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Creswell + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .right {text-align: right;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oration on the Life and Character of Henry +Winter Davis, by John A. J. Creswell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Oration on the Life and Character of Henry Winter Davis + +Author: John A. J. Creswell + +Release Date: July 16, 2007 [EBook #22084] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HENRY WINTER DAVIS *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h2>ORATION</h2> +<h3>ON THE</h3> +<h2>LIFE AND CHARACTER</h2> +<h3>OF</h3> +<h1>HENRY WINTER DAVIS,</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>HON. JOHN A. J. CRESWELL.</h2> + +<p class="center">Delivered in the Hall of the House of Representatives,<br /> +February 22, 1866.</p> + +<p class="center">WASHINGTON:<br /> +GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.<br /> +1866. +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>The death of Hon. <span class="smcap">Henry Winter Davis</span>, for many years a distinguished +Representative of one of the Baltimore congressional districts, created a deep +sensation among those who had been associated with him in national legislation, +and they deemed it fitting to pay to his memory unusual honors. They +adopted resolutions expressive of their grief, and invited Hon. <span class="smcap">John A. J. +Creswell</span>, a Senator of the United States from the State of Maryland, to deliver +an oration on his life and character, in the hall of the House of Representatives, +on the 22d of February, a day the recurrence of which ever gives increased +warmth to patriotic emotions.</p> + +<p>The hall of the House was filled by a distinguished audience to listen to the +oration. Before eleven o'clock the galleries were crowded in every part. The +flags above the Speaker's desk were draped in black, and other insignia of +mourning were exhibited. An excellent portrait of the late Hon. <span class="smcap">Henry +Winter Davis</span> was visible through the folds of the national banner above the +Speaker's chair. As on the occasion of the oration on President <span class="smcap">Lincoln</span> by +Hon. <span class="smcap">George Bancroft</span>, the Marine band occupied the ante-room of the +reporters' gallery, and discoursed appropriate music.</p> + +<p>At twelve o'clock the senators entered, and the judges of the Supreme Court, +preceded by Chief Justice Chase. Of the Cabinet Secretary Stanton and Secretary +McCulloch were present. After prayer by the chaplain, the Declaration +of Independence was read by Hon. <span class="smcap">Edward McPherson</span>, Clerk of the +House. After the reading of the Declaration, followed by the playing of a +dirge by the band, Hon. <span class="smcap">Schuyler Colfax</span>, Speaker of the House of Representatives, +introduced the orator of the day, Hon. <span class="smcap">J. A. J. Creswell</span>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>REMARKS</h3> + +<h5>OF</h5> + +<h2>HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX,</h2> + +<h4>SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.</h4> + + +<p>Hon. <span class="smcap">Schuyler Colfax</span>, Speaker of the House of Representatives, +said:</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>: The duty has been devolved upon me +of introducing to you the friend and fellow-member, here, of <span class="smcap">Henry +Winter Davis</span>, and I shall detain you but a moment from his +address, to which you will listen with saddened interest.</p> + +<p>The world always appreciates and honors courage: the courage +of Christianity, which sustained martyrs in the amphitheatre, at the +stake, and on the rack; the courage of Patriotism, which inspired +millions in our own land to realize the historic fable of Curtius, and +to fill up with their own bodies, if need be, the yawning chasm +which imperiled the republic; the courage of Humanity, which is +witnessed in the pest-house and the hospital, at the death-bed of the +homeless and the prison-cell of the convict. But there is a courage +of Statesmen, besides; and nobly was it illustrated by the statesman +whose national services we commemorate to-day. Inflexibly hostile +to oppression, whether of slaves on American soil or of republicans +struggling in Mexico against monarchical invasion, faithful always +to principle and liberty, championing always the cause of the down-trodden, +fearless as he was eloquent in his avowals, he was mourned +throughout a continent; and from the Patapsco to the Gulf the +blessings of those who had been ready to perish followed him to his +tomb. It is fitting, therefore, though dying a private citizen, that +the nation should render him such marked and unusual honors in +this hall, the scene of so many of his intellectual triumphs; and I +have great pleasure in introducing to you, as the orator of the day, +Hon. <span class="smcap">J. A. J. Creswell</span>, his colleague in the thirty-eighth Congress, +and now Senator from the State of Maryland.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>ORATION</h3> + +<h4>OF</h4> + +<h2>HON. JOHN A. J. CRESWELL.</h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">My Countrymen</span>: On the 22d day of February, 1732, +God gave to the world the highest type of humanity, in +the person of George Washington. Combining within +himself the better qualities of the soldier, sage, statesman, +and patriot, alike brave, wise, discreet, and incorruptible, +the common consent of mankind has awarded +him the incomparable title of Father of his Country. +Among all nations and in every clime the richest +treasures of language have been exhausted in the effort +to transmit to posterity a faithful record of his deeds. +For him unfading laurels are secure, so long as letters +shall survive and history shall continue to be the guide +and teacher of civilized men. The whole human race +has become the self-appointed guardian of his fame, +and the name of Washington will be ever held, over all +the earth, to be synonymous with the highest perfection +attainable in public or private life, and coeternal with +that immortal love to which reason and revelation have +together toiled to elevate human aspirations—the love +of liberty, restrained and guarded by law.</p> + +<p>But in the presence of the Omnipotent how insignificant +is the proudest and the noblest of men! Even +Washington, who alone of his kind could fill that comprehensive +epitome of General Henry Lee, so often on +our lips, "First in war, first in peace, and first in the +hearts of his countrymen," was allowed no exemption +from the common lot of mortals. In the sixty-eighth +year of his age he, too, paid the debt of nature.</p> + +<p>The dread announcement of his demise sped over +the land like a pestilence, burdening the very air with +mourning, and carrying inexpressible sorrow to every +household and every heart. The course of legislation +was stopped in mid career to give expression to the +grief of Congress, and by resolution, approved January +6, 1800, the 22d of February of that year was devoted +to national humiliation and lamentation. This is, then, +as well a day of sorrow as a day of rejoicing.</p> + +<p>More recent calamities also remind us that death is +universal king. Just ten days ago our great historian +pronounced in this hall an impartial judgment upon the +earthly career of him who, as savior of his country, will +be counted as the compeer of Washington. Scarce +have the orator's lingering tones been mellowed into +silence, scarce has the glowing page whereon his words +were traced lost the impress of his passing hand, yet +we are again called into the presence of the Inexorable +to crown one more illustrious victim with sacrificial +flowers. Having taken up his lifeless body, as beautiful +as the dead Absalom, and laid it in the tomb with becoming +solemnity, we have assembled in the sight of +the world to do deserved honor to the name and memory +of <span class="smcap">Henry Winter Davis</span>, a native of Annapolis, in +the State of Maryland, but always proudly claiming to +be no less than a citizen of the United States of +America.</p> + +<p>We have not convened in obedience to any formal +custom, requiring us to assume an empty show of bereavement, +in order that we may appear respectful to +the departed. We who knew <span class="smcap">Henry Winter Davis</span> +are not content to clothe ourselves in the outward garb +of grief, and call the semblance of mourning a fitting +tribute to the gifted orator and statesman, so suddenly +snatched from our midst in the full glory of his mental +and bodily strength. We would do more than "bear +about the mockery of woe." Prompted by a genuine +affection, we desire to ignore all idle and merely conventional +ceremonies, and permit our stricken hearts to +speak their spontaneous sorrow.</p> + +<p>Here, then, where he sat for eight years as a Representative +of the people; where friends have trooped +about him, and admiring crowds have paid homage to +his genius; where grave legislators have yielded themselves +willing captives to his eloquence, and his wise +counsel has moulded, in no small degree, the law of a +great nation, let us, in dealing with what he has left us, +verify the saying of Bacon, "Death openeth the good +fame and extinguished envy." Remembering that he +was a man of like passions and equally fallible with +ourselves, let us review his life in a spirit of generous +candor, applaud what is good, and try to profit by it; +and if we find aught of ill, let us, so far as justice and +truth will permit, cover it with the vail of charity and +bury it out of sight forever. So may our survivors do +for us.</p> + +<p>The subject of this address was born on the 16th of +August, 1817.</p> + +<p>His father, Rev. Henry Lyon Davis, of the Protestant +Episcopal church, was president of St. John's College +at Annapolis, Maryland, and rector of St. Ann's parish. +He was of imposing person, and great dignity and force +of character. He was, moreover, a man of genius, and +of varied and profound learning, eminently versed in +mathematics and natural sciences, abounding in classical +lore, endowed with a vast memory, and gifted with +a concise, clear, and graceful style; rich and fluent in +conversation, but without the least pretension to oratory +and wholly incapable of <i>extempore</i> speaking. He was +removed from the presidency of St. John's by a board +of democratic trustees because of his federal politics; +and, years afterward, he gave his son his only lesson in +politics at the end of a letter, addressed to him when +at Kenyon College, in this laconic sentence: "My son, +beware of the follies of Jacksonism."</p> + +<p>His mother was Jane Brown Winter, a woman of +elegant accomplishments and of great sweetness of +disposition and purity of life. It might be truthfully +said of her, that she was an exemplar for all who knew +her. She had only two children, Henry Winter, and +Jane, who married Rev. Edward Syle.</p> + +<p>The education of Henry Winter began very early, +at home, under the care of his aunt, Elizabeth Brown +Winter, who entertained the most rigid and exacting +opinions in regard to the training of children, but who +was withal a noble woman. He once playfully said, "I +could read before I was four years old, though much +against my will." When his father was removed from +St. John's, he went to Wilmington, Delaware, but some +time elapsed before he became settled there. Meanwhile, +Henry Winter remained with his aunt in Alexandria, +Virginia. He afterward went to Wilmington, +and was there instructed under his father's supervision. +In 1827 his father returned to Maryland and settled in +Anne Arundel county.</p> + +<p>After reaching Anne Arundel, Henry Winter became +so much devoted to out-door life that he gave small +promise of scholarly proficiency. He affected the +sportsman, and became a devoted disciple of Nimrod; +accompanied always by one of his father's slaves he +roamed the country with a huge old fowling-piece on +his shoulder, burning powder in abundance, but doing +little damage otherwise. While here he saw much of +slaves and slavery, and what he saw impressed him profoundly, +and laid the foundation for those opinions which +he so heroically and constantly defended in all his after-life. +Referring to this period, he said long afterward, +"My familiar association with the slaves while a boy +gave me great insight into their feelings and views. +They spoke with freedom before a boy what they would +have repressed before a man. They were far from +indifferent to their condition; they felt wronged and +sighed for freedom. They were attached to my father +and loved me, yet they habitually spoke of the day when +God would deliver them."</p> + +<p>He subsequently went to Alexandria, and was sent +to school at Howard, near the Theological Seminary, +and from Howard he went to Kenyon College, in Ohio, +in the fall of 1833.</p> + +<p>Kenyon was then in the first year of the presidency +of Bishop McIlvaine. It was the centre of vast forests, +broken only by occasional clearings, excepting along +the lines of the National road, and the Ohio river and +its navigable tributaries. In this wilderness of nature, +but garden of letters, he remained, at first in the grammar +school, and then in the college, until the 6th of +September, 1837; when at twenty years of age he +took his degree and diploma, decorated with one of the +honorary orations of his class, on the great day of commencement. +His subject was "Scholastic Philosophy."</p> + +<p>At the end of the Freshman year, a change in the +college terms gave him a vacation of three months. Instead +of spending it in idleness, as he might have done, +and as most boys would have done, he availed himself +of this interval to pursue and complete the studies of +the Sophomore year, to which he had already given +some attention in his spare moments. At the opening +of the next session he passed the examination for the +Junior class. Fortunately I have his own testimony +and opinion as to this exploit, and I give them in his +own language:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It was a pretty sharp trial of resolution and dogged diligence, +but it saved me a year of college, and indurated my powers of study +and mental culture into a habit, and perhaps enabled me to stay +long enough to graduate. I do not recommend the example to those +who are independently situated, for learning must fall like the +rain in such gentle showers as to sink in if it is to be fruitful; +when poured on the richest soil in torrents, it not only runs off +without strengthening vegetation, but washes away the soil itself."</p></div> + +<p>His college life was laborious and successful. The +regular studies were prosecuted with diligence, and from +them he derived great profit, not merely in knowledge, +but in what is of vastly more account, the habit and +power of mental labor. These studies were wrought +into his mind and made part of the intellectual substance +by the vigorous collisions of the societies in +which he delighted. For these mimic conflicts he prepared +assiduously, not in writing, but always with a +carefully deduced logical analysis and arrangement of +the thoughts to be developed in the order of argument, +with a brief note of any quotation, or image, or illustration, +on the margin at the appropriate place. From +that brief he spoke. And this was his only method of +preparation for all the great conflicts in which he took +part in after life. He never wrote out his speeches +beforehand.</p> + +<p>Speaking of his feelings at the end of his college +life, he sadly said:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"My father's death had embittered the last days of the year +1836, and left me without a counsellor. I knew something of books, +nothing of men, and I went forth like Adam among the wild beasts +of the unknown wilderness of the world. My father had dedicated +me to the ministry, but the day had gone when such dedications +determined the lives of young men. Theology as a grave topic of +historic and metaphysical investigation I delighted to pursue, but for +the ministry I had no calling. I would have been idle if I could, +for I had no ambition, but I had no fortune and I could not beg or +starve."</p></div> + +<p>All who were acquainted with his temperament can +well imagine what a gloomy prospect the future presented +to him, when its contemplation wrung from his +stoical taciturnity that touching confession.</p> + +<p>The truth is, that from the time he entered college +he was continually cramped for want of money. The +negroes ate everything that was produced on the farm +in Anne Arundel, a gastronomic feat which they could +easily accomplish, without ever having cause to complain +of a surfeit. His aunt, herself in limited circumstances, +by a careful husbandry of her means, managed +to keep him at college. Kenyon was then a manual-labor +institution, and the boys were required to sweep +their own rooms, make their own beds and fires, bring +their own water, black their own boots, if they ever +were blacked, and take an occasional turn at grubbing +in the fields or working on the roads. There was no +royal road to learning known at Kenyon in those days. +Through all this Henry Winter Davis passed, bearing +his part manfully; and knowing how heavily he taxed +the slender purse of his aunt, he denied himself with +such rigor that he succeeded, incredible as it may appear, +in bringing his total expenses, including boarding +and tuition, within the sum of eighty dollars per annum.</p> + +<p>His father left an estate consisting only of some +slaves, which were equally apportioned between himself +and sister. Frequent applications were made to +purchase his slaves, but he never could be induced to +sell them, although the proceeds would have enabled +him to pursue his studies with ease and comfort. He +rather sought and obtained a tutorship, and for two +years he devoted to law and letters only the time he +could rescue from its drudgery. In a letter, written in +April, 1839, replying to the request of a relative who +offered to purchase his slave Sallie, subject to the provisions +of his father's will, which manumitted her if she +would go to Liberia, he said: "But if she is under my +control." (he did not know that she had been set to his +share,) "I will <i>not consent to the sale</i>, though he wishes +to purchase her subject to the will." And so Sallie +was not sold, and Henry Winter Davis, the tutor, toiled +on and waited. He never would hold any of his slaves +under his authority, never would accept a cent of their +wages, and tendered each and all of them a deed of +absolute manumission whenever the law would allow. +Tell me, was that man sincere in his opposition to +slavery? How many of those who have since charged +him with being selfish and reckless in his advocacy of +emancipation would have shown equal devotion to principle? +Not one; not one. Ah! the man who works +and suffers for his opinions' sake places his own flesh +and blood in pledge for his integrity.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding his irksome and exacting duties, he +kept his eye steadily on the University of Virginia, and +read, without assistance, a large part of its course. He +delighted especially in the pungent pages of Tacitus +and the glowing and brilliant, dignified and elevated +epic of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. +These were favorites which never lost their charm for +him. When recently on a visit at my house, he stated +in conversation that he often exercised himself in translating +from the former, and in transferring the thoughts +of the latter into his own language, and he contended +that the task had dispelled the popular error that +Gibbon's style is swollen and declamatory; for he +alleged that every effort at condensation had proved a +failure, and that at the end of his labors the page he +had attempted to compress had always expanded to the +eye, when relieved of the weighty and stringent fetters +in which the gigantic genius of Gibbon had bound it.</p> + +<p>About this time—the only period when doubts beset +him—he was tempted by a very advantageous offer to +settle in Mississippi. He determined to accept; but +some kind spirit interposed to prevent the despatch of +the final letter, and he remained in Alexandria. At +last his aunt—second mother as she was—sold some +land and dedicated the proceeds to his legal studies. +He arrived at the University of Virginia in October, +1839.</p> + +<p>From that moment he entered actively and unremittingly +on his course of intellectual training. While +a boy he had become familiar, under the guidance of +his father, with the classics of Addison, Johnson, Swift, +Cowper, and Pope, and he now plunged into the +domain of history. He had begun at Kenyon to make +flanking forays into the fields of historic investigation +which lay so invitingly on each side of the regular +march of his college course. As he acquired more +information and confidence, these forays became more +extensive and profitable. It was then the transition +period from the shallow though graceful pages of +Gillies, Rollin, Russel, and Tytler, and the rabbinical +agglomerations of Shuckford and Prideaux to the +modern school of free, profound, and laborious investigation, +which has reared immortal monuments to its +memory in the works of Hallam, Macaulay, Grote, +Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Niebuhr, Bunsen, Schlosser, +Thiers, and their fellows. But of the last-named none +except Niebuhr's History of Rome and Hallam's Middle +Ages were accessible to him in the backwoods of Ohio. +Cousin's Course of the History of Modern Philosophy +was just glittering in the horizon, and Gibbon shone +alone as the morning star of the day of historic research, +which he had heralded so long. The French Revolution +he had seen only as presented in Burke's brilliant +vituperation and Scott's Tory diatribe. A republican +picture of the great republican revolution, the fountain +of all that is now tolerable in Europe, had not then +been presented on any authentic and comprehensive +page.</p> + +<p>Not only these, but all historical works of value +which the English, French, and German languages can +furnish, with an immense amount of other intellectual +pabulum, were eagerly gathered, consumed with voracious +appetite, and thoroughly digested. Supplied at +last with the required means, he braced himself for a +systematic curriculum of law, and pursued it with +marked constancy and success. While at the university +he also took up the German and French languages +and mastered them, and he perfected his scholarship in +Latin and Greek. Until his death he read all these +languages with great facility and accuracy, and he +always kept his Greek Testament lying on his table for +easy reference.</p> + +<p>After a thorough course at the university, Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> +entered upon the practice of the law in Alexandria, +Virginia. He began his profession without much to +cheer him; but he was not the man to abandon a pursuit +for lack of courage. His ability and industry +attracted attention, and before long he had acquired a +respectable practice, which thenceforth protected him +from all annoyances of a pecuniary nature. He toiled +with unwearied assiduity, never appearing in the trial +of a cause without the most elaborate and exhaustive +preparation, and soon became known to his professional +brethren as a valuable ally and a formidable foe. +His natural aptitude for public affairs made itself +manifest in due time, and some articles which he +prepared on municipal and State politics gave him +great reputation. He also published a series of newspaper +essays, wherein he dared to question the divinity +of slavery; and these, though at the time thought to be +not beyond the limits of free discussion, were cited +against him long after as evidence that he was a heretic +in pro-slavery Virginia and Maryland.</p> + +<p>On the 30th of October, 1845, he married Miss Constance +T. Gardiner, daughter of William C. Gardiner, +Esq., a most accomplished and charming young lady, as +beautiful and as fragile as a flower. She lived to +gladden his heart for but a few years, and then,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Like a lily drooping,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She bowed her head and died."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In 1850 he came to Baltimore, and immediately a +high position, professional, social, and political, was +awarded him. His forensic efforts at once commanded +attention and enforced respect. The young men of +most ability and promise gathered about him, and made +him the centre of their chosen circle. He became a +prominent member of the whig party, and was everywhere +known as the brilliant orator and successful controvertist +of the Scott campaign of 1852. The whig +party, worn out by its many gallant but unsuccessful +battles, was ultimately gathered to its fathers, and Mr. +<span class="smcap">Davis</span> led off in the American movement. He was +elected successively to the thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth, and +thirty-sixth Congresses by the American party from +the fourth district of Maryland. He supported with +great ability and zeal Mr. Fillmore for the Presidency +in 1856, and in 1860 accepted John Bell as the candidate +of his party, though he clearly divined and plainly +announced that the great battle was really between +Abraham Lincoln, as the representative of the national +sentiment on the one hand, and secession and disunion, +in all their shades and phases, on the other. To his +seat in the thirty-eighth Congress he was elected by +the Unconditional Union party.</p> + +<p>Since the adjournment of the thirty-eighth Congress +he has been profoundly concerned in the momentous +public questions now pressing for adjustment, and he +did not fail on several fitting occasions to give his views +at length to the public. Nevertheless, he frequently +alluded to his earnest desire to retreat for awhile from +the perplexing annoyances of public life. He had +determined upon a long visit to Europe in the coming +spring, and had almost concluded the purchase of a +delightful country-seat, where he hoped to recruit his +weary brain for years to come from the exhaustless +riches of nature. When the thirty-ninth Congress +met, and he read of his old companions in the work of +legislation again gathering in their halls and committee-rooms, +I think, for at least a day or two, he felt a +longing to be among them. During the second week +of the session he again entered this hall, but only +as a spectator. The greeting he received—so general, +spontaneous, and cordial—from gentlemen on both sides +of the House, touched his heart most sensibly. The +crowd that gathered about him was go great that the +party was obliged to retire to one of the larger ante-rooms +for fear of interrupting the public business. A +delightful interview among old friends was the reward. +He was charmed with his reception, and mentioned it +to me with intense satisfaction. Little did you, gentlemen, +then think that between you and a beloved friend +the curtain that shrouds eternity was so soon to be +interposed. His sickness was of about a week's duration. +Until the morning of the day preceding his +death, his friends never doubted his recovery. Later +in the day very unfavorable symptoms appeared, and all +then realized his danger. In the evening his wife +spoke to him of a visit, for one day, which he had +projected, to his old friend, Mrs. S. F. Du Pont, when +he replied, in the last words he ever uttered, "It shows +the folly of making plans even for a day." He continued +to fail rapidly in strength until two o'clock on +the afternoon of Saturday, the 30th of December, when +<span class="smcap">Henry Winter Davis</span>, in the forty-ninth year of his +age, appeared before his God. His death confirmed +the opinion of Sir Thomas Browne, who declared, +"Marshaling all the horrors of death, and contemplating +the extremities thereof, I find not anything therein able +to daunt the <i>courage</i> of a <i>man</i>, much less a <i>well-resolved +Christian</i>." He passed away so quietly that no one +knew the moment of his departure. His was—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"A death, life sleep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A gentle wafting to immortal life."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> left a widow, Mrs. Nancy Davis, a daughter +of John B. Morris, Esq., of Baltimore, and two little +girls, who were the idols of his heart. He was married +a second time on the 26th of January, 1857. His +nearest surviving collateral relation is the Hon. David +Davis, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the +United States, who is his only cousin-german. To all +these afflicted hearts may God be most gracious.</p> + +<p>Thus has the country lost one of the most able, +eloquent, and fearless of its defenders. Called from +this life at an age when most men are just beginning to +command the respect and confidence of their fellows, +he has left, nevertheless, a fame as wide as our vast +country. He died nineteen years younger than Washington +and eight years younger than Lincoln. At forty-eight +years of age Washington had not seen the glories +of Yorktown even in a vision, nor had Lincoln dreamed +of the presidential chair; and if they had died at that +age they would have been comparatively unknown in +history. Doubtless God would have raised up other +leaders, if they had been wanting, to conduct the great +American column, which He has chosen to be the bodyguard +of human rights and hopes, onward among the +nations and the centuries; but in that event the 12th +and 22d days of February would not be, as they now +are, held sacred in our calendar.</p> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> had gathered into his house the literary +treasures of four languages, and had reveled in spirit +with the wise men of the ages. He had conned his +books as jealously as a miner peering for gold, and had +not left a panful of earth unwashed. He had collected +the purest ore of truth and the richest gems of thought, +until he was able to crown himself with knowledge. +Blessed with a felicitous power of analysis and a prodigious +memory, he ransacked history, ancient and +modern, sacred and profane; science, pure, empirical, +and metaphysical; the arts, mechanical and liberal; the +professions, law, divinity, and medicine; poetry and the +miscellanies of literature; and in all these great departments +of human lore he moved as easily as most men +do in their particular province. His habit was not only +to read but to reread the best of his books frequently, +and he was continually supplying himself with better +editions of his favorites. In current, playful conversation +with friends he quoted right and left, in brief and at +length, from the classics, ancient and modern, and from +the drama, tragic and comic. In his speeches, on the +contrary, he quoted but little, and only when he seemed +to run upon a thought already expressed by some one +else with singular force and appositeness. He was the +best scholar I ever met for his years and active life, and +was surpassed by very few, excepting mere book-worms. +He has for many years been engaged in collecting +extracts from newspapers, containing the leading facts +and public documents of the day; but he never commonplaced +from books. His thesaurus was his head.</p> + +<p>I have but little personal knowledge of Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> as a +lawyer. It was never my good fortune to be associated +with him in the trial of a cause; nor have I ever been +present when he was so engaged. But at the time of +his death he filled a high position at the bar, and was +chosen to lead against the most distinguished of his +brethren. On public and constitutional questions, as +distinguished from those involving only private rights, +he was a host, and in the argument of the cases which +grew out of the adoption of the new constitution of +Maryland he won golden laurels, and drew extraordinary +encomiums even from his opponents in that angry +litigation. He was thoroughly read in the decisions of +the federal courts, and especially in those declaring +and defining constitutional principles.</p> + +<p>Possessed of a mind of remarkable power, scope, and +activity; with an immense fund of precious information, +ready to respond to any call he might make upon it, +however sudden; wielding a system of logic formed in +the severest school, and tried by long practice; gifted +with a rare command of language and an eloquence well +nigh superhuman; and withal graced with manners the +most accomplished and refined, and a person unusually +handsome, graceful, and attractive. Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> entered +public life with almost unparalleled personal advantages. +Having boldly presented himself before the most rigorous +tribunal in the world, he proved himself worthy of its +favor and attention. He soon rose to the front rank of +debaters, and whenever he addressed the House all sides +gave him a delighted audience.</p> + +<p>I shall not attempt a review of the topics discussed +in the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth Congresses. The +day was fast coming when contests for the Speakership +and battles over appropriation bills, ay, even the fierce +struggle over Kansas, would sink into insignificance, +and Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span>, with that political prescience for which +he was always remarkable, seemed to discern the first +sign of the coming storm. The winds had been long +sown, and now the whirlwind was to be reaped. The +thirty-sixth Congress, which had opened so inauspiciously, +and which his vote had saved from becoming a +perpetuated bedlam, met for its second session on the +3d of December, 1860, with the clouds of civil war fast +settling down upon the nation. In the hope that war +might yet be averted, on the fourth day of the session, +the celebrated committee of thirty-three was raised, +with the lamented Corwin, of Ohio, as chairman, and +Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> as the member from Maryland. When the +committee reported, Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> sustained the majority +report in an able speech, in which, after urging every +argument in favor of the report, he boldly proclaimed +his own views, and the duties of his State and country. +In his speech of 7th February, 1861, he said:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I do not wish to say one word which will exasperate the already +too much inflamed state of the public mind; but I will say that the +Constitution of the United States, and the laws made in pursuance +thereof, <i>must be enforced</i>; and they who stand across the path of that +enforcement must either <i>destroy</i> the <i>power</i> of the <i>United States</i>, or +it will <i>destroy them</i>."</p></div> + +<p>For such utterances only a small part of the people +of his State was on that day prepared. Seduced by the +wish, they still believed that the Union could be preserved +by fair and mutual concessions. They were on +their knees praying for peace, ignorant that bloody war +had already girded on his sword. His language was +then deemed too harsh and unconciliatory, and hundreds, +I among the number, denounced him in unmeasured +terms. Before the expiration of three months events +had demonstrated his wisdom and our folly, and other +paragraphs from that same speech became the fighting +creed of the Union men of Maryland. He further said, +on that occasion:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"But, sir, there is one State I can speak for, and that is the State +of Maryland. Confident in the strength of this great government +to protect every interest, grateful for almost a century of unalloyed +blessings, she has fomented no agitation; she has done no act to disturb +the public peace; she has rested in the consciousness that if +there be wrong the Congress of the United States will remedy it; +and that none exists which revolution would not aggravate.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Speaker, I am here this day to speak, and I say that I do +speak, for the people of Maryland, who are loyal to the United +States; and that when my judgment is contested, I appeal to the +people for its accuracy, and I am ready to maintain it before them.</p> + +<p>"In Maryland we are dull, and cannot comprehend the right of +secession. We do not recognize the right to make a revolution by +a vote. We do not recognize the right of Maryland to repeal the +Constitution of the United States, and if any convention there, called +by whatever authority, under whatever auspices, undertake to inaugurate +revolution in Maryland, their authority will be resisted and +defied in arms on the soil of Maryland, in the name and by the +authority of the Constitution of the United States."</p></div> + +<p>In January, 1861, the ensign of the Republic, while +covering a mission of mercy, was fired on by traitors. +In February Jefferson Davis said, at Stevenson, Alabama, +"We will carry war where it is easy to advance, +where food for the sword and torch await our armies in +the densely populated cities." In March the thirty-sixth +Congress, after vainly passing conciliatory resolutions +by the score, among other things recommending +the repeal of all personal liberty bills, declaring that +there was no authority outside of the States where +slavery was recognized to interfere with slaves or slavery +therein, and proposing by two-thirds votes of both houses +an amendment of the Constitution prohibiting any future +amendment giving Congress power over slavery in the +States, adjourned amid general terror and distress.</p> + +<p>Abraham Lincoln, having passed through the midst +of his enemies, appeared at Washington in due time +and delivered his inaugural, closing with these memorable +words:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in +mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will +not assail you.</p> + +<p>"You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. +You can have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, +while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and +defend' it.</p> + +<p>"I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must +not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not +break, our bonds of affection.</p> + +<p>"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield +and patriot grave to every living hearth and hearth-stone all over +this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again +touched, as surely as they will be, by the better angels of our nature."</p></div> + +<p>Words which, if human hearts do not harden into +stone, through the long ages yet to come,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The deep damnation of his taking off."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The appeal was spurned; and, in the face of its almost +godlike gentleness, they who already gloried in +their anticipated saturnalia of blood inhumanly and +falsely stigmatized it as a declaration of war. The long-patient +North, slow to anger, in its agony still cried, +"My brother; oh, my brother!" It remained for that +final, ineradicable infamy of Sumter to arouse the nation +to arms! At last, to murder at one blow the hopes +we had nursed so tenderly, they impiously dragged in +the dust the glorious symbol of our national life and +majesty, heaping dishonor upon it, and, like the sneering +devil at the crucifixion, crying out, "Come and deliver +thyself!" and then no man, with the heart of a man, +who loved his country and feared his God, dared longer +delay to prepare for that great struggle which was destined +to rock the earth.</p> + +<p>Poor Maryland! cursed with slavery, doubly cursed +with traitors! Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> had said that Maryland was +loyal to the United States, and had pledged himself to +maintain that position before the people. The time +soon came for him to redeem his pledge. On the morning +of the 15th of April the President issued his proclamation +calling a special session of Congress, which +made an extra election necessary in Maryland. Before +the sun of that day had gone down, this card was promulgated:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>To the voters of the fourth congressional district of Maryland:</i></p> + +<p>I hereby announce myself as a candidate for the House of Representatives +of the 37th Congress of the United States of America, +upon the basis of the <i>unconditional maintenance of the Union</i>.</p> + +<p>Should my fellow-citizens of <i>like views</i> manifest their preference +for a different candidate on <i>that basis</i>, it is not my purpose to embarrass +them.</p> + +<p class="right">H. WINTER DAVIS.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">April</span> 15, 1861.</p> +</div> + +<p>But dark days were coming for Baltimore. A mob, +systematically organized in complicity with the rebels +at Richmond and Harper's Ferry, seized and kept in +subjection an unsuspecting and unarmed population from +the 19th to the 24th of April. For six days murder +and treason held joint sway; and at the conclusion of +their tragedy of horrid barbarities they gave the farce +of holding an election for members of the house of +delegates.</p> + +<p>To show the spirit that moved Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> under +this ordeal, I cite from his letter, written on the 28th, +to Hon. William H. Seward, the following:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have been trying to collect the persons appointed scattered by +the storm, and to compel them to take their offices or to decline.</p> + +<p>"I have sought men of undoubted courage and capacity for the +places vacated.</p> + +<p>"We must show the secessionists that we are not frightened, but +are resolved to maintain the government in the exercise of all its +functions in Maryland.</p> + +<p>"We have organized a guard, who will accompany the officers and +hold the public buildings against all the secessionists in Maryland.</p> + +<p>"A great reaction has set in. If we <i>now</i> act promptly the day is +ours and the State is safe."</p></div> + +<p>These matters being adjusted, he immediately took +the field for Congress on his platform against Mr. Henry +May, conservative Union, and in the face of an opposition +which few men have dared to encounter, he carried +on, unremittingly from that time until the election on +the 13th of June, the most brilliant campaign against +open traitors, doubters, and dodgers, that unrivalled +eloquence, courage, and activity could achieve. Everywhere, +day and night, in sunshine and storm, in the +market-houses, at the street corners, and in the public +halls, his voice rang out clear, loud, and defiant for the +"unconditional maintenance" of the Union. He was +defeated, but he sanctified the name of <i>unconditional +union</i> in the vocabulary of every true Marylander. He +gathered but 6,000 votes out of 14,000, yet the result +was a triumph which gave him the real fruits of victory; +and he exclaimed to a friend, with laudable pride, +"With six thousand of the workingmen of Baltimore +on my side, won in such a contest, I defy them to take +the State out of the Union." Though not elected, he +never ceased his efforts. With us it was a struggle for +homes, hearths, and lives. He said at Brooklyn:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"You see the conflagration from a distance; it blisters me at my +side. You can survive the integrity of the nation; we in Maryland +would live on the side of a gulf, perpetually tending to plunge into +its depths. It is for us life and liberty; it is for you greatness, +strength, and prosperity."</p></div> + +<p>Nothing appalled him; nothing deterred him. He +said, at Baltimore, in 1861:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The War Department has been taught by the misfortune at Bull +Run, which has broken no power nor any spirit, which bowed no +State nor made any heart falter, which was felt as a humiliation that +has brought forth wisdom."</p></div> + +<p>He also said, speaking of the rebels, and foretelling +his own fate, if they succeeded in Maryland:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"They have inaugurated an era of confiscations, proscriptions, +and exiles. Read their acts of greedy confiscation, their law of +proscriptions by the thousands. Behold the flying exiles from the +unfriendly soil of Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri."</p></div> + +<p>And so he worked on, never abating one jot of his +uncompromising devotion to the Union, like a second +Peter the Hermit, preaching a cause, as he believed, +truly represented by insignia as sacred as the Cross, and +for which no sacrifice, not even death, was too great.</p> + +<p>But his crowning glory was his leadership of the +emancipation movement. The rebels, notwithstanding +"My Maryland's" bloody welcome at South Mountain +and Antietam, claimed that she must belong to their +confederacy because of the homogeneousness of her +institutions. They contended that the fetters of slavery +formed a chain that stretched across the Potomac, and +held in bondage not only 87,000 slaves, but 600,000 +white people also. Their constant theme was "the deliverance" +of Maryland. We resolved to break that last +tie, and to take position unalterably on the side of the +Union and freedom, and thus to deal the final blow to +the cause and support of rebellion. We organized our +little band, almost ridiculous from its want of numbers, +early in 1863. A Sibley tent would have held our +whole army. Our enemies laughed us to scorn, and +the politicians would not accept our help on any terms, +but denied us as earnestly as Peter denied his Lord. +Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> was our acknowledged leader, and it was in +the heat and fury of the contest which followed that +our hearts were welded into permanent friendship. He +was the platform maker, and he announced it in a few +lines:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A hearty support of the entire policy of the national administration, +including immediate emancipation by constitutional means."</p></div> + +<p>It was very short, but it covered all the ground. +The campaign opened by the publication of an address, +written by Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span>, to the people of Maryland, which, +I venture to say, is unsurpassed by any state paper published +in this age of able state papers for the warmth +and vigor of its diction, and the lucidity and conclusiveness +of its argumentation. It is a pamphlet of twenty +pages, glowing throughout with the unmistakable marks +of his genius and patriotism, and closing with these +words of stirring cheer:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"We do not doubt the result, and expect, freed from the trammels +which now bind her, to see Maryland, at no distant day, rapidly +advancing in a course of unexampled prosperity with her sister <i>free</i> +States of the <i>undivided</i> and <i>indivisible</i> Republic."</p></div> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> was ubiquitous. He was the life and soul +of the whole contest. He arranged the order of battle, +dictated the correspondence, wrote the important articles +for the newspapers, and addressed all the concerted +meetings. In short, neither his voice nor his pen rested +in all the time of our travail. He would have no compromise; +but rejected all overtures of the enemy short +of unconditional surrender. On the Eastern Shore he +spoke with irresistible power at Elkton, Easton, Salisbury, +and Snow Hill, at each of the three last-named +towns with a crowd of wondering "American citizens of +African descent" listening to him from afar, and looking +upon him as if they believed him to be the seraph +Abdiel. His last appointment, in extreme southern +Maryland, he filled on Friday, after which, bidding me a +cordial God-speed, he descended from the stand, sprang +into an open wagon awaiting him, travelled eighty miles +through a raw night-air, reached Cambridge by daylight, +and then crossed the Chesapeake, sixty miles, in time +to close the campaign with one of his ringing speeches +in Monument square, Baltimore, on Saturday night. In +this, our first contest, we were completely victorious.</p> + +<p>But we had yet a weary way before us. The legislature +had then to pass a law calling a convention. That +law had to be approved by a majority of the people. +Members of the convention had then to be elected in +all parts of the State, and the Constitution which they +adopted had to be carried by a majority of the popular +vote. He allowed himself no reprieve from labor until +all this had been accomplished. And when the rest of +us, worn out by incessant toil, gladly sought rest, he +went before the court of appeals to maintain everything +that had been done against all comers, and did so +triumphantly.</p> + +<p>Let free Maryland never forget the debt of eternal +gratitude she owes to <span class="smcap">Henry Winter Davis</span>.</p> + +<p>If oratory means the power of presenting thoughts +by public and sustained speech to an audience in the +manner best adapted to win a favorable decision of the +question at issue, then Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> assuredly occupied +the highest position as an orator. He always held his +hearers in rapt attention until he closed, and then they +lingered about to discuss with one another what they +had heard. I have seen a promiscuous assembly, made +up of friends and opponents, remain exposed to a beating +rain for two hours rather than forego hearing him. +Those who had heard him most frequently were always +ready to make the greatest effort to hear him again. +Even his bitterest enemies have been known to stand +shivering on the street corners for a whole evening, +charmed by his marvelous tongue. His stump efforts +never fell below his high standard. He never condescended +to a mere attempt to amuse. He always +spoke to instruct, to convince, and to persuade through +the higher and better avenues to favor. I never heard +him deliver a speech that was not worthy of being +printed and preserved. As a stump orator he was +unapproachable, in my estimation, and I say that with +a clear recollection of having heard, when a boy, that +wonder of Yankee birth and southern development, S. +S. Prentiss.</p> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis's</span> ripe scholarship promptly tendered to his +thought the happiest illustrations and the most appropriate +forms of expression. His brain had become +a teeming cornucopia, whence flowed in exhaustless +profusion the most beautiful flowers and the most substantial +fruits; and yet he never indulged in excessive +ornamentation. His taste was almost austerely chaste. +His style was perspicuous, energetic, concise, and withal +highly elegant. He never loaded his sentences with +meretricious finery, or high-sounding, supernumerary +words. When he did use the jewelry of rhetoric, he +would quietly set a metaphor in his page or throw a +comparison into his speech which would serve to light +up with startling distinctness the colossal proportions +of his argument. Of humor he had none; but his wit +and sarcasm at times would glitter like the brandished +cimeter of Saladin, and, descending, would cut as keenly. +The pathetic he never attempted; but when angered by +a malicious assault his invective was consuming, and his +epithets would wound like pellets of lead. Although +gallant to the graces of expression, he always compelled +his rhetoric to act as handmaid to his dialectics.</p> + +<p>Style may sometimes be an exotic; but when it is, it +is sure to partake more and more, as years increase, of +the peculiarities of the soil wherein it is nurtured. But +the style of Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> was indigenous and strongly +marked by his individuality. Although he doubtless +admired, and perhaps imitated, the condensation and +dignity of Gibbon, yet it is certain that he carefully +avoided the monotonous stateliness and the elaborate +and ostentatious art of that most erudite historian. I +look in vain for his model in the skeptical Gibbon, the +cynical Bolingbroke, or the gorgeous Burke. These +were all to him intellectual giants; but giants of false +belief and practice. Not even from Tacitus, upon whom +he looked with the greatest favor, could he have acquired +his burning and impressive diction.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henry Winter Davis</span> was a man of faith, and +believed in Christ and his fellow-man. His heart and +mind were both nourished into their full dimensions +under the fostering influences of our free institutions; +so that, being reared a freeman, he thought and spake +as became a freeman. No other land could have produced +such dauntless courage and such heroic devotion +to honest conviction in a public man; and even our land +has produced but few men of his stamp and ability. +His implicit faith in God's eternal justice, and his grand +moral courage, imparted to him his proselyting zeal, and +gave him that amazing, kindling power which enabled +him to light the fires of enthusiasm wherever he touched +the public mind.</p> + +<p>To show his power in extemporaneous debate, as +well as his determined patriotism, I will introduce a +passage from his speech of April 11, 1864, delivered in +the House of Representatives. You will remember +that the end of the rebellion had not then appeared. +Grant, with his invincible legions, had not started to execute +that greatest military movement of modern times, +by which, after months of bloody persistence, hurling +themselves continually against what seemed the frowning +front of destiny, they finally drove the enemy from his +strongholds, made Fortune herself captive, and, binding +her to their standards, held her there until the surrender +of every rebel in arms closed the war amid the exultant +plaudits of men and angels. Our hopes had not then +grown into victory, and we looked forward anxiously to +the terrible march from the Rappahannock to Richmond. +Thinking that perhaps our army stood appalled +before the great duty required of it, and that the people +might be diverted from their purpose to crush the +rebellion when they saw that it could only be accomplished +at the cost of an ocean of human blood, a call +was made on the floor of the American Congress for a +recognition of the southern confederacy. Speaking for +the nation, Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis</span> said:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"But, Mr. Speaker, if it be said that a time may come when the +question of recognizing the southern confederacy will have to be +answered, I admit it. * * * * When the people, exhausted +by taxation, weary of sacrifices, drained of blood, betrayed by their +rulers, deluded by demagogues into believing that peace is the way +to union, and submission the path to victory, shall throw down their +arms before the advancing foe; when vast chasms across every +State shall make it apparent to every eye, when too late to remedy +it, that division from the south is anarchy at the north, and that +peace without union is the end of the Republic; <i>then</i> the independence +of the south will be an accomplished fact, and gentlemen may, +without treason to the dead Republic, rise in this migratory house, +wherever it may then be in America, and declare themselves for +recognizing their masters at the south rather than exterminating +them. Until that day, in the name of the American nation; in the +name of every house in the land where there is one dead for the holy +cause; in the name of those who stand before us in the ranks of +battle; in the name of the liberty our ancestors have confided to us, +I devote to eternal execration the name of him who shall propose to +destroy this blessed land rather than its enemies.</p> + +<p>"But until that time arrive it is the judgment of the American +people there shall be no compromise; that ruin to ourselves or ruin +to the southern rebels are the only alternatives. It is only by resolutions +of this kind that nations can rise above great dangers and +overcome them in crises like this. It was only by turning France +into a camp, resolved that Europe might exterminate but should not +subjugate her, that France is the leading empire of Europe to-day. +It is by such a resolve that the American people, coercing a reluctant +government to draw the sword and stake the national existence on +the integrity of the Republic, are now anything but the fragments of +a nation before the world, the scorn and hiss of every petty tyrant. +It is because the people of the United States, rising to the height of +the occasion, dedicated this generation to the sword, and pouring out +the blood of their children as of no account, and vowing before high +Heaven that there should be no end to this conflict but ruin absolute +or absolute triumph, that we now are what we are; that the banner +of the Republic, still pointing onward, floats proudly in the face of +the enemy; that vast regions are reduced to obedience to the laws, +and that a great host in armed array now presses with steady step +into the dark regions of the rebellion. It is only by the earnest and +abiding resolution of the people that, whatever shall be our fate, it +shall be grand as the American nation, worthy of that Republic which +first trod the path of empire and made no peace but under the banners +of victory, that the American people will survive in history. And +that will save us. We shall succeed, and not fail. I have an abiding +confidence in the firmness, the patience, the endurance of the American +people; and, having vowed to stand in history on the great +resolve to accept of nothing but victory or ruin, victory is ours. +And if with such heroic resolve we fall, we fall with honor, and +transmit the name of liberty, committed to our keeping, untarnished, +to go down to future generations. The historian of our decline and +fall, contemplating the ruins of the last great Republic, and drawing +from its fate lessons of wisdom on the waywardness of men, shall +drop a tear as he records with sorrow the vain heroism of that people +who dedicated and sacrificed themselves to the cause of freedom, and +by their example will keep alive her worship in the hearts of men +till happier generations shall learn to walk in her paths. Yes, sir, if +we must fall, let our last hours be stained by no weakness. If we +must fall, let us stand amid the crash of the falling Republic and be +buried in its ruins, so that history may take note that men lived in +the middle of the nineteenth century worthy of a better fate, but +chastised by God for the sins of their forefathers. Let the ruins of +the Republic remain to testify to the latest generations our greatness +and our heroism. And let Liberty, crownless and childless, sit upon +these ruins, crying aloud in a sad wail to the nations of the world, +'I nursed and brought up children and they have rebelled against +me.'"</p></div> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Davis's</span> most striking characteristics were his devotion +to principle and his indomitable courage. There +never was a moment when he could be truthfully charged +with trimming or insincerity. His views were always +clearly avowed and fearlessly maintained. He hated +slavery, and he did not attempt to conceal it. He +remembered the lessons of his youth, and his heart +rebelled against the injustice of the system. His antipathy +was deeply grounded in his convictions, and he +could not be dissuaded, nor frightened, nor driven from +expressing it.</p> + +<p>He was not a great captain, nor a mighty ruler; he +was only one of the people, but, nevertheless, a hero. +Born under the flag of a nation which claimed for its +cardinal principle of government, that all men are +created free, yet held in abject slavery four millions of +human beings; which erected altars to the living God, +yet denied to creatures, formed in the image of God +and charged with the custody of immortal souls, the +common rights of humanity; he declared that the +hateful inconsistency should cease to defile the prayers +of Christians and stultify the advocates of freedom. +No dreamer was he, no mere theorist, but a worker, +and a strong one, who did well the work committed to +him. He entered upon his self-imposed task when +surrounded by slaves and slave-owners. He stood face +to face with the iniquitous superstition, and to their +teeth defied its worshipers. To make proselytes he +had to conquer prejudices, correct traditions, elevate +duty above interest, and induce men who had been the +propagandists of slavery to become its destroyers. +Think you his work was easy? Count the long years +of his unequal strife; gather from the winds, which +scattered them, the curses of his foes; suffer under all +the annoyances and insults which malice and falsehood +can invent, and you will then understand how much of +heart and hope, of courage and self-relying zeal, were +required to make him what he was, and to qualify him +to do what he did. And what did he? When the +rough hand of war had stripped off the pretexts which +enveloped the rebellion, and it became evident that +slavery had struck at the life of the Republic, unmindful +of consequences to himself, he, among the first, +arraigned the real traitor and demanded the penalty of +death. The denunciations that fell upon him like a +cloud wrapped him in a mantle of honor, and more +truthfully than the great Roman orator he could have +exclaimed, "<i>Ego hoc animo semperfui, ut invidiam +virtute partam, gloriam non invidiam putarem</i>."</p> + +<p>This man, so stern and inflexible in the execution of +a purpose, so rigorous in his demands of other men in +behalf of a principle, so indifferent to preferment and +all base objects of pursuit, had a monitor to whom he +always gave an open ear and a prompt assent. It was +no demon like that which attended Socrates, no witch +like that invoked by Saul, no fiend like that to which +Faust resigned himself. A vision of light and life and +beauty flitted ever palpably before him, and wooed him +to the perpetual service of the good and true. The +memory of a pious and beloved mother permeated his +whole moral being, and kept warm within him the tenderest +affection. Hear how he wrote of her:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"My mother was a lady of graceful and simple manners, fair +complexion, blue eyes, and auburn hair, with a rich and exquisite +voice, that still thrills my memory with the echo of its vanished +music. She was highly educated for her day, when Annapolis was +the focus of intellect and fashion for Maryland, and its fruits shone +through her conversation, and colored and completed her natural +eloquence, which my father used to say would have made her an +orator, if it had not been thrown away on a woman. She was the +incarnation of all that is Christian in life and hope, in charity and +thought, ready for every good work, herself the example of all she +taught."</p></div> + +<p>It was the force of her precept and example that +formed the man, and supplied him with his shield and +buckler. His private life was spotless. His habits +were regular and abstemious, and his practice in close +conformity with the Episcopal church, of which he was +a member. He invariably attended divine service on +Sunday, and confined himself for the remainder of the +day to a course of religious reading. If from his father +he drew a courage and a fierce determination before +which his enemies fled in confusion, from his mother +he inherited those milder qualities that won for him +friends as true and devoted as man ever possessed. +Some have said he was hard and dictatorial. They +had seen him only when a high resolve had fired his +breast, and when the gleam of battle had lighted his +countenance. His friends saw deeper, and knew that +beneath the exterior he assumed in his struggles with +the world there beat a heart as pure and unsullied, as +confiding and as gentle, as ever sanctified the domestic +circle, or made loved ones happy. His heart reminded +me of a spring among the hills of the Susquehanna, to +which I often resorted in my youth; around a part of +it we boys had built a stone wall to protect it from outrage, +while on the side next home we left open a path, +easily traveled by familiar feet, and leading straight to +the sweet and perennial waters within.</p> + +<p>He lived to hear the salvos that announced, after +more than two centuries of bondage, the redemption of +his native State. He lived to vote for that grand act of +enfranchisement that wiped from the escutcheon of the +nation the leprous stain of slavery, and to know that the +Constitution of the United States no longer recognized +and protected property in man. He lived to witness +the triumph of his country in its desperate struggle +with treason, and to behold all its enemies, either wanderers, +like Cain, over the earth, or suppliants for mercy +at her feet. He lived to catch the first glimpse of the +coming glory of that new era of progress that matchless +valor had won through the blood and carnage of a thousand +battle-fields. He lived, through all the storm of +war, to see, at last, America rejuvenated, rescued from +the grasp of despotism, and rise victorious, with her +garments purified and her brow radiant with the unsullied +light of liberty. He lived to greet the return +of "meek-eyed peace," and then he gently laid his head +upon her bosom, and breathed out there his noble spirit.</p> + +<p>The sword may rust in its scabbard, and so let it; +but free men, with free thought and free speech, will +wage unceasing war until truth shall be enthroned and +sit empress of the world. Would to God that he had +been spared to complete a life of three score and ten +years, for the sake of his country and posterity. When +I think of the good he would have accomplished had +he survived for twenty years, I can say, in the language +of Fisher Ames, "My heart, penetrated with the remembrance +of the man, grows liquid as I speak, and I could +pour it out like water."</p> + +<p>At the portals of his tomb we may bid farewell to +the faithful Christian, in the full assurance that a blessed +life awaits him beyond the grave. Serenely and trustfully +he has passed from our sight and gone down into +the dark waters.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet anon repairs his drooping head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flames in the forehead of the morning sky."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>From this hall, where as scholar, statesman, and +orator he shone so brightly, he has disappeared forever. +Never again will he, answering to the roll-call from this +desk, respond for his country and the rights of man. +No more shall we hear his fervid eloquence in the day +of imminent peril, invoking us, who hold the mighty +power of peace and war, to dedicate ourselves, if need +be, to the sword, but to accept no end of the conflict +save that of absolute triumph for our country. He has +gone to answer the great roll-call above, where the +"brazen throat of war" is voiceless in the presence of +the Prince of Peace. Let us habitually turn to his +recorded words, and gather wisdom as from the testament +of a departed sage; and since we were witnesses +of his tireless devotion to the cause of human freedom, +let us direct that on the monument which loving hearts +and willing hands will soon erect over his remains, there +shall be deeply engraved the figure of a bursting shackle, +as the emblem of the faith in which he lived and died.</p> + +<p>For the Christian, scholar, statesman, and orator, all +good men are mourners; but what shall I say of that +grief which none can share—the grief of sincere friendship?</p> + +<p>Oh, my friend! comforted by the belief that you, +while living, deemed me worthy to be your companion, +and loaded me with the proofs of your esteem, I shall +fondly treasure, during my remaining years, the recollection +of your smile and counsel. Lost to me is the +strong arm whereon I have so often leaned; but in that +path which in time past we trod most joyfully together, +I shall continue, as God shall give me to see my duty, +with unfaltering though perhaps with unskilful steps, +right onward to the end.</p> + +<p>Admiring his brilliant intellect and varied acquirements, +his invincible courage and unswerving fortitude, +glorying in his good works and fair renown, but, more +than all, <i>loving the man</i>, I shall endeavor to assuage the +bitterness of grief by applying to him those words of +proud, though tearful, satisfaction, from which the faithful +Tacitus drew consolation for the loss of that noble +Roman whom he delighted to honor:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Quidquid ex Agricola amavimus, quidquid mirati sumus, manet +mansurumque est, in animis hominum, in æternitate temporum, fama +rerum."</p></div> + + +<p style="padding-top: 3em;"><b>Transcriber's Note</b></p> + +<p>Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.</p> + +<p>The writer uses some archaic spelling which has been kept as printed.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oration on the Life and Character of +Henry Winter Davis, by John A. 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