Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1892-01-20
Communicated.

In this busy world men like not to pause,
even although the good and beautiful perish
from the earth, yet. it seems to the writer,
it Is the duty Of those who survive him not
to allow the death Of 30 estimable young
man as John Y. B. Henderson to pass with
out more than the ordinary notice
Whilst the deepest sympathy must be felt
by the whole community for the bereavsd
ones in this hour OF their great aiiilction
and irreparable loss, We, such Was the prom
Use OF this boy that the greatest loss conse-
ouent upon his death is to his county and
state, it would seem.
Tn all ages there has been a crying need
fir the great and good, and in these trou-
blous times, perhaps not more 50 than for
mer days. the world can i'll spare men cast
in the heroic mold that young Henderson
was.
So exalted was his idea OF truth that 1t IS
painful to write Of him, for we can almost
imagine his spirit lowering over Us and
pointing with a stern finger to any misstate-
ment even in this short notice of his life.
In this unitarian age, when knowledge
of the organic law of the land is rather
ridiculed. few did or could appreciate his
lueid explanations of that instrument, the
heritage left Us by our forefathers, the Con-
.ritution of the United States He was per-
fsctly familiar with the debates in the con-
stitutional convention which met to form a
more perfect Union" He had at his fin
eers' ends the names OF the great men, the
states they represented, and heterogeneous,
pro and con, as each clause in the first draft
of the Constitution came up before the con-
vention for Interpretation and debate. With
that tkor,ughness which WAS the leading
Characteristic of his mind he regarded the
Constitution Is the foundation OF orr gov
eminent and an accurate knowledge OF IL
essential to the correct understanding Of
any superstrueture erected thereon. No one,
whether he lives now OF is numbered among
the inustrious dead, had higher reverence
for that Charter of Liberty As an illus
tration of this, upon his telling the writer
on one occasion that at the next preSiden-
tial election he would lack only few weeks
of being of age in order to vote, the writer
said. "Why not vote anyhow, if You will bC
so near of age?" he replied, No sir that
would be unconstitutional; :" and there is nc
doubt that the very clause in the Constitu'
ton which he would be violating by such
an action was at that moment wildly before
his mind.
John Henderson was not one, IN the Ian
guage of another idea. man, who, if Goo
had spared him, would have helped &c
ruin the moral edifce Of the world which
time. and toll. and many prayers to God
and many sufierings Of men have reared :
or would have put out the light of The
times in which he lived and left Us to wan
der in the darkness and deSolation of sin
But with all the learning he had acquired
with all the future development of his mino
and who can say what Ultima Thule
his cultivation might have reaehed-woulC
"as the mariner looks to his compass in th'
calm. and looks to his compass in the storm
and never keeps his eve off OF his compass
so m every yicissitude of ile-deciding fol
the people, deciding against the people, pro
tec;ing the just rights of rulers or restrain
Ing their unlawful ambitiou-would have
cluug To that pure, exalted aud Christian
independence which towers over the Iiul'
motive, OF lie, which no hope Of favor cal
influence, which no effort Of power car
control"
LAY it without fear OF contradiction tia
Que of the worlds great ones persisted annie
the conflict of the elements, the violence o
wind aud storm during the night of Janu
airy 18TH, 1892 IA fitting apo,heo>i~ for ;
great soul