Je
EEDA EEL Era
germs 2.00 A Year,in Advance
Bellefonte, Pa., Oct. 12, 1894.
eee eee
P. GRAY MEEK, - - -
EpiTor
STATE DEMOCRATIC TICKET.
For Governor,
WILLIAM M. SINGERLY,
of Philadelphia.
For Lieutenant Governor,
JOHN S. RILLING,
of Erie.
For Auditor General,
DAVID F. MAGEE,
of Lancaster.
For Secretary of Internal Affairs,
WALTER W. GREENLAND,
of Clarion county.
For Congressman-at-Large,
THOS. COLLINS,
of Centre county.
HENRY MEYER,
of Allegheny county.
es
—
DEMOCRATIC COUNTY TICKET.
ns
For Congress—AARON WILLIAMS,
For State Senator—MATT. SAVAGE.
For President Judge—CALVIN M. BOWER,
; JAMES SCHOFIELD,
For Legislators, { ROBERT M. FOSTER.
For Jury Commissioner—JOSEPH J. HOY.
For Associate Judge—THOM AS F. RILEY.
The Trend of the Currency Question.
The Philadelphia Evening Telegrap h
is quite certain that the trend of Demo-
cratic sentiment is toward free silver
coinage, it having been brought to this
conclusion by the free silver plank in
the Ohio Democratic State platform,
-and consequently it has not the least
doubt that free silver coinage will be
one of the Democratic issues in 1896.
How would it do toemploy the Tele-
graph’s method of reasoning to show
the trend of Republican sentiment on
the subject of the currency ? The Re-
publicans of Pennsylvania have the
rankest kind of an inflation plank in
their platform, and therefore it is alto-
gether probable that the wild cat pro-
ject of furnishing the country with a
$40 per capita currency will be one of
the Republican issues in 1896. The
Telegraph's logic leads to this conclu.
sion.
The fact is that what may be eaid
by State platforms at this time cannot
be considered as indicative of what will
be the sentiment of the two parties in
regard to the currency at the next
presidential election. Much will de-
pend upon how the monetary situation
will shape itself between now and
then. However, we believe that the
Democratic party will be found sup-
porting a policy in regard to silver
that will restore the relation between
the monetary metals which the consti-
tution intended they should maintain
toward each other as constituent ele-
ments in the currency of the country.
Judging from the wild expression of
the Pennsylvania State platform on
the money question, the Lord only
knows what the Republicans, two years
hence, will declare themselves to be mn
favor of on the subject of the currency.
What Do They Expect to Gain ?
What are these Republican writers
and speakers making all this hulla-
baloo about, anyhow ? There is not
one of them, with the exception of
McKINLEY, that has the face to. ask
for the re-enactment of the McKINLEY
tariff, a fiscal measure that failed to
raise revenue enough to keep the
treasury from ‘becoming bankrupt.
There is not one of them that does not
know that the present tariff cannot be
disturbed for at least three years yet.
What then do they expect to make
out of all this political agitation? Do
they believe that the people will be
fools enough to keep their business
tied up in order to sustain the charge
of the calamity howler that the Demo-
cratic tariff is ruinous ? Even the Re-
publican manufacturer, who may be-
lieve it is to his interest to support Mc-
KinLevism will find that it does not
pay to suspend his work for political
effect, and will fall in with the re-
newed current of industrial activity.
The clamor of the howler is but an
empty sound that can have no practic-
al effect. The only thing it can do is
to temporarily interfere with business.
——
Democratic Meetings, Attend Them.
County chairman Ellis L. Orvis
has arranged to have meetings held
at the following places on the dates giv-
en. Hon. James Schofield, Ira C.
Mitchell Esq. and others will speak.
Oct, 15—Fairview school house, Boggs Twp.
. Oct. 16.—School House Crossing, Wallace
Run, Boggs Twp.
Oct. 17—Mann’s School House, Curtin Twp.
Oct.18—Knox’s school house, Benner twp.
and Pine Hall, Ferguson Twp.
Oct. 19—Ripka, schoo! house in Gregg, and
Shingletown, in Harris.
Oct. 20—Jacksonville,in Marion, and Loop, in
8. Potter.
All Democrats in the districts in
which the meetings are to be held should
turn out.
an to
i i
Tee)
ie
ANDREW GREGG CURTIN
THE GREAT WAR GOVERNOR
OF PENNSYLVANTAZIS DEAD.
Andrew G. Curtin Expires at His Home in This
Place Early Sunday Morning.
The Life of a Great Man is Over—Thousands Mourn at His
Tomb—A Town is Sad at the Loss of a Man Who Brought
it Honor.—Time Can Never
Central Figure Among Bellefonte’s Many Honored Resi-
dents.
Unable to withstand the shock which
that fall on the ice in front of his own
home the 27th day of last February gave
him Andrew Gregg Curtin, the most
historic character of his country living,
has been borne from the admiration of
an honoring people to the sepulchre of
death.
His death occurred at his home at &
o'clock last Sunday morning. He had
been seriously ill only four cays, having
been seen in apparently good health on
the porch as late as Monday of last week.
The following Wednesday he was seized
with a chill and a general collapse of
the nervous system followed with symp-
toms of uraemia. Growing worse on
Thursday, he continued to sink until
Saturday, when he became delirious and
the use of opiates were resorted to to
calm him. The case from the beginning
was looked upon asa hopeless one by
the doctors Fairlamb, Dobbins and Har-
ris, who were constantly in attendance,
and their fears proved not ili grounded,
for by Saturday evening it was evident
that ha could last but a few hours long-
er. Hisadvanced age of 79 years blast-
ed all hope of a rally and his life ebbed
away ere the sun of the Sabbath morn
had wakened the slumberers of his na-
tive town.
All the members of his family, who
are living, were at bis bedside when
he died. They are his widow,
Katharine Wilson Curtin; W. W.
Curtin, of Philadelphia; Mary w.,
wife of Dr. George F. Harris;
Marcy T., widow of Captain K. R.
Breese, United States navy, and Kate
W., wife of M. D. Burnet, of Syracuse,
N.Y. One daughter, Jennie, who was
Mrs. Wm. H. Sage, of Ithica, N. Y.
died last fall and it was out of respect to
her memory that the golden anniver-
sary of her father and mother’s wedding
was so quietly celebrated on the 29th of
May.
ITS IMPRESSION ON THE TOWN.
The news of his death, though not un-
expected, caused a profound sorrow in
the town, business was partially suspend-
ed and remained so until after the fun-
eral. Immediately preparations were
begun for an imposing burial of such an
honored resident. The burgess issued a
proclamation lamenting the loss to the
town and all of the business houses were
draped in emblems of mourning. Many
messages of condolence were received by
the family and when it became known
throughout the State th~ Governor issu-
ed the following proclamation :
PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR.
In the name and by the authority of the Com-
monwealth of Pennsylvania: Executive De
partment.
1t is with profound sorrow that I announce
to the citizens of this Commonwealth the
death of Andrew Gregg Curtin, which occurred
at his home in Bellefonte, at5 o'clock, a. m.,
this seventh day of October, A. D., 1894. His
| ed in the long line of illustrious men.
death leaves surviving but a single one of my
predecessors in the Executive office of Penn-
sylvania. He was one of the most distinon she
ying
Fill His Place—He Stood the
at the age of four score years, until lately his
eye was not dim nor his natural force abated,
and few, if any, of the citizens of our State
ever maintained so lasting a hold upon the
affections of its people. Native of Pennsyl-
vania, he sprang from a race of hardy men
who left their impress upon its citizenship
and who had been alike conspicuous in pub-
lic affairs and in the development of the ma-
terial interests of the Commonwealth. For
more than half a century he was a member of
the learned profession of the law, and though
at times his towering prominence in politics
overshadowed his fame as an advocate, his
legal training, during his entire public career,
was of inestimable advan:iage to himself and
benefit to the State.
Conspicuous as the possible candidate of
his party for Governor as early as 1854, he was
appointed Secretary of State to Governor Pol-
loek, and with the exercise of the ordinary
duties of that office he combined the direc-
tion and management of the public school
system of the State, then in a somewhat for-
mative condition, and which gained great im-
pulse towards its future usefulness from his
wise counsel, He was a most potent factor in
determining the political conditions of the
country during the period of the beginning
and ing of the war for the Union, an
for six years he discharged the duties of the
office of Governor, to which he had been elect-
ed, and re-elected, in a manner that won for
him, above all his contemporaries, the title of
“The War Governor.” He was gotspion ously
helpful to the Federal Government and Presi-
dent Lincoln, and while always jealous of the
honor and regardful of the dignity of his own
Commonwealth, he aided largely to make the
part of Pennsylvania in the great struggle
second to that of no other State in the Union.
He was active in raising and equipping troops,
and the splendid organization of the Pennsyl-
vania Reserves was owing to his exertions.
He was indefatigable in his ministrations for
the comfort of Pennsylvania's soldiers in the
field, on the march, in” the camp or in the hos-
pital. No personal service in this behalf was
too exacting for him to render, and sgain and
again his presence inspired our soldiery, and
his sympathy cheered the wives and children
of the absent, and the widows and orphans of
those who never returned. To him, above all
others, the State is indebted for the establish-
ment of the Soldiers’ Orphans’ Schools, and
the country owes to him the splendid example
of Pennsylvania's care for the children of her
soldier dead.
He and his native State were honored by his
appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary to
one of the great powers of Europe, and he was
eminently successful in establishing and
maintaining the most cordial relations of Rus-
sia’s great empire with our Republic. He eat
an honored member in the Constitutional Con-
vention which framed our present funda-
mental law. He represented with distinction
one ot the principal Congressional districts of
our State in the House of Representatives of
the Unitea States, and when he retired to
private life he was followed with the affection-
ate regard of the people of all parties and of
every section of the Commonwealth, of which
he had been a faithful public representative.
His presence in every popular assembly, and
especially on the occasion of military re
unions, was always the occasion for veneration
of his imposing and genial personality.
His funeral will take place at Bellefonte,
Centre County, Pa., on Wednesday, October
10,at 2 o'clock p. m. In honor of his memory,
and in recognition of his eminent public ser-
vices, I invoke for his bereaved family the
sympathy of $19 people of Pennsylvania, and
Irecommend and order that on the day of his
funeral, the flags upon the public buildings
be displayed at half staff and that the several
departments of the State Government within
Executive control, be closed upon that day.
Given under my hand and the Great Seal of
the State, at the city of Harrisburg, this
seventh day of October, in the year of our
Lord, one thousand eight hundred and ninety
four, and of the Commonwealth the one hun-
dred and nineteenth.
ROBERT E. PATTISON.
THE FUNERAL ON WEDNESDAY.
Arrangaments were began at once for
the funeral which had been set for
Wednesday afternoon at two o'clock.
The family bad consented to permit &
the Grand Army which marched at the
side of the funeral car.
The honorary pall bearers were : Gov.
Robert E. Pattison, Justice John Dean,
of Hollidaysburg, Col. A.K. McClure
and Col. Wm. B. Mann, of Philadel-
phia, Wm. C. Humes, Esq., Hon.
Thomas Collins, Gen. James A. Beaver,
Judge A. O. Furst and General D. II.
Hastings, of Bellefonte, and Sen. Wm.
A. Wallace, of Clearfield.
TheSoldier’s Orphans sixteeners : Ed.
T. Taylor, of Philadelphia; Alva S.
Grow, Lock Haven ; Edwin W. Grier,
of Harrisburg and C. Day Rudy, of
Harrisburg. Four members of the G-
A. R.; C. F. Fryberger, of Philipsburg,
Lafayette Mulholland, of Bellefonte,
Dr. Theo. Christ, of Centre Furnace and
Cap. 8. H. Bennison, of Jacksonville,
and four members of the Pennsylvania
Reserve Corps; Cap. John Taylor, of
Philadelphia, W. Hayes Grier, of Co-
lumbia, and two others, being the active
pall bearers.
A MOURNING MULTITUDE ASSEMBLED.
«Blessed be the corpse that the rain
falls on.” Wednesday morning dawn-
ed and the rain fell in torrents. Notwith-
standing the gloomy outlook crowds be-
gan to assemble on the streets. Every-
where could be seen the manifest sorrow
of Bellefonte in the black draped build-
ings. High, Allegheny, Bishop, Spring
and Howard streets, on which the
funeral cortege was to form, were sad in
their aspect. Trains arrived bearing
soldier and citizen all to pay a last sad
tribute to the dead War Governor. Col.
A. K. McClure, with a party of distin-
guished Philadelphian’s had arrived the
night before and special trains over all
railroads brought thousands to the town.
Gov. Pattison arrived from Binghamp-
ton, N.4Y., in the morning, Gen. D.
H. Hastings and his party of campaign-
ers were among those who crowded the
trains. Guardsmen, veterans and civil-
ians continued coming until the hotels
were over-crowded and the streets alive
with]people. Until noon the trains kept
adding to the number and by the time
of the funeral there was such a crowd of
vieitors from a distance as the town has
never seen before.
MEMORIAL SERVICE IN THE
HOUSE.
At 10 o'clock the Centre county bar
association held memorial services in the
CourtjHouse. He was its oldest mem-
ber. It met with this recognition.
# % *His death closes a life distin-
guished for devotion to duty in pub lic
as well as private stations.
COURT
Illustrious as a statesman, loyal as a
citizen, brilliant as a lawyer, he bas left
the impress of his character upon the
nation’s history. A nation mourns hif
departure, and the homes of her citizen
soldiery are saddened by the loss of their
staunchest friend. He more than any
one else in later years linked the past,
with its perils to our national existence,
to the present with its fruition of pros-
perity and extended influence, and for
his unselfish patriotism a generous peo-
ple will ever cherish his name in grate-
ful remembrance.”
The meeting was called to order by
Gen. Beaver, who proposed that Judge
A. O. Furst preside. He was called
upon and responded by taking the chair.
Then a motion gave the honor of eulogy
to those of the visitors who cared to pay
tribute to the memory of the departed.
Col. Wm B. Mann, of Philadelphia, 79
years old himself, was the first to respond
and his touching talk bears testimony
of his esteem for the dead.
COL. W: B. MANN’'S ADDRESS.
Mg. CARMAN :=“I am so fully conscious
of my inability to do justice to this occasion,
or even to myself, that I feel I shall be compell-
ed during the course of my remarks to make
an abrupt conclusion, and when that inability to
continue shall become painfully apparent to
you and the audience as well as myself, I am
sure you will excuse me from endeavoring to
make any further remarks. I thought I
knew Governor Curtin well; I believe that I
did, but he was a man that you could not know
too well for your love of him grew with the
meat that it fed upon. His devotion to his
friends in return was wonderful and when so
dear a friend as that has gone it is almost im-
possible for one to command himself to dis-
cuss upon that subject ; but the brain will
whirl, the conscience will suggest, and the
heart will overflow.
It was my good fortune to become very ia-
timately acquainted with Gov. Curtin in 1859.
A few cf his friends were with him assembled
at the Girard House ; it became important to
their designs and to further the nomination
of Gov. Curtin that I should be with him and
act with him in harmony. The result of their
consultation was that he came to see me upon
ap evening by himself, without any introduc-
tion, and I was in my office and as I raised my
eyes up and noticed him, his presence im.
pressed me. Tall, handsome, beautiful, he
looked like an intelligent statesman of long
time ago and turning round as I looked at him
I said to myself, how much he reminds me of
Alcibiades of Athens. He first talked of me
and then spoke of his prospects and I agreed
to go with him to visit the different dlstricts
throughout the city. His manner was 80
charming, he was irresistible and I was so
easily won that he captured me on the mom-
ent as it were and he went back to his friends
at the Girard house and said, “I have got the
gentleman.” They said, ‘Are you sure of it,
and he said, ‘Yes, I am sure of it.” He came
down a few days afterwards and we went
military service and the State at once
orderel an appropriate cortege for the
one who had been its stay in the hour of |
trial. Adj. General Greenland issued
an order to the N. G. P. calling for five
companies from the 12th Reg., 4 from
the 5th Reg., Battery B. artillerymen of
Pittsburg and the Sheridan troop of Cav-
alry from Tyrone to form the escort for
around to the various districts that were to
send delegates to the state convention in Har-
risburg to have the opportunity of knowing the
feeling that existed in these various districts.
I had some little power also at that time and
some knowledge of the affairs in the city, and
with that knowledge added to that power, we
were enabled to visit through all that large
district in a short time and to see the men
who would be elected to the state convention.
His manner won them the same as it had won
me and with a kind word to them all we suc-
ceeded in electing him the entire delegation
from Phila. to the state convention, that went
to Harrisburg. Curtin’s nomination became a
matter of history. An acquaintance thus
formed ripened into the strongest friendship.
Governor Curtin was a confiding man, he was
not of that class of men who are so over wise
and so over selfish as to refuse to consult his
friends and confide in them. He did confide
in his friends ; his confidence in some in-
stances was abused, but he still was a confid-
ing man and it is better for aman to go
through life confiding in people, than distrust.
ing every human being with whom he comes
in contact. When Curtin was elected Govern-
or and the troubles came and the clouds gath-
ered thick and dark around, it became neces-
sary that we have many ready men. We be-
came satisfied that we had elected the right
man in the right place. Indeed we had one
who was the unsuccessful candidate for Gov-
ernor when Curtin was elected who said that
we had the right man. We felt so at the time
and we felt so afterwards.
He largely aided in sending men to the
war who became a great benefit to the presi-
dent of the U.S. He often said, we must lean
upon the people, we must be conscious of a
certain support around us. He seemed the
man for the president to gain aid from, so
Curtin was anxious to say to the president, you
can lean upon us, we are backed by the loyal
states, every man woman and child through
the entire nation has a heart in this business
and we are with them and represent them
Curtin sent myself and Chas. Gilpin ,of Phila.
to go to New York and see Governor Morg an
and to impress him fully with the situation,
and to get him to aid him in that great
enterprise which he sought to bring about,—
the Altoona Conference. We saw Gov. Mor-
gan, he read Curtin’s letter and he was very
much impressed and we came away from Al-
bany satisfied fally that Gov. Morgan would
aid when required to preserve the union.
Iam conscious of the fact that to talk of Gov.
Curtin’s ability to Pennsylvanians would be
simply idle. There was ‘one peculiar charm
about the Governor that became very useful
to him and the people of the state and it was
the inspiring quality that he was able to ex-
ert. He would appealto the soldiers
and I often, at such times as those,
would see the tears streaming down their
faces and I was compelled to excuse myself
by saying we will step aside as this north
wind will make the eyes water. I remember
how he told the departing warriors that the
store houses would be open to feed the loved
ones left behind. And he kept his word.
He carried it out to the soldier and to their
orphans. Such a friend in passing
away should incite our admiration.
His memory should not be mingled with
lamentations. If ever a man deserved gar-
lands, it is he whose loss we are assembled to-
day to deplore.
1 feel that I have saidall that I can
say, but those that heard Governor
Curtin in his inspiring tones address those
who were going out to battle cannot fail to re-
member the wonderful manner in which he
inspired those around him. I think it was
Sidney said, ‘he never could read of the bat-
tle of Chevy Chase without its sounding to
him like the blast of a trumpet’; So you
could never hear of Curtin’s voice but all
around him arose as if they heard the blast of
atrumpet. This voice was wonderfully in-
spiring and it is a credit to the people of Penn-
sylvania that they were so enthused as to be
ready to part with everything to obey that
voice and such a voice addressed to sentiment
like that, was like fire to the heather, it raised
a consuming flame, so that all persons in
Pennsylvania became anxious to aid the gov-
ernment of the United States. Such a man
we meet today to deplore. Whata credit he
has been to our state, now much credit he has
been to this city here. I love Bellefonte for
his sake and I loved and honored him in his
lifetime and I shall love and honor him while
life remains to me. Bellefonte has become a sa-
cred place. When I first came here I went down
to look at the beautiful fountain, the purity of
its waters. My last visit to Bellefonte is to
take this humble and painful part to aid if I
can in paying a proper respect to the memory
of one who is not only my friend, but the ov
er of his kind and people and the great War
Governor of Pennsylvania. I trust that future
generations will cherish his good acts and I
will say that his is one of the few immo r-
tal names that were not born to die.”
Gov. Pattison, John Scott, general
solicitor for the Pennsylvania railroad
Co. and Hon. Wm. A. Wallace follow-
ed. Then the man who knows best,
and values accordingly, the character of
Andrew Gregg Curtin, rose and in that
beauteous language which he commands
Col. McClure spoke as follows:
COL. A. K. MCCLURE.
CuAtRMAN AND Frienps:—“I feel that an
occasion of this kind cannot be expressed
by stated expressions. It is one on which
the heart alone should speak ; I am not here to
pass an eulogy upon A.G. Curtin in his own
community, where every man, woman and
child have smiled at his presence. I am here to
sympathize with you by expressing that
which I feelin common with you, after I have
foralmost a round half century been his
friend and he has been mine. In the commu-
tations of friendship in Bellefonte and social
life itis a story that is well worth cherishing
For half a century almost he has never had a
conflict in which I have not been by his side 3
I have never in my humble way had one my-
gelf, in which he was not always by my side
as a friend. Before I was yet a voter, I was a
conferree in the congressional conference of
this district held at Lewistown and with all
the enthusiasm of a boy I voted and struggled
to nominate A. G. Curtin for congress, and
from that time until the present, with all the
voluminous history we have written and all
the changes we have witnessed, there has
never been a cloud upon our friendship, there
has never been a halt in the devotion of his
friendship. He is one man who in departing
from us makes me feel as if I were left almost
alone and my brief spans will also feel that
there is wanting one support, one friend, that
in all my life I have always felt was certain
and always cherished.
If there are those here who sorrow for A. G.
Curtin as his friend, let me say that there is
not & heart in this audience that sorrows more
than mine. Even in the home that is deso-
late that I have just left, there is not a heart
there more crushed than is the heart of him
who speaks to you, and the only consolation
that I could give to the sorrowing widow was
simply this, that he has but a little gone be-
fore us. I cannot trust myself, Mr. Chairman
to speak further upon this subject.
What shall I say of Governor Curtin’s
achievements? What has he done? The
story of his life is familiar to every school
boy of the Commonwealth and it is cherished
by every intelligent citizen, It is wor-
shipped by every soldier and every soldier's
child in the land and yet the chapter of his
efforts and his struggles in the great emer:
gency through which he passed, can never be
written. That story, Mr. Chairman, can never
be told ; language shall be inadequate to con-
vey to the people of this great Commonwealth
the trials through which Governor Curtin
passed when the weight of the Republic was
trembling in the balance. You have in your
midst the gallant and armless soldiers, you
have also a beloved Ex-Governor who goes
upon his crutches who lent his aid in the
great emergency in defence of this nation.
With al! their perils and all their responsi-
bilities, they could not know” how the Gov-
ernor of this Commonwealth was compelled at
times, when there seemed to be no silver lin-
ing to the cloud of despair, how he was com-
pelled to struggle and grope his way to main-
tain the government of the people. The
young men of to-day have no conception how
terrible were these perils ; they read the story
of the bravery of our soldiers who fought the
battles of the Republic and won them and
brought back their banner in triumph, but
they know not how, as I have seen, the Execu-
tive of this Commonwealth charged with re-
sponsibilities, such as never were put upon
any mortal man before, called upon to assume
for a great state and for a great nation a policy
and act upon it. I sat by his side at the out-
break of the civil war, when between his capi-
tal and the capital of the nation no loyal man
could find passage. For days and days no
train of cars passed or furnished any informa-
tion from one to the other and the highways
were guarded by those who hated the Repub-
lic and sought its overthrow. Ko counsel
could be had from the national government;
there was no means of obtaining advice on
important action that must be taken and then
charged with the responsibility of assuming
the more than responsibility of the nation its-
elf, Governor Curtin, raised to the very fullest
statutory of manhood and statesmanship and
heroism, called out 25,000 troops to serve
three years or, during the war: I sat by his
side when he gave that order, or when he de-
sired that order from General Patterson and I
saw him issue the proclamation and when
three days thereafter communication was re-
opened with Washington, he was only to be in-
formed that the troops could not be accepted,
because not needed. It was then that the leg-
iglature was called together and that is the
crowning act of all his greatness in our civil
war, the creation of the Pennsylvania Reserve
Corps. Before they had all been organized
calls were made for one regiment and,
another regiment by the national
government to go to Hancock and other
points in Maryland, and finally came the mes-
sages crowding the wires from the govern-
ment at Washington to the government at
Harrisburg to press forward the Pennsylvania
Reserves to save the National Capital. And
the morning that they arrived, the most grate-
ful music ever heard by the loyal men was
the steady step of the Pennsylvania Reserve
Corps down Pennsylvania Avenue to protect
the capital of the nation. This was but one of
many.
Our state was exposed of all other states
most to war. The policy of the country had
never been defined ; there was no records in
all history to guide it; the relation of the state
to the national government had been in dis-
putation for three quarters of a century and
never decided. There was never in the his-
tory of past governments abody or relations of
states such as these, for there was never a Re-
public like this, not even Greece, Carthage or
Rome, that we read of as representatives in
our histories, but they were simply the free
democracy, that renewal from freedom to des-
potism and they deified a man to-day and cru-
cified him to-morrow. This alone has been a
government of liberty and law as he defined
it, and if you will turn back to his inaugural
address and to his first message to the first
legislature in two brief paragraphs, you will
find there that he laid down the policy that
guided the nation through all its bloody strug-
gles and that there is not a line therein that
has not been fulfilled in blood and recorded
in history in our fundamental laws.
There are few who can tell of the high meas-
ure of the achievements of Governor Curtin
and soon those who can tell will have passed
away and joined him beyond the divide; but
there is more than enough of history to make
his name ever stand amongst the most bril-
liant of Pennsylvanians in every achieve-
ment of human greatness. I honor him not
only as a friend, I honor him not only as the
war governor, who achieved more than all
men of like position, but I honor him, Mr.
Chairm an, above all, that he has reared the
highest and most illustrations monument to
humanity that our state has ever known or that
any state has fixed in history.
One brief sentence of but few words spoken
to him by two little waifs, when on
his way to Thanksgiving services,
“Father was killed in the war,” “Father
was killed in the war.” This trembling ut-
terance came from those who asked alms on
that Thanksgiving day. Their words sank
deeply into the heart of the Executive and he
rested not until the children of the soldiers
were made the wards of the commonwealth.
It was his act and his alone ; it was he who in”
spired it, it was he who pressed it upon the leg”
islature, and there is in this assemblage to-
day one whom you will doubtless hear and who
can tell more of his fatherly affection for the
goldiers’s orphans.
There was not a sorrowing soldier through-
out the land, whether wounded or sick, who
was not ministered to by those who were sent
by the Governor of this state and where the
body of a dead soldier could be found by the
authority of the state it was brought home for
sepulchre with those who loved him, and even
to-day, after a generation has passed, we find
the beneficiaries of his humanity to the sol-
dier. When orphans of the soldiers have
grown up their children will con.
tinue to bless the dead who made them the
grandest beneficence of humanity ever shown
by any people in the history of civilized gov-
ernment. This record he has written, which
alone, independent of all his achievements of
greatness in Lis trials of War,
must stand out singly from all
like achievements of men in our land. Who
could wish a grander tribute to his memory
than to have such a story told over his grave?
Governor Certin we told you is dead ; he has
passed from amongst you. You will no longer
hear his kind voice and see his genial smile ;
that is ended forever, but he is not dead : the
tree that is outside is laden with the golden
hues that tells of the death that is coming up-
on its verdure ; they will drop and fall to the
earth and mingle with dust, but it is not dead,
there will be perpetual spring time, there
will be perpetual renewal of life, it is eternal.
God has created nothing that perishes and
here over the bier of the loved one is the place
to declare it, that God in his Supreme wisdom.
created nothing that dies. The body may
crumble to dust and go back to its natural
state and renew offices under the Jaws of God,
but the soul shall live as eternal
life. It is taught by everything around us
that men are immortal and never die, and so
of his achievements.
W hen the sun passes beyond your mountain
and sets in the far west and we call it night;
the night is come, but throughout the long