The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1899-02-18
A Statesman's Lament.
For The Commonwealth.

that L have SInned against my
Maker. l have not against Missis-
sippi. If | had served my Creator
as faithfully and been as true to
Him as | have been 10 Mississippi
| would not now carry scar upon
my heart left by the soaring iron
, of sin.
! Tt is gratifying to note that our
remarkable Governor has at last
been led to view his moral reli-
gious lapses with the eye of con-
triton. 1t has not been long
since he looked upon failing
from grace" from different stand
point and tickled his audience
(and especially the younger
hearers) by the exquisite humor
and drollery with which he plead
guilty to his shortcomings. 1t is
certainly to be hoped that our re-
markable Governors repentance
is sincere, and due to a conviction
of the enormity of his "falling
from grace, and not 10 mere
chagrin and alarm at having been
exposed by the public press.
But the purpose in hand is to
comment on the language our
Governor used, and which | have
quoted above. The sentiment he
uttered was borrowed from
Shakespeare's "Henry VIII y
1t was placed by the great drama
tist in the mouth of Cardinal
Wolsey. Wolsey was the right
hand man of Henry VIII. The
king reposed in HIM blind and
unlimited confidence, and the
willy churchman exertei / almost
absolute power throughout Great
Britain. His will was, under the
king, the surpeme law, and the
minister was not slow to use that
power to promote the ends of his
own boundless ambition. Spoiled
by indulgence and the exercise of
arbitrary power, he came to look
upon his own sagacity and wisdom
as exceeding that of the sovereign
from whom his own authority
was derived. He began secretly
to antagonize the measure of the
king, and by plot and plans of his
own sought to thwart the wishes
and bait the desires of the mo-
march to whom he was indebted
for his high position and i'm
mense power. But his pride and
ambition misled him; his duplicity
was first suspected and then prov
ed, and the exposure resulted in
his downfall and disgrace.
Regretting that our remarkable
Governor didsnot more fully quote
the utterances of Wolsey after be
had fallen from his high estate, |
have thought it not amiss to recall
to the minds of that proud, obsti-
nate and ambitious prelate after
he had forfeited all claims upon
the gratitude and generosity of an
indulgent master. 1t is generally
thought to be good reading, and
there may be in it something ap-
plicable to the situation in Missis-
sippi today. Here lis an extract:
Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatnessl
This is the state of man; today he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; tomorrow blossoms,
And bears his blusbing honors thick upon him.
The third day comes frost, killing frost;
And-when he thinks, good easy man full surely,
His greatness is ripenng-nips his root,
And then he falls, as do. have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summer In sea of glory
But far beyond my depth; my highblown pride
At length broke under me; and now has left me,
Weary and old with service, to the mercy
or a rude stream that must forever hide me.
But the most affecting part of
Wolsey's lament is found in the
sage counsel he gives to his faith
full and attacked servant-Crom-
well. He calls the attention of
that worthy to the mistakes which
he himself had made, and thus
advises him to avoid the blunders
by which his own ambitious
schemes were frustrated. With
the exceptian of one word for an
other that was given in the text,
/ quote from Wolsey's lament as
given by Shakespeare; but in
changing that word | have not
taken quite so great liberty with
the original as did our remarkable
Governor. Here it IS:
Let's dry our eyes and thus far hear me Cromwell
And-when ami orgotten, as shall be,
And sleep in duh cold marble, where no mention
OF me must be heard of-say taught thee.
Say wolsey-that once tread the way Of glory
And sounded all the depths and shoals Of honor
Found thee way, out Of his wreck, to rise in
sure and safe one although thy master missed It's
Mark though my fall and that that ruined me.
Cromwell, charge thee fling away ambition;
By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then'
The image of his Maker, hope win by It?
Love thyself last; cherish those that hate thee:
Corruption wins not more than honesty.
Still In thy right hand carry gentle peace,
To silent envious tongues. Be just, and fear not
Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country's.
Thy God and truths. Then IL thou falPst,
o, ,Cromwelli
Thou falls't blessed martyr.
o, Cromwell, Cromwell!
Had but served by God with half the zeal
served my Klan, He would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.
Are not the "sovereigns" of
Mississippi becoming awake and
alive to the abuses of powers ex-
hibited in the acts of her Chief Ex-
ecutive? Is not the hour of reck-
oning at hand! And might not
our remarkable Governor have
more freely used the language of
the disgraeed cardinal when he
INDUCED in the lament over his
| own downfall and the devious