The Holly chieftain., 1919-02-06
PREFACE

The Light in the Clearing shone upon
many things and mostly upon those
which. above all others. have impassioned
and perpetuated the Spirit of America
and which. just now. seem to me to be
worthy OF attention. I believe that spirit
70 be the very candle of the Lord which.
n this dark and windy night of time has
lickered SO that the souls of the faithful
have been afraid. But let us be of good
sheer. 1t Is shining brighter as l write
and. under God. believe 1t shall. by and
BY. be seen and loved of all men.
One self-contained. Homeric hgure. OF
the remote countryside in which l was
born, had the true Spirit of Democracy
and shed its light abroad In the senate OF
the United States and the capitol at AL
oany. He carried the Candle of the Lord.
Il led him to a height of self-forgetful-
aess achieved by only two others-Wash'
lngton and Lincoln. Yet have been sur
prised by the profound and general ig-
aorance of this generation regarding the
career Of Silas Wright.
The distinguished senator who served
1t his side for many years. Thomas H.
Benton of Missouri. has this to say of
Silas Wright in his Thirty Years View:
He refused cabinet appointments un-
Der his fast friend Van Buren, and under
Polk. whom he may be said to have
elected. He refused q seat on the bencn
Of the Supreme court of the United
States: he rejected instantly the nomina-
ton in 1874 for vice president; he refused
to be put in nomination for the presi-
dency. He spent that time In declining
office which others did in winning 1t. The
offices he did accept. 1t might well be
said. were thrust upon him. He was born
great and above office and unwillingly de-
scended to It,"
So much by way of preparing the reader
to meet the great commoner in these
pages.
There were those who accused Mr..
Wright of being spokesman. the only
warrant for which claim would seem to
- his remark in a letter: when our
enemies accuse us of feeding our friends
Instead Of them never let them lie In tell
ing the story"
He was, in fact. human being, through
and through. but so upright that they
used to say of him that he was 'as hon
est as any man under heaven or In 1t.
For my knowledge Of the color and
spirit Of the time am indebted to a long
course OF reading In Its books, newspa-
pers and periodicals, notably the North
American Review, the United States Mag
axine and Democratic Review. the New
York Mirror. the Knickerbocker. the st.
Lawrence Republican, Bentons Thirty
Years View, Bancroft's Life OF Martin
Van Buren,. histories Of Wright and his
time by Hammond and Jenkins. and to
many manuscript letters of the distin-
g,,ished commoner in the New York pub
lie library and in the possession OF Mr..
Samuel Wright Of Weybridge. Vermont.
To any who may think that they dis
cover portraits in these pages 1 desire to
say that all the characters-save only
Silas Wright and President Van Buren,
and Barton Baynes-are purely imagin-
ary. However, there were Grimshaws
and Purvises and Binkses and Aunt Deels
and Uncle Peabodys in almost every rus
tic .neighborhood those days. and regret
to add that Rowing Kate was on many
roads. The case of Amos Grimshaw bears
striking resemblance to that of young
Bickford, executed long ago in Malone.
for the particulars Of which case l am
Indebted to my friend. Mr.. H. L. Ives of
Potsdam.
: THE AUTHOR.