Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-05-14
Capital Sidelights
By Will p. Kennedy.

How raw was life in the pioneer days
Of this Nation has occasionally been
revealed in lightning flashes of debate
or oratory in the United States Senate
by national figures who told dramatical-
ly OF scenes in which they personally
had participated or of which they had
been witnesses. For example. Felix
Grundy, Representative and Senator
from Tennessee, native Of Virginia,
passed his childhood among such perils,
and more than half century later
spoke with touching eloquence in the
Senate, calling his colleagues to Of
fer similar evidence Senator Grundy
had been chief justice of the Supreme
Court of Kentucky and War Demo-
crat in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Con-
crosses. He succeeded in the Senate
John H. Eaton, who became Jacksons
Secretary of War and later was Minister
to Spain.
Subsequently, Mr.. Grundy served as
Attorney General in Van Buren's cabi-
net; and while he was so serving he
was elected again to the Senate and, q
question being raised as to his eligi-
bility for election while Attorney Gen.
eral, he promptly resigned from the
Senate and as promptly was reelected
the same day, serving until his death.
There was man who had seen Amer
lean life closeup and from wide angles,
both in the raw and refined, and his
colleagues knew it-so they were great
y impressed by his vivid eyewitness
account of bloody spectacles, as follows:
II was too young" he said, ito par
ticipate In these dangers-but can
remember when death was in almost
every bush, and every thicket concealed
an ambuscade. If am asked to trace
my memory back and name the first
1ndelible impression it received, 1t would
be the sight of my eldest brother bleed
ing and dying under the wounds in
f1icted by the tomahawk and scalping
knife. Another and another went in
the same way! I have seen widowed
mother plundered of her whole proper
ty in a single night; from affiuence
ana ease reduced to poverty in mo-
ment, and compelled to labor with her
own hands to support and educate her
last and favorite son-who now adj
dresses you. The ancient sufferings
OF the West were great. I know it.
need turn to no document to teach YOU
what they were. They are written upon
my memory, part of them upon nv
heart.
Those of us who are here are but
the remnant, the wreck, of large fam
lies lost in effecting the early settle
ment of the West. AS 1 look around
see the monuments of former suffer-
ing and woe. Ask my colleague what
he remembered? He will tell YOU that
while his father was in pursuit of one
party OF Indians, another band came
ana murdered two of his brothers. In
CURE OF yonder gentleman from Ar
kansas what became of his Brother-in-
law Oldham? He will tell you that he
went out to battle, but never returned
ASK that Representative from Kentucky
Where Is his uncle, the gallant Hardin?
He will answer that he was intren;d
enough TO carry flag of truce to the
hostile savages; they would not recog-
nlze the protection which the flag of
peace threw around him, and he was
slain. IT I turn to my old classmate
ana friend, now grave and potent
senator, I am reminded of a mothers
courage and intrepidity in the son whom
she rescued from savage hands, when
In the very grasp of death"
***
'Dollar-a-year men," who In emer-
gency have served the United States
Government, are far outclassed by Will
liam Jarvis, diplomatist appointed by
lhomas Jefferson, who gave eight years
OF his time and talent and refused to
accept any pay, saying that his coun-
Try needed its funds to prosecute war
with Great Britain. This statement
mas raised the question at the Capitol
as to what person has served the Nation
longest without compensation.
Mr.. Jarvis had been engaged in mer-
camille business in Boston and Norfolk
and failed. He then went to sea as
supercargo. and later was in charge of
brig for four years. In the latter
venture he amaSsed a fortune. Presi-
dent Jefferson appointed him CHARGE
dAffairs and Consul General at Lisbon
on February 4, 1902. He established
reputation as diplomatist by his
dexterous management of the difficult
negotiations with the Portuguese gov
eminent, with the commander of the
French forces at Lisbon and with the
British government, On his return to
he United States In 1910 he dined with
President Madison-and It was then
he refused to accept any compensation
for his SeryirAs