Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1905 — TRIBUTE TO MORTON. [ARTICLE]

TRIBUTE TO MORTON.

Ex-President Cleveland Eulogizes His Secretary of Agriculture. In the presence of 5,000 persons, and with elaborate ceremony, a statue of J. Sterling Morton, Secretary of Agriculture in the last Cleveland cabinet, and founder of Arbor day, was unveiled at Nebraska City, Neb. Principal of those, present at the ceremony were former President Grover Cleveland, former Vice President Adlai E. Stevenson, Gov. Mickey, Hilary A. Herbert, David R. Francis and others associated with Mr. Morton during his term of office. There were six addresses, principal of which was that of Mr. Cleveland, which was a touching eulogy of his former cabinet officer and personal friend. Mr. Cleveland said in part: This is but to testify to his lofty civic righteousness, hjs simple and sure standards of public morality, his stern insistence on official honesty, his sturdy adherence to opinions deliberately and conscientiously adopted, his generous concession to others of every result of their efforts, and his passionate desire to serve the best interests of his fellow countrymen. He believed that the same care and good faith exacted by a trust undertaken for an individual were due to the people from those who assume official responsibilities, and he r believed that waste in public expenditure w'as sin. The noxious atmosphere of governmental extravagance could not blind his eyes, nor could the ridicule of those who had learned to scoff at official economy, or the threats of those who perfidiously contrived to appropriate public funds to private gain, drive him to compromise with wrong. Thus it was that our friend's fine moral perception and his love of rectitude shed a bright and unwavering light on the path of official obligation; and thus did his clear discernment of duty lend Impressiveness to his efforts towards the highest usefulness in public office. Our friend loved nature with constancy and delight; and through nature he was led to a reverent love <jf the maker of the universe. He served the purposes of God on earth and taught Ills fellow-countrymen to realize their relationship to nature and the father of all created things, when he established the planting of trees as a custom of general observance among our people. No beautiful crest or elaborate coat of arms would so well illustrate his grand simplicity or typify the spirit in which this project had its rise and completion as its symbolization by n growing tree surmounting the homely legend, ‘Plant trees.’ None of us should go from this place untouched by the lesson which this statue teaches. Here we should learn that character, uncorrupted by the contagion of Ignoble things and unweakened by the corrosion of sordidness and money mndness. Is the corner stone of every truly useful life and of every genuinely noble achievement. We have fallen upon days when our people are more than ever turning awav from their old faith In the saving grace of character and flocking to the worship of money making Idols. Daily and hourly, in the light of investigation and exposure, characterless lives are seen In appalling numbers, without chart or compass, crowded upon the rocks and shouls of faithlessness and breach of trust. How ill have these wrecked lives exchanged the safe course and the harbor of honor and usefulness which diameter and rectitude point out for a wild and headlong rush over unknown seas In a consuming search for pelf. If our people ever return again to their trust In character ns a steadying force in our restless entenirlse and Immense material growth It will be when they take to heart the full significance* of such a commemoration as this. We memorialize a man who not only earned the lasting honor of his countrymen, but whose life, in all things worthy of high endeavor, was abundantly successful.