The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1879-05-15
George D. Prentice.

johnson, Secretary Of State, of Ken
. lucky, in relation to the late George ID.
Prentice and the scandalous stories
which have recently found such extern
sive circulation touching his alleged sale
Of himself to the Confederates in 1861.
AS to what actually TRANSFERRED in the
old Louisville Journal office, there is but
one thoroughly, competent and well-in-
formed witness now alive, Paul Il. Ship
man; for we take it that neither Mr..
Osborne, one of the proprietors, nor Mr..
Calvert, an employee of the counting
room at that time, is fully conversant
with the facts
The real power in the Journal in
those days was the late Isham Hender-
son. He was a man of great ability,
sagacity and force of character. He
had come to the rescue Of Mr.. Prentice
at critical period, and substantially
owned two-thirds Of the paper. He was
an original, unfinching Union man, and
our understanding has always been that
Mr.. Shipman and himself, the latter
being something more than what is
vknown now as managing editor, acted
together from very early day in
watching and resisting Mr.. Prentice's
Southern leanings Of what did actu
ally occur, Mr.. Shipman, the survivor,
is alone qualified to speak with assur-
ance; though we can truly say, having
often talked with Mr.. Henderson on
the subject, after Mr.. Prentice's death,
and, if our memory is not at fault, hav-
ing also talked on the same subject with
Mr.. Shipman during Mr. Prentice's life,
that neither of them charged Mr.. Prem
tice with receiving any money, or be-
lieved that he had received any; and, as
both Mr.. Henderson and Mr.. Shipman
were possessed of their senses, it is not
likely that they were deceived.
That Mr.. Prentice's inner self was
Southern there can but little doubt. He
was prominently sentimentalist. His
wife was Southern. His own nature
and habits were Southern. His head
and heart were divided. One went one
way, the otherthe other. His judgment,
which was good, told him the South
could not win. 1t told him that safety
lay in the Union, not out of it. All
else took the ELUSIVE side of the battle.
He was in Despair, and it drove him to
Z additional excuses. On this point,
however, mistakes should not be made;
though hard, he was an occasional
drinker, only; and, the greater part OF
his time, n hard worker. He could do
more in an hour than most men in a
day, and then he INDUCED himself, and
never courted obscurty No man ever
saw him indecent or disorderly; though
many have seen him drunk; and, since
this phase can no longer be CLOSED over,
it should be stated that his fatal passion
was not at all convivial but disease,
which, when he was disappointed or
fretted, attacked him irresistibly.
1t is a sad thing to say, but it ex-
plains much that may have happened.
He was hopeless. He was wretched.
He was not himself We do not know
that he did; but he may have given way.
One thing, however, we do know; he
was possessed of little venality as any
man who ever lived He had not the
consciousness of the value of the use of
money. Anybody might stick his hands
into his pocket and take what he wanted,
and everybody did. His own wants
were absolutely contemplate. We
venture to say that he spent less on him
self than the humblest of his employees.
Always meanly clad, always poorly fed,
always transformations, Re literally spent
nothing, saved nothing. Though he
:. earned large sums, he was perpetually
behindhand in his money affairs, as
dependent and as hopeless as a baby.
He was wit. He was poet He had
no convictions; he had inspirations
merely. His heart led and his head
followed; and the nearest he ever came
to principle of action was a prejudice,
which he sometimes cherished with
whimsical pertinacity. He was person
ally brave and transparent, and if he were
living now, would tell the whole story
without equivocation or reserve, and good
or bad, in an English style and idiom
which would captivate every reader.
The facts are not known to us, and
even if they were, it is not in our pow
rxs,.o xko,.~ Ia, would. hut . n.