The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-04-20
From the Washington Sunday Herald Apr. 2.)
SENATOR THURMAN.

will do much-more than any single
cause--to brighten the distinguished
Ohio Senator'S prospectes and consoli-
date the scattered strength of dozen
candidates upon himself. Ohio is con-
ceded to be the pivot State in the Ma
tional contest of 1876. The party that
takes its candidate from the State will
doubtless carry the State. Governor
HAYES or Senator Thurman, either one,
can secure its electoral vote. lfboth are
candidates the State is doubtful.
As the probable Presidential candidate
of great political party, assuming that
the Democrats will choose one of their
own leaders as a candidate, Senator
Thurman's character and career become
subjects of special interest and particular
importance. AT the outset attention may
be called to what is infinitely to his
credit, that during quarter OF a cen
tury ofpolitical strife and public life the
most serious charge made against him
is that he once received as compensation
for three years services precisely what
his employers voluntarily offered him,
which was Just one-third the compen-
sation to which he was entitled by law.
These services were of professional
and exclusively business character, and
had no more to do with legislation in
congress or elsewhere than with eXplo-
rations in Nineveh or Herculaneum.
The two qualities that Judge Thurman
most eminently represents are honesty
and intellect, or integrity and brains. AS
Hamilton and Marshall in their earlier
times, and Sumner and Lincoln in our
later history best illustrate the union OF
these great qualities, so Thurman and
Bristow among living statesman are the
best examples Of ability and incorrupti-
bility. this own home and in his own
State Judge Thurman personal integrity
has become proverbial. 1t was developed
in his student life, 1t shone forth during
the whole of his professional career. 1t
marked every vote and act of his official
term in the Lower House of Congress.
When, by exemplifying this supreme
virtue and by twenty years OF ceaseless
toll he had reached the highest rank in
his profession, he was placed on the
Supreme Bench of Ohio.to administer the
laws of two millions people.
He made a model Judge and an ideal
chief justice. His judicial opinions have
for twenty years been quoted in every
court in the State for their soundness,
clearness, terseness, and strength. When
the time came to rescue from destruction
his party, which had sunk into minority
of forty-three thousand through ruinous
leadership, Judge Thurman took the
helm, assumed control, and carried the
Legislature by large majority. AS the
natural and acknowledged party leader
he was at once elected to the United
States Senate by the Legislature which
his sagacity and commanding capacity
has SO largely contributed to place in
power. His seven years in the Senate
have been passed under the eye of the
whole nation. No new Senator ever en-
tered that body who gained solid repu-
tation more rapidly than Thurman. In
this brief time he has extended his splen-
did local reputation throughout the Re-
public,
AS legislator Senator Thurman la
boriouslyand conscientiously investigates
every subject of legislation. He votes
upon no measure the effect and bearings
of which he does not thoroughly compre-
hend. This lifetime habit of mastering
whatever subject he is called upon to
deal with compels him to pass the most
of his time in study and reflection. His
habits bieng those of student, he is
found, when out of the Senate, in his lib
rary, not in the hotel lobbies or on the
street corners. Hence has arisen the
erroneous notion that he is cold and
unsocial man. Like all strong thought
full, earnest statesmen he is sometimes
preoccupied or absent-minded man, SUBJ
ject to moods, perhaps, but never lack
ing in warmth of heart. No one having
any claims upon him ever put his friend
ship to the test without finding the read
lest and warmest response to the call for
services or assistance.
Believing in the divine right of brains,
he is naturally impatient with, bores and
drivelers and intolerant of fools. Hav-
ing gained the ear of forty millions of
people he probably prefers to talk to
them and to their posterity, rather than
to waste his whole time upon individual
loafers whose professions is to rob public
men of their time.
Senator Thurman is by nature reserv-
ed and alwsys undemonstrative. There
is no gush in him or out of him. Being
a symmetrically developed man, he is
free from crotchets, extremes, and'eccen-
tricties. His dignity of demeanor has
always comported with his station, judi
cial when a judge, Senatorial when
Senator. Being gentleman ofthe old
school, as all-accomplished asthose ofthe
best school, he would add dignity to the
Presidential Office and bring back the
days when gentlemen and scholars fill
led it.
Never was there public man freer
from affectations than Senator Thurman.
Stilted manners and high pompous airs
he abhors. To see rather than be seen
is his theory. He suffers himself to be
always natural. AS men lie through their
manner no less through their words,
Thurman's loyalty to truth is such that
his manner, no less than utterances,
make known what he is and feels. His
character, like his manners, is marked
by simplicity, and is transparent as truth.
In brief Senator Thurman is great De-
mocratic leader by irreproachable life,
lawyer Of profound learning, jurist of
great eminence, scholar and a student
of literature of the broadest culture,
legislator of the most comprehensive ac-
quirements, and statesman of comman-
ding abilities and the loftiest integrity.
When such men are Presidents whisky
rings and post-trading rings, Indian rings