Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-09-27
Oratio,, Of Hon. C. X. Davis.

Ex-Gov. Davis, the orator of the occasion,
was then introduced, and proceeded to deliver
one of the most eloquent and mastery ad-
dresses of any kind ever given in Minnesota.
The address, which is given in full, speaks for
itself:
A nation mourns to-day. A people goes
with slow and measured steps through streets
made sombre with the trappings of woe, un
der funeral arches, to the measures of discon-
solate music wailing Its farewell lamentations
to bury and to praise
e. the ruins of the poblest man
That ever lived in the tide Of times"
The world is darkened to us. The designs
of Providence move to their appointed ends
through SO vast an orbit that we cannot see
through our tears the season of frultage from
such a desolation as that which this eclipse
has caused. We somehow feel as if our
very institutions are tainted by completely
with this monstrOus crime, and are accessa-
ries to it, and that the whole responsibility
cannot be bounded by the nature of the vul-
gar murderer whose hand has drawn pail
over the land. It is as If some ancient
fate, working TO its ends through
the agencies of innocence and guilt alike, had
fulfilled remOrseless destiny and smitten
down the dynasty of free government, while,
like the chorus of some classic tragedy, peo-
pie chants the words of comfortless mourn
| ing. All are here. The laborer, the scholar,
| to whom no like catastrophe is told by his
tory, the statesmen, saddening over the fact
that within twenty years two presidents have
been murdered the business man, the woman
and the little child, wideeyed with wonder
and with grief-all are here to mourn.
The sermon, the eulogy, the dirge, tht
threnody will end, anG the dead president will
pass into history, with all his human fau ts
atoned for by his saclfce. History often falsely
sees the character of man through the adit
OF such death, for there is no prospective go
distorting 1t is probable that Garfield will
always stand in this illusory and scenic light,
and it is well, peahaps, for the force
OF example, that this should lie
SO. Death teaches no finer pre-.
cepts than are taught by the lives and death
of men who, good and pure, and dedicated
/ apparently to the contamination of great
| career, are thus brought down untimely. 1t
I was so with him. He had finished no career,
| He had not fallen the leader of any disastrous
political measure. He had been conspicuous,
though not pre-emnent, in the press of politi-
cal leadership. That he was capable to do all
that men more self-assertive aspired TO de
every one knew. Still it was felt for years that
he had at no time put forth all his strength.
| Upon all questions of craftsmanship he stood
in the van of the most advanced thought.
Upon the heeting questions of the hour, those
mere expediences of the moment, he was sci.
dom heard to speak. He seemed to be mar
in preparation and ripenlng slowly for the per.
formance of some great, ultimate duty, which
should surpass the daily tasks of other men,
however well performed, and thus round
out that crescent life to an orb OF
never fading light. But this was not to
tbe. He has been stayed in his course. All
hn, Nf A~ao l,fS Scs1 g. "a
end, and we are free to consider the example
of what this man might have become From
earliest life he was an assiduous student, and
thus became, next perhaps to the younger
Adams, the most variously instructed man oi
all our presidents. 1t is exemplary to know