The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-01

Not Clay. nor Calhoun. nor Benton.
nor Douglas, nor Fessenden. nor Conk-
ling. ever exerted as great influence
on federal legislation as this man has
for twenty years. Webster himself,
with his gigantic mind and matohless
| elOquenCe, never was the force in the
| American senate this man has been
! and is. George Evans fought the tar
| If battle of 1916 and lost Nelson w.
| Aldrich fought the Tariff battle of 1888,
1890, 1899 and 1897, ana won. He never
| lost trick The Wilson-GoFman tar
iff was as much the handicraft of Aid
rich as it was OF any other man. He
and Bill Chandler wrote the cotton
schedule, and it was for protection
| only. He. Chandler and Matt Quay
| wrote the iron and steel schedule. and
/ it, TOO, was for protection only, as is
attested by the fact that, three years
later, Dingley adopted them with very
little change and no change whatever
! except in the cOstlier articles.
Aldrich is no lawyer. no scholar. So
far as his public utterances attest, he
| is densely ignorant of history, and one
may well believe that he has cone mpt
! for general literature. l have else
| where oDined Of Nelson w. AldriCn
\ that Burke's magnificent political and
moral philosophy, couched in that mar
| velOus production, the speech IN The
| Nabpb of ArcOt's Debts would bore
| the senator from Rhode Island, Whiic
| if the most ignorant and iliiterate en-
| plOye of a Providence or FAN River
cotton mill should accost him in the
/ thrOng and say that he had a secret ds
| to dye-Stuffs that would save five
! cents on a bolt of calico or Bingham,
Aldrich would be spellbound by such
| elOqueECe. and run the thing down un-
| til he ascertained whether it were praC-
| teal OF visionary.
| x *
Like the late venerable Justin
! Morrill,, Senator Aldrich is q business
man, but ne could never bring to the
| discussion of an economic question the
/ literary finish. the historical illustra-
| ton, the happy al;uSiO1. the biting
| sarcasm, the old NermOnter summon
| ed every time he went ID debate with
/ such giants as Beck and Vest and
Vance. Morrill, was 4 CrOssrna Is store
/ keeper, but he vas also a sIudcns of
! books. Perhaps he had -ead Adam
Smith without grasDing the drift of
| that powerful inte.lec Doubtless he
had read Benthar Ill dis cussiOn with
Smith, digested his energy, faIIacy and
assimilated its every virus. Aldrich
cared for none Of these.
Aldrich does not convince nor does
he peTsuade-he dominates When
those big, black. brilliant eyes. from a
great big dome of though. give d
glance at another senator tnay read
him through and through. AM he dis
covers in a tWinlSling whether j. IS
worth While for Nelson W. AIdrich C
waste any time on that fellow. There
is the secret, the whole secret of the
mans strength. He has 4 powerful
and sometimes an imDeriouS viii. and
precious little important legislation has
been enacted by the American conero IS
for twenty years that he did not ap-
prove. and none that he did not as
sent 10. His cardinal principle Is That
mankind is composed Of tWu pan is
the rulers and the ruled. He IS no
demdgOgue: no hyDOcrite WiaI the
south visits on the negro in 4 political
way he would mete out to the muiSills
of the north. if he could discern q safe
and practical way to accomplish IT.
y
Ambrose +. Burnside a stout older
and an incapable captain, was repeat
eddy chosen governor of Rhode Island
after our big war. Then he was ele-
waited to the senate. succeeding VII
liam Sprague. who got the honor fer
his millions, and who was no iD-on-
siderable man, Notwithstanding his
vast wealth. In the senate Burnside
was a party man, and said yea and
may" as party politics dictated. Jiis
last appearance In that body was the
special session of the senate convened
by Garfield soon after his inlugurI-
ton. 1t is a rather formidable volume
in bulk that records the proceedings Of
that session, and in its pages Benjamin
II. Hin stands out in bold relief as the
most powerful .debater since Douglas.
He first skinned Malone, and then he
grappled with Conkling, Hoar, and
several other big men. and made mon
keys of them all. OF all our public
men, Ben Hill was the greatest when
measured by the length of his service
in the national Councils-two years in
the house and five in the senate. He
met all corners, including Blaine. Car
field, Carpenter. COnkling. Hoar LO-
gan and others, during those seven
years, less four months. and the blood
of al of them stained his beak and the
flesh Of all OF them was on his talOns.
Burnside died early in the autumn Of
1881, about the time Garfield expired,
and Rhode Island sent Nelson w. Adj
rich to supply the vacancy. He had
been trained in an academy; he had
been H. the town council; he had
served in the state legislature and been
speaker Of the house. His was perhaps
the first name on the alphabetical rLil
of he house of the FOrty-sixth con-
gress, a body that contained as many
able n-eH as ever sat in elaboration on |
Capitol hill. Get its roster and read |
the names of the members from Zen |
lucky and Ohio, Texas and Indiana, |
Georgia and Virginia. if you would |
take satisfaction in the thought |
There were giants in those days" In |
that congress to all appearances Aid |
rich was a cipher. He was no orator, !
and of all great masters of the Ameri- |
can congress he was, and is, the least |
loquaciOus. and yet he can talk. and
make strong speech when occasion
imperatively demands it.
X x <
When AldTich entered the senate the
Republican side had just lost it's tnTea
ablest men-Carpenter was dead, |
Blaine had left the senate for the Cabi-
net and was now in retirement writing
Twenty Years in Congress" COuk- |
ling. like many another great man of
genius, after resigning in indignation
at injustice, and in disgust of ingrati- |
tude. allowed himself TO be persuaded |
by his too jealous and indiscreet !
friends. and against his better judg- /
ment and contrary to firm resolution |
-Conkling allowed himself to be drag |
ged into a contest for reelection and |
was Inundated by the results. That |
is a history that / expect to see re-
heated in one of the leading southern |