The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-07-08

WRIGHT, ana mdTCn OUT u 49, 49,
OF a boy orator and take position IN the
of fatism. He has seen many
tariff tinkerings and viewed them all
from the standpoint of the protcctionist-
He saw the two administrations OF
Grover Cleveland. touching both of which
there are many opinions. He saw the
struggle between Conkling and Blaine,
which resulted IN the political death OF
both. He saw the rise, decline and fall
of Organism, and was a part OF IT, his
personal recollections would make an
absorbingly interesting volume. His IS
a green old age, and seemingly there IS
ample time for the building OF such as
a book. as Goldsmith called it.
Senator Jones is a very modest man
We may say that he has never made but
two speeches-one on silver coinage, and
the other on the tariff-but he is a strong
man in debate. and speaks both to in
struct and to entertain. He is that ad-
mirable character, a "fine-grained' man.
Secretary of State Hay is another. He is
not active on the floor of the Senate,
simply because of a constitutional dill
dence. Some men resort to the bottle and
a cure for that, and they live. more IN
tradition than in history. as brilliant
noJcOrS, WHO, lOI at HlOLithty AZ
the political armament. Others retire
from public haunt, and do not figure even
in tradition. Senator Jones could no
more have made John A. Logan's speech
on Fitz John Porter's case then he could
have conceived and executed Stonewall
Jackson's Valley campaign, and he could
no more have delivered William V.
Aliens fifteen hour silver speech than
he could have made Proctor Knots
speech on Duluth. He is q versatile, a
magnetic, and a brilliant man. Not
since he defeated Sharon has he had a
serious contest for a return to the Sen
ate. He made the friends, the unselflsh
friends, that only the magnetic, the I'M
seltishly magnetic man can make. 1hey
admired him. and they loved him. They
trusted him. and they knew him. He
never stopped for support; never did,
never caused to be done. any dirty work
TO prolong his political life. Those are
the men who grapple their friends with
hooks of steel.
His is a many-sided mind, and runs
from subject to subject in an abandon
that Outlines startlcS, and more fire.
quently charms. He is not a trained To-
gician, and cannot reason like a lawyer,
but he can discourse on all subjects that
lIlttlcSt Iultl1lStut ultH, LIN d hiS
conversation attractive to all. Though
not a scholar in the sense that Sumner
was and Hoar is, Jones is a man of very
considerable acquired knowledge. Much
(. of it he got from books; much of it he
gained from conference with able and
cultivated men, and much Of it came from
observation Of, and reflection upon men,
things and events.
Senator Jones is best known to the
general public for his speeches on the
silver q~ueStion-the first made in 1878
and the other in 1898. The latter con-
sumed seven sittings of the Senate in
its delivery, fills ninety-nine pages of
the Congressional Record, and states the
whole case for fiat money. Had he at
tempted to argue the case as Adam
Smith or John Marshall argued ques-
lions, probably his speech would have
been as stupid as Coin Haryey's book
He was assailing the conclusions of Sir
Isaac Newton and John Locke, that a
piece of metal with the kings head on
it was a commodity of which the price
was governed by the same laws which
govern the price of q piece of metal
fashioned into a spoon or d buckle, and
that it was no more in the power OF
- itthS III hiho'oil IoiIt
by calling a crown a pound than to make
the kingdom larger by calling a furlong a
mile We are told that all the wishes
and all the prayers in the world will
not fill the ArnO nor turn a plum into an
orange, no moro will speeches in Con
greSS make fOrty-SeVen cents 100 cents;
but if that had been possible Jones is
the one silver advocate who would have
accomplished it. His speech was the
genesis of 10000 silver speeches, and
even now, when the policy is res adju-
dicata, it will repay the perusal. ANY
intelligent mind can get profit out of it.
1t was on August 80, 1898, that John
Sherman turned on his foes and nSWere
the charges of twenty years. 1t was a
grand SUPPLEMENTARY the greatest
sherman ever delivered. He gave a com
plete history of the legislation known as
the crime of 1S73,' and it is ONLY the
simple truth to say that he covered his
enemies with confusion. If the construc-
tive statesmen of America were gathered
in a single group, Sherman would be one
of the very conspicuous. He restored the
public credit, and made the wage of en-
deavor a dollar in fact. as it was in
name. 1t was q very difficult under
taking, and the method employed by him
was as simple as it was successful. He
was the opportunist always-so was
Lincoln. Neither had any sentimental
Vagarles and maudlin yaporings touch
ing slavery, and they did more to DESTROY
1t than a regimen Of Wendell Phillipses
and Owen Loveioys. When he lost the
Speakership he turned his attention ia
the Senate, and while he was inferior ia
Fesscnden in intellect, inferior to Sum
ner in knowledge, and possibly inferior to
Morton IN virility, he accomplished more
than all Of them. There were TWENTY
years during which the Senate merely
turned John Sherman's thoughts into tho
law Of tho land.
sherman caused the silver law which
bore his name to be enacted, because il
relieved a Republican President of the
responsibility of a veto of a free silver
bill. The great business interests Of tho
country resented that sort Of thing and
mt q man IN tho Whit H. -,