Author: Oliver P. Baldwin

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-14

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13: 9781331383932

Excerpt from Eulogy, Upon the Life and Character of General Zachary Taylor: Delivered at the African Church, on the 10th of August, 1850 It is a sad and impressive scene by which we are this day surrounded. Gay banners droop in sorrow; music breathes notes of woe and lamentation; cannon boom with a solemn voice; and tolling bells and sable habiliments add to the melancholy grandeur of the spectacle. It seems but as yesterday, that those banners flouted the breeze as proudly as if they felt upon them the southern gales of 1846, burthened with victory; it seems but as yesterday that that music rang an inspiring march, and every bugle note and every deep-toned drum gave forth almost human notes of joy and exultation; it seems but as yesterday that those grim cannon appeared to recognise a Master's footstep, as their iron throats sent forth a shout of Welcome to the Thunderer of the Rio Grande. And now, how changed! Oh, vain and fleeting world! Oh, breath of human Honor, unstable as the bright cloud that glows in the sunrise, then fades with the mornings breath! Well might a celebrated French orator, pronouncing the funeral oration of a deceased monarch, lay his hand upon the cold brow of departed Royalty and exclaim, "There is nothing great but God!" These insignia of woe, these saddened looks and melancholy sounds, proclaim that a heavy affliction has been visited upon our people. The Head of our nation has fallen! It is for this we wear these weeds of woe, these badges of vassalage to the great King of Terrors. Death, wherever he appears, is a solemn and an awful visitant. Show me the poorest and the darkest hovel in all this land, and Death shall make its meanest couch more painful - its palest cheek more wan - and its deepest midnight more sombre, as it steals some cherished light from the hearth-stone to rekindle it in distant worlds. But when Death thus speaks from some humble and broken household shrine, few men heed or listen to his voice. It is only when he mounts the high eminences of power and place, that mankind are roused to the vanity of all earthly things. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.