The Portland daily press., 1888-02-11
Mr.. Reed on General Logan.

Mr.. Reed at the memorial services in mem
ory of General Logan, held last evening,
spoke as follows:
General Logan died full of honors, but
alas. not full of years. Throughout his life,
cut off in its ripest flower he had every token
of popular favor, every sanction Of popular
esteem. His name was familiar in our
mouths, household word. His martial
face and figure kindled the Imagination of
his own generation, and will kindle the
hearts of the young and generous in many
generations which are to come. But it is be-
cause he held high places, and looked and
was every inch soldier, that we erect this
memorial tablet here. High places may
come of fawning High honors are not al
ways worthily won, and God sometimes
shows by the people he gives it to that he is
as con temptuous of great Office as he has
been said to be of great wealth. This
church is not hall of heroes in whicht to Gel
ebrate human greatness. 1t is rather dedi-
Gated to the nothingness of mortal glory and
the beauty of eternal life.
To him who sleeps, whom this tablet COM
memorates, all the lofty things of this world
are but dust in the balance. The great
name he won, the honors he bore, his place
among the foremost, are as nothing to him.
The noble words of tribute which fall thick
on his bier are to him but as the empty air.
Even that supreme day of his life, when,
raging with the divine fury of the soldier,
utterly fearless before his sullenly retreating
battalion he tore victory from the very Jaws
Of death-even that great day, worth a whole
lifetime of peace, is to him but one among
the fading visions of EARTH
What room is there for earthly pride?
How can we be proud of noble birth, of
great possessions, or even OF great intellect?
They are all but gifts of the master, always
demanded back with usnry. This tablet
commentaries one who rendered back his
gifts with usury, an hundred fold. He filled
out to the full measure Of completeness every
opportunity he had in life, aud his life was
fun of great opportunities. With every year
he grew.in strength and power. Every year
found him better fitted for the service of his
country.
Could give him loftier praise? But if
human glory be naught, why do praise the
dead? Because praise of the dead is the
noblest incentive to the living. Poor wand
erers that we are ON the stormy seas, how it
lightens the heart in the dark EhOurs to see
flash out the great beacon light left on the
shcre by some strong soul which has breast
ed the waves before our day.
have seex Logan breasting the
waves in the dark hours, and
have seen him safe in sunlight on the shore.
When first knew him in Washington IL
years ago, Logan had just experienced the
ingratitnde of republics. Cast out from his
seat In the Senate, with the refuent tide of
popular feeling setting strong against him,
with the blood of youth no longer in his
veins, and with lessening years before him,
he faced the future. He was neither silent
nor uncomplaining.
The men who meet adverse fate with ST.
lence and a smile are st0ry-b00k heroes, not
real men. Logan was hero of the old HON.
eric type; he made the welkin ring when the
world went wrong for him, and the world
liked him because he was so intensely hui
man. With iron courage he set himself to
retrieve his fallen fortunes, and to render
himself worthy of his future. The history
of his successes needs no repeating.
Eight years afterward him saw in the full
sunlight of prosperity. 1t was under the
beautiful summer sky of Maine He had just
been victorious in the great civil battle of his
life. He had then shown the great qualities
which had added immeasurably to his fame,
Through the rare days of that week in June,
surrounded by the shouting thousands,
by his old comrades in arms, amid
the strains of martial music and incense of
honest admiration, surely he had right to
be happy, if happiness be for mortal man.
Under the genial impulses of those bright
days all the nobler qualities of his nature
came out, and / was amazed to find that the
combatant ever saw had heart
as 0anial as n child's