The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-26

[ Goodloe Harper, a South Carolinian, as was his pupil, but now a leader of the Baltimore bar. When the young man came to the bar he settled in South Carolina, where he was the friend and intimate companion of John c. Calhoun and William Lowndes. and was not considered inferior to either of them at the bar. He died in 1877 at the age of S4, when his son, William Lowndes Yancey, was years old.
 The boy grew up on a Southern pIan- tation and was prepared for college at several academies. He entered wil- Hams College. Massachusetts, while yet youth in his teens, and was finished in the institution that subsequently, sent forth James A. Garfield and John James Ingalls,. At the age of 19 young Yam cey entered the law office of B. F. Perry, afterward Governor of South Carolina, and began the study of his fathers profession. Like all cultivated Southern youths, he was a politician and student of political science
 When Yancey came on the scene the question in South Carolina was Union vs. Notification, and he was an ardent an Intrepid, an able an eloquent a bril- liant advocate of Union. opposing Cal hound. Hayne. McDufie and Hamilton It was in that campaign that McDuffie gave utterance to sentence that ought to give pause to every believer of pa- ternalism in the land: When the Roman people sought bread at the pub lie granary, the multiplying villainies of human nature went on increasing until the empire was sold at public auction" During that struggle Yam cey, but l9 years of age, was the edi- tor of The Greenville Mountaineer and he proved himself as formidable with the pen as he was eloquent with the tongue.
 Subsequently Yancey went West and settled in Alabama, where he engaged in planting, but he continued to take an active part in politics and served in both branches of the Legislature Will liam R. King and Dixon H. Lewis were the political leaders of the State. the first named Jackson man, the other a follower of Calhoun. It is worthy of note that MT King refused the Austrian mission when 1t was rendered him by President Van Buren because he had been an active supported of the Presi- dent when he sought the Democratic nomination. Apply that principle to the present administration and the Gov ernment would have to stop for lack of officials to administer it. We got bravely over that long ago. When William Lowndes. then the first man in public life. measured the abilities and
 
 age in search of health. and from which he never returned. he first resigned his seat fin Congress He refused to he a public servant if he could not discharge his public duties. And that. too. is old-fashioned, antiquated and obsoiete When Howell Cobb, then Secretary of the Treasury, invited a party of friends to be his guests on board a revenue cutter and go on a Junket down the Potomac, MT. Buchanan, then President caused MT Cobb to be notified that ora of them-the President or the Sacrae tary-would have to reimburse inc Government the expense of the trin MT. Cobb paid 1t. They order such things differently In these roseate times of progress and reckless times of un- constitutionality.
 In 1S4O Yancey moved to Wetumnka and became the editor of The Argus He was a brilliant and forcibly writer and the paper, printed in a country vii. lage' soon exercised a powerful inf1u- ence in the State and throuRhouf tha South. He also entered upon the nrace tice of law. and in a little while he was the greatest advocate in Alabama These changes In his life were due to financial losses. He was urged to avail himself of the benefits of the bankrunt law, but he sternly refused, and paid every cent he owed within a very few years.
 In 1s44 Dixon H. Lewis re- signed his seat in the Twenty. eighth Congress to become a seno- tor at the other end of the Capi- tol and Yancey' was elected to the va cancy. He was then 80 years of aga When he got to Washington Mir. cal houn, whom he opposed in his youth but with whom he was now in general accord, was Secretary of State. and sent him word not to do his best In his 1rst encounter" Thomas L. ClinRmann member from North Carolina and Whig. made bitter speech against the policy of the Southern Democrats. and Yancey was selected to reply. Of his speech a literary gentleman who was present, wrote
 Great was the expectation in relation to Yancey's talents as an orator. but if fell infinitely below what truth ana justice warrant. His diction Is rich and flowing; he Is at once terribly severe in denunciation and satire and again overpoweringly cogent in argument and illustration. but ever disniaed and