364                     ANCESTRY, LIFE, AND TIMES  OF
engrossed the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the
Mount in the Theodosian Code. In that one majestic sentence
of the Constitution of the United States which ordains that
contracts shall not be impaired, all the moralities of life are cov-
ered, and all the rights and relations of the citizen and the
state, formed upon these moralities, are protected.
As to General Sibley's course, on the "bond question," he
is a blind reader of facts who cannot see that the character
shining here with such moral luster, in the midst of surround-
ing corruption, is the same character that shone so brightly,
in reference to the "Indian question,'1 when, in the midst of
the National Congress, he pleaded the same cause in behalf
of the red man, defrauded, oppressed, and deceived, not alone
by the state but by the nation itself. If Aristides merited
the title of "just," and Socrates deserved a name for teaching
"manners" to the youth in the streets of Athens, Minneso-
tians will not withhold the like praise from him who raised his
voice in both national and state legislatures, and in the execu-
tive chair, in defense of the same cause that made their fame
immortal. An example of public fidelity and incorruptibil-
ity, like this, lifting itself aloft in the forefront of the history
of the state, and standing firm amid all subsequent conflicts
and strifes, is of priceless value to the young men and people
of the state. Like the olive tree, sung by Sophocles and sacred
to Minerva, it is a plant not set by human hands, of terror to
its foes, and protection to its friends; an immortal tree no
storms can uproot or destroy. If any of all the sons of Min-
nesota is entitled modestly to repeat the words of the Ara-
bian emir, it is Henry Hastings Sibley, her first governor,—
"Iput on righteousness, and it clothed me. My judgment teas a
robe and a diadem. My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was
renewed in my hand."
The retirement of General Sibley from the hall of the
state legislature (1871) did not relieve him from the burdens
of duty to which he was called, notwithstanding his wish for a
life more serene and free from care. Whenever the interests
of the city, state, or even of the nation,—whenever municipal
advancement, the cause of education, financial progress, public
morals, social benefit, or protracted service — demanded men