Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

VOICES FROM THE PAST 341
pulsations of a heart throbbing with brotherly love, with a character
free from all insincerity or sordidness. The keynote of his life was
honesty, and the ruling passion love. With him love was the fulfilling
of the law. In manner he was simple and unaffected, neither
haughty nor obsequious. He respected worth in all conditions and
loved virtue for its own sake. Strong in his own convictions, and
having the courage of the same when occasion called for their expression,
he was ever lenient to those who differed from him and
considerately refrained from forcing his opinions upon friends whose
views differed from his own.
It was said of a noted statesman that his manner was so gentle
and kind that when an office seeker applied for a place and had to
be disappointed, the refusal came in so kindly a manner that he would
actually make a friend of the applicant, although formerly he might
have been personally hostile to him. Mr. Watkins' manner was
similar. In the discussion of differences his manner was so kind that
the average man or woman could not help but regret that they could
not agree with him, and left him with sentiments of increased respect,
though his peculiar views along certain lines estranged from him
some who were too intolerant to be influenced by his genial manner,
and these estrangements were most keenly felt by him to the last
day of his life.
He hated, with all the intensity of his strong character, oppression
in all its forms. He was a representative of lofty ideals, ideals too
unselfish to be practical in a selfish world. He was an advanced
thinker, which consigned him to the ranks of the minority; but the
world in its revolutions of thought and by the logic of events more
than once came around to his standpoint. He was an avowed abolitionist
when such an avowal was odious; but he lived to see the ideas
he began to advance with force and ability when a mere boy, and to
which he adhered through life, adopted by our government and
recognized as correct by the people.
William Watkins was pre-eminently a family man; his children
and their families were his pride and his joy; to them he was a rallying
point, a patriarch. His home life was marked by unrestrained
confidence as well as beautiful simplicity; into his domicile, rich with
literature, the gatherings of years, he ever welcomed his friends, and
his unaffected hospitality was emphasized by wife and children, who
may now well say, "What have we not lost in the death of such a
husband and father.?"
Farewell, friend, until we meet in richer fields and on a higher
plane of intellectual and spiritual life.
Chaplain J. K. Lewis (retired) of the United States Navy,
a warm personal friend of our brother, spoke at his funeral