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His greatness developed.
Daniel Webster said it was the occasion that made eloquence.
Certain it is that opportunity develops the powers of great men. If there had been no Southern Confederacy
Robert E. Lee would have lived and died a colonel of cavalry.
The cause for which he fought, the men who followed him, and the women who blessed him with their tears, their prayers, and sustained him with unremitting labor and patriotism, together with his character, have given to the world examples of patriotism, heroism, and endurance, which contain many lessons, the careful study of which must be good for all the people who have and shall live after him. Who can say that such a cause so sustained is without its blessings to all humanity?
When he died it was the judgment of the world that the white flower of a blameless life should be laid upon his bier, and to-day he lives in the memories and hearts of all intelligent, right-thinking people as the most perfect exemplification of all that is great and good and to be desired in human life.
