The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-03-28

uOW living Ii the s6aI6 OF w aS01qgGO0.
Fowler, the last Republican senator
from Tennessee, is still living, and so
are the two most noted ones from Mis-
souri,. John B. Henderson lives here and
is quite power, and Carl Schurz, If he
hasn't moved again, lives in New York
city.
As to the co1ored men-we11, they
are very much out. Senator Bruce lives
here, and so does John r. Lynch. Bruce
was the last colored senator, and it looks
to me as if Murray would be the last
colored representative for some time. So
at the end of a third of a century after
the emancipation proclamation the
whole race is as much unrepresented as
it was before that act. Senator Ames,
who was of Mississippi, lives very quiet
ly in Massachusetts, and his colleague,
Alcorn, died on his plantation in Missis-
sippi. l had almost forgotten the Rev.
Hiram Revels, the first colored senator.
He is now a teacher, as he was when
elected. All the prominent Texas men
of that time are dead, both of the senate
and house. Web Flanagan was the last
survivor. Powell Clayton, as you know,
is still alive
An Interview With Governor Pinchbaclx.
was so much interested by the vet
eran' S talk that I went up to see Govern
or Pinchback and found him in a very
handsome and well furnished residence
in the newest part of the far northwest
quite on the hill. in fact. With the
single exception that hair and beard are
almost snow white, he has not changed
a particle since he was man of ma
fiOnaI motto oud the hood ~ aJIoOo1
state government some 20 years ago.
He has the same pleasant address, the
same humorous twinkle in his dark eye
and the same positiveness of opinion as
when / first met him in Louisiana. He
tells me that he has done fairly we'll in
the real estate business and that ex-Sen-
ator Kellogg has made quite fortune
in the same line, but he added: cit is
deadly stagnant now. There is bar
gain in Washington property at present
prices, but no one sells who is not COM
PEELED to. -
Talking my way around cautiously to
the old times, propounded the direct
question:
''Now that it is ali over and the COL
ored people are not in it, and the gulf
states are SO solid as they can be made,
you no doubt take more philosophical
views. So what is your present opinion
of the whole reconstruction business and
its results?'
''It was like that marriage feast men
toned in the Scriptures he replied,
with laugh. ''The quality were first
invited and wouldn't come. So the
master Of the house sent out into the
highways and byways and had all sorts
and conditions of people seized and COM
PEELED to come in. And a motley mess
they were, take them by and large.
There were men willing to die any min
ute for the truth as they saw it, devoted
teachers and preachers, earnest reform
ers, spectators, men with one eye to
their own interests as we'll as those Of
the state, and fair sprinkle of unmiti-
gated rascals The colored people were
absolutely ignorant Of every principle
of free government, and SO the only
wonder is that they did SO we'll. No
people on earth could have done better
under the circumstances. If the south
ern men had taken hold at the Start,
they could have run the whole business,
but they looked on it as foredoomed to
failure. So the queer fish got in, and
some of them got away with the bait.
You remember D., who was in the
legislature. He told me himself that he
made $3.50, 600 out of his service there.
He has gone to the northwest, invested
it in real estate and will soon be mill
ionaire, if he isn't now, but he was
sharp enough to quit before the troubles
came Many others got away with the
swag; but, after all. very few profted in
the long run.
A Multitude of Has Beens.
GAS to your main question, however,
I will say that the plan presented by
Thad Stevens was the most sensible.
The states should have been held in a
sort of pupilage until the two races had
learned to work together. 1t will work
out that way in the long run anyhow,
for the southern people will have to
agree, white and black, to work togeth-
er on a fair and honest basis, or their
whole society will become thoroughly
demoralized, and the white people are
smart enough to see that they would be
the greatest losers in the long run by
that
Following out the line of inquiry sug-
gested by Senator Kellogg, I am sur
prised at the immense number of once
prominent people who reside here. There
are ex-commissioners of patents practic-
ing as patent attorneys, ex-oficials Of
the pension bureau as pension agents,
exes of the treasury as claim agents,
exes of many departments as attorneys
therein, and scores Of congressman
and journalists as lobbyists.
Ex-soldiers of all ranks and of both
armies are here in all sorts of capaci-
tiles, and at least two ex-secretaries
of the treasury. And, speaking of the
treasury, some one told me the other
day that the daughter of Salmon P.
Chase, equally honored as governor of
Ohio, secretary of the treasury and chief
| justice of the United States, is now in
actual danger of restitution, if not an
! cIaia,t Of charitu We nftara read of the