The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-10-01

Copyright. 1907. BY r W. Newman
He is a very conspicuous public
man. and deservedly 50. but his fame
will be the less for the imperfect syz-
TEN OF parliamentary government our
fathers made for W. The builders q
our Constitution feared the people a
much as they hated the despot. Indeed,
license was more dreaded by them
than autocracy. Hence our govern
ment IS far from responsive 20 popular
demand. II is even contemptuous Of
II. One notable example was seen IN
1890. when the people condemned the
administration OF Mr.. Harrison more
emphatically than any other admins
tratron was ever reproved before, or
has been cenSured since. Yet the al
ministration did not turn a hair, but
kept the steady course II had before
pursued. Such contempt Of the peo-
pies will bS men in power in mon
archical England would make a 1evo-
luton swift and irresistible.
There is no doubt that if the despot
We're endowed with the genius for adj
ministratfon of Napoleon .Bonaparte
and the sincere and i~nfleXible love of
justice Of Edmund Burke. an absolute
monarchy would be the best govern
ment man has yet invited: but the
! innate SelfShneSs of our nature crops
out on the throne as we'll as in meaner
place., and monarchy has produced
more hateful rulers like Caligula than
it has wise princes like Marcus Aure-
Illus. AbSolutism has too many worth
less scamps like Henry of Nalois, third
of the name, TO be sponsor for. ON the
other hand. the rule of a ~populace,
dominated by a Clean, is a worse gov
eminent than the tyranny of a Nero
There is a happy medium-govern-
ment, by the representatives of a peo-
/ l. bot 49, .@IS4 - e
of the barbarian tribes who overthrow
the Roman mpire and overran West
ern Europe from the Baltic to the
Mediterranean. From them came the
Cortez of Spain, the StateS-General of
France, the Parliament of England,
the Diet of Germany, and the Con-
gress of America. This thing of gov
eminent by representatives chosen by
the people exists in highest perfection
in the united kingdom of Great Bri-
tain and ireland, where the House of
Commons is the ruler. In theory we
have 1t in the United States, but it has
degenerated unVl Theodore Roosevelt
is as much the ruler of the American
people as Henry VII was of the Eng
lish, or Henry " was of the French.
If our fathers had not feared the
people they would have established it
that the Presidents Cabinet should
formulate the policy of the admins
tration, and that Cabinet, With a
tenure OF TWO years, ShOulQ De select
ed from the majority side of the House
of Representatives. That would have
given us representative government.
What we lave got is executive govern
ment. 4 seat in the House of Repre-
Sentatives ought to be the highest Of
flee in the land. h President of the
United States ought to be as much a
fgurehead as the King of England. As
it is our President is the most power
full and irresponsible ruler in Chris
endOm.
George Gilbert, of Kentucky,
thought Hepburn the foremost man in
Congress and declared that the next
generation would regard hin as we
do the giants of thirty years ago
Blaine. Beck, Garfield, Lamar Ran
dali, Carlisle, Ben Hill. Reed. Kasson.
and others of that day Under our
system of Presidential government Mr..
Hepburn plays a comparatively small
part. If we had real parliamentary
government, he would be one among
the half score real rulers with a seat
in the Cabinet and the leadership in
the House of Representatives. He is
the foremost orator on the Republican
side. a place he has held without ques-
ton since the Hon. Littlefield faile>l
to make entirely good the promise OF
his splendid nader effort Hepburn
is not a man of detail. He general
ICES and is exceedingly formidable in
general political debate. His chief fault
is a lack of accuracy in statement, and
in the heat of conflict he sometimes
hits below the belt. He never convict
ed an enemy of political sin; but he
is about the best man in either house
to inspire his side for the conflict In
debate he is no match for John Sharp
Williams, but in defamation he IS
magnificent. 1t is worth a journey
from the Mississippi to the Potomac
to anv Bourbon Republican to hear
him pronounce the words United
States when graphing with some I'M
patriotic Democrat.
William P. Hepburn was born in
Ohio in 1888 and has lived in Iowa
since 1S41. He was sixteen years old
when Iowa became a State. and man
to get a tolerable academic edu-
He was a printer, perhaps an
editor, but studied law and began the
the year he attained his ma
jority. AS Hepburn descended, no
doubt, from a colonel of one of those
regiments James l sent to the CONT
Elector Palatine in the thirty years
war. and that subsequent went from
victory to victory under the eye OF
A~dolphus, when war came to
this people in 1851, this young West
ern lawyer left his office for the field
and was lieutenant colonel of his re-
when the struggl was ended
He was a politician from yho
ana a ueleSdLe III t1t TNSpuDilSdh Id
tional convention that nominated
Abraham Lincoln. in 1850. He was
twice presidential elector for the State
at large-1S76 ana 1883. He did not
gain a seat in Congress until he was
years old, and it is a pity
he was not chosen to that body
at least twelve years earlier. He SerV-
ed three terms when he was appointed
solicitor of the Treasury by President
Harrison. but ne was returned to the
Congress in 1892, and has
been a m of that body ever
since. +,
The Iowa delegation in the Fifty
third Congress was very strong. con-
Gear, Henderson. Cousins.
Hull. Perkins, Lacey, and Dolliver, as
we'll as Hepburn. One of the Sena- t
tors from that State was James f. S
Wilson, a man who was ~eternally ex- |
to do great things. He was 5
one of the managers of the impeaCh- {
n1ent of Andy Johnson, and his friends
claimed that he was the best lawyer J
of the bunch: that Ben Butler got all 5
applause given that desperate s
proceeding. Wilson later got to the !
Cnnnta n-I -N-.~J lN-- 60, @>- -