The Canton times., 1902-09-05
BILL AkP'S LETTER.
Speaks of Some Of the Great Men
Of the Past.
Thinks Daniel Webster the Grand e ut
Man This Country Ever Produced
a Speech the Publishers
Refuse to Print.

Say nothing unkind concerning
the dead-7speak no evil of the dead"
is the translation of Latin maxim
that Is more than 1000 years old.
INeverthelcss, history is made up of
the character and deeds of notable
and great men, and it is our duty to
study them and profit by their ex-
ample. That Latin maxim was in
tended, 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 a perfect right to analyze
and criticize the characters of Alex
ander and Caesar and Cromwell and
Bonaparte and Benedict Arnold, but
even these were not settled until a
century or more had passed after
their death. Bonaparte is not set
tied yet, and English, French and
American historians are still ham
mering away at his character and his
deeds. That he was 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 idolize
great warriors handicaps all young
historians and captivates the people
when one of these fighting men Of
fers for Office. 1t was this that
elected Taylor and Harrison and
Jackson. How Roosevelt will get
along with his war record for kill
ing bears remains to be seen, but
reckon he is relying more on being a
historian and slandering men after
they are dead. He will lose nothingup
north by. telling lies on Jefferson Da-
Wis. He. belongs to the same school
of historians that Prof. Goldwin
Smith does--that lying Englishman
who wrote history of the United
States that was taught in Northern
colleges and said that the first settlers
of Virginia were renegrades from
ngland-mostly convicts who were
given choice of the gallows or of ex-
lie to Virginia, and strange to say
they chose the exile.
But | was Illuminating about these |
last words of Daniel Webster, who, in |
my opinion, was the greatest man
the country ever produced, not the
greatest, but the grandest-the most
godlike. He made many great |
speeches, but the greatest of ali was
that delivered at Capon Springs,
where he was brave enough to quail.
ify' all his previous utterances con-
cerning the rights of the states and
to declare that any state had the
right to withdraw from the union
when it was unjustly. treated, and
that the state was the sole judge of
that. For this he was denied the
privilege of speaking again in Faneuil
hall. For this he was sacrificed in
7erse by Whittier. For this that
speech was left out of his published
vorks-the publishers saying that it
would greatly damage their sale to
rave it in. This brings me to the
ext l started to write about, for |
lave received three letters from cul-
ured gentlemen who tell me that Il
till live" were not Webster's last
words, but there were two more that
he editor suppressed, and those two
we're more brandy" These gentle Z
nen concur in saying that Webster ;
vas very fond of brandy and in his (
asst days indulged too much, and dur
ng his last illness his physician kept {
i'm alive on brandy. The morning
e died his physician called and, find i
1g him alive, but apparently uncon- {
cious, said to the attendant: He 5
annot live but little while, but if I
e should live until eight o'clock, give