The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-12-10
JOHN NIPPLE MITCHELL-AN
ENIGMA.

The death of Senator John II.
Mitchell of Oregon, at Portland, last
Friday marks the close of a long
life which for sensational and dra-
matte interest can scarcely be match
ed. even among the many tales of
fortune and change which distinguish
the making of the West. In charac-
ter he was no less strange than his
fortunes combining with great bust
ness and political ability a quality
which for the want of a better word
might be called moral inertia, which
followed his history from the days OF
his youth until, an old man possessed
of riches and honor he was convicted
on June 22nd last, his list birthday,
of defrauding the government in west
ern land deals and sentenced to
term in the penitentiary. AT the time
of his death, resulting from hemor-
rhages following upon the extraction
Of teeth and weakness due to age and
disease, he was at liberty on appeal
to higher court.
Senator Mitchell was born in Wash
ington County, Pennsylvania, in 1885,
and appeared in Oregon in 1860, after
a short residence in California. In
a new country his ability had it's best
opportunity and he gained rapidly in
wealth and influence politically, SO
that at the age of thirty-one years
he was only defeated for United States
Senator by one vote. 1t was shortly
after this time that the facts of his
early life became known, among
which there were discoveries that his
name, instead of NJ tchell, was john
Nipple, and that he had married in
PENNSYLVANIA the daughter of wash
woman whom, with several children,
he had deserted when he came to
California. This expose, which was
made by Editor w. l.. Hill of the
Portland Oregonian, whose enmity
for Mitchell had caused him to so to
Pennsylvania for the information,
would have ruined almost any man
except Mitchell, who had married in
the meantime in oregon. He
did not attempt to deny the facts.
took the name Mitchell legally,
provided for his former wife
and interposed no defense except
that he should be judged by his life
and work in Oregon rather than by
the errors of his youth. The people
seemed to agree with him and ne
lost none of his prestige, finally going
to the Senate in 1872 and having been
since defeated and Areturned several
times after hotly contested campaigns.
Only after the disclosure of his cor
ruption in connection with the land
frauds did he seem to lose anything
in Oregon in the way of political in
fiuence.
These frauds. in the light of the
mans life and his success. are not
explainable except on the idea of the
inability to feel moral obligation re-
ferred to or that he had a simple greed
of money He was a rich man, old
and with his ambitions satisfied. He
had lived down the scandal of his
youth and redeemed himself complete
ly with his people. Yet the degree
of his SHINING against the govern
ment he represented in the Senate has
never yet been fully revealed The
shame of his conviction is said to have
affected him seriously, but it is doubt
full if his greater concern was not
for the loss of his political present.
nence rather than any shuddering
sense of moral degradation revealed.
Had it been nssible to do SO, he
would no doubt have thrown off the
shameful story of his fraud OH the
government with the same easy as
surance with which he owned uD 20
and lived down the carefully exploit
ed disclosure of his early life and his
stolen name.
In short, there is not much moral 20
be drawn out of the life of John Hip
pie Mitchell except in so far as there
is pity in the spectacle of an old man.
survivor of many difficulties and nat
ural reader of men, going to his grave
in old age disgraced and with the loot
upon him and, most pitiful of all. with
even a doubt as to whether or not he
felt the ignominy of his position.i
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