The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1888-05-17


Office. But let us speak no word OF
blame-let us feel that each one acted
according to his hght-acccrding to bis
darkness At last, the conflict came.
| The hosts of light and darkness pre-
pared to meet upon the fields of war.
The question was presented: Shall
the republic be slave or freep The re-
| publican party had triumphed at the
1 polls. The greatest man in our history
appalled-they shrank from the re-
sponsibility of success. In the pres
ence of rebellion they hesitated-they
offered to return the fruits of victory,
hoping to avert war they were willing
that slavery should become immortal
An amendment to the constitution
was proposed to the effect that no sub
seQuent amendment should ever be
made that in anyway should interfere
with the right OF man to steal his fell
loWmen. This the
MOST MARVELLOUS PROPOSITION
ever submitted to congress of civilized
men, received in the house an over
Whelming majority, and the necessary
two-thirdS in the senate. The republi-
can party, in the moment of its triumph
deserted every principle for which it had
so gailantly commended. and with trem-
bling hands Of fear laid its convictions
w 1A4C o1OcAI VI OO1nP1OA1oCs nC O1O
guard, numbering but siXty-fiVe in the
house stood as firm as the three hun
bred at ThermopylR. Thaddeus Ste
vens, as maliciOusly right as any other
man ever was wrong, refused to kneel.
Owen Loveioy, remembering his broth
er's noble blood, refused to surrender,
and on the edge of disunion, in the
shadow of civil war, with the air filed
with sounds of dreadful preparation,
while the republican party was retrac-
ing its steps Roscoe Conkling voted
mol" This puts
A WREATH OF GLORY
ON his tomb. From that vote to the last
moment of his life he was champion
of equal rights, staunch and stalwart.
From this moment he stood in the front
rank. He never wayered, and he never
swerved by his devotion to principle.
His courage, the splendOr of his diction,
by mis- 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 fellowmen. Disasters in the field,
reverses at the polls did not and could
/ not, shake his courage and 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 sub
FINEST hope. He battled for a nation s
life-for the rights of slaves, the digni-
| ty of labor, and the liberty of all. He
guarded with a fathers care the rights
of the hunted, the hated and the de-
spised. He attacked the savage stat
utes of the reconstructed states with a
| torrent of inyective scorn and eXecra-
| ton. He was not satisfied until the
| freedman was an American citizen,
clothed with every civil right, until the
constitution was his shield; until the
ballot was his sword, and long afterwe
are dead the colored man in this and
other lands will speak his name in rev.
he stood firm. Some were false, but he
was proudly true-fearlessly faithful
unto death. He gladly, proudly grasped
the hands Of the colored men who stood
with him as makers of our laws, and
treated them as equals and as friends
The cry of
SOCIAL EQUALITY"
coined and uttered by the cruelest, bas-
est, was to him the expression of &
great and splendid truth. He knew NJ
man can be the equal of the one ht
robs; that the intelligent and unjust
are not the superiors of the ignorant
and honest; and he also felt, anC
proudly felt, that if he were not tOt
great to reach the hand of help and re
cognitiOn to the slave. no other sen
ator could rightfully refuse. We rjst
by raising others, and he who stoop!
above the fallen stands erect. Moth
ing can be grander than to SOW TIT
seeds of noble thoughts and virtuOui
deeds-to liberate the souls of men
to earn the grateful homage of a race
and then in life's last shadowy hour t.
know and feel that the historian of lib
erty will be compelled to write you
name. There are no words intenst
enough-with heart enough-to eX
press my admiration for the great ant
gallant souls who have in every ag
and every land upheld the right, ant
who have lived and died for freedom
sake.
In our lives have been the grandes
years that man has lived, that tim,
has measured by the flight of worlds
The history of that great party tina
let the oppressed go free-that lifted
our nation from the depths of saVagery
; to freedoms cloudless heights and tor
} with holy hand from every law tn,
words that marked the cruelty of MAJ
is the most glorious in the annals o
our race. Never before was there sucl
moral exaltation, never party will
. purpose SO pure and high. 1t wa
the embodied conscience Of nation
the enthusiasm of a people guided b.
wisdom, the impersonation of justice
and the sublime victory achieved, and
loaded even the conquered with all TIT
! rights that freedom can bestow.
Roscoe Conkling was
AN ABSOLUTELY HONEST MAN.
Honesty is the oak around which al
other virtues cling. Without tina
and dust. He believed that nation
should discharge its obligations. HI
knew that promise could not b.
made often enough or emphati'
enough to take the place of payment
; He felt that the promise OF the govern
! ment was the promise of every citiZel
that national obligation was a PEI
sonal debt, and that no possible combi
nation of words and pictures could TAX
the place of coin. He uttered tn,
splendid truth that 1.-THE higher obi
in writing, signed sealed, but reside il
honor" He knew that Reputation
! was the sacrifice Of honor-the dealt
, of the national soul. He knew tina
. without character, without Integrity
, there is no wealth, and that below pow
erty, below bankruptcy. is the rayles
abyss of reputation. He upheld tn
sacredness of contracts, of plighte'
national faith, and helped to save AM
! Keep CnO QOQOT OF MS naI1V0 ldQO
: This adds another laurel to his brow
He was the ideal representative, faith
, full and incorruptible. He believed hi
: constituents and his country were en-
: titled to the fruit of his experiences
!, to his best and highest thought. n
! man ever held the standard of respon
: sibility higher than he. He voted az
Z cording to his best judgment-hi cor
l science. He made no bargains-h
never bought nor sold. To correc
evils, abolish abuses, and inaugural
9 reforms, he believed was not only tn
]; duty but the privilege of Legislation
J; He never sold or mortgaged himsel
T He was in congress during the years {
T vast expenditure of war and waste
|: when the credit of the nation We
. loaned to individuals; when the ament
Z ment of statute, the change of
Il single word, meant millions, and whe