"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. *