Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1863-02-03

ID the death CT her own martyrs The
flashing eye may become dim, the stall
wart arm may become paralyzed, but the
heroes name becomes liberty's watchword
s'The meanest rill, the mightiest river.
Rolls miugIing with his fame forever"
This community will not forget the least
of that noble band who has gone forth to
die for that peace, prosperity and honor
we Americans enjoy. The out-pouring
of respect for the memory of Lieut.. Col.
Mckee does not detract from the merits OF
the humblest soldier who may die in the
same cause. 1t was the conviction that
the cause was just, and dying in its be-
half glorious, that drew such concourse
Of mourning citizens around his grave on
the 18th inst; and that honor was not his
own; it gilds the grave of every patriot
high or low, that offers Lis life for his
country. 1t is the duty and privilege Of
his contemporaries to preserve bis memory
to vindicate those principles and mo-
tiyes that led him to yield up his life with
all its hopes and desires for the country he
loved so WELL
David Mckee was born in the city Of
St. Louis, on the goth December, 1928,
His father, Stewart Mckee emigrated from
that city to the lead miEes in 1882. Da-
vid, with three brothers composed his fam
lily. Though the father returned to St.
Louis several years since, his marked and
original character has stereotyped hismem-
ory in the minds ofthe cold settlers" He
| = oo.uoot ooJ eoros,,;na NOT onIVy days
sing new modes of mining and agriculture,
but he knew how to apply moral and in
tellectua forces as well as water power.
! His friendships were strong, his antipi-
thies were case hardened. He was sus-
tanned by warm attachments, and honored
with respectable enmities. The first news
paper published in the county contained
numerous articles from his trenchant pen;
bold speculations on politics, religion and
government. A sincere democrat in the
true sense of the word, he was decided
opponent of slavery. But he passed the
midday of bis life and reached an advan-
ced age before his principles had become
dominant, either in Grant County or st.
Louis. He emigrated from Ireland in his
youth. The eloquence of Curran, En-
NETT and O'Connell, had imbued hi, mind
with love for pure democracy, where ey-
cry man shonld be equal before the law.
1t was only in America bis young dream
was to be realized. To Americ he came.
The words that O'Connell uttered in de-
nunciation of American slavery were not
idle syllables exploded in the air. He has
sent over thousands Of disciples TO this
country who We're prepared at the outset
of this war to set his burning words to the
music of the "cannon and the drum" Yet
Jt hn Mitchell longed for plantation and
negroes in Alabama, and E. G. Ryan
teaches the democracy of Wisconsin that
slavery is the necessary status OF an infer
ior race in the presence of superior
Alas What rights has poor Ireland as
long as John Bull has superior physical
and intellectual forces at bis command +!
There is never word uttered by Divine,
Poet or Orator, by St. Paul on Mars
Hill, by Homer, by Milton, by Emmett on
the scaffold by O'Connell on the Hastings
in favor of mans equality and right to Lib
eyty that does not terminate in steel-clad
warriors, embattled in this unique war,
grandest in its numbers, broadest in IFS
principles CT any yet waged by man
against his fellow. Ireland has produced
great teachers of the democratic faith
such heroes as Corcoran, Meagher, the
McKees' the older and the younger, are the
seals of their apostleship, and the exam
pie OF such men brands as renagades nu-
merous class of their couutrymen who de-
cry this as an abolition war" Such rene
gades can never redeem their own country.
When the true representative OF labor ana
toll is emancipated in the United States,
when he no longer wears the masters
chain around his neck, or his initials upon
his back, an insult and menace to every
son of toll of whatever cline or color, when
labor is made honorable and its reward
guaranteed by the blood of patriots and
martyrs, then shall such names as we now
write, ''shine forth as the sunin the fiims-
ment." Stewart Mckee understood perfect.
ly why the Oligarch Of the South hates
the "mudsilIs'' of the North. But like
IUOSL lOISIODClo uS NObOA UiSh AHS NSaA-O
cratic party for several years after his nat
uralization here. In 1848 he seeded and
espoused the freesoil platform. Leaving
Grant County, he returned to St. Louis
and entered with ardor into the freesoil
movement there. A nephew Of bis has
long been connected with the Missouri
Democrat, Ia paper in which Stewart Nc
Kee is a principle stockholder,) that has
exercised so vast and salutary an Influence
over the deslines of that State. He I'M
pressed bis ideas indslibly on the minds
Of his children. He yet lives enfeebled
by advanced years, unable to fight under
the glorious banner that ennobled the
death of his son. A mans life is made up
of his ideas and his acts. What has been
SAID of the sentiments of the father IN this
case holds true Of the son. David Mckee
represented the orthodox district of Potosl
in the Wisconsin Legislature in 1850.
When his party became the ally Of slavery
ba enrrowfiallv raluctantlv left IL The