The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-05-21
KILLED THEMSELVES.
American Congressmen Who Have Com
mitted Suicide.

American Congressmen Who Have Com
mitted Suicide.
The Chicago Tribune says: Riddles
suicide is simply the last of a list which
begins with the foundation of the gov
ernment. His is similar, in some re-
spects, to that of James Blair, Repre-
sentative from South Carolina, in the
Twenty-frst, Twenty-second and Twen-
ty-third Congresses. During the first
session of the Twenty third Congress
Blair attended the Washington Theatre
one night, and, being displeased with the
actors, fired a loaded pistol at them, for
which he was arrested and fined S5.
Physicians testified that he was under
the influence of brandy and opium, taken
to alleviate pain from chronic rheuma-
tism. Three weeks afterward, April |,
1884, he blew out his brains with y pis-
tol at his boarding house, on Capitol
Hill.
Similar, in many points of the case,
was that of Felix G. Mcconnell, a Re-
preventative from Alabama, in the
Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Con-
crosses, who committed suicide in a fit of
delirium, in the St. Charles Hotel, WASH
ington, by stabbing himself in the abdo-
men and then cutting his throat, Septem-
ber 10. 1916.
Elijah Hise, Representative in the
Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses,
committed suicide at Russellville, May
8, 1875. Hise was the Democratic candi-
date for Lieutenant-Governor of Ken
lucky in 1896, but was defeated; was
Charge d'Afaires at Guatemala from
March 81, l849, to June 80, l849; was
Presidential Elector on the Buchanan
and Breckenridge ticket in 1856, and
served in Congress from December 3,
1866, to March 3, 1869.
John White is to be added to the list.
He was born in 1905; received an ac:l-
demic education; studied law; was ad-
mitted to the bar, and practiced at Rich
mond, Ky; was elected Representa-
tive from Kentucky in the Twenty
fourth Congress, as Wing, without
opposition, and was successfully re-
elected to the Twenty-ffth, Twenty-six,
Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth
Congresses without opposition, serving
from December 7, 1885, to March 3,
ls45; was Speaker of the House during
the Twenty-seventh Congress; was
Judge of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit
of Kentucky; committed suicide at
Richmond, Kentucky, September %,
lS45.
James G. Wilson, United States Sena-
tor from New Jersey, from December 4,
1915, to 1921, was severely injured in
1882, by imagining in a fit of delirium
that his house was on fire and throwing
himself from second. story window.
He had been editor of the True Ame7i-
can; clerk for many years of the State
House of Representatives; was appointed
by President Monroe postmaster at Tren-
ton, and at the time Of his fit of delirium
was a member of the State House.
William Ramsey, of Pennsylvania, is
another Congressman who died by his
own hand. Born in 1910 he was attached
to the American Legation at London,
under Minister Stevenson; was elected
Representative from Pennsylvania in
the Twenty-siXth Congress as a Van
Buren, Democrat, serving from Decem-
ber 2, 1889, to October II, 1910, and re.
elected to the Twenty-seventh Congress.
A few weeks afterward he committed
suicide Mt Barnum's Hotel, Baltimore,
by shooting himself in the ri ght eye.
John Ewing, of Indiana, was found
dead in his room ut Vincennes, Indiana,
in December, 1857. He had been Re-
preventative in the Twenty-third and
Twenty-fifth Congresses, serving until
1889, and had previously served in the
State Senate. On his table was found
the following epitaph, apparently just
written by himself:
"Here lies man who loved his friends,
His God, his country and Vincennes.
A mournful and tragic suicide was that
of Alfred P. White, of Ohio. White had
been q member of the Twenty-eighth
Congress, and State Treasurer, appointed
to fill vacancy caused by the removal
of Treasurer Gibbs, for fraud. In 1862 he
was appointed, by Secretary Chase, Col
lector Internal Revenue for the Columbus
district, was subsequently detected in
contraband cotton speculationS, was
found to be a defaulter, and committed
suicide by taking poison on the grave of
his two children, at Columbus, Ohio,
August l, 1865.
James Henry Lane, twice United States
Senator from Kansas, serving up to 1866,
committed suicide by shooting himself
near Fort Leavenworth, at the end of his
term of office.
James S. Johnson, Representative from
kentucky in the Thirty-frst Congress,
committed suicide, while suffering under
mental depression caused by ill-health,
at Owensboro, Ky, Feb. l2. 1873.