, 1888-05-10
INCERSOLL'S TRIBUTE
TO the Memory Of the Late
Roscoe COnkling.
A Man OF Superb Courage and
Honest Convictions.
His Great Love Of Friends and
Contempt for Enemies.
ingersolrs Tribute to ConklIng.

ALBANY, May 9.-3,5OO people in the
academy of music in this city tonight
to the memory of the late Roscoe Conklng.
and one.fourth as many more besieged the
barred doors while many climbed to the
roof and peered through the skylights.
Tue ceremonies were under the aus
pices OF the senate and assembly. Inger-
soil said:
Roscoe Conkling, great man, orator,
statesman and lawyer-a distinguished citi-
zen OF the republic, in the zenith of his
fame and power, has reached his journeys
end, and we are met here i'm the city of his
birth to pay our tribute to his worth and
work He earned and held proud posi-
tion In public thought. He stood foi inde
pendence, for courage, and, above all, for
absolute integrity, and his name was
known and honored by many millions OF
good man judges as he would be judged.
He knows that men are only fragments,
and that the greatest walk in the shadow
of death. and that faults and
FILAUREs MINGLE WITH THE LIVES OF ALL.
In the grave should be buried all pr, judices
and passions born of conflict. Charity
should hold the scales in which are weighed
| the deeds OF man, as well as peculiarities
and traits born of locality and surround
| ings. These are but the dust OF race
| these are the accidents OF drapery, clothes
and fashions that have nothing to do with
man except to hide his character. They are
| clouds that cling to the mountains. Time
| gives us a clearer vision, and that which
was merely local fades away.
Words OF envy are forgotten and all there
is Of sterling worth remains. He who was
called partisan is called a patriot. Fortu-
| nate is that nation great enough to know
the great. How poor this world would he
without Its graves. without its memories, Its
| mighty deeds.
| al t,,ta 80 4 ,l,o
great pillars that support the state. Above
all, citizens of a free nation should honor
| brave and indepeu dent man, q man of
stainless integrity ~pf will and intellectual
| force. Such men are the Aliases on whose
mighty shoulders rest the great fabric of
the republic. Flatterers. crawlers, time
servers, are dangerous citizens of democ-
| racy They who gain applause and power
by pandering to the mistakes, prejudices
and passions of the multitude are
| ~ f ENEMIES OF LIBERTY.
Most people are the slaves of habit, ollow-
| ers of custom, believers in the wadom of
the past and were it not for the brave and
splendid souls the dust Of antique times
| would lie unswept and mountainous error
be too highly heaped for truth to overawe.
Custom Is prison. locked and barred by those
| who long ago were dust, the keys of which
are in the keeping of the dead. Nothing
Is grander than when a siren intrepid
/ man DTehkS CHdlHS, levels Walls anu breasts
| the many-headed mob, like some great
cliff that mocks the nnumerable billows of
the seas. Politicians hasten to agree with
! the majority and insist their prejudice is
patriotism, their ignorance wisdom, not
that they love them, but because they love
themselves.
| The statesman, the real reformer, points
| out
THE MISTAKES OF THE MULTITUDE,
attacks the prejudces of his countrymen,
laughs at their follies, denounces their
crueties enlightens and enlarges their
minds and conscience, not because he loves
himself, but because he loves and serves
the right and wishes to make his country
great and free. He who refuses to stoop,
who cannot be bribed by promise
OF success or fear of failure.
who walks the highway OF right and in dis.
aster stands. erect, Is only victor when
his real history shall be written by the
truthful and wise. Those who bore the
burden Of defeat, who earned and kept
their sef-respect, who would not bow to
man or men for place or power, will wear
upon their brows the laurel mingled with
the oak.
Roscoe Conkling was
MAN OF SUPERB COURAGE
He not only acted without fear but he
had that fortitude OF soul that bears the
consequences OF the course pursued with.
out complaint. He was charged with being
proud. The charge was true. He was
proud. His knees were as inhexibie as the
'unwedgable and gNaled oak, but he was
not vain. Vanity Is "A vine that turns and
bends with every breeze. Pride is the oak
that deties the storm. One is weakness,
the other strength. The iuiperious man
entered public lie in the dawn Of reiorma-
ton at time when the country needed
men of pride, of principle. and courage
The institution of slavery had poisoned all
springs of power. Before tins ambition
fell upon its knees--politicsns judges,
clergymen. AMI merchant princes bowed
low aud hunbiy with their heads. Slavery
was the bond and pledge of the peace OF
the union and OF national greatness.
THE TEMPLE OF AMERICAN LIBERTY
was finished. The anctiou block was the
corner stone. IL Is hard to conceive OF the
utter Generalization, of the political blind
ness and immortality, OF the patriotic dis
honesty, OF the crnelty aud degradation OF
the people who supplemented the incom-
parable declaration OF Independence with
the fugitive slave law. Think of honored
statesmen OF that ignoble time who wal.
lowed In this miro and decorated with
dripping filth received the paudits Of their
victims OF mobs and the sham eless were
clad In robes of office.
At last the conflict came. The hosts of
light and darkness prepared to meet upon
the helds OF war. The question was pre-
sented, shall the republic be slave or free?
me republican party, which had ,rium phed
at the polls, sat in the presence OF u rebel
lion.
HOPING TO AVOID WAR.
.hey were willing slavery should become
immortal.
An amendment to the constitution was
proposed to The effect that no subsequent
amendment should ever be made that in
any way shouId interfere with the right OF
man to steal bis ellowmen. This was the