New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-02
THE RECORD GRITTY YEARS
"REMINISCENCES OF A JOURNALIST.
BY CHARLES 7. CONGDoN.

.ur nays or THE KANSAS BILL.

THE DAYS OF THE KANSAS BILL.
A SENSITIVE sTATEsMAN-DR. NATHAN LORD AND
HIS sCHOOII-AN APOLOGY FOR PRo-sLAVERf
CIERGYMEN-FIRsT VISIT TO WARRINGTON
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF sLAvERY-A GREEK LIT
TER OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES CESAR DODGE
srEpuES 4. DoUGLAS-THoMAs D. ELIOT-PRO-
FESsOR HENRY
am not quite ready TO close these papers,
but among my readers there seems to have
been an impression that the title Ofmy twentieth
instalment. "Tbe Last Tribune Chapter" I'M
piled the last of the "reminiscences" Hall
score Of people have been good enough to write
to say that they are sorry; two or three news
napers have spoken handsomely aprOpos OF Che
finale: and. really, for several days have had
n sensation of reading my own obituary. l
hone that the wish was not father to the
Thought, and that nobody has felt that The vet
Gran was tagging superfiuous on the stage. But
if any one has been bored, + hasten to assure
him with the addition OF my most distinguished
consideration, that he may indulge in prospect
of speedy relief We are all sure to come to
"RequieScat in pace " at last.
/ had been writing about Washington all my
life, sticking large pins into dlstlnga9isnied
neonIe who sometimes bOwled at the InftlctlOn
in somewhat Undignifed way, ana sOmetlmeS.
for which respected them, took 10 notice or
the SURGICAL SORROW. L no HOb lHuCIl hhC puDilO
men WHO whine. Here is yellow letter which
have taken from its plgeOn-hole, IN which tile
writer who was in his day very dIStlngulshed
man. and Senator OF the United States, as
well as Governor OF one OF them, assures me
that he is much obliged to me for defending
bin, as now see clearly that had no right TO
do. He had made al awful bunder at a mosf
critical time he had not voted, In tdct ne was
not in his place, when he should nave peen IN
his place and should have voted for during Ills
absence one of the most mOmentOus questions
was put to which the Senate OF the united
States was ever called to respond. lie was so
distinguished that i do not dare to mention MS
name. il was evident that he wrote IN most
melancholy frame of mind. Why should he
have thanked me i'll rather an abeet way, Tor
merely doing what supposed at the tlme was
an act of simple justlccf lie SAID that nc han
few fr1ends left; that nobody ever spoke wen
of him, which was not precisely true; that his
health was far from good; that lie was absent
from the Senate at the great moment Tor eXcel,
lent rcasODS-sanitary, think they were; ana
that-but never mind the rest! why should
public men write such letters to gentlemen OF
the press? Why shOn.d God, in his infinite
wisdom have given them spinal column IL
they are never to use It'll Politics az the tlme
of which / am writing We're in much simpler
state than at present. The great Heart of the
land was putting categorical questions to its
servants there was but little need Of asking
them more than whether they were upon the
side of Freedom or Slavery. All what a beau
tiful Issue that was! What chance there was
for putting great people into corner! Some
times, when am thinking to myself how neatly
it was possible to pin the doughlace ana 10
throw the trimmer intol perfect stutter OF eX1
plana1ions, burst into great guhaw, and find
nothing in Rabelals, nothing In Swift, more
amusing. 1t is all over now tn. country VIII
have no such question again before II IN my
time mems souls are not tried III that way IN
every generation; and even now feel sort
of sympathy for my friend, the Senator OF
whom have just spoken. When one wants to
BIZ President as he did, 1T 10 so hard TO act as II
one were not demOraized by the. feVersh
hunger; though why anybody should want to
be President is more, very much more, than L
know. Are there not other ways OF getting our
names indelibly inscribed upon the ledgers of
Fame? But enough OF this depression!
went to Washington in 1856 upon melodioqs
business There was a. highly respectable
Creek letter society called The Delta-Kappa-
Epsilon which in arranging for Its annual
meeting in that city, was lmprudent enough 10
ask me to deliver poem before it; and this in
yitation also was imprudent enough to accept
/ never could understand why the boys sent
for me. do understand why, some years alter,
the Dartmouth College young gentlemen, While
the land was shaken by civil war, asked me TO
perform for them the same metrlcal service !; for
I had written divers sharp things about their
pros Slavery President, Dr. Lord, and these COL
fege lads always like to have eyll spoken OF
their dignltaries. This last mentioned was to
me most pleasant occasion. 1t would nave
been so il it had only brought me the Satlsf4c-
ton of listening to the Grafton which was de-
lvered by Mr., George William Gurus. ms
was the second time in which had followed
him with poem--the other being when read
some verses before the Mercantile Library AS
sociation IN Boston. But | deviate still from
my Straightforward way for the sake g. OF mem mem
tioning the entire kindness and old-tashioned
courtesy with which | was received by DE-;
Nathan Lord, the President of the College, and
by his charming family. Nothing has aston
ished me more, in my newspaper career, tnan
the facility with which men forgive the caustlc
things which newspapers PRINT Of them. Dr.
Lord had no sort Of scTuple about saying that
he believed human slavery to be a divine lnstl-
tuition. He published little pamphlet In which
he adopted the SOcratic method, and asked the
philanthrOpists q great number OF hard ques-
tons Whoever suppOseS that they were easy
to answer upon the side of emancipation, has
probably never read this tough, llttle brochure.
When your logic Is in your heart, anu when
your love of humanity is boundSand hampeied
and limited by constitutional obligations the
DIR. Lords with their teazing little interro2a-
tories always have you at disadvantage. do
not mind saving that OF all the Doctors of
Divinity by me encountered in that memorable
struggle, this Doctor was the least easily
handled &c. thinking all fair in war, ! had re-
course to ridicule, and III the Ight utinS, II Is
not saving much to aver that |, who knew less
than the Doctor had forgotten, had u little the
best of the battle. 1t is so easy TO make havoc
of most respectable PERSONS choicest respect
abilities And when the Doctor, beamlng mildly
through his spectacles, treated me ms il had
not mn hour before been rib-roastng him Gas |
thought) in the most whitening decasyllablics,,
began TO suspect that he was of peculiarly
forgiving disposition, unless, indeed, was a
very feeble satirist. 1t is pleasure to me to
nav tbis tribute to a Gle, gyman Of the Old
school, who was strong and sold and consistent
in his error, and who could do something more
than gable over and over again the misused
formula, Cursed be Canaan" or the apology
for the sum Of all .yillauics, that it made lis
victims happy and religious. The best way to
handle bull is to take him by the horns. Or.
Lord was all wrong, but he was manfully
about the old orthodox theology, but at any
a rnte IL made men speak their mind, and gave