TRIBUTE TO MR. RANTOUL.

SPEECH IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, ON THE DEATH OF HON. ROBERT RANTOUL, JR., 9TH AUGUST, 1852.

A message was received from the House of Representatives, by Mr. Hayes, its Chief Clerk, communicating to the Senate information of the death of the Hon. ROBERT RANTOUL, JR., a member of the House of Representatives from the State of Massachusetts, and the proceedings of the House thereon.

The resolutions of the House of Representatives were read.

MR. SUMNER said: - Mr. President, by formal message of the House of Representatives, we now learn that one of our associates in the public councils has died. Only a few brief days — I had almost said hours

-have passed since he was in his accustomed seat. Now he is gone from us forever. He was my colleague and friend; and yet, so sudden has been this change, that no tidings of his illness even had reached me, before I learned that he was already beyond the reach of mortal aid or consolation, and that the shadows of the grave had already descended upon him. He died here in Washington, late on Saturday evening, 7th August; and his earthly remains, accompanied by the bereaved companion of his life, with a Committee of the other House, are now far on the way to Massachusetts, there to mingle dust to dust with his native soil.

The occasion does not permit me to speak at length of the character or services of Mr. Rantoul. A few words will suffice; nor will the language of eulogy be required.

He was born 13th August, 1805, at Beverly, in the county of Essex, the home of Nathan Dane, final author of the immortal Ordinance by which freedom was made a perpetual heir-loom in the broad region of the Northwest. Here, under happy auspices of family and neighborhood, he commenced life. Here his excellent father, honored for his public services, venerable also with years and flowing silver locks, yet lives to mourn his last surviving son. The sad fortune of Burke is renewed. He who should have been as posterity, is now to this father in the place of ancestor.

For

Mr. Rantoul was early a member of the Legislature of Massachusetts, and there won his first fame. 'many years he occupied a place on the Board of Education in that State. He was also, for a time, Collector of the Port of Boston, and afterwards Attorney of the United States for Massachusetts. During a brief period he held a seat in this body. Finally, in 1851, by the choice of his native District, remarkable for its intelligence and public spirit, he became a Representative in the other branch of the National Legislature. In all these spheres he performed most acceptable service. And the future promised opportunities of a higher character, to which his abilities, industry, and fidelity would have amply responded. Massachusetts has many arrows in her well-stocked quiver; but few could she so ill spare at this moment as the servant we now

mourn.

By original fitness, study, knowledge and various

experience, he was formed for public service. But he was no stranger to other pursuits. Early devoted to the profession of the law, he followed it with assiduity and success. In the antiquities of our jurisprudence, few were more learned. His arguments at the bar were thorough; nor was his intellectual promptness in all emergencies of a trial easily surpassed. Literature, neglected by many under the pressure of professional life, was always cultivated by him. His taste for books was enduring. He was a constant student. Amidst his manifold labors, professional and public, he cherished the honorable aspiration of adding to the historical productions of his country. A work on the history of France, wherein the annals and character of this great nation should be portrayed by an American pen, had occupied much of his thoughts. I know not if any part was ever matured for publication.

The practice of the law, while it sharpens the intellect, is too apt to cramp the faculties within the narrow limits of form, and to restrain the genial currents of the soul. It had no such influence on him. He was a Reformer. In the warfare with Evil, he was enlisted early and openly as a soldier for life. As such, he did not hesitate to encounter opposition, to bear obloquy, and to brave enmity. His conscience, pure as goodness, sustained him in every trial even that sharpest of all, the desertion of friends. And yet, while earnest in his cause, his zeal was tempered beyond that of the common reformer. He knew well the difference between the ideal and the actual, and sought, by practical means, in harmony with the existing public sentiment, to promote the interests which he had at heart., He saw clearly that reform could not prevail at once,

in an hour, or in a day, but that it would be the slow and certain result of constant labor, testimony, and faith. Determined and tranquil in his own convictions, he had the grace to respect the convictions of others. Recognizing in the social and political system the essential elements of stability and progress, he discerned at once the office of the conservative and the reformer. But he saw also that a blind conservatism was not less destructive than a blind reform. By the mingled caution, moderation, and earnestness of his labors, he seemed often to blend two characters in one and to be at the same time a Reforming Conservative and a Conservative Reformer.

I might speak of his devotion to public improvements of all kinds, particularly to the system of railroads. But here he was on the popular side. There were other causes, where his struggle was keener and more meritorious. At a moment when his services were much needed he was the faithful supporter of common schools, the peculiar glory of New England. By word and example he sustained the cause of temperance. Some of his most devoted labors, commencing in the Legislature of Massachusetts, were for the abolition of capital punishment. Perhaps no person since that consummate jurist, Edward Livingston, has done so much by reports, articles, letters and speeches to commend this reform to the country. With its final triumph, in the progress of civilization, his name will be indissolubly connected. There is another cause that commanded his early sympathies and some of his latest best endeavors, to which, had life been spared, he would have given the splendid maturity of his powers. Posterity cannot forget this; but I am

forbidden by the occasion to name it here. Sir, in the long line of portraits on the walls of the ducal palace of Venice, commemorating its Doges, a single panel, where a portrait should have been, is shrouded by a dark curtain. But this darkened blank, in that place, attracts the beholder more than any picture. Let such a curtain fall to-day upon this theme.

In

In becoming harmony with these noble causes was the purity of his private life. Here he was blameless. In manners he was modest, simple, and retiring. conversation he was disposed to listen rather than to speak, though all were well pleased when he broke silence, and in apt language declared his glowing thoughts. But in the public assembly, before the people, or in the legislative hall, he was bold and triumphant. As a debater he rarely met his peer. Fluent, carnest, rapid, sharp, incisive, his words came forth like a flashing cimeter. Few could stand against him. He always understood his subject; and then, clear, logical, and determined, seeing his point before him, pressed forward with unrelenting power. His speeches on formal occasions were enriched by study, and contain passages of beauty. But he was most truly at home in dealing with practical questions arising from the actual exigencies of life.

Few had studied public affairs more minutely or intelligently. As a constant and effective member of the Democratic party, he had become conspicuous by championship of its doctrines on the currency and free trade. These he often discussed; and from the amplitude of his knowledge, and his overflowing familiarity with facts, statistics and the principles of political economy, poured upon them a luminous flood.