The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-28


re was today to run. IN manner
and dress Judge Culberson was per-
rect type Of the old ante bellum south
ern cotton and sugar planter He wore
broad brimmed siouch hat and easy
hitting clothes. and while like DR.. Sam
uel johnson, lazy looking in his move
ments, he had wonderfully active
and powerful intellect.
Bourke Cochran Of New York, mar
vel of orators; William L. Wilson of
West Virginia. the scholarly free trade
chairman of the ways and means COM
mittee, who preferred to be congress-
man rather than college president. Per-
haps the finest satire congress ever
heard was William l.. Wilson's speech
on General Parliamentary Law"
made about the time Speaker Reed
hrst counted quorum. Reed Of Maine.
/ whose sharp retOrt to w. NJ. Springer
of Illinois (another defeated candidate
for the speakership), when that gen.
tleman declared on the floor of the
house that, ''in the language of Mr.
Clay, would rather be right than
president" and Mr.. Reed promptly re-
Joined, there is no danger of the gen
tienlan ever being either
Mackenzie of Kentucky. who was ar
raigning the Republicans ma great
speech against nigh tariff. said: The
| Republican party might be saved, but
| il would be a great strain upon the
plan of salvation" Perhaps the two
orators in the house w attracted the
most attention, upon whose every word
the audience hung most intently were
Reed ana Cochran
The closing day of the long fortnight
OF duh debate in the house over the
silver question was brilliant and dra-
matte in the extreme The floor of the
house contained not an empty seat.
Mr- Reed was never in better form.
physically or mentally.
A Striking Tribute.
The keenly analytical powers of his
intellect, his literary quality of find
ing the precise words to express his
clear-cut ideas, his gift of whitening
sarcasm, his irrepressible humor, at
once wholesome and scorching, and
withal his innate dignity and self-poise
never found more eloquent expression,
even when, as speaker, he bravely con-
fronted and controlled the angry waves
of Democratic passion which impotent-
" beat against his imperturbabIe pos
session of the chair. To him was paid
at the close of his argument a most
striking tribute.
The man who, two years before, had
been denounced as a ''czar," and whom
the detected and conquered Democratic
minority sullenly refused the usual
services as speaker, was that day ap-
plauded, not only by his party col
leagues and the crowded galleries for
many minutes, but by the Democratic
minority itself, which. despite his thor
oughlyIoya1 and Republican peroration
was carried beyond the consciousness
of partisan lines into involuntary ap-
piause. 1t was one of those moments
which are golden episodes of lifetime
and Mr.. Reed may well have felt proud
and happy in the congratulations
. which were showered upon him.
Bourke Cochran followed and pa.
triotism rang through every line of the
marvellous burst of elOquence with
which for ninety minutes he held en-.
thraled the house in even a more po-
tent spell than that with which a year
before he enchanted the attention of 2
, hostile audience in that impassionec
appeal against the nomination of Gro
yer Cleveland by the Democratic ma
tional convention.
1t is a fact hitherto unknown that
when Hanna was planning to secure
the nomination or Mckinley for TIT
presidency in 1896, the Ohio state con
; vention, which preceded the nationa
Republican convention, framed what i:
known as d straddle platform. com
hitting the party neither to the golC
standard nor to the silver standard.
= He Liked Honesty.
Reed, always clean and upright
, when subsequently commenting on tn,
: nomination of Bryan and Mckinley re
spectively, remarked that Bryan
: | might be fanaticai on the silver cues
ton, but thai he was at least honest
j. thus emphasizing his contempt for TIT
: duplicity Of the Republican party il
the Ohio state convention. Levi p
I Morton "
+ candidates for the presidential nomi
! nation, whose views on the currenc.
; were well understood, and the latte
never entirely forgave his party 70
. bestOwing the honor on the candidate
' whose status on the financial question
I was not manifest like his own.
. There were brilliant and dramati
n scenes in the house in those days
! when the galleries overlooking tn
arena of intellectual battles wer
: jammed from rail to wall with bank
4 OF eager, absorbed spectators AM
. listeners; and when senators. member
/ of the cabinet, the vice president, jus
: tees of the supreme court and other
4 filed the space not occupied by mem
4 bers themselves
D A conspicuous figure in American
, political life of that day in the hous
] was Joseph c. S. Blackburn, a post
n bellum WigfaH, a Kentucky Rupert,
: southern cavalier, and the most pic
= turesque figure of all the public me
: OF Kentucky of this generation, no
3 excepting Henry Watterson, orator
journalist and ex-member of congress
Blackburn halls from Versailles, tn
heart of the famed blue grass, i
= speaking distance of Lexington. Frank
fort and Georgetown, the land of fai
: women and fast horses, of green wood
: lands, laughing brooks, ripplin
: through upland field and meadow.
: is In old Woodford county, the "aspar
: agus bed of the blue grass, the garde
L spot of America
. Speaker Carlisle. though a grea
q lawyer and commanding figure, wa
!, not a debater like Ben Hill. not a
q orator like Wilson. and was uniik
Proctor Knott, another great Ken
= tuckian fwose Zenith City of the Ur
u salted Seas" was at once embodie
= among the national sayings) who deal
= in poetic thought and flowers Of fame,
= and whose extensive reading made hiE
:. familiar with the beauties of Englis
: literature from Milton to the lighte
a graces of Scott and Goldsmith.
% Later Day Fights.
u Carlisle OF Kentucky entered cor
. gress simultaneously with William Nd
- Kinley. when Mills. Culbertson an
= Blackburn were already conspicuou
- Garfield was tho Republican leadG
= and the Democratic leaders in Il
house of represent atives were Randall