Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-10-17

THE GREAT MAN OF THE
GENERATION FALLEN.

THE GREAT MAN OF THE
GENERATION FALLEN.
AUBURN. N. Y. Oct. I0-3:l5P. NJ
Hon. William ii. Seward has lust died
Telegram.
Thomas Paine, during the Amcri.
can Revolution, wrote the memorable
words:
These are the times that try mems
souls"
And the same has been no less true
the last fifteen years in this country.
The excitement. anXieties, and dis
appointments have so tried and
strained the souls of the prom
insnt men of the nation that
their constitutions became wrecked
and many of them have passed from
earth.
The'ast twowe ks added two t. tn 4
illustrious dead DR. Francis Lieber
and Hon. VIM. II Seward. The former
was a German-American, eminent in
science, and the latter, probably the
greatest stateman this country ever
produced. Says the Cleveland Her
all.
In The death of Mr.. Seward the
greatest statesman of the tunes has
fallen. That is not saying too much
The history of Mr.. Sewar is career
is not yet written. He is yet too
near us 10 apper in all the majesty OF
his proportions. But amid all the
prrjudices that party politics create,
and amid all the heart burnings OF
the fearful whirl of the last
decade, Mr.. Seward will be awarded
the position we assign to him by a
more general verdict than can be ac
cord any other man.
But at this moment what we deem
to be particularly note worthy in Mr..
Seward, was his freedom from the
great weaknesses that so mar the
characters of so many Of our great
men MIR. Seward has die6 Just nj
the time when these weaknesses are
having most prominent display Mr.
Seward had his disappointments,
like other great men. With CLAY
AMI Webster he fell short of what,
no doubt. it was his ambition to
reach-and what was eminentlv his
desert-and again and again did Mr.
Seward meet those trying rebuffs that
seem inseparable from heated party
strife-we mean rebuffs from his own
party friends. Still Mr. Seward nev
er lost his balance, never showed
bad temper, never doubted that time
would make all things even, never
was false to his principles, nor false
to his friends.
How clear. and pure. and brilliant
such acharacter amid the weaknesses
of SD many of our great men who
take council of their passions, their
prejudices, their hates, and, worst of
all. of That consuming passion--per
sonal revenge. Look back over the
career of Mr.. Seward, from the very
birth of the great slavery agitation
that eliminated in the rebellion,
down to his last letter cn the issues
of the day, written II friend in
California, and you see the career of
true man; man CONSISTENT
though naturally of a timid make
a mad who has never, in all the vi
cissitudes of II loug political life, lost
sight of his integrity, his honesty,
his self respect.
1t has been charged that Mr.. Sew
ard did not appreciate the gravity of
the times when he predicted an end
to tue rebellion in ninety days. Bat
who did forsee those bloody five
years? ? And then again as a set off
to that mistake, let us recall Mr.
Stewards diplomacy-if you please
thus to term it-by which he showed
up to the world the meanness of the
treason of the South in firing upon
Il vessel that merely was earring
supplies to the starving men in Sum
tie.
We have said Mr. Seward was of
a timid make. And so he was, in
one sense. But where in the history
o. our country was there even great
er moral herOism. than when Mr.
Seward in the face of a contrary pub
Tic opinion excited to a burning pas
sion in loyal breasts, issued his or
der for the release of Mason and
SlIdell and where was power over
public opinion so displayed as in the
instant acquiescence of the loyal
American people in that order on
oil Mr.. Stewards argu-
ment2
But the hastv pen Of daily news
paper is n t fit to he Mr.. Stewards |
His history is the his !
tory of this government when passing
the deepest trial of its exIs-
t.nce
We only now propose to call at
lention to that one personal charac
teristIc of Mr. Seward that made |
him faithful To the last among the |
fai:hless. Let our weak great men |
learn from Mr.. Seward that most
needed lesson-and that lesson
Shakespeare put in the mouth of
Polonious:
This above ALTO thine ownself be
true
And i. must follow, rs the night the
day.
Thou canst not then be false to any
mau.