The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-11
WILL THEIR MANTLEs FIT?


of the Senate from the South had
served in the Confederate Army and
represented the best thought and ira
ditions Of his State. How rapidly they
have been called to the assembly in
the skiesl" Ransom and Vance have
given place to Simmons and Overman;
Vest to Stone; Gordon and Colquitt to
Bacon and Clay: George to McLaurin;
Coke and Mills to Culberson and
Bailey; Harris to Carmack; and now
death has made vacant the place so
long filled by the venerable Bates and
new generation.
Will the mantles of these great men
fit the younger men upon whose
shoulders they have fallen? 1t is easy
to measure the public service of the
men who are near the close of life, or
who have made up their record and
gone into the better land. Those men,
beginning with Lamar and closing
with Bate, lived in the most interest
ing period of Americas history. They
had the good fortune or the misfor-
tune to belong to an army that was
conquered and to a Republic that could
not endure. They lived in a day Of
change, i'm a day that tried mems
souls. Never again will this genera
ton look upon their like. They grew
great in the crucible of war and re-
construction. There was a command
upon them to pass under the rod that
gave them the power to suffer and be
strong. 1t is all wrong to bewail trial
and conflict. 1t is only through them
that great men grow to their true
Vance and Bate and the other lead
ers of the Confederacy made before
the war, in the Confederate army, and
afterwards in the United States Sem
ate is unique in this world of rapid
change. Not one of them ever bowed
the knee or cried out: Il have
sinned.' They met each conflict and
condition with courage and fortitude.
When, after ten years of absence from
participation in national affairs, these
''rebels" as they were called, took
their seats in Congress they did so as
equals of the greatest and maintained
their position by such consistency and
ability as challenged the admiration
of the world, and added to the glory
of Southern craftsmanship.
Will the younger men, who have
taken their places, do as much for
their country and as honorably and as
ably represent the States SO long rep
resented by the old time statesmen
who have passed away? There will be
those who will declare that the new
and younger men will never measure
up to the great men who have gone.
In a certain stateliness and power
born out of conflict, the older men will
never be equalled. In usefulness and
in honor, the best type of these
younger Senator'S will be as efficient in
their day and generation as Vance ana
Bate were in their day of public SER
vice. Times have changed and men
have changed with them. The bust
ness of government today is more
many-sided than in the school that
produced Lamar and Ben Hill. 1t may
take a decade to produce a man who
will tower above his colleagues, as
did these intellectual giants, but the
younger men from the South are al
ready the equals of the men from
other States with whom they are as
ISOLATED in the Senate. 1t is too soon
to take their measure. Their career
in the national arena has been too
brief for judgment, but they are do
ing the work set before them with
such acceptability as to prove their
ability and capacity.
There is no desire that the younger
Senators should seek to walk in the
paths of their predecessors. They
must live their own lives and accom-
odate themselves to changed condi-
tions. But there is reason why they
should hold up as the best patterns
of official honor the men who preceded
them in the Senate. None of them
amassed fortune of millions of dol
lars upon a yearly income of five
thousand dollars, none of them were
caught in Credit Mobelier or De Col
yer contracts, none of them represent
ed great trust instead of the whole
people, none of them were the agents
of corporate wealth, none of them
owed their election or retention in the
Senate to the skillful operations of a
well-oiled machine. The Senate has
lost much in popular confidence be-
cause of the election of too many men
who had no qualification except large
wealth or subserviency to interests
desiring legislation for their enrich
ment, or to give them immunity in
their illegal transactions. Happily The
South, in its transition period, mas
known little of that evil that threat
ems the Republic, but as it grows in
wealth and in commerce, there is dan
ger that it may fall from its high es-
tate and be controlled-as are great
Northern States-by great interests
now known as 1.-The System" The
best preparation against it is to cling
to the principles and pure faith and