The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1895-06-01
An Able Nan Gone.

At1:15 a. M, Tuesday morning the
bulletin sent out by the physicians at
tending at the bedside of Secretary of
State. Walter @. Gresham. read thus:
"Secretary Gresham is dead, /" and the
earthly career of one Of the ablest men
OF this nation had ceased.
Walter O. Gresham was born on a
farm in Harrison county, H., March
Il, 1882. He used to good purpose the
schoo, advantages OF Lis day, early
took up the study oflaw and was admit
ted to the bar at the age of twenty-one.
lie was in the Indiana Legislature at
the opening of the war and left the
legislative halls for the field of conflict,
entering as a lieutcnent colonel and
coming out a Major General and at At
lanta was shot in the leg by rebel
sharp shooter, and the wound left him
slightly lame the rest of his days.
President Grant appointed him Unit
ed States Distric; Judge, and he made
judicial record any man might envy.
President Arthur took him from the
Judges bench and first made him Post
master General, and later Secretary of
the Treasury, and then, before going
out Of office put him on the bench again
but this time as United States Circuit
Judge.
He had great and laudable ambition
to be president and was candidate in
1SSS and again in 1892 but was defeated
for the nomination in both cases.
Down to this time his career had been
one unbroken triumph and glory, but
in these defeats he saw his last chance
for the Presidency vanish and it
soured his whole disposition and after
life. lie became a ''mugwump" and
worked against Iarrisons reelection,
and for his reward Mr.. Cleveland made
him Secretary Of State, which brought
him as near the presidency as be could
ever hope to get.
And here is a thought we would like
to impress upon the minds of the young
men, and the boys too, Of today While
a Republican and loyal citizen of
his country, honestly striving to carry
out his convictions of what he thought
and knew was right, Walter Q. Grcsh-
am never made mistake. But in an
evil hour, because of sore disapoint-
ment it is true, he turned from the
right, from the path of duty, from the
honorable course he had been following
for so many years, into the crooked by
path of the 'mugwump" and Democ
racy in open antagnnism to the glorious
record he had been making for forty
years, and since that time Republicans,
MugWumps, Democrats and all parties
have found fault with him and his path
way has been etrewn with thorns and
thstles.
BY no means are all his acts as Secre-
tary Of State to be condemned Ia the
administration of his office he has dis
played on all occasions the ability to
conduct its affairs, but he has been try
ing to adapt himself to the plans and
ideas of man in whom he can have no
fellowship any more than can the
leopard shange his spots, and hence he
has made so many mistakes and blum
der7 that his administration as a whole
has fallen into disrepute instead of
browning glory as it should have been.
In commenting upon his death the
Chicago Inter Ocean closes its remarks
thus:
Tits difficult to forecast with pre-
elslon the verdict of history upon sec
rotary Gresham's career at the head of
foreign affairs, but II should not be for
gotten that almost his last official act
was letter on the firing upon an Am
eriean vessel which had iii it the ring
Of genuine Auericani-m
lie leaves wife and two children to
mourn his death, to whom nation ex-
tends its sincere sympathies.