The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-12-08


this movement, except the love and
esteem of my confreres of the press,
and a few strong, warm and loyal
friends outside the newspaper profes-
sion.
| confess to keen disappointment.
None of my distinguished political
friends, whose names are legion, for
whom tore the shirt off my back
and made my throat sore hurrahing
in their behalf when they were candi-
dates for office, have tumbled over
themselves so far as l have heard in
their eagerness to have me become
governor of Florida. On the contrary,
so far as my candidacy is concerned,
they have been as mute as the eternal
hills.
In this connection l am reminded
of, and cannot refrain from incorpor-
ating, an extract from Horace Gree
ley's famous letter to William II.
Seward, when the latter gentleman
was made governor of New York
largely through the influence of the
potential pen of the Tribune editor.
Mr.. Greeley said:
81 was poor young printer and ed
! itor Of literary journal-a very act
i've and bitter whig in a small way,
but not seeking to be known out of
my own ward committee-when, aft
er the great political revulsion of
1887, | was one day called to the city
hotel, where two strangers introduced
| themselves as Thurlow Weed and
Lewis Benedict of Albany. They told
me that a cheap campaign paper of a
| peculiar stamp at Albany had been re-
| solved on, and that l had been select
ed to edit it. The announcement
might well be deemed flattering by
| one who had never even sought the
notice of the great, and who was not
known as Q partisan writer, and | ca
gerly embI aced their proposals. They
asked me to fix my salary for the
year; I named $1,000, which they
agreed to; and I did the work requir-
ed to the best of my ability. 1t was
work that made no figure, and created
no sensation; but / loved it, and / did
| it well. When it was done, you were
governor, dispensing offices worth
$4,000 to $4,000 per year to your
friends and compatriots, and I return
ed to my garnet and my crust, and my
desperate battle with pecuniary obli-
cations heaped upon me by bad part
ners in business and the disastrous
events of 1897. l believe it did not
then occur to me that some one of
these abundant places might have
been offered to me without injustice;
| now think it should have occurred
to you. If it did occur to me, | was
not the man to ask you for it; | think
that should not have been necessary.
only remember that no friend at Al
bany inquired as to my pecuniary cir
cumstances; that your friend (but not
mine), Robert C.. Wetmore, was one
of the chief dispensers of your patron
age here, and that such devoted COM
patriots as A. H. Wells and John
Hooks were lifted by you out of pau
perism into independence, as / am
glad / was not; and yet an inquiry by
you as to my needs and means at that
time would have been timely and held
ever in, grateful remembrance.
'In the Harrison campaign of 1910,
was again designated to edit cam
paign paper. | published it as well,
and ought to have made something by
It, in spite of it's extremely low price;
my extreme poverty was the main
reason why l did not. 1t compelled
me to hire press-work, mailing, etc,
done by the job, and high charges for
extra work nearly ate me up. AT the
close l was still without property and
L,,4 hod i'm
proved my position.
"Now came the great scramble Of
the swell mob of coon minstreals and
being counted in. Several regiments
of them went on from this city; but
no one of the whole crowd-though
say it who should not-had done so
much toward General Harrison's NOM
nation and election as yours respect
fully. I asked nothing, expected moth
| ing; but you, Governor Seward, ought
| to have asked that be postmaster of
| New York. Your asking would have
been in vain, but it would have been
an act of grace neither wasted nor I'M
deserved.
81 soon after started the Tribune,
because / was urged to do so by GER
| tain of your friends, and because such
paper was needed here. I was prom
ised certain pecuniary aid in so do
ing; it might have been given me
without cost or risk to anyone. All
ever had was loan by piecemeal of
$1,000 from James Coggeshall, God
bless his honored memory! 1 did not
ask for this, and I think it is the one
sole case in which l ever received a
pecuniary favor from political asso-
ciate. l am very thankful that he did
not die till it was fully repaid.
"And let me here honor one CRATE.
full recollection. While the whig par
ty under your rule had offices to give,
my name was never thought of; but
when, in 1923, we. were hopelessly
out of power, I was honored by the
party nomination for state printer.
When we came again to have a state
printer to elect as we'll as nominate,
the place went to Weed, as it ought.
Yet it is worth something to know
that there was once a time when it
was not deemed too great sacrifice
to recognize me as belonging to your
household. If a new office had not
since been created on purpose to give
Il