Soon, however, the indication of a long peace proved delusive, and the scene shifted. This time it was decreed that he should behold the terrible conflict in which one portion of his unhappy country was to engage in deadly array with another portion. Obeying what he conceived to be the mandate of his State, he followed the impulse of his feelings and the example of his kindred and his friends, and periled all in that belief. He participated at once, and most actively, in some of the most sanguinary engagements of the civil war. Wounded at one place, taken prisoner at another, then exchanged, and again in the van of battle, we find him following the forlorn hope until the close of the struggle at Appomattox, when he again returned to the old farm. He possessed the undivided confidence of his constituents. He was regarded by them, as he was so long observed by us in our intimate associations with him in this Hall, and especially in the committee rooms, as an intelligent and conscientious legislator, a laborious servant of the people, a courtly gentleman, a generous and devoted companion. Loyal as he was to his political convictions, he was yet the most considerate and the most conservative in his relations with those who radically differed with him. He admired frankness; he despised duplicity. While he was obedient to the reasonable edicts of caucus and party organization, we recall occasions when he was prompt to rise above the partisan. He was as broad-gauge and comprehensive in the study and performance of his duty toward all parts and all interests of his reunited country as he was anxious for the obliteration of sectional animosity and sincere and generous of heart in his social obligations to all of his fellow-men. The most touching remembrance we bear of Gen. LEE's goodness of heart has reference to his custom in springtime of bringing to this Hall from his farm great quantities of lovely roses, and having them distributed to his associates of both political parties on this floor with his compliments. Here we have a practical illustration that flowers are the interpreters of man's best feelings. In oriental lands the language of flowers was early studied and made expressive. As Percival says: Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers, On its leaves a mystic language bears. With Gen. LEE they bore tidings of good will to partisan friend and partisan foe alike. They bespoke in mute eloquence the expansive heart of one "that loved his fellow-men." Little, however, did he think at the time that these beautiful roses were especially speaking to him as emblems of a near immortality. Awakening from their sleep of winter, they were also harbingers of a brighter day to him and of the bloom of a glorious resurrection. The Germans have a saying that "he who loves flowers loves God." If this be applied to Gen. LEE, we have the blessed assurance that he has approached close to the celestial throne.