DR. BUCKINGHAM’S MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
The recent and lamented death of Governor Washburn, the President of this Association, calls vividly to mind his worth and usefulness; and it will be of interest to you to know the estimation in which he was held, and the respect felt for his character and influence in our Connecticut valley. Like Governor Strong before him, he was one of the “River-gods,” influential and commanding in all that region, though ruling more by his personal character than by any official station.
He was born at Winchendon, Mass., in 1820, and had lived all his life either near, or in, Greenfield. His father died in his infancy, leaving him in straitened circumstances, but he managed to obtain a good preparatory education at Lawrence Academy, Groton, and was graduated at Yale College in 1844. He purposed to devote himself to the Christian ministry, but the death of an uncle leaving a large manufacturing business heavily embarrassed compelled him to take the management of it, which he did with such ability and success that he not only rescued the business from insolvency, but made it the basis of his own life-long prosperity and the source of his ample benevolence.
The same qualities which made him successful in business carried him into public life and secured him equal respect and influence there. His sound judgment, fidelity to duty, scrupulous integrity and Christian principle, made him sought after for public offices and corporate trusts, as few men are. He had been a member of the State Senate and of the House of Representatives, and when we were in the midst of the Civil War, and strong and reliable men were needed in Congress, he was sent to the House of Representatives without opposition, receiving, what was almost unprecedented in politics, the unanimous vote of his district. He was kept there for ten years by successive elections, where his ability and sterling integrity soon placed him upon the important Committee of Claims, and also of Revolutionary pensions, and where he remained until he was called home to become the Governor of the Commonwealth. This office he held until he was sent to the United States Senate, to succeed Senator Sumner, and here his well-known services in the House secured him at once an honorable position which was well maintained by his valuable services and noble character.
Indeed, the best tribute to his worth was, that when he retired from public life he had received, unsolicited, every public honor which it was in the power of his constituents to bestow.
The same was also true of his appointment to the management of so many business corporations, educational institutions, trust funds, missionary associations, benevolent and Christian societies. He was the President of the First National Bank of Greenfield, a director of the Connecticut River Railroad Company, one of the Corporation of Yale College, a trustee of the Mass. Agricultural College, of Smith College, of Mr. Moody’s School at Mt. Hermon, a corporate member of the American Board of Foreign Missions, President of this American Missionary Association, a pillar in the Second Congregational Church of Greenfield, and the first President and a vigorous supporter of the Connecticut Valley Congregational Club. The wonder was, how he could take upon himself so many trusts, when, with his ideas of duty, they must each receive his careful attention and he must hold himself personally responsible for their best management.
Fidelity to his trusts was one of his most marked characteristics, and in this respect he possessed the spirit of his Lord, “who was faithful to Him that appointed him,” and as Moses was “faithful in all his house,” so our friend possessed this crowning virtue of a noble and useful life. * *
It is true that many have excelled him in particular abilities, especially in those that are most striking and brilliant, such as poetic sense and successful oratory, which are most frequently denominated genius. But these have often been combined with defects of judgment, or temper, or principle, so that their influence has been sadly marred or used for mischief. As in our civil war it was not every eloquent orator or able editor who was the best adviser or steadiest supporter of the policy that preserved the Union; but some of them would have let the nation be divided, or compromised the questions at issue, only to be reopened without hope of right settlement. But here was a man for all times and all places. In the halls of legislation, in the Governor’s chair, before a board of selectmen, arranging bounties for volunteers and for the support of their families, or among his own workmen, advising them as to what they might or might not properly do in such a crisis—he is the same wise counsellor and faithful helper everywhere, doing the work assigned to him as well as, if not better than, most poets or orators.
And when war was over, and such work no longer needed, when peace was to be restored and amicable relations cultivated between those who had been deadly foes; when business prosperity was to be brought about again and banks were to be well managed, and trust funds made secure, and the increasing wealth and enterprise of the country to be turned into benevolent and Christian channels, here he found his fields of delight, and his abilities and character shone out in new beauty and strength. Here was Governor Washburn’s real genius—the completeness and best use of all his abilities, combined with principles that directed them all to the noblest ends.
This seems to be the divine method of training men for their best work. They are placed in stations of responsibility, which they are not properly qualified to fill; but if they are conscientious and faithful, and especially where they put themselves under divine guidance and are controlled by religious motives—the most powerful of all—they become qualified for almost any station in life, and for the highest and most responsible duties.