From the Majesty of Nature, "Feed the plant, whose fruit is wisdom; [Applause.] Letter from Rev. S. T. Mitchell, President of Wilberforce University. The foregoing speech, made at Montpelier in 1856, and the extracts following from speeches made in Wood County in 1862 and '65, reflect with clearness and power the advanced anti-slavery opinions held by Mr. Ashley at the date of their delivery, and make his antislavery record so complete that we have found "no word or thought which we could wish to change or blot." Observation teaches us S. T. MITCHELL. that there are but few young men with character and ability strong enough to answer calumny by silence, and be able to live on a plane so high as to rebuke and answer, by acts, not words, all political falsehoods; and still fewer men, young or old, who in the midst of detraction, can declare as he did in the foregoing extract made from his speech at Bowling Green in 1862, that he had determined to so live as to silence the maligner and to quote his own language, "to write my friendships on the granite, and my enmities in the sand." We have never read anything grander in any speech. S. T. MITCHELL. ADDRESS OF HON. JAMES M. ASHLEY, OF OHIO. DELIVERED IN THE U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 31, 1864. ON THE DEATH OF HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, OF ILLINOIS. MR. ASHLEY. Mr. Speaker, on Friday night last the immortal spirit of Owen Lovejoy passed from earth. This sad message, borne on the lightning's wing, carried sorrow to the hearts of millions. In his death the nation has lost one of its ablest, most accomplished and eloquent sons, the slave a faithful friend, and true democracy a cherished defender. I was not at his bedside and cannot tell you how he died. The world knows how he lived; and such a life I am sure could only have a fitting close in a Christian death. Let us learn by his heroic example that "We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Mr. Speaker, the death of our friend was not wholly unexpected by me. For more than two years, at our committee meetings, I have witnessed with anxiety, month by month and week by week, the fire of his eye grow dim and the vitality of his organization gradually yield to the approaching destroyer. Though not full of years, he was crowned with honors, and descended to the tomb with the benediction of a nation upon his head. He lived to see the seed he had sown ripen into grain, ready for the harvest. He saw the dawning of the morn so long and so anxiously looked for by the friends of freedom in the United States; but he was not permitted to remain with us to join in the general song of joy which awaits the triamph that ere long shall regenerate the nation. That Providence which cannot err, has, for wise purposes, called our friend and brother to his reward. While we sorrow for our loss and sympathize with his bereaved family in their deep affliction, we can truthfully and with exultation say: "The great work laid upon his manly years Is done, and well done. If we drop our tears, ADDRESS OF HON. JAMES M. ASHLEY, OF OHIO. DELIVERED IN THE U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 17, 1868. ON THE DEATH OF HON. THADDEUS STEVENS OF PENNSYL VANIA. MR. ASHLEY, of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, in the death of Thaddeus Stevens this House has lost one of its recognized leaders, and the nation one of her most distinguished sons. In his departure we shall miss another of the uncompromising heroes of our anti-slavery revolution. Elijah and Owen Lovejoy are entombed, the one at Alton and the other at Princeton, Illinois. Adams and Pierpont sleep beneath the soil of their native Massachusetts; Theodore Parker at Florence, in Italy; William Leggett at New Rochelle, New York; Nathaniel P. Rogers by his native Merrimac; Gamaliel Bailey within the shadow of the national Capitol; Giddings and Morris and Lewis in Ohio; James G. Birney in New Jersey; David Wilmot and James Mott in Pennsylvania; John Brown at North Elba, New York; and there are others whose lives were as heroic and beautiful and unselfish, whose names I need not recall. To these must be added more than three hundred thousand, the fallen heroes and martyrs of our liberating army, who sleep on every national battle-field, from the heights of Gettysburg to the banks of the Rio Grande. Pre-eminent among all this invincible army of heroes, prophets, and martyrs, is Abraham Lincoln, "The generous, merciful, and just." With this grand army of unselfish patriots, his contemporaries and co-laborers, we have laid down to rest all that is mortal of our friend in the bosom of his beloved Pennsylvania. The benediction of millions followed him to his tomb, and to-day in the free home of every black man, and of all men who love liberty, there is sincere sorrow and mourning. Never again in these council halls will he deliberate with the people's representatives, nor awaken the nation from its lethargy by his genius and wonderful power. The honorable gentleman whom his constituents have elected to succeed him on this floor, and those who have preceded me, have spoken so fully of his early life, his heroic struggles, and his personal history, that I need not add a single word. Through some of the most eventful years in our history I have been intimately associated with him on this floor. During all that time, which included the darkest hours in the nation's life-hours which tested the constancy and courage of men-he bore himself with such unquestioned fidelity to the cause of human freedom, as to command even the respect of political opponents and the cordial indorsement of all liberty-loving men. As we engage in the memorial services of this hour, and bear him again in our hearts from this Capitol and the scenes of his struggles and wonderful triumphs, let the nation stand with uncovered head and its bells peal forth the solemn sound of an anthem more appropriate than any words of mine: "Toll, toll, toll, All mortal life must end. Toll, toll, toll, Weep for the nation's friend. Oh, the land he loved will miss him, 1 |