The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-10-17
A FATEFUL RECOLLECTION.

A faYorite Latin maxim says-DG m0rturs
nil niSi bonum, and it is founded on well
defined principle of human nature init last
estate. A person, whether of great or
small extent and capacity against whom we
or others may have entertained grudge or
engaged in harsh criticism, has presumably
settled his account when the clods of earth
have separated him from US, and we are
thus precluded from passing adverse criti
cism upon him for what he may have done
that he should have left undone or, what
he left undone that he should have done
during his mortal career.
This of course has no reference to the
deeds which men do and which are never
inferred with their bones. These, in one
way or another, are immortal within GER
tain sphere, and it is proper that they
should be, for the reason that they pro-
vide those who are still in the flesh
with so many guide boards or beacon
lights whereby they may escape calamities
and steer themselves clearly to Ravens of
safety. This it is that makes nearly every
body's record a matter of some special con-
Germ to somebody within a prescribed
limit, and therefore we cannot afford to ig
more acts even while observing the Latin
maxim quoted and looking charitably upon
those who have gone hence. We may cover
them individually with the mantle of cha
rity, but what they have left behind them
is a heritage for US whose time has not yet
been sounded.
There are three conspicuous characters
in the recent mortuary lists of the nations
honored dead whose names and acts are
one way or another, to those who
knew them in life and have not
gone to join them in the shadowy
hereafter. Those are SAMUEL j. TILDEN.
Roscoe CoNKLING and JAMES a. GARFIELD.
1t is of the second in the list that The
HERALD would speak particularly, and he
is appropriately placed occupying posi-
ton between two men in connection with
whose lives and careers he played con-
said that all of his public acts were con
spicuous, it being hardly possible for them
to be otherwise, in view of his eminent
career and his great legal and scholastic at
tainments. And yet, when he was strong
est he was weakest, for while being giant
in intellect and HERCULES in political
strength, the time came when he permitted
a DELILAH to ensnare his faculties. to STU
pefy his senses and deprive him of his
lusty locks. And he gradually went down
from that time on till just before his
death.
The occasion referred to was when
the conspiracy by means Of which
a man who had been duly elected
to the presidency and was to be
swindled out of his victory had been fully
matured. Individually he was too high
minded to engage in such or anv like
scheme, but he fully realized that a poll
tician without party at his back is YER
itably a man without a country The
pressure of the class with whom he trained
and from whom he had received his politi-
cal promotion was too much for him, and
he yielded to their demands, positively
aiding and abetting them in their foul pro
ceedings. 1t is said of him by those who
claim to know that the whole bent of his
inclinations was otherwise, that he had
even prepared or partly prepared a speech
would have been better for him to have
delivered it, for surely in the
face of opposition from such a
source the conspirators would not
have dared to do all that they carried
out; it was only because they counted on
and received the individual support of
their party that they took the desperate
risk, and vast number, we believe even "a
majority, have fully repented of it since
The next fGur pas of the brilliant states
man was when General HANCOCK was op-
posing General GARFIELD for the Presi-
dency, the contest Immediately following
the one previously referred to- He had
had well nigh enough of corrupt Repub-
lean methods, but was still devctedly at
tached to the party and its principles as
they formerly were. He was thus strug-
Cling between the points of divided duty
Not favoring Democracy, he could not
espouse the cause of HANCOCK, and having
a supreme contempt for the pigmy HAYES
and his closest ally and ablest assistant
GARFIELD, he was exceedingly loath
to engage with the latter. But the tide of
partisan influence which set in toward him
was too strong to be overcome; it was
shown that the Republican chances Of car
rying New York were painfully slim, and
that without New York all hope was gone |
This was impressed upon him until he
could no longer escape the conclusion that
the fate of his party and the political
chances of his friends hung upon his action |
Then he hesitated no longer. Throwing |
himself into the breach in that state, he |
brought the wavering along with him, open !
ing the campaign in a four hours speech in |
New York city, which, while it contained |
no complimentary references to the candi |
date, was such bolstering up for the party |
and its principles as caused the Republican |
to grow hoarse in their shouts of |
delight They were sure that CoNKLING's |
attitude had turned the scale in their favor, |
and the sequel shows that they did not
reckon without their hest.
GARFIELD was elected because New York |
was saved to the party which he stood at |
the head of, and the man who more than
any other thus brought it into line was
Roscoe CoNKLING. So it may fairly be
slid that if there had been no CoNKLING
there had been no GARFIELD. Under ordi-
nary circumstances one would look for at
least a grateful recognition of valuable
services rendered, but what should be the
position of the beneficiary when through |
the action of another assistance too great |
to be computed has been given? One posted |
in politics would be inclined to say that the