COLONEL GEORGE L. SHOUP.

 

            ONE of the manliest of men was Senator George L. Shoup. He was a natural captain of industry; a far- seeing business man and a manager of men. But he was early tossed upon the frontier ; then came the war of the rebellion. He at once raised a regiment and with it was appointed to take care of the restless white men and the untamed savages of Colorado and New Mexico. He soon established the fact that he was of right the leader of those he commanded, for he was always to the front when a fight was on, and gained the reputation of being always in the right place and doing the right thing at the right time.

            When the war was over, accounts of rich gold discoveries drew him to Idaho. At that time Idaho was almost an absolute wilderness.

            He located up on the Salmon River and around him grew up Salmon City. There he lived with his trading post and farm, but the personality of the man asserted itself and for all that region he may be said to have established public opinion.

            He helped to frame the territorial government, was the first governor and always a directing force in that government, and when the territory took on the dignity of statehood, while there were doubts who would be the second senator, there was no doubt who would be the first, for George L. Shoup was the choice of his party and those opposed to him politically conceded his great worth.

            He served twelve years in the senate. He carried his level head to the senate, and the scholars quickly realized that his judgment on all practical questions was clear and strong, and the manliness of the man made him welcome on both sides of the august chamber.

            Every interest of the west found him a guardian, and still his patriotism was bound by neither state nor section lines; he

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wanted every foot of soil under the flag dedicated to freedom and every man and woman and child happy and prosperous.

            He nursed no animosities as he clung to his own opinions, he judged his own heart, and conceded that every other man was as free as himself and had the same rights.

            He was shrewd in business, but there was never a cry of distress that he did not at once respond to: he was the most hospitable of men and the magnitude of his unostentatious charities grew faster than his fortune.

            Never was there a more genial man. and he had very much such a nature as Iole gives to Hercules, "'he did not wait for a contest, he conquered whether he stood or walked, or sat. or whatever thing he did," and the impression he gave was that "he was appointed by Almighty God to stand for a fact."

            If he lacked some refinements, still the solemn mountains, the irresponsive desert, the hardships, the privations, the dangers, had made their marks upon him and he had the refinement of a chastened brave man, which caused many a more cultured man to realize that God gave heroic and generous attributes to some natures long before there were schools and books in the world, and such men find their places by natural selection.

            He helped lay the foundations of two states. He helped to make Idaho the great state it is. to shape the character of her people : he long represented them with honor in the senate of the United States : before that he had been proved a wise and sagacious governor, and for all time the men of Idaho should hold his memory sacred, for he helped first to redeem that soil from barbarism, then to see that the foundation of the state were rightly laid and for a long period in the senate through his own lofty character gave distinction to the state he represented.

            His grave is a hallowed spot in the soil of the state he helped to create, and should be kept dressed with flowers always by a grateful people : dressed in flowers and looked upon as a shrine.