The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-03-21
HANNIBAL HAMLIN.
The Last of the Men Who In 1860
Were Candidates on the National
Ticket.
New York Graphicl


The anniversary of Lincoln's birthday
brought several of the old-timers once more
into public notice. All over the country
they have been heard of by thousands, who
for years have imagined that most Of them
had long since paid their last debt to nature.
Perhaps among all the veterans that the oc-
easion brought out none was at one time
more prominent in war days. when history
was made, than Harnibal Hamlin, Of Maine.
He is one Of the few men still living who
were conspicuous in the Republican party at
time Of its first National canvass, In 1856
Forty-fve years have rolled away since Mr..
Hamlin. then IN his thirty-fourth year. was
elected to Congress after having made an un-
successful fight for the place two years be-
fore. He was a Democrat, and considered a
very strong and faithful party man. Indeed
he was sent to the U. s. Senate by that party
and was practically its leader in Maine.
When the Republican party was organized
he fell away from his old political allegiance,
and since that time has been an aggressive
leader of the most advanced and radical wing
OF the Republican organization.
Nearly eighty years of age-he was born in
1S09-he still apparently retains much Of the
physical and mental yig0r which thirty years
ago made him recognized as one Of the best
political campaigners in New England. He
has grown to be an historical character. OF
the eight men on those famous national tick
cts Of 1860, when the country stood on the
verge Of great cOnyusiOn, he Is the only
one now living. John Bell, who carried the
standard OF the Union party in that cam
paigD, lived long enough to learn that the ar
bitrament OF battle had forever settled the
question OF slavery and secession in this
country, and before he died in his home in
Nashville, Tenn, in 1860, he had acknowledged
that the temporary truce his party had held
out would have only postponed the strug-
t. It. anu "'Ol1 NY -"'' i'''- p''''A''"
Edward Everett, the great Massachuse It's
orator, who was Mr.. Bells associate, passed
away amid the sounds of the last guns Of the
war that he had in his brotherly, kindly way
hoped TO suppress. He did not live long
enough to her the echoing shouts Of victory
that greeted the grand army as it marched
through Washington in the bright spring
days of 1865, for early In January Of that year
all Boston and much Of New England had
stood with uncovered heads and watched the
cortege that bore him to the grave.
Stephen A. Douglass looked his last look
ON this earth during the first thrOes Of the re-
bellion that he had foreseen and was prepar-
ing to aid in surpressing, for In the June
days of 1861, at Chicago, he, too, was laid at
rest, amid the sorrow, not Of the state alone,
but OF the Nation he had served so well.
Herschel V. johnson. who was the candi-
date on the ticket with the ''little giant"
dropped away after Of the war out Of public
notice, and died quietly and almost for
gotten in his Georgia home nearly ten years
ago.
John c. Breckenridge ought to have been
living and in the prime Of life today in his
early sixties, but the war left him poor,
stranded and fugitive from his home among
the rollicking, careless-hved habitues of the
Students Quarter in Paris. When he could
return he did so, and In May, 1875, breathed
his last at his old home in Lexington, Ky.
Joseph Lane, of Oregon. who in the fight
ing days of the Mexican war, was the idol of
the Northwest, and Governor, member of
Congress and Senator from the new State,
saw his political future forever clouded when
he ana Breckenridge met their great defeat
He died in obscurity and poverty about
two years after Breckenridge had been car
ried to the grave.
So the old Maine statesman is the last Of
the list, and he stood up in the rooms Of the
Republican Club at Portland. Me-, on Lin
coins anniversary, is it to be wondered that
with dimmed eyes and sometimes tremulous
voice he talked of the past and Of his friends
and associates in the old days, with the tone
of a man whose race In life was finished, and
who was longing for the rest that the grave
brings to us all?