The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-06-19
Another Opportunity Embraced.

That venerable relic of the rebellion
so carefully fled away in the
sacred archives of the Supreme
Court of the United States
by Grover the First, Justice Lamar,
who never has and probably never
will neglect an opportunity to eulo-
gize the late arch traitor jeff Davis,
was recently afforded another oppor-
tunity TO eulogize his late chieftaln IN
treason. and his low ideal of patriot
ism and sta ssmanship before the
youthful students and graduates OF
Center College on the 64th anniversary
of its commencement exercises. OF
course the opportunity was seized
with all the avidity that has become
characteristic of Judge Lamar on all
favorable occasions. The noble yir-
tues of the dead traitor were duly re-
hearsed for the benefit of his youthful
hearers and he was held up to their
contemplation as the most worthy of
their study and imitation in future life
of all the patriots and statesmen the
Republic has ever produced. Justice
Harlan, one of the college alumni,
who was invited with Lamar to de-
liver an address on the occasion, sue
ceeded in finding other topics Of suf-
f1cient Importance for his purpose;
but not so with Justice Lamar. He
was too deeply impressed with the re-
viying spirit of his great leader during
the stormy period in which they were
both engaged in their vain effort to
destroy the union of states or establish
the palladium of American freedom on
the basis of slavery. What particular
necessity existed on that occasion for
clarifying JeffDavis and holding him up
to the students or graduates Of Center
College as a model for their imitation
in future life as patriot or statesman
is not plain to ordinary minds. if it is
to Mr.. Lamars. Why he thought it
important to boastingly repeat JEFF
Davis false boast as the Courier Jour
nal Of Louisville reports him as say
ing in the Senate that the slave
holders took hold of the nation at the
lowest ebb of life, and at the end of
sixty years gave it back strong and
prosperous? When the slave holders
obtained possession of the government
Immediately after the close of the
war witch England in 1886, it did not
take them long to check the tide Of
prosperity which had got we'll started
during and despite the war. Nor did
it take long under the lead Of Calhoun
who-was the originator of notification
and predecessor of jeff Davis in pro-
mitigating the foundation theory or
secession. JEFF was the imitator and
follower of Calhoun, but the Justice
ignores the originator and puts the imi-
tator and follower forward as the
greatest patriot and statesman of the
country. He is way off in his history.
The slaye-holding democracy and
their dough-faced allies Of the North,
did not constantly keep the control Of
the government till 1860. There were
several prosperous eras between 1916
and 1860. when the Wings controlled
the government and the Calhoun
Davis crowd took back seats in the
synagogue, and when they were finally
expelled from power in 1860, Justice
Lamar going with it, where was the
prosperity? and where the strength?
Three copper cents in the treasury: a
debt Of nearly S100,000,000 contracted
during Buchanan's administration; a
time of profound peace and the gov
eminent borrowing money at y per
cent to pay the Presidents salary.
That was the prosperity. Our strength
consisted in almosta total disarmament
Of Northern forts and arsenels, the
arms and monitors of war conveyed to
the South in arsenels completely in
the control ofDavis, Lamar, and others,
who had planned their REASONABLE
purpose during the administration of
Buchanan. Yet Justice Lamar holds
UP this man Davis, whose name will
be accused of all intelligent, loyal
Americans while the nation lasts or
has a name on the historic pages of
the worlds history, though Justice
Lamar may hold him before the young
men of Center College as better, great
er, and more perfect model for their
imitation in future life than Washing
ton, Jefferson or Jackson, or any other
statesman or patriot of American
product, and that the disembodied
spirit of JEFF Davis still walks the land
holding the sceptor of sovereignty
unequalled by any ruler. What
bombastic nonsense for a justice of
the supreme court of. the United
States! God grant he may be the
last relic of JEFF Davis worshippers the
stuffed prophet will ever infiict upon
the country. Is.
A Holy Shekel."
Such is the name of an ancient Jew
ish coin of a certain character, of
which il is said that there are but two