Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-03-12
GEN. HENRY r. JACKsoN,s
Grafton at the Funeral of Governor
stephens,

Grafton at the Funeral of Governo
stephens,
The following is the corrected text c
General Henry r. Jackson's eloquen
eulogy of the late Governor Stephens
The abstract of General Jackson's oratio1
given in the telegraphic columns of tn
MORNING News was necessarily brief,an
the revised text will be read with interest
How profoundly must all of us realiz
the impotence of words to voice the sa,
spirit OF the passing hour! A sigh, a sob
q mood OF tears, these are the eloquenc,
lit for an occasion like this: and these
are not all OF us prepared to giyes Ther,
mas not been a moment of niv watkins
life, since heard that he was dead, Whei
l could not have burst into tears like 5
woman, or failed to feel that need no
btush TO weep, With astOnishment have
asked myself, What is the meaning o.
thiss What relationship bound YOU Il
the dead TO account for this: That, fol
many years past, Mr.. stephens has beer
TO me a special admiration, is known *
all who know me well. But we do MOI
! weep for those whom we simply admire
When they perish, the world NAV grow
darker indeed, but we do not feel so lone.
some in it. How, then, am l to account
for this?
Oh! that speech in Savannah! God
! only knows how grateful was to DR.. Mil
ler for the few words, 01is Journey did
not cause his death.v Probably / was
most instrumental in getting him thither
and meet it is that | should come to lay
! my garland, humble though it be, upon
| his bier.
MIR. Chairman, permit me to say, the
presence OF that wonderful and phenOme-
! nal man in Savannah came like a reYela-
! tiOn TO her people, and left a seal deem
upon her which will rest there forever.
No reaper ever gathered sheaves Of grain
as he gathered sheaYes of hearts. But
still the question recurs, Chow came
this to he soS What was there
in the man that thus caused human hearts
to swarm to him as the bees of Hymettus
sYarmed to the honeyed lips of the tabled
sIngerY Let us, for one moment, reflect |
ask the most enlightened thinker Of us
all--what is most God=like in it's power
what in rhetoric, what in poetry, what in
the world OF thought; nayl what in his
tory, what in the world of action-What
is 1t that has the most God-like power to
concentrate human contemplation; to at
tract and fasten human affection? AS
cend, if you please, through the telescope
far up into the infinite! descend, through
the microscope, tar down into the infini-
tesimal! behold! contrast is the compass
that spans the universe of God! contrast
is the compass that measures the civiliza-
tiOn OF man! LO! God from Heaven
nailed to the wooden cross of earth!-
contrast is the figure which Om-
Impotence itself has used TO rouse
9n!s WIN the lOye of man.
kihdi And in whom among the liv-
ing; nay! in whom among the dead, has
contrast ever so deeply enthroned herself
as in the man whom Georgia mourns to-
day? Let those who stand at distance
suspect or prate, if they please, 0f exag-
gerationi We, who knew him, know chat
here exaggeRafi0it' is simply impossible.
What figure strong enough to Illustrate
the truth "a condor emerging from the
egg Of q dove; the pyramid of Cheops bal
anced upon schOolboy's marble; the
genie escaping from the Arabic casket to
eclipse, with its stupendOus development,
the sun in heaven. Nay! let the imagina-
tion lOOse-give to her the widest of
eagles Wings!-she cannot eYaggerate;
Behold the poor, frail, emaciated, physical
framel Helpless-almest as helpless as an
in5ant III its sWaddling clothes then
see the mental and the moral development
rising from ii,
"Like some tall cliff that rears its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the
storm;
Though rolling clouds around its breast are
spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head"
Evoke from history, if you please, the
grandest Of her beIGes-ler AiEexandera,
her Desars, her Renapartes rest as
sured that in the comparison he will tri-
umph. Circumstance, the king-maker,
fought for them; Circumstance, the man.
destroyer, warred against him. Who
among us that observes, who among us
that reflects, is not aware that, with
the representative man, chronic dis
ease, continuous pain, the perpetual con-
seriousness that death may be near, con-
centrates thought and emotion on self:
captures thenOblest eXamplars OF our COM
mon humanity, and rivets tlrem down to
the very dust ofself? But how was it with
him? The more he suffered himself the
more he strGye to relikVe the sufferiGg Of
6thers' Every pang that Struck at his
Yitals but soWed the seed Of a grander
charity. Heroic conqqeror of self and
circumstance! to whom can we fitly apply
the term GOd-like, If not TO him?
And so he came to Savannah with the
serene light OF heaven already in his eye
Our people swarmed about him as he
moved along our streets. The high, the
humble. the learned, the ignorant-alI
ages, all cOlOrs-fOllOwed him, lord as he
was of the universal heart. From home
to home he went, repelling no invitation,
which, p possibility, he could accept
Weak and suffering he'gaye himself to the
pleasure of others, Last Of all he came to
lis. Memorable day! Who of us can
ever forget ity Richard was all himself
again. There was the feeble ring of the old
clariOn-like voice which years before had
charmed me as never before had charmer
charmed so wisely. There was the same
Weiad light OF tie wonderful eye, as tiel re-
called the memories Of the past. Com
versatiOn was directed to eloquence, and
how eloquently did he recount his own
experience of eloquent men. From
Webster, of the North, he cane to tne
giants Of Georgia history. "'fitan-like
100fhbs; hurling' his Hamilcar bolt
against the" foes of his country; i'm
passi0ned Lumpkin, with tornad0.like
all mingled tOgether-sweepiI every.
thing before It; the classic Berrlen; the
ApollO-like Forsyth; and, looming up In
the remOter distance, the Alpine in
tellect of Crawford Oh! what a feast
of reason! what flow of soul!
When there was Q pause, I said to
aim "GOyerhSr, you have given us the
great men who figure in Georgia history;
tell US something now about your tramp,1
The sweet smile that played athwart his
lips, what words can ever express! And
the elOquence of practical lile-how it
beggars the tongue OF man! If ever hui
man words did express it, they came from
his OWN humble serYant!' SEMars Alec is
kinder to dogs than most people ARE to
folks" What DemOsthenlan or Cicero
nian lips have ever formulated such an
eulogium!
"Governor," one of us said, ''we hear
that you have a room at Liberty Hall for
trampsW eyes," ne replied. ~ feel 1t
my duty to try to make everybody as
happy as can" We saw the tips of the
angel wings. We realized that an angel
had blessed our house, and we felt, oh,
how profoundly that everywhere the lines
over which those wheels had rolled were
holy. That no Georgian could cross them
with base thought in his head, or a
mean, malignant feeling in his heart,
without becoming a traitor to the mother
earth which gave that frail, attenuated
form to the breathing world, and is now
about to hug it back to herself again!
Died from Her Injuries.
NEW YORK, March 10.-Anna Leahy
was arrested last night on a charge Of
Yagraney. She was taken to court this
morning, and while going up stairs she
managed to elude the officer who had
her in custody and jumped through an
open widow to the ground, a distance of
thirty feet. She died shortly afterwards
Amn h aa ra