White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1859-11-24

|
nix no single act of immortality upon
him. Temperate, decorous. self-rerstain.
ed, he has passed through all the excite
meuts Of California unstained. No man
could charge him with broken faith OF
violated trust. OF habits simple and in
offensive, he had no lust of gain. He
overreached no mans weakness in bar
gain, and withheld from no man his lust
dues. Never in the history of the State
has there been citizen who has borne
public relations more stainless in all
respects than he.
But it is not by this standard that he
is to be judged. He was a public man,
and his memory demands public judg-
ment. What was his public crime p
The answer is in his own words: "7Hey
dave killed me because I was opposed to
the extension Of Slavery and a corrupt
Administration" Fellow Citizens, they
are remarkable words, uttered at very
remarkable moment they involve the
history of his Senatorial career, and of its
sad and bloody termination.
Fellow-C Citizens, let no man suppose
that the death of the eminent citizen of
whom speak was caused by any other
reason than that to which his own words
assign it. 1t has long been foreshadow-
edit was predicted by his friends-it
was threatened by his enemies-it was
the consequence of intense political ha-
tired. His death was political necessity,
poorly yelled beneath the guise of pri-
vate quarrel. Here, in his own State,
among those who witnessed the last can
vass, who knew the contending leaders,
among those who knew the antagonists
on the bloody ground-here the public
conviction is SO thoroughly settled that
nothing need be said. Tested by the
correspondence itself, there was no cause,
in morals, in honor, in taste; by any
code, by the custom of any civilized land
there was no cause for blood. Let me
repeat the story-it is as brief as it is IA
tai A Judge of the Supreme Court
descends into political Conventional
is just, however, to say that the occasion
was to return thanks to his friends for an
unsuccessful support-in a speech, bitter
and personal, he stigmatized Senator
Broderick and all his friends in words of
contemptuous insult. When Mr.. Brod-
erick saw that speech, he retorted, saying
in substance, that he had heretofore spoken
of Judge Terry as an honest man, but
that he now took it back. When inquir-
ed of, he admitted that he had so said,
and connected his words with Judge Ter
rvs speech as prompting them. So as
Judge Terry personally was concerned,
this was the cause of mortal combat
there was no other.
Fellow Citizens One year ago per-
formed duty, such as perform to-day,
over the remains of Senator Furguson,
who died as Broderick did, tangled in
the meshes of the code of honor. To-
day there is another and more eminent
sacrifice. To-day renew my protect
to-day utter yours. The cole Of honor
is delusion and a snare : 1t palters with
The hope of true courage and binds it at
he feet of crafty and cruel skill. 1t sur
rounds its victim with the pomp and
grace of the procession, but leaves him
bleeding on on the altar. 1t substitutes
,old and delicate preparation for coura-
yeous and manly impulse, and arms the
one to disarm the other it may prevent
traud between practiced duellists who
should be forever without its pale, but it
makes the mere ''trick Of the weapon"
superior to the noblest cause and the
ruest courage. Its pretense of equality
S lie-it is equal in all the form, it is
Unjust in all the substance-the habituds
IF arms, the early training. the frontier
life, the border war, the sectional custom,
he life of leisure, all are advantages
which no negotiation can neutralize, and
which no courage can overcome.
With the administration of the code I
n this particular case, am not here to
leal. Amid passionate grief, let us strive t
o be Just. / give no currency to rumors
II which personally l know nothing
here are other tribunals to which they '
nav well be referred, and this is not one t
Il them. But am here to say. that '
whatever in the code of honor or out of $
t demands or allows a deadly combat 3
where there is not in all things entire and t
certain equality, is prostitution of the
lame, is an evasion of the substance, and ,
S a shield, blazoned with the name of '
Rivalry, to cover the msligAity Of muir {
Ter. t
And now, as the shadows turn towards c
he East, and we prepare to bear these =
DOOR remains to their silent resting place, d
ct us not seek to repress the generous T
bride which prompts recital Of noble il
leeds and manly virtues. BE rose un-
Iided and alone; he began his career b
without family or fortune, in the face Of e
difficulties; he inherited poverty and OBJ t
curity; he died Senator in Congress, a
laviag written his name in the history of 6
he great struggle for the rights of the T
,eople against the despotism of organi- 4
alton and the corruption of power. He t.
caves in the hearts Of his friends the ten d
crest and the proudest reeollections.- |
lie was honest, faithful, earnest, sin G
ere and brave; he felt in all the great s.
rises of his life that he was leader in c
be ranks. and for the rights of masses of a
nen, and he could not falter. When he re- b
urned from that fatal field, while the dark Il
ring of, the Archangel was casting its v
hadows upon his brow, his greatest anxi- 81
BY was as to the performances Of his duty.l