Virginia: The Squire of Rosemont

As much by disposition as descent, Harry Flood Byrd was an aristocrat. Like his fellow Virginian, Thomas Jef ferson, he had doubts about a truly demotic society. In courtly but inflexible fashion, Byrd also believed that good government, like a good servant, should intrude as little as possible. He himself spent 50 years in public service, 33 of them in the U.S. Senate, and until the day of his retirement from politics in November 1965, he remained a gracious, gallant, increasingly isolated foe of big government and big spending. When he died last week of...