DEATH OF SENATOR BARROW: MR. BENTON'S EULOGIUM.
MR. BENTON. In rising to second the motion for paying to the memory
of our deceased brother senator the last honors of this body, I feel
myself to be obeying the impulsions of an hereditary friendship, as
well as conforming to the practice of the Senate. Forty years ago,
when coming to the bar at Nashville, it was my good fortune to enjoy
the friendship of the father of the deceased, then an inhabitant
of Nashville, and one of its most respected citizens. The deceased
was then too young to be noted amongst the rest of the family. The
pursuits of life soon carried us far apart, and long after, and for
the first time to know each other, we met on this floor. We met
not as strangers, but as friends--friends of early and hereditary
recollections; and all our intercourse since--every incident and
every word of our lives, public and private--has gone to strengthen
and confirm the feelings under which we met, and to perpetuate with
the son the friendship which had existed with the father. Up to the
last moments of his presence in this chamber--up to the last moment
that I saw him--our meetings and partings were the cordial greetings
of hereditary friendship; and now, not only as one of the elder
senators, but as the early and family friend of the deceased, I come
forward to second the motion for the honors to his memory.
The senator from Louisiana (Mr. H. Johnson) has performed the office
of duty and of friendship to his deceased friend and colleague.
Justly, truly and feelingly has he performed it. With deep and
heartfelt emotion he has portrayed the virtues, and sketched the
qualities, which constituted the manly and lofty character of
Alexander Barrow. He has given us a picture as faithful as it is
honorable, and it does not become me to dilate upon what he has so
well presented; but, in contemplating the rich and full portrait of
the high qualities of the head and heart which he has presented,
suffer me to look for an instant to the source, the fountain, from
which flowed the full stream of generous and noble actions which
distinguished the entire life of our deceased brother senator. I
speak of the heart--the noble heart--of Alexander Barrow. Honor,
courage, patriotism, friendship, generosity--fidelity to his friend
and his country--the social affections--devotion to the wife of his
bosom, and the children of their love: all--all, were there! and
never, not once, did any cold, or selfish, or timid calculation
ever come from his manly head to check or balk the noble impulsions
of his generous heart. A quick, clear, and strong judgment found
nothing to restrain in these impulsions; and in all the wide circle
of his public and private relations--in all the words and acts of
his life--it was the heart that moved first, and always so true to
honor that judgment had nothing to do but to approve the impulsion.
From that fountain flowed the stream of the actions of his life; and
now what we all deplore--what so many will join in deploring--is,
that such a fountain, so unexpectedly, in the full tide of its flow,
should have been so suddenly dried up. He was one of the younger
members of this body, and in all the hope and vigor of meridian
manhood. Time was ripening and maturing his faculties. He seemed
to have a right to look forward to many years of usefulness to his
country and to his family. With qualities evidently fitted for the
_field_ as well as for the Senate, a brilliant future was before
him; ready, as I know he was, to serve his country in any way that
honor and duty should require.