The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-04

Is that 1t is mostly gossip. We are SO built
that we love beyond anything in this world
To take a peep behind the curtains and to
know about the daily lives and especially
about the weaknesses and feuds of dis
tinguished men and women. The most popu-
lar biography ever written, Boswells Life
of DIR. Samuel johnson" is an almost in
terminable record OF trivial details about
the Great Bear and his toadies, male and
female. as well as the toadies' tOadies and
the rivals and friends. Burke. Goldsmith
and Garrick. of the irascible but always at
tractive doctor. Autobiography has the ad-
ditional attraction when written by an old
man. as in the case of Senator Hoar. now
reaching out to his seventy-seventh birth
day. OF garrulity. The demand for this
kind Of literature is endless. Blaine set
the pace among civilians with his Twenty
Years in Congress-" and Grant among mil
itary men with his Personal Memoirs"
George F.. HOar was born in 1926 at Con-
cord. Mass. The blood in his veins is very
blue, especially on the side of his mother,
who was a daughter of Roger Sherman.
His father was "A lawyer and somewhat dis
tinguished. William NJ. EVarts was his
cousin and United States Attorney HOar his
brother. 1t takes forty pages OF this book
10 tell us the above facts. Eighty pages
are then given up TO the senator's boyhOOd
and his college days at Harvard. and an
other fifty TO his life as a young attorney.
He was elected twice 10 the State Legisla-
ture. finally in 1869 taking his seat in the
lower House at Washington, where he
served eight years, when, in 1871, ne was
promoted to the United States Senate and
has there remained now twenty-seven years.
Although far from being a great man Sen
ator Hoar has from the beginning always
touched elbows with the great leaders. Inc
charm OF these two massive volumes is In
their racy sketches Of men greater than
their author and their characteristics, as
we'll ~ ZaGcfny chances into the great fed
eral legislation Of the last thirty-nve years
and how II all cam about.
When Mr.. Hoar began at Washington in
1SS the great problem or reconstructlon
was the dominant measure. In his chapter
thus entitled the senator admits that the
measures passed by Congress, in which he
took an active part, have not accomplished
the desired result. and yet he insists that
congressional reconstruction has not been
a failure He says:
Two things are not yet accomplished.
There are eleven States in which the negro
Is not yet secure in his political rights;
and there are as many and perhaps two or
three more in which If he be suspected of
a crime OF the first magnitude he Is lable
TO undergo a cruel death without any trlal.
That would have been quite as likely, in
deed a good deal more likely to have hap
pened if the reconstruction measures had
never been enacted. . . But / think it
is a fair question whether the existence OF
this condition throughout so large a coun-
try, with the prospect that slowly and
gradually as the negro improves he will get
his rights, be not better than the alterna-
tive which must nave been LlS rSOuCllOn
TO slavery again, or what is nearly as bad,
a race of poems in this country. That is
the. question into the answer of which so
much prejudice enters that II Is nardly
worth while to reason about it. My opinion
IS that as the cOlOred man gets land, be-
comes chaste. frugal, temperate. indus
trious. veraciOus. that he will gradually
acquire respect and will attain political
equality. Let us not be in a hurry. Evils,
If they be evils, which have existed from
the foundation OF the world, are not TO be
cured in the lifetime of a single man. The
men of the day of reconstruction were con-
trolled by the irresistible logic or events;
by a power higher than their OwD. L could
see no alternative then, and | see no alter
native now better than that which was
adopted"
Some of the most interesting chapters
in these books are devoted TO the organized
political -corruptions of Congress thirty
years ago. OF these the scandals connected
with the Union Pacific Railroad and the
celebrated CreGst Mobilier are the raciest-
Congress donated the Union Pacific Rail-
road, on condition or building a railway
from Omaha. on the Missouri river, to the
Pacific, $27, 900, coo in bonds, drawing interest,
as we'll as an enormous land grant. In adj
dition. il authorized the company to give
a first mortgage upon the road for s24,OOO.CoO
more. This amounted to S54,OO0,O00 in cash.
The road then mortgaged its land grant for
$lO.O0.o00 For the purpose OF absorbing and
then dividing this enormous sum among
themselves the leaders or the company Gre
ated a corporation within the corporation,
christened it the Credit MObilier. with
which they made a contract 10 construct
tNC AOAo ~ ho0ANNf 49,
practically absorbing and dividing the whole
$64,OO0,000 In a word, the managers let the
work TO themselves and thereby enabled
themselves to draw dividends on their stock
never paid for OF a size that puts one in
mind Of the Standard Oil Company. OF
course, some day this whole thing would
be exposed, and TO forestall congressional
opposition ths king bee in all the business,
Cakes Ames. picked out as stockholders in
prospective the leading members of both
Senate and House, beginning with Speaker
Blaine and including such men as Vice
President Colfax and James A Garfield.
Blaine wss altogether too smart a man to
have anything 10 do with Cakes Ames, but
unfortunately both Garfield and Colfax dal-
He'd with the unlovely investment. Space
here will not permit going into details. This
scandal Is familiar to every one of the
older politicians and gave rise to some of
the most subtle and elaborate lying that
ever disgraced Washington. Two other of
the great scandals to which Mr.. HOar pays
the compliment OF a special chapter devoted
to eacl is the celebrated SanbOrn contract,
as we'll as the Belknap Apeachment. the
former OF which was the handiwork Of Ben
Jamin r. Butler, OF odOrOus memory.
Strange TO say, Mr.. HOar has not a word
about the star route or the whisky-ring
theftG nor the innumerable frauds connected
with Grants %appOintees during his two adj
ministratiOns. Mr.. HOar speaks of Grant
as a confding. supplemented man, whose
confidence was constantly being abused by
slick" citizens, who wormed- themselves
into his friendship. As might have been
expected. Mr.. Hoar devOtes a chapter of
nearly forty pages TO pouring out his walls
OF wrath upon the naked and bald head
Of his great Massachusetts rival. Ben But
Ter. But the game is hardly worth the
can lie. as the American people have Ions
since made up their minds about this once
celt brated man.
Let us turn now from politics proper 10
other subjects 10 which Mr.. Hoar devotes
his attention. Here are some racy sentences
concerning dissenting opinions in court
cases. / give his words: "The habit OF
giving dissenting opinions. which has be-
come so common in the Supreme Court OF
the United States and in our Massachusetts
Supreme Court. did not exist up TO 1860. IL
there was an opinion on an important cues
uol OF law the result was a majority OF
the court is OF the opinion That was all
l do not believe that any court can long re-
tain public confidence and respect when
nearly all its opinions in important matters
are accompanied by a powerful attack on
the soundness OF the opinion and Of the
correctness OF the judgment Of the bench
itself. The legal reporter OF Massachusetts
Is authorized 10 report the decisions Of the
court more or less at length. at his discre-
by an absolute refusal 10 print dissenting
opinions. except in a very few exceptiOna.
cases, he would have the thanks of the
profession. IL may be harder 10 put a stou
20 the practice Ia the Supreme Court of the
United States. That will have To be done
II a all. by the good sense OF the judges
The recent opinions OF the court In what are
known as the insular cases have Shocked
the country and greatly diminished the
weight and authority OF that tribunal. This
was not because OF public disapprOvai Of the
opinions OF the court. II was because upou
one OF the greatest questions Of cOnsfftr.