ORATION AT THE FUNERAL OF
JOHN AUSTIN WHARTON
BY
DAVID G. BURNETT
The keenest blade on the field of San Jacinto is broken!--the brave, the generous, the talented John A. Wharton is no more! His poor remains ice cold and senseless before now wrapped in the habiliments of the grave and awaiting your kind offices to convey them to the charnel-house appointed to all the living. A braver heart never died. A nobler soul, more deeply inbred with the pure and feverant spirit of patriotism, never passed from its tenement of clay to the more genial realms of immortality. Though he was young in years, and at the very threshold of his fame, yet every heart in this assembly will respond, in painful accordance, to the melancholy truth that a mighty man has fallen among us. Many princes of the earth have perished in their prime, surrounded with all the gorgeous splendors of wealth and power, and their country has suffered no damage. But surely it will be engraven on the tablets of our history, that Texas wept when John A. Wharton died.The brief time permitted us to linger about his waste and attenuated form is insufficient recite the testimonials of his gallantry. He was among the first to propose the independence of Texas; and true to the frankness of the nature, he was foremost with those who nobly bared their bosoms to the storm, when that declaration which gave assurance to the world that a man-child was born into the family of nations was pronounced. It is enough to say that he was distinguished on the fields of San Jacinto---? For there were no recreants there. All had strung their chafed and dauntless spirits to the high resolve of liberty or Death; and he who could make himself conspicuous on such a battlefield was indeed a hero - nay, a hero among heroes! for never in the annuals of war did braver hearts or stouter hands contend for liberty.
With you, gentleman of the House of Representatives, the lamented deceased was associated by an intimate political connection. You have observed his assiduity, his profound and accurate judgment in all the exalted duties of a legislator. To you he furnished ample evidence that his great professional attainment were only inductive to the still more enlarged capacities of his intellect, and that when his mind was turned to positives, it seemed as if nature had fashioned him for a statesman. You are bereaved of a valuable and much valued member -- whose vacant seat it will be difficult to fill with equal endowments. That eloquont tongue is hushed in death, and the grave-worm will shortly fatten upon it. Those lips, that never quivered except under gush of words that breaths and thoughts that burn are closed forever, and no more shall these walls reverberate their thrilling enunciations.
To You Soldiers! he was endeared by many lives. You have shared with him the toils and privations of an arduous and protracted campaign. You have witnessed and have participated in his devotion to his country, and his patient endurance of fatigue and suffering in the tented field, his agonizing indignation at every successive retreat before the invading foe.
Many of you retain in vivid recollection, his burning impatience for the conflict when on the great day of San Jacinto his buoyant spirit gratulated his companions-in-arms on the near prospect of a battle: and you have marked his gallant bearing when the shock of arms first sounded on the plain, and the war-cry of ALAMO! carried terror and dismay into the camp of the bloody homicides of Goliad. Behold your brother-in-arms! A cold, silent, prostrate corse. No more shall the din of war arouse his martial spirit to deeds of high enterprise. That lifeless clay would heed it not, for the bright spirit which lately animated and adorned it has passed triumphantly beyond the narrow bourne of mortal strifes, to that blessed region, where "wars and rumors of wars are never heard".
NOTE: John Austin Wharton was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1809, his brother William Harris Wharton was born three years earlier. The two brothers were close companions all of their lives. Probably due to the fact that they were orphans, their mother having died when John was eight years old. Their father had died two years earlier. They were raised by an uncle, who was a former Unites States Congressman so they were exposed to politics very early in their lives.
They were both well educated both attended college. John Wharton practiced law in New Orleans until 1833 when he moved to Texas and joined his brother.
John Wharton is called the "Father of Masonry": in Texas. Having organized the first Masonic Lodge in Texas.. He had spent two years in Texas when he was sent as a delegate to the "consultation" at San Felipe de Austin. Both brother became active in the "war party" which felt that Texas needed to separate from Mexico. John was appointed chairman of a committee to prepare a declaration of the causes which impelled the colonist to take up arms against Mexico. He led the debate in favor of Texas Independence. When the provisional government was set up in Texas, John Wharton became a member of the General Council and his brother William was appointed one of the three commissioners to the United States.
General Sam Houston ordered John to proceed to New Orleans to procure supplies and ammunition for the Texas Revolution. After his return he joined the army of Sam Houston and served as Adjutant General at San Jacinto. He served in the army until 1836. William was captured and imprisoned by the Mexicans and John went to rescue him and he was also imprisoned. With the help of a catholic priest who visited them and brought the clothing of two priests the Wharton brothers dressed in them and escaped..
After this John served as Secretary of War under President Burnet. Then he became a member of the House of Representatives from Brazoria in the First Congress.. He declined running for a second term and chose to stay home and practice law at at the firm of Pease and Harris.
John died in Houston on December 17, 1838, while serving as a member of the House of Representatives in the Third Congress. His remains lay in state of the Capitol, which was then Houston. Both houses of Congress adjourned to attend the Masonic services conducted by Holland Lodge, and all army officers then in Houston assembled in front of his home and marched in a funeral procession to the place of interment. Ex-President David G. Burnet said "The keenest blade on the field of San Jacinto is broken!. These two brothers were so close that after John's death William renamed his son Waller to John A., who later became a general in the Confederate army.
William Harris Wharton died by an accidental gunshot wound in March of 1839, just a few months after his brother,. While mounting his horse, he was killed by his gun accidentally discharging.
In 1846 Ward County was formed from Matagorda and Jackson counties, This name was later changed to Wharton County by the early settlers.
NOTE: David G. Burnet was born in Newark, N.J. April 4, 1788. In 1806 he served as lieutenant under Miranda in his effort to free Venezuela; engaged in merchandising in Natohitoches in 1817, and being threatened with consumption came to Texas and spent ten years among the Comanches on the head-waters of the Colorado; settled permanently in Texas, was a member of the San Felipe Convention of 1833, and drew up the memorial which was presented to the Mexican Government praying that Texas be made a separate State of the Republic (Coahuila and Texas then formed one State); was made judge of the Municipality of Austin, 1834. He took an active part in the Revolution of Independence he was elected by the Convention President and interim of the Republic of Texas, in 1838 was elected by the people Vice-President, retiring, when his term expired, to his little farm on the San Jacinto, which he cultivated with his own hands; after annexation he was appointed Secretary of State by Governor Henderson; in 1866 he was elected U.S. Senator, but was not permitted to take his seat, on the pleas of the non-reconstruction of Texas..He died at Galveston, Dec 5th 1870.
Back To Obituaries Index Back To Wharton County Research Index Biographical information on John A. Wharton from a copy in the files of the Wharton Brothers..ie. Julia Ann Stafford, American History, Memorial to the Wharton Brothers.