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diff --git a/22084.txt b/22084.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d18e237 --- /dev/null +++ b/22084.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1549 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** 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.) + + + + + + + + + +ORATION +ON THE +LIFE AND CHARACTER +OF +HENRY WINTER DAVIS, + +BY + +HON. JOHN A. J. CRESWELL. + +Delivered in the Hall of the House of Representatives, +February 22, 1866. + +WASHINGTON: +GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. +1866. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The death of Hon. HENRY WINTER DAVIS, 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. JOHN A. J. CRESWELL, 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. + +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. HENRY WINTER DAVIS was visible through the folds of the +national banner above the Speaker's chair. As on the occasion of the +oration on President LINCOLN by Hon. GEORGE BANCROFT, the Marine band +occupied the ante-room of the reporters' gallery, and discoursed +appropriate music. + +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. EDWARD MCPHERSON, Clerk of +the House. After the reading of the Declaration, followed by the playing +of a dirge by the band, Hon. SCHUYLER COLFAX, Speaker of the House of +Representatives, introduced the orator of the day, Hon. J. A. J. +CRESWELL. + + + + +REMARKS + +OF + +HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, + +SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + + +Hon. SCHUYLER COLFAX, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said: + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: The duty has been devolved upon me of introducing +to you the friend and fellow-member, here, of HENRY WINTER DAVIS, and I +shall detain you but a moment from his address, to which you will listen +with saddened interest. + +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. J. A. J. CRESWELL, his colleague in the thirty-eighth +Congress, and now Senator from the State of Maryland. + + + + +ORATION + +OF + +HON. JOHN A. J. CRESWELL. + + +MY COUNTRYMEN: 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 HENRY WINTER DAVIS, 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. + +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 HENRY WINTER DAVIS 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. + +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. + +The subject of this address was born on the 16th of August, 1817. + +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 +_extempore_ 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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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: + + "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." + +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. + +Speaking of his feelings at the end of his college life, he sadly said: + + "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." + +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. + +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. + +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 _not consent +to the sale_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +After a thorough course at the university, Mr. DAVIS 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. + +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, + + "Like a lily drooping, + She bowed her head and died." + +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. DAVIS 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. + +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 HENRY WINTER DAVIS, 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 _courage_ of a _man_, much +less a _well-resolved Christian_." He passed away so quietly that no one +knew the moment of his departure. His was-- + + "A death, life sleep; + A gentle wafting to immortal life." + +Mr. DAVIS 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. + +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. + +Mr. DAVIS 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. + +I have but little personal knowledge of Mr. DAVIS 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. + +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. DAVIS 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. + +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. DAVIS, 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. DAVIS as the member from Maryland. When the committee reported, +Mr. DAVIS 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: + + "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, _must be enforced_; and they who stand across the path of + that enforcement must either _destroy_ the _power_ of the _United + States_, or it will _destroy them_." + +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: + + "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. + + "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. + + "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." + +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. + +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: + + "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, + is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail + you. + + "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. + + "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. + + "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." + +Words which, if human hearts do not harden into stone, through the long +ages yet to come, + + "Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against + The deep damnation of his taking off." + +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. + +Poor Maryland! cursed with slavery, doubly cursed with traitors! Mr. +DAVIS 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: + + _To the voters of the fourth congressional district of Maryland:_ + + 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 _unconditional maintenance of the + Union_. + + Should my fellow-citizens of _like views_ manifest their preference + for a different candidate on _that basis_, it is not my purpose to + embarrass them. + + H. WINTER DAVIS. + APRIL 15, 1861. + +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. + +To show the spirit that moved Mr. DAVIS under this ordeal, I cite from +his letter, written on the 28th, to Hon. William H. Seward, the +following: + + "I have been trying to collect the persons appointed scattered by + the storm, and to compel them to take their offices or to decline. + + "I have sought men of undoubted courage and capacity for the places + vacated. + + "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. + + "We have organized a guard, who will accompany the officers and + hold the public buildings against all the secessionists in + Maryland. + + "A great reaction has set in. If we _now_ act promptly the day is + ours and the State is safe." + +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 _unconditional +union_ 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: + + "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." + +Nothing appalled him; nothing deterred him. He said, at Baltimore, in +1861: + + "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." + +He also said, speaking of the rebels, and foretelling his own fate, if +they succeeded in Maryland: + + "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." + +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. + +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. DAVIS 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: + + "A hearty support of the entire policy of the national + administration, including immediate emancipation by constitutional + means." + +It was very short, but it covered all the ground. The campaign opened +by the publication of an address, written by Mr. DAVIS, 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: + + "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 + _free_ States of the _undivided_ and _indivisible_ Republic." + +Mr. DAVIS 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. + +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. + +Let free Maryland never forget the debt of eternal gratitude she owes to +HENRY WINTER DAVIS. + +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. DAVIS 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. + +Mr. DAVIS'S 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. + +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. DAVIS 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. + +HENRY WINTER DAVIS 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. + +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. DAVIS said: + + "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; _then_ 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. + + "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.'" + +Mr. DAVIS'S 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. + +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, "_Ego hoc animo semperfui, ut invidiam virtute partam, +gloriam non invidiam putarem_." + +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: + + "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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + + "So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, + And yet anon repairs his drooping head, + And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore + Flames in the forehead of the morning sky." + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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, _loving the man_, 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: + + "Quidquid ex Agricola amavimus, quidquid mirati sumus, manet + mansurumque est, in animis hominum, in aeternitate temporum, fama + rerum." + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. + +The writer uses some archaic spelling which has been kept as printed. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oration on the Life and Character of +Henry Winter Davis, by John A. 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