Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1886-03-01

lsted by other asplrants to the presi
dency, it was altogether impossible
tfat they could create the feeling.
lhe interesting question at issue was
whether the precedents of the gov
eminent should be discredited.
HORACE GREELY.
He was the ablest polemic this
country has ever produced. His
command of strong, idiomatic con-
trpversial English was unrivaled. His
faculty of lucid statement and COM
pact reasoning has never been sur
passed. Without the graces of fancy
or the arts of rhetoric, he was incom-
parable in direct, pungent, forcible
discussion. A keen observer and an
omnlverous reader, he had acquired
an immense fund of varied know]-
edge, and he marshaled facts with
singular skill and aptness. In an
era remarkable for strong editors in
the New York press, Mr.. Greeley ea-
silly surpassed them all. His mind
was original, creative, necessarily
active. His industry was as untir
ing as his fertility was inexhaustible.
Great as was his intellectual power,
his chief strength came from the
depth and earnestness of his moral
convictions. In the long and ardu-
Gus battle against the aggressions of
slavery, he had been sleepless and
untiring in rousing and quickening
the public conscience. He was keen
ly alive to the distinctions of right
and wrong, and his philanthropy re-
sponded to every call of humanity.
His sympathles were equally touched
by the sufferings of the famish-strick-
en- Irish and by the wrongs of the
pIundered Indians. Next TO Henry
Clay, whose ardent disciple he was,
he had done mole than any other man
to educate his countrymen in the
American system of protection to
home industry. He had on all occa-
sions zealously defended the rig hts
| of labor; he had waged unsparing
war on the evils of intemperance ;
! he had made himself an oracle with
the American farmers; he had infiu-
ence even more potent in the remote
prairie homes than within The shadow
of Printing House square. With his
dogmatic earnestness, his eXtraor-
dinary mental qualities, his moral
power, and his quick sympathy with
the instincts and impulses of the
masses, he was in peculiar sense
the tribune of the people. In any
reckoning of the personal forces of
the century Horace Greeley must be
counted among the foremost-intel-
lectually and morally.
CHARLES SIMMER
Whoever was first in the other
fields of craftsmanship, the pre-emi-
nence of Mr.. Sumner on the slavery
question must always be conceded.
Profoundly conversant with all sub
jects of legislation, he devoted him.
self absorbingly TO the one issue
which appealed to his judgment and
his conscience. He held the repub-
lican party to high standards
standard which, but for his courage
and determination, might have been
lowered at several crises in the histo.
ry Of the struggle for liberty. He
did not live to see the accomplish
ment Of all the measures to which he
had dedicated his powers. He died
without seeing his civil rights bill
enacted INTO law. For that only he
desired TO live To his colleague and
faithful friend, Henry Wilson. who
followed him so soon, he said mourn.
fully: eff the publication of my
works were completed and my civil
rights bill passed, no visitor could
enter the door that would he more
welcome than DEATH" He was wea.
ry of life. He was solitary, without
kindred, without domestic ties. He
had been subjected at intervals fol
eighteen years TO great suffering,
which with the anxieties of public
life and the solitude which had be-
come burdensome wore away his en-
ergy. However much his wisdom may
be questioned by those who were Lot
his political friends, whatever criti.
cism may be made of the zeal which
not infrequently was assumed to be
ILL timed and misjudged, Mr.. Sum
ner must ever be regarded as a schol-
ar, an orator and statesman, whose
splendid and unsullied fame will al
ways form part of the true glory OF
the nation.