e and gallant son, who when
not on duty was as gentle as a woman. Her fame has been increased
by having had such a son. May she have many more; like him.

ADDRESS OF MR. EDMUNDS, OF VIRGINIA.

Mr. SPEAKER: It is not my purpose to attempt any extended remarks upon
the life and character of Gen. WILLIAM H.F. LEE, late a Representative
from the Eighth Congressional district of Virginia, yet I can not permit
this occasion to pass and my hand and heart to fail to pay my humble
tribute to his memory. Gen. LEE's life had been spent after manhood in
arms or as a tiller of the soil. In early life he saw military service
as lieutenant in the Sixth Regiment, United States Infantry, and was
with Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston in the expedition in 1858 against the
Mormons.

Resigning from the Army, he returned to his native State of Virginia and
engaged in the pursuit of agriculture. Early in the late civil struggle
he raised a cavalry company, and rose from the position of company
commander to that of major-general, and followed the cause in which he
had enlisted until the end at Appomattox. There two great military
chieftains met, and one, his illustrious father, gave up to the other
his sword and the mutilated remnant of an army which had fought with the
utmost bravery and fortitude under a leader of unsurpassed skill and
fidelity.

Gen. LEE, after the struggle had ended, resuming his citizenship in
peace, returned to his farm and occupation of agriculture.

He was elected by his people from his senatorial district to the
legislature. He served one term in the senate of Virginia and declined a
renomination. He was afterwards elected from the Eighth Congressional
district of his State to the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses and
again returned by his constituency to the present Congress; but the hand
of death interposed, and he did not live to again take his seat in this
legislative hall.

The name of Lee, Mr. Speaker, has been an illustrious one in Virginia.
No one can with safety challenge the assertion that that old
Commonwealth has furnished, from the time of the Revolution, as many
great men, in peace and in war, as any of the States of our Union. When
the foundations of this great Republic were laid and constitutional
principles evolved, whether the sword of the warrior or the mind and
philosophy of the statesman were needed, you will find the marks and
handiwork of some son of that State.

Among th