Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-11-27

or political ruin were held up as the
alternatives. Bodily violence was
more than whispered. But to no
avail. He adhered to his determine
ton to decide the case upon its mcr-
its, as best he could, and refuse to
commit himself. He was torn be-
tween his antipathy to the President,
his political predictions, his ambi-
tions and his desire to conform to the
wishes of his State on the one hand,
and the conviction slowly forcing
itself upon him on the other that
whatever the mistakes of Mr.. John
son, he was not guilty ofAhigh crimes
and misdemeanors in office to warrant
his impeachment under the Constitu-
tiOn.
VOTED ssNoT GUILTY."
This refusal to commit himself in
advance made Senator Ross the
marked man of that trial. When
the vote was taken on the famous
1lth article of impeachment, which
comprises the substance Of all the
other charges, on May 16, 1868, the
eyes of the whole nation were upon
him. 1t was felt that upon his vote
the issue rested. And it was 80.
When he joined his "insurgent" col
leagues in voting "not guilty." fur
nishing the vote which acquitted the
President, the fury of the radical
element throughout the North burst
about his head in a storm the like of
which has never assailed any other
public man. A scapegoat was de.
manded. The alleged political sins
of the anti-impeachment Republicans
were loaded upon his back and he
was driven from his party and into
the wilderness Of obscurity.
Upon his retirement in 1871 Mr..
Ross made several successive news
paper ventures in Kansas, all of
which were failures, and but a short
time sufliced to find him again eking
out q precarious existence cat the
oase," as in his early manhood. In
1882 he removed to Albuquerque
and shortly afterward became fore.
man of the job department of local
newspaper, where he remained for
the next three years.
GOVERNOR OF NEW MEXICO.
Cured of his radicalism by his
treatment after the impeachment
trial, it was not unnatural that Mr..
Ross should have gone into general
accord with the Democracy, which
he did through the Liberal Republi-
can movement in 1872. This change
of political faith enabled President
Cleveland in 1885 partially to reward
him for his services and sacrifices
sevent en- years before by making
him Governor of New Mexico.
Upon his retirement in 1889 Gov
ernor Ross fitted up a small Job
Office in Albuquerque. Much of the
time he was the only workman en-
ployed. In the humble routine of
printing letter heads, circulars and
sale bills he spent the next ten years.
During this time Albuquerque en-
joyed the distinction of containing
the only printing Office in the country
wherein the types we're set and the
presses run by the hand of former
United States Senator.
Two years ago he sold his plant
and purchased small fruit and
alfalfa farm in the edge of town.
Here, in little Mexican adobe
house, surrounded by trees, but
otherwise typical of the dull, gloomy,
fobidding residence of the South.
western native, he is spending the
sunset years of his life, in which
romance and pathos have been more
blended than in any other
of which recorded history keeps the
story.
IN THE GRAsPING CLUTCH OF
POVERTY.
Calling upon him recently, l found
him upon his wood yard, a rusty,
bent, decrepit-looking old man.
With an old handsaw he was, with
painful effort, wrestling from the
trunk of fallen pinon tree the wood
with which to cook his dinner.
Thus, in the grasping clutch of pow
erty, though borne down by the
weight of his almost four-score years,
tho former Senator is perforce his
own man of all work about his hum
BILE home. His appearance in these
menial duties is even more pathetic
than that he presents when, every
evening, as regularly as the neigh
boring whistles blow, he appears
upon the streets in faded garb of
o.