Year: 1870

MIR. PREsIDENT:-Presuming that
the Justice and courtesy of the gen.
tlemen who compose this Senate will
accord fifteen or twenty minutes to
me, | shall proceed to submit the re-
marks which l had intended to make
yesterday.


The mOurnftl intelligence of the
death Of Gen. Lee reached us at our
homes in vacation. The melancholy v
tidings of the death of Gen. Thomas,
and the accents of SORROW In which
his surviving friends poured fourth
the national grief at his irreparable
loss, were still fresh in our recoilection
when we learned that yet another of
the great actors in the drama through
which we have passed had breathed
his last. These great men were ma
tives of Virginia. They were born
about the same time, and when one
of them had finished his career, u
very brief period was allotted to the
other. The God of nature had stamp
ed the brow of each with the seal of
command, and He had endowed them
with faculties worthy of command.
On the march and in the battle they
tit'i Stocu lbSttiitt. NptlllllblI tDil
and common danger had probably
endeared them to each other, for they
appear to have been superior to the
petty rivalr es which embitter the
existence of interior mortals.


But when the South raised her
standard, and called upon her sons to
rally in its defense, each man had to
settle the momentous question for
himself The dignity aud the strength
of their understandings enabled them
to survey the prospect, and to realize
all its terrible consequences. In their
reflection they may have been per-
picked by doubts and almost over
whclmed with anXieties, but their
honest conclusions compelled their
separation. Thomas resolved to fol-
low the starry emblem of the Union,
while Lee resolved to stand or fall by
the State that had given him birth,
with his kith and kin of the South.
From the concurrent testimony of
his most Intimate acquaintances, we
are led to believe that General Lee
enjoyed II singular exemption from
the faults and the follies OF other men.
He was stranger and enemy to eX-
travagance, to dissipation and to
vice. The vanity and llattery which
usually attend success could not Sc
duce him from propriety, while his
inilexible virtue could defy defeat.


But his faults ana his fullics, whatever
they were,


But their memories dispersed like the
winds Of the air.


Gen. Lee was an American citizen,
and the American people will never
relinquish the property which they
hold in the name and the fame of the
great Firginian. His modesty and
sobriety, his spotless integrity, his
virtue and his valor, will be held up
for the admiration and the imitation
of mankind AZ long aS those exalted
qualities shall have II friend upon
earth.


Parties and partiSans should never
fail t. recognize the fact that in the
ranks of the opposition hearts may
beat rs good and rs pure as their own.
llcrcsy In religious faith aud treason
in political action has been the cries
whenever men were to be led by the
million to the slaughter.


When the sword Is invoked the
conqueror has little difficulty in ap-
propriating to himself such titles aS
may correspond, In his estimation,
with his own efforts for the church or
the STATE, and he Is equally as ready
| to brand his adversary rs Il hereto or
traitor. The sword has less capaci-
~ to understand and decide a cause
upon its merits than any other tri-
hunal that has ever been known
among men. Spears and battle-aXes,
cannon and rifle balls, are the advo-
Gates that plead in this court, and
tears and blood, and fire and famine,
are the cost levied upon the litigants.
The judgments of the sword have
not always commanded that univers-
al respect which might have been
expected, coming from court of such
enlarged jurisdiction. The block
/ from which the heads of Hampien
/ and Sydney dropped aud the chord
that stlangled Emmet could not con-
sign their names To infamy. History
has enrolled them among the patriots
/ and martyrs who have died in defense
/ of the sacred cause of right.


/ War may he, for aught ! know,
one of the necessities of our being.
Nature itself Is aversc To repJse. The
air that we breathe lashes itself iuto
fury, and the tornado sweeps over
land aud sea, leaving desolation in
. its pathway. The sirocco-blust of the
desert buries camel and rider in its
course. The lightning leaps from the
cloud, and swift destruction follows
its fiery track. The ground upon
/ which we stand may be an upheaval,
and the lofty mountain, with its


rocks ald shells, may have risen from
the hn>nm of the fhthumlcsS ocean. II


the elements are thus liable to com


motion and convulsion, Is ii wonder


ful that man, the creature of passion
aud prejudice, Of ambition, revenge