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MEMORIAL 
 
 Stephen Nye Gifford, 
 
 Clerk of the Massachusetts Senate 
 
 January 6, 1858, to April 18, 1886. 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 1 886. 
 

 
 Wright and Potter Printing Co., 18 Post Office Square. 
 
|n Poi^or 
 
 OF THE FAITHFUL SERVICE OF A TRUE MAN, WHO FOR MANY YEARS 
 
 ADORNED THE TRUST REPOSED IN HIM BY EVERY QUALITY 
 
 WHICH SHOULD DISTINGUISH THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND 
 
 EVERY GRACE OF CHARACTER WHICH COULD 
 
 ATTACH HIM TO HIS ASSOCIATES. 
 
Conrnronfecaltl^ of P^assatl^nsftts. 
 
 Senate, April 27, 1886. 
 On motion of Mr. Cogswell : 
 
 Ordered, That the resohitions on the death of the late 
 clerk of this body, the Honorable Stephen N. Gifford, 
 together with the remarks on the adoption of the same, be 
 entered in full upon the Journal of the Senate. 
 
 E. HERBERT CLAPP, 
 
 Clerk pro tern. 
 
 (Hommonfotaltlj of Massachusetts. 
 
 Senate, April 28, 1886. 
 On motion of Mr. Cogswell : 
 
 Ordered, That the committee on Resolutions concern- 
 ing the death of the Honorable Stephen N. Gifford, be 
 authorized to have published in suitable form, and in such 
 numbers as said committee may see fit, copies of the 
 resolutions recently adopted by the Senate, together with 
 the remarks in supi)ort of the same. 
 
 E. HERBERT CLAPP, 
 
 Clerk pro tern. 
 
ANNOUNCEMENT 
 
 or THE 
 
 Death of Stephen N, Gifford, 
 
 Clerk of the Massachusetts Senate. 
 
 At the opening of the Senate, Monday, 
 Api'il 19, 1886, the President announced the 
 death of the Hon. Stephen N. Gieeord, its 
 clerk, which took place at his home in Dux- 
 bury, on Sunday, April 18, at quarter before 
 four o'clock, p. M. 
 
 Thereupon the following resolutions were 
 offered by Mr. Lillet of Middlesex, and were 
 unanimously adopted : — 
 
 Whereas, The Senate has learned with profound sor- 
 row of the death of its late clerk, Hon. Stephen N. 
 Gifford ; therefore, it is 
 
 Resolved, That a committee to consist of five members 
 be appointed to draft and present to the Senate resolu- 
 tions expressive of its appreciation of the character and 
 services of the deceased ; and it is further 
 
8 
 
 Resolved, That, as a mark of respect to his memory, 
 the Senate attend the funeral services to be held at Dux- 
 bury on Wednesday, the 21st inst., and that the President 
 communicate to His Excellency the Governor and to the 
 Honorable House of Representatives intelligence of the 
 death of the late clerk, and an invitation to be repre- 
 sented at the funeral services. 
 
 Messrs. Lilley, Rowland, Nourse, Wilbur and 
 Douglas are appointed the committee to draft and 
 present resolutions. 
 
 E. HERBERT CLAPP, 
 
 Clerk pro tern. 
 
PEOCEEDII^GS IE~ THE SEISTATE, 
 
 APRIL 27, 1886. 
 
 Rev. Edmund Dowse, Chaplain to the Senate, 
 
 offered the following 
 
 Almighty God, we thank Thee at this time for all the 
 felicities of domestic, social and civil life ; and we thank 
 Thee more especially that our friends and associates, their 
 characters and their lives, are so photographed upon our 
 minds and hearts that though they are absent yet we think 
 of them, speak of them, enjoy them and honor them as 
 though they were still present with us. Our Heavenly 
 Father, this draped chair and these bereaved friends, and 
 these tokens of sadness and aftection now before us, 
 remind us that the time-honored clerk of this body has 
 passed away, never to return to his position again. And 
 yet he seems to be present with us this day in all his native 
 modesty and excellence. Grant Thy blessing to rest now 
 upon the members of this Senate, and as to-day they may 
 turn aside from their accustomed business to pay a fitting 
 tribute of respect and honor to the departed, we pray that 
 Thou wilt indite their thoughts and feelings and speech, 
 
10 
 
 and so order everything that all shall be appropriate, — 
 alike honorable to the dead, salutary in its influence upon 
 the living, and acceptable to Thee. And while we stand 
 in Thy presence we will not forget the absent, liereaved 
 and afflicted family. Impart unto them heavenly comfort 
 and consolation, and prepare them for all Thy righteous- 
 ness ; and Thine shall be the praise for ever. Amen. 
 
 Mr. LiLLEY, from the committee appointed to 
 draft and present to the Senate resolutions expres- 
 sive of its appreciation of the character and 
 services of its late clerk, Stephen 'N. Gifford, 
 reported the accompanying 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 Whereas, the Senate is deeply grieved hy the death 
 of its late clerk, Stephen N. Gifford, and desires to 
 give enduring expression to its appreciation of his high 
 character, and his eminent services as a pul^lic oflScial ; 
 therefore it is 
 
 Resolved, That by his death the Senate loses an inval- 
 uable officer, who during twenty-nine consecutive years 
 has with rare intelligence, fidelity and unfailing courtesy 
 facilitated its labors, and the Commonwealth loses a 
 zealous public servant and an exemplary citizen. 
 
11 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate commends the example pre- 
 sented by his long and honorable career to all who aspire 
 to render unseltish and patriotic service to their fellow- 
 citizens and the State. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forthwith 
 transmitted to the family of the late clerk, to whom the 
 Senate extends its profound sympathy in their bereave- 
 ment. 
 
 The resolutions having been read, remarks 
 were made thereon as follows. 
 
Senatou Lilley of Middlesex. 
 
 Mr. President, — Occasions like this remind us 
 that the deepest emotions of the heart find halting 
 expression in the language of the lips. As one 
 who stands on the shore of the boundless sea, or 
 seeks to scale with straining vision the snow-clad 
 summits of the everlasting hills, so I stand in 
 contemplation of the career which we honor 
 to-day, deeply sensible that the tribute which I 
 bring is inadequate, and that it w^ould be wholly 
 unworthy of acceptance, but for the respect and 
 affection by which it is promj^ted. 
 
 Stephen 'N. Gieeoed was born July 21, 1815. 
 For full threescore years and ten he lived and 
 wrought with our fathers and with us; discharg- 
 ing every duty with fidelity, and adorning every 
 station to which he was called. While he was still 
 in the active service of the Commonwealth which 
 he loved so well, the shadows of the night forbade 
 further labor, and he turned his footsteps home- 
 ward, bearing the sheaves of a long, busy and 
 honorable life. The announcement of the death 
 
13 
 
 of this plain, old-fashioned gentleman, unheralded 
 as it was by a single note of alarm, caused as 
 profound a shock and as wide a sense of personal 
 loss as would be occasioned by the death of the 
 most eminent man in public life in Massachusetts 
 to-day. "What memories it aroused! How the 
 mind traversed the period of his life and noted the 
 marvellous events which it embraced, in many of 
 which he bore a conspicuous part. Born in the 
 year which was marked by brilliant achievements 
 of American arms on land and sea, and which 
 closed the second war of the Republic, he saw the 
 nation advance with wondrous strides to unexam- 
 pled prosperity and power; he saw its population 
 increase from eight to more than fifty millions; he 
 saw twenty sovereign States take their places in 
 the Union, and he witnessed the great struggles 
 relating to slavery under the Constitution which 
 began with the Missouri Compromise and ended 
 with the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, and 
 among the giants who engaged in them he 
 counted many personal friends. Looking back 
 through twenty-nine years, we see him called in 
 his early manhood to the oflice of clerk of the 
 Senate. He brought to the discharge of its duties 
 
14 
 
 an invaluable experience as a teacher and legis- 
 lator, the culture of the scholar, and, better than 
 all, a knightly courtesy whose well-spring was the 
 heart, and which led all who saw it and felt its 
 influence to accord to him 
 
 "The grand old name of geutlemau." 
 
 Thenceforth we find him so inseparably associ- 
 ated with every step taken by the Commonwealth 
 that the omission of his name would render 
 its history incomplete. In the most important 
 era of its existence, it was for him to witness 
 and record every act by which, with the blood of 
 fifteen thousand of its citizens, and with thirty 
 millions of treasure, it sealed its devotion to 
 republican government, and, to quote his own 
 sentiment, gave fullest meaning to the declaration, 
 '' All men are created equal." In his lifetime the 
 slave power had risen to gigantic proportions; 
 crushing whom it could not conciliate, it impe- 
 riously claimed the land for its dominion. He 
 saw the beginning and the growth of the anti- 
 slavery movement; and it was his high duty — 
 oh, crown of fame ! — to attest Massachusetts' 
 ratification of that new Magna Charta which 
 
15 
 
 does indeed " proclaim liberty throughout the 
 land unto all the inhabitants thereof." 
 
 Twenty-nine years of incessant, arduous, faith- 
 ful public service, unmarred by a single act or 
 word which the most exacting would recall; this 
 is the legacy left in our keeping, and in the 
 keeping of our successors. Let us cherish it, Mr. 
 President, in the spirit of loyalty with which he 
 served, and, if need be, defended the department 
 of the government whose honored servant he was. 
 'No man was ever truer to the object of his 
 allegiance than was Stephen K. Gieford to the 
 General Court. Gentle though he was, he 
 quickly and firmly resented any reflection upon 
 it, or any attempt to limit its prerogatives. He 
 had no patience with that flippant and unfair 
 style of criticism of public bodies and public men 
 which has of late so extensively prevailed. It is 
 but a short time since, that in the presence of a 
 most distinguished company that had assembled 
 in his honor, he said : " I say that the character 
 of Massachusetts, here and everywhere, where it 
 is known, is due to the honesty, the fidelity, the 
 industry of the General Court. T say further, 
 and I know whereof I speak, that the members 
 
16 
 
 of the Massachusetts legislature, those who 
 manage the business, work harder, work more 
 hours, than they would in their own business at 
 home." His conception of public service was 
 that of the old-fashioned school. To him it was 
 honorable; nay, exalted. Through frequent repe- 
 tition his duties might become commonplace, 
 nevertheless, he was ever mindful that he was 
 the servant of the State, and it commanded his 
 best efforts to the end. According to his custom, 
 he completed his daily record of the proceedings 
 of the Senate before he ceased labor, and in 
 such an advanced condition did he leave the 
 work of his office that, on its reassembling, the 
 Senate, though bereft of its guide, was enabled 
 to proceed with the public business without 
 interruption. Herein, to my mind, is a grander 
 tribute to the cleric than can be i^aid by human 
 lips. 
 
 But it is not the public official merely in 
 whose praise we speak. We hold in most 
 grateful remembrance the man; the man of high 
 purpose; the man without reproach; the man in 
 whose seventy-one years there was no winter 
 because the spring of love and charity for his 
 
17 
 
 kind dwelt forever in his heart. The fact that 
 my experience is similar to that of many others 
 will perhaps justify me in referring to the time 
 when I first came to this chamber, " with all 
 my imperfections on my head," and almost 
 totally inexperienced in legislative procedure. 
 Attracted by the light that beamed from his 
 countenance, as many had done before, as many 
 have done since, under like circumstances, I 
 turned to Mr. Gifford in my perplexities, and 
 in him I found a counsellor, a guide, a friend; 
 a friend to whom, alas ! I can never again 
 acknowledge the debt of gratitude I owe. And 
 it was not here, in the place of his labor, alone 
 that his influence was felt. In every walk in 
 life he commanded the respect, the admiration, 
 the love of men. In the historic town in which 
 he dwelt, whose name in later years has been 
 given prominence by association with his own, 
 he was the friend of all. The old, the young, 
 hastened to do him honor. He held the chief 
 place in their councils, and at their festivals. 
 As their most distinguished citizen, he received 
 the salutations of a continent, and at their fire- 
 sides he was an ever welcome guest. To them 
 
18 
 
 was known something of the sweetness of that 
 inner life upon whose privacy we may not 
 intrude to-day. 
 
 To their tender care, Mr. President, we have 
 committed his mortal remains, reserving to 
 ourselves the grateful duty, now reverently 
 discharged, of perpetuating in the annals of the 
 Commonweahh a shining example that shall for 
 all time lend inspiration to those who aim to 
 " serve or save the State." 
 
 Kind friend, farewell ! May spirits as gentle 
 as thine attend us " when the swift river beai's 
 us to the ocean." 
 
19 
 
 Senator Howland of Plymouth. 
 
 It is with great hesitation that I attempt to 
 say a word to-day, realizing as I do that I have 
 not the knowledge of language to express the 
 feelings of my heart in the manner that I onght 
 to do on this occasion. Our departed friend, of 
 whom we speak to-day, endeared himself to all 
 who were acquainted with him. It was my 
 fortnne to be somewhat intimately acquainted 
 with him, and I always fonnd in him a sympa- 
 thetic friend and wise counsellor. 
 
 As at times I have heard related the struggles 
 of his early life, I have thought that they had 
 much to do with his sympathy for those who 
 had been and were deprived of the advantages 
 of a liberal education. His early experiences 
 seem to have filled his heart with sympathy 
 towards those who had been deprived of that 
 privilege. 
 
 I need not speak, Mr. President, of his uni- 
 versal courtesy and kindness towards all with 
 whom he came in contact duriug his long 
 service as clerk of this body. It is too well 
 
20 
 
 known for me to add anything to it. In my 
 own experience I can say that I always found 
 him courteous and kind, ready to impart infor- 
 mation and give assistance when it was desired, 
 in a modest, unassuming and gentle manner. 
 From the history of his life much may be 
 learned. 
 
 Born in humble circumstances, becoming 
 fatherless when a small boy, through his own 
 exertions he obtained his education and won 
 that place in public life which he filled with so 
 much ability and efhciency. He was always an 
 interested and earnest worker in all matters 
 pertaining to the welfare of the town in which 
 he resided, his counsels always being taken 
 with great respect and confidence by his fellow 
 townsmen. 
 
 By his death all associated with him have 
 lost a tried friend and wise counselloi", his town 
 a good and true citizen, and the State a faithful 
 and efficient public servant. 
 
 Mr. President, I feel it would be wrong for me 
 to detain the Senate further, knowing as I do that 
 so many are desirous of adding their tribute to the 
 memory of him who has left us. 
 
21 
 
 Senator Bourse of Worcester. 
 
 We sometimes betray the narrowness of our 
 mental vision, and dishonor our birthright, by 
 thoughtlessly saying that the sturdy virtues of 
 our Puritan ancestors no longer leaven our New 
 England life. We malign our brethren, we 
 falsely accuse ourselves, when we even suggest 
 that the mantles of those virtuous fathers and 
 mothers, who lived in the historic era of our 
 Arcadian simplicity, have foil en upon degenerate 
 sons and daughters in this age of complex social 
 and political relations. No! In the enlightened 
 civilization of a republic like ours, human graces 
 find a congenial soil, and they flourish and bud 
 and blossom in abundance, in infinite variety, and 
 in all grades of society. Modest worth is 
 nowhere a rarity among us. Sterling integrity is 
 never exceptional. Dignified courtesy is not 
 strange. 
 
 But when we see a man in whom the successive 
 legislatures of three decades have placed implicit 
 and unstinted trust, never disappointed; when we 
 
22 
 
 see that man, although an ardent political partisan, 
 making no enemies; when, though the incumbent 
 of a very remunerative and honorable public office, 
 yet year after year he has met no rival striving to 
 supplant him; then indeed and in verit}^ may we 
 exclaim: O singular and fortuitous combination 
 of moral and mental graces! O rare example of 
 the typical gentleman! O model public servant, 
 worthy the emulation of us all, worthy the 
 lasting gratitude of the Commonwealth! 
 
 We mourn the loss of a benignant presence, 
 but we have left to us treasure of gracious 
 memories; memories of a beneficent life, a life 
 rounding gracefully to its close, and entering 
 into the Sabbath of eternal rest while yet the 
 vital enjoyments, energies and forces were all 
 unimpaired. That urbane companionship we have 
 lost forever, but the fragrance of that companion- 
 ship remaineth with us. Of that fragrance we 
 are not bereft, even by the angel whom men 
 call Death. 
 
23 
 
 Senator Cogswell of Essex. 
 
 Mr. President, — The resolutions in honor of 
 the memory of our old friend, Mr. Gifford, 
 which have been offered by the committee 
 appointed for that purpose, are most eloquent 
 and iitting, and the remarks in support of them 
 by the members of that committee, to which we 
 have just listened, seem to me to leave nothing 
 to be said in regard to their adoption. Yet I 
 would like to say a word on this occasion. Our 
 friend, after long and honorable public service, 
 intelligently and courteously performed, has died 
 at the sunset of his life with his harness on, yet 
 with every official duty discharged in its fullest 
 detail. Thus he died; thus would he have 
 chosen to die. 
 
 Mr. President, an old, tried and honored pub- 
 lic functionary^ has gone to " the undiscovered 
 country." Every official legislative act of the 
 last quarter century, by which Massachusetts 
 has marked her part in the progress, in the 
 civilization, and the great events of that momen- 
 
24 
 
 tons period, has been attested by the signature 
 of him whose memory we commemorate to-day, 
 — " S. N. GiFFOKD, Clerk." Governors have 
 come and gone. Senates have assembled and 
 adjonrned, but he for more than twenty-eight 
 consecutive years has stood at his post of duty 
 here, the manly, the fixithful, the dignified, the 
 kind-hearted — aye, the big-hearted clerk of the 
 Massachusetts Senate. 
 
 We have buried him, sir, on the shores of tlie 
 sea he loved to look upon, and by which, when 
 his cares of office were over, he loved to dwell. 
 I can hardly persuade myself that he has gone 
 from our sight forever, though mine eyes have 
 seen him buried in the sands of the Cape. 
 
 Farewell, genial and beloved friend; farewell, 
 the Commonwealth's long tried and ever faithful 
 pnbhc servant; farewell, " S. N. Gifford, 
 Clerk." God bless thy memory, and God lielj) 
 us to make and set as good an example of 
 honest, faithful, intelligent and genial pubhc 
 service as thou hast! 
 
25 
 
 " O tender heart that is still, 
 
 Yon will falter with trouble no more, 
 Nor know of the good or the ill 
 Of a frantic world's uproar ! 
 
 " Clouds sail, and waters flow, 
 
 And our souls must journey on ; 
 But it cannot be ill to go 
 
 The way that thou hast gone." 
 
26 
 
 Senator Dunbar of Hampden. 
 
 We meet, Mr. President, to render honor to the 
 memory and to pay a tribute to the character of 
 Stephen N. Gifford ; not in formal and per- 
 functory phrase of cold respect, recounting his 
 years of service, the care, accuracy and fidelity of 
 his work ; not with adulation ; not with the praise 
 which, unmerited, is more unjust than censure; 
 but out of the fulness of our emotions to say a 
 few words for the benefit of those who had not 
 the rare pleasure of his acquaintance, to indicate 
 in what esteem and afiection we who knew him 
 held him. I know full well that nothing that we 
 can say will add to or detract from his reputation, 
 nor will increase or diminish in any degree the 
 love and veneration with which his friends will 
 cherish his memory ; but we should be false to the 
 dictates of our hearts if we did not strive in some 
 imperfect way, some broken phrase, some feeble 
 utterance, to give recognition of our appreciation 
 of our loss. 
 
 Men do not greatly mourn the death of those 
 
27 
 
 who are conspicuous only for ability, or wealth, 
 or power. The life of no man is essential to the 
 progress of the world ; no matter how important 
 the work in which he may be engaged, how broad 
 and comprehensive may be his abilities, how 
 skilful he may be in all the details of that 
 work, if he has nothing else to recommend him 
 to his fellow-men, his death will rouse no great 
 or deep emotion. But it is hard to be reconciled 
 to the death of a friend. We may bear the loss 
 of prosperity with equanimity ; but the wounds of 
 the heart never heal. And so it is, Mr. President, 
 that the memory of our friend will not fade with 
 this generation. 
 
 Mr. GiFFORD was not a great man, as the world 
 counts greatness. He accumulated no great 
 wealth. He obtained no exalted public station. 
 He strove neither for power nor for fortune. He 
 had not those bold and aggressive qualities which 
 compel success in the forum and in the mart. He 
 was a modest, unassuming, genial, kindly gentle- 
 man, content to do his duty, but only content when 
 that duty was well done. What his standard was, 
 what rare ability, fidelity and conscience he 
 brought to that work, we who have seen him in 
 
28 
 
 its daily performance know, and the record for 
 more than a quarter of a century bears witness. 
 He had a clear and accurate mind and his opinions 
 upon most subjects were reliable. They were also 
 positive, but never oifensively expressed. He had 
 convictions and was not ashamed of them ; they 
 were not thrust upon others, but they were tena- 
 ciously held. 1 have never in all my acquaintance 
 seen a man to whom could more aptly be applied 
 the lines of that beautiful ode from Horace 
 beginning '"'"Justmn ac tenacem j^'opositi virum.'''' 
 He had a keen sense of humoi-. He truly loved 
 a good story, of which he himself had great store. 
 He was a skilful parliamentarian, well versed in 
 all the mysteries of legislative procediu'e, the 
 unfailing recourse of all inexperienced membei's 
 and the prompter and assistant of many a pre- 
 siding ofiicer. He had that essential for good 
 work, a love for it and a pride in its excellence. 
 Who ever saw him with work carelessly done or 
 dragging behind ? Who evei- saw him impatient 
 of anything but shams or injustice ? Who ever 
 knew him too busy or too tired to lend assistance 
 or counsel ? With such qualifications, with such 
 a mind and temper, his election for so many 
 
29 
 
 successive years as clerk of this Senate ceases 
 to be surprising ; nor is it wonderful that he was 
 the chosen arbiter and referee of all the disputes 
 of his neighbors in his town of Dnxbury. 
 
 And they k)ved him, those neighbors and 
 friends. There were tears upon the fVices of 
 many, and sadness upon the faces of all, as we 
 laid him to rest beneath that bright and cloudless 
 sky, near the shore of that evei- changeful but 
 never changing sea, amid the beauty and the 
 promise of the opening spring. 
 
 Upon a tablet on the wall of the church which 
 he was accustomed to attend, and in which his 
 funeral services were held, there are these words: 
 "Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, 
 for the end of that man is peace." 1 cau think of 
 no word which more aptly characterizes his death. 
 The summons came swiftly and suddenly, but he 
 was ready. His work was done. There were no 
 wrongs to be righted. There was no injustice 
 to be atoned for. Respected, honored, loved, 
 mourned, his death indeed was peace. 
 
30 
 
 Senator Walker of Hampshire. 
 
 I would that to-day, upon this solemn occasion, 
 Hampshire County were represented m the Sen- 
 ate by one who could fittingly express her sadness 
 because of the death of one of her oldest and 
 best friends, Mr. Gifford. Speaking just a word 
 for myself, and for the senators from Hampshire 
 who have preceded me during his many ^-ears of 
 faithful service, I can safely say that none have 
 been more indebted to him for the counsel and 
 assistance which all new members need, — espe- 
 cially those whose previous education, experience 
 and observation have not been of a character to 
 make them familiar with the duties and responsi- 
 bilities which must be assumed by all who come 
 to the General Court of Massachusetts. Much 
 have we received: gentle, almost affectionate con- 
 sideration ; advice given with an interest like that 
 which a parent might take in his child ; and, as I 
 remember this, it is not strange that to me words 
 seem inadequate to define our appreciation of his 
 service in the pastj our eorrow in the present, or 
 
31 
 
 to tell how truly and how tenderly we shall cher- 
 ish his memory until, God willing, we meet him 
 again in the glory of the great world beyond. 
 Dear old friend ! Middlesex, Worcester, Plym- 
 outh, Essex, Hampden and other counties offer 
 to you their eloquent tributes ; but those of us 
 who come from the hills and valleys of Hamp- 
 shire ask only that we may weep with those who 
 weep, and that we may sometimes briug our 
 choicest flowers and lay them on your grave. 
 Hail and farewell ! 
 
82 
 
 Senator Murphy of Suffolk. 
 
 I desire to say just one word upon these res- 
 olutions, although I doubt whether I can add 
 anything to what has been said so feelingly and 
 so eloquently by my brother Senators. I feel that 
 there are men, whom, in times past, Massachusetts 
 has mourned, who may perhaps in public life have 
 gained position, whose memory will live longer 
 among the masses of the people ; but I believe, 
 honestly, that no man in his walk, or in his sphere, 
 by his actions and by his life, is better deserving 
 of memory than he whose death we mourn here 
 to-day. I have listened to what has been said of 
 his public and his private life. Of his public 
 life, as my personal experience goes, I cannot add 
 one word to what has been said upon that partic- 
 ular portion. I, myself, like other Senators here, 
 have been laid under obligations to him in the 
 way of showing me the path along which I should 
 follow, in oi'der that 1 might know the technical 
 portions of the duties which fell to my lot. Dur- 
 ing all my term of service in the legislature of 
 
33 
 
 Massachusetts I have never heard one word other 
 than that of pi-aise when the name of the clerk — 
 the former clerk — of this Senate was mentioned. 
 If any one deserves credit, deserves honor, 
 deserves remembrance, it is the man who does 
 his duty by his fellow-men. And I believe that 
 it can be safely claimed for the former clerk of 
 this Senate that in that particular he has not been 
 wanting. 
 
 In other lands and other countries, where prog- 
 ress moves with leaden wings, there is not that 
 progress that we have here upon our side of the 
 ocean. 
 
 In the period of years which marked his official 
 life, near one-third of a century, what has been 
 the march onward made by our nation and our 
 people, has been fitly and eloquently expressed 
 here to-day. His official life, to my mind, marks 
 one important period in the history of the nation 
 and in the history of the State. I allude to the 
 time when Massachusetts for one moment — for it 
 was but for one moment — wandered from the 
 path which her fathers had trod so proudly and 
 so grandly in the years before. But it was only 
 for a moment that she faltered, and to-day it is 
 
34: 
 
 with pride that I say that in our State, the old 
 CommonweaUh of Massachusetts, between men 
 who come from other lands, there are not those 
 barriers which at one time threatened to divide 
 them, and that which weighs the man to-day is 
 not where he came from, what may be his religion, 
 but be he a man, be he honest, be he true, be he 
 worthy of the support of his fellow-citizens. 
 During the official career of our late worthy clerk, 
 the beginning and the end of it marked this great 
 and wondrous change, — to my mind one of the 
 proudest pages in the history of Massachusetts' 
 proud life, ^o deeds or acts, in the ages that 
 are to come, will shine so brightly and shine 
 so grandly. 
 
 I think that the highest encomium that can be 
 paid to Stephen N. Gifeoed is this, that he 
 was a man, — a true American gentleman. From 
 the first day that he took service of the State to 
 the last, he was faithful to the trust imposed upon 
 him, and we need no better substantiation of that 
 fact than the unanimity, with which, year after 
 year, he was re-elected to the place he so honored. 
 It seems as if it were only yesterday, and I gaze 
 upon his familiar face and his familiar form, in 
 
35 
 
 perfect keeping with the siirronndings of this 
 old and this historic State House, and to-day he 
 is no more. 
 
 I remember with pain and with sorrow, and 
 with some pride, that the last action of his life 
 was the affixing of his signature to the resolu- 
 tions offered by myself in this Senate and accepted 
 unanimously by this body — the resolutions of 
 Home Rule. To my mind, it was an appropriate 
 and a fit official ending to such a blameless official 
 life. Resolutions sent from the proudest and the 
 happiest of people on the earth in behalf of one 
 of the lowliest and the most suffering that treads 
 God's footstool. 
 
 He did his duty faithfully and well to the last, 
 and when he laid down his official pen, it was 
 to obey the beckoning hand of the angel of 
 Death. He has gone from amongst us before 
 the throne of the Great Master, and if there be 
 any faults in his threescore and ten years of life, 
 I believe the tears of the Recording Angel will 
 wash them out. 
 
36 
 
 Senatok Morse of Nokfolk. 
 
 I hardly feel, Mr. President, that I can add 
 anything to what has been already said. But I 
 recall the fact that the wisest man who ever 
 lived, under Divine inspiration when Jehovah 
 held the pen, wrote that " It is better to go to 
 the house of mourning than to the house of 
 feasting." Surely, when death comes so nearly 
 as now, it is well to pause for a season, not 
 only to pronounce words of eulogium upon our 
 brother, who has left us " for that undiscovered 
 country, for that bourne from whence no trav- 
 eller returns," but it is well, also, Mr. President, 
 to ponder on the solemn fact that we, too, are 
 mortal, and have here " no continuing city," and 
 that sooner or later our places, too, will be 
 vacant; others will stand in our lot and do our 
 business; for us, too, "the silver cord will be 
 loosed, the golden bowl broken, and the pitcher 
 broken at the fountain." 
 
 You remember, sir, that when Mr. Garfield 
 was stricken down by the vilest] assassin that 
 
37 
 
 ever cursed the earth ; when the surgeons 
 gathered around him, Mr. Garfield asked one of 
 them, "Doctor, is the wound mortal?" and you 
 will remember the answer, " We fear the worst, 
 Mr. Garfield." And said the great, good man, 
 "Doctor, I am not afraid to die." Why not? 
 Because he was at the post of duty. 
 
 Our brother who has left us met the " King 
 of Terrors," we are told, calmly; and surely, 
 like Mr. Garfield, at the post of duty. God 
 grant to all of us who sit around this board, 
 that when our summons, too, shall come " to 
 join the innumerable caravan that moves to the 
 pale realms of shade," we, too, may go, 
 
 * * " not, like the quarry-slave at night, 
 Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
 By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
 Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch 
 About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 
 
 The prophet Daniel once heard a voice. He 
 heard a voice that spake to him and commanded 
 him to " stand in his lot." This man, whose 
 chair is vacant, " stood in his lot " for twenty- 
 
38 
 
 nine years, a modest, unassuming servant of the 
 State. 
 
 Did it ever occur to you, Mr. President, that 
 men are wont to turn their thoughts into the 
 records of the past for memories of noble lives 
 and deeds, and forget the heroes of the present, 
 and men who to-day stand in their lot, the sen- 
 timent expressed by my friend the Senator from 
 Worcester? To illustrate: The student of 
 ancient history loves to think of the three 
 hundred Spartans who stood at the pass of 
 Thermopylae and there contested the advance 
 of the immense Persian army. The Russian loves 
 to think of Peter the Great, who laid aside the 
 glories and splendors of his kingdom and took 
 upon himself the garb and habiliments of his 
 servant and travelled through all the length and 
 breadth of all the Russias, mingling with the 
 poor, despised and lowly, and then returned to 
 his throne and set on foot measures to amelio- 
 rate the condition of his people; the Irishman 
 loves to turn his thoughts into the records of 
 the past and think of Robert Emmet, and sees 
 him in his last and cruel trial. He marks the 
 wrath of Lord Kewbury as he propounds to him 
 
39 
 
 the question : " Robert Emmet, is there any 
 reason why sentence of death should not be 
 pronounced upon you?" He hears him tell his 
 executioners that the blood that they seek is 
 not congealed with the artificial terrors that sur- 
 round their victim. He hears him say that 
 " There is no man that knows my motives who 
 dare now vindicate them. Let my tomb remain 
 uninscribed until my country takes its place 
 among the nations of the earth," and " then, 
 and not till then, let my epitaph be written." 
 And to-day the hearts of his countrymen, in the 
 mountains of Ireland, are inspired to engage in 
 a well-nigh hopeless contest by the dying words 
 of this young Irishman. And we Americans 
 are no exception to the rule. We love to turn 
 our thoughts into the records of the past, and 
 think of Washington, the father of his country; 
 we see him on that cold December night cross- 
 ing the Delaware, or we see him at Yalley 
 Forge, shedding tears over his little band of 
 soldiers, who marked the snow as they marched 
 with their frosty, shoeless, bleeding feet. 
 
 But we have paused to-day, Mr. President, 
 amidst our business, for a brief season to do 
 
40 
 
 honor to a man who, though his name may not 
 live in history Hke the three hundred Spartans, 
 Uke Peter the Great, like Robert Emmet, or 
 like George Washington, yet a man like them 
 who stood in his lot, who did his duty, who 
 loved this dear old Commonwealth of Massachu- 
 setts, who died in her service, and gave his life 
 for her. God bless his memory ! 
 
 Did you reflect, Mr. President, what the just 
 are finally commended for, and what it is that 
 goes to make up a grand and noble life? ]^ot 
 some great deed, like those that 1 recited. But 
 for what? " I was an hungered, and ye gave 
 me meat." It is the little events of life that go 
 to make up character. " I was an hungered, 
 and ye gave me meat; naked and ye clothed 
 me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in 
 prison, and ye came unto me." 
 
 Not one man in one hundred thousand will 
 be remembered by posterity and known to pos- 
 terity; but we may all record deeds and acts 
 like those of our brother, which are unknown 
 to fame, but have been recited here to-day, that 
 will stand when the Books are opened, when 
 
41 
 
 the bronze has turned to dust, and when the 
 canvas has faded. 
 
 I remember to have read a story of a poor 
 old soldier, who was worn out in his country's 
 service, and who, on his way back to his father- 
 land, took to playing the violin as a means to 
 earn a living in the streets of Vienna. By and 
 by this old man's sight became dimmed, his 
 hand became palsied and tremulous, and he could 
 no longer make music on his violin; and finally 
 he sat down on the curbstone in tears, in want 
 and hungry. There came along a stranger who 
 said: "What is the matter?" And this soldier 
 replied : " My hand trembles so that I cannot 
 make any more music on my violin, and I am 
 cold and in want and hungry." " Oh," said the 
 stranger, " you are too old and feeble to play 
 the violin, neighbor; give me the violin." And 
 the stranger took the violin and began to play, 
 and a crowd gathered round, and increased as 
 he played on. Cheers rent the air, and some 
 shouted and some wept. The stranger said to 
 the old man : " I guess you had better pass your 
 hat, old man." And he went round in the crowd 
 and he filled his hat full. He did not expect to 
 
42 
 
 have any money, and passed it to the stranger; 
 but the stranger said: "Put the money in your 
 pockets; I don't want any of it." And the 
 stranger played again, with the same results, 
 and then he left, and somebody in the crowd 
 said: "Who is that? Who is the man that 
 played the violin? " And said a man who knew 
 him: "Didn't you know that man? That was 
 Bucher, the great violinist, known throughout 
 the realm of Austria." Bucher was a rich man, 
 yet he assumed the old man's poverty, he bore 
 the old man's degradation, he played the old 
 man's violin. He became a street beggar to help 
 the old man. 
 
 Now, what does this story bring to our minds? 
 Tt suggests to us One who left his home in 
 glory; One who was rich, and for our sake 
 became poor. How ought our hearts to well up 
 in gratitude; and how ought we to go out and 
 imitate the example of our brother who is no 
 more, by deeds and words and acts of kindness, 
 and make an enduring and an everlasting record. 
 A Quaker once wrote : " I expect to pass through 
 this world but once; if, therefore, there be any 
 kindness I can show to my fellow creatures, let 
 
43 
 
 "me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass 
 this way again." I believe that our brother in 
 his life was animated by such a spirit as that 
 of this Quaker. He left no word or deed of 
 kindness unsaid or undone, for evidently he 
 didn't expect to pass this way again. 
 
44 
 
 Senator Joyner of Berkshire. 
 
 I regret that I have had no leisure to consider 
 thoughts to express at this time. And yet, I 
 have this consolation, for it seems to me we are 
 filing in a single line past the bier of our dead 
 clerk, and as we pass, each Senatoi", throwing 
 his spray upon the coffin-lid, seeks to express 
 some fitting tribute to the dead. But as we 
 listen to these tributes, — jnst, appropriate, elo- 
 quent, — we can but feel that the deeper 
 feelings of the Senate have not been expressed. 
 Words have no language for the deepest senti- 
 ments of the heart. 
 
 We do not stand by the bier of one whom 
 we love and vex the air with noisy words, but 
 we stand rather in marble silence, feeling there 
 is something that words cannot utter; that until 
 words have power to restore to that vacant 
 chair the living form of the dead, the eulogy is 
 incomplete. And, sir, nothing that we can say 
 will restore that life. The Divine speech that 
 would quicken the dead will not be heard; and 
 
45 
 
 so the eulogy of the orator, though it be elo- 
 quent as any to which we have listened, the 
 elegy of the poet, though it be most graceful, 
 will seem incomplete, inadequate. 
 
 As we cannot restore this life, I am led, lis- 
 tening here, to think of what was the lesson of 
 that life. What, after all, was the secret of 
 the success of this man? It was not because 
 he had a clear head, a kind heart, good humor, 
 gracious manners; not because he aided Senators 
 in their work; but it was because he had found 
 the work that he was fitted to do, — by nature 
 fitted to do, — and that work he did. The les- 
 son of his life is to seek out that employment 
 for which we are qualified and then work in 
 that employment. 
 
 There was, perhaps no other reason for his 
 great success, as a clerk, unless it was, that 
 while he knew his OAvn business and wrought 
 at his own business, he did not interfere with 
 the business of others. He never stood upon the 
 little pedestal to which Senatoi-s had elevated him, 
 and from that pedestal sought to influence legis- 
 lative action. Senators in the lobby. Senators 
 in the committee room, were never button-holed 
 
46 
 
 by this man. Whether it was public law or 
 private law or constitutional amendment that 
 was to be made, he ever remembered that, as a 
 recording officer, it was not his duty to seek to 
 interfere with legislators in their work. A wor- 
 thy example, sir, perhaps, to many a man who 
 may have held or still holds office beneath this 
 dome. Having his duty to perform, knowing 
 how to perform it, he made that his business 
 and let other men's business alone. It was on 
 this account that he clashed not Avith men on the 
 sharpest points of their opinions, — political 
 opinions; that he clashed not witli legislators 
 upon their pet schemes. He took no part in 
 contests. 
 
 There is another lesson, sir, to be learned 
 from the life and work of this man in this 
 Senate chamber, a lesson that is alike a credit 
 to him and an honor to the Senate. He held 
 his place for twenty-nine years by the voluntary 
 suffi^ages of forty intelligent men of the Com- 
 monwealth. He was not carried into the office 
 as a mere follower on a State political ticket, 
 but each year by the separate ballots of forty 
 men he came to his place. 
 
47 
 
 The lesson that I learn, and that the Senate 
 may learn, from this is broader. It is that we 
 need no half political, half pedagogic commis- 
 sion to secure fixedness of tenure of office; 
 that we can trust to the people, — the intelli- 
 gence of the common people, — to choose the 
 right man for the right place, year after year, 
 when they find him. We may say, sir, in the 
 language of Lincoln at Gettysburg: "Men will 
 little note, nor long remember, what we here 
 say;" but as long as this thirty years' record of 
 the doings of this Senate are preserved, as long 
 as the Commonwealth shall endure, so long will 
 this record, the work of Stephen N. Gifford, 
 be a monument of the capacity of the people 
 of Massachusetts, who lived through the great 
 war period and for the twenty-five years that 
 followed, for self-government. 
 
48 
 
 Senator Howard of Bristol. 
 
 I rise to unite my voice with those members 
 who have preceded me in paying this last 
 tribute of respect to the memory of our distin- 
 guished and much lamented friend, Stephen N. 
 GiEFORD. I deem it my part, coming here 
 from the ranks of labor and representing a por- 
 tion of Massachusetts' hard-toiling sons, to voice 
 their sentiments in respect to the memory of 
 him whose loss we mourn. 
 
 I had occasion to trouble him, but not fre- 
 quently, to make out reports for me, and I 
 always found that he treated me with as much 
 kindness, respect and courtesy as that extended 
 to the most distinguished members of this Sen- 
 ate. He possessed many of nature's noblest 
 traits. I discovered that in the short time that 
 I knew him, for he made no discrimination 
 whatever between the cultured and wealthy men 
 and those who came from the poorest ranks. 
 I have frequently looked, in the past week, 
 across this Senate chamber, and I have missed 
 
 '^ 
 
49 
 
 that kind, genial and fatherly looking counte- 
 nance, and it i-eminded me occasionally of the 
 words T once heard as being uttered after 
 the death of a celebrated Roman senator, 
 when it was said his absence made him more 
 conspicuous than his presence. 
 
 I stood in that little churchyard in Duxbury, 
 and as I watched his family, his relatives, his 
 numerous friends, descending the steps weeping 
 bitterly over his loss, his manly sons sobbing 
 like children in their hour of affliction, my heart 
 went out in full sympathy to them and I had to 
 brush away a tear of sorrow, though I tried to 
 do it unseen by my brother Senators. I saw 
 him laid in his grave almost beneath the shadow 
 of the monument of Miles Standish, that brave, 
 energetic and capable soldier of the Old Colony, 
 and I thought that ere long his dust would 
 commingle with that of those great men who 
 are buried around him ; those hardy pioneers who 
 laid the foundation of this, the greatest country 
 under heaven, the home of refuge for the 
 oppressed and persecuted of all nations. He is 
 gone; as my brother Senators have said, gone 
 forever ; but he has left his marks upon the page 
 
50 
 
 of Massachusetts history and he has built for 
 himself a monument in the hearts of all those 
 with whom he was associated which time cannot 
 efface. 
 
 I thought, when I saw those boys weeping, 
 when I saw his weeping widow, that in his life- 
 time he must have been a kind and loving 
 husband, a good father, a generous friend, an 
 honest man. He was, as I am told, a friend to 
 all men. The world can pay him no higher 
 eulogy. May his soul rest in eternal peace, is 
 my earnest wish. 
 
51 
 
 President Pillsburt. 
 
 Mr. President, — Our brethren who have 
 already addressed the Senate have done full 
 justice to the life and character of our honored 
 and lamented friend, and I do not expect to add 
 anything to the completeness of the tribute 
 which, by them and by the resolutions of the 
 committee, has already been so touchingly and 
 gracefully paid to his memory. But my rela- 
 tions with him have been such and so close, 
 especially during this and the last session of the 
 legislature, and my respect for him was so deep 
 and my friendship so strong, that I should do 
 injustice to my own feelings if I omitted to lay 
 my humble wreath with the rest upon his grave. 
 I was glad on coming into the Senate 
 chamber this afternoon to find it dressed with 
 the flowers which he loved. Their fragrance is 
 like the fragrance of the memory which he has 
 left behind him, and it is appropriate that the 
 end of an honorable, complete and rounded 
 career like his should be crowned with garlands 
 
52 
 
 of flowers rather than with the emblems of 
 mourning. 
 
 The Senate chamber of Massachusetts is the 
 place in which to pronounce the eulogy of 
 Stephen IS^. Gieford. He was more identified 
 with this place than with any other, and he was 
 more identified with it than any other man. 
 His career as clerk of this body was remai-kable 
 in many respects. It is safe, I think, to say 
 that in length of continuous service it exceeds 
 anything known in the history of the govern- 
 ment of this Commonwealth 5 and the length of 
 his service is a sufficient testimony, if other 
 testimony were wanting, to the character and 
 the quality of the work which he did here. He 
 served the Senate as its recording officer 
 through twenty-eight years, and into the twenty- 
 ninth, and during all that time, so far as I 
 know, his tenure of ofiice was never disturbed 
 by so much as a rumor. His election and 
 re-election were always foregone; and while 
 each assembling Senate went through the form, 
 as it must, it was well understood to be only a 
 form, and that the Senate of Massachusetts 
 would never think of parting with so efficient, 
 
53 
 
 so faithful an officer and servant while he 
 remained able to continue in its service. 
 
 He was in ahnost all respects a model clerk. 
 If he erred at all, it was from excess of caution 
 and on the side of safety. Without what I 
 should call a legal mind or a mind especially 
 adapted to deal with intricacies and technicali- 
 ties, he had what perhaps was better, — an 
 instinct for parliamentary law; an instinct 
 which, superadded to his familiarity with the 
 routine and business of the Senate, gained in 
 his long period of service, made him not only 
 an invaluable recording officer, but of the 
 greatest assistance to the presiding officer. 
 And if there is anything which I desire to 
 specially emphasize to-day, since it happens that 
 here and at this time my voice is the only one 
 which can bear this testimony, it is that he has 
 laid every presiding officer of the Senate during 
 his time under obligations which will not soon 
 be forgotten. And I ought to add, — because it 
 was most characteristic of him, — that he never 
 seemed to make any display of superior 
 knowledge and never obtruded his advice. 
 Indeed his advice, when asked, was given with 
 
54 
 
 a diffidence and modesty that evidently were 
 not affected but were felt. 
 
 His personal characteristics most apparent to 
 his friends, and equally apparent indeed to those 
 who had only a casual acquaintance with him, 
 were his geniality of temperament and manner, 
 and a keen sense and unfailing fund of humor. 
 It was these qualities that attached his friends to 
 him and made almost every man and woman and 
 child who ever made his acquaintance regard him 
 with feelings of personal friendship. Situated 
 in this public position as he was during an 
 entire generatiou, he probably met and made the 
 acquaintance of more citizens of Massachusetts 
 than any man now living, and that he is follow^ed 
 to his grave by the regard and regret of every 
 one of these I need not say to you who knew 
 him. 
 
 I have listened with interest for any allusion 
 by our brethren of the Senate to that which is 
 almost always a subject of remark on occasions 
 like this, — his religious character or his opinions 
 upon religious topics. We need not hesitate to 
 speak of this. Mr. Gifford was not, in the 
 popular sense, a religious man, — by which I 
 
55 
 
 mean that he was not accustomed very rigidly 
 to observe the forms and ceremonials of relig- 
 ious belief or worship. But in my view he was 
 a religious man in a better sense. If he had 
 been asked for a statement of his creed, I think 
 he might have expressed it much as it was 
 expressed by Pope in the lines with which you 
 are familiar: 
 
 " For modes of faith let graceless zealots figbt ; 
 His can't be wrong whose life is iu the right." 
 
 This, I think, was his creed, and that he made 
 this vital in his daily walk and life his friends 
 will remember. I cannot feel, Mr. President, 
 that this is so much an occasion for mourning 
 as for rejoicing. He lived a tranquil, a con- 
 tented aud happy life. lie was spared, as he 
 always desired to be, in the full enjoyment of all 
 his faculties almost to the last moment, to die 
 at his post of duty, having passed through a 
 serene old age, surrounded, as the poet says, 
 
 " With all that should accompany old age, 
 As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends." 
 
56 
 
 We went down, the other day, to the home 
 which he loved, and there laid his body in the 
 ground ; but his better part is still with us, in 
 the tender memories of his friends and in the 
 sincere and lasting regard of the people of the 
 State which he served so long and so well. 
 
 The Resolutions were adopted by a rising 
 vote, and thereupon the Senate adjourned. 
 
Stephen Nye Gifford was born in Pembroke, Massachu- 
 setts, July 21, 1815. By the death of his father, he was left 
 at the age of ten, with an older brother and his mother, in very 
 straitened circumstances. Until he was fifteen years old he 
 worked on a farm for his board and clothes, attending school 
 two or three months in the year. He then for a time worked at 
 shoemaking, but his health becoming impaired, he resolved to 
 obtain a better education in order to enter the profession of 
 teaching, and attended the academies at Hanover and Bridge- 
 water, paying his way by working at his trade out of school 
 hours. He began teaching in the common schools, and after 
 some years established a private school in the town of Duxbury. 
 He was a member of the House of Representatives for the year 
 1850, and in 1851 was appointed an inspector in the Boston 
 Custom House, which office he held two or three years. In 
 1854 he was for a brief time Assistant Clerk to the Senate, 
 and in the following year was appointed Assistant Clerk of 
 the House. The same j'ear he was chosen by the Legis- 
 lature, State Auditor, and again became Assistant Clerk of 
 the House in 1857, and the following year was chosen Clerk 
 of the Senate, which office he held until his death at Duxbury, 
 April 18, 1886. 
 
MM 14 1904 
 

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