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 / ■ I No. I3S. 
 
 MEMORIAL ADDRl'SSl'S 
 
 LIFE AND CllARACri'-R 
 
 JAMES PIIELAN, 
 
 A Klil'UliSENTATlVK FROM TENNESSEE, 
 
 I>ELIVKRKI) IN THE 
 
 House of Representatives and in the Senate, 
 
 FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION. 
 
 I'UMLISIIEU UV oKliKI-i Oh CONGRESS. 
 
 WASHINGTON : 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 I 8 9 I . 
 

 CONCURRENT RESOLUTION TO PRINT THE EULOGIES UPON JAMES PHELAN. 
 
 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate cotiei(rriiicj), 
 That tliere be printed of the eulogies deHvered in Congress upon the late 
 James Phelan, a Representative in the Fifty-first Congress from the State 
 of Tennessee. 12,000 copies, of which 3,000 copies shall be for the tise of the 
 Senate, and 9,000 copies shall be for the use of the House of Representa- 
 tives; and tlie Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed to 
 have printed a portrait of the said James Phelan, to accompany said 
 eulogies. That of the quota to the House of Representatives the Public 
 Printer shall set apai't 50 copies, which he shall have bound in full mo- 
 rocco with gilt edge.s, the same to be delivered when complete to the 
 family of the deceased. 
 
 Agreed to in the House of Representatives February 38, 1891. 
 
 Agreed to in the Senate March 3, 1891. 
 2 
 
 AUG 6 I90« 
 
 D.ora 
 
PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 
 
 ANNOUNCEMENT OF DEATH. 
 
 February 7, 1891. 
 
 Mr. McMiLLiN. Mr. Speaker, the sad duty devolves upon 
 me of aiinouncing to this House the death, in Nassau, 
 whitlier he had gone in quest of health, of Hon. James 
 Phelan, a member of Congress from the Tenth district of 
 Tennessee— a ripe scholar, a pure patriot, a noble states- 
 man. I will at an appropriate time ask the House to take 
 further steps in commemoraticm of his merit. At jjresent I 
 offer the following resolutions. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 Resolved, Tliat the House lias lieaid witli profound sorrow and deep 
 regret of the deatli of Hon. James Phelan, late a Representative from 
 the State of Tennessee. 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of seven niember.sof the House, with sucli 
 members of the Senate as may be joined, be appointed to attend tlie 
 funeral. 
 
 Resolved, That the Clerk communicate tliese resolutions to the Senate 
 and transmit a copj' to the family of the deceased. 
 
 The resiilutions were agreed to. 
 
 The Speaker pro tempore subseipiently announced as 
 members of the committee Mr. Washington, Mr. McRae, 
 Mr. Wickham, Mr. Enloe, Mr. Stockbridge, Mr. Montgom- 
 ery, and Mr. Coleman, 
 
4 Procccditii^s in the House of Representatives. 
 
 Mr. McMiLLiN. I ask the consideration of the following 
 resolution. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 Resolved, That the StTfreant-at-Arms be directed to take proper action 
 for superintending the funeral ceremonie.s of tlie late Mr. Phelan, the 
 expense so incurred by him to lie paid out of the contingent fund of the 
 House. 
 
 The resolution was agreed to. 
 
 Mr. McMiLLiN. I also offer the following resolution. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 Resolved, That as a furtlier mark of respect to the memory of the 
 deceased the House do now adjourn. 
 
 The resolution was agreed to. 
 
 Accordingly (at 4 o'clock and 45 miniites p. m.) the House 
 adjourned until Monday, February U, IS'Jl, at 11 o'clock 
 a. m. 
 
EULOGIES. 
 
 February 18, 1891. 
 
 Mr. McMiLLiN. If tlie gentleman will indulge me for a 
 moment, I wish to sul^mit a matter of which I tliink he will 
 see the eminent fitness. I ask for the present consideration 
 of the resolution which^I send to the Clerk's desk. 
 
 The Speaker j)ro iempore. The gentleman from Ten- 
 nessee asks unanimous consent for the present consideration 
 of the resolution which the Clerk will read. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 RcHolved, That Fi-iday, February 27, 1891. beginning at 3 o'clock p. m., 
 be set apart for paying tribute to tlie memory of Hon. James Phelan, 
 late a member of tlie House of Representatives from tlie Tenth district 
 of the State of Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. McKiNLEY. What hour does the resolution fix? 
 
 Mr. McMiLLiN. Three o"cl(jck. 
 
 Mr. McKiNi.EY. Would not the gentleman think it would 
 be as well to make it \ o'clock. 
 
 Mr. McMiLLiN. I have already fixed it one hour later 
 than the usual hour. 
 
 Mr. DiNGLEY. I tliink it ought to be 4 o'clock. 
 
 Mr. McMiLLlN. I hope tliere will be no insistence on 
 making it 4 o'clock. I fixed it at 3 o'clock with the view of 
 giving almost a full day's work before the hour set for this 
 purpose. 
 
6 Eti/oo^ics oil the 
 
 Mr. Farquhar. Tlie hour fixed in the case of Mr. Wil- 
 ber was 4 o'clock, and there was no objection to that. 
 
 Mr. McMiLLiN. Yes; and others have been fixed at 1 and 
 2 o'clock. 
 
 Mr. McKiNLEY. I think if the gentleman will reflect he 
 will see the propriety of making it 4 o'clock, considering 
 that it occurs so late in the session. 
 
 Mr. McMiLLiN. I have no desire to run counter to what 
 may be the propriety of the occasion. I know the House 
 would be willing to give any time that woi;ld be proper. I 
 will therefore accept tlie amendment fixing the houi' at 4 
 o'clock. 
 
 The resolution as amended was adopted. 
 
 February 28, 1801. 
 Mr. McMiLLiN. Mr. Speaker, I ask for the reading of 
 the resolutions which I send to the desk. 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 Resolved. That the business of the House be now suspended that oppor- 
 tunity ni.ay l)e given for tributes to the memory of Hon. J.\mes Phel.\n, 
 late a Representative from the State of Tennessee. 
 
 Resoh-eil.. Tliat as a particular mark of respect to the memory of the 
 decea.sed. and i7i recognition of his eminent abilities as a faithful ])ublic 
 servant, the Hovise, at the conclusion of tliese memorial proccediuRS, 
 shall stand adjourned. 
 
 Resolred. That the Clerk communicate tliese resolutions to the Senate. 
 
 Resolved, That the Clerk also transmit to the family of the deceased a 
 copy of these resolutions. 
 
Life and Character of James PJielan. 
 
 Address of Mr. Richardson, of Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: I ask the indulgence of the House for a lit- 
 tle while that I may pay a tribute to the memory of my late 
 colleague, James Phelan. He was born in Aberdeen, Mis- 
 sissippi. December 7. 185('). and died of pulmonary consump- 
 tion in Nassau, New Providence, on January 30, 1891. He 
 -was first elected to the Fiftieth Congress, and was reelected 
 to the Fifty-first; hence, when he died he had nearly com- 
 pleted his second term as a member of this body. Although 
 one of the youngest members of the House, he attained, in 
 the short period he served as a Representative, a position 
 in the front rank. He was a cultured student, a hard 
 worker, and a true gentleman. He had won for himself 
 before entering Congress a bright reputation as an author 
 and journalist. His learning was varied, and his education 
 thoroughly classical. In 1871 he attended the Kentucky Mil- 
 itary Institute, near Frankfort, Kentucky. He completed 
 his studies at the best German universities, and returned to 
 the United States with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 
 in 1878. He then studied law, and began the practice at 
 Memphis in 1881. 
 
 He never held office until elected to the Fiftieth Congress 
 from the Memphis, Tennessee, district. As I have stated he 
 was reelected to the present Congress, but on account of ill 
 health he was able to occupy his seat only a few days. But 
 for his indomitable will, and unflagging energy, and me- 
 thodical habit, it would not have been possible for him to 
 accomplish the work he performed. I remember well dur- 
 ing his first session here to have seen him often at his seat 
 
8 Address of Mr. Richardson., of Tennessee., on the 
 
 on this floor earnestly engaged on the manuscript and in 
 revising the proof of his history of Tennessee. This is a 
 work of rare value, to which he devoted many of his best 
 hours. The labor on this book he was performing while 
 constantly occupied witli his Congressional duties. It was 
 said of him he had but little taste for politics, and that pos- 
 sibly he would not have made a very successful law-maker, 
 but one thing is sure, his name will live in the hearts of 
 Tenuesseans so long as Tenuesseans are taught to love and 
 honor the men who made the history which he wrote. 
 Though his years were not many in number, his achieve- 
 ments were extraordinary, and he has left a heritage of in- 
 calculable value to his children and family. 
 
 A warm personal friend of his, one wlio ha 1 been associ- 
 ated with him in business and who perhaps knew him in 
 life better than any of us, said of him iu a recent eloquent 
 tribute to his memory : 
 
 Tlie years of Phelan's life were few. but he wrought wondrously. 
 His name is written wliere it will endure. He has left as a heritage to 
 his children a record of extraordinary achievement. Becavise he was our 
 ueigliljor we should not he insensible of the ri'al greatness of the man. 
 With the single exception of Alexander Hamilton, no man has ever 
 appeared in the political life of America who, at thirty, had accomplished 
 so much or gave such promise of a surpassing career. In youth a most 
 assiduous student, he completed his education at the German universities. 
 Otlier men liave taken the same course, only to become impracticables in 
 the every-day affairs of the world. Not so with Phel.^n. He came home 
 full-armed, ready, alert, ambitious, and determined to make name and 
 fame for himself as an American citizen. He projected his line of life 
 carefully. He seemed to anticipate his own futiu-e. He proceeded 
 patiently, but rapidly. Every obstacle in the definite coui-se he had 
 marked out was overcome. At thirty, what had he done ? He was a 
 member of Congress. He had proved himself a thorough journalist, 
 owning and directing one of the leading newspapers of the South. He 
 had written a histoiy of Tennessee, wliich is scholarly in its text, so 
 acceptable in its treatment, and so exceptional in its worth as to estabUsh 
 him in high rank among those whose names adorn American literature. 
 Where is bis like for industry, for vers,atility, and for that qiKility nf 
 genius which compreliends any task and fulfills any obligations? 
 
Life and Character of James Phelan. 9 
 
 The same writer again said of hiiu : 
 
 His will was invincible, but his motives were pure. His purposes were 
 definite, but they were exemplary and lofty. His self-respect was in- 
 tense ; therefore he strove to do justice to others. He was ready to forgive 
 a wrong when it proceeded from an Ixonest difference of view. He sought 
 no mean advantage, being jealous of his own honor. Sincere Iiimself, he 
 demanded sincerity of others. He never disappointed a friend ; he never 
 ignored an obligation: he never forfeited a confidence. Being true to 
 himself, it followed, " as the night the day. he could not then be false to 
 any man." But who knew Phelan bestV Surely not those who knew 
 him only in the various phases of his public life. To those wlio were the 
 companions of his boyhood, who had struggled with him to meet the ex- 
 actions of the college class-room, who had joined him on the ball-lield, 
 who had camped with him in the forest-^who, in short, knew the boy 
 that was in the man— to them comes the profoundest grief that he is no 
 more. Their affection found deeper root than in admh-atiou for his suc- 
 cesses. They knew him to be a simple-hearted, generous, helpful, un- 
 affected man, who rejoiced in the happiness of others, who was sensible 
 of the value of human love, who was a child when there was time to play, 
 whose heart was easily touched, and whose friendship held fast in all 
 weathers. ' To them was given a glimpse of the man's inner nature. They 
 saw the melancholy aspect of the tremendous battle he made for quick - 
 personal distinction. He was at Leipsic at school when he became first 
 convinced that his expectation of hfe was short. He was hopeful, but he 
 lost no time. He couUl not afford to idle on the way. He saw the shadow 
 that rested on the future. He could not put it out of account. The terri- 
 ble realization was his, and liis alone. It was frcjm this that liLs nervous 
 force proceeded. His energy was almost unnatural. Peojjle said he was 
 burning the candle at both ends. He knew it. but he also knew the rea- 
 son why. A day lost was not to be made up. From him was shut the 
 fond belief that after the struggle would come the restful vales of age. 
 It was always with him a race with the grim specter. Yet he was joyous, 
 undeten-ed, buo^'aut, and ever planning. When the real conflict with 
 disease came, lie fought for life as men have rarely fought. He perceived 
 the futility of the struggle, yet he was defiant. He took every chance. 
 For months he lived by the sheer force of his will. At last the end is 
 reached. The heroic soul is released. His dreams are over. His ambi- 
 tious spirit is at rest. "The expectancy and ro.se of the fair state" is 
 become a memory. The eulogies we pay can not be deemed extravagant, 
 though he who has been taken away was but yesterday, it seems, 
 
 lu the morn and liquid dew of youth. 
 His work was not complete. But, though the shaft he reared lacks the 
 capital, th.at which remains to tell us of his genius is so wondrous in its 
 beauty and promise that we may not question what the grace of its ulti- 
 mate perfection would have been. It is eloquent of all that is best and 
 bravest in man. 
 
10 .iddress of Air. OWrill, of Poinsylvania, cm the 
 
 I do not apologize for using so miu-li of this tribute to tlie 
 deceased, for I know it is sincere and all will realize its 
 eloqiience and beauty. Others will follow me who will pay 
 their tribute, but none will be more just, fitting, and truth- 
 ful tjian that from which I have qiioted so largely. It was 
 written by Mr. H. M. Doak, of Tennessee. 
 
 Death at all times is sad. It is a melancholy thought that 
 a man is to die, perish, and be gone forever from the face of 
 the earth. It is doubly sad to contemplate death when the 
 subject is young, bright, able, learned, accomplished, and 
 thoroughly equipped for the battle of life. Such a man was 
 my late friend and colleague, James Phelan. "Peace to 
 his ashes." 
 
 Address of Mr. O'Neill, of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: James Phelan, born December 7, 1856, 
 died in Nassau on the oOtli of January, 1891, having lived 
 but a little over thirty-four years. When he was but ten 
 years of age, his father, a distinguished citizen of Missis- 
 sippi, removed with his family to Memphis, Tenn. This 
 son, in the prime of his young manhood, not having reached 
 his thirtieth year, was honored by a triumphant election to 
 the United States House of Representatives, and two years 
 later was reelected by a largely increased majority. The 
 reelection showed that confidence of his constituents in him 
 which is so much desired by Representatives, it being con- 
 sidered always an indorsement of official condiict. 
 
 These details I give to illustrate the sentiment of the 
 country, that youth, with its energy and ambition, is fitted 
 for the commencement of legislative work ; usefulness to 
 constituents and distinction to the Representative surely 
 
Life and C/iai-acfer of James Plic/an. 1 1 
 
 coming, as years of service make manifest his industrious 
 and intelligent devotion to (hity. 
 
 Mr. Phelan, owing to failing health, did not seek a third 
 renomiuatiou and election. Bj' examining the rolls of Con- 
 gress, it will lie found that, as a general rule, a larger pro- 
 portion of those who come to the House of Representatives 
 at or about the age of thirty years, than of those who come 
 at a later age, gain reputation and are promoted to higher 
 national positions. 
 
 In my Congressional experience I could name many who 
 at that early pei-iod of life laid the foundation of leader- 
 ship, controlled legislation because of their ability, and in 
 the future were recognized as the statesmen of the country. 
 Senators and Presidents can date their elevation to these 
 high places from the impression made by them during their 
 days of comparatively eai-ly service in the House. Mr. 
 Phelan, with his unusually thorough education, his natural 
 mental power, his intellectual training, and unremitting de- 
 votion to his duties, woi;ld have become distinguished here 
 and have been known by his countrymen, as successful in 
 his Congressional career. 
 
 Higher honors from his State would have been within his 
 reach; but unfortimately for him and for us. his health broke 
 down, and death claimed him much too early for those of us 
 who knew him and appreciated and admired his great attain- 
 ments. He was my fellow-member in the Committee on 
 Commerce in the Fiftieth Congress. His attendance at its 
 meetings was constant, and in all matters considered by it his 
 practical knowledge and his varied information gave him a 
 standing therein most enviable. His assignment to that 
 committee for the present Congress was in accordance with 
 the wishes of all its members, and had his health permitted 
 him to take his usual active part in its deliberations, he 
 
12 Address of Mr. Cii»i»iiiigs, of New VorJt, on the 
 
 would have continued among the foremost in perfecting the 
 important measures referred to it. 
 
 His absence, so frequently necessary, was felt severely at its 
 meetings during both sessions of this Congress, depriving his 
 colleagues of his courteous companionship ; and his death 
 was most sincerely deplored. Fighting for life so many 
 months, seeking bodily relief far from the constituents who 
 loved and respected him, dying in a foreign land, so young, 
 and witli a future so full of promise, his death is attended 
 with incidents of sadness not often realized by us. I re- 
 ceived, the day after his body had reached Washington, a 
 most feeling and synipatlietic letter written to me by an 
 esteemed friend of mine, a very prominent citizen in social 
 and business life in Philadelphia, whose wife is a kinswoman 
 of the deceased, in reading vvhicli my heart was touched, so 
 full was it of affection and grief. 
 
 In replying to this letter I promised to keep these sorrow- 
 ing relatives informed of the time fixed for the final burial, 
 so that with others of the family they might mingle their 
 tears as the body of the departed was consigned to its last 
 resting-place on earth. So that in Philadelphia there is 
 deep affliction at the death of James Phelan, and his un- 
 timely loss is lamented and his memory tenderly cherished 
 by these friends in that city who have known and loved 
 him loni;- and well. 
 
 Address of Mr. Cummings, of New York. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: It is ju.st possible that in speaking of the 
 dead we do not pay sufficient heed to endeavor. Inertia is 
 the bane, as action is the glory, of existence. One is heed- 
 less, the other requires design. And as motive measures 
 
Life and Oiaractcr of James PJiclaii. 13 
 
 the guilt of a bad action, so does purpose add to tlie merit 
 of a good one. A man who strives for the right and fails is 
 entitled to more credit than one to whom success comes 
 without effort. But the greater glory is accomplishment, 
 which comes from both design and labor. When Demos- 
 thenes, to the question three times repeated as to what was 
 most essential in oratory, rejilied, "Action, action, action," 
 he could not have meant that action alone constituted the 
 whole of eloquence. For gesticidation and gyration are 
 methods with which the harlequin often excites mirth in his 
 auditors. He must have meant that action was the most 
 efficient method of enforcing the words of the orator, and 
 was therefore essential to a finished j)erformance. 
 
 This much I have deeme<l a proj^er introduction to what 
 I have to say of our dead friend. He was full of endeavor 
 and he also accomplished. Young as he was he has, in my 
 opinion, won a conspicuous and permanent place in Ameri- 
 can literature. My acquaintance with him was brief, but 
 exceedingly cordial. We were brothers in the field of jour- 
 ■ nalism and entered the Congressional arena together. 
 
 What first imi:)ressed me was his intense Americanism. 
 He loved his country as a son his mother. He sought the 
 sources of her strength and glory as the hart seeks for run- 
 ning waters. He studied the origin of her institutions, and 
 his desire was that she should be first among all nations in 
 all that was excellent. A stain ui>on her he felt as a blot 
 upon his own honor. Confident that this would be manifest 
 in whatever he put iipon record designed to bo lasting, and 
 surprised that it should show itself so intensely in one born 
 to affluence and educated abroad, I sought the source of it 
 in his history of his own State. There I found it. 
 
 I pronounce it a great work ; not great perhaps in its 
 scope, but a finished performance of what he attempted. 
 
14 Addi-css of Mr. Cinii»i/ii_s^s, of Nexv York^ on t]ic 
 
 In uiy jiidginent it more than rivals any similar work that 
 America has produced. Put to the trial, I believe it would 
 hold its own and make a head-to-head finish with the best 
 that has been done in philosophical and biographical his- 
 tory. Its style is simplicity itself. In presentation it is 
 wonderfully vivid. Li delineation every fiber is distinct. 
 His story as he runs it off leaves no room for misconcep- 
 tion. Every event is finished in its jiroper place. Every 
 character is put in its proper positi<jn. When he completes 
 the concurrence that brought them together there is no 
 catching back at it. It is done. His philosophy in regard 
 to events and his limning of character are done in such a 
 flood of light that the reader feels himself in their very 
 presence, with a perfect appreciation of their entire signifi- 
 cance. 
 
 Nor is his criticism of other writers less graphic or less 
 just. Of this I will give but a single example. Speak- 
 ing of Jackson, that heroic figure in American history, he 
 says : 
 
 Paiton has all but ruined Jackson's reputation among tlie thoughtful. 
 Sumner sinks him to the level of a " guerrilla chief or cross-roads poli- 
 tician." 
 
 Here is a V(.)lume of criticism in three lines. 
 
 It is often said that a good history can not be written by 
 a contemiiorary. James Phelan has done more to nega- 
 tive this statement than any author I liave ever read. 
 Nothing could better show the magnanimity of his mind, 
 and magnanimity is the sTim of all great qiTalities. He 
 may almost be said to have written in the very presence of 
 that whicli he records, and yet we look in vain for any bias 
 in the writer. 
 
 The achievements of rugged pioneers, and the vigorous ' 
 growth of the institutions which they founded, seem to 
 
Life and Character of James Phelan. 15 
 
 havi! woven themselves into liis very l)eing, so that his love 
 of them was like the love of life itself. And this he pub- 
 lished to the world in almost every act and speech of his 
 life. 
 
 James Phelan was an example of the highest type of 
 American citizensliip— a patriot and the sou of a patriot, a 
 scholar and the son of a scholar, and yet above all and 
 through all a man of tlie people. 
 
 Educated abroad, no foreign education could make a 
 foreigner of him. To know the caste and fashion of 
 Europe only made his patriotic heart love more tlie simple 
 manners of his native laud. To see the pomp and dignity 
 of monarchy only confined him more closely to the paths 
 of liberty and equality. Beneath the glitter and the show, 
 the tinsel and the flash of royal state, he saw the poverty 
 and oppression, the misery and suffering it breeds. The 
 sight of the magnificent armies of Europe only impressed 
 upon his thoughfnl mind more deeply the great truth that 
 large standing armies are a menace to free institutions. 
 His foreign education, his knowledge of European life and 
 manners, only intensified his love for the institutions of 
 liis country and his devotion to her welfare. 
 
 Mr. Phelan was not only an illustration of American 
 patriotism, but equally of the versatility which distin- 
 guishes our countrymen. Educated for the law, he turned 
 to the more congenial pursuits of journalism and states- 
 manship. His short career in Congress is closed. Here, 
 as everywhere else, he was a close aud continuous student. 
 Wliatever he attempted, in that he excelled. He stood in 
 the front ranks of journalism, of literature, of statesman- 
 ship. 
 
 His private cliaracter was without reproach; his public 
 services beyond the c^vil of envy or the slander of partisan 
 
16 Address of Mr. Grosz'ciior^ of Ohio, on /he 
 
 spirit. Amid all the siren voices that steal upon tlie ear of 
 the statesman, be heard naught but the still small voice of 
 duty. AVitli liim to hear was to obey. 
 
 An editorial confrere, touched to the heart by his death, 
 has poured forth a trilnite to his memory, already quoted 
 by the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Richardson]. I can 
 not refrain from rccjuotiiig these golden wonls : 
 
 He never disappointed a friend ; lie never ignored an obligation ; he 
 never forfeited a confidence. His will was invincible ; liis motives pure. 
 His purposes were definite, Vnit exemplary and lofty. His self-respect 
 was intense ; therefore he strove for justice to others. He sought no 
 mean advantage, being jealous of his own honor. 
 
 In him the living have lost a kind husband, a tender 
 father, a faithful friend ; his State, a true son ; his country, 
 a faithful servant. But he lias left them that richest of all 
 treasures, a spotless reputation, the memory of earnest deeds 
 well done. 
 
 Thus much have I felt imiielled to say of James Phelan. 
 I feel exalted that I knew him ; I revere his memory ; I re- 
 joice that he was my cotmtryman. 
 
 Address of Mr. Grosvenor, of Ohio. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : My acquaintance with the Hon. James 
 Phelan was simply the acquaintance that a member of this 
 House on this side of the floor has with a member on the 
 other side with whom he does not come in contact in the 
 committee room or the nearer associations of home. To my 
 mind he has been fitly described by the eloquent gentleman 
 from New York [Mr. Cummings]. With him pride and 
 ambition as a writer and journalist was, in my judgment, 
 
Life and Character of James Phelan. \ 7 
 
 above every other consideration ; and when I first made his 
 acquaintance lie made the impression upon me that he was 
 aiso a man of fine social instincts and of tenacious attach- 
 ment to the opinions he had formed. 
 
 Later I discovered that he had just enough pride ( if < ipinion 
 to make liim jealous of criticisTU he deemed to be unjust; 
 but I realized that he was always fair and just to his oppo- 
 nents. He did not make speeches on the floor of the House 
 to such an extent as to bring him under my notice in that 
 particular. I looked upon him as an industrious, wctrking 
 member. He seemed, Mr. Speaker, to know that death was 
 upon him ; for when I first met him he seemed to be a man 
 who felt that against his life an uncontrollable, irresistible 
 enemy had i)reijared a fatal and final attack. 
 
 The great wonder to me is (and I have noticed it in the 
 case of other men besides Mr. Phelan) that an intelligent 
 man. witJi a full knowledge of his own condition, sensible 
 that death was close upon him, that his life here was to be 
 limited to a few months, and that he, struggling against 
 overwhelming odds, should yet go straight forward in the 
 discharge of his public and jn-ivate duties as though long 
 life was before him and the culmination and fruition of a 
 laudable ambition. I think that, perhaps, it is one of the 
 wisest jjrovisions of Providence that this should be so. 
 
 It is not so in every man, and where it jiresents itself it i.s 
 an indication of high courage and strong mental power that 
 can bear up against all the encroachments of disease and re- 
 fuse to surrender the ambition to achieve something more, 
 something greater, something higher. I testify to the char- 
 acter of Mr. Phelan, from the standpoint which I have 
 indicated, as a man of stern devotion to duty. I differed 
 with him ujjon a great many questions. 
 
 I looked upon him as one whom I might class as an ex- 
 H. Mis. 135 % 
 
18 ylddrcss of Mr. Gj'osz'ciioi-, of Ohio, on the 
 
 treme man ujjon some questions tliat come up liere. I formed 
 that judgment more from his writings than from his oral 
 declarations But I looked iipou him as a man wiio was 
 wholly conscientious ; a man who believed what he said. 
 And, Mr. Speaker, that is an element of character that I 
 admire, no matter though the possessor of it and I may 
 differ very widely. The older I grow and the more I see 
 of men and things, the more lenient I am toward the opin- 
 ions of others, the more ready to doubt my own correctness 
 against the judgment and testimony of men who differ with 
 me. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, death has made havoc of the Fifty-first 
 House of the American Congress. 
 
 What an appalling list ! I recall them one by one. The 
 indomitable, energetic, clear-headed Burnes, who fell in a 
 moment and was wafted away. Townshend, the mercurial, 
 strong, quick, active partisan, gentleman, friend. Then 
 Gay, full of years and experience, conservatism, wisdom, 
 value upon this floor. Pennsylvania has suffered. The 
 oldest member of the House in point of service. Judge Kel- 
 ley, died during this Congress, a man of vast resources of 
 mind, of splendid application to tlie pursuit of tlie amlntion 
 of his life ; and Randall, the man of grandeur of character, 
 sturdy integrity, wisdom, power; and Watson, whom we 
 eulogized but a few days ago. Then Cox, of New York, 
 than whom no more lovable man ever stood nptm this 
 floor" a man who could turii the storm of contest liere into 
 the gentle breeze of pleasant rivalry; the readiest man upon 
 his feet I ever saw. Then Wilber, and the brave, gallant 
 Nutting. Next, Walker, of Missouri; and finally our friend 
 whom we are here to do honor to-day. What a galaxy of 
 talent, of honor, of statesmanship, of virtue ; and they have 
 all gone before us. 
 
Life and Character of James Phclaii. 19 
 
 Mr. Speaker, on another occasion like tliis I said that, 
 judging by my own feelings, by the inspirations that came 
 to me, I would not believe that there was no future ; I 
 would not believe, I would not be driven to the belief, that 
 there was not somewhere a place where we shall meet again, 
 and surely I can not believe in the justice anid the goodness 
 of a being that would annihilate the twelve whose names I 
 have recited. They would not have been created for anni- 
 hilation. It is a libel upon the common judgment of man- 
 kind, and I believe that their example, their efforts, their 
 character, are beckoning us onward to a home that we may 
 not attain to, but that we may attain to, where partings like 
 these will be no more. 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. BUNNELL, OF MINNESOTA, 
 
 Mr. Speaker : These ceremonies are in honor of the late 
 Hon. James Phelan, of the State of Tennessee. This asso- 
 ciate died too early for his home, liis State, and the nation. 
 Death came to him at Nassau, on the 30th day of January 
 of the present year, whither he had gone in a search for 
 health. This great boon fled his search, and the remorse- 
 lessness of the great enemy of the race held its victim. It 
 would not yield. The cultured mind, the gentle spirit, the 
 loyal heart could not withstand its demands. 
 
 I have ever thought that words of eulogy, such as this 
 occasion requires, should be pronounced by those who best 
 knew the subject, who knew his parentage, his eaidy life, 
 his struggles, and triumphs in the early and later periods of 
 life, the characteristics of the man, his mental powers, his 
 moral and social qualities. 
 
20 Address of Mr. Diiuiull, of Minnesota, on the 
 
 I (lid not have tlie honor to know our h^lnented brother. 
 An incident alone apparently justifies me to cherish a hope 
 that I may in some, yet few words, fittingly mention a rea- 
 son for my part in these commemorative services. 
 
 In 1875 a daughter but recently married, Avith her young 
 husband, a prospective student in one of the universities, 
 reached Leipsic, Saxony. They soon formed the acquaint- 
 ance of James Phelan, of Tennessee, then a young man 
 of twenty, and a fellow-student in the university. This 
 acquaintance ripened into a friendship at once strong and 
 delicate. These happy social relations which existed be- 
 tween these three young Americans in a foreign city were 
 suddenly ended in the second month of the next year, when 
 the young wife became a victim to the same foil disease 
 which fifteen years later overtook, at Nassau, the ripe scholar 
 and the distinguished statesman whose death we here to-day 
 so profoundly mourn. 
 
 The first written messages which gave to lis the circum- 
 stances of the death and burial of the daughter and young 
 wife told us how tenderly and how lovingly the young 
 fellow-student had conducted himself on the sad occasion. 
 As the young man dropped his tears of sorrow and resi)ect 
 upon that grave, made in a land far from home, so here the 
 father would mingle his tears with the tears of those who 
 to-day weep at the gi'ave of a husband and father. 
 
 James Phelan wrought grandly and died ere the merid- 
 ian of life was reached, honored and loved by all who knew 
 him. All these knew the nobleness of his nature, his bright 
 intellectual powers, and, most of all, his warm, generous, 
 loving heart. 
 
Lijc and Character of James Phelan. 21 
 
 Address of Mr. Baker, of New York. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : It has uften been said that death loves a 
 shining mark, and such a mark he had in him we commem- 
 orate to-day. In James Phelan, witli whom I became 
 acquainted dui'ing the hist Congress, I discovered a gentle- 
 man of rai'e merit and of most brilliant promise. I did not 
 come to know him until we were thrown togetlier as mem- 
 bers of the Committee on Commerce, to which, by the cour- 
 tesy of the Speaker, I was a.ssigned as chairman at the com- 
 mencement of the present Congress. Then, in the few 
 interviews that we had as members of that committee, I 
 recognized in Mr. Phelan a gentleman of marked aldlity, 
 a man who commended himself to me as one filled with an 
 earnest desire to serve well his day and generation. 
 
 Hone.st, earnest, intelligent, able, cultured, he was also 
 ambitious to do his full share of work as a member of the 
 committee, and he attended upon several occasions when I 
 felt that he was really unable to be out of his bed. Unable as 
 he was to attend to the duties of tliat committee for more than 
 a brief period, he performed those duties admirably while 
 he did attend, and in the interviews that we had from time 
 to time, I found that he felt a profound interest in the many 
 affairs connected with the public welfare which came before 
 us for consideration. ■ 
 
 He took a very deep interest in the commercial growth 
 of the country and in the advancement of all the interests 
 that combine to make our people and our country great and 
 prosperous, and his desire was plainly manifest to do auy- 
 tliing and everything in his power as a statesman to secure 
 tlie greatest jjossible good to every portion of our common 
 
2-2 Add)'css of Mr. leaker, of Nnv York, on the 
 
 country. I discovered also in my intea-cour.se with Mr. Phe- 
 LAN that he was a man of warm imi:)ulses and of a gentle, 
 confiding nature. A warm friendsliijj readily sprang up 
 between lis, and when he bade me go<jd by with the remarlv 
 that he hardly expected ever to meet me again, I felt, Mr. 
 Speaker, that I had lost a friend, that tlie House of Repre- 
 sentatives had lost an intelligent and able member, and that 
 but a few short weeks, or at most months, would elajjse 
 until the world would be deprived of a man of unusual 
 Iironiiseand remarkably endowed with those graces of mind 
 and heart which we all so highly jarize in our fellow-men. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, it is fit that we should meet on this occasion 
 to pay tribute to the memory of a man like Mr. Phelan. 
 Our I'elations here are of such a character that when any 
 of our colleagues lays down his life and passes to the un- 
 known world, we readily forget all that may have occurred 
 to excite antagonism in the fierce struggles of political life. 
 But in a case like that of the friend we now mourn we 
 know that we have been called upon to part with a man 
 eminently worthy of our respect and confidence, and we feel 
 that the loss is irrei^arable. I sadly pay trilnite to his mem- 
 ory as a friend and colleague. I extend to those whom he 
 left behind a heartfelt sympathy, as I know that every one 
 of his colleagues upon this floor has done and will do. 
 
 I often feel that in the loss of such a man the poet would 
 hardly be jiistified in saying that — 
 
 Our lives are like the shadows 
 
 On sunny hills that lie. 
 Or grasses in the meadows 
 
 That blossom but to die. 
 A sleep, a dream, a story 
 
 By strangers quickly told ; 
 An unremaining glory 
 
 Of things tliat soon are old. 
 
IJfc and Character of James P/iclan. 23 
 
 The influence that we exert by our lives and our deeds 
 lives after us. and life is something more than a mere shadow. 
 James Phelan will continue to live in the influence which 
 will be felt for all time upon his people and upon the world; 
 and those who bear his name may well feel a pride and a glory 
 in the example which he set, in the life he led, in the noble 
 work of his brief years. 
 
 Address of Mr. Caruth, of Kentucky. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : As the Fifty-first Congress draws to its 
 mournful close it may be well to follow the distinguished 
 gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Grosvenor] in his retrospective 
 glance at the mortality which has followed its career. Mr. 
 Speaker, scarcely had the gavel on yonder desk marked the 
 death of the Fiftieth and the birth of the Fifty-first Con- 
 gress when the scythe of death commenced its havoc in our 
 ranks. Scarcely had we reached our homes after the ad- 
 journment of the Fiftieth Congress when the news was 
 borne to us on the ^yrag of the lightning that Richard W. 
 Townshend, of Illinois, honored by his people and his 
 State, respected and beloved by liis colleagues on this floor, 
 had closed forever his earthly account. 
 
 During the month that intervened before the members 
 of the Fifty-first Congress were to enter on the active dis- 
 charge of the duties of their high office we were told that 
 that genial gentleman, the wit, the scholar, and the orator, 
 whom all men knew and loved — Samuel Sullivan Cox — had 
 been called from labor to repose. And when the members 
 of this body gathered around that desk for the purpose of 
 assuming the obligations of office there was missed from 
 this presence one who had so long and so faithfully dis- 
 
24 Address of Mr. Cariith, of Kcnlncky, on the 
 
 charged ]iis duty of Representative on this floor — one who 
 had led his party, one who had pi'esided over the delibera- 
 tions of this body with justice and impartiality, one who 
 had earned a fame extending beyond the bounds of the 
 Union — a fame coextensive with the civilized world. 
 
 While he was stretched upon a bed of sickness, and, as 
 it has proved, his deathbed, the oath of office was adminis- 
 tered to him. We looked at his vacant desk ; we thouglit 
 that no ni(.)re would liis presence be seen in this Chamber 
 and no moi-e would his voice be heard on this floor. But 
 ere the messenger of death came to Samuel J. Randall, 
 " the father of the House," his colleague, who had served 
 longer than any other member of Congress — faithful and 
 devoted to the interests of the people as lie understood 
 them — William D. Kelley was stricken down by the re- 
 morseless hand of death. One after another fell, until, as 
 we have been told by the gentleman from Ohio, there had 
 been twelve deaths in this body. Last of all came he to 
 whose memory we de.sire to pay tribute this <lay, James 
 Phelan, of Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I entered Congress at the same time tliat 
 lie comnuMiced his career here; and I was drawn to him 
 not merely because of the fact that he was a Rejiresenta- 
 tive from a neighboring State and had been partially edu- 
 cated in the State of which I liave the honor to be a Rep- 
 resentative, but because I had been told he was the young- 
 est man accredited by the people to represent them in the 
 Federal Congress. I expected that when I came to know 
 him I would see in him some of those traits that charac- 
 terize youth more than manhood. 
 
 But I found him as steadfast in purpose, as studious in 
 habit, as grave and sedate in manner as if his brow had 
 been marked by the finger of time and his hair had been 
 
FJfc and CJiaractcr of James Pliclan. 1h 
 
 whitened by the frosts of age. So well and so faithfully 
 did he serve his people that they returned him as a meni- 
 her of the firesent House of Representatives. But although 
 hope might have pictured to his mind a future of still 
 greater honor and distinction, death came. Scarcely had 
 his sun reached its meridian height before it was eclipsed 
 in the darkness of the tomb. 
 
 He had everything to make life desirable — a loving wife, 
 children to cluster aboiTt his knees and to encircle themselves 
 around his heart. With a mind educated far beyond that 
 of many who had attained the greatest distinction, the pros- 
 pect spread out to him was that of a long and useful life. 
 But death cast its envious glance upon him and sent, to 
 make slow and insidious progress in his vitals, that dread 
 disease, consumption. And in a foreign land, far from the 
 flag that he loved so well, his body was returned to dust 
 and the spirit to God from whence it came. 
 
 He lived a noble life. He did, so far as time afforded \m\\ 
 op])ortuuity, all that man coi;ld do, and left as a heritage to 
 his children, as a cherished memory to his wife, a sjjotless 
 reputation and an lionored name. But he left besides that 
 something that should be an example to all aspiring minds. 
 He showed what could be done by energetic and faithful 
 work and, as the gentleman from New York has so eloquently 
 said, by earnest endeavor. He demonstrated to the ambi- 
 tious and aspiring youth of this country that — 
 
 The heights by great men reached and kept 
 
 Were not attained by sudden flight; 
 But tliey. while tlieir companions slept, 
 
 Were toiling upward in the night. 
 
2G Address of Mr. Eva>is, of Tennessee^ on tlic 
 
 Address of Mr. Evans, of Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : It was not my pleasure to have had the 
 honor of an intimate acquaintance with the deceased, Hon. 
 James Phelan, who represented the Tenth district of 
 Tennessee in this House for the Fiftieth and Fifty-first 
 Congresses, but of liim and about liim I have known much. 
 His home, though within the same State, was over three hun- 
 dred miles from mine, but his I'eputation Avas not confined 
 to State lines or limits. He was a student, and thoroughly 
 familiarized himself upon all questions ; an indefatigable, 
 untiring worker ; an easy, graceful, and forcible writer ; and 
 an historian who had collected together facts, figures, data, 
 and events connected with the formation of the State govern- 
 ment of his adopted State and published a history of Ten- 
 nessee. 
 
 On the Sabbath preceding the opening of the first session 
 of this Congress, in December, 1889, he sent me a message 
 and I called upon him at his residence in this city. It 
 seemed to me then that his healtii was so impaired that 
 his life must be limited to a few short months. During our 
 conversation at that time I cautioned him that 1 feared the 
 effort was taxing his strength too much. He had risen 
 from a sick bed and hastily dressed to meet me, and sat in 
 front of the open fire ; but he assured me the fatigue inci- 
 dent to the journey here and the taking of a severe cold en 
 route had temporarily, as he thought, drawn upon his 
 .strength. 
 
 He appeared upon the floor of this House upon the open- 
 ing of the session, but the demands upon his strength were 
 
Life and Character of James Pliclau. 27 
 
 too mucli, and he was soon compelled to retire and seek 
 additional strength and health, and finally was called to his 
 lone: home while temporai-ily absent in a foreign land. 
 
 James Phelan was known as a manly man among men; 
 a leader in thought and ex^sression. His quiet, gentle man- 
 ners, earnest, honest ways, won him friends with all he 
 met. He was a gentleman of the highest type. He was 
 loved and honored most among those who knew him best. 
 
 In the death of James Phelan Tennessee has lost a most 
 valued citizen, and this nation mourns her loss. 
 
 ADDRESS OF Mr. STOCKBRIDGE, OF MARYLAND. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : Once more do we pause in the performance 
 of our legislative duties in this body to pay the last tribute 
 of respect to the worth of a departed member of this House. 
 Once more the Fifty-first Congress mourns the death of one 
 who entered with us upon its labors. Once more is he to 
 whose memory we bring this flower of tribute one of the 
 young men of this House. 
 
 James Phelan realized in his life and in his acts the idea 
 . of American manhood. Highly educated, with breadth of 
 view, but endowed with that faculty greater than all, a 
 broad humanity, in his veins the blood leaped quicker when 
 he felt that by some act or word of his the sufferings of his 
 fellow-men might be palliated or relieved. 
 
 Those who served with him in the last Congress bear elo- 
 quent tribute to the steadfastness with which he ever stood 
 ready to lend a helping hand, ay, to lead the way in that 
 which should tend in the highest sense to the benefit of man. 
 
 The age in which we live, Mr. Speaker, is called variously 
 
28 Address of Mr. Stockbridgc^ of Maryland, on the 
 
 one of steam and one of electricity. This designation typi- 
 fies that in this day, as in no past period of the worhl's liis- 
 tory, there is a crush, a pressure, and a struggle — a resistless 
 battle going on in which he who would stand in the fore- 
 most rank can reach that point, not l)y grappling upon the 
 skirts of hapjjy chance, but only by individual strength of 
 character, by indomitable will, by dauntless (-ouragc ])y 
 determination of purpose. 
 
 Such it was which early in life made James Phelan 
 known, not merely in a narrow circle of home l:mt in the 
 wider circle of associates in his State, as a man whose views 
 were a breadth that others should give heed to and giving 
 heed could pattern after and follow. 
 
 Hence it was tliat at an early age he entered this Hall, a 
 Representative of the people, to bear here that same standard 
 which in other fields he had so courageously maintained. 
 Here, too, he typified the fatal i)rincii)le of the age, that 
 resistless spirit of i)erseverance : and close, accurate work, 
 coupled with profound research, characterized his labm-s as 
 a member of this body. 
 
 The liiiman frame is not like a piece of machinery. It 
 has limitations upon its capacity for work, upon its powers 
 of endurance ; and James Phelan fell a martyr to his in- 
 ability to measure his own strength. Had his phy.sical 
 strength been equal to that of his purpose aild will he would 
 stand to-day on this floor sharing with us the labors of these 
 the closing hours of the Fifty-first Congress. 
 
 I do not propose, Mr. Speaker, to enter into any lengthy 
 eulogy. I simply desire to call attention to the fact that 
 those characteristics which were strong in him, and brought 
 him early in life to this Hall, which made him respected and 
 revered, honored by his associates, ultimately carried him 
 away. 
 
Life and Character of James Phclan. 29 
 
 But, Mr. Speaker, while we contemi^late these elements in 
 the character of James Phelan, we can but feel that in them 
 there is a lesson to be ajjpropriated by each one of us ; a 
 lesson to be appropriated by the young men of this country ; 
 a lesson that it is l)y such lives as his. by the same courage, 
 the same steadiness of purpose, the same untarnished repu- 
 tation, the same devotion to the interest of humanity and 
 the interests of the nation, that this country must continue 
 its prosperous course. Without it the future of our nation 
 would indeed be dark. It is when such men as James 
 Phelan come forth as the representatives of the people, 
 when such men come to the front, they typify the underlying 
 sjjirit which is not only to make our nation prosperous and 
 blessed, but to perpetuate it in the days to come. 
 
 Address of Mr. Washington, of Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : (^n the 30th of January, 1S91, under the 
 beautiful tropical skies, surrounded by the sweet flowers of 
 the perpetual springi of the Bahamas, the Hon. James 
 Phelan died, at Na.ssau, New Providence. 
 
 His father was the Hon. Ja.mes Phelan, a distinguished 
 member of the Confederate Senate from Mi.ssissiiipi, a State 
 celebrated for the long roster of its brilliant |)ublic men. 
 After the close of the war he removed to Memphis, Ten- 
 nessee, where he was an eminent member of the bar until his 
 death in 1873. 
 
 James Phelan, to whose memory we pay a mournful 
 tribute to-day, was born at Aberdeen, Mississippi, Decem- 
 
30 Address of Mr. U'ashiiigtou^ of Tennessee^ on the 
 
 ber 7, 1S56. He had bai-ely entered liis thirty-fiftli year 
 when death cut short his jJromising career. 
 
 His father was of Irish extraction, and his motlier of 
 Scottisli descent. Tliis Scotch-Irish combination accounts 
 no doubt for that persistency of purpose, that tenacity of 
 opinion, which, united with a genial social disposition, so 
 strongly marked his chai'acter. He was proud of his Irish 
 blood, and was ever ready to uphold the cause and defend 
 the people of the Emerald Isle. 
 
 His earliest school training away from home was received 
 at the Kentucky Military Institute, at Frankfort. In 1874 
 he went to Germany and there finished his education at the 
 University of Leipsic, where he took the degree of Doctor of 
 Philosophy, in February, 1878, ranking among the foremost 
 students of his time. Unlike so manj'^ yoving men, he re- 
 turned from the German University unspoiled by his foreign 
 education and long sojourn and was still a plain, ambitious, 
 patriotic American. 
 
 His philosophical and historical researches and comparisons 
 taught him the true value of American free institutions. 
 He saw that here in this asylum for the opi^ressed of every 
 land was to be worked out the latest and best solution of 
 self-government untrammeled by the claims of aristocratic 
 and hereditary rule. A thonrngh betlever in the inaliena- 
 ble rights of the people, a born democrat, the more he 
 learned of monarchical governments the more intensely 
 American he became. 
 
 After his return from Europe he studied law in Memphis, 
 where he made his home, and, being admitted to the bar in 
 due course of time, began the practice of his profession. 
 Pursuing the law with all the ai'dor and energy of his 
 nature, he yet found much time to devote to literary and 
 political work. 
 
Life and Character of James Phclan. 31 
 
 He took au active part in local politics at Memphis, aud 
 meanwhile, his speeches and writings on national affairs 
 attracting much attention, he was urged by his friends in 
 1884: to become a candidate for Congress. He declined, and 
 wisely bided his time. 
 
 Two years later, in 1886, considering that his hour had 
 come, he declared himself a candidate. He made a hot, 
 exciting canvass against heavy odds and under adverse cir- 
 cumstances, which attracted attention over the entire State. 
 His progress was steady. In the end he swept away all 
 obstacles, rallied the representatives of all classes to his 
 support, especially the young Democracy, and was trium- 
 phantly nominated. His opponent, Hon. Zachary Taylor, 
 was an able, brilliant young Republican, seeking a reelec- 
 tion, but Phelan's majority was almost unprecedented for 
 that district. So faithfully and efficiently did he serve his 
 constituents in the Fiftieth Congress that he was renomi- 
 nated without opposition aud elected to this Congress by a 
 largely increased majority. 
 
 His election was contested by his opponent, L. B. 
 Eaton. The case is still pending before the Elections 
 Committee of tliis House, but so far as our beloved col- 
 league is concerned, the finding of that committee can make 
 no difference now. He has gone to that realm of eternal 
 light where partisanshii) is unknown, where all the preju- 
 dice, x'assion, and intrigue of party politics, where all the 
 subterfuges and tliiu disguises of the demagogue become as 
 clear as the light of day at noontide. 
 
 I can not more tersely and aptly describe what James 
 Phelan did in iiolitics aud literature than to quote the 
 words of his most intimate friend, Coi. H. M. Doak : 
 
 In politics Phelan has done just enough to show genius for i)oUtics. 
 In Congress he served just long enough to show that he would have 
 
'.^2 Address of Mr. Washington^ of Tennessee.^ on the 
 
 made a great aud valuable statesman. He has left his political cai'eer a 
 wonderful broken column ; but it is all pure Parian as far as it goes 
 towards the stars. In liis history he has left an enduring fabric for 
 Tennessee to cherish. 
 
 Well d<» I recall his face and form as he sat in the last 
 row of chairs on this (the Democratic) side of this Hall in 
 the Fiftieth Congress, bending over his desk all day ; writ- 
 ing with a ceaseless energy ; writing all the time, letters, 
 articles for piiblication, editorials for his paper in Memphis, 
 and at the same time following and taking part in all the 
 proceedings of the House. I never knew a man who worked 
 harder or faster. He worked as if he felt that his time was 
 short : that his days were already numbered, and that the 
 tasks which he had set for his hand to accomplish must be 
 finished ere the coming of the fatal hour. 
 
 Due of the first oljjects of legislation which he deter- 
 mined to accomplish was the i^assage of a bill guaranteeing 
 to Memphis a great bridge across the Mississippi River. 
 Every Merai)hiau who goes out near the beautiful custom- 
 house, on that blutt' overhanging the mighty stream which 
 sweeps so majestically onward to the Gulf, and gazes down 
 the river on that magnificent bridge which joins with bands 
 of steel Tennessee to Arkansas — the great West and the 
 growing South — .should feel that he looks on a monument 
 to James Phelan's industry, better than marble, more en- 
 dtiriiig tluui sounding brass. 
 
 I know with what assiduity he applied himself to the 
 intricate and involved (questions affecting interstate com- 
 merce — a subject he had resolved, as a member of the Com- 
 merce Committee, to master. He did not speak much or 
 often in the House ; yet few measures passed which he had 
 not scrutinized. 
 
 During these two years of the Fiftieth Congress, working 
 
Life and Character of James Phelan. 33 
 
 night and day— ixilitics, his newspaper, his school histin-y 
 of Tennessee taking all of his time save what he gave to tlie 
 delight of his friends in social converse— he was literally 
 Inirning the candle at both ends, and when the Fifty-first 
 Clongress assembled he was hardly able to be in his seat. 
 He came to the Honse but a few times until he was forced 
 to the retiracy of his home, there to begin alone tlie luind-to- 
 hand battle with grim death. No man ever made a more 
 determined, a more cheerful fight for life. It was heroic. 
 But to his friends who called it seemed from the start that 
 the death mark was on his brow. 
 
 Soon after reaching his majority he married Miss Mary 
 Early, of Lynchburg, Virginia. In his home life he was the 
 model of a perfect husband and father. His wife and 
 three little children were with him during the last months 
 of his life in the Bahamas. In their terrible bereavement 
 they have the deepest sympathy of all who knew him. 
 
 His remains were sent here from Nassau, and on the 8th 
 of February we carried liis inanimate body to Oak Hill 
 Cemetery, in Georgetown. There in the receiving vault, 
 under the ivy-grown mortuary chapel, we left him. The 
 pale winter sun came slanting through the naked boughs. 
 The biting winds whispered among the ghostly tombs. Tlie 
 dying day seemed typictil of our dead comrade, whose light 
 of life had gone flickering out, chilled by the great con- 
 queror, Death, before it had even borne the flowers of that 
 fruit of which it gave such glorious promise. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I will append to my remarks for publication 
 some editorial extracts from the Tennessee papers, which 
 will show how our James Phelan was esteemed by his con- 
 stituents, by his brethren of the press, and by the people of 
 
 his State. 
 
 The following editorial is from the paper formerly owned 
 
 H. Mis. 135 3 
 
34 Address of Mr. Was/iii/glo)!, of Tennessee, on the 
 
 by Mr. Phelan, tlie Momijliis-Appeal Avalanche, of Sun- 
 day, February 8, 1891 : 
 
 JAMES PHELAN. 
 
 A stiir lias fallen from out (lur firmament. James Phelan is dead. 
 The solemn word comes from the Bahama Isles. Thither had he gone 
 in the hojie that the salt and temperate air of the tropic ocean would 
 give liim health. The jomiiey . the isolation, were in vain. His inani- 
 mate body returns. The spirit is uncaged. He whom we loved and 
 honored has passed away. We have only to pay such tribute as affec- 
 tion may prompt. We shall remember him. A gieat man once, in his 
 youth, carved his name high upon a cliff that less eager and brave men 
 thought inaccessible. The years of Phelan'S life were few, but he 
 wrought wonclrously. His name is written whei-e it will endure. He 
 has left as a heritage to his children a record of extraordinary achieve- 
 ment. Because he was our neighbor we should not be insensible of the 
 real greatness of the man. 
 
 With the single excej)tion of Alexander Hamilton, no man has ever 
 appeared in the political life of America, who, at the age of thirty, had 
 accomplished so much or gave such promise of a surpassing career. In 
 youth a most assiduous student, he completed his education at the Ger- 
 man universities. Other men have taken the same course only to be- 
 come impracticables in the every-day affairs of the world. Not so with 
 Phelan. He came home fuU-armed, ready, alert, ambitious, and deter- 
 mined to make name and fame for himself as an American citizen. He 
 projected his Line of life carefully. He seemed to anticipate his own 
 future. He proceeded patiently but rapidly. Every obstacle in the defi- 
 nite course he had marked out was overcome. At thirty, what had he 
 done? He was a member of Congress. He had proven himself a 
 thorough journalist, owning and directing one of the leading newspapers 
 of the South. He had written a history of Tennessee, which is so schol- 
 arly in its text, so acceptable in its treatment, and so exceptional in its 
 worth, as to establish him in high rank among those whose names adorn 
 American literature. Where is his like for industry, for versatility, and 
 for that quality of genius wliich comprehends any task and fulfills any 
 obligation ? 
 
 It may be asked if Phelan was a brilliant man. For answer turn the 
 diamond of his character and note if from any facet the fight does not 
 
Lije and Characlcr of James Phelan. 35 
 
 glow. No youth more brilliant has this land known. A scholar to whom 
 the cla.'isics were familiar, a politician who keenly apprehended the popu- 
 lar desire, a journalist who had the rare gift of prescience which enabled 
 him to know what his readers would want to know, a student who found 
 no labor too arduous if conclusions raiglit be reached, a man of opinions 
 grountled in a philosophy that compelled respect, a leader among his fel- 
 lows by virtue of his common sense and his intuitive perception of right 
 poUcies, James Phelan, bom to command, commanded. His will was 
 invincible, but his motives were pure. His jKirposes were definite, but 
 they were exemplary and lofty. His self-respect was intense ; therefore 
 he strove to do justice to others. He was ready to forgive a wTong when 
 it proceeded from an honest dift'erence of view. He sought no mean ad- 
 vantage, being jealous of his own honor. Sincere himself, he demanded 
 sincerity of others. • He never disappointed a friend; he never ignored an 
 obligation; he never forfeited a confidence. Beingtrue to himself, it fol- 
 lowed, " as the night the day,"' that he could not '• be false to any man." 
 But who knew Phelan be.sty Surely not those who knew him onlv 
 in the various jihases of his public hfe. To those who were the compan- 
 ions of his boyhood, who had struggled with liim to meet the exac- 
 tions of the college class-room, who had joined him on the ball-field, wlio 
 had camped with him in the forest— who, in sliort, knew tlie boy that 
 was in the man— to them comes the profoundest grief that he is no more. 
 Their aflfection found deeper root than in admiration for his successes. 
 They knew him to be a simple-hearted, generous, helpful, unaffected man, 
 who rejoiced in the happmess of others, who was sensible of the Talue of 
 human love,who was a chOd when there was time to play, whose heart was 
 easily touched, and whose friendship held fast in all weathers. To them 
 was given a glimpse of the man's inner nature. They saw the melan- 
 choly aspect of the tremendous battle he made for quick personal dis- 
 tinction. 
 
 He was at Leipsic at school when he became first convinced that his 
 expectation of life was short. He was hopeful, but he lost no tune. He 
 could not afford to idle on the way. He saw the shadow that rested on 
 the future. He coidd not put it out of account. The terrible reaUzation 
 was Ms, and his alone. It wasfrom this that his nervousforce proceeded. 
 His energy was almost mmatural. People said he was burning the can- 
 dle at both ends. He knew it, but he also knew the reason why. A day 
 lost was not to be made up. From liim was shut the fond belief that after 
 
36 Address of Mr. Wasliiiigtoii^ of Tennessee^ on the 
 
 the struggle would come the restful vales of age. It was always witli liiiii 
 a race with the grun specter. Yet he was joyous, undeterred, buoyant, 
 and ever planning. When the real conflict with disease came he fouglit 
 for life as men have rarely fought. He perceived the futility of the strug- 
 gle, yet he was defiant. He took every chance. For months he lived by 
 the sheer force of his wUl. At last the end is reached. 
 
 The heroic soul is released. His dreams are over. His ambitious spirit 
 is at rest. " The expectancy and the rose of the fair State" is become a 
 memory. The eulogies we pay can not be deemed extravagant, tliough 
 he who has been taken away v?as but yesterday, it .seems, 
 " In the morn and liquid dew of youth." 
 His work was not complete. But though the shaft he reared lacks the 
 capital, that which remains to tell us of his genius is so wondrous in its 
 beauty and promise that we may not question what tlie grace of its ulti- 
 mate perfection would have been. It is eloquent of all that is best and 
 bravest in man. 
 
 The following editorial i.s taken from the Memphis (Ten- 
 nessee) Daily Commercial of Sunday, Febrnary 8, 1801 : 
 
 DEATH OF REPRESENTATIVE PHELAN. 
 
 Announcement of the death of Mr. James Phelan. member of the 
 Federal House of Representatives from this district, is made by telegrapli 
 in another coliunn. The sad event occuiTcd on the 30th of January, in 
 Nassau, whither he had gone in recuperation of his health, after he had 
 sold the Avalanche. Before that event he had for several months made 
 trial of the dry ah- of southern Texas, but without avail, and he went to 
 Nassau as a last refuge in an effort to stay the hand of the destroyer. As 
 in the case of nearly all persons suffering with consumption, he was full 
 of hope, but his friends — those nearest to him — in Memphis could not 
 deceive themselves, and they "felt, in parting with him, that it was for the 
 last time. 
 
 Mr. Phelan came prominently into jiuljlic view five years ago as a can- 
 didate for Congress. U]) to that time he had been identified with tlie 
 Avalanche as its proprietor for a few years. But he was not as conspic- 
 uous even in that position as he subsequently became as a candidate for 
 the Democratic nomination to Congress. As such he had to confront the 
 fixed purposes of the leaders of the party in the disti'ict, who had deter- 
 mined to place Col. Josiah Patterson in nomination. But Mr. Phelan, 
 
Life and Character of Jatnes Phelan. 37 
 
 having made some ineparations in tlie form of a personal canvass of the 
 disti-ict, dechneil to give way. and the result was a joint preliminary can- 
 vass liyhini andC^olonel Patterson, which, for almost bitterness, has never 
 been surpassed, even during campaigns l)etween candidates of opposing 
 parties. It resulted in Mr. Phelan's triumph, in his nominatif)n liefore 
 the convention without opposition, as Colonel Patterson very pmdently 
 withdrew on finding himself in a hopeless minority. Two years sub- 
 sequently Mr. Phelan was renominated without opposition and was 
 reelected, but his seat was contested by his Republican opponent, Col. 
 L. B. Eaton, and the case is still undecided. 
 
 IVIr. Phelan possessed many of the qualities necessary for success in 
 public life. He was characterized by ah indomitable will, by a driving 
 energy, and an aggressiveness that sometimes precipitated him into 
 unnecessary bickering and debate. He could not wait for attack, but 
 always took the initiative, and with a boldness and courage which even 
 his enemies admired, pushed to the front and there remained until the 
 battle was won or lost. He was of Scotch-Irish origin, and by tempera- 
 ment was an excellent illustration of the daring and dash of the one 
 race and the bull-dog tenacity of the other. He was fearless as to con- 
 sequences, and when his interests were at stake manifested an unyield- 
 ing disposition. As a Democrat he was well-grounded in the princi- 
 ples of Ms party, and was an earnest advocate of them and a ready 
 defender. Of this he gave the people he represented in Congress the very 
 best proofs during the campaigns he made in the district. As a speaker 
 lie was noted for directness of statement and an unflinching courage ; 
 for persistency and pertinacity, and, when necessary, for a pugnacity 
 which nothing could turn aside but the conceded defeat of his opponent. 
 
 As to his usefulness in public life it is impossible to say anything more 
 than that it promised well for him and his constituents. Nothing above 
 the performance of his routine duties was to be expected of him in the 
 first two sessions of Congi-ess (the Fiftieth), and he was too far gone in 
 consumption to do more than defend his seat m the Fifty-first, now 
 nearing the close of its life. 
 The disease he suffered from and the knowledge that it was hereditary 
 In liis family must account for the restlessness which prevented the 
 calmness that usually waits on deliberation. For this reason he was 
 unable to ^anw his history of Tennessee, an admirably projected work, 
 with anything like detailed consecutiveness down to the time he had 
 
38 Address of Mr. JVasJiiiigto7i, of Tennessee, on tl/e 
 
 fixed upon, or even to the close of the civil vrar. He applied himself 
 assiduously in research for material for this work in the State library 
 and in tliat of the Historical Society in Nashville, but his distractions (jf 
 business and of public employment intervened to prevent as satisfactory 
 results as tvrenty years later, when he had had a life's experience, lie 
 niif;ht have accomplished. 
 
 Mr. Phelan was at the best a man of promise, of bright promise, who, 
 under circumstances of good health and seclusion, might have made the 
 name he coveted in literature. His aspirations were all of them noble 
 ones, and his ambition to excel was worthy of the best. His tastes and 
 inclinations were literary, and his sympathies were in that direction, and 
 what he accomplished in his two histories — one of them for schocjls — 
 counting even their angrily disputed failings, gave earnest of better things 
 when time had mellowed the mind now imtimely silenced forever. 
 
 The following editorial is taken from the Memphis (Ten- 
 nessee) Public Ledger, of Sunday, Feliruary 8, 1891: 
 
 DEATH OF .JAMES PHELAN. 
 
 Tlie genial face of our gifted young Congressman will be seen no more 
 on the streets of Memphis. After a gallant struggle with an incurable 
 disease he breathed his last at Nassau on tlie 30th of January. A v.aliant 
 spirit went back to the God that gave it and the pale tenement that con- 
 tained it will be returned to this country an<l committed to mother earth. 
 
 The news of Mr. Phelan's death, although coining sooner than ex- 
 pected and causing sincere and general sorrow, was not a great surjirise. 
 For nearly two years he had been in ill health, and for more than one year 
 was but seldom in his seat in f Congress. He s])ent several months in South 
 Carolina: then last spring came here en route for San Antonio, Texas, and 
 points beyond there. The little news that came of an encouraging nature 
 from time to time was nearly always supplemented by an expression of 
 doubt and anxiety. Finally he returned to wind up his business affairs, 
 and only a few of his sjiecial friends inti'uded on his privacy. All felt 
 that tlie end of a bright and u.seful life was near at hand and that to call 
 on him was to enter but the anteroom of a death chamber. StiU he was 
 courageous, cheerful, and to some degree hopeful. He had an idea, as 
 most people have under simil.ar conditions, that he might live much 
 longer, and felt that it was his duty to fight against fate to the end, be it 
 far or near, and so he did. 
 
/.//;• a)id Character of Janus Pliclan. 39 
 
 On the 8th of November he sold the Avalanche, a property that he 
 valued very highly, to the Appeal, and soon after that went to Washing- 
 ton to join his wife and children, and with them soon afterward sailed 
 for the Bahamas, hoping that salt air and a soft southern climate would 
 afford a temporary relief and probably give him a new lease on life. But 
 it was too late : he had long before passed the fatal danger line, and no 
 change, no human fortitude, medical skill, or tender care of affectionate 
 hands were of any avaO. No details have been received. We merely 
 know that it is all over ; that a weary, wornout body is no longer capa- 
 ble of pain or feeling, and that the soul that so long beat against the 
 bars is released from its abode of weariness and waiting. 
 
 The life of James Phelan has often been published. He was born at 
 Aberdeen, Mississippi, December T, 1856, and was therefore a little over 
 thirty -four years of age. In his brief life he accomplished more than 
 many prominent men of twice his years. His early education was re- 
 ceived at the schools here in Memphis. Then he attended the Kentucky 
 Military Institute, at Fi-ankfort, Kentucky, and afterward took a special 
 course at the university at Leipsic, Germany, where be was given the 
 degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Coming home soon after he was of age, 
 he was admitted to the bar and entered actively into the -practice of his 
 profession, and also engaged in business and literary pursuits. He wrote 
 with a free hand upon various topics for leading magazines, and found 
 time later on to wi-ite a concise, analytical, and valuable school history 
 of Tennessee, which involved him in a personal and unpleasant discussion 
 about a year ago. This was carried on through two of the leading papers 
 of the State, and at one time seemed to threaten a resort to the code. 
 
 Mr. Phelan was very happily married a few yeai-s after his return from 
 Germany to a Miss Early, niece of Jubal Early, of Virginia. She is a 
 highly educated woman and has been his faithful adviser and support in 
 all his struggles, and shared his darkest days as well as his triumphs. 
 Under his proprietorship the Avalanche was a vigorous, incisive paper, 
 and a power in the land, although it was never used as a factor to pro- 
 mote hLs private or political fortimes. He was respected by true men in 
 both political parties alike. Had he lived, his second term in Congress 
 would have expired on the 4tli of March next. Although his seat was 
 contested vigorously by Colonel Eaton, the Republicans never cared to 
 press the matter and declare his seat vacant. Owing to ill health he de- 
 clined to be a candidate for nomination at the last Congressional con- 
 
40 Address of Mr. U'as/iiiif^/oii, of Tennessee^ on the 
 
 vention. Hence Col, Josiali Patterson was the nominee and was electefl 
 by a Iiandsoine majority. 
 
 It is not easy to analyze the character of such a man as James Phe- 
 LAN. He came of heroic Irisli stock on liis father's side, and inherited 
 Scotch tenacity and wisdom from his mother. He was .aggressive witli- 
 oiit being unjust, self-reliant without vanity or egotism, and souglit the 
 .suffrages of the peoj)le only to increase opportunities of usefulness. 
 Thoroughly pulilic-sjiirited and in sympathy with the masses, he at the 
 sanie time looked after and managed liis private affairs with consummate 
 .skill. A wide acquaintance with leading politicians, literary men, and 
 financiers gave him superior advantages. Weseldom meet or read of such 
 a man. His versatility was something wonderful. He could call nearly 
 everybody lie had ever met by name, and was equally at home in a draw- 
 ing room or in a company of grimy workmen. 
 
 " He was a man, take him for all in all. 
 We shall not look upon his like again." 
 
 Peace to his soul, and all honor to the memory of James Phelan. 
 The world is the better for his brief sojourn in it, and those who emulate 
 his sterling tiaits of character, his devotion to family and country, and 
 his struggles in tlie various vicissitudes of Life from boyhood and youth 
 to a premature grave, may also serve themselves, their fellow-man, and 
 their Creator with becoming modesty and a clear conscience. 
 
 Editorial from the Memphis Scimitar, Saturday evening, 
 February 7- 
 
 JAMES PHELAN DEAD. 
 
 A brief dispatch from Nassau, New Providence, via New York, an- 
 nounces the death of Hon. James Phelan, member of Congress from 
 this district. 
 
 The news is not surprising, in view of Mr. Phelan's state of health 
 when he left Memphis for Nassau fom- montlis ago, but his friends were 
 not without hope that tlie mild climate of the Bahamas would lengthen 
 his days, thougli they could not expect a cure. 
 
 There is no need to tell who James Phelan was or what part he lias 
 played in the public view. The people of the Tenth district have shown, 
 by electing him twice to Congress, then- appreciation of his talents and 
 
Life and Charade >- of James PJielati. 41 
 
 devotion to their interests. He gave promise of becoming one of the 
 best, as he was one of the youngest. Representatives that Tenne.ssee has 
 evei- bad in the National Legislature. 
 
 Personally as well a-s politically Mr. Phelan was a man of mark. He 
 liad tlie faculty of binding his friends to him witl\ liooks of steel, and 
 those who opposed liim could not but pay tribute to the virile mentality 
 and courage for whicli he was tlistinguished. 
 
 He wa« a little more than thirty-five years old. The Scimitar extends 
 its heartfelt sympathy to his stricken family. 
 
 The following editorial is from the Daily American. Nash- 
 ville, Tennessee, Sunday morning, February 8, 1891 : 
 
 THE DEATH OF HOX. JAMES PHELAN. 
 
 It is with a feeling of regret singularly painfid that we announce the 
 death of Hon. James Phela>-, though for some months the steady rav- 
 ages of disease have foretold with ch-eadful certainty that the end was 
 near. The failure of Mr. Phelan's healtli marred a brilliant career in 
 polities, and liis vacant seat in Congress duruig the whole of his past 
 term has been a mute but pathetic witness to the fast-fading promise of 
 high honors to be achieved in the service of his country. 
 
 Mr. Phelan was a man of Idgli scholarly attainments and a student in 
 general literature, as well as in questions of pohtics and political econ- 
 omy. If he had been spared we believe the expectations of his friends 
 would have been fuUy met by his success in the path he had chosen 
 to pursue. He possessed singvdar qualifications for a successful political 
 career, combining m a rare degree the qualities of a shrewd, practical 
 pohtician and party manager with those of a thoughtful and intelligent 
 student of public affairs. 
 
 Ml-. Phelan's literary work in enduring form is confined to Iiis history 
 of Tennessee, a book which has received the liigliest praise from a num- 
 ber of the best literary critics in the countiy, and which will hold a place 
 as a classic among State histories. His editorial work on the Mempliis 
 Avalanche was of the highest order of journalism, and he wrote largely 
 in the way of literary reviews for some of the leading journals of the 
 country. He was yet but a young man when death closed' down upon 
 his work, and there was just enough of his life to give a definite prom- 
 ise of a career full of lionor to lumself and of usefulness to his country. 
 
42 yliMrrss of Mr. B reck in ridge, of Arka)isas., on the 
 
 Address of Mr. Breckinridge, of Arkansas. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : The death of Hon. James Phelan is felt 
 almo.st as much by the people of Arkansas as it is Ijy the 
 people of his own State of Tennessee. To both, so high and 
 promising a character is dear, and to the whole country the 
 loss of such a man is a calamity. Livnig in the city of 
 Memphis, which, from its superb position ujjon the Chicka- 
 saw Bluff, is in the sight and touch of our people, his rapid 
 and upward progress was noted by us all, and we felt that 
 we, as well as his own State, had gained a true and capable 
 friend. 
 
 Though dying young and full of h(inors. yet his advance- 
 ment was not of a light or ephemeral order. With the in- 
 tensity and strength of his blended Iri.sh and Scotch blood 
 he began the battle of life early. Every step was marked 
 by careful preparation, and no man was more thoughtful, 
 painstaking, and methodical than he. His high sense of 
 honor and intensity of jjurpose gave a brilliancy to his life 
 that may have deceived some as to the depth and strength 
 of the foundations he laid and upon which he builded. The 
 most liberal culture of the schools, acquired both in this 
 country and in Europe, was strengthened by practice and 
 assimilated with sound judgment. 
 
 He was a forceful combination of the theoretical and tlic 
 practical man, which is always the most forcible and effect- 
 ive man. His tastes were simple and pure, his sympathies 
 broad and generous; his mind, discriminating and strong, 
 steadily increased in power and grasp; and it was such a man 
 that achieved success, acquired the admiration and respect, 
 and Iniilt up the highest expectations of tlie people among 
 whom he lived. 
 
Life and Cliaradrr of James P/ic/aii. 43 
 
 Sir, it is the honor of onr people and the hope of our 
 country that when such a man is needed he is foiiud, and 
 that when found he receives public recognition and ap- 
 plause. Here lies the safety and honor of society. Here 
 lies the strength of the Republic. Upon the national bier 
 we tender this offering of the South. He loved all parts 
 of his country, loved all classes of countrymen, defended 
 his own, warred upon none, and I can wish no better thing 
 than that our future councils may be adorned by men like 
 unto him. 
 
 Address of Mr. Wheeler, of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : Among the members who appeared before 
 the Speaker's desk at the assembliTig of the Fiftieth Con- 
 gress was one whose bearing, figure, and grace attracted 
 marked attention. He looked so youthful that it seemed 
 he could hardly have reached the constitutional age. His 
 face unmistakably indicated culture and intelligence, while' 
 his bearing was characterized by that lofty courtesy which 
 we all soon learned to admire and resj^ect in him. He was 
 the elected member for the cultivated district which includes 
 the city of Memphis. 
 
 He had been chosen by the people of that cultivated me- 
 tropolis to guard their interests in the Congress of the 
 United States, and all remember the faithfulness, zeal, and 
 energy displayed by him in the performance of his dl^tJ^ 
 He bade fair to become one of the most distinguished men 
 of all our Southern States, and had God spared him there 
 could be no doubt in my mind that he would have been 
 one of the eminent men who ai"e to be develojied from the 
 youth now growing up in the Southern country. 
 
44 .h/i/rfss of Mr. ]]licclc)\ of Alabama, on llir 
 
 None of us would liave conceived it possible that tins 
 youthful looking colleague was one whose loss we would lie 
 called ujiou to mourn before the close of the Fifty-first Con- 
 gress. 
 
 James Phelan sprang from a family of character and dis- 
 tinction. His father was an eminent jurist and served with 
 great credit to himself and the State of Mississippi in the 
 senate of the Confederate States. His uncle was also an 
 eminent jurist and for many years adorned the supreme 
 bench of the State of Alabama, and the opinions written by 
 that distinguished judge are quoted in the text-books on 
 nearly every subject that has engaged the attention of writers 
 upon law. 
 
 Our departed and lamented brother was a worthy descend- 
 ant of his noble ancestry. Educated in the best universities 
 of this and foreign countries, fiuislied by travel and intimate 
 association with the most highly polished society and the 
 best minds of America and Europe, and possessing most, if 
 not all, of the accomplishments of a graceful and a courtly 
 gentleman, he had, before reaching the age at which most 
 men begin their careers, advanced far up on the ladder of 
 literary fame. 
 
 Phelan's history of Tennessee will take its place among 
 the most valuable historical works of the time, and is con- 
 clusive evidence of the author's painstaking study, judicial 
 and impartial mind, and of his high mental endowments. 
 How sadly we heard of his failing health, and finally the last 
 message came from the isle where gentle breezes, warmed 
 by the Gulf Stream, play among the flowers whose perfume 
 fills the air of that far-off land, the warmth, brightness, and 
 beauty of which was so happily typical of the gentle, kindly, 
 and lovable spirit which there, to ours and his country's loss, 
 took its flight to another and purer home. 
 
Life and Characlcr of James Pliclan. 45 
 
 James Phklan, though the last one expected to pass 
 away, was possibly the best prepared of any of ns to leave 
 this world and meet his God. He was a Christian in all 
 that is implied by that term ; a Christian in his commune 
 with his Maker and in his dealings with man. His life, like 
 that of all true Christian men, was a beautiful exemplifica- 
 tion of what such a life should be. Surrounded by his 
 charming family, a wife well worthy of such a man, and 
 children who promise to take their place as his worthy 
 successors in future years, his was a home which it is sad 
 to contemplate, bereft as it now is of a loving father and 
 devoted husband. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, it is sad that this is all we can do and say in 
 behalf of this our beloved colleague. He has passed away. 
 He has gone to another land, and we know. Mr. Speaker, 
 that he will reap in that land the reward of a good, pure, 
 noble, and well-spent life, wholly unselfish in its aims and 
 animated by the loftiest patriotism in its purposes. 
 
 Calm, peaceful, self-contained, consciously the master of 
 many noble natural gifts and a vast amount of laboriously 
 acquired knowledge, and yet as unpretentious and modest 
 as a girl, we can well imagine that it was the close of such 
 a life, devoid of self and consecrated to the welfare of 
 others, that the poet contemplated when he wrote these 
 beautiful lines : 
 
 Let solit'i- triuniplis wait upon my bier : 
 I'll not fovRive that friend who sheds one tear. 
 Let no unworthy sounds of grief be heard, 
 No loud laments, not one unseemly word ; 
 For whether gathered in life's early mourn, 
 Or in old age he drops, like an ear of corn 
 Full ripe, lie dies on nature's noblest plan 
 Who lives to reason and who dies a man. 
 
4(> Ai/drcss of Mr. Eiiloc^ of Tennessee, on tJir 
 
 Mr. McMlLLlx. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of t,^entlo- 
 uieii wIk) desire to submit remarks, and I will ask tliat 
 general leave upon this subject be granted. 
 
 The Speaker iwo tempore. Without ol.ijection that leave 
 will be granted. 
 
 There was no objection. 
 
 Address of Mr. Enloe, of Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: James Phelan was my friend. We came 
 into Congress together and were intimately associated dur- 
 ing his service here. The nobility of his soul and the excel- 
 lence of his character compelled the admiration and won 
 the re.spect of all who knew him. He was whole-souled, im- 
 pulsive, generous, and Ijrave. and an ideal friend. He was 
 a man who knew how to love his friends and how to fight 
 his enemies, and he was one who dared to maintain the right 
 and to condemn the wrong. 
 
 Educated in the best schools of this country and of Eiirope, 
 his intellectual culture was broad and deep. He was a ripe 
 scholar and a profound thinker. His heart was as great as 
 his mind, and he lived in sympathetic touch with the whole 
 range of American thought and feeling. His mental char- 
 acteristics were in some respects Napoleonic. He was a 
 born leader and organizer of men, an advanced thinker, and 
 a wise legislator. He was a conservative in council and a 
 radical in action. His plan of action once determined, he 
 showed the opposition no quarter. As a journalist he was 
 brilliant and successful. As a historian he was painstaking, 
 accui-ate, and just, giving to every theme he touched the 
 
Life aiui L lia racier of Ja»us PJulaii. 47 
 
 coloring of his owu genius. His liistory of Tenfiessee is a 
 monument to his literary taste and to his ability as a writer. 
 It enrolled his name among the immortal great of Tennessee. 
 
 He entered ^x^o\\ his duties here with his literary work in 
 an incomplete state, encumbered too with the general direc- 
 tion of a great newspaper, and with a feeble constitution 
 already impaired by excessive mental labor. He set about 
 his work with the eager and intense energy of one who runs 
 a race with death. His indomitable will carried him for- 
 ward heedless of the protests of his overtaxed physical pow- 
 ers. Handicapped as he was in his work here he soon im- 
 pressed himself on the House and the country, and he was 
 readily conceded a place among the strongest and brightest 
 of the new memljers in the Fiftietli Congress. Short as w;is 
 his active service in the House he gave the world earnest of 
 a statesman. His superior mental powers impressed all who 
 met him iu social life, in the committee room, or on the floor 
 of the House. His views of public questions were broad, 
 liberal, and enlightened. He was a tireless worker, i)osi- 
 tive in his convictions, and he had a sovereign contempt 
 for the time-serving politician. 
 
 Dignified in bearing, gentle in his luanners, and courte- 
 ous to all, he invited the confidence and friendshi]j of his 
 colleagues. He was candid and bold in his opinions, and 
 he lived above the trickster and the demagogue. He was 
 well fitted both by education and by training for the exer- 
 cise of high and important trusts, and it was his laudable am- 
 bition to write his name among the noblest and the best of 
 American statesmen. Had he lived in the enjoyment of 
 health we can not doubt that he would have made for him- 
 self a place in history commensurate with his highest ambi- 
 tion, but his political career was practically over when the 
 Fifty-first Congress met. Though reelected by a proud and 
 
48 Ad./rcss of Mr. Iiiiloc^ of Tcniiesscr, oil tlie 
 
 confiding constituency lie was jiliysically unable to talve his 
 place here with us. 
 
 Young, brilliant, full of hope, and inspired by a praise- 
 worthy ambition to serve his fellow-men, he started with us 
 uj) tlie rugged steps of political fame, but he was touched 
 by an unseen hand and he rested on the sunny side. He 
 tasted only the sweets of ambition, and was spared the 
 chance of the bitter cup of disappointment which so many 
 who went before him have lived to drain to the dregs. He 
 had his faults, no doubt, as other men, but his virtues so 
 far outshone them that even his faults seemed only lesser 
 virtues. His career was splendid, full of promise, incom- 
 plete -but God knows best. 
 
 When all is said of him which his friends and colleagues 
 may say as a tribute to his memory, his own life work will 
 be his most eloquent eulogy. 
 
 He made an heroic struggle against disease, but death 
 came to him peacefully i:a the distant southern island where 
 he made his last effort to live for love and for his country. 
 
 The public knew him and admired him as journalist, 
 historian, and statesman, liut it was in the private walks of 
 life that he was most loved and admired. I knew him as 
 one whose private life was above reproach and whose home 
 life was beautiful. We share the sorrow of his loved ones. 
 
 Words of praise for him and expressions of sympathy 
 for tliom seem like empty sounds, which fall at our feet 
 and die with their utterance. 
 
 In this hour of grief and sorrow I would jioint those who 
 knew and loved him best to that polar star of human hoj)e, 
 the liope of a blessed immortality. I feel that our friend 
 has only j)receded us to a not distant but a better land. 
 His life was measured "in deeds, not years; in thoughts, 
 not breaths ; in feelings, not in figures on a dial." The love 
 
Life and Characltr of James Phclan. 49 
 
 of such a friend was an liouor. The loss of such a friend 
 can not be repaired. 
 
 Peace to his ashes ! Honor to his memory ! 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. McMlLLIN, OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 Mr. Speaker : This Congress has an unprecedented death 
 roll. Not only have a number of the oldest and most expe- 
 rienced been taken, but we are now called upon to offer in 
 sadness our tribute to the memory of one of the youngest. 
 
 James Phelan was born in Aberdeen, Mississippi, De- 
 cember 7, 1850. He was an illustrious son of an illustrious 
 sire. His father was a Confederate senator from a State re- 
 nowned for the strength of those it trusted with high office. 
 
 He moved from Mississippi with his father, when but 
 eleven years old, to Memphis— the scene of his early strug- 
 gles and ultimate triumphs. 
 
 Young Phelan received a private school education, and 
 in 1871 entered the Kentucky Military Institute, near Frank- 
 fort. He spoke often and ever enthusiastically of the days 
 spent there. The boldness, candor, and hospitality of the 
 Kentuckian were traits that met ready and kindred response 
 in his own nature. 
 
 After leaving this Kentucky college he went to Leipsic, 
 Saxony, and entered tlie university there. He took the 
 degree of doctor of philosophy in February, 1878 ; returned 
 to Memphis, studied law, and began the practice in 1881. 
 He married Miss Mary Early, of Virginia. He had an 
 intense thirst for knowledge, and acquired it with great 
 rapidity. He spoke other languages than his own with 
 fluency. He was not only a great reader, but a systematic 
 student. He read rapidly, digested thoroughly, and re- 
 H. Mis. 135 4 
 
60 Address of Mr. AfcMi//iii^ of Tennessee^ on the 
 
 tained accurately. Botli in Ids private corresxiondence and 
 in preparing manuscript for liis paper or his books lie wrote 
 with a rapidity almost incredible. 
 
 He drove forward as one might be expected to who had 
 premonition that he was soon to die and had determined to 
 crowd the work of a whole life into half a life. A Scotch- 
 Irishman by descent, he had all the pertinacity of the Scot 
 united with all the enthusiasm of the Irish. At his fireside 
 with his family, among his friends, he was all kindness and 
 gentleness ; yet a bolder or more courageous man did not 
 live. He was too proud to give an insult intentionally, too 
 spirited to take one tamely. 
 
 His was a remarkable career. He succeeded everywhere. 
 Few men have the versatility of talent he exhibited. 
 Though untrained in that work, ])y ajiprenticeshiii or other- 
 wise, he ventured into the great field of journalism, and 
 succeeded from the beginning. He bought and operated 
 successfully one of the greatest papers of his State. 
 
 Notwithstanding liis other engagements, ho found time to 
 write a history of his peoi)le and his State, which is a mon- 
 ument to his industry, his research, and his ability as a 
 writer. 
 
 In the midst of these pursiiits, sufficient by their impor- 
 tance and the drafts they made on his time to engross or 
 overwhelm an ordinary mind, he resolved to blaze out a new 
 patli of glory. 
 
 He was not content with ancestral fame, or to be known because his 
 fathers were. 
 
 He determined to seek a seat in this Hall — to become a 
 Representative of the greatest of all the governments. Few 
 thought he could succeed. Fewer still would have dared 
 try the experiment under the disadvantages surrounding 
 
Life and Charade)- of Ja)ncs Phelaii. 51 
 
 liim. But he dared, and he won — won when opposed by 
 some of the strongest and best men of his State. 
 
 He came here modest, unassuming, l)ut with the same 
 determination to succeed here which had marked hinr else- 
 where. He talked to me often of his plans ; and, had he 
 lived and kept his strength, I have not the least doubt he 
 would have made this the greatest success of all. 
 
 What a record ! At twenty-nine years, unaided, he had 
 gone through the colleges of two countries, had taken a law 
 course, was known to and recognized by men of letters as an 
 autlioi' of ability, was running a great daily j^aper, and 
 representing 150,000 people in Congress. 
 
 Col. H. M. Doak, formerly associated with Mr. Phelan 
 in journalism, correctly epitomized his character in these 
 wiirds : 
 
 Gifted with lofty powers of imagination, he liad not yet reached a 
 knowledge of or the full unfolding of his own powers. His genial hu- 
 mor; pleasant, agi'eeable wit. and kindly sympathetic nature, and his 
 large knowledge and cultivation, easily attuned liim to companionship 
 with men of all kinds and conditions. He was eijually fitted, by his keen 
 knowledge of men and his responsive sympathies, for association with 
 statesmen, savants, and with artisans, or to shine in the social circle. His 
 was a rare nature, gentle but strong, impulsive but calm, sympathetic 
 but not to be misled by sympathy, gifted to please but unobstrusive, 
 brave but never vaunting its courage, simple as a child's but strong as a 
 true man's, proud with a manly pride but not puffed up, strong in indi- 
 viduality but never vain, quietly res])onsive to any mood in others but 
 not swayed thereby, and always calm and affalile. He was a man a 
 child could approach with perfect trust: a man the strongest, the rudest, 
 never thought of approaching rudely. Something in his gentle, calm, but 
 firm dignity forbade that. 
 
 He had succeeded, but he had exhausted himself to do it. 
 His health gave way about the time of his coming to Con- 
 gress. He was reelected by his iieople, but in the second 
 term was seldom able to enter the Hall, 
 
52 Address of Mr. McAfil/iit, of Tennessee, etc. 
 
 He sought health iu southern Texas and in tlio highhinds 
 farther west, but without avail. Thence he went a few 
 weeks before liis death to Nassau. But it was too late. He 
 died far from his own land, surrounded by liis wife and 
 three children, left to moi;rn him. 
 
 Oh, what a noble heart was here undone, 
 
 When Science self-destruyed her farorite son. 
 
 Yes, she too much indulged thy fond pursuit; 
 
 She sowed the seeds, but death has reaped the fruit. 
 
 'Twas tliine own genius gave the final blow, 
 
 And helped to plant the woinid that laid thee low. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, wliilst it is sad to contemplate the death of 
 such a man, it is a blessing for such to have lived. Is this 
 the end of such nobility of soul ? Can such be merely 
 mortal ? It can not be ! A consolation like that so beauti- 
 fully expressed by Ion will come to those who had seen him 
 and known him. Ion was asked by Glemantha : 
 And shall we never see each other again ? 
 He answered : 
 
 Yes! 
 I have asked that wonderful question of the hills 
 That look eternal : of the flowing streams 
 That lucid flow forever ; of tlie stars, 
 Amid whose fields of azure my raised spirit 
 Hatli trod in glory. All were dumb; but now, 
 While I thus gaze upon thy loving face, 
 I feel the love that kindles through its beauty 
 Can never wholly perish. We shall meet 
 Again, Clemantha. 
 
 The Speaker pro iempore. The question is on the 
 adoption of the resolutions. 
 
 The resolutions were agreed to ; and accordingly (at 5 
 o'clock and 52 minutes p. m.) the House adjourned until 8 
 o'clock p. m, 
 
PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 
 
 ANNOUNCEMENT OF DEATH. 
 
 February 7, 1891. 
 
 Mr. Harris. I -ask that the me.ssage from the House of 
 Representatives be laid before the Senate. 
 
 The Presiding Officer. The Chair lays before the Sen- 
 ate a message from the House of Representatives, whicli will 
 be read. 
 
 The Secretary read as follows : 
 
 In the House of Representatives, Fehmary 7, 1891. 
 Resolved, That the "Hduse lias heard witli profound sorrow and deep 
 regret of llie death of Hon. James Phelan, late a Representative from 
 the State of Tennessee. 
 
 Resolved. That a committee of seven members of theHouse, with such 
 members of tlie Senate as may be joined, be appointed to attend the 
 funeral. 
 
 Resolved, That the Clerk eonimuuicate these resolutions to the Senate, 
 and transmit a copy to the family of the deceased. 
 
 In accordance with the foregoing resolution the Speaker appointed the 
 following conmiittee : Mr. Washington, of Tennessee ; Mr.McRae, of Ar- 
 kansas ; Mr. Wickham, of Ohio; Mr. Enloe, of Tennessee; Mr. Stock- 
 bridge, of Maryland ; Mr. Montgomery, of Kentucky; and Mr. Coleman, 
 of Louisiana. 
 
54 Proceedings in the Senate. 
 
 Mr. Harris. I offer the resolutions which I send to the 
 desk. 
 
 The Presiding Officer (Mr. Pla-tt in the chair). The 
 resolutions will be read. 
 
 The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: 
 
 Itesolved, That the Senate lias lieaid \\\\.\\ indfound sorrow tlic an- 
 nouncement of the deatli of James Phelan, late a Representative from 
 the State of Tennessee. 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of five Senators be appointed by the Presid- 
 ing Officer to join the committee appointed on the part of the House of 
 Representatives to attend tlie fmieral of the deceased. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretaiy communicate these resolutions to the 
 House of Representatives. 
 
 The Presiding Officer. The question is on agreeing to 
 the resolutions w^hicli have just been read by the Secretary. 
 
 The resolutions were agreed to. 
 
 The Presiding Officer appointed Mr. Harris, Mr. Jones 
 of Arkansas, Mr. Faulkner, Mr. Stockbridge, and Mr. Pierce 
 as the committee on the part of the Senate under the second 
 resolution. 
 
 Mr. Harris. As a further mark of respect to the memory 
 of the deceased, I move that the Senate do now adjourn. 
 
 The motion was agreed to; and the Senate adjourned 
 until Monday, February 9, 1891, at 11 o'clock a. m. 
 
EULOGIES. 
 
 March 2, 1891. 
 
 Mr. Harris. I ask tlie Chair to lay before the Senate the 
 message of the House of Representatives in respect to the 
 death of Hon. James Phelan, hite a Representative from 
 the State of Tennessee. 
 
 The Presiding Officer. The Chair lays before the Sen- 
 ate the resolutions of the House of Representatives, which 
 will be read. 
 
 The Chief Clerk read as follows : 
 
 In the House. February 28, 1891. 
 
 Resolved, That the biismess of the House be now suspended that oiipor- 
 tunity may be given for tributes to the memory of Hon. James Phelan, 
 late a Representative from the State of Tennessee. 
 
 Resolved. That as a particular mark of respect to the memory of tlie 
 deceased, and in recognition of liis eminent abilities as a faithful public 
 servant, the House, at the conclusion of these memorial proceedings, 
 sliall stand adjourned 
 
 Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 
 
 Resolved, That the Clerk also transmit to the family of the deceased a 
 copy of these resolutions. 
 
 Mr. Harris. Mr. President, I offer the resolutions, which 
 I send to the desk. 
 
 The President jiro tempore. The resolutions offered by 
 the Senator from Tennessee will l;e read. 
 
 55 
 
66 Address of Mr. Harris, nf Tcinicsscc, on /he 
 
 The Chief Clerk read as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate has received with profoimd soiro.vthe an- 
 nouncement of the death of Hon. James Phelan, late a member of the 
 House of Representatives fri>m tlie State of Tennessee, and tenders to tlie 
 family of the deceased tlie assurance of sympathy in their sad bereave- 
 ment. 
 
 Reaolred, That the Iiusiness of the Senate be now suspended, that op- 
 portunity may be given for fitting tributes to the memory of the deceased, 
 and to his eminent public and private virtues ; and that as a further mark 
 of respect the Senate, at tlie conclusion of such remarks, shall adjourn. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary be directed to transmit to the family of 
 the deceased a copy of these resolutions. 
 
 ADDRESS OF Mr. Harris, of Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. President : We turn from the important and jires- 
 sing duties of the expiring h( )urs of the Fifty-first Congress to 
 pay the last tribute of resjject to the memory of our deceased 
 associate. 
 
 On the 30th day of January last, James Phelan, the Rep- 
 resentative of the Tenth Tennessee Congressional district, 
 died at Nas.sau. 
 
 He was born at Aberdeen, Mississipiii, December 7, LS^G. 
 His father, an ex-Confederate senator from Mississippi, an 
 able and distinguished lawyer, removed to Memphis in 1807, 
 and from that time until his death Memphis was the home of 
 the late Representative. 
 
 Having the advantages that the best private schools could 
 give in his youth, prompted by a laudable and indomitable 
 ambition for the acquisition of knowledge, he madt^ tlie 
 most of his opportunities and advanced rapidly in all of liis 
 studies. 
 
 In 1871, when fifteen years of age, he entered the Ken- 
 
Life and Cliaractcr of James Phclau. 57 
 
 tucky Military Institute. In 187-i lie entered the university 
 at Leipsic, Saxony, where he comj^leted his education. 
 
 Returning to his home in Memphis in 1878, he studied law 
 and was admitted to the bar and commenced the ]jractice 
 in 1881. But soon thereafter he became the proprietor of 
 the Memphis Avalanche, one of the leading political joiir- 
 nals of the South, and his professional ambition was sub- 
 ordinated to his business interests and his political aspira- 
 tions. 
 
 As the owner of a great newspaper he showed the tact 
 and enterprise of a thorough business man, and as the one 
 wlio inspired its utterances he gave abundant evidence of ^ 
 his ability to defend and maintain the principles of the party 
 to which he belonged. 
 
 In 188G he was unanimously nominated by the Democrats 
 of the Tenth Congressional district of Tennessee, and elected 
 to represent that district in the Fiftieth Congress. 
 
 New member as he was, and one of the youngest in the 
 House, the body to which he belonged very soon recognized 
 the fact that lie was talented, learned, honest, and iiatriotic, 
 and awarded to him the influence due to these high quali- 
 ties. His district was abl,y and well represented. 
 
 He was renominated and elected as ii Representative to 
 the Fifty-first Congress, but the fatal malady that he in- 
 herited so effectuallj^ undermined his physical energies as 
 to forbid his attendance upon the sessions of the House or 
 his particiijation in its proceedings. 
 
 In the vain hope of finding a climate and an atmosphere 
 that might arrest the fatal malady, for the last two years 
 he wandered from place to place, from latitude to latitude, 
 but unfortunately for him, his family, and the country, no 
 relief was found, and at Nassau, on the 30th day of Janu- 
 ary, he died. 
 
58 Address of Mr. Jones, of Arkansas, on tJic 
 
 In Ids death the Tenth Congressional district has lost an 
 able, earnest, and faithful Representative; Tennessee lias 
 lost one of her most promising adopted sons, and the coun- 
 try has lost a scholar, a statesman, and a patricjt. 
 
 Address of Mr. Jones, of Arkansas. 
 
 Mr. President : The mortality in the Fifty-first Congress 
 has been appalling. Months ago it was astonishing, but the 
 greatest ravages of the relentless destroyer seem to have 
 been reserved for the lattei' part of this session. 
 
 Death after death in our mirlst has occurred in such i ajnd 
 succession that a gloom is cast over lis which even the ab- 
 sorbing demands of business can not dispel. Those who 
 have been our constant associates and sitting by our side 
 day by day have one by one been so suddenly called away 
 that it has seemed as if the grim monster was actually pres- 
 ent sitting in our midst every moment, mocking our hojies 
 and ready to snatch away another. 
 
 The mortality in our own branch of Congress has, in pro- 
 portion to numbers, kept pace with that in the other. First 
 the great Kentuckian went. Then that able lawyer, pure 
 gentleman, and earnest Christian, the Senator from Mary- 
 land; and scarcely had. we laid him to rest when the Senator 
 from California was summoned by the Master; and now, 
 while we are prei:>aring to bear him with loving hands and 
 sad hearts to his home in the great West, which he loved so 
 well and served so faithfully, we jia^ise in the rush and 
 hurry of the business of the iiatiDU t(.) testify, though in a 
 
Life and Cliaractcr of James Phclan. 59 
 
 feeble way, our respect for the memory of another member 
 of the House of Representatives, who was also loved and 
 honored amongst us while living — James Phelan, of Ten- 
 nessee. 
 
 The State from which he came has sent a long line of capa- 
 ble and patriotic men to both Houses of the National Con- 
 gress. The names of many of her members here will live 
 as long as the memory of this nation shall survive, but 
 where in all this line can you point to one who came under 
 circumstances which warranted higher expectations than 
 were justified as to Mr. Phelan ? Young, ambitious, culti- 
 vated, endowed with natural ability, and with the loftiest 
 sense of personal integrity and uprightness, it certainly 
 seemed that his friends and his State were justified in antici- 
 pating an extraordinarily brilliant and successful career for 
 him. • 
 
 It has been well said that "all persons jjossessing any por- 
 tion of power ought to be strongly and awfully impressed 
 witli an idea that they act in trust, and that they are to ac- 
 count for their conduct in that ti'ust to the one great Master, 
 Author, and Founder of society." 
 
 The story of Mr. Phelan's life seems an illustration of 
 this idea. He labored incessantly, and while he had not 
 reached his juaturity, had in fact scarcely begun to learn 
 his own powers, he had already accomplished more than 
 falls to the lot of thousands who have reached the age of 
 three score years and ten, and who have taken high rank 
 among their fellow-men. He had achieved great success as 
 a journalist, and stood sufficiently high in his profession to 
 have satisfied the ambition of most men. 
 
 He had won celebrity in literatui'e, had stamped his im- 
 press iijjon American letters, and won a jiosition in this field 
 which will live after we are gone ; but not satisfied with 
 
60 Address of Mr. Joncs^ of Arkansas^ on the 
 
 success in these great fields, he sought and won distinction 
 in the domain of politics and statesmanship. If, indeed, 
 
 We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ; 
 In feehngs, not in figures on a dial, 
 
 then Mr. Phelan had already outlived most men when he 
 went to "the lone couch of his everlasting sleep." 
 
 Death is always terrible. We are never quite ready for the 
 summons; but to him who has garnered such rich results, 
 whether his years be few or many, Mr. President, it is cer- 
 tainly not premature. 
 
 One who labors so intensely earns rest ; and who can say 
 that, even though it comes in the form of that 
 
 Sinless, stirless rest, 
 That change which never changes, 
 
 it is a misfortune ? Death must come, and whether it be 
 soon or late matters little. It is inevitable ; but it matters 
 much whether it follows a well or ill spent life. Mr. 
 Phelan's early death is well known to have resulted from 
 his too earnest and constant labor. Whatsoever his hands 
 found to do that he did with his might, and he wrought 
 with marvelous success. He labored as one who kin-w his 
 time was short and who intended to complete his allotted 
 task in the brief space given him, and his complete success 
 will remain a monument to him in the future. Genial, 
 warm-hearted, manly, without reproach. 
 
 After lile's fitful fever he sleeps well, 
 
Life and Characlcr of James Phclan. 61 
 
 ADDRESS OF Mr. Daniel, of Virginia. 
 
 Mr. President: "Oh, that I had time to weep!" This 
 was the excUimatiou of Napoleon, when on one of his bloody 
 hattle-tields he beheld the ghastly corpse of a brave young 
 soldier who had fallen in the fight. How often, Mr. 
 President, has that emotion welled up in our hearts during 
 the busy hours of this exciting session of Congress, as one 
 by one we have seen our colleagues removed from their 
 places of public usefulness ; as one and then amther of our 
 associates have disappeared from our side. And yet per- 
 haps it is well, Mr. President, tliat we do not have time to 
 weep; well that the overruling demands of love for the liv- 
 ing and of duty to the obligations whicli Providence has 
 placed upon us, should constrain us from tlie mournful 
 thoughts and heartrending scenes that attend the place of 
 deatli. And after all, we can do nothing for the dead but- 
 lay them down at the foot of the cross, and utter the cry of 
 mortal submission to divine decree, "Thy will be done." 
 It is for ourselves, for these around us, for those that come 
 hereafter, that we proclaim the virtues of the dead, that we 
 uplift their good examples, and that we contemplate their 
 end as the inevitable lot. 
 
 If some would escape death, and if only some were doomed 
 to die, life would be vexed with new harassments and in- 
 felicities. In the impartiality of death there is taught the 
 lesson of human Ijrotherhood. With Death equality is 
 equity. A just creditor, Death exacts from each and all an 
 equal due. If there be gloom in this reiiection there is also 
 some consolation. Death can not bo wholly evil and wholly 
 sorrowful, seeing that it is universal, that it is the fixed. 
 
62 Address of Mr. Daniel^ of I 'irginia^ on the 
 
 inevitable, invariable, unappealable law of Him who rul js 
 forever. 
 
 Mr. President, such thoughts as these have come upon us 
 as we have seen the old, the middle aged, and the youthful 
 vanish from our midst. He whom we now mourn to-night 
 and to whom we pay the last salutation of earthly respect 
 was a marked man. If I were to seek to characterize his 
 life with a few words, I should say that he wus marked by 
 that which is the invariable mark of every man who 
 achieves and leaves something to be remembered; that is, 
 by a serious, earnest, and steadfast purpose. He was born 
 to affluence. It is a mistake to siippose that poverty is a 
 disadvantage to the youth of genius and aspiration. It is 
 oftener the spur of action and endeavor, and these must 
 precede accomplishment. 
 
 Wealth is often an inci^mbrance — a tempter, a deceiver 
 to the young. But James Phelan, of Tennessee, looked 
 upon wealth as only an opportunity for usefulness. He aj)- 
 plied it to purposes of self-education, to the liberalizing of 
 his mind, and to enterprises of utility. He had within him 
 the restless, compelling thoughts of high endeavor. There 
 burned in his breast — 
 
 A spark of that immortal fire 
 With angels shared, by Allah given. 
 To lift from earth our low desire. 
 
 He had the will and the purpose and the intent to do 
 something that men might know him and recognize him by 
 his good works. " I speak to you who will live a million 
 years hence," are words deciphered in the hieroglyphics of 
 ancient Egj'pt, and such thotights still warm human bosoms. 
 James Phelan was brave ; he was high-spirited, and he 
 scorned delights, and lived laborious days ; he sought to 
 leave a name. An editor, in the domain of journalism he 
 
Life and Characlcr of James Phelau. fi3 
 
 accomplished the buildiug up of a newsijaper which was a 
 luminary in his section of the country, and he wielded an 
 able pen. A lawyer, he studied his profession and became 
 learned in the law. A man of letters, he wrote a history 
 of his State which competent critics have pronounced ad- 
 mirable. 
 
 Beyond this, he was a yoimg American of character and 
 force for good, an honor to his State and to his country, 
 dedicating those hours which to many would be hours of 
 leisure in illustrating worthy deeds and in writing of them 
 in an impartial and honest and earnest spirit. He held up 
 the high ideals to the young men of this nation. 
 
 There was no bitterness nor narrowness in his character. 
 He was a patriot ; he loved his country ; he loved his State ; 
 he loved his kind. 
 
 I had the honor of a personal acquaintance with Sir. 
 Phelan, and perhaps became better acquainted with him 
 than opi»rtunity would have otherwise permitted from the 
 fact that he married a lady of my own town. Their union 
 was blessed with children. He had around him all that men 
 seek to make life happy, "home, children, and friends." 
 In the midst of his days, in the prime of his life, in the 
 flower of his career, he saw death advancing upon him, but 
 he did not blanch before it. He kept on with his labors. 
 He applied himself to the purposes which he had set in view 
 with a firmness that never relaxed until fate itself relaxed it. 
 
 Twice elected a member of the House of Representa- 
 tives, with the perspective of the future broadening and 
 widening before him, and no doubt filled with as many 
 dreams of happiness and usefulness as those that might 
 ever fill the visions of the buoyant and the brave, he 
 found that the seeds of disease were implanted in his 
 bosom. He sought relief in southern climes, but found it 
 
64 Address of Air. Bat(\ of Tennessee, on the 
 
 not. He was doomed to die, and under the effulgence of 
 sunlit skies, in a land of flowers, in the balmy air of the 
 Bahamas, lie has sunk to rest, with trust in God and in hope 
 of lieaven. 
 
 Mr. President, there is something admirable in that cere- 
 mony of the soldier in which he accompanies his comrade 
 to his last resting place with the Dead March, fires over 
 his grave, and then returns with flying flag and with re- 
 joicing music to the accustomed rounds of duty. So seem 
 we to imuse here amidst these busy hours to bow our heads 
 at this new-made tomb. I tender with you my respectful 
 symi^athies to those who I know are bereaved beyond the 
 ])ower of man to administer i-onsolaticm. I give with you 
 my last salute to the memory of this brave and true young 
 American, who was worthy of his State and coi;ntry, and 
 whose example should stimulate us in our apjiointed tasks. 
 
 Address of Mr. Bate, of Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. President : When we contemjilate the fact that 
 eleven Representatives and three Senators have been called 
 from this one Congress to appear before the Tribunal in the 
 great "Beyond," we realize the truth that "Thy scythe 
 and glass, O Time, are not the emblems of thy gentler 
 power!" 
 
 When we see death's high revelry in the Fifty-first Con- 
 gress it becomes ap^jarent that there is truth in the remark 
 that "Death loves a shining mark." Townsheud, Burnes, 
 Gay, Kelley, Randall, Watson, Cox, Wilber, Nutting, 
 
Life and Character of James Phelan. <J5 
 
 Walker, aud Plielan, in tlie House: Beck, Wilson, and 
 Hearst in the Senate. Tlie list is an appalling one, but it is 
 also a galaxy of men who have — 
 
 Deposited upon the silent sliore 
 
 Of memory, images, and precious thoughts 
 Tliat shall not die, aud can not be destroyed. 
 
 There is no Death! What seems so is transition ; 
 
 This life of mortal breath 
 Is but a suburb of the hfe elysian, 
 
 Whose portal we call Death. 
 
 The bowstring, drawn tightly back by the finger of fate 
 and let fly quickly, sends the death arrow to a shining 
 mark, and in this instance truly a shining young life is the 
 victim. 
 
 Why aud by what philosophy it is that one so young, so 
 well equipped for the activities and usefulness of life, is 
 taken we know not, but submit confidingly under the be- 
 lief that " Ijehind a frowning providence He hides a shining 
 face." 
 
 In the death of her late Representative, James Phelan, 
 the State which I in part have the honor to represent in 
 this Chamber lost one of her most valued sons and able and 
 faithfitl Representatives. 
 
 When less than .30 years of age he had not only 
 won for himself a high reputation as journalist and his- 
 torian, l)ut had also won and held an honored seat in the 
 Fiftieth Congress, of which he was the youngest member; 
 and rare indeed has it been for one so young to gain a seat 
 ■ in that honored body, althoi;gh it is more than a century 
 old. 
 
 In being liberally educated in our best home institutions, 
 James Phelan laid the foiindation for that rare educational 
 H. Mis. 135 5 
 
66 Address of Mr. Bate, of Tennessee, on the 
 
 finish to which lie afterwards attained in a European uui- 
 versit}^ at Leij^sic. 
 
 Having been educated for the law he commenced its prac- 
 tice at his home in Memphis, but soon turned his attention 
 to journalism and became identified with the Memphis 
 Avalanche, one of the leading and most influential daily 
 papers in the South. 
 
 At this early age James Phelan had premonitions <jf 
 consumption. He knew the probability of his having in- 
 herited that malady which could not be stayed in its gradual 
 consuming. He had seen an only brother wither under its 
 baleful influence at an early age, even until death had 
 given its sting and the grave had won its victory. Instead 
 of yielding to what ho and his friends believed to be the in- 
 evitable — as is usual with less nervy men — and temporizing 
 under melancholy forebodings, he battled against the enemy 
 as a "strong swimmer in his agony." With undaunted 
 courage he resolved, however short his span of life, to win 
 honors in the race. The time was short, the track rugged, 
 but he entered the list to win. As the result shows, he was 
 a swift courser and attained tJie goal of high noon while 
 yet the liquid dew glistened in the morning sunlight, leav- 
 ing his ambitious associates in the distance. 
 
 Preceding his election to Congress and during his jour- 
 nalistic career he had gathered together the facts and inci- 
 dents, the philosoi)hy and politics of Tennessee, and em- 
 bodied them in history ; and he had condensed and simplified 
 that history for the use of the schools of the State, and 
 brought within the grasp of tlie young, as he scattered the 
 gold dust of knowledge over their budding intellects, the 
 reasons and facts which give value to the past and i)romise 
 to the future of that great Cor^mon wealth. In this valuable 
 contribution to history, presented in plain, clear, simple, and 
 
Life and Character of James Phelan. 67 
 
 coo-ent style, he lias woven most interestingly her leading 
 historic events with the individuality of her heroes who, 
 durin- their pioneer life, wrought the framework of her 
 organism, along with those who. in later times, have given 
 strength, beauty, an<l symmetry to her new growth. 
 
 Recognizing tliat all things are possible to well directed 
 labor and that nothing is to be attaineel without it, that ex-^ 
 cellence in any .lepartment of usefulness can be gained only 
 by the labor of a lifetime, Mr. Phelan beiit every energy 
 of mind and body to the accomplishment of his life's work. 
 With him neither personal comfort nor high station were 
 the chief e.Kls of life, nor was wealth the main object of his 
 
 ambition. 
 
 His early youth having been assiduously devoted to study 
 and the attainment of knowledge, and having in the best of 
 European schools not only diversified, strengthened, and 
 polished that educati.,)n without losing the American fea- 
 ture of practical usefulness, acquired a ripe knowledge of 
 modern thought, not alone in the ordinary curriculum of 
 an educational course, but by practical everyday observa- 
 tion which comes of strong natural capacity good taste, and 
 
 assiduity. 
 
 The patriot sentiment of his character was strengthened 
 and intensified by the contrasts between his knowledge of 
 the institutions of his country and his observations of those 
 of foreign lands ; between the privileged few of European 
 and the broad equality of American society ; between the 
 impoverished many of other countries and the happy mil- 
 lions at home. His education in Europe enlarged and ele- 
 vated his pride and affection for America. 
 
 Thus eciuipped. and standing on the threshold of man- 
 hoo<l, he entered the arena of active life at his home in the 
 city of Memphis, where ability and competition was so 
 
68 Address of Mr. Bate, of Tennessee, on the 
 
 marked as to be proverbial. From that moment, uotwitli- 
 standing the shadow of an early fate overhung liim, he bent 
 the energies of his proud spirit for his few remaining years 
 to \isefulness and to fame. 
 
 Guided by practical philosophy in his high purpose ; with 
 manners natural and simple; plain in dress ; social but tem- 
 perate, if not severe, in habits ; of direct methods and pos- 
 itive in speech, he deceived no one, and gained ready access 
 to all classes, and the people quickly learned to love him. 
 He tied friends to him as if by a charm. He overrode oppo- 
 sition and soon came to be counted in the front rank, where 
 strong men battled for place. He wor.shiped at the shrine 
 of friendship with a faith that knew "no variableness noi- 
 shadow of turning." Indeed, witli him bad faith to friend 
 was an unforgiven crime. 
 
 Intrepid self-reliance, unwearied activity, far-reaching sa- 
 gacity, clearness, and fullness were the prominent mental 
 characteristics which made him the al)le editor, the accom- 
 l)lished historian, and useful legislator. Tennessee recog- 
 nized his worth and wealth of character and the fullness of 
 his mental capacity, and conferred upon him high honors. 
 Her generous confidence he requited with a deep and fervent 
 devotion, laying upon her altar the offerings of his youthful 
 but matured years, uidiolding, upon all occasions, with a 
 lofty patriotism and with all the energies of a scholarly 
 intellect, her rights, her honor, and Ik^- prosperity. 
 
 Of hopeful temperament, and without ostentation or 
 parade, his spirit was finely touched with the gentler vir- 
 tues, and those who enjoyed the privilege of social intimacy 
 will remember with delight the unaffected frankness and 
 simplicity of his manners, the varied range and vivacity of 
 liis conversation ; and they will most deeply deplore the 
 loss of one as remarkable for mildness and the kindliest 
 
Life and Character of James PJicIan. 69 
 
 affections in Ms domestic relations and all the intercourse 
 of private life as he was for profound thoughts and rare 
 attainments. It may be truly said of James Phelan that 
 he not only possessed marked abilities and fine accomplish- 
 ments, but also a heroic spirit which devoted itself by stren- 
 uous efforts, at the cost of life itself, to the accomplishment 
 of great and important ends. 
 
 Ability and energy are not always sufficient, for courage 
 and disinterestedness are also needed. These he possessed to 
 an eminent degree. The painful encroachments of wasting 
 disease could not abate the one nor swerve the other. With 
 lofty, definite, and fixed purposes, he bravely pursued his 
 course despite the weakness of body or the terrors of death. 
 Mr. President, it is not that other men could not or may 
 not have accomplished what James Phela^j did, and more 
 but who has done it at so young an age ? Ay, more ; who 
 else has done it or would do it at his age, or any age, know- 
 ing a fatal disease was preying upon his vitals, with the 
 shadow of death coming nearer and nearer as it flitted before 
 him ? This is heroism. 
 
 This young and gifted workman of Tennessee now rests 
 from his life's labors, but the fruit of these he left growing 
 and to grow ; his early years have been numbered and are 
 ended, but of the activity of his life's labor there is no end. 
 He was the embodiment of courage, will power, and energy; 
 of the thoughtfulness, the glow, and throbliing pulsation 
 of earnest life. He was my friend, and I love to sjjeak of 
 him. 
 
 Whether striving for a scholarly prize at academy or 
 university, wielding a journalistic pen, writing the history 
 of his State, appearing before hustings, or holding a seat 
 in Congress, from which he was taken too soon, James 
 Phelan was always equal to the task. He knew no middle 
 
70 Address of Mr. Ba/e, of Tennessee. 
 
 ground aud only ceased effort wlien he became master of the 
 
 situation. His sunset was premature, but it was golden. 
 
 His life was — 
 
 Like the suiuiiier rose, 
 
 Tliat opens to t}ie morning sky, 
 
 But ere tlie shades of evening close 
 
 Is scattered on the ground — to die. 
 
 He will sleep in the environs of Elmwood, on the banks 
 of the mightiest of rivers, within tlie limits of the beauti- 
 ful aud growing city of Memphis, with which he was identi- 
 fied in boyhood and manhood. 
 
 He left a noble, accomplished wife, and three little chil- 
 dren. His domestic life was of tlie happiest. Warm tints 
 of delicate coloring bleuded in liis nature and made him 
 soft and tender in his home circle. He sought the salt air 
 of Nassaii as a restorative in vain, and was there wooed by 
 the roar of the s\ii-f to his last sleep. His family were witli 
 liim, and to them go out the warm sympathy of our Ten- 
 nessee people. 
 
 'Tis liard to part when friends are dear ; 
 Perha])S "twill cost a sigh, a tear. 
 Then steal away, give little warning. 
 
 Choose thine own time ; 
 Say not " Good night," but in some brighter clime 
 
 Bid me "Good morning." 
 
 I now ask for the adoption of the resolutions submitted 
 by my colleague. 
 
 The President lyro tempore. The qitestion is on the 
 adoption of the resolutions. 
 
 The resolutions were agreed to unanimously ; and the 
 Senate accordingly adjourned until Tuesday, March 3, 1891, 
 at 9.30 o'clock a. m. f