who brings to pass
great policies that allure men from misery, and poverty, and
oppression, and serfdom in one world, to free, contented,
happy, prosperous homes in another, is a great benefactor
to mankind, whether his work be accomplished with sounding
of trumpets, or stamping of feet, or clapping of hands, or
the roar and tumult of popular applause, or whether it be
done in the silence of some committee room, and no man know
it but by its results.

"I am not ready to admit that even Shakespeare worked on a
higher plane, or was a greater power on earth, than King Alfred
or George Washington, even if it be that he will survive them
both in the memory of man. The name of every man but one
who fought with Leonidas at Thermopylae is forgotten. But
is AEschylus greater than Leonidas, or Miltiades, or Themistocles?
The literature of Athens preserves to immortality the fame
of its great authors. But it was Solon, and Pericles, and
Miltiades that created and saved and made great the city,
without which the poets could not have existed. Mr. Tennyson
himself came nearer the truth than his friend, Mr. Gladstone,
when he said:

He
That, through the channels of the state,
Conveys the people's wish, is great;
His name is pure; his fame is free.

"There have been soldiers whose courage saved the day in great
decisive battles when the fate of nations hung in the scale,
yet whose most enduring monument was the column of smoke which
rose when their death shot was fired. There have been statesmen
whose silent influence has decided the issue when the country
was at the parting of the ways, of whose service history takes
no heed. The great Ohio Territory, now six imperial States,
was twice saved to freedom by the almost unnoticed action
of a single man. With all respect for the man of letters,
we are not yet quite ready to admit that the trumpeter is
better than the soldier, or the painter greater than the lion.

"There is no need of many words to sum up the life and character
of Cushman Davis. His life was in the daylight. Minnesota
knew him. His country knew him and loved him. He was a good
soldier in his youth, and a great Senator in his maturer manhood.
What can be said more, or what can be said better, to sum
up the life of an American citizen? He offered his life for
his country when life was all before him. His State and his
country rewarded him with their highest honor. The great
orator and philoso