St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-05-17
AFFAIRS.
HE BOWED ONLY TO DEATH.
Robert c. IngersolI's EuIogy of Roscoe
Gambling

Roscoe Conkling was delivered in AL
bany last Thursday evening before an
audience of over $500 people. The
speakers table was draped with flags.
and before it was placed a picture Of
the dead senator. Mr.. Ingersoll was
listened to with rapt attention, and at
the close of his Grafton he was voted
the thanks of the legislature. Follow
ing is the best part of the grafton:
Roscoe Conkling-a great man, an
orator, a statesman, a lawyer, a dis
tinguished citizen of the republican
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 our tribute to his worth and work.
He earned and held a proud position
in the public thought. He stood for
independence, for courage, and above
all, for absolute integrity, and his name
was known and honored by many mil
lions of his feIlOwmen. Roscoe Conk-
ling 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 course pursued
mlLEfOuD COIlD Bdt1hb 14O a III
with being proud. The charge was
true-he was proud. His knees were
as infexible as the "unwedgeable and
gnarled oak" but he was not vain.
Vanity rests on the opinion of others
pride on our own. One is weakness
the other strength.
He was an absolutely honest man.
Honesty is the oak around which all
4Atan -Trf,.n linz lNTfIant &1nf tInr
fall and, grOvelIing, die in weeds and
dust. He believed that a nation should
discharge it's obligations. He knew
that a promise could not be made often
enough, or emphatic enough, to take
the place of payment. He felt that the
promise of the government was the
promise of every citiZen-that a ma
tiOnal obligation was a personal debt,
and that no possible combination OF
words and pictures could take the
place of coin. He uttered the splendid
truth that "the higher obligations
among men are not set down i'll writ
ing, signed and sealed, but reside in
honor" He knew hat reputation
was the sacrifice of hOnor-the death
of the national soul. He knew that
without character, without integrity,
there is no wealth and hat below pow
erty, below bankruptcy, is the rayless
abyss of Reputation. He upheld the
sacredness of contracts, of plighted
national faith, and helped to save and
keep the honor of his native land. This
adds another laurel to his brow.
He was the ideal representative,
faithful and in~cOrruptible. He believ-
ed that his constituents and his cOun-
try were entitled to the fruit of his ex-
perience, to his best and highest
thought. No man ever held the stand
ard of responsibility higher than he.
He voted according to his judgment,
his conscience. He made no bargains
he neither bought nor sold. To cor
rect evils, abolish abuses and inaugur-
ate reforms, he believed was not only
the duty, but the privilege of a legis-
latOr. He neither sold nor mOrtgaged
himself. He was i'll congress during
the years of vast expenditure, of war
and waste-when the credit of the ma
ton was loaned to individuals, when
claims were thick as leaves in June,
when the amendment of a statute, the
change of a single word, meant mil
lions, and when empires were given to
corporations. He stood at the summit
of his pOwer-peer of the greatest-a
leader tried and trusted. He had the
tastes of a prince, the fortune of a
peasant, and yet he never swerved.
NJ corporation was great enough or
rich enough to purchase him. His vote
could not be bought ''for all the sun
sees, or the close earth wOmbs, or the
profound seas hide" His hand was
never touched by II bribe, and on
his soul there never was a sordid stain.
Poverty was his priceless crown. Above
his marvellous intellectual gifts-above
all place he ever reached, above the
ermine he refused-rises his integrity
like some great mountain peak, and
there it stands, firm as the earth be-
meath, pure as the stars above.
He was a great lawyer. He under
stood 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-the principles that
have been settled upon the fields of
war. He was a student of the consti-
tuition. He knew the boundaries of
state and federal Jurisdiction, and no
man was more familiar with those
great decisions that are the peaks and
promOntOries, the headlands and the
beacOns of the law. He was an orator
earnest, logical, intense and pictur-
esque. He laid the foundation with
care, with accuracy and skill, and rose
by 'cOld graduation and we'll balanced
form" from the corner stone of state
ment to the dOmed conclusion. He
filled the stage. He satisfied the eve
the audience was his. He had that in
defnable thing called presence. Tall,
erect, ample in speech,
graceful in compliment, titanic in de-
nunciatiOn, rich in illustration, prodi-
gal of comparison and metaphor, and
sentences measured and rythmical,
fell like music on tie enraptured
thrOng.
He abhorred the Pharisee and loath-
ed all fraud. He had a profound aver
sion for those who insist on putting
base motives back of the good deeds
of others. He wore no mask. He
his friends-his enemies knew
him. He had no patience with pre-
tence, with patriotic reasons for I'M
acts. He did his work and
bravely spoke his thought. Sensitive
to the last degree, he keenly felt the
blows and stabs of the enviOus and OBJ
scure, of the smallest, of the weakest I;
but the greatest could not drive him
from convictions field. He would not
stOOp to ask or give an explanation.
He left his words and deeds to Justify
He held in light esteem a
who heard with half believing
ears the SANDER of a foe. He walked
4 highway of his own, and kept the
company of his self-respeet. He would
not urn aside to avoid a foe, to greet
gain a friend. In his nature there