Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

thought in that day, to the Southern Sea, and subjugated by the blood of all the colonists, should be the sole estate of the several States which claimed them by vague titles.

This vast expanse, since divided into States and furnishing homes for thousands of prosperous American citizens, teeming with industry and rich in possessions of all kinds, owes in a large measure its present condition to the attitude of Maryland and the statesmanship of CHARLES CARROLL of Carrollton, and the nation finds a better balance in the territorial area of its States.

CHARLES CARROLL did not remain long in Congress, and, indeed, his career there does not seem to have been as brilliant in the two terms he served as his service in the State senate was. He resigned, after having been elected the third time, because, as he said:

The great deal of time which was idly wasted in frivolous debates disgusted me so much that I thought I might spend mine better than by remaining a silent hearer of such speeches as neither edified, entertained, or instructed me.

Comment upon the wisdom of his reason is, perhaps, unnecessary here.

Elected to the first Senate of the United States under the Articles of Confederation, still holding his seat in the Maryland senate, he was an active and influential-nay, a leading figure in both. The roll of almost every important committee in the Maryland senate during his long service there, and that of almost every committee of importance in the Senate of the United States, until he resigned therefrom to avoid losing his seat in the senate of his State, contains the name of CHARLES CARROLL of Carrollton.

His legislative career, sir, seems to have been distinguished rather by real, unattractive, effective work in preparing bills, reports, and public papers than in the discussion of questions on the floor. Scarcely a communication passed between the two houses of the Maryland assembly duri g his service in its senate that he did not prepare and present that communication. Fearless independence characterized his attitude toward

and vote upon public questions in both the Maryland legislature and in both Houses of Congress. The records of both contain many votes on which he stood alone, or nearly so. If he were alone it was the loneliness of righteousness-his solitude was the solitude of conscientious conviction. Secure in the confidence of his own rectitude, he did not fear to stand alone, but always, whether in reports or debate, gave reasons for his positions that inspired the confidence of his associates in his integrity and intelligence.

Devoted to human freedom, although a large owner of slaves, he introduced a bill into the United States Senate for the gradual abolishment of slavery. Honest in every instinct, he resolutely and invariably resisted the issuance by State or nation of a depreciated or depreciating paper currency, and maintained his position by some of the strongest papers ever written upon that subject.

His fertile mind grasped with equal ease all public subjects, from the bestowal of titles on public officers in the United States, which he opposed, to intricate questions of revenue, finance, and diplomacy.

His skillful management of Maryland's fight for the national capital, which resulted in its location on Maryland soil on the banks of the Potomac, stamped him as an astute leader of men and conspires with many other evidences of his greatness to make the erection of a statue to him on this spot most fitting.

Nor was great capacity for public affairs the only talent of this many-sided man. There are few great business enterprises of his time and section with the promotion and active manageIment of which his name is not connected. As one of the incorporators of and a stockholder in the Baltimore Iron Works, as an incorporator of the company then known as "The Proprietors of the Susquehanna Canal" (to make that river navigable from the border of Maryland to tidewater), as one of the commissioners of the State of Maryland to confer with those of Virginia for the opening and extension of navigation on the Potomac, which resulted in the renewal

of the Potomac Company, the parent of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and, finally, as the first of the American directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, he proved that his capabilities were not confined to abstract discussion of theories of government, but extended to the successful advancement of the material interests of the State.

Tall, straight, slender, graceful, and imposing in figure and mien, polished and courtly in manner and address, refined and cultivated in mind and spirit, pure of purpose and of lofty ideals and aspirations, he was the paragon of the gentleman, the patriot, and the statesman of his time.

Leading by ability, not pretense; persuading by reason, not sophistry; commanding by affection, not fear, he was a distinct and effective factor in all the great work of his generation until, with honors thick upon him and the consciousness of work well done, he retired from public life with the love of those who knew him best, the lofty esteem of those with whom he served his country, and the confidence, respect, and gratitude of all his fellow-citizens, and died lamented by every man who cherished honor and loved virtue.

In the heart of the older Maryland where he located the capital of the United States, at the left hand of the great Samuel Adams, who fired the citizenship of Massachusetts, as he that of Maryland, into open resistance to oppression, looking toward Allen and Garfield, of Ohio, formed from the trackless Northwest, which he saved to the nation for the construction of free States, and in company with Benton and Blair, of Missouri, who, in a later crisis led their State to adhere to the Union, as he, in the first great crisis, led his to adhere to her sister colonies to throw off the tyranny of England, he, and they, and all their associates will stand as silent and continual monuments to the immortal truth they labored and fought to establish, that the collective will of individual freemen is the truth and only source of the power and authority of all the governments of man. [Loud applause.]

ADDRESS OF MR. DALZELL., OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Mr. SPEAKER: Nearly forty years ago the President of the United States was authorized by law to extend an invitation to each State of the Union to contribute to the Chamber of the old House of Representatives, now known as Statuary Hall, the figures in imperishable marble or bronze of not exceeding two of her deceased citizens, illustrious for their historic renown or for distinguished civil or military service such as might be deemed worthy of national commemoration.

It is matter of historic interest that the author of the proposition was that distinguished son of Vermont to whom the people of this country in largest part owe their splendid Congressional Library, and who for a period of more than forty years in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, rendered to his country illustrious public service the late Senator Justin Morrill.

What he said in speaking to the passage of the bill in the House on April 19, 1864, is worthy of reproduction here at this time. With reference to the Hall of the old House, he said:

Congress is the guardian of this fine old Hall, surpassing in beauty all the rooms of this vast pile, and should protect it from desecration. Its noble columns from a quarry exhausted and incapable of reproduction— Nature formed but one,

64

And broke the die in molding."

Its democratic simplicity and grandeur of style and its wealth of association, with many earnest and eloquent chapters in the history of our country, deserve perpetuity at the hands of an American Congress. It was here that many of our most distinguished men, whose fame "the world will not willingly let die,” began or ended their career.

It appears to me eminently proper, therefore, that this House should take the initiative in setting apart with reverent affection the Hall, so charged with precious memories, to some purpose of usefulness and dignity. To what end more useful or grand, and at the same time simple and inexpensive, can we devote it than to ordain that it shall be set apart for the reception of such statuary as each State shall elect to be deserving

of this lasting commemoration? Will not all the States with generous emulation proudly respond, and thus furnish a new evidence that the Union will clasp and hold forever all its jewels-the glories of the past, civil, military, and judicial—in one hallowed spot where those who will be here to aid in carrying on the Government may daily receive fresh inspiration and new incentives.

"To scorn delights and live laborious days?" and where pilgrims from all parts of the Union, as well as from foreign lands, may come and behold a gallery filled with such American manhood as succeeding generations will delight to honor, and see also the actual form and mold of those who have inerasably fixed their names on the pages of history.

Whether the conception was original with Mr. Morrill or not, I do not know. It may be that it had been his fortune to visit St. Stephen's Hall in the new palace of Westminster and to behold on either hand "the statues of Parliamentary statesmen who rose to eminence by the eloquence and abilities they displayed in the House of Commons; " of Hampden, the apostle of liberty, in an age of royal arrogance; of Falkland, Clarendon, Selden, Somers, and Mansfield, immortal in the annals of English law; of Sir Robert Walpole, Fox, Burke, and Grattan, unsurpassed in the logical and thrilling eloquence of English speech; of the Earl of Chatham, America's friend in her time of need, and of his brilliant son, incomparable statesman even in his early manhood, and, equally with his father, dear to us in his devotion to our cause, William Pitt.

It may be that, thrilled with the emotions of his sight, he contemplated an array of American statesmen, orators, and public men who in our American capital should challenge comparison with this array of the mother country in her historic hall. However that may be, it is nevertheless true that while the actual form and mold of Justin Morrill, who has inerasably fixed his name on the pages of our history, does not appear in our Hall of Statues, it is also true that column and arch and the artistic whole bear testimony to his memory and are suggestive of his patriotic foresight.

Maryland to-day asserts her right to a place in the gallery of our heroes and presents to the nation the statues of two of her citizens illustrious for their historic renown, distinguished

S. Doc. 137

« ПредишнаНапред »