The Tarborough Southerner

Samuel J. Randall the Southern favorite for Speaker.

Despite the denunciations of the Baltimore Gazette, Mr. Randall's chances for the speakership of the Lower House of the 44th Congress, to meet on the 6th day of December, are yet ahead.

The following well drawn antithesis of the two most prominent candidates we take from the Utica Herald, a republican standpoint, and believe it will interest our readers.

The real contest is between Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania, and Michael C. Kerr, of Indiana. Randall is the better parliamentarian; Kerr has more of the elements of a statesman. Randall has the more rugged health, indispensable in the chair, for brute force must combine with brains to rule in so large a body; Kerr studies more into theories, and is more inclined to pronounce set speeches. Randall has the more genial humor with his friends and a larger acquaintance with members; Kerr is accepted in the country at large as the broader and better equipped legislator. Randall favors a Pennsylvania tariff; Kerr is a free trader. Randall yields to the demands of the South and West about the currency: Kerr is denounced as taking his cue from Wall street, and is for hard money. Kerr was in the Fortieth, Forty-first and Forty-second Congresses, but was not in the last. In the last Congress Randall especially distinguished himself in the contest on Southern measures by his adroitness, his audacity his prompt seizure of every advantage, during the prolonged parliamentary war which tried men's nerves and persistence. Kerr was against the increase of Congressional salary, and returned his excess. Randall was one of the pluckiest advocates of the increase, and pocketed his money, but he had a majority of his fellow-partisans with him. Randall has the more skill as a politician, the more quickness and ability as a presiding officer, the better knowledge of men. Kerr's election would be accounted a victory for Eastern ideas and for the New York policy in legislation and in the canvass of 1876. This, we are inclined to believe, will prove his weakness. The New York influence will be strong enough to drive the Speakership out of the State. The present signs do not prove that it can name the Speaker. Unless unexpected complications occur, Randall is the man most likely to wield the gavel and name the committees.