Mexico weekly ledger., 1899-01-12
CHAMP GAES LETTER
Senator MorrilI's Place
In History.
FATHER OF HIGH TARIFFS.

long Public Service Of States
men Past and Present.
lad PLIGHT OF JOHN SHERMAN.
In the Heuse OF His Friends,
Ne Il Now Engaged In sGettins
Even--Ameracan Statesmen shou1a
Write Their Own Memoirs = New
EnsiaRd Retains Faithfsl Servants.
Especial washington Letter.
The death IF Hon. Justin s. Morrill,
Of Vermont In the eighty ninth year Of
his age. in the forty-fourth Of congress
sional service and in the t~hirty-second
Of senatorial honor will be universally
commented on. his career In length and
continuity Of congressional service has
no counterpart In American annals
There is only one man either in con-
gress or in public life whose congress
Eional career ~antedates Morrili'A, and
that Is Hon. Galusha A. Grow, repre-
sentative at large from Pennsylvania.
who was first elected to congress in
1850. the year / was born. but then Fa-
ther Grow Sfaid out Of congress- 80
years at one clip, 80 that In aggregate
service he falls far short Of Senator
Morrill,, who began his congressional
career at high noon March 4, 1855. and
was constantly in harness until he died
at ] rs q. N. Dec. IS, 1898.
When Mr.. Grow came to take his seat
In the Fifty third congress, having been
elected at a special election 10 fill a va
cancy, and was escorted to the bar Of
the house BY Judge William s. Hol-
man Of Indiana, the then oldest mem
Der in point Of service, for the purpose
Of being sworn in, some irreyerent
member said soto voce, ''There goes the
vanguard Of the army Of the resurrec-
tinn," aremark which circulated among
the members for some days.
Senator Morrill, will have q perma-
nent place in history for two reasons;
first because be served more conaec1-
tive years in the senate than any other
man up to this date; second, because he
was the author Of the Morrill, tariff bill,
which may be said TO have been the
mother Of the Mckinley hill. the grand
mother Of the Wilson bill and the
great-grandmother Of the Dingley bill
A system which was foisted upon the
people as "a temporary war measure"
has been fastened upon their neoks as q
permanent curse, growing worse as ID
grows older.
Long Records In Congress-
The papers say that when he came to
Washington at the beginning Of this ses-
sion Of congress Senator Morrill,, not
withstanding his great age. looked for
ward chserfully, not 20 say ambitious
", not only to the completion Of his
sixth term as a conscript father. but TO
his election to and completion Of a sew
enth-which would have made his
senatorial service AZ years and his sery-
Ice In both houses 81 years. Waiting
for bis shoes must have been . dolefuI
performance to General W. W. Grout.
Judge II. II. Powers and ether Green
Mountain statesmen Of senatorial stat
ure.
Man proposes, but God disposes, and
Senator Morrill, didn't get his seventh
-didn't eyen finish his sixth term.
Even as 1t is it Is extremely problem
atical II anybody ever equals his record.
For a long time Missouri plumed her-
self immensely upon the fact that in
the person Of Thomas Hart Benton she
had furnished the country with her only
so year senator, and, until Senator
Morrill's election TO a sixth term, the
chances appeared to be that she would
retain that distinction perpetually.
Perhaps-who knows-General Fran
els Marion Cookrell, who On the 4th Of
next March begins his fifth full term,
may break the record. recover the long
service senatorial belt from Vermont
and restore it to imperial Missouri. just
at this writing Francis Marion has Ia
grippe and may be cut of in his SEN
atorial youth, but the chances are that
his iron constitution viii pull him
through all right and that after his
tussle with the Russian plague be will
come up smiling.
Coekreu . Slayer.
\ Once while / was serving as q dele
gate to the Masonic grand lodge Of Mis-
souri I was talking TO a Missouri states.
man who was himself a Mason Of high
degree and who would like to be senA-
tor. ] knew his ambition, 50 as q mat
ter of amusement and a~ggravation,
while discussing prominent Missouri
statesmen, 1 suddenly took out q piecs
Of paper and began 10 cipher indus
triously. He said, "Whst are you do
ingii' ! replied, "Oh, / am just apply
ing a few statistics to General Cock
rellF' "Doing whstF'' be exclaimed We
hemently. Figuring on Cochell,"
persisted, land here is his biography,
statiEtically stated, as il will appear in
the nutshell encyclopedias Of the future.
Francis Marion CockrelL soldier and
statesman, born In 1884; captain in the
Confederate army at ~, colonel at 2s,
hrigadisr general at 20. major general
at 30. defeated for governor at 30, elect
ed to the senate the first time at Al. the
second time at ~, the third time At IS,
the fourth time at 80, the fifth time al
65. He didn't wait for mi TO hniEh
my calculation. GOOD heavens9' be
cried, as be saw his own senatorial
prospects receding into the twentieth
century. "Cockrell win work himself
TO death q long time before be is elected
for the fifth term" was praoticine
mind reading a little On my own boob
for fun Just then, and I concluded q