Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-09-09
BellicOse Dodge.


in Republican papers concerning the valiant
Spanish ambassador letting his angry passions
rise to such a pitch, while debating with Mr..
Kirkwood, as to challenge that gentleman to
fight. We do not wonder that they are slow
to believe him guilty of such disgraccful con-
duct. But it is true, nevertheless. Only
yesterday, a gentleman "a minister of the
gospel, in whom may be placed implicit con-
fdence, was in our office, and stated to us,
personally, that he was present at the debate
in Glenwood, Mills county, between Dodge
and Kirkwood, when the former became so
excited and bellicose as to pull off his coat
and challenge Mr.. Kirkwood to combat in
any manner he might choose. He called Mr..
Kirkwood a %"liar," and applied other abusive
and uncalled- for epithets to him. In his mad
frenzy, the warlike General leaped upon a
table, raving and foaming like one possessed,
till some of the audience called for the City
Marshal, when he cooled down, and COM
menced apologizing to a gentleman in front of
him, whom he supposed to be the Marshal,
but who CHANGED to be one Of his own political
friends, a Mr.. Dews, brother of q member of
the last General Assembly. All this time,
Mr.. Kirkwood stood calmly smoking a cigar.
Gle had started to go out, after speaking, to
requested by Gen. Dodge to remain.) He
paid no more attention to the Generals puerile
and foolish outburst of passion than to politely
bow himself out of the room at its conclusion.
Information was presented, however, to the
Grand Jury, then in session, by some citizens
of Glenwood, and an indictment was found
against Dodge for violating our laws against
giving a challenge for a duel!-but, after
o~ccasioning a great deal of amusement, and
probably frightening the General into a reso.
luton to conduct himself in a more gentle.
manly manner in the future, it was quashsd.
These are .tacis. Any one doubling them can
be satisfied by consulting persons who were
present on the occasion.
What DO our Democratic friends, who have
fondly imagined that their standard beare,
was u cool-headed, dispassionate reasoner,
think of this picture? Is such a man worthy
to be elevated to the highest office in the State
To borrow thc IDEA of the Bedford Dutchman,
is a man who is unable to govern himself fitted
to govern the people Of Iowa? Can such
man be entrusted with the weighty and
important concerns of our State, requiring, as
they do, a deliberate and calm judgment.
The verdict of the people, we opine, will be an
emphatic negative in October next. Gen.
Dodge, by such disgraceful exhibitions OF
himself as above narrated, is making
thousands of votes for the Republican ticket.
Our informant says the effect on this occasion
was really astonishing. Hundreds of men in
that region, who were before in favor Of Dodge,
will now vote for kirkwood. They have no
sympathy for a man who will undertake to
debate grave questions in a dignified manner,
and yet fly into a fighting passion when he
gets in a tight place.
out, do u SoSSihPol" SiAo No, LIN Y
erals forte is not in mental effort. 1t is
another kind Of fort. His reputation is a
military one He is in fact a fighting man
a warrior. His nane and title portends con-
fusion to the enemy, and sanguinary slaughter
on the "tented field" Hence it is that, when
''the old war-horse becomes aroused and ready
for the fray" he is reckless Of all danger, and
furious for fight. We rspcat-he is not the
man to measure arguments with Mr.. Kirk
wood, but it's his destiny to "seek the bubble
reputation at the lannon's mouth" His
masters have done him a gross injustice by
placing him in his present predicament. With
epaulettes on his shoulders, and a glittering
sword at his side, he would figure more
advantageously at the head of a band of fill
busters, extending the area of slavery in the
direction of the South. A foray in Mexico or
an onslaught upon Cuba would ~satiate his
longing desire for bloody conflict. Will not
Mr.. Buchanan crafty him in this, when the
people of Iowa have signiiied their willingness
to dispense with his services?
STATE INDEBTEDNEss--In replying to its
Democratic contemporaries, the Dubuque Times
says: The Dubuque Herald and the Dubuque
North Vest have both stated the present
State debt at "nearly one million of dollars"
Ben NJ. Samuels stated, at Gutenberg, that it
was $500, 900. G. c. Cole said, in this city,
that it was somewhere between $780, GO and
$500, 900! Now the p%lainest, simplest answer
to all these lies is the official certificate of j.
W. Cattell, Auditor of State, rendered on the
18th Of August last, which we published last
week, which shows that, when the State rev.
enues now due from the several counties shall
be paid, the State will not only be ENTIRELY
FREE FROM DEBT, but will have a surplus
in the Treasury of over FOURTEEN
THOUSAND DOLLARS.
Considering that these Democratic editors
and orators have a defaulter to the amount of
$4,000 or $4,000 upon their State ticket;
that, through the rule of their party, the
Federal expenses have increased in seven
years from $500 900, 900 per annum to nearly
$s91 900, 900 per annum; and that here in
Dubuque, where they have pretty nearly
always borne sway, they drove the munich
pality to. the very brink Of insolvency; and
considering that they are only about a million
of dollars out Of the way in their statements
of the State debt-hadn't they better 'dry
up on the subject of finances?
PROGRESS OF PIRAcY.-The st. Augustine
(Florida) Examiner asserts positively that
cargoes of African negroes are constantly
landed in the United States, and publishes a
copy of an agreement entered into between a
Rhode Island captain, one Miller T. Wickham,