Part 17 (2/2)

”Moreover, a public officer may toil and labor all his best days with the utmost fidelity and patriotism, and the masses who reap the reward of his labors frequently permit him, without any particular fault upon his part, to live and die in his old age with disrespect

Witness the punishment inflicted on Socrates, on our Saviour, and many others for no criht not to deter _a good and qualifiedthe public service, if he is satisfied that the good of the country requires it”

At this point in the career of this eminent public servant, deep sympathy is aroused on account of the conflict between his hu was due to the great office to which he had been elevated As preli as for the best interests of the people it otten that ”my first object was to soften down the publicman was better qualified for the accomplishment of so praiseworthy a purpose will now appear: ”It has been ht possess was to conciliate and soften down a turbulent and furious people”

This being all satisfactorily accomplished and the abundant reward of the peace for this humble instrue of the duties of the office to which he had so unexpectedly been called

That this hitherto unquestioned ”friend of the people” was now ht tendency toward the frailties and vanities of the co:

”It was my nature not to feel or appear elevated, but I discovered that ht look like affected humility or mock hten up a little”_

It may be truly said of Reynolds, as Macaulay said of Horace Walpole: ”The conformation of his reat; and whatever was great, seeiven expression to the noble sentiment that ”proscription for opinion's sake is the worst eneenerously dispelled whatever apprehensions his late opponents ht feel as to as to befall them, by the assurance: ”Therefore, all those who honestly and honorably supported my respectable opponent in the last election for Governor shall experience from me no inconvenience on that account”

Unfortunately no light is shed upon the interesting inquiry as to what ”inconvenience” was experienced by those who had otherwise than ”honestly and honorably” supported his respectable opponent in the late contest

The Black Hawk War was the principal event of the ad concluded, the Indians were removed beyond the Mississippi River In all this the Governor acquitted hi was in so:

”Being in the office of Governor for some years, I was prevented froed in public life until it commenced _to be a kind of second nature to , ardent, and aht forof 1834”

An ”artful politician” would probably have waited until the expiration of his term as Governor Not so with this ”friend of the people”

He was not only elected to the next Congress, but the death of the sittinga vacancy, Reynolds was of course elected to that also, and was thus at one time Governor of the State and ress

His triumph over his ”able and worthy competitor” is accounted for in this wise: ”I was myself tolerably well infor with the masses of the people I was raised with the people, and was literally one of thes and interests were the same”

He here modestly ventured the opinion that his ”efforts on the stu no pretension to classic eloquence,_ yet flowing naturally from the heart, supplied in theed with a philosophy which appears to have been always kept on tap, closes this chapter of his remarkable career He says:

”I sincerely state that I never regarded as important the salary of the office, but I entered public office with a sincere desire to advance the best interest of the country, which was my main reward If a person would subdue his ambition for office and remain a private citizen, he would be a more happy man”

That he reater part of his long life, clearly appears fro: ”There is no person happy who is in public office, or a candidate for office”

A more extensive field of usefulness now opened up to the Old Ranger as he took his seat in Congress He had many projects in mind for the benefit of the people--one, the reduction of the price of the public lands to actual settlers; another, the improvement of our Western rivers But like many other members both before and since his day, he found that ”these things were easier to talk about on the stureater than I had supposed, and I could effect much less than I had contemplated”

He informs us that he felt like a country boy just from home the first tireat Republic The city of Washi+ngton, grand and i, impressed him deeply, but was as the dust in the balance to ”the assereat men at the seat of Governress, when a grand and really i spectacle was presented”

His profound admiration for some of his associates upon the broader theatre of the public service found vent in the following eloquent words:

”When the Rohest pinnacle of literary faustus Caesar, the period was called the Augustan age There was a period that existed eminently in the Jackson adht be called the Augustan age of Congress So extraordinary a constellation of great and distinguished individuals overny were needed for the new members' exalted opinion of his associates, it can readily be found in the fact that a them in the House were John Quincy Adams, John Bell, Thomas F Marshall, Ben Hardin, James K Polk, Millard Fillmore, and Franklin Pierce

The first named had been President of the United States, and the last three were yet to hold that great office At the sareat stars” that almost appalled the Illinois member upon his introduction included, in the Senate, Crittenden, Wright, Cass, Woodbury, Preston, Buchanan, Grundy, Benton, Clay, Calhoun, and Webster

On finally taking leave of Congress, ourseven years of service he was absent frole day That all his humble endeavors were in the interest of the people, of course, goes without saying He deprecates in strong ter their expenses to exceed their salaries, and then leaving the capital in debt That he did nothing of the kind, but practised economy in all his expenses, it is hardly necessary to state He is not, however, entitled to a patent for the discovery that ”the expenses for living at the seat of Government of the United States are heavy”