before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our feet, it is with hesitation that I raise my poor voice to break the eloquent silence of God and Nature. We can only quote further the closing paragraph of the review of the war, and the story of heroic deeds, which held in breathless silence the assembled thousands, among whom our lamented President was a tearful listener. He said, And now, friends, fellow-citizens of Gettysburg and Pennsylvania, and you from the remoter States, let me again, as we part, invoke your benediction on these honored graves. You feel, though the occasion is mournful, that it is good to be here. You feel that it was greatly auspicious for the cause of the country that the men of the East and the men of the West, the men of nineteen sister States, stood side by side on the perilous ridges of the battle. You now feel it a new bond of union, that they shall lie side by side till a clarion louder than that which marshalled them to the combat shall awake their slumbers. God bless the Union! It is dearer to us for the blood of the brave men shed in its defence. The spots on which they stood and fell; these pleasant heights; the fertile plain beneath them; the thriving village whose streets so lately rang with the strange din of war; the fields beyond the ridge, where the noble Reynolds held the advancing foe at bay, and, while he gave up his own life, assured by his forethought and self-sacrifice the triumph of the two succeeding days; the little streams which wind through the hills, on whose banks, in after-times, the wondering ploughman will turn up, with the mous, rude weapons of savage warfare, the fearful missiles of modern artillery; the Seminary Ridge, the Peach-orchard, Cemetery, Culp's and Wolf's Hills, Round Top, Little Round Top, -humble names, henceforward dear and fano lapse of time, no distance of space, shall cause you to be forgotten. "The whole earth," said Pericles, as he stood over the remains of his fellowcitizens who had fallen in the first year of the Peloponnesian War, - the whole earth is the sepulchre of illustrious men." All time, he might have added, is the millennium of their glory. Surely I would do no injustice to the other noble achievements of the war, which have reflected such honor on both arms of the service, and have entitled the armies and the navy of the United States, their officers and men, to the warmest thanks and the richest rewards which a grateful people can pay. But they, I am sure, will join us in saying, as we bid farewell to the dust of these martyr-heroes, that wheresoever throughout the civilized world the accounts of this great warfare are read, and down to the latest period of recorded time, in the glorious annals of our common country, there will be no brighter page than that which relates THE BATTLES OF GETTYSBURG. Mr. Everett's addresses will ever remain enduring monuments to his scholarship, eloquence, and patriotism. As an orator, he stood first in the land: he had no peer. In the record of benevolence given in another place, the interest Mr. Everett felt in the destitute loyal people of East Tennessee conspicuously appears. He entered with all his soul into the movement for their relief, displaying in this practical sympathy both his genuine kindness of heart and patriotic devotion to the whole country. The last public occasion on which his voice was heard was at the meeting of his fellow-citizens in Faneuil Hall on Monday, Jan. 12, 1865, for the relief of Savannah, the "Christmas gift," three weeks before, of Gen. Sherman to the nation. His manner was unusually animated in that appeal. But exposure to currents of air then, and soon after in the court-room, where he had an important suit in course of trial, brought on a serious attack of lung-disease, followed by apoplectic symptoms. He died Jan. 15, 1865. The patriotic devotion to his country in its peril from foes at the North, who were more dangerous and excuseless than those at the South, shed a halo of true glory over his closing life, which will forever endear his memory to the American people. At the commemorative meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, held on the evening of Jan. 30, eloquent tributes were paid to his memory; and we know not where else to look for addresses of such singular beauty and appropriateness as were then delivered. The testimony of those who were equally distinguished, though in different walks of literature, but had for some years widely differed from him on national questions, is very touching. Said William Cullen Bryant, the distinguished poet, If I have uttered any thing in derogation of Mr. Everett's public character at times when it seemed to me that he did not resist with becoming spirit the aggressions of wrong, I now, looking back upon his noble record of the last four years, retract it at his grave. I lay upon his hearse the declaration of my sorrow that I saw not the depth of his worth; that I did not discern, under the conservatism that formed a part of his nature, that generous courage which a great emergency could so nobly awaken. Wrote the fiery bard of freedom, J. G. Whittier, I am saddened by the reflection, that, through the very intensity of my convictions, I may have done injustice to the motives of those with whom I differed. As respects Edward Everett, it seems to me that only within the last four years have I truly known him. At the meeting in Faneuil Hall, Jan. 18, to commemorate his death, the Hon. Alexander H. Bullock, now Governor, closed his eloquent eulogy with these glowing words: His greatest days were his last. The country did not know him perfectly until 1861. Then he renewed his youth; then he broke away from his own traditions and associations, and mounted to that wise, large patriotism which has guided twenty loyal millions to life and glory. He waited not for others, nor for the victory of our arms; but, in those first days of war and gloom, his voice sounded like a clarion over this land. Almighty God be praised that he has been spared to us these four years! In these temples of your eloquence, in the commercial metropolis where his counsel was more needed, everywhere and every day, by public speech and through the popular press, he has confirmed hesitating men at home, he has inspired your armies in the field. These victories which fill the air to-day peal grandly over his inanimate form they cannot wake him from sleep; but they are a fitting salute for his burial. He passes to his rest when the whole heaven is lighted up to proclaim that his mission has been accomplished. The same page of the calendar shall repeat to the next age THE DEATH OF EVERETT, AND THE NEW LIFE OF HIS COUNTRY. NOTE. — We find, upon consulting Senator Wilson's late and able "History of Antislavery Measures in Congress," that it would be quite difficult to decide to which of our Massachusetts Congress-men we are the most deeply indebted for the success of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill; and we refer the reader to that work for the record of its origin and progress. CHAPTER IV. MASSACHUSETTS REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS. Ex-Gov. George S. Boutwell's Early Life.- Entrance upon Public Service. - The Advocate of Popular Education and Universal Freedom. Speech on extending the Right of Suffrage to the Colored Men. The Hon. Thomas D. Eliot's Birth and Bayhood. Graduates at Columbia College, and studies Law. - In Congress. - Address and Speeches on the great Questions of War and Freedom. - The Hon. A. H. Rice. The Hon. Samuel Hooper. - The Hon. H. L. Dawes. - The Hon. John B. Alley.The Hon. D. W. Gouch. - The Hon. W. B. Washburn. - The Hon. Oakes Ames. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. G EORGE S. BOUTWELL was born in Brookline, Norfolk His boyhood was spent upon a farm, amid whose quiet labors he formed habits of industry, and secured a good physical constitution. In early youth, he engaged in mercantile pursuits; rising from the errand-boy's place to the control of extensive business. After · nearly twenty years' experience in intensely practical occupation of his energies, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1836. In 1842, Mr. Boutwell was chosen to the Legislature of the State, where he was an able and efficient member for seven years. In 1849-50, he held the position of Bank Commissioner. In 1851, the people elected him Governor of Massachusetts. Mr. Boutwell was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of the Commonwealth in 1853. Perhaps his noblest, greatest work for the State was his active and earnest service as Secretary of the Board of Education for eleven years. He was for six years member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. When, in the spring of 1861, the rising storm of rebellion shook the national capital with excitement, he was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Peace Congress called to calm the strife; and, while he deprecated war, he was true to the principles and trust of his native State. From July, 1862, to March, 1863, he was Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and, in the autumn of the former year, was chosen representative to Congress, and placed on the Judiciary Commit GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 65 tee. In 1864, he was a delegate to the Republican Convention at Baltimore which renominated for the Presidency Abraham Lincoln. On no occasion, perhaps, has he won higher admiration and regard, by a single effort, than on that of the discussion of negro suffrage, Jan. 18, 1866, in the House of Representatives. The members seemed to be in a careless mood, when the word passed around that "Gov. Boutwell is going to speak." As he rose to his feet, a sudden stillness spread over the hall; and the tried friend of the laboring classes, the advocate of popular education, and the cloquent pleader for the rights of the oppressed African, commenced one of his finest and most powerful extemporaneous speeches. He said, we Mr. Speaker, It is only recently that I entertained the purpose to speak at all upon this bill, and it was my expectation to avail myself of the kindness of the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee to divide with him the time allotted him by the rules of the House; but I accept the opportunity now presented of speaking, before the previous question is demanded, to state certain views I entertain on this bill. I may say, in the beginning, that I am opposed to all dilatory motions upon this bill. I am opposed to the restrictions moved by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hale), because I see in them no advantage to anybody, and I apprehend from their adoption much evil to the country. It should be borne in mind, that, when we emancipated the black people, we not only relieved ourselves from the institution of slavery, we not only conferred upon them freedom, but we did more, recognized their manhood, which, by the old Constitution and the general policy and usage of the country, had been, from the organization of the Government until the Emancipation Proclamation, denied to all of the enslaved colored people. As a consequence of the recognition of their manhood, certain results follow in accordance with the principles of this Government; and they who believe in this Government are by necessity forced to accept these results as a consequence of the policy of emancipation which they have inaugurated, and for which they are responsible. But to say now-having given freedom to this people that they shall not enjoy the essential rights and privileges of men, is to abandon the principle of the Proclamation of Emancipation, and tacitly to admit that the whole emancipation policy is erroneous. After showing clearly the inherent, divinely given right of the emancipated bondmen to share in the elective franchise, and the dangerous power left in the hands of those who are still disloyal by withholding it, he closed with great force and impressive uess: |