The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-05-10
AMERICAN KINGS.
Magnificent Tribute to Samuel j.. TIL
den:1
Correspondence Of the Portland Argus.

no DeaTu GueIeOu uItIe 'IOuuu uOSe,
but entirely large enough for the face; q
little round bald spot on the back Of his
head. His hair is brown, and has way
of dropping down over the little round
face; his eyes are blue and rather soft
than otherwise; the lid of the left drops
at times, caused by nervous affection,
but the expression is to give one the i'm
preston of cunning. He stoops little,
as little dried up old men will do, and
his walk is something of creep as though
stepping on eggs. He has no distin-
guished look; one would never select
him from a crowd as man born to com:
mand; oh no, he looks. more like hard
working shoemaker with his good clothes
on than king, and yet in some respects
no king, nor emperor, nor priest, MOI
other man of any age, or country, has
been his equal. -. W.. ....-
He has no friends; he never had blood
enough in his veins either to feel the
warmth of friendship or to inspire it.
AS the few ounces of blood which he is
supposed to have is much too cold to be
;quickened by the presence of lovely wo-
man, he is unmarried. He never made a
great speech, never wrote great book,
in short never did anything to call out
the admiration of mankind. BE is not
magnetic; q wooden Indian in front of a
tobacco shop will create as much enthu-
siasm as he. ,r - .4i.'.
At the American Institute Fair, when
open, is to be seen great number Of
curious and most admirable machines of
all kinds, doing all kinds of work. One
may spend days examining and admiring
these various machines. Away of at one
side, unseen, unnoticed, unthought OF, is
the engine that moves these all. Nobody
sees it, nobody thinks of it. All notice
and admire the effect, none notice nor
admire the cause. -iUlra.,.
This little old man is like that engine,
unseen, unknown, unthought of, but the
cause of great events. True, for the last
few months his name has been upon
every tongue, but this was but an episode
in his life; and although his power will
be greater than ever, his name will no
more be heard. He is an honest and an
exact man; if he owes a man a penny it
will be paid, and if penny is due him,
he wants it. He was once made Chief
Magistrate of great State, and after
election the event was celebrated by a
supper, &c. When the bill came in, he
discovered an error of SO cents, and sent
it back for correction. This was called
meanness by the free and easy politicians,
and added to his unpopularity, for these
political gentry like only "whole-souled"
fellows whole-souled fellow being one
who robs the public crib and scatters. Q
good share of the plunder among his
friends. No, this little old man was not
a whole-souled fellow, and was hated by
all politicians. 2 ae. -.
A Western man once denounced Mr..
Fessenden to me for the mean. way in
which he lived at Washington. Said /,
"My dear friend, if Mr.. Fessenden was as
dishonest as some others, he could live as
WE'LL" O.! five could have more mean
ness like that of Mr.. Fessenden and this
little old man, what blessing it would
be.
In the year 1874 the Republicans had
entire control of this State. General Dix
had made wonderful popular Governor,
and as he was candidate for reelection,
it was deemed impossible for the Demo:
Gratis to carry the State. They made
great efforts to induce one of their popu-
lar men like Judge Church to accept the
nomination for Governor in opposition to
Dix, but the case was 80 hopeless that all
declined. In this emergency ofthe Dem
ocrats, my little dried up old man offered
himself, and as defeat was considered
certain, he was accepted. Judge of the
blank astonishment of the politicians
when they found that he was not merely
elected, but elected by tremendous ma
iority. That little old mans hand was
felt in every county and town and school
district in the State, as the result showed,
and he became "the Governor" .-
In this State are many rings, among
the worst of which was the Canal Ring.
The Governor was hardly installed before
he began war against this gang of rob-
bers. This but made them laugh, for
they deemed themselves invincible.-
Soon, however, things began to assume a
serious aspect for them, and they sent the
Governor message something in this
strain, to wit: ~ ~ :.
"DEAR GovERNoR-You know how
strong we are; you know that we hold
the balance of power in this State be-
tween the two parties, and can elect
whom we will and defeat whom we will ;
YOU know that neither party, and no
Governor, not even Dix, strong as he was,
dare touch us. You want to be Presi-
dent, and you know that this State holds
the balance of powerin the nation; that
whoever gets New York will be President;
now if you will let US alone, as Dix and
all previous Governors have done, we
will guarantee this State to you; but
should you decline, and make war upon
us, we will cause. your political death at
all hazards. ..'.o =; ~
"Yours truly THE RING"
To this the Governor returned answer
something as follows: 80 o.
"S1Rs-You are an organized band OF
public robbers, preying upon the, COM
mercial interests of the State; it is my
duty to destroy you, and I will do it OF
perish in the attempt. Yours,
1.-THE GOVERNOR"
That showed the character of the man.
He had but to keep quiet as other Gov
ernors had done, and the vote of the
Empire State was his; if he made val
upon the thieves he was sure to lose lit,
so far as human eye could see. . 1t. also
shows the marvellous power of the man
that he both whipped the ring and saved
the State. 1t soon began to be seen that
the Governor would be candidate ifor
the Presidential nomination. The rings
became alarmed; Big rings, little rings,
canal rings, Tweed rings, City rings,
r,,o, pos1roo6