St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-08
GEN. JAMES SHIELDS
AS He Appears in Fiction and in
Fact

rare memory. the general was naturally
skilled and redoubtabe talker. Lie
Macaulay. he had disposition to reduce
a subject TO the very atomic theory of
eXhftSsion-or until there was nothing
lett 10 say. Sometimes this became fati-
suihg, and unyersed persons grew rest
I've, believing that conversation ought
10 nave more of the touch-and-gO QUAIL
lty. In. Greville'S Memoirs mention
is made OF dinner at Lord Hollands,
where Macaulay was drawn into talking
ABOUT tie fathers CT the church by Lord
Melbourne, who enjoyed theological
talk. When he came to Chrysostom, and
negan 10 give the substance of his ser
mon In praise of the bishop of Antioch,
the lrrepreSsible and eccentric hostess,
Lady Holland, turned with a sort of
derlSion to puzzle the speaker, and said:
fray, Macaulay, what was the origin
OF doll? When were dolls first men
toned in hiStory?' But the mighty
talker was as c0nyerSant with dolls as
he was with the fathers, and instantly
replied that the Roman children had
their dolls, which they offered up to
Venus when they grew older; and
Grevlle adds that, if pushed to it. he
would have given the name of the first
baby that ever handled doll.
While Gen. Shields was hardly such
monopoiist of converatism as Macau =.
lay, he liked his topics, and discussed
them eXhauStlvely with people who
were interested in them equally with
himself, and had to the full as much to
say. In the set of a former day in
Washington, his congeuers were Baron
Gerolt and Rudolph Schleiden. For
them he always retained a warm liking,
and with them he had a sufficient meas
ure of give and take conversation, after
the manner of bis mind. Alas, in later
years, how could he get along without
their analytical conversations on Car
lyle's "Fredrich,' as each volume
when the casual mention of
Grumkow and Sackendorf and
the Tobacco parliament made ordinary
listeners as dead weary as The recital of
the battle of Mowitz left Mrs. Carlyle
herself. Life missed an irrepara bic
charm when the usual fate in politics
sundered Gen. Shields fIon Washington
associations and ties.
One never returns quite the same to,
nor finds the same in. what one has
left,
IL has not been the purpose of these
recollectionS TO give anything like a
connected biographical narrative of the
generals career. The simple intent
has been to correct some of the hap
hazard misre presentations that float
along the current of newspaper and
magazine reading flOm tlue to time,
and, because reiterated without contra
tradiction, are taken for authentic. No
man has been more pprSlstehtly written
up by the friendly and the unfriendly,
and it is III some instances difficult TO
determine which side has Numbered
more than the other.
While the public records are in the
main correct, there is way of
putting them in the Interpretation
OF certain speakers that is detracttng
and damaging. From teaching the little
school in kasEasia, James Shields was
elected to the legislature, and later he
was elected and reelected state auditor.
His next advancement was the appoint
ment of justice of the supreme court of
Illinois, position that Douglas SubSe-
quently held. When the Little Giant
went INTO The national house of repre-
Sentatives, james Shields was appointed
commissioner of the general land office
by President Polk, and from thence, in
"a INF In,
ice of the country as brieadier general
of volunteers in the Mexican war. His
record in this strife is found i'll school
readers and histories, and is in no
danger of being perverted or forgotten
After the war he came back to Illinois,
ana was elected United States senator.
Here was the elimination of his poIiti-
cal career, which began in 1885 by his
election to the legislature.
And yet Senator Davis, speaking in
the senate on the acceptance of the Hi,
noiS bronze statue of Gen. Shields, said
THAT his political career began in Min
nesota," which is a Slipshod assertion
from one who is usually well Informed
i'll speaking to the public. He might
better have said that it ended in Mime
BILE of recorded time, whenever and
wherever there is mention of of his '.po-
litical career throughout the country.
but especially in this state, let this evil
dence OF his Craftsmanship be comment
GRATED, that he refused 10 vote for the
Lecompton constitution bill, although
implored by President Buchanan in
every personal and political plea.
The result of this refusal and loyal
adherence to the wishes OF his constitu-
entS was the chief cause in the delay to
| admit this state, although his colleague,
| Henry Nj. Rice, stood pledged and ready
| to vote for the obnoxious bill. His re-
ward was the entire patronage of the
state afterwards, and Buchanan never
| spoke to Gen. Shields, albeit farmerly
warm personal friend
In any event, the general had in TAX.
| ing his courageous attitude against the
LecOmptOn constitution bill in the spring
| Of 1888. even in that early time, survived
any further triumphS i'll political life.
| He had no genuine liking for politics,
and, i'll fact, never was Il politician in
| the complex eXigencieS of the character
| as we have come TO recognize the sue
cessful embodiment. He was poor, and
| he was incOrruptible as public man.
In all his early advance from the Kas-
hdohia ocuuoI W INC legislature. 10 the
state authorship. to the judgeship, TO
the general land Office, and to, the bat
tletieId, he won his way by fitness,
| honesty, and by the enthusiasm men
felt for his unaffected and ingrauating
| qualities in combination with those two
| essentials.
He hated the IatteT-Gay following that
ambitious demagOgues and successful
| politicians are constantly fostering and
STRENGTHENING. Coarse men, vulgar
good fellows in the following, with a
| pull" he held in aversion, in fact shrank
| from contact with them: even the mild
| types known i'll his early experience
were Objectionable. IT'S well that life
is short, for observation-disclosures makes
death easier. Nothing can be more desc
/ L.. Il L1iL,..i Z