The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-11-23
A POLITICAL STORY.
We Republican civil service nee
formers, Listen TO This
Tale of Woe.
From a Speech by Benjamin Harrison IN tn

From a Speech by Benjamin Harrison IN the
United States Senate, March Z6, 1885. lth
MIR. PRESIDENT:-l have another
case. ! do not know how 1t may
seem to the senate, but to Inc 1t IS IN.
tiuitely full of pathOs and indignation,
Down OIL the Ohio river, in n OF orr
Indiana counties, is the town OF Can
ueIlun. The postoffice there Is of the
fourth class, and | regret il exceeding
ly, because it %Withdraws from II con-
,ideration here the case TO which | am
about to refer. Isabelle De La Hunt
Was the widow OF Major DE La Hunt,
OF the Twenty-siXth Indiana volunteers.
He was a democrat-a democrat before
the war, a democrat during the war, a
democrat alter the war, or after his re-
turn from the army. He was a gallant
man. AT Prairie Grove, In Arkansas,
he was shot down by a wound entirely
through the body. Recovering from
this desperate wound, he rejoined his
command and again received a rebel
bullet through his arm. Disabled by
these Two wounds received In his u
try's service, he was compelled TO
leave the army and return TO Perry
county, Ind In ACKNOWLEDGMENT of
his democracy. in r~ecOgnition, L may
hope, of his gallant service as a SOL
der, the democracy of Perry county
elected him to one of the county Off
Gcs. But his days were few. His vital
forces had been SO sapped by the
wounds which he had received that it
was not long until a Borrowing widow
and one only child followed the re-
mains OF as brave a soldier as ever
went out from Indiana to his last rest
ing place in the grave. This widow,
lett with small means, entered upon
the work of maintaining herself and
that soldiers orphan boy. For many
years her old father was postmaster at
Cannelion, and she bis principal and
most efficient deputy. Something like
a year or eighteen months ago, her old
father being beyond eighty years OF age
and unable to discharge the duties of
the office, Isabelle DE La Hunt, the
widow, was appointed OH my request
by MIR Hatton, then postnaster-gener-
al, TO this little ~postutfice.
1t there was in all this country one
person who by reason of her sex, who
by reason of her widowhoOd, who by
reason of the sacrifice she had made in
giving the arm on which she leaned to
her country's service, was entitled TO
DE kept in office, WAS entitled to have
her reputation guarded jealousy by all
men who represented the government,
it was Isabelle De La Hunt. Fearing,
however, that some person might he
e enough to misrepresent her for
The sake of obtaining this little Office,
she wrote to the honorable postmaster
general in March last expressing her
apprehension and asking him in case
charges should be made against her to
10 her the favor of giving notice there
of, so that she could refute them, and
also informing him of her husband's
service, death, of her financial necessi-
lies, and the further fact of her hus-
bands politics.
Mrs. De La Hunt vas removed, and
neither to that appeal nor to a later APP
peal TO know the character of the vile
charges that had been preferred against
her was she given the simple recogni-
ton OF an nswer
4
Now, Mr.. President, perhaps my dis
tiDguished friend from Kansas, hose
command of language SO far surpasses
my own, might characterize this rams
action, perhaps he could touch it up a
little; but 10 me that work is impossi
BILE. The story of Mrs. DE La Hunt
carries its own pathos and its OWL in
dignation.