like a father to his children--and from the hearts of plundered widows
and orphans there breathed relief in every sigh. In peaceful times this
great man was seldom heard of; rogues could be elected over him to
places of usual trust; but, in a crisis, his whole biography seemed
embossed upon the people's hearts, rising forth like muscles in an
agony.
Again a city--itself an exhalation, rising like Milton's hall of
Pandemonium--perished in a night. Where, in one week, there had been
one hundred "leading candidates" for Mayor, in the next week there was
none so rash as to offer himself. A stricken city--the pity of a
Christlike world--cast its eyes upon one citizen; and he, as an act of
supreme duty, took the perilous post of helmsman through a storm that
unsettled the deeps of credit and prosperity all over the earth.
In each of these illustrations party politics played no part. Tall masts
were needed for the great ships, and these two men, like red wood
patriarchs, touched hard against the zenith of the people's vision.
Admirable tributes! Magnificent rewards of life-times of virtue and high
character!