Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1886 — Spooner’s Eulogy on Hendricks. [ARTICLE]

Spooner’s Eulogy on Hendricks.

Senator Spooner, of Wisconsin, delivered the following eulogy on the death of Thomas A. Hendricks in the U ited States Senate on the 26th of January last: “I do not effect to believe that I can worthily add to the eloquent and impressive eulogies which have been pronounced in the hearing of the Senat , but I desire nevertheless to speak a word of tribute to the memory of Mr. Hendricks. On the day he became Vice-President I came a strang r into the Senate, an- as I stood before him to take from his lips the oath of office he gave to me, as a native of Indiana and the son of one who in years long gone he had known in professional life, a warm and friendly greeting, and later, during the executive session, he supplemented that greeting by courtesy so considerate and kindly that I have felt in his death something of the sense of personal loss.

The occasion on which I remember last to have seen him in the discharge of his official duty in this chamber I shall never forget.— Standing in his place there with ill-conc aled emotion, and in tones which were low and trembling, he invited our attention to a dispatch just received, and there came to u ; from the secretary’s desk the words (happily then not quite true),‘Gen. Grant is dying,’ which hushed every sound here, bowed every head, and made the Senate in its sorrow that afternoon a representative body of all the people. How little we thought that befoie the autumn should have come and gene the familiar face then before us would fade forever from the sight of men. The appropriate details of Mr. Hendricks’ life, public, professional, and private have been eloquently traced by the Senator from this State, his personal and political friend.

Mr. Hendricks belonged to a school in politics to which the associations and convictions ol my life lisj-ve brought me int bitter hostility, and of course I cannot speak in approval of his attitude upon the great questions of the past, upon which the people of the country divided on party and sectional lines. To one or two phases of his career and belief I may, however, properly advert. He was a man of strong convictions, and he had little respect for these who were otherwise. He was in no sense or way a trimmer in politi s, although the contrary has been asserted of him. No public man ever lived to whom the favor and the approval of the masses were sweeter than they were’to Mr. Hendricks. F w public men ever lived whose course evoked bitterer eriticism from his opponents than did his at times.— The fact that he preferred to stem the tide of popular sentiment rather than to walk the easy, open way to popuiar favor, is at least conclusive of the strength of his convictions. It had not long before his death become fashionable in some quarters to speak of him as a “spoilsman.” If by this was meant that he desired the bestowal of office as a mere reward for party service upon unfit men, or in violation of existing law, I believe from conversation with him on the subject, that the accusation was utterly groundless. Mr. Hendricks was heart and soul a Democrat. He thoroughly believed in his party and in its principles. Indeed, I think if he might give direction to our words to-day he would bid us say of him that he was a partisan Democrat. He rightly thought that politics should be a matter of conviction, and that every man of firm political faith ow.M it to himself and to the country to be a partisan, in this, at least, that he should labor earnestly, and in all fit ways best suited to his mental make-up and his surroundings, to promote the success of the principles in which

he believed. To him no political partisanship, honorable in its methods, was offensive. He fully realized the value of organization. He knew that no great charity even could be administered without it, and that the command laid upon the apostles: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,” can not be efficiently obeyed without organized efforts and partisan service. He recognized the plain necessity for party organization, and in the party he saw only the instrumentality through which, and through which alone, might be wrought out the triumph of his principles. In active, faithful, honorable party service he saw, therefore, devotion to principle, not mere lust for office. He be'ieved that the party clothed by the popular will with the responsibility of administration should everywhere intrust the execution of its policies to those who were in political sympathy with it, and who had at heart its continued and completest success. He believed that those of the ruling party who had done the most and sacrificed the most in honorable, active party effort, should, if fit for public duty, be by that party, everywhere first called to public service. Steadfastness in faith he thought reasonably entitled to the honor of such recognition. He saw it thus in law, in medicine, in science, in business, in education, in every other department of mental and physical effort, and he thought he could not embrace a new philosophy which in politics alone denied it a place. He had a tender feeling in his heart for the men who for twentyfour years, in sunshine and in storm, had led his party again and ag-in to certain defeat, who had kept alive its organization in every state and county and town, and who had, by unwavering allegiance and effort, made possible its ultimate sucoess, and he should not brook with any degree of patience, the suggestion, in the hour of his partv’s triumph, that such men sho’d be reproachfully termed “politicians” and denied recognition lest some political aesthete should say, “it is a reward for party srrvice.” The imputation that he was a “spoilsman” rather angered than grieved him, for he knew that it came from those who had either been of a hostile camp, or, if of his own, had been wont to linger in the shade and slumber while he and the “boys,” as he loved sometimes to call tee party workers, had borne the heat, and dust, and burden of the battle. Spoilsman or not, he went down to his grave loved, trusted, and mourned by his party, and I dare to believe that the element of party fealty which brought to him this reproach will not cause his memory to suffer with the great mass of his opponents. The private life of Mr. Hendricks was stainless, and the record of his public service was without a ve. al blot. In the fierce heat of party warfare in which he was a leader, in the bitter condemnation which at times his course invited, no man has ever dared to couple with the name of Hendricks the suspicion of corruption. As a public officer he was faithful to every detail of duty. He took great pride in his administration of the general many years ago, and frequently referred to it. He brought to the discharge of that duty peculiar fitness, and ordained rules and methods of procedure there to the wisdom of which each year since intervening has brought r graHfying vindication. To the ability and industry and attentiveness with which he discharged the senatorial duty the records of the Senate bear permanent and abundant testimony. As a lawyer he won, deserved, and sustained a national reputation for learning and Professional skill. His brethren of the bar

and the judges before whom he practiced bear concurr mt testimony to his singular excellence as an advocate. As alert to discover and attack the weak points in his own, he gave hard blows and took them with unruffled temper. v vhen success crowned his efforts as a lawyer he was modest and considerate, and when the standard which he had borne went down'in defeat he was patient and serene. Whatever the fortunes of the professional contest, he never grumbled at the court or anathematized the jury. As an orator he was persuasive and attractive. There was a quality in his voice and a charm in his manner which gave him a command of his audience. He was a genial, gr ;cious kindly gentleman, who treated all who came within the circle of his influence, rich or poor, exalted or lowly, with the same rare and exquisite courtesy. To him life’s sun has set. For him life’s cares are ende '. He is, in the words borne upcm his dying breath, “free at last.” There is, Mr. President, a melancholy comfort in the manner of his death. He died as one might wish to die who was well prepared to die. In his own home, in the midst of friends and neighbors of many years, in the tender care of her who was nearest and deerest, without premonition or pain of parting, “God’s finger touched him and he slept.”