Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-08-18
A Republican Prodigy.

A Republican Prodigy.
1t has long been claimed by many
close political observers that a Repub-
lican politician with conscience has
not yet been produced. There have
been many Republicans in office who
pretended to have consciences, and
talked as if they were always guided by
the purest and highest motives; but
when it came to the pinch the apparat-
us to which their conscience was at
tached was always out of working or
der, and they acted just as men without
conscience did. 1t can no longer be
said, however. that the Republican par
ty is without a man who has a con-
science which is really and truly part
OF his organization, and which will dis
play itself when occasion requires. 1t
is not one of those infinitesimal con-
sciences which can only be discovered
by microscope of extra magnifying
power. and of which it has been said
that thousand would find room to dis
port themselves on the point of a fine
cambria needle. On the contrary, it is
exceedingly large and well developed,
can be readily distinguished with the
naked eye, and requires at least the
broad surface of the end OF knitting
needle upon which to find room for the
sole Of its foot
The remarkable possessor of this
unique appendage goes by the name of
Calkins-William H. Calkins. And if
you ask what State he halls from, our
answer it shall be, he comes from Inji-
amy and its famous yeomanry. He
was, however, born in Ohio, so that
State shares with Indiana the honor
of having had a Calkins. Calkins is
Chairman of the House Committee
on Elections, and it was his con.
nection with this Committee which has
enabled his conscience to shine so con-
spicuously as to illuminate as with an
electric light not only the halls of Con-
gress but the corridors of the Capitol,
while from the snow-capped peaks OF
the Rockies to the sands of Florida, and
from the pine-stumps of Maine to the
haunts OF the cowboy in Arizona,
flashes have gone in Il zig-zag course
like forked lightning.
The particular occasion which called
Calkins' conscience into action was the
contested election case of Small as.
Tillman from the Fifth District OF
South Carolina. Nominally, the duty
OF the Chairman, as of the other mem
bers OF the Committee on Elections, is
to deal with judicial fairness with the
cases submitted to them. Calkins was
! perfectly familiar with the facts in the
election case, and he was convinced, SC
he says, that neither Smalls nor Till
man was entitled to the seat, and that
it would be q fraud upon the people to
seat the former. Now we come to the
workings of the marvellous conscience
OF Calkins. If he had risen In his
place in the House and made strong
speech in support of the position he
held, he might possibly have convinced
sufficient number of his colleagues to
have prevented the consummation of
the outrage involved in the seating
OF Smalls. But, although his conscience
tried hard to assert itself, he restrained
IL by mighty effort, and had so far
succeeded in smothering it that
when the vote was taken on the resoiu-
ton to seat Smalls, the enthusiastic de-
sire OF the Republicans on all sides Of
him to steal a seat which they could not
carry oyercame him, and under the in.
fiuence of the overpowering force of
numbers he Joined in the rush which
was to sweep Smalls into the House over
all obstacles, legal moral and parlia-
mentary. As soon as he recovered his
breath from the unwonted excitement of
the moment, the still, small voice of his
conscience asserted itself, and then il
was that the grand illumination of which
we have spoken took place Pale but
resolute, steadying himself by his chair,
and with voice trembling with emo
ton, he said that the vote did not truly
represent his conscientious convictions.
and he therefore asked that it be
changed and recorded in the negative.
which was done.
After this magnificent exhibition let
it never again be said that no Republic
an has a conscience. AS when a man
who has been engaged in a robbery, by
afterward saying that stealing is a crime.
shows that he is good, honest citizen.
so Calkins, by his action in this matter.
shows that he has political conscience
not to be despised in the day of Small
things. Free Press.
One of the Dundrearv vis;tors 60