The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-03
HIS MEMORY IS N)N()RED
REV. THOMAS =s HANIBLY'Ss e. ELO-
QUENT SKETCH OF THE DE-
PARTED SENATOR
FROM FARM TO THE SENATE
Once u P1OughbOy, He Met CourtIy-
Spanish Statesmen and Out
Matched Them in
Diplomacy.

! the Clinton Avenue Methodist church, as
prelude to the regular services:
In the death of CUshman K Davis, the
! United States has met with a severe loss,
and profoundly does this nation mourn.
i In his death the liberty-loving world has
lost champion When asked the ques-
! ton:
Senator. you believe, then, that we
should retain the Philippines" Most
assuredly," was the answer, I'VE owe it
! to the world to erect strong repulic
| there to offset the rising empire of ia
| pan"
1 will not speak of his early life, only
&c say that, like most great men, it was
| spent on a stump farm. The uneven eX-
! perienceS of such a life brought to him
! that ruggedness of character which is
! seldom the gift of the crowded city, with
! Its congestion of merchandise, manufac-
ture, professionalism ana politics.
A CHAMPION OF LIBERTY.
In his early manhood he demonstrated
| his patriotism by marching to the front
III the solution of question that has oc-
cupied his efforts ever since; a question
rot so much the building up of empire
| as giving to the empire the largest posi-
! die liberty, and through. this republic to
the world untrammeled life. The thoughts
OF statesmen are>alWaysa boundless.s There
are no horizons in the minds of great
men. Opportunities are only limited by
| universal privilege. Worlds are but
| SFecks. Man possesses coSnic mind; end
| less is his genius and power. Christianity
! unlockS the avenue to such thinking.
| Therefore patriotism in our land is a
| question of how can we best help human
! lily advance. Our deceased senator saw
that to allow conditions to remain as they
were in the South would be to commit
| the whole system of civilization to
/ atrophy. With this conviction, he sought
J to inject into Southern life living princi-
pies, rather than deadening influences;
! and when, having changed places with
| the boy behind the gun in the army of
| the Tennessee and of the Mississippi to
of no on
| foreign relations in the most promising
government on earth, he. saw an oppor-
tuHity to fire shot whose reverbera-
TONS for liberty would be heard around
the world, he fired it, and since its ech-
oeS have ceased and unfamiliar ears have
investigated the cause and source of the
sound, there has been attributed to this
country greatness not the possession of
any other power. Mr.. Davis was strong
believer. Doubt is weakness. Faith is
strength. From his earliest expressions
until the closing of his wonderful lips, he
preached love of country, the matchless
grandeur of American nationality and the
iEElolable sacredness of the constitution.
His constructive genius foresaw the
swell of empire and the increase of
! power, and like only a few of the states
men of the nations early period could
scan the vista of time and behold coming
millions marching to the uplands of high
er citizenship, accompanied by the drum
beat Of liberty divine.
w AS A BROAD -IHlNhER.
His sympathies We're more than local.
This was the result of his broad study
In his private library at Washington the
visitor and friend could see the complete
history of the Latin race, from the iron
age to the present representing hIndr5 dc
of volumes; also the history of the French
people, written in their natural tongue.
These he would take down and read as
readily as he would English He read
everything concerning nations. and con-
FerSed with every foreign visitor and
traveller whenever possible. For informa-
| ton concerning the Cuban situation
! he depended not upon the Cuban junta
! nor the written word of correspondents,
but he interviewed the common and dis
tlngulshed traveller through that LAND and
reached his convictions accordingly. He
was thus in possession OF knowledge more
reliable than most officials, and it was
not to be wondered at that he prepared
such remarkable state papers in cOnnec-
ton with the Venezuelan and Cuban diff
| fcultieS.
Mr. Davis was a classic thinker as we'll
! as speaker. He combined in language a
mastery of the rough, sineWy, racy Saxon,
which is the fittest speech for practical
| Efe, and is not without resources for the
utterance of lofty emotion. but when his
great intellect would clothe itself with
state or splendor, he marshaIed out the
Latin strength. With his Saxon he sent
| his ideas like bullets to their mark. HIS
cltmaXes, which were the wonder of the
reader as well as nearer, were always
! reached by the footpath of the Latin
climber. Some, since his lips are dumb,
have claimed him as a liberal A citizen
! of this city, in print, has said 81 knew
| him intimately. He was we'll VerSed in
Spencer, Huxley and Darwin"
To the speaker he said: 'I went of
| ike many others a quarter of a century
ago on Spencer and others, but I found
them to be chaff and not the stuff that
man wants to strengthen him. They are
Weakness and not power. / dropped
| them"
INSPIRATION TO THE YOUNG.
His life is an inspiration to every young
| American. He was weakly in youth. He
forged his, way through college, fought
| through the war, found health in a
change of climate, made himself great as
a lawyer, reached the governorship of the
| state Of his adoption at the age of thirty
SIX years, and entered the senate of the
! United States while comparatively young
| His eminent abilities fitted him for weigh
| ty responsibilities in that high chamber
| 1t was he VINO largely moulded our &C.
! ton in the Span1Sh-American war, prose-
| cutting the Investigations into the loss of
| the Maine, planning our Pacific squadron
| where single gunshot left US in pos
| session of islands that will in the future
be a great republic, educating the Orient
| into better political lifa, finally acting as
ore settling the conflicting claims be-
| tween victor and vanQuished, and chang
! ing the boundaries OF nations
"REMINISCENCES OF PARIS.
In his study at his home on Massachu-
just after tea, his wife had gone to a
| church soctable near by The senator
| lighted his cigar, preliminary to a long
evening read. 1 said to him: Senator,
| tell me what impressed you most OF any,
thing in connection with your experience
on the Paris treaty" WELL" said he,
Strengthening back in his chair with his
usual sociabIe air, ''ore incident imp ess d
me with the transforming power of Amer
lean institutions. SenCr Rios, a man
! through whose veins ran generations of
IL = nn0 a
ed by the Spanish commissioners to pre-
sent reasons why the United States
| should assume the indebtedness of Cuba
! was selected by our men to present
| the opposing argument, and what to me
seemed the strongest possible feature OF
! the situation was that L only forty-five
! years ago, was swinging a brush hook
on a stump farm in Wisconsin, and only
fourteen years ago a pleader in the COM
mon courts of Minnesota, should be teac l.
ing successful diplomacy to such man
and making good my case
would be delighted il time would per
NIT ne to compare him with statesmen
of other lands, and proudly could we
measure i him up, but such a pleasure Is
!hnchlng faith in the divine intervention
II the affairs of men. This is true of al
the worlds best men. .-.,,,,.l -
HIS error was that he developed the
cram at the expense of the BODY, and
When the shock came the power Of resist
ance was wanting M +.s. -
HIS OWN WORDS APPLIED.
In closing, I will use his own language
ever Daniel Webster. on a. commemora.
I've OCCASION: 1T is said that he erred
than he, that Power that through fhc
popular conscience makes weak an h}I
man strength, lifted this giant from the
earth that gave him power The over.
mastering force it once had given him nc
longer came. He struggled with strong y
powers than his, until earth took hi r