Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/298

 Rh

VOL. XII.

No. 6.

BOSTON.

JUNE, 1900.

COL. RICHARD W. THOMPSON. BY CLAUDE G. BOWERS. THE air of the Wabash valley seems con genial, to the development of great men. Indiana has furnished her full share to the American galaxy of immortality, and the valley of the Wabash has more than per formed her duty to the State. The men of the Wabash! Within that phrase is in cluded hospitality, generosity, brilliancy, fel lowship, enthusiasm, fire and fight and elo quence. Whether the broad and noble humanity of the region is due to the southern derivation or is inherent in the soil, the facts proclaim it a country where the sun shine of humanity warms its children into greatness. Ned Hannegan whose musical voice once charmed the high arena of na tional debate was a product of the valley and now sleeps upon her breast. Colonel Nelson, the gallant partisan who mixed generosity with conviction to form the picture of a lov able man, now mingles with her soil. Only the other day, the matchless Voorhees whose marvelous eloquence charmed his contempo raries and through his published speeches took hold 'upon posterity, went to enrich her mold. And now Richard W. Thompson, the last of an immortal company has become a memory whose fragrance sweetens every breeze that blows. Over seventy years ago Colonel Thompson bade farewell to the Virginia hills and cast his lot with the struggling pioneers of Indi ana. From that hour to this he has been an element in the State. Whether as states man, lawyer, writer or man he has left an imprint Yearsinago whatever Thompson capacity received he has thatacted. school

ing in state craft which fixed the principles of his political career. His father's Virginia home was a seat of Southern hospitality. Here about the hearth was ofttimes gathered a group of aristocratic Federalists whose con stant discussion converted the home into a miniature forum. While toleration protected every shade of belief, the creed in which his formative period was saturated was that of a strong centralization. He was in per fect harmony with the letter of our proclaimed principles. He clung to the constitution as though it were the Gibraltar of our national ity. Through all the years he carried and radiated a firm faith in the fundamental wis dom of the founders. A centralist by pro fession, he held that the constitution pro vided ample scope for a strong centralized government. Hence he ever antagonized the least deviation from that immortal instru ment. He began his political life as a Whig of the most advanced type, enthusiastically devoted to the interest of Henry Clay. His relation to the sectional controversy which precipitated the Civil War was patterned after that of his idolized leader. He was an ardent advocate of compromise. Passionately devoted to the perpetuity of the Union, he had not outlived a love for the hills, the homesteads, and the splendid people of his native State. Virginia was to him the sepul chre of holy memories. It was upon its hills and meadows that his eyes first fell. Among its people he had spent his childhood hours and in its soil were buried the authors of his being. From this conflict of loves, he sought refuge in compromise. And not before the