Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-04-08
FdasFsI sf Ho5 Jobs HToIsaa. :



noon. Had the weather been pleasant the
additional number who would have paid their
respects TO the memory Of the deceased would
no doubt have reached many thousands, but
as it was, the funeral was the largest which
hiss taken place in the city for many yeras
About $50 representatives of the clerical and
legal profession were present, without dis
tinction Of sect or political affiliations.
The face Of the deceased retained, in an
unusual degree, all the appearance of life,
and a casual glance would have conveyed the
impression that he was only buried in deep
sleep. The corpse was delicately dressed in
black, and as nearly in the style of life as
possible, and on a silver plate on the coffin
lid was engaved the following:
JOHN MCLEAN,
Associate Justice Of the Supreme Court of tbe
United States,
Born March IL, 1885,
Died April 4, 1851.
The Rev. ]. I. Mitchell read several pass
ages from the Scriptures, after which Rev.
D. D. Clark preached the funeral sermon.
He said:
Already has intelligence of the sad event
which summons us to-day to the house OF
mourning been borne to the distant parts of
the land. The heart of the nation has been
thrilled with sorrow at the announcement
that Judge McLeanis no more. Distinguished
honors to his memory shew a nations CRATE
full appreciation Of the long and faithful
services rendered by him to his country.
Legislative Assemblies, the Courts of Justice
and the press Of the whole country have al
ready and will still further recognize his
death as a national calamity.
We come to-day TO close the last scene of
earth. We come TO witness and participate
in the solemn rites of burial.
On more fitting occasion in the future
will public recognition be made of the life
and character Of the eminent Christian.
statesman and jurist whose manly form now
lies before us sbrouded in the habiliments
of the grave. Yet standing in the solemn
presence death, tits proper we should pause
for few minutes that our hearts may be
properly impressed, and our minds gather
some of the lessons of instruction this scene
is calculated to impart.
Death is one of the great mysteries of life.
Man enters upon life helpless and dependant;
he increases in stature and strength; he ac-
quires knowledge and power; but when the
point seems just reached where his faculties
are to have free scope, and his influence a
wider field; when he has just reached the
acme Of his usefulness; when the world has
just come to recognize his virtues and to re-
ceive with veneration the lessons of his wis.,
dom and experience, death comes and closes
the scene. 1t breaks in upon all the plans of
life; overclouds all its prospects, and des-
troys all its hopes. This great and painful
mystery finds its solution in the demonstra-
tion of the great fact that the presant is not
mans real, but his embryo, life.
"This is the bud of being, the dim dawn,
The twilisht Of our day, the vestibule;
Strong Death alone can heaye the massy bar,
And mako us, embryos of existence, Free"
The true relations of our present to our
future being were never more beautifully
portrayed by an uninspired pen, than by the
same philosophical poet;
" Life makes the soul dependent on the dust,
Death gives her wings to mount above the spheres.
Through ehinks, ttlled organs, dim lie peeps at
Death bursts the involving cloud, and all is day.
All eye, all ear, the disembodied power
Death has feigned evils nature shall not feel
Life-ills substantial wisdom can not shun.
Death but entombs the body, lifts the soul
Death is the crown Of life
Were death denied 70 live Would not e be III lie ':'
We're death denied, even fools would wish to die.
Spring from our fetters, iSsten in the skies,
Where blooming Eden withers in our sight.
This king OF terrors is the prince of peace
Never are human virtues fully enshrined
till death sets its seal upon them and stamps
them with immortality. The press of our
city has already 80 fully sketched the life OF
Judge Mclean, and his services to his
country, that we need not repeat them here.
We come not to-day to utter words OF
eulogy, but to mourn; yet it is not too much
to say that, through the long period of his
y,nh 10 avta hoI
tury-his character, as public officer, as a
man, and as Christian, has stood out before
the world untarnished nay, 1 may say,
unsuspected, With equal honesty and
ability has he met and fulfilled every trust.
The loss of such man, and at such Juno
ture, is public calamity.
When humanity, with mighty throes, is
yeaIning for higher developments, and for the
realization of a nobler destiny, we'll may we
mourn the death of one whose own character
was aliving embodiment of whatever is noble
in man, and whose influence was wide and
powerful to benefit the race.
AS fellow-citizens, well may we mourn the
death of one whose history linked us to the
heroic age of the Republic, the purity of
whose patriotism had been thoroughly tested,
and whose very name was talismanic charm
for the preservation of the Union, and of the
constitutional rights and liberties of our
country anu OI I'LL ClLlhenS, Il0
lowest as well as the higheit.
When the Christian character and virtues
are so rarely illustrated in public life, we'll
may we mourn the loss of the Christian
statesman, the beauty of whose ermine was
surpassed only by the spotlessness of his
Christian life; whose devotion TO his country
was surpassed only by his fealty to Christ,
and whose life and character will ever be
pointed to as the means of inspiring the
young men of our country with the convic-
tion that there are nobler ends to be attained,
even in this life, than the sordid gains of
Office, or the selfishness of human ambition.
AS members of the great Christian broth
erhood we have reason to mourn the death
of one who has honored the Cristian name.
A little more than half century ago, Judge
Mclean was led to Christ, through the in
strumentality Of that eminent Minister OF
God, Rev. John Collins. He Immediately
identified himself with the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, through whose ministry he had
been converted. A man of so noble mind
could not be otherwise than man of broad
views and catholic sympaties with all Christ
ian denominations.
| He was Jealous of the honor of the Chris
| tian name; nor did he ever forget-even
amid the fascinations of social or public
| life-that by character and act, if not by
word, he was called to be witness for
| Christ. He was faithful in the least Of his
| Christian duties. In the closet and in the
class, as well as in the more public services
of the sanctuary, he obtained the spiritual
nutriment which gave robustness to his
Christian character To the merely formal
professor he could truly say; VI have meat
to eat that ye know not Off
His death was sudden. Though in feeble
health, immediate dissolution was little ap'
pretended. But additional cold develops
alarming symptoms. These are temporarily
relieved. Then comes the relapse, sinking
into unconsciousness, and that unconscious
ness gradually deepening into that dread
slumber that knows no waking till the resur-
reetiOn morn. as3.Ll-.. -s-.
My dear bereaved friends, have no doubt
you could have ardently wished that con.
seriousness might have retained her seat and
reason her supremacy to the last moment;