hall never
look until on that immortal day when we shall behold it transfigured
before the throne of God."

The meeting then adopted the following preamble and resolutions:

"_Whereas_, Like orphans at the grave of a parent untimely snatched
away, our hearts have lingered and brooded, with a grief that no
cunning of speech could interpret, over the thought that Robert Edward
Lee exists no more, in bodily life, in sensible form, in visible
presence, for our love and veneration, for our edification and
guidance, for our comfort and solace; and--

"_Whereas_, We have invoked all mute funeral emblems to aid us with
their utmost eloquence of woe, and we cannot content ourselves with
contemplating, from the depth and the gloom of our bereavement, the
exalted and radiant virtues of the dead:

"_Resolved_, That we, the people of New Orleans, have come together
under one common impulse to render united homage to the memory which
holds mastery in our minds, whether we turn with bitter regard to the
past, or with prayerful and chastened aspirations to the future.

"_Resolved_, That as Louisianians, as Southerners, as Americans,
we proudly claim our share in the fame of Lee as an inheritance
rightfully belonging to us, and endowed with which we shall piously
cherish, though all calamities should rain upon us, true poverty--the
poverty indeed that abases and starves the spirit can never approach
us with its noisome breath and withering look.

"_Resolved_, That it is infinitely more bitter to have to mourn the
loss of our Lee, than not to have learned to prize him as the noblest
gift which could have been allotted to a people and an epoch; a grand
man, rounded to the symmetry of equal moral and intellectual powers,
graces, and accomplishments; a man whose masterly and heroic energy
left nothing undone in defending a just cause while there was a
possibility of striking for it a rational and hopeful blow, and whose
sublime resignation when the last blow was struck in vain, and when
human virtue was challenged to match itself with the consummation of
human adversity, taught wiser, more convincing, more reassuring, more
soul-sustaining lessons than were to be found in all the philosophies
of all books.

"_Resolved_, That worthily to show our veneration for this majestic
and beautiful character, we must revolve it habitually in our
thoughts, and try to appropriate it to the purification and elevation
of our lives, and so educate