The herald., 1894-04-30

was elected to congress. After beinl
Is years in Washington at q salary nevei
exceeding $4,000 year he was retired tc
private life by the election OF w. p
Allison to the senate, and his private
fortune at his death, year or 80 later
was Estimated at $500, 900. Comment If
superAuous.
The original patent bearing the sharp
outlined Gothic hand of Abraham Lin
coin, is nowhere to be found. let be
assured McGnrrahsn week before his
| death that he had signed the patent and
sent 1t back to the department OF the
interior for record.
From that time out, McGarrahan rea-
lized with whom he had to deal. He
never left Washington. The driving
sleet aud SHOWS of January saw him in
his old eeGt at the reading room in Will
lard's hotel; and all the sour air and
fever-lsden breezss of the Potomac
marshes could not move him from the
national capital. He had forgotten how
his old home in California looked. In
1884, late in December | went on to
Washington and, on Sunday, walked
into church with the bewildered and
reticent air OF the proverbia feline in q
foreign attic. just then | saw hand
beckoning me. 1t was Hen. James IL.
Budd, congressman from the Sacra-
mento district. / walked up to his pew
took seat besids the fret native son
ever elected to congress and became
deeply interested in the service. The
clergyman began to road chapter in
the New Testament and when he came
to the verse:
The poor ye have always with you"
James leaned over towards me and
whispered in my ear:
'He didn't know McGarrahan."
Ihls 10 the only thing humorous that
| know about this Celebrated case. 3"
Everything else is deep enough and
sorrowlul enough to be- q tragedy in it
self. William McGsrrahan, after wait
ing o9 long and weary years for what
were his just dues. finally got q bill
through both houses of congress- to en-
able him to bring a suit in the United
States court of claims, one of whose JUS
tIces (God save the MARK is q convicted
bribe taker. But the equities in his
favor were so strong and so patent that
poor MctiRrrahan WAS content to risk
even that. All the bill needed was the
executive approval. Then came the un-
looked for which is always sure to hap
pen. Whitelaw Reid, son-in-law of ID.
o. Mills, chief owner Of the New Idria
mine, got the nomination on the same
ticket with Benjamin Harrison, for vice.
president. And the little breeches of
hoosierdom, in obedience to the slavish
instincts OF his swiniah nature, vetoed
the bill. From that day till the hour he
went out of existence, poor McdarrRhan
never held up his head. And yet in the
first 10 lines of his veto message the
weRrer of his grsndfatner's hat admits
that he knew nothing of the merits of
the case. Why then did he return the
bill without executive approval?
Under no other government of the
civilized earth could such another oc-
currence have taken place. Enemies
OF a republican form of government
will pick it up and disaect it as a ma
tional crime, worse than that which
robbed Samuel j. Tilden of the presi-
dency in behalf of the pious husband of
the abstemiouB Mrs. Hayes. William
McGarrahan's blood cries from the
ground. Our liberties once forfeited,
what value are our lives? McGarrahRn
lies cold and prone, and the villains
who robbed him of his just dues are
alive and rolling in luxury. Is it any
wonder that a humane gentleman like
Robert Ingersoll dares to stand erect
and proclaim, There ia no God2"
l am familiar to most of the readers
OF the HERALD under a nom de plume,
but | cannot on this occasion stoop low
enough to sign it. The strong sense of
justice my mother gave me, 90 years
ago, tells me to stand up and shirk
nothing on an occasion of this sort.
l therefore give my name and residence,
and say further that 1 am at all times
personally and corporeally responsible
to any person deeming himself
aggrieved. THos. B. MERRY,
732 South Hill street.