Southern writers were so successful in promoting Lee as a national hero that by the turn of the century Senator John Daniel of Virginia was able to commission a sculpture of him for the U.S. Capitol. Anxious to portray Lee as a man of virtue and peace, Daniel objected to the military clothing depicted here: "While Lee was the greatest General of history, except Napoleon, he is the greatest man of history excepting none. He should stand in the National Capitol in his greatest character."