The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1908-10-08
MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY
Some OF the for Selecting Him the Successor to
the Late Senator Allison.

been my privilege to be closely asso-
ciated with YOU and to watch the
many different ways in which, without
any hope or expectation OF personal
reward, YOU have rendered efficient
public service"
We desire to refresh the memory
OF our people in regard to some of the
life and public. work of Major Lacey.
Career as a Union Soldier.
His four years service in the army,
in which he was twice enlisted as april
vate, in the Third and Thirty-third
Iowa, was highly honorable. He was
a private, corporal, sergeant-major,
first lieutenant, captain and brevet
major. Mr.. Lacey was the fifth man OF
his county to enlist in Co. H, Third
Iowa Infantry. He left home on his
twentieth birthday, May 80, 1861. He
was captured in. the battle of Blue
Mills, and paroled at Lexington with
General Mulligan's command. The
President ordered all paroled soldiers
discharged in the fall of 1861. In
the spring of 1862 all these men were
exchanged and Mr.. Lacey again enlist
ed as private in Co. D, Thirty-third
Iowa infantry. He was promoted to
sergeant-major of the regiment and
afterwards commissioned as first lieu
tenant of Co. C, and was later appoint
ed as assistant adjutant-general of vol
unteers by President Lincoln. He acted
as adjutant of the Thirty-third Iowa,
acknowledgement of a brigade, divi-
sion, corps, and finally as the adju-
tant-general CT an army of $4,000 men
commanded by General Steele. He
was General S. A. Rice's adjutant-
general when that gallant Iowan re-
ceived his death wound at jenkins
Ferry, Ark, and Mr. Lacey was at the
side of his chief and took him off the
bloody field. Major Lacey participated
in many battles. His horse was killed
under him in the fight at Prairie d lam.
Ark, and he was hit by mimic ball
at jenkins Ferry, but his poncho
turned the course of the ball aside and
saved his life. He participated in
the storming of Fort Blakely. opposite
Mobile, April 8, 1865, the day of Lees
surrender at Appomattox. So this
young man went to the front in May,
1861 and heard the last bullet whistle
on Appomattox day. No wonder the
n1d Of
with such regard.
His Service at Washington.
In his sixteen years service at
! Washington he personally attended to
more than 10000 pension claims for
! his old comrades in arms. and never
/ confined his work in this respect to
! his district or state.
Speaker Thomas B. Reed ASSIGNED
Major Lacey to the election committee
and the committee on the public lands,
in the Fifty-first congress. Mr. Lacey
was sent as the chairman of commit
tee to Arkansas to investigate and
report upon the bloody murder grow
ing out of the Clayton Breckenridge
contest. In the same congress he was
largely instrumental in the preparation
Of the bill which founded our first re
serve system. Since that bill was
passed in 1891, reserves have been Sc,
apart under that law in acreage eaua
to Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota com
bined and future generations viii
enjoy the benefits of this wise legis
! lation. Major Lacey drew the law.
under which the Yellowstone Nationa
Park is governed and managed He sc
cured the appropriation that renewed
the buffalo herd in that park, and il
the Wichita reserve, thus providin,
against the extinction of this creates
: Of all American mammals. His legis
lation along these lines has been per
sistent and successful.
!, Under the Lacey Act" the Audi
bon Societies and League of American
Sportsmen have secured the desgna
ton Of many low marshes and island
on the public domain as safe breeding
grounds for wild birds
The Wind Cave. National Park. tn
I Crater Lake Park the protective lay
I of Alaska. much of the irrigation legis
lation and the various reforms of law
J relating to the public domain hav
!, been prepared and pushed to a success.
full issue by Mr.. Lacey.
e Believes In Protection.
! He has participated in the variou
II tariff contests. on the Mckinley Law
the Wilson law. and the Dingley Law
). and has always been consister
g friend and advocate of the doctrine
e protection to American Industries O
e the farm. the factory and the min,
2 His speeches on this question hav
- been widely circulated by the Republ
. cans in many campaigns.
v. The Miners Friend.
N In 1890 he took up the question
y the protection to the lives of til
miners In the territories and secure
), the passage Of the Lacey Mimi