་་ LATE A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM MISSOURI. HIS LIFE, WITH A CONCISE REPRODUCTION OF HIS "Love is stronger than hate!"-JAMES N. BURnes. BY EDWARD W. DE KNIGHT, HIS PRIVATE SECRETARY. : CHICAGO: A. C. McCLURG & CO., PUBLISHERS. 1889. INTRODUCTION. E664 59543 THE great veneration felt by the people of the State of Missouri for the character and services of their distinguished Representative in Congress, the late Honorable JAMES NELSON BURNES, together with the sincere regard and deep affection borne him by a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, both in private and public life, has encouraged the collecting and collating of his speeches and debates in Congress and their presentation in the following work. To his old and cherished friends such a volume will, no doubt, prove acceptable as a choice memorial of their associate. To those attached to him by the loving ties of kinship, particularly the worthy members of his immediate family, it is respectfully presented as a legacy, bequeathed to them most assuredly, but which it has been my good fortune to succeed in rescuing and giving convenient shape between these covers; and which, it would seem, ought to be most precious since it comprehends the culminating work of his life-the work he was ardently pursuing when struck by the shaft of Death. A collaborateur, and I trust I may appropriately apply the term. to myself, undertakes a work of this character with feelings akin to those which move one who walks the ocean strand the morning after a wreck-when there comes drifting in towards him, like sorrowful messengers, the fragments of the good ship which has failed and sunk into the sea. These fragments along the shore! what mute expressions of the lives of others-of departed friends, perchance, whose memory alone survives! Here a bit of something may open up a flood of memories; or even a scrap of a letter may cause the tears to unbidden flow. Whether along the edge of the sea or on the silent, solemn shore of that vast ? ocean on which some precious soul has recently sailed forever from us, the same fragments drift in to us and are as sacredly treasured away. The speeches of Mr. BURNES were seldom prepared. As a rule, they were extemporaneous. Several of those which he selected for distribution among his constituents have been placed in the forepart of the volume. The debates have been diligently collected from the records of Congress, and carefully compiled. It was found necessary to condense them materially, but great care has been taken both to preserve their substance and all the remarks, observations, and comments of Mr. BURNES, and retain unbroken the thread of every discussion. As an apology for the biographical sketch, I beg to say that I was not aware until quite late in the day that its preparation would fall upon me, as it was expected that the narrative would emanate from some other quarter. Aside, therefore, from the trepidation with which the sketch was undertaken, it was written somewhat hastily and under the discouragement of the summer heat. Concerning the work as a whole, I only regret my shortcomings in performing what to me has been a labor of love; for it is a token of veneration for the memory of one whom it was my pleasure and honor to serve, in a confidential capacity, for nearly five years; and upon whose grave I would reverently lay this humble tribute. WASHINGTON, July, 1889. EDWARD W. DE KNIGHT. Conference report on consular and diplomatic appropriation bill, July 5, 1884 121 Senate amendments, September 26, 1888 Establishment of a United States ordnance factory, August 15, 1888 Fortification bill, August 1, 1888 14 |