Ladies, Fellow-Citizens, and Brother Masons:
The wisdom, no less than the goodness and mercy, of Almighty God, are eminently exhibited in the varied and numberless forms in which the solemn thought of death is presented to, and withdrawn from, our consideration. It is continually before us, yet ever absent from us. Decay and death are written upon every falling leaf and faded flower, while every joyous spring-time, every bright rosebud that lifts its gilded petals to the morning sun, speaks to us of life—hopeful, expansive, unending life. Were it otherwise, and were the hopes and fears, the joys and sorrows, the cares and delights, the ambitions and disappointments of this life the only objects which claimed our attention, or awakened our interest, we should be but illy prepared for the great change which is to sever our connection with all of them; while, on the other hand, were the pathway of our terrestrial pilgrimage entirely walled in with tombs, and spectres and winding sheets, were all our wreaths of laurel transmuted into wreaths of cypress—the atmosphere of our being would be so overcast with gloom, our reflections would take such pallid and sombre hues, that we could never fulfill the practical duties of life; we could never consummate the useful, benevolent and glorious purposes to which, in the economy of the Grand. Artificer of the Universe, we have been dedicated. Truly, we should say with the Royal Psalmist of Israel, “Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”
Yet it is strangely and remarkably true that, amid the equal distribution of attractions to life and memorials of death, men are prone, with a perversity nearly amounting to madness, to reject or postpone all considerations of the latter. While we know that the dazzling visions and alluring pleasures of time are but transient—that they must end at the dark valley and shadow which connects it with endless futurity — it is wonderful that we fasten all our thoughts, affections and cares about them, with ligatures than can not be dissevered until rudely broken, and with energies exhausted, and spirits broken down in their pursuit, leave to
“* * * a day, an hour, The vast concerns of an Eternal scene.”
In the impressive language of the Masonic burial service, “notwithstanding the various mementoes of mortality with which we daily meet—notwithstanding death has established his empire over all the works of nature, yet through some unaccountable infatuation we forget that we are born to die.” But if there be a future—and who, that feels the spontaneous throbbings of immortality in the soul which God has breathed into him, can doubt it?—if there be a future, we shall have no ground to complain that this important and serious change came upon us without previous warning. No; we shall rather reproach ourselves with our inexcusable neglect of the many admonitions which were given us, for they hang thick upon every column that supports this vestibule of Eternity. We are reminded that we must die by every tree that falls, and every blade of grass that dies — by the desolate cities, ruined palaces, fallen columns, overgrown gardens, and broken-down walls, which make up the pages of history—by the ten thousand monuments which overlay the bones of Earth's renowned ones, and herald what they were, or “what they should have been”—by the ten thousand times ten thousand more unmarked graves, to whose occupants the “tribes that tread the earth” “are but a handful”—by the “pestilence that walketh in darkness,” from before which our brother-men fall, as grass before the reaper's scythe—by the pale forehead, the wan cheek, the sunken eye, the hectic cough and stooped form of our fellow-beings who walk among us. We are to-day most forcibly reminded of it by the absence from among us of our distinguished fellow-citizen, our friend, our neighbor, our brother, James Pinckney Henderson, whom, if integrity of character and purity of purpose, if the confidence of his friends and neighbors, the admiration of his fellow-citizens, the respect of his senatorial peers, the attachment of his brethren of the “mystic tie,” and the love of an affectionate family, could have retained on earth, “he had not died.”
Gen. Henderson was born in Lincoln county, North Carolina, on the 31st March, 1809. He descended from an ancient, an honorable, family. His father was a prominent leader of the Federal party, and his name is yet much revered by the older citizens of the “old North State.” I have not been able to collect as many incidents of the early life of Gen. Henderson as I desired, or as I could have done had more time been allowed. In his boyhood a strong affection for his mother was manifested—a development which is discernible in the character of most distinguished men. His mother having once been asked if he had not been refractory, replied: “No, some of my other boys were headstrong, but Pinckney was always a good boy.” As a youth he was far more than ordinarily intelligent, and gave promise of the brilliant career he afterwards attained. He was a student for several years at the University of Chapel Hill. He studied law, and was admitted to practice in North Carolina before he was twenty-one years of age. While preparing for his profession, his application was most intense; for, as he himself has told me, he often studied eighteen out of the twenty-four hours. Such injudicious labor injured his constitution, and, it is to be feared, laid the foundation of the fatal disease from which he never entirely recovered. At the age of twenty-two he was appointed aid-de-camp, with the rank of major, to Maj. Gen. A. McDorrett, of the Fifth Division of the Militia of North Carolina, and later was elected colonel of a militia regiment.
In the autumn of the year 1835, Gen. Henderson removed from North Carolina to Mississippi, and having settled in Madison county, in that State, commenced the practice of law with the brightest prospects for success. He had, however, not more than located himself in his new home, when the struggles of the then province of Texas to throw off a degrading and oppressive pupilage, begun to attract the attention and enlist the sympathy of the noble and generous in every land. As I have observed before in speaking of him, he at once resolved to make the Lone Star the star of his destiny. In the spring of the year 1836, he aided in raising a company of volunteers in Mississippi for service in Texas. He came to Texas himself in 1836, reaching here before that company. Soon after his arrival, he was commissioned by the them President, David G. Burnet, to return to the United States, and recruit for the Texas army. One company raised in North Carolina was brought to Texas at his own expense. Gen. Henderson returned to Texas in November, 1836, and so soon as he arrived at the seat of government was appointed by President Houston Attorney General of the Republic, which position he held until the month of December following, when he was appointed Secretary of State, that office having become vacant by the death of the venerated and lamented Stephen F. Austin.
In the early part of the year 1837, Gen. Henderson was appointed minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary from the Republic of Texas to France and England. He was commissioned to solicit the recognition of the Independence of Texas, and was invested with plenary powers as ambassador, also to conclude treaties of amity and commerce. During his term of service the independence of Texas was recognized by both England and France. Amid the brilliant array of statesmen and diplomatists, which is always presented at the courts of St. Cloud and St. James, and which, at that time, too, was adorned by talent of the first order from both continents, our worthy and lamented senator commanded respect for his fidelity to the objects of his mission, and esteem for the sincerity and true nobility of his nature. He acquired for Texas—then weak and with difficulty maintaining a bare existence as a separate nationality—a position of respectability and dignity. Texas should ever be grateful for his services, and proud of her adopted son. His success as minister is one of the strongest evidences of the native superiority of his mind. He was only in the twenty-ninth year of his age when he negotiated commercial treaties between two of the greatest governments of the world, and the then infant Republic, without money, resources, armies or navies; in short, with nothing but the justice of her cause and the favor of Heaven. None but a mind of the greatest vigor, and a soul of the highest firmness, one which could not be discouraged by disappointments, or driven back by obstacles, could have succeeded in the delicate and difficult mission with which he was charged.
It is proper to state that Gen. Henderson, on all occasions, in public and private, expressed without reserve his sense of obligation to Gen. Cass for valuable aid in accomplishing the objects of his mission in France. Mr. Cass was then the resident minister from the United States at the French court. He was not only interested in the fate of Texas, but was attracted toward Henderson by his talents, and his noble manly bearing. From him Gen. Henderson frequently received distinguished attention, and often shared his confidence. The good opinion of that eminent and venerable statesman, thus early acquired, was never lost. Not more than two years since some citizens of Texas in Washington City were speaking in his presence of the probable election of Gen. Henderson to the United States Senate, when he expressed his warmest gratification at the intelligence, and spoke of him in the highest terms of commendation and friendship.
While in Paris Gen. Henderson became acquainted with Miss Frances Cox, of Philadelphia, who was residing in that city with her father, Mr. John Cox. Mr. Cox was then in Paris for the purpose of educating his children, two daughters and a son. Gen. Henderson and Miss Frances were married in October, 1839, in the city of London. Mrs. Henderson lived for sixteen years in our village, and her intelligence and private worth are well known and appreciated by our citizens. Her loss calls forth our deepest sympathy; but private grief, while it is great, is sacred from public intrusion.
General Henderson returned from France to Texas in the beginning of 1840, and was everywhere welcomed by the warm gratulations of his countrymen. At Galveston a complimentary dinner and ball were given him; invitations to accept public demonstrations of respect were extended to him from several other places, but with characteristic modesty he declined them all. At the expiration of Gen. Lamar's term of office, he was strongly urged to become a candidate for the Presidency of Texas. He answered that he was not old enough, as the Constitution of Texas required the incumbent of that office to be thirty five years of age. His friends replied that that would cause no difficulty, as he was generally taken, by appearance, to be forty, and no questions would be asked. To this he said that he would “never violate the Constitution of his country, though no one on earth should know it but himself.” His own heart, he said, would know it and would condemn him. Can Roman history furnish an instance of more rigidly virtuous practice than this? Even Aristides, who would not deceive the countryman who asked him to write the ballot for his own banishment, was not more conscientious than Henderson in the discharge of his obligations to his country and her laws.
In 1840 Gen. Henderson made his home in our village, and commenced the practice of his profession. As a lawyer he was distinguished for the vigor of his mind, the clearness and quickness of his perceptions, and the perspicuity of his reasoning. His early reading was most accurate and thorough. He paid the most careful attention to elementary and general principles. Probably no man understood better than he the great fundamental principles of the common law. So extensive and laborious was his practice in Texas that it was impossible for him to pursue a regular and constant course of reading, which no lawyer should neglect, and the inability to do which he much regretted. But his very constant practice supplied the want which a failure to read would have created. His mind and his elementary knowledge were kept in continual exercise, and in keeping up with the practice he necessarily kept up with the progress of law as a science. If called upon to give an opinion upon any question or state of facts, it would much more likely be the deduction of his reason from some well known general principles than the statement of a decision made by any judicial tribunal. And the deductions of his reason thus made rarely ever failed to concur with and be corroborated by the judgments of the most enlightened tribunals of our country. My brethren of the bar will recollect how often many of us have observed what a remarkable coincidence existed between the professional opinions of Gen. Henderson, formed and expressed as I have just stated, and the “lex scripta,” as found to be laid down after laborious investigation and research by the most erudite and accomplished authors on jurisprudence. He was gifted, too, with an extraordinary memory. He kept no written digest of the decisions made in the court where he practiced, but if you asked him if a certain question or principle had been decided he could tell you, and when, before whom, in what case, how the question arose, and the full scope, extent and limitations of the decision.
Not many lawyers can boast of a more successful professional career of Gen. Henderson. I doubt if many have even equalled his success. His practice was confined to no district—wherever there were difficult or important cases his services were secured if they could be. In his fidelity to his clients he was a model to which every lawyer can point with pride. When once engaged no labor was too arduous for him to perform, no obstacle too serious for him to overcome, if in the way of service to his client. His sincerity and ingenuousness, which were the controlling traits of his character, were especially manifested in his professional life. He never would entrap or brow-beat a witness, but if he found one evading or contradicting the truth wilfully he would expose him in manner and terms the most scathing and overwhelming.
His courtesy and kindness in his intercourse with his professional brethren will not soon be forgotten. He was utterly and entirely above what a distinguished lawyer has singularly termed the “snapparadoes of practice.” His noble heart scorned equivocation and deceit, while his great mind taught him that they never secured any permanent success. Gentlemen of the bar who are present, I doubt not, will sustain me in saying that when we could not be associated with him, it was pleasant to have him as an adversary; for no one feared from Henderson the exercise of an illiberal or technical advantage. But it was especially to the younger members of the profession that he endeared himself. I have never met a young lawyer who knew him and did not love him. None ever approached him for assistance or instruction who went away rebuffed — and when he did impart information or instruction, there was a kindness in his manner which all who have ever experienced must well remember, but which no words can properly describe. He was wholly free from that patronizing and self-important air, which too often characterizes great lawyers and learned men, and renders their great powers and attainments useless. If you came to Henderson for advice or consultation, you were not met with that pompous and lofty demeanor which seems to say, “be careful, you stand in the very shadow of greatness;” but he took you at once to his heart; if you were doubtful, he re-assured you; if you were timid, he encouraged you; if you were obscured, he threw light upon your pathway.
No class of men will more sincerely mourn the death of Henderson than the lawyers of Texas. None should place a brighter wreath upon his tomb than they.
Gentlemen of the Bar, he was one of the noblest exponents of that great conservative element of human liberty which our profession, in its purity, constitutes. None of us will blush to own him as an example. We shall miss his fine eye, his friendly smile of recognition, and the warm grasp of his hand, at the assembling of our courts. The flow of social feeling which is always produced by our pleasant reunions on the circuit, will be checked for a moment, as we pause to think that our eloquent and generous brother, who most loved to encourage this feeling, has gone down to the realms of death. The bench, the bar, and the people, will feel that a great light has gone out—that a noble heart has ceased to beat — that a powerful mind has been relieved from its earthly labors.
In the year 1844, the Congress of Texas having made an appropriation to pay a minister to go to Washington City, to act in concert with Col. Van Zandt, the Chargé of Texas to the United States, in negotiating a treaty for the annexation of Texas, Gen. Henderson was appointed by President Houston Minister Plenipotentiary for that purpose. Gen. Henderson and Mr. Van Zandt had but little difficulty in negotiating a treaty with Mr. Calhoun, who was then Secretary of State of the United States. This treaty was, however, rejected by the Senate. Subsequently the resolutions of annexation passed. Gen. Henderson was warmly in favor of annexation, and his exertions and speeches in behalf of that measure must be well remembered by many who now hear me. In 1845 he was elected one of the members from San Augustine county to the Convention which framed our State Constitution. This is generally conceded to have been the ablest political body which every assembled in Texas, and he was one of its leading members. It may not be improper to mention here, as an illustration of the liberal and enlarged views by which Gen. Henderson was always actuated, that one of the ablest and most extended speeches he made in the Convention was in opposition to that clause of our Constitution which unconditionally prohibits ministers of the gospel from being members of the Legislature. He did not think it would be inconsistent with the notions of propriety which every minister ought to entertain for him to engage in political contests, but still he thought that was a matter for his own consideration. He regarded the prohibition not only as a reproach upon the ministry, but as absolutely depriving a citizen of one of the ordinary rights of freemen merely because he followed his own judgment and inclination in adopting a profession. His reasoning on this subject exhibits his usual clearness and power, and will well repay a perusal. In the course of his speech he paid a merited tribute to a worthy and faithful minister who survives him, and is now present, and who, I trust, will not forget the efforts of Henderson to remove the stigma which the Constitution has placed upon his sacred calling. He was, however, unsuccessful in opposing the provision, and it became a part of the Constitution, although his views were sustained by some of the ablest minds in the Convention, among whom was his predecessor in the Senate, the lamented Rusk.
In November, 1845, Gen. Henderson was elected Governor of Texas. In the spring of 1846, the war with Mexico having commenced, a requisition was made on Texas for four regiments of volunteers. They were raised, and Governor Henderson took command of them in obedience to a resolution of the Legislature of Texas inviting him to do so. When the troops from the neighborhood of Austin left for the seat of war, Gen. Henderson was unable to leave his bed. A week later he started in a carriage with only one or two friends and without an escort, though his route lay within a short distance of a large body of Mexican troops. He led the second Texas regiment in person on the third day of the attack on Monterey. There are those present to-day, doubtless, who know how gallantly he bore himself on that field of danger. On one occasion, on the last day, in an attack upon a house from which a murderous fire was pouring, Gen. Henderson, in reconnoitering, before he observed it, was cut off from his men. In order to regain them he had to pass for some distance along a narrow street, lined on both sides with houses, the tops of which were covered with men to whose guns he offered the only aim. Deeming it reckless to throw away his life if he could save it, he made his way to his command on his hands and knees—in this respect imitating the great Napoleon, who was forced to adopt the same method of avoiding the murderous volleys fired at him when he effected his entrance into Vienna. That noble and chivalrous son of the South, the Hon. Jefferson Davis, whose command was near Henderson's on that important day, in describing this circumstance uses the following language: “On the third and last day of the attack, when night was closing around us, and we were near to the main plaza, we learned that we were isolated; that orders had been sent to us to retire; that the supports had been withdrawn, and that we were surrounded by a large number of the enemy. A heart less resolved, a mind less self-reliant than Henderson's might have doubted, wavered and been lost. The alternative was presented to him of maintaining a post which he was confident we could hold, or of retiring, when it was doubtful whether we could cut our way through the enemy; he asked no other question than `Are we ordered to retire?' On learning that such was the fact, he decided, at whatever hazard, to obey; and narrowly on that occasion escaped with his life. The sense of duty rose with him superior to all other considerations; and he obeyed an order which he might have been justified in disobeying, because of the dangers to which it would subject him.”
Could a higher eulogy be pronounced on any man? And in every department of life wherein he was called to engage, we see this “sense of duty rising superior to every other consideration.” At the bar, in the cabinet, in the field, in private life, whenever he was called upon to do an act, or a subject was proposed for his consideration, he asked but the one question, “Is it right?”
It is unnecessary to say anything of Henderson's courage to you, his personal acquaintances and friends. To quote again from the eulogy of Col. Davis, you know that he was “gentle as the lamb in the midst of his friends, but bold as the lion in the face of danger, and when confronted by an enemy.” No Sir Knight ever fought more valiantly than would Henderson for his country, or for a just cause, and none could be more kind and generous than he to a fallen foe.
Gen. Henderson was one of the commissioners appointed by Gen. Taylor to negotiate with Ampudia for the surrender of Monterey. For his services in that battle Congress voted him a sword in connection with the heroic Quitman and two other major generals.
As another instance of the probity he practiced in the discharge of his public duties, it may be mentioned that while in the war with Mexico he was appointed a major general in the service of the United States, and was entitled to the pay of that office as well as to his salary as Governor of Texas. But he declined to receive any portion of the compensation due him as Governor while he was absent from the seat of government, and accepted only his pay as an officer in the army, deeming that most clearly due him for labor performed, and considering also that as between Texas and the United States the former was much more in want of every dollar in her treasury. After the close of the war Gen. Henderson returned to Texas and resumed his duties as Governor. At the expiration of his official term he declined a re-nomination, and resumed the practice of his profession. He steadily declined to hold any other public office until November last, when, after the death of Gen. Rusk, he was unanimously chosen his successor by the Legislature of Texas, in response to what was the general voice of the people, according to the most unmistakable indications.
In politics Gen. Henderson has always been recognized as belonging to the great Democratic party founded by Mr. Jefferson. He was zealous and energetic in behalf of his party, yet he would advocate no measure, he would support no principle he did not believe to be right, and which could not secure the approbation of his conscience and the conviction of his judgment. He was one of the few public men who acted out the maxim of Paley—that “what is morally wrong can not be politically right.” Majorities were sometimes against him, but they moved him not when his own mind and heart were satisfied with the position he was occupying. To borrow the language of one of his great compatriots, he “could neither be coaxed or dragged into doing anything he believed to be wrong.” He liked to agree, as all would, with majorities, if he could do so upon principle, but if he could not, he felt assured that— “One self-approving hour whole years outweighs Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas.”
While Gen. Henderson was a National Democrat, it is most unquestionably true that an attachment to the rights and interests of the Southern States was a controlling feature in his political creed. But I feel that on this occasion it is proper that I should, and that I am fully authorized to say, that Gen. Henderson was not a disunionist, in the offensive sense which that term is sometimes made to assume. He believed that true conservatism consisted in never yielding a right principle; hence he was generally opposed to all the so-called compromises on questions affecting the rights and interests of the South with regard to negro slavery. He believed the Southern States to be equal, not inferior, members of our great confederacy. He thought that our citizens had a right to go with their slaves to any of the common territories of the Union, and he was not willing to say or do anything, to make any agreement which would, to the slightest extent, compromit or jeopardize this right. He believed that if the South could be united and firm in the maintenance of her rights, and would exhibit a determination to resist if trampled upon, the North never would perpetrate the great wrong of depriving us of equality in the Union; of preventing the voluntary expansion of our institutions; or worse, of dispossessing us violently of our property, inherited to a great extent from Northern ancestors. In the last letter I ever received from him, but a short time before his death, he expresses in strong terms the earnest and burning desire of his heart to see the Southern States for once united in sentiment, feeling and action.
I say that Henderson was not a disunionist—that he believed the North would not oppress the South, or palpably violate the Constitution if she saw we were united and resolved to resist such wrong; but if she did, he could see no fancied sanctity in the word Union, when its objects and purposes were forgotten and abandoned. He could not see that we of the South were bound in perpetual feality to uphold it if it should ever be made the instrument of our oppression and subjugation. He hoped and most fervently prayed, as must every patriot, that it might never be made so. But to say that he desired a dissolution of the Union for the mere sake of its destruction, is a foul misrepresentation of his political opinions, as it is also of those of any man of ordinary intelligence. Putting patriotic considerations entirely aside, no man who is not stupid wants to see the Union separated for the mere sake of breaking up the government. But there are many, very many, who believe that the South is not the inferior section in wealth, resources, patriotism and intelligence; who are wearied and irritated with the everlasting cry of sin of negro slavery; who do not believe that it is a sin, morally, politically, religiously or socially; who think that its natural expansion throughout the South and West is the means designed by the Great Creator for the redemption of our rich and uncultivated valleys; who believe that as it exists in the Southern States, under the ameliorating influences of Christianity and Education, it is the normal condition of the negro race; who believe that its existence in its present form, and with its prospects of improvement, is promotive of the happiness of both races, the white and the black; and who are not willing to submit to any measures which have in view, directly or remotely, now or in the future, the crushing out or ultimate extinction of that much abused “peculiar institution.” Among such was Gen. Henderson.
And upon questions of this sort, as in anything else, he believed it best to be perfectly candid. He would not equivocate or conceal an opinion he had on any subject; and more especially in regard to matters of so much importance to us and our children. He believed it better, both in justice and policy, to let the North understand precisely where we stood; that we sought no interference with their legitimately domestic affairs, and would permit none with ours; that we were entitled equally with them to share the common territories of the Union, and should insist upon all our rights.
Hence, his boldness in asserting his opinions, and fearlessness in maintaining them, together with his abhorrence for anything like duplicity or political conciliation, if it involved concession of right, may have contributed, in some small degree, to aid the efforts of those who desired to represent him, and all who think with him, as disunionists. But he was not so; he loved this great country, and when called upon was ready as the quickest to draw his sword in her defence; he desired to see the Union under the Constitution perpetuated to the “last syllable of recorded time;” he desired her prosperity to enlarge, and her influence to expand until she could rival the proudest powers of the earth; but he ardently desired, meanwhile, that in the fruition of her greatness his native and beloved South should have no brand of inferiority fixed upon her.
It is furtherest from my desire to wake a partisan spirit upon this solemn occasion. But I appeal to Henderson's friends personally— to those who knew the man—to Texians, irrespective of political party names—to Southern people everywhere, from the valley of the Potomac to the valley of the Rio Grande—to ask themselves the question, if we do not need more such men as he and his compeers? It is possible that their counsels may be wrong, and that I may be wrong in thinking them right. But has not the policy of concession and compromise been pursued ever since the unfortunate agitation of the question, which has kept up a hostile feeling between the North and South; and how much brighter is the prospect of our being allowed to repose in the quiet enjoyment of our rights, property and pursuits than forty years ago it was? They only counselled us to caution and watchfulness, and no man can speak truly and say that these will do us harm. The surest way to prevent oppression is not to give to any who may desire to do it the power to oppress you. A distinguished Southern senator who still lives while recently expressing high hopes and patriotic desires for the perpetuity of our glorious Union, has said that we should “mark time and be ready under any circumstances or terms to act promptly in resisting any actual interference with our rights.” And at this important and solemn period when Rusk, Butler, Quitman, who may be aptly styled the “Iron Duke” of the South, and Henderson—all ardent, and as admitted by all, honest friends of the South—have just passed away, does not the respect for their memories, the light of past experience, a just regard for our own rights, and love for our children, and the land which must be their home, impel us to pause above the graves of these distinguished patriots and inquire if there is not much wisdom in their opinions, and much sound policy in their candor and boldness in expressing them?
To my Masonic Brethren I have much pleasure in saying that our Brother Henderson was a devoted friend and patron of our Order. He was somewhat later in life in forming a connection with our Fraternity than is usual, but for this his reasons were entirely satisfactory. He always admired the principles and objects of the time-honored society; he always believed it a friend to virtue and promotive of the good of man. But in the earlier days of Texas, owing to the promiscuous character of our inhabitants, it is lamentably true that many unworthy men became connected with us, with whom not only good men not Masons refused to associate, but with whom also Masons from the older States refused to fraternize. This evil time soon remedied. General Henderson was made a Master Mason in Red Land Lodge, No.3, in December, 1852. There are present several Brothers who with me participated in the ceremonies of his initiation, passing and raising, and they will well remember the very solemn and favorable impression made upon his mind by our ritual. He expressed himself gratified with our organization, and to the day of his death was a zealous and faithful craftsman.
Must anything be said of Gen. Henderson as a neighbor and friend to those among whom he lived for sixteen years? This large assembly, who have come out to lay garlands of friendship on his tomb, attest how much he was beloved. The noble and generous qualities of his heart were more fully drawn out in the ordinary transactions of private life. His purse, his example, and his influence encouraged every measure of public improvement, and promoted every enterprise of benevolence. His kindness to the poor, and his sympathy for the distressed, are proverbial among the citizens of San Augustine county. It was universally known that his professional services could be had in behalf of a meritorious cause, or an injured or oppressed client, “without hope of fee or reward.” I shall not soon forget with how much emotion a venerable and worthy citizen of Rusk county described to me one of his speeches in defence of a poor and friendless orphan boy who had been indicted for an aggravated assault upon a man who had calumniated the boy's mother. Said he, “Never—and I have frequently heard him—have I heard Henderson make such a speech; the court house was filled to overflowing, and among all present not a heart was free from feeling, and hardly an eye was free from tears.”
To sum up in brief the imperfect sketch of the life and public services of General Henderson, which I have attempted to give today, two features are plainly discernible as the chief and controlling elements of his character. They are the integrity of his purposes, and the practicality of his mind. No “Roman Statesman,” “in the happiest days of the Republic,” no citizen, public or private, in any land, was ever more conscientious in his opinions, or more honest in his practices. There are those who have gone further in analyzing abstractions, who have made further explorations in the fields of science, who have made deeper researches into the tomes of history and literature, who have wasted more time in the regions of poetic fancy, but there are few who have done more in promoting the practical, actual good of society than Henderson. Everything he said or did had some immediate practical end in view. If he made a speech at the bar, it was to gain his client's cause; not to enrapture or amuse the jury. If he proposed or advocated a change in legislation, it was to effect some real good, to remedy some present evil. If he espoused a political measure, it was to uphold some important right, or redress an actual or impending wrong. In nothing was his practicality more manifested than in his speeches, of which I have thus far said nothing. He was eloquent, as every one felt and knew who heard him. But his speeches were not modeled after treatises on rhetoric, or conformed to any arbitrary rules of elocution. He spoke as he felt. All who heard were impressed with his sincerity. It was the eloquence of truth in his speeches which carried all his hearers with him. He did not deal om far-fetched expressions or unnatural figures. The humblest man who heard him understood what he was talking of, while the most learned wondered that he had never before perceived the power of plainness of language, and simplicity and clearness of style.
His aged and venerable colleague in the senate never spoke more truly than when he said, “He was a bold, enterprising spirit; a man of indomitable will, of daring enterprise, and firm of purpose.”
Texas may be justly proud of Henderson. When all her sons shall be as faithful to her interests, as conscientious in their views of public duty, as observant of all the requirements of a private citizen as he, we shall reach a degree in prosperity hitherto unattained. Young men of Texas, let me commend you to the imitation of his virtues and his industry. It is not often that you see a man no older than he, who has filled so many stations of trust and confidence, or who has arrived at such a high degree in the admiration and respect of his countrymen. No man labored more intensely than he at whatever he undertook. All of you may not be able to become his equal intellectually; but you can devote all of your energies and abilities, honestly and faithfully, to whatever of life's duties may fall to your share; and if you do this, you will not fail to accomplish much that will be useful to yourselves and the age in which you live.
“Lives of great men all remind us We can make out lives sublime; And departing, leave behind us Footprints in the sands of time. “Footprints that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's stormy main, A forlorn and shipwreck'd brother, Seeing, may take heart again.”
The last hours of Gen. Henderson were calm and peaceful. To some of his friends around his bedside he said, substantially, that though he had made no ostentatious profession of religion, yet that he had felt it in his heart.—But amid the love of his friends and his countrymen, the respect of his peers, and the sorrows of his family, he has passed away. How forcibly does his death teach us “what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!” He had just arrived at a position where his talents would have been most useful to his country; he was at the very culmination of his honors. Yet, death, relentless, spared him not. While the very necessities of human existence will consume much of our time, should we not be taught by this solemn admonition, to employ some of it in preparing to meet the messenger, who may come “at an hour when we least expect him?” While we are paying worthy honors to the memory of our departed friend and brother, let it be a useful lecture to us, who survive him, on the uncertainty of human life, and the mutability of human pursuits. Death has recently been busy with the great conservative patriots of our country. Senators, diplomatists and jurists have been stricken down to the level of the tomb. While we mourn their loss, and pray for direction from Heaven in the choice of their successors, let us not forget the lesson their death so impressively teaches:
“The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await, alike, the inevitable hour, The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”
How to cite:
Sexton, F. B., "J. PINCKNEY HENDERSON. An Address Delivered on the Occasion of the Obsequies in Memory of General Henderson, August 21st, 1858 ", Volume 001, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 187 - 203. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v001/n3/article_6.html
[Accessed Fri Nov 21 15:12:07 CST 2008]
