The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1909-05-12
SECRETARY OF WAR IS LOVED BY THE SOUTH,
FRIENDS CONFIDENT HE WILL BE PRESIDENT

A
out honor save in his own country"
/ There are innnmerable exceptions, and
Jacob McGavock Dickinson. secretary
/ OF war is one OF them. j. Sterling
Morton once said that "the highest
success in life Is to gain the respect
of your family and neighbors, and to
(, deserve it,. Judge Dickinson goes
| further than that. for the people Of
/ Columbus, Miss, where he was born
and raised. and the people Of Nash
vile, where he was educated and
where he has spent tine greater part
of his life in the practice of law-these
neighbors who know him best-are his
most ardent admirers, and they are
confident that he will some day be
president.
/ They are confident he will be. the
| first man from the south since the
civil war to be called to that high of
flee. When President Taft has finish
ed his second term they believe the
| time will be ripe ana the conditions
will justify a Confederate soldier In
aspiring to that office.
| Judge Dickinson served In the Con-
| federate army long enough to be eligi-
BILE for membership in the United Con-
I federate veterans, Harrison camp No.
| a. of Columbus, Miss, his. native town,
and his comrades held a meeting a few
days after his appointment to congrat-
ulate him and to thank President Taft
/ for ''the honor so worthily bestowed
upon the Hon. ]. NJ. Dickinson and up
on the opportunity 1t offers his splen-
did talents and brilliant attainments
| a. kr nNrSn
ments OF the new era in American poll
tics being inaugurated by this great
chief in seeing that all sections Of this
| great country have a part in this ad-
ministration, and in recognizing in an
effective way both the presidents de-
termination to obliterate sectional
lines and subservience to party welfare
to the country's veal"
Secretary and Mrs. Dickinson are
related to almost everybody Of any
consequence in Tennessee. Their an
cestors were among the pioneers Of
| this state, whose defendants inter
married with the defendants Of other
pioneers until they are kin to all, their
neighbors. The Dickinsons are a Vir-
| ginia family of Scotch Irish Presby-
terian origin. Henry Dickinson, father
| Of the secretary of war, went to Mis-
sissippi In 1928 as a child with his
| family, was educated at Kenyon COL
lege, Ohio, and Trinity college Con-
| necticut where the late George b.
Prentice, famous editor of The Louis
Vile Courier Journal, and he were
classmates. ----..-.... .-,-.---'--r- 49,
. Henry Dickinson took active part in
politics as a whig and a follower of
Henry Clay. In 1884 he went to Nash
Vile to attend a whig convention and
there made the acquaintance of Miss
Anna McGavock. daughter of David
McGavock, a Scotch-Iris Presbyterian
OF wealth and high social standing.
| She was a granddaughter of Felix
Grundy, the most eloquent orator and
| the most eminent lawyer in that part
Of the country, who sat in the United
States senate for two terms as a rep
resentative OF Tennessee, was chief
justice of that state and attorney gen.
eral in the cabinet of Andrew Jackson.
These young people were married a
year or two after their first meeting,
and Henry Dickinson settled down to
the practice of law in Columbus, where
| he became a citizen of great influence
and a Judge Of eminent reputation. He
was chancellor of Mississippi for many
years-an Office corresponding to that
of chancery judge in England-and
when he died left the most precious of
legacies-the esteem and confidence of
everyone who knew him. He had two
children, Jacob McGavock Dickinson
who was named after his maternal
grandfather, and daughter, who is
now the wife of Philip Lindsay, law
yer at Dallas, Tex, and d grandson OF
| a. president of Princeton university.
Jacob M. Dickinson, the secretary Of
war, was born at Columbus in 1851, at
tending the public schools in that city
and in the spring of '65, when he was
IA years old, enlisted in the Confeder-
ate army, and saw few weeks service
before the surrender Of Joseph E
Johnson. His military experience wa:
1uneventful, but his journey to Nash
VILE after his discharge was full of ex-
citing incidents, because that portion
of the south was very much disturbed
lat the time.
His father died in 1874, and hi.
mother went to Nashville to live among
her relatives Chancellor Dickinson
had accumulated considerable wealth
but all of 1t had been swept away b1
the war except his plantation and homt
and those were unppoductive. .Jacol
M. Dickinson entered the University 81
Nashville, now Peabody College, anc
graduated in the class OF 1871.
/ Mai. Erwin Graighead, editor of The
Mobile Register, his schoolmate and
intimate friend, sayas
Mac Dickinson, as everybody call.
ed him, was a tall, lean, gawly boy hiG
large head and nose being accentuateC
lbecause of the sIenderness of his body
but he was an active athlete, and {
leader in sports as well as in scholar.
ship and literary exercises Gen. e
Kirby Smith and Gen. Bushrod John.
son had resuscitated the institution
which had been closed during the war
and William A. Obenchain was profes.
sor of mathematics. Professor Oben.
chain is now at Ogden college, Bowling
Green, KY, and his wife Eliza Calveri
Hall, Is the author of Aunt Jane o.
Kentucky, which President Roosevelt
pronounced equal to the Bonnie Brial
Bush She is most charming woman
as he is a charming man.
Students were very scarce at tht
University of Nashville at thRt time
and Mac Dickinson and j. Hill Eakir
constituted the first class to graduate
after the close of the war. The com.
mencement exercises were held In tn,
hall of representatives at the state CAPT
tol, and 1t was great event Dickin