well General Lee
carried out that dangerous experiment need not be told. Richmond was
relieved, the Confederacy was relieved, and time was obtained, if
other things had favored, to reenforce the army.

"But," said Mr. Davis, "I shall not attempt to review the military
career of our fallen chieftain. Of the man, how shall I speak? He was
my friend, and in that word is included all that I could say of
any man. His moral qualities rose to the height of his genius.
Self-denying; always intent upon the one idea of duty; self-controlled
to an extent that many thought him cold, his feelings were really
warm, and his heart melted freely at the sight of a wounded soldier,
or the story of the sufferings of the widow and orphan. During the war
he was ever conscious of the inequality of the means at his control;
but it was never his to complain or to utter a doubt; it was always
his to do. When, in the last campaign, he was beleaguered at
Petersburg, and painfully aware of the straits to which we were
reduced, he said: 'With my army in the mountains of Virginia, I could
carry on this war for twenty years longer.' His men exhausted, and his
supplies failing, he was unable to carry out his plans. An untoward
event caused him to anticipate the movement, and the Army of Northern
Virginia was overwhelmed. But, in the surrender, he anticipated
conditions that have not been fulfilled; he expected his army to be
respected, and his paroled soldiers to be allowed the enjoyments of
life and property. Whether these conditions have been fulfilled, let
others say.

"Here he now sleeps in the land he loved so well; and that land is not
Virginia only, for they do injustice to Lee who believe he fought only
for Virginia. He was ready to go anywhere, on any service, for the
good of his country; and his heart was as broad as the fifteen States
struggling for the principles that our forefathers fought for in the
Revolution of 1776. He is sleeping in the same soil with the thousands
who fought under the same flag, but first offered up their lives.
Here, the living are assembled to honor his memory, and there the
skeleton sentinels keep watch over his grave. This citizen, this
soldier, this great general, this true patriot, left behind him the
crowning glory of a true Christian. His Christianity ennobled him in
life, and affords us grounds for the belief that he is happy beyond
the grave.

"But, while we mourn the loss of the great and the true, dro