The generosity of character of the deceased,
the conspicuous honesty of his principles and purposes, together with
the skill and firmness with which he maintained them in all situations,
had won for him the affection and confidence of his countrymen; but at
the moment when by their voice he was raised to a station in the
discharge of the powers and duties of which the most beneficent results
might justly have been anticipated from his great experience, his sound
judgment, the high estimation in which he was held by the people, and
his unquestioned devotion to the Constitution and to the Union, it has
pleased an all-wise but mysterious Providence to remove him suddenly
from that and every other earthly employment.
While the officers and soldiers of the Army share in the general grief
which these considerations so naturally and irresistibly inspire, they
will doubtless be penetrated with increased sensibility and feel a
deeper concern in testifying in the manner appropriate to them the full
measure of a nation's gratitude for the eminent services of the departed
patriot and in rendering just and adequate honors to his memory because
he was himself a soldier, and an approved one, receiving his earliest
lessons in a camp, and, when in riper years called to the command of
armies, illustrating the profession of arms by his personal qualities
and contributing largely by his successes to the stock of his country's
glory.
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