Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-11-08
Dcn,h or (,ovcrnor SIednry.

Amid the war of sections, the strife oi
parties and the roar of factions--on the eve
of the final struggle between freedom ana
despotism when constitutional liberty
seems about to go down again before the OLD
| enemy that has dogged its footsteps through
five centuries-we are called upon to record
the death of one Of its greatest, Oldest ana
most ardent upporters-Ex-Gov SAM
uEL MEDARY. After an illness of about
eleven weeks, during mostof which time ne
was strong enough to travel and make
brief journey for his health, he was attacked
with his old complaint at his breakfast table
yesterday morning, and died at five o'clock
last evening, surrounded by all but three
members of his family. The exact nature OF
his disease remains unknown. He was among
the many poisoned at the National Hotel
in Washington in 1857, and it is believed
that some remnant of the old poison pro-
noted his death. Another theory is that,
cancer in the stomach was his disease. He
was taken suddenly ill while delivering a
speech on the Court House steps last
August, and, as we have said, never fully
recovered. He died fully conscious of his
approaching dissolution, and met his fate
with the serenity of one who falls to sleep
after long and weary journey, where there
was nothing to disturb him or make him
afraid.
Governor MEDARY was born in the year
1901, the day before the Inauguration OF
THOMAS JEFFERSON as President OF the
United States. Helived to see the doctrines
taught by that great expounder of liberty
and Justice become the principles OF the
great party under whose auspices free gov
ernment spread over a continent and con-
ferred blessings upon thirty millions of
people; he expired as they ceased to be
the controlling principles of the Govern
ment.
Gov. MEDARY was Democrat from his
boyhood; he was Democrat at his death.
He was the intimate friend of Gen. JACKSON;
the old hero was his ideal of statesman
ship and model of manhood. In many
striking peculiarities the follower resem-
bled the leader, but in none more than in
his firmness, his impetnosity, his integrity
and his democracy. Warm in his friend
ships and bitter in his hatreds, he loved all
that was manly and hated all that was mean.
Springing from the people himself, lie glo-
ried in his humble origin and despised ev-
erything like aristocracy. A man of re-
markably vivid and powerful memory, who
had witnessed many of the events Of i'm
portance in the political history of this
young country, his conversation was gen.
tie, full of graphic interest, and charmed as
it instructed those who heard him; while
at other times he was terrible in his with
ering denunciations and fiery earnestness.
AS writer ne was rugged and vigorous,
going to point with the directness and
precision of bullet. Gentle and amiable
in private life, his generosity was without
bounds, and his affection for his family and
his friends was like deep stream, perpetu-
ally overhowing its banks. His political
history would be the political history Of
Ohio, where for forty years he has
figured conspicuously, not without receiv-
ing his quota OF scars in the strife, but al
ways with the earnestness of man whose
principles were embodied in his head and
his heart, and were as inseparable to his ex-
istence. He imbibed them in his youth;
he trusted in them through life; they were
present with him at his death-bed. He was
devout believer in the intelligence and
rectitude of the people, and in the existence
of that justice which would at last make
all things even. Without belonging to any
organized religious society, he was one of
those best of christians, an honest man, who |
in life possessed child-likc faith in GoD
and dying manifested his confidence in the
justice and mercy of Divinity.
Forgetting all past MISUNDERSTANDING
before him the acerbity growing out of
party contests-the rancorous weeds of pol
itics remembering only, in the solemn
presence of death, the manly virtues and
sterling qualities of the man, and in the ex-
ercise of the saddest privilege of friend
ship and respect, we shed a tear over the re-
mains and invoke peace to the dust OF
great and good man-SAMUEL MEDARY.