The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-08
Samuel w. Mccall, of Massachusetts
BY sAvoYARD.

thing of the past and will die with
Henry Watterson. l do not believe il,
unless the future is to have a Gree
ley, or Dana, or Prentice, or Watterson.
Let the present century produce crop
like these, and they will make per
sOnal journalism and a plenty of it,
for their clients. Personal journalism is
brilliancy of mind, earnestness of con-
viction, individuality of character, and
an audience. Could a man of the ge-
MUS of Jonathan Swift sink his per-
sonality? Not if he fled to the ut
termost parts of the earth to escape
his fame The same is true of Hazlitt,
of De Foe, and the other giants who
have made journalism the irresistible
power it is in every free land.
Sam Mccall could not sink himself in
the columns of the Advertiser. He had
doctrine to proclaim and a constitu-
ency made him their representative in
the state legislature, where he served
three terms, and in 1892 he was re-
turned to the Fifty-third congress from
the Harvard college district, and is
now serving his eighth consecutive
term. For man of hih tastes, train
ing and capacity Mr.. Mccall has most
desirable committee assignments. He
is chairman of the committee on the
library and third on the committee of
ways and means.
The fault to be found with McCalTs
Life of Thaddeus Stevens" is that it
is too brief Biography is what Charles
A. Dana said of a newspaper article.
No good one is too long; no poor one
is too short" But it is too early to
write the story of Stevens. just as it
IS too early to write the life of JEFF
ferson Davis or any other Of the Titans
of our mighty struggle, unless Lincoln
he
canonlzed at the south as we'll as al
the north. And a day will come when
the great virtues, the unselfish patriot
ism, splendid abilities and lofty char
acter of Jefferson Davis will be as
highly appreciated at the north as they
are at the south. But McCaI's literary
efforts were not confined to a single
production. Some years ago he deliv-
cred an address to the alumni of Dart
mouth on the life and character of
Daniel Webster that is Incorporated in
a volume and is widely circulated. Per-
haps no truer estimate of Webster has
yet been produced than this
Perhaps it would be better if it were
the law requiring a candidate for con-
greSs to stand an examination touching
his familiarity with the works of Ed
mund Burke before his name is print
ed on the ticket of his party If that
were so Sam McCalps name would head
the list of the select twenty of this
present congress eligible to a seat in
that body. Burke stands pre-eminent
as an enlightened statesman. product
OF parliamentary gOvernment-above
either Pitt, or Fox. or Clay. or Calhoun.
or Webster or Peel, or Gladstone
Mccall is a student of Burke and
constantly quotes him, the most quot
able of all statesmen. There is a
school of Democratic politicians in our
Roosevelt Democrat. He is not half
oROseVelt Democrat. He is not half
as much of a Democrat as Sam Nc
Call, who would not feel himself very
highly flattered when called Demo-
crat. Indeed, states rights is all the
democracy Mccall can boast-except
sound money-and Roosevelt cannot
boast even that. Ben Tilman has made
the miraculous discovery that Abe Lin
coin was a fair to middling Demo-
crat. and that would have been news
10 Ben's daddy and all his daddy's
neighbors. Lincoln spent his entire pol
itical life in a relentless struggle against
the Democratic party. He. worshiped
Henry Clay and execrated Andrew
Jackson. He was a COpperhead or
next thing to it. during the Demo-
cratic war with Mexico. He was for
the bank, for public improvements and
for a protective tariff. He suspended
the writ of habeas corpus. on his own
motion. and treated with contempt the
adjudication of the supreme court
The true Democrat of the jefferson
Tilden, JacksOn-CleVeland stripe be-
lieves that free government was estab-
lished among men to protect minorities
from the expressions of majorities and