The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-10-11
SgMi Ia [London Times, Sept. 26th.l
"A The Late President.
Minister Lowen's Tribute, DeHveredyst
M the Great London Meeting. AzEE

| grief is a sense of the greatness and costiness
uf the sacrifice that gave birth to it. and this
sense is brought home to us by the measure in
| which others appreciate our loss. 1t is no ex-
| aggeration to say that the recent profoundly
touching spectacle of womanly devotedness IL
its sim plicity, its constancy and its dignity
has moved the heart OF mankind in a manner
without any precedent in living memory. But
to Americans everywhere it comes home with
pang of mingled sorrow, pride and unspeaka-
BILE domestic tenderness that none but our
selves can feel. This p4ng is made more poig
ant by exile, and yet you will all agree with
| me in feeling that the universal sympathy ex-
| pressed here by all classes and conditions of
| men has made US sensible as never before that,
| il We are in strange, we are not iu foreign
! land. and that if not at home we are at
| least in what Hawthorne aptly called the
| Old Home. Loud cheers. l should gladly
| dwell more at length upon this fact, so consol-
| ing and 50 full of all good omen, but must
| not infringe ON the resolutions which will be
presented to you by others Yet should do
| injustice to your feelings, no less than to my
own, if did not offer here our grateful &C
acknowledgements to the august lady who, her
repeatedly and SO touchingly how true a We
mans heart may beat under the royal purple.
[Uheers.] On a occasion like this, when We
are met together that we may give vent to
common feeling SO deep. and SO earnest as to
thrust aside every consideration Of self, the
wish of US all must be that what is said here
should be simple, strong and manly as the
character of the illustrious magistrate so un.
timely snatched from us in the very seed-time
of noble purpose, that would have sprung MP
in service as noble; that they should be as ten
der and true as she has shown herself to be in
whose bereavement we reverently claim to
share as children of the blessed country that
gave birth TO him and to her. We cannot find
words that could reach that lofty level. This
is no place for the tprnings and windings OF
dextrous rhetoric. In the presence of that
death scene, so homely, so human, SO august III
its unoste ntatous heroism, the coDmon-places
of ordinary eulogy stamIner with the sudden
shame of their own insptude. Were we al
lowed to follow the natural prompting of our
hearts, we would sum up all praise in the sa-
cred old words. "Well done, thou good ard
faithful servant" [Cheers.l That death
scene was more than singular. It was unex
ampled. The whole civilized world was gath
cred about il in the breathless suspense of
anxious solicitude, listened to the difficult
cheered by the momentary rally and saddsned
by the inevitable relapse. And let us thank
God and take courage when we reflect that it
was through the manliness, the patience, the
religious fortitude of the splendid victim that
the tie of human brotherhood was thrilled to
consciousness of its sacred function. The one
touch of nature that makes the whole world
kin is a touch of heroism, our sympathy with
which dignifies and ennobles. Science has |
wrought no greater marvel in the service of |
humanity than when it gave the world a COM !
mon nervous system, and thus made mankind |
capable Of simultaneous emotion. One re- |
markable feature OF that death-Seene was the |
impertu bable good nature of the sufferer. This |
has been sometimes called peculiarly Ameri- |
can quality-a weakness if in excess or misap- |
Piled but beautiful in its own genial place, as
there and then it was. Gen. Garfield once |
said to friend, "They tell me it is defect Of |
my character, but / cannot hate anybody"
Like Socrates, he seemed g0od-humored even /
with death, though there have been few mea
from who,; leath has ever wrenched faiIer
heritage OF opportunity Physicians tell us
that all men die we'll, but slrely he was
binary man who could die well daily for eleven
agonizing weeks, and of whom it could be said |
at last:-
ssHe nothing common did or mean,
Upon that memorable scene."
A fibre capable of such strain and wear as
that is used only in the making OF heroic ma
lures Twenty years ago Gen. Garfield offered |
his life to his country, and he has died for her
as truly and more frui.fully now than If fate
had accented the offer then. LCheersl Not
only has his blood cemented our Union, but
the dignity, the patience, the self-res raint, the
thoughtfulnesS for others, the serene valor
which he showed under circumstances so dis
hearienng, and amid the wreck OF hopes so
splendid, are a possession and stimulus to his
countrymen forever. The emulation of ex-
amples like his makes nations great, and keeps |
them So TIE soil out of which such men
he are made is good to be born on. good to live
on. good to die for and to be buried in.
(Cheers.
had not the honor of any intimacy of |
friendship with this noble man Others will
speak uf him from more intimate knowledge.
saw him once or twice only, but SO deeply
was impressed with the seriousness and so
lidity of his character, with his eager interest
in worthy objects, and with the statesmanlike
furniture of his mind, that when many years
after rward he was nominated for the Presden-
CIV reioiced in the wisdom of the selection,
and found in nv memory an image OF him
clearer than that of any man l ever met of |
whom had seen so little. And 1 may add |
that have never known any man concerning |
whom loving ana dutnlTiDg testimony was 80 |
uniform from men of every rank and character
who had known him.
oNone knew him but to love him,
None named him but to praise"
shall not trace the story of his life, but there
is nothing that occurs to me so perfect in its
completeness since the biblical story OF Joseph; |
The Door lad who at thirteen could not read |
dies at fifty, the tenant of an office second in |
dignity to none on earth, and the world
mourns his loss as that of personal relative
1 lind the word coming back to my lips in
spite of me, HE was so human" An exam
ME of it was his kissing his venerable mother
on the day of his Inauguration. 1t was crit-
cised, remember hearing at the time, as /
sin against good taste. l thought then and |
think now that If we had found the story IN |
Plutarch we should have thought no worse of |
the hero of it, (Cheers) 1t was this pliability |
of his to the impulse of unconventional feel /
ing that endeared him so smuch to his kind /
Among the many stories that have been sent
me, illustrating the sorrow so universally felt /
here none have touched me so much as |
these two: An old gardener said to his mis-
tress, "Oh, ma'am, we felt somehow as II he |
belonged to u.s. and In a little village on the |
coast where evangelist held nightly SER
vice on the beach, prayer was offered regularly |
for the recovery of the President, and the |
weather-beaten fishermen who stood around /
the preacher with bowed, uncovered heads, |
fervently responded Amen"
You will also be Interested to know that the |
benevolent Sir Moses Montenore, now in his |
9th year, te egraphed last week to Palestine
TO request that prayers might be offered for |
the President in the synagogues of the four
holy cities. 1t was no common man who
could call forth, and justly call forth, an emo
tion so universal, an interest so sincere and so /
human Il said that this was no place for /
eulogy. They who deserve eulogy do not |
need it, aud they who deserve it not are
diminished by it. The dead at least can bear
the truth and have right TO that highest SER
vice of human speech. We are not called up
on here 70 define Gsrfelds place among the
memorable of mankind. great man is made
up OF qualities that meet or make great occa-
sions. We may surely say OF him that the
great qualities were there, and were always
ADEQUATE to the need; though less fortunate
than Lincoln his career was snapped snort
inst as they were about to be testod by the
sunreme trial of creative craftsmanship. We
haiisye that he would have stood the test, and
va have good reason for our faith. For this is
csrtainly true of him, that life more strenu-
GUS. a life of more constantly heghtening ten
dency of fulhulment, of more salutary and
invigorating example, has not been lived ina
country that is ricn in instances of such. Well |
may we be proud of him, this brother
- ours raeoUnizad al brother |