The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-27
He WAS HIS OWN Man
MEMOIRS" OF THE FAMOUS
CHANCELLOR KENT

Who Didn't Sign n Pledge Because
He Had II Constitutional Right tn
Get Drun1--BoOl< OF Spirited III
cOnSistency-The First Edition
of .VictOr Sercnus'' Exhausted
Recent Gossip About MRS. Burnett
Recalls nm Old Tale.
Correspondence The st. Paul Globe.
BOSTON, March 24.-"Congress has
nothing to do with diplomatic matters.
The senate is in many respects a
branch of the executive power, but the
house of representatives has nothing to
do with negotiation. They cannot in
terfere with notice, with sending or
Withdrawing ministers, or senling them
away, or with negotiations or COM
munications with foreign governments.
They can vote for war, and there is the
limit of the exercise of their power"
SO wrote Chancellor Kent to Daniel
Webster, March 20, 1916 and the words
are printed in his Memoirs" published
while congress is interfering" with
anything with which it pleases to in
terfere: but many things have changed
since Kent's day, lawyers among them.
The Memoirs" is the book of the
week, not so much because it records a
life which touched that of almost every
American civilian of any sequence
during the first fifty years of our ma
tionaI existence, but because he who
led it was not only a man, but his own
man. He could refuse to sign a tenn
perance pledge, not because he want
ed to get drunk, but because he had
constitutional right to get drunk and
could rot sign it away" he could con-
denim this abominable war of Madi-
son." he could call Napoleon the
scourge and nuisance of Europe" and
after having found John Adams too
much OF monarchist he could write:
My opinion is that the admission
of universal suffrage and a licentious
press are incompatible with govern
ment and security to property, and
that the government and character of
this country are going to ruin. This
suffrage is too great an excitement for
any political machine; it racks it to
pieces, and morals go with it," april
s, 1880
This spirited inconsistency makes
book worth reading, and when one adds
to it the logged perseverance which
gave Kent not only his legal learning,
but a comprehensive knowledge OF
English literature, and wide Latin
scholarship, and still further adds the
lsvelicst domestic traits, one has a
picturesque figure, such as one likes to
set among the "old heroes of time fed"
Boston religious denominations are
invariably fissiparous, and the young
est, the Christian Scientist, composed
chiefly Of persons who reject creeds
without studying them because they
are reported to be inharmonious with
sciences which they know only by
name, already has two well defined di-
visions, the EddyiteS and the Anything
but Eddyites. The former accepts
Mrs. Eddy'S teachings as almost di-
vinely inspired, rejecting medicine and
Gefying law; the latter demands little
more of it's members than a supreme
belief in systematiZed self-control. Both
divisions have produced many books,
which seems odd, since, to be consist
ent, the writers should be content with
mental projection of their theories, and
the readers should satisfy themselves
with opening their minds for the re
ception of anything ready to enter
them; but, for the present ordinary
writing and reading seem to content
them. and the size and number of the
SulllOuS pIOduSOd AiieIlAC NIiiCl'sS VI
ular denominations somewhat envious.
For instance, the entire first edition
of "Victor Serenus," by Henry Wood,
issued by Messrs. Lee & Shepard, in
Boston, and by an English firm in Lon
don. was exhausted before the day of
publication. and the nder rs were az
work on the second before the a-thar
himself had received a copy of tie fr-t
The hero, an AleXandrian Jew, beconl~ S