The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-10-09
ATLANTA, GA. OCTOBER ., 1888.
Tho New Political Generation.

A thoughtful writer In the current num-
Der of the Century Magazine discusses the
different political generations which have
controlled the destinies Of our government
since its foundation.
The first rulers of the republic were com
paratively young men, although many Of
them were old enough to have taken an act
Eve part In the revolution. Washington was
the oldest member of the administration
he was fifty-seven. jefferson was forty six,
Knox, thirty-nine, Randolph, thirty-six and
Hamilton, thirty-two. Madison entered the
FIRST house at thirty eight, and Monroe was
seated in the senate before he was thirty
three.
After this constructive generation, as our
author calls IL, disappeared, the second po-
lttieal generation--a compromise gen.
eration-came on the stage, and ruled the
country from 1920 until the election OF
Lincoln. This was the age, says the
Century writer, OF Clay and
Webster; of jackson and Calhoun; of Ben
ton and fancy; of the Missouri compromise
and its repeal; Of the fugitive slave law and
the bred Scott decision. -
The third generation of statesmen began
TO rise before the disappearance of Clay and
Webster. This was the reconstructive one
IL was composed of men born during the
FIRST two decades Of tho nineteenth century
and 1t had on the one side OF the slavery
question such men rs John z. Hale, Sew
ard, Chase and Sumner, and on the other
men like Davis and Toombs.
With the exception of very few men,
the third generation has disappeared, and
the fourth Is coming forward to fill the va
cant places. Many of the members of this
generation were too young to vote in the
election of lS60-they have grown up since
state sovereignty and secession were the is
suos OF the West Virginia delegation In
congress the Oldest was born as late as 1S43,
and two of the members were only eight
years old when Sumter was fired upon. A
Minnesota representative was not born I'M
Ill 1854.
Even these facts do not show how fully
the new generation has supplanted the one
which carried the nation through the war.
The last census showed that of our 1870, 5l9
native white voters, no less than 1910, To3,
or nearly one-fifth of the whole number,
were twenty-one, twenty-five, twenty-three
and twenty-four years old. Adding those
between twenty-four and thirty, we have
an aggregate of 3,Ol9, 663, or more than one
third of all. So nearly one-ffth of our
voters are too young TO be eligible as repre-
sentatives In congress, while more than
one-thlrd are not old enough for senator's.
''Nearly all OF the latter class" to quote
again, care men who have been born since
the outbreak Of the war, for the baby born
the day Sumter was attacked Is now a man
In his twenty-eighth year. Indeed, there
are far more than q million of men entitled
TO vote for president this year who were not
born until after Lees surrender. On the
other hand, those who were old enough TO
vote In 1860 are at least forty mine years Of
age this autumn. and less than quarter Of
all male adults q, e5s, 7T5 out of s,270,5 is
Ia lsso) are men who have passed forty
eight.
The new generation, then, is here. Lin
gering in the halls Of congress are few old
men who heard the bred Scott decision and
voted in the election of 1860, bu, they are
mo longer the real rulers OF the republic
They are disappearing, and with them the
old issues, and "new things succeed as for
mer things grow Old"