The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-01-17

IN that BODY was filled and every state
represented.
Judge Winston mex considered Matt
w Ransom as a Senator. n de-
clared that for a quarter of a CEN
fury, save two years, no State ever
had a more safe or efficient public SER
want. He quoted from his great
speech of 1875 which consumed eight
hours in its delivery. The South
True to Her Duty" At the end Of this
speech Senator Ransom fell fainting
upon the floor and had to be carried
from the chamber. This speech pro-
foundly impressed the distracted Ma
ton at the time, and has become 9
part of the literature Of the age. SEN
atOr RanSOm's course in the Senate
was one of peace and reconciliation
In order to pursue this course, the
Senator often trod the w1nepress alone.
In 1876 when Tilden was elected
President, the country was threatened
with civil war. Ransom and other
conservative men from the South sue
tceeded in raising a committee, or
! which Ransom was one, TO take into
| consideration the entire question of
the electoral vote. This he die al
though he knew that he was in danger
of being criticised at nome. Only a
brave man is willing to lose when in
losing he destroys himself and thereby
saves his country. Such a man was
Au Il w dAASoAi - ioSt lis 1
dent, but he helped to save the Ma
ton.
His services as chairman of the
committee on the Potomac Fronts
We're of great value to Washington
Cit.. This committee reclaimed a,
large quantities of marsh land and
added greatly to the beauty Of our
Capital City.
Senator Ransom voted to confirm
Stanley Matthews as Justice Of the Su-
preme Court and was roundly criticised
for it at home, but the next year the
tables were turned, for Stanley Mat
thews cast the deciding vote in the
case of United States vs.. Lee, thereby
restoring General Lees home, "Arling-
tom or its value, to his children.
He was chairman of the important
committee on commerce, and was the
National committeeman from this
State. Perhaps his most useful serv-
ice along commercial lines We're in
securing large appropriations for our
rivers and harbOrS and in deepening
the Cape Fear, to the great advantage
of Wilmington, u chief seaport city.
Step by step he rose in the councils
of the Nation until he was finally made
President prote1npore Of the Senate,
the only Southern man since 1861 who
has been accorded this honor.
In 1898. Senator Ransom took his
1AS IL I1S d1Iu alu NOlSO
to repeal the silver purchase clause
Of the Sherman act and thereby es-
tranged thousands of friends in his
native State.
The great property interests of the
country came to IDOL upon him as
n of the safest men at Washing-
ton. His speeches on the stump were
free from personality. The old sold
ierS came out to a man to hear him;
grasped his hands and brushed away
the unbidden tear. His speeches were
usually three hours long, but no one
ever quit the meeting while Ransom
was speaking, and even his political
opponents Were captivated by his
loftiness and 1attered by his atten-
tons. 1t may be truly said Of his can
vass Of our State. that his speeches
were so lofty and elevating and his
illustrations and anecdotes SO classic
as to elevate and ennoble our citizen
ship. Ransom was in a sense a SOL
itary man. He had few friends, bu,
they were true as steel. Great men
are by nature solitary says Aristotle.
Senator Ransom was no such trained
lawyer as Senator Badger. He was
not "a student and a scholar like SEN
ator Graham. He had not the tech
nical knowledge of Senator Haywood,
nor was he the popular idol like Sen
ator Vance, but in his influence with
the President of the United States,
with the departments, and with his
colleagues in the Senat and in the
services which his peculiar talents
enabled him to render to the South,
he was superior to them all. In fine,
Ransom was the Senator, every inch
Of him. When he took his seat in
that august body he made a fixed
resolve so to conduc himself in his
high office that the best thought of
| the world would approve his conduct,
and that mo critic could point to
North Carolina as a narrow or provin-
cial State. His greatest service to
the State was in the defeat of the
force bill in 1888. Senator Hoar, in
his autobiography, tells US that he
had gone around and seen every Re-
publican Senate and that they had
all agreed ITO support his election