The Cecil Whig., 1871-08-26


More than twenty years ago, l stood
before large audience in Williamson,
Wayne county, New York. one Sabbath
day. A crowd filled the house and swarmed
around it. Among the outside worshippers
| noticed a tlaxen-haired boy, whose rivited
attention to my sermon led me to speak to
him after the service closed. He was a
stranger to me, but the timid, shrinking
! lad gave me his hand, and we were friends.
| Tonight, in this far off southern city, |
| unite with you, my fellow citizens, in ties.
timony of respect and esteem for that lad,
since, and until lately known as the Hon.
S. S. Fish, late member of the Louisiana
Senate.
Stephen Selby Fish was born July 10,
1887. Before the age of manhood he united
with the Baptist church on profession OF
faith in Christ, and thus became a member
of the church militant. Four years after
ward he volunteered his services as a sol
dier in the Seventeenth New York Infan-
try, United States Army, for two years,
and served with the Army of the Potomac.
One year after this he was admitted to the
bar as counsellor at law, in Rochester, New
York. In 1865 he became a citizen of New
Orleans, was admitted to the bar of Louis
lana, and was, for time, the law partner
of Judge Dibble, now of the Eighth Dis
trict Court. In Nov last he was elected a
member of the Senate for the First Dis
trict of Orleans parish, for four years. He
was also appointed to the highly RESPONSE
bic post of secretary of the consolidated
desk, which made him custodian of the
bonds of the four corporations, now united.
His ever faithful discharge of duty, and
his fidelity to trust, were at once demon
stration of his virtue as citizen, and of
the wise choice of those he represented in
public life.
Thus, in brief paragraph, his short and
honorable career as public man is sum-
med up. The indices thus given afford
matter for more detailed remarks, to which
I ask brief attention.
III
ed with events of immense Importance. of
which he was not an idle spectator. Ten
years only measure the time from his enlist
ment as private soldier in the Union army
to the day of his death; then Senator of
State whose secession, with other States,
had perlled that soldiers life in many
hard fought field. So wondrous are the
compensations of an over-rulins Providence
in the affairs of men. That he fairly won
what he obtained, and deserved all the con-
tidence his warmes. friends placed in him,
will be manifest by reviewing his personal
character.
He was from early life purely virtuous
and truly pious person. Although deprived
of a mothers care in early childhood, he
had one of those precious dispensations of
Gods goodness, known as pious grand
mother. She was a personal acquaintance
and friend of mine. Her impress was very
distinctly made upon his youthful mind.
After he united with the Baptist church
in Williamson, New York, he never for
feited or removed his church relation
Coming to New Orleans, he was identified
with, but not member of the Coliseum
congregation, while under the care of the
lamented lothian Horton, who was, with
himself, a victim of the July massacre of
1866. But the subsequent reorganization
of that church was upon a basis which Mr.
Fish did not approve, and he never removed
to it his membership from the North With
true liberty of Christian fellowship, and
from a preference for that which is loyal
and true, through evil and good report, he
presented himself publicly at this altar
during my pastorate, and as Baptist asked
to be taken under Methodist watchcare.-
Regularly thereafter he communed with us
as a Christian brother. And when he died,
two church records lost a name, while Par
adise won soul which had been tried as
by fire, and purified by Him who sttith as
refiner and purifier of silver.
He was patriot and Il soldier of disin-
terested devotion and unflinching courage.
Forever blessed, of perpetual dominion,
and gloriously immortal, is that nation
whose sons by the million answer promptly
the stern call Of duty, and bare their backs
to the burden and their breasts to the flam-
ing hail storm of battle. And such
nation is America. For every one of her
hundreds of thousands now dead on the
field, cheerfully said, by their voluntary
sacrifice, i" it is expedient for us that we
should die for the people that the whole
nation perish not"
And the most unselfsh devotion is that
exhibited by private soldier, who has lit
tie or no opportunity for becoming distin-
guished, and yet bears the knapsack for
years, and moves cheerfully on in the ranks.
These are the unnamed demi-gods of our
nation. Revering the fabled story of the
mother bird who plucked out her own blood
for her brood, these children of the coun-
try fed their mother with their health and
strength and life, and renewed her vital
power.
1t was my fortune, the first year of my
army life, to have encamped on the same
fields, and to be marshaled in the same
lines of battles where Selby Fish bravely
bore his part. l know the wretchedness of
the camping grounds near Alexandria Vir-
ginia, from which he was borne away to
the hospital, and suffered an exhaustive