.; 
 
 University of California. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
<V o? 
 
 T \*f T vV 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 OF 
 
 GEORGE S. HOUSTON, 
 
 (A SENATOR FEOM ALABAMA), 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 IXTEC CONGHRESS, SECOND SKSSIOJST, 
 FEBRUARY 26 AND MARCH 3, 1880, 
 
 TKE PROCEEDINGS CONNECTED WITH THE FUNERAL 
 OF THE DECEASED. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 1880. 
 
JOINT RESOLUTION to print the eulogies delivered in the Senate and House of Repre 
 sentatives upon the late George S. Houston, a Senator from the State of Alabama. 
 
 Resolved by the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the United States of 
 America in Congress assembled, That twelve thousand copies of the proceed 
 ings connected with the funeral of and the eulogies delivered in the Senate 
 and House of Representatives, upon the late GEORGE S. HOUSTON, beprinted, 
 eight thousand for the use of the House of Representatives and four thou 
 sand for the use of the Senate, and that the sum of five hundred dollars is 
 hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appro 
 priated, to pay for the expense of procuring a portrait of the late Mr. HOUS 
 TON, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 Approved, April 29, 1880. 
 
^^.-? 
 ^ OP TUB 
 
 [UNIVERSITY 
 POJ$V 
 
 ANNtrTOOEMI 
 
 DEATH OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON, 
 
 A SENATOR FROM ALABAMA. 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1880. 
 
 The Chaplain, Eev. J. J. BULLOCK, D. D., offered the following 
 
 PRAYER : 
 
 Almighty and ever-living God, we bless and adore Thee as 
 our creator, our preserver, and our most bountiful benefactor. 
 We rejoice that Thou art on the throne, and that Thy king 
 dom ruleth over all. We thank Thee, O God, for Thy manifold 
 blessings to us. Especially do we thank Thee for Thy watchful 
 providence over us since last we met together in this Chamber, 
 and that we are permitted to enter upon the duties and re 
 sponsibilities of a new year under circumstances of great mercy. 
 
 O God, it hath seemed good unto Thee, in Thine inscrutable 
 providence, to remove by the hand of death another member 
 of this venerable body from the scene of his honors, his labors, 
 and his responsibilities into the future and eternal world. We 
 pray that our hearts may be deeply touched by this sad dis 
 pensation of Thy Providence, and that we may be reminded 
 of our own mortality and of the necessity of being ever pre- 
 
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE 
 
 pared for our departure, for we know not when we shall be 
 called hence. We invoke Thy especial blessing to rest upon 
 the bereaved family of the deceased Senator. Comfort them 
 in the hour of their affliction ; bind up the broken-hearted ; and 
 may this affliction be sanctified to them. 
 
 We invoke Thy blessing to rest upon our rulers, upon the 
 President, the Vice-Presideut, the Senators and Eepresenta- 
 tives in Congress, and upon all others in authority. May they 
 rule in the fear of God and for the good of our common coun 
 try. Watch over us during all our appointed time upon earth, 
 choose all our changes for us, be with us in the last sad change 
 that awaits us upon earth, and finally receive us into Thy 
 kingdom above, we ask for Christ our Eedeemer s sake. Amen. 
 
 Mr. MOBGAK Mr. PRESIDENT : I rise for the purpose of 
 making known to the Senate the death of my colleague, Hon. 
 GEORGE S. HOUSTON, of Alabama, who died on the last day of 
 the last year at his home in Athens, Alabama, in the midst of 
 his family and his friends, honored and regretted by all the peo 
 ple of that State. At some other time I shall ask the Senate to 
 consider some resolutions commemorative of the virtues of my 
 late colleague. 
 
 At this moment of time it seems to be required of me, as a 
 painful duty, that I should make some contradiction of a state 
 ment which was made public on the day of his burial, to the 
 effect that he and I were not on speaking terms a gentleman 
 for whom I had the highest personal regard, and in whose po 
 litical opinions and mine there was perfect accord upon all sub 
 jects, so far as I am aware. I had received, as I was informed 
 by his family, his most tender and kindly expressions of regard, 
 even up to almost the very hour of his death. He was a noble, 
 
DEATH OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 
 
 good man, in whose friendship I did sincerely rejoice and whose 
 respect was to me one of the greatest boons of my personal as 
 well as my political life. 
 
 Having said this much on that part of the subject, I will 
 now, Mr. President, move that the Senate adjourn. 
 
 The VICE-PRESIDENT. Before the Chair puts the ques 
 tion, he desires to State that in the recess of the Senate, assum 
 ing that his action would meet the approbation of the Senate, 
 he appointed Mr. MORGAN, Mr. EATON, Mr. ALLISON, Mr. 
 BLAIR, and Mr. COKE as a committee on the part of the Senate 
 to attend the funeral of the late Senator HOUSTON in Alabama, 
 and if his action meets the approbation of the Senate it will be 
 noted upon the Journal. The Chair hears no objection. The 
 question is, Will the Senate now adjourn? 
 
 The motion was agreed to ; and (at twelve o clock and thirty- 
 two minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned. 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 DEATH OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON, 
 
 A SENATOR FROM ALABAMA. 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE SENATE. 
 
 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1880. 
 
 Mr. MOKGAN. According to notice heretofore given, Mr. 
 President, I now ask the Senate to dispense with the regular 
 order and to devote a part of this day s session to the consider 
 ation of resolutions commemorative of our late associate in this 
 body, GEORGE SMITH HOUSTON, a Senator from Alabama, 
 who died on the 31st day of December, 1879. I ask for the 
 reading of the resolutions which I send to the desk. 
 
 The VICE-PBESIDENT. The resolutions will be read. 
 
 The Chief Clerk read as follows : 
 
 Eesolved, That the Senate has heard with regret of the death of Hon. 
 GEORGE S. HOUSTON, a Senator from the State of Alabama, and extends to 
 the family of the deceased Senator and to the people of Alabama sincere 
 condolence in their bereavement. 
 
 Eesolved, That the long public service of GEORGE S. HOUSTON has been 
 marked by fidelity to his convictions of duty, by industry and patience in 
 his labors for the public welfare, by distinguished ability in the legislative 
 councils of the United States, and by devoted and wise service to Alabama 
 as governor of that State. 
 
 Eesolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit to the family of the 
 deceased and to the governor of Alabama a copy of these resolutions, with 
 the action of the Senate thereon. 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. MORGAN ON THE 
 
 Address of Mr. MORGAN, of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT, it is the custom of the houses of Congress 
 to bring back the memory of those who die while they are in 
 this branch of the public service by resolutions and remarks 
 that reflect the opinions of the survivors as to their personal 
 and official character, and to bestow a last mark of respect 
 upon the deceased. 
 
 For other reasons, also, it is well that we sometimes pause to 
 consider what we are and whither we are traveling. It is not 
 dangerous to the country, nor is it a needless consumption of 
 time, that those who are intrusted with the great powers of gov 
 ernment are sometimes compelled, through the invasion of these 
 legislative chambers by the inevitable hand of death, to cease 
 their labors and controversies for a time, and to consider how 
 brief a period is allotted to their usefulness ; to consider how 
 it is that only for a moment they can be permitted to enjoy the 
 fruits and honors of their exertions, and how the strongest men 
 stagger under their burdens as they grow with advancing years 
 and become heavier toward the close of even a long lifetime. 
 It is upon occasions like this when a man of seventy years has 
 died, all of whose manhood was devoted to honorable public 
 service in high stations, that we appreciate the fact that those 
 labors are of little advantage to the toilers compared with that 
 which inures to posterity. It is on these occasions that we 
 realize that our public acts as law-makers will be impartially 
 scrutinized after we are dead, and after our personal influence 
 in their vindication has ceased ; and that nothing in them can 
 bring honor to our memories unless it is just and patriotic. 
 
 GEORGE SMITH HOUSTON was born in Williamson County, 
 Tennessee, of an honorable parentage j not wealthy or distin 
 guished, but highly respected for the sort of integrity and 
 
 * 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 9 
 
 strength and purity of character and modesty in asserting their 
 claims to high distinctions that constituted marked virtues 
 among the agricultural classes in the earlier years of this 
 country. 
 
 Many great and good men, who have sprung from that class 
 of society, have attained to the highest honors within the gift 
 of the American people. That influence which was exerted 
 over these great men in their childhood has constantly widened 
 and deepened with the current of their lives, and, in its matu 
 rity, has afforded to States and to the Union and the people the 
 safest and most virtuous element in American statesmanship. 
 Senator HOUSTON had attained the age of seventy years, when 
 his course was ended on the last day of the year of our Lord 
 1879. 
 
 The year closed sadly to the people of Alabama when with it 
 a life was closed that had been dutifully spent in their service 
 a life that they had so recently crowned with the highest honors 
 they could bestow upon him and when it ended a companion 
 ship that was full of comfort and benefit to them. 
 
 With the closing year he went quietly away ; and, like the 
 passing of the old year into the new, without any interval of 
 time, his life, that ended here, was at once renewed in another 
 sphere. He passed straightway " from death unto life." The 
 evening and the morning came together without an intervening 
 night, and in their union he found himself ushered into the 
 morning of eternity, as we believe, "a just man made perfect." 
 
 He came to Alabama when he was a child, and that beautiful 
 land was home to him during all his remaining days. He re 
 ceived an elementary education at an academy in Lauderdale 
 County, and entered a law office as a student. His elementary 
 law course was completed at Harrodsburgh, Kentucky, and he 
 was admitted to the bar in 1831. In 1832 he was elected to 
 
 2 H 
 
10 ADDRESS OF MR. MORGAN ON THE 
 
 represent Lauderdale County in the General Assembly of 
 Alabama. He was laborious and persistent in his legal studies, 
 and diligent and faithful in his professional engagements, so 
 that he was soon appointed, and afterward elected, to the re 
 sponsible office of circuit solicitor. 
 
 From that position he was elected to Congress in 1841. He 
 thus became generally known to the people of the State, that 
 election under the general-ticket system having been deter 
 mined by the voters of the entire State. Afterward he was 
 elected to represent a district in the House of ^Representatives 
 in 1843 and in 1845 and in 1847. In 1849 he declined election 
 and resumed the practice of law. In 1851 he was again elected 
 to Congress and continued to hold his seat by re-election, and 
 for four terms without opposition. In January, 1861, he retired 
 with his colleagues from the House of Eepresentatives, in 
 obedience to the will of the people of Alabama, as expressed in 
 their ordinance of secession from the American Union. 
 
 The severance of his relations with the American Congress 
 was to him a most painful duty. He had done all in his power 
 to avert the causes that made this step one of imperative duty 
 on his part, but he bowed with reverence to what he believed 
 was the sovereign will of the people of Alabama, and united 
 his fortunes with them " for better or for worse." 
 
 In his own opinion, freely expressed, the preservation of the 
 Union of the States was justly to be preferred to any hope of 
 escape by its destruction from the sacrifices which he could 
 then foresee as the result of its perpetuity. He was then a 
 large slaveholder, but he did not permit his conduct to be in 
 fluenced by what was the almost universal belief that a con 
 tinuance of the Union would soon result in the destruction of 
 the entire value of that description of property. His opinions 
 as to wise policy were not as strong as his affections toward his 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEOEG-E S. HOUSTON. 11 
 
 people, and he yielded his judgment to his sense of duty to his 
 State. 
 
 During the period of the war he devoted much of his time 
 and means to the alleviation of its hardships upon the sufferers 
 in the armies and at home. His sons entered the Confederate 
 army and bore themselves with gallantry in many of its fierce 
 conflicts. 
 
 In 1865 he was elected to the Senate of the United States by 
 the legislature of Alabama, but he was not admitted to his 
 seat because his was a State of the American Union that was 
 denied representation in the American Senate. 
 
 Again resuming the practice of law he worked earnestly to 
 restore his impaired fortunes, and was active in the assistance 
 of the people in the re-establishment of law and order and the 
 building up of their devastated country. His counsels were 
 wise and prudent, and his example of patient assiduity was 
 greatly encouraging to those who desired to bring social order 
 out of confusion and strife. In this he had the moral support 
 of the masses of the people who stood faithfully by him and 
 never doubted his fidelity. 
 
 I need not recite the history of that period to recall the 
 events that rendered such services so invaluable to the people 
 of Alabama. They are known and read of all men. I could 
 not now recite them without incurring the suspicion that I am 
 willing to suggest topics that are still matters of political de 
 bate, involving crimination and recrimination, at a time when 
 the proprieties of the occasion would preclude a reply. I would 
 do a wrong to the well-known sentiments of Senator HOUSTON 
 by following such a course. One of his highest qualities was a 
 manly and generous indulgence to those who honestly differed 
 with him in opinion. 
 
 I would fail, however, to render a just tribute to the dead, 
 
12 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. MORGAN ON THE 
 
 and would ignore the control which principle had over his con 
 duct, if I did not say that his guiding light in the dark period 
 of our worst distractions and sufferings in Alabama, which he 
 followed with implicit faith, and asked the people to trust with 
 confidence, was the same that had shone upon his pathway 
 during the whole of his long public life. 
 
 He believed in the honesty of the people, and felt always con 
 fident of their power to relieve the country of the gravest evils 
 by a faithful observance of the principles of constitutional gov 
 ernment that have so long distinguished the democratic party. 
 And when the people of Alabama again called him into their 
 service in 1874 as the governor of the State, he came as a Dem 
 ocrat. Eegulating his administration by a rigid observance of 
 those principles of government that he had so long cherished, 
 he, and those who were his supporters, have speedily restored 
 the State of Alabama to a condition that is hailed with grati 
 tude by the people of the State, of every class, and that should 
 excite emotions of pride in the breast of every American. 
 
 At the expiration of his first term as governor, the people 
 were ready to honor him still further by electing him a second 
 time to the Senate of the United States, but they had again 
 chosen him governor of the State, and they would not consent 
 to relieve him of that service until he had completed fully the 
 wise course of policy inaugurated during his first term. The 
 people joyfully realized the fact that their future prosperity 
 had been established on an enduring foundation, and that they 
 were much indebted to the wisdom and fidelity of Governor 
 HOUSTON for their deliverance from the worst evils. And 
 when this good and great work had been completed they sent 
 him to the Senate of the United States, where they fondly 
 hoped to enjoy the advantages of his great abilities for yet 
 many years. But death, not entirely unexpected to any man 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 13 
 
 of his age, but not less grievous on that account, has cut 
 him off. 
 
 The bitterness of this disappointment is severely felt by all 
 classes of the people of Alabama. He was known in almost 
 every household of the State, and his loss is lamented at every 
 fireside almost, from the stately mansions of the rich down to 
 the humblest cabins of the poor. 
 
 This imperfect recital of the more prominent facts that make 
 up the history of a life of three-score and ten years, is enough 
 to show that it was full of honorable usefulness. None of the 
 sixty years, from his childhood to the end of his life, was spent 
 in frivolity or dissipation. His time was all occupied with use 
 ful preparation and earnest work. His was a life of purpose, 
 whose aim was the performance of duty, and whose coveted 
 reward was honorable success. This he achieved, and his suc 
 cess was sweetened by the answer of a good conscience and 
 made joyful by the approbation of his countrymen. 
 
 His mental endowments were of a high order. In its ac 
 tion his mind was vigorous and powerful rather than beautiful 
 and splendid. He was not a genius, if there are such people. 
 He was sufficiently inventive always to find or to discern the 
 safest methods of avoiding evils, and the quickest and least 
 expensive means of escape from them. His mind was active, 
 vigilant, and intense, and was so balanced in judgment, and so 
 guarded against the influence of passionate impulses that he 
 almost infallibly came to correct conclusions. He could safely 
 trust his own convictions and he did trust them, when others 
 who reasoned elaborately were still left in doubt. This faculty 
 was far less the result of close mental discipline than of that 
 excellent organism and balance of mind whose results are so 
 well known and so greatly prized under the homely classifica 
 tion of " good common sense." 
 
14 
 
 ADDRESS OF MB. MORGAN ON THE 
 
 It was this easy and regular and correct method of his mental 
 powers in dealing with the problems that were always requiring 
 solution that enabled, him to devote so large a part of his time 
 to executive labors rather than to the study of the opinions of 
 other men. He was rich in the wisdom that was born of his 
 own thoughts, reflections, and experiences, and was not ambi 
 tious merely to be considered learned in the erudition which is 
 treasured in books. His moral sense was acute and strong. It 
 was the ruling power in his whole life. In every relation to 
 society and in every act of his public or private life he was 
 guided, controlled, and impelled by an unswerving fidelity to 
 his moral convictions. 
 
 It is not enough to say of him that he was honest, for in his 
 judgment of men he rated honesty as an indispensable element 
 in every descent character. He ascended to that higher plane 
 of character which all men love to affect but all cannot right 
 fully claim. He was a just man. He also recognized with 
 pleasure other adornments of the character of a just man, 
 such as ardent and honorable friendship, benevolence, philan 
 thropy, and a spirit of self-sacrifice for the good of others, in 
 reference to the possession of which he had a good reputation. 
 But he could not tolerate a friendship that was tainted with dis 
 honor; he would never have gratified a feeling of benevolence 
 by taking another man s money to bestow it in charities upon 
 his friends, however worthy they might be. He despised the 
 sort of sentimentalism that is ready to decorate itself with the 
 insignia of broken covenants and of rights destroyed in order 
 to illustrate its zeal for religion, or the rights of man, or any 
 cause however good in itself. He abhorred the hypocrisy 
 which drapes itself in the garments of a pretentious philan- 
 thropy, and while they drip with the blood of innocent people, 
 shed in wars really waged for power or spoils, proclaims with 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 15 
 
 insolent cant the grand benison, " On earth, peace, and good 
 will toward men." He would make no sacrifices in a cause that 
 he did not believe just, but would spend and be spent in a 
 cause be believed was worthy of his devotion. He was not 
 " generous to a fault," as the apothegm is phrased ; he was first 
 just and then generous, according to his reasonable ability. 
 He did not give alms to be seen of men, but he gave them. 
 He did not pray at the street corners, but he prayed fervently. 
 It is not appropriate perhaps to enter in the sacred circle of 
 his home, and gather there the evidences of the honest nobility 
 of his nature, from the incidents of his interior life ; but I may 
 say with propriety, as I do with confidence, that there went 
 forth from his home-life a current of principle which was pure 
 in its fountain, and infused into his public life a tone and char 
 acter that inspired his countrymen with absolute confidence in 
 his integrity as a statesman and public servant. I own to a con 
 ception of the character of a true American statesman that is 
 nearly summed up in the public life of GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 
 I do not mean to say of him that he would have been a great 
 leader in times of turbulence or war, or that he excelled in the 
 powers of debate in the halls of legislation ; but he had great 
 sagacity and forecast in the avoidance of calamitous evils. And 
 a firm conviction as to the power of the people to sustain their 
 government when the Constitution is permitted to have its just 
 influence ; and in their determination, sooner or later, to assert 
 its supremacy in government, was the sheet-anchor of his po 
 litical faith. He believed in the capacity of the people to 
 achieve every possible success in their aggregate, and in their 
 individual efforts to become prosperous and happy, if they are 
 left as far as practicable to their right of local self-government. 
 He believed in a government that governs as little as is con 
 sistent with the general welfare, and that is sensitive to the 
 
16 ADDRESS OF MR. MORGAN ON THE 
 
 least infraction of the rights and liberties of the citizen. He 
 believed in the responsibility of the legislative and executive 
 departments to the people for all their public acts, and of the 
 judges for the purity of their judgments. These convictions, 
 supported by an honest reverence for the Constitution, and 
 controlled by a spirit of self-denying restraint on the part of 
 the legislator in reference to the assumption of doubtful pow 
 ers, comprise a safe creed of American statesmanship. Senator 
 HOUSTON regulated his entire political course in conformity to 
 these principles and rules of conduct. He was among the 
 foremost and most consistent of that class of statesmen of his 
 time who kept a constant watch upon their own conduct and 
 carefully confined the measures they advocated within the 
 boundaries of a strict construction of the powers of Congress. 
 As chairman of the House Committee of Ways and Means, 
 in which distinguished place he served during several Con 
 gresses, he always carefully guarded the people against the 
 imposition of unjust and unnecessary burdens of taxation and 
 kept a close and vigilant watch over public expenditures. 
 This is not always a pleasing task when the hungry expectants 
 of public bounty are sneering in the lobbies and through the 
 press at the parsimony of Congress, or when a majority is 
 created by questionable combinations to force the passage of 
 measures that require extraordinary expenditures of the public 
 money. No man was ever more faithful and few could have 
 been more courageous or useful than my late colleague in 
 withstanding all opposition while he defended the rights of the 
 people against licentious measures. As chairman of the House 
 Committee on the Judiciary he evinced a high order of capacity 
 for solving the many delicate and involved questions that are 
 always requiring patient and careful study and exhaustive 
 research by that committee. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 
 
 17 
 
 In his course in Congress, he was earnestly supported by his 
 constituency. This support was the cheerful tribute of the 
 people to an honest representative and to a faithful, dutiful, 
 and able statesman. 
 
 It cannot be said that oue part of his congressional course 
 was more distinguished than another, or that he on occasions 
 flamed up with extraordinary exhibitions of power in debate. 
 
 It is not needful to the real merit of his reputation as a 
 statesman that this should be said. His history is a constant 
 exhibition of great powers honestly exerted and of the highest 
 duties carefully and faithfully performed. 
 
 The sturdy forest oak is not more majestic when its arms are 
 tossed wildly about in its battliugs with the storms than it is 
 when the gentlest breezes play through its leafy arbors, as it 
 shelters the earth from the rays of the sun. HOUSTON S life 
 had no startling episodes. It was all devoted to duty, and in 
 its steadfast observance he was able to render a better service 
 to his country than many have done who have employed their 
 great abilities in fomenting the agitations of partisan politics. 
 
 I must not do the people of Alabama the injustice to omit an 
 expression of their especial bereavement in the loss of my late 
 colleague as a Senator on this floor, and also of their peculiar 
 gratitude for his services as governor of that State. He was 
 here for so short a period that he had only begun to render that 
 service from which Alabama expected so much of honor and 
 advantage. He was an old man when he came to the Senate, 
 but he had been preserved in such uncommon mental vigor 
 that the people laid upon him with confidence a task that would 
 not have been a light burden in the meridian of his life. We 
 all remember with what cheerfulness he entered upon his duties 
 here, and how zealously he labored to perform them. 
 
 The Senate lost an able counselor and a faithful laborer from 
 
 3 H 
 
]8 ADDRESS OF ME. MORGAN ON THE 
 
 its body and the country lost a wise legislator and a devoted 
 son when HOUSTON died. Alabama lost a counselor and guide 
 from whose service the people had derived the most important 
 benefits. In 1874, when GEORGE S. HOUSTON was first elected 
 governor of Alabama, the people of that State were in sad need 
 of his services. On that occasion the hour and the man met. 
 A State with near a million inhabitants, possessed of immense 
 resources of wealth only in the infancy of development, at the 
 moment when its leading industry was paralyzed by a radical 
 change in its labor system, lost the control of rightful and intel 
 ligent government. Those who were strangers to the people 
 and to the laws governed the State. 
 
 The results that speedily followed were an increase of its 
 bonded debt from less than $6,000,000 to more than thirty mill 
 ions within a period of five years, and the depreciation of the 
 taxable value of property of fully 50 per cent., not estimating 
 what had been lost in slave property. It was impossible that 
 the people could pay interest on so large a sum. The holders 
 of the securities were hopeless of the ability of the State to meet 
 any of its engagements. The people were discouraged, emigra 
 tion rapidly swept off the population, and all industries were con 
 ducted with reference only to the supply of immediate necessities. 
 But I will not enter into further details. It is enough to say 
 that no Christian country had ever been worse governed, and 
 no people had ever more entirely lost confidence in the future 
 of a State. The people were so shut out from the hope of good 
 government, and their condition was so obviously bad, that while 
 they were too weak to change their rulers, and did not attempt 
 to resent the wrongs under which they suffered, the Government 
 of the United States, feeling that American citizens so situated 
 must be in a state bordering on revolt, anticipated such a con 
 dition of affairs and sent its armies there to prevent it. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 19 
 
 In this way organized injustice and tyranny were supported 
 by organized armies. To restore a State so distracted by ma 
 lign influences to order and tranquillity, and to give a people so 
 cast down a hope of return to a better condition, was the great 
 work that lay before Governor HOUSTON. It required a states 
 man to do this work, and a true and courageous patriot to under 
 take it. HOUSTON was fully competent to the great duty, and 
 nobly did he perform it. His election as governor opened the 
 way to a happy deliverance of the people. He was surrounded 
 by the ablest legislators in the State, who acted in harmony 
 with him in all the great measures that looked to the relief of 
 the people. He was supported by an able, honest, and enlight 
 ened judiciary, and the people gathered about him and gave 
 him their confidence without reserve. A new constitution was 
 ordained by the people. Its provisions will be referred to while 
 republican forms of government survive as a pure, simple, and 
 most excellent body of organic law. The public debt was then 
 arranged to the satisfaction of our creditors, through a commis 
 sion of which Governor HOUSTON was chairman and Tristram 
 B. Bethea and Levi W. Lawler were members. The people of 
 Alabama gratefully appreciate their useful and arduous labors, 
 which have removed a barrier to their progress that threatened 
 to destroy every industry. 
 
 Almost with the day of HOUSTON S first inauguration as gov 
 ernor the glow of returning prosperity began to manifest itself 
 in every part of the State. Confidence took the place of dis 
 trust, and the people, with a new hope and increased energies, 
 went to work to rebuild a ruined State. 
 
 Governor HOUSTON did not live to see the full realization of 
 this good work he had so carefully inaugurated. Had he lived 
 another seventy years he would not have witnessed its full 
 benefit to his country. Every industry in Alabama is now in 
 
20 ADDRESS OF MR. MORGAN ON THE 
 
 a prosperous condition, and her credit is above par for gold. 
 Her people are peaceful and happy and the laws are obeyed 
 with cheerfulness by all classes of society. 
 
 The methods of government so happily exemplified in the re 
 newed life of this great State, and so successfully employed by 
 Governor HOUSTON, were the result of the faithful application of 
 principles which for more than twenty years were his guide as 
 a Eepresentative in the Federal Congress. It was the earnest 
 hope of his declining years to enjoy the realized assurance that 
 the people will never lose their rights or liberties, and that 
 the country will never again be agitated with sectional strifes. 
 He was full of confidence that if they will hold their rulers to 
 accountability for their public acts and will follow such leaders 
 as deny to themselves the right to usurp powers not granted to 
 them, and who are not ready to appropriate to themselves 
 powers that are doubtful, the people will remain forever free. 
 
 I claim that men such as GEORGE S. HOUSTON are true 
 American statesmen. The people estimate their value as being 
 above that of those men of genius whose active and aggressive 
 spirits constantly tempt them into fields of experimental adven 
 ture that are filled with dangers to their liberties. A love of 
 glory, a selfish love of power for the advancement of personal 
 aims, is not compatible with a just and safe administration of 
 the enormous powers that are intrusted to our Federal rulers. 
 This is uniformly the judgment of the people when it is not 
 swayed by some great national excitement. 
 
 In the history of our government, when the people have had 
 a fair opportunity for deliberate reflection, they have chosen 
 their Presidents from that class of statesmen who obey the 
 popular will when constitutionally expressed, who revere the 
 Constitution of the United States, and who are forbearing in 
 the exercise of powers not clearly conferred upon them. Though 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 21 
 
 GEORGE S. HOUSTON may not have been great enough to rule 
 a free people at the expense of their liberties, he was great in 
 his fortitude, ability, and zeal in their defense. In the roll of 
 Senators from Alabama who preceded him to the tomb there 
 are worthy and illustrious names. None of them could have 
 been great as the enemies of constitutional liberty, but they 
 were all great as its defenders. 
 
 I doubt if any State has given to the public service within a 
 like period twelve statesmen in the Senate who have done more 
 to advance our country in its vigorous growth, or who have 
 contributed more of wisdom toward shaping its policy, or more 
 of fidelity to the guardianship of the constitutional rights of 
 the States and the people. 
 
 We reverently acknowledge the right of GEORGE S. HOUS 
 TON, which is claimed for his memory by the people of Alabama, 
 to have his name inscribed in a place of honor on the roll of her 
 most distinguished sons. The name of GEORGE S. HOUSTON 
 will ever be most worthily associated in our history as a State, 
 and will be recalled by the people of Alabama with emotions 
 of pride and gratitude, along with the names of William R. 
 King, John W. Walker, John McKinley, Israel Pickens, Ga 
 briel Moore, Clement C. Clay, Arthur P. Bagby, Benjamin 
 Fitzpatrick, Dixon H. Lewis, Jeremiah Clemens, and George 
 Goldthwaite, who were his predecessors in the Senate. 
 
 With just pride I place his example before young men of the 
 country, and with confidence I ask them to follow it. Nothing 
 is required to be said of him to increase the love of the people of 
 Alabama toward him, or to make his memory more endeared to 
 them. They will never forget that GEORGE S. HOUSTON and 
 his compatriots saved their beautiful State from degradation 
 and ruin. His life was simple, earnest, and just; his devotion 
 to his country was perfect; he left no duty intentionally neg- 
 
22 ADDRESS OF MR. HAMLIN ON THE 
 
 lected or carelessly performed; his record is free from the 
 tarnish of the least reproach ; his aspirations were for the 
 good of his countrymen ; his ambition was honorable, his suc 
 cess was eminent, and his fame will be excellent and enduring. 
 
 Address of Mr. HAMLIN, of Maine. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT, I rise to second the resolutions which have 
 been introduced by the Senator from Alabama, and thus to add 
 my approval of the expression which they contain of the emi 
 nent life and services of the late Senator to which they refer. 
 I formed that opinion by an acquaintance running through more 
 than the third of a century, and an acquaintance which, from 
 the peculiar condition of things, was at one time close and inti 
 mate. We were members of the same political organization, 
 and there was that condition of things existing in that organi 
 zation which brought us in closs personal intimacy. 
 
 I thus knew the late Senator well; and in all that long ac 
 quaintance it is a pleasure to remember that there was no period 
 of time when that intimacy was disturbed. And it is from that 
 long acquaintance, and from an accurate knowledge of the public 
 life and services of the man, that I state most cheerfully and 
 cordially that there is not one word in the resolutions submitted 
 by the Senator from Alabama which does not meet the approval 
 of my judgment and my heart. 
 
 At a later period the deceased Senator and myself disagreed 
 in political matters. We were as wide apart, as far asunder as 
 possible; but of that disagreement it would be unbecoming and 
 would be in want of all good taste for me to speak, and I trust 
 I am incapable of marring the propriety of this occasion by at 
 tempting to do so. But in manly honestly I may say that I accord 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 23 
 
 to the late Senator, as I do to all others, the right of judgment, 
 opinion, and action, and honesty of purpose, to the precise de 
 gree that I claim it for myself. We disagreed, but in that 
 disagreement there was no disturbance of our social relations. 
 
 What the Senator, his late colleague, has said in relation to 
 the general character of the man has been most truthfully ex 
 pressed, and has, indeed, deprived me of the few words that I 
 would have uttered, as they would be little else than repetition. 
 But one point in the life and character of our departed friend, 
 upon which the Senator has not dwelt, and which I think was 
 a leading characteristic, was the sincerity of his purpose and of 
 the convictions upon which he acted. It was that which made 
 him eminent ; it was that which gave him success. 
 
 As the world defines the term, he was not an orator ; but he 
 was more ; he was a man of convictions, and upon convictions 
 produced results. The man who stands before the world beam 
 ing all over with the honest convictions of his heart is more 
 than a match for oratory and logic combined ; he reaches the 
 heart, and the heart carries the head captive. Such a man was 
 GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 
 
 He won his victories by his honesty and the sincerity of his 
 purposes, and he made men come to him because they believed 
 him honest ; not only because he was one of nature s noblemen, 
 but because they felt the impress of that sincerity of conviction 
 in his heart which flowed from his tongue. 
 
 What is oratory is a thing which it would be very hard to 
 define. That which produces results is of vastly more impor 
 tance than that which the world may call oratory, and GEORGE 
 S. HOUSTON, by his industry and by the sterling good sense 
 which he possessed, has left the impress of his mind upon 
 the statutes of the country, and his memory will live in its 
 history. 
 
24 ADDRESS OF MR. IIAMLIN ON THE 
 
 We to-day, sir, are paying a tribute to the memory of that 
 man which is only commensurate with the eminent life and ser 
 vices which he devoted to the country in the councils of the 
 nation. True, the Senator from Alabama has told us that State 
 has contributed to the councils of the nation her just propor 
 tion of eminent and distinguished men. She has contributed 
 to this body a Bagby and I am speaking now, sir, of those 
 only with whom I was personally acquainted a Bagby, who 
 stood here among the foremost as a wise, an able, and a safe 
 counselor in the administration of the government and in the 
 framing and shaping of its laws, and was transferred to the 
 diplomatic service of the government. She contributed a King, 
 whose presence graced this body, and who, by his experience 
 and his ability, aided vastly in so directing the affairs of the 
 government that they should redound to the glory and pro 
 mote the best interests of all. He remained in the Senate 
 until he became its father, was thence promoted to the chair, 
 Mr. President, which you so ably fill, and, as I believe I may 
 say, so acceptably to the whole body. He took and subscribed 
 the oath of office, but never entered upon the discharge of its 
 duties, having been called from earth within a few weeks by an 
 inscrutable Providence. She contributed a Lewis, whose wis 
 dom was sought as an oracle by those beyond the limits of his 
 own State, and was often followed. She contributed, not to 
 this body but to the other, one of the most eloquent men whom 
 I have ever met (and in this I am quite sure the only Senator 
 in this body who with me will personally remember him will 
 concur), Yancey, with his impassioned eloquence, who chal 
 lenged and commanded the attention in thoughts that breathed 
 and wdrds that burned, if he did not convince the judgment. 
 
 These are some of the distinguished men of Alabama whom 
 I have personally known ; and to this galaxy of stars I say that 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 
 
 25 
 
 the name of GEORGE S. HOUSTON should be added differing 
 in character, but in no sense less important. The State of 
 Alabama should cherish his memory and place his name among 
 the foremost men of the State, and we Senators to-day should 
 imitate his example of sincerity of purpose, of honesty of con 
 viction, of untiring zeal, and an industry that never faltered 
 in seeing that all the affairs of the government were rightfully 
 and economically administered. 
 
 Alabama should cherish with affection and remember GEORGE 
 S. HOUSTON so long as she shall remember any of her distin 
 guished sons ; and while we may imitate all that was good and 
 noble and generous in the deceased Senator, if he like all of us 
 shall have committed his errors, let them slumber in the grave 
 with himself and be forgotten, and let us apply that old maxim, 
 so old that I almost dislike to quote it, had it not been sanc 
 tioned by time and hallowed by the best of men De mortuis 
 nil nisi bonum. 
 
 Address of Mr. DAVIS, of Illinois. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT, most of us, when we cross the threshold 
 of this Chamber to present our commissions, have passed the 
 meridian line of life and reached that period when the shadows 
 of declining years lengthen fast. We are few in number, and 
 the contact of daily association draws us near together ; for, 
 whatever may be the asperities of party strife, it is to the honor 
 of all sides that, when debate stops, personal intercourse is not 
 disturbed. 
 
 } Hence it is that a vacant chair in this small body, draped in 
 mourning, touches us all as a family bereavement. We look 
 around and miss the familiar face and the friendly voice, and 
 by a beautiful instinct of man s better nature we recall the vir- 
 
26 ADDRESS OF MB. DAVIS ON THE 
 
 tues, the generous qualities, the earnest devotion, and the fidel 
 ity to duty, of the Senator who has gone, as all must hope, to 
 eternal reward. 
 
 It was not my privilege to know personally the late GEORGE 
 S. HOUSTON, whose loss we deplore and whose memory is so 
 justly cherished, until we met here less than a year ago. The 
 honorable ambition of his long and eminent career in the pub 
 lic service had been to close it in this Chamber ? He was per 
 mitted to attain the object of his pride, and to wear becomingly 
 the distinction he had won for a few short months, and then 
 in the order of God s wise providence he was summoned away. 
 
 Should we not all, and especially those of us who are on the 
 descending grade of life, pause to consider how brief at best 
 are the joys of ambition, and how much nobler and more endur 
 ing are the prizes in other spheres of human action, consecrated 
 to duty as we are instructed to follow it? Ambition achieved, 
 how few after all reach up to the public expectation ! In all 
 history before and since the Christian era how many names 
 stand out as distinctively great ? Dull chronology records our 
 presence here and elsewhere, and the waves of oblivion roll over 
 us, as they have rolled over untold millions in past generations. 
 
 According to his biographer, Mr. HOUSTON had nearly at 
 tained to the age allotted by the Psalmist as man s limit of 
 existence. 
 
 He entered public life at the dawn of manhood, and he only 
 parted from it when he bade us farewell for the last time. As 
 a young man he was a member of the Legislature, and for 
 eighteen years he filled a seat in the House of Eepresentatives 
 with recognized credit, attested by his appointment at the 
 head of the foremost committees. Subsequently other honors 
 were tendered to him by the people whose affection and whose 
 confidence he enjoyed without interruption. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 27 
 
 His last service before coming to the Senate was to repair, 
 as governor of the State, the ravages which civil war and mis 
 rule had inflicted. In his sojourn here we saw him, as those 
 who knew him best had seen him, all through a career covering 
 first and last almost half a century. 
 
 He was proud to be Senator, but the distinction never lifted 
 him up with any false notion, or changed in the least degree 
 that simplicity and integrity of character which seemed to stand 
 out and to invite trust and respect. His mind was not of a bril 
 liant order, nor was his speech eloquent, in the sense of oratory. 
 He belonged to that class of men whose practical wisdom and 
 whose solid sense govern the councils of nations, and who rule 
 cabinets in which they do not appear. 
 
 Forty years ago, when the professional reformer was unknown 
 in politics, and when the abuses that give him an excuse to live 
 were not common, Mr. HOUSTON was a sincere and an earnest 
 advocate of economy, as a principle to be rigidly asserted and 
 enforced in the administration of public affairs. He sought to 
 maintain a pure and a plain government after the manner of 
 the fathers. He despised shams, and he opposed official pomp 
 and parade. Devoted to this idea, he was consistent in his sup 
 port, careful to be right, and conscientiously firm, when a con 
 clusion was reached. His public character might perhaps be 
 best described as that of an upright, sound, and faithful legis 
 lator, whose example in all times is worthy of the best emula 
 tion and whose life is a valuable instruction. 
 
 An unspotted private fame harmonized with these qualities 
 of the public man, so that as citizen, as Representative, and 
 as Senator, he was tried and found to be worthy. 
 
 As we pass from these scenes, and look forward to the not 
 distant day when the sad duty which is now discharged for our 
 departed brother must be performed for others, may we all be 
 
28 ADDRESS OF MR. THURMAN ON THE 
 
 as unsullied in our great office as he was, and as deserving of 
 even so poor a tribute as I have offered to his memory. 
 
 Address of Mr. THURMAN, of Ohio. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT, my acquaintance with our deceased brother 
 began when I took my seat in the House of Representatives 
 in the Twenty-ninth Congress. He had then been for four 
 years a member of that House, and had become a man of mark 
 and influence. He was regarded by all who knew him as a man 
 of excellent understanding, sterling integrity, great industry, 
 and most amiable manners. He was a member of what was 
 then considered the great committee of the House the Com 
 mittee of Ways and Means which then discharged the duties 
 that are now performed by that committee and by the Commit 
 tee on Appropriations ; and I happen to know that its distin 
 guished and very able chairman, General McKay, of North Car 
 olina, regarded him as one of its most industrious and useful 
 members. 
 
 Mr. President, it is unnecessary for me to follow Mr. HOUS 
 TON in his subsequent distinguished career. It has been por 
 trayed in the remarks of those who have preceded me far better 
 than I could portray it. A man who enjoyed the confidence of his 
 constituents in so high a degree that he was nine times elected 
 a Eepresentative in Congress, and in five instances without op 
 position ; was twice elected a member of this body, was chosen 
 governor of his State by a decided majority at a time of great 
 difficulty, and when the counsels and services of her best and 
 wisest men were needed, could not have been a man of mere 
 ordinary ability or standing. No, sir ; he must have possessed, 
 he did possess, qualities that eminently fitted him for public 
 service under a republican form of government, to which he 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 29 
 
 was so much attached, and which caused his death to be de 
 plored by all the people of his State, and not by them alone, 
 but by all who have heard of his virtues and regret to see a 
 good and great man fall. 
 
 Address of Mr. SAULSBURY, of Delaware. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT, with the late Senator HOUSTON I had no 
 acquaintance until he became a member of this body. From 
 what I had heard and know of his public life I had previously 
 formed a high estimate of his character, an estimate which was 
 fully justified by all I saw of him during his brief service in 
 the Senate. Association with him upon two of the standing 
 committees of the Senate afforded me the opportunity of ob 
 serving the elements of his character, which for a period of 
 more than forty years secured for him the uninterrupted confi 
 dence of the people of his State. 
 
 Senator HOUSTON entered public life at an early age and was 
 almost continuously thereafter connected with public affairs. 
 He filled the highest and most responsible positions in the State 
 in which he lived, among others was twice elected to the guber 
 natorial office, and for nearly twenty years represented the Con 
 gressional district in which he resided in the other House of 
 Congress. Of the manner in which he discharged the duties 
 of the various positions he held I need not here speak. His 
 election to the Senate after more than forty years spent in pub 
 lic life is proof of his fidelity to every trust as well as the recog 
 nition of his services and worth by those he had served so long 
 and so well. Few men have been able to maintain for so great 
 a period their hold on popular favor. Neither integrity of 
 character nor the faithful discharge of public duty is at all times 
 able to protect against the shafts of envy or the intrigues of 
 
30 ADDRESS OF MR. SAULSBURY ON THE 
 
 ambitious rivalry. The retention by the late Senator of the 
 unabated confidence of the people among whom he lived and in 
 whose service he had spent his life is at once the proof of his 
 merit and his highest eulogy. 
 
 A brief acquaintance with Mr. HOUSTON was sufficient to 
 understand the traits of his character which gave him a con 
 trolling influence with the people of his State. He was a man 
 of remarkably sound judgment, which gave to his opinions great 
 weight, and assisted in the formation of public sentiment on all 
 questions affecting the interests of the State. Endowed by nature 
 with strong intellectual power, and dependent in early life for 
 success upon himself, he was cautious in the expression of opin 
 ions upon public questions until he had investigated the subject 
 to which they related. His conclusions, formed by reflection 
 and examination, were usually found to be correct, and not only 
 controlled his own action but influenced largely the views and 
 action of others. He was a man of marked decision of charac 
 ter, and impressed others with his honesty by a steadfast ad 
 herence to his convictions. He was not, however, intolerant or 
 censorious toward others, but conceded to all the same inde 
 pendence of thought and action which he exercised himself. 
 His firmness in the maintenance of his own views was not the 
 result of too high an estimate of self or too mean an opinion of 
 others, and evinced neither bigotry nor the want of a proper 
 respect for those with whom he differed. Frankness and can 
 dor marked throughout his life his intercourse with the people 
 of his State. Concealment was no part of his nature. He was 
 honest with himself and candid with others. He sought no 
 disguises and resorted to no subterfuges, but avowed with manly 
 courage the views he entertained and the purposes he sought 
 to accomplish. Nothing detracts more from character than 
 duplicity, and nothing commands more universal respect than 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 31 
 
 frankness and honesty. Senator HOUSTON was never misun 
 derstood by friends or opponents, and commanded the admira 
 tion of both by the candor exhibited as well in public as in 
 private life. He stood revealed in his true character before the 
 people of his State, and was trusted for his integrity and loved 
 for his honesty. He was faithful to every trust, discharging 
 the obligations imposed by the positions in which he was 
 placed, not only willingly but cheerfully, shunning neither the 
 labors nor responsibilities which they entailed. 
 
 As chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means in the 
 House of Kepresentatives his assiduity and industry were pro 
 verbial. I have heard it said that he familiarized himself with 
 the details of every bill brought forward by the committee, and 
 was prepared at all times to furnish required information upon 
 the measures under his charge, and to give a satisfactory ex 
 planation of the reasons controlling the committee in their 
 presentation. He came into the Senate at an advanced period 
 of life, with energies doubtless somewhat relaxed by the weight 
 of years and the labors of a long public service ; yet he was 
 punctual in his attendance in the Senate and attentive to the 
 business under consideration. He was likewise prompt in the 
 discharge of the duties assigned him by the committees of the 
 body of which he was a member, and his opinions both in the 
 Senate and in committee commanded the respectful attention 
 of his associates. During his last illness, I am informed, his 
 thoughts frequently turned to his duties here. In a letter 
 which I received from him after the commencement of the pres 
 ent session he expressed the hope that he should be with us in 
 a few days and ready to perform any duty assigned him by one 
 of the committees to which he referred. He was social and 
 genial in his nature, free alike from austerity and undue famil 
 iarity. Mr. HOUSTON was warmly attached to his friends, and 
 
32 ADDRESS OF MR. SAULSBURY ON THE 
 
 in bis intercourse with them sought to contribute to their hap 
 piness as much as secure his own. There was nothing selfish 
 in his attachments. He regarded his friends too highly to esti 
 mate their value by services to himself, and some of his most 
 cherished friendships were based alone upon common sympa 
 thies and congeniality of temper and disposition. Toward 
 those with whom he differed he was generous and charitable ; 
 no traces of malevolence mar the record of his life, which 
 was singularly free from those asperities which too often 
 embitter the lives of public men. 
 
 The close of a life well spent, like the setting sun, reflects 
 back an influence on the world behind. For long years to come 
 the people of Alabama will cherish with just pride the mem 
 ory of one they delighted to honor and whose services contrib 
 uted so largely to the prosperity of the State. I shall not ob 
 trude upon the domestic circle to speak of him as a husband 
 and father. Others who know him better will speak of him in 
 that character. In his home centered his greatest interest, and 
 to his wife and children were given his tenderest thoughts and 
 warmest affections. No words of sympathy can mitigate their 
 grief, or repair the loss they have sustained. To them he has 
 left an unsullied memory, a noble example, and an honored 
 name, and to the people of his State the results of a life de 
 voted to their service. 
 
 Senators, the death of one so lately in our midst admonishes 
 us of our own mortality and the approach of that inevitable 
 hour that awaits us all. May we so "number our days" that 
 we shall each be ready for the summons when it comes. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 33 
 
 Address of Mr. PENDLETON, of Ohio. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT, I cannot speak, as others have spoken, of 
 this dead Senator, as one who knew him in the daily walks of 
 his long public life, or in the sacred circle of his family and 
 home. But I knew him well, I esteemed him greatly, I loved 
 him much ; and I cannot refrain from adding my leaflet to the 
 rich garlands which appreciation and good-will are to-day 
 placing on his grave. 
 
 No marble marks his couch of lowly sleep, 
 But living statues there are seen to weep. 
 Affection s semblance bends not o er his tomb ; 
 Affection s self deplores his sudden doom. 
 
 When I entered Congress, young in years, still younger in 
 experience, I found him an old and honored member, enjoying 
 the honors and wielding the powers of our party organization. 
 We sat in the old Chamber sanctified by so many memories, 
 which has since been made our Walhalla the temple of our 
 immortals. My seat was near him, and our association there 
 gave rise to a friendship which was as fresh and warm when 
 we met at the extra session last spring as when we parted in 
 sadness in 1861. In that long interval I had seen him but 
 twice ; once, for a moment, when he came to Washington on 
 an errand of mercy, and once again when as governor his 
 practical good sense was rescuing Alabama from the accumu 
 lated evils of reconstruction. He was serious, earnest, indus 
 trious, patient, painstaking, honest, in the consideration of 
 public questions. After investigation he was clear, decided, 
 firm, undoubting in his conclusions. He was unswerving 
 in carrying those conclusions into execution. 
 
 A strong sense of duty was the foundation and the main 
 spring of his investigation and his action. He never wavered 
 
34 ADDRESS OF MR. PENDLETON ON THE 
 
 between duty and inclination. He never gave to party or to 
 self what was meant for country and mankind. 
 
 If his intellectual powers did not reach the highest realms 
 where genius sits enthroned, their steadfastness, their steady 
 impulsion toward the truth, the moral qualities which lay be 
 neath their activities, gave to their exercise the widest range 
 of practical usefulness. 
 
 He had knowledge which comes from close study and keen 
 observation. He had judgment which accurately collates all 
 knowledge and discerns the end from the beginning. He had 
 wisdom which, seeing both, chooses the better way. He was 
 courteous and gentle and kind. Even in his short career on 
 this floor, his simple, gentle manners showed to us all 
 
 That best portion of a good man s life, 
 His little, nameless, unremembered acts 
 Of kindness and of love. 
 
 For he had mastered that Divine charity which teaches 
 
 Never to blend our pleasure, or our pride, 
 With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels. 
 
 He was modesty itself, and shrunk from self-assertion as if it 
 were almost a crime. 
 
 I dare not enter the sacred circle of a loving family, or dis 
 turb with stranger s accents the silent sorrow of a stricken 
 fireside. There his kind and genial and cheery nature evoked 
 a pious gladness like that which the gay carol and the joyous 
 flight of the morning lark express as its hymn of praise : 
 
 Type of the wise who soar but do not roam, 
 True to the kindred points of Heaven and home. 
 
 Mr. President, in the presence of this death, coming to one 
 so full of honors and of years, the friend of us all, the loved 
 associate of some, we must pause. 
 
 Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, 
 And ask them what report they bore to heaven. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 35 
 
 This is the converse which needs no speech. It is the com 
 munion which we must have with our own hearts, and be still. 
 It is the introspection which Plato coveted : 
 
 Thou gazest on the stars, 
 
 My soul ! 
 
 Oh, gladly would I be 
 
 Yon starry skies with thousand eyes, 
 
 That I might gaze on thee ! 
 
 It is the introspection which, if we are faithful, will in the 
 end compel our awakened spirits to hear and to heed the ad 
 monition 
 
 Mourn not the perishing of each fair toy ; 
 Ye were ordained to do, not to enjoy! 
 To suffer, which is nobler than to dare. 
 A sacred burden is the life ye bear ; 
 Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly. 
 Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly : 
 Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin, 
 But onward, upward, till the goal ye win. 
 
 Address of Mr. PRYOR, of Alabama. 
 
 Mil. PRESIDENT, this occasion adds further gloom and 
 deepens the grief which I have heretofore felt and which is 
 necessarily further intensified by my surroundings, occupy 
 ing, as I do, the seat of my departed friend and companion, 
 Hon. GEORGE S. HOUSTON, whom by mysterious and unac 
 countable events in God s providence I have the honor to im 
 mediately succeed. While this is true, it is nevertheless prop 
 er and, as I am advised, within the usage of this body, that I, 
 too, in conjunction with other Senators, should express regret 
 on account of his loss to this Chamber, and as a citizen con 
 tribute a tear to that stream of sorrow that flows through the 
 heart of the people of his State, who are sorely bereaved by 
 
36 ADDRESS OP MB. PBYOR ON THE 
 
 the death of their trusted adviser, leader, and representative. 
 Therefore, in addition to the just and touching remarks of 
 other Senators, I ask to submit some facts from which I de 
 duce the conclusion which I shall hereafter announce, that 
 makes up the supremacy of the deceased as a citizen and 
 statesman. I was intimately acquainted and closely connected 
 with Senator HOUSTON for forty years. Living in the same 
 town, county, and State, a portion of this time I was a mem 
 ber of his family, ate at the same table, and slept under the 
 same roof; we were practicing lawyers at the same bar, and 
 partners for many years in the practice, members of the same 
 political party, and in each and every relationship upon the 
 most cordial and confidential terms, with frequent interchange 
 of views and opinions, and in which he disclosed his political 
 sentiments, opinions, desires, hopes, and fears. And, now, Mr. 
 President and Senators, with these means and from those op 
 portunities I am prepared to affirm and claim for the deceased 
 that he was a man free from deformity of mind, body, and 
 heart. He was a man impressive and imposing in his personal 
 appearance. His mind was vigorous, analytical, quick of per- 
 ception, searching, sufficiently inquisitive, detective, and dis 
 criminative. A mind that came to conclusions slowly but 
 certainly, not because of its dullness, but because of its cau 
 tion, its prudence, its sense of propriety, its sense of recti 
 tude, and when reached never found unjust, prejudiced, biased 
 or partial, and rarely incorrect, standing and withstanding the 
 severest tests. Added to this was a judgment sound, well de 
 fined, and trustworthy, and which when once formed was firm 
 and immovable. He was a man of foresight and judgment 
 profound. He was a safe counselor, sagacious, well-trained, 
 and admirably versed in the principles of wise statesmanship 
 and public policy; an instructive, judicious, and adhesive 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 37 
 
 friend, unselfish, never withholding his views, but promptly 
 and fully disclosing the same to his associates. His industry 
 in search of truth was rarely equaled. He could not be unduly 
 persuaded, and was beyond seduction to do a wrong. With 
 those capabilities, combined with honesty, fidelity, unswerving 
 principles, and a high sense of honor, he ascended in unbroken 
 triumph through all grades of life from the humblest walks to 
 the exalted station of a Senator in its truest sense. 
 
 As a debater he was sagacious, ponderous, and convincing; 
 a man emphatically of argumentation. He had no superior and 
 few equals when dealing with questions of fact ; his powers of 
 separation and condensation of facts and their application were 
 wonderful. On questions of law, discriminating, clear, and 
 forcible, with great capacity to present singleness of point. In 
 debate his manner was courteous, becoming, earnest, attractive, 
 and respectful, especially toward his adversary, with a marked 
 toleration in respect to those differing with him in views or 
 sentiments. There dwelt within that house of clay, not only a 
 capacious mind, but also a heart open and frank, and one that 
 knew no guile, no hate one that ever vibrated to the touch of 
 honor, sympathy, and justice. If upon any occasion he was 
 informed or he felt that he had or may have unintentionally 
 wronged his fellow, he was quick to offer or make amends; 
 while, on the other hand, he was patient, forbearing, and forgiv 
 ing if his fellow wronged him. Yet while this was true of him, 
 if occasion demanded, he was resolute and manly in the main 
 tenance of his rights and self-respect. As a representative he 
 was faithful in the discharge of his duties. He applied the rule, 
 equally good in morals as in law, that the trustee, agent, or 
 public servant should take and bestow the same care, do and 
 cause to be done to those whom he represented, as a prudent 
 and discreet man did or should do with his own; and by this 
 
38 ADDRESS OF MR. PRYOR ON THE 
 
 rule he squared all of his representative acts. And there can 
 be no time or place in his long and useful representative life to 
 be found that he did not apply and enforce this rule of con 
 duct. He fnJly recognized the important fact that this country 
 and government, under the Constitution, belonged to the people, 
 and that this right should be respected and guarded, and that 
 the will of his people should be done, and not his. So feeling, 
 believing, and acting through life, he retained untarnished the 
 warm affection of his people, not because and by the arts of 
 demagogy or by appeals to the prejudices and the baser pas 
 sions of humanity, but by his masterly argumentation, the firm 
 ness and consistency of his convictions, and the devotion to the 
 good of his country. Hence they honored him in life, and bless 
 him and his memory and with us mourn his loss. 
 
 While he was ever watchful of the welfare of his State and 
 the good of his people, he was nevertheless national in his 
 views and feelings, greatly desiring the good of the whole 
 country, but having grave doubts and serious forebodings as 
 to its future which greatly annoyed him, for it was his great 
 desire that the Government in essence should be transmitted as 
 it had been received by him from his progenitors. And I can 
 truthfully assert that if a love of country and civil liberty, with 
 guarantees of life, liberty, and property, constitute the patriot, 
 then Senator HOUSTON lived and died a patriot; that, if views 
 and sentiments based upon the highest order of ability and 
 thorough cultivation, that embraced the whole country and 
 people, with the full recognition of equal rights, and without 
 favor, distinction, or prejudice, makes the statesman, then Sen 
 ator HOUSTON lived and died a statesman. 
 
 In his family he was courtly and tender as a husband, as a 
 father affectionate and commanding; in bearing toward his 
 fellow-citizens kind, affable, polite, and respectful, approximat- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 39 
 
 ing cordiality. For there was no station or place of preferment 
 to which he had attained in which he failed to remember that 
 he, too, was born of a woman, of few days, and alike subject to 
 trouble and death. 
 
 In conclusion, Mr. President, borrowing an idea and some 
 what of phraseology : There was a man that lived and died in 
 the State of Alabama, and that mail was upright, and one that 
 feared God and eschewed evil, and that man was the dead 
 Senator, Hon. GEORGE S. HOUSTON, who died full of days, full 
 of usefulness, and full of honors; whose life I shall try to 
 emulate, and whose views I shall be pleased to see accom 
 plished. 
 
 Mr. President, I ask for the adoption of the resolutions offered 
 by my colleague. 
 
 The resolutions were agreed to unanimously. 
 
 Mr. PRYOE. As a further mark of respect to the memory 
 of Mr. HOUSTON, I move that the Senate do now adjourn. 
 
 The motion was agreed to ; and (at two o clock and twenty- 
 five minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned. 
 
 OF THR^^ 
 
 [UNIVERSITY 
 ^r 
 
 ^i. 
 
PROCEEDINGS 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 JANUARY 6, 188O. 
 
 Mr. FORNEY. Mr. SPEAKER, it becomes my painful duty 
 to announce to this House the death of Hon. GEORGE S. 
 HOUSTON, late United States Senator from the State of Ala 
 bama. He died at his residence at Athens, Alabama, on the 
 31st of last December. I desire, sir, to present the following 
 resolutions ; and I shall further ask that the House, at some 
 future day, set apart some time for the consideration of appro 
 priate memorial resolutions : 
 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the members of the House of Representatives have heard 
 with profound sorrow of the death of Hon. GEORGE S. HOUSTON, late Sen 
 ator of the United States from the State of Alabama, and tender to his 
 bereaved family their sincere sympathy and condolence. 
 
 Resolved, That, as a testimony of the respect they bear the memory of the 
 deceased, this House do now adjourn until twelve o clock to-morrow. 
 
 The resolutions were unanimously adopted ; and accordingly 
 (at one o clock and forty-three minutes p. m.) the House ad 
 journed. 
 
 41 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 DEATH OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON, 
 
 A SENATOR FROM ALABAMA. 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 1H&0. 
 
 Mr. FOEKEY. Mr. SPEAKER, I ask that the resolutions 
 from the Senate on the death of the late Hon. GEORGE S. 
 HOUSTON be taken from the Speaker s table and read. 
 
 The SPEAKER. The Chair lays before the House the fol 
 lowing resolutions from the Senate. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 February 26, 1880. 
 
 Eesolved, That the Senate has heard with regret of the death of Hon. 
 GEORGE S. HOUSTON, a Senator from the State of Alabama, and extends to 
 the family of the deceased Senator and to the people of Alabama sincere 
 condolence in their bereavement. 
 
 II. That the long public service of GEORGE S. HOUSTON has been marked 
 by fidelity to his convictions of duty, by industry and patience in his 
 labors for the public welfare, by distinguished ability in the legislative 
 councils of the United States, and by devoted and wise services to Ala 
 bama as governor of that State. 
 
 43 
 
44 ADDRESS OF MB. FORNEY ON THE 
 
 III. That the Secretary of the Senate transmit to the family of the de 
 ceased, and to the governor of Alabama, a copy of these resolutions, with 
 the action of the Senate thereon. 
 
 Mr. FORNEY. I offer the following resolutions, which I 
 send to the Clerk s desk. 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the House of Representatives has received with profound 
 sorrow the announcement of the death of Hon. GEORGE S. HOUSTON, late 
 a Senator of the United States from the State of Alabama. 
 
 Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended to allow suit 
 able tributes to be paid to his many virtues ; and, as a further mark of re 
 spect to the memory of the deceased Senator, the House, at the conclusion 
 of said tributes, shall adjourn. 
 
 Address of Mr. FORNEY, of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, Alabama asks this House to pause for the 
 present in its legislative labors, and unite with her in paying a 
 suitable tribute of respect to the memory of her deceased Sen 
 ator, Hon. GEORGE S. HOUSTON, who died at his home in 
 Athens on the 31st of December last, beloved, honored, and 
 esteemed by the citizens of his State. The announcement of 
 his death was a shock to the people, who had so recently, 
 through their representatives, conferred upon him the highest 
 position within their gift. He lived to a ripe old age ; he had 
 reached his three score and ten years. 
 
 Senator HOUSTON was born in Williamson County, in the 
 State of Tennessee. Although not a native of Alabama, yet 
 he had resided within her borders full sixty years, from the 
 date of her admission into the Union as a State. He selected 
 for his profession the law. Soon after he was admitted to the 
 bar, on account of his studious habits, close attention to busi 
 ness, and exemplary conduct, the people of Lauderdale County 
 elected him to the Legislature. Rising rapidly in his profes- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 45 
 
 sion, in 1837 he was elected solicitor of the circuit in which 
 he resided. While in that position he made groat reputation 
 as a lawyer of ability, and evinced, at that early period of his 
 career, that unimpeachable integrity, earnest devotion to duty, 
 and sacred regard for the inviolability of public trust that 
 governed him in his future political life and made him so con 
 spicuous among his fellow-citizens. So well had he discharged 
 the duties of his office, so satisfactory his conduct, at the close 
 of his term as solicitor the people elected him a member of the 
 Twenty-seventh Congress. He took his seat in this House in 
 the year 1841, and was successively re-elected a member, fre 
 quently without opposition, until J861, except to the Thirty- 
 first Congress, when he declined a re-election. 
 
 I will not stop to speak of the great services rendered his 
 State or the country during the eighteen years he sat as a 
 member upon this floor. His record speaks for itself. While 
 a member of this body he occupied the most important posi 
 tions as chairman of prominent committees. During his long 
 service as a member of Congress he stood high in the esteem 
 of the great and good men with whom he was associated in 
 that day and time. He was one of the color-guard of the 
 Treasury ; his record shows with what watchful care he guarded 
 it. He was an able and faithful public servant; a true patriot, 
 his patriotism was not bounded by State lines, but embraced 
 his entire country. Integrity was the granite base upon which 
 he reared the superstructure of his political life ; that sterling 
 integrity placed him beyond the reach of temptation. At the 
 close of his long public service no blot, no stain tarnished his 
 bright escutcheon. iS"o bribe ever polluted his fingers or left 
 a dark spot in his hands. At all times with him " a good name 
 was rather to be chosen than great riches, a loving favor than 
 silver and gold." 
 
46 ADDRESS OF MR. FORNEY ON THE 
 
 He was a popular and successful man. To his great popu 
 larity and success in life he was indebted to his native talent, 
 his known integrity, his purity, honesty, and to his knowledge 
 of human nature. He studied the people more and knew them 
 better than he did books. He was a good judge of the popu 
 lar feeling and popular demand. He was truly the friend of 
 the people, he consulted their wishes, conditions, and interest. 
 He honestly desired their happiness and welfare, and pos 
 sessed the happy faculty of making them believe it. The 
 people believed he was honest and true ; they knew he was 
 capable and faithful, and were ever ready to place him in 
 power. He was never defeated before the people for an office. 
 As a debater he had few superiors upon the stump. He was 
 powerful in a political campaign. He could attract the atten 
 tion of the masses and hold it with interest to the close of his 
 address. He was not a man of brilliant or showy talent, nor 
 what the world calls a genius. He never originated new de 
 partures in politics, but clung with tenacity to the old land 
 marks established by the fathers. Neither did he dazzle the 
 country with his eloquence or glowing declamation. Nor was 
 he an impassioned orator, or one that charmed for the moment. 
 He appealed to the judgment, not to the passions. In his 
 speeches to the people his end and aim was to be understood, 
 to carry conviction to the minds of his hearers, to make an 
 impression which would last. He would never drop the iron- 
 wrought link in his chain of argument to supply it with the 
 silvery net- work of poesy. He was what might be called an 
 instructive and convincing speaker one that carried his point. 
 
 The crowning acts of his life, those that endeared him most 
 to the people of his State, were the services rendered them 
 while governor of Alabama. His political friends, unsolicited 
 by him, in the year 1874 nominated him as their standard- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OP GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 47 
 
 bearer for governor. The people elected him by a decided 
 majority. When he took control of the helm of state as gov 
 ernor of Alabama there was no money in the treasury, and the 
 great problem then to be solved was the debt question the 
 debt which had been illegally contracted during the days of 
 reconstruction, while Alabama was under the dominion of a 
 class of men who had flocked, like birds of prey, within her 
 borders to feed and gorge upon the little that the war had left 
 her people ; men whose interests were not identified with the 
 best interest of the State, whose end and aim were personal 
 aggrandizement. During those days extravagance and cor 
 ruption had held full sway; an immense debt had been wrong 
 fully fastened upon the State. He entered upon the discharge 
 of his duties as governor with a determination to bring relief 
 to his suffering people. He was equal to the great emergency. 
 Economy in all matters of state became his watchword. Un 
 der his administration the people soon began to have faith in 
 their ultimate redemption, hope was stimulated and confidence 
 inspired. At the close of his first term the people almost with 
 one acclaim said, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant," 
 and re-elected him by an immense majority. While governor 
 the State commissioned him and two others of her citizens 
 alike distinguished for their ability, honesty, and probity (Hon. 
 T. B. Bethea and General L. W. Lawler), with power to adjust 
 and settle the State s indebtedness. The result of the labors 
 of the commission met with the cordial approval of the people. 
 The debt was adjusted honorably to the State and satisfactory 
 to the creditors. It can be truly said of him that in the many 
 responsible positions which he filled during his forty years 
 service as a public man he never failed to prove himself equal 
 to the duties devolved upon him and worthy of the confidence 
 and trust reposed in him. 
 
48 ADDRESS OF MB. STEPHENS ON THE 
 
 He possessed administrative and executive capacity of no 
 ordinary character. His administration of the affairs of state 
 while governor was such as commanded the esteem and confi 
 dence of his political opponents as well as his party friends. 
 As an evidence of the people s high appreciation of his services, 
 the legislature of his State elected him at the close of his term 
 as governor, to the Senate of the United States. He took his 
 seat at the commencement of the late extra session. He was 
 not permitted to serve out the term of his election. Death 
 stopped him in his useful career. He died with his harness 
 upon him. He has crossed over the river. His manly and 
 stalwart form lies in the graveyard of the village in which he 
 spent the greater portion of his life. He sleeps in the beauti 
 ful valley of the Tennessee, the loveliest portion of Alabama. 
 
 No lovelier land the prophet viewed, 
 When on the sacred mount he stood, 
 And saw below, transcendent shine, 
 The streams and groves of Palestine. 
 
 There he will rest, his dust mingling with the dust of kin 
 dred, friends, and neighbors, until the morn of resurrection, his 
 memory enshrined in the hearts of a grateful people, his name 
 enrolled on the list of Alabama s most illustrious dead, long 
 to be remembered as one who had done his State some service, 
 who died as he had lived, " an honest man, the noblest work 
 of God." 
 
 Address of Mr. STEPHENS, of Georgia. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, I second the resolutions submitted by the 
 gentleman [Mr. FORNEY] from the seventh Congressional dis 
 trict of Alabama. There is, perhaps, no one in the present 
 House from whom this tribute to the memory and eminent vir 
 tues of the deceased could more appropriately come than from 
 
LIFE AND CHAEACTEE OF GEOEGE S. HOUSTON. 49 
 
 myself. When I took iny seat for the first time in this Hall 
 or rather the old Hall on the llth of December, 1843, I 
 found Mr. HOUSTON a member. He was two years ahead of 
 me in this branch of the public service. I left him here when I 
 retired in 1859, though he was on his own voluntary action not 
 a member from 1849 to 1851. When I met him he had during 
 his first Congress acquired considerable reputation as a man 
 of ability, integrity, and business qualifications. He was then 
 on the Committee on Public Lands. Just over to the right of 
 the aisle, as you pass from the Clerk s desk to the outer center 
 door, he sat usually engaged, when nothing interesting was 
 occupying the attention of the House, in reading or answer 
 ing letters or examining papers. He seemed never to be idle. 
 My seat was far off to the left of the Speaker, near the outer 
 row. I well remember the first impression upon my mind upon 
 seeing him in his place. During our association on this floor 
 I met him often, not only in consultation upon public matters, 
 but socially. I therefore knew him. long, well, and intimately. 
 While he was not a man of genius, so called, yet by indus 
 try, application and assiduity in the discharge of his duties he 
 rose to the leadership of the House to the chairmanship of 
 the Committee of Ways and Means. We differed in political 
 associations during the whole period of our joint service on this 
 floor ; but in the essential principles of the true Jeffersonian 
 democratic creed we never differed. Our friendly relations 
 were never marred, or even jarred, during our long association 
 in the public councils. In personal appearance Mr. HOUSTON 
 presented a fine physique. He was well developed in manly 
 form. His complexion was ruddy. His voice was strong and 
 good, though somewhat sharp and shrill for a man of his size. 
 It was exceedingly penetrating. In debate he was didactic, 
 clear, and perspicuous. In social qualities he was always 
 
 7 H 
 
50 ADDRESS OF MR. STEPHENS ON THE 
 
 agreeable and affable, and never austere in manner. He pos 
 sessed great equanimity of temper. He was always cheerful, 
 and never was seemingly depressed on account of anything. 
 He was ever buoyant in spirit. He had the foititude of a 
 Christian with the philosophy of a stoic. In oratory he sel 
 dom assumed the declamatory style, and hence was never re 
 garded as among the brilliant speakers of the House. His 
 object on all occasions seemed rather to convince the judgment 
 by logical argument than to enliven the imagination by rhetor 
 ical displays. He was emphatically a man of work and busi 
 ness. Labor was his pleasure. With him it seemed that 
 
 The bliss of life is the bliss of toil. 
 
 Such were a few of the many virtues and excellences of 
 GEORGE S. HOUSTON, by which he rose from the humblest 
 walks of life to the highest honors and distinctions his fellow- 
 citizens could bestow. Sustained by honor, truth, integrity, 
 and uprightness of purpose, with a spotless purity of character 
 during a long and eventful career, he has gone to his grave 
 leaving a name that will perish only with the history of his 
 country. 
 
 In referring, Mr. Speaker, to the events of my first ac 
 quaintance with my distinguished departed friend and the 
 very memorable occasion in my life when I first took my seat 
 in the Federal House of Representatives, reminiscences of very 
 deep impression are vividly awakened in my mind. It may 
 not be inappropriate in these funeral ceremonies to recall 
 some of these. 
 
 It was nearly forty years ago. What changes have taken 
 place since then! changes especially in the constituent ele 
 ments and the personnel of this House and the other wing of 
 the Capitol, as well as the controlling actors in every depart- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 51 
 
 ment of our public affairs. In respect to the House of Repre 
 sentatives and its surroundings, to a perfect stranger looking 
 down from one of the galleries everything would seem now 
 quite like it did then. He would see the same conformation 
 of the Hall, the same arrangement of seats, the same or similar 
 aisles. In looking on he would see no change in the proceed 
 ings of the body. He would see the same routine of business; 
 the Speaker in the chair now as then; the clerks at the desk 
 now as then; the call of the roll now as then; the Sergeant-at- 
 Arms the mace, the insignium of his authority the Door 
 keepers and pages now as then. The House itself he would 
 see now composed, as then, of old, middle-aged, and young. 
 The actors in the drama, to one so looking down, would appear 
 to be the same; yet how different are the individual actors in 
 the scenes now from those who figured upon the stage at that 
 time. 
 
 When I entered Congress John W. Jones, of Virginia, was 
 Speaker. Then just over there to the left sat the venerable 
 John Quiiicy Adams, ripened with age and honors, and whose 
 learning in all the departments of science, literature, art, his 
 tory, and politics was, perhaps, unsurpassed in his day. Around 
 there on the extreme right sat Henry A. Wise, the distin 
 guished member from Accomack, Virginia, then recognized 
 as the most eloquent member of the House. He was soon 
 transferred to a higher public service. A little in his rear and 
 still on the right of the Speaker sat Lucius Q. C. Elmer, an 
 accomplished member from New Jersey, who was then at the 
 head of the Committee of Elections, who is still living, I be 
 lieve, and enjoying in his old age that otium cum dignitate 
 which is the crowning glory of a well-spent life. 
 
 Still further to his right on the same side was the venerable 
 William Wilkins, of Pennsylvania, then at the head of the 
 
ADDRESS OF ME. STEPHENS ON THE 
 
 Committee on the Judiciary. A little in front of him, and 
 near where Mr. FERNANDO WOOD now sits, was James J. 
 McKay, of North Carolina, then head of the Committee of 
 Ways and Means. In all respects he seemed to be formed 
 after the model of his great predecessor, Nathaniel Macon. 
 Then near up in front sat Robert C. Winthrop, one of the 
 acknowledged leaders on the whig side of the Chamber. Just 
 over on the other side of the middle aisle, on the left of the 
 Speaker, sat the brothers, Joseph E. and Jared Ingersoll, 
 from Pennsylvania, both leaders, though on opposite sides in 
 politics, Joseph E. being a whig and Jared a democrat. The 
 latter was then at the head of the Committee on Foreign 
 Affairs. Then a little to the rear of these and farther to the 
 left sat Samuel F. Vinton, of Ohio, whose acquaintance with 
 the rules, great prudence, and sound judgment rendered him, 
 perhaps, the most prominent leader on the whig side. 
 
 Allow me here to digress to say that the accomplished 
 daughter of this great statesman, Mrs. Madeline Vinton Dahl- 
 gren, now lives in the city, and for several years has been 
 the center of a literary society which does honor, not only to 
 the metropolis, but to the whole country, and from whose pen 
 there has been added a very valuable contribution to our 
 political literature by her admirable translation from the French 
 of Adolphe De Chambrun s treatise on the " Executive power 
 of the United States." 
 
 Just to the right of Mr. Vinton and a little farther to the 
 left of the Speaker sat another whig leader. This was Garrett 
 Davis, of Kentucky, ever active, watchful, and vigilant. 
 
 Th<5 head of the Committee on Commerce at that time was 
 Isaac E. Holmes, of Charleston, South Carolina. He was one 
 of the most pleasant and agreeable men of the House. His 
 colleague, Hon. E. Barnwell Ehett, was then already distin- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 53 
 
 guished as one of the most prominent members of the House 
 and statesmen of the country. He was then in the prime of 
 life and full vigor of manhood. He had been here for several 
 years, and, perhaps, at that time was at the height of his dis 
 tinction. His seat was just there near the front. 
 
 Among the whig leaders in that Congress two others must 
 be mentioned. One was Kenneth Eayner, of North Carolina, 
 who is at present Solicitor of the Treasury; and the other 
 was John P. Kennedy, of Maryland, the biographer of Wirt. 
 All these were of the older class or of former Congresses. 
 
 With me in the Twenty-eighth Congress came quite a shoal 
 of new members, many of whom have acted important parts 
 in the history of the country since. Of these standing out 
 most prominently in my memory at this moment are HAN 
 NIBAL HAMLIN, of Maine, since Vice-President of the United 
 States, and now Senator in the other wing of the Capitol. 
 Stephen A. Douglas and John A. McClernand, of Illinois, the 
 latter of whom acted a very conspicuous part in the late war, 
 and presided over the Saint Louis convention of 1876, while 
 the name and fame of Douglas are deeply engraven upon the 
 pages of our country s history. Andrew Johnson, of Ten 
 nessee, who first became Vice-President and then President 
 of the United States. Alexander Eamsey, of Pennsylvania, 
 who is now Secretary of War. Hamilton Fish, of New York, 
 who for eight years presided with so much ability and distinc 
 tion over the State Department. Eobert C. Schenck, of Ohio, 
 who has since served his country in many high positions, and 
 who still lives, and is a citizen of this city. Preston King, 
 of New York ; John Slidell, of Louisiana ; John P. Hale, of 
 New Hampshire ; Eobert McClelland, of Michigan ; George P. 
 Marsh, of Vermont ; George W. Jones, of Tennessee ; Thomas 
 L. Clingman, of North Carolina, and Ho well Cobb, of Georgia. 
 
54 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. STEPHENS ON THE 
 
 Robert Toombs, another distinguished Georgian, who has 
 acted a great part since, and Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, 
 and William L. Yancey, of Alabama, came in two years after. 
 All these and others in that shoal have figured extensively in 
 the subsequent history of our country. Most of them, it is 
 true, have gone to their long homes a few of them are still 
 surviving. One in that list, not yet mentioned, I cannot omit 
 on this occasion. I refer to Felix Grundy McConnell, of Ala 
 bama. He was one of the most extraordinary men I ever met 
 with. Those who knew him can never forget him. He was 
 without education, but with talents of the highest order. He 
 was the original author and mover of the homestead idea in 
 relation to the public lands. He was cut down early in life, 
 lamented by all. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, a glance at the Senate as it was then 
 composed : There was George Evans, of Maine ; Levi Wood- 
 bury, of New Hampshire ; the brilliant and eloquent Choate, 
 of Massachusetts; Silas Wright, of New York; William L. 
 Dayton, of New Jersey ; James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania ; 
 William C. Eives and William S. Archer, of Virginia ; Willie 
 P. Mangum, of North Carolina; George McDuffie, of South 
 Carolina; John M. Berrien and Walter T. Colquitt, of Georgia; 
 William E. King and Arthur P. Bagby, of Alabama ; Eobert 
 J. Walker, of Mississippi ; John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky ; 
 William Allen, of Ohio; Thomas H. Benton and David E. 
 Atchison, of Missouri. 
 
 These were all giants in intellect and Titans in debate, 
 although neither Calhoun. Clay, nor Webster, the great trio 
 of American orators and statesmen, was then in that body. 
 Calhoun was in voluntary retirement, and was soon called to 
 the State Department. Clay had left the Senate the year 
 before to lead the whigs in the presidential canvass of 1844. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 55 
 
 Webster had just left Tyler s cabinet, after the ratification of 
 the treaty of Washington, which was his masterpiece of diplo 
 macy. By it an amicable and advantageous settlement was 
 effected on the long- vexed question of the northeastern bound 
 ary between the United States and the British Possessions. 
 For remaining in Tyler s cabinet to accomplish this great and 
 patriotic purpose he had excited the opposition of his party 
 associates throughout the country, and had especially excited 
 great indignation on the part of the whigs in Massachusetts. 
 This was a memorable epoch in his life. He went to Boston 
 to defend himself. In speaking of this crisis in his affairs, I 
 may be excused on this occasion in quoting what Theodore 
 Parker said of Mr. Webster at that time : 
 
 The clouds had thickened into blackness, all around and over him, and 
 hurled their thunders fearfully upon his devoted head, but there he stood in 
 Faneuil Hall and thundered back again. It was the ground lightning from 
 his Olympian brain. 
 
 Mr. Webster s contest with the whigs of Massachusetts 
 ended with his again being returned to the Senate in 1845, 
 where he again met Mr. Calhoun, and where they both again 
 met Mr. Clay in 1849. 
 
 With several changes in the personnel before stated, the 
 American Senate was perhaps at this period the most august 
 body ever before assembled in this country. Cass was there. 
 Hunter was there. Seward was there. Davis and Foote, of 
 Mississippi, were there. Douglas was there. It was by this 
 body and the House of Eepresentatives, after a most exciting 
 and protracted debate for months, that the great sectional 
 questions were peacefully adjusted in 1850, under the lead and 
 auspices mainly of Clay, Webster, Cass, Foote, and Douglas. 
 Mr. Calhoun died while the debate was going on. 
 
 But, Mr. Speaker, I can indulge in these reminiscences no 
 
56 ADDRESS OF MR. WRIGHT ON THE 
 
 longer. They were suggested by the occasion. From what 
 has been said some idea can be formed of the character of the 
 men with whom GEORGE S. HOUSTON was brought in contact 
 through his eventful life, of which others will speak; and 
 therefore the more correct estimate may be placed upon the 
 merits of one who, under the circumstances, achieved the dis 
 tinction he did. It was certainly enough to gratify the highest 
 ambition, but he, if I understood him, had no ambition but to 
 perform his duty, and in its faithful discharge to render him 
 self useful to his fellow-men in his day and generation. Honor 
 to his memory, and peace to his ashes. 
 
 Address of Mr. WRIGHT, of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, it was a great many years ago that I met Mr. 
 HOUSTON in public life. In the Thirty-third Congress, which 
 is nearly a third of a century since, I first met him. We then 
 occupied the old hall of the Capitol. The foundations of this 
 Chamber had not been laid when Mr. HOUSTON and I came 
 into this legislative body. I refer back through that long 
 series of years with a great deal of satisfaction in the remi 
 niscences that I make now and then of the old, solid men who 
 were associated with me in the legislation of that period. 
 When we met here, sir, I found in the House of Eepresenta- 
 tives in that Thirty-third Congress such men as Thomas H. 
 Benton, ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, Thomas H. Bailey, John 
 Letcher, George W. Jones, John C. Breckinridge, and Thomas 
 A. Hendricks. Contemporaneous with us in the other branch 
 of the National Legislature there were Mr. Everett, Charles 
 Sumner, Stephen A. Douglas, Salmon P. Chase, Lewis Cass, 
 William H. Seward, E. M. T. Hunter, and many others 
 
LITE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 57 
 
 that I might name. So that at the time to which I refer, and 
 when I first formed the acquaintance of Governor HOUSTON, 
 there were not only eminent men in this House, but very emi 
 nent men in the co-ordinate branch of Congress. Even amidst 
 this array of celebrated men Governor HOUSTON, although 
 perhaps he might not rank in point of intellect and power 
 with some of the men whom I have named, at that time in 
 this House had a prominent standing and an exalted position. 
 He was chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, which 
 then had more significance, I am sorry to say, than it has now 
 I do not speak disparagingly of the ability of the gentlemen 
 who compose it now, but of the character and standing that 
 the committee under the rules of the House ought to have. It 
 was a proud and an honored position to be held among the dis 
 tinguished men to whom I have referred. But a few years be 
 fore this time the Senate presented a galaxy of intellectual 
 power that has never been exceeded in the history of this 
 country or of any other in the world. I refer to the days when 
 Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Webster, and Mr. Clay occupied positions 
 in the Senate, and other gentlemen of almost equal ability 
 composed the Senate of the United States. The time I speak 
 of, when I came here, these distinguished men had passed 
 away. 
 
 I was present in the Senate when the eulogies were pro 
 nounced on Mr. Clay, and they made a great impression 
 upon me. Men in those days could listen to eulogies on their 
 dead colleagues and not employ themselves in conversing or 
 making disorder in the galleries. It would seem to be in bet 
 ter taste now to follow the example. 
 
 Governor HOUSTON I met for the last time previous to my 
 leaving for my home during the holidays. He then appeared 
 to be in good ordinary health, but the insidious enemy was 
 
 8 H 
 
58 ADDRESS OF ME. WEIGHT ON THE 
 
 upon his track the enemy that is upon the track of all of us, 
 and when and - where he shall come is unknown to any of us. 
 There are some things, Mr. Speaker, that we do know : 
 
 We know that moons shall wane, 
 
 And summer birds from far shall cross the sea ; 
 
 But who shall tell us when to look for death? 
 
 Ah, Mr. Speaker, 
 
 He has all seasons for his own. 
 
 Governor HOUSTON was my junior by some three years, and 
 in the ordinary course of nature I should have preceded him 
 upon the journey to that goal in the distance that is so little 
 known to us all, but which sooner or latter it is part of our -des 
 tiny to make. In my associations with Governor HOUSTON I 
 found him not what the world might call a great man, but bet 
 ter than that, Mr. Speaker, I found him to be an honest man 
 and a good man, and greatness without these additional quali 
 fications amounts to literally nothing in making up and form 
 ing the true standard of human character. Greatness without 
 those essential qualities of the mind and heart, kindness, good 
 ness, charity, honesty, is sadly robbed of its exalted status. 
 
 There are arbitrary terms we use in speaking of the attri 
 butes of human character. There are terms which we use in 
 forming our opinion and estimate of the human mind, and I 
 have lived to a long period and have mingled with a great 
 many men, but in forming my opinion of what I regard as the 
 character of a great man I want something else than genius as 
 the sole qualification of a statesman, a warrior, or a distin 
 guished jurist. I want greatness to go beyond that point. I 
 want a man great in the noble qualities which distinguish our 
 race; not 
 
 Great like Cfesar stained in blood, 
 But only great as we are good. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 
 
 59 
 
 So I classify my distinguished friend now deceased, the 
 friend of my early days, a man whose kind, generous heart 
 endeared him to me ; a man without guile. 
 
 I heard it said here, in these opening eulogies, on the part 
 of the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. FORNEY], that during the 
 long period of Governor HOUSTON S life no charge had ever 
 been brought home to him of dishonesty, either in public or 
 private life. Heavens ! That is the reputation that makes a 
 man great. Nearly a third of a century in Congress, and no 
 charge of malfeasance made against him. The voice of slan 
 der even hushed ; that forked tongue which throws its venom 
 against the good, the honest, the prudent in short, against 
 many men of pure principles and upright life. How should he 
 have escaped? 
 
 If there be any one thing dearer to me than another in form 
 ing the estimate of the true character of my friend, let it be said 
 that he hais been of some service to his fellow-creatures, and 
 possessing those elements of greatness that lead him to the 
 giving of relief to others. That is true greatness. I do not 
 detract from the reputation of those who have won their spurs 
 upon the battle-field ; I do not detract from the reputation of 
 those who have led senates and in that sphere obtained a great 
 and renewed reputation ; I do not detract from those who have 
 been renowned in the administration of the laws of the land. 
 They have gained their laurels; let them wear them. But I 
 hold in higher regard the reputation of those who have not 
 reached such exalted positions, but who have excelled in all 
 the great qualifications that adorn the human heart and place 
 the crown upon the human head. I want such qualifications 
 to be considered a part and parcel of those who in these days 
 constitute greatness not greatness in one thing, but great 
 ness in all things. 
 
60 ADDRESS OF MR. WRIGHT ON THE 
 
 We have before us to-day the history of a man who has 
 passed a score of years in public life and whose reputation 
 for honesty and integrity has grown brighter and brighter, 
 though there have been occasions when temptations have 
 been great, in the way of virtuous life. Such are the tradi 
 tions of times past. He maintained unsullied his reputation, 
 and even to the end of his career he is the same kind, gen 
 erous, and upright man ; his eye constantly on his duties here, 
 fighting for a frugal administration of the government, he has 
 won no enemies and made all his friends. That, Mr. Speaker, 
 is greatness according to my conception of the word. 
 
 So he pursued his onward way, beloved by all, liked by all, 
 despised by none. Peacefully and quietly he goes down to 
 his grave when no voice can be raised against him or any of 
 the transactions of his life. Sir, it gives me pleasure to stand 
 up here before this House and before the nation and record 
 in strong language my admiration and my approval of a man 
 so distinguished through so long a period of public life. 
 Hushed is the voice of defamation. He is beyond the reach 
 of calumny, because none are so daring as to cast the impu 
 tation. 
 
 I felt it my duty to say this much in memory of an old and 
 highly-esteemed friend. I should perhaps, in justice to his 
 memory, have reduced my thoughts to paper and have pre 
 sented them in a more condensed and appropriate way. My 
 time was too much occupied ; but, preferring to say something, 
 I trusted to the inspiration of the occasion. What I have 
 said was from the impulse of the moment, and perhaps better 
 conceived and better said th:m if I had sat in my closet for a 
 week preparing a eulogy. God bless the memory of GEORGKE 
 S. HOUSTON. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 01 
 
 Address of Mr. WOOD, of New York. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, I cannot let this melancholy occasion pass 
 without adding a word in commemoration of the distinguished 
 deceased. Although L did not know him as well by personal 
 association as others, I think none now in congressional life 
 knew him so early and so long. I met him first as an asso 
 ciate member of the Twenty-seventh Congress, in the month 
 of May, 1841, which is now nearly thirty -nine years ago. He 
 was a leading man at that time, in a Congress distinguished 
 for the presence in this body of John Qumcy Adams, Millard 
 Fillmore, Henry A. Wise, Robert C. Winthrop, E. M. T. Hun 
 ter, and others, foremost in the annals of American legisla 
 tion, while in the Senate were John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, 
 Daniel Webster, Thomas H. Benton, Silas Wright, and others, 
 whose fame and names stand in history as among the first of 
 modern statesmen. To have been a noticeable man among 
 such men was of itself sufficient to entitle one to a claim for 
 eminence. 
 
 And such a man was GEORGE S. HOUSTON. He possessed 
 a clear, calm, and solid intellectual force. Without ornament 
 or effort for display in debate, he was always intelligent and 
 instructive. I well remember him at that time as a kind gen 
 tleman, obliging to the younger members, and always of serv 
 ice in enabling us to acquire a knowledge of the practice of 
 the House. He has gone ! He has but followed to the grave 
 nearly every member of that Congress. The places that knew 
 them then in these halls "shall know them no more forever." 
 One by one have those who figured so conspicuously in the 
 debates upon this floor, and who led their followers in forensic 
 struggles, one by one have they gone down amid all their 
 honors to the last sad resting-place of departed glory. Sir, 
 
62 ADDRESS OF ME. HAEEIS ON THE 
 
 when I look around upon my associates now and remember 
 those to whom I held the same relations then, I am more than 
 impressed with the stern realities of time and the inexorable 
 demands of nature. 
 
 Not one of the men with whom I served in the Twenty-sev 
 enth Congress is here now, and but few ay, indeed, but 
 eight or ten out of the three hundred members of both Houses 
 are living. Gone forever! 
 
 When these thoughts force themselves upon me and I am 
 brought face to face with this melancholy fact, when 1 look 
 upon these seats and fail to find one, not one, of my early 
 associates in Congress, it looks cheerless and dark. Sad 
 thoughts are forced upon me, and the narrow and growing 
 narrower period of my own continuance is made more evident 
 and more positive. 
 
 I feel like one who treads alone 
 
 Some banquet-hall deserted; 
 Whose lights are fled, whose garlands dead, 
 
 And all but he departed. 
 
 Address of Mr. HARRIS, of Virginia. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKEE, for the last twenty years I was honored 
 with the friendship of the gentleman whose death the country 
 now mourns, and who served it so faithfully in varied and 
 highly responsible positions. From intimate knowledge of 
 his character, his proper meed of praise must emanate from 
 an abler source than mine. Our friendship began as members 
 of this body during that trying epoch in the history of na 
 tions the Thirty-sixth Congress embracing the year 1860 
 to 1861. During that stormy period his counsel and his votes 
 were always in the interest of peace and for the perpetuity 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 63 
 
 of the Union. His thoughtful mind comprehended the perils 
 of the times. He saw the storm in the near future and bent 
 all the energies of his ardent and patriotic nature to avert it. 
 
 Since his entry upon the stage of public action so many 
 changes have swept across the face of society that his reten 
 tion of confidence and support has but seldom been paralleled 
 in our political history. For over twenty years before I made 
 his acquaintance or was honored with his friendship his people 
 had intrusted him with high and responsible duties. When 
 his career began the country was comparatively in its infancy, 
 struggling with the ill-concealed hostility of the great and des 
 potic states of the Old World. When it needed the fostering 
 care of brave hearts and great minds he was one of its stanch - 
 est supporters and ablest advocates and defenders. When 
 death sought and conquered himt he feeble Government of his 
 early career had grown to gigantic proportions; a thousand 
 varied and conflicting interests had subjected our institutions 
 to the strains that follow far-reaching territory and large popu 
 lations had changed us from a people who then subordinated 
 everything to love of country to a people whose national inter 
 ests compelled each locality to contend for the maintenance of 
 an equal balance of the favors and the protection governments 
 afford. 
 
 A period intermediate between his entry into public life and 
 his death represented one of the darkest eras in human history ; 
 when our unhappy country was torn by civil conflict the like 
 of which perhaps has never been witnessed since the morning 
 of creation; when brother was arrayed against brother in deadly 
 strife and all our rivers ran red with the blood of the bravest 
 and the best of our sons as a result of which institutions that 
 had given shape and characteristics to the society that had 
 always honored him were swept from existence by a decree as 
 
64 ADDRESS OF MR. HARRIS ON THE 
 
 eternal as the mountains, and a new order of things shaped 
 from political chaos was to be wrought out for the salvation 
 of his people. 
 
 His was the hand to which his neighbors intrusted the- helm. 
 That he faithfully and successfully fulfilled this high mission 
 is now recorded in public history. His epitaph is written in 
 the praises of a redeemed, a great, and a free State. His judg 
 ment was so tempered by sound philosophy that no sentiment 
 ever escaped his lips during his whole career that could affect 
 the nicest sectional susceptibilities. While loving the State 
 that had fostered and trusted him in his youth and sustained 
 him in his manhood, he was as broad as his country and as just 
 as Aristides. His counsels during the short period he served 
 in the Senate tended always to the promotion of peace among 
 all our people, and his ambition was that the institutions 
 handed down by our fathers should be perpetuated here to so 
 elevate mankind that by force of example empires and k ing- 
 doms would crumble to dust, and that the people should be the 
 masters of their own destiny throughout the world. 
 
 Such men always die too young; but their example lives 
 after them, and so molds and shapes coming events that the 
 order of affairs is tending ever to a higher and a more just 
 public control, is tending ever in a republican government 
 against turbulence and bloodshed; is carving a pathway 
 through the darkness of the past to a brighter, more hopeful, 
 and peaceful future. In losing the dead Senator the Union 
 has lost an able defender, every honest and good man an 
 admirer, and myself one of the best of friends and the safest 
 of advisers. To those more nearly allied to him the solace is 
 that his spirit is with his and their kindred in the presence of 
 the Most High; that the purity and justice of his life assure 
 him a blessed immortality. 
 
LIFE AND /fefPATEACTEB OF GEOROE S. HOUSTON. 65 
 
 Address of Mr. HOUSE, of Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, the career of the politician and statesman in 
 this country is beset with as many difficulties and burdened 
 with as many cares as man is called to meet on any other path 
 of life which duty or ambition may prompt him to travel. To 
 the young and aspiring, fancy invests no place with more fasci 
 nating attractions than that of high political position. In a 
 land where the very highest office under the Government is 
 open to the obscurest boy, and where the very humblest have 
 reached the exalted position, it could not be otherwise than 
 that the avenues to political preferment should be crowded 
 with eager aspirants. But along the track of political conflict . 
 how many hopes have been wrecked and how many dreams 
 have perished ! And even among those who reach the goal of 
 their ambition, how many feel in the very hour of their success 
 that they have but imitated the ardent boy that chases the 
 gay butterfly only to find it, when caught, turn to gilded dust 
 upon his fingers. The man of the people treads no flowery 
 path. He lives and moves in the glare of public observation, 
 his motives often impugned, his private character perhaps 
 criticised and assailed, his course always open to the animad 
 version of 1 political foes and watched with unfriendly scrutiny, 
 it may be, even by political friends, with the hope of detecting 
 some fault or mistake in his public service which may forfeit 
 the support of his constituents and cause them to retire him in 
 favor of some more fortunate rival. His whole career is often 
 an animated struggle for political existence, in which he is ex 
 posed at the same time to a fire in front and rear. Even if vic 
 torious in the unequal conflict, he frequently receives wounds 
 that follow him to the grave. 
 
 His private character is too often considered public property, 
 
 9 H 
 
66 ADDRESS OF ME. HOUSE ON THE 
 
 which the irresponsible scribbler feels himself licensed to deal 
 with as he would partake of a free lunch or speak of the 
 weather. In the partisan struggles of this country there has 
 always been too little regard paid to personal reputation. It 
 has been too much the custom to regard everything fair in poli 
 tics, as in war, and to treat a political adversary as an outlaw 
 against whom it is legitimate to use even poisoned weapons of 
 warfare. There are too many leading journals that do not hes 
 itate to publish any rumor against a political adversary which 
 will create a sensation or score a point against the opposite 
 party. The rumor may be wholly unfounded j its publication 
 may blast a human life and plant a thorn that will rankle in 
 innocent hearts until they cease to beat j but the newspaper 
 has enjoyed the profit of a sensation and the pleasure of befoul 
 ing the reputation of a political opponent. Tis but a poor 
 recompense to a man thus injured and slandered, and to his 
 suffering family, to be told by the newspaper that has voiced 
 the scandal to its thousands of readers that he can have the 
 use of its columns to refute the calumny. Equipped in its 
 seven-league boots the falsehood sets out on its journey and 
 laughs to scorn all the efforts that truth can make to overtake 
 and disarm it. 
 
 The press of the country should lift itself above the level of 
 the common tale-bearer and scandal-monger. Neither the race 
 of diligence in giving news to the public, nor a desire to win 
 a character for enterprise, nor an effort to promote the fortunes 
 of a political party should cause our public journals to wield 
 the immense power they possess to destroy private character. 
 No meritorious cause is subserved by unjust and libelous 
 attacks on individual reputation. No man who occupies a pub 
 lic position can claim to be exempt from criticism. His public 
 acts are public property, and he has no right to complain if 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 67 
 
 they are censured or condemned. But every man, as long as 
 he conducts himself as a gentleman, has a right to expect and 
 demand that his private character shall be free from the 
 assaults of falsehood and calumny. But how many of our 
 distinguished public men have enjoyed this immunity while 
 battling with the elements of party strife and climbing to the 
 mountain ranges of political ambition ? But however unhappy 
 the life of a public man may be made by this uncivilized mode 
 of warfare, he may always console himself with the reflection 
 that the people are neither unjust nor ungenerous to a faithful 
 public servant. If he is true to his trust, true to himself, and 
 true to his constituents, they will neither withdraw their confi 
 dence from him nor suffer his name to be cast out as evil. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, it fell to the lot of the distinguished subject of 
 these memorial services to spend a great portion of his man 
 hood upon the stormy theater of political life. He met its 
 perils, faced its antagonisms, bore its criticisms, engaged in its 
 conflicts, and retired from the long-fought and well- fought field 
 with no stain on his name and no reproach ou his memory. 
 More fortunate than many others, the tongue of slander never 
 assailed his honor or impeached his reputation even in the 
 fierce and bitter struggles of partisan warfare. He was born 
 in Williamson County, Tennessee, in the year 1809. When he 
 was only twelve years of age his parents removed to the State 
 of Alabama. As Tennessee gave him to Alabama, it is not 
 inappropriate that the voice of the mother should mingle in 
 the solemn ceremonies in honor of his memory and feel a por 
 tion of the pride with which his adopted State must ever cher 
 ish his fame. At the early age of twenty-three years he was 
 elected a member of the Legislature, the year after he was 
 licensed to practice law. 
 
 In 1834 he removed to Limestone County, Alabama, to prac- 
 
68 ADDRESS OF MR. HOUSE ON THE 
 
 tice his profession. In 1837 he was elected solicitor of his dis 
 trict, which position he continued to hold until he was elected 
 to Congress in 1841 . He served his district in Congress for 
 eighteeu years, with an interval of only one term, when he vol 
 untarily declined to be a candidate. Though often opposed by 
 men of ability in his district, and engaging in warm and ani 
 mated contests, he was never defeated before the people. His 
 congressional career is a part of the history of the country. 
 He was for several terms chairman of the Committee of Ways 
 and Means, at a time when that leading committee of the 
 House of Representatives, in addition to its other important 
 and onerous duties, was charged with the responsibility of 
 preparing the appropriation bills. His distinguished services 
 at the head of this committee of the House, which numbered 
 among its members at that time many eminent men, stamps 
 him as a man of no ordinary attainments and ability. It may 
 be safely said that no man at that time exerted a greater in 
 fluence over the legislation of the House than GEORGE S. 
 HOUSTON. He may not have possessed, in as high a degree 
 as some others, those dazzling and brilliant qualities which 
 readily captivate the public mind, but in soundness of judg 
 ment, in political wisdom, in thorough comprehension of the 
 subjects of legislation, in strength of will, firmness of pur 
 pose, indomitable energy, and patient, laborious, and conscien 
 tious discharge of duty, he stood, and deserved to stand, in 
 the front rank. 
 
 He may not have had what is popularly called genius, what 
 ever that is, but he had in an eminent degree what Buffon, the 
 great naturalist, denominated genius patience. His long and 
 useful career in the national councils is a monument to his 
 ability as a statesman and his integrity as a man. When his 
 State determined to withdraw from the Union, he resigned his 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GKEO11GE S. HOUSTON. 69 
 
 position as a member of this House, and went home to share 
 the fortunes, good or ill, of the people who had honored and 
 trusted him, although in the presidential campaign of 1860 he 
 had opposed secession and supported Stephen A. Douglas for 
 President. I care not to pause or comment upon the course he 
 saw fit to take in this great and trying emergency when Ala 
 bama decided to sever her connection with the national Union. 
 Suffice it to say, he was incapable of taking any step which to 
 him did not seem dictated by duty and sanctioned by honor. 
 I leave his action and his motives, together with the actions 
 and motives of others, who, under like circumstances, pursued 
 a similar course, to the calm judgment of just men, whose 
 applause or censure is alone worthy of being prized or depre 
 cated. 
 
 Soon after the war Mr. HOUSTON was elected to the United 
 States Senate from Alabama, but was not allowed to take the 
 seat to which he was elected. Though deprived of the honor 
 of representing his State in the Senate, there was one thing of 
 which those who denied him his seat could not deprive him, 
 and that was the consciousness that Alabama considered him 
 worthy of the high honor and conferred it upon him. In 1874 
 he was elected governor, and was again elected to the same 
 position in 1876. During his term of service as governor, the 
 difficult problem of a State debt, with which so many of the 
 wasted States of the South had to struggle since the war, came 
 up for solution. I remember to have had a conversation with 
 Governor HOUSTON on the subject of the debt of his State. 
 Every instinct and impulse of his nature rose in rebellion at 
 the idea that Alabama should incur the odium of repudiation. 
 Under his wise, patriotic, and judicious guidance the debt was 
 adjusted upon terms satisfactory to the State and her creditors 
 and honorable to both. He led Alabama through this ordeal 
 
70 ADDRESS OF MR. HOUSE ON THE 
 
 safely, and had the proud satisfaction of seeing the State he 
 loved so well and for which he had labored so faithfully stand 
 without a stain upon her escutcheon or a cloud upon her title 
 to honorable recognition among her sister Commonwealths. 
 
 As honorable, faithful, and distinguished as were his services 
 in the national councils before the war, his labors and influence 
 after the great struggle had closed, in readjusting Alabama to 
 the new order of things and the changed condition of affairs 
 must ever form the brightest chapter in the history of his long 
 and successful public life. The services and counsels of such 
 a man at such a time cannot be well overestimated. The State 
 acknowledged and appreciated his services in her behalf. At 
 the close of his gubernatorial term he was again elected to the 
 Senate of the United States, and took his seat in that body on 
 the 4th day of March, 1879. But he was not long permitted to 
 wear this crowning honor of his people and his State. On the 
 31st of December, 1879, the venerable statesman was gathered 
 to his fathers. He was followed to the grave by the people 
 whose trust he had never betrayed, whose honor he had never 
 compromised, whose cause he had never deserted, and whose 
 confidence and affection he had proudly worn as his crown of 
 glory. Surely, if anything can adequately compensate a man 
 for passing through the strife and turmoil and bitterness and 
 unrest of political life, Senator HOUSTON had cause to be con 
 tent with his lot. He now sleeps beyond the reach of praise or 
 censure, but his fame is in the custody of those who will guard 
 it well. When, in the coming years, Alabama, like another Old 
 Mortality, shall make her solemn rounds to rechisel the fading- 
 names of her distinguished dead upon the marble that guards 
 their sleeping dust, she will pause at the grave of GEORGE S. 
 HOUSTON, 
 
 To bless the turf that wraps his clay. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 71 
 
 Upon her roll of honor she will point to the name of no other 
 son with fonder pride ; for no other son of hers has ever given 
 her greater cause to cherish his memory and to revere his name. 
 
 Address of Mr. Cox, of New York. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, one of the compensations for death is the be 
 lief that, when it comes, the errors of our life will be buried 
 with the mortal body, and the eccentricities of our human 
 nature be rounded into a shining orbit of charity. Who would 
 speak of the dead save in the phrases of loving kindness? 
 Barely have I felt that a word of mine in their eulogy could do 
 adequate justice to the merits of deceased friends. But when 
 manly men, like Stephen A. Douglas, Michael C. Kerr, and 
 GEORGE S. HOUSTON fall here in the sphere of duty, and when 
 their characters present so much to praise, I have overcome my 
 reluctance and entered upon the threshold of the unseen world 
 with the unreserve of enthusiasm. 
 
 If excuse were needed for taking part in this ceremony, is it 
 not enough that I knew Governor HOUSTON during a part of 
 his early service here more than a score of years ago ? I knew 
 him, to respect his talents and love his character. His kind 
 ness to young members was remarked by my colleague, and 
 this is why my recollection of him is embalmed so sweetly now. 
 Indeed, as early as the Thirty-fourth Congress, in 1854, I had 
 remarked him towering as a conspicuous figure in yonder old 
 hall, commanding the attention and consummating the work of 
 this House. In the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses 
 we sat together upon this side of the Chamber. Here his prac 
 tical mind and generous qualities gave him pre eminence. He 
 was prominent in debate, not merely because of his readiness 
 
72 ADDRESS OF MR. COX ON THE 
 
 and fullness in details and his knowledge of parliamentary 
 methods, but for his large views and patriotic sentiments. 
 
 That he was thus accoutered for duty was owing to his great 
 experience in public affairs, his influence among men, his cour 
 ageous and charitable opinions of his fellows, and -his ready 
 familiarity with the structure and essence of our Government 
 and its complicated and refined polity. This experience was 
 gained by close attention to his duties in every province where 
 he was called, and to the maturity and reliability of his judg 
 ment, and to his prophetic insight into the needs of his Com 
 monwealth and the country. 
 
 Forty years ago he lifted his voice, here for frugality and 
 honesty. As chairman of the Ways and Means he allowed no 
 prodigality to give meretricious splendor to the Federal sys 
 tem. To him squandering was almost crime. I never recall 
 his services in those Congresses before the war that I do not 
 associate with him two other statesmen, George W. Jones, of 
 Tennessee, and John Letcher, of Virginia, whose aims and 
 efforts should be forever a living pattern. 
 
 His first elaborate effort in the Twenty-seventh Congress was 
 for the restraint of legislation here within the narrowest limits 
 and against implied powers. He would leave all legislation to 
 the States "over subjects where they could as amply and bene 
 ficially legislate as Congress." This was the key-note of all his 
 service. As early as 1842 he ably contested the power of Con 
 gress over elections, holding them to be aloof from Federal 
 supervision. He was not only a strict economist, but jealous 
 and denunciatory of the Senate on money bills. That body, he 
 thought, should defer to the -House, the immediate representa 
 tives of the people, but if they did not, he was for appealing 
 to the people. 
 
 He was a bold denouncer of tariff tyranny, as his speech in 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 73 
 
 1844 shows. His wisdom as to the public lands was often 
 evinced in the early period of his service, for he held our lands 
 to be a trust for the people, and not for speculative greed. 
 
 During these years, Texas annexation and the Oregon bound 
 ary were leading themes. I need not say upon which side this 
 courageous statesman stood. His Oregon speech, and indeed 
 all of his elaborate speeches, are remarkable for exhaustive re 
 search, perspicuity, defiance, and patriotism. Perhaps the best 
 element of his character was his fearlessness and self-abnega 
 tion. In a speech against the general internal improvement 
 system, on the 26th of May, 1846, he avowed his opposition to 
 the appropriation for his own Tennessee Eiver, and especially 
 when associated with streams less consequential. Though the 
 river ran between States and through States navigable but 
 for obstructions for eight hundred miles, washing seven of the 
 leading agricultural and planting States, and a link between 
 the Atlantic, the West, and the Gulf still he would not coun 
 tenance the system which took unequally from one portion of 
 the country to give to another. He would have equal exac 
 tions and equal favors or none. He thus defied the wishes of 
 his people, exclaiming : "I value too highly the little character 
 I have earned in the public service to forfeit it for office or by 
 corrupt bargains." 
 
 This independence was rewarded, for his constituents saw in 
 it the best type of a trustworthy representative. 
 
 Whether in scrutinizing the expenses of our Army and re 
 quiring accountability for the least item, or arguing against 
 subsidies to the Collins steamers as fraught with partiality 
 and unjust to fair and free trade; whether defending the 
 privileges of the House or vindicating the supremacy of the 
 treaty-making power, he brought to the debate pithy sen 
 tences and linked logic, now and then relieved by flashes of 
 
 10 H 
 
74 ADDRESS OF MR. COX ON THE 
 
 facetiae and all subordinated to a sense of honor, justice, and 
 patriotism. 
 
 When, on the 16th of February, 1853, his Committee of Ways 
 and Means and that Congress were criticised as not being com 
 parable to earlier committees and Congresses, he defended their 
 assiduity and economy, and, rising into an eloquent panegyric 
 of the great and good men who once adorned the House, and 
 referring to the mutations which time had wrought, he softened 
 acrimony into praise, by saying : 
 
 Truly, Mr. Chairman, changes have taken place. In that the gentleman 
 and myself are perfectly agreed. But, sir, changes are inevitable, and it is 
 not for us to complain of the decrees of fate or of evils over which we have 
 no control. We must make the best we can of our present condition, while 
 our hopes, our aspirations, and our efforts should be directed to the ame 
 lioration of the ills that surround us and the removal of the obstacles that 
 lie in the way of our usefulness. Such is the teaching of philosophy, such 
 the dictate of justice. 
 
 The changes which he then described have been more re 
 markable since. Death has been busy with those who belonged 
 to that Thirty-fifth Congress in which we first met. Their roll 
 is lessening year by year. It was the first Congress in which 
 I served. The old Hall and its members, by some natural law 
 of memory, rise before me with photographic vividness and 
 with more dramatic interest than even later Congresses, in this 
 new Chamber. It was during that Congress, on the 17th of 
 December, 1857, that we migrated to this Hall. I recall the 
 solemn prayer of our Chaplain, Eev. Mr. Caruthers, "that it 
 should be made a temple of honor, patriotism, and purity." 
 That scene is the more graphically pictured in memory, as upon 
 that day it was my fortune, good or ill, to make the first speech 
 in this Hall. In that spectacle no form stands out in bolder 
 relief than that of GEORGE S. HOUSTON. How changed, all; 
 and what changes both in the personnel of the House, the 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OP GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 75 
 
 subjects discussed, and the fierce passions which then raged 
 here as the premonition of other conflicts! Ah, sir, our present 
 politics are but a summer s sea, calm and serene ; then it was a 
 frenzied tumult. The wild passions of that time developed the 
 peculiar characteristics of every member. Not more distinct 
 and individual were they than the trees of the forest; and in 
 no one among them is there found so fit an emblem of the tough 
 fiber and gnarled nature of GEORGE S. HOUSTON as in the oak. 
 
 What a galaxy of varied and lustrous attributes shone in 
 that assemblage: the Washburnes, Banks, Thayer, Bishop, 
 General Sickles, John Kelly, Haskins, Corning, and Spinner, 
 of New York; B. Joy Morris, Bocock, Governor Smith, and 
 Faulkner, of Virginia ; Sherman, Giddings, Bingham, and 
 Groesbeck, of Ohio ; Whiteley, Humphrey Marshall, Samuel 
 S. Marshall, Farnsworth, and Maynard, of Tennessee; Mb- 
 lack, English, and Colfax, of Indiana; Craig, Clark, and 
 Phelps, of Missouri; Curtis, of Iowa, and Lane, of Oregon. 
 These survive and have filled honorable stations, while such 
 men as Mr. Speaker Orr, Quitman, Florence, Hickman, Owen 
 Jones, Glancy Jones, Covode, Montgomery, Leiter, Tompkins, 
 Miller, Stanton, Stewart, Henry Winter Davis, John G. Davis, 
 Harlan, Bowie, Millson, Burlingame, Nicholls, Caskie, Gilmer, 
 Stalworth, Shorter, Eustis, Burnett, Clay, Hughes, Petit, Love- 
 joy, Harris, Caruthers, Hawkins, Heady, Goode, Hopkins, Bur 
 ton Craig, McQueen, Seward, Dowdell, Elliott, Peyton, Under 
 wood, Jewett, Warren, and other stars, differing in glory, but 
 now shining in other spheres ! But why, sir, extend this roll 
 of death? One-half of that Congress have crossed the silent 
 river to the viewless realm. The great issues they debated are 
 settled by the stern wager of battle, and their contentions 
 ended in that "other country beyond the sun." 
 
 Five beside myself remain to illustrate the vicissitudes of 
 
76 ADDRESS OF ME. COX ON THE 
 
 political and mortal life; the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. 
 STEPHENS], from Mississippi [Mr. SINGLETON], from Texas 
 [Mr. KEAGAN], from Tennessee [Mr. ATKINS], and from North 
 Carolina [Mr. SCALES]. A few have been transferred to the 
 other branch of Congress; Senators LAMAR, PENDLETON, 
 MORRLLL, and DAWES. Some fell bravely in the fierce en 
 counter to vindicate their thought: Branch, Barksdale, Keitt, 
 Jenkins, Zollicoffer, Moore, Kuffiu, Garnett, Shaw, and others; 
 while of those who fought them, Curtis, Cocker-ill, Blair, and 
 others survived the war only to die where affection admin 
 istered its last offices. The vernal season which is bathing the 
 land in sunlight, and making the melody of birds in the woods; 
 which is warming into new life the beauty of the flower and 
 the splendor of the grass, is weaving its garlands over hillocks 
 where their remains repose. It teaches by its analogy the 
 resurrection and the life of our human bodies. It scatters its 
 flood of floral promise, and bends its iris of hope over the liv 
 ing and the dead, dyed in all the hues of a sunlit heaven, as 
 the covenant of God with man, of our immortality. Amid 
 these changes, I cannot refrain from reflecting that I am left 
 alone here as the surviving member of that Thirty-fifth Con 
 gress from the North, while from the South there remain but 
 the five I have named of that splendid group who challenged 
 the admiration of their opponents by the gifts of eloquence 
 with which they championed and adorned their cause. 
 
 Of this number GEORGE S. HOUSTON, while he was one of 
 the leaders, if not the leader, of legislation, was not one of that 
 galaxy of orators who "graced the noble fervor of the hour" 
 by urging the disparting of our States. 
 
 If southern association could have made GEORGE S. Hous 
 TON a devotee of the peculiar tenets which found their final 
 issue in force, he would have been such a devotee. Born in 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 77 
 
 the State of Tennessee, so prolific of statesmen of heroic mold 
 and civic qualities, deriving his early lineage from Ireland, and 
 on his mother s side his lineage from South Carolina, educated 
 for the law in the State of Kentucky, he sought the fresh and 
 attractive field of Alabama in the morning of his career. After 
 honoring his profession in oflices wherein his legal abilities 
 were displayed, within a decade after his removal to Alabama 
 he was elected to the Federal Congress. He served his State 
 here from 1841 to 1847, when he retired to resume his pro 
 fession. The stirring events of 1850- ol, growing out of peril 
 ous sectional questions, again called him to the front. Here 
 he remained as the faithful trustee of his people until his State 
 seceded. 
 
 He retired with sorrowful heart and brimming eye to his 
 home, for he saw with the prescience of a statesman the terri 
 ble eventualities of the conflict which he always deprecated. 
 
 While the red storm of war raged around his home, he re 
 mained, like many other men equally chivalric, a sad spectator 
 in the conflicts of force. 
 
 When the war ended, and failing then to secure in 1865 and 
 1866 a seat in the Senate to which he was elected, his people, 
 in 1874, sought for him, their first citizen, as the head of the 
 State. He was made their governor, and began the work of 
 building up the waste places which the desolation of war had 
 made. He made a highway for the people; and, lifting his 
 voice above the ruin and .distress around him, he began the 
 work of construction with that sagacious adaptation of means 
 to end which is the distinguishing feature of genuine states 
 manship. 
 
 In seeking for the pivotal characteristic of this representa 
 tive man, it is to the honor of his nature that it is not found in 
 the desire to destroy. There is in every human heart some 
 
78 ADDRESS OF MR. COX ON THE 
 
 controlling thought the end-all and be-all of exertion. It.is 
 that mysterious and inagic inspiration which exalts the daily 
 work of life into a daily beauty. It evokes out the unreal, 
 reality. It is the aura which sustains the intellectual and 
 moral nature, giving it stamina and energy, as the atmosphere 
 sustains our physical existence. It directs the aimless and 
 erratic meanderings of the mind into fruitful, smooth, and 
 healthful currents. It creates the loftier life, and in death it 
 inspires loving hands to weave chaplets for the tomb of the 
 departed. 
 
 The genius of this statesman s life is found as well in his 
 reticence and retiracy, when the havoc of war menaced and 
 ruined his State, as in the vigor with which, when that havoc 
 was over and its debris lay around him in order! ess despair, he 
 removed the charred framework and began to replace it with 
 happy homes and good rule for a contented people. To him 
 more than to any other man in Alabama that State owes its 
 resurrection. He rolled away the stone from its sepulcher, and, 
 like the good angel, guarded its door. Amidst all the perils of 
 surf and sunken rock the warning voice of Governor HOUSTON 
 had here spoken peace and good- will for the tranquillity of the 
 whole land and its indestructible unity. It had spoken in 
 vain. His State was launched on the tide of war. She en 
 listed one hundred and twenty-two thousand of her sons in the 
 Confederate army; one-fourth of them fell fighting for the 
 southern cause. Everywhere, in field and village, city and 
 country, there was devastation. Even after the war, misgov- 
 ernment and maladministration added their cruelties and bur 
 dens to the desolating effects of the war. But these, which 
 were discouragements for others, were to him incentive and 
 ambition. His genius for rebuilding uprose with the dire 
 emergency. It is said of Alabama, after it was traversed by 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 79 
 
 the Spanish army under De Soto, more than three centuries 
 ago, seeking for gold and in the search drenching it in blood, 
 "that the dark curtain that had covered her territory was 
 suddenly lifted, a brilliant but bloody panorama passed across 
 the stage, and then all was shrouded in primeval darkness." 
 This chiaro oscuro of the historic Kembrandt but faintly por 
 trays the dark shadows which rested upon the Alabama of 
 1865- 66. But the picture did not appal the stanch heart of 
 GEORGE S. HOUSTON. He manfully began to wash out the 
 stains of blood; he desired to "scatter plenty o er a smiling 
 land"; he pleaded for reconciliation, and by his efforts and 
 under his magic the spears of grain burst into gold and the 
 cotton-pod into snow. While by his wise policy he elevated 
 the credit of his State and saved it from insolvency and debt, 
 he helped to open his wonderful State and its opulent resources 
 of mine and plantation to the light, which has since given to 
 its people encouragement, good government, and renewed pros 
 perity. 
 
 The magic by which he controlled affairs was not altogether 
 his knowledge and experience. His nature was not devoid of 
 ready sympathies, and even poetic sentiment, though he sel 
 dom revealed himself in this relation. But it could not be 
 otherwise with one nerved by the pure air and pleasant sun of 
 Alabama. He represented no dreamy sentimentality and no 
 impractical abstractions ; for that portion of Alabama to which 
 he was accustomed has not the soft local coloring like that 
 which interpenetrates the magnolia-laden air on the margin of 
 the Mexican sea. There the breath, shine, and flora of spring 
 glorify even the midwinter. Living within the crescent which 
 the majestic Tennessee makes as it bends through the upper 
 region of Alabama, his mind took from its scenery something 
 of that rugged cast which the soft allurements of the farther 
 
80 ADDRESS OF MR. COX ON THE 
 
 South did not mitigate or temper. There runs through his life, 
 like the ridge of iron through the heart of his State, virile vir 
 tues of unbending and inexorable honesty. But with all this 
 he was pervious to the influences of sentiment, and his life was 
 free from the vices and stains of passion. The mountains and 
 streams of his State the early adventures arising out of Span 
 ish, French, American, and Indian conflicts ; the romantic 
 legends of his State, woven into a web of witchery by the in 
 digenous poetry of the South its prehistoric mounds and his 
 toric memories ; its constellation of honored names, such as the 
 Kings, Lipscombs, Gaineses, Toulmins, McKinleys, Moores, 
 Crabbs, Lewises, Clemenses, Yanceys, Bibbs, Pickenses, Fitz- 
 patricks, Carrolls, Clays, Elinores, Forsyths, Walkers, Hill- 
 iards, Pughs, Shorters, and Currys in the State, and the 
 Evanses, Baldwins, Meaks, and Hodgsons in the republic of 
 letters, honored as well in other States as in Alabama these 
 were a part of his local pride and literary amenity. 
 
 My honored friend [Mr. FORNEY] has drawn a picture of the 
 landscape around his home, and adorned it by a stanza from 
 one of the cantos of a favorite southern poem descriptive of 
 the beautiful valley of the Tennessee. It was impossible with 
 such ennobling examples of superior men, and with such a 
 physical surrounding, with its jeweled islands set in flowing 
 waters, and with its mountains like giant sentinels 
 
 To guard its pictured valley s rest, 
 
 that the imagination even of one so practical in the daily rou 
 tine of professional and legislative life should not have par 
 taken something of the quality of this splendid land, and of 
 the attributes of its noble men. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, there is no sweeter word in any tongue than 
 Alabama! Most musical iu its tone, it echoes its legendary 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 81 
 
 meaning. Among the many fanciful stories connected with 
 this State of legends is that which is engraved upon its 
 escutcheon above us. It is said that a tribe of Indians, flying 
 from their enemies, reached a splendid river. There a chief 
 struck his weapon into the soil, exclaiming, "Alabama!" 
 "Here ice rest." Who is there so practical that he would de- 
 poetize this incident by questioning its authenticity I The 
 very sky and scenery of Alabama, with its dreamy loveliness, 
 seem to give it reality. "Here we rest!" Ah, sir, he who did 
 so much to assuage the unrest which the passions and ambi 
 tion of men created; he who accomplished so much and so 
 magically by his word and work, has now found within its 
 bosom that rest which his busy life did not bestow. He who 
 lived no cloistered life, whose active thoughts and unblemished 
 fame gave their sweet effluence to guard and restore the homes 
 of his State, measured the circle of his own felicity in contrib 
 uting to that of his people. The murmur of the rivers which 
 flow through his beloved Alabama, and the lapse of the waves 
 which fall upon its southern shores, break in melancholy ca 
 dences to sing and sigh his requiem, and lift their voices in 
 praise of him who after doing so much at last rests from his 
 labors amidst the sympathy and sorrow of his bereaved coun 
 trymen. Every home and heart from the stately Tennessee to 
 the beautiful Mobile Bay contribute to 
 
 Shed a beauty round his name 
 A light that like a star will beam, 
 
 Lustrous and large a golden glory 
 Adown the Future s gliding stream, 
 
 To gild his country s morning story ! 
 
 11 H 
 
82 ADDRESS OF MR. ATKINS ON THE 
 
 Address of Mr. ATKINS, of Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, my long and somewhat intimate personal 
 acquaintance with the late Senator HOUSTON, and the well- 
 known high esteem in which I held his character, will account 
 for the request with which I am honored by his colleagues to 
 participate in the mournful services of this memorial occa 
 sion. After what has been already so well said, by more than 
 one speaker, of his life and services, it would seem superfluous 
 for me to make further allusion to them, except as an illustra 
 tion of his character. I may be pardoned, therefore, for refer 
 ring very briefly to his public services, and especially during 
 the period it fell under my own eyes. When I first entered 
 this Hall as a member, now nearly a quarter of a century ago, 
 the name of GEORGE S. HOUSTON stood upon the roll as the 
 acknowledged leader of the House of Eepresentatives. At 
 this particular period he was chairman of the Judiciary Com- 
 mitte e, having, however, previously served four years as chair 
 man of the Committee of Ways and Means. These posts of 
 honor had been accorded to him by common consent on ac 
 count of his long, able, faithful and patriotic services as a 
 Eepresentative from the State of Alabama serving at that 
 time his eighth term, and he was afterward re-elected to his 
 ninth term, making eighteen years in Congress. 
 
 Beared in the Jeffersonian school of American politics, as 
 illustrated and administered by the illustrious sage of the Her 
 mitage, it was natural that he should range himself beside 
 President Polk and ably and efficiently sustain his administra 
 tion, which sealed to this country a magnificent empire whose 
 agricultural value and marvelous mineral wealth exceeds the 
 approximation even of an estimate. 
 
 At a later day, in 1850, when sectional animosities became 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 83 
 
 so intense and bitter as to alarm the just fears of the patriots 
 of the whole country, and ended in calling forth the most im 
 portant and the last efforts of the great American Commoner 
 for the pacification of the sections and parties, once more 
 healing the wounds upon the body-politic which sectional agi 
 tation had inflicted, the faithful historian of that eventful 
 epoch in American annals will find the name of him whose 
 memory we this day embalm in our heart of hearts as one of 
 the strong, active, efficient, and prompt supporters of the com 
 promise measures of Mr. Clay, which saved these States from 
 the fratricidal war which fate had decreed only a decade later. 
 As chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, Mr. 
 HOUSTON, by virtue of the duties and prerogatives of his posi 
 tion, stood at the head of that power which performed the 
 dual service of pointing out the sources of the government s 
 revenues and at the same time preparing and submitting to 
 the House of Eepresentatives the annual budget of expendi 
 tures. How he succeeded let the pages of those annals speak 
 to the millions who have examined and will hereafter examine 
 them. With a country as large then as it is now (excepting 
 Alaska), such was the rigid economy and honest simplicity 
 with which the affairs of the General Government were then 
 conducted that he was enabled to fall as low as $52,000,000 
 per annum for the net ordinary expenditures of this na 
 tion. But it required ceaseless vigilance and unremitting 
 toil, coupled with an honest and courageous firmness in 
 defense of the public Treasury against the horde who were 
 then as they are ever ready, like vultures, to prey upon it, 
 to keep within the limits of such practical economy. I recall 
 among others of that period the names of three distinguished 
 men (two of whom were mentioned by my distinguished friend 
 Mr. Cox) now living, but long since voluntarily retired to 
 
84 ADDRESS OF MR. ATKINS ON THE 
 
 private life, who were the associates, friends, and active sup 
 porters of HOUSTON and his frugal policy. To one familiar 
 with that period I need not mention the names of George W. 
 Jones, of Tennessee j John Letcher, of Virginia, and John S. 
 Phelps, of Missouri. Whatever bill of expenditures went 
 through Congress passed beneath the searching gaze of their 
 watchful eyes, and was doubtless necessary to the pulic weal. 
 
 No measure of doubtful constitutionality or expediency 
 eluded their untiring vigils. In this guardianship of the pub 
 lic Treasury Mr. HOUSTON stood forth as the worthy and ac 
 cepted leader. 
 
 I shall not refer further to his public service, for that has 
 been already more worthily treated than I could hope to do. 
 I will add a word as to some of the more prominent traits of 
 his character as seen by me, perhaps through the lens of per 
 sonal friendship too partial to be accurate. And although it 
 is only the omniscient eye of God that can penetrate the secret 
 chanrber of the human heart and read the thoughts and feel 
 ings of men, nevertheless the lifetime actions of men may be 
 reasonably accepted as the true indicia of their characters. 
 Tried by this rule, GEORGE S. HOUSTON was an honest man. 
 Truly he could say: 
 
 I know myself now, and I feel within me 
 A peace above all earthly dignities, 
 A still and quiet conscience. 
 
 Throughout his career of three-score years and ten, whether 
 in the private or public walks of life, he never practiced fraud 
 or deception upon any one. On all questions which rose to 
 the dignity of an issue he always, after investigatior, promptly 
 and fearlessly maintained his convictions. He was careful 
 never to disappoint just expectations, whether of his constitu 
 ency, his friends, or of his enemies. He placed great stress 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 
 
 85 
 
 upon accuracy ; indeed lie may have seemed at times a little 
 hypercritical, so much was he opposed to loose and extravagant 
 statements and semi-misrepresentations. This trait dominat 
 ing his character, he was perforce an ardent devotee at the 
 shrine of that noblest of virtues, sacred truth. If he ever 
 seemed censorious or controversial, it was because he was un 
 willing in the least to tolerate dissimulation. Hence his state 
 ments of facts, being thoroughly accurate and rigidly true, 
 always gained an easy lodgment before the people or the jury, 
 the court, or at the forum of his country s councils. His sense 
 of justice was well-nigh as sensitive as his love of truth. He 
 had such reverence for this grand old virtue that he could hold 
 up the scales wherein should be weighed the rights of a friend 
 and an enemy and give a decision supported by the logic of 
 common sense and inexorable right that would hush every dis 
 sentient note. So even balanced were these faculties and prin 
 ciples of his mind and the sensibilities of his heart, it is not 
 strange that he was conservative. 
 
 Excesses of all kinds he avoided, and always stopped before 
 he reached extreme ends. Harsh or violent measures he ever 
 regarded as the offspring of passion and empiricism, and not 
 of judgment and philosophy. Taken altogether, while it will 
 not be claimed for him that he was the equal in ability and 
 renown to a very few names of American statesmen, yet im 
 partial history will place the honored name of Senator HOUS 
 TON high upon the monumental shaft of immortal names that 
 shall defy the corroding tooth of Time to efface and shall stand 
 unmoved by the shock of Oblivion s waves as they lash against 
 its granite base. But Tennessee, his mother, and Alabama, his 
 foster-mother, claiming him as the pride of their hearts, will 
 not be permitted to appropriate the worth of his character and 
 the value of his example alone to themselves. The sister- 
 
86 ADDRESS OF MR. SHELLEY ON THE 
 
 hood of this great Union of States claims him, too, as her son, 
 and to-day holds him up before the millions of our people as a 
 shining light to guide the footsteps of American statesmanship 
 and American manhood. 
 
 Statesman, yet friend to truth, of soul sincere, 
 
 Of action faithful, and in honor clear ; 
 
 Who broke no promise, served no private end ; 
 
 Who gained no title, and who lost no friend ; 
 
 Ennobled by himself, by all approved, 
 
 Praised, wept, and honored by the land he loved. 
 
 Address of Mr. SHELLEY, of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, a long and active public life affords great op 
 portunities and facilities for the development of native talent 
 and the acquirement of a high order of statesmanship, and 
 promotes the highest standard of patriotism. In a country 
 like ours, where the humblest citizen may aspire to the most 
 exalted station, where the places of honor and trust are open 
 to the competition of all, it is rarely the case that any man is 
 permitted to enjoy continuously, for any considerable period of 
 time, the preference of his countrymen. When it does occur, 
 the person so preferred must have developed superior wisdom 
 and fitness for the duties and responsibilities of public station. 
 
 Very few men in this country who entered public service in 
 early manhood have made such an impression upon the public 
 mind and heart as to enable them to be thus honored through 
 out a long life ; but conspicuous among these few was the late 
 GEORGE S. HOUSTON, whose life and public services, in con 
 formity to a beautiful and time-honored custom of Congress, 
 we are here to commemorate. 
 
 Years ago Senator HOUSTON was called from the pursuits of 
 private life to represent his people in the Legislature of Ala 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 87 
 
 bama, since which time, with the exception of short intervals, 
 his services have been devoted to his country, closing his 
 career in the Senate of the United States, full of years and full 
 of honors. 
 
 Senator HOUSTON was not distinguished for the brilliancy 
 of his talents or the grandeur of his conceptions. He did not 
 acquire his influence or achieve his success through the in 
 spirations of genius or by the sheer force of intellectual power. 
 He did not control or sway men by the magnetic imfluence of 
 superior declamation or force of logic. He was not gifted with 
 the power of originating new and grand measures of public 
 policy, nor did he waste his time on undeveloped theories of 
 political economy, but he possessed the wisdom of prudence 
 and the virtue of patient, untiring industry, which gave him 
 an influence over men and brought him success. He was pow 
 erful, though not brilliant powerful because he loved his 
 country and his people ; powerful because he was honest and 
 upright; powerful because he was practical, cautious, and 
 deliberate; powerful because he combined a high order of 
 common sense with great goodness of heart, guided by an 
 honest desire to promote his country s welfare. To his good 
 sense he added industry ; to his industry, honesty; to his hon 
 esty, prudence; to his prudence, patience; and to patience, 
 energy and perseverance. Possessing all these elements of 
 usefulness, stimulated by a lofty and patriotic ambition, he de 
 served the success he attained, for he was great in his good 
 ness, and good in his greatness. 
 
 Years of faithful, earnest devotion to their welfare and in 
 terests have enshrined him in the hearts of the people of Ala 
 bama, and, though dead, his memory and good deeds will live 
 on forever. It is good to dwell upon the lives of such men. 
 They are full of instruction. They teach us the arts of useful- 
 
88 ADDRESS OF MR. SAMFORD ON THE 
 
 ness, and point the way to honor and success. They stimulate 
 the progress of civilization and leave the impress of their vir 
 tues on every page of the country s history. 
 
 We are often shocked by the sudden and untimely death of 
 friends who are cut down in the full vigor of manhood, in the 
 very midst of a career of usefulness. Such deaths always give 
 us pain, and we feel that for them the ends and aims of life 
 have been thwarted. But in contemplating the life and career 
 of Senator HOUSTON, while we mourn his loss, we feel that he 
 has fulfilled his destiny, finished his work, and gone to receive 
 his reward a reward higher and nobler than peoples or 
 potentates or powers can bestow for a well-spent life. 
 
 Address of Mr. SAMFORD, of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, as the old year was dying its setting sun 
 lighted to the tomb a great and good man in Alabama, for on 
 its last day, as though to gild the galaxy of its dead, GEORGE 
 S. HOUSTON at his home in Athens, surrounded by weeping 
 family and devoted friends, after a long life of eventful activ 
 ity and usefulness, " fell asleep." 
 
 For nearly half a century, with short intervals, he served 
 his people in official station and was faithful in every public 
 trust. Many years he served in this House and enjoyed as 
 the head, respectively, of the Committee on Military Affairs, 
 Ways and Means, and Judiciary, an honor rarely, if ever, 
 accorded to any other Representative ; and while it would be 
 unjust to others to say of him, 
 
 Among the faithless, faithful only he, 
 
 yet it does no man wrong to place him in the foremost rank 
 of laborious, upright, painstaking, and honest statesmen. 
 
 If the tongues of dying men, 
 Enforce attention like deep harmony, 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 89 
 
 with what devotion ought we to listen to the lessons of sages 
 and patriots whose " tongues are now stringless instruments," 
 and whom God has endowed with power to speak for them 
 selves and for us, and to us, and who will speak to the ages 
 
 with 
 
 A golden drift thro all the song. 
 
 It is Hawthorne who says that " to take in the meaning of 
 a picture you must be alone with it." The lives of great and 
 good men are never properly comprehended until we contem 
 plate them in the solitude of the grave-yard, to which they 
 seem to invite us as to a grand moral gymnasium, and pro 
 pound to us and to posterity the sublime lessons of glorious 
 living and noble dying. It is here, as " into a high mountain 
 apart," lifted above the consuming cares and petty strifes of 
 life, away from the babbling voices of a selfish world, that we 
 see humanity transfigured from mortal coil to the shining vest 
 ments of a higher life. 
 
 There are two considerations, Mr. Speaker, appropriate to 
 such an occasion as this. The first relates to the inherent 
 elements of a great and good character like that of our departed 
 friend. The second regards that character in its totality, in 
 its motives, its intelligent and skillful conduct and beneficent 
 achievements in the affairs of men, the history of its activi 
 ties in practical life, which illuminates and exalts it into an 
 example for our admiration and emulation. 
 
 Both in the analysis of the character of Senator HOUSTON 
 and in the history of his distinguished public services, we find 
 considerations to reconcile us to the labors of life ; in view of 
 the transcendent rewards of virtue, to exalt our hopes of use 
 fulness, to encourage aspirations for honest fame, to animate 
 patriotic devotion to the liberties, prosperity, and glory of our 
 country. 
 
 12 H 
 
90 ADDRESS OF MR. SAMFORD ON THE 
 
 I will not violate the proprieties of the occasion by uttering 
 all I feel; but standing here to mouth an unmeaning eulogy as 
 a part of merely formal and empty ceremonial of conventional 
 respect would violate the sanctity of that friendship which ex 
 isted between him and myself, of which I hope to retain until I 
 die the gentlest memory and most thorough appreciation. 
 
 No man who knew him can doubt that it may be as truly 
 said of him as of Augustus Tholuck, that he was " without 
 pretense or cant." No man standing at his grave will deny 
 that his whole life evinced an heroic love of truth. This de 
 votion to truth logically induced frankness, independence, 
 and courage. These are the glorious, cognate virtues which 
 blossom on that heavenly-born tree of life, and mature fruit 
 more precious than any which ever graced the garden of the 
 Hesperides or grew in the hanging gardens of Babylon. It 
 was in perfect harmony with these virtues that in all the rela 
 tions of life he was charitable as he was frank ; conservative 
 as he was independent, and conciliatory as he was courageous. 
 No impatient zeal ever betrayed his counsels into rashness; 
 the storm of passion never dashed his vessel upon the rocks 
 of inhospitable shores. 
 
 An honest partisan, he allowed no prejudices to cloud his 
 vision or mar his policy where his country was concerned. 
 
 I leave to older men to recount the conflicts and triumphs of 
 Mr. HOUSTON S earlier career. From the beginning he was a 
 man of the people, and was always willing to leave his cause 
 with them. The confidence with which he appealed to them, 
 and the enthusiasm which ever greeted such an appeal, caused 
 some men to thoughtlessly call him a demagogue. In a literal 
 and noble sense, that he was a demagogue is true ; that he 
 was such in the unholy and ignoble popular acceptation, I 
 absolutely deny. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 91 
 
 He was affable and polite to the humblest citizen all gen 
 tlemen are. He was gentle toward the weakness and sympa 
 thized with the misfortunes of others a generous nature 
 required this. He was particularly regardful of the feelings 
 of men in lowly station an infallible mark of greatness. He 
 recognized the existence of as royal virtue and noble worth 
 among men and women striving in the humbler spheres of life 
 as could be found in the gilded salons of those who wrought in 
 the "high stations of renown," and he was man enough to de 
 clare it. He was considerate of the opinions of his fellow- 
 citizens, always and forever battled for their rights in high 
 places, as he ought to have done, and deferred to the people 
 as the sovereign power in the land. If these things constitute 
 a demagogue, then he was one, and I honor him for it. 
 
 While for many years a Kepresentative in this House, in the 
 blaze of society, in the whirlwind and noise of political strifes 
 and personal ambitions, he preserved the simplicity of man 
 ners and purity of morals which brought the satisfying ex 
 periences of a rustic Mantuan life as little joining in the 
 frivolous dissipation of social excesses, in the vain world s 
 chorus of applause at the petty pursuits and empty triumphs 
 of little men, as did old Elijah in the guilty vanities of Ahab s 
 court. 
 
 It was during this time of his service here as a distinguished 
 democratic leader that, in returning to his constituents, in the 
 full consciousness of his rectitude and the honest pride of his 
 cordial appreciation, he was facetiously said "to shake hands 
 with them by the acre." 
 
 Mr. Speaker, among the great men of that day GEORGE 
 S. HOUSTON was every inch a peer. Benjamin Fitzpatrick 
 was then a Senator from Alabama, a consummately wise party 
 tactician, a liberal statesman, and an expert manager of men, 
 
92 ADDRESS OF MR. SAMFORD ON THE 
 
 yet he relied very implicitly upon the sympathy, advice, and 
 co-operation of this born tribune of the people. In his victori 
 ous campaigns in North Alabama he won and proudly wore 
 the appropriate soubriquet of " the Bald Eagle of the Mount 
 ains," and eagle he was ! His eyrie was on the loftiest peak, 
 the very Caucasus of these mountains, and his scream was 
 heard through all their democratic fastnesses. There is a royal 
 decoration which William of Prussia sometimes sent to illustri 
 ous Germans in their age and failing strength known as the 
 "Star of the Order of the Eed Eagle." Senator HOUSTON S 
 election by the people of Alabama to the Senate was a more 
 brilliant decoration of a grander order, that of the " Bald Eagle 
 of the Mountains." The difference is that between the favor 
 itism of kings and the loving, grateful reverence of a free 
 people. My personal acquaintance with him began some time 
 before his first term as chief magistrate of Alabama. That 
 acquaintance was from its first inception a friendship such as 
 might subsist between an aged and venerable teacher and a 
 young, ardent disciple of that school of politics founded by 
 Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 I had many occasions of seeing him during his most able 
 and successful administration of that high office to which he 
 had been elevated at a critical period in the history of that 
 State, of all the Southern States of all the States of this 
 Union. He was always calm, conservative, collected, and 
 confident in his powers and resources ; unshaken in whatever 
 complications or emergencies might surround him. He was a 
 zealous and thorough reformer of the evils, financial abuses, 
 and of all the vicious courses in political and social life brought 
 upon the State by the extravagance, reckless corruptions, and 
 prescriptive, pragmatical tempers, of that system of malice and 
 misgovernment which not only overthrew the rights and liber- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 93 
 
 ties of the people, but sapped the foundations of their material 
 prosperity and social life a system of oppression, terrorism, 
 peculation, insolence, and irresponsibility without a parallel in 
 this or any other civilized age. 
 
 His economy was exemplary alike in its far-reaching and 
 intelligent methods, and its sound political and moral theory. 
 Although far advanced in years, his industry was untiring 
 quite above the standard measure of official respectability, 
 efficiency, and responsibility. His intelligence was equal to 
 the demands of his convictions, to his firmness, his reformatory 
 methods, his economy, and his signal industry. 
 
 His courage and impartiality brought the dignity of his 
 office up to the ancient, which was his own high standard of 
 purity and efficiency. His healing hand was felt on every 
 wound which afflicted the body-politic. His sustaining official 
 presence pervaded alike the halls of learning, the thorough 
 fares and palaces of commerce, and the humblest homes of our 
 agricultural country people. He was such a man and such an 
 officer as old Tacitus would have delighted to set in a historic 
 frame as a companion piece for his Agricola; a man whom 
 Plutarch, with his life before him, would have honored with a 
 seat in his historic temple between his Oamillus and his Cato. 
 
 At the close of his administration, so great was his popu 
 larity that although his day was well nigh spent, and he was 
 opposed as a candidate for a seat in the Senate by some of the 
 most intellectual and influential gentlemen of the State, men 
 distinguished in the civil affairs of government and had 
 breasted the fiery tempest and whirlwind of death on the bat 
 tle-field, gentlemen of a high order of eloquence and attain 
 ment who would honor any station in any government in the 
 world notwithstanding all this, the popular wave bore him 
 triumphantly over every obstacle into the high seat he oc- 
 
94 
 
 ADDRESS OF MB. SAMFORD ON THE 
 
 cupied at the time of his death. It may be true that other 
 men more learned, more eloquent, more brilliant, and better 
 adapted by the vigor of unimpaired manhood to the duties 
 of the station, iu whose fidelity the people had absolute con 
 fidence, contested with him the senatorial palm, but a grateful 
 people would not refuse to crown his labors with the highest 
 honor at their disposal. 
 
 His early death was generally anticipated at the time of his 
 election. His sun had careened beyond its zenith. It was fast 
 descending behind the western hills and sinking into the shades 
 of night. It gathered about its pavilion golden clouds, and it 
 was a people s wish that it should pass away from their sight 
 in the purple splendors of a royal procession. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, GEORGE S. HOUSTON descended to the grave 
 more grandly "robed like a king" than Charlemagne in his 
 marble tomb, and the people of my State unite with us to day 
 in gracing his memory with this " elegy of words and tears." 
 
 He belonged, in a higher and a better than the classic sense, 
 to an heroic age ; to that noble band of primitive American 
 patriots who not only founded States but built grand repub 
 lics, the heavenward spires of whose resounding temples glit 
 ter among the stars; such men as have erected Ohio and 
 Illinois, Alabama and Mississippi, and Indiana and Kentucky, 
 and their sister States into great Commonwealths, and 
 launched them with streaming banners upon the tempestu 
 ous seas of government, manned by such crews of intelligent 
 freemen as can be found beneath the sun only among their 
 posterities, and freighted with the destinies of all the coming 
 millions of the human race. 
 
 What a fitting opportunity what a patriotic resolve stand 
 ing by the grave of one who illustrated the statesmanship of 
 the better days of the great Eepublic, to bury forever the 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 95 
 
 memories oh, how bitter of all the past feuds and bloody 
 strifes which have divided, distracted, and in all ways tortured 
 and cursed the laud left us by these ancestral heroes ! Draw 
 ing inspiration from the undefiled patriotism which clusters 
 around the memories springing from " high converse with the 
 mighty dead," for the love of country and for the sake of real 
 union why can we not allow the gaping wounds to heal, and 
 with unity of purpose, unity of hope, and unity of effort march 
 on to the accomplishment of our country s destiny, a grand, 
 united, free Bepublic?. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, there is one trait of Senator HOUSTON S char 
 acter which unmentioned would leave incomplete any notice of 
 him. Its entire absence would mar the heroism of Luther and 
 detract from St. Paul s sublime manhood. As pre-eminently 
 as any man with whose character I am familiar, GEORGE S. 
 HOUSTON was true to his friends. And when he found a 
 friend whose adoption would stand the test and ordeal of trial, 
 he anchored him to his "soul with hooks of steel." On this 
 subject I speak whereof I know. 
 
 But such as he was he has gone from among us. He passed 
 away calmly and quietly, as u the morning star melts away in 
 the sunlight." 
 
 He lies as low as Caesar no lower than kings and princes 
 no higher than peasants and paupers. The Great Leveler 
 levels evenly. He lies as low as you and I and all of us shall 
 shortly lie. 
 
 Such as he was he has gone ; and 
 
 Of such as lie was there be few on earth, 
 Of such as he was there are many in Heaven, 
 And life is all the sweeter that he lived, 
 And all he loved more sacred for his sake, 
 And death is all the brighter that he died, 
 And Heaven is all the brighter that he s there. 
 
 Casting " this stone upon this cairn" my task is done. 
 
96 ADDRESS OF MR. LEWIS ON THE 
 
 Address of Mr. LEWIS, of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, it was not my expectation to be here at this 
 time, and hence I had made no preparation to participate in 
 these ceremonies. But as I am here, and as I represent a 
 large portion of the old district of the deceased Senator, 
 where he was so well known, loved, and honored, I feel that 
 I would be unjust to my constituents and wanting in rever 
 ence to the distinguished dead if I should now altogether lay 
 my hands upon my mouth. I must offer some tribute, how 
 ever humble and feeble, to the memory of our departed. friend. 
 
 Those who are unacquainted with the deep hold that Sena 
 tor HOUSTON had upon the affections of the people of Ala 
 bama can little conceive how sharp was the pang that ran 
 through our borders on the tidings of his death. He had been 
 their friend, faithful and just to them ; and he had served them 
 with a fidelity and an effectiveness unsurpassed; and every 
 household felt that the loss was personal to itself. He was a 
 popular man with the masses, not through any of the arts of 
 the demagogue, for he never fawned or nattered or sacrificed 
 principles to expediency; but because he was of them. His 
 heart beat in sympathy with them. He knew, honored, and 
 trusted them. He was the unfailing representative of their 
 plain, honest ways, of their saving common sense, of their 
 straightforward and manly courage, and of their devotion to 
 the old landmarks and the essential principles of constitutional 
 liberty. He had shared their toils, had known their sorrows, 
 and had partaken of their homely joys and of their warm free 
 hospitality. 
 
 His own life was work, and his language rife 
 With rugged maxims hewn from life. 
 
 Standing thus on a common ground between him and the 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 97 
 
 people ; possessed of a mind eminent for its sagacity and prac 
 ticalness 5 with a superb physical constitution capable of all en 
 durance ; with a heart large, genial, and overflowing with its 
 rich vein of humor ; a spirit bold, combative, even aggressive, 
 yet never deserted by his inimitable self-composure ; combining 
 the happy power to instruct, illustrate, and amuse, he was the 
 most successful and effective speaker that I have ever seen 
 upon the hustings. Conscious of his thorough knowledge of 
 men, of his varied experience, of his enlarged views, of his 
 ripened intellect, and his familiarity with facts for like Mr. 
 Fox he thought one fact worth a thousand arguments he had 
 that confidence which boasteth not itself, but which, as Lord 
 Chatham said, was a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom. 
 
 I shall not attempt, Mr. Speaker, to portray his public career. 
 That has already been well done by others. 
 
 In the palmy days of this Kepublic he was the intimate 
 friend of Silas Wright, the trusted adviser of President Polk, 
 and the intimate associate of Mr. Douglas. He was the chair 
 man of the Committee of Ways and Means, and for many 
 years the leader of this House ; and in the eventful days that 
 followed reconstruction he was the chief oracle of his own 
 State. In that memorable struggle of 1874 for our redemption, 
 as the champion of the people his popularity reconciled all dif 
 ferences, his patriotism won all hearts, his zeal and courage in 
 spired all confidence, his energy overcame all obstacles, and he 
 achieved the greatest peace victory recorded in the annals of 
 our State, the beneficent fruits of which will descend to gen- 
 rations yet unborn. 
 
 And, as my friend has said, the people were not ungrateful. 
 They demanded of their immediate representatives that they 
 should show this gratitude by elevating him to that exalted 
 position which he held at the time of his death. 
 
 13 H 
 
98 ADDRESS OF MR. HERNDON ON THE 
 
 When the dread summons came which was to gather him to 
 his fathers, although he had passed his three-score years and 
 ten and was surrounded by loving hearts and tended by gentle 
 hands, still the blow was a severe one to my people. We had 
 a sore need of him in these days of modern degeneracy. We 
 fondly hoped that his wisdom, his counsel, and his example 
 would be spared to us for his full term in the Senate. 
 
 If the last days which he spent at this Capitol cast a shadow 
 of disappointment over his patriotic soul and made him sigh for 
 the better days of the Eepublic, let us console ourselves with 
 the thought that he has joined those noble patriots of the past 
 who went before him, and with their sweet companionship can 
 now realize in the light of eternal truth that all the struggles 
 and sacrifices for human liberty have not been in vain. 
 
 Address of Mr. HERNDON, of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, the relations which I bore to Senator HOUS 
 TON seem to make it imperative upon me not to remain silent 
 when a tribute is to be paid to his memory. 
 
 It was only in the last seven years of his life that I had any 
 personal acquaintance with him, but I have known him as a 
 public man from the time that my attention was first called to 
 the conspicuous characters in the politics of Alabama. No 
 man, save William E. King, late Vice-President of the United 
 States, remained longer and more continuously in public life in 
 Alabama, nor more occupied the attention of the people of that 
 State, than General HOUSTON. In this way his public career 
 became known to me, but I do not propose now to trace it 
 throughout the long period which it covered. This has been, 
 or will be, done by others. I shall attempt only to delineate 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 
 
 99 
 
 him as he impressed himself upon me, and sketch, as faithfully* 
 as my words can, the outlines of his character. 
 
 When success throughout a long career attends one in every 
 position, in every aspiration, and in every undertaking, and 
 finally crowns his hopes and his ambitions, the world will con 
 cede, must concede, without being able to analyze the causes 
 or comprehend the qualities which secured it, that there must 
 have been in such a man something greater and superior than 
 in other men, which has not only commanded but deserved suc 
 cess. Success, it has been said, is the highest test of merit. 
 No one s career could be more safely submitted to this test 
 than General HOUSTON S. 
 
 From his earliest manhood down to the end of his long life 
 he was the recipient of the people s confidence, and, except 
 when he voluntarily refused, filled offices to which it was in 
 their power to elect him. Never but once defeated, with his 
 young ambition looking upward to one supreme height, he as 
 cended step by step from the lowest rung in the ladder of pre 
 ferment up to that exalted station in which he closed his mortal 
 course, and from which, in the fullness of his earthly fame, he 
 was translated, we reverently trust, to that Highest Tribunal 
 to receive the well-earned plaudit, " Well done, thou good and 
 faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few things, thou 
 shalt be made ruler over many." 
 
 To one who did not thoroughly know Senator HOUSTON it 
 would be difficult to discern the causes which gave to him his* 
 unvaried success. He was popular throughout the State, and 
 was almost the idol of the people of the Congressional district 
 in which he lived ; and this popularity with the masses scarcely 
 waned or diminished even in the times when the hearts of the 
 people were stirred to their depths and the usual calm of popu 
 lar feeling was broken into billowy passion by the dreadful 
 
100 ADDRESS OF MR. HERNDON ON THE 
 
 tempest of civil war. In the fast changing and swift revolving 
 of the minds and thoughts and feelings of the people in those 
 times, passions ebbing and flowing as the tide of the conflict 
 ebbed and flowed, long-worshiped idols were overturned and 
 broken in pieces, trusted oracles silenced or contemned, and 
 leaders were, as by a breath, made and unmade ; but amid all 
 this wreck of men General HOUSTON seemed never to have 
 lost the confidence and affection of his people. When the tem 
 pest had ceased and the sun once again broke through the 
 clouds which had so enshrouded our Southland, he stood out 
 as formerly, " the people s man," loved as before, and trusted, 
 as he had been for more than twenty years. 
 
 The people of the State of Alabama manifested this con 
 tinued and unabated confidence in General HOUSTON in a most 
 unmistakable manner in the year 1874. 
 
 I trust, Mr. Speaker, that I do not offend the proprieties of 
 this occasion by the remarks which I am now about to make. 
 They are made in no partisan or sectional spirit ; with no wish 
 to excite unkind feeling, nor to revive memories, here or else 
 where, that may be disagreeable; but only to illustrate the 
 services of Senator HOUSTON, by which he achieved his most 
 enduring fame among the people of Alabama and won their 
 inexpressible gratitude. 
 
 From the commencement of the reconstruction of Alabama 
 under the acts of Congress enacted for that purpose up to the 
 . year 1874, the State had been in the hands and under the do 
 minion of officials many of whom had but recently been eman 
 cipated from bondage, necessarily ignorant and debased, and 
 the mere instruments and puppets of bad and designing men 
 who obtained control of them ; and most of the others, these 
 same bad and designing men, who had no home in the State, 
 no kinship or sympathy with her people, no concern for her wel- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 101 
 
 fare, no regard for her good name, no compassion for her deso 
 lation, no desire for her peace, who came like vultures raven 
 ing for prey and intending to stay only so long as they could 
 glut their insatiate hunger with the flesh and blood of a stricken 
 and helpless people. I shall not recite the ghastly details of 
 the history of those seven years. That history has been written 
 with a pen of fire into the memory of the whole country, and its 
 hot iniquity will never let it be forgotten. Suffice it for this 
 occasion to say that as this incursion of strangers into the 
 offices of the State of Alabama had for its object rapine and 
 plunder, it became necessary that the conditions must be cre 
 ated on which this fell object could most effectually be accom 
 plished. Disorder instead of law must prevail, turbulence 
 instead of peace, discord between the races, and hate instead 
 of harmony and friendship. And as in other States, so in Ala 
 bama were these conditions created, and so they did prevail to 
 a great extent for seven years prior to 1874. 
 
 In that year, against his wishes, against his earnest remon 
 strance, GEORGE S. HOUSTON was called from his retirement, 
 nominated by the democratic State convention for governor by 
 acclamation, and elected by the people by a majority of over 
 seventeen thousand votes. 
 
 Then began a new era for Alabama. With Governor HOUS 
 TON all the State and county officers were elected, most of 
 whom were in accord with him in political sentiment and who 
 became useful aids to him in the Herculean work of rebuilding 
 and reforming which he was about to undertake. No chief 
 magistrate of a State ever entered upon the discharge of his 
 duties under circumstances more difficult or more appalling. 
 There was chaos in the treasury ; chaos in the laws j chaos in 
 the courts ; chaos in society ; chaos everywhere ! 
 
 The advent into office of Governor HOUSTON, who had the 
 
102 ADDRESS OF MR. HERNDON ON THE 
 
 confidence of every class of people in the Commonwealth, for 
 his conservatism, his sagacity, his prudence, and his integrity, 
 was in itself almost magical in its effect. Across the arch of 
 the political heavens like a bow of promise it gave token of an 
 approaching calm, and was hailed as the harbinger of a more 
 auspicious future. All eyes looked to him with the highest 
 hopes and expectations. Had he proven unequal to the great 
 emprise, had he failed, chaos, more chaotic, would have come 
 again. But he did not fail. Disorder was succeeded by the 
 order of well-regulated law; peace reigned where turbulence 
 had raged ; and distrust and discord were no longer felt nor 
 heard in the borders of the State. His administration achieved 
 all that it promised or that was hoped for. Wise and benefi 
 cent, it was upheld by the good citizens of the State of every 
 party. Social and business confidence was restored, languish 
 ing industry was quickened into activity, and prosperity once 
 more began to shed its sunshine upon the fields and the homes 
 of the people. 
 
 It can almost be said of Governor HOUSTON, as was said of 
 the great Alexander Hamilton, that he found the treasury a 
 putrid corpse; he touched it, and it became a living soul! 
 When he came into office the debt of Alabama was over 
 $32,000,000, $24,000,000 of which had been created since 1867 
 by the vicious methods of preceding administrations. When 
 he left it it was less than $10,000,000, with the honor of the 
 State untarnished and its credit restored. 
 
 It would be unjust to others, as well as untrue in fact, to 
 ascribe to Governor HOUSTON the entire credit for the adjust 
 ment and settlement of the public debt of Alabama. In devising 
 the scheme he was aided by the suggestions and counsel of some 
 of the ablest minds of the State, and in its consummation, so 
 honorable to the State and so satisfactory to her creditors, he 
 
LITE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 103 
 
 had the efficient services and co-operation of two of the most 
 skillful financiers and intelligent of his fellow- citizens, his asso 
 ciates in the commission created for that object. I do not mean, 
 therefore, in what I say to detract in the least from the credit 
 to which others are entitled. The glory of the achievement 
 was great enough for them all to share in, and the relief which 
 it gave to Alabama was beneficent enough to entitle them to 
 the unmeasured gratitude of the people. But the adjustment 
 of the debt belonged to the administration of Governor HOUS 
 TON ; was a part of it ; his counsel contributed to it ; his handi 
 work was in it ; and he it was who carried it out to completion. 
 Others might have done as well had they occupied his place ; 
 but fortune, the tutelar deity that seems ever to have attended 
 him, ordained that in him the man and the occasion should 
 meet, and the man was equal to the occasion. 
 
 As I have said before, it is not easy to one who did not 
 thoroughly know him, to analyze and precisely determine the 
 causes of Senator HOUSTON S success as a public man, but as 
 under all circumstances and at all times he has enjoyed it, it is 
 sufficient evidence that he possessed many of the elements upon 
 which success is conditioned. He had a thorough knowledge 
 of the people j he knew their thoughts, their feelings, and their 
 prejudices, and with marvelous power could always call forth 
 a hearty response to his own expressions of them. It cannot 
 be said of Senator HOUSTON that he was a leader, in the sense 
 that out of his own brain he coined great thoughts or origi 
 nated great measures which he impressed upon the people; nor 
 that he molded popular opinion into any new form or led it 
 into channels in which it was not accustomed to run. He 
 was seldom seen in advance lifting up his own banner embla 
 zoned with his own creed, but oftener in the ranks of the peo 
 ple, one of them, bearing their standard, uttering their thoughts, 
 
104 
 
 ADDRESS OF 5TE,. IIEKNDON ON THE 
 
 and sounding their watchwords. This was the key to his popu 
 larity and to his success. He was a friend to the people, and 
 as he loved them and was faithful to them, they honored him 
 and crowned him with their sovereign gratitude. 
 
 The mental characteristics of Senator HOUSTON were cau 
 tion and judgment; he was sagacious rather than wise; 
 reached his conclusions more by intuition than by any process 
 of reasoning, and demonstrated his views and opinions more 
 by action than by logic. 
 
 It was never my privilege to hear him in a deliberative 
 assembly, nor in the judicial forum, and only on the stump 
 before the people in the latter years of his life. He showed 
 there none of the culture of the scholar, and but few of the 
 graces of the orator. His phrase was homely and his style 
 discursive, but his speeches abounded in strong common sense, 
 unskillfully modeled, they may have been, as a composition, 
 but most skillfully adapted to reach the understandings and 
 touch the hearts of his hearers. 
 
 The long-cherished ambition of Senator HOUSTON was to 
 represent the State of Alabama in the Senate of the United 
 States. In the sunset of his life this ambition was gratified ; 
 but in returning, after an absence of twenty years, to a theater 
 in which he had been a conspicuous actor and to scenes which 
 were once so familiar to him , he found all things changed. In 
 this House, where he was so well known and wielded such 
 large influence, there yet lingered but two or three who sat 
 here with him, and who to-day have paid fitting tributes to his 
 memory ; and in the Senate he met but few whom he had ever 
 seen or who had ever seen him. A new generation had suc 
 ceeded to that to which he belonged ; his contemporaries had 
 passed into retirement or into the grave, and men who had 
 attained to senatorial age and had commenced public life during 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 105 
 
 bis absence, bad taken their places. New ideas, new impulses, 
 new policies, too, had greatly superseded those which obtained 
 in his day. It is not surprising, then, if he felt almost isolated 
 and alone in the grand presence in which he sat, and realized, 
 as he must have done, after having scaled the height up to 
 ward which he had so long struggled, the vanity and empti 
 ness of all human ambition. 
 
 It is hardly probable, had Senator HOUSTON been spared to 
 live through his constitutional term, that he would have added 
 much to his fame. Its measure was already foil ; but he would 
 unquestionably have become one of the most useful and val 
 uable members of the Senate by his wise and prudent Counsel, 
 his strong practical sense, his far-seeing conservatism, his un 
 wearying industry, and by his close attention to the business 
 of legislation, to the conduct of which so few in either House 
 of Congress devote themselves, and in which the very qualities 
 for which Senator HOUSTON was most distinguished are so 
 essential. 
 
 He was not long enough in the Senate for that body to ap 
 preciate his worth or now to feel the void which his death has 
 caused ; but the people of his beloved Alabama, who have so 
 often honored him and who loved and trusted him so well, 
 lament his loss to them and to the country, and will ever cher 
 ish a grateful remembrance of his virtues and his services. 
 
 Address of Mr. HERBERT, of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, on the last day of 1879 the telegraph flashed 
 to all parts of this continent the sad intelligence that Senator 
 GEORGE S. HOUSTON was dead. A committee of Senators and 
 Eepresentatives from this Congress, some from New England, 
 
 14 H 
 
106 ADDRESS OF ME,. HERBERT ON THE 
 
 some from the West, and some from his own loved land of the 
 South, started at once for his home to mingle with the mourners 
 there, and testify, by their presence, the grief of the whole 
 people of this mighty land for the people s loss. It was my 
 melancholy privilege to be one of that committee. The funeral 
 awaited our coming. As we approached the beautiful little 
 town, so long the home of the deceased, the day was perfect ; 
 the sun shone bright and warm as on a morning in May. But 
 no carol of birds, no sound of joy from any living thing 
 greeted our ears. Midwinter was on the gray fields and bar 
 ren trees, and cheerless midwinter in the hearts of the people. 
 Their homes and spires were hung with black ; the gloom of 
 grief was on every face. As I stood by the grave and listened 
 to a gifted orator telling over the life of Alabama s best-loved 
 son to the silent and listening throng of all ages, sexes, and 
 conditions, my mind swept back over the busy years of that 
 life years that were all ended in the grave before me and 
 then as I glanced up at the bright sunshine and thought how 
 that sun would continue to arise and set and seasons would 
 come and go, I felt 
 
 Alas! Alas! 
 
 How soon we pass! 
 And ah! we go- 
 So far away ? 
 , When go we must, 
 
 From the Light of Life, and the heat of strife, 
 To the Peace of Death, and the cold, still Dust, 
 
 We go we go we may not stay, 
 
 We travel the lone, dark, dreary way ; 
 Out of the Day and into the Night, 
 Into the Darkness, out of the Bright. 
 And then! ah, then! like other men, 
 
 We close our eyes and go to sleep 
 
 We hush our hearts and go to sleep, 
 
 Only a few, one hour, shall weep, 
 
 Ah, me! the Grave is lone and deep! 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 107 
 
 But it is not true of liim that " Only a few, one hour, shall 
 weep." I do not speak the language of eulogy, but only the 
 plain unvarnished truth, when I say that, though Alabama has 
 many sons who are loved and trusted, the death of no other 
 could have caused so keen a sense of personal loss to so many 
 of her people. 
 
 Senator HOUSTON was a remarkable man, and his was a re 
 markable career. He was born in Tennessee, but came to Ala 
 bama in his early boyhood, and to him Alabama was always 
 the mother State. To her people he gave the warm affections 
 of his youth ; to their service he devoted the energies of his 
 manhood; and to them in their hour of need he consecrated 
 the golden fruits of a ripe experience. 
 
 I knew him for years, but it was never my good fortune to 
 become intimately associated with him until the last session of 
 this Congress. During all that exciting period we were daily 
 companions. Then I learned to love him as my wise counselor 
 and my friend. 
 
 Senator HOUSTON had not the advantage of a thorough 
 education, and he was never a close student of books. Strict 
 mental discipline in his youth would have helped him to a 
 broader culture and a more finished style of oratory "than he 
 ever attained ; but he was a broad-minded man, and possessed 
 in an extraordinary degree the genius of common sense. His 
 mind was strong, active, and logical. It was objective rather 
 than subjective. He never indulged in metaphysical abstrac 
 tions, but he studied closely the practical bearings of every 
 question and comprehended them clearly. His judgment was 
 rarely if ever in fault. It is said that mistakes are the step 
 ping-stones to wisdom. If in his long public career he was 
 ever compelled to use these stepping-stones, they helped him to 
 a practical wisdom I have never seen excelled. He was made 
 
108 ADDRESS OF ME. HEEHERT ON THE 
 
 solicitor, and twice elected to the legislature of his State when 
 a young man. In 1841 he came to this House as a member and 
 began here a long and honorable career. He served without 
 intermission until 1849, when he voluntarily retired for two 
 years. But in 1851 he was again returned and continued by 
 successive elections as a Eepresentative here till his State se 
 ceded in 1861. During all this time he grew in wisdom and 
 usefulness. Experience, industry, ability, and an unswerving 
 devotion to duty gave him high rank when such men as John 
 C. Breckinridge, Humphrey Marshall, Frank Bowden, James 
 A. Stallworth, James L. Pugh, David Clopton, Thad. Stevens, 
 and Charles Francis Adams were members of this body. 
 
 He was once chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the 
 House and twice chairman of the great Committee of Ways 
 and Means. He was the inflexible foe of a protective tariff, 
 and combated it with all his power and influence. He believed 
 in a tariff for revenue and not for protection. He urged that 
 protection of the manufacturer was robbery of the consumer. 
 He was in all things an unflinching democrat, and never 
 wavered in his fidelitj" to party. Trained in the school of Jef 
 ferson and Madison, he contended for a strict construction of 
 the Constitution, for the rights of the States, and the people of 
 the States. Yet, sir, he was conservative in all his course. He 
 was in this Congress, except two years, as I have said, from 
 1841 to 1861. I have looked back with as much care as time 
 and opportunity would permit over the record of congressional 
 debates during this period ; I have turned over page after page 
 in volume after volume, and, sir, I do not find that during all 
 that time he eVer made a single speech or uttered a single word 
 calculated to fan the angry passions that brought on the war 
 between the States. While others discussed politics he ad 
 dressed himself to business. He was a member in the winter 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 109 
 
 of 1801 of the famous committee of thirty-three. He voted for 
 the formation of that committee, but it was unable to devise 
 means of saving the Union. He remained in his place per 
 forming his duty as & Representative until after his State se 
 ceded. This, he believed, she had a right to do, and on the 
 21st day of January, 1801, he united with five other Repre 
 sentatives from Alabama in a letter, which was laid by the 
 Speaker before the House, announcing their withdrawal from 
 the further deliberations of that body. After reciting the se 
 cession of the State the letter proceeds : 
 
 The causes which, in the judgment of our State, rendered this action 
 necessary we need not relate. It is sufficient to say that duty requires our 
 obedience to her sovereign -will, and that we shall return to our homes, sus 
 tain her action, and share the fortunes of her people. 
 
 Of the signers, the name of GEORGE S. HOUSTON was first. 
 
 Thus terminated his career as a member of this House and 
 the first era of his life as a public man. 
 
 Reviewing his history in this House, we find that he was 
 always at the post of duty; that he took part frequently in de 
 bate, especially toward the close of his service; that he occa 
 sionally made exhaustive arguments in which there were some 
 times eloquent passages, but there was no effort at display. 
 He was in no sense an innovator. He never claimed to be 
 wiser than the fathers. He accepted the Constitution without 
 question. Its checks and balances, its delicately-adjusted ma 
 chinery, were to him. the wisest piece of workmanship ever 
 fashioned by man for the protection of individual liberty. He 
 saw here a central government that was partly national and 
 partly federal ; national as to our ships at sea and commerce 
 abroad national as to all the outside world national at home, 
 in so far as it touched the people directly, but federal in every 
 feature that recognized and guarded the autonomy of the 
 
110 ADDRESS OF MR. HERBERT ON THE 
 
 States. He saw this government as did Washington and Jef 
 ferson and Jackson, and he deemed it the highest duty of a 
 patriot to carry it on as they had administered it. To this 
 effort he had devoted the best energies of his life. 
 
 For thirteen years after he left Washington, in 1861, he lived 
 at home, illustrating in the walks of private life all those do 
 mestic traits which so beautifully adorn and embellish the char 
 acter of one who has distinguished himself in public station. 
 His virtues were as conspicuous and shining in the charmed 
 circle of home and friends as in the Congress of the United 
 States. 
 
 In 1874 the time again came when the people needed his 
 services. It would not be fitting in me, sir, now standing, as 
 it were, in the presence of the grave, to indulge in the language 
 of invective or say anything calculated to rouse bitter memo 
 ries; rather would I, if I could, commit them all here to the 
 dark waters of Lethe; but no citizen of Alabama can ever for 
 get the anxiety, the distress, the dark forebodings of her peo 
 ple as they girded up their loins to enter into the great polit 
 ical conflict of 1874, upon the result of which so many felt the 
 future happiness of the people and prosperity of the State de 
 pended. Alabama had always been proud of her honor and 
 her credit. She had even sent gold through the blockade dur 
 ing the war to pay the interest on her debt. Now her head was 
 bowed down with shame, her credit was gone, and profligacy 
 and corruption were eating out her substance. The bright 
 future her orators had painted, when her mountains should 
 teem with wealth and her valleys with fatness ; when her broad 
 streams should bear on their liquid bosoms a mighty commerce 
 to the sea; when every hillside and plain should be dotted with 
 happy homes all this roseate picture was shrouded with gloom. 
 Confidence was gone; doubt and anxiety were everywhere. Her 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. Ill 
 
 citizens by thousands and tens of thousands were fleeing her 
 borders, and thousands more were awaiting the result of the 
 great political conflict about to begin. All eyes turned to 
 GEORGE S. HOUSTON as the leader of his party, and he was 
 nominated by acclamation for governor. I shall never forget 
 that canvass, and no one who heard him before the people will 
 ever forget his speeches. 
 
 There were no graceful figures of speech, no classical illu 
 sions, no flights of fancy, no carefully-studied phrases, and no 
 effort at well-rounded periods, but his words went home to the 
 hearts of the people with a convincing power I have never seen 
 equaled. He addressed himself to every phase of opinion, to 
 every shade of prejudice, and to men of all political antece 
 dents. His logic was so plain that none could fail to compre 
 hend him ; his illustrations were drawn from the most familiar 
 objects and always full of point; his every anecdote was an 
 argument, and his manner invited and compelled confidence. 
 In fine, sir, there was that about him that caused his words to 
 come as from one having authority, and it did seem that he 
 spoke as the prophets spake. He was elected and re-elected, 
 and during his term of service as governor abuses in adminis 
 tration were corrected, extravagance was checked, confidence 
 was restored, the credit of the State regained, and Alabama 
 was placed once more on the high road to assured prosperity. 
 
 At the end of his second term as governor, the Legislature, 
 reflecting the wishes of the people, sent him to the Senate of 
 the United States, which had been for many years the goal of 
 his honorable ambition. It is a sad, sad thought that death 
 has deprived us of his services here. But the Eeaper has 
 garnered wheat that was ripe. Every honor the people of his 
 State could bestow was his, and worthily he wore them all ; 
 but "he has run his course and sleeps in blessings." 
 
112 ADDRESS OF MR. HERBERT ON THE 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I do not mean, in pronouncing a just eulo- 
 gium upon the dead, to detract from the well-earned praise due 
 to the living. The credit of the wonderful campaign of 1874 
 is not all due to Governor HOUSTON. Behind him was a great 
 mind organizing the forces and directing the conflict. By his 
 side and everywhere throughout the field true sons of Alabama 
 pressed forward to her deliverance; but wherever the fight in 
 the front was hottest, and the smoke was thickest, there tow 
 ered above all the crest of HOUSTON like the white plume of 
 King Henry of Navarre at the battle of Ivry. 
 
 So, after he was inaugurated, the people held up his hands ; 
 they sent true men to aid him in his great work, and immedi 
 ately about him were gathered wise counselors and co-workers. 
 Yet among all and above all HOUSTON was the chieftain, the 
 leader, the great reformer, the idol of the people. 
 
 Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus 
 Tam cari capitis? 
 
 By a law of this Congress each State in the Union is invited 
 to send the statues in bronze or marble of two of its dead 
 "illustrious for their historic renown or for distinguished civic 
 or military virtues" to be placed in this Capitol in commemo 
 ration of the affections of their people and as bright exemplars 
 of virtue. Maine has sent William King, Massachusetts has 
 sent Samuel Adams, New York, Edward Livingston and 
 George Clinton. Other States have contributed statues of 
 those they hold in fond recollection, and if the Legislature of 
 my State will take counsel of the people and their desire to 
 testify it in some fitting manner, it seems to me that Alabama 
 will send GEORGE S. HOUSTON to stand in that Hall where the 
 people of his district sent him so often when living in that old 
 Hall of the House of Eepresentatives, now peopled with the 
 images of departed greatness and kindling with glorious mem- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 113 
 
 ories of the past the Hall that rang with the eloquence of 
 Clay, re-echoed the logic of Calhoun, gave back the immortal 
 words of Webster, and was the scene of the ceaseless labors of 
 HOUSTON for the people s good. It would be the people s 
 tribute to the people s friend. 
 
 Address of Mr. WILLIAMS, of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER, grief is the natural emotion of the mind, 
 when confronted by bereavements seemingly irreparable. 
 Were it otherwise, we would be devoid of that sensation at 
 testing the sincerity of our appreciation and gratitude, esteem 
 and affection, love and devotion. Indeed, it would be equiv 
 alent to a denial of their existence, by reason of our incapacity 
 for their indulgence. Who could contemplate humanity thus 
 denuded of those floral beauties of the heart, whose incense 
 and odors, were there no revelation teaching it, would inspire 
 a conviction of a higher and better state of existence awaiting 
 us? It is not only natural and proper that grief should dwell 
 with us in such bereavements, but it is exalting and divine 
 for it to be so. 
 
 In the loss of Senator GEORGE SMITH HOUSTON, of Ala 
 bama, the public mind is this day confronted by and contem 
 plating an apparently irreparable bereavement. Who can 
 doubt its impressive grief, prompted by the loss of this good 
 and great man ? If there be any such, there are none to envy 
 them the desert waste of their barren hearts. Grief is not 
 only here, but prompts the silent inquiry now being made in 
 behalf of the great public mind and heart as to what shall be 
 the bounds of her appreciation for and her gratitude to him, 
 the glow of her esteem and the impulse of her affection for 
 him, the depth of her love and the heights of her devotion to 
 
 15 H 
 
114 ADDRESS OF ME. WILLIAMS ON THE 
 
 the memory of him who was her noble son, he who cherished 
 her reputation and treasured her honor as he did his life, and 
 who subserved her good and glory up to and with his dying 
 utterances. 
 
 This eminent citizen was a public man throughout the 
 greater part of his life a life that extended to the ripe age 
 of seventy. During this long career, in the different posi 
 tions he held and filled, in private or public life, his excellency 
 in morals was of an exemplary and unexceptionable character. 
 His bitterest foe never called in question his integrity; his 
 physical and moral courage was proverbial ; his magnanimity 
 was equally conspicuous, while his unvarying and successful 
 popularity afforded the amplest proof of his geniality, his full 
 ness of heart. Possessed of such elements in their most en 
 larged development, and with them displayed in action, none 
 can deny that he was a good man. When you add to them 
 true and forcible intellectuality, you will have finished the 
 blending of attributes and virtues which as surely constitute 
 a good and great man as the unity and proper diffusion of 
 colors affirm the beauties of the rainbow. 
 
 What has been the career of Senator HOUSTON in the line 
 of which he has displayed the intellectuality and qualities of 
 heart pronouncing his goodness and greatness? Viewed as 
 an executive officer in the courts of his State ; a youthful, 
 fearless, incorruptible solicitor ; a wholesome terror to evil 
 doers, as well as an assured protection to the innocent ; main 
 taining and vindicating the supremacy of her laws against all 
 violators, he has left an example worthy of emulation. Or as 
 a junior representative in the Legislative Assembly of his 
 State, his modest and unassuming yet dutiful and studious 
 career as such was marked with a discretion and ability that 
 presaged his after efficiency and greatness. Or as the chief 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 115 
 
 executive of his State, called thereto by the compelling voice 
 of his people at a time when she was stranded in the shallows 
 of bankruptcy ; when she was dismantled and disfigured by 
 a most profigate if not corrupt administration of her affairs ; 
 when lawlessness and disorder were rife in her midst ; when 
 life, liberty, and property were not vouchsafed by the strong 
 arm of the law ; when schisms, feuds, and bickerings were on 
 the daily increase ; when her treasury was exhausted and her 
 credit unavailing ; when her taxes were so onerous as to par 
 alyze the efforts of her languishing industries ; when the prop 
 erty of her people was without sale value by reason of the 
 presence of seeming anarchy ; when she was most flagrantly 
 misrepresented by those professing to be her guardians ; when 
 emigration to her borders was inhibited by the deadly upas 
 pervading her atmosphere; when the hopes of her bravest 
 hearts were in the embers of extinguishment ; and when her 
 people were insulted and disfranchised by a pretended consti 
 tution unknown to and unprescribed by them, imposed upon 
 them by a swarm of vampires who were preying upon her 
 vitals with vulturous greed at such a time, in the midst of 
 such surroundings, this wonderful, magical, unexcelled com 
 mander assumed the charge of her destiny, and with a spirit, 
 nerve, and devotion that gave assurance at once of a vital 
 and wholesome change in her affairs. 
 
 In the short space of four years he transferred her to her 
 present most excellent chief executive repaired and refitted 
 from hull to the pinnacle of her mast-head, moving majestic 
 ally, under full sail, in the clear, deep waters defined as her 
 track, by the consummate skill of an acknowledged navigator, 
 with her treasury replenished, her credit restored ; with her 
 people relieved of overburdened taxation, and the hum of 
 industry revitalized throughout her limits ; with their hopes 
 
116 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLIAMS ON THE 
 
 rekindled, their spirits reanimated, and their resolutions re- 
 resolved ; with law and order reigning supreme throughout her 
 borders, and schisms, feuds, and bickerings dissipated and 
 obliviated ; with life, liberty, and property secured beyond a 
 peril, and peace, plenty, and growing prosperity the daily 
 blessing of her people ; with a substantial value restored to 
 her property and emigrants coming into her borders from all 
 points of the land. And as a further testimonial of the devo 
 tion of the American people to that deathless principle, so 
 essential to the existence of liberty, avowing that all govern 
 ments derive their just powers from the consent of the gov 
 erned, she now enjoys the benefaction of a constitution 
 adopted by her own people, in whose broad, clear, and well- 
 defined ordinations are to be found the amplest and fullest 
 guarantees of all the rights, privileges, and immunities that 
 belong or attach to freemen and citizens under our unequaled 
 republican form of government. 
 
 Should I, then, not say that he has left a model adminis 
 tration of her affairs that may be wisely followed by his suc 
 cessors ? Her people with united voice exclaim, in the lan 
 guage of one of her gifted poets 
 
 All praise, all honor to her faithful son, 
 
 Who was the staff on which she sorely leant 
 When, debt-oppressed and neath the alien s yoke, 
 
 Her regal head in bondage vile was bent ; 
 Who was her staff, and at whose magic touch 
 
 Her debt was lifted and her foes dispersed, 
 At whose high beck the clouds went rolling back, 
 
 And freedom s sunshine reillumed her track. 
 
 Has poetry or eloquence, in their most vivid portrayals, 
 their sublimest sketches, ever o erdrawn the picture of bless 
 ings flowing from the toilsome, patient, self-sacrificing work 
 of the good and great man who addresses his life to the build- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 117 
 
 ing up rather than to the agitation, dismemberment, and 
 destruction of his country? A most eminent subject for 
 their divine arts, in this particular, is presented to them 
 when the traits and characteristics, life and acts of Senator 
 HOUSTON shall be fully made known. 
 
 If to induce two spears of grass to flourish where only one 
 grew before constitutes a benefactor of his race, what shall 
 be said of him who, uprooting and extinguishing all the nox 
 ious weeds to social and political health, induces an abound 
 ing in their stead of life-sustaining, health-invigorating plants, 
 under whose benign influences revive and flourish law and 
 order, sobriety and industry, quiet and contentment, glad- 
 someness and peace, plenty and prosperity ; or who reverses 
 the face of his land and people from despair and desperation 
 to righteousness and exaltation ? 
 
 He who thus aims, though he should fail in his noble and 
 God-like purposes, will be treasured in the hearts of his people 
 as one who, soaring with the eagle, has left the record of his 
 flight and of his failure among the stars, yet more to be ad 
 mired and envied than he " who creeps the gutter with the 
 reptile and beds his memory and his body together in the 
 dung-hill." But with joyous success crowing his inspired 
 aims, his tireless efforts, does not GEORGE S. HOUSTON stand 
 out before his fellow-men encircled in a halo of triumphantly 
 wrought, richly merited, imperishable glory ? 
 
 Well may his days seem all too few to thee, 
 
 And yet he gave to time a perfect fame ; 
 For though death wrote a finis to his deeds 
 
 While yet he strove to build a greater name, 
 Still in the compass of the years he had 
 
 He did achieve for thee, his beloved State, 
 A full redemption, and for all thy woes 
 
 A happy issue and a glorious fate. 
 
118 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLIAMS ON THE 
 
 When you come to view him as a Eepresentative upon this 
 floor for eighteen years an effort to recount his efficient and 
 successful career here would swell these remarks to a vol 
 ume. But let it be said his devotion and ability were such 
 that he was returned as often as his terms expired or he 
 would accept the proffered honor, and that for the last ten 
 years of his service he walked over the track without the 
 semblance of opposition, thus evincing his towering strength 
 before the people as so formidable that none would dare op 
 pose "The Bald Eagle of the Mountains," an appellation 
 they conferred upon him hi their generous admiration of his 
 prowess and achievements. 
 
 During his membership here, he filled for a considerable 
 part of the time the chairmanship either of Military Affairs, 
 Ways and Means, or the Judiciary 5 positions of the most 
 arduous, responsible, and honorable character 5 his eleva 
 tion to which unmistakably indicated the estimate placed 
 upon his abilities and integrity. And none have or ever will 
 labor with more assiduous disinterestedness, impartiality, and 
 proficiency to fully discharge the duties of the same. 
 
 His ceaseless vigils in protecting the people against a profli 
 gate or corrupt expenditure of the public funds, rightfully 
 won for him here the merited cognomen of " the watch-dog of 
 the Treasury " ; the stern and courageous presence of whom 
 in later years would have relieved history of the recitals of 
 robberies and plunderings, the magnitude and turpitude of 
 which has been a just cause of reproach to our people, a humil 
 iation to those who cherish her reputation or who treasure 
 her honor. 
 
 Elected to the Senate of the United States in 1865, and 
 shortly after the termination of the war between the United 
 and Confederate States, he was denied admission an act 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 119 
 
 resulting in more injury to the Government and the people 
 than to himself, and upon the justice of which history has 
 yet to record that unimpassioued and truthful verdict so sel 
 dom if ever attained upon partisan representations ; or other 
 than " the feelings which inspiring it, rests on a regard for 
 historical truth." 
 
 Ee-elected by his State after the close of his gubernatorial 
 term, he had not more than assumed the robes of a Senator 
 and entered upon the duties of that august and responsible 
 trust, when the icy fingers of the Pale Messenger loosened the 
 heart-strings of life. But his last words on earth, as he was 
 " going out/ when he exclaimed to his faithful servant " Give 
 me my shoes, I must go to the Senate," immortalized the devo 
 tion with which he had consecrated himself to its fullest exac 
 tions, and epitaphed his tomb with the one great cardinal fea 
 ture of his life ever to be at the post of duty. 
 
 He was furnished his sandals by the Pale Messenger, as he 
 landed him upon the shining shore on eternity s side of the 
 bright river ; and he has gone to the Senate composed of the 
 immortals of that celestial world whose presiding officer is the 
 great " I Am"; where his imperfections and frailties here have 
 been swallowed up and expiated by the entry made in its mo 
 mentous, imperishable journals of " Well done, good and faith 
 ful servant." 
 
 Should we not all take heed and so apply our hearts to wis 
 dom that we may inherit that welcome plaudit, a legacy infi 
 nitely beyond all others in its priceless value, its unending 
 bestowals ? 
 
 Mr. Speaker, when on the last day of last year 
 
 The spring of life gently ceased, 
 And angels wafted his soul to peace, 
 
 that potent voice, whose utterances to or for his people were 
 
120 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLIAMS ON THE 
 
 the words of soberness and truth, wisdom and statesmanship, 
 was silenced in their behalf forever ; that heart glowing with a 
 desire ever to promote the general welfare of his country, by a 
 ceaseless devotion to the substantial and permanent interests 
 of his people and which pulsated in sadness for their woes, in 
 joy for their weal, sounded its last thrilling key-note in their 
 behalf forever j that intellect, gigantic in its structure, power 
 ful in its development, penetrating in its force, profound in its 
 researches, solid in its conclusions, unwavering in its decisions, 
 and which was watchful and active in the advancement of his 
 country s best interest, his people s highest welfare, scintillated 
 its last golden thought of solicitude in their behalf forever. 
 
 At such a loss how eminently becoming that the chief execu 
 tive of his State should make public proclamation thereof, with 
 tender of his sympathies to his people, and with the officers of 
 State should close its departments, array in mourning its capi- 
 tol, and hasten to the distant home of the deceased to add to 
 the swelling throng that stood in unconsoled bereavement 
 around his bier. 
 
 Such a loss could not yea, should not fail to deeply affect 
 the public mind with impressive sadness and grief. No strains 
 in eulogy of the absent one were needful to awaken and open 
 up the deepest feelings of grief in the hearts of those who 
 knew this truly good and great man. Alas ! too well for their 
 own consolation did they realize their loss in his death. Full 
 well did they remember that his fidelity to them and their 
 every interest was not within the range or grasp of any or all 
 of the arts of seduction combined to entrap ; that his vigilance 
 in the pursuit of their interests, the maintenance of their 
 rights, was above and beyond the influences of any magnetism 
 to divert or any charm to lull to sleep ; that his bold, explor 
 ing, and expounding intellect was not to be quailed, and only 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 121 
 
 to be quieted in its pursuits when the goal of their successful 
 defense from wrong, their protection from danger, had been 
 attained ; that no amount of physical trial or privation, mental 
 struggle or endurance, seemed to impede or enfeeble his action 
 or diminish his resolution when thus engaged; that it were full 
 enough for him to know the ominous finger of duty pointed to 
 the task on behalf of his people, and the same was at once 
 initiated only to be achieved, for, as the great cardinal of 
 France had invoked, in his bright lexicon there was no such 
 word as fail. 
 
 With such ennobling traits and their bounteous results 
 adorning and enriching his life-long pathway, what other in 
 signia should crown his noble brow but that of goodness and 
 greatness ? If excellency in morals, force in intellect, consti 
 tute greatness, their possession by him would have been con 
 firmed in the accredited proof of the trusts confided, the un 
 qualified approval of his demeanor in and discharge of them 
 by the people. If to be honored throughout his days for his 
 prowess, treasured to his death for his fidelity, and embalmed 
 thereafter in the hearts of his people for his goodness consti 
 tute greatness, the record of his life displays the one and at 
 tests the other, while the voice of his people, heard this day 
 throughout the land, proclaim the last. His was a life of 
 events rather than words; events guarding his pathway as 
 towers of protection, alike repelling the javelins of criticism, 
 the arrows of malice, or the missiles of envy, now standing up 
 as so many monuments, beautified with garlands of the peo 
 ple s approval, bespeaking their devotion to and their grief for 
 him. 
 
 The brawny mariner, with a generosity of heart toward his 
 crew as capacious, a love for them as deep, as the fathomless 
 waters upon which he floats, and whose matchless tact and 
 
 16 H 
 
122 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLIAMS ON THE 
 
 crowning skill mid-ocean s wildest furies had tested, was never 
 more deeply endeared to or more confidingly trusted in by 
 them than was he by the people ; nor could their grief at 
 the loss of one who had thus piloted them from midnight s 
 mountainous tempests into the sun-gilded and placid harbor 
 of safety have been more poignant than were those who had 
 thus stood around this political mariner in the perilous storms 
 of the past. 
 
 Good mother, weep, Cornelia of the South, 
 
 For thou indeed hast lost a jewel son ; 
 The Gracchi great were not so much beloved, 
 
 Nor with more worthy deeds their honors won. 
 Thy stalwart son deserves a Roman s fame, 
 
 For Cato was not more supremely just; 
 Augustus was not greater in the state, 
 
 Nor Brutus truer to the public trust. 
 
 When the deplorable events of 1861 began to cast their shad 
 ows so near as to startle and arouse an astounded world with 
 their grandly awful issues, whose terrific currents were sweep 
 ing and counter sweeping into them section against section, that 
 intuitive wisdom, nothing less than the inspiration of true and 
 inherent statesmanship, presided with such vital force in the 
 temple of his mind as to retard his movements. It adjured and 
 constrained him to cling to the Union of the States, for which he 
 had a love akin to adoration, and to which, neither by thought, 
 word, or deed, had he ever been untrue. It admonished and em 
 boldened him to plant himself upon deck as one of the watch 
 ful crew of the Federal ship of state, freighted with the cove 
 nants and jewels of American freedom, and then ingulfing in 
 the livid billows of the clashing storms. With a ready and 
 cheerful acquiescence did he listen and yield to her potential 
 adjurations up to the moment his State ordained her separa 
 tion and recalled her allegiance. Then fidelity to his people, 
 that crowning virtue of the heart, panoplied in the sanctions of 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 123 
 
 nature and of nature s God, that shielding and protecting god 
 dess to all the other virtues, assumed and asserted in the tem 
 ple of his mind her resistless sway. 
 
 In obedience to her behests, reluctantly and dejectedly did 
 he turn his back upon the temples of that Union in no wise in 
 imical to him, and left these halls in which he had acted with 
 so much ability throughout a period of long, long years. Un 
 like the acquired child of Naomi, in her journey to the fruit 
 ful and prosperous land of Boaz, he was of the South, to the 
 manner born. By the ties of a blood far thicker and stronger 
 than water, by the impulses of a divinity of his nature that 
 wafted love to all, malice to none, but peerless devotion to his 
 own, her people were his people. By the light of a revelation, 
 truth-inspiring and heaven-exalting, her God was his God. By 
 a heart embowered in the encircling tendrils of the affection 
 and devotion of her people did he unalterably resolve not to 
 be entreated to leave them, and that whithersoever they should 
 go and dwell there would he go and abide. By a constancy 
 incapable of wavering or faltering, where her people died there 
 would he die. And where her people are entombed and being 
 interred, in equal sentiment of sublime devotion with Euth, 
 there doth he repose. Amid her vine-clad mountains, her 
 flowery, dimpled valleys, radiant with the beams of her bright 
 sunlight, at the golden age of three-score and ten, and full of 
 honors, sleeps in quiet rest the statesman moved by no other 
 impulse but his country s good ; the patriot disdaining all lines 
 or sections as circumscribing his endearments and attachments ; 
 the neighbor whom the good Samaritan could have greeted as 
 a brother ; the friend with whom Damon or Pythias could 
 have locked shields; the husband and father who made his 
 home an Eden and its dearly -loved inmates the guardian angels 
 of his life. 
 
124 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLIAMS ON THE 
 
 In the earlier days of my manhood I was a brief sojourner 
 at Knoxville, in the renowned State of Tennessee, the honored 
 mother of our cherished Senator. Arriving there on a bright 
 Sabbath in November, 1847, in all the loneliness that could 
 envelop one who was a stranger to her entire people, I strolled 
 into her beautiful and attractive cemetery, feeling that I would 
 need no indorsement or introduction to be on terms of wel 
 comed companionship with her noiseless and quiet residents. 
 While lingering in her silent walk-ways and on her treasured 
 earth, my eye was attracted by a commanding shaft whose 
 spire was towering above its associates with imposing beauty 
 and grandeur. When I had neared and confronted it, I saw 
 that it protected the sacred dust and commemorated the 
 blessed memory of her illustrious and immortal son, Hugh 
 Lawson White, that " noblest work of God," who held the in 
 violability of conscience of far greater moment than a seat in 
 the Senate of the United States, a position he had resigned in 
 preference to fulfilling his State s instructions upon a measure 
 that met with no sanction in that sacred forum. The closing 
 inscription upon that grand token, seen then for the first and 
 until yet the last time in print, sculptured its sublime utter 
 ances upon my youthful memory in impressions as nearly per- 
 ishless as were wrought upon the face of that beautiful monu 
 ment. And now from that faithful memory, after the lapse of 
 thirty- three years, I here invoke it as a poetical garland equally 
 appropriate to adorn the memory of this her noble son, who 
 was 
 
 Composed in suffering, in joy sedate; 
 
 Good without noise, without pretensions, great ; 
 
 True to his word, in every thought sincere ; 
 
 He knew no wish but what the world might hear. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 125 
 
 Address of Mr. LOWE, of Alabama. 
 
 I have the honor, Mr. Speaker, to represent, in part, Gov 
 ernor HOUSTON S old congressional district his home and 
 his grave and therefore I beg to add a last word of tribute to 
 his memory. But first let me express my acknowledgments 
 to those gentlemen who, preceding me on this occasion, have 
 so truly and eloquently voiced the general opinion of the coun 
 try. I desire to reflect the particular sentiments of Governor 
 HOUSTON S own people. He was, sir, a conspicuous figure in 
 Alabama politics. No man has been more honored by the 
 State ; no man more trusted by the people. He was a member 
 of this House for eighteen years ; chairman in turn of each of 
 its principal committees j influential with the ruling party of 
 the country and busy in public affairs during the most inter 
 esting and instructive period of our history. He was twice 
 governor of Alabama and twice elected to the United States 
 Senate. 
 
 He was not, sir, what is commonly called a "man of genius." 
 He did not possess that singular gift, that dangerous faculty, 
 that rare personal magnetism to make men instinctively follow 
 after him without a motive, or believe in him without a reason. 
 But he was a strong, sagacious, useful man of affairs, with the 
 supreme good sense to see at any time what was best to be said 
 or to be done, and with the ability, tact, and prestige to say it 
 or do it. He sought, as was said of another, "to serve, rather 
 than to please the people." The sheer strength that never 
 failed him in a political contest grew, I think, more out of his 
 efficiency as a politician than out of his popularity as a man. 
 Although personally loved and lamented, the fact is, and he 
 gloried in it, that through an honest, impartial public service, 
 he won political success by deserving it. 
 
126 
 
 ADDRESS OF ME. LOWE ON THE 
 
 He was not an orator in the ordinary, popular sense. In 
 elocution he attempted no flights of imagination and elo 
 quence. Yet in joint discussion he was thought to be without 
 doubt the best debater, the most dangerous antagonist, in the 
 State. I have heard him often. He seldom wrote or published 
 his speeches, yet all the country-side in North Alabama abounds 
 with popular traditions of his triumphs in argument, wit, hu 
 mor, anecdote, rough and ready debate on the hustings and 
 before the masses. In conversation with myself and a few 
 other friends some months before his death, he said it was his 
 habit not to memorize or read his remarks; that he rarely 
 framed set phrases and sentences in advance, but studied 
 rather to understand and to be understood, trusting more to 
 the fullness of his information, on a given subject, than to 
 memory or manuscript. 
 
 His election as governor, after a long retirement, was his 
 return to public life. It was also the renaissance of his party. 
 His administration, being sustained in the most part by the 
 property, conservatism, and intelligence of the community, 
 brought order out of reconstruction, and gave a normal and 
 settled appearance to society. It restored confidence to the 
 people and credit to the State. 
 
 Senator HOUSTON in all his views was eminently patriotic 
 and conservative. He stood, sir, between the extreme opinions 
 of his day, antagonizing the "dogmas of secession" on one 
 side and the "horrors of coercion " on the other. He desired 
 above all things to maintain existing institutions. He saw 
 himself a citizen of the greatest, freest Eepublic in the world. 
 It was the crisis of the country, the climacteric period of I860. 
 The nation then was at the zenith of its glory the Augustan 
 age revived, and that, too, under higher forms and better 
 auspices. He saw around him a new and splendid civilization, 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 127 
 
 the result of our common victories in war and peace agri 
 culture, commerce, manufactures, the mechanic arts, science, 
 literature, popular education, security to life, protection to 
 property in other words, he saw and felt the reality of all 
 that material prosperity, individual happiness, and political 
 tranquillity which defines the "blessings of liberty" estab 
 lished by the Constitution. It was natural, therefore, that he 
 should be conservative, distrustful of new ventures and ex 
 periments. He was himself, sir, not only a free citizen of this 
 great Government, but an honored representative from its hap 
 piest, proudest, richest section. He wanted no change, much 
 less revolution. Acting from these considerations, he alone of 
 the delegation from Alabama advocated in the House in the 
 last hours of the session the famous compromise committee of 
 thirty-three members, one from each State, to reconcile, if pos 
 sible, the conflicting interests and feelings which then threat 
 ened the country. He seems to have looked to that committee 
 with profound solicitude as the forlorn hope of the Union, or 
 rather as the poet has it 
 
 The full of hope, miscalled forlorn. 
 
 The result, Mr. Speaker, is history a bitter chapter. I need 
 not dwell upon it. But surely, sir, if the men of 1860, his con 
 temporaries in and out of Congress, had been as considerate, 
 as thoughtful, as wise in their generation as he was, the most 
 shameful and distressing page in American history would not, 
 perhaps, have been written. Had his advice been heeded, no 
 drop of American blood would ever have been shed in fraternal 
 conflict. I pay him, therefore, this tribute. He stood by the 
 country until the last southern star had faded from the flag ; 
 until every mental and moral resource had failed; until the 
 Union in fact and in sentiment was dissolved. He then sacri 
 ficed his opinions and went with his State, "to share," as he 
 
128 ADDRESS OF MR. LOWE ON THE 
 
 then avowed, "the fortunes of her people." But he did not 
 favor the movement, he did not provoke it; he acquiesced in 
 it, but his judgment, his wisdom was against it. This is his 
 eulogy. As Congressman, governor, Senator, he will take rank 
 in history as the last representative leader of the old national 
 democracy of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, after eighteen years of almost continuous 
 service, Governor HOUSTON left the House in 1861, and only 
 returned last year to take a seat in the Senate. The Govern 
 ment, with a mighty impulse, had rushed ahead of him a score 
 of years in time and a century in change, progress, develop 
 ment. He must have felt the flight of years and the changes 
 in administratioD, but, sir, he seemed entirely equal to his ex 
 alted position. He sought, with the prudence and circumspec 
 tion which characterized his life boni senatoris prudentia to 
 adapt himself to the altered conditions of the country, and to 
 practice that statesmanship" which Mr. Madison said "is the 
 science of circumstances." He engaged to some extent in the 
 business and debates, especially on politico- economic questions, 
 which occupied the Senate last spring. He ranged himself 
 then, as heretofore, with the many against the few, with the 
 people against classes and corporations. He was consistent 
 with himself; he kept the tenor of his thoughts and actions 
 harmonious to the end. In the truest sense, sir, he was a man 
 of the people. Had he lived, I feel assured, he would have 
 served the country, and the whole country, as well in the future 
 as in the past. 
 
 Among the famous sons of Alabama who served in the old 
 Congress in the Senate or in the House, I recur with pride to 
 the names of Bagby, Bowdon, King, Lewis, Chambers, Pick- 
 ens, the elder Walker, Harris, Yancey, Clemens, Dargan, and 
 others. They form a galaxy of great men who have contrib- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 129 
 
 uted largely ;to the honor and influence of the State and to the 
 dignity and character of the whole country. But, sir, it is not 
 invidious to say that none of them has done better service or 
 more of it than HOUSTON; none has left with the people a 
 stronger, cleaner, better record. 
 
 The death of such a man, Mr. Speaker, is always deplorable ; 
 but when he holds high place it becomes a public calamity. 
 The reputation, the good fame he leaves behind him, is indeed 
 our recompense. And in this respect, sir, the dead Senator, 
 full of honors as of years, will not be lacking. The sturdy 
 forces of his mind and character have made a lasting impres 
 sion on the State. 
 
 Time hath, my Lord, a wallet on his back, 
 Wherein he puts alms for oblivion. 
 
 We naturally strive to withhold the better things of life from 
 the gloomy forgetfulness of the grave. And so, sir, the exam 
 ple of GEORGE S. HOUSTON, through a long career of honest, 
 patriotic public service, remains to us a lesson to his contem 
 poraries, a legacy to posterity. He died as he had lived, in 
 the confidence of the country. Peace to his ashes! Honor to 
 his memory! 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I now move the adoption of the resolutions 
 offered by my colleague [Mr. FORNEY], and that, as a further 
 mark of respect for the deceased, the House do now adjourn. 
 
 The resolutions submitted by Mr. FORNEY were then unan 
 imously adopted. 
 
 The motion of Mr. LOWE was then agreed to, and accord 
 ingly (at five o clock p. m.) the House adjourned. 
 
 17 H 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 REV. GEORGE "W. F. PRICE, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 FUNERAL OF HON. GEORGE S. HOUSTON, 
 
 ATHENS, ALABAMA, JANUARY 2, 1880. 
 
 Scarcely more than a twelvemonth has passed away since 
 I stood, as a visitor for the first time, in the streets of this 
 beautiful little city. Although midwinter, the day, like that 
 which now bathes us with its mellow radiance, was calm, 
 bright, serene, and mild. 
 
 "The bridal of the earth and sky," one of those delicious 
 days which are known in their perfection at this season only 
 in this charming southern climate, when heaven and earth, in 
 vested with supernal beauty, seem vying each with the other 
 in elevating the mind and in diffusing a pleasing tranquillity 
 throughout the soul. TVith you, my fellow-citizens, it appeared 
 to be a day of special note. As the hour for the arrival of the 
 southern train drew on, a spirit of expectancy seemed to take 
 hold upon the city and upon the adjacent country. From the 
 rural districts around ; from every home within your peaceful 
 precincts ; from the busy market-place, alive with winter traffic; 
 from professional offices and from the chambers of your hon 
 orable courts ; from the halls of learning, where are taught 
 
 your little children, your young men, and your maidens ; from 
 
 131 
 
132 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. GEORGE W. F. PRICE 
 
 the sanctuary of God, where was assembled a reverend body 
 in grave religions convocation, there flowed an incessant 
 stream of people toward your railroad depot. Without distinc 
 tion of age, I saw the gray-beard sire and the prattling child ; 
 without distinction of social caste, I saw the strong yeomanry 
 of the country, in the decent garb of honest toil, mingling 
 with your finest city people, glossy in broadcloth and rustling 
 in silks; without distinction of sex, I saw bearded men and 
 gentle women ; without distinction of color, I beheld the white 
 man and the black, the late master and the emancipated freed- 
 maii ; without distinction of creed or belief, I saw men of both 
 the great political parties which divide the suffrages of your 
 citizens, all moving, as by a common impulse, toward the cen 
 tral point of the day s supreme interest. Although a stranger 
 to your city, as a native Alabamian I was no stranger to the 
 occasion which had aroused amidst your quiet homes so keen 
 a zest of alert and cordial anticipation. The wires had but a 
 few days before announced the election of your honored fellow- 
 townsman to the high dignity of an American Senator, and 
 now by the same electric flash had come tidings of his expected 
 arrival. Those aged men were the friends of his boyhood 
 and the companions of his manly prime ; those little children 
 had been taught to lisp with pride his honorable name ; those 
 young girls, in their maidenly bloom, were the pupils of the 
 school which had felt his paternal care ; those boys were the 
 hopeful scions of a worthy race, who had pointed them to 
 the lesson of a noble ambition nobly realized, which was soon 
 to receive the emphasis of a popular ovation ; those stalwart 
 men were the constituency that had so often swelled the tri 
 umphs and applauded the achievements of him whom they 
 now waited with impatience to welcome to the joyous felicita 
 tions of the people whom he loved, and to the first public 
 
AT THE FUNEKAL OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 133 
 
 recognition of the civic honors that crowned his head. And 
 thus was I fully prepared to enter into sympathy with the 
 swelling tide of popular enthusiasm, which burst its barriers 
 when, stepping from the panting train to the platform arranged 
 for his reception, amidst the clangor of martial music that 
 was drowned by the cheers of the swaying multitude, and 
 amidst a torrent of congratulations as vigorous as they were 
 sincere, towered the commanding form of Senator GEORGE S. 
 HOUSTON, his brow bared, his face beaming with the ruddy 
 hue of health, and flushed with the struggling emotions that 
 swelled his bosom, as he gazed upon the sea of familiar faces 
 and heard the shouts of voices known to him through years of 
 neighborly fellowship, and endeared by the memory of a thou 
 sand hallowed and inspiriting associations. I felt myself 
 gazing upon one of those spontaneous outbursts of popular 
 feeling which reflect equal honor upon those who render and 
 those who receive them. Alas ! that I should stand to-day to 
 bear an humble part in a scene of sorrow and of desolation, in 
 such vivid and painful contrast with the festive occasion to 
 which I have alluded. Nothing, my brother men you will 
 agree with me in saying nothing could more strikingly sym 
 bolize for us the pathetic instability of all earthly fortune than 
 the ghastly shadow that has fallen upon a day bright with so 
 auspicious a dawning. This sable-shrouded coffin ; these mel 
 ancholy insignia of death, relieved only by the Christian hopes 
 of a resurrection morn, typified so touchingly by the flowers 
 that cluster above his breast; these penitential psalms that 
 wail like the cry of souls smitten to the core with a sad amaze; 
 this weeping group of near and dearly-beloved kindred ; this 
 great company of his devoted fellow-citizens, whose faces are 
 shadowed by the stroke that has fallen on their town; this 
 silent multitude of women and children, whose upturned eyes 
 
134 ADDRESS OF REV. GEORGE TV. F. PRICE 
 
 are wet with the precious dews of their gentle sympathy; 
 these many-colored, friends, whose faces are chastened to rev 
 erent grief by the blow that has alike bereaved all classes of 
 this community; this solemn assemblage of chief men from all 
 the district which he so long and so faithfully served ; these gen 
 tlemen here, of good fame and of high places, from the officials 
 of your city to the chief magistrate of this great State that he 
 loved so well ; these most honorable Senators and Representa 
 tives of our Federal Government, the compeers and late asso 
 ciates of him who lies there, who have come down, in their offi 
 cial dignity from the far borders of our land, to testify their 
 decent public condolence and their private personal sorrow 
 all alike point to the solemnity of the hour, to the majesty of 
 the august station from which death has snatched him, and to 
 the worthiness of him whose obsequies we celebrate. 
 
 This is not the time for the common-places of funereal dis 
 course, nor for the studied eulogies of the sacred desk. Upon 
 a more illustrious arena, and under the dome of that Capitol 
 toward which for so many years his eye was daily turned, with 
 pride and affection, by tongues that have eloquence and by 
 voices that command a nation s breathless attention, on some 
 fitting memorial day, shall his honored associates do ample jus 
 tice to the deeds and to the memory of Senator GEORGE S. 
 HOUSTON. And yet here in the community that has so long 
 known, admired, and loved him, and in the hearing of those 
 who, loving him alive, will cherish his memory now that he 
 is gone; amongst the people whose confidence he enjoyed with 
 dignity and repaid with loyalty, fidelity, and devotion, and in 
 the presence of those who were dearer to him than this vital 
 air of Heaven, there is a touching fitness in telling over, how 
 ever briefly, the record of his noble and his worthy deeds. For 
 there is in a sorrow a subtle luxury of selfish melancholy, 
 
AT THE FUNERAL OF GEOEGE S. HOUSTON. 135 
 
 which delights in dwelling, with tearful iteration, upon every 
 precious detail of the well-known story, since in the mournful 
 repetition we fondly seem to live again over the whole round 
 of endearing companionship with the dead whose loss we thus 
 deplore. 
 
 GEORGE SMITH HOUSTON, though not a native of Alabama, 
 was yet an adopted son, who entered her borders at an age so 
 early, and who passed his active life so entirely in her service, 
 that we may honor ourselves in claiming him as an Alabamian, 
 a claim, which he himself would have been proud to indorse, 
 since, like the adopted child of a fortunate and splendid home, 
 he had known from boyhood no other parent, nor had his 
 manly lips learned to call any other commonwealth than this 
 by the endearing name of mother. Having read law in the 
 office of the Hon. George Coalter, of Florence, Alabama, and 
 having completed his legal studies in the school of Judge Boyle, 
 of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, he entered upon the practice of his 
 profession in Florence in 1831. Some men seem born for public 
 trust ; and it is a happy feature of our free institutions that they 
 school the popular eye at once to detect the merit of him who 
 is waiting to devote all his energies to the good of the lam I 
 which nurtures his earliest genius. Senator HOUSTON was one 
 of the men thus marked out by nature. In 1832 he was called 
 to his first public charge as a representative of Lauderdale 
 County in the State legislature. From this date to the period 
 of his death, with but few and brief intervals, he was con 
 stantly and honorable associated with those offices of trust to 
 which his fellow-citizens called him without dissent, or to which 
 the popular suffage elevated him with frequent marks of con 
 spicuous approbation. Solicitor twice, and for five years; 
 Eepresentative in Congress for eighteen years, with but a sin 
 gle interval of voluntary retirement for two years; elected 
 
136 ADDRESS OF REV. GEORGE W. F. PRICE 
 
 always with distinguished enthusiasm, and twice without any 
 opposition ; twice elected Senator of the United States ; dur 
 ing his Congressional career twice chairman of the most im 
 portant committees connected with the dispatch of public 
 business 5 twice elected chief magistrate of his adopted State 
 it would not be easy to find a citizen of the United States 
 whose career of political service has been longer, more con 
 tinuous, or more overwhelmingly indorsed by the repeated ver 
 dicts of popular approval. With the measures that he advo 
 cated ; with the party views that he espoused ; with the many 
 arduous conflicts of opinion through which he passed; with 
 the relations that he sustained to the engrossing public topics 
 of his time ; with the attitude in which he stood toward men 
 and measures of State or of Federal policy, we have nothing 
 whatever to do in the memorial service of this hour. But as 
 suredly it may be held for granted that a man so often tried at 
 the bar of public opinion, and so often indorsed by the people 
 who had most at stake in forming a true, just, and righteous 
 judgment ; that a man who had been tested in so many and 
 varied offices and employments ; that a man who began to 
 reap honors in youth, whose manly brow was crowned with 
 laurels, and whose venerable head lies there wreathed with 
 the garlands of Senatorial renown, it will be granted, I say, 
 that such a man must have possessed no ordinary endowments 
 of mind and of soul. That Senator HOUSTON S achievements 
 were based upon solid merit must be admitted without hesi 
 tancy, or else we rashly impugn the great popular heart and 
 brain on which rests the basis of our free institutions and the 
 hopes of future generations. Nor is it difficult to fix upon 
 some of those characteristics which gave him position and 
 insured him preferment. He was a man of capacious mold. 
 Nature had lodged in him a sound mind in a sound body. His 
 
AT THE FUNERAL OF GEORGE S. HOUSTON. 137 
 
 intellect was robust, vigorous, and energetic. His address 
 was frank, open, bold, and manly. In argument he wielded 
 a dialectic that was cogent and convincing. In matter solid 
 and substantial ; in manner systematic, plain, and practical ; 
 in illustration happy and pertinent; in temper cool, self- 
 poised, and equanimous, his aim was rather to convince men s 
 understandings than to fire their imaginations. Rhetorical 
 embellishments he did not affect. With direct aim and keen 
 incisive stroke, he drove home to the heart of things in words 
 full of homely vigor and of sterling good sense. His powers 
 of ridicule and invective were withering and irresistible. In 
 attack bold and aggressive, in defense he was adroit, wary, 
 and skillful. In his store of anecdotes, personal reminiscences, 
 and apposite allusions he possessed a fecundity of resources 
 and readiness in debate which few of his contemporaries could 
 approach. His voice was clear, sonorous, ringing, and pene 
 trative, and his utterances were made with an earnestness of 
 manner and an energy of articulation which left a deep impres 
 sion upon the hearer. Without the magnetic thrill of fervid 
 oratory, he swept with master hand the whole range of chords 
 to which the popular heart is wont to vibrate. Born of the 
 people, he was emphatically a man of and for the masses. 
 This I mean in no derogatory sense, but in the intent that he 
 knew the thoughts, the aspirations, the wishes, and the views 
 of the people. No man perhaps eVer more thoroughly under 
 stood his constituency, or devoted his energies more unstint 
 edly to their service. He was jealous for them and for their 
 interests with an exceeding jealousy. In their behoof he 
 threw down the gauntlet, or took up the challenge against all 
 comers in the political arena, and for even his opponents there 
 was a fascination in his mode of dealing with great public 
 issues which generous competitors both felt and acknowl- 
 
 18 H 
 
138 ADDRESS OF KEY. GEORGE W. F. PRICE 
 
 edged. In Senator HOUSTON there was a singular power of 
 swaying the masses. Even the familiar sobriquet which his 
 followers gave him marked their hearty admiration for his 
 eagle-eyed sagacity, his sleepless vigilance, and his daring 
 championship. No popular speaker of the State has ever car 
 ried with him more fully in his public efforts the great body 
 of the people. Yet in the arena of higher interests he merged 
 the spirit of local aggrandizement in a sincere desire to do 
 good to and for his whole country. He was of a generation 
 that had learned to enshrine in their inmost hearts the name 
 and the fame of our great and glorious Eepublic. To you, his 
 neighbors, I leave it to say how he sighed over the dissensions 
 that tore her ensanguined breast, and how he hailed the re 
 turn of fraternal feeling and good will. Wise in political 
 lore, he was intensely practical in all his views. That he was 
 no visionary is seen in the uniform and unvarying success 
 that marked his onward and upward course with constantly- 
 increasing luster and renown. Honorable, upright, and ex 
 emplary in his private life, possessing a financial mind of the 
 highest order; a kind, affable, accessible man; a public- 
 spirited citizen who rejoiced in the prosperity of his commu 
 nity and shared in her deep reverses these are a few of the 
 traits which marked him for popular favor and for enduring 
 memory. 
 
 Into the sacred circle of his domestic relationships it were 
 sacrilegious for a comparative stranger to enter. By the token 
 of his unobtrusive solicitude, home was the paradise of his 
 affections. An honorable gentleman, for fourteen years asso 
 ciated with him in Congress, testifies to the rare devotion 
 which led him, through all that long period, to daily corre 
 spondence with the loved inmates of his household. One 
 word of personal allusion I crave indulgence for speaking. I 
 
AT THE FUNEEAL OF GEOEGE S. HOUSTON. 139 
 
 was honored in being his guest at the happiest period, I doubt 
 not, of his long and useful career, the very day when, crowned 
 with his fresh Senatorial honors, he returned to the bosom of 
 his home. There in the benignity of his social converse, in the 
 joy that his presence diffused throughout all the ranks of his 
 household, in the thoughtful hospitality and gracious courtesy 
 of his address, in the mingled dignity and genial condescen 
 sion of his manners, I got some insight into both the secret 
 of his popularity and the permanency of his influence. 
 
 And so, leaving to others the full delineation of the char 
 acter whose salient features I have but touched, I commit to 
 his country the imperishable record of his public services ; I 
 yield up to the guardian memory of his friends and neighbors 
 the treasure of his good name. I hand over to the young men 
 of his native State and of mine the rich legacy of his brave, 
 courageous, and successful struggle with life and fortune, and 
 I reverently submit to the bosom of Divine Omnipotence the 
 awards of this long, illustrious, and completely rounded public 
 life. 
 
I OCTOO 
 I ^IvJOU 
 
 
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