The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-06-24

ana sympathy which afIectlonate hearts
and kind hands can give. l am content
to 60 whenever the summons comes" 1t
was thus that this great soul passed down
into the valley of the shadow of death.
1t will not be attempted here to do full
justice to Mr.. MCDoNALD's character and
career as a statesman, a lawyer, or party
leader. The story of his life was fully
told yesterday, and feeling tributes to his
memory are rendered In the city press by
some of the most eminent of those with
whom he had been associated for years.
We cannot refrain, however, from giving
few impressions of Mr. MCDONALD in
his professional and public characters.
Mr.. MCDONALD, intellectually consid-
cred, was distinguished for clearness OF
penetration, remarkable analytic faculty,
soundness of judgment, and firm grasp
upon vital principles. He was not brilliant
nor a snowy man. He lacked that some
what intangible quality which, for want of
better name, we call personal mag
netism," and which dazzles and attracts
the multitude; but he possessed that bet
ter and more enduring attribute which
enabled him to grapple his friends o him
with hooks of steel )" and their name was
legion. He was not an eloquent man, in
the ordinary sense of the term. He had
none of the graces or tricks OF the rhetori-
clan, but he had the power OF clear, sim
pie, concise statement to degree which
is rarely edualed. His statement of
proposition embodied his argument, and
when he had presented his case, whether
to Judge, a jury. deliberstive body or
a popular assemblage, volumes of exposi-
ton, hours of defamation, could rarely
have added TO its force. His mind was
distinctly logical. He reasoned along d.
rect lines. He formed no opin-
ions from incomplete data. Before
his judgment was passed upon any ques-
ton, whether OF theory or OF fact, he
made a thorough investigation and had
everything before him, so far as possible,
which was essential to a complete under
standing of the matter. Then his con-
illusions were quickly made. AS to alb
stract questions he scarcely ever found
occasion to change these conclusions. He
adhered to them tenaciously, because
they were adopted, in the first place, after
careful inquiry and earnest thought,
and because with his mental habits it
was quite impossible for him to change
his point of view and make q different
application of given principles to given
conditions at one time than at another.
Thus Mr.. McDoNALD's economic views,
as proclaimed IN his last public utter
| ances, were the same as he had held in
his earliest manhood. He believed in
| the principle OF free trade, because, to
mind SO constituted as his. it appeals
with the irresistible force of scientific
truth. He believed it entirely practicable
to apply this principle in the United
States and universally throughout the
world; and he advocated, all his life, every
policy and measure which would hasten
this grand consummation. Similarly, he
held strong views on the currency ques-
ton. He was always what is known as
hard money man. He believed that it
was not possible to make money" with
printing presses, and he also believed that
it was not possible for this country to per-
manently maintain double standard"
without the cooperation OF other CONNER
cial nations. He was "strict construc-
ZIONIST" He always maintained that the
only path of safety lay in the federal gov
eminent combining itself strictly to the
exercise of the powers expressly delegated
to it by the constitution. He was. in
word, thorough Jeffersonian, in his prin-
ciples as we'll az in his practices.
Not being in the minutest particle of his
composition demagogue, a coward,
time-server or a trickster, Mr.. MCDONALD
never concealed his views upon any polit-
ical or economic question. No man ever
had in a larger degree, the courage
of his convictions. More than once he
stood like q rock, amid q tempest of
popular fury. for what he believed to be
true and right. During the war he was
one of the great conservative forces in his
party, and did as much as any other man