Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-10-16
A LETTER FROM WARRINGTON.

A LETTER FROM WARRINGTON.
MAIDEN, Oct. Is, 1910,
My DEAR SIR: The pamphlet entitled
"Six Speeches with sketch of the Life of Hon.
Eli Thayer," which you was good enough to
send to me- l had already seen and examined.
1t is not " out of print" by any means, and
Judging by the heaps still on hand in the store
of the worthy and enterprising publishers, it
will not be reckoned among scarce and rare
works, for many years to come. Indeed, re-
greet to say, there does not seem to be that Gu.
riosity as to the career of Mr.. Thayer which
might reasonably be expected, when we con.
slider the extraordinary claims which his bio.
grapher makes in his behalf The originator
OF organized emigration, and the berator Of
Kansas, ought to have more grateful recog
milton. To be sure, it is rather an awkward
fact, that Mr.. Thayer acknowledges that he
abandoned Kansas in 1856, two or three years
before the final battle was fought, on Lecomp
ton, and the victory won by the adoption Of
the Wyandot constitution, and that his Fir-
ginia and Central American emigration enter
prises have not had any perceptible influence
on one side or the other of the question Of
slavery. Some men may think that John
Brown and Jim Lane, and Captain
Mons omery, the fighting men of Kansas,
and Conway, and Phillips, and Thatcher, and
the hundreds of resident ant-slavery men, are
entitled to as much credit for keeping slavery
out of Kansas, as Mr.. Thayer. whose efforts
seem to have been confined to the procuring
of a charter for the Aid Society, and helping
TO organize few emigrant trains But this
is sheer envy. Great inventors and discover
ers always have their claims disputed. Mr..
Thayers position is secure enough, 1t will
not, at any rate, be forfeited for lack Of mod
esty on his part. He is unquesionaby very
great man, and means to keep the world in
mind of the fact. He is a standing contradic.
ton of the dogma of Carlyle, that the charac-
teristic of the great man is unconscousness
of his greatness. No man can say of him, as
Coleridge says OF William Tell, that he
twas great, nor knew how great lie was"
Mr. Thayer is fully conscious OF his pre-
emnence or the meaner creatures of the
field, and he reduces them to an absurdity
with as much ease and as little compunction
as Napoleon or Frederick woIld cashier a cor
poral. These speeches and this biographical
sketch do not seem to me TO be OF amy great
consequence except as an electlOneerlng dOcu-
ment. The lite OF the hero is by no means an
extraordinary one. 1t seems that he was born
in Mend0n in 1919. | presume that other
children were born in that respectable town
the same year His father was a farmer, and
afterwards storekecper. These are respect
able professions, but not uncommon, Eli eX"
hausted the rudiments OF the district school.
Many other boys have done the same. He
walked to Worcester, but it does not appear
that this feat was SO extraordinary at that
time as 10 excite observation. He en-
tered college with nothing, and graduated
with distinguished honors and a tew hun
dred dollars i'll his pocket This is his
first great achievement and puts me in
mind OF the remarkable ability shown by the
two Yankee boys, who were shut up in a dark
room three hours, and wien they came out
had made five dollars piece swapping jack"
cts. He went back to Worcester, and com
menced school teaching, but afterwards went
into politics and got into the legislature. he
organized emigration and saved Kansas, as he
thinks, but OF this there is some dispute by
the enyUus, as ! have said He got into con-
gress by pretending to be straight and rigid
republican. He got reelected in spite OF
some uneasiness among his constituents, bv
pledging himself 10 abide by the principles and
support the measures OF the republican party.
He forfeited these pledges and was discarded
by the republicans, and Is now dickering with
the pro-slayery parties for reelection. This
Is his biography i'll brief, as find it laid down,
| partly in the pamphlet before me- and partly
in other cOntemporaneous documents
Now the only question which at all interests
| the people, in relation TO MIR. Thayer. is wbe.
Their he is fit to represent the republicans of
| the lAth district third time in congress [
propose, by an examination of the pamphlet
| life any speeches, and other documents equal
| ly necessary and important, to show that he is
not. may be told that this is Intervention"
and that am "squatter" Well, we are all
squaters. The New York Tribune, the New.
buryport Herald, the Springfield Republican,
the Boston Atlas, Advertiser, Journal, and
| Courier, and John Hickman, are all squatters
in the IXth district. Mr. Thayer has no
right to complain of Intervention. The great
and puissant liking of the squatters," who
| squas one day in Worcester, the next in Kan.
sas, the next in Ceredo, the next in Oregon,
and the next in Worcester again. has no right
to OBJECT to outside criticism. The man who
| establishes Intervention emigrant societies for
| Kansas, freeing, as he supposes, that territory
der, signing for new worlds TO conquer. turns
his legions towards Virginia, driving slavery
from before his gorificd face as the sun dissi.
pates the fog of the morning; then, paus-
ing moment in his great work, to min
gle in the pastime Of politics, takes a seat in
the Chicago convention as member from Or
egon, and raises points OF order against the
Declaration of Independence, must not COM
plain Of interventionists
have not the presumption to suppose that
can treat the subject upon which undertake
TO write, with more ability or success than
others Mr.. Thayer has been satisfactorily
criticised by Hon. Mr.. Aldrich, the Hon.
Dexter {. Parker, by the Spy aud the Palla-
dunn, and the Reyee and probably by other
papers which have not seen. But you know
what stump orator is, and how closely he
has tobe watched and criticised. Mr.. Thaycr
combines in his person some of the strongest