388 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Feb. 18

was exchanged. The Governor went to see Lincoln.
As soon as the President saw him, he asked: "What
can I do for Governor Pratt?" He had recollected him
from the famous repudiation times and contest. The
Governor made his request. "What will the news-
papers say ?" queried Lincoln, as he pondered over
the annulment of a general order for a special case.
"Never mind the newspapers," suggested Governor
Pratt. Lincoln did not mind the newspapers to serve
so great a man, wrote out the order to Secretary
Stanton, and the son came to Annapolis and stayed
until exchanged.

It is for the representatives of the Freemen of Mary-
land, in the General Assembly of January session,
1904, bone and sinew of the same men and members
who made Pratt's great work possible,—for the illus-
trious names in those assemblies that aided him in
his stupendous undertaking, are repeated from assem-
bly to assembly to this day,—to redeem our grand
commonwealth from the reproach of this ungrateful
neglect.

And now. sir, the imperishable work of Thomas G.
Pratt remains—the stainless honor of our State and
the unimpaired credit of its word—the corner stone of
our financial prosperity, but he sleeps as many a hero
in the battle, almost under the very shadow of this
ancient and historic State House, wrapped in the
mantle of his illustrious virtues and exalted character,
without so much as a shapeless stone to mark the
spot where rest his sacred ashes.

Sir, Key's memory has been preserved in enduring
granite; Howard's martial face speaks from glowing
canvas; Taney lives in animated bronze, but he who
accomplished a work greater than poet, warrior, and
jurist, lies unhonored and unsung amid the ivy and
myrtle of old St. Anne's Church yard on the Severn,
a profound accentuation of the sad truth that Repub-
lics are ungrateful to those who make Republics great.

Mr. Speaker, the introduction of this bill and the
elucidation of its merit has been, a labor of love. It
may be regarded by some as an act inspired by senti-
ment, but when reduced to its last analysis if will be