Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1887 — THE SOLDIER AND THE STATESMAN. [ARTICLE]

THE SOLDIER AND THE STATESMAN.

BY REV. H. W. THOMAS.

The last Sabbafh of 1886 will long be remembered as the day upon which Senator John A. Logan died. The old year in passing away could hardly have found and taken with it any other of our more than fifty millions of people whose going hence would have been more deeply felt and sincerely mourned than that of this distinguished civil and military leader. The expressions of grief throughout the country have been universal and sincere. Death is a beneficent angel; and in its presence the differences that divide men in the battle and the strife of the living are soon forgotten, and the good that was in those who stood opposed to us in debate or in politics is gladly confessed. And tnus it is that the press of the entire land is a unit in praising the many noble and manly qualities of the departed statesman and General. But such was the life of General Logan that it needed not the presence of this beneficent angel to reveal its great worth. To be distinguished both as a soldier and a civilian—as a General in the army and a Senator in the National Congress—is in itself a greatness to which but few can hope to attain. General Logan had filled both these positions with credit and honor to himself and to the country, and hence he was respected and honored by those against whom he fought, and loved by the soldiers and politicians on whose side he stood. As a soldier, General Logan filled every position from a private up to that of a General with the same fidelity and ability, and he seemed to command a brigade or a division with as much ease as a company or a regiment. Indeed, it is entirely probable that, had circumstances required or called him to it, he could have taken the place of a Grant or a Sherman. While he had prudence, he had not fear; and he had the power of infusing into others his own courage and hope, and hence his success in the day of battle. And he was as gentle to a fallen foe as he was brave in meeting an enemy. Such qualities always command admiration.

It cannot be said that Senator Logan was in the highest sense a statesman; that is, that he was deeply learned in the philosophy and principles of government and in national and international law. To be such requires not only great mental power but a special education and training and experience. Senator Logan had the mind to have mastered all these, but his time and energies were not directed to this special field.’ He was, however, a generally well-informed, able, practical, and, above all, an honest statesman. It is safe to say that he never knowingly did a little or mean thing. He seemed to be the very embodiment of manliness, of honor, and of honesty. He made no pretensions to great scholastic attainments; but, with a clear, strong mind, and an honest and fearless heart, he sought to do his duty, and for such noble qualities he was honored in life, and his memory will be sacred. General- Logan was the soldier’s friend and leader in war and in peace; and he was the people’s candidate and leader in politics. The explanation is in this, that he was a man of the people; lived near them; loved them, and labored for their welfare; and hence was trusted and loved m return. No other one man had in so large a sense

the love and confidence of the volunteer soldiers of the entire country. “We have lost our best friend,” was the sad exclamation heard from thousands of soldiers all over the land when it was known that General Logan was dead. Strong men, who had faced death on the field of battle without fear, wept tears of love and sorrow when it was said that their old commander had passed from earth. General Logan was comparatively a young man, and, it would seem, should have had many years yet in which to serve hie country and complete his work in this world. And so were Generals Grant and McClellan young, compared with the age of Gladstone, and Emperor William, and Bismarck. Indeed, it is a sad fact that so many of the public men of our country die young, and the same is true of inany of our business men. In the countries of the Old World it is not expected that the best work of life shall be done before the age of fifty; but in our New World young men rush into business or professional life, or into the army, before they are thoroughly developed and hardened to stand the great strain that must come upon them, and hence so many die young. And then, the exposures and the hardships of the war are beginning to tell upon those who escaped death upon the battle field or in the hospital. They were young and strong then, but now, after twenty-five years, they find that they have not the reserve force to resist disease that men of their age should have. That reserve force was drawn upon and used up in the long marches through cold and heat, and rain and snow, and in hunger often, and the many terrible strains upon mind and body. The deaths because of the war should number nearly all of the thousands of soldiers who have died since the war closed—died, not from old age, but from the seeds of disease sown then, or the weakness that resulted from its hardships. Such was the cause of General Logan’s death. It is not well to say that poverty is a virtue, nor that it is always a mark of honesty not to be rich. Indeed, it should be said that a proper acquisitiveness and fore-look-ing is commendable and to be encour aged; and it may be said, also, that it is praiseworthy for one in the struggle of life to fairly reach a condition of comfort, and even of independence. But it is well to say that it is better to be poor and honest than so be rich and dishonest. Such was the philosophy—the theory and the practice—of the lamented Senator Logan. He served his country long and well and faithfully, in the army and in the National Congress; served because the people and the country needed and demanded his service. He was at no time extravagant, but with his family managed to live upon the little salary that the government pays for such service; and small it is, indeed, when we consider the necessary expenses of such positions as he filled. It was his natural and laudable desire to see his family placed at least in a home free from debt; but in the midst of all these pressing labors and trials, and often dangers to life itself, he never lost sight of his public obligations, never turned aside to promote personal ends at the expense of public duties. And the thought, or suggestion, even, of using such positions of trust to in any unfair way make money would have been abhorred and spurned by one of his noble nature.

We are told that a number of years ago he invested a few hundred dollars in the “Oakes Ames” speculation, thinking it was a good investment, but, fearing that it might not be strictly honorable, he gave up or returned his little stock. It is not strange that one so scrupulously honest and honorable, and with so many demands upon his geneous nature and his little income, should die poor; but it is an honor to himself and his country that he died honest. Poor in money—rich in the imperishable wealth of manhood, of honesty. Poor in property—rich in the sweet consciousness of duty well done; rich in the esteem and love of a great nation. Such an example is of incalculable value in our money-loving and money-worshiping age, when not a few place wealth above principle. And the people and the country that General Logan served will esteem it a privilege to provide for his faithful wife, who in all his great life-work was his counselor and his unfailing support. The twenty-five years that have passed since the war closed have brought many changes. The soldiers who were then young men and strong are now growing old. Their number is every year growing less, and there can come no new recruits to fill up the depleted ranks as the veterans are one by one passing away. But their memories will live in the minds and hearts of a grateful people, and the country they saved will live, and the flag for which they fought will wave over a united and a free nation, when the monuments that bear their names shall have crumbled into dust. We can hardly estimate the value to our country of such names as Washington, and Lincoln, and Garfield, and Logan. They have gone up to join the bright host of the great and the good from all lands and ages; and a thousand years from to-day their names will be a benediction to the rising generations, a blessing upon every child bom and every cradle rocked in all our happy land.— Chicago Ledger.