Anselm J. McLaurin (late a senator from Mississippi) online

people. He was a warrior without defeat, a victor without



92 Memorial Addresses: Senator McLaurin

disdain. No sun ever set upon that field of strife whereon he
was a contestant that marked the trailing of his banner in
the wake of the conquered.

His last years were his most illustrious, in that he lived a
life that was a lesson luminous and illustrative of the best.
The majestic Christian walked hand in hand with the accom-
plished statesman.

To him who speaks it was permitted to see him last of all
who here with him served. Two days after the Thanksgiving
of the nation I met him. It was after something of a taxing
journey. The salutations passed, he said, "Will, I am tired.
The doctor says the valve of my heart is leaking." It was too
true. Through that greatest of his parts his splendid soul was
finding an ebbing place. As came the Christmastide, the re-
curring season remindful of the Master's birth, in the heart
of his family, saying "I feel better to-day," after a season of
depression, his majestic soul took its flight, without further
warning.

Just a day after, in the little city of Brandon, off to one side
in God's chosen acre, where "the rude forefathers of the
hamlet sleep," they laid him in the gentle bosom of his mother.
There at last in his windowless tenement he rests. The "dead
Douglas" has won the field; and in this his last triumph we see
his greatest victory. He conquered self, but bent to none but
God, and lived as one who might say of the irrevocable past.

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods there be

For ray unconquerable soul .

In the strong stress of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud;
Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody but unbowed.



Address of Mr. Dickson of Mississippi 93

Beyond this vale of wrath and tears

Looms a bright vista through the shade,

So that the menace of the years
Joyfully finds me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishment the goal,

I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

In the grave, common receptacle of all, we are equals.

Nor to this ultimate tribunal was it needed that .Senator
McLaurin should appeal for the vindication of men.

He needed not the emblem of rank to mark his leadership.

At last, to that court from which there is not appeal he
has submitted his cause.

Before that fateful portal, where place and station are not
known, he stands.

The process of reason can not wrest, the symphony of song
can not induce, nor the honeyed words of suasion exact a favor-
ing verdict from this dread tribunal.

There poverty meets in equal status the minions of Mam-
mon, and Lazarus is unashamed of his rags.

There poverty has its premium and riches its discount.

There ostentation disrobes, the obsequious unmasks, the
laborer receives his hire, the deceiver his reward.

The Herald of that Court cries eternal justice, and from
His cry there is no appeal.

Here the arm of infancy is matched in strength with the
mighty, and at this forum Mercy has ever her day and Justice
renders the decree eternal.

The glory of his life consists not in the victories t hat he won
at the bar, nor in the eloquence that distinguished him, nor in
offices of position and honor with which his people intrusted
him, but his fame reposes and will rest upon that pedestal



94 Memorial Addresses: Senator McLaurin

framed in the faith that is born of the love of a people who
throughout a long career honored him ever and without
faltering.

In this confidence, in this faith, in this love of his countrv-
men, Senator A. J- McLaurix, could he speak to-day, might
truthfully exclaim —

Exigi monumentum, a^re perennius.



Address of Mr. Bennet oj New York 95



Address of Mr. Bennet of New York

Mr. Speaker, Senator McLaurin is a pleasant memory to all
those who knew him. He was a courteous gentleman of the
type which, unfortunately for ourselves, we allude to as the
"old school." Kindly, considerate, and helpful, he made new
friends daily and rarely lost one. ^My own acquaintance with
him was closest during his brief membership on the Immigra-
tion Commission, though before that we had been members of
the conference committee on the immigration bill of 1907.
There was about him an air of genial companionship, of broad
toleration, of real interest, which was irresistible. His State
had honored him greatly, but he had honored her always
by straightforward, useful service.

We shall miss him. A certain soldierly directness always
spoke the long serv^ice of his stripling youth; a certain brevity
of speech and poise of manner, a successful executive; a com-
plete knowledge of the principles of the law, the studious and
successful lawyer.

And so, with a life rounded and complete, he has passed over.
But ever, as we think of him, he will be here, and always as a
pleasant thought. In the life of long ago we shall still see the
boy soldier; in the nearer years, the advocate and the states-
man; but ever in thought the courtly gentleman strolling through
the paths of a southern garden between the flowers, with the
sunbeams of a kindly morning scarcely more radiant than his
gracious presence.

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