The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-14
XUTHEN this man resigned from the NA/ United States senate he left a
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NV HEN this man resigned rom the
 VA/ United States senate he left a
 w big space to fill. When the sen- ate was in academic discussion he was the leader of his party, and his party was the majority. The party and the country will miss him. The morning hour' without spooner will appear strange, and work on the calendar without Spooner will cost the treasury a pretty penny. In my time at this capital, now approaching thirty years, John c. Spooner was the best watch dog" of the whole lot, and made the least noise of any one of them. He was indispensable when big bills were before the senate; he was ever present and ever vigilant when little bills were considered. Charles Sumner had superlatve contempt for lit tie things. It took what he conceived to be n great moral idea" to put him in nction. The morning hour filled him with ennui; the calendar" was his spe- cldI aversion Andy Johnson classed him among the great men who aint fit for nothing"
 Spooner did not want to leave the senate He loved the work, and he knew he was fit for the work. Never an OK that labored harder than he, never public man more faithful to his trust. He gave his best years to his country in the field and in the council, and when three score years and four had passed over his head he left the senate poorer man than when he entered 1t, either in 1885 or 1897, and set about to make an estate to keep his children in comfort after he shall be gathered to his fathers. He had gained the applause of many good
 IrT1 .latt even of churls, who would sooner have condemned him, and did backbite him. But when history with Rhadamanthian pen shall make the roll of great sena- tors, high on the list will be the name of John c. Spooner.
 The town of Lawrenceburg, in the state of Indiana, is within a stone's toss of Kentucky, and Kentucky was a slave state. Spooner was born at Lawrence burg in 1S43, and his father. of Puritan stock, concluded that Lawrenceburg was too close to barbarism for him to bring a family up in that community; so he moved to Wisconsin in 1859, a state then in judicial rebellion against the United States on account of the fugitive slave law and the Dred Scott decision, both of which Wisconsin nullified on the advice of Carl Schurz. Like everything else in this country, notification was a local question-treason at the south and pa triotism at the north.
 Spooner went to the big war as a pri- vate and returned a captain. He saw ar duous service and he saw dangerous serv- ice. He was brevetted major for gallant conduct. When peace came he was made private secretary to Gov. Fairchild, and fin 1867 he was called to the bar. He had a superior legal mind, and he was indus trious and loved the profession. In a lit- tie while his practice was ample, and he was a rising lawyer. He was a member of the legislature in s72, and held other positions of trust by appointment.
 Spooner was elected Senator in Con gress to succeed Angus Cameron in 1885. Cameron's chief title to fame is that he defeated Matt Carpenter for United States Senator in 1872. Carpenter was