The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-05-10

| SIdVc OF Tree Inc hepuDi1Can party
which had triumpbed at the polls, set
tied it in the presence of the Rebellion
Hoping to avoid war. they were willing
| that slavery should become i'm
mortal. An amendment to TIT
| Constitution was proposed, to thu
effect that no subsequent amendmen
should ever be made that in any way
should interfere with the right of man
to steal his fellow men. This most
marvellous proposition ever submitted
to congress of civilized men, received
in the House an overwhelming ma
iority, and the necessary two-thirds in
the Senate. The Republican party, in
! the moment of its triumph, deserted
every principle for which it had so
calamity commended, and, with trem bling
hands OF fear, laid It's convictions on the
altar of compromise. The old Guard,
numbering but sixty-fve in the House,
stood firm as the 300 at Thermopyla
| Thaddens Stevens refused to kneel,
Owen Lovejoy refused to surrender,
and on the edge OF disunion, in shadow
of a civil war, with the air filled with
the sounds of dreadful preparation,
while the Republican party was retrac-
ing its steps, Roscoe Conkling voted NO.
This puts wreath OF glory
on his tomb. From that vote
to the last moment of his life, he was
the champion of equal rights, staunch
and stalwart; from that moment he
stood in the front rank He never
wavered and never swerved. He battled
for the nations life, for the rights of
slaves, the dignity OF labor and the
liberty of all. He guarded with a
father care the rights of the-hunted,
hated and despised. He attacked the
savage statutes of the reconstructed
States with a torrent of invectiVe,
scorn and execration. He was not
satisfied until the freedman was an
American citz en-, clothed with every
civil right; until the Constitution was
his shield; until the ballot was his
sword. Others wavared, but he stood
firm; some were false, but he was
proudly true, fearlessly faithful unto
death.
Nothing can be grander than to SOW
the seeds of noble thoughts and virtu-
Gus deeds, to liberate the bodies and
souls of men, to earn the grateful hon.
age of a race. and then, in life's last
shadowy hour, to know and feel that
the historian of liberty will be COM
PEELED to write your name. The history
of that great party that let the op.
pressed go free, that lifted our nation
from the depths of savagery to tree
dom's cloudless heights, and tore with
holy hands from every law, words that
sanctifed the cruelty of man, is the
most glorious in the annals of our race.
Roscoe Conkling was an absolutely
honest man. He uttered the splendid
truth, that the higher obligations
e-,k ~,
signed and sealed, but reside in honor"
He was an ideal representative, faithful
and incorruptible. He believed his
titled to the fruit of his experience, to
his best and highest thoughts. No man
ever held the standard of responsibility
higher than he. He voted according to
his Judgment, his conscience. He
made no bargains; he neither bought
nor sold. To correct evils, abolish
abuses and inaugurate reforms, he be-
lieVed was not only the duty but the
privilege of the legislator. He neither
sold nor mortgaged himself. He was in
Congress during the years of the vast
expenditure o. war and waste, when the
credit of the nation was loaned to in
dividuals, When claims were as thick as
leaves in June, when the amendment
of ia statute, the change of single
word meant millions. and when en-
pires were given to corporations. He
stood at the summit of his power, the
peer of the greatest, leader tried and
trusted. He had the tastes of prince,
the fortune of peasant and yet he
never swerved. No corporation was
great enough or rich enough to pur-
chase him. His vote could not be
bought. "for all the sun sees or the
close earth wombs or the profound sea
hides" His hand was never touched
by any bribe, and on his soul
there never was sordid stain. Pow
erty was his priceless crown. Above
his marvellous Intellectual gifts, above
the ermine he refused, rises his integ-
rity, like some great mountain peak,
and there it stands, firm as the earth
beneath, pure as the stars above. He
was a great lawyer. He understood
the framework, the anatomy, the
foundations OF law; was familiar with
the great streams and currents and
tides of authority. He knew the his
tory of legislation, principles that had
been settled on fields of war. He knew
the maximum, those CIVILIZATIONS of
common sense, those hand grenades of
argument. He was not case lawyer,
a decision index or an echo. He was
organic, thoughtful, and profound.
He had breadth and scope, resource,
learning, logic, and. above all, sense
of Justice. He was painstaking End
conscientious, anxious to know facts,
preparing for every attack, ready for
every defense. He rested only when
the end was reached. During q con-
test, he neither sent nor received flag
of truce. He was true to his clients,
making their case his, feeling the res
possibility. He listened patiently 10
details and 10 his industry there were
only the limits of time and strength.
He was a student of the Constitution.
He knew the boundaries of the Federal
Jurisdiction, and no man was more IA
miliar with those great decisions that
are the peak and promontories, the
headland and beacons of law. He
was an orator, earnest, logical,
intense and pictur, sque. He laid
the foundation with care, with
accuracy and skill and rose by "cold
graduation and well-balanced form"
from the corner stone of statement to
the domed conclusion. He filed the
stage, he saddened the eyes, the audi
euce was his. He had that inde6nable
thing called presence. Tall, command
ing, erect, ample in speech, graceful in
conn pIiToont Titanic in doDupcja tion