Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1885 — REMINISCENCES OF PUBLIC MEN. [ARTICLE]

REMINISCENCES OF PUBLIC MEN.

BY BEN: PERLEY POORE.

Gen. Jackson was known among the soldiers who had served under him as “Old Hickory,” a sobriquet given him during the Greek War. His brigade was making a forced march, without baggage or tents, to surprise the Indians in one of their villages, and were for several days and nights exposed to the peltings of a March storm, the rain freezing as it fell. Gen. Jackson got a severe cold, but did not complain, as he tried to sleep in a muddy bottom among his half-dozen soldiers. Capt. Allen,and his brother John cut down a stout hickory tree, peeled off the bark and made a covering for the General, who was with difficulty persuaded to crawl into it. The next morning a drunken citizen entered the camp, and seeing the tent kicked it over. As Jackson crawled from the ruins the toper cried: “Hello, Old Hickory; come out of vour bark and jine us in a drink L” Thenceforth the General was known in camp as “Old Hickory,” and when he was talked of as a Presidential candidate, the nickname was adopted by his supporters. The “liberty tree” of the Revolution was revived in the. “hickory tree,” planted at every country cross-roads and village by the enthusiastic Democrats, while they sang: _ Freemen, cheer the hickory tree, Long its boughs have sheltered thee.

James Green, of Missouri, was, before the war, one of the leading men in the United States Senate, and he saved the South in the debate on the Lecompton question. He was the only man who, by common consent, got the upper hand of Douglas in that memorable discussion, and but for him the Southerners would have made a poor allowing just then. There seemed to be a bright future opening for him, but, like too many others similarly situated, he thought no man ’could rise in the world of politics without passing a good deal of time in the bar-rooms of Washington. Six years later he was often to be seen on Pennsylvania avenue in a state of beastly intoxication, his clothes covered with mud, and with his once intelligent features swollen and disfigured.

Col. Fletcher Webster used occasionally to visit Washington early in 1862, when his regiment, the Twelfth Massachusetts, was encamped on the Potomac, and he was always welcomed by his father’s old friends. He had inherited his father’s fascinating power of couversatiojay-and there was a chivalrous grandeur about his contempt for the Bostonians who had mortgages on his farm that was refreshing. Those who served under the Colonel tell how much better than bugle or band was his “Close up, boys!” Tumbling through deep mud holes in the darkness, wrading through creeks into the swamp, crowding through thickets into the forests, “Close up, boys!” sounded out clear and musical, never failing to start the echo of a cheer when the good cheer itself was quite marched out. The men were proud of him. He was indispensable to the commissary when the beef was over-salt, shoes over-worn, or blankets lost. His charity covered a multitude of cold and aching places. He had a way of looking out for them quite home-like. He rarelyMook diseipline mto his hands, hut his rebuke was more severe than courts-martial were elsewhere. No one marched them so slowly, spoke to them so kindly, or met them so cordially; yet hone was more respected. Mr. Blaine, after he was no longer Speaker, was the leader of the Republican minority in the House, and was implicitly followed. He was well described, at that time, as looking surcharged with tremendous nervous energy, so irresistibly impelling him that the steam-brakes couldn’t slow him down to 300 revolutions per minute. When there was nothing to work it off it seemed to effervesce in boyish exuberance of spirits, as he darted

and down the aisles or through the lobby with incessant activity. His habitual air was that of a man intent upon overtaking to-morrow, and driving ahead at such tremendous speed that nobody would do surprised if lie dict'it. . Physically, he was a splendid type of manhood; of commanding stature, straight as a Maine pine, broadshouldered and of stalwart, museular frame, a trifle stout, but with step quick as a boy’s, and every movement as free and supple as that of a trained athlete. He had a full,‘ high forehead; large, keen, observant eyes; nos 9 slightly aquiline and of the sort that added to the look of , push-aheadative-ness that was imprinted on his every feature. His short, cropped beard, which half concealed his lower face, gave him an air of military precision. In speech he was rapid, but distinct in utterance and clear cut in expression; made no attempt at rhetorical graces, but was forcible, pungent, and at times stirringly eloquent, while always terse and pointed and marvelously quick at repartee, and when most intense was most master of hinpself and thoroughly self-poised. He did not seek occasion to speak, but as often as he took the floor letter-writing and conversation -ceased, and everybody listened. He was regarded as the Congressional candidate for the coming nomination at Cincinnati, and his Bepublicau associates in the House were, with a few exceptions, his earnest supporters. Mr. Blaine was noted for the courtesy with which be treated journalists, often taking his pen and dashing off in terse Anglo-Saxon a paragraph containing the information which thev ? asked for. It was the general opinion.’ in the reporter’s gallery that nature had intended him for a managing editor, and that he had missed his vocation when he became a politician.