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sitting in yonder chair. A less determined spirit would have succumbed to so serious a physical derangement; but his great intellect seemed to become clearer, brighter, more vigorous, his iron will to strengthen, his moral courage to increase, as his physical organism became weaker from the attacks of the insidious disease that was slowly but surely undermining it.

I have seen the mighty oak, with its great bole, symmetrical and strong, with its wealth of graceful limbs, with its glory of leaf and shade forming, all in all, one of the highest types of blended power and beauty, in nature a very monarch among his fellows, to whom they seemed to mutely bow as with acknowledgment of primacy. Afterwards I have seen this wonder of the forest-which nature had so lavishly expended her forces to upbuild, and which had during many generations withstood the assaults of the angry tempests, gaining in each struggle increased development and strength-suddenly rent and riven, a deepened wound upon its noble trunk pointing out the lightning's track; and yet its umbrageous canopy of limb and leaf appeared, if possible, more perfect, more beautiful than ever. I cannot tell-perhaps no one but the Great Creator Himself will ever know--whether there may not have been specially imparted to it, through some Dryad medium, something of that force of will from the source of all power which gave to that charred and broken and wounded trunk the needed strength to draw from the fruitful soil the sustaining elements necessary to the continuance of its great life. A few years later I have found this stupendous growth of nature a blasted, withered thing. A second bolt from Jove's awful hand had descended and robbed it forever of life, and strength, and beauty; for the very last time it had "flung down its green glories to battle with the wind and storm."

In respect of its inherent strength, its remarkable development, its superlative power and endurance at the maturity of its growth entitling it to superior rank among its fellows, as well as its final blight and decay, this wonderful creation of nature was aptly illustrative of the great life of the deceased senator before whose open grave we mourn. To him there was given a mental and physical organism with each faculty, each force so carefully, so perfectly adjusted to every other, the whole constituting a manhood of such symmetry and strength and power that in any sphere of life must have commanded for him superior station among his fellows. Endowments so rare were his, that of their own force, by their own momentum, they impelled him to the fore-front, to intellectual primacy, to

leadership; and this position once secured was easily held
through that instinctive concession of prudence which the
masses of men always make to the possessor of such facul-
ties.

As the oak grew broader and stronger from its tempest
conflicts so did this noble manhood broaden and strengthen
in the encounters incident to a life of leadership among

men.

TRIBUTE TO FRANK WELCH.

On a similar occasion Mr. Paddock paid a graceful and tender tribute to the memory of Hon. Frank Welch, of Nebraska, furnishing in the conception and style a counterpart to the beautiful simile so successfully amplified in the word portrait of Senator Morton.

Mr. President-It is with no "hollow circumstance of woe," but as one sorrows for a brother lost, as a family in sackcloth mourns when the insatiate archer, entering its charmed circle, selects for his victim the favorite of the flock, that we, each and all, in the State he loved so well, and served so faithfully, did say peace and farewell to his ashes. At length they bore him from us, and now his ashes mingle with the soil of Massachusetts. To us, sir, who loved Frank Welch—and we all did love him; to us who labored with him from the smallest beginnings in the territorial times to the days of stalwart statehood for Nebraska; there is indeed left the record of his honorable citizenship; the proud monuments of his public services, the sweet memory of his personal graces, and of his frank and generous nature, the valued example of his earnest life; and these, sir, shall be ours evermore. Remembering this, sir, with such cheerfulness and resignation as we could command we responded to the appeal of maternal affection and returned to Massachusetts the mortal casket-broken and useless to be surewhich once had held this priceless jewel. On behalf of the young State whose institutions Frank Welch helped to mould I sent greetings and grateful acknowledgments to Massachusetts for the valued services of this her son in our up-building. But remember, senators of that grand old commonwealth, his ashes are ours as well as yours. You received them from us with our love and our tears; you gave them honored sepulture. Now guard them well, we pray you; for when the last trump shall sound, and they who died for liberty on Bunker Hill and the other patriots buried there shall then, in glad obedience, come forth, no nobler spirit will appear than his whose life, commencing

in that historic place, was mainly given to the work of de-
velopment and civilization which resulted in the establish-
mentment of a free and prosperous commonwealth in the
distant West where only a little time before the Indian,
undisturbed, "pursued the panting deer," and "the wild
fox dug his hole unscared," in a land where no white man
had ever dwelt and the arts of peace were unknown.

All that can be said of him in connection with the 46th congress commencing in 1879 must necessarily be compressed within the smallest possible space.

Offering an amendment to make more efficient the United States army in the suppression of Indian hostilities and the protection of life and property on the frontier, the field of discussion embraced numerous topics of general interest.

NEBRASKA.

A state scarcely twelve years old, with a population of 400,000 distributed sparsely over seventy-five thousand square miles of territory, seven-eighths of whom are engaged in agricultural pursuits, possessing six hundred churches, three thousand or more district schools, with more than two millions invested in common school houses and school property; a state in which the sentiment of temperance is so strong that a bill to prohibit the sale of all spirituous liquors lacked only one vote of its passage in the last legislature; a state that gives anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 republican majority, is not the natural abiding place of law-breakers and desperadoes.

SOLDIERS.

We have no fear of the soldier in our state. We respect and love and give our fullest confidence to the army of the United States. A nobler, a more gallant set of men, does not live, in or out of uniform, anywhere on God's green earth.

We can never forget the great service they have rendered us in defense of our exposed border. We know the hardships they have endured, the sacrifices they have made, the dangers they have braved, in that most trying, most laborious, most important service. I do well remember, sir, that every house in our state was a house of mourning a few years since when the sad intelligence reached us that five or six companies of cavalry, the very flower of the army of the United States, commanded by the gallant Custer, had

been utterly annihilated in an encounter with the fierce and barbarous Sioux.

SOLDIERS NEAR THE POLLS.

Mr. President, there have been soldiers near the polls at the city of Omaha and at other points in our state at every election for ten or fifteen years. No one ever heard of a voter being intimidated there. But, sir, if our nativeborn citizens, or if the Germans or Irish or Scandinavians, should either of them take up arms to prevent either of the other nationalities from voting at an election for members of congress, or if either or all of them combined should turn out to intimidate the three or four hundred negro voters from casting their honest ballots at such an election, there is not a citizen of that state of any party who would not thank God for the presence of the United States troops and for a law governing their movement that would permit their use in protecting the weaker against the stronger class of voters, when no other force could be commanded to perform such duty; and no man of any sense in that state would be afraid of the abuse of such a law.

SERIOUS COMPLICATION.

This western section of Nebraska is one of the finest pasture fields on the face of the earth. It is within bounds to say that not less than a quarter of a million head of cattle are to-day grazing upon the nutritious natural grasses of that vast region. The pioneer tiller of the soil, the homesteader is also there.

Unfortunately these two interests conflict and therefrom bitter antagonisms have sprung which have helped to increase the complications. It is true there are two or three small military posts along the western line of the State, but these are almost of no account in preserving the peace between the "homesteader and the cowboys," who dispute with each other for the occupancy of that fertile country; between the Indian and white outlaw who steal from each other; between all these and the capitalists who have millions of dollars in herds of cattle and horses scattered widely over that country upon which the Indian, whose ponies have been stolen by the white outlaw, makes reprisals, upon which the outlaw, disguised perhaps as an Indian, makes raids, or for the general protection of these great interests which are otherwise imperiled through the antagonisms between the classes to which I have referred, our army cannot, as the law now stands, give aid to a sheriff or other civil officer, anywhere, for any purpose whatever.

CONCLUSION.

In the interest of peace, for the enforcement of the laws, for the protection of life and property, for the purpose of insuring to every citizen of every nationality, whatever may be his religious faith, whatever his political opinions, whatever the color of his skin, whatever his occupation, whether he be rich or poor, high or low, citizen or stranger, although he may be found in the remotest corner of our state, the same privileges and immunities that may be enjoyed by any other citizen anywhere in this broad land of ours, we ask you to remove these restrictions so far as they may operate to render the army employed upon the frontier useless.

In the session of 1880, when urging a claim for an addition to the school fund of the State, demanding that lands located by warrants and those included in Indian reservations should pay five per cent to that fund, as lands sold did, the senator found an opportunity to exalt Nebraska at the expense of imperious Vermont.

NEBRASKA AND VERMONT CONTRASTED.

Mr. President-From nothing whatever in 1854 Nebraska has grown to a population of 500,000 with an assessed valuation of fully $100,000,000, and that, too, without assessing the vast estate of the Federal Government therein. With six hundred churches, three thousand schoolhouses, with a surplus of the agriculture of the past year over the requirements for home consumption of at least 500,000,000 bushels of wheat and corn, more than 500,000 hogs and 300,000 beeves, to say nothing of other products of lesser importance sent out for distribution to the consumers of states less favored in these respects. Moreover while Vermont paid, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879, only $50,159 in internal revenue taxes for the support of the Federal government, Nebraska paid for the same year $876,309, more than seventeen times as much as Vermont, in a single year. Since Nebraska was admitted as a state in 1866-67 it has paid more than $4,000,000 internal revenue taxes. And while Vermont, during the last five years, has paid less than $300,000, Nebraska has paid during the same period about $3,000,000.

When the 46th congress closed his first term of six years, the record showed that including incidental remarks and prepared

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