The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-15

Nstable DISTANCES. n reiitioai Histevy or m,,-
takes ~ Ready writers.
From the 81. Lopts Globe Democrat.

Fnora the 81. Louis Globe DEMOCRAT.
KILLED by a Letter" IL the Significant head.
ing Of n Havana newspaper over an article tell.
ing Of OK. Minister de Lomo's fall. This legend
would be an appropriate opitaph over the politi.
cal graves Of many public men. The rivalry DO.
tween Hamilton, the leader dc facto of the Fed.
oralist party, and Adams, the leader do lure.
melted Hamilton's letter during the campaign
Of 1900. arraigning Adams, which was ono OF
the causes of tho rupture and overthrow OF tina,
party and the triumph OF Jefferson and the
Democracy. Hamilton's letters attacking Burr
were tho cause Of the duel in which Hamilton
lost his life. Jcfferson's letter to his old
neighbor,, MazEei. in 1895, In which, by pretty
plain Implication, he traduced washington and
kept Jefferson denying and explaining for many
years. his historic letter to Van Buren,. on this
death and twenty eight years after the Mazlei
epistle was penned. The preservation and pub.
Is really a sort of letter to posterity, with iiS
spitoful assaults on the memory. OF Hamilton
lack Of discernment on Jefrerson's part, and hass
called out from alhhis editors and biographies
"Sever write a letter" said Talleyrand, "and
Biddio had Observed tho arst part Of tbs u:
been different. Jackson would not have BEEN
Staying tho bank hydra" and tho poiiti"s
Of the sos would have lost one OF its
%Sis P PiSsIiFTs'aHi syo S@fRSisSS$eSS' p an 1atsre'iHin IGF:
die had what Jnyenal called an lin;
defeated ds% Sa' clay and the National Repu6 6NSai;
party In 1882, and. as one of the consequences
OF rs 1857 Sa" The "Rhea letter preeipita,ed R" tRS
contest in 1880 between Jackson and Calhoun
to Jackson in the Presidency. made Van BnrSn
Jackson's political heir, dwarfed Calhoun from
%pastissn @o Z ,pSsl fsa uSi o az WHEN facns %e ht% sr TO isS
notification and that morbid and wire.drawn
political philosophy in defence of slavery that
brought on tho war which destroyed slavery.
There is q ine touch of poetic irony in the cir.
cumstance that Van Buren, the man who said
letter. met his doom through the medium OF a
absolutely forced to write. and it was called out
In the spring of 1914 by the necessity of dcclar.
n meg The FL lei letter. in Which isiaI he mildly idly and q
for the nomination for the Presidency, n few
Everybody, remembers the. wreck which letter
in the conventions Of 1876 and 1850 and at the
polls in 1884, His fatal readiness with his pen
most unfortunate man in American history"
H T6ars w 4: W, ns w WI get ssn the be s 1e%t9at ao9 in II e, r.
goes to somebody else." in the yenr. however,
In which his success seemed certain, 1874
on tho Texas question. We are beaten,'
exclaimed Joshua r. GiddinEs to Cassius
containing one Of Clay's letters. Just before both
of them mounted the stand at a Clay mass meet.
ing at which they. were to speak. He was right.
The letter. which made a surrender. on the
slavery question. sent enough anti slavery
Wings over to Birney. the Liberty party's candi.
date. in the decisive State of New York to give
that State and the Presidency to Polk. The
chief qualification, which l shall require, OF a
WhiR Presidential candidate hereafter" said
Meredith p. Gentry a few days after Clay's de-
feat, us that he shall be able to neither read
nor write"