The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-01-13

SENATOR BoIEs PENRoSE, of this
city, was nominated by the Republican
Legislative caucus, held last evening,
for United States Senator on the first
ballot by the decisive vote of l3S for
Penrose, 20 for Wanamaker, for Cam
eron, l for Robinson and for Judge
Rice, with 4 absent or not voting. As
l2S votes would elect Senator in a
full Legislature, the caucus vote for
Penrose is in excess of the number re-
auired to assure his election, and he
may, therefore, be accepted as the sue
cessor of Cameron in the United States
Senate.
Senator Penrose comes to the front as
a new and imposing factor in the poll
tics of the State and Nation. He has
been hindered in public appreciation
throughout the State, and in broaden
ing his creditable intellectual force, by
his absorption in the local political con-
fiicts of our city. But called TO the
highest legislative position of the I'm
ion, with every incentive and every
needed ability to attain distinction,
there is little doubt that he will take
high rank as a respected and efficient
Senator. He will enter the Senate on
the 4th of March next TO qualify as the
youngest member ever called to repre-
sent Pennsylvania in that great tribu-
nal; and with a reasonable prospect Of
extended public service, it is not to be
expected that he could fail TO impress
himself upon his State and upon the
country at large as national legislator.
He is young, ardent, ambitious and
g6le, and with a field opened to him
that covers the entire Republic, there
is every reason to assume that he will
do honor to himself and TO the State
he is to represent.
Fate teaches strange lessons in the
mutations oi American politics. Sena-
tor Penrose would have been unthought
of for the United States Senatorship at
this time but for his perfidious betrayal
and defeat for the nomination for Mayor
two years ago. He had been recon-
mended for the Chief Alagistracy of the
city in the editorial columns of every
daily newspaper of Philadelphia, and
man who could command such trib-
ute from journals of every faith and
inclination should have been invincible
against the shafts of malice; but peril
dious leaders who hated him for his in
tegrity, with words of friendship for
his ears while aiming the dagger at his
heart, invented the most malicious and
bewildering calumnies, which misled
many good citizens into distrust of his
pe--onal character, and under that dis
trust he was betrayed and cruciiied by
the very political leaders who had call
ed him to the field as the most availa-
BILE candidate fer Mayor. 1t was the
blow of the malignant scandal-monger
that overthrew him in that contest; the
rec1il has made him United States SEN
ator.
That Senator Penrose has largely
profited by the attempts to defame him
throughout the State after the defamers
in his own immediate vicinity had long
been silenced, can not be doubted by
any who dispassionately review the eX-
ceptionally bitter contest just closed.
The sentiment Of fairness and manli-
ness is masterful in the minds of the
American people, and in no State is it
more potent than among the intelli-
gent, fair minded people of Pennsylva-
MIA Seeing that every Legislator in
the Senatorial district in which he and
his chief competitor both reside, with
two-thirds of the Senators and a ma
iority of the Representatives of the en-
tire city, rallied TO his support for Sen
ator, all the efforts to defame him sim
ply intensified his friends and quick
ened every attribute OF manliness in
sympathy with him. While ne pos
sesses the ability and character to make
formidable candidate for United
States Senator under any cDnditiors 5,
it is certainly true that the memorable
laws of fate, which hold retributive JUS
tice as their chief weapon, have made
Boies Penrose the new United States
Senator from Pennsylvania. Where
now are his defamers ?-Philadelphia
Times.