REMARKS ON THE DEATH OF WM. I. FERGUSON,

Delivered in the Assembly Chamber, Sacramento, Cal., September 16th, 1858.

BY COL. E. D. BAKER.

The intense interest which is apparent in this crowded auditory too well evinces the mournful character of the ceremony we are about to perform. Wherever death may invade the precincts of life, whether in the loftiest or lowliest home, there is a tear for all who fall; there is a mourner for even the meanest and the most humble; but when beyond the deep impression which the change from life to death produces in all good minds-when beyond this we know that an eminent citizen is stricken down in the full vigor of his manhood and in the pride of his intellectual power, the impression is deeply mournful. And when to this we add that those who loved him in life, whose servant and representative he was, have gathered around his bier to-day to accompany him to his last resting place on earth, the impression is not merely mournful, but painful. And when we add to this that the man we mourn died by the hand of violence-suddenly-in a peaceful land, away from his own friends, the painful impression becomes an overwhelming sorrow.

At the personal request of our departed friend, it has been assigned to me to say a few words upon this occasion.

I have perhaps known him longer than anybody here. I have known him, more particularly in his early youth, perhaps better than any one here assembled. I have watched the bud, the blow, the fruit, and lastly the untimely decay; and while I desire to speak of him as he himself would wish to be spoken of; while I do not mean that personal friendship shall warp my judgment or lead me to say as his friend any thing unduly in his praise, so also, on the other hand, shall I say nothing against him or others that is unjust or unkind.

The gentleman whose remains you are about to consign to his last resting place until the trump of the Archangel shall sound, was a native of the State of Pennsylvania. I knew his father well; a respectable, worthy, honest man: a mechanic by pursuit, intelligent, relf-reliant, and in every respect honorable.

The young man was ambitious from his boyhood. He sought the profession of the law, not merely for itself, but as an opening that would lead to what he considered were higher and more noble positions.

He was fitted for the study of law by nature. He was then what you knew him but lately-bold, self-reliant, earnest, brilliant, eloquent, a good judge of human nature, kind, generous, making friends everywhere, placable in his resentments, easily appeased, and a true friend. He read law not only with me, but also with far more able men, and he formed his judgment of public affairs while honored with the friendship of Douglas, his opponent Lincoln, John

J. Hardin, who won a deathless name at Buena Vista, Judge Logan, and many others who are the pride and boast of the Mississippi Valley. He was early distinguished in his own State. He was very young, and he had those contests among his own friends which are peculiar to politics; and there had the reverses and crosses without which no man is worth much. The success which he achieved here had its foundation laid in defeat, and I think I may say that most of what he knew as a politician he had learned in the school of adversity

"That stern teacher of the human breast."

It is not good for a man to be always successful, either in private or public life. No man's character can be formed without trial and suffering, and our departed friend showed by his course of conduct that he could endure temporary defeat, confident of the ultimate success of the right-perhaps not the less confident of his power to achieve success. He was a successful candidate upon the Democratic ticket for presidential elector in 1848. He was as renowned in his own State, as a debater, as he was here; he had (and that is saying a great deal) as many friends there as he had here; he deserved them there, as he deserved them here, by his fidelity to his friends, high personal qualities, courage, intellect, brilliancy-by those qualities which rendered him so dear to many of you now before me.

He came here, and what he was here you know better than I. You knew him well, for he served you. You knew him well, for he ever strove for your approbation, and loved you living, and loved you dying. He had a great many qualities that make a successful politician, not merely in the personal sense of the word, but in a higher sense, the achievement of great deeds, and the advancement of great principles.

These halls have been the witnesses of many of his triumphs. As was well remarked by a contemporary newspaper, he hardly ever undertook that which, when he set himself carnestly to work, he did not accomplish. He had the determination to succeed-that knowledge of mankind-that control over other men's minds-that kindly manner, those generous impulses for all-that love for humanity those qualities of mind which, if they called forth grave defects, also called forth great virtues. And these are in most of the departments of life the great elements of success. Mere intellect, except in the closet, does but little: the qualities of mind, of mere abstract wisdom, which distinguished a Newton or a La Place, would do but little at Washington. It is the same both in private and public life. A knowledge of the human heart; a readiness of resources; kindness of heart; fidelity in friendship-will effect more than mere abstract wisdom, and must be combined with it in order to render that wisdom of avail. These, and all these, our friend had.

You know how well he served you; and those who knew him best, knew how ardently he desired your approbation, how earnestly he strove to win it.

There is more than one thing in his legislative carcer which deserves notice, and not the least is the manner of his death. He died poor-not poor in the common sense of the term, but poor as was Aristides when he was buried at the expense of the citizens of Athens. Amongst all his papers, there is not found the trace of a speculation. He had no property-no resources; his poverty, if remarkable, was honorable. In a land where corruption is said to be rife, the more especially in legislative bodies, and which, whether the charge is true or false, is proverbially liable to corrupting iníluences, it seems impossible that he used the vast power he posessed for aught except the public interest and welfare. And this alone would be a proud epitaph to record upon his tombstone. He was a man of undoubted courage, as his death proved. I am not here to speak of its manner. I am not here to discuss the subject of dueling. If I were, it would be to utter my unqualified condemnation of the code which offers to personal vindictiveness a life due only to a country, a family, and to God. If I were, under any circumstances, an advocate for a duel, it should be at least a fair, equal, and honorable duel. If, as was said by an eloquent advocate in its favor, "it was the light of past ages which shed its radiance upon the hill-tops of civilization, although its light might be lost in the dark shade of the valleys below;" if even I held this view, I should still maintain that a duel should be fair and equal; that skill should not be matched against ignorance, practical training against its absence. And while I am in no sense to be understood as expressing an opinion as to the late duel, knowing nothing of the matter myself, yet I do say that no duel should stand the test of public opinion, independent of the law, except the great element of equality is there. In the pursuits of common life, no one not trained to a profession is supposed to be a match for a professional man in the duties of his profession. I am no match for a physician in any matters connected with his pursuits, nor would the physician be a match for me in a legal argument. The soldier is no fair match for the civilian, when the latter has not been trained to the use of arms; nor, although his courage is equal, and he may have a profound conviction that he is right, will, therefore, the contest be rendered equal and just. I repeat that I do not make these remarks intending thereby to reflect upon the character of the late duel. Personally, I know nothing more than what I and you all have heard. Whether it was fair or unfair, it is not my province to inquire. I am denouncing the system itself, for it loses annually hundreds of valuable lives, and in the present state of civilization, it does no good, profits nothing, arrests no evil, but impels a thousand evils; but above all, do I protest against any contests of this nature where, in skill, knowledge of weapons, or from any cause, the parties are not equals in all the conditions of that stern debate. The friend whose loss we deplore was undoubtedly a man of courage. Whatever may be said with respect to the code of dueling-whatever may be said as to his motives-his conduct on the field was in all respects what his friends expected. He stood four fires, at a distance of scarcely

twenty feet, with a conviction that there was a strong determination to take his life-that the matter should be carried to an extremityand that, too, when, until the day before, he had never fired a pistol off in his life. But courage is shown not merely in action, but in endurance. A woman may show the higher quality of courage in many instances where many men would fail. A brave man-a really brave man-shows his courage no less in endurance than in action. It is a higher, a greater quality to suffer than to do; and in this respect our friend was no way defective. He bore a long and painful confinement-he bore a severe operation-he saw his hold upon life unclasping day by day, hour by hour; and amidst it all, neither his resolution nor his cheerfulness faltered for an instant. When he lay helpless, looking back upon the errors (and who has not errors?) of his life, he seemed to recall them for lessons of instruction and warning for the future; and when he knew he must die, he arrayed himself for the last contest, to die as became a man, amid all sweet and pious and holy recollections. He died with no vindictive passion in his heart. He died with words of affection upon his lips. He died with the thoughts of his mother present to his soul. He left this world with the thoughts of home and mother. He left with words of forgiveness and kindness. His last act of consciousness was an act of prayer.

Oh! Affection, Forgiveness, Faith! ye are mighty spirits. Ye are powerful angels. And the soul that in its dying moments trusts to these, cannot be far from the gates of heaven, whatever the past life may have been. However passion or excitement may have led a soul astray, if at the last and final hour it returns to the lessons of a mother's love, of a father's care-if it learns the great lesson of forgiveness to its enemies-if at the last moment it can utter these words: "Father of life and light and love!"—these shall be winged angels-troops of blessed spirits-that will bear the fainting, wounded soul to the blessed abodes, and for ever guard it against despair. Oh, my friends! those mighty gates built by the Almighty to guard the entrance to the unseen world, will not open at the battle-axe of the conqueror; they will not roll back if all the artillery of earth were to thunder forth a demand, which, indeed, would be lost in the infinite regions of eternal space! but they will open with thoughts of affection, with forgiveness of injuries, and with prayer.

But I am not here to speak of the virtues of the departed alone. He had his defects; they were great; they were marked; but they were incident to his career and his character. He was, by nature and habit, a politician; and of all callings, that of a politician is the most illusive and unsatisfactory: it kindles the mind in a state of constant excitement: it is a constant struggle, which is frequently injurious in its effects; and our friend, with all his fine qualities, was no exception to the rule. Let him that is without sin cast the first stone. Of how many can we say that no greater defect can be recorded? Of him who is dead, what worse can be said? He was honorable, honest, loving, generous, placable; and if amid his virtues, there were some defects, they are but to be mentioned to be forgiven

and forgotten. Fellow-citizens, the words I utter I should not deem complete if I did not, before I close, utter a word of warning. The most powerful intellect, the most amiable qualities, may be shaded by a love for excitement and the evils which the life of a politician is but too apt to engender. What Ferguson was, we know. What he might have been, if he had conquered himself, who can tell? The inspired book says that "he that ruleth his own spirit is greater than him that taketh a city," and if our departed friend could have conquered himself, who could have stayed the resistless course of his bright intellect? It should be a warning to us all, grey heads as well as to young men. All should remember that the pursuit of politics is delusive and full of temptation. No man should forget the duty he owes to his country, but all should remember that they owe a duty to themselves. When men-I refer now more particularly to young men-see a great statesman stand forth in the midst of a listening Senate, and mark the stamp which he makes upon the public mind and upon the policy of the country by the force of his intellectual vigor, they are apt to forget the labors by which that proud position has been achieved-to forget how many have sought to attain such a lofty position and have failed; and to forget that he who is now filling their minds with admiration, may be on the eve of a sudden fall! Politics should not be the pursuit, I mean the only pursuit, of any man. Representative honors, official station, should only be the occasional reward, or the occasional sacrifice; and if, forgetting this rule, young men attempt to make politics their only hope, with the probability that in many cases they will fail, and that if successful, they will surely be exposed to a thousand temptations: if they love excitement for its own sake-the noisy meetings, the conventions, the elections-this love for excitement will grow upon them, and they will soon be on the high road to ruin.

If any one is determined to achieve distinction in politics, let him first obtain a competency in some trade, profession, or pursuit, and then, even if unsuccessful in politics, the misstep will not be irretrievable. But, young men, do not be beguiled by the example of our Ferguson, even if you possess his splendid talents-even if you could achieve the success he did: look at the end! There he lies in a bloody grave. Let your habits be fixed. "Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country's and thy God's."

Fellow-citizens, I have said what I supposed this occasion most required. If I had been told sixteen years ago that it would be my fortune to stand by the bloody grave of my young friend, in the city of Sacramento on the Pacific coast, I could scarcely have believed it had an angel from heaven told me so; for at that time there was no civilized Pacific coast. Then his course was unmarked, and my future was so marked out, that it would seem but little less than a miracle that I should stand here, by his dying request, to offer a few poor remarks over his bier, before he is laid to rest in the place he loved so well-in the city named after the sweeping Sacramento. But who can tell what a day may bring forth? Here we see the sudden, untimely. end of one who was amiable, gifted, and who was