The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-29

He is very conspicuous public man,
and deservedly so; but his fame will
be the less for the imperfect system
of parliamentary government our
iathers made for u.s. The builders of
our constitution feared the people as
much as they hated the despot Indeed,
license was more dreaded by them
than autocracy. Hence our govern
ment Is far from responsive to popular
demand. 1t Is even contemptuous of
It, One notable example was seen in
1890, when the people condemned the
administration Of Mr.. Harrison more
lemphattcally than any other admins
| tratlon was ever reproved before. or
has been censured since. Yet the ad-
ministration did not turn hair. but
kept the steady course it had before
pies will by men in power in mon
archical England would make a revolu-
ton swift and irresistible
| There is no doubt that II the despot
were endowed with the genius for adj
miniStration of Napoleon Bonaparte
and the sincere and infiexible love of
justice of Edmund Burke, an absolute
| monarchy would be the best govern
ment man has yet invented; but the
innate selflshness of our nature crops
out on the throne as well as in meaner
| place, and monarchy has produced
| more hateful rulers like Caligula than
it has wise princes like Marcus Azure
Illus. Absolutism has too many worth
less scamps like Henry of Valois, third
of the name, to be sponsor for. On the
! other hand, the rule of q populace
dominated by a Clean, is worse gov
eminent than the tyranny of Nero.
There is happy medium government
by the representatives of a people that
was evolved out Of the policy Of the
barbarian tribes who overthrow the
Roman empire and overrun western
| Europe from the Baltic TO the Mediter-
ranean. From them came the cortez
OF Spain, the states general of France,
/ the parliament Of England, the diet of
Germany and the congress of America.
| This thing Of government by represent
| atives chosen by the people exists in
| highest perfection in the united king
| dom of Great Britain and Ireland,
where the house of commons is the
ruler. In theory we have II in the
| United States; but it has degenerated
until Theodore Roosevelt is as much
the ruler of the American people as
| Henry VII was of the English, or Hen
ry " was Of the French.
If our fathers had not feared the peo-
| pie they would have established 1t that
the presidents cabinet should formulate
that cabinet, with a tenure of two
years, should be selected from the ma
| jority side Of the house of representa-
tives. That would have given US rep
resentative government. What we have
got is executive government A seat
in the house of representatives ought
to be the highest office in the land. The
president of the United States ought to
be as much of a figurehead as the king
of England. AS 1t is our president is
the most powerful and irresponsible
ruler in Christendom-
George Gilbert of Kentucky thought
Hepburn the foremost man In congress,
and declared that the next generation
would regard him as we do the
giants of thirty years ago-Blaine
Beck, Garfield, Lamar, Randall, Car
Isle, Ben Hill, Reed, Kasson and
others of that day. Under our sys-
TEN of presidential government Mr..
Hepburn plays a comparatively small
part. If we had real parliamentary
government, he would be one among
the half score real rulers with q seat
in the cabinet and the leadership in the
house of representatives. He is the
foremost orator on the Republican side,
place he has held without question
since the Hon. Littlefield failed to
make entirely good the promise of his
splendid maiden effort. Hepburn is not
a man of detail He generaliZes and is
exceedingly formidable in general po-
litical debate His chief fault is a lack
Of accuracy in statement, and in the
heat Of conflict he sometimes hits below
the belt He never convicted an enc
my Of political sin; but he is about the
best man in either house to inspire his
side for the conflict. In debate he is
no match for John Sharp Williams.
H. Ill I, t. 7
Is worth a journey from the Mississippi
to the Potomac to any Bourbon Repub-
lican to hear him pronounce the words
United States" when graphing with
some unpatriotic Democrat.
William P. Hepburn was born in Ohio |
in 1888 and has lived in Iowa since 1s41. |
He was 16 years old when Iowa be- |
came d state, and managed to get a |
tOleTable academic education. He was a
printer, perhaps an editor, but studied |
law and began the practice the year he |
attained his majority. As Hepburn de- /
seconded, no doubt, from colonel of one |
of those regiments James 1 sent to |
the continent to help his son-in-law,
the elector palatine, in the thirty years
war. and that subsequently went from
victory to victory under the eye Of Gus
tavus Adolphus, when war came to this
people in 1860, this young western law
yer left his Office for the field and was
lieutenant colonel of his regiment when
the struggle was ended. He was po-
litician from boyhood. and a delegate
in the Republican national convention
that nominated Abraham Lincoln In
1860. He was twice presidential elector
for the state at large-1S76 and 1888. He
did not gain a seat in congress until
he was AZ years old. and it is a pity
that he was not chosen to that body at
least twelve years earlier. He served
three terms, when he was appointed /
solicitor of the treasury by President
Harrison, but he was returned to the
Fifty-third congress in 1892, and has
been a mem Der of that body ever since.