The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-26
FORTUNES OF A PRINTER
Checkered Career of Edmund G. Ross,
ex-United States senator.

ToPEKA, KAN, Aug. I9.-Kansas repuo-
licans with long memories are discussing
with evident relish the fact that Edmund
/ G.. Ross, late governor of New Mexico, IS
nov common printer in the office of a
Santa Fe newspaper Ross has not been
popular here siuc= the time when. as Junior
/ L lited States senator from kansa', be
saved Andrew johnson from being ousted
! from the presidency.
In h impeachment trial only one vote
was needed TO make the two-thirds necessary
to convict Johnson. The Kansas repu IL
/ cans expected Ross to cast this vote, but he
! failed to do 50, and imued ately incurred
> their deadly enmity. old jim Lane had
/ previously lost prestige in Kansas through
/ his fre dshlp for johnson. and he co n
| mitted suicide because he fully realized that
/ h S political career was at an end. Al
! though hated by majority OF his con
stituents, Ross remained in the Senate
until his term expired, and then quietly re-
| sumed his former ecu Intion of printer.
NJ st men would have been untitled by
congressional life for this radical change,
| but Ross ragi ,de1 II as the M natural
thing in the worl l. aud equen ly told his
! Was IngtOn associates that he W lu!d
| found at the case when his senator al duties
were over. His caree- certainly furnishes
! some striking illustrate ms of the ups and
! -
| found in the fact that m Jaey has no ar
! tic lar value to him. He vas DO n spend
| thrift, aud up to this time has anItes ed
the most sup enc c yntempt for the mighty
| dollar.
! This child of tickle fortune was born in
| Ohio in 1926, aud thirty years later, wien
| he jJinei tae Kansa5 free Soners,n was a
| Fl sr-class printer with strong journalistic
te Adencies With his brother William he
soon established the Kansas Tribune, and
tor two years it was the OILY free state
paper in the territory, its predecessors
having been destroyed by tine proslavery
men. The opportunity was grand one,
aud the young Ohio an ma lie the mo5l of it.
The file, of tue paper are treasured by the
state hsto ical society, and they furnish
int estlng reading. In those days to
eAunclate abolition doctrine was to court
death at the ha IDS of the border ruliilns
who made this region their headquarters.
AS AN EDITOR.
In 1858 Ross became Editor of the State
Record Of Topeka, and year later was a
member of the convention which framed
the present constitution Of the s. ate. The
State Record passed into other hands in
1867, and RO IS entered the army a private.
He came out a major il 1868 with a most
| creditable record ayd took up the printers
stick again. The foil wing Il Senator
! Line committed suicide at Fort Leaven-
! WORTH and Ross was appointed by Gov.
| Crawford to fill the vaca cy until the next
session of the state legislature. Jan. %.
! 1867, he as elected to succeed Lane on tho
| fourth ballot. Pomeroy was at that time
the euior Kansas Sc iatOr.
Although possessed of few s'atesmanike
qualities and without training in debate, the
new senator was blessed wit plenty ofhard
! Sc Sc, and had learned long before that
Isl ence is golden" So he sawed wood ~
and looked wise, and soon received credit
| for Icing a wise man. The beginning of
the impeachment trial found R IS i:dis-
| posed to re- lard johnson as guilty, although
| the rep .blicanS afterward aimed that he
had promised to vote for conviction. After
the evidence was all in 100 represe alive
Kansas republicans, the noted Dan r.
| Anthony among them, caused this
dispatch to be seat to Senators Pomeroy and
| Ross:
kansas has heard the evidence and de-
mands the conviction of the President"
Senator Ro replied to this as follows:
ID. r. Anthony and Others: l do not
recognize yolr rig 1t to dema d that | shall
vote Ell or for or against cOnv iction.
have takeA an oath to do impartial justice
according 10 the constitution and rvs, aud
trust at | shall have the courag and no l.
es TO vote according to the dictates of my
judgment and for the highest good Of my
country"
Tue supreme moment of the famous trial
came soon atterward, and Ros , ballot was
thrown for acquittal. The vote stood s. TO
| 49, Soon afterward he received this dr.
patch, sig ed I'D. r. Anth my and Othersn:
Your vote ~ as dictated by Tom Ewing,
not b your oath. Y ur motives. ARE Indian
cont acts and greenbacks. kans IS repuJl-
ates you, as she does all perjurers and
skunks."
L.W Bailey ofLeavenworth telegraphed
to r IS as follows:
"P 0bably the rope with which Judas
ha ged himself is lost, but the pistol with
which Jim Lane committed suicide is at
your service"
K nsas, then as now rabidly republican,
went wild when the news of Johnson's &C
quittal was re eived. RO s. name as ON
every lip. Tuesday, MAY 10, 1868. thes ldiers
OF the Ele zenith Kansas-tne regiment to
which r ,ss once belo ged-burned him in
etfigy in front of the a,ehouse in Topeka.
The republican newspapers used up their
stock Of eplthetS in deuouncing him. The
Leavenw tn Conservative. the leading
paper Of e state at that time edited by
d. w. Wilder, once editor of the Roches Ter
Cypress, said the morning. after the news
came:
A CANCELLATION.
johnson is acquitted because Kansas is
corrupt. The fate of the nati)n depended
on one vote. 1t was found, d it came
from Kansas Edmund G. Ross. an oil I
set Ter of this state, free safe man and
anti-Slavery republic n, cast that vote. l.
was left for the state whose noblest cit zen
was John Blown, the state whose soil is
hallowei all over 18th the bio ID of men
women and children, the state which has
only four words on its banner: Equal
rights for all t. be betrayed and outraged
by this creature Ross He is deai-dead to
honor, dead to liberty, dead to X nSas. Let
him 60 his o IN way. A half-civiliz,d bush
whacker would spit in poor Ros.' face if ne
should dare t. speak to him about honor.
Every man in the United S6a es has read
the news from Washington aud instinct
lively felt that R1ss from Kansas was a
coward and a sneak. Wherever Ross lives
or travels that record will follow him.
Every dSy for weeks the Conservative
pri ted edit )rial' Of this character. Nj.
Wilder is now ate superinte dent of in
surance, and to-day | questioned him re-
gardi & his editorial deuunciati ms of Ross.
For heave 5 SAKE, he said, don't revive
those foul articles. l was youngster tho
and Dug to have been kicked for writing
such stuff. Ross wasn't half as bad as
pic ured him, and don't know bu5 he did
right after all in refusing to convict John
SON."
Ross defended himself well as he could
He said in the Senate that he could not.
wi the light before him, declare the Pres
ident guilty of high crimes and msdemean.