C., January 29, 1893
_My Dear Madam:_
I was kept in bed, under the orders of my physician, the
day the death of your husband was announced to the Senate.
I regret exceedingly that I could not be in my place to express
my sense of the great public loss and my warm personal admiration
for his great qualities of intellect and of heart. I served
with him in the House of Representatives for more than four
years, and in the Senate for more than eight years. It was
a stormy and exciting time. We differed widely on very grave
questions, and this difference was more than once very sharply
manifested in public; but the more I knew him, the more satisfied
I became of the sincerity of his patriotism, of his profound
and far-sighted wisdom, of the deep fountain of tenderness
in his affectionate and simple heart, and of his brave and
chivalrous quality of soul. I was more than once indebted
to him for very great kindness indeed, under circumstances
when I do not think he supposed it would ever come to my knowledge.
Some of his judgments on the Supreme Bench are characterized
by marvellous beauty and felicity of style.
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