The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-03-14

His work as Senator glows on the page
| of history-we can but outline few of
its more important events. There were
but one or two who stood abreast with
him in his herculean fight against the
advance Of the slave power. In 1852, he
voted, with but five other Senators, to
repeal the Fugitive Slave Law. He spoke
and voted against the abrogation of the
Missouri Compromise. He battled like a
giant againt the Lecompton Constitution,
and against the proposed purchase Of
Cuba. His ringing speech against the
abrogation of the Missouri Compromise
was styled, by Mr.. Greeley, in the Tri-
bune, THE New Declaration Of indie
pendence." Beaten there, he was among
the first to advocate, in 1854, the blend
ing of the Whig party with the Republi-
can party, and bonfres hared in every
town OF the Reserve when the new party
was successfully launched.
An incident which occurred very early
in Mr.. Wade's career. the particulars of
which we gather from his closest friends,
will, perhaps better than anything else,
illustrate the dauntless courage of the
man in this fierce conflict with the rep
resentatives of the slave power. The
Southern representatives and Senators
were then at the very height Of their
bullying period. Overbearing and inso-
| lent in the extreme. they met even the
/ faintest criticism from the North with
\ open insult, and with threats Of the du-
/ clio Such treatment was inexpressibly
exasperating to q man of Mr. Wade's
courage. lie was not by any means
duelist-he abhorred the practice-but
he was fighting man, as his Revolution
airy father had been, through every inch
of his powerful frame; and, moreover, he
was an unusually excellent shot Having
borne this bullying until endurance was
no longer possible, he arranged little
game with Anson Burlingame, to put an
end to it, Burlingame agreeing to back
him in any course that he should see ft
to pursue. A few days after, there came,
in open Senate another gross insult from
one of the Southern fire eaters" leveled
at the North Unfortunately. Thereup-
on Senator Wade caused il to be circu-
lated openly that If ever a Southern Sen
ator made such an attack as that upon
the State of Ohio he would brand him as
a liar. The remark came to the ears Of
the fire eaters" and created a sensation
1t was a question of "honah, by Cd,
sab, and must be Immediately attended
to. Senator Clayton, of Delaware was
selected or constituted himself, as the
medium Of satisfaction, and took occasion,
few days after, to speak, in open Senate
OF the people of Ohio as negro thieves"
Mr.. Wade at once sprang to his feet
with all the seeming of an enraged lion,
and in a voice that reverberated through
the galleries and corridors, denounced
the speaker as a willful liar. The sensa-
tion that followed may be imagined, but
can not be described. OF course, Mr.
Clayton's friend" called, very shortly,
upon Senator Wade to sec If he was pre-
pared to give satisfaction for his words.
The provisions OF the Code" required
that the answer to such question as this
should be respectful in its language-in-
deed, the friends were strictly forbid
den to bear back to their principals any
thing in the least nature insulting. But
Mr.. Wade cared as little for the "code"
as he did for the "ire-eaters, and proba.
bly, knew as little of it as he did of the
Talmud: Tell the id scoundrel,"
said he to Clayton's astonished messen-
ger, that he is a foul-mouthed black
guard. That is my message, sir" The
duel never came off. 1t was the plea Of
Clayton and his friends, and possibly an
honest one, that such language rendered
Wade unworthy, under the code, Of the
honor Of "a meeting;" but popular opin-
ion put very different Interpretation on
the sudden cooling of their wrath. Ger
tain it is that Wade was no more troub-
led by the "fre-eaters and the very
foremost Of them. Bob Toombs, found
occasion, later in the session, to compli-
ment Ohio, in one of his speeches, for the
personal character of her Senators.
Mr.. Wade's Senatorial career, through
out the trying hours of Mr. LincOln's adj
ministration, and the scarcely less excit-
able ones of the johnson interregnum,
must yet be fresh in mind to most Of our
readers. Mr.. Wade's attitude, through
out Mr.. Lincoln's first term, was similar
to that which lost him his State Senate
rial position in lS39-he was in advance
Of the people. He was not, however,
this time, in advance Of his constituency;
and il was not long. indeed, before the
people Of the North came solidly to the
place which he had taken before them
But in his bills-the first Of their nature
offered-abolishing slavery in the terrific
ries, and establishing negro suffrage in
the District Of Columbia. he moved more
rapidly than Mr.. Lincoln, with all the
conflicting opinions which it was neces-
saTy for him to consult could do, and
there arose, for a time, an antagOnism
between them-as the Manifesto Of Sen.
ator Wade and Henry Winter Davis bears
witness. History has since done ample
Justice to Messrs. Wade and Davis on the
one hand, to Mr.. Lincoln on the other
The former were right in theory the
latter was unqestIonably right in delay
ing the practice until such time as be
could carry the whole country with him.
It is well to remember that in the prin-
ciples Of reconstruction, it was not long
before Mr. Lincoln Tor rather the North
t.tal1fa vwb Ia aaFa1N vounhnI
the level Of the Wade Davis view.
Pending the wild career of Andrew
johnson. and the trial of his impeach-
ment, Mr.. Wade conducted himself with
admirable frmness and discretion. a
narrative of these stirring times would
require a volume of history. Mr.. Wade,
as President pro tsIHp0Te of the Senate,
would have been the Constitutional sue
cessor OF President johnson (there being
no Vice President), had the Senate sus-
tanned the impeachment; yet to his credit
it is recorded that in this, as in the
Senatorial campaign of 1871, he lifted no
finger, and spake no word in his own be
half Lacking, as the vote Of Guilty
did, but one single vote OF the two-thirds
requisite to sustain impeachment, there
can be little doubt that Mr.. Wade, by in
dications of his future course as Presi-
dent, could have controlled the result in
his own favor and that no shadow of
such a charge was ever laid against him,
is one of the brightest laurels in his ca
reer Of fame. As it was, sectional jeal-
ousies, and the exceeding weakness of
one man-Ross, of Kansas-was all that
kept Andrew johnson from deposition,
and Mr.. Wade from the Presidency
Senator Wade leaves behind him q
moderate estate for his wife and two
sons. 1t is an estate acquired~by a long
| life Of prudence and economy. No pub-
/ lie iobbery. not even any public or pTi-