ADDRESS 



OF 



GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 



FROM the beginning the living have paid homage to the virtues 

 of the dead; for immortality is the dream of man. From Agra 

 to Washington scarce a city, town, or village but contains some 

 monument designed to perpetuate the memory of one who has 

 passed from earth. Mountains have been excavated; pyramids 

 built; temples have been erected, and granite, marble, and bronze 

 shaped into every conceivable form, to give expression to honor, 

 respect, affection, and love for some dead hero, warrior, statesman, 

 or philosopher. These earthly tributes can be of no service to the 

 dead, but they form lasting records of deeds held honorable among 

 men ; are strong incentives to noble acts in the present, and mark 

 a steady progress toward that better condition which is the ultimate 

 destiny of the human race. 



We are not assembled to-night to shape in marble, or granite, or 

 bronze, the human form of our countryman and friend, Professor 

 JOSEPH HENRY, but in order that those who knew him best may, 

 by simple tributes of thought and feeling, bear public testimony to 

 the merits of one who in our day stood forth a most resplendent 

 type of moral and intellectual manhood, and who with little 

 thought of self rendered eminent service in the cause of mankind. 

 He needs no monument : for wherever man goes, or human thought 

 travels, the poles and continuous wires will remind him that to 

 Professor HENRY of all men we are most indebted for the inesti- 

 mable blessings of the telegraph. 



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