The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-04-03

| the state.
All these circumstances of his life !
make up the value of his memory. For,
see Here was pure, proud spirit, |
more alone, perhaps, than any other |
famous man upon this continent, save
az he was accompanied by noble
thoughts. He had never been a popu-
lar idol. He had neither desired nor
held popular office. He had no friend
ly nickname from the multitude. He
withheld himself from the crowd. Over
and over again he assailed the favorite
or the project of the hour. At one
time the whole South would have set a
price upon his head. At another, half
the North would have prayed that
hook might be set in his jaw. Yet,
when he died, the bells of Charlestown
tolled, the flags of Louisville hung Mt
half mast, the flowers of that Virginia
which once hated him were heaped up
on his quiet breast. Philadelphia beg
ged that he might rest, if only for an
hour, at Independence Hall, on his last
journey home. New York asked
leave to render whatever reverent hon
ors might be permitted her. Every
New England village and city where
the funeral train paused offered the
tribute of its tears and silence and
Boston, whose child he was, smote her
self on the breast that she had ever
wronRed him, covered him with violets
, and lilies, emblems of his purity, and
, sobbed out above his coffin the tardy
love he never doubted even in her
denial.
These things mean that in the end
+ virtue comes to its own. They are the
, proof that the best gilt Of man to his
,, fellows is character, out of which alone
flows noble service. They testify that
! honor and integrity outlive detraction
: and triumph over death They make
is, once more declare truth as impossi-
BILE to be soiled by any outward touch
: as the sunbeam, and bring new witness
: to the poets saying:
Greatness and goodness are not means but ends
: Hath he not always treasures, always friends,
J. The good great man three treasures, love, and
= light,
}, And three firm friends, more sure than day and
night
J Himself, his Maker, and the angel Death"
When the flower of the culture, the
!, breeding, the eloquence of Massachu-
sets gathered in Faneuil Hall to give
= voice to the general grief the broken
- words of one black man seemed to out
= weigh all the rest. "We stand" he
y =, said (the colored race, "like so many
;, little children whose parent has passed
q away" Over what other grave was
>, such tribute ever spoken? Or tc
:, what higher uses brought ever any man
u such gifts?
8 No titular decoration of the name Of
= Charles Sumner, whether as prefix OF
- an affix, ever made that name seem sc
y noble as it did when standing entirely
\ alone in the dignity of its own syllables
g Some names of great men come to bt
e more than specific destinations the,
- expand in the popular imagination t.
y be new generic terms for great moral o.
~ % immoral qualities. Thus, Georg,
~ Washington, Benedict Arnold, DAME
- Webster, are no longer merely names o
u three men who once lived, but ar,
- synonyms respectively of civic virtue
- of the most criminal treason, and o
. massive intellectual power. So Charlie
. Sumner is name which has come t,
y, represent not merely the man who Dor
80 it, but the ideal character of the Ameri
n can Senator-a type Of personality a
~ ~ stately as that of the Roman Senator
~ and far broader, brighter, more versa
!, tile and more humane. We do not fo1
r, get any important parsonage on tina
: roll of illustrious citizens who have sa
o in the American Senate since the four
r dation of the Republic, when we sa
- that Mr.. Sumner seems to us to hav
~ gathered into his own character NOR
completely than any other those trait
m which we should all agree to call Sena
IN torial. He realized to the full majest
Or of his great ofice-the most to be de
OF sired, we think, of any Office in the Re
OF public. He was the Senator. He neve
IA held any office below that of Senator
us was any higher Office. Othe
or John Quincy Adams, Calhoun, Sewarc
so Webster, Chase, have held other pos
~ tions in the Government, and have co
lis cred the regulations they acquired j
or the Senate by the regulations they az
quired in the Cabinet, in the Executiv
be office, and on the bench. Mr.. Sun
he ner's reputation is unique as the growt
ed of the Senate alone. They all al
an peared to regard the Senate Chamber O
of vestibule to the Pre- sidency, and whil
is in that Chamber they filed it with the
a impatient ambitions to get beyond i
CHI When Mr.. Sumner entered the Senate
k he entered it to stay there, and to do hi
lie life-work there, and to be the incorruI
n and imperturbable advocate there {
he every patriotic thought, and the repre-
by sentative Of every unrepresented maj
90 There was that, also, in his person, HI
lie bearing, that met and satisfied til
he grandest conception that any citze
1t could form of Senator. And even h
his home in Washington was what q
pt American Senator's house should be
Sc, central, elegant, dignifed residence
ell fronting the great tides of population
to and filled with the best books, picture
he statues, and with the symbols of what
ex- beautiful, and hopeful, and good in IL
IT, past and present of mankind. When
I'll few years ago Wellington gave up h
est life, his countrymen said 1.-The Dull
He is dead - and all understood what Dull
ed was meant. SO now Americans mig
ity say, 90 The Senator is gone !" and the
oh would be no uncertainty in the phras