Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-02-13

the democratic state convention at
Ottumwa. He could talk most enter
tainingly of those past events; his
memory was vivid and alert. But
he soon drifted away to the immed-
late present and the prospective
future, and he scented the fray with
as keen an interest to the very end
as he ever did fifty years ago.
The general was q natural cham
pion. If he had lived in the brave
days of old his lance would never
have been at rest. No unfortunate
would ever have wanted knight IN
the lists, and, like Ivanhoe, he would
never have touched the Hospitalers
shield, but he would have struck the
armor of Brain de Bots Guilbert
with the point of his spear until It
rang again. He was full OF the
vigor Of life, and life to the boys OF
the frontier was not picnic; 1t was
s .uggle, and the counters OF the
game were not grace and elegance; ;
they were self-reliance, strength,
readiness and determination.
To man of his native impulse and
daring, the civil war came as the de-
termining factor in his life. On the
| battlefield his nature was set. he
became a fighter for the right, anu
fighter for the right he was to his
last breath, perhaps not always see
ing the right with unerring vision, but
pursuing it with unabating zeal and
sacrifice.
Coming from the war with mill
tary honors fairly won, the slave
freed, he stepped into civil life at
time when faith in humanity was
strong, and human rights were upper
most. The first hint that the money
the boys at the front had taken at 9
discount was not good enough for the
bondholders stirred him to the core
His whole subsequent political career
was marked out as he took leader:
ship in the greenback Indictment
He saw the logic of the situation
and he never wavered. In fifty years
he was never at outs with himself.
It is probably true that Iowa has
produced no man who was his equal
in debate; certainly in his prime
there was not in the United States
his superior. No man ever crossed
swords with him on the stump or in
congress and got away to boast OF
the encounter. On the contrary, he
often won signal victory when
public sentiment was plainly against
the cause he advocated. He owed
more than one election to his powers
of presentation and persuasion. He
was witty, bold, and eloquent, al.
ways on his feet. He lost no battles
through lack Of generalship
He lost a republican nomination
for governor because Of his too early
ct he co
convention was for him, and his
nomination was conceded. But the
political managers, exerting the power
Of the old days, decided that 1t
would he unwise to commit the
party to so advanced a position.
Had he been named and elected,
Iowa might have been leading an
insurgent movement twenty years
earlier. That is one of the Ifs OF
history" of engaging interest.
Take him all in all, as pioneer, as
soldier, as fighter for the right, as
worker in the church, as enemy OF
the saloon, as father and friend OF
| his family, as orator, as leader Of
movements, dying without an llIl.
clean dollar sticking to his palm,
without an unclean record to sup
press, how shall we estimate his
seventy years in Iowa? His failure
to be with the majority, to win the
honors of place and power, may be
the measure Of his failure to proper
ly Judge the needs of his time. And,
again, it may mean merely that he
was somewhat ahead Of his time, a
skirmisher "who drove the pickets
in" @' "" O. RI