The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1852-07-17

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his services and renown to that final bar
where the lofty and lowly must all meet
at last. do not rise upon this mournful
occasion, to indulge in the language of
panegyric. My regard for the memory
of the dead and for the obligations of the
living would equally rebuke such course.
The severity Of truth is at once our pro-
per course and our best consolation.
Born during the revolutionary struggle,
our deceased associate was one Of the few
remaining public men who connect the
present generation with the trying scenes
of that eventful period in the history Of
their country. He was another illustra-
tion and noble one, too, of the glorious
equality of our institutions, which freely
offer their reward to all who Justly seek
them-for he was the architect of his own
fortune, having made his way in life by
his own exertion, ana he was an early
adventurer in the great forest of the
West, then world Of primitive vegeta-
ton, but now the abode of intelligence
and religion, of prosperity and civiliza-
ton !; but he possessed that intellectual
superiority which overcome surrounding
obstacles, and which local seclusion cam
not long withhold from general knowl-
edge and appreciation.
1t is almost half a century since he
passed through Chilicothe, then the seat
Of government of Ohio, where l was a
member of the Legislature, to take his
place in this very body, which is now
| 81 To
feeble tribute of one who then saw him
for the first time, but who can never for
get the impression then produced on him
by the charms of his conversation, the
frankness of his manner, and the high
qualities with which he was renowned.
Since then he has belonged to his country,
and has taken part, and prominent part,
both in peace and war, in all the great
questions affecting her interest or honor,
and although it has been my fortune often
to differ from him, yet believe he was
as pure patriot as ever participated in the
councils of nation-anxious for the pub
lie good, and seeking to attain it during
all the vicisitudes Of long and eventful
life. That he exercised a powerful in
fluence, within the sphere Of his action,
through the whole country, indeed, we
all feel and know and we know too the
eminent endowments which gave him
this high position-frank and fearless in
the expression of his opinions and in the
performance of his duties: with rare pow
ers Of eloquence, which never failed to
rivet the attention of his auditory, and
which always commanded admiration,
even where they did not carry conviction,
prompt in decision and firm in action, and
with vigorous intellect, trained in the
contests of stirring life, and strengthen
ed by enlarged experience and observa-
ton joined, withal, to an ardent love of
country and to great purity Of purpose
these were the elements of his power,
and we dwell upon them with mournful
qualification now, when we shall soon
follow him to the silent tomb, where we
shall commit earth to earth, ashes to ash
es and dust to dust, but with the blessed
tconviction of the truth of that divine rev.
citation which teaches us that there is life
and hope beyond the narrow house where
we shall leave him alone, to the mercy of
his God and ours. He has passed beyond
the reach of human praise or censure. but
the judgment of his contemporaries has
preceded and pronounced the judgment of
history and his name and fame will shed
lustre upon his country, and will be cher
ished in the hearts of his countrymen for
long ages to come. Yes, they will be
cherished and freshly remembered when
these marble columns that surround US
so often the witnesses of his triumph, but
in few brief hours, when his mortal
frame, despoiled of the immortal spirit,
shall rest under this dome, to become the
} witnesses of his defeat in the final con-
test, where the mightiest fall before the
great destroy these marble COL
umns shall themselves have fallen, like all
the works of man, leaving their broken
fragments to tell of their former magnifi-
cence, amid the very ruins that announce
decay and dissolution. / was often with
him during his last illness, when the
world and the things of the world were
fast fading away before him. He knew
that the silver cord was almost loosened
| that the golden bowl was then break
ing at the fountain-but he was resigned
to the will of Providence, feeling that he
who gave has right to take away in his
own good time and manner. After his
his duty to his Creator and his anxiety for
country, and his first wish for the preser-
walton and perpetuatioa of the Constitu-
ton and the Union-dear to him in the
hour of death as they had ever been in
the vigor Of life-of that Constitution
and Union whose defence, in the last and
greatest hour of their peril, had called
forth all his energies and stimulated those
noble and powerful efforts which he who
witnessed can never forget, and which,
no doubt fastened the final catastrophe
which a nation now deplores, with a sim
cerity and unanimity not less honorable
to themselves than to the memory of the
object of their affections. And when we
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