The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-09
Ben b. Russell.

Ben Russell of Decatur county has been
the 'head and front" Of democratic offend
ing in the Second congressional district for
the past twenty-five years, and stands to-
day pre-eminent for unswerving devotion
to the cardinal principles of the party.
His prominence as a journalist and demo-
cratic leader have attracted so much atten-
ton to him that brief resume of his career
will be interesting.
"Ben" las every one calls HIM was born
some time along In the '40s, and is now just
old enough for those who know him to
value him more highly than ever before
Time has only served to mellow and sweeten
his genial disposition, and TO know him is
to love him, TO name him Is to praise"
ben" is born fighter of everything
that is non-democratic or against the south
he began this fighting business early-in
the first year of the war, and among the
first companies that marched to the front to
illustrate Georgia"
When the cambridge Independents vol
unteered for the war and marched from her
peaceful and shaded streets for the din of
carnage and battle, BEN was at the head
of the column beating the kettle drum.
His position then seems to have been pro-
phetic of his future career, for he has been
at the head of every SUBSEQUENT movement
for the disenthrallment of his people aud
upbuilding Of his section; has been beating
the drum" doing all the work and hurreh-
log while others, more fortunate, If not less
modest. have reaped all the reward of polit-
ical preferment.
ben" served the south during the entire
war; was never home on furlough, nor off
on sick list He was with the chivalry of
the south at Manassas, when they first wrote
their a claim to immortality in the 'purple
testiment of bleeding war;" he was with
NbovR, Aho ht,E aIo tt In1 30
burg, and he saw the STAINLESS shields drop
from the nerveless grasp" in the Wilderness {;
and when at Appomattox the "warrior's
banner took its flight to greet the warriors
SOUP it left none more heart-broken at its
loss than this brave drummer boy" Ben
was sounding the morning drum beat
and the evening tattoo on the tented fields Of
Virginia when the demagogues and third
partyites who now besmirch his character
and belittle his genius were being spanked"
to sleep to keep them from crying over q
''nigger rising in the quarters" He has
stuck to his country through lean and
fat" through fire, blood and water, and
now that he is before his countrymen for
an elective Office it will be an ignominy and
shame if his high claims for their gratitude
and Endorsement are to be ignored. Pray
the gods to lntermit the plague that needs
must light on such ingratitude.
At the close of the war BEN had nothing
left OF which to be proud, except his record
as a confederate soldier. He is foolish
enough to still be proud Of 1t. He would
not exchange that badge of honor for all
the gems Of Golconda." To his mind it is
far more worthy ambition to have been a
follower Of Lee and Jackson than to burn
incense in the palaces of kings "Ben"
would still fight on this line IL in his
presence you Craduced the memory of a
| brave confederate.
He fought gellantly to sustain the scon-
| federaoy, and now that it exists only as a
memory, it is to him sacred one-sweet as
the memory of buried love. 1t ia the
| nature of the man to be sincere and stead
fast. The success or defeat of his principles
| or friends never lessons mis- loyalty to either.
| 1t would make lamp post laugh to hear
"Benn relate his experience in working his
way as a ragged paroled "confedn from
| New York to Savannah and thence TO
| Bainbrldge.
Underlying, however the drollery of his
| relation of those perplexing incidents there
| is the sad reality of the hardship and de-
| nriyation to which the unpaid soldiers OF
| immortal principles were subjected. Yet
| in the face OF all this, seemingly sensible
! people have the hardihood to refuse honor
| where honor ia due, and profess to regard
with Indifference what are contemptuously
called war records" anda'war heroes"
| Since the surrender Ben" has proved
that "peace hath her victories no less re-
nowned than war; His distinguished career
! as editor of the cambridge Democrat has
| been a series or continued STRUGGLES and ex-
| allied triumphs for the people he loves.
| Taking up the editorial tripod when the
state was reeking with the filth OF recon-
| structiop, be has indeed been the Henry OF
| Navarro, whose white plume led the van In
| the reform movement which cu4mAaEeo IA