Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-08-19
JACKsoNs PANEGYRIC.


states N mister henry II. JACKSON IN Inc
CITY OF Mexico, where memorial services
were held on the day Of Gen. Grants
funeral. The services were attended by
the Americans in the city and by large
number of distinguished Mexicans. Gen.
Jackson said:
cannot better introduce the sad suo-
jeot upon which am now to address you
than by borrowing the simple but impress
eive imagery used by an American indian
while announcing the death Of his CHIEF
"a great tree has fallen in the stiffness OF
the forest!" Towering above The wood
and nearest 10 the cloud. 10 had attraclea
the fury of the storm. But the thunder
had ceased TO roll; the wild winds had
ceased to howl; in the stiffness OF the
forest he fell, and the crash OF It's rail- mas
startled from their elumOer the laI-ou
echoes. The solemn roll Of the muihe1
drum, the measured tramp Of the funeral
march, the melancholy t0ll OF the deep
mouthed bell, the sOUl-subduing hymn,
the awe-inspirng prayer-theee are the
eloQuence BIT Tor an occasion Ike tins.
The commonplace speaker stands power
less before you!
Consult! | pray YOU, my countrymen,
take counsel OF your own hearts! hat
would you nave me t. say! Snail recount
the achievements Of the soldier, who rose
worldwide fame? Shall dilSte upon the
policy OF the iron-willed President, VINO
administered the affairs OF a perturbed
country, Just emerged from civil war;
Shall / follow the illustrlOus traveller, tit
representative OF the simple civilization
OF the West TO the Eastern Hemisphere?
through crowded cities which applHuded
hun! through STARRED and srangled
courts" which did him honor? Or
shall | take you from month TO
month from week TO week.
from day to day, through the suierings
terrific of the patiently dying hero? In
thought / hear you respond: "All this Is
as familiar TO US AS II Is to you; as IA
miliar 10 the world as il is 10 us; 10 had
passed into history before ne died! The
occasion calls for no historic essay. 1t
will not tolerate the discussion of pOliti-
cal questions. upon which true men Will
differ as true men have differed. Nor
will it endure the formal phrase OF
the elaborate eulOgistic Grafton. The
flowers OF nature. not the flowers OF
rhetoric. are Gt decoration Tor the de-
scenjiug coffin.
Bur while our cOuurymeu are burying
him at home. il is well thAt we, his coun-
trymen, should assemble here; it is well
that our sister republic should be here
represented by her highest dignitaries, for
his great heart also embraced Mexico in
4bHC4t1 1T ~ well lNdt - ihptthlHiNA u itHAo
should have met us here; for mere We can
commune together in simplest words
about the man. Did you know
him2 Did YOU esteem himY DO you
mourn hmg II so, tell us some
something bout him. Not about what
the world had found in him TO admire
That already glitters. that viii continue to
glitter 70 ali the coming generations. like
the ice upon yon clOud-cleaVlng noun
tains, in the cold ornament Of fame! But
tell US about his heart. about what there
was IN him 10 Lowell tits Love, IL is not
Fame, that bends above the open grayeP
Yesl / knew himi Yes / hOnOred
himl Yes! | mourn himl Not sim
ply as an American. who loves his coun-
try, mOurns the death OF her illustrious
son; but 40 man mourns personal
friend. l hOnOred him, because / believed
him to be magnanimous. TO. ask the
men who were BOYS with him on the play
ground at West Point; 90, ask the officers
Of his regiment, who grieved over his res
ignatiOn from the army; 10, ask the men
who knew him best in all the epOchs, IN
all the phases OF bis eventful life. Nay!
ask the humblest servants who ministered
to his wants. whether upon the tented
field. or in the White House at Washing
ton. and rest assured that not one of them
will fail 10 tell you-nay! that all will
join in the one acclaim as well look for
the serpents skin under Tia eagles feath-
ers as Tor bitterness in the character Of
Graut.
BE was grand in his unpretending sim
plieity. 1t encased him like an armor
Of steel. No success, no elevation. no
plaudits from the outside world, nothing
could make the slightest impression upon
it. Always and everywhere he
was what God had made him.
There was nothing meretricious
oh IA ua TIa vt-au al ula in "a
ing, simple in his language, simple In his
taste; the power Of his thought was in It's
clearness ana its directness-in It's sim
plicity. Truth is always simple. The
grandest Of Gods creations are always
the simplest.
This simplicity OF truth permeated his
entire emotional being-seeing others
precisely as he saw hmselt-he gave a
trust, broad as his own magnanimous
nature, to our common humanity. For is
Il not altogether true that each one Of us
must carry within himself the standard
by which TO measure the moral proper
tiOns OF others? And that, hence. be
must needs be the seVerest critic of him
sell who IL most suspicious Ot his tellOWs
Here, right herel the grsndest Of souls
are most exposed 70 a peculiar treachery.
1gnoble brutuses. welding a dagger
far mere formidable than the
blade used by the Roman
Brutus. have played their parts In history.
And all Of US very well know how il came
10 pass that our simple, Republican,
Caesar was stabbed TO the heart, and
when il was he began 10 diel II tue
agonies Of bis death by far transcribed
those Of the Roman CHsar--if they rather
assimilated % the iortures or Prone
theus, chained by the envy OF the gods 20
the bald rock, while the vultures were
preying upon his yitals- thanks be 10 the
God Of Justice! bis yindicatiOn was. in
due proportion, the grauder. Before
the historic picture OF the American
Senate. with unanimous voice and
palpitating hearts and outstretched
arms restoring him 20 the American
army which adorod him, the most
gorgeous tridmphm procession ever de-
creed by Roman Senate 10 Roman CON
queror must "paie I've Intellectual lire"
And what wac this but a single ripple
upon the broad ocean which had already
begun 20 shiver all over with tremulous
agitationi And as the heart-rending
tragedy moved on; az scene followed
scene, and act followed act. of anguish
inexpressible-how did the hillows rise
higher and higher. and spread broader
and broader until all lines Of latitude and
longitude were finally swept
from the emotional world mo
North, no south; no Federals, no Confed.
crates. no HhOvs In hlupW no sthove In