San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-06-20
THE OLD PATHFINDER.

| was w WIZ 'Si''NA ~
terday and received a very warm and
generous welcome. Modest and sensi-
BILE as ever, he did not trespass upon
the time of the convention and re-
sumed his seat after expressing his
| qualification at the welcome received,
and noting the strides made by the
party of Progress and Reform" since
making its first illustriOus campaign
in 1856, under the battle cry of Ere
mont and Freedom" The presence of
this old republican pioneer at the
national convention reminds one most
pleasantly of the progress made by
the party in these thirty-two years,
no less than of the stirring events
| transpired since Fremont lead the
'forlOrn hope" of Freedom against the
intrenchments of slavery defended by
all the force, moral and material, of a
mighty nation. Since those days
what has not this "forlOrn hope" ac-
complished? 1t has revOlutionized a
continent, rewritten the history of a
great republic, reformed all its inter-
nal policy and greatly changed its eX-
terror relations. 1t has brought gov
eminent to the bar of moral quality,
and made humanity a recognized
thing in the high places of national
authority. 1t has elevated labor to
the dignity of self respect, dethroned
the idea of serfdOm that attached
thereto, and is today battling for the
rights of that labor and the protection
of all American labOrers with every
power and faculty of its enlarged and
growing nature. 1t has enfranchised
millions from body slavery, the task
mastership of the slave pen, and the
auction block, and the cOffle, and is to-
day endeavOring to free their minds
from the clouds of ignorance which
have envelOped them, 10! these centu-
ries of unavailing pain and unrequit-
ed toll. What memories must have
thrOnged upon that convention as the
''Old Pathtindern stood before them
All the long years of war to pre-
serve the integrity of the union and to
hand down unimpaired and undivided
by secession the inheritance be-
queathed by the fathers, pass in re-
view. All the contentious of bloody
fields ended, the contentious of ballot
boxes and ballot box frauds follow.
The reign of violence ending in solid
south and all the present attempts of
English free traders to make of this
dear land mere appenage of the Brit
ish Islands. All these things within
the purview of the eight presidential
contests since John G.. Fremont led
the little band of freedom-loving Spar
tans to the assault upon the intrench-
ments of legalized wrongs, a nations
hurting and a nations shame.
And what of the men who followed
Fremont? Honest old Abe" the
martyr, his large heart crucified for
four years of suffering such as few
men ever endured, gone by the assas-
SINS hand. Andy Johnson, the Ju-
das of his party, gone also, oblivion
his kindliest monument. Grant, the
impossible, serving his country at the
head of government as at the head of
her armies, gone too, lingering out a life
of torture so heroically as to almost
cOnciliate death; his end came and
world wept over his silent sarcOpha-
gOus. Hayes alone survives. His cpl
taph will be in order when he Joins
the silent majority. Garfield, struck
down by the assassin's hand ere the
helm of Office had shaped itself fairly
to his hand, followed across con-
tinent by such weeping millions as
few lands have seen. The pride, the
hope, the promise of the nation and
the idol of his state; gone ere his in
tellecual prime, leaving a record of
good deeds nobly achieved. Arthur,
the noble hearted, upon whose bowed
head the mantle of the murdered
Garfield fell. He also is gone. Gone
in his integrety, in his manliness, in
his incorruptibility, in his wealth and
worth of nature, too little priced and
understood until his face faded away
from vision into the indistinctness of
death, and nation realized how great