Part 17 (2/2)
”The Democrats had been watching their opportunity, and having secured a quorum with but few of the Whigs in the house, locked the doors and proposed to put their measure through. But the Whigs nipped the little game in the manner related.”
After Lincoln had become President and John Denny had crossed the Plains and pioneered it in Oregon and Was.h.i.+ngton Territories, the latter visited the national capital on important business.
While there Mr. Denny attended a presidential reception and tested his old friend's memory in this way: Forbidding his name to be announced, he advanced in the line and gave his hand to President Lincoln, then essayed to pa.s.s on. Lincoln tightened his grasp and said, ”No you don't, John Denny; you come around back here and we'll have a talk after a while.”
On the stump he was perfectly at home, never coming off second best. His ready wit and tactics were sure to stand him in hand at the needed moment.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SARAH DENNY, JOHN DENNY, S. LORETTA DENNY]
In one of the early campaigns of Was.h.i.+ngton Territory, which was a triangular combat waged by Republicans, Democrats and ”Bolters,” John Denny, who was then a Republican, became one of the third party. At a political meeting which was held in Seattle, at which I was present, a young man recently from the East and quite dandyish, a Republican and a lawyer, made quite a high-sounding speech; after he sat down John Denny advanced to speak.
He began very coolly to point out how they had been deceived by the rascally Republican representative in his previous term of office, and suddenly pointing his long, lean forefinger directly at the preceding speaker, his voice gathering great force and intensity, he electrified the audience by saying, ”And no little huckleberry lawyer can blind us to the facts in the case.”
The audience roared, the ”huckleberry lawyer's” face was scarlet and his curly locks fairly bristled with embarra.s.sment. The hearers were captivated and listened approvingly to a round scoring of the opponents of the ”bolters.”
He was a fearless advocate of temperance, or prohibition rather, of woman suffragists when they were weak, few and scoffed at, an abolitionist and a determined enemy of tobacco. I have seen him take his namesake among the grandchildren between his aged knees and say, ”Don't ever eat tobacco, John; your grandfather wishes he had never touched it.” His oft-repeated advice was heeded by this grandson, who never uses it in any form.
He was tall, slender, with snow-white hair and a speaking countenance full of the most glowing intelligence.
When the news came to the little village of Seattle that he had returned from Was.h.i.+ngton City, where he had been laboring to secure an appropriation for the Territorial University, two of his little grandchildren ran up the hill to meet him; he took off his high silk hat, his silvery hair s.h.i.+ning in the fair sunlight and smiled a greeting, as they grasped either hand and fairly led him to their home.
A beautiful tribute from the friend before quoted closes this brief and inadequate sketch:
”He sleeps out yonder midway between the lakes (Was.h.i.+ngton and Union), where the shadows of the Cascades in the early morning fall upon the rounded mound of earth that marks his resting place, and the shadows of the Olympics in the early evening rest lovingly and caressingly on the same spot; there, where the song birds of the forest and the wild flowers and gentle zephyrs, laden with the perfume of the fir and cedar, pay a constant tribute to departed goodness and true worth.”
SARAH LATIMER DENNY.
The subject of this sketch was a Tennessean of an ancestry notable for staying qualities, religious steadfastness and solid character, as well as gracious and kindly bearing.
On her father's side she traced descent from the martyr, Hugh Latimer, and although none of the name have been called to die at the stake in the latter days, Was.h.i.+ngton Latimer, nephew of Sarah Latimer Denny, was truly a martyr to principle, dying in Andersonville prison during the Rebellion.
The prevailing sentiment of the family was patriotic and strongly in favor of the abolition movement.
One of the granddaughters pleasurably recalls the vision of Joseph Latimer, father of Sarah, sitting in his dooryard, under the boughs of a great Balm of Gilead tree, reading his Bible.
Left to be the helper of her mother when very young, by the marriage of her elder sister, she quickly became a competent manager in household affairs, sensible of her responsibilities, being of a grave and quiet disposition.
She soon married a young Baptist minister, Richard Freeman Boren, whose conversion and call to the ministry were clear and decided. His first sermon was preached in the sitting room of a private house, where were a.s.sembled, among others, a number of his gay and pleasure-loving companions, whom he fearlessly exhorted to a holy life.
His hands were busy with his trade of cabinetmaking a part of the time, for the support of his family, although he rode from place to place to preach.
A few years of earnest Christian work, devoted affection and service to his family and he pa.s.sed away to his reward, leaving the young widow with three little children, the youngest but eighteen months old.
In her old age she often reverted to their brief, happy life together, testifying that he never spoke a cross word to her.
She told of his premonition of death and her own remarkable dream immediately preceding that event.
While yet in apparently perfect health he disposed of all his tools, saying that he would not need them any more.
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