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4TTH CONGRKSS, } HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. ( Mis. Doc. 
 1st Session. I ( No 59. 
 
 MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR 
 
 (A REPRESENTATIVE KUOM SOUTR (.'AEOLINA), 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 THE SENATE, 
 
 FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF CONGRESS. 
 
 WASHIN(;T0N: 
 g () v k 1! n ,m e n t 1' l{ 1 n t i n o o f !•' i c e . 
 
 1 H 8 2 . 
 
.0\8U-S 
 
 JOINT KEtiOLTTlON to inilit curtain uulogiLS dflivcml in Colisitss upon tlie late Mi<l.uol 
 P. O'Connor. 
 
 Hesolved bii the Sii'icitf and House of licprcseiitatit^es of the United Stales of 
 Jtnn-ira in riiHi/ivvs as^rmhlril, Tli:it there be printed of the eulogies delivercil 
 ill Coii^ir>s ii|„.ii tlir l.iti Miiliail P. O'Connor, a member-elect to the Foity- 
 si-\. nth ((iiiuri-~ tr.iin ili. Slat.- nf South Carolina, twelve thoiisauil eopies, 
 of which thicc thuusaud shall bo tor the use of the Senate and nine thousand 
 for the use of the House of Representatives; and the Secretary of the Treasury 
 be, and he is hereby, directed to have printed a'portrait of the said Michael 
 P. O'Connor to accompany said eulogies; and for the purpose of engraving 
 and printing said portrait the sum of five hundred dollars, or so much thereof 
 as may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated out of any 
 moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 Ajiprovcd, March l.'i, 1882. 
 
 AUG^ 6 laOb 
 
'ROCl^HDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 
 
 In TiiK House of Representativks, 
 
 Deoember 16, 1881. 
 
 Mr. Dibble. Mr. Speaker, it is my melancholy duty to make to 
 tliis House the annouucement of the death of my predecessor, the 
 Hon. Michael P. O'Connor, late a member of this House from 
 tiie State of South Carolina, and to present resolutions of respect 
 to his memory. I ask that the resolutions be read, and beg leave 
 to state that I will call them up at the proper time for further con- 
 sideration and for the expression by the members of this House of 
 the esteem in whicii the memory of the deceased is held. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 licsolved, That this House has heard with i>iofoimil sorrow of the death 
 of Hon. Michael P. O'Connor, late a member of this House from the State 
 of South Carolina. 
 
 Resolved, That, as a mark of respect to his memory, the otHcers aud mem- 
 bers of this House will wear i htf usual bad^e of mourning for thirty days. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resol itions be transmitted by the Clerk of 
 this House to the family of the deceased. 
 
 Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to commnnicate a copy of these reso- 
 lutions to the Senate ; and that, as a further mark of res])ect to the memory 
 of the deceased, this House do now adjourn. 
 
 Mr. Dibble. I now move, out of respect to the memory of tiie 
 deceased, this House do now adjourn. 
 
 The motion was agreed to; and accordingly the House adjourned. 
 
4 iim AM) iii.u;.icTi:ii of miciiael p. vcoxxoii. 
 
 In the House of Repkesentatives, 
 
 Februarys, 1882. 
 Tlie Speaker. Tlic Ikuh- of three o'clock having- arrived, the 
 House will uow pnifccd to consider the special order. 
 
 Mr. Dibble. I submit tlie resohitions wiiich 1 send to tlie 
 Clerk's desk. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 Itrxolrcd, That this House has huavd witli pr.>|-.inii.l sorn.w of tli.' (h-ifl. of 
 Udii. MicHAKL P. O'Connor, late a membi.-r nt this House IVom the Shite of 
 Soufli Carolina. 
 
 lle«olre(J, That, as a mark of respect to his meiiiory, th lieers and mem- 
 bers of this House will wear the usual had-e of mouruiue tor thirty days. 
 
 Eeaohed, That a copy of these resolutions he transmitted hy thi' Clerk of 
 this House to the family of the deceased. 
 
 liesolred. That the Clerk be directed to eoiiimuuicate a copy of these reso- 
 lutions to the Senate; and that, as a further mark of respect to the memory 
 of the deceased, this House do now adjourn. 
 
ADDEESSES 
 
 DEATH OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR, 
 
 A RI'U'UKSKNTATIVK. I'RO.M SoriTII CAHOl.INA. 
 
 IVEIJEI) IN THE IIDI'SE OF REI'liESENTATlVES 
 
 Frhniai-ii S, isso. 
 
 Address of Mr. Dibble, of South Carolina. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: Tlie mortal remains of our statesmen and our 
 licroes are not gathered iu a cloistered abbey, surrounded with a 
 wealth of eulogistic! epitaph ; there is no favored area richer than 
 all others as the treasury of the ashes of our illustrious dead. And 
 so it should be. From the ranks of the people they have risen, as 
 the servants of the people they have achieved their honors, and 
 in the midst of the people they find their last resting-places. And 
 as their bodies mingle with the common dust the soil of the 
 Republic becomes more and more consecrated to patriotism and to 
 liberty, and no pilgrimage is necessary to find a shrine; for each 
 grave becomes a holy spot wiiich loved ones may often visit, and 
 where also while the aged may meditate on the transitory nature 
 (if human glory the young men of the country may be inspired 
 witli a laudable ambition to achieve a similar greatness. Such a 
 spot is Michael P. O'Connor's grave. In the bosom of the soil 
 of his native State his ashes rest in peace, but the memory of his 
 good deeds completes the lesson interrupted by his early death. 
 And to-day we jiause in tlie usual work of legislation to pay the 
 tribute (if friendship and to record his many virtues. 
 
6 LIFE AND CHAEACTEIl OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 
 
 In Beaufort, Soutli Carolina, on the 29th day of September, 
 1831, Michael P. O'Connor was born. The place of his birth 
 was one of the garden-spots of South Carolina. It was a center 
 of culture and refinement, and has been prolific of men who became 
 distinguished in the annals of the State and of the Republic. Tlie 
 associations surrounding the youth of Mr. O'Connor were favor- 
 able to the development of those brilliant mental qualities which 
 gave early promise of noble reputation, to those graceful and culti- 
 vated manners which so fitly adorned his wirm and genial nature, 
 and to those lofty sentiments of patriotism and devotion to duty 
 which inspired his whole career in life. A liberal education at 
 home, and at Saint John's College, at Fordham, in the State of New 
 York, developed his natural abilities into the rounded accomplish- 
 ments of cultured manhood. As the result of his devotion to the 
 pursuit of learning we find him, a graduate at the early age of 
 eighteen years, turning his attention to the study of the law in the 
 city of Charleston. In those days there was no royal road by which 
 to gain admission to the bar. Laborious and severe preparation 
 and a long course of studious probation were exacted by South 
 Carolina of those who aspired to the office of the advocate and the 
 counselor. The commission of an attorney in her courts of justice 
 was only bestowed after a rigid examination before the judges of her 
 courts of last resort. In the year 1854, Mr. O'Connor, after 
 thorough preparation, was duly admitted to the bar, and began to 
 practice his profession at Charleston ; and by his close attention to 
 business, and his brilliant eloquence as an advocate, he marked his 
 pathway with many successes, and established his position as an able 
 and accomplished orator and lawyer. But it was then no ordinary 
 period. Grave questions arose and agitated the public mind, and 
 the time was then rapidly approaching when every day would make 
 history. Mr. O'Connor entered with all the fervor of his nature 
 into the arena of politics. We find him in 1858, at the age of 
 
ADDRESS OF MI!. DIBBLE, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 7 
 
 twenty-seven, a member of the State legislature from the parish 
 of Saint Philip's and Saint Michael's, which embraced the city of 
 Charleston. This constituency he continued to represent, with 
 increasing popularity at home and with marked influence in the 
 halls of legislation, until 1866. During this period, in the year 
 1860, one of the most eloquent of his public utterances was a ring- 
 ing appeal, in the state-house at Columbia, in favor of tlie mainte- 
 nance of the Union of the States. 
 
 After the war was over Mr. O'Connor, in common with the 
 people of the South, found himself wrecked in fortune. But he 
 had indomitable energy and brilliant talents, and he resumed, with 
 all the alacrity of his earlier life, his professional labors. Perhaps 
 for one of his cultivated tastes and fondness for literary as well as 
 forensic pursuits the period of his life preceding his re-entry upon 
 a public career was as happily spent as any portion of his days. 
 His profession afforded an ample field for active and remunerative 
 mental exercise. The companionship ol" friends of congenial tastes 
 and sympathies gave opportunity for the enjoyment of those literary 
 and social recreations which add such a charm to our daily life. 
 And the quiet enjoyment of home filled the measure of content in 
 a life so much in unison with the warm and genial nature of Mr. 
 O'Connor. 
 
 But his admiring fellow-citizens refused to consent to his remain- 
 ing in private life. Sometimes persons aspire to public positions 
 of dignity; at other times the occasion suggests the man. The 
 latter is true of Michael P. O'Connor. He was called upon 
 to accept the office of Representative as a matter of duty, and the 
 patriot resi^onded to the call. How well he fulfilled the obligations 
 assumed by him here I shall leave to those to narrate who wore 
 associated with him as members of the House. Suffice it for me, 
 as one of his constituents, to say we were all satisfied at home. 
 And in evidence of this I would request to have printed here, as a 
 
8 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 
 
 part of my remarlcs, a brief sketch of the action of tlie city council 
 of Charleston on the occasion of his death, which occurred at his 
 home ill that city on the 2lith of April, 1881 : 
 
 CiTV OF Charleston, 
 Executive Department, April 26, 1881. 
 The rcfiular liiiiioiitlily meeting of the city council was b-ild at their 
 chamber this evening. Tlieie were pnwent Hon. William A. Courteuay, 
 mayor; Aldenneii Diugle, Roddy, Chisolm, Aii-liel, Webb, White, Ufferhardt, 
 Morau, Loeb, Eckel, Thayer, Johnson, Feehan, Rose, Harkley, SigwaUl, 
 Rodgers, and Ebaugb. 
 
 The mayor, with evident emotion, said : 
 
 " Gentlemen of conncil, our regular meeting tbis evening comes to us .at a 
 time of sorrow to a large circle of family and fiieuds, and amid a general 
 feeling of sadness throughout our community. Our gifted and eloquent 
 townsm.an, M. P. O'Connor, the Representative in Congress from this 
 district, so long and so affectionately known to all of ns, lies dead at his 
 home, within sight of this conncil chamber. 
 
 "His hands are folded on his breast, 
 There is no other thought expressed 
 Than long disquiet merged in rest. 
 
 "I feel that we owe it alike to his personal worth and his oflicial station 
 that we should give expression to our feelings of .sympathy and condolence 
 at this afflicting dispensation of Provideuce, and before proceeding with the 
 regular call of business I have felt that I would best conform to your 
 own feelings by making tl^i-s official annouucenieut." 
 
 Alderman Dingle olfered the following re.solutiou8: 
 
 " His honor the mayor having announced to the city souncil, in council 
 chamber assembled, the recent death, at his resideuee in this city, of Hon. 
 M. P. O'Connor, member of Congress irom the first Congressional district : 
 Therefore, 
 
 "BeitresoUed hii flu lil i/ roun.-i I. Th:i\ in tlir d.-atli cl' Ib.ii. M. 1'. (rCiNxoR 
 the State of South Carolina ha.i lost a true, ardent, and faitliful Repre- 
 sentative in the national councils, and the city on(^ of its most devuli'd and 
 distinguished citizens. 
 
 '^Resolred, That the city council express'herewith their sincere eonclolenee 
 with the family of the distinguished deceased in their great loss. 
 
 "Resolved, That the city council attend in a liiuly tin- Inneral of the 
 deceased. 
 
 " Rcsolrcd, That as a mark of respect to tin- memory of tlii> deeeasi-d this 
 council do now adjourn." 
 
 Alderm.in Utferhiirdt said : 
 
ADDBESS OF Mil. DIBBLE, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 9 
 
 shares this feeling of sorrow over a loss so unexpected and irreparable. Ay, 
 the whole city and State foel with us the calamity of seeing cold in death one 
 who laid down his life in the service of his people ; one who, like a tried 
 warrior wounded and worn out upon the field of battle, has not even had time 
 to lay aside his armor, but dies just as he is brought away, although permitted 
 to reach his home and friends. I repeat, Mr. Mayor, that I second the resolu- 
 tions before you, although full of sorrow and regret." 
 
 Alderman Thayer said : 
 
 ".Mr. Mayor, I also would srcoml tlio invanibh- and n'sdntious, and add 
 my hiniildo tiilmt.. to tbr meiiioiy uf ,„ir li,„H.rr,l IViriwl, lVllnw-,il izn,. aii.l 
 
 " It was not my privilege to have been as intimately a.ssociated with Mr. 
 O'Connor as had so many others, but it was mine to have known him as my 
 friend and, realizing, to have appreciated the sincerity of hi- friendship. The 
 genial, bland manner which always graced his intercourse with his fellows 
 was no Wrely assumed garb, but the outer sign of the true and Udhli- licart 
 which dwelt within. 
 
 " As a citizen, in this presence, I need not recall how well he filled bis part, 
 ever ready as he was to give time, labor, and influence, and to spend and be 
 spent in the interest of our city. State, and country. 
 
 "And as our Representative how fully he has earned and deserved the 
 award of his constituency: 'Well done, good and failhful servant.' If no 
 more, his long, earnest, an<l at last successful etforts in the interests of those 
 wbo through wrong and mismanagement had beeu so despoiled of tbtir hard- 
 cariii'd sa\ iiigs will be a proud monument to his memory, aiidslinuld call Curtli 
 Ihc gratitude of the recipients of the results mainly atlaiiu'd tliriiiiL;li his 
 devoted care and attention. This, as his other well-diriMted cttoits, may be 
 regarded as only in the line of official duty; but, sir, there was more than the 
 simple performance of duty— there was largely involved the spirit of self- 
 sacrifice, for as now we learn how long and severely he had been battling 
 with the dread disease which has just terminated his valnable life, we realize 
 and can but admire the renunciation of self despite pain and suffering he evi- 
 denced, yet to dare and do where dnty called. 
 
 " But now, 'life's battle's o'er,' in that stricken home he lies— 
 
 "In the deep silence of tljat dreamleas state 
 Of sleep, that knows no waiting joys again. 
 
 " There would we tread lightly: to his sorrow-bowed loved ones extending 
 our heartfelt .sympathies in their sore bereavement, and corameuding them 
 to Him who has promised to be the God of the wiilow and the father of the 
 fatherless. 
 
 "Mr. Mayor, I move the adoiitioii of tln' priaiiibh- and risiiluticms. ' 
 
 The resolutions were then voted nii.animonsly, and the eity eonneil was 
 declared adjourned. 
 
 \V. N. SIMON!- 
 Chr); <)/ ' Vi 
 
] LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. (f CONNOR. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, how transitory are worldly honors! Vikc summa 
 brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam. The laurels of success 
 sometimes form the garland which decks the victim for the sacrifice. 
 Death, who "loves a shining mark," often directs his shafts at the 
 glittering jewel which ambition presses to its breast, and aiming at 
 the bauble, pierces a human heart. And, again, it is true, as the 
 jxiet has said : 
 
 The good die first, 
 And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust 
 Burn to the socket 
 
 Michael P. O'Connor came to these legislative halls full of 
 high and noble purposes. He felt that his duty here was to serve 
 his constituency and his country; and he rendered the service at 
 the expense of his life. Gifted as he was with those powers of 
 persuasive eloquence which had captivated many an audience, he 
 became a working, not a talking, member of the House; and in his 
 devotion to his fellow-citizens at home there was no discrimination. 
 His heart was large enough to embrace all classes. The welfare of 
 the humblest negro in the log cabin of the piney-woods was the 
 object of his careful solicitude as well as that of the merchant and 
 the planter of means and influence ; and in his career in Congress 
 some of his most earnest efforts were for the benefit of the colored 
 people of the South. I instance here his exertions in favor of 
 legislation for the relief of depositors of the Freedman's Savings 
 Bank. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, it woukl afford me a mournful satisfaction to speak 
 longer of the virtues of the departed; of his high Christian charac- 
 ter; of his identification with numerous philanthropic and chari- 
 table enterprises at home ; of the lack of anything like partisan 
 bitterness in his nature; of his statesmanlike views of public duty; 
 of the magnetism of his nature, which captivated all those with 
 whom he came in contact; and of his love of country and his 
 
ADDRESS OP' MI!. RAXDALL, OF PKNXSYLVANIA. 11 
 
 devotion to her interests. But I will leave these topics to otliers. 
 Suffice it to say of him, in conclusion, wliat is better than all else, 
 that, living in Christian faith, he died in the full confidence of a 
 Christian's hope, awaiting the resurrection of the just. 
 
 Address of Mr. Randall, of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: Almost from the first moment of my meeting Mr. 
 O'Connor I was impressed with the fact that he was one of those 
 true men who earnestly seek to know the exact condition of affairs, 
 and then, after becoming convinced of what duty commanded, 
 followed with fearless courage the convictions forced upon him. 
 
 Coming here after a war which had resulted most disastrously 
 for his State so far as those were concerned who had engaged 
 against the power of the Union, he never stopped to repine, but 
 with unflagging industry and unvarying courtesy did all he could 
 to make the most of his opportunities. Indeed, sir, now looking 
 back upon the recent past, I cannot recall any man who more sin- 
 cerely accepted the results of the civil conflict, or who more ear- 
 nestly endeavored to secure for his people a new future, and so to 
 utilize their mental and material resources as to fix them again in 
 prosperity and cordial union with their fellow-citizens of the other 
 States. 
 
 He obtained respect and standing on his advent in the Forty- 
 sixth Congress by refined manners and gentlemanly bearing. He 
 modestly took the positions on committees which were assigned to 
 him, and won the confidence and applause of his associates by the 
 industry, care, and ability which he displayed in the discharge of 
 the duties imposed upon him. He desired to be useful rather than 
 ornamental, and each day the House was in session he was promptly 
 in attendance, save when ill-health prevented, anxious only to do 
 the best he could toward his share of the labors imposcil upon the 
 
12 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. ff CONNOR. 
 
 Representatives of the people. And yet, sir, his mind was stored 
 with learning and his fervid imagination prompted to an eloquence 
 which shook many an audience with the storm of applause. But 
 here, in the fierce contest of antagonistic -and couflicting interests, 
 lie was wary and eager to secure for his constituents the highest 
 success their circumstances would afford. He was staunch and 
 faithful as a friend. His word once passed was as inviolable as 
 faith itself. Well I knew this, and deeply I lamented his loss. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, the burdens imposed upon the Representatives of 
 the people are numberless and the cares which accompany them most 
 oppressive, while the reward for "days filled with labor and nights 
 devoid of ease" is so inadequate, that public life would be without 
 enticement if it were not for the devotion of friends like Mr. 
 O'Connor. I deeply mourn his loss, for no man had u truer 
 friend; one whose fidelity never wavered, whose heart never sank, 
 however untoward the future might seem. 
 
 I mourn not only for a faithful friend and wise adviser, but I 
 mourn the loss of a brave-hearted American Representative, whose 
 ambition was not only to behold his State one of the most prosper- 
 ous in the Union, ])ut it reached higher and was nobler in that it 
 taught to see his whole country leading the van of nations toward 
 that civilization which crowns not the few, but elevates the masses 
 to that comfort which comes from thriving' industry, good order, 
 and well-established justice. 
 
 His domestic life was that which becomes a gentleman. He was 
 the head of a happy home, the proud father of a devoted family. 
 To it his loss is irreparable. But to his children the inheritance of 
 an unstained name and the record of an honorable public service 
 are better than gold and brighter than diamonds. In these memo- 
 rial services I could not say less, but my heart has feelings for our 
 dead associate which words are jiowerless to express. An honest 
 man, a staunch friend, a true, brave-hearted patriot, lias gone. 
 
OF mi;. iKiiiM.iy. OF MAssAcjirsKrr,^ 
 
 Address of Mr. Bowman, of Massachusetts. 
 
 JNIr. Si'EAivF.U: I am ,i;l:ul to join witli my fcllow-nKiiilicrs in 
 oflbring my tribiitL- of respect to tlic incmory of liiin in wliosc lionor 
 tlicsc services arc lield to-day. Wlien one lias dcscrveil well of iiis 
 country; has honestly and faithfully workcil i'or its interest; lias 
 laboriously and conscieutiously performed tiic duties of Ids ofKee as 
 a member of Congress, it is fitting that we should turn aside for at 
 least a few moments from the duties of the hour and place on per- 
 petual record our testimonials of respect, affection, and esteem. It 
 is the last service which we can render for him; it is a service which 
 our deceased friend well merited, so that we can perform it not as a 
 mere matter of custom or form of duty, but because his pleasant 
 and genial disposition, his kindness of heart, his integrity of char- 
 acter, and his industry and faithfulness in the discharge of duty, 
 rendered it for him a just due, and for us a consolation and sad 
 pleasure that we can honestly bestow it. 
 
 Mr. O'CoxNOR and I came to the last Congress as new members, 
 and it may perhaps be considered as our misfortune that we were 
 assigned to the laborious and somewhat thankless duties of the 
 Committee on Claims. Coming from widely separated sections of 
 the country, strangers to each other, and of different political faiths, 
 it might seem as if we had no thoughts or interests in common ; but 
 a few weeks had hardly pa.ssed before a friendly intimacy grew up 
 between us which continued until his death, and which I shall 
 always cherish as among the pleasant recollections of my Congres- 
 sional life. 
 
 I do not think that one could come into close contact with Mr. 
 O'Connor without finding his respect for him rapidly grow into 
 affection. Although he was firm and decided in his views, he had 
 respect for the opinions of others, however widely different from 
 
14 /.//''/-; AMI CILIiricTKl; of MICUAEL /■. (fVONNOR. 
 
 his (iwii. He iiever allo\7ed opinions to blossom out and mature 
 into higotry. His judgment of what was right never ran into the 
 narrow ruts of intolerance, and the sharpest political controversy 
 or the widest differences of opinion never caused in him bitterness of 
 feeling or personal animosities. I doubt if our friend could under 
 any circumstances have been a good hater; he was too kind in 
 heart and gentle in disposition. After ail it is perhaps the highest 
 praise which you can bestow upon a man to say he is a gentleman, 
 not in the modern and corrupted meaning of the word, whicfi by 
 usage has seemed to apply only to wealth, position, appearance, 
 manners, or other external qualities, but in the original and higher 
 meaning, that one is a gentleman; one who, however strong and 
 firm and unyielding and brave in the cause of right and principle, 
 yet has that gentleness of manner and kindness of heart which 
 always has regard to the opinions and feelings and desires and com- 
 fort of others. Such a gentleman in the highest and best and 
 truest sense of the word our brother member was. He disliked to 
 do a harsh thing ; he hated to say a harsh word, and always he 
 would rather say good of a man than evil. 
 
 He preferred to apologize for and excuse the faults or foibles of 
 others, rather than to enlarge upon them. What impressed me 
 most in my intercourse with him was his unfailing good nature, his 
 geniality of disposition, his kindness in word and act. His impul- 
 siveness did not cover petulance, nor his earnestness degenerate into 
 anger or impatience, and when in the latter days of the last Con- 
 gress his fixiling health kept him away from many of the meetings 
 of the committee, I am sure there could have been none whose 
 pleasant face and pleasant words would have been more missed. 
 
 But his kindness of disposition did not degenerate into weakness, 
 and his pleasant manners were no proof of a soft and feeble nature. 
 There was in him a sturdincss of character and a force and power 
 of manhood which would prevent him from improperly yielding in 
 
JUnilESS Of MI!. IKIWMAS, Ob' MASS-ICII USIiTTS. If) 
 
 those things wherever his amiability and desire to please iniolit 
 tempt liira to give way. I am sure that he always tried to do the 
 right thing, that he meant to do what wius just and fair and honest, 
 and that if he had once found out what he deemed to be the right 
 path, neither the desire to please friend nor to punish foe would 
 swerve him from it. I always had great respect for his jilain and 
 steady honesty of purpose, and however much I differed from him 
 (and we did differ widely on many subjects), I always and justly 
 gave him credit for sincerity and a desire to be right and to do right. 
 I could not sympathize with some of his views, yet I respected 
 them and knew that he held them honestly and sincerely, and it is 
 always easy to "agree to disagree" without any interruption to the 
 warmest friendship where one has respect for the motives and feel- 
 ings of the one from whom he differs. 
 
 The duties of the Committee on Claims are not particularly pleas- 
 ant. They call for quiet, hard, and unobtrusive work, which the 
 public care little for and which does not attract public notice or lift 
 the worker up before the public gaze. About the only reward it 
 can bring to the member is the consciousness of performing neces- 
 sary duties well and honestly, and it does not blossom out into flune 
 nor make his name known to the people, as important work on 
 what may be called a public committee frequently does. Yet the 
 duties thus imposed upon him our friend assumed with as much 
 industry, zealousness, and perseverance as if he was by their perform- 
 ance treading the pathway to fame or other personal reward . He was 
 a good lawyer, and (what is by no means synonymous) had good 
 common sense and a wise judgment. The mere letter of the law 
 could not with him be allowed to destroy equity and justice, nor on the 
 other hand could his instincts of benevolence and the perhaps piti- 
 able cases of suffering which might be brought to his notice induce 
 him to forget what was right toward the government, or to be 
 false to his duties as a member of Congress and one of the guard- 
 
16 LIFE AM) rn.\itAcri:n of mkiiael r. o'coxnoi;. 
 
 ians (((' the interests of Ins eoiiutry. In ])resenting the cases com- 
 mitted to liis charge, either in committee or in thi^ House, by written 
 report or l)y speech, lie w;^s compact, forcible, logical, and at times 
 eloquent. He understood the principles underlying the cases, and 
 was forcible in presenting them. His report, as a member of the 
 Conuiiittee on Civil Service Reform of the last Congress, upon the 
 question of the refen'iiee of all private elaiiiis before Congress to 
 the Court of Claims, was a thorough and forcible presentation of 
 that subject. He did good worU and hard work in committee and 
 House, and was an active, industrious, an<l conscientious legislator. 
 For his family we have sympathy; for ourselves, the pleasant 
 memories of him who was with us during the many months of the 
 last Congress ; for liim, congratulations. For surely it is well with 
 a man, and is the best, if somewhere in the hereafter he can feel 
 that all life's troubles and toils and sufferings are over and he is safe 
 beyond their reach and has earned his rest, and that he has gone 
 from life to death, or rather jierhaps from death unto life, with the 
 respect of those who knew him and by them sincerely mourned. 
 
 Address of Mr. Maginnis, of Montana. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : Among all the friends whom I have met uj)ou 
 this floor, behind whose disappearing forms have closed the iron 
 gates of death, I cherish with particular affection tlie memory of 
 M. P. O'CoNNOK. His frank and generous nature, his cordial, 
 kindly ways, his unfailing courtesy, won all who came close to him. 
 There was between us also that community of sentiment which comes 
 of a common sympathy with the sorrows and the aspirations of the 
 race from which we both have sprung. Indeed, I first became 
 intimate with Mr. O'Connor at the time when the starving people 
 of Ireland were stretching in piteous appeal their wasted hands 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. MAfllNNIS, OF MONTANA. 17 
 
 across the rolling waves and asking the generous people of this 
 happy laud to save them from death and despair, produced by long 
 years of raisgovernment and oppression. We both were members 
 of the committee of reception appointed under the resolution which 
 gave Mr. Parnell the use of this Hall, in order that he might tell 
 the Representatives of the American people of the miseries of his 
 native land, and explain the methods of reform for which lie was 
 pleading. 
 
 Later, I was present at a banquet over which Mr. O'Connor 
 presided. I shall never forget the eloquent speech in which he 
 responded to the first toast, or the ready, graceful, appropriate 
 way in which he called out and introduced subsequent speakers. 
 I never met a more charming or eloquent host. I was, of course, 
 deeply interested. Coming from a new land, among whose lower- 
 iiig mountains and wide-sti-etching valleys there is room for untold 
 millions of people ; living under a government that takes infinite 
 pains to protect the claim of the humblest settler, and to measure 
 and define and patent to any settler a farm and a home who lives 
 upon it for five years, I could scarcely comprehend the fact that in 
 another land, homes that had been occupied, and little farms that 
 had been tilled, for generation after generation, might be lost to 
 those born and reared upon them through the misfortunes of an 
 adverse season or the failure of a single crojj or the unjust exac- 
 tions of an avaricious landlord. And I heartily sympathized with 
 the devoted young member of Parliament whom we entertained ; 
 a gentleman who is the leader of his people; who, under a free 
 government, would be the premier of his country, but who is now 
 in jail under an arbitrary and despotic aot which requires no charge 
 and permits of no trial. 
 
 As a member of this House Mr. O'Connor was devoted to any 
 duty that was assigned to him. I never knew a member more 
 anxious to serve his constituents. It was painfully evident during 
 
18 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 
 
 tlie closing days of the last Congress that his health was in a most 
 precarious condition, but he remained at his desk day after day 
 and endeavored to accomplish the work that was pressing upon 
 him. When the Congress dissolved he sought his home in the 
 South, confident that the balmy air of his own beautiful citj' by 
 the sea would restore his vigor and health again. I parted from 
 liim in tlie hope of receiving his kindly gra.sp and meeting his 
 genial smile on my return. I was far away in the interior of the 
 continent when I accidentally heard the news of his death. I was 
 shocked and grieved beyond expression, and the pain of it has 
 nt'ver left me. T ciin only give it expression in this inadequate 
 tribute of my regard for the memory of a kind friend, an honest 
 ■and an al.le man. 
 
 Address of Mr. Lindsey, of Maine. 
 
 Mr. Speakeu : My aajuaintancc witli Mr. ()'C( )NN(MI was sjiort, 
 commencing with his entry into the Forty-sixth Congress ; yet it 
 happened we were thrown much together in committee, and I 
 learned to know him there well. My brief acquaintance do&s not 
 warrant me in speaking, as others have fitly done, of loss sustained 
 by family relatives and locality, or of the excellence he exhiliited 
 in the relation of husband, father, friend, and citizen ; but I must 
 content myself in saying only a word as I knew him here. In the 
 Forty-sixth Congress Mr. O'Connor was assigned to the Commit- 
 tee on Claims, where I may say he was respected and appreciated 
 by all his associates. In that committee he knew no party, no 
 section, no man. He examined the matters committed to him for 
 the cause alone, and determined them upon what he regarded as 
 sound and well-settled principles of law. I am sin-e all his associ- 
 ates will bear cheerful witness to his earnest elfoi't to do liis full 
 
ADDRESS OF MI!. BKlTZHOOrFAt, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 19 
 
 duty in a committee overwiiclmed with business of a kind tliat 
 attnicts Imt little jniblic attention and finds small favor in this 
 House. To what position he might have attained with larger 
 service and more conspicuous place it is now useless to speculate. 
 His service here is completed. The work committed to him to do 
 was faithfuiry done. And it is but fact to say that those who 
 knew him best rcsp(?ctcd him most. 
 
 Address of Mr. Beltzhoover, of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: It is an immemorial and universal cnstom 
 among men to honor the memories of their departed friends. 
 This sacred usage springs from the purest emotions of the soul, 
 and goes forth in a thousand various forms to elevate and beautify 
 all that was great and good in the dead, and to extenuate and con- 
 ceal all that was frail and bad. The method of expressing this 
 sentiment of respect for their dead is an index of the civilization 
 of nations, extending from the rude symbolic ceremonies and 
 mound-burials of the savage to the elegant and eloquent eulogies 
 which embalm the memories of the departed in the literature and 
 song of the most cultured peoples. The history of all the efforts 
 of mankind on this subject unerringly teach, however, that there 
 is no earthly immortality for the dead except in the imperishable 
 keeping of written language. The marble pillars set up by Sesos- 
 tris to mark his conquests have dissolved into dust. The great 
 tumulus over the heroes on the plain of Marathon is almost gone. 
 The stone lion at the pass of Therraopylse and the statues and 
 emblems which were intended to perpetuate the names of the 
 mighty men of the psist have all perished amid the indistinguish- 
 al)lc wrecks of mortality. The tombs of Abraham and ^neas 
 and of Moses and Romulus are with those of the mighty host of 
 sleeping deini-gods which are marked on the world's great battle- 
 
20 I.IhE AM) CIIAUACTER OF MICHAEL P. rfCOyXOIl. 
 
 fields with tiie liuniblest and meekest — unkvovm! The highest 
 and most enduring tribute, therefore, whicli \vc can pay to a dead 
 friend is in the earnest, fervent words of praise with which we 
 commit tiie record of his character and virtues to the unyielding 
 embrace of history. Impressed and influenced by this belief, I 
 e;irnestly and affectionately join with those wlio desire to express 
 their respect and admiration for the life and services of one who 
 was lately a distinguished member of this body. Hon. Michael 
 P. O'Connor was born on the 29th day of September, 1831, at 
 Beaufort, South Carolina, and died at Charleston, in that State, on 
 the 26th day of April, 1881. He was a man of strong intellectual 
 jiower, of liberal education, an able lawyer, a skillful debater, an 
 industrious and efficient legislator, an affectionate husband and 
 parent, and a courteous gentleman. He had a fine personal ap- 
 pearance, a strong, compact frame, a large, well-formed, brainy 
 head, and a scholarly face. 
 
 He was a hard student from his youth to his grave. He was 
 educated at Saint John's College, situated at Fordham, now a part 
 of New York City, which, from the character of its organization, 
 its location, surroundings, and numerous and varied facilitie.s, is 
 one of the very best educational institutions in the country. Its 
 founder and head was the venerable Archbishop Hughes, and its 
 president during Mr. O'Connor's attendance was the distinguished 
 Cardinal McCloskey. With a complete literary equipment, he 
 entered the legal profession at Charleston, which has one of the 
 best and ablest bars in the State. He was elected to the legisla- 
 ture of South Carolina for seven consecutive years. He was a 
 member of the Forty-sixth Congress, and served his full term. He 
 was re-elected to the Forty-seventh Congress, but died during the 
 ititcrval between the adjournment of the last and the meeting of 
 the jiresent session. In the Forty-sixth Congress he served on the 
 ( 'oniiuittc.s on Claims, Civil Service Reform, and I.airor. Neither 
 
innimss of mu. HEi.r/.inxn eu. or ri:.\\syLiJ.\JA. 21 
 
 of these committees and the work iissigned to them afford any con- 
 siderable opportunities for forensic display or the development of 
 the peculiar qualities of statesmanship. Neither of them furnished 
 a theater for the exhibition of the abilities and experience of Mr. 
 (3'CONNOR. But he wrought faithfully where fortune placed him, 
 and it is not unfair to any member of the Committee on Claims to 
 say that no one on that committee surpassed him in the industry 
 and ability and success with which he performed his duties on that 
 his chief committee. 
 
 I remember well his report and argument on the bill for the 
 relief of L. Madison Day. This claim rested on an apparently 
 equitable ground, and involved the discussion of some interesting 
 questions of constitutional and statute law. But, in addition to 
 other objections, there was an insuperable, although by no means 
 patent, teclmical and legal barrier in the way of the claim. Mr. 
 O'Connor's report accompanying the bill was lengthy and able, 
 and came as near making a feeble appear to be a faultless case 
 as rare tact and ingenuity and legal acumen could do. When 
 the bill came up for final passage in the House he made a strong 
 and effective speech in its favor, still further refining the discrimi- 
 nations by which he ingeniously labored to reason away and break 
 the force of the decisions against the legality of the claim. The 
 tide was clearly in favor of the bill. A number of lawyers who 
 saw the weakness of the case and the obstacles in its way inter- 
 rupted him, myself among the number, briefiy suggesting the 
 grounds of difficulty. At this critical period of the debate one 
 of the most skillful and ready men of the House, Mr. Hammond, 
 of Georgia, entered the discussion, and by a short and incisive 
 argument turned the current against the bill. Mr. O'Connor 
 promptly obtained an adjournment, and when the discussion was 
 renewed on the following day he came fresh to the contest, and, 
 fighting gallantly, was only beaten by one or two votes. 
 
•/Z LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL I'. VCOXXUIt. 
 
 If I had seen liim manage a hundred legal battles I could perhaps 
 have had a better idea of the extent of his versatility and resources, 
 but I could not have been more convinced of his marked force and 
 adroitness as a lawyer and of his tact and readiness as a debater and 
 l)arliamentarian. One of the most learned and eloquent men of the 
 last generation declared that he could tell from hearing any man 
 talk fifteen minutes whether he had a classical education. So it 
 seems to me that any person with reasonable powers of discrimina- 
 tion could not listen to Mr. O'Connor during the progress of even 
 a brief debate without being deeply impressed with the elegance 
 and force of his language and the cogency of his argument. The 
 career of a new member of Congress can only be judged of in this 
 way. He has few opportunities, and for these he waits like a soldier 
 for battle. He must seize the current when it serves, and if he 
 brings to the only occasion presented in his whole term all the ability 
 and skill which a master of the subject could be expected to command, 
 he deserves more praise than he who monopolizes the Record with 
 daily lucubrations. Mr. O'Connor was occasionally called to the 
 chair by the Speaker during the Forty-sixth Congress, and always 
 prw^ided with dignity and ability. He wa.s an attentive, industrious, 
 and useful member of the House. He was always at his commit- 
 tees during their sittings and in the House during its sessions. He 
 was a gentleman of rare courtesy and politeness in his intercourse 
 with his fellow-members and with all men. He was devoted to his 
 family, and spoke of them often with the greatest pride and deepest 
 affection, and tJiey reciprocated his love by being fondly attached 
 to him. 
 
 AVith a strong mind, a liberal literary and legal culture, an 
 extensive exjierience and practice at the bar, a long service in the 
 legislature of his State, and an honorable record of service for a 
 full term in this the highest legislative body in the world, thoroughly 
 armed and prepared, he had just stepped out into the grand arena 
 
ADDIiESS Of MU. liKI.T/.HOUVEli, OF riCSSSYlAAMA. 2.'5 
 
 (>f';i bright career in the public service of tiic nation. Hnl in (lie 
 prime of his manhood and in the noonday of his liope ami aniliitiini 
 lie was suddenly sumiuoned to the gloomy shades of the utisecn 
 world. I well remember meeting him in the chamber in the rear 
 of the Hall of the House on one of the last days of last session. 
 He spoke a few words in reference to the contest for his seat, which 
 was then pending before the Election Committee. He then grasped 
 my hand in his cordial manner to bid me good-by, and said : " My 
 friend, I am not well ; I must go home and rest." He went home, 
 and rested there in that long, unbroken sleep which knows no 
 waking. The beautiful country and balmy sunshine and (piiet 
 home could not stay the inflexible purpose of an unpropitious destiny. 
 The great common law of human hope and human ambition, which 
 is symbolized by the broken column and unfinished work, was 
 rigidly followed and enforced, and he was cut down in obedience to 
 its inexorable decree. There are a few favorites of this mysterious 
 and revengeful Nemesis, whose names stand out at long intervals on 
 the highway of history, who seem to have lived out the purpose of 
 existence in seeing the fulfillment and enjoying the fruition of a 
 life's work of sacrifice and toil and endeavor. But these excejjtions 
 only serve to justify humanity in its mutinous mutteriugs of rebell- 
 ion against the common lot. The great and innumerable hosts 
 which struggle on the upward road to fame are lost amid its inhos- 
 pitable crags and treacherous steeps. 
 
 The greatest and proudest cpieen that ever swayed a scepter on 
 the earth, after she had exhausted all the resources of power, and 
 there was no other way to illustrate her glory and grandeur, com- 
 manded a great and gorgeous palace of ice to be built in her cold 
 northern home. With vast expense and skill and toil the mighty 
 structure was reared, with its lofty columns and spacious halls and 
 numerous chambers — an imposing and marvelous creation of human 
 power and restless ambition. Within it the royal court assembled 
 
24 LIFE AND CUAllACTEK OF MICHAEL 1'. (/COXXOI!. 
 
 as in a palace radiant with measureless myriads of diamonds. No 
 other queen ever held her high estate in so rare and so brilliant an 
 abode. But the hot and certain summer came and breathed upon 
 it, and the cold and glittering and wondrous pile, with all its grand- 
 eur, dissolved like a vision of beauty, and left not a wreck behind. 
 There is no fitter picture of the visionary structures which fill the 
 vain and dreamy realm of human ambition; but it is the old, old 
 story which reiteration has made stale and unprofitable. 
 
 And yet ambition, luring its infetuated followers to disappoint- 
 ment and death, will ever remain the strongest incentive to human 
 endeavor. It is the mainspring of all the greatest eiforts of human 
 heroism ; it is the hopeless but determined and God-like reaching 
 out of the human soul after the Infinite, of which it is a fragment 
 and with which it struggles onward and ever to unite again. With 
 Thomai5 Carlyle : 
 
 It is uot to taste things sweet, but to ilo m.ble and true tliiugs auil viudi- 
 cate himself under God's heavens a God-nuide man, that the poorest sou of 
 Adam dimly longs. Show him the way of doing that, the dullest day-dnidKe 
 kindles into a hero. They wrong man greatly who say he is to he seduced by 
 ease. Difiticulty, abnegation, martyrdom, death, are the allurements that a(^t 
 on the heart of man. Kindle the inner, genial life of him, you have a tlame 
 that burns up all lower considerations. 
 
 This was the ambition which did uot '• tire with toil nor cloy with 
 power," which inspired and animated our dead friend in the battle 
 of life. He had a right to be ambitious. He had it by inherit- 
 ance from a race of the bravest and best among the sons of men. 
 He bore a name which is linked with some of the purest triumphs 
 of genius and liberty. He was born and reared in a State whose 
 normal condition was revolution, and on the altars of whose house- 
 hold gods there burned the undying fires of an all-consuming 
 ambition. He bore the escutcheon of that grand old historic 
 State whose chiefest glory in history will be that she was the 
 mother not only of great but of ambitious men. He maintained 
 her fair fame unsullied amid the sneers and shafts of spite and 
 
.iDDitiiss OF Ml;. 1:1.1.1s, OF i.orisi.i.wi. 25 
 
 reveiif^c and t'ontumely wliicli mock licr iailcii rorluiics mid dcsn- 
 hitc'd fields, and sleeps now with lier lioiiorc<I (Kad in licr own 
 |)roud and sunny clime. 
 
 On Ids flower-entwined tomh let there he written that his and)i- 
 tion wjis to nobly do the work of life ; to faithfnlly serve his country 
 and his friends ; to act well his part ; to struggle ever 
 
 Willi an earnest soul, 
 
 For some great end from this low woild :it;ii ; 
 A"n<l still upward travel though he miss tin- j;(ial 
 
 And strav — but toward a. star. 
 
 Address of Mr. Ellis, of Louisiana. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: I had thought that silence would best attest the 
 affectionate remembrance iu which I hold the honored dead, whose 
 memory consecrates this hour; but the wishes of his friends, sec- 
 onded by the strong demands of my own heart, prompt me to ask 
 the brief indulgence of the House while I pay to his great worth a 
 feeble tribute. 
 
 That was a sad spring day to me, that April day of last year, in 
 the soft light of which I read the fateful dispatch that told me that 
 the great and good heart of Michael Patrick O'Connor had 
 grown cold and still forever. It is true, sir, that I had not known 
 him very long, but yet long enough to know him well and to have 
 learneil to admire him as one of the manliest, gentlest men I had 
 ever met — long enough to have learned to love one of the noblest 
 and most generous hearts that ever moved the currents of a human 
 life. 
 
 I formed his acquaintance when he came here to take his place in 
 the Forty-sixth Congress, in December, 1879, but I was familiar 
 with his name and reputation before I ever grasped his hand ; for 
 he had won name and fame in his own State and among his own 
 people, and was beloved and honored by them; and his State and 
 
2(i /.//''A- A\D CIIARAvriili OF MICHAEL I'. (/COXNOI!. 
 
 ]>LM)ple liad iu all of their history been accustomed to look with 
 uudazzled and uoexaggerated gaze upon great and shining men. 
 Their aunals are emblazoned witii the names and deeds of their 
 Rutledges and Pinckneys, their McDuffies and Calhouns and 
 Haynes and Rhetts and Thornwells. Their standard of mental 
 culture and iu^^ellectual endowment and manly courage and self- 
 reliance is lofty, .and it was no small achievement to have pressed 
 to the front rank as a leader of such a people. But the fame of 
 Mr. O'Connor, passing the boundaries of South Carolina, had 
 i)ecome national ; for in a supreme moment in the councils of his 
 party at one of its great national conventions, with the force and 
 tiic of a born leader, he had thrown himself into the torrent of a 
 .stormy debate that was surging and swollen with the impassioned 
 thought of some of the foremost minds of the Union, and had suc- 
 cessfully stemmed and calmed and controlled it. And the fame of 
 the logical brain and the music-laden tongue of O'Connor had 
 gone to all the States and people of the Republic. And so I was 
 prepared beforehand to admire and respect him for his high intel- 
 lectual endowments; but when I met him face to face there was a 
 something in tlie warm clasp of his hand, in the bright, frank soul 
 that looked from his open, honest eye, that said to me "Let us be 
 friends"; and so we were almost from the outset of our acquaint- 
 ance. And that friendship soon ripened into that intimate coufi- 
 di'uce that is so delightful to congenial spirits, in the sacredness of 
 \vhich men lay bare their souls and their hearts to each other. And 
 it grew all the stronger and sweeter during his life; but, alas! it 
 remains but a sacred and beautiful memory to me now. 
 
 And now, sir, divesting myself as completely as I am able of that 
 partiality with which affection looks upon the memory of a ileparted 
 friend, let me as briefly as I can give to history my estimate and 
 analysis of the character of him whose memory consecrates this 
 hour. 
 
.ii)i)i!i:ss or Mil. KLi.is, (IF ijirisi.ty.i. 27 
 
 The warm, rich blood of Ireland, whether at its fountain-iiead 
 or flowing out to commingle with the life-currents of other j)eo{)le.s, 
 has in all history made men to stir with kindling speech, to (hrill 
 with ecstatic song, to entrance with rapturous music, to die witli 
 superb daring, to champion the cause of the oppressed with sublime 
 devotion, to live in truth to their loves and in faith to their friend- 
 ships, and to wear a sun-smile in their souls that carried light and 
 warmth and wit and cheer to every scene upon which it l)e:iMis. 
 And this was the blood from which O'Connor wa.s sprung, and 
 aptly did he illustrate the noblest traits of the Irish race. In 
 nature and disposition he was impulsive, generous, and affectionate. 
 The coldness of calculating selfishness was all foreign to his soul. 
 He was not a man of policy, substituting tact and craft for courage 
 and directness and strength. Nor did his affection for friends find 
 its origin in conscious weakness and dependence. It was rather the 
 impulse of a heart as gentle as it was brave, as noble and charitable 
 as it was fearless and true. His bearing among men was a most 
 admirable commingling of manly dignity, unixssuming modesty, 
 and knightly courtesy, while the kindly smile, which was indeeil 
 the sunshine from his soul, and the frank, cordial manner of his 
 address carried a mesmeric influence to all wiih whom he came in 
 contiict, and won for him tiie friendship and confidence of all who 
 knew him. 
 
 There was one beautiful trait in his character that impressed me. 
 It was his broad-minded charity for the opinions, the faults, and 
 the foibles of men. I have passed many hours with him in the 
 fullest interchange of confidential thought, and I never heawl him 
 speak uncharitably of any man. If he had no word of commenda- 
 tion he was silent. He endeavored to trace a good and pure motive 
 in the speeches and actions of all men, and believed that men could* 
 differ widelyfrom his views and opinions and still be as honest and 
 sincere as he realized himself to be. 
 
2.S II IE AM) CHAUACTKH UF MICHAEL /'. (/COySOli. 
 
 Mr. O'Connor was a born orator. His speech was ready aud 
 his soul was full of the true spirit of poetry; aud the beautiful in 
 art and nature found in him a devout and constant worshiper. And 
 so he clothed his strongest thouglit in the drapery of chaste language 
 and poetic imagery. He could not believe that the column was less 
 strong because it was polished and carved and sculptured, nor that 
 the oak tree had less of power to defy the storm because of the 
 green glory of its garb or the graceful vine that euwreathed it with 
 fern and flower. Conscious of great gift of speech, he was free from 
 the vanity that seeks ever to parade its excellences in public. The 
 h(irn orator hesitates to speak too often. Conscious of his power, 
 \\\\\\ the loftiest conceptions of true oratory, with a morbid dread 
 lest he fail to realize his ideal, feeling that the failure of genius 
 involves a fall the terrors of which mediocrity can never know, 
 because it never dared, the conscious orator sits oftentimes silent, 
 while others without gift, save of assurance and perseverance, fill 
 senate halls with discordant clamor. And thus it often happens that 
 The shallows njunnur while the deeps are dumb. 
 
 Mr. O'Connor's voice was rich and clear and musical; his 
 enunciation was distinct and perfect; his manner and gesture were 
 emphatic and impressive, and polished sentences full freighted with 
 j)recious thought and clad with brilliant trope and g'owing meta- 
 jihor — like Jove-commissioned heralds from Olympian portals — 
 leapt from his laboring lips. 
 
 As a Representative he was careful, faithful, and painstaking. 
 He was assiduous in looking after every interest of his people and 
 scrupulous in attending to the most trifling wish of his humblest 
 constituent. A most notable instance of his devotion to the rights 
 of the poorer and humbler classes of his constituency were his 
 labors, not alone in behalf of the colored people of his own district, 
 but those of the entire South, in endeavoring to induce the govern- 
 ment to pay in full the losses sustained by the freedmen in the 
 
ADDHESS OF MH. ELLIS, (IF LOFISIAXA. 20 
 
 failure of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company. lu that 
 good work I was his co-laborer, and the brief which we filed before 
 the Ways and Means Coiuraittee, to which the bill was referred, 
 was prepared by us jointly. I prepared the statement of facts and 
 O'Connor wrote the argument upon the legal questions involved. 
 And that argument, upon a novel and original proposition, involv- 
 ing the question of the peculiar relations sustained by the govern- 
 ment to the freedmen of the South during the period that elapsed 
 between their manumission and their enfranchisement, and the 
 obligation of the government arising from that relation, was one 
 of singular power, clearness, and cogency, and of itself enough to 
 rank Mr. O'Connor as one of the foremost lawyers of the country. 
 His patriotism was intense. With all the fervor of his great 
 heart did he love his native State. The misfortunes and calamities 
 that befell South Carolina from 1861 to 1876 seemed to endear her 
 and her people all the more to his faithful soul. Again and again 
 has he recited to me the Iliad of her woes, and with more than ten- 
 derness of speech and voice discovered to me a pathetic and cling- 
 ing devotion to her fortunes that prosperity and power and victory 
 would never have conamauded, and then he would quote these 
 exquisite words of the gifted orator and poet-priest, the laureate of 
 the South : 
 
 A land without ruins is a land without meniorios; a laud without niouio- 
 ries is a Ijfud without history. A land that wear's a laurel crown may be fair 
 to see; but twiue a few sad cypress leaves around the brow of auy land, and 
 be that laud barren, beautiless, and bleak, it becomes lovely in its consecrated 
 coronet of sorrow, and it wins the sympathy of the heart and of history. 
 Crowns of roses fade, crowns of thorns endure. Calvaries and crucifixes take 
 the deepest hold ou humanity. The triumphs of might are transient— they 
 pass and .are forgotten; the sufferiugs of right are graven deepest ou the 
 chronicle of nations. 
 
 As a statesman he was broad, liberal, and progressive. His soul 
 had no jwtience with that kind of statesmanship which insists upon 
 holding an endless wake over dead issues — which, like loot's wife, is 
 
30 I'lFE AXD CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. n'COXSOR. 
 
 turning forever to look back at the smouklering ashes of dead ideas 
 that were consumed in the fierce fires of civil war. He believed 
 that the "dead past should bury its dead"; he favored a strong 
 and progressive American policy ; he longed to see the magic wand 
 of material development touch the land of the South; he was an 
 enthusiastic friend of all measures that looked to the restoration of 
 the merchant marine of this country and the tearing from the mast- 
 head of the grasping monopolist of the world's commerce the 
 proud title of " Mistress of the Sea," and nailing it j ust under where 
 the flag of our country is floating, and the giving again the glory of 
 that flag to all the winds and isles and stars of the sea. He had no 
 jjatience with that kind of statesmanship which is the child of cheap 
 demagogy and stupid unprogressiveness, and whose creed and code 
 are summed up in the two words, 'J object." 
 
 But last and best of all, Mr. O'Connor was a pure, sincere, and 
 devout Christian. He made no noisy protestation of his faith, nor 
 sought to intrude his opinions upon othei-s; but he boldly pro- 
 claimed the name of the Nazarene, and his daily walk and speech 
 attested the belief of his heart; and in, this was he an example to 
 all of us. 
 
 I know my own weakness, aud how far short I fall of my own 
 duty, nor do I dare stand here to admonish others; but professing 
 my undying faith in the divinity of our holy religion, I do say that 
 in the day when unbelief, unable to promise us other light than 
 the feeble ray of reason, asks the world to blot from its sky the 
 star of Bethlehem— that star which was the guide and the sign to 
 our ancestors when they planted the tree of liberty here and watered 
 it with their blood and tears; the star that pours its lucent beams 
 upon the pathway of our fathers and mothers to guide their totter- 
 ing footsteps, and upon which their beautiful old eyes gaze in con- 
 tented joy ;is it beacons them homeward to perfect rest; that star 
 wliiili lent it.s glory to our marriage vows and c;ist a iialo about our 
 
ADDRESS OF Ml!. IlOIilXSOX, OF XFIV YOUK. 31 
 
 children's heads as they were anointed at the baptismal fount, 
 and dissipated the gloom and the sorrow from the graves of our 
 (lead — it would be better if more of our strong men, of our publie 
 men, would, like my lamented friend, manifest their faith by their 
 works, and live their religion in their lives, and boldly avow as he 
 did their imdying faith in that only name whereby men can be 
 saved. For the bravest and the strongest of us at last arc hut as 
 dust and weakness, and tottering along beneath our heavy burdens, 
 
 Our dim eyes ask a beacon autl our weary feet a guide, 
 Aud our souls, of all life's mysteries, seek the meaning and tlio key ; 
 
 Lo! a cross gleams o'er our pathway— on it hangs the crucified— 
 And He answers all our yearnings by the whisper, " Follow mc ! " . 
 
 O'Connor heard, obeyed, and followed, and found peace here; 
 and my heart's fliith tells me he has found perfect peace where lie 
 has gone — beyond the shadowy river. 
 
 Address of Mr. Robinson, of New York. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : I feel that after the eloquent address we have 
 just listened to from the lips of the gentleman from Louisiana, I 
 should perhaps be silent. But duty compels me to say a word or 
 two. 
 
 Death is no respecter of persons. He is a "black camel that 
 kneels at the gates of all." He beats with impartial knockings at 
 the cabins of the poor and palaces of kings. He crosses with equal 
 footstep the threshold of the peasant and the statesman, and hangs 
 his crape upon every door without regard to rank or sex or age. 
 
 To-day we pause in our pursuit of the shadows of which our lives 
 are made up to pay a tribute of respect to him whose voice was 
 music and whose smile was light, which we shall see and hear no 
 more. I have asked permission, as we bow our head in sorrow, to 
 mingle my voice for a moment in the chorus of those who sing liis 
 praise. 
 
32 r.IFE AND CHARAVTER OF MICHAEL P. O'COXXOR. 
 
 It seems but yesterday since I met him here, iu the closing days 
 of the last session, and he looked forward to this Congress for 
 pleasant intercourse with those who were easily taught to love liini, 
 hut he went home to die, amid the friends he loved, and in the State 
 he loved and served, and loft us and the people of our whole 
 country to deplore his loss. 
 
 Fifty years ago Mr. O'Connor was born iu Soutii Carolina. 
 That grand old Commonwealth has given birtii to many of our 
 most illustrious statesmen. No province in the country gave nobler 
 names to the cause of liberty than the Lynches, Pinckneys, and 
 Rutledges ; and no State contributed to the Senate, in later times, 
 two such intellectual giants as John C. Calhoun and William C. 
 Preston, and amid the stars that burn brightest in the glory of our 
 firmament South Carolina points with pride to her Butlers, Gads- 
 dens, Hamptons, Hayues, Hugers, Legarfe, Lowndeses, McDuffies, 
 Middletons, Pickenses, and Sumters. It was Mr. O'Connor's 
 pride and honor to have called such a glorious State his mother, 
 and her sons his brothers, of whom he was not unworthy. New 
 York claims the privilege also of ailling him her son. One of her 
 best colleges is his Alma Mafer, from which he graduated at the a>je 
 of eighteen, and returning to his native State was admitted to prac- 
 tice law at twenty-three. He had not been long at the Charleston 
 bar till he began to show evidences of a genius worthy of his elder 
 brethren. Nor was his fame confined to the precincts of his native 
 State. Long before he came to Congress flashes of his eloquence 
 shot up from his Southern home in rivalry of Northern lights, and 
 in many circles of Northern States his fame was as fondly cherished 
 as among the brilliant society of the sunny South. 
 
 Had his life been spared he would have made an enviable record 
 here; but the hand of death was on his heart and the silence of the 
 grave is on his eloquent lips. 
 
 A lovino- wile mourns his doul)le loss to herself and to their sor- 
 
JDUHJifiS OF mi;. i;(>i!L\soy, of MCir yofk. 33 
 
 rowing children. But his country to-day, by her Representatives 
 from all the States, takes pride in recounting his virtues and per- 
 petuating their memory. Northern praise and Southern song 
 mingle in mournful harmony over his loss. I have listened witii 
 pride to the voices of his eulogists here to-day. Pennsylvania, 
 Massachusetts, Montiina, Maine, and Louisiana have mingled their 
 eloquent and merited praises with the fit and feeling tributes from 
 his own State with which these ceremonies have been oi)eiied and 
 will close. 
 
 Comfort for the mourning widow and consohition for his licreavcd 
 family we offer here to-day from sympathizing hearts. We cainuit 
 dry the tears from their eyes, nor would we if we could ; but (lu! 
 kindly words sincerely offered will shine through them and picture 
 on the sky their future — a rainbow of hope and promise — for many 
 a brightening day. 
 
 The sorrow that broods over his bereaved family day after day, 
 that has enshrouded their hearts since his death and will con- 
 tinue to fling its shadow over their brightest hours, broadens and 
 deepens to-day into national sympathy. The extremes of our grand 
 Republic, Maine and Louisiana, Massachusetts and Montana, come 
 with flowers culled from cultivated gradens and mountain wilds. 
 South Carolina has covered his funeral bier with Southern garlands 
 redolent of richest perfume. I beg leave to fling upon that bier as 
 it passes a single rose-bud, bedewed with tears of sympathy and 
 breathing fragrance from the home of his fathers. I sincerely 
 mourn with his warmest friends his too early death; but he lived 
 long enough to secure the bays with which South Carolina decks 
 the heads of her children. 
 
 Whose lt;a\es aro watoreil with a Nation's tears. 
 
34 lll'E .1X1) CHARM TEK OF MKII.IEI. /'. 
 
 Address of Mr. EviNS, of South Carolina. 
 Mr. Speaker: To those of us who believe that — 
 
 T is not the vvhiilr „f life to live, 
 Xorallof (lc;ifli to die, 
 
 such an occasion as this brings with it sober thought and serious 
 reflection. The .sentiment which demands this solemn pause amid 
 the cares and duties which press upon us is a holy one, and spring- 
 ing as it does from our higher and better nature, we do well to give 
 it heed. Under its soft and gentle influence our thoughts are lifted 
 out of their selfish grooves into a purer atmosphere, where the 
 voice of passion and party is never heard, and where the affections 
 are supreme. This sacred hour, with its elevating and ennobling 
 influences, is not without its benefits to the living, while it is con- 
 secrated to the dead. In this dark world of ours there is no richer 
 gem than sorrow's diadem — a tear. 
 
 Among the thoughts which crowd u{)on me at this moment, Mr. 
 Speaker, the saddest is that which tells of the large number of seats 
 made vacant by the " insatiate archer " since my entrance into this 
 Hall as a member of the Forty-fifth Congress. How frequently, 
 sir, during these brief years ha.s the sound of the gavel upon your 
 desk been muffled, and the noisy strife upon this floor been hushed 
 by the funeral bell which told of the breaches made in our ranks. 
 Another has been added to this long list, and to-day our thoughts 
 are turned to a green grave on our Southern coast, upon which the 
 flowers of spring and summer have bloomed and died ; a grave 
 which holds all that is mortal of Michael P. O'Connor, a mem- 
 ber of the last and a member-elect to the present Congress. "What 
 name is there upon that death-roll more worthy to be hallowed by 
 those gifted with the eloquence of speech? Whose noble and gen- 
 erous qualities of heart better deserve the tribute of a tear? One 
 
.iiiDHEs^^ (IF Ml!. i:ri\s, (If so mi c.indj.iy.i. 6:) 
 
 who sat upon the other sido of this Chamber when I entered it I'ell 
 by the liand of an assa-ssin after he had reached the highest goal of 
 earthly ambition ; and a sorrowing nation stood uncovered around 
 his bier while the civilized world did him homage. Others still, 
 upon that list, filled a larger space in the history of their country ; 
 but if those are esteemed most worthy of honor who have dis- 
 charged with the greatest fidelity the high trusts committed to 
 them as representatives of the people and the duties incumbent upon 
 then) as private citizens, then the name of my lamented friend and 
 former c )lleague will suffer no eclipse in the galaxy where death 
 has placed it. 
 
 His presence and bearing gave instant assurance of the posses- 
 sion, on his part, of those qualities of mind and disposition which 
 always attract. His bright and open face, unmarred by those malign 
 l)assions which so often disfigure with their lines and furrows nature's 
 fair handiwork, gave him an unfailing passport to the good opinion 
 and friendly courtesies of the stranger; while no one ever met the 
 cordial grasp of his hand without feeling that the heart whicii pul- 
 sated through it was filled with every kindly emotion. His ardent 
 nature made him an enthusiast in whatever he undertook. He 
 never did anything in a half-hearted way. With all the zeal and 
 devotion of a true knight-errant he pursued the right as he under- 
 stood it ; yet with a generous courtesy, in which there was not a 
 tinge of arrogance, he was ever ready to receive the counsel and 
 advice of those who differed with liim on questions of importance 
 touching private interests or the public weal. 
 
 Without fortune or family influence, he achieved success by fiiith- 
 ful work and honest endeavor. In a short time after entering upon 
 the practice of his profession, his fine power of speech and his 
 ability to stir the hearts of men began to be appreciated by the 
 public, and very soon he became a distinguished advocate at the 
 Charleston bar, noted for its learning and eloquence, and at the 
 
Sa LIFE AXl) CIl.lIl.trTEIl OF MIC HA [CI. /'. (rcuNXOH. 
 
 head of wliich then stood tlie erudite scholar aud jjcerless hiwyer, 
 James L. Petigru. 
 
 Mr. O'Connor's hiiig service iu the legislature of his State, 
 extending through a series of years, from 1858 to 1866, greatly 
 increased his reputation. During this memorable period in the 
 history of South Carolina the gravest questions which ever agitated 
 the minds and hearts of lier citizens were discussed and acted upon. 
 In these exciting debates he bore a conspicuous part, finding in 
 them the bast themes for his impassioned oratory. Always con- 
 servative, perhaps the ablest speeches he ever delivered were made 
 during this period. Two among the most remarkable deserve special 
 mention ; one was against the adoption of certain resolutions advo- 
 cating the policy of reopening the Africiin slave trade, and the other 
 in favor of the maintenance of the Union of States, called forth 
 by a report from the committee on federaj relations. But the speech 
 which displayed most strikingly his great gifts as an orator was 
 that made by him as a member of the National Democratic Conven- 
 tion, which met in Baltimore in 1872. The charm and witchery 
 of his eloquence on this occasion so completely captivated the vast 
 throng who heard him that, with one impulse, they rose to their 
 feet aud filled the immense hall in which they were gathered with 
 round after round of deafening applause. The press of the day 
 spoke of it as an effort "worthy of a Henry or a Preston." 
 
 When, in 1876, the honest people of his native State determined 
 to make a supreme and united effort to free themselves from the 
 thralldom of the infamous men who for eight long years had used 
 every department of the government simply as an instrument for 
 oppression or a means of advancing and legalizing schemes of I'ob- 
 bery and spoliation, they found no tongue more eloquent to depict 
 their wrongs, no voice more potent to kindle into a blaze of enthu- 
 siasm the energies which must crown their cause with success, than 
 the tongue and voice of the gifted O'Connor. He was, during 
 
.IDDRESS OF MR. KriiXS, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 37 
 
 this memorable struggle, the candidate of the Democracy of the sec- 
 ond district for Congress; and whatever regrets others may have 
 expressed for his defeat, he felt fully compensated for all the toil he 
 had endured and all the sacrifices he had made in -seeing his beloved 
 State redeemed and once more restored to the control of those wiio 
 had made her history glorious and her name immortal. Twice after 
 this defeat he was returned as a member of this House, but lived 
 only long enough to complete his first term. Short and unevent- 
 ful as his career among us was, it was long enough to excite the 
 brightest hopes for future renown, and long enough to fill our hearts 
 to-day with sweet and sacred memories of his gentle nature, which 
 time can never efface. Few, even among those most intimate with 
 him while he occupied a seat on this floor, knew how intensely he 
 suffered or how bravely he was fighting against the fatal disease 
 which had fastened itself upon his vitals. The noble self-sacrifice 
 he exhibited under all the adverse circumstances which surrounded 
 him here, and the singleness of purpose with which he filled the 
 hours so much needed for rest and recuperation with work for Iiis 
 constituents and anxious thought for the public welfare, is worthy 
 of all praise. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, after the eloquent and touching eulogies already 
 pronounced by the distinguished speakers who have preceded me, 
 it is unnecessary for me to say more. 
 
 No constituency ever had a more faithful and devoted Represent- 
 ative ; South Carolina no truer son ; the cause of liberty, whether 
 it centered around the shamrock, so dear to his heart, or gathered 
 about the Stars and Stripes, no firmer friend ; tyranny and wrong 
 no more relentless foe. 
 
 On the 4th of March last he went out from among us witli the 
 shadow of death upon liis l)row ; a month later he was released 
 from suffering and found a resting-place beneatii the Palmetto he 
 loved so well, leaving behind him a memory as fragrant as fli(^ 
 
38 LIFE AND CHAnACTICR OF MICHAEL I'. O'CONNOR. 
 
 flowers which IjIodiu above him, and as fresli and green to-day as 
 the grass upon his grave. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I move the adoption of the resolutions presented 
 by my colleague. 
 
 The resolutions were unanimously ailo]>t('d ; and accordingly 
 the House adjourned. 
 
PROCHHDINGS IN THH SENATE. 
 
 February 9, 1882. 
 
 A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. John 
 Baii-ey, its Cliief Clerk, communicated to tiie Senate tlic intelli- 
 gence of tiie death of Hon. Michael P. 0'C\)NNou, late a nicni- 
 ber of the House from the State of South Carolina, and trans- 
 mitted the resolutions of the House thereon. 
 
 The I'esolutions were read, as follows: 
 
 Resolred, That this House has heard with in-nfomid si>riii\v of tlic ilcntli of 
 Hon. Michael P. O'Connok, late a member of this House from the St:ite of 
 South Caroliua. 
 
 Itesolced, That as a mark of respect to his memory tlie officers anil nu^mbers 
 of this House will wear the usual badge of monrniug for thirty days. 
 
 lifsolred, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by tin- Clrrl< ol 
 this House to the family of the deceased. 
 
 Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to commuuicate .a copy of llicsc pro 
 ceedings to the Senate ; and that, as a further mark of respect to the nicijiory 
 of the deceased, this House do now adjourn. 
 
 Mr. Butler. Mr. President, I offer the following resolutions: 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate has received with profound sorrow th< 
 ment of the death of Hon. Michael P. O'Connor, late a nicmbci- oniic House 
 of Representatives from the State of South Caroliua. 
 
 Resolved, That the business of the Senate be now suspended that opivortu- 
 nity may be given for fitting tributes to the memory of the deccase<I and to 
 his eim"nent public and private virtues, and that as a further mark of respect 
 the Senate at the conclusion of such rera.arks shall adjiinrn. 
 
 Address of Mr. Butler, of South Carolina. 
 
 Mr. President: The frequent recurrence of these sad occasions 
 in the Congress of tlie United States, when we are called upon by 
 fitting ceremonies to pay a final tril)utc to the memories of our 
 
40 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MICHAEL P. O'CONNOR. 
 
 brethren who have died from among us, is calculated to remind us 
 with striking significance of the slight tenure we have upon life. 
 But a few days have elapsed since we heard iu this Chamber the 
 touching and affectionate tributes to two of the most distinguished 
 and beloved of our number — one the late lamented Senator from 
 Rhode Island (General Burnside), the embodiment of vigorous 
 health, and yet he answered the call of the grim messenger as 
 serenely as did the great Wisconsin Seuator (Carpenter), who 
 languished and suffered and sunk under the wasting hand iA^ 
 disease ; and again to-day, sir, we are confronted with the dismal 
 reality that another of our brethren of the other House is dead. 
 
 His reputation and fame were not so wide-spread and national 
 as the two renowned Senators, but the hearts of neither of them, 
 geuerous as they were, throbbed with more fervid patroitisni or 
 warmed with more generous sympathies than did tliat of my late 
 friend, M. P. O'CoisNOR. He loved his country and his friends 
 with unstinted devotion, and in turn received the homage of tiieir 
 undivided confidence and respect. 
 
 The overflowing generosity and kindness of his enthusia-stic Irish 
 nature secured for him the warmest attachment of his friends, and 
 his ardent devotion to the best interests of his country and the require- 
 ments of duty commanded the admiration of all men. 
 
 Mr. O'CoNNOE was born iu the old town of Beaufort, South 
 Carolina, on the 29th of September, 1831, and died in Charleston 
 on the 26th day of April, 1881, in the fiftieth year of his age. 
 
 He was educated and graduated at Saint John's College, Ford ham. 
 New York, and was by profession a lawyer, with his office in the 
 city of Charleston. He represented that city for four t«rms in the 
 "legislature of South Carolina, from 1858 to 1865, and was elected 
 to the Forty -fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses from tlic second 
 Congressional district, and died while a member of tlie lAirly- 
 sixth C!ongress. 
 
ADDRESS OF MB. UUTLEU, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 41 
 
 In 1872 Mr. O'Connor was a delegate to the National Demo- 
 cratic Convention held in the city of Baltimore, and again repre- 
 sented his pai'ty in the national convention at Saint Louis in 1876. 
 
 He was highly gifted as an orator and public speaker. In the 
 course of the proceedings of the Baltimore convention he made one 
 of those impassioned bursts of eloquence that electrify an audience 
 and take it captive. He lighted a spark that swept through the con- 
 vention with irresistible enthusiasm, and acquired in this national 
 arena a reputation as a public speaker that had hitherto been local, 
 but none the less duly appreciated by those who were accustomed 
 to hear him. His style of oratory was peculiarly attractive and 
 captivating. With a clear, ringing voice, under perfect control, his 
 style was as c^haste and classical as the most finished elocutionist, and 
 his How of language as easy and unhesitating as an unobstructed 
 stream. Equipped with these high qualities, coupled with a ripe 
 scholarship and well-stored mind, he was a ready and effective 
 speaker and only awaited a fitting o])portunity in the other branch 
 of the National Legislature to have illustrated his great powers as a 
 parliamentiiry debater. 
 
 In 1876 Mr. O'Connor was made president of that ancient order 
 of glorious memories and associations, the Hibernian Society of 
 Irishmen, of Charleston. Hear what one of that society says of 
 him, Hon. A. G. Magrath, who was himself a paragon of perfect 
 speech with a brilliant intellect. In presenting the tribute of respect 
 to the late president, at a meeting of the Hibernian Society, May 3, 
 1881, Judge Magrath said : 
 
 Tlie flowers I lay ou his grave are not liri^lit and beaiitiliil as lie would 
 have gathered, but who could equal his taste or his skill ? 
 
 His heart was as opeu aud cheeriug as the light of day. 1 1 is sy uipathy with 
 his race was attuued to a perfect harmony. Suffering, whatfever form it took, 
 was resistless in its appeal; and oppression, however imposing in its force, 
 was confronted liy him, who never quailed before it. And when it grew in 
 
42 Lii'K .ixn ciiAKAcrKR Oh MiruAEi. i: o'coxyon. 
 
 tmle of the occasion ; aud a generous heart inspired the Inuniug words that 
 caused his passionate eloquence to stir the most sluggish to sympathy with 
 him. 
 
 No one horn in the laud of his forefathers more rejoiced in all that was 
 glorious in its past ; or in more touching pathos mourned what is sad and 
 depressing in its present fortunes. These walls have echoed his denuncia- 
 tions of its wrongs, aud the demand for its rights. But of these there is uo_ 
 record. They were like the Hash of the lightning, brilliant, dazzling, startling; 
 not to be forgotten, yet not to be recalled. 
 
 But for his own State, his owu city, his own home, his own friends, every 
 generous and indignant passion iuhim was stirred to its deepest depths in the 
 suffering he saw and shared. When in giving expression to his feeling, 
 when the heart and the brain, with iutensity that could not be surj)a8sed in 
 their union, rose into the grand diapason of oratoiy, he stood to champion her 
 cause, no more devoted sou could be found within Iut limits. He s|)oke as 
 men do whose words ring true to the lionest passion which prompts their 
 utterance aud they who speak forget ilieiiisclvos in kinship with tlidsc whose 
 wrongs only are remembered. 
 
 He oreiipied a comniaiiding position in that galaxy of distingnislied 
 lawyers at the Charleston bar — one of the ablest, I tliink, in the 
 whole country — and held his owu successfully in intellectuttl con- 
 tests with the brightest luminaries of his professional brethren. 
 His entry into active political life was attended by one of the most 
 vexatious and bitter contests ever known in the political history of 
 this country, and yet his most unsympathetic political antagonist 
 will concede that throughout the long and trying ordeal he bore 
 liimself with becoming moderation and decorum, aud with the self- 
 respect and bearing of a dignified gentleman. Upon taking his seat 
 in the Forty-sixth Congress he was assigned to some of the impor- 
 tiint committees, and devoted himself with unassuming but faithful 
 earnestness to his duties. Watching the interests of his immediate 
 constituency aud section with singular fidelity, taking broad, liberal 
 views of all matters presented to Congress for consideration, he 
 never permitted his duty to his State to narrow his views on national 
 que.stions. Such, Mr. President, is a brief record of his outward 
 public career. It is as honorable as any man's. 
 
 He was for many years in the ojicn light of the public gaze, in 
 
ADDIiESS OF MR. BVTLEU, OF SOUTH CAItOLIXA. 43 
 
 times of great temptation and excitement, butno whisperever tainted 
 his character; no breath of suspicion ever impaired tlie strengtli of 
 )iis public life, and no word of reproach was ever uttered against 
 his private worth. He literally "died in harness," discharging his 
 high duty with a fidelity that was as sacred to him as his life, and 
 an ability that reflects luster upou his name. This, sir, is a feeble, 
 not overdrawn, encomium that I bestow upon a dead friend with 
 sincere regard for his memory. 
 
 But there was an inner circle in Mr. O'Connor's life — the family, 
 the home, friends — where he was as simple and unselfish in his 
 affections as a guileless child. It is almost forbidden to enter that 
 sacred circle upon a public occasion, but my contribution to these 
 memorial ceremonies, however otherwise imperfect, would be incom- 
 plete without allusion to that phase of his life where the undis- 
 guised tenderness of a manly heart and unrestrained indulgence in 
 his pure affections dispensed so much happiness and pleasure to 
 those who clung to him with such ardent devotion. That circle is 
 broken forever. 
 
 What power can measure the intensity of the anguish that wrung 
 the hearts of those who had been made glad and happy by his 
 generous affections? Certainly no human power. Let us, then, 
 draw tenderly and revei-ently the veil of mourning over the sacred 
 mystery, and lay upon his green grave the homage of our unaffected 
 sorrow. 
 
 He lies beneath the soil of the State he loved so well and served 
 so faithfully. It was there he wished to be buried and rest for- 
 ever, where the ceaseless moaning of the stately pine and the rust- 
 ling breezes through the ever-green magnolia, mingling with the 
 restless murmur of the neighboring waves and sighing winds of his 
 beloved sunny land, might sing his requiem forever in the jiei-fect 
 harmonies of nature's faultless symphonies. 
 
44 I. IFF. AM) (i/.iinrTFf: of mkiiafi. r. 
 
 Address of Mr. Bayard, of Delaware. 
 
 Mr. President: My personal acquaintanoe with the worthy 
 gentleman wiiose death we all deplore was eoinmeuced amid the 
 somewhat stormy scenes of a national convention, held in the city 
 of Baltimore, in June, 1872, which he attended as a delegate from 
 the State of South Carolina; and I can well recall the spirited and 
 effective eloquence with wliich he espoused a course of action in 
 which I did not concur. 
 
 He subsequently became a meml)er of the House of Representa- 
 tives, and friendly personal relations were soon established between 
 us, in which I discerned his active, ardent interest in public aftairs, 
 and his usefulness as an able and honorable representative of his 
 State and country. 
 
 He gained early, and never lost, the confidence and esteem of his 
 associates without regard to their party affiliations, and his reputa- 
 tion as a capable and faithful legislator will long survive. 
 
 I remember well his friendly and especial interest in the affairs of 
 that peculiarly helpless class of our people, who suffered so severely 
 by the failure of the Freedraan's Savings Bank and the subsequent 
 mismanagement of its assets. 
 
 He espoused the cause of that large body of poor investors with 
 <;haracteristic generosity and devotion, and, had his wise counsels 
 prevailed, I believe great deterioration in the assets of that institu- 
 tion and heavy losses would have been prevented. 
 
 ]\Ir. O'Connor, although a natural-born citizen of South Caro- 
 lina, possessed, in a marked degree, the characteristics of the race 
 from which he sprung. His name and parentage were Irish ; and 
 lie was one of the almost countless illustrations of worth and char- 
 acter, cio,|iicnco and \\I(,coumgcand capacity, which llu.f island of 
 
.ii>i)i!/:s,s OF mi;. ,/'>.v/,x, of fi.ohh) i. 45 
 
 sorrows li;is c'(>iiti-il)iit('<l to build up and strenirlliou the Goverii- 
 Mieut oil tlie United States and the advaueement of its people. 
 
 Mr. President, if the names of the men of Irish birth and Irish 
 l)lood who luivd dignified and decorated the annals of Anieriam 
 history were to be erased from the record, how much of the glory of 
 our country would be subtracted! In the list of American states- 
 men and patriots, theologians and poets, soldiers and sailors, jurists 
 and orators, what names shine with purer luster or are mentioned 
 with more respect than those of the men, past and present, we owe 
 to Ireland ? 
 
 On that imperishal)le roll of iionor, the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, we find their names, and in the prolonged struggle tliat fol- 
 lowed there was no battle-field from the Saint Lawrence to the 
 Savannah but was enriched with Irish blood shed in the cause of 
 civil and religious liberty. To-day we see them in our midst, 
 honored and beloved by their associates, and valued not only by 
 their constituents alone, but by the entire country. Of this patri- 
 otic class was Mr. O'Connor, and whilst we cannot fail to mourn 
 the loss occasioned by his death, we may well cherish the legacy of 
 honest fame and faithful public service he has left us. 
 
 Address of Mr. Jones, of Florida. 
 
 Mr. President : Only a few weeks ago the Senate was called 
 upon to express its respect and sympathy over tlie loss of two of its 
 distinguished members, and it sent its resolutions of mourning to 
 receive the concurrence of the other house. To-day that house, 
 iis if to remind us of the undis riminating harshness of death, and 
 that no official station within or without this Capitol can shield or 
 protect its victims, informs us officially of the loss of one of its mem- 
 bers. The worthy man of whom I am to speak to-day was not known 
 
4(i /.//•/'; AND cuMtAVTEii o/' MK ii.iKL /'. (rcdyxoi;. 
 
 to uuiny Senators as well :is he was to me. I met liiiii in tiie first 
 political body I ever entered — the Baltimore convention of 1872; 
 and when he entered the other house my acquaintance ripened into 
 intimacy. In my intercourse with him I had a fair opportunity of 
 studying and appreciating his character, which was eminently dis- 
 tinguished for qualities that always have excited and always will 
 excite both interest and admiration. 
 
 Michael P. O'Connor was a generous, tender-hearted, i)nive 
 man. His mind was active, bright, and full of impartiality. And 
 his great heart — how shall I speak of it? — was filled to overflowing 
 with the kindliest and tenderest feelings and sympathies, which 
 needed only the faintest exhibition of sorrow or misfortune to bring 
 them into full play. He wa- the undoubted possessor of some of 
 the best (jualities of that race to which his name exclusively belongs. 
 While he was a native of South Carolina, and was devoted to her 
 as strongly as man ever was to the soil that gave him birth, in all 
 the controlling characteristics of nature he was an Irishman— more 
 of an Irishman than many who first saw the light of heaven on Irish 
 soil ; and there was not the least dross in his character to obscure or 
 disfigure those genuine traits of the race from which he sprung. 
 
 While no one claimed for him those pre-eminent gifts of mind 
 which immortalized Sheridan, Grattan, and Curran, still lie liad 
 qualities in common with all of those great men, and without which 
 their purely intellectual gifts never would have made them famous 
 as orators and thinkers. The inflamed fancy, the enthusiastic spirit, 
 the emotional nature were all his, and with them he combined a 
 lofty, indeed I might say an ever watchful and sensitive, courage, 
 which was ever on tip-toe surveying everything that approached 
 the sacred domain of his manhood and honor. The slightest impu- 
 tation or insinuation of indignity would arouse all the stormy fury 
 of his nature, while the simplest appeal to his charity and kindness 
 would melt him into the tenderest sympathy and almost bring forth 
 
inDh'Kss (IF Ml!, joyjcs, Of Fi.oniiiA. 47 
 
 his tears. Whatevei" cause or object enlisted liis exertions received 
 from liiiii liie most persevering support, aud he gave in sudi citses 
 to tlie interests aud concerns of the stranger more labor and effort 
 than he would ever give to his own. 
 
 His was one of those noble .souls which, instead of leaving the 
 great highway of suffering and sorrow to avoid the appeals of the 
 injured and distressetl, are forever in search of objects upon which 
 to exercise their benevolence and kindness. The sufferings and 
 wrongs of the country of his fathers affected him as deeply as they 
 did any one who had personally felt their sting. He was familiar 
 with her sad liistory of tears and blood; never weak enough to 
 deny her claim to the sympathy of the world, or becau.se of her 
 poverty and opjiression refused her the honor and recognition that 
 was due to her genius and her fame. Whenever a kind or sympa- 
 thetic word was called for in the interest of Ireland, the voice of M. 
 P. O'Connor was always heard. While he might have skulked 
 behind his nativity and disclaimed his Irish blood, he was too great 
 and good and true to be either insincere or indifferent in anything, 
 and his justice and intelligence were too strong aud decided for 
 him ever to think of any petty advantage which might flow from 
 joining those who gave the cold shoulder to the land of his fathers. 
 The admonition of Ireland's great poet had no effect upon him : 
 
 L'liinized are lier sous till the.v li-arii to botia.v, 
 Uiidistiiigiiished they live if they shame uot their sires, 
 
 Aud the torch that would light them to dignity's way 
 Must be caught from the pile when their country exi)ires. 
 
 In his character of a national legislator he combined the most 
 untiring devotion to the interests of his immediate constituents 
 with a sincere and active interest for the welfare and happiness of 
 the whole Union. Accepting with manly resignation the inevi- 
 table results of the civil war, he brought to the councils of his 
 • country a mind aud heart free from all unkindness and prejudice 
 
IS I.IFIC .L\I> rllAUArTER OF MIlIl.lFL /'. O'fO.V.VOA'. 
 
 as well as an honest deteriiiination to employ his best taleiitw in 
 promoting concord and good-will among all classes of tiie penple. 
 Often have I been benefited by the breiulth and patriotism of his 
 views respecting the duties of those who represented Southern con- 
 stituencies in Congress. He spoke with the wisdom of a philoso- 
 pher and in the words of a true patriot. 
 
 He was nut unmindful of the natural efiects of the terrible civil 
 (■(iiillict through wliicli we had passed in obstructing for a time the 
 extension of justice and kindness to the section he so dearly loved. 
 He made due allowance for the passions and weaknesses of human 
 nature, and what others attributed to inborn and irremediable hos- 
 tility he knew to be only the excrescence of protracted sectional 
 strife, which, if not inflamed for unworthy purposes by weak or 
 designing men, would ultimately yield to the healthy reaction of 
 the body-politic, and leave the country in the enjt)yment of real 
 peace, union, and concord. 
 
 I have seen him surrounded by his devoted family, and any one 
 in the least conversant with the operations of his private life could 
 readily see that to his high qualities as a citizen and public servant 
 he added the virtues of a devoted husband and an affectionate 
 father. I have sometimes heard public men applauded for their 
 Christian faith. With Mr. O'Connor religion was not an empty 
 name. He did not aim to be a pillar of the church, and never 
 attempted to put his piety into the faces of those with whom he 
 minided. Like all true men he eliminated it from all else that 
 appcrtiiined to the affairs of this life, and regarded it as a sacred 
 thing in which only himself and his God were concerned. Devoid 
 of all sectarian narrowness and bigotry, his preference for the 
 creed in which he lived and died never for a moment interrupted 
 the course of his friendship and love for those who differed from 
 him. Although cut down in the prime of his manhood, he lived 
 lono- enough to establish a character for honor, usefulness, and 
 
JDDliESS UF Ml!. ll.l.MI'TUy, Ob' SOUTH C.IUOLiy. 
 
 tluvotioii to duty of whicli hotli liis lainily iiiid iieople 
 proud . 
 
 Oh, my beloved uud lUivotod friend, 
 
 While kindred woeH still breathe around Ihiiir urn, 
 Long witli the tear of absence must I blend 
 
 The sigh that speaks, Thou never shall return 
 
 'Twas faith that, bending o'er the bed of (IcmIIi, 
 Shed o'er thy jtallid cheek a transient ray ; 
 
 With softer effort soothed thy laboring breath. 
 Gave grace to anguish, beauty to decay. 
 
 Thy wife and children claimed thy latest care ; 
 
 Theirs was the last that to thy bosom clung ; 
 For them to Heaven thou send'st the expiring prayer. 
 
 The last that faltered on tliy trembling tongue. 
 
 Address of Mr. HAMPTON, of South Carolina. 
 
 Mr. President : Twice within the past few days have we been 
 called upon to do honor to the memory of colleagues who have been 
 summoned to answer that great final roll-call on high, to which all 
 mankind must respond. Laying aside the ordinary routine of 
 business ; pausing for a time amid the rush of active life and the 
 clash of conflicting opinions ; forgetting even all political differ- 
 ences, we met, on those solemn occasions, on the broad ground of a 
 common humanity, consecrated to us by a common affliction. Ehode 
 Island and Wisconsin, mourning the death of two illustrious citi- 
 zens who had represented them in this Chamber, called then upon 
 the great sisterhood of States for that sympathy which sorrow such 
 as theirs demands, and which should always be freely given. We 
 all know how generously, how tenderly this was extended. To-day 
 South Carolina, deploring the loss of a gifted and devoted son, 
 turns in her bereavement to her sister States for the same sympathy. 
 
 The resolutions which have been presented by my colleague tell 
 of the death of Hon. M. P. O'Connor, late a Representative from 
 4o 
 
50 I.Il'K AND CUARACTEU OF MICHAEL V. U'CONNOli. 
 
 my State in the other branch of Congress, and the touching trib- 
 utes which have been paid to his memory leave me nothing to say 
 that could add to the high and deserved estimation in whicii he was 
 held. Feeling this, I should remain silent were it not that as a 
 representative on this floor of the State which honored him, and 
 which he loved so ardently, it becomes me to bear testimony to his 
 signal public services and to his eminent private virtues. As a 
 Senator from South Carolina it is my duty to do this, but a much 
 higher duty, one very near my heart, demands this at my hands : 
 he was a valued and trusted friend. The warm friendship I enter- 
 tained for him sprung up in long by-gone years; it grew stronger 
 as time rolled on, and it was terminated only by his death. I feel 
 his loss, therefore, not only as a public calamity, but as a severe 
 personal bereavement. Few men in our State had a wider circle of 
 earnest, devoted friends than himself, and I know of no tribute to 
 him which could be more honorable, more touching, or more tender 
 than the general sense of personal loss felt at his death by all of 
 them. Warm-hearted, generous, kind, and lovable, he drew his 
 i'riends close to him, and they loved him for his virtues while they 
 admired him for his talents. 
 
 He was no ordinary man either in charact(!r or intellect, for while 
 the one secured for him the esteem of those who knew him, the 
 other won for him a wide and well-earned reputation. The warm 
 Irish blood that flowed in his veins gave to his nature its impul- 
 sive generosity and lent to his persuasive tongue no small portion of 
 that marvelous eloquence which seems to be the birthright of the 
 countrymen of Burke, of Sheridan, of Curran, of Grattan, and of 
 O'Conuell. But, with all these rare gifts of nature, of intellect, and 
 of education, he was not fitted for the x-ough conflict of political 
 strife, and I have no doubt his life was cut short by the anxieties, 
 the responsibilities, and the vexations attending a public career. 
 He was so conscientious in the discharge of all his duties, so labo- 
 
jDvnrcss of mh. ii.tMi-wy, of sovru cAiiOLiy.t. 51 
 
 rioiis ill the performance of tlieiii,HO sensitive in his nature, that his 
 healtii gave way under tiie severe strain to whioh it was subjected 
 by his public duties. Broken in health, bravely struggling to the 
 lixst in the interest of the people who had honored him, he fell at 
 his post of duty with his harness on, and his last, his dying eiforts 
 were given to the State he had served well, and to the people who 
 loved and trusted him. His death was a severe loss to that State, 
 an irreparable one to his family, but a gain to him, for he had so 
 lived that he was well prepared to give an account of the deeds 
 done in the flesh. He lived long enough to achieve an honoraI)le, 
 enviable reputation, and long enough to realize that — 
 The paths of gh)ry lead but to the grave. 
 When he was laid at rest in the bosom of his mother earth, under 
 the shadows of the magnolias of his native land, a friend who knew 
 him well wrote thus of him : 
 
 For bim who lies iu peace, with restful haiuls, this morning, it ba<l beeu 
 bettor perhaps bad bo never known the vioissiludos and responsibilities of 
 political life. It was all loss to him. Tbo gaiu was to bis people and the 
 State. So must it be too ofteu in such times as these with men most worthy 
 of public trust. 
 
 Doubtless, Mr. President, it would have been better for him had 
 he held aloof from the rude arena of [xjlitical warfare, keeping the 
 even tenor of his way along the quieter and happier paths of pri- 
 vate life; but we who are left are better for the exainple of his life 
 and that of his death. The one shows us the duty of the patriot, 
 the other teaches the sublime faith of the Christian. They both 
 should impress on us the great lesson that — 
 
 'T is not the whole of life to live : 
 Nor all of death to die. 
 
 The resolutions were agreed to unanimously ; and the Senate 
 adjourned. 
 
 O 
 
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