St. Charles Republican intelligencer. (St. Charles [Charles City], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1856-11-06
Confessions of n Politician.


George D. Prentice, for many years
the popular editor of the Louisville
Journal, being on visit last fall to
Memphis, Tennessee, was received
with distinguished marks of public
respect, and complimented with pub
lie dinner.
After great variety of viands had
been discussed, "and the cloth had
been removed" the presiding deity of
the ovation, Senator Jones--a gentle
man who, for upwards of twenty years,
had been the especial object of the adj
miration and eulogy of Mr.. Prentice,
rose and announced the following
toast:
George d. Prentice-the poet, the
philosopher, and the man. Welcome
thrice welcome. in our midst"
When the applause with which the
toast was received had subsidized, Mr..
Prentice rose and made a beautiful
speech in response. There is one pas
sage wherein Mr.. Prentice relates his
editorial experience, the temptation to
copy which we cannot resist. AS the
| confessions Of an influential partizan
editor of many years standing, it is
very interesting-as piece ofpathct-
ic cloquence, it is admirable.
II know that my wing friends said
Mr. Prentice, responding to the toast,
will both pardon and justify me when
l say that | prize this compliment,
coming from wings and democrats
alike, far more than l could similar
one from my own party alone. There
was time, years ago, when / cared
little what my political opponents said
or thought of me, so had the regard,
the support and applause of my polit-
ical friends. But | have long since
ceased to feel thus. l have learned to
appreciate and to desire the good opin-
ion of all good men. l have learned
that candor, and truth, and honor, and
honesty, and wisdom, and patriotism,
and virtue are confined to no party
My devotion to the party with which
l have acted throughout my life is un.
faltering, but time teaches to all true
hearts the great lesson of political lib
erality. lhave published some things
G which, although we'll intended at the
time, l could wish blotted from The
memory Of my readers and from my
own.
: Il have written some bitter thing
: of men, who have since passed ava,
G from the earth, and whose memories
, revere, and On whose graves | coul'
shed tears of sorrow and regret. All
sir, when | look back through tn
twenty-six years of my editorial life
7 and think how many once denounce'
D who afterwards became my persona
: friends, or proved themselves thei
country's friends, and how many once
= eulogized and toiled for who hav
n since turned their hands ruthlessly an
# causelessly against me E; when | re
: fleet how often the most arduous ant
devoted political services are forgot
ten by those to whom they are rem
dcred, and how often the deepest pc
7 litical injuries are magnanimously for
/ given by those to whom they are done
and when | remember how many G
my political friends have striven t
crush me, and how many democrat
t. have gathered around me as band {
n brothers in the days of my persona
n peril, l should be guilty of an outrag
; of my own conscience, and on ever
feeling and impulse of the heart, if
y were not to weed out from my natur
+, the partizan bitterness that once flou
d ished there ! am wing, bnt wi
greet every true hearted democrat a
e my brother, and l will greet no falls
= hearted wing as SUCH"