At the Third Session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress. Address upon the Death of Senator Pearce. Speech Against the War and Arming Negroes, and for Peace and Speech Against Indemnifying Executive Tyranny, and continuing BALTIMORE: PRINTED BY KELLY, HEDIAN & PIET, No. 174 BALTIMORE STREET. EULOGY. The death of the Hon. JAMES ALFRED PEARCE, late Senator from Maryland, having been announced in the House of Representatives, on the 13th of January, 1863, Mr. MAY, of Maryland, said: MR. SPEAKER: I have only been apprised since I came into this Hall, that these sad ceremonies of respect to our distinguished colleague, were appointed for to-day. I wish, sir, to offer my tribute to his memory. He honored me with his friendship for many years, and in the last months of his life freely imparted to me his views upon the vital questions which now, unhappily, divide our country. I am authorized to speak for him here upon those questions; and I wish, if the unpremeditated thoughts and feelings suggested by the occasion, or awakened by the touching and eloquent tributes of the distinguished gentlemen who have preceded me, may go in place of more studied eulogy, to offer them just as they spring from my heart. I desire to speak of the respect in which he was held by those who, in the divisions of political sentiment, as represented in party organization, having opposed him throughout. the greater portion of his life, at length discovering that he was a public man who followed "principles, and not men," honored him with the highest testi'mony of their confidence, and committed to him the representation of the sovereignty of their State. For the Democratic party of the State of Maryland, I speak; and also for those of all parties who believed with him that the Constitution of this land was made for war as well as for peace; nay, sir, who believe that its strongest and most priceless sanctions were designed as bulwarks against the tendencies of arbitrary power supported by military authority, and therefore have a higher obligation in war than in peace. For those in our State who, while acknowledging all the delegated powers of the Federal Government, yet retain an equal reverence and respect for the reserved rights of the States, I also bear testimony of their respect for his distinguished public life-a life which illustrated, in a long public service, all those virtues which can adorn a high and pure-minded republican Representative. For all these classes of our fellow-citizens, I wish to pay the tribute of their respect for his character and public services, and to express their profound sorrow for his death. Mr. Speaker, when the storms of passion had prostrated the assembled Representatives in both Halls of this Capitol, our Senator stood, amid the few, firm and erect. Broken in health, his vital powers almost exhausted, he yet marched up with the remnant of his life to the side of the bleeding Constitution of his country, and gave his latest efforts to sustain it. He did all that a public man could do here to support the paramount authority of the Constitution, and to oppose and defy the exertions of arbitrary power. I remember with infinite pleasure, and repeat it here with delight, that one of the last efforts of his public service was a noble speech vindicating his fellow-citizens of Maryland against the criminal and cruel oppressions under which they were then suffering. I remember how his heart, the seat of his fatal disease, pulsating with a noble enthusiasm and sympathy for them, and beating too warmly, denied him the utterance of speech, and compelled him to retire from the Senate and seek the quiet of his chamber; and well do I remember another most gratifying instance of his spirit of liberty. It was my duty, as a Representative of the State of Maryland, to take counsel of his experience in one of the rooms of the Capitol, touching an atrocious and unparalleled outrage on the judiciary of our State, by dragging from the bench an honored, eminent, and faithful magistrate, scattering his blood upon the ermine, and well nigh taking his life by the hands of armed ruffians; and I can never forget the glow of indignation that kindled his eye and swelled his breast at the recital of the facts. The excitement was too strong for his enfeebled frame, and he sunk under the exhaustion of his own noble enthusiasm. If he could do no more to vindicate the authority of the Constitution of his country than he did accomplish, it was because he was denied the power to do it by the prostration of his vital functions, and the unheeding passions that prevailed. The worthless tenement of flesh could not support the struggles of its undying guest. Sir, he felt that it was his duty to prevent and redress, and not invite or provoke, the further aggressions of a reckless tyranny. He so stated his views to me. Mr. Speaker, let no advocate of unlicensed power, dare claim an approbation of his views because this eminent Senator did not wrestle more conspicuously with arbitrary power in the halls of Congress; nor let any complaining victim of tyranny question the integrity or the noble devotion of his services in their behalf; nor yet must any self-applauding martyr of liberty, attempt to gain a passing notoriety at the expense of the fame of this departed statesman of Maryland; but let these, and all of us, draw from the contemplation of his life, on this solemn occasion, instruction that may be salutary. Let us learn from the moderation and fidelity of his character, to admire in our public stations, and seek those duties which look to conciliation, compromise, and concord. Let no wrongs suffered, no resentment fixed in our breasts, move us from the discharge of these sacred duties; but let us try, through the common suffering that afflicts the land, to walk out from the dominion of passion, purified, regenerated and disenthralled. I trust, Mr. Speaker, that, speaking from my heart, as I ought to speak on an occasion like this, I trespass not against the limits which ought to be observed in discussing the virtues of an eminent statesman. I must speak now, sir, as I feel. While commending to public praise and respect the memory and services of this distinguished man, I must be allowed to distinguish him as one who, having sworn to support the Constitution of his country, to the latest moment of his life, and through every trial, kept the faith of that obligation to his Maker and his fellow citizens. He rests, now, near the banks of the Chesapeake. The flowers which the distinguished gentleman from Kentucky described so beautifully as surrounding his grave, are symbols not only of his taste, but also of his |