Eulogy of the Dog.

[Paul]

Eulogy of the Dog.


GENTLEMEN of the jury, the best friend a man has
in this world may turn against him and become his
enemy. His son or daughter whom he has reared with
loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us - those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name - may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honour when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolute, unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world - the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous - is his dog.


Gentlemen of the jury, a man's dog stands by him in
prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he can be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.

When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches
take wings and reputation falls to pieces he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even to death.


-Hon. George G. Vest.

[Paul]

George Graham Vest served in the United States Senate for twenty-four years, from 1879 to 1903, but the act for which he is best remembered is a speech delivered in an insignificant court case while he was still a lawyer in rural Missouri.

George Graham Vest

Born in Kentucky in 1830, Vest moved in the 1850's to Missouri, where he practiced law and served in the state legislature. During the Civil War, he was a member of the Confederate Congress. After the war, he practiced law until his election to the Senate as a Democrat.

The lawsuit that brought him immortality concerned the shooting of "Old Drum," the best hunting dog of a local farmer. A neighbor who suspected that Old Drum was moonlighting by killing his sheep gave orders to shoot the dog if it appeared on the property again. When Old Drum was found dead near the neighbor's house, the farmer filed suit, seeking damages of fifty dollars. After a jury awarded twenty-five dollars, the neighbor successfully appealed the ruling. The dog's owner, however, succeeded in his motion for a new trial and hired two skilled lawyers, one of them George G. Vest.

Vest's summation to the jury (pdf) at that trial has become familiar to dog lovers across the country through succeeding generations. Rather than discussing the details of the case, he eloquently praised the loyalty of a dog to his owner in terms that brought tears to the eyes of the jury and of those who have read his brief remarks in the years since. As a result, the owner was awarded damages, although the amount--whether the original twenty-five dollars or much more--is unclear.

Afterward, the speech took on a life of its own, being reprinted both in this country and abroad. So famous did it become that, in 1958, the town of Warrensburg, Missouri, where the speech took place, erected a bronze statue to honor Old Drum and George G. Vest. Over the years, the brief oration has been included in a number of anthologies, often with slight variations in wording and punctuation. The version presented here was inserted in the Congressional Record as part of a speech delivered by Senator Robert C. Byrd on April 23, 1990.

Old Drum

In the Senate, the witty and sarcastic George Vest was an effective debater, although as a Democrat he was generally in the minority. For example, he fought the anti-polygamy laws aimed at the Mormons, opposed woman suffrage, and objected to the acquisition of Puerto Rico and the Philippines. He delivered his last speech to the Senate in January 1903, attacking the coal trust that was keeping the price of fuel artificially high even in a bitterly cold winter. According to an observer, the tiny, wizened Vest, old and terminally ill, stood propped up beside his desk and by the sheer force of his passion and his arguments shamed the majority Republicans into removing the duty on coal. Vest retired from the Senate in March of that year and died in the summer of 1904.