It led him to a height of self-forgetfulness achieved by only two others--Washington and Lincoln.

Yet I have been surprised by the profound and general ignorance of this generation regarding the career of Silas Wright, of whom Whittier wrote these lines: "Man of the millions thou art lost too soon! Portents at which the bravest stand aghast The birth throes of a future strange and vast Alarm the land.

Yet thou so wise and strong Suddenly summoned to the burial bed, Lapped in its slumbers deep and ever long, Hear'st not the tumult surging over head.
Who now shall rally Freedom's scattering host?
Who wear the mantle of the leader lost ?" The distinguished Senator who served at his side for many years, Thomas H.Benton of Missouri, has this to say of Silas Wright in his _Thirty Years' View_: "He refused cabinet appointments under his fast friend Van Buren and under Polk, whom he may be said to have elected.

He refused a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States; he rejected instantly the nomination of 1844 for Vice-President; he refused to be put in nomination for the Presidency.

He spent that time in declining office which others did in winning it.