Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-10-27
PERSONS AND THINGS.
A BUDGET OF INTERESTING EOTES
CONCERNING THEM.
The Two Gerrys Gerrymandering-
american Statesmen-TomG Grady
and Davie HilI-Etc.
For the REcoRD-UxIox.l !

LIE recent editorial IN the RECORD
U3I0E on the electrical system Of execu
sion was full of interest and has beer
extensively copied, but is scarcely correc
IN referring to the author of the law a
venerable" though quite right in speak
ing Of him as everywhere respected. ,
Elbridge T. Gerry has always been Sc
active in good works he has had httl,
difficulty in keeping himself young botf
IN appearance and boyish activity. Ht
has Just turned 80, but has alway.
been so interested in athletic sports
there is every reason to expect for him
long and happy lease of life. He has
frequently beer elected Commodore of the
New York Yacht Club, and to him it owes
much of its splendid equipment and its
international reputation. He is tall, thin.
piry and very active in all his movements.
and IN some few respects resembles the por-
traltures which have come down to us of
hls illustrious grandfather. At one time
his practice at the bar was quite large, and
his law library is still the most valuable
owned by any individual in the metropolis.
but Of late years his best efforts and
thoughts have almost entirely been
directed in the line of humanitarian move
ments, to the exclusion of politics and his
profession. He has inherited all the strong
Democratic tendencies of his ancestors but
IS averse to public Office, having never
aspired TO any position outside Of
a seat in the New York Constitu-
Nonal Convention, to which he was elected
when & young man. He was the first per-
son to come to the help of Henry Bergh,
when it meant obloquy to befriend the
dumb creation, and for years he was the
counsel of the Society for the Prevention
OF Cruelty to Animals, serving without
pay and at the same time expending large
sums in furtherance of the cause His
whole time now is occupied in the Courts,
ON the streets, everywhere, as President of
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
TO Children, for which he has enlisted the
moral support of the best people of the en-
tire State. His house contains many me-
MORALS of Governor Gerry, who was one
OF the most unique figures of the early days.
As is generally known, the word Gerry
Wandering" now in such common use,
originated with the Federalists on account OF
his partisan redistricting the State of Massa-
chusetts The monument to his memory
in the Congressional cemetery at Wash
ington attracts some attention, he having
died on his way to that city to perform the
duties of Vice-President, to which the Re-
publicans had elected him in 1872. His
entire career, from the time he made his
remarkable speech when he graduated at
Harvard in 1765, almost to the very close,
was marked by great belligerency, and is
replete with episodes showing intense de-
yotlon to party and characteristics seldom
encountered. But the careful student of
the revolutionary period cannot fail to
accord him very high place among the
really great men who conspicuously fig
ured in the early days of the Republic.
Frequent reference is made to him in sew
eral of the volumes constituting the series
OF American Statesmen" which are Justly
taking their place both in Europe
and this country as scarcely inferior to the
English Men of Letters, edited by Pro-
fessor Morley. The volume on Chief JUS
tice Marshall is disappointing, but with
perhaps that exception the various writers
are admirably selected, displaying rare
lOMCIo VI dIlu
skill in sitting and picturing their sub
jects. While speaking of books, want to
say word of the volume Just brought out
by Henry Cabot Lodge, on the Feder-
alist." There is scarcely young man in
the country who has done more varied and
useful literary work, and although he is
only serving his first term in Congress- he
has continued to make himself felt and
heard in that difficult body. His edition
Of the works of Hamilton in nine
volumes, containing many hitherto
unpublished documents, with notes
and a remarkably interesting intro
duction, places all lovers of the great
Secretary under lasting obligation to him,
while his two volumes in the series Just
referred to on Webster and Hamilton are
up to the best, and in the opinion of many,
surprising each of the others. The histori-
cal controversy over the z" Federalist" is
one of the most brilliant in our annals.
Eminent men have taken part in it, and
the object Mr.. Lodge has in view is a COM
pact statement of the whole case and an
analysis Of the evidence The main point
IN dispute is the authorship of certain of
the numbers. There are no less than
twenty four editions of this great work,
commencing with the one published in
New York in 1888 by j. and A. Mclean.
Originally appearing in the newspapers,
these papers we have in the first edition
without material textual change The
changes which were made from time to
time were largely adopted by John C.
Hamilton in his edition of 1864. This
son was not in any sense a great man
or gifted with more than ordinary
ability. His whole life may be
said to have been spent in disputa-
tious controversies over claims that scarcely
anyone questions. Compare his edition of
his fathers works, in seven volumes. with
the new edition just alluded to, and we see
the difference between bungler and
cracksman. | remember him most dis
tinctly as he moved along Broadway with
tottering steps, then almost ninety years
old, an age which he finally attained. He
must at some period of his life have been
handsome man, and to the last his figure
was erect and supple. To him we owe the
graceful monument to Alexander Hamil-
ton in Central Park, which, if not equal to
the Webster (the splendid gift of Gordon
W. Burnham) in colossal proportions sur
passes it in some of the finer touches,
although both are among the most attract
i've features of that unequaled driveway
The edition of Henry B. Dawson reverted
to the original text. As an historical stu
dent he has but few equals, and it
is surprising, in view of the fine work
he has done, that he is so little
known. He was born in England, but came
here when Il youth, and from the start de-
voted himself to accurate and painstaking
york. Mr. Lodge unhesitatingly declares
for the Mclean text He holds that these
essays, written at special time, for spe-
eial purpose, and forming an elaborate
argument designed to convince the people
of the country of the value of the Federal
Constitution, should be reproduced in the
precise form in which they did the work
for which they were intended. Further
more. the Federalist" was the first author
itative Interpretation Of the Constitution,
and was mainly written by the two princi-
pal authors of that instrument. 1t has
acquired the weight and sanction of judi
cial decision, has been constantly used as
an authority in the settlement of constitu-
tional questions, and hence textual changes
are inadmissible. Again, the authority for
the most important changes is not clear,
and it is certain that Hamilton opposed
and, indeed, forbade any alterations.
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