The Portland daily press., 1875-11-30
Our New York Letter.
The late Vice Presidenf--An Evonifal
Career--Wiiiiam II. AsfOr--The Re-
cepiion 10 Lord Houghton.


persons holding high official rank, until they
are dead. But Gen. Wilson more than most
contemporary statesmen, lived in the full glare
of the public eye. For thirty five years be con-
stantly mingled with the masses. There is
scarcely a state in the Union in which he has
not addressed multitudes of his fellow citizens.
Nine presidential campaigns have reyerberated
with his oratory. The minor contests of the off
years summoned him to points where doubt-
full fields were to be won, and he was wont to
respond to such calls with cheerful alacrity.
His natural tastes inclined him to the strife of
politics, and his long practice made him afor-
midable warrior in that broad arena. During
the pauses between the battles he occupied
himself with writing letters on his favorite
theme. There was a certain restlessness about
him, which kept all his faculties, physical and
mental, in perpetual activity.
A retrospect of his eventful career carries us
through momentous epoch in American his
tory. Passing by the ru rudimertary stage Of his
political training when he left his lapstone at
intervals, to make speeches for the Wings, we
find him drifting, perhaps unconsciously, into
that sweeping current of hostility to slavery.
which was destined to revolutionize the moral
sentiment of the entire Republic. In 1S4S he was
fervid supporter of Webster-voted for him
in the National Conveption-refused to be pla-
Gated when another man was nominated-aban-
doned his workshop and organized revolt
from his party and bravely turned his back up
on his Whig friends who were then in an over
whelming majority in Massachusetts and held
the power of dispensing or Withholding official
honors and rewards. He threw himself with
characteristic impetuosity into the free soil
movement and became leader of that gallant
minority which planted itself on the Buffalo
platform-with Van Buren and Adams for its
candidates. His chief deserted him, the Whig
patricians of the old Commonwealth gave him
the cold shoulder, and the solid men of Boston
''held their embroidered kerchiefs to their
noses, as il fearing to inhale an offensive odor
of wax and leather as they passed him by.
The struggle of the succeeding half dozen
| years was trying in the extreme. The free soil
leaders in New York and elsewhere gravitated
back to the respective parties from which they
| had temporarily seeded. The forlorn hope
| scarcely made a stand anywhere save in the
| old Bay State. Webster-the mightiest New
| Highlander the country had produced-shocked
| the moral sense of the world, by the most abb
| ject remuneration of sympathy with the princi-
| Piles of freedom, IN that fatal 7th of March
| 1850. Both the great parties of the day pros
trated themselves in the dust, with cringing
| serviity before the slave masters of the south
| 1t seemed for time that pride, manhood, con-
l science, all had gone out of the hearts of the
multitude 1t was the darkest, saddest, most
/ humilating era in the life of the young nation.
Too much homage cannot be rendered to the
| little handful of plucky men, who proved SUI
| perior to the allurements of place and station,
| which tempted them to follow tbe mob into
| this abysmal depth of dishonor and shame.
l Aud probably not one of them confronted
| greater sacrifices in maintaining his integrity
l than Henry Wilson. He was poor and in debt
| His business had been relnqushed. He had
| no means of gaining livelihood. II he had
not been exceptionally simple in his mode of
living and frugal in his habits, at that crisis of
| his destiny he would have been more sorely
| pinched than he was. Happily, he had been
taught by that stern preceptor necessity, the
lessons of economy which enabled him to ,om-
bat and conquer the obstacles of poverty. Still
the situation was dispiriting and there were
many occasions when ha was great deal more
despondent than any body would have sus.
pected, who was not personally intimate With
| him. The heaviest reverse he met with was
defeat in canvass Cor Congressional seat 10
/ 1852.
l However, no misfortune turned him from
his steadfast purpose or checked the resstless
energy with which he pursued it. He never
showed sign of weakening or wavering from
first to last. Aud although the principles of
which he was so able an exponent found few
| champions outside of bis own state, his tolls
were rewarded by evidence of their steady
| growth within its limits. The election Of
Charles Sumner to the Senate in 1851, although
accomplished by a coalition in which the DEM
/ ocrats participated, not because they loved
slavery less but because they hated Whiggery
more, was nevertheless practical triumph of
the free soilers That was the first grand
success OF Gen. Wilson'S political life.
In order to comprehend the difficulties which
the General had to encounter in this unequal
conflict, we must remember that the major
| part of the "best blood of Massachusetts was
arrayed on the Whig side. There were Win
throp, Everett, the Washburns, Clifford, Wal
ley, Haven, and host of other men of the
same stamp, strong in culture, wealth and
l social position. Add here was an humble
shoemaker penniless. and unfavored by any
of the accidents which so often contribute to
human greatness. As might have been ex-
pected he was scoffed at as a fanatic, and
rallied at as a demagogue. Fortunately his
aristocratic opponents did not monopoize all
the talent of the state, nor all the "best blood
| either for that matter. Horace Mann was q
good specimen of the first and Charles Francis
/ Adams of 10th advantages, and they were
among the noble few who declined to obey Mr..
Webster's dctum ''to conquer their prejudices''
against introducing into the territories the sys-
tenn of buying and selling men.
But while Gen. Wilson and his associates
were endeavoring to instil into the minds Of
the puritan voters at home the respect for
liberty which too many of them had shown
their degeneracy by temporarily casting aside,
the negro whppers were unwittingly assisting
| the good work by their fatuous insolence and
effrontery at the national capital. 1t is quite
unnecessary to, review the incidents of that
period. They form chapter of history which
is indelibly fxed-by recollection or by study
in the knowledge Of every American who has
learned to read. The Whig party virtually
| died of an overdose of Democracy taken In its
platform at the National Convention of 1852.
The burial was deferred two years, delay ex-
treme.y detrimental to the purity of the moral
atmosphere of our political system. The Dem
ocratic organization fingered much longer, but
became merely name in New England and
every other section where the preacher and
schoolmaster had had a fair chance.
One of the first fruits of the regeneration
was the complete restoration of the manhood
of The old Bay State. She not only cast down
her idols but evinced her perfect indifference
to the gaud and glitter of conventionslity by
sending the "Natiek cobbler'' to take the place
OF the polished, scholarly Edward Everett.
man whose subserviency to an arrogant and
offensive oligarchy was the one infrmity OF an
otherwise noble natdre The selection OF Gen.
Wilson for this post was an appropriate sequel