• I'V '^'9^ PRESS GALLEK %.! CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY •» ''i^ftswfr-: r "^^i, '-'fj^ ' '" Campaign Document No. 7 AND NOW Comes Truth! Qreat Speech of Governor Wm. Sulzer At Ithaca, N. Y. Published by the PROGRESSIVE PARTY miT REAI) IT! .READ IT! Don't Throw It Away PASS IT ALONG TO OTHERS! Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030905024 Cornell University Library E661 .S79 olin 3 1924 030 905 024 THE PASSING SHOW. TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY A CONCISE HISTORY OF IMPORTANT LEGISLATION tctnn tijt 48t^ to t^; 58t^ Congrt0£( THE PART PLAYED BY THE LEADING MEN OF THAT PERIOD AND THE INTERESTING AND IMPRESSIVE INCIDENTS. IMPRESSIONS OF OFFICIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE IN WASHINGTON By 0- 0. STEALEY The IVathinglon Correspondent of the Loaueille Courier-Journal Wit\^ an 9lnttotiuctfon it l^enr^ WB.ttmm ALSO CRISP AND VIVID CHARACTER SKETCHES OF THE MEN PROMINENT IN PUBLIC LIFE b^ WtXh^ntAson Wssi\}in%t34o Decrease, $ 286,992,610 The interest-bearing debt of the United States July i, 1885, exclusive of the bonds amounting to about sixty-four millions which were issued in aid of the Pacific Railroads, and exclusive of the Navy Pension Fund of fourteen million dollars, was as follows: 3 per cent loan of July 12, 1882 $194,190,500 Funded Loan of 1891 250,000,000 Funded Loan of 1907 737i7i9.8so Refunding Certificates 240,600 Total $1,182,150,950 During the fiscal year 1886 there were redeemed about fifty mil- lions of the three per cent, bonds of the loan of July 12, 1882; in the fiscal year 1887 about one hundred and twenty-five millions of the same loan were redeemed. In the next fiscal year redemptions of the remainder of the loan of 1882 were made, and the Govern- ment also purchased about twenty-eight millions of the four and one-half per cent, bonds of 1891 and about twenty-four millions of the fours of 1907. The debt was still further reduced in the fiscal year 1889 by the purchase of one hundred and twenty-one miUions of the four and one-half per cent, bonds and the fours, and in the following year an additional purchase of one hundred and four millions still further reduced the debt. About one hundred mil- lions more were purchased in the fiscal year 1891, and twenty-five millions in the fiscal year 1892. On July I, 1893, the interest-bearmg debt was $585,037,100. It remained at substantially this figure until February i, 1894, when the Government began the issue of bonds for the replenish- ment of the reserve fund, a statement of which is contained on page 7 of Circular No. 72, as follows: "The presentation of United States notes for redemption prior to 1893 was not great enough to reduce the reserve fund below FINANCIAL LEGISLATION. 167 $100,000,000. In April of that year, however, the minimum was reached, and the fimd became so low that in February, 1894, an issue of bonds became necessary to enable the Government to restore the gold reserve and redeem the obligations of the United States. Accordingly, popular subscriptions were invited for an issue of $50,000,000 of ten-year 5 per cent, bonds, which were dated February i, 1894, and realized to the Government $58,633,295.71 in gold. In November, 1894, another issue of $50,000,000 of the same class of bonds was necessary, the sum realized being $58,- 538,500. In February, 1895, the Government was again obliged to replenish the gold reserve, which it did by the purchase, under contract, of 3,500,000 ounces of gold coin, which were paid for with United States 4 per cent, thirty-year bonds, amounting to $62,315,400. Another sale of $100,000,000 of 4 per cent, thirty- year bonds was made through popular subscriptions, invited in January, 1896. To recapitulate, the bonds sold in 1894, 1895, and 1896, as above indicated, the average prices received, and the proceeds, were as follows : Kinds of bonds. Amount. Price. Proceeds. 5 per cent bonds, loan of 1894 5 per cent bonds, loan of 1894 4 per cent bonds, loan of 1925......... $50,000,000 50,000,000 62,315,400 100,000,000 262,315,400 $117,266 117.077 104.49s III. 166 858,633,296 58,538,500 65,116,244 111,166,246 d Der cent bonds loan of 102 < Total 293,454,286 All of these bonds, which were sold for resumption purposes, were sold at not less than par for gold coin, or its equivalent; they are all redeemable in coin of the standard value of July 14, 1870, which was the date of the first of the refunding acts. The stand- ard weights and fineness for coins at that date were the same as at present, the gold dollar being of the standard weight of 25.8 grains and the silver dollar of the standard weight of 412J grains. The interest on all these bonds is payable quarterly in coin of the same standard. The debt on July i, 1896, was $843,363,890. No material 168 TWENTY YEAKS IN TBE PRESS GALLERY. change took place in the ensuing two years and not until the act of June 13, 1898, authorized the issue of bonds to supply means for carrying on the Spanish War. The total issue of three per cent. 10-20 bonds under authority of this act was $198,792,660. The Act of March 14, 1900, known at the time as the Financial Bill, provided for the refunding of the outstanding issues of United States bonds, except the 4 per cent, bonds of 1925, into 2 per cent., thirty-year bonds, which were designated as Consols of 1930. The amount refunded under this act was $542,909,950, consisting of $119,260,000 three per cent, bonds; $351,578,650 fours of 1907, and $72,071,300 five per cent, bonds of the loan of 1904. With the exception of the purchase for the sinking fund of about eighty-seven milUons of bonds consisting of threes, fours of 1907, fours of 1925, and fives of 1904, and the redemption of about thirteen millions of the 5 per cent, bonds of 1904, which matured in February of that year, no material change has occurred in the bonded debt since the conclusion of refunding operations in 1903. The debt July i, 1905, was: Consols of 1930 $542,909,950 3 per cent loan of 1908-1918 77>^3S.3^ Funded loan of 1907 156,595,600 Ix)an of 1925 118,489,900 Refunding certificates 27,530 Total $895,158,340 The refunding operations by which five hundred and forty-two millions of 2 per cent, bonds were placed, were under Section 11 of the Act of March 14, 1900. Section 2 of the same act provided for the sale of bonds from time to time for the purpose of main- taining the gold reserve. The bonds authorized may be in denomi- nations of $50 or multiples thereof, bearing interest at a rate not exceeding 3 per cent, per annum, such bonds to be payable at the pleasure of the United States after one year from the date of their issue, payment to be made in gold coin of the present standard value; the bonds to be exempt from the payment of all taxes or duties of the United States. In no branch of the Treasury operations has there been more expansive and substantial progress in the past twenty years than in that affecting National Banks and national-bank circulation. FINANCIAL LEGISLATION. 169 Number op National Banks. 1885. July j,68s ^9°S, July 5,750 National Bane Circxtlation. ^^S. July 1 $3i9,o69,93» 190S, July 1 495,719.807 National Bank Per Capita Circulation. 188s, July I jj 50 190S, July 1 600 National Banks' Capital. ^88S, July I $531,540,465 190S, Julyi 801,330,31s Of all the legislation passed during the last twenty years none gave to the National Banks a greater stimulus than the Act passed m 1900 which permitted cities or towns having a population of 3,000 to establish a bank with $25,000 capital. On March 14, 1900, there were in operation but 3,617 national banks. Since that date 2,550 associations have been organized with aggregate capital of $149,567,800, of which 1,653, ^ith capital $43,100,000, were organized under authority of the Act of March 14, 1900, and the remaining 897, with capital of $106,467,800, under the Act of 1864. During the period in question, of the total number organizations 278, with capital of $18,729,800, were con- versions of State banks; 862, with capital of $57,179,000, reor- ganizations of State or private banks; and 1,410, with capital of $73,659,000, associations of primary organization. By reason of liquidations, consolidations, and failures, the net increase in num- ber of national banks since March 14, 1900, was 2,133, t^^ number of associations in existence on June 30 being 5,750, with authorized capital stock of $801,330,315; bonds on deposit to secure circu- lation, $468,066,940; circulation outstanding secured by bonds, $462,669,415; and circulation outstanding for the redemption of which lawful money has been deposited, $33,050,392. The net increase in capital stock and circulation from March 14, 1900, to June 30, 1905, was $185,022,220 and $241,317,077, respectively. John Boyle. SECOND PART CHARACTERISTIC SKETCHES OF PROMINENT MEN BY WELL KNOWN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENTS A FEW WORDS FROM THE AUTHOR In the second part of this book following will be found char- acteristic sketches of a number of men who have figured promi- nently in the legislation of Congress during the last twenty years. These sketches were written by correspondents here, who have been on terms of intimacy with the statesmen they have sketched and therefore know their worth and chief traits of character. The reader, however, must not suppose that the men sketched comprise the list of all the able men in Congress during the period of which I write. As a matter of fact, as many men of ability remain unsketched in this book as are sketched, but it was impossible for the author to have them all written up as the writers selected in most cases their subjects. Then it would have required a work of two volumes of the size of this book to have sketched all the deserving. In the present Congress, the Fifty-ninth, for illustration, such senators as Alger, Berry, Beveridge, Burrows, Culberson, Cullom, Dolliver, Dubois Foraker, Foster, Frye, Hale, Hopkins, Hey- bum, Knox, La Follette, Martin, Money, Newlands, Patterson, Perkins, Proctor, Stone, Tillman and Warner are the peers of any other senator in the chamber. In the present House of Repre- sentatives there are a number of able men who have rendered good and faithful service. Of these may be mentioned Alexander, Bankhead, Bingham, Burleigh, Bowie, Brownlow, Burgess, Cooper, Clayton, Cockran, Cousins, Cushman, Dalzell, Davey, Gaines of Tennessee, Gardner of New Jersey, Gilbert of Kentucky, Hay, Griggs, Hopkins, Hull, Jenkins, James, Ketcham, W. W. Kitchin, Livingston, Lorimer, Loudenslager, Loverfng, McCall, Mann, Maynard, Meyer, Mudd, Patterson of Tennessee, Payne, Robertson of Louisiana, Rodenberg, Sherman, Sherley, Sibley, Smith of Kentucky, Smith of Michigan, Spight, Stanley, Sulloway, 173 174 A FEW WORDS FROM THE AUTHOR. Sulzer, Sparkman, Swanson, Talbott, Tawney, Townsend, Trim- ble, Underwood, Wadsworth, Zenor and the delegate from Ari- zona, Marcus A. Smith, It is regrettable that a just and extended mention could not be made of the gentlemen enumerated above, as they certainly deserve it. All unsigned sketches are by the author. NELSON WILMARTH ALDRICH. NO one meeting Nelson W. Aldrich at a dinner in Wash- ington, or hurrying along the streets of Providence, would take him to be the man of brains and influ- ence that he is. Not that he looks weak or commonplace, for he does not, but he is so matter-of-fact in manner and appear- ance, so unassuming, so good-natured, so smiling, and apparently careless; so like a prosperous, healthy, every-day business man of the world that one misses the smell of midnight oil and the wrinkle of the brow o'ercast with thought. Mr. Aldrich has been a hard worker and a close student all his life, but when not working and not studying he is playing, and in these intervals — not so rare now as in the days of his early manhood — ^he leaves dull care behind. Although sixty-four years of age, his cheek is as ruddy, his eye as bright and laughing and his step as springy as when he entered the Senate twenty-five years ago. Trouble rolls off the mind of the Rhode Island Senator like water off a duck's back; and another thing that has helped to keep him young is his success in "getting on top" of his nerves. Although quick as a panther in every movement and as active in all his waking moments as the proverbial flea, the "leader of the Senate" is not fussy or impatient. He is, too, always good-natured, and nobody — constituent, office-seeker, or newspaper reporter — can be persistent enough to make him cross. He simply don't know how to be, and so at the end of a hard day he sleeps like a school- boy. He lives a great deal in the open air; goes off on fishing trips to Newfoundland and elsewhere; plays golf and oversees the details of his fine estate at Warwick Neck, ten miles from Providence, on the shores of beautiful Narragansett Bay. Another thing that has helped to keep Mr. Aldrich's red blood flowing freely, his pulse and heart beating regularly, his cheek 175 176 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. rosy, his eye bright, and his brain clear, is the fact that he does not use liquor or tobacco. Of course, he occasionally sips a glass of wine at dinner, but not often, and he never smoked a cigar or a pipe-full of tobacco. When asked once how it happened that he did not indulge in those "comforts" he replied that he really did not know; there was no special reason, but he didn't care to smoke and drink, and so had gone on through life without acquiring the habit. All of Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich's life has been spent in Rhode Island and Washington, except for his occasional brief trips to Europe. He went to Providence when a young man from the town of Foster, where he was bom in November, 1841, and after going through college found employment as clerk in a grocery firm. He was then, as he is now, faithful, industrious, and intelligent. He became a partner in the firm, and in 187 1 went into politics as a member and President of the Common Council. As a politician he was a success from the start. A handsome, broad-shouldered, black-haired, strong man, he made friends on every side and attained a hold upon the Republican party of his State that has not been relaxed to this day. The organization that was powerful in the days of Anthony and Bumside was the organization made possible by the young Ueutenants like Aldrich and like his fellow-worker, Charles R. Brayton, for many years the recognized "boss" of Republican politics in Rhode Island, but who now, old, feeble, and blind, is yielding, somewhat reluctantly, the reins into other hands. Mr. Aldrich stepped from the Speakership of the Rhode Island Legislature to Congress, taking his seat in 1879. Two years later he was elected to the United States Senate as the successor of Gen. Ambrose E. Bumside, and there he has remained ever since, his fifth election having taken place last March for the term ending in 191 1. At the very outset of his career in the Senate, Mr. Aldrich began the systematic, thorough study of the tariff as a science and as an economic and political proposition that has made him the greatest authority on the subject now in public life. He did not investigate the question superficially nor did he study one side of it only. No more did he confine his researches NELSON WILMARTH ALDRICH. 177 to the books. He went into the mills and factories, examined the machinery, talked to the men and mastered the mill industry so thoroughly that he knows as well as the mill owners themselves, or the foreman, the cost of producing a skein of yam or a yard of cloth. He knows, too, what it costs the foreign manufacturer, and understands the relative rate of wages in this and other coun- tries so that when he reads or writes a schedule of a tariff bill he knows just what it means to the fraction of a cent, and this is what very few other men in or out of Congress know, even those whose business depends upon the tariff. The years of study that Mr. Aldrich devoted to the tariff question to fit himself for membership on the fiscal committees to of Congress, in order properly represent the vast commercial industries of his State, were the same kind of busy years that he spent in his early days in learning the grocery business and after- ward in studying the machinery of politics to fit himself for the local, the State, and finally the National leadership. The power of hard, concentrated study was the same, moreover, that he displayed in his later years, when he consolidated the horse railroads of Providence, converted them into electric Unes, and sold them eventually to a syndicate for a sum of money that was the foimdation of the comfortable fortune which he is now sup- posed to have and enjoy. Little or nothing was known about electricity as appUed to street-car lines when Mr. Aldrich took hold of the subject, and he spent the best part of several years studying the question from the ground up. In the end he reported to those associated with him in the enterprise that the plan of substituting electricity was both practical and profitable. Acting on his judgment the lines were bought, equipped, extended, and perfected. The country towns of the State were brought in touch with Providence, to the benefit of both, and adding greatly to the growth and pros- perity of the city. Local capitalists were then given a chance to purchase the stock, but they pooh-poohed the prospect of profits, which, however, are flowing into the pockets of the outside syndi- cate to which Mr. Aldrich and his associates sold the lines for a big round sum. 178 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. There is one incident in the life of this, in many respects, remarkable man that is not found in any of his biographies. He was a private soldier in the Civil War; enlisted in a Rhode Island regiment and saw considerable service in and about Washington on the Virginia side of the Potomac. His reticence on this interesting and commendable epoch of his hfe is an indication of his general modesty. He talks little about himself and pays no attention whatever to what the newspapers say about him. Indeed, he knows very little of it, for he reads few papers — he hasn't time, he says. When sensations and cheap gossip, often involving himself and his acts, public and private, are shown to him, he simply laughs and then forgets all about them. He does not speak in the Senate except when he has some par- ticular argument to make or point to bring out, and then he speaks well; without grace or oratorical effect, but clearly and concisely. Many reasons have been given for the almost singular power Mr. Aldrich displays in his capacity as party manager in the Senate, but the most that can be said about the secret of his success is, perhaps, that he is a natural manipulator of men and measures. With the smile and pleasant off-hand manner of the every-day American he has a backbone through the centre of which runs a rod of steel. He has the knack, too, of always seeing the prac- tical side of a question, no matter how much it may be confused by speech-making and political hocus-pocus. The milk in the cocoanut is always audible to his acute ear and discernible to his keen eye. Trifles do not bother him, and he is no trifler himself. When there is nothing to do he does nothing, but when there is work to be done none can give it more serious, more close, or more protracted attention than he. The pride of the senator's life at present is his summer home at Warwick Neck. It is a most attractive spot, where in the summer months he leads in the truest sense the life of a coun- try gentleman. He personally attends to the building of a wall, the laying out of a flower-bed or gravelled walk, sails his own boat occasionally, drives an automobile, plays golf on his private links, or sails across the blue Narragansett to Newport, only ten NELSON WILMARTH ALDRICH. 179 miles southward, to meet his friends or to while away a pleasant summer afternoon. Mr. Aldrich is a man utterly devoid of fads and foibles. He enjoys life for what there is in it, but is a slave to no fashion or fancy. He is now on the shady side of life, and his once thick black hair is white and very thin. His frame is yet as sturdy, however, and his mind as strong as in the days of his early man- hood. He gets as much fun, apparently, out of life as ever he did, and has evidently learned the secret of how to grow old gracefully. He could never be described as "an old man," and yet sixty-four is not young. Of late years Senator Aldrich has added a European trip to his health-giving programme, and spent four months this year going about the old world, talking to kings and queens, taking the baths, lounging along the Riviera, and doing some, if not all, the things, whatever they may be, that Americans do when they make the grand tour. One fact should in common justice be stated in connection with the statement that Senator Aldrich does not drink or smoke. He is a genuine Rhode Islander, nevertheless, as is demonstrated by the fact that he is the champion clam-eater of the State. Of all the members and guests of the charming and unique Squantum Club, for which among many other things Providence is famous, none can eat as many clams as Mr. Aldrich, nor brag as little about it. David S. Barry. WILLIAM BOYD ALLISON. IF any man in the United States is fairly entitled to be called a "Father of the Republic," that man is William Boyd Allison, senator from Iowa. The career of this distin- guished man is most remarkable in the annals of our public life. He has beaten all records. Come March 4th next, and Mr. Allison will have served thirty-three years continuously as a member of the United States Senate. No other senator ever served so long, either continuously or in the aggregate. Thomas H. Benton's thirty years as senator from Missouri was the record till it was eclipsed by William Boyd Allison. In addition to his service in the Senate, Mr. Allison was eight years a member of the House of Representatives from Iowa before he was promoted to the Senate. More than forty years of continuous service in the Congress of the United States! Four times elected a member of the lower branch for two years each term, six times elected a senator for six years! Allison, the father, entered public life in 1865. Abraham Lincoln was then President. The Civil War was just coming to an end. There was then no railroad to the Pacific Coast. The population of the United States was only thirty-five millions^ or considerably less than half what it is to-day. Since Allison first took his seat in the Capitol at Washington nine new States have been admitted to the Union, and all our over-sea possessions, including Alaska, have been acquired. There is now no man in either branch of Congress who was there when Allison arrived upon the scene; he has survived all his first confrferes. Very few of those who were here at his advent still live. He has seen thou- sands of men come and go — stmt their brief period on the public 180 WILLIAM BOYD ALLISON. 181 stage — while he has gone on his even and continuous way. He has seen ten Presidents in the White House out of the twenty-five the country has had throughout all its history. While there has been a constant procession of new faces in both houses of Congress — ^men coming to the front, serving a time and then falling away in defeat or death — at the beginning of every new session of Congress Mr. Allison is seen in his seat. And he changes so little as the years pass by and the sparks fly upward that his associates think of him as one who has discovered the secret of perpetual life. He seems little older now than he was nearly twenty years ago, when the writer came to Washington as an observer of men and events. There is the same smile upon his placid face, the same springiness of his step, the same cheery "good-moming," and bustling activity in committee-room or upon the floor. It looks as if he might go on and on till he shall have rounded out a full fifty years as a member of the American Con- gress. The day before he completes his forty-first year in the National Legislature he will be seventy-seven years old — a ripe old age in most cases. But with "Uncle Billy Allison," as his closest friends love to call him behind his back, that is appar- ently only the prime of life. Old age has not yet even begun with him. Nine years more and he will have occupied a seat in the big white Capitol for an even half-century — and every man who knows him not only hopes but believes he will live to attain that even more wondrous record than the one which he already has behind him. Those who believe temperament has much to do with longevity and the preservation of youth will find proof of their theory in Mr. Allison's case. He is a gentle soul. He never permits him- self to become angered or excited. He is softness of step and voice and manner personified. It was John James Ingalls who once said of him, that "Allison could put on wooden shoes and walk over a tin roof and make no more noise than a tabby cat mincing over a Brussels carpet." So gentle is he that while of course he has opinions and convictions as decided and earnest as those of any man in pubHc life, he does not often care to express them in vigorous or self-assertive fashion; and his easy, sweet 182 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. ways have given rise to many stories concerning his penchant for undecidedness, most of them apocryphal. One of the best has it that one day a frightful storm was raging in Washington. Capitol Hill was a swirl of sleet and snow. Pedestrians could with difficulty keep their feet. A senator, in the course of remarks concerning the advisability of an adjournment, spoke of the frightful storm which was raging without. " It does seem to be storming," said Senator Allison, cautiously, amid laughter. Senator Allison is not only spoken of as a "Father of the Republic," but is often characterized as "An Ideal Public Ser- vant." Such he is, truly. Throughout his long career not a breath of scandal has ever touched him. There have been no whispers of him as of so many who have held their heads high and lived them down. All his life he has lived modestly and elegantly, like a gentleman of the old school, comfortable in his dignified and unostentatious simplicity, upon the meagre salary the Government has paid him. But during his career he has saved the American people hundreds of millions of money by his watchfulness over the public expenditures. As chairman for many years of the great committee on appropriations of the Senate his finger has been on the key to the Treasury. Without being a professional economist, one of those men who make reputations by cheese-paring and niggardly refusal to meet the growing wants of the country, he has maintained a steady, con- servative, prudent policy, an enemy to all schemes, a foe to all graft and adventure, sane and effective. No servant of a railway, of a corporation or business-house ever rendered more faithful account of himself to his employers, or gave better return for his wages, than this serene and admirable veteran from Iowa. Senator Allison is not only the Father of the Senate, but he is the titular leader of the majority party in that body, has been for many years, and will be as long as he lives. He is the chair- man of the Republican Executive Committee, chairman of the caucus, the head man in all party affairs. This makes him the centre of that group of eight or ten real leaders of the Senate, the men who actually control the destinies of that great body in all matters wherein they care to exert themselves. The Senate WILLIAM BOYD ALLISON. 183 is a body without a leader; it has leaders. And through gentle- ness, steadiness, wisdom and conservatism, through utter lack of selfishness, through the respect and affection which men abler and more aggressive than he bear for him, William Boyd Allison sits at the head of their table. Walter Wellman. JOSEPH W. BABCOCK. TWO men have been preeminent in the management of the Republican party in recent years — Marcus A. Hanna and Joseph W. Babcock. Each had his peculiar forte and each indelibly impressed his personaUty upon the party. Mr. Hanna was a brilliant leader who conducted his party safely through the greatest crisis it had faced since the Civil War. Contemporaneously, Mr. Babcock was engaged in success- fully carrying his party through battle after battle for the control of the national House of Representatives. From a strictly Re- publican viewpoint, his services cannot be overlooked and cannot be overestimated. There were periods in the administrations of William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt when it was a question whether the House could be kept in line, and it was vitally necessary to the maintenance of Republican policies that the House should be friendly. From intimate personal knowledge of many of the circumstances of the fights of those times, I am justified in saying that to Joseph W. Babcock belongs in large part the credit for maintaining the Republican ascendancy in Congress, especially in 1898 and 1902. I will go further and say that Mr. Babcock set a new pace in the conduct of congressional campaigns. The fact that he has been successful in six campaigns, extending over twelve years, ought to bear testimony to his methods. He has brought the Re- publican Congressional Campaign Committee up to a standard of efficiency that makes it a vital force in the political organizations of the country. All of us can recall that a few years ago, upon the eve of a campaign for Congress, it was customary to appoint a committee of representatives in Congress who carried on a more or less desultory campaign, which, when ended, dissolved the committee and closed the work. That was the old way. 184 JOSEPH W. BABCOCK. 185 My object in this sketch is to show how Mr. Babcock has cre- ated a new plan, revolutionized former practices, and won the right to be classed among the great political managers of his party in this era. He came to the House in the Fifty-third Congress. He had been a lumberman and business man in Wisconsin, a member of the Legislature of his State, and was a solid, prosperous citizen with a distinctly business training. The Fifty-third Congress was Democratic, Charles F. Crisp of Georgia was Speaker and the Republicans were very much down in the mouth. They had no patronage, no money for campaigns and, to tell the truth, not a great deal of confidence in the future. The congressional campaign was coming on; the Republicans were looking around for some one to manage the campaign committee. Man after man had evaded duty, not wishing to go into a losing fight, as many of them feared the contest would be. Somebody suggested Babcock, of Wisconsin. Up to that time he was absolutely unknown in legislative annals. He had not made a speech worthy to be called an effort, he had not intruded himself at all upon the public. But in council, around the cloak rooms, in committee rooms, this quiet-mannered, soft-spoken, dark-bearded man, with his perpetual big cigar and his intelligent brown eyes, had somehow impressed himself upon his colleagues. Speaking of that period, a man told me: "He had a lot of good business and 'horse' sense and that was what caught us." Anyhow, they picked him out to fight the next campaign. He went after it just as he had managed his limiber business. It was detail, detail, detail. It was a fearsome struggle. Babcock was fighting for his own political future as well as for his party's welfare. He raised money through his wide business acquaintance, he broke the record for the output of literature, he hired special trains for speakers and went over close districts with a fine-tooth comb after voters; he let nothing get away that was worth looking after and he considered everything worth looking after. He won the cam- paign and brought in a Republican House which has not been turned out up to this year, 1905. He has been reelected chairman of the committee every two 186 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. years since then and has never lost a fight. In 1898 he had an- other bitter fight; in 1900 it was not a walkover; in 1902 it was a tooth and nail struggle, and in 1904, although the resuhs were flattering, there were periods when he was on the anxious seat. It would be unjust to Mr. Babcock to leave the impression that he is merely a political manager in Congress. He is a business statesman. He is not an orator in the accepted term, but he can get up on the floor of the House and make a talk that is clear, logical and convincing. He speaks to the point and his hearers understand what he means. During all of the time the Republicans have been in power in the House he has been chair- man of the committee on the District of Columbia. That is a thankless job, so far as statesmanship honors are concerned, but it is a mighty important place to the people of the national Cap- ital. He has been a business man throughout, looking to the best interests of the citizens of the capital and of the broader constit- uency who take an interest in this the nation's capital. Personally, Mr. Babcock is cordial, friendly and kindly. He likes his fellow man and enjoys his society. He is preeminently a business man when it comes to business and has never made a failure. He is one of the shrewdest politicians this country has seen in a quarter century and has to-day the most intimate knowl- edge of the political conditions of every section possessed by any living man. N. O. Messenger. AUGUSTUS O. BACON. WHEN General John B. Gordon retired from the United States Senate in 1896, the old regime in Georgia felt that its last representative had gone out of public life, that what was known as the New South was in the saddle, and that old principles and ante-bellum ideas had sur- rendered to new formulas, and that henceforth new doctrines would prevail. But Georgia at that time did not know Augustus O. Bacon, its newly elected senator. It is true a great soldier had retired, and one only moderately known on the staff of the Con- federate Army, had succeeded him; it was true that a courtly and gracious gentleman of the old school had gone out of pubhc life, and that a younger man with more modem manners had entered on the stage from Georgia, but the people of that State had yet to learn that behind the more modem type of man there was a heart as loyal to the old doctrines of State rights and Southern civiliza- tion as that which beat in the breast of the old Major General, and in addition to that heart there was a mind crafty and subtle in legal lore capable not only in the defence of that civilization so dear to Southern manhood, but equally agile and strong in attack in the conflicts which have waged in the upper branch of Congress since 1896. Bacon had the reputation of being cold and lacking in tempera- ment, which in some States in the South is considered a grievous crime, and in all of them a fault. He was ambitious to be governor of his State and several times was a candidate for the nomination when a nomination meant an election, but each attempt to occupy the gubernatorial seat was met with a polite negative on the part of the voters. The men who fought him most bitterly would acknowl- edge his mental superiority and his earnestness and honesty, but they wanted a man more like themselves for governor. When 187 188 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. weary of repeated efforts and oft-repeated failures, when he had outgrown the speakership of the House to which he was always elected when in the Legislature, when he had grown content to accept the verdict of his State as final in the matter of his ambi- tions, and when he had settled down to law practice in earnest, with his old friend Judge Miller, the people, like those in ancient script, took up the rejected stone and made it the chief stone in the political temple of their State, and sent Bacon to the Senate by an overwhelming vote. Almost from the day he took his seat he has been one of the master minds from his section and one of the foremost thinkers and debaters in the whole Senate. He was too old a debater in the courts to be frightened by the bugaboo of senatorial etiquette, too clear a thinker to be muddled by the sophistry of pohtical debaters and too firm a believer in the principles his State stood for to be cajoled out of his position and opposition by presidential favors. Since the Spanish War there has been little legislation which does not bear the imprint of his mind, and no debate of importance which does not bear record to his power of argimient and to his ability as a trained legislator. There is not a more popular member in the Senate. He is pe- culiarly fitted for the Senate. Courteous by nature, he never in- dulges in malicious sarcasm and never descends to personalities in debate. The Senate chamber is always crowded when it is known that Bacon, Spooner and Foraker are contending on the floor. They are the three logical and at the same time briUiant minds in the Senate. Each has a rapier long and sharp, and they never draw it from the scabbard in useless tilts. They meet only in earnest debate and do not talk for either home consumption or for the sake of being heard. National legislation, to Spooner and Bacon especially, is a grim business, and each would readily yield to the other if the other could convince him of the good of the cause or the utility of the measure he might be advocating. While representing the old school of the South in politics, Sena- tor Bacon handles old questions in a new way. He seems to typify the best in the Old and the New South. He looks so modem with his up-to-date clothes, his clean shaven and almost boyish face that AUGUSTUS O. BACON. 189 it is difficult to think of him as a subaltern in the Civil War and that his heart came out of that struggle with a firm conviction that what the South stood for was right, and that Democracy could not go far wrong. Senator Bacon is not only a student in theory but in practice. When the Phihppine problem was under discussion he travelled through the East and studied conditions on the ground. In the Philippines he was given an ovation wherever he went, because he was known to be on the side which objected to perpetuity of American power in those islands. Yet possibly what he said to the Filipinos had more to do with putting down lawlessness and paci- fying the natives than the more strenuous efiforts of those who held contrary views to his. Socially Senator Bacon is most charming and in Washington, where celebrities are ever sought after, he is in demand everywhere. A man less accustomed to social life than Senator Bacon would be flattered by the attentions which are showered upon him, and which, by the way, is the rock on which many brilUant men are wrecked in Washington, but social attentions to him are merely an incident and in no way afifect or warp his earnest purposes. As are most Senators from the South, Bacon is a poor man, and money has little attraction for him. He lives as simply as a second Ueutenant of the army. His wants are few and elemental. He does not want to be any better off than the average man of his State. If he were a millionaire or sought riches he believes that he would not be in touch with the man in his home State or town. Therefore, temptation to turn his office into money never comes to him, and what he does he does freely without any other hope of reward than endorsement at home. I have seen much of Senator Bacon and know something of his inner life and aspirations and know him to be singularly clean and healthful in his life, and with a patriotism that is as broad and com- prehensive as it is sincere. To him the Constitution is too sacred to be tampered with and he never lets consideration of policy or expe- diency prevent him from defending it from profane touch. He was fond of McKinley and once said to me during one of the heated campaigns: "I am not a popular speaker or spellbinder in this 190 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. campaign, for I cannot descend to abuse of the President. He is too pure and good a man to hold up to contempt and ridicule merely for argument." Yet he never failed to criticise him on the floor of the Senate when he thought his acts justified it, nor does he hesitate to fight the bitter fight during the present administra- tion, yet there is no senator in the opposition party more welcomed at the White House than Bacon, or whose opinion is more often sought than his in matters Southern or Democratic. He was one of those invited by the President to review the procession with the White House party at the inauguration. He is always quick in retort and President Roosevelt deUghts in his company and likes nothing better than to make his steel flash fire. As Bacon entered the stand President Roosevelt greeted him and turning to those about him added: "When I took the oath of office to-day and swore to defend the Constitution I actually heard Bacon shiver with fright." " On the contrary, Mr. President," said Bacon, turning quickly to him, " I never had such a feeling of relief in my life." Senator Bacon is now serving his second term, and the indica- tions are that he will have no opposition when he comes up for his third term in 1909. He will be rated with the big men in Georgia, and while difEering.in many respects from Ben Hill, he will be classed with him, and named along with such men as Herschell V. Johnson, Alexander Stephens, Ben Hill and Robert Toombs. Archibald W. Butt. JOSEPH WELDON BAILEY. AT the outset I would have it understood that this sketch of Joseph Weldon Bailey, junior senator from Texas, is to be favorable and complimentary to him. Senator Bailey, being human, has faults. But, overshadowing these, he has vir- tues; from knowing him, one comes to love him, and then the vir- tues stand out more prominently and the faults disappear into nothingness. The faults are of the head, the virtues of both the heart and the head. He may sometimes make mistakes of judg- ment — though his political career furnishes few instances of such — but he will never be aught but true and loyal to a friend, or to one who has claims of any sort on his consideration, and he will never lack the courage to maintain and defend his convictions and contend for what he believes to be just. It cannot be truthfully said that he lacks poise or that he is reckless as to consequences; and yet, when he is convinced that a thing is right, he will make his fight for that thing without regard to what the result may be to him as a man or as a statesman. Even those who do not always agree with him realize this, and most of them will not only admit it but declare it. Moreover, those who know him know that he has never resorted to trickery or to the practice of what is known as "prac- tical politics" in the upbuilding of his career, and they know that he is incapable of a mean or small action. As Senator Bailey is big physically, so is he big in other ways. Were you to ask those best acquainted with him what his most striking characteristics are, they would doubtless say that his frankness, his sincerity, his courage and his common sense stand out most prominently. This, of course, would be omitting his un- questioned mental power, his ability as an orator and debater, his thorough grasp of constitutional questions and his familiarity with the great problems of our national life. There might be some 191 192 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. difference of opinion concerning tiiese matters, for Senator Bailey has not been before the public sufl&ciently long to prove his pos- session of all of them to the people as a whole. Mental strength is only relative, after all; but when a man is honest and frank and brave that is all there is to it; there are no degrees. It is these latter qualities which are mainly responsible for Senator Bailey's rapid rise in politics. Without them, he never would have won his first real step up the ladder — his election to Congress in 1890. Without them, he would never have been se- lected by the Democratic minority in the House as its candidate for Speaker when the Fifty-sixth Congress was organized, in 1897; and, without them, he could never have filled acceptably the thankless position of minority leader, or have been elected to suc- ceed Horace Chilton in the Senate in 1901. That he has done all these things, and that before the end of his first year as a member of the upper legislative body he should be recognized as one of its real powers, is an indication of the stuff that is in him, of the fact that the qualities mentioned are bound to make themselves felt. People who do not know him, and who judge him only super- ficially, are apt to say that Bailey is vain. Those who do know him know how wrong this impression is. He perhaps has had as much to make him vain as any other man in public life at present, and there are times when his mere satisfaction at having scored a point, or defeated an adversary in debate or in political generalship might appear as something else to the uninitiated. He knows his own ability better, perhaps, than anybody else. When he thinks that ability may be used to advantage, he does not hesitate. There is no false modesty about him; but neither is there any cheap vanity. The Congressional Record is a pretty good indication of this. Autobiographies you may find there as long as the moral law. The sketch of himself which Mr. Bailey has furnished could hardly be shorter and certainly not less self -laudatory. Here it is : " Joseph Weldon Bailey, Democrat, of Gainesville, was born in Copiah County, Miss., October 6, 1863; was admitted to the bar in 1883; served as a district elector on the Cleveland and Hen- dricks ticket in 1884; removed to Texas in 1885 and located at his present home; served as elector for the State at large on the Demo- JOSEPH WELDON BAILEY. 193 cratic ticket in 1888; was elected to the Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty- fourth. Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses; on the organi- zation of the Fifty-fifth Congress, March 17, 1897, he was the Democratic nominee for speaker of the House of Representatives; was chosen United States Senator January 23, 1901, to succeed Senator Horace Chilton, and took his seat March 4. His term of ofl&ce will expire March 3, 1907." If to this we add the statement that, unless there is a political cataclysm in Texas, he can come back to the Senate as often as he likes, the story, as he has started to tell it, is done. His biography occupies only nine lines in the Directory, and there are but one or two in the book which are shorter. Mr. Bailey has enemies in Texas, but he has more friends, a great many more. Even these latter do not always agree with him. When the question of the construction of the isthmian canal was up for final settlement, Mr. Bailey was one of those who vigorously opposed the policy of President Roosevelt, and did everything in his power to bring the matter to a different termination. Yet pub- lic sentiment in Texas was overwhelmingly in favor of the speedy building of the waterway — a consummation which, it was gener- ally held, was menaced by the attitude of Mr. Bailey and those who thought as he did. Even the newspapers which ordinarily were his most ardent supporters opposed his view. Their position, and that of the public generally, was that the President's course in the premises was wrong, and worse, but that the need for the canal was so great and the commercial benefits to be derived from it so im- portant to Texas, as to warrant the overlooking of the manner in which the thing was to be made possible. Senator Bailey took the high moral ground that no commercial need could be great enough to make right out of wrong; and in this view he persisted, and still persists, although a vast majority of the suffragists of his State disagreed with him, and envious political rivals attempted to make capital out of his stand, on the ground that it was inimical to the best interests of the State. The incident is typical of any number which might be mentioned. Instead of weakening Senator Bailey, it made him stronger. It is likely that no man in public life has ever been more ma- 13 194 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. ligned and misrepresented than Senator Bailey, especially during the early part of his career. While he was in the House, every newspaper in the North and East found unholy joy in holding him up to ridicule, or trying to do so. They made fun of his maimer, his mode of dress, and of everything else which afforded the slight- est opportunity. Even the papers of his own political faith par- ticipated frequently in this more or less pleasing pastime. Young Bailey went pluckily ahead and in the end, when the public came to know him for what he really was, the attacks helped him rather than hurt. In the mean time, though, sportive editorial writers and irresponsible correspondents found that he rarely or never denied any of the fairy tales told about him, and the fun they had, or thought they had, was practically unlimited. One of the bits of fiction which Senator Bailey has never denied to this day, and which has long been accepted as a fact even by many of his good friends, is the famous — or infamous ? — dress suit story. Shorn of its details, this was to the effect that he had re- fused to attend a dinner at the White House one night because of his aversion to evening clothes. Unchallenged, this story elicited criticism all over the country and nowhere more than in Texas, the people of which resent any insinuation of a lack of knowledge of the conventions on the part of their public men. The facts are that Senator Bailey did not then, and does not now, except on the rarest of occasions, "go out." Then, as now, unless engaged at his office or the Senate, he may always be found at home during his leisure hours, in the enjoyment of the society of the members of his household. On the evening of the White House dinner, already mentioned, Mr. Bailey, then living at the down-town hotel where he was a guest for a number of years, was called down from his rooms by a visitor. Then, as now, he lived most unpretentiously, and he found it more convenient to meet business and poUtical visitors in the lobby than in the some- what restricted quarters his family occupied. On this occasion, he finished his conversation with his caller and had started to re- turn to his apartment when he encountered a newspaper corre- spondent of the class— it is an extremely small class in Washing- ton, to the credit of the corps as a whole, be it said— which pays (mmnf!*^" JOSEPH WELDON BAILEY. 195 little or no attention to such uninteresting things as facts. This correspondent, knowing that the Texan had received an invitation to the presidential dining, asked him why he was not at the White House. Mr. Bailey replied that he had not cared to go. The correspondent, thinking he had stumbled on a story, pressed his inquiries and finally Mr. Bailey, tiring of the game, moved off toward his rooms, saying laughingly, " Oh, I don't care for claw- hammers, you know." The correspondent knew he was joking, but the next morning dispatches making the then Congressman declare that he would not wear a dress suit under any circum- stances were published all over the country, and Bailey was lam- pooned and cartooned from Dan to Beersheba. His very infre- quent appearance at any function where conventional evening dress is necessary has helped to keep this particular bit of fiction going all these years. Another story which has been published all over the country was to the effect that Mr. Bailey took up the study of the Constitution and made a specialty of it because the late David B. Culberson, father of Senator Charles A. Culberson of Texas, long a member of the House, and himself a constitutional lawyer of national repu- tation, advised him to affect some particular fad and suggested the basic law. "Have a fad, my boy," the elder Culberson was repre- sented as saying. " If you don't, you'll never amount to anything." Even many of Mr. Bailey's friends think this is true. It isn't. Still another yam, which once appeared in The Literary Digest attributed to my humble self, was later published in various news- papers and is still going the rounds, was the old one about Bailey's first political convention. A district attorney, or some such official, was to be nominated. An old farmer was on his way to the con- vention when he overtook a young man on foot. The latter ac- cepted an invitation to ride, and the two fell into talk about the event they were going to witness. "Will there be some good speakers there?" asked the farmer. "There'll be one fine one, anjrway," said the younger man. "His name's Bailey. He won't talk unless he's strongly wrged, so when the time for the speaking comes, you commence to call for him." 196 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. The farmer followed instructions. He called lustily for Bailey and others took up the cry right vigorously. Finally the famed ora- tor was induced to come up on the platform, and, to the farmer's intense surprise, he saw the young man who had ridden into town with him that morning. It seems too bad to spoil such a good story by asserting that it is not true, but it isn't. And, even though there is held out the hope of establishing a reputation as a raconteur, I must declare that I never heard it, much less told it, until I saw it in print. About ten-tenths of the things told about Mr. Bailey, especially during the early part of his career, can be accepted as equally re- liable as those mentioned here. Mr. Bailey, although the youngest member of the Senate in point of years, and one of the youngest in length of service, is, and has been since his entrance into the Upper House, admired and re- spected by practically all his colleagues, irrespective of the side of the aisle on which they sit. The manner in which he went about the task of holding down his new seat first attracted favorable attention, and when he made his famous speech in the Tillman- McLaurin matter, he was at once accepted as one of the principal stars in that body of stars. His encounter with Mr. Beveridge is perhaps the only thing that has created an unfavorable impression, among persons not fully acquainted with the facts in the case, since he became a senator. And yet even that has been productive of good,"for it has forcefully illustrated to the Texan the necessity of keeping himself well in hand in any and all circumstances. Such a thing will not happen again. Mr. Bailey's likes and dislikes are sometimes peculiar. The very antithesis of the late Matthew Stanley Quay in most ways, he admired the Pennsylvanian more than a little. One day I asked him why. " Because when Quay tells you a thing you may absolutely depend on it," was the reply. Yet he abhorred the Quay kind of politics as much as anybody could. This wholly inadequate sketch is incomplete, of course, without some more or less extended mention of Mr. Bailey's achievements as a public man and lawmaker, of the part he has played in the settlement of great national problems. The history of those things JOSEPH WELDON BAILEY. 197 has been written many times, though, and the truth about Bailey, the man, has not. If what has been set down here will help even in a small measure to picture Joseph Weldon Bailey to the public as he really is, the purpose of the writer will be fully achieved. C. Arthur Williams. GEN. WILLIAM B. BATE. IN the personnel of any legislative body one always finds various t)T)es of men, each contributing in his own indi- vidual way something for the common good. This is wise except in cases where it is necessary to invoke the aid of the courts to dispose of a "grey wolf" that sometimes breaks into the fold. The loud and the silent; the radical and the conservative; men from the North, men from the South, men from the East, men from the West — all these forces and striking of flints contribute to the good of legislation. If all were Tillmans, the Capitol police force would have to be increased; if all were Andrew Jacksons, frequent orders might be sent out for coffee and pistols; if all were Lodges, many passages from eminent authors might find their way into laws; if all were Tom Carters and William V. Aliens, the Congressional Record would have to be enlarged and the Government Printing Ofiice would bear a considerable brunt, to say nothing of the general public; if all were Depews, the statutes would look as bright as pink pajamas. William Brimage Bate, of Tennessee, filled his mission in the United States Senate in his own characteristic way. He might be called a roll-call senator. He was always in his seat and he voted for what he conscientiously believed to be right. He was honest. That is a very essential thing for a senator. Not all senators, like he, could rise in their seats and say, truthfully: "I am clean." Should some of them rise to vote on this proposi- tion, the galleries would flee from their seats, crying: "Unclean, xmclean!" Bate served eighteen years in the Senate, and a few days on a new term, before he was gathered to the silent bivouac. In all this time he was respected by his colleagues, his constituency, and the general public. 198 GEN. WILLIAM B. BATE. 199 No bribe-offerer ever had the temerity to approach him. His ofi&cial life was as pure as a tender spring blossom, and his home- life was as unspotted as virgin snow. While no brilliant coup ever brought him to the centre of the stage, he was ever found in the ranks with weapon drawn and facing the enemy. He took to the Senate the experience of years of service on the field of battle and in the arena of public life. When he died, he was a ranking member of the committee on military affairs and was in charge of the Democratic position on the question of admitting New Mexico, Arizona, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma to statehood. He was among the last of the old guard on the Democratic side in the Senate who were Confederates. At his death his rank, major-general, was well-earned, and he was the highest ranking officer on his side of the Senate. The next in rank with him were Morgan and Pettus, of Alabama, both brigadiers. Among other Confederates at this time, March, 1905, were Daniel of Virginia, Berry of Arkansas, Bacon of Georgia, Mallory and Taliaferro of Florida, Harris of Kansas, Blackburn of Kentucky, and McCreary of the same State, McEnery of Louisiana, Money and McLaurin of Mississippi, and Martin of Virginia. Bate's greatest reputation was won on the field of battle during the Civil War. He entered the Confederate Army as a private and was successively promoted until he reached the rank of major-general. In official reports during the war he was referred to as "the indomitable Bate." At the battle of Shiloh he carried to the field five hundred cheering men with unexpired furloughs in their pockets. His own brother in this battle was shot dead at his side and he himself was carried off the field of battle with both legs shattered. During the war he was desperately wounded three times and had several horses shot under him. In 1863 he was offered the Governorship of Tennessee, but replied thus: "As a son of Tennessee and a Southern soldier I would feel dishonored in this hour of trial to quit the field while an armed foe treads our soil. While I can fire a shot or draw a blade I will take no civic honor. I would rather amid this mis- fortune be the defender than the Governor of Tennessee." General Bate was twice Governor of Tennessee and as such 200 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. left the imprint of his honesty and integrity on the affairs of the State. His passing marked a gap in the ranks of the old type of Southern gentleman. His comrades are already tottering. In appearance he was dignified and picturesque. His long, silvery hair, his heavy stick that aided wounded limbs, his high boots, his immaculate linen, and his suit of black made a striking figure. Scrupulously honest, and avoiding even the appearance of evil, he never accepted a railroad pass. When the funeral train was bearing his body to beautiful Mt. Olivet in Nashville, some one remarked: "This is the old man's first free ride." He was called at the age of eighty-seven. Over his grave was a tattered Confederate battle-flag. His comrades, grizzled and clad in grey, fired the last salute. R. M. Mooeman, THOMAS FRANCIS BAYARD. OF all the hundreds of public men with whom I have come in close contact, I think Mr. Bayard was the most ingenuous. Springing from such a noted ancestry, his father, grandfather, and great-uncle all having preceded him in the Senate of the United States, he possessed in a remarkable degree the pride of race. He showed, but not in any ostentatious way, that he felt it incumbent upon him to preserve, untarnished, the distinction which he inherited. It is doubtful if he ever experienced the temptation to do anything which would not bear the light of day. His thoughts and his deeds were forever in the open. A politician and a partisan in the broad sense, he was as innocent as a babe of the methods of what are styled practical politics. He was ambitious for station, but not for profit. It was a darling hope with him to have the Presi- dential nomination of his party, and three times — in 1876, 1880, and 1884 — ^his name was presented to the Democratic Convention. But not the slightest effort was ever made by him personally to control the selection of delegates, nor would he permit his friends to resort to any of those well-known devices which since the period of the Civil War haye played such a part in determining the choice of Presidential candidates. I remember as well as if it was yesterday, walking with him to the Capitol one morning in the spring of 1876. At that date Democratic sentiment had not crystallized around Mr. Tilden as it did a few weeks later, and, in the minds of many, Bayard stood an excellent chance for the nomination. Speaking on the subject, he said to me: "I would be pleased to have the nomination, but I shall not reach out my hand for it. If it comes to me it must come freely tendered." Upon not one of the occasions when his name was before the 201 202 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. National Convention of his party had he managers, or claquers, or badges, or buttons, or brass bands. The support which he received came from the hearts of those who gave it. Mr. Bayard entered the United States Senate on March 4, 1869, at a Uttle more than forty years of age. He and Judge Thurman of Ohio, who were destined to be the leaders on the Democratic side, came in together. The yoimg senator from Delaware was a goodly person to look upon. Tall, square- shouldered, erect of bearing, symmetrical of shape, and with a face through which mind and character shone, his very presence foreshadowed the record which he was to achieve. He came in troublous times. The Republican majority in Congress was deep in the reconstruction measures. Through the parliament- ary procedure in the House, opposition in that body was not hard to suppress. It was different in the Senate, with its unre- stricted limit of debate. It certainly was a magnificent fight which that slender band of Democrats waged against the solid phalanx confronting them on the other side. It was a fight which continued for years. When it began, the Democrats had less than a dozen men. Their numbers steadily increased, but when it was all over they were still largely in the minority. Day and night that fight went on. Bayard and Thurman never seemed to tire, and such blows as they did give and take! Frequently there were periods of great excitement, and personal collisions were at times barely avoided. Bayard knew not fear, yet the courtesy of his nature nearly always kept him outside the roughness which envelops intense partisan debate. I think the severest language ever used by him on the floor was addressed to Senator Boutwell of Massachusetts. While his heart beat for the woes of the South at this period, he had been opposed to secession and pubhcly spoke against it in 1861. Mr. Boutwell while engaged in discussion with him threw out a plain intimation that Bayard had been a disunionist. With eyes aflame, he shook a menacing fist at the Massachusetts senator on the other side of the chamber, and thundered: "The man who says I ever har- bored a thought for the dissolution of this union lies in his throat." Mr. Boutwell made no reply and the incident passed. THOMAS FRANCIS BAYARD. 203 During all of the sixteen years Mr. Bayard was a member of the Senate, political discussions were the rule and political meas- ures constituted the bulk of the important legislation. A ready speaker, he was often on his feet and contributed largely to fill the columns of the Congressional Record. He had originally been intended for a mercantile career, but this did not suit his tastes and he turned to the more congenial profession of the law. His discussion of constitutional questions was marked by research and abihty. He had frequent tilts with the big men on the Repubhcan side, and he was generally able to take pretty good care of himself. He was a member of the Electoral Commission and took a strenuous part in the secret deHberations of that body. It is to be regretted that no member of that commission ever gave to the world the details of what took place behind closed doors. When Mr. Cleveland came in as President in 1885, Mr. Bayard was induced to leave the Senate to take the portfoUo of the Department of State. He did not enjoy his four years' service in that position for he was constantly running up against the impenetrable wall 0} the President's dominating personality, and he was subjected to severe and very often unjust criticism, which to a man as sensitive as he was extremely galling. The day before he left the State Department he said to me in his private room that he had made a great mistake in accepting the post, that his sphere was in the Senate and he should have remained there. I am quite sure he was disappointed also in his experience as Ambassador to Great Britain, for the opposition press and the opposition congressmen were constantly going out of their way to pick flaws in his official conduct. Comment and criticism, for which the average man would not care a straw, would make him shiver. He was a man of pronounced likes and dislikes, and while he was invariably courteous it was simply a matter of im- possibility for him to be on intimate terms with anyone he did not esteem and respect. He had his weaknesses, as who has not, but they were of that character which inspired the sympathy rather than the disapproval of his friends. F. A. Richardson. JAMES BURNIE BECK. OUR people, for more than one hundred years, have had friendship, admiration, and love for the Scotch. During all the years that it was duty and patriotism and pleasure for every American to hate and revile England, we had nothing but laudation for Scotland, and this despite the fact that George III was fashioned for politics by a Scotch Minister of State and was directed by him in his fatal policy of taxing the American colonies without representation in Parliament. Lord North, the Englishman, was execrated from one end of our republic to the other, whilst Lord Bute, the Scotchman, was rarely mentioned, and this though North only submitted to the King, who was prompted by Bute. Our love for Scotland was due to our hatred of England. Scotland and England had engaged in wars for centuries and the two races hated each other from the dawn of modern history until after the battle of Culloden in the middle of the eighteenth century. Therefore it was but natural that our fathers and grandfathers who got their patriotism out of Parson Weems's biographies, should feel that England was everything despicable and that Scotland was everything admirable. Our fathers looked on Bannockburn as an American victory and Flodden as a mournful defeat. In their eyes, William Wallace was almost an American patriot. Bruce was a king, but we forgave him his royalty for conquering his crown from an English king and an. English army. "Black Jim" Douglas was a hero and a paladin to every ingenuous American youth because no English warrior was fortunate enough to hold "Castle Dan- gerous" against him for a year and a day. Mary of Scotland, Queen of Beauty, Queen of Hearts, Queen of France, Queen in her loveliness, in her grace, in her witchery — Mary was Queen in every American household. More French than Scotch, con- 204 JAMES BURNIE BECK. 205 sort of the King of France and sister-in-law of that king who ordered Bartholomew, she was the niece of the Guise who was hero of Calais and cousin-german of the Guise who executed Bartholomew. Our people were Protestant and yet they shed oceans of tears over this unfortunate Catholic queen, because she was the victim of English politics. We hated Elizabeth and called her regnant hag and royal termagant, though she was Protestant and rescued Europe from the clutch of Spain. The borderland of England and Scotland was debated in ten thousand combats of the two races. It is a region of history, of romance, of poetry, of chivalry. There life was strenuous for centuries, and then the safety of a man's head depended on the strength of his hand, or the cunning of his brain, or both. There in the religious wars Covenanter strove with malignant foes, and there, in an earlier day, Douglas contended against Neville — it was the land of Glendower and of Percy. It is the scene of Walter Scott's delightfulest romance — ^the home of Burns — the "Land o'-Cakes and brither Scots." It was in the border county — Dumfriesshire — ^that was born, February 13, 1822, James Burnie Beck. It was a sturdy Scotch family, robust morally, mentally, physically. They were Covenanters, or descendants of Covenanters, and theirs was a stem and strict discipline. They believed in God, and they hated, without fearing, the devil. They read the Bible, heard it interpreted in the kirk, and lived a life of faith and of prayer. They were a part of that Scotland that had done more than its share of thinking, and had caused more thought in others than any other race, their numbers considered. They were of the Scotland of whom Macaulay wrote that while they had the worst form of government in Christendom, they were not badly governed, and simply because Scotchmen would not submit to bad gov- ernment. There is nothing in Scotland that is not combative. From the regalia of the ancient Scottish kings to the crook of the modern Scottish shepherd there is nothing that is not aggressive, and it has been so for ages. James B. Beck was brought up on the Bible and Burns, and perhaps he did not remember which he learned first, the Book of 206 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Ruth or the "Cotter's Saturday Night." He revelled in Scott's poetry and romance, and could repeat the "Lady of the Lake" without a balk. He was a typical Scotchman, burly of form, powerful of muscle, with a strong mind and a sound conscience. His family designed him for a merchant, and no doubt com- merce lost a great merchant when he turned lawyer and statesman. The family came to America when James B. Beck was a small boy. He was averse to a mercantile Ufe, but he was a genuine Scot, and his father's wish was an imperative command, and so he entered the coimting rooms of his mother's brothers and pre- pared for work. He found it so distasteful, however, that he abandoned it when he attained the age of twenty-one. As a boy in his teens he was a politician and a partisan of that wonderful man, Henry Clay, the knightUest and most brilUant of American statesmen. And so a few months after he became of age, James B. Beck found himself a stranger at Lexington, Ky., the home of Clay. There was no finer citizenship in all the world than that community in 1843. There were the Clays, the Breckinridges, the Marshalls, the Crittendens, and others who shed so much lustre on the famous Ashland District. It was a proud, brave, generous, conservative, intelligent, hospitable people, who habit- ually respected themselves and had the intensest hatred for every- thing that was mean and everything that was dishonorable. W. Drummond Hunt was a prosperous farmer of that com- munity and a leader of that society. He was captivated by the young Scotchman, engaged him and made him foreman on his grand blue grass farm. He was not merely the employer of the young man, but he was his friend as well. He opened his library to this laborer, whose fine mind was hungry for literary food, and all the leaders of that community did as Drummond Hunt did — treated Jim Beck as an equal. He was frugal, and hus- banded his wage, and after two years on the farm he entered the law department of Transylvania University. George Robertson, one of the greatest jurists who ever graced the American bench, was one of the professors of the institution, assisted by Thomas A. Marshall and Aaron K. WooUey. The class was large and famous, drawn from the youth of Central Kentucky. One was JAMES BURNIE BECK. 207 John C. Breckinridge, later Beck's law partner. Another was John S. WiUiams, subsequently the hero of Cerro Gordo and Beck's colleague in the United States Senate. William Preston was another, a lofty, lordly man, who served in Congress, was Minister to Spain, and a Confederate General in the great war. These men welcomed Beck as an equal, and it was due to their solicitation and influence that he remained at Lexington after his graduation. Beck's rise at the bar was not rapid. He was ever of slow growth — the oak, not the vine. Perhaps in all America there was no bar superior to the blue-grass bar of the middle of the last century in the nisi prius practice. Madison C. Johnson had no superior anywhere in any practice. He was the head of the Kentucky bar and might have been the head of the American bar. John B. Houston was one of the greatest advocates who ever pleaded before an American jury. Thomas F. Marshall lived at Versailles, and often astonished courts with the extent of his learning while bewildering juries with the splendor of his eloquence. The Harlans and the Moreheads were at Frankfort. Garnett Davis was at Paris. There were scores of others who "rode circuit" and lent grace and learning to the bar of that generation. It was with these men that James B. Beck, a stranger in a strange land, without fortune, and with only the character he had made as a farm hand and a college student, was to contend. His rise was slow, but it was certain. He was not a great lawyer like Madison Johnson or George Robertson, but he was a good lawyer, and his ceaseless industry, his indefatigable energy, made him a successful lawyer. His practice grew and he pros- pered. He was a dangerous adversary in a common law trial. As a cross-examiner he had no superior, and while he was no orator he was a powerful debater, and juries seemed to love to give him verdicts. And thus for twenty years James B. Beck was a lawyer at Lexington without a particle of political aspiration. Beck was a Whig until the Whig party died, and then he became a Democrat. Not infrequently during poUtical cam- paigns he was on the stimip making political speeches, and in 208 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. 1861 he was dragooned into making the race for State senator against James F. Robinson, and was defeated. When the war was over there was a good deal of political chaos in Kentucky. All that was certain was that the State was overwhelmingly opposed to the Republican party, and as late as 1868, Seymour's majority over Grant in Kentucky was very nearly 100,000. In 1861 the State had been kept in the Union with great difficulty, and it was only the consummate political craft of Abraham Lincobi, coupled with the fatuous precipitancy of the Confederacy in firing on Fort Sumter, that prevented secession. By 1865 Kentucky was in a rage because she had not seceded in i86i, and she is scarcely in a good humor about it yet. In 1866 there was a reorganization of the Democratic party of Kentucky, and Beck helped to do it. There was no Republican party in the State other than a few ofl&ce-holders; but there was a large element too loyal to be Democrats and too respectable to be Republicans, who put a ticket in the field, headed by an excel- lent gentleman, a Federal soldier, Gen. E. H. Hobson. They called themselves "Union Democrats." The reorganized Demo- crats nominated as the head of their ticket a former chief- justice of the State Supreme bench, Alvin Duvall. He was nominated because the Federal authorities would not let him be a candidate for reelection to the bench during the war. And now he was elected, and the new organization was the work of James B. Beck. In 1867 the Democracy rose up as one man and demanded that Beck should be sent to Congress from the Ashland District. Reluctantly he assented, and was elected by an overwhelming majority; but when the delegation arrived in Washington, Con- gress was in a fit of loyalty and patriotism, and would admit but one of them to his seat — George M. Adams, who had been a Federal soldier. Beck, Proctor Knott, Thomas L. Jones, John Young Brown, and the others were told to take a back seat, as Congress was in no humor to let Kentucky choose her own repre- sentatives. But James G. Blaine was a friend of Kentucky, had great admiration for the people, among whom he had lived, and he set to work to secure the State her rights. He was emi- nently successful. All the delegation except John Young Brown JAMES BURNIE BECK. 209 were seated, and Brown was excluded for an expression he let drop in a stump speech he was making against secession. Both Daniel E. Sickles and John A. Logan had uttered, in Congress, more disloyal sentiments, after Lincoln's election in i860. And now Beck was in Congress. It was the place he was made for. There was no stronger debater there, no man who could do more work. He and Blaine and he and Allison became the most intimate personal friends. It was said of Beck that he was the Representative from the Ashland District and the eleven seceded States of the late Confederacy. He kept Blaine busy securing legislation restoring the old rebels to full citizenship, and it is proper to say that Blaine never balked. One day Blaine, then Speaker, saw one of his former pupils on the floor. He had been a Confederate soldier, and was too proud to hunt up his old master. Blaine had a bill prepared and passed, and not long after his arm was around the man he had taught when a boy. He was a big-hearted man, with enormous capacity for both love and hate, and it is due him to say he was an active friend of the South when the South was in sore need of friends. Had James G. Blaine been nominated and elected President in 1876, it would not have required a Spanish war to restore the Union. They kept Beck in Congress four terms, when he retired, and Joe Blackburn took his place. But Kentucky was in no humor to give her great son — ^for he was now as dear to her as any man within her border — a discharge. She sent him to the Senate and kept him there till he died. In the Senate he took high rank, and took it at once. He was an enormous worker, and never spared himself. Fatigue and he had ever been strangers. Never had a draft on that magnificent physique been dishonored. He and Allison were yoke-fellows, and they were pretty nearly the Committee on Appropriations. Annually he and Morrill, of Vermont, discussed the tariff and coinage, and it will repay any young man to wade throught those speeches even at this late day. He was one of the j5rst debaters in the Senate, worthy any man's steel. He got to love the work. He said it was the highest office in the world — Senator in the American Congress — and he resented 14 210 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. the resignations of Bayard, Lamar, and Garland to enter the Cabinet. I believe Beck was sincere when he said he would rather be a senator than President. Scotland has contributed bounteously to the ilite of our citizenship, and Beck was of the 6lite of Scotland's contribution. Savoyard. JOE C. S. BLACKBURN. THAT'S Senator Joe!" was the remark of a Capitol guide last winter. He was pointing out to a group of tourists four or five members of the American House of Lords who were standing at the main door of the Senate Chamber. "Senator who?" asked one of his hearers. "Senator Joe!" emphatically repeated the guide. "Senator Joe Blackburn!" "Why," said one of the visitors. "He used to know an uncle of mine." He added doubtfully: " I beUeve I will speak to him." "Do so by all means," responded the guide, and he said to himself: "If he didn't know your uncle, you'll never know the difference." True enough, " Senator Joe" knew his uncle, knew him well; there was no one of whom he thought more. The senator was introduced to the group, gave each of its members a hearty hand- shake — the Blackburn handshake. He inquired all about his old friend; where he was living; what he was doing, and when he would be in Washington. "Tell him particularly," said the senator, slowly marking his words with the characteristic point of his index finger, "that he must not fail to drop in and see me when he comes to Washing- ton. And as for you, sir, and your friends (the senator gave one of his courteous bows) I would deem it a great favor to be of any possible service to you all. If I can do anything for you, just call upon me." The senator escorted the party to the gallery, gave them a seat in the front row and bade them farewell. In the meantime he had missed a roll-call, perhaps two, but that made no difference to the senator. He had not missed making friends. He had "looked out after some folks from home," and few Kentuckians 211 212 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. ever came to Washington who were not "looked out after" by "Senator Joe." In the spring of '97, Joe Blackburn, beaten for the Senate through the election of a Republican Legislature, returned to Washington to serve out the few months remaining of his term. There was not for him a bright spot in the skies. Walking toward his hotel, a man passed him on the street, paused, turned and said: "Is this Senator Blackburn?" and the word senator must have grated horribly. "I have never met you," said the stranger. "I simply want to express my regret at your defeat." "That's all right," replied the senator, "I am glad to meet you, sir! I appreciate your stopping me! I hope you will always speak to me! God bless you, sir!" Chivalrous, courteous, and gallant, withal possessed of a personality the magnetism of which is rarely excelled, it is no wonder that Joe Blackburn, whatever may be his shortcomings, has been petted and idolized by his constituency for upwards of thirty years. Few more picturesque characters have sat in Congress than Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn. Bom in Woodford County, Ky., sixty-seven years ago, before twenty he had begun the practice of law, necessarily knowing little of it, but more than willing to use the little he did know. Then came the war even before the paint had dried on his shingle. Through it the senator served in the Confederate Army, returned to Kentucky and began where he had left ofE. For six years he continued his practice, made good friends, good Democratic speeches, and bad money. "What does it cost to live in this hotel?" asked a colleague of the senator last winter. "The same that it costs at every place in Washington," replied the Senator. "When the first of the month comes, I simply turn over my salary check to the hotel. It's all I have; I give it to 'em." What Blackburn lost in fees he won in clients. Young and ambitious, it mattered little to him whether his clients would JOE C. S. BLACKBURN. 213 ever pay. Every county court day brought a greater crowd to his ofl&ce, and "we'll get Joe to defend him" was the first thought of a majority of those who in the late sixties went a-lawing in Woodford. And Blackburn's defences usually defended. They were spontaneous and admirable, and went directly home to the jury. He knew something of books, but more of mankind. In all probability he never hesitated for a word in his life. Until he was thirty-three Blackburn declined all proffers of public office. For thirteen years he spent his time practicing law and slapping and being slapped on the back. " Joe" to everyone, though the familiarity of the name has never bred contempt, it is even told that, one day in the Kentucky Legislature, a member in declining to yield to a colleague added in explanation that he had promised "Joe five minutes." In 187 1 Blackburn went to the Kentucky Legislature, and from that time on his name has been a b3nvord in every Kentucky home. In the Legislature he took first rank at the start. Already famous as a raconteur, his hail-fellow-well-met qualities made him the most popular member of the body. His room was the nightly meeting-place of one-half the Kentucky Legislature. His election to the Speakership was a natural result. In passing it may be said the Kentucky House never had a better presiding ofl&cer. The Legislature was soon outgrown by Blackburn. A vacancy occurred in his Congressional District. Blackburn went after it. His competitor was Ed. Marshall, no mean foe. Blackburn won, and in December, 1875, arrived in Washington and took the oath of oflSce. It was the Forty-fourth Congress and Democratic. Michael C. Kerr of Indiana was its Speaker. He assigned Blackburn to the Committee on Expenditures in the War Department. It was one of those committees which often pass by a whole Congress without a meeting — simply a private room for the chairman and his clerk. Blackburn had no reason to hope that he would ever see the inside of the committee room, but had he been made Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee he would not have profited the one-tenth. Blackburn and some of his colleagues 214 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. got on to the fact that graft was running rampant in the War Department. One morning there was a hurried meeting of the Committee on Expenditures in the War Department. It remained behind closed doors for several days. Articles of impeachment were brought in by the House and Blackburn, a new member, was one of the committee of five which placed them before the Senate and demanded the removal of Secretary Belknap. The rest is history. Blackburn immediately jumped into public notice. A year later another opportunity afforded itself. The theft of the Presidency and the Electoral Commission legalizing it formed a subject for ringing speeches from the Kentucky mem- ber. Few more caustic denunciations can be found than Black- bum's deliverances on this subject. He made it hot enough to suit all "the boys in the trenches." The next few years, with their furious party spirit raging over the country, found Blackburn one of the spokesmen of his party in Congress. His speeches were read in every Democratic home. His alliteration used in connection with the employment of Federal soldiers at the polls in the South — "He who dallies is a dastard and he who doubts is damned" — furnished the text for campaign posters. Inci- dentally the opposition made considerable use of it. In Senator Blackburn's political career this has not infrequently happened. He necessitates to speak ever5rthing he thinks. He goes after his opponents in hammer-and-tongs fashion, asking no quarter, giving none. There is little virtue except on his own side. His frankness of speech has more than once caused his political friends to he awake at night. Somehow, however, his very recklessness in spite of itself wins with the people. On them he has ever had a firm hold. To-day in Kentucky the senator is making the fight of his life for his return to the Senate through the Legislature. He would have no opposition if the primary system of electing senators prevailed in that State. Blackburn served five terms in the House, gaining in popularity at home, in influence in Washington. In the spring of '84 he got the senatorial bee in his bonnet. The difficulties in the way looked insurmountable. "Cerro Gordo" WiUiams with his Mexican and Confederate Wars' record seemed a hard man to JOE C. S. BLACKBURN. 215 dislodge. Nothing daunted, Blackburn announced his candi- dacy. As a stump-speaker he has few equals. He went through the State "from Mills' Point to the Big Sandy" making speeches in summer and fall, from sunrise to sunset. The people of all classes and both sexes turned out to hear him. The unbroken fluency of his speech, his deep sonorous voice, carried the crowd. It was a brilliant campaign, and in March, '85, it was "Sen- ator Joe." In those days new members of the Senate were not tolerated for an instant, but the prestige of a brilliant service of ten years in the House almost at a stroke gave Blackburn a prominent place in the councils of that body. His first year had not expired before he wielded an influence far greater than belongs to most individual members of the Senate, and his re-election for another term followed. In 1896 Senator Blackburn was again candidate for the Senate. The Democracy of Kentucky, as in all other States, was cleft in twain. The Senator, always a Democrat, followed the choice of the Democratic Convention and went down to defeat with the party in the nation. Kentucky returned a Repub- lican Legislature and had the naming of a Republican senator. Blackburn was the Democratic choice for Senator and got the minority votes. The organization remained loyal to him in defeat as he had to it. Four years later he led the Kentucky Democrats to victory and was triumphantly returned to his old place in the Senate. It was a happy day for Senator Blackburn! Always a great favorite in Washington, where he had so long officially resided, the galleries were packed with Washingtonians and Kentuckians to applaud his taking the oath of office. Among the first to congratulate him was that fine old senator, James H. Berry of Arkansas. Berry and Blackburn entered the Senate together and have always been the closest of friends. It is quite a coincidence that both have now a similar character of opposition, the opposition of their State organizations led by the Governors. Arkansas and Kentucky may send greater men to Washington than Berry and Blackburn, but they will never send better Demo- crats. 216 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. In the dark days of the Kentucky Democracy, following the assassination of Governor William Goebel, Blackburn from his place in the Senate never failed to defend the cause of his party in the State, and for a while it kept him very busy. He had numerous tilts with his Republican opponents and always worsted them. They still talk at the Capitol of the unmerciful drubbing he gave Senator Chauncey Depew of New York three years ago. Depew had attacked the Goebel Election Law and the Kentucky Democrats. Unfortunately for him his statements were wholly at variance with the facts. '"Mark now how a plain tale shall put you down,'" said Sen- ator Blackburn in opening his reply. "Why, Mr. President, the Goebel Law has been sustained by the Supreme Court of Kentucky, and that has been sustained and vindicated by the Supreme Court of the United States. Is it possible, Mr. President, that the Supreme Courts of the Com- monwealths of this Union and the Supreme Court of the United States must reverse their findings, change their opinions, reverse their own decisions, and come to learn the law at the hands of a worthily distinguished and conspicuous corporation railroad attorney?" The reply was crushing in its sarcasm; the example so severe that Senator Blackburn never had another opportunity to discuss Kentucky politics on the floor of the Senate. Only six members of the Senate entered that body before Senator Blackburn. They are Allison, Morgan, Hale, Frye, Aldrich, and Cullom. With them he belongs to the old school, and is a senator. Watterson Stealey. WILLIAM C. P. BRECKINRIDGE. WILLIAM C. P. BRECKINRIDGE was the son of Robert J. Breckinridge and the grandson of that John Breckinridge, who was Attorney-General in President Jefferson's Cabinet, the author of the Resolutions of '98, and the prime factor in the purchase of the Louisiana Ter- ritory. The mother of William C. P. Breckinridge was a sister of William C. Preston, and a granddaughter of a sister of Patrick Henry, a woman of great intellectual force, and a public speaker of eloquence, scarce inferior to that of her immortal brother. Thus yoimg Breckinridge was sprung from a line of intellectual giants, and he got his oratory by descent. He was bom August 28, 1837, and in his childhood he gave promise of the splendid genius of his mature years. Half a century ago Danville, Ky., was the Athens of the West, and Centre College the first institution of learning of the entire Mississippi Valley. There were trained sons of men who came from the chivalry that fought at Flodden and the yeomanry that prevailed at Agincourt, and here were they blended in a people derived from both. There was a gentry without a squirehood, and there a yeo- manry without a peasantry. That people had great virtues and great faults, and some of both virtues and faults were due to the institution of African slavery as it then existed in the border States of the old South. And whatever the depravity of it, on the whole, slavery as it was found in Kentucky, had its phase of romance and its leaven of nobility. Dr. John C. Young was president of Centre College, and it is not extravagant to say that as a fashioner of the mind and character of youth he has had few peers in our country. He took the crude ashlar as it came to his hands and made the most 217 218 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. possible to make of it. Associated with Dr. Young, of the Aca- demic Department of the college, were certain distinguished clergymen of the Presbyterian Seminary— Dr. Robert J. Breckin. ridge. Dr. Stuart Robinson, and Dr. E. P. Humphreys— all men of extraordinary character and extraordinary capacity. Where these men were, mind clashed with mind as flint with steel. To Danville also came in those days the elite of the bar of Kentucky, as that bar then was to plead in the courts, and to Danville also came the ablest and most eloquent popular orators then in America, to expound poUtical principles and discuss political policies on the stump. It was in that atmosphere — intellectual, social, literary, legal, and political,— that WilUam C. P. Breckinridge, the youth, moved, was educated, and from it he made his advent into public life. He was one of the famous class of 1855, who shed such lustre on old Centre, and though he was not the diligent and proficient student he was in maturer life, he gave promise of the intellectual energies he afterward displayed, and the vast stores of acquired knowledge he afterward secured. His blood and his name made him a public man ere he was a voter. The son of the man who had opposed Clay, and the grandson of the man who had opposed Hamilton, he was bound to be the Democrat he always was. He was graduated at the age of eighteen; he was a lawyer at twenty; he was the foremost orator of Kentucky at twenty-three; he was Colonel of a splendid and veteran regiment of cavalry at twenty-six; and to him and his command were entrusted the execution of the last military order the Confederate States of Amer- ica gave on the East side of the Mississippi River. At the age of twenty-eight he was again a citizen of Kentucky. His father was a Republican and presided over the National Convention of that party which renominated Abraham Lincoln for President in 1864; but in the household of Robert J. Breckinridge there was liberty of thought and freedom of speech, and the philosophy of that eminent disciple of John Knox must have been put to the test when his favorite and most brilliant son joined his near kinsman, John C. Breckinridge, and fought for the "Lost Cause." WILLIAM C. P. BRECKINRIDGE. 219 In 1884 Colonel Breckinridge was returned to the Forty-ninth Congress from the famed Ashland District that has contributed more intellect to the national councils than any other constituency of the great Republicj^nd the succeeding ten years he was one of the ablest statesmen and one of the most brilliant orators in the American Congress. He was, perhaps, the most versatile public man of his day. On the platform of the lecturer, the stump of the politician, at the bar of nisi prius, advocating a cause before a jury, in the forum where a free people hold inquest on pubUc affairs, before a court of supreme judicature, as an editorial writer in the political press, as a contributor to the historical annals of his country, as a conversationalist in the social circle — in any and all these walks he was the equal of the greatest. The late Senator Beck declared that Breckinridge, had he concen- trated his energies to that profession, would have attained to first place among the greatest practitioners of the American bar, and Beck was no mean and no lenient judge. But Breckinridge had no royal road to excellence, and he was a laborious man and industrious worker. It was impossible for that brilliant mind to stagnate. Idleness, had it been possible with him, would have been a torture to him. The last few years of his life he was the editor of the Lexington Herald and daily contributed to it what the ordinary journalist would consider a full day's work; but what he did in that behalf was in time snatched from his law practice, one of the most extensive in the State. While in Congress he was a glutton for committee work, and that is what made him such an admirable member of the Com- mittee on Appropriations, that does so much onerous legislative work of which the public never dreams or hears. It is a calamity to history and to letters that Colonel Breckinridge did not devote the last ten years of his life to writing the story of Kentucky for the benefit of posterity. He, and he alone, of all his generation, knew that story. In Congress Breckinridge was a leading orator and a power- ful debater. The writer of this does not believe that his equal for the conduct of a great annual appropriation bill through 220 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. the House, and through the Committee of the Whole, has appeared in either House of Congress in a generation. Had he got to Congress twenty years earlier, and remained a member of that body thirty years, his fame as a parliamenmry leader would have been unsurpassed in our political history. Take him all in all, he was a wonderful man — a pronounced genius and a brilliant figure on the public stage. Savoyard. WILLIAM J. BRYAN. THE term "Bryanism," used to signify advocacy of free coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one, has a strange sound to men who were at the Capitol when Mr. William Jennings Bryan made his first appearance in the House of Representatives and who were familiar with the views of public men of that day. In common with most men in Congress from the south and west, Mr. Bryan was counted as a "silver man," but that was not the cause he was elected especially to represent nor was he then at all conspicuous as a student of finance. His election, in a strongly Republican District, was hailed as a victory for tariff reform, and he entered the House as a young tariff reform champion, armed to do battle for the doctrines of which Carlisle, Morrison, Mills, Wilson, and Cleve- land were recognized as the apostles. The Republican whom he had defeated for Congress was a free silver advocate, and that question had not entered into the campaign. On entering the House, Mr. Bryan at once associated himself with the tariff reformers, by whom he was welcomed most cordially, and his affiliations were in no way affected by considerations of financial policy. The tariff reformers took him to their hearts, the advo- cates of free coinage merely recognizing him as incidentally a silver man by reason of his environment. During his first session in Congress he paid so little attention to the money question that in the campaign for reelection, his Republican opponent again being a silver man, he was charged with not being loyal to silver, because he had devoted himself entirely to the tariff, which brought him into close association with men identified with what had become known as Cleveland policies. This campaign occurred after he had served but one 221 222 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. session in Congress, during which time he had not said a word on the money question. To establish his loyalty to the cause which has since come to bear his name, he got a letter from the silver Democrats of the Coinage Committee, stating that the reason he had not taken up the money question was that he had been assigned to tariff work, which had occupied all his time. On returning to Washington after the election at the second session he delivered his first silver speech in Congress. He then became more closely associated with the money question, to the study of which he began to devote attention, but he never became as well known in that line while in Congress as he had been from the first as a tariff reformer, and until he went out of Con- gress his association continued to be with the men identified with Cleveland's tariff policy. Though he devoted his attention chiefly to the money question after retiring from Congress, he was not recognized beyond his own section of country as a leader of thought on that subject until after his unexpected nomination for the Presidency in 1896. Up to that time, the old silver leaders had valued his services as a speaker, but had not looked to him for leadership. The silver men had captured the Democratic Convention and determined its policy before he received special recognition. He was not officially connected with the organ- ization, of which Senator Harris of Tennessee was chairman and Senator Jones of Arkansas was treasurer, formed to get control of the convention through the primaries, in accordance with a plan suggested through Speaker Crisp. Messrs. Harris, Jones, and Turpie of Indiana were principally responsible for the over- throw of the Cleveland element at the primaries. Mr. Bryan's early fame was not won as a pioneer of political policies. His wonderful personality put him to the front and has made him conspicuous in every cause he has advocated. He did not create the silver issue, any more than did he create the tariff issue, though he vitalized it for the time. Some of the ablest men of the Democratic party had long been fighting the battle of tariff reform before he joined their ranks, yet he won distinction and fame among these strong men as soon as he appeared in Congress. Many strong men were advocates of WILLIAM J. BRYAN. 223 silver coinage before his time, but when he took up the issue his personality became dominant. Earnest, energetic, and brilliant, with a strong and handsome face, the fire of youth and an air of sincerity which was inspiring, Mr. Bryan excited first the interest and then the admiration of his associates in Congress. He at once became the prot^g^ of his party leaders. They discovered in him a brilliant advocate of the thing they most believed in — tariff reform — and he was not then identified in a way to attract attention with any embar- rassing question. He was made a member of the Ways and Means Committee during his first term, this being an extraordinary distinction, the more conspicuous by reason of his having de- clined to support in caucus the successful candidate for Speaker, on whom devolved the appointments to committees. His first speech in the House on the tariff question gave him high rank as an orator. The fame he won in Congress and the wonderful magnetism of his delivery as a speaker kept him in the public eye after he had passed out of Congress, and the free silver leaders, when they found him identified with their cause, availed them- selves of his talents without expecting to yield to him the laurels of champion. He made an old story new and created almost a religion out of a question of policy which had been pounded into dry dust under many feet that had trodden the same path. He conceived a great principle of human liberty, opposed to favored class legislation, to be as much involved in the question of the volume of money as in the amount of taxation or the control of corporations; and the general idea which he has made captivating to many of his hearers is that any policy which benefits a favored class is wrong, whether it relates to taxation, to currency, to franchises, or to any other thing of public utility. Jno. p. Miller. THEODORE E. BURTON. INCLUDED in the membership of the House of Representa- tives are many men of scholarly attainments, and many, also, who more closely fit into the lexicographer's definition of a lawmaker. But it is safe to assert no member of th^t body possesses in the same high degree the essential requisites of both types as Theodore E. Burton, of the Twenty-first Ohio District. He is erudite, yet extremely practical. He is as famiUar with the metrical swing of Homer's "Hiad," Virgil's "^neid," Goethe's "Faust," or Corneille's "Le Cid," as with the awkward prosaicism of statutory verbiage. He is as much at home with the phil- osophy of sages of various ages and the classics of ancient and modern times as amid the commonplace environments of a com- mittee room where material interests are struggling and clashing for commercial advantages. Of history he knows enough to pen volumes, and of literature sufl&cient to teach it to college professors. And yet he stands out preeminent among his colleagues as the writer of an appropriation biU. The abilities which now are so universally recognized in him by people in and outside of Congress were discerned seven years ago by that astute judge of men, Thomas B. Reed, then Speaker of the House. At that time Mr. Burton was serving his third term. A vacancy occurred in the chairmanship of the Rivers and Harbors Committee between sessions, and he was "jumped" into it over the heads of older men, to their mortification and chagrin. It was a marked distinction for a comparatively new member, but Mr. Burton quickly vindicated the Speaker's dis- criminating judgment and demonstrated that he had been assigned to the right place. Since 1898 he has put through six river and harbor bills and established an enviable record as the head of the committee. Every one of these bills— they carried an aggregate 224 THEODORE E. BURTON. 225 of $140,000,000 of appropriations — was passed by the House without amendment except in a few minor instances, and then the changes were always assented to beforehand by the chair- man, in the light of new information. This is an unusual achieve- ment when one considers the fierce conflict of rival communities and great vested interests for a share of the appropriations. The Cleveland man is absolute master of the situation when a river and harbor bill comes up for passage in the House. Not even the most influential men on the Republican side are able to amend it against his wishes. Occasionally some try, but the way they are bowled over is a merry sight as viewed from the press gallery. Irrespective of party affiliation, the House has come to realize that Mr. Burton is the greatest expert on river and harbor legis- lation Congress has ever known. He has specialized his knowl- edge and is admittedly an authority not to be questioned. The members of his committee consider him their mentor and pre- ceptor. But, withal, he is a just autocrat, and in the preparation of a bill is actuated by a conscientious desire to provide for the greatest number of deserving projects. The finished product is always the result of unremitting labor and the expenditure of much mental and nervous energy. It is no wonder, therefore, that he sometimes loses patience with members or private interests when, impelled by ignorance or hypocrisy or selfishness, they undertake to impugn his fairness or his judgment. Then he is almost savage in assailing his critics, and they are usually content with one such experience. Ordinarily, however, Mr. Burton ignores personal attacks and confines the debate to the legitimate issues raised by the bill under discussion. In the closing days of the Fifty-eighth Congress occurred a legislative episode which aptly demonstrated his personal strength on the floor. The Treasury Department had awarded a contract for the erection in Cleveland of a new government building of sandstone — a product of the great quarries of northern Ohio. Mr. Burton wanted a granite structure, and in the face of precedent, succeeded in forcing through a resolution directing the substitu- tion of the more durable material. The Republican floor leaders, supported by members of his own delegation, lined up soUdly 15 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. against him. The Speaker himself ruled the resolution out of order, but an appeal from the Chair's decision was sustained by an overwhelming majority. The incident has few parallels in the recent history of the House. In Cleveland Mr. Burton's hold on the esteem of the people has never been equaled. This may be illustrated best by the fact that in the campaign of 1904 the Democratic nominee for Congress withdrew his name from the ticket on the ground that the city needed such a man as his opponent in the House of Representatives and could elect no one so well-fitted for the place. This is all the more remarkable when it is recalled that the city had a Democratic mayor in the person of Tom L. Johnson. It cannot be said that Mr. Burton's popularity at home is due to his geniality, for he is not what the poUticians call a good "mixer." It is his intellectual quahties, his deep interest in the welfare of the community, and his absolute incorruptibility that won this high regard of his constituents. Mr. Burton properly may be called a statesman in the full sense of the word, and there is httle doubt that greater honors than those he already has achieved are in store for him. Were he to devote as much time to the practice of his profession as most lawyers in Congress do, he would make a fortune. Instead, he constantly busies himself with the study of public affairs and in improving his equipment for the pubUc service. Although a specialist in river and harbor matters, his knowledge is of such a catholic scope that he would make an equally striking figure in other Unes of legislative work. He typifies in all respects the sturdy, progressive, and conservative civilization of the Ohio Western Reserve, where he was bom. Among these traits is his independence of thought and action. Although a RepubUcan, he never has been regarded as enthusiastic over the protective tariff system. Although always extending loyal support to Repubhcan tickets, Municipal, State, and National, he invariably keeps aloof from factional entanglements at home. Fred Starek. BENJAMIN BUTTERWORTH. DURING the last quarter of a century no more picturesque and charming personality occupied the position of representative from Ohio than Benjamin Butterworth, who was elected from one of the Cincinnati districts in 1878 and served five terms. Butterworth — nearly everybody called him Ben — was endowed with a disposition which made him the most lovable of men; and this, coupled with a wide knowledge of affairs and a forceful eloquence, made him one of the most inter- esting. He was jolly and yet serious; serious, yet always happy. He was the kindest-hearted man it is possible to imagine; he was kind in little things and kind in big things. There never was a more dead-earnest man, yet one might have thought from his merry spirits that he was indifferent to the sober phases of life. In Congress, Butterworth was absolutely independent, and yet he was a Republican of Republicans. He beHeved in the Republican party and its doctrines, but when anybody under- took to twist one of its tenets so as to strain the texture of " Ben's" honest judgment, he was stopped short and never tried it again. On several occasions Butterworth did not go the full limit of some of the ideas of the Republican majority; but while remain- ing obdurate in his attitude, he rejected all overtures with a friendly smile. There were certain things in connection with the McKinley tariff bill at which he revolted, and he did not hesitate to stand up and say so with emphasis. He was of Quaker origin and there was enough of the old stock in him to enable him to hold out against all arguments which sought to swerve him from his idea of right and justice. Butterworth's last days were tinged with the sorrow of disappointment. For five or six years after retiring from Con- gress in 1891 he practised law, his chosen profession. Then, in 227 228 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. the spring of 1897, he was appointed Commissioner of Patents by President McKinley. He felt he was justly entitled to some- thing better at McKinley's hands. He was a lawyer and a good lawyer, and wanted to be solicitor - general. But he accepted the other office with good grace, and a little anecdote will show how free from bitterness his heart was. He was walk- ing along the street one day with a friend, and the conversation happened to turn to McKinley and his climb to fame. "Do you know how McKinley deals with me?" asked Butterworth. "No, I do not. How is it?" his friend rejoined. "If McKinley and I were out in an orchard," Butterworth replied, "and there were two fine apples on the top of the tree and no more, McKinley would say to me, 'Ben, go up and get those two apples.' I would go up and throw one down and he would begin to eat it. But just as I was reaching for the other one he would say, 'Ben, throw down the other one and let me try that.' " That was the good-natured way he had of complain- ing. Butterworth died a poor man. He never could make money. He tried various ways, but he had too much confidence in other people. He took their word and they took the money. He then took the experience, and there the matter ended. Butterworth's death resulted from pneimionia; he was attacked while stumping Ohio for Marcus A. Hanna, then a candidate for Senator. Mr. Hanna never permitted his affections to go out to a man of doubtful qualities and he never had a more sincere regard for a man than he did for Butterworth, whose death was a great trial for him. Feed Starek. JOSEPH G. CANNON. THE election of Joseph G. Cannon of Illinois as Speaker of the House of Representatives, in the Fifty-eighth Congress, took from the floor one of the most picturesque characters, and one of the most forcible debaters that has been in Congress in the present generation. The transfer from floor- member to Speaker did not apparently change Mr. Cannon. After thirty years of service in Congress, and two years as Speaker, he still has his "feet in the soil," as they say in the West. He has held the most powerful lever in American political life without assuming any new prerogatives as a "man of destiny," or one bom to conamand. As Speaker of the House he has also been ever one of the mem- bers, recognizing that a new duty, rather than a great privilege, has been put upon him by his fellow-members. He continued in the course he had followed for thirty years as a member, con- sidering all proposed legislation on its merits with due regard to what appeared to him the general good of the country, and no man has ever been more popular in the Speaker's Chair, nor has any of his predecessors been given greater credit for honesty, patriotism, and simple democracy in wielding the great power of that ofhce. Believing in party government as an essential of majority rule — ^because party means organized majority — ^he organized the House on party lines, as has every Speaker since the beginning of the government. But he requested the "minority leader" to organize his own forces of opposition and designate his men for committee assignments that the minority might be able to do its most effective work, and in that sense at least bear its share of responsibility in resisting the efforts of the majority. This recognition of the minority as a political entity made it repre- 229 230 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. sentative of those who are opposed to the principles of the Republican party, and left the Speaker as the chosen leader of those who represented the majority of the voters of the country responsible for legislation brought forward and enacted into law. But even in this position, Mr. Cannon, as Speaker, did not exercise the power to prevent his party from doing those things which a majority of the Republican members believed should be done. He did not always agree with the majority of his party, but he followed the same rules he had followed on the floor and bowed to the majority will as expressed in caucus, and carried out that will so far as is in the power of a Speaker to do so. I As Speaker of the House, Mr. Cannon holds a political power second only to that of the President. The late Thomas B. Reed declared the Speakership as "having no peer and only one supe- rior." Mr. Cannon did not come to this exalted political position by reason of the discovery of any great overshadowing genius. He came to it through long experience, close study, and persistent effort in behalf of safe and sane legislation. He has stood with his "feet in the soil" along with the millions, and he has been able to understand the average condition of the average citizen as one of them. Educated in the school of experience, on the western frontier, he is of that type which made the West noted for men of strong common sense, common virtues, and good examples of Democratic government. Like Lincoln and Logan, and Oglesby and Palmer, Mr. Cannon has never been heralded as a brilliant or great man among his neighbors in Illinois. They never discovered in him anything remarkable to distinguish him from themselves. He has for half a century been Plain Joe Cannon — that title gradually evolving into "Uncle Joe" with the years that gathered about his life-work; a plain common man, honest, experienced, and able to best represent his con- stituency in a representative government. Born in the South, of Quaker parents, who had been driven from Massachusetts to find freedom for religious worship, and his youth spent in the West when it was new, Mr. Cannon is by tradition and consanguinity related to all sections of our country. He entered upon his political career in the year when Abraham JOSEPH G. CANNON. 231 Lincoln was elected to the Presidency. He was then elected prosecuting-attorney in Douglass County, Illinois. He had his baptism in the Republican party at the time when men fought for their convictions, and when political discussion was at white- heat during the anti-slavery agitation. His boyhood Hfe was a fit training for the associations he entered in that great con- flict. Mr. Cannon was born in North Carolina within sight of the old Revolutionary battle-field, at Guilford Court House, and he was only a child when his father emigrated to the Northwest Territory, which, under the Article of 1878, was forever protected from the curse of slavery. His father, a country physician, was the agent of the Friends at Richmond, Indiana, sent to Alabama to bring North the slaves and a money legacy of $50,000 left by inheritance to one of this nimaber, that the slaves in a free land should be made free men, and settled on lands purchased for them with the money part of the inheritance. Joseph G. Cannon would have been unworthy of his forebears had he been different from what the country has come to recognize him to be in the evening of his long public life — a man of sterling integrity and old-fashioned democracy, catholic charity, and hard common sense. He might have been better equipped for legislative work had his father not died and left him, at fourteen years of age, to make his own way in the world; drudging on a farm; clerking in a country store; reading law as he found time, when not at work for a livelihood. But he began his life as did other men of his time in Illinois, and he made his way in spite of discouragements and without the consciousness that he was doing more than his duty, or having a greater struggle than was the common heritage of his fellows. As a lawyer he rode the circuit over the prairies, and there learned what he has since termed the "catch-as-catch-can" style of debate, which has been perhaps the most striking and dramatic feature of his legislative life in Washington. He was elected to Congress in 1872, and entered upon his Congressional career when James G. Blaine was Speaker, and .such men as Garfield and Randall, and Hoar, Hale and Carlisle, 232 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. and other great men were on the floor. It was a new life to him, but he was not simply there to sit at the feet of great men to learn. He was there for work, and his work in that Congress shows up almost as well as in later years. For industry it probably shows even better. He was appointed a member of the Committee on Post-OfBces and Post-Roads, and by the chairman of that committee was made chairman of the subcommittee to prepare a codification of the postal laws. He took hold of that work with enthusiasm and energy, and there thirty years ago re-wrote the postal laws substantially as they are to-day. He introduced the new regulation for a pound-rate postage on newspapers, thus relieving the subscribers of paying postage on each and every individual newspaper or magazine received through the mails. By the new law the publishers were required to prepay the postage, but at reduced rates, which gave an enormous impetus to the circulation of these publications, and did more to carry out the original plan of the post-office, and to make it an agent for the distribution of knowledge, than any other feature of the postal laws. He also rewrote the law against sending obscene literature through the mails, and fixed penalties for the offense, and pre- scribed penalties against the use of the postal system as an adjunct to the lottery business. In defending that new bill, and all its various provisions before the House, Mr. Cannon employed the same methods he had learned while riding over the judicial circuit in Illinois. He learned his subject thoroughly, and trusted to his ability to defend his opinions without manuscript, notes, or other preparations. He there began his catch-as-catch-can debates in Congress. With such a beginning for his congres- sional career, it is not surprising that Mr. Cannon should have continued through his pubUc life to look upon the postal develop- ment as the barometer of American progress, and to use these figures in many of his arguments on other pubHc questions. Mr. Cannon owed his promotion to the Committee on Appro- priations to a Democratic Speaker, Samuel J. Randall, who, when making up the committees for the Forty-sixth Congress, assigned Mr. Cannon to that most important committee. In fact, Speaker Randall enlarged the Committee on Appropriations for the JOSEPH G. CANNON. 233 specific purpose of appointing Mr. Cannon as an additional minority member, because of the ability he had shown in handling the Post-Office Appropriation Bill. His work from that time until he was elected Speaker was largely identified with appro- priations, and so largely that he became recognized as the best- posted man in Congress regarding the great supply bills, and was popularly known as the Watch- Dog of the Treasury. Mr. Cannon also owed to a Democratic Speaker, Mr. Carlisle, his recognition as a political leader, in his appointment to the great Committee on Rules. In the Fiftieth Congress, Speaker Carlisle appointed Mr. Cannon and Thomas B. Reed as the minority members of that committee for the control of legislation. Mr. Cannon was a candidate for Speaker before the Repub- lican caucus of the Fifty-first Congress, and was defeated by Thomas B. Reed. Speaker Reed made him Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, and also continued him on the Committee on Rules, where he and Major McKinley, with Speaker Reed, mapped out the programme for tariff legislation and the line of battle for the passage of the famous McKinley Bill. Mr. Cannon was never a member of the Committee on Ways and Means, and never claimed a superior knowledge of, or even an intimate acquaintance with, tariff schedules. But as a member of the Committee on Rules, of the Fifty-first Congress, Speaker Reed put him forward to defend those rules on the floor. And in that defence he had to prepare the way for the passage of the McKinley Bill. He also took an active part in the debates on financial questions and other great questions that affected the general welfare of the people. He has never given particular study to the foreign relations of the Government, and in the agitation over Cuba and the explosion of the Maine in Havana harbor, he was classed with the conservatives who sought to avoid war. But he did more to make that war successful than any other member, perhaps, by introducing and reporting from the Appropriations Committee a bill to place $50,000,000 in the hands of the President for national defense. The boldness of that move had its effect upon European governments, warning them against meddling with the questions 234 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. at issue between this Government and that of Spain, and at the same time aided the President to get ready for the struggle by the time it became inevitable. Mr. Cannon never prepared a set speech on any great question which could be considered a great contribution to our political literature. And yet the pages of the Congressional Record for the last thirty years show that he was ever present and ever active in the debates on all great questions that came before the House of Representatives during those years. Mr. Cannon has always been a partisan and a fighter in Congress, but he has never carried his partisanship beyond the development of a party policy of government as to finance, revenue, and other essentials of govern- ment by the party. And he has never opposed a good measure because it did not come from his party, or because it was backed by a pohtical opponent. On the other hand, he has never looked to see whether friends or opponents were backing the bill which he regarded as vicious, for no personal or political friend could hold him back from fighting such a bill. It is this quality of fighting, on the part of Mr. Cannon, which has won him the confidence and approbation of all parties and all factions in Congress, which was so well exemplified on the closing day of the Fifty-eighth Congress when all united in a demonstration of good will and fraternal remembrance, by presenting him a "Loving Cup" and the Thanks of the House of Representatives. L. White Busbey. JOHN G. CARLISLE. T OHN G. CARLISLE'S career in the field of our National I politics began March 4th, 1877 and closed March 4, 1897 — I just one score years. No more amiable man ever appeared •^ in public life — not suave, debonair, magnetic, but sedate, serene, placid. He spoke evil of no one, and yet upon few men of his generation have been visited more abuse, opprobrium and scurrility than upon him. Envy is a powerful passion and loves a shining mark, and who would escape it must be without merit and without success. If he could have borrowed some of the virile qualities of his great fellow Democrat, and sometime rival, Samuel J. Randall, especially his magnificent and dauntless capacity for hatred, John G. Carlisle would have become a more interesting figure, perhaps a more successful politician, and might have attained to the Presidency itself. It might have been better for him had he been an egotist. Mr. Carlisle was bom in Kenton County, Ky., September 5, 1835 and the year he was eligible under the State constitution, he was sent to the State legislature — 1859. The issue in that body was Secession, and Carlisle was a Union man. Though a very young man his clear intelligence perceived that secession would be followed by war, and that war would terminate in the victory of the stronger, a habit that war had acquired even before Alexander or Hannibal. In 1866 Mr. Carlisle was elected to the State Senate to supply a vacancy, and in 1871 he was elected lieutenant-governor of Kentucky. That, too, was the year he was eligible under the State constitution, to the office. He made a canvass of the State and it was not until then that Kentuckians realized how superior and superb were the intellectual capacities of the man. In 1876, when forty-one years of age, Mr. Carlisle was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress. 235 236 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. The Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives at that time were Randall, Mills, Tucker, Knott, Cox, Alexander H. Stephens, Clarkson N. Potter, and Fernando Wood. The disputed Presidential election had been decided in favor of the Republicans, and the Democratic party had appealed the case to the bar of public opinion. It was the Congress that saw the last of the seceded States taken possession of by the whites, when carpet-bagging and knavery loosened their clutches upon the con- quered provinces of the South, It was in this Congress that the silver question was exhaustively debated, and it was by this Congress that the Bland-AUison Coinage Bill was enacted. The death of Mr. Speaker Kerr during the life of the Forty-fourth Congress sent the tariff question to the rear, and it was kept in the rear by Mr. Speaker Randall, who appointed a Committee on Ways and Means hbstile to that idea. William McKinley and Thomas B. Reed entered Congress simultaneously with Mr. Carlisle and at a time when Mills, Culberson, Blackburn, Knott, and Cannon were already conspicuous. Garfield was the Repub- lican leader and Fernando Wood the titular Democratic leader, though Randall was the real leader of the majority. Blaine, Ben Hill, and Lamar had just been transferred to the Senate. It was the epoch of the "Bloody Shirt" and the grand old garment was the emblem of the "grand old party." The Southern outrage mill ground its grist of party passion and sectional hate on the eve of every election, to the end that the Northern heart might again be fired and treason again be made odious. "Vote as you shot!" was the admonition from stump, from sanctum, from the Altar of God even, and was supposed to be the prompting of the most immaculate, as it certainly had been of the most lucrative, patriotism. One of the issues in Congress had been created by "riders" on annual appropriation bills forbidding the employment of soldiers of the regular army to do police duty at the polls. The Democrats invoked John Hamp- den and announced the doctrine of the "Long Parliament" that suppHes would be withheld until grievances were redressed. The Republicans answered "Having failed to shoot the Government to death you would now starve it to death." JOHN G. CARLISLE. 237 It was on this issue that John G. Carlisle made his d6but in the American Congress and never in the history of that body was there before, or has there been since, a more triumphant maiden argument. It attracted universal attention and drew the fire out of every prominent Republican statesman, editor, and lawyer, in Congress and out of Congress. It stated with inexorable logic the Democratic case, that liberty was inconsistent with force at the polls, and that no people was free whose elections must be kept free by military supervision. It was the cue to every other Democratic leader, and Ben Hill and Allen G. Thurman, in the Senate, only echoed what John G. Carlisle said in the House of Representatives. There was no bluster, no passion torn to tatters, no fervid declamation, no splitting of groundlings' ears. The speech was as simple as the English tongue could express it, as plain as the human understanding could conceive it, and the reason so clear that the dullest mind could follow it. There were no big words, no involved phrases, no recondite meanings. Admit the premises and the conclusion was inevitable It was statement, clear, lucid, artless, unadorned. Though a new member, his name unheralded, though his was a strange face, his an unaccustomed voice, John G. Carlisle from that day was the first lawyer and the first logician in Congress, and it is due to say that Garfield's reply stamped that intellectual Titan one of the greatest debaters of our history. Carlisle belonged to the Morrison wing of the party and in subsequent Congresses he was a leader of the tariff reformers, and doubtless he was the ablest man among them — ^first in a company of which Morrison, Mills, Hurd, Tucker, Turner, Knott, the Breckinridges, Cox, Cockran, Wilson, and others were mem- bers, and these were men whose forensic talents would have lent lustre to any Senate that ever deliberated in either hemispheres. Carlisle's speeches differed from all the others. He was not so fierce a debater as Ben Hill, not so brilliant an orator as William L. Wilson. He did not employ the rapier of wit or the bludgeon of sarcasm as did Thomas B. Reed. He did not enliven his speeches with humor as did Proctor Knott, nor did he embellish them with classical allusion as does Bourke Cockran. Stately 238 TWENTY YEABS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. sentences he left to W. C. P. Breckinridge, and convincing statistics he left to James B. Beck. He was to Congress what Marshall was to the bench, a sedate, a profound, a conscientious thinker. Who of our public men save the great Chief- Justice alone ever found so Kttle use for the flowers of fancy, or the tropes of rhetoric as John G. Carlisle ? He never used two sentences if he could express the idea in one, he never employed ten words if nine would suffice. No other of our public men ever had so little use for an adjective unless it was Marshall, and not even Marshall or Webster himself could state a .proposition clearer. Though master of several languages and a well-read man, familiar with the classics, no one would ever suspect it from his speeches. There is not a quotation from the ancients, not a classical allusion, not a poetic thought, not a flower of rhetoric not an epigram, not a metaphor in any of his productions, written or spoken. If Greece or Rome ever existed we do not know it from this man. If Shakespeare and Milton were poets, Carlisle does not appear to have discovered the fact. Compare his speeches with those of J. Proctor Knott, himself a lawyer of the very first rank, and there is all the diff'erence there is between the tulip and the violet. Knott has an exuberant style, is brilliant in command of language, and felicitous in classic allusion. What a wealth of expression is his! How vast his reading, and under what admirable and instantaneous command is his acquired knowledge! But Knott and Cariisle are as different in expression as the poetry of Lord Byron is different from the prose of John Locke. Carlisle was made for the bar and the bench. He has the finest mind for the separation of truth from error of any man of his generation. As Chief Justice of the United States his fame would rival Marshall's and he would do the work that it took both Marshall and Story to do. The Forty-eighth Congress was overwhelmingly Democratic in the House of Representatives, and the tariff reform wing of the party demanded the election of Carlisle to the Speakership, and after a sharp struggle he defeated Mr. Randall in the caucus. Colonel Morrison was appointed chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and brought in a tariff bill reforming the incongruities JOHN G. CARLISLE. 239 of the tariff and reducing the revenues to the actual necessities of the Government; but Randall had following enough on the Democratic side to defeat the passage of the measure, and he was strong enough at Chicago to get the protection he demanded incorporated in the Democratic national platform of 1884. The Democrats triumphed at the succeeding election; Mr. Cleveland was inaugurated President of the United States, and the Forty- ninth Congress was Democratic. Carlisle was again chosen Speaker. Morrison was again appointed to Ways and Means. He again brought in a tariff reform measure, and Randall was again strong enough to defeat it. And he did this despite the fact that Carlisle had greatly curtailed the power of Mr. Randall's great committee by providing for a partial distribution of the annual appropriation bills. Many radical tariff reformers insisted that Mr. Carlisle deprive Randall of his chairmanship and thus oust him of his place of vantage; but Carlisle's mind is eminently judicial. He weighed the matter accurately and concluded that it was bad policy. He remembered what damage had come to the Democratic party when Stephen A. Douglas was deposed from the chairmanship of the then paramount committee on territories, and he had not forgotten the schism in the Republican party due in great measure to the removal of Charles Sumner from the head of the Foreign Relations Committee, and so Mr. Carlisle took about one-half the general appropriation bills from Mr. Randall's jurisdiction, and while it did not prevent the defeat of the Morrison Tariff Bill of the Forty-ninth Congress, it enabled the House of Representatives of the Fiftieth Congress to pass the Mills Bill. As a sample of practical politics Carlisle's treat- ment of Randall was one of the most remarkable in our history. He deprived Randall of much of his power without incurring the hostihty of the man. Mr. Carlisle must ever be regarded as one of the great Speakers of the American Congress, ranking with Macon, Clay, Stevenson, Winthrop, Blaine, Randall, and Reed. In one respect he was greater than any Speaker before or after his occupancy of that Chair. He had as great a knowledge of parliamentary law as any one of them, and he understood the philosophy of parliament- 240 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. ary law better than any one of them. When lieutenant-govemor of Kentucky, 1871-75, he made a profound study of the system, and when he came to the Speakership of the National Congress, he not only understood the rules; but he knew why they were the rules. In the Chair he was the judge ever, the partisan never. The United States Senate at difiFerent epochs, was presided over by Aaron Burr, John C. Calhoun, and JohnC. Breckinridge. It was said of the first of these that, in the Chair, he exhibited the impartiaHty of an angel and the rigor of the devil, and perhaps there never was a finer presiding officer, unless it was John C. Calhoun, or Henry Clay. If our country has produced one man above all others entitled to the cognomen. "Noble Roman" that man was Calhoun. He looked the part and he acted it. Dignity was stamped on his brow, and Calhoun in the American Senate constantly reminded one of Cato in the Roman Senate. Breckinridge was the personification of manly beauty. The noblest gentleman and the veriest scamp alike could see that he was a high-minded man, and as a presiding ofl&cer, he was simply superb. Clay and Blaine were splendid in the chair, suave, urbane magnetic. Randall and Reed were men of force, domi- neering, inexorable. Macon was much of the Roman. Steven- son knew the rules thoroughly, and Winthrop was at once graceful and dignified. Carlisle was great in all respects — he was dignified, judicial, correct, patient, a great presiding officer, and a great speaker. When Mr. Beck died, Mr. Carhsle was chosen his successor in the Senate, and there he ranked with the foremost members of that body. His speech against the McKinley Tariff was never surpassed in either House of Congress and his debate with Aldrich on the wool schedule was remarkable, in that it showed that he was as well acquainted with the practical workings of the subject as he was with the constitutional and economic principles involved. But a new question became paramount. It rent the Demo- cratic party in twain and shook the Republican party to founda- tion stone— the coinage question. Traditionally the Democratic party was the sound-money party. It was so in Jackson's and JOHN G. CARLISLE. 241 Benton's day, and in 1853, Democratic legislation put the country on a gold basis. When the fiat greenback was created not a single Democrat voted for it in the House of Representatives, and the party was nearly unanimously against it in the Senate; but now the two parties had swapped sides — the Democrats were for diluted money and the Republicans pretended to be for sound money. But it is a fact that the only real sound-money ticket before the people when the test came was composed of Palmer of Illinois and Buckner of Kentucky. They had to dragoon the G. O. P. into it and, ten years later, there is the enormous amount of over half a billion full legal tender, "basic" money in the country that is 50 per cent, fiat, and will bring all the trouble the Treasury can stand when it plays the part of "endless chain" in the next panic. Mr. Carlisle was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in 1893. The Sherman silver law had already played havoc with the "free" gold in the Treasury and it was manifest that the country would go to the silver basis unless gold was secured. No gold came in from taxes, or very little, though prior to the enactment of the Sherman Silver Law, over 90 per cent, of the tariff taxes was paid in gold. There was no way to get it but to buy it, and the only way to buy it was to swap bonds for it. That was done notwithstanding the public discontent, public slanders, public scurrilities. The public credit was preserved, however, and it was the greatest example of financial statesmanship in our history. For four years Carhsle administered his great trust with consummate ability. His task was to preserve gold payments and this he did despite the commercial panic and despite the cowardice of both parties in Congress. In 1897 he retired to private life a poor man. He was the equal of any lawyer in the whole country, and he returned to the practice of his profession in which he has been very successful. The profession is more congenial to his temperament than is politics, and doubtless the last eight years have brought him more satisfaction than he got out of the whole twenty years of political life from his entry into Congress to his retirement from the Treasury. 16 242 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. A few weeks after his retirement he went to Kentucky and delivered a political speech that was his farewell to politics. He closed with these pregnant sentences: " Gentlemen, I shall forbear to say anything on this occasion concerning the recent Democratic administration of national affairs, except to assure its friends and its enemies alike that, from the President down to the humblest who cooperated with him in the exercise of executive authority, every member of that admin- istration is content to submit all its acts to the severest scrutiny and wait patiently the verdict of impartial history. When the passion and prejudice, the personal animosities, and the personal grievances of these disordered times have passed away, and the public mind is prepared to consider administrative measures and domestic and foreign policies on their real merits, the last administration of Grover Cleveland will need no champion to vindicate its wisdom and patriotism before a just and generous people." I do not believe anything more dignified ever came from the lips of an American public man, and I am sure no Howard, or Seymour, of the English nobility, ever uttered a finer sentiment, or entertained a loftier thought. Savoyard. EDWARD W. CARMACK. EDWARD WARD CARMACK was bom to do battle in the public arena. He is red-headed. Whether as an editor or as a pohtician, in any struggle he has never been found in the rear. He revels in the roar and blaze at the front. He delights to give thrust for thrust and the rasping of the swords only sharpens his steel for another fight. In debate he wields no blunt broadsword. He cuts with the keen point of the rapier. Invective and eloquence are employed with equal ease. Humor and sarcasm are his side arms. As an editorial writer he lashed the Populist party at its birth until the Ocalaites began to love him. The Populist nominee for Congress in the Tenth Tennessee District in 1892, and the Populist nominee for Congress in 1894, stumped the district for him in 1896. In his election contest with Josiah Patterson he laughed that gentleman out of court and obtained a seat in the House. He scorched "Hell Roaring" Jake Smith until the country shuddered. He ridiculed Funston and the Senate became so undignified as to titter. His shafts pierced the tough hide of Theodore Roosevelt. Yet this tongue that can lash with the sting of a scorpion-whip often melts into the soft flow of easy eloquence. Listen: "I speak, sir, for my native State, for my native South. It is a land that has known sorrows; a land that has broken the ashen crust and moistened it with her tears; a land scarred and riven by the ploughshare of war and billowed with the graves of her dead, but a land of legend, a land of song, a land of hallowed and heroic memories. To that land every drop of my blood, every fibre of my being, every pulsation of my heart, is conse- crated forever. I was born of her womb, I was nurtured at her breast, and when my last hour shall come, I pray God that I may 243 244 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. be pillowed upon her bosom and rocked to sleep within her tender and encircling arms." Carmack's father died when he was a child. The son worked for his living and received an academic education. He studied law, but it was too tame. He thirsted for fields of more activity. He is action, action, action! In his very early career he was a justice of the peace in Maury County and as such a member of the county court. It so happened that there arose considerable friction between the county court and the chancery court in that good blue-grass county of Maury. It assumed almost the proportions of a bloodless feud, and Carmack himself relates how his eagerness for the fray induced him to introduce in the county court a resolution something Uke this: "Whereas, the honorable chancery court of Maury County, Tennessee, has become obnoxious and is a stench in the nostrils of the people of Maury County, contrary to the peace and dignity of the county; Therefore, be it resolved by the county court, in quarterly session assembled, that the said chancery court with its Clerk and Master, its decrees and orders and its guardians ad litem be, and the same is, hereby abolished." The assembled squires adopted the resolution with much gravity, and adjourned amid mutual congratulations that this festering sore on the body politic had been everlastingly removed. They were much perturbed, however, when they found that the said chancery court with its Clerk and Master, its decrees and orders and its guardians ad litem remained apparently totally oblivious of the fiery fulminations of 'Squire Carmack and his resolute associates. Carmack left the law and in 1885 became a member of the Tennessee Legislature. Two years afterward he took up editorial work on the Nashville American and later became editor of the Memphis Commercial. Here was his field. Even now if he owned a paper and were left to write at will he would prefer it to his seat in the United States Senate and all the petty annoyances of politics. His editorial writings bear the same stamp as his speeches in Congress. He writes with an easy grace, smooth and even, but not so smooth that one may gently watch the. flow of EDWARD W. CARMACK. 245 words and miss their meaning. In this respect he differs from many of our master word-painters. No matter how well rounded his sentences, no matter how pleasing they are to the ear, and no matter what a wonderful picture they make, the point always strikes home. And it strikes hard, too. Carmack entered into national politics in 1896, the beginning of that saturnalia of Democratic folly. He is one of the few good products of that period. The Memphis paper of which he was the editor, wished him to support in his writings Josiah Patterson, who was a gold Democrat. This Carmack refused to do and threw down the gauntlet to Patterson. The campaign was fierce from beginning to end. The Democracy of the district was divided. The best friends became the worst enemies. Every- body was fighting mad in those days, when sound reason was given a rest. Patterson carried his case to the House and it was fought out on the floor. Carmack was girded for battle. Car- mack took the floor in his own behalf and when he finished there was not a single member in the cloak-rooms. Contests in the House are usually tame affairs and it is the ordinary custom for the party in power to unseat those of the opposite faith or be lenient to those who they think will be useful hereafter to their own party. Not so with this. John Allen of Tupelo and Chamberlain's was there with his drollery, and Carmack entered the field with a scimitar that laid open the flesh with every stroke. His shafts even sought the time-tanned pelt of Grosvenor. "I always tremble," said Carmack, "at the thought of con- fronting so valiant a tongue-slugger and so accomplished a lip- artist as the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Grosvenor). His prowess in this arena entitles him to be regarded as the veritable 'blue-gum nigger' of debate, an oratorical scorpion of debate whose tongue is his tail. In the course of that gentleman's criticism of myself, my distinguished friend from Nebraska interrupted him to say that I had reformed, but the gentleman from Ohio had not. Mr. Speaker, it will be a very sad day for reform if he ever does. I feel about the gentleman from Ohio a good deal like an old colored preacher down in Tipon county, in my district, felt about a certain convert. This preacher had just concluded a powerful ex- 246 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. hortation and the voices of the congregation were quavering on the second line of that good old hymn: While the lamp holds out to burn The vilest sinner may return. "It was just at this juncture that a particularly tough old reprobate, with chicken feathers all over his head, got up in the back of the audience and started toward the altar. The preacher for one moment stood speechless and aghast with horror; then, throwing up his hands, he exclaimed at the top of his voice: 'Deacon Sunmons, for Gawd's sake blow out the lamp.' If the honorable gentleman from Ohio should ever show a disposition to reform and come in our direction I want to blow out the lamp before he gets there." When Isham G. Harris, that grand old game-cock in politics, was carried over beyond the twilight, Robert L. Taylor, then governor of Tennessee, appointed Thomas B. Turley to succeed him. When the Legislature convened Turley was a candidate for the remaining unexpired term of Harris, and had as his opponent Benton McMillin. At a late day in the fight, Taylor himself entered, and finding that he could not win, delivered his strength to Turley, his appointee, who was elected. Tennessee never sent an abler man to the Senate than Turley, who was now holding public office for the first time. Turley did not find politics congenial. He detested it, and when his term expired refused to stand for election, and chose rather the joys of a quiet, happy home-life and a lucrative law practice. Carmack, having served two terms in the House, was elected to the Senate without opposi- tion. In the Senate Carmack came to the front almost immediately. The Philippines was the uppermost topic and he championed to the letter the Democratic position. James K. Jones was the nominal leader of the Democrats on the floor of the Senate, but was not the man for the place. The older Senators on the Demo- cratic side showed no symptoms of a desire to make any active fight, and the result was that the aggressive was taken by three EDWARD W. CARMACK. 247 young Senators — Carmack, Bailey, and Culberson. This lasted until Gorman came and was instantly pronounced the leader. In his arraignment of the Roosevelt administration for atroci- ties committed by the army in the Philippines, Carmack eniployed his accustomed weapons with all his vigor. Carmack stung Roosevelt as no other public man has ever done. Discussing the strenuous President, Carmack said: "He resembles in his habits of speech my friend, Joe Ballan- fant's horse, of which remarkable animal it was said that running away was his natural gait." Personally popular with the members of both parties and ex- ceedingly loved by his own constituency. Senator Carmack has entered early in life upon a career that is already brilliant. Rarely has there been such a swift rise in politics and it is already far more than meteoric. R. M. Moorman. THOMAS H. CARTER. AMONG the belated returns following the election of 1888 was the statement that Thomas H. Carter, Republican, had been elected a delegate to the National House of Representatives from the Territory of Montana. Some personal friends of the Hon. Joseph K. Toole may have remarked: "By Jove, Joe Toole will be succeeded by a fellow named Carter out there in Montana. How do you suppose that happened?" During the short session of Congress following election an act was passed admitting Montana with three others as States of the Union. Carter was legislated out of ofl&ce, or would be when the State was proclaimed, and this, it was provided, should occur in the fall. Meanwhile, from the inauguration of Harrison as Presi- dent, he exercised all the rights of delegate, distributing the pat- ronage and running about the departments, looking after public land claims, Indian affairs and the multitude of errands that fall to the lot of a Western man in Congress. It was in the capacity of delegate that Carter first appeared in Washington. There had been Uttle in his career up to that time to proclaim what he would become, and briefly let us run over its development since then. The first representative from Montana in the national House of Representatives; secretary of the Republican Congres- sional Campaign Committee; defeated for reelection to the House; commissioner of the General Land Ofl&ce; chairman of the Republican National Committee; elected senator from Mon- tana; four years chairman of the National Commission for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition; and again elected senator from Montana. When he came to Washington he was a man who would attract attention anywhere. Young, of about medium height, an intellectual face, shaved clean save for a sandy billy- goat beard, and wearing a slouch hat, Delegate Carter was a man 248 THOMAS H. CARTER. 249 whose bearing and personality proclaimed him something beyond the ordinary. Interest in the election in the four new States in the fall of 1889 was accentuated because it was possible to reverse the majority in the House of Representatives. The Republicans in 1888 had car- ried the House by the narrow margin of three. Five new members were to be elected from the four new States and if these went Democratic the majority would be reversed. It was possible to bring about this result, but not probable. All the territories had gone Republican in 1888, and Montana was the only real battle ground. Orators of prominence campaigned for both parties in the embryo State. Big Tom Reed, then a candidate for Speaker, went there to make speeches. He and Carter formed a friendship at that time which lasted until Reed's death. It was a good thing for Carter, too, this meeting in Montana, for Carter being elected to the House voted for Reed for Speaker and the Speaker favored Carter during his first term. Only those who know the power of a Speaker in legislation can realize what that means to a new man in the House. It enabled him to get through legislation which his State wanted; it gave him a standing among the House leaders and recognition on committees that does not often fall to the lot of new members. Carter bulged into prominence at once and was elected secretary of the campaign committee. It was during the consideration of the McKinley Tariff Bill that Carter participated in one of the most dramatic incidents of the debate upon that measure. He was supporting a provision in the bill which provided for a duty on lead when mixed with other minerals. Heretofore such lead ore had been admitted free. Men from lead-producing States and Territories secured the adop- tion of the provision in the bill as reported and only a vote in com- mittee of the whole could take it out of the bill. Hopkins, now senator from Illinois, and Funston of Kansas, father of Gen. Fred Funston, were the leaders against the lead provision and were backed by a number of other RepubUcans and by the Demo- crats. The contest, however, was almost wholly between Repub- licans and was enjoyed by the Democrats. The loud voice of Funston and the shrewd tactics of Hopkins put Carter on his 250 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. mettle and he won his spurs in that fight. At one stage he rushed down to the arena in front of the Speaker bearing on each arm huge rolls of paper. He tossed one up the aisle on the Democratic side and the other up the aisle on the Republican side where sat the group of Republican free lead advocates. As the paper un- rolled he declared in clarion voice: "Fifty thousand miners, delv- ing in the bowels of the Rocky Mountains for the hidden treasures buried there, petition for this legislation! Dare you deny their request?" They didn't. There was no record made of the vote and enough Democrats either voted with Carter or lingered in the cloak rooms to offset the Republicans who were opposing him, so that even with the narrow margin by which the Republicans con- trolled the House, he won by a vote which settled the question not only then, but for all time, as the tax on mixed ores has never been repealed. Carter did not want to run for reelection. He could read the signs of the times and saw the drift of public sentiment, but his party insisted and he was buried under the Democratic avalanche of 1890. As secretary of the campaign comnnittee he did all he could to stay the awful storm raised by the McKinley tariff, but soon hied himself to Montana to take his medicine in his own State. After the election, when members of Congress were moving toward Washington for the short term of Congress, McKinley, Joe Cannon, and Carter met in a Chicago hotel. All had been defeated and all tried to be as cheerful as possible. "I don't care for myself," remarked Carter, "for I did not want to be a candidate for reelection. Of course, I am sorry to have the party defeated." "Personally," remarked McKinley, "I am glad to go back to private hfe. I made gains in a district which had been gerryman- dered to elect a Democrat and I can well afford to wait for time to vindicate my position. Of course I feel that the party needs votes in the House and on that account I regret my defeat." "Boys," said Uncle Joe, solemnly, "that is what I have been saying to everybody, but don't let's lie to one another." President Harrison had always a high regard for Carter and THOMAS H. CARTER. 251 soon after his term expired appointed him Commissioner of the General Land Office. He was still holding that office when the Republican national convention was held at Minneapolis. Re- publican leaders, disgruntled with Harrison, were doing their ut- most to defeat Harrison for re-nomination. Piatt of New York, Quay of Pennsylvania, Clarkson of Iowa, Foraker of Ohio, and a number of lesser lights were out in the open supporting Blaine as the most available man for the nomination. There was none of the big poUticians who had made Harrison the nominee in 1888 on whom he could depend to personally direct the Harrison forces on the ground. The subject was one of anxious consultation among Harrison's friends in Washington. It was decided that it would be impolitic for a Cabinet officer to perform that duty and Carter was finally chosen as the man to have charge of the Harrison in- terests at the convention. He made his own arrangements, which received the sanction of the best politicians around the Harrison administration. At Minneapolis, Carter performed one of those bold strokes in politics which mark the man of genius. Much was said in the way of claims for Blaine and there was some talk for McKinley, but the count of delegates by the Harrison managers showed that they had a majority. Carter decided to make their pledges effec- tive and a meeting of the Harrison delegates was called. A hall was hired and the Harrison men were asked to attend. Their names were read and each man was compelled to stand up and declare for Harrison. It made the re-nomination of the President secure. No man who attended a Harrison meeting and pledged himself for Harrison could afterward change his vote without being branded as one who had sold out. More than this, the scheme worked out. When the result was announced everybody was aware that the noise for Blaine was all that was left. The pom- pons and plumes were waved energetically, and a howl of thirty- two minutes was permitted by the convention in honor of the man who had been the hero of the Republicans since 1876. The shout- ing did not disturb the Harrison managers, who had their delegates counted and tagged awaiting the call of the roll. Soon after the convention the question of a chairman of the 252 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. national committee to manage the campaign arose. Several names were suggested. Of course, none of the old-time party managers were available because they opposed Harrison's re- nomination. There were others who smelled defeat and would not touch the chairmanship with a forty-foot pole. It was suggested that some nice old decayed Republican politician should be se- lected and that Carter be made the secretary and have the virtual management of the campaign. Carter, when sounded by a friend on the subject, said he was not anxious to become a professional political secretary. Then Harrison said that a man who had dis- played the political ability which Carter evinced at Minneapolis was good enough to run the campaign and upon Harrison's sug- gestion the Montana man was elected by the national committee. The struggle which he made in the forlorn hope campaign of 1892 is well known in political hstory. No shrewd observer of the time could see any possibility of Republican success. In 1889, in 1890, in 1 89 1 there had been a succession of RepubUcan defeats and it was evident that the pendulum of poHtics was not swinging toward the Republican party in 1892. But Carter did the best he could with an uphill fight. It was to his credit that even the defeat caused no criticism of him either by the candidate or the older politicians. The revivification of the Republican party in 1894, when the landslide of 1890 was reversed, carried Montana back into the Republican ranks and Carter was elected to the Senate. The silver question was then paramount and Carter, representing a silver producing State, stood for the white metal. He had not long been a member of the Senate until he made a speech on the silver question and, as chairman of the national committee, denied the right of the Republicans of the Senate or any set of men to change the party platform of 1892, which had unequivocally declared for bimetallism. His speech created a great deal of talk, and even those who did not agree with his opinions pronounced him an able man. He was soon after taken into that inner circle in the Senate which manages the great legislative body. In 1896, Carter was still chairman of the national committee and called the convention of that year to order. He was also a THOMAS H. CARTER. 253 delegate from Montana and voted against the gold plank which that convention incorporated in the platform. But Carter would not follow Teller, Pettigrew, Dubois, Cannon, and other Western delegates out of the convention. He and one other man from Montana, Senator Lee Mantle, remained. Before the Democratic convention assembled Mantle had joined the Silver Republican movement, but Carter remained with his party. Four years later, when Carter's term expired, the Democrats had control in Mon- tana and he was not reelected. The close of Carter's term in the Senate was marked by an in- teresting, not to say dramatic, incident. A river and harbor bill had passed both Houses and the conference report on the measure was pending in the Senate. Some time during the afternoon of the 3d of March the bill was called up and Carter took the floor to speak. He made some allusions to the fact that while millions were being expended upon the Uttle streams and inconsequential creeks of the country, nothing had been done by the general Gov- ernment for the arid lands of the West. Enlarging upon this sub- ject, he began calling attention to some of the appropriations car- ried in the bill. Some pressing business intervened and Carter, who had not concluded his remarks, continued to study the report on the bill, which showed the commerce of the streams and harbors for which appropriations were to be made. He became very much interested and later in the evening when the bill was again taken up he launched out upon a denunciation of its wasteful extrava- gance. About midnight he looked up at the Senate clock and an- nounced his determination to talk the bill to death. "This bill cannot become a law," he said in measured tones, "unless my strength fails between this time and twelve o'clock on the 4th of March, and I wiU say to the Senate that I am in a pretty fair state of health." He was as good as his word. Wellington of Maryland spelled him for a short time while he got some luncheon. Toward morning a quorum disappeared and he was able to secure a little more rest. But with few interruptions, he continued to talk and was in a fair way of eclipsing the long-distance record in the Senate. Inauguration day dawned and preparations went forward for 254 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. the ceremonies in the Senate. All the furniture had to be rear- ranged and the chamber swept. As this was being done Carter talked on and on with a continuous flow of words. Senators who were vitally interested in the bill wriggled in their seats and said things to each other which would not have been considered par- liamentary if uttered in debate. Some attacked Carter and covertly criticised his course. But the debate only helped him along. He was still talking when the gallery doors were opened and the inauguration guests poured in. The spectacle which met their eyes was one never seen before on a similar occasion. Here was the sombre Senate chamber prepared for the inauguration of the President and Vice-President, with seats arranged for the President and his Cabinet, the Supreme Court of the United States, the Dip- lomatic Corps, the officers of the army and navy, the House of Representatives and other distinguished guests. Some of the senators were grouped upon one side of the chamber and there near the front row of desks stood Carter denouncing the River and Harbor Bill. When the time arrived to bring in the first guests Carter ceased. It was too late to secure action on the bill. It had been talked to death. A few days after the expiration of his term as senator, Carter was appointed by President McKinley chairman of the Louisiana Purchase Commission, a position which he held until he again took his seat as United States senator from Montana, having been elected to the term beginning March 4, 1905. After the appoint- ment was made there were intimations that it was a reward by McKinley for Carter's defeating the River and Harbor Bill. This was absurd, for McKinley would not have feared to veto the measure, or he could have allowed it to suffer a pocket veto. Mc- Kinley took care of Carter just as he did of a number of other " lame ducks" in Congress. The terms of John M. Thurston of Ne- braska, George W. McBride of Oregon, William Lindsay and John M. Allen of Mississippi expired at the same time and they were given places on the same commission. Carter's idea in de- feating the bill was to emphasize the fact that the Mountain States had been for years asking for appropriations for irrigating their arid lands and had never received any recognition, and it was a THOMAS H. CARTER. 255 notice to the more favored sections of the country which were be- ing benefited by river and harbor appropriations that the arid country meant business. At all events, in the following Congress an irrigation law was passed and it was favored by many from States which receive the largest share of the river and harbor appropriations. As a legislator Senator Carter is a success. When he was a member of the House he secured more for his State than usually falls to the lot of one man. In the Senate he is known as a man who can state a proposition with force and clearness. In fact, he has the faculty of precision. In giving a newspaper man an item for publication he will state the matter in terms ready to be tele- graphed without trimming or enlarging. He is a pleasant speaker, with a smooth delivery and easy flow of language. During his first term in the Senate, Senator Carter gave a great deal of attention to Western legislation and as a member of the committees on Public Lands and Territories he handled many measures of interest to the country beyond the Mississippi. His legislative capacity was recognized in the Senate and he became a member of the committees on Military Affairs and Appropria- tions, a prominence not often accorded a senator during his first term. As a member of the military committee he was especially active during the Spanish War and was identified with the legis- lation of that period. Senator Carter possesses that necessary qualification for the popular as well as successful man — a keen sense of humor. He also has a fund of good stories constantly on tap, many of them relating to the early days of Montana and which recall the times when the vigilantes were the law and the revolver supreme authority. Two of the best speeches ever heard at Gridiron Club dinners were de- livered by Senator Carter, One was where he aided in carrying out a conceit of the club which conducted the dinner as a national convention, and nominated himself for President. The other was a valedictory as a senator after it was known that he could not be elected to succeed himself. For pure humor fitting the occasion and surroundings his remarks could not be surpassed. Arthur W. Dunn. CHAMP CLARK. CHAMP CLARK of Missouri came to Congress about twelve years ago. He is a strong man in every respect. He has a lot of brains and knows the use of them. He is one of the few self-made men in Congress, and worked himself up from a farm hand to his present position. He does not owe anything to anybody but himself. In his young days he worked hard all day and studied nights. This burning of night oil brought him a college professorship when only 22 years of age. This was regarded as remarkable in his native State, Kentucky, but was attributed to his wonderful intellectual grasp of all subjects that came his way. There has never been in Congress a man who could see through any question pending and discuss it more intelligently than Champ Clark. The chief characteristic of the man is his good common-sense, and that always goes a long way in public life. 256 WILLIAM A. CLARK. WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK is essentiaUy a Montanian, though his vast business interests are spread over many States. It was in Montana, as a merchant, that he laid the foundations of his fortune, going to the Mountain State as a pioneer in 1863, and ever since main- taining his allegiance to the State of his adoption. When he first saw the light, at Connellsville, Pa., on January 8 (Jackson's Day), 1839, sixty-six years ago, Montana was an eerie, dreary, undeveloped territory of rocky mountains and sterile alkali plains, their hidden resources of mineral wealth vmknown, and unsuspected. By easy steps from Pennsylvania to Iowa, from Iowa to Colorado, where the first taste of the min- eral fever caught him, he reached the little town of Pioneer, Powell County, Montana, in 1863 — himself a pioneer, twenty- four years of age. The success which has since marked his career has not been accidental. It has been brought about by hard work, indomitable perseverance, tireless energy, deep study, and carefully regulated habits of life. He has never pursued a voca- tion in which he has not made himself "thorough." In his wonderful career he has been a farmer, school-teacher, merchant, banker, mining expert, sugar planter, railroad builder, and many other things, and he is now a United States Senator, after three rancorous political fights, which have made a memorable record in the legislative annals of Montana and in the history of the United States Senate. As a merchant he easily became first in the State. As a banker he was equally successful. When he determined to devote his energies to mining he studied the whole subject literally from the ground up. He became a geologist, a chemist, an engineer, and a machinist. Every phase and feature of his new 17 257 258 TWENTY YEABS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. calling was carefully studied until he became one of the ablest mining experts living. When he had acquired all the secrets of copper-mining he went to Europe and devoted months to the problem of placing the products of his mines to the best advantage in the markets of the world. All things in Senator Clark's business life are regulated by rule. He is one of the most methodical of men, his hours of work, recreation, study, and sleep all being prearranged and none being allowed to infringe upon the others. But he is many-sided in his characteristics, and has developed a cultivated taste for the fine arts. He is an excellent judge of pictures and of statuary, and in his frequent trips to Europe has accumulated a fine col- lection of works of the masters, selected with taste and good judgment. Though one of the most frugal and abstemious men in his personal habits and living he is a connoisseur of fine vintages. His versatility has been manifested in many ways. As major of a battalion of volunteers he successfully led the pursuit of Chief Joseph and his band of Nez Percys when they invaded Montana in 1877. Chosen to be president of the constitutional convention of his State in 1884, he shut himself up in his room, and in three days made himself so familiar with parliamentary law that his rulings were not questioned. When, later in life, after the full success of his earlier ventures, he took up railroad building, he conceived and carried out by his own unaided finance the construction of a railroad from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Los Angeles, California, fighting for every foot of his right-of- way against the powerful opposition of the giants of the western railroad world. This modest-mannered, unobtrusive senator, who never occu- pies the floor of the Senate with a prepared speech, who seldom indicates his opinions except by his votes, nevertheless has power to make his voice heard in business and finance. He controls, among other things: Forty mineral claims valued at many millions of dollars, a forty-stamp mill, and smelting plant at Butte, Montana. The greatest copper mine in Arizona, the "United Verde." The greatest lead mine in Idaho, the "Sunset." WILLIAM A. CLARK. 259 A silver-lead mine at Ophir, Utah. A ten-thousand-ton beet-sugar plantation and factory in California. With incidental appendages, such as the magnificent Shoshone Falls in central Idaho, the Soda Springs in the southern portion of the same State; various palatial city residences in New York, Washington, and elsewhere. Yet he cannot rest. From morning to night his life is one of virile activity and each of his vast undertakings receives his personal supervision. P. V. DeGraw. A GLIMPSE OF COCKRELL OF MISSOURI. EX-SENATOR COCKRELL, now a member of the Inter- State Commerce Commission, was for years the most unique figure in Congress. His great ability, simplicity of manner, rugged integrity, and wide experience, gave him a place in the Senate seldom enjoyed by a member of that body. In appearance the Missouri ex-senator might have been taken for a Western farmer just from his broad acres. Of tall form, with prominent features and discerning eye, Cockrell was a striking figure among public men. He was more an object of interest to the gallery than Ingalls of Kansas, or of any other man who has played a part in that historic Chamber. He was always to be found at his desk when the gavel of the president of the Senate descended, and stood with bended head as the Chaplain delivered the customary morning prayer. Then began the "morning business" and the alert attention of Cockrell. Like Holman in the House nothing escaped him. The "morning hour" of the Senate means a mass of odds and ends of legislation mixed up with the presentation of bills, petitions, and committee reports, and it is also a time when the rules of the Senate are more in demand than at any other hour of the day. It is then that the senators wish to get through their little pet bills and measures, which appear innocent when read, but often turn out mischievous after passage. For these apparently harmless measures Cockrell was always on the lookout and when he detected one, all he had to say was: "Mr. President, I ask that that bill go over until to-morrow morning." This as a rule settled "that" bill. But in many other ways Mr. Cockrell was a valuable man to his country, and saved it many a dollar. He was one of the most industrious men in Congress, working hard all day and many hours in the night, and in that time accomplishing a vast amount of necessary legislative labor. 260 CHARLES FREDERICK CRISP. CLEAR, concise, conscientious, courageous and at times combative was Crisp of Georgia, the Democratic Speaker of the Fifty-second and the Fifty-third Con- gresses — succeeding Reed and being succeeded by Reed. As a man, Charles Frederick Crisp was generous, lovable, bold and diplomatic. I knew him, perhaps, more intimately than any- one else outside his family, and I have never known a man of more sturdy ability nor of traits of character nearer the ideal. He served as Speaker during strenuous times; yet throughout it all he never once lost his head and seldom his temper. His purpose was to serve his country and his party. He did both well. When Crisp went in as Speaker of the Fifty-second Congress, it was after the most prolonged and heated contest the House of Representatives had known in a generation. Harrison had been President two years and Reed Speaker of the House for the same time. Mills of Texas had been chairman of the Ways and Means committee under the preceding Democratic administra- tion of the House with Carlisle as Speaker; and when the Demo- cratic House was overthrown and Reed elected Speaker over McKinley, Mills was supposed to be the natural leader of the Democratic minority. But by virtue of intellect, thoughtful study, force of expression and natural leadership at the proper time, Crisp forged to the front. In the famous contest over Reed's rulings in counting a quorum as present when such was present and not voting, Crisp handled the situation for his party with such skill, courage, and ability that he was at once accepted as a leader of wisdom. Then it was that he quoted Reed himself and appealed from "Philip drunk to Philip sober." The speech and appeal rattled Reed, so to speak, and won for Crisp the plaudits of his side, as well as bringing forth smiles from 261 262 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Reed's side. It was well done, though it availed nothing in the final result of the contest. Speaker Reed had the majority organi- zation in hand and his will prevailed. Crisp afterward, when Speaker, adopted many of the Reed rules. They proved, in honest administration, of much value in facilitating legislation which the vast majority wanted; preventing a small minority from consum- ing time in filibustering for effect merely. The fight for the Speakership in the next Congress was four or five-sided, with Crisp and Mills predominant. The Democratic caucus could not decide for days and the clerk, under the rules, was compelled to call the House to order for two days; no Speaker being elected. During the contest Crisp in his headquarters was always calm and apparently willing to accept whatever might be the result. Never once was he critical of his opponents. It was always, " I want it, naturally, but if I do not deserve it, elect another." When elected and assuming the chair as Speaker he simply said: "Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: For the great honor you have conferred upon me I return you heartfelt thanks. "I shall endeavor to discharge the duties of the ofl&ce of Speaker with courtesy, with firmness, and with absolute impartiality. Let us unite in the hope that our labors here may result in the ad- vancement of the prosperity, the honor, and the glory of our be- loved country." The speech was characteristic of the man — ^brief, but of much meaning. There was friction in the party over conmiittee appointments— especially over Ways and Means. Crisp rewarded his friends when they had ability. He combined his party in the House and whipped through that legislation which the majority of Democrats wanted. There was a minority in his own party, but he handled it vigorously in caucus and usually brought forth a solid front in the House. The Senate and Presidency being Republican, of course noth- ing but regular legislation was accomplished during his first term. Cleveland came in as President when Crisp assumed the CHARLES FREDERICK CRISP. 263 Speakership for his second term. Crisp and Cleveland were thoroughly agreed on the tariff, but directly opposed on financial legislation. But for Crisp's diplomacy in bringing the opposing wings of the party together there would have been a serious spKt during the first session of Congress under Cleveland. As it was, the Wilson Tariff Bill resulted in the House — a bill satisfactory to the House and the Administration; but the Senate forced a com- promise. The history and results are well known. During Crisp's second term as Speaker he was offered the senatorship from Georgia by virtue of a vacancy. Such had been his life's ambition. Yet with the situation existing in the House at that time he felt it his duty to his friends who had made him Speaker to remain in the office and decUne the senatorship. In discussing the matter with me he said he feared he would never have another opportunity and he did not care to go back upon the floor of the House in a minority party, but it was his duty to decline and he proposed to do so. He did. Later the people of Georgia elected him overwhelmingly to the Senate over Hoke Smith, Cleveland's secretary of the interior, who opposed him before the people in a primary. However, he died October 22, 1896. His term was to have begun in the Senate March 4, 1897. Although Judge Crisp served fourteen years in Congress, four years of which he was Speaker, he was in no sense a man of the footlights. He never appeared in public at social or other enter- tainments unless necessary. He never once gave a dinner party. He never attended a large dinner unless he deemed it a duty to do so. Then he was the most charming and entertaining of guests. He was bright, at times witty, and always entertaining. He knew much and told well what he knew. Men wondered why Crisp was not more socially disposed: why he did not entertain and accept the scores and hundreds of invitations extended him. It was because of his devotion to an invaKd wife, who was always with him and always his devoted companion. Though a great sufferer, she was always smiles in his presence and it was seldom he could be persuaded to spend away from her those hours which he considered hers. 264 TWENTY YEABS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. As a boy, when he started life for himself in South Georgia, he was considered a bit of a harum-scarum fellow. His marriage was a runaway affair- His wife's father was bitterly opposed to him, stating that he was "a wild young buck, who would never amount to an3rthing." But the girl was headstrong and so was Charlie Crisp. She escaped from home at night, they were mar- ried and then boldly marched back and told the old gentleman what had occurred. In time friendly relations were resumed, but the good old gen- tleman always insisted that his daughter's husband would never amount to anything. The night the Democratic caucus elected him Speaker and he returned to his apartments at the old Metropolitan Hotel, accom- panied by his lieutenants and friends, his first remark after receiv- ing his wife's joyful and tearful congratulations was that he hoped his good old father-in-law would now withdraw those remarks of over a score of years past. Then Crisp told the full story of his marriage, his happy life, and the ambition which he had finally attained. The full story is too long to repeat here, but it was in that clever and dramatic style which Crisp had inherited from his parents and perhaps had practised himself as a mere child upon the stage. As a matter of fact. Crisp was of actor parents, born in Sheffield, England, on January 29, 1845, when his father and mother were there on a tour of England. The elder Crisp in his day ranked among American actors as did Booth later, and his mother was no less renowned. Both bis brother and sister became noted on the stage; but Crisp, after a few boyhood performances, went into the Confederate Army, at seventeen, in the loth Virginia Infantry, was captured and imprisoned in '64; after the war studied law, became soKcitor of his circuit in Georgia, then judge, and then con- gressman. He was never defeated in any undertaking, political or other- wise. He thought well and planned well and won well. He never left sores after his fights. Though many times he used the broad- sword, he wielded it in the open, and his opponents could but admit the fight had been fair. CHARLES FREDERICK CRISP. 265 As an orator he appealed to reason rather than to the emotions. In all things he was forceful. He knew his ground before he trod upon it. He studied, retained his knowledge, and knew when and where to use it. Crisp, had he lived to finish his life's work, would have been the greatest of Democratic statesmen — ^perhaps President — though bom in England of American parents. E. W. Barrett. DAVID A. DE ARMOND. WHEN one speaks in Washington of the strong men of the Democratic side, the names of John Sharp Williams and David A. De Armond always come first, because no one is likely to disagree with him. After that he may mention other names, but by so doing he is sure to start a debate. James D. Richardson retired from the Democratic leadership of the House at the end of the Fifty-seventh Congress, and Wil- liams and De Armond were looked upon as the two men who would contest for his place. Then Champ Clark entered the field, and as it was out of the question to have two candidates from Missouri, and Clark's personal popularity was probably greater than DeArmond's, the latter got out of the race. When Williams was made leader, he recognized De Armond's position by making him his official lieutenant. This he did by giving De Armond one of the two Democratic places on the committee on rules, the parliamentary committee of the House, taking the other himself. De Armond is a strange man. He does not mix much with his colleagues, except those of his own way of thinking. He has been elected to eight Congresses, and yet there is a story, which has nothing intrinsically improbable in it, that when Mr. Cannon was made Speaker, Williams was obliged to introduce his new lieutenant to the head of the House. They say of De Armond that he does not want to become chummy with Republicans for fear that his personal liking for them might impair his ability to hammer them, and he is recognized as the hammerer of the Democratic side. There is somethmg dreadful about his command of cold, passionlesss sarcasm. He is the greatest master of the art in the present Congress or in many 266 DAVID A. DE ARMOND. 267 Congresses, and so universal is the recognition of it that when he rises for one of his onslaughts the hum of the House dies away and the Republicans sit as motionless as the Democrats. They writhe, but they listen. Wendell Phillips, defending the Abolitionists for refusing to moderate their rancor against opponents who had died, said; "We do not play politics; anti-slavery is with us a matter of life and death." Somewhat of this frame of mind belongs to De Armond. Democracy is not politics with him, it is conviction; and if he has few friends on the Republican side it is because he wishes to hold himself free to antagonize men who represent in his mind principles that are wholly vicious. Yet no Republican withholds from De Armond the tribute of reluctant admiration. Nor does any Republican, even the ablest, seek to cross swords with him in debate, nor enjoy the sensation if the sword-crossing is forced upon him. Once General Grosvenor broke in upon one of De Armond's speeches with a question freighted with sarcasm. The answer, which came the moment the closing word left Grosvenor's lips, was so complete, so polished, that it seemed as if the speaker must have spent nights in framing it; and it was such a terrific, annihilating burst of satire that the doughty old Republican orator gasped for breath. When De Armond dropped him there were tears in Grosvenor's eyes. He was one of the managers of the part of the House of the Swayne impeachment case, and his address was such a masterly argument that it overshadowed, in current comment about the Capitol, the question of Swayne's fate. De Armond is a small man, meagre of face and frame, and serious of aspect. In his private relations he is as gentle and kindly as he is terrific in his public denunciations. He is in all respects an unusual man, and if he is in the House when next the Democrats get control of it is likely to carve his name deep. Charles Willis Thompson. GEORGE F. EDMUNDS. GEORGE F. EDMUNDS made his d^but in the United States Senate on April 5, 1866, at the age of thirty- eight. He had prior experience of considerable service in the Vermont Legislature, and proved himself an able debater and skilful parliamentarian from the first moment he trod the floor of the Senate. At that time the passion of the North was at white-heat toward the South, and the new senator from Vermont once or twice expressed conservative sentiments which sounded strangely in the mouth of one from his section of the Union. I have never believed he meant this. What his object was I do not know. At any rate in an exceedingly short time there was no man who displayed more antagonism of section than he, no one more determined in the advocacy of the harshest reconstruction legislation, no one who had more to do with the framing of it. Chandler of New Hampshire and Ingalls of Kansas were masters of irony in the Senate, waspish and irritating to a degree. But no man ever sat there whose whip of delicate sarcasm and covert innuendo could cut deeper and inflict longer remaining sores than Edmunds. When the victim cried out from his wounds, he had a peculiar style of showing his delight and satisfaction. It was either to scratch his elbow or with his forefinger stroke the side of his nose. He was bitter, unrelenting and oftentimes most malignant in partisan debate. He would goad and torture the Southern senators, and make every effort to provoke them into some form of retaUation which would be seized upon for party advantage. Those who did not know him would say he had no heart, no mercy, no sentiment, but he had. There was a soft side to him which was never appealed to in vain. Southern men and North- 268 GEORGE F. EDMUNDS. 269 em men had frequent illustrations of this, for many are the favors he has done of which the world knew nothing. He and Thurman, who would cut and slash each other in debate in the most furious maimer, were warm friends, and downstairs in their committee rooms would be like brothers. Mr. Edmunds may easily rank as one of the great senators of his day. He was great in argument and great in running debate, when the blows came thick and fast. For many years chairman of the judiciary committee he occupied a position of enormous vantage, and his word was practically omnipotent. He was president pro tern, of the Senate for a time, and he made much more out of that ofl&ce than the majority of his predecessors and successors. He presided in the joint convention of the two Houses in February, 1885, when the Presidential vote was counted. He could not resist the temptation to have a fling at his political opponents so, in summing up the vote, he did not declare Cleveland and Hendricks were elected, but said they "seem to be elected." As a member of the electoral commission he stiffened up Justice Bradley more than once when the latter was wavering. He resigned from the Senate November i, 1891. For some years prior to this time new RepubUcan senators protested against the domination of the Vermont senator. They were constantly receiving accessions of the same way of thinking. It was the general impression that chagrin at seeing the sceptre departing from him was the principal cause of his resignation, for, of course, he could have remained in the Senate as long as he liked. He made Philadelphia his home and is made much of there. F. A. Richardson. STEPHEN B. ELKINS. IT is a fact not generally known that Stephen B. Elkins, senior senator from West Virginia, would have entered the Cabinet as Secretary of War at the beginning of President Harrison's administration, had it not been that some of the lead- ing Republicans of West Virginia objected to having him accredited to that State. While Mr. Elkins's interests had all been in West Virginia, represented by investments in the West Virginia Central Railroad and the Davis Coal and Coke Company, he had main- tained an ofi&ce in New York, where he found it more convenient to conduct his business operations. Associated with Mr. Elkins nt the time in these enterprises, were his father-in-law, Henry G. Davis, and Richard C. Kerens. President Harrison had met Mr. Elkins some years before at Deer Park, the mountain resort owned at that time by Senator Henry G. Davis. Mr. Harrison, who had been United States senator from Indiana, brought his family to Deer Park for the sunmier and had a cottage near the cottage of Senator Elkins. The two families became very intimate and Mr. Elkins and Benjamin Harrison became the closest friends. Out of this friendship came the circumstances of the Chicago Convention of 1888, at which Mr. Elkins so ably conducted Harrison's campaign that he vanquished Thomas C. Piatt, leader of the John Sherman forces, and thereby won the gratitude of Mr. Harrison, and at the same time incurred the undying enmity of John Sherman. For further particulars, see Sherman's memoirs. It was under these circumstances that President-elect Harrison, decided to invite Mr. Elkins into his Cabinet. When objections were raised from West Virginia, Redfield Proctor of Vermont, was appointed, but upon his election to the United States Senate, Elkins was invited into the Cabinet, and accepted. He had meanwhile overcome the objections raised against him from 270 STEPHEN B. ELKINS. 271 West Virginia by going into the State and establishing his residence and founding the city of Elkins. There is a popular impression that Senator Elkins laid the basis of his private fortune^ now estimated at $15,000,000, when he married the daughter of Senator Davis. But this is not true. Senator Elkins came into West Virginia with more than a million dollars. He laid the foundation of his fortune in New Mexico. He was bom in Perry County, Ohio, September 26, 1841, grew up on his father's plantation at Westport, Missouri. He grad- uated from the University of Missouri, at Columbia, in i860, and was admitted to the bar in 1864. He went immediately to New Mexico, acquired the Spanish language, and began the practice of law. Although he makes no reference to the fact in the brief sketch he furnished to the Congressional Directory, Mr. Elkins was captain of a company in a Missouri regiment of Federal troops in the Civil War. He served with credit, was captured by Quantrell, the guerilla chief, and was being held for execution when Cole Younger, who was guarding him, made possible his escape, Mr. Elkins never forgot this act of kindness and afterward rendered Younger very substantial returns. Senator Elkins believes that he owes his life to Younger. Mr. Elkins took rank in territorial politics from the day he opened his law ofl&ce in Santa Fe. He was a member of the territorial legislative assembly, territorial district attorney, attorney-general of New Mexico, United States district-attorney, and a delegate to the Forty-third Congress from the territory. While in Congress, he met and married Miss Davis, daughter of Senator Davis of West Virginia. While they were in Europe on their honeymoon trip, Mr. Elkins cabled to New Mexico declining the renomination as territorial delegate. His declaration was disregarded and he was renominated and reelected. In Congress he met James G. Blaine, then Speaker of the House, and they were the closest friends ever afterward. Mr. Blaine had no closer friend than Senator Elkins, who spent much time at his bedside during the great premier's last illness. Some of Mr. Blaine's most profit- able investments were made on Mr. Elkins's advice. Mr. Elkins made his million in New Mexico out of law and investments. 272 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. He made a specialty of land law and devoted himself to clearing up the titles growing out of the confusion of Mexican grants and the subsequent cession of the territory to the United States. He took his fees in lands, some of which proved very valuable. One tract in the vicinity of Cerrillos turned out to contain very valu- able deposits of coal, and he sold the holdings to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad for a million dollars. At the time Mr. Elkins was practising law in New Mexico in partnership with Thomas D. Catron, Richard C. Kerens of St. Louis, was operating a stage line between St. Louis and Albuquerque. Mr. Kerens, like Elkins, started in life penniless. Kerens began as a mule-rider on the stage-route which he afterward owned. Later he went into the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and in other ways developed his fortune contemporaneously with Elkins. Mr. Elkins came to West Virginia at the urgent solici- tation of his father-in-law, ex-Senator Davis. He brought with him a million of dollars of free capital, his wonderful ability for organization, and the cooperation of Richard C. Kerens and his money. From the day of his advent in West Virginia the wonderful development of the West Virginia Central Railroad and the Davis Coal and Coke Company went forward under the triimivirate, Davis, Elkins, and Kerens. All of Mr. Elkins's investments to-day are practically in West Virginia coal lands and the coal-carrying roads that afford an outlet for the product of these mines. He has little or no investment in speculative securities. His wealth is, therefore, secure and with the develop- ment of the great natural resources of West Virginia, wUl grow instead of diminish. Mr. Elkins is serving a second term in the United States Senate. He will be a candidate for reelection, and his friends have no anxiety over the outcome. Opposition occasionally manifests itself, but Senator Elkins's hold upon his State is very firm and he is generally given credit for having made West Virginia a Republican State. He is generally regarded as one of the substantial factors in conservative legislative work. He has been identified with the movement for statehood for New Mexico and is an advocate of separate statehood. Just now he is in the public eye in connection with the proposed legislation STEPHEN B. ELKINS. 273 regulating railroad rates. As chairman of the Committee on Inter- State Commerce, he has charge of the bill and presided over the hearings that have been held on the subject. Mr. Elkins represents conservatism in this matter. His attitude was best expressed by himself recently, when he said that Congress ought to dehberate quite a while before plunging into legislation affect- ing property interests worth fourteen billions of dollars, or one- sixth of all the property in the United States. One of the strongest speeches Mr. Elkins ever made in Congress was in favor of up- building the shipping interests of the United States. The speech contains more valuable information on American shipping than any other speech ever uttered in either House. Mr. Elkins's plan for upbuilding the American merchant marine is to apply the lo per cent, discriminating duty upon all goods coming to the United States in foreign bottoms. Senator Elkins is in favor of the annexation of Cuba to the United States, and at one time introduced a resolution providing for annexation, which was copied from the resolution which passed Congress for the annexa- tion of Texas. Personally, Senator Elkins is one of the most popular and congenial men in the United States Senate. He is approachable and considerate to his colleagues and to the general public. A gentleman who has been associated with him in business and in politics for fifteen years says that he never knew Mr. Elkins to lose his temper, and that the same poise, benevolence and opti- mism is displayed equally in politics, business, or the domestic relations. It is a part of Mr. Elkins's philosophy to be happy and contented, to avoid anger or gloom, to live simply, exercise a great deal, and look upon the sunny side of things generally. He has been twice married. His first wife was Miss A. Withers of New Mexico, who bore him two children, both of whom are living, Mrs. Oliphant, widow of General Oliphant of New York City, and Mrs. Wiedersien, wife of W. C. Wiedersien, a Phila- delphia lawyer. By his second marriage he has four sons and one daughter. The sons are Davis, Stephen B., Jr., Richard, and Blaine. The names are suggestive of family and friends. His daughter, Katherine Elkins, is one of the most popular and i8 274 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. attractive young women in Washington society. She is a member of the Chevy Chase Club, and an expert equestrienne. Senator Elkins numbers among his personal firends men of international fame, such as Cardinal Gibbons, Lord Charles Beresford, Lord Curzon, and persons foremost in religious, social and economic movements. His beautiful residence in Wash- ington is the scene of dinners at which are gathered men whose names are familiar to two hemispheres, and yet his home-life is free from show and display, and his great wealth has never been ostentatiously paraded before the American public. The senator and his family are apparently disciples of the simple life. Senator Elkins is well preserved physically, and scarcely knows the meaning of sickness. His plain habits of living and the splendid physical foundations for long life and robust health which were laid on the frontier, have brought him peace, comfort, and a ruddy complexion at the age of sixty-four. He is the impersonator of optimism. In politics he has not only won suc- cess in his own State and complete mastery of his party there, but is popularly credited with having directed the work of at least two national conventions, making the nominee in each case. His name has been frequently mentioned for the Presidency, and if he ever allows his friends to take up the cudgel for him, he will prove a troublesome factor to all other aspirants, for his name would be a power in the commercial and political world. Jerry A. Mathews. VICE-PRESIDENT FAIRBANKS. THE same day's balloting in 1896 that gave William McKinley a national triumph, started several Repub- licans on careers of national prominence in the Senate. It was a red-letter event to many of senatorial ambition. The new class of thirty, that stood with hands upUfted before Vice- President Hobart the following March, while inauguration cheers and inauguration band music enveloped the Capitol, included Charles Warren Fairbanks, of Indiana. The Senate galleries, crowded with a fashionable company, could but note his tall, and slender figure. He towered high above others then taking the official oath in the midst of such impressive surroundings. Save that he was a conspicuous survivor of fierce political struggles in a State renowned for party combats, Mr. Fairbanks's assumption of his duties caused no especial comment. Washing- ton, critical of new comers and sceptical of their qualifications, simply grouped him with the fresh arrivals and deferred appraise- ment. He probably was as little aware that day, as were the on- lookers, that, at the threshold of the next administration but one, he would be a central figure. Certainly no one, then, would have conjectured that eight years hence McKinley's preference might have been to see his Presidental mantle fall upon those Indiana shoulders. In the early months of the administration, the new senator was occupied in distributing loaves and fishes. A little army of Democratic employes was to be mustered out in the Hoosier State. Others had to be picked for a long list of places. Mr. Fairbanks was the sole Republican senator from Indiana, and, as is usual in party organizations, his word was practically final in most important patronage matters. But gradually it became apparent that he was a trusted adviser of the administration and 275 276 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. that he was at times performing confidential duties for the President. That brought him into higher consideration. Ofl&cial Wash- ington is quick at times to respect those possessing power. It speedily began to observe the man at closer range. His qualities of universal courtesy, of reserve — sometimes mistaken on slight acquaintance for coldness — ^his kindly heart and above all, his conservative attitude on all questions of governmental moment, were unfolded. McKinley and Fairbanks had personal traits in common. Both were tactful and suave. Their friendship is interesting in its origin. Each was born in Ohio, but McKinley was nine years the senior. They practised law in the same State several years, however, without ever meeting, for the Indianapolis attorney frequently had legal cases in the Buckeye courts. But their last- ing friendship, personal and pohtical, began during the pre- liminaries to that Presidential contest. There were display of strategy and shock of opposing forces in the contest for control of the Indiana delegation to the St. Louis Convention. Mr. Fairbanks, himself an ardent Protection- ist, naturally enough, espoused the cause of that apostle of pro- tection who had been eminently preaching the doctrine up and down the country only to be buried, in a landslide year, under an avalanche of votes in his gerrymandered congressional district. McKinley was popular in the industrial centres of Indiana. His most dangerous rival there was Speaker Reed, but ex-Presi- dent Harrison was also a receptive candidate for the nomination. By a series of timely coups, Mr. Fairbanks won the thirty delegates from Indiana for the Ohioan. It was out of gratitude for this that McKinley brought about the selection of Fairbanks as temporary chairman of the national convention. Indiana's decla- ration was made at a very critical stage of the rivalry for delegates and, with the declaration of the Vermont convention, marked the turning of the struggle. In poUtics the two found themselves particularly congenial. This, undoubtedly, furthered McKinley's inclinations to give his friend a generous share of patronage. He made him chair- VICE-PRESIDENT FAIRBANKS. 277 man of the United States Members of the High Joint Commission that met in 1898 to adjust long-standing disputes with Canada. He also allowed the senator to name Indiana men for important federal offices, including the very desirable and lucrative consulate at Paris. The rise of Mr. Fairbanks to poUtical prominence in Indiana, if not quite as sudden as the establishment of his friendship with McKinley and as his jump to national prominence, was somewhat interesting. Very early in life, he realized the futility of plunging into the maelstrom of modern politics before he had won his way in his profession. From his youth he liked the game. Hardly an Indiana man does not. But he hung out his shingle in the early summer of 1874. From that time on, for practically fourteen years, he was "sawing wood" as only one with his powers of application could. There seemed to be no such thing as political ambition in his phraseology. He had won a collegiate and a legal education, in the face of some difficulties that were not greater than had been overcome by many other youth of his station in the Middle West, dabbled a little in newspaper work by the favor of a kinsman, and, on being admitted to the Ohio bar in 1874, was given a good start as an attorney at Indian- apolis by friends who were interested in his career. He did not disappoint them. His strides were rapid and, with unusual good fortune, he became known in a few years throughout Indiana as a lawyer of ability. Two great Indiana lawyers — Benjamin Harrison and Walter Q. Gresham — ^were vieing for the Presidential nomination in 1888. Gresham was upon the United States Circuit bench in the Seventh Judicial Circuit, where he had had occasion to know something of Lawyer Fairbanks's acumen. He selected this lawyer of thirty-six to manage his campaign for the nomination. It was Mr. Fairbanks's first political offense and resulted in defeat. On the first ballot of that memorable Chicago convention, Gresham had 107 votes and Harrison 85, but as the fight pro- gressed the hopelessness of Gresham's candidacy became apparent. Few were privileged to hear the philosophic comment Gresham made in a semi-undertone from the bench the day 278 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. he received advices from his manager about the situation. "If the jig's up," exclaimed the judge, "you can take my dog out of the show." Manager Fairbanks had made a creditable fight for his favorite. He now had an experience that enamored him of the political fray and started in for a continuous performance. He has been at it ever since. Forthwith he climbed on the Harrison band- wagon. In July, when the campaign was but a few weeks old, he made, at Newcastle, his first political speech and followed it with a few other creditable efforts prior to the November election that carried Harrison into the White House. In 1890 he became a full-fledged campaign orator. The foundations for his election to the Senate were put down during the subsequent four years. Those were Democratic days in Indiana. Turpie and Voorhees were the Democratic senators. Whenever a caucus of the Repubhcan minority in the Legislature was called to name a candidate for the empty honor of being the nominee, the air was full of politics. The chiefs buckled on their armor and fought as though a seat were really at stake. Once, in 1891, Mr. Fairbanks went down. Gov. Alvin P. Hovey, who had been a United States district- attorney under Pierce and subsequently took political chastise- ment from President Buchanan for support of Stephen A. Douglas, was the man that downed him. Two years later Fairbanks had better success. The Indiana Legislature made an apportion- ment of the State which was odious to the RepubUcans, and Fairbanks was instrumental in undoing it before the courts. In the record-breaking campaign of 1894, when the tide began to turn, he ralUed the young men of Indiana about him and deah effective blows. Gossip, presidential and vice-presidential, has hovered about the name of Fairbanks persistently. His Presidential possibilities were discussed, immediately after the campaign of 1900, as force- fully as they have been and still are being discussed after the •campaign of 1904. It is little known that the Indianan was almost persuaded to accept a place upon the ticket of 1900 with McKinley. While VICE-PRESIDENT FAIRBANKS. 279 the Philadelphia convention, during the fervid period immediately preceding the nomination for vice-president, was clamoring for Roosevelt, and while Piatt and Quay were furthering that clamor, Mark Hanna was turning to Fairbanks as the Moses of the hour. The present vice-president had Hanna's overtures under serious consideration for a day, and came near seeing it as his duty to accept, notwithstanding the geographical argument against his appearing as a running mate on the McKinley ticket. Had Mr. Fairbanks yielded, the influence of Hanna toward securing his nomination by the convention would have been potent. The effect of the choice upon the destinies of the country and of the party, in the light of subsequent events, which would have hurried him into the Presidency, would have been far greater than one could have dreamed then during the heat and stress of that factional struggle. He has grown to the rdle of a star stump speaker. In the Roosevelt campaign he proved a wonder even to his critics, fond of saying that he is lacking in magnetism. The chairman of Speakers' bureaus and other observers of his popular efforts characterize his utterances in very favorable parlance. He made an extensive tour in 1904, probably reaching more voters than any other two orators on the road. He spoke in about every northern State. Beginning late in September, he travelled 17,000 miles, speaking briefly to audiences at from five to fifteen different places every week-day, besides one long speech every evening. In doing this he never missed an appointment or failed to make a railroad connection that had been arranged for him. His good temper and kindly manner enforced the ringing arguments he presented. His courteous treatment of opponents created every- where a good impression for himself and for the ticket. His civic addresses have been numerous and have been de- livered before audiences of many kinds — on anniversary and other festive occasions in all parts of the country. Mr. Fairbanks is one of the few men in public life who has made it a rule to devote his time, outside of the pubhc business, to duties of that character. Since he became a senator in 1897, he has relin- quished his legal practice almost entirely. That has afforded 280 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. him opportunity to respond to demands from the general public, beyond the bounds of his Indiana constituency. Eight years do not suf3&ce, as a rule, for the rounding out of a prominent legislative career in the Senate. The recognition of new men is slow. Because of the long tenure most Senate leaders enjoy, committee places which enable men to formulate and perfect important legislation are rarely bestowed except after protracted service. But as a senator Mr. Fairbanks made his impression upon the enactments of his time. His first chair- manship of any consequence was of the Immigration committee. He gave immigration questions, then much to the front, very careful study. From time to time he made extended trips to Ellis Island, where most of the immigrants to this country land and when, after several years of agitation, the Immigration Law of 1903 was passed, Mr. Fairbanks, an advocate of greater restrictions, was a factor in fashioning it. His voice was strong for peace, prior to the Spanish-American War. He delivered a speech, patriotic in tone, but withal conservative, in which he upheld the President's policy. He introduced a resolution for the tender of the President's good offices toward ameliorating the conditions in the Island of Cuba. In all his career there has never been a better show of political courage than his attitude on the Porto Rican tariff legislation. He and Senator Foraker were the two leading champions of that measure and bore the brunt of the campaign for it. The opposition he had to face in Indiana was very strong. He has been foremost in the Senate as a sound money advocate. He has preached the gold standard in his speeches everywhere. No other political theme, unless it be protection, has been more in his mind or on his lips. He also did some work of importance in the Senate as one of the Foreign Relations committee. The management of the Netherlands Treaty was in his charge. For the last four years of his term as a Senator, he held an important chairmanship, from a business standpoint — that of the public buildings com- mittee. Large interests, affecting enormous disbursements of money from the Treasury, are handled there. During Mr. Fairbanks's chairmanship, close to $40,000,000 was voted by VICE-PRESIDENT FAIRBANKS. 281 Congress for public buildings in the several States. His services on the judiciary committee, which attracts the best lawyers of the Senate, were of some moment. At the Swayne impeach- ment trial, he was the floor leader, being on the special committee, that had the formalities of the trial in charge. In that role he bore himself with customary tact and with fine dignity. The vice-president's career has been an attractive one in many particulars. He is not only democratic, but thoroughly American. He sprang from good, healthy, honest American stock. His father, Loriston M. Fairbanks, worked in a woollen mill at Ware, Mass., before moving to Ohio with his father. He was as tall as his son and a veritable physical giant. He made a comfortable fortune — for the pioneer times in which he lived — as a wagon manufacturer. He and several neighbors, including the Smith and Davenport families, plaimed a migration across the plains to the far Northwest, but because of sudden illness, the elder Fairbanks withdrew from the party. In later life he lived upon a farm in Union County, Ohio, which his wife, the vice-presi- dent's mother, has kept in her possession. Before passing to his reward, in 1900, he saw his son graduate from Ohio Wesleyan College in 1872, prosper in law and politics, and reach the high station of a United States senator. Mr. Fairbanks is the second Republican vice-president from Indiana. Schuyler Colfax was the first — the running mate of General Grant in 1868. Thomas A. Hendricks, fellow townsman of Mr. Fairbanks, became the Democratic vice-president, when the man to be among his successors twenty years into the future was only known as an Indianapolis lawyer. But his public life has been rich in intimate associations with prominent men, of his own State and of the nation, including several Presidents and distinguished leaders. Ernest Geoege Walker. ARTHUR P. GORMAN. SENATOR ARTHUR P. GORMAN, of Maryland, is to-day not only one of the most distinguished leaders of the Democratic party, but he stands foremost among the men who have achieved a national reputation. He has been a Democrat from the day when, at the age of twenty-one years, he voted the Democratic ticket at his home in Howard County, Md., and his devotion to the interests of his party, both in and out of public life, has been one of the chief characteristics of his successful career. It is impossible, in fact, to disassociate him from politics. He is finely equipped with a keen faculty for business affairs but, after all, it is his relation to the great political struggles which have involved the country which gives him his commanding position. He belongs to the older school of great politicians, using the word in its largest and best sense, who knew how to create issues and then to lead their followers to victory. In his own State, Mr. Gorman has frequently exemplified this masterly leadership. It was his personality and the fact that he was a candidate for the Senate that led to a Democratic victory at a time when the State seemed to have been permanently placed in the Republican column. Senator Gorman is in the prime of life. Although sixty-five years of age he is as active and vigorous and clear-headed to-day as many men of fifty. Abstemious in his habits, he has excel- lently preserved his physical frame, and accomplishes an enormous amount of work without the least fatigue. His temperament admirably fits him for a high position, for he has the faculty of solving problems with the least possible drain upon his mental vitality, and he maintains an excellent equilibrium under all circumstances. His colleagues in the United States Senate and his associates in the Democratic party of Maryland, who have 282 ARTHUR P. GORMAN. 283 been with him through contests of enormous magnitude, have invariably remarked upon the fact that the greatest strain seemed to make no impression upon him, his temper remaining unrufSed, his judgment always accurate, and his physique never indicating the slightest evidence of the strain made upon it. Senator Gorman appeals to the people as a man who has risen from the ranks. His education was obtained in the pubhc schools, and as a lad he served as a page in the Senate of the United States. From the first, he exhibited a natural bent toward politics, and when less than thirty years of age he was elected a member of the House of Delegates of the Maryland Legislature. Even at that early age, the qualities which have since made him prominent in political and legislative councils, made their impres- sion upon his fellow-members in the Legislature, and he was elected Speaker of the House of Delegates in the second session of his membership. Promotion to the State Senate speedily followed, and from that position he was elevated to a seat in the United States Senate, where he remained for twelve years. Politi- cal differences in Maryland led to his temporary retirement, but in 1902 he again restored the State to the Democratic column and was rewarded by a return to his seat in the United States Senate. It is indicative of the universal recognition of his forceful quaHties that, immediately upon his return to the Senate, after an absence of nearly ten years, the Democrats at once placed him at their head, electing him the leader of the minority and showering upon him all the honors which it was possible for them to bestow. In the whole history of the United States Senate there is no parallel to this remarkable incident in Senator Gorman's career. It was a spontaneous tribute of the Democratic senators to the capacity and ability of the man under whose leadership many of them had served in former years. In every previous case where a senator, after temporary absence from the body, had been returned to the Senate, he was compelled to take his position at the foot of the ladder, taking his chances of promotion with men who entered that body for the first time. This was not Senator Gorman's experience, and to-day he stands the 284 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. recognized leader of the Democrats in the Senate, elevated to that position as his unquestioned right. There is no other man in the United States so thoroughly conversant with every detail of national affairs as Senator Gor- man. His career from boyhood has been a public one, identified with every phase of national administration. His long service on the Committee on Appropriations has brought intimate knowledge of public expenditure. He has achieved an enviable record in carefully scrutinizing every item of public expense, exercising always the keenest watchfulness in protecting the interests of the people, while at the same time exhibiting a due regard for the necessary development and expansion of the Government. He has given close study and application to the intricate question of national finances, and he is so highly recog- nized as an authority on this subject that when in the Senate he undertakes to elucidate any financial problem or to draw the attention of the country to the all-important question of receipts and expenditures, he is sure to obtain the willing attention of even his political opponents. Senator Gorman's courageous and determined attitude upon the occasion of the first election of Grover Cleveland to the Presidency, prevented the experience of 1876, when Hayes was declared elected over Tilden. In the exciting days which followed the election of 1884, when the result was still in doubt. Senator Gorman remained at the headquarters of the Democratic national committee in New York day and night, without sleep, sending out telegrams in every direction, infusing a spirit of determination into the rank and file of his party and insisting that Cleveland was elected, and that he would be declared President of the United States. In addition to this, his masterly conduct of the fight against the enactment of the so-called Force Bill remains to-day unparalleled in the pohtical history of this country. As is well known, the Republicans endeavored to fasten upon the country, and especially upon the Southern States, a yoke which would have been an intolerable burden and which would have violated every principle of personal liberty. For three long months Mr. Gor- man combated with wonderful astuteness and energy the innu- ARTHUR P. GORMAN. 285 merable schemes of the RepubUcan majority to secure the passage of the bill through the Senate, knowing that, if it received the votes of the majority of that body, it would have been signed by the President, inasmuch as it had already passed the House. In that remarkable contest he proved his superb quahties as a political general and finally conducted the minority to magnificent victory, the bill being finally displaced and relegated to the official files, where it died at the end of the session. Senator Gorman is a conservative, far-seeing, astute states- man, arriving at his judgments after mature deUberation and lacking entirely any impulsive or erratic movements. While he has always been a friend of the people and a Democrat in the widest and truest sense, he has regarded the rights of property, and has never sought, through impossible financial theories or equally radical tariff ideas, to threaten either the savings of the poor or the larger accumulations of the rich. He occupies the happy position between the free-trade theorists on the one hand and the high protectionists on the other, both of which extremes are inimical to the best interests of the American people. His private life is pure, and his public career cannot be successfully attacked. In fact, he combines in himself, both as a private citizen and as a public official, every quality that commends him to public admiration. Henry Litchfield West. GEORGE GRAY. GEORGE GRAY, who succeeded Bayard in the Senate, had been attorney-general of Delaware, but was un- known to national poUtics. He was sworn in March 19, 1885, and served until March, 1899. He soon made his mark. As a lawyer he ranked with any of the many able men of that profes- sion in the Senate, and his opinions were always listened to with respect. He took a leading part in the memorable contest over the so-called Force Bill which was waged for weeks in the Senate. Although he has not always been accorded a proper share of credit for the defeat of that measure, it is a fact that he contributed most materially to that result. In the debate on the silver question which occupied the Senate for months in the first year of Mr. Cleveland's second administration, Mr. Gray participated largely, and no more comprehensive and convincing arguments for sound money were made than his. In his whole career in the Senate he fully sustained the illustrious record which the little State of Delaware has made in that body. The great poUtical questions growing out of legislation affecting the South had been practically disposed of when Mr. Gray entered on the national arena, and the Force Bill was the only partisan measure of great consequence which he had to consider. Purely economic issues were mainly the subject of discussion and action. These do not afford much opportunity for flights of imagination and oratorical effects, but are suited for the consideration of a student of the conservative and judicial temperament of George Gray. His speeches disclosed learning, thought, and judgment of a high order. While in the Senate he added to the measurement of his fame by service on two international, commissions ; to adjust questions between the United States and Canada and the Paris Commission 286 GEORGE GRAY. 287 which formulated the treaty between the United States and Spain for the cession of the Philippine Islands. It was a tribute to his ability and his worth when a President of opposing politics se- lected him for such a high position as judge of the United States Circuit Court, and it was a tribute not less great when President Roosevelt asked him to serve as chairman of the commission which settled the coal strike of 1902. F. A. Richardson. GEN. CHARLES H. GROSVENOR. IN the completeness of his equipment as a parliamentary duellist, Gen. Charles H. Grosvenor, of the Eleventh Ohio District, has no peer in the House of Representatives. No man in Congress can give more and take more in a running debate than the grizzled veteran from the little city of Athens, down in the southeastern part of the State, where emigrants from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania settled in the early part of the nineteenth century. He is a master of invective, and possesses in a highly developed degree the faculty of detecting the vulnerable spots in an opponent's armor — a combination which makes him a dangerous foeman. Moreover, his spurs are always ready for action — frequently they are gaffed — and could one say so without irreverence, the general might be called the champion game-cock of the legislative pit. He gives no quarter nor asks it. There are men more eloquent, and some excel him in flowery oratory. But he admittedly ranks them in his ability to hold his own in a rough and tumble forensic contest. His prowess is all the more remarkable when one recalls that he has passed his seventy-second year. When Grosvenor was a boy, away back in the forties, he was a "scrappy" youngster. If he was not always carrying a chip on his shoulder, he was ready to knock it off the other fellow's, and that is his way to this day. It was both natural and necessary for him to be aggressive and combative — natural because he came from fighting stock, and necessary, because there was no one else to clear his pathway to success and fame. His father was a soldier in the war of 1812, his grandfather fought in the Revolution, and ancestors farther back bore arms under one flag or another. He gave evidence of his martial lineage by serving throughout the Civil War. By the display of marked 288 GEN. CHARLES H. GROSVENOR. 289 gallantry he rose from a private to a brevet Brigadier- General. Every forward step in his civic career has been accompanied by a hard struggle, and the obstacles he was compelled to over- come would have discouraged many a man endowed with less inherent sturdiness of character. Thirty weeks' attendance in a log schoolhouse comprised the extent of his pupilage; the rest of his education was acquired in the rugged university of experience and self-instruction. Grosvenor is the dean of the Ohio delegation. He has been a candidate for Congress eleven times, and has been elected ten. He suffered his only defeat through a gerrymander fifteen years ago. He has had to fight for nearly every nomination. Were his district in Maine, New Hampshire, or Vermont, where the people know how to appreciate a useful representative, his certificate would be handed to him every two years on a silver platter. But in Ohio it is different. It has been said, and said truthfully, that there is more politics to the square yard in that State than to the square mile in most other commonwealths, and this surplusage is especially large in the eleventh district. A few months after every Congressional election in the last ten or twelve years a movement has been inaugurated to retire Grosvenor at the end of the ensuing term. Ambitious and capable men have risen up and announced their candidacy for his seat, and coimty committees were named against him. The country was informed that the general was about to become a statesman without a job. But in due time the convention was held and it was found that the opposition had melted away and Grosvenor chosen triumphantly. Now, as many times before, it is designed to drive him back to private life. The general is worrying and fretting some, but those who have watched his career think that history will repeat itself. Many people wonder how he does it, and even some of the best politicians of Ohio confess their inability to comprehend his system. But the explanation appears simple. He under- stands how to placate his political enemies — not the men who aspire to succeed him in Congress, but those who control the com- ponent parts of his district. He finds berths for them — post- 19 290 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. offleeSjState jobs, positions in the departments at Washington and on the- roll of the Honse. Then he devotedly watches the interests of his constittiency;' and, next, the rank and file of the votets-of his distri'ct take a keen delight in his prestige as a national figure. - In this connection it is worthy of note that, contrary to the genera;! rule, he has takein front rank in CongreSS'Mthough hedid tiot enter upoii his first term until hfe was- more tha;n fifty years old. ^?: The "Sage of Athens," as Grosvenor Sometimes is referred to,- has reason to 'be proud of his standing -in Congress. He is a member of the board of directors- bf the House, which in -parlia- mentary lahguage' is designated the Committee on Rules.' Fi-ve men ; compose this committee, and threej^ including the Speaker,- belong' to the party of the majority.' This little ' coterie- controls the programme of the body, and sometimes is called the Speaker's cabinet. Thegfeneral is the third member of the Committee on ' Ways and' Means, to which is intrusted all tariff legislation. ' He is als(J ' the ■'<;hairttian of the Committee on Merchant marine' and fisheries, which has become prominent and important in view of the current discussion of' the ship subsidy 'ques'tion." His skill as "a debater is recognized by the' Republicatt leaders,' and in many' great controversies in the last decade' he has' been put forward as -the exponent of Republican policies. One of the historic -speeches in the House was the one he made in defense of President McKinley when Congress was trying to precipitate war With -Spain; The Administration was not 'quite ready to initiate hostilities, and it was very difficult to hold the hot-headS on Capitol- Hill in check. * Delay was vital to the Governanent, and Grosvenor's appeal had a restraining effect upon the frantic legislative warriors. Grosvenor is a thorough partisan; He is' one of the high priests of protection. He is a "stand-patter,''' and has no patience with the doctrine of tariff revision or free trade. He was a mem- ber "of the Committee on Ways and Means when the- Dingley-' Bill was being drafted, and on that occasion demonstrated' his infiuence in the House and displayed his qualities as a fighter. ' Through the pressure exerted by certain Eastern manufacturers the committee had placed a duty of 8 and 9 cents^ respectively, GEN. CHARLES H. GROSVENOR. 291 on the first and second classes of wool, and in that form the bill went to conference. Grosvenor was a member of the conference committee, and demanded a duty of ii and 12 cents. Chairman Dingley himself wanted the lower rates and so did a majority of the conferees. The wool industry of Ohio and the central Western States is a very important one and had been suffering from insufficient protection, according to the Republican system. Grosvenor threatened to resign from the conference unless his demand was acceded to. The committee decided it would not increase the duty, and Grosvenor did resign. At the same time he gave notice he would go on the floor of the House and do his utmost to defeat the entire bill. His action created a panic among the Republican leaders, and they finally agreed to give to wool the protection he asked. The farmers of Ohio and other States owe him a lasting debt of gratitude for this single act, for the wool industry was given a marked impetus and milhons of dollars since have gone into the pockets of the sheep raisers. "Old Figgers" is another sobriquet that has been conferred upon the Ohio veteran. This came to him during the first McKinley campaign in 1896. Grosvenor was one of the men who initiated the movement resulting in the nomination of the murdered President. He was a party in the original councils and his political experience was of great value to McKinley's managers. After the Republican national convention was held the general became the official statistician of the party, and every week during the campaign issued a detailed statement showing McKinley's strength in each State. His figures proved to be so accurate that he achieved a wide reputation as a forecaster and earned the nickname mentioned. As a parliamentarian, General Grosvenor has very few equals in the United States. He is able to manceuver a bill through the House with a degree of skill and assurance that is at once the envy and astonishment of his colleagues. In 1876 he was elected Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives and during his occupancy of the chair is said to have originated the practice of counting a quorum for which Speaker Reed subsequently ac- quired so much fame and notoriety. In personal appearance the 292 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. general is rather patriarchal, though in his movements he is exceedingly lively for a septuagenarian. He has thick white hair and until a few years ago his beard, the same color, was long and flowing. His profession is the law and he enjoys a splendid reputation, especially as a criminal lawyer. But like most men of his calling who pursue the avocation of politics he is comparatively poor. Fred. Staeek. BENJAMIN HARRISON. BENJAMIN HARRISON, of Indiana, entered the United States Senate March 4, 1881, having been the unanimous choice of the RepubKcans in the Legislature, who were in the majority following the Garfield campaign, after having refused an invitation by the new President to become attorney-general. He made a quiet, effective senator, as was his wont in all things. Being essentially a lawyer. General Harrison, doubtless, would have been pleased with a place on the committee on the judiciary, but although the best-fitted man in the Senate for the position, precedence because of longevity of service prevented him from obtaining membership on that committee. His committee assign- ments, however, were creditable, and in one instance, at least, com- plimentary. Early in the second year of his term he was given a place upon the committee on rules, quite unusual for a new senator. He served upon the committees on mihtary affairs, Indian affairs, transportation routes to the seaboard, and expenditures of pubhc money, and in the last half of his term was chairman of the com- mittee on territories. It was in this latter connection that his princi- pal work as a senator was performed. The struggle for the admis- sion of the Dakotas as a State was before Congress, and as chairman of the committee on territories General Harrison led the fight in their behalf in the Senate, a fight that ended only with the admis- sion of the two States while he was in the White House. There was much bitter feeUng over what was claimed to be the injustice to the people of the territories, and a movement was conceived to organize a State government, set the machinery in operation without waiting for the advance action of Congress, and then come and ask Congress for admission after all the machinery of Government had been started. This attitude of the people had been sharply criticised by the Democrats, and Senator Butler, of South Caro- 293 294 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. lina, impassionately declared that "a State cannot break its way into the Union." General Harrison quickly retorted that that was true, and that he did not advise the action of the people as contemplated; "but," he added, "it is also true that a State cannot break out of the Union, as the senator from South Carolina well knows." The Chinese Exclusion treaty did not meet General Harrison's approval, and he labored earnestly to secure amendments which would ameliorate its terms, but unsuccessfully. He did not vote for it. While in the Senate he occupied a house on Iowa Circle and lived quietly and unostentatiously, as he had done at home. He enjoyed the association of congenial companions, but he had few intimates. He made his own campaign for re-election in 1886 and suc- ceeded in electing 74 members of the Legislature to 76 in the opposition, divided between Democrats and Union Labor men. If the Republicans of Knox county, who would not believe that a Republican stood any show of election, could have been induced to nominate a legislative candidate, there would have been a tie. In connection with the organization of the Legislature a great political contest arose over the election of a lieutenant-governor, which got into the courts on a suit for injunction. General Harri- son argued the case for the Republican defendant before the State Supreme Court, attacking the claim of jurisdiction and of venue, and discussing the philosophy of the structure of the American form of government. He asserted that even were there no consti- tutional limitations imposed, one branch of the Government could not invade the domain of another to determine contests without at once destroying that equality among them which was necessary for their safety and the perpetuity of all government. The court was four to one Democratic, but the judges unanimously agreed with General Harrison on the question of venue, and three of the five held that the court had no power to hear and determine contests in the political departments. Chief Justice W. E. Niblack, for many years a member of Con- gress, declared that, in his opinion, General Harrison's speech in ,-;,:;,.,..,. BENJAMIN HARRISON. ' i !,;;/■/" ,295 thati case was the finesti legal argument ever deliver;eci in the, United States. .The decision of the courtiwas the occasion of tbe;niost .re- markable editorial ever printed in the English. language,, beginning " Damn their cowardly SQuls.'' ,1 , . - r , . , ,- ', General Harrispn was defeated for re-electictn, giving way ,to the Hon. David Turpie,, and he retired-March 3, 1887^ ^shoptly thereafter to enteri upon a capipaignthati would end with: Ws elec- tionito tjhe Presidency, although at that time probably nothing was further from bis thoughts. ^His case, was something like that pi Andrew Jackson's, whpj fori the second time, resigned from the Senate, in.; 1825, to begin the struggle for. the Presidency resulting in his -election in 5828. There was a further similarity, in that they both retired from the Presidency with greatly enhanced reput^-tions because- of the quahty of the services rendered by; theip^ while fillingit. .. r.,; .> , -r •:- r>-t: -. ■ . -r -,-:.;;] , ' ,> ; : vGesneral Harrison's career- as a soldier, -lawyer, and* senator clearly foEeshadowed- his career as Presidents ^ He was always courageous, equal to any emergency that nught arise, absolutely devoted to.his.duty, neyer, sensational nor spectacular, and always thoroughly informed, yet an^sious, to have jthe- views, of those, who might possess any knowledge not already his own. i , His ability to absorb information and promptness to act upon jit was ^signally illustrated at various times during his term as JPresident. It, so happened that, owing to illness, or absence from Washiugton>of the rekembers of his Cabinet, he was called upon toiadmijiisterithe affairs of every parti.of the Executive department, except that re- lating to agriculture.; This < he was ? able to do with accuracy, dispatch, and wisdom because of his experience as a lawyer and a senator, and his remarkable powers of observation, had. given him the necessary qualifications. ;. :■': . ., ' . r >■ ., 1, A member of the Cabinet^ speaking, of this many-sidedness pf the President, said that Harrison's knowledge of the laws gpyeriiing .the many branches of Jus,, department,, as well as of details ,^nd minor policies of each, was maryellous- On; one; occasion, know- ing that he would have to consider with the ^President, , in private conference, a matter of great, importance tp the Government, he made an exhaustive study of the entire subject,, and whgn he entered 296 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. the White House with the papers in his possession, he felt that he really knew all about the matter. But before he had been talking ten minutes he found that the President's knowledge of it was both larger and more exact in detail than his own, and from that time on, until the close of the conference, he sat as a pupil. This ex- perience, he said, put him upon his mettle, and not long afterward he made an effort to thoroughly master another matter of much importance. Again he entered the White House feeling that he knew all there was to be known about the subject, and again he found that the President's knowledge was greater than his own. He then gave up, he said, any idea he might have possessed of knowing more about the business of his department than the President knew. Secretary Rusk told a friend that he often talked with Presi- dent Harrison about agricultural matters, and somewhat to his sur- prise always found him fully informed. He came to the conclusion that the President had remembered everything he had learned while on the farm as a boy, everything he had seen of farm life from that time on, and everything he had learned as a lawyer while consulting with clients and attending to their litigation about farming matters. It is well known that President Harrison wrote, or at least re- vised, all dispatches of consequence — certainly those of grave con- sequence—that left the State Department while Mr. Blaine was secretary. This is particularly true of those relating to the Chilean imbroglio and the Bering Sea controversy, as the files of the de- partment and the papers left by General Harrison at his decease will show. In the selection of nominees to the more important places under the Government, President Harrison manifested a hitherto unsus- pected insight into the qualifications and characters of applicants that enabled him to give the country the services of men only of the highest ability and reputation. Especially was this true of his appointees to the bench. He was the first president since Lincoln to go outside his party for a justice of the Supreme Court. The result of the careful examination made into the case of each candi- date was the conviction in the mind of the President that in only BENJAMIN HARRISON. 297 one instance, where an office of high importance was involved, had he made a serious mistake, and there he had never seen the ap- pointee. His power to absorb and retain information, and to store it away for use at a future time, was illustrated in this connection. A certain senator persistently urged the appointment of a con- stituent to an important office. President Harrison questioned the senator a good deal about the characteristics of the man, but de- layed reaching a decision because he felt that sometime he had heard something of a prejudicial nature. Finally, while out driv- ing one day, his mind running upon the subject, he recalled that tea or fifteen years before he had read a newspaper account of an incident in which the candidate had figured in such a way as to make it undesirable to give him the appointment. All the circum- stances came back to him, and when the senator called again the President asked him if his candidate was the man spoken of in the account, quoting it. The senator replied that he was, but the community had always felt that the man was justified. Harrison said that while the people of the vicinity might feel that way, he did not believe the people of the country at large would take that view of the incident and refused to make the appointment. The President showed an almost prescient quality of mind in judging of men. If anyone could claim to be the "original Roose- velt man" it was he. Mr. Roosevelt was President of the Civil Service Commission in the Harrison administration and pressed the immediate extension of the law over all governmental em- ployes with an enthusiastic earnestness and vigor which the inter- vening years have done but little to moderate. The President thought it wiser to move gradually, and thus avoid probable fric- tion over a too-sweeping order. One day, the two were discussing the matter in the President's room, and being men of strong con- victions they expressed themselves with great positiveness. When the conference was ended, the President came out into the corridor, where one of his advisers was waiting, and said: "Did you hear some loud talking in there ? " The gentleman admitted that, neither of the conversationalists being deaf, the tones did seem a trifle strained. "I was having a time with the young man," said the President, 298 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. "about the Civil Service, and we got warmed up some. I am going to have my way about it, too," he continued, "because it is right. But," he added, "you want to keep your eye on that young man. He'll be President some day, and then," reflectively, "he'll have his way." Those who knew Harrison best never thought of asking him to make an appointment or do any executive act simply as a matter of grace, but always had to give him substantial reasons for their re- quests or recommendations to secure favorable action. He who had a good reason to urge found in him an attentive listener, others made a poor impression and had their trouble for their pains. He never acted on impulse, nor without what he believed to be sound and justifying reasons. It was as a public speaker, however, that President Harrison made the widest and deepest impression on the country while a presidential candidate and in the White House. His speeches re- vealed him to his fellow-citizens at his best. There was in them a purity of diction, an eloquence of thought and language, a fervor and range of imagination, a wealth and appositeness of illustration, and an acquaintance with history, politics, and the philosophy of life, which made them, even the little informal addresses spoken on his tours about the country, a joy and delight to all who heard them. Prominent among those that have fastened themselves in memory are those delivered before the Michigan Club, at Detroit, February 22, 1887, when the subject assigned to him was: "Wash- ington, the Republican, an equal ballot the only guaranty of the safety and perpetuity of our institutions," and his response to the toast: "The Republican Party," at a banquet of the Marquette Club, Chicago, a month later. When he left Washington he was everywhere recognized as the foremost political orator of the land. General Harrison was possessed of a warm, sympathetic, even emotional nature, a manifestation of which, however, the public rarely if ever saw, but which was well known to his intimate asso- ciates. Those who knew him well would go to him first of all for advice or assistance, with a full knowledge that it would not be withheld. He did not wear his heart on his sleeve, and the thought- less and ignorant carried an altogether erroneous idea of the real BENJAMIN HARRISON. 299 Harrison. He was of a deeply religious nature and took little in- terest in society or social affairs. As he was leaving Indianapolis for Washington to begin his term as president he stood upon the rear platform of the train waving farewell to the thousands gath- ered to see him off. It was the writer's duty and privilege to be at his side, and as a curve in the track hid the multitude from sight, he remarked, "It's hard to leave one's home like this." There were tears in his voice as well as in his eyes, and it was easy to imagine that behind the commonplace with which he sought to hide his true feelings the thought was uppermost: "There are the friends of my youth, of my early manhood, of my more mature years. Shall I ever look upon them again?" Leaving the White House, in 1893, General Harrison returned to Indianapolis and resumed the pursuit of his life's real labor, the practice of the law — dignified, honorable, and successful. He took part in the campaign of 1896, holding profound convictions upon the money question. His speeches attracted the attention of Senator Hoar, who had been one of his warm admirers in the Senate, and he wrote a letter, urging him to re-enter public life as a senator from Indiana, instancing the case of ex- President John Quincy Adams as a precedent. Senator Spooner, of Wisconsin, was another warm admirer of General Harrison, and, recently, in a semi-public gathering said that at the time Harrison was serving as President he (Spooner) believed that he was the only man in the United States capable of satisfactorily discharging the duties of both the President and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In answer to Senator Hoar's letter (which the recipient said "nobody who reads it will doubt that the man who wrote it had a kind and affectionate heart") General Harrison wrote: "Indianapolis, Indiana, November 10, 1896. "My dear Senator: It is very kind of you to take note of my work in the campaign, and I value very highly what you say of it —though your friendship has, perhaps, in some degree, spoiled your judgment. I am thoroughly tired of the cares and excite- ments incident to public Ufe in our country. To you I may say that 300 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. the people of this State seem to be more strongly attached to me than ever. I never appear before an audience that I am not deeply moved by the demonstration of affectionate interest of my home people. " Possibly, they would send me to the Senate this winter if I should intimate a willingness to take the place, but I do not think that I can, and have said so. "If I could believe that any exigency in public affairs called for me, then my personal wishes would be subservient — but it is not so. My own belief is that as a free citizen I can do more toward giving right direction to public affairs than I could as a Senator. " Most sincerely your friend, "Benj. Harrison." Among the people to whom he so affectionately referred in the loregoing, General Harrison on the 13th day of March, 1901, en- tered into rest, supported by the Christian's hope of eternal life, and amid the general expression of their sorrow and loss was laid away in beautiful Crown Hill. A. J. Halfoed. ISHAM G. HARRIS. 1SHAM G. HARRIS was one of the most unique and striking characters of his day and generation. Some one has said that he was the last survivor of the old states' rights, strict- construction school of democracy. He clung to his old-fashioned democracy faithfully but hopelessly — for he often expressed the belief that the country would never again be governed in accord- ance with a just interpretation of the Constitution. He was a sur- vival of a type which has passed, or is fast passing, with the condi- tions that gave it birth — the old frontier or pioneer type. He was born in the early years of the century, when Tennessee was but young in the Union, when the character of the age drew its sap and vigor from the forest mould. He possessed all the essential qualities of the hardy and heroic statesmen — ^warriors who on the Watauga and the Cumberland made a clearing for civilization and free government. He was of the mould and fibre of Andrew Jack- son; a character of massive simplicity, of heroic force and clear- ness; fearless, resolute, masterful and imperious, he was born to lead, and, by the sheer force of his personality, to rule. The composition of his nature was not complex or intricate — its elements were few and simple. To know him at all was to know him well. Long years of close and intimate association only strengthened and deepened the earlier impressions. You were never startled or surprised by the revelation of new and unexpected traits of character. His intellect was not subtle or ingenious, but robust, vigorous, direct, guided always by unfailing common sense. His judgment was wonderfully swift and wonderfully true. He was not widely or deeply read, but he knew men and he understood the springs of human action. He Hved a life full of stormy conflict in which were given many hard and bitter blows— blows which left behind them lasting enmities and unforgiving animosities. Yet from the first to the last of his long career victory clung to his 301 302 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. standard, and amid all the great and rapid political changes of his time popular confidence never wavered from the man who adhered with stubborn, defiant, combative tenacity to his earliest creed. One of Harris's friends said of him that he had never had a doubt in his life; and it is certain that he was never in the least troubled by any misgivings as to the correctness of his opinions. In the fierce old days of democracy and whiggery Harris was a giant of the Democratic party on the hustings. He met in joint debate such masters of political controversy as Neil S. Brown, Robert Hatton, John Netherland and others, and no antagonist ever bore away from him the prize of combat. He was not a phrase maker nor a rhetorician, but he possessed the faculty of sinewy, terse, incisive speech, with intense earnestness of manner, an impressive, sometimes dramatic, delivery, and a gift of plain and logical presentation. He was the war governor of Tennessee and a thorough going secessionist. Tennessee was slow to yield to the secession move- ment and his enemies used to say that he dragged it out of the Union against its will. His resourcefulness, his marvellous energy, his intuitive judgment and decision of character, his thorough knowledge of men, his genius for administration, made him the greatest war governor of the South. In spite of the fact that his capital was in the hands of the enemy and that a large part of his State was loyal to the Union, he gave to the Confederacy one hun- dred thousand soldiers, thoroughly organized and equipped. It had been his purpose upon the expiration of his term as governor to take a command in the field; but because his suc- cessor could not be inaugurated, owing to the capital being in the hands of the enemy, he remained governor until the end of the war. He was, however, with the Army of Tennessee from the time of the fall of Nashville, rendering gallant and conspicuous service. He was volunteer aid on the staff of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston at the battle of Shiloh and in the thick of all that bloody fray. He rallied in person a Tennessee regiment which was retreating in disorder and led it in the charge. He was by the side of General Johnston when stricken with his fatal wound and bore him from the field. ISHAM G. HARRIS 303 The end of the war found him broken in fortune, and he be- came an exile to Mexico. It is a genuine loss to history that his experiences there at the head of a colony of fellow exiles, his rela- tions with the court of Maximilian and Carlotta and with the leaders of the revolutionary forces, have never been put into per- manent literary form. To the day of his death he could portray with wonderful vividness and a marvellous memory for incident and detail the conditions then prevailing in that unhappy country. He subsequently went to London, but soon returned to his native country and settled down to the practice of law in Memphis, where he gained an enormous practice. He entered public life again as elector for the State at large in 1876 and was unanimously elected to the Senate in 1877. There were two senators to be elected at that time, and while there was a desperate struggle between half a dozen leading Democrats for the short term Senator Harris had no competitor. In the Senate he was useful and laborious and made no effort to be brilliant in debate. He was undoubtedly the ablest parlia- mentarian in that body and was always a stickler for the rules. No one, unless it was Cockrell of Missouri, kept so close a watch upon the daily business of the Senate. He rarely made set speeches, but he could be a very ugly customer in rough and tumble debate. He enjoyed the unbounded respect of his associates on both sides of the chamber and the genuine afifection of all who knew him well. Imperious, dogmatic, sometimes rude, and given to violent outbreaks of temper, he possessed beneath his iron surface a warm and affectionate disposition. The character of the man is revealed in the fact that his friends never wavered in their fidelity nor his enemies in their antagonism. He never was untrue to a friend and he requited the hatred of his enemies with open scorn. Both friend and enemy said of Isham G. Harris that he was an honest, frank and truthful man. The whole country learned to know him as an able, conscientious and patriotic public servant. Edward W. Carmack. DAVID BREMNER HENDERSON. WHEN Thomas B. Reed announced, early in the summer of 1899, that he would resign from Congress, what promised to be a sharp contest was inaug- urated for the Speakership of the Fifty-seventh Congress. Repre- sentative Babcock, anticipating some such action on Mr. Reed's part, was first in the field managing the campaign of David Bremner Henderson of Iowa, and the contest speedily terminated in Mr. Henderson's favor. The latter entered upon the duties of presiding officer of the House with mingled feelings of pride and apprehension; pride that the highest ambition of his life had been fulfilled, apprehension that his services would be un- favorably contrasted with those of Mr. Reed. No man had a more exalted idea of the dignity and importance of the position of presiding officer of the National House of Representatives than Mr. Henderson, and he believed thoroughly that it was in every respect second only to the Presidency. Sixteen years of service in the House, eight of them when Reed was in the chair, had imbued him with a keen appreciation of the power exercised by the Speaker, and as his Scottish birth stood in the path toward the higher office, Mr. Henderson's election to the Speakership crowned his hopes. Yet no one recognized the difficulties con- fronting him better than he. The House had grown restless under the iron hand of Reed, and he felt that any attempt on his part to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor would be promptly characterized as an "imitation." Indeed, the House] was ready to go to the other extreme and reduce the Speakership to the position of a mere presiding officer, as con- templated by the Constitution, and the power of the committee on rules was threatened and even its abolition was urged. To restrain this reactionary movement toward self-government, 304 DAVID BREMNER HENDERSON. 305 with the turmoil attending the effort of three hundred and fifty members to have an equal voice in conducting public business, and at the same time to avoid the appearance of desiring to play the r61e of " Czar," was Henderson's task, and he was thoroughly cognizant of the fact that if he governed with a strong hand he would be accused of aping his predecessor, while a departure from the established policy would be hailed as a sign of weakness. So I gathered from my first interview with him after his election was certain, and this impression was later confirmed in many informal conversations. It was at the close of that inter- view he announced that he intended to avoid, if possible, all appearance of attempting to dictate to the House, and that he wished to be the servant rather than the master of that body. Whether he adhered to this policy may be open to question, but in my opinion he did so as far as circumstances permitted, al- though appearances might have led to the contrary conclusion. So long accustomed to Reed's domination of the House, the public was prone to attribute almost every important act of that body to the influence of the Speaker, and it was so while Henderson presided, whereas if the truth were known, the advice of his counsellors probably prevailed over his wishes quite as often as his personal opinions outweighed theirs. Technically speaking, legislation in the House is in the hands of the three majority members of the Committee on Rules, the controlling influence naturally being that of the Speaker, who is chairman. But Henderson sought to indirectly restore power to the members without affecting the status of the Committee on Rules or impairing its prestige or privileges as a court of last resort. This he undertook to do by organizing the chairmen of the committees into a sort of "Cabinet." In the course of one of the most interesting conversations I ever had with him, he gave an outline of how he thought the business of the House could be best conducted for the public benefit. "If a member seeks recognition for a bill he submits it to me," he said, in substance. "I read it carefully and then turn it over to one of my 'Cabinet' for thorough investigation and report, never the one presenting the bill, but always to some one from 20 306 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. whom I think I can get an unbiased opinion as to its merits. Sometimes it is referred again to others, with the result that every piece of important legislation receives careful consideration before it is submitted to the House. I determined when I became Speaker that no legislation should be enacted by the House which was not for the public good, if its enactment could be prevented by the exercise of care on my part." To this principle he religiously adhered and every morning found him at his desk in his hotel, hard at work considering bills, to be followed by an hour of conferring with his "Cabinet" and other members at the Capitol before calling the House to order. I do not now recall any piece of pernicious legislation which slipped through the House while he was Speaker, and per- haps this may be properly attributed, in part, at least, to the personal scrutiny to which he subjected proposed measures. An innovation that made a stir at the time, and which gave weight to the charge that he was attempting to "out-Czar" Reed, has a simple explanation and the fact that it remains engrafted on the procedure of the House justifies the assumption that his action was correct. Reed maintained the pleasant fiction of recognizing members on the floor as they demanded recognition under the rule requiring them to arise and address the chair. Thus his desk in the "morning hour," would be surrounded by a circle of members clamoring "Mr. Speaker!" in the hope of catching his eye. Reed would calmly survey the crowd and then recognize first one on one side, then one on the other, the whole proceedings having the semblance of being real. As a matter of fact, Mr. Reed had been privately sought before- hand and recognized only those with whom previous arrangements had been made. When he came in, Mr. Henderson saw no reason for maintaining this pleasantry and cahnly notified the members that in the future they would arrange with him for recognition and he would grant it according to the schedule, after the proposed bills had been scanned and approved. The result was, the members remained in their seats and were decorously recognized in turn. While the effect was the same, yet the absence of the crowd around the DAVID BREMNER HENDERSON. 307 desk ostensibly seeking recognition, unpleasantly emphasized the control of the House by the Speaker through the exercise of the power of recognition. Thus the change was perhaps undiplomatic — though the transaction of public business may have been slightly accelerated — hence much criticism from mem- bers, especially new ones, who hugged the delusion that if Reed had been in the chair their stentorian exclamation of "Mr. Speaker!" would have secured them the recognition denied them by Henderson in the privacy of his office, and from whose decision there was no appeal. That Henderson would loom a larger figure if it had not been for his unpopularity with the newspaper correspondents is unde- niable, and this unpopularity I attribute to his ideas of the Speaker- ship, as herein crudely set forth. He realized it and frequently spoke of it most regretfully. Asked my opinion as to the cause, I ventured to say that the correspondents thought he had a bad case of "swelled head." "When you were chairman of the judiciary committee," I said, "you were open and free to them all; now they complain they can scarcely ever see you and when admitted can obtain nothing from you." The Speaker puffed at his cigar silently a few moments and then replied: "I know that is true and bitterly regret it. No one likes the 'boys' (he always referred to the correspondents thus) better than I, and I miss them very much. But they do not appreciate the fact that there is a great difference between Dave Henderson as a member of the House and as the Speaker. As 'Dave' I could comment on affairs freely and it was merely the expression of a member of the House, but anything I might say on a pending measure as Speaker would undoubtedly be construed as an indication of the action of the House. Or, if not," he continued, "it might be taken as an evidence of my wishes in the matter, and be properly resented by my fellow-members as an attempt on my part to direct their votes. I cannot and will not discuss pending legislation for publication while Speaker of the House. "Another thing, they ought to remember that I am a busy man 308 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. and I have not the time to give them I formerly had. I shall always be glad to see them whenever time permits, but I trust they will not ask me embarrassing questions as to legislation, for I have no right to discuss such matters for publication." Incidentally, I may say that so far as my knowledge goes he never departed from his course, and although somewhat intimate with him I respected his wishes to the extent that I never tres- passed on the forbidden ground without prefacing the question with the remark that the information sought was or was not for publication. The correspondents, however, were inclined to be sceptical and even resentful of Mr. Henderson's attitude. Put tersely by those to whom I suggested the Speaker's position, they had no reason to seek him unless they could get some "news," which, of course, would be something bearing on legislation, and if he did not care to discuss such matters with them they would leave him alone, which they did. Henderson was devoted to his friends and they to him. Fond of company and of entertaining and being entertained, he was, as Speaker, more popular socially than politically. Business was to be transacted during the day, he held, and early in the morning he was hard at work in his office at the hotel. An hour at the Capitol followed. After the House adjourned he felt free to indulge his social propensities and he attended dinners and receptions. At formal affairs he was "The Speaker," but among his intimates he laid aside the dignity of his office and it was "Dave," or "General," as in bygone days. The informality thus observed was doubtless one of the charms which led him to prefer the society of his friends to more formal functions, and no one was more ready with song or story, (preferably Scotch) than he at such gatherings. With such a disposition, accompanied by unbounded generosity, it is small wonder that his salary did not meet his expenses, and it is probable his four years as Speaker cost him an average of ten thousand dollars a year more than his income. This made a considerable inroad into his private fortune, accumulated in his Dubuque law practice, and he re- turned to private life much poorer financially than four years before. DAVID BREMNER HENDERSON. 309 , A simple incident will illustrate his loyalty to his friends and those who served him. To be near the Speaker is something like basking in the light which surrounds the throne, and hotel proprietors are keenly aware of the prestige attached to the residence in their hostelry of the Speaker of the House, as well as of the patronage following in its wake. Consequently, imme- diately after his election was assured, several hotel proprietors offered him quarters at advantageous rates. No one was more alive to the possibilities of the situation than the proprietor of the modest hotel where the Speaker had spent his winters for a num- ber of years, and who feared to lose what he recognized as his strongest card — the patronage of the Speaker — and whose agita- tion was evident. To his relief, Mr. Henderson announced he would remain, which he did, merely taking a somewhat larger, though still modest apartment, and an office for which he paid the regular rates. "They have always treated me well," he said one day when the subject was referred to. "Why should I leave them when my presence may do them some good?" A personal appreciation of Mr. Henderson could not be concluded without a mention of the qualities that endeared him to his friends. Courageous and generous, kind and sympathetic, frank, truthful, and honest, cheerful in all emergencies, his was a personality to give and receive devotion, and many an act of kindness on his part remains hidden from the world. Though devoted to his friends, Mr. Henderson never allowed them to sway him in public matters further than he might be influenced by his confidence in them and his reliance upon their opinions. If he believed a bill was meritorious, it received his approval; if not, the appeal of friendship could not save it. So he pursued the course he thought best suited to the public good and gave the House, to the utmost of his ability, the honest, clean and careful administration of his duties which he had promised. Retiring, he carried with him the affectionate regard of those to whom his friendship had meant so much and whose companionship had been so dear to him. Wm. Wolff Smith. THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. THOMAS A. HENDRICKS was another of the old-time Congressmen who was returned after the lapse of many years. He was elected to the House of Repre- sentatives in 1850, before he was thirty years old, and was reelected in 1852. He was a member of the Senate from 1863 until 1869. Fifteen years later he was President of the Senate by virtue of his ofi&ce as vice-president of the United States. The period of his first term of service in the Senate was an especially stormy one. Hendricks was strongly opposed to the reconstruction legislation following the Civil War and became one of the leaders of his party in that body. He served on important committees, one of them being (especially at that time) the Committee on PubHc Lands, of which he was chairman, he having once been Commissioner of the Public Land Office by appointment of President Pierce. Mr. Hendricks was considered a good lawyer and was possessed of a fair amount of oratorical abiUty, but it was in the r61e of politician that he achieved a national reputation. For twenty- five years he had been an accepted leader of the Democratic party of Indiana, and finally became one of the most noted and influential figures in the national councils of the party. His elevation to the Vice-Presidency was the culmination of a long and eminent career in pubUc life, during which he had filled many places of high responsibihty and honor. Mr. Hendricks — affectionately known throughout Indiana as "Tom" Hendricks and again as "Governor" — probably had more devoted followers than any other Indianan excepting Voorhees. He was three times the unanimous choice of his party for governor, was twice elected to Congress, and once to the United States Senate. It was his extraordinary popularity and the 310 THOMAS A- HENDRICKS. 311 fact that Indiana was a "pivotal" State that suggested his nom- ination for Vice-President on the ticket with Tilden in 1876 and later on the ticket with Cleveland in 1884. In each case his nom- ination by the convention was unanimous. As early as 1868 his availability as a Presidential candidate was recognized, when he received 132 votes, standing next to General Hancock, who received 135^, but on the final ballot Horatio Seymour was nominated. In 1876, at St. Louis, Mr. Hendricks received 133J votes for the Presidential nomination. In 1884 his friends urged him again to allow his name to be presented for the Presidency, but he was loyal to the candidacy of Joseph E. McDonald, of Indiana, and presented his name to the convention. After Cleve- land's nomination, Hendricks was unanimously chosen for the vice-presidential nomination. During Mr. Hendricks's brief incumbency of the office of vice-president, his relations with the President were not alto- gether harmonious or pleasant. Hendricks had no sympathy with Mr. Cleveland's Civil Service ideas and was in no position to secure recognition for those Indiana friends who sought official preferment. His term of office was brief, however, for he died in the City of Indianapolis within eight months after the inaugural. Charles Caeroll Carlton. WILLIAM P. HEPBURN. "^~r~^HE Long Tom of the Republican side," "the big gun I of the Republican side," are epithets that have been X appHed to Col. William Peters Hepburn, of Iowa, by Democrats in debate; and not in irony, but in recognition of the place he occupies. "He is the best all-round debater on our side," said a Republican congressman. Hence it follows that on occasions of moment, when in some big debate the Republicans are hard-pressed by Democratic legions, they bring the Long Tom out and load and fire him. On such occasions the old man — he passed his seventy-second birth- day in the election week of 1905 — stands in his place with one big hand thrust deep into his trousers pockets, hardly taking the trouble to gesticulate with the other, and fires his broadsides at the enemy without fireworks or spread-eagleism, but with deadly and accurate aim. His stock-in-trade is not flowery eloquence, but a terrific power of compact and logical statement, couched in a vein of homely horse-sense and piercing irony that is wonder- fully attractive. When some rash Democrat breaks in with an intferruption, the retort is generally that of a sledge-hammer. It is not a very profitable business to interrupt "Old Pete." One day, a reckless Democrat undertook to trip him up by an interruption quite long and very learned. Its only weakness was that it did not have much to do with the subject under discussion. "Mr. Chairman," retorted Hepburn, "this reminds me of the old Wisconsin lawyer who did not know any Latin, and who met a youthful antagonist from the city who made an argument jammed with Latin quotations. When the old man got up to reply he said, 'Your Honor, I too understand Latin; I have roamed with old Romulus, I have canted with old Cantharides, 312 WILLIAM P. HEPBURN. 313 I have ripped with old Euripides, and I have socked with old Socrates; but what in hell has that to do with the statutes of Wisconsin?" A roar of laughter extinguished the interrupter, and "Old Pete" concluded his speech without any further interruptions. He is a big-bodied, ruddy-cheeked, farmer-looking man, whose years sit so lightly upon him that he might be taken for a man of fifty. He is a real colonel, for he won the title in the Civil War, where he began his services as a captain and won promotion. For several congresses, Hepburn cherished a desire to reform the Reed rules and make it possible for the House to have some- thing to do with its own legislation. He headed a little band of Repubhcan malcontents who shared this desire. But Hepburn was always outvoted in the caucuses, and he never carried the war any further. The Democrats built high hopes on his known disgruntlement, and several times in legislative fights the Demo- cratic spokesmen openly offered the votes of their side to Hepburn. But such a position was unthinkable to him; there never was a more thick-and-thin partisan in the world, and he always declined. This hostihty of his to the rules, however, did not tend to make him a power under Speaker Henderson. It was not until Speaker Cannon came into power that Hepburn was allowed to push his way into the forefront of things. In some ways, under Cannon, he has at times overshadowed even the omnipotent "House Machine," and there have been rumors at times of a new "House Machine," wherein Hepburn and Tawney were to play the roles of the Speaker's assistants instead of Dalzell and Gros- venor. But they have never come to anything, and Hepburn continues to play his own r61e and hold his own unique position in the House — that of "the Long Tom of the Republican side." Charles Willis Thompson. DAVID B. HILL. ALTHOUGH David B. Hill of New York served but one term in the Senate he attracted national attention, be- cause he figured prominently as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 1892 against Mr. Cleveland, and because he appeared on the floor of the Senate re- peatedly as the opponent of the administration, and later as its defender. This singular man has the remarkable faculty, when policy dictates, of overcoming personal dislike and becoming the champion of his enemies. This was never more clearly illustrated than when he stood up in the Senate as the lone Democratic de- fender of Mr. Cleveland against Senator Gorman of Maryland, in the debate over the Wilson TarifiF Bill, and refused to vote with his party on the final passage of that measure. Mr. Hill formally retired from the leadership of his party in New York State January i, 1905. At that time he was in his sixty-second year. He had been in politics continuously since he was twenty-one. That gave him a record of forty years. In that time there had been only three great leaders of the Democratic machine in New York State — Samuel J. Tilden, Daniel Manning and David B. Hill. Manning's term of generalship was so short that it might be said that the politics of the State was properly di- visible into two epochs, that of Tilden and that of Hill. Those forty years of David B. Hill in New York politics were years of stress and storm, of great successes and overwhelming de- feats; of desperate situations and hairbreadth escapes; of brilliant strategy and forlorn hopes, and through it all fighting, fighting, fighting. Now it would be a fight with the anti-Hill men of the State, who were determined to keep him out of power; then it would be a struggle with the Cleveland Democrats who refused to follow his banner; again it would be a contest with his old enemy 314 DAVID B. HILL. 315 Croker, of Tammany; then, by way of diversity, it would be a set-to with the Bryan Democrats, who have never forgiven him. There never has been a poKtical fighter in the State quite the equal of David B. HiU for resourcefulness and persistency. The man never knew when he was beaten. When defeated his trium- phant enemies would seek a period of repose, but Mr. Hill had only then begun his work. Never in his political history did he measure swords with his erstwhile successful antagonist a second time that the antagonist did not "bite the dust." This happened to Richard Croker three times — and Croker was out. In 1894 Croker joined the movement which forced the nomination for Governor on Hill at a time when defeat was as certain as doom. When the next State convention was held Croker was abroad, whither he went to escape embarrassing questions by an investi- gating committee of the Republican Legislature, and no one dis- puted Hill, who easily ran the State convention by long distance telephone. In 1898 Croker nominated Judge Van Wyck for gov- ernor, defeating Hill, but Hill next year controlled the State com- mittee. In 1900 Croker once more defeated Hill in the convention, but in the convention which followed Hill was in the saddle and Croker was once more an exile. As governor of the State Hill left his imprint as no governor who followed him has done. When he went to the Senate he had enemies to punish, a machine to protect and a reputation as a national statesman to make. He did all three of these things. First, he stood up in the Senate and single-handed defeated the nomination of WilUam B. Homblower to be a Justice of the Su- preme Court of the United States. Then he entered the arena as the opponent of the income tax. He did not defeat it, but he drew the brief which, when used in the Supreme Court of the United States, resulted in a decision that the law was unconstitutional. He took the position of champion of the administration, which he shortly before defeated, on the Wilson Tariff Bill, and plunged into a debate which kept himself and Senator Gorman apart politically for several years. When the great American political play comes to be written David B. Hill ought to figure in it. Endowed with a legal mind 316 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. that has few equals, and capable of taking a breadth of view that amounts to the highest statesmanship, he has been essentially a politician, and thus has not shown to the best advantage. There is nothing more dramatic in American politics than Mr. Hill's re- election as governor in 1888, when the national ticket went down to defeat through the loss of the electoral vote of New York. There is nothing more striking in any American politician's career than Hill's position at Chicago, when he took the platform to fight free silver and made his famous declaration, "Mr. Chairman, I am a Democrat, but not a revolutionist," and then, when de- feated, left the convention and the political stage, until the voters could pass on the principles which he held to be abhorrent. Nor is there a finer example of self-effacement than that furnished by Mr. Hill in the campaign of 1904, when, having nominated Judge Parker for President, he made more sacrifices than all other Democrats in the State combined, in an effort to obtain that har- mony which might elect him. And there is probably no other instance on record where a State leader, with the machine and the game entirely in his own hands and enjoying robust health and strong mental faculties, vol- untarily dropped the reins. Henry S. Brown. ROBERT R. HITT. THE author of this book and Mr. Hitt came to Washington in the same train. That was in 1882. Mr. Hitt had been elected to fill the vacancy in the Thirteenth Ohio District, occasioned by the death of R. M. A. Hawk. "Marse Henry" Watterson knew Mr. Hitt well, as he had been secretary of legation and charge d'affaires ad interim at Paris and later Assist- ant Secretary of State under Arthur. Mr. Watterson said as I left him in Louisville for Washington: "Now Stealey, I want you to see Hitt. He is the most lovable character you will meet in Washington. He has got brains, good- sense and knows how to treat a gentleman. Just see Hitt and tell him that I say to treat you as he would me." Well, I met Mr. Hitt, and, of course, we were friends from the start and I soon found that the estimate of Mr. Watterson was not exaggerated. I found a gentleman educated, refined and with a thorough knowledge of legislation and the people's interest. As a diplomat he is alert, fore sighted and conservative. He never loses his head, as has often been clearly shown as the head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House. No man in Congress could have managed with more delicacy and judgment the con- ditions which confronted the country before the war with Spain. Mr. Hitt and President McKinley had daily conferences, and it can be said with truth that the former had the utmost confidence in the views of the latter, and depended to a great extent upon his opinions. Mr. Hitt has served continuously in Congress for almost a quarter of a century. Just why he has is a puzzle. He has always deserved a great deal more than has been given to him by his party. 317 WILLIAM S. HOLMAN. INDIANA, too, has furnished her fair quota of statesmen who achieved especial distinction during this period. In the Senate Daniel W. Voorhees succeeded Oliver P. Morton, Indiana's war governor. Mr. Voorhees, after serving continuously in the Senate for twenty years, was in turn succeeded by Charles Warren Fairbanks, now vice-president of the United States, and by virtue of that office president of the Senate. During the in- terim (1877-1897), the Senate contained such distinguished names as Joseph E. McDonald, Gen. Benj. Harrison, Thomas A. Hen- dricks (the latter being president of the Senate by virtue of his office as vice-president) and David Turpie, while among those who were especially active in the House of Representatives at vari- ous times during the same period were Gen. Thomas M. Browne, Gen. George W. Steele, William D. Bynum, and WilUam S. Hol- man. Mr. Holman enjoyed the distinction of having been elected to Congress more times than any other Indianan, and, in fact, served more terms than any other member of either branch of Congress. In all he served fifteen terms, though not continuously. He was first elected in 1858 (Thirty-sixth Congress); was re- elected to each succeeding one excepting the Thirty-ninth, Forty- fifth, Forty-sixth, and Fifty-fourth, and died in the thirty-first year of his congressional life. Next to Mr. Holman in length of service was Representative Kelley of Pennsylvania, well remembered as "Pig Iron Kelley" by reason of his steadfast devotion to the iron and steel manufacturing interests of his Pennsylvania district. He died during his twenty-ninth year of active service, although he had, like Mr. Holman, been elected for another term. Likewise, Representative O'Neil of Pennsylvania, known as the Father of the House, died before he had completed twenty-nine years of ser- vice. He, too, had been elected for another term. But, as above 318 WILLIAM S. HOLMAN. 319 stated, Mr. Holman was a member of Congress in active service longer than any other man, living or dead. Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, served for thirty years in the Senate, but even this period Mr. Holman exceeded by a few weeks. It is related that when Mr. Kelley died. Judge Holman called on Senator Turpie and imparted to him a foreboding of his own early demise. The senator did what he could to quiet the super- stitious dread of his colleague and expressed the hope that Mr. Holman would outlive many of his contemporaries. During his long service, Mr. Holman witnessed some stormy scenes in the House. In conversation with the writer he said, once, that in ante-bellum days members of Congress frequently had weapons concealed in their desks. Southern and Western mem- bers were in those days oftentimes hot-headed individuals, who regarded their revolvers as indispensable, and were sometimes careless in handling them. On one occasion a member in fumbling among his papers accidentally discharged his pistol and the ball went crashing through a desk in front of him, narrowly missing several congressmen. "In an instant," said Mr. Holman, "there were fully thirty or forty pistols in the air, and the scene looked more like a Texas bar-room, than the Congress of the United States." Mr. Holman's personality was unique, if not picturesque. Though not regarded as brilliant or especially talented, he never- theless by close attention to the details of routine legislation and persistent profession of economy in Government expenditures came to be regarded as an authority on fiscal matters, the cham- pion of economy, and finally chairman of the Appropriation Com- mittee in the Fifty-second Congress. He was widely known as the "Watch-dog of the Treasury" and the "Great Objector." All in all he was one of the most striking figures in American public life. He was a faithful committee worker, and by close application mas- tered every detail of legislation. Always punctual in his attendance at the daily sessions of the House, he invariably remained until ad- journment, often to the vexation of members who had some favorite measure to put through and who hoped to avoid Mr. Holman's careful scrutiny and opposition. 320 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Born and bred in a rural community, notions of rigid economy were early acquired that characterized both his public and private life. He was unalterably opposed to extravagance in any form, and especially in the disposition of public funds. His strenuous opposition to wasteful appropriations naturally subjected him to the criticism of fellow members who advocated appropriations of importance to their own constituents. It was continually asserted by those members who had selfish interests to promote, that Mr. Holman's profession of economy was insincere and did not extend within the borders of his own district, while otherwise his pre- tense was as broad as the United States. Many anecdotes are related of his economy and even parsimony. One day he advocated an appropriation for Indianapolis, which he considered to be a meritorious measure, while, some time pre- vious, he had objected to the bill of a fellow member as being ex- travagant and unnecessary. His friendly greeting of the Indian- apolis measure contrasted singularly with his habitual profession of economy and led sarcastic Dockery of Missouri to quote from Byron: " ' 'Tis sweet to hear the honest watch-dog's bark "Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw near home.'" The roar of laughter that greeted this sally effectually killed the appropriation that Mr. Holman sought to pass. In 1885 Mr. Holman was chairman of a sub-committee on Indian affairs authorized by the House to make a trip through the West and inspect the various Indian agencies. He travelled to the Pacific Coast by the Northern route and returned by way of the Southern, through Arizona. His first visit was to the Sioux agen- cies in the Dakotas. Cannon of Illinois, Peele of Arkansas, and others were of the party. Mr. Holman dechned to take a sleeper from Washington to the West, protesting that this would be an extravagance, for he and his wife, he said, had travelled all the way from his home-town of Aurora to California, and back, in an ordinary coach. And Mr. Hohnan actually sat up all night, while his colleagues travelled in a Pullman car. WILLIAM S. HOLMAN. 321 At Standing Rock Indian Agency several of the party went hunting the day after their arrival, but Mr. Holman remained at home, pottering around the pantry, smeUing the butter, and tast- ing the tea to test its quality. They laughed at him for his house- wifely care, but the Indiana economist protested that they had come on this trip to observe how the Indians lived; whether they were treated right, or whether they were abused, and that he for one proposed to fulfil his duty conscientiously. The steamboat fare from Fort Yates on the return trip to Bismarck was $3 a head, but perceiving several mules munch- ing grass on the reservation Mr. Holman said: "These mules are idle, — they are earning nothing. They will convey us in the Government ambulance." Uncle Joe Cannon protested vehe- mently, but in vain. The party rode in the ambulance and, accord- ing to a member, Congressman Cannon slipped the driver a two- dollar bill and admonished him not to avoid a stone in the road, but " give the old man a good shaking up." Before they arrived at Fort Lincoln Mr. Holman, whose limbs were cramped, got out to walk. The stage arrived at the fort and found the officers drawn up in full regimentals. The ladies, too, were there, dressed in their best. "Where's Holman? where's Holman?" they inquired, for the name and fame of the Indianan had preceded him. Finally Mr. Hohnan was perceived hobbling down the road, tired and dusty. His trousers were stuffed in his boots, he wore a blue flannel shirt and " galluses. " His beard was full of dust and, altogether, he was a sorry spectacle. When Mr. Holman's figure was seen approaching it was proposed to fire a salute in his honor. "No, no, for God's sake, don't!" protested the serio-comic Congressman Cannon, "he will object to the useless waste of powder." The military band at this point struck up "Hail to the Chief," and when Mr. Holman marched into camp, alone, limping yet trying to keep pat time to the martial music, it is related that Uncle Joe Cannon, convulsed with merriment, forgot his dignity altogether, slapped his leg and fairly screamed with delight. Having gained much information during this inspection of 21 322 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Indian agencies, Mr. Holmanwas thereafter regarded as an author- ity on such matters, and in the Fifty-third Congress was chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, in which capacity he blocked many selfish schemes suggested in behalf of dishonest Indian agents and land grabbers. His r61e of universal opposition natu- rally made him many enemies, and he was frequently the object of their ridicule; but even these critics, (at times when they were not selfishly concerned) could not but admire his conscientious devo- tion to duty, as he understood it, and the courage with which he persistently opposed measures of a doubtful character. Though he was a member of several Congresses that were notoriously ex- travagant, if not actually corrupt, his enemies could not point to a single act that breathed the suspicion of dishonesty. Senator Turpie, who had known him for forty years, having been a United States senator during the war when Mr. Holman was a member of the lower House, said, a few days before his colleague's death, " He owns the old Indiana homestead, and, perhaps, not much more," and then added, thoughtfully, — "after forty years of public life he retires as well off as when he entered Congress." This was in- deed an eloquent tribute, for, unconsciously, one called to mind many instances wherein members of Congress and Government officials had grown wealthy in the public service. In politics Mr. Holman was a life-long Democrat. At the out- break of the Civil War he supported the measures of President Lincoln for the preservation of the Union and was classed among the war Democrats. He was a great student of the life and writ- ings of Thomas Jefferson and was a close follower of the precepts of the illustrious founder of democracy in his own official acts. Holman's father was a Kentuckian, who had studied in the office of Henry Clay and was himself a distinguished politician. In the Kentucky Legislature he was defeated for the United States Senate by only one vote, and soon thereafter President Andrew Jackson appointed him United States District-Attorney for Ind- iana. Charles Cakroll Carlton. O' FRANK H. KURD. 1841-1896. NE of the most brilliant contributions Ohio ever made to the long record of distinction at Washington was Frank H. Hurd, who dashingly hurried from the cradle to the grave in bare half a century, but still left a splendid national reputation as a political economist and graceful and persuasive orator. A very brief record of his legal and official career may be given here without stilting this article with a wilderness of dates and pro jorma biography. Born in Mt. Vernon; a graduate of Kenyon College; prosecuting attorney of Knox county; senator in the Legislature one term; member of a commission to codify the criminal laws of the State; removed to Toledo, and became a leading lawyer of the Northwestern section, being an active mem- ber of a legal firm which had wide celebrity; was elected in 1874 to the Forty-fourth Congress; defeated by Jacob Dolson Cox for the Forty-fifth; elected to the Forty-sixth under a new apportion- ment; and received the certificate of election for the Forty-seventh, but was displaced on contest in favor of Jacob Romeis. Was a member of the Forty-eighth Congress. The chief factor in his public success was brains. Indeed, that may be said to have been the sole moving power, unless we take into consideration his electric companionship with those who de- light in a thoughtful person who can mix with his learning a fair share of engagement in the beauties and good things of life. Where he might have landed, even in his brief mortality, had he been less honest and independent, and more punctilious in his attention to the wire-pulling of politics, is only a matter now of speculation. Though steadily and sturdily a Democrat on all the cardinal lines, he was free and courageous in the entertainment and expression of -S23 324 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. views just short of the point of iconoclasm. No slave to a cabal he. No product of a caucus. His stiffness of position led him into fierce and interesting contests for Congress, in which he reaped as much glory in defeat as in success. He had elevated tastes in literature, art and all that makes men and women content with a beautiful world. His convictions were radical, but his toleration was gra- cious, and his friendships were of the enduring sort. As a cam- paign speaker he was always in demand, but he was not always in the service. He was not of the kind to submit the manuscript of his remarks to the managers of a convention or to a steering com- mittee. When Frank Hurd went on the stump it was Frank Hurd the people listened to — ^not a mere echo of the platform carpenters. Mr. Hurd is generally alluded to as the typical "free trader." He is always set down as the "simon-pure" article — not a mere apologist under the disguise of "tariff for revenue." This is not an absolutely fair analysis. He was unquestionably for the prin- ciple of free trade, but he recognized the necessity of revenue from duties on imports, and was an advocate of the concentration of the tariff on a few articles, like coffee, tea, and sugar, which in his Judg- ment were in such universal use that they could be taxed high enough to meet the requirements of Government, "economically administered." He knew as well as anybody else that it would be futile to undertake to establish this system, but he was for a prin- ciple, and for the sake of it was always ready to complacently seek the seclusion of his rooms the night of the election, if necessary, and leave the straddler to the comfort of the brass bands and the fireworks. Frank Hurd was not a specialist. It is a mistake to assume that his ideas ran exclusively in the tariff groove. He was a hard- money champion of ready resources, and gallantly resisted at every step every eccentricity of the Democrats of Ohio on the cur- rency question. One of the events of Ohio politics— of such mo- ment that it deserves embahnment in the national records— that ought to be deeper in the political literature of the times than it is, was the warm debate of Frank H. Hurd and Gen. Thomas Ewing at the State convention in Cincinnati in 1875, when Gov- ernor William Allen was boomed for President on what was some- FRANK H. HURD. 325 times contemptuously denounced as a rag-money declaration, or a rag-baby platform. That was an intellectual encounter between two Ohio giants of the sort which leads readers and students to disparage the politicians of the present and look for inspiration to the books and files containing the writings and speeches of those who have gone to their reward. Not all men can be fully compre- hended and appreciated during their lifetime. Contentions and passions have to be carried away with the mortal parts to the cemeteries before situations can be intelligently revolved in the mind. The speeches of Mr. Hurd in Congress, as well as his brilliancy on the State hustings, attest his profound knowledge and treatment of all great questions, especially the tariff and finance. In his personality, Frank Hurd was a most engaging man. Among his chums at the capital were Ben LeFevre and Perry Bel- mont. He lived in polite luxury at Wormley's Hotel, in its palmy days, and always spoke in the most respectful terms of the famed colored proprietor of that establishment. He was generous to the pomt of improvidence, and would spend his last dollar with his friends, leaving the wherewithal for the morrow as a problem in personal economics. His financial safety was in the high order of his talents, which enabled him to make spasmodic gains in the practice of his profession. He might have made a deep impression on a large, intelligent and growing class of people by joining the ranks of the Phihstines; but he was not an agnostic, a revolutionist, a rebel, or a disturber of the orderly course of nature. He was just a man who said things that were the truth, but that other men were afraid to say. He wore his heart upon his sleeve, and the daws who pecked at him generally got the worst of the meeting. He was sincere, candid and earnest in his religious as well as his political convictions. In confirmation of this the writer hereof may be permitted to revive a purely personal conversation. After he disappeared from official life, Mr. Hurd used to drop into Washington occasionally on busi- ness or for the revival and enjoyment of some old associations of which he was fond. He was the last man to hang yearningly about the scenes of old glory. True to his traditions he would stay 326 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. at Wormley's, though it was quieter than of yore, and must have sometimes led to melancholy reflection. He was a convert to Cath- olicism, and was steadfast and ardent in his devotion to his religion. On a Sunday afternoon, soon after the assassination of the Presi- dent of France, I passed up Fifteenth Street and found him sitting alone on a rustic bench in front of Wormley's. I joined him, and he told me about having been to the Carnot memorial services that day at St. Matthew's Church, and how proud he was of the uni- versality of the Catholic Church when he reflected that similar services were being held practically at the same time all over the civilized world. This led to a further conversation in which this proposition was put to him: "You have always been known as a man of inde- pendent views, and as one who on all occasions declined to be 'managed.' You know that in Ohio politics you have not been placed on the stump for years, though your services were needed and wanted, for fear you would overthrow the harmony and the programme that had been agreed upon in secret conclave. You regarded the Democratic establishment, and the men who ran it, as fallible. You would certainly not be obedient to a one-man power in poUtics. May I ask you, in all sincerity, how you, as a Catholic, look upon the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope?" "I subscribe to it," he said, without a moment's hesitation. "It makes of the Catholic Church a united, harmonious, and useful body. Many denominations are constantly torn by conflicting views on doctrinal or practical points, and divisions and dissen- sions have created many denominations which lack strength. Salvation is the essential central element, but that great considera- tion is interfered with by diffusiveness on things which, in the general summing up, are not really important. When there is a division among Catholics, the question goes up to the church au- thorities for decision, possibly to the Pope himself, and there the decision is final. It is accepted, and that is the end of it." The drift of his argument was that in all human affairs there had to be an ultimate tribunal, and he didn't see why there should not be a Supreme Court of the Catholic Church as well as a Supreme Court of the United States. FRANK H. HURD. 327 Memory of Frank Hurd dwells sweetly in the minds of all who knew him, and an unusual and sentimental incident is recalled in connection with a Democratic national convention which was in session at Chicago when the news of his death was received and read from the clerk's desk. A resolution of respect and admiration was adopted. That was in 1896, What would have been Kurd's position had he survived to enter the campaign of that year? Sylvanus E. Johnson. JOHN JAMES INGALLS. JOHN JAMES INGALLS of Kansas was one of the great orators of the Senate during the period when it numbered among its members some preeminent leaders. Its three most conspicuous members at the time were Conkling, Blaine and Ingalls, each a unique and forceful personality, and of these three Ingalls was by no means the least able. Physically and mentally he was the most striking personality in the Senate. His face showed strong individuality; his speech was incisive, his vocabulary marvellously full and varied, and his expressions so pungent as to fascinate all who heard him. No other senator attracted so many hearers or cast such a spell upon them. Ingalls was bom in Massachusetts, and was there admitted to the practice of his profession as a lawyer, but turned his foot- steps toward the new West. One of his eulogists has said that had the boy Ingalls remained in Massachusetts he probably would never have represented that State in either Senate or House. His whole life's work would have assmned different lines, and although he would never have been inconspicuous, it is doubtful if his statue would to-day stand in Statuary Hall. As a New Englander he might have been an author, a poet, or a historian, rather than a man of public affairs. Ingalls went to Kansas in 1858, in its period of storm and stress. He had been taught to love freedom, and he was ready to do battle for it. Though the bloody conflict in Kansas was over, the no less acute struggle for political control was still on. He was made a member of the Wyandotte convention which framed the constitution upon which Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free State. It was fitting that he should afterward represent it in the national Senate for eighteen years, or from the beginning of General Grant's second administration until 328 JOHN JAMES INGALLS. 329 the middle of Benjamin Harrison's. The Populistic uprising in the West carried him out of public life, and the Repubhcan recovery, as in the case of so many other men, left him in the background. But Kansas has made amends for its slight on John J. Ingalls by sending his statue to the National Hall of Fame. It is seldom that a historic figure gets back to this "permanent Senate" in so short a time after he had left the real one. The living Ingalls left the Senate in 1891; the Ingalls of marble came to Statuary Hall, where it will stand through the centuries, in 1905. One- fifth of the senators who joined in the exercises dedicating this statue, had served with its subject in the Senate, a very rare experience in the history of the American "Valhalla." Most of the men there represented in marble and bronze were the greater part of a century in receiving this recognition. It was a pleasure to listen to the living Ingalls; his perfect sentences, beautiful in their rhetorical adornment, will never be forgotten by those who hear him. His fearlessness was equally conspicuous. But it is entirely possible that Ingalls will live longer by some verses which he wrote in the days of his retirement than by anything he did as a United States Senator. These should give him fame as long as the English tongue is spoken. He wrote: Opportunity. Master of human destinies am I! Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait. Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate Deserts and seas remote, and passing by Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late I knock unbidden once at every gate! If sleeping, wake; if feasting, rise before I turn away. It is the hour of fate. And they who follow me reach every state Mortals desire, and conquer every foe Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate. Condemned to failure, penury, and woe. Seek me in vain and uselessly implore. I answer not, and I return no more! Robert L. O'Brien. J. WARREN KEIFER. AFTER an absence of twenty years a sturdy, self-reliant, and, in more than one sense, a notable character has come back to Congress in the person of J. Warren Keifer. The State of Ohio, famed beyond most States for her contributions to the nation's Valhalla, has furnished but one Speaker to the House of Representatives, and Keifer is that one; Presidents have been four times as plentiful. Keifer entered Congress at the age of forty-one years; he re-enters it in his seventieth year. His life has been cast on se- rious lines. There is little if anything of sentimentality in his composition, and yet there is an atmosphere of political romance about him. His reappearance in the halls of Congress revives stirring historical memories. He became a member of the House in 1877, when the effects of the convulsion over the Hayes-Tilden contest had not yet passed away. Garfield was a member of the body and one of the floor leaders, for the Democrats were in control. McKinley was there, and Tom Reed, both on the threshold of their careers. Blaine and Conkling were in the midst of their feud in the Senate. Sherman, Thurman, Bayard, Beck, Voorhees, and other famous men were there looking on or taking sides. Keifer has witnessed the passing away of all of these notabilities — some in tragic cir- cumstances. In those days history was made rapidly, and he required no urging to take a hand in shaping it. At the very beginning he displayed traits of character which marked for him distinction four years later when, the Republicans having gained control of the House, he was chosen Speaker. His leading oppon- ents were Tom Reed of Maine, who afterward attained the honor; Hiscock of New York, subsequently a senator; and Burrows of Michigan, who is now entering upon his third term as a mem- ber of the Senate. 330 J. WARREN KEIFER. 331 It fell to Speaker Keifer's lot to enforce new rules governing the proceedings of the House. These rules were as obnoxious to the Democrats as the famous Reed rules, so called, were to the minority a decade later, although they were less stringent in some respects. The Democrats assailed them with savage fury, but the grim veteran who had withstood a more dangerous fire on the battle-field courageously defended his rulings. The story has been told, and never controverted, that a cabal was conceived to throw him bodily out of the Speaker's chair and defy him to return to preside over the deliberations of the body. The conspirators included some of the most conspicuous Democrats on the floor, and more than one still holds a seat in the national legislature. An intimation of the plot reached Keifer the night before it was to be executed. The next morning, undaunted, he made his appearance at the capitol, and at twelve o'clock mounted the dais and calmly called the House to order. He was prepared for emergencies, according to the tale as it has come down to the present generation, for in one of his pockets was a revolver The proceedings of that day were not marred by the proposed evictment of the Speaker, however. The clique that planned it either had taken wiser counsel during the night or had learned that Keifer was ready to resist in a most effective way. This bit of unwritten history throws a strong light upon one phase of General Keifer's character. General Keifer has come back to Congress with a mission — a hobby, one might say. His aim is to secure the enactment of legislation which will reduce the representaion of Southern States to the basis of their actual voting population. In other words, he will urge the law-making body to take formal cognizance of the disfranchisement of negroes. Some northern Republicans are content to let this problem solve itself in the natural course of evolution, but Keifer is the kind of man that believes in meeting such issues as they arise. He brought forward this question during his campaign of 1904 and promised his constituency in Springfield and the vicinity that he would agitate it when he took his seat. This is not the age of the soothsayer, the astrologer, or the inspired prophet, but it is a safe prediction that Keifer will stir 332 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. up the House with his hobby. He possesses a quality, likewise a quantity, of perseverance — some friends would call it sheer obstinacy— which makes it certain he will not be swerved from his purpose. The former Speaker's persistence is inherent; it is in the blood, and he could not eradicate it if he tried. The stock in him is a mixture of German, English and Dutch, and does anybody know of a combination which more immistakably denotes pertinacity, determination, and even pugnacity? Quite naturally he is much more independent than the average party man, and it was the display of this characteristic which drew attention to him in the early eighties and led to the Speakership. A minor, though amusing, evidence of it is to be found in his raiment. Long ago he took a decided fancy to the swallowtail coat and low-cut vest, and he had his tailor fashion garments on the same general pattern which he could wear during the day. The expostulation of intimates made him all the more determined to have his way. The cut of the coat differs a little from the regulation evening dress, but one cannot fail to recognize the close relationship, for the general still caters to the style of his own creation. General Keifer's career now has covered nearly half a cen- tury. On both sides his ancestors were long-lived, and he himself is vigorous in body and intellect to-day. His biographers will write him down as a lawyer, soldier, and statesman, but during his busy life he has also written several books, one entitled ' Slavery and Four Years' War," published in 1900, by Putnams, of New York. He was exceptionally well qualified to write about the mighty civil conflict, for he served through it from beginning to end. When peace was concluded he was a brevet major- general, having passed through all the lower grades of the army. He was a soldier of the fighting kind, and was wounded in battle four times, once severely. When the Spanish war broke out in 1898, President McKinley appointed him a major-general of volunteers, and he was the only person in civil life from a northern State or who had served in the Union army, but never in the regular army, upon whom that distinction was bestowed. He commanded the United States J. WARREN KEIFER. 333 forces that took possession of Havana, January i, 1899, on the evacuation of that city by the Spanish, and this the general regards as one of the most notable incidents in his crowded and eventful career. Mr. Keifer does not think much of the inspiration of genius; he believes many people, who from actual experience do not know what labor it always costs to attain to the great things in life, mistake energy, industry, and accompUshment for genius. He has a reputation as a public speaker, but is distinguished rather for vehemence, directness of statement, and the faculty of arraying facts and historical reference, than for the display of flowery eloquence. Feed Starek. WILLIAM P. KELLOGG. DURING the short time that I was a Washington cor- respondent there was no more picturesque figure in the Senate than William Pitt Kellogg. Occupants of the visitors' gallery asked to have him pointed out, not because he was a great senator or because he was the originator of legislation that affected vast interests, but simply because he was the most successful of all of the carpetbag politicians. He went to Louis- iana as an ofi&ce-holder at the beginning of the reconstruction period, and he continued to hold office until the close of his second term in the Senate. He appeared to be a much older man than he was, being white-haired and partly bald when he was but little more than forty years of age. It was during his second term that I knew him. He was then about fifty-two years old, though he appeared to be a man of sixty-five. There were, however, no mental or physical evidences of approaching senility. He was as alert in his movements and as quick in grasping the salient points of an argument as the youngest man in the Senate. It didn't seem to me that he was profoundly interested in the questions that came before the Senate. In fact, he didn't appear to feel that he was required to be in his seat every day or the greater part of any day, but he was certain to be on hand when- ever a party question was to be voted on or when there was a session with closed doors. One of his chief characteristics was his amiability. He was never out of humor apparently, and cor- respondents had no hesitation in approaching him for pointers that would guide them in framing their dispatches. He was care- ful, however, not to make broad statements, and he avoided inter- views. To a correspondent whom he knew he could trust he would suggest just enough to put him on the right track, but not enough 334 WILLIAM P. KELLOGG. 335 to permit the disclosure of a secret to be traced to him in the event of an investigation. I assume that his amiability was natural, and his caution was due to his experiences as a politician. He had very few real friends among the constituency he represented. There was a bitter feeling against him in New Orleans, and, in fact, throughout Louisiana. His actions and expressions on pubUc questions were used against him whenever they could be, and the task of maintaining a reputation for truthfulness and clean living in a bitterly hostile community was a difficult one. He would have been a different sort of a man, at least he would have been esteemed more highly, if he had been in sym- pathy with the representative people of New Orleans and Louisi- ana. Knowing that the class that makes public opinion was against him, it is probable that he didn't care whether he had the respect of it or not. And it is a safe conclusion that he didn't respeq,t the element of the people that put and kept him in office. The Republican party in Louisiana was made up almost wholly of negroes. The only use Senator Kellogg had for them was to advance his political fortunes, and the only use they had for him was to get all the the offices they could through his influence. On one occasion, without being announced, I went into the room occupied by the governor when Mr. Packard was supposed to fill the gubernatorial office. There must have been at least twenty negroes in the room, backed up against the walls. Mr. Packard occupied the chair behind his desk. Evi- dentally there had been a hot discussion which my entrance had interrupted. Realizing that I was an intruder I at once withdrew. A day or two afterward I met Mr. Packard, and he asked me if I understood the meaning of the presence of so many negroes in his office. I told him I didn't. He said they were Repub- lican senators, and that they w'ere in his office to tell him they intended to go over to the Nichols Legislature unless he agreed to turn all of the patronage of their respective counties over to them. That meant the putting of all the funds of the parishes into their hands, as the tax collectors, assessors, sheriffs, and, in fact, all the county officers, were appointed by the governor. At the time there was a contest for the office of governor, the 336 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Democrats claiming that General Nichols had been elected and the returning board having returned Mr. Packard for the guber- natorial office. This little incident is mentioned to illustrate the kind of material Senator Kellogg had to deal with in climbing from the-coUectorship of the port to the United States Senate. I do not recall that Senator Kellogg ever gave me any piece of news that enabled me to get a "beat" on other correspondents. I have no doubt he would have done so if he had been possessed of such news, and I had been fortunate enough to know it and to ask him for it, but I don't think he would have gone out of his way to give it to me. Whether or not he would have done so had I been connected with a paper friendly to him I am unable to say, but the opinion I have is that while he was willing to do correspondents favors tliat cost him no effort, he wasn't disposed to make sacrifices to do them. E. N. H.\ncock. Since his retirement from public life, ex-Senator Kellogg has resided in Washington and has been one of its best and most enterprising citizens. He has made money and friends and enjoys the respect and confidence of the community. The Author. JOHN E. KENNA. JOHN EDWARD KENNA, United States senator from West Virginia from 1883 to 1893, graduated as a legislator in the lower House of Congress when great questions were under consideration and great men debated them. He took his seat in the Forty-fifth Congress in 1877, just before the tidal wave which sent a Democratic majority to the House of Representatives for the first time since the war. Among his colleagues were James G. Blaine and William P. Frye of Maine, Joseph C. Blackburn of Kentucky, JuUus C. Burrows of Michigan, all of whom were subsequently elected to the Senate; James R. Garfield of Ohio, who on his way from the House to the Senate was elected to the Presidency and martyrdom; Samuel J. Ran- dall, thereafter to be Speaker, and the versatile and brilliant Samuel S. Cox of New York. Naturally aggressive poUtically, Mr. Kenna became a leader in debate and a parHamentarian of marked ability. His transfer to the Senate just after he had been elected to a fourth term in the House of Representatives was regarded by his friends as a well-earned reward, and was a distinct advantage to his State. Senator Kenna worked his way up from the farm. Born a Virginian, before his native County Kanawha was incorporated in the war-created State of West Virginia, he followed the fortunes of his State and served with gallantry in the Confederate army till surrendered at Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1865. He was then barely eighteen years of age, but had a veteran's record for wounds received in action. He turned to the study of law, and at the end of seven years was elected prosecuting-attorney of his native county, and five years later was chosen by the bar to fill a newly created position as circuit judge. From the bench he went to Congress and served continuously in the national halls of 22 337 338 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. legislation till his lamented death, in Washington City, January II, 1893. In the Senate Mr. Kenna became the close friend and ally of that sturdy Scotchman, James B. Beck of Kentucky, whom he closely resembled in many of his characteristics. While strictly partisan and aggressive in politics he was broad in his views, a firm friend, and congenial companion and conservative to a degree in statesmanship. He served on the committee of commerce with Frye of Maine, Cullom of Illinois, Quay of Pennsylvania, Vest of Missouri, Gorman of Maryland, and other distinguished men; and on the committee on Foreign Relations with Sherman of Ohio, Davis of Minnesota, Morgan of Alabama, and Gray of Delaware, and by all was held in high esteem. He left to West Virginia lasting monuments to his memory in the magnificent system of locks inaugurated largely through his efforts in the Great Kanawha, Big Sandy, Monongahela, and other streams through which the vast mineral wealth of that State was opened up. For recreation he made frequent hunting trips, usually within the borders of his own State. It was no unusual thing to see him in truly Democratic fashion after his return from one of these excursions, in the dooryard of his Washington home, on B Street Northeast, adjoining the Capitol grounds, with sleeves rolled back, quartering a hugh bear or finely antlered buck, the victim of his prowess. He had not reached the zenith of his career in the Senate when death claimed him. He left in Washington City, as well as in West Virginia, many who sincerely mourned him as a man, and regretted that his career as a statesman should have been terminated before full maturity. P. V. De Graw. C. B. KILGORE. IT is not necessary for a man to be an orator or to be brilliant, as that term is generally used, to attract attention in the House of Representatives. Nor is it the orator who draws the most water in shaping legislation. Representative Constan- tine Buckley Kilgore, of Will's Point, Texas, was not an orator nor was he a brilliant statesman, but he was endowed with a bountiful supply of good common sense, which he knew how to use to advantage. He was not a thorough parliamentarian, but he understood the cardinal rules of parliamentary law and could invoke them with effect whenever a measure to which he was opposed came before the House. And from the day he entered the House as the Representative from the Third Congressional District of Texas until the close of the Fifty-third Congress, to become one of the Federal judges in the Indian Territory, by grace of President Cleveland's appointment; he was a potent factor and played a prominent part in the legislation of that period. Col. "Buck" Kilgore, as his friends called him, was a lov- able character. He was as big in heart as he was in stature, being six feet tall and built in proportion. His hair was white and worn pompadour. His mustache and chin whiskers were in perfect harmony with his hair. His features were clear-cut, and with a full rounded voice, which could be distinctly heard in the four corners of the House, he was easily the most con- spicuous member in the Fiftieth Congress. When Kilgore entered Congress, the late W. S. Holman of Indiana was pointed out to him as the "great objector" and the "watch-dog of the Treasury." " I have heard of him," said Buck. That was all the comment he made. It was not many weeks after when, one morning, Holman asked unanimous consent for the consideration of a bill. 339 340 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. To the surprise of many, Kilgore arose and said: "Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, I desire to ask the gentleman a question." Holman turned to see who it was that had the temer- ity to "butt in," so to speak. He looked at Kilgore, but did not " feaze " the colonel, for the colonel had secured recognition. After the exchange of several questions and answers, Kilgore said: "I have no objection, Mr. Speaker. I think the bill ought to pass." And it did pass. From that day, Kilgore never over- looked an opportunity to get the floor when unanimous consents were in order. He seldom cut anybody off with "I object, Mr. Speaker." It was only after both sides of the House had had an even divide that he would say: "Mr. Speaker, I think we've had enough unanimous consents this morning, and I call for the regular order." And then sometimes half a dozen members would crowd around him and urge him to withdraw the demand for the regular order for a few minutes. Occasionally he would yield to the solicitation of the members, saying: "I withdraw the demand for the present, Mr. Speaker." It was by these tactics that he practically won away from Holman the title of "objector" and "watch-dog" of the Treasury. It was in the stormy first session of the Fifty-first Congress, when Speaker Reed overturned the precedent of a hundred years and established the rule of counting a quorum, that Kilgore attracted the country's attention by kicking open the door leading into the Speaker's lobby. Reed had given an order to lock all the doors and keep them locked until a quorum could be obtained to do business. Nearly all the Democrats had made their exit before the order went into effect. Kilgore was about the last to leave the House, and as he approached the door to the right of the Speaker, leading into the lobby, one of the messengers said: "Colonel, you can't go out. The door is locked." "Well, let's see about it," said Kilgore, and with a sudden push from his right foot the door swung violently open, catching Representative Dingley of Maine on the nose with sufficient force to make an abrasion of the skin. Kilgore apologized as he strode down the lobby, saying, "It will take more than any door to keep me a prisoner in the House." C. B. KILGORE. 341 Friday night sessions always found Kilgore on hand ready to demand a division on the motion to go into Committee of the Whole to consider bills on the private calendar. The Friday night session was always known as "pension night." Seldom was a quorum present on these occasions, and Kilgore would call for a quorum. Usually an hour or more would be consumed waiting for the appearance of a quorum. On these Friday nights it frequently happened that Reed would say to Kilgore: "Kilgore, are you going to let us do any business to-night?" And Kilgore would say: "Well, if you fellows will not rush things too much, we can do some business." On one occasion. Reed sprung a surprise. Kilgore had agreed not to make the point of no quorum, and as the motion to go into committee of the whole was carried, Mr. Reed an- nouncing the result, said : "And the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Kilgore, will please take the chair." As Kilgore arose from his seat and walked down the aisle, the members and the small crowd in the galleries — ^the crowds in the galleries on the Friday night sessions were always slim — gave him the glad hand, which was renewed as Speaker Reed handed him the gavel. Colonel Kilgore made a good chairman of the Committee of the Whole. He insisted on the clerk, however, reading the reports, thus keeping down to some extent the number of pension bills passed that night. It was the first and only time in that Congress that a Democrat was called on at a Friday night session to preside over the Committee of the Whole. Speaker Reed had great respect and admiration for Kilgore and spoke of him as a man who had the courage to do what he believed to be right, whether or not it was popular. It was as chairman of the committee on enrolled bills that Kilgore and President Cleveland became fast friends. Kilgore was really the only member of the Texas delegation, and was one of the few members of the South, who believed in Mr. Cleveland and his policies. And it was Kilgore's support of President Cleveland that caused the defeat of Kilgore for renomination. 342 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. But Mr. Cleveland showed his appreciation of the stand taken by Kilgore in standing between him and doubtful private pension bills which were killed by the Texan's objections, by appointing him one of the judges in the Indian Territory. Despite Kilgore's antagonism to the private pension bills, he was well thought of by the Republican members of the House, and among the newspaper correspondents of the House he was especially popular. I think it was in the Fiftieth Congress that the newspaper correspondents organized the P. F. O. N. party, the letters meaning "pay for our niggers," and Kilgore was unanimously chosen as the party's standard bearer for president. The boys selected as his running mate. Representative Dick Gunther, a Republican from Wisconsin. The platform of the party had one plank, which it is needless to say was heartily endorsed by the candidates. The plank was "A public office is a private snap." During the congressional career of Kilgore and Gunther, the members of the P. F. O. N. party during the sessions of Congress held semi-monthly meetings, at which the candidates were present generally, and questions of great moment and public policy were discussed and settled under rules that made the Reed rules look like the hole in a doughnut. With the retirement of Kilgore and Gunther, the P. F. O. N. party prac- tically went out of existence. Cliffoed Rose. LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR. HON. LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR of Mississippi, student, soldier, member of Congress, cabinet minister, and justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was one of the higher types of the great Southern leaders in his day. It was not in executive ability that Mr. Lamar distinguished himself, nor in a capacity for desk work. Indeed, he exhibited in the Interior Department but little of those qualities; yet he was in my opinion the most scholarly, eloquent, courageous, and imaginative Democratic statesman of the trying reconstruction period. His greatest effort was the eulogy of Charles Sumner, on April 28, 1874, in the House of Representatives. So affection- ately graceful, so touchingly earnest and so skilful was Mr. Lamar's tribute to the dead abolitionist, that it won instantly for the chivalrous ex-Confederate national respect and fame. From that moment Lamar had the love and confidence of his countrymen, although there were a few criticisms in Southern papers on the idea that he had surrendered Southern principles and honor in attempting to break down sectional barriers. Mr. Blaine in his work "Twenty Years of Congress" said this of the Sumner eulogy: "A singular interest was added to the formal eulogies of Mr. Sumner by Mr. Lamar of Mississippi, who had just returned to the House of Representatives which he left thirteen years before to join his State in secession. It was a mark of positive genius in a Southern representative to pronounce a fervid and discrim- inating eulogy upon Mr. Sumner, and skilfully to interweave with it a defence of that which Mr. Sumner, like John Wesley, beUeved to be the sum of all villainies." Only a man of Mr. Lamar's peculiar mental type could have accomplished the task. He pleased the radical anti-slavery 343 344 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. sentiment of New England. He did not displease the radical pro-slavely sentiment of the South. Another display of Mr. Lamar's courage and far-seeing statesmanship was in the United States Senate on January 24, 1878, when he supported the gold standard in disregard of the instructions of the Mississippi Legis- lature to vote for silver. Lamar was regarded as a dreamer by men who did not know him well, yet the keen Matt Carpenter said of him: "He never touches a subject that he does not exhaust." Senator Hoar was ill when the death of Mr. Lamar was announced in January, 1893, and thus was deprived of the opportunity to express his sense of the great public loss. But he wrote Mrs. Lamar a touch- ing letter in which he told of the relations, covering four years in the House and eight years in the Senate, where "we differed widely on very grave questions, but" continued the Senator "the more I knew him the more satisfied I became of the sincerity of his patriotism, of his profound and far-sighted wisdom, of the deep foundation of tenderness in his affectionate and simple heart, and of his brave and chivalrous quality of soul." "Some of his judgments on the Supreme Bench," Mr. Hoar added, "are characterized by marvellous beauty and felicity of style. He maintained his place on that great tribunal to the satisfaction of his friends and the admiration of his countrjrmen in spite of failing health." Lamar's speeches in the varied stages of his interesting career are a contribution to the literature of America. He was an ideal Southern representative whose talents shone conspicuously at the right time. Of good Huguenot lineage and inheriting talent from his lawyer father he more closely resembled an uncle, Mirabeau Lamar. This uncle was distinguished as a writer, artist, soldier, lawyer, statesman, and diplomatist. He estab- lished the Columbus Inquirer in 1828 and afterward published a book of "Verse Memorials." As a boy at college, young Lamar was rather backward in his studies. In mathematics he could make no headway, but he was a natural debater. In 1847, when Lamar was but twenty- two years of age and had been admitted to the bar, he married LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR. 345 the daughter of Rev. Augustus B. Longstreet, then President of Emory College. He became in every sense part of the Long- street family. In 1859 Mr. Lamar wrote to his father-in-law thus: "I am indebted to you for ennobling influences from my boyhood up to middle age. Many a time in moments of tempta- tion, the desire of your love and approbation has saved me, when my virtue might have failed." This gives us a glimpse of Mr. Lamar's private life, and reveals his noble resolves. One of the most remarkable tributes to the deceased justice was that of the colored ex-senator, Blanche K. Bruce, who was the col- league of Justice Lamar while in the Senate. Mr. Bruce told of his personal admiration and friendship for the deceased jurist, saying that he was "a large souled, kind-hearted, generous man, as simple in manners as a child and heartily beloved by all who knew him." Bruce tells of charities that Mr. Lamar privately distributed out of his own pocket to worthy colored people re- moved from the departments to make places for those with more influence. The Southern or Democratic admirers of Lamar are justly earnest in their praise of his beautiful character. Bishop Gallo- way of the Methodist Episcopal Church, speaking of Mr. Lamar, said it was the dying boast of Pericles that he had never made an Athenian weep, and surely no Mississippian ever had occasion to blush for an ignoble word or deed of Lucius Q. C. Lamar. He went from Georgia to Mississippi in the morning of his bril- liant young manhood, and generously gave to his adopted Com- monwealth all the ardor of his love, the fruit of his tireless toil, and the powers of his almost peerless genius. So conspicuous were his pubhc services, so ardent his devotion to the people who loved and honored him, and so world-wide the fame of his achievements as her representative, that his name was linked in undying wedlock to the proud name of the State that welcomed and crowned him. He followed her fortunes in peace and war, in victory and defeat; and when the night was darkest, he pro- claimed with loudest voice his patriotic love for her stainless honor and his unshaken faith in her glorious destiny. As pro- 346 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. fessor in the State University, representative in Congress, minister to Russia, member of the United States Senate, cabinet officer, and a justice of the Supreme Bench of the nation, he was every- where conspicuous and always distinguished. "His name," Dr. Galloway says, further was the synonym for pure and lofty eloquence. Not for a generation or more has there been a man among us who could, like him, sway and compose vast audiences at will, and by the authority of his imperial elo- quence compel the people to ardently adopt his principles and enthusiastically follow his policy. At times he had the classic diction of Edward Everett, and again he could rival the peerless periods of Edmund Burke. He could on occasions pursue an argument with the analytical precision and remorseless logic of John C. Calhoun; and then, if need be, kindle enthusiasm as with the magic word of Henry Clay. With equal skill he could wield the light sword of Saladin and the ponderous battle-axe of Richard. For majestic utterence and forensic eloquence he had no peer in all our borders. "His was a philosophic ease of mind. He dwelt in the higher realms of thought. This gave him loneliness and sometimes moodiness of genius. He studied and mastered great principles. Beneath surface facts he saw their philosophy and discovered their unerring tendency. This made him a statesman of vast pre- science, and a wise political leader." Robert J. Wynne. CHARLES E. LITTLEFIELD. THE little and barren State of Maine has played a part in the nation's affairs out of all proportion to her size and population, and the time has been when her hand- ful of representatives made such great States as New York and Pennsylvania kick the beam. The cause whereof is simple — in Maine a seat in Congress is not a political reward to be handed by a boss to a henchman. Maine sends the men she thinks her ablest, and keeps them in Washington for life. Death made heavy inroads on the State's influence a few years ago, and her delegation is now not so strong, though still influential. But one of that delegation is a man who ranks worthily with the Maine men of the past — so much so that it is no imcommon thing to hear apphed to him the honorable title which only two of his State's representatives have won, the "Man from Maine." Littlefield came to Congress in 1899, an unknown man. For a stranger in the House to get a hearing on his first speech is one of the modem tasks of Hercules; for him to make any sort of a hit is a rarity of the hen's-teeth order. The busy and cynical House, sceptical of oratory, cares little to hear the bids for fame of budding statesmen. These facts may supply Littlefield's measure when it is stated that his first speech made him one of the leading men of Congress and ranked without question as the great speech of the session. It was on the case of the Mormon Roberts, and it was in opposition to the policy of his party — an earnest of Littlefield's future course. For he has opposed his party quite as often as he has supported it, and yet without earning the contemptuous regard in which party kickers are generally held. That fact, too, testifies to his stature. 347 348 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. For a new-comer in Congress to begin his career by antagon- izing his party is the shortest possible route to political suicide, and only a full-sized man could "get away with it." Littlefield did it without impairing in the least the esteem in which his ability is held. He followed his revolt on the Roberts case by defying President McKinley's Porto Rican tariff programme, and on that issue, too, he delivered a speech which commanded universal attention and respect. And this despite the fact that Litdefield is a pugnacious man, one likely to arouse by his manner the combativeness of all who hear and disagree. The very gestures of the man are pugnacious. He beats the air with his head, driving it down before him as if it were a club, and when he uses his hand for gesticulative purposes it is generally by a violent stab of the forefinger. He is not a spread-eagle orator, but a lawyer of strong mind and wide learning, and neither pugnacity, party independence, nor anything else can deprive him of the respect, sometimes the unwilling respect, which ability wins. In 1902 he was chosen to draft the Administration's Anti-trust Bill. Subsequently he and the President fell out about the proper legislation, and the result was the temporary effacement of Littlefield as a leader. He remained under a cloud for about a year, and then blossomed out again. His re-appearance was in the r61e of party spokesman in the closing days of the session of 1904, when he was put forward to defend the tariff from the assaults of Bourke Cockran, John Sharp Williams, and other leaders. But such is the ingrained habit of independence of the man that even in his r61e as party spokesman he would not stick to the party patter laid out for him, and defended the tariff in his own way, to the vast disgruntlement of the House machine. He is a strong figure, and, in his combination of pugnacity and independence, almost alone on the Republican side. There are independents Uke McCall on that side, men of great ability, but an independent so pugnacious and so fond of battle is not to be found away from Littlefield's mirror. Chaeies Willis Thompson. HENRY CABOT LODGE. HENRY CABOT LODGE, senator from Massachsuetts, is a many-sided and a very successful man. As student, scholar, instructor, lawyer, statesman, politician, and aristocrat he has left his mark. His getting on in Hfe is all the more creditable to him because he has labored under the handicap of not having been a rail-splitter, canal boy, tanner, or merry ploughman. Of course, Mr. Lodge can never be elected President, because he was not born poor. On the contrary, when he first saw the light of day, the traditional silver spoon, which same, if the Irish bull will be forgiven, was a gold one, was protruding from his rosy mouth, and the blue blood of a long line of dis- tinguished ancestors was flowing in his newly filled veins. Handi- capped both by wealth and pedigree, Mr. Lodge has neverthe- less succeeded, and much in the same way as his chum, Theodore Roosevelt, has succeeded — ^by hard work. Senator Lodge was a child of Beacon Street, and he is a man of Beacon Street and Massachusetts Avenue. From his cradle he has been the curled darling of fortune, and yet there is not in public life to-day a man who has done more hard, consistent study and methodical work than he. System is his watchword, and strict devotion to it has enabled him to accompHsh a great deal in the busy world of politics and statesmanship without seeming to deprive himself of that amount of play-time which in these later days seems necessary to the existence of all successful business men and statesmen. The Massachusetts senator goes to Europe every year or two and in the summer he lives- on his simple but beautiful estate at Nahant, the place that he loves best on earth. He is a great walker, a horseback rider, a tennis player, and a health seeker through nearly all forms of genteel out-door and in-door exercise. 349 350 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Beacon Street sees very little of Mr. Lodge in these later years, although nominally his home is still there. He goes now from Nahant to Washington in the fall and reverses the trip at the end of the Congress sessions. Washington can, therefore, be said to be his winter home and Nahant his summer home, the intervals between settling down in one or the other place being filled in by jaunts to Europe and elsewhere. There is an impression in the public mind that " Cabot " Lodge, as he is called in Boston, was a classmate at college of Theodore Roosevelt, but this is not the fact. The senator is nearly eight years older than the President, and when the latter was boning away at Cambridge, Lodge was a professor there. Since those days, however, these two men have been warm personal friends, intimate in their daily life, in their professional duties, and their public work — comrades indeed. There seems to be a popular belief that Lodge sneezes when Roosevelt takes snufiF, and vice versa, but it is not so bad as that. They admire, respect, and love each other, but they often differ, as they did last spring when the senator was spokesman of the Senate Republicans in their declaration that the Senate is a coordinate branch of the treaty-making power, and he voted along with the rest to save the dignity of the august body by sending back, mutilated beyond repair, the President's treaty with Santo Domingo. There have been other occasions when these two friends have been just as far apart, and yet their friend- ship grows all the stronger. Mr. Lodge was fifty-five years of age in May, 1905. He graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1875, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1876. He never practised much; he didn't have to, and yet early in his professional career he received the degree of Ph.D. for his thesis on the "Land Law of Anglo- Saxons." It is as an historian and an orator that Mr. Lodge is best known, aside from the 6clat of his position as a public man. He has pubHshed lives of Washington, Hamilton, Webster, and others, collaborated with Roosevelt in producing "Hero Tales from American History," and has in addition done a vast amount of writing for the magazines and new&papers. He is a rapid HENRY CABOT LODGE. 351 writer, systematic in this as in everything else, and after outlining his work in a general way can, with the aid of a stenographer, knock it out at very rapid rate. One piece of work done, he signs it and turns to the next, driving the first completely from his mind. Mr. Lodge is one of the literary men in public life who has profited substantially in a pecuniary way from the modern custom of publishers of paying this class of writers liberally for their work, instead of asking it of them as a matter of right. It is in comparatively recent years only that Presidents, senators, cabinet members, and executive officials of all sorts have been sought for as writers for an honorarium, but so firmly is the custom established now that a check is expected to follow a contribution as a matter of course. Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas B. Reed, and Henry Cabot Lodge profited as largely from this commendable reform as any other public men, and to-day Sena- tor Beveridge, one of the baby Senators, is enjoying such popu- larity as a literary man that his pocketbook increases materially in size on each day of publication. Mr. Lodge is a tall, spare, handsome man with the close cropped, curly brown beard, small features and general high-bred air so suggestive of the "Hub." He dresses in the height of fash- ion, but in exceedingly good taste, and without any attempt to be foppish or dandified. He is one of that class of men, few in number, who can wear a new suit of clothes as if it were an old one and can be perfectly well and stylishly dressed without having any attention whatever attracted to his apparel. He is a nervous man and impatient, and when sitting engaged in con- versation has the not uncommon habit of crossing his knees and swinging one foot constantly up and down. Mr. Lodge is a member of the Massachusetts and Virginia Historical Societies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the New England Historical and Genealogical Society of American Antiquarians, to the archives of which he has added valuable contributions. He also enjoys an L.L.D. from Williams College and Clark and Yale Universities. He has never actively prac- tised his chosen profession of the law, and yet when President Roosevelt was called upon two years ago to select the members 352 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. of the Alaska tribunal from among "jurists of good repute," to quote the reading of the law, he did not have to give too great a wrench to his conscience to select Senator Lodge as the col- league of Elihu Root and George Turner. Mr. Lodge and the various members of his family are intimate with the White House family circle, and the President often walks alone to the Senator's residence on Massachusetts Avenue and dines en jamille and spends the evening there. Senator Lodge's Washington home is a charming and spacious one, and his library one of the finest in the Capital. It is filled with the rarest books, most meritorious engravings and etchings, and with gen- uine works of art, bric-a-brac and curios from all corners of the world. The White House set rendezvous in this pleasant library oftener than the public knows anything about, and much political history is originated and consummated there. The Senator's wife is a most superior woman, intellectually and otherwise, and a nod from her is sufficient introduction to the most exclusive society. They have three children: Mrs. "Gus" Gardner, wife of the Massachusetts Congressman, who lives in the winter at Aiken, owing to the delicate state of her health; George Cabot Lodge, a young married man, an Egyptologist, a poet and student, who acts as his father's private secretary, and John, the youngest son, just out of his teens. Senator Lodge is a fine equestrian. At Harvard he had a record as a jumper and in Washington he is the President's most constant companion in his long walks and longer horseback rides across the hills. As a public man Mr. Lodge has of recent years been most conspicuous as the active Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, and as the partly inspired spokesman of the Admin- istration. In the House of Representatives he was best known as author of the Force Bill, which met its fate in the Senate, and as Congressional manager of the equally unfortunate boom of Thomas B. Reed for the Presidency. Consular reform, regulation of immigration, and extension of the Civil Service are also ques- tions to which Mr. Lodge has given much time and attention, and which he has ably discussed in both House and Senate. HENRY CABOT LODGE. 353 Mr. Lodge served two terms in the Massachusetts Legislature before going to Congress in 1887. He took his seat in the Senate as the successor of Henry L. Dawes in 1873, ^^'^ ^^ present term will expire in 191 1. David S. Bakry. 23 GEORGE B. McCLELLAN. THERE are few young men in the country who stand better with the people than George B. McClellan, Mayor of Greater New York. He is possessed of per- sonal integrity of the highest order, and his ofl&cial record is with- out a blemish. In addition to this, he has the advantage of a splendid education, speaking fluently four or five languages. His family name and prestige is also high, his father having been the Democratic candidate for President in 1864. A year later, while his parents were visiting Dresden, Saxony, McClellan was born. He is forty years old. Mayor McClellan is an attractive young man with a great deal of character. He is peculiarly fortunate in his ability to get along with all factions and to preserve his own personality in any association in which he may be thrown. Some of his friends greatly deplore his association with Boss Croker in his early political career, and it was insisted that he could win preferment through Tammany and remain clean. Yet as Tammany's favorite ofl&cial his administration is praised by a class of men who most condemn Tammany politics as impure. In Congress, McClellan got along well with everybody. Hold- ing his own opinions and expressing them with frankness, he never took himself so seriously as to think he had a mission to convert everyone else to his way of thinking or that everyone who did not agree with him was wilfully wrong. He was a good, earnest fighter for what he wanted to accomplish, but did not show that form of aggressiveness which is always hunting a con- troversy. He did not seem to regard it as necessary to pick and choose his company in politics in order to preserve his own character or political standing, and he was well regarded by those with whom he did not agree. He never made an attempt to 354 GEORGE B. McCLELLAN. 355 appear brilliant, but showed practical common-sense on all occasions. When his party was all split up over the question of reaffirm- ing the '96 platform after the issues presented in it were passed and gone, he presented in caucus the best argument that had been advanced against reaflSrmation without raising the question of "repudiation," of which the silver men were afraid. He argued that a platform was not a declaration of principle, but was merely a declaration of issues which should accord with the foundation principles of the party that must always be the same, however the issues might change from time to time. He denied that the party adopted a new set of principles every four years or that it was necessary to reiterate an issue which had passed in order to preserve a principle. He lifted the discussion above the plane of acrimony, and while his argument accomplished nothing at the time, it afterward raised him in the estimation of many who would not then heed him. McCleUan is always amiable, without being weak, and has a sense of humor which is apt to bring out all the amiability there is in his associates or his adversaries. He does not have to get mad in order to be firm and he does not have to offend the other fellow in order to make himself understood. He knows himself too well to be always afraid of contamination and can mingle with all sorts of men and deal with any sort of politician without either making more than the average number of enemies or sacrificing his integrity. John P. Miller. JAMES B. McCREARY. THERE has never been in Congress from Kentucky, or any other State, since I have been in Washington, a man who could do more for his constituents, and do it not only willingly, but cheerfully, as if the task were a pleasure, than James B. McCreary of Kentucky. Take him all in all, he is a most remarkable man. In the first place, he has plenty of brains and knows what use to make of them; then he is dignified and diplomatic and never loses a trick; and again, he is so clever, so obliging, and so skilled a politician that one cannot help but admire him. He came here at the beginning of the Forty-ninth Congress and by his ability and strict attention to legislative duties soon took high rank in the House, finally securing the high position of chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He filled the duties of his position with credit to himself and his country. He was safe, sane, and level-headed upon all questions of state. During this time he never for one moment lost sight of his old Kentucky home and the interests of his constituents. What he would do for the old commonwealth and the residents therein was a wonder. He was at the call of the State, of any man in the State, early and late. He has gotten out of bed at two o'clock in the morning to serve a friend. He is in no respect a selfish man, but the work he did in the twelve years he served in the House and the consideration that he bestowed upon the people of his State was conclusive evidence that he had ambition for higher honors. This was true from the time he was elected governor in 1875 to his election to the Senate in 1903. The latter was his goal of ambition. It had been his objective point for over a quarter of a century. To illustrate: One day, during the turbulent scenes of the Fifty-first House, when things were looking pretty blue for the Democrats, I met Mr. McCreary 356 JAMES B. McCREARY. 357 coining out of the main door of the House. He was looking serene and smiling as usual, for nothing ruffles or disturbs his temper. I asked him what the House was doing. He replied it was fussing, as usual, and said : "I will be glad when I get in the Senate, for it is more quiet and decorous there." "Do you think you will finally get in the Senate?" He answered this by throwing his arm familiarly over my shoulder, saying: " My dear boy, it looks badly just now, but I have never had a doubt that I would get in the Senate." And he did. He will remain there until he dies, for James B. McCreary is a good, straight, clean man and fills his position with credit to himself, his State, and his country. JOSEPH E. Mcdonald. JOSEPH E. McDonald was in Congress more than half a century ago. He was a member of the House long before either Holman, Hendricks, Turpie or Voorhees, having been elected in 1848. This was his only term in the House of Representatives, but a quarter of a century later he was elected to the Senate, where he served a full term of six years. McDonald's career in the Senate was not marked by any specially brilliant ser- vice. He performed his duties as a senator faithfully and well and was prominent in the discussions. His great ability as a lawyer was soon recognized however, and he was assigned to the important Committee on Judiciary. Senators Evarts and Edmunds, both noted constitutional lawyers, were his contemporaries in the Senate and his associates on the Judiciary Committee, Edmunds being its chairman. McDonald had not been a member of the committee very long before he impressed them with his profound ability as a lawyer, and, although they were politically opposed, McDonald was frequently in conference with them. The Indiana senator was of a very positive and independent character. He stood for "hard money" and a protective tariff despite the fact that the Democratic party leaders and the rank and file of democ- racy were almost solidly arrayed in favor of tariff revision, or, as declared in their platform at the time, a tarifif for revenue only. This independent attitude on the part of McDonald impaired his chances for the Presidential nomination when, at Chicago in 1884, his name was presented to the convention by Thomas A. Hen- dricks, as spokesman for the Indiana delegation. But perceiving that there was a very general desire for the nomination of Mr. Cleveland on a tariff reform platform, his name was withdrawn. McDonald was a fine example of the self-made man. Born and reared in humble circumstances (having early been apprenticed to 358 JOSEPH E. Mcdonald. 359 a saddler), he applied himself diligently between working hours, and thus obtained a limited education that enabled him to teach a country school and to enter college. McDonald was one of the sturdy figures in the Senate. He was a large man, with a fine head and strong features. Beneath his chin he wore a tuft of whiskers that gave him rather an old- fashioned appearance. He was always regarded as more of a lawyer than a politician and his oratory was better suited to the court-room than to the stump. During his senatorial career he appeared frequently be- fore the United States Supreme Court, where he argued cases of national importance. At the close of his Senate term he associated himself with Richard J. Bright of Indiana in the practice of law and thereafter divided his time between Washington and Indian- apolis. Mr. McDonald was retained by the Mormons to defend their interests, and he participated in Utigation before the United States Supreme Court affecting the validity of the Bell telephone patents. Judge David Davis once said: "McDonald don't know what the law is, but he knows what it ought to be." This, although in- tended to be complimentary, was not a correct estimate of the Indiana lawyer. McDonald closely followed decisions handed down by the judiciary, especially ruUngs of the United States courts, and, according to his colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, his citations were invariably correct and were never questioned. Charles Carroll Carlton. BENTON McMILLIN. AMONG the distinguished public men of the South, con- spicuously honored by their people, few take precedence of Hon. Benton McMillin of Tennessee. Entering the Forty-sixth Congress, thirty years of age, he served continuously for twenty years. His political career was an unprecedented one, for after his first nomination for Congress he never had a Demo- cratic competitor during the twenty years, nor was there even a nominating convention held in his district, the honor always going to him by the common consent of the voters. When he entered the House, among its prominent members were Samuel J. Randall, Sunset Cox, Carlisle, Burrows, Garfield, Holman, Cannon, "Pig Iron" Kelley and others of equal celebrity. There is not to-day left on the Democratic side a solitary man who served in that Con- gress and only two Republicans, Speaker Cannon and Gen, Harry Bingham (Ketcham, N. Y.). Declining to remain longer in the House, Mr. McMillin, who had been a member of the Ways and Means Committee for four- teen years, and in the public eye by reason of his hard and persistent work for tariff reform, was nominated and elected governor of his State, serving for two terms with great credit to himself and his constituents. He is an earnest and devoted man to Democratic principles and in all that he undertakes a hard and enthusiastic worker. 360 JOHN TYLER MORGAN. " T HAVE not any right to come forward with my pretensions, I except those modest ones of being heard on equal terms X with my brethren on this floor, which privilege, by the way, I prize above all that human institutions can confer on anybody." So declared Senator Morgan of Alabama. It was a simple observation delivered in the course of debate in the Senate which, while it was an apt treatment of a passing incident, illustrated two of the strongest and most notable attributes of the Alabama senator. He would always stand for his rights as a senator and no man by word or act could surpass him in estimate of the value of the office. During the twenty-eight years that he has been a senator from Alabama, Mr. Morgan has lived up to the superlative standard he set for himself. No man, however distinguished and politically successful, has ever lent to the office of senator of the United States more of respect, of honor and of dignity, than John Tyler Morgan of Alabama. No occasion in all the more than a quarter of a century of his service has ever seen him unmindful of a very lofty conception of duty and right demeanor. Participating in the Senate's greatest debates and sharing in its most trying struggles in that more than a quarter of a century, he has been an honorably conspicuous figure and an eminently instructive force. His rare learning and the fruits of a capacity for intellectual achievement which make him extraordinary among the strongest and cleverest of American statesmen he has given for his State and to his country with no stint and with a cheerfulness in the giving that will honor his name long after he has asserted himself for the last time in the Senate chamber as "an ambassador from a sovereign State." Looking back over Senator Morgan's career in the Senate, since he entered it, March 4, 1877, two subjects stand out as 361 362 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. having elicited his best thought and most constant endeavor. With one, that of his later years of service, he has been so inti- mately connected and so masterful in its discussion that he has more than once been called "the father of isthmian canal legislation." The other subject, the financial policy of the Government, engaged his profoundest attention as soon as he had entered the Senate. His speeches on the subject have been exhaustive, varied, and luminous, always courageous and entirely independent of con- siderations of party expediency. With the rich gift of a memory which has been the marvel of his colleagues, with an exceptional power of ready, easy, and lucid expression, he has been always a persuasive speaker and his speeches have been models of solid construction. Those who have served with him will agree that he has given his attention to no subject that he did not illuminate and lift to the highest and broadest plane. Thoroughly a senator, bound by conscience to the strictest conception of duty, he has never been swayed from his conviction of obligation to his con-, stituents and to the people at large. His fidelity to the popular welfare, as he saw it, has made him ever impervious to the allure- ments of official power. No man ever looked with more contempt- uous indifference upon the oft-recurring blandishments of expedi- ency that beset the path of every senator. Twenty-eight years a senator! When Mr. Morgan entered the Forty-fifth Congress, March 8, 1877, his colleague from Alabama was George E. Spencer, one of the few remaining products of the "carpetbag" regime and of the reconstruction times in the Southern States. Spencer attempted to defeat the admission of Mr. Morgan on the ground that he had not been constitutionally elected. Senator Morton, of Indiana, partisan and friend as he was of the Southern Repub- licans, declared for Morgan and said that he had as much right to admission as had Mr. Kellogg of Louisiana, who held the Governor's certificate, and who had already been admitted. Senator Morgan's right to a seat was not again in question. In the Forty-fifth Congress there was only one senator with Senator Morgan who has since served with him continuously— William B. Allison of Iowa. Two others were in that Congress JOHN TYLER MORGAN. 363 who are now in the Senate, but the continuity of the service of each was broken. These are Messrs. Henry M. Teller of Colorado and John H. Mitchell of Oregon. Of the 76 members consti- tuting the Senate when Mr. Morgan began his first term only ten are living. Besides Allison, Teller, and Mitchell, they are Henry G. Davis of West Virginia, Robert E. Withers of Virginia, Matthew C. Butler of South Carolina, John P. Jones of Nevada, Francis M. Cockrell of Missouri, William Pinckney Whyte of Maryland, J. Donald Cameron of Pennsylvania. In the Senate were such giants of debate and leaders in poHtics as Roscoe Conk- ling, James G. Blaine, John Sherman, Allen G. Thurman, John B. Gordon, David Davis, Benjamin H. Hill, George F. Hoar, L. Q. C. Lamar, John J. Ingalls, Isham G. Harris, George F. Edmunds, James B. Beck, Oliver P. Morton. From the Southern States there were five survivors of the carpetbag period whose political days were numbered, and who were doomed to extinction from all future prominence in the States which they had misrepresented. They were George E. Spencer, Stephen W. Dorsey from Arkansas, William Pitt Kellogg from Louisiana, Simon B. Conover from Florida, and J. J. Pat- terson from South Carolina. When Senator Morgan was sworn in on March 8, 1877, he had never before held a civil office. He had been a practicing lawyer from the time he reached his majority, barring four years in the Confederate army, until he was elected to the United States Senate. Briefly stated, his record embraces birth at Athens, a small town in Eastern Tennessee, June 20, 1824. He received an academic teaching at schools in Alabama, to which his parents had moved when he was nine years old; was admitted to the bar in 1845 ; WS'S presidential elector in i860, and voted for Breckin- ridge and Lane; was a member of the Alabama convention which passed the ordinance of secession. In the war between the States he entered the Confederate army as a private in the Catawba Rifles, a company which was assigned to the Fifth Alabama Infantry, then commanded by Robert E. Rodes, after- ward a major-general in the army of Northern Virginia. Mor^ 364 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. gan was appointed major of this regiment and later its lieu- tenant-colonel; was commissioned as colonel in 1862, when he raised the Fifty-first Alabama regiment; was appointed brigadier-general in 1863 and assigned to command a brigade in Virginia, but resigned to rejoin his old regiment, whose colonel had been killed in battle. Again in 1863 he was appointed brigadier-general and, accepting, commanded a brigade which included his regiment. After the war Mr. Morgan resumed the practice of law at Selma. He was presidential elector in 1876 and voted for Tilden and Hendricks. He was elected to the United States Senate to succeed George Goldthwaite, Democrat, and took his seat March 8, 1877; was reelected in 1882, 1888, 1894, and 1900, and is now serving his fifth term, assuring him a service of thirty years in the Senate. Senator Morgan's reelection has been opposed several times, but it was an opposition that thundered more in the index than developing anything serious when the votes came to be counted. There is little doubt that, retaining his present heakh and vigor, Senator Morgan will again be returned to the Senate. There came to the Senate among its most distinguished acces- sions during his service the following: John A. Logan, succeeding Richard J. Oglesby, from IlUnois; James L. Pugh, succeeding George E. Spencer, from Alabama; Orville H. Piatt, Connecticut; George G. Vest, Missouri; Mat- thew H. Carpenter, from Wisconsin; August H. Garland, soon to go into the Cabinet of President Cleveland as attorney- general; Joseph R. Hawley, from Connecticut; Joseph E. Brown, from Georgia; Benjamin Harrison, soon to be President of the United States; Hale and Frye of Maine, one succeeding Hannibal Hamlin and the other James G. Blaine, who resigned to become President Garfield's secretary of state; Henry W. Blair, New Hampshire; George H. Pendleton, Ohio; Nelson W. Aldrich, Rhode Island, then beginning his service in the Sen- ate which his State has since continued; William Mahone, from Virginia, who shocked his former Democratic associates by afiSliating in Congress with the Republicans and for which he was excoriated in a fierce philippic by Ben Hill; Alfred H. Colquitt, JOHN TYLER MORGAN. 365 Georgia; Shelby M. Cullom, beginning his service as senator from Illinois; H. H. Riddleberger, Virginia; Edmund C. Wal- thall, Mississippi; Henry B. Payne, Ohio; Charles B. Farwell, Illinois, succeeding John A. Logan, deceased; John C. Spooner, beginning as senator from Wisconsin; William E. Chandler, New Hampshire; WilUam M. Evarts, New York; J. C. S. Black- bum, Kentucky; William B. Bate, Tennessee; Matthew S. Quay, Pennsylvania; John H. Reagan, Texas; David Turpie, Indiana; Cushman K. Davis, Minnesota; James K. Jones, Arkansas; John G. Carlisle, from Kentucky, in place of James B. Beck, deceased; William M. Stewart of Nevada, who had served in the Senate during the period of the Civil War and was again returned; Edward O. Wolcott, Colorado; Anthony Higgins, the first Republican elected to the Senate from Delaware; James Barbour, Virginia; Fred T. Dubois, Idaho; William A. Peffer, Kansas; William Lindsay, Kentucky; Edward D. White, afterward appointed associate justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Cleveland, succeeding James B. Eustis, appointed minister to France; Roger Q. Mills, Texas; Stephen M. White, California; Anselm J. McLaurin, Mississippi; David B. Hill and Edward Murphy, New York; Calvin S. Brice, Ohio; Wil- liam F. Vilas, Wisconsin, afterward in President Cleveland's cabinet as Secretary of the Interior; Henry Cabot Lodge, Mas- sachusetts, beginning his service in 1893; Thomas H. Carter, Montana; Benjamin R. Tillman, South Carolina; Thomas S. Martin, Virginia; Stephen B. Elkins, West Virginia; Augustus O. Bacon, Georgia; Alexander S. Clay, Georgia; Charles W. Fairbanks, Indiana; William A. Harris, Kansas; Samuel D. McEnery, Louisiana; Hernando D. Money, Mississippi; Will V. Sullivan, Mississippi; Edmund W. Pettus, Alabama, succeed- ing James L. Pugh; Thomas C. Piatt, New York, succeeding David B. Hill; James B. Foraker, Ohio; Thomas B. Turley, Tennessee, succeeding Isham G. Harris, deceased; Charles B. Culberson, Texas; Redfield Proctor, Vermont; Albert J. Bev- eridge, Indiana; William E. Mason, Illinois; Chauncey M. Depew, New York; Jonathan P. DoUiver, Iowa; Joseph R. Burton, Kansas; Murphy J. Foster, Louisiana; Joseph W. 366 TWENTY YEABS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Bailey, Texas; Edward W. Carmack, Tennessee; George Turner, Washington; Nathan B. Scott, West Virginia; James P. Clarke, Arkansas; L. H. Ball and James F. Allee, Delaware; Albert J. Hopkins, Illinois; Chester I. Long, Kansas; James B. McCreary, Kentucky; Arthur P. Gorman, returned to the Senate after being out six years; W. Murray Crane, Massachusetts; Lee S. Overman, North Carolina; Charles Dick, Ohio, succeeding Marcus A. Hanna, deceased; Charles W. Fulton, Oregon; Philander Knox, succeeding Matthew S. Quay, from Pennsylvania; Asbury C. Latimer, South Carohna; Alfred B. Kittredge, South Dakota; James B. Frazier, Tennessee, succeeding William B. Bate, deceased; Reed Smoot, Utah; Levi Ankeny, Washington; Robert M. La Follette, Wisconsin; Samuel Piles, Washington; Frank Flint, California. The names of these senators are given in the order in which they have come into the Senate during the Alabama senator's service. Among the best and brightest, Morgan has been pre- eminent with his own strength, and his talents have shed their own peculiar light from a purity of character that has known no shadow. An admirer, himself a distinguished man, has said of Senator Morgan this: "There is not in the annals of Congress a finer example of sustained, untiring, and illuminating application of mind to any subject of absorbing debate. He has recalled by his read- iness and comprehension the great lights of the Senate and has exceeded many of them in a wider range of knowledge and a broader scope of vision, fairly to weigh and judge immense and varied national interests." As chairman of the Senate Committee on Interoceanic Canals, Senator Morgan demanded the abrogation of the Clayton- Bulwer treaty, contending that the canal should be wholly an American enterprise and, after Great Britain rejected in March, 1901, the amended Hay-Pauncefote treaty, he urged the United States to ignore the objectionable features of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty and proceed with the construction of the canal without further negotiations with Great Britain. JOHN TYLER MORGAN. 367 Senator Morgan was nearly a year in the Senate before he made a set speech. He participated briefly on one occasion in a discussion with Senator Conkling and came out of it most credit- ably. The subject was the credentials of a southern Senator, Mr. Morgan having introduced a resolution respecting their reference to a committee. This measure Mr. Conkling, with an assumption of astonishment, characterized as "an extremely novel proposition." The Alabaman merely replied that to him "everything" was "novel here except the law of the land." The remark was typical of his career thenceforward, for no Senator has held the law of the land in greater respect nor displayed a larger knowledge of it than John T. Morgan. He has always maintained himself as a great lawyer in this greatest assembly of lawyers of the world's parliamentary bodies. In the earlier years of his service. Senator Morgan devoted much study and arduous labor to the financial policy of the Government. His course in this, as in other questions which often divided the councils of his own party, was characteristic of his high moral courage. It kept him independent of personal cliques seeking to promote the political fortunes of aspirants for ofl5ce. He discussed principles, leaving ambitious men to take care of themselves. On an occasion when a Republican senator intimated during a debate on the money question that the Alabama senator had an eye to a certain Democrat's ambition, Mr. Morgan declared: "While I have the honor of representing a sovereign State here, I shall have higher duties to perform than to commit myself to the fortunes of any individual whatsoever in either of the parties for the Presidency." Senator Morgan made known his position on the financial question at the beginning of his first term in a masterful conten- tion for the "dollar of the constitution, the unit of value when the mint was first established." His first prepared speech was on the Stanley Matthews reso- lution to pay the bonds of the United States at the option of the Government in gold or silver of the standard value. It was a speech that immediately won recognition for the Alabama senator 368 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. as one of the great minds of the Senate. It placed him at the forefront of the advocates and defenders of bimetallism, a stand which he has consistently and stoutly maintained throughout his career. Indeed his devotion to the white metal, as it was recognized by the founders of the Government placed him, with others, outside of the coterie of Democrats who adhered to the gold-standard pohcy of President Cleveland. This difference because of the money question so divided the party that the organization as a national body has never recovered. Senator Morgan was one of the boldest of those who declared against the Administration in the debate in 1893 on the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman Act, one of his speeches being the most striking of the numerous deliverances of the long and acrimonious debates of that year. There was a time when an effort was made to unite and rally the Democrats in Congress to the support of the Administration which seemed not to be lacking Republican aid and comfort. Senator Voorhees, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, sought eloquently, but vainly, to unite the Democrats. It was in October, 1893, when the factional rupture among the Democrats was most ominous, that Senator Morgan, resenting the importunities of those who sought to persuade him to cast aside his mature convictions and go with the Administration and the Republicans who sided with it, referred to certain Democratic Senators as being constantly in friendly intercourse and associa- tion with " some of the great leading minds of ancient and modern Republicanism on the other side of the chamber." "For them," he said, "this is a novel, a new departure. There seems to be no want of brotherhood between them; in fact, they stick as close and affectionately to each other as a stamp sticks to a love letter." This sensational utterance from a leading Democrat caused Senators to sit up, crane forward and take special notice. It was followed by a still greater shock from the same source, a little burst of sarcastic eloquence from the Alabaman whose tense satire ahnost shook the chamber with the unwonted laughter it provoked. JOHN TYLER MORGAN. 369 Said Mr. Morgan, continuing his line of allusion to the strange spectacle of fraternal affection between Senate Democrats and Republicans, and referring to the subservience of some of the former: "The trumpet had sounded, the forces were marshalled, the clock had struck at the White House, and the cuckoos here all put their heads out of their boxes and responded to inform us of the time of day." This was dubbed Senator Morgan's famous "cuckoo speech." It became in the House of Representatives, where rectitude and dignity of deportment were more lightly regarded than in the Senate, a favorite Republican cry of derision whenever a Demo- crat sought to defend the administration from attack. The latest and best years of Senator Morgan's life and public service have been devoted to the greatest engineering enterprise of modern times, the construction by the United States of a canal across the Central American Isthnjus. The labor he has per- formed on this subject has been stupendous, doubtless never before equalled by the member of any parliamentary body on any subject that came before it. The results of that labor have been no less extraordinary. Senator Morgan's contributions to this question, embracing not only the richly instructive and broadly comprehensive conclusions of his own mind, but carry- ing in order and detail the consensus of conviction of the best engineering and scientific thought of the first savants of every country, are beyond reproach and must always be of the utmost value to his own country. His entire earnestness, his great intelligence, and his wonderful energies have been lavished un- sparingly upon the subject, as all the country and the world know. It was after long study, unremitting research, and very laborious days and nights in and out of the Senate chamber that Senator Morgan made up his mind that the best route for the Isthmian canal was through Nicaragua. When he had reached that conclusion and had fully informed the country of his views, pre- senting every available piece of evidence of the faith that was in him. Congress and all the people appeared fully to agree with him. If there was any shadow of mistrust, it was not as to whether the 24 370 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Nicaragua route was the best. It had no reference to a choice of routes, but consisted only in apprehension of delay and pos- sible prevention of the construction of any Isthmian canal through the efforts and influences of the trans-continental railways. With the history of the substitution in the popular mind of the Panama for the Nicaragua route, under the terms of the Spooner Act and outside of it, and with all the extraordinary events which marked the consummation of this notorious episode in history, the world is familiar. That the abandonment of the Nicaragua route was a grievous disappointment to Senator Morgan cannot be doubted, however cheerily and bravely he has borne the blow. He had given the subject the best of his ripest years, the richest gifts of his versatile mind, .the cumulative conclusions of his soundest judgment. In the face of his steadfast adherence to profound and fortified conviction he beheld his cherished policy, bom of his own years of ardent toil and the result of more than half a century of study, work and deliberation by some of the world's wisest and most skilful men, all cast aside for what was the fruit of but a single season, whose sowing had been hasty, and whose harvest was tainted with tawdry political ambition and perforated with the worm of suspicion. He saw the people, grown impatient with delay, ready impidsively to take up anything upon which Congress and the Administration might agree that promised the earliest and most expeditious beginning upon the great canal enterprise. He even saw the advocates and defenders of the Nicaragua canal made the objects of contumelious and ungrateful flings, accused of lack of patriotism and charged with silly pride of opinion. Senator Morgan had to confront that sort of petty malcontent even from his own people. But throughout it aU, everlastingly to his exalted credit, he bore himself amid the acrid slurs and senseless taunts with uncowed spirit and dauntless mien. Then was he greater in disappointment and defeat than when triumph seemed most eager to crown his splendid convictions; then was he more than Alabama's, but all his country's grand old man. In the devious, desperate and precipitous choice of the Panama JOHN TYLER MORGAN. 371 instead of the Nicaragua route, it came about that the increase of the number of RepubUcans in the Senate furnished an excuse to displace Senator Morgan as chairman of the Committee on Interoceanic Canals. The post was given to Senator Hanna, the foremost advocate of the Panama route. This, notwithstand- ing the obvious political apology for it, was itself a sensation. It created comment in and out of the Senate chamber and was the theme of reference in discussion on the floor. Senator Hoar, speaking of the change, and of the original selection of Senator Morgan as the committee's chairman, said that it was the wish of the Republicans that he should preside over the committee as one of the greatest of American senators. For himself, Senator Morgan dismissed the chairmanship question briefly, disclaiming any partisan motive at any time in his treatment of the canal issue. In his advocacy of the Nicaragua route he declared he had been in accord with such Presidents as Grant, Hayes, Arthur, Harrison, and McKinley, and with such Secretaries of State as Fish and Evarts, Frelinghuysen, Blaine, and Sherman. "I have no party relations or prospects," said Senator Morgan, "that bind me in fealty to all the great American statesmen, engineers, and contractors who for fifty years have come like a cloud of witnesses to bear testimony to the superior advantages of the canal route through the splendid valley of the San Juan River and across Lake Nicaragua, through a healthful climate and a beautiful country. They were nearly all Republicans. Yet I must lament that such men are no longer to weigh in their honorable history against the commerciahsm of sordid men or the vain ambitions of men who are frantic for notoriety. "I was not the political supporter of President McKinley, but I had abiding faith in his wisdom and integrity, and I deeply regret to see his proudest monument — the Nicaragua Canal — torn down by irreverent and ungrateful hands to perish by the contemptuous kick of a professed friend." This allusion, when Senator Morgan had closed his speech, brought Senator Hanna to his feet with a denial that President McKinley had favored the Nicaragua over the Panama route. 372 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. The Ohio senator, with much show of aggrieved feeling, said he could not let the occasion pass without challenging the state- ment of the Alabama senator with reference to the late President; that he (Hanna) knew from personal knowledge, obtained from personal interviews with Mr. McKinley as to his ideas and his future policy, that he was ready to consider the Panama route and embrace it. Senator Morgan instantly threw the limelight of a lawyer's acumen upon the Ohio senator's attitude. "The senator," said Mr. Morgan, "speaks from his personal conversations with President McKinley, which I have no op- portunity in the world of testing in any form. I had no per- sonal or political intimacy with President McKinley that would have justified me in asking his private opinion on any question. I go upon his record — ^his public record — and his public record wras that he did, in 1899, recommend the appointment of this commission; that on November 30, 1900, the commission made their report to him, and that on the next morning he made the agreement — the solemn compact — with Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Therefore he had become convinced of the correctness of the report of the commission which he had selected with great care in the effort to secure wise, just, honorable, and upright men, so that he could afford to stand on what they said." Senator Morgan fought the choice of the Panama route to the last possible chance of its defeat. He was much fairer than his opponents. They had destroyed the Nicaragua route by methods so hidden and sinister that they will never be above suspicion. Senator Morgan made his fight frankly, openly, and bravely against all odds. He can show every step of his way without incurring a doubt of his rectitude, with no shadow of suspicion as to the integrity and the intelligence of his ultimate purpose. Can history say as much for his adversaries? The United States having become committed to the con- struction of the Isthmian canal by the Panama route. Senator Morgan did not sulk nor in any way abate the interest he had always displayed in the successful promotion of the enterprise. He showed by speech and vote his readiness to do everything JOHN TYLER MORGAN. 373 that was proper and timely for the equipment and advancement of the stupendous undertaking. His latest utterance demonstrates his undiminished concern for the success of the Panama canal, although he cannot con- ceal his doubts. In a letter written recently to Chairman Shonts of the Panama Canal Commission, in reply to an invitation to accompany the commission to the isthmus, Senator Morgan said: "I must say that I distrust the expected advantages to Con- gress or to the country of such an excursion, or the value of any opinions that may be formed on the great engineering problems by a body of gentlemen who are non-professional and must form their conclusions from surface appearances. Neither of these important committees can derive any legitimate conclusions upon vital facts that must control that vast subject from the opinions of those who are mere guests of an excursion party, and they will be men of extraordinary self-poise if they are not influenced by what may be the prevailing sentiment among them. "Since the ratification of the Hay-Varilla treaty, which I opposed, I have done all that I could and much more than I thought could ever be of advantage to the country, to sustain the Government in its purpose to construct a canal at Panama, yet I have not believed that success could crown their efforts even in their most costly and desperate forms. You may find the key to unlock the barriers that nature has interposed at Panama. "If you should be so fortunate, I will applaud your generosity and courage, I will vote to provide you with every reasonable authority and power to accomplish your task and to meet your tremendous responsibility. "In the effort to answer your friendly invitation with perfect frankness, if I have said anything that jars upon your sensibilities, I have not so intended it and would regret it. I beg to assure you of my sincere respect and to say that I will rejoice with you in the successful completion of the great work in your charge." There is only one other member of the United States Senate who is older in years than Senator Morgan, and that is his col- league, Edmund W. Pettus, himself one of the wonderful old men 374 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. of the times. Senator Morgan was eighty-one years old on June 24. Senator Pettus was eighty-four on July 6. The virtues and gifts of mind that distinguished both half a century ago mark them still in a golden old age among the foremost of great Americans. The versatility of resource and the virility of suggestion that have made interesting the whole of Senator Morgan's public service still attract the attention and command the admiration of the people of the country. Even in the hours of his vacation during the past summer, he has given most of his days and much of his nights to thought and labor for his constituents in a way promising good to the whole country. In a recent letter to the Governor of Alabama, Senator Morgan has directed his attention to several subjects of vital importance and of very general interest. He has asked that the governor call an extraordinary session of the State Legislature, especially to consider quarantine and railway rate legislation questions as they concern the rights of the State. "It is neither wise nor right," says the senator in this letter, "to leave our congressmen to prescribe or forestall the poHcy of the State in a matter that involves her sovereignty. For one, I want the instruction of the Legislature on this subject, and I will add that I can think of no greater folly than to create excitement in the State in respect of fixing freight rates of all our railroads, while Congress is discussing the rates that shall be imposed on them by laws that are paramount to State legislation. Do we intend to yield to Congress even without discussion the para- mount and exclusive right to fix these freight rates on railroads that transport goods to and from other States? If we intend to yield these rights, it is in vain that they are the subjects of con- troversy among the State Railroad Commissioners. If we intend to adhere to our rights, such instructions should be given to our congressmen." On the vitally important question of quarantine, Senator Morgan in his letter to the Governor of Alabama, referring to the demand for a clear definition of the limits of the jurisdiction JOHN TLYER MORGAN. 375 of the State and Federal governments, says that they can be met without friction, and thus continues; "But who is able to make these definitions and to prescribe these limitations? Unless this can be done by positive statute law, or by compact between certain States, ratified by Congress, I see no way to escape protracted and ever-recurring questioning and discussion of a subject that often will not admit of delay even for a single day. If the law to regulate such conflicts of jurisdiction is not clear, positive, and conclusive in its operation, it is better to leave the whole question to the people who are most directly concerned and to their instinctive sense of self- preservation. If this is done, commerce, intercourse, and govern- mental operations, such as mails and the transportation of troops and other agents, must be suspended by the operation of local police authority. This is an inadmissible fault in government and must, in some way, be rectified. "The States may enter into compacts with each other, subject to the ratification of Congress. Such compacts, when made, have all the force and effect of constitutional ordinances and are not repealable, unless it is so provided in the compact, except by the consent of all the powers concerned. I do not recall any exercise of this great latent power of constitutional government, but the possibilities in favor of the general welfare that it includes are among the most helpful to the blessings that are treasured up in the Constitution of the United States. "The visitation of yellow fever along the gulf coast is the proper occasion for considering what may be done by two or more States toward providing by compact for the proper adjust- ment of laws of quarantine. If acts of Congress are relied upon to settle these conflicts of jurisdiction, every mile-post in the prog- ress of our history will be a head-board at the graves of our hopes and expectations. The treaty-making power, by incorporating provisions as to quarantine in treaties with foreign powers, thereby making them the 'supreme law,' may empower Congress to legislate for the quarantine of yellow fever, without interference by the local police power. We have such a treaty with several powers with reference to cholera and bubonic and other plagues. 376 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. But treaties cannot be legally perpetual and may be repealed or renounced. "In view of this and other important reasons, a compact between States, ratified by Congress, is a safer and more self- reliant way to accomplish good results as to quarantine than treaties with foreign powers." R. H. Watkins. WILLIAM R. MORRISON. AMONG the prominent public figures occupying the centre of the stage during the period covered in these remin- iscences few attracted more attention or heartier admi- ration than the subject of this sketch. A private at Buena Vista, a colonel at Fort Donelson, the farmer boy of the Prairie State loomed large in the public eye to the end of the century from the centeimial year when the Demo- cratic party secured control of the House of Representatives for the first time after the Reconstruction days. He had joined the Pilgrims of '49 in their early rush across the plains of the West for the gold fields of California, remaining only long enough to secure what was, in those days of restricted cir- culation and modest fortunes, a moderate stake. His public ser- vices in county. State, Congressional and National conventions all antedating the opening chapter of this volume, we pass over with- out comment to the date of the election of Tilden in 1875. That political revolution saw a Democratic majority swept into the House with accessions from the North, and saw, too, the national result threatened by the claims of Republican victories in impossible Southern States. Through the influence and leadership of Colonel Morrison, Kerr of Indiana was chosen the first Democratic Speaker, and he insisted that his able lieutenant take the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. Then as now, there were Democrats who were as ardent pro- tectionists as the Republicans, and, uniting, they had no great diflS- culty in defeating the measure. Immediately thereafter Congressional special committees were sent to the so-called doubtful Southern States, and Colonel Mor- rison was given charge of the committee to investigate the elec- tion methods and results in Louisiana. Here they remained 377 378 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. through the winter, were there when Governor Nichols was in- augurated by the same votes which the Electoral Commission afterward conceded to Hayes, and the committee was on its way home with a mass of convincing testimony, when they were met by the dispatches announcing the agreement to a commission by the friends of the contestants, and the winter's work of the Con- gressional committee probing election methods of the Southern doubtful States was made a negligible quantity. Yet the struggle was not without great results — since it secured the final disappearance of what was called carpetbag government, and gave into the hands of the people of these States once more the conduct of their own afEairs without federal interference. In the tarifif struggle of 1884, Carlisle of Kentucky had been elected to the Speakership, and, like Kerr, was indebted to the influence and efforts of Morrison, and again Morrison was ap- pointed chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. A strongly protectionist Congress had passed the Tariff Commission — Kelley BiU of 1883. After long investigation and little deliberation, the bill became a law. Here was a law with the schedules rear- ranged to harmonize the relations of raw materials to finished products, open to the single obvious criticism that it was too high. It failed to accomplish the reductions which the Tariff Commission had recommended; it failed of the lower rates promised by the committee and its sponsors; it failed to reduce either the burdens or the revenue to the extent which was intended by its initiators and hoped by the pubhc. But its items, it was fair to assume, were arranged in fairly logical sequence, and carried each its fair share of revenue for the treasury and protection for its beneficiaries; if not, at least, its friends ought not to criticise the arrangement or relationship. Assuming that its only fault was that it was too high to redeem the pledges of its framers — ^too high to reduce our then redundant revenues — too high to meet the views of the consumers, whose cry had made some legislation necessary — the logical method of re- duction that would meet the demand for lower duties, and carry no reflection on the skill of the only tariff-makers, was a lowering all along the line, and the party would have been abundantly justified WILLIAM R. MORRISON. 379 in the simplicity of a scheme to avoid the infinite detail and accom- plish its purpose if it had proposed to collect 80 per cent, of all customs duties then in force. This was practically the proposition which Colonel Morrison offered to the protectionists — a protectionist President, commission and Congress had promised as much — ^and here was an oppor- tunity where they might make good without stultifying themselves. The proposition was hedged about with provisos, such as no rate to be below the war tariff of 1861, etc., that much modified the apparent reductions, and sugar-coated the pill he was offering them. But they would none of it. It was called a horizontal bill in derision, and if the name implies "on the level" deserved the title. The protectionists rallied in opposition, and defections among the Democrats easily defeated this reasonable bill, and deprived the party of the triumph and the country of the relief to which each was entitled. In 1886 the chances for success were even less hopeful; in 1888 a measure did pass the House under the chairmanship of Mills of Texas, only to be defeated in the Senate. Meanwhile, Colonel Morrison had been appointed on the Interstate Commerce Commission, where he served for two terms, retiring at the close of 1897, having served for more than the latter half of the period as chairman of the commission. His is one of the strongest personalities that Washington has seen. A good judge of human nature, with a wide experience and share in public affairs, a ready wit in repartee, an inexhaustible fund of anecdotes from human documents, he easily dominated most assemblies in which he found himself. Fixed in his opinions, honest in his purposes, of good courage and well-balanced judgment, his opinions were sought and valued most by those who knew him best. Always with the people on all the great questions of the day, he favored reductions of their burdens, whether for lower duties, for moderate appropriations or for reasonable transportation rates, and the public records of his utterances and acts show him uni- formly consistent in this championship of the public, not always conscientiously served. Henry Talbott. THOMAS P. OCHILTREE. THE only congressman I found in Washington who seemed to want to repay favors was Col. Tom Ochiltree. If he had a piece of news he was certain to hunt up the corre- spondents who had done him kindnesses and give it to them. When he decided to be a candidate for Congress in one of the Texas districts he wanted the fact announced in an interview, stating his views on public questions, and he asked me to write it for him, and have it published in the New Orleans paper I repre- sented. He told me in a general way what he wanted to say. The interview proved to be satisfactory, and he missed no opportunity to show me that the little service I had rendered him was appre- ciated. Late one November afternoon some of the correspondents told me that Colonel Ochiltree was looking for me, and that he had an item of news which he would give only to me. I hunted him up at once, and found the news was of considerable impor- tance, particularly in the South. A reciprocity treaty with Mexico had been negotiated, the work having been finished by the com- mission that day. Colonel Ochiltree had received information of it from former President Grant, who was one of the commission- ers. The Mexican minister was another. The only other corre- spondent who knew of the treaty represented the Chicago Inter Ocean. From what source he got his information I do not know. It was important to know the terms of the treaty. Colonel Ochiltree could not enhghten us on that point, and we doubted if we could get the necessary information from any source. However, we determined to try. The Secretary of State was at a dinner party, and of course we couldn't see him. We found First Assistant Secretary Davis at the Metropolitan Club, and he was positive that the negotiation of 380 THOMAS P. OCHILTREE. S81 the treaty hadn't been completed. We were sure he wasn't well informed, and told him so. We determined to try the Mexican minister, though without much hope of success. We were admitted to his house just as the minister's wife was descending the stairs, dressed for a social function in another part of the city. She greeted us cordially and said the minister would be down in a few minutes. She was curious to know our errand, and we told her what we desired. She was interested, but expressed the opinion that the minister wouldn't give us the information we wanted. She said, however, that she would assist us to the extent of her influence, and she did, for when her husband, after listening to our request, said the matter was yet a state secret, which he wouldn't think of divulging, she suggested that he might give us sufficient information to enable us to write fairly good dispatches. He admitted that the treaty had been completed, and it was finally arranged that we should mention what we thought the treaty con- tained, and if we guessed correctly he should say nothing, but if we mentioned things the treaty didn't contain he was to say we were mistaken. In that way we got a pretty good synopsis of it. We were, of course, pleased with our success, for we had important news that was unknown to other newspaper correspondents. A reciprocity treaty at that time was regarded as much more impor- tant than it is now. We sent the dispatch to only four papers, one in New Orleans, two in Chicago and one in Louisville. In a day or two the New York correspondents began to get inquiries from their home offices in regard to the treaty, and they hurried to the State Department to find out about it. They got no satisfaction and finally had to appeal to the correspondent of the Inter Ocean and me for assist- ance. It isn't often that a correspondent secures a "beat" on a bit of news that is of real value, and when he does he takes a higher stand among his newspaper associates. E. N. Hancock. GEORGE H. PENDLETON. ONE of the prominent men in the two houses of Congress during the period covered in the work to which this sketch is a contribution, was George H. Pendleton of Ohio. He was a member of the Ohio Senate in 1856, and served eight years in the National House of Representatives, his last term there closing at about the end of the Civil War. Public men fre- quently make their strongest records in the first half of their pub- licity, and Mr. Pendleton's standing as a statesman probably got more impetus from his service in the House than from anything he did afterward. He fortified himself in that time for a conspic- uous career, and built up hopes for himself and his friends that were never realized. He might fairly be classed in that not incon- siderable body of Americans whose careers have been impaired or ruined by early and open Presidential booms. In the House he was a strong figure, in a most exciting time in the development of the country. He stood firmly by the Democratic party on Consti- tutional lines, but voted without reservation for the appropriations to carry on the war for the Union. In 1864, just before his retire- ment from Congress, he was nominated for vice-president on the ticket with General McClellan, on a platform which was figurative and forceful in patriotism on the side of the Union of the States, but which declared the war for the Union to have been a failure up to that date, which was less than a year before the collapse of the Confederacy. In those days Mr. Pendleton was the apostle of the "green- back." If Chase was the original "greenbacker," Pendleton was no less prominently its friend, for he formulated the ideas looking to its permanency in the money system. His candidacy for the Presidential nomination in 1868 was thrown on the screen early, and there was a widespread and enthusiastic organization for him in his own State, in which the Democrats had closely grazed on a 382 GEORGE H. PENDLETON. 383 victory in 1867, when the suffrage question was up. The "Pen- dleton Escort," which went from Ohio to the national convention in New York city, is a vivid memory among the older men of this time. It was a spectacular demonstration, the like of which has been but seldom seen in national conclaves. It was the personal popularity of Mr. Pendleton, quite as much as the respect there was for him on account of his championship of Democracy in its darkest days, and his fetching views on finance, that pressed him to the front. He was a poUshed gentleman. " Gentleman George," by which phrase he was widely known, was in no sense frivolous or derisive. It was a tribute to the man's manners among men. He combined dignity and cordiality as few men can, and was the very soul of hospitality. And his whole demeanor was natural. There was no affectation, and the universal judgment was that George H. Pendleton was a charming man, whose personal qualities, at least in the.judgment of Democrats, ought to make him President, even if there should be no other recommendation for him. He failed, though, to get the nomination, partly no doubt through the schism which arose in Ohio on account of the alleged violation of the "tripartite agreement," involving Thurman, Vallandigham and Pendleton, in 1867. In 1869, the Ohio Democratic convention, in desperation over the continued defeat of the party, and with misdirected zeal in the search for a candidate against whom the "bloody shirt" could not be waved, presented Gen. William S. Rosecrans for governor. The general was in Mexico, and if at that time he had a voting residence an)rwhere it must have been in California. It was through a very remote construction that he was alleged to be a citizen of Ohio. It took a long time to hear from him. Then came a long letter, full of Democratic sentiment, but declining the nomi- nation. The State Central committee put Mr. Pendleton on the ticket for governor in his place. At the election the plurality against the Democrats was about 8,500, in a total vote of less than 500,000, or not half what the vote of Ohio now is. Then there was a gap of eight or ten years in the Pendletonian career, save for occasional services on the hustings. In 1878 he was elected to the United States Senate for the term commencing 384 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. the following year. He was the original "civil-service reformer," and was the author of the first bill which may be regarded as the initial point of the present system of class ofl&ce-holding. His action in this respect did not contribute to his popularity at home, but it was more owing to party schisms than to the civil service that he found himself in a bitter fight for re-election when the Legislature met in January, 1884. The details of that fight could not be writ- ten in a reasonable space. It is historic in the State for its fierce- ness. It might be described as the great "Kid and Mossback" encounter, and left sores some of which are still open. The subse- quent appointment of Mr. Pendleton as minister to Germany did not really cure his rank disappointment. The story of how Mr. Pendleton came to be appointed minister to Germany is well worth the space it will require. Daniel McCon- ville, of Steubenville, was, as he still occasionally is, an active Democratic politician, whose services as an organizer were always in demand. He was private secretary of Governor Hoadly, sixth auditor in Cleveland's first term, and has been on several occasions a chairman of the Democratic State Campaign com- mittee. Early in the senatorial fight which culminated in the election of Payne, Pendleton asked McConville to assist him. McConville frankly declared that his relations with the Paynes were such that if they were in the fight he would be obhged to be with them. Otherwise, he would be a Pendleton man. The Paynes called him, but Pendleton always held him in regard as a man who was among the few who had been truthful to him. Just before the inauguration in 1885, McConville called on the retiring senator, and they had an interview in the marble room at the Capitol. The visitor opened the conversation with some friendly and consoling words as to the late senatorial campaign, when Pendleton, who was a thoroughly disappointed man, and probably inclined to brood over the wrongs he believed he had suffered at the hands of Ohio men who should have been his friends, threw up his hands in a deprecating way and exclaimed, "McConville, I have drained that cup to the bitter dregs." The conversation was protracted and earnest, and on the Senator's part, melancholy. The visitor insisted, however, that Mr. Pendleton should endeavor GEORGE H. PENDLETON. 385 to get a high appointment abroad, but was met with the declaration that the whole organization would be against him. " Senator Payne is not your enemy," was McConville's response. " In all this contest he never said a word in derogation of you. You will find him your friend. By the way, it is hardly for me to suggest a point in etiquette to 'Gentleman George,' but have you called on Mr. Payne?" "No. I have not. Is he here?" "Yes. At the Riggs House." "I shall see him before night." The meeting was a pleasant and cordial one. It could not have been anything else between men of their appreciation of the amenities. Mr. McConville took an early opportunity to instil the appointment idea into the new senator, but Mr. Payne doubted his ability to accomplish anything on account of some of the influences that would affect Ohio and the Administration. The peacemaker brushed them aside. Mr. Payne was anxious to recommend the appointment, but after reflecting a little longer he suddenly in- quired, "How would that affect John R. McLean?" It was well known that Mr. McLean had been active in the Payne canvass, and that the differences between him and Mr. Pendleton were bitter beyond what might be explained, forgiven or condoned on account of " mere politics." McConville was quick and shrewd. He was the lawyer on both sides of the case, and was running the court and jury about as he pleased. "Why," he answered, with a smile that gave veri- similitude to his speech, "there is nothing that ought to please McLean better than a post abroad for Pendleton. There is bad temper in the Democratic party of Ohio. Pendleton will be the rallying point for the aggrieved, disappointed and discontented, if he stays at home." There was a dinner. The hatchet was buried. Whitney, Payne's son-in-law and other strong Administration influences were enlisted. Mr. Pendleton went as minister to Berlin, and served at that court with the grace that would naturally have been expected of him; but he was never the same Pendleton again. He died of apoplexy at Brussels in 1889. And this was the end of a brilliant, interesting, but in many respects an unhappy career. Sylvanus E. Johnson. 25 EDMUND WINSTON PETTUS. EDMUND WINSTON PETTUS, junior United States senator from Alabama and senior in age of all United States senators, being now well along in his eighty-fifth year, is one of the most interesting figures that has ever appeared in American public life. He never held civil office other than of a local nature until he became senator at the age of seventy-six years. Yet he had always been a man of action and shared with his people in all that most concerned them, and by his eminently sturdy traits of character, his genial spirit and his courage and common sense he was from early manhood a leader among his people, trusted and beloved after a fashion which is the fortune of few men. It was said of him, when he finally consented to represent his State and took the oath of office, that no man ever entered the United States Senate who was a more ready-made senator than he. Senator Pettus was bom July 6, 1821, in Limestone county, Alabama; educated in the common schools of Alabama and at Clinton College, in Smith county, Tennessee; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1842, and commenced practice at Gaines- ville, in Sumter county, Alabama; was elected solicitor for the seventh circuit in 1844; served as a lieutenant in the war with Mexico; resigned the office of solicitor in 1849 ^.nd went with a party of his neighbors on horseback to California; was elected judge of the seventh circuit after his return to Alabama in 1855, but resigned that office in 1858 and moved to his present residence in Dallas county, Alabama; resumed the practice of law; went into the Confederate army as major of the 20th Alabama Infantry in 1861, and was soon afterward made lieutenant-colonel of that regiment; was made a brigadier-general of infantry in October, 1863, and served until the close of the war, participating in many 386 EDMUND WINSTON PETTUS. 387 battles; after the war returned to his home at Selma, Alabama, and to the practice of his profession; in November, 1896, was elected a United States senator as a Democrat for the term com- mencing March 4, 1897; after his nomination the opposition to his election was merely nominal; received the entire vote of his party, and more; was reelected his own successor. Fifty-six years ago, with half a hundred young men of southern Alabama, Mr. Pettus rode horseback across the wildest part of the domain of the republic to California. He was the leader of the party. They were gone two years, and they came back believing in him more than ever. All who were with him during the hard- ships and vicissitudes of that arduous and perilous adventure be- came his staunch friends, and as long as any of them lived, they were his followers and partisans. Without any kind of military training. Senator Pettus was of the very best type of the American volunteer soldier, ready, full of fortitude, resourceful and dauntless of danger and uncowed by adversity. He had served most creditably as a young officer in the war with Mexico, and when there came about the great Civil War, he was naturally among the foremost officers of the first regiment raised in his community. It went to the front, and Major Pettus immediately won distinction. Promoted to be lieutenant-colonel, he again showed a gallantry and military skill that gave him an enviable name. At the siege of Vicksburg, as one of its defenders, leading the troops of a Texas battalion, he rescued the besieged from complete disaster, at the head of men who did not know him until the hour of battle, retaking a salient of the works in which the Union forces had found formidable lodgment, threatening the final defeat of the Confederate army by assault, instead of the slow and less ignominious process of starvation. The Texans, proud of their own name, voted Pettus a Texan. Old veteran Confederate soldiers in Texas to-day, recalling the brave Alabamian of 1863, speak of him as "Old Texas." Senator Pettus was a member of every Democratic national convention from the time the Southern States were restored to the Union after the Civil War until 1896. He always headed the Alabama delegation. He could have held any office within the 388 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. gift of the State at any time he chose to indicate his wish for it. It was only by the most urgent importunities that he was at last persuaded to announce himself as a candidate for the United States Senate. His career in the Senate has given to him national attention and respect as one of the great old men of the body, one of the wonderful old men of the times. Notwithstanding his more than four-score years, his service in the Senate has been as active as that of the youngest. He has shirked no assignment of duty, he has put the harness on and gone forth to battle if need of fight there was or to grace of gentlemanly comradeship if the occasion de- manded it. With convictions that were the growth of great ex- perience, Mr. Pettus soon demonstrated to the Senate that mere oratory was to him a" thing of "sound and fury, signifying noth- ing." No senator ever paid more attention to facts, none was ever more indifferent to flourish. Discussion of a measure for the relief of Porto Rico had elicited from some of the younger members of the Senate much declama- tory performance, manifestly exhibited for the delectation of the galleries. It was too much for the plain, old-time gentleman from Ala- bama. He could not resist giving an idea of what he thought of the antics of the orators. And these are the words with which he did it: "Mr President, we had a wonderful declamation yesterday from our great orator — ^wonderful! It was marvellous in all its parts. It was so marvellous that I dare say such a thing has never before been heard in the Senate of the United States. When you get a genuine orator, he is absolutely absolved from all rules of logic or common sense (laughter). When it is necessary in the fervor of vocabulary and oratorical flourishes to prove any propo- sition, true or false, rules of common sense and the decent observ- ance of what is due to others must not stand in the way of main- taining 'my reputation as a great orator.' It will not do. If it is necessary, I must break down the ideas of observance of what the senator from Vermont (Mr. Proctor) characterizes as 'our best policy.' If it is necessary, I must draw upon my imagination for my facts and upon my memory for my flights of fancy, as did Ovid EDMUND WINSTON PETTUS. 389 Bolus. When an orator speaks, he has a right in the fervor of his oratory, here in the United States Senate, in reference to the Re- publicans and Democrats and Populists, and to any who may choose to take a seat here, to speak of them as enemies of the Gov- ernment. He has a right to speak of them as opponents of the Govermnent. The Government in his mind is 'me and my wife, my son, John, and his wife, us four and no more.' (Laughter). "Mr. President, I was amazed at that speech. I once before heard one that went off in that direction. Oh ! I tell you the senior or junior senator from Iowa — I don't know which — and the senior or junior senator from Maine — I do not know which — will have to take some action with reference to that orator. There is no doubt about it in the world." As he said these words, the venerable Alabama senator looked around, over and through his spectacles at the senators in the chamber with a simulation of earnestness that was irresistibly funny, and the chamber almost shook with their laughter. It had been many a day since the Senate had so much enjoyed a speech as this dehverance. It had a most palpable, good effect. The flourish of oratory subsided, and those who had sought most for approbation from the galleries were for many a day silent. One of the younger senators who had fondly fancied himself a genius of forensic power, likely to erupt and electrify the Senate and the country at any time, somehow quit speaking on the Senate floor for about two years after Senator Pettus's raillery. It was commonly remarked that it did the young man a world of good. It is not alone the partiality of friendship that asserts that Mr. Pettus is held in the highest esteem and is most affectionately regarded by his colleagues in the Senate. Not merely for his won- derful activity, in spite of old age, but for his unmarred capacities of usefulness, his lofty example of sagacity and conservatism and his unfailing goodness of heart, he has been honored and beloved. He is truly one of the wonderful old men of the republic. R. H. Watkins. ORVILLE H. PLATT. GEORGE F. HOAR, General Hawley and Orville H. Piatt were senators of a high grade of abiUty, character and usefulness. General Hawley had broken under the weight of years, and his later service had not been conspicuous. But Mr. Hoar and Mr. Piatt retained their vigor to the end, and were among their party's most trusted advisers. Mr. Piatt, the last of the trio to answer the dread summons, was one of President Roosevelt's closest friends and wannest champions. He was of the rugged type. Not a harsh nor a cold man, but a firm and resolute one, who thought and spoke straight, and always with his heart in his utterance. The spirit fitted the physical frame. Both were large and full of force. Both were constructed for service, rather than ornament. One had but to see Mr. Piatt rise in his place in the Senate and submit his views on the pending question, to be impressed with his earnestness and sincerity, and with the respectful attention he commanded on both sides of the chamber. The attitude, the voice, the clear statement without trick of phrase, all appealed to those who were seeking the right of the matter. It was plain even to the stranger and most casual ob- server that here was a man. Mr. Piatt was not so well known to the country at large as have been many of his associates of smaller caliber. He was not a figure that met the demands of gossip. He was neither a story-teller, nor the hero of story-tellers. He had no part in show or sensationaKsm. Reporters adorned no readable yarns with his name or perform- ances. He answered none of their amiable purposes. Pursuing thus a quiet and unadvertised course, he worked with valuable resuhs for the country, but was far too little known for his works than he deserved to be. Still, as he did not labor for notice, he probably took no thought of this. 390 ORVILLE H. PLATT. 391 During his whole career in the Senate he was a power for good. Men of both parties had faith in him, sought his counsel, and in many things followed it. In this way he impressed himself on legislation with which his name was not identified, while the legis- lation which he openly fashioned was of the best. He was a stout partisan, but not a narrow one, and he believed in the United States and its destiny implicitly. James W. Allison, In Washington Evening Star. THOMAS C. PLATT. SENATOR PLATT of New York is one of the last political chieftians of the old school, Republican and Democrat. President Roosevelt was bom in the year when Piatt was elected to his first political ofl&ce, clerk of Tioga County, New York. Root, Spooner, Cleveland, Hill, and others of like prom- inence were either in knickerbockers or just out of school when Piatt was a political soldier. Yet he said several years back: " If I ever become reminiscent please go to the nearest drug shop, get an ounce of cyanide of potassium, and I'll swallow it at a gulp." But I am only going to say a few words about the real Thomas Collier Piatt, as I have known him in skirmishes and in many battles for twenty years and more. His memory is accurate beyond expression. He has personal reminiscences of Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, (Benjamin's grandfather) John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan. He has known intimately, socially, and politically, Abraham Lin- coln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. We all know how he nominated Roosevelt for governor of New York in 1898 and for Vice-President in 1900. He has seen Grover Cleveland but once. That was at the close of the campaign in 1884. Blaine was in Piatt's apartments in the Fifth Avenue Hotel when the tail-end of the business men's Cleveland and Hendricks final parade passed the hotel. Cleveland was out on the reviewing stand just in front of the hotel. Blaine and Piatt had been watching the parade all day. Blaine, turning to Piatt, said : "That parade beats me!" 392 THOMAS C. PLATT. 393 Piatt was a youngster when William H. Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State, was elected governor of New York in 1838. Thirty years later, Seward and Piatt were political allies. Piatt is a contemporary of thfi-first Seminole, the Mexican, Civil, and the Spanish wars, and of the great inventions of the nineteenth century. He knows pleasant stories of the days when Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, was a gallant young Union officer in the Mexican War, and he recalls Mr. Davis's personal and poUtical conduct as a congressman, a United States senator, and Secretary of War in Buchanan's Cabinet. Piatt recollects the coronation of the late Queen Victoria, and Lincoln's first days in Congress. He has known personally all the great admirals and generals of the Mexican and Civil wars and all the renowned leaders of his party in all the States from the hour it succeeded the old Whig party, the direct successor of the Federalist party founded by Alexander Hamilton, Washington's first Secretary of the Treasury. Like Hamilton, Piatt has attacked Presidents of his party and the Government has been turned over to the opposition. Piatt, like Hamilton, can be intolerant in his arrogance and dove-like in his gentleness. Piatt, like Hamilton, speaks his mind freely and takes little or no pains to conceal his opinions of men and measures. He once said that Carl Schurz was "a lively German peddler of apples of discord and a retail dealer in vinegar, manu- factured from the juice of sour apples," and wanted it printed, too. All the Republican governors of New York, from Edwin D. Morgan in 1858, have been his friends, and Morton, Black, Roosevelt, and Odell were nominated by him. Vice-Presidents, United States senators, lieutenant-governors, congressmen. State legislators, collectors of the port of New York, and other high and humble Federal officers, judges of the Court of Appeals and of the Supreme Court, sheriffs, and all sorts and conditions of place-holders have owed their elevation to Piatt. He declined the nomination for Governor in 1896. Senator Piatt has just passed his seventy-second birthday. As an undergraduate at Yale he captured a fine copy of Scott's works with the following inscription by President Woolsey: 394 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. "Third prize for translation from Latin into English, awarded Thomas C. Piatt of the Freshman Class in Yale College, in March, 1850. Theodore D. Woolsey, President of Yale College, April 2, 1850." His college later gave him the degree of Master of Arts. Mr. Piatt has been an apothecary, a lumber and mill owner, a raih-oad president, president of a mining company, president of an express company, representative in Congress two terms, a quarantine Commissioner for New York, and a United States senator. He is an industrious business man always. He also was an editorial writer on the Owego Times, the New York Tribune, and the Re- public, a short-lived Republican organ which was started in New York city years ago to compete with the New York Tribune and the New York Times, then a Republican newspaper. As an editor of the Owego Times, he wrote of Grant thirty-five years ago: " Great men must expect to suffer unjust criticism, unmerited abuse, and unmitigated calumny. General Grant's support- ers should bear in mind that Thomas Jefferson, the beloved idol and oracle of Democracy, was most unmercifully pelted with mud-balls and stale eggs by the Sumners and Schurzes of that period. The fact is, the public man who fails to incur the con- tumely and jealous hate of his contemporaries may be counted a poUtical pigmy. Let no such man dream of being President." For a hundred years and more. Senator Piatt's people have been people of education and means. His ancestors and his first wife's ancestors " fit into the Revolution," and the histories give the names and details. Piatt's father was a famous lawyer of Tioga County, and a rigid Presb5^erian. Young Piatt sang in the choir and was a deacon in his father's church before he went to live at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in 1879. In Tioga County he is still called "Deacon Piatt." In other parts of the nation he is known as "Tioga Tom," the "Easy Boss," and the "Boss of the Elephant." The latter was given to him several years ago by a little New York news-girl at Twenty-third Street and Sixth Avenue. Piatt had prevented the girl's stand from being taken THOMAS C. PLATT. 395 from her by a New York alderman with a shoe-brush mustache and a flabby jowl. Piatt is a wit, a stoic, an optimist, a particularly keen writer, and with this record— who shall say that he is not one of the most successful p^itical generals of his day and generation? He began his real pohtical career on sound principles of honor. In 1870 he was a delegate to the old Twenty-sixth New York Congressional Convention, pledged to support Milo Goodrich for Congress. For over a thousand ballots the convention was deadlocked. While temporarily absent, the convention nom- inated Piatt, who promptly decKned the nomination in these words, written to the chairman of the convention : "In view of the well-known fact that I was chosen a delegate to this convention, publicly and privately pledged to an unwaver- ing support of Milo Goodrich, and that in my absence from the convention the present result was reached, without the sanction of Mr. Goodrich and his friends, it must be the unanimous verdict of the Republican party of the district that I have no rightful claim to this nomination and would not be entitled to the respect and support of the party if I should accept it. I am of the opinion that political preferment obtained at the expense of old friendships and personal honor must prove hollow and unsatisfying. I also believe that all good Republicans will agree with me in the statement, better no nomination than a nominee tainted even with suspicion of treachery and dishonor." Goodrich was then nominated and elected. After that Piatt was twice elected to Congress. In 1877, at Rochester, he was chairman of the State Convention and bitterly attacked President Hayes. The basis of the complaint was that Hayes had attempted to shatter the Conkling-Platt machine in the State of New York. It was the virtual beginning of the Blaine-ConkUng-Platt-Garfield feud. Hayes turned out Arthur as collector and Alonzo B. Cornell as surveyor of the port of New York. ConkHng in retaliation had himself reelected a United States senator, and with Piatt as his chief lieutenant nominated and elected Cornell for governor and Arthur vice-president of the United States. Next, Piatt was elected Conkling's colleague in the United States Senate. They resigned in anger, claiming that Garfield at Men- 396 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. tor — ^immediately after his nomination, brought about with the aid of Blaine, and in opposition to Conkling and Piatt and the remaining 304 Grant delegates — promised if elected to make Levi P. Morton of New York Secretary ff the Treasury. Gar- field, instead, appointed William Windom of Minnesota. Many have supposed that the resignations of Conkling and Piatt came primarily because Garfield insisted on the appointment of Wilham H. Robertson to be collector of the Port of New York. Conkling and Piatt were refused reelections at Albany, Garfield was shot, Warner Miller and Elbridge G. Lapham succeeded Conkling and Piatt in the Senate, and Arthur, Garfield's successor, Conk- Ung's most intimate friend, declined to change Garfield's pohcy in the matter of political appointments. Conkling and Piatt were publicly and personally execrated. But they were not yet wiped ofE the political earth. They defeated Arthur for renomination in 1884, and Piatt helped nominate his ancient enemy Blaine. The result of that campaign was that Blaine practically and Conkling effectually, were politically destroyed. Warner Miller had control of the entire party machinery of New York State. He was considered a blunderbuss politician. Piatt, persistent, plucky, pleasant, got around him the young men of the party. In 1888 he brought about the nomination of Morton for vice-president, Miller was defeated for governor in that year, and Piatt dictated the nom- ination of young Fassett at Rochester, in 1891. He was easily defeated by Flower. In 1894 Piatt nominated and elected Morton governor, whom Garfield rejected in 1880, and in 1896 Warner Miller was turned out of the Republican State Convention at Saratoga and forever retired from poUtics. Piatt's complete ascendancy was considered one of the marvels of American politics. Most of the great actors in the deadly feud of fifteen years before were in their graves and here was Piatt mountain high. Recent events are known to all men. But one little chapter should not be overlooked. Piatt opposed McKinley's nomination at St. Louis in 1896, on the ground that his financial views were not sound. Piatt and others, as long back as 1892, foresaw the dangerous clouds of what they believed a financial heresy. So THOMAS C. PLATT. 397 many versions of the gold plank of the national campaign of 1896 have been given to the pubhc that I am constrained to break my rule and tell a little personal story. It happened early in March, 1896. "Is Mr. Dana in town?" inquired Mr. Piatt. Yes, my beloved chief, Charles A. Dana, who never turned his back on a friend or a foe, happy, buoyant, abounding in life, with a chivalric gentleness for all save shams and frauds, was in town and at his post in the Sun ofi&ce. "Say to him, please," continued Mr. Piatt, "that we are to have our State convention on March 24, to elect delegates at large to the national convention, and ask him if he will kindly write for me the financial plank we should adopt." The message was conveyed to Mr. Dana, who promptly took steps to comply with Mr. Piatt's request, and Mr. Piatt as promptly coincided with Mr. Dana's views, and this was the plank evolved by Mr. Piatt, Mr. Dana and Mr. William M. Laffan, the present owner of the Sun, and adopted by the Republican State Conven- tion of March 24, 1896, held in the Grand Central Palace, New York city. "The agitation for the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to I seriously disturbs all industrial interests and calls for a clear statement of the Republican party's attitude upon this question, to the end that the trade of this country at home and abroad may again be placed upon a sound and stable foundation. "We recognize in the movement for the free coinage of sil- ver an attempt to degrade the long-established standard of our monetary system, and hence a blow to public and private credit, at once costly to the Government and harmful to our domestic and foreign commerce. "Until there is a prospect of international agreement as to silver coinage, and while gold remains the standard of the United States and of the civilized world, the Republican party of New ~ York declares itself in favor of the firm and honorable main- tenance of that standard." The Piatt forces at St. Louis fought on that line and they would have fought all summer. This is the money plank adopted at St. Louis, June 17 of that year. 398 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. "The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money. It caused the enactment of the law providing for the resumption of specie payment in 1879. Since then every dollar has been as good as gold. "We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our country. We are, therefore, opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by inter- national agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world, which we pledge ourselves to promote, and until such an agreement can be obtained the existing gold standard must be preserved. All of our silver and paper currency now in circula- tion must be maintained at parity with gold, and we favor all measures designed to maintain inviolably the obligations of the United States, and all money in coin or paper at the present standard, the standard of the most enlightened nations on earth." Had the foregoing platform not been accepted, McKinley would not have been nominated, and if McKinley, by accident, had been nominated on any other platform, he would surely have gone down in defeat. President McKinley, later, graciously acknowledged this fact to Mr. Piatt. Senator Piatt's characteristics? Well, he was never known to break his word to a political colleague. He is very slow to give a promise, but, once made, his closest poUtical adviser could not induce him to break it. He is a political strategist, with a keen eye for the perspective. Sometimes he is sensitive over news- paper criticism, but he quickly recovers, and recalls with zest the days when he was an editor and carved up Horace Greeley and other leaders of the Liberal Republican movement. Like Hamilton, he is the perfection of neatness in dress. Hamihon had bitter pohtical feuds in the State with the opposition led by Aaron Burr. Piatt had for years almost identically intense struggles with David B. Hill, whom he supplanted in the "United States Senate. Hill is in retirement, but Piatt lives, serene after a thousand conflicts, his old-time arrogance toward political factionists and adversaries mellowed by his victories and by the impulses of a naturally generous and friendly heart. Edward G. Riggs. SAMUEL J. RANDALL. SAMUEL J. RANDALL of Pennsylvania was easily the most conspicuous man who served in Congress during the twenty-five years preceding his death, which occurred on April 14, 1890. This was due mainly to his strong personality. He was first elected to the House of Representatives from one of the Philadelphia districts in November, 1862, and became a mem- ber of the Thirty-eighth Congress, March 4, 1863. He served con- tinuously in the House until his death, a period of twenty-seven years, and was thrice chosen Speaker. Quite a number of men who became distinguished in the public service entered the House of Representatives with Mr. Randall. Among these may be men- tioned William B. Allison and John A. Kasson of Iowa; James G. Blaine of Maine; John A. J. Cresswell and Henry Winter Davis of Maryland; Oakes Ames and George S. Boutwell of Massachu- tetts; James Brooks, Francis Keman, and Fernando Wood of New York, James A. Garfield and Robert S. Schenck of Ohio. William D. Kelley, another Pennsylvanian who achieved national reputation, preceded Randall one Congress, and served continu- ously until overtaken by death in January, 1890, three months prior to the death of his colleague. Charles O'Neill of Philadel- phia, who entered Congress with Randall, formally announced in the House the death of his two distinguished colleagues and hfe- long associates, and followed them into eternity soon thereafter, his death occurring in November, 1893. To this trio of Philadel- phia men who became prominent in the House of Representatives should be added Alfred C. Harmer of the same city, who was first elected to the Forty-second Congress, and served until his death in March, 1900. Each of these four Representatives from Philadel- phia districts became in turn "Father of the House," — Kelley, Randall, O'Neill and Harmer, in the order named. This honorary 399 400 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. position, however, was held by Randall only a few months. Each of the others enjoyed it for several years, and each had the honor of administering the oath of ofl5ce to Speakers-elect. Another Phila- delphia Representative, Henry H. Bingham, who has been a member of the House since 1879, succeeded Harmer as "Father of the House," and continues to enjoy that distinction. Randall was a natural and an ideal leader. His commanding presence attracted followers; his mastery of details, his boldness and unfaltering courage, his mental alertness and resourcefulness, his deliberation and coolness in action, inspired confidence and excited enthusiasm. And behind these physical and mental quali- ties stood conspicuously the unquestioned patriotism and invul- nerable integrity of the man. His industry was untiring, and when its fruition was presented to the House, as in the case of general appropriation bills, he was as firm as adamant. His work was performed inteUigently, conscientiously, and in carrying it out he was alike indifferent to the persuasion of party associates and the attacks of political opponents. Randall's great success in his numerous contests in the House was based upon thorough knowl- edge of details and his wonderful tenacity in adhering to a settled purpose, bom of conviction. He succeeded James A. Garfield as chairman of the Conamittee on Appropriations in 1875. The Civil War terminated ten years prior to that, but the civil expendi- tures of the Goverrmient, which had grown inordinately from causes incidental to the extravagance and wastefulness of a state of war, had not been reduced to that degree which was very gener- ally demanded by the country. Randall was familiar with the working of the various depart- ments of the Government, and this was largely augmented by the exercise of that authority which attaches to the Committee on Appropriations in securing information needed for intelligent prep- aration of the money bills. Convinced that the expenditures were far in excess of the public requirements, Randall apphed the knife with a vigor and incisiveness that startled the Republicans, whose leaders attacked his bills with great vehemence, charging that the Democrats, having failed to "shoot the Government to death," had engaged in an effort to " starve it to death." These assaults SAMUEL J. RANDALL. 401 made no impression on Randall. He was indifferent alike to the arguments and the invective of the opposition. Holding his party solidly behind him, Randall met assaults with facts and figures which could not be controverted, and drove his bills through the House with a cut of $40,000,000 compared with the aggregate voted at the corresponding session of the preceding Congress. The Republican Senate attempted to undo the work of the House, but Randall met the movement in the conferences between the two Houses with unflinching determination. The outcome was that the Senate was forced to yield the bulk of the additions made, and consent to an aggregate reduction of nearly $30,000,000. In this contest with the Senate, as in subsequent contests of like character with that body, Randall adhered to the belief that it is the funda- mental right of the House to control expenditure of the public money, and would not consent that the Senate should invade that right by practically taking the initiative and manipulating the purse-strings. During the five years he presided over the House as Speaker, a strict adherence to that principle was strenuously in- sisted upon and maintained. Rather than surrender it Randall upon two occasions allowed general appropriation bills to fail, and thus compelled the calling of Congress in extraordinary session. One of these failures was the bill for the army, Randall insisting upon the incorporation of an amendment that no money carried in the bill should be expended for the employment of Federal troops at the election polls, except when used as a posse comitatus. Randall's first exhibition of successful leadership was given during the last session of the Forty-third Congress, when the Re- publicans, who had nearly two-thirds of the membership of the House, attempted to pass what was known as the "Force Bill." Strong men were numerous on the Democratic side. Among them were Wm. H. Bamum, Connecticut; Samuel S. Cox, Lyman Tre- main, Clarkson N. Potter, and Fernando Wood, New York; Thomas Swann, Maryland; Henry B. Banning and Milton Sayler, Ohio; James B. Beck and Milton J. Durham, Kentucky; Wm. R. Morrison, and Jasper D. Ward, Illinois; Wm. S. Hohnan and Wm. E. Niblack, Indiana; John D. C. Atkins and W. C. Whitt- home of Tennessee; James H. Blount and Alex. H. Stephens, 26 402 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Georgia; L. Q. C. Lamar, Mississippi; Richard P. Bland and Aylett H. Buckner, Missouri; Robert B. Vance and Alfred M. Waddell, North Carolina; John T. Harris and Eppa Hunton, Virginia; John Hancock and Roger Q. Mills, Texas; Charles A. Eldridge, Wisconsin. These were men of abihty and large ex- perience in public affairs. Several of them had long service in Congress, were regarded by their party associates as able and tactful leaders, and were more widely known in connection with Congressional affairs than Randall. At the outset the minority seemed powerless to resist the de- termination of the majority to pass the bill. Randall, without previous understanding with his colleagues, but naturally, by rea- son of his knowledge of the complicated rules of the House, his tact and skill, his aggressiveness and indomitable pluck, assumed leadership and commanded the united support of his party. The American Congress, or any other parliamentary body, never fur- nished a more conspicuous illustration of skilful leadership than was shown by Randall upon that memorable occasion. He ex- tracted from the rules a series of dilatory motions that for seventy- two consecutive hours kept the clerks busy calling the long roll, and during that entire period Randall never left the House. He ate at his desk, or in the lobby adjoining the hall of the House, and later in the struggle snatched at intervals a few minutes' sleep during the progress of roll-calls, but at no time was he beyond the sound of the clerk's voice. Finally, when the contest had been prolonged to a point where defeat of the bill was assured, Randall withdrew his forces and allowed the majority to send their bill to the Senate within a few hours of the Constitu- tional limitation of the Congress, knowing that it would be impos- sible for the Senate to give the bill consideration. When the House adjourned, after the most exciting and protracted parUa- mentary struggle ever known, Randall marched down the main aisle carrying in his hand the tin coffee-pot which had served to sustain physical strength in maintaining the contest, cheered by his faithful adherents, who followed in procession, and applauded by many of those who for three days and nights had been arrayed against him. That remarkable struggle brought Randall promi- SAMUEL J. RANDALL. 403 nently before the people of the country, made him Speaker of the House, and would have made him the candidate of his party for President, had he not steadfastly adhered to his convictions on the question of the tariff. The contest over the Force Bill may be said, according to the viewpoint, to have been a partisan struggle, and that Randall's service was simply that of a partisan leader. There is, however, another remarkable incident in Randall's public career, one in which the stability of the Government was involved, and in which Randall was the dominating influence and decisive instrument. This was the counting and declaration of the electoral vote in 1877. To the iron firmness, indomitable courage, and lofty pa- triotism of Samuel J. Randall are mainly due the amicable settle- ment of that tumultuous controversy which for a time threatened to plunge the country into a condition of anarchy, with resulting strife and carnage. Those who witnessed the protracted, acri- monious, and unprecedented struggle in the last days and hours of the Forty-fourth Congress over the count of the electoral vote cast for Hayes and Tilden at the preceding Presidential election, cannot forget the turbulent and riotous scenes in the House of Representatives, nor the anxiety and solicitude with which the people of the country awaited the outcome. On the face of the returns, Hayes had 185 and Tilden 184 electoral votes. In the former were included the votes of Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon, all of which were disputed by the Democrats. This dispute led to the creation of the Elec- toral Commission, to which these several contests were referred for ascertainment and certification of the facts. By a majority of one vote — 8 to 7 — each case was decided in favor of Hayes. This was a bitter disappointment to the Democrats, who were confident that the Commission could not fail to decide, in at least one of the four disputed cases, in favor of Tilden, and thus give him a majority of the electoral vote. On March i, believing the deci- sions of the Commission to be erroneous and based on partisan feeling, a majority of the Democratic members of the House, led by Blackburn of Kentucky, decided to prevent completion of the electoral count by the joint convention of the two Houses. This 404 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. was easy of accomplishment under the rules that obtained. Only three days of the legal life of the Congress remained. The plan decided upon was to prevent further sessions of the joint conven- tion, and thus force the Forty-fourth Congress to expire without completing the count and proclaiming the result of the vote, as pro- vided for by the Constitution and the laws. Anticipating such a contingency, and to be prepared for an emergency that might arise. President Grant ordered Federal troops to Washington, and the troops quietly entered the city late on the night of March 3, and while the House was wrangling over the momentous question. The most intense excitement prevailed throughout the country. The people were profoundly agitated, and there was wide-spread apprehension that passion would overthrow reason and supplant patriotism, and that national disaster would immediately follow. Confident in their ability to defeat the completion of the count, those engaged in the movement, by the employment of dilatory methods, held the House in continuous session until late in the night of March 3. It was at this point that Randall startled the organized opposition by an exhibition of characteristic courage and highest patriotism. The Democrats had a large majority in the House, but those who resisted the completion of the count were limited to a small number of that party. Yet this minority was sufiiciently strong to accomplish their purpose with the aid of the rules and acquiescence of the Speaker. Recognizing that the success of the scheme would be attended with direful results to the country. Speaker Randall, with full knowledge that his action would prevent the induction into office of the candidate of his party, and who he believed had been legally elected, brushed aside the rules of the House under which the fili- buster was successfully proceeding, declared that the mandate of the Constitution and the laws were superior to all rules inconsistent with their declared purpose, and directed that the count should proceed. No man in field or forum ever rendered a higher service to his country than was rendered upon that occasion by Samuel J. Randall. Randall's service to his party in defeating the Force Bill and his service to the country in defeating completion of the electoral SAMUEL J. RANDALL. 405 count in 1877, made him a trusted party leader and secured for him the respect and confidence of the people generally. Thus in- trenched in popular confidence, had he devoted his great energies to personal advancement Randall could have secured the nomina- tion of his party for President. But he would not surrender con- victions conscientiously reached and held, nor compromise a principle he believed fundamentally right in exchange for the highest honors that could be conferred. He differed from the leaders of his party on the tariff question, and in the Forty-eighth Congress antagonized and voted against the Mills Bill, which was a declared party measure. That difference placed Randall in op- position to his party on the paramount economic question of the time, but did not diminish the respect of the party leaders nor with- draw the affection of the masses for him. That this attitude of Randall on the tariff prevented his political advancement was generally admitted and was not unknown to Randall himself. Roger Q. Mills, the antithesis of Randall in many respects, admitted that Randall's position on the tariff question alone pre- vented him from becoming the national standard-bearer of his party. Mills became the Democratic leader in the House on revenue questions, and being a man of force and abihty, believing thoroughly in the declarations of his party on all pubKc questions, and especially with regard to the tariff, occasionally exhibited resentfulness toward Randall, and upon several occasions dis- played a degree of temper which w£is marked by disapproval on both sides of the House. Mills was as intense in feeling and action, as sincere in conviction, and determined in will as Randall, but lacked the deliberation, coolness and mental equipoise of the Penn- sylvanian. The difference between the two men on this one public question did not interfere with their personal relations although it was generally believed that Mills was bitterly hostile to Randall. On the contrary, the Texan had the greatest ad- miration for the Pennsylvanian, as was evidenced by the trib- ute contained in his eulogy of Randall delivered in the House of Representatives, a few extracts from which may be fittingly employed to close this sketch. Said Mr. Mills: "The death of Samuel J. Randall marks an epoch In our 406 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. history. Wealth had no spell which it could throw over him, no power that could draw his feet the ninth part of a hair from the path of integrity. From crown to toe he was an honest man. He was honest in his thoughts, honest in his words, honest in his feel- ings, and honest in his desires. No man from the beginning of the Government to the present hour ever entered this hall or departed from it with a purer conscience than Samuel J. Randall. ... It was not alone his spotless integrity that made him conspicuous at a time when corruption was wide-spread in all the departments of the Government, but it was his hon-like courage and the splendid ability with which he espoused and defended the cause of the right. . . . There was something about him that attracted men to him and riveted their confidence in him. That something made him a leader among men. He had strong character. Every one felt its force when brought into contact with him. He was calm and de- liberate in counsel. He was firm even to stubbornness in adherence to his opinions. . . . Without seeming to affect it or even to desire it, he held his party to his person, and with one exception, and only one, they followed wherever he led, and followed without a question of his ability or the wisdom of the measure he supported. On economic questions he was not in accord with his party, and the divergence gave more regret to them than to him. I have often remonstrated with him and entreated him to concede some- thing and keep in harmony with his party, who were ready to bestow upon him the highest honors within their gift. Again and again have I assured him of the strong hold he had on the affections of our people, and how painful it was to us to see him persist in his opposition to all the traditions and teachings of the party, and how anxious we were to put him first, above all others, as the one bright and illustrious name, the leader of the party of Jefferson and Jackson; but entreaties and remonstrances were alike vain. Nothing could move him from his convictions." John M. Carson. MATTHEW W. RANSOM. AFTER the era of reconstruction, so called, the Southern States, as they gradually regained control of their own affairs, replaced the aliens and strangers who had assumed to represent them in the two branches of Congress with men of their own blood and their own choosing. Naturally all or very nearly all of these men had served in the Confederate Army. They were not only soldiers who had carved their way to honor and fame with the sword, but they were men of character and intellect, of imagination and oratory. With very few exceptions they had not the political training and experience of that notable assemblage of Southern statesmen who figured so prominently in national affairs before the days of 1861. Yet handicapped as they were by the adverse conditions under which they came to public life, subject at every turn to wilful and malignant misrepresenta- tion and misconstruction, they acquitted themselves in a manner which met the approval of their own people, and left little opening to their opponents for the making of political capital. Foremost among these men was Matthew W. Ransom of North Carolina, who served in the Senate from April 24, 1872, to March 3, 1895. He was a bom politician, not of the lower but the higher order. It was not long after he came to the Senate until he had established relations friendly, if not intimate, with most of the leaders on the Republican side. It was not that he surrendered even by implication any of his convictions, but, as it seemed to me, he felt it to be for the best interests of North Carolina and the South to show a disposition to accept the situation so far as the issues of the war itself were concerned. A man of fine presence and most agreeable personality, dignified, yet suave and of per- suasive gifts, he would carry through measures in which his people were interested by private suggestion and appeal when arguments on the floor would have failed. 407 408 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. He was an indolent man, and not given to much speaking. When he did address the Senate he indulged but Httle in argument or technicaHties, but was immense at strewing the flowers of rhetoric. With his magnetic style it was always pleasing to listen to him, but he always spoke for the galleries, and his heavy work was done at dinner tables or in committee rooms. Before Mr. Gorman came into the Senate, Ransom was the man on the Demo- cratic side who conducted negotiations with the Republicans. He gave much attention to his personal appearance, and never lost self-consciousness, in private expressed himself with the utmost freedom as to men and measures, yet on the floor of the Senate was always parhamentary and conservative. He was not an "absen- tee" senator, for in his twenty-three years of service he could almost always be found in the Capitol building or in the Senate when in session. F. A. Richakdson. THOMAS BRACKETT REED. PROBABLY never was there a man in public life so little understood by his world as the great Speaker of the Fifty-first Congress; rarely a man to whom public life meant so little, and who, fed on ambition, tasted only the ashes of Dead Sea fruit. America has not yet done justice to Thomas Brackett Reed ; it is doubtful if it ever will, because the man who towers head and shoulders over the multitude is either misunder- stood, or feared or hated with all the rancor that petty minds have for the great. It was unfortunate for Mr. Reed that, of all the men who were brought in contact with him, only a few, a very few, were capable of really knowing him, of reading his heart and his brain; to the rest he was a man to be feared for his savage powers of sar- casm and invective, or to be hated because he used those powers as the easiest means of showing his contempt for the commonplace and the trifling. It was that profound contempt for the commonplace man, the man who was his intellectual inferior, that caused Mr. Reed to be almost friendless, which gave him not a moment's regret, and made him want so few friends. Of all men, the most intolerant, the one who lives most rigidly to the code of his caste, is the intel- lectual aristocrat. The aristocrat by blood, remembering the motto of his order, noblesse oblige, will cqndone much, for ignorance excuses much, and convention, after all, is a flexible quality. The intellectual aristocrat will excuse nothing; ignorance is an unpar- donable sin, and ignorance covered by an assumption of knowledge is treason. The great scholar of the closet, the bookworm who spends all lus life digging out Greek roots or tracing the derivation of the letter A, as a great German scholar did and on his death- bed bemoaned the shortness of life and wished he had not been so ambitious because he might perhaps have accomplished more — a 409 410 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. man of that type is tolerant with all his vast knowledge, as he is always conscious of how very little he knows and how very much there is still to be known. But Reed was of the fighting type of the intellectual, not the man who served his particular god in the rest- ful quiet of the cloister, but who must do what was required of him in the heat of the open. To be among men, to be a leader among men, was his ambition, and at the same time men were so petty, so small, so fooUsh, so unworthy of a big man wasting time upon them that he had for them much the same scorn that the gods have for mortals; who, out of sheer sport and pure weariness of their littleness, show their supreme contempt by wantonly blasting them with a bolt and tumbling over their mountains that with ant-like inteUigence in the pride of ignorance they build with such fatuous content and fondly imagine they are bridging space to heaven. Reed's aphorisms and cynicisms are part of the political tradi- tions of Washington, and many of his victims have been rescued from oblivion simply because they served as the targets of his scorching wit. For Mr. Reed's wit was never the gentle philosophy that stings but does not scar. It was always mordant. It seared deep. The wound never quite healed. At the tip of the shaft lurked a tiny drop of poison that entered into the victim's veins and forever after destroyed his peace of mind. In the busiest hours of the day, in the still small hours of the night, there would sweep over him, turning him hot and cold by turns, the recollection of that moment when Reed's barb smote him with all the lancinating pain of steel driven deep into flesh, and the victim would grind his teeth in impotent fury and long for a day of revenge. But he knew he longed for the unattainable. The gods fear not mortals. Reed was beyond the arrows of his victims. No man ever engaged with him in a contest of wit and did not regret his temerity, and only fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Occasionally a new man, viewing himself through his local reputation, with all the reckless audacity of youth would hurl himself into the arena and challenge the knight of the caustic wit to mortal combat. On these occasions Mr. Reed never even closed his visor. It would be lending too much dignity to his opponent to break a lance with him. Like a big dog who lays a puppy low with a single blow of his paw and THOMAS BRACKETT REED. 411 calmly continues the enjoyment of the interrupted bone, Mr. Reed would fling out, in the most careless and drawling and indififerent manner, a flaming shaft of satire or ridicule that pierced the com- placency of even the newest and most bumptious member and drowned him under the jeers and laughter of the House — that House which, like the spectators in a Roman amphitheatre, found the show tame until a trickling stream of crimson on the white sand stirred them into life by facing them with death. And yet one shall do Mr. Reed a great injustice if one gathers the impression that he was a morose, ill-tempered or peevish man, who deliberately sought to make other people unhappy, who found no enjoyment in life, who had no friends and no tolerance of the "little nonsense now and then." He was always a delightful companion, as many faceted, as scintillating, as full of the play of brilliant mental color that streamed from him as unconsciously as the sea of ever-changing color flashes from a diamond; and his mind had all the unfathomable depth, and lucency, and hardness of the diamond. Every man worth a moment's thought is at least two-sided; the great men are so many sided that the world seldom sees them in all their aspects. Reed was a great man, great in many things, and there was not one Reed but a dozen of him. He was wit, philosopher, cynic, sentimentalist, touching life not merely on the surface, but delving deep below and tapping veins from which gushed forth a crystal stream of thought. His poUtical opponents called him "Czar"; they used it as a term of oppro- brium; it was intended to connote a man of brute force, whose creed was might, who worshipped only rude strength, who tram- pled down the weak and stifled liberty for temporary party advan- tage. A great many men believed this, honestly believed this, because they knew only one side of Reed; between him and them was a veil that could not be rent asunder and obscured all vision. It was a time of fierce political passion; it was a time when men ordinarily under restraint said and did violent things and gloried in their violence. Mr. Reed was never a man meekly to turn the other cheek. He had a temper that needed little provocation to flash. Opposition aroused aU the combativeness that made him so intensely virile and always so interesting. It was a time that 412 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. would have put to the test a saint, and Reed was no saint. Cir- cumstances made him at that particular moment the Achilles of his party. And yet you may turn from Reed the Achilles to Reed the scholar and the student, Reed quietly sitting in his Uttle room in his hotel reading poetry or philosophy, examining into causes, trying to solve for his own satisfaction the eternal why and where- fore, the same eternal questions that every man who thinks must ask himself — that is, unless he can cast the burden of thought on the back of religion, and Reed's religion was not broad enough to carry the burden of his brain. "Listen to this," he said one night as I entered his room and he motioned me to a chair. "This" was Burton's immortal Kastdah, and then without waiting for remark from me he read from the open book in his hand : "Cease, Man, to mourn, to weep, to wail; enjoy the shining hour of sun; We dance along Death's icy brink, but is the dance less full of fun?" the philosophy of cynicism that peculiarly appealed to him in his mood of the hour. After a moment's pause he read again : "O the dread pathos of our lives! how durst thou, Allah, thus to play With Love, AfEection, Friendship, all that shows the god in mortal day?" I went there to talk politics to him, to have him tell me of the schemes and strategems of men, of their intrigues for place, to plunge him in the sordidness of the seamy side of politics. But Reed would have none of it. He refused to besmear himself with the things of earth when his eyes were strained to search heaven and its mysteries, and the fourth dimension had more charms for him than the geometrical pattern of the carpet beneath his feet. He talked that night with marvellous power and force and insight; he talked of all that lay before him and what he had been forced to overcome, and perhaps it was not without a deeper signification than the mere pleasure of listening to a noble thought that he once again read : THOMAS BRACKETT REED. 413 "Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause; He noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self-made laws." I have called Mr. Reed a great man. What constitutes great- ness is not often easy to define, but in his case there was never a question. Mr. Reed was one of the few successful leaders of revo- lution, and the revolution he so triumphantly led is none the less one of those great milestones in history because it was a bloodless revolution, because it did not afifect dynasties and left the map imtouched. Mr. Reed, when he was elected Speaker, found the House of Representatives enmeshed in its own rules, escape from which was impossible. With the prodigality of a spendthrift, with the recklessness of a foolish youth who thinks he has the magic goblet of Philemon and Baucis, the House had given away all it possessed until it came to the point where it was impotent to do business, where a majority was under control of an infinitesimal and tyrannical minority. Many men had picked at the Gordian knot and found it baffled them; Reed, a modern Alexander, with the courage and wisdom of an Alexander, severed it with his brain of steel and left the House free to do its duty. This service alone — and an inestimable service it was — entitled him to be considered great, but when one knows the manner and method of its accomplishment appreciation increases. When Mr. Reed determined to reform the rules of the House he stood abso- lutely alone. Not a single one of the RepubKcan leaders in or out of the House believed that it was possible for it to be done. There were great constitutional and legal questions to be considered; there were questions of political expediency. After having made a careful examination of the constitutional and legal questions and satisfied himself that the plan he proposed would stand the scrutiny of the courts, he went resolutely forward, working out all the de- tails, and only then did he communicate his plan to his associates. It is not without significance that one of the men he took into his confidence, generally regarded at that time as the leading authority on parliamentary law, told him that what he proposed was illegal, and other men were equally sceptical of the legality of his plan, but 414 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. loyally agreed to stand by him because it was in the interest of the party. Mr. Reed was an intense party man — Democracy and an arrested mental development seemed to him synonymous — but I doubt if he would have countenanced any suppression of the rights of the minority merely for the sake of party advantage. And let me add that when Mr. Reed engaged in his great work of re- forming the practice of the House of Representatives he knew exactly the nature of the task on which he was embarked. He knew the abuse and villification that would be heaped upon him. The taunts and gibes and charges of improper methods, the way he was pictured and held up to the scorn of the country as a buUy and a coward, hurt him as nothing perhaps ever hurt him before, and yet through it all he bore himself with a poise and a dignity that was admirable. Time and- again he longed for the freedom of the private member; he yearned to drop the dignity of the Speakership and the restraint imposed by the gavel and once more to take his place on the floor, to be at the head of a fighting col- umn, to hold in his hand a battle-axe instead of the gavel, and to hurl death-dealing strokes among his enemies. Yet through it all he kept his temper; in public he was only a trifle more cynical and indifferent; only the contemptuous sneer and his withering sar- casm showed the control that he forced upon himself. The nomination of Mr. McKinley was the death-blow to his ambitions, and from that time he was a disappointed man to whom fate had played a scurvy trick by showing him the promised land from a high mountain but preventing him from entering upon its enjoyments. His services to the party, he considered, entitled him to the supreme reward, and he always believed that a free expres- sion of choice would have resulted in his nomination, but this free expression was denied by the money used in behalf of Mr. McKin- ley's candidacy prior to the convention. Manley's treachery was the spectacular ending to a cause doomed to defeat from the be- ginning, but there were other men on whose loyalty he had every right to rely, who had really been made by him, who were equally as disloyal as Manley, and early deserted him when they saw his star declining. For McKinley he had little affection, and of his virtues and abilities he had even less appreciation. He was never THOMAS BRACKETT REED. 415 in sympathy with the so called "imperialistic" foreign policy of the McKinley administration, and I think he always secretly hoped that when McKinley's second term ended there would be a reac- tion and the country would demand a "conservative" and anti- imperialistic candidate, and Mr. Reed looked forward to being selected as that candidate. But fate again played with him. McKinley fell at the hands of a half-crazed assassin, and Mr. Reed realized that his last chance was gone. He lived long enough to see the Supreme Court of the United States sustain his code; he saw a Democratic Speaker and a Democratic House take his code and make it their own; he saw his code engrafted in the genius of a nation, but he died too soon to realize his ambition. He died embittered and disappointed, but he left the memory of a great personality, a massive intellect, and a service to his country of the first magnitude. A. Maurice Low. JOHN H. REAGAN OF TEXAS. WHEN Judge Reagan died in the spring of 1904, there passed away the last member of the Cabinet of Jefferson Davis, and a man who had taken an active part in the political history of the country for the last half of a century. As postmaster-general of the Confederacy, he proved an able and vigorous executive officer, and did all that a man could do under the most trying circumstances to keep up communication with the people of the South. While in Congress after the war, he used to relate to his associates the difficulties that beset him, and of once himself carrying on horse- back a mail-bag a distance of fifty miles. He always enjoyed to a large extent the confidence and esteem not only of the people of Texas, but the entire South. He was a native of Termessee, and came into public notice the first time by his severe antago- nism to "Knownothingism." He was an ardent believer in the doctrine of States rights, and it was in support of that doctrine that he went with the South in its rebellion. After the war he was imprisoned for a time, and advised his people to accept the arbitration of war. He served several terms in the House, and was then elected to the Senate, and while there succeeded in having the Interstate Commerce Law passed. Judge Reagan is therefore the "daddy" of the law regulating railway rates. Throughout his long and useful career, the noble Texan was always animated by a sincere desire to do his duty, to serve his people, and promote their progress. He leaves a memory for faithful service which will long endure. 416 JAMES D. RICHARDSON. ONE of the least picturesque, yet one of the ablest and most useful members of the House of Representatives during the past twenty years, was James D. Richard- son of the Fifth District of Tennessee. He was elected to the Fiftieth Congress and remained through the Fifty-eighth, resigning to accept one of the highest offices in the gift of the Masonic order, that of Sovereign Grand Commander of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Masons. He was not one of the pictu- resque members, because he was too busy always to pose for the galleries, and he never spoke save when he had something which he had to say and which no one could say for him. He was in that galaxy of stars on the Democratic side which had their full effulgency during the Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses when Crisp, Springer, Culberson the elder, Wilson of West Vir- ginia, Bailey, Bryan, McMillin, Money, Turner of Georgia, Catchings, Champ Clark, Bankhead, Amos Cummings, De Armand, Bland, Dinsmore, Josiah Patterson, Newlands, Swanson, and Tracy flashed across the national horizon, some to fall into oblivion later, while others became fixed in the firmament of their country, and ever to grow brighter with the succeeding years. It was a brilliant array during those Democratic days, and they were observed of aU men. Crisp went to his grave after laboring to hold his party together, worn out with a struggle which, now looking back, seemed hopeless, but not until his State had laid across his shoulders the senatorial toga, which, however, he was destined never to wear on the floor of the Senate. Springer went upon the Bench, McMillin to the gubernatorial chair of Tennessee, while Turner, Cummings, Bland, Wilson, Patterson, and Culberson, after a few years more of struggle, died, reasonably young in years, but all leaving behind them records of which their 27 417 418 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. families could boast and their States be proud. Bailey, Money, and Newlands are in the Senate; Swanson is Governor of Virginia, and Bryan has carved for himself a place in the history of the nation. Of all that coterie, Richardson held longest to prom- inence in the House. He never took a step backward ; his progress has always been onward and upward. He was not the equal, possibly, of that brilliant and intellectual giant from Texas, now Senator Bailey, nor did he have the power of debate of Turner, nor the ability to handle and direct men that characterized Crisp; he did not possess the keen sarcasm of De Armond, nor could he handle the bludgeon in debate with the effect which made McMillin feared, yet in usefulness he measured up to them all, and while he never reached the height of some, he never lost any prestige he had gained in those days, and when he finally retired from public life it was of his own volition and contrary to the wishes of his constituency. The guides in the galleries were wont to point out to visitors the dignified Crisp, show them where sat Bailey, ever an idol on the floor; the silver-tongued Breckinridge; Bryan, then just unfold- ing to the public; Springer, rightly named the flying squirrel of the House; and then that wonderful array of statesmen headed by Reed of Maine and made famous by Grosvenor, Boutelle, Brom- well, DalzeU, Dingley, Dolliver, Evans of Kentucky, Johnson of Indiana, Taft, and Cowan of Maryland. It was after these picturesque personages were pointed out that the student of politics would ask, "Now where is Jim Richardson of Tennessee." He was always one for thoughtful men to follow. Without great magnetism, he achieved great results, never by a display of brilliant moves, but by cautious and careful work, by constant application, and by the power that comes with a thorough knowl- edge of a subject. If he had done nothing more than collect the "Messages and Proclamations of the Presidents of the United States" and put them in book form, he would deserve well of all Americans. No one with less patience, with less ability to work, could have accomplished this resuh. It took him years to trace some of these important proclamations, many of which were never in the public archives of the State department, but concealed JAMES D. RICHARDSON. 419 in the obscure press of forty, fifty, sixty, and even seventy, eighty, and ninety years ago. These eight volumes now form one of the most important parts of any well-equipped library. The loss of some of these papers would be a calamity to the political history of America. On the printing committee, on the committee of the District of Columbia, he was a tower of strength always, and the Capital City owes him much for the painstaking methods with which he strove to beautify and adorn it. In the Fifty-fifth Congress he strove for the leadership of his party, then in the minority in the House, but pitted against him was Bailey, indomitable always in popular leadership, and he accepted defeat at the hands of the Texan. But he remained on, trusted by his people at home, and when Bailey entered the Senate Richardson took up the leader- ship of the minority and contested most ably every inch of ground with the party then in power. In debate, Richardson was a rapier. Keen, yet at the same time briery, he always led his antagonist into ambush and would as often emerge with a scalp hanging to his belt. He was logical but never rhetorical, earnest but never passionate. He was a debater rather than an orator, but above all he was a student. He strove always for what was best, and whatever he did he did well and whatever he accomplished was good. Archibald W. Butt. JOHN SHERMAN. THERE was much of the iceberg to John Sherman, and, like the iceberg, there were nine-tenths of him under water. Still, the ice was more apparent than real. It was on the surface. Within, Sherman was warm, at times tropical. "Most folks take Sherman for cold," once remarked a brother senator. "These people ought to lift one of his griddles. They would find him blazing inside." To men whom he liked — they were few — Sherman was yield- ing, and faithful in his friendship. To those whom he casually met he was affable and kind enough. He was never rude or hard; never violent, even with blood foes. For the stranger with- in his gates his air was gentle and frank. He was easy to see, and, generally speaking, kept himself within the reach of all. Newspaper folk, who were sent to Sherman by some stress of business, liked him. He had his dignity, but there was no reserve. He maintained no distance between himself and them. He would answer a question with a round promptness, or say plainly that he couldn't answer it, and tell why. He expedited the business in hand, and would even anticipate the purpose of one's coming, and put questions to himself. By the pubUc, such men as Sherman are looked on as suc- cessful. It is to be doubted if they share the popular view. Sherman did not achieve his aim. His ambition was to be Presi- dent; he made a bride of his White House hope. And it was never fulfilled; he failed and kept faiUng until his latest chance was swept away. From the '60 's until the MinneapoUs Convention of 1892, Sherman hoped for a Presidency. At times the light burned dimly, and again it blazed. For thirty years, whether far or 420 JOHN SHERMAN. 421 near at hand, this swamp-lamp of a Presidency led him forward. Then it died, and the world turned dark to Sherman. All he had was ashes. The Presidency had passed from him. If Sherman had told one his exact thought in that behalf, he would have said that his life was a failure. Sherman, in those decades during which he planned and intrigued and studied to be President, witnessed the prize drift — by accident rather than design — to the feet of two others of his own State. Hayes and Garfield each had a Presidency, while Sherman, who over-towered either, whether in mental worth or just desert, was denied. Melancholy by nature, his old age was made bitter by these slights. Hayes's success Sherman received as an expression of the accidental. He found no fault with Hayes, and took a portfolio from him. But Garfield's elevation he looked on as a monstrous treason. For that, quick or dead, he ever fed and pampered and fattened his hatred against Garfield. At last he wrote his book, to be a sort of printed vengeance upon Garfield and those whom he held to be his, Sherman's, betrayers. Sherman's primal characteristics were egotism and — for all he talked freely — secrecy. He covered his trail and hid his tracks. One must not blame Sherman for that egotism. He was neither peculiar nor alone. One finds no violets in public Hfe. Modest and retiring as some of our Senate and House folk may look, it is true of each that sometime, somewhere, somehow in his career, he sat down and decided that of some two hundred thousand people he was the proper one to take a seat in Congress and pass the laws. Nothing dim or retiring or reluctant in that! No; a congressman is of need an egotist. He couldn't have become a congressman without. Sherman had company in that* excellent and narrowly earnest contemplation of himself. And in that regard statesmen are much alike. Speaking of Sherman's wish to be a President, it is told that when party managers tendered the nomination to his warUke brother, the General declined, not because he didn't want it, but because "brother John" did. The soldier turned his back on the White House to make room for the naming of the statesman. 422 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. The result leaves the name "Sherman" altogether out of the roll-call of Presidents. John Sherman ever had it in his fingers to write the life of his soldier brother. Yet it is said that when he actually prepared himself, and sat down to it, thoughts of his loss of the Presidency so far controlled and overbore him that he wrote his books of resentful reminiscences instead. The Presidency, albeit hope had perished in the chill of repeated denials, was still with Sherman the passion which ruled; only when it prompted vitriol rather than oil when the old gentleman met Piatt and Foster and other War- vidcks. Sherman's repute for honesty was fair and good. Yet he grew mightily rich. The house he inhabited in Franklin Square was worth easily a million. The old senator's hbrary was off the hall where a parlor is usually found, and it was there one saw him at his best. There, when his mood was amiable — for now and then, being old, and possibly because he felt the tooth of disappointment a bit deeper, he was short and silent without being rude — ^he would talk with one for hours. When Foraker of fire-alarm fame got ready to join Sherman in the Senate, the old man didn't like it. He had scant use for Foraker. That vivacious past-master of politics once accused Sherman of intriguing with the ballots, and the latter, making a specialty of revenge, never forgave or forgot. Sherman tenderly nursed his feuds with Foster and Foraker. Also he had minor vendettas of the garter-snake variety. But these little latter folk took none of his attention. When they crossed his trail he seized on the nearest club of politics and killed them. Then he went on. Foster's war with Sherman had a novel seed. Foster in '92, while he was secretary under Harrison and his hands were tied, made a deal with Sherman by which the latter was to take the then vacant seat in the Senate to keep Foraker from pre- empting it. Sherman didn't want it, and Foraker did; but Foster couldn't let fall his portfolio to look after it, and the seat was menaced by Foraker. Sherman — so said Foster — ^was elected and occupied the seat, to the end that Foraker be headed JOHN SHERMAN. 423 off. By the terms of the agreement, at the close of Harrison's reign Sherman was to resign and Foster succeed to the vacancy. The day to resign arrived, but Sherman remained frozen to his Senate post. Nor could any argument, however heated, which Foster might bring to bear, thaw him free. Then Foster told the story of the scheme and the subsequent perfidy of Sherman in refusing to resign. Sherman said nothing, did nothing, save maintain grim possession of the place. Albert Henry Lewis. SPOFFORD AND SMITH. PERHAPS two of the most remarkable men in official life in Washington are A. R. Spofford, of the Congressional Library, and William R. Smith, the superintendent of the Botanical Gardens. Each of these men is a walking encyclo- pedia of their respective pursuits. They are educated and accom- plished men, and have become thorough masters of their business by close application and long experience. Mr. Spofford not only knows every book and pamphlet that has ever been printed, and he has handled many millions, but he is familiar with their con- tents and can tell a questioner without a moment's hesitation in what part of the book he can find an answer to his inquiry. The man seems to keep in his head not only a catalogue of the books in the great library, but an intimate knowledge of the subject matter they contain. He lives, moves, and has his being in books, and outside of their silent pages he is dead to the world, and has been for half a century. Mr. Smith is a past master of botany. There is not a plant, native or foreign, that he does not know at sight, and its complete pedigree is at his tongue's end. He tramps through the garden daily in and out of the hot-houses where his treasures are being grown and developed. If one will watch him he will often see him stop and gaze tenderly and anxiously at a growing plant, and at times gently caress it with his fingers as one would stroke the curls of a child. The fragrance of the trees, flowers, and plants is his elixir of life, and their health and growth his daily thought and care. But one other thing interests him, and that is the poetry of Robert Burns. He is a Scotchman by birth, and has the deepest reverence for the Scotch poet. It is said of him that he reads plants all day and Bums all night, and has committed each and all of them to memory. 424 SPOFFORD AND SMITH. 425 These two men, Mr. Spofford and Mr. Smith, have been long in the service of the Government, perhaps forty years. Adminis- trations come and go, but they continue at their work, which they discharge with supreme knowledge and fidelity. They are the only indispensable men I know in the ofi&cial service at Washing- ton. JOHN C. SPOONER. 1D0 not hesitate to say that if a score of public men and Wash- ington newspaper correspondents of the abler sort were asked this question, "Who is the most brilliant man in the American Congress to-day?" nineteen of the twenty would reply: "Senator John C. Spooner, of Wisconsin." I have no means of knowing whether or not this is the country's opinion. The coun- try's estimate of a public man does not always agree with the Washington estimate. When they conflict, Washington is usually much nearer the mark. Washington is not a hero-worshipper. It is coldly critical; it studies at close range; it is behind the scenes. The country, on the other hand, is the audience which sits in front, and watches the performance upon the stage. There may be, and sometimes is, a glamour in its eyes; it sees an illusion rather than the man himself. It is comparatively easy to deceive the country. One good speech, spoken at the lucky moment, con- taining a few phrases which catch the popular fancy, may do it. But it is almost impossible to deceive Washington. In a sense, we at the national capital are all mental valets to the great men who assemble here, and if they win our respect and admiration they must well deserve it. The United States Senate has been called the greatest legis- lative body in the world. Probably it is. If it has a rival, it will be found in the House of Commons. As the Commons dominates the legislation and poUcies of the kingdom, so the Senate domi- nates the governmental activities of the Republic. The man who rises to the first rank in a body like the Senate is a man of power. Only ten or a dozen of fourscore and a half form that select com- pany. There are no weaklings among them. Accident or wealth may get a man into the Senate, but it will not get him into the inner circle. He who not only obtains entrance to this managing 426 JOHN C. SPOONER. 427 and leading coterie, but who comes to be recognized as the most brilliant, most useful, most powerful member of it, must have something in him which rises very nearly to the height of genius. It places him next to the President of the United States himself in actual potentiality in our Government; and winning this station may be a greater credit to his intellectuality and character than the Presidency itself. Accident may take a man into the White House, but it cannot put him where John Coit Spooner stands to-day. In estimating the true meaning of this high place, we must remember that the Senate comes nearer to being the Government of the United States than any other part of the system. Of late years it has completely eclipsed the House of Representatives. To the President it is a sort of council of state — a council which moulds him much more than he moulds it. The Senate is largely con- trolled by this inner circle of a dozen men. Actual personal leader- ship it will not have. According to the ethics and traditions of that body, no man may aspire to such commanding influence in it as Speakers have wielded or chairmen of ways and means com- mittees have enjoyed in the House. The Senate will recognize no captain, not even the President of the United States. It is a stickler for the theory of equality. Presumably one senator is as good as another. But in practice there is the dominating inner circle; and, when one thinks of that circle, the first man who comes to mind is Spooner of Wisconsin. This brings him as near to the leadership of the Senate as any man may hope to get. Influence in the Senate is acquired in many ways. The popular impression appears to be that it is best won by making speeches. But that is not the case. Ability to talk well, to hold one's own in debate, is a desirable accomplishment. But it is not essential. Some of the most influential men in the Senate do not speak at all, or but rarely. Some of the best and most prolific talkers have little influence. The man who acquires a place of power in the Senate must possess, above all things, a cultivated mind, clear judgment, willingness to study, work and think, unselfishness, good feeling, the happy knack of being firm and even insistent without rousing personal antagonisms. There are few senators who have all these qualities. The bane of the Senate, as it is the 428 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. bane of all public careers at Washington, is the dominance of small things. Too many public men permit their constituents to make messenger boys of them. Their energies are frittered away in a constant vigil with pension bills, claims, ofEce-hunting, and corre- spondence thereabout. Here and there is a senator who frees him- self from this thraldom of the little and gives his energies to real statesmanship. He studies big things. Of the comparatively small number of senators who have thus broadened their horizon, Mr. Spooner is easily the most conspicuous. A large measure of his success is due to the fact that he rarely uses his energy or capital- izes his influence in the pursuit of trifles. In Congress, as everywhere, the tendency is toward specializa- tion. Senators take up one line or another, become as proficient as possible in that, and give very little attention to other subjects, Mr. Spooner has never been a specialist. He has carefully avoided identif)dng himself with any particular topic or question. He is an "all-around man." Everything of importance is his specialty. He is so willing to work, so eager to investigate, so tireless and so alert, and his sincerity and judgment are so highly valued, that all the specialists consult him. He is a sort of consultation doctor for all the legislative practitioners. It does not matter what it is — Cuba, the Philippines, Porto Rico, our colonial policy in general, the Isthmian canal, war-tax reduction, finance, the tariff — every chairman of committee who has an important measure to take in on the floor seeks the advice of the senator from Wisconsin before doing so. As a lawyer and maker of laws, as a watchdog against the furtive slipping in of blunders, as a suggester of stronger and better methods, as a deviser of practical schemes which will meet existing conditions in the Senate and the country, he is without a peer in pubUc life. The natural result — despite himself, and not at all through his seeking — ^is that his finger is felt in nearly every big legislative pie. His impress is more or less upon every policy, every great act. Sometimes his work is known to the country, as in his happy solution of the Isthmian canal problem, but oftener it is not. He cares not who gets the credit, so the work is done, and done right. The writer could name half a dozen important provisions of law which were placed upon the scroll by Spooner, JOHN C. SPOONER. 429 not one of which was he ever known, outside the Senate chamber, to have had any connection with. It follows, as a matter of course, that such a man is much sought; that other senators are constantly running to him with their knotty problems; that to him come many opportunities to give his country the benefit of his talents. It follows, too, that he gains the respect and confidence of his associates. They find him unselfish, willing to help without demanding a price, and they trust him. They find his insight wellnigh infallible, and so they not only seek his advice, but accept and follow it. The range of his activity bespeaks the culture and the character of the man. When Mr. Foraker was to the fore with his Porto Rican govern- ment bill in a recent Congress, he was glad to seek Mr. Spooner's aid. So with Senator CuUom, with his measure making a Terri- tory of Hawaii. When Mr. Lodge was preparing his important measure establishing a civil government in the Philippines, Mr. Spooner was one of his most frequent counsellors. Thus it was also with Mr. Hanna, in his now famous campaign for the Isthmian canal. During his long and arduous struggle with the problem of Cuban reciprocity, Mr. Piatt of Connecticut leaned heavily upon the arm of his friend from Wisconsin. There is no need to mul- tiply instances. It is within bounds to say that no important measure reaches the statute-books, or even the calendar of the Senate, without having the hallmark of the active and sympathetic mind of Mr. Spooner stamped upon it in greater or less degree. He is not, of course, the only senator who is thus industrious and valuable in council. There are others — ^like Allison, Hale, Aldrich, Frye, Cullom, Burrows, Foraker, Beveridge, Proctor, Elkins — whose opinions are often sought. But, to some extent, each of these is more or less a specialist. Each is authority upon certain sub- jects in line with his training or bent. In the Senate, there is general recognition of the fact that Spooner is the broadest, the most cyclopedic of them all. If we now add that Mr. Spooner's counsel is as eagerly sought at the White House as it is in the Senate, and as often accepted, we shall begin to understand the unique position which the Wis- consin senator holds in the American Government. While Mr. 430 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. McKinley was President, few weeks passed in whicli Mr. Spooner was not asked to the White House for consultation. Throughout the trjdng days which immediately preceded the outbreak of the war with Spain, Mr. Spooner was one of the three or four advisers upon whom the hard-pressed President most eagerly leaned. Two or three of the scenes in the Cabinet room at these evening conferences upon the weighty questions of war or peace were of a dramatic character, and the manner in which Mr. Spooner dem- onstrated his moral courage and patriotism on at least one occasion will be worth a special chapter as soon as it shall be proper to publish the inside history of that period. Three Presidents of the United States— Harrison, McKinley, and Roosevelt — ^urged Mr. Spooner to accept places in their Cabinets. As Mr. Spooner is strong and wise in council, so is he admirable in debate. It falls to the lot of few public men in America to shine in both fields of public activity — ^first as f ramer of policies, and next as interpreter of them. There are a number of men in Congress who give the country excellent service in one or the other; among the very few who are successful in both, Mr. Spooner stands out preeminent. He is easily the first debater of the American Con- gress of our time. He is the recognized spokesman of the Repub- lican side of the chamber. Sometimes he is the chosen representa- tive in the Senate of the Administration. This does not mean that when he speaks for his party he descends to the level of unblushing partisanship; nor does it mean that when he speaks for the ad- ministration he makes himself a mere mouthpiece. Into all this work he throws his individuality — a characteristic vigor of thought and expression, an interpretation breathing his own practical, optimistic, typical American philosophy. He seems the boldest of the bold, but a vein of caution runs through everything he says. He upheld the Government in its effort to assert American sover- eignty in the Philippines, but he has never declared for eternal retention of that sovereignty. He upheld the doctrine of the free hand in dealing with conquered or acquired territory, without the hard-and-fast restrictions which the Constitution might impose if it must always accompany the flag, but he is opposed to making States of any of the non-contiguous Territories. JOHN C. SPOONER. 431 In debate, Mr. Spooner well justifies the cognomen which has been given him, "The Little Giant." Small of stature, his ideas are large. He shows himself always a man who lives amid big questions and is at home there. That he is a debater rather than an orator appears from the fact that, unless he can stir the oppo- sition to interruption and retort, he is not at his best. He deems himself luckiest when senators on the other side of the chamber get up and go at him. It is when his steel strikes flint that the sparks fly most merrily. He is not content with sharp repartee, with witty or crushing rejoinder, though in these he is adept. Criti- cism inspires him to his loftiest flights. A case in point was near the last hour of a recent session, when unexpectedly a Philippine discussion was precipitated by the Democratic senators. On the spur of the moment, Mr. Spooner was put forward to answer them. His answer rang true. It is believed to be the best thing he ever did. He completely silenced the guns of the opposition in a short speech which for years to come will stand as a model of that sort of debate. Senator Spooner does not need to write out his speeches, and never does so. All his life is spent in preparation for meeting any emergency that may arise. He is always ready. He is the full man, who can tap himself at will. When he has a set speech to deliver, he gathers data, revolves it all in his mind, thinks out the order in which he will bring forward the various points, makes a few notes, and then forgets to refer to them. But the spring of his intellect never fails him. From it runs always a stream, clear and fresh. His English is simple, luminous, forceful. As he speaks it, so it is printed in the ofl&cial Record, with little or no revision. Three or four of the most noteworthy speeches heard in Congress in recent years have fallen from the lips of Mr. Spooner, and upon as many topics. Mr. Spooner is sixty-two. He looks even younger. Vigorous in mind and body, virtually in his prime, admired and trusted, not ambitious, useful, a truly national figure and a national servant of the highest type, he should keep his place in the Senate for many years to come. Walter Wellman. WILLIAM M. SPRINGER. DURING the period of rehabilitation of the Democratic party in Congress, Hon. William M. Springer of Illinois was one of a group of capable, faithful and imtiring men in the House of Representatives whose influence was felt through- out the country. Following the dark days of reconstruction and a term of almost unopposed power in the hands of one party there came an awakening, and a cry went up for retrenchment and reform. Mr. Springer was not the first and foremost of the Demo- cratic statesmen who responded to this call of the public conscience, as there were men already of long service in Congress to take the lead; but he was one of the early recruits who immediately com- manded the attention of his seniors and rendered service of ines- timable value to his party and to the country. He was too versatile, too ingenuous, and too generous to be recognized as a distinctly great man. Though a ready and capable debater, he was not an orator, and he lacked that imposing bearing which is impressive and attracts public attention, though it be no more than the badge of vanity. Second possibly to John G. CarUsle, he was the best parliamen- tarian in the House during his long term of service and he was noted for the multiplicity of subjects before Congress which he had studied thoroughly. So varied were the subjects which occupied his attention, and so devoted was he to their investigation, that he had little time for the study of those arts which contribute to the fame of orators and actors. His information was so general and he gave it so freely to all who would make proper use of it, that many of less capacity than he failed to place upon it the value they would upon matter of less consequence acquired by their own labor. Men have become famous in public Uf e through knowing one thing as well as he knew many and by devoting themselves to that one thing with the air of authority. 432 WILLIAM M. SPRINGER. 433 Had Mr. Springer been more calculating and held his re- sources more in reserve, he would, perhaps, have better served his own interests; but in ever)rthing he undertook his efforts were directed to the accomplishment of the object in view, not to the attaiimient of personal fame. He was, therefore, always ready to furnish ammunition to any one who would join him in the battle, and was not envious of those whom he had put to the front, though they might be wearing laurels of his laborious gathering. Being familiar with nearly every sutgect before Congress, whether great or small, he did not hold himself in reserve as an advocate of those things which would give him fame, but participated in debate, however unimportant the subject, whenever the House might be enlightened by information he possessed as a result of his varied research. No subject of sufficient consequence to be considered by Con- gress was too small to occupy his attention, and the great questions were not beyond his ca,paeity. His fame would have been greater, and his personal interests, perhaps, better served, had he devoted himself solely to those things of greater import. When this was once suggested to him his reply was that public interests were more to be considered than the ambitions of the individual sent to Washington to attend to public business. Mr. Springer was elected to Congress on the isgue .of tariff re- form and was a most capable student of the tariff question. He occupied a position among the leading men of his party almost from his first appearance as a member of the House, and was con- spicuous for ability displayed in all of the great parliamentary struggles which attended the conflict for supremacy between the great parties. He was a leader in strategy in all questions involv- ing an application of the rules of the House. In general debate his speeches related to the tariff, retrenchment and reform, finance, Chinese immigration, foreign relations, transportation, and to every question involving the administration and expenditures of the Government service. Having entered the House at the opening of the Forty-fourth Congress, he was in 1877 made a member of the joint committee of the houses of Congress with respect to the method of counting 28 434 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. the electoral vote in the Tilden-Hayes contest for the Presidency, and figured prominently in the debate and extraordinary pro- ceedings attending that famous contest. He was also an active member of the "Potter Committee" which, after the inauguration of Mr. Hayes, was appointed to inquire into the election frauds alleged to have been perpetrated in Louisiana and Florida in the interest of Mr. Hayes's candidacy. During his term in Congress he conducted a number of very important investigations, most conspicuous among which was the Star Route inquiry, and committees making investigations under his direction were popularly known as the "Springer Committees." He was the particular patron of William Jennings Bryan when that gentleman came to Congress as a recruit to the body of able advocates of tariff reduction, and it was largely through his influ- ence that Mr. Bryan was assigned to membership on the Ways and Means Committee. The deposing of Mr. R. Q. Mills, one of the three most promi- nent advocates of low tariff, and the appointment of Mr. Springer by Speaker Crisp to be chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, provoked much discussion at the beginning of the Fifty- second Congress. Mr. Springer introduced a new policy for over- coming the opposition of a Republican Senate by reporting a series of tariff bills each dealing with a separate item of the tariff. The new policy was made the subject of much ridicule on the part of the opposition, the measures becoming known as the "Springer popgun bills," Mr. Springer was a remarkably even-tempered man. He seemed to be a stranger to both anger and resentment. Under conditions calculated to try the patience of most men he was en- tirely complacent, and when subjected to injury and disappoint- ment he could appear as happy as if it were impossible for any- thing but joyousness to enter into his life. He was sometimes spoken of as "the bounding Springer," a term applied to him by Tom Reed of Maine. His persistency was as great as was his good nature. During the violent times of the Fifty-first Congress — the Reed Congress — when the minority was struggling to preserve its parliamentary WILLIAM M. SPRINGER. 435 independence, Mr. Springer was always in the thick of the fight, delivering hard blows and smiling even when liit by the poisoned javelins of Reed's taunting irony. To disconcert him appeared impossible and he was generous to friend and foe. When, in the bitterness of partisan contention, one of the Democratic members was called to the bar of the House to be censured. Springer, by example and a call for support, inspired the entire minority party to stand around the condemned member at the bar while the censure was being pronounced. He was always confident of success in his undertakings, but when defeated he appeared to sufifer neither chagrin nor disap- pointment. Having at one time in his congressional career had the humiliation put upon him of being reduced to the chairman- ship of one of the most insignificant committees of the House, he accepted the assignment cheerfully, and almost immediately brought this unknown committee more prominently to public attention than any other committee of that Congress by taking up before it the Star Route inquiry and other investigations which re- sulted in sensational disclosures. On one occasion only during his public career did resentment appear to influence his action ; this was in the defeat of Mr. Mills of Texas for the Speakership. His own candidacy for that office had been destroyed through the efforts of Mr. Mills's friends to deprive Mr. Springer of the support of members of his own dele- gation before they had paid him even the compliment of a vote in caucus. A few members of the Illinois delegation who were loyal to Mr. Springer threatened to vote for Mr. Crisp, against Mr. Mills, if the whole Illinois delegation did not vote for Mr. Springer for at least two ballots, and when Mr. Mills's friends prevented this Mr. Springer and his little group of followers carried out their threat, and Mr. Crisp was elected. Mr. Springer made no claims upon the new Speaker of the House based on the timely support thus brought to him, and though he was assigned to the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee under conditions peculiarly irritating to Mr. Mills, the assignment was influenced by consid- erations in no way relating to what had occurred in the Speakership contest. I can make this positive statement because I was con- 436 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. suited by Speaker Crisp before the assignment was made, was familiar with the reasons for it, and knew of its having been de- cided upon at a time when Mr. Springer did not expect it. The facility with which Mr. Springer took up new subjects and acquired new information was illustrated on many occasions. After he had retired from Congress, and shortly before his death, he took up the study of bacteriology in connection with the Chicago drainage canal case, in which he was retained as counsel, and became one of the best known authorities on that subject. Jno. p. Miller. HENRY M. TELLER. THERE has never been a man in public life more honest and faithful, and more true to his convictions and the courage to express them, than Henry M. Teller of Colorado. He first took his seat in the Senate December 4, 1876, and a year later was elected for a full term. He resigned in 1882 to accept the secretaryship of the Interior under President Arthur, which position he filled with so much credit and honor that his State again sent him to the Senate in 1885, and again in 1891. He was a firm and devoted friend of the silver cause, and on account of the gold-standard plank in the Republican National Convention of 1896, to which he was a delegate, he walked out of the conven- tion. His people indorsed his course in the next Legislature by an almost unanimous vote, he receiving 94 out of 100 votes. This is unprecedented in politics, he being the only man ever elected to a seat in the Senate by almost the entire vote of the two political parties. As the Democratic party espoused the silver cause, Senator Teller was reelected in 1903, and if he lives will remain in the Senate until 1909. He is now 75 years of age, but at this writing is a young old man and does good work for his constituents and his country. He has a lovely disposition and is extremely popular, and everybody admires and respects him for his intel- lectual quaUties and his honesty of purpose in all of his legislative efforts. Since he has been in the Senate, each side of the chamber has recognized him as a man of superior attaimnents and a f oeman worthy of their steel. When aroused in debate he is aggressive, but as a man he is always courteous and well mannered, and enjoys the intimacy of nearly the entire Senate. 437 ALLEN G. THURMAN. JURISTS and statesmen come and go, as common people do. Those who live in the glare of the present have almost a monopoly of the general notice and- applause. It is only those who recollect or read who are able to fairly measure the really great men of the State or Union. The panegyrists of this rather sloppy period are not rehable. There is not, and has not been, any perfect person. "There is no great man," used to be the favorite expression of an accomplished iconoclast formerly well known and much admired in Ohio journalism. Leaving the question of true greatness to take care of itself in the mutable minds of men, it may at least be safely said that the century of Ohio history has produced no more enduring character than Allen G. Thurman. An apostle of the original doctrine of State rights, he was doubtless the proudest of his Ohio association, but he was not less a figure in the afifairs of the Union. He left an impression on the development of his State, and in the high councils in Washington, so indelible that it will remain in the minds of studious and thoughtful people through the generations. An early immigrant to the Buckeye State from Virginia, his public services began in what might be fairly called the ripening period of Statehood. Whether he achieved the most as lawyer, statesman, or poKtician is not easy to determine, and there is no strong reason why there should be definite conclusion. He was justly celebrated in all, but his fitness at the bar and on the bench was the primary motive power of his general success. He made his mark in the legal profession early, and within the com- pass of a brief sketch — not in any sense a biography— it would be unjust to undertake an analysis of his career at the bar. He was always on the higher planes of litigation, and was noted for the strength, wisdom, and clearness with which he treated legal 438 ALLEN G. THURMAN. 439 propositions. His mental apprehension and grasp were of such a high order that he had to go through but little of the drudgery of the young lawyer to attain a commanding and affluent position. A bright day in the life of Thurman was when he was elected to the Supreme Bench of Ohio in 1851. Nothing in his subse- quent fame should be more proudly treasured by those who loved and admired him than his judicial services to the people of Ohio. Previous to this he had served one term in the National House of Representatives, at an important time, and was forward and rugged in debate; but it was in his term of four years on the Supreme Bench of Ohio (the last year as chief justice) that he made a record undimmed. He came in with the new Consti- tution, an instrument which lives to this day as a model, with some minor alterations made by the tinkers of the last decade or two. He is looked upon as the chief interpreter of that instru- ment. His wisdom supplemented the work of a constitutional convention of uncommon ability. Thurman's decisions were standard in all the courts of the country, and the Democrats of the State can always point to Allen G. Thurman and Rufus P. Ranney as their proudest contributions to the legal establishment. They ranked at least abreast of the eminent men of the other party who have adorned the jurisprudence of Ohio. Thurman was a sturdy, original Democrat. He had the respect of the community in Columbus, which city was his home for the greater portion of his life, and dwindled not a particle in the public love because, during the Civil War, he yielded not a syllable or inspiration of his faith. He was a Union man on the grounds laid down by the original framers of the Union, and was firm for constitutional rights, and did not hesitate to denounce the gross assumptions of those who were led beyond sober judg- ment in their zeal for the Union cause. The year 1867 was a red-letter one in his political life. It was the beginning of his real public superstructure, as it was also the seed-time of all the ills which followed him through his splendid public life. From that time may be dated many of the schisms which still remotely crop out in the politics of Ohio, with just enough smart color to be a reminder to the reflective "old timers." The statesman 440 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. who has had plain and pleasant sailing for several decades over political seas is hardly entitled to be called by that name. He can be only a scheming, trading politician. Thurman had his heart-aches. They are inseparable from a career like his. And there were doubtless times when, in his ambition and in his estimate of public duty, he could not hew to the severe line of moral obli- gation. The man who could, and at the same time stay in politics for fifty years, could have no proper place in the mate- rial or eternal apprehension, but a golden throne, surrounded by angelic harp players. The Civil War had been nominally over two years when the party nominations were made in Ohio in 1867. It was still going on in the minds and hearts of men. There was a furious and uncompromising demand for the immediate realization of "results." The Legislature had submitted to the people an amendment of the State Constitution, striking out the word "white," thus to give negroes the right to vote and hold office. Thurman was nominated for governor by the Democrats. Rutherford B. Hayes, the RepubUcan nominee, was elected by a niggardly majority of less than three thousand, but the constitutional amendment went down by fifty thousand. The' Legislature w.as Democratic, and elected Thurman to the Senate, where he served for twelve years after taking his seat in March, 1869. Grounded in the minds of historians of Ohio politics is the story, or tradition, that in that memorable year there was a "tripartite agreeiment" in the Democratic leadership that was violated. The suffrage proposition created a great hope, even at a time when war passions were rampant and unresponsive to the logic of events, that there were three great prizes for Demo- crats. Only one of them materialized, and though defeated, the man who came to be known as the " Old Roman of Democ- racy " got it. The arrangement is said to have been that Thurman should stand or fall by the governorship; that Clement L. Val- landigham should be senator if the Legislature turned out to be Democratic; and that George H. Pendleton should have the Ohio support for President in the national convention of 1868. The "tripartite agreement" is likely to forever remain a mystery. ALLEN G. THURMAN. 441 Who made it ? Who had any authority or right to make it ? Was there a solemn compact, or merely an "understanding"? Or did the Democrats, fired by the prestige of the man who had come within three thousand votes of carrying the State in that dark hour, simply take the matter into their own hands, and through the Legislature, confer rewards in their own blessed way ? Anyhow, Vallandigham, who was an extremely disappointed and very irascible man, went in for retribution. In 1868 the celebrated Pendleton escort went from Ohio to the National Convention in New York, but the result was one of the two great "falls" in the Pendletonian career. Vallandigham worked against the Ohio man, producing a rupture, and conspicuously assisted in the nomination of Horatio Seymour. Vallandigham was a man of great abihty and virility, and his firm-set jaws were typical of his determination and endurance. The virus of the coHapsed "tripartite agreement" may be stretched through the years, without a violent distortion of the probabiUties, till it threatened Thurman himself. It was Vallandigham who, not- withstanding his radicalism during the war, inaugurated the noted "new departure" movement in the Democratic party of Ohio. He was strong enough to control a State convention in 1871, and secure the adoption of a platform accepting all the results of the war, including the constitutional amendments. It placed the Democracy very suddenly in a new light, and involved so radical a change in party tenets that there was much disturbance of the conservative mind. It was widely denounced as too long a jump into the arms of the Republicans, who were at that time far from conciliatory, demanding everything and reciprocating in nothing. The author of the "new departure" soon afterward came to a tragic end. He was engaged as an attorney in a murder case in Hamilton, and in trjdng to demonstrate his theory of the killing was himself killed by the accidental discharge of a pistol. His plans, however, survived him. If the writer may be again allowed a little latitude in tracing the somewhat bedimmed lines of history, the famous "Allen County movement" of 1873 was derived from Vallandigham's "new departure." There was restlessness among Democrats on account of defeat, on both 442 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. State and local lines, every year. There was an outcry against sticking to "dead issues." It was demanded that the old Democ- racy should be wiped out, and that there should be a new and live deal. Radical resolutions to this sensational end, adopted by the Allen County Democratic convention, led to the calling of a State convention at Columbus outside of the regular party organization. Gen. Thomas Ewing made one of the principal speeches, declaring broadly that the Democratic party had "out- lived its usefulness." He lived to regret the speech, for he was afterward regularly in the fold and was sent to Congress and ran for governor in 1879. It was the trail of the Vallandigham "new departure" running into the year when Thurman would be up for reelection to the Senate. Had Vallandigham lived, what a fierce fight there would have been. It was bad enough with him dead. Here came in one of Judge Thurman's mightiest perform- ances, demonstrating the abiding faith his party had in him, and stamping him as one of the most resourceful men of his day. He throttled rebellion at a most critical moment. He saved the Democratic party of Ohio from practical demolition, and it is within the bounds of a sequence to assume that he saved the Democratic party of the Union from a revolution. The State convention growing out of the Allen County movement, and more or less remotely from Vallandigham's "new departure," nominated a very respectable gentleman of Cincinnati, Isaac C. Collins, for governor, and adopted a platform of defiance to the old Democracy. There was delight among the Republicans, and chaos on the other side. Thurman was quickly in the breach He was then sixty years of age, but rugged and full of fight. His combativeness was not of the undignified or frivo- lous sort, but it was penetrating. He was not parsimonious in his outgivings to the reporters. He trumpeted a proclamation to the Democracy of Ohio that stirred the blood in them. He announced that the regular Democrats would hold a State con- vention as usual;' that they would nominate a ticket that would be elected on an unyielding declaration of principles. His word was instantly accepted as the gospel, and his right to leadership ALLEN G. THURMAN. 443 acknowledged. William Allen was drawn from his long retire- ment at Chillicothe and placed on the regular ticket for governor. Notwithstanding the divergence to Collins, the race between Allen and Noyes (Republican nominee for governor) was so close that a local question in Hamilton County was sufficient to turn the scale for the regular Democrat, in the State, by a margin of eight hundred. It was not much, but it was enough in a normally Republican State and with a split in the victorious party. Thurman was the hero, not only on account of his suc- cessful tactics, but for the platform which he constructed. It lives to-day in a thousand scrap-books, with the salient points fastened in the memories of the survivors of that period, as one of the best expositions of sound Democratic principles, and the best installation of courage, that has ever been written. It has since been frequently reproduced as a model when the party has been at sea on passing issues. It is a salve for any emergency save the decadence which now threatens. How swift is the whirUgig. What a different situation there was two years later. In 1875 the Democrats were hopeful for '76. Thurman was in the lists for President. He would be balked if his uncle, Governor Allen, stood for reelection. So John G. Thompson and Simeon K. Donavin went to see the old gentleman about it. Thompson went in, and Donavin waited in the outer office. Thompson introduced conversation about the weather, the crops, and nearly ever)rthing else but pohtics, the governor genially taking part. After a while the governor said: "Thompson, you didn't come here to talk about agriculture. What are you really driving at?" Then Thompson entered into a discourse on the importance of knowing early if the governor was going to stay in politics, so that if he was his friends could get ready. "In shprt, Thompson," said the governor, in good nature, but with explosive firmness, "you came to see if the road is open to the Presidency for my precious nephew." And then he declared himself a candidate both for renomination for governor and nomination the following year for the higher place. And in making this announcement he restrained not the usual ruggedness of his adjectives and expletives. "Well, how it it, John?" asked 444 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Donavin, on the steps a little later. Thompson smiled and an- swered, jerking his thumb toward the executive ofl&ce, "there's the noblest Roman of them all. We'll have to nominate him." And so the convention went, on a platform as to finance which was obnoxious to all the Thurman hard-money traditions. The judge made one speech at the opening of the campaign in Mans- field, and then went to Deer Park and was heard from no more during the canvass — a circumstance that whetted some of the old schisms and engendered a considerable spirit of opposition to the man who had led the regular forces to victory two years earher. Judge Thurman was afterward much criticised for what has gone into history as his "Hamilton speech," made in a later cam- paign, when his friends were anxiously looking forward to his nomination for President in 1880. His advisers believed that he should make some easement in his long-entertained and old- fashioned hard-money views, to be in line with the current de- mands. It was argued that he had no right to use his influence to bind the party to a tenet from which the majority was mani- festly anxious to depart; but the old adherents of the judge have always been sorry that he yielded in the sKghtest ; but the disap- pointment has to a large degree been kept in suppression on account of the eminent services of the time-honored leader. A new generation of Democrats had come on, sometimes known as "the kids," and into it seemed to be merged the schismatic opposition to the senator which possibly had its inception in the overthrow of the so-called "tripartite agreement" of 1867. A rank political quarrel never dies out. It may be plastered with glucose or whitewash, but it dwells obstinately in the system. The revival of Senator Thurman in 1888, when he was nom- inated for Vice-President on the ticket with Cleveland, was one of the most picturesque as well as pathetic incidents in politics. He was then seventy-five, aged in appearance, and on account of his long affliction with rheumatism he supported himself with a staff as long as his body. I called at his house in Columbus soon after his nomination, and was asked to wait till he finished his dinner. He was in the easy and not prepossessing attire of an invalid in his own home, and as he entered with deliberate steps, ALLEN G. THURMAN. 445 his staff taking firm attachment to the floor at every movement of his limbs, he seemed for the moment more like an apparition than a man with the Ufe-blood to make the canvass of the coun- try he subsequently did, delighting his steadfast admirers with strong speeches that tasted of the old stock. His greeting, though, was hearty and cordial, and bespoke "the fine old gentleman." His voice was of the full quality, or "chesty," as it is popularly put — one which is sometimes mistaken for affectation; but it was natural with the senator, though his manner of meeting people was not exactly characterized by simplicity — any how, not with the pretence of simpKcity. Senator Thurman lived for seven years after his race for vice-president — long enough to have served his full term had he been elected. His old age was spent with his books. He indulged freely in French literature, having learned the language when he was a young man, and one of his peealiarifies was to stay up o' nights long past " the dead waist and middle," and sleep serenely during the early part of the day. While the incidents of his poEtical Jife are the best calculated to stimulate a reminiscent sketch, it was his service in the Senate that should dwell in the minds of his countr)mien. He went to that great body when the party in the majority was strong and naturally somewhat arrogant. In the general providence of public life there was need of a man capable enough and courageous enough to stand for those rights of the minority so essential to a popular form of government. He commanded attention and respect through his genius for affairs of government, and contributed as much as any other man to the softening of the asperities growing out of the Civil War. He was in a field where powerful persuasion overcame the prejudices which dwelt in the minds of able oppo- nents, and although many of the encounters in which he engaged were sharp and relentless, his mental equipment was so masterful that he retained cordial relations with nearly all the senators on both sides of the chamber. He and Senator Edmunds were especially "chummy." It would be impinging on the dignity of more consequential pictures of the life of Thurman to undertake a resum^ of the 446 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. work of a constructive man for twelve years in the Senate. He was practical and theoretical, and his high qualities as a judge frequently asserted themselves and influenced decisions in that body which, notwithstanding some human shortcomings, is justly looked upon as the great balance-wheel of our system. As one of his valuable works which comes within the easy comprehension of the general public, the Thurman Bill, com- pelling the Pacific railroads to secure their indebtedness of nearly seventy miUions to the Government, will always be remembered. He made a report of great strength on the subject, which he fol- lowed with crushing arguments in a debate which called into play the highest intellects in the Senate. The constitutionality of the bill was violently assailed, but the law was sustained in the Supreme Court of the United States. "The Old Roman," as an appellation for Thurman, is as familiar as household words in Ohio, and only his uncle, William Allen, was ever considered entitled to dispute with him for the title of "the noblest Roman of them all." That, in all sincerity, is not too late as a suggestion for an inscription on a gravestone. Sylvanus E, Johnson, JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER. THE ablest man Virginia has had in either branch of Con- gress since the war was John Randolph Tucker, who en- tered the House from what is now the Tenth Virginia dis- trict in 1874, and served continuously until his voluntary retirement in 1887. Tucker was for several years chairman of the judiciary committee; was a member of the Ways and Means Committee for eight years, and its chairman for a time. He was recognized as one of the ablest lawyers on either side. He and Senator George F. Edmunds gave their names to the law known as the Tucker-Edmunds act, which accomplished more than legislation had previously achieved in the way of abolishing polygamy in Utah. Though a learned lawyer, Mr. Tucker had a greater reputa- tion as a wit. His bon mots were current in Washington during his term of service, and he used to complain that invitations "to dine and be funny" were so numerous that to accept them all would be to neglect all his congressional duties. One of his most celebrated epigrams was uttered during a sitting of the Joint High Commission, in 1877. Mr. Tucker was counsel to the Democratic members of the commission. Hon. William M. Evarts, counsel for Mr. Hayes, was speaking, uttering those lengthy, sonorous sentences for which he was famous. Mr. Tucker chanced to look at George Bancroft, the celebrated historian, who was sitting not far away, his head dropped on his chest while he wandered through the land of dreams. Tucker leaned over the table and whispered to Matt. Carpenter, pointing to Bancroft: "History sleeps while fiction speaks." Blaine and Tucker had frequent tilts in the House. On several occasions, the gentleman from Virginia succeeded in causing the gentleman from Maine to lose his temper. On 447 448 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. each occasion when this occurred, Mr. Tucker got the better of his adversary. Blaine had made a speech one day, and in the course of a short reply Tucker made some criticism which caused Mr. Blaine to spring to his feet and exclaim: "Oh, well, Mr. Speaker, I am not a lawyer." "Mr. Speaker," exclaimed Tucker, quick as a flash, "to the lawyers in this House, the information imparted by the gentleman from Maine must come as entirely superfluous." Republican laughter and applause, as well as Democratic, followed this neat retort. Tucker and Randall, but especially Tucker and John G. Carlisle, were great friends. Carlisle and Tucker held identical views on nearly all questions oi government. They were advo- cates of tariff reform ;during the years when the Democrats, under the leaderahip of Randall, advocated a policy of protection almost as advanced as that favored by the average Republican of to-day. Tucker's district was decidedly protection in its tendencies, and his tariff reduction ideas were not looked on with favor. Indeed, it was his personal popularity and his recognized ability that kept him in Congress. When iie declined to stand for reelection in 1886, it was believed he stood little chance of winning had he run. But the following year, Cleveland wrote his tariff reform letter, and tariff reform became the chief plank in the Democratic ' platform of 1888. Tucker and Carlisle had been living several years in advance of their party. But a Republican was elected to succeed Tucker, and for several years his old district was represented by a ;Republican. Then his son, Harry St. George Tucker, became the Democratic candidate, and was elected several terms. Harry Tucker, who is the dean of the law faculty of George Washington University in this city, and president of the American Bar Association, has the distinction of being the man who got through the House of Representatives a bill providing for submitting a constitutional amendment making the office of United States Senator elective by the people. The bill has slept in the committee room of the Senate for a dozen years, and will be sleeping sweetly, probably, when Gabriel shall sound the final trump. JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER. 449 Mr. Tucker opened a law office in Washington when he retired from Congress, but he had scarcely done so when he was elected to the chair of constitutional and international law in Washington and Lee University, and as the place was one to which he was specially suited, he accepted it. The school enjoyed a great reputation throughout the South while he was at its head. Indeed, for several sessions every State in the Union was rep- resented in the law school, by young men come to learn the con- stitution at the feet of its greatest expounder. Mr. Tucker was the recognized leader of the school of the strict constructionists. His posthumous work on the Constitution is the accepted authority, the final word, among those who still cling to strict construction of our organic law. Mr. Tucker came of a family of lawyers. His father was Henry St. George Tucker, for many years president of the Virginia Court of Appeals, and author of Tucker's Blackstone. John Randolph Tucker's grandmother was Frances Bland, who was the widow of John Randolph when she married Henry St. George Tucker. She was the mother of John Randolph of Roanoke. I have heard Mr. Tucker make laughing reference to the generally accepted statement that the Randolphs had the blood of Pocahontas in their veins. "I have heard my uncle, John Randolph of Roanoke, say there was not a drop of any but white blood in his veins," he said. Randolph of Roanoke died in 1833, when Mr. Tucker was ten years old, but the boy was much with his distinguished kins- man, and used to relate many anecdotes in which this remarkable man, was the central figure. Tucker was elected attorney-general of Virginia in 1857, and reelected in 1861. His service to the State during the trying years of the war were always appreciated by the people of Virginia. He, with other eminent lawyers, was counsel for Jefferson Davis, but the trial of the president of the confederacy was never held. Tucker never doubted the right of secession, but doubted its expediency. There are men living in Virginia who heard him deliver an address before the Society of the Alumni of the Univer- 450 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. sity of Virginia in 1851 in which he argued the right of a State to secede, but disclaimed advocating its propriety, "now, or under any future possible contingency." Mr. Tucker was one of the great lawyers of his day. His speech on the tariff in reply to James A. Garfield, in 1878, was one of the clearest expositions of the doctrine of tariff for revenue only that has been heard in Congress, and is even yet quoted by Democratic campaign orators. I think it was in 1875 he made a speech against having troops at the polls in the recon- structed States, that created much talk throughout the country. Few men in public life in Washington have ever been more popular. His charm of manner, and his endless fund of anecdote and good humor, made him a social favorite. In fact, no dinner party was considered complete unless Tucker was at the board. He was a man of strictly temperate habits, and was for many years a total abstainer. But he drank, every day of his life, large quantities of buttermilk, and frequently when on the stump in Virginia would have a pitcher filled with it setting on the table near his hand. Walter Edward Harris. DAVID TURPIE. LIKE Voorhees and Holman, Senator David Turpie was also in Congress during the Civil War, having served for a brief period in the Senate as the successor of Jesse D. Bright, who was expelled from that body in 1863. He was an enthusiastic follower of Stephen A. Douglas, whom he warmly supported for the Presidency in i860. Turpie was intense in his patriotism, and bitterly opposed to secession, and during his first and brief term in the Senate took a conspicuous part in the exciting discussions during the Civil War. Twenty -four years later, Turpie was again elected to the Senate, where he served for twelve years, or until March, 1899. Mr. Turpie was of a modest and retiring disposition. He was afficted with a nervous ailment similar to palsy, with bodily tremors, that greatly embarrassed him. He did not mingle freely with his colleagues, but was very fond of his books, and was con- sidered one of the best read men in the Senate. Besides being noted for his scholarly attainments, Turpie was a fine lawyer and Judge of law, having been a jurist in Indiana for many years. At the time of his election to the Senate, in 1887, he was serving as United States district-attorney for Indiana, to which office he had been appointed by President Cleveland. Because of Mr. Turpie's innate modesty it was some little time before his ability was appreciated at its real worth. But he was eventually assigned to the committees on Foreign Rela- tions and Finance, two of the most important assignments within the gift of the Senate, and when the Democrats were in control of that body he was chairman of the Census Committee. Senator Turpie did not participate in the daily discussions or controversies in the Senate chamber, but every now and then would deliver a carefully prepared speech on some subject of 451 452 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. great national importance, involving our relations with a foreign country with whom we happened to be in controversy; or on the Nicaraguan canal, or on a question of suffrage. He was a great student of economic affairs also and his opinions were treated with great deference. Mr. Turpie's speeches showed great learning and the power of logical and convincing statement. He spoke and acted with the sincerity that was characteristic of his nature, but he could not have been considered an orator in any sense. His voice was poor — pitched in a high key, and rasping. Nevertheless, he always closely held the attention of his audience. Senators from both sides of the chamber would take seats as near to him as possible and remain until the close of his remarks. Though ordinarily modest and retiring to the verge of timidity, Mr. Turpie, when speaking, would not betray any diffidence. His utterances were invested with a degree of feeling, and oftentimes full of vehemence and denunciation. He, too, was a master of invective and sarcasm, and, when fairly aroused, his words gushed forth in a perfect torrent of staccato notes, rasping and penetrating even to the uttermost parts of the Senate wing. In the Press gallery he was sometimes facetiously referred to as the "buzz- saw," his voice was so rasping and his delivery so rapid and vehement. But it was observed that few correspondents left their places in the gallery while he was speaking. It was a mat- ter of comment at the Government printing of&ce that Turpie's speeches as originally delivered without the aid of manuscript required but little revision. They were as smooth as a book. His diction was unsurpassed, and his expressions were clothed in classic form. Turpie always kept fully informed on the latest judicial de- cisions and on all matters affecting national and foreign affairs. He was a constant reader of the best current literature, but pre- ferred the classics and was a Greek and Latin scholar of recognized ability. In short. Senator Turpie was just what he appeared to be — a gentleman of the old school, old-fashioned in aU his ways, and slow to adopt modern methods or customs. Somewhere in DAVID TURPIE. 453 one of the burlesque plays seen on the American stage, a few years ago, there is a merry jest about "the congressman from Indiana who was afraid of the horse-cars." This seemed to be a rather extravagant bit of caricature, yet it is an actual fact that it was some time after electric cars were installed on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington city that Mr. Turpie could be induced to ride in them. "No, no!" protested this old-fashioned gentle- man, "I prefer the pony-cars." Chaeles Carroll Carlton, GEORGE GRAHAM VEST. IN considering George Graham Vest, who for twenty-four years was a senator in Congress from Missouri, it is important to take into account the fact that nearly half of his life was spent in a social atmosphere vitiated by human slavery, under an industrial organization that was hobbled by slavery's thongs, and a political system that was bottomed on an economic principle that has been dissolved by the heat and friction of civilization's slow but remorseless progress. The racial traits of his paternal ances- try, which was rooted in the wild Caledonian tribes that defied in the mountains of Scotland for more than four hundred years the world-conquering Romans, dominated his character, and in him the Huxley doctrine of the persistency of type found undeniable exemplification. His whole life was devoted to a worship of the institutions of his fathers. As the rigors of Galvanism were a logical outgrowth of the hard, stem concepts of the mysteries of the uni- verse held by his forebears when they first appeared in history two thousand years ago, so was Senator Vest a logical development of his time. His rugged conservatism linked him with an age when the race from which he sprang was in its infancy. It was this tem- peramental quality which caused him to revere the Constitution of his country with a passionate zeal that has sent religious zealots to the stake. This was the one characteristic which dis- tinguished his whole career. The Constitution was in reality the chart of his liberty and the guide of his conduct. He could no more renounce it than he could repudiate the tenets of Pres- byterianism. These mental qualities— this sort of intellectual fibre — do not make for "constructive statesmanship." They produce, however, what to my way of thinking is an even higher order of statesman- ship—that statesmanship which stands unbending and unafraid 454 GEORGE GRAHAM VEST. 455 amid the tumult and the storm of popular clamor and unheeding haste. It was this trait which caused Senator Vest, when "in- structed" by the Missouri Legislature to vote a certain way on a certain measure of great popularity which he was then opposing, to send back this defiant answer: " I will resign my seat in the Senate rather than vote as you pre- sumptuously assume to instruct me to vote." I speak thus of Senator Vest because I knew the man. I do not merely mean the public man — the senator. I was bom in the same community in central Kentucky in which he was bom, and knew the clan influences by which he was surrounded. He was transplanted to Missouri about the time he attained to manhood's estate, but he found there about the same environment he had left behind in Kentucky. But so firmly knit in his being were the doctrines of his clan and section that had he chosen to cast his lot in Massachusetts at that time instead of Missouri I am convinced he would have espoused the Confederate instead of the Union cause. To him the reasoning was simple and the conclusion in- evitable: The Constitution guaranteed the rights of slavery; to deny the Constitution was sinful; to touch it was profanation. There was, then, only one course for him, and he took it and pur- sued it with an impetuous zeal that brought him, even before his mental equipment was complete or his judgment mature, a fame that glowed with its own lustre among a multitude of brilliant men in the Confederate Congress. These statements are not made in a spirit of apology or eulogy of Senator Vest. He needs neither. His fame is secure. It is the conunon heritage of the country. No statute bears his name. Stat- utes are transitory. A piece of legislation that may pass this Con- gress without a division of parties and by a practically unanimous vote may be repealed without dissent by the next. But embedded in the permanent, unrepealable records of the Senate are his illuminating arguments upon the Constitution which wiU be pon- 4ered by generations of his successors in that august tribunal, and which, it is the part of optimism to believe, will arm them to fight for the cause^lwhich he for so long a time advocated with an elo- quence unsurpassed by any man of his time. His deeds and his 456 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. wit are a part of the folklore of Missouri. Folklore outlives stat- utes, and even constitutions. The Senate was Mr. Vest's proper forum. He would have looked odd in any other. Now that he is gone, the Senate does not exactly look like the Senate. He made an unsuccessful race for the governorship of Missouri, and the Legislature that was elected in the contest which he aspired to lead as the Democratic candi- date for Governor sent him to the Senate, So fickle is the electorate in all parts of America that had the Missouri Democracy gratified his ambition for the governorship when it was hot upon him Mis- souri probably would not have had him to boast of in the Senate for nearly a quarter of a century. Had he followed the urgent advice of his physicians when his health began to fail, and resigned from the Senate, I verily believe he would have died a few months after laying aside the toga. Although physically wasting away from the very beginning of his last term and finally reduced by a piti- less malady to a mere shadow of his former self, his senatorial duties constantly engrossed his mind above thoughts of health. During the last two sessions of the Congresses of which he was a member — ^the Fifty-seventh and Fifty-eighth — ^he could barely walk unsupported, but his mind was as virile and clear and its faculties as alert and brilliant as though his body were in its pristine strength and vigor. He survived only a few months after he quit the Senate, dying at his unostentatious but comfortable home at Sweet Springs, Mo., in September, 1904, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. Soon after the ravages of disease had begun to shrink his once robust frame I was indiscreet enough to ask Senator Vest what was the matter with him and why he did not seek some resort that would restore his health. This was his characteristic response: " Down at a resort in Virginia which I have been visiting for a long time there lives an old friend of mine who looks worse every time I see him. When last I saw him I pinned him down to tell me what was the matter with him. He explained that in the ten years his health had been failing he had consuhed more than fifty doctors, every one of whom gave his malady a different name and a different treatment. He said that he had finally become disgusted GEORGE GRAHAM VEST. 457 with the whole medical fraternity, had taken his case in his own hands, and had discovered that all that ailed him was Anno Domini. "And that, my young friend," said Senator Vest, with a merry twinkle in his eye, "is all that's the matter with me — ^just Anno Domim." J. J. Dickinson. DANIEL W. VOORHEES. DANIEL W. VOORHEES, widely and popularly known as the "Tall Sycamore of the Wabash," was by far the most talented of the Indianians. He was in Congress for thirty years — ^was elected to the House of Representatives as early as i860, when he defeated Col. Thomas H. Nelson (after- ward greatly distinguished as a diplomatist while minister to Chili and to Mexico). Voorhees served altogether for ten years in the House of Representatives and twenty years in the Senate. While Joseph E. McDonald was best known as a lawyer, Hen- dricks as a lawyer and politician of national prominence, Turpie as a jurist and profound student of literature, Voorhees was noted for his briUiant oratory. During his later days in the Senate he was sadly handicapped by ill health, and almost always read his speeches from manuscript, by which they lost much of their effec- tiveness, but in his prime he achieved a reputation for oratory not second even to that of Ingersoll, and their styles were much the same. Mr. Voorhees was in no sense an infidel or an agnostic, however. His beautiful address on " The Holy Sepulchre " attested his faith in Christianity. As an advocate before a jury, especially in the defence of human life, he had few equals and, perhaps, no superior, in his day and generation. By his speech in the defence of John E. Cook, in 1859, Mr. Voorhees first came into national prominence. Cook, who was a brother-in-law of Governor Ashbel P. WiUard of Indiana, was indicted for conspiracy with John Brown and others who were convicted of treason and murder after their attempt to create a servile insurrection at Harper's Ferry. This affair, it is well known, created an excitement throughout the country that was only equalled two years later by the firing on Fort Sumter. Cook was hanged, but the views expressed by Mr. Voorhees in this 458 DANIEL W. VOORHEES. 459 speech met with a ready response in all sections of the country. The Legislature of Florida comphmented the orator with a reso- lution of thanks and presented him with a copy of the speech printed on satin. Hon. John M. Mason, United States Senator from Virginia, congratulated Mr. Voorhees on having made a speech that would immortalize him (this was the same Mason afterward widely known in the Mason and Slidell affair, which came near involving our country in a war with England). Voorhees' speech in defence of Cook was regarded at the time as one of the most brilliant ever delivered in the Old Dominion. His praises rang from ocean to ocean and from the lakes to the gulf. This and his address to the jury in defence of Mary Harris at Washington city a few years later were regarded by his friends as the best he ever delivered. On the stump he was equally effective. In his prime he was a man of magnificent physical proportions, with a fine large head set on broad shoulders. His features were decidedly strong and handsome. His eyes, hazel, shone with a lustrous fire; his hair, auburn in color, stood out from his head in a porcupinish way like the fibres of a sycamore ball, hence his sobriquet, the Tall Syca- more. Altogether his personality was wonderfully attractive and magnetic, and his influence over an audience was irresistible and almost hypnotic. When a candidate for Congress his meetings were attended by a vast multitude of people from far and near, and sometimes many in wagons followed him from town to town throughout the circuit. What Henry Clay was to the people of Kentucky, and S. S. Prentiss to the people of Mississippi, "Dan" Voorhees was to the Indianians and other people of the West, especially in the first decade of his public career. In the first blush of his popularity he could speak with all the ease and grace of a swallow on the wing, for hours together, without tiring either himself or his audience. In the United States Senate he easily and early took rank as one of the leading men of that body. He was not fond of the de- tails of legislative life, with its tedious routine, but his grasp of pub- lic questions was quick and comprehensive and his opinions always positively expressed. Sometimes Voorhees would appear to take 460 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. but an indifferent interest in matters pending before his committee, or the Senate, but having once made up his mind to post himself fully on a matter at issue he applied himself diligently to its study, pro and con, and acquired information with the utmost facility. In a little while he would amaze his colleagues by rising in his place and delivering a speech that showed the most intimate knowledge of his subject, and, by his rare eloquence and cogent reasoning power, make an argument more convincing, perhaps, than others who had devoted a much longer time to a study of the same subject. Mr. Voorhees was a member of the Finance Committee and in natural order became its chairman. He was, however, generally regarded, essentially, as an orator rather than as a close student of economic affairs. It is pertinent, therefore, at this time to com- pare him with other orators in the Senate, such as Ingalls, Vest, Daniel, Blackburn, or other contemporaries who achieved a repu- tation for oratory. There were, of course, during Mr. Voorhees* career in the Senate, many "good talkers" who might not be classed in the category of "natural orators." Such, for instance, as logical and argumentative Beck or Carlisle; fiery and impetuous Foraker; rapid and impulsive Wolcott; elegant Lodge, whose diction was almost perfect; smooth-talking Hale and Hawley; deliberate Allison and Gorman; hot-headed Roger Q. Mills, who would remove his coat if necessary in the heat of debate ; or serious- minded Teller, whose speeches — always commanding the greatest respect — ^were sanctimonious and lachrymose in tone, deHvered with much unction and earnestness, after the style of an old-fash- ioned preacher of the gospel. They were always invested with a degree of feeling and never failed to strongly influence his hearers. These men, I say, were good talkers without being orators in a class with Ingalls, Voorhees, Vest, Daniel, Blackburn or others that might be named in the same category. Ingalls was what might be termed an artificial orator, if this term may be permitted. He was a great student of the dictionary and a skilful phrase-builder. With him the use of choice English was almost a mania. He was a master of invective and sarcasm and was greatly feared as an adversary in debate. He burned the midnight oil in digging up DANIEL W. VOORHEES. 461 the records of individual senators with whom he was in contro- versy and with whom he expected to clash in debate, and had these records pigeon-holed ready for instant use. His diligent study of English made him an adept in the use of words keen, biting, cutting. Voorhees, however, who cordially disliked the Kansan, did not fear to challenge him in debate. On one occasion the bitterest personalities were indulged in and both senators were called to order by the President of the Senate. This wordy war was almost as sensational as the famous verbal duel between Blaine and Conk- ling. Ingalls had referred to an episode which he alleged occurred during the Civil War, wherein soldiers on a railroad train "threat- ened to hang the Indiana senator with a bell-rope." Mr. Voorhees' reply was as inexcusable as the Kansan's offensive taunt had been, but, it must be said, both men were laboring under great excite- ment and afterward regretted their intemperate remarks. They remained personal enemies, however, throughout their careers in the Senate, and frequently indulged in personalities. Voorhees' contempt for the Kansan was once expressed in this way: "At nightfall the senator from Kansas digs into the dead past hke a hyena, and, having exposed some folly of a brother senator, fits the folly to bitter words, carefully culled from the dictionary, with as much delight as Daniel Quilp exhibited in treasuring up rusty nails to scratch his wife with." Ingalls was several times subjected to the charge of plagiarism during his career in the Senate. And on one occasion it was sus- pected that friends of Mr. Voorhees had inspired an exposure of the alleged literary theft. Mr. Ingalls had delivered a eulogy on the Hfe and character of James N. Burnes, a Representative in Congress from Missouri, which, it was claimed, was plagiarized from a sermon delivered by Jean Baptiste Massillon, the French priest. The fame of the orator, the conspicuous occasion on which the eulogy was delivered, the abiding questions of belief touched so masterfully, awakened at the time universal comment. Senator Ingalls' beautifully expressed views on "Immortality" were copied from sea to sea. The eulogy was hailed from gulf to lake as a masterpiece of American oratory. A Western newspaper of 462 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. opposite political faith endeavored to show by the "deadly par- allel column" that the eulogy was identical with a sermon deliv- ered by the great French priest Massillon in the eighteenth cen- tury, although there had been a transposition of sentences and a free use of synonyms. The Kansas senator was immediately assailed by his enemies and characterized by one of them as "an ordinary barnyard fowl strutting about in the borrowed plumage of a peacock," and by another senator as a "man of transcendent oratorical ability, but, withal, a literary kleptomaniac, whose felonious fingers could not resist temptation." But the intimation that this exposure of an alleged plagiarism had been inspired by Mr. Voorhees was not justified. The author of this sketch was the author of the article in question. Senator Voorhees knew nothing of it and regretted its publication. In justice to Mr. Ingalls, it must be said that, when confronted with the charge, he freely confessed that he had included Bishop Mas- sillon's sermon in his eulogy ; declared that he had often done so and might do so again, for such beautifully expressed sentiments should not be lost to posterity. Friends of the senator endeavored to show that the free use of borrowed sentiment, even without quotation marks, constituted no literary crime. "The snows of winter are upon my head, but the fire of eternal youth still burns in my heart," declared Mr. Ingalls in a speech. This was truly a beautifully expressed sentence, but one plucked from the bouquet of Castellar, the Spanish poet. Again, in a speech denouncing Southern outrages alleged to have been per- petrated against the negroes in Kentucky, he asked: "Is the com- plexion burned upon them by an African sun incompatible with freedom?" Another noble sentiment, but one lifted bodily from a speech delivered years before by the great Irishman, John Phil- pot Curran. But whatever may be said of Mr. Ingalls, he was undoubtedly a man of great literary ability. It may be true that he did not hesitate to freely use the work of others, sometimes without giving due credit, but he oftentimes actually improved on the original. He would pluck a flower here, and another there, and, deftly in- tertwined and interwoven with blossoms of his own culture, would DANIEL W. VOORHEES. 463 arrange all with such admirable good taste that the entire literary bouquet appeared to be of his own creation. But while, as before stated, Mr. Ingalls was what might be termed "an artificial ora- tor" — one who resorted to subtle Hterary arts in polishing his admirable effusions — Voorhees was an orator of the natural school. He was a good verbal wing-shot, and could, if occasion demanded, wield the heavy battle-axe of Richard as dexterously as he could cut and thrust with the lighter cimeter of Saladin. But this was not his forte. Ingalls was a master of invective and satire, while Voorhees was seen at his best when, in his r61e of advocate, he pleaded for a human life, or when, like Vest or Daniel, he stood at the grave of a dear friend, or in the Senate chamber, to eulogize the life and character of a brother senator. He was strongly sympathetic in his nature, and by temperament a poet. He was a great admirer of the homely, old-fashioned verse of James Whitcomb Riley and of such old-fashioned songs as "The Lakes of Killarney," and "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Hall." To him the old- fashioned flowete breathed a sweeter perfume than the new; his vision was greeted with no pleasanter sight than the fresh inno- cence of pink-and-blue morning-glories on a farmer's porch, and, throughout all the public speeches of Voorhees, no matter whether before a jury, on the stump, or in the Senate chamber, there runs a strong vein of human sympathy and wholesome love of home. Reared on a farm, he was always fond of rural life, and many of his speeches breathed the spirit of the country. " Sometimes," said old Senator Hoar (who always reminded me strongly of Joshua Whitcomb in the "Old Homestead"), "when Voorhees speaks I fancy I can hear the whirr of a thresher, the whinny of a colt, or the tinkle of cow-bells as lowing cattle stand, waiting, before the bars." Like Senator Turpie, Voorhees was a great reader. The erec- tion of the magnificent new Congressional Library was the crown- ing work of his career in the Senate and of his life, as he lived to see the great work completed. He exhibited a paternal pride in this superb structure, for it was he who conceived the idea of its erection; his hand that drew the appropriation bill; his own 464 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. matchless eloquence that pleaded successfully for its passage. Under his general supervision as chairman of the Conunittee on Additional Accommodations for the Library of Congress he watched the building rise, stone by stone, until it proudly reared its majestic dome the most magnificent structure of its kind in the world ! Although he was in active public life for forty years and had a lucrative law practice, Voorhees never succeeded in acquiring a competency. He was naturally of an improvident nature, gener- ous to a fault and tenderly sympathetic. He never failed to respond to the importunities of a friend in need. "If," said Senator Vest, "every one for whom Dan Voorhees performed a kind deed would but bring a single leaf to his grave and lay it there, the Indiana senator would sleep to-night beneath a mountain of foUage." Vest, like Voorhees, was eloquently sympathetic. Some of his funeral orations and eulogies in memory of brother senators are models of eloquence. He and Voorhees for many years sat side by side in the Senate and they were great cronies. Nothing could have been more remarkable than the difference in their physical aspects. Vest's height was about five feet nothing, and he was almost as broad as he was long. He had a magnificent head, set squarely on broad shoulders. Hunched up in his seat with his chin resting on a broad expanse of crumpled shirt front, his big head out of all proportion to the rest of his body, he looked like a gnome of the woods, and reminded one strongly of one of those queer little men in the story of Rip Van Winkle who toiled up the Catskill Mountains with flagons of Kquor strapped to their backs. Voorhees, on the other hand, appeared as a giant in contrast, especially when he rose to speak, and towered majestically above his fellows, and over Mr. Vest in particular, verily like a Tall Sycamore. Voorhees had the highest admiration for Vest, and frequently referred to him as the "Uttle giant." Vest, too, had a great affection for Voorhees. The Indianian was of a sociable dis- position and exceedingly popular on both sides of the Senate cham- ber, where he was invariably greeted as "Dan" by his intimate acquaintances. He was a good story-teller, a fine conversationa^ DANIEL W. VOORHEES. 465 ist, and never failed to have a group around him in the cloak-room. President Arthur had the greatest admiration for Voorhees, and it is said that the Indiana senator had as much influence with him as any man of the President's own party. Voorhees greatly appreciated the admiration and affection of his friends. One day when a brother senator suggested that the splendid new Congressional Library would stand as an enduring monument to perpetuate his name and fame, he replied that, rather than a marble cenotaph engraved with laudatory lines, shafts of marble or bronze, or brazen tablets inscribed with vain- glorious words, he would be better content to have recorded in the Senate archives a few eloquent words such as fall frequently from the lips of Vest, Daniel or Blackburn — ^monuments composed of the flowers of speech with tributes of affection, wrought in forget- me-nots. Charles Carroll Carlton. 30 WILLIAM L. WILSON. WHEN the late William L. Wilson of West Virginia was first elected to Congress he was the president of the University of his State. For several years after the close of the Civil War he was a professor in the Columbian College at Washington, now the George Washington University. He re- signed the West Virginia University presidency in June, 1883, to take this seat in the House. That was in the Forty-eighth Con- gress. Although he was chairman of the Ways and Means Com- mittee in the Fifty-third Congress, and fathered the tariff bill which bore his name, he did not serve on this committee during any of his previous terms. His hardest work before that had been on the Appropriations and Judiciary committees, to which he had been assigned by both Democratic and Republican Speakers. But he naturally took more to questions affecting economics than he did to judicial matters and the dry details of preparing the annual supply bills of the Government. His selection by Speaker Crisp to be the head of Ways and Means, and, by virtue of the position, floor leader for the Democrats, was brought about in a spirit of compromise. Mills of Texas, defeated for Speaker by the Georgian in one of the fiercest contests ever waged within the party lines, had gone to the Senate, and was therefore out of the way in the Fifty-third Congress, even if Speaker Crisp had not brushed him aside in the previous House and designated Springer of Illinois for the Ways and Means chairmanship; and as the Cleveland administration followers felt rather sore, it was thought wise by Judge Ciisp to confer the honor upon Mr. Wilson. He was a calm, courteous man and was generally popular. As a debater few of the members on either side were his superiors when it came to the discussion of economic matters, and he had made the tariff a special study, theoretically at least. Moreover, it greatly pleased the Adminis- 466 WILLIAM L. WILSON. 467 tration to have Mr. Wilson so highly honored. The Fifty-third Congress was called to meet in extra session by President Cleve- land on August 7, 1893, for the special purpose of repealing the purchasing clause of the Sherman Silver Law. Not until the fol- lowing summer did the Wilson or the Wilson- Gorman (as it is called by many) tariff bill become a law. The Democrats who served under Mr. Wilson on Ways and Means were: McMilhn of Tennessee, Turner of Georgia, Mont- gomery of Kentucky, Whiting of Michigan, Cockran of New York, Stevens of Massachusetts, Bryan of Nebraska, Breckenridge of Arkansas, Bynum of Indiana, and Tarsney of Missouri. The Re- publican members were: Reed of Maine, Burrows of Michigan, Payne of New York, Dalzell of Pennsylvania, Hopkins of IlUnois, and Gear of Iowa. The utmost harmony prevailed among the Democrats of this important committee, even though the bill brought forth was rid- dled in the Senate; and throughout the long struggle Mr. Wilson had every reason to feel proud of the kindly consideration shown him personally and as leader of his party in the popular branch of Congress. His district in West Virginia had been for many years a close one, and on account of its industries demanding protection Mr. Wilson was defeated badly by his Republican opponent the year after his tariff bill became a law. Shortly after the conclusion of his service in the House he was offered and accepted the Post- master-Generalship in the Cabinet of President Cleveland. For two or more years before he went out of Congress Mr. Wilson wrote editorials and special articles for leading Democratic journals, and was a frequent contributor to magazines and reviews. He was a forceful and polished writer. Not long after quitting public Ufe, which ended with the second Cleveland administration, he was elected President of Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Virginia. Such a position was really more to his Kking than a political one; but he had hardly gotten well into his new duties before his health became seriously impaired, and his death soon followed. Alfred J. Stofer. JOHN SHARP WH^LIAMS. CONGRESS has had few more interesting figures in recent years than John Sharp Williams of Mississippi. Never, perhaps, has it contained a man who, when his party elevated him to a position of responsibility, was more enthusias- tically accepted by the whole country, more generously praised by the press, regardless of political aflSliations, or more universally liked and respected by his colleagues on both sides. When Mr. Williams was nominated for the Speakership by the Democrats at the beginning of the Fifty-eighth Congress, in 1903, and thus became leader of the minority, no man in political life, with the possible exceptions of the President and Speaker Cannon, was more prominently in the pubUc eye than he. The newspapers and the weekly and monthly magazines gave as much attention to him as to Mr. Cannon, whose accession to the Speak- ership was contemporaneous with the selection of the Mississippian as the head of the less numerous party in the House. Compara- tively little interest was manifested in the latter's predecessor, Mr. Richardson, when he became leader, while Mr. Bailey, who pre- ceded Mr. Richardson, was noticed widely, but not favorably, when he was similarly elevated. The opposition and independent press, almost without exception, welcomed the appearance of Mr. WiUiams on the scene. It recognized in him a man of education and great natural abihty, and a t)T)ical and worthy representative of the South, that section whose steadfast adherence to the princi- ples of JefiFersonian democracy, through fair weather and foul, has been its distinguishing political characteristic for nearly a century. There were some critics, of course. That was only natural. But the country, for the most part, accepted the Mississippian at his face value, which means that it gave him an exalted place in its esteem. 468 JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS. 469 It is almost superfluous to assert that Mr. Williams' subsequent course showed him to be fully deserving of the confidence of his own party and the respect of his political foes. He did not get through his first term as leader without doing some things that were not universally approved by Democrats in Congress and out of it. That goes without saying. Had he done so he would have proved himself a bright and shining exception to a rule which has existed ever since political parties have existed. He made what men on both sides contend were mistakes, but it is noticeable that at the end of the Fifty-eighth Congress he was apparently even stronger than before, so far as his own party was concerned, and that in the estimation of the opposition and of the public generally he stood as high as when, heralded from one side of the country to the other, he was first elevated to the leadership of the minority. In the interim he had taken an active part in the Democratic conven- tion of 1904, over which he presided as temporary chairman, and in the ensuing campaign, during the course of which he made many speeches, among them one notifying Henry G. Davis of West Virginia of his nomination for the Vice- Presidency. During the convention Mr. Williams was himself put before the delegates in connection with the presidential nomination — ^in the face of his very vigorous and sincere protest, it should be said in simple justice to him — and of the original 342 scattering votes of the convention eight were cast for him. Mr. Williams had been a member of the House five full terms when his Democratic colleagues honored him with the position of leader, his first service having been in the Fifty-third Congress. His district (the Eighth Mississippi since the reapportionment following the census of 1900) is heavily Democratic, and he has never had any Republican opposition worth mentioning; on more than one occasion, however, he has been compelled to make a vigorous campaign for the nomination of his party. This was notably the case prior to the congressional elections of 1902, when, as a result of the reapportionment, Mr. Williams and two other Mississippi congressmen were thrown into the same district. It was a hard fight, but Mr. Williams won, and, as a natural conse- quence, his political strength was materially augmented. 470 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Mr. Williams is a native of Tennessee, having been born at Memphis, July 30, 1854. His father, who was colonel of the 27th Tennessee Volunteers, C. S. A., was killed at Shiloh. His mother had died before that time, and when Memphis was men- aced by the Federal army certain of young Williams' relatives left the city and took him to the old family homestead of his mother in fruitful Yazoo county. Miss. There the boy grew up and commenced his education, going first to private schools, then to the Kentucky Military Institute, near Frankfort; then to the University of the South at Sewanee; then to the University of Vir- ginia, and, finally, across the Atlantic to famous Heidelberg. At these various institutions of learning he received what he himself modestly calls, in the biographical note appearing in the Con- gressional Directory, a "fair education," but what was really a thorough training for one of the best minds that has developed in the South in recent years. The natural inclination of the brilliant young Southerner was for the law. He gave particular attention to that study during his college days, and on his return from abroad commenced a course under Professors Minor and Southall at the University of Vir- ginia, and afterward read in the ofi&ce of Harris, McKisick & Turley, a prominent Memphis firm. It was in 1877 that his license to practice was granted him, and in the following year he removed to Yazoo City, Miss., and opened an ofl&ce of his own. There he has resided since, dividing his time between his law practice, his cotton plantation, and, in more recent years, his duties in Congress. His first prominent appearance in politics was as a delegate to the Chicago convention which nominated Cleveland and Stevenson, and since then he has been a local, State and national power. His first appearance in the halls of Congress, as has been stated, was at the beginning of the Fifty-third Congress, in 1893, when he was thirty-nine years of age. Mr. Williams is a brilliant debater, an adept tactician, and an able parliamentarian. Dozens of times during his first term as leader he was enabled to bring these qualities, coupled with his large general information and his thorough knowledge of political questions, to bear on the opposition with crushing force, while, on JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS. 471 the other hand, the leader of the majority managed to score against him very infrequently. On many occasions his quick wit came to his rescue in ticklish situations, and a scintillating retort or a shaft of ridicule or biting carcasm effected results which no amount of argument would have accompHshed. He did much for his party, and that he did not do more was due solely to the fact that under the rules of the House it is a physical impossibility for the minority to accompUsh much, no matter how ably it may be led. Still, it is likely that no man in the House could have done better than Mr. Williams, and certain that most of his colleagues could not have done as well. Mr. Williams has always maintained most friendly relations with Speaker Cannon, who has accepted his recommendations for minority conunittee assignments and similar suggestions practi- cally without question. The mutual admiration and esteem be- tween the two has ever been a subject of comment in the House. Mr. Williams is a democrat in the broadest sense of the word as well as in politics. He lives simply, never permits himself to be puffed up by fresh triumphs, and is known as a man who never goes back on a friend. The result is that he becomes more popular the longer he stays in Congress. C. Arthur Williams. EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT. ALTHOUGH the late Senator Wolcott came of a long line of Puritan ancestors, and was bom in Longmeadow, Mass., in 1848, his life work in the West, and the charac- teristics of a resourceful, breezy Westerner, always identified him with that locality. His father, the Rev. Samuel Wolcott, was a famous theologian, and prominent in the Congregational Church, Edward Wolcott's schooling was temporarily interrupted in 1864, when he enlisted in the i6oth Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, which marched to the defence of Washington, when the capital was threatened at the outbreak of the war, the family then Uving in Cleveland. After the war he entered Yale College in the class of '70, but being of a restless disposition left college a year later and went to Colorado. After teaching school two years at George- town in that new and progressive State, he opened a law office and began the practice of law. He was no sooner in law than he en- gaged in politics, and in 1876 he was nominated and elected by the Republicans prosecuting attorney for the Georgetown dis- trict. In this office, by his work and energy, he achieved consid- erable reputation, which led him to a wider field for his talents. He located in Denver and was appointed attorney for the Denver Rio Grande Railroad Company. In 1880 he made the race for the congressional nomination of his party in the Denver dis- trict, but met with defeat. His canvass, though, was so brilliant that it attracted State attention, and for his political work and in- fluence in Colorado pohtics for the next nine years he was re- warded by a seat in the United States Senate in 1889. He suc- ceeded Tom M. Bowen, a rich miner whose fame as a poker player was international. Mr. Wolcott was also a dead game sport, and would stack up the blue chips on a faro layout as high as the ceiling, if the dealer would permit. During his campaign 472 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT. 473 for the Senate, the chief charge against him was that he had lost twenty-two thousand dollars at faro in Daly's club house at Long Branch. His political friends and advisers were fearful that the gambling episode might hurt his chances, and begged him to deny it. He smiled at their fears and said : "Whose business is it but mine? I am an unmarried man, and there is no one but myself upon whom any disgrace can fall. While it is true that I lost a large sum of money at faro, it is also true that I had won the money the previous afternoon on the races." He soon became famous for his oratory and activity and his earnest and energetic advocacy of the free coinage of silver. He took a prominent part in the extra session of 1893, in seeking to prevent the repeal of the silver-purchase clause of the Sherman Act. In 1895 he was reelected to the Senate, his term expiring in 1901. He then retired from the Senate, or was rather retired by his constituents, as he had chan^d his views on the silver question. Previous to his retirement, he went abroad (1897) as a special commissioner of the United States, to try to arrange for an Inter- national monetary conference. His mission resulted in complete failure, and he returned home keenly disappointed over the result. His opening address as temporary chairman of the Repub- lican National convention, at Philadelphia, in 1900, attracted universal attention. The convention was captivated by his elo- quence. His voice possessed a most magnetic quality, and his diction was well-nigh perfect. His speech was frequently inter- rupted with storms of applause, and after its delivery there was strong talk of nominating him for the Vice-Presidency. He was thinking over the matter when the news reached him that the leaders had agreed upon Mr. Roosevelt. He then refused to allow his name to go before the convention, and later was chairman of the committee to officially notify Mr. Roosevelt of his nomination. Senator Wolcott was an exceedingly popular man with all classes. He had a charming personality, was a handsome man, and always dressed in the neatest style. He was a lion in Washington society, and was the observed of all observers at the notable re- ceptions. FROM THE LAND OF THE LAKES. I HAVE been asked by my good friend, O. O. Stealey, to write something concerning the men of Michigan who have been active in national affairs during his period of service here as correspondent of the Louisville Courier-Journal. While this greatly exceeds my occupation in similar capacity here, I am pleased to pay tribute to the eminent men of my State who have here served, and also as graceful compliment as I can to this vete- ran correspondent and Democrat "in weal and woe" with me. In considering and discussing the public men of that State during the period which embraces his service here, I can say with "truth and honesty" that I knew them all pretty well, and held most of them in high appreciation. Greatness is to my mind either a fact or a fiction, and truly great men are rare. Excellent men are numerous, and good men are frequent, but great men seldom come along, and when they are great they are, according to my observation, not always good. These remarks are not directed by me toward any of the public men of my State, but are merely general expressions. Many a vain pretender will doubtless be glorified in Stealey's story, and some modest men of great merit will also escape mention by him. That is sometimes called the "truth of History," and history is notoriously untruthful, when read outside the pages of volumes of divine inspiration. In what I shall say of the "Men of Michigan" who were in Congress during the period of Colonel Stealey's successful career among us, I cannot hope to do complete justice, shall surely make no criticism, unjust or otherwise, and try not fail to do honor where honor is due. But, within the limits of such an arti- cle as Colonel Stealey has asked me to prepare, it will be im- possible to mention by name each and every good man the grand 474 FROM THE LAND OF THE LAKES. 475 Wolverine State has sent to Congress in his period of service. Yet when I say that not one of them has ever stolen a dollar or sold justice; that "dark dishonor" never attached to any of them, of either or any party — and we have had many a kind of party in the State of which I write — I have said enough to indicate my appreciation of the "Men of Michigan" of whom I write, what- ever their party affiliation. If I were to attempt to suggest the men who have been most conspicuous in that period I should perhaps do the State injus- tice, but I venture to name a few who have particularly attracted attention. Don M. Dickinson, although never in Congress, sharply im- pressed himself as a member of President Cleveland's first Cabinet. If he had not been bom in the "royal purple" of riches, and had not also a somewhat laissez jaire character, Thomas W. Palmer would have been Michigan's greatest public man in the period of which Stealey writes. He was honest, generous, eloquent when he wanted to be — and poetic when he pleased. I have always felt that the golden spoon which he inherited "robbed the world of many pleasures." He never really fancied the Senate. He would have made a noble Macanus for Horace, but a nobler Horace for Macaenus. And he never got the chance to be Horace. The Michigan senator who has played the largest part in national public life in Washington is Julius C. Burrows, whose service began before and will continue beyond the limit of Colonel Stealey's life in the capital. He is one of the veterans of Congress, and with but two temporary political accidents where the Demo- crats or his own party opponents "got him for a minute" he has been in Congress, one house or the other, for lo! these two and thirty years. He is a fine speaker and excellent parliamentarian, and has cut a large figure in the work of each House. His service in Con- gi-ess has been longer than that of any other man from his State. James McMillan was essentially a business senator, and he won great renown by his work looking to the permanent improve- ment of the Capital City. Long after he passed away "his works 476 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. lived after him." His influence was great, but always exerted as modestly as it was effectively. He was not given to "trope and metaphor," and his victories in legislation — and they were many — were won by his business capacity, foresight and energy. In this same class must be placed the earnest, kindly, true- hearted Francis B. Stockbridge, who, like his colleague, died in the harness, regarded highly and much loved by all who knew him. Then comes to be mentioned Gen. Russell A. Alger, whose splendid army career in the Civil War was rounded out by his good work as governor of Michigan and head of the War Depart- ment during the Spanish war. When he was made the vicarious victim of circumstances after that war the people of his State, justly resenting his treatment, sent him to the United States Senate, the highest reward they could give for duty well done. Palmer, McMillan, Stockbridge, Alger! These four men were very wealthy, and it has long been opined that what they did about every election time to us Democrats was good and sufficiently plenty. But "enough of that!" The great objector, Omar D. Conger, after long and success- ful service in the House, was transferred by his State to the Senate. In the so-called "upper" body (fiction) he did not quite keep up to the great reputation he had earned in the House. He was par- ticularly fitted for fighting on the floor of the latter body as a member of the minority before the modem arbitrary rules prac- tically obliterated individualism. John Patton, Jr., one of the most accomplished and popular younger men of the State, served a short but successful term in the Senate by gubernatorial appointment. The five men named filled out the entire period of senatorial representation from Michigan during the term of which the author of this volume treats. In the House of Representatives during the same term of years the State has had many distinguished congressmen, a number of them of the now minority political party. It will scarcely be ques- tioned by any one who knew him that Judge John Logan Chipman, long Democratic member of Congress from the Detroit district, was the peer of any man who has sat in Congress in many years. Justin Rice Whiting, whose abilities were high, though of a FROM THE LAND OF THE LAKES. 477 different order, after sitting in Congress longer than any other member of his party from Michigan has ever served, recently died, the most popular Democrat in his State. Levi T. Grifi&n and Alfred Lucking, brilliant lawyers and eloquent speakers, have been sent to Congress by the Detroit Democracy. Judge George L. Yaple once served in the House (defeating the redoubtable Burrows), and astonished that body by his all but incomparable eloquence. Thomas Addis Emmet Weadock and Timothy E. Tarsney, brothers-in-law, served with conspicuous success in the House, as also did William C. Maybury,who, after being a member of Congress, was mayor of his native city of Detroit for nearly ten years. The brief and meteoric career of the late Melbourne Had- dock Ford should be mentioned. He accomplished the remarkable feat of securing (and from John G. Carlisle !) the most important of committee chairmanship assignments in the first half of his first term. Then there were such sturdy characters as Nathaniel B. El- dridge, much given to plain Democracy, blunt profanity, and gen- uine honesty; Spencer O. Fisher, Byron G. Stout, H. H. Wheeler, James S. Gorman, Henry M. Youmans, George F. Richardson, Ferdinand Brucker, and Albert M. Todd. There were also Edwin B. Winans, afterward one of the noblest of Michigan's long line of good governors. All these were Democrats, and serve as con- spicuous examples of the character of the minority party in the lake-fringed Wolverine commonwealth. On the other and stronger side of the House there have been and are many excellent public men from the State. Space again forbids too close enumeration. But it would be impossible to omit reference to the brave and studious Gen. Byron M. Cutcheon; the dashing, always get-there members of the Smith family— Wil- liam Alden Smith, Samuel W. Smith, and Henry C. Smith; of elo- quent E. L. Hamilton; the steady and ever-reliable James O'Don- nell; Roswell P. Bishop (capitol policeman, clerk, and Congress- man); bluff Samuel W. Stephenson; and the late Mark S. Brewer; the aggressive John B. Corliss; and John T. Rich and Aaron T. Bliss, who from members of Congress became governors of Michi- gan. There are just as good men left out of this list as there are 478 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. in it, but I think I have given those whom Colonel Stealey knew best, and with the assurance that all those mentioned and also those not mentioned are " honorable men," I have completed my contribution, and I leave the subject with the man who writes the book. Frank H. Hosfoed. HOOSIERS IN CONGRESS. IT is neither persiflage nor flattery to say that Indiana has a strong delegation in Congress. Whatever meaning is implied by the trite old expression, " all wool and a yard wide," applies with fuU force to the Hoosier statesmen. They have some foibles, of course, but as a delegation they are lacking neither in brains nor the gifts of speech. They deserve all of the bouquets that are tossed their way. There are three orators on the delegation who can hold their own against any of the modem Ciceros. Senator Beveridge, Rep- resentative "Jim" Watson, and Representative "CharHe" Landis, in their best flights, are really and greatly eloquent. Senator Beveridge's oration in the Senate chamber on Marcus A. Hanna was a masterpiece of mortuary literature. His eulogy on Frances E. Willard was sublime and thrilled all who heard it. Few men possess in equal degree the divine gift of eloquence. His memory is wonderfully retentive. I have known him to write an important speech but a few hours before the time for delivery, read it over twice, and deHver it without the slightest flaw of enunciation. Whether in the thrust and parry of a running debate, or in calmer and more deliberate appearances on the rostrum, his mastery of himself and of the English language is always superb. Second only to Senator Beveridge among the Hoosier orators in Congress is "Jim" Watson, who has been known as a spell- binder ever since he donned wooden shoes and won the affections of the Dutch people of the Sixth District in a whirlwind campaign that swept "Watch-dog" Holman clear off of the boards. Watson has the saving grace of humor. Senator Beveridge's oratory, like himself, is always thoughtful, always serious. His acquaintances would be no more astonished to see the Goddess of Liberty turn a somersault over the Congressional Library than to hear Senator 479 480 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Beveridge crack a real funny joke. When it comes to stories, how- ever — light, airy humor such as often captures a crowd — Watson is there with the goods. He can be mighty serious, too, on occa- sion, and it is difficult to say which brand of his oratory is the more enjoyable — it all depends on the individual taste. In Watson's opinion there are just two institutions on earth that deserve from humanity nothing more than good-natured rail- lery. They are the Democratic party and Civil Service, and he can come more nearly making either look like thirty cents than any other statesman alive. Let it be known in advance that Watson is going to speak and the House galleries invariably become packed with an expectant multitude. It is said that every man who comes to Washington weighted down with the dignity of a commission in Congress has the privi- lege of electing at the outset whether he will be a wit or a sober- minded statesman and that by this choice he must abide. There is a good deal of truth in the saying, for the country fixes its ideas of a new statesman very quickly. "Charlie" Landis didn't ex- actly elect to be a wit, but he keeps a reservoir of brilliant, spark- ling humor always on tap, and is a master of repartee. Landis fairly bubbles over with fun, not now and then, but all the time. It will be many a long day before members of the Fifty-eighth Congress forget the occasion when Landis set a trap for John Wesley Gaines. Gaines had developed a delightful habit of inter- rupting nearly every Republican congressman who arose to speak with questions that a Philadelphia lawyer couldn't answer. It seemed as if the Tennessee member stayed awake nights to frame knotty interrogatories. Their relevancy didn't matter; he was like Diogenes hunting, not for an honest man, but for a poser. Landis was, as the school-boys say, "onto the curves" of Mr. Gaines. He wanted to make a speech on the Philippines and he wanted to be let alone by Gaines. So he loaded for bear — or, rather, for Gaines. Sure enough, within a few minutes after Landis began to speak, up bobbed Mr. Gaines ; "Before the gentleman asks his question," said Mr. Landis, "I would like to inquire of him if he is the author of this bill, introduced HOOSIERS IN CONGRESS. 481 to repeal the war taxes six months after the war taxes were wiped off of the statute books?" The Indianian held the bill high so that all saw it. Great bil- lows of laughter swept through the House and out into the cloak rooms. Mr. Gaines forgot to propound his query. There was no getting around the documentary evidence. The printed bill spoke for itself. During the remainder of that day Mr. Gaines was a sober, silent solon. There is the making of another top-notch orator in Repre- sentative Fred Landis — "Landis II," they call him out in Hoosier- dom. Fred is just turned thirty-three years old, the only bachelor member of the delegation and a wonder in his own peculiar way. He is chock full of quaint, ori^nal expressions which are a source of unfailing and unending delight to the average audience. One of the good things he gets off is in reference to President Roose- velt's efforts to bring about peace in the Orient. Says he : "A year ago our Democratic friends were charging ferociously from the stump that President Roosevelt's chief aim in life was to establish an empire in this country. Now they see that he only wanted to be an umpire, which proves that their last campaign was simply a slip of the tongue." It was predicted that when "Landis II" came to Congress he would almost immediately give the House a sample of his oratory. Instead, he has maintained a discreet and modest silence, but it is believed that early in his second year of service — ^that is, in the coming session, he will fire off some oratorical pyrotechnics which will crown his chrysanthemum locks with fresh laurels. When Congress opens in the fall a new Indiana orator will take a seat in the House of Representatives. Rather it should be said that he is new in Washington, but in Indiana his eloquence on the hustings and in the courts of justice long ago won him an enviable reputation as an orator. Lincoln Dixon, of the fourth district, successor of Francis Marion Griffith, who retired voluntarily, is one of the most accomplished speakers the Democracy of Indiana can boast, and as a criminal lawyer he takes front rank. Not alone in oratory, but in capacity for patient, plodding, effective work, the Hoosier delegation is eminent. In the class of 31 482 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. unostentatious but faithful workers Senator Hemenway is de- serving of special mention. He lays no claim to oratory. He makes a straightforward, convincing talk, without any embellish- ments. His diction may lack in elegance, and his rhetoric may get jumbled, but no one will doubt the sincerity or the facts of a statement he offers. His is a wise head. Shrewdness is written in his every lineament. He "sizes up" men quickly and his judg- ment goes straight as an arrow to the mark. He will be a senator of the Aldrich rather than of the Depew type. He will have but little to say, but when it comes to doing things he will be a real part of the works. Representative Jesse Overstreet is one of the most useful pack- horses in Congress. He never balks. Uncle Joe Cannon considers Overstreet one of his best pullers, and that is why Uncle Joe put him at the head of the Committee on Post-OfEces and Post Roads. A drone has no place at the head of that committee, which has to do with the multifarious affairs of the great postal system. There is no harder-working member of Congress than Mr. Overstreet. His mastery of the details of the postal business, as shown by his expert handling of the Post-Ofi&ce Appropriation Bill on the floor, brought a shower of compliments from his fellow-members and so charmed Mr. Cannon that on the closing day of the last session the speaker put his arm around the Indianapolis member and warmly thanked him for his painstaking and invaluable services. Such effusive demonstrations on Uncle Joe's part are very rare. Edgar Dean Crumpacker, Representative from the Tenth In- diana district, is one of the most able and learned lawyers that ever sat in Congress. He would make a splendid chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He studies public questions exhaustively and from every possible view-point, and he illuminates every sub- ject upon which he speaks. He has a hobby — ^the reduction of Southern Congressional apportionment — which he has ridden into the mudbank of insurmountable opposition, and he has about con- cluded to let it stick there. Crumpacker's speeches do not always make a good impression, for his style of delivery is tame, but they are really masterpieces of law and logic. In Abraham Lincoln Brick the Thirteenth Indiana district has HOOSIERS IN CONGRESS. 485 a scholarly Representative who roams at large in all the fields of literature. His pubhc addresses are conservatories of the choicest flowers of speech. As a shrewd and successful political manipulator George Wash- ington Cromer, of the Eighth district, has few peers. Every two years he faces opposition in his own party, but somehow or other he invariably manages to stack the cards and win out. EUas S. HoUiday, of the Fifth district, the only old soldier Rep- resentative from Indiana, is a model of straight-laced Presbyterian propriety. If all of the legislators were imbued with the same degree of conscientiousness. Congress would not go wrong nearly so often. WiUiam T. Zenor, the Democratic Representative from the Third district, has been in office almost since he reached maturity, and, while he does not volunteer his age in his autobiography writ- ten for the Congressional Directory, it is known that he is no longer a spring chicken. He is a useful member, who is not afraid of hard work, and a leading spirit of the Committee on Indian Affairs. Two of Indiana's new members are Newton W. Gilbert of the Twelfth and John H. Foster of the First. Mr. Gilbert has been State senator and Ueutenant-governor of Indiana, and, while a young man in years, is old in the pubhc service. Judge Foster leaves the Superior Court bench of Vanderburg County to don the congressional toga. He is a nephew of ex-Secretary of State John W. Foster, one of the world's leading diplomats, and, like his dis- tinguished relative, is a man of culture and erudition. John C. Chaney, who comes as the new Representative from the second district, succeeding genial "Bob" Miers, is not an old soldier, but he looks like one. This recalls an amusing mistake of the Hon. Charles Warren Fairbanks. When Mr. Chaney first ran for Congress a few years ago, Mr. Fairbanks made several speeches in his friend's behalf down in the Second district. He addressed an immense audience at Linton, and wound up by asking his hear- ers to turn out as one man and vote for "the gallant Captain Cha- ney, as brave a soldier as ever carried a musket." Several persons in the audience tittered, and Mr. Chaney appeared visibly embarrassed. At the next meeting-place, Mr. 484 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Fairbanks again paid a glowing tribute to "my soldier friend, the gallant Captain Chaney." Mr. Chaney saw that something would have to be done, so when the first opportunity for a private conversation presented itself, he blushingly informed the to-be vice-president that he was not a "captain" and that he never carried a gun in his life except when he went squirrel hunting. Of the fifteen members of the Indiana delegation as it is now constituted, all except one are lawyers. The exception is Charles Beary Landis, editor, lecturer, and farmer. Louis Ludlow. SONS OF THE MOTHER OF STATES. IN the reconstruction period John W. Johnston was the first home-rule senator from Virginia. On account of the fierce feeling between Whigs and Democrats of ante-bellum days, the better classes in the Old Dominion, just after the war, adopted the name of Conservative, and it was as a Conservative senator Mr. Johnston was classed politically. His colleague was John F. Lewis from the Valley section. Lewis was a Repub- lican outright. He was a Union man during the war. Robert E. Withers, who was United States consul-general at Hong Kong during the first Cleveland administration, succeeded Lewis. Johnston and Lewis made a good working pair of senators, but they did not achieve as much of a national reputation for the State and themselves as did other Virginians who came to the front later. General Eppa Hunton, whose home was at Warren- ton in Northern Virginia, and Hon. John Randolph Tucker, with a residence at Lexington, far down in the historic valley, entered the House of Representatives about the same time, and each was favored with a substantial number of terms. General Hunton's first election to Congress occurred in 1873. The famous Col. John S. Mosby was also a resident of Warrenton, and the former guerilla chieftain aspired to represent the district in the House. His failure to capture the nomination at the hands of the Democratic party sowed seeds of discontent in his breast and he gradually eased himself over into the Republican party, and at the personal request of his friend, Gen. U. S. Grant, President Hayes appointed him consul-general to Hong-Kong. General Hunton figvured most prominently and with great credit in a memorable debate with James G. Blaine only a few weeks before the meeting of the National RepubKcan convention at Cincinnati, in 1876. The Democrats were then in control 485 486 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. of the House, having by the great landslide of 1874 secured an overwhelming majority in the lower branch, and which also brought about the election of Samuel J. Tilden, the reform governor of New York. General Hunton was chairman of a sub-committee charged with the investigation of the Little Rock & Fort Smith Railway cases. The report scored Blaine unmercifully, and as he was the most prominent candidate of his party for the Presi- dential nomination it was necessary for him to meet and refute if possible the serious reflections made upon him by the investigation conducted by the Virginia member. The closest friends of the Virginian feared he would be no match for the brilliant Maine statesman. To use a common expression, they expected Blaine would "eat him up alive." But General Hunton surprised his friends. His handling of the case undoubtedly brought him forward the next session as the South's choice for membership on the electoral commission to determine whether Hayes or Tilden should be declared entitled to the Presidency. Unless it be admitted that Delaware is a Southern State, General Hunton was the only man on the commission from the South. Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, it is well known, was a member of the com- mission on the part of the Senate. Hunton's terrific attacks upon Blaine had much to do with the latter's failure to capture the Republican nomination at Cincinnati in 1876. This is borne out by the fact that Mr. Blaine felt the result of the investigation so keenly that he quit speaking to the Virginian when they met at the Capitol. Several years later, when Mr. Blaine became a senator from Maine, he attempted to reestablish friendly relations, but the Virginian declined to have anything to do with him. General Hunton remarked to the writer that Mr. Blaine was a man he did not care to have friendly relations with, as he believed him to have been scandalously connected with the legislation referred to. If General Hunton had achieved no other success in Congress, his eminent service on the electoral commission would have made his friends and admirers proud of him. It was a question for some days as to whether he or Mr. Tucker should be selected for this important position. But General Hunton's noteworthy tilt SONS OF THE MOTHER OF STATES. 487 with Blaine at the previous session undoubtedly made him the choice of the Southern men for membership on the commission. There were so many ambitious men in the Northern Virginia district that Eppa Hunton, even after securing four consecutive terms in the House, stepped aside in the interest of harmony. The Democrats then got into one of the most stubborn fights in the history of the State. There were so many candidates that a deadlock was brought about which could only be broken by the nomination of the late Hon. John S. Barbour, who had not been a candidate, but whose nomination proved eventually to have been one of the most fortunate imaginable for the Democratic party of Virginia. Upon retiring from the House, General Hunton resumed the practice of law. Had Mr. Tilden been awarded the Presidency by the electoral commission, General Hunton would have been a member of his cabinet. On the death of Senator John S. Barbour, in May, 1892, General Hunton was appointed senator by Governor Tyler of Virginia. At the meeting of the Legislature the following winter he was elected to serve the unexpired term which ended March 4, 1895. He moved to Richmond to spend his declining years, and since quitting the Senate has, owing to his advanced age, taken no active part in politics. In 1852 a primitive raihroad was constructed in Virginia. It was known as the Orange & Alexandria. John S. Barbour, a comparatively young man then, was one of the projectors and the president of the company. He had been for several years a mem- ber of the State Legislature, but tired of politics and resumed the practice of law. He in turn quit law to go into the railroad business. At the same time there was employed on the line as a civil engineer a young man, by name WilUam Mahone. In those early days little did either think that they would later on in life be matched against each other in some of the most exciting political contests that have ever taken place in Virginia or in any other State. On the breaking out of the Civil War Mahone entered the service of the Confederacy and before its close had made a record for courage and brilliancy that caused the South- em people to fairly idolize him. At the conclusion of the war 488 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. he became engaged in railroad projects, held high positions, and was ranked as one of the wealthy, progressive men of his section. Mr. Barbour did not go into the army. After the war was over he applied himself to building up the wrecked company with which he was aflSliated. It prospered gradually, and eventually he found himself at the head of a smart company known as the Virginia Midland. Its Hnes were extended rapidly, and finally it was merged into the vast system now known as the Southern. He resigned the railroad presidency in 1883. Two years before that his first election to the House of Representatives occurred. Being possessed of considerable means, Mr. Barbour donated to the State Democratic committee his entire congressional salary for the first term. The Readjuster-Republicans were in complete possession of the Virginia State government and General Mahone had just taken his seat in the Senate. Mr. Barbour became a member of the House on the same day that General Mahone entered the Senate. This was March 4, 1881, and was the beginning of the memorable Forty-seventh Congress. It was chosen the year Garfield was elected President. Keifer of Ohio was elected Speaker. General Mahone was a candidate for governor of Virginia in 1877, before the Demo- cratic convention which met at Richmond. There was a stubborn deadlock for several days. Three candidates were in the field. In delegates, William Mahone and John W. Daniel had approx- imately the same number instructed or pledged, and F. W. M. Holliday had just enough to prevent either Daniel or Mahone from securing the nomination. After numerous fruitless ballots, extending over several days, Mahone, realizing that he could not be nominated, ordered that his delegates should go over in a body to Holliday. This was practically carried out and Daniel was defeated. A movement was already under way for the scaling down of the debt of Virginia. Mahone, Riddleberger, William E. Cameron, and other prominent men who had been staunch Democrats, launched a new party which was styled the Readjuster, but it played no part in the campaign of '77, for Holliday was elected governor by the usual majority. The Readjusters, however, SONS OF THE MOTHER OF STATES. 489 obtained control of the Legislature in the campaign of 1879. They elected a majority of the members of the Court of Appeals, and in 1880 Mahone put out an electoral ticket which he styled "Democratic-Readjuster." In all of his speeches and inter- views he created the impression that if he should win in the State his electors would support Hancock for President instead of Garfield. The Mahone electors received only about 30,000 votes in the State. The " RepubUcan-Readjusters, " having the support of the straightout Republicans, polled a much larger vote, but not sufl&cient to overcome the Virginia Democrats. Mahone, on becoming United States Senator, contrary to what was expected of him, aligned himself with the Republicans in that body. Senator Ben HiU of Georgia, in one of the most caustic speeches ever heard, condemned Mahone for his action. Even then the Virginian claimed to be as "good a Democrat as Ben Hill," but it was not long before he dropped the "Readjuster" and wrote himself down a full-fledged Republican in the sketch furnished for publication in the "Congressional Directory." Two years after General Mahone became senator, Virginia sent to Washington as his colleague another Readjuster in the person of H. H. Riddleberger, a resident of the Shenandoah valley. Riddleberger was a village lawyer and also was for a number of years editor of a weekly newspaper at his home town of Woodstock. He had several terms as a Democratic State senator and made something of a reputation at Richmond. Riddleberger was full of fight not only as a legislator, but in another sense; for about that period politics had become so hot in Virginia that duels were common occurrences between men opposing each other politically. Riddleberger accepted a chal- lenge from the late Richard F. Beime, editor of a Democratic paper at Richmond, and ever appeared anxious to appear upon the field of honor with the crack shots of the opposing party. Hon. John W. Daniel, who has been United States Senator from Virginia since March 4, 1887 — having succeeded General Mahone — won his party's nomination for governor in 1881. The Readjuster candidate against him was William E. Cameron. The ticket on which the latter ran had the cordial support of the 490 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. rank and file of the Republican party in the State. By that time neither Mahone nor any of his lieutenants of prominence seemed to disguise the fact that they were in the Republican party to stay; but Mr. Cameron would never permit himself to be classed as such. However, he easily defeated Daniel for governor and was duly installed as Virginia's executive. The Democratic party of the State contended to the utmost against the Readjuster plan for settling the debt of the Commonwealth, but were finally vanquished and had to acquiesce. In 1883 Mahone apparently was solidly intrenched in power, and Democrats began to despair of ever wresting control of affairs from him. It was at this period that a cry went up from all portions of Virginia that John S. Barbour should manage the State campaign for the Democrats. He willingly assumed the task. Money was badly needed by the Democrats to offset the large sums the Northern Republicans were beginning to supply Mahone for the breaking of the Solid South. Mr. Barbour had a close acquaintance with wealthy business and professional men of several Northern cities, and he had no difl&culty in con- vincing these gentlemen that it was good policy to assist him in putting an end to the power of Mahone. It was a terrific cam- paign, but so successfully did Mr. Barbour play his cards that the Democrats in 1883 elected more than two-thirds of their candidates for the Legislature — sufl&cient to pass any measure over the veto of the Readjuster governor, had he shown a dispo- sition to defy the power of the Legislature. That Legislature did not have the selection of a United States senator. But the following one, which was chosen in 1885, did, for General Mahone's term was drawing to a close. Again, under the leadership of Mr. Barbour, the Democrats were trium- phant. Meanwhile, Mr. Barbour had become Virginia's member of the National Democratic committee, and it was very generally supposed that after having whipped the powerful Mahone in two such stubborn fights he would be elected senator. John W. Daniel, however, was chosen. Mr. Barbour had not announced himself a candidate, and it seems that candidates for the Legis- lature had in sufl&cient numbers pledged their support to Mr. SONS OF THE MOTHER OF STATES. 491 Daniel to bring about his election. The next Legislature also was Democratic. Then no other man was mentioned in the Democratic caucus, and Mr. Barbour was unanimously selected to succeed in the Senate H. H. Riddleberger, whose term expired March 4, 1889. While in the Senate General Mahone became a member of several important committees toward the close of his term, and was given the chairmanship of Public Buildings and Grounds as a reward for his timely aid to the Republicans when his vote was badly needed. Riddleberger was chairman of Manufactures, and also served on Naval Affairs for a time; and both he and Mahone had much to do with legislation affecting the District of Columbia. After his retirement from the Senate, General Mahone devoted several years industriously in the direction of selling to the United States a square of ground that he owned and on which it was proposed to erect a new Government printing ofi&ce. The old building was not only too small for the needs of the big shop, but it was such a poorly constructed affair it was feared it would tumble down. But the Democrats hated Mahone so intensely on account of the r61e he had played in Virginia and in the Senate that they threw obstacles in the way, and his loyal and true friends among the Republicans were unable to get through a measure that would doubtless have saved him from eventual bankruptcy. Although presumed to be wealthy when he entered the Senate, General Mahone left at his death a very small estate and heavy debts. His devotion to his son, Butler Mahone, throughout his career in Washington, was the subject of interesting comment. Father and son were constantly seen together, and had political and financial misfortunes not over- taken the wily little Virginian, he doubtless would have made another effort to regain his political power in the State. Neither Mahone nor Riddleberger ranked as an orator of any consequence. They were active in committee work and political manipulation. Riddleberger was never entirely satisfied with the alliance he formed with the Northern RepubUcans. To close friends he often regretted keenly that he ever formed a combination with the Republicans to give that party control of the Senate. This 492 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. confession was made even long before the Virginian realized that he had been badly treated by some of the leaders. In spite of Riddleberger's having invariably cast his vote for all leading Republican measures while in the Senate, the most prominent Republican members of that body treated him with scant courtesy; and toward the close of his public career he had but one chum in the Senate. That was the genial and jolly Tom Bowen of Colorado. He was firm and steadfast in his friendship for the Virginian. Senators Edmunds and Hoar at times pointedly went out of their way to criticise and snub Riddleberger, but it must be admitted that those venerable statesmen thought they had cause for dealing roughly with him. Edmunds and Hoar were sticklers for guarding executive session secrets. Riddleberger had an utter contempt for ' secret pro- ceedings as long as they did not relate to important treaties with foreign countries. On numerous occasions, Riddleberger, in utter defiance of Senate rules, insisted upon discussing matters which Messrs. Edmunds and Hoar contended belonged exclu- sively to executive sessions. One or the other felt it his duty to remain constantly in the chamber lest the Virginian should venture upon forbidden ground. Whenever Riddleberger of- fended seriously, either Edmunds or Hoar instantly called him to order and moved that the doors be closed. In executive session Riddleberger threw the New England pair into fits by defiantly informing them that he would give to the newspapers a general run of the discussions. Many of the Republicans were aware that he talked freely to the newspaper correspondents, and they favored his expulsion unless he would agree to observe more carefully the rules. But Riddleberger's vote for about two years was absolutely necessary to Republican control of the Senate. For this aggravating reason they neither dared press his expulsion nor drive him back into the Democratic party. The last night Riddleberger served in Congress there was a dramatic scene in the Senate chamber. It was past midnight, and that Congress would expire by constitutional limitation at 12 o'clock, and at which hour on March 4, 1889; Benjamin Harrison was to be sworn in as President of the United States. John SONS OF THE MOTHER OF STATES. 493 J. Ingalls of Kansas was the presiding ofi&cer of the Senate. He frequently manifested his contempt for Riddleberger. Edmunds and Hoar had been specially severe upon him during the closing days and nights of the session. In retaliation Riddleberger determined to block all their schemes, as he told his friend Bowen, if unanimous consent were required to pass any of their pet measures. With such a rush of business this was a powerful weapon, and for two days and nights the Virginian remained constantly on guard to object to anything the two New England senators were anxious to have disposed of. He had almost worn himself out physically, and really was so weak mentally and bodily that he was hardly responsible for some of his actions. Mr. Ingalls, without any authority whatever under the Senate rules, directed the sergeant-at-arms to forcibly remove the Vir- ginia senator from the floor. Riddleberger vehemently protested. He insisted that he had objected only when he had a right to; but the presiding officer was obdurate, and the offending senator was escorted none too gently to the Republican cloak room. A young daughter of Mr. Riddleberger was so much affected by the exciting scene that she fainted in the private gallery and had to be removed. Mr. Vest of Missouri went over to the Republican side of the chamber and is reliably reported to have said to Mr. Cameron of Pennsylvania: "Don Cameron, if there is any manhood among you Republicans some one will arise on this side of the chamber and administer a stinging rebuke to the 'Kansas Jay hawker' who has taken advantage of the opportunity to exploit himself before the galleries. Riddleberger has been used shamefully by some of your party associates, and in the face of the fact that his vote for nearly two years has enabled you to control this body." Mr. Vest, it is almost needless to add, was anything but an admirer of the senator from the State adjoining his own. Mr. Cameron, according to rumor, was forced to admit that the exigencies of the legislative situation prevented any of the Repub- licans from interfering with the chair's ruling, so the matter was dropped, and Riddleberger in a few hours had reached the end of his senatorial career. 494 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Senator Barbour died early in May, 1892. His death had an important bearing upon the selection of delegates from Virginia to the National Democratic Convention, held that year at Chicago. Mr. Barbour was unalterably opposed to the nomination of Grover Cleveland for the Presidency. The Virginia convention met at Richmond only a few days after the passing away of the undis- puted leader of the Democracy of the State. In the selection of delegates at large to the Chicago convention, the Cleveland adher- ents secured two and the Hill followers had two. These were chosen by the convention. An agreement to this effect was entered into by the leaders of both sides. To this day in Virginia one can hear that each faction was afraid of the other, and that a cowardly compromise was effected. In the selection of delegates by con- gressional districts, the Cleveland people secured ten and the Hill people elected the same number, the State delegation at Chicago therefore being evenly divided. In one of the districts, the Cleveland people elected their two delegates by a majority of only one vote; in another they had only three or four votes over the anti-Cleveland forces. In but one district of the State was the Cleveland strength formidable. In the fifth district the Hill delegates received every vote. Had Mr. Barbour been living he would have been so strong at the convention that it is generally admitted that Cleveland would not have had more than two votes in the Virginia delegation at the Chicago convention. As Mr. Barbour was an influential member of the National Democratic committee, and was so well and favorably known to prominent Southern Democrats generally, it is more than likely that he would have used his power to such advantage that Cleveland could not possibly have been nominated at Chicago in 1892. The last political interview Mr. Barbour ever prepared was given to the writer only five or six days before his sudden death. He vigorously advised the Virginia people against supporting Cleveland. While he favored Hill, if no other Democrat could get votes enough to prevent Cleveland's nomination, he did not think that Hill's selection was the wisest course for the Demo- cratic party to pursue. Mr. Barbour stoutly contended that . SONS OF THE MOTHER OF STATES. 495 Cleveland was not a Democrat, and always alluded to him as more of an old-time Whig than a Democrat. It should be borne in mind that Mr. Cleveland at the Chicago convention of 1892 received barely the necessary number of votes to nominate. Mr. Whitney realized what it meant to have Mr. Barbour's opposi- tion, and is known to have privately admitted that had Mr. Barbour lived and continued his determined opposition, the chances were that the ex-President would not have been the choice of the convention. The late Col. Charles T. O'Ferrall made an enviable reputa- tion during a service of nearly twelve years in the House from Virginia. He was a veritable type of the Southern cavalier. He was a daring soldier of the Confederacy during the Civil War, and just before Lee's surrender was in command of what was left of the Confederate cavalry in the valley of Virginia. Colonel O'Ferrall got into the House through a successful contest made in the Forty-eighth Congress against the late John Paul, a Re- adjuster-Republican who on the face of the returns was given the certificate. During the Fifty-first Congress, when Thomas B. Reed was Speaker, Colonel O'Ferrall had many thrilling and sensational experiences in connection with the long fight on the floor of the House to prevent the Republicans from unseating Edward C. Venable of Virginia and swearing in John M. Langston, a Repub- lican mulatto, formerly United States minister to Haiti. For eleven days and nights this struggle was carried on, but eventually the majority mustered a quorum, and, without argument, not only turned the Virginia Democrat out summarily, but in a few minutes more seated another colored Republican from South Carolina, who contested the seat of another Democrat. Day after day, when the Democrats hurried from the hall to break the quorum, O'Ferrall would be the only member on his side of the hall to make the necessary motions. He hotly denounced the Speaker for his rulings and received the most caustic replies from the big Maine statesman even while he was in the chair. The prominence of Colonel O'Ferrall in this fight made him chairman of the elections committee in the next Congress, 496 TWENTY YEARS IN THE PRESS GALLERY. Speaker Crisp having regarded him as his ablest lieutenant on the floor when they resisted the action of the majority in ousting Democrats from their seats. Colonel O'Ferrall received a creditable vote for governor in the Democratic convention of Virginia in 1889, and his superb record subsequently in Congress made him an easy winner of the gubernatorial prize in 1893. After the expiration of his term as governor, January i, 1898, he established his residence at Richmond and resumed the practice of law. As Democratic chairman of the elections committee in the Fifty-second Congress, Colonel O'Ferrall was so eminently fair to his political opponents, in the face of the fact that the first Reed Congress had kicked out Democrats by the wholesale, that he earned the everlasting good will of most of the Republicans. In this connection it should be stated that while chairman there was a celebrated case from New York — the Noyes-Rockwell contest from the Elmira district. The sitting member was H. H. Rockwell, a close personal and political friend of David B. Hill. Colonel Noyes, the contestant, was a Republican. The election hinged on 16 votes. If the committee decided that all sixteen should be cast for Noyes he was entitled to the seat. The committee so decided. All the Democrats of the committee, except Judge Cobb of Alabama, signed a report in favor of turn- ing out Rockwell and seating Noyes. David B. Hill, then in the Senate, got to work actively. The case came up in the winter of 1892. Most of the Democrats who had favored the report either remained away or changed their views when the case was reached in the House. O'Ferrall and Hill one morning came near having a personal encounter over the matter. The committee was badly whipped on the floor, and Rockwell retained his seat. O'Ferrall was an enthusiastic champion of Cleveland for the Presidential nomination in 1892, and had the keen satisfaction of predicting the same many months in advance of the Chicago convention. And it is worthy of note that Colonel O'Ferrall was one of the few thick-and-thin supporters of Cleveland who ever earned his gratitude and retained his confidence. Senator Daniel has long and justly enjoyed the distinction of being one of the most gifted and entertaining orators in his SONS OF THE MOTHER OF STATES. 497 section of the country. In all his bearings he is one of the most courtly men, and his popularity with the Democrats of Virginia is such that he has never had any opposition since his first election to the Senate. His present term does not expire until March 4, 191 1. His committee assignments at this writing include the very important ones of Appropriations and Finance, and since en- tering the Senate he has also been a member of Foreign Relations. His legislative associates say that some of the greatest speeches Mr. Daniel has ever delivered have been in secret session, and they have often regretted that they could not be published; but they related to foreign matters, and it was simply out of the question to make them public. Hon. Thomas S. Martin, the other Virginia senator, lays no claims to oratory. He is one of the latter-day, working, hustling kind. His activity in conmiittee business is the subject of favorable comment. He is prominent in all matters affecting the District of Columbia, having been ever since coming into the Senate a member of the committee which deals with questions relating to the welfare and progress of the seat of Government. He is also a member of the Committees on Naval Affairs and Commerce, the latter handling the bills in which are carried the river and harbor items. Mr. Martin is a shrewd politician, having served as one of the ablest Keutenants of the late Senator Barbour when he was chairman of the Virginia Democratic Committee. Until his election to the Senate, Mr. Martin had never held an ofl&ce. Because he has not earned a reputation in Congress as an orator, the charge is made against him by his political rivals in Virginia that he is nothing but a "department runner." In his fight for reelection he has pleaded guilty to the charge, averring that his time is not too valuable to serve his people if they have any favors to ask of the general Government that can possibly be secured. Mr. Martin's present term expires March 4, 1907, Alfred J, Stofer. 32 ft '