The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-06-26
A FINE GRAFTON.
BY HON. G. w. MCCLANMY.
To the Memory of S. S. Cox, of New
York.

IO JHc MtHOTy VI .. =. COA, VI NeW
York.
At the Memorial services in the
House of Representatives on the life
and character Of the Hon. S. S. Cox,
Representative McClammy of North
Carolina arose and said !: Mr.. Speaker,
Horace has declared that "Pale Death
advancing with equal and impartial
steps knocks at the hovel of the poor
and the palace of the great To die
is the universal lot. To pass to our
kindred dust and be forgotten, or else
to live in cold pulseless marble, ,chiseled
by glorious art to vital grace, is all
that earth can offer us. Not even the
Lord of Life, at whose bidding count.
less worlds flashed upon the brow of
night, and at whose command the
vanished spirit returned to its aban-
doned tenement, in whose heart was
all purity, not even he escaped that
dread and awful penalty in whose
shadows we stand to-day, our hearts
mute with sorrow and our lips dumb
with loss. Mr.. Speaker, the custom
which we now observe is as immortal
as death itself. Abraham bought the
cave of Macpeth, and fashioned and
beautified it in loving sorrow for name
less loss. Barbaric nations piled un-
couth stones on high as rude but
touching memorial to commemorate
the virtues of the gifted dead. Ad-
varcing civilization builds to heroic
worth the graceful shaft that splinters
in radiant space the golden beams of
light and we pause beneath our coun-
try's dropping banner to eulogize our
fallen comrade, whose loved features
shall be seen no more, and whose elo-
quent voice is hushed forever. The
author, the scholar, the diplomat, the
orator, to whose proud and swelling
tones your hearts have thrilled the
patriot whose great soul loved every
rood of that mighty empire over which
our country's glorious banner floats,
has crossed the river. He whose great
intellect for thirty years burned upon
the peaks Of fame like a glorious light;
he whose genial humor flashed upon
dull debate as the rays of the sun that
pierce and scatter the murky folds OF
clouds; he whose divining thought whose
scholarly polish, whose kindly heart,
whose swelling soul and honor's lofty
sense have made his name and life i'm
mortal has passed to his great reward.
Ohio mourns not alone her hon
ored dead. New York with bowed
head and faltering step, approaches
not alone the grave of buried worth.
North Carolina with whom liberty is
an inspiration and duty watchword,
offers upon this shrine, with grief
that is voiceless,h her profoundest tribute
to the illustrious dead. Everywhere
upon this continent of republics true
hearts have chanted his mournful
requiem and lowered above his mighty
dust the proud standards of national
sovereignty. 1t is unnecessary to
speak Of his public services. Their
length and character are the best at
testation of their worth and sincerity.
They glow upon his country's history ;
they burn in shimmering glory
upon the hearts of my people with a
stylus of fire. When war had torn and
wasted them, when their land was
white with the tombs of her flower and
dark with the ruins of the country's
toll and hope, when Niobe, uncrowned
and voiceless sat amid the ashes OF
desolation, his voice pleaded with an
angels eloquence for the preservation
of American Union and the perpetual
ton of American liberty; and my peo-
pie will love and honor him until
Mecklenburg and Moore's Creek and
Kings Mountain and Guilford Court
House can not longer thrill the hearts
of a degenerate posterity.
Sir, it has been recently said that by
a distinguished orator that the South
builded monuments to men who per-
ished for slavery and anarchy. l wish
to say, sir, in the presence of that va
cant chair, while in my heart there is
a chamber that will dreary and empty
forever, that if power equaIed desire |
would build monument to this great
leader of the North that should fall amid
the wreck of matter and crash worlds
about whose lofty summit the morning
mists alone should hover, and upon
whose granite hear tshould burn in fade
less fire the name of the patriot Cox-not
to him alone but to every American
regardless of all save that he conse-
Grated his abilities to his country and
to his God in the cause of liberty,
Justice and truth. My friends, great
captain has fallen, flushed with victory,
nearing the zenith of his glory crowned
with bays, wreathed with immortelles.
How sleep the brave who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blessed!
The voice that rang SO proudly IN
these halls as he scared upon his bold
and mounting wing is now, alas, but
the memory's echo the face that shone
transhgured with intellectual emotion
is but copy of the pale death. Our
friend is Sunset Cox no longer; he has
passed the quiyering bars of sunset ;
his plumed spirit has floated through
the translucent seas of ruby and opal
and amethyst; passed the glittering
splendors and FURNISHED d systems that
flashed from the jeweled arch of the
midnight; passed from death unto life
from great tribulation unto perfect rest;
joined beyond the golden bars his loved