The Smoky Hill and Republican union. [volume] (Junction City, Kan.) 1861-1864, 1862-06-12
NFW ENGLAND AND ITS DEAD.

anything tending to their benefit We strive
cheerfuliy to perform. 1t is through such
a motive that we produce the following.
We clip it from an address on the death
of General NATHANIEL LYON, by the Rev
George D. Henderson, Chaplain at Fort
Riley. The address in itself is one of the
most eloquent, pathetic, earnest truthful
tributes to the memory of the most self
sacrificing hero, and genuine patriot, Of the
age. 1t gives the author high standing
as writer capable of delineating the purity
Of the hero, and awakening the feelings Of
men. The author knew him well, and
speaks of him "not in the language Of
stilted eulogy, but in the straightforward
homespun of friendship and Affection; and
adds, elf 1 knew him Alright, the humble
tribute of his friends would be to him a
more pleasing sound than the loudest &C.
claim Of strangers"
For the decryers Of New England, we
quote the following truthful and vivid pic
ture. The italics are ours, which we would
commend to the attention and practice Of
"high- toned Southern gentlemen:
"He was distinctively a New England
man. That inquisitive search after truth,
that contempt of merely traditional knowl-
edge, that quick and leaping sympathy with
a good and just cause so characteristic OF
the true New England mind, were marked
traits in that noble soul that has passed
away from US The equality of men, regu-
lated only by their behaviour. was a princi-
pie that he drew from his Puritan stock /;
strict in the observance of military etiquette,
then pcered out all the more strikingly,
this genuine New England trait Of the man.
He loved also her free institutions, her free
speech, her culture of the mind, her rights
of conscience, her earnest striking for prin-
ciples above expedients, her public spirit,
her active bencyolence, her thrift, her tire
less ingenuity. And more than this, there
is charm, nameless charm, about that
land, which none could feel more deeply
than he-a home-like land, not too open,
broad and endless, its rugged cliffs washed
on the one hand by the gray Atlantic,
divided from the Canadian dependicies by
mountain and forest, pressed again by the
ocean as it rolls over the Sound, much
secluded from the world, being quite in its
down east corner, nevertheless, with all the
materials for happiness, possessed indeed of
no saints days, but keeping the old fast
day in the spring time, and the homely old
thanksgiving day at the ingathering of the
harvest and the falling of the leaf, as the
edicts to that effect were issued from the
May flower; outgrown and often outvoted
by the richer lands beyond her boundaries,
but lifting her principles above the waves
Of oblivion by the vitality and glory of her
thoughts, the spokesman for the rights of
man, and for the freedom of thought; not
and by no means easily taken
with splendid feints of worship, but con.
scientious, and ever finding how her duty
may be effectually done. 1t was here, in
The land of Franklin and of Webster, of
Putnam and of Starke, that the departed
soldier received the shaping of his char
acter."
Further on, Mr.. Henderson thus beauti-
fully alludcs to the last days of the hoDored
dead, and the noble character there ex.
hibited:
"The hour came when he was needed by
the country that he loved-a dark and evil
hour; insolent rebellion without and calcu-
Iating treason wi,hin-patriots unorganized,
amazed, scarcely knowing where the next
detection might appear, the fierce murmur
Of the angry populace surging like winter
waves around half the strongholds of the
Government. In the tumult. there was no
heart more resolved, no allegiance more
earnest, no steps more ready. BY the
orders Of the Government that discerned
his quality we'll, he threw himself dauntless
into his first post of duty at the commercial
capital of Missouri. Then, in that stern
crisis, we saw the man, and the soul within
the man break forth. He stood unmoved,
amidst the thickening plots. With
one hand on his sword, and with the other
pointed at bis magazine, be gave treason its
When it sought to entangle
him with false treaties, he broke forth from
its coils with contemptuous resolve. When
t encamped in arms against him, he crush
ID it. When it fed for q more remote
theatre, he pursued and scattered it. When
It returned with augmented volume from
its successful recruiting among the abort
yinees of the Southwest, it found the hero
we'll in advance, grieved, indeed, and with
he lines of care deepening on his face,
when succor failed to come; but finging
'ut bis lines daun.less against the dark
masses of the foe, and with calmness that