The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-07
A GREAT MAN GONE.

asleep to wake no more in a land where
blind force and brutal bigotry have domi-
Mon, but, as we hope and believe, in a
place where the day is endless, the summer
always present and the joys of existence
are untinged with the bitterness OF regret
for the past, sorrow for the present or
dread for the future. AS MACBETH says Of
DUNCAN: "After life's fitful fever he sleeps
well; treason hath done it's worst; nor
steel, nor poison, foreign malice domestic
levy, nothing can touch him further"
The ex-president of the southern confed-
eracy was one Of the great and grand men
of the century so near its close. He had
peculiar ideas of the functions of the gov
eminent as regards its relations to the
states, but his peculiarities were shared
| by such men as CALHOUN and BRECKIN-
RIDGE and to some extent CLAY, in more
recent times, and by such giants as THOMAS
JEFFERSON and ANDREW JACKSON in the
earliest days of the republic. Believing,
and rightfully, that the status of the citi-
zen is a reflex of the government, and
that in this land the citizen, while an in
tegral part of the nation, is at the same
time free and independent, DAVIS and
his coadjutors reasoned priori, that the
village or town in which a citizen lived,
then the county, then the district, then
the state and lastly the nation, were like
wise free and independently other
words, that the great structure of the
government commenced at the bottom,
that power came from beneath, and that
therefore, the separate rights of states and
the individual rights of the people of the
states were no more to be infringed upon
than was one citizen to be infringed upon
by another To put it in plain
words, he was a democrat pure and
simple and believed altogether and
entirely in the reign of the common people
in quest of common object. That this
belief, or rather conviction, took him out
of the constituted authority of the United
States for four long, bloody and eventful
years, is circumstance rather than con-
clusion. He followed his convictions. he
remained with his own people and cast his
lot with their fortunes whatever fate might
decree.
AS soldier of his country, none achieved
higher or better-deserved distinction for
valorous conduct in the field or good de-
pertinent in the camp. On the plains of
Mexico and elsewhere, at all times and in
every place, he was the ideal of a cultured
and gallant warrior; commanding in ap-
pearance, graceful III action, gifted in
mind and valiant in spirit, he was truly
chevalier without fear and without re
proach. As a statesman in the various
walks Of civil life, he rose to a command
ing position everywhere and in every
place but it was as a member of the
United States Senate that he shone most
brightly, because, perhaps, of the greater
and better field in which he was engaged.
Those who had the good fortune to
hear his last great speech in that
body, when about to retire from it, will
never forget what they heard while men,
DRY remains the warder of the brain, and
those who have read it have enjoyed feast
of reason and flow of soul rarely met with
among the emanations Of the later day
giants of intellect 1t was disquisition
upon the constitution and an explanation
of the different powers and principles of
our government eXcelling in all respects |
anything ever uttered by DANIEL WEBSTER |
or any of the other great unionists 1t |
was analytical, massive, sublime, complete |
it was, in fine, such an argument as |
JEFFERSON DAVIS only could have rendered. |
and is the only monument he has now, the
greatest he will ever have, no matter if |
millions be spent in erecting figures of
glaring brass, glowing bronze or chaste
marble to his memory.
The wonderful capacity of his mind was
not perceptibly drained even while in the
shadow of the valley of death. A few
weeks ago he contributed an article to one
of the great magazines of the country on
the subject of the constitutionality of the
protective tariff sytem, an article which
was noted and commented upon by THE
HERALD shortly after it first ap-
Deared. 1t was NEST mastery ar
gument, and one that even the
chief among the champions of protection,
on the forum or through the press, have
been unable to successfully assail. 1t shed
new light upon the vexed question, and did
more to convince those who were undeter-
mined regarding not only the iniquity but
the lawlessness of the high tariff system
than any paper that has been contributed
to modern literature within recent years
At least. The interests of the statesman
and the gifts of the orator seem to have
clung to him to the last. He was born
such and such he died.
The tongue and finger of calumny have
,ver been busy with the fair fame of the
lead chieftain. The pismires of the north
lave nibbled at him, and the grasshoppers
If the same section have kicked at him
With the hope of distracting somewhat
rom his great record and bedimming, if
possible, the great lustre CT his honored
lame. In the Judgment of the just on
10Th sides, all such attempts have been ut
erly unavailing. Either as the president
f the southern confederacy or as the vic
i'm of northern malice, ne never at any
ime forsook the dignity of his position,
he instincts of the statesman or the man. 4
ers of a gentleman. When surrounded in
is tent as he was fleeing to more remote
orner of what was then a crumbling edi-
ce, his captors asked before going fur
you armeds" ''If l WERE" he
ep!ied, ''you would not be there asking
lat question: And when he appeared to
lem and surrendered, he was attired in
is own proper habiliments, the statements
small-minded and low-minded penny-a-
ners to the contrary notwithstanding
The secretary of war could not find
ecessity for observing the unwritten law
such case made and provided for order