EDITOE'3 TABLE. 



nance of one of nature's truly noble men, from the frontispiece of your last number. Also, Col 

 "Wilder for the just and excellent delineation of hia character, in the same number. I rejoice, 

 also, that it is contemplated to rear some appropriate memorial to him ; and I had thought that 

 if tlie friends of rural culture would unite and purchase his homestead, and secure it to his 

 sorrowing widow and family, just as it is, and to his heirs in all coming time, it would be the 

 most fitting memorial we could rear to liis fame, and only a just return for what he has done for 

 u?, his countrymen. The outlines and interest of the transaction might also be recorded on a 

 monument, on the grounds near the house. Let the hearthstone, as well as the name and fame 

 of that man who has done more than any other on this continent to improve the homes and 

 elevate the rural tastes of twenty millions of industrial freemen, be forever sacred ; let the trees 

 planted with his own hand, forever weep over him, as the rain drops fall and the zephyi-s sigh 

 through their branches ; let the evergreens that screened him, while living, from the tempest- 

 uous blast, still screen the sorrows of his bereaved ones from the too anxious gaze of a sympa- 

 thizing world. 



In rearing a monument for such a genius, I cannot think the great industrial classes of the 

 United States will think $20,000 too great an outlay. Are there not one thousand who will 

 give twenty dollars each ? or two thousand who will give ten dollars each ? or twenty thou- 

 sand who can give one dollar each ? I verily believe that each of these classes could be found ; 

 but only one of them is needed. 



Friends and brothers ! we are often called upon to do honor to heroes, statesmen, orators, 

 and warriors, out of our own peaceful and noble professions, and shall we refuse appropriate 

 honor to one of our own class, "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh?" It is not often that 

 we have such an opportunity to testify our high regard to the benign arts of industry, taste and 

 peace. Let us improve it. If we do so, the act will be an untold blessing to mankind. Let it 

 be fully understood by all our youth, that the tongue and the sword are not all there is in and 

 about human feature and destiny that is worthy of our highest esteem. Let it be proclaimed 

 from the sacred highlands of the Hudson — a place already made classic to every truly American 

 heart — that the hand and the heart, the "plane and the plow, shall come in for a good share of 

 our renowned regard, and the moral of the act will not be lost to us or our children. 



If the purchase and decoration of a part of the estate, with appropriate monuments and 

 mementos, would in the esteem of friends be more appropriate and congenial, let that be done ; 

 only let something be done worthy of the unrivalled genius of the man who, I sincerely believe 

 has done more real practical good to his fellows than any other man that has lived since the 

 days of the Revolution. I know the glare, and uproar, and noise of political and military fame, 

 and I know its real emptiness, folly and humbuggery, not to say its wickedness, too, and 

 Andrew Jackson Downing has produced more lasting and salutary eff'ect upon the real well- 

 being of this continent, and deserves, at our hands, a prouder and more lasting monument than 

 any political or military man that has lived since the days of Washington. The effects of these 

 partizan efforts will soon pass away; indeed, they were only a curse — a loudly applauded curse 

 — to mankind, in many cases, while they still existed. But his work has blessed all, and injured 

 none, as it progressed, and will not fail to live and bless when the workman lives no more. 



I have felt his death more deeply than that of any other man whom I never saw. Not a man 

 or a woman have I seen, even on these broad prairies, who did not know Downing ; and the first 

 word they uttered, when first I met them after the news of the fatal catastrophe, was "Downing 

 is dead !" — their look alone told the rest ; they felt that they had lost a fireside friend. Then look 

 at his genius — only yet, as it were in his boyhood. What would he not have become had Provi- 

 dence spared him to us till the good old age of three score and ten ? I confess I mourn for him 

 still, with the sorrow of one who refuses to be comforted ; and so long as I see that the pure and 

 arts of peace have suffered so deeply in his loss, I shall not, I cannot cease to mourn. Let 

 ours to make his death, as well as his life, speak to those that are to come after us. 



