The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-05-07

nent, he fell into the same fault again.
Not seldom he appeared overbearlng In ms
assumptions of authority; but 1t was the
imperiousness of profound copvfetion
which. while sometimes exasperatlng his
hearers. vet scarcely ever failed to exer-
else over them certain sway. His fancy
was not fertile, his figures mostly labored
and stiff. In his later years his vast learn
ing began to become an incumberlng bur-
den to his eloquence The mass of quoted
sayings and historical illustrations, not sell
dom accumulated beyond measure and
grotesauely grouped, sometimes threaten
ed to suffocate all original thought and to
Cypress the nearer. But even then his
words scarcely ever failed to chain the at
tention of the audience, and | have more
than once seen the Senate attentiyely lis
tening while he read from printed slips the
most elaborate disquisitiOn. which if at
tempted by any one of his colleagues.
would at once have emptied the floor and
and galleries: But there were always mo-
Iaents when he recalled to our mind the
days of his freshest vigor, standing in the
midst of the great struggle, lifting up the
youth OF the country with heart-stirring
appeals, and with the lion like thunder Of
his voice shaking the Senate chamber.
Still there was another source from
which that fascination sprung. Behind all
he said and did there stood grand man
hood, which never failed to make itself
felt What figure he was, with his tall
and stalwart frame, his manly face, topped
with his shaggy locks, his noble
bearing, the finest type of American Sen
atorship, the tallest oak of the forest And
how small they appeared by his side, the
common run of politicians, who spend their
days with the laying of pipes, and the set
ting of pins, and the pulling of wires
who barter an Office to secure this vote, and
procure contract to secure that; who
stand always with their ears to the wind
to hear how the Administration sneezes,
and what their constituents whisper, in
mortal trepidation lest they fail in being all
things to everybody. How he stood among
them, he whose very presence made you
forget the vulgarities of political life who
dared to differ with any man, ever so DOW
erful; any multitude ever so numerous !;
who regarded party as nothing but means
Tor higher ends, and for those ends defed
Its power to whom the arts of demagog-
ism was so contemplate that he would
rather have sunk into obscurity and obhv-
ion than descend to them; to whom the
dignity of his office was so sacred that he
would not even ask for it, FOR fear of dark
ening its luster.
Honor to the people of Massachusetts
who for % years kept i'm in the Senate,
and would have kept him there ever so long,
had he lived, man who never. even to
them, conceded single iota of his convic-
IN in dor 60 Al
lite was his A life so wholly devoted
to what was good and noble There he
stood in the midst of the grasping mate
rlallsm OF our times, around him the eager
chase for the almighty dollar, no thought
OF opportunity ever entering the smallest
corner of his mind, and disturbing his
high endeavors with virtue which the
possession OF power could no. even tempt,
much less debauch FROM whose presence
the very thought of corruption instructive
ly shrunk back, life so unspotted. an in
tegrlty so intact, character so high, that
the most Caring eagerness of calumny, the
most wanton audacity of ins;naatton stand
ing on tip-tOe could not seuch the soles of
his shoes. They say that he induced
seit.appreoiatiOn. Avc. He
III nave I ".ncient r,rlde, >. lofty self,
- ) .. ny should he ne. d? Let wretch
4espise themselves, for they have good
reasons to do so-not me- But in his self
esteem there was nothing small ami mean
No man lived to whose very nature envy
and petty jealousy were more foreign. Con
scious of his own merit he never depre-
ciated the merit Of others. Nay, he rec
ognized it and expressed that recognition
with that cordial sp)ntaneity which can
only flow from a sincere and unenviOus
heart. His pride of self was like his
pride of country. He was the proudest
American he was the prOudest New Eng
lander and yet he was the most cosmopol-
itan American | have ever seen. There
was in him not the faintest shadow of that
narrow prejudice which looks askance at
what has grown in foreign lands. His gen
erous heart and his enlighted mind were
too generous and too enlightened not to give
the fullest measure of appreciation to al
that was good and worthy from whatever
quarter of the globe it came.
Our readers will certainly thank us fol