The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-15
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
Upon Current Topies-COmpned Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
DEATH AMONG THE VETERANS.

kJ0m TIE NJ y. Times.
Death seems to be busy with the veterans
in this changeful autumn weather Last Tues
day the old Admiral was put to his rest in the
city of his birth. While the mutfied drums
were beating the ''long-ro'ing salute, as they
were wont TO do, our reporter tells us
whenever the gallant old seaman stepped
upon his quarter deck" the oldest soldier of
our wars was dying at his home in Troy The
soldier of more than r half century's cam
paigns has gone to Join the sailor whose ca
Teer began under the shadow of the Revolu-
ton. Together they warred upon England;
together they served their flag with unblem-
ished honor and devotion for more than the
space of ordinary lives, and the memories that
cluster around them as they go TO another
world embody much that we have of glory in
our military and naval history.
And over the sea comes the tidings that an
American had passed away so honored by the
English nation that his statue has been
erected in the heart of its capital, and the
English Queen has directed his remains to
rest in the royal sepulchre of Westminster
Abbey. Our countryman was a mere mer-
chant, but so beautiful and earnest was his
Gfe SO full Of kindness and brotherly SYM
pathy, so generous and all-embracing in
charity, that kingly honors fall upon him
Justly, and men say this simple citizen lived
80 princely life that his dustis worthy forest
in the tomb of kings. How weak and fragile
these gossamer barriers that separate English
and American kinship as we stand over the
grave of George Peabody! 1T was his wish.
said Mr.. Gladstone, Ito die in England and
be buried in America" In the presence of
this noble sentiment, how foolish and crimi
nal all political bitterness boundary lines
and Alabama claims, and menaces of war
between two branches of our race, How
much more heartiness and philanthropy and
patriotism in the dying man entreaty!
There are rumors of death from roval
chambers. The French Emperor, we are told
in hint and suggestion, is dying from a cruel
disease, and the priests still hover over the
excommunicated King Victor with the sacred
oil and the emblem OF the Redeemers broken
body. Those whimsical theologians, whose
prophecies are as exact as geometry who are
constantly seeing the opening of the Seventh
Seal and the coming OF the millennial time,
would find in this conjunction strange fulfill
ments. "'The King of Italy dying the
Emperor doomed, and eli the gorgeous
priests and deacons OF Catholicism assem-
bled to proclaim the inIallibility of the
Pope;-what manifestation-whata a reali-
Zation of the downfall of antichrist and
the final overthrew of the scarlet women
and the wicked power of Babylon" He
would be wise prophet who could see the
end of this-for the time has passed when the
deaths of monarchs are merely dynastic
transitions. Impatient France and disap-
pointed Italy wait at these royal chambers
one mourning for liberty murdered in night,
the other for liberty which has been de-
graded into license, chaos, disorder national
humiliation. Whether these rulers live or
die at this time, the age has swept beyond
them, and the spirit of freedom walks
abroad. We shall have an Italy without a
camp of bandits in her capital, covered by
the protecting robes of the Church We shall
have q France whose chief city is not merely
the barricade of a usurpation and tyranny.
Amos Kendall died on Friday at his coun-
try house in the District of Columbia. Occa-
sionally we have seen Amos Kendall in these
latter days, but with much wonderment on the
part of our young men. His last public ap
pearance was when he tottered up the aisle at
the great Chicago Mcclellan Convention,
amid the cheers of Vallandigham and his
Rebel allies. Men who knew Amos Kendall
what he had done, and the part he played in
the days when Jackson crushed nullifcation-
felt as though in such an assembly he must
have recalled the words of Lear
'You do me wrong
To take me out OF the grave"
Yet there was time when this man S infu-
ence was like the silent, subtle electricity,
which exercises unimaginable dominion over
the world of nature He was the power be-
hind the throne of the irascible, warm minded,
patriotic Jackson-a secret, hidden power
which disdained honor, Office, and ostenta-
tion, and was great and feared because of its
mystery. He passed from public life with
his chief, like most of those who served him.
1t is singular commentary upon those who
deny great ability to jackson, and who are
wont to regard the triumphs of his administra-
tion as the achievements of aldermen, thatwhen
he left the scene the great men" who made
him" faded into obscurity or helplessness.
Blair, Van Buren, Taney, Livingston, Ben
ton-all were nothing but his secretaries and
rhetoricians and orators-the expression of
power made uncouth and sometimes tyran-
nical, but still power that had Titanic god
like fire, and without which his instruments
were dead fragments of political machinery.
With him they were great, without him they
were weak. Since jackson passed away Ken
dali has been living in comfort and retire
ment, given to telegraph and ecclesiastical
enterprises. He leaves behind him tradi-
ton. His death recalls the stormy days of
Wing and Democrat, bank and anti-bank,
notification and tariffs, and brings again to
the sight Of men the strange, gaunt, com
manding figure of the lusty Tennesseean who
ruled his country like king and whose infiu
ence is still felt in our political history.
OF the same school-rather younger in ex-
periences and greater than Mr.. Kendall by
reason of genius OF his own, and capable of
direct personal expression-was Robert j.
Walker, who died on Thursday morning
Governor Walker was remarkable illustra-
citation may accomplish. We have no aris-
tocracy, but we often see how easy is the
Dath of power to men who have relations by
marriage and kin with successful states
men and politicians. Originally shrewd
Datient. plodding, rather pedantic Pennsvl-