The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-07-07

And the king said unto his ser
wants, Know We not that there is
prince and a great man fallen this day
in Israeli"
The centuries that separated the lives
of the Brutus who banished TarQuin
and the Brutus who slew Caesar did
not witness more changes in Rome
than John T. Morgan saw in America
between his first day at the bar in 1S45,
and his last day in the senate In 1907.
He was of the old south that Is history
and romance, honor and glory. There is
all the difference between the old south
and the new that there is between
fame and notoriety, between John T.
Morgan and John T. Graves.
Not a great while before his death
John G. Calhoun, the profoundest think
err, the most eminent statesman and the
greatest man the cotton south has pro-
duced, went on a tour of the then
southwest. His journey extended TO the
Mississippi river, and he was at Mem
phis and New Orleans He tarried some
days in Alabama, where Dixon II. Lew
is had long contended for, and William
r. King had just as long striven
against the doctrines of the illustrious
South Carolinian, and in Alabama he
posed notification in South Carolina
in 1880, and John T. Morgan, then in
his youth, the flower of which gave
promise Of the rich and golden fruit of
mis- maturer manhood. IT was the pc
riod of the Wilmot proviso that spe-
officially asserted that the south had
not equal rights with the north in the
United States and the laws made in pur-
with both Yancey and Morgan and they
fell in with his views touching the po-
sition the south should occupy in the
then political crisis. Secession would
have come then but for the compromise
Henry Clay patched up in 1850.
When secession did come Yancey and
Morgan both Loyalty and grimly sup
ported il. Morgan, though a public
men. had never held public office other
that presidential electOr. He was
leader of the bar of his state and his
section. He was that happy compo-
site-a learned lawyer and an honest
man. He never sought Office. His
granduer of character commanded 1t.
He would as soon have begged his
bread as TO solicit a vote. He went be-
fore the people and discussed public
questions: but he spoke for Alabama.
the highest would have been valueless
to him and a thing to be scorned if
bestowed on condition that he surren-
der the least conviction he had on the
least political issue imaginable.
That was the old south, and John T.
Morgan was an old southerner. 1t and
he had but one creed-loyalty to obliga-
tion-which is nothing but fidelity to
conviction and constancy to plighted
AaTI 4FA f1In
eminent has no title to rule except
what is nominated in its deed. made by
the states and called the constitution
of the United States. II is an instru-
ment as binding on the grantee as 1t is
on the grantOr. The design was this
simply this--to restrain majorities. We
hear a heap of slush about govern
ment by the people" and all that rot,
as though the people are infallible and
can do no wrong, when one who has
the merest smattering of history ought
to know that the only use in the world
of free government and the only thing
for which il was ever instituted. Is to
keep the people from doing wrong. If
the people could do no wrong there
would be no use for any government
whatever. This government of ours was
MADE for no other purpose thaD 10
keep the people from doing wrong. We
d n
and then don't get what We contract
for. Whenever you see q man going
up and down the earth bowling gov
eminent by the people" spot him.
watch him. He's got a cloven foot
somewhere about his person, and give
him time and he will show it.
Morgan understood the thing. You
never heard him bowling about gov
| Il
faithful to the constitution, which is
government by the representatives of
the people. That is the stuff. Our an
cestors in England invented it; our
fathers in America improved on it. 1t
is in all the state constitutions that are
over thirty years old. 1t is the soul of
the system of government we call a
republic. 1t is the only free govern
ment in the world. The one meaner
government than the Persian despot-
ism of Darius and XerXes was the pure
democracy Of Athens. Midway between
the two is representative government.
And where is the candid man to say
that We have not been reasonably sue
cessful under representative govern
ment? Why not bear the blessings we
have a little longer rather than fly to
fads we know not OFF II is very good
constitution, and very good govern
ment. we might go turther ana rare
worse Indeed we might.
John T. Morgan came to the bar in
1S45, when 81 years Of age. 1t was a
powerful intellect with which he was
endowed and it was a grand character
that he made. Like all southern gen.
tlemen of that age. Morgan devoted
much study TO government. He was
deeply read IN history, and he was 81
laborious and profound thinker. He
was on the stump in every campaign
and a leader of that people. as splendid
citizenship as the world ever saw.
When the inevitable struggle came he
went with mis- state. entered the army
as a private, and by his valor earned
the rank of general of brigade When
defeat overwhelmed the south it left
him bankrupt in everything but man
hood and character.
He returned to his profession and
again took his place as leader of his
people. The fatuous fanatics of the
north thought they had made John 7.
Morgan, the highest type of Saxon, the
subject of Jerry HARRISON, cottonfield
negro. The Saxon was disfranchised.
The negro was sent to congress- The