The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-05-28
CHARLES A. CULBERSON
BY
Copyrighted by f.. v. %ewman>

Hubert. and a Sir b not lavish
Of praise. some years subsequently,.
when he made another xcepcionally
strong plea before that bench. Justice
GRAY again rent for him. and said
Young man. / have watched your
career, and am not unTnindful OF the
fact that the people Of Texas have
taken care hat o should not go un-
rewarded" chief Justice Fuller also
heartily commended him
IN 1894 Culberson was elected gov
ernor. DEFEATING the veteran John II.
Reagan for the nomination Two
wears later he was reelected. His ad-
mlnistration was enninently satisfac-
tory. and his fame went 10 the utter
most PARTS of the Union. when, with
bulldog determination, he banished
the prize ring from he State. II cost
a deal Of money. and no end OF Wig
ilance, but Christian civilization
cheerfully footed the bill and pnHced
the border. In 1899 Culberson be-
came a senator In Congress. and IS
now serving his second term. He is
q capital public speaker. but not a
w%hirlwind deciaimer. What he says
will set men ~a-thinking, rather than
~a-shOuting. He speaks the English
tongue, and neVers wanders from the
text. His style is that of the thinker
and the lawyer He never talks for
the galleries, but his addresses are to
the Senator'S.
Culberson is a party man through
and through; so was Lincoln; 80 Is
Roosevelt But Culberson, like all
great lawyers. is a conservative. He
does not believe in pyrotechnics. He
! suspects novelty. He will sooner cross
the river on a safe bridge than on 4
t~iEhtrOpe. He examines everything.
and no labor daunts him. Well
t. a aria ~ rtoI 2
party politics. he tests everything
by those principles. In short. Charles
A. Culberson is his great-great-grand-
the returned to life, n William
H. Crawford and David b. Culberson
live again in him.
T understand the Democratic IL
of the United States Senate is IN
search of 8 leader. Culberson has no
superior in tina body. No man Ia
more GIert-swifter to see n mistak g
Of the cncmy or prompter TO take ad-
vantage Of it. 1t NAV be objected
that he is a F2bius rather than Mar
cellus; but Fabius gave Hannibal
more concern than did Mnrcellus. Ia
bus saved Rome: Marcellus fell in
action. Culberson is perhaps the on
ly Senator the Democrats would
cheerfully follow. He does not create
a~ntagonisms. He has an admirable
:temper. He commands confidence
and wins respect. Leadership is as
necessary to a party as TO an army.
No man who saw the work of Thomas
b. Reed in the Fffty-second Congress
viii challenge the proposition. If
the Democrats of the Senate of 1907
OS are leo with half the skill the Re
publicans Of the House were in 1891
90, it will have a tremendous effect
on the political situation.
When the Southern Senators retir-
ed in 1861 and Douglas died, the
nc thn Snrotn In q
great deal worse fix than their sue
cessors arc in the present Senate.
They were a few in numbe and
without leadership. The two ablest
men among them were pOWerles; In
| the grasp of the demon of drink. Car
ret Davis was not yet a Democrat.
Lazarus w. Powell was discredited for
HIS southern sympathies. Latham
was more than half a Republican.
Turpie was a Senator but a few weeks.
Doolittle was yet a full Republican.
Hendricks was not yet a Senator.
Thurman did not come i'll until 1863,
There va no leadership, and very
nearly no party. Hendricks and Thur
man put a different face on things,
and it was the wise counse of Thur
man. supported by Bayard, Lamar,
Hull. and Casser!ey, that gave the
Democrats the Senate in the Forty
sixth Congress. It took twelve years
for the Old Roman to accomplish
it, but he had but a handful of sup
pOrters to begin with, yet he hewed
his way to the majority by the sheer
force of logic and the invincible
truths Of old-fashioned Democracy, a
principle that has never for one mo-
| ment been in n minority in this re-
publi2 since the ORDINATION of the
! Constitution of the United States. Til
! den saw with perfect vision when, as
carly as 1870, he made the declara-
I tinn. Frrha DpTnOrrofic marty WAS
never beaten when it was Democrat
ic."
But leadership implies discipline.
Will the Democracy be led? That is
the question, and there's the rub.
Senators are human Culberson Is
! yet young for 4 Senatorial leader.
Will the others follow? 1t is said that
Mr.. Roosevelt has chosen the Demo
cratic leader of the Senate. and Mr..
CulberSon is not the man. Mr.. ROoSe-
Welt has accomplished more impossible
things than any other man since Ma
| poleon F~onaparte. He * absolute
master of one party and claims an
option on the other. If the Demo
cratic party is going to take orders
from a Republican President. it is
useless to even think of Culberson
for the titular leader of such a layout.
If he is leader in name he VIII
be leader in fact, and the party in the
Senate would as we'll. or better, go
out of the political business as to
name q leader and then take orders
from the enemy.
With strong Democratic leadership
in the two houses of COngress-Cul-
! berSOn and Williame-the next SEES
sion of the American Congress would
be the most interesting within a gen
Grafton. and it woul benefcially af-
feet American politics for another
generation.