The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1855-08-22
Clos1ng Remarks of Hon. James
meacham, at the Funeral of Gov.
Eaton, in Enosburgh.


warranted in giving you. in its .mnlost
form, that every thing in human power
that could be done to relieve and save
him was done, promptly. and carnestlv
The whole baud of his Medical brethren.
very learned and skilled BODY, stood
round him, if possible to guard h i'm from
the threatening destroyer. Not one soul
in that community but would, from
morning to midnight and from midnight
to morning have stayed mp the hand of
the prophet who prayed for his deliver.
ance. a special carrier called. from n
distant place, yourg friend and pupil
OF his own profession. Those two men.
with the fidelity of brothers. always rush.
ca TO each others rescue in the hour Of
danger And it is believed that bv an
intimate knowledge of each others con.
stliutlons they were the means of fro.
quent! y saving each others lives JIo
thus had with him. that skill he most
highly valued aud trusted. An onlv
daughter, with the assiduity and earnest.
ness OF strong filial affections. and faith.
tu wife. who had been as a guardian an.
gel through ten long years Of su tferinp.
struggled to assuage his terrible agony
but through all these the resistless con.
queror came and the wreck Of his mower
is IN the coffin before us. hive la,clv
read temperance address he made to
you during the last winter. | need not
respect the sentiments now fresh in vour
minds. He rccounts his histovy from
ear y childhood to mature life spent in the
smiling valley before us. recalls the sym.
pathy eyislng between him and ourselves
IN his long practice. lie then turn, to
your grave yard, end reminds YOU that
there he has father, sister, wife and
a child, and expresses the wish that his
dust may rcposc with bis companions and
kindred
There is something almost mysterious
IN the anxiety we have about the place
when our bodies shall decay, when the
spirit has departed; and that we so uni
versall wish them to rest with our fam.
ny and friends. Many an one is willing
that bis corpse should be examined to
mud the nature of his mortal disea So still
he wishes the fragments of the dissect.
ing room shall not be buried in the
buria place of strangers" The savage
makes his strongest appeal to us when
be asks that he may guard the sepulchre
of his fathers while living and rest with
them when dead The Swiss like old
Barzlllai. is unwilling to descend upon
the soft and sunny plain of the south
lest he may not have his grave in the
gorge or cliff ofhis mountain LONE. That
recorded feeling is as old as the history
OF our race. Jacob said to his son
Joseph, II will lie with my fathers,
and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt
and bury me in their burying place.
aud his charge to his twelve cons
was, bury me with my fathers" That
same Joseph who might seem to have
adopted Egypt, the scene of his trials
and triumphs, as his home, charged Is.
raci, carry up my bones from hence )"
aud 1t shows tho sacredness of the trust
and the fidelity with which it was exc
cuted. that nearly two hundred years af-
ter Israel buried the bones of Joseph in
Shrehom. This desire, pcrvading all
human nature, was the desire Of our
friend. In compliance with that wish
wei come to bear back and deliver unto
your hands his mortal remains, and ask
that you will give them rcpose with the
dust Of your fathers and yourselves and
your children till the trump of God shall
wake. There will come after US no
whisper to make you ashamed that he
was reared and rests in your midst.
can bear you the sympathy of his adopt
cd town, of the faculty and students of
the college with which he was connected;
you are mourners together over hi, death.
1t is known there, as all over our own
State. that there was peculiarly strong
attachment between him and yourselves.
Here he began his professional career.
You first placed him in public life; lie
was your representative for six years;
your Lieut. Gov. three years your Gov.
two years your State Superintendent
five years; and a member of your Con.
stitutional Council. lie was Professor
in Middlcbury College for six years lie
was thus in some public service one half
OF his life, and connected with the gov.
eminent of the State more than one third
of his life, As the tidings of his death
spread among the people, their general,
1t not unanimous verdict will be that he
was one of the purest and noblest men
Vermont ever had in her service He
had many and grea, ezcellencies, other
thHn have already named lie was an
honest man, that modest work of God"
lou know the furnace where bis honesty
was trieo ana you know that he came
out of that furnace, not only with no fire,
but not even the smell of fire on his gar
ments. lie was a man of great delicacy
of feeling and showed this most effeetual.
ly by never wounding the feeling of 9TH
ers. He was, in its true original sense
what the term imports. a gentleman,
though he may have disdained the for.
mality, and fashion and foppery of those
now styled gentlemen. He was man
of great energy and perseverance. To
this he owed his thorough course of col.
legiote and professional education. Du.
ring the latter portion of his life, com
pretending all that was spent in public
service he was tho victim of a wasting
and exhausting disease coutradcted in
benevolent attempt to save the life of
a professional brother. Other men, un.
der the pressure of that disease, would
have laid down to die, but his courageous
energy bore him up 10 the faithful dis
charge of all his private and public du-