Hall s illuminated windows, strolled there. A great concourse
assembled, in the street & Park, bands of music bray-
ing forth martial minstrelsy, and cannon firing in the Park.
Witnessing the latter performace for awhile. Political
meeting, Democratic. French s Hotel next door all draped
in White & black festoons, as mourning-tokens for the
death of Daniel Webster.
That s a great man gone.
I think as eloquent
words have been spoken by the farmer s son as ever were
by Demosthenes, in his glorious orations.
What
a grand, solemn fact is death, dignifying even the meanest
of us, and how much more so these great spirits, who
beacon like, stand up from among their fellow men. All
of us drifting out, fast, to that great shoreless sea, whose
murmur is in our ears at quiet, solemn, times though all
unnoted by us in the uproar of worldly strife. Some day
sure noted in the calendar, when the Sun will rise, men go abroad
to their daily foil, read newspapers, laugh, talk, bargain, and
I shall lie still enough, having done with it All. When
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Five: page seventy-eight |
| Description: | Comments on Daniel Webster's death. |
| Date: | 1852-10-26 |
| Subject: | Democratic Party (U.S.); Gunn, Thomas Butler; Politicians; Webster, Daniel |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-07 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Five |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of Gunn looking for drawing and writing work among New York publishers, witnessing a fire at a chocolate factory, attending a religious camp meeting, his friendship with Lotty Whytal, the 1852 presidential election, a visit to Niagara Falls in the winter, a visit to Toronto, Canada, and the Crystal Palace in New York. |
| Subject: | Gunn, Thomas Butler; Railroad; Publishers and publishing; Religion; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Niagara, New York; Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2011 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
