Radio Script #338
Little Talks On Common Things
May 19, 1957
I want to cal I your attention tonight to an important book for anyone who is at a II interested in how our nati ona I government functi ons. And a I J of us ought to be interested, for the federal government, as time goes on, more directly affects everyone of us — in our pocketbooks, in our rights and duties, in our ways of life. The book I recommend to you i s ca I led HCi tade I: The Story of the U. S. Senate”, and was written by Wi I Ii am S. White, chief Congressional correspondent of the New York Times.
Th i sis a book wri tten not to p ra i se nor to condemn the pecu J i ar i nsti tution which is the U. S. Senate. Its purpose is rather to explain the instituti on, so that we Ameri cans can better understand the club-I i ke, precedentri dden, yet the safe-guardi ng, nature of the upper house of our Congress. Have you often wondered why the practi ce of fi I ibusters isn’t stopped, why hide-bound rules prevent legislation, why a few Southern senators have such tremendous influence in the body, why Senate investigations flaunt our Constitutional liberties? Mr. White gives you the answers.
But he shows just as clearly the virtues of the. Senate: its deliberate composition to preserve the American system of state equality, emphasizing that we are sti I I a un i on of independent staTes, a Repub I i c rather than a democracy; and its place as the one strong bulwark in the nation to preserve the rights of minorities from the precipitate and emotional tyranny of majorities.
Of the much publicized Senate investigations, Mr. White says they are good, bad and mixed. When they concern policies or government departments, they can be good or mixed, but when they attack individuals, they are, in White’s opinion, uniformly bad, because the investigation then assumes the nature of a court trial, without giving the accused the legal benefits of a court. We have only to recal I the abuse of witnesses in the McCarthy hearings to see an outstanding examp Ie of Mr. White’s contention.
3 ut Senate i nvesti gati ons, when concerned wi th high po Ii cy” even though encumbered by consideration of personalities, can be decidedly good. Such, says White, was the MacArthur investigation. Sympathy of the country was clearly with the General and against President Truman. Emotion ran high. White, who was present in the press gallery when MacArthur told a joint session of Congress that “old soldiers just fade away?!, said of that event, HThe atmosphere was the most curi ous Iy ernoti ona I I have ever seen in servi ce as a correspondent, including covering D-Day in Normandy, the liberation of Paris, and the death of Frank lin Rooseve It.”
Under the chairmanship of Senator Russel I of Georgia, the Senate Committee made its investigation in a dignified manner. refused to be stampeded by popular shouting. Democrats and Rep ub I i cans a like Only the Senate saw clearly the fundamenta I issue at stake. Was the: pol icy estab I i shed by the foundi ng fathers — the policy that the mi litary shall be controlled by the civi lian government, to be changed or preserved? Without party division, by unanimous vote, the committee completely rejected any possible question of the President’s right to act as he acted in bringing MacArthur home. vlithout refuting a single t·1acArthur mi liTary policy, without defending a single point of Truman policy, without accusing either the General or the President of anything whatever, the Senate’s invesTigation stuck to the one fundamental issue — the supremacy of the ci vi I i an over the mi I itary in Ameri can government.
It is inTeresting to note Mr. \~hite’s comments on individual senators. 83- sides Senator Russell, Senator Georpe natura:Uy comes in f6rhigh’ praise. Many page s a re devoted to Senator Taft. Wh i te th inks more high I Y of Senator Knowland than do many of that senator’s fel low Republicans. White shows clearly why some senators, like Humphrey of Minnesota, get into the inner club with Byrd, the Democrat and Sri dges, the Rep ub I i can, wh i Ie oThe r men of just as great abi I ities, such as Lehman, never make it. He shows, too, how the Senate dea I s wi th its maveri cks, like Morse of Oregon and Langer of North Dakota.
To my surprise and disappointment, Margaret Chase Smith is not mentioned in Whi te ‘s book. But I am sure you wi II a II be interesTed in what he says about Senator Payne: “A man may be a powerfu I Senate type WiTh no great leg is I at i ve triumph to his credit, by a mysterious chemical process that seems right now to be transforming so relaTive a newcomer as Senator Payne of Maine. Why such progress for Payne: It is a tittle awkward to explain. Perhaps the explanation is that Payne, who was rather a hard-handed politician as Governor of Maine, simply generates a warmth about him because he so wholeheartedly performs, without fuss or trouble, such Senate chores as are handed over to him.”
Well known is the fact that one of Maine’s oldest papers is the Republican Journal of B:dfast, more commonly called the Belfast Republican. have more than once referred to that excellent paper on this program. Not as well known is the fact that the Belfast Republican once had a rival in Belfast, and the two carried on a heated feud, much to the amusement of Maine citizens. The rival paper was ca I led the “Wa I do Patri ot!·, and I have recenT Iy had opportun i ty to exami ne a I I 52 issues for one year of its pub Ii cati on, in fact, its very fi rst year.
The Itlaldo Patriot supported the Whig Party just as the Republican Journal supported the Democratic Party of Andrew Jackson. We must remind ourselves that the connotati ons of the terms Democrat and Repub I i can are di fferent today from what they were in 1837, when the Waldo Patriot began publication. As most of you well know, ~/ashington in his Farewell Address had sounded a warning against political parties like The \~higs and the Tories of England. The Father of his Country hoped that politics in his new nation would always be parTy-less. But the turn of events decreed otherwi se. There were too many issues on wh i ch honest men must take sides: The rights of the states as opposed to rights of the central government; the rights of property and culture as against certain human rights; protection of indusTry against freedom of trade. So there sprang up on the one hand the party of Adams and Hami Iton, the FederalisTs, then Democrati c-Repub I i can, then f ina I Iy Democrat ic. The modern Repub I i can Party was not born unti I many years later, in the middle of the century, and Abraham Lincoln was its first President.
When the Wa Ido Patri ot issued its fi rst n umber on December 30, 1837, the Whigs, although they had just lost the national election, were consoled by vicTories in Massachusetts and Maine. Van Buren, protege of Jackson, had been sent TO the White House, but Massachusetts had not only given its electoral vote to his opponent Harrison, but had, for the first time in many years, elected a Whig governor. Maine, after 18 years of continuous Democratic rule, had, in the words of the slogan of the ti me, gone fiHe I I bent for Governor KenT.”
So off started the Waldo Patriot wiTh a long editorial on the virtues of The Whi g Party and the evi Is of the Democrats. It took the Eastern Argus of Portland severely to task for its criticism of Governor Kent. Said the Patriot: “Edward Kent, the great Rag Baby of Bangor. Such is the language app lied to the man whom 35,000 of the hardy sons of Maine have elected for their chief mag i strate. By whom is th is I anguage used? By the edttor of the Eastern Argus. And who is this editor? t-e is a liTtle snipper-snapper by the name of Green, recent I y imported from Ebston by The Port I and off ice ho f de rs, to be the organ of quack democracy in this state. Such a thing is worthy of such a party and the party is worthy of him. Edward Kent is plain and unpretending, and for that reason he is denounced as a Rag Baby by one who is himself a sorT of dandyjack, a man-mi Iliner, a mere powdered monkey. This sprig from BoSTon considers hi mse I f to be among heathens and Hottentots. He wou I d not da re use such I anguage in Massachusetts toward Governor Everett. He knows that he wou I d be accommodaTed with a suit of tar and feathers in short order.”
The e lecti on of 1837 had been very close in Mai ne. Graham Parks, The ~mocratic candidate, carried seven counties, whi Ie Kent, the Whig, carried only three. It was Kent’s big victory in thi s very counTy of Kennebec that swept him inTO the gubernatorial chair. In Cumberland the vote was so close That Parks carried the county by a majority of only 24. Parks did best in Oxford county, which he won by 1,400 votes, but Kent’s majority of 2,600 in Kennebec and 1,200 in Lincoln did not quite assure him victory_ His 700 majority in SomerseT put him over. Kent lost his own county of Penobscot by 200 votes.
Have you caught the fact in all this — that, in 1837, Maine had only ten counti es? A II of what is now Aroostook was then in vlash i ngton County _ Mi ssi ng a I so were our present counti es of Frank lin, Knox, Pi scataqui s, Sagadahoc and Hancock _ The total vote cast for governor in 1837 was 68,237. Parks got 33,879 whi Ie Kent got 34,358. So Edward KenT became governor by the slim majority of 479 vOTes.
The Wa I do Patri ot and other Whi g papers were a I ready looki ng forward to the nexT presidential election in 1840. And, as it turned out, their hopes were not in vain. That was the memorable year of “Tippecanoe and Tyler too”: when \vi II i am Henry H3rrison was swept into the \\,hite House.e to the great de light of a rising young politician out in Illinois named Abraham Lincoln.
That first issue of the Waldo PaTriot carried several items of Maine interest. Li sten to th i s one: “The I aTest news from the East is the arrest in Fredericton jail of ex-Sheriff Carpenter of Penobscot County. The cause is sai d to be that he wh i spered someth i ng derogatory to the character of Queen Vi ctori a. tf Remember that was i n ~cember, 1837, when Vi ctori a had been on Iy a few months on the Briti sh throne.
The Patriot’s account of the dedication of the Baptist meeting house in ~ I fast is i nteresti ng on two counts; fi rst because the dedi cati on preacher was the author of the national hymn, “American, Samuel Francis Smith, then pastor of the l?apt i st church in \&Jatervi I Ie; and second because it revea I s the cooperative Christian feeling between different denominations 120 years ago. Such a card in the Patri ot: “The Bapti sts of ~ I fast hereby tender thei r gratefu I acknowledgements to the gentlemen, not members of their society, who have cheerfully aided them in the erection of their new house of worship, and in their generous subscription toward purchasing a bell. They would also tender thei r thanks to Col. Webster and the Unitarian choir for their appropriate and felicitous performances rendered at the dedication of their house.”
In 1837 Ee I fast’s lead i n9 hote I was the Phoen i x House. I n the very fi rst issue of the Waldo Patriot proprietor E. W. Hi Iton inserted the following ad: HThe subscriber would inform his friends and the public that he has taken the commod i ous estab I i shment ca I I ed the Phoen i x House, situate d on Hi gh Street a few doors north of Phoen i x Row. It is now in exce Ilent condi ti on for the reception of company. He hopes by prompt attention to visitors and by sparing no pa ins to supp I Y his tab Ie with the best the ma rket af fords, to rece i ve the approbation and patronage of the public. Stage books for al I stages that arrive and depart from Belfast are kept at the Phoenix House, where: passengers can leave their names and secure seats. In conn~ction with this establishment is a I arge and conven i ent stab Ie wi th carefu I and ob I i gi ng host tars.”
I have seen a lot of patent medicine ads of the 19th century, but not unti I examined the columns of the Waldo Patriot did I ever see a warning against the itinerant peddlers of patent medicines, those fellows who came in my boyhood days to be called the traveling medicine men. Anyhow, here is what an ad in the Patri ot sa i d:
nTo the Citizens of Maine. I caution you against purchasing pills of pedlars, if you wish the genuine Brandreth’s Vegetable Universal Pi lis. There is now a certain pedlar from New Ipswich, N.1-I., prowling through Maine, and alTOng other things he has pi lis purporting to be Brandreth’s, which are a base counterfeit manufactured from some filthy composition entirely different from the genu i ne. Th is same prow ling fe I low has wi th him forged cert i fi cates. Shou I d anyone come in contact with this prowling, peddling vi Ilain, let them make an example of him, for palming on an unsuspecting public a fi Ithy nostrum, pretending it to be a valuable medicine. Benjamin Brandreth, M.D., 18 Hanover Street, Boston. N
Already in 1837 Waldo County had a famous school in Freedom Academy. Its ad, published in the \-/aldo Patriot, read as follows: HThe Trustees of Freedom Academy have engaged Mr. George Fi e I d, a graduate of Bow do in Co liege, to instruct during the ensuing year. The spring term wi I I commence on the last Monday in March and wi I I continue for 11 weeks. The abi lities of the instructorand the peculiar advantages of apparatus and library render this academy particularly worthy of patronage. Terms of tuition: $3 for the English branches, $4 for the languages. Board from $1 .50 to $1.75 per week.”
On Apri 127, 1838 the yJaldo Patriot paid its respects to the other paper in town, the 991 fast Repub I i can Journa I. It sai d: “The thousand errors, both of grammar and spel ling, as we II as the ri d i cu lous tropes and figures, wh i ch appear weekly under the hand of that astute and accomplished editor, Mr. Cyrus Rowe of the Balfast Republican Journal, with its reckless mendacity, mark the character and give a notoriety to that paper. Its editor ought long ago to have improved his style and amended his manners. But a sow’s ear never made a si Ik purse. ”
Next week I want to te II you about the experiences of Watervi lie’s Asa Redington in the Revolutionary War. It is interesting to know that a famous citizen of Watervi lie’s early days left a first-hand, eye-witness account of some of the wa r ‘s memorab Ie batt I es, inc Iud i n 9 the s urrende r of Cornwa II i s at Yorktown. And with that promise for next week, we must say goodnight for old -ti mes’ sake.
Year: 1957