The St. Johns herald., 1889-03-14
OLE-TITIE STATESMEN.
A Very Largo Eunoer Of Them
 Wero Young Men.
Tho Remarkably Youthful Set of Men Ezncwn aj t:.c " i7asIlc@s of the Repuo- lic''-EGUca ion i1 the Days of
 Our I;cvcred Ancestors.


 the sexGgcnarians and uagcnarians Of thclr era, writes Edward ?. Clark in the Chicago Amcrtcl On the contrary, they were, as c raie. aremar-lably youthful set of men It is the wigs, oUcucs and knee brooches which have caused tho mIsapnrc- hensIon Inc pictures il the school history show white halrcd men who tear every Gp- pearancc of Dcing well ID ii years,n ,n and the child instinctiEciy thinks of them GS old. Almost supcrhunan wisdom was re- quired to discharge their almost impossible task, and 1t consequently seems as though they must have possessed tho requisite wisdom and experience Of tho world. If tue question were asked which Of tho two bod ies, tho convention Of 11SS or the Unljod States Senate of 1888, showed the highest average Of Ggc doubucss nine persons out of every ten would answer that the fr2mers of the constitution were much the older.
 Forty-onc deputies from the various States subscribed their names to the con 5titutio2 Cn the 11th day Of September, I1S1. Tho birthdays of all but four are known. Ofthesc thirty-seycn there were but five who were as old as sixty, and, i'll truth, ono Of these five did not complete his siXtieth year until the month after the convention
 
 BeLlamIn Franklin, who was more than eighty-0ne when it met. Roger Sherman came next in seniority, Gt siXty-siX. Then followed two members each Tn their sixty fourth year, and the deputy who was just turning sixty. But only one-sixth of tho whole number were entitled to be called OlQ men.
 Turn now to the other extreme. Jonathan
 
 months of being 27 when the convention met; William Jackson, cf Pennsylvania, was bU5 2S; Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina, only @; Alexander Hamilton, of New ! XOrl, was bCt few months past 90; Rufus King, Of Massachusetts, g; Gouver- ncuer Morris, of New York, 55, and James Madison, of Virginia, 35. Twelve of the thirty-sevcn were unuer 40, and twenty less than 45 years old. A full third were thus within the class which, in speaking of age nowadays, we call young men. The average age of the whole number fell just inside Of A years.
 It would be . waste of space to argue that the young men Of the convention did their fuu share of the work. It is enough to have cited the great names just mentioned and to add that the commltcc to which the InstIu- mcnt was referred for final revision con- sisted of Johnson, aged co; Hamilton, 30; GOuvcrncuer Norris, 8; Madison, 3j and King, g. Bancroft calls Madison tho chief author Of the constitution" HGnlil- tons WC-I3 II the Tcd3rGIiSt is conceded to have been the most potent agency i'll com menGing the instrument to the country and securing is adoption. Marshall, then only B, furnished the powerful assistance with out which GIGdison could not have secured the narrow majority Ey which their State was pcrcEcIcl to accept it.
 The Constitutional convention was not uniquo GS field for y0GtAful achievement. JCGcTscn had been cE,y 33 years old when lie wrote the "Dcc,&rati0n of Ipdcpcpd- erce." Hamilton WC5 made Secretary cf the Treasury Uy Washington, and began his great career 6 EaGnc,er ct the age of. 3. At the sGr,o t.I2c King, who Lad become caypct-b2gCcr tO New Nork-Sincc ho represented Massachusetts in tho COnGtitC- tiOnGl convention - was elected United States Senator Gt g.. Thirty had been iiNcd as the minimum agC fer Senators, and halfCf those first elected were between 20 and 3 A few years later Henry Clay came to tho Senate, and was admitted without thought that he was not cIgible-the fact bemgt that he did rot reach tLc ago Of 9 until more than thrcC months later.
 Eo limit of ago fer tho judiciary was fixed in the constitution, but if there be any place in the Government where maturity is dc manded it is On thc bench of the Supreme Court Washington appointed as one of the early Justices, James Ircdcll, who was but 30 years old; John Adams gave place to Bushrol Washington at s, and Jefferson named William Johnson at only 9. This was simply the adoption of the Federal Government of the same principle which the States had applied to the choice of Judges. John Jay, who was made first Chief Justice Of the United States at 43, had been appointed Chief Justice of New York when but 31. Hcdcll had been judge of the superior court of North Carolina when only q.
 The truth is that what we have come to consider the especial era of old men was really the most remarkable period in our history for young men. They enjoyed chance century ago such as young men have never bad since the civil war broke down temporarily some of the barriers against youth in public life, but the con trolling forces were Niclded by men whose average age was a number of years greater than that of their grandfathers, who held sway during tho revolutionary period.
 The youngest man in the United States Senate to-day-Kenna, of West Virginia was 8 years old when he took his seat, and nobody 50 young had been ill the body for 9 long period before lis appearance. He is now 40 and nobody else in the body of 1G members is so young, although, as we have seen, one-third of the Constitutional con- vent;on were under 70. More than half Of the body, it has been shown, were less than 45 years old; only tWcnty-one of inc present sevcnty-siX Senators, CT but Q trilio over q quarter. were less than 45 years old when they entered the chamber. The average age of the Senate to-day Is 5 years. against an average Of only 45 years for the convention of 17o1.
 "SIow-going," VIC are wont to call tho ways of the eighteenth century; "a fast age' is the common description of our own period Both expressions arc misleading. Our cor scrvativc ancestors rushed their boys through college during theIr teens; two members of tho Constitutional conven- +,o,, bod rr-,,l,70{ N1 o+ 1S ono at r o0I