The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-15

l.. 1851. the news vas flashed over the
country that Fort Sumter had been Fl ed
upon. On April L. nc telegI aphed tie
President. offering l0.0G0 men for service
in behalf Of the Union. It was the first
tender OF volunteer troops which came to
Abraham Lincoln.
Under the leadership Of Governor Nor
ton, Indiana was ore OF tke first States
to put her soldiers in the field. At lis
time there was less than $4,000 in tie
State treasury. and after our first quota
of troops had been supplied with inferior
arms and equipments. We were practically
without arms. supplies or munitions CT
any kind yet on the Goth of April. fore
seeing the future needs OF the Govern
ment Governor Morton te'egraphed the
Secretary of War Offering six additional
regiments, which he had already begun o
organize and equip. Receiving no r. ply,
on Aprfl - he sent a special messenger
to Washington to renew the offer. From
that day until the close of the war. the e
was not a time in which he was not urg-
ing an increase Of our forces. or that re
was not organizing and equipping regi-
ments in Indiana. in anticipation of ad-
ditional demands. During the war In
diana sent over eGS.000 soldiers to the
front. a larger per capita representation in
the field. it is said, than that of any other
Northern State"
In conclusion. Mr. steele said: He was
at the time of his death but flfty-fOur
years OF age. Indiana lost her most
eminent statesmen. the country one cf its
wisest counselors and most devoted patri-
OTIS. and the Republican party of our State
its greatest leader-none has yet arisen to
fully fill his place. As citizens CT Iudilra
we are proud TO know that in the years to
come the statue of Oliver =. Morton will
stand in that great hall.-among thosa CT
the eminent men of other StatesLan evil
dence of our supreme appreciation of his
great and glorious service TO the State and
nation. He was Courageous patriot. a
loyal friende an honest man
Mr.. Micrs' Address.
Mr.. Steele was followed by Mr.. Miers OF
Indiana, who said in part:
''As a Representative of the State of
Indiana. l take pleasure in adding my
voice to those raised in reverential COM
memoration of the man whom my State
has by honoring, honored herself and the
nation of which she is a part The yoice-
less marble now placed in Statuary Hall
viii honor that sculptured room as did the
living being whose form is thus preserved,
honor the upper house of the National
Legislature.
"Oliver Perry Morton was one of those
men whose conditions and environments
gave the strength which makes them
great and renders time necessary to bring
out their truly admirable qualities with
out the view being marred by personal or
sectional hatred. Oliver Perry Morton
was a great man when living but even a
greater man when viewed by the historian.
His was a life of turmoils and conflict:
his mind rose superior to the rayages of
disease and the irritation of constant and
eXcruciating pain. Severe lines were
drawn in his face by the pain he suf-
fered, and men, looking only at the face,
thought him austere. Those who really
knew the man, and not only his outward
semblance. loved him. His heart was big
as his brain, and few If any men have
been blest with grander intellects. His
life was gentle and the elements so mixed
in him that nature might stand up and
say to all the world-this was a man
Now that sectional hatred has died
away and the bitter prejudices born of
the conditions of the sixties are no longer
felt. we can look back upon the life ard
record of Oliver Perry Morton, and while
We regret that the conditions of his time
made him violent in some of his methods,
yet We can see clearly. as could not be
seen in those dark days. that when Oliver
Perry Morton's soul left the body which
had so long been an encumbrance to il
that one of the best and greatest men had
passed from the visible present to the in
visible future. His services to his State
and his nation will live forever in history,
while the enmities which he engendered
have already been buried
General Grosvenor who met Governor
Morton first at the convention held at In
dianapolis in 1854, where Morton publicly
announced his departure from the Demo-
iIsaI =ni ipb bnl ha q ha
most available. forcible, and effective
stump speaker in the country, and in the
days of the birth and triumph of the Re
publican party doing more than any other
man to shape the policy of the party.
Messrs. Cannon Of Illinois and Alexander
Of New York. who had spent part of their
lives in Indiana, the latter of whom was
for time Governor Morton's secretary,
also spoke of the life and character of
Governor Morton, as did Mr.. Overstreet.
At 3:55 o'clock the resolution OF accept
snce was agreed to and the House ad-
journed until Monday.