applicable than to himself:—­“When the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me; because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.  The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me; and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.  I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.  I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.  I was a father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not I searched out.  And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.”  This is an exact portraiture of your father, a most comprehensive delineation of his character as a philanthropist and reformer.  It was his meat and drink.

      “The poor to feed, the lost to seek,
        To proffer life to death,
      Hope to the erring, to the weak
        The strength of his own faith.

      “To plead the captive’s right; remove
        The sting of hate from law;
      And soften in the fire of love
        The hardened steel of war.

      “He walked the dark world in the mild,
        Still guidance of the light;
      In tearful tenderness a child,
        A strong man in the right.”

Did there ever live one who had less of that “fear of man which bringeth a snare,” than himself?  Or who combined more moral courage with exceeding tenderness of spirit?  Or who adhered more heroically to his convictions of duty in the face of deadly peril and certain suffering?  Or who gave himself more unreservedly, or with greater disinterestedness, to the service of bleeding humanity?  Or who took more joyfully the spoiling of his goods as the penalty of his sympathy for the hunted fugitive?  Or who more untiringly kept pace with all the progressive movements of the age, as though in the very freshness of adult life, while venerable with years?  Or who, as a husband, father, friend, citizen, or neighbor, more nobly performed all the duties, or more generally distributed all the charities of life?  He will leave a great void in the community.  Such a stalwart soul appears only at rare intervals.  Delaware, enslaved, treated him like a felon; Delaware, redeemed, will be proud of his memory.

      “Only the actions of the just
      Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.”

    His rightful place is conspicuously among the benefactors,
    saviours, martyrs of the human race.

His career was full of dramatic interest from beginning to end, and crowded with the experiences and vicissitudes of a most eventful nature.  What he promised he fulfilled; what he attempted, he seldom, or never failed to accomplish; what he believed, he dared to proclaim upon the housetop; what he ardently desired, and incessantly labored for, was the reign of universal freedom, peace, and righteousness.  He was among the manliest