MEMORIAL ADDRESSES

ADDRESS OF MR. GUERNSEY, OF MAINE

Mr. SPEAKER: On the 28th day of July last, an honored Member of this body, a distinguished citizen and former governor of the State of Maine, passed from the activities of this world after an illness of several months.

He was, I believe, more widely and intimately known to the people of Maine, whom he has of late represented in the Congress of the United States, than any man who has appeared in public life in our State during the past forty years-the Hon. LLEWELLYN POWERS, of Houlton, Me.

It becomes my solemn duty as the successor to Mr. POWERS in Congress from the Fourth Congressional District of Maine to call attention to some of the characteristics and achievements

of his long and active career. I first became intimately acquainted with him when he became governor of our State, and I soon recognized that he was a farsighted man, of unusual tact, and possessed unfailing judgment of men and public affairs.

Llewellyn POWERS was born in Pittsfield, Somerset County, Me., in 1836, the eldest of ten children, and of the eight boys. six have attained distinction in the legal profession, and when LLEWELLYN POWERS was in active practice he was regarded as one of the best-equipped attorneys of the Maine bar.

His parents were of sturdy New England stock, several ancestors being in the Revolutionary war. He grew up in his native town, and fitted for college in its common schools and

1

Maine academies, and spent two years at Colby College, but, desiring to fit himself for the legal profession, he left at the end of two years and entered Albany Law School, where he graduated. He was not forgotten by his alma mater, however, and in later years received honorary degrees from Colby College.

In 1860 he returned to Maine and was admitted to the bar, and in 1861 began at Houlton to practice his chosen profession, which he continued for nearly forty years. His legal ability was early recognized, and he soon had a large and growing practice, in addition to which he took up the duties of a prosecuting officer, being elected as attorney for the State in his county, which office he held for three terms.

In 1873 he was sent to the state legislature, serving in that body three terms, and upon leaving there was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress at the same election with Eugene Hale and William P. Frye, who have so long and honorably represented the Commonwealth in the Senate.

At the end of his term of office he retired to private life and devoted his time and attention to his legal and business interests, except one term in the Maine legislature.

In 1892 he was again sent to the state legislature, and served for three successive terms, being unanimously chosen speaker the last term; and in 1896 was nominated and elected governor of Maine, receiving the largest plurality vote ever cast for a gubernatorial candidate in Maine. He was chosen a second time as governor.

During his legislative service in the Maine house he reported from an evenly divided judiciary committee, of which he was chairman, a bill abolishing capital punishment, and was successful in having the measure become a law. Many other pieces of important legislation in the interest of the State might be mentioned, but I will not weary you with their recital.

His administration as governor was one of the best that has ever been given the State of Maine. He gave to the office the same careful oversight that marked his private business, and on one occasion during the early part of the Spanish-American war, when there was strong pressure from all over the State to call an extra session of the legislature to appropriate money for the equipment of men and purchase supplies for the expected volunteer regiment, he was opposed to it on account of the large and needless expense to the State, and acting in accord with the judgment of other conservative business men of his party refused to call the extra session, but when funds were necessary he advanced the large sum of money required, and his patriotic and public-spirited action was approved by the next legislature, which refunded the money he had advanced from his private purse.

Soon after his retirement from the governor's chair he was chosen to fill out the unexpired term of the Fifty-seventh Congress occasioned by the death of Congressman Boutelle, in 1901, and was returned to Congress with each succeeding election, but he was obliged to withdraw from the renomination to the Sixtyfirst Congress, which had been tendered him by acclamation by the Republican party in his district, on account of his continued ill health.

His career in the National House of Representatives was marked by conservatism and sound business judgment in all matters in which he took part, and on account of his long experience in financial and legal matters he was always listened to with much attention and interest on pending questions relating to banking and currency and problems concerning statehood for the Territories, and his fairness and courtesy in debate won him many friends on both sides of this Chamber.

He was a firm believer and advocate of a revenue system which would afford protection to American industries and

workingmen and give American manufacturers the preference in our domestic markets.

He never posed as an orator, yet he was classed as a very effective speaker, and, with but one or two exceptions, no political speaker of Maine ever addressed a greater number of audiences during the campaigns. It seemed to be a part of his life to meet and mix with men and discuss the affairs of state and nation, and for more than thirty years he took part in every political campaign in Maine, and sometimes lent his voice to campaigns in neighboring States.

In his private life he was always regarded as the friend of the poor man, and many a prosperous citizen of the State has received his start from the kindly advice and financial assistance which it was their good fortune to receive from him, and it is said he never spurned one of his less fortunate friends of younger days when they came to him for aid.

He was a man of great tact and shrewdness and always preferred to conciliate rather than to antagonize.

He was a generous giver to charitable and benevolent objects, and it is said his donations to church organizations extended to almost every church which has been dedicated in the last twenty years in eastern Maine.

But, Mr. Speaker, words of eulogy can not add to or detract from the fame of this or any man; so having given a brief outline of the life and affairs of him who brought honor to his native State and district and whose service in this House was marked by dignity and wisdom, who was a kind and loving. husband and father, I will close, leaving it to others to portray his greatness in more eulogistic terms.

ADDRESS OF MR. BURLEIGH, OF MAINE

Mr. SPEAKER: My colleague, who so ably represents upon this floor the district formerly represented by our deceased friend, has so fully covered the salient points in his career that I may well confine myself to a personal and heartfelt tribute growing out of the cherished memories of an acquaintance and friendship extending over a period of more than forty years.

I first made the acquaintance of LLEWELLYN POWERS in 1861, when, a year after his graduation from the Albany University Law School, he came to Houlton, the shire town of the great county of Aroostook, to enter upon the practice of his profession. I was living at the time in an adjoining town, where I was born. Very well do I recall the appearance of Mr. POWERS at that time, and the rapidity with which he impressed his strong and masterful personality upon the community. Young, affable, of splendid physique, alert of body and of mind, an indefatigable worker, he brought to his labors rare qualities of leadership and the elements that win success in the practice of the law. He combined with marked powers of concentration a wonderful capacity for close and sustained application. He not only had a comprehensive and thorough grasp of legal principles, but he possessed, moreover, the ability to detect at once the weak point in the case of opposing counsel, and the aggressive force to make the most of it. Like Ulysses of old, he was "full of resources." Few men in the history of the Maine bar have equaled him in the ability to so marshal the strong points in his case as to make them carry conviction to the minds of a jury.