Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-05-11
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

TUESDAY, May 10.-The House was
called to order at II o'clock, MIR. Speaker
Perkins in the chair. On q call of the
roll sixty-one members answered to their
names.
Mr.. Caldwell arose to announce the
death of the Hon. Isaac J. Roach, late q
member of the House, and on doing so
paid the following tribute to the deceased:
Since our adjournment, the reaper,
Death, has entered our number and cut
down one of our tallest and ripest heads,
the Hon. l. j. Roach departed this life
peacefully in IKE bosom of his family and
in the midst of his friends, on the 10th
day of April last. This event was not
unlocked for His emaciated form and
tottering steps told, but too plainly, when
he left his seat in this body, ''that soon
the golden bowl would be broke and the
silver cord be loOsed."
The deceased, as is known to every
member of this body, was one of our
most valued and efficient members while
his health permitted the exercise of a
naturally acute and vigorous intellect
The esteem in which he was held at
occasions, before our late civil convul-
siOns, by his election twice to the highest
branch of the Legislature, and, by being
accredited to every session of this body
since the war. His long legislative ex-
perience eminently qualified him for the
position of usefulness and prominence
which he assumed and held from our
first days session down to the day when
his failing health warned him to desist
from further participation in our DELHI
erations. l know, sir, with what relue-
lance he abandoned his seat here, and
with how much of interest he looked for.
ward TO the future of his beloved State.
In the midst of so much political degen-
eracy and charlatanism the death of such
man is not local, but may justly be
accounted and lamented as a loss to :he
entire people of that State.
He was accounted a good man in all
the relations of private life, and died as
only such men can die. When the final
summons came, he went not Gas the
quarry slave scourged to his dungeon, "
but ustained and soothed by q conscious
sense of duty well performed, he ap-
preached the grave as one ''who draws the
drapery of his couch about him and lies
down to pleasant dreams"
Mr.. McGaughey made the following re-
marks:
Ever and anon, as we journey along
the thorny path of life that leads from
the cradle TO the grave, we are called
upon to pay the last tribute of respect
to those whom we may have loved, to
those who were dear to us, or to those
for whom we had the highest respect as
officials, statesman, citizens or kinsmen.
We often fail to appreciate the worth of
honest, upright, moral and law-abiding
citizens or officials until the cold hand of
death is laid upon them and the grave
hides them from view. The exciting
scenes, show and splendOr of a busy
world; the cares, responsibilities and
anxieties of life, riding upon a vessel of
excitement in sea of pleasure, may
cause US to forget for time what is to
be the end of all things, and that the fiat
has gone forth, ''Earth to earth, and dust
to dust" Past experience has taught us
that time knows no favorite; death
knows no bride; the grave knows no re-
spite. All earthly honors, pleasures,
fame and wealth end in that enclosure
where the rising mounds mark a spot
sacred to some one, and where flowers
bloom and fame away over the tOmbs of
departed heroes and statesmen; and
the marble monument proclaims the last
eulogy over sleeping mortality.
a1fb foil for triur,pbs If m borrO
What though we wade in wealth or in fame,
Earth's highest station ends in here he lies,'
And dust to dust completes the nOblest song"
We are called upon to-day to add a tri-
but of respect to the memory of Col. l.
J. Roach, who was a member of the
present Legislature. But few days past
he mingled with us here, occupying a
seat in the house which we find vacant
to-day. We were assisted by his safe
counsels and instructions; by his words
of wisdom which fell from his lips in due
season. But he is gone; no more will the
echo of his football, or the sound of his
voice be heard in this hall; no more will
the influence of his presence be felt here,
which he welded for the good of his
native State and the prosperity of his
country. Your humble speaker had
but limited acquaintance with the de-
ceased, yet that limited acquaintance
made upon us favorable impression, and
we looked upOl Col. Roach as a safe
counsellor, imparting instruction founded
in wisdom and experience. We looked
upon him as man of honest purpose of
heat, of sterling moral worth, whose
character was irreproachable and whose
errors were the errors of human frailty,
and not the studied errors of a designing
politician or demagogue. In the loss of
Col. Roach this Legislature has been de-
priYed of the counsels of one of its best
and safest members; the State has lost an
honest politician, and the community III
which he lived no doubt feels that they
have lost worthy citizen.
Mr.. Spears followed briefly. He said !:
We would gladly be spared the painful
duty that involves upon us to-day, of
commemOrating the death of our friend
and associate. But we must bow in
humble submission to the will of an over
ruling Providence, and in our Christening
sorrows recognize the hand of God. And