The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1902-07-05
MlSSlSSlPPrS HALL OF FhlAE.


whose portraits are given places in the
Hall Of Fame which they have begun
in connection with the new capitol
nearing completion. To make tile
selection will be difficult and embar-
rassng. The difficulty will not arise
over the question of whom to vote for.
but who to neglect. There are so
m&A names worthy of the highest
honE within the gift of the State
that the voter is in the attitude Of
the compiler of an anthology of favor
ite poems and who finds dozen
iayCFites to the one he can use. As a
juriSt Judge Campbell has few peers
in the cOuntry's history. AS law
yer Wiley =. Harris stands pre-em-
inent. As a mystic philosopher and
orator, L.. q. c. Lamar has won a place
in the larger temple of fame. As a
great cOmmOner, "A modern Hampden.
a constitutional lawyer and construc-
tive statesman, the late Senator J. Il.
George occupies place all his own.
AS soldier, William Barksdale stands
first in a State that has furnished
more than its share Of great soldiers.
AS 4 statesman and citizen pure of
heart, without fear and without re-
proach, representing what is best and
highest in the civilization of his age.
Gen. +. c. Walthall's place is not
Questioned. AS an orator whose won.
derfnl eloqueuce convinced the skep-
tics that DemostheneS is possible
and thai the pictures furnished us of
the great Athenian may not be exag-
gerationS, stands 5. 5. Prentiss. JEFF
ferson Davis must be conceded one of
the worlds historic figures grim. DO
tent. forbidding to the common herd.
Sharkey, Stone, FOote, Humphreys.
Brown, Lowrey and others might be
added to swell the list indefinitely.
Alone. unique, majestic in his digni-
fed aloofness stands James Lusk Al
corn against whose shield hate has
hurled her last arrow in vain. Meas
ured by what he has accomplished for
his State he is without a peer. Mis-
judged, misunderstood, maligned for
a time by those whom he sought to
serve. and bitterly assailed by many
's~the open who came to him clan
destinely to applaud and commend
him. lie exhibited the courage of a
COriolanus, the splendid contempt of
his enemies of an Alcibiades, the wis
dom Of sage and the loyalty of a
patriot. Flung into the midst of dis
order and turbulence he fought like a
giant or, like an eagle perched upon a
crag, ScOrned the scream and chatter
of the smaller birds around him.
Gov. Alcorn was perhaps the best
hated and best abused man in the
South. Every blistering epithet in
the rhetoric of invective was applied
to him. The ceSSpools of vituperation
were emptied to beslime him. The
seven vials of wrath were poured out
upon him. Every weapon in the
armory of malediction was turned
against him. The late Col. NJ. c..
Galloway exhausted the wealth of a
wonderful vocabulary of denunciation
on him, as in later years, when his
motives were understood, the same
pen magnanimously wrote a panegyric
on him that for beauty of expression,
elegance of diction, deep sympathy
and the eloquence of sincerity should
remain model. Fame yields Justice
to great characters only posthumous-
ly. GOV. AlcOrn was staunch Whig.
He reluctantly signed the document
of secession. Once the Rubicon was
crossed, he equipped, at his own ex-
pense, a brigade of which he was sum-
marily deprived. He was president
Of the first levee board. He is father
of the levee system. He dScerned in
advance of his fellow citizens accom-
plished facts and grasping the reins
Of the State, drove ignorance from
the ballot box and carpetbaggers from
public office, and he emancipated the
State from the financial thralldom
into which the adventures had placed
it. He was the emancipator of his
people; yet, for time, when 'he
came to his own, his own received
him not. "
Richard Golden, the famous Eng
liShman, once said: I'VE sympathize
with anybody's rebels but our own. "
1t is true; and Alcorn was looked
upon as a rebel because he pursued a
course which the Democrats of the
nation adopted two years later, when
Greeley was nominated. In those
days popular passion was infamed and
mems minds turned away: and so
slowly does public sentiment right it.
self and confess an obvious wrong
; that historians are only now timidly
venturing to do this great man Justice.
Gov. Alcorn lived, if he did not learn,
the Latin epigram; "Qui vincit patti
tur." He conquered and suffered
conquered nobly and suffered heroi-
cally. The prejudices and misconcep-
tions of the past are being swept away.
motives once invisible to the blindness
of fury are being revealed, and Justice
is being done the worthy. We have
, Watterson of Kentucky, a Confederate
soldier, eulogizing Lincoln. and Ad-
, ans of Massachusetts, Federal sol
! dier eulogizing Lee. The time is at
hand when the American character is
! revealing itself in its true greatness
\ nv giving honor to whom honor is