Year: 1875

fellow workmen, and slowly lifting himself up until ne
became the man whom Massachusetts, delighted 10
honor and foremost in the great cause OF human
freedom. II Is beautiful 70 see how these TWO great
Massachusetts, born one year apart starting SO
dnerently in life educated differently supported
and complemented each other. The one man OF books
the other man OF men; the one man OF Ideas, the
other OF facts; the one a man OF the few, the
other a man OF the many; the one sometimes almost
losing himself In his distance OF advance before the
nation the other always keeping step with the grand
movement OF the people going forward only fast
his true popular instinct taught him that the people
ready TO follow. In these two men, unlike,
and yet representative Of the extremes in American
society, was the New England idea incarnated repre-
sented on this floor


Henry Wilson had cause in which he believed He
believed in Il as the OF man aye he believed in
u also as the cause OF God who had become ncarnate
and walked among men that He might impress II upon
us and show the vaue OF man, that He might illustrate
His own golden rule. In fact, Mr. Wilson never could
advocate anything in which he did not believe He
not Of that facile make that he could put the sem
bance of sincerity and earnestncss At the basis OF all
his action must be sincere moral conviction He
could take what he considered the wrong side Of ques
tion, in the Natck Debating Society He would
always buy OF or beg on and get upon what he re-
garded the right SIDE and then he was himself then
he host He afraid Of being alone II he
on the right side He knew the meaning OF these
lines of the poet Faber:-


Thrice biest is he 60 whom Is given


That God is IN he Geld ED when si He


Is most invisible


When, as a delegate from Massachusetts to the Ma
tlonaI Convention at Philadelphia s4s he repudiaed
the action of the Convention, standing he did, al
most alone, resisting the complimentary attentions of
such man as Daniel Webster and the other great
leaders Of the whg party these were his words his
constituents NO hope of political reward no fear Of
rdicule or denunciation, will deter from acting up
TO my convictions of duty ~ Whig they knew and
democrat they knew but what of this Here was
new factor in politics. Convictions Of duty Mr. VIII
son bad espoused the cause Of freedom from convic
tons Of duty, and from that moment hts pathway TO
the eminence he secured and from which he stepped
of into the world, just there
God in heaven or that He has said, Then that honor
me shall honor. -


1t is customary speak of the services which great
men render sacred cause There is another aspect OF
this subject. No great man ever helps great
cause much as that great cause develops,
elcvates and ennobles him. II was the peculiar good
fortune of Henry Wilson that he had the moral instinct
TO espouse the cause of Freedom TO send down the
roots OF his maturing manhood into such strong and
generous soil and all the buiIetings and OF tho
conflict which he encountered only made him stronger
and more heroic He did not espouse a to ride
on il into power He took il for better or worse TO
ride with fall with IT. and when this cause he
upon its crest and that partly because the
itself and his conservation TO II had made him worthy
TO RISE had made him one OF It's truest and best
ponents and champions, and II other have fai ed
under the tests which he withstood it may be
partly because they were under tuition TO the
same holy cause they were serving themselves II
you tell that Henry Wilson devoted his life the
cause of human freedom, that there danger hc
would not dare, toll he would not endure, self
sacrifice he would not make TO advance it, to make It's
triumphs permanent then you have explained to me
the phenomenon of such a man If he advanced the
cause the cause also advanced him. No
devote his life time to the study and advocacy of such
principles as lie the foundation of our free insttu
lions without being ennobed. II was what made the
giants OF 100 years ago 1t is what made the giants
OF time.


Mr. wilson had remarkable native endowments pro.
digious energy, industry and persistence the pro-
oundes conception of the sacredness and value of free
Institutions prophetic Instinct their ultimate
triumph, but he was all the time breathing the
phere and under tuition to the principles of the cause
which he advocated, and that gave glow and glory
his character and his life, as when the morning
grees the upfted dome of this within which
he served and where he surrendered his spirit back
the God who gave It, There is a in which IL is
not irrcverent to say that he inspired by that
1t was inspiration that he permitted 10 I'LL
up that which behind in the labors OF those who
had gone before him. This gave him patience under
provocaton; spirit OF forgiveness and forbear-
ance toward those arrayed against him. com
posure and serenity alike IN defeat and sue
cess. He knew that the cause moving on
In sunshine and cloud; whether in debate upon this
floor whether upon the battle elds where soldiers
using other argument he the pillar OF cloud
by day and of fire by night always leading the hosts
OF freedom moving as they moved, pausing they
paused never forsaking them. II was no after
thought with him; IT was no measure of political
pedency which led him in 1875 TO travel over portions
OF the South giving utterance to sentiments of kind
ness to those who had lately been IN arms against the
Union. On the 1st Of May, 1861 when the guns which
had been pointed at Fort SUMTER and which had driven
back forces upon this city after tho first battle of
Bull Run, we're still making the ears OF this nation
tngles with shame, MIR. Wilson had Said upon this
hoor:-


conflict when the din OF battle ceased the
humane and kindly and charitable feelings OF the country
and OF the world will require to deal gently with the
Of the people who engaged in the rebellion.


He had hostility against men In that conflict He





that sin against mans Creator with which the Judge
OF all the earth dealing with the nations upon the
content For the enemies Of his country we're also
men, and they not the nrst of whom il might be
said "Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do"


HIS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER.


1t was natural that Henry Wilson should become
Christian the very moment he gave his careful
tion TO the claims of the Lord Jesus a
teacher and a Saviour. Ii was like hun, when
he became a CHRISTIAN to confess il before men
nQvar Ia Ofd dutv III
had never been wanting in the outward moralities
OF life He was pureminded husband tender
father dutifu son, firm and untiring advocate OF
the temperance cause man strictly straightforward
and upright in all his dealings with But he
that neither upon the basis OF public of
private worth could he stand before Him with whom
we have to do In 1868 he therefore made a public
confession Of his repentance for sin and faith in the
Lord Jesus and united with the Congregational church
III Natlck Confronted with eternity all mon are equal
just some oil the heavenly bodies from
earth annihilate their distance from each other
The truth which comforted and reassuTed those
humble fishermen Of Gaee soothed and sustained and
eheered this dying statesman of the American Repub
lie. For thousand years of earthly change and
progress in institutions, in custom in manners have
not changed the heart Of man, have not changed the
eternal truth of God IL was the sagacious instinct
the moral genius OF Napoleon the FIRST which led him
say Chrst proved himself TO be the Son ofhe Eter
nal by His disregard Of time All His doctrines signify
and the same thing" and so when any man with the
instinct of Immortality stirring within him reaches
the verge where he looks OF upon eternity when
longer tar inland but upon the very BRINK ''hs soul
has sight of that immortal which brought him
hther he leaves all his earthly pecuarty, all that
which has distinguished him from the OF his race,
the elevation to which the men of his generation have
lifted him. the isolation of honor to which he has been
consecrated, the lovolness of the great and becomes
only poorly man again, with the same railtles. the
same anxietes, the same anechonate yearnings and
tenderness with the need OF a divine comforter
the humblesi and most unknown OF his fellow
tails


II cannot DO said Of Henry Wilson that he died and
made no sign that living IN the nineteenth century,
which dates from the birth Of the Lord Jesus Christ
living when the power Of His life and death has been
felt BY every nation the face of the earth He has
gone into institutions He has gone into laws has made
even tyranny and oppression endurable; has
clothed the horrors OF with something Of
gentleness and humanity; has lifted the nations
into a kind OF universal brotherhood, 80 that
the chief rulers OF the earth have become
nursing fathers and nursing mothers In His kingdom,
and the prediction OF the prophet that shall learn
war no more seems less like dlstempered dream,


say be said OF Henry Wilson that living at
such period he died like "a pagan sucked in creed
outworn;n he died though lie and immortality had
Aaa.. IL L. LII In IL Gner