The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1902-08-22
BILL ARP.

in maxim tnaC is more tndn U"o
thousand years old. Nevertheless,
history is made up of the charac-
ter and deeds of notable and great
men, and it is our duty to study
them and profit by their example.
That Latin maxim was intended
no doubt to apply to our neighbors
who had recently died and not to
the great public men whose acts
and deeds made up history. The
world had perfect right to ana
I'VE and criticise the characters OF
Alexander and Caesar and Crom-
well and Bonaparte and Benedict
Arnold, but even these were not
settled until a century or more
had passed after their death. Bon
aparte is not settled yet and En-
glish, French and American his
torians are still hammering away
at his character and his deeds.
That he was q scourge to mankind
and the age in which he lived and
traitor to his devoted wife and
all to crafty his selfish AMBITION
no reflective man can doubt. The
disposition to ilolize great war
riors handicaps all young hlsto'
rians and captivates the people
when one of these fighting men
offers for Office. 1t was this that
elected Taylor and Harrison and
jackson. How Roosevelt will get
along with his war record TOR Kill
ing bears remains to be seen, but
| reckon he is relying more on be-
inc q historian and slanderlng men
after they are dead. He will lose
nothing up North by telling hes
on jefferson Davis. He belongs
to the same school OF historians
that Professor Goodwin Smith
does-that lying Englishman who
wrote a history of the United
States that was taught in Northern
; colleges and said that the first SET
tiers of Virginia were renegades
from England-mostly convlcts
who were given choice of the gal
lows or of exile to Virginia, and
strange to say they chose the ex-
lie.
But i was Illuminating about those
last words of Daniel Webster, who
in my opinion was the creates
= man the country ever produced
not the greatest, but the grandes
, the most Godlike. He made
many great speeches, but th'
greatest of all was that delivered
: at Capon Springs, where he wa
: brave enough to qualify all hi
previous utterances concerning
y the rights of the states and to de
= clare that any state had the rlgh
- to withdraw from the union whe
it was uniustly treated and tina
% the state was the sole Judge OF that
= For this he was denied the PRIV
=. lege of speaking again in .Faneu
hall. For this he was sacrificed l
n verse by Whittier. For this thu
speech was left out of his put
&c lished works-the publishers say
u ING that it would greatly damag
- their sale to have it in. Th
- brings me to the text | started
a write about, for l have receive
10 three letters from cultured gentl'
i men who tell me that III still live
Of we're not Webster's last word
~ but there were two more that IL
er editor suppressed, and those tW
l. we're "more brandy" These ge
~ tlemen concur in saying that we
" ster was very fond of brandy al
an in his last days INDUCED too mu'
sf- and during his last illness his pm
A. stefan kept him alive on brand
~. The morning ne died his physicl
called and, finding him alive, b
ii apparently unconscious SAID
tic the attendant, Gle cannot live b
ut. a little while, but if he should Ii
to until s o'clock give him some me
if brandy" When the clock stru
is. s MIR. Webster reused up a
YER pointed to it and whispered,
ow still live-more brandy" l
NOT last two words are left out OF
10 biooranhv and NAV not have be