Year: 1870

u


ADDRESS OF HENRY WAITER


SON, BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE


OF KENTUCKY, Feb. 2, 1870.


There certainly never arose in
this country a more pointed or q
more finished wit, and where his
passions were not concerned, q
more refined, exquisite and pene-
trating judgment. For nearly a
third of a century he was, as
Hazlitt said Of Cobbett, a sort of
fourth estate in the politics of
America. Whatever cause he es-
poused, he defended by style of
argument that was never trite nor
feeble, nor muddy nor confused,
but was luminous and strong,
enriched by all that was necessa-
~ to establish it and decorate it,
and suited exactly to the temper
of the times and the comprehen-
sion of the people, which he sell
dom failed to hit between the
acorn and the hull. In consider
ing his career, however, I shall
ask leave to speak. of him rather
as I knew him in his own person.
than as he was known to the pub
lie through the transactions in
which he bore a part. / take it
for granted that you are not at all
curious to learn what opinion l
or any man may entertain of this
or that political event; and at the
very best, opinions will differ on
these points, leaving us, in the
end, nothing assured or distinct.
If we would understand history,
we must study the men who made
it, and, in order to get a clear
notion of their characters and.
motives, we need not take the
record, but the spirit If their lives:


OF his marriage after his wife
had been taken from him, he was
himself not averse to speaking,
and dwelt upon her memory with
touching fondness. He loved to
refer to her as a girl, and it is
curious that she is the only wo-
man I ever heard him speak of
with genuine warmth and tender
ness, although there were many
good and gentle women who had
been his lifelong friends. ~
have not had credit he said on
one occasion, "for being a devoted
husbands; but if I had my life to
go over, that is the only relation
I would not alter; she was the
;wisest, the purest, the best and
the most thoroughly enchanting
woman I ever Knew" Most per
sons will call to mind the exqui-
site verses which he addressed to
her. Verses, you are possibly
aware, are not always truth-tell-
ers; but in this instance they ex-
pressed the impulses OF a nature
which, reaJlily impressed as it
was by all things agreeable, could
not be drawn out to the full by
one of less grace of mind and
heart. His affection for children
was likewise intense, and the loss
of his elder son was a terrible
blow. [ know of nothing more
affecting than his fondness for a
little, fair-haired, bright-eyed boy,
a grandson, who bears his name.


Strangers supposed that he was
decrepit, and there existed an inn
preston that he had resigned his
old place to younger and more ac-
tive spirits. He resigned nothing.
Idoubt whetherhe ever did more
work, or better work, during any sin
gle year of his lite than during this
last year. He said, on the 1st of
January, 1869, 'sI will make the
last years of my life the best years
of my life, and I shall work like
a tigers" and he did work like a
machine which seemed to have
no stop in it. In a note to Mr..
Haldeman, two or three months
ago, he wrote: s'I work twenty
four hours a day, and the reason
I do not work more is because
the days are no longer" l have
had some personal knowledge OF
the working capacity of the two
writer's in this country
who have been reputed the read
lest and most profilse; but l never
knew any one who could write as
much as Prentice in a given time,
or sustain the quantity and quail
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