The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-12-17
III WAS EVER Thus

Men occupying stations OF honor and
responsibility have always been tar
gets for nagrant and hostile criticism
So the almost savage criticism the
Wilson administration has had to
face is nothing new; is not to be
wondered at and should have created
no surprise.
Few, indeed, have been the worlds
rulers that have not had their calum-
niators.
1t was so in Biblical times. TIE
children of Israel murmured and mu-
tinted against Moses. 1t was so in the
time of ancient Greece and in the time
of ancient Rome, and English and
French history record the same story
Crossing over to America we find
no change in human nature. The early
settlers had their contentious, contro-
versies and troubles.
And so it was up to and during the
Revolutionary war;
Those of us now living and reading
the biography of George Washington
can hardly conceive how he could
have been surrounded by conspira-
| tors, enemies and detractors.
Not only was he charged with in
efficiency, favoritism and corruption
but he was called harsh and yillainous
names and was frequently referred to
as "the sly old fox"
Washington himself said that if he
had been an ordinary pickpocket he
could not have been more villainous1y
s1andered.
Irreproachable in their private lives
and personal conduct and illustrious
as were their administrations Jeffer-
son and Jackson had to fight their way
through whole army of critics.
Immoftalized as Lincoln now is if
one had access to the files of news.
papers of his own party at the time he
was living and immersed in the prob.
lens confronting him they would be
astounded at the .enormity and -.ru.
lence of the charges made against him
and the intolerance and vindictiveness
of his calumniators.
No administration was so merciless-
ly criticised as Grants, and perhaps
none more deserved it.
1t was ,reeking with the basest scan
dals so much so as to ALLEVIATE many
of the ab1est and earliest advocates
of his party.
Few names stand out more conspic-
ously in American history than that OF
Daniel Webster, the Massachusetts
statesman, known in history as the
great constitutional expounder'
Yet if one ransacks the files of the
old Congressional Globe (now the
Congressional Record) they will stand
amazed at the charges openly made
against him by some of his senatorial
colleagues.
After denouncing him as "miser-
able creature" one of his colleagues
spoke of him as follows:
Nothing, sir, nothing can ever justi-
fly citizen in refusing to lend all his
energies to his country in her time
of need. But for the influence of Mr.
Webster, and of those who acted with
him, the war might have been pressed
with so much more vigor and success
that this question of the freedom of
the seas, of the right of search, of i'm
pressment, might long since have been
put at rest
1.-THE gentleman from Connecticut
(Mr. Dixon also says, in defense of
this ever recurring opposition to his
country's interest when in conflict
with foreign power, that when Mr..
Webster said he would not vote cent
&c defend the capitol, even if the ene-
my We're at, its gates, he said also that
he would not so vote. for it would vio-
late the constitutions and that. if once
destroyed. could not rebuild. though
the capitol could be. That in fact Mr.
Webster was the great defender of the
constitution.
Strange. passing strange indeed
that this latitudinarian ceEst-uctionist
this general welfare Federalist who
Believes that the govc. nment can do
anything with scrupulcus regard for
the restrictive character of our consti-
tutian, save when the homer of the
country is at stake. and the necessi-
les of state call for rigorous action.
Strange that when the country and
constitution are in imminent per-.
from foreign invasion, he should be so
STRIFE. and nice in it's construction as
to even verge upon toryism, in his