Gloucester County Democrat., 1899-03-16
CHHNP CLARK LETTER
Reckless Work of Fifty
fifth Congress.
EXTRAVAGANZA RAN WILD.
A Question For the People to
Consider.
EXTRAVAGANZA RAN WILD
HOW IS THE PORK DISTRIBUTED

HOW Is THE PORK DISTRIBUTED
Democrats In the Next Congress May
Have "A Chance to Call "a Halt on the
Larcenous Raids ON the Public
Treasury-Time For the People to
Take Hand In Legislation - A
Leader of Men.
Especial Washington letter.
The Fifty-ffth congress has passed in
to history. Thank God, if can't be resur-
rected Itsreputation through all com
ing time win be that it was the most
reckless and most extrayagant Of all
American congresses, for no other, in
all the ages yet to be, will dare initiate
it in this regard. The people will wake
up at last, as sure as gun is made of
iron. They will wake up before the next
appropriation bills are passed--probably
before the next congress conyenes- but
wake up they surely VIII and must for
the taxpayers cannot stand it at the
present rate. The great question on ap-
preparation bills in the closing days of
congress was not, "What are the to-
tals?" but, How is pork distributed p
the latter question being the one which
ascertained how the votes could be had
to railroad bin through.
In the next congress Democrats will
have a glorious opportunity, for if they
can induce seven Republicans to vote
with them they can check these mex
cusable and larcenous raids on the treas
ury. They have the opportunity of a
lifetime. the opportunity of bringing
the Democratic party back to power and
back to stay.
Itseens to me that there ought to be
seven righteous men found in the Re-
publican Sodom and Gomorrah, and if
we can find seven we can win the battle
of the people hands down-which God
grant for it is high time that some
body somewhere, somehow, was begin
ming to think about the people.
Great Leader.
As the extreme opposite to those mod
ern Republicans, / continue my re-
marks on that grand Democrat, Frank
Blair, who was born rich, married rich
and after years spent in the public serv-
ice died worth only $500. In presenting
his statue ] said, and the words came
from the depths of my heart
The old Latin dictum runs, s.Poeta
naseitur, non fit. The same is true of
the leas7or % he 10 bVIn, not
made
What constitutes the quality of lead
ership, Mr. Speaker You do not know
do not know. None of us knows No
man can tell.
Talent, genius, learning, courage
eloquence, greatness in many fields, we
may define with something approx
mating exactness, but who can inform
us as to the constituent elements of
leadership? We all recognize the leader
the moment we behold him, but what
entities him to that distinction is and
perhaps must forever remain one of the
unsolved mysteries of psychology.
Talent, even genius, does not make a
man leader, for some men of the pro-
foundest talents, others of the most
dazzling genius, have been servile fol-
lowers and have debased their rich gifts
from God to the hattery of despots
Most notable among those was Lord
Bacon, the father of the inductive phi
losophy. who possessed the most exqui-
site intellect ever housed in a human
skull and whose spirit was so abiect
and so groveling that he was not un-
justly described in that blistering,
scornful couplet by Alexander Pope:
If parts allure thee think how Bacon shined
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankindi
Courage is not Synonymous with the
quality of leadership, though necessary
to it, for some of the bravest soldiers
that ever met Death upon the battle
field and defied him to his face were
amazingly lacking in that regard.
Learning does not render man a
leader, for some of the greatest scholars
of whom history tells We're wholly with
out influence over their fellow men.
Eloquence does not make leader for
some of the worlds greatest orators,
among them Cicero. have been the
veriest crayens, and no craven can lead
men.
Indeed learning, eloquenee, courage,
talents and genius all together do not
make leader.
But whatever the quality is people
recognize it instinetiyely and inevita-
bly, follow the man who possesses it.
1. II u,
Yet during his career there We're
finer scholars in Missouri than he,
though he was an excellent scholar, a
| graduate from Princeton; there were
more splendid oratcrs though he ranked
with the most convincing and per-
suasive; there were profounder lawyers,
though he stood high at the bar; there
were better mixers, though he was OF
cordial and winning manners; there
We're men perhaps of stronger mental
| force, though he was amply endowed
with brains, so good judge of human
nature as Abraham Lincoln saying Of
| him, 'He has abundant talents;H there
were men as brave, though he was Of
| the bravest, but as leader he overtop-
ped them all
Fought For Principle.
Believing sincerely that human slav-
cry was wrong per Sc and that it was
| of most evil to the states where it ex-
istad he fought it tooth and nail, moi
from sympathy for the negroes so much
as from affection for the whites, and
created the Republican party in Mis-
souri, before the civil war a most haz-
ardous performance in that day and
latitude At its close, when in his
judgment his party associates had be
come the oppressors Of the people and
the enemies of liberty, he left them,
and, lifting i'll his mighty arms the De
mocracy, which lay bleeding and
swooning in the dust he breathed into
its nostrils the breath Of life another
performance Of extraordinary hazard.
This man was Of the stuff ont Of
which martyrs are made. and he would
have gone grimly nndauDtedly. nm
flinchingly and detiantly to the block,
the scaffold or the stake in defense d
any cause which be considered just.
Though he was imperious, tenpestRsus,
dogmatic and impetuous, though nc
/ danger could swerve him from the path
/ of duty, though be gave tremendous