e or further-reaching
influence.

His fine character and engaging manner made friends for him and for his
people. His excellent judgment had great weight in council, his
political ideas were eminently liberal, and his tact and attention
reached results where perhaps more aggressive qualities would have been
ineffectual. On one occasion that I recall he was urging the passage of
the bill to pay for use and occupation of the Theological Seminary near
Alexandria during the war. He became the mark, in doing so, of inquiry
and badinage, and some one, meaning to disparage the claim by
intimation that the clerical professors of the institution had been
enemies of the Government, called out to him, "How did they pray?" He
answered instantly, "For all sinners." His ready pleasantry put
everybody in good humor and the bill was passed.

Gen. LEE was a representative man in a larger sense than that of
official designation. He was a representative country gentleman, and the
flavor of his native soil was in his character. He was born in the
country, at beautiful Arlington, with the woods and fields and streams
and mountain vistas around him. He lived in the country all his life,
and died in the country, at his home in Fairfax County, an owner of
land, loving the land; his home, a fine old country seat of colonial
pattern, the scene of domestic peace and love and hospitality; his
voice, that of the good people of his vicinage; his life, daily tasks,
intermingled with daily studies and contemplation; his aims, those of
the patriot and Christian, his country, God, and truth.

Gen. LEE was a representative American of broad gauge and vision. Many
of us--and I have felt myself amongst them--are quite provincial. We
know our own neighborhoods and their people, and we grow slowly into
knowledge of other sections and their people. Local caste, prejudice,
interest, and bias warp us and minify our usefulness. Gen. LEE was not
of this kind. There was no sectionalism in his caste, no bigotry in his
creeds. His strong local attachments, natural to a true nature, neither
dwarfed his opinions, soured his reflections, nor darkened his vision.
His was a ripe mind and his a generous nature. He understood men,
because he understood mankind. He had respect for all men, because he
respected manhood. He dealt considerately and justly with all men of all
races, creeds, opinions, and aspirations, because he respected men and
because he had a good man's s