Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-05-13
THE RIcHMoND CALAMITY
Response of Chief Justice Chase to
the Revolutions "a the Richmond
Hnr.

| Response of Chief Justice Chase to
the Resolutions "a the kichmOnd
Bar.
On the inst business was generally
| suspended in Richmond. In the United
States Circuit Court, Chief Justice Chase,
in response to the resolutions of the Rich
mond bar regarding the late calamity,
said:
''Human emotions are but poorly ex
pressed by words. When the first vague
rumors of the terrible event in this city,
which has been so fifty named The Great
Calamity, went through the land, few
days ago, all hearts felt shock like that
of sudden and awful personal bereave-
ment. Then, as the tidings came more
distinctly over the wires, and the fearful
disaster took shape and form in
the minds of the people, it seemed for
a time to Cypress all hearts like
nightmare; the pulse of life throbbed
heavily, and human utterance failed un-
der the crushing sense of sorrow which
pervaded the land; then sooR the currents
of feeling began to flow, and now for
many days heartfelt expressions of con-
dolence and substantial manifestations of
sympathy have been flowing toward
Richmond like a great tide. No right
minded and true-hearted man can help
feeling this vast development of unaffect-
ed good viii, so strikingly devoid of every
thing like sectional or party feeling-lik
CLEANS of radiance which, in Gods good
providence, so often brightens the darkest
clouds of human grief. When, two days
since, we took ur scat upon this bench,
our eyes and hearts alike missed famil-
lar faces upon the bar. Let us thank
God that those whose voices were oftenest
heard here yet survive. May the Great
Physician comfort their sorrOwing house
holds and give them speedy and complete
restoration. But there were other mem
bers of the bar who viii never again Join
in honorable contentious. One has gone
in the fullness of ripened years, another
with the distinctions of his profession
clustering thickly upon him, having
already won the heights of public estima-
ton, from which the escort to the highest
seemed easy and sure; another, younger,
mature, treading with firm steps the
upward paths of usefulness and
honor. How terribly does such a
calamity as this rebuke our vain
expectations! how impressively does it
admonlsh every one of us to look beyond
the shadows of time to the realities of
eternity 1t is said that among those dy-
ing, crushed under that mass of ruins,
there were some who could yet exchange
few faint words with their companions
in that fearful place; none of them
which have been related by the rescued
have impressed me so much as that Of
one mangled and broken sufferer who
still found strength to exclaim, go, death,
where is thy sting; oh, grave, where is
thy victory - What a triumph was
that What testimony to the in
comparable worth of Christian faith So,
in the very depth of the awful distress
and anguish open springs of human SYM
pathy and fountains of sublimest heaven
ly comfort. Let us take these lessons to
our hearts. This is day of humiliation
and prayer. The churches will be filled
with worshipers. Let us carry into
them, not merely the burden of sorrow,
but also the consultations of faith, even
remembering that all is of God. If He
but wave his hands, the rains collect, the
winds blow sbrill and loud, till, with a
smile of light on sea, on land, 10! He
looks back from the departing cloud His
will be dOne!"