DEATH OF MR. GAILLARD.
He was a senator from South Carolina, and had been continuously,
from the year 1804. He was five times elected to the Senate--the
first time for an unexpired term--and died in the course of a term;
so that the years for which he had been elected were nearly thirty.
He was nine times elected president of the Senate _pro tempore_, and
presided fourteen years over the deliberations of that body,--the
deaths of two Vice-Presidents during his time (Messrs. Clinton and
Gerry), and the much absence of another (Gov. Tompkins), making
long continued vacancies in the President's chair,--which he was
called to fill. So many elections, and such long continued service,
terminated at last only by death, bespeaks an eminent fitness
both for the place of Senator, and that of presiding officer over
the Senate. In the language of Mr. Macon, he seemed born for that
station. Urbane in his manners, amiable in temper, scrupulously
impartial, attentive to his duties, exemplary patience, perfect
knowledge of the rules, quick and clear discernment, uniting
absolute firmness of purpose, with the greatest gentleness of
manners, setting young Senators right with a delicacy and amenity,
which spared the confusion of a mistake--preserving order, not by
authority of rules, but by the graces of deportment: such were the
qualifications which commended him to the presidency of the Senate,
and which facilitated the transaction of business while preserving
the decorum of the body. There was probably not an instance of
disorder, or a disagreeable scene in the chamber, during his long
continued presidency. He classed democratically in politics, but was
as much the favorite of one side of the house as of the other, and
that in the high party times of the war with Great Britain, which so
much exasperated party spirit.
Mr. Gaillard was, as his name would indicate, of French descent,
having issued from one of those Huguenot families, of which the
bigotry of Louis XIV., dominated by an old woman, deprived France,
for the benefit of other countries.