The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-05-07

One alJer announcer our prominent PUBLIC
men are passing away, and many of them, we
regret to say, before they have filled the meas
ure OF ripe years and while career of useful
ness was before them. It is but the other day
that James L.. Orr was at this Office, appar-
emily IN good health, on the eve of his depar-
ture for st. Petersburg, he having been ap-
pointed Minister to Russia. He had hardly
reached the Russian capital when death struck
him down. Though statesman of long and
varied experience he was only ffty-one years
old when he died. He was born at Clayton
vile, Anderson district, South Carolina, May
North Carolina, and Of Scotch-Irish extrac-
ton. John Orr, his grandfather, was q pa
triot soldier in the Revolutionary war. James
L. Orr was educated at the University of vir-
ginia-that noble institution from which
many statesmen have sprung. He became
q lawyer, and in 1874 he was elected to the
State Legislature His political life began,
then, when he was twenty-five years of age.
Early in life he was elected to Congress- and
while there he opposed the admission of Cali
fornia and the compromise measures of Henry
Clay, and in 1851 attended meeting in
Charleston to consider the expediency of with
drawing South Carolina from the Union. At
that time Mr. Orr threw the whole weight of
his opinions and efforts in favor of what was
then known as the cooperation party. Al
though regarding the right of State to secede
from the Union as one of its attributes of
sovereignty, he opposed its exercise as q
measure Of policy, and was largely influential
in carrying the State on this issue. He sub
sequently voted for the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise, and, though originally elected
as wing, he generally acted with the demo-
cratic party after entering Congress. In the
Thirty-ifth Congress he was chosen Speaker.
and was remarkable for his impartiality and
Justice. In 1860 he went with his State into
secession, and as member Of the South Caro-
lima Convention he affixed his name to the
ordinance Of secession from the federal Union.
He was one of the commissioners appointed
by that body to proceed to Washington
and confer with the government, and was sub
sequently designated as Commissioner to the
State Of Georgia. Mr.. Orr during the lato
as one Of the Senators from his State As q
rebel he was one Of the General Lee class, who
went into rebellion and secession because
their education in the doctrine of State SOW
ereignty had convinced them that primary
allegiance was due to the State, and not to the
Union. When the Confederacy fell with tho
surrender of Lee he set to work at ''recon-
structing" in very sensible way. He did
more than ''accept the situation" in words:
he told his slaves they were free, and arranged
with them to continue work for o share of tina
profits. In the Reconstruction Convention
restoring South Carolina to the Union, of
which he was also member, he was the lead
ing man on the progressive side of all ques-
tons, and he was in his views greatly in
advance Of that body. 81 am tired of South
Carolina as she was," said he, in a speech in
the Conventions; 81 covet for her the material
prosperity Of New England; would have heI
acres TEEN with life and vigor and industry
and intelligence, as do those of Massachusetts,.
He went into rebellion SO easily and got out
of it SO readily that there was at first some
disposition to distrust his leadership; but
while conservative even as member of the
republican party he continued to stand in
the foreground of the movement toward q
more republican form of government This
led to his being chosen Governor of his State
in 1866 to succeed General B. F. Perry, whom
he had beaten for Congress in his first canvass
in 1S48. He was the first and best constitu-
tional Governor South Carolina has had under
the new order of things. In 1868 Governor
Orr supported the nomination of General Grant
for the Presidency, and he was member
of the Philadelphia Convention last Summer
which pronounced in favor of Grants renom-
ination and reelection. AS member of that
body he made an eloquent appeal in behalf Of
Grant and the republican party. His services
were rewarded by the appointment Of Minister
to Russia.
In all the positions of public life Mr.. Orr
filed he showed the ability and qualities Of
statesman, striving rather to do that which
was best and practicable under the crcum-
stances than adhering to impracticable theo-
ries In consequence of this he was never
popular with the old school Of strict construc-
tionists in his State and the South. He was
genial, kind, charming companion, an excel
lent citizen in all the relations of life, and was
greatly beloved by all his friends If Mr.. Orr
did not quite reach the standard Of the few
men occupying the first rank of statesmen i'm
the history of the Republic--of such men as
Clay, Webster, Hamilton and Jeferson--he
was only just below them, and, had he lived,
might have reached higher position than he
attained His death is loss to the South,
which needs all her able, practical and expe-
rienced public men, as well as loss to the
whole country.
ACCOMMODATIONS FOR THE PUBLIC IN Gen.