for swimming
under water.

His armor was his honest thought
And simple truth his utmost skill.

The Apostle's counsel to his young disciple will serve for
a lifelike portraiture of Justin Morrill:

"Be sober-minded:
"Speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:
"In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works:
in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity;
"Sound speech that can not be condemned; that he that is
of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing
to say of you."

If you wish to sum up the quality of Justin Morrill in a
single word, mind, body, and soul, that word would be Health.
He was thoroughly healthy, through and through, to the center
of his brain, to his heart's core. Like all healthy souls,
he was full of good cheer and sunshine, full of hope for the
future, full of pleasant memories of the past. To him life
was made up of cheerful yesterdays and confident to-morrows.
But with all his friendliness and kindliness, with all his
great hold upon the love and respect of the people, with all
his large circle of friends, with all his delight in companionship
and agreeable converse, he dared to be alone. He found good
society enough always, if no other were at hand, in himself.
He was many times called upon to espouse unpopular causes
and unpopular doctrines. From the time when in his youth
he devoted himself to the anti-slavery cause, then odious
in the nostrils of his countrymen, to the time when in the
last days of his life he raised his brave voice against a
policy upon which the majority of his political associates
seemed bent, he never yielded the conclusions of his own judgment
or the dictates of his own conscience to any majority, to
any party dictation, or to any public clamor. When Freedom,
Righteousness and Justice were on his side he considered himself
in the majority. He was constant in his attendance on the
worship of a small and unpopular religious denomination.
He never lost his good nature, his courage, or his supreme
confidence in the final triumph of truth.

Mr. Morrill was not a great political leader. Great political
leaders are not often found in the Senate nowadays. He was
contented to be responsible for one man; to cast his share
of the vote of one State; to do his duty as he conceived
it, and let other men do theirs as they saw it. But at least
he was not a great political follower. He never committed
himself to