But sacred, high, eternal noon.”
A more emphatic eulogy than pen could write, or tongue express, was furnished by the immense concourse that attended his funeral. The patriarchs and the youth of the country came to testify their appreciation of his worth. A few days after his death, a large meeting of citizens, irrespective of party, convened in the court house at Uniontown, to give expression to their sorrow for his death. Hon. Nathaniel Ewing presided. Hon. Daniel Sturgeon, then a United States Senator, and Zalmon Ludington, esq., were the vice presidents, and Hon. R. P. Flenniken and John B. Krepps, esq., secretaries. On motion of Hon. James Veech, a committee was appointed to formulate the feeling of the meeting, which reported through its distinguished chairman (Mr. Veech) the following preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:
“When a valuable citizen dies, it is meet that the community of which he was a member, mourn his loss. A public expression of their sorrow at such an event, is due as some solace to the grief of the bereaved family and friends, and as an incentive to others to earn for their death the same distinction. In the death of William Searight, this community has lost such a citizen. Such an event has called this public meeting, into which enter no schemes of political promotion, no partisan purposes of empty eulogy. Against all this, death has shut the door. While yet the tear hangs on the cheek of his stricken family, and the tidings of death are unread by many of his friends, we, his fellow citizens, neighbors, friends, of all parties, have assembled to speak to those who knew and loved him best, and to those who knew him not, the words of sorrow and truth, in sincerity and soberness. Therefore, as the sense of this meeting:
Resolved, That in the death of William Searight, Fayette county and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have lost one of their best and most useful citizens. The people at large may not realize their loss, but the community in which he lived, over whose comforts and interests were diffused the influence of his liberality and enterprise, feel it, while his friends of all classes, parties and professions, to whom he clung, and who clung to him, mourn it.
Resolved, While we would withhold our steps from the sanctuary of domestic grief, we may be allowed to express to the afflicted widow and children of the deceased, our unfeigned sorrow and sympathy in their great bereavement, and to tender them our assurance that while to their hearts the memory of the husband and father will ever be cherished, in ours will be kept the liveliest recollections of his virtues as a citizen and a friend.
Resolved, That among the elements that must enter into every truthful estimate of the character of William Searight, are a warm amenity of manner, combined with great dignity of deportment, which were not the less attractive by their plainness and lack of ostentation, elevated feelings more pure than passionless, high purposes with untiring energy in their accomplishment, an ennobling sense of honor and individual independence, which kept him always true to himself and to his engagements, unfaltering fidelity to his friends, a liberality which heeded no restraint, but means and merit; great promptness and fearlessness in the discharge of what he believed to be a duty, private or public, guided by a rigid integrity which stood all tests and scouted all temptations; honesty and truthfulness in word and deed, which no seductions could weaken, nor assaults overthrow, in all respects the architect of his own fortune and fame. These with the minor virtues in full proportion, are some of the outlines of character which stamped the man whose death we mourn, as one much above the ordinary level of his race.
Resolved, That while we have here nothing to do or say as to the loss sustained by the political party to which he belonged, and whose candidate he was for an office of great honor and responsibility, we may be allowed to say that had he lived and been successful, with a heart so rigidly set as was his, with feelings so high and integrity so firm, and withal an amount of practical intelligence so ample as he possessed, his election could have been regretted by no citizen who knew him and who placed the public interests beyond selfish ends and party success. As a politician we knew him to hold to his principles and party predilections with a tenacious grasp, yet he was ever courteous and liberal in his intercourse with political opponents.
Resolved, That in the life and character of William Searight we see a most instructive and encouraging example. Starting the struggle of life with an humble business, poor and unbefriended, with an honest aim and a true heart, with high purposes and unflagging industry, he gained friends and means, which never forsook him. He thus won for himself and family ample wealth and attained a position among his fellow men which those who have had the best advantages our country affords might well envy. That wealth and that position he used with a just liberality and influence for the benefit of all around and dependent upon him. Though dead he yet speaketh to every man in humble business: “Go thou and do likewise, and such shall be thy reward in life and in death.”
