The southern press. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-07-03

Gle before us, and Of drawing the moral from
the passing events. II is when death sezes
for its victims those who are, by "a head and
shoulders, taller than all the rest" that we feel
most deeply the uncertainty of human affairs,
and that "the glories of our mortal state are
shadows, not substantial things" II is, sir,
IN such instances as the present that we can
pest study by the light of example the true OBJ
Ject OF life, and the wisest ends of human pur-
suit.
Mr. HALE. Mr.. President hope shall not
be considered obtrusive, if on this occasion for
brief moment, | minge my humble voice with
those that, with an ability that shall neither
attempt nor hope to equal have sought to do
justice to the worth and memory of the deceas-
ed, and at the same time appropriately to,min-
lister to the sympathies and sorrows of strick.
en- people. Sir, it is the teaching of inspiration
that 'no man liveth and no man dieh unto him.
self"
There is a lesson taught no less in the death
than IN The life OF every man--eminenty so in
the case of one who has filled large space and
occupied distinguished position in the thoughts
and regard of his fellow men, Particularly in
structive at this time is the event which we now
deplore although the circumstances attending
his decease are such as are calculated to assuage
rather than aggrayate the grief which It must
necessarily cause. His time had fully come.
The three score and ten marking the ordinary
period of human life had for some years been
passed, and, full OF years and of honors, he has
gone to his rest. And now, when the nation is
marshaling itself for the contest which is to de-
eide "who shall be greatest" as if ito chasten our
ambition, to restrain and subdue the violence of
passion, to moderate our desires and elevate our
hopes, we have the spectacle of one who, by the
force OF his intellect and the energy of his own
purpose, had achieved reputation which the
highest official honors of the republic might
nave illustrated, but could not have enhanced.
laid low in death--as if, at the very outset of
this political contest, on which the nation is now
entering, to teach the ambitious and aspiring
The end OF human pursuits and earthly homo.
But, sir, do not intend to dwell on that moral
which is taught by the silent lips and closed
eye OF the illustrous dead, with force such as
no man ever spoke with; but shall leave the
event, with its silent and mute eloquence, to
impress Its own appropriate teachings on the
heart
In the long and eventfu life of Mr.. Clay. in
the various positions which he occupied, in the
many posts ofpublic duty which he filed in the
many exhibitions which his history affords of
untring energy, of unsurpassed eloquence, and
of devoted patriotism, it would be strange in
deed if different minds, as they dwell upon the
subject, were all to select the same Incidents of
his life as prominently calculated to challenge
admiration and respect
Sir, my admiration-ay, my affection for Mr..
Clay-was won and secured many years since,
even in my school-boy days-when his voice of
counsel, encouragement and sympathy was
heard in the other hall of this Capitol, in behalf
OF the struggling colonies of the southern por-
ton of this continent who, in pursuit of their
lnaienable rights, in imitation of our own fore
fathers, had unfured the banner of liberty, and.
regardless OF consequences, had CALAMITY rushed
into that contest where " life is lost, or freedom
won." And again, sir, when Greece, rich in the
memories of the past awoke from the slumber
of ages of oppression and centuries of shame,
and resolved
" To call her virtues back, and conquer time and
fate"-
there, over the plains of that classic land above
the din of battle and the clash of arms, min0ling
with the shouts of the victors and the proans of
the vanqushed, were heard the thrilling and
stirring notes Of that same eoquence, excited
by sympathy which knew no bounds, wide as
the world, pleading the cause of Grecian liberty
before the American Congress, as if to paw back
to Greece the debt which every patriot and orator
felt was her due. Sir, in the long and honor.
able career of the deceased there are MANY events
and circumstances upon which his friends and
posterity will dwell with satisfaction and pride.
but none which will preserve his memory with
more unfading lustre TO future ages than the
course he pursued in the Spanish American and
Greek revolutions.