Something of Men I Have Known: With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and RetrospectiveStevenson, Adlai E. (Adlai Ewing)
History
Something of Men I Have Known: With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective
Stevenson, Adlai E. (Adlai Ewing)
United States -- Biography; United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1933
The Hon. Carter H. Harrison was a prominent member of the Illinois
delegation. He soon took high rank as an orator, and never failed
to command the attention of the House. Few speeches delivered
during that session of Congress were so generally published, or
more extensively quoted than were those of Mr. Harrison. At the
end of four years' service in Congress he was elected Mayor of
Chicago, an office he filled most acceptably for many years.
His tragic death, upon the concluding day of the great Exposition,
was universally deplored throughout the entire country.
The Hon. John H. Reagan, of Texas, was a Representative in Congress
before the war. At its beginning he resigned his seat in the House,
and cast in his fortunes with the South. He was early selected
a member of the Davis Cabinet, and continued to discharge the duties
of Postmaster-General until the fall of the Confederacy. He was
a citizen of Texas while it was yet a Republic, and took an active
part in securing its admission to the Federal Union. Judge Reagan
was a gentleman of recognized ability, and of exceedingly courteous
and dignified bearing.
An old-time statesman, on the same side of the Chamber, was the
Hon. Fernando Wood of New York. A generation had passed since
he first entered Congress. He was a Representative in the old hall
of the Capitol while Webster, Calhoun, and Clay were in their prime.
Erect, stately, faultless in his attire, and of bearing almost
chivalric, Mr. Wood was long one of the active and picturesque
personages of the House. At the time whereof we write, his sands were
almost run, but, courageous to the last, he was in his accustomed seat
but a little time before the final summons came, and he died, as
was his wish, with the harness on. All in all, we shall hardly
see his like again.
Surrounded by his colleagues near the centre of the hall sat one
of the most remarkable men of his day, philosopher, jurist, statesman,
orator, Lucius Q. C. Lamar of Mississippi. In his early manhood
he was a member of the House, and even then was recognized as one of
the most brilliant of the many brilliant men his section had sent to
the national councils. During the war his services in field and
council were given to the South, and something less than a decade
after the return of peace, Mr. Lamar, still in his prime, again
took his seat in the hall where his first laurels had been won.
His great speech--one that touched all hearts--was not long delayed;
the occasion was the day set apart in the House for tributes to
the memory of the lamented Sumner. Many eulogies were delivered; that
of Lamar still lingers in the memory of all who heard it. "The
theme was worthy the orator; the orator, the theme." As a splendid
tribute to a great tribune, as a plea for peace,--abiding, eternal,
between all sections of a restored union,--it stands unsurpassed
among the great masterpieces of ancient or modern eloquence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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