IN MEMORY OF GOVERNOR WILLARD.
Mr. SLACK submitted the following:
Resolved, That the Senate 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 the Senate will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days, as a testimony of the profound respect the Senate entertains for the memory of the deceased.
Resolved, That the proceedings of the Senate in relation to the death of Governor Willard be communicated to the family of the deceased by the Secretary.
Resolved, As a further mark of respect for the memory of the deceased, that the Senate do now adjourn.
Mr. SLACK. Mr, President: In presenting these resolutions to the Senate, I do not propose to deliver a eulogy upon the life, character and public services of our late distinguished Executive, but I cannot resist this opportunity of testifying to his many virtues, and his most generous impulses.
In early youth he was thrown upon his own resources; and when we view the fact that he began life in a remote land, far from his native home, amidst entire strangers, with no other capital than that intellect which a genorous Maker had given him, and with a fixed and unalterable determination to do his duty, and view the high and lofty position to which he attained, the commanding influence he ex page: 26[View Page 26]erted in the councils of his country, we cannot do otherwise than cherish his memory, and view with respect and admiration the chaplets which encircled his brow.
As old age creeps upon the distinguished and admired statesman, whose many acts of self-sacrificing patriotism have endeared him in the hearts and affections of his countrymen, we are naturally taught, as time rolls round, that he must soon part from us, and leave for a higher and more happy sphere; then the keen pang of separation is greatly mellowed by the reflection that the change is what we anticipated, and we are prepared for the loss. But, Mr. President, when inexorable death knocks at our doors, and obtains admission, and selects for its victim one so young, one so gifted, one so distinguished, one who had so string a hold upon the affections of a generous people, and one too, whose distinction had not yet reached its meridian height, with what redoubled force does the blow come, how much keener the pang, how much more crushing the affliction.
But, Mr. President, the immutable fiat was issued, and we must bow to the will of Him "who doeth all things well."
To the family and friends of our lamented Chief Executive, I may be permitted to express the consoling thought that those who knew him best, appreciated him most; his kind and generous nature knew no harbor for jealousy, envy or malice, and may we not, with propriety, entertain the thought that their and our loss is his gain?
Mr. WAGNER. Mr. President-I also wish to second the resolutions of the Senator from Huntington. It has been my fortune during the past two years, as President of the State Board of Agriculture, to have much to do with the lamented Governor. I have always found him one of the kindest of gentlemen; always ready and willing to advance the interests of the State, and particularly in the prosecution of the geological survey of the State, affording every facility at his command for that purpose. Whatever may be said of Governor Willard as a partisan, all will agree that he was a warm-hearted man, always ready and willing to oblige a friend, even to his own inconvenience; and I most heartily join in this tribute of respect to our late Governor.
Mr. RAY said: Mr. President-I can not feel excused from adding my tribute to this testimonial of the Senate to the late Governor Willard, although I am not prepared with those biographical data which would render a review of the life and services of the deceased, of interest to the Senate. It is in vain, Mr. President, to seek by resolutions of the Senate to supply the void created in the councils of the State, or in the family circle by his death. His career was brilliant, and he left the stage of action young-he was born with great talent, and grasped the laurel of success early in life-fortune attended his efforts, and his political life was uninterrupted by any of those reverses which too often attend political aspirations. Many of the Senators knew him-earlier and longer than I, and are better prepared to speak of his acts and qualities than I am; but I may be permitted to say of the deceased, that as a lawyer and advocate great excellence attended his early efforts-establishing for himself an enviable reputation for ingenuity, eloquence and fidelity to clients. In the Forum of debate, whether the subject was law, or politics, whether it required logic, pathos or invective, he came up to the highest standard of popular demand. Asa politician, he was a partisan in the most emphatic and exalted sense of that term-he was,however,liberal and courteous to political adversaries in official and social intercourse, while in political debate invective was his ready weapon, and mercy was reserved for his friends. As a political speaker his forte was to concentrate and generalize the current, floating thoughts and sentiments of the people, which in time rendered him the idol of his party in Indiana, and commanded for him a National reputation for eloquence, tact and statesmanship.
As a political leader his characteristic traits were intrepidity of soul, native sagacity, iron will and alacrity in serving his cause-he readily seized and tenaciously maintained the strong positions of a controversy, and with dexterity and power assailed the weak ones. As Governor, in the discharge of his official duty he was the constant victim of the struggling demands of stern duty on the one hand, and appeals to the sympathies of a lenient heart on the other. A good judge of men and measures, he rarely made a political mistake, and when attacked, was always equal to the occasion.
With a tongue of inspiration, and a heart full of patriotism and the love of his race, no orator of this country could so electrify the masses of the people by the flashes and torrents of a sweeping eloquence ; and in times of high political excitement his gallant bearing and clarion tones never left it doubtful where his party stood. As a friend he was devoted and unselfish, frank and warm in his attachments, his bosom never harbored envy, jealousy, duplicity or revenge. He commenced his career in the valley of humble life-poor, but proud and ambitious, he leaped from crag to crag, from chasm to chasm, scaled hill after hill, until he reached the mountain top. He never forgot the path that he traveled, nor the friends that smiled on his early struggles. But death, that sets his seal alike on individuals and nations, upon kingdoms and crowns, upon the creations of man and the forms of nature, laid his cold hands upon him, and he was clay. He has passed from this living generation of men, and from the perilous crisis that threatens the destruction of the Union he loved so well.
Mr. ANTHONY. Mr. President, I feel that there is great propriety in my saying something responsive to the resolution just offered.
My early and intimate aquaintance with Governor Willard, as he moved in the social and political relations of life, enables me to add my tribute, in proof of the many qualities ot head and heart, which so endeared him to his numerous friends.
When yet a school boy, I well remember the hour he first placed his foot upon Indiana page: 27[View Page 27] soil, in the place of my residence, in the district I now have the honor to represent upon this floor. He was then a young and unpretending man, poor and friendless, wandering from his native hearth-stone in search of both health and fortune.
Bold and self-reliant, and with a will which nothing could intimidate, he settled in the midst of men great in wealth, eminent in the profession of which he was a member, and prominent and learned in the politics of the State and nation, but in the brilliant charge of his genius, sustained by his earnest and persistent energy, wealth lost its precedence, learning its prestige, and political eminence its distinction, and A. P. Willard rapidly seized upon social and professional prominence, and in politics became the idol and leader of his party.
In the year 1850, Mr. Willard was elected by an unprecedented majority, to represent in the other end of this Capitol the same county I represent here, and as such representative he was able and industrious, and by his power and excellence as a forensic debater, out-ranked his cotemporaries, and returned to his home with his record endorsed by his party friends. From that time forward, he did not tarry a moment in the race for political distinction; he swept past his plodding rivals one by one, until his fame as a politician culminated in the victory he won in the able and hard-fought contest of 1856. which victory placed him at the early age of thirty-five in the position of Chief Executive of the State of Indiana, the office he held at the time of his death. As a partizan, Governor Willard was uncompromising; he never asked nor gave a point, but as a man he was noble, frank and generous ; in the relations of friendship he was never charged with infidelity, and in his domestic ties exhibited the noblest traits of the human race.
Mr. LINE: Before putting these resolutions to a vote of the Senate, I will say that I only knew Gov. Willard as a politician. These resolutions have been presented unexpectedly to those Senators who knew Governor Willard, and I will take this occasion to move that those Senators who have addressed us on the subject, be requested to write out their remarks, that they may be published.
Mr. RAY and Mr. SHIELDS seconded the resolutions, each in a short eulogy upon the life and character of the deceased.
Mr. DEHART sends the following to the Reporter's desk:
Mr. President: Although I never enjoyed the acquaintance of our deceased Governor, yet his name and actions as a citizen, orator and politician, are familiar. Zealous as a leader, eloquent as an orator, kind, warm and generous as a friend, he has left a monument in the affections of the people of Indiana.
The resolutions were adopted unanimously.
The Senate adjourned till Monday morning
