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name and minister to the edification of future generations.
Trusting largely to the spoken word, which too often dies with the listener, he will live mainly as a tradition.
Natural gifts so superior as those which he possessed, and opportunities so famous as those which he enjoyed, should have borne fruit more abundant and yielded a harvest less insubstantial.
By permanent record of grand thoughts and great ideas, he should have commended his memory more surely to the comprehension of the coming age, so that there might be no lack of ‘historic proof to verify the reputation of his power.’
Enjoying a present fame as a legislator, a statesman, a counsellor, an advocate, an orator, a Confederate chieftain, a defender of the
South, and a lover of this Commonwealth, towering among the highest and brightest of the land, this illustrious Georgian is also remembered as a leader not always wise and conservative in his views, as a mighty tribune of the people sometimes dethroning images where he erected none better in their places.
Thus are we reminded that the children of men, be they of high or low estate, be they rich or poor, be they intellectually great or of the common measure,
Are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Although this is true, let us remember, my comrades, it is not all of death to die; that the actions of the just are not wholly swallowed up in the oblivion of the tomb; that there are virtuous memories, which, at least for a season, are not coffined with our bones; and, thus persuaded, may we, one and all, heed the injunction of the great American poet—
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan that moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustain'd and sooth'd
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one that draws the drapery of his couch
About him and lies down to pleasant dreams.
