Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-12-23
Memorials to u. S. Senators
Bv John T. Boifeuillet


the representatives.
All such addresses are printed in bound
form for distribution.
One day, Senator Bacon, of Georgia, re-
ceived letter from the well-knoWn eloquent
Macon attorney, John r. Cooper, asking that
he send him certain memorial addresses. The
writer stated: Il do love to read about our
dead senator's" Senator Bacon remarked:
"Umph! Bunk doesn't seem to care any
thing about the live ones"
Representative Jonathan Prentiss Dolliver
of Iowa, was appointed United States senator
in the year 1900 to fill the vacancy caused
by the death of J. H. Gear. 1t is related that
Congressman Rodenberg, Of Illinois, said In
Washington one day to former Congressman
Peter Hepburn, from Delivers state, who
was himself regarded as of senatorial cali
Der, and looked with longing eyes on the sem
atorship: Are you going to hear Senator
Doliver make his maiden speech in the sem
ate this afternoon?"
Hepburn answered: whats he going to
talk about?"
Rodenberg replied: He is going to deliv-
er eulogy on the life and character of
Senator Gear"
ooh, Dollver has no cause to mourn his
DEATH" responded Hepburn.
ingalls, Exquisite Eulogies
If you are fond of rich word painting, Won
derful imagery and exquisite diction, read
ingalls,, of Kansas, who has been aptly called
the Wizard of English speech" His eulogies
are redolent of beautiful and sweet flowers
IF rhetoric, and radiant with brilliant SEN
fences. Two of his most striking memorial
orations were on Senator Beck of Kentucky,
and Senator Benjamin H, Hill, of Georgia
His tribute to Hill contained certain startling
thoughts.
The eulogy of Senator L. @. c. Lamar, of
Mississippi, upon Senator Charles Sumner,
of Massachusetts. will always hold place as
a masterpiece of that style of oratory. It
caught and held the attention of the whole
country. 1t was lofty plea for the restora-
tion of fraternal relations between the north
and south. 1t electrified the nation.
Many senators have died while in office.
The last or dying words of some of the most
notable of these statesmen have continued to
live.
Dying Words of Senators
In the ebbng moments of the life of Hill,
Georgia's majestic orator and superb states
man, he peacefully said: ALMOST Home"
And as these words were spoken the blue
skies swung wide their portals, and his tran
gull soul passed in.
AS Solomon Foote, of Vermont, Was pass
ing out, he lifted his hands and exclaimed:
Il see it, l see it. The gates are wide open!
Beautiful, beautiful"
Just before the spirit of Daniel Webster
left it's mortal vestment he said: 81 still
live" His tomb bears the declaration Sc
lected by himself: Lord believe help thou
my unbelief.''
The parting expression of the Indiana SEN
ator, Oliver P. Morton, was: 81 am worn
out
The last words of Stephen A. Douglas, of
Illinois, were spoken to his wife and were
intended as advice to the dying mans chill
dren: Tell them to support the constitution
and the laws" noble and patriotic senti-
ment from the great democratic heart of the
Little Giant" While stretched upon his
couch with fatal illness, he dictated his last
political letter, in which he said: "a man
cannot be true Democrat unless he is 10y
al patriot" What ringing declaration! A
splendid platform and fine party text
A Most Pathetic Death
In the annals Of the senate there has never !
been recorded an event more pathetic than
the death of William James Bryan of Flor
ida, in March, 1908. Scarcely more than two
months before, he entered the senate bearing
the commission of the state of Florida to
represent her in that high forum. Just thr-
ty-one years DID, barely beyond the limit
of the age prescribed by the constitution, he
was with Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and
"Old Biz Allen, of Ohio, as he was affec-
tionately called, possibly the only excep
tions), the youngest man who ever became
a senator of the United States.
Senator Bacon, in his exquisite eulogy on
Senator Bryan, referred to him as our
brother, our Benjamin..
Here is a pathetic and most interesting
extract from Senator Bacon's address:
'Singular1y and by accident, in the selec-
ton of seats upon Senator Bryan's entrance
here, his was adjoining the seat of Senator
Whyte, of Maryland and thus there sat side
by side, the Oldest and the youngest sena-
tors in the chamber, the venerable octoge-
marian and the youth of thirty-one. In going
to and from my seat in the chamber it was
necessary for to pass them by, and fire.
quently in doing I have laid a hand at
once on the shoulder of each of them and in
quired: How are the boys today?'-a pleas
antry always smilingly recognized by each,
and never seem to them to grow old with
repetition. Senator Whyte, although eighty
four years of age, was then active physically
and mentally, and Senator Bryan was far be-
low the meridian of life. What possible an
ticipaton could have told that within a few
short weeks, and within five days of each
other, the funeral Grape would be draped
upon each of these two adjoining desks in
token that those who had sat at them had
gone out from among us forever? But so
it was"
ingalls, on Hill
The following is an extract from Senator
I'M gals memorial address on Senator Hill:
Ben Hill has gone to the undiscovered
Whether his journey whittier was but one
step across an imperceptble frontier, or
whether an interminable ocean, black, un-
fluctuating, and voiceless, stretches between
these earthly coasts and those invisible
shores-we do not know.
Whether on that August morning, after
death, he saw a more glorious sunrise with
unimaginable splenuol above a celestial hor-
lion, or whether his apathetic and uncOn-