New-York tribune., 1904-08-11
GEORGE GRAHAM TEST.

The death Tuesday of George c. Vest
closed a brilliant and notable political career
Mr.. Vests public activities covered nearly fifty
years. He was a figure Of consequence through
nearly half a century Of national ferment and
national development At thirty-three he was
Senator in the Confederate Congress. At sew
enty-three he ended continuous service OF
twenty four years in the United States Senate.
He was a trusted and influential Southern
leader. Intellectually he stood in the front
rank Of Southern statesmen. No one ever ex-
pounded the South's ideas and policies with
more effectiveness. Yet he was ever the cham
pion Of lost and losing causes. He fought
against the Stars. And he lived long enough 10
see discredIted and abandoned every great con
tention which he had spent his reason and
his eloquence His failure was inevitable, for
in all his prepossess.ons and judgments ne was
a Southerner first and an American afterward.
He battled always for sectional interests. not
for the nations truer and larger good.
In his public life an1 views Mr.. Vest was
singularly and rigid.J consistent His last
speeches in the United States Senate read al
most ike an echo of his secession utterances in
1860 in the Missouri Legislature, He fought FOR
the South, and SAT IN both branches Of the Con
federate Congress from a State which never
seeded thus openly anrouting the doctrine Of
State sovereignty and State loyalty On which
adhesion 10 the C0nfederacy was so largely
based Returning 10 the Union, he accepted
the constitutional results Of the war. But he
sUove always for the success Of legislative pol
cies which should advance the South's interests
as a section, regardless of their enect on ma
tional welfare and national progress.
He threw himself with all his ardor into the
Democratic partys crusade against protection.
As q Southerner, standing on historic Southern
doctrine he believed in the free entry Of foreign
manufactured goods. He wished TO keep the
United States an exporter Of raw materials and
an importer of manufactures. He was a true
Cobdenite, and would have put Cobdens prin-
ciples into practice at any sacrifice of American
industrial efficiency and independence. He
could smile at the decisions and hypocrisles Of
tariff reformers like Mr. Cleveland, who talked
Of encouraging domestic manufacture by the
admission Of free raw materials. What he
wanted, what Mills and Beck and Morrison and
the Breckinrdges wanted, was to break down
the American manufacturer, as such, or TO make
him produce the goods which the South needed
at a lowered European wage level
That crusade had its little day Of triumph in
1892 But the Wilson-GOrman BILL which Mr.
Vest helped unwillingly TO frame, killed free
trade for this generation a legislative pro-
gramme. Realizing that on that issue the
turned with equal hopefulness TO the cause of
cheaper money. He thought he saw some sec
tional advantage in an initiation Of the currency
and he became one Of the most vehement and
impassioned advocates Of free silver coinage
But he lived TO see this cause also broken and
discredited on an appeal TO the sober judgment
of the American people. The Missouri Senator
was q man of his time and Of his section He
could not arise above the conditions Of thought
and feeling in which he was reared. He was
not truly great or broadminded American
statesman, yet he had unusual gifts of mind
and unusual attractions OF character In spite
of his handicaps Of voice and figure, he was
genuine orator. His speeches breathed the true
fire Of the oratorical imagination. He was
honest and courageous, q hater Of shams a
warm friend and an honorable enemy. It will
be long before Missouri has again in the Senate
| a spokesman of such mettle and such attain
ments.