The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-22
REPUBLICAN ESTIMATE.

a Leading Newspaper Discusses Mr.. Nc
Donald's Career.
Chicago Observation-Disclosures has lost q
notable parsonage, for Joseph q. Nc. dom
aid was a remarkable instance of what q
man may accomplish by great industry, by
unswerving integrity, and by keeping him
self modest in the hour of his success. As
county prosecutor, as member of the ma
tlonai house of Representatives, as United
States senator, sE n presidential possibility,
and us party leader, he bore himself SO
as to excite the personal hostility OF none,
and aa to awaken the ardent friendship
OF many. He was respected by the republi-
cans during those trying hours in which
most OF the democratic leaders were under
suspicion of friendship to the confederate
cause.
Yet it can not be said that Mr.. McDon-
aid was an enthusiastic war democrat. His
convictions were peculiar, and he lived
consistently to them. lie was very strong
believer in the doctrine of state rights; he
was by no means a nationalist, as the term
He was anxious that the Union
south had fred the first gun he ado
mitted. though with apparent reluctance
the necessity of prosecuting the war with
vigor, but he would have been better
by acknowledging the theoretic right, while
denying the practicability, of secession. He
believed in the right of peaceful secession,
gut denied the right Of state to secede by
force OF arms. Ii was a curious position,
but 1T was held honestly, and while he did
not support the union cause with such zeal
rs was displayed by Curtin and Morton.
both democrats by education, neither
did he oppose it with the raneor-
GUS vIgor of Voorhees, or Vallandig-
ham. nor oven with the mild disdain
of Hendricks. Hence. during the war
time he was the only one of the democratic
leaders in Indiana who was not thoroughly
dlsllked by the soldiers and by their rela-
tions. He ran far ahead of mis- ticket in
1864. when he was nominated as democratic
candidate for governor, bat no democrat
could stand against Morton. In 1872, as
chairman of the state committee, he re-
organized the party and drilled it for its
successful campaign of 1874; as a just re-
ward for his services he was sent to the
senate, his term expiring in 1851.
His honesty prevented his recollection.
The greenback movement was in full force
in 1881, and he had declared that ''if the
silver dollar does not contain 100 cents
worth OF pure silver it cannot be used as 100
cents in settling the accounts of nations"
Mr. voorhees,. then representative in con-
gress, WAS man who had not the remotest
idea of what ''the accounts of nations"
meant, but ne was splendid stump ora
tor, and he set himself to talking about "the
power of government to create its money!
and particularly about the case of creating
paper money, and he talked himself
into the senate. Mcdonald accepted his
defeat gracefully. Indeed, ke was man
who enjoyed private life. The presidential
bee afterwards futtered around him, and
perhaps charmed him, but never excited
hi INTO intrigue or irritated him to anger.
He even forgave Hendricks the part he
played in the Cincinnati convention, where,
but for Hendricks, he might have had the
place which afterwards was given to Han
cock. He himself said that he regarded
politics as but an incident in his life and he
found most pleasu in privacy.
He was man that only America could
have produced. He was born poor, and
such education as he gained in youth was
in the common schools and at what were
then inferior colleges. Henever graduated.
He was not a brilliant man and yet he early
attained, aud to the last held, large and
responsible law practic.. He was indus
trious and he was conservative; he risked
no point of a case for the sake of display.
He was a judges rather than Jurors law
yer. He was not magnetic and yet he drew
the people toward him; he was plain-spok-
EN- and he was honest. His memory will
endure i'll Indiana for many generations
and life is full of useful lessons.