The Senator hoped his hearers would
excuse him for some reference to him
self. He said thirty-six years ago he made
his entry into public life as a member
of the House of Commons from Bun
combe county. Such a Legislature
had never before or since assembled in
North Carolina. It contained such
names as Morehead, Graham, Gilmer,
Fisher, Shipp, Winston, Ashe, Biggs,
Cherry, Dortch and others, all of
whom "have passed over the river and
are resting under the shade of the
trees."
In 1858 he was elected member of
Congress.
Then he was a Union man and did
all he could to keep his people out of
the war, and that he stood for the
Union as long as honor could permit,
but when the people decided to go
ou, he went with them.
He felt, "whither thou
coest, I will
go; thy people shall be
my people,
?nd thy God my God."
That his course during the days of
fire and darkness, when the clouds of
war were over the land, was known to
them, and it was known to him, never
to be forgotten, how they had sus
tained him, in the execution of the
duties of the high office to which they
had called him.
He was the standard-bearer of the
party in 1876, when the State was re
deemed from Radical rule.
In 1878 the people elected him to
the Senate, and in 1886 he was re
elected. He wanted to say that
whether he had served the people ably
was not for him to say, but he could
say that he had served them faithfully
and honestly. There had in all these
years been no stain or scandal con
nected with his name.
