Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-07-04
DEATH OF SENATOR JAMES 4
LANE.

Monday afternoon, announce the death
at Lawrence, Kansas, by his own
hand, while laboriDg under mental depres-
sion caused by illness, of Hon. James H.
Lane, member of the United States SEN
ate from Kansas.
Senator Lane wss in many respects a
remarkable man and his career has been
noted for incidents Of an exciting charac-
ter. Indeed, excitement and adventure
were the elements in which he revealed.
His characteristics were egotism coupled
with an i~nordinate ambition, and t%ireless
energy. he was not in any sense q great
man but in politics he was a adroit
wire-worker, in law a consummate petit
ogger, in military matters a strange mix
ture of bravery and b~rsggadOeio, in per-
sonal appearances a SLOUGH, and in address
an eccentric His passion for notoriety
was proverbial, and many believed that
he cultivated an uncouth, slovenly style Of
dress, and studied his eceentricities o
manner and speech in order to excite re-
mark. But it was chiefly as q politician
that he desired fame, and to the accom-
plishment of this purpose he devoted his
life, making everything else subservient to
this end, and achieving, it cannot be de-
MED, a large measure Of success. In no
other country could such a man have risen
to q place, and an influential one, in the
highest deliberative body known TO 8 Hs-
ton.
James II. Lane was born in Indiana in
1914, and his whole life, it may fairly be
said, has been q public one. When but
fourteen years of age he made a Demo
cratic speech, that is still spoken of by
old politicians in Indiana. His father, the
Hon. Amos Lane, was for many years a
member Of Congress and one Of the lead
ing politicians and lawyers Of that State
Young Lanes early education was such as
could be afforded by the common schools
of that day. With this, and the mother
wit with which he was so largely endowed,
be pushed his way forward. At the break
ing out Of the Mexican war he received a
Colonels commission and commanded n
regiment from Indiana through both CAM
, paigns of that war, acquitting himself
with bravery in every engagement, but
unfortunately losing the distinction which
he was entitled to from the fact that his
uncle, General 80. Lane, of Oregon, his
superior off Ser, manipulated the official
reports and monopolized the credit him
self. After the war, he served one or
more terms in the Indiana Legislature
was elected Lieutenant-G Governor in 1851;
Was selected by the Democracy as a Pres
idential Elector in 1852, and a member of
Congress from 50 to '55. In Congress he
was an INSCRIPTIONS and indefatigable
advocate Of the Kansas-N Nebraska swim
die.
The change in public sentiment in In
diana, as indeed all over the North, caused
by the passage of this act, effected the po-
litical death of those Northern Congress
man who had betrayed the aus of Free
dom, and Col. Lane, seeing the hopeless
ness of attempting to regain place and
influence in his native State, emigrated to
Kansas. He arrived in that Territory in
1855 and at once set about political work, |
ostensibly as q squatter-soyereigEty Dem
ocrat, but really with as strong p~ro-sls-
very proclivities as Stringfellow or At
Gibson, with whom indeed, he sought to
affiliate. However, he was shrewd enough
TO discover very soon that the actual set
tiers of Kansas, backed by an overwhelm-
ing public sentiment at the North, were
deterninedly opposed to slavery, and that
however the schemes of corrupt Nationsl
Administration and the rufianly violence
Of the Missouri borderers might seem to
succeed, that success could only be tenn
pOrary, as the ultimate triumph of the
Free State party was certain. With q
characteristic fondness for public display,
he awaited himself of a period of great
excitement in the Territory, when the
settlers were gathered in the town of
Lawrence to consult upon measures of
safety and defense, 70 announce with all
the eclat possible his conversion to the
Free State interest and to offer his ser
vices to the beleaguered people. From
that time onward he devoted all his ener-
gies TO advance the cause be espoused and
contributed as much, if not more, than
any other one man there TO the discomft-
ure of the enemies of Kansas.
His political career since then is as /
to the readers of newspapers as {
was the part he bore in the stormy border s
troubles that convulsed the nation and !
made Kansas the battle-ground of the first I
actual conflicts between Freedom and I
During the early part of the
great rebellion that followed, he was com- '
nissioned a brigsdier-general of volun- t
but his military record is marked {
more BY bluster than achievement-by r
words than deeds. Afterwards he held q
he nominal office of Commissioner of
Enlistment for the West. At the time of O
lis death he was serving his second term
n the United States Senate, which would j.
lave expired in 1871. 1t is, perhaps, .
to remark that he was supposed !
be among the recreant few who at :
ached themselves to President johnson 8
n his inexcussble desertion of the prin- 9
iples Of the Union party. I,
Some episodes in his private life were a
0 interviewer with his character as a Il
man, that there can be no impro- c.
riety while speaking of the latter, to b
the former such, for instance, b
the shooting of jenkins, and the fire. a:
uent recurrence of domestic difficulties OF
Ihich grew out of his intense application n
o politics; but whatever his faults, he Of
ad, among his neighbors, a reputation re
II honest dealing, charity, and a genuine q
atriotism, Notwithstanding his unrelia- s.
lily as q politician. bl
1t falls to the lot of very few men in n,
life to pass through soemuch of
,citement public and private trouble, pa
feat and triumph, as attended the sub on
of this notice. Sehstor Lanes life SD
as really crowded with incident of m
ended omance and tragedy, outrivAl- sp