Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-23
son, Monroe, Jefferson and the long line of
statesmen of former days.

son, Monroe, Jefferson and the long line Of
statesmen of former days.
THE PAST AND PRESENT.
Bluff old Ben Wade, Oliver P. Morton, Of
Indiana; Jefferson Davis, Henry Wilson,
of Massachusetts,; Andrew johnson, Allen
G. Thurman, and a hundred other names
that will occur to the intelligent reader-not
one of them was the product of great city.
Perhaps this may be called ancient history,
but even now the central figures In the
everyday life of this nation are not sons of
the metropolitan cities. They are what the
ward politicians of the bug towns call
"Hayseed Statesmen" The back settle
ments furnish the men who to-day guide
and govern the nation.
Benjamin Harrison springs from the bu-
collie element in our politics and 1t was the
country district of Indiana that first pushed
him into prominence, sent him to the United
States Senate and started him on his up
ward and onward career, and finally landed
him in the White House.
Grover Cleveland owes all he ever was In
national lie to the interior districts OF New
York. 1t was the rural element that made
him Sheriff, Governor and President. He
has settled down in New York City now, but
if he ever comes again before the nation as
the candidate of his party, it will be at the
behests OF the country constituencles-not
because the great cities favor him.
FROM RURAL DISTRICTS.
James G. Blaine was elected to Congress
from one of the farming districts OF the
rural State of Maine, and such men as Sena-
tor Allison, General,Alger, Judge Gresham,
Senator Hiscock, John Sherman, Senator
Edmunds and the others who stand beside
him in the front rank OF the leaders OF the
Republican party have been brought into
prominence by the rural districts that has We
sent them to the halls of national legisLar-
tion.
Who are the central and most prominent
figures in Congress to-day. Country men,
rural statesmen, hayseeders, they would be
called-most of them. Tom Reed, of
Maine-big. brainy and brilliant fellow
tender as a woman and unbending as iron
lives out in the country near Portland, Me-,
and the constituency that sends MIN to the
House of Representatives are, tour-hfths of
them. of the rural persuasion. His imme-
diate predecessor, John G. Carlisle, of Ken
lucky, now the leader of the Democratic
forces on the floor of the House, is sent to
Congress from back country Kentucky
district made up of eight farming counties
without big town In any OF them.
Major William Mckinley, Jr, of Ohio,
who is leader of the majority in the House
Of Representatives to-day-and promising
Presidential candidate in the ranks of the
partv-has been II years in
Congress because the agriculturists of four
big country counties in Ohio wanted him
there. The farmers made him what he is
they gave him his opportunity-and the |
Major is pretty good farmer himself. |
Then there are the great objector, Judge |
whom the farmers of Indiana keep |
in his place as sort of watch dog of the |
Treasury; and Joe Cannon, of Illinois,
grown grayheaded in the House and still |
every two years from the five
plow-cut counties that make up his district.
William 81. Crane, of Texas, has one real
city in his big bsiliwick, and Judge Cul-
berson, one of the best judicial minds in
the House, has none. William M. Springer,
Kerr, of Grundy Center, Ia; Breckenridge,
of Kentucky; Governor Gear, of Iowa; An
derson, of Kansas; Allen, of Mississippi;
Bland. of Missouri, and scores of others who
have made and maintained a national repu-
tation are all "hayseeders" representing
agricultural constituencies.
SITUATION IN THE SENATE.
But the city men are surely the most
prominent men in the Senate? Are they?
How many Senators OF national eminence
are named as city men? Hawley, of Hart
ford; Eustis, of New Orleans; Stamford and
Hearst, of San Francisco; Farwell, of Chi
c4go; Colquit. Of Atlanta, and Hampton,
Of Charleston, are nearly all that the coun-
try knows anything about. Take the real
leaders OF thought, of eloquence, of 1egisIa-
ton in the Senate-who are they? All of
them are men who may be truly called
'backwoods Senators" Senators Morgan,
Voorhees,, Sherman, Cullom, ingalls,, Beck,
Vance, Reagan and dozens of others are
among them, and they are-every one of
them-from farming centers of their States.
Can anyone deny that the country men
he "hayseeders the country with
Iense, prudence and ability?
THOMAS P. OCHLTREE.