During the delivery of the eulogy the Judge appeared more deeply moved than he had ever been known to be before, on any occasion, and the members of the bar fully sympathized. It was a rare occasion for the play of solemn emotions, and for a grand uprising of the soul toward God.
We offer no apology to the reader for prefacing our book with the foregoing eulogistic sketch of our departed friend, and it is presumed none is necessary. We are certain of it with the friends of Mr. Sweet, who knew him best. And if he had enemies that last till now, political or otherwise, to such we make our bow in passing, and say, _requiescat in pace!_
This outline sketch, containing something of an analysis of the character and gifts of Mr. S., though too brief to be called a biography, is extended beyond the limits of our original purpose, but while justified in our own feelings and desires in the matter, we doubt not the glad approval of the reader will be given also; and particularly of the profession to which he belonged, and in which he was a star of the first magnitude. But aside from a desire to render this tribute of respect to the fragrant memory of departed worth and genius, the writer, with modest pretension, would wrest his name from further silence of the pen and press, and rob oblivion of a name too bright, and too dear to friends and relatives to be lost from the public eye and ear.
Now the reader may well conclude that the eloquent pleadings of such a friend were quite sufficient to deter one in the unpropitious situation of our country, during the winter of 1860-1, from making the rash move--"Out of the world into Texas." The writer can never forget that earnest private interview, in the little side office, when Mr. S. employed his powers of logic and description to maintain the assertion that the "irrepressible conflict" was about to reach the shocking crisis of civil war between the North and South. A decade of years has since passed, bearing him away, but his predictions have become historic verity. The conflict culminated in the _ne plus ultra_ of human rage, in which the two greatest evils of all time met and struggled for the mastery--war and slavery. And because war was the greater slavery was wiped out in a baptism of blood! And in that baptism the grim-visaged evil plucked and sacrificed five or six hundred thousand home lilies from the "Sunny South" and from the mountains and valleys of the North!