The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-05-16
ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR.

clously right as any other man was Wrong-re-
fused to kneeI Owen Loveloy remembering
his brothers noble blood, refused TO surrender.
and on the edge of disunion, in the shadow OF
civil war. with the air filed with the sounds or
dreadful preparation, while the republican
party was retracing It's steps, Roscoe Conkhng
voted This puts q wreath OF glory on
his tomb. From that vote 10 the last moment
OF his life he a champion OF equal rights,
staunch and stalwart. From that moment he
stood in the front rank. He never wavered
and he never swerYed. BY his devotion TO
principle, his courage, the splendor of his die
ton, by his varied and profound knowledge,
his conscientious devotion to the great
cause, and by his intellectual scope and grasp,
he won and held the admiration of his fellow
men.
Disasters lin the field, reverSes at the polls,
did not and could not shake his courage or his
faith He knew the CHASTITY meaning OF defeat.
He knew that the great ship that slavery
sought to strand and wreck was freighted
with the worlds sublimeSt hope. He battled
for a nations life for The rights of slaves the
dignity OF labor, and the liberty of all. he
guarded with fathers care the rights Of the
hunted. the hated and despised. he attacked the
savage statutes of the reconstructed states
with torrent of invective, scOrn and execra-
ton. He was not satisfied until the freeman
was an American citizen clothed with every
civil right, until the constitution his shield,
until the ballot was his sword. And long after
we are dead the colored man in this and other
lands will speak his name in reverence and
love. Others wavered, but he stood firm; some
were false, but he was proudly true, feariessly
faithful unto death. He gladly, proudly
grasped the hands of colored men who stood
with him makers of our laws, and treated
them rs equals and as friends. The cry OF
social equality coined and uttered by the
cruelest and basest was to him the expression
OF great and splendid truth. He knew that
no man can be the equal OF the one he robs,
that the intelligent and unjust are not the
superiors Of ignorant and honest, and he also
felt and proudly felt, that II he were not too
great to reach the hand OF help and recognition
TO the slave, no other senator could rightfully
refuse. We rise by raising others, and he who
stOOps above the fallen, stands erect.
Nothing can be grander than 10 SOW the
seeds OF noble thoughts and yirtuous deeds, TO
libente the bodies and the souls of men, to
earn the grateful homage of a race, and then.
in life's last Shadowy hour to know and feel
that the historian OF liberty VIII be compelled
10 write your name. There words
intense enough, with heart enough to express
my admiration for the great and gallant souls
who have in every age and every land upheld
the right, and who have lived and died for free
dom's sake. In our lives have been the
grandest years that man has lived, that time
has measured by the flight OF worlds.
The history OF the great party that let the
oppressed 60 free, that lifted our nation from
the depths OF savagery to freedoms cloudleSs
heights, and tore with holy hands from every
law the words that sanctited the cruelty Of
man, Is the most glorious In the annals Of our
race. Never before was there such moral
exaltatiOn, never party with purpose so pure
and high 1t was the embodied conscience of
a nation, the enthusiasm OF a people guided by
wisdom, the impersOnaton Of justice, and the
sublime victory achieved loaded even the con-
queror with all the rights that freedom can
bestow.
Roscoe Conkling was an absolutely honest
man. Honesty is the oak around which all
other virtues cling. Without that they fall and
groveling die in weeds and Edust. be be-
heved that a nation should discharge its obliga-
tons. He knew that promise could not be
made often enough or emphatic enough TO take
the place of a payment he felt thatthe prom
lSe OF the government was the promise OF every
citizen, that a national obligation was a per-
sonal debt and that no possible combination OK
words and pictures could take the place of coin.
Iie uttered the splendid truth that the higher
obligations among men are not set down IN
writing signed and scaled, but reside in honor
He knew that reputation was the sacrifice or
honor, the death OF the national soul. lie knew
that without character, WITHOUT integrity, there
is no wealth and that below poverty, below
bankruptcy, is the rayless abyss of renudiatiOn.
He upheld the sacredness Of contracts, OF
plightefnational faith. and helped TO save and
keep the honor of his native land.
This adds another laurel to his
brow. He was the ideal represcn-
tatiue, faithful and inconuptible. He believed
his constituents and his country were
ence, to his best and highest
thought. No man ever held the standard OF
responsibility higher than he. He voted ac-
cording to his judgment, his conscience. He
made no bargains, neither bought nor sold.
TIC correct evils, abolish abuses and inaugurate
reforms, he believed was not only the duty, but
the privilege OF & legislator. He neither sold
nor mortgaged himself. He was in congress
during the years of vast expenditures, OF war
and waste when the credit of the nation was
N Fh
as leaves in June, when the amendment Of 8
statute, the change OF a single word meant
millions, and when empire were given 10 cor
poTatiOns. He stood at the summit OF his
power peer of the greatest, a leader tired and
trusted. He had the tastes Of a prince, the
fortune OF peasant, and yet he never swerved.
No corporation was great enough or rich
enough TO purchase him. His vote could not
be bought for all the sun sees, or the close
earth wOmbs or the profound seas hide
"His hand was never touched by any br1be,
and on his soul there never a sordld stain.
Poverty was his priceless crown Above his
marvellous intellectual gifts, above all place he
ever reached, above the ermine he refused,
rises his integrity like some great mountain
peak, and there it stands firm as the earth be-
meath, pure as the stars above. DE was
q great lawyer He understood the frame
work, the anatomy the foundations OF
law, was familiar with the great streams and
currents and tides of authority. He knew the
history of legislation, the principles that
have been settled upon the fields OF war. He
knew the maXims. those cTystalliZations OK
common sense, those hand-grenades of argu.
ment. He was not a case-lawyer, decision IN.
dex, or an echo, he original, thoughtful
and profound. he had breadth and scope, re-
source, learning, logic, and above all, sense
of Justice lie was painStaking ana Conscien.
tious, anxious 10 know the facts, preparing foE
every attack, ready for every defense. He
rested only when the end was reached. Dur
ing the contest he neither sent nor received a
flag of truce. He was true TO his clients, max
ing their case his. Feeling responsibility. he
listened patiently to details, and 10 bis indus
try there were only the limits of time and
strength. lie was a student OF the constitution.
He knew the boundaries of state and federal
jurisdiction, and no man was more familiar
with those great decisions that are the peaks
and promontories, the headlands, and the bea,
cons of the law.
HE was an orator, earnest logical, intense
and picturesque He laid the foundation with
cold graduation and well-balanced form from
the corner stone of statement 10 the domed con-
clusion. He filled the stage. He satisfied The
eye the audience was his. He had that in-
defnable thing called presence. TALL COM
handing, erect, ample in speech, graceful IN
compliment titanic in denuncation, rich in
illustration, prodigal OF comparison and me-
taphor and his sentences, measured and
rythmical, fell like music on the enraptured
throng
"He abhored the pharisee, he loathed all
ii 10 ho.4 n