The Portland daily press., 1864-04-02

House. But serving with him for three full
Congresses in this House, | should be recreant
to my own sense of what is due TO truth and
justice, did | not bear my testimony TO the dis
tinguished ability and the great usefulness
with which he served his constituents, his State
and the country, as Representative in the
American Congress. As legislator he was wise,
intelligent, practical, vigilant, independent and
above all, incorruptible.
He was devoted to every duty, to his country
and to his constituents. Wherever there was
any principle involved, he was as firm and un-
yielding as the hills of his own native State
Yet, in all matters of mere policy, involving no
surrender of principle, there was no man more
ready more willing to yield to the suggestions
of others. 1t is, perhaps, the case that, where
men have been devoted to particular idea,
they are generally impracticable in all other
matters, but it was not so with our late associate
He was emnently practical man, aad a man
of great common sense; a good judge of human
nature, and familiar with the workings of the
human heart
have spoken of the deceased as public man,
but who shall speak of the virtues which adorned
his private life? Who shall speak of him as hus-
band, father, friend, neighbor, citizen? He was
so genial in his intercourse, of sympathy so
quick and ready, SO kind, affectionate, and gen.
erous that there seemed combined in him all
the qualities which challenged the love and
admiration of those who best knew him, and
| -endeared him to the hearts of friends. Upon
| the immediate family of our late colleague has
| this blow fallen with crushing force. No words
of human sympathy or coincidence can staunch
the wounds of bleeding affection, and it is alone
| TO "Him who tempers the wind to the shorn
| lamb that the appeal must be made.
Mr.. Speaker, the proceedings of this House as
| published six years, will furnish am undying
record of the services and labors of the distin-
| guished man whose loss the country SO deeply
| deplores. Serving during part of the most
interesting and turbulent periods of our Con-
| gresslonal history, he was one of the most ac-
tive participants in those scenes in the House
which to the student of history, were the pre-
cursors of that terrible civil coHmotion which
has since drenched our land in blood, and made
the civilized world to stand aghast.
might call to your collection, Mr.. Speak
cr, and to the recollection of those members of
this House who were members of the Thirty
Sixth Congress, that extraordinary scene in the
House, of the 9th of April, 1860, and which has
scarcely parallel in the history of any delber-
ative assembly in the world 1t was on that oc-
casion that he displayed that undaunted cour-
age and matchless bearing which extorted the
admiration of even his most deadly foes. But
need not recount to you, Sir, the many other
occasions during your service when he has cleo
trifed the House by his outbursts of eloquence.
With mind well stored with classic learning,
with vigorous and enlightened understanding,
with fine personal presence, he was one of the
greatest orators, while yet he scorned the ordi-
nary artiices of eloquence. His was the elo-
quenee of Mirabeau, which in the Tiers Etat and
in the National Assembly made to totter the
throne of France; it was the eloquence of DAN
ton, who made all France to tremble from his
tempestuous utterances in the National Conyen-
ton.
Like these apostles of the French revolution,
his eloquence could stir from the lowest depths
all the passions Of man; but, unlike them, he
ranla hs. al. and
brave, a noble minded Christian man. a lover of
the whole human race and of universal liberty
regulated by law. While from this tibune he
spoke to the nation, and left lupon il the i'm
press of his prineipleDand his convictions and
of his master mind, Yet the theatre of his great
est triufnphs as an orator was ON the stump and
before the masses Of the people.
1t was in his own State, where he was known
the best and heard the oftenest, that he achieved
his greatest distinction an orator. In the
presence of the people he was sinyincible. What
ever might have been effected against him by
political or personal prejudice, whenever he
reached the popular ear all was scattered as if
by whirlwind. But he has left Ms in the pride
of his manhood, and in the fulness of his intel
lectual yigor-gone almost at the moment when
he expected to see accomplished the great work
to which he had devoted his life. He expressed
that expectation in his great speech of April 5,
$50, by quotation from the speech of Mr.. Web
tier the subject of the threatened interposition
sof Russia to snatch Kossuth from the protec-
ton of Turkey for the purpose of sacrificing him
on the altar of despotism, and | willclose with
that quotation:
Gentlemen, there is something on earth
greater than arbitrary or despotic power. The
lightning has its power, and the whirlwind has
its power, and the earthquake has It's power; but
there is something among men more capable of
shaking despotic thrones than lightning, whirl-
wind, or earthquake: and that is the excited and
aroused Indignation of the whole civilized
world
''The Avon 10 the Severn runs;
The Severn to the sea;
And Wicklifles dust shall spread abroad
Wide as the waters be"