Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-08-17
ACROSS THE DARK RIVER.


About 2 o'clock this morning Senator Hill
was rapidly sinking He breathed with much
difficulty, but continued to sleep, however,
and few minutes after six o'clock, his death
occurred without a struggle. He died from
exhaustion.
For several hours before Senator Hills
death it was evident that the end was near.
After day break his family were summoned to
his bedside, and there were present at his
death the following persons Mrs. Hill, his
wife, b. II. Hill, Jr., and his wife, DIR. X. T.
Ridley, and his wife, Senator Hills daughter,
Charles ID. Hill, his son, two nephews of the
Senator and DIR. Wright the attending sur
geon. Four hours before the Senator's death
he made a sign for the hydermic injection Of
morphine, which was administered and kept
him in stupor.
He appeared to be awake and conscious
several times, but could not speak. At 7.l5
he was apparently awake. when he gently
closed his ewes and died without even tre-
NOR The funeral will propbably take place
Saturday A committe of Senators is expected
to be present.
Senator Hill was born in Jasper county
Georgia, September IA, 1923. He received a
classical education, graduating at the Uni
versity of Georgia. Athens, in 1874, with the
highest honors of his class. He studied law
and served in both branches of the legisla.
ture of his State. He came upon the ma
tional political arena in 1916 and became ac-
tive in uniting the fragments of the whig
party into the American or know nothing
party He kept alive the Southern style of
oratory. He was a bitter anti-seccessonist
| and made speeches ridiculing and sneering
at the enthusiastic advocates thereof, sug-
costing for the meditation of the proud
| GeOrgians the spectacle of Georgia going out
| of the union at the tail of South Carolina.
| He, however. Joined the war party as soon as
his State seeded and his flop over was so
| violent that it carried him into jeff Davis
cabinet He was a senator from Georgia in
the Confederate Congress. He was arrested
| in 1865 and imprisoned in Fort Lafayette.
He was elected to the Forty fourth Congress.
and was reelected to the Forty fifth Con-
gress, but declined, having been elected
United States Senator from Georgia. Mr..
Hill was probably the most eloquent and
powerful orator of the South His speech
on the amnesty question in the House in the
44th Congress. when Mr.. Blaine and Mr.. Gar
field so eloquently denounced jeff Davis for
his responsibility for the Andersonville
prison pen horrors, at once gave him a ma
tional reputation, though he had just entered
Congress. The tone of the speech, how ever,
was unfortunate for himself and the democ-
racy. During the spring of 1881 he was the
central figure on the democratic side of the
Senate during the sharp and acrimonious dis
cussions of the executive session Of the
Senate, over the attempt of the republicans
with the aid of the vote of Senator Malone,
of Virginia. to re-organize the Senate. His
terrible sufferings are well known to the pub
lie. He had cancer in the tongue. Neglect
and improper treatment in New York caused
the case to become serious. The disease
was epithelimo, as cancer on any mucous
membrane is technically called. Successive
operations were necessary because some
cells by which cancerous structure is pro.
pagated had strayed away into regions where
no suspicious structure appeared, but after
ward made themselves manifest. The last
operation was merely precauton, the
glands cut out being slightly indurated. The
patient did not suffer from the effects of the
knife. When the Senator left the hospital
in February last DIR. Goss considered him
cured, only the wound made by the knife
having to heal. But the insidious disease
soon after showed itself, and it slowly did its
| work.