i:'i''ii'ii!;fil t Uh. UBRARY OF CONGRESS %^^^ "2.^ V • ^. 5^^ . . V • . ^^^ » ''^.P^^ " V * • '-.4" : ' x'^^'V. » / V <«« %' <$►. *»«o'» ..>^ ^:o Committee. Joseph Gunnison, Leonard Shaw, . Eastport, April Ibth, 1841. Sir: Permit us, in behalf of the inhabitnnts of Eastport, to offer to you our hearty thanks for the interesting and eloquent oration on the life and character of General William H. Harrison, late president of the United Slates, delivered this morning. We respectfully request a copy of the oration for publication. Understanding that you are about to leave this post, we embrace this opportunity to assure you of our most sincere wishes for your future health and prosperity. With great respect. We have the honor to be Your obedient Servants, Israel D. Andrews, ^ John Beckford, I ^ .j, ^ _. I LommiUee of Joseph Gcnnison, V . ^ _, I Arrangements. Leonard Shaw, j A. Hayden, Jr. J To Dr. Leonard C McPhail, U. S. A. Fort Sullivan. Fort Sullivan, Eastport, April \bth, 1841. Gentlemen : I have received your request, on the part of the citizens of East- port, for a copy, for publication, of the Eulogy on William Henry Har- rison, pronoimced by me on the late occasion in observance of the sad event that has deprived our country of his Inestimable worth and highly valuable services. It would be more in consonance with my own feel- ings were I to refuse ; but, constrained by such manifestations of desire on the part of the community, conveyed in the truly friendly terms of your note, I yield to )'our solicitations. The shortness of the notice gave me but little time for its preparation, and any merit it may pos- sess is rather to be attributed to the noble subject of the theme than to the language itself. I cordially reciprocate the wishes for future health and prosperity, conveyed to me in the pleasing terms of your not©, and remain, Very respectfully. Your obedient Servant, Leonard C. McPhail. Messrs. I. D. Andrews, ^ John Beckford, Joseph Gunnison, ^Committee. Leonard Shaw, A. Hayden, Jr. EULOGIUM. The angel of death has spread his murky wings over the capital of the land ; and these symbols of mourning but too sadly attest that the shadows of oblivion have fallen upon the great and good ! Why these badges of grief? why these shrouded banners ? why these tearful eyes ? A people mourn ! What sounds are those, — the slow, martial tread, the notes of the muffled drum, the wailing blast of the trumpet, the booming of the minute-gun, — that are heard upon every fir-clad mountain, and in every verdant valley, of our wide-spread country? 'Tis a nation that groans in sorrow for her illustrious dead ! It was a usage, in the palmiest days of the Egyptian empire, that no one was entitled to the rights of hon- orable sepulture against whom an accusation could justly lie. The corpse of the departed was brought into the assemblage of the people, and proclamation made for all who knew aught against the deceased to speak : if none appeared, or it passed the judgment of the dead, it was given over to embalmment,' and a place allotted him among his kindred ; but, if his life were ill spent, the corpse was denied an honorable 8 notice, and cast away into a common sewer, or left a prey to the jackal and the vulture. I need not ask with what triumphant honor would the body of Wil- liam Henry Harrison pass such an ordeal ! If a life devoted to his country, an unbounded love of civil and religious virtue, an unalloyed patriotism, charac- terized by deeds of noble valor and eminent civil service, can secure renown, he has it ! — a renown which will outlive that of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, when the gathering sands of the Lybian waste shall have swallowed up the pyramids raised to receive their bones. Embalmed in the recollections of his age, and entombed in the hearts of his country- men, his memory is destined to float along the stream of time to the latest posterity. The illustrious subject of our eulogium was born on the 9th day of February, 1773, at Berkley, on James river, about twenty-five miles below Richmond, in the then colony of Virginia. He was the third and youngest son of Benjamin Harrison, a distinguished citizen of the commonwealth, and lineal descendant of the Harrisons who so nobly opposed the usurpations of Charles I. of England, and shone so conspicuous, as champions of civil and religious right, throughout the turbulent times of the Stuarts. His father was a delesatc to the continental consress, and one of the chief founders of our republic. He was chairman of the committee of the whole house when the Declara- tion of Independence was agreed to ; and his name is inscribed upon that imperishable instrument, whose talismanic influence aroused the dormant energies of a people determined to be free, broke asunder the shackles of British despotism, and placed us amongst the independent nations of the earth. The father died before the son had attained the age of manhood ; and he fell under the guardianship of the celebrated Robert Morris, a co-worker with his sire in the labors for independence. He was diligently quali- fying himself for the study of medicine, when the din of war, sounding along our then western border, called him from the allurements of the academic shade to share the privations and dangers of the tented field. At the early age of nineteen he received from Gen. Washington the commission of a subaltern in the army destined to operate against the confederated tribes of Indians, urged to hostilities by the emissaries of Great Britain, which power, in non-compliance with treaty stipulations, still held possession of certain parts of our acknowledged territory. The defeat of Gen. St. Clair had just taken place, and the Indians, flushed with victory and glutted with spoil, threatened the extermination of the whole of the pioneer inhabitants. Ensign Harrison joined at Fort Washington, now Cincinnati. It was at this time, perhaps, he caught the first sight of that noble stream for which the older French settlers conceived such an affection that, in the fervor of their feelings, they called it La Belle Riviere. Let us contemplate him as he stood for the first time upon its grassy banks, looking down upon its rich green waters. The stripling youth ! Look upon that noble brow, pensive with thought ! Is it of home and kindred, of an affectionate mother, beloved sisters and brothers, left behind, he thinks? Surely they have a share of his thoughts ; and the home of his childhood^ 2 10 and the sports of his youth, and the gambols of infan- cy, cannot be forgotten. But he is looking into futurity, and meditating the time when cities shall rise upon its reedy margin, as if by the touch of the enchanter's wand, and beautiful villas and farm-houses enliven its wild prospects ; when its forests shall re- sound to the rifle of the huntsman, and the aged oaks bow their heads to the sturdy blows of the pioneer, raising his log cabin in the wilderness, and becoming the forerunner of civilization ; when the Iiusbandman shall turn up in his furrow the bones of a departed race, and rest upon his plough to contemplate the remains of the savage lords of the mountain and the stream, who " Once roamed the wild woods free." Perhaps he is thinking of the extension of the repub- lic, and conceiving those schemes of improvement which have left their impress upon half the States of the Union, and which have been felt by all. Perhaps his mind's eye is resting upon the oft-read page of Rome's history, and " A tale of the times of old ! the deeds of the Daj's of other years," is reflected from memory's glass. Is he thinking of the day when the name, American, shall be as proud a boast as was that of Roman in tlie halcyon times of the republic, before the bitter strifes of party leaders had paved the way for Cicsar to assume the imperial diadem and purple ? He does not think of the coming time when he shall be settled down upon the spot 11 where he now stands, after a Hfe of turmoil and strife with the world and its creatures, whilst sitting be- neath " his own vine and his own fig-tree," called to direct the armies of a mighty nation ; to marshal her hosts for victory; to save a large country from the blighting desolation of war; to snatch the thunder from the invader, and drive him home with his own shafts of destruction; and, returning in peace, settle the government and establish the laws of his country over an extensive territory. Does he think, when " the clarion no longer calls to arms," he shall be sum- moned to a seat in the councils of the nation, to shed the hght of his reason upon the work of legislation, or to be sent abroad as a representative of our system to a newly regenerated people? Can he be looking forward to the time when, retired with his head silvered with age, and his fame almost obscured in the strife of party warfare, he shall be called, like Cincinnatus, from the plough, to have the robes of office put on, his neglected sword wreathed wnth honor, and his aged brovv's decked with laurels, gath- ered by his countrymen from every verdant hill-side of this wide-spread land ? It may be he is conjuring up those lessons of maternal virtue taught by a noble mother, or those of hatred to oppression, taught by a patriot father, which looked to the enfranchisement of the whole human race ; or perhaps he is making those hish resolves to do and act as becomes a man and a patriot, and leave the rest to God, which, sooner or later, bring the rich rewards of self-approval, and the proud testimonies of popular favor. When the youthful soldier first joined the array, his 12 slender form and juvenile appearance attracted the attention of his more robust associates, and they ad- vised him not to encounter the hardships of a service for which he seemed unsuited, and more fitting for a "carpet knight," that " Capers nimbly in a lady's chamber To tlie lascivious pleasings of a lule." But, if the body were weak, it was supported by a vigorous mind, a bold determination, an indomitable bravery and cool courage, the surest presages of suc- cess. He was soon intrusted with the command of escorting and foraging parties, the perils of which, in an Indian warfare, can only be appreciated by those who have shared their dangers. In all he was suc- cessful. When he first entered the army it was deemed womanish not to be able to drink and frolic. But, early seeing the ill effects of intemperance and dissipa- tion, he eschewed these vices, and thus laid the foun- dation of those habits of sobriety and good conduct that insured him strength to bear the fatigues of war, and hardened into iron a constitution naturally feeble. In 1793, having been promoted to a lieutenancy, he joined the new levies under Gen. Wayne, a hero whose impetuous valor had acquired for him, during the revolutionary contest, the cognomen of '•' Mad Anthony," but Avhose prudence and sagacity were only exceeded by his courage. The general, an ex- cellent judge of human character, selected the lieuten- ant as his aid ; in which delicate and responsible situation he served throughout the war, with satisfac- 13 tion to his chief, advantage to his brother oflicers, and credit to himself. He was present when the bones of the slain in St. Clair's defeat were recovered and in- tered with appropriate solemnities ; and, for his volun- tary services on this melancholy occasion, not less noble than were his actions in the battle-field, he re- ceived the commendations of the general commanding. It were useless to recount the numerous acts of heroism that distinguished the still youthful soldier, in the various engagements had with our Indian ene- mies in the war of 1793. They are a part of the history of the settlement of the AVest, and adorn many of its brightest pages. Degraded, indeed, must the American be who would stigmatize as cowardly the conduct of one whom a Wayne has recorded as "faithful and gallant;" craven the soul that w^ould doubt the testimony borne him by one to whom honor was a jewel beyond all price, and truth his every rule of action ! About the close, of the war he was left in command of Fort Washington, on the site where now stands the emporium of the West. Having risen to the rank of captain, he married the daughter of John Cleves Symmes, the founder of the Miami settlements. In this lady he ever found an affectionate wife, and fond mother-of his children : a woman endeared to him by the recollections of his early struggles, in which she was his companion. Her hands have often bound up the deep wounds inflicted upon his honor by the en- venomed tooth of the serpent party ; her tongue has poured the healing balm of consolation upon a spirit often bruised by the ingratitude of his fellow-men. It 14 is she wlio has sustained him in tlic hours of corporeal suffering and mental anguish. In sickness, or in heaUh, the same devoted wife ; the partner of his losses or his triumphs, his reverses or his joys. Let us hope that, now " the silver thread is parted, and the golden bowl broken at the fountain," she may find, in the consolations of our holy religion, solace in this her sore affliction ; and, in the spontaneous offering of her countrymen, a soothing balm to heal a wounded heart ! In 1797, Capt. Harrison resigned his commission in the military service, and entered upon the duties of his civil appointment, as territorial secretary, and cx- officio lieutenant-governtDr of the Northwestern Terri- tory, under the governorship of General St. Clair. The year subsequent, he was called upon by his fellow- citizens to represent them in the congress of the United States. His first action, as a congressional delegate, was to mature and suggest a bill for the more equitable distribution of the public lands, whereby the rich heritage of the God of nature was prevented from passing into the hands of the heartless capitalist and speculator, and secured to the honest yeomanry. And rich indeed have been the fruits of this act of fore- thought policy ! Lands, which would have been an almost boundless waste under the old system, passing from broker to broker as cards dealt by the gamester, with ever and anon the ruin of some poor victim de- luded by the glittering chances of deceitful fortune, are now teeming with wealth. Fields waving with the golden grain of summer, orchards dropping the rich fruits of autumn, greet the sight of the traveller 15 with smiling plenty ; whilst mines of inexhaustible wealth open their sure treasures of iron, and copper, and coal, and lead, to the hardened hand of industry. Mines, richer by far than the diamond valleys of the East, or the rivers that pour down their golden sands, or the mountains which embosom their silver secrets. Did our limits permit, we might draw the contrast between the present state of our West, with what it would have been had not Mr. Harrison's views been seconded; but time grows apace, and we cannot trespass upon your patience. At least a baronial state of society might have been engendered, fitting the giant schemes of a Burr, wherein a few human lords, with their slavish serfs, would have been the only in- habitants of what was destined for the emigrant from every quarter of the globe. You might have had the castellated turret, and the moated wall, frowning defiance to the law, and pouring out their hirelings or slaves for the subversion of the republic. Whereas, you now have the farm-house of the husbandman, or the cottage of the vine-dresser ; the one with his stock browsing upon the hill-side, the other with his trel- lissed vines drooping with purple and gold. You would not have had the bonny Switzer, from his moun- tains blue, with his unalloyed love of "liberty and Tell ; " the German, with his lore and legends of " fader-land ; " the Italian, with his music and his song ; the Iberian, with his light romance and dark reality ; the Frank, with his gay look and merry dance ; the Briton, with his genuine hospitality ; the Scotsman, and his frugahty ; and the happy Milesian, and his merry laugh ; — no ! But at every turn you 1(3 might have had the armed retainer, guarding the game of his lordly master; or the lord himself with his " Dissembling courtesie." liOok at the picture now ! Behold those fair cities of the West! See "the wilderness blossom as the rose ! " View the steam spirit, as she glides like a graceful swan : " She walks the waters like a thing of life," descending the father of rivers, where, little more than half a century ago, the Indian or hunter alone paddled along in his frail canoe ! Whence all this improvement ? It is the result of wise legislation, stimulated by the master mind of Harrison, before the bane of party had been infused into our government, which poisons our circulation, and sickens to the heart. Mr. Harrison, at this time, served but one year in congress. On the division of the Northwestern Ter- ritory into those of Ohio and Indiana, he was made governor of the latter, and superintendent of Indian affairs West. In the discharge of the delicate duties that devolved upon him in these relations, he made some enemies ; but they were among the worshippers of Mammon, who sought to enrich themselves at the expense of the Indian, the emigrant, or soldier. He exposed their schemes of fraud, punished their un- righteous acts, and defended the intended victims of delusion from their machinations. Hence their enmi- ty. Whilst superintendent of Indian affairs, he made several treaties, and by them gained largely to the 17 United States, but never, as more lately it is feared others have done, at the expense of national faith, and for private aggrandizement. So scrupulously honest was he, that he would not be the keeper of the funds necessary to effect the objects of his various missions ; and, in all the multifarious transactions, requiring money for their accomplishment, in which he has been engaged, every cent has been duly accounted for ! What a contrast to present practices ! yet what a noble commentary upon his moral training ! In 1806, the signs of disaffection among the tribes of Indians upon our immediate border were shown ; but they did not become portentous of evil until some time after. Governor Harrison, however, thus early mistrusted the Shawanese, and set a watch upon Tecumthe and Olliwachica, twin brothers, who, al- though they were not chiefs by birth, yet were master spirits by nature, and had acquired a great ascendency over their tribe. These two Indians conceived the bold project of uniting into one the various tribes of the continent, for the purpose of staying the tide of emigration of the whites, that was fast washing out the foot-prints of their red forefathers, by establishing a line, beyond which no pale face should come. They appealed powerfully to the passions of the savage, and worked strongly upon his superstitious belief. They represented to him but too truly, that the white man had turned his face to the setting sun ; and, if some- thing were not effected soon, the hunting grounds which knew him then would hav^e soon departed from him forever. They called upon him by the spirit of his fathers slain in contests with the whites ; they o O 18 invoked liis love of ancestral pride, ever strongest in the Indian's breast ; frenzied him to madness by the story of his people's wrongs ; held before him glitter- ing prospects of future renown as a successful warrior; or promised him, in the name of the Great Spirit, a blissful existence in perennial hunting grounds beyond the dark river of death, should he be slain in battle. The torch of war was lit ; and, if the policy of the government extinguished it, 't was but for a season ; for the notes of the war-song had not fallen unheeded on the savage ear. A few years more, and the lurid glare of the Indian's torch shone upon a thousand hills, and his war-cry rung its terror again in every valley and glen of the West. It wes echoed from the South; and the Creeks dug up the hatchet, and prepared to join the league. This was the state of the Indian affairs in 1811, when Governor Harrison determined to strike a blow that should be felt by the confederated Indians, — an- ticipating their warlike movements, — unless they should promptly lay down their arms, and submit to the au- thority delegated over them. In pursuance of this object, he marched upon Tecumthe and the prophet's towns, which he reached in November. He had ar- rived to within a few miles of the latter, when he was met by a demand for parley, as preliminary to a peace- ful submission. Acting from the purest motives of humanity, and a desire to mitigate the horrors of war, he consented to stay his progress, and agreed upon the morrow to meet the chiefs in friendly council. Know- ing, however, the wiliness and treachery of the foe, the best possible dispositions were made to prevent a 19 surprise, and the camp was pitched with a view to defence. The men were ordered to lie upon their arms, and the additional precaution taken of throwing out sentinels to an unusual distance. It was near day ; the general and his aids, as was their usual custom, were already arisen and accoutred ; the men were still slumbering, but soon the stirring sounds of the reveille would have trailed them up. When the alarm was given, it had become a pitchy darkness, from floating clouds and a drizzly rain. At first, a single musket from a watchful sentry announced the danger nigh, when it came in a shower of lead, followed by the dreadful war-whoop of the savages, who now sur- rounded the camp. The voice of the governor, loud and shrill, was heard above the tumult ; and soon, " By torch and trumpet fast array'd, Each horseman drew his battle blade, And furious every charger neigh'd, To join the dreadful revelry ! " The cracking of the rifle and the rattling of the mus- ketry were continuous, when the light of morning came to unmask the enemy. A charge was ordered, and led by the gallant Boyd. The Indians gave way before the bayonet and the sabre, and the fight ended. The battle of Tippecanoe had been fought and won ! This is the action about which much has been un- necessarily said, as if the hero's fame rested upon this single feat. That it was a victory, as complete as victories over Indians usually are, all who are acquaint- ed with savage warfare know. The testimony of President Madison to •' the collected firmness which distinguished their commander, on an occasion requir- 20 jiig the utmost exertion of valor and discipline," is complete. Immediately after the declaration of war against Great Britain, to which our country had been im- pelled, to resist the arrogant pretensions and outrageous conduct of that power, Governor Harrison set about with diligence to place the country entrusted to him in a proper state of defence, and its citizens in an attitude to strike the enemy, or repel his blows. In his exertions, he was ably seconded by Governor Shel- by — himself a soldier of the Revolution — and the noble chivalry of Kentucky. He refused the commis- sion of brigadier-general in the service of the United States, because it would place the troops he had raised under an oflicer who had not their entire confidence. After some difficulty, the command of the whole northwestern army was entrusted to him. And I hazard nothing in saying, a more difficult service was never more brilliantly performed, since the days of the Revolution, by any officer, than were the campaigns made by Gen. Harrison in the Northwest. With the most limited resources and raw levies, he literally chased the British from our soil, and carried the war into Canada ; thus retrieving the disgrace that had fallen upon our arms by the shameful surrender of Hull, and placing the whole western border in a state of comparative security. Time will not allow me even to pass rapidly in review the gallant actions of the army of the North- west. Suffice it to sa3'-, that the defence of Fort Stephenson, by the gallant Croghan, has no parallel in the history of the late war. The repulse of the enemy 21 before Fort Meigs, under the eye of the commander-in- chief, the taking of Maiden and Sandwich, and the recovery of Detroit, by the general and Governor Shel- by, shine out upon the pages of impartial history. Then comes the crowning victory, achieved at the battle of the Thames. Nobly sustained by Johnson and his Kentuckians, the British were captured, and the Indians killed or dispersed. At this fight fell Tecumthe, and the league of the federated tribes was broken, and their alliance with the British severed. After all these brilliant services, the general was doomed to disappointment. Constant interference on the part of the civil heads of the military bureau at Washington, that have so often marred the operations of the army in the field since, became intolerable. He could no longer bear with the insolence of office which gives no redress, and resigned his commission. In this he acted as became a soldier of the republic. Although he had left the military service, Gen. Har- rison continued to serve his country in an useful ca- pacity. As negotiator with the Indians he made with them treaties of amity, which, conceived in a proper spirit, have all been religiously observed by the Indian. As a commissioner for the settlement with them, under the treaty of Ghent, he gave entire satis- faction. In 1816, Gen. Harrison entered congress as a rep- resentative from the State of Ohio. The calumnies uttered against him for his conduct in the late war here underwent a searching investigation, and ended in his triumphant vindication from all censure. The committee, of which the late Vice-President Johnson 22 was chnirman, unanimously reported that he was fault- less, and bore testimony to his worth in a high com- pliment to his patriotism, disinterestedness, and devo- tion to the pubhc service. The resolutions to give him a gold medal, and the thanks of congress, which had been deferred, were now taken up, and passed the senate unanimously, and received the concurrence of the liouse of representatives with but one dissenting voice. After having passed some years in retirement, he was again called, in 1S24, to public duty, — the legislature of Ohio sending him as a senator to con- gress. Both as a representative and as a senator, he shed the light of his superior judgment upon many questions of national polity ; but a good system of defence he considered the most important measure to which he could direct his attention, and devoted much time to that object. Had his views been met, it would not now be a question of peace or war with Great Britain, but one of proud defiance to her boasts. Maine would be in the possession of her inalienable rights, and the piratical violators of international law, in the affair of the Caroline, at Shlosser, would not go unwhipped of justice. As a legislator. Gen. Harrison stood upon the only proper ground. He was no automaton, to move when others pulled the wires, nor a statue of marble, like the oracle of Delphos, to speak the cunningly devised words of a crafty priesthood. The wishes of the peo- ple, when clearly understood, he always made known, as became their representative ; but, when votes come to be taken, his was always found recorded where the representative's should ever be, in accordance with his 23 own convictions of benefit or wrong to the whole Union, and not of a sectional faction. The doctrine of instrnction, that buffoonery of the pohtical farce, meets with no countenance from men of enlarged views of our republican system, and the machinery of party or sectional interests, worked by the leaders of the mob, manufacture no opinions for them ; they act from their own innate sense of right or wrong, and are guided by all the lights of reason that the God of nature may have given them. Gen. Pfarrison was called by President Adams, in 1828, to be our minister to the newly-formed republic of Colombia. A change of administration, however, soon recalled him. Although he served in this diplo- matic capacity but a short time, he gave good evi- dences of his fitness for the station. Foreseeing the condition of things that would arise if Gen. Bolivar yielded to the solicitation of his surrounding flatterers, before leaving South America he addressed to him that famous letter, so rich in its classical allusions, and so prophetic in its warnings. He bid the regenerator of his countrymen to emulate the example of Washing- ton. Knowing his fondness for military pomp and display, and the inevitable ruin to republican simplici- ty and grace which their seductions bring, he told him, in truth, that the fame of the Pater Patrice, rested not so much upon his military achievements as upon his eminently great civic services. Had his advice been taken, we would not now have to look upon the dis- membered fragments of a whole that were destined to form a great nation, nor recoil in horror from the con- templation of a picture of anarchy and ruin, with vil- 24 lages sacked by contending factions, and cities whose streets run crimson with fraternal blood, and whose places blanch with the bones of the ignobly slain. The fame of the hero of Venezuela and Ayachucho would not now be obscured, but, like a bright star, would be shedding its pure light upon a prosperous and happy people ! On his return home. Gen. Harrison found it neces- sary to apply himself assiduously to the management of his private affairs, which had greatly suffered from his almost undivided attention to the public weal, to the neglect of his own. The produce of his farm at the North Bend was found inadequate to the support of a numerous family of relatives, whom the dispensations of Providence had placed under his care, and whom he conceived his pious duty to foster and protect. To enable him to do this, and to continue his wonted open-housed hospitality, he was induced to accept the clerkship of a county court. Although, subsequently, untold thousands were within his grasp by the i)ower of the law, yet he yielded his rightful claims to im- mense property, because it could not be wrested from the possessors without producing distress and ruin to them, who would have been innocent sufferers, having purchased from a wrongful owner. He preferred, with nobleness of soul, an independence secured by the blessings of the people, to a fortune wrung from others in bitterness and tears. In 1836 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidential chair. His views and principles, however, had become known, and we find him in 1810 borne along a resistless tide of popularity to the highest hon- 25 ors of the republic. It was not the machinery of faction, worked by the dogs of party whipped into the treadmill by self-interested and office-seeking masters, that gained his election ; he was the choice of the people, and would have been elected without the aid of conventions, whose anti-republican tendency is be- coming felt in the neglect of modest merit and the advancement of the ambitious demagogue, ■' Sans peur et sans reproche." He leaned for support upon the pillars of the republic, inscribed with the records of his fame, and a nation's gratitude lifted him into the seat of state. Called by the people to preside over their destinies, his journey from North Bend was one continued fete. As the Franklin rounded, to receive her rich freight, it seemed " Like a burnished throne Borne on the water ; " and, as it bore him away from the crowded shore, amid the roar of artillery, the shouts of the multitude, and the strains of triumphant music, the tear started to his eye, and coursed down his war-worn visage. He was looking for the last time upon his homestead, and caught the last glimpse of the partner of his bosom, as she waved him on to honor and renown ! The country poured out its embrowned industry, cities their multitudes of glad and happy hearts ; arches, gayly decked with evergreen, rose in the magic of a night, and bent over his path, strewn with flow- ers by the hands of innocence ; the bells rang out their merry peal, the cannons poured forth a welcome 4 4 26 i'rom their brazen throats, the musketry their fire of joy ; but, loud above all, rose the shout of the sire and the son, the matron and the maid, — Harrison and liberty ! The flags waved gayly in the freshening wind, the banners danced in joy, and the " conqueror of hearts " moved on ! He stands upon the giant steps of the capitol ! Be- fore him, the collected wisdom of the nation, — be- side him, the councillors of state and ministers of justice and religion, — behind him, the war-worn vet- erans of the republic, — near him, the representatives of the pomp, and power, and chivalry of Europe, — around him, the people ! in one vast sea of heads, a living ocean of patriotism and feeling. 'T is done ! He has sworn to defend the Constitution and the laws ; he is the PRESIDENT OF THE UnITED StATES OF AmERICA. Feeling the responsibilities of his station, and anx- ious to justify the expectations of his countrymen, he had set him down to develope the policy of his admin- istration, and put the seal of acts upon his professions. He had been scarcely a short month in ofRce, when the Almighty, who has said, " All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again into dust," arrested him on the threshold of his labors. The fiat had gone forth ! He was marked as golden grain, fit for the scythe of Time ! Human skill could avail nothing ; for " who can number the clouds in wisdom ? or who can stay the bottles of heaven, when the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together ? " April had come in, with its sunlight and its showers, and the feathered songsters had begun to tune their throats in gladness for the return of spring, in the bud- 27 ding myrtle and blossoming orange groves of the sunny South ; but the film of obscurity was fast gathering over the eyes of the patriot, warrior, and statesman, and the death-watch ticking the receding moments in his ears. Yet he met the grim king of terrors, who comes so often to others clothed in doubts and fears, as a welcome harbinger of peace and happiness in a life to come. Familiar with death in its most terrible forms upon the ensanguined battle-field, often witness to its ravages in the domestic circle, he met it as be- came a Christian warrior, a sage, and philosopher. On the evening of the 3d of April, 1841, as life was ebbing fast, he turned his dying look upon a friend, and, as if addressing his successor, said, in a distinct voice, " Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government ; I wish them carried out : I ask nothing more." A few moments after midnight, his spirit bid adieu to earth, and took up its abode in heaven. William Henry Harrison is no more ! I have briefly traced him on his journey of life, from the cradle to the grave. I have shown him to you in no borrowed light, but in the rich eflulgence of his own character, replete in all the elements of a virtuous citi- zen, a great warrior and statesman. I have held him forth to you in every relation of life ; — as a dutiful son, and aflectionate husband, and kind parent ; as a sol- dier and commander, a governor, lawgiver, and ruler ; — in all, a model of domestic virtue, of manly dignity and unflinching courage, of republican simplicity and grace ; an example worthy to be emulated by the youth of America. 28 He is gone ! but his memory shall endure forever ! "Give to the earth his frame! 'T was bom but to decay: Not so his deathless fame ; That cannot pass away ! In youth, in manhood, and in age, He dignified his country's page." Noble by nature, and illustrious by deeds of valor and patriotism, he is IMMORTAL by the universal consent of the friends of liberty and equality through- out the world ! W 8C 0^^ o«-'. "^O ^^ *'7vr* v'^ <. o > . V . " • . ^x *b' V-^' "^s^ * o • »>^ t^ ^^ - vPV " V-^' L^^. ' .^' ^q. ^^'^*\o'^ • ay < vO. 0^"^' « ^Co<=,- ^^ *'VVV» A ,* '^^ %^ -.'I •o , » ^. 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