HISTORIC AND SOCIAL JOTTINGS

The two portraits of George Bancroft which appeared in our February magazine of 1890 are invested with renewed interest now that the venerable historian has passed away. The larger picture, the frontispiece, was from a painting executed while he was in Berlin as United States minister to the German empire. The portrait where we find him in the centre of a group of the six presidents of the American Historical Association presents him in his ninetieth year, the photograph having been made on the 30th of December, 1889. He was tall, slight, erect, graceful in his movements, his hair and beard for many years a silky, snowy white, his complexion clear, his forehead high and narrow, with expressive eyes of dark gray, and a short upper lip smooth-shaven. He was one of the most notable figures in Washington life for three full decades. Both at his winter home at the capital and at his summer residence in Newport, he enjoyed the well-earned dignity of the scholar who had also been a man of affairs, and had something of the flattering position of the First Citizen-an honored member of all circles. Foreign ministers came accredited to him as well as to the government, and he was the friend of every successive administration.

Few Americans have won a wider reputation in a lifetime or secured a more lasting fame than Mr. Bancroft. Probably no American-born citizen has ever represented his country in so many and long-continued official positions abroad, or been personally acquainted with so many eminent persons in all the walks and stations of life on two continents: certainly no American was ever more respected in his own and in other countries. His death, January 17, 1891, was not unexpected. The burial service was most impressive. Almost at high noon, when the stir of the city's life was at its fullest, an unusual assemblage of people filled St. John's church in Washington, nearly opposite the presidential mansion. The President of the nation and most of his cabinet officers were there, the justices of the supreme court and the other courts, all the foreign ministers, the officers of the army and navy, members of the senate and house of representatives, deputies from many societies, and citizens of note. The service was opened by the surpliced choir softly singing as a processional the well-known hymn "Lead, Kindly Light." This was followed by the hymns "Rock of Ages" and "Abide with Me." Dr. Douglass, rector of the church, read the Scriptures and other parts of the service in a most appropri ate and impressive manner. No remarks were made, no eulogy pronounced; but as the body was borne from the church, the pall-bearers being Chief-Justice Fuller, Justice Field, Justice Blatchford, Senator Evarts, ex-Secretary Bayard, Admiral Rodgers, Mr. Spofford, George William Curtis, Hon. John A. King, and Professor Langley, the choir sang the recessional "Hark, Hark, my Soul."

The following message was received by Mr. J. C. Bancroft: "Sir, his majesty the emperor and king, remembering the relations of friendship which for many years existed between his majesty the late Emperor William and the late George Bancroft as minister of the United States to Berlin, has directed me to express to you and to your family his

most sincere sympathy with the great loss which has fallen upon you and upon your country."

President Harrison issued the following on the 19th of January: "The death of George Bancroft, which occurred in the city of Washington on Saturday afternoon, January 17, removes from among the living one of the most distinguished Americans. As an expression of the public loss and sorrow, the flags of all the executive departments at Washington and of the public buildings in the cities through which the funeral party is to pass will be placed at half-mast to-morrow and until the body of this eminent statesman, scholar, and historian shall rest in the state that gave him to his country and to the world."

Ere the mourning for the great historian had been removed the nation was shocked and plunged into the deepest sorrow by the sudden death of one of the President's most trusted cabinet ministers, the secretary of the treasury, while at a banquet of the Board of Trade in New York on the 29th of January. The action of the board on the following day voiced in its resolutions the sentiment of a vast community, and is a tribute that should be placed on permanent record:

"William Windom, secretary of the treasury, died while our guest, and just as he had spoken to us words of weighty wisdom and true courage. It is therefore peculiarly fitting that this board should express the deep sense of the business men of New York of the services which he has rendered to the Republic and of the personal loss that so many of us have sustained in his sudden death. At the organization of our board he was our associate and adviser. During all our existence he has been our faithful friend and helper. The New York Board of Trade and Transportation places this minute upon our records in honor of a good citizen, a wise man, and an honest and brave official.

For more than thirty years William Windom has been prominent in American public life. Long service in the national house of representatives, repeated terms in the federal senate, the secretaryship of the treasury under Presidents Garfield and Harrison, had combined to give him rare opportunities to know the needs, appreciate the growth, and estimate the possibilities of the nation. He used these opportunities wisely and well. During the entire civil war he was the trusted friend and adviser of President Lincoln. As a representative and senator he favored all measures that looked toward the practical and efficient development of our great internal resources. As secretary of the treasury under President Garfield he successfully refunded the maturing national debt by methods so simple, so economical, and so masterful as to prove him a truly great financier, a worthy successor to Hamilton, Chase, and Sherman; as secretary under President Harrison he labored courageously and successfully to avert widespread panic in a season of threatened financial trouble. He died speaking earnest and strong words against the madness of free coinage of silver under existing financial conditions. He fell at the post of duty as truly as a soldier falls on the field of battle."

Of the personal characteristics of Secretary Windom, Dr. Hamlin's words at the funeral of the great statesman in Washington are to the point. "A gentleman of charming affability, of unfailing courtesy, of quiet dignity, of beautiful refinement, a lawyer of wide reading and great talent, a legislator of unwearying industry and undaunted courage, a cabinet officer of good views, of sound policy, of abundant aggressiveness, joined to safe conservatism, a man of unsullied integrity, a citizen of unflagging patriotism, a friend, a husband, a father, a Christian of sterling faith, of sincere devotion, of unostentatious hu

mility—such was William Windom. Such the world knew him to be in his long and varied public career; such this city knew him to be, on whose streets and in whose best homes he has been a familiar figure since 1860. Such we here present knew him to be, who have been associated with him as colleagues, who have been honored with his friendship in business and in social and in Christian life. His handsome face, his majestic head, his noble form, his beautiful smile, his affectionate greeting, won all hearts. He was unspoiled, unchanged by the greatest elevation. He was as courteous to the messengers in the treasury as to his fellow-officers. Adulation he abhorred; display, pretense, ambition to shine over others, was alien to his nature. What wonder that everybody was his friend? What wonder that everybody loved him; that in this city, in his state, in all the land, only the kindest thoughts were entertained and the kindest words spoken of him? But best of all, Mr. Windom was a Christian—an avowed, aggressive, and consistent Christian, whether practicing law in a Minnesota village, or legislating in the senate, or administering the national finances at the head of the treasury department. What wonder was it that one of the most eminent jurists of the land said on Saturday last: 'I have known Mr. Windom well for more than twenty years, and he was the most consistent Christian I have ever known in public life.' Mr. Windom was as far from being a weak sentimentalist on the one hand as he was from being a narrow dogmatist on the other. He was a devout, unostentatious follower of Christ. The foundation of his piety lay deep and strong. About a year ago he said to his wife, and it sounded almost like a prophecy: 'Lest I may go and leave you without opportunity to say this, I want you to have the comfort of knowing that if I were to die to-day it would be in the sure and certain hope of a blessed immortality. That hope is not based on any worthiness of mine, but solely on my abiding trust in my living Redeemer.'"

Two weeks later, on February 13, one of America's greatest admirals, David D. Porter, passed away, an officer of the highest rank and distinction, whose achievements through a service of sixty-two years illustrate fitly the courage and patriotism of the American navy. And the following day our most illustrious soldier, General William T. Sherman, died at his home in New York. President Harrison in announcing the loss to congress said: "No living American was so loved and venerated as he. To look upon his face, to hear his name, was to have one's love of country intensified. He served his country not for fame, not out of a sense of professional duty, but for love of the beneficent civil institutions of which it was the emblem.

of the flag and

He was an ideal soldier and shared to the fullest the esprit de corps of the army, but he cherished the civil institutions organized under the Constitution, and was only a soldier that these might be perpetuated in undiminished usefulness and honor. He was in nothing an imitator. A profound student of military science and precedent, he drew from them principles and suggestions, and so adapted them to novel conditions that his campaigns will continue to be the profitable study of the military profession throughout the world. His genial nature made him comrade to every soldier of the great Union army. No presence was so welcome and inspiring at the camp-fire or commandery as his. His career was complete; his honors were full. He had received from the government the highest rank known to our military establishment, and from the people unstinted gratitude and love.

No word of mine can add to his fame. His death has followed in startling quickness that of the admiral of the navy, and it is a sad and notable incident that when the

department under which he served shall have put on the usual emblems of mourning, four of the eight executive departments will be simultaneously draped in black and one other has but to-day removed the crape from its walls."

Thus has the nation within one short month been called to mourn four of its greatest men-its eminent historian, its renowned statesman, its distinguished admiral, and its beloved general--an impressive coincidence. Sherman and Porter were always fast friends and allies; no quarrel ever divided their life-long affection. Each was the second in rank, and after the war the first in his arm of the service. General Sherman has often said: "When Porter goes I want to go too." Their lives were so intimately connected from early in the war, that an almost brotherly attachment grew up between them. It is related that one day in April last General Sherman was on a visit to the admiral, and as they stood looking out over the garden at the rear end of the mansion, the admiral said : Sherman, I can remember when that tree," pointing to an old English walnut, "was the only tree in the square; but look at it now. Time is gradually extinguishing the old landmarks." "Yes, Porter," replied the general, "that tree is like you and me-growing old, growing old. I wonder it we shall outlive it?"

With martial honors Admiral Porter was laid to rest in historic Arlington on the 17th of February. Not since the burial of Sheridan has Washington witnessed such imposing ceremonials. A touching tribute from the wife of the dead admiral in the hour of her unspeakable grief was a pillow of violets and white roses placed upon a stand at the head of the coffin of General Sherman, in New York city, which she sent to the sorrowing family of her husband's friend. No one could read the words upon the little card pinned to the flowers, "With loving regards from Mrs. Admiral Porter," without tears.

We go to press before the final honors are paid to the dead hero, but arrangements are being perfected for a vast military parade, which will escort the body to the train for St. Louis, where the interment will be in Calvary cemetery. During the progress of the funeral procession the city of New York will suspend business, and with flags at halfmast and buildings draped in black show its respect for the illustrious warrior. In the resolutions adopted at a special meeting of the Union League Club appears the following beautiful sentiment : Besides being a historic soldier and an ideal hero, it was General Sherman's happy fortune in the twenty-five years that have elapsed since the close of the war in which he bore so distinguished a part to come very near to the people of the land, and to become every year dearer and dearer to them by the merits and charms of his personal character, so that it may truly be said that the death of no man in America to-day could have left a void in the people's heart so deep and wide as his has done. In every thought and feeling General Sherman was intensely American. He believed in the abiding greatness and glory of his country, in the form of government under which we live, and in the capacity of the people to maintain and preserve it, and he had no sympathy with, or toleration for, those who affect to discover in every misadventure in politics or blunder of government a symptom of national decline. In every sense of the word he was a noble citizen, and a splendid example for all men to follow and imitate in his public spirit, his reverence for law, his lofty standard of civic duty, and his zeal for the honor and good name of his country."