never again to despair of the higher and more glorious destiny of his country. And of that destiny what a foreshowing was he! In that beautiful home at the sunny and leafy corner of the national city, where he lived among books, and pictures, and noble friendships, and lofty thoughts-the home to which he returned at the close of each day in the Senate, and to which the wise and good from every land naturally came-how the stately, and gracious, and all-accomplished man seemed the very personification of that new union for which he had so manfully striven, and whose coming his dying eyes beheld-the union of ever wider liberty and juster law, the America of comprehensive intelligence, and of moral power! For that he stands; up to that, his imperishable memory, like the words of his living lips, forever lifts us-lifts us to his own great faith in America and in man. Suddenly from his strong hand-my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!-the banner falls. Be it ours to grasp it and carry it still forward, still higher! Our work is not his work, but it can be well done only in his spirit. And as in the heroic legend of your western valley the men of Hadley, faltering in the fierce shock of Indian battle, suddenly saw at their head the lofty form of an unknown captain, with white hair streaming on the wind, by his triumphant mien strengthening their hearts and leading them to victory, so, men and women of Massachusetts, of America, if in that national conflict already begun, as vast and vital as the struggle of his life, the contest which is beyond that of any party, or policy, or measure the contest for conscience, intelligence and morality as the supreme power in our politics and the sole salvation of Americayou should falter or fail, suddenly your hearts shall see once more the towering form, shall hear again the inspiring voice, shall be exalted anew with the moral the moral energy and faith of CHARLES SUMNER, and the victories of his immortal example shall transcend the triumphs of his life. |