Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-02-22

of her feet will be on the top of that canopy
which overshadows the American senate
Befriended Alex Stephens
Until Calvin Coolidge became vice presi-
dent, no citizen of Massachusetts had occu-
pied this office for nearly fifty years, and that
one was man who once did most humane
and friendly act for that great Georgian,
Alexander H. stephens, when he was suffer-
ing prisoner of war. | allude to Henry Will
son, who was vice president when Grant was
president.
According to the historical story as I have
heard it, while Wilson was serving In the
United States senate during the War Between
the States he employed his kindly offices in
obtaining from President Andrew Johnson an
order transferring former Vice President Ste
phens, of the Southern Confederacy, from
small damp, dark cell to larger and more
comfortable quarters, and granting him
greater freedom, during his confinement as
a prisoner at Fort Warren, near Boston, fol-
lowing the close of the conflict between the
North and the South. While Wilson was
senator and Stephens member of the house
of representatives prior to the Civil War, a
warm friendship developed between them,
and this led to Wilson's intercessiOn with
President Johnson in Stephens behalf.
Challenged Wilson to Duel
1t will be recalled that Representative
Preston Brooks, of South Carolina, who made
his famous assault on Senator Summer, Of
Massachusetts, the floor of the senate,
beating him almost fatally with cane, was
severely denounced by Senator Wilson in a
speech in the senate and was challenged to a
duel by Brooks, but the senator declined to
accept though he stated that he believed in
his right to defend himself if attacked. In
outburst of PATRIOTISM Brooks county.
Georgia, named in honor of the South
CarOlinian. Mr.. Wilson represented Massa-
chusetts in the senate for eighteen years.
In 1873, while Vice President Wilson was
in Boston, he was stricken with apOpleXy,
causing partial paralysis. On November 10,
1875, a second stroke Frustrated him in the
capitol at Washington. For twelve days he
lay in the vice presidents office, adjacent to
the senate chamber, where, on November %,
he died suddenly from third stroke, aged
fOrty-SiX years: BY order of the senate a
tablet appropriately inscribed, has been
placed to his memory in the vice president
chamber.
The Shoemaker Was Charmed
In his early years, the name Of Vice Presi-
dent Wilson was jeremiah Jones Colbaith
He was born in Pennington, N. H, and was
a farm apprentice there till the age of twenty
the shoemakers trade! When known as the
"Natick CObber' he was fascinated with the
eOquence Of Representative Henry Wilson, Of
New Hampshire, and legally adopted his
name, Henry Wilson," dropping forever his
own and original name of Jeremiah Jones
COlbaith
Vice President Wilson's career is one Of
innumerable illustrations in American his
tory which show the shining possibilities for
poor but worthily ambitious boys in this
country.
Uncle Joe" Cannon once stritingly said:
you know if you go into New York or into
Chicago or any of the great centers you will
find three out of four men in business who di-
rect the affairs Of men, were sons of farmers
or others who lived in the sweat of their
faces, who worked in early life and have be-
come qualified for their subsequent career"