Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1894 — RICHARD W. THOMPSON. [ARTICLE]

RICHARD W. THOMPSON.

The most notable event at the Republican State convention, recently, was the appearance of Col. Richard W. Thompson as presiding officer. Of course, everybody knew that General Harrison would be there, jand would have something to to say. and that he would say it in the aptest and most effective way, but ance of the old veteran Mho had been attending our state conventions for sixty years —a man eighty five years old, with his natural force somewhat abated, but with undimmed eye and his clarion voice ringing clear with its old, familiar sound—it was his appearance that gave a charm to the assembly, What a life!—what a career! How young our nation seems when we see a man who has personally known every President of the Republic excepting Washington and the elder Adams. Col. Thompson resided in Virginia, and saw Jefferson, Madison and Monroe there after they had retired from public life, and his active political career afterwards brought him into personal contact with all their successors. To see him facing an assembly which packed Tomlinson Hall full, and making a speech, every syllable of which could be distinctly heard by every one there without any seeming effort, was a fine object lesson for those who wish to know the power and beauty of a well trained speaker’s voice. Wendell Phillips had the gift, or had acquired the talent, and by it he won the title bestowed upon him by Theodore Parker of prince of the platform orators of the world. I feared Colonel Thompson would not be strong enough to bear the excite-

ment of the occasion, but the sight o(the vast assembly and the enthusiastic welcome he received put him on bis mettle, and he bore himself grandly. I saw Tom Corwin at Lafayette after he got to be an old man. He came there to deliver an address on the Fourth of July, 1859. The crowd at the fair ground waited and waited, and finally grew clamorous. The word came that Corwin was ill and too feeble to come from his room. The crowd demanded that ha should show himself, at least, and after a long time a carriage drew up and Albert S. White, the presiding officer, helped Corwin to the platform. He could only stand by supporting himself against one of the posts. A glass with a suspicious looking mixture in it was handed him. He took a sip, smacked his lips, made one of his comical faces at the crowd, and said something by way of a fide to Senator White. The crowd began to applaud and Corwin began to make his apology, but the cry of “go on,” “go on” came from all sides, and he did go on for two hours in an uninterrupted flow of eloquence which 1 have never heard surpassed. I have heard Phillips, and Lincoln, and Ingersoll, and Caleb B. Smith, and Sumner, and Kossuth, but Corwin, when thoroughly aroused, had more power over a large assembly than any of them. Colon el Thompson never fails to interest and instruct his hearers, and that he should retain his oratorical powers at such an advanced age is simply marvelous. He is fitly closing his long and brilliant career by publishing a book entitled “Personal Recollections of Sixteen of Our Presidents.” The book is now in press at the publishing house of the Bowen-Mer-rill Company, and will be out during the present summer or autumn. It was my privilege to read the manuscript during the last winter, and 1 express the opinion that it is the most complete, interesting and valuable history of the rise and fall of political parties, from the beginning of the government to and including the administration of Lincoln, that has ever been or that ever can be written. Every page is fairly alive jwith interest —an interest that could only be imparted to such a narrative by one who for over sixty years has been an active

participant in all the political struggles of our country. Col. Thompson is the only man who could write such a book, and that he has been able to begin and complete it within the space of two or three } ears is a matter of wonder. The style is pure and lofty, and the temper of the book is fair and junpartial. Age has softened the asperities engendered in the heat of partisan strife, and, if I may except his show of bitterness to John Tyler, the recreant Whig President, the volume is pervaded by a spirit of magnanimity toward the leaders of the great political parties whom he once opposed. I hope that heaven may lengthen out his days to enable him to appear once more in Tomlinson Hall when the Republicans of Indiana shall assemble to inaugurate the campaign of 1896. W. P. Fishback .