The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-07-06


daunted by peril and unappalled by de-
feat. In a speech in the House of Repre-
sentatives it's most commanding and
vrile parliamentary leader had declared,
Il will not stultify myself by saying this
bill is Constitutional though his speech
was in advocacy of the passage of the
bill. The party created powerful armies
and armed and equipped, clothed, and
fed them as nation had never purveyed
for soldiery before. They fought the
bravest of history and were a testimony
to the living ideas of the Republican
party. Money was but dross and cheap
er than all else save blood alone. The
great writ of habeas corpus was in dis
grace and freedom of the press a lost
liberty. The party was resolved to con
quer. 1t was to politics what Cromwell.
Ironsides and Napoleons guards wero
to arms.
There is history OR gossip for 1t that
Sir Robert Walpole threatened to make
his footman peer of England. The Re-
publican party did something nightly
like that when it made a mining camp il
the Sierra Nevada Mountains a State ir
the American Union Political necessity
is sometimes hard task master. Early
James w. Nye took their seats in the
national councils as Senators from the
sovereign State of Nevada That was
thirty-seven years ago, and Mr. Stewart
is Senator in Congress the good year
1902; but there was an hiatus of twelve
years-1S75-'S7 his Services.
Nye was a native of New York, and
originally a Democrat-in 1S4S a barn
E.1rrr
career he was a resourceful and formid-
able disputant. The Wing party was
dying-Lincoln and stephens parted com
pany: Toombs separated from Seward
Parties are born of mugwumpery and die
of it, and now mugwumpery was mar
shaling free-soil Wings, like Ben Wade
and free-soil Democrats like Salmon p.
Chase, to form the Republican party,
which, in turn. when it's work is done,
will be destroyed by the same law of
political life that created it. On the
stump Nye was superb, second only to
John Van Buren,. in New York State.
Like most of the Democrats who mug
wumped in 1S4S. he became an intense
anti-slavery man. and was a charter
member of the Republican party. In
1860 he toured the West with Seward. and
his oratory greatly contributed to the re-
sistless enthusiasm of his party in that
section.
Nye had been a 'forty-niner" and was
of that adventurous blood that had con-
Guered on the Atlantic. and was now to
conquer on the Pacific. wonderful
clan-those forty niners-who made a
State, splendid Commonwealth, in a
twinkling. But the quarrels and the
jealousies of politics were there, even
thus early. A ruffian of one faction be-
came martyr, and a ruffian of the other
faction, his adversary, was voted a
pariah. The murder that was in Brod-
erick's heart we call patriotism, and the
murder that was in Terry's heart, we
call treason.
In 1861. as a reward for his services in
the political campaign of 1860, Mr.. Lin
coin appointed Nye governor of the then
Territory of Nevada. and when the new
State was created he became one of the
Senator's in Congress, and so we may de-
scribe him as the child of personal graft
tude and political necessity. He was a
brilliant, a capable, and an eloquent man.
Unfortunately he was a 'sgood fellow"
every mans friend and his own enemy.
He was wit and many a time he sat
the Senate in roar when that august
body was as intent on destruction as was
the Senate that Cato dominated. His
fate indicated the memorable law of
compensation and when he should have
been at the zenith of a splendid career.
he was a physical wreck and mental
imbecile
When asked in 1872 if he expected to
remain in the Senate. Nye made answer:
my dear fellow. the man who wants
my place is worth S2,000,000," and the
following year John P. Jones took his
seat in the Senate of the United States.
1.-The survive until March 8, 1903, he will
have been a Senator in the American
Congress thirty years. Senator Jones is
native of England, born in 1899. At
very early age he was brought to this
country and was educated in the public
schools of Northern Ohio. He, too, was
forty Miner and like his colleague,
Mr.. Stewart, a miner. He entered the
political field and was sheriff of his
county, and later, served in the State
Legislature. Beaten for lieutenant gov
ernor of California in 1867. he left that
State and pitched his tent in Nevada,
where, gossip said, he was marvelously
successful in mining. 1t was at that
period when the Pacific slope was pro-
uuclng millionaires in troops-Hunting
ton, Stanford, Croker, Hopkins, Ralston,
Mackay, Flood, O'Brien. Fair and num-
erous others, including William Sharon.
IL was with the latter that Jones con-
Tended for the Senatorship, and it was
sharon he defeated for it,
senator ]. p. Jones' appearance in the
hauonal councils antedates that of all
ms fellows except Stewart, Allison and
Hoar, and he entered the Senate simulta-
neously with Allison and four years be-
fore Hoar. But two members of the
present House were here before him
Grow and Ketcham-and Cannon came in
with him. March 4, 1873 He has been
five times returned to the Senate n dis
tinction accorded to less than half a score
of Americans. In 1878 reconstruction was
the paramount political issue-the bloody
shirt just the same as the flag. or a little
samer-and Jones was a stalwart. intent
on making treason odious. He was one
of the judges of Belknap and voted mot
guilty." He saw the contest for the
Dr.. T., nd Ir,,