The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-01-12

fundity OF the knowledge of his col
league and the distinguished position he
occupied IN the Spanish war debates
and conferences, and said:
He exhausted and rendered clear and
lucid the most profound and intricate
problems of diplomacy and statecraft
When he had spoken there was little
II anything more to bear on the sub
ject'
Mr.. Nelson paid a. tribute to the lit
erary accomplishment of his late col
league. and closed with an apostrophe
to American manhood as represented by
Mr.. Davis.
Mr.. Hoar of Massachusetts. comment
ing upon the fact that so many SEN
ators die in Office said that in the
euIog1eS pronounced in the chamber the
portraitures- have been true and faith
full In q young republic, ne said the
greatest place for a live man was that
of a soldier in time of war and states
man in time of peace. Mr. Davis was
both. He did a mans full duty In both
Mr. Hoar commented upon the literary
attachments of Mr.. Davis. and said:
There have been soldiers whose cour-
age saved the day in great decisive bat
ties when the fate of the nations hung
in the scale yet whose most enduring
monument was the column of smoke
which rose when their death shot was
fred.
There have been statesmen whose
silent influence has decided the issue
the ways, of whose service history takes
no heed. The great Ohio territory, now
six imperative states, was twice saved
to freedom by the almost unnoticed ac-
ton of a single man.
with all respect to the man ofletters,
we are not yet quite ready to admit
that the trumpeter is better than the
soldier, or the painter greater than the
lion. There is no need of many words
to sum up the life and character of Mr..
Davis. His life was in the daylight
Minnesota knew him. His country
knew him and loved him. He was a
good soldier in his youth and great
senator in his maturer manhood. What
can be said more, or what can be said
better to sum up the life OF an Amer<
can citizen. He offered his life Tor ms
country when life was all before him
and his state and his country rewarded
him with their highest honor The great
orator and philosopher OF Rome de-
clared in his youth and repeated in his
age, that death could not come prema-
turely to a man who had been consul
This man might surely be accounted
ready to die He had discharged honor
ably life's highest duty and his cup of
honor and glory was full
Mr. Davis gifts Of eloquence and ora
torical power were touched upon and
as well his great familiarity with the
history of Massachusetts, and his pride
in his puritan ancestry. Mr.. Hoar closed
as follows.
There are other things his country
longer and higher service perhaps the
highest Of all But the memorable shaft
has stricken him in the full vigOr Of a
strenuous manhood. The great transit
lions in which he had borne 50 large a
part still remain incomplete and their
event is still uncertain.
There is a painting which a great
Italian master left unfinished The
work was taken up and completed by a
disciple. The finished picture bears this
inscription. What Titan left unfinish-
ed, Palnae reverently completed and
dedicated to God So. may our beloved
republic find always when one servant
leaves his work unfinished, another who
viii take it up and dedicate it to the
country and to God.
Mr.. Lodge (Ndass.) analysed the char
acter of Mr. Davis as from close per-
sonaI friendship and said the late sem
ator was not fully appreciated as a pub
lie man. This he accounted for by rea-
son Of the tendency to belittle great men
of today because without thought and
trouble they can not be brought for
judgment into proper perspective with
the past and because of the modesty
which made him shrink from speaking
in public except when it was a duty or
a necessity Mr. Lodge summed up as
follows:
I'm all that he did in shaping our
policy he was helped by his knowledge
and his studies, by much careful
thought and by an Imagination which
enabled him to project his vision into
the future But that which was his
surest guide was a. sentiment embodied
in a profound patriotism and an in
tense Americanism. 1 do not mean that
he was a great man because he held
certain opinions on certain public queS-
tions, or that he was more patriotic
than others who differed from him rad
ically upon those same questions. What
I mean is that he had a. faith in his peO-
pie and their destiny which nothing
could shake and that he never had a
shadow of doubt or distrust as to their
ability to meet any responsibility and
any question bravely, justly and victo-
riously. He had proved his patriotism,
like many other brave men, on the field
of battle, and he hardly ever referred
to it. but his love of country and every
thing connected with its history was
with him a passion. His thoughts were
always upon the great questions now
before the United States, and in the
last hours his country was uppermost in
his mind as the shadows closed about
him. He was not a man who cried his
own virtues and proclaimed his own
deeds in the market place, but he did
his Work-great work, as the time de-
manded-strongly and well. He will
find his place and his reward in the
pages of history when the story of
these momentous years is told. That
monument is for other hands than ours
to build