MEMORY OF GOVERNOR WILLARD.
Mr. HEFFREN submitted the following:
Resolved, That the House of Representatives of the State of Indiana has received with the deepest sensibility, the announcement of the death of Governor Ashbel P. Willard.
Resolved, That the officers and members of this House will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days, as a testimonial of the profound respect this House entertains for the memory of the deceased.
Resolved, That the proceedings of this House in relation to the death of Governor Willard, be communicated to the family of the deceased by the Clerk.
Resolved, As a further mark of respect for the memory of the deceased, that this House do now adjourn.
Mr. HEFFREN said:
MR. SPEAKER:- We have just had communicated to us, in an official manner, the death of our late Governor, Ashbel P. Willard. This is the first time in the history of Indiana that her Chief Executive has deceased in office, and the reins of Government have fallen into the hands of him who was elected as the second in command. Indiana is called to mourn the loss of one of her brightest intellects, one of her most genial citizens, and a nation the loss of one of her first statesmen. Sir, I can not pass such an eulogy upon the life, services and character of the deceased as I could wish, but will leave to older and more experienced heads than mine the task, yet I can not suffer the present occasion to pass without offering a tribute of respect to his memory, and while we drop sympathetic tear over his grave, let us not forget to do his life and actions justice. Ashbel Parsons Willard was born October 31st, 1820, at Vernon, Oneida county, New York. His father was a highly respectable farmer, and at one time Sheriff of the county. Young Willard early evinced those powers of intellect which made him such fame in after years. He was of a family of five sons and a daughter. His sister and three of his brothers went to their long home before him. The cold grave closed over their remains and shut from his sight his kindred. A brother of our Governor still survives; the last of that family. They have all fallen, I believe, by that insidious and fell destroyer, consumption. One I well knew, and he was possessed of the same noble traits of character as was our lamented Governor and departed friend.
With the early history of the life of our late Governor I am not very familiar, but I understand that by constant and severe application, he almost ruined his health, and perhaps planted the seeds of his own destruction as he pored over his books by the flickering beams of the midnight lamp. In 1842, he started for the far off West, where "the star of empire takes its way," there to embark upon the tempest-tossed, turbulent sea of life. He arrived in Marshall, Michigan, where he remained a time, and from thence into Texas on horseback, and back to Kentucky, and finally settled at New Albany, Indiana, in the year 1845, where by industry, energy and preseverance, he won friends in the ranks of all parties who never deserted him in his later years.
In 1847, he returned East, and on the 31st day of May, of that year, was married to the beautiful and accomplished Caroline C. Cook, of Haddam, Connecticut. The offspring of that marriage who now survive are James H. and Caroline C. Willard. One, Ashbel P. Willard, Jr., preceded his father to the grave, and the dust of father and son now repose in quiet, side by side in the cemetery of New Albany. All remember the thrill of sadness that ran through our veins as the news was received that Ashbel P. Willard was dead. We felt an involuntary shudder pass over our frames and a chilling sensation through our hearts. We did not think it possible, that he who was onr delight and joy had passed, away from earth to return no more forever.
Yet so it was, for on Thursday, October 4, at about five o'clock, his spirit took its flight to the God who gave it. He died at St. Paul, Minnesota, far away from his intimate friends and associates, and I had almost said in a land of strangers but nowhere in the Union was Ashbel P. Willard a stranger, and no place on the soil of the United States, where civilization rules, but he would have been hospitably received. Just before he died he asked that the papers might be read to him, and he manifested great anxiety for the fate of his country, which he believed drifting to destruction. Alas! too well founded were his fears, too true his belief.
He was elected to the City Council of New Albany in May, 1849, and in 1850, a member of the page: 23[View Page 23]General Assembly, and held a seat upon this floor. He was one of the working men of this body, and the statute books of the State still bear the impress of his genius and wisdom. In 1852 he was elected Lieutenant Governor of the State by his party, and thereby became ex-officio President of the Senate. Four years ago, when I first entered the General Assemby of this State as a Senator from the county of Washington, Lieutenat Governor Willard was in the chair. Well do I remember the turbulent scenes of that organization. Well do I know the firmness and forbearance exhibited by our friend at that time, when there was danger upon every hand, and how well I remember the heroic courage he exhibited there. I well remember, sir, that, had it not been for his counsel, the floor of that Senate would have been bathed in blood and covered with the bodies of the slain. But his advice prevailed, and peace and concord once more held sway.
In 1856, Willard was nominated as a candidate for Governor. He made one of the most laborious canvasses ever made in Indiana. When we see him elected over so able and accomplished a speaker and gentleman as Oliver P. Morton by so large a majority, when, but two years before the State had been thousands against his party, we may well stand abashed at the power, will and majesty of his intellect. Sir, I have seen him sway the tumultuous crowd to and fro like the top of the tall oak in the storm; I have seen him, as the words of burning eloquence flowed from his lips, hold thousands enchained and enraptured, and when he had done, sigh that their feast was so short. He had all the elements of a popular orator and well he knew how to use them to make them tell upon his admiring hearers. His race was short but brilliant. He rose rapidly to distinction and honor, eminence and usefulness. Like the lightning that flashes athwart the sky, his intellect blazed upon us, but when it went out left us in deeper darkness. In him the youth of the land have a model to follow and an example to guide them onward and upward to fame and honor. Starting poor and alone, he carved his way in a few short years to the highest post of distinction in the gift of the people of his State. But he is cut off in the morn of manhood and vigor of his life. Forty summers had just passed over his head and he was called away from us. Yes, death has entered, as it were, into our circle and stricken down the husband and the father as well as our Chief Executive. The beaming eye so full of fire and intelligence that we were wont to look upon, is closed and lusterless. The hand that greeted us with warm friendship and kind affection is cold and clammy in death. The lips and tongue which poured forth streams of eloquence and enraptured us are silent, and that countenance upon which beamed, intelligence and wisdom, urbanity and generosity, has lost its teeling. The wife has lost a kind and doting husband, the children an affectionate and loving parent, the State a noble Executive, the people a kind hearted and noble friend.
But he is gone. His body has been borne to the cold and silent grave by his countrymen, and now reposes in solemn grandeur upon the banks of our own Ohio, whose waters, taking their rise in Pennsylvania and Virginia, mingle and intermix, and are dashed together over the falls of the Ohio, near where his bones now rest in quiet and repose. So may the people of that country which he so loved, mingle and commingle together, until time shall be no more.
And now, when his form has passed from our sight-when his body has been buried beneath the cold clods of the earth, and the dark and silent grave has received it-let us honor his memory and his services. Cut off in the zenith of his fame and glory, it is a warning to us all; and when the grass shall grow green over his grave-tall and rank and high-and be swayed to and fro by the night winds and breezes of heaven; when the nightingale shall pour forth her plaintive song near his last resting place-let us do his memory justice, and preserve his example in our hearts, so that when we are called from labor to refreshment, we may be ready to lay off these mortal habiliments and be raised and exalted to the home of the blest.
Mr. STOTSENBURG said:
MR. SPEAKER: Coming as I do from the city and county which was once the loved home of Ashbel P. Willard, and from the banks of the beautiful river where his ashes now repose, I can not refrain from adding a few words to the expressions of sympathy and regard which have been enunciated by the gentleman who preceded me. It is, indeed, eminently proper that this House should give its unanimous assent to the resolutions of condolence which have just been presented.
At a time, sir, when the State of Indiana was convulsed with the strife of politicians, and when men were grasping after worldly honors and emoluments, Ashbel P. Willard, the Governor of the proud Commonwealth of Indiana, was stricken down by the Destroying Angel. At any time such a calamity would have been greatly deplored and widely felt; but how striking and peculiarly impressive did the circumstances make it. The people of Indiana, casting aside all party differences, and forgetting the excitement of popular strife, with one heart and one voice unite in paying the last tribute of respect to their departed and honored Chief. Imitating their example, let us, the representatives of the people, turn aside for a moment from the pressing cares and anxieties of State and National affairs, and render our homage to the memory of him who was so lately the chosen leader of our State.
It was never my fortune to meet Governor Willard on any public arena; to notice the grasp of his mind or the powers of his great intellect. I knew him rather as a private citizen and as a friend. In all my intercourse with him I found him to be the soul of honor, kind, faithful and generous to a fault. His public acts and political career are known to all, and the record of his life has bee given to the world by abler and wiser men. As for his name and deeds are they not enrolled in your capitol?
How opportune was his death! Patriotic always, and with a heart throbbing with love for the union of the States, Providence vouchsafed to take him from us ere the black storm of civil war threatened to burst in awful desolation over our beloved America. He will never see the troops of a sister State marching with hostile ban page: 24[View Page 24]ners against brethren and friends, and he has been spared the pain of witnessing the bitter strife that is now precipitating us into a fratricidal war.
"Felix non solum claritate vita sed etiam opportunitate mortis."
The resolutions were adopted unanimously, and accordingly the House adjourned till tomorrow morning, 9 o'clock.
