State

Jeter Conley Pritchard An outstanding Republican. 31 r. I.aw renee classifies him as being one of llie three greatest North Carolinians of tiie last fifty years. The other two were Ayeoek and Vanee. VANCE was undoubtedly the big¬ gest Democrat western Carolina has produced. Duriug the period when knighthood was in flower, the knight was accompanied by one or more squires. I will therefore name David L. Swain and Locke Craig, both Governors of North Carolina, as squires to attend the Democrat Vance. Jeter C. Pritchard was the biggest Republican ever associated with North Carolina, and his name, like that of Vance, is linked with our mountain city of Asheville. II is squires should be Col. Virgil S. Lusk, veteran politician, legislator and law¬ yer of Buncombe, and Judge H. G. Ewart, leading Republican figure of Hendersonville. In considering the achievements of nny man. consideration should be given to the point from which he started in determining the distance he has traveled. It was a long, long road which Lincoln traveled to reach the presidency; and two Carolinians also traveled a long way to attain the sum¬ mit of national leadership — Andrew Johnson and Jeter C. Pritchard. Both were apprenticed to a trade in their youth : Johnson became President ; Pritchard became foremost of South¬ ern Republicans, a figure in the na¬ tional councils of his party. United States Senator and Federal Circuit J udge. Was Born in Tennessee He was born in 1857 in Tennessee, and when twelve years old was ap¬ prenticed to a printer, where he learned that trade in the old days when hand composition was a real art. Later, he managed to secure two years at an academy all the schooling he ever got — and later he became a fore¬ man in the print shop of the Halters- 1*1 He Independent, Bakersville. N. C. Later he moved to the strongly Re¬ publican County of Madison and en¬ tered upon a political career, becom¬ ing a member of the House from that county in 1885. again in 1887. again in 1891. Realizing the possibilities of the law as a medium for a public ca¬ reer, and being ambitious in the best sense of the terra, young Pritchard secured enough legal education from Hi / R. C. LAU RENCE private instructors to he admitted t« the Bar in 1SS7. His natural ability was such, his character and integrity were so high, lie was so trusted by all who knew him, that he »oon assumed all the prerogatives of leadership first in his county, then in western Carolina, then throughout the state, then he be¬ came a foremost figure among South¬ ern Republicans, and a powerful fig¬ ure in the life of the nation. He served ns chairman of the State Rcpubliean Executive Committee, and also as Bc- publicnn National Coiniiiittecinaii. The Start of Populism The Cleveland panic, with resultant low prices for farm products, and certain other economic* ills, and the existence of certain abuses, led to the rise of Populism under Col. L. L. Polk and Marion Butler. This party could not command a majority of it¬ self, but held the balance of power, as it could control the situation b.v unit¬ ing its strength with that of either the Democrats or the Republicans. The Democrats were unwilling to meet the Populist demand», so that party ef¬ fected fusion with the Republicans, and these two parties had a clear leg¬ islative majority. On account of the death of Senator Vance, and the expiration of the term of Senator Ransom, there were two United States Senators to be elected, and there was a “gentleman’s agree¬ ment" that, one should be a Republi¬ can, the other a Populist. But two names were considered, and the two were elected: Marion Butler for the Populists; Jeter C. Pritchard for the Republicans. The two wore never in close harmony, for Senator Butler was pronounced in his advocacy of free silver, while Senator Pritchard, in the language of the day, was a “gold bug.” In the Senate. Pritchard took a commanding position almost from the beginning of liis service. There was a national Republican administration, headed by the dynamic Theodore Roosevelt, and Pritchard was the only Republican Senator from n Southern State. The result was that the Presi¬ dent soon began to consult Pritchard on all Southern appointment* and on all Son them policies. Pritchard ac¬ quired — and retained — the full con¬ fidence of President Roosevelt and his entire adiuin istrut ion. Ho was ouo of the most forceful debaters and powerful platform speak¬ ers to whom I have ever listened. As a stump speaker, I will not rank him with Vance, hut laying Vance to one side. Pritchard was the equal of any other product of Carolina mountain, plain, or seashore. Thousands still re¬ member the campaign when Locke Craig for the Democrats and Pritch¬ ard for the Republicans, staged a joint campaign over the state from Man too unto Murphy. Other High Honors In April 1903 President Roosevelt appointed Pritchard as a Justice of the Supreme Court for the District of Columbia, and on this bench he served for more than a year. On the death of Federal Judge Simonton, the Presi¬ dent named Pritchard to succeed him, an appointment promptly confirmed by the Senate. On thi* bench he served until his lamented death. I have hoard more than one law professor sav that the first require¬ ment for a good Judge was character; the second, common sense: the third, that intangible quality we lawyers call “judicial temperament”: knowl¬ edge of the law i- the fourth and least essential ingredient. Judge Pritch¬ ard’s education was defective: lie had little technical training in his pro¬ fession ; he had not much experience in the actual trial of cases, inasmuch ns he had been in the public service much of his career; but he made one of the ablest Federal Judges that ever adorned the bench in Carolina. Pritchard came to high judicial otlice at a time when political feeling was boiling in ea'leru Carolina. He took the oath of otlice on June 1, 1904, and the very next day the attor¬ neys for Josephus Daniels, Demo¬ cratic editor of the .Votes and Ob¬ server, who had been attached for con- ( Continued on page nineteen) з