The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-03-29
WILLIAM O'C. BRADLEY
BY oYARo.

x IR. WILLIAM JENNINGS BRY-
M AN is a. maker of happy
I phrases His latest-"emb ez-
element of powers fortunate, fine,
felieltous. And there are few to dis
agree with the peerless one when he
makes declaration that it is more
wicked to usurp power than to steal
money. In proof of this I need only
to cite two episodes of the matehless
ones" political career.
In 190O-st. Jackson's Day of tha
year-Mr. Bryan made a speech at a
banquet in the city of Frankfort COM
monwealth of Kentucky, in which he
advised the legislature, then in ses-
sion at that capital to en1b ezzle the
power to reverse the decision of tn 2
people of Kentucky. as expressed at
the election some weeks before Act
ing on this advice, the legislature did
embezzle the power indicated ami
turned out of offices persons duly
elected thereto and put in their stead
others whom the people had rejected.
Unnumbered woes followed this usur-
patton, and unshirted political sheoI
has had Judgment in old Kentucky
ever since.
Early in the present year of 1908
the peerless" and the matchless"
again appeared before the Kentucky
legislature, democratic in both houses,
and made a speech in denunciation ~
embezzlers of power. Again the legis-
lature accepted his counsel and de-
feated for United States senator a Mr..
Beckham, who, in his reign of some
eight years, embezzled more power
than all the other Kentuckans togeth
er since the bloody drumhead courts
martial of the vile the bane the afro
cious. the forever Infamous Stephen G.
Burbridge.
And now Mr.. Bryan is quarreling
with the Kentucky legislature for re-
buking and defeating a fragrant and
nefarious embezzlement of power. But
what angers Mr.. Bryan is the fact
that the action of the Kentucky leg
islature in choosing a senator in Con-
gress to succeed James B. McCreary is
notice to the democracy of the entire
republic that if that party desires the
vote of Kentucky in the electoral col
lege this year it must not offer Will
liam Jennings Bryan as its candidate.
Nothing is palmer than that.
William O'Connell Bradley has in mis-
veins the blood of the great Irisn
orator and agitator, Daniel O'Connen,
and has inherited much of the elo-
quence. as well as the name, of that
remarkable man. Bradley was bor;l
at Lancaster, KY, March IS, 1917, the
day Grover Cleveland was 10 years
years old. His father, Robert NJ.
Bradley, was an eminent lawyer one
of that corterie of iurists of that gem
Grafton such as Madison C. Johnson,
Ben Hardin, George r. Mckee, George
Robertson, Elijah Hisc, and Humphrey
Marshall, any one of whom without
special preparation, would have been
capable of lending valuable aid to the
most learned jurists of England in the
expounding of English Jurisprudence.
These men were deeply grounded in
the PHILOSOPHERS of the law. They not
only knew what the law was; but why
it was.
"Old Bob" Bradley, as he was famil-
iarly and affectionately called, was one
of the most consummate practitioners
at the Kentucky bar, when that ba-
was unsurpassed for skill. learning,
and eloquence by the bar of any other
state of the Union. His speciality was
what they called in the Kentucky %
that day, land law" and he lent val
liable aid to the bench of that state,
who rendered the decisions that made
the ldnu law OF kentucky the grand
ediice of legal Jurisprudence it is uni
versally conceded to be, surprising
that erected in even Old England her
self as to land titles. If one would
know the perfection of human rea-
son" from its richest lore he must go
to the Kentucky decisions settling land
titles to obtain 1t.
Young Bradley studied law in his
fathers office, and came to the bar by
operation of an enabling act of the
legislature at the age of 10. He was
an apt pupil, and had inherited the
plain common sense of his father, to
which, in him, was added the gift of
eloquent speech. AS a practitioner he
is the equal, especially at nisi prius,
of any lawyer in the state. A power
full advocate, he has won verdcts in
many desperate case, while his
knowledge of the principles of the
law makes him exceedingly formida-
BILE in the superior courts.
While his biographies in the en-
rx~ a1r,, 1fr,a. ,.n1..