Even in other hands,
adequate justice could not be performed, within the limits of this
occasion. Their highest, their best praise, is your deep conviction of
their merits, your affectionate gratitude for their labors and services.
It is not my voice, it is this cessation of ordinary pursuits, this
arresting of all attention, these solemn ceremonies, and this crowded
house, which speak their eulogy. Their fame, indeed, is safe. That is
now treasured up beyond the reach of accident. Although no sculptured
marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of
their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they
honored. Marble columns may, indeed, moulder into dust, time may erase
all impress from the crumbling stone, but their fame remains; for with
AMERICAN LIBERTY it rose, and with AMERICAN LIBERTY ONLY can it perish.
It was the last swelling peal of yonder choir, THEIR BODIES ARE BURIED
IN PEACE, BUT THEIR NAME LIVETH EVERMORE. I catch that solemn song, I
echo that lofty strain of funeral triumph, THEIR NAME LIVETH EVERMORE.
Of the illustrious signers of the declaration of independence there now
remains only Charles Carroll. He seems an aged oak, standing alone
on the plain, which time has spared a little longer after all its
cotemporaries have been leveled with the dust.
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