The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-23
North 0kat0 Leadership
{ BY CICERO w. HARRIs.)

State and connecting themselves with
the development of commerce in other
States. Had the grand dream been
realized, what a superb future there
would be in store for the State of
North Carolina and what a realiZa-
ton already would there be of plans
so carefully formed! But it was not
to be. No such seaport existed at the
end of the line. Civil War came on.
Afterward, the drift of trade and
transportation was North and South,
and the poverty of the State caused
its railroads to pass into outside
hands.
AS this is rambling sketch, let us
go back in time. and to the Congress
of the United States for the scene.
One of the most cordial supporters of
President Jefferson's policy in that
body was Nathaniel Macon, of North
Carolina. He was not only a Demo-
crat after the heart of the great
founder of that party; he had in his
personality that simplicity of charac-
ter which stamped him. even more
than his chief, as a Democrat ''intus ct
in cute" inwardly as to principle and
outwardly as to form. Benton in his
Thirty Years In Congress" has made
most charming portraiture of the
Cato-like virtues of this truly great but
simple American, and Mr.
Macon impressed Josiah Quincy. pres
ident of Harvard College in the Given
ties" while the fine old Warren counts
sage was in the Senate. as hardly any
other man in public life whom he met
on his visits to Washington impressed
him. In his admirable little book OF
Memoirs, issued about twenty years
since, and gracefully entitled Figures
of the Past" Nathaniel Macon fills an
important niche. He was the first
North Carolina statesman who made
a great figure in the public life Of the
republic. Filling the office of Speaker
at an eventful time, preceding the
War of 1912, he made his mark after
ward as we'll as in the economic and
political measures of the time. In the
Senate he was in the full maturity of
his years, and public experience. TAX
ing his whole career in Congress he
served longer than any other North
Carolina member except Lewis Will
liams He was notable for his oppo-
sition to governmental extravaganza,
carrying his personal simplicity into
matters of state policy. This eminent
leader lived at home in small house
and was buried, according to his own
instructions. on his plantation with no
mark on his grave but a pile of
stones. The late Daniel r: Goodloe
knew Mr.. Macon we'll in the latters
old age after his retirement from Con-
gress and when Mr. Goodloe
was himself quite a young man.
A leader, nearly as great in the
House of Representatives here as he
was in his own home and politics, was
that brilliant and cultured man
William CASTOR. OF all the North Car
DINA orators ever in the national leg
icl tn mo nd orr
CASTOR was perhaps the chief, taking
his term of service and the remarka-
BILE men he had then as rivals into
consideration. There were Clay
Lowndes, Calhoun, Webster, Philip
Pendleton Barbour, was. - Georgia
and many others. In reading Gas
toms speeches you are struck with the
great beauty, propriety and force OF
his diction and the solidity, order and
acuteness of his argument. Certainly
not until Judge Badger entered the
Senate, was there another North Car
DINA orator in either house of Con-
gress at all comparable with Judge
CASTOR, and the latter entered Con-
gress at a much earlier period in life,
l think, without consulting any books.
Gastons ablest efforts were perhaps,
those on the banking and tariff ques-
lions.
Both Senator Mangum and Senator
Badger were for a while in the class
of very eminent men from the South.
If they had continued there longer il
is likely they would have achieved a
very high reputation among the
statesmen OF the time. Webster re-
garded Mr.. Badger as his equal, if not
superior in certain respects. In the
notification times Mangum stood BY
Vol yxyif
dorsing the latter's singular theory of
State interposition, Mangum anc
Badger were both men of splendid &C
complishments as we'll as natural
powers. 1 have heard it said of the
latter that he often would read a
book a quarter or half through and
then stop and tell his interlocutors or
the subject more about it than the au-
thor himself knew.
Perhaps that North Carolina states
man who made the deepest impress
sion on the late period and whose
influence is overreaching the present
epoch, l mean that statesman. not
recently dead, who lived only in the
early part of our own times, is that
Secretary of the Navy who arranged
the Perry expedition to Japan. The
opening of the Orient to the western
world and the partial ascendancy of
influence of this republic in Japan,
was due to William A. Graham 8
course in that affair. The very much
of the credit of it was due to the
secretary has never been disputed.
1t is a matter of profound pride that
the United States, in that question act
ed strictly in behalf of her own ma
tional rights and honor and that the
results were beneficial to Japan, as
we'll as to the previously civilized
world
Vance's leadership on the tariff
question is too recent history for more
than a mere mention here.
Washington, d. c.