COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

IN SENATE, March 12, 1874.

ORDERED, That the message of His Excellency the Governor, communicating the melancholy intelligence of the sudden death of Hon. CHARLES SUMNER, senior Senator of Massachusetts in the Congress of the United States, be referred to a Joint Special Committee of five members of the Senate with such as the House may join, with instructions to consider and report what measures it may be expedient and proper to adopt as a recognition of the important services of the late distinguished Senator, and a public acknowledgment of the grateful esteem in which his memory and character are held by the people of the Commonwealth.

And Messrs. BANKS, NORCROSS, WASHBURN, HAWES and LATHROP were appointed on the part of the Senate.

Sent down for concurrence.

S. N. GIFFORD, Clerk.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, March 12, 1874.

Concurred, and Messrs. PHILLIPS of Salem, SMITH of Cambridge, CODMAN of Boston, KIMBALL of Boston, ADAMS of Quincy, DICKINSON of Amherst, NOBLE of Westfield, PHILLIPS of Springfield, BUFFUM of Lynn, BLUNT of Haverhill, SLADE of Somerset, CUMMINGS of Woburn, and ESTABROOK of Worcester, are joined.

GEO. A. MARDEN, Clerk.

RESOLUTIONS.

IN SENATE, March 13, 1874.

THE following Resolutions were reported by Hon. NATHANIEL P. BANKS, in behalf of the Joint Special Committee on the Message of the Governor, announcing the death of Mr. SUMNER :

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy-Four.

RESOLVES ON THE DEATH OF CHARLES SUMNER.

RESOLVED, That the Legislature of Massachusetts receives the sad intelligence communicated by His Excellency the Governor, of the sudden death of the Honorable CHARLES SUMNER, senior Senator of Massachusetts in the Congress of the United States, with emotions of profound and abiding grief.

RESOLVED, That, in this sudden calamity, Massachusetts mourns the loss of an inestimable public servant, whose separate qualities are sometimes found in individual citizens, but rarely united in one man. His industry was tireless, and his fidelity unlimited. In the prosecution of those great measures to which he gave his support, his energy, constancy and courage were unconquerable. In his contests for the supremacy of the principles upon which he had staked the hazard of his life, he was unmoved by assault and insensible to fear. Against the allurements of power and of corruption, in every form, he stood a tower of adamant. At every crisis in public affairs his bearing was that of one who, confident as to his own duty, was

considerate of the rights of others. His extraordinary acquisitions as a scholar, made him eminent among able men in every department of learning. He was an accomplished legist and jurist, and as an orator unsurpassed by any man of his time. The vigor of his intellect; his great experience and capacity; his philanthropic spirit; his ardent patriotism; his irrepressible love of liberty; his limitless devotion to the rights of man, gave to all classes of the people, to all sections of the country, and to the world at large, a permanent interest in the prolongation of his labors and his life.

RESOLVED, That, deploring the public loss, it is yet a consolation that the people of the Commonwealth share in the triumphs, resulting, in great part, from the labors of their illustrious Senator, to which in the agony of death he gave his last and noblest thoughts, and which culminated in the destruction of an odious and sectional system of chattel slavery; in the enfranchisement of four million slaves; in their political and social elevation; and the incorporation of the sublime doctrines of the Declaration of American Independence into the text and body of the Constitution of the Republic.

RESOLVED, That in the galaxy of her illustrious children, whose colonial, revolutionary, constitutional and military services shed an undying lustre upon her name, MASSACHUSETTS HAS NO WORTHIER SON !

PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE.

Hon. HENRY S. WASHBURN, of the First Suffolk District, then spoke as follows upon these Resolutions:

Mr. PRESIDENT: There are times in the experience of most men when, overtaken by sudden bereavement, they feel the poverty of human speech to express emotions which struggle for utterance. This is as true of communities as of individuals-moments when a voice almost audible seems to say to us, "Be still, and know that I am God!" "I was dumb and opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it." We have reached such a point in our experience as a people. An event has transpired which, though not unexpected, has nevertheless come upon us as a thief in the night, as it were, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,-and we labor for fitting terms in which to express the grief that oppresses us.

The portion of time occupied by the life of the illustrious dead, covers a most important period in the annals of the nation; and it is quite impossible in the hour allotted for this service for any one to present even a brief analysis of his life-work. I shall not attempt to do it. This task will, in due time, be submitted to other and abler hands. Let us rather mingle our tears and sympathies together, as we bow before the affliction which has come upon us-sorrowing most of all that the places. which once knew him will know him no more forever. Given to us by Providence, as we must believe, for the

accomplishment of a great mission upon the earth, he has finished the work allotted to him; oh, how worthily; and now, early in the golden afternoon of life, weary and worn from the fields of his triumphs and victories, he rests from his labors and his works they will follow him.

It is an impressive reflection that there is no home in all the Commonwealth where sorrowing kindred wait for his remains when they may be borne hither from the capital of the nation. With the exception of a sister living upon the far-off Pacific shore, he was alone in the world; and so the more, Mr. President, are we all mourners to-day. The State he has done so much to honor, will receive all that was mortal of him, and lay him tenderly to rest upon her bosom, amid the tears and benedictions. of all the people.

Mr. President, only four days ago the Senate adopted Resolutions of respect to the memory of an ex-President of the United States-a venerable man, who, in the fulness of years, has passed away from the scenes and responsibilities of earth; and now we pause to pay a similar tribute of love and regard for one greater than he -one nearer and dearer to all our hearts, the recognized champion of the oppressed, the friend of the friendless. the wide world over.

Well might we be distrustful for the future, as, one by one, the men who have upheld our country's honor and fame, faint or fall; were we not assured that others, brave and true, will come forth to fill the places made vacant by their departure; and that to-day, upon a thousand altars, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, they are ready to pledge anew their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, that they will transmit to their children the heritage we have received from our fathers-the priceless blessing of a Republican Government.