wuManm-tM.
Reminiscences of a Wayiarer
Some of the Important Events of the Pioneer Days
of Richardson County and Southeast Nebraska, as
remembered by the writer, who has spent fifty
one years here.
The Year 1860.
Of all the years in Hi*- life of our
nation, none wore more fatefully
eventful than that year of grace JNfiO.
What I ha\e to say of It In these
personal recollections will be large
ly, tf not entirely, confined to the
little of its mighty history that was
made in my immediate presence in
Richardson county. It does not lie
in ray way to recount, If I possessed
the ability and was properly equipped
for the task, the events precedent in
time that laud up to the result of
the popular election held that year
for president. It is sufficient to say
that, not only the life of this govern
ment,but all others of like constituent
elements possible among men, was de
termined thereby. Mad the experi
ment (for the American Union was
scarcely anything else in its first in
ception) failed, the age of superior
rule by the people of a government
by themselves, in their collective ca
pacity, would have been indefinitely
postponed at least, though probably
not defeated forever, for that is a
very long time. Resides, the time to
write that history has not come.
When it does, the writer will come
with it, and the great story will be
told comprehensively, and correctly.
The most that any historian, writing
concurrently with the events he is
nnrrnting can do, is to record the
fact of their occurrence astheyappea
to him; but it is only after the storm
has pnsscd and reaction, so to speak,
has taken place In the orderly oper
ations of things, that effects can be
intelligently measured and logically
understood.
Cause ami effect are very different
things, yet both must be considered
to understand either. Effects are
"Like poison laid to work a long
time after,” but until their work is
done any story told of them would
be Incomplete and therefore of doubt
ful value. The French Revolution Is
a hundred and twenty years old in
its violent and bloody occurrence, but
the ultimate effects flowing from and
out of it have not yet wholly trans
pired. The inimitable English clas
sic put the proposition in a nut-shell
when lie wrote his aphorism oi
"poison laid to work a long tlnu
after.”
As heretofore recorded in these
reminiscences we signalized tht
opening of this eventful year l>\
having ail act passed by the legisla
ture locating the county seat at Fall!
City, and providing for a series of
elections by the people to determine
the question of its ultimate and per
manent location. Something of the
history of those elections has already
been recited—all that would be of
Interest to the people of the current
generation, though if I were writing
for old-timers only, 1 might amuse
them somewhat In the relation of fa
miliar things In those days. In which
only those actually participating
would care io hear of. Maybe I will
mention some of them anyhow.
Following the last election came
the final legal contest to ascertain
in a judicial way. which of the two
contending towns had received a ma
jority of the votes east by the duly
qualified voters of the county. The
contest extended far into the summer
and as stated in a former paper,ended
In the triumph of Falls City. There
have been some spasmodic efforts at
Intervals since to reopen the vexed
question, hut time, which is said to
"set all things even, finally wore out
the desire to keep the county in a
constant turmoil over a matter upon
which the people had so decisively
passed, and it ceased from the pub
lic mind entirely. Too much of any
thing is not relished by anybody,
which lias led me to think sometimes,
that too much glorious happiness in
another state of which we have heard
so much, would ultimately become
monotonous, and unless changed in
our nature so as to become substan
tially somebody else, we would, in the
course of such an existence, want to
go back to earth, wake up some of
the old boys and have another of our
monkey and parrot times of the
long ago, when we were actively en
gaged in the agricultural business of
sowing a fantastic cereal called
“oats," of the untamed variety. This
is mere fancy, but it lias been in my
mind, and now and again 1 have
thought about it not a little.
In I860 Falls City had grown some,
but the discovery of gold at Pike s
Peak the year before had taken from
us a good share of our restless peo
ple—ana every town and community
has a lot of them, who are always
on the ' ook-out for that marvelous
country where a pot of money is to
be found at the end of every rain
bow that spans its heavens and
though some of them came back, as
they invariably do, others drifted
away, and the tide that was setting
towards the western sea engulfed
them, and they became a part of
the lost tilings of the earth.
The nomination of Abraham Un
co In of Illinois by the republican
national convention at Chicago, that
met on May 10th of that year, as the
candidate of that party for the of
fice of president, was an inspiring
'circumstance that evoked the enthu
siasm of every adherent of that party
in all parts of the country, as much
so in Nebraska as anywhere, notwith
standing its citizens were debarred
participation in the election on ac
count of their residence in a ter
ritory.
It will be remembered that the ter
ritorial governments of Kansas and
Nebraska wore provided for and
erected uud r the administration of
Pierce, and of course all the terri
torial officers were democrats; and1
to begin with, both territories were
settled largly by democrats, but In |
in.v.i the republicans held a convention
at Ilellvieu in Sarpy county,and iioml
noted Samuel G. Daily for delegate |
to congress to fill the vacancy oc
casioned by the death of Judge Ken
ner Kerguson, whose term of office
would not expire until the 4th of
March. 18G1. Daily lived at Peru and
had been a member of the legislature
that met in the fall of 1858. He could
make a pretty good stump speech,
making up in self assertion and per
sonal push and arrogance what lie
lacked m education ami genuine anil
ity. Tho nomination came to him
much In the samo way Bryan got his
nomination for congressman from the
first district in 1890. Nobody thought
the democrats could elect anybody
that year and no serious effort was
made by the old standbys like .1.
Sterling Morton and others, and it
easily went to Bryan, but in that
year the prohibition amendment to
the constitution came on to be adopt
ed or rejected by the people and to
make its defeat certain, Omaha,
which was then a part of the first dis
trict, with a legal voting strength of
about 9,000 actually cast over 19,000
against the amendment, and every
one of the 10,000 illegal votes so cast
was a democratic one, and all for
Boyd for governor ami llryan for con
gress.
In 18r>9 nobody thought the repub
licans could win, and Daily was eas
ily nominated on tho first ballot, and
to the astonishment of everybody was
elected. He posed as n lawyer, but 1
never heard of but ease in which
he was counsel, and to make plain
tlie kind of lawyer he was, I will
toll something of his performance on
that occasion. He was attorney for
a man accused of the crime of rape,
and after reading the indictment Dail
ey concluded it was bad and moved to
quash it, giving as a reason therefor,
because it did pot charge that the
crime was committed malicious
ly; that is, it was not charged to have
been committed with malice. There
were several amused faces in court
when the ground of Daily’s motion
came to be known. The court re
marked that that was the first time
he had ever heard it contended that
malice was an essential element of
the crime of rape. It was not so at
common law and it was very cer
tain that tlie statute did not make
it so, and the motion would have to
bo overruled. It would be difficult
to conceive of a more ridiculous prop
osition, but it was not at all certain
that Daily was conscious of it. He
was nominated for the same office
in I860, the year 1 am writing about,
and was opposed by .1. Sterling Mor
ton, who tnoti no lit ui<‘ onii'i' oi sec
retary of the Territory, ail office that
answen'il to that of our constitution
al office of Secretary of State.
It was during that campaign that I
first saw Mr. Morton, and I thought
then, as I did many times afterwards,
that lie was the meanest democrat 1
ever saw. A republican in his esti
mation was something more than in
famous, nor was his opinion in that
regard changed or modified during all
the dark days of the Civil war, which
he repeatedly denounced as not only
unconstitutional, on the part of the
Lincoln administration, hut every act
of the government in trying to en
force Its authority and maintain the
integrity of the union was also con
demned by him as unauthorized, bar
barous and cruel. Mad lie lived in
any loyal state, and talked as he
did here on tlie outskirts of civiliza
tion, he would have found his way to
a military prison in short order. But
here little attention was paid to him
as he was powerless for evil, and com
paratively harmless. There seems a
grim sarcasm in the fact that such’
a man should be honored In his death
with a monument by people who love
the memory of Abraham Lincoln, who
was abused in his life and shot to
death in the same spirit that actuat
ed the enemies of the nation in de
nouncing the war to save the union,
both north and south.
The result of that election as
shown by the face of the returns,
was that Morton had been elected,
but It turned out that in L’eau qul
Court County, up on the Niobrara, a
stupendous fraud had been commit
ted. There were only about six legal
voters in that county, but Morton’s
agents and friends procured a return
of the poll from that country showing
that h. had carried it t>y about 220
majority, or something like that.
I tally Instituted a contest and proved
these facts. They were laid before
Governor Samuel Black, and although
In had issued a certificate of elec
tion to Morton, when he became sat
isfind that he was not legally elected
he revoked his former certificate to
Morton, and issued one to Daily. For
that act Morton never forgave Gov.
Black, and when the latter was kill
ed at York Town in Virginia, in
McClellan’s peninsular campaign in
Die rebellion v, lien gallantly leading
his command against the rebel forces,
Morton actually exulted over the fact
m a paper he was publishing in Ne
braska City. When Gov. Black, dem
ocrat its he was, surrendered his
office as governor of tlie territory
to his successor,Gov. Alvin Saunders,
appointed by president. Lincoln, he
vent to his old home in Pennsylvania
procured a commission In the volun
teer army of the Union, raised a reg
iment of soldiers, went to the front
and lost itis life in the defense of
his country, hut who has ever said
anything about rearing a monument t
his memory? Not anybody that I
ever heard of. Iho man who kept
up a fire in the rear, the chief cop
perhead of the territory, won his
spurs slandering the great president
and his loyal army, and dying is dis
tinguished by people ignorant of the
truth, as though he had in some
signal way earned a monument for
patriotic cervice performed for his
country. It is not a very great feat,
of patriotism to hold a civil office in
time of peace, but it is something for
a man to be true to his country even
[ iu private station when traitors were
making war to destroy it, and Mor
j ton was not. These facts are men
tioned hero that sycophants of all
: degree, who delight in chiseling on
brass or stone wondrous heralds of
fame, whether deserved or not, may
be estopped from denying the truth
of history.
Morton was a great man by mar
| riage. The Joy family of Michigan
j built railroads and became rich and
i powerful, and Morton made the Hit of
I his life when he hitched himself to
their car and went whizzing through
the world at record-breaking speed.
Bryan sidetracked him however, and
then he got mad, and pretty nearly
changed his politics before he be
came a democratic saint. The man of
“ink and wind’’ will lose two feet
or so off his monument for doing it.
But to resume, when congress met
in extraordinary session at the call
of president Lincoln on July 4th, 1861
both Daily and Morton appeared arm
ed with a certificate of election as
delegate in congress from Nebraska.
As Daily held the last in the series
the clerk of the House recognized it j
as the authorative document and put j
Daily's name on the roll of members j
•leet. That gave him the seat, and 1
Morton was compelled to become con- j
testa,nt instead of Daily, and the ad- j
vantage to that extent was against him
Two other circumstances also stood !
as lions In his path, viz: the fraud
his friends had committed in his fav
or in L’eati riui Court county, and
tin' changed political complexion of
the house, brought about by the sec
ession of the Southern States and the
absence of their congressman from
that. body. He was allowed however,
to conduct his case in person, and to
make a speech in the house in advo
cacy of his right to sit instead of
Daily, in which speech he emptied
all the vials of his wrath on the head
of Dundy, whom he accused of put
ting up the political cards against
him and inciting Gov. Dlack to nul
lify his first certificate by issuing
one to Daily; and by roundly abus
ing his party and official associate
in Nebraska, Samuel Black, for turn
ing him down in favor of a black re
publican. Morton could use that ad
jective as applied to his opponents,
with, what he believed to be, tremen
dous effect. But it was no go. Mor
ton didn’t get the seat and he never
went to congress.
i ms maae mm more sour man
ever, and all through the war he
talked like a man who would have
been glad if the South had succeed
ed in breaking up the Union.
His intense partisan zeal and per
sonal egotism outweighed everything
else, and blinded him to the natural
effect of his intemperate expressions
on the subject of the Civil war. I
trust 1 do his memory no injustice
in what l have here written, for 1
certainly have no such intention, but
the facts recited I know to be true
of my own personal knowledge. There
are others yet in life who know them
to be true quite as well as I do.
The great year of 1860 saw Lincoln
elected president and the Union act
ually dissolved so far as a state res
olutions could accomplish that ob
ject, but there was a man and a
people, descendants of the worship
ers of Odin and Thor, to reckon
with before the fabric that Washing
ton and Hamilton had built could be
torn down and destroyed, The reck
oning came, and the regenerated
Union, stronger than ever still stands
and will stand forever.
When the digestion is all right, the
action of the bowels regular, there is
a natural craving and relish for food.
When this is lacking you may know
that you need a dose of Chmberlain s
Stomach and Liver Tablets. They
strengthen the digestive organs, im
prove the appetite and regulate the
bowels. Sold by all druggists.
If it is Dirty
Clean It
Clean that Straw Hat
of yours with REXALL
STRAW HAT CLEAN
ER. For 15 cents j ou
get enough for two
cleanings, at
McMillan’s
Pharmacy
Opposite Postoffice Falls City, Neb.
The
Best Bargain
in reading matter that your
money can buy is your local pa
per. It keeps you posted on the
doings of the community.
This Paper
will tell you the things you want
to know in an entertaining way;
will give you all the news of the
community; its every visit will
prove a pleasure; it gives more
than full value for the price
asked for it.
* - ^
If your liver is sluggish and out of
tone, and you feel dull, bilious, con
stipated, take a dose of Chamberlain’s
Stomach and Liver Tablets tonight
before retiring and you will feel all
right in the morning. Sold by all
druggists.
Sure to Get Some.
“Anything on deposit?” asked th*
girl's father, brusquely. ‘‘Not exact
ly in my owh name,” replied the rising
young attorney, “but I’ve Just been ap
pointed receiver of a bank." After this
the essential “Bless you, my children,”
was a foregone certainty.
r
✓
TO introduce fine materials, clean
methods, scientific equipment
into the making of soda crackers
was one triumph—
To actually bake into them a subtle
goodness, a real individuality, never
before known, was another triumph—
But to effectually protect them so
that the fullest benefit of these fine
materials, this careful, cleanly baking,
this unique goodness comes to you
unaltered, was the crowning triumph
that gave the world
Uneeda Biscuit
