Caleb Cashing.

have followed Henry Clay rather than the fortunes of John Tyler, by which he lost the favor of New England. Then if he had joined the Republican party, as most North ern Whigs did, as intimated before, it is not easy to predict to what a position he might not have risen. He must be credited with sincerity in his action, or he showed far less practical wisdom than most men are sup posed to possess. He lived at a time when but little charity was shown for difference of action or opinion, and when men who had freely exposed their lives for their coun try, and were willing to do it again, were de nounced as its most dangerous foes by men who had shunned the battle-field and whose only devotion during the war had been to themselves. Few have even justice from their own generation, — that it is the duty of posterity to render. The death of Mr. Cushing called out a general feeling of regret all over the country. He had for years withdrawn from party politics, and his learning and legal ability and experience had been devoted to the gov ernment at a time when they were specially needed, and all had recognized their value. At many gatherings leading men were glad to bear testimony to his great qualities. At a meeting at Washington called to pay respect to his memory, the late lamented and brilliant Richard S. Spofford, — who had been more intimately associated with him, probably, than any other man for a quarter of a century, — after speaking of " those superb attainments and powers that made him sec ond to none among publicists and states men," continued : " When in a later age some great orator of the Republic, the Pericles of its meridian splendor, or, if that is inevitable, the Demosthenes of its declin ing period, here in this grandest of Capitals, shall revert to our times and recount their history, few names upon the roll of our civic fame will seem to him and those whom he addresses more illustrious than his in honor of whom we are assembled. ... By all will it then be clearly recognized that the 2

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true rank to be assigned to him is that of one among the greatest of statesmen, the most learned of lawyers, the most patriotic of citizens, the most accomplished of men; and that, occupying this pre-eminent posi tion, so great and valuable were his public services that it may truthfully be said that in his clay and generation he was one of the pillars of the Republic." Robert C. Winthrop, whose praise is al ways golden, before the Massachusetts His torical Society, after enumerating his great services, said : " He has certainly gone through as great a variety of responsible and conspicuous public services as has ever, I think, fallen to the lot of a Mas sachusetts man. . . . Differing from him far more frequently than I could agree with him, and by no means prejudiced in his favor, I was all the more a trustworthy wit ness of his varied ability, his vast acquire ments, his unwearied application, and his force and skill as a writer and speaker. Nor can I forget the many amiable traits of his character, which prevented differences of opinion or of party from sundering the ties of social intercourse. He knew how to abandon a policy or quit a party without quarrelling with those whom he left behind." The late Charles W. Tuttle, whose early death was so much regretted, and who was in the same law office with Mr. Cushing for some years, once said: "Mr. Cushing was endowed with extraordinary intellectual powers, with an uncommonly fine physique, and a vig orous constitution. Externally Nature had stamped him as a man of distinguished character. Such was the versatility of his talents that he could master with equal facil ity any subject. Had he so determined, he could have gone down to posterity one of the greatest scientists or the great philologist of the age, as he was a great jurist and states man. His capacity and equally great mem ory, his unwearied industry, his scorn of de light and love of laborious days, enabled him to conquer all knowledge. I know of no subject of intellectual contemplation that