The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-12-15
TIME FOR ACTION AS WELL AS TALK.
Mr.. BIair's Speech on the Foolish
Rules of the Senate.
Sixteen Thousand the Number OF the
Bills Before Congress.
The sou'hefn arIstocracy of which
Wade Hampton is a Member.
lSnecial TO the Press. |


afternoon Senator Blair, of New Hampshire,
deal of fun among the members of Congress
aud has also received many compliments for
the sound sense beneath the pleasantries.
Mr.. Blair, who is not slow witted man by
any means, began by hitting right and left
in way quite paralysing in body like the
United States Senate. He aroused old Sena-
tor Butler Of South Carolina, from sleep; !;
gave Quay dig for going fishing 10 Florida,
told the d mocrats that If their side of the
chamber would say something worth hear
ing there would be less nap taking on the
Republican side, and then turned on the
Republican members and told them that he
thought they sometimes exhibited the
marked characteristics OF lot of old
women rather than of Senator's" Mr..
Blair did not even spare himself In the gen
eral swinging of his shlllaleh. But when he
had paid his respects to every one he said a
few things about the transaction OF business
in the Senate thar the Democratic 0bstruc-
tionists were puzzled to answer.
1--WE have agreat deal of public business
to do here" said Mr.. Blair, "and we have
grown during the last hundred years from
very small people to a very large people, and
where we had one bill to deal with during
the first ten years of the existence of this
government, we now have several hundred
/ think there are something like sixteen
thousand measures introduced In the present
Congress already, every one OF which repre-
Sents some interest Of Importance to some
body, and most of them represent interests
of vast importance to sixty-five million peO-
pie; and such are International connections.
such are our relations with the powers of
the world, by reason of the fact that we are
the vanguard OF mankind, that most OF these
measures have strong aud Important bear
ing upon the interests of the whole fifteen
hundred millions of the human race. Now,
a body that has to deal with this sort OF
thing must have the power to act; not mere
ly to talk, not merely TO deliberate, but to
act and we are without that power today.
Senators say On both sides of the Chamber
that the Senate 10 the last citadel of Free
dom. simply because 1t is place where any
one man can block measures forever, ana
thus perpetrate an act of desDotism by
sprawliDg himself in front of the car of pro-
gres~ at any time. ! tell you, my friends, it is
notibecause you are Trends of freedom that
you oppose the cl0ture and previous question
In the Senate, but 1t is because, whatever
you may imagine in reference to your mo
tives, it Is, believe, simply this and this
only, that you have discovered that you
can impose espotism upon this country
and you can exert your own individual tyran-
ny as against the will of the majority"
1t will be surprise to most people to
know there come before a congress so many
as 10000 measures. of which only few hum
dred can be considered, let both houses be as
industrious as they will. Congress has to
pick out what measures it will attend to
and IL is the great reform inaugurated in the
rules of the House that he House is able to
select freely what measure it viii take up,
INSTEAD of having its bu mess forced upon 1t
by complicated rules regulating the calen-
dars or lists of business.
The defeat of Senator Wade Hampton of
South Carolina, is causing sensation here
Ia Washington which is reflection Of the
feeling of sorrow in his own state. In the
Senate Mr.. Hampton rarely made speeches
and when he did they were not usually of
the radical tone to be expected OF South
Carolinian. This moderation Senator Hamp-
ION has carried into all his intercourse with
MS colleagues of both parties. and few SEN
iiors are better liked by their associates
than the gray and venerable aristOcrat from
south Carollna. For Wade Hampton is an
aristocl at If there are any in America. He
has that distinction that alone can confer the
lasting claim to the highest social position in
South Carollna-the distinction of family.
1t is a little difficult for New Englander
TO understand the strong influence of blood
In South Carolina. Those who do not have
exalted lineage bow to it. A venerable ne
gro, a man who held high executive posi-
ion In the state in the days of Republican
'ule, was telling some members of Congress
n 81 nt KanI
tics In his state And he spoke of Cover
Tor Tlllman as white man of the fourth
,lass. When asked of the standing of one
If the ablest and most cultured men in the
present delegation of South Carolina in the
House, the venerable negro said that he be.
ODged to the second class, two grades above
rillman. Ard it further appeared that there
we're in the House no South Carolinians of
the first grade, of which Wade Hampton in
The Senate is the typical member 1t Is by
family connection, by ancestry, that position
Is determined in South Carolina with an In
lrxibiliJy of rule that seemed in the mind Of
the old negro official to stand all men in four
lines or classes.
No man can dispute Wade Hampton's
claim to a place in the first class. He is the
third of the Wade Hamptons, who from
father to son, have played part in South
Carolina and national history from the days
Of the Revolution. The first Wade Hamp-
ton of fame was a naughty, arbitrary, old
soldier, who served in the ar
my until the war of 1872 He seemed to be
always in trouble because he could
not get along well with his sub0rdi-
mates or his superioTs. He had fought with
Marion and Sumpter in the Revolution, and
probably no other men ever quite lived up
TO the examples of those old heroes When
he died in 1885 he was considered the richest
planter in the United States. de owned
5000 slaves, who alone must have been very
and was one of the haughtiest and
most aristocratic Of Southern planters. His
son, Wade Hampton, the second. was an aide
of Gen. Jackson at the battle of New Or
leans. Like his father he was an arlStOcrat-
ic planter; and he improved the grounds of
his home near Columbia at an expense of
$50 0v0, large SUN to be spent In such a
way in the South in those days. His son,
Wade Hampton, the third, at present Sena-
tor. The career of the present Wade Hamp-
ton is we'll known. Before the war he did
not favor secession heartily and was there
fore unpopular in his state for time. But
when war broke out he entered the war as a
private, rising through the anks to be a
great cavalry general. After the war he
again became somewhat unpopular at home
because he advocated kindness and fairness
towards the emanciDatrd saves. But he
led the "Revoluti IN of 1876" as it is some
times called, when the Republican state gov
of South Carolina was supplanted.
IN 1876 he was elected to the United States
Senate.
Altbouoh cnnsidarad nv his collaaouns in