Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-06-22


of Unswerving Honesty = True to
His Convictions and Fearless In
Their support = Champion of Free
Trade and BimetaIIisn.
Especial Washington letter.
Richard Parks Bland the immortal
Missourian, is in his grave After life S
| htful fever he sleeps well. He has fin
ished the fight. He kept the faith. Only
a representative in congress -one of
357 he. has hold upon the public
heart such as has been equaled by very
few American statesmen He will for
ever remain one of the most unique
| figures in our annals. The history Of
the republic cannot be adequately, even
intelligibIy, written without giving a
high place and large space to this plain
Missouri farmer. AS the mighty Fred
erick said of his illustrious ancestor,
the great elector. it may be truthfully
said Of Bland, ssThis man did great
things.
That much must be admitted by
every candid mind, whether bimetal-
list, goldbug, Democratic, Republican.
greenbacker. Populist or what not.
Yet it is simple truth to say-that he
possessed not one Of the characteristics
usually deemed necessary for a great
public career He was not an orator,
though his manner of speech was lumi-
nous. He was not a profound scholar.
for his reading and his thought had been
4 confined almost exclusively to economic
| subjects. He possessed not the glamour
of military renown, yet he was brave
frontier Indian fighter He was not of
commanding presence, though his rug
ged face was sure passport to the
affection of his fellows. He had no
scintillating wit, no bubbling humor,
and was not skillful at repartee, but
his utter fearlessness in debate made
his antagonists give him wide berth
when he was on his feet. He could hit,
and hit hard. and this many of them
knew by sad experience. He had no
wealth On the contrary, he was poor
| in this worlds goods and had no desire
for great riches. He was not manipu-
lator of men or "a practical politician.
He had no more idea of how to lay
wires, pun strings or pack conventions
/ than has my 9-year old boy. In him
there was not even the trace of dem
agogy, and he had a supreme con-
! tempt and lofty scorn for time servers
and double dealers. He had no princely
manners to win him friends, for his
were diffident and brusque He had no
personal magnetism. and yet he bound
men to him with hooks of steel
Kept His Honor Bright.
Without arrogance he possessed an
honest, manly pride, which would not
have fiattered Neptune fer his trident
or Joye for his power to thunder. Such
was his rectitude Of soul that he would
not have abated one jot or title of his
/ political creed to have been perpetual
president of the republic He absolute
| ly refused to stoop to conquer and look
ed with amazement upon those who
crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
| that thrift may follow fawning No
matter who ran up Gessler' 5 cap in the
market place, this stalwart Missourian
refused to worship. Others might tenn
porize and do expedient things. He
would not he kept his honor bright as
the spear of Achilles or the plowshare
of Cincinnatus.
If this man was destitute of the
wiles of politicians, if he disregarded
all the cunningness of demagogues
from the time of Alcibiades to the
present hour, in what lay the secret of
his wondrous hold upon the minds of
men7 What made him force in poll
tics with which all statesmen in both
his own and in opposing parties had to
reckonf To young men contemplating
a public career l commend a careful,
even prayerful, study of this mans life,
for long after all the demagogues.
lnanipulators and time servers of our
day molder in forgotten graves histori-
ans will discuss and applaud his deeds.
His power was due to his perfect in
| tegrity Of mind, his rugged honesty,
his leonine courage. his devotion to prin-
ciple, his persistency of purpose. He
was what Mark Antony vaunted HIM
self to be and what Mark most assured
" was not, ga plain. blunt man, who
loved his friends, and they returned
his lcve in Scripture measure, heaped
up, pressed down and running over. If
he had understood any thing OF political
| management, he would have reached
| the White House. The ne plus ultra, the
ultima thule, of human ambition. As
it is, he belongs to that very small
group of American statesmen who have
achieved imperishable fame without
being president These you can count
upon the fingers of your two hands
without counting twice, but whoever
is missing from that goodly company
Bland will stand there immortal This
man was of the stuff out of which
martyrs are made, and in his unosten-
tatious way he would have gone I'M
daunte1ly and unhesitatingly to the
block. the gibbet or the stake for what
he considered right. regard it as
blessed privilege to have known him
and to have been counted among his
friends. ] humbly and feryently thank
God for such noble and unselfish life,
for say with Owen Meredith that
No life
tan be pare IN its purpose and strong IN its
strife
Aud all life not made stronger and purer thereby
BIand Not an Orator.
have said that Baand was not an ora
tor. but in the days to come his speech
Cs will be analysed and studied as the
handspring of a great political revolu-
tion.
If Bland ever took any thought of
fame which I am persuaded he did
not he would have chosen to rest his
reputation as public speaker upon the
great speech known as THE Parting
Of the Ways speech. delivered in
August, 1898, on the repeal Of the purs
chasing clause Of the Sherman law. 1t
was an epoch marker and rendered pos
sihle the Chicago platform of 1895 and
the astounding campaign which Bryan
natle upon IL. lii effect il was like Pat
rick Henry's great lyric speech before
the Virginia house of burgesses pre-
cipitating the Revolution. which still
stirs the heart like strains Of martial
music That dss Bland faced ashnstile