Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1886-03-09
ANOTHER EPOCH OPENED.
The Passing Of a Generation.
New York Evening Post. !

New York Evening Post.
Beginning with the canvass of 1856
and ending with that Of 1880, fifteen
candidates contested for the Presiden-
cy, who belonged TO the generation
which brought on or carried through
the war. Buchanan and Fillmore
Lincoln, his three rivals in 1860,
Douglas, Breckenridge and Bell, and
his sole opponent In 1864, Mcclellan F;
Grant, and the men whom he defeat
ed in 1868 and 1872, Seymour and
Greeley; Garfield and Hancock, the
candidates in 1880, are all dead.
There remain of the whole list only
Fremont, no longer pathfinder"
Tilden and Hayes.
The conspicuous men of Lincoln's
Cabinet are mostly dead, like Be-
ward, Chase and Stanton, or in the
retirement OF old age, like Simon
Cameron "the war Governors" are
nearly all gone, or where a stray one,
like Curtin, of Pennsylvania, fingers,
no longer powerful the great leaders
In Congress before, during and im-
mediately after the war, like Charles
Sumner, Henry Wilson, William
Pitt Fessenden, "Ben" Wade, Oliver
p. Morton, Thomas A. Hendricks,
"Thad" Stevens and Schuyler ColfaX
are either dead or remain only as
political relics, like N. p. Banks and
Lyman Trumbull. In Congress To-
day sit but a few men who sat IN
that body before the war, and of
these few John Sherman and John
A. Logan alone retain commanding
position, while Secretary Lamar is
the only man in the Cabinet whose
political record dates back Of 1861.
There Is something remarkable
about the speed with which the po-
litical generation of the rebellion pc
riod has passed from the stage. The
contrast with the generation OF the
Revolutionary era renders 1t more
noteworthy. II is now barely twen-
ty-one years since Appomattox, and
yet nearly all the leaders III the
struggle are physically or politically
deceased. The Revolution ended In
1888, but il was not until 1925, forty
two years later, at the expiration Of
Monroe's second term, that the coun-
try ceased to elect Presidents who
had entered public life before or dur
ing the long contest which began in
1875. The Senate to which Monroe
addressed his last annual message in
December, 1894, contained several
men who had been soldiers in the
Revolutionary army nearly half a
century before, like Rufus King, of
New York, John Chandler, of Maine,
and Nathaniel Macon, of North Caro-
lima, and 1t Is easy to see that the pro-
portion of men still In active political
life who were actors In the revolu-
ton was, even at that long remove,
quite considerable. This was due in
no small measure TO the youthful
precocity OF these survivors, the SEN
ator Macon of 1915 to 1928 having
been only a boy OF Is when he left
princeton College in l775 TO enlist in
the patriot army, and the President
Monroe of 1917 TO 1925, but Is years
old when he joined the revolutionary
army. "The fathers" also escaped
the danger of assassination, which
removed two Of the four Presidents
who were elected between 1860 ant
1884.
Imperceptibly, but hardly less sure
| ly, the humber members of the wa
generation are departing along will
It's famous heroes. Many men will
help TO elect the next Congress in the
fall of 1886 who were not born whel
Lee surrendered, aud many NOR
who retain only boyish memories 0
the war which that event ended
The few surviving politicians of tina
age have lost their old audiences
The great majority of the men whom
they now address never shared in th
emotions aud the prejudices OF tn
rebellion epoch, and cannot be stirre'
by the most fervid appeals to passion
which, unlike their fathers, the.
have never known. The passing o
the generation which fought the wa
involves the dropping of war politics
The election of Grover Cleveland, th
first man ever nominated for tn
Presidency by either party who's
public career did not begin until lon
after the rebellion, marked the end
an era in our history as clearly
have the deaths since his inaugura
ton of Grant, Hendricks, Mcclellan
Hancock and Seymour. The natio
has entered upon another epoch
distinct from the last as that whic
}. begun with the inauguration of job
Quincy Adams, the first Presidel
who was not of the Revolutional
day, in 1926, and which ended in Il
organization of parties upon ne
lines.