ADDRESSES
ON THE
DEATH OF HON. JACOB COLLAMER,
DELIVERED IN TIlE
SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
ON
TlHURSIDAY, DECEMBER 14, E1.4
WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1866.








ADDRESSES
ON THE
DEATH OF HOTN. JACOB COLLAMER,
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1S65.
Address of Mr. FOOT, of Vermzont.
Mr. PRESIDENT: I rise to ask the Senate to suspend,
for this day, its deliberations upon public affairs, that
we may offer fitting and appropriate tribute to the
character and the memory of one who has long been
associated with us in the national councils, but who is
with us now no more.  Since our assembling here at
this present session, we have all had occasion to remark-none of us can have failed to remark-the
absence of one of our number; one whoml we have long
been accustomed to meet and to hold counsel with in
these halls. An elder brother, who has long mingled
with us in our deliberations here; a wise and discreet
statesman; a learned and judicious counsellor; a pure
patriot; a just and an upright man, has been removed
from among us by the hand of death. A venerable
form, long familiar to our sight, has been taken away
out of our presence. I bring no new message to this
~                                              -. <li~




4              )OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
body —for it has already been heralded throughout the
country-yet none the less sad, in making the formal
announcement to the Senate of the death of my late
colleague, Hon. JAcoB COLLAMER. It is eminently fit
and becoming, Mr. President, as it is also in accordance
with an approved and sacred custom, that we pause for
an hour in the ordinary routine of our daily labors, that
we may consecrate that hour to the virtues and the
memory of a deceased and lamented associate, who has
shared so long and so largely in our regards and in the
public confidence, for his mature wisdom and for his
great moral excellence.
"Your colleague, Judge COLLAMER, is dead!" was the
startling telegraphic message I received at my home
about five weeks ago. He expired at his residence in
Woodstock, Vermont, on the evening of the 9th of
November past, after a brief illness of little more than
a single week-at his own home, in the midst of his
own affectionate and devoted household; in the full
exercise of his intellectual faculties; with an abiding
and unshaken faith in the Christian religion; and in the
cherished hope of a blissful immortality.
But three weeks before his decease he visited Montpelier, the capital of the State, some fifty miles distant
fiom his residence, to -attend the funeral services of a
younger and favorite brother. Having paid the last sad
offices of respect and affection to a brother's memory,
he returned to his own home; but, alas! only to lay
himself down so soon to die. By this dispensation, so
sudden and so sad, the Senate of the United States has
lost one of the oldest, most experienced, and most




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.               5
trusted of its members; the country, one of the ablest
and purest of its statesmen; society, and the church of
which he was a member, one of their worthiest and
brightest exemplars; miy own State, her most eminent
citizen; and this day there is mourning through all her
borders.
JACOB COLLAMER was born in Troy, in the State of
New York, the 8th day of January, A. D. 1791, and was,
therefore, at the time of his decease, in the seventy-fifth
year of his age, and, inl advancement of years, was the
senior member of this' body. In early childhood he
was removed, with his father's family, to Burlington,
Vermont.  There his early life was spent; there he
was educated; there his academic years were passed.
He entered the University of Vermont at the age of
fifteen, where he graduated in 1810 with credit and
commendation for good conduct and scholarship, thus
giving early promise and hope to his friends of future
eminence and usefulness.  This promise and these
hopes were not doomed to disappointment.
Immediately upon the conclusion of his collegiate
course, he entered the law office of the late Judge Aldis,
of St. Albans, then an eminent and leading lawyer at the
bar in the State.  Having passed through the usual preparatory course of legal studies, he was admitted to the
bar in 1813, and entered at once upon his professional
career.  After remaining a few months at St. Albans,
and thence stopping for a year or two in the town of
Randolph, he finally settled at Royalton, in the county
of Windsor, where he resided during the whole period
of his active professional career, and until lie removed




OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
to Woodstock, in the same county, in 1836, where he
continued until the time of his death. Here his advancement in professional business and reputation was
alike rapid and gratifying, and soon placed him in the
front ranks of the leading men of his time at the bar.
Forensic laurels, fresh and fair, gathered thick and fast
upon his youthful brow, and he became at once the
compeer, as he was the contemporary, of Prentiss and
Phelps, and Royce and Bates; of Van Ness and Upham;
of' Skinner, and Hall, and Everett; and early took rank
even with the senior and more advanced champions of
the profession, like Daniel Chipman, and David Edmond, and Chauncey Langdon, and Horatio Seymour,
and Charles K. Williams, and Dudley Chase, and Jonathan H. Hubbard, and Charles Marsh, adcl William C.
Bradley, who had long held supremacy at the bar in our
State.  It was in a school of practice like this, it was in
contact and collision with ninds like these, that his own
powers were quickenecl and invigorated, and in which he
was early trained and disciplined to habits of close application and study, and which became the fixed habit of
his life, and was, indeed, one of the chief elements of his
success, and which enabled him to reach and to maintain
the post of eminence and distinction, accorded to him
by the popular judgment, in the front ranks of the legal
profession.
During the period of his active professional practice,
although his time and attention were chiefly engrossed
in his professional cluties, yet, besides holding for several
-years the local offices of Register of Probate and of
State's attorney for the county of Windsor, he was at




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.               7
four different times elected by the people of Royalton
to the popular branch of the State legislature. He
served through these several sessions, devoting himself,
with his accustomed vigilance and fidelity, to the interests of his constituents and of the State, and took a
prominent and influential part in the debates and the
business of the body of which he was a member.
In January, A. D. 183G, and while then a judge upon
the bench, he was a delegate from his town to the constitutional convention then holden at Montpelier, to
consider and to act upon certain' proposed amendments
to the State constitution, the most important of which
was a proposition to abolish the old "gubernatorial
council," so called, and in its stead to constitute a legislative branch having co-ordinate powers with the House
of Representatives, to be called the "Senate." This
proposition was vigorously opposed in the convention, and
brought out a protracted and perhaps the ablest parliamentary discussion ever had in the State upon any
single question.  The convention contained an unusual
number of the leading and foremost men of the State.
Judge COLLAMER led the debate in the affirmative of
the question.  The proposition was carried, and I feel
myself authorized to say, mainly through his influence.
Inl 1833, and after a successful and even brilliant
career at the bar of just twenty years, he was placed,
by vote of the legislature, upon the bench of the supreme court of the State, a position for which he possessed peculiar and pre-eminent qualifications, and which
he held by successive elections nine years, and until he
was returned by the people of his congressional district




8              OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
to the national House of Representatives. As a judge
upon the bench, he added lustre to the reputation he
had already acquired as a lawyer at the bar. He possessed intellectual and moral qualities most essential
and requisite to the best discharge of the duties of a
high judicial magistracy-a clear and discriminating
mind, an impartial judgment, strong practical good
sense, a profound and instinctive sense of right and
wrong, patience of investigation, an inflexible integrity,
and a sincere and earnest desire to reach a just and
correct conclusion.  He held  the scales of justice,
therefore, with a firm and even hand. All these qualities were brought into practical application, and were
beautifully exemplified throughout his whole judicial
career; and when'he retired from the bench he laid
aside the judicial ermine untarnished, and "without
spot or wrinkle or any such thing."
From  the bench he was transferred by the voice of
the people of his district to the United States House of
Representatives, where he took his seat in 1843, succeeding Horace Everett, long a distinguished member
of that body.  By successive elections, he continued an1
active and useful member of the House, though most of
the time in a small political minority, until March, 1849,
when he was called to the cabinet of President Taylor,
as one of his confidential and constitutional advisers,
and placed at the head of the General Post Office Department.  Under his judicious and energetic administration the vast and complicated machinery of that
Department was brought into system  and order and
efficiency.  He held this position until the death of




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.               9
President Taylor, in July, 1850, when, with all his
associates in the cabinet, of whom  the distinguished
senator from  Maryland, [Mr. JOHNSON,] now present,
was one, he resigned his place, and returned, a private
citizen, to his home inll Vermont.
He was not long permitted, however, to remain in the
quietude of private life.  The people of his State still
demanded his services in a public capacity, and in the
following October he was chosen, by the legislature, Presiding Judge of the court in the judicial circuit in which
he resided.  He held this office through four years by
successive legislative elections, discharging its duties
with "all diligence and fidelity," and to the entire popular acceptance and approval, when in October, 1854, he
was elected to the Senate of the United States, and he
took his seat as a member of this body the first Monday of December, 1855. He was re-elected to his seat
here in 1860 with an almost unprecedented degree of
unanimity.  He has been with us and of us just ten
years. His course through all this decade, embracing,
as it does, perhaps, -the most important period in the
history of the Republic, is familiar to us all-it is
familiar to all the country.  During this period, and on
this forum, where grave questions of state; where
questions of peace and war; where questions of foreign
and domestic policy; where questions of trade and commerce; questions of finance and revenue and taxation;
here where every variety of question pertaining to governmenteal administration is presented for consideration,
for discussion, and for final determination-here in this
forum, he has won for himself a national reputation, an
Iz~~'lii~i~i~iii~~,;~p




t0             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
honorable and an enduring name as a learned and able
senator; as a wise and discreet counsellor; as a judicious
and upright legislator; in short, as a Christian statesman —and a Christian statesman, it has been well and
truly said, is the glory of his country —who has borne
himself erect and above reproach through all this career,
and kept himself "unspotted from the world."  By the
very constitution of his nature he revolted at every
form and species of fraud and corruption, or of wrong
and injustice. No man ever ventured to approach him
with the offer of a price for his honor. Jobbers in
iniquity came not into his presence. Purity of motive
and integrity of purpose, unsullied and uiassailed, were
alike the law and the rule of his life, in public or in
private action. All of us who have known him longest
and known him best will, with one accord, concede to
him the possession, in an eminent degree, of what
Cicero commends as the boni senatotrs ]pfudentia-the
"wisdom of a good senator."
It is no less our duty, Mr. President, than it is our
grateful privilege, in the midst of this sorrow, in this
high place, and in the presence of the American people-if I may borrow the language of another on a like
occasion —to pay the tribute of our recognition of the
national loss in the removal of those to whom we have
been accustomed to look, especially in times of doubt
and difficulty, for direction and for counsel. Such a loss
is the more deeply felt, occurring at a period like the
present, when questions novel and of paramount importance, growing out of a new and changed condition
of public affairs, are to be considered and determined



HON. JACOB COLLAMER.             1
questions vital to the best interests of the country, and
involving the highest welfare, and even the very integrity and faith of the government.  The national
heart has been laden with mourning and grief at the
loss of many gallant and noble and patriotic sons of the
Republic-numnlbering in its list of the mighty dead the
chosen Chief Magistrate of your country-during this
passing year now drawing to its close, to whom we
were all looking for counsel and for guidance in these
times of perplexity and trial. In the midst of these
great bereavem:ents we have only to bow in humble
submission to the will of Him  who chastiseth "not
willingly," and who "doeth all things well."  It is only
left to us to cherish the memories of the good and
great who have been taken from us; to imbibe the spirit
of their teachings; and to follow on, so far forth as we
may do it, in the light of their examples.
Like most of the distinguished men of our time,
and especially of our country; like most of those who
have risen to the high places of power and trust; like
nmost of the mlen who stand at the head of affairs in
the various departmlents of life, whether political, professional, literary, commnercial, or other pursuit; like
most of the men who in our day and country have
made their impress upon society, and who have written
their own history upon the times in which they livedlike these men, JACOB COLLAMER was emphatically
the author and the arbiter of' his own fortunes. He
owed nothing at all to the factitious aids or the accidental circumstanlces of' birth or fortune or family
patronage.  Under God he made his own fame and




12             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
his own fortunes.  With his own hands he cleared the
rugged pathway which led him up to the entrance door
of the temple of honor and renown. He made his own
good name, and made it known and honorable among
men. With the advantage of a gifted mind, and with
a resolute purpose to fulfil the great end of his beingthe service of God and his country-by application and
industry, by energy and perseverance, and an honest
and an honorable life of well-doing, he formed his own
character and won his ovn disttiction, and left it as a
rich inheritance to his children, and as an example to
those who shall come up after him.
Other and like examples abound through all our history.  So did Daniel Webster, in whom the son of an
humble Salisbury farmer among the granite hills of
New Hampshire becomes in after years, and by popular
appellation, the "great expounder of the American Constitution;" the great American senator; the great American statesman, who stands, by the common recognition
of mankind, as the intellectual monarch of his age. So
did Abraham Lincoln-clarwm nolnen-the poor Kentucky boy; the martyr President, who, under God,
had saved a country and redeemed a race; the martyr
President, who having saved his country from  the
great rebellion of all history, and redeemed a race
from the bondage of centuries, falling by the assassin
hand of treason, went down to the grave amid a
nation's tears, and amid the requiem  of a nation's
wailing, yet bearing with him to the tomb, more of' the
world's affections, more of its sympathies, and more of
its honors too, than were ever accorded to other man,
it honors too




ION. JACOB COLLAMER.            13
or prince, or potentate of earth; and whose highest
eulogium  is spoken in the universal lamentation. And
so-I beg pardon, if in the least I offend against the
proprieties of this occasion, or of this presence —so
did Andrew Johnson, the humble mechanic from the
mou-ntains of North Carolina, who now, by the will of
the American people, and by a providential dispensation, hwields the power and challenges the homage of
the First Magistrate of the nation, and on whose will
or word to-day, more than of other living man, hang
the destinies of this American Republic. These are
great examples. These are illustrious examples. Our
history is full of them. They are as beacon-lights along
the dim and crowded pathway of human life. They
are for instruction, for guidance, for encouragement, for
inspiration to the rising and the coming generations of
American youth.
"The fame which a man wins for himself is best;
That he may call his own."
JACOB COLLAMER was endowed with a rare combina-'tion of intellectual and moral qualities of a high order;
a capacious mind, at once active, clear, and discriminating-a mind, too, in which the analytic powers and the
reflective faculties were largely developed; and he was
also gifted with a retentive memory. He was capable of fixed and continuous application of his mind to
the examination and analysis of whatever question he
took in hand. These faculties were all sharpened and
strengthened by varied reading and acquirement, and
by habits of carefill study and reflection. He possessed,
in a remarkable degree, the power of condensation, and




14             OBITUARY ADDRESSES
of arranging the various points or propositions involved
in any subject under discussion, in the most clear and
logical order, and which enabled him to present them
with great force and perspicuity to the minds of others.
He always secured respectful attention and deference
to his opinions, whether in public debate or in private
discussion, for the clearness and force with which he
presented his views. He often enforced or illustrated
an idea or proposition by the timely introduction of
some apt and racy and often amusing anecdote.
If he was not always eloquent, he was always instructive. If he was not an orator in its ordinary acceptation, he was more and better than a mere orator.
He was a reasoner-a clear and logical reasoner.  He
was an excellent talker —an excellent public as well as
private or social talker. He had the faculty of making
himself understood, and consequently of making his
subject understood. He addressed himself to the reason and the understanding, rather than to the impulses
or the fancies of men. It was his aim and his effort
to convince the judgment by force of argument, rather
than to move the passions by the appeals of eloquence,
or to please the fancy by the beauties of rhetoric. If
he had not the highest order of what, in popular phrase,
is called genius, he had more solid common sense than
any man of genius, and was master of its practical use.
A thoughtful and conscientious man, as he was, he
spoke always and only from the convictions of his own
judgment. His opinions, especially upon grave and important questions, were not hastily formed nor inconsiderately expressed, but only after the most careful and




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.              5
mature reflection. Hence his opinions always commanded great respect and deference, and carried with
them  a corresponding weight and  influence.  His
opinions, especially upon legal and constitutional questions, or upon questions of international law, were
always received with profound deference and regard.
His intelligent and independent judgment, his strong,
practical good sense, and his unbending integrity of
purpose, imparted to all his opinions uncommon weight
and value.
His whole life, public and professional, whether at
the bar or upon the bench, whether in a high executive
department or in the halls of legislation, has been
assiduously devoted to the cause of truth and justice.
Few public men have left a more excellent or a more
honorable record.
With his high intellectual endowments were happily
blended the kindlier affections of the heart; and to all
these were superadded the purer and holier graces of a
Christian faith and of a consistent Christian life. In
1825 he made public profession of his faith in the
Gospel of Christ, and united with the Congregational
church in Royalton, then the place of his residence.
Through all these forty years, his life, in all its varied
modes, no less in the public than in the private walks
of society; no less in the national councils than in the
social and domestic circle; furnishes a practical and
beautiful illustration of the beneficent influence and
power of the religion he professed.
The loss of such a man is, indeed, a loss to the nation;
it is a loss to the State; it is a loss to society. But we




16                OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
have only to know that it is God's doing, and "be still."
This bereavement I hardly need to say, Mr. President,
falls with terrible and crushing severity upon an interestiing and stricken family household.  But I am  not
at liberty to enter the sanctuary of this grief.  I may
not lift the curtain which veils from  public view, the
deep sorrow which sitteth and weepeth there.
iMr. President, he whose death we now  lament is
gone to be with us here no more.  His work on earth
is done.  HIe strikes a golden harp among the seraphim
on high.  His precepts and his example are left to us
for our instruction and our profit.  Happy, indeed, will
it be if we shall so profit by them  that we shall be
ready, as he was ready, for the final summons, in that
hour which is coming to us all-and to some of us is
not far off-w —hen this world and its worthlessness shall
fade from  our sinking vision.
Mr. President, I offer the following resolutions:
Resolved, That the Senate has received with deep sensibility the
announcement of the death of Hon. JACOB COLLAMER, late a senator
of the United States fiom the State of Vermont.
Resolved, That the members of the Senate, from a sincere desire
of showing every mark of respect due to the memory of Hon. JACOB
COLLAMER, will go into mourning by wearing crape on the left arm
for thirty days.
Resolved, That, as a further mark of respect for the memory of
the deceased, the Senate do now adjourn.
Ordered, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to
the House of Representatives.




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.              17
Address of' Mr. HARRIS, of New York.
Mr. PRESIDENT: It is not for Vermont to mourn
alone; New York claims the privilege of standing by
her side in this hour of her affliction, of bending with
her in grief over the grave of her illustrious senator.
He was the son of Vermont by adoption, of New York
by birth. The elevated position he so long occupied,
the extensive influence he so long wielded, the honor
awarded to him by all, may justly excite the pride of
both his native and his adopted State. A man of singular worth and rare virtue has beehi lost to both.
As senators, we may well unite in paying our tribute
of respect to the memory of one so justly honored, and
pause in our deliberations to bestow our homage upon
one so justly beloved. The Senate has, indeed, lost one
of its ablest statesmen, one of its purest patriots. In
honoring such a man, we honor ourselves.
When we met in this chamber a few days ago, I am
sure the thought was present to every mind that one of
our number was not here; that one seat had been made
vacant; that the oldest, the most experienced, and perhaps the wisest of our body, was gone. It is hard for
us to believe that the venerable form so familiar to us
here will no longer stand in our midst; that he who so
lately was the object of our reverence has already been
carried away into sepulchral darkness; that we shall
never again listen to words of wisdom and patriotism
from  his lips. Those who knew him best will miss
him most. In the Senate, where his counsels had been




18            OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
so prominent, his death will be felt as no common bereavement. We do well to mourn his loss.
How frequently, Mr. President, we have been called
to honor the Senate's dead, to pay the homage which
friendship is ever prompt to offer to those who have
been our associates in the nation's council! This is the
eighth occasion, since I became a member of this body,
when the Senate has paused to render its public tribute
to the memory of its dead. The eloquence of Douglas
and Baker is no longer heard in these halls. Bingham
and Pearce and Thomson and Bowden and Hicks no
longer appear in their wonted places. Thus, one after
another, familiar faces disappear, and the great and the
good pass from among us. But of them all, not one
will be more missed from the Senate than he to whose
memory we now pay the last tribute of affection and
respect.
It is not my purpose to speak in detail of the life or
the character or the public services of our lamented
friend. To do so would be to repeat what has been so
well and so beautifully said by the senator who has
preceded me, in the eloquent eulogy to which we have
just listened. He has traced the course of Judge COLLAMER from the earliest beginning of his career to his
latest hour, showing how, by his energy, his intellectual
power, and his moral worth, he reached the high position
he so long occupied.
I did not know him, as did the senator from Vermont,
when in the prime and freshness of his life. When we
first met, the hand of time had touched him. But even
then I saw enough to realize what he might have been




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.             1 9
when in the full maturity and vigor of his manhood.
He had passed the allotted period of human life; yet
even his latest years were devoted, with equal fidelity
and success, to the service of his country, and to the
last he continued to exhibit the fruits of a mind well
disciplined by early habits of industry and well furnished
with the rich stores of a long experience.  In him were
happily combined those elements which constitute a
sound and judicious statesman. A man of great personal dignity, he was justly esteemed for the excellence
of his judgment and the purity of his character. His
most prominent characteristics were, I think, sound
discretion, clear discernment, good common sense, and
great honesty of purpose. No purer patriot ever participated in the councils of the nation.
He did not often occupy the attention of the Senate
in debate, but when he did rise to speak he was sure.,
receive the most respectful and earnest attention. Such
was the directness and force of his argument, so agiuent,
were his resources, both of wisdom and experience, so,
minute was his knowledge of public affairs, that all.
present, senators and spectators, became eager and.
instructed listeners.
He had looked upon life with an observing eye. No
man was more thoroughly conversant with the great
interests of the country. His memory seemed almost
exhaustless, and from its treasures he was ever ready, to
draw instruction for the benefit of others.. It was,
however, in his private and friendly intercourse that I
learned most to admire him. I count it among the




20             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
felicities of my life that I was permitted to know him,
and in some degree to enjoy his friendship.
But he has been taken from us in the midst of his
usefulness. His sun went down in brightness; no twilight obscured its setting. When his appointed time
had come, disease, "not tardy to perform its destined
office," dismissed him from earth, and he has gone to
his heavenly rest.
Judge COLLAMER was happy ill the circumstances of
his death.  Of him it may be said, as it was of John
Quincy Adams, that "no excesses of a profligate youth,
no vices of middle life, had shattered and hurried to a
premnature dissolution the body in which his incorruptible spirit resided. Nothing in his habits of life interfered with nature, to whose gentle influences it was left
to destroy gradually, and to restore in a good old age to
its parent dust, the perishable part of our friend. The
law of mortality, which knows no exception among the
passing generations of our race, was executed in his
case with as much tenderness and reserve, so to speak,
as is ever permitted by Providence."
He was not left to be an object of compassion to his
friends and admirers. No painful contrasts forced them
to revert in memory to better days. But with a mind
unimpaired, with an interest in life unabated, with a
self-command which protracted sickness had not destroyed, he passed to his rest. Thus we pay our last
tribute to the memory of one whose life has been long,
and useful, and illustrious. In private life he was without reproach. As a lawyer, he was an ornament to his
noble profession; as a judge, he was learned and up



HON. JACOB COLLAMER.            21
right; as a senator, he occupied the front rank among
tlhe statesmen of our country. There may have been
those whose career has been more brilliant and dazzling,
but there have been few whose labors have been more
useful, or who have secured for themselves a reputation
more enviable or enduring. We all respected and admired him while living, and, now that he is dead, we
render our sincere homage to his memory.  Never
again will he grace this chamber with his presence;
never again shall we hear his voice. He has passed
through the vicissitudes of a long and eventful life; he
has met and manfully fulfilled the duties allotted to him
upon earth. Death came to him in the ripeness of his
years and his fame. No stain rests upon his honored
name. His life was full of moral beauty; and with
mingled feelings of reverence and love, we commemorate
his virtues and lament his loss.
Address of Mr. JOHNSON, of Maryland.
Mr. PRESIDENT: The loss,of such a man as JACOB
COLLAMER to the public councils at any time would
have been deeply lamented. In the existing condition
of the country the feeling is deepened, and the event
justly esteemed a serious calamity.  He had been so
long in the public service, his course was so well known,
the character of his mind so frequently and so favorably
illustrated, his wisdom so uniformly exhibited, and during
our recent perils, and the conplications consequent upon




22             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
them, his patriotism as well as his wisdom was so conspicuous and comprehensive, that wherever his death
became known it was recognized as a great national
affliction. And so it is. Valuable as we, his associates
especially, know were his teachings and example during
the past four years, now that the shock of arms has
ceased, the flow of fraternal blood arrested, and the
authority of the government everywhere reinstated,
there yet remain questions of great interest to be adjusted, upon which his advice would have been of great
importance. From my intimate knowledge of him, I
deplore his loss the more because I am satisfied that he
would have greatly assisted us in so solving those questions as to make our Union more perfect than it ever
has been-making it a Union supported by the hearts
of the people as well as by the force of constitutional obligation. The measures calculated to effect at the earliest
moment this great and priceless result require high
intellectual and moral qualities-qualities so elevated
as to be inaccessible to the weaknesses and prejudices
which are often, to the impairing of their usefulness,
seen to control even cultivated minds. It is from the
general conviction that these qualities were possessed
by our deceased associate, that the voice of regret at
his decease was so general.
The universal sentiment seemed to be that under the
guidance of wisdom such as his, all would be well; that
his exposition of the policy suited to the vital difficulties
of the hour would be so clear and statesmanlike as
materially to influence the deliberations of Congress,
inform and satisfy the public judgment, and hasten their
~~; —--------------------------------— EMO== o




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.              23
safe and speedy settlement. And well might this impression prevail, for to such a work the mind of Judge
COLLAMER was admirably adapted.  Nature had endowed him with excellent mental capacity, and he had
cultivated it with great care and diligence.  His knowledge of the institutions and history of our country was
alike exact and profound.  He had studied them  not
only in their details, but in their philosophy. He came,
therefore, to the consideration of all measures of publie policy with great advantages.  Impressed with the
conviction that our institutions, if administered as our
fathers designed, contained every power necessary to
secure individual liberty and the public welfare, he was,
whether in war or in peace, for keeping every department of the government within the limits prescribed
by the Constitution.  To transcend these under any
exigency he ever repudiated as inadmissible and dangerous.  With a mind strongly conservative by nature
and training, while doing full justice to the different
opinions of others, he at all times opposed as a solemn
duty measures or principles projected or maintained by
any department of the government which he believed
were unwarranted by the Constitution.  This he exhibited in strong terms in his admirable and instructive
speech of the 12th of February, 1862, on the Treasurynote bill.  Referring to the doctrine of necessity as
justifying or excusing the exercise of powers not delegated by the Constitution, he said:
"I do not know how other members of the Senate look upon the
obligation of their oath to support the Constitution of the United
States. To me it is an oath registered in heaven as well as upon




24               OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
earth, and there is no necessity that, in my estimation, will justify
me in the breach of it. I think those men who are now risking
their lives upon the high places of the field to support the Constitution are not to be treated in this hall by us with the concession that
we are ready, if the necessity calls for it, to break it. All that our
rebel enemies are engaged in is the overthrow of the Constitution,
and all that we are contending for is its maintenance and preservationl."
In the debate, too, on the confiscation bill his view
on an important question of public law  is also illustrative of him.  The doctrine he announced on that occasion, though not held by all statesmen of the present
day, is now  of great practical moment as well as of
vital interest to thousands of our citizens.
Referring to the asserted obligation of the people of
the South to submit to the authority of the de facto
governments which prevailed there, and to the legal
consequences of such submission, he observed:
"H lowever loyal their feelings, a government defacto is over them.
They cannot get away. They have nowhere to go. They have
nothing to go with..WVhat would you have a man there to do?
What has this nation a right to demand'of him?"
And among other instances, relying upon what he
justly characterized as the "bright and high" example
of Chief Justice Hale in taking office under the usurped
government of Cromwell, he stated that in his opinion
a citizen otherwise loyal did not commit treason by
submitting to or even by holding office under a de facto
government; and his concluding words upon this subject were these:
"Such, sir, is the respect paid by the world, and especially that
part of the world from which we spring, to a de facto government,




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.              25
and the nations of the earth deal with them as governments, no
matter what the usurpation."
I have no purpose, and certainly the present would
be a very unfit occasion to indulge it if I had, to examine into the correctness of this proposition or its application to the late rebellion. The speech is referred to,
as was the one before quoted, because it accounts in
part, I think, for the impression so widely entertained
that a conservative and enlightened statesmnan in the
inscrutable providence of God had been taken from us
at an epoch in our country's history when his services
could not have failed to be of great value. But irrespective of all particular exhibitions of it, it was not
surprising to those who knew Judge COLLAMER in advance that he proved so well fitted to the duties of the
important positions to which his State called him.  An
habitual student, with a mind perfectly honest, with a
long experience at the bar and on the bench of his own
State, (a bar and bench ever distinguished for ability and
learning,) he came to the councils of the general government thoroughly prepared to meet their highest
demands, and this the result proved.  From the first he
ranked among the ablest of our jurists and statesmen,
and continued to maintain that rank to the last. As long
as the nine volumes of the Vermont reports of cases
during his judicial career remain, the exactness and
depth of his legal knowledge will serve to guide and
inform  the profession and promote everywhere the
cause of enlightened jurisprudence; and while the debates of Congress during the period of his service in
either branch are left, we who are yet here, and those




26             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
who shall succeed us, will find in his speeches lessons
full of instruction aind replete with patriotism on almost
every question of public policy or of constitutional law
that can arise. In the purity of his life, too; the industry
with which he discharged his various official functions;
in his freedom from prejudice, his constant regard to the
rights and interests of all the States, and in his uniform
courtesy to his associates, we have an example at all
times to be honored and followed.'Mr. President, it was my good fortune to have been
associated with him, not only in the Senate, but for
some fourteen months in the executive councils during
the administration of General Taylor.  Before that
period I only knew him as a distinguished public servant; but in those months our relations became, to my
great benefit and gratification, intimate, leading to a
friendship which it is a great pleasure to me now to
remember was never even for a moment disturbed.
Those who are acquainted with his administration of
the Post Office Department during that time know that
it was in all respects admirable. Its vast and complicated business, throughout his administration, was never
more ably conducted. I feel that it is unnecessary, in
the presence in which I stand, to say more of his public
career. No praise of it, however great, would those
who have been with him  in this chamber consider
exaggerated. And for the samne reason would it be idle
for me to do more than to allude to his social qualities,
for these we all knew and delighted in. The public
business of the day ended, its cares dismissed, and
private intercourse resumed, which of us does not




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.              27
recollect that his conversation was always improving
friendly, and entertaining?  To allude to it even affords
but a melancholy pleasure, as it so forcibly reminds us
of the great private affliction we have sustained. But
in our bereavement we are not without consolation.
The sad evil did not occur until our friend had served
his country most faithfully and well, and particularly
during the last four years of its severe trial with unsurpassed ability and the purest patriotism.
It is a further consolation that it did not occur until
the crisis of our nation's peril had favorably terminated;
until the fratricidal blow aimed at its life by wicked
ambition, proving for a time able to mislead the honest masses of the South, was so utterly defeated and
crushed that its renewal is impossible, and until the
authority of the Constitution and laws was restored and
submitted to in every part of the land. Our consolation, however, would have been the greater if he had
been suffered to remain until he could have seen
established that stronger bond of union than Constitution and laws alone can give, which is to be found in
mutual sympathy and affection; until he had seen us
again, and more perfectly than ever, one people, acknowledging the same political principles, influenced
by the same motives, and impelled by the same purpose
of working out, under and by virtue of the governments
of the Union and of the States, a prosperity and renown
greater than we have possessed in the past, and, abandoning forever the heresy of secession, and abolishing
-the special institution, (the causes, direct or indirect, of
the late convulsion,) resolved to make our Union, to




28             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
which we owe all of our happiness, individual and
social, that we have heretofore enjoyed or can hope for,
not only firmer than ever, but, as far as human effort
can accomplish it, make it perpetual.
If this additional privilege had been vouchsafed him
by Providence, our departed associate and friend would,
I believe, have left the world without other pang than
that acute one which is inseparable from the sundering
of domestic ties, (ties never stronger than in his case,)
and in the full assurance, which takes from death its
sting, and from the grave its victory, of that judgment
in mercy which a firm belief in the truth of the Christian dispensation assures him  who holds it will be
awarded to a well-spent and religious life on earth.
Address of Mr. FESSENDEN, of Mlaine.
Mr. PRESIDENT: Among the distinguished men who
during the past ten years have occupied these seats, I
regarded Senator COLLAMER as having no superior.  He
was not among those, if any such may be found, selected
through his own skill in political combinations, in reward
for party services, to advance the interests of personal
followers, or on account of individual popularity.  With
great directness, not to say abruptness, of speech, extrene tenacity of opinion and purpose, and apparently a
somewhat proportionate disregard of the opinions of
others when differing from his own, he was not likely
to gather around him anid retain the attachment of a




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.              29
party devoted to himself, or to interest large numbers
of men in his individual success.  Notwithstanding
these obstacles in his political path, few anmong our
eminent public men have been more successful in attracting and retaining the confidence and regard of the
people among whom he lived, and inspiring with profound respect those with -whom it was his fortune to be
associated in the conduct of public affairs.
That this was so may be accounted for in some
measure by the character of the people whom he so
long and so ably represented, and in a still greater degree by the possession of intellectual and moral qualities
which overshadowed all such trifling defects, if so they
may be considered. The small but noble State of
which he was a most distinguished citizen has long
been accustomed to look for its official representatives
amonog those most eminent for virtue in private, and
capacity for usefulness in public, life. It has ever seemed
to act upon the idea that public trust should be confided
to the most faithful and public honors conferred upon
the most capable and deserving of its sons. Thence it
has followed, not only that its domestic affairs have been
well and ably conducted, but that its weight in the
councils of the nation has been largely disproportioned
to the extent of its territory and the number of its
people.
Mr. COLLAMER was the possessor of qualities which
could not fail to attract the attention and to secure the
confidence of a people able and disposed to estimate
men at their true value.  Though his love of approbation was largely developed, he was more anxious to




30             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
deserve than to receive it. Ambitious to secure the
respect of others, he never forgot that without his own
it would be worthless. Gifted by nature with great
quickness of apprehension, discriminating powers of a
high order, a just thinker, an admirable logician, and
withal a student both from taste and habit, he could not
but become an able lawyer, more distinguished, perhaps,
for the exactness of his professional learning than for
the extent of its range. That learning, however, embraced all the subjects coming within the sphere of his
practice and involved with the pursuits of those among
whom he lived, and whose interests he was called upon
to protect.
Carrying to the bench of his State such habits of
study and thought, and such intellectual powers, and
with them a most delicate conscientiousness, he could
not be otherwise than an eminent and upright magis-.
trate-eminent even among the able and learned men
who, from its earliest history, have adorned its judicial
annals, and given to American law character and renown. It is not, however, for me to speak of him at
length either as counsellor or judge, inasmuch as I
never happened to witness his efforts at the bar or
upon the bench. Yet, though living in another and not
an adjoining State, his professional and judicial reputation was such as could not be confined within the
limits of his circuit, and his name had been familiar to
me long before it was my good fortune to meet him
where, upon a broader theatre, and at a great crisis in
his country's history, requiring the exercise of the best




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.             31
powers of the human mind, he was destined to perform
a most useful and honorable part.
Our lamented associate brought to the Senate, at the
commencement of the thirty-fourth Congress, a rich
experience in legislation, gathered in the halls of his
adopted State and in the national House of Representatives. With a man like him, time never was suffered
to pass unimproved.  Intrusted with public affairs, to
make himself familiar with all that pertained to them,
to master the details of business, and to guard with
vigilance the public interests, were to him solemn and
religious duties. To this end he spared no labor however severe, and shrunk from no task however burdensome. With such habits, and thus ripe in intellect and
experience, he commenced his senatorial career, not,
like many others, with everything to learn, but fully
armed, master of his weapons, and ready for the great
conflict upon which he was about to enter. Time
never finds a great occasion without finding, also, earlier
or later, the men fitted to meet it. Familiar with his
country's history, learned in its laws, thoroughly imbued
with its principles of government, in the best sense a
patriot, thoughtful and wise in council, firm in purpose,
and spotless in character, our associate and friend was
admirably fitted to meet the duties of a perilous hour.
How well and bravely those duties were performed we
can all bear witness.  Spared to see the clouds of civil
war, which had so long darkened over his beloved
country, finally dissipated, and the sun of peace rising
in unobscured brilliancy, he passed away from earth too
soon, as it would seem to our imperfect vision, and




32             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
while very much to which his sagacity and prudence
might have largely contributed still remains to be done.
Conspicuous in the debates of the Senate, Mr. COLLAMER, though of prepossessing personal appearance
and ready in speech, was not remarkable for oratorical
power, and at no pains to ornament his discourse with
rhetorical illustration.  His remarks were always suited
to the occasion, and confined strictly to the question in, debate.  Plain, simple, and unpretending in manner
and style, always severely logical and master of his
subject, he was invariably heard with attention, and
with the expectation, never disappointed, that new light
would be cast upon the question, however elaborately it
might have been previously discussed by others.  His
speeches were well considered, but never assumed the
shape of orations, carefully written out, adorned with
rhetorical flourish, and "pointed with inverted commas."
The closet was to him a place for prayer and thought,
for forgiveness of injuries, real or fancied, and for the
cultivation of good will to man, rather than a laboratory
of vituperation, open or covert, whether of men or,measures.  Quick at repartee and somewhat impatient
of interruption, his retorts were sometimes caustic, but
had no tinge of malice. If their sting was felt it left
no wound; while the rich vein of humor, which never
failed, and an inexhaustible fund of apposite and amusing
anecdote, always illustrative and most happily related,
rendered his efforts alike interesting to a miscellaneous
audience and instructive to his associates.
You and I, Mr. President, have long known and felt
how delightful our lamented friend was in private and
OM~~;~-~;~;;~




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.              33
social intercourse, how playful and genial was his wit,
how fertile he was of anecdote, how keen of observation,
and how instructive his conversation, both in lighter and
graver moods. No one of his associates in this chamber
can better than myself bear testimony to his kindness
of heart, his readiness to impart information, and give
the advantage of his learning and wisdom  to those
about him, whenever sought or needed.  Seated by his
side, session after session, for many years, I habitually
asked his advice and sought his aid whenever embarrassed by doubt or difficulty. The patience with which
he listened and the ready kindness with which he
responded, imparting from his rich store all that was
needful, compelling me to make his thoughts my own,
could not but secure my gratitude and win my affection.
I venerated and loved the man as one regards an elder
brother, upon whose superior knowledge and wisdom,
and unselfish singleness of heart, he feels that he may
in all emergencies safely rely; and I grieve for his loss
as one lamnents the breaking of a link in that chain of
life's pleasures which he feels to be growing shorter
and shorter day by day.
At a period like the present, calling for so much wise
experience and unselfish devotion in our national councils, the loss of such a man cannot but be severely felt.
And yet, in the inscrutable ways of Providence, it well
happens that the termination of no single life is ever
permitted to produce more than a momentary ripple
upon the great ocean of human affairs.  Whatever
impress the individual may make upon the time in
which he lived is soon trodden out by myriads of ad



31 aOBITUARY ADDRESSES.
vancing footsteps. Other hands take up the unfinished
work, and it goes on without any perceptible stay or
interruption. The noblest ambition of mran is, therefore, to perform  well and faithfully the part assigned
to him, and he is fortunate if content with what he may
receive, and humbly thankful if spared responsibilities
beyond his ability to bear. It may be truly said of our
departed friend that he was true to his own conceptions
of duty, both in public and private life. And if he was
not without a love for worldly distinction and eminent
place, that love was subordinate always to his convictions
of right, and his highest aim was to serve faithfully, and
to divine acceptance, as a Christian soldier, in the great
battle of life.
Address of Mr. DIXON, of Connecticut.
Mr. PRESIDENT: The Nestor of the American Senatei
has been called from the scene where his counsels have
been so often heard, and his wisdom  was so justly
honored. Whatever of eloquence, of learning, of skill
in debate, may remain in this body, the death of Judge
COLLAMER leaves a void here which will not easily be
supplied. Whoever aspires to fill his peculiar place,
and exert a similar influence, must possess not only
equal abilities and a character as pure, but a judgment
enlightened like his by the lessons, and a mind stored
with the fruits, of a long and varied experience.
If, in our estimate of the dead, we are sometimes




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.             35
liable to pass beyond the measure of a just appreciation,
we may be assured that whatever language of eulogy
is applied to him, we are in little danger of exceeding
a correct judgment of his merits. In the Senate, and
wherever else he was called to act, he was a man
so marked and peculiar that his superiority in many
striking respects was at once acknowledged. It was
my good fortune to know him  somewhat intimately;
first in the House of Representatives, and more lately
in the Senate. While he was conspicuous in both
these positions among the celebrated and able men with
whom he was associated in public affairs, there were
certain qualities, intellectual and moral, in which he was
not surpassed by any of the distinguished characters of
his time. And, first of all, he was a just man. His
integrity was a pervading and governing characteristic
of his nature; which not only controlled his conduct,
but shaped his sentiments and opinions, so that he
seemed gifted with an unerring judgment of right and
wrong.  Enlightened by this high sense of justice, his
reasoning faculties could scarcely fail in the attainment
of truth; and for him to refuse its acknowledgment or
resist its sway was an impossibility.  Hence it was
that in those intellectual processes for which he was so
clistinguished, he seemed never to be contending merely
for polemic victory, but rather to' be illuminating, by
the light of his unclouded reason, the path which his
controlling sense of justice compelled him  to pursue.
It was impossible to follow him  in the steps of his
irrefutable logic,without being struck by his perfect
sincerity, as well as by the strength of his reasoning;




3 6           OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
and the arguments by which his own mind was convinced, seldom fiailed to convince his hearers. Thus as
an advocate he compelled the assent of courts and juries
to his propositions. But it was as a judge that he
seemed in his peculiarly appropriate sphere. Here, his
high sense of right and his unrivalled reasoning powers
combined to render his legal judgments almost infallible;
and the suitors to whom justice was dispensed by him
seldom complained even of his adverse decisions.
To us our venerated and deeply-lamented friend was
chiefly known by his punctual and constant attendance
and his faithful labors in this body, in the business and
debates of which he took a leading part. Here for
many years we have listened to his words of wisdom,
and have been guided by the light which he shed upon
every subject which he discussed; yet I cannot recall
an instance in which he exerted those great abilities,
with which hlie was intrusted for the good of mankind, for the purposes of ostentation or self-display.
The arts of eloquence he apparently little esteemed.
These, with the graces of rhetoric and the felicities
of expression, he left entirely to others,.satisfying himself with a plainness of language, and often with a
homeliness of phrase, which sometimes gave an added
strength to his unanswerable reasoning. In the midst,
however, of his closest argumentation, the flash of wit,
the quaint stroke of humor, the apt and illustrative
anecdote, would occasionally vary the current of thought
and relieve the attention which might otherwise have
been wearied by the severe and exact logic to which
he usually so rigidly adhered.  Nor should it be for



HON. JACOB COLLAMER.              37
gotten that, with all his power in debate, he was
generous and considerate of others. No harsh or unkind
word ever escaped his lips. He seldom indulged even
in repartee, passing in silence any attack, real or supposed, upon himself, and applying his powers only to the
subject-matter of his discourse. As he was respected,
so he was respectful and courteous in debate, treating
others with the same consideration and regard which
all conceded to his own pure character and superior
abilities.
In the truest and best sense of the word, Judge COLLAMER was a conservative.  To conserve, to defend, to
uphold and maintain the government, the Union, the
Constitution, the laws of the United States-this was
his constant effort, the mission and the labor of his
life.  He did not believe, however, that true conservatism consists in upholding ancient error, or persisting in wrongs because they seem by the lapse of
time to have become irremnediable, or by custom  mand
usage to have grown inviolable.  On the contrary, he
thought that what is good in a government may best be
defended and preserved by seeking the proper occasion
to correct abuses and rectify mistakes. A  genuine
conservative, he was not the blind advocate of existing
evils nor the stubborn apologist of the past.  He knew
when to yield to unavoidable vicissitudes, when to favor
necessary changes, when to originate improvements
and suggest alterations, as well as when to resist the
visionary schemes of reckless innovators.  H3e sustained
n2  o policy merely because it was old; he favored no
measure merely because it was new.




3 8           OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
I have spoken of Judge COLLAMER as he was seen
in the performance of his public duties. There was
another side of his character, in which the persuasive
advocate, the inflexible judge, the wise and politic
statesman, appeared in a more genial and winning light.
In the unrestrained intercourse of private life and the
flow of ordinary conversation there was a charm in his
society which those who knew him intimately cannot
soon forget. The judge and the senator were forgotten
in the brilliant and delightful companion, the generous
and sympathizing friend, the wise, the candid, the farseeing man.
In the fulness of his years, after a life of usefulness
and of honor, and in the assurance of a Christian hope
of a blessed inmmortality, he has gone to his reward.
Of those who survive him, of those who in coming
years are to succeed him  here and elsewhere, few
can equal him  in ability and in virtue. His intellectual and his moral traits partook of the antique
mould, rather than of the modern type of character.
Yet, though rare and peculiar, they are not inimitable,
and to the noble and aspiring youth of our country,
whose hearts beat high with the love of civil liberty,
and who are fired with a generous ambition to benefit
and exalt the human race, they furnish an example
worthy of earnest emulation and full of the highest
encouragement. They may see him in youth studious,
laborious, and virtuous; in manhood, exerting all his
powers for the good of mankind; and in his ripened
age, still in the full possession of his faculties, and conscientiously performing all his duties, crowned with




HON JACOB COLLAMER.              39
public honors and the respect and affection of a grateful
people. They may learn, also, from his life, that the
greatest talents do not eclipse the higher and purer
light of a truly Christian character; and they cannot
fail to perceive the superiority of moral over intellectual
greatness, when they observe that with all his preeminent abilities, the most striking characteristic of
JACOB COLLAMER was his perfect integrity.
Address of Mr. RIDDLE, of Delawvare.
In sorrow for the necessity, with pleasure for the
privilege which the sad necessity has created, I, too,
Mr. President, second the resolutions before us.
Eulogy is not my forte. Obituaries are to me unpleasant.  Eulogies I would not attempt; obituaries
sometimes become an imperative duty. If perchance
the one is blended with the other, it shows at least that
the heart is holding such dominion over the mind as to
impel utterance to honest sentiments.
In the death of JACOB COLLAMER, I think Vermont
has lost one of her brightest jewels, the Senate one of
its most courteous members, and the country one of its
greatest statesmen.  He was great in feeling, great in
thought, great in principle, and great in action. He
was not a Cicero, because he wanted, in some respects,
Cicero's elocution; he was not a Demosthenes, because
he wanted the oratory of Demosthenes; he was not a
Caesar, because he wanted Caesar's ambition, obstinacy, $




40             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
and extravagance. He was a Gracchus-greater than
Cicero-greater than Demosthenes, and greater than
C(sar, for all practical purposes in the Senate. The
compeers of Calhoun, Clay, Webster and Wright, by
his demise, are nearly, if not entirely, extinct.
But for the illumination of their minds, reflected by
the archives of our country, we would be left comparatively in the dark to grapple with the difficulties which
surround us; hence the greater the loss. Would that
he had lived to aid in the great work of reconstruction
which we are, I hope, about to inaugurate.
My first acquaintance with Mr. COLLAMEI was in
1849 or 1850, when he was Postmaster General of the
United States, the duties of which office he discharged
with signal ability and general satisfaction. I do confess that the impressions which he made upon me
at that time were different from those of later days,
when we became better acquainted and more intimate.
He was apparently an austere man, but there was as
little of harshness or rigidity in his composition as of
any man who ever lived. Honesty, dignity, and selfpossession, prominent characteristics of the man, naturally created such an impression, and especially upon a
young man who differed from him materially upon most
political questions, and who was predisposed to oppose
his administration.  This apparent austerity in a measure separated us, but the union, like the welded link in
the chain, only united us more strongly when made.
An epitome of his life I would gladly give you, but
/ that has been furnished by his surviving and venerable
colleague. It may, nevertheless, be proper for me to




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.             41
allude-I trust it will be considered modestly —to his
deportment as a senator, his position as a jurist, and his
character as a statesman. Some men when they acquire
the position of senator, (I use the word "acquire" without wishing it to be literally applied to the deceased,)
seek popularity rather than labor to direct to proper
channels the popularity which their good acts and position have created.  This is the rock, mark my word for
it, upon which Great Britain is bound to split.  In
other words, some men embrace the "isms" of the
day-I use the manufactured word "isms," not knowing
any other so comprehensive-rather than breast the
storm which such "isms" naturally engender, and which
must ultimately destroy every vestige of republican
institutions if persevered in. Judge COLLAMER was
not of this class; and in this respect he must have
elevated himself in the estimation of the honorable
men of Vermont.  He believed, and I think correctly,
that if our ship of state was to be stranded, it would
be by fanaticism, and the denial to the States of their
reserved rights under the federal Constitution.  His
last speech before this body justifies me making such
a declaration; but political expressions, or even expressions which lean that way, are not relevant to this
occasion. I may, however, be permitted to adcd, that
"his solid qualities as a man, and his evident desire to
observe the right as a guide in political matters, won
for him  many friends, even among those who, like
myself, differed from him essentially in the conclusions
to which he arrived."  I have thus, Mr. President,
merely briefly alluded to his views to show that a great




42             OBITUARY ADDRESSES
man can, to a great extent, shake off the shackles of
party, be sustained by an honest constituency, and shine
out, in the estimation of an enlightened world, as a
patriot and statesman.  Such was Judge COLLAMER.
No senator ever doubted his honesty; no senator ever
questioned his integrity; and when he arose to address
you, Mr. President, he was recognized, as he should
have been, over many of us, in consequence of his age,
experience, ability, and acknowledged statesmanship.
If this be a compliment, God grant his friends may
duly appreciate it.
I speak, sir, perhaps, apparently with too much feeling,
but it fortuned I was his companion upon his return
home after the adjournment of the last Congress. I
may say that during our last journey I learned to know
him better, anled, if possible, respect him more. I knew
he was unfamiliar with selfishness. His laudable ambition was satiated. His country, with which I may
say he was born, was his adopted child. He had grown
up with it. In boyhood he fought its early battles; in
manhood he contended for its institutions; and in old
age, when death was dawning upon him, he enunciated
the noblest principles of his life, and the only principles
which can save this government. I leave to senators
and the country to judge what these principles are.
Before to-day I did not know Judge COLLAMER'S
religious views. I knew he was spiritually inclined, and
I believe no man can be great without such inclination.
It is the germ from which true greatness grows, cultivate
it as you may. It enlarges the heart, brightens the
intellect, and gives true nobility to the soul. It is




HION. JACOB COLLAMER.           43
equally certain that many assume it for base and mercenary purposes, and they are the pests upon society;
but Judge COLLAMER, I may say, and let the remark
not appear sacrilegious, it assumed. He was honest
enough to admit his errors; bold enough to confront his
enemies; conscientious enough to concede his faults;
and humble enough to pray to his God for forgiveness.
During the journey to which I have alluded I advanced the idea that although man was mortal, government, the creature of man upon this earth, properly regulated, might become immortal; that morality and love
for the neighbor were the essential attributes of lasting
power and sovereignty, and that sovereignty maintained
under such instincts would become immortal. To this 
the judge partially dissented, but expressed a desire to
read a work upon the subject, a copy of which I sent him
a few months before he died.
He also expressed a desire to read the works of
Emanuel Swedenborg, whom he considered as one of
the greatest men and writers of his age; but feeling, as
it were, that his days were numbered, he said to me in
a suppressed tone, "It is too late to commence such an
undertaking."  Thus we parted, and parted forever, unless to meet in the samie mansion in another and better
world.
May the Green Mountain boys of Vermont decorate
his grave with the verdure and natural grandeur of their
hills; and may the constitutional principles which he
enunciated and advocated be indelibly impressed upon
their minds! I would want this, to use a paradox, be
an unwritten inscription upon his tomb.




44             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
Address of Mr. SUMNER, of Massachusetts.
M3/r. PRESIDENT: Since Henry Clay left this chamber
by the gate of death, no senator has passed that way
crowned with the same honorable years as Mr. COLLAMER; nor has any senator passed that way whose
departure created such a blank in the public councils,
unless we except Mr. Douglas. lHe was our most venerable associate; but his place here had not shrunk with
time.  He was, when we last saw him, as important to
our debates and to our conclusions as he had ever been.
He still possessed all those peculiar powers of argument
and illustration, seasoned with a New England salt,
which he had from the beginning.  He was not so old
that he was not often the life of the body.
When he came into the Senate, it was after long and
various experience as lawyer, judge, representative in
the other house, member of the Cabinet, and then
again as judge, in all which characters he had been
single, pure, honest, faithful, and laborious. Though
little of a traveller, he had seen much.  HIe had also
read much, and he had done much. But all the results
of observation, study, and action had so passed into his
nature as to become a part of himself. If he expressed
an opinion even on law, it seemed to come from hinmself, and not from books, He was the authority. And
yet he was fond of books, whether in his own profession or iin other departments of study. 
His fidelity assumed the form of accuracy in all that
he said or did. He spoke accurately, and he was




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.             45
especially accurate with his pen. Perhaps nobody was
apter in the style or language of legislation.  He was
an excellent draughtsman, although, without doubt, too
professional for a taste not exclusively professional-indulging in traditional phrases and those favorite superfluities of the lawyer, said and aforesaid. The great act
of July 13, 1861, which gave to the war for the suppression of the rebellion its first congressional sanction,
and invested the President with new powers, was drawn
by him. It was he that set in motion the great ban,
not yet lifted, by which the rebel States were shut out
from the communion of the Union. This is a landclmark
in our history, and it might properly be known by the
name of its author, as "Collamer's statute."
All who ever sat with him in the committee-room
will long remember the carefulness with which he gave
his counsels and the completeness with which he explained them. Perhaps his wisdom  and facility in
business were nowhere more manifest. I seize this occasion to confess most gratefully my own personal obligations to him in this interesting relation.
The same character which appeared in the committee-room showed itself in conversation, enlivened by a
constant humor. He, too, had his "little story" for
illustration; but in this respect he differed from the
late President as one of his own Vermont mountains
differs from an outstretched and laughing prairie of the
west. In nanner he was Socratic. The curious observer, fond of tracing resemblances, miight fancy that
in the form of his head, and even of his person, he was
not unlike the received image of Socrates; while his




46             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
colloquial powers might recall Socrates again, as he is
pictured by the affectionate Xenophon, "handling all
who conversed with him just as he pleased." He had
also the same antique simplicity, and I doubt not he
would have followed the wise man of Athens bare-foot
in the waters of the Ilissus.  I would not push this resemblance too far, and I use it only for illustration,
not for parallel.  And yet, as I bring to mind our departed friend, he seems to assume this classical figure.
Call him, then, if you please, the Green Mountain
Socrates.
Debate, except on the highest occasions, is only conversation in public. With him  it was conversation
always.  He spoke, as he conversed, with the same
pith and humor, and with the same facility.  But his
facility did not tempt him. In this gilded amphitheatre,
where the speaker is sacrificed to the galleries, as of old
the gladiator was sacrificed to make a Roman holiday,
he declined all display, and simply conversed; and such
was the desire to hear him, that we gathered near to
catch his words. He was not a frequent speaker, and
he never spoke except when he had something to say;
nor did he speak for effect abroad, but only for effect
in the debate.  Of course, he was too honest and too
considerate of the Senate to speak without the preparation of reflection and study.  Though at times earnest,
he was never bitter.  He never dropped into the
debate any poisoned ingredients.
Sometimes he spoke with much effect, especially on
matters of law or finance, or business. On the great
question which for a generation overshadowed all others,




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.            47
and finally wrapped the country in the "living cloud of
war," he was sincerely anti-slavery, but with certain'
short-comings, which in this impartial tribute ought
not to be concealed. His lenity toward our monster
enemy showed itself unconsciously when he spoke of
malignant rebels as "those southern gentlemen who
had secedled;" and then again when, at an earlier date,
he spoke of "two civilizations;" but he bore kindly the
reply that civilization was only on one side. And yet
on two occasions in this chamber he strove for the
right very bravely, so that his position was historic.
One of these was many years ago, shortly after he came
into the Senate. The other was only last year. The
historian and the biographer will describe these scenes.
One of them is the fit subject of art.
The earliest of these occasions was when, under the
influence of the President of that day, backed by Jefferson Davis in the cabinet, an illegal government was set
up in a distant Territory, which, in defiance of the
people there, proceeded to institute an infamous Black
Code borrowed from slavery. The President countenanced the illegal government and smiled upon the
Black Code. The representatives of slavery in both
houses of Congress, with their northern allies, indifferent
to human rights and greedy only of political power, sustained the President in his disregard of that fundamental
principle of the Declaration of Independence that "government stands on the consent of the governed."  The
contest was unequal. On the one side was a struggling
people, insulted and despoiled of their rights; on the
other side was the President, with all the vast powers
j -  -..   -. —. A..,,,




48             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
of this republic, with patronage less than now, but very
prevailing, and with a great political party which gave
to him an unhesitating support. The contest reached
this chamber. Naturally it came before the Committee
on Territories, where happily the good cause was represented by JACOB COLLAMER, of Vermont. The interest
increased with each day; and when the committee
reported, a scene ensued without example among us.
The reports of committees are usually handed in and ordered to be printed; but now, at the impassioned call of a
senator from South Carolina, the report of the committee
whitewashing incredible outrages, was read by the chairman at the desk of the Secretary of the Senate. The chairman left his seat for this purpose, and stood face to face
with the Senate.  For two hoers the apology for that
usurpation, which had fastened a Black Code upon an11
inoffensive people, sounded in this chamber, while the
partisans of slavery gloated over the seeming triumph.
There was a hush of silence, and there was sadness also
with some, who saw clearly the unpardonable turpitude
of the sacrifice.  Mir. C OLLAMER followed with a minority report, signed by himself alone, which he read at
the desk of the Secretary, standing face to face with
the Senate.  Jesse D. Bright was at the time our
President, but he had installed in the chair on that
momentous occasion none other than that most determined artificer of' treason and drill-sergeant of the
rebellion, John Slidell, who sat behind, like Mephistopheles looking over the shoulder of Truth, while the
patriot senator standing before gravely unfolded the
enormities which had been perpetrated.  Few  who.~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~V




RON. JACOB COLLAMER.              49
were present then now remain; but none who were
present then can fail to recall the scene. The report
which Mr. COLLAMER read belongs to the history of the
country. But the scene comes clearly within the domain of art. In the long life of our departed friend it
was his brightest and most glorious moment-beyond
anything of honor or power, whether in the Cabinet or
on the bench.  For what is office compared to the
priceless opportunity, nobly employed, of standing as a
buttress for human rights?
The other signal occasion, when he showed much of
the same character, and was surely inspired by the
same sentiment, was during the last year, when the
illustrious President, who now sleeps in immortality,
undertook, in disregard of Congress and solely by executive power, to institute civil governments throughout
that region of the Union where civil governments had
been overthrown-imitating, in the agencies he employed, the Cromwellian system of ruling by "major
generals."  The case of distant and oppressed  Kansas
was revived. Who; can forget the awakened leonine
energy of the aged senator when, contrary to his custom, he interrupted another in debate to declare his
judgment against the power of the President to institute permanment civil governments "to last bey~ond the
war?"  The dividing line was clear. The President
might exercise a temporary military power, but Congress must lay the foundations of permanent peace.
This simple principle was, of course, only the corollary
of that rule of Jefferson, which has become one of the
commonplaces of our political system, asserting "the
4...




5 0            OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
supremacy of the civil over the military authority."
The eggs of crocodiles can produce only crocodiles;
and it is not easy to see how the eggs laid by military
power can be hatched into an American State.
This interjected judgment was afterward developed
in a speech, which for sententious wisdom  and solid
sense is, perhaps, the best he ever delivered.  It is not
long, but, like the Roman sword, it is effective from its
very shortness.  He spoke with the authority of years,
but he spoke also with another peculiar authority, for it
was he who drew the act of Congress which placed the
rebel States under the ban.  Positively, earnestly, and
most persuasively he insisted that Congress should not
abdicate its control of this question.  His conclusion
was repeated again and again.  It was for Congress, he
said, to say when that state of things existed which
would entitle the rebel States to perform their functions
as integral parts of the Union.  It was for Congress to
decide this question, and not for the President, except
so far as the President unites in an act of Congress by
his signature.  And he asked, "When will and when
ought Congress to admit these States as being in their
normal condition?"  To which he answers, "'t is not
enough that they stop their hostility and are repentant.
They should present fruits meet for repentance.  They
should furnish to us, by their actions, some evidence
that the condition of loyalty and obedience is their true
condition again, and Congress must pass upon it; otherwise we have no securities.  And I insist that the President, by making peace with them —if you please, by
surceasing military operations —cloes not alter their status




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.              51
until Congress passes upon it."  Then, again, filled with
the thought, he exclaims, "'The great essential thing
now to insist upon is that Congress shall do nothing
which can in any way create a doubt about our power
over the subject."  And still pleading against executive
interference, he says, "I believe that when re-establishing the condition of peace with that people, Congress,
representing the United States, has power, in ending
this war, as any other war, to get some security for the
future.  It would be a strange thing if it were not true
that this nation, in ending a civil as well as a foreign
war, could close it and make peace by obtaining, if not
indemnity for the past, at least some security for future
peace."  This was the last speech of our patriot senator.
It is his dying legacy to his country.  Let all, from
President to citizen, heed its words.  The aspiration
so often expressed to-day that he were now alive to take
part in the restoration of the rebel States is fulfilled.
He lives in his declared opinions, which are now echoed
from the tomb.
Say not that I err, because here, at his funeral, seeking to do him honor, I exhibit him bravely standing
front to front with executive power, wielded by a President who was instigated by Jefferson Davis, and then
again bravely standing front to front with executive
power, wielded by the gentle hand of Abraham Lincoln.
In the first case it was to save an outraged people; in
the other case it was to vindicate the powers of the
people of the United States in Congress assembled to
provide guarantees and safeguards against that wickedness and perjury which had deluged his beloved country




52             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
with blood.  Say not that I err, because now, at his
funeral, anxious that his best actions should not be forgotten, I commemorate this championship. He is dead,
but the good he has done cannot die. And hereafter
faithful senators, struggling with executive power, will
catch a new inspiration from his example. A bishop
of the church tells us that "all is not lost while there is
a man left to reprove error and bear testimony to the
truth; and the mLan who does it with becoming spirit
may stop a prince or senate in full career, and recover
the day."  Where this spirit has been shown-where
can honored associate has earned this title to fameI insist that it shall be imade known.  The battles of regiments are inscribed on their colors.  I
now inscribe on the colors of JACOB COLLAMER the
civic battles which he fought.  Swords of honor are
placed on the coffins of lamented generals. I now place
on the coffin of a lamented senator the simple truthful
record of his acts.
Address of Mr. POLAND, of Vermont.
Mr. PRESIDENT: I had intended not to occupy the
attention of the Senate by any observations of my own
upon this occasion.  AIy distinguished colleague, who
was for so many years associated in public life with
Judge COLLAMER, not only in this, but also in the other
house of Congress, was so eminently fitted, both in
thoughts and words, to do justice to his fame and mem



HON. JACOB COLLAMER.            53
ory, and to express the deep regret and grief of the
people of our State at his loss, that I did not feel at
liberty to weaken what he might say by any feeble
utterance of my own. The knowledge, too, that other
distinguished members of this body, long associated
with Judge COLLAMER, not only as senators, but in
other high departments of the public service, would
address the Senate upon the announcement of his
decease, was an additional circumstance urging me to
silence. But more mature consideration has brought
me, within a very few hours, to a different determination, and to the belief that in justice to myself, as the
successor of Judge COLLAMER to a seat in this branch
of Congress, and to the people of the State which so
highly trusted and honored him, my own feeble voice
ought to be added to the general mourning over his
lamented decease.
My colleague and other senators who have addressed
us at the present time have far better knowledge of
the career of my lamented predecessor, as a statesman
and a member of the general government, than myself,
for they were associated with him, and witnessed his
daily labors in those great departments; while my
knowledge was merely that of the people at large,
derived from the published proceedings and debates,
and the current history of public affairs. This reason
alone is ample why I should not trespass upon a theme
already so sufficiently and eloquently presented.
But the greatness and usefulness of my predecessor
consisted not alone in his distinguished services to his
State and nation in the two houses of Congress, and
LafI                                                  ED,




54             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
as a Cabinet minister. He was eminently distinguished
as a lawyer and a judge; and in these respects I doubtless knew him better than any other member of this
body except my colleague; and the few words I desire
to say will relate mainly to his professional and judicial
character and reputation. Professional reputation and
fame, however well earned and deserved, (except at a
few favorite points, and in the national tribunals,) are
always local in their character, and extend little, if any,
beyond the sphere of actual administration; hardly
ever outside the lines of a State.
And the same is true of judicial reputation, earned
upon the bench of the State courts, unless the judicial
career of the recipient extends over an unusual period
of time. The reason for this is sufficiently. apparent
from the fact that the professional and judicial labors
of lawyers and judges are generally bestowed upon
matters of mere private concern and individual interest,
and, however important and useful to the parties themselves, excite but little interest in the public mind.
Much the larger part of Judge COLLAMER'S professional
life had passed before I knew him personally, for he
had been already three years upon the bench of our
supreme court when I came to the bar in 1836. From
that time until his retirement from the bench in 1842
I was a practitioner before the court of which he was
a member. During the short period that elapsed between his retirement from the lower house of Congress
and his return to the bench in 1850, he resu med the
practice of his profession; and during that time I was
a member of the supreme court of the State. Under




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.              55
the new organization of the judiciary of the State in
1850, Judge COLLAMER was made judge of the second
judicial circuit, and held that office until his election to
the Senate in 1854. During this period I held the
same office for the fourth judicial circuit, and it was
during this time only that I was ever brought into very
intimate personal relations with him.
I learn from members of the profession, who were
contemporary with Judge COLLAMER in the earlier portion of his professional career, that his excellent natural
abilities, together with his thorough and accurate
knowledge of the law, obtained by close application
and study; his diligence and faithfulness in attending
to the interests of his clients, and especially his unswerving honesty and integrity, soon brought to him
large professional employment, and that his sphere of
practice and reputation steadily enlarged up to the time
he left the bar for the bench. He was ever exact and
thorough in his preparation, to the smallest details, and
in the conduct of trials was always watchful that no
proper presentation or argument beneficial to his client
should be omitted. Nor did he ever fail to see and to
avail himself of all proper advantage given him, either
by the weakness of his adversary's cause or by any lack
of professional skill shown in its support.  But his
practice of the law was honorable and manly; he never
sought advantage for his client's cause by the use of
craft and cunning, so often resorted to by less scrupulous members of the profession. But it was more in
his character as an advocate that his peculiar and characteristic fairness was exhibited.  He always presented




56             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
every legitimate argument in favor of his cause forcibly
and effectively.
But he never resorted to subtle and ingenious sophistries to disguise and conceal a dishonest cause or to entrap and bewilder the triers.  His style and manner
as an advocate, especially before juries, was peculiarly
his own. His presentation of a cause to a jury was as
cool, deliberate, and dispassionate as his argument of
a dry question of law before the court, or a question of
public affairs in the Senate.  HIe never appealed to the
passions or prejudices of his- auditors, whoever they
were, but sought always to move and convince their
judgments. He abhorred and detested every form of
deceit and falsehood in others, and disdained the use
of it himself:
Such an advocate was of course ever listened to
with the highest respect, and his arguments received
all that consideration to which his ability and candor so  i
well entitled them.
Judge  COLLAMER  came to  the  bench  a ripe,
thoroughly trained lawyer.  His popularity as a judge
was all that could have been expected from a man of
his talents and attainments.  He was especially fortunate and gifted as a presiding judge at jury trials.
His ready and accurate knowledge of the law, his keen
and quick apprehension, his extensive acquaintance
with men, and the motives and incentives to human
conduct, and especially his strong and intuitive love of
justice, enabled him at once to master a case, and detect the true from  the false, and, without apparent
effort, to make the truth of the case manifest to others.




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.            57
His manner and deportment upon the bench were always kind and considerate; he listened patiently to
even slow and plodding counsellors endeavoring to explain and illustrate what he already saw clearly.
He was ever prompt, fearless, and inflexible in his
decisions, with nothing of timidity or favoritism, always
so painful when exhibited on the bench. It is saying
no more than the truth, that he was one of the most
efficient and satisfactory nisi prius judges who have
ever sat upon the bench.
His published opinions while a judge of the supreme
court are models of judicial composition. For accuracy of learning, terseness of statement, clearness
and comprehensiveness of style, I do not know where
they are excelled.
Had Judge COLLAMER remained upon the bench to
the end of his life, like Chief Justice Shaw, of Massachusetts, or Chief Justice Gibson, of Pennsylvania,
I have no doubt his judicial fame would have equalled
that of those eminent jurists.
I have no need to speak of the character of Judge
COLLAMER in his more private and personal relations,
or his rare and generous qualities and gifts as a social
companion. All who were ever associated with him in
any capacity will ever retain a loving remembrance of
his kind and genial nature, his keen and pleasant wit,
his love and fund of anecdote. His duties as a husband and father, as a citizen and Christian, were ever
faithfully and conscientiously fulfilled.
In brief, sir, I have never known any man who came
nearer attaining the full measure of what I believe to




OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
have been the great object of my predecessor in the
performance of all the du-ties of life, from the humblest
to the highest, to be a just mall before God and his
fellow-men.
The people of his and my State have ever held him
in the highest respect; they mourn his loss in common
with the whole nation, and they will ever cherish in
their hearts the memory of his wisdom and his -virtues.
Fortunate may each of us consider himself, if, at the
end of the journey of life, he be able to leave behind
him a reputation so full of usefulness and a character
so pure and unsullied.
The resolutions were unanimously adopted, and the
Senate adjourned.




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.                  59
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1865.
A  message from  the Senate, by Mr. FORNEY, its
Secretary, communicated resolutions adopted by the
Senate relative to the decease of Hon. JACOB COLLAMER, late a senator firom  the State of Vermont.
On motion of' Mr. MORRILL, the resolutions were
taken from  the table and read, as follows:
Resolved, unanimously, That the Senate has received with the
deepest sensibility the announcement of the death of lion. JACOB
COLLAMER, late a senator of the United States from the State of
Vermont.
Resolved, unanimously, That the members of the Senate, from a
sincere desire of showing every mark of respect due to the memory
of Hon. JACOB COLLAMER, will go into mourning by wearing crape
on the left arm for thirty days.
Resolved, unanimously, That, as a further mark of respect for
the memory of the deceased, the Senate do now adjourn.
Address of Mr. MORRILL, of Vermont.
Mr. SPEAKER: The resolutions just received from
the Senate announce, what recurs with painful regularity, that death has again thinned our numbers, and
that we, members of Congress, sooner, perhaps, than
others in different walks of life, are doomed to an early
dismissal from among the living.  In this instance, it is
true that our deceased friend, the late senator from




60             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
Vermont, had reached fullness of years and of honors;
but his constitution had been so admirably preserved,
that those of us who had recently associated with him
were glad to believe he had yet many years in store of
useful and lustrous service. His sudden departure
surprised the country and his colleagues as much as
his own family, and he will be as sincerely lamented
by the public as by his friends and relatives. It was
my happiness to have been admitted to his intimacy;
and I shall speak of him in terms of affection, my feelings not allowing me to do less, but at the same time,
as he would himself have most desired, with entire
justice.
Hon. JACOB COLLAMER would have been seventy-five
years old had he lived until the 8th of January next,
having been born at Troy, New York, January 8, 1791.
With his father, a soldier of the Revolution, he moved
to Burlington, Vermont,, where he received his education, and graduated at the Vermont University in the
class of 1810. After being admitted to the bar in
1813, he made a brief campaign in the last war with
England, as a lieutenant of artillery in the detached
militia of the United States service; and there was no
portion of his history to which he referred with more
pride. Having settled in Royalton, he represented the
town, while successfully pursuing his profession, in the
State legislature in 1821, 1822, 1827, and 1828; Was
member of the State constitutional convention in 1836,
and was made associate justice of the supreme court of
Vermont in 1833. He was continued on the bench
until 1842, when he was elected a member of the




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.            61
House of Representatives in the Congress of the
United States. Re-elected in 1844 and 1846, he was,
at the expiration of his service in this house, immediately called to the Cabinet of President Taylor. Upon
the death of the President, he resigned his place in
1850. The same year he was again placed as judge in
the supreme court of Vermont, and so remained until
18,54, when he was elected a senator of the United
States for six years from 1855. At the expiration of
the term he was re-elected. At his first entrance
upon his duties in the Senate he was placed upon the
Committee on Territories, of which Judge Douglas
was chairman, and made the celebrated reply of the
minority (March 12, 1856,) to the report of that distinguished gentleman on the Territories of Nebraska
and Kansas. The compact statement of facts, the
logical deductions therefrom, and the powerful condensation of the summing up at the conclusion, at once
established his reputation in that body of which he
became so marked a member. At the close of his
career he held the position of chairman of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, chairman of
the Joint Committee on the Library, and was also a
member of the Committee on the Judiciary. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the Vermont
University in 1849, and from Dartmouth College in
1857. Suffering from a sharp attack of congestion of
the lungs, induced by a cold caught while returning
from the funeral of a brother, Senator COLLAMER died,
fiom an organic disease of the heart, on the evening of
Thursday, November 9, last, at his residence, in Wood



62             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
stock, attended by the love and watchful solicitude of a
devoted family, where the pastor of his church, on the
following Sabbath, performed impressive funeral services, without pomp or show, and where the people of
the town and the bereaved family, as the sun was
slowly sinking in the west, followed him with tears
and sorrow to his quiet tomb.
His constant elevation produced no change in the
modesty of his demeanor, and there was no station, in
this long recital of his public employments, which he
did not fitly fill and adorn.
At the start in life, young COLLAMER was a Jeffersonian republican. Later, when parties assumed other
names, he was a whig, and always distinguished for
the thoroughness with which he examined all questions, for his moderation, for the courtesy with which
he ever treated political opponents, and for his scorn,
which he took no pains to conceal, of demagogues.
Though stoutly maintaining his own predilections, he
reviled with cruel words neither parties nor persons;
and now, that his course is run, he is at peace with all
the world.
As a judge, he was distinguished for swiftness in the
despatch of business, for ability and stern impartiality,
and for the perspicacity of his opinions, as orally delivered or as recorded in reports. While in office,
though habitually urbane, he never forgot the gravity
and dignity of his judicial position, which sometimes
gave the impression of hauteur not actually felt. He
was a good disciplinarian, and, therefore, occasionally
curt, as when the time of the court was unnecessarily




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.             63
consumed by illogical or irrelevant speeches; and the
unfortunate members of the bar, or partial observers,
may have thought he was sour and cold, when he was
really, to those who klinew him, a man of excellent
humor, and as appreciative of merit as of demerit.
While he had a full grasp and comprehension of the
principles of law, his memory never failed to supply
instances in which those principles had been illustrated
and applied. Under his administration, jurors had little
difficulty in the solution of nice questions of law and
fact, however intimately blended: and the authority of
jurors under his guidance and teachings suffered no
depreciation, but their functions and capacity appeared
to be vindicated upon every trial. In a State which
has not been deficient in eminent jurists, including such
men as Chipnan, Chase, Van Ness, Phelps, Prentiss, and
Williams, in the past, not to say anything of the living,
the name of COLLAMER is, and will be, ranked as a
worthy peer. He was an upright judge.
It will be remembered that the cabinet of General
Taylor, in its high order of character and ability, has
rarely if ever, been surpassed in the history of our
country, and it was, in fact, what cabinets were designed
to be, the wise council of the President. Among such
distinguished associates it is fair to say the late senator
was not dwarfed by contrast with any. In the discharge of the practical duties of his department he is
still remembered by official veterans yet lingering there
for his untiring devotion and intelligent application to
that business of the government which comes to the
knowledge and touches the daily accommodations of
EQ- 




64             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
more persons than that of any or all other of the executive departments. By- his report it appears that the
excess of the revenues of the General Post Office over
the expenditures in 1849 was $400,000, but soon after
it ceased to be even self-sustaining, presenting annual
deficits until the present year. While Postmaster General he organized a division in his department to attend
to all foreign mails, foreign postal arrangements, and
ocean steamship lines. The existing postal treaty with
Great Britain, at his entrance, just agreed upon, was
carried out by him, and all the details for that purpose
perfected. The various subsequent international postal
arrangements show the wisdom of such treaties, and
they are still executed in the department according to
the original plan. The administration of the office
while in the hands of Mr. COLLAMER met with no comnplaint, which is the highest compliment this extended
and ever-extending department can achieve.
While in the Senate he commanded the confidence
of all its members, and the measures he introduced
were not only easily carried in the committees of which
he was chairman, but when they were brought into the
Senate nearly always passed without even a division.
He participated in all the important debates, bringing
those acceptable offerings which aid in the solution of
subjects under discussion; and, without making any
dazzling display, or aspiring to any domination, justly
wielded a large influence over his fellow-members. If
he was not their Mentor, there was no other senator
whose counsel upon all subjects was more frequently
sought, or more generously appreciated.




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.              65
Nature had dealt liberally with him, having given' to
him a fine figure as well as a full and well-poised mind;
and in his youth the graces of his person bespoke favor.
In his age he not only spoke like a senator, but with
the mastery of a piercing eye, that "spoke audience ere
the tongue," looked like one, and, as such, his words
were accepted as wise among wise men. In his con- 
versation he led, when he led at all, with useful topics
for discussion, and then pursued them with unflagging
animation, not monopolizing all the time, but ever and
anon showing himself an engaged and gentle listener,
as ready to be pleased with the wit of others as with
his own. An hour with him produced no impression
of a sermon or a comedy, but his sense and humor
were so comrnmingled that those who enjoyed such intercourse felt that neither the one nor the other could
have been more dignified and useful, nor more pleasant
and exhilarating.  To all his natural advantages, to
all his varied experience, he added patient industry
and force of character. He decided nothing by intuition-not looking fir Jupiter to come to his aid
from the clouds —but, helping himself, he always diligently studied subjects as they came up in all their
parts and relations; so that his opinions, whether in
the social circle, on the bench, or in the Senate, far
from being crude or extravagant, were the fruit of wise
reflection, and no man reasoned more independently,
or was less afraid to stand alone.
Senator COLLAMER was not a wide and desultory
reader, though well versed in history and standard literature-including many quaint and rare old books —




66             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
bdtt he was a very diligent and conscientious student
of the books he loved, retaining forever any mastery he
had once acquired over them, and among them none
were more thoroughly read and inwardly digested than
the Bible. A model in the regularity of his habits,
modest and republican in. his style of living-in his
tastes as well as principles —he maintained a character
of spotless purity in all the relations of life, public and'private, and his own home was made happy by his
presence.  His piety was unaffected, and he was a
regular attendant, wherever he dwelt, upon divine worship. He was liberal and public-spirited in proportion
to his means, though an economical manager of his own
affairs as he was of those of his country. In his own
State at the time of his decease he was regarded as
her foremost man, and his loss will be mourned by the
nation as the loss of one of its great men.
I believe he desired to be regarded as a Christian
statesman, and any terms added to these he would have!
considered as terms of diminution. He preferred to be
quietly right rather than to be conspicuous and wrong. {
He sought to convince, not to be eloquent. He was
impressive rather than impulsive. He appealed to the
reason of men, and did not aim to excite their temper.
He tried to make his audience understand the weight
of the argument, not to please them with the beatitudes
of rhetoric, The truths to which he gave utterance
were calculated, in their naked simplicity, sometimes
in their puritanic, gritty. homeliness of phrase, to stand
the tests of all time; but he took no care to embalm
his works with the ornaments of the schools or the
_,




HON. J&COB COLLAMER.              67
spoils of literature, in order to win that fame which
style often secures even to shallow thinkers. It was
breadth of view, and not felicity of diction, he aimed
at.  He borrowed little from others.  His intellectual
structures were built of timber he had freshly cut and
hewn on his own domains, redolent of the perfume of'
the forest, and were not piled up from dead drift-wood,
quotations which float on the surface of learning, so
tempting to merely literary wreckers.  Though always
bravely in earnest, and self-conscious of his power, he
had no hot blood, teeming with a luxuriant progeny of
hyperbole and fancy, but his unembellished words always kept on a level with his argument-clear, cogent,
and inspiring the hearer with the idea that the speaker
was wiser, freighted with more thought upon the subject, than himself.  Knowing that the human mrind
wearies with long-continued attention, he was accustolmed to enliven his speech with an occasional apposite
anecdote, of which he possessed a wonderful opulence,
but they were always chaste, and never delayed the argument. They were single flashes of wit, which shed
light over the subject in hand, while the speaker and
hearer were a long way further on in their journey.
/ Though it was obvious that he had a keen relish for
wit, he more worshipped the light which shines forever
than the momentary billiancy of the meteor, and was
more truly great in the irresistible logic with which he
was wont to intrench himself and bid defiance to opponents.
He scrutinized novelties, and was slow to exchange
a present inheritance for future prospects. But, if he 




, 68           OBITUARY ADDRESSES
was not an innovator, he was ready to sustain and defend any well-considered and substantial improvement.
Conservative from natural temperament, as well as age
and experience, he yet never was unwilling to strike at
any tangible evil or governmental abuse.
The Constitution of his country he had read with
profound attention, and, upholding it in all its parts,
imainly in accordance with the school of Madison, he
strove to be the guardian of the natural rights of the
people, as well as the just authority of the government.
He loved liberty and revered law. Loving his own
State dearly, and watchful of all her rights, he never
hesitated to subordinate her sovereignty to that of the
nation. His merits in the Senate as a constitutional
lawyer of ample learning and uncommon sagacity
were cheerfully acknowledged there, and his fame, if' it
did not leap over, extended as wide as the boundaries
of our country.
Though his views were usually in harmony with
those of the people of his own State, the transcendent
regard they had for him and his exalted character permitted him to differ with them upon some questions, as
they felt, whatever differences there might be, that they
were the result of patriotic and independent opinions of
a full-grown man.
He abhorred war considered as a trade or profession,
was jealous of the supersedure of laws by military
rule, and had serious forebodings as to its influence on
public morals; but he had large faith in the American
people, in their intelligence and traditions; and, in responding to the wager of battle by a wicked and




HON  JACOB COLLAMER.                  69
rebellious people, he was for the energetic and full exercise of the military power of the country. Chary of
legislative weapons, he had no doubt at all of the efficiency of martial resources.
In  the  Senate  others may have excelled  him  in
learning, in genius. in sarcasm, in oratory, but no one
surpassed him  in stores of knowledge, in admirable
clearness of statement, in lofty purpose, in direct and
vigorous argument, nor in that combination of sound
opinions which make the intelligent statesman.
Such a life-with no words his firiends could wish
to blot, with no acts that do not contribute to his
praise, closing with his country's plaudit, "Well done,
thou good and faithful servant," triumphantly closing
with the Christian's hope in the resurrection —appeals
to us by the force of its illustrious example, that we
may so make up our final record that those who survive us may be able to say, as we do now, "Behold,
with  no  remembered  sins of youth, here  are  the
splendors of an age, a long age of good works."
I offer the following resolutions:
Resohled, That the House of Representatives of the United 
States has received with the deepest sensibility the intelligence of
the death of JACOB COLLAMER, late a senator in Congress from the
State of Vermont.
Resolved, That the members and officers of this house, as a
proper mark of respect for the personal character and long and
faithful services of Hon. JACOB COLLAMER, will go into mourning
by wearing crape upon the left arm for the period of thirty days.
Resolved, That, as a further mark of respect for the deceased, this
house do now adjourn.




70             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
Address of Mr. WOODBRIDGE, of Vermont.
Mr. SPEAKER: After the remarks of my distinguished
colleague, who has so justly analyzed the character of'
the late Judge COLLAMER, it will not be appropriate for
me to detain the House longer than to pay a tribute of 4
love to the memory of my departed friend.
Judge COLLAMER was for many years a leading lawyer of Vermont.  He looked upon law as the perfection
of human reason, and studied it as the highest and most
perfect science. Hence he spurned the garbage of the
outer courts. He never touched the offals of the sacrifice, but worshipped at the inner shrine of the temple,
whose architectural proportions are just; whose parts
are orderly and harmonious; where justice is found
married to law, and controversy guided by the spirit of'
truth, rather than the spirit of victory.  By well-directed
study he became one of,the finest juridical scholars of
the age, and when called from the bar to the bench
sustained an equal rank with the scholarly and accomplished Prentiss, the metaphysical Williams, and the
distinguished Phelps, whose legal powers were as
measureless as those of Daniel Webster.
As a judge, Mr. COiLAMER, was without fear and
without reproach; and his opinions are models for their
elegance and simplicity of diction, their unerring logic,
and their freedom from any of' that party bias which
sometinies soils the ermine of the bench.
His career as a senator is known to the whole
country. In the most distinguished body of the nation




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.             71
he had no rival in spotless integrity and purity of character, and no superior in debate. It has never been
my fortune to know a man who could state a proposition
more clearly, and enforce it: with more unerring and
unanswerable logic, than Judge COLLAMER; and when
he made an argument every senator knew that he
spoke the honest convictions of his own enlightened
judgment. In the great struggle through which we
have passed he calmly waited the logic of events, or,
more properly speaking, the' indications of G~od, and
then fearlessly urged the policy which he deemed to
be right.
As a lawyer, as a judge, as a representative in Congress, as Postmaster General, as senator, he was always
unswerved by private or party interests, and preserved
a reputation as spotless as a child.
The crowning glory of JACOB COLLAMER'S character
was, after all, best exhibited at home. You all recollect
the sweetness of his face. He seemed, as Sydney
Smith said of Horner, to have the ten commandments
written there. He was a devoted husband and father,
a kind and generous neighbor, and in the highest sense
of the word a Christian gentleman.
And now that he has gone, across the silent gulf which
separates the living from the dead, the pleadings of his
life are heard.; It is for us to reverently listen. Let
us imitate his virtues, so that when we are called to
join our fathers it may be said of us, as it can be safely
said of our lamented friend, the world is better that he
has lived.




72             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
Address of Mr. RAYMOND, of New York.
M 3r. SPEAKER; I regret to say, sir, that I am entirely
unprepared to commemorate in any fitting terms the
character and services of the eminent senator whose decease has been announced. Indeed, after what has been
so well and so fully said of his life and public services,
by those from his own State who knew him so thoroughly
and who loved him so well, I feel that any extended remarks from me would be simply beside the proprieties
of the occasion. But I trust the House will bear with
me while, in a few words, I comply with the request of
those of his own State upon this floor, that I would at
least express my own sympathy with them in their loss,
and my concurrence in their estimate of his character.
It was my good fortune to know the late Senator
COLLAMER for many years last past. It was one of the
most pleasing incidents of the annual festival of our
university commencement, to those of us who were then
in college, that he was to be present, as he was always
present, when cominencement day came round, to rehearse to us the history of the troubles through which
he had to pass to achieve the education to which he
attributed his success in life, and to give to us, as no
one could do so wTell, those counsels and suggestions of
which we all stood so much in need. I learned then
to admire his character and to love him for his kind consideration toward us, so much his juniors, so ready, so
eager always to profit by his example and his counsels.
It was not my fortune in after life to know him intiQ                                                       i'.




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.             73
mately. I used to see him only as we see each other
in the casual meetings of public life; but the more I
saw him the more I honored him, the more profoundly
I respected the great gifts he brought to the public service, and the high moral considerations by which his
public abtions were always guided.
His mind was clear, acute, and strong. He never
failed to discriminate accurately between all the views
of every subject he discussed. His logic was clear and
strong. There was nothing in his discharge of public
duty that ever was low or narrow. He always rose to
the level of every subject, and he did it without an effort,
for the highest subjects were only on the level upon
which his mind constantly moved. He was entirely
free from the small ambitions and smaller jealousies
that too often encroach upon the, large generosities that'
alone give dignity to the details of public life. In
everything that he did he consulted the dictates of his
conscience.  He acted in public, as in private, with a
view to what he believed to be justice and truth, and
the highest good of those in whose behalf he spoke or
acted.
Senator COLLAMER was not much given to theorizing
on public affairs. I think, if I have not mistaken the
tendency, drift, and principle of his public action, that he
looked upon government and the offices of government
as experimental in their nature; and the question which
guided his conduct was not, what ought to be done on
the highest theory we can frame —" What would I do if
I could have my own way in everything?" but, "What
is the best thing, on the whole, which, under the present




7 4            OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
circumstances, it is competent for us to accomplish?"
He was, therefore, as far removed as possible from that
class of public men whom the French are accustomed
to designate doctrinaires.  He was a practical, direct,
straightforward statesman, in the largest and best sense
of that great and noble word.
I think Senator COLLAMER, moreover, shared largely,
perhaps was to a certain extent the cause of, that moderation, that steady conservatism in tone and temper,
which has always characterized the; noble State from
t which he came. It has always seemed to inme that
Vermont, more thoroughly and more truly even than
any other State of the Union, presents a perfect model
of a republican commonwealth. I know of no State
certainly where I believe the great principles of social
equality obtain a more thorough foothold than in that
Green Mountain State. I know of none in which the
personal and civil rights of every human being obtain
a more prompt, a more thorough, a more cordial recognition.
And I should state, equally to the honor of that
noble State, that she is always steady in her judgment
of public affairs; and Senator COLLAMER shared her
steadiness of judgment and action.  Never carried
away by the mere caprices or gusts of the public temper, he was still always profoundly respectful and
deferential to that settled and permanent tendency and
conviction of the public mind which, perhaps, is the
surest test of political truth and expediency to which
any person in public or private life can possibly refer.
Vermont, Mr. Speaker, has been fortunate in the
Ali ---------




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.            75
character of her public men, from a time beyond which
my memory does not reach in her history. She has
always had in her public councils men who conferred
lustre upon her and gathered honor to themselves, by
the manner in which they met every duty which devolved upon them. Some of their names, in various
departments of the public service, have been cited by
the honorable gentlemen whose words preceded mine.
They are names that will live in history. They are
names that reflect honor upon the professions with
which they were connected. Vermont still has in the
public service-in both houses of this Congress, in the
diplomatic service of the country, in the press, and
everywhere else where public action can promote the
public good —men whose names will be remembered
fbor the good they have done the world.
But among them all she has no name-and it would
be the highest wish I could frame for her, that in some
future day she might have some name-that will occupy a higher place in the respect of all who knew him,
and a more profound position in the love and esteem of
those who are immediately connected with him, than
that of JACOB COLLAMER.
Address of Mr. GRIDER, of Kentucky.
Mr. SPEAKER: I talie pleasure in bearing some tribute
of respect to the distinguished senator who has lately
departed from this life. I had the honor at an early
day, in this hall, to be associated with JACOB COLLAMER,
and the honor of a personal acquaintance with him,




OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
living with him in the same mess. I had opportunities at least of becoming acquainted personally with
his temper, with his qualifications, and with his private
and individual feelings, as well as with his public convictions, in the position he then occupied, and I felt
that it was due to Judge COLLAMER to bear some
testimony to that high appreciation which we always
entertained as to his qualifications in every position in
which the country placed him.
Judge COLLAMER was not a man of display. He
needs no eulogy from any individual upon this floor.
He has marked his character upon the records of his
country. Long in public life, he proved himself competent and true and faithful in every position to which
he was appointed. But I need not speak of his record.
It is before the country. It is recognized with delight
and pleasure, not only in his own neighborhood, but
well understood and gratefully appreciated in the West.
Mr. Speaker, you have already heard delineated the
variety of position which he occupied; and well may
his friends appeal to the public records, and to the
conflicts which have occurred in political life, and ask  2
where Judge COLLAMER has been derelict, and when  2
there was ever imputed to him any feeling but one of
patriotic devotion to his country, and devotion to the
highest interests of humanity.
Gentlemen who were familiar with him  all know
that he was not a man of rhetoric and poetry. He was
a man of logic, of argument, of discrimination, of integrity, and of firmness. He studied what he said
said what he thought, and executed his purposes with




IION. JACOB COLLAMER.             77
regard, not to the approbation of men upon the right
hand or upon the left,, but with regard to that approbation which is better and higher than all-the approbation of his own conscience, in view of that eternal
responsibility that awaits us all beyond the grave.
Sir, I loved JACOB COLLAMER. I have seen him in.
the social circle. I have seen him  in the highest
circles of this government. I had the honor to be a
messmate of his when Taney and McLean and Story
and a host of other distinguished men formed, as it
were, a family circle. I heard their interchange of
thought and conversation.  I had an opportunity to
contrast and determine the quality of Judge COLLAMER'S mind and his attainments; and they were prominent and distinguished.  IHe was always ready, always
quick to discern, to discriminate, to enunciate, to illustrate; he was peculiarly flavored in the quality of his
mind for pointed, clear illustration.
But, gentlemen, as I have said, his history is upon 
the record. Let me make one remark as to his personal qualities. He was gentle and kind and affable to
all around him-to the humble and poor as well as
others. Judge COLLAMER had a hand of congratulation
to give to every man whom he believed to be an honest
man; and yet, while he was thus condescending and
affable, he -felt that he himself was a man in attainments, in consideration, and in importance, equal to
the highest.
In the social circle no one was so interesting, so
illustrative, with such a fund of anecdote and instruction, and so full of kindness and gentleness.  Not an




7 8            OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
angry word did I ever hear fall from him. But,
gentlemen, allow  me to say that, according to my
convictions, we ought to estimate his character more
from other considerations which have not, on my part,
at least, been mentioned. He was not only a man of
integrity and morality, but he was a Christian man
and a Christian gentleman, and in this fact I trust his
friends, and especially the home circle, may find the
power of submission and ample sources of consolation.
A Christian gentleman, as he was, his death, although
it may be to his country and his family a bereavement
and a loss, to him it was great gain.
I may be excused for stating a fact, for facts are
illustrative of character more than words. When I
had the honor to be in Congress-in the House-with
Judge COLLAMER, we had a congressional prayer meeting. I remember distinctly that Judge COLLAMER, as
a Christian gentleman, was uniformly there and participated in the devotional exercises. They were of
frequent occurrence, and he used to attend, and Judge
McLean, and a circle of the distinguished men of the
legislature of that day. I have, therefore, the right
to hope and to infer, and to cheer the disconsolate
and the bereaved with the enunciation, that though
he has left us, and his services are no longer ours,
or his kind cheer for his family circle, yet to him
it was but a glorious exchange, and in that exchange
we may find the highest consolation, not only here in
this hall, but everywhere throughout the country, and
more peculiarly in the family circle, where, I hope, his
wife and his friends may be cheered with the bright




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.             79
prospect that they shall, according to Christian principles, meet him again and recognize him as a purified
angel-no more amidst the conflict and labors of human
existence, but pure and holy and blest as the angels
of God.
Address of Mr. ALLEY, of Massachusetts.
Mr. SPEAKER: I rise to express my cordial concurrence in the resolutions now under consideration; and
before the question is put, I wish to add a few words
to what has already been said in honor of the memory
of the distinguished senator whose decease has been
announced.
To those of us who have listened, as many of us
have so often, to his words of eloquence and wisdom at
the other end of the Capitol, nothing which I can say
can add'anything to their appreciation of his great
attainments, vast resources, practical wisdom, high
character, and eminent usefulness. But to those who
did not know him so well it may not be unimportant
to hear, in addition to the fitting tributes already
spoken, something more of the characteristics which
so distinguished the able senator and patriot whose
death we so deeply mourn, from another whose good
fortune it was to know him somewhat intimately. It
happened to me upon my first entrance into Congress
to be placed upon a committee of this house, upon
which I have served several years since, corresponding
in name and duties with one in the other branch of
rd -- } 




80)            OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
Congress, of which Judge COLLAMER was the head.
It gave me a most excellent opportunity, as well as
great pleasure, to witness, sometimes in counsel with
others, but more frequently in private consultation, his
excellent sense, sound judgment, practical wisdom, and
incorruptible integrity.  Few men comprehended so
easily-in facet, I have scarcely met one that could
elucidate so clearly and fully, the most abstruse and
difficult propositions. His simple and clear statement
of any subject was in itself almost a demonstration.
The clearness of his perceptions was, indeed, truly
remarkable.  Without ostentation or display, he communicated his stores of knowledge and wisdom  most
cheerfully to willing and grateful listeners.
I have heard some of his associates in the Senate
and scores of others remark that he was the wisest
man in that august body. And all who knew him will
agree that he was, at least, among the very best and
greatest of those eminent men: and who could desire
for his fame higher praise than this?  But it was not
as a senator merely, or the wisdom which he displayed
as a legislator, which constituted his only or chief claim
to high distinction.  He had the reputation, as has
already been stated, of being a great lawyer in no
ordinary sense; for he was not only learned in the
principles and technicalities of the law, but it is admitted that he understood and comprehended the true 
spirit of the law better and in greater degree than
many of the most distinguished lawyers of the land.
To say that one is a great lawyer in the highest sense,
as was justly said of himn, is to say that he was a great
s   a   -_..  -  - -!..~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~MII




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.             81
man. I know that it is not unfrequent, upon such an
occasion as this, for partial friends to indulge in exaggerated praise and high-wrought eulogium; but it is
but simple justice to say of the late senator from Vermont that he was wise, pure, and patriotic in as eminent degree as any of the public men now upon the
stage of action. And to a nice sense of justice he
added a mature judgment in the consideration of all
subjects, formed upon careful examination and reflection. He was amiable in temper, and that, together
with an originating mind, stored so full as it was by
study and culture, made him a great favorite of all
with whom he came in contact. He attained great
influence, not by frequent and much speaking, but by
solid reasoning and dispassionate argument. He never
relied upon anything for success but legitimate and
argumentative appeals to the understanding alone.
Such was JACOB COLLAMER: the wise senator, the
able statesman, the great lawyer. But he is gone, and
we shall never behold him again on earth. How melancholy the reflection, that one so learned, so able, and
so useful, and withal so beloved, should be thus removed
from this great field of usefulness and honor, to be seen
no more forever! Such lessons teach us how little of
lasting enjoyment is to be found in struggles and toils
for honor and fame, except the purpose of such efforts
is to secure noble ends. Ambition for place and power,
when inspired by a desire to accomplish the greatest
good to mankind, is not unworthy the highest aspirations of the great and good. But how suggestive the
thought and the truth that6s



,82            OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
"When fame's loud trump hath blown its noblest blast,
Though loud the sound, the echo sleeps at last;
And glory, like the phmenix midst the fires,
Exhales her odors, blazes, and expires."
The frequent recurrence of such scenes as these
admonishes us how slight is our grasp upon life, and that
we, too, must soon be called from the labors and struggles of earth to render an account of our stewardship
while here; and well shall it be with us if we shall be
able to present as good a record, "when time with us
shall be no more," for faithfulness and duty well performed, as fell to the lot of our departed friend.
Address of Mr. WENTWORTH, of Illinois.
Mr. SPEAKER: I am unwilling that the West should be
unheard on this occasion; and I have no other apology
to offer for my remarks now except that I regret that
some abler man from the West had not deemed that
the privilege devolved upon him.
I entered Congress at the same time with Judge
COLLAMER in 1843, and I had not long been associaetd
with him before I marked him as a man of signal
ability, and destined to take that high rank which has
been so unanimously accorded him. I concur in all
the noble traits of character which the gentlemen who
have so eloquently preceded me have enlarged upon.
But there are some points which they have overlooked
that I deem too prominent to be omitted and do justice
to so great a man.  He distinguished himself for his




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.             83
kindness and fatherly care of the new States. While
he scrupulously canvassed all our measures and opposed those which he deemed extravagant, yet he may
have been considered a very liberal man to us, and I
could mention many works of western improvement
that stand out as monuments of his justice and foresight.
Judge COLLAMER was an economical man, and carefully investigated every claim that was brought before
Congress, and those of his fellow-members who had not
examined them never had any fears in following him
if he only assured them that he had carefully examined
the matter. He looked as I do upon economy, as one
of the best safeguards of our government, and as one
of the essential requisites of a statesman. He thought
that no man should be more liberal of the public
money than he was of his own. He viewed economy
in public affairs as nothing more nor less than strict
honesty. The same sterling economy which characterized him in the legislative department he practiced in
the executive department. As Postmaster General he
tolerated no extravagance; and when I have said this, I
need not say his department was tainted with no corruption. Ana if the history of the Post Office Department is ever written, his administration will be noted
as economical, cheap, and honest, and he will stand
equal to, if not ahead, in this respect, of the purest men
who have ever adorned the national Post Office.
As-to his ability I have only to quote my own case
to show what effect he was capable of producing upon
minds that were even prejudiced against his views. I




84             OBITUARY ADDRESSES.
was here during the last inauguration ceremonies, and
when I came here I had not the views that I now have
with reference to the reconstruction of the States. I
had a conversation with one of the ablest men in this
country upon that subject, and, I might add, with a gentleman now occupying what I consider the highest position in this republic. His views and mine at parting did
not exactly coincide. His last words were, "I would like
to have you read the late speech of Senator COLLAMER,
if you have not done so-"  As I had not, he took particular pains to send to his own library, and got for me the
only copy he had. which he prized very highly, and
trusted to his good fortune to get another. To that
speech I owe the convictions which have dictated the
votes which I have cast upon this floor. That speech
convinced me, and I know no other way for a public
man to vote than in accordance with his convictions,
leaving the consequences, not to the dictation of selfish
organizers of political parties, but to that Creator to
whom a manll is as much responsible for his official as
for his private acts.
The gentleman from New York (Mr. Raymond) has
told us that Judge COLLAMER was conservative. Until
those words I had not made up my mind to address
the House on this occasion. I deemed it my duty
then to define Judge COLLAMER'S conservatism. He
was for preserving his government, and he was for destroying everything that stood in the way of commending that government to the protection and
blessing of Divine Providence. He was a conservative
of the right and a radical destructive of the wrong.




HON. JACOB COLLAMER.            85
The gentleman from New York might have said of him,
that he was a radical conservative. He knew no expediency, he knew no policy, as against the equality of
all mankind before the law; and that is the sense in
which an immense majority of this house can be called
conservatives.
The gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Grider) spoke of
Mr. COLLAMER as a conscientiously religious man, and
he might have added that his religion was of that kind
which made him believe, and carry into actual practice
the belief, that men should be as equal before the bar
of their country as they were before the bar of God.
Judge COLLAMER met the black man on earth as he
knew he would meet him in heaven.
The resolutions of Mr. Morrill were then adopted.