Mr. PRESIDENT: The angel of death has been very busy
among the Members of the Fifty-ninth Congress. Many times
we have been summoned, giving pause to the public business,
to stand by the open grave of a comrade in the public service
who had died in the line of duty. In this roll of the dead is
the name of one of Wisconsin's best-loved and most-trusted citizens,
the Hon. HENRY CULLEN ADAMS, late a Member of the House of Representatives
from the Second district, who was stricken on his journey homeward,
and in Chicago on Monday, the 9th of July last, sank into "that
sinless, stirless rest which we call death."
It is my belief that but for his spirit of self-sacrifice
and unyielding devotion to duty as a legislator he might have
been still
among us. I saw him often during the last week of the session,
ill and weary, but intensely interested, as a leading member
of the Committee on Agriculture, in the pure-food and agricultural
appropriation bills, each containing novel and important propositions
which he deemed of vital consequence to the people, and the success
of which he promoted with unflagging spirit and unceasing personal
effort. The end of the session left him, in the reaction from
its activity and excitement, an easy victim to any acute physical
ailment. In our last conversation he spoke of his unutterable
longing for the rest and companionship of home and its surroundings
of rare beauty. In the providence of God he was never again to
behold it, but his wasted body was borne by loving hands, amid
the tears of the thousands who had known and loved him, to the
resting place which he had long ago chosen.
Mr. ADAMS was born November 28, 1850, at Verona, Oneida County,
N.Y. He removed with his parents to
Wisconsin in 1851, attended the Albion Academy one year and
the University of Wisconsin three years, being compelled by frail
health to forego the ambition to graduate with honor in his class,
which no one doubted he would have attained.
He was a member of the Wisconsin legislative assembly two
terms, from 1883 to 1887, and from the beginning of his
service was a distinguished and useful member of that body.
He served a time as State superintendent of public property,
and was dairy and food commissioner of Wisconsin from
1894 to 1902. It is safe to say that there was not in any
State a dairy and food commissioner who excelled him in aptitude
for the work or in ability to perform it, if, indeed, his equal
was anywhere to be found.
He was elected to the Fifty-eighth Congress and reelected
to the Fifty-ninth Congress from the Second district, his
home being at Madison, the capital of the State, which also
is the home of my colleague and myself.
Mr. ADAMS was married on the 15th of October, 1878, to Miss
Anna B. Norton, and his home life was always a
charming and happy one.
He could look back upon an ancestry in which were great names
celebrated for learning, eloquence, and distinguished
public service to the whole country. I knew his father well
and entertained for him great admiration. He was a scientific
farmer, many times a member of the legislature, and a man of
mark and individuality in a body in which were a large number
of the ablest men in the State. He was an entrancing speaker.
His voice was musical and his diction perfect. A very modest
man, who never talked of himself, it used to be marveled that
"Farmer Adams" was so scholarly and eloquent. But Benjamin
Franklin Adams was one of the earlier graduates of Hamilton College,
New York, and for some years professor of Greek and Latin in
that institution. He would have been eminent at the bar or in
public life, but he preferred the life of the farm and the intelligent
and scientific pursuit of agriculture. The last time I ever saw
him was at a Psi Upsilon banquet, the first he had attended for
over forty years and at which he was the guest of honor. In an
hour he grew young again and made an address of great beauty.
In a little time he had died.
On the farm and under the tutelage of such a father, HENRY
CULLEN ADAMS spent his youth, and was well taught,
before entering college, in history, the languages, literature,
rhetoric, and agriculture in its theoretical and practical phases.
Here he imbibed an abiding love for agriculture, a thorough knowledge
of the needs of the farmer, and a sincere devotion to his interests.
His life work was largely dedicated to the service of agriculture.
He was a man of large constructive ability, an admirable logician,
of analytical, yet broad, mind, and the author of many laws enacted
in Wisconsin and other States in the interest of agriculture.
He spoke in many States in advocacy of pure-food laws and of
the dairy interests of the country. There was no field or phase
of agriculture in which he had not been a student and upon which
he could not write and speak instructively and with great ability.
He was a Republican always. He loved politics of a decent,
manly sort, and he was one of the most interesting and
popular exponents of the principles and policies of the party
which he loved who ever appeared upon the hustings in the Northwest.
He was a broad-minded, full of charity for all men and tolerant
of differences of opinion, and, although a partisan, he
found no warrant because of difference of opinion upon party
principles and public policies for impeaching the patriotism
or sincerity of his opponents.
It had been, Mr. President, to my knowledge, the ambition
of his life to become a member of the national House of
Representatives, and he was admirably equipped in every way
to render to the country great and conspicuous service as a national
legislator. During the too brief period which he served here
he exhibited in a high degree strength as an original thinker,
an eloquent and resourceful debater, a high order of constructive
statesmanship, an unconquerable spirit, a geniality which won
the affectionate regard of his associates in both parties, and
made it certain that, with health and years of service, he could
easily achieve a lofty eminence in the field of national legislation.
His whole life, Mr. President, was pathetic, in this, that it
was the constant struggle of a dauntless spirit with bodily weakness.
In the last session which he attended he made great impression
upon the body of which he was a member, and won the
respect and admiration of the President and members of his
Cabinet. I have more than once dwelt with peculiar pleasure,
since he was laid to rest at "Forest Hill," near by
the home which he had builded for himself and family, and in
which he had spent so many happy years, upon the fact that I
was able in the last conversation I had with him, as we sat in
our cloak room, to repeat in his presence the friendly and flattering
words spoken of him by the President in conversation with me
an hour before. They brought color into his pale cheeks and a
new light to his tired eyes.
He spoke always with persuasive eloquence, and when aroused,
with great power, and with a vocabulary which was
simple and quite classic.
His body was frail, but his will was strong; his ambition
was keen and honorable, and his spirit was unconquerable. He
possessed a rare sense of humor and was a delightful companion,
a faithful friend, and quick and tender in his sympathies.
It was altogether characteristic of him and of his life that
the first legislative purpose which he developed and pursued
in
Congress to successful consummation was an enlargement of
the appropriation for the support of agricultural colleges and
experiment stations, the value of which to the farmers of the
country, and therefore to the people of the country, he knew
as well, if not better, than any other may of my acquaintance.
He was a man of strong convictions, and when committed upon
a policy or principle which he though was right he was
absolutely unshakable. He was opposed to the compulsory joinder
of two Territories into one State, and no power or pleading could
move him from his position. And that, Mr. President, was characteristic
of him, although he was as free from what men commonly call obstinacy
as any may I ever knew.
He died too soon, but -
Death is the dropping of the flower that
the fruit may swell.
Wisconsin will not forget his shining qualities and his splendid
public services, and her good people will tenderly cherish
his memory.
My colleague [Mr. La Follette], who was a lifelong friend
of Mr. ADAMS, is, to his sorrow, prevented from joining in
the tribute to him this evening because of illness.