The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-11-01

The great enthusiasm with which
Senator Lamar has been received, and
the marked appreciation with which
his utterances have been greeted,
wherever he has appeared in the
State, are only new instances OF
the flckleness of public opinion. One
wear ago he was the best abused man
i'm the State. His enemies, though
few, were noisy and aggressive; his
friends, though numerous, were for
the most part shrinking and silent.
To-day the other side has been heard,
and he is praised, approved and adj
mired until, were such thing new to
him, his head might well lose its ac-
customed level. This change Of sem
timent, however, is not the result of
impulse or caprice. 1t is due in some
measure to the logic of events-that
silent sort of argument which con-
vinces us unawares-but in greater
measure still, to the flood of light
which Mr.. Lamar's speeches have
thrown upon his public course, bring
ing it into full view as one consistent,
harmonious whole, modelled upon
principle and truth, reason, modcra-
ton and justice, and tending with
uniform steadiness Of aim and pur-
pose to one preconceived and prede-
dermined end. The people see that
injustice has been done him in the
past and are determined to undo it
and this the more that he has borne it
bravely, patiently and uncomplain-
ingly. If the cause of this injustice
were sought out we think it would be
found in feeling of distrust early en-
gendered against him by few indi-
viduals who found in his Sumner
speech the convenient occasion for the
qualification of their personal resent
ments. In the state of feeling then
prevalent, the motives of that speech
We're easily misrepresented, and it was
used with success to excite the sus-
picion that he was aspiring to Federal
honors-the Vice Presidency or some
thing of the sort-and was therefore
counting Northern popularity With
the lapse of time the error and wrong
of this impression have become man.
ifest, and the farsightedness, the moral
courage and the answering fidelity
of his course stand out so conspicu-
ously and convincingly as to shame
the suspicion thus inconsiderately en-
tertained. While he has wisely avoid
ed terminating speech, and, by APP
peals to reason and justice, has sought
to allay sectional excitement and an
imosity there has been no servility
to public opinion, either Northern or
Southern. The fact that this feeling
of distrust, of which we speak, ever
gained Judgment in the public mind
was, however, somewhat Mr.. Lamar's
own fault. He relied too much upon
the faith of his constituents. Perfectly
conscious, himself of the purity and
fidelity of his motives, he expected
them to be equally so, and required
them, to too great an extent perhaps,
to take him, as it We're, upo" trust.
When misunderstood, or misrepre-
sented, he left them to work out his
justification, without assistance or eX-
PLANTATION from him-pOssibly in the
too confiding belief that they would
take care of his interests while he was
taking care of theirs. 1t sometimes
happened that he overestimated their
to resist the combined argu-
ments of unfriendly critics and I'M
favorable circumstances.
Reviewing now, however, his six
years of public service, the people must
be satisfied that they could not have
had a representative either more faith
full or more capable. Indeed if
criticism can be passed upon Mr.. La
mars career, it is that he has been too
sectional-that while he has not been
false to the Union nor recreant to any
obligation or duty, he has de-
voted his energies and great abilities
almost exclusively to the interests Of
one section of the country. This might
be the criticism of Northern man,
though in view of the feeble and OPP
pressed condition of that section, it
would be very ungenerOus one.
The impression that Mr.. Lamar as
Dired to Federal honors was always as
3enseless as grOundless. No liv-
ng SOutherner can ever be President
and as to the Vice Presidency, it is
we'll known to his more intimate
friends that he would not accept that
las gift" 1t is a ''pige0n hole" into
which no man of his abilities and |
for usefulness would care to :
be thrust. 1t is suited only to men Of
the calibre of Hannibal Hamlin and ,
William A. Wheeler. Mr.. Lamar ,
may doubtless be credited with ambi- {
ton, but it is of that finer sort (which
makes men great and pure" and
while if he lived in Northern State,
there is no place in the government to 4
which he might not aspire, as it is,
the only hOnOrs within his reach are
such as are to be found in the graft
tude of country and the approval Of
But if it were otherwise,
his course would be the same. AS
Sydney Smith said of Macaulay: ale
is incorruptible. You might lay rib
bOns, stars, carriers, wealth, titles be-
fore him i'm vain. He has an honest,
genuine love of his country, and the
world would not bride him to bctray
her interests"