The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-11-16
From the Statesman.
Death of Gov. Medary.

Death of Gov. Medary.
Amid the war of sections, the strife of
parties and the roar of factions-on the
eve of the final struggle between freedom
and despotism-when constitutional lib
erty seems about to go down again before
the old enemy that has logged its foot
steps through five ccnturies-we are call
ed upon to record the death of one of its
greatest, Oldest and most ardent support.
crs-Ex-GovENoR SAMUEL MEDARY.
After an illness of about eleven weeks,
during most of which time he was strong
enough to travel and make a briefjourney
for his health, he was attacked with his
| old complaint at his breakfast table yes
terday morning, and died at five O'Clock
last evening, surrounded by all but three
members Of his family. The exact ma
ture of his disease remains unknown. He
was among the many poisoned at the Ma.
tional Hotel in Washington IN 1857, and
it is believed that some remnant of the
old poison promoted his death. Another
theory is that, cancer in the stomach was
his disease. He was taken suddenly ill
while delivering q 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 asleep after a long and weary
journey, whore there was nothing to dis
turb 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. He lived to see the doc
trines taught BY that great expoundcr of
liberty and Justice become the principles
of the great party under whose auspices
free government spread over a continent
and conferred blessings upon thirty mill
ions of people ; he expired as they ceass3
10 be the controlling principles of the
Government.
Governor MEDhRY was a Democrat from
his boyhood he was a Democrat at his
death. He was the intimate friend of
of craftsmanship and model of manhood.
In many striking peculiarities the follower
resembled the leader, but in none more
than in his 6rmness, his impetuosity, his
integrity and his Democracy. Warm in
friendships and bitter in hatreds, he
loved all that was manly and hated all
that was mean. Springing from the peo-
pie himself, he gloried in his humble orr
gin and despised everything like %aristoc-
racy. A man of remarkably vivid and
powerful memory, who had witnessed
many of the events Of importance in the
political history of this young country.
his conversation was gentle, full of grph-
ic interest, and charmed as it instructed
those who heard hiu ; while at other times
he was terrible in his whitening denunci-
atoms and fry earnestness. As a writer
he was rugged and vigorous, going to the
point with the directness and precision of
a bullet. Gentle. and amiable in private,
life, his generosity was without bounds,
and his affection for his family and his
friends was like a deep stream, perpetu-
ally overlooking it's banks. His political
history would be the political history
of Ohio, where for forty years he
has figured conspicuously, not without re-
ceiving his quota of scars in the strife,
but always with the earnestness of man
whose principles were embodied in his
head and his heart, and were as insepera-
BILE to his existence. He imbibed them
in his youth he trusted to them through
life /; they were present with him at his
death-bed. He was a devcut believer in
the intelligence and rectitude of the peo-
pie, and in the existence Of that justice
which would at last make all things even.
Without belonging to any organized reli-
gious society, he was one of those devout
christians. an honest man, who in life
possessed a child like faith in GOD and
dying manifested his confidence in the
iustice and marcy of Divinity
Forgetting all past ditferences-bury-
ing before him the acerbity growing out
of party contests-the raneorous weeds of
polities-remembering only, in the SOL
emn presence of death, the manly virtues
and sterling qualities of the man, and in
the exercise of the sadest privilege of
friendship and respect, we shed . tear
over the remains and invoke peace to the
dust Of a great and good man-SANUEL
MEDARY.