ADDRESS 



OF 



HON. ROBERT E. WITHERS. 



THIS thronging hall, this august assemblage, this imposing pageant 

 are suggestive and significant to a degree that anticipates and almost 

 consummates tne duty of the hour. 



The death of the soldier, the patriot, or the statesman who has 

 won glory, honor, or distinction in the public service, has usually 

 been made the occasion of impressive memorial ceremonial ; for as 

 different as nations are in many other respects, they all agree in 

 this, gratitude for distinguished services, and reverence for the 

 mighty dead. This is a feeling peculiar to no era or country; it 

 is common to all mankind whether civilized or savage, barbarous 

 or refined. The rude tumuli of the savage, the magnificent mau- 

 solea of the East, and the marble monuments of the West, alike 

 point to where sleep the ashes of the warrior, the patriot, and the 

 sage whose services have endeared them to their countrymen and 

 whose deeds have rendered their nation illustrious. 



I see around me, congregated in this, the capitol of a great nation, 

 its highest functionaries in the executive, legislative, and judicial 

 departments of government, distinguished diplomatic representa- 

 tives of almost every civilized people, the chiefest dignitaries of 

 church and state, men most renowned in peace and in war, those 

 most honored in the world of science, of literature, and of art, 

 convened to do homage to the memory of one whose brow was 

 decked neither with the laurel wreath of the conqueror nor yet 

 with the civic crown of the statesman. He chose rather to dedi- 

 cate his powers to the pursuits of science, to the investigation of 

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