The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-02


be Gas / believe it to be) the cause of justice
and of human liberty"
No prouder record can statesman leave
than such words as these, unless 1T be the
glorious deeds and the unshaken fidelity OF
which such praise is the fitting monument.
In truthfulness and directness Of character,
William l.. Dayton bore close resemblance
to Abraham Lincoln. The one was only a
generation removed from a revolutionary an
cestry Injured to toll; the other was laboring
man himself; both believing in government
of the people, for the people, by the people,
because they themselves lived close to the
popular heart, knowing right well that no
price was too high to pay for a republican
form Of government, in which liberty should
not be mockery, a name, and delusion, but
in which liberty was the real, vitalizng, con-
trolling element of power.
What historical propriety there was in these
two great men standing in the New ersey
Senate, animated by the same heroic purpose
to save sinking Republic And none that
witnessed that scene will soon forget with how
much feeling President Lincoln, referring to
his early reading of Weems "Life of Wash
ington, said:-"I remember all the accounts
there given Of the battle-felds and struggles
for the libel ties of the country, and none fixed
themselves upon my imagination so deeply as
the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. x x
l recolleot thinking then, boy though | was,
that there mnst have been something more
than conn on that those men struggled for"
Mr.. Day on's mind, serene in its strength,
was like the peak of TeneriGe, which catches
the glow Of the morning sun before the day
dawns upon the lower level. lie sustained
the Wilmot provisO he boldly declared against
slavery in the District of Columbia. With
equal courage he asserted to the fullest extent
the right of Congress to legislate in regard to
slavery in the Territories of the United States.
And ba hop nd 10 1iya1
the Latin maxim, Vestigia nulla retrorsam.
Mr.. Lincoln regarded William L. Dayton as
one of the six foremost men in the Senate;
and, after hearing a great speech from the
Senator from New Jersey, he turned to a
Congressman, and said:-" The destiny Of
our country is not in peril with such men to
defend us.'
And from the floor of the House the Great
COmmoner from Illinois, with great force and
considerable wit, ridiculed General Cass' de-
fection on the Wilmot provisO question thus
'When the question was raised in 1916, he
(Cass) was in a clustering hurry to take
ground for it; but soon he began to
see glimpses of the great Democratic oT- CAD
waving in his face, and to hear indistinctly a
voice, saying, Back, back, sir back little
He shakes has head and JdtS his eyes, and blum
ders back to his position of March, lS47 but
still the CAD waves, and the voice grows more
distinct and sharper still, Back, back, | say
further Jackp And back he goes to his posi-
ton of December, lS47, at which the gad is
still, and the voice soothingly says, so stand
still at that = The warm attachment existing
between President Lincoln and our Minister to
France continued till the hour of the latter's
death. And, when speaking of New Jersey, as
Mr.. Lincoln very often did, the names most
frequently on his lips were those of Mr.. Day
ton and of William A. Newell.
Mr.. Day ton served In tbs, Senate with Clay,
Vol R1t
| the knee to the Baal of slavery; and the OK
| CAD of the subtle statesmen Of the South had
| no terrors for the polished, courtly, and SELF
reliant gentleman. With Henry Clay and
Daniel Webster both in opposition, perhaps
the ablest advocate of General Taylor's admin
! istration, ON the floor Of the Senate, was Mr..
! Dayton. His sagacity for that day, was Won
derful. He must have regarded compromise
! then as it has since shown itself to be, the
| American devil! He opposed the
compromise of 1850 bitterly and
| persistently, and to-day we thank
him for his matchless fidelity. But we must
not lnger too long on these pages OF our
nations history-pages dear to us because
the lessons there taught by some men Of
deathless memory have kindled new evangel
in the hearts of the human race, till the flag
! itself, then so nearly the emblem Of human
| bondage, has again become to the gaze of the
! whole earth the beautiful symbol of human
| lIebuOIl, u6dI6f 10 US, Ten IuOuSduu tlulSS,
than ever, since its baptism in the blood of
our best and bravest.
Mr.. Dayton happily blended in his personal
bearing both dignity and affability. The
writer of this can never forget the generous
hospitality of the American minister, Mr..
Dayton, who then resided in the Rue Circu-
laire, near the Arch of Triumph, commenced
by Louis Philippe and completed by the Third
Napoleon, and blazoned with the exploits OF
conquering Frenchmen. Unlike the Romans,
the French citizen first asks for "glory," then
for panem et circenSeS, Cbread and the circus).
When stricken by death, Mr.. Dayton
seemed only to be in the prime of life, and, il
he had lived longer, the very highest honors
awaited him. But he died with the harness
on. And, if the world could cease to remem-
Der his countless virtues, it can never, it ,0iLl
never forget that the slave-master's lash
might become music to the Sage of Marshfeld,
but that, to the ears of New Jersey Senator,
the sound of that lash, before which Presi-
dents then barred their backs (and history still
repeats herself in presenting in this year o.
grace, 1867, the same attitude of baseness), tC
a Senator from New Jersey, that lash must
ever be the symbol of that society which
creates and nourishes slavery for the body
atheism for the soul, and despOtism for the
people.
When the sad news came tous Of the ma
TONS loss, New Jersey hastened to crown hel
foremost son with tears, as she had long since
crowned him with laurels.
The Legislature unanimously passed reso
lutiOns that in the judgment of New Jer
sey, Mr.. Dayton stood in the front rank Of his