The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1919-06-13
Book OF Life Ends
For Brilliant Man
Ex-senator SpOOner Of Wisconsin
Passes Away After Playing Prom
inent Part In Political And DiplOm.
attic Life Of The Country

b
nesday, June II, at the age of rs, af-
ter having led an active life in which
he played a prominent and brilliant
part in the political life of the United
States.
Sixteen years a United States Sena-
tor from Wisconsin, each one of
which, in the words of President
Roosevelt, was "a direct financial
loss which he could i'll afford" John
Colt Spooner ~relinquished the posi-
ton with which the Legislators of his
state had thrice honored him and re-
tired in 1907, two years before his
completed term, to reenter the private
practice of law and acquire a com
petence for his family and himself in
his declining years.
Authority On international Law
Regarded as one of the ablest con-
stitutional lawyers, a brilliant debat-
er and one of the greatest authorities
on international law in the upper
house of Congress, Senator Spooner
llhC q lew VI Ills ldLIlOuS 7"
notably Roscoe Conkling, John G.
Carlisle, Thomas Bracket Reed and
George F. Hoar-left public office a
poor a During the twelve years
York he was counsel in much import
ant litigation, including the Federal
government suits against the Trans
Atlantic shipping pool, the Naval
Stores and Oregon-California land
grant cases.
Born in Lawrenceburg, Ind, Janu-
airy 6, 1S43, the son of Judge Philip
Spooner, who removed to Madison,
old, the future Senator received his
A. B. degree from the University of
Wisconsin in 1864 after having served
with distinction in the Union army in
the Civil War. Young Spooner en-
listed as a private in Company A,
40th Wisconsin Infantry and for gal
lantry in action vas promoted to
captain and brevet major in the 5Oth
Wisconsin Infantry shortly after
reaching the age of 81.
After the war he became private
secretary to Governor Lucius Fair
child of Wisconsin (1S66-67). Upon
admission to the bar he was appoint
ed an assistant Attorney General and
engaged in the practice of law at the
capital, Madison, where he remained
until 1870 when he removed to Hud-
son, Wis, with his family. He was
a member of the Wisconsin Assembly
in 1872 and later a regent of the
University of Wisconsin.
First elected a United States sena-
tor in 1885 he served with marked
distinction in that body until 1891
when he was succeeded by William
F. Villas, Democrat, receiving, how
ever, the full vote of the Republican
members of the legislature for re-
election. The following year he was
unanimously nominated as Republican
candidate for governor of Wisconsin
but was defeated.
Returns To Senate
In 1897 he was returned TO the
United States Senate and before the
completion of his term announced his
purpose not to be a candidate for re-
election but, Notwithstanding this, the
Republican Legislators of Wisconsin
in 1903 unanimously voted to send
him back to Washington where for
more than a decade he had won re-
nown as a debater and conciliator of
party factions.
During these years of service Sena-
tor Spooner's name had become in
separately attached to many measures
of historical importance, such, for
instance, as the amendment creating
the civil government of the Philip
pines, al amendment to the Sherman
antitrust act which made possible
the prosecution by the Federal gov
eminent of the Standard Oil Com
pany, and the law under which the
Panama Canal was constructed. He
was a consistent opponent of the so
called Nicaragua route.
AS chairman Of the Senate Com
mittee on Claims in his first term he
saved the United States, it was said,
hundreds of millions of dollars sought
by unjust litigants against the gov
eminent and later was largely re-
sponsible, as the moving spirit of the
Senate Committee on Foreign Rela-
tions, for the ratification of the Cuban
the Dominican and the Algeciras and
many other treaties. OF the Algeciras
international settlement, it has been
said II avertnd mnrn than ten rnnrc