The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-12-10

not be body of wise lawgivers, and
yet a Senate without its Joe Black
burns would be wanting in some OF
the qualities that have made the Uni
ted States Senate so illustrious. Nc
public man of his generation has
discovered more individuality OF
character than the brilliant Kentuck-
ian. He is no sage. but his impulses
are wholesome, and l want to say
right here that the man the machine
has picked to beat him is no Solomon
and will not set the Potomac afire. But
Blackburn is TYPICAL of the Kentucky
of that elder day, before politics was
a trade and before the machine took
off the hands of the people of the
old Commonwealth the duty of gov
erning. When Blackburn first came
on the stage KentuckianS had the
right to aspire to preferment without
first getting the consent of boss.
In those days conventions rejected
the will of the party. but we have
fallen on times when a junta, a fac
ton, a cabal, nominate" in primar-
les. and forestall the primaries.
There are 119 counties in Kentucky.
Joe Blackburn would carry 10 of
them against Tom Paynter if every
Democrat should vote and every vote
were counted as cast.
But machine politics is in control of
cy is triumphant. Joe will be over
thrown despite the fact that the rank
and file of the party are for him by
an immense majority. In other States
the machine has passed in its checks,
but it has had a long reign and has
bestrode this land of ours like a
Colossus.
To mischief trained even from his
mothers womb,
Grown old in fraud though yet in
manhood's bloom:
Adopting arts by which gay villains
rise
And reach the heights which honest
men despise;
Mute at the bar and in the Senate
loud
Dull 'mongst the dullest. proudest of
the proud;
A last prim prater of the Northern
Guilt in his heart and famine in his
face,
Stood forth.
That describes the machine, and it
is the office of the Kentucky machine
to parcel offices and honors among its
henchmen. The machine has at COM
mand very little intellectual ability,
but it has plenty of cunning,
and more impudence than cunning
even. 1t is shameless and unscrupu-
lous, boundless in it's ambitions, in
satiate in its appetites, and relentless
i'm its methods, and then it will go to
smash. And it may go to smash be-
fore the winter leaves the lap OF
spring again. It is Boosting that it
has Joe Blackburn beaten, and is
making claims that are simply alb
surd. 1t has more promises out than
it can redeem, and when those prom
Uses go to protest the machine will go
to smash.
Let us take a glace at the career of
Joe Blackburn, the most picturesque
figure of all the public men of Ken
lucky of this generation.
There is no prettier town in all the
State than Versailles. 1t is in the
heart of the famed blue grass, in
speaking distance of Frankfort. Lex
ington and Georgetown. There is "a
romantic flavor round about. IN the
green woodland the laughing brooks.
the orchards laden with fruits. the
gardens teeming with vegetables. the
fields grooming with harvests. 1t is an
old-fashioned town, the houses large
and square, the yards ample and al
Turing. The streets are listless and
the corners shady. Everything is
redolent of hospitality, good-fellow-
ship. and good cheer. 1t is in Wood
ford county, "the asparagus bed of
the Blue Grass" which is the gar
den spot of America. Its bar has
long been famous for learning and ell
oauence 1t was here that Thomas
f. Marshall lived when he was the
first orator and one of the first intel
lects of Kentucky, and there is
tradition that Joe Blackhurns law Of
flee was once the Office of Tom Mar
shall. and it's walls for two genera
tions have hesounded to the wit and
wisdom, the poetry and song of many
an Attic night.
Born, 1898; graduated from Center,
1857; lawyer 1S5S-1861; soldier. 1861
1865: State legislator, 1871-1872, Con-
gresham, 1S75-1S85; United States
Senator. 1S85-1S97 and 1901. Such
in brief is the career of Joseph c. S.
Blackburn, conspicuous figure in
American political life. a post-bellum
Wigfall. a Kentucky Rupert, South
ern cavalier. We shall not look upon
his like again. He is the last of the
hotspurs. The South. even Kentucky,
is prepared to close the account with
that class of whom he is SO pronounc-
ed a type-a class admirable in many
respects. England will develop anoth-
er Percy, Scotland produce anoth-
er McIver La Vendee again rally to
the lilies of Bourbon france as soon
as Kentucky gives to politics another
Joe Blackburn. For more than
third of a century the old Common
wealth has treated him as a favorlte
child, an old child. and never was
there more indulgent mother and
never more engaging, willful, froW-
ard offspring-one of those house
hold holy terrors, total strangers to
discipline. who think they have all
the rights and are absolved from all
the duties.
The year 1865 found Kentucky con-
trite. repenting her refusal to join the
Southern Confederacy in 1861. That
amusing satirist Petroleum V. Nasty,
understood this feeling and that
caused him to date his letters Con
federate X Roads, (Which is the Stait
of Kentucky)." Even such men as
Garrett Davis. Brutus j. Clay, and
Thomas E. Sramlette condoned, if
they did not share. the prevailing
feeling Hence it was that a Con-
federate record was assurance of pre-
ferment in every community where a
Democratic nomination was equiva-
lent to an election. John c. Brock
inridge was the idol of the State.
D,,oIy1ar DrocfOn Duke Lewis Will