil war with satisfaction and not
with reluctance. I allude to it with a satisfaction akin to that one
feels in gazing upon a plain fertilized by an inundation. Flowers spring
up, birds sing, and golden grain nods in the sunlight. But our civil war
was more like an upheaval than like a deluge. It shook every timber in
the grand structure with which we had surprised the world. Other
governments have fallen of their own weight; our matchless edifice could
not be shattered by an explosion.
Both contestants stood guard over the popular principle and would not
let it be mined. They were instructed in the same school and by the same
teacher. Local privilege was as strong with the one as with the other.
The dispute was whether the Union should endure the strain of the race
and slavery issue. The long and vexing argument was adjourned to the
battlefield. In no other respect was our system even threatened. This
close connection at the root made the angry divergence begin to
assimilate at the very outset.
So kindred was it, that when Grant met his heroic opponent at Appomattox
he says that he fell into such a reunion with him that he had twice to
be reminded of the occasion that brought them together. He then
conformed to it, and treated those who surrendered not as conquered, but
as reclaimed. Lincoln went further. He found a Confederate legislature
ready-made to his hand, and promptly permitted it to repair the
situation. In thus mingling the gray with the blue he was neither
color-blind nor purblind. He knew what he was doing. He desired to
blend them, as emblematic of a more perfect Union. Possibly the
Confederate legislature suited his purpose best.
After this testimonial it looks to me something like treason to that
great name to try to exclude Confederate worth from the annals of the
strife or from the glory of its grand consummation. Neither act nor
actor can be profitably spared.
Mr. Speaker, the other day in this very Hall I laid a chaplet on the
bier of a dead comrade. To-day I am trying to commemorate the virtues of
a Confederate colleague. Both died while members of this House. That
both were my countrymen warms my heart. As my countrymen I can make no
invidious distinction. If living neither would permit it, and he is more
reckless than I who would profane the memory of either.
Mr. Speaker, I have said that I could speak of the civil war with
satisfaction and not with reluctance. The occasion prompted me to say
so. The occasion requires that, as a Union soldier, I should state my
reasons. We learn from experience, and war is the toughest kind of
experience. When it raised its horrid front and began its work of
seeming devastation, we shrank back from its terrible promise. The world
looked to see us dismembered; but the great Republic, like a daring
cruiser, emerged from the tempest sound from keel to truck. Not a brace
swung loose, not a plank was sprung, no spar was shivered. Within there
had to be readjustment. Aloft the Stars and Stripes rose and fell in
graceful recognition of the trial. The thunder of her broadsides
proclaimed the value of this object-lesson in nation-making.
We had learned a juster appreciation of ourselves as a whole people, and
if this were all, it was worth the tuition. But we had besides garnered
into our storehouse of knowledge vast consignments for the use of
liberal economic government. We had infused into our laws, our language,
and our institutions new vigor for conquest and for human enlightenment.
Venality, that dogs great efforts, undoubtedly there was. But the high
tide of the conflict showed no mercenary taint. On both sides it was
urged from the highest motives of patriotism and of honor and in defense
of the popular principle. That principle with us means local
self-government and representative union. The rebel yell was because
they thought local government in peril. The Federal huzza was for
representative union. Together they were cheering the same deeply
embedded sentiment.
Those who would study the phenomenon must remember that where opinions
approximate on parallel lines, but from some interest or sentiment
refuse to coalesce, the passions are liable to ignite. Fusion then takes
place in a terrible heat. The heat must be sufficient to remove the
obstacles that the mass may become unified. We have as a result a firmly
established representative union of local self-governments. The cooling
and finishing process has left no flaw. Sir, what sort of a soldier must
he be who is not proud of having been tempered in such a trial? If after
the unmatched tournament this is not the spirit of victor and
vanquished, then the lights of chivalry are burnt out and magnanimity is
no more.
Mr. Speaker, I know of no greater praise of a life than to say it was
one of honest endeavor. Whatever faculties comprise it, this is the
scope of human duty. When to this is added a conscience adequate to all
the suggestions of a great and busy career, the sum of human excellence
has been reached All this I believe in my soul can be truthfully said of
"ROONEY" LEE. "Rooney" was his father's term of endearment, which all
who knew him, without distinction of age, race, or sex, delighted to
apply to him when absent. When present, it was always "general." A
thorough soldier, there was an idyllic strain in his nature. He was
essentially rural in his tastes. He loved the wheat fields and tobacco
plantations of his native State. Its very air seemed to inspire him.
The Blue Ridge was to him the perfection of natural beauty. He was warm
in his friendships and true to his kinships. Always dignified, there was
a heartiness in his greetings that was irresistible. He was as broad as
his acres. Riding or driving over his vast estate or in its vicinity,
his cheerful halloo rang in the ears of those who had not seen him, and
the cheery swing of his hat, though paid to all, was a cherished
compliment. If the spirit of mortal be proud, it was not his spirit.
Courteous, sympathetic, unobtrusive, patriotic, knightly, and
beneficent, he was a part of the soil of Virginia itself. He had the
loving hospitality that would take all into the march of progress. How
much of these qualities was innate, how much he drew from his high
lineage, how much from the teachings of his illustrious father, can
never be known, but he blended them in a halo that will not soon fade
from his memory.
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.