Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-05-10
ROSCOE CONKLING.
Eulogy On the Deceased
Statesman
" ROBERT G. INGERsoLL.
Crowds Besiege the Hall to Hear
the Great Orators Glow
ing Tribute.
Associated Press Dispatches to the HraAIDf

nusic III tnls CITY tonight, listened
to the Grafton by Colonel Robert q.
lngersoll to the memory OF Roscoe
| Conkling, and one-fourth as many
more besieged the barred doors, while
many climbed to the roof and peered
through the skylights. The ceremo-
MES were under the auspices of the
| Senate and Assembly.
Colonel Ingersoll said in substance !:
Roscoe Conkling, the great man.
orator, statesman, lawyer, and distin-
guished citizen OF the Republic. in the
zenith of his fame and power. has
reached his journeys end and we are
met here in the city of his birth to
pay tribute to his worth and work.
He earned and held proud position
in public thought. Hestood for inde-
pendence, for courage, and above
all for absolute integrity. and his
name was known and honored bv
many millions of his fellow-men.
In the presence OF death, a
good man judges as he would
be judged. He knows that
men are only fragments; that
the greatest walk in a shadow
and that faults and failures minple
with the lives of all. In the grave
should be buried the prediudices and
passions born of conflict; charity
should hold the scales in which are
weighed the deeds of men of peculiar
traits, born of locality and surround-
ings. These are but the dust of the
race. These are accidents; drapery,
clothes, fashions that have nothing to
do with the man except to hide his
character. They are clouds that cling
to the mountains. Time gives us
clearer vision that which was merely
local fades away.
"Hords Of envy are forgotten and all
there is of sterling worth remains.
He who was called partisan is called
patriot; fortunate it is that the Nation
is great enough to know the great.
How poor this world would be with
out its graves, without memories Of
its mighty dead, only the voiceless
speak.
Intelligence, integrity and courage
are the great pillars that support the
States. Above all, the citizens of 4
free nation should honor the brave
and independent man Of stainless in
tegrity, of resolute will and intellectu-
al force. Such men are the Aliases
on whose mighty shoulders rest the
great fabric of the Republic. Flatterers
criDge; crawlers and tme-servers are
dangerous citizens of a Democracy.
They who gain applause and power by
pandering to the mistakes, ,prediudices
and passions of the multitude are the
enemies of liberty.
Most people'are the slaves Of habit;
the followers of customs; believers in
the wisdom of the past and were
it not fer few brave and
splendid souls, the dust of an
tique time would be unswept even
and mountainous error be too highly
heaped for truth to overawe. Custom
is a 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 strong intrepid man breaks
the chains, levels the walls and
breasts the many headed mob like
some great cliff that mocks the in
Vulnerable billows of the sea.
The politician hastens to agree with
the majority; insists that their preju-
dice is patriotism, their ignorance
wisdom; not that he loves them, but
because he loves himself. The states
man, the real reformer, points out the
mistakes Of the multitude, attacks the
prejudices of his countrymen, laughs
at their follies, denounces their
cruelties, enlightens and enlarges
their minds and conscience; not
because he loves himself, but
because he loves and serves 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 disaster
stands erect, and is only the victor
when real history shall be written by
the truthful and wise; those who bore
the burden of defeat and kept their
self-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 a man of
superb courage. He not only acted
without fear, for he had that forti-
tude of soul that bears consequences
of course pursued without complaint.
He was charged with fear; being
proud the charge was true. He was
proud. His knees were as infiexible
as the 'unwedgable and gnarled oak
but he was not vain. Vanity is the
vane that turns, the willow that
bends with every breeze; pride is the
oak that defies the storm. One is
weakness, the other strength.
This imperious man entered public
life in the dawn of the reformation,
at time when the country needed
men of pride, of principle and cour-
age. The institution Of slavery had
poisoned all the springs of power.
Before this, ambition fell upon it's
knees. Politicians, judges, clergy
men and merchant princes bowed low
and humbly with their heads. Slavery
was the bond Of the pledge of peace,
of union and of national greatness.
The temple of American liberty was
| finished. The auction block was
the cornerstone. 1t is hard
to conceive of the utter demoraI-
| i1dtiou, VI tho poutiCdi piiuuucoS
and immortality, of the patriotic dis
honesty, of the cruelty and degreda-
ton OF the people who supplemented
the incompatible Declaration of Inde-
pendence with the Fugitive Slave law.
Think of the honored statesmen Of
that ignoble time who wallowed in
this mire and who, decorated with
dripping filth, received the plaudits of
their fellowmen. The noble, really
patriotic men were the victims Of
mobs, and the shameless were clad in
robes of Office.
"At last the conflict came. The
hosts Of light and darkness pepaled to
meet upon the fields Of war. The ques-
ton was presented-Hhall the Repub-
EcoN1IluuD oH PTrTu RAGR.l