New-York tribune., 1872-12-05
I.l-.asa..lii. :. z
TIL FLNERAL.

7 Yesterday, we may say without hyperDole,
Z the City of Newly ork was in mourning. Yes
! terday wGs accorded TO a private citizen those
honors winch municipalities have been accus-
toned TO Ioselyo ior famous statesmen dying
in Office, or ior btr0cs upon whose biers were
displayed the la",cls won in great and decl-
sivc battles. TIE spectacle. however broad
and impressive, was simple enough to be III
perfect keeping with the character of him
whose departure had evoked it. He
was man of peace, and no salvo
Of artillery thundcIcd his requiem - no
strains of martial clcgy bewailed his
loss. He was man of the broadest and most
tender humanity, and the memory of his uni
versal bcnevOlence caused almost countless
hearts to pulse with one accordant beat OF
sorrow and Of gratitude. He was man whose
life was chiefly devoted to the discussions OF
public affairs, and President and Chef-Jus-
tce, Secretary, Senator and Representative,
iOined the long train which followed him to
the tomb. Tho fImness of his hold
upon the popular respect and affection
might have been before conjectured; 1t.
was demonstrated only when praise and
blame were alike to him inaudible But
the great citizen had for his mourners the
people he had loved so well; and for whose
prosperity and happiness, for whose culture
and advancement in all useful and honorable
WAYS, there never was moment of all his
life when he was not willing to spend and to
be spent. His had been only manly arts; he
had steadfastly recognized every fellow crea-
ture as a brother but his soul had ever abb
horred every low practice of the demagogue; ;
he had early determined to speak the things
which were true rather than the things which
were palatable; he had kept no truce with
popular vices, and had denounced wrong
doing alike in high places and in
low; he had censured without restraints
of language, the unthrift recllcssness which
keeps poverty poor, not less than the fever OF
pursuit and selhshness of possession which
make riches a curse; there was no public or
private error in the city of his adoption which
from considerations of prudence he had failed
to rebulle. But yesterday there was no irrita-
ting memory of the severity with which he
had exercised the censorship to which Provi-
dence had called him. The men with whom
his political foi tunes had been cast were about
him; but there too, profiering equal tokens of
respect were the men who had sometimes
been the objects of his most unsparing re-
buke. Never in our time has any
one, after Judging so sharp judS-
ment, received from those upon whom
that Judgment has fallen, such an implied pro-
fession of perfect faith in his pure and steady
honesty. The lesson of yesterday is one which
all who have to do with society, and especially
with its errors and mistakes, may well take to
heart. No doubt the paudits of a flattered
constituency are sweet; no doubt the emolu-
ments of the misleader of the people are
sometimes magnificent; but the death which
has visited us has proved that wealth is dr0ss,
that honoTs are but emptiness compared with
fragrant memory. There could have been
no political triumph for Horace Greeley living
like this social triumph Of Horace Greeley dead.
What q cOncourse was that whiyh presented
itself in the temple in which he was accus-
toned to worship, and in which, yesterday,
surrounded by the sweetest and most touching
emblems of mortality his inanimate frame was
laid Had he been President or had he been
King, what nobler funeral thrOng could have
gathered about him I There were the dignity
and the ability of the Republic there were the
Presi lent of the United States, the Vice-Presi-
dent, and the Vice-President elect the Chief
Justice, venerable alike for years, for in
tegrity, and for learning; the representa-
tives of the Senate and the representa-
tives of the House. There were those
who had forgotten the political auimosi-
ties of a lifetime side by side wita lose
who had been his lifelong friends enough
the evil and the good report which "a 70 tle
shar, Of every public man. There were those
whose names have passed or are passing into