The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1852-11-19
Death,. PolIticaI Lesson.

That kindly and charitable Latin maxim
which exhorts us not merely to spare the dead
but if possible 10 speak well of them, is perhaps
alEost as wise as il is gentle. For there are
many whose virtues remain 10 a great degree,
unfeit Till they are no more; while. on the other
hand, there are people who can do no justice 10
the living So difficult is it, indeed, 10 Judge
mea fairl; while alive, thai a sagaciou: nation
OF Antiquity Qhe Egyptians) were accustola ed
(hisloisns tell us) 10 hold regular Assizes of the
Dead where grave but no doubt indulgent men
sat upon the departed, weighed all Their conduct
without passion, AID assigned the reputation
which coulS not be fixed until then. We ina
CINE that these must have been tribunals that
knew how to make large allowances for human
in6rmitie isleHed little 10 the voice nf envy
and derraction, and dwelt loyingly upon The
good and great qualities L. such coiiris, what
witness but must have hestated to produce his
rancors, TO refuse giving up his prejudices, and
to stand disarmed by death of every iniurious
opinion towards him who could harm him no
marel Noihing, indeed, can he more &patheti
caiiy right as 70 mos men--for there are few in
wtscn there was not much good. or at least much
mater for strong human sympathies--i than
those mournful words Of The poet
efthem who, wrapped in earth so cold.
No more the smiling day shall view.
Should many a { ;ndcr tale be told;
For many gentle thought is due.
All ehis.si frre Of our common broihers of
the earth; and of course still truel OF such as a
more eminent part in the conflict of human Lii g
has exposed 10 many personal Tesenlments.--
And accordingly out Of that tardv com junction
or those solemn sympathies which we have sup
pesed "a to act in those Egyptian trials, one
still sees. At the death of great men, sudden
sense OF h-ir true merits seize upon their ene-
mics themselves and turn ebioquy into admir- a.
tion and sorrow. Such was. some years since,
the scene when Mr. ADAMS was all at once
struck down, before the nations eyes from that
50 long filled, IL little too combaiivey yet ably
honestly. and patrioticaliv Such was far NOR e
strikingly STILL the fareral spectacle at the death
of him SO long, in this country. bom The ver,y
streauousness Of his pnblic abilities and servi-
ce> the foremost object of all love and all hate,
HENRy Clay. Whatever of odious men had
said of him while he lived was cancelled by
their praises and their tears over his tomb. So
was II, the other day, in England, when the Iron
Duke-that infiexible man who had for so
many day, divided The reverence and the con-
tumelies OF the European world without seeming
much 10 care for either, or for anything but his
own idea OF las du.y-yielded al last to fate the
only hing TO which he ever could yield. And, at
this monent We have once more the same con-
selling if sad spectacle, of the posthumous JUS
lice With they who had most denounced Dan
TEL WFBsTER are now (sinceTe at last doing
throughout The land to his memory as a great
and patriotic statesman. II is easy 10 see that
they will equally by like encomiums and la
men.ations. exPiaie their injustice to WINFIELD
ScorT, when that greatest of surviving p bile
servants shall die, a day OF retribution aud
atonelnent ho Ever, which is yet, we trust, far
of.-National Inlelligencer.