The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-04-27
THE LATE. SENATOR FROM MICH
N. IGAN. 81 a
From the Golden Age

/
in our usual places around the table
And what shall be the theme of our talk
to-day ~ ~
Did I know Jacob NJ Howard the
statesman-him who from the Senate but
few weeks ago descended into private
i life, and who from private life has just
assembled into that higher and grander
Senat the reatlegisIature'o of all souls
the life beyond life
Yes: | knew him. AS boy aud man [
knew him, in 8 certain distant vet In
innate for nearly thirty years. Nearly
all the descriptions Of him since his death
have painted the public side of him.
have sketched the lawyer. the senator, the
political orator-the august and the
austere phases ofthis Wolverine Roman
But Jacob NJ Howard had another side
the private side Of his mind and life--s
which was as gentle,as sweet,as graceful,
and US rich in elegant accomplishment s,
as any to be encountered III the course of
a long tour among mortal men.
| We grown folks may imagine that our
| keenest critics are our contemporaries in
lfe--thc people who are as mature as
ourselves. | suspect that we are mistaken.
| Our keenest critics are the little boys and
girls who watch us IN the streets, who
know US, but whom we do not think it
worth our while to know. There are no
eyes like theirs to detect our. foi5les, to
penetrate our spiritual states, to discern
our faults and oUr virtues as blazoned
in the tell-tale eloquence of dress gait,
manners, and vocal tones. A
It was with my boy eyes, both wide open
in the streets OF the town through which
Jacob M. Howard has walked for forty
years, that began to study him, and to
make a mental record of his char.
acteristics love now to think of him
as he used to appear in those early days to
my Juvenile gaze--a grave presence, NOV
ing with slow, firm. tread, the citizen of
weight and force. t4t ~
One Of the things about him that i'm.
pressed me was his industry Hundreds
Of times have met him Walking from
his house to his ofice,as early as half past
six in the mornng-then to commence the
studies of the day ! shall never forget
the impression I received Of his
toilsome habits by za visit II
once had to make &C his office
between nine and ten at night It WAS
before the luxury OF gas lights had reach
ed that western town and then found
the iaborious student still at work over
books and papers by the light of single
candle. And having thus spent all the
day and all the evening in the rugged
studies Of the law,he would go home, even
at that late hour to the poets,the essavists
and The historians, and refresh his mind
by the amenities and the sublimities of
their discourse
And this lead me to say that devoted
as he was to what are described rs harsh
pursuits, he carried forward, all his life,
with an enthusiasm like Cicero's thor
ough and catholic acquaintance with what !
we rather weakly call polite literature
He ardently loved the ancient classics; he |
early became master of the French lam
guage and it's best anthors and for the
great authors in English ne had an appre-
citation as hearty as it was discriminating.
lie was, indeed, q lawyer,a statesman,and
a scholar in one. Did you know, too, that
he had even made Il venture IN the field
of letters himself? A quarter Of GEN.
fury ago, [ think it was, he published q !
translation of 'eThe Secret Memoirs of the
7" EMPIRE 50 Josephine"
Few men, In private conversation, were
SO fascinating and so instructive as he.
His mind wasa storehouse of knowledge,
culed from books and from life. Hist
memory was of iron, like himself and it
held In its grip whatsoever he entrusted
to it. In talking, his voice was quiet, land
sweet, and sincere, his words simple and
choice, his utterance deliberate, and his
manners as transformations and as genuine
as child's and, with such qualities and
mplishments, it was treat never to
be forgotten, to hear him discourse on
literature, history, or philosophy.
Did you ever hear him in the Senate, or
in Court, or in political campaign II
Well,if you ever did, you heard massive
robust, and at times, vehement, orator.
And perhaps, you thought that this stall.
wart man had all his satisfactions in such
stern conflicts. You never guessed that
by the side of that aggressive and tenn
pestuous energy, was a delicate and in
tense love of art, and especially of musc
wherein the roughness of the combatant
softened into the fine and feminine APP
probation of the artist. He loved music,
as Milton did and ike Milton, he was
himself musician, and he found in its
cultivation solace and health of mind
Elder citizens of Detroit can remember
how groups Of people used to gather
around his little Office, in years long past,
and listen to the sweet strains of music
which the tired lawyer used to send from
his flute.
In look,in bearing,iD type of patriotism,
Senator Howard was Roman but
beneath the austerity of that massive
presence, was heart 40 warm and as ten.
der as a woman's, He was what DR..
Johnson admired-a good hater And he
was go0d lover. too HIS friends know