The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-08-04

claim, and we got a realm whose
wealth could not be computed. So
much, it must be owned, did fortune
do for that singular favorite, Mr. polk.
And, curiously enough, the smoke had
hardly cleared from Palo Alto field
before Abraham Lincoln, a voung
member in the house of congress was
introducing resolution which asked
the marking of the spot where that
outrage was committed" Perbaps it
was an outrage. Many still hold it
so. But let us reflect what would have
been Lincoln's life had matters not
gone just as they did.
With the cessions from Mexico came
the great domain of California. Now.
look how strangely history sometimes
works out itself. Had there been any
suspicion of the discovery of cold in
California, neither Mexico nor our re-
public ever would have owned it!
England surely would have taken it.
The very year that my treaty eventu-
ally was ratified was that in which
gold was discovered in California,
But it was too late then for England
to interfere; too late then. also. for
Mexico to claim it. We got untold
millions OF treasure there Most of
those millions went to the northern
states, into manufactures, INTO CON-
merce. The north owned that gold;
and it was that gold which gave the
north the power to crush that upris-
ing which was born of the Mexican
war-that same uprising by which
England, too late, would gladly have
seen this union disrupted, so that she
might have yet another chance at
these lands she now had lost fe, ever.
Fate seemed still to be with us, aft
er all, as l have SO often mad occasion
to believe may be a possible thing.
That war of conquest which Mr.. Cal
hOun opposed, that same war which
grew out of the slavery tenets of his
otherwise splendid public life-found
it's own correction in the civil war.
1T was the gold of California which
put down slavery. Thenceforth
slavery has existed legally only north
of the Mason and Dixon line!
We have our problems yet. Perhaps
some other war may come to settle
them. Fortunate for us if there could
be another California, another Texas,
another Oregon, to help US pay for
them!
l, who was intimately connected
with many of these less known mat
tiers, claim for my master reputation
wholly different from that given to
him in any garb;ed history of his
life. ! lay claim in his name for fore
sight beyond that of any man of his
time. He made mistakes, but he made
them bravely, grandiy, and consistent
ly. Where his convictions were en-
listed, he had no reservations, and he
used every means, every available
weapon, as have shown. But he was
never self-seeking, never cheap, never
insincere. A detester of all machine
politicians, he was statesman worthy
to be called the William Pitt of the
United States. The consistency of
his career was a marvellous thing, be-
cause, though he changed in his be-
liefs, he was first to recognize the
changing conditions of our country
He failed, and he is execrated He
won, and he is forgot
My chief, Mr. Calhoun, did not die
until some six years after that first
evening when Dr. Ward and had our
talk with him. He was said to have
died of a disease Of the lungs. yet
here again history is cuTiousiy mis-
taken Mr. Calhoun slept himself
away. I sometimes think with q shud-
der that perhaps this was the revenge
which Nemesis took of him for his
mistakes. His last days were dream
like in their passing. His last speech
In the senate was read by one of his
friends, as DR.. Ward had advised him.
Some said afterwards that his illness
was that accused sleeping sickness"
imported from Africa with these same
slaves. 1t were strange thing had
John Calhoun indeed died of his er-
ror! At least he slept away. At
least, too, he made his atonement.
The south, following his doctrines,
itself was long accused of this same
sleeping sickness; but in the provi-
dence of God it was not lost to us,
and is ours for long and splendid his
tory.
1t was through John Calhoun,
grave and somber figure of our hiss
tory, that we got the vast land of
Texas. 1t was through him also-and
not through Clay nor Jackson, nor any
OF the northern statesmen, who never
could see future for the west-that
we got all of our vast northwest
realm. Within a few days after the
Palo Alto ball, a memorandum of
agreement was signed between Min
lister Pakenham and Mr.. Buchanan,
our secretary of state. This was done
at the instance and by the aid of John
Calhoun. 1t was he-he and Helena
Won Ritz-who brought about that
treaty which, on June Is, of the same
year, was signed, and gladly signed,
by the minister from Great Britain
The latter had been fully enough i'm
pressed (such was the story by the
reports of the columns of our west
bound farmers, with rifles leaning at
their wagon seats and plows dashed to
the tall-gates. Calhoun himself never
ceased to regret that we could not
al