Gloucester County Democrat., 1903-08-06

/ NANORABLE comment has fire.
quently been made in these let
tiers on the availability of Cen
eral Francis Marion Cockrell Of
Missouri for the Democratic nomina-
ton for the presidency; indeed it was
in these letters that the first mention
was made of that brave soldier of the
Confederacy, that upright senator with
a quarter of century of honorable
legislative service at his back, in con-
nection with the nomination in 1904.
1t is pleasing and encouraging to find
that | am not alone in the faith that
Missouris senior and venerable senator
would make an ideal standard bearer
for the reunited Democracy.
The Chicago Chronicle contains the
| following from I. E. Sullivan, Wash
ington staff correspondent, who is now
at Jefferson City, Mo-:
The Democratic leaders of Missouri
| shortly will announce their purpose to
launch presidential boom for Senator
| Francis Cockrell. They have agreed SUBJ
| stantially upon the preliminaries which
| are inSeparable from so important a step
/ and are only waiting for the fulfillment
of certain minor plans before taking the
American people into their confidence.
1t is their purpose to have the veteran
| legislator accepted not alone as Missouris
son. but as the candidate of the entire
! southwest and west with whose growth
and development he has been intimately
identified during his forty years of public
/ service. They have received assurances
| from SO many states that Missouris
choice is eminently satisfactory to Demo-
Gratis of every shade of conviction that
/ how hon Nfr.l fIO
national proportions before the close of
the present year.
In selecting Senator Cockrell as their
candidate for president the Democratic
leaders of Missouri believe that they are
| offering to the party the most advan-
/ tageous solution of perplexing problem
| that has yet been suggested. They assert
/ that no other Democrat whose name has
thus far been associated with the nominal
| tion combines so many qualifications that
| are likely to prove attractive not alone
| to the delegates of the next national con-
! vention, but to the rank and file of the
Democratic voters, as Senator Cockrell.
The Democratic leaders of Missouri rec
/ ognize that there is no precedent for Of
| fertng to the nation as a candidate for
| president a man who wore the Confeder-
ate gray, but under all circumstances
they feel that the people will not regard
| that feature of General Cockrell'S his
| tory as an insurmountable barrier to his
ambition. Nevertheless, it is more or less
/ of an experiment, and its success will de-
| pend upon how the northern delegates to
the next national convention regard it,
The old prejudice against taking a step
| that might revive the bloody shirt may
prevail, but Senator Cockrells friends in
| Missouri do not believe it will. They feel
| assured that his record in congress will
appeal so strongly to the Union survivors
| of the civil war that his record as major
general of the Confederate army will not
| be used against him.
i Missouris Primacy.
| Nothing could better illustrate the
truth of the statement that Missouri's
| influence is now paramount in the
councils of the Democratic party than
the fact that of all the men mentioned
in connection with the presidential
nomination those two which seem to
meet with the most general support are
Senator Cockrell of Missouri and Will
liam r. Hearst, the son of a famous
Missourian.
! The Death Of General Clay.
The death of Cassius M. Clay of Ken
lucky, the stern master of Whitehall, is
remindful of many stirring passages Of
Kentucky's history so much of which
he had beheld and of much of which he
was part.
After lifes fitful fever he sleeps well.
When he first saw the light of day
in the beautiful Kentucky country the
second war with Great Britain had not
begun. He was boy in knickerbock
erS when Andrew Jackson blasted the
English army below New Orleans. The
Kentuckians who marched away to
| fight the invaders-some of them, most
likely-knew the little boy who was
destined to be prominent figure in
state and national life for scores of
years. What a book he might have
written! He could have told thou
sand tales of politics, of feuds, of war,
of diplomacy, of duels-he could have
written history as marvellous as Vol
taire's Life of Charles XII, the Lion
of the North" as much story of the
life of a strong, virile people as is Vic
tor Hugo's LES A1iserables," as weird
~ strange as DR.. Johnson's "Rasselas."
His personal experiences alone would
have been sufficient, placed in book
form. to serve as an everlasting monu-
ment to his fame.
Speaking of him. the Kansas City
Star says:
Cassius M. Clay, who died at the ad-
vanced age of ninetythree, was in his
prime, a figure of notable consequence.
The last years of his life were given over
to eccentririties that denoted a lack of
mental responsibility due. perhaps. to
senility and naturally erratic nature.
But Cassius M. Clay made a place for
himself in Kentucky history. and his part
In national politics, including two separate
assignments as minister to Russia, gave
him general prominence. Clay was a
conspicuous type of those few hardy
southerners who stood out against the al
most unanimous sentiment of the south
on the slavery question. His pugnacity
and the abundant causes that prompted
1t to action made him a veritable cruz
sader in the cause of abolition. His dar-
ing in attempting to publish an antislav-
cry paper in Kentucky and In going on the
stump for his cause betokened both cour-
age and Peclslessness. The strange thing
about the history of Cassius NJ Clay is
that one who took so many chances
should have lived far beyond the average
allotment of life
Rip Van WinkIish.
/ Connecticut appears to be some kin
! to Rip Van Wrinkle. Rip slept twenty
years. 1t has taken Connecticut CEN
tury or so to awaken to- the fact that
the title of the Nutmeg State is a mis-
homer. The Boston Herald says
The Hartford Courant takes it hard
, that Connecticut should still be called the
Nutmeg State and hardest Of all that her
own people should participate in keeping
up this characterization. 1t grew as this
impatient and indignant Journal says, out
of the delusion that Connecticut, in ear
lier days, made wooden nutmegs and sent
smart peddlers down into the southern
section to palm them off upon a conhding
people as the genuine article Connecticut
WAS never so dishonest as this, and 1t
may also be added that the southern peo-
pie were not so foolish as to be deceived
by SO palpable a fraud. The legend,
therefore, had never any basis in either
direction. How it originated is not dis
closed, but probably the humor that was
inherent in the invented deception is
what has kept it alive all this time and
sent it to plague our Connecticut eontem=
porary in the present century
The Courant may be able to soothe
its troubled breast by repeating Shake
speare's famous mot.