The Cairo bulletin., 1914-01-29

intel States Senate.
i His nearest living contemporar;
| 7robab!y is Uncle Joe" Cannon
hose senior he Was some seves
ears by birth and three years In
,ationa, service.
Andrew Jackson was president oil
the United States when Mr.. Cuilom
was born in 1929 down in the Eli
'pring Valley of Kentucky, near the
cumberland where the Culloms o
Maryland and the Coffeys of North
lCarolina, drifting westward with tht
tides Of immigration that set in al
the close of the Revolution, founded
their carly home.
During the year 1929" Mr., Cul
lom recently wrote to illustrate the
epoch in which he began life, 9Th.
Crown of Great Britain descended
from King George the Fourth
King William the Fourth; ;ha
reign passed away and have live
to seq the long reign Of Viclori,
come and go; the reign of King Ed
ward come and go and the accessi0
of King George the Fifth. Charlie
the Fifth ruled in France, Franci
the First in Austria, Frederick Will
lam the Third in Prussia, NichCla
the First in Russia, while Leo tn
Twelfth governed the papal state
the Kingdom of Italy not yet hayin
come into existence The Unite
Kingdom of Great Britain and lrt
land had not yet population I
24,00O,0 900 all told. No man who Ia
not served his country in some CT
pacity in the Revolutionary We
had been elevated to the presidenc
of the United States and this was IL
case unil 1913"
Il Times and events in his ow
country were no less stirring al
his par. in them was marked Or
Kentucky was a slave state at h
birth, the controversy which was
hatch into great civil war was
the process of incubation, in fla
the Cuiicms moved to Illinois to
in a free state and Chicago then WI
a small village. The elder Cullo
was then a friend of Lincoln s, r.
commanding the struggling bacl
woods lawyer to prospective client
Young Cullom's first recollection Z
j the future war President was und,
such circumstances. Scraping {,
gether the rudiments of an educatio
gained by toiiing over rough prim'
val roads he became successfully
student at Mount Morris Academ
!. a country school teacher and lay
yer, being admitted to the bar a
{ Springfield in 1855
When he became City Attorney G
y Springfield he launched upon a pf
v litical career, which for a record c
i unbroken service, is unchalenged
&c eeding that of any other Amer
can. Among his first political OK
pericnces was the novelty of bein
y elected and defeated at the sam
eleotioin He was elected to TIA
legislature and defeated as an elect
or on the Fillmore ticket. Then cam
4 he historic Lincoln and Dougla
! debates and t'nlloms intimate asso
- ciation with Lincoln, whom he TO
lowed into the ranks of the Republ
an party. He presided over the SEES
ion d the Illinois House at whi,l
after Fort Sumter had been fire
upon, Stephen A. Douglas appearet
and made his dramatic plea for th
pr, servation of the Union. Durin
the first of President Lincolns sec
ond term Mr.. Cull0m came to uh
National House OF Representative
and began a work which was pra
tically interrupted cHly when h
served two terms as governor of II.
inols. Lincoln was assassinatc
soon after Cullon entered Washing
ton llt5 and the young legislator wa
a member of the committee that de
handed the return OF the President
body 10 Springfield. Then when tn
country began to recover from VIVA
. seemed a final blow and the recon
structiCn set in with the Thirty
ninth Congress, Culom began HI
; service with the Illinois delegation
: and with such colleagues in Con
: gress as Logan, Wentworth, Blaine
! Conkltag and Hayes and Garfield
@ both of whom attained the presi
n dency.
d After six years in the House dlI
ing which he had seen the impeach
" meat CT Andrew Johnson and take
part i'll the making of most crit
ical period of American history. h
. returned to Illinois vowing neve
il againg TO take Office only to becom
8 speaker of the legislature and late
a governor. At the Philadelphi
y convention he placed Grant in non