Background
Thomas was born on a plantation near Darien, Georgia, in 1849. He was the son of William Brownell and Caroline Baldwin (Wheeler) Thomas, Connecticut Yankees who had moved into the S. His father died during his early boyhood.
(Excerpt from Treaty With Colombia, "the Story of Panama":...)
Excerpt from Treaty With Colombia, "the Story of Panama": Speech of Hon. Charles S. Thomas, of Colorado, in the Senate of the United States, January 3, 1921 Duque with Secretary Hay, to whom he gave Duque a note of introduction. Duque saw Mr. Hay the next day. During the conference Duque reported that Mr. Hay said that the United States would build the canal, that it did not purpose that Colombia should stand in the way, and that should the revolutionists occupy Colon and Panama they could depend on the United States to prohibit Colombia's landing troops to attack them and disturb the free and uninterrupted transit which our Government was bound by treaty with Colombia to maintain. He also says that Mr. Hay requested him to remain and confer with the President on his return, which he was unable to do. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Thomas was born on a plantation near Darien, Georgia, in 1849. He was the son of William Brownell and Caroline Baldwin (Wheeler) Thomas, Connecticut Yankees who had moved into the S. His father died during his early boyhood.
Charles was sent to a private school where discipline was strict but instruction good. He then graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1871.
During the final months of the Civil War he served in the Confederate army. Since Georgia offered no prospects for the future, he migrated to Denver, Col. , in the same year. Denver in 1871 was a small city with limited opportunities, but Thomas quickly won success as a criminal lawyer. In 1875 and 1876 he was city attorney; in 1873-74 and again from 1879 to 1890 he was a partner of Thomas M. Patterson. Following the rush of 1879 to Leadville, he built up a solid reputation as one of the leading mining lawyers of the state. His most famous case, the Del Monte-Last Chance case, resulted in the settlement of several difficult and important points in the interpretation of mining law. In 1885 he returned to Denver to be associated with several partners until he retired from active practice in 1927. He was noted as one of the keenest and most fearless attorneys in Colorado.
Thomas entered early upon a political career that witnessed many vicissitudes. He was too frank and critical to be a conventional party man. In 1882 he was state chairman of the Democratic party and from 1884 to 1896, a member of the Democratic National Committee. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the House of Representatives in 1884, but his greatest political ambition was to be elected United States senator. A candidate for that office in 1889, he was defeated by Edward O. Wolcott. In 1894 he ran for the governorship without hope of election; in January 1895 he was again a candidate for the senatorship, but received only three votes in the joint session of the legislature. In 1898 he was elected governor by the silver fusionists, and when his term was drawing to a close (1900 - 01) he once more entered the senatorial race, but withdrew when he found that the majority of the Democrats were pledged to Thomas M. Patterson. At last, in 1913, he realized his ambition when he entered the Senate to complete the term of Charles J. Hughes. He was elected for a full term in 1914, but in 1920, persuaded by friends to run as an independent candidate, he went down to overwhelming defeat.
He died in Denver after writing "A Salute to Death" in which he explained his refusal to give allegiance "to any man-made religion either revealed or otherwise. "
(Excerpt from Treaty With Colombia, "the Story of Panama":...)
Thomas was in Washington, as he had been in Colorado, a non-conformist. He opposed the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations, the soldiers' bonus, and the demands of the railroad brotherhood and profiteering capitalists. He was an ardent bimetallist, even after his party had abandoned the cause. He served as special counsel for the Korean Commission while the United States watched in apathy the actions of Japan. A lawyer, he denounced the conservatism and venality of the bar; a politician, he poured out his scorn upon time-serving congressmen and party leaders. He opposed the "New Deal" of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. One of his last acts, at eighty-four, was to defy the presidential proclamation against the hoarding of gold.
Thomas was married, December 29, 1873, to Emma Fletcher of Kalamazoo, Mich. , by whom he had five children.