The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-10-20

through the hole made by the ball,
and thus, Of course, through the Cen
erals body, clearing the wound of the
CONCEALED blood. Within ten weeks
he was again on his horse, and in the
victories of ContrerasA, Churubusco,
Chapultepec that followed one anoth
er so closely.
In Walkers great painting of the
battle of Chapultpec, which adorns
the Capitol at Washington, Gen.
Shields brigade was disbanded and
figures. He got dangerous wound
in that battle also, which was the
last of the war. In July, 1S4S, Gen.
Shields brigade was disbanded and
the General returned to Illinois, where
he was received with great ovations.
Swords decked with diamonds were
presented to him from Illinois and
South Carolina, from the latter in
gratitude for his brave and tender care
of her Palmetto regiment and Capt.
Robert E, Lee.
A few months later he was sent to
represent Illinois in the Senate of the
United States-an honor coveted by
Abraham Lincoln at that time. For
the next six years his daily record was
as lively and as honorable as in the
past. AS Chairman of the Committee
on Public Lands, in the Committee on
Military Affairs, and in several COM
mittees Of minor Importance, he was
kept busy and showed wisdom and
shrewdness and courage.
Associated with him in the Senate
were such historical men as Webster,
Calhoun, Clay, Cass, Seward, Benton,
Douglass. He it was who presented
Louis Kossuth to the Senate when
that distinguished Hungarian sought
asylum in this country. He called the
attention of the Senate to the en-
croachments of the British feet on
Douglas. He it was who presented
that Great Britain had shortly before
entered into a treaty with the United
States not to interfere with the indie
pendence of the South or Central
American republics. Senator Cass
publicly banked Senator Shields for
his vigilance in the matter, saying:
GAS to treaties and arrangements, we
all know how easily they are all swept
away when they stand in the path of
human ambition"
The admission Of California as a
State in 1850 called out Senator
Shields best powers as an orator and
statesman. He was strongly opposed,
though a Democrat, to the extension
of slavery. His great speech during
that fearful controversy over the ad-
mission of California as free or a
slave State that engaged Congress
and the whole country through that
memorable thirty-third Congress,
stamps him, as it remains in the rec
ords Of Congress, as statesman with
a wide and wise vision. His defense
of the Constitution as the shield of
the whole country, North and South
and his prediction that the Union
would be defended and perpetuated
at all costs, are down in black and
white in the Congressional Record Of
those days to his great credit.
His term in the Senate for Illinois
being over, circumstances led him tt
Minnesota, and on the admission o1
that State into the Union he was
elected her first United States Senator
Just as he had been from Illinois. a
few years later he moved to Califor
mia, and was there when the war broke
out. He Immediately went to thu
front as brigadier general of volun
teers from California and on Marcel
%, 1862, won the first great victor!
of the war at Winchester, when tn,
invincible Stonewall Jackson was fo
the only time in his life forced to fly
though his forces greatly outnum
bered those of Shields. If his fam,
rested only on that one victory ovel
Stonewall Jackson he would be KEEP
in everlasting remembrance.
Gen. Shields arm was broken by {
shell in this engagement and his side
injured so that he was forced to re
sign. But rejoining his family al
their home in Missouri he recovered
He was Immediately elected to the
Legislature Of Missouri, and a few
years later he was elected to the Unit
ed States Senate to represent Mis-
souri,. Thus the unique distinction OF
Senator from three States belongs to
him, as well as that of hero of three
wars.
His fame as an orator is lost sight
of In the strong light thrown on his
military and legislative career, but he
was delightful and convincing speak
er, original and witty and full of in.
terest. He was much sought for in the
later years of his life at army reuni-
ons and st. Patrick's Day gatherings.
At a great meeting in Brooklyn in
1878 the proceeds of which went to the
relief of the fever stricken South, he
delivered one of the best and, as it
proved, one of the last speeches of his
life. He drew for his immense audi
|Rnce the most vivid pen pictures of his
Hreat friends and colleagues-Webster
a