The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-12
LETTERS TO EDITOR
The Private Lives of the Democratic
 Nominees

 To the Editor of The Age Herald. If the private lives of two public men, brought together as have been
 those of Governors Wilson and Mar shall, were ever before so exceptional. it Is not a matter of record Men of high types of private character we have
 had before, but since the foundation of
 the government, 1t is. doubtful if such a connection of characters was ever be-
 fore had. So conspicuous are the char acters. not the reputation, of these two distinguished gentlemen that it is ! worthy of note. Both by virtue of | their private characters they are en- tirely beyond the reach of tho tarnish of the defamer or the slur of the de- tractor.
 Governor Wilson Is the son of one of the most eminent Presbyterian minis ters the south has ever had, and bore away from the parental roof the re- suits of a purity of training and an uprigbtness of life for the medication of which Presbyterian home life is characteristic. Contemporaneous with the father of Governor Wilson was his intimate friend, Dr. Woodrow, another eminent minister and scholar who four lished at Columbia, s. C., in the class
 of men who succeeded Dr. James H.
 Thornwell, of whom Calhoun said that
 he was the only man in whose pres ence he ever felt a degree of little ness.
 From conditions like these Governor Wilson came with as excellent moral equipment as men possibly ever enjoy in this world Thus privately qualified, he entered on his career as a young
 man, and the traditions of his early
 rearing have been preserved through the years which have rolled between. In the public life of America it is a
 matter of doubt if any one of superior private character ever entered. To this
 moral development was added a ripe
 ness of scholarship which excels that of any other man who has ever before been nominated for the presidency. John Quincy Adams was a scholar of some note, and the author of rhetoric popular in this early days, but his Iacquirements did not even approximate those of Gov Woodrow Wilson.
 In exaltedness of private character Governor Marshall is the equal of Gov ernor Wilson. Modest and unassuming,
 gentle and attractive in spirit. he is a
 universal favorite to those who know him. He springs from the best stock
 of family life, belonging to the Mar shall family which has been noted from the early days of the republic He is not only a man of ability but is em- phatically a good manS His life, pri- vate and public, is without stain or even reflection. Never poor yet never wealthy, De Is noted for his quiet and unostents Iious work of sympathy and of character. Many ragged urchin
 has he picked up off the streets and clothed and fed. Much has been the unpublished but substantial aid afforded
 struggling boys seeking to fit them selves for the rough encounters of the world.
 Governor Marshall was married long after he had passed manhood's mold, and has been husband only about IT years. His wife had also passed be- yond the blooming period of girllsh | years. Their home is noted for its | quiet cheer, with no children to grace their board save those whom they have
 aided at different times Never were
 man and wife happier and more mutu- ally devoted.
 l To have presented to the American public for its suffrage brace of can
 didates of type so exalted, inherently
 as we'll as officially is an occurrence
 so exceedingly rare that 1t cannot fail
 to arrest attention. They may be the l targets of attack, doubtless will be, in
 the scramble of partisan rivalry. but whatever may be said of them other wise, their characters are invulnerable. Their policies and opinions will of course be made matter of public dis cussion, in accordance with the rule of political campaigning. but their inner
 lives are beyond the reach of even the faintest hint of suspicion. Whatever
 may be the result of the preesnt con- | test. which is destined to be one of the
 most strenuous in our political history
 because, of the gravity of the issues involved. the public Is to be congratu- lated that 1t has before it two men of
 as superior worth as could be found
 among the millions of Americans 1 B. F. RILEY. Birmingham. July II, 1912.