To which the candidate for Congress, now upon a firm footing, tapped
the man of the sacred office familiarly upon the shoulder and
cheerfully exclaimed, "Why, damn it, _Van,_ I thought I ought to
know you!"
Returning now for brief sojourn to the afore-mentioned barbecue,
with a faithful kinsman as monitor, aided by a slight moiety of
tact to be credited to personal account, I managed passably well
to get through the trying ordeal. "The old gentleman with the long
white beard, coming toward us," observed my monitor, "is Uncle Jake
Anderson. He has a hat bet that you will know him." Thus advised,
I was ready for trial, and warmly grasping the hand extended me,
I earnestly inquired, "Uncle Jake, _how are you?"_ "Do you know
me, boy?" was the immediate response. "Know you?" I replied. "You
and my father were near neighbors for years; how could I help
knowing you?" "Yes, of course," he said, "but you being gone so
long, and now running for President, I didn't know but what you
had forgotten all about the old neighbors down on the Lick."
Assuring him that I had forgotten none of them, and congratulating
him upon the hat he had won, I passed on to the next.
The interview described was repeated with slight variations,
many times, when my attendant remarked:
"That man leaning against the tree is John Dunloe; do you remember
him?"
"Certainly," I replied, "I went to school with him."
Immediately approaching my early classmate I took him by the hand and
said, "How are you, John?"
"Why, Adlai, do you know me?" was the prompt response.
"Know you," said I, "didn't we go to school together to Mr. Caskie
right here at Blue Water, when we were boys?"
"Yas, of course we did," slowly answered by sometime school-fellow,
"but you been 'sociatin' with them big fellows down about Washington
so long, that I didn't know but what you had forgot us poor fellows
down in the Pennyrile."
Assuring him that I never forgot my old friends, I inquired, "John,
where is your brother Bill?"
"He's here," was the instant reply. "Me and Bill started before
daylight to get to this barbecue in time. Bill 'lowed _he'd ruther
go forty miles on foot to hear you make a speech, than go to a
hangin'."_
XXXII
A TRIBUTE TO IRELAND*
[*Footnote: Speech delivered by Mr. Stevenson at a banquet of
the United Irish Societies of Chicago, September, 1900.]
THE WRITER'S VISIT TO NOTABLE PLACES IN IRELAND--HIS TRIBUTE OF
PRAISE TO HER GREAT MEN--AMERICA'S OBLIGATION TO IRISH SOLDIERS
AND STATESMEN.
I accepted with pleasure the invitation to meet with you. For the
courtesy so generously extended me I am profoundly grateful.
Within late years it has been my privilege to visit Ireland; and
I can truly say that no country in Europe possessed for me a deeper
interest than the little island about whose name clusters so much of
romance and of enchantment. I saw Ireland in its beauty and its
gloom; in its glory and in its desolation. I stood upon the Giant's
Causeway, one of the grand masterpieces of the Almighty; I visited
the historic parks and deserted legislative halls of venerated
Dublin; threaded the streets and byways of the quaint old city
of Cork; listened the bells of Shandon; sailed over the beautiful
lakes of Killarney, and gazed upon the old castles of Muckross and
of Blarney, whose ivy-covered ruins tell of the far-away centuries.
What a wonderful island! The birthplace of wits, of warriors,
of statesmen, of poets, and of orators. Of its people it has been
truly said: "They have fought successfully the battles of every
country but their own."
Upon occasion such as this, the Irishman--to whatever spot in this
wide world he may have wandered--lives in the shadow of the past.
In imagination he is once more under the ancestral roof; the
vine-clad cottage is again a thing of reality. Again he wears the
shamrock; again he hears the songs of his native land, while his
heart is stirred by memories of her wrongs and of her glory.
What a splendid contribution Ireland has made to the world's galaxy
of great men! In the realm of poetry, Goldsmith and Tom Moore; of
oratory, Sheridan, Emmett, Grattan, O'Connell, Burke, and in later
years Charles Stewart Parnell, whose thrilling words I heard a
third of a century ago, pleading the cause of his oppressed
countrymen.
The obligation of America to Ireland for men who have aided in
fighting her battles and framing her laws cannot be measured by
words. In the British possessions to the northward, in the old
city of Quebec, there is one spot dear to the American heart--that
where fell the brave Montgomery, fighting the battles of his adopted
country. What schoolboy is not familiar with the story of gallant
Phil Sheridan and "Winchester twenty miles away?" Illinoisans will
never forget Shields, the hero of two wars, the senator from three
States. It was an Irish-American poet of a neighboring State
who wrote of our fallen soldiers words that will live while we have
a country and a language:
"The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo;
No more of life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few."
The achievements of representatives of this race along every pathway
of useful and honorable endeavor are a part of our own history.
We honor to-day the far-away island, the deeds and sacrifices of
whose sons have added so brilliant a chapter to American history.
From the assembling of the First Continental Congress to the present
hour, in every legislative hall the Irishman has been a factor.
His bones have whitened every American battlefield from the first
conflict with British regulars to the closing hour of our struggle
with Spain.
The love of liberty is deeply ingrained into the very life of
the Irishman. The history of his country is that of a gallant
people struggling for a larger measure of freedom. His most precious
heritage is the record of his countrymen, who upon the battlefield
and upon the scaffold have sealed their devotion to liberty with
their blood. With such men it was a living faith that--
"Whether on the scaffold high
Or in the battle's van
The fittest place for man to die
Is where he dies for man."
With a history reaching into the far past, every page of which
tells of the struggle for liberty, it is not strange that the
sympathies of the Irishman are with the oppressed everywhere on
God's footstool. Irishmen, in common with liberty-loving men
everywhere, looked with abhorrence upon the attempt of a great
European power to establish monarchy upon the ruins of republics.
May we not confidently abide in the hope that brighter days are in
waiting for the beautiful island and her gallant people? I close with
the words: "God bless old Ireland!"
XXXIII
THE BLIND CHAPLAIN
DR. MILBURN'S SOLEMNITY IN PRAYER--HIS VENERABLE APPEARANCE--HIS
CONVERSATIONAL POWERS--HIS CUSTOM OF PRAYING FOR SICK MEMBERS.
No Senator who ever sat under the ministrations of Dr. Milburn,
the blind chaplain, can ever forget his earnest and solemn invocation.
When rolling from his tongue, each word of the Lord's Prayer seemed
to weigh a pound. His venerable appearance and sightless eyes gave
a tinge of pathetic emphasis to his every utterance. He was a man
of rare gifts; in early life, before the entire failure of his
sight, he had known much of active service in his sacred calling
upon the Western circuits. He had been the fellow-laborer of
Cartwright, Bascom, and other eminent Methodist ministers of the
early times.
Dr. Milburn was the Chaplain of the House during the Mexican War, and
often a guest at the Executive Mansion when Mr. Polk was President.
He knew well many of the leading statesmen of that period. He
possessed rare conversational powers; and notwithstanding his
blindness, poverty, and utter loneliness, he remained the pleasing,
entertaining gentleman to the last.
It was the custom of the good Chaplain, with the aid of a faithful
monitor, to keep thoroughly advised as to the health of the senators
and their families. The bare mention, in the morning paper, of
any ill having befallen any statesman of whom he was, for the time,
the official spiritual shepherd, was the unfailing precursor of
special and affectionate mention at the next convening of the
Senate. Moreover, in the discharge of this sacred duty, his
invariable habit was to designate the object of his special invocation
as "the Senior Senator" or "Junior Senator," carefully giving
the name of his State. It is within the realm of probability that
since the first humble petition was breathed, there has never been
an apparently more prompt answer to prayer than that now to be
related.
_The Morning Post_ contained an item to the effect that Senator
Voorhees was ill. During the accustomed invocation which preceded
the opening of the session, an earnest petition ascended for
"the Senior Senator from Indiana," that he might "soon be restored
to his wonted health, and permitted to return to the seat so long and
so honorably occupied."
A moment later, the touching invocation being ended, and the Senate
duly in session, the stately form of "the Senior Senator from
Indiana" promptly emerged from the cloak-room, and quietly resumed
the seat he had "so long and so honorably occupied."
XXXIV
A MEMORABLE CENTENNIAL
GEORGE WASHINGTON LAYING THE CORNER-STONE OF THE CAPITOL--PROGRESS
OF THE REPUBLIC DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY--NOTABLE MEN WHO WERE
CONSPICUOUS AT THE NATION'S BIRTH--CONGRESS HELD AT VARIOUS PLACES
BEFORE 1800--THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FORMED--NECESSITY FOR ENLARGING
THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON--A DOCUMENT BY WEBSTER DEPOSITED BENEATH
THE CORNER-STONE OF THE ADDITIONS--HIGH DEBATES HELD IN THE UNITED
STATES SENATE--PRESENT LOCATION OF THE SENATE CHAMBER--GREAT INCREASE
OF POPULATION, TERRITORY, AND COMMERCE--THE TWO DIVISIONS OF
CONGRESS.
On the eighteenth day of September, 1893, the first centennial
of the laying of the corner-stone of the national Capitol was
celebrated by appropriate ceremonies in Washington City.
President Cleveland presided, and seated upon the platform were
the members of his Cabinet, the Senate, the House of Representatives,
the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Foreign Ambassadors.
The oration was delivered by the Hon. William Wirt Henry, of
Richmond, Virginia, grandson of Patrick Henry. The addresses which
followed were by myself, representing the Senate; Speaker Crisp,
representing the House; and Justice Brown, the Supreme Court. I
spoke as follows:
"This day and this hour mark the close of a century of our national
history. No ordinary event has called us together. Standing in
the presence of this august assemblage of the people, upon the spot
where Washington stood, we solemnly commemorate the one-hundredth
anniversary of the laying of the corner-stone of the nation's Capitol.
"It is well that this day has been set apart as a national holiday,
that all public business has been suspended, and that the President
and his Cabinet, the members of the great Court, and of the Congress,
unite with their countrymen in doing honor to the memory of the
men who, one hundred years ago, at this hour, and upon this spot, put
in place the corner-stone of the Capitol of the American Republic.
The century rolls back, and we stand in the presence of the grandest
and most imposing figure known to any age or country. Washington,
as Grand Master of Free and Accepted Masons, clothed in the symbolic
garments of that venerable Order, wearing the apron and the sash
wrought by the hands of the wife of the beloved Lafayette, impressively
and in accordance with the time-honored usages of that Order, is
laying his hands upon the corner-stone of the future and permanent
Capitol of his country. The solemn ceremonies of the hour were
conducted by Washington, not only in his office of Grand Master of
Free Masons, but in his yet more august office of President of the
United States. Assisting him in the fitting observance of these
impressive rites, were representatives of the Masonic Lodges of
Virginia and Maryland, while around him stood men whose honored
names live with his in history--the men who, on field and in council,
had aided first in achieving independence, and then in the yet more
difficult task of garnering, by wise legislation, the fruits of
victory. Truly, the centennial of an event so fraught with interest
should not pass unnoticed.
"History furnishes no parallel to the century whose close we now
commemorate. Among all the centuries it stands alone. With hearts
filled with gratitude to the God of our fathers, it is well that
we recall something of the progress of the young Republic, since
the masterful hour when Washington laid his hands upon the
foundation-stone of yonder Capitol.
"The seven years of colonial struggle for liberty had terminated
in glorious victory. Independence had been achieved. The Articles
of Confederation, binding the Colonies together in a mere league
of friendship, had given place to the Constitution of the United
States--that wonderful instrument, so aptly declared by Mr. Gladstone
to be 'the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by
the brain and purpose of man.'
"Without a dissenting voice in the Electoral Colleges, Washington had
been chosen President. At his council-table sat Jefferson, the
author of the Declaration of Independence; Hamilton, of whom it
has been said, 'He smote the rock of the national resources, and
abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead
corpse of the public credit, and it sprung upon its feet'; Knox, the
brave and trusted friend of his chief during the colonial struggle;
and Edmund Randolph, the impress of whose genius has been indelibly
left upon the Federal Constitution. Vermont and Kentucky, as
sovereign States--coequal with the original thirteen--had been
admitted into the Union. The Supreme Court, consisting of six
members, had been constituted, with the learned jurist John Jay
as its Chief Justice. The popular branch of the Congress consisted
of but one hundred and five members. Thirty members constituted
the Senate, over whose deliberations presided the patriot statesman,
John Adams. The population of the entire country was less than
four millions. The village of Washington, the capital--and I trust
for all coming ages the capital--contained but a few hundred
inhabitants.
"After peace had been concluded with Great Britain, and while we
were yet under the Articles of Confederation, the sessions of
the Congress were held successively at Princeton, Annapolis, Trenton,
and New York. In the presence of both houses of Congress, on
the thirtieth day of April, 1789, in the city of New York, Washington
had been inaugurated President. From that hour--the beginning
of our Government under the Constitution--the Congress was held in
New York, until 1790, then in Philadelphia until 1800, when, on
November 17, it first convened in Washington. The necessity of
selecting a suitable and central place for the permanent location of
the seat of Government early engaged the thoughtful consideration of
our fathers. It cannot be supposed that the question reached a
final determination without great embarrassment, earnest discussion,
and the manifestation of sectional jealousies. But, as has been
well said, the good genius of our system finally prevailed, 'and
a district of territory on the River Potomac, at some place between
the mouths of the Eastern branch and the Conococheague,' was, by
Act of Congress of June 28, 1790, 'accepted for the permanent seat
of the Government of the United States.' From the seventeenth day
of November, 1800, this city has been the capital. When that
day came, Washington had gone to his grave, John Adams was President,
and Jefferson the presiding officer of the Senate. It may be well
to recall that upon the occasion of the assembling for the first
time of the Congress in the Capitol, President Adams appeared before
the Senate and the House, in joint session, and said:
"'It would be unbecoming the representatives of this nation to
assemble for the first time in this solemn temple, without looking
up to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe and imploring His blessing.
You will consider it as the capital of a great nation, advancing
with unexampled rapidity in arts, in commerce, in wealth, and
population, and possessing within itself those resources which, if
not thrown away or lamentably misdirected, will secure it a long
course of prosperity and self-government.'
"To this address of President Adams the Senate made reply:
"'We meet you, sir, and the other branch of the national Legislature,
in the city which is honored by the name of our late hero and sage,
the illustrious Washington, with sensations and emotions which
exceed our power of description.'
"From the date last given until the burning of the Capitol by
the British, in 1814, in the room now occupied by the Supreme Court
Library, in the north wing, were held the sessions of the Senate.
That now almost forgotten apartment witnessed the assembling of
Senators who, at an earlier period of our history, had been the
associates of Washington and Franklin, and had themselves played
no mean part in crystallizing into the great organic law, the
deathless principles of the Declaration of Independence. From this
chamber went forth the second Declaration of War against Great
Britain; and here, before the Senate as a court of impeachment,
was arraigned a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,
to answer the charge of alleged high crimes and misdemeanors.
"With the rolling years and the rapid growth of the Republic, came
the imperative necessity for enlarging its Capitol. The debates
upon this subject culminated in the Act of Congress of September
30, 1850, providing for the erection of the north and south wings of
the Capitol. Thomas U. Walter was the architect to whose hand was
committed the great work. Yonder noble structure will stand for
ages the silent witness of the fidelity with which the important
trust was discharged.
"The corner-stone of the additions was laid by President Fillmore,
on the fourth day of July, 1851. In honor of that event, and by
request of the President, Mr. Webster pronounced an oration, and
while we have a country and a language his words will touch a
responsive chord in patriotic hearts. Beneath the corner-stone
was then deposited a paper, in the handwriting of Mr. Webster,
containing the following words:
"'If it shall be, hereafter, the will of God, that this structure
shall fall from its base, that its foundation be upturned and this
deposit brought to the eyes of men, be it then known that on this day
the Union of the United States of America stands firm, that
their Constitution still exists unimpaired, with all its
original usefulness and glory, growing every day stronger and
stronger in the affections of the great body of the American people,
and attracting more and more the attention of the world. And all
here assembled, whether belonging to public life or to private
life, with hearts devoutly thankful to Almighty God for the
preservation of the liberty and happiness of the country, unite in
sincere and fervent prayers that this deposit, and the walls and
arches, the domes and towers, the columns and entablatures now
to be erected over it, may endure forever.'
"From the sixth day of December, 1819, until January 4, 1859, a
period of thirty-nine years, the sessions of the Senate were held
in the present Supreme Court room. This was, indeed, the arena of
high debate. When, in any age, or in any country, has there
been gathered, within so small compass, so much of human greatness?
Even to suggest the great questions here discussed and determined,
would be to write a history of that eventful period. It was,
indeed, the coming together of the master spirits of the second
generation of American statesmen. Here were Macon and Crawford,
Benton, Randolph, Cass, Bell, Houston, Preston, Buchanan, Seward, Chase,
Crittenden, Sumner, Choate, Everett, Breese, Trumbull, Fessenden, Douglas,
Clay, Calhoun, Webster, and others scarcely less illustrious.
Within the walls of that little chamber was heard the wondrous
debate between Hayne and Webster. There began the fierce conflict
of antagonistic ideas touching the respective powers of the State and
of the Nation--a conflict which, transferred to a different theatre,
found final solution only in the bloody arbitrament of arms.
"For more than a third of a century the sessions of the Senate have
been held in the magnificent chamber of the north wing of the
Capitol. Of the procession of sixty-two Senators that, preceded
by the Vice-President, Mr. Breckenridge, entered the Chamber for
the first time, on the fourth day of January, 1859, but four survive;
not one remains in public life. It is, indeed, now a procession of
shadows.
"When the foundation-stone of this Capitol was laid, our Republic was
in its infancy, and self-government yet an untried experiment. It
is a proud reflection to-day that time has proved the true arbiter,
and that the capacity of a free and intelligent people to govern
themselves by written constitution and laws, of their own making, is
no longer an experiment. The crucial test of a century of
unparalleled material prosperity has been safely endured.
"In 1793 there was no city west of the Alleghanies. To-day a single
city on Lake Michigan contains a population of a little less
than one-half of the Republic at the time of the first inauguration
of Washington. States have been carved out of the wilderness, and
our great rivers, whose silence met no break on their pathway to
the sea, are now the arteries of our interior trade, and bear upon
their bosoms a commerce which surpasses a hundred-fold that of the
entire country a century ago.
"From fifteen States and four millions of people, we have grown to
fifty States and Territories, and sixty-seven millions of people; from
an area of eight hundred and five thousand, to an area of three
million, six hundred thousand square miles; from a narrow strip
along the Atlantic seaboard, to an unbroken possession from ocean to
ocean. How marvellous the increase in our national wealth! In
1793, our imports amounted to thirty-one million, and our exports to
twenty-six million dollars. Now our imports are eight hundred and
forty-seven million, and our exports one billion and thirty million
dollars. Thirty-three million tons of freight are carried on
our Great Lakes, whose only burden then was the Indian's canoe.
Then our national wealth was inconsiderable; now our assessed
valuation amounts to the enormous sum of twenty-four billion,
six hundred and fifty million dollars. Then trade and travel were
dependent upon beasts of burden and on sailing vessels; now steam and
electricity do our bidding, railroads cover the land, boats burden
the waters, the telegraph reaches every city and hamlet; distance
is annihilated, and
"'Civilization, on her luminous wings,
Soars, Phoenix-like, to Jove.'
"In the presence of this wondrous fulfillment of predicted greatness,
prophecy looks out upon the future and stands dumb.
"When this corner-stone was laid, France, then in the throes of
a revolution, had just declared war against Great Britain--a war
in which all Europe eventually became involved. Within a century of
that hour, in the capital of France, there convened an international
court, its presiding officer an eminent citizen of the French
Republic, its members representatives of sovereign European States,
its object the peaceable adjustment of controversies between Great
Britain and the United States.
"Was it Richelieu who said, 'Take away the sword; States can be
saved without it'?
"In no part of our mechanism of government was the wisdom of our
fathers more strikingly displayed than in the division of power
into the three great departments--legislative, executive, and
judicial. In an equal degree was that wisdom manifested by the
division of Congress into a Senate and a House of Representatives.
Upon the Senate the Constitution has devolved important functions other
than those of a merely legislative character. Coequal with the
House in matters of legislation, it is, in addition, the advisory
body of the President in appointments to office, and in treating
with foreign nations. The mode of election, together with the long
term of service, unquestionably fosters a spirit of conservatism
in the Senate. Always organized, it is the continuing body of our
national legislature. Its members change, but the Senate continues
--the same now as at the first hour of the Republic. Before no
human tribunal come for determination issues of weightier moment.
It were idle to doubt that problems yet lie in our pathway as a
nation, as difficult of solution as any that in times past have
tried the courage or tested the wisdom of our fathers. Yet, may
we not confidently abide in the faith that in the keeping of those
who succeed the illustrious sages I have named, the dearest interest
of our country will be faithfully conserved, and in the words of
an eminent predecessor, 'though these marble walls moulder into
ruin, the Senate, in another age, may bear into a new and large
chamber the Constitution, vigorous and inviolate, and that the last
generation of posterity shall witness the deliberations of the
representatives of American States, still united, prosperous,
and free'?
"And may our fathers' God, 'from out of whose hand the centuries
fall like grains of sand,' continue to the American people, throughout
all the ages, the prosperity and blessings which He has given to
us in the past."
XXXV
COLUMBUS MONUMENT IN CENTRAL PARK
FITNESS OF NEW YORK AS THE SITE FOR THE STATUE--VAST IMPORTANCE OF
THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA--COLUMBUS'S HUMILITY AND HIS TRUST IN GOD
--THE STATUE UNVEILED--CONCLUDING WORDS OF MR. DEPEW'S ORATION.
Facing the statue of Shakespeare in Central Park, New York, is that
of Christopher Columbus. It was unveiled with appropriate ceremonies.
General James Grant Wilson presided; Mrs. Julia Ward Howe read her
beautiful poem, "The Mariner's Dream," and the oration was delivered
by the Hon. Chauncey Depew. Upon this occasion I spoke as follows:
"This hour will live in history. Central Park, beautiful and
magnificent, is the fitting place for the statue of Columbus.
It is well that to the City of New York, the metropolis of the
continent, should have fallen the grateful task of portraying to
the millions of all the coming ages the features of the man who,
despite obstacles and dangers, marked out the pathway to the New
World.
"The name and fame of Columbus belong exclusively to no age or
country. They are the enduring heritage of all people. Your
President has truly said: 'In all the transactions of history,
there is no act which, for vastness and performance, can be compared
to the discovery of the continent of America.' In the modest words
of the great navigator, he 'only opened the gates'; and lo! there came
in the builders of a new and mighty nation.
"It is said that in Venice there is sacredly preserved a letter
written by Columbus a few hours before he sailed from Palos. With
reverent expression of trust in God, humbly, but with unfaltering faith,
he spoke of his proposed voyage to that famous land. He builded
better than he knew. His dream, while a suppliant in the outer
chambers of kings, and while keeping lonely vigil on the deep, was
the discovery of a new pathway to the Indies. Yet who can doubt
that to his prophetic soul was then foreshadowed something of that
famous land with the warp and woof of whose history, tradition,
and song, his name and fame are linked for all time? Was it Mr.
Winthrop who said of Columbus and his compeers: 'They were the
pioneers in the march to independence; the precursors in the
only progress of freedom which was to have no backward steps.'
"Is it too much to say of this man that among the world's benefactors
a greater than he hath not appeared? What page in our history
tells of deeds so fraught with blessings to the generations of men
as the discovery of America? Columbus added a continent to the
map of the world.
"I will detain you no longer. Your eyes will now behold this
splendid work of art. It is well that its approaches are firm and
broad, for along this pathway, with the rolling centuries, will
come, as pilgrims to a shrine, the myriads of all lands to behold this
statue of Columbus, this enduring monument of the gratitude of a
great city, of a great nation."
As the last words were spoken, I leaned over and grasped the
rope fastened to the flag that enveloped the statue. The flag
parted on either side and was removed by the attendants. The statue
stood revealed in all its beauty under the shade of the great elms
of the Mall.
Mr. Depew concluded his eloquent oration with the following words:
"We are here to erect this statue to his memory because of the
unnumbered blessings to America and to the people of every race
and clime which have followed his discovery. His genius and faith
gave succeeding generations the opportunity for life and liberty.
We, the heirs of all the ages, in the plenitude of our enjoyments,
and the prodigality of the favors showered upon us, hail Columbus our
benefactor."
XXXVI
A PLATFORM NOT DANGEROUS TO STAND UPON
A CITIZEN WHO LONGED TO BE A MEMBER OF THE MISSOURI LEGISLATURE--A
COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY A MEETING OF HIS FRIENDS--DIFFICULTY IN
ARRANGING THE PLATFORM--THE RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY.
The builders of political platforms, which uniformly "point with
pride" and "view with alarm," may possibly glean a valuable suggestion
from the following incident related by Governor Knott. In the
county in the good State of Missouri in which his fortune was cast
for a while, there lived and flourished, in the ante-bellum days,
one Solomon P. Rodes, whose earnest and long-continued yearning
was to be a member of the State Legislature. So intense, indeed, had
this feeling become in the mind of Solomon, that he at length openly
declared that he "would rather go to the Missouri Legislater, than
to be the Czar of Roosky." And in passing, it may here be
safely admitted that even a wiser man than Solomon might make this
declaration in these early years of the twentieth century.
Following the example of greater men than himself when aspiring to
public office, Mr. Rodes called a meeting of his party friends
in his precinct, to the end that his modest "boom" might be
successfully launched. After the accustomed organization had been
effected, a committee of five, of which our aspirant was chairman,
was duly appointed to prepare and present appropriate resolutions.
The committee at once retired for consultation, to a log in the
rear of the schoolhouse, leaving the convention in session. No
rattling orator being present to arouse the enthusiasm so essential
to patient waiting, the little assemblage, wearied by the delay,
at length despatched a messenger to expedite, if possible, the
labors of the committee. The messenger found the committee in a
condition far otherwise than encouraging. The resolutions had
failed to materialize, and the chairman, seated upon the log, with
pencil in hand, and gazing pensively upon a blank leaf before him,
seemed the very picture of despair. Upon a second admonition from
the unreasonably impatient meeting, that adjournment would
immediately take place unless the resolutions were reported, the
committee hastily concluded its labors and, preceded by the chairman
with document in hand, solemnly returned to the place of assembly.
The resolutions, two in number, and unanimously and with great
enthusiasm promptly adopted, were in words and figures as follows,
to-wit:
"(1) Resolv that in the declaration of independence and likewise
also in the constitution of the united states, we recognize _a able
and well ritten document,_ and that we are tetotually oppose to
the repeal of airy one of the aforesaid instruments of riting.
Resolv:
"(2) that in our fellow-townsman, Solomon P. Rodes, we view a onest
man and _hereby annominate him for the legislater."_
XXXVII
ANECDOTES OF GOVERNOR OGLESBY
OGLESBY'S GREATNESS IN DISCUSSING QUESTIONS CONNECTED WITH THE
REBELLION--HIS WORK IN THE MEXICAN AND CIVIL WARS--HE VISITS THE
ORIENT--FAILS TO FIND OUT WHO BUILT THE PYRAMIDS.
Few men have enjoyed a greater degree of popularity than did the
late Governor Oglesby of Illinois. He was whole-souled, genial,
and at all times the most delightful of companions. He stood in
the front rank of campaign orators when slavery, rebellion, war, and
reconstruction were the stirring questions of the hour. In the
discussion of these once vital issues, with the entire State for
an audience, he was without a peer. But when they were relegated to
the domain of history and succeeded by tariff, finance, and
other commonplace, everyday questions, the Governor felt greatly
hampered. In a large degree Othello's occupation was gone.
Cold facts, statistics, figures running up into the millions, gave
little opportunity for the play of his wonderful imagination.
In his second race for Governor, in a speech at Bloomington, he
said, in a deprecatory tone: "These Democrats undertake to discuss
the financial question. They oughtn't to do that. They can't
possibly understand it. The Lord's truth is, fellow-citizens, _it
is about all we Republicans can do to understand that question!"_
He was a gallant soldier in the Mexican and in the great Civil War,
and in the latter achieved distinction as a commanding officer.
With Weldon, Ewing, McNulta, Fifer, Rowell, and others as listeners,
he once graphically described the first battle in which he was
engaged. Turning to his old-time comrade, McNulta, he said: "There
is one supreme moment in the experience of a soldier that is
absolutely ecstatic!" "That," quickly replied McNulta, "is the very
moment when he gets into battle."
"No, damn it," said Oglesby, _"it is the very moment he gets out!"_
In his early manhood, Oglesby spent some years abroad. His pilgrimage
extended even to Egypt, up the Nile, and to the Holy Land.
Few persons at the time having visited the Orient, Oglesby's
descriptions of the wonders of the far-off countries were listened
to with the deepest interest. With both memory and imagination in
their prime, it can easily be believed that those wonders of the
Orient lost nothing by his description. Soon after his return
he lectured in Bloomington. The audience were delighted, especially
with his description of the Pyramids.
None of us had ever before seen or heard a man who had actually,
with his own eyes, beheld these wonders of the ages. Near the
close of his lecture, and just after he had suggested the probability
of Abraham and Sarah having taken in the Pyramids on their wedding
trip, some one in the audience inquired;
"Who built the Pyramids?"
"Oh, damn it," quickly replied the orator, "I don't know who built
them; _I asked everybody I saw in Egypt and none of them knew!"_
For much that is of interest in the career of Governor Oglesby I
am indebted to his honored successor in office, my neighbor and
friend, Hon. Joseph W. Fifer--than whom the country has had no
braver soldier and the State no abler Chief Executive.
XXXVIII
THE ONE ENEMY
CALEB CUSHING'S POLITICAL CAREER--HIS GREAT AMBITION A SEAT UPON
THE SUPREME BENCH--HIS APPOINTMENT THERETO--HIS ONE ENEMY DEFEATS HIS
CONFIRMATION.
_"He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare,
And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere."_
The truth of the above couplet has rarely had more forcible
illustration than in the case of the late Caleb Cushing of
Massachusetts. In politics he was successively Whig, Democrat,
and Republican. During his first political affiliation, he was
a Representative in Congress; in the second a member of Pierce's
Cabinet; and in the third a Minister abroad. He was an eminent
lawyer, and for a term ably discharged the duties of Attorney-General
of the United States. His one ambition was a seat upon the Supreme
Bench.
This was at length gratified by his appointment as Chief Justice
of the Great Court. Unfortunately he had, years before, given
mortal offence to Aaron A. Sargent, then recently admitted to
the bar. The latter soon after moved to California, and became in
time a Senator from that State.
When the appointment of Cushing came before the Senate for
confirmation, his _one enemy_ was there. The appointee had long
since forgotten the young lawyer he had once treated so rudely,
but he had not been forgotten. The hour of revenge had now come.
After a protracted and bitter struggle, Sargent, of the same
political affiliation as Cushing, succeeded in defeating the
confirmation by a single vote. The political sensation of the hour
was the Senator's prompt message to his defeated enemy:
"Time at last sets all things even;
And if we do but watch the hour,
There never yet was human power
Which could evade, if unforgiven,
The patient search and vigil long,
Of him who treasures up a wrong."
XXXIX
CONTRASTS OF TIMES