HON. J. W. RYAN.
Panegyrics on the dead it is said, are cheap; yet I feel to-day, Mr. Speaker, that I would not be doing justice to the emotions of my heart did I refrain from an open expression of the real feelings of respect and admiration I have ever entertained for the lamented subject of the resolutions. Indeed. Mr. Speaker, I can truthfully say death has done a sad and cruel work for the people of this Commonwealth in depriving them of the virtuous example, the wise counsel an genial fellowship of the late Governor James Williams. I say the people of the Commonwealth, Mr. Speaker, because the deceased was pre-eminently one of the people, and to be so classed was a source of pride to him. A man whose sterling honest and long life of purity and integrity had won for him the love and confidence not only of those whose pleasure and pride it was to know him personally, but the confidence of all, for all knew of his rugged, unswerving, unpretentious fidelity to truth and virtue; and if he ever erred it was when sympathetic and merciful side of his character was approached and too strongly besieged, because it can be said to his credit that he was in his feelings tender as a woman. He was the type of a class of men fast passing away, who will occupy in the history of this great State a place to which the youth of the future will look with fascinated eyes for examples to emulate, and for the record of virtues to follow. He grew up amid such surroundings as made him from experience well fitted to discharge the duties of the Governor of a plain, hardy people, reared chiefly amid the scenes and associations which follow first upon the settlements of the pioneer. He was a self-made man in the best sense of the term, and the results of the efforts in that direction made him the peer of any Indiana's long line distinguished Governors. Identified closely with the history of the politics of the State almost since its organization, covering periods when the zeal of the party fire burned fiercely, and political excitement ran high, and moral as well as political honesty was tried to its utmost, it can be said truthfully of him, and it gives me pleasure to say of him no breath of suspicion ever touched him, no slander even besmirched his fair and honored name. As a Magistrate, humbly performing official duties for the accommodation and benefit of his neighbors, this period of his official life is pointed to as pure and just. As a member of the Legislature for along period of time, his course in this department of public life is as spotless as the vestments of his burial. As a member of Congress his record is as clear as the sun of noonday. As the Governor of the State he lived respected and admired, and died as deeply and sincerely regretted as any citizen whom death ever called away. When a good man dies the Nation mourns, and the great, kind, sympathetic heart of Indiana will long mourn the death of James D. Williams.
