The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1919-04-11
PREFACE

The Light In the Clearing shons upon
many things and mostly upon those
which. above all others. have impassioned
and perpetuated the Spirit OF America
worthy Of attention. I believe that spirit
to be the very candle OF the Lord which.
In this dark and windy night OF time. has
dickered % that the souls OF the faithful
have been afraid. But let us be Of good
cheer. It = shining brighter ~ write
and. under God. believe it shall. by and
by, be seen and loved OF all men.
One self-contained. Homeric figure, Of
che remote countrywide in which I was
born. had the true Spirit Of Democracy
the United States and the capitol At Al
eany. He carried the Candle Of the Lord.
II led him to . height OF elf-forgetful-
nssD achieved By only two othseo-Wash-
lngton and Lincoln. Yet have been sur.
prised By the profound and general is-
norancs Of this generation regarding the
career Of 6flas Wright
Ths distinguishsd ssnatoF who ssved
~ bis dde for many years. Thomas H
Benton of Missouri, has this to say Of
0tlas Wright in his Thirty Years' vlsw:
He refused cabinet Appointments un-
dsr his fast friend Van Buren, and under
Polk, whom he may b. said to have
A1octea He refused . 0est on the bench
sf the suprams court Of ths United
States: hs rsjsctsd instantly the nomina-
Sl00 IN xA88 IOE vBC0 RtODh0Suts ~ BU10u0R
70 b put In nomination for the presi-
asncy. He spent that time in dsclinins
efnco which others did In winning It. The
offices he did accept II might well b
said, Wofe thrust upon him. He was born
great aAd above Office and unwlhngiy de-
% much By way Of preparing the reader
e meet the great commonsf In thsss
pagsa
Tness were thoss who accused Nr.
Wright Of being . spoilaman. the only
warrant for which claim would seem To
- his rsmaxk I'm . lettsr: when our
enemies accuse N 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 20 upright that thsy
used to say Of him that he was ''as hon
est n any man under heaven or In n"
For my knowledge OF the color and
spirit OF the time am indebted to . long
course Of reading in its books. newspa-
pers and periodicals. notably the North
asine and Democratic Review. the New
YORK Mirror. the Knickerbocker. the st.
Lawrence Republican. Benton's Thirty
Years View. Bancroft's Life Of Martin
Van Buren,. histories Of Wright and his
time by Hammond and Jenkins. and to
many manuscript jstters of the distin-
guishsd commonsr in the New York pub
1lc library and in the Possession Of MT.
Samuel wright Of Weybridgs. Vermont.
To any who may think that they dis
cover portraits in these pages desire TO
Say that all the characters-save only
1ilas Wright and President Van Buren
and Barton Baynes-are purely imagtn-
ary. However, there were 0rimshawa
and Purvises and Binkses and Aunt Deela
and Uncle Peabodys in almost every rus
tic neighborhood those days. and regret
TO add that Rowing Kate was on many
roads The cAss Of Amos GrimshAw bears
q striking resemblance to that of young
Bickford, executed long ago In Malone.
for the particulars Of which case I am
indebted to my friend. Mr.. H. L. Ives OF
PetsdAm.
THE AUTHOR.