The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-05-12

despotisn. yet it's car is elective, and
that gives the thing a sort of a demo-
cratic tinge. There is plenty of speech
making in the house, but there is no
elaboration What the speaker DEGREES
the house affirms. Tom Reeds body is
moidering in the grave, but his rules
are marching on. Debate in the house
is on Issues already determined. Bail
ey's speech in the senate the first ses-
sion of the Fifty-ninth congress con-
WINGED Hale, and that made tbs way
comparatively smooth for the rate bill
Nothing like that has occurred in the
house of representatives since the time
of Henry Clay and John Randolph, IL
the matter under discussion happeend
to be political,' unless IL was upon a
contested election case, such as Patter-
son VS.. carmack; but an issue like that
appeals to the personal interest of
each member. who may himself be
party to an election contest In the sue
eeeding, or other future, congress.
1t is high position among men to
be among the leaders of congress,
whether on the side of the majority or
the minority. Character is the main
thing; but other qualities are requisite
Intellectual capacity, tact. eloauence,
loyalty, industry, love of justice,
sincere regard for the public veal
Humphrey Marshall would have been
our greatest "commoner'' if he had not
been deficient in character. Tom Mar
shall served but a single term In con
gress; but he would have been first in
a body that numbered among its MEM
bership John Quincy Adams, Dixon H
Lewis, William Pitt Fessenden, Caleb
Gushing, Robert c. winthrop, Willard
Fillmore, Joshua r. Giddings and Hen
ry A. Wise IL his genius had not been
50 fu-iT1 n 70
wardness of his character and the in
temperance of his habits, he was the
first orator in the Twenty-seventh con-
gress and the match for the greatest
in forensic debate. Sometimes men do
not take the rank they might attain
in congress because of an Indifference
to the fame excellence in such body
brings. Proctor Knott was such a man,
and so is Carter Glass, a member at the
present time from Virginia. Sometimes
a man in congress gets a bad start
and never overcomes the adverse i'm
preston he makes. Cyclone" Jim
Marshall, of Virginia, was one.
X X y
But ii is a great senate, that house
of representatives, and mainly because
there is no royal road to preferment
there. No skill will turn a sow's ear
into a silk purse, and no preferment
designed for a tater-digger. mans
excellencies may be obscured in that
house, but his defects will stand out
brazen in the beams of the MONDAY
sun. 1t was said of Eugene Hale that
he owed his prominence in congress to
James G. Blaine, but Hale was states
man of high order the first day he took
his seat in the body presided over by
Mr.. Blaine. Not even the speaker pow
-c,,T I,o l. II Ia
mentary leader to order. Grosvenor,
Dalzell, Hepburn. Burton. John Sharp
Williams, Champ Clark, Bourke Cock
ran and men of that caliber, carved out
the places they attained by their own
efforts. Congressional life is a melee
where hard knocks. and nothing else
avail. Every head that stands fair gets
a lick; and hard ticks endured by a
congressman works wonders to his ad-
vantage. The scars they bore were tes-
timony that Caesars Tenth legion was
not made up of carpet knights. When
Conkling and Blaine so cruelty punished
each other, that bright May day, 1866,
they were training for the splendid con-
fiicts of the future, when one was to
be the idol or his party and the other
the acknowledged leader of the United
States senate.
Champ Clark is a conspicuous figure
in the national house of representatives
and the club he Yields is an effective
and powerful support to the rapier of
John Sharp Williams. 1t was his knowl-
edge of the history of American states
manship that so formidably and serv-
iceably armed John Quincy Adams for
the forensic contests he so frequently
engaged in. 1t was his familiarity with
the history of American politics that
made Stephen A. Douglas the first man
of the United States senate for the dec
ade 1S50-18e0. Champ Clark has paid
more attention to American history and
American biography than any other
man in congress. He made il a speciality
as Bailey made a study of constitu-
tional philosophy and constitutional
construction. Clark is not the accom-
plished man Williams is, not the bril-
liant man Carmack is, not the orator
Cochran is, not the lawyer Foraker is,
not the scholar Lodge is: but Clark
can tell Williams things about Missis-
sippi and Mississippians Williams never
heard of; he can tell Carmack things
about Tennessee and Tennesseeans Car
mack never heard of; he can tell Cock
ran things about New York and New
Workers. that Cochran never heard OF;
he can tell Foraker things about Ohio
and Ohio public men that Foraker never
heard of. And one can see Daniel
Webster, the man. more clearly by lis
tening to Champ Clark lecture on him
than he can get out of Cabot Lodges
life of him.
X x X
Clark could not have made that
speech on the powers and duties of the
house OF representatives delivered by
Bourke Cochran, in the Fifty-eighth
congress. Neither could Williams,
neither could Carmack, neither could
Foraker, neither could Bailey, neither
could Lodge, neither could any other
man in either house OF the American
congress, As an exposition OF the phil
osophy of parliamentary government as
ii should exist. and was designed to
exist, in this country. 1t is the greatest
speech the American congress ever
heard While Cochran delighted and
enthused the house, as he always does
he shot way over the heads of nine
tenths OF the members to whom the
thing was all Greek, and that is why
the speech died the day after IL was