Year: 1863




an empty chair, have done that fttinglJ


and well while the representatives of the


people on this floor, have added more thar


and iurist Lifelong friends, whose ell


oouence was made touching with individ.


ual sorrow, have reeounted career long


familiar 20 the country; enumerated his


high qualities; have shown US crowned
sovereign State mourning for her dead


and pointed us to that speeehless circle


which, bereft of its sun and center sits in
a darkened sorrow, that makes it sacred
from our gaze. l speak only the impres.
sions which many months Of daily sssoci-
alton with him produced. His was high
ardent, impulsive nature, enlarged and
generous, TO which an early and thorough
culture had opened out its thousand ave
1ues for exercise and development A
mind vigorous and enriched with liberal
studies, an imagination stored with the
pictured dresms of old romance, and the
quick, subtle, and apprecisti7e power Of
! deteeting the oft unseen lines Of beauty in
art or nature, it was his fortune to have
spent his life on this great focal stage of
] the natienJ erz5 ~ huVU daily lived and
\ Brsathed, TO have been part and parcel of
the momentous times and things Of which
other men only hear and read. Iattempt
no analysis of the influences, OF their eff
feots upon the character ofpublic men, in
sident to the unnatural and stimulating Of
fetal life in this capital, strange and strik-
ing rs they appear to eyes first admitted to
the charmed circle. Most men are meta
morphOsed by them


1t was the fortune of the departed Senator
to have mixed and mingled in these scenes
for q years to have been the peer and fa-
miiar associate of Presidents and Sens-
tors, Cabinet ministers, and royal embas-
ssdors to have been the hattered com
psnion Of the great men, and the valued
Acquaintance of the noble and beautiful
women that have crowded the boards in
the great, strange, and varied national
drama ever being enacted, and upon which
the curtain never descends, at this capi-
tai. And yet, to me, he seemed to have
preserved the original elements of his na-
ture in their primal strength There was
the same general impulse; the same light
ing up of the face at the meation Of no.
bic act the quick sympathy with misfor-
tune; the word of commiseration for the
deserving; and the whitening denuncia-
tion and sarcasm for everything mean or
ungenerous. Hasty words have l heard,
but unmanly or ungenerous never. And
1 never heard his tongue profaned with
the ribald blssphemy Of the name Of wom-
an, that pollutes the lips of so many Of the
younger men of our generation. He had
found time, too, for the developement of
those rare and refined tastes and pursuits
not always thought compatible with ex-
elusive public life, and incident to an old
ersstage Of civilization than that to which,
as a nation, we have attained. He had
that nice and detective sense, born Of a Do
etic temperament, that recognized the
beautiful wherever it dwelt whether in
the harmony Of sounds, the tinge and per-
fume Of q flower, or the breathing forms
that meet US in life His long and inti-
mate association with the leading men of
his time; his appreciation of character
and memory Of incidents, with his graph
ic and dramatic power of description, Oft
en- rendered his conversation, always re-
markable, a series ofliving pictures, some
times in good natured caricature, often
strongly sketehed, and Oftener mellowed
and sOftcned by the regretful memory of
the artist.


Mr.. Pearce was q native of that proud
Southern land; proud of that land, and
proud of his nativity; and that land may
well recognize and mourn him as one Of
the noblest OutgroWths of its stimulating
soil. t-


To him, and to others like him, this war
Of rebellion was more than it can be to US
Of the more favored Northern States. To
rs it is threat Of the dismemberment Of
our country and the destruction of our
Government, which we may redeem by
telling down the price in the rich red drops
Of our own and our ehildren's blood. All
this, dreadful as it is, was the war to him,
and infinitely more. Loyalty to the Union,
by which he stood, was treason to the
friendships and cherished associations, the
memories, hopes, and aspirations Of a life
time; and success to either party would
be, in some sort, disaster that his heart
must mourn. God help souls SO sorely
tried To him was given no prophets eye
TO discern, in this awful struggle, one of
the worlds great commissions, by which
the generations of men are purged and
purified for renewed and better career.
In the roar and shrek Of battle and the
wild wall of woe which filed all the land,
he could detect no rythmic voices chanting
the great hymn of human progress and
hope. The convulsions were the premoni-
tory throes Of dissolution, and the voices
the cries Of universal despair. Through
no vista came ray Of hope, and nowhere
beekoned hand to safety. But night in
terminable, without stars or hope Of dawn,
draped the earth as with its funeral pail.
he had seen his native Virginia desecrat-
ed and despoiled, discrowned, and given
over to most living desolatiOn. BE had
seen the old friends and companions Of his
life and manhood come in the fierce array
Of battle, and invade the soil of his Mary
land, and leave their red footprints burnt
into its soil, so that fOrgetfulness may
never effsce them, and leaving wounds SO
deep as TO defy the surgery Of time itself.
So be turned him from all outward things
to that inner life and light, and died with
their halo on his brow and their hope in
his heart, leaving his memory to his chill
dren, his history to his country, and the
lesson of his life to those who may profit
by 1t.