The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-02-08
Writings of
John ]. ingalls,

60 spell IL with a fairly big 'g''-not the
largest size. indeed. nor the smallest. Al
though Massachusetts born and bred. he. In
1855. just after he had completed his law
studies. emigrated 20 the then turbulent
and lawleSs Kansas He had hand in the
fierce and blood feuds and fights between
the slave and the free state men, and
shared I'm the times which gave birth to the
Jayhawker. joiner. kicker and bullwhacker-
the peculiar and perhaps exclusive products
OF the Sunhower State THE child is father
OF the man" in more senses than one. Jim
Lane. John Brown and S. c. Pomeroy were
the direct ancestors OF Mary Ellen Lease.
Carrie Nation and Senator PETER. Kansas
and the Kansans speak always in the super
laffye, never IN the positive or comparative.
Language too liIrid for IL. him or her can
not be found. Adjectives there are always
at discount. The first time Kansas was
ever taken down" was by that cele-
brated editorial by William A. White. en-
titled, What's the Matter with Kansas %
The best piece of poetry other than In
galls's Opportunity that ever came from
Kansas rs IronquilTs "WasherwOman'' "a
bit that so impressed President Roosevelt
that a few months ago he made its author
commissioner OF pensions. The writer re-
calls another equally good bit of prose with
the unmellihuous title OF 1.-THE Hog'-when
for the first time that very useful, although
extremely unpopular, litter of farm mort
cages received his deserts at the hands of
q Kansas editor as one OF society's great
Observation-Disclosures as great as the COW or
the horse.
John ]. ingalls, is easily the greatest man
that ever lived in Kansas. While ne was
not as great as the three introductions to
the above-entitled book, severally written
with the true Kansas overaccent by mis-
biograp hers-William c. Connolly. of Wash
ington; George r. Peck, of Chicago, and
Rev. L. r. Tretz. Of Omaha-make him to
be, still he was both as poet, orator and
prose writer one OF our very best, ranking
up with Thomas B. Reed. although not the
equal OF Colonel Ingersoll There was once
an English statesman known Single
speech Hamilton so IngalIs's justly great
claim to ne a poet rests upon his only SON
net. entitled Opportunity (the writer
never saw anything else of poetry from his
penn, which is impressive that it is now
and here reproduced:
Master OF human destinies am T.
Fame. love and fortune on my footsteps wait
Cities and fields / walk; 1 penetrate
Deserts and seas remote, and, passing by
Howell and mart and palace, soon or late
knock. unbidden. once at every gate,
II sleeping wake. if feasting rise before
turn away II Is the hour Of fate.
And they who follow reach every state
Mortals desire. ana conquer every foe
Save Death but those who doubt hesitate,
Condemned 20 failure. penury and woe,
Seek me In vain and uselessly impiore.
answer not. and l return more!
Milton. Shakespeare. Wordsworth, Keats
never wrote anything better in the sonnet
line.
BY far the most racy and fascinating
pages of this book are those vitriolic pic
lures of his OF the feuds and great events
and men at Observation-Disclosures, Garfield,
Conkling. Morton. Evarts. etc, of the
greatest fifteen years of our nineteenth
century United States history from 1867 to
1852. the latter date being marked by the
overthrow of the carpet bag government of
the South under Hayes. Ingalls, was "a fear
less critic. He spoke as he thought and
testified as to what he both saw and heard.
He characterized Charles Summers over
bearing egOtism and arrogance in proper
terms. He draws marvelously true pictures
OF Conkling, Blaine and Garfield. He gives
IN full the celebrated Turkey Gobbler''
speech that cost Blaine, years after, the
presidency. for Conkling's home county
Oneida. furnished the majority for Cleve-
4dn0 Ol less IMAM l,9b, winch turned the
scale in New York.
In the same chapter he describes with
great relish the take down" of Conkling
by Lamar. by which the latter lost his ar
rogance and ascendency in the Senate. In
plain words, Lamar called Conking a lial
and a coward, and no appeal was made by
the latter TO force such action as the ther
usage at Washington called for and would
N4n Al H.
Chambers celebrated speech in the Senate
denouncing secession and JEFF Davis wher
Lamar attempted to eulogize the Southern
leader Ingans's bitterest shafts are di
rected against Blaine. but nowhere does h,
denounce him as dishonest or a demagogue
His verdict upon him is that of brilliant
yet erratic statesman, of unexcelled person
al magnetism. 1t is doubtful If anything
better than the opening words of the chap
ter entitled "Blaine's Life Tragedy" wa.
ever written by ingalls,:
I'm each individual of the fifteen hundre,
millions OF the human race there is an in
deflnable something that eludes the photog
rapher. that the painter cannot capture. no
rapher can record. This subtle, eVasiV,
element. animula. vagula. blandula, is tn,
Ego, the personality, that essence anc
quality which differentiates every MAJ
from his fellows and makes him what h,
Is. i remember the first time l saw Gen
eral Grant-the evening before his secon,
Inauguration. / had seen innumera bl
pictures of him, and read counties
eketches of his dimensions, bearing
features and apparel, so that 1 had hi
clear dellneation in my mind But tn
fnstSnJ j held his hand. looked into hi
eyes and heard his voice. this disappeare,
like a dissclving view from the screen of
cosmorama, and was succeeded by anothe
which Is imperishable, but which art can
not copy nor language portray.
THE secret OF personal popularity tn
power OF exciting irrational and vehemen
devotion TO its object. has never been de
tected- II it is not possessed, il canno
be acquired. 1t is an art for which Their
IS no textbook nor any teacher. A mai
may well enough say he will be learned
upright. successful. respected. a politician
or diplomat. but not that he will be tn
idol OF the people. This is beyond his acu
men. The gift * rare Its beneficiary sci
dom appears oftener than once i'm a gen
Grafton 1t is quite independent OF endow
ment and capacity. Calhoun was a create
man than Clay, and Webster was inteiec
tually far the superior Of either: but Cla,
aroused in the masses OF his party pas
eionate fervor of alteration that was Xix
religious falaticiSm in its intensity.
when Blaine was defeated men wep
with emotions OF irreparable personal sor
row and iaconsolable bereavement Hi
speeches that have come down TO us an,
the achievements of his career offer M
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