Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1888-05-18


cOnscience-nOt because he loves
himself, bat because he loves and |
serves the right, and wishes to
make his country great and free
with him defeat is bat a spur to
further effort. He who refuses 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 displcabIe than to reach
fame by cringing. When real his
tory shall be written by the truth
ful and the wise, these men, these
kneelcTs at the shrine Of chance
and fraud, these brazen idols
wOrshlpped once as good, will be
the very food of scOrn, while those
who bore 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 the
laurel mlngle 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
cou,se pursued without complaint.
He was charged with being proud.
The charge was true-he was
proud. His knees we're as inhexi.
BILE as the "unwedgeable and
gnarled oak,' but he was not vain.
Vanity rests on the opinion 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; 1t de6es the storms. One
is cloud, the other rock; one is
weakness, the other strength.
This lmperious man entered pub
lie life in the dawn of the reforma.
tion-at a time when the country
needed men of pride, of principle,
and courage. The institution OF
slavery hal poisoned all the
springs of powder. Before this
crime ambition fell upOn its knees
politicians, judges, clergymen,
and merchant princes bowed low
and humbly with their hats in their
bands. The real friend of man
was denounced as the enemy OF
his country. The real enemy OF
the human race was called states
man and patriot. Slavery was the
bond and pledge of peace, of
union, and national greatness. The
temple of American liberty was
hnished-the auction block was
the cornerstone. 1t is hard to
conceive of the utter demOrallra-
ton, of the political blindness and
immortality, of the patriotic dis
honesty, of the cruelty and degra.
dation of a people who supplement-
ed the Incompatible
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
with the fugitive slave law. Think
of the honored statesmen of that
ignOble time who wallowed in the
mire, and who, decorated with
dripping filth, received the plaud-
its of their fellOw-men. The noble,
the really patriotic were the vic
tins of mobs, and the shameless
we're clad in the robes OF office.
In conclusion, Mr.. Ingersoll said
"Conkliug believed in the royalty
of man, in the sovereignty OF the
ci'lzen, and in the matchless great.
ness of this Republic. He was of
the classic mould, figure from tn e
antique world. lie had the pose
of the great statues-the pride
and bearing OF the intellectual
Greek, as the cOnquering Roman,
and he stood in the wide free air,
as though within his veins there
flowed the blood of a hundred
kings. And as he lived, he died.
Proudly he entered the darkness
or the dawn-that we call death.
Unshrinkingly he passed beyond
our horizon beyond the twillght's
purple hills, beyond the utmost
reach of human harm or help-to
that vast rea I'm of silence or of JOY,
where the innumerable dwell, and
he has left with us his wealth Of
though and deed-the memory of
a brave, imperious, honest man,
who bowed alone to DEATH