chosen profession, saw him rise to a position of leadership at this Bar and in the Bar of the state. Many times I have been engaged in trials with him as an adversary, and can attest to his ability as a lawyer as well as to his power as an orator; and, while he took advantage of legal technicalities and mistakes or errors of his antagonists, he never would stoop to small things, he took no snap judgments in the lower courts and never moved to quash a writ in the Appellate Courts because a paper book was not served in time. But, gentlemen of the Bar, there is one thing in which we all have a just pride, that is in our city and state; and, wherever the name of W. U. Hensel was heard, whether in New England, the south, west of Pacific slope, the words of Lancaster and Pennsylvania were mentioned in connection with his. placed Lancaster upon the map. He I may be allowed, however, as a contemporary, to speak of what I have seen and known of the deceased. Having been deeply interested in political affairs during all my mature life, and a practitioner at this Bar from the time I was admitted, it was my destiny to early become associated with Mr. Hensel. How well do I remember when, in 1872, we both espoused the cause of Horace Greeley. It seems to me as of yesterday And now, in conclusion, let me say a when a great political meeting of that few more words as a fellow-worker in campaign was held at Christiana. It the political field. For years his party was a notable gathering. Lieut.-Gov. struggled nobly under his leadership in Dorsheimer, of New York, and General this county and state, but there came a Kilpatrick were the chief speakers at time when there was a parting of the the meeting-both men of National ways among its members-it has led to reputation and famous as orators. dissension and bitterness. For my part, Towards the close of the meeting, young I cherish no bitterness. New ideas, new Mr. Hensel was introduced to the audi- questions and new issues have arisen in ence. I remember his youthful face and our land, and, when that happens, men form-but little more than a boy in always change their associations and years, then a novice in political oratory. opinions, not only upon public questions, He captured and charmed that assem- but of each other. The Civil War blage to a degree his distinguished co- brought about such changes and the laborers could not approach. As he strength of the dominant party, both in closed, amid the plaudits of the throng, leadership and members, was through his enthusiastic hearers all became ar- recruits from the opposing parties. Since dent admirers, and, upon all sides, could then, the world has undergone a transbe heard predictions of his future suc- formation in every channel. The invencess and fame. That audience measured tions and uses of electricity have the abilities of Mr. Hensel, then on the changed the ways of men's living, but threshold of his career. as clearly and in the world of thought and progress as correctly as any newspaper or man has great changes have been made as is witsince. nessed by the political upheavals of the last decade or more. This country now faces as irrepressible a conflict as it ever did. Laws are being changed and enacted which reach to the bottom of our social structure. Many believed that the sanctity and even safety of our Courts was being endangered. These questions I was associated with him in many political struggles since that time. I saw him rise to a commanding position in his party throughout the Commonwealth, and, also, become a figure in national politics. I witnessed his advent to the Bar, watched his progress in his unconsciously are leading to new align- | nativity was an all-absorbing passion. ments, and, by reason whereof, Mr. To whom the name and fame of that Hensel became estranged from his county were subjects ever near to his former associates, and, like the mariner heart. And as was so well said in a without rudder or compass, struggled newspaper account of him, he did more without purpose, lamenting that he was to spread that name and fame than any a man without a party; and yet, I make man who ever lived in the county, save bold to say, that unconsciously not only possibly only Fulton and Buchanan. was he, at the time of his death, a great | With his pen, his voice and his means figure as a lawyer, a financier and busi- he ever stood ready to bear part in any ness man in our county, but a command- undertaking for the welfare of his city ing and dominant figure in the ruling or county. party thereof without his knowing it. He is gone, these halls will no longer resound with his eloquence; literary circles will no longer reflect his brilliancy; political conferences will no longer follow his leadership, and leaders in finance and business will no longer gather around him for advice and instruction; but his memory will be cherished for years to come as a legacy for his family and as a proud heritage to the citizenship of this great county. J. W. Brown said: Mr. Chairman: Never on an occasion such as this have I had anything to say and fain would I now be silent. But I was one of Mr. Hensel's students, and the behests of friendship and duty are strong and bid me give some expression to the deep feeling of grief and sorrow which now pervades this entire community. I would not speak of him as a lawyer whose profound learning and eloquent tongue brought to him, in this very place, more splendid triumphs than any other ever gained. Who in the last quarter of a century has been the most active member of the profession in our community. Who has been engaged in nearly every important matter which has engaged the attention of the Court in that period of time. Whose well-recognized abilities led to frequent calls away from home to broader and higher fields of usefulness. Nor would I speak of him as a public official who added increased lustre and distinction to the high office he adorned. But rather I would speak of him as the citizen whose love for the county of his He loved our college and our churches, our schools and our factories. His frequent trips into the county were to him pilgrimages to shrines he revered, and its history and traditions were to him sacred. He loved every rock and rill, and no matter where he might be in his own country or in foreign lands his heart ever turned with longing and love to this soil. Professional honors or political preferment could not wean him away and here where he lived and loved he will be buried. He has gone from us and by this time has reached the great unknown and received his illumination. Let us hope and have faith to believe that when his strong, courageous spirit reached the journey's end this summons was heard, enter thou into the joy of thy reward". 66 W. H. Keller said: Mr. Chairman: It is not of him as a lawyer that I like to think of Mr. Hensel, though his achievements and success professionally It is were notable and exceptional. rather of the many-sided and fullrounded man and his uniform and unfailing thoughtfulness and consideration for others. There is not a member of this Bar who has not time and time again. received substantial evidence of these predominating traits of his character. You all recall in the masterpiece of Sir Walter Scott the eloquent plea of Jeanie Deans for the life of her sister, in which she said that in time of trouble, in time of death, it is not what we have done for ourselves but what we have done for others, it is pleasant to re He was not only active and interested in more capacities and in more directions locally (and in wider spheres) than any other man among us-but he was also great, in all of those capacities and in all those directions. He was not weak in any phase of his activities nor in anything. He had a prodigious capacity to turn out work and to do things. He had no equal. I would say, he was an example for did not fear that any one attempting to other and younger men to follow, if I follow him and carry the loads he carried, would break down before the first dertaking and achievements was too prodigious and too herculean for another to undertake. I ask the privilege of a few words to make acknowledgment of my obligation to, and affection for, Mr. Hensel. I am proud to know that for almost thirty years he has permitted me to be, always his friend, and very frequently his guest and companion. During all of this time he was, of course, a great source of in-mile-post was reached-his scale of unspiration and assistance. But, above all, was his great kindness to me. My regret is that I could do so little for him in return. I believe that this thought has come to most of us many times, and especially during the past year. But. Mr. Chairman, as Mr. Keller has just said, we may take comfort in the belief that he was, in great measure, repaid for his many acts of kindness to us. For he must have known that it was his great heart, as well as his great ability, which made him, in truth, the foremost citizen and best-beloved man of this county, which he loved so well, and for which he did more than any other man yet born within its limits. H. Frank Eshleman said: Hensel belonged to us all. All great men do. But in a marked and peculiar sense, Hensel belonged to every one in this community, almost as much, we feel, as he belonged to his immediate family. No other person, within my knowledge and memory, belonged so completely to every one, of our local community, as he. Everything that concerned our home locality vitally interested him; all our home people interested him-their virtues, ways and weaknesses fell into his big solicitude, for all things in connection with his beloved Susquehanna Valley. We will miss him in more ways and places, than any other soul in our county. He was a part of all our local activities. Equal with his mental strength and capacity, was his generosity. To the very last every laudable object received of his means and his advice and counsel gratuitously. He saw all things which he undertook, on a big, an adequate and an appropriate plan. The cost in dollars Whatever he did not count with him. undertook, he carried through in the finest style. He loved, too, in an extraordinary de gree. His heart was always full. There was nothing narrow in him. All in all, he had no equal among us. Spencer G. Nauman said: Mr. Chairman: When I started on that fatal Florida trip, I never dreamed that in two weeks' time I should be speaking at a meeting of this character, called in memory of Mr. Hensel. And even now it is hard to realize that he is gone. His spirit so dominated this Bar and his personality so permeated this Court House that it is impossible to think of it deprived of his presence. I realize perfectly that what I am saying is echoed by you all and that each one of you would like to pay your personal tribute to the dead. And it is right that you should so feel. For to Mr. Hensel the Lancaster Bar had all the meaning and all the significance of a fraternity. To belong to it was to him one of the rewards of the profession. Nor do I believe there is a man here today whom he has not at one time or another mentioned to me in terms of interest and affection. And nothing gave him greater satisfaction than some individual success which redounded to the general credit of the Bar. The thought I should like to leave with you and the tribute I should like to pay is that of all the splendid qualities of Mr. Hensel's versatile genius there was nothing finer than his love for and desire to help his fellow-men. Particullarly was this the case with the younger men of this community. Not only among members of the Bar-although I venture the statement that there is hardly a man here who has not profited by his advice and sympathy-but in all walks of life-in business-in literature and in art, Mr. Hensel was ever ready to lend a willing ear and ofttimes more material assistance to a struggling beginner. And it was his greatest pleasure to know that his help had been deserved and that he had been able to start some young man on a successful career. So it seems to me that of all the fine things which have been said both here and throughout the state and that of all the resolutions which will be presented there will be no more lasting and enduring monument to his memory than the ever-living gratitude of the men who owe to him their success in life. Of my personal relations with Mr. Hensel, I can hardly bring myself to speak. My earliest recollections of him are as one of my father's friends who was kind to me for his sake. But in later life, and particularly in the last few years, our intimacy grew and ripened and his attitude toward me was truly paternal. He showed to me a father's love and affection and it is as a son that I shall miss him. has been the theater of some of the professional activities of the Hon. W. U. Hensel, whose sad death we now meet to take the proper action as brother lawyers with regard to. I do not claim to have been an intimate friend of Mr. Hensel's. We were however what might be called community and locality friends. We began our existence in this world near the same locality in this good old Empire County of Lancaster and that so far as it went made us friends and laid the foundation with me of an interest in him. Such was my regard for him that when I would see his name mentioned in the public press it particularly interested me. Why should not my admiration increase for one whose boyhood feet pressed the same soil that mine had done when I see him advancing up the steps of professional fame until he becomes very conspicuous at a legal forum in which once was heard the profundity of a Buchanan, the brilliancy of a Stevens, the logic of a Frazer and others of a preceding decade; and who had for his cotemporaries a North, a Dickey, a Reynolds, a Brown and others with whose tact and abilities in the trial of a case he could cope when he had even the laboring oar. I have been told that Grover Cleveland said of W. U. Hensel that he was the greatest stumper that he had ever heard. Of course there have been many men made their marks on the political hustings that Cleveland never heard and some of them may have been equal to and even superior to Mr. Hensel. But that he was a great orator and his voice and style peculiarly adapted to political speechmaking goes without saying. He was very popular and much sought after by the York County Democracy. It used to be that nearly all important political campaigns in our County were not considered complete if Hensel did not either open or close them. He would H. H. McClune of the York County make our contentions appear so good and Bar said: Gentlemen: I am here as a volunteer representative of the York County Bar, a Court which the Republicans so bad that it would seem that they could not possibly win; but all the same they did almost every time. In fact with all Mr. Hensel's pursuasive eloquence his closing a campaign after a number of defeats began to be looked | opportunity to hear Mr. Hensel try a upon as ominous of Democratic defeat. case. One thing I congratulated myself He was a terror to the Republican leaders upon as I listened to him, and that was if he could get them within voice-shot that I was neither one of his opponents of him. I remember one night that a nor the judge at which he hurled his number of said leaders did venture to point. come to the Grand Jury Room where they could hear and he knew that they were there. After he had hurled a tremendous shrapnel at some policy of the Republican party he with thrilling voice and gesture said, "You Republicans in the Grand Jury Room that are afraid to come in here, put that in your pipes and smoke it! He told me that one time he and Pattison were billed to address the unterrified Democracy of York County at a place along the Susquehanna river. That he made special preparations for that occasion and he supposed Pattison had done likewise and when they got there the crowd could be counted on the fingers of the two hands and it was not necessary to count the thumbs. It was in the very midst of corn-husking and the farmers concluded very surely whether wisely or not that Hensel and Pattisons speeches would husk no corn. It is not a year yet since I had an He seemed to be so oblivious to all else but the interests of his client that at some times I could not help but regard him as somewhat discourteous to his opponents and the Court. But showing fidelity to a client is a palliating reason for temporary departures from professional courtesy. But when the court or his opponent would manifest displeasure he would very promptly apologize. Mr. Hensel's professional work is done. No more interests of clients to defend and legal conflicts to be met. That eloquent voice is now silent. His chair at the bar, in the home, in the social circle, in the college board and in the church is vacated forever. His relatives and friends can only seek the balm of calm resignation and as they commit his mortal remains to the bosom of mother earth they can assuage their grief with "The hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began." Titus i. 2. |