l, until, one after another, almost
every great question affecting the public welfare has been
decided in accordance with her opinion.

It would be impossible, even by a most careful study of the
history of the country for the last forty years, to determine
with exactness what was due to Mr. Morrill's personal influence.
Many of the great policies to which we owe the successful
result of the Civil War--the abolition of slavery, the restoration
of peace, the new and enlarged definition of citizenship,
the restoration of order, the establishment of public credit,
the homestead system, the foundation and admission of new
States, the exaction of apology and reparation from Great
Britain, the establishment of the doctrine of expatriation,
the achievement of our manufacturing independence, the taking
by the United States of its place as the foremost nation in
the world in manufacture and in wealth, as it was already
foremost in agriculture, the creation of our vast domestic
commerce, the extension of our railroad system from one ocean
to the other--were carried into effect by narrow majorities,
and would have failed but for the wisest counsel. When all
these matters were before Congress there may have been men
more brilliant or more powerful in debate. But I can not
think of any wiser in counsel than Mr. Morrill. Many of
them must have been lost but for his powerful support. Many
owed to him the shape they finally took.

But he has left many a personal monument in our legislation,
in the glory of which no others can rightfully claim to rival
him. To him is due the great tariff, that of 1861, which
will always pass by his name, of which every protective tariff
since has been but a modification and adjustment to conditions
somewhat changed, conditions which in general, so far as they
were favorable, were the result of that measure. To him is
due the first antipolygamy bill, which inaugurated the policy
under which, as we hope and believe, that great blot on our
National life has been forever expunged. The public buildings
which ornament Washington, the extension of the Capitol grounds,
the great building where the State, War and Navy Departments
have their home, the National Museum buildings, are the result
of statutes of which he was the author and which he conducted
from their introduction to their enactment. He was the leader,
as Mr. Winthrop in his noble oration bears witness, of the
action of Congress which r