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Show 'Wstorical Mtghlights tf CMtux Scott Wdiot (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) Famous in Triplicate TOURING the recent celebration of "I Am an American" Day, a group of church dignitaries and members of the American Legion gathered at a monument in the little city of Carrollton, Mo., to pay tribute trib-ute to a man who has been called the "most honored American." His name was James E. Shields and he is described on the monument as a "soldier, jurist and statesman." But those three words are only a slight indication of the factors which made his career so remarkable. A quotation from a recent book, James Gray's "The Illinois," a volume in the "Rivers of America" series, published by Farrar and Rinehart, sums it up more adequately. It says: "With a thoroughness characteristic charac-teristic of his executive temperament, tempera-ment, James E. Shields seems to have done everything in triplicate. He fought in three wars and represented repre-sented three different states as United Unit-ed States senator." No other American, Ameri-can, it might be added, holds such a record. Born in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ty-rone, Ireland, in 1810, Shields came to this country at the age of 16. He enlisted in the army, served In the Seminole Indian war, then went to Illinois, where he was elected to the legislature in 1836, made state auditor in 1839 and appointed a judge of the State Supreme court in 1843. Two years later he was appointed commissioner of the general land i' I A -y, J " -.'4, I - jf ' .Yt 1 I ' 1$ ' j To 8 4 0 0- u O O ' ' j BRIG. GEN. JAMES E. SHIELDS office, but gave up civil life at the outbreak of the Mexican war to accept ac-cept a commission as brigadier general gen-eral of Illinois volunteers in 1846. Shot through the lung at the Battle of Cerro Gordo and brevetted major general, after his recovery he served in the Valley of Mexico as commander com-mander of a brigade, only to be wounded severely again at the storming of Chapultepec. Mustered out . of the service on July 20, 1&48, he was immediately appointed territorial governor of Oregon, Or-egon, but resigned this office when he was elected senator from Illinois. He served in the senate from 1849, to 1855, then moved to Minnesota. When the state government was organized there he was again sent to the United States senate where he remained until 1859. He next moved to California, and at the outbreak out-break of the Civil war he was commissioned com-missioned a brigadier general of volunteers in August, 1861. At the Battle of Kernstown, Shields was wounded, receiving a broken arm from a fragment of shell. On March 28, 1863, weakened by the wounds which he had suffered in two wars, Shields resigned from the army. Going to California he found that the lands granted to him for his military services had been lost by his trusted agent and he bought a farm near Carrollton, Mo. Although he had decided to retire from public life, he was soon back into politics. In 1868 he was Democratic Demo-cratic candidate for congress, and although his friends declared that he had been elected, he was not seated. Six years Inter they elected him to the legislature, and upon the expiration expira-tion of his term, the general, aged, weakened and impoverished, sought the humble position of door-keeper of the United States senate. But this was denied him and he returned to Missouri. That state , promptly honored him by electing him to the senate. He held this position posi-tion until his death, which took place on June 1, 1879, at Ottumwa, Iowa. One of the most famous incidents in Shields' career was his "duel" with Abraham Lincoln while he was state auditor. Lincoln wrote an anonymous letter to the Illinois State Journal, ridiculing the financial policies pol-icies of Shields who challenged him to a duel. Lincoln accepted but chose as weapons cavalry broadswords and specified that the fighting be done over a plank set in the ground with the duellists standing on opposite op-posite sides "at the distance of the whole length of the sword and three feet additional." They didn't fight! |