JAMES WILSON the days when Philadelphia was the nation's capital. No more intellectual audience ever gathered in America nor was ever a greater galaxy of speakers assembled on one occa sion — all had come to pay their homage and voice their tributes to the immortal patriot whose intellect, more than that of any other one man, over a century before had put in motion, under Divine guidance, the forces which have ever since shaped the destinies of the nation. After religious services had been conducted by Bishop Mackay-Smith, tributes were delivered from the chancel by the following: Governor Pennypacker, for the Common wealth of Pennsylvania; Samuel Dickson, Esq., for the Bar of Pennsylvania; Dean William Draper Lewis, for the University of Pennsylvania; S. Wier Mitchell, M.D., LL.D., for American Literature; Andrew Carnegie, LL.D., for Scotch-American citi zenship; President of the American Bar Association, Hon. Alton B. Parker, for the American Bar; Senator Philander C. Knox, for the Congress; Mr. Justice White, of the Supreme Court of the United States, for the Judiciary; Attorney-General of the United States, Hon. William H. Moody, for the nation, and who had been selected by the President to represent the Executive Department of the government. The ora tion was delivered by Hon. Hampton L. Carson, the Attorney-General of Pennsyl vania and historian of the Supreme Court of the United States. The speakers without exception rose to the full measure of this the most patriotic ceremony within the memory of any now living, and which in impressive simplicity and dignity has probably never been equalled anywhere. At the conclusion of the memorial services the body, escorted by the officers of the City Troop, which organization in 1779 at the Fort Wilson riot saved Wilson's life, and followed by the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the United States, by the Governor and Chief Justice of Pennsylvania and by fed-
eral and state Bench and Bar, as well as by the delegates of the patriotic societies, including the Colonial Dames of America and the Daughters of the Revolution, and surrounded by the color guard of the Sons of the Revolution, passed for the last time through the portals of Christ Church where, living, Wilson had worshiped, as the strains of Kipling's recessional rang through the the old church — "Lest we forget, lest we forget." The interment was immediately effected in the same grave with Wilson's wife, close to the south wall of the edifice — "the Westminster Abbey of America," and near the tombs of other revolutionary patriots. Thus was James Wilson, the ris ing prophet of a new dynasty of constitu tion interpreters, after more than a century of neglect, brought to his own, his ashes were buried; but he was resurrected, and none can doubt but that his spirit and doctrine will ever live as an all potent force in our future national life. "That man is more than clod, is more than cell, This solemn tread,- this throng of crowding great This stirring pomp and pageantry of State, With boom of gun and long toll of the bell, Proclaim! How slight the sting of death! The knell That echoes at some lonely churchyard gate, Neither the clay disturbs, nor thoughts elate, That, from the very grave, rush forth to tell To generations of the sons of men The truths that free, that glorious things in spire; Our heritage thus saved from fall of night! Oh, wondrous immortality! The pen Hath written, and the words, a kindling fire, Beacon the people's path in living light."1 1 These lines entitled "On the Re-burial of a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, JAMES WILSON. Christ Church, Philadelphia, November 22, 1906," were penned by Mr. Harvey M. Watts of Phila delphia, after attending the Wilson Memorial Ser vices and witnessing the procession and other functions incident to Wilson's re-burial, and he has kindly consented to their publication for the first time in The Green Bag.
