Year: 1879




DEATH OF SENATOR CHANDLER


The sudden death of Senator CHANDL ER
of Michigan, the particulars of which will
be found in another part of THE NATIONAL
REPUBLICAN, carried a thrill of sorrow to
the heart Of nearly every citizen of Wash
ington so widely was he known and so
generally was he respected and esteemed.
The first dispatch was received by the Pres
ident, who was deeply affected, and the sad
news was soon spread from mouth to mouth,
until the event was very generally known
throughout the city. A feeling Of sadness
at once enveloped the Capital of the Nation.


CHANDLER is dead! was the general
ejaculation. "The noblest Roman of them
"all has been snatched by the inscrutible
hand ofProvidence from the field of useful.
ness and the loyal heart of the Nation
mourns its loss. In the darkest hours of
the Nations calamity-when treason and
rebellion were rife-when the life of the
Republic hung in the balance with an un-
certain fate impending over it, there was
one voice that never sent forth an uncertain
sound, and that was the voice Of IACHA-
RIAH CHANDLER. Whether in the Senate
chamber on the rostrum, i'll the social
circle, or in the Cabinet, his declarations
were loyal to the Union, and his counscls
and acts were in accord with the highest
type of patriotic love Of country. His stout
heart never iultered during the darkest
hours of the rebellion. His voice was heard
in the Senatc-in camp-at the recruiting
station-at themeetings to raise troops, and
in the hospitals, so long as the war lasted
and the National life was in danger, and his
patriotic promptings were ever attended by
an open and generous purse.


The war ended and peace came, and none
reioiccd more heartily in his country's sal
walton than IACHARIAH CHANDLER. In
the subsequent measures of reconstruction
he was prominent in giving them such shape
as would secure to all the people of the
United States the highest benefits that
could possibly result from that bloody
struggle His theme was equal rights to
all the people of the Nation without dis
tinction of race, color or previous condition,
and his advocacy Of these was fearless,
stalwart and determined, upon all occa-
sions. For some years Mr.. CHATDLER
was in private life, but during that
period his patriotic heart was con-
stautly alive to his country's welfare, and
he never relaxed in his political devotion TO
that party and those principles which saved
the National life. 1t was n peculiar dispen-
sation of Divine Providence that a door
opened to Mr.. Chandler's return to the Sen
ate at that period when the spirit that
prompted to rebellion returned to power in
Congress. The late extra session of that
body developed more clearly than ever be-
fore, since the war, the fact that though the
rebellion has been crushed its spirit still
survives to invade the avenues of govern
ment. When it cropped out in the Senate,
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER was in his seat to
rebuke it in a brief but stalwart speech
which thrilled his audience and the loyal
Nation with the power of its impulsive
eloquence. The ZACHARIAH CHANDLER of
1850 was again found in the Senate cham
Der to raise his warning finger against the
buildings of another revolution.


It may be said that Senator CHANDLER
died with his harness on. But few hours
before his death he addressed his fellow
countrymen with unusual earnestness and
power upon the political issues Of the day.
lie stepped from the rostrum to his couch,
where his spirit took its flight across the
river, never more to return and awaken and
arouse his lellow-men by the enforcement
of his honest convictions upon their minds
through his stalwart eloquence. This sud-
den transition of an eminent man from life
to death s sstrikingly and prophetically typi-
fed in the effort Of a poet Of another period
wherein he wrote: