The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03


discovered incident relating to that
immortal leader is snatched up with such
avidity that an entirely. fresh contribu-
ton from source not hitherto sounded
will be gratefully received by the people.
At the last social meeting in this City of
the Legion of Honor, of which he is a
valued member. D. J. Staples, the we'll
known California pioneer, was prevailed
upon. to speak of Lincoln, as the latter was
known. to the Californian. After referring
torhis own part in the Fremont campaign
of 1856, Mr.. Staples proceeded to impart
the following valuable Lincolnian reminis-
cences:
I'm 1850 / had an ambition to go East
and attend the National Convention of the
Republican party and assist in the nomi-
nation of the person whom / believed was
. to succeed James Buchanan in the Presi-
Dental chair. In. our State Convention of
that year, held in Sacramento, the senti-
ment was largely.and strongly in favor OF
William II. Seward as the Presidential
nominee of the Republicans. 1t was un-
derstood that those who claimed to be
most prominent and influential in our
party in this State at that time had deter
mined that. no man should go from here
TO our National Convention unless he
agreed to vote for William II. Seward first,
last and all the time for the Republican
nomination for President.
Coming from a rural district 1 took the
position at our State Convention that our
:. delegates should go untrammeled by any
pledges. 1 did not profess to be so wise as
many Of the members from the metropolis
and our capital city, but 1 thought 1
knew what: was the common-sense of the
: situation.
1--WE were long way off from the great
acenters Of political thought ana action in
: this country and we had no telegraph or
r&ilroad then. across the continent. We
did not know and could not fairly antici-
pate what was or what would be the con-
dftion of:political affairs when our delega-
= tioQ reached the National Convention.
And 1. insisted that we should be at least
Independent in our views on the candi-
dacy. and argued that all ought to be
. free to Judge and determine and act when
the time for dominating a President
arrived. That was the position 1 took, and
i got others to agree with me, and we went
into our convention to make that fight.
shall not impose upon you with details OF
that matter. / will state that under a
motion to suspend the rules, which pre-
vailed, i was elected unanimously +
Went:to that National Convention. took
1.-The old Butterworth route through Arizona
and across Mexico-twenty- -one days and
nights to Jefferson City. From there on
to o'Washington and Chicago was CON-
paTatively easy journey"
In his narration OF convention scenes
Mr.. Staples said:
No man that saw those 10000 upturned
faces, no man who witnessed the en-
thusiasm of that convention when Lin
coin: was declared the nominee, can forget
the occasiQn'if he were to live thousand
years:
j.. - The delegates from this State numbered
eight; they are all gone how-alI gone
except myself: Of that eight there were
five of US who were for Lincoln. But from
our great respect to the men of our conven-
-tiou who entertained the belief that
Seward was the best man and the only
man who could. be successful, we con-
cluded.' to vote for Seward on the first
ballot.
:; 81 occupied rather peculiar position
or rather we did-being the farthest off of
any. There was no. communication then
except, by the way of the isthmus or
:: round the Horn, or by slow team across
]: side. the speaker, to the right hand. And
.Oregen-very far-off Oregon-had the great
good sense to select as their representative
and give their proxies to vote to Horace
greeley. he sat to my right.
-"E shall never forget when on the Sec
ond ballot-it might have been the third,
Lam not certain as to that-how anxious
we were to cast our five votes for Lincoln.
But our spokesman was too SLOW He was
not quick enough for the emergency
Before he. could get on his feet and obtain
the recognition of the chair for the mr.
pose an Ohio man jumped up and In
stentorian' voice roared out, tMr. Chair
man, Ohio changes five votes from Seward
to Lincoln And California lost the
golden. opportunity of first casting those
five votes and turning the scale for Lin
coin"
After. the Chicago convention Mr..
Staples returned to California and took
part in the political campaign. His mar
:rative of the victory and of his visit to
Washington to see Mr.. Lincoln inaueu-
: rated was graphic and dramatically in
teresting.
."Well the election took place." con-
tiuued Mr.. Staples, "and we were vic
torieus, and / became anxious to see our
. President, Abraham Lincolns inaugurated
chief magistrate of the Nation. So |
made the second pilgrimage through Ari-
zona and Texas. You may know that
Indian war in Arizona. l was detained on
that account seven days; / could not get
through. / don't know as l could express
to you the peculiar kind of satisfaction
and L hope 1t was not 1nhuman-a sort OF
justifiable and comforting qualification it
seemed to me-with which | saw six of
these Apaches hanging on a tree.
General Twiggs was in command in
the lower portion of the country. He
ordered the soldiers there to go to the Rio
Grande. We had the humiliation of wit
Messing, as we.went along, soldiers of our
American Republic ordered out of the
country by rebels across the Rio Grande,
to get away from there as best they could. |
The stage was frequently stopped along
that route, and the driver or some other |
person addressed by regular officer of |
the army, with the inquiry as to whether |
there were any Black Republicans on |
board, and that if so one was wanted |
for breakfast
when we reached Fort Smith, Ark, |
telegraphed on that we were seven days |
behind. We saw men in the uniform of |
the country pouring in all night long, |
under the command of a man who used to
be Sheriff of, Sacramento County-Ben
Mccullough.
"Well, 1 got to Washington ten davs
after the Inauguration. [ found that the