Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-09-23
pertinent in democracy; there lay his


guided his course on the assumption
that whatever influences might prevail
beneath the lingering shadow of the
old dispensation democracy would in
the end prove victorious and bear its
votaries on to success. Intently he
listened for the voice of the popular
will and surely he caught its every
whisper. His political philosophy
seems to have been summed up in the
belief that, all evils having been the
work Of government. the less Of gov
eminent there was the better. This,
1t has been said, stood him in the place
OF religion. Anarchy itself was, or he
could fancy that it was, preferable to
strong government. He let
fall the reins Of government before the
term of his presidency had expired and
he went into philosophic retirement at
Monticello, whence he returned no
more. II is not the highest OF his
titles to fame in the eyes of his coun-
trymen, but it may not be the lowest
in the court Of humanity, that he
sacrificed his popularity in the attempt
to find a bloodless substitute for war.
His memory recovered from the shock
and his reign over American opinion
endured"
Burr, Madison and Clay.
Aaron Burr Prof. Smith dismisses
with a few words. "A local Catiline."
he calls him; 1.-The assassin of Hamil-
ton, a true scion OF New York politics
as they then we're. a snowy and restless
%adventurer with revolutionary morals
and a gift Of misleading youth. and by
grace OF factious cabal vice president Of
the United States"
Madison. who is invested with the
highest mental gifts by American
writer's, impresses Prof. Smith rather
as "a cultivated and somewhat prim
~mediocrity, though combined with a
clear understanding, a scientific
knowledge of politics, statesmanlike
training and a ~sure-footed ambition"
CLAY" the writer says, was per-
haps the FIRST consu,pnate party leader
of the congressional and platform type.
He was IA paragon OF the personal fas-
cination now styled magnetism Mag
netic, indeed, his manner and voice
must have beer il they could make the
speeches that he has left us pass for
the most cogent reasoning and the
highest ~eloquence. Yet multitudes
came from distances 10 hear him. A
cynical critic said that Clay could get
more people TO listen to him and fewer
people to vote for him than any other
mar in the union. lie, however, did
get many votes, though never quite
enough.
His power of winning the hearts Of
men was unique. When at last he
missed his prize by losing the election
for the presidency his partisans wept
like children; one of them is said to
have died of grief. He was ardently
patriotic after the warhawk fashion,
but the presidency was always in his
thoughts and its attraction accounts
for the perturbations of his political
orbit. lie said hat he would rather be
right than be president, but il has been
too truly remarked that even at the
moment of hat memorable utterance
he was thinking more of being presi-
dent than being right. His policy and
sentiments were intensely American
and by the cosmopolitans would now
be designated as lingo"
John Randolph, OF Roanoke.
The writer pays a graceful compli-
ment to Webster, whom he regards as
a king among men, and then passes on
to John Randolph, of Roanoke. Vir-
ginians will not relish what Prof.
Smith says of their distinguished
statesman. Hardly TO be named with
these men-Ciay, Webster and CAL
houn"-he says, was John Randolph,
a Virginian of high family with more
than the arrogance of his class, who
,,onI 90 .Au tnta 4kA ea,t - Ia.
hunting dress, with his hunting whip
in his hand. and behave as IL he were
in his kennel-s man Of natural ability
without good sense or power of natural
contro'. firmly attached To no party or
even opinion. keen and reckless in in
vective, the terror of those at whom
his lean finger was pointed in debate,
at last a political wreck and al
most a maniac. Randolph sometimes
told wholesome truths in a pungent
way. however"
John Quincy Adams" says Prof.
Smith, was a genuine New Highlander
OF the Puritan stock, austerely moral,
not only staid, but solemn in his teens,
intensely self-conscious, the punctual
keeper of a voluminous diary, an in
variabiy carly riser, a daily reader Of
the bible even in the white house,
scrupulously metbodical and strictly
upright: but testy, unconciliatory, I'M
sympathetic, absolutely destitute of
all the arts by which popularity is won.
As he was about the last president
chosen for merit, not for availability,
SO he was about the last whose only
rule was not party but public service"
jackson was a fighter with an iron
will and great powers of command, lily
educated, destitute of the knowledge
and the habits of u statesman, with an
uncontrolled temper and almost as
much swayed by passion as any
Indian chief, though like many an
Indian chief he could bear himself
when he pleased with dignity and even
with grace. That he had beaten the
British at New Orleans was his title to
the headship Of the nation and he had
not lessened his popularity by the law
less execution of two En~glishmep or by
some acts of equally lawless aggression
on Spanish territory. outrages against
which a moral minority in congress had
protested in vain. while John Quincy
Adams, swayed probably by his dislike
for England, had for once deviated
from his moral courage and helped to
whitewash the man who was destined
to Dust him from the presidential
chair"
Van Buren, is declared by Prof. Smith
to have been a ''sagacious. smooth and
willy" politician, and William Henry
Harrison is passed 10y as small pota-
toes" He devotes considerable space
to Lincoln and the part he played in
the civil war. and says he is a marvel
of history. The professors review of
the events of the wal. while interest
ing, contains many veal points which
will furnish a leverage for criticism.
Otis Steel Company Resumes.
CLEVELAND. o., Sept 1.-THE Otis