Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1888-07-21
"REMINISCENCES OF PUBLIC MEN.
By THE LATE BEN: pERLEY pooRE.

By THE LATE BEN: PERLEY POORE.
Henry Wilson, then the @Natick Cob
bier" visited Washington when he was
"a years of age. Andrew jackson was
then President. William G Rivers was
then In the Senate, and John G. CAL
houn, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and
Thomas 81. Benton were there. Stephen
A. Douglas was Attorney General of the
State of Illinois; Abraham Lincoln was
a captain in the Black Hswk war:
Charles Sumner was editing @Dunlap's
Treatise on Admiralty Practices"
Schuyler Colfax was the editor of the
South Bend Register, and it was only
'twenty-eight years before Grant crossed
the Rapidan, and encamped in the
Wilderness. During that visit Mr..
Wilson witnessed the passage of Pick
ney's resolutions against the reception
of anti-slavery petitions in the House.
He beheld the horrors of Williams
slave pen." This was enough. From
that moment the three grand central
ideas of his life, manhood, anti-slavery,
and the glory of America, held posses
sion of his thoughts, energized his brain,
and controlled the action of his private
and public life.
He visited his native State, and made
at Strafford, in 1886, his first anti
slavery speech, and in recalling the
bright historic memories which cluster
like pearls around his honored name it
is interesting to mention the fact that
this speech was made ten years before
Charles Sumner made his speech in
Faneuil Hall against the annexation of
Texas, and from which time dates his
opposition to slavery, and fourteen years
before the fugitive slave act was passed,
and twenty-three years before John
Browns raid, and twenty-six years be-
fore he introduced the bill which abol-
ished slavery in the District of Column
bia, and twenty seven years before the
emancipation proclamation of President
Lincoln struck the shackles from every
slave in the rebel States The cloud
which in 1886 was mo larger than a
prophets hand" in less than a genera
ton enclosed within its silver RIM free
America.
ern pro-slavery men who rushed to Har-
per's Ferry in October, 1859, to extort
from John Brown, as he lay there
wounded, with the bodies of his dead
sons and comrades around him, con-
fession of who his friends were. In the
remarkable conversation that followed,
Vallandigham was one of the chief
questioners, and it was to him that
Brown replied: mo man sent me here !;
it was my own promptings and that of
my Maker. acknowledge no master
in human form. I want you to I'M
derstand, gentlemen, that I respect
the rights of the poorest and weak
est of the colored people oppressed
by the slave system, just as much
as I do those of the most wealthy
and powerful. That is the idea that has
moved me, and that alone" Returning
to Ohio, Vallandigham bore testimony
thus, while Henry Ward Beecher was
calling Brown crazy, and the kid-gloved
Atlantic styled him IAN anachronism;"
He is the farthest possible removed
from the ordinary ruffian, fanatic, OF
mailman; he has GOODNESS, daring, per-
sistency, the stole faith and patience,
and firmness of will and purpose I'M
conquerable" By which it was clear
Vallandingham, like King Richard,
knew a man when he saw him.
When the Southern senator's, early in
1861, were Electrically taking their leave
of the Senate Chamber, one after another,
Judah B. Benjamin had the floor one
afternoon, and was gracefully delivering
forcible argument. Senator Baker, of
Oregon, who was to answer him, sat a
little way removed, his classic face al
ternately flushed and paling as the net
work of passions prompted within. 1t
seemed as if a pin might have been
heard to fall, so perfect was the silence.
Excitement seemed to intensity as Sena-
tor Benjamin arraigned and re-arraigned
the recreant North In the midst of this
superlative flight, the enormous Preston
King of avoirdupois fame, senator from
New York, forgetting his size, the dan
ger of the times, the sublimity OF the
place, arose like one in dream, and
briskly walked directly before the Vice
Presidents platform and seized frail
common mahogany chair, and before
any one was aware Of his intention, he
placed it directly in front of Mr.. Ben
jamin and sat down upon it. But the
moment the chair began to feel frac-
ton of his weight, its delicate legs be-
gan to tremble, and in an instant the
immense Senator found his broad back
pressing the floor. There he lay
before the astonished galleries, like a
sea-tu1tle, his feet and hands looking
like huge fippers. The Sergeant-at-
arms rushed to the rescue and attempted
to turn him over, but this last indignity
the great Senator spurned. all this
was accomplished so suddenly that the
spectators seemed paralyzed. When
Mr.. King attempted to pick himself up
the mutterings of the coming storm
were heard, and like thunderbolt, a
laughter exploded that shook the cham
Der from center to circumference. A dig
nified senator called for the galleries to
be cleared. The Vice President, laugh
ing like all the rest, raped for silence,
and during the confusion Hon. Preston