The Tupelo journal., 1903-08-07
L. Q. c. LAMAR.
"sAyOYARD." in Kansas City Star.


! that the institution of slavery, with
all its incidents and af1nities, is dead,
ex%tinguished, sunk into a sea that
gives not up its dead. They cherish
no aspirations nor schemes for its re.
suscitation. With their opinion on
the r~ightfulness Of slavery unchanged
by the events of the war, yet al an
enlightened people accepting what is
inevitable, they would not, If they
could, again identify their destiny as
a people with an institution that
stands antagonized so utterly by all
the sentiments and living forces of
modern civilization"
Mr. Lamar was a follower of Jeffer-
son Davis. Strong men loved the
Southern chieftain as few men have
been loved by brothers in a common
cause Noble women loved him as pa
triot has rarely been loved by woman,
and at the South mothers to remotest
generations will teach their children
to revere him as hero, patriot and
sage. His very name recalls trial,
struggle, defeat, humiliation-every
thing but dishonor. And if the South
ern people had not loved him, they
would be unworthy to stand among
a brave, a free and a magnanimous
race.
When the Mexican pension bill was
considered in the Senate, MI. Hoar Of
fered an amendment excluding Jeffer-
son Davis from the benefits of it. In
answer to him Mr.. Lamar made a
speech that is one of the finest speci-
mems of indignant eloquence to be
found in the annals of Congress. After
asserting that Davis was no more cul-
pable than himself Or the humblest
person who engaged in the wal on the
Southern side-that insult to him was
insult to a whole people-he coupled
the name of Davis with that of Hamp-
den and that of Washington, and
closed with the following, that must
take rank among the finest retorts in
parliamentary history:
Now, sir, l do not wish to make
any remarks here that will engender
any excitement or discussion, but l
say that the Senator from Massachu-
sets connected that name with trea-
son. We all know that the results of
this war have attached to the people
of the South the technical crime of re-
bellion, and We submit to it; but that
was not the sense in which the gentle
man used that term as applied to Mr..
Davis. He intended to affix-I will
not say he intended, but the inevitable
effect of it was to affiX-upon this aged
man, this man broken in fortune, suf-
fering from bereavement, an epithet
of odium and imputation of moral tur-
pitude. Sir, it required nc courage to
do that; it required no magnanimity
to do it; 1t required no courtesy. 1t
only required hate, bitter, malignant,
sectional feeling and a sense of per-
sOnal impunity. The gentleman, | be-
lieve, takes rank among Christian
statesmen. He might have learned a
better lesson, even from the pages of
mythology. When Prometheus was
bound to the rock it vas not an eagle
it was a vulture-that buried his
beak in the tortured vitals of the vic
tim"
Lovers of gossip will be interested
scene. He says that Lamar pretended
to forget the name, and, pausing after
uttering the word mythology" he
lCducu OfcI duu dohcu III oil ulucI-
tone, Who was chained to the rock?"
Thurman answered "Prometheus," and
Lamar finished the figure.
Roscoe Conkling was a wonderfully
gifted man, and the real leader of the
Senate of 1879, though the Democrats
had organized that body. He was per-
haps the strongest man there, and his
command of language was simply the
despair of all his rivals. There were
others as fluent, some of them much
more verbose; but it was Conkling
who had no rival-rot in Blaine, nor
Hoar, nor ingalls,, nor Carpenter, nor
Lamar-when it came to bringing into
play the exact word to make his speech
magnificent and his argument irwin
chile. His friends said he was lordly
and his enemies thought him arrogant.
He was both-his loneliness was arro-
CANT, and his arrogance was lordly.
Lamar had very great admiration for
him, and considered him the most
intellect in the Senate and the first
orator in the country.
1t was in June, 1879, that the en-
counter occurred between Lamar and
Conkling. The Senate had had an all
night session, and after an intermis-
sion of nine minutes the body On
vened for another legislative day.
Blaine, then in the midst Of his cam
paign against the third term move-
ment led by Conkling, Cameron, Car
penter and Logan, was in full accord
with his party. He knew that to sue
coed he must gain such radical States
&C +Xoncoo ond Tnvyo In tho national
convention. That night he was more
than usually aggressive and audacious
even for him. He had a bout with
Beck, another with Vance, another
with Withers and another with Voor-
hees. He then took a whack at the
whole Democratic side en- bloc.
About 6 o'clock Conkling undertook
to adjourn the Senate to give Carpen-
ter a chance to speak on the army bill
the next day. He failed, though With
ers, who had charge of the bill, ought
to have been generous and courteous
enough to accede to his request. Conk-
ling was very angry and lectured the
Democratic side and a exceedingly
offensive to Lamar, Beck and Voor-
hees, charging them with bad faith in
not complying with what he asserted
to be a virtual understanding, and in
sinuating a charge of bad taste against
them for long and dull speeches.
Lamar was as angry as Conk1ing
and said this:
with reference to the charge of bad
faith that the Senator from New York
has intimated toward those Of us who
have ben engaged in opposing these
motions to adjourn, l have only to say
here to the Senate that in intimating