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Show DOOMED TO OBSCURITY HARD LUCK OF A ONE-TIME SENATOR, TVtao Still Bears the Penalty for Having Toted Against the Impeachment of President Johnson Now a Farmer and Printer. Special Letter. Dividing his time between a little fruit and alfalfa farm on the outskirts of Albuquerque, N. M., and a printing office in that place, living a life of comparative obscurity, is a man who once was prominent in the political life of the nation, who occupied a seat in the United States senate and whose vote saved Andrew Johnson from being be-ing removed from the Presidency. His name is Edmund G. Ross and he was once governor of New Mexico. n.nn Rnoo i h is known to the De'o- alternatives. But to no avail. Ross adhered to his determination to decide the case upon its merits as best he could, and refused to commit himself. He was torn between his antipathy to the President, his deep political prejudices, prej-udices, his ambitions and his desire to conform to the sentiment of his state, on the one hand, and the conviction, slowly forcing itself upon him, on the other, that Johnson was not guilty of misdemeanors in office. This refusal to commit himself in advance made Senator Ross the marked man of the trial. When the vote was taken on the famous eleventh article, on May 16, 1S68, the eyes of the great audience, as well as of the nation, na-tion, were centered upon him. When he joined with his insurgent colleagues in pronouncing the President not guilty there burst about his head a storm the like of which ha3 never assailed as-sailed any other public man, and he was cast into the wilderness' of obscurity. pie of New Mexico, is one of the ubiquitous ubiq-uitous Ohio men. He was born 75 years ago in Ashland, Ohio, near the birthplace of Senator William B. Allison Alli-son of Iowa. Gov. Ross is one of the oldest printers living. When 8 years old he began learning his trade. Thenceforth the printing office was his only school. The slavery excitement of the early '50s found the young printer print-er foreman of a job office in Milwaukee. Milwau-kee. Of Puritan ancestry, he was naturally natu-rally an intense abolitionist. The formation for-mation of the young Republican party at Ripon, Wis., appealed to him. He soon after took an active part in bringing about a meeting in Milwaukee Milwau-kee for the organization of the party at that place. Then he removed to Kansas, and entered the fight for freedom free-dom in the new territory. In 1865 he founded the Topeka Tribune, one of the first newspapers west of the Missouri Mis-souri river. As its editor he rendered no small service to the anti-slavery cause. When the fight for freedom and the Union reached the war stage the young editor followed it up, enlisting as a private in the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry. He sjaw service with his command com-mand throughout the war, and at its end was mustered out with the rank of His Declining Tears. Upon his retirement in 1871, Mr. Ross made several successive newspaper newspa-per ventures in Kansas, all of which were failures, and a short time sufficed to find him again eking out a precarious precari-ous existence "at the case," as in his early manhood. In 1882 he went to Albuquerque and shortly became foreman fore-man of the job department of one of the local newspapers, where he remained re-mained for the next three years. ' Soured by his summary dismissal from the ranks of the Republican party, par-ty, Senator Ross became a Democrat, and this change in political faith enabled en-abled President Cleveland in 1885 at least partially to reward Ross by appointing ap-pointing him governor of New Mexico. Upon his retirement in 1889, Gov. Ross fitted up a small job printing office in Albuquerque. Much of the time ha was the only workman employed. In the humble routine of printing sals bills, circulars and advertising "dodgers" "dodg-ers" he spent the next it) years. Two years ago Gov. Ross sold his printing office and purchased a fruit and alfalfa farm of a few acres in the outskirts of the city. Here in a little Mexican adobe house he is spending the sunset years of his life, going into town occasionally to work at his trade. lieutenant-coionei. wueu " returned to Topeka the legislature was in a deadlock over the election of a senator. His faithful and efficient service serv-ice to his party before the war and his record in the army rendered him a conspicuous figure at the capital, and the long deadlock was broken by his election. Impeachment Proceed? gs. In congress Senator Ross was a strong party man. Throughout the long fight over the reconstruction measures he was a radical of the strictest strict-est sort. In this he represented the j Intense spirit then dominant in Kansas, Kan-sas, and was popular with the people. He was obedient to caucus mandates. 'mm- EDMUND G. ROSS. He had shown no indication of aspiring aspir-ing to national leadership. He was popular in the senate. His future was full of promise. When the congressional congres-sional leaders at length determined upon impeachment as a means for deposing de-posing President Johnson they never doubted that they could rely on the Kansas senator to the utmosc. It was well understood that several Republican Republi-can senators were not kindly disposed toward such an extreme measure as Impeachment, and toward the end of the trial Senators Fessenden, Fowler, Grimes, Henderson, Trumbull and Van Winkle announced their opposition to conviction upon any of the charges, and several others had announced that they did not believe there was any evidence evi-dence to sustain several of the articles of impeachment. At this juncture the attitude of Senator Ross became a source of much uneasipess to the opponents op-ponents of the President. After the senate had been organized as a court to hear the case, Ross had resolutely refused to discuss its merits or to say what his vote would be. He would only say that he would hear the evidence and the arguments, and then cast his vote in accordance with his oath to give the accused a fair and impartial trial. Cast Into Obscurity. Rumors of corruption and undue Influence In-fluence began to fly about Washington. Letters and marked editorials instructing instruct-ing the senator how to vote came to him by the thousand. Re-election or political ruin were held up as the two |