The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1902-07-02

parting of the ways Of whose service
history takes no heed. The great Ohio
territory. now six imperial states. was
twice saved to freedom by the almost
unnoticed action of single man.
With all respect for the man Of letters,
we are not yet quite ready to admit
that the 1rumpeter is better than the
soldier or the painter greater than the
liCn.'
In speaking Of Senator Davis con-
yersational powers Senator Hoar said,
"No spark from him was ever clnder
in the eye Of his FRIEND" mot worthy
to be remembered and to be quoted as
long as our literature survives.
Defense of Funeral Orations.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Junior senate
from Massachusetts,, gave this defense,
reason and excuse for the funeral ora
tion III general:
Mr.. President, DEATH said one OF
the wisest Of men, hath this also
that it openeth the gate to good fame
and extinguiSheth envy Bacon, con-
ceive. meant more by envy than the
mere jealousy Of one man toward an
other. He intended, we may suppose,
that general lack of just appreciation
from which every man Of distinction,
especially in public service, often suf-
fers in his lifetime. And he rightly
says that death openeth the gate to
good fame, which is but another way
of declaring that it is the first attempt
to do justice to a mans career and
services. 1t is common error that
eulogies, especially those spoken in the
freshness of grief. are necessarily as
little to be believed as the ep!taph held
by Lord Byron to be typical of false
hood This error springs from another
equally common, that criticism means
fault finding. whereas true criticism,
which alone is Of value, consists quite
as much in pointing out beauties as in
enumerating defects. Therefore it fol-
lows that the eulogy fulfills the kindly
function Of criticism, the other having
been already amply performed during
the lifetime Of him whose virtues are
the balance is made even, and in the
two combined History, looking down
long hence with calm and patient eyes,
will find the man and do him justice.
If in the first burst of sorrow eulogy is
ovcrstrained, history can be trusted to
set it right. At the worst, excess OF
praise is good fault, for the chances
are very great that the living man in
his public life got less praise than he
was entitled to and far more of misun-
derstanding than any one deserves.
Even if he did not endure in his public
service the worst forms Of calumny
and detraction he is certain to have
suffered by comparisons made with q
past which never existed. whose trail
ing clouds of glory are often conjured
up by the envy of which Bacon speaks
in order to make the living man Of the
moment look small and earthly. So it
may be said that men act wisely to
speak we'll Of the newly dead. for :nere-
by they do more than testify to their
sorrow, inasmuch as they in some de-
gree help to set the balance straight
and thus give their mite toward the ad-
vancement of the final truth"
Senator Daniels Tribute.
To illustrate Senator Davis fine lit
erary taste, Senator John ". Daniel Of
Virginia. himself a master in the dz-i
cate and difficult art of Demosthenes,
Cicero and Patrick Henry, said:
Prospecting his good taste in the fit
ting application Of the fine thoughts Of
others, which, indeed. he seldom need
cd. so ready were his own. may use
his own language in reference to an
other and say:
''Thcse emblcms OF his industry are woven into
his style like the bees into the imperial purple OF
Napoleon's coronation robes
Senator Daniel evidently takes no
stock in the theory that Lord Bacon
wrote the Shakespearean plays, for he
says:
Those who have amused themselves
in reading the curious books Of the
iconoclasts, which make laborious eff
fort to show that Francis Bacon
wrote the Shakespearean plays, as we'll
as those who find in the masters work
inherent evidence Of his identity, will
sympathize with Mr.. Davis sharp re-
buke of their heresy where he says:
"And now comes some one and says that here is
proof that Shakespeare is a alias for Francis
Bacon. 1t is difficult to touch Oh let alone this
vagary with any patience. One is inclined simply
to protest in the words Of ShaEespeare's epitaph:
Good friend for lesus sake forbeare
To digg the dust encloased heare,'
and pass on. dcening all secure against 4 desc
Grafton worse than that which the poet cursed
Davis as an Orator.
Senator Davis greatest oratorical
performance was his speech delivered
cn the field Of Gettysburg July 2, 1897,
at the unveiling of the statue erected
by the state of Minnesota to commem-
crate the charge made there by the
First regiment of Minnesota infantry
volunteers on July 2, 1868. In one
sense it was q funeral grafton, from
which quote the following excerpts: