Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-09-25
No.269

Shields = jurist, statesman and soIdier-a
man whose long years of fidelity to his adopt
Cd country, and of bravery in her defense.
should have made all men forget where he
was born, and remember only the country and
cause for which he fought-a bill was intro
duced in the House authorizing the Presi-
dent to appoint the hoary and intrepid vete-
ran brigadier general in the United States
army, on the retired list, with rank and pay
from and after the passage of the act. It
was then known that that hero of three wars
the ex-supreme court judge of Illinois, the
only man who had ever represented three
States in the United States Senate,-was fast
approaching his end. The hands of
the grim spectre were stretching forth
to clutch the valorous frame that had defied
foreign foe and domestic traitor; the once
strong body, riddled with balls and SCARED
and scanned with wounds, was not to hold to-
gefher much longer. He had been stricken
with paralysis. To wounds and disease was
added one more misfertune-poverty. On
the bench as judge; in the
camp and on the march as
soldier; in the halls of public deliberation az
a maker Of his country's laws, he had been
what all ages and all nations have agreed is
Goods hoblest work, ,n-an honest man. Hs
had never despoiIed the people who repossd
their trust in him. He had never robbed
the enemy he conquered. No bribe had
stained the hands that had drawn patriots
sword. No improper Inducements, thinly
disguised as "fees, had procured the exer-
else of his influence with heads of corrupt
and oorrupting combinations. He never
bought nor was he ever presented with stock
N0TTnFQfTnnd M fx,%o 1&1 -o1
legislation to be modified by his voice and
his vote. For all these reasons, he was
poor man and his poverty was extreme.
The bill to place him on the retired list
would have furnished, at very small cost to
his country, comfort and security for the
very short period which his wounds would
permit him to live; and against that bill wes
recorded the vote of the soldier who ran
away from the battlefield to the politicians
spoils; of the know-nothing who opposed the
resolution sympathizing with the efforts of
the Irish people to obtain for themselves in
their own land the liberty they fought and
died to secure for us; andof the bigot who
voted to give public money to a religious
organization of Protestants and withhold il
from charitable organization of Catholic
women whose benevolence was administered
without regard to creed. James A. Garfield
rcowned his unworthy record by voting
against the bill which would have made
comfortable and contented the few remain
ing days of aged, brave, honest, notable,
poor, and sick James Shields! For this,
fellow citizens, make him President of the
United States.
You, especially, my Irish-American fellow
citizens, you, especially, are harangued by
demagogues to vote for him. You know his
record now. 1t was always consistent to-
ward you. From 1867 to 1879 he never
missed an opportunity to scorn your race
and to pour out his contempt on your aspira.
tions. His record is before you. The peo-
pie of the United States abhor intolerance,
ne matter who may practice it. The execu-
tive functions dignified by the elevated and
liberal spirit of a Washington shall never be
disgraced BY know-nothing and bigot.