Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-02-07

Of his political sentiments, we feel hat il
would in DO wise be out Of place, to add
to what has already been said of him, our
hrm assurance that no purer patriot than
be ever ersathed the atmosphere OF
American institutions. Many others,
doubtless, hold the same conviction OF
his political integrity, but the great fact
has become stamped upon our recOllec-
tons of the man, with a peculiar and
permanent emphasis.
We know that his desire for the per-
petustion OF our civil liberties was fervid
and profound, and that no q sooner
would have thrown himself into the
Imminent deadly breach" for their
preservation, when in peril. He would
have avoided the precipitation Of the
| country into the inevitable calamities Of
I q civil war, until the necessity was i'm
perAtive and memorable. He would have
sought, and 9 craftsmanship like his,
widely difused through the legislative
councils of the nation, would have found,
ia some more pacific and practicable
way, that remedy for existing or threat
ened evils, Of which he saw only an sg-
gravation in the assumption Of hasty and
desperate measures. And no one with q
more pathetic and manly tenderness,
mourned the results which followed, so
disastrous to the stability Of the Govern
ment, which ne certainly cherished with
q greater than Spartan devotion.
In the bold encroachments of central
lied poWer-in the universal weakening
of those old ties OF patriotism which
o C bound the American people as one
family together-in the swift democrat
liza ion of that ancient standard Of states
manship which had raised the Republic
to glory and greatness-in the expatria-
ton Of that gallant race Of men whose
only fault, if fault it were, was . miscon-
ception Of the proper methods of defense
when the rights Of the States were i'm
periled-in the d~esolation and degrade
ton Of that magnificent domain, which,
under more suspicious planets should
to-day have been the Paradise,
rather than the Gehenns, of the world.
In all this, as in all else of adversely that
swept over the country like q tidal wave
refuent from the horrifc earthquake of
civil war, Col. MCMAHON saw all that
was fearful-felt all that was cruel-real-
lied all that was ruinous-to the welfare
of the Commonwealth, with that inten-
sity Of regret and anguish with which
he would have himself wept, Is we weep
to-day, over some dear treasure buried
out Of sight.
But cherishing no ressntments, enven-
omed by no malice, accepting with a dis
ciplined resignation these issues for
which his sagacity of apprehension had
long before prepared him, he set about
repairing his broken fortunes with a he
roism that never forsook him, and sus-
tanned by a steady faith that in the grand
final result-it might not be in his own
day and generstion-it might not be for
some long cycle Of historic years-but
sooner or later, the intelligence and viz
tue of the Anglo Saxon character would
rise superior to the greed and passion of
the hour and rear anew the Temple Of
Liberty in fairer and sublimer proper
tions.
Such was Col. MCMAHON's political
faith, and next to that serener faith with
which he chung to the Cross of his
Blessed Redeemer, the browning char
acteristic Of his grand and venerable
genius. +. II. S.