Obituary of Zacariah Wallace in the Anglo-Celt newspaer of February 5, 1857
HIDDEN
DEATH OF ZACHARIAH WALLACE, ESQ.
It is often the business of a journalist to express the sorrow which he feels for the loss, by death, of one who held a distinguished place in the circle wherein he moved, by position, by character, or in respect of private relations ; but when all these combine in a particular case, the regret, which he expresses, may, indeed be esteemed genuine.
His Death
On Sunday, the first of February, 1857, at two of the clock in the morning, an event occurred in Cavan, which will be lamented generally, deplored long, and attributed to its proper cause by those, who are given to trace the origin of things. On the day aforesaid, ZACHARIAH WALLACE, the proprietor of the "Anglo Celt," yielded up his last breath, when he had hardly attained his thirty-fifth year.
The first month of Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-seven had sped away, and the second was in its earliest infancy, when his soul quitted its tenement of clay. His death was sudden, too sudden alas! -- yet not so sudden as some have thought; he had been ailing for a considerable time, but did not appear worse than usual up to Friday evening, when his medical attendant pronounced that his recovery might not be hoped for. He had time, thank God, to arrange his affairs, to receive spiritual consolations and all the temporary aid which the most profound medical skill could devise; he had time to make his peace with the world, and his peace with a Higher Power, it may be hoped; and then he died at the hour and on the day we have stated, placid and resigned.
His Death
When shall we see his like again? As a member of the press for a long period, the memory of Mr. Wallace surely has claims upon the journalist; he loved the profession to which he belonged, and, who can say that he ever did anything to take from its dignity. Public vice he censured, but private character was always safe in his hands; the rights of the people he asserted fearlessly, but the legitimate rights of power and station he was ever willing to uphold. Ah, yes! and in his censuring of what he deemed an abuse of power, in his assertion of freedom of the franchise, he found the cause of his death.
Victim
He was another of the victims of the Six-mile-bridge tragedy; and only the more a victim because he lingered out a life of suffering for years. Mr. Wallace never recovered from the effects of the six months' imprisonment which he had to undergo; disease of the heart was generated during his confinement, and he died of disease of the heart three years, three months, and nine days after the iron doors of Cavan gaol had grated, when opening for his discharge. The people generously paid the pecuniary fine, which was imposed upon him, but they could not pay the ransom of immurement, and he had to suffer it; -- let it now be written down in the penal archives of the Government that Mr. Wallace, for his expression of opinion on the Six-mile-bridge affair, paid the penalty of fifty pounds of a fine, six months of imprisonment, and the superinducing of disease of the heart, which terminated in death. The pound of flesh was exacted and the blood flowed with it.
His Character
As to the character of Mr. Wallace, all can speak of it; he willingly gave offence to no man, nor did he show himself inclined to take offence, where none might be intended. Who can say that in his money dealings he wronged any one? An honester soul never animated the human breast. Who can say that he ever heard Mr. Wallace vilifying his neighbour, or listening to another doing so, without rebuking him? It may be put down as one of the most glorious traits in his character, that he spoke well of every one, and could not even hear of anyone being spoken of otherwise than well.
His Kindness
His charity was even in excess of his means; the poor lost in him a real benefactor, and their lamentations, as his body was being conveyed from his own door, gave abundant evidence that they poignantly felt the loss. His position, therefore, and his character, call upon the journalist to express regret for that is lost unto him, and conspire to make his feel that sorrow. As to his private relations, those, which are of a domestic nature, must be sacred; those, which were between him and the persons he had in his employment, in their different stations, were such as to render his loss to them irreparable; the kind word was ever in his mouth, the kind act ever ready to be done, when it was needed; a fault, if it was not constantly recurring, never stood in the way of the exercise of his good will; bitterly! bitterly, do all deplore him.
His Funeral
On Tuesday morning last a sad cortege wended its sorrowing way to the Cavan railway station; a sad cortege passed on to Dublin, and thence a cortege still more sad, because the hour of final parting was so near, proceeded to the little cemetery of Coolock, where beneath the spreading branches of an impending tree his filial and fraternal affection had erected a monument to the memory of a mother and a brother. The Rev. Mr. M'Conkey read, most impressively, a solemn service to an afflicted audience, and then all that was mortal of Zacariah Wallace was consigned to the dust. -- His bones now lie long the side of those who were amongst the persons he loved most on earth, and to whose memory he paid a tribute so graceful.
Peace Be With Thee
He is gone, but his name will not soon be forgotten; those to whom he was known personally, will think on his virtues, his private worth; and those who knew him only in connection with the paper of which he was the proprietor cannot forget his public spirit, his ever advocating the right against the wrong. For many the little cemetery of Coolock will have an interest which it never before possessed, and recurring ‘firsts of February’ will serve as occasions of renewed sorrow.
Peace be with thee, ZACHARIAH WALLACE; though thou art gone thy memory will be ever green in our hearts; peace be with thee -- mayest thou now be in the enjoyment of that life which knows not death.
Extracted from Anglo-Celt of February 5, 1857
with added headings