Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1899 — DEATH CLAIMS BLAND. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DEATH CLAIMS BLAND.

Missouri Conrrewman Expire* After Lingering lllneaa. Congressman Bichard P. Bland, better known as “Silver Dick,” died Thursday morning on his farm, about three miles from Lebanon. Mr. Bland had been attacked by the grip some time ago and it soon developed into illness of a serious nature. The direct cause of his demise was nervous prostration. 1j Richard Parks Bland was born Aug. 19, 1835, near Hartford, Ky. He went to Missouri when about 20 years old, and five years later went to California and thence to Utah. He practiced law there among the miners, and had ample opportunity to study the mineral interests and the relative output of gold and silver. There he absorbed the doctrine of bimetallism. He returned to Missouri in 1865, locating at Rolla, in Phelps County, and in 1869 removed to Lebanon, his late

home. His most noted measure was a bill for the free and unlimited coinage of silver, restoring 412% grains of standard silver as the dollar and the unit of value. After passing the House it was amended in the Senate by Senator Allison, and was known as the Bland-Allison law. It was vetoed by President Hayes and passed by both houses over his veto. In 1894 Mr. Leland, the Republican candidate, defeated him for Congress by a narrow majority, but the silver champion ,vas re-elected two years later and again in 1898. Before the Chicago convention no man was named oftener as a presidential possibility than Bland. Bland never accepted a railroad pass nor any other present for his political work, although he was recognized as the leader of the silver wing branch of the House. Early in 1865 while Bland, in the capacity of a schoolmaster on a vacation, was visiting the Young Ladies’ Seminary at Caledonia, Mo., he met Miss Virginia Mitchell, daughter of Gen. E. Y. Mitchell, whom he later married. By his simple directness and plain, kindly manners, Mr. Bland won a warm place in the hearts of his constituents and colleagues.

RICHARD P. BLAND.