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or a nobler ideal.
There was no sham, no glitter, no cant in Randall, but a singleness of purpose, a supremacy of intelligence, and a magnanimity of action which temptation could not influence and weakness never marked with a blot.
Happy is the nation which can stand beside the open grave of a great man without a cloud upon its pride at having had such a son. Happy the people in whose day and generation such an example of public and private virtue and of manly, life-long fidelity to every obligation has been produced.
Happy the age which has possessed a citizen of such generosity and such heroism, in friendship so genial, in integrity so complete.
And happy, above all, in the midst of their sorrow, are the friends and family, the nearest and dearest of the departed, in the consciousness that the man they loved and mourn for was not merely great and potent in the service of his country and his party, but was equally true, affectionate, gentle, sincere, and spotless in every relation of life.
It will not be forgotten that
Dana had been severely criticised for the part he took in the presidential campaign in which
Cleveland,
Blaine, and
Butler were the candidates.
He had been charged with inconsistency, with levity, and even with insincerity; but at the death of
General Butler, which occurred early in 1893, this is what he said:
For the last quarter of a century at least Benjamin Franklin Butler has stood out as the most original, the most American, and the most picturesque character in our public life.
He had courage equal to every occasion; his given word needed no backer; his friendships and his enmities knew no variableness or shadow of turning; his opinions were never disguised nor withheld; his devotion to his country was without qualification; his faith in the future of liberty and democracy was neither intoxicated by their victories nor disheartened by their defeats; his intellectual resources were marvellous; his mind naturally adhered to the cause of
