The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-01

Before the swelling sorrow of this gr sat Nation the
voice of party is hushed into silence: the countenance
of the patriot and the heart of the statesman are
changed; the grief of the people is universal,
and their tears flow in response TO their
overburdened sorrow. To-day. with one accord,
and in humble reverence. we gather about the lifeless
remains of a distinguished and beloved citizen of our
own State, who has passed within the shadows of the
eternal and now has fellowship with the patriarchs,
the kings. prophets, wise men. statesmen and poten-
tates of all time who have gone before him to the
tomb: but he has left to us and to history the beauty
of a great and good life. To his friends and kindred
it will be a pleasing recollection that the evening of
his days was hallowed and glowing with that peace
which the perfect and the upright alone can
realize, understand and enjoy. | said the
evening of his days, but he had no evening, for his
sun had not passed its zenith far enough to cast length
ened shadows around him; he was suddenly. and with
out physical suffering, in the maturity of his useful
ness and in the ripeness of his wisdom, with his great
heart full of noble and grand purposes for the future
mons he was ready to obey. His career was just on
the eve of its completion, from which his countrymen
had begun to realize an inspiration of the success that
awaited him The same almighty Power which moves
In a mysterious way, and whose footsteps are on the
sea, for purposes of His own, not yet revealed to us,
permitted President Garfield to maintain a
handto-hand conflict with death for eighty
days, but in a moment of time called
Vice.president Hendricks from time to eternity. In
the full possession of all his powers, fully developed,
and with a purity of life rare as it was beautiful, he
was fully equipped for the conflicts of time or the
realities of the eternal world. Like the complete
lawyer, which he was, his case was ready when the
Judge called it for trial; there was no motion for
continuance, no plea to the jurisdiction, and
court. The able and persuasive advocate was
accomplished in the learning of the law; with its liter
allure and principles he was familiar, and his profess
slonal success was only proportioned to his merited
distinction at the bar. No less familiar was he with
the law and rules of practice, the knowledge of which
upon which he now stands. With Holy wit he was
familiar; he ~pondered well the revelation which Je-
hovah has made of himself in the Scriptures, and
the will of God he long since made the law of mis-
mind. To the higher law he was no stranger while on
earth, and now he is, doubtless, no stranger in the
comPanionship of those whose purity of life has Sc
cured for them a place among the redeemed of the
earth. Those who knew the deceased statesman in
his childhood, in his boyhood, youth, mature
hte, and in his more advanced years, will bear
witness to the accuracy of the statement when l at
firm that the friendly, genial, kind, charitable gentle
and amiable spirit, which was SO marked a feature in
his childhood and youth, equally characterized the
man in his mature and more advanced years. Even
in the conflicts of life, in the midst of its antagonisms,
rivalries and combats, professional and political, he al
ways had more smiles for his opponents than either
bitterness or unkindly feeling. This characteristic
lay in close proximity to the foundation of his sue
cess and popularity that followed him in life; it was
the reserve force that gave him the mastery over dis
appointment; it was the antidote for all those griefs
and wrongs which public men encounter in the con-
ficts of life, and which so often over
whelm those who are so unfortunate as to be
without the charity and kindness that so distinguished
our friend. / knew him at a period of his life when
visions of Office, and honor, and power had not yet
disturbed his latent ambition, and know that these
noble qualities of the boy became more complete in
~ "S NAO OAeiNAoh CO oOSAh oh0 e"O
Christian. He left the world, his home and his coun.
try while yet on the right hand of supreme power, and
will be laid in the tomb by kind friends. while a CRATE
full Republic will mourn its loss and honor his mem
DRY.
BENJAMIN F. LOVES REMARKS.
Hon. Benjamin F. Love, of Shelbyville, was
the next speaker. Mr.. Love said:
Mr.. Chairman and Gentlemen: The bar of Shelby
county has conferred upon me the honor and priv
of our noble dead. and it is with the utmost sorrow
that l do so, when | think of his death so unforeseen,
by his relatives and friends. Death came to him alone
there in his bed-chamber, and silently struck him a
blow with his icy hand, which in the t~winkling of an
eye has robbed the Nation Of a Vice president
statesman and lawyer, Shelby county of
it's idol, and the bar of Indiana
of one of its members, who, by his eloquence, by his
ability and by his wondrous Kindness to those with
whom he came in contact, has become a shining
light, rejecting lustre on the Indiana bar, and a mon
ument for the rising lawyers of the State. I think I
know the depth of attachment for him felt by the
Shelby county bar, and the citizens in general of Shell
by county. He was brought to the county when a
child and grew up there to mans estate. He was ad-
mitted to the bar, l think, in 1945. He was a mar
remarkably well adapted to the profession. He was a
perior; indeed, I would say, I never saw his
equal Now he is gone. His ability, his in
1 1s r ths ,oa MS hone honesty and Man6 ms +p inspected S 2 morality
no wonder the people of Indiana are bowed down with
grief; no wonder the people of Shelby county feel a
sense of grief and sorrow; no wonder that the bar of
Indiana feel that a great and shining light, who re-
Elected honor and glory upon the profession, has been
forever extinguished. And now, in conclusion, let US
say, well done, thou good and faithful servant of the
people, we miss thee, and we are constrained with un-
utterable sorrow to say we give thee a long farewell.
JUDGE ELLIoTT's REMARKS
Hon. Byron K. Elliott, judge of the Indiana
Supreme Court, then spoke as follows:
Mr.. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Bar of the State
of Indiana. The memory of one who has lived a great
and good life deserves high honor from all classes and
conditions of society, from all creeds and from all par
ties, and from us of the bar of Indiana the highest
honor that man can pay to the noble dead. The mem
ory of the illustrious brother whose death we mourn
deserves the high honor in which it is held by the bar
of Indiana. Thomas A. Hendricks. his great tai
ter throughout all the land; his manliness
of character, his power, his pure and elevated in
tegrity have brought to it honor and respect from
every quarter.
1t has been said again and again by the poet, and
sometimes by the philosopher, that a legal education
units a man to battle with the great problems of gov
eminent and state policy. but the life and achieve
ments of such aman as Vice-president Hendricks is a
complete and unanswerable refutation of this state
ment. We have living members of our bar; we
have the great and honored dead-Morton, Baker and
Hendricks-proving that the lawyers education does
not unfit him to grapple with the greatest problems
concerning the rights of men, or the needs of nations.
But, Mr.. Chairman, time would fail to speak of Mr..
Hendricks as a lawyer and a statesman, ana it needs
not that that should be done this day, for his great
acts, his noble record will live forever fresh in the
memories of the people of Indiana.
Mr.. Hendricks was not only a man of rugged hon
eSty and sterling purity or character. but he had that
high and chivalrous sense of honor which feels a stain
as a wound. Honor is to honesty as the court of
chancery to the court of common law. More delicate,
more sensitive, more refined, more elevated, MIR. Hen
bricks, in a marvellous degree, in a grand degree. COM
bined these elements of honor and honesty. Every
where. in all the contests of life, whether upon the
hastings or in the forum, we find him a manly and a
courageous antagonist. yet a ~chiyalrous and honorable
foe.
The intellect and talents of Mr.. Hendricks were
such as to bring him the admirations, not only of the
people of his own State, but of the Nation, to secure
for him high and distinguished honors. But we, who
knew him at home, honored him more for his per.
sonal nobility of character than we did for his great
intellect, great as it confessedly was-borrowing
authors, who says: Weighing a pure heart against a
great brain is like weighing the bubble
against a weight of pure gold" And
those who miss Mr.. Hendricks from social life, miss
him from the gatherings of the benevolent and char
ity societies, miss him from such gathering as this,
miss him from the forum. miss him from all these