Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-28
SHELBY CULLOM,
EX-SENATOR, DIES



reign of King Edward come and go,
and the accession of King George Y.
Y. ruled in France, Francis
I. in Austria, Frederick William III. in
Prussia, Nicholas I. in Russia. while
Leo XII. governed the papal states,
the kingdom Of Italy not yet having
come into existence. The United
Kingdom Of Great Britain and Ire
land had not yet a population of "a
100000 all told. No man who had not
served his country in some capacity
in the Revolutionary War had been
elevated to the presidency of the
United States and this was the case
until 1913"
The elder cuIlon was then friend
of Lincoln's, recommending the
backwoods lawyer to pros
pectiVe clients. Young Cullom's first
recollection of the future war Pres
ident was under such circumstances.
Scraping together the rudiments of
an education, gained by toiling over
rough, prlmeval roads, he became.
a student at Mount Nor
ris Academy, a country school teacher
and lawyer, being admitted TO the
bar at Springfield in 1855.
Became springheld's Attorney.
When ne became city attorney of
Springfield he launched upon a Doliti-
cal career, which for a record of un-
broken service is unchallenged as ex-
ceeding that of any other American.
Among his first political experiences
was the novelty of being elected and
defeated at the same election. He
was elected to the Legislature and de-
feated as an elector on the Fillmore
ticket. Then came the historic Lin
coin and Douglas debates, and Gull
lom's intimate association with Lin
coin, whom he followed into the
ranks of the Republican party. He
presided over the session of the Illi-
nois House at which, after Fort
Sumter had been fred upon, Stephen
A. Douglas appeared and made his
dramatic plea for the preservation of
the Union.
During the first of President Lin
coins term Mr.. Cullom came to the
National House of Representatives
and began work which was prac-
tically interrupted only when he
served two terms as Governor of Illi-
nois. Lincoln was assassinated soon
after Cullom entered Washington life
and the young legislator was a MEM
Der of the committee that demanded
the return of the Presidents body to
Springfield. Then when the country
began to recover from what seemed a
final blow and the reconstruction set
in with the Thirty-ninth Congress,
Cullom began his service with the
Illinois delegation, and with such col
leagues in Congress as Logan, Went
worth, Blaine, Conkling and Hayes
and Garfield, the last two attaining
the Presidency
Saw johnson Impeachment.
After six years in the House, during
which he had seen the impeachment
of Andrew johnson and taken part in
the making of most critical period
of American history, he returned to
Illinois, vowing never again to take
office, only to become speaker of the
Legislature and later Governor. At
the Philadelphia convention he placed
Grant in nomination for his second
term, in what is said to be the short
est nominating speech ever delivered
1t contained seventy-five words.
Cullom's career as a United States
senator began in 1888, when he re-
signed as Governor and was elected to
succeed David Davis. His service in
the Senate chamber was an unbroken
one for thirty years-five consecutive
terms-a record excelled only by two
other men, Senator Allison. of Iowa,
and Senator Morrill,, of Vermont.
He entered the Senate in 1888. a
spry, active man of fifty-four; he left
it in 1913, a fading, tottering man of
eighty-fou but with a brain still
bright and active.
On Hawaiian Island Commission.
Down through the administrations
of Cleveland, Harrison, Mckinley,
Roosevelt and Taft he held important
chairmanships when his party was in
power, finally that of the foreign re-
lations committee, generally consid-
erred the most important of the lot.
He had been chairman of the com
which devised form of gov
eminent for the Hawaiian Islands
after their annexation and had been
chairman of the committee which first
reported a bill for the creation of the
Interstate Commerce Commission.
His work as chairman of the foreign
relations committee since the Spanish
War is comparatively fresh in the
public mind. He was an ardent sup
porter of the peace treaties proposed
by President Taft and which were so
by the Senate that they
never were ratified.
Had Weakened Rapidly.
During the last few years his friends
had seen him slowly fading away In
body, and he became so feeble that
his voice in the Senate chamber was
not heard farther than the clerk
desk His term ended March 8, 1916
and he was appointed chairman of
the Lincoln Memorial Commission
created by Congress TO superintend
the erection of the S2,000,0 900 memorial
In Washington. The one wish eX-
pressed on his death bed was that he
might have lived to see the compile
ton of the national memorial to his
Did friend. His memoirs of fifty years
Of public service, finished only few
months before his final illness over
took him, concluded after this man.
ler:
CulIom Had No Fear of Death.
Il have no great fear of death, eX-
,ept the natural dread of the physical
pain which usually accompanies it.
certainly wish beyond any words ]
nave power to express that 1 could
nave greater assurance that there
will be reuniting with those we
owe and those who have loved US
n some future world; but from my
'eading of the scripture and even adj
that there is a hereafter, I
,annot find any satisfactory evidence
o warrant such a belief. Could l be-
ieve that ! could meet the loved
,nes who have gone before, I do not
know but that l should look forward
With pleasure to the passing across.
Not having this belief, l am quite
content to stay where I am as long
Is 1 can; and finally, when old
Charon appears to row me over the
liver Styx, shall be ready to go"
HARRlSON-EAST NEWARK |