Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/161

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As chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate in 1848, and for years thereafter, Mr. Hunter practically guided the financial leg- islation of this country, and gained for himself a place among the great political economists of the world.

In the excellent memoir of Mr. Hunter, by Mr. L. Q. Washing- ton [printed in the Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXV, pp. 193-205], now on file among the archives of your Honor's court, the learned author says of him:

" His integrity, purity and knowledge of affairs gave him an almost absolute veto on everything corrupt, base or dangerous in fiscal legislation." * * * " He shaped and carried through the Com- promise Tariff bill of 1857, a measure supported not only by Demo- crats, but by many prominent Republicans Wm. H. Seward, Henry Wilson, N. P. Banks, Solomon P. Chase, and others." "They were content to follow a Virginian of the Virginians."

The establishment of the Court of Claims at Washington and the life tenure of its judges was the work of "the statesman of Essex."

The first Civil Service law, and one which puts to shame the abor- tive effort at reform now existing, was the work of R. M. T. Hunter.

He put an end, or showed the way to end, all controversy over the money question, and the recent unhappy warfare over the coin- age of gold and silver would never have taken place if the wisdom of Senator Hunter had been the guide of those who have brought on the conflict. Without pretending to know anything about the matter, I am willing to believe Mr. Washington when he says:

" If I were called upon to name a document which best expounds the true principles of finance and statesmanship on this difficult sub- ject, and in a perfectly unanswerable manner, free from ill-temper or bias, and full of wise prescience and overwhelming argument, I should name the report made by Robt. M. T. Hunter in March, 1852, to the United States Senate, which accompanied the bill pro- posed by him to regulate the coinage of gold and silver."

It is not mere eulogy to say that, " Since the passing away of Jef- ferson, Madison, Marshall and Monroe, hardly any Virginian has borne so influential a part in political affairs as R. M. T. Hunter."

In great qualities of mind and character, he was the peer of any, without the eccentricities of genius which marred so many of the worthies of that day.

But time would fail me to depict in detail his varied labors in the achievement of his fame. When that fame was at its zenith, and in