The Democrat-sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1906-1935, 1907-01-24


debate. My personal intercourse
with him has shown him to be con.
genial, generous and obliging.
'I can remember with what
frank energy he used to wave the
bloody sbirt--the shirt stained
blood-red by the crimson currents
of his own rhetoric. can re-
member when he used to go raging
over the land bifurcated, peri
patetic bob-tailed volcano in per-
petual eruption belching forth fire
and smoke and molten lava in
agonized and tumultuos volleys.
/ can remember when the Senator
used to bespatter the South with
the gall Of his bitterness until /
sometimes thought be wished all
the white people of the South had
a single head that he might sever
1t with blow. But / will not do
the Senator the gross injustice Of
judging him by the words of his
own mouth. When asked by
friends in the South if he really
is fierce as he sometimes seems, |
tell them no, that his ferocity is
purely oratorical.
'T think it prefer to say that
any report that Senators may have
heard that the President personal
ly solicited my support in this
matter, that he urged me to for
give aid forget certain energetic
personal remarks and begged me
to stand between him and those
twin enemies of his Administratio
the Senators from South Carolina
and Ohio, is a gross exaggeration
| will not say that it is an infa-
nous falsehood, because such Ian
guage belongs to the vocabulary of
Presidential controversy rather
than that of senatorial debate.
"Nor is it true, as Senators may
have heard, that have been
moved to undertake the Presidents
defense because of my infatuated
devotion to the man. / have a
great admiration for that strong,
brave, large-minded gentleman,
the Secretary of War. Any mis-
representation of the President is
more temperate and subdued. In
the language of Hamlet, st waits
upon the Judgement Seriously,
/ suppose there is no Senator, al
ways with the exception of my
friend from South Carolina Mr..
Tillman |, who is less likely than
myself to be suspected of excessive
partiality for our present Chief
Executive. The President once
said that he would sea certain
member of the Tennessee delega-
tlon in hades before he would do
anything for him---a remark en-
tirely gratuitous in view of the
fact that the person supposed to
have been referred to had never
asked favor at his hands, but,
with supreme Indifference to his
good opinion, had criticised him
when he was wrong and with like
indifference to his good opinion
can support him when he Is right.
81 care so little for the hasty
ebullitions of that remarkable man
that | can see-what he himself
could never see in any man who
expressed an opinion contrary to
his own-I can see the good as
well as the bad in his public con-
duct, and judge both without pas
sion or prejudice.
Sin this case it seems to me that
he has acted with remarkable
freedom from impulse, with un-
usually careful deliberation and
with anxious effort to do nothing
more nor less than complete justice
to all concerned. Indeed, 1 am
haunted by the suspicion that the
President was the more careful to
ascertain the facts and to keep
within the limits of the law be-
cause the offenders were colored
than he would have been if they
were white.
$50 far as the negro race is
concerned the only charge that
can be justly made against the
President is that he has loyed the
negro not wisely but too well.
There is something pathetic in the