Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1885-12-26
AN EXAMPLE OF DOMESTIC VIRTUE.
from the st. Louis Globe Democrat.

rom Tue SG. LOulH 1lODc-DtmOCTdG
Whatever may be said in criticism of
the late Vice-President Hendricks po-
litical career and teachings, it is a
pleasure to recognize the fact that i'll
his domestic life he furnished an exam
pie of virtue that was an honor and an
advantage to his country. We hear
so much about the alleged moral laxity
of public men that it is we'll worth
while to stop in presence of such a
beautiful story of matrimonial fidelity
and felicity as is here brought conspic-
uously and ~pathetically to the attention
Of the country. MIR. Hendricks mar
ried his wife at the very beginning of
| his course as a politician, and after
forty years of close companionship and
multiplied trials and temptations he
| still remained to the last her loyal and
devoted lover, careful Of her smallest
Comfort and eager to deserve her con-
idence and win her smiles and praises.
A man must have been good at heart
who bore himself thus faithfully and
tenderly in such a respect. He must
have been more than merely good, in
deed; for it requires courage and in
telligent caution, also,- to sustain a part
of that sort with perfect and shining
success. Mr.. Hendricks was never a
sentimental man, as such a designation
is commonly understood. His habits
of thought and feeling were severely
logical and practical; his emplOyments
and ambitions were all ola kind that
forbade the idea of indulgence in poetry
and romance. And yet he contrived
to keep fresh and sweet and free from
every faint of suspicion that quality of
nature which linked him, as il does all
men more or less, to the knights aud
troubadours of ancient days. Lie
would probably have laughed at the
suggestion that any special credit was
due him for loving his wife i'll an hon
est and single minded way, or that his
well known excellence as a husband
was any special assistance to him as a
politlclan; but if the truth could be
known it would unquesLionably appear
that he owed much of his popularity
and influence to that very thing. His
domestic life was so correct 80 earnest,
so impressive, that the people believed
i'll him ever when it seemed impossible
on other accounts to trust the integrity
of his motives and intentions, though
he may never have realized it.
Cali the world loves a lover" Emer-
son assures us, and the spell is just as
as strong wsen the lover happens to be
a welded one as when he is simply
Romeo at juliet balcony. The Amer
lean people in particular, with all their
noted interest in the purely material
issues of life, are quickly and appreci-
atively attracted by a show of old
fashioned Affections case OF simple
and steadfast marital attachment
where there might 30 easily be an in
STAN of broken vows, of q clOseted
skeleton, of coarse and bitter scandal.
Mr.. Hendricks was spared many a hard
blow from his adversaries, we may
easily believe, because they respected
him so highly in this connection, and
were SO loath to call in question the
public character of a man who IN his
private relations was SO worthy of hon.
or and imitation. He made friends the
more readily and held them the more
securely by reason of what might have
been dismissed with a shrug as a bit
of sentiment only, but which was real
ly regarded as a proof OF fundamental
veracity and general goodness, of
sound and wholesome manhood.
1t is not true, though it occasionally
seems so. that the people of this coun-
try are disposed to look ~leniently upon
domestic delinquencies in high places
or in lowlier spheres either for that
matter. They may appear to pardon.
or at least to tolerate, such Offenses
now and then, but in fact they have no
sympathy with them, and if they over
look them at all it is under protest and
with a forfeiture of confidence in the
offenders that can never be wholly re-
covered. That man who supposes
that a definite and substantial public
reputation can be achieved in spite of
with the domestic virtues, is
sadly mistaken. He may succeed for a
time and to a certain extent, but he
will inevitably 60 down. In the nature
of thugs, a point must be reached
where the moral test will be applied to
him with 8 fatal result. Whatever he
may think about his right to order his
private affairs to his own liking, he has
a responsibility which he cannot long |
evade, and popular opinion will exact, |
i'll the end an overwhelming penalty,
as not a few have had the misery to
find out within easy recollection
In point of everyday prudence, of
ordinary policy, to say nothing OF duty,
it is profitable for a man to cultivate
the home virtues, to obey the demands
of domestic honesty, to be in love with
his wife. The people'are vigilant OBJ
servers in this respect, and their ap-
proval is certain where approval is
earned, as their condemnation is sure
amt unsparing where guilt is present.