I want to cal I your attention tonight to an important book for anyone who\u00a0is at a II interested in how our nati ona I government functi ons. And a I J of us\u00a0ought to be interested, for the federal government, as time goes on, more directly\u00a0affects everyone of us — in our pocketbooks, in our rights and duties,\u00a0in our ways of life. The book I recommend to you i s ca I led HCi tade I: The Story\u00a0of the U. S. Senate”, and was written by Wi I Ii am S. White, chief Congressional\u00a0correspondent of the New York Times.<\/p>\n
Th i sis a book wri tten not to p ra i se nor to condemn the pecu J i ar i nsti tution\u00a0which is the U. S. Senate. Its purpose is rather to explain the instituti\u00a0on, so that we Ameri cans can better understand the club-I i ke, precedentri\u00a0dden, yet the safe-guardi ng, nature of the upper house of our Congress.\u00a0Have you often wondered why the practi ce of fi I ibusters isn’t stopped, why\u00a0hide-bound rules prevent legislation, why a few Southern senators have such\u00a0tremendous influence in the body, why Senate investigations flaunt our Constitutional\u00a0liberties? Mr. White gives you the answers.<\/p>\n
But he shows just as clearly the virtues of the. Senate: its deliberate composition\u00a0to preserve the American system of state equality, emphasizing that\u00a0we are sti I I a un i on of independent staTes, a Repub I i c rather than a democracy;\u00a0and its place as the one strong bulwark in the nation to preserve the rights of\u00a0minorities from the precipitate and emotional tyranny of majorities.<\/p>\n
Of the much publicized Senate investigations, Mr. White says they are good,\u00a0bad and mixed. When they concern policies or government departments, they can\u00a0be good or mixed, but when they attack individuals, they are, in White’s opinion,\u00a0uniformly bad, because the investigation then assumes the nature of a\u00a0court trial, without giving the accused the legal benefits of a court. We have\u00a0only to recal I the abuse of witnesses in the McCarthy hearings to see an outstanding\u00a0examp Ie of Mr. White’s contention.<\/p>\n
3 ut Senate i nvesti gati ons, when concerned wi th high po Ii cy” even though\u00a0encumbered by consideration of personalities, can be decidedly good. Such,\u00a0says White, was the MacArthur investigation. Sympathy of the country was\u00a0clearly with the General and against President Truman. Emotion ran high. White,\u00a0who was present in the press gallery when MacArthur told a joint session of Congress\u00a0that “old soldiers just fade away?!, said of that event, HThe atmosphere\u00a0was the most curi ous Iy ernoti ona I I have ever seen in servi ce as a correspondent,\u00a0including covering D-Day in Normandy, the liberation of Paris, and the death\u00a0of Frank lin Rooseve It.”<\/p>\n
Under the chairmanship of Senator Russel I of Georgia, the Senate Committee\u00a0made its investigation in a dignified manner.\u00a0refused to be stampeded by popular shouting.\u00a0Democrats and Rep ub I i cans a like\u00a0Only the Senate saw clearly the\u00a0fundamenta I issue at stake. Was the: pol icy estab I i shed by the foundi ng fathers\u00a0— the policy that the mi litary shall be controlled by the civi lian government,\u00a0to be changed or preserved? Without party division, by unanimous\u00a0vote, the committee completely rejected any possible question of the President’s\u00a0right to act as he acted in bringing MacArthur home. vlithout refuting a single\u00a0t\u00b71acArthur mi liTary policy, without defending a single point of Truman policy,\u00a0without accusing either the General or the President of anything whatever, the\u00a0Senate’s invesTigation stuck to the one fundamental issue — the supremacy of\u00a0the ci vi I i an over the mi I itary in Ameri can government.<\/p>\n
It is inTeresting to note Mr. \\~hite’s comments on individual senators. 83-\u00a0sides Senator Russell, Senator Georpe natura:Uy comes in f6rhigh’ praise. Many\u00a0page s a re devoted to Senator Taft. Wh i te th inks more high I Y of Senator Knowland\u00a0than do many of that senator’s fel low Republicans. White shows clearly\u00a0why some senators, like Humphrey of Minnesota, get into the inner club with\u00a0Byrd, the Democrat and Sri dges, the Rep ub I i can, wh i Ie oThe r men of just as\u00a0great abi I ities, such as Lehman, never make it. He shows, too, how the Senate\u00a0dea I s wi th its maveri cks, like Morse of Oregon and Langer of North Dakota.<\/p>\n
To my surprise and disappointment, Margaret Chase Smith is not mentioned\u00a0in Whi te ‘s book. But I am sure you wi II a II be interesTed in what he says about\u00a0Senator Payne: “A man may be a powerfu I Senate type WiTh no great leg is I at i ve\u00a0triumph to his credit, by a mysterious chemical process that seems right now to\u00a0be transforming so relaTive a newcomer as Senator Payne of Maine. Why such progress\u00a0for Payne: It is a tittle awkward to explain. Perhaps the explanation is\u00a0that Payne, who was rather a hard-handed politician as Governor of Maine, simply\u00a0generates a warmth about him because he so wholeheartedly performs, without fuss\u00a0or trouble, such Senate chores as are handed over to him.”<\/p>\n
Well known is the fact that one of Maine’s oldest papers is the Republican\u00a0Journal of B:dfast, more commonly called the Belfast Republican. have more\u00a0than once referred to that excellent paper on this program. Not as well known\u00a0is the fact that the Belfast Republican once had a rival in Belfast, and the two\u00a0carried on a heated feud, much to the amusement of Maine citizens. The rival\u00a0paper was ca I led the “Wa I do Patri ot!\u00b7, and I have recenT Iy had opportun i ty to\u00a0exami ne a I I 52 issues for one year of its pub Ii cati on, in fact, its very fi rst\u00a0year.<\/p>\n
The Itlaldo Patriot supported the Whig Party just as the Republican Journal\u00a0supported the Democratic Party of Andrew Jackson. We must remind ourselves that\u00a0the connotati ons of the terms Democrat and Repub I i can are di fferent today from\u00a0what they were in 1837, when the Waldo Patriot began publication. As most of\u00a0you well know, ~\/ashington in his Farewell Address had sounded a warning against\u00a0political parties like The \\~higs and the Tories of England. The Father of his\u00a0Country hoped that politics in his new nation would always be parTy-less. But\u00a0the turn of events decreed otherwi se. There were too many issues on wh i ch\u00a0honest men must take sides: The rights of the states as opposed to rights of\u00a0the central government; the rights of property and culture as against certain\u00a0human rights; protection of indusTry against freedom of trade. So there sprang\u00a0up on the one hand the party of Adams and Hami Iton, the FederalisTs, then Democrati\u00a0c-Repub I i can, then f ina I Iy Democrat ic. The modern Repub I i can Party was\u00a0not born unti I many years later, in the middle of the century, and Abraham Lincoln\u00a0was its first President.<\/p>\n
When the Wa Ido Patri ot issued its fi rst n umber on December 30, 1837, the\u00a0Whigs, although they had just lost the national election, were consoled by vicTories\u00a0in Massachusetts and Maine. Van Buren, protege of Jackson, had been sent\u00a0TO the White House, but Massachusetts had not only given its electoral vote to\u00a0his opponent Harrison, but had, for the first time in many years, elected a Whig\u00a0governor. Maine, after 18 years of continuous Democratic rule, had, in the\u00a0words of the slogan of the ti me, gone fiHe I I bent for Governor KenT.”<\/p>\n
So off started the Waldo Patriot wiTh a long editorial on the virtues of\u00a0The Whi g Party and the evi Is of the Democrats. It took the Eastern Argus of\u00a0Portland severely to task for its criticism of Governor Kent. Said the Patriot:\u00a0“Edward Kent, the great Rag Baby of Bangor. Such is the language app lied\u00a0to the man whom 35,000 of the hardy sons of Maine have elected for their chief\u00a0mag i strate. By whom is th is I anguage used? By the edttor of the Eastern Argus.\u00a0And who is this editor? t-e is a liTtle snipper-snapper by the name of Green,\u00a0recent I y imported from Ebston by The Port I and off ice ho f de rs, to be the organ\u00a0of quack democracy in this state. Such a thing is worthy of such a party and\u00a0the party is worthy of him. Edward Kent is plain and unpretending, and for that\u00a0reason he is denounced as a Rag Baby by one who is himself a sorT of dandyjack,\u00a0a man-mi Iliner, a mere powdered monkey. This sprig from BoSTon considers\u00a0hi mse I f to be among heathens and Hottentots. He wou I d not da re use such I anguage\u00a0in Massachusetts toward Governor Everett. He knows that he wou I d be accommodaTed\u00a0with a suit of tar and feathers in short order.”<\/p>\n
The e lecti on of 1837 had been very close in Mai ne. Graham Parks, The ~mocratic\u00a0candidate, carried seven counties, whi Ie Kent, the Whig, carried only\u00a0three. It was Kent’s big victory in thi s very counTy of Kennebec that swept\u00a0him inTO the gubernatorial chair. In Cumberland the vote was so close That\u00a0Parks carried the county by a majority of only 24. Parks did best in Oxford\u00a0county, which he won by 1,400 votes, but Kent’s majority of 2,600 in Kennebec\u00a0and 1,200 in Lincoln did not quite assure him victory_ His 700 majority in\u00a0SomerseT put him over. Kent lost his own county of Penobscot by 200 votes.<\/p>\n
Have you caught the fact in all this — that, in 1837, Maine had only ten\u00a0counti es? A II of what is now Aroostook was then in vlash <\/em>i ngton County _ Mi ssi ng\u00a0a I so were our present counti es of Frank lin, Knox, Pi <\/em>scataqui s, Sagadahoc and\u00a0Hancock _\u00a0The total vote cast for governor in <\/em>1837 was 68,237. Parks got 33,879\u00a0whi Ie Kent got 34,358. So Edward KenT became governor by the slim majority of\u00a0479 vOTes.<\/p>\n The Wa I do Patri ot and other Whi g papers were a I ready looki ng forward to\u00a0the nexT presidential election in 1840. And, as it turned out, their hopes were \u00a0not in vain. That was the memorable year of “Tippecanoe and Tyler too”: when\u00a0\\vi II i am Henry H3rrison was swept into the \\\\,hite House.e to the great de light of\u00a0a rising young politician out in Illinois named Abraham Lincoln.<\/p>\n That first issue of the Waldo PaTriot carried several items of Maine interest.\u00a0Li sten to th i s one: “The I aTest news from the East is the arrest in\u00a0Fredericton jail of ex-Sheriff Carpenter of Penobscot County. The cause is\u00a0sai d to be that he wh i spered someth i ng derogatory to the character of Queen\u00a0Vi ctori a. tf Remember that was i n ~cember, 1837, when Vi ctori a had been on Iy a\u00a0few months on the Briti sh throne.<\/p>\n The Patriot’s account of the dedication of the Baptist meeting house in\u00a0~ I fast is i nteresti ng on two counts; fi rst because the dedi cati on preacher\u00a0was the author of the national hymn, “American, Samuel Francis Smith, then pastor\u00a0of the l?apt i st church in \\&Jatervi I Ie; and second because it revea I s the cooperative\u00a0Christian feeling between different denominations 120 years ago. Such\u00a0a card in the Patri ot: “The Bapti sts of ~ I fast hereby tender thei r gratefu I\u00a0acknowledgements to the gentlemen, not members of their society, who have cheerfully\u00a0aided them in the erection of their new house of worship, and in their\u00a0generous subscription toward purchasing a bell. They would also tender thei r\u00a0thanks to Col. Webster and the Unitarian choir for their appropriate and felicitous\u00a0performances rendered at the dedication of their house.”<\/p>\n In 1837 Ee I fast’s lead i n9 hote I was the Phoen i x House. I n the very fi rst\u00a0issue of the Waldo Patriot proprietor E. W. Hi Iton inserted the following ad:\u00a0HThe subscriber would inform his friends and the public that he has taken the \u00a0commod i ous estab I i shment ca I I ed the Phoen i x House, situate d on Hi gh Street a\u00a0few doors north of Phoen i x Row. It is now in exce Ilent condi ti on for the reception\u00a0of company. He hopes by prompt attention to visitors and by sparing no\u00a0pa ins to supp I Y his tab Ie with the best the ma rket af fords, to rece i ve the approbation\u00a0and patronage of the public. Stage books for al I stages that arrive\u00a0and depart from Belfast are kept at the Phoenix House, where: passengers can\u00a0leave their names and secure seats. In conn~ction with this establishment is a\u00a0I arge and conven i ent stab Ie wi th carefu I and ob I i gi ng host tars.”<\/p>\n I have seen a lot of patent medicine ads of the 19th century, but not unti I\u00a0examined the columns of the Waldo Patriot did I ever see a warning against the\u00a0itinerant peddlers of patent medicines, those fellows who came in my boyhood\u00a0days to be called the traveling medicine men. Anyhow, here is what an ad in\u00a0the Patri ot sa i d:<\/p>\n nTo the Citizens of Maine. I caution you against purchasing pills of pedlars,\u00a0if you wish the genuine Brandreth’s Vegetable Universal Pi lis. There is\u00a0now a certain pedlar from New Ipswich, N.1-I., prowling through Maine, and alTOng\u00a0other things he has pi lis purporting to be Brandreth’s, which are a base counterfeit\u00a0manufactured from some filthy composition entirely different from the\u00a0genu i ne. Th is same prow ling fe I low has wi th him forged cert i fi cates. Shou I d\u00a0anyone come in contact with this prowling, peddling vi Ilain, let them make an\u00a0example of him, for palming on an unsuspecting public a fi Ithy nostrum, pretending\u00a0it to be a valuable medicine. Benjamin Brandreth, M.D., 18 Hanover\u00a0Street, Boston. N<\/p>\n Already in 1837 Waldo County had a famous school in Freedom Academy. Its\u00a0ad, published in the \\-\/aldo Patriot, read as follows: HThe Trustees of Freedom\u00a0Academy have engaged Mr. George Fi e I d, a graduate of Bow do in Co liege, to instruct\u00a0during the ensuing year. The spring term wi I I commence on the last Monday\u00a0in 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 \u00a0worthy of patronage. Terms of tuition: $3 for the English branches,\u00a0$4 for the languages. Board from $1 .50 to $1.75 per week.”<\/p>\n On Apri 127, 1838 the yJaldo Patriot paid its respects to the other paper\u00a0in town, the 991 fast Repub I i can Journa I. It sai d: “The thousand errors, both\u00a0of grammar and spel ling, as we II as the ri d i cu lous tropes and figures, wh i ch\u00a0appear weekly under the hand of that astute and accomplished editor, Mr. Cyrus\u00a0Rowe of the Balfast Republican Journal, with its reckless mendacity, mark the\u00a0character and give a notoriety to that paper. Its editor ought long ago to have\u00a0improved his style and amended his manners. But a sow’s ear never made a si Ik\u00a0purse. ”<\/p>\n Next week I want to te II you about the experiences of Watervi lie’s Asa\u00a0Redington in the Revolutionary War. It is interesting to know that a famous\u00a0citizen of Watervi lie’s early days left a first-hand, eye-witness account of\u00a0some 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\u00a0Yorktown. And with that promise for next week, we must say goodnight for old\u00a0-ti mes’ sake.<\/p>\n Year: 1957<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #338, Broadcast May 19, 1957<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7737"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}