Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-12-31
SENATOR CARPENTER REVIEWED.
A Pen Portrait Of Senator Carpenter Some OF
his Chsracterfsiics-A Living h kaleidoscope
His Likes and DfsIikes-A Hard Man to Hate
Coincidence fundamental and Ability Eminent


Coincidence fundamental and ability Eminent.
/ EDITOR OF THE HERALD:-I have
tried for several weeks past to gather
and condense the opinions of major
ity of the Republican party in this
county, in reference to that incarnate
social and political enigma, yclept
Hon. Matthew Hale Carpenter. l
find these opinions to be not only as
numerous, but as various as the "leaves
of the forest when summer is green
If these opinions could be painted on
pieces of glass, say an inch square, of
all possible shades of color, and then
put together it would form ring
streaked, speckled and spotted piece
of Mosaic, such as would deprive ia
cob's cattle of their -eminence.
The difficulty is in discovering the
ruling passion of the Senator. He
yearns for money, needs it, and yet no
body cares so little about it. He in
hales it as he does the fragrance of
his Havana, that he may blow it out
in smoke. But no one would dream
that Senator Carpenter would spend
money to buy votes, la Pomeroy and
Caldwell. He desires money that he
may show to the public in his hberall-
ty and profusion that he don't care a
continental about greenback. He
loves luxuriously furnished rooms in
the grandest hotel in the city, damask
cushioned chairs and lounges; and
Pullman's Palace cars roll towards him
as towards magnet Yet there is
no student or brain worker in the
State that cares less for luxury than
| Carpenter. But he loves TO be sur
rounded with all its means and appli-
ances, that he may display a devil
mav-care contempt for the whole of
them. His whole intellectual make
up is emphasized with the opposition
| of irreconcilable contrasts He is a
splendid fellow, and his brilliant tai
Tents reflect honor upon our State in
which even his enemies are willing
to share. We hate to spare him from
the halls Of Congress. IF we could
only bind "this Unicorn with hook"
and manage him, he would be worth
whole menagerie of common ami
mails.
But here con.es the rub. lie Uoted
for back pay. We are not by any
N cans so relentless as to swing him
on the political galows, for this one
mistake, or twenty like it. But what
the Republicans in these parts fear, is,
that their Senator is just the type of
man that would make mistakes Of this
sort every day should the opportunity
occur. He would "knock the bottom
out of the Treasury" as recklessly as
Governor Randall once threatened to
do, and if he were Croesus to-day,
he might be hard up tomorrow and
compel that famous Carpet Bagger,
''Dear Kellogg to disgorge $1,000 of
his ill-gotten gains. He is the anti.
pode of all misers, land the people would
expect Uncle Sam would be ground
up in the bankrupt grist mill if our
Senator should get hold of his purse
strings.
Yet Senator Carpenter is hard
man to hate, i mean hard man to
hate att. He will always confess
twice as much as you charge against
him. The Publican of old smote on
his breast and cried out ''Lord be
merciful to me, sinner" The Re
Publican of whom we are now speak
ing acts in the same way towards the
gracious people, and he is justified
rather than the austere and self.right-
eous political Pharisees.
That GAINESVILLE speech in which he
ridiculed the ostentatious professions
of honesty and integrity that affected
a frigid horror at the villainies of the
Credit Mobilier, was positively shock
ing and outrageous, considering the
condition ofpublic opinion at the time.
The fraud does not appear less in IT.
self now than then, but we see, and
the people see now something a thous-
and fold greater than the fraud; and
Carpenter saw this all the time. He
saw under the fostering legislation
of the Republican party a mighty
work completed uniting the two
oceans and all the country between
them, securing the unity of the Repub-
lie with bands of iron, and augment
ing the wealth of the United States by
untold millions.
Carpenter was not the man to sac
rifice the credit that he and his party
were entitled to in proposing, aiding,
and through legislation and states
manship never excelled, carrying for
ward to completion the greatest and
most bene6cent work of modern
times; from which Cakes Ames truly
said, "the capital of the world shrank."
Very small men may discover and dis
cuss the villianies of old Cakes Ames
who periled his all in desperate en-.
terprise, as it was then regarded