Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-02-07


Battlett. The balconies were heavily draped in
| black. and behind the Speakers desk, with the
| American flag for background. hung the por-
| trait OF the deceased Governor, festconed with
Grape Long be ore the hour set for assembling
| the floor of the Assembly, galleries and lobbies
were crowded with people, many from San
| francisco ana other parts of the State being
| present.
At . o'clock the First Artillery Band, stationed
! in the left gallery, began q funeral march, AT
| the conclusion OF which General Salomon sd-
| dressed the Speaker, and announced his Excel
| lency, the Governor President pro tenn of-the
| Senate, the Senators and State officers who en-
| tered, accompanied by their ladies, and were
assigned seats 10 the right and left of the Speak
| eT'S desk.
| President pro tenn White Of the Senate called
| the meeting to order. Secretary Peckham called
1 the roll of the Senators, aud Chief Clerk Leake
| called the roll of the Assembly.
Prayer was offered by Rev. A. C. Bane, Chap
| lain OF the Senate.
| After the band had rendered the HYMN
| stepped forward, and with few appropriate re-
| marks introduced Colonel John =. Irish, the
| orator of the occasion. who spoke as follows:
| GRAFTON OF COLONEL J. p. IRISH.
| We have met, in this dignifed presence. to
| pay the official respect due from California TO
! the memory OF Governor who died in Office.
| This action is the fitting supplement to the
| many private and individual expressions OF re-
/ gret and affection which followed the close, un-
timely of his last and lars gest public relation to
| the people of this commonwealth, and his
/ translation from service in its Capital to the
/ rewards OF the just in the Capital of the Uni
| verse.
! 1 salute his constitutional successor with a
| sense of civic pride, and the second in success
| sion, the presiding officer of the higher chamber
of this honorable Legislature, with fraternal
/ regard. And hail them both as witnesses to
| the resources and Immortality of our free in
stitutions. which provide that sacred public
| trusts, for the maintenance of liberty, shall
! never fail for lack of d trustee.
| This ceremony would be ceremony only, sig
| nifying nothing, did we fail to recall and con-
slder and take to heart, some of the rich les
sons Of the life and the death that have deserved
| ths Sc formalities.
In this Government it is ordered that human
| liberty DOES not depend IL; on the favor of men,
| for it has been anchored in the law. which is
| immortal. But here, as in all the earth, human
| virtue, and the qualities of honor and fidelity.
are ma 1e to depend upon the G nod example of
| men who have held them aDove all things,
| priceless and better than life That these ele-
mentS OF character are to have perpetual sue
| cession in the world can be proved only in one
| way, and this way is to be of record AMONGST
/ the mass of evidence. That proof is that the
| sensibilities of men are euickened, and their
spirits are lifted in the presence of the upright
| man, or in the contemplation of his memory,
| and from him they never withhold the final
honors which are not the due of station. but OF
| char lscter only.
In our free society that man is great who al
| ways does his duty with clean hands. 1t may
| fall TO him to command or be commanded in
battle; let him then be whole man, ior his
country expects her sons TO be heroes and not
towards; he may sit in judgment in the trib-
| unals which construe the law; then let him re-
member that his function is the reflection of that
given to Him who cometh to judge the quick and
| the dead, and be Just. He may be q law-maker
"a high function-which is amongst men the
counterpart of what nature has done in tle
| lmmeasurable spaces Of the universe; let the
| awmaker beware that the very foundation OF
order, the source of statutes. shall be without
| guile II he be the executor OF the law let
him remember that what originates in purity
| must be administered in justice; and if he be
the power that is higher than these, the citizen.
| may he remember that vestal ballot, unbought
| and unbribed is the very scripture of liberty,
| inspired by 1t and preseryative of it.
In those governments which are unlike ours
| greatness is often achieved by means that
would be repugnant to the American con-
science. A ruler expects that his stature in
| history viii be measured by the turbulence of
| his policy, by wars provoked and victories
| won by his arms, and unless his career is spec
| tacular and full of circumstances he is held to
/ have added nothing to the glory OF his country
| or his dynasty.
| With US, greatness rests upon dutifuI obedi-
! ence to law. Tried at last by time, our public
men must hope for noble prominence in history
! only by exercising the unfailing selfrestraint
| which associates their names with no breach in
| the law of the land, beyond whose verge and
| limit ambition has no virtue.
| In other lands the path of glory oyerpasses
| this frontier, and laws, and heads and hearts
| are broken by ambition grown to be vice by
| the absence of restraint.
| safety OI u Tree Sbslte Is IN 1JS aQDlulStra-
/ ton by men who refuse to accomplish VIII is
! merely expedient by invasion of that which is
right. The latitudinar;&n who regards govern
! ment as q special Providence, benignly admin.
/ istering narcotic kindness to all human aches
and pains and commissioned to avert the penal.
| ties of transgression may pass. in lis genera.
| tion, philanthropist, but he will not be re-
| membered BIS q statesman. His policy will soften
the fbres OF character, weaken the resistent
powers of men, and finally turn government
| into a thoughtless bcneyolence and the gov
A
| This theory and method would have built the
Temple of Liberty entirely OF mortar, without
buttress or brace or pilaster, and would have left
US without the occasion for such fine illustra
tons of manly strength of character as we are
about to consider
The peculiar virtue of cur Government then
is, that IL makes him greatest who, under great,
| est temptation, is most obedieut TO the law and
it calls into constant activity that independence
| which selfeenters men and makes them the
protectors of the Government rather than sun
plants for its protection.
Studied from each of these base lines. we are
here to honor the memory OF a Californian who
was by the one standard great, and by the other
| an example OF American self-reliance. In the
presence of her lawmakers and Governor and
the honorable Justices of ner Supreme Court
this commonwealth offers heartfelt and affec
tionate honors to the memory of Washiu gton
Bartlett, her great and steadfast citizen.
| bis lineage is lllustrious for it furnished q
| signer to the declaration of Independence one
OF that good company Of fifty-six patriots upon
| whose heads pr4ce was set because they loved
| their country, and of whom it may be said tn Il
| in public life and private station they held
themselves above price to the end And the
| keenest research among their descendants il
said to show that rot one of them has ever been
guilty of an act of turpitude or dishonor. An
cient Empires claimed miraculous origin or q
| foundation laid in some exceptional circum.
stance of human force. Let it be the ever affiu
ent source of our patriotic pride that this nation
| took It's rise under the hands OF these men, in
| whom purity of character was such master
quality that its prepotency is manifested in the
| transmission of their traits scrvss more than a
century of time and trial.
| This family furnished patriots to establish the
principles OF the Declaration. and a Governor
| TO one of the Colonies which first took UP arms
in its defense, and this son OF that line of sires
| had the rare felicity to begin his life at time
that enriched the memories of his Childhood
| with the stories of that tempest and conyulsiop
| IN " hich the Revolution was accomplished and
| freedom was established throughout the land
When he was child the stars in our galaxy ol
! Revolutionary worthless were one by one pass
ing away 10 shine in the armament eternal
| While he was st his mothers side, Jefferson and
| Adams went hand in hand from a world in
| which they had made shelter for the rights OF
man. And when he was a lad, already invested
with the staid and solid traits that foretold al
honorable future, Charles Carroll the last of the
signers of the Declaration, passed from the pre-
| sence OF his countrymen into that of his God
The men who began their lives in that time OF
Est.lio.lc s!l INSPIRATION are no Longer numerous.
To them the characters of the Revolution were
| flesh and blood. To us they are already ideal.
| lied, and If we encounter q venerable citizen
| surviving beyond lifes allotted limit, who may
| have stood face to face with WASHINGTON or Jef.
| ierson, we regard him almost with that awe
with which primitive people look upon one who
| is believed TO have had a supernatural expert.
ence
Amongst the causes of excellence in that
character which we have suspended public and
private business to study, was this early contact
| with the motives and the men and the tradi-
| tions OF the Revolution. This experience is de.
MED to us of later generations, but we NAV
| transmit its unquenched illumination to light
the future welkin by such commemorative and
| memorial honors as we are here to render.
! Warrington Bartlett, following the intellect.
nal habit of his ancestors and with that spirit
of independence ana selfreliance which came
| down 10 him from the Puritan founders of his
| family, carly devised ways of sefsupport In
| those days lads were educated sooner and may
| be souEder than now, and were ready for active
| life al the age at which many in The present
| day are preparing to mstriculate in college
/ Adams and jefferson were out of school arr
! deep i'll affairs before they were bearded and
Calhoun entered Yale in 1902 and graduated
| with all the college hoIors in 1874, with the
| flush OF boyhood on his cheek So we find
| young Bartlett pushing his fortunes in Florida
at the head OF newspaper and elected the fl ST
state Printer of that ate upon its admission 70
the Union, in ls45, before he had reached the
| age of o. lie seems TO have insiinctively grown
| with perfect harmony of development toward
| both law and journalism The former he knew
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