The Portland daily press., 1895-04-15
FRIEND OF LINCOLN.
Personal Chat About the Veteran
Il Politician, Lyman Trumbull.
Still in Active Practice at an Advanced co
...a Some Political History.

|
Still in Active Practice at an Advanced A 9.
i Some Political History.
| Washington Star.)
~ Il mere was powerful and impressive
hgure OF man here in the earlier days
Oh the week." said an old Illinoisian to a
star writer recently. II refer to Judge
Lyman Trum bull, who was before the
supreme Court for Debs. It's almost
Sixty years since the day I first saw
rum bull. He impressed me even then
with his tall form and smooth beardlesss
1ate as man of much force and charac-
Ter. he has been a mighty factor in
state and national politics and justified
every promise of his younger days.
"Trumhull is quite old now; born, l
believe, in 1918. His cradle was in Con
| necticut and ne comes of the old Jona-
| than Trum bull brood. Asa young man,
like many q young and book-taught
Yankee of his time. he went south to
teach school. He headed for Georgia and
gave himself up to ferrule and spelling
book az method of support. But he
liked it not: and as he put out the less
ons and patted the 'shockheaded youth
| OF those regions he dipped into the law
books as deeply as he might.
"This was in the earlier 'aO's, AS soon
as he was equal to his examination be
was called to the Georgia bar; ~htit he
Fever paused to practice there. He
migrated to Illinois. then the utter west,
ana settled at. Belleville, St. Clair
county, in that profound part of the
state known as Egypt This was, | be-
lieve, just sixty years ago, and possibly
about the time that Dickens colonized
his characters of Martin Chuzzlewit and
Mark Tapley in the same damp region to
make peg whereon he might hang his
slauder of America.
I'm mediately Judge Trum bull-not
Judge then-tOOk leading place at the
bar. He was always courtly; always
carefully polite; what, indeed, one might
call bit cold; yet he had a great sway
with the juries. He was and is clear,
cogent rcasoner, and has a trick of ad-
monishing with his foreinger. Some
times it would seem as II that potent
forefnger wove spell.
11O 1 ME hLSOltE LOOA.
sit has. doubt not, brought many
jury in its time to Judge Trumb bulls
side of the question-such were the i'm
pressive looks of Trumbull as far back
as fifty years ago, that recall what Gov.
Reynolds once said of them as he closed
his argument in the case. Trumbull
was on the other side.
"sAnd now. gentlemen, said Reynolds
IS he prepared to close, 'I've answered
is arguments, I've overturned his
statement of facts; Pve undone the falla-
c1ous law he has announced to you; but,
gentlemen, the man never lived who can
reply to his looks'
"In those days the lawyers and the
judges were won't to ride a circuit. Dur
ing the noon recess and after court at
night they would talk politics. Yo ung
Irumbull was always leader. Hs was
Democrat of the uncompromising
shag bark school of Andrew jackson.
During the dispute with ENGLAND about
the Oregon boundary Trumbull, I rcol-
'lecG. was decidedly bitter against the old
country. He was for running the line
at 81 degrees 40 minutes north latitude,
some $50 miles north of where it is now,
and would have gone TO war for a third
it.
3They called Trumbull and others who
sided with him in the boundary matter
the ffty-four forties.' I recall how
1rum bull made very bitter speech from
the court house steps, and spoke of the
mendacious greed of England, who based
her tiimsy claim he said, ON the lies
of pirate named Francis Drake No;
had Lyman Trumbull and others like
him been needed we would now have all
OF the British possessions in America
worth having, and there would be
mighty little left to annex.
OPPOSED TO SLAVERY.
an time Trumbull was member of
the Illinois legislature, her secretary of
state and judge on her supreme bench.
All these as Democrat. 1t was during
bill was up and the pro-slavery people
were trying to force their pet institution
into the territories that democrats like
Lyman Trumbull, who were against
slavery in fact, and would not listen to
any talk of it's extension, began 90 pack
their trunks to leave the party. Trum-
bull was always outspoken and free; he
warned the pro-s!avery folk where they
would land. He denounced the Dred |
Scott decision aud Judge Taney for deliv-
ering it. When Douglas and Lincoln
held their famous series OF debates be
Ess heart and soul for the Lincoln side. |
Finally, in 1856, there came senatorial
election. Gen. Shields, whose statue in |
very bad bron ze stands in statuary hall, |
was Senator; ard, his term expiring, he |
WAS up for reelection.
He was Democrat, and Ahraham
whom Douglas had beaten just |
before, ran against him for the Tree
soilers. The vote stood SO for Lincoln
and IS for Shields, with 100 votes cast
What became of tine other five? I'll tell |
you, and it may be that a great deal of |
American history pivoted on those five
votes. Senator Palmer was the leader of |
the five. de was Democrat, butt like |
Trum bull, set his face like flint against |