"Virtus, recludens immeritis mori
Coelum, negata tentat inter via,
Coetusque vulgares et udam

Spernit humum fugiente penna."

-HORATIUS.

COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY WILBUR F. BRYANT.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Published, for the author, by the
GAZETTE-JOURNAL COMPANY, HASTINGS, NEBRASKA,
1887.

Can 470.7 Can 488.5.58

arvard College Library,

Nov. 14, 891.

LOWELL BEQUEST.

TO THE MEMORY OF

WILLIAM LEARNED MARCY,

A DEMOCRAT OF THE OLD SCHOOL; A STATESMAN OF
SUPERLATIVE Ability; the CONTEMPORARY OF
CALHOUN, CLAY AND WEBSTER; AND THE
PEER OF THEM ALL; AND, BEST OF ALL,
THE FEARLESS AND UNCOMPROMISING

DEFENDER OF THE RIGHTS OF
AMERICANS Abroad,

THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS DEDICATED

BY

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

T

HOMAS PAINE says, somewhere, that the last part

of a book, to be written, is the preface. He might have added, that it was the hardest to write. It is the author's

apology to the reader. I do not like apologies. Hence I shall offer none. This little book was not written for gold or for glory, nor for that fool's gold of fame—notoriety. Its author had a word to speak; and he has spoken it.

WEST POINT, March 21, 1887.

W. F. B.

"R

IEL was the John Brown of the half-breed,— -a fanatic with a just cause behind him, at least a cause which rested on the bed-rock of justice in the minds of his supporters."

-[Springfield Republican.

"He was a man of strange temperament,

Of mild demeanor, though of savage mood,
Moderate in all his habits, and content

With temperance in pleasure, as in food,
Quick to perceive, and strong to bear, and meant
For something better, if not wholly good;
His country's wrongs, and his despair to save her,
Had stung him from a slave to an enslaver."

-[Description of Lambro in Byron's Don Juan.

"I did all I could to get free institutions for Manitoba. They have those institutions to-day in Manitoba, and try to improve them, while myself who obtained them, I am forgotten as if I were dead."

-[Louis Riel's Address to the Jury.

"Ah God! that gastly gibbet! how dismal 'tis to see

The great, tall, spectral skeleton, the ladder, and the tree."

-[Aytoun.

"Had Don Pacifico been naturalized at Gibraltar instead of having been born there, he would have been not the less entitled to British Protection.""

66

-[Sir Alexander Cockburn.

Speak, Satire, for there's none can tell like thee,

Whether 'tis folly, pride, or knavery,

That makes this discontented land appear

Less happy now in times of peace, than war.” -[Defoe.

666

My charges upon record will outlast

The brass of both his epitaph and tomb.'
'Repent'st thou not,' said Michael, of some past
Exaggeration? Something which may doom
Thyself if false, as him if true? Thou wast

Too bitter-is it not so?-in thy gloom

Of passion?' 'Passion!' cried the phantom dim, 'I loved my country, and I hated him.'”

-[Dialogue between Michael and Junius, in Byron's Vision of Judgment.

"The watchful care and interest of this Government over its citizens are not relinquished because they are gone abroad, and if charged with a crime committed in the foreign land, a fair and open trial, conducted with a decent regard for justice, and humanity, will be demanded for them."

-[President Cleveland's Message to Congress, December 6, 1886.

"And the Lord said to Cain: Where is thy brother Abel? and he answered : I know not; am I my brother's keeper? And he said to him: What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to me from the earth."

-[Genesis, Chap. iv., 9–10.