Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1875-11-26

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sion was The presence of two marines in full
uniform, wearing the light blue regulation
oveico3t and high caps surmouutad with
pcmpons, VINO stood during the service al
most as motiOnleSs as statues one al the
head and one at the foot of the casket.
THE FLORAL TRIBUTES,
whlle not very profuse, were beautiful and
tasteful. On the glass plate of the caskeS,
about midway between the head and foot.
stood a cross, about foot and half high.
Itstlhg on PEDESTAL of flowers, composed of
rare white flowers, mingled with green
sprays OF maiden's hair fern. This was a
eontri button from the Botanical Gardens,
Mr.. w. r. Smith, superintendent and was
one OF the most tasteful OF the floral
offerings. At the foot of the casket was
green wreath with two fern leaf sprays at
tached, the gift of Mr.. James Wormiay, OF
This city; also white cross the gift OF Gene
raj and Mrs. Babcock. \ wreath of flowers
the glft or Mrs. President Grant, formed
part OF the floral decoration. ON the right
end OF the desk of the Vice President was
manlhcent broken column of fowers-white
inteImingled with green sprays con-
trltuted by Rev. David Wills, attached to
which was a card on which was printed the
following:
Floral offering from the South by Rev.
David wills, for the funeral of the lamented
Vice President Wilson, the Student States
man, Philanthropist, and Christian. whose
name Will ever live in the annals OF his
reyered by the wise and good wi shout respect
10 section or party"
The Funeral Services.
AT haIf-past ten o'clock, Mr.. Ferry, Presi
dent OF the Senate, arose and said: ''Appro-
pirate funeral services will now be heidi
The Rev. Byron Sunderland, Chaplain OF
the Senate, then arose and read selections
from the Scriptures, including, 81 am the
resurrection and the life he that belieyetb
IN me, though he were dead, yet shall he
live; and whatsoever liyeth and belieyeth in
me me shall never die" At the conclusion of
Tie reading, which lasted until twenty min
uteS 10 II O'Clock, Rev. j. T.. Rankin. D. D.
delivered the following
Memorial Discourse.
Rev. Xiv: "And / heard q voice from
Heaven, saying unto me, write, blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord, from hence
forth. Yea, satin the Spirit, that they may
resi- from Their laoors, and their works do
follow them"
All that is mortal of Henry Wilson, of
Massachusetts, Vice President Of the United
States, lies in deaths stiffness before us. The
nation pauses in her grief beside his open
grave. Her great men, her chief captains,
her mighty men; every bondmau that was
and every freeman that is, brings some
dust. The nations emblem, which his
twenty years Ofpublic service contributed so
much 10 leave full high advanced; ay, 10
cleanse OF every stigma and shame in the
worlds eye, and in the eye of pOsterity
droOns fenderly above him. In this hOnored
place, whose chief seat is now vacant, q place
while he has always stood, the unfiinching,
the lncorruptible defender of human dignity
and human rights, we, the highest and the
lowlleSt. his associates in government, his
fellow citizens: heirs alike of the heritage of
freedom, which he has done so much to
transmit unimpaired, replenished with new
life, gather for a brief solemuity. IL is fitting
that our words be few.
Henry Wilson was the product of New
England. If there was iron in his blood. if
there was strength IN his muscle, if there was
n : a In hiC frap I'M ",
the tuition of that sterile and rocky soil; to
the cold and inclemeut, the stern aud serious
aspects OF his native New England. Ay,
more than this, Henry Wilson was the Pro-
duct of the New England idea, now become
the American idea: That man is man, and
nothing can be greater; and that WAN God
made man in His own image He male him
TO have dominion. first, over himself; d
then, over just as vast an empire among no.
as, under God. he could subject 90 himself.
Henry Wilson was ambitious. LET Us thank
God that he was. When, on the 18th day Oh
February, 1872, he first saw the light of NOR
tai life, he was the heir of three generations
Of poverty; the descendant of three genera
lions of ancestors, who had barely kept soul
and body together. Who, in that rough and
rugged alfwilderness OF his native New
Hampshire, had, one after another, fought a
loslng battle with life, until the grave COW
cred them. Apprenticed to a small farmer at
ten years Ofage, and taking the hard knocks
and sore deprivations of chOre-boy, at that
period, when more favored young men are
school and in college; studying the ruGi-
ments OF his native tongue and the history
light of pine knots, and by the midnight
flashes OF smOuldering black logs, he needed
all his ambition.
Henry Wilson was ambitious, but his am
bitfOn was to ambition 10 sercP, to bear bur
deps, to assume responsibilities, to perform
labors, TO stand In the front ranks-not SO
much that he might lead, as that he might
take the hard knocks of leader; that he
might somewhere, and at some time, do the
country yeOman service, like that of WASH
ingtOn and Jefferson and Adams; that he
might enter into the labOrs OF these men into
whose spirit he had been baptized as he
walked that sterile Yankee farm, and during
al that dreary apprenticeship Of his boyhOod
and yOuth-during all those Selfdenying
neighbours of toll; and, later in life at
Natick, In the state OF his adoption, under
the shadow of Bunker Hill monument, aud
cord, where he was thinking out his thoughts
to the music of the hammer upon his lap
stone; when he was measuring his sword In
debate with the merchants and lawyers of
Boston he was girding himself less for Lead
ership, less for dignities and honors, than for
life long service. He sought places of SER
him as though he had caught this counsel
from his cOmmunings with the Revolution
airy periOd-as though the genius OF his ma
tive land had said to him, in the dreams of
his bOyhOOd, "Whosoever OF you will be the
chiefeSt shall be servant OF all,"-as though
he had been determined in his Utmost soul
tnat Dy tnaI sign ne would conquer
In making up our estimate OF this mans
character, the vast, prOdigious achievements
OF his life, let US remember that when
CHARLES SUMNER,
the chevalier Bayard of freedom, whose
white colOrs were always seen In the thick
est OF the fight, and stained, too, with his
own blood, was studying classics in the Bos-
ton Latin school, and walking beneath the
favored shades Of Harvard, q lad, to whose
moral fntuitions, as leader of the free soil
movement, he was to owe his first seat in the
United States Senate, and who was to be-
come bis worthy associate and compeer in
this foremost body of the nation, was earn
ing his livelihood by day and storing his
mind by night on poverty stricken farm of
New Hampshire, and that when Charles
Sumner was sitting at the feet of such
men as Judge Story, was In the Cam
bridge Law School as scholar and teacher;
was travelling aud residing in Europe, and
when he was drinking in at the very foun-
tain heads, both at home and abroad, the prin-
ciples of International and constitutional
law, Henry Wilson was working In his shoe
makers shop at Natick until midnight,
speaking in debating societies, made up OF
his fellOw-wOrkmen, and slowly lifting him.
self up, until he became the man whom Mas
sachnsetts delighted 10 honor. And in the
great cause Of Human Freedom 1t is beaui-
full to see how these two great men of Massa-
chr fo h<Nr-Y mil <,rn