HON. J. B. KENNER.
There is an old custom in Ireland that whoever meets a funeral train he turns about and joins the procession to the last resting place of the departed. I desire,as s a mark of respect to the deceased, to add a word upon these resolutions. The vastness our country, its varied and ever-changing resources, furnish a diversity of questions, and call for the most extensive ability and care of her citizens. In 1851, when Charles Sumner, then a young man, walked down the aisle oft he United States Senate into the arena made famous by the battles page: 104[View Page 104] of the giants, Webster, Clay and Calhoun, he was met by Thomas Benton of Missouri, and grasping Sumner by the hand, he said: "Sumner, you have entered on the stage too late. Our great men have all gone; Calhoun is dead, and Clay Webster are also gone, and with them have gone the great questions arising upon the Constitution. The last of these was the National bank bill. and it is settled forever. You have nothing to do but to wrangle over sectional and unimportant local questions." Alas, how limited is human vision. The sun that to Benton seemed to be sinking into night upon the great Constitutional questions at once rose in great splendor upon greater questions, and there was no night; and Charles Sumner at once led the van, and was the grand leader in the discussion of the greatest question that ever challenged the ability and attention of the American people. The deceased was not a man that would be pronounced great as men in public life are usually gauged, but he had the ability to care fully guard and detect small extravagances which, if left uncared for, grow into corruption and great waste. He had the reputation of honesty, and in all my observation of his political life I have no cause to believe that at the behest of party he swerved from the line of, strict ntegrity, but, standing here to-day, after the earth has inclosed him, and after the bitterness and animosities of a political campaign have passed away, I indulge the hope that proper justice may be done to his memory: Mr. Speaker, the peculiar ability of Governor J. D. Williams was long and well spent in the interest of this State: the State is largely benefited thereby,and his memory is entitled to the reverence of the people. I cordially second the resolutions of the Committee.
