Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-03-07


on which success or failure, wealth or penury,
honor or obliquy depends At this crisis and
juncture when every instant is priceless,
the Senate resisting every inducement
and solicitation, proceeds by unanimous con-
sent, to consider resolutions of the highest
photographed from no committee, having
no place on any calendar, but which takes pre-
cedence of unfinished business and especial
orders" on which the yeas and nays are never
called and on which no negative vote has ever
been recorded; and reverently passed in obedi-
ence to the hottest impulses of human nature
to contemplate the profoundest mystery of hu-
man deStiny-the mystery of death. In the
democracy of death all men, at least, are equal.
Here is neither rank nor station nor preroga-
tive, in the republic of the grave. At that fatal
threshold the philosopher ceases to be wise and
the song of the poet is silent; at that IA
tai hIeshold Dives relinQuishes his million
and Lazarus his rags The poor man
is rich the richest and the
rich man is as poor as the pauper. The creditor
| loses his uSury, and the debtor is acquitted Of
his obligation. The proud man surrenders his
dignity; the politician his honors: the world
ling his pleasures. Here the invalid needs
| physician, and the laborer rests from unre-
Quilted toll here. at least, is natures final de-
cree in equity. The equity in fate is refuted.
| The wrongs of time are redressed and injustice
| is expiated. The unequal distribution of
| wealth, of honor, capacity, pleasure and oppor-
| tunity which make life so cruel and inexplica-
| bic tragedy. ceases in the realm of death.
| The strongest has there supremacy, and the
| weakest needs no defense. The mightiest cap
/ tain succumbs to that invinclbe adversary.
| who diSarmS alike the victor AMI the van
| quished. James Nelson Burnes, whose life
| and rtueS commemorate to-day, n
| man whom Plutarch might have described and
Van Dyke portrayed. Massive, rugged and ro-
bust; in motion slow, in speech serious and
| deliberate; grave in aspect. serious IN demean-
or of antique and heroic mold-the incarnation
of force. AS looked for the last time upon the
countenance from which (for the first time
| so many years. no glance of friendly recogni-
| ton. nor word of welcome came. l reflected
| upon the impenetrable and insoluble mystery
of death. But if death be the end: if the life OF
BurneS terminated upon this bank and shoal
| of time;'' il no morning is to dawn upon the
night in which he sleeps, then sorrow has NO
| consolation, and this Impressive and solemn
| ceremony. which we observe to-day, has no
| more significance than the painted pageant OF
| the stage If the existence of Burnes but
| a troubled dream, his death oblivion. what
| avaiLs it that the Senate should pause to re-
| count his virtues? Neither venerato on nor
| reverence are due the dead il they are but
| dust; no cenotaph should be reared to pre-
| serve for posteritty the memory Of their
| achievements if those who come after them
are to be only their successors in humiliation
| and extinction. If IN this world only we have
| hope and consciousness, duty must be q
| chmera; our pleasures and our passions should
| De the gu deS OF couduct, anu virtue IS lndteu d
superstition if life ends at the grave. This is the
| conclusion which the philosophy of nesaton
| must accept at last Such is the felicity of
| those degrading precepts which make the cpl
| taph the end. If the life of Burnes is as taper
| that is burned out, then we treasure his memo
| ry and his example in vain. And the latest
| prayer of his departing spirit has no more
| sanctty to US who sooner or later must follow
| him than the whisper of the winds that stir the
| leaves of the protesting forest or the murmur
| of the waves that break upon the complaining
| shore.
Eulogies were also pronounced by Sen
| ators Voorhees,, Hale, Hampton, Coke and
Vest, after which the resolutions were
adopted unanimously, and the Senate,
| at 4:45 D. NJ, adjourned.