Takes the ears that are hoary,
But the voice of the weeper
Wails manhood in glory.”
He had so many noble qualities and won so many strong friends we can very easily drop the veil of charity over his faults, whatever they may have been. Had he been faultless he could not have been human. It is said a death-bed is a detector of human hearts. If so, it is pleasing to know that in his expiring moments, lying with no more friendly touch than the breast of mother earth, his few words were not concerning his own death tortures, but were expressions of solicitude for his wife and two sweet daughters whom he loved so dearly. Could you, sirs, have seen the hundreds of compressed lips and wet eyes which spoke in an eloquence and intensity of grief words could not be framed to utter when his remains passed through the City of Little Rock. You would have exclaimed, “Behold, how they loved him,” and certainly he who has thus won the love of man must have a strong claim on the mercy of God.
But ceremonies in honor of the dead can only be beneficial in so far as they affect the actions of the living. Could the spirit of James Hinds speak to us to-day it would not be with an effort to induce fulsome eulogies upon those who are beyond mortal aid, but from the portals of the dead he would say protect the living.
The nation has the power to obey such a request, and when the people arose in their might and majesty on the 3d day of November, it was to declare in unmistakable terms their heartfelt approbation of the promise of him whom they felt had the power to execute the promise that freedom and protection should be guarantied as well on the warm gulf coast as on the cold lake shores. That was the key-note of the entire canvass. The mighty leader of the loyal hosts was a popular man, remarkably, deservedly popular for his glorious services to his country. But he was most popular from the full confidence that the people had in him that he had the will and the power to speak into peace and tranquility the angry waves of prejudice and passion that were raging in the South, crimsoned with human gore. It was the embodiment of that will and power for which the nation in such overwhelming numbers spoke its preference, and the present is an auspicious moment to inaugurate obedience to the people’s behests. Many good men who have always wanted peace, but could not tear themselves loose from political thraldom in the heat of political excitement, now express their earnest, anxious longing for protection of life and the restoration of peace to the country.
The very leaders of the political assassinations themselves seem now to be partially revolting from the horrible atrocities of the execution of their own schemes and orders, which feeling, added to the wholesome belief they have that the authorities will be sustained, lives will be protected, and peace will be maintained, is making even them for the time converts to the great loyal heart’s desire for restoration of peace and protection.
It is not indemnification for the past that is asked, it is only security for the future. The murdered cannot be brought to life, but the murderers can be made to spare the living. Honeyed words alone cannot accomplish this, but men must be made to feel that protection will prove more profitable than assassination; kind words may do the work if it is positively known that the nation supports the State authorities, so that there is a reserve of sterner power which can be brought to the support of kindness on any instant of emergency. Let party lines be obliterated in this desire for the maintainance of peace and protection. Let partisans now be absorbed in patriots, so that all men, Republicans and Democrats alike, will feel an inspiration of such God-given patriotism as found utterance from the steps of this building when nearly four years ago he who spake as one with less in him of earth than heaven, said: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace.” His words fell with magic effect, because, while he extended the olive-branch with the left, in his right hand he wielded the great American Army, the most potential power on the face of the earth. The olive-branch should still be extended, but it will only be to loose the hand that offers it unless it is demonstrated that the strong arm of power will be used whenever necessary to overwhelm the crushing tyranny of lawlessness and oppression.
Ages gone the great Omnipotent who snatched time from eternity and spoke system from chaos, said “Let there be light,” and the sacred chronicler informs us “there was light.” To-day the mighty people who have saved the nation’s life in the sanguinary struggle and declared freedom in the kingdom of slavery, have said “let us have peace.” Shall not the historian who records the doings of this year be allowed to say “there was peace!”
Oh, shall it not be so! The spirit of James Hinds unites with hundreds (you know not how many) of other spirits of treacherously murdered men in beseechingly asking the question. Their suffering widows and orphans, without even the little comforting crumb of a Government pension, are weepingly asking the question. The hundreds of thousands of maimed and crippled loyal men who fought and suffered beside comrades who, fighting, fell to establish peace and protection, are earnestly asking the question. Thirty-eight million inhabitants in these United States whose prosperity can only be commensurate with the maintenance of peace and protection, all join in prayerfully asking the question. The countless lovers of freedom throughout the whole world with one accord are looking to this nation and anxiously asking the question. And, sirs, remember the Representatives of the people and the Government must be responsible for the answer.