Evening journal., 1911-12-18
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Politics Of the Leader
Of the American Bar
By Holland.

ne ialc James 4. carter OF New
York, was, after the retirement of
William NJ. Evarts from practice as Il
lawyer, regarded as the leader OF the
American bar. Mr.. Carter was a man
so devoted TO his profession that he
never permitted any distraction from
his services TO what he called the ieal-
ous mistress of the law He was one of
the counsel to present, in 1892, The
claims OF the United States before the
Bering Sea tribunal
For years even Mr. Carter's most
intimate friends did not know whether
! he called himself a Republican or Il
! Demacrat. In the first campaign for
the election of Grover Cleveland as
! President, Mr.. Carter was believed TO
have allied himself with that large
body of Independents who were called
| Mugwumps. 10 was also presumed
that Mr.. Carter supported President
Cleveland in his second campaign for
the presidency-that of 1883 But as
he kept his own counsels no one really
knew with which party Mr.. Carter al
lied himself
The fact was, however, that Mr. Car
ter became a Democrat i'm 1890 and
the circumstances which led him TO
associate himself with the Democracy
! am now able TO tell the narration
being the first time the fact has beon
published
The so-callod Mckinley tariff law
was put upon the statute books in the
summer Of 1890. William Mckinley
framed tho bill and was chairman OF
the House Ways and Means Commit
tee which reported il. Many Republi-
cans regarded the bill as carrying ex-
cessive or unjustifable tariff sched-
ulcs. This telling was as strongly
manifested in New York City as else
where.
About two months after the bill be-
came law, Mr.. Carter took luncheon
one day with the members of a com
mittee which had been appointed to do
some legal service and of which Mr.
Carter was the chairman. One Of tho
committeeman said to him.
Mr. Carter, have you heard what
your friend Joseph II. Choate said
when he was asked what he thought
of the Mckinley law?'
NO I have not heard" Carter re-
piled. What did Choate say?"
All that Choate would say was this
1t isn't necessary for a man TO be all
kinds of a fool because he is a Re-
publican
That was Choate's humorous way
of expressing his opinion" Mr.. Carter
said. Now, although you have not
asked me. | will express mine Gentle
men, | have never voted full Demo-
cratic ticket, This fall, in our state
election, | am going, for the frst time
in my life, to vote the full Democratic
ticket, and ] shall continue to do that
until ] see cause for refraining. That
is my attitude on the Mckinley law
Then, after pausing a moment, Mr..
Carter continued: Il have long
thought that / ought to have been a
Democrat and there was only one thing
which stood in the way Of aligning
myself with that party. That was
moral cowardice. | have now con.
quered that weakness, and this fall
am Democrat"
Yet six years later Mr.. Carter aban-
doned the Democratic party and gave
his cordial support to William Nc
l<inlcy as candidate for President. al
though it was the Mckinley law which
caused him for the first time in his
life to vote the Democratic ticket in
1890 and again I'm 1892. And for the
first time the friends of James c. Car
ter learned by his confession what his
political party associations had beer
aud they were astonished, for they
were numbered among those who be.
lieved that Mr.. Carter was az Mug.
wump i'm 1884 and warm supporter
of Grover Cleveland in 1883.
Copyright. 1911. by e. J. Edwards
All rights reserved)
Tomorrow MIR. Edwards will tell O
"An Incident Of Presidential Politics
in 1854"