Arizona republican., 1905-02-18
PHOENIX, ARIZONA, FEB. IS, 1905
Edmund G. Ross.


 One of the most notable figures of the reconstruction period Is recalled to memory by the news from Washing ton that a pension of $30 month has been granted to Edmund G. Ross, for merly United States senator from Kan sas Most people of this generation have forgotten Ross. or at least sup posed that he was no longer in the land of the living. but at one time he loomed into such political prominence in the nation that he was discussed at every fireside.
 It was the vote of Edmund G. Ross in the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson which saved Johnson from a verdict of guilty and left him in the presidential chair instead of send ing him from the White House into disgraced exile. Thirty-five senators voted guilty" on each of the articles of impeachment, and 19 voted mot guilty" Had Ross voted with the ma tority the necessary two-thirds would have been obtained and the president would have been successfully i'm peached.
 There never twas any valid reason why Senator Ross should have been singled out from the minority of 19 for national excoriation, but he had to bear practically alone the full force of the storm of public disapprOvaL One of the reasons why he was loaded with the entire responsibility was that. he was the only senator whose position was not known prior to the final vote. It was known how 35 senators would cast their votes, and it was known what the verdict of Is senators of the minority would be. But Ross kept everybody guessing. He had announced that he would be guided by his own con- science in casting his vote and he con scientiously kept his word. As might have been expected, his motives were suspected by both sides. Both camps employed detectives and spies to dog his movements, in order that it might be known when he had sold out" An other reason for the vitriOlic abuse to which he was subjected lay in the fact
 
 Republicans in whom the fires kindled by the war were still burning fiercely. could not tolerate the thought of sen ator from Kansas voting to save the traitor Johnson-Kansas, the home of republicanism and the cause of the : war.
 Senator Ross was a shy, modest man. and undoubtedly the storm of abuse which burst upon his head cut him keenly It was taken for granted that his vote in favor of Johnson had been purchased. So little credit do men in office get, sometime for integrity. One !, indignant Kansan teIegraphed the sen ator: Your motives are Indian con- tracts and greenbacks. Kansas repu- 1 diates you as she does all perjurers and skunks." The creature Ross" was hanged in effigy at home and denounced | nearly everywhere in the north. And yet, Edmund G. Ross was one of the most honest of men. Poor when he | went to the senate, he was penniless when he returned. For a long time he was utterly neglected in the state | which he had represented in the senate and in which he chose to- live down the prejudice his fellow citizens enter tained for him. His accomplishing. | dignifed attitude and his blameless life finally won for him a measure of friendship. He had been driven out of the republican party. of course, and long years after Andred Johnson was dead. the democrats of Kansas nomi- mated MT. Ross for governor. He made q canvass of the state, and was res pectfuIIy but coldly received. He was defeated by an overwhelming majority. A few years afterward he was appoint ed governor of New Mexico by Presi- dent Cleveland, and has resided in that territory ever since. Upon the cOmple- tion of his term he devoted his atten- ton to the management of a job print ing ofhce-he had conducted a small democratic daily at Leavenworth be- fore his appointment to New Mexico and reports were current at one time that extreme poverty had beset him in his old age.
 His pension of $50 a month will be a great help to him, no doubt, and at this late day there probably is nobody in Kansas who would deny him the pension.
 The Kansas City Star complains that