Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1867-09-24

persons and prejudices, besides seve,
raj faIsehoods OF a low. personal kind.
were successfully used at lancaster
and we presume in other towns, for
electing sets Of delegates who could
be acted upon and used for any pur>
pose by the set leaders.
OF course other low and vicious
means We're used for producing public
disaffection, and which we may no.
tice at another time.
1t is peculiar with the demagogue
that he is always ready with some is
sue for deceiving the people and GET
ting their support; equally peculiar
that he may keep on getting up new
issues and deceiving the people year
after year, when making irst good
start. We instance as follows.
Railroad prospecting and peg set
ting has been big thing among dem
agogues, and it is stock in trade that
lasts year after year because of the
protcan shapes and varieties it may
assume. The Legislature of '65 charter
a railroad from Oshkosh TO the Missis-
sippi, no terminus named, only that
it was to end in Grant County, any.
where ust the thing of course for
demagogues to lay hold on for agita.
ton. OF course no man Of good sense
and intelligence has had very much
faith in the work, though some think
that within the next twenty years
such concern may run somewhere
through the county. Hon. A. A. Ben
nett, Il member of assembly that
year, got Hon. W. w. Field on as one
of the directors, which trfing favor
atfording a succession of opportuni-
ties for Mr.. Field to display himself,
laid him also under working oblga-
tions to his friend Bennett.
1t was in the fall thereafter that
Bennett again offered himself for the
assembly, but Capt. Riley carried in
the convention and got the repubh.
can nomination. Bennett boiled Ri
ley and came out independent-using
the railroad hobby and claiming to
be father and fountain Of the enter
prise. Several days before the cleo
ton the success Of Riley was unques.
toned, so that something had to be
done to save Bennett. The next
heard was from Mr. Field, who, chain
in hard and engineer to the rear, was
making his way lengthwise and
roundabout through Benefits dis
trict, and leaving behind the usual
row of pegs marked in red with dis
lance and degree of dip. Mt. Hope,
Wyalusing, Patch Grove, Glen IIa>
ven, and Cassvile were pegged thro'
and through, and the effect was to
send Riley kiting and carry Bennett
to his co~cted seat in the assembly.
The whole thing appeared at the time
| ludicrous to some. whilst others swal
| lowed the whole fraud. The Field
Bennett r. r. pegs still grace the phre
biological bumps of those towns, and
may for aught we know still retain
enough virtue of humbug to return
Bennett to the assembly third term
In the case above, the parties nam>
ed having met with a first success by
sharp practice, appeared 20 adopt an.
other curious notlon, that patronage
is for every man who has a price aud
that most men are fond OF price and
patronage. The next demagogue idea
ofappealiDg to the envy, jealousy and
other low passions of people was not
then part of their operative prac-
tice. They but needed one skilled
and experienced IN the tricks of this
department of chicanery to make
them q power--feeblc in number but
mighty for effect.
Mr.. W. p. Dewey, a gentleman OF
former great experience in the man
agement of men and uneXcelled as a
policy operator, next became work
ing member in the new ring. Mr..
Dewey supported Mcclellan in 1864,
and no one doubted his being cops
perhead of the strictest sect to that
time and until the election of 1865,
when he claimed to support the un>
ion ticket, and since which time at
every convention he has sought hons
ors over longer tried republicans
| At the town caucusses Of last year
and this year he privately called in
his friends, chiefly young men III
whom he had excited u prejudice
against what he termed " tie court
h0nse Clique" and they elected him a
| delegate to the conventions, there
being no counter organization TO OPP :
pose him, indeed the better people
about town always opposing any such
dark lantern work.
There was not in Wisconsin great
Ell or more successful figurer than
Mr.. Dewey during the reigns of Blu
chanan and Barstow and the balance.
He was largely successful during the
legislature Of 1856, from which he re
tired, rich but with damaged pros
poets as a public man. For the next
ten years le was scarcely known, ex
cept as good citizen aud lawy
But when, upon his protessed repent
ance and sorrow for the past, his APP
parent faith in the cause of his God
and country, and upon his seeking
admittance into the Republican
| Kingdom, we became his chief adVo-
cate and god, father. The good men
about town took him in on trial; the
court house clique even vouchcd his
reformation. The christian and 9th.
er moral associations admitted him
to their love feasts and even the tenn
perance saints made him a Deacon
Indeed, there appears hardly an up
per seat in the synagogue to which
he has not aspired, and been admit
ted. And, but for his late union with
men by all good people more than
suspected of being demagognes and
political gamblers, his conversion
from Buchanan Mcclellan democracy
would still be considered ~ genuine.
His every late practice shows that in
changing from coppcrhead to radical
republican, he retained his old ways
He seems indeed TO have commenced,
rs a machine politician. Just where he