The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-09-11

Slppl river, eSSeulldl dlu W Tie NOi IhcAh
Pacific railroad, and the most satisfact-
ory assistance in behalf of the territories
of Dakota and Montana,-these and
all matters pertaining to the interests OF
the great northwest, were the objects OF
his constant and sedulous care.
1t is proper for me here to remark,
that in the matter of negro suffrage, he
believed in ballot based on intelligence.
But in view of the extraordinary course
of Andrew johnson, in pardoning and
restoring to civil rights those who had
served in the rebel army, while all the
South were determined to refuse the ne
gro any rights whatever, under any con-
ditions, he felt that it was necessary to
arm these wards of the nation with the
ballot, that they might not be utterly
helpless, but in some measure become
their own guardians
Senator Ramsey's senatorial career
closed March 4th, 1875, having completed
twelve years of faithful service.
In 1879 he was appointed by President
Hayes to a seat in the cabinet as secre-
tary of war; As constitutional adviser
to the President, he filled the office with
wisdom and discretion. He thus widen
ed his personal fame, and reflected addi-
tional lustre upon the state he had been
so instrumental in creating.
He was called from retirement in 1882,
when the "Edmunds Bill' was enacted,
the object of which was to extinguish
polygamy in Utah. To execute that i'm
portant statute required men of consum-
mate skill and experience. A commission
was formed by the Garfield administra-
ton. of which he was made chairman.
tired to private life. This was his last
public work.
We have now touched the more salient
points of his remarkable history. He
had rounded out splendid career, more
abundant in honors than was ever yet
accorded to any son of Minnesota. With
grace, dignity and philosophic satisfac-
ton, he retired to private life. He was
out of the dust of the political arena,
but in the full enjoyment of the pro-
found respect of all his fellow citizens.
Not jefferson at Monticello, nor jackson
at the Hermitage, was the object of
greater veneration and love from their
own fellow citizens. He had retired full
of honors, as full of years.
Now that the tomb has claimed him,
what do men think of him? Was Alex
ander Ramsey a great man? Well was
it remarked, that since the advent of
Washington, all estimates of human
greatness have essentially changed. Men
are now measured by the actual benefits
they achieve for their fellow citizens,
and for humanity. Measured by this
standard, he was a great man, and his
name should be canonized within the linn
its of our state.
He was one, and the chief one, of an
|assemblage of distinguished men, who
were eminently conspicuous in our early
annals. His rivals were of the Titanic
type.
There was Henry Hastings Sibley
his most illustrious compeer; man of
culture amid barbaric surroundings !;
brave and chivalric, the "plumed knight
of pre- territorial times.
There was Henry M. Rice, able, grace
full, whether in the wigwam or the
senate, always polished, suave and diplo-
matte.
There was Joseph Renshaw Brown, the
brainest of them all, sort of an in
tellectual lion, who sported with the
savage Sioux, or ruled political caucus,
with equal power.
There was Ignatius Donnelly, that Gel
tic genius, whose dazzling intellect shone
like meteor; but unhappily, like the
elephants of Pyrrhus, he was sometimes
as dangerous to his friends as his foes.
There was Edmund Rice, elegant and
courtly, the Chesterfield of his day.
There was John S. Pillsbury, honest,
solid and true; the champion of the Uni
versity, and the friend of the settler.
There was Morton S. Wilkinson, state
ly, gifted and elegant; though his speech
es were always better than his practices.
There was Cushman X. Davis, that
great jurist, whose bugle-notes of elo-
quence in Gceronian periods still live in
the echoes of the American senate, as his
memory yet lives, deathless, in our
hearts.
And there is the familiar face of
Charles Eugene Flandrau, the cavalier
of the border, lawyer, jurist, soldier, the
Rupert of the Northwest.
There is George Loomis Becker, law
yer, railroad president, state senator,
railroad commissioner, twice Democratic
candidate for governor, an elegant and
accomplished gentleman of the old school.
There is James j. Hill, a strong,
unique, virile, monumental character, for
whom sharp claim will be Justly press
ed, with all the power of steam, for a
high niche in the Pantheon of Mime
sota's great men.
There is the patriotic face of the Right
Reverend John Ireland, priest, army
chaplain, assistant bishop, bishop, arch
bishop, and soon, we pray (be it prophet
ically said), to wear the red hat of a
cardinal, the most eminent Catholic pre-
late America has yet produced, and a
splendid type of a loyal American, after
the stamp of Patrick Henry.
And we must mention also the name OF
Joseph A. Wheelock, whose polished
Athenian pen has been the brightest jew
| ell in the crown of our literature, and will
, remain for him a peerless monument
/ which proclaims the pen mightier than the
sword
Men such as these, and other rare
; spirits, of literary, civil, and social mark
were his august compeers and emulators
Yet, In some aggregate way, he measured
more than any one of them; and more
over, down deep in the red core of theil
hearts, the people loved him better thai
any other public man. That position HI
held by the grace of God, and without
the leave of the politicians.
Beside him but one scarcely inferio
figure is to be seen, and that is tn,
stately form of Henry Hastings Sibley
He was a splendid cavalier, ''from spu
to plume" He, too, is one of the angus
fathers of the state. The panorama o
his life, from barbarism to civilization
is an unwritten Had. He, like Ramsey