igned to
him.

"And I accept this noble chieftain equally as the representative of
this Southland in the spirit of his retirement from struggle. It could
not escape any speaker upon this platform to allude to the dignity of
that retirement; how, from the moment he surrendered he withdrew from
observation, holding aloof from all political complications, and
devoting his entire energies to the great work he had undertaken to
discharge. In this he represents--an the true attitude of the South
since the close of the war attitude of quiet submission to the
conquering power and of obedience to all exactions; but without
resiling from those great principles which were embalmed in the
struggle, and which, as the convictions of a lifetime, no honest mind
could release.

"All over this land of ours there are men like Lee--not as great, not
as symmetrical in the development of character, not as grand in the
proportions which they have reached, but who, like him, are sleeping
upon memories that are holy as death, and who, amid all reproach,
appeal to the future, and to the tribunal of History, when she shall
render her final verdict in reference to the struggle closed, for the
vindication of the people embarked in that struggle. We are silent,
resigned, obedient, and thoughtful, sleeping upon solemn memories,
Mr. President; but, as said by the poet-preacher in the Good Book, 'I
sleep, but my heart waketh,' looking upon the future that is to come,
and powerless in every thing except to pray to Almighty God, who rules
the destinies of nations, that those who have the power may at least
have the grace given them to preserve the constitutional principles
which we have endeavored to maintain. And, sir, were it my privilege
to speak in the hearing of the entire nation, I would utter with
the profoundest emphasis this pregnant truth: that no people ever
traversed those moral ideas which underlie its character, its
constitution, its institutions, and its laws, that did not in the end
perish in disaster, in shame, and in dishonor. Whatever be the glory,
the material civilization, of which such a nation may boast, it still
holds true that the truth is immortal, and that ideas rule the world.

"And now I have but a single word to say, and that is, that the grave
of this noble hero is bedewed with the most tender and sacred
tears ever shed upon a human tomb. I was thinking in my study this
afternoon, striving to strike out something I migh