MR. PRESIDENT,--I was a member of the Senate, when, in 1861, our
departed Senator entered it; and I was to the end the daily witness
of his laborious service. Standing now at his funeral, it is easy to
forget the differences between us and remember those things in which he
was an example to all.
Death has its companionship. In its recent autumn harvest were Garrett
Davis, William H. Seward, and Horace Greeley. Seward was the precise
contemporary of Davis, each beginning life with the century and dying
within a few days of each other. Always alike in constancy of labor,
they were for the larger part of this period associated in political
sentiment as active members of the old Whig party. But the terrible
question of Slavery rose to divide them. How completely they were on
opposite sides I need not say. Horace Greeley was ten years the junior,
but he was the colleague and peer of Garrett Davis in devotion to Henry
Clay. In the whole country, among all whose enthusiastic support he
aroused, there was no one who upheld the Kentucky statesman with more
chivalrous devotion than these two. Here they were alike, and in the
record of life this signal fidelity cannot be forgotten. It was to the
honor of Henry Clay that he inspired this sentiment in such men, and it
was to their honor that they maintained it so truly. Kindred to truth
is fidelity.
At his death, Garrett Davis was our Congressional senior, having
entered the other House as early as 1839, after previous service of
six years in the Legislature of Kentucky. For eight years he sat as
Representative, and then, after an interval of thirteen years, he
was for nearly twelve years Senator. During this long period he was
conspicuous before the country, dwelling constantly in the public eye.
How well he stood the gaze, whether of friend or foe, belongs to his
good name.
All who knew him in the Senate will bear witness to his wonderful
industry, his perfect probity, and the personal purity of his life.
No differences of opinion can obscure the fame of these qualities, or
keep them from being a delight to his friends and an example to his
country. Nor can any of us forget how, amid peculiar trials, he was
courageous in devotion to the National Union. No pressure, no appeal,
no temptation, could sway him in this patriotic allegiance. That
fidelity which belonged to his nature shone here as elsewhere. He was
no holiday Senator, cultivating pleasure rather than duty, and he was
above all suspicion in personal conduct. Calumny could not reach him.
Nothing is so fierce and unreasoning as the enmities engendered by
political antagonists; but even these never questioned that he was at
all times incorruptible and pure. Let this be spoken in his honor; let
it be written on his monument. Nor can the State that gave him to the
national service and trusted him so long fail to remember with pride
that he was always an honest man.
With this completeness of integrity there was a certain wild
independence and intensity of nature which made him unaccommodating and
irrepressible. Faithful, constant, devoted, indefatigable, implacable,
he knew not how to capitulate. Dr. Johnson, who liked “a good
hater,”[227] would have welcomed him into this questionable fellowship.
Here I cannot doubt. Better far the opposite character, and even the
errors that may come from it. Kindred to hate is prejudice, which was
too often active in him, seeming at times, especially where we differed
from him, to take the place of reason. On nothing was this so marked
as Slavery. Here his convictions were undisguised; nor did they yield
to argument or the logic of events. How much of valuable time, learned
research, and intellectual effort he bestowed in support of this dying
cause, the chronicles of the Senate attest. How often have we listened
with pain to this advocacy, regretting deeply that the gifts he
possessed, and especially his sterling character, were enlisted where
our sympathies could not go! And yet I cannot doubt that others would
testify, as I now do, that never on these occasions, when the soul
was tried in its depths, did any fail to recognize the simplicity and
integrity of his nature. Had he been less honest, I should have felt
his speeches less. Happily, that great controversy is ended; nor do I
say anything but the strict truth, when I add that now we bury him who
spoke last for Slavery.
Time is teacher and reconciler; nor is it easy for any candid nature
to preserve a constant austerity of judgment toward persons. As
evening approaches, the meridian heats lose their intensity. While
abiding firmly in the truth as we saw it, there may be charity and
consideration for those who did not see it as we saw it. A French
statesman, yet living, whose name is indissolubly connected with the
highest literature, as well as with some of the most important events
of his age, teaches how with the passage of life the judgment is
softened toward others. “The more,” says M. Guizot, “I have penetrated
into an understanding and experience of things, of men, and of myself,
the more I have perceived at the same time my general convictions
strengthen and my personal impressions become calm and mild. Equity,
I will not say toleration for the faith of others, in religion or
politics, has come to take place and grow by the side of tranquillity
in my own faith. It is youth, with its natural ignorance and passionate
prejudices, which renders us exclusive and biting in our judgments of
others. In proportion as I quit myself, and as time sweeps me far from
our combats, I enter without difficulty into a serene and pleasant
appreciation of ideas and sentiments which do not belong to me.” Even
if not adopting these words completely, all will confess their beauty.
Here let me be frank. Nothing could make any speech for Slavery
tolerable to me; but when I think how much opinions are determined by
the influences about us, so that a change of birth and education might
have made the Abolitionist a partisan of Slavery and the partisan of
Slavery an Abolitionist, I feel, that, while always unrelenting toward
the wrong, we cannot be insensible to individual merits. In this
spirit I offer a sincere tribute to a departed Senator, who, amid the
perturbations of the times, trod his way with independent step, and won
even from opponents the palm of character.