Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-12-24
REMARKS OF DIR. BOYCE.

WA
We subjoin the remarks of Mr.. BoYcE:
Mr.. BoYcE said: Mr.. Speaker. the resolutions
before the House announce the death Of ANDREW
PGCKESs BrTLER, late Senator from the State of
South Carolina. 1t is my melancholy privilege to
add my feeble tribute of respect TO the more i'm
posing proceedings of the Senate.
Judge Butler departed this life on IN" 25th day
OF May, A. ID. 1857, ut Stonclands his residence
in Edgefeld district, South Carolina He dei in
the midst of his friends and kindred. receiving
from them every kindness the most devoted afFrc
ton could suggest, md his last visions of earth
were of those scenes most endeared to him by the
memories of his past life.
Judge Buffers health was somewhat impaired
Mt the close Of the last Congress, but no serious
consequences were apprehenled, so that the rapid
md fatal termination of his disease was in great
degree unexpected.
Judge Butler was born on the 18th day of No.
vember 1885, in Edgefied district. South Carolina.
Ills fnther rendered distinguished services to the
wing cause in the great war of our Revolution,
and his mother was woman of great strength Of
mind and unusual force of character.
The subject OF my remarks, after receiving
course of intellectual training under the best in.
structors. was entered as student of the South
Carolina College, where he soon gave evidence of
great promise, and where he subsequently gradu-
ated with distinction. Upon completing his col
lcgiate course he devoted himself with ardor to the
study of the law, choosing the same path so many
great minds have taken to distinction. Upon his
admission to the bar, his success was rapid and
brilliant; his vigorous mind and mpusive energy
soon placing him in the front rank of the profts
sion.
In 1888 he was called by the Legislature Of
South Carolina to a seat OIL the bench of the su-
preme court, which position he held until his e.
lection to the United States Senate in 1916, as the
colleague of Mr.. Calhoun. 1t was from this pc.
rod he became known to the people of the United
States, his reputation previously having been con-
fined to his own State. His services in the Sen
ate were active and important His position rs
chairman of the Judiciary Committee required him
to take cognizance of class of cases of great
deicacy and dinterest-contested ecctions-for the
proper consideration of which he was peculiarly
fitted, by his freedom from party bias. During
his senatorial career some Of the most agitating
questions arose which have ever convulsed the
public mind in the consideration of which he bore
his full share Of responsibility. Indeed, during
his long term of service in the Senate, there was
hardly IN important debate in which he did not
take prominent part.
Upon all questions in our foreign relations he
was firm, yet discreet; and upon sectional ques-
tions, while stcadfastly insisting upon the const-
tutional rights of the South, he was eminenty con
scrvative. 1t is not my purpose however, to refer
with minuteness to his senatorial history He has
made his own record upon the pages of our con-
gressional annals, to which the student of poti
cal philosophy may turn with interest and advan-
tage.
Judge Buffers intellectual gifts were remark
able. His mind was strong, fertile, acute, quick,
and suggestive. He did not arrive at his conclu
sions by slow gradatons Of reasoning but he
bounded to them with impetuosity. His dis.
courses were not regular chains of rntiocnnton;
his mind was too ardent for this slow process
He came Mt once to his strong points, and stated
them in graphic language. He did not pursue
his subject by the dim twilight of q cold logic /;
he seized it promptly and bore it with him, illu.
minating the flight Of his genius with perpetual
flashes.
In him mind and body were in more remark
able accord than any orator to whom have ever
listened. You could almost hear the hreathings of
his heart in the tones Of his voice. lie had all the
attributes Of the orator-mind, body, SOUL all
gave their assurance and their aid. His eloquence
was not the eloqurnce of art il was the elequence
of nature. Nothing could be more simple than
his style Of speaking 1t was nature-pure na-
,ure-sublimated, indeed by poetic temperament,
aud chastened by the study of the great masters.
A strong mind, Imagination oil compact, words
that burn. n noble heart, commanding person,
q bold and fiery spirit, all wreaking themselves
upon expression, were the secrets of his power.
Besides this occult spell and mystery Of eoquence,
Judge Butler also had in n remarkable degree,
what Cicero 81 much conmends: boni senator's
prndenta-the prudence of good Senator; and
herein consisted n striking and distinctive trait in
his intellectual organization-in his emotions all
impulse; in his actions he was all prudence.
But in his moral attributes he lowered still
more proudly eminent. He was n man of an OK
quisite sense of honor. His soul was full of au-
thentic fire. He contemplated human life from
the standpoint of an elevated moral grandeur. He
was tho material out of which heroes are made
and if fate had so wiled it, like Bayard or Rus
SELL or his heroic brother, Pierce Butler, who fell
at the head of the Palmetto regiment he would
have sublime!y died under the most malignant
star.
Such was Andrew Pickens Butler no common
place man, dwarfed by materialism, but real
man. His majestic form, his noble head silvered
Ger with the frostS OF age, rise even now before
me, and think of Il Roman Senator in the best
days of the great Republic, when Pyrrhus and the
unwonted elephant were despised. never went
into the Senate Chamber, and looked upon that
august body, in the midst Of which, near his ap-
proved friends, the Senators from Virginia, sat
this venerable man, but that felt proud to see
my State so worthily represented. But he is no
mure he sleeps in the bosom Of his native St;.,e,
which he loved so we'll: the sombre pine forests
of the land of the sun, unheeded, sigh their un-
ccasing requiem over his grave.
Peace and honor to his memory. He is one of
the last Of a constellation of great men, which
South Carolina with n singular prodigality, gave
to the service of the Federal Government His
name will shortly be but a memory. We, too,
will soon tread the dark passage of the tomb
through which he has passed, and other repre-
sentatves strangers to him and TO Us, will walk
these halls.
The paths of glory have no exit but the grave.
Life is but brief episode in the great drama of
and death but an event in that epi-
sode. Let us, then, So act our parts MS to meet
if not place in the pantheon Of history, at least
Il place for some short space in the recollectons
of good men.
l offer the following:
Resolved, That this House has heard with deep
sensbity the announcement of the death or An
drew Pickens Butler, late Senator in Congress
from the State of South Carolina.
ResOircd. That rs testimony Of respect for the
memory of the deceased, the members and officers
of this House wear the usual badge of mourning
for thirty days.
Resolrcd, That the proceedings of this House in
relation to the death of Andrew Pickens Butler
be communicated to the family of the deceased by
the Clerk.
Rcsolred, That rs a further remark of respect
for the memory of the deceased this House do
now adjourn.
Senator Hammond.