The National tribune., 1908-11-12
"HONOR" THE THEME.
Carmacl, of Tennessee, Assassinated.
Former United States SenatOr-A Bril-
liant OratOr-A Master of Inyective.
1t Causes His Death.
I'VE are such stuff
ora ,,aolA on. aud n,,, lif4In

we are SuCn SluI
AS dreams are made on; and our little
life
Is rounded with a Sleep
| More like meteor, tho, than a dream
| there flashed across the forensic field in
the great white temple OF legislation or
the hill a slender. stripling-like states
man and orator who pleased US for d
day, and now he is gone.
| Ex-United States Senator Edward
Ward Carmack, of Tennessee, was killed
in street duel with one-time friend
lin the streets of Nashville, Tenn, last
! Monday. Ungoyernable passion, famed
/ to white heat, was the cause of the
shooting. a one-time friend had for
saken the standard of Carmack, and he
youthful student of that master OF
invective, John J. Ingalls,, thru the col
| umns of his paper poured Yitriol on
reeking wounds, and the hair-trigger
pistol spoke in reply. The pistol was
not fired by the man whose vanity was
| hurt, however, but by his son. The eld-
er stood by with pistol in his hand to
| do execution if his son failed. The story
| goes that ex-senator Carmack was III
! the act OF raising his hat to speak to a
| lady when the younger Cooper rushed
| across the street and fired three shots
into the body of Senator Carmack, who
himself fired two shots before he fell,
wounding the younger man who had
fired the fatal shots
The man who felt himself aggrieved
was Col. Duncan B. Cooper, one time
the owner of the Tennessean, now
owned by Carmack, and the close per-
sonal friend for many years of the man
who now lies dead at the hands of that
friends son, Robin Cooper. The row
was over politics, pure and Simple-or
black and turgid, just as you like to put
it. Carmack had turned on Cooper be-
cause of his alliance with what Car
mack called machine politics"
The late Senator Carmack was COM
paratively young, but had achieved
much in the political world. He came
| first to the 55th Congress. He looked
like boy and acted like one, but he
spoke like a Nestor in politics, and
reasoned like a John Marshall. His
sentences were diamond polished, and
his words cut like damascened steel As
an orator he was irresistible, and his
speeches read like prose poems. He
was far and away finer than Bryan in
Bryan's best moments. He had posi-
bly, not the charm of personal appear
ance that Bryan had, but Bryan was a
blacksmith beside the Tennessean
when it came to fiinging tie English
language into space. Carmack had a
vocabulary like ingalls,, and in physique
was almost his prototype, except that
Carmack was red-headed and pink
checked, where ingalls, was dark and
Machavelian. but either would have
bartered hopes of heaven to make an
epigran.
This it was that brought about the
assassination of Carmack He was not
willing to let well enough alone. His
stael-like darts plunged and cut long
after it was necessary to torment his
adversary.
Representative Carmacls was elevat-
ed to the Senate in 1891, and served
but one term, being defeated for the
second one. In that staid old body he
was one of the most brilliant speakers,
one of the most logical reasoners ever
encountered. He struck right and left.
Ago, length of service, traditions never
touched him. He considered that he
had as great right to speak, to think,
TO act as the Oldest time server in the
body. and he parried thrusts with the
weightiest minds there, coming off vic
tor always. Blunt, brusque, bitter
tongued Tillman crossed swords with
him, and his gaping wounds did not
heal for many long months. Indeed
the two men were never friends after
wards
Carmack ran for Governor of Ten
nessee in 1907 and was defeated, largely
thru the influence of his old-time friend
Col Cooper
Hence the bitterness.
Col. Cooper is the personal friend of
President Roosevelt, and always dimes
with him at the White House when he
comes to Washington, which is fire.
quently.
When the physician reached Mr.. Car.
mack he was lying with cigar between
the fingers of his left hand and a fold
ed newspaper had Just fallen from the
same hand. His pistol was lying lust
out of reach of his right hand Two
bullets are said to have been fired from
his pistol. The shots that killed him
were three in number, two in the left
shoulder and one in the back of the
neck, which came out of his mouth,
breaking off two teeth. The killing is
deplorable and was premeditated, for
il is said that Senator Carmack had
been warned by letter what to expect
the first time the Coopers caught sight
of him IL he did not cease writing edi-
torials against the elder Cooper.
And Is the Cooper honor (?) as
suaged? Is honor ever upheld that
must be supported by black, unreason-
ing passion and the pistol or rapier?
What of the helpless and hapless wo-
men and children who must to their
dying day bear the weight of the Coop
er guilt?
Truly a mans idea of "fnonor' is a
suhtility that must be buried In the