New-York tribune., 1874-03-16

q prayer for his country when tho wcarincsS
of the flesh has quenched the master passion
Of the soul.
Yet still the pious memory in which we gar
ner I'D tho names of the nlustrOus dead is
better pleased when We can cOnstruo their last
words and acts into correspondence with tho
words and acts of their lives. This pleasure
whatever may bo its worth and vallo as SEN
timent, has boon abundanty assured 10 the
friends and admirers OF the late senator ouih-
ner. who, in the hour of death, appears TO nave
kept clear and vivid before him tho high re-
solve and anmaing purpose winch ruicu HIS
conduct through q long and actlye puD'ic mo-
1t was in keeping with this life, 80 remarkable
for its punctual and conscientious discharge OF
duty, that he should have exclaimed on his
death bed, "The great account Is closed He
was conscious that he had been charged with
high trusts in strange and fearful tine -
ali epoch of transition in the history or the
Republic-and he accepted those trusts rs ohe
who felt that he had an account to render Ior
the stewardship committed to his hands
If in passing from the profound sense OF his
responsibility to "the Great Taskmaster," we
seek to designate the most distinctive tralt III
the life and career of tho dead Senator, we
shall undoubtedly find 1t not in his eloquence'
learning or refinement, signal as they were, but
in his championship of that humble colored
race, once despiscd and oppressed among us.
whose cause he made his own and helped to
make the cause of u sometimes reluctant Sen
ate and of gainsaying people. A man OF
culture, having as such few equals among his
cOtemporaries, and none at oil among MS
immediate official associates, he nevertheless
made the ignorant and l0wly the objects OF his
first solicitudes and the subjects OF his grand
est efforts as q scholar as well as a statesman.
He was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
1t was his highest ambition to be counted
"the negrO's friend" when to bear that name
was passport to obloquy, and even to out
rage and violence suffered in the cause OF
philanthropy
This ruling passion of his life did not bate
O jot of its intensity as he stood On the brink
of tho grave. Those who were permitted to
watch and wait around his couch report that
he seemed to seek not so much sOlace for
the pain that WAS raclSing his body, as some
assurance that the bill which he had intro
duced into the Senate, at the very threshold
of its present session. in order still further to
guard the civil rights of the negro, might not
fail of its final adoption. 1t was not until
such an assurance had been given to him by
member of the House OF representatives,
who had large power to make that assurance
good that the dying Senator composed his
spirit to meet the approaches OF death. Ii any
were ever tempted to doubt the feryor and
sincerity of his political apostleship as he
stood on the high places of the land, there are
few who would be willing to question its gen
uinencss as he descended into the Valley OF
the Shadow of Death.
Ii was fitting, too, that among those who
ministercd to the wants of the dying states
man, there should have been the representa-
tiyes of that negro race which he had served
so long and so well Drawn to his bed of
pain by reverence for the distinguished suf-
ferer, they helped by the assiduities OF friend
ship to sOothe as far as possible the throes OF
the great heart which had once beat so
warmly in the cause of human rights And
in the fact, recorded by those who witnessed
the Senator's last struggle, that lie died with
one of his hands in the grasp of the col0red
friend who was leaning over him in the act
and attitude of rendering assistance to
dying man, we have picture suited to I'M
press other minds than those OF the dlsky
and affectionate race, who Will be likely TO
retain il longest in fond remembrance as
typical of the relations borne to them by the
Massachusetts, Senator alike in his life and in
his death. 1t may be only fancy which
feeds such sentiment; but the sentiment
itself is only the stronger for having such
high source among the well-heads of human
feeling