The Arkansas banner., 1848-05-23
From tas WssAmgtsH Uaisn. EULecY,

t By Senater B0RLAND, apea announcing te
 tho Senate the death of the Hsn. Chester
 Ashley.
 MR. PRESIDENT: My ofieiai introduction into thas chamber has been marked with calamity. and overcast with gloom. The rst of its public dutie. thai has dsvolved upon mo ie of deep solemnity. and its perfOrmanee is undertaken with feeling. ef oppressive sadness.
 Just ore week ago, venerable form-in the ful. ne of life, and the seeming vgor of perfect health --rose in his place. and, in voice well known and respected bere, announced my position in this as- s'mbly' That form will not rise again in this pre- 'enee for It now lies lifeless and cold e clod of the valley. That voice win bs heard no more with in these walls; for t Is pushed in death. In return fer the kind courtesy of presenting me- as his col issgue. to this eonpany of honorable seuaors nay bat the poor and painful tribute of making known hts na separation The last act of his public l,f. was my introduction: the first Of mine must be bis obituary.
 CHEsrsR ASHLEY, . senator from the sta,e oy Arkansas, is no more He breathed his last, at hi. ledgngs In this city, on Saturday hst, the 2sth of April. a' IS minutes before o'elock, in the af,er noon. On Sunday of last week, he felicitated him. self upon the perfection of his heaEh Soon af,er breakfast, the next morning. he complained of sight ndisPosition; but slight as hardly to com mand second thought. At the usua hour he pro. cseded to his place in this chamber Whsp ths Journal had been read, he did me the favor to pre sent my credentials, as his colleague. A few min utes after, his indispOsion increased; he had the sensation of ehiness, md, leaving tle Capitol, re- turned to his lodgings. That evening found him deeply jaundiced, and in the delrium ofleyer. Tbs latter symptom had usually marked even his slight. est indispostion-as is very common with indiv,. duals of large brain and sanguine temperament. His family. however, thought him net seriously i'll certainly not in danger. Button Tuesday morning he had grown evidently worse, and ad.ssinguished physician of the city was called to ,eo him. His condition was found to be such even then as to af ford little hope of his recovery Another eminent practitioner was consulted, and the same opinion given.
 on Friday morning was invited to make third party In the professional consultation. But there was no ground for hope. An intense and exten sive Inflammation had seized upon the bowels, and. Tn my opinion, upon the liver also and was of that tyPe' occasionally encountered, which, setting at naushs the highest science and the best directed e forts of human skill, run, almost from the very outset, steadily and rapidly into fatal termination had seen similar cases before; and am particu- lariy reminded by it of that of the late Senator FULTON, who was, alike in station, in disease, and death. the predecessor of him whose loss we now deplore.
 Col. ASHLEY was native of New England. He was born in Westdeid. in Massachusetts, on the day of June, l1So and consequently. at the time of his death, was in the 5sth year of his age When an infant of only three months, he was carried by his parents. who removed to the town of Hudson, in New York. He grew up, engaged m the prac- tice Of the law. and resided there about 9 years; then migrated to Illinois. where he remained about two years; and subsequently, visiting the territory, of what is now the State of Arkansas in 1919, de- termined 10 make his residence al Little Rock, then a mere landing on the Southern bank, some three hundred miles above the mouth of the Arkansas river Soon afterwards he married in siissoufi and removed. with his young family. to his home in the wilderness.
 At that period, q settlement in what was truly "the far vest" was no trivial undertaking. Itre quired high degree of enterprise to encounter the Privasions, hardships, and perils of frontier life now SO much talked about but then actually endur- ed. An uncommon share of mental forecast would alone suffice to ascertain point in so wide range. which must become the centre of important opera tiOns, from which settlement and civilization must radiAte, and then throw back an accumulated inte- rest. A 6rmness, 6xedness. singleness of purpose, true to its object the needle to the poe was alone capable of abiding the full development of the little cloud of improvement. then no bigger than mans hand. which was, within quarter of a century, te cover with its golden draPery the whole horizon. Yet many New England boy-msny stripping, from anywhere this side the mountains, impelsd by the VrepressibIe spirit of progress. guided by judgment So clear in its perceptions. and 50 rapid ia Its combinations, as to seem intuitive, and sus tained by will as potent as the lever of Archime des. has exhibited ali the high qualities have men, tioned; and that too, in the construction of mper. ishabie moRuments-not monuments like the tow ssisg Pyiamids Of Egypt. barren of utility as the wastes Of sand they overiook-nor like the huge
  walls of the Roman coliseum. within which hu- nan beings were wont 10 be degraded ts the cruel level Of wild beasts; but of monuments of q purer order, of loftier structure, of more comprehen- i've oPortions-dedeated to the higher sentiments 'f the human heart, and adapted to the true wants 'f haman society-monuments made up of the will ierness, reclaimed and converted into cultivated fields; of the towns, with their brstling spires, which crowd our thoroughfarss; of the teemIag commerce of our "iniand seas;" and. above all, of be millions of freenen who sleep securely under heir own rooftrees. and stand in conscious seses- ignty upon the fertile soi! of their own broad acres n word-the noble aggregate of these monu- nens is before the world. n the peerless prosper- of ''ths great west" l have selected the New | England boy, the eis-montane strppiing. as the ype Of a class. And of that class IL would bs diff |