The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-08-04

speak of him and his attachments in
the vicious n o do.
Mr.. Bryan's great ability has also
run afoul Of your vanity, and has
challenged your ever present envy. In
all the range of possible human knowl-
edge, there is not one point in which
he is not easily your superior. 1t is
true, he is a young man. and does not
have to his credit the years you have,
but he has made better use of his time
than you have of yours. He has stud
led great principles of law government
and philosopy to some advantages; you
to no advantage whatever. He has
studied how to help rather than to
detract and e down. He is an opti-
mist, you are a pessimist and an ICON
%iclast, pure and simple. Your mission
is to destroy, to detract. to elevate
your nose at his attainmeutS, and at
the attainments of other you dislike.
You are using your teeth, and are con
stantly snarling and whining. Mr..
Morton, you mistake belly-ache for
brains. That you will change is
scarcely to be hoped. 1t is quite likely
that you will move OF to the grave.
snarling and whining and whimpering
and swapping like a revengeful cur,
at the heels of those you envy.
In the years l have known you,
have had for you nothing but the most
kindly personal feelings, and l have
such feelings for you yet. I would
gladly see you a bigger nan than you
are. You possess some education, and
might be of value to the world if you
would but make the effort, and were
O handicapped by green eyed jeal-
ousy and insane vanity.
You even carry your ruleness to the
extent of speaking disparagingiy of
the dead. the late Honorable William
in the soil of the state he loved SO
well and honored so much, and whose
shoe latchets you were unworthy to
%unbuckle. MckeiShan was. by all
odds. the greatest political orator this
state has produced. He was a man of
kindly disposition. a close student. a
reasoner and a philosopher, and withal
he spoke we'll of those of whom he
spoke at all, a lesson You have yet to
learn. Even his memory does not es-
cape your venomous tongue, and the
widow and children are compelled to
read the bitter words you speak of the
dead husband, father and statesman.
"Speaking of Allen. and KEN, and
McKeighan, and Maxwell and Bill
Dech,' you observe IF there be among
them anything but inordinate appetite
for public place and emolument, let
the people see the other thing or
things
l presume. Mr.. Morton, every citi-
zen of the United States has a natural
desire to participate in the affairs of
his government. I certainly plead
guilty to the charge. l came Of an
ancestry who settled on rugged New
England shores over two centuries
ago. In every generation my ances-
tors have taken an honorable part in
the affairs of the government, and in
every war they have taken an honor
able part on the side of the govern
mept, never against it. 1t is not I'M
natural, therefore. hat /, in my ma
ture years, should aspire to reap some
of the reasonable rewards of citizen
ship. / have never sought an office
for it's pay, for have always earned,
and can yet arm more money in
private than in public life. l have
held the office of judge of the district
court of this judicial district by cleo
ton, and 1 now hold it by appoint
ment. For six years I held the office
of United States senator. and this is
the extent of my office holding. Mr..
Morton, have you ever aspired to
office? And what particular virtues
did you possess hat made you an ac-
ceptable candidate? How many times
have you been a candidate for the
office of governor of the state of Ne
braska? Years ago you held the office
of delegate in congress; no one COM
planned, and for ought | know, you
made a passablc sort of a congressman
nothing brilliant, perhaps, but reas-
onaDly safe. You held the office of
secretary of agriculture, by appoint
ment, and / doubt not you would hold
it again if it were rendered you. 1t
would seem, under the circumstances,
that your "inordinate appetite for
public place and e~molument' is fully
as great and quite as highly cultivated
as the appetites of ".Allen and KEN
and Mckeighan and Maxwell and Bill
Dech."
In the same issue of your paper in
which the above excerpts appear, l
find under the title, "Conservatisms,"
the following: "Self-k,ye is the key
you ought to be the most benevolent
man in the United States, for 1 do
not know of another who. loves him
self more than you low yourself.
I also find, "The ideal is invariably
unreal; hence false" Mr.. Morton, you
are a false philosopher. The ideal is
o invariably unreal; it is not infre-
quently quite real, and hence it is not
false. There are, of course, certain
ideal things that can never become
real, and are, therefore, false, but all
ideal things are not false. In this
splendid and cheerful world of ours,
intended by the Supreme Being for
the happiness, advancement and ele-
walton of the human race. high and
low, rich and paor, great and small,
it would be a solecism to say that all
ideal things are unreal. A study of the
gradual growth and ceaseless unfold
ment of the world, in all it's myriads
OF departments and countless ramifi-
cations, will demonstrate that n has
lived in vain who has lived as long as
you have and has failed to discover
that the ideal is sometimes real.
You say that Misrepresentation and
not growth is the inevitable necessity
of individualized life" AS applied to
your kind of politics, 1 fully agree
with you. But this is a political her
esy when viewed from the proper
standpoint. While self-preservatnn is