Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-05-10
Gen. Black.

| The readers of the NORTHWEST have in all
probability noticed at the head of our editor
ial columns the name of Gen. John @. Black
as our choice for Vice President on the ticket
with President Cleveland. While we believe
Gen. Black would make a strong candidate,
there are other illustrious Democratic names
mentioned for the position, either of whom
We could most heartily support.
Gen. Black is the defendant of Pennsylva-
mia ancestry. His father, the Rev. John
Black, was u distinguished Presbyteri an
divine. In 1884 he removed to Mississippi,
where, on January 27, 1889, the subject of
this sketch was born. A few years afterward
Rev. Mr.. Black died, and his widow removed
to Danville, Illinois, where the preparatory
education of General Black was received and
in 1858 he entered Wabash College, at Craw-
fordsville, Indiana. At the outbreak of the
war he laid aside his books, and on the 18th
of April, 1861, enlisted as a private in an
Indiana Regiment. He was afterward ap-
pointed Sergeant Major of his Regm ent,
and served with it through its three months
enlistment of West Virginia, and was
mustered out on the 4th of August, 1861. He
at once re-entered the service as Major of the
Thirty-seventh Illinois Infantry and went to
the front with his regiment. He served
through the remaining four years of the war,
taking part in some of the severest battles of
the South, being repeatedly wounded. He
was three times promoted for distinguished
gallantry, the last being to the rank of
Brevet Brigadier- General on the 18th of
March, 1865. He read law and was admitted
to the bar of Illinois, and soon obtained
large and lucrative practice. He rapidly
grew in public estimation. He was twic Q
nominated for Congress and once for Lieu
tenant Governor, all without solicitation on
his part, in the State and Congressional Dis
trict both of which are largely Republican in
politics, and he always ran far ahead of his
ticket. In his race for Congress in 1884 he
came within four hundred votes of defeating
the Hon. Joe Cannon, one of the strongest
men in his party, in district which has q
Republican majority of nearly three thous-
and. In 1861 he was the caucus NOM
inee of the Democratic members of Illi-
hOlo Legislature OHlboO IJtdI6S D0udLOTs
He was offered but declined the nomination
for Governor of Illinois in the Democratic
State Convention in 1884, and refused the use
of his name, after it was presented, as a
candidate for Vice President in the Demo-
cratic National Convention of 1884. General
Black is one of the most brilliant and cap
tivating campaign orators in the county, and
his services have always been in great de-
mand by his party. Two days after Presi
dent Cleveland was inaugurated General
Black was rendered, unsolicited, the position
of Commissioner of Pensions, which he ac-
cepted, and on the 18th of March, 1885, enter
ed upon his duties as chief of one of the most
| important bureaus of the Government. His
administration of his great trust has been
marked by signal executive ability and with
unfailing impartiality and great Justice to
the claimants for pension, their widows and
orphans. and as a consequence he has won a
place in the hearts of the old soldiers Sc cond
to no other man in the country. General
Black is Democrat whose devotion to the
party through all its trying hours of defeat
never for an instant wavered. For twenty
five years he has stood up il Republican
county, a Republican Congressional district
and Republican State and fought the
battles of the party with unshaking devotion
and unsurpassed ability and TACT. He is
particularly strong with what may be called
the old line Democrats of his party every
where. Personally General Bile ok is one of
the most genial of men, and his private
character and public life are without single
insist that he is as strong in Indiana as any
other man, and with his name on the Nation
al ticket they confidently believe that Illinois
can be carried for the Democracy this fall.