The Irish standard., 1903-02-14
A GRAND EULOGY.
Senator Hoar on Charles Carroll of
CarrllIlln.


livered the following address in the
| United States senate OH the occasion
OF the acceptance Of bronze statues
of Charles Carroll and John Hanson,
from Maryland for Il place III Stutuary
! Hall i'll the capitol ut Washington.
The ''old man eloquent" referred to
lie and said:
There is an admirable memoir of
Charles Carroll which shows Il life ex-
tending almost over century. A
large part Of it is crowded with hon
orable public service of the first quail.
ity. 1t shows him fully entitled to
rank, not only as Il foremost states
man of foremost state, but among
the great men of his time, from what
ever state they may have come There
has been no time since the revolution
ended when the name of Charles Car
roll of Carrollton was not familiar
household word in every home
throughout the length and breadth of
the country
Yet, if you had asked well-inrormed
men. students of history or graduates
Of the college or university, men them
selves taking an important part in
public affairs, they could tell you, only
that Charles Carroll was Catholic;
that he lived to survive all his COM
panons who signed the Declaration,
and that when he signed his name he
took care that there should be no
doubt of his identity, If the revolution
ary war were Il failure, and it were
in the power of the royal government
to inflict penalty for treason.
Charles Carroll died at 95, in the
year 1892. He survived Jefferson and
John Adams over six years. Jeffer-
son and John Adams and Carroll had
been the only survivors of the sign
crs of the Declaration for eleven years
before. 1t seemed as each of that i'm
mortal company died the affection his
countrymen had left for him was
transferred to the survivors. When
Adams and Jefferson died the whole
of this sentiment gathered and CEN
tered upon Carroll.
can remember, though but a child
of six years, when he died. The
school boy was asked the question in
the school to name the only man liv.
ing of that illustrious band. And 1
we'll remember when the solemn
tidings went through the country
that Charles Carroll was gone. Be-
fore he died men used to make pill
grimages to his dwelling, as to a
shrine.
Webster defined him as IAN aged
oak standing alone ON the plain,
which time has spared little longer
after all it's contemporaries have been
leveled with the dust" He says that
his countrymen delight to gather
around its trunk while it yet stands,
and to dwell beneath its shadow.
will not undertake to do what my
honorable friend from Maryland has
done so much better-draw the lesson
of patriotism which is taught us by
the life of Charles Carroll. have no
fear that the great Declaration will
ever lose it's primacy among the po-
litical state papers which have been
produced since the beginning Of time.
TO find it's superior, or it's equal, we
must search the inspired pages Of
our venerable scriptures.
But l would like to speak for a mo-
ment of one lesson which has been
often forgotten which the life Of
Charles Carroll teaches, alone, among
his illustrious companions: Charles
Carroll was a devoted Catholic. He
belonged to that church which pre-
served for mankind learning, litera-
ture and law through the gloomy CEN
turtles known as the dark ages. Yet
it is the only denomination of Chris
tians against which anything of theo-
logical bitterness or bigotry seems to
have survived amid the liberality of
our enlightened day.
Every few years we hear of secret
societies, and even political parties, or
saniZed with the sole view of eXclud-
ing the members of a single Christian
church from their equal privileges as
American citizens. Yet, certainly, the
men of the Catholic faith have never
been behind their countrymen, either
us patriot citizens, or as patriot SOL
diers. This spirit of bigotry would
have denied the ordinary rights of
Americans not only to Charles Car
roll and his illustrious cousin, but to
Montgomery and Phil Sheridan.
The Pilgrim and the Puritan of
Massachusetts encountered exile and
the horrors of the winter storm and
the wilderness and the wild beast and
the savage for civil and religious free
dom. But even they saw ''as through
a glass, darkly." They f'>r1 short of
that conception Of freedom which pre-.
walls now. Their treatment of the
Quakers and the Baptists will not bear
the light to-day.
Roger Williams, In his turn, made
another forward step and founded his
state on the principle of complete tol-
erance of all Christians. But he, in