The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-11-26
DEATHS IN POLITICS.
Dramatic Climaxes to Prominent Careers.

(From the St. Louis Globe-Demoorat.
Henry George s sudden taking off in the
closing DAYS Of an exciting canvass, in
which he was the most striking and pic
turesoue figure, will serve to recall some
of the other dramatic deaths Of publicists
and state, men. In Georges own State
Alexander Smith, a prominent carpet
manufacturer, who was candidate for
Congress on the Republican ticket in
New York district in 1878, died on the
election night five minutes after receiv-
ing the announcement of his victory, and
in the special election the Democrats re-
covered the district. But on critical oo-
casions death has often in this country
struck far more shining mark than IL
did here. William Henry Harrison
demise in 1871, month after his lnaugu-
ration, right at the outsst of the Wing
party's career of power. sent Tyler to the
Presidency precipitated the conflict be-
tween him and Congress on the bank
question, split his party, and was one of
the causes of its defeat in 1874. Deaths
second invasion of the White House took
off Taylor in 1850, who was an oponent of
CLAWS compromise measure of that year,
and put Fillmore, who favorsd this legis-
lation and who signed the compromise
bills without hesitation. at the head of
the government. Lincoln's death at the
browning moment OF his career gave, I'M
der johnson, more virulent character
to the conflict between President and
CONGRESS than it would otherwise have
assumed, and delayed the work of recon-
struction Garfeld's assassination
marked the climax of the factional feud
in the Republican party, defeated Blaine
AID the Republicans, in 1884 and started
tsyeland on his long career of success.
81 live in an inverted older," said
Burke on the death of his son, who had
lust been elected to Parliament. They
who ought to have succeeded me have
gone before me. They who should have
been to me in the place of posterity are
in the place of ancestors. " This death led
Burke TO refuse the title of Lord Beacons-
field which George III had offered him,
indirectly caused savage attacks on Burke
by his political enemies, caused crisis in
Parliament and called out from him one
of the profoundest OF his constitutional
Lord The Earl of Chatham was seized
with an apoplectic fit and died in l77S,
when rising to speak in the House Of
Lords against the motion for the recog-
milton of the Independence of Englands
American colonies. He had been an able
and consistent friend of the Americans,
but he opposed peace with them at that
time because this would be a triumph for
England's natural enemy France.
Premier Spencer Perceval was shot dead
in the loi0y of the Parliament House in
1872, but mis- taking off produced no i'm
portaa' political consequences. The
dea "a - jastlereagh, the British Foreign
Mi lister, by suicide, in 1922, startled
Europe, put Canning in the Foreign
Utiina turned England's lukewarm
friendship toward the Holy Alliance into
open hostility, and, through Canning s
trief' dship for the United States at the
time Monroe issued his historical declara-
tion in 1928, ''called the new world into
existence to redress the balance of the
old.'' The fall from a horse which killed
Peel in 1850 came at a time when the
troubles of the Russell Ministry promised
to open up to the veteran Opportunist
cheftaln new career of glory.
The theological student Sand, who as
sassinatea kotZebue in Mannheim in 1919
for his pc .yerful opposition to German
freedom, alarmed Stein and Hardenberg
who were older and wiser friends of
liberty than Sand, and they saw that the
ass issins work had destroyed their hopes,
''Now the Constitution is impossible, !"
said William Won Hunt oldt. in words
that were prophetic. Time and circum-
stances made Kotsebue's death triumph
for absolutism instead of Democracy.
Marshal PRINTS assassination in 1870
star6led the world, even at time when
the Franco German war was furnishing a
new sensation almost every week, de-
prived Spain of an alert and resourceful
mind at a decidedly critical period of her
history, and took from King Amadeus,
whom he had just elevated to the Spanish
throne. an adviser whose guidance might
have changed the current of future events.
The assassination of Alexander II in 1881
came at an inopportune time for the as
sassins, for it checked the reforms then in
progress in Russia, removed the liberator
of "a, 900, 900 serfs, and put upon the
throne the most reactionary of the Rus
san monarchs of the century except
Nicholas I. Canovas's recent death took
place at the most critical stage in Spain s
career since the revolutionary days of
186S-75, put new party in power, made
a swift and sweeping change in the man.
agement of affairs in Cuba, and may be
the precursor of further and still more
startling consequences.