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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1898)
"MS Conservative. villages the Michigan Central , half a century ago , and who later was the chief agent in building up the great Chicago , Burlington and Quincy system in the still further "West. Ho made money in making railroads , but he would have taken no satisfaction in being a "rail road man" of the far too common type , whose only interest in railroads is as a means of profitable stock speculation. Ho enjoyed the construction of great lines of communication in now regions because ho felt that ho was thus helping to build up great states. Of course such a character must take an earnest interest in public affairs. It was not the interest of the man who sees opportunities for personal advan tage and private gain in public life , or oven of the man who has a proper am bition to hold public office because he II feels that ho can thus render service to the community , for he never filled or sought any official position. It was the interest of a man who regarded a busi ness life as the path of personal duty , but whoso mind could never be en grossed even with the highest enterprises of business ; who always felt that he was , first of all , a citizen , and owed the duty of a good citizen to the state ; who sought to secure the adoption of pro gressive policies by his party , and the election of only those candidates who were worthy of an honest man's support even if that rule required him to leave his parry ; who was , in short , as liigh- uiinded and conscientious in the role of a citizen as in that of the unspotted biisiuess man. Mr. Forbes' great services to his state and his nation were rendered a full gen eration ago , when he was the wise ad viser and the efficient assistant of John A. Andrew in Massachusetts and of Abraham Lincoln at Washingtoii during the civil war. The written history of that period unhappily does scant justice to the tremendous services which this patriot rendered the cause of the Union , for the best part of it was not done un der the public eye or "written up" for the newspapers. The latest exhibition of his conscientious devotion to what he deemed the right was when in 1884 he turned from the party which he had served so long with such affection , be cause that party had lowered its stand ard in its nomination for the presidency Mr. Hoar , like Mr. Forbes , came out of a Now England family in which sous are reared to have convictions , and are pretty sure to live up to those convic tions when they become men. Born the year before the civil war broke out , care fully educated in academy , college , and law school , devoted to the profession upon which he entered in 1887 , he early I threw himself into the struggle for bet ter government , in which the lamented William E. Russell was just then becoming coming the leader. Bred a republican "hetiad abandoned thafc party in 1884 - 1 when duty seemed to " demand the change , and ho was ready in 1880 for ; ho forlorn hope of a canvass for the lemocraoy in a legislative district which vas overwhelmingly republican. Four years later ho ran for congress on the same ticket in a still larger district , which was supposed to belong to the re- mblicans , and was elected. At Wash- ngton he was as independent as at ionic , fighting free silver and other fol ios in his own party as earnestly as he lad opposed the high-tariff policy of the other party. After a single term as con gressman , ho resumed the practice of lis profession , and ho accepted the United States district'attorneyship for Massachusetts a few years later rather Because he thought ho could do good service for the public in employing his : alents in such an essentially legal posi- ; ion than because he had become in fected with a love of office for itself. The recent war again diverted him from : iis law practice. He could not honor- vbly enlist as a soldier , because of his obligations to his family , but he felt constrained to throw himself , with all the energy of his nature , into the work of relieving Massachusetts soldiers in the field , and in the prosecution of this unselfish work in hospitals he caught the disease which ended his life. The infirmities of age had withdrawn Mr. Forbes from the activities of life , but his interest in them remained keen to the end. Mr. Hoar was in the very heart of those activities , with every prospect of twenty-five or thirty years of steadily widening influence. The vet eran had performed his work , while the young man seemed but just started upon his , and his loss appears irreparable. John M. Forbes and Sherman Hoar are fine types of the real patriot. The perpetuity of our institutions depends upon a succession of such men. The * only consolation of their almost simul taneous death is the evidence which the young man's carrer affords that the na tion still continues to breed men of this type. Editor Every A VOICE FROM Evening : In your THE DEAD. . ° , .J T issue of today I read your grave and earnest proclama tion of "The Need and Duty of the Hour , " to which I find my name ap pended , together with those of a largo number of my worthy and respected fellow-citizens. Although this gave mo my first knowl edge of the paper in question , yet I share much of the general views expressed - pressed , and am not disposed to with hold my approval. But , in my opinion , it lacks essential point and finality , be cause it does not indicate the true cause of present depression and want of confi dence in the public mind which so par alyzes business enterprise and casts the shadow of uncertainty and distrust over all industrial operations. It is manifestly the uncertain condi- tion of the currency of the country , the relations of congress thereto , and the threat , scarcely veiled in its language , and boldly avowed by many of the ad vocates of the "Teller" resolution , of the right of congress to at will substitute silver for the gold standard and measure of value for all contracts. It is this threat which casts its baleful shadow over all business transactions , prevents daily labor from securing its just reward , and impairs that sense of settled security which is the very bed- rook of every honest human effort to ad vance civilization and this depressing and distressful condition of affairs will continue until the sober second thought of an honest nation instructed by in telligent reflection and guided by an in stinctive sense of self preservation shall lead them ( as they will ) to reject posi tively and finally the counsels of wild and passionate ignorance and misin formed ambition , which if they prevailed could only end in anarchy and wide spread misery. Congress cannot too soon or too clearly comprehend the profound importance of this issue , upon which every citizen must take and maintain a responsibility that cannot be escaped. While I am glad to attest my belief in the existence of those solid and excellent qualities your paper attributes to this community in which my life has been passed , and where I expect it to close , yet I want my fellow-citizens to look the truth in the face to declare it openly , aud to stand by it persistently. And ( he truth is thai to congress was dele gated the power to "coin money" and "regulate the value thereof. " But not to create the value thereof ; but to "regulate" the value of our own coins and of foreign coins as well. To "create values" is not a political or governmental power to at tempt to delegate it would he impious and absurd and all such efforts would prove as futile as history everywhere has proven them to be. The illusions of alchemy are not better attested than the illusions which have led to the attempts to advance the commercial value of silver for the pant twenty years by congressional legislation , in the face of which it has steadily de clined. In my judgment , "tho need and duty of the hour , " therefore , is to cause this simple , essential , historical truth to be clearly comprehended by our country men in every occupation and walk of life and the profound importance to the happiness and welfare of each individual to have such a question calmly and clearly comprehended and passed above the heats and passions of personal or party ambition and to entrust it to the conscience , courage and self-respect of our fellow-countrymen ; and this will be a true test of the wisdom and capacities of popular self government. T. F. BAYARD. Wilmington , Feb. 8 , 1898. *
