Cord Byrd: “the Commonwealth of Kentucky has provided the United States Senate with some of its finer members. Take John…”

“the Commonwealth of Kentucky has provided the United States Senate with some of its finer members. Take John Breckinridge, who in the early 1800's became his party's most effective spokesman and legislative leader during his first term in the Senate, and who would doubtless have achieved further greatness had he not succumbed to typhus fever at the age of 46. Despite this early death, Breckinridge did achieve a form of posthumous success when his son, John C. Breckinridge was elected first Senator and then vice-President. (It was, incidentally, the younger Breckinridge who, in 1859, provided such a moving tribute to the ``consecrated character'' of the old Senate chamber, before leading the Senators in procession to their new, and current home.) Or consider the great Henry Clay, who promoted the American system, whose powerful oratory and forceful personality made him one of the dominant figures during the Senate's golden age of the 1830's, 1840's and 1850's. And what of Alben Barkley, Majority Leader during the 1940's, whose booming baritone and vast repertoire of humorous anecdotes made him one of the more popular Senators of his time? Not to mention John Sherman Cooper, who sat right here on the floor during the year that we served together. John Sherman Cooper was a former Ambassador to India.…”