The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-11-14
CHE WAS A GOOD FIGHTER"
A Southerner's Opinion of the Late Senator
Chandler

N OpiniOn Oh the Late senator
Chandler.
[denry watterson, in the Louisville Courier
Journal
The chief of the Stalwarts is dead.
His light, if not remarkable for its brill
lance, burned fiercely, reaching white
heat, and goes out suddenly enough to
startle the country. Men have not been
used to contemplate the rugged old par
tisan from the standpoint of death.
There was that about him, Indeed, which
seemed to defy all the elements. He
was fighter, and fighter from Bitter
creek, pretty high up, North side. He
had the faculty of giving and taking
hard blows; was sincerely wrong
headed; was fearlessly outspoken; was,
personally, upright and of kind,
placable an | even genial nature. His
friends, of whom he had perhaps as
many as any man of his time, will la
ment his going; while, amid certain
sense of relief in his enemies, feeling
bordering on regret will mingle itself.
There are always traits to admire in
positive character; and, if it be true, as
true it is, that better men have lived
than Zachariah Chandler, it is also true
that very many worse, and very much
worse, men have lived.
1t would he an improperly in us to
say what we do not think or feel in re-
ferring to the deceased Senator. We
have known him long enough to take
just, if not an enthusiastic, estimate of
his personality, and his place in the pub
lie service; and he himself would be the
first, If he were alive, to scorn the
empty panegyric of funeral ceremony.
He did not deal in subterfuge. He had
the brave mans scorn, the honest mans
contempt, of canting and lodging. He
was always thoroughly in earnest and
spoke has mind out freely. 1t was his
opinion in 1860 that things had come to
such pass that "a little blood-letting,"
as he phrased it, would be good for the
body polite" He was, therefore, for
war. Though not a malignant man, or
even good hater, he had worked him
self up to distrust of all things and
all men Southern, and nothing was too
violent, nothing too questionable, which
promised to compass any design to
thwart them. He hesitated neither as
to the word nor the deed, holding the
end in all cases to justify the means.
Intellectually cross between old
Ben Wade and Oliver Morton. possess
ing somewhat of the burly wit and bluff
style of the one and the alert brain
power of the other, he was strong both
as an organizer and a speaker. There
was no nonsense about him. He went
straight for the thing in sight; and ne
generally came off with it. His meth
DDS were bad, and he made no bones
about them. His opinions were ex-
IRENE, and he advanced them on every
occasion with an aggressive force which
was rarely without effect. He was here
to command; and, so far as he cared to,
he always did command.
There is no stain upon his
private honor. His life was prosper
Gus, and there is no reason to believe
that his home was not happy. He never
betrayed friend. He never struck an
enemy In the back. He was head
strong and boisterous. He did not set
himself as an example 10 the young
manhood of the country; but we cannot
say that he corrupted it.
In the history of his time he will
stand out conspicuously. His name
will be associated with a period of
gigantic corruption, which he did not
share. He was surrounded by a cluster
of politicians, whose baseness and n.y.
pocrisy he did not emulate. He fought
his own battle right out from the shout
der, giving no quarter and asking none.
He dies with his war-paint upon him,
and all his passions at their hottest, and
he will be taken to his grave amid the
MORNINGS and the plaudits of the
party, for which his services have been
very great. In no sense of the word
statesman, one whose love of country