Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1872-12-12
THE GREELEY OBSEQUIES.
Remarks OF Rev. Hcnry wnsd Beechcr
ana DIR. Chapin-Descriptlo or the
Church DccOrAtiOns-A An Immenso
Procession To tho Conn terv.

EEOccSo1OQ TO tho Cemetery
The following is full and interest
ing account of the funeral obsequies
OF the late Horace Greeley, whose death
occurred at the residence of DIR. Choate.
near Pleasanton, New York, on Friday
November, %, 1872:
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher spoke sub.
stantially IS follows: "When men
have filed the household of God with
their presence, it is not surprising that
we miss them when they leave us for
ever; and yet they are constantly, like
i'll tho present case, going from us, and
others are being called upon by means
OF a heavenly impr lse, to take their
places in the great cause of Gods
truth. Tho occasion, my friends, is u
solemn and sublime one, and we forget
tho strife and contest Of the world
Tint strife that separated us politically
i'll the af:airs of the nation and join
IN tins meeting to weep over the re-
mains Of him who is now in our pres.
ence and soon to he taken from us, but
whose memory shall live forever in the
annals of his country. Who is this
man whom We are here to-day to COM
memorate9 For thirty years he has
filled the land with the greatest contro-
versy. He was man of war, and yet
he died without civic honors q private
citizen, and yet we honor him, one and
all. The President of the United
States and hiD officers are here, and
bow in silence to the will of God in
taking from lis our great brother. A
little time ago we were in the midst OF
fierce battle with the great dead, the
leader Oh one side, and yet he now lies
lifeless before us. It is because the
man was something more than
a professional man, SO good and
noble that he has few COM
peers, it is for this reason that we
assemble here to mourn the loss OF
Horace Greeley. For thirty years he
built for himself no outward monu-
| ment and no estate /; but here to-day,
between the oceans, there is not man
who has not felt the effects Of Horace
Greeley. What matters it that in the
conflict over political economy he
should be upon one side and you on
another He has given his ife.blood
for the good, to the purposes of a noble
manhood. It is the presence of the
man to-day. We are all speaking kind
~ and sorrowfully for him. Think of
these conflicts in which you forget hui
mainly, out of which you have come,
and summon your charity now, you
that have been battling on the other
side. After long and tempestuous
voyage he has reached the shore, and
angels will welcome him to their out
stretched arms. Let us hope that when
we die angels will open the gates for
us and receive us to the glory of the
Lord"
After the address of Mr.. Beecher,
WHICH continued but a few moments,
"Sleep the Last Sleep" was rendered
in beautiful manner by the choir from
st. Francis Xavier's Church.
Rev. E. II. Chaplin then spoke as fol-
lows: "One month ago many who are
now present met in this place to ex-
press their sympathy with one who sat,
with pallld face and quivering lip, q
heart-striken mourner over his wife.
To-day, as in the freshness Of his quiet
sorrow himself, he is to be by her side.
The shadow of death through which he
was then passing has enveloped HIM.
Such is Providence, that checks all
human operations, and makes life a
continued surprise. / cannot attempt,
here and now, to unfold the life nor es-
innate the worth of Horace Greeley.
Such an attempt would on one hand be
premature and on the other unneces.
sary, because the trials and lessons of
the great life can but be reviewed when
the grief and excitement have ceased.
This work ought to be done, and 1 trust
will be done, in the utterance of some
public memorial service which will de.
mand much wider hearing than can
| give it.
To speak of Horace Greeley is un-
necessary. It has already been done.
There have been but few instances in
our history where expressions of re
greet and regard have been so spontane.
Gus, so universal, and SO similar. These
eulogies, that pour in so thick and fast
from every part of the land, are not
made up of artificial rhetoric. They
are genuine. Tears are as freely shed
to-day by the country fresides and in
distant cities as beneath the shadowing
drapery of this house from which he is
soon to 60 out forever. They represent
the invisible sympathy, but represent
tho peoples thoughts, and are twined
about the peoples heart, bearing wit
ness to career of honest purpose.
And why this deferential regard for the
memory of Mr.: Greeley It is not for
his mere intellectual ability, large and
undeniable as it was. 1t is not be-
cause he was an high official,
for Horace Greeley held no off,
cial station. The will of the people,
expressed through the Electoral Col
legeto day, decides that he should hold
no such station; to-day the will of God
elects him to a place from which all
human ones look small and dim, Whv
is it, then2 1t is the magnetism of
simple goodness. Mr.. Greeley's heart
was as large as his brain. His love for
humanity was inherent. He touched
al, all sides Of humanity: so to speak. The
hundreds of poor, toil-worn men who
yesterday pressed through the crowd
to take last look at the worn face were
moved by mere curiosity. They came
there not to gaze upon the face, Of a
greaS Journalist or politician, but be.
cause he had always been the poor
mans friend,' the sympathetic com.
panion of the workingmen, who had
struggled through their experiences and
never forgot their claims. All his pub
lie acts were directed BY. the same
impulses, and enlisted him in
the service of very many eau
ses. Not only did it inspire
his lifelong oppression to vice
and wickedness of every kind, but it
made him unspeakably generous. Per
haps he erred on the side of mercy
against justice, but if q man must err
at al, that is q good side to err on.
Whatever may have been the mistakes
OF him who lies dead before us, there
was no mistake in the main current of
the principle which characterized his
life, and therein is lesson for us also.
How faithfully he did his work and
led his life it is super1uous for me to
say. 1t was an eminently practical one.
what various interests of art, of labor,
OF education, of temperance, of domes-
tic pollty. of freedom, 20 mourning for
him to-day. Welding the mighty
power Of the; mightiest engine of the
times, placed in the editorial chair
that he was, it is no light thing to say
that, however strongly-some may
think severely-he used his pen as an
instrument of his thoughts and princi-
pies, he never debased it as the stimu-
lus of impurity, or made it the vehicle
of a single social wrong.
While Horace Greeley had many an
tagonists, he had few, if any, enc
mics; and may I now, without violat-
ing any of the prophecies of this &C.
casion, express my satisfaction that