The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1883-04-18

doaoS IaA oiSdlI5 was ~ l1idII
matched by the great founder of the
Democratic party, Thomas Jefferson
himself, in referring to Alexander Ham
ilton. In the war between Calhoun and
Jackson. as vile epIthets were hurled as
any modern street hoodlum can invent.
Foote drew a pistol on Thomas Benton
on the floor Of the senate, and though he
did not fire it, both did fire all the cpl
thets Of the BLACKBOARD vocabulary at
each other. General Jackson gave off
ces in reward to men whose wives called
upon a woman whom he had determined
should be visited, though something in
her career justly or unjustly caused la
dies to draw their skirts aside when they
met her on the street. Daniel Webster,
despite his mighty brain, was not a pure
man morally. He was great to the coun-
try, but weak to Webster, and he in the
grandest effort of his life was forced to
speak OF the infinite dishonesty and
c~oarseness of the partisan press. Sum-
ner, who posed as the original reformer,
was guilty of falsehood on more than
one occasion, and was in the habit of
~misquoting Greek and Latin to point an
illustration. Martin Van Buren, was
called the trickiest politician of his gen.
GRAFTON, and when James Buchanan was
Wv ChS4 lSda " LII SCfC11LiCIIC duu II
was assailed, he folded his hands and
said it was a pity but he could not help
it. Jefferson Davis, while representing
a state in the Union, was plotting to de-
stroy that Union for ever. George
Washington was as profane as a fish
woman when angry, and in laying out
the city OF Washington, managed to
make for himself more money out of
his real estate transactions than Boss
Shepherd did in improving the streets.
These examples might be indefinitely
extended. And all this happened when
the United States did not extend much
beyond the Mississippi river; when
there was nc telegraph; when it requir-
ed many days to hear in Boston from
Washington; when the people of the
country We're content with a weekly
newspaper which was weakly indeed:
when there We're no free schools and
when the general average of intelligence
did not compare with that of the pres
ent day; when the broadest vision of the
statesmen was necessarily limited to a
narrow field, and when half the time of
congress was devoted to the considera
ton OF new guarantees to keep property
in man secure. In 1860 we were told
that the greatness and glory of the re-
public had passed away; but in the
next four years there were grander man
ifestations of craftsmanship in the
White House and grander exhibitions
OF genius and valor in the field than
anything which the records of the first
revolution reveal. The armies north
and south fought better than the armies
of the revolution fought; the most reck-
less feat of Paul Jones does not compa
with what q unInr T,in11fonapt IN tho
navy performed, and the picture of Mel
son disappearing under the battle canopy
Of Trafalgar found a fitting parallel in
the form of Farragut dashed in the cross
trees Of the Hartford and advancing
torpedoes and against forts and fire
ships into Mobile Bay. Wellington's
at Waterloo was quite
equaled by Grants long death-lock in
the Wilderness, and the perfect exact
ness to which the science OF war can be |
reduced was as well demonstrated by |
Thomas at Nashville as it ever was by
Won Moltke. Finally, there never was
grander exhibition of cheerful forti-
tude backed by almost divine wisdom
than was displayed for four years by
Lincoln, and all the eloquence
of the past does not contain anything
more beautiful than half a dozen sem
which he pronounced at the dedi-
at Gettysburg. There is no lack
IF intellect, no lack of patriotism now.
There are but two dangers which threat
en- seriously the country, is the dan
ger which through the growing
,orruptions Of wealth the other through
The carelessness with which we permit
5he creeds and societies of pauper Europe
% grow among us.-SaH Lake Tribune.
Montana Abroad.