Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-06-26
The LATE II. J. RAYMOND.
EuIogy Pronounced up0n him by
Henry Ward BeeCher

After the usual services and cercmO-
nies over the remains, Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher delivered the following
address:
1t is not expected that | should in
dulge in eulogy, nor even that 1 Ishould
attempt to recount the prominent
facts in the history of him WHO'S gone.
But a few days ago he walked in man
ly VigOr and UnceaSing activity, but
to-day! Not when he was born and
in his cradle was he weaker thannoW
this man of strength and power in
his coffin. So sudden, 50 instant, was
his death, that II was as the fall of
some mighty tree that had filed the
air wide and broad with his strength
and richness, but in the hour has felt
the wOOdman's axe, and the place
that knew it knows il no more and
will not forever. Ii is seldom that
any one passes from life who has held
any public position except the one
which he built up for himself, for
whose departure there has been so
much sympathy and good Will and
admiration and grief and affection as
in the case of Mr.. Raymond. He was
called to sphere of irradiation, in its
very nature contestant, and was long
habituatCd to discussion in times that
have swayod men and the nation to
the bottom. Scarcely had his depart
ure been flashed the land than with
lightning like rapidity comes back the
testimony Of his antagonists and
friends to his goodness of nature, his
great capacity, and the purity Of his
motives and the good work which he
has done in his own community and
for the nation. 1t is a testimony and
a witness to the real goodness of this
man that those who were most Op-
posed to him-that those whose hands
4were lifted with the pen of contest laid
it down to write his eulOgy and eX-
press their heartfelt grief. He was a
man who loved and was be-
| loved; he was man without
hate, and | might almost say without
animOsity; a man the nearer you
came to him, and the better you knew
him, the more you esteemed and the
better you loved him. You trusted
him if you knew him to love him, and
it is no small thing to say in this sell
| fish world that his like is rarely to be
met with. There are two things
/ which | wish to emphasize in his pub
| lie career, and only two. He stood in
the widest pulpit that is now known
to modern society. The lawyer has
his narrow sphere of the forum, and
the representative the close walls OF
the Legislature-the minister has his
parish and the walls of his church,
and scarcely speaks beyond. But
there is now a pulpit which hasin this
day no linlit-it is that of the press
1t is literally the voice of one thai
speaks, that cries in the wilderness,
for all creeds and for all the populact
of the land, throughout the entire ter.
ritories to the Pacific Ocean, the daily
papers speak, and there is not in mod
ern civilization power which ear
compare with this. There is no place
in the land which has so developed
the daily press as this, and among
the builders do not say founders
but among the builders-up o
this foundation stands Mr.. Ray
mOnd. Pre-eminently aside from his
general abilities has he conducted The
press, and in remarking, and it is
most grateful in such time as this-tC
remark upon it, l remark, how sin
J gularly free his whole career has beer
from bitterness; how he refused to gair
strength by the advocacy of passion
how he never used the malign pas
sions, nor appealed 10 them in others
how reason and the higher moral sen
timents breathed in his work
and how to you, in these highe
feelings, he uttered himself
And now that he has departed, lool
back upon his career and see how h
welded the mighty engine in behal
: of good reason and in behalf of mora
, sentiments, to see that covers a multi
t tude of imperfections. 1 have it il
r my heart also to say-because in com
f mon with all of you we have hear
his instability cited. have heard
/ said that he was weak and trimming
but never believed ii, / recollec