Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-05-16
INGERSOLL ON CONKLING.
A eulOgy Full Of EIOQuence.

Aeulogy Full of Eloquence.
REVIEW OF THE DEAD sENA-
TORS CHARACTERIZE MAGNIFICENT ORA |
ToRICAL EFFORT BEFORE THE LRGIsLA-
TURE OF NEW YORK.
ALBANY, N. Y, May 9.-Before the leg
islature of this state tonight, Col. Robt.
6. lngersoll delivered memorial address
on the late Roscoe Conkling. He said:
"Roscoe Conkling-a great man, an orator,
statesman, lawyer, distinguished citi-
zen OF the republic, in the height of his
fame and power has reached his journeys
end, and we are met here in the city Of his
birth, to pay our tribute to his worth and
work. He earned and held proud position
in the pubic thought. He stood for inde-
pendence, for courage and above all for
absolute integrity, and his name was known
and honored by many millions of his fell
lowmen. The literature of many lands is
rich with the tribute that gratitude. admira-
ton and love have paid to the great and
honored dead. These tributes disclose the
character of nations, the ideals of the human
race. In them we find the estimates of
greatness-the deeds and lives that chal-
lenged praise and thrilled the hearts of men.
In the presence of death the good man
judges as he would be judged. He knows
that men are only fragments-that the
greatest walk in shadow, and that faults
and failure mingle with the lives Of all. In
the grave should be buried the preiudices
and passions born of conflict. Charity
should hold the scales in which are weigh
ed the deeds of men. Peculiarities, traits
born of locality and surroundings these
are but the clothes and fashions-that have
nothing to do with the man except to hide
his character. They are the clouds that
cling to mountains. Time gives us clearer
vision; that which was merely local fades
away. The words of envy are forgotten,
and all there Is of sterling worth remains.
He who was called partizan Is a patriot.
The revolutionist and the outlaw are the
founders of nations, and he who was re-
garded as scheming, selfish politician,
becomes statesman and philosopher,
whose words and deeds shed light. Fortu-
nate is that nation great enough to know
the great when great man dies-one who
has nobly fought the battle Of life, who
has been faithful to every trust and has ut
tered his highest, noblest thoughts; one who
has stood proudly by the right in spite of
jeers and taunts, neither stopped by foe
nor swerved by friend. In honoring him,
in speaking words of praise and love above
his dust we pay tribute to ourselves.
How poor this world would be without its
grave, without the memories Of its mighty
dead. Only the voiceless speak forever.
Intelligence, integrity and courage are the
great pillars that support the state. Above
all, the citizens of free nation should honor
the brave and independent man, the man
of stainless integrity of will and intellectual
force. Such men are the Aliases on whose
mighty shoulders rest the great fabric of
the republic. Flatterers, cringers, crawl
ers, time-servers, are the dangerous citi-
zens of democracy. They who gain ap-
plause and power by pandering to the mis-
takes, the prejudices and passions of the
multitude, are the enemies of liberty.
When the intelligent submit to the clam0r
of many, anarchy begins and the republic
reaches the edge of class mediocrity touched
with ambition, hatters aud calumniates the
great while the true patriot who will do
neither, is often sacrificed.
In government of the people leader
should be a teacher-he should carry the
torch of truth. Most people are the slaves
of habit-followers of custom; believers in
the wisdom of the past-and were it not
for brave and splendid souls, the dust Of
antique time would lie unswept, and noun
famous error be too highly heaped for truth
to overpeer. 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 strong, intrepid man breaks chains
and breasts the many-headed mob, like
some great cliff that meets and mocks the
iunumerable pillows of the sea. The
politician hastens to agree with the major
Ity; insists that their prejudice is patriotism,
that their ignorance is wisdom not that he
loves them, but because he loves himself.
The statesman, the real reformer, points
out the mistakes of the multitude, he dis
places the prejudices Of his countrymen,
laughs at their follies, denounces their
cruelties and enlightens their mind and
educates the conscience-not because he
loves himself, but because he loves and
serves the right and wishes to make his
country great and free-with him defeat is
but spur to further effort. He who re-
fuses to stoop, who cannot be bribed by the
promise of success, or the fear of failure,
who walks the highway Of the right and in
disaster stands erect is the only victor.
Nothing is more despicable than cringing.
When real history shall be written by the
truthful and wise these men, these kneelers
at the shrines of frauds, these brazen idols
worshipped once as God will be the very
food of scorn while those who have borne
the burden of defeat, who earned and kept
their self-respect, who would not bow to
man or men for place or power, will feel
upon their brows laurel mingled with the
oak.
Roscoe Conkling was a 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
without complaint. He was charged with
being proud. The charge was true-he
was proud. His knees we're as infsxible
as the 'unwedgeable and gnarled oak but
he was not vain. Vanity rests on the opin-
ion of others-pride on our own. The
source of vanity is from without, of pride
from Within. Vanity is vane that turns
willow that bends with every breeze
pride is the oak that defies the storm. One
is cloud, the other rock. One is weakness,
the other strength. This imperiOus man
entered public life in the dawn of the re-
formation, at time when the country need
ed men of pride, of principle and courage.
The institution of slavery had poisoned all
the springs of power. Before this crime
ambition fel! upon its knees-politicians,
judges, clergymen and merchant princes
UuW6Q INV duu Will bnOAA Adbo III
their hands. The real friend of man was
denounced as the enemy of his country.
The real enemy Of the human race was
called a statesman aud a patriot. Slavery
was the bond and pledge of peace of union
and national greatness. The temple of
American liberty was finished. The auc-
tion block was the cornerstone. 1t is hard
to conceive of the utter decentralization, of
the blindness aud immortality, of the patri-
otto dishonesty, OF the cruelty and degrade
ton of people who supplemented the i'm
comparable declaration of independence
with the fugitive slave law. Think of the
honored statesmen CT that ignoble time
who wallowed in this mote mre and who.
decorated with dripping filth, received the
plaudits of their fellow men. The noble,
the really patriotic, were the victims of
mobs and the shameless were clad in the
robes of office.
In conclusion, Mr.. Ingersoll said s.Conk-
ling believed in the royalty of man, in the
sovereignty of the citizen and in the match
less greatness of this republic. He was of the
classic mould, figure from the antique
world. He had the pose of the great statue
the pride and bearing of the intellectual
Greek, of the couquering Roman, and he stood
10 the wide free air as though within his veins
there flowed the blood of hundred kings
and as he lived he died Proudly he enter