Mr. SPEAKER: Very trite but very true is the statement
that blessing brighten as they take their flight. Perspective
adds
to the beauty of a scene. The great characters of the world
have ever appeared greater as depicted in history than as seen
by their associates. The love of a mother for a child never appears
quite so strong as when intensified by the death of the child.
So it seems to me to-day it is with our late friend. The sweetness
of his character seems sweeter, its strength stronger, since
he left us.
HENRY C. ADAMS was a most unusual personality. With the physical
strength of a child, apparantly frail in the
extreme, he had limitless moral and mental courage; his rugged
honesty was as great as his muscular power was slight. His mental
equipoise was well-nigh perfect; his judgement of men and measures
was superior; he was industrious, studious, painstaking, wishing
ever to carry more than his portion of every burden.
He was persistent, was aggressive, and yet his thought of
others was so kindly that the aggressiveness was never
offensive. He was true - true to every public trust intrusted
to him; true to those whom he called friend. He was noble - noble
of thought, of word, of deed. He was Christ-like - bear me witness
his colleagues who saw him day by day, saw him as he struggled
to accomplish something for the betterment of some condition,
saw him as with his ringing voice and clear diction he opposed
some action with the wisdom of which he could not assent. Was
ever unkind world heard to come from his lips?
He accorded to others with who he radicallyy differed honesty
of thought and action. In all the hundreds of men who
have come and gone during my nearly a score of years of service
here I have known, admired, loved many. Some have disclosed wondrous
strength of intellect, some superior courage, some special consideration
for others, some unusual industry, devotion to duty, capacity
for accomplishment - all integrity - and yet, as I mentally call
the roll of those whose earthly work has closed, I think of none
who possessed so many of the characteristic which attract and
hold friends, so much of brightness, of sympathy, of loving-kindness,
of sweetness of character, as deer "CULLY" ADAMS.