The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1845-07-01
THE FUNERAL SOLEMNlTIES AT WASHINGTON
MIR. BANCRoFT's GRAFTON.

MR.. BANCR0FT'S GRAFTON.
The men of the American revolution are no more
That age OF creative power has passed away, The
last surviving signer of the Declaration of Indepen
dence has long since left the earth Washington
lies near his own Potomac, surrounded by his ami-
ly and his servants Adams, the colossus OF indie
pendence, reposes IN the modest graveyard OF his
native region. Jefferson sleeps on the heights. OF
his own Monticello, whence his eye overlooked his
beloved Virginia Madison the last survivor Of the
hearts. But who shall say that the heroes, in whom
the image of God shone most brightly, do not live
forever They filed with the vast conceptions
which called America INTO being; they lived tor
those conceptions and their deeds praise them.
We are met to commemorate the. virtues of one
who shed his blood for our Independence, took part
in winning the territory and forming the early nstl-
ideas which constitute the moral force Of our country
On the spot where he gave his solemn ieay to the
freedom, to the constitution and to the laws-we meet
to pay tribute to the memory Of the last great
which gathers round itself all the associations that form
South Carolina gave birth place to Andrew Jackson.
On its remote frontier far up the forestcad banks of
beginning cluster, his eye first the light There
his infancy sported in the ancient forests and his mind
nursed to freedom by their influence. He the
youngest of Irish emigrant of Scottish origin,
who two years after the great Of Frederick of Prus
a fled to America for relief from indulgence and oppres
sion. His birth in l767, at time when the people
OF land but body of dependent colonsts,
scarcely than two millions in number, scattered
along immense coast with army, navy union
and exposed to the attempts Of England to control
America by the aid military force. His boyhood grew
up in the midst of the contest with Great Britain The
great political truth that reached his heart that
all free and equal the first great fact that
beamed on his understanding, was his country's inde
pendence
The strife as it increased, came the shades of his
upland residence. As a boy of thirteen, he wit
messed the Of horror that accompany civil
and when but year older with elder brother, he
shoudered hi ausket and went forth TO strike blow
Joyous era for America and for humanity But for
him, the orphan boy the events were full of agony and
grief His father more. His Oldest brother fell
a victim to the war of the revolution another (his
panion in arms died Of wounds received in their joint
to grief and efforts to her and when peace
came, he was alone in the world, with no kindred to
cherish him, and little Inheritance but his own untred
powers.
The nation which emancipated itself from British rule
organizes itself Tie confederation gives way to the con-
sttution the perccug OF that consttutionthat grand
event of the thousaud of modern hstory-is
complished: Americ0 ope, gains unity as a
government, and tax place a nation among the
powers of the earth
The great Office to be performed by America is
the taking possession of the wilderness The niagnif
cent western valley cried out to the civilization OF popu
lar power that must be occupied by cultivated man.
Behold then, orphan hero sternly earnest,
neither father mother sister ner surviving bro
Their so young and yet SO solitary and bound
or his lot to 60 forth and assist in laying the foundations
Of society in the great valley Of the Mississippi.
At the very time when washington was Pledging his
institutions which to be the light Of the human
race,at the time when the institutions of the Old
% were rocking to their centre and the mighty IA
Drc that nad down from the middle ages was fall
ana boundess hope and confident intrepidy twenty
one, plunged into the Wilderness crossed the grea,
mountan-barrer that divides the western waters from
the Atlantic followed the paths of the early hunters and
ugtves and not content with the ncighborhood
to his parent State went still further and further the
west till he found his home in the most beautiful region
the Cumberland. There, from the first he recog-
Missed the great pioneer under his courage the
ing emigrants were sure to find shield.
The lovers Of adventure began to pour themselves
into the territory. whose delicious climate and fertile
soil invited the presence of social man. The hunter
with his rifle and his axe by wife and chill
dren the herdsman driving the few cattle that were to
all came to the inviting region Wherever the bending
mountains opened pass-wherevcr the buffaloes and
nature cben Of hman;ty in tho highest sentiment ~,
personal freedom, came to occupy the beautiful wilder
ness whose prairies blossomed everywhere proussly
with wild owers-whose woods in spring put to shame
by their magnfcence, the cultivated gardens of man.
3 And that these unlettered fugitives educated
erudtion but sharing the living ideas of the age had
made their homes in the West-what would follow
Would they degrade themselves to ignorance and Inf
deity Would they make the soltudes Of the desert
for RIGHTEOUSNESS Would the doctrines Of free
| of laws and fixed institutions
AT time when European society becoming broken
in pieces scattered disunted and resolved into its ele
ments ensued in Tennessee, than which nothing
more beautifully grand recorded in the annals of the
These adventurers in the wilderness longed to come
together in organized society. The overshadowing ge
MUS Of their time inspired them with good designs, and
filed them with the counses of wisdom Dwellers in the
forest reesi of the Free bound in the spirit they
up by their representatives, foot, horseback,
through the forest along the streams, by the buffalo
traces by the Indian paths by the blazed forest avenues
to meet in convention among the mountains at Knox
Jackson was there the greatest man Of them al-modest
bold, determined demanding nothing for himself and
shrinking from nothing that his heart approved.
he yapfO ann fharo Tho 1ayo &c To,
uary 1896 and finished its work the 9th day of Feb
ruary. How had the wisdom of the Old World vainly
be the subject OF experiment the of Tennessee in
less than twenty-five days, perfected fabric, which, in
gether full of faith and reverence of love to humanity
framed Their constitution acting under higher influences
than they we're conscious Of
They wrought in sad sincerity,
They builded better than they knew;
The conscious stones to beauty grew.
In the instrument which they framed, they embodied
their faith in God al in the immortal nature of
indicated the sanctity Of reason by giving freedom Of
speech and Of the PRESS they reverenced the voice of
God as speaks in the soul Of man. by asserting the
deieasble right OF man to worship the Infinite according
to his conscence they established and equa.
lily Of elections; and they demanded from e-
gislator solemn oath never to any act or
thing whatever that shall have tendency to lessen
the rights of the people"
These majestic lawgvers, wiser than the Soons and
Lycurguses, and Numas Of the Old World--these pro-
phetic founders of State who embodied in their consti
tuition the sublmest truths Of humanity acted wthout
reference to human praises.
They kept special record Of their doings they took
no pains vaunt their Deeds and when their work
DONE knew not that they had finished of the SUBJ
finest acts ever performed among They left no
record as to whose agency conspicuous whose elo
quence swayed whose generous will predominated;
should We know, but for tradition confirmed by what
followed among themselves.
The men of Tennessee people, and they
were to send forth to stand for them in the Con-
gress OF the United Statesthat avenue to gorythat
home of eloquencethe citadel of popular power; and,
with one consent they united in selecting the foremost
man among their awgivers-ArpREw JACKSON.
The love OF the people of Tennessee followed him to
the American Congress and he had served but sinrle
term when the State of Tennessee made him of its
representatives in the American Senate, where he sat
under the auspices of jefferson.
Thus when he was scarcely more than thirty, he had