A discourse delivered at the funeral of Hon. Solomon Foot
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In the last verse of the preceding chapter, the prophet had called upon the people to cease from man, whose breath was in his nostrils, that is, he had warned them against trusting in any human protection, and against regarding with an idolatrous confidence the high endowments of created mind. In the text he brings forward the reason why they should thus return to a simple faith in God, as their only hope and stay. And he grounds his argument upon the fact that God was about to deprive them of those various created means of support and protection upon which they had so inconsiderately relied, the men of illustrious station and pre-eminent intellect, who in their estimation stood firm and dazzling as the resplendent bulwarks of their land. The Lord was about to take away from Judah and from Jerusalem the honorable man, the counsellor, and the eloquent orator. Such is the meaning of the text. Thus did the Prophet teach the Jewish people of old, thus does God teach us to-day, that there is a power above all human power upon which they and we are alike dependent, and that man, whatever his wisdom in counsel, his dignity of mind, his influence of char- acter, his force of speech, was after all a creature who must pass away, while the Creator only endures from everlasting to everlasting. Every death enforces this lesson, but to-day, in the midst of general gloom, which overshadows this community, it is per- haps taught with peculiar emphasis. Not that the idea of death is unfamiliar to our minds, not that every week does not with tolling bell and passing hearse remind us of our mortality. But because to-day a common calamity has overtaken an illus- trious victim, because to-day one has fallen beneath whose superior wisdom and influence we found shelter and comfort, — because to-day we look for the last time upon the face of him, whom living we delighted to honor, and to whom our hearts ever went forth in admiration and regard. It is not a bud just opening in life which death to-day takes from us, — it is not an autumn leaf shaken by the blast of mortality, and noiselessly dropping to its last resting place, but it is to-day a giant of the forest, which falls prostrate to the earth, leaving a gap and ruin where once it stood erect, commanding, beneficent. It is the hoaorable man, the counsellor, the eloquent oratcr, whom the Lord, the Lord of hosts to-day takes away from Judah and Jerusalem, from our own State, and our common country. I know not what may be done or spoken elsewhere in regard to the departure from this life of that illustrious, and honored, and beloved citizen, whom we in the community were so proud to cull our friend and neighbor, our representative ; but this I know, that we are all unwilling that he should pass away from us never to return, and that his dust should be laid down to mingle with that of sainted kindred, beneath the shadow of these hills which he so much loved, without some recognition of our personal loss, without some words of tender feeling, some expressions of reverence for his memory, some offerings of praise and thanksgiving to God for the excellent gifts of head and heart with which He was pleased to endow him, without some mention of the debt of gratitude under which he laid this com- munity for the public services of a quarter of a century as an honorable man and an unspotted counsellor. What he was in the wider and more public sphere of human action, what he was in the councils of the nation, in which he so long took a part, and over which he so often and so ably pre- sided,— what he was in the arena of debate, when master minds with grand emulation contend together for the country's good. we leave to the abler tongues of his peers and equals to rehearse, but what he was as he went in and out among us, as he met us in our streets and forum, with warm heart and welcoming hand, as from time to time he spoke to us words of counsel and wis- dom, as in days of trial and distress we went to him for aid and comfort and came back cheered and strengthened, — this, as his friends, neighbors, constituents, in homely but hearty speech we desire to somewhat tell ere the grave hides him from our sight forever. True, no words of ours can break death's silence, — no approbation of ours can quicken with the glow of well earned praise that heart now still and cold, — true, all our applause is now to him valueless and worthless, and yet speak we must, not for his sake but for ours, — not for his glory, but for our own comfort. Among the costlier wreaths that adorn his last repose, we would lay a garland of simpler flowers from his own hills and vales, — among the expressions of national sorrow we would blend the humbler but not less sincere voices of our own private grief, as we stand to-day for the last time around that form, which we have seen so often, but which soon we shall see no more. I. An honorable man. Solomon Foot was an honored man We honored him because he was, what to New England think- ing is more honorable than any transmitted nobility, because he was a self made man. He wore the purple, he was not born in it. It has been alleged against us as a people that we praise too highly our successful men. But with us success means something ; it is the result not of the accidents or providences of birth, but the righteous meed of individual desert. We do not say that the best men are the most successful, but this we do say, that no man succeeds in public life in America upon any other ground than his own personal merits, and of those merits, that success is certainly one although not the only exponent. That a man should have sat as a member of the British House of Commons for eighteen years, would mean in the great majority of instances, that the person uudci" consideration was allied by blood or politics to one of the thirty great families of England, who return as a matter of course, from the boroughs under their control, one-half of tiie legislators of that realm. ^giKlU But that in America a man should have filled prominent places for eighteen years in our two national legislative bodies, means that divested of all fictitious circumstances of birth and standing, he had been weighed in the naked individuality of heart and brain in the balances of a people's needs and had been found sufficient. Success with us then means something. It means thouoht, it means intellect, it means brains, it means energy, it means per- severance. It means the preference of duty to pleasure, it means the postponement of present gratification to the attainment of future good, — it means striving on after the ideal of excel- lence, instead of sinking down in luxurious indolence, contented with mediocrity, if it will only give us a living. To my think- ing then we do right in praising success and in honoring suc- cessful men. We do right, we did right, in honoring Solomon Foot. He began life a poor boy in yonder parish ; he is followed to his grave to-day by the regrets of thousands. It may be said of him, as in his last public utterance he said of Judge Collamer, that like most of the distinguished men of our time and our country, Solomon Foot was emphatically the author and arbiter of his own fortunes. He owed nothing at all to the factitious aids or accidental circumstances of birth or fortune or family patronage. Under God he made his own name and his own fortunes. With his own hands he cleared up the rugged path- way, which led him up to the entrance door of the temple of honor and renown. If the poet be right when he affirms, " The fame which a man wins for himself is best, that he may call his own," Then this best of earthly glories was Solomon Foot's. We would not divest him of it to-day, — we would rather reverentially wrap it around him, as a well earned robe of merited honor. II. An honorable man. Solomon Foot was honored by us as an honest man. His success was not purchaced at the price of conscience and honor. His distinction was not a gilded infamy. He had never learned even the alphabet of political trickery. He never trimmed the vessel, and set the sails, and handled the helm to catch the breezes of popular favor. Ever wise, calm, moderate in action, he was singularly free, bold, outspoken in his likes and dislikes, his opinions and even his prejudices. If the public good and a large prudence enjoined silence, he was still, but no merely personal considerations ever held him back from declaring the honest convictions of his heart. To that polite dissimulation which argrees with every one and dissents from none he was a stranger. He would not practice it if he could, he could not if he would. Such a man does not win popularity so soon as some of another stamp, but having won it he retains it much longer. And it speaks well for the keen intelligence and Yankee mother wit of the people of Vermont, that they chose as their representative to the highest council of the nation, during three successive terms, not some adroit demagogue, now noisy and subservient, but a frank, outspoken, honest man. And in this choice virtue brought its own reward. If the greatest misery, the most sting- ing shame, the darkest of horrors to a true hearted citizen be the incompetency of his rulers and the turpitude of his legisla- tors,— if this be, as who shall doubt it is, a woe more terrible than war, with its shouting invaders and its garments rolled in blood, — more terrible than the destruction that wasteth at noon- day and the pestilence that walketh in darkness, — so also on the other hand is it true that to the private patriot, the greatest earthly solace is to feel that those to whom by his ballot he has given the keeping of the lives, property, glory of himself, his children, his fellow citizens, his country, are in every way wor- thy of that sacred trust. And this high satisfaction, this serene confidence, this sure and sweet repose, these have been ours for fourteen jears, these would have been ours as long as Solomon Foot lived as our Senator in Congress. Whoever else might waver, he, we knew, would stand firm, — whoever else might be bought and sold, he, we knew, was incorruptible, — whoever else might stain their senatorial robes by open debauchery or secret vice, he, we knew, was as unspotted in his private life and in the presence of his God as he was in his public ofiice and the sight of men. During the terrible struggles of the last five years, who of us has not laid his head upon his pillow at night and slept the more calmly, when he thought that that grand old man 8 stood at his post as our representative, and through his lips the voice of the freemen of Vermont would find clear and authorita- tive utterance that there should be no compromise with traitors. I have read in ancient story that when the tyrant Scylla made himself master of Rome and expelled his enemies, he summoned the Senate to meet, and coming with an armed force, demanded that they should declare his rival a foe, and himself a friend to Rome. In solemn silence sat that grave assembly, until at last the oldest of their number, Quintius Sca^vola, being pressed to declare his mind, and being terribly threatened by Scylla if he showed any reluctance, spoke as follows : " Though, Scylla, thou thinkest to terrify me with thy armed troops which have invaded the Senate House, and have threatened me with death itself, yet I scorn to save a little superannuated blood by pro- nouncing Marius an enemy to the state, and by welcoming thee, who art a traitor." And so also when Lee beleaguered Wash- ington, if they, who were then endeavoring to attain by force, what they may yet attain by fraud, had captured our imperial city, — if the myrmidons of rebellion had broken into the sacred chamber of the fathers of our country, we know that Solomon Foot would have been hewed in pieces, limb from limb, ere he would have left the Senate chair of Vermont to be occupied by a traitor. An event occurred in his last hours of touching pathos and singular fitness. He asked to be raised from his dying couch that once more he might look upon the Capitol. That edifice was dear to him, not only because of his official connection with its extension and adornment, not only, but perhaps chiefly, because it was the symbol of his country's welfare and glory, but because also it was the scene of the labors of his life's best years and noblest powers. To other men in such an hour the sight of that edifice might have been unwelcome, — it might have confronted them like an accusing witness, — it might have testified to the ear of conscience of indolence, of cowardice, of debauchery, of treachery, of corruption. But to him the sight brought no such harrowing recollections. His dying gaze could rest upon it with calm satisfaction, assured that during his 9 eighteen years of service its walls had witnessed no unworthy- deed, and had never echoed to any unworthy word. Unruffled and composed he could look upon those fair walls and stately columns until the mists of death hid from his view all earthly glories, but disclosed to his soul's senses those beautiful gates of pearl through which, by a Savior's merits, we hope his soul has now entered. His funeral escutcheon is an unspotted cne, we honored him while living, we honor him in death, because he was an honest man. III. An honorable man. We honored Solomon Foot because of his warm heart. Pure affections are always honorable. Emotion is that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin. We respect true feeling even in the ignorant boor. But when we find warm affections conjoined with commanding intel- lect we bow before them with peculiar reverence. Such affec- tions bring down their possess^or from those superior heights of intellect on which he stands, into the plane of our sympathies and regards. But such affections do not therefore degrade the possessor, they only raise him to the throne of our hearts. Of all the portraits of our loved Lincoln there is none on which the true American will look with deeper reverence than that which portrays him seated in a chair with an open volume on his knees, Avhile at his side stands little Thad. Napoleon looks not so kingly in David's picture of him as he appeared in his coronation robes at St. Cloud's, as in that other representation, as he sits upon a sofa in his library while upon his lap slumbers the infant king of Rome. Warm affections throw a robe of dignity round the humblest peasant, they become the throned monarch better than his crown. Never did Queen Victoria rule her subjects with so absolue a sv/ay as when in the chapel at Windsor, over the tomb opened to receive the body of her con- sort fell thick and fast the scalding tears of her recent widow- hood. Not a sword in England that would not then have leaped from the scabbard for her defence, not a head that would not have bowed before her with reverence. And this honor which the warm affections of high and noble natures merit and receive, this honor was the meed of our departed friend. Had 10 he been only a man of commanding intellect and spotless integ- rity, we might have admired him, we might have been proud of him, but we should not so have loved him while living, we should not mourn him so when dead. A successful man himself, how many unsuccessful men has he helped and succored ; strong and resolute himself, how many weak and timid ones has he cheered and strengthened ; asking no quarter himself of any man, how often has he redressed other's wrongs ; reserving no favors for himself, how often has he used his influence to obtain boons for others. IV. An honorable man. We honored Solomon Foot for his public spirit, his elevated patriotism. Were I asked to select the most striking trait in his character I should point to this. Oth- ers may have expressed patriotism with greater force of diction, with more fervid imagery, with more magnetic power to beget the same sentiment in others than Mr. Foot, but none ever lived it more thoroughly, more constantly than he. There is many an orator whose eloquent raphsodies of patriotism will be spoken with delight by the schoolboys of many generations, who for true public spirit is unworthy to be named in the same day with Mr. Foot. Others may have braced themselves up for the great effort of patriotism under the influence of some mighty motive, and the stimulus of some grand occasion, but our Senator laid 11 himself, soul and body, a living sacrifice upon the altars of his country every day. He seemed to have forgotten, he did forget, individual ease, comfort, emolument, honor, in the public good, the public wealth, the public glory. And hence sprung some beautiful and noble contrasts, some grand paradoxes in his con- dition. On the one hand, he owned not, so far as I know, a foot of land, save only that little spot, where is reared his first and last mansion upon earth, and to which on the morrow we shall bear him. On the other hand, the whole State of Vermont was his, for there was hardly in all her borders a hill or rock or stream, which he did not know and love, as other men love their broad acres. His homestead was this old Green Mountain State. On the one hand he was poor, — poorer than any man in all the Commonwealth perhaps, of the same talents, the same opportu- nities, the same frugality and prudence, and on the other hand he was richer than us all. For there was no man's well earned wealth in which he did not rejoice, there was no fertile farm to which he did not point with a warm glow of pride, there was no stately mansion, no busy factory resounding with the hum of labor, on which he did not look with personal satisfaction and feel a personal interest and delight. On the one hand he was childless, and on the other many were his sons and daughters, whom he cherished, counseled, strengthened, loved. Citizens of Vermont, whether you loved him or not, this man loved you, — he loved your hills, your streams, your fields, your forests, yonr schools, your churches, yourselves. To him no sky was so blue, no water so sweet and pure, no hills so sublime and beau- tiful, no vales so lovely and fertile, no men so good and true and brave, as those of his own native state. On themes like these he would speak with imagination's glow and youth's enthusiasm. Personal abuse he would perhaps have overlooked in silence, but touch the honor of his state with but one single finger and you had waked a giant. You remember now, we all remember, how in his last address to his townsmen he made a vow of personal consecration to the public weal, — you remember how he told us that there was not a nerve, a muscle, an atom of flesh, a drop of blood, which he 12 would not spend for your welfare and the public good. In the mouth of another man, this might have been only the rhetori- cian's flourish, only the demagogue's bid for popular applause, but on his lips it was the truthful record of his past services, it was the prophecy of their continuance even to the end. That vow was kept, that prophecy was fulfilled. That brain, that blood, that heart, that life, has been now all spent for us. He kept nothing back. We saw with pain when last among us that constant care and toil were beginning to bow and shake that erect and noble form. He might thea have resigned his office unspotted, and have enjoyed an honorable, hearty, hale old age. He might have claimed exemption from further duties to the state in view of the services of a quarter of a century. He might then have realized Avhat seemed to be almost his only per- sonal wish, he might have built himself a home here in our vil- lage, and have dwelt here among his own citizens, loved and loving. Who could have blamed him if he had, but to have done so would not have been Solomon Foot. Ko, his state bad bound around him for the third time the Senatorial rcbe, and he went forth to wear it, until death should tear it fiom him. And so he still toiled on, weaving in his last public utterance a wreath of cypress and laurel for his colleague, Jacob Collamer, pa^- nobile fratrum^ toiled on, superintending the arrangements for the due observance of the anniversary birthday of Abraham Lincoln, towards whom he felt that love which knits together kindred noble souls, — toiled on in his Sena- torial duties, voting for the people of Vermont on the great questions of the day, toiled on till tired brain and burdened heart and exhausted frame refused their oflSce, and then, and not till then, be laid himself down to rest in Jesus, leaving this last request to earth, that he might be carried home to that people who had so honored him, and whom he had tried to honor, that he might be buried by them and among them. To grant that request we are now assembled. We lay first upon the coffined dead this simple wreath of amaranths from his own hills, these homely but hearty words of our love and rever- ence, and then we bear him forth to his chosen resting place. 13 And there, by the side of sainted kindred, there in the center of the state of which he was proud, and which was proud of him, there in the midst of that thriving village whose welfare was ever so dear to him, — there beneath the shadow of those grand old mountains, which he so much loved, there where the breezes of his own native land chant among the sentinel pines his requiem, there we give his dust into the keeping of Almighty God, his Savior. As population increases, that city of the dead, now thinly settled, may become thronged and crowded. But many times must the winter's snow spread there its white winding sheet, many times must the summer's sunshine gild with reverential glory its tombs and monuments, many times must Autumn hang out on yonder hillside its crimson banners, ere we or our child- ren shall bear thitherward one who in all the qualities of head and heart, in intellect, in integrity, in affection, in patriotism, shall be the peer and equal of him whom God to-day takes from us, — our honorable man, our unstained counsellor. APPENDIX. IN MEMORIAM. CITIZEN'S MEETING. On the reception of the melancholy intelligence of the death of Mr. Foot, in pursuance of a call published in the Daily Her- ald, the citizens of Rutland met at the Court House on the 30th day of March, A. D. 1866, for the purpose of making suitable arrangements for the reception of the remains of their lamented friend and fellow citizen ; and were called to order by Hon. John B. Page. On motion, Hon. Luther Daniels was appointed Chairman, and Chauncy K. Williams, Secretary. The object of the meeting having been briefly and feelingly stated by the Hon. John B. Page, On motion, a Committee of thirteen was appointed by the Chair to make suitable arrangements for the reception of the remains, and for the funeral of the late Senator Foot, consisting of the following gentlemen : Hon. John B. Page, Col. George A. Merrill, Geo. a. Tuttle, Esq., Hon. Walter C. Dunton, John Cain, Esq., James Merrell, Esq., Gen. Wm. Y. W. Ripley, Hon. Seneca M. Dorr, Col. Wm. T. Nichols, Capt. Edmund A. Morse, Hon. Wm. M. Field, Jacob Edgerton, Esq., Hon. Martin G. Everts. 18 At a subsequent meeting of the Committee, arrangements were made for closing all places of business in the village, during the afternoon of Saturday, the 31st of March, at which time the remains were expected to arrive, and also on Monday, the 2d day of April, being the day set apart for the funeral ceremonies. Hon. John B. Page, Gen. Wm. Y. W. Ripley, George A. Tdttle, Esq., John Cain, Esq., and Col. Wm. T. Nichols, were appointed a sub-committee, to meet the remains at the New York State line and escort them to Rutland. The gentlemen from Rutland designated as a Committee to meet the remains and accompanying delegation at the State line, took the train on the Rutland and Washington Railroad at 11.15 A. M., on Saturday, the 31st of March, for Salem, and there awaited the train, which arrived at 3.40 P. M., having on board the Senate Committee, consisting of Hon. Luke P. Poland of Vermont, Hon. J. R. Doolittle of Wisconsin, and Hon. G. R. Riddle of Delaware, and Mr. A. P. Gorman, Acting Sergeant- at-Arras, and the family and friends of the deceased. They were joined at Salem by the delegation from Rutland. Before the arrival of the train at Rutland, a very large concourse of the citizens of Rutland and the adjoining towns had assembled at the depot, and awaited its approach in silence ftnd with bowed heads, anxious by every suitable demonstration to pay their respects and to testify their grief. Upon the arrival of the train, the remains, enclosed in a beau- tiful casket, were transferred to a hearse, drawn by four white horses, finely caparisoned, with white plumes on their heads. The Committees and friends were provided with carriages, and a procession was formed under the direction of Col. W. G. Veazey, Chief Marshal. Though the rain was falling, a large multitude of people joined the procession, which took up its line of march for the United States Court Room, which had been beautifully fitted up to receive the remains, there to lie in state until the funeral. Upon the arrival of the procession at the Court House, the 19 remains were taken from the hearse and borne into the Court Room, followed by the Senatorial Committee, the Committee of Arrangements, and the relatives and friends. Upon entering the room, the choir, which occupied the gallery, sang an appro- priate and impressive anthem, after which Senator Doolitle, on being introduced by Senator Poland, addressed the Committee : SENATOR Poland's introductory remarks. Mr. Chairman and Friends : We come to you in the per- formance of a sad and melancholy duly. I come nominally as the Chairman of a Committee of the Senate of the United States, appointed to attend the remains of our deceased brother, and your townsman and friend, the honorable Solomon Foot, to his State and home. But the real character in which I come is that of one of his mourners, and I believe I can most truly say that aside from those closely connected to him by the ties of kin- dred, there is no one who more sincerely mourns his loss, or feels more deeply the bereavement caused by his death than I do. The feeling of grief is too deep and personal to allow me to properly express myself upon this occasion, and I have therefore requested one of my colleagues of the Committee, Senator Doo- little of Wisconsin, to act as the organ of the Committee in communicating our sad message to you. remarks of senator doolittle. 3Ir. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee : As my col- league upon the Committee has truly said, we have come upon a sad errand. We have been commissioned by the Senate of the United States to bear home to Vermont all that is mortal of Solomon Foot. These remains, this precious dust, will now pass from our charge, as a Committee of the Senate, to you, as representing the people of his native State. It is no time or place for eulogy. Our hearts are too full for that. A great sorrow has fallen upon the Senate, and upon the whole country, as well as upon Vermont. That he was distinguished as a Statesman and Senator, all the world knows ; but what I desire to say, and what my heart most prompts me to say, is, not that 20 he was distinguished, honored and respected, but that he was beloved by every member of the Senate, of every political party. All were his personal friends. Enemies he had none. The oldest member of the body in continuous service, he was revered as the father of the Senate. Often called upon to be its pre- siding officer, and always watchful of its honor, he did more than any other to preserve its dignity and decorum. But he has left the Senate. His place we cannot fill. His like we may not look upon. Gentlemen : Here in that coffin is his lifeless body. We commit it to your charge. Our mission in behalf of the Senace is fulfilled ; our sad, but sacred office performed ; our work done. We are now ready to return. But, I cannot take leave of yon without saying that I am here in another character, and as the bearer of another message from him, as a dying man, to you, the people of Rutland and Ver- mont. Bear in mind that for more than eight years we had been in constant, daily, political and friendly intercourse, a part of the time lodging under the same roof, and most of the time sit- ting at the same table. He was to me like a father or an elder brother. In these intimate relations I came to know him well, and to love him more. But I did not know how much I loved him until, standing at his bedside, the dying man stretched out his hand, and clasping mine in his, said : " Dear brother, you have always been kind to me — a dear, good, brother Senator. I can never reward you ; but you know where your reward lies." I could not speak. But he continued in a clear and distinct voice, while his face beamed with a heavenly light, to speak of the religion of the gospel, and of its consolations in sickness and in health. Among other things, I remember he said: "The mercy of God has been very great to me during this sickness. I have so many kind friends ; like so many angelic ministers, all around me. It seems as though a company of angels were all about me, to bear up my sinking spirit." Then, after a pause, he said, " I have been trying to recall if there is any human being upon earth, whom I have intentionally 21 wronged or injured. I do not now remember any ; but if there be any, I pray that God will forgive me." I will not attempt to tell you all he said. Before I left the room, however, he said, in the same clear voice, to another : "The Lord reigns ; let the earth rejoice ! It is well that He does reign ; and the people have reason to rejoice that He does reign. Yes, God reigns over all ; there can be no doubt of that. "We do not come into this world by mere chance ; we are not creatures of accident. We are born to an eternal life." Here he paused a few moments, and then uttered that dying message which I now bear to you. " When I leave this chamber," said he, "I wish no parade, no ostentatious demonstrations to be made ; only the ordinary pro- ceedings which custom and propriety impose ; I desire to be borne to my friends and home in Rutland, Vermont — a people who have always been faithful to me — more faithful to me than I have been to them, I fear. They have done so much for me. I have no house there, but they will provide everything needful, and there, by them, among that people, let me be buried." This is the message which I bring to you from your dying friend. I was not present when he breathed his last ; but from the account which I received immediately after from those who were present, his consciousness remained clear to the last, and his utterance distinct, almost to the very last breath. In his last words, distinctly uttered, he left another message, which speaks not only to you and to me, but to all men, and for all time. In all history, I do not remember to have read of a dying christian whose last words were more touching, more heavenly and more triumphant over death and the grave. Seeing his time was at hand, the words of the 23d Psalm were then repeated to him by his wife. He called her to his side, folded his arms around her for a moment ; then, as bis breathing became more choked, he said: ""What? can this be death? so easy ? Is it come already ?" In a few moments after, with a face lighted up, as with a soul just entering into Paradise, he joyfully exclaimed ; " I see it ! I see it! The gates are wide open ! beautiful ! beautiful !" And in a very few moments after uttering these words he expired. 3 22 As a Statesman and Senator we honor him ; as a man of noble character, we cherish his memory; as a true and faithful friend, we loved him ; and as a dying christian, what a glorious example has he left to all mankind ! COL. NICHOLS' REPLY. Col. W. T. Nichols, on behalf of the Committee of Arrange- ments, replied as follows : Mr. Chairman and Senators : The people of Vermont, through a Committee of the people of this town, accept the completion of the trust committed to your charge by the Senate of the United States, and receive at yuur hands the mortal remains of your distinguished colleague, and their honored and faithful rep- resentative. We receive what was mortal of our renowned and honored Senator, our worthy citizen, our valued friend, as a sacred trust committed to our keeping. "We receive the trust in sorrow, and will guard it tenderly. Your recital of the dying moments of the Hon. Solomon Foot fill our hearts too full for utterance in Avords. We mourn, and the people of Vermont are in mourning to-day, at the loss of one of our greatest and best men. You have been pleased to allude to the high and honorable position occupied while living by him whose shrouded form now lies before us. It is not fitting for me, at this hour and in this presence, to pronounce words of eulogy upon the character and public career of him who held for long years the tenderer, the nearer and dearer relation than that of a trusted and distin- guished representative in the highest branch of the national councils — the relation of a true and tried friend to the whole people ; but in justice to his memory it may be said that the people of the State, which he honored by his services and his blameless life, were not indifferent observers, nor ever unmindful that his usefulness, his name and fame, were national in extent; and, sir, while the honor of achieving such renown and influence was all his own, yet his State appropriated to itself an honest and unbounded pride in such a Senator, and claimed his name and fame for Vermont. You have brought his remains from the halls of the American Senate Chamber to the quiet retreat of 23 his chosen home among the mountains of his native State, and communicated to us his dying message of gratitude to the people of his State and his home. We thank you, and through you tender our thanks and appreciation to the Senate who committed this trust to you. We assure you that if his colleagues had learned to love and to honor him in his older and riper years, that the people who had known him earliest and longest honored and loved him best. And, sir, had there been any higher honor thau a seat in that grand areopagus of the American people — the Senate — the people of "Vermont would have placed him in that higher position had it been in their power to do so. We take his mortal remains from your hands, and in the spot of his own choosing, shall commit them to the earth — " dust to dust, and ashes to ashes ;" but, while it will be tenderly, sacredly done, it will be done sorrowfully, mournfully, tearfully. That done, we will chisel the granite shaft, solid, plain and simple, like his life and character, and strew his grave with the laurel and the cypress ; but in the respect and gratitude of the people of his home, a monument is already raised to his memory more enduring than the granite." At the close of Col. Nichols' remarks Rev. Dr. Aiken offered a fervent and appropriate prayer, when the Committees and friends i-etired, and the procession dispersed. PROCEEDINGS IN COURT. : At a meeting of the members of the Rutland County Bar, held at the Court House, on Wednesday, the 28th day of March, 1866, Edwin Edgerton, Esq., was appointed Chairman. The death of the Hon. Solomon Foot having been announced, On motion, the Chair appointed as Committee on Resolutions : Hon. E. N. Briggs, of Brandon. R. R. Thrall, Esq., of Rutland. John Prout, Esq., of Rutland. Charles C. Dewey, Esq., of Rutland. Jerome B. Bromley, Esq., of Pawlet. 24 On motion, the same Committee were requested to make all necessary arrangements on the part of the members of the Bar for the funeral. At the assembling of the Court on the afternoon of Friday, the 30th day of March, his Honor, Loyal C. Kellogg, pre- siding, Mr. Dewey, in behalf of the Committee on Resolutions, presented the following memorial and resolutions, and moved I that they be entered upon the records of the Court: MEMORIAL. The Hon. Solomon Foot, long a distinguished member of this Bar, in the Providence of God has been removed by death, to our great bereavement and affliction : For many years he actively paticipated with much ability in the practice of the courts of this State : His public services as Speaker of the House of Representa- tives of his native State ; as a member of the National House ot Representatives, and as a United States Senator, justly enti- tled him to the high eminence he attained, and to the homage which he received from all his fellow citizens : His experience at the Bar, and especially in the councils of the State and Nation, was extensive and varied; his knowledge exact and comprehensive; his professional and public life was marked by great ability, integrity of character, and adhei-ence to principle ; in his private and social walks he was beloved by all who knew him, and virtue and benevolence shed their radiance in his way. Dying in the full hope of a blessed immortality, it befitted the close of such a life, that, in the moment of dissolu- tion, his entranced eyes should behold with seraphic vision the beautiful gates of the " temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens " : Thus deserving our respect, and commanding the esteem and gratitude of the community in which he lived, and the sincere love of a wide circle of friends, by a blameless, useful and hon- orable life, and by numerous deeds of charity and good will : 25 Iq memory of him we make this record of our sense of his merits, and of our loss; and, Resolve^ That we deplore the death of our distinguished friend and brother, the Hon. Solomon Foot, as a calamity to the Bar, the social and public interests of this community in which he long resided, to the State, and to the Nation. Resolved, That we eutertain great satisfaction and pride in his talents, attainments and distinguished success ; in his private worth and spotless character; and in the munificent spirit mani- fested by him in bestowing his valuable professional library for the benefit of his brethren. Resolved, That while we sincerely sympathize Avith the widow and relatives of the deceased in their distress, we rejoice in the consciousness that their highest consolation is in the history of his life, in his reputation without a blemish, and in the " hopes which spring from the grave of the upright man " Resolved, That as a further mark of respect for the memoiy of the deceased, the members of this bar. will attend the funeral in a body, and wear the accustomed badge of mourning. Resolved, Thit a copy of this memorial and resolutions be transmitted by the Clerk of this Court to the afiiicted widow of the deceased. The memorial and resolutions were supported in eloquent and feeling remarks by Hon. E. N. Briggs and Hon. "William T. Nichols. JUDGE KELLOGG's REMARKS. 