/fr-t;K EULOGY ON TUB L.TB WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ; DELIVERED BEFORE THE EUCLEIAN SOCIETY or THE UNIVERSITY OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, MAY 28, 1841. BY HUGH S. CARPENTER. NEW-YORK: HOPKINS & JENNINGS, PRINTERS, No. Ill Fulton-stroot. 1841. ^GREJ Class. Book___.Il (?b EULOGY ON THE I.ATK WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ; DELIVERED BEFORE THE EUCLEIAN SOCIETY OF TIIK UNIVERSITY THE CIT y OF INEW-VORK, MAY 28, 1841. BY HUGH S. CARPEN TER. » • • • NEW-YORK: HOPKINS fc JENNINGS, PJUNTKRa, No. in Fulton-rtreet. 1841. 3^,0^4 05 Euclcian Hall, University of the City of New- York, Saturday, May With, 1841. Mr. Hugh S. Carpenter, Sir: The undersigned, appointed a Committee by the Eu- cleian Society of the University of the City of New-York, in the name of the Society, respectfully request from you a copy of your Eulogy on the late President Harrison, de- livered before the Society, Friday evening, May 28th, 1841, for publication. Believing that you have handled this subject, so often the theme of the Orator and the Divine, in a manner mas- terly as well as eloquent, and that your oration possesses that intrinsic worth, which will enable it to undergo the scrutiny of the literary public with honour to yourself and to the Society of which you are a member, we have the honour to submit the request of the Society. Yours, respectfully, Alexr. Ramsay Thompson, Wellington Forgus, Robt. Ogden Doremus. New- York, Tuesday, June 1st, 1841. Gentlemen : I have received your kind note informing me of the Society's request. Unexpectedly as you have honoured me, and unworthy as my brief oration is to be numbered with the numerous eloquent discourses on the same theme by the great men of our country, I cannot refuse to let it go forth under the auspices of my own Society. I there- fore cheerfully transmit to you a copy. With sentiments of the highest esteem, I am gentlemen, Your Fellow Eucleian, H. S. Carpenter. To Messrs. Alexr. R. Thompson, W. Forgus, RoBT. O. DOREMUS. EULOGY. The sun which arose in glorious effulgence, un- der whose genial beams the nation basked, has, by inscrutable Wisdom, been suddenly eclipsed from our vision. The bright star that shot forth its cheering rays in what threatened to be a gloomy niffht, has forever fallen; and although when we remember those who in mercy are left, we rejoice that the heavens are not utterly blackness, yet must we ever miss its resplendence, even from our spangled firmament. When a hero falls, we mourn. But we have lost in Harrison, the unblemished hero, the self- denying statesman, the glorious patriot. \\ hen the first burst of noisy sorrow has subsided, and our affection has grieved for the man, loudly and passionately, then is the time to measure our loss. A slight trembling, then an awful crash, and we stood confounded. Even in the most deliberate expressions of a nation's grief, we could but cry " alas !" and point to the throne of God whence we are stricken. But now, look where that best pillar of our government has fallen ; look at that awful chasm, that horrid rent, that universal deso- lation, — and look calmly if you can. Innume- rable orators have tried to portray our loss, but they fall far below the estimation of our own hearts. Eloquence cannot represent our bereave- ment, and to increase our feeling is beyond its power. We turn from this view of the subject. We would regard less our own selfishness, and from the warning tones of affliction from the hand of God, turn to contemplate the bright reality of the patriot's life, the glorious tranquil of his end. "A warrior lived, a Christian died, Sorrow should slumber in our pride." The nation has bowed in ashes, and been hum- bled at the rebuke of an offended Sovereign. Profitable, as mournful, we would hope, has been that universal Fast ; but more pleasing, more en- nobling will it be to muse on the brilliant page of the hero's character. And here we pause to wonder, that while the people dressed in sable and sackcloth, have deeply sorrowed for the de- parted, the multitude of eloquence has been con- tent to mourn the loss of a President, and not that that President was Harrison. But can we not find in his own character a lustre unborrowed from any office ? Rather, where is a single spot darkening the brilliancy of his career ? Vain were the insinuation, that as he lived not to ad- minister our government, we know not what would have been his efficiency. Perish the mean spirit of expediency which so poisons the principles of this nation ; judging character only in the light of its ability to benefit, and teaching to undervalue, if not to despise, that nobility of spirit which leaves not some hire for its praise ! True — the bright opening of our President's administration dimmed and blackened while we gazed! True — his whole-souled maxims of un- 8 compromising honour flashed forth only in an In- augural Address ; his glittering promise to pre- serve inviolate executive integrity, which so glad- dened our hearts, was never tested. But the hero was old, the patriot was gray, his life is before us; and again we ask, where is the spot on his glory ? By even that murderer of character — the partisan press of our day — engaged in a mad effort to defeat his election, not a shadow of doubt could be breathed over his moral purity, — his splendid integrity. There was no room for ca- lumny, save when she strove to show those gray hairs, crowned with glory, as his shame ; and that age of merit and of wisdom, as imbecility and un- fitness for station. He took that seat amid the deafening plaudits of the Union. He touched the sceptre, and an electric thrill of confidence in their head inspirited the Nation. All felt, even his op- ponents, that the principles on which he based his administration, were noble ; the governing max- ims which he avowed, were glorious and safe. All knew that whatever might be the perplexities of government, and the inability of man to pre- vent calamity, Genernl Harrison could do nothing base ; coukl never stoop to the perversion of his authority. His Inaugural remains with us, worthy to be kept in letters of gold, to be studied with veneration, and inscribed on the heart by all who B< vie to serve their country, — to be thundered in the ears of every hollow-hearted demagogue throughout the Union. It flew forth on the wings of the morning, delighting the scholar by its ele- gance, the soldier by its dignity, the statesman by its truth, and the Christian by its piety ; cheering every spirit, and stirring up anew the embers of patriotic hope, long slumbering through discour- agement. We revived ; we were busy ; but we are hushed again. The message came to him, as we be- lieve, in a blessed presentiment. "Return ! Come !" sounded in the old man's ears, not a sentence, but the gentle breathing of kind invitation. A heavy sense of responsibility, heightened by patriotic zeal, doubtless often made him stretch his strain- in- gaze into the vista of futurity ; and as well as his own destiny, long to know the bright or dark pictures with which time must teem for his country. The burden of his care, if it found not shape, ever was " Watchman, frhat of the aight? Watchman, •2 10 what of the night ? The Watchman saith The morning cometh, and also the night. If ye will inquire, inquire ye. Return, come." And he has gone. While, since the first start- ling peal, the moaning toll has not ceased to reverberate from each hill and valley of our land, he has been entering on that glorious fruition, of which human prescience never can conceive. If we may know aught of angelic beings, he will in- quire ever, there where inquiry may be answered by knowledge in perfection, " Watchman, what of the night ?" And if to the saints in glory are known the affairs of earth, with what holy interest will he watch the changes of our country's state — its morning's dawn, or its deepening nights ! We speak confi- dently, and perhaps boldly of his present situation. We doubt it not. The nation doubts it not. We have mourned, bitterly mourned ; and though the rapid flow of time's inevitable stream may smooth, it can never obliterate our sorrow. When the blow came, it overwhelmed us ; our contemplation fell powerless. But our eyes were 11 opened, and it was reality. Agonizing, soul-sick- ening was the reluctant conviction that the hero was taken from us forever. Then we knew that that only is lost, which can never, no, never be re- placed. But we ask you not on this occasion to mourn. No ; in all our reflections, in all our pub- lic services, in all our humiliation before God, there has been too much, unthankfulness that we ever had a Harrison to lose. Glance over the illuminated path of his career — the track of light unshadowed by a single breach of honour, a single sacrifice of principle ; in its beginning, clear, though small, in its pro- gress undeviating, ever swelling on, until but now it burst into more than meridian splendour. Then say if we are extravagant ; then say, if there is wonder that all the malice and slander of his par- tisan adversaries fell harmless, while " the voice of the people in his favour was like the continuous roaring of the sea." General Harrison was ever exalted by his own merits ; and like the Father of our country, ri- sing from mere respectability, he never owed his station to the influence of friends high in power, 12 or merely to accidental circumstances. Yet was he entirely free from that overweening conceit and excessive selfishness into which self-made men sometimes slide. The son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, commission- ed as an ensign by Washington when only 19, — he became in two years the aid-de-camp of Gen- eral Wayne, and served in that rank in the famous battle with the Indians in 1794. So quick came promotion ; for in those days it was wont to follow merit, and had not yet degenerated to the service of patronage, or of partisan political purposes. And now the chieftain began to blend with the character of the brave and sagacious warrior, that of the politic and skilful states- man. Appointed in the 26th year of his age, as a delegate for the Western Territory, he distin- guished himself in Congress, especially as the originator of that master stroke of policy by which the lands of Government were divided into smaller tracts ; thus being taken out of the hands of speculators, and placed within the reach of those who would cultivate them. Next he became the Governor of Indiana, comprising then all the 13 West, except Ohio. Over this territory he vir- tually possessed unbounded sway, with every temptation to treachery, tyranny, and dishonesty; since, not only did he disburse the public money, but regulated almost unquestioned, the whole in- ternal policy of that vast tract of country ; mak- ing advantageous treaties with the Indians, but not dishonourable, and always abiding by them. In the famous battle of Tippecanoe, in 1811, his valour and address were conspicuous, and two years afterwards he led our troops to glorious victory at the battle of the Thames. In all his administration over this Northwest Territory, his honour was unimpeached, his skill conspicu- ous, his perseverance undaunted, and his success brilliant. In 1816, he was elected to the House of Representatives, and having served three years, was for two years a member of the Senate of Ohio, and afterwards of that of the United States. His last appointment was as Minister to ColumrJia by John Quincy Adams. After toiling through every service of trial or of danger which his country could put. upon him, spending his whole life from boyhood for her 14 sake, in the camp or by the wilderness, on the battle-plain, or in the senate-hall, the tried ser- vant of the public, returned to pass his remnant of life in peaceful tranquillity ; he who had held the highest offices of trust, without a wrinkle on his character, chose to become a retired yeo- man. But his country would not have it so. Appre- ciating his merits, and remembering his services, though late, she called him to the Presidential chair. Reprehend who may, we cannot but ad- mire that honourable dignity which led him during all the excitement of a hotly contested election, to refuse to seek success by committing himself to any avowal of his principles, by pledging him- self to any course of measures. To impertinent interrogatories his answer always was — that his life and services were before the public, and his sentiments known, so far as they could expect, from his public addresses. He would be elected by the people for his merits, and not by any political party, for the accomplishment of its purposes. And so it was. The people called him. He came to serve the people. 15 Thus did light gleam through our country, hope freshen in our hearts, and the buds of prosperity blossom throughout our borders. But the light paled, hope shuddered, the blossoms were nipped. The stern messenger came, of wo to us, but of peace to the hero. Although to us the blow was sudden, to him it was not altogether unexpected, perhaps not undesired. For he had seen an end of all perfection ; and doubtless the patriot had already discovered in experience, that the highest post in this world's gift is the most full of trouble. That single month of office must have proved the most toilsome and anxious of his life. For him- self, he had proved the world, and was quite ready to lie down and die. Yet how distressing, when the eyes of the nation were turned to him with ea- ger expectation, when he was just entering upon his course of authority, must have been the thought of leaving his work unaccomplished, his promises untested ! With his spiritual hope established, with the bright anticipation of eternal blessedness shining clear on his gaze, love and duty bequeathed his last utterance, a rich legacy to his country. And the 16 patriot's burning wishes, concentrated in one final request, who, who will forget ? Could we address his honoured successor, we would entreat him to remember, to " understand" those living words of death, and having "carried them out" to commit them solemnly to him who shall come after. And now where shall we rank him but next to Wash- ington ? If there be a hero whose fame no act of cruelty ever tarnished, whose valour and sagacity no defeat ever falsified ; if history's pages name a patriot who sacrificed all to his country, whose native nobility of principle soared beyond all par- tisan purposes and every mean device, making right and not utility his aim; if he be a Christian who, without a loud profession, leads a Chris- tian's life, such a life as no man void of the fear of God and unregenerate can lead, and dies a Christian's death, that spotless Hero, that self-de- nying Patriot, that humble Christian was aUtllfam fLnnvs garrison. I ia'12