Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1909 — DAVID TURPIE. [ARTICLE]

DAVID TURPIE.

In the death of David Turple, which occurred this morning, the State loses a man who served it well in high place and who never made money out of public office. Mr. Turpie was Senator for a short time during the civil war period, returning to that body for two full terms extending from 1887 to 1890. His career in the Senate was such as to reflect credit on himself and honor on the State. It is said of him that he made one-of the few speeches that was known actually to have changed votes. We refer to his discussion in the Senate of the Nicaragua canal project. That he was a man of high character and unimpeachable integrity, all the world knows. He was a stranger to the interests, and never sustained by relations that made it impossible for him to do his duty as he saw it. He had no sympathy with the commercial theory of politics, was indeed ignorant of the workings of the business-political machine. Mr. Turpie was a poor man all his life. While this is not necessarily to his credit, it is to his credit that he refused utterly to improve the many chances for making money ■ that were thrown in his way. He did not care for riches, His only am-

bition was to do his duty and to give the people full return for the salary which they paid him. David Turpie .--.was also a man of ability. A careful student of political history and science and his judgment on public questions was usually sound and trustworthy. As a lawyer he commanded the respect and admiration of his professional brethern. In his arguments his appeal was always to the. reason. He was not a showy speaker, and in no sense an orator. But his familiarity witli his subject, his power of clear statement, and his mastery of the logical processes, made him effective. He was not so deep a thinker as his more enthusiastic admirers would have us believe, but he was a straight and honest thinker. While he was in the Senate he was highly esteemed by the great men of that body—such as Edmunds, Thurman and Sherman. He seems now to represent an era wholly different from our own—not necessarily better than ours, but certainly different from it. There was more statesmanship and certainly more legal ability in the Senate of his time than in the Senate of to-day.

We shall do well to honor the memory of such a man. for he was always true to the highest interests of the. State, always a faithful servant of the people of Indiana. It is to be said of him, too. that he was modest and retiring, without a particle of self-assertion. He coveted the good opinion of men, "but he did not bid for their favor, did not seem to care for praise. It is not the time to seek to appraise him, but we may at least say that he was a worthy citizen, an honorable public servant, and a man of the highest character, and of sufficient ability and intellectual power to keep him in the front rank in a Senate which contained many men whom the world has agreed to call great.—lndianapolis News.