The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-21

The pending matter demonstrates the wisdom of the rule It Is conceivaple | that where public Indignation has been aroused concerning member or this body whose right to seat IS con tested, candidates for the Senate In the various states, who base their appeal upon issues which they fancy will stir | the popular pulse rather than upon their character, their intellectual inde- pendence, and their record or patient service, might try the contests on the hustings and come into this body com mtted to reopen and condemn, With out having had the opportunity, or oI having been under the sworn duty Of
 reaching conclusion upon the facts Retrial under such circumstances would ha a disgrace to justice. MT. Presl- dent. 1t would humiliate me, as mem- Der of this body, if l were forced to the conclusion that the instance that l have just supposed is not altogether remote.
 q have heard 1t whispered around | this chamber that my conclusion Is op- posed to the conclusion of the major 1 ity of the Senate: that the recent cam paign for the republican nomination., In which the leading candidates, neither | of whom was or is charged with the | sworn duty of reaching conclusion upon the evidence, vied with each other | in decrying Lorimer, that this has iost his cause, and I have been advised to | drop I,orimer' and save myself.
 Fought in Civil War
 "Mr. President, entered the Con | federate army in April, 1881, because the state of Alabama had seeded from | the Union, and I believed their cause was righteous, and that 1t was my du- | tv so to do For four long. bloody | of Dixie. l sometimes in defeat and often to vic | torv became convinced before the | surrender that we could not succeed, | because we could not replace the brave men who fell on the field of battle. We
 were shut out from the world and could only draw recruits from the era i Ale The idea never came Into my mind that because we must inevitably | fall should desert to the enemy l stood by my colors facing death and defeat until Lee and Johnston surren- dered tre fragments of glorious armies whose fame will never die. The span | of my years may be shortened by the shot strIped by my breast in that fail- | ing cauro, but, all in all, my keenest | satisfaction in the past rests not upon | those moments when l swan with the tide but when I barred my breast, with 1 Ajax. and took the lightning. MT. Pres | ident. refuse to save myself at the | sacrifice of my convictions and my honor.
 "A great deal is being said these days. Mr PresiSen about the people ruIe--about restoring the people to rule. which I had not observed they | had lost nor they either. l imagine. am forced to concede that during the | generation of republican administra- tions, which are now passing. the in- | terests of the plain people seems not | to have been the inspiration of our na- | tional legislation. As have remarked, | I have no doubt that the popular lm- pression upon this question Is that I,orimer should be unseated. but l do not conceive 1t to be aiding the restora- | ton of popular government to substl- | ute popular impression for the sol- emnity of my oath as senator. The difficulty of inviting direct action or | inc peopIe upon measures, under our | svatem of government, is the physical | difficulty of presenting the facts fully land fairly, and of securing general lexpression from the people, rather than any distrust of their deliberate conclu- sions. When they know the facts their l judgment can be relied on.
 | "In this case the Senate is both lprosecutor and judge, dual relation that demands the greater care and he's itancy in resolving the burden of proof 1 for a judgment of conviction. The du-
 ties of the prosecutor are done; you | now sit as judges. And in that con nection it may have occurred to some minds that the present tendency to criticise this body would be in some degree relieved by the expulsion of Mir. | Lorimer, that your pride and the dig
 nity of membership in this body would l be protected or augmented by the ex-
 pulsion of a member enjoying popular | disfavor The merit of the Senate must
 be inconsiderable if it labors under | such necessity. There Is enough and more of Pharisaism in public life. Col
 Roosevelt declines to break bread at a 1 public banquet with an American citi-
 zen. convicted of no crime and proven