The Southern soldier did all this after failure and defeat. The cause was lost; his efforts availed nothing. The homes of many were in ashes; sorrow was in every household; many were stripped of their all. The labor system of the country was destroyed; commerce was dead. Many had not seed to plant their lands. The workshop, the manufactory, the shipyard were silent as the grave. The arts of peace seemed to have perished. The soldiers were disbanded without the means of reaching their homes, and the few survivors of those who went forth with bright hopes, proud and confident in their strength, returned one by one weary and footsore and disheartened.
The history of other nations would have suggested to the historian that the result must be open riots and secret assassinations, a reign of violence and terror, years of turbulence and lawlessness, before society would settle down to its former condition. But how different was the result. The parole upon which the soldier was released was in no instance violated. The situation was accepted without a murmur or complaint. The laws were obeyed. The terms imposed were acceded to. Soon the busy hum of industry was heard through the land. The arts of peace were revived. Agriculture and trade once again flourished, and our fair country began to bloom again into something like its old-time beauty and prosperity.
There were few Southern soldiers who returned to a greater desolation than did our late associate, Gen. Lee. Fate seemed to have done its worst. The beloved wife and the two dear children who had made his home at the "White House" a paradise had died in 1863, while he was held as a prisoner and a hostage at Fort Lafayette and Fort Monroe. The place had been occupied by Union troops; the mansion, with all its surroundings, had been destroyed by fire, and, as has been well said by another, there was "not a blade of grass left to mark the culture of more than a hundred years." Had he been an ordinary man he would have sunk with the load of sorrow and trouble which weighed him down. But he had a brave heart, which defeat and affliction and disaster with united effort could not conquer.
With the same noble spirit which had actuated his father, the elder Lee, he threw aside his discouragement and took up the duties of life and citizenship anew. He had made himself famous as a soldier; he now began in earnest to cultivate the arts of peace. It was no easy task, for the era of reconstruction immediately succeeded the war, and only those who were actually under its ban can realize the burdens and hardships it entailed upon an unfortunate people emerging from a disastrous conflict.
He rebuilt and reëstablished his home at the White House plantation. He was married November 27, 1867, to Miss Mary Tabb, daughter of Hon. George W. Bolling, of Petersburg. In 1874 the family removed to Ravensworth, in Fairfax County.
At both these places he cultivated his broad acres and interested himself in all matters relating to agricultural progress and development. He advanced and promoted these interests as president of the Virginia State Agricultural Society. He represented his county for a term in the State senate, but declined a reëlection, and returned to his plantation and the enjoyment of home life. After a few years of quiet he was called, in 1886, to a new field of activity by neighbors and political friends, who desired his services at the national capital, and he became the Representative from the Alexandria district in the Fiftieth Congress, and he was in his third term, when, on the 15th day of October, 1891, the hand of death removed him from his career of usefulness. For weeks his strong constitution and vigorous frame had resisted disease in his Ravensworth home. All that kindness and skill could suggest was done in his behalf, but skill and kindness were of no avail, and he bade adieu to home and family, companions and associates, earthly duties and surroundings, and entered upon his eternal rest. His mortal life was closed.
I well remember a day spent in his company nearly four years ago, and its occurrences gave me an opportunity to witness the regard in which he was held by those among whom he had lived and to whom he was best known. It was on Decoration Day, in a section of country where he had seen service as a soldier, not far from where he had lived in his early childhood. He was the orator of the occasion. Many of his old companions in arms and members of their families were among his audience, and they listened eagerly as he made appropriate reference to the departed comrades who slept under the little hillocks near by them, bright and fragrant with the flowers of early summer, which the loving hands of woman and childhood had heaped upon them. As he descended from the platform he was surrounded by old and young, who thronged about him to shake his hand or give expression to a friendly greeting. Admiration and affection were expressed upon their countenances for the brave man before them, whose gallant deeds had been told at every fireside in the country around, and who was loved and honored because, in addition to his own merits and virtues, he represented the great leader whose name was the embodiment of a precious memory.
I have portrayed William Henry Fitzhugh Lee as a student, a soldier, a planter, a public man representing his people in the State legislature and the National Congress.
Some have united in paying tribute to his memory because they were born and reared in the State which gave him birth, some because they shared with him the hardships and dangers of his military career, some because they were associated with him in Congressional life and committee work. But while I take a great pride in all that he accomplished in the after years, it is more pleasant to me to recollect him as the student, for in that relation I was first drawn into companionship with him; it was during that period of our lives that I first learned to regard him, and my tribute is to my classmate and friend of auld lang syne. May he rest in peace in the bosom of the honored State he loved so well and served so faithfully.