H.M. Ramsey, editor of the Mount Vernon Republican, died March 24, 1862. Lecky Harper reported the death of his rival in the April 1 edition of the Democratic Banner with an article that praised the character of his competitor.
“Although conducting a paper of opposite politics, our personal relations with Mr. Ramsey have always been of the most pleasant and friendly character. We have ever found him to be an honorable and high-minded man, who never resorted to any unfair or disreputable measures in either politics or business. And we know it to be a fact when some of the bitter partisans of his own party had demanded of him to commence a personal warfare against the Editor of the Banner, and had written articles for him to publish assailing us, he most decidedly declined to comply with their requests. He told them that while he differed with us in politics, we had always treated him as a gentleman, and he had no desire to change the pleasant relations existing between us. We mention the circumstance in justice to his memory, for it exhibits at a glance the nobleness of his nature.
“Mr. Ramsey is the second editor the Republican has lost within the last three years. The paper, we understand, will be continued without interruption, but what arrangements will be made in regard to its future management we are not advised.”
Earlier in the article, Harper explained that Ramsey had been struggling against “consumption” (tuberculosis) for almost a year, but had been able to attend to business until about the last three months. However, he still directed the editorial side of his paper from his home.
Harper said Ramsey had hoped that the arrival of spring would also bring back his health, and just six weeks earlier he had married “an estimable young lady of our city, Miss Maggie Cooper, to whom he had been long betrothed.”
