The Portland daily press., 1893-02-01

great English lawyer and philosopher
war aware of the exceptions character
and ingratitude of contemporaries. that
it is usually the fate of the great and the
good to be long in their graves
before their merits are acknowledged or
their worth is appreciated. Not so with
him whose name, achievements and
fame are our theme today. 1t is not his
to wait for history and tradition to do
him Justice. The nations of the earth,
with perhaps England alone excepted, re-
sound with his praise. Yet the people OF
the present generation who have seen
him in his daily walks and conversation,
who have co-operated in his austere la
bors, who have wept around his bier and
followed in his funeral train, are too
near to see the lofty height to which he
lowered 1t is from a distance that we
must look up to the moutain in order to
appreciate its grandeur. The people of
succeeding generations will stand at
such distance, and before their won
dering gaze, stretching back across the
lapse of years, the grandeur of his life
and character and public services will
loom above the clouds into the region of
eternal sunshine.
He came into public life at the begin
ming of an epoch that was destined to
test the experiment of our forefathers,
and demonstrate the capacity of the
Americ IN people for self government.
In his day the dismal forebodings that
had disturbed the peace and tranquility
of the older statesmen, assumed materi-
al shape in the Gorgon horror of civil
war. The wizard hand of Clay could
not pacify; the matchless logic of Web
ster could not reason down the inexora-
BILE spirit of slavery, secession and re-
bellion. The sage of Marshfield viewing
with melancholy alarm the lowering as
pect of the political skies, devoutly
prayed that his eyes might never behold
''the states discovered, discordant, bel
| ligerant, or rent with civil strife or
drenched in fraternal blood.' Heaven
mercifully vouchsafed the boon. AS if
| in tenderness to the great expounder
| that grewsome spectacle was reserved
| for the men of younger generation,
among the most conspicuous of whom
was James G. Blaine.
am most impressed today with the
| part he bore in that most exigent period
| of our countrys history. 1t is due to
the enlightened craftsmanship and
Christian philanthropy of which he was
the chief exponent that out OF union OF
weakness constantly menaced with dis
ruption, we have wrought reconstruct
ed consolidated, integral union, infinite
ly stronger and better than the old; that
in place of a constitution sullied by
disgraceful compromises, we have an
amended constitution without COM
promise, guaranteeing to all men, with
out regard to race, color or previous con-
dition of servitude, equal political and
civil rights and equality before the law;
that blind animosities and local preJu--
dices have softened to friendship and
melted to love; that messages of peace
and good will like that which fell from
the eloquent yet death touched lips OF
Henry W. Grady at Boston, are coming
I'D to us from a new South
recently chatting under its fancied
wrongs. His great life was worn out in
awakening the public conscience to the
advancement of the public good and in
striving to achieve victories of peace,
victories less splendid and startling than
those of war but as beneficial, as perma-
nent and as grand. While the names OF
Grant. Sherman and Sheridan will GO
down in history suggesting and illustra-
ting the great battles of the republic, the
names of Seward, Sumner and Blaine
| will illuminate its pages with their civil
] triumphs. My friends, men of eminent