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PAGE FOURTEEN
JOHN TYLER MORGAN.
The death of Senator John T.
Morgan, of Alabama, does not come
as a surprise. He was old
and inarm, and his passing away
was one of tiiose events so in ac
cord with the course of nature as
to be generally anticipated. The
democrats of Alabama at their last
primary election renominated him for
tne place he has so long and so
ably tilled, but at the same time they
took the precaution to nominate an
alternate to succeed him. Yet de
spite the expectancy that preceded
this melancholy event, it brings a
certain shock and much sadness to
know that this long familiar figure,
this man who stood so many years
conspicuous among the nation’s
great men, and one of the represen
ia.ive men of the south in national
affairs, has become “part and por
tion of the dreadful past.’’ Had he
lived but a few days longer Senator
Morgan would have completed his 83d
year.
It is to the few only that such long
life is accorded, and few, indeed,
have carried their strength and use
fulness into such extreme of age. He
was ever an active man. He began
the practice of law in ti.e year that
James K. Polk began his term in the
presidential of dee, and he was a pres'
idential elector in that tempestuous
political year immediately preceding
the civil war. In the confederate ser
vice he rose from the station of pri
vate soldier to brigadier general and
he was prominent among those who
redeemed Alabama from the rule of
tne carpet-baggers. He was a Til
den elector in 1870, and the follow
ing year began his long career in the
fedeial senate. He was contempora
ry with Beu Hill, Wade Hampton,
Lamar, Vance, Garland, Isham G.
Harris and other prominent southern*
ers some years departed, and whom
we have come to regard as men of a
past generation. He was among the
ablest and brightest of the distin
guished southerners who entered the
senate in the period following recon
struction, and he maintained his men
tal vigor with but little evidence of
impairment to the end. It was but
a few months ago that he gave marked
evidence of his well preserved powers
in the persistent and acute cross-ex
amination to which he subjected Wil
liam Nelson Cromwell, one of the
shrewdest of corporation lawyers,
and a man experienced in the man
agement of large affairs. Cromwell
left the country patently to escape
Senator Morgan’s incisive question
ing.
Senator Morgan was a man of un
us al intellectual accomplishments.
Some years ago he was a frequent
contributor to the reviews, and more
than any other man in public life at
that time displayed an ability for
polemic essays produced with a
order of literary ability. He had
much reputation in Alabama for pop
ular oratory in his earlier days, and
he dir'il ived some extraordinary pow
ers 01 debate in the senate. His
fluency and prolificncss of speech
were proverbial. He was the demo
cratic dependence when the minority
partv in the senate adopted filibus
tering tactics and it became necessa
ry to talk an obnoxious measure to
death.
Senator Morgan possessed great
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
suavity and courtliness of manner
which, couph.d with his ready mental
equipment, would have made him an
ideal diplomat, and it seems strange
that his ambition never led him into
that character of public service, ite
could, no doubt, if he had desired,
have had high diplomatic appoint
ments under .President Cleveland, but
to be an American Ambassador now
requires a large private fortune, of
wmeu the distinguisned Alabaman was
never possessed. Alter thirty years
in the United States senate, which
is often called “the millionaii es ’
club,’’ it is to his credit that he died
a poor man.
It was Senator Morgan’s strong
and persistent advocacy of the Nica
ragua canal for which his career in
the senate will be most remembered.
The project of an isthmian canal to
be constructed by the federal gov
ernment owes much to the untiring
energy with which he advocated it.
He was so strong a partisan of the
Nicaragua route that he submitted
with poor grace to the choice that
was finally made, but in the agita
tion of the canal project he was the
most untiring of leaders and the canal
when finished will be a monument to
his energy, though it was not c< n
strucled over the route he preferred.
His advocacy of the canal showed
Senator Morgan's breadth of mind.
He gave his chief attention to this
practical matter for the advancement
of the nation and especially of the
south, at a time when most southern
senators were absorbed with sectional
politics. His breadth and independence
of thought were further exhibited
in his support of the policy of terri
torial extension in the Pacific when
it was opposed by the majority of
his party. He favored the annexa
tion of Hawaii in opposition to Pres
ident Cleveland, and stood for
United States control in the Philip
pines despite the “anti-imperalist ”
pronouncements of the democratic
platforms in three successive presi
dential campaigns.
In the passing of John Tyler Mor
gan another link that bound the old
and the new south has been broken.
He was one of the last of a great
generation. It is most regrettab'e
that his death marks another indi
cation of the decadence in the per
sonnel of the south’s represent a ion
in the federal senate. He does not
leave such able southern men in that
body as he found on entering it.—
Nashville Banner.
INDIANS AND NEGROES IN
OFFICE.
There have been many Indians
who have held highly important civil
and military positions, and an even
greater number of Negroes who have
served creditably in similar capaci
ties. Perhaps one of the most con
spicuous of these among American
Indians was the famous Tecumseh.
He was born in 1768 and killed at
the Battle of the Thames in 1813.
Although a Shawnee, he took sides
w'ith the British and become a brig
adier general in command of a mixed
British-Indian force of two thousand
or more.
Another Indian general who won
for himself a name for bravery and
shrewdness was Chief Watie of the
Cherokee nation. There was a slight
strain of white blood in the veins
of this man, however. He was a
colonel, and afterward a brigadier
general in the Confederate army,
commanding an Indan brigade of
two regiments and three batteries.
Originally the Cuerokees were one
of the nations of the Atlantic coast,
and spoke a language similar to that
of the Iroquois, but were greatly re
tarded in civilization by being trans
ferred to a desolate tract of countiy
beyond the Mississippi. Yet despite
their many hardships and the numer
ous interventions that have tended
to retard their progress, they are
among the most highly cultured of
all the American Indians. In 1824
a Cherokee named George Guess in
vented for his people a complete al
phabet, and with a written language
their literature has had a steady
growth peculiarly its own. They also
print newspapers in buth Cherokee
and English.
Equally prominent was General
Ely S. Parker, a Seneca, who was
born in 1828 and educated a civil
engineer. When the civil war broke
out he enlisted in the Union army,
and became General Grant’s secre
tary and an officer of his staff. Later
he was promoted to assistant adju
tant general, then to brigadier gen
eral, and finally became commission
er of Indian affairs.
Representative Curtis, of Kansas,
was said to have been a quarter
blood Kansa. J. N. B. Hewitt, of
the bureau of ethnology, was said
to be part Tuscarora; and Dr. East
man, a noted agency physician and
worker, is three-quarters Sioux.
Mexico furnishes the most con
spicuous examples of Indians who
have risen to high official positions.
General Hidalgo, who was spoken
of in that country as the George
Washington of Mexico, was said to
have been an Indian of full blood.
Then there was President Juarez of
the same country, who was also an
Indian, and President Diaz, called
the “Maker of Mexico,’’ is also of
Indian blood.
Since the abolition of slavery in
the United States in 1863, there have
been many negroes who have held
official positions. Two have held the
position of United States senators.
Twenty-two have been representa
tives, two have been registers of
the treasury, and several have been
lieutenant governors of States. About
twenty have been foreign ministers
or consuls. Several have been of
ficers in the army, and six have
b •eii recorders of deeds.
The first negro to fill the po i
tiou of United States senator was
Hiram R. Revells, of Mississippi,
Strangely enough, he was elected to
fill the unexpired term of Jefferson
Davis* when the latter resigned to as
sume the position of president of the
confederacy. This negro was a grad
uate of Knox college, was a Meth
odist minister, received the degree
of Doctor of Divinity, and after his
retirement from public service be
came president of the Alcorn agri
cultural and mechanical college at
Rodney, Miss.
The other negro to become a sen
ator was Blanche K. Bruce, also of
Mississippi. He served a full term
in the senate from 1875 to 18sl, was
also register of deeds, and later be
came register of the treasury, in
which position he died in 1898.
The only other negro to fill the
position of register of the treasury
was Judson W. Lyons, who was ap
pointed by President McKinley.
Prominent among members of his
race to serve in congress was Jo
seph H. Rainey, of South Carolina.
He served for ten years, and was
considered one of the most influen
tial of the representatives of his
time. Jefferson Long, the only negro
whom Georgia ever sent to congress,
was a remarkably intellectual and
brilliant man, as was Robert Brown
Elliot, of South Carolina. Elliot was
graduated from Eton college, Eng
land, and was a member of the
forty-second and forty-third con
gresses from South Carolina. In 1879
at the Chicago Republican conven
tion he nominated John Sherman for
president, and when Sherman was
afterward secretary of the treasury
he made Elliot special agent of that
department at Charleston, S. C.—
Sunday Tribune Magazine.
—■ l 4
CURRENCY INFLATION DANGER.
The National City Bank in its
monthly circular calls attention to cer
tain features of our currency move
ment which, unless corrected, suggest
some disturbing possibili.ies for the
financial situation at no distant date.
The circular points out that bank
note issues have risen aboye $600,-
000,000 —the largest volume in the
country’s history—and that this ex
pansion is in progress at a time
when, on acount of diminishing trade
activity, the need for money is de
creasing.
This anomaly has been realized
more or less generally for some time
past, but the City Bank reveals some
thing entirely unappreciated in its
statement that bank notes are being
counted, to a growing extent, im
properly as a basis of reserves. It
is partly for this reason and partly
because of the increase in the supply
of government bonds available as
security for circulation, owing to the
recent refunding operations, that the
applications for note retirement have
been so disappointingly slow. In other
words, two factors, one old and the
other new, are operating to inflate
the bank paper issue, and the circular
refers to this inflation as one of the
causes for the present exports of
gold.
The danger is, of course, entirely
clear. If the inflation of bank notes
is allowed to go on the cheaper form
of money will expel the dearer; that
is gold exportations, which are not
at present regarded as serious, will
assume dangerous proportions later
on. The recent laws raising Lorn
$3,000,000 to $9,000,000 the monthly
limit of note redemption have so far
completely failed to produce the ex
pected results. It is still as true as
it ever was that our bank circulation
rises and falls not with trade re
quirements but with the varying sup
ply of government bonds. Only
much more sweeping and effective
legislation than congress has yet
shown a disposition to enact can
overcome this evil. But, in the mean
time, the practice of the banks in not
discriminating between bank notes
and lawful money as a basis for re
serve is something that can and
ought to be corected at once. It is
the plain duty of the national bank
examiners to take action in the mat
ter. —New York Globe.