The Ouachita telegraph., 1877-11-10
KZElE 0YsEsZ sZron loniSs. &

YEN1 I 81 fsEsl lron honi6s. q
g! .a-- a 81 Mll
The Asllurspk Ffitlay serpiSy. q,
nounced cue death OF Hon. oliver e.
Morton, Senator from Indiana, Wbef
has lain prostrate aud helpless from At
chronic and incurable disease for some
months. His early 'dissoiutiOn has
t,eem.iuukrc-for.as .as tncvttsshie stncethc |
beginning. Of septsipber. his physicians
having ut that time been brought to
the painful conviction that his system
was incapable of receiving, and assimi-
i,ting sufficlelit food to sustain life.
For the past four weeks he. has been
consuming his own flesh and
blood, aud slowly starving to death for
lack Of the nourishment which his
stomach refused to retain or sppro-
pirate. For years past and before his
final and fatal attack his health had
been generally bad and always precss-
riOGs. His once stalwurt constitution,
capable OF immense labor, pain and
fatigue, broke down u long time ago,
but in spite of feebleness and suffering
ne continued at his work, with no ap-
parent relaxation or. evidences OF I'm
paired faculties. Suffering had become
30 much u habit that he scarcely APP
peared TO be embarrassed by torments
under which Ordinary minds and wills
are crushed. When racked with pain
and too feeble to walk, he was carried
from his bed to the Senate Chamber,
he showed no lack Of vigifence or en-
erxy. but kept perseverinxly at his
work until the Presidents gavei an
nodnced an adjournment. Such steady
continuance at severe labor under the
torture Of ceaseiess pain was proof
alike OF his intellectual vigOr and
strength OF will. 80 "
A familiar authority briefly informs
us that Morton was born in Wayne
county, Ind, August 4, 1923; that he
w,as graduated at the Miami Univer-
sity that after some years spent at the
bar he was elected Circuit Judge Of the
Fifth judicial Circuit of Indiana In
1853 that he was elected Lieutenant
Governor in 1861, and became Cover
nor in 1861 when Henry s. Lane,
Governor, was elected to the Senate of
the United States; that he was elected
Governor in 1864 that he was elected
to the Senate Of the United States, In
which he took his seat March 4, 1867,
and that he was reelected in 1872 for
the term which would. have expired
March 8, 1879.
. AS 0OVeEuOr VI xuuAdudS 4OINOu was
noted for the determined and vigorous
ministration, and for tho zeal and en-
ergy which he breathed into the war
party at home. Under his guidance
and inspiration Indiana raised, equip
ped. armed and sent to the field nearly
a hundred regiments of volunteers, in
spite of strong party originally op-
posed to coercion. 1t is now known
that he was actuated more by IN inten-
sified hatred OF Confederate leaders
than by any sentiment of patriotism or
love of the Union. His action as Gov
ernor attracted the attention and won
the pIaudits of politicians of the other
States, SO that when he entered the
Senate he was ut once accepted and re-
cegnized as the leader of the Republi-
can party and the chief inspirer of the
malignity and venom of its relentless
ultraists. Implacable, unforgiving and
malicious, he was the head and front of
all those who r9mained bitter enemies
of the Southern people long after the
Union had ceased to have II single
avowed Southern foe. He was the em
bodied brain and will of the Radical
North, and Grant was the iron hand
which Morton welded with remorsc-
bSco NCLOuss ASAOA SOAAl <SANOStfSA Va A1Ao
party, was the "power behind the
throne" only surpassed by the aggrc-
gate power which lay in a morbid,
rabld, inflamed sectionaiism. The dis
cased Senator was the guide Of the
blind and raging Cyclops. The guide
has fallen, and no one can replace him.
The general career of Morton as Sen
;.tor is we'll remembered its details are
more suitable for an elaborate biogra-
phy than for any brief allusion to its
close. His last achievement was the
most remarkable US we'll as the most
difficult. Without Morton's resolution
and management Hayes could never
have been dragged up into the Presi-
dency in spite Of Il popular and electo-
raj majority against him. When he
comes to be accurately measured by
what he accomplished, and when the
now imperfectly known secret and per-
sonal history of men prominent in the
Radical party comes to be written, it
will be better understood how Morton
in his audacity, will and intellect, stood
head and shoulders above the men who
obeyed his imperial dictates. He falls
when the party which he ruled is sha-
ken to its centre; had he returned to
the Senate he might have saved it
from threatened disintegration.
What change of sentiment, what
A. A.