The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1886-07-29
..,.. .s,.- HALsTEAD ON LOGAN.;I8 .iC A. =
Republicans by the Ears, and Whole
some Truths Given.
HaIsteads EpIstle in the Commercial
Gazette Wherein He Gives "a
Lament for Logan"

General Logan speech in the Payne
case will eurpTise all but his old friends.
Those OF us WAo have known him long,
and have been anxious for his sake
MANY times, knew what was likely TO
happen If heshould try to address the
Senate as q lawyer and gentleman.
The consciousness Of being candi-
date for the Presidency has not improV.
ed Logan, and has caused an excess or
emotion that may impair his reserved
forces. His selection of the Cincinnati
ENQUIRER as the fountain from which
toirrigate the soil upon which his crop OF
future greatness Is to be grown, does
not testify to his increasing enligh!ea
ment ss a politician. -.
The waste OF the time Of the Senate
In the effort to show that the demand By
the State of Ohio upon that body to In
yestigate the corruption In the Payne
case, Is personal matter Of the editor
of the COmmerclal-G Gazette, is second
hand foolishness, aid the insignificance
of such an imputation Is as nearly in
credible as anything can be that has
come to pass.
Senator Logan has had his share Of
good fortune, but his inward resour ces
do not seem to have conferred happiness
upon him. He has long indulged the
idea that the Republicans OF Ohio have
not been good to him. Their sin has
been that they have had other prefer.
ences for the Presidency. They thought
they could do that without disparsge-
ment of General Logan.
Take the individual case of Mr. Hal
stead, who is regarded by the Senator
as desperately wicked. He gave in the
Cincinnati Commercial the first pOliti-
cal boom that Logan got after his mill
itary services, by reporting his Carbon
dale speech; always defended Logan
from the ceaseless charges made against
him by the COnfederates; invariably
spoke Of him as soldier with respect;
urged at the Chicago Convention of
1884 that Ohio should speak early and
cordially for the nomination of Logan
to the Vice Presidency; supported him
vigilantly and with energy through
the critical months Of the contest that
ended In his reelection to the Senate;
congratulated him upon that election,
and quoted it with praise and celebra-
tlon as an inspiring precedent for the
Republicans Of Ohio; reviewed respect
fully his book on the great con-
spiracy, and commended 1t for the
strength there is in 1t, while Others
only saw its weak points; attempted to
save him from a blunder in the Payne
case, by conveying to him the inward
truths of it; telegTaphed from New
York when Logan had blundered an edi-
tOrial that was studiOusly constructed
to give him another chance, and that
took the place of one that was far more
severe In its terms reported the mem0r-
ial and resolutions of the Republican
editors of Ohio without personal re-
flectiOn upon the three Senators who
had gone astray; and offered the possl-
BILE explanation for them that they did
not know what we of Ohio knew, or
they could not have done so.
This with some kindly meant ObseTVa-
tions about the rhetoric of Logan, with
view of bringing him gently to know
that the vociferatiOn Of extravaganza Is
not eloquence, Is the record that the
Senator finds 80 hostile and offensive.
The only way to amend it Is to speak Of
him with less consideration, but this
natural tendency will be restrained,
even when the exuberance Of his vanity
and the fury of his temper are most
manifest, by the remembrance that he
was gallant soldier, the representa-
tive leader of the young men Of the
west, who swOre the Mississippi River
should run free under the old flag to the
sea, and have kept their cath.
The Senator thought 1t becoming to
read from the Commercial-Gazette, and
to hold up to the admiration of Senators,
the galleries and mankind, one OF Mr..
Montgomery Phister's cartoons; and to
have read Mr.. Halstead's letter of Feb
ruary, 1868, to Governor Chase, thus
stimulating, we trust, the evolution OF
the truth of history.
Whether the Senator ever wrote any
private letters that would make mighty
interesting reading, we do not know.
Probably be did not. But il ne had been
at home waiting and writing Instead. OF
at the front fighting during the war, be
might have brOken the accustomed re-
straint of his severe style of expression
long enough to have produced some
thing picturesque.
II Is to be said of the Chase letter that
it was written on One of the glOOmiest
days Of the war, in the belief that tht
Army of the Mississippi was wasting
away in the swami IS under incOmpeteni
leadership, and that with il would fail
the cause of the country. and Ia the
hope that Secretary Chase could be star
tied to do something that might hell
those that we're ready to perish.
The writer Of that letter does no
plead youth or innocence 10 Its produc
tiOn, but 1t was not as many years be
fore its date as Logan is older than thu
writer, that the scintillating libeTalit!
of the statesman Of Illinois flashed IL
the defense of the fugitive slave law
and declarations of personal willingness
to aid in the enforcement of its pro
visions.
Called before the country on thi
theme, Halstead has now to say that few
were slower than he to know the Saving
value of the services of Lincoln ant
Grant, and no one more grateful 70
them, but he believes in the peopl
above all presidents, the army befor
the generals, the greatness and glory o
the maDV rather than the feW,-M, H.