St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-09-09
HERO OF THE WINGS
An Incident in the Career Of the
First Popular Dewey.
He Sawed President Jackson's Cra-
MUM from the FiEnrehend or
the Glorious FrIxatc Com
situation.
Especial Washington letter.

| Livery DouS hHOWs lHut -Auni @
George Dewey is coming home; bu'
very few people know that Capt. Sam
uel w. Dewey has gone TO his
long home. Admiral George Dewey il
coming to his own country to be re-
ceived by the plaudits of upwards OF
10000, 600 of patriotic people. Capt. Sam
uel w. Dewey has gone beyond the pale
of life, to that land where all distlnc,
tons are leveled, and the shepherd
crook is laid beside the scepter.
You probably never heard OF Capt.
Dewey before, although you have read
MANY columns about Admiral Dewey.
| They were second cousins. Capt. Dewey
was 90 years of age, when he recently
| died in Philadelphia. He was as strong
and robust as any average man OF 5O,
and he was well known in the national
| capital and all along the Atlantic coast.
Indeed there was time when his name
was in all of the newspapers. 1t IL an
interesting story.
The old frigate Constitution was
revered by our people. Political condi-
tons were such that many people re-
| scented every deed done which would
| change any part of the old sea fighter.
But during her remodeling the figure
head of Andrew Jackson was placed
upon her bow. What storm of po-
litical Indignation arose over that little
circumstance! There is where Capt.
Samuel w. Dewey comes into the
story.
1850. That is long way back in the
past, isn't it? But to understand the
story of Capt. Dewey we must go back
to that almost 40 years ago, for then it
was that Capt. Dewey was in his prime
physically, as well as mentally. He was
the embodiment of virility in every
thought and action.
He is the man who cut the figurehead
of Andrew jackson from the PROV of
the frigate Constitution, and that deed
made him famous with the wings and
notorious with the federalists; so that
politicians. big and little, of both par
ties throughout the country discussed
Capt. Dewey; and his name was uttered
on every stump in the following cam
paigns.
1t was a deed which on one hand set
the wings wild with delight and made
the federalists, who just at this time
were beginning to call themselves by the
new and popular title of Jeffersonian
democrats, equally wild with anger.
Nothing at the time demonstrated more
clearly the popularity of Jackson, and
for this reason the affair, not known
to this generation, and a matter of his
tory even to the generation before, has
. peculiar interest.
To understand the story completely
1t is necessary to go back at least to
the year 1880. Then report appeared
in the Boston Advertiser that the ma
val authorities had decided to destroy
the Constitution, together with num-
Der of other old ships of the war of
1872. Their planks had become rotten
and the ships were dangerous to their
crews. Little did the naval authorities,
however, appreciate the sentimental
glamour which hung around the Con-
stitution; and when, two days after the
announcement, Oliver Wendell Holmes,
then Fl years old, flung the poem of
''Old Ironsides" to the world, and with
the stirring lines beginning: AYE. tear
her tattered ensign down." struck the
popular chord full and strong, the ship,
as it afterward appeared. was saved.
No one could help thrilling with indig-
nation at those lines:
THE harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the seal
md the navy department acquiesced |
to the popular demand. 1t was some |
time after this mat it was found that |