Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-06-09

And then he added: "And of course
insert the date of my death, which can.
not be far distant" The blank is filled
with June l, 1868. Shortly before his
death, he asked for a drink from a
spring at Wheatland, which is famed for
the quality ofits water, and said to his
physicians: adt Is v5ia..
Doctor, If disembodied spirits ever
come back, l believe that mine will be
found about that spring.
His last authentic words were +: Herf
wilt" N''
He died literally in his sleep; but in
the same conversation to which I have
referred, he had taken pains to express
his beliefin the Divinity of Jesus Christ.
and the efficacy of the atonement made
by Him. His funeral was as he wished.
There were in it all the societies of the
town, the students of Franklin and Mar
shall College, of which he had been a
trustee tor many years, delegation from
Harrisburg, delegation from Philadel-
phia, delegation from the New York
City Government, numbering fifty, head
ed by Mayor Hoffman, and in charge of
Mr.. Green, the Clerk of the Board of
Councilmen; and the committee of the
Lower House of Congress, comprising
Messrs. Eldridge, Thomas, Kerry, Trim
BILE, GIosbrenner and Blair. But all
these were only fraction. The spacious
grounds were filled with the personal
friends, political admirers, and towns
men of Mr.. Buchanan, waiting in silent
reverence until the long exercises were
ended. DIR. Nevin, the President of the
Franklin and Marshall College, conduct
ed them, at the expressed especial wish
OF the friend over whom they were to be
held.
The body was exposed to view in the
wide hall. It was in a satin shroud.
but the face was so like life in its seren.
ity that, but for the shroud and the cof-
lin, it would have been taken for the face
ofa man asleep. Glancing from this
fresh face to the pallid bust which stood
near it, it was difficult to feel that the
flesh was as dead as the marble; that the
brow on which once "deliberation sat
and public care" was now insensible,
and that the man whose mask it once
was, slept indeed in peace, after so many
troubles, in honor, after SO much oblo-
guy.
Although the announced hour was
8 o'clock, it was after S when the pro-
cession got fairly under way, and wend-
ed its slow length over the gentle swell
of hill which hides Wheatland from the !
town. Its course was through the main
streets of Lancaster, and all along its
line, on each side, silent and uncovered
spectators were ranged, five and six deep,
up even to the mouth of the grave. The
shops and Offices were closed, not only
on the line of march, but almost univer-
sally through the whole town, and the |
feeling seemed to be that the patriarch
Of the place whom it had delighted to
honor, and who had delighted to honor
it, had gone from it forever. ~
Among the mourners were some faces
we'll enough known, but to whom it is
not well to call attention further than
BY saying that all Mr.. Buchanan's near
est relations and closest friends were
among them. 1t was full o'clock
when the gathering clods fell upon the
'otfin, and the procession turned home
wards again. AS the tider out of the
'pen gates, the paleness of twilight was
n the western sky, and the cricket had
began to chirp in the long grass the
'arth was smoothed over what, to many
Who left it there, had been a dear friend
md benefactor; to all, an old man gone
o the grave full of honors, and to most,
me of the last living links which bound
is to an era of politics purer and politer
han our own. SCALPEL.