The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-01-28
EX- SENATOR CULLOM
OF ILLINOIS DEAD
Former Nestor Of the United Senate
and a Conspicuous Figure
Fifty Years.

IndH week.
shelby Moore Cullom s death ended 7
% years of continuous public service I
that had made him figure in Ameri- /
man national life and brought him into |
ofheial relations with every President T
from Abraham Lincoln to Woodrow I
Wilson. President Taft once said of |
him:
why. here s my old friend Uncle |
Shelly; lie comes nearer connecting /
the present with the days of Washing /
ton than any one else whom | know.
As "A ploughboy driving his father ) |
oxen over the fresh pralrie of Illinois |
he had known and talked with surviv
ors of the Revolution and on the rug
ged foundation OF life begun in
pioneer hafdships OF family of i
children had built career that took
him to the Illinois legislature as d
| member; speaker oil the Assembly, two
terms in the governor s chair, service
in the National House of Represents
tiTes, and 30 consecutive years in the
| United States Senate
| His nearest living contemporary
| probably is :. Uncle joe Cannon,
whose senior he was some seven years
| in birth and some three years in
| national service.
Andrew Jackson was President of
the United States when Mr. Culom was
born in fs49 down in the Elk Spring
/ valley of Kentucky, near the Cumbef-
! land where the Culloms of Maryland
and the Coffeys Of North Carolina.
drifting westward with the tides OF
immi grafton that set in 1T the close Of
/ the Resolution, founded their early
| homo. Kentucky was 4 slave state
at his birth, the controversy which
WIS 10 hatch into a great civil war
Was in the process of Incubation, IN
:art the Gui ems moved TO Illinois 70
| hc II = free state anil Chicago then
,,as i small village The eldcr CulIon
was then Il friend Of Lincoln :, recon-
r.ending the struggling hackwoo'ts
| lawNer TO prospective clients. oul
| Culloln : first recollection Of the future
war President was under such clrcaII
stances. Seraping together the rudi-
ments Of an education gained by toll
ing oveG rough primcval roads he be-
came successfully a student at Mount
Morris academy. 4 country school
teacher AMI LAWYER, being admitted
t. the bar at Springfield III 1850.
/ When he became city attorney at
I Il
career, which for record Of unhroken
service. is unehallenged a. exceeding
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 defeated rs an
eicrtor on the Fillmore ticket. Then
came the historic Lincoln and Douglas
/ L 4 fsrEf IN Il
ton with Lincoln, whom he followed
into the ranks OF the Republican par
IL He presided over the session of
the Illinois House At which after Foay
Sumter had been fred upon, Stephef.
4. Douglas appeared aud made his
dramatic plea for the preservation 81
the Union. During the first Of Press
dent Lincoln : second term Mir. Cullom
came TO the national house OF repre-
sentatives and began a work which
was practically interrupted only when
he served two terms as governor of
Illinois. Lincoln was assassinated soon
after Cullom entered Washington life
ard The young legislator was a member
oF the committee that demanded tHe
return oil the President : body t.
Springfield Then when the county
began to recover from what seemed 4
fuel blow and the reconstruction set
in with the 39th congress, Cuiiom bc
gan his service with the Illinois dele
CATION. and with such colleagues in
congress aa Logan, Wentworth, Blaine,
Gonkling and Hayes and Garfield, both
of whom attained the Presidency.
After six years in the House during
which he had seen the impeachment Of
Andrew johnson and taken part ia
the making of most critical period OF
American history. he returned to IlI-
, no's. So~ing never again to take office,
only TO become speaker of the legisla.
ture and later governor. Al the Phil
adeiphia convention he placed Grant
in nomination for his second term IN
which is said to be the shortest nom
mating speech ever delivered. 1t con
tanned only - words.
| Cullom : career as a United States
senator began in 1888 when he resign
ed az governor and was elected TO sue
eeed David Davis. His service in the
| senate chamber was an unbrolen one
: for 50 years-fve consecutive terms
? Il record 6Ncelled only by two other
men, Senator Allison of Iowa and Sen
y ator Morrill, of Vermont.
lie entered the Senate in 1883, a
a spry, active man Of -, nc left it in
t 1918 fading, lettering man of 81 but
with brain still bright and active.
: Down through the administrations OF
Cleveland, Harrison, Mckinley, Roose
Welt and Taft, he held important chair
r nanships when his party was in power
! finally that Of the foreign relations
. committee, generally considered she
. most important of the lot.
:, During the last few years his friends
!, had seen him slowly fading away il
! body and lie became SO feeble that his
q voice in the senate chamber was not
i heard farther than the clerk Is desk
: His term ended March ), 1913, and he
y was appointed chairman Of the Lincoln
memorial commission created BY Con
: gress to superintend the erection OIL