He had acquired a national reputation through the position he took in investigating the election frauds of 1876 in the Southern states; and he has kept this prominence by his actual acquaintance with all questions coming before the senate, and his force and fearlessness in dealing with them. He has been especially interested in all financial questions. He has devoted his energies in particular to the effort to secure the free coinage of silver. But he takes an interest in all matters of general importance that come before the senate. He is heard very frequently in debate, and has decided convictions on every question of real interest. The tariff and all subjects pertaining to United States revenues, legal questions, and questions of foreign policy, are sure to receive his attention in study and in debate.
He is chairman of the senate committee on Private Land Claims, one of the most important of the minority committees of the senate. He is also a member of the committees on Finance, on Appropriations, on Relations with Cuba, on Indian Affairs and on Rules, five of the most important of the senate committees. During his senatorship, he has served as chairman of seven different committees, viz., Pensions, Mines and Mining, Patents, Privileges and Elections, Five Civilized Tribes of Indians, Claims and Private Land Claims. He is one of the best informed real estate and mining lawyers in his state and without turning aside from the law, he has become an extensive property owner. A warm-hearted and generous friend, an open and undisguised enemy, however much one may differ from him in politics or in convictions upon financial questions, he is always regarded and esteemed for his moral courage, his integrity of character, his courteous and modest bearing, and his steadfast adherence to what he believes to be right.
Senator Teller withdrew from the Republican national convention held in St. Louis in June, 1896, because of his dissatisfaction with the financial platform of the Republican party. He supported Bryan for the presidency in 1896 and in 1900. His election to the senate in 1897 was by the Democrats and the silver Republicans. He received a vote of ninety-four out of one hundred, and was reelected to the senate, January 24, 1903, as a Democrat, for the term expiring March 3, 1909. He is a thirty-third degree Mason, and is inspector-general of the order. He is a past grand commander of the Knights Templar, and was for seven years grand master of the order in Colorado.
