Delaware Gazette And State Journal

RESOLUTIONS ON MR. BAYARD.

Those Adopted by the Bar Association of New Castle County Presented to the Supreme Court Yesterday Week.

John Biggs and Andrew E. Sanborn of this city, on behalf of the Bar Association of New Castle county, presented to the Supreme Court at Dover yesterday week the resolutions adopted by the bar association on the death of Hon. Thomas F. Bayard. All the members of the Supreme Court, with the exception of Chief Justice Lore, were present. Mr. Biggs said:

In presenting these resolutions I desire to add my own testimony as a tribute to the memory of the Hon. Thomas F. Bayard. His life is so interwoven with, and part of the history of, our nation and State that it is familiar to us all. It was a fortunate thing for our little Commonwealth, when he forsook his early vocation in life, that of the mercantile business in the city of Philadelphia and commenced the study of the law in the city of Wilmington. He was admitted to the bar in 1851, and soon took his place among the foremost practitioners of those days, who were the leaders of a bar acknowledged to be as able as that of any in our country. Our reports show that soon after his admission and up to the time when he was elected a United States Senator, he was engaged on one side or the other in almost all the important trials that came before our courts.

My acquaintance with Mr. Bayard began in 1869, he having first taken his seat, as a United States Senator, on the 4th of March of that year, and on the same day that my father first took his seat as a member of the lower House of Congress. I can well remember the then universal consensus of opinion that his career, as a public servant, would be a bright one; that his natural ability, coupled with his studious habits were sure to bring him success. He was a very hard student, and his determination to master the important subjects that came before the Senate in those days, and especially those pertaining to the reconstruction of the Southern States, affected his eye-sight, and severely taxed his natural robust constitution. He was the friend of the South, and during those trying days of reconstruction, when the Southern people were struggling to get back into the Union, he was one of the few Senators who was always ready to hold out to them a helping hand in their time of distress.

The place he occupied as one of the foremost leaders of his day, and the prominent part he always took in questions involving the welfare and good name of our country are well known to all. He was bound to all pertaining to the welfare and good name of our own State and people by the deepest love and strongest devotion of a pure mind and honest heart. Whether his duties called him to other fields beyond the borders of our State, in our own country, or whether they called him to new fields beyond the seas, from the days of his earliest manhood to the day of his death, he was always mindful of the welfare, the prosperity, the good name, and the honorable position our State always occupied among our sister States, and always bore a grateful remembrance to our people, who in recognition of his ability, his purity of purpose, and sterling worth, were pleased to honor him."

In seconding the resolution, Mr. Sanborn in part said: "The pulse of every true Delawarean quickens and throbs with pride at the name of the Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, whom all English-speaking people had come to reverence and love, whose very name had become a synonym of honor, and whose wonderful influence was felt the world around.

Sufficient time has not yet elapsed, nor shall I attempt to estimate the loss our State and nation have sustained in his death. This must be left to the future historian. It does seem that never has our country been more in need of the combined wisdom and patriotism of all her greatest and truest sons. The war with Spain has brought to us the beginning of a new era. New and grave problems of public policy confront us; and our anxiety for the future would be great indeed did we not believe that the Almighty Ruler of Nations is guiding our destiny, and has in our future a purpose to make this great nation an object lesson to the world of the blessings of liberty and self-government.

Mr. Bayard was the highest type of a man. Nature formed him in no common mould. With large and magnificent physique, noble brow, flashing eye and powerful, though sweetly modulated voice, his presence universally commanded respect. It was impossible to resist the charm of his manner, or to be insensible to the melody of his voice. He was a man of very strong convictions, and at times his very soul would speak in their enforcement. His standard of morality was very high. He was the soul of honor. Mr. Bayard inherited his exquisite sense of honor by birth from a long line of distinguished ancestors, and carefully nourished and cultivated it throughout his life. He was kind and courteous to all. Nature had made him a gentleman. A conclusion reached, he never faltered in the path of duty. He was a man of wide experience. His life and education brought him into contact with men of every class; and in his maturer years this varied experience ripened into a rich harvest of wisdom.

As Ambassador to England he was most warmly received by all classes, and, aroused by the eloquent words that came straight from his heart, all England warmed with friendship for this country. Who can estimate the value of this service to our country in the late war with Spain, or its future importance to us in time to come.

It is sad to think that the noble form of one so honored and beloved should have been rent with pain and wasted by disease until final dissolution. but in the providence of God, his life work was ended—and if to have lived an honored and useful life; if to have been faithful; if to have been unselfish; if to have been noble; if to have attained the object of his generous ambition; if to have furnished future generations a character worthy of imitation—an honorable ambition—if to have lived and rounded out the life of a true Christian gentleman, is to have done well, then we know he has heard the "well done good and faithful servant" and has now entered upon the reward of his labors.

Upon receiving the resolutions, which were ordered spread on the minutes of the court, Chancellor Nicholson said that in the death of Mr. Bayard he felt that the State had not only sustained a great loss but he had lost a personal friend, and there was a void in his life which he did not believe could be filled.

The court adjourned out of respect for the memory of Mr. Bayard.

A woman may envy the beauty of another but she never forgives it.