Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1869-03-18
HAMILTON FISH.
Democratic Tribute to the New
Secretary of State.

From the New York World, March IT,
In one of the new selections, the
reconstructed Cabinet is great and
manifest Improvement. Hamilton
Fish, the Secretary of State, may
not be a very great, or very
brilliant statesman; but he is,
beyond all controversy, one of the
most estimable, most judicious,
most upright, and most respected
citizens of this State or of this
country. A gentleman who has
enjoyed the advantages Of heredi-
tary wealth; of superior culture !;
in the full vigor of1ipe faculties; of
varied official experience; great
I social consideration an example of
all private virtues-he has long
possessed, what is better than the
fame of q great statesman, in a life
so unblemished, department SO
quiet and unostentatious, weight
and credit in the management of
educational, religious and charitable
institutions which so commend him
to general esteem, as to place him
by universal consent in the very
first rank of good citizens, Christian
gentlemen, and exemplars of the
kindly domestic virtues. Returning
to public life with character which
disarms criticism and extorts the
respectful homage of those who
differ from him in politics, and with
an exhaustless fund of good will to
draw upon, he is secure of more
indulgence than he is ever likely to
need in a position which he has not
sought, and for which he possesses
some qualifications of a very high
order.
First in the list of these, we un-
hesitatingly place the moral eleva-
ton which lifts him above the dan
ger of that mental distortion which
would seek or submit to anything
but Justice in our transactions with
foreign nations. There will be no
ver-reaching diplomacy or crooked
politics in Mr.. Fish's management
of our foreign affairs; and the
spirit Of candor and justice which he
will bring into all his duties will
probably save him from embarrass-
ing entanglements requiring any
cunning and dexterity to unite. He
has never displayed any surprising
fetches of ingenuity, because man
of his character never has any
occasion for them; nor will the
nation have any occasion for them it
he is permitted to have his own
way in the management of our
foreign intercourse. Next in the
list Of Mr.. Fish's qualifications, we
should place singular soundness
and long established habits of eau
ton and circumspection. Probably
there could not be safer adviser,
except N emergencies requiring
great boldness kind of emer-
gencies not likely to arise in time of
peace. Mr.. Fish is perfectly famil-
lar with the contemporary history
and the merits, pro and con, of the
chief public questions both of our
own and of the chief foreign coun-
tries; and among the minor but
necessary qualifications for his new
office, he has a fluent command Of
the French and one or two other
: ,rontil, entail tongues. For the social
dnt,.os OF a position in which social
inf,uen,,e counts for so much, no
man is better qualified than Mr..
Fish.
We regret tat what we have
further to saw of the new Secretary
of State can not be n the same
strain of unmingled comm endation'
though a Republican of that l1oder
ate class who march in the rear IN
stead of advancing with the front.
He is by conviction a Federalist;
a believer n strong central gov
ernment but his Federalism is some
what tempered by the pride which |
he has always felt in the State of
New York. In former times he was
a Whig, and was among the last to
give up the Whig party and though
he has never quite sympathized with
the Republican party, he has pretty
uniformity supported its leading
although, when he first
acted with it, opposition to the ex-
tension of slavery was his only |
point of agreement. We fear he
has never had much liking for the
Demo party.