Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1840-02-24
From the Richmond Wing.
GENERAL HARRISoN's POVERTY.

GENERAL HARRISON'S POVERTY.
The Washington correspondent OF the N. Y.
Evening Post writes:
"Gen. Harrison's poverty has awaked the SYM
patty of the ladies' of this District, and they are
now at work, getting up a subscription to supply
the 'war worn hero with a suit Of clothes. If
you have any old shoes, old boots, old hats, OLE
stockings, send them on, and they will be iorwar-
ded to the 'hero ofthe North Bend"
Go on, gentlemen we like to such sneers:
they will tell upon the popular mind of this
try in a manner you little dream OF. Honest pow
erty, contracted in the service of the Republic,
however much it may excite the county disgust
Of the punderng crew now in power, will have
a very different effect upon the honest people of
the country. They do not estimate man by his
money, by his luxurious habits his spen id dis
play of equippage, livericd servants silver plate
&c. and by tile millions which he may have plum
dered from the public. They estimate Il man by
his moral and intellectual worth, by the important
services he has rendered his country by the pa
trioc sacrifices he has made. and the perils he
has encountered for the public good Gen. ilar
rson may live in a log cabin and drink hard cider,
us he has been reproached by the Office holders
with doing, and he may be in want off old shoes
old boots, old hats, old stockings, aud still be
an honest man and Il patriot, ana WorthIer OF the
chief mugstracy of n Republican people, than the
present incumbent, who has amassed'a fortune of
more than half million out Of the pr6lic crib, and
sports his coach and six, with white English SER
wants in livery
PovertJ in itself is reproach to no man. Its
effects upon the human character are generally of
Il vrtuous and ennohlng tendency. He that has
never known want, is from the very constitution
of our nature stranger to the kindier synpa;hies,
the purer and more generous emotions Of the soul.
Wealth engenders pride, arrogance and selfish
ness, and fosters all the meaner passions of the
human heart. You may often appeal in warn 10
the purse proud creature, whose soul is centered
in his pockets, for an act Of common charity; when
the poor man underestimate circumstances, so much
Iiveler are his sympathies with bis kind, would
cIeerluy divide bis last loaf
But if poverty were disgrace in general, in the
case of General Harrison it is the highest honor
1t is not pretended that he expended his small pa
lrimony in selfish indulgence and luxurious dissi-
patton. lie is poor, because, like the revolu-
lionary worthless whose bright example was held
up TO his admiration and imitation. his youth and
his manhood were devoted to the service OF his
country.--He had no time to anlass money by or
binary pursuits aud by honest meanS-and he had
TOO much of the old Virginia integrity TO acquire
il 10y dishonest practices. Nothing was ensler for
him Than 10y speculation IN the ruhhc lands TO
have Obtained princely fortune without any di-
rect breach Of honesty. But such was his keen
sense of honor, that he would not DO that which
all other western officers were daily dong and
which Kendall aud Van Buren, even at the pres
ent day, freport speaks truly, have not scrnped
TO do. Millions aud millions OF public money
missed through his hands-how easy would it
have been for him, if his honesty had been of The
sub Treasury cast of the present day, TO have
fobbed hundreds and thousands at The public ex-
pense. In word he served his country in high
and responsible stations for thirty years, had UNI
checked control OF, and dsbursed millions, and at
last retired to private life in honest poverty. Can
Il higher eulogum be written on man.
That Gen. Harrison is poor man, from such
causes-tha he is simple and unostenalions in
his habis-that he is patriot, as evlnced in mnny
well loughen field, are, in cur humble opinion,
no dlsqualifcauons in chief magistrate of Re-
public. And so The plain, Republican people of
Ills country will decide the sneers and reproach-
es of purse proud Office holders, who have grown
rich upon a plundering people, 10 the contrary
Notwithstanding.