Benjamin Walker

“ Campbell-Bannerman did not add another word, but everyone who knows his kindness of heart will understand his unuttered wish that when in future Walker takes his walks abroad he will be more careful. At least, if his head insists upon meeting swords going the other way, he may be expected to note whether it is the sharp edge or the flat that is out for the day. ”

“ It was a defiance to his powerful British opponents, and a wanton outrage upon the free states of Central America, alienating the sympathies of all who hoped from the evil of conquest to extract the good of civilization. Judged, as he wished to be judged, by his public policy, Walker was unequal to the office of a Liberator. It would be unfair to criticize the domestic administration of one who held his office by the sword, yet it is true that he preserved order and enforced justice with more success than any ruler of Nicaragua who has filled the position since the independence of the country. ”

“ His reputation as a more than local man of note was won while he was pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church of Augusta, Ga. He secured the funds to erect the building, and made the church one of the biggest among his people in the South.
“Dr. Walker is a remarkable man, one whom it would repay anybody to meet. He was born a slave in 1858. Left an orphan when only eight years of age, he worked as a field hand until he was fifteen years old, when he began to study for the ministry. Largely through his own efforts he has become a man of notably large and broad education. ”

“ My good cook rose to the occasion: "Ain't that Gin'al gone yet?" was her morning salutation, hastily adding, "Nem-mine, honey! We-all kin git along."
In some of the biographical sketches of William Walker I find him painted as little better—in fact, no better—than a pirate; a man of an unbounded stomach for power and place, regarding as nothing life, property, or his own word, and finally, justly forsaken and punished. Others present him to posterity as a scholar, an author, a graduate of colleges, a student at Heidelberg, also a hero of the first water, brave beyond compare ”

“ This happened less than fifty years ago, and there are men who as boys were out with “Walker of Nicaragua,” and who are still active in the public life of San Francisco and New York.
Walker was born in 1824, in Nashville, Tenn. He was the oldest son of a Scotch banker, a man of a deeply religious mind, and interested in a business which certainly is removed, as far as possible, from the profession of arms. Indeed, few men better than William Walker illustrate the fact that great generals are born, not trained. ”

“ Henry Walker waited till the door had closed upon the Troubler of Israel, the paper still in his hand. Then very solemnly he tore it into shreds and trampled them under foot.
He waited a moment for the Doctor to speak, but he did not.
"And you, also, will withdraw your resignation and stay with us?" he said.
The Doctor could not answer in words; but he nodded his head. It was, indeed, the desire of his heart. Then in a loud and surprising voice—jubilant, and yet with a kind of godly anger in it, Henry Walker gave out the closing psalm.
"All people that on earth do dwell ”

“ Retiring from the Bench, he directed his attention to planting in Lower Louisiana; but his health continuing to decline, he was induced to try for the winter the climate of Cuba. It was but a few weeks after reaching there that he died at St. Jago de Cuba. Judge Walker was distinguished for great purity of character as well as superior legal attainments. His modesty was almost feminine; yet he was a man of remarkable firmness and decision. By many he was thought superior intellectually to his more distinguished and prominent brother. Few men may be truthfully termed superior to R.J. Walker. ”

“ On his forehead was a queer scar like a branded hieroglyph. Three months after he and his brother Walker had vanished he skulked into his house at night, wearing nothing but a queerly patterned blanket which he thrust into the fire as soon as he had got into a suit of his own clothes. He told his parents that he and Walker had been captured by some strange Indians—not Wichitas or Caddos—and held prisoners somewhere toward the west. Walker had died under torture, but he himself had managed to escape at a high cost. ”

“ He is fraternally affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen, Knights and Ladies of Security, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Royal Arcanum. It is only natural that a man reared in a religious atmosphere, as he has been, should take an active and influential part in church and religious work. Mr. Walker has been a member of the official board of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Atchison, since 1880, and has been a liberal and cheerful supporter of this denomination. ”

“ Walker is one of the best known colored men in this country. He ranks with Booker T. Washington in prominence, and has won this prominence through intelligence and ability. He is now Pastor of Mount Olivet Baptist Church in New York City, one of the largest and strongest churches among the colored people of the North. ”

“ Walker came back from Sonora, defeated but not disheartened. He had proved himself a leader of men, even in so small an arena. Thenceforth, until his star of "destiny" was eclipsed in death, his name was worth a thousand men wherever hard fighting and desperate hopes might call him. It must be said in his favour that he sought popularity by none of the tricks of the demagogue. In camp or field he was ever the same cold, self-contained, fearless commander, inflexible in discipline, sparing of speech, prodigal of action. He won the devoted obedience of the wildest spirits by governing himself. ”

“ At thirty-seven life is very sweet, many things still seem possible, and before him, could his life be spared, Walker beheld greater conquests, more power, a new South controlling a Nicaragua canal, a network of busy railroads, great squadrons of merchant vessels, himself emperor of Central America. On the gunboat the gold-braided youth had but to raise his hand, and Walker again would be a free man. But the gold-braided one would render this service only on the condition that Walker would appeal to him as an American; it was not enough that Walker was a human being. ”

“ As no complete account of Walker's work is in existence (that of Walpole being very incomplete, while Cunningham passes him over entirely) , it may be added that the artist twice painted John Evelyn, in different sizes, as well as Bradshaw, John Hampden, Colonel Thomas Sanders, Cornet Joyce, and Speaker Lenthall, as well as Sir William and Lady Waller, Mrs Thomas Knight, and General George Monk, duke of Albemarle, and Sir Thomas Fairfax (engraved by Faithorne) . ”

“ In command of the Tartar frigate, Walker was shortly afterwards sent in charge of a convoy to the West Indies, where he was appointed to the 74-gun ship Vanguard, and on the renewal of the war took an active part in the blockade of San Domingo, in the capture of the French 74-gun ship Duquesne on 25 July 1803 (Troude, Batailles Navales de la France, iii. 291–3) , and in the reduction of Saint-Marc, whose garrison of eleven hundred men, on the verge of starvation, he received on board the Vanguard, as the only way of securing them from the sanguinary vengeance of the negroes. ”

“ Mr. Walker (of London) it appears had difficulty with mounted officer in command of company of troops. Officer says that when ordered to fall back Walker seized his horse's rein. ARTHUR says "Walker!"; didn't do anything of the sort. That remains in dispute. What is clear is that Walker got slight scalp wound, inflicted by the warrior's sword. Don't Keir Hardie wants sworn inquiry into case. Campbell-Bannerman puts whole case in nutshell. "An accident," he says, "a regrettable accident; entirely owing to fact of the sharp edge of the sword meeting the man's head, instead of the flat edge." ”

“ Walker pushed forward, came out upon a hillock, fronting the palisade which closed the entrance to the single street of huts, and passed down into the village. It seemed as though he had been expected. For from every hut the Fans rushed out towards him, the men dressed in their filthiest rags, the women with their faces chalked and their heads shaved. They stopped, however, on seeing a white man, and Walker knew enough of their tongue to ascertain that they looked for the coming of the witch doctor. ”

“ Walker at once attacked the mutineers, and after some shots had been exchanged the firing from the Daphne ceased, and word was brought that her crew had abandoned her. Walker boarded the ship immediately and ordered a search. One man, a Lascar, who had been one of the leaders of the mutiny, was found in hiding. Walker ordered him to be taken on board the Endeavour and hanged him at the yard-arm. Henry, one of the missionary magistrates, reported these events to Macquarie, November, 1813, and the story was known when Walker reached Sydney. ”

“ In the outer gateway Malgares for the second time excused himself to gallop off to his señora, while we returned afoot across the plaza with the ubiquitous Walker. Upon reaching his quarters, the latter invited us to recline on the mattresses which had been provided for us by old Cæsar. He himself preferred one of the long net hammocks such as are used among the Spaniards of the tropical coast lands. We chatted a few minutes over our cigarros, and then Walker dropped asleep. ”

“ Walker, who was through life of diminutive stature, of uncouth appearance and manner, and abnormally absent-minded, suffered much persecution at school from thoughtless companions. After winning many distinctions at Eton, he was entered as a sizar at Trinity College, Cambridge, on 16 Feb. 1814, but did not proceed to the university till the following year. There he fully maintained the promise of his schooldays. He read enormously in ancient and modern literature. ”

“ This universal suggestion is the product of the force, united with persuasiveness, that one marked{182} at the outset as characteristic of Walker and his work. It comes of the large seriousness with which he thinks and works, of the true perspective through which he views his subject, wherein facts and sentiment take their due place not only in the foreground, but in their relation to a distant horizon. These risings and settings of the sun, that he loves so much, have run their course through ages ”

“ During the autumn of 1837 Walker returned to London, and entered upon medical practice at 101 Drury Lane. His surgery was surrounded by intramural churchyards. At great risk to his health he collected evidence on the subject, and by his writings forced his conclusions upon the public. His first book, which appeared in 1839, was grimly entitled ‘Gatherings from Graveyards.’ Early in the following year he gave important evidence orally before a select committee of the House of Commons. This evidence formed the appendix to Walker's next work, called ‘The Graveyards of London,’ published in 1841. ”

“ Walker breathed more freely as the Golden Gate closed behind him, and the tug-boat Resolute, fading to a smoky speck on the water, loosened the last tenacious tentacle of the octopus—law. Harassed like Cortez by petty trials, he was, like him, sailing with a few chosen followers to a new destiny. He confided in the superiority of civilization over barbarism, and the certainty that he would receive his country's support the moment that success should first crown his arms: success which condones even greater faults than illegal warfare. ”

“ John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who got his knowledge of slavery while sojourning in the colony of Georgia, did not err when he denounced slavery as “the sum of all villainies.”
In such a school as this, Charles Thomas Walker received his early training. How different from the early training of such men as Henry Wilson, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, James A. Garfield, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and other white men who were born to poverty. Though these men were born in humble circumstances, yet they were born to freedom. ”

“ Captain Fowler retired early from the sea and settled down in his native town, Scarborough, where he took a great interest in municipal and local affairs, becoming in turn Alderman and Mayor, and lived to a good old age, being greatly respected and esteemed by his fellow townsmen.
In the early sixties Walker kept three ships in the Launceston trade, the Durnstan, Fugitive and first Westbury, all small wooden barques. He also had ships in the Queensland trade ”

“ In the other letter, addressed to the Metropolitan of the province, Walker has the assurance to say that he trusts the young man, his son (not the aforesaid cub, the pledge of conjugal endearment) will never disgrace the paternal example, i.e., Walker's example. Pretty strong that! And, if exegetically handled, it must mean that Walker, junr., is to continue spinning and spelling, as also once a week reading the Town and Country Magazine, all the days of his life. Oh, Walker, you're a very sad fellow! ”

“ As Walker was the last, so he was the greatest of American filibusters. He was not a great man, nor by any means a good one; but he was the greatest and the best of his class. His fault was ambition. It was a fault with him because it was a failure. From such a verdict there is no appeal. No apology can be offered for ambition ungratified; and successful ambition needs none. ”