Year: 1874

THE NOBLE TRIBUTE OF GEORGE WILLIAM


CURTIS.


The Sumner memorial services rendered
by the Massachusetts Legislature in Boston
on Wednesday were solemn and imposing in
all their details, but the grand feature of the
occasion was the oration by George William
more finished production than that Of SEN
ator Schurz. We have space only for the
magnificent peroratiOn.


This is the great victory, the great lesson,
the great legacy of his life. that the fidelity
of a public man to conscience, not to party,
is rewarded with the sincerest popular love
and confidence What an inspiration to
every youth longing with generous ambition
to enter the great arena of the state. that he
must heed first and always the divine voice
of his own soul, if he would he sure of the
sweet voices of good fame Living, how
Sumner served us and dying. at this mo-
ment how he serves us still In 4 time
when politics seem peculiarly mean and SCI
fish and corrupt. when there i a general
vague apprehension that the very moral
foundations of the national character are
looScned when good men are painfully anxious
to know whether the heart of the people Is
hardened. Charles Sumner dies :; and the
universally and sincerity of sorrow, such
as the death Of no man left living among Us
could awaken. show how true, how sound,
how generous. IS still the heart OF the
American people. This is the dying service
of Charles Sumner, n revelation which in
spires every American to bind his shining
example as frontlet between the eyes, and
never again to despair of the higher and
more glorious destiny of his country.


And of that destiny what a foreshowing
was he In that beautiful home at the sun
nv and leafy corner of the national city,
where he lived among books and pictures
and noble friendships and lofty Thoughts
the home to which he returned at the close
of each day in the Senate, and to which the
wise and good from every land naturally
came-how the stately and gracious and all
accomplished man seemed the very person.
ification of that new union for which he had
so manfuly striven, and whose coming his
diving ewes beheld-the union of ever wider
liberty and juster law, the America of COM
prehensive intelligence and of moral power .
For that he stands; up to that his imperish-
able memory, like the words of his living
| lips, forever lifts us-liits us to his OWN
great faith in America and in man. Sud-
denly from his strong hand-my father, my
father, the chariot of Israel, and the horse
men thereof the banner falls. Be it ours
to grasp it and carry it still forward, still
higher Our work is not his work, but it
can be well done only In his spirit. And as
in the heroic legend of your western valley
the men of IIadley, faltering in the fierce
shock of battle, suddenly saw at their head
the lofty form of an unknown captain, with
white hair streaming on the wind, by his
triumphant mien strengthening their hearts
and leading them to victory, SO, men and
women of Massachusetts, of America, if in
that national conflict already begun, as vast
and vital as the struggle of his life, the con-
test which is beyond that of any party, or
policy, or measure-the contest for con-
science, intelligence, and morality, as the
supreme power in our politics and the sole
salvation of America-you should falter or
fail, suddenly your hearts shall see once
more the towering form, shall hear again
the inspiring voice, shall lie exalted with
the moral energy and faith of Charles Sum-
ner, and the victories of his immortal ex-
ample shall transcend the triumphs OF his
1;co