, he will
ever be held in grateful remembrance by his late constituents, and when
the long roll of Virginia's noble and heroic dead is called, the name of
WILLIAM H. FITZHUGH LEE will be mourned by his mother Commonwealth as
one of her noblest and truest sons.

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I shall read, as the most fitting tribute I
have seen, an editorial from the Alexandria Gazette written the day
after the death of Gen. LEE:

Gen. WILLIAM HENRY FITZHUGH LEE, second son of Gen. Robert Edward
Lee, is dead. The bells here tolled late yesterday evening. A few
hours before the general had crossed over the river and was at rest
under his roof tree at Ravensworth, the southern sun lighted his
deathbed and the autumn breeze sang his requiem. Afterlife's fitful
fever he sleeps well. He was sick a long time, and as his disease
was incurable, death was a relief. No more pain for him now, but
the long and peaceful sleep of the just. His sorrowing family were
at his bedside, but he told them not good-bye, preferring to greet
them when they shall rejoin him in a better world. His death is
regretted by all the many who knew him; the more so by those who
knew him well.

Gen. LEE, like his father, was naturally quiet and retiring, and in
his intercourse with others, when right and principle were not
involved, invariably acted in accordance with the rule of _noblesse
oblige_, but when they were involved he was as firm in support of
his convictions as any other man could be. He stood foursquare to
all the winds that blow, but always with the propriety that
characterizes the perfect gentleman. He did his duty to his God,
his family, his State, and his country, and did it well, and
executed faithfully all the trusts committed to him in both
military and civil life. He liked the old manners and customs of
Virginia, but tried to conform to the new order of things with
becoming grace, and did so with no audible complaint and no useless
repinings. He served his State efficiently in her senate and in the
national Congress, and in the Confederate army he filled, by
merited promotion, every position from captain up to major-general
of cavalry. It was different once, but Virginia can ill-afford to
part with such a man now, and in his death, as in that of his
illustrious father, she has lost a tru