Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-05-29
Senator HOar.

seldom occupied by any statesman or
prominent politician in these latter
days, when politics have become a
matter of dollars and cents, and the
man who allows principles to inter-
fere with his material interests, or
control his political action, is regarded
as an impractical crank. He is n of
the few men remaining in active politi-
cal life who were old enough fifty years
ago to understand the passions and sem
timents that led TO the formation of the
Republican party. He began his pub
lie career when to be a member OF
the party now in power meant self
sacrifice; when nominations at its
hands were not sought with avidity;
when TO be q Republican standard
bearer was a post of danger as we'll as
a post OF honor. He drew his earliest
political inspiration from a time when
men did not hesitate TO leave com
Portable beds and make long drives,
often in wet, cold and darkness, to
land a runaway negro over the line in
Canada; when the sight of a fleeing
slave and the recital Of his sufferings
caused men to give up their money
and comfort to help him on his way
to liberty. He has lived long enough
to see his party completely transformed.
He has seer the ~at1latus that waited it
into power, and that inspired men to
face danger and death that the stars
and stripes might float over a free and
united people, disappear. He has
seen Julian, Sumner, Greeley and
Trumbull die outcasts from the party
they helped to organize, because they
would not consent to its perversion to
wicked ends. One by one he has seen
Lincoln's old cabinet turn their backs
upon it, the last being George 5. Bout
well. He has seen Judge Caldwell, one
OF the last of Lincoln's appointees re-
manning alive, %denounce it in the most
scathing terms. Through every muta-
ton of his party he has chung to it
with a tenacity that refused to permit
any sentimental considerations TO in
~terfere with his job. He witnessed
the iniquities Of the reconstruction
period without evincing any discom-
posure. He was not dicsoncerted by
the saturnalia of corruption which the
Grant administration developed. He
was a consenting party to the demone-
t~ization of silver, and the consequent
filching away from the people of one
half of their property for the benefit
of the monied and banking interests.
He accepted the protective tariff with
out asking himself any questions about
the right or wrong Of taxing one man
for the benefit of another. 1t seems,
however, that there are limits to every
mans capacity to endure villiany.
Lord Churchill, the first Duke of Mari.
boro, could look with complacency
upon the slaughter of the bloody cir
cult; he could stand unmoved amidst
the fields of Sedgemore and Blenheim.
He could lie to any one except his
wife; he could betray any trust or
cause, mar or woman, with the facility
of Judas, but he could not bring him
self to cast aside the Church OF Eng
land, ever where his own profit was
concerned. 1t seems that Senator
Hoar, whom we have no intention of
comparing with Lord Churchill, has
limitations OF conscience also. To
the corruption of his party he has
been both deaf and blind, but its
cruelty causes him to revolt. The
Rathbone case fills him with no great
amount Of disgust, but the shooting of
women and children, the devastation
OF whole districts Of country, the burn
ing OF houses, the slaughter OF stock,
the looting Of property, the horrors of
concentration camps over which thou
sands Of vampire bats hutter to feast
upon the flesh OF dead women and
children, fill him with horror. Senator
Hoar is the last vent of the volcanic
fires of his party.
The party that was an organized
protest against the cruelty OF slavery
has become the embodiment OF all
those forces that make slavery pos
sible, and Senator Hoar, with the few
feeble and ~tottering founders Of it left
alive, "a never reanimate its dead
corpse. The breath Of life has gone
out of 1t. 1t stands no longer for
human freedom and unselfishness. II
represents only human greed and cor
ruption. No vital principle holds 1t
together. 1t is a huge mass that is
held together by the cohesive power
OF public plumber alone.
Senator Hoar in his old age, with
his feet upon the edge Of the grave,
imploring his party to return to the
principles and traditions that brought
1t into existance, is as pathetic an OBJ.
ject as a professor a hundred years old
addressing the mummified corpses oil
his dead students. His speech is his
best, and probably among his last. but