The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1883-06-17

received his training At West Point the trutn
IL that in 1919. being then IA years Of age. and
totally ignorant Of an offlcer's or soldiers du-
ties. he obtained through his father twho. al
though civilian. had been intrusted with
Majors commission; the appointment OF cadet
in tho service OF tho United States
His fret opportunity Of learning somo-
thing about military tactics came In
March. 1918. whom he was made an Ensign
In the force collected at sacketts Harbor
These troops remained inactive until October
OF the same year. when they were placed undor
the command OF Gen. Wilkinson. then prepar-
ing the expedition against Montreal. which. We
scarcely mood remind tho reader. proved dis
astrous failure. In November. 1918. his father
died. and the Ensign OF Is wont home and never
again saw active service during the war. but
from the spring Of 1914 to the treaty Of Client
remained In garrison At Portsmouth. In
March. 1910. young Dix. then Il. be-
came aldo dec camp to Major-Gen. Jacob
Brown. then commanding the Northern Mill
tary Department OF the United States. Brown
himself. BY the way. was not q regularly
trained offlcer. but hnd boon originally .
militia General. In was in 1896 that Dix. then
holding q Captains commission. and being
Major BY brevet married daughter OF John j.
Morgan. a representative In Congress from tho
city Of New York. and a man OF wealth. Two
years afterward Major DIX left the army to act
as agent for his father in-lAw. who owned
good deal OF land in OtseEo county. At
CooperstoWn, whore he settled. he nomlnally
began tho practice OF the law; but We search
theso volumes In vain for the record OF any
cases won or fees received. although the diial
biographer grandiloQuently speaks Of some
years elapsing before he put on the robe Of
the iurist and entered on the higher duties Of
the politician and tho statesman"
The. .fact that Gen. Dix never earned any
money save by acknowledgements for short
period not long before the civil war. whom. for
tho sake OF his supposed political influence. he
was mace President OF a Western railway
implies. OF course. that he was frequently de-
pendent upon his father-in- for tho main
tenance OF his family. His biographer gives
us distinctly to understand that 1t was tho
pressure brought to bear upon him by Mr.. Nor
gan which constrained Con. Dix to accept tho
fusion nomination for Governor in 1S4S. DIR
Morgan Dix seems to think 1t necessary to ex-
cuse IN this way the Inconsistency Of his
fathers course in that year with his
subsequent subservionce to tho slave-
holding Democracy. up to tho timo when
his treatment In Mobile and New Orleans.
in the spring OF 1861. convinced him that the
men to whom he had sacrificed his convictions
in Mobile. by the way. trying to convince the
South that slavery was not In the least mennced
by the election Of Lincoln. when Fort Sumter
WINS fired upon. and ii was not until some time
afterward. he having meanwhile been virtually
chased out OF New Orleans. that he conceived
q sudden horror OF any action looking like an
insult to tho national flag. and sent to q
revenue official in the last named city tho we'll
known order which, by strange accident.
made tho man who had done his best to arrest
the free-soil movement after 184S-who had
helped to give New York to Franklin Pierce.
had held tho office OF city Postmaster under
Buchanan. and had voted for Breckinridge-
figure as sort of champion OF the party which
was to fight not only for the Union. but for
emanc ipation!
1t is inLisputable that Gen. Dix. who never.
until he was made u candidate for Governor by
the Republican party was elected to any Office
by tho people except once to tho modest post
OF Assemblyman. owed every step In his polit-
cal career to the good will OF the leaders Of the
Barnburner faction OF the New York Democ-
racy-of that faction which opposed the Hd-
mission OF Missouri. which resisted tho an
nexation OF Texas. which supported the Wilmot
proviso and which. but Tor Its betrayal Mt the
hands Of such chiefs as John A. Dix.
would have defeated the Nebraska bill. 1t
was to such men rs Martin Van Buren,.
Sias Wright. and Azariah G. Fiagg that John
A. Dix was indebted for his appointments rs
Adjutant- General OF the New York militia and
Secretary OF State and for his election to tho
United States Senate; and had no faithfully
chung to the doctrine laid down by them that
while slavery could not be disturbed in tho
States where 1t existed. it should not be per-
mitted to faint BOIL previously free. he would
have perceived that the fusion OF 1S4S betwoon
Barnburners. Democrats. Conscience Wings
and Free Soilcrs-a fusion which gave Dix
more votes for Governor than were OBJ
tanned by the regular Democratic candi-
date-was no blunder. but the newt
able outcome OF tho political situation.
the truo progenitor OF the Republican party.
which. eight years later. was to leap forth fall
grown. Had his fathor- law. Mr.. Morgan.
lived, we believe Gen. Dix would not have been
permitted to swerve from the consistent and
honorable part which he had taken in the up
rising Of the New York Democracy against tho
principles represented by Gen. Cass. But Mr..
Morgan died in 1si0. and the twelve years
which interviewed before the outbreak of the
secession movement hre the least creditable in
the life OF Gen. Dix. As regards the slavery
question. no renounced all that his teacher.
Silns Wright. had contended for. abjurod all his
OLD prOIeSSlOnS saw TIE SiNVenOlueTS Dr0Hk
down one by one all tho dykes which Northern
public opinion had sought to raise against tho
extension OF slavery to the Territories. and he
had not word OF protest or remonstrance
against anything except the failure of his task
masters to pay him the guerdon OF his labor
and his shame. Pierce. whom he had power
fully helped to elect by regulating everything
which Ind made his own course respccta-
BILE. promised him ono Office after another.
yet actually gave him nothing but tho position
of Sub-Treasurer In New York city. which the
ex-senator. humiliRted as he was. could not
stoop to flll and Buchanan thought services OF
Dix sufficiently well paid with the emo!umonts
OF the New York Post Office up to the final
hours OF his Administration. when. in order to
concints public opinion in tho only States
which still obeyed his Government. ii became
necessary to Ill his Cabinet with Democrats
whose strongest title to respect lay in the fact
that they had sometimes wavered la their oh
sequiousness to the Southern oligarchy. and
that the Shareholders had dstrusted them.
1t was because Mr.. Lincoln saw that he could
not fight the South with the resources OF a
single political party. that he must make fresh
converts at the North and that or
In that direction no must rcsuscita,e. II
possible. the old differences between the Barn