The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1889-04-13
SENATOR INGALLS, VIEWS ON DEATH
His Address in the Senate.

His Address in the Senate.
Senator ingalls, delivered the follow
ing beautiful eulogy in the U. S. Senate
short time ago on the death of Con-
gresham James Nelson Burnes, OF
Missouri:
Mr.. President, these are the culmi-
mating hours of closing scene in the
drama of a national life. When this
day returns one political party will re-
linquish and another assume the execu-
tive functions of government On every
hand are visible the preparations to
welcome the coming and speed the
parting guests. At the eastern portico
stands the stage on which the great
actors will play their parts, in the pres
ence of a mighty audience, amid the
mimic pomp and circumstances of war,
with the splendor of banners, music's
martial strains, and the hoarse saluta-
tions of accentuatlng guns.
Enterprises of great pith and moment
wait upon the brief interval. While
pleasure wanders restlessly ly through the
corridors of the Capitol, hope and fear,
ambition, cupidity, and revenge sit in
the galleries, or stand at the gates,
eager, like dying Elizabeth, to exchange
millions of monev for the inch of time
upon which success or failure, wealth
or penury, honor or obloquy depend.
AT this juncture and crisis, VIXEN each
instant is priceless, disregarding every
inducement, resisting every incentive
and solicitation, the Senate proceeds,
by unanimous consent, to consider res
olutions of the highest privilege, re-
ported from no committee, having no
place upon any calendar, but which
take precedence of unfinished business
and special order, upon which the yeas
and nays are never called, and no neg
ative vote is ever recorded, and rev.
erently pause, in obedience to the holiest
impulse of human nature, to contem,
plate the protoundest mystery OF human
destiny-the mystery of death
In the democracy OF the dead all
men at last are equal. There is neither
rank nor station nor prerogative in the
republic OF the grave. At this fatal
threshold The philosopher ceases 10 be
wise, and the song Of the poet is silent.
Dives relinquisheo his millions, and
Lazarus his rags. The poor man is as
rich as the rich, and the rich man is
as poor as the p.uper. The creditor
loses his usury, and the debtor Is &C
quilted of his obligation. There the
proud man surrenders his dignitles, the
politician his honors, the wording his
pleasures the invalid needs no physi
clan, and the laborer rests from unre-
Quilted toll.
Here at last is natures final decree
in equity. The wrongs of time are re
dressed. Injustice is explated, the irony
of fate is refuted, the unequal distribu-
ton of wealth, honor, capacity, pleasure,
and opportunity, which make life SO
cruel and inexplicable, cease in the
realm of death. The strongest has no
supremacy, and the weakest needs no
defence. The mightlest captain sue
cumbs to the invincible adversary who
disarms alike the victor and the van.
pushed.
lanes Nelson Burnes, whose death
we deplore today, was man whom
Plutarch might have described or Var
Dyke delineated massive, rugged, and
robust in motion slow in speech SON
orous and deliberate grave in aspect !;
serious in demeanor of antique and
heroic mold the incarnation of force,
energy, and power.
Not perplexed by moral distractions
nor mental subtleties, he possessed that
assemblage of qualities which make sue
cess in practical affairs inevitable
Great enterprises were natural TO him.
Breadth, grasp, and comprehension
characterized his projects. Early per-
ceiving the enormous possibilities of the
valley of Missouri, longer than the
Amazon and more fertile than the Nile,
he Immediately identified himself with
the forces which have developed the
empire of the Northwest; made the
American desert an oasis, and abolished
the frontier. AT the bar, on the bench,
in business and politics, he was fore
most for a quarter of century.
When we first met St. Louis was an
outpost of civilization, and Jefferson
City the farthest point reached by rail
road. In all that vast region, from the
sparse settlements along the Missouri
to the Sierra Nevada, from the Arkan
sas to the Yellowstone-nowt the abode
of millions, soon to be represented in
the Chamber-there was neither hus,
bandry nor harvest, habitatlon nor home
save the casual encampments of the
Bedouins of the plains, more savage
than the beasts they slew.
We were neighbors-as that wore
goes IN the West. Twenty miles to The
northward, across the turbid stream, the
level bars of tawny sand, and the vas
expanSe of primeval forest, were visible