Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1899-08-10
HERO OF THE WIGS
An Incident in the Career of the
First Popular Dewey.
He Sawed President Jackson's era
MUM from the Figurehead OF
the Glorious FrIgate Con-
stitutiOn.
Especial Washington letter.

George Dewey is coming home; but
very few people know that Capt. Sam
uel W. Dewey has gone to his
long home. Admiral George Dewey is
coming to his own country to be re-
ceived by the plaudits of upwards of
10000, 900 of patriotic people. Capt. Sam
uel w. Dewey has gone beyond the pale
of life, to that land where all distinc-
tons are leveled, and the shepherds
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 so,
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 is an
interesting story.
The old frigate Constitution was
revered by our people. Political condi-
lions 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-
1itical indignation arose over that little
circumstance! There is where Capt.
Samuel W. Dewey comes into the
story.
1880. 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 70 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
q
Nothing at the time demonstrated more
clearly the popularity of Jackson, and
for this reason the affair, not known
to this generation, and matter of his
tory even to the generation before, has
a peculiar interest.
To understand the story completely
is necessary to go back at least to
the year 1880. Then a 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
1912. 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 21 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