It seems fitting that, in concluding this sketch of the Convention and
its labors, I should briefly narrate the subsequent history of its
members. It was a small company, that which parted here twenty-three
years ago to-day, and it was made up, as I have said, largely of young
and vigorous men. But when this reunion was first suggested, and I came
to look over the familiar names I had so often called during the long,
hot days of that far-away July, it was painful to note the havoc death
had made. It impressed me something as did a roll-call I once witnessed,
in the red glare of bivouac fires after one of the great battles of the
war, when surviving comrades answered “killed,” or “wounded,” to
one-half the names of a regiment. Ten of the fifty-two members composing
the Convention I have not heard of for many years. Of the remaining
forty-two, twenty rest quietly in
—“The reconciling grave,
Where all alike lie down in peace together.”
The largest delegation was that from Leavenworth county, and only one of
the ten gentlemen comprising it, R. Cole Foster, certainly survives.
Rare Sam Stinson, whose genial wit and brilliant accomplishments won all
hearts, was elected Attorney General in 1861, by a unanimous vote, and
died in his old Maine home in February, 1866. William C. McDowell was
chosen Judge of the First Judicial District at the first election under
the Constitution, served four years, and was killed by a fall from an
omnibus in St. Louis, July 16, 1866. John P. Slough removed to Colorado,
was Colonel of a regiment raised in that State, and later a
Brigadier-General; was appointed, after the war, Chief Justice of New
Mexico, and was killed at Santa Fé. Samuel Hipple removed to Atchison
county; served as Quartermaster during the war; was elected State
Senator in 1867, and died in January, 1876. William Perry removed to
Colorado, where he died. Paschal S. Parks returned to Indiana, and
engaged in journalism and the law until his death, three years ago.
Fred. Brown died in St. Joseph, Mo., and John Wright at his home in
Leavenworth county. Robert Graham, of Atchison county, the oldest
member, died in 1868. Three of the five members from Doniphan county,
Robert J. Porter, Benjamin Wrigley and John Stairwalt, are dead. The
members from Linn, James M. Arthur and Josiah Lamb, are both dead, as
are also N. C. Blood and P. H. Townsend, of Douglas; H. D. Preston, of
Shawnee; Allen Crocker, of Woodson, and T. S. Wright, of Nemaha. W. R.
Griffith, of Bourbon, was elected the first State Superintendent of
Public Instruction, and died February 12, 1862, before the completion of
his term. James G. Blunt, of Anderson, who became a Major-General during
the war, and won renown as a brave and skillful soldier, died, in
Washington, a year or more ago. James Hanway, of Franklin, after a long
life of usefulness, died at his old home only a brief while ago.
President James M. Winchell returned to New York shortly after the
outbreak of the Rebellion, and resumed his connection with the _Times_,
first as war correspondent, and afterwards as an editorial writer. Until
his death, a few years since, he was employed upon that great journal.