Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1882-10-07
Oh! ABSALOM ABsALOM!
From the sedalia Dispatch. Maj. Jno. N. Ed

on! ABsALOMI ABsALOM!
From the sedalia Dispatch. Maj. Jno. N. Ed
wards new paper.1
And so Col. John L. Crisp has an
nounced himself rs an independent can
dfdate for congress. In q political point
of view 1t we're better that he were dead,
for then those who chung to him through
good aud through evil report would
have no need to put on sackcloth, and
still less need to cover themselves with
ashes. Whatever else happened. they
believed him to be a demOcl atone
| Of those kind of democrats who know no
| difference between personal and politi-
| cal honor, aud who. wherever the stand-
ard OF the party was set up, would per-
ish beneath its folds rather than swerve
q hands breadth backward from the
fight. And 10 this age of looting and
spoils, it was something to have the
simple-minded loyalty OF such a follow
ing-something to know that there at
his side vas . splendid array of un.
p~urchasable material. men who looked
| apon Q boiler as little better than a
horse-thief. and O deserter as q criminal
who should be hung. Crisp had been a
soldier. The wal found him a boy and
left him q veteran. He knelt at Shelby's
feet for q battle blessing, and when he
arose he was a hero. Through storm,
and hunger, and darkness. and over
throw he kept the faith, and il, when all
was done there ever shone upon his
face . light at all it was the light of an
immaculate democracy. He loved poll
tics, and be embraced 1t. There was a
freshness, q pathos, aud a picturesque
ness about his character which attracted. |
and while all the prairie freedom OF the
west was in bis talk and speech, people
looked further and saw, or thought they
saw y party man who IN the days to
come would have something about his
leadership like the inspiration of Isaiah, |
aud something about his constancy like |
the devotion Of William Tell.
And now whatP Simply that some
old and battered veteran of the old
guard may say to another. as he rides
through the green and the gold OF the
Jackson county woodlands, "Well Crisp
has gone from among 10 forever.
Would you not as soon have expected
to see q father drive out his youngest
boon from under the shelter of the root
lreeP Oh ! Absalom ! Absalom!"
But. men and brethren, there is some
thing else to be done. The democratic
party was here before Crisp came ; 1t
will be after he is gone. 1t owes no
man living an Office. 1t must preserve
its organization and punish its desert
ers. 1t 10 Z beyond all question that
Crisp has been shamefully treated by a
faction of so.cslled democrats. 1t Is true
that he wa lied upon, slandered abused,
sold out, betrayed, and given over body
and soul, to the beaks and the talons OF
those vultures of politics who never
gorge themselves 30 voraciously to re-
plelion as when they feed upon the
bOldest. straightest, and bravest cham
piOns of democracy. 1t is true that
alter having been as fairly nominated
by his party as was ever George Wash.
ington. he Wal beaten bya bolter, and
the money of a lot oil boilers. 1t is true
that these same mast-fed boilers follow
ed him into his second CANVASS, and did
their worst or best to destroy his char
acter and degrade his name; but he |
stood like . rock amid it all and every true
democrat in the old eighth district stood
With him. Among his revilers and
%detractors then was not Alexander
Graves. The democratic party was not
his foe. He had q just cause OF com. |
plant against men, but zone against the /
organization to which he belonged, and F
% which belonged that following of his
than whom no man ever had one more |
unselfish and devoted. And it Is this
following that Col. Crisp relies upon to /
make his Independent race successful.
II he can carry them with him, the
bones of their dead comrades from !
Independence to the City of Mexico !
will stir in their collins. It he can |
carry them with him, good by, demo-
cratic faith, aud truth, and simple man.
hood In Jackson county. If he can |
carry them with him, how dare Col,
Crisp 10 upbraid Mr.. Samuel Sawyer
for his independent race tour years ago.,
and how dare = single one OF Crisp's
friends to offer Sawyer's treatment OF
Crisp as an excuse for his own contem- |
went fairly before the democrats of the
district. His campaign was manly,
open, and frank. He was fairly nomi-
attitude. precisely. that Crisp Occupied
when Sawyer beat him, and he who was
Crisp's true friend then, will be u COW.
oiu oAu Iouo&IuO ~ u0 now
his party allegiance for mere personal
qualification and votes against Alexan-
der Graves.
Col. Crisp has made the one great
mistake of bis life. He has destroyed
more idols that he himself would
scarcely care to know. He has Chilled
80 many ardent aspirations. and left the
serpent's trail ' so many things that
were precious and abiding. that 1t were
better, perhaps, that men in politics
should cease to have shrines and affairs.
And he will suffer most in the end. He
knows history. He delights in the
clash and the jar OF conflicting policies.
Made drunk by the glamour That was
around the name Of Benton, he has
lived the lite that was in him in a sort OF
political intoxication. Let him cast his
eyes owe the whole field of his reading,
observation, and experience. and
answer to his own heart whether he can
remember q siagle hotter, or q single
candidate OF any sort who defied his
party and wounded it from behind when
it was hardest beset, who did not per-
ish miserably in the endP He Is mad
now, and thinks he has q grievance.
Wait. Just 10 sure as truth is truth,
and political manhood something else
beside one huge appetite for office. the
finish OF it all will be bitterness and re-
pentance.