The Topeka state journal., 1899-07-06
AN INGALLS, STORY.
Brought Out by the Report of His Re
turn to Public Life
r1Vash. Iletter in Pittsburg Dispatch. ]


IWash. Letter in Pittsburg Dispatch.1
The news from Kansas Is that ex-
Senator John J. ingalls,, at Sc, wants to
re-enter public life, and that he will es-
say election to the house next year. His
old home in Atchison has a paper which
as booming him. There is always a well
come out from newspaper circles for
1he Obelisk of Kansas He furnished
news and phrases, fights and fashion
plates while he was in the senate HIS
career during the eight years of his be-
ing in the outer world have been nearly
as picturesque. Reporting a prize fight,
lecturing and even returning to the
writing of poetry, which he first fol-
lowed, are among the Variegated ele-
ments of his life.
one seldom thinks of Ingalls, being
nearly 20, for his neckties and the gyp-
Sy cOlors he affects make him seem
giddy, if not gay. But this man was an
Intimate of Lincoln in 1885, was a class
mate at Williams with Garfield.
Everybody thinks that the election
Of PETER as his successor was due to
that sudden coruscatiOn in the political
skies called the Farmers Alliance In
part it was, and I would not care to es-
innate what the proportion was. But
there was another issue pushed strenu-
ously that year which has a curious
history. In 1889 it will be recalled that
Ingalls, made his famous attack upon
voorhees, when the dependent pension
bill was pending. The exposure of the
attitude of the Tall Sycamore of the
Wabash toward the government dur
ing the dark DAYS of the war was mer-
ciless. It was old as news, but the pre-
sentation was made with the vitupera-
tion and Vehemence in which the Kan
san is Professor Emeritus. The Indi-
ana senator could not reply e1ectlVely.
He could only descend to actually spit
ting toward Mr.. ingalls,, in the manner
of the schOOlbOy orator, who gestures
according to the words, though they
make him turn a sOmersault.
The encounter between the senators
made a profound impression. Now for
a story that is new. Just after the fiery
debate had ended, Frank HOsfOrd,
correspondent then as now noted in his
profession in Washington, and a Mich
igant Democrat Of much activity, con-
cluded that he would examine the rec
ord of ingalls, himself during the war.
He went down into the dark and dusty
vault where Colonel Van Ness kept the
newspaper file department Of the Con-
gressiOnal Library. He searched
through the Kansas papers of 1862 and
1863 Briefly, to recapitulate, the
find" There he saw in the Leaven-
worth Times, the leading Republican
paper of the state, a, report of a fusion
convention held to denOunce the war.
One of the planks in its platform ap-
proved by name the patriotic position"
held by Pendleton, voorhees, and others
of the peace party. John j. Ingalls, was
a candidate for lieutenant governor up
on that ticket. The paper denounced
him without stint as traitor.
Regretlng thaL ne naQ not InOuSnI
of the quest the day before, for VOor-
hees would thus have had some ammu-
milton by hurling this approval of his
own course by a convention which NOM
mated ingalls, for second place, Hos
ford took the matter as copied to Don
Dickinson, the political mentor for
Michigan.
Belford's magazine was then having
a meteoric career in Chicago, edited by
that master of sarcasm and diatribe,
Colonel Dom Piatt. The matter was
turned over to him for implication, and
some may remember the terrible ex-
cOriation ingalls, got. 1t was a, COLA
boration, for much of HosfOrd's Origi-
nal writing appeared between the lines
of Piatt's bitter attack. That number
of the magazine was scattered through
Kansas upon the eve of the state cleo
tiOn in which the legislature was at
stake. Its result is history. The farm
/ ers laid low the iridesCent gentleman,
but it is claimed the old soldiers helped.
! True, Ingalls, had a war record later.
| He was a kind of commissary in the
| home guard, but that branch of his ca
| reer Voorhees, had exploited in his weak
! reply to the invective Of the Kansan on
! the day of the great encounter. What a
| rough and tumble time may ensue
should Ingalls, return to the house as
! eruDtiye as he once WaSi