his services, eagerly
given, were most helpful. He was not only mentally eminent, but
morally great.

"Ever approachable, he was a manly man, with courage of
conviction, and, while urging them with a zeal born of honest
belief, had the inestimable faculty of winning adherents by
strength of presentation, blended with suavity of manner. He
was conspicuous in this, that his broad soul expanded with
tender and affectionate regard for the poor and humble.
Reserved in manner, magnanimous and catholic in a spirit that
embraced the 'world as his country, and all mankind as his
countrymen.' So in the archives of memory I make haste to lay
this small tribute to a departed friend, who still seems as
'one long loved and but for a season gone.'"

I was present, but not a delegate, at the convention that nominated
General Grant for a second term, at the Academy of Music, in
Philadelphia, in 1872.

The proceedings, reported and published, of a National Convention are
always interesting, but lose much of the impression and force of
actuality with which an auditor and spectator is affected. The gayety
and magnetism of numbers, the scintillations of brain in special
advocacy, followed by tumultuous accord. The intensity, the anxiety
depicted, while results far-reaching and momentous are pending, furnish
a scene vivid and striking that cannot be pictured. Here is being formed
the policy of a party which is to be subjected to the winnowing fan of
acute and honest criticism, and by denunciation by opposite parties,
striving to obtain the administration of the Government, the fiat of
which and the selection of the standard-bearer constitute the claim for
the suffrage of the people. They are the preparatory cornerstones of
self-government, fashioned and waiting for the verdict of the nation.

Committees on platform and resolutions are generally composed of the
radical and conservative elements of a party, so that, while the canvass
is up and on, it shall have steered between "the rocks of too much
danger and pale fear" and reached the port of victory. Experience during
the period since last it met may have had much to do with silence or
brief mention of the heretofore darling shibboleth with which they were
wont to inspire the faithful, rally the laggards, or capture converts.
"Consistency, thou art a jewel" that dazzles, confuses, but doth not
bewilder the ordinary polit