The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1874-06-06


,sli1ed through the fulsome adplation
poured upon him, al naassani, By bis
panegyrizts, Il Is refreshing tofnd anything
which relates to him containing scinsilla
Of truth and reason, such as the following
extract from the Charlottesville, Virginia,
Chronicle;
THn DEAD SENATOR, "a living dog
may be better than a dead hon." but a
living statesman is BY no means 50 illus
irious Is dead Senator. The truth IS
that fer al the requisites Of a iirzt-elass
sensation nothing can equal the decease
Of q prominent Radical politician. No
event that has occurred in this country for
many long years has occasioned such q
magnificent display Of mock mourning,
such q gushing outburst Of fOlsome ealo.
", such a general wiping Of weeping eyes
throughout the Yankee nation, as the
death Of Mr.. Senator Sumner. For some
time previouS to his demise he had been
showed into the rear rank Of Radicalism
and snubbed BY the leaders Of the party
because Of certain cratic and unaccounta-
bic departures from the faith. Censursd
BY the Legislature Of his own State, and
deserted even by the dusky deyotees who
had hitherto ignorantly worshipped him
as the Apostle of Freedom, the closing
days Of his public career were doubtless
embittered by sad reflections upon the un-
certainty Of white men and the base in
gratitude Of blacks. But if the spirits Of
the departed are cognizant Of the things
transporting upon earth after they have left
the tabernacle Of the flesh, surely the ghost
of the deceased Sumner must gaze trium-
phantly upon the scenes that have been
enacted since his death. Eloquent orators
have scattered artificial flowers Of rhetoric
profusely on his grave; poets have dipped
their pens in tears and bewailed his depar-
ture in lugubrious verse; painters are
transferring to canvass the lineaments Of
his features, and sculptors are sharpening
their chisels to carve his figure from the
marble block. Old women rock restlessly
in their arm-chairs and sigh over their
eountrys loss; young mothers call new
born boys by his illustrious name, while all
the darkeys ilNthe land resolve and re-
resolve that sumner was "tru mp and
chant his requiem with united voice to the
tune of that immortal funeral hymn,
"John Browns body lies a-moulderingi in theEraye-"
When win the lamentations cease? Guam
diu ,s0stra Patieatia abateres
We have no manner of objection to the
thing except that it has become monoto-
nous, and has been from the start over
done. Many better man than Sumner
has gone to the grave "unwept, unhonored
and unsung.n He was by no means the
great man that his admirers portray in
their highly-wrought eulogies and wildly
eolored pen-pictures. His craftsmanship
was Of very "narrow-guage," and his
footsteps during the whole course Of bis
political life traversed a very contracted
and uncleanly road. All the powers of bis
intellect, all the desires of his heart, all
the energies Of his being, were devoted to
the one great work Of demolishing the in
stitution of slavery and eleyating to the
level Of the white men Of this country a
race of different color and designed by
the Almighty to occupy an inferior posi-
ton. This was his life-work, pursued with
degree Of perseverance and determina-
ton worthy Of a nobler cause. The Civil
Rights bill, the last and crowning atrocity
carved out by his blightiug hand for the
humiliation and oppression Of the South,
be left in sacred trust to the friends who
gathered around his dying bed, and went
into eternity, apparently thinking more Of
the fate Of his darling scheme than of his
own immortal destiny. The bitterness of his
hostility to the whitepeople ofthe South was
50 srrcharged with gall that he did not seem
to taste the bitterness Of death, and went
on his way rejoicing, not Sin the hope of
the glory of God" but in the hope that
his work Of desolation and oppression
would live after him in the triumph of his
"bill Of nominations
( Such was the man who has been can
onized as political saint, and whose name
is to be transmitted to posterity as the
great Apostle of Freedom. Let Northern
men bow to him whose race is run and |
sing peans to his praise, but we concur
with . contemporary in the opinion that
but few Of the South viii unite in conse- |
Grating his bad work by lamentations over |
bis death or honors paid to his memory.
The mischief Mr. Sumner has wrought has
been too terribly realized by the Southern |
people to be atoned for by few words of |
,onciliation uttered at the close Of career
marked by bitter and unrelonting warfare
upon their dearest interests and their most
sacred rights.