Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1887 — REMINISCENCES OF PUBLIC MEN. [ARTICLE]

REMINISCENCES OF PUBLIC MEN.

BY BEN: PEIRLEY POORE.

Tho Colonel of a New York regiment tells a story of the battle of Winchester. In the thickest of the fight, when the slaughter in the Union line had become perfectly frightful, he detected a stout Irishman of his regiment curled up behind a great tree. He rode up to the delinquent and savagely reprimanded liim for his cowardice. But the man, with irresistible Hiliernian drollery, responded, “Now, Colonel dear, don’t he hard with a poor felly like me! A coward is it? Faith, I think I am; but I’d rather be called that every day in the year than be like that poor crayter yonder. ’’ The “poor crayter yonder, ” to whom the Colonel’s attention was directed, was the mangled corpse of a soldier whose head had been entirely demolished by a shot. Tho odd earnestness of the fellow’s ex,cuso mode the Colonel laugh heartily, and the man was left to the enjoyment of his tree. The first newspaper printed and published iu Washington City was the Gazette, the first number of which appeared on the 15th of June, 1796. It was edited and published by Benjamin More, a book-seller, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, at $4 per annum, and was really a good paper for that day, well made up and neatly printed. The editor complained bitterly from time to time of the want of patronage, and finally, after thirty-five weeks of existence, it was discontinued. The National Intelligencer was started by Mr. Smith, a Philadelphia editor, who took his press and type to the new city being laid out in the woods on the bank of the Potomac. The first number was issued in September, 1800, and after a while it became the property of Gales & Seaton, hv whom it was published for upwards of half a century. Originally conservative, it became the organ of the Whigs, and occupied the position until it followed the Whig party to the grave. Since the Intelligencer was first issued, 126 newspapers have been started in Washington City, political, religious, agricultural, literary, mechanical, and military, and few of them have survived a year, and the metropolis has been termed the cemetery of newspapers. The Congressional Temperance Society, as originally organized in 1833, recognized abstinence from tho use of ardent spirit and from the traffic in it. The phrase “ardent spirit,” employed in the pledge, meaning distilled liquors, and not wine, cider, or malt beverages, was found inadequate to define the boundaries of safety and danger; some of the very men for whom their brethren in the Senate and House had employed the organization as a reform club fell, and that without breaking its pledge. One of these, a man of uncommon brilliancy, illustrating the truth that this vice, as has been said of death, “loves a shining mark,” had been, apparently, saved from his terrible appetite, but as the pledge did not include feriiiented liquors he soon fell, - and one day rushed up to the noble man who had persuaded him to join the society, exclaiming: “For Heaven’s sake, Gov. Briggs, give me something to save me; this pledge isn’t worth the paper it is written on!” A new organization was soon effected, on tho basis of abstinence from all intoxicating drinks; and Tom Marshall commenced his speech at the next public meeting with the suggestive words: “Mr. President, the old Congressional Temperance Society has died of intemperance, holding the pledge in one hand and the champagne bottle in the other.” In later years the society has had annual meetings and chosen officers, but the number of its members has been very small. Senator Wilson took a great interest in it, and good old Dr. Chickering has kept it alive, and has seed that its proceedings were reported by type and telegraph throughout the land. There has been a very gratifying improvement in the deportment of Congressmen, so far as intemperate drinking is concerned, of late years. True, whisky has only been nominally banished from the, Capitol, but very little of it is drank as compared with former years, and during tlie last session Ido not think that there were more than two Congressmen intoxicated during the session.

It may not be generally known that there are, on,the banks of the Potomac, tho sites of two proposed cities, whose projectors were once sanguine that they would grow aflfd attain a national importance in population and trade, but which stubbornly refused to thrive in spite of all that was done to push them forward. The first of these is Jackson City, on the Virginia side of the Potomac, just opposite to Washington. The idea of building this city as a rival to the National Capital was conceived by some of “Old Hickory’s” friends during his presidential term, ami such faith did they have in the name that they did not think failure was pbssible if they called it Jackson City. Accordingly, they bought of Mr. George Mason, for $100,009, a large part of which was paid in bonds of the company, a tract of land and laid it off in lots, streets and avenues on a magnificent scale. Then, to give eclat to the scheme, they determined upon a public demonstration on the occasion of the laying of the corner-stone of the new city. Accordingly on the day appointed a large crowd assembled on the spot, among which were President Jackson and members of his Cabinet, and many other distinguished persons; and after an oration bad been delivered by George Washington Park Custisthe corner-stone of Jackson City was hud with- imposing ceremonies. But, strange to say, that is about all that ever was laid, notwithstanding the magnificent send-off with which it had been inaugurated. The traveler who passes the site to-day sees only one or two dilapidated frame houses to. mark the spot * The other dead city is Quantico, on the Potomac* some twenty miles below Washington. Soon after the close of the late war, when the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad was extended to that point, the city "was laid out on an extensive scale, anil such confidence did its projectors have in its future that they went to work and built a large and handsome four-

story hotel, at a cost of many thousand" dollars. They also obtained a charter) conferring upon the company extensive/ powers, such as to build railroads, do banking business, engage in manufaor turing projects, etc., but, contrary to their sanguine expectations, the enterprise never thrived, and instead of a hustling, busy city, Quantico is a quiet country railroad station, and not likely ever to"be anything else.