ROGER. WOLCOTT 
 
 BY WILLIAM LAWFCENCE 
 
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^V Willim latorente, £)♦ D. 
 
 ROGER WOLCOTT. Illustrated with Portraits. 
 i2mo, $i.oo ftei. Postage extra. 
 
 LIFE OF AMOS A. LAWRENCE. With extracts 
 from his Diary and Correspondence. With Portrait 
 and Illustrations. Crown 8vo, $1.50. 
 
 VISIONS AND SERVICE. Discourses delivered in 
 Collegiate Chapels. i6mo, $1.25. 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY 
 
 Boston and New York 
 
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ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM LAWRENCE 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
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THE LIBHArtYO?^ 
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 COPYRIGHT 1902 BY WILLIAM LAWRENCE 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 Published November^ igos 
 
TO 
 
 EDITH PRESCOTT WOLCOTT 
 
 WISE STRONG AND GRACIOUS 
 
 THE CONSTANT SUPPORT 
 
 OF HER HUSBAND 
 
 ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
PREFACE 
 
 [N writing this short Life my 
 object has been to bring be- 
 fore the people of Massachu- 
 setts, whom he loved and who 
 loved him, the personality of Roger Wol- 
 cott. Mr. Wolcott's life was passed in 
 the midst of his friends, associates, and 
 relatives. He therefore had no need, as 
 he had little taste, to correspond by letter. 
 He kept no diary or journal. The mate- 
 rials for this little book were gathered 
 from official records and newspaper re- 
 ports, from the memories of my own 
 friendship of over forty years, and from 
 the reminiscences and kind suggestions of 
 others of his friends, political associates, 
 and kindred. 
 
 W. L. 
 Cambridge, October i6, 1902. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Ancestry i 
 
 II. Two Brothers 17 
 
 III. A Harvard Student 32 
 
 IV. A Citizen 51 
 
 V. Lieutenant-Governor .... 77 
 
 VI. Governor 118 
 
 VII. The War with Spain . . . .161 
 VIII. The Last Year 206 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Roger Wolcott in 1896. From a photo- ^ 
 graph by Chickering . . Frontisfiece 
 
 Roger and Huntington Wolcott. From 
 
 a photograph taken about 1853 • • • • ^^ 
 
 Roger Wolcott in 1867. From a photo- 
 graph taken early in his college course . 36 
 
 Roger Wolcott in 1893. From a photo- 
 graph by Chickering '^6 
 
 Governor Wolcott, in 1898, giving to the 
 Ninth Massachusetts Regiment its com- 
 missions for the U. S. Service . . . .182 
 
 y 
 
 / 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ANCESTRY 
 
 !HEN the good ship Mary and 
 John dropped anchor in Bos- 
 ton harbor on the 30th of May, 
 1630, she had in her company 
 Henry Wolcott, Esq., his wife and sons, 
 of Galdon Manor House, Tolland, Somer- 
 setshire. Very few of his Puritan breth- 
 ren had left their homes at greater sac- 
 rifice than he. Henry Wolcott was a 
 country gentleman, accustomed to the 
 surroundings, dignity, and authority of his 
 class. His home was endeared to him by 
 its family associations, its age, and solid 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 comfort. Even to this day Tolland sug- 
 gests to the visitor something of its ancient 
 glory. As one enters the hamlet, he passes 
 the ivy-mantled church; beneath the 
 shadow of the heavy tower rest the bodies 
 of the Wolcotts. Beyond is the manor 
 house, an ancient pile of stone, massive 
 without; within, the walls are ornamented 
 with antique carvings. The ceiling of the 
 spacious dining-hall is heavily groined; 
 above the mantelpiece are shields bearing 
 the family coats of arms; and along the 
 walls run Latin inscriptions, of which one 
 translated reads, " This is the family of the 
 just; may this spot be preserved to all 
 eternity." 
 
 Henry Wolcott, whose family had been 
 loyal members of the Church of England, 
 had been drawn into sympathy with the 
 Puritans. His convictions finally led him to 
 join with his brethren in the upbuilding of 
 
ANCESTRY 
 
 a colony where he and they could worship 
 God according to the dictates of their own 
 conscience. Being over fifty years of age, 
 he had but little taste for change and ad- 
 venture, and the bonds of old associations 
 must have drawn hard upon him. Never- 
 theless, he and his family left their an- 
 cient home, and on the 20th of March 
 sailed for Boston. After a voyage of 
 seventy days they entered the harbor. 
 As they looked from the deck upon the 
 roughly timbered shores and the wooden 
 houses of the town, they must have re- 
 called with a pang of homesickness the 
 quiet vale and rich fields of Tolland. 
 
 Mr. Wolcott first settled in Dorchester; 
 later he removed with Mr. Wareham's 
 church to Windsor, Conn., and there 
 made his home and became a " chief 
 corner-stone." In the first general assem- 
 bly held in Connecticut in 1637 he was 
 3 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 made a member of the lower house, and 
 in 1643 was elected a member of the 
 house of magistrates, and was annually 
 elected thereto until his death. 
 
 Henry Wolcott's son, Simon, was in 
 1673 captain of the Simsbury Traine Band, 
 and in 1678 one of the "Townsmen" or 
 selectmen of Simsbury. He married 
 Martha, a sister of Governor Pitkin of 
 Connecticut, and in 1679 Roger Wolcott 
 was born. After his marriage with Sarah 
 Drake, whose family came from Plymouth, 
 England, counting among its members the 
 famous admiral. Sir Francis, Roger Wol- 
 cott entered upon a life of public service. 
 He first filled the offices of selectman, 
 representative to the general assembly, and 
 justice of the peace. In the expedition 
 against Canada in 171 1 he was commis- 
 sary of the Connecticut stores. Step by 
 step he rose to be a member of the coun- 
 4 
 
ANCESTRY 
 
 cil, a judge of the county court, a judge 
 of the superior court, then deputy gov- 
 ernor, and chief justice of the superior 
 court. With the rank of major-general 
 he was second to Sir William Pepperell 
 in command of the expedition to Cape 
 Breton, which resulted in the capture of 
 Louisburg. In 1750 and for four succes- 
 sive years he was governor of the colony. 
 In' 1754 he retired from public life and 
 devoted his leisure to literature and "to 
 the reading of the Scriptures, meditation, 
 and prayer." 
 
 In his funeral sermon upon Governor 
 Roger Wolcott a century and a half ago 
 Parson Perry struck a prophetic note in 
 his analysis of his character: — 
 
 " At the head of the government Roger 
 
 Wolcott was a wise and an able governor; 
 
 at the head of an army a general true to 
 
 his king and country; on the bench a just 
 
 5 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 and upright judge ; and at the bar an able 
 lawyer. In his own person he was frugal, 
 chaste, and temperate. View him at the 
 head of his family, he was a kind husband 
 and a good father and a compassionate 
 master. He was a steady professor of the 
 Christian name, a constant and devout at- 
 tendant upon public worship and holy ordi- 
 nances. He was able to make a good 
 figure in conversation, among the learned, 
 upon almost any subject, and had a good 
 acquaintance both with men and things. 
 He was very easy of access; no forbidding 
 air sat upon his countenance; free, affable, 
 and unaffected in conversation, he had a 
 peculiar talent in making himself agreea- 
 ble to all sorts of company, so far as inno- 
 cency would permit." 
 
 It fell to Oliver, son of Roger Wolcott, 
 to represent the family in the critical 
 events preceding the Revolution and dur- 
 6 
 
ANCESTRY 
 
 ing the early years of that war. Like his 
 father, he was soldier, lawyer, and jurist, 
 and held high office. In early manhood 
 he commanded a company of volunteers in 
 the northern army in the war against the 
 French. Upon the organization of the 
 county of Litchfield in 1751 he was ap- 
 pointed the first sheriff. He was a repre- 
 sentative to the general assembly, a mem- 
 ber of the council, judge of the court of 
 probate for the district of Litchfield, and 
 chief judge of the court of common pleas. 
 He was a member of the continental con- 
 gress, with the exception of two years, 
 from 1775 to 1784 ; and was one of the 
 signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence. 
 
 Loyalty to his country called him a 
 second time into military service. Upon 
 the breaking out of the war of the Revo- 
 lution Congress appointed him a commis- 
 7 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 sioner on Indian affairs for the northern 
 department. In his spirit of patriotism 
 he, as is seen by the following incident, 
 was well supported by his family. Until 
 the eve of the Revolution a leaden eques- 
 trian statue of George III. had stood in 
 Bowling Green in the city of New York. 
 As soon as hostilities began the Sons of 
 Liberty overthrew the statue, and the 
 body of the hapless king was transported 
 to the home of Mr. Wolcott, at Litchfield, 
 where it was melted into bullets by his 
 children and their friends. 
 
 In 1777 Oliver Wolcott was appointed a 
 brigadier-general, and in 1779 he was com- 
 missioned by General Trumbull major- 
 general of the militia of Connecticut. He 
 was lieutenant-governor of Connecticut 
 from 1786 to 1796, and governor in 1797, 
 the year of his death. 
 
 These offices show the esteem in which 
 8 
 
ANCESTRY 
 
 General Wolcott was held by the country 
 as well as the State. Indeed, no other man 
 in Connecticut during this critical period 
 discharged so many and varied public 
 duties as he. 
 
 Oliver Wolcott gave to the public ser- 
 vice two sons. The first, Oliver, served 
 in Congress and in the army. In 1789 he 
 received from President Washington the 
 appointment of auditor of the treasury. 
 Two years later he was made comptroller, 
 and in 1795 he succeeded Alexander Ham- 
 ilton as secretary of the treasury, and thus 
 became a member of Washinofton's cabi- 
 net. Here he continued during the ad- 
 ministration of President Adams, resigning 
 in 1800 and accepting a seat upon the 
 United States bench as a judge of the 
 circuit court of the second district. In 
 1 8 15 he returned to his home. Two years 
 later the people of Connecticut called him 
 9 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 to the office of governor, and elected him 
 to that position for ten successive years. 
 
 Frederick Wolcott, also a son of Oliver, 
 served his State in the legislative coun- 
 cil and on the bench. He repeatedly re- 
 fused to be nominated for governor by 
 the prevailing political party, but as a 
 private citizen fulfilled many important 
 public duties. He was a member of the 
 corporation of Yale College, and an active 
 supporter of movements in behalf of edu- 
 cation and charity. 
 
 The marriage of Frederick Wolcott to 
 Elizabeth Huntington united two families 
 of high character and remarkable public 
 spirit. 
 
 Elizabeth Huntington's grandfather, 
 Jabez Huntington, who had served sev- 
 eral years as a member of the general 
 assembly, soon after his graduation from 
 Yale College entered the West India 
 
 lO 
 
ANCESTRY 
 
 trade, and by an honorable business career 
 laid the foundation of one of the largest 
 fortunes of that day. Before the breaking 
 out of the Revolution, Jabez Huntington 
 owned a large amount of shipping, and, as 
 the signs of war increased, it became clear 
 that his fortune was endangered. The 
 question arose as to what his action should 
 be in the crisis. 
 
 In the year 1774 he and his wife called 
 the members of their family together, and 
 after earnest prayer for guidance, he told 
 them that he and their mother had been 
 considering their duty to their country in 
 relation to the almost certain loss to their 
 fortune and worldly prospects. He added 
 that before making a final decision which 
 would bring them into hostility to " their 
 dear motherland," he wished his children 
 also to count the cost. Then deliberately 
 addressing each one by name, he asked the 
 II 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 question : " Are you ready to go with your 
 parents and share our risks and our re- 
 wards ? " All pledged themselves to their 
 country. That the pledge was kept is 
 revealed in the history of Jabez Hunting- 
 ton and his five sons. 
 
 The father was appointed by the assem- 
 bly one of the two major-generals of the 
 militia of the State of Connecticut, and in 
 the following year he received command 
 of the entire state militia. 
 
 Of the sons, Jedediah, as colonel in com- 
 mand of a regiment, joined the army at 
 Cambridge just one week after the battle 
 of Lexington. Promoted brigadier-gen- 
 eral at Washington's request, he took part 
 in all the active campaigns of 1777 and 
 1778, and endured the hardships of Valley 
 Forge. In December, 1780, his was the 
 only Connecticut brigade that remained 
 in the service. 
 
 12 
 
ANCESTRY 
 
 Ebenezer also went to Cambridge at 
 the news of the battle of Lexington ; he, 
 too, served as brigadier-general in the 
 war, and was later a member of Con- 
 gress. 
 
 Zachariah was a major-general, and 
 Andrew was commissary of brigade dur- 
 ing the war, and judge of probate. 
 
 Joshua, the father of Elizabeth Hunt- 
 ington, who married Frederick Wolcott, 
 marched immediately after the battle of 
 Lexington as lieutenant, with a hundred 
 Norwich minute-men, to the scene of 
 action, and joined Putnam's brigade. He 
 went with Putnam to New York, where 
 he was promoted to the rank of colonel. 
 
 From the marriage of Frederick Wol- 
 cott and Elizabeth Huntington was born 
 Joshua Huntington Wolcott, the father of 
 Roger Wolcott, late governor of Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 13 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 When J. Huntington Wolcott was a 
 boy, Boston was attracting the attention 
 of the country by the increase of its busi- 
 ness and its large commercial enterprises. 
 Young Wolcott came to Boston and en- 
 tered the counting-house of A. and A. 
 Lawrence as senior apprentice. At twen- 
 ty-six years of age he became a partner, 
 and remained with the firm, becoming 
 senior partner, until its dissolution in 
 1865. Throughout his business career, 
 Mr. Wolcott was recognized as a man of 
 high character and ability. He inherited 
 the public spirit of his ancestry. There 
 was exceptional grace and dignity in his 
 bearing. His uniform courtesy to his 
 employees and the errand bo3^s from other 
 offices, as well as to his business asso- 
 ciates, lingers in the memories of men in 
 active business to-day. 
 
 Mr. Wolcott married Cornelia, the 
 14 
 
ANCESTRY 
 
 daughter of Samuel Frothingham, on 
 November 12, 1844, and by her had two 
 sons, Huntington Frothingham and Roger. 
 This historic sketch has been so full of 
 dates and names of public offices as to 
 suggest a dry chronicle. Reading be- 
 tween the lines, however, we discover 
 character, patriotism, chivalry, and sacri- 
 fice in the public service. The name of 
 the Wolcott family has not been created 
 by one or two great men, but throughout 
 their whole history of over two centuries 
 and a half in this country, each generation 
 has sustained the good name and the high 
 character of the past. The members of 
 the family, blessed with competence, have 
 not felt that great spur to enterprise, the 
 necessity of earning a living. What work 
 they have done, therefore, and what service 
 they have rendered, have been prompted, 
 partly, to be sure, by a pure desire to sus- 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 tain the fair name of the family, but espe- 
 cially by that deep sense of obligation to 
 serve God and man which has been at 
 the foundation of the character and ser- 
 vice of the English people, and especially 
 of the Puritan stock which sought this 
 coast. At the same time, the family has 
 always sustained in its chivalric spirit, 
 courtesy, and delicacy of feeling, much of 
 the temper which is associated, not with 
 the Puritan, but with the Cavalier of 
 English history. 
 
 16 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 TWO BROTHERS 
 
 IHEN Roger Wolcott was born 
 in Boston, July 13, 1847, he 
 came into a home of singular 
 charm. 
 
 His father had a deep love of nature 
 and of out-of-door life. His mother was 
 a woman of beauty and rare culture, a 
 wide reader, familiar with the poets, and 
 at the same time practical and thoughtful 
 of the interests of the household. Hunt- 
 ington Frothingham, the elder son, was 
 born eighteen months before Roger. 
 
 The house in Boston where they passed 
 the winters was on Boylston Street, facing 
 the Common. The home which parents 
 17 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 and children most enjoyed was, however, 
 upon the slope of Blue Hill, about eight 
 miles from Boston. The house stands 
 upon the edge of the woods which cover 
 the hill; from the lawn, the land slopes 
 down to the valley, and to the plain of 
 Readville, through which the Neponset 
 River winds, and in the distance are spread 
 in rich damp green the Canton meadows. 
 
 When he was three years old, Roger's 
 mother died. Her oldest sister, Harriet, 
 came to take charge of the household, 
 and later, as his father's second wife, be- 
 came a mother to the boys. 
 
 In early childhood they were taught at 
 home by their mother, or in company with 
 a few of their friends' children. On reach- 
 ing boyhood they entered the private 
 school of Mr. Dixwell in Boylston Place, 
 Boston, just around the corner from their 
 house. 
 
 i8 
 
ROGER AND HUNTINGTON WOLCOTT 
 
TWO BROTHERS 
 
 The two boys were almost insepara- 
 ble. Together they played their childhood 
 games; together they learned to pray, for 
 it was a religious home. In company with 
 their father they mounted their ponies and 
 galloped over the roads and through the 
 fields. Together they climbed Blue Hill; 
 they picknicked and fished at Ponka- 
 poag Pond. The country folk knew the 
 boys well, and they, catching the demo- 
 cratic spirit of their father, liked all the 
 people. 
 
 Bound as they were in common inter- 
 ests and affections, there were sharp con- 
 trasts in features and character. Hunt- 
 ington's curly chestnut hair, brown eyes, 
 open face, and well-built frame, his self- 
 confidence and impulsive nature, marked 
 him out as the natural leader. Roger was 
 younger, less confident of himself; his jet- 
 black hair and luminous gray eyes, his 
 19 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 sensitive face and sparer form, revealed 
 a more nervous temperament, one that 
 needed time to develop. 
 
 Huntington was the leader not only of 
 his brother but of the school. Trouble 
 with his eyes had kept him back, so that 
 he had the chagrin of being in his younger 
 brother's class; he had, however, the ad- 
 vantage of greater age, which figures high 
 in athletics and the respect of boys. He 
 was frank, generous, courteous, and of 
 sensitive moral organization. Roger was 
 the better scholar, and held his own with 
 other boys in their games; but when 
 Huntington burst through the crowd with 
 the football, Roger was lost in admiration 
 of his brother. 
 
 Life ran happily on until 1862. Then 
 
 the drum-beat in the streets warned the 
 
 boys that war was in the air. That the 
 
 youth of the land might be well prepared, 
 
 20 
 
TWO BROTHERS 
 
 DixwelPs school, like many others, was 
 formed into a military company. Twice 
 a week they drilled under the supervision 
 of an army officer. Huntington, the rec- 
 ognized leader of the school, was made 
 captain. If to some of the other boys 
 there were elements of play in the march 
 and countermarch, it was serious work to 
 the captain. He took command and by 
 his character held command. No other 
 boy could keep discipline as he could. 
 
 His father, ever active in public service, 
 had accepted the position of treasurer of 
 the Massachusetts branch of the Sanitary 
 Commission. The talk at home was there- 
 fore full of battles and the wounded, of 
 comforts and clothing for the sick, of the 
 departure of regiments, and the return of 
 the bodies of the dead. The plain of 
 Readville was converted into a great camp, 
 where regiments were drilling, preparing, 
 
 21 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 and waiting for service at the front. The 
 boys were sentwith delicacies from the gar- 
 den for the men and officers, some of whom 
 were relatives and family friends. Such 
 experiences could not but strike fire in the 
 hearts of Huntington and Roger, for theirs 
 was the martial spirit of their ancestry. 
 
 In June, 1862, the transport Daniel 
 Webster, which under the Sanitary Com- 
 mission had brought from the South some 
 sick and wounded soldiers, was about to 
 return. Although he was only sixteen 
 years old, Huntington succeeded in per- 
 suading his father to let him go with the 
 ship and pass a few weeks as a surgeon's 
 assistant. They entered by way of Chesa- 
 peake Bay the Pamunkey River, and landed 
 at " White House," about twenty-three 
 miles from Richmond. The enthusiasm 
 for McClellan was then high, and the fa- 
 miliar cry was " On to Richmond ! " The 
 22 
 
TWO BROTHERS 
 
 people of the North had not begun to 
 realize the magnitude of the task before 
 them. Living in the midst of the soldiers, 
 riding, as he visited the Massachusetts 
 troops, to within a few miles of Richmond, 
 Huntington got a taste of war, its horrors, 
 its glories, and its great and noble motive. 
 He heard the guns of battle, saw the 
 wounded brought to the rear, and helped 
 to give them relief. Bidding farewell to 
 his former tutor, James Jackson Lowell, 
 who was soon to fall, he returned in the 
 transport, which was filled with wounded 
 soldiers. 
 
 As he took up his studies in the autumn 
 and commanded the company of DixwelPs 
 boys, there were manifest a seriousness of 
 purpose and an inner strength which were 
 maturing his character. Soon the deep 
 conviction that it was his duty to enlist 
 was made known to his parents. He was 
 23 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 but seventeen years old: they could not 
 think of letting him go. He pledged his 
 brother Roger, however, not to oppose 
 his desire. The fire burned within him; a 
 year passed, and again he urged his sense of 
 duty. The pressure became so strong that 
 at last his parents agreed that, if he would 
 wait one year more, and if the war was not 
 then at an end, they would give their con- 
 sent. Huntington was impulsive, but, 
 more than that, he was a youth of will and 
 deep conviction. While he acceded to 
 his parents' wish and gave himself to his 
 studies and music, he could not keep si- 
 lence. " Dear mother," he wrote, when 
 she was away from home, " I shall feel 
 dishonored all my life; you must let me 
 go." As the year came toward its close, 
 and the birthday approached which would 
 make him nineteen and at the same time 
 bring the decision, Huntington, obedient 
 24 
 
TWO BROTHERS 
 
 as he was, became more serious and im- 
 patient. A month before his birthday, 
 when his parents were in New York, 
 he received the offer of a commission in 
 a black regiment. His mother, not yet 
 aware of the offer, wrote him, pressing 
 the argument that the war was near its 
 end, that he was young, and that he could 
 serve his country later. " After the war 
 is over, we shall need wise men, pure pa- 
 triots in the councils of the country, and 
 high-minded statesmen, men of large cul- 
 ture, refinement of taste. Christian integ- 
 rity and virtue, more than the soldier." As 
 she was writing thus, her boy was mailing 
 her a letter urging permission to accept 
 the commission, and ending, " Dear mo- 
 ther, you must let me go, I feel so about 
 it. I think it would be sweet to die for 
 my country." 
 
 With parents patriotic and wise, and a 
 25 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 boy of such spirit, there could be but one 
 result. 
 
 He received from Governor Andrew a 
 commission as second lieutenant in the 
 Second Regiment of Cavalry, Massachu- 
 setts Volunteers. For the last time Hunt- 
 ington came to school and commanded 
 the company of boys. They were still 
 boys, and he, though young in years, 
 had suddenly sprung into manhood. The 
 uniform enhanced his beauty and strong 
 though graceful form. The school gave 
 him his sword ; the belt was buckled 
 over the red sash; and Lieutenant Wol- 
 cott, modest, simple, and true, went forth 
 in the spirit of his fathers, as did thousands 
 of youth in those years of the nation's 
 stress. His last words to Roger were : 
 " Keep jolly, and be all you can to father 
 and mother." 
 
 He was first sent to the camp at Read' 
 26 
 
TWO BROTHERS 
 
 ville. In a few days the order came for 
 him to join without delay his regiment, 
 which was with Sheridan in the Shenan- 
 doah Valley. He went to Winchester : 
 Sheridan had left. Soon learning the 
 position of his regiment, he reached the 
 camp of General Gibbs, and was assigned 
 to Company I of the Second Massachu- 
 setts Cavalry. Within a week he, with 
 his regiment, was in the midst of the con- 
 flict with Early's forces in the Shenan- 
 doah, and took part in the brilliant battles 
 which resulted in the surrender of General 
 Lee and closed the war. At the request of 
 General Gibbs, he was appointed by the 
 President an aide-de-camp upon his staff. 
 Two letters from his general reveal the 
 temper of the youth. After the battle of 
 Five Forks, General Gibbs wrote to his own 
 mother, Mrs. Gibbs, a letter which he had 
 no reason to think that others would ever 
 27 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 see. " We have just passed through one 
 of the most terrible and decisive battles of 
 the war. We have turned Lee's right 
 and captured seven thousand prisoners 
 and nine pieces of artillery. . . . Out of 
 five hundred men, I have lost fifteen offi- 
 cers and seventy-five men. . . . Hunting- 
 ton Wolcott, who was acting on my staff, 
 behaved nobly, like a Wolcott; went into 
 the thick of the fight, and brought down a 
 lot of prisoners. He is just as earnest and 
 ardent as ever, in action as well as ex- 
 pression." 
 
 On May 9th, 1865, he wrote from the 
 headquarters of the First Cavalry Division 
 to Huntington's father: "I consider his 
 pluck as most extraordinary — and he has 
 been so fortunate as to have joined in the 
 most eventful campaign of the war — the 
 one that sealed the fate of the hated Con- 
 federacy. He has passed through it un- 
 28 
 
TWO BROTHERS 
 
 scathed. From frequent and close obser- 
 vation of his conduct, I have noticed 
 particularly his gallantry at Dinwiddie 
 Court House, Five Forks, Clover Hill, 
 April 9th, and on various other occasions, 
 and have often refused him permission 
 to 'go in ' when his ambition prompted 
 him, but duty did not require him to 
 do so. 
 
 " A favorite with my staff, and congen- 
 ial to all with whom he is brought in 
 contact, he is full of ' snap ' when he 
 thinks things are not going right. 
 
 " He has had a terribly tough baptism 
 in military service, but has come out of it 
 with increased vigor and vitality of both 
 body and mind." 
 
 Soon followed the grand review of the 
 
 army at Washington. For two days the 
 
 line of veterans, with toughened bodies, 
 
 tanned skins, faded uniforms, and tattered 
 
 29 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 flags, marched in review. Huntington's 
 father was there; but he was not the only 
 one to mark the beauty of the boy. Per- 
 haps his short service made his uniform 
 brighter than the others; his face was 
 fresher and more youthful; at all events, 
 he caught attention. Others noted and 
 wrote of "the radiant beauty of young 
 Wolcott." 
 
 Thus passed the war and its glory. 
 There was little else to be done except 
 to be mustered out and come home. Even 
 when Huntington was in the great pro- 
 cession, typhoid fever had begun its work. 
 Within a few days he was very ill. The 
 one hope of life seemed to be in his escape 
 from the malarial air of the Potomac to 
 the northern climate. He was borne 
 quickly home. As he was laid upon his 
 bed beneath the shadow of Blue Hill, and 
 breathed the odor of the pines, and heard 
 30 
 
TWO BROTHERS 
 
 familiar voices, he revived; but the dis- 
 ease did not release its hold. " My dar- 
 ling Roger; Roger, my love to the boys," 
 were his whispered words. 
 
 On the 9th of June, 1865, another Wol- 
 cott, patriot and soldier, a chivalrous boy, 
 passed on. 
 
 Again the schoolboys met, and in his 
 home in Boston gathered around the bier 
 of Huntington, their friend and leader. 
 
 His mother had well said, " After the 
 war is over, we shall need wise men, pure 
 patriots in the councils of the country, and 
 high-minded statesmen." Huntington, to 
 whom she wrote, had passed on. Roger 
 was left. 
 
 31 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 A HARVARD STUDENT 
 
 [T was natural that the sick- 
 ness and death of Huntington 
 should have borne heavily on 
 the strength of his father and 
 mother. The effect upon Roger was as 
 that upon a tender sapling when its sup- 
 port has been withdrawn. He drooped, 
 and showed such physical and nervous 
 depression as to cause anxiety and com- 
 pel his parents to take him to Europe. 
 There they remained for more than a 
 year. In England they ran down to the 
 manor house at Tolland, and visited 
 the graves of the ancient Wolcotts, or 
 Walcotts; for in England the latter form 
 32 
 
A HARVARD STUDENT 
 
 was and is the more common. Appreci- 
 ative as they were of their English an- 
 cestry, they were steadfast Americans. 
 While in London, Roger's mother gave 
 him a seal ring with the family coat of 
 arms. The seal-maker mentioned that 
 the arms were identical with those of the 
 English Walcotts. A few days later, a 
 member of the Walcott family, a man of 
 distinction, called upon Mr. Wolcott to 
 compare notes upon the subject. Being 
 convinced that the American branch was 
 from his own family, he invited Roger, 
 then a boy of seventeen, to lunch with 
 him, in order to give him copies of the 
 family records. In the course of conver- 
 sation this gentleman said, " Mr. Wolcott, 
 if you intend to hitch on to the English 
 branch of the family you must change the 
 spelling of your name." " Sir," said Roger, 
 " we do not intend to hitch on to any fam- 
 33 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 ily." " Then/' was the answer, " the pur- 
 pose of this interview is misunderstood; " 
 and the English representative of the fam- 
 ily tore the records in pieces. He had 
 met America in one boy. Roger was 
 sent back the next day by his mother to 
 apologize, and the incident was closed. 
 
 Walking in Switzerland confirmed Ro- 
 ger's gaining strength, and study in Paris 
 prepared him for college. As his class 
 from Dixwell's school had entered Har- 
 vard during his absence, he joined them 
 in the sophomore year. It is difficult for 
 a young man entering college the second 
 year to make a position for himself in the 
 class. However, his group of old school- 
 mates received Roger into their club 
 table. He was fond of out-of-door life, 
 a strong walker, and a good horseman. 
 While enthusiastically interested in all 
 athletic events, he took little active part 
 34 
 
A HARVARD STUDENT 
 
 in the college sports. Of excellent ability, 
 he worked harder as a student than his 
 intimate friends. He read more widely 
 than was the custom of students in those 
 days. His interests were in the lan- 
 guages, history, and literature. He did 
 some work on the only college paper of 
 the time, " The Harvard Advocate," and 
 was one of the active organizers of the 
 O. K., a society which drew into its circle 
 men of literary as well as social tastes. 
 He was elected into the social clubs, and 
 took an active interest in the Hasty Pud- 
 ding. 
 
 He thus gradually and unconsciously 
 increased the circle of his acquaintance 
 and friends. 
 
 A feeling of loneliness and his sensitive 
 
 nature sometimes threw him into moods 
 
 of deep depression. He then assumed in 
 
 social life an almost forced manner of 
 
 35 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 lightness and gayety. His brother's mem- 
 ory was a constant source of inspiration. 
 In his senior year he wrote: "I feel it 
 more every day that every high aspiration, 
 every yearning after nobleness, which I 
 sometimes feel, is to be traced directly to 
 Hunty's influence and example; and that, 
 if there is ever developed in me any spark 
 of true worth, it will be his memory that 
 kindles it." 
 
 Of this inner life, however, his class- 
 mates knew nothing. To them he was 
 always frank and true, bright and alert, 
 with a sense of humor, unfailing in his 
 courtesy, and always ready to give full 
 credit for the acts and motives of others. 
 At the same time they realized that there 
 was a reserve in his nature, which lent 
 dignity and weight to his bearing. 
 
 He therefore rose quietly and steadily to 
 recognition in the class. Standing ninth 
 36 
 
^T. 20 
 
A HARVARD STUDENT 
 
 in rank, a member in the senior year of 
 the Phi Beta Kappa, and a good speaker, 
 it was natural that when the class came to 
 the elections he should be the only man 
 seriously considered for orator. 
 
 In 1870 the Class-Day exercises were 
 held in the First Parish Church. In the 
 front pews sat the members of the class; 
 behind them and in the galleries were 
 the typical Class -Day auditors, — fresh 
 young girls in brilliant dress, solemn dons, 
 proud parents, and distinguished guests. 
 The noble head of General Sherman, a 
 hero of the day, was conspicuous in the 
 throng. 
 
 Roger Wolcott arose to make his first 
 public speech. If a young man is real and 
 simple, he speaks out of his inmost con- 
 victions at such a time. Such a man was 
 the orator of the day. His hair was black 
 as jet, his face pale, then flushed; his 
 Z7 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 straight, tall figure stood firm, his voice 
 was clear and strong. As he spoke, the 
 great heat of the day was forgotten, and 
 the people listened intently. It was not the 
 speech of maturity, but of youth. It was, 
 however, direct, sincere, and strong, and, 
 being a part of his inner life, it rang true. 
 Several times in later years General Sher- 
 man asked his Boston friends, " When are 
 we to hear from that young man, Wolcott, 
 who spoke on Class-Day ? " 
 
 No doubt the sentiment of the day threw 
 a glamour over the scene. Still, even after 
 the lapse of thirty years, the speech has 
 warmth and life, for it reveals some of the 
 ideals of Roger Wolcott in his youth. 
 Harvard Memorial Hall was rising from 
 its foundations; and the nation had just 
 observed one of its first memorial days. 
 
 The orator named " enthusiasm of heart 
 and earnestness of mind " as the two requi- 
 38 
 
A HARVARD STUDENT 
 
 sites of character in the manhood of the 
 times, and said: — 
 
 " The head and the heart are peers, and 
 neither can be exalted without debasing the 
 other. . . . Enthusiasm is of the heart, not 
 of the head. It is a means, not an end. It 
 is a tool given us with which to work, a tool 
 which we shall do well to guard from rust, 
 — a talent which we must not wrap up in 
 a napkin. Enthusiasm is a quality through 
 which a man does with his might what- 
 ever his hand and his head find to do. It 
 is because it is so often applied to ignoble 
 uses, because what the heart finds to do 
 might so often better be left undone, that 
 we grow to regard it with suspicion and 
 distrust. . . . 
 
 " It is to secure this vital principle, this 
 
 intentness of resolve and action, that we 
 
 so often hear of the necessity of infusing 
 
 young blood into the councils of the old. 
 
 39 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 The increasing burden of years seems to 
 drag heavily upon the heart, and to 
 threaten constantly to stifle its beatings. 
 Men are too often petrified by the slow- 
 dropping mists of experience laden with 
 disappointment and failure, and ever the 
 heart hardens first. Listlessness and indif- 
 ference take the place of earnestness and 
 vigor. That baleful apathy which Ruskin 
 calls the greatest mystery of life, settles 
 down upon the soul, deadening and de- 
 stroying. The man forgets his youth's 
 ideal, lowers his aspirations to the attain- 
 ment of mediocrity, and sinks, often with 
 scarce a struggle, to the dead level which 
 is so marked a characteristic of the time. 
 He who escapes this danger is the man in 
 whose breast the sacred flame still glows, 
 who pursues the nobler aims of his riper 
 years with the same exuberance of vitality, 
 with the same abandonment of self, with 
 40 
 
A HARVARD STUDENT 
 
 which, as a child, he gave chase to the 
 butterfly fancies of the hour. . . . 
 
 " All honor to the intellect in its proper 
 sphere. To depreciate its dignity would 
 be presumption indeed. It is through his 
 intellect that man is but little lower than 
 the angels; but it is by his heart that he 
 partakes of the nature of God. . . . 
 
 "When once our faith in other men's 
 virtue is lost, it is no wonder if we make 
 no advance in virtue ourselves. . . . There 
 must be that within us which claims kin- 
 dred with the nobility of others, or the 
 magnet of their influence will be to us no 
 more than a piece of bent iron. Distrust 
 of the motives of others is often tanta- 
 mount to a confession of the insincerity of 
 one's own. Cynicism, like the mistletoe, 
 saps the very life of that on which it 
 fastens. . . . 
 
 " But it is when our self-interest allures 
 41 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 us from our original path, when we let 
 slip from our memory Harvard's grand 
 old motto, ' Veritas/ and wander farther 
 from the influence of that force which can 
 alone through life draw us onward and 
 upward, it is then that the heart only can 
 set us right. . . . 
 
 "Young as we are, we have lived in 
 grand and stirring times. Scarce one of 
 us but has felt the blood tingle with a sen- 
 sation never before experienced when, at 
 the drum-beat, as if by enchantment, the 
 hero stood forth in the person of father, 
 brother, friend. Who does not remember 
 the hurried parting, the anxious days of 
 doubt, the joyous return ? Or perchance 
 to some of us a treasured sword or musket 
 and a proud though heart-rending memory 
 may alone remain as talismans of blessed 
 influence for our future lives. 
 
 ^' Strange indeed would it be if we 
 42 
 
A HARVARD STUDENT 
 
 allowed ourselves to forget the force of 
 their glorious example. And yet can we 
 deny that there is a widespread danger 
 throughout the country that this will be 
 the case ? Money has again become a 
 rival with honor for the foremost place in 
 the nation's regard. Oblivion of the past 
 is deemed the only security of the pre- 
 sent. . . . 
 
 ^' Why has the nation set apart a day in 
 the sunny springtime to deck with flowers 
 and garlands the graves of our fallen sol- 
 diers throughout the land ? Is it with the 
 thought of honoring the dead that this is 
 done ? I think not. Earthly flowers, how- 
 ever fair, laid upon cold marble or sense- 
 less sod, can hardly be thought to bestow 
 much of honor on those upon whose brows 
 the hand of God has placed the immortal 
 wreath. It is, as I think, that in the still- 
 ness of the cemetery we may hear with 
 43 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 more distinctness than in the busy turmoil 
 of our daily lives that ' voice that cometh 
 from behind ' — from the grave of the 
 buried past, from the spirits of the noble 
 dead, saying, ' This is the way, walk ye in 
 it; ' the way of devotion to country and to 
 principle, the way of hardship and self- 
 sacrifice, the way of life through death. 
 
 " It is for a kindred purpose that in yon- 
 der old playground the foundations have 
 been laid of a stately structure to stand a 
 lasting memorial to the sons of this uni- 
 versity who gave their lives to insure their 
 country's salvation. Is it for their sake 
 that the trowel and hammer are so busily 
 plied where once the click of the bat and 
 the shout of the players startled the echoes 
 from the neighboring chapel ? Let us not 
 deceive ourselves. It is for us, for the 
 hundreds who yearly pass from these 
 gates, to carry the ideas which they have 
 44 
 
A HARVARD STUDENT 
 
 here acquired to their distant homes. The 
 influence of association is strong, and well 
 may the heart beat with a quicker pulse 
 and the soul be thrilled with nobler senti- 
 ments within walls hallowed by such 
 sacred memories. 
 
 " If at any time indifference and an al- 
 most pardonable disgust tempt us to leave 
 undone the little which individual effort 
 may do to rescue our national politics from 
 corruption, must not the thought flash into 
 our minds of the heroism here commemo- 
 rated ? We perhaps may find it irksome 
 even to cast a vote for what we believe to 
 be our country's good. 
 
 '' ' But these, our brothers, fought for her, 
 At life's dear peril wrought for her, 
 So loved her that they died for her.' 
 
 " Nothing can insure the success of the 
 great experiment which is here tfying, 
 nothing can enable us to preserve our 
 45 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 national existence, save the intelligence, in- 
 tegrity, and loyalty of the educated classes. 
 The dangers which threaten us are great 
 and constant. If Intelligence stands aloof 
 we are lost. No educated man is justified 
 in shrinking from the responsibility which 
 is thrust upon him, nor is it possible for 
 any American citizen to wash his hands of 
 his country. There is no such thing as 
 neutrality in citizenship. He who is not 
 with his country is against her. The ab- 
 sence of a vote from the side of Intelligence 
 adds a new sinew to the arm of Ignorance, 
 which is ever raised menacingly against 
 the nation's honor and security. 
 
 " Our duty then to our country is positive 
 and grave. If we discharge it with the 
 full-hearted loyalty displayed by those who 
 have gone before us, we may rest assured 
 that no laurel which we can bind about 
 the brows of our alma mater will she 
 46 
 
A HARVARD STUDENT 
 
 wear with more pride than that won in 
 maintaining the dignity and honor of the 
 repubHc. On the other hand, if we neg- 
 lect this duty, in so doing we disregard the 
 example of the past, the demand of the 
 present, and the entreaty of the future. . . . 
 " So live that when in after years your 
 hand once more grasps the hand of friend, 
 he may see the soul of the boy looking 
 forth from the eyes of the man; that he 
 may feel that you are still the same — not 
 changed, but grown." 
 
 On Commencement Day he had a part 
 and gave an oration entitled " The Early 
 Franciscans." Then with his classmates he 
 received his degree from the hands of the 
 young president, Charles W. Eliot, who for 
 the first time presided at the Commence- 
 ment exercises. 
 
 At this time Harvard was still a college. 
 47 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 The great leadership of the new president 
 had hardly been felt. The choice of studies 
 was small, and the many lines of interest 
 which now stimulate the students and turn 
 their thoughts toward congenial pursuits 
 did not exist. Except for the informal 
 talk of a few teachers there was no ap- 
 peal to the young men to enter public life 
 and very little to kindle their interest in the 
 great national questions of the day. Per- 
 haps the strongest stimulus in this direc- 
 tion given to the students in those days 
 was an address, not of an American citizen, 
 but of Tom Hughes, who, when a guest of 
 James Russell Lowell, spoke to a mass 
 meeting in old Massachusetts Hall. He 
 expressed his surprise at finding how little 
 interest the men of education took in the 
 public life of the great republic. He told 
 the students of the leadership of university 
 men in the national life of England, and 
 . 48 
 
A HARVARD STUDENT 
 
 called upon them to consecrate themselves 
 to public service. 
 
 Upon his graduation Mr. Wolcott en- 
 tered the law school, but was attracted by 
 an invitation from the college, which he 
 accepted, to teach for a year in French 
 and History. The next year he passed in 
 the law office of Lothrop, Bishop, and 
 Lincoln. From 1872 to 1874 he was a 
 student in the Harvard law school, taking 
 his degree of bachelor of laws. He was 
 admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1874. 
 
 On September 2, 1874, he was married 
 in Boston to Edith Prescott. 
 
 In the middle of the eighteenth century, 
 before the capture of Louisburg, General 
 Roger Wolcott of Connecticut was second 
 in command to Sir William Pepperell. 
 There also served in Nova Scotia under 
 Sir William Pepperell a young lieutenant 
 from Groton, Mass., William Prescott. At 
 49 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 the news of the battle of Lexington, he, 
 like the Huntington brothers from Con- 
 necticut, reported at Cambridge as colo- 
 nel of a regiment of minute-men. His 
 record at Bunker Hill and elsewhere in 
 the Revolutionary War is familiar. His 
 son, Judge Prescott, was the father of the 
 historian, William Hickling Prescott, 
 whose son, William Gardiner Prescott, of 
 Pepperell and Boston, was the father of 
 Mr. Wolcott's bride. Sympathetic in all 
 their associations as well as in character, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Wolcott began their happy 
 life together by traveling for a year in 
 Europe. 
 
 so 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 A CITIZEN 
 
 JHEN Roger Wolcott returned 
 from Europe in 1875 at the 
 age of twenty-eight, he was 
 at the opening of active life. 
 Handsome, a favorite in social life, of 
 excellent ability and education, he was the 
 only son of a successful business man. 
 Under no necessity to work, with a love 
 of letters and of outdoor life, he might, 
 had he been of a different temper, have 
 settled down as a dilettante in literature 
 or have given himself up to sport and plea- 
 sure. Such an alternative never occurred 
 to him. There was that quality in him, 
 which fortunately is in the great body of 
 51 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 American youth, that shrank from the 
 thought of an aimless existence, and that 
 esteemed a life of work and usefulness the 
 only one worthy of a citizen of a republic 
 or of manhood. The spirit of industry 
 was in his blood, and the sense of duty and 
 obligation to serve mankind had come 
 down to him through generations of wor- 
 thies. Whatever bit of work he under- 
 took he threw himself into with ardor and 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 The firm of A. and A. Lawrence, after 
 half a century of honorable success, had 
 dissolved, and Mr. J. Huntington Wolcott, 
 except for the care of his own property 
 and his duty as a director of various cor- 
 porations, had retired from business. A 
 commercial career had, however, little in- 
 terest for his son. 
 
 Roger Wolcott opened an office in 
 Pemberton Square, from which he moved 
 52 
 
A CITIZEN 
 
 later to the Suffolk Bank Building on Tre- 
 mont Street, and entered upon the prac- 
 tice of law. The outlook was promising; 
 he had many friends, and a persuasive way 
 of stating a case. His mind was well 
 stored, clear, and accurate. 
 
 Society, however, is sensitive to condi- 
 tions of character within it, and when the 
 people feel that there is a young man of 
 public spirit who is willing and able to 
 take responsibilities, they gather around 
 him and call him out to service. 
 
 Mr. Wolcott soon found that the papers 
 upon his desk were not all strictly legal, 
 and that not all the business hours of the 
 day were given to the law. 
 
 As his father retired from this or that 
 position, directors and stockholders dis- 
 covered that the son was able to fill his 
 father's place, and the young man often 
 found himself in the midst of business 
 53 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 men of a former generation. He became 
 a director of the Stark Mills, of the Boston 
 and Providence Railroad, and of the New 
 England Trust Company, a trustee of the 
 Suffolk Savings Bank, and a vice-presi- 
 dent of the Massachusetts Hospital Life 
 Insurance Company. He declined an 
 offer to be treasurer of a large manufac- 
 turing company. 
 
 The public, social, and charitable organ- 
 izations laid hold of him. He came into 
 personal touch with the poor as a visitor 
 of the Boston Provident Association and 
 a member of the board of managers of the 
 Boston Dispensary. As trustee of the Eye 
 and Ear Infirmary and of the Massachu- 
 setts General Hospital he took an active 
 interest in the administration of these in- 
 stitutions. As he passed from bed to bed 
 in the surgical and medical wards, and 
 then visited the insane asylum at Somer- 
 54 
 
A CITIZEN 
 
 ville, his gentle courtesy, his frame glow- 
 ing with health, and his bright word and 
 smile were from week to week a happy 
 memory to the patients. 
 
 When there was danger that the ancient 
 landmark, the Old South Church, would 
 be torn down, he was active in saving it; 
 he presided at the meetings of the preser- 
 vation committee, and was later a mem- 
 ber of the Old South Corporation. He 
 delivered a lecture in one of the Old South 
 courses upon the historian Prescott He 
 found congenial employment as a trustee 
 of the Boston Public Library, and gave 
 much time to the work of the Social Sci- 
 ence Association. 
 
 His interest in New England history 
 caused the Massachusetts Genealogical 
 Society to turn to him for literary services. 
 He took much interest in the Massachu- 
 setts Historical Society, was active as a 
 55 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 member of committees, and wrote a me- 
 moir of James Murray Robbins and other 
 papers. 
 
 He became a vestryman of King's 
 Chapel, where he was a member and con- 
 stant worshiper after his marriage. 
 
 When elected in 1885 as an overseer of 
 Harvard College he was a young man to 
 have received such honorable recognition. 
 It was a grateful service to him, and he 
 gave to the work his best thought and 
 time. One incident gave him an oppor- 
 tunity to test his abilities in swa3dng a sen- 
 sitive and critical audience. The over- 
 seers at the time felt that the students 
 were given too great liberty, and resolved 
 to urge upon the faculty rather stringent 
 regulations as to hours and habits of work. 
 The students and many members of the 
 faculty thought that the proposed restric- 
 tions were unnecessary and unwise. A 
 56 
 
A CITIZEN 
 
 feeling of mutual suspicion was aroused. 
 Mr. Wolcott was asked to address a mass 
 meeting of students and members of the 
 faculty, to answer questions, and to ex- 
 plain the position of the overseers. It was 
 not an easy task. His frankness, however, 
 disarmed criticism, and his sense of hu- 
 mor and his quick repartees gained the 
 sympathy of the students. The comment 
 of " The Lampoon " tells the result: — 
 
 " Roger Wolcott, Esq., of Boston, who 
 presented the overseers' view of the recent 
 restriction votes at the college conference 
 meeting, Tuesday evening, succeeded, as 
 no one had before done at these meetings, 
 in bringing the large body of students to 
 look on matters as do the healthy, broad- 
 minded, and successful members of the 
 alumni (of whom Mr. Wolcott is an ex- 
 cellent type) . On his appearance on the 
 platform, the mysterious 'Board of Over- 
 57 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 seers,' so long the butt of the ' Lam- 
 poon's ' jokes, and the ' Crimson's ' ' fresh- 
 man ' editorials, was materialized at once 
 in a vigorous representative of the active 
 alumni superior to both students and 
 faculty, and able to carry out their reason- 
 able demands. The throng of students 
 that crowded the large lecture -room 
 greeted him with long-continued applause, 
 and notwithstanding the attempts of one 
 or two Harvard Union debaters to stir up 
 a snarl near the close, Mr. Wolcott was 
 frequently interrupted with applause, and 
 left amid the unmistakable signs of good- 
 will in his audience." 
 
 In 1888, the development of the differ- 
 ent departments of the university, espe- 
 cially of the Lawrence Scientific School, 
 brought upon the overseers for the first 
 time the question of the enlargement of 
 the franchise, by which graduates of the 
 58 
 
A CITIZEN 
 
 professional schools could be given the 
 ritrht to vote for overseers. Mr. Wolcott 
 wrote and signed a report urging the en- 
 largement of the franchise in such clear 
 and effective argument and language, that 
 later reports upon the subject have had 
 little to add. 
 
 It might seem as if these were enough 
 public interests to consume the time of a 
 man who was trying to make his way in 
 the law. Roger Wolcott was, however, 
 a citizen who from boyhood had been 
 impressed with a sense of duty to his 
 country. As soon, therefore, as he reached 
 the age of twenty-one, he took up the 
 active duties of citizenship. He believed 
 that all citizens should do their part, not 
 only in voting, but in political work. He 
 was active at the caucuses, and distributed 
 ballots at the elections. He cast his vote 
 with the utmost conscientiousness. 
 59 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 It was soon clear to those who were 
 interested in good city government, that 
 Roger Wolcott had in him the possibilities 
 of excellent public service. Within two 
 years of the time that he had begun work 
 as a lawyer, he was nominated and elected 
 a member of the common council of 
 Boston. He was again elected, serving 
 in 1877, 1878, and 1879. ^^^ consistency, 
 courtesy, and fairmindedness so gained 
 for him the confidence of men of all par- 
 ties, that even then he was spoken of as a 
 possible non-partisan candidate for mayor. 
 In 1882, 1883, and 1884, he served in the 
 lower house of the state legislature. He 
 worked and spoke in the campaign of 
 1882 against the election of Benjamin F. 
 Butler as governor. 
 
 As a member of the joint standing 
 committee on public charitable institu- 
 tions, he showed force in connection with 
 60 
 
A CITIZEN 
 
 the Tewksbury Almshouse investigation 
 by Governor Butler. Upon his retire- 
 ment from the legislature, he had won 
 the confidence of the whole house. 
 
 During these years, he had followed the 
 course of the two great national parties. 
 The Republican party, with which by in- 
 heritance and conviction he was allied, 
 and which had been in power since the 
 war, was showing the demoralizing influ- 
 ences of success. The narrow escape 
 from defeat by the Democratic party led 
 by Mr. Tilden in 1876, and the pure ad- 
 ministration of President Hayes, had been 
 helpful toward reform. To the uphold- 
 ers of pure government, and to the increas- 
 ing body of mugwumps and independents, 
 there was, however, ample cause for dis- 
 content. In 1880 Garfield and Arthur 
 were elected. 
 
 During the next four years the condi- 
 61 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 tions in the party seemed to many to 
 become worse. The management of the 
 party was in the hands of men who, for 
 political and financial integrity, had not 
 the confidence of the country. The man 
 who stood to many of the people as the 
 most conspicuous representative of these 
 elements was James G. Blaine. When, 
 therefore, the Republican Convention of 
 1884 met and, in spite of the protest of 
 a large number of delegates and the open 
 statement that a fraction would bolt his 
 nomination, Mr. Blaine was nominated, 
 Mr. Wolcott refused to be one of those 
 to support the nomination. Mr. Wolcott 
 was a Republican whose loyalty to the 
 party was not dependent upon the per- 
 sonality of the man at the head of the 
 ticket. Four years before, when his 
 friends were forming Bristow clubs be- 
 fore the national convention, he, though 
 62 
 
A CITIZEN 
 
 he admired Mr. Bristow, and would have 
 been glad to see him nominated, refused 
 to join a club. He believed in giving 
 the convention freedom of action in the 
 choice of candidates. The nomination 
 of Mr. Blaine was to him, however, more 
 than a question of personality, — there 
 was an issue of morality. The support of 
 the Republican candidate meant to him 
 the support of unworthy and evil elements 
 in the national government. His deci- 
 sion to break from his political associations 
 caused him much distress. He believed 
 then, as he did through life, that the 
 American people have high moral stand- 
 ards, and that the party which expects to 
 hold their confidence must not only have 
 high principles in its platforms, but must 
 select for its leaders men in whose politi- 
 cal honesty and high character the people 
 can trust. As a Republican, therefore, 
 ^3 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 and for what he believed to be the best 
 interests of the Republican party, he voted 
 for the candidate in whose political integ- 
 rity he had confidence, Grover Cleveland. 
 This action of Mr. Wolcott was signifi- 
 cant. He was not by nature or taste an 
 independent; he believed in political par- 
 ties; he was a strong Republican, and 
 indorsed the general principles of the 
 Republican party. He had been steadily 
 gaining in influence in the party in Massa- 
 chusetts, had won many friends, and had 
 so conducted himself in office as to make 
 promotion almost certain if he stood by 
 the party. He had begun to catch the 
 eye of the public. Political oflice as such 
 had no attractions for him; but as a means 
 of public service he esteemed public 
 office. However, to him the issue was 
 plain and his duty clear. He had plenty 
 of useful work ahead, and no one by taste 
 64 
 
A CITIZEN 
 
 and education was better fitted to be a 
 happy private citizen. He declined to be 
 a candidate for Congress on the Independ- 
 ent-Democratic ticket, when an election 
 was almost sure. He still claimed to be 
 a good Republican. At the next caucus 
 his vote was protested, but he pressed his 
 claim, and was so far successful that he 
 was sent in 1885 from ward 11, Boston, 
 as an alternate delegate to the next Re- 
 publican State Convention, and as a dele- 
 gate took part in its proceedings. 
 
 At this time, the health of his father, 
 Mr. J. Huntington Wolcott, was begin- 
 ning to fail, and Mrs. Wolcott had been 
 delicate for years. In fact, life had not 
 been the same to them since Huntington's 
 death, and they both looked upon Roger, 
 their only son, as the support and comfort 
 of their declining years. With what filial 
 piety he gave himself to that service is 
 65 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 familiar to all who knew them. His de- 
 votion to his parents is, perhaps, the most 
 beautiful feature of his whole life. So 
 complete was it, that some of his intimate 
 friends were at times disposed to chafe, 
 feeling that he was unduly hampered in 
 the prosecution of interests which might 
 lead to his future influence or position. 
 
 When he was asked to run as a Repub- 
 lican candidate for mayor of Boston, with 
 a probability of election, he declined on 
 account of his father's health. Besides 
 taking the full responsibility of his father's 
 affairs, he attended to all the petty ques- 
 tions of the household and the estate at 
 Blue Hill. No public business was so 
 pressing that it could draw him away from 
 anything which he felt would be of plea- 
 sure or comfort to his parents. In fact, it 
 may be said that during the last few years 
 of his father's life, Roger considered his 
 66 
 
A CITIZEN 
 
 father's comfort his chief business, and all 
 other duties, private, professional, or pub- 
 lic, subordinate to that. 
 
 The quiet hours passed with his parents 
 gave him opportunity for reading and writ- 
 ing. In 1887 he wrote for the " Tran- 
 script " a careful article on the Constitu- 
 tion adopted in 1787. He was very fond 
 of poetry, and learned much by heart, 
 which he repeated with deep feeling. His 
 reading of the Bible was most tender and 
 impressive. As his father's strength waned, 
 Roger's devotion became more and more 
 complete, until he seemed to fill the offices 
 of doctor, chaplain, and nurse; and when 
 the end came in 1891 and the care ceased, 
 it was, with all its relief, as if one great 
 privilege of his life had been taken from 
 him. 
 
 In 1884 the election of Mr. Cleveland, 
 67 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 the first Democratic President since the 
 civil war, was a warning to the Republi- 
 can party that a new generation was ris- 
 ing, that certain old issues dear to the Re- 
 publicans were dead, and that there was 
 discontent with the leadership of the party. 
 The country was tired of eloquent plat- 
 forms and wanted men. Mr. Cleveland 
 soon showed himself to be a man of force, 
 and struck out in lines that drew the 
 attention of the thoughtful young men of 
 the country. The impression was abroad, 
 certainly in some of the Eastern States, 
 that the Republican party was hidebound, 
 that it insisted on an unreasonable tariff, 
 that it was governed by the corporations, 
 and especially that, being in the hands of 
 men like Senator Quay of Pennsylvania, 
 who was at that time chairman of the na- 
 tional Republican committee, nothing in 
 the way of high principle or strong leader- 
 68 
 
A CITIZEN 
 
 ship on the great issues could be expected 
 of it. The Republican party and its man- 
 agement in Massachusetts seemed to reflect 
 something of the same spirit. Massachu- 
 setts had ever since the war been reck- 
 oned as a Republican stronghold, but there 
 had risen from the ranks of the once de- 
 spised Democratic party a young Harvard 
 man, William E. Russell, who, by his elec- 
 tion as Governor in 1890, won a great Dem- 
 ocratic victory. It was clear that he had 
 been elected by the votes of men who 
 once voted the Republican ticket or by 
 young men who, of Republican parentage, 
 were rising up to make a new Demo- 
 cratic party. Again Russell was elected, 
 and young men like John F. Andrew and 
 Sherman Hoar, sons of great Republican 
 leaders of the war, were going to Con- 
 gress as Democrats. 
 
 It was time that something should be 
 69 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 done to stem the tide by the younger men 
 of the Republican party who believed in a 
 forward movement and higher political 
 standards. Beginning with an informal 
 gathering, the Republican Club of Massa- 
 chusetts was formed; its list of members 
 soon ran into the hundreds. The critical 
 question was whom should they select as 
 their standard-bearer; who among the 
 younger Republicans had the courage and 
 tact, the position and force, to call the at- 
 tention of the people to the movement and 
 to show them that they too had a leader. 
 
 They turned to Roger Wolcott at the 
 time that his father's death left him free 
 to enter public life again, and he became 
 the first president of the Young Men's 
 Republican Club of Massachusetts, now 
 the Republican Club of Massachusetts. 
 
 In January, 1891, the club had its first 
 public dinner. Upon the president de- 
 70 
 
A CITIZEN 
 
 volved the duty of striking the first note 
 and of revealing to the public the motives 
 and objects of the club. Were there in 
 him and the members the elements of 
 leadership? It must be borne in mind 
 that, although there was much discon- 
 tent in some quarters, the public con- 
 science had not yet been aroused, and men 
 with political futures had not spoken in 
 clear tones. The speech of Roger Wol- 
 cott, unconscious as he was of the fact, 
 marked his entrance into public life and a 
 new political era, at least for the State of 
 Massachusetts. In truth, some waves of 
 his strong voice swept through the coun- 
 try. The speech is prophetic ; its charac- 
 teristics are the characteristics that were 
 his to the end. It was the word of a high- 
 minded man who was in earnest; it rang 
 true; it revealed a full confidence in the 
 intelligence and character of the Ameri- 
 71 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 can people; it appealed, not to their pas- 
 sions, but to their consciences and high 
 traditions. After expressing the loyalty of 
 the club to Republican principles and re- 
 calling the great deeds of the party in and 
 since the war, he said: — 
 
 " Such memories are a curse if they 
 serve but to unnerve the arm and to 
 slacken effort. Unless they be an incen- 
 tive to lofty courage and noble emulation, 
 they become by contrast a stigma to the 
 present generation and brand it as unwor- 
 thy of that which is so rapidly passing 
 away. 
 
 " No word of mine shall ever be uttered 
 to depreciate that robust and virile inde- 
 pendence in politics which holds country 
 and honor above party, which while acting 
 within party lines ever strives to secure 
 the best in men and measures, and, often 
 buffeted and defeated, never ceases to 
 72 
 
A CITIZEN 
 
 wage war upon dishonesty and chicanery, 
 using party as a weapon but never wearing 
 it as a yoke. 
 
 " But the independent who prides him- 
 self upon being a total abstainer, until the 
 day of election, from all lot or part in po- 
 litical movements, should be treated as 
 those who skulk when the bugle sounds. 
 It was not the arduous rigors of the Alps 
 nor the repeated assaults of Rome's trained 
 legions that broke the nerve of Hannibal's 
 victorious army, but the soft vices of Ca- 
 pua, where sloth and ease took the place 
 of vigilance and strife, and the sutler's tent 
 supplanted the general's guidon in the sol- 
 dier's affection. 
 
 " Is this to be the fate of the Republi- 
 can party? It must not be. It must make 
 its appeal, as of old, to the intelligence and 
 patriotism of the country. It must rally 
 to its standard the recruit and drum out 
 73 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 the mercenary. The loss of thousands of 
 votes in this State was due to the Pennsyl- 
 vanian who is still chairman of the national 
 committee. . . . 
 
 " The Empire State substitutes a Hill 
 for an Evarts in her highest office, and 
 when he takes his seat in the Senate he 
 will present an interesting subject for com- 
 parison with his able and upright Repub- 
 lican predecessor. . . . 
 
 " We look to the Republican party as 
 the bulwark against the menace of irra- 
 tional silver legislation. This battle is not 
 yet fought out to an issue. . . . Congress 
 may put a false bottom in the quart pot or 
 bore out the core of a pound weight and 
 fill it with cement, and declare that the 
 new measures shall still be called a quart 
 or a pound, and this may satisfy him who 
 sells, but no power on earth can make 
 him who buys satisfied therewith. In like 
 74 
 
A CITIZEN 
 
 manner, Congress may say, not without a 
 sacrifice of national honor, that seventy or 
 eighty or ninety cents' worth of silver 
 shall be called a dollar, but in the ex- 
 changes of the world this fiat money dic- 
 tum will have just about as much effect 
 as a paper blockade. On this issue the 
 position of the Republican party must be 
 sharply defined. 
 
 " We believe that wherever, through 
 bribery, intimidation, or fraud, elections 
 fail to express the will of the legally qual- 
 ified voters, there is a failure of republi- 
 can government. The menace to the cause 
 of free government embodied in ^blocks 
 of five ' is as real as that lurking in the 
 shotgun or the tissue ballot. 
 
 " More than it has yet done is expected 
 
 of the Republican party in the reform of 
 
 civil service. It requires no very close 
 
 study of American politics to reveal the 
 
 75 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 fact that the dispensation of party patron- 
 age has done more to corrupt and imbit- 
 ter elections, to squander the time of those 
 in office, to demoralize those who aspire to 
 office, and to wreck the fortunes of indi- 
 viduals, of administrations, and of parties, 
 than almost any other cause. . . . 
 
 " These are some of the questions on 
 which we believe the position of the Re- 
 publican party to be more sound and en- 
 lightened than that of the Democratic; 
 and for this reason we are content to sit 
 here to-night as members and guests and 
 well-wishers of the Republican club of 
 Massachusetts." 
 
 After this speech Roger Wolcott and 
 his young followers were an element to be 
 reckoned with in the political life of Mas- 
 sachusetts. 
 
 76 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 |HE death of his father in 1891 
 left Mr. Wolcott free to take 
 up again such public duties or 
 office as might be offered him. 
 In the spring of 1892 the active members 
 of the Republican Club of Massachusetts 
 and those who were of a sympathetic mind 
 came to the conclusion that it was time 
 that the principles for which they stood 
 should be more actively felt in the State 
 Republican party; they therefore began 
 work looking towards the nomination of 
 a young man for the office of governor or 
 lieutenant-governor. The name suggested 
 was that of Roger Wolcott. 
 77 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 There were many considerations in his 
 favor. He had had experience in the Bos- 
 ton common council and the legislature, 
 and had shown himself to be conscientious, 
 fairminded, courteous, and wise: he was 
 a man of high social position and of fine 
 and attractive presence ; he had in his Re- 
 publican Club speech grasped the situation 
 and expressed the feelings of the people. 
 
 On the other hand, there were evident 
 limitations. Eight years before, when the 
 Republican party was in danger of defeat, 
 Mr. Wolcott had forsaken its banner and 
 had voted for the first Democratic Presi- 
 dent since the war. He was therefore 
 obnoxious to some influential politicians, 
 and they had good reason to think that he 
 would hurt the ticket among the rank and 
 file of Republicans. Others felt that, being 
 of high social position and a Harvard man, 
 living on the Back Bay, he was not one of 
 78 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 the people. The people, they thought, 
 had no interest in a young man who was 
 so nice in his political principles and so 
 aristocratic in bearing. 
 
 As the Republican Convention ap- 
 proached, all agreed that the nomination 
 for governor should be given to William 
 H. Haile, then lieutenant-governor. The 
 struggle was to be upon the nomination 
 for lieutenant-governor. The names of 
 four candidates were presented, and on the 
 first ballot there was no election. The 
 issue was now clear between the two ele- 
 ments then existing in the state party, and 
 on the second ballot Mr. Wolcott was 
 nominated by a vote of 499 to 473, with 
 two scattering votes. 
 
 It was a presidential campaign. Mr. 
 
 Harrison had been renominated, and the 
 
 Democrats had brought again to the front 
 
 their leader, Mr. Cleveland. Governor 
 
 79 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 William E. Russell, deservedly popular 
 throughout the State, was running for his 
 third term. 
 
 For the first time the people of Massa- 
 chusetts had an opportunity to see and 
 hear Mr. Wolcott As he stood before 
 them, they recognized his simplicity and 
 sincerity. His presence betokened a 
 Massachusetts man of the finest type; he 
 was tall and straight; his head was well 
 set, his face open and frank; in his jet 
 black hair was a touch of silver. Even 
 before he opened his mouth, he had gained 
 the interest and sympathy of the audience. 
 His voice was clear and, as it rose, ringing. 
 He wasted no time in telling funny stories; 
 in this he showed his respect for the peo- 
 ple's intelligence and serious-mindedness. 
 If in the first few words he spoke lightly 
 or bandied a word with the previous 
 speaker or an opponent who had made a 
 80 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 speech in town the night before, it was al- 
 ways with a purpose, to lead up to his main 
 thought; and when he was once off, he 
 held to his subject and treated it earnestly 
 and seriously. He kindled as he went on, 
 broke forth into more rhetorical phrases; 
 led the people back to the salient thought; 
 appealed to their higher motives, to pa- 
 triotism or religion; and sat down. 
 
 No one saw in him a great orator, a 
 merely amusing speaker, a narrow party 
 advocate, or an over-keen debater. He 
 rose to heights of eloquence at times, 
 he had a sense of humor, and could be 
 quick at repartee; when occasion called 
 he sent back to his opponent as good 
 as he gave, but always with courtesy and 
 a full appreciation of the position of the 
 other. He never took unfair advantage 
 to misquote, misinterpret, or ascribe ulte- 
 rior motives to his opponent. Sometimes 
 8i 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 he was so considerate of the other point of 
 view as to seem to weaken his own posi- 
 tion; but that very temper gained for him 
 the confidence of his hearers. If, as was 
 the case in this campaign, his votes on some 
 questions in the legislature were criti- 
 cised, he met the issue frankly, stated his 
 position, and relying on his record, let the 
 people judge for themselves as to his mo- 
 tives and the wisdom of his course. 
 
 He spoke, and the people recognized 
 that he spoke simply as a citizen, a patriot, 
 to whom high privileges had been given 
 and upon whom certain public duties had 
 been laid; he was a man among men, 
 interested in men, women, and children, 
 always glad to meet them and apprecia- 
 tive of their loyalty to him. 
 
 The great power of Roger Wolcott with 
 the people of Massachusetts was in the 
 fact that in all places and under all circum- 
 82 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 stances he rang true. There was some- 
 thing in the transparency of his character 
 and the simplicity of his nature which re- 
 vealed this. The farmer and the mill-hand, 
 hearing him for the first time, felt it; then 
 watching him knew it. He trusted the 
 people, and the people trusted him. 
 
 This was the impression that he made in 
 his first campaign, as he spoke from town 
 to city throughout the Commonwealth. 
 
 In the national election the Democrats 
 won, and Mr. Cleveland was elected. In 
 the state, Mr. Russell's popularity made 
 him again governor, but with that excep- 
 tion the Republican ticket, with Mr. Wol- 
 cott as lieutenant-governor, was elected. 
 
 Mr. Wolcott now found himself in a 
 rather delicate position. As lieutenant- 
 governor he was at the head of the State 
 Republican party, with, however, a Demo- 
 crat as governor. Some partisans would 
 83 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 have liked to have him make party capital 
 out of the position and appeal to the popu- 
 lace by hampering the governor and put- 
 ting him when possible into difficult situa- 
 tions. On the other hand, Mr. Wolcott, 
 suspected by some Republicans of being an 
 independent at heart, was by policy and 
 principle bound to stand by the party when 
 an issue should arise, and to run the risk of 
 being called a partisan by his independent 
 supporters. Whenever, and it was usually 
 the case, he could support the governor's 
 policy or nominations, he did so. When- 
 ever by rare exceptions he could not, he 
 said so frankly, and gave his reasons. 
 
 There was but one issue of importance 
 between himself and the governor, and 
 that arose at the first meeting of the coun- 
 cil. 
 
 The unusual situation of a governor of 
 one party and a council of the other raised 
 84 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 the question of the right of the governor 
 to appoint all committees of the council. 
 An amendment to the existing rule was 
 offered that all committees be appointed 
 by the governor " unless the council shall 
 otherwise order." Before the vote was 
 taken, the governor read a protest against 
 the amendment as infringing upon the 
 rights and prerogatives of the governor. 
 The lieutenant-governor followed with a 
 statement, which he asked to have placed 
 upon record, showing that the council was 
 defining its inherent right, and was follow- 
 ing the precedent of all legislative bodies 
 in determining the method of the appoint- 
 ment of committees. He lifted the subject 
 to a high plane, and although the papers 
 of each party tried to make an issue, 
 his judicial treatment of the question had 
 withdrawn it from partisan discussion. In 
 this action at the very beginning of his 
 85 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 administration, the people realized that in 
 the lieutenant-governor they had a man of 
 force and independent habits of thought. 
 
 As the summer of 1893 approached, the 
 question arose as to who should lead the 
 Republican party at the next election. 
 Governor Russell had notified his party 
 that he would retire at the end of his term. 
 The Republicans now saw their oppor- 
 tunity to regain the State. A man must 
 be selected as the candidate for governor 
 who was well known throughout the Com- 
 monwealth, who had had wide experience, 
 who would unite all the elements of the 
 party, and who by temperament and abil- 
 ity could put up a hard and close fight. 
 Several candidates were in the field. Mr. 
 Wolcott's friends were divided; many of 
 them hoped that the tradition of promotion 
 would be followed and that he would be 
 selected; others felt that he should not 
 86 
 
^T. 46 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 stand; even those near him did not yet 
 realize his strength with the people. He 
 was, however, still young; the whole State 
 did not know him well, and his was not 
 the campaign-fighting temperament. 
 
 The Hon. Frederic T. Greenhalge, of 
 Lowell, who had served in Congress from 
 1889 to 1 89 1 with credit and had shown 
 himself a man of independent temper and 
 a good fighter, was brought forward as the 
 best man for the emergency. Mr. Wol- 
 cott's name was not presented to the con- 
 vention as a candidate for the nomination 
 for governor. After the nomination of 
 Mr. Greenhalge, Mr. Wolcott was nomi- 
 nated unanimously and by acclamation as 
 the candidate for lieutenant-governor. 
 
 His speech to the convention upon the 
 acceptance of his nomination expresses 
 clearly the issues before the country and 
 his attitude toward them. 
 87 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 " We pledge again," he said, " our alle- 
 giance to those principles from which the 
 Republican party has never wavered in its 
 support. We believe in an honest and 
 stable currency. We believe in and de- 
 mand a dollar that shall not be the poorest 
 or the cheapest dollar in the world, but 
 the best dollar in the world. We believe 
 in a tariff policy which, while it protects 
 the American laboring man, fosters and 
 encourages American industries. We 
 believe in a free ballot and an honest 
 count everywhere throughout our country. 
 We believe in equal privileges under our 
 law, and equal protection under the law of 
 all our citizens, whatever be their creed, 
 their color, or their birth. We believe in 
 honest enforcement of the civil service law, 
 with sincerity and without hypocrisy. We 
 believe that the merit system should be 
 still further extended. These are some of 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 the faiths that have made us and held us 
 Republicans. Into this campaign we go 
 forth determined to win success for every 
 name from the highest to the lowest." 
 
 The result of the election was a victory 
 for the Republicans : Mr. Greenhalge re- 
 ceived a vote of 192,613 and Mr. Wolcott 
 of 194,243. 
 
 The two following years of 1894 and 
 1895, during which Mr. Wolcott fulfilled 
 the duties of his office, were uneventful. 
 He cordially supported the governor, was 
 conscientious and wise in his work as a 
 member of the council, and relieved the 
 governor of much arduous labor by repre- 
 senting the Commonwealth in his stead at 
 many public functions. 
 
 There was one incident which enabled 
 Mr. Wolcott to reveal his true American 
 spirit. 
 
 There swept at this time over New 
 89 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 England one of those tides of suspicion of 
 the Roman CathoHc Church which occa- 
 sionally rise among Protestant peoples. 
 Mr. Wolcott, in approving the appoint- 
 ment of a certain Roman Catholic as a 
 supervisor of schools, aroused the hostil- 
 ity of the organization which represented 
 this movement and which claimed to rep- 
 resent a large number of voters, — the 
 American Protective Association, popu- 
 larly called the A. P. A. When, there- 
 fore, the time came for his re-election, his 
 position upon the religious question was 
 demanded; and in a speech at Holyoke 
 in October, 1895, he gave no uncertain 
 answer when he said: — 
 
 " It seems to me that no greater injury 
 can be done to the American people than 
 in attempting to bring into our elections 
 the bitter feelings of race and religious 
 animosity. 
 
 90 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 " And I believe that whoever undertakes 
 to do that — and I care not who began it, 
 on which side it springs — I believe that 
 whoever does that does an injury to the 
 Commonwealth which I suppose he pro- 
 fesses to love and does love. 
 
 "To draw the line on religious grounds 
 I believe to be a crime against the broad 
 conception of the United States of America, 
 and the broad and generous Republican 
 party. I have known, as all of you have, 
 too many loyal, faithful friends — those 
 who served in the army have had com- 
 rades as brave, as devoted to the flag as 
 any one, — men born perhaps across the sea, 
 under different allegiance, under a differ- 
 ent religion, who, when they found them- 
 selves here, assimilated into the life of the 
 nation, showed themselves to have the 
 same quality of citizenship which we boast 
 of in our own citizens. . . . 
 91 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 " I appeal to the people of Massachusetts 
 to hold her true to that principle of equal 
 rights and obligations which I believe to 
 be embodied in the Constitution of the 
 United States of America, and in that 
 careful statement in the Constitution of 
 Massachusetts, — equal rights to all, no 
 matter what their religious opinion may 
 be, so long as you recognize in them the 
 spirit of loyalty to the nation and the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts." 
 
 There was a decrease of some thou- 
 sands in his vote at the next election, 
 though whether it was due to this or to 
 other conditions is uncertain. Frank as 
 he was in meeting this un-American spirit 
 on one side, he was equally frank when 
 he spoke as follows to the students of 
 Holy Cross College, many of whom were 
 of foreign parentage: — 
 ^' You will agree with me, I am sure, when 
 92 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 I say that the name of American gains 
 nothing by having any other word coupled 
 with it by a hyphen; that we all, whose 
 destinies, whose lives, whose very selves 
 are to-day bound up with the destiny of 
 America, that we need not call ourselves 
 British-Americans, nor German-Ameri- 
 cans, nor Scandinavian-Americans, nor 
 Irish-Americans ; that the one name 
 'American' alone is enough to rally to 
 this flag all loyal and generous spirits." 
 
 The position of lieutenant-governor is 
 not an easy one for a man of force and 
 confidence in his own abilities. He has 
 certain definite duties which are easily 
 performed, though his responsibilities as 
 chairman of the committee on pardons 
 rest heavily upon a man of sensitive con- 
 science. In the eye of the public, how- 
 ever, he is the man who, second to the gov- 
 ernor, represents the Commonwealth at 
 93 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 such public functions as the governor can- 
 not attend. 
 
 It is hard, under such circumstances, 
 for a man to show that he has individual- 
 ity or force. When, as was the case with 
 Mr. Greenhalge, the governor is a man of 
 marked force, decision, energy, and elo- 
 quence, the situation is peculiarly difficult. 
 
 Fortunately, Mr. Wolcott had such strong 
 personality, such qualities of mind and 
 wide interests, as enabled him to make a 
 position for himself apart from his office. 
 The light official duties gave him time 
 and freedom. He was an intelligent stu- 
 dent of American history, a man of culture 
 and ideas, and a speaker of such reputation 
 as always to command an audience. Invi- 
 tations, therefore, came to him from all 
 parts of the State, and from cities at a dis- 
 tance. In accepting them, he found him- 
 self driven to a closer study of certain 
 94 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 features of the history of Massachusetts 
 and her people, he obtained a stronger 
 grasp on many subjects, wider experi- 
 ence, and more poise in public speaking. 
 Through mingling with all kinds of peo- 
 ple, he stimulated his social touch, and 
 dropped some of the academic manner 
 which was natural to him, though he never 
 lost that unconscious reserve which com- 
 manded the respect of others. There was 
 an added ease and freedom of manner, a 
 token of self-confidence, which gave force 
 to his general bearing. His frame was 
 larger and more stately, though no less 
 graceful. A broader acquaintance with men 
 developed his knowledge of character, and 
 served him in many practical ways a 
 few years later. He had the ambition of 
 every healthy-minded man to make him- 
 self felt; he thus took advantage of these 
 opportunities to press home his own deep 
 95 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 convictions on points of citizenship, pa- 
 triotism, and religion. 
 
 When, therefore, he gave the oration at 
 the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
 of the town of Manchester, there stood 
 before the audience a man who was to 
 them a representative New Englander, 
 whose character revealed some of the ele- 
 ments that he was depicting. 
 
 The oration is characteristic in thought 
 and style. It traced the story of the 
 town in relation to the local and national 
 life from its beginning to the present day. 
 There breathe such vitality and such sym- 
 pathy with the scenes of history and the 
 character of Massachusetts, as to justify 
 the following ample quotation: — 
 
 "John Winthrop was born in the mem- 
 orable year of the Spanish Armada. Even 
 before his time the supremacy of the world 
 had left the Mediterranean, and was trav- 
 96 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 eling westward. Since then, the destiny 
 of the English-speaking race has marched 
 apace, and though in some far future time 
 God may raise up another race to the lead- 
 ership of mankind, it seems now probable 
 that for centuries the history of the world 
 will be what the men of our race shall 
 inake it. . . . 
 
 " How little have the physical features 
 of your town changed since the days of its 
 first settlement! . . . As of old, the cool, 
 salt breath of the ocean is wafted inland 
 to meet the hot, resinous fragrance of the 
 pine forests, which still clothe the rocky 
 ridges to which the shore slopes upward. 
 The magnolia and dogwood still throw 
 out their blossom-laden branches over the 
 bayberry and ferns beneath. On the sur- 
 face of peaceful pool or sluggish brook 
 the pond-lily opens its exquisite chalice, 
 and, with the falling dusk of evening, folds 
 97 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 again its petals, while the whip-poor-will 
 hurriedly reiterates his monotonous plaint 
 from the neighboring thicket. 
 
 " Otter and beaver, it is true, have sought 
 refuge in Canadian brooks, and bear and 
 wolf are no longer a menace to the farm- 
 er's flocks. But the little sandpiper tip- 
 toes just in advance of the rippling wave, 
 and perhaps wonders, as he did two hun- 
 dred and fifty years ago, at the weird music 
 of the singing beach. In autumn, the wild 
 fowl pierce with their wedge-shaped flight 
 the regions of the upper air, or circle 
 downward to some wood-fringed lake to 
 rest on their southward journey. When 
 the storms of winter rage, and the sea 
 mingles its driven spray with the rack of 
 the lowering clouds, the sea-gulls wheel 
 and eddy with the gusts of the tempest, 
 and their complaining cries, accordant 
 with the moaning of the gale, seem fit 
 98 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 requiem to the drowned on Norman's 
 Woe. In her long struggle with man, 
 Nature gives way but slowly, and contests 
 every foot of vantage ground she is forced 
 to yield. . . . 
 
 " In these towns of old Essex the sea- 
 captain has been a familiar and venerated 
 figure from the earliest days. In time of 
 war, the deck of the privateer knew the 
 sturdy tread of the men of Essex, as did 
 the fishing-smack and merchantman in 
 time of peace. Hardy and vigorous, they 
 knew the dangers of the deep, and feared 
 them not. Fearless, they faced disaster 
 and death ; nor were they appalled even by 
 that mysterious tragedy of the sea, the 
 total disappearance from the ken of man 
 of some vessel which had left port, well- 
 manned and tight, with the sunshine bright 
 upon its straining canvas, the waves laugh- 
 ing in its wake, and the following breeze 
 L.ofC.r 99 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 freighted with the prayers of women and 
 the god-speed of men. 
 
 " No record, however brief, of these 
 coastwise towns of New England can fail 
 to lay weighty emphasis upon the control- 
 ling influence which the neighboring sea 
 exerted upon the lives and characters of 
 their inhabitants. They smacked of the 
 salt as does the breeze that blows over 
 seaweed-covered rocks at low tide. . . . 
 Our Manchester settler heard but little 
 news from the outer world, and read few 
 books. He knew well his Bible, which 
 he read with a stern but exalted faith; he 
 may have had access to the grim theology 
 of Michael Wigglesworth's ' Day of Doom,' 
 or the glowing visions of Johnson's ' Won- 
 der-working Providence,' and from these 
 he may have turned to the more pleasant 
 allegory of Bunyan's ' Pilgrim's Progress.' 
 Let us hope that the golden light from 
 
 100 
 
 i 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 the Delectable Mountains illumined his 
 life of excessive hardship and priva- 
 tion. . . . 
 
 " In the long and dubious struggle that 
 was now ushered in, amphibious old Essex 
 played well her part. On land her blood 
 tinged many a battle-field, but it was on 
 the sea that her fame was won. The 
 splendid seamanship, the cool courage, 
 the intelligence, fertile in expedient to 
 meet any peril — these were the qualities 
 shown by her sons wherever American 
 privateer and English war-vessel grappled 
 upon the deep. . . . 
 
 " The social and economic problems, 
 which now confound us with their com- 
 plexity and difficulty, must find their just 
 solution at our hands. The savage strife 
 which, through their mutual fault, too 
 often breaks out between the employer 
 and the employed must cease. The rights 
 
 lOI 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 of both must be more clearly defined by 
 law, and enforced by the collective sense 
 of the community. . . . 
 
 " How best to reduce to their minimum 
 the colossal evils of intemperance and of 
 other vices demands the wisest legislation, 
 carried into effective operation by officers 
 of the law whose absolute integrity must be 
 assured by whatever safeguards of organ- 
 ization and discipline experience and vigi- 
 lance can devise. Constant warfare must 
 be waged against those influences of 
 squalor, ignorance, and vice which breed 
 crime, and constant effort exerted to make 
 its punishment such as to give opportunity 
 for reformation. That poverty which, 
 through lack of energy and efficiency, ever 
 tends to produce pauperism must be so 
 touched by the hand of charity as to be 
 stimulated to self-respect and industry. . . . 
 
 " The standard of decency and comfort 
 1 02 
 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 in the lives and homes of our toiling people 
 must not be lowered. The amazing power 
 of assimilation which American civiliza- 
 tion has displayed must not be overtaxed. 
 When entire families of those alien in 
 speech, in habit, and in thought are con- 
 tent to kennel within the bare walls of 
 reeking tenement or contractor's shanty, 
 and to live upon what our own people dis- 
 card, wholly untouched by the influences 
 which produce the American citizen, they 
 constitute a menace to the community. 
 The rills of immigration which, properly 
 distributed, serve to irrigate and fructify 
 our broad territory, must not be permitted 
 to become a flood that shall swamp the 
 land or sweep it bare of the accumulated 
 soil of centuries. . . . 
 
 " We must be exacting, and yet just in 
 our judgments of those who hold public 
 ofl^ce. Corruption, dishonesty, and cow- 
 103 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 ardice should be sternly dealt with ; but 
 gross injustice is often wrought by em- 
 bittered partisan abuse and the reckless 
 imputation of unworthy motives for acts 
 of which the error at most may be one of 
 judgment only. 
 
 " A living and active faith in the great 
 truths of religion is a force for righteous- 
 ness in a nation, and this faith is not likely 
 to wane in vitality so long as it conforms 
 itself more and more closely to the teach- 
 ings and life of Christ. 
 
 " Public education must be ever broad- 
 ened in its aims and improved in its meth- 
 ods and results. Forever free from sec- 
 tarianism, our schools must make luminous 
 to the eye of the young the page of Amer- 
 ican history, so that even the child of the 
 most recent immigrant may early learn 
 that he has become a citizen of no mean 
 country. . . . 
 
 104 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 " In this high service let there be a gen- 
 erous emulation among the sister States. 
 Shall our own dear State give backward 
 step from the forefront where she has ever 
 proudly stood in all the long years since 
 your own town had its birth? O stern 
 and mighty cliffs that guard the shores of 
 Massachusetts Bay, and hurl back un- 
 shaken the surges of the Atlantic! O 
 waving forests that clothe the hills and 
 clasp in their embrace the embosomed 
 lakes! O broad and fair domain of the 
 old Bay State, stretching from beautiful 
 Berkshire past peaceful village and pros- 
 perous city to the glistening sands of 
 Barnstable, and on to historic Nantucket, 
 nursed on ocean's breast ! — thy breed of 
 men has never failed thee yet. May they 
 continue to spring from thy loins as we 
 have known them in the past, sturdy, vir- 
 tuous, and heroic. So for all time may 
 105 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 the prayer go up, not in cringing terror 
 nor pusillanimous supplication, but in the 
 full, strong voice of manly self-reliance, 
 ' God save the Commonwealth of Massa- 
 chusetts.' " 
 
 Whether in some distant city on Fore- 
 fathers' Day, or at the dinner of a press 
 club, or a newsboys' association, at a school 
 graduation, or a cattle show, or a board of 
 trade, he always had some appropriate 
 thought in mind, or some practical truth 
 to press home. For instance, to the Good 
 Citizens' Club he said : — 
 
 " Public spirit is almost the first of civic 
 virtues. Apathy and indifference to the 
 common weal are almost crimes. Here 
 in America no citizen can wash his hands 
 of his country. He must either make it 
 better, or he will probably make it worse. 
 In religion, in education, and in charity — 
 in one or all of these beneficent agencies 
 1 06 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 — he can do much to extend their scope 
 and to strengthen their influence. 
 
 " In politics his duty is plain and urgent. 
 The man who habitually neglects to vote 
 is a shirk and a renegade. Here it is un- 
 happily not true that we have reached our 
 best either in men or in methods. I care 
 little what a man's opinions may be, if he 
 has formed them intelligently and ad- 
 vances them honorably. Rancorous and 
 unfair vituperation of political opponents, 
 I believe, always wins sympathy and, con- 
 sequently, votes for the individual or party 
 so attacked. If in all political contentions 
 we remember that we are first Americans 
 and only secondarily Republicans or Dem- 
 ocrats, we shall not be in danger of sinking 
 patriotism in partisanship." 
 
 At Lexington he appealed to local sen- 
 timent: — 
 
 "The lesson cannot be repeated too 
 107 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 often that it is not the mere congregation 
 of population, it is not abundant pros- 
 perity, that makes a nation, a city, or a 
 town truly great. There are spots here 
 and there throughout the world where the 
 mind is inspired, where the heart is made 
 to beat with a quicker pulse before the eye 
 is inspired with a vision of a noble popu- 
 lation or new wealth. I think a lesson 
 that we of this present generation must 
 strive to repeat is this lesson of patriotism 
 — of the loyalty, heroism, hardships en- 
 dured, and the results achieved by the 
 men who perpetuated the foundations of 
 this nation." 
 
 At the Lincoln Republican Club he 
 treated of the relations of the State to cor- 
 porations : — 
 
 " I think that the legislation of the Com- 
 monwealth of Massachusetts, so far as 
 regards the control of these corporations, 
 1 08 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 will be found to be progressively in one 
 direction; that is, that without imposing 
 on them such shackles as shall discourage 
 the investment of capital for an honest and 
 reasonable return, and drive that capital 
 to seek investment beyond our Common- 
 wealth, the legislation of Massachusetts is 
 progressively in the direction of exacting 
 from these corporations a full and abun- 
 dant equivalent for the great rights and 
 privileges that are accorded them." 
 
 At a Republican club dinner he said : — 
 
 " The only permanent safeguard for the 
 honesty of our legislators is the character 
 of the men whom the several constituen- 
 cies select. To that let us all, of whatever 
 party, pledge ourselves." 
 
 In speaking at the New England Society 
 in Philadelphia on Forefathers' Day, 1897, 
 he said : — 
 
 " It is a poor and careless optimism 
 109 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 which would close its eye to evils in our 
 body politic and in society, which those 
 sturdy men of the earlier time would 
 have cut out, though the surgery might be 
 grim and pitiless. It is a weak and impo- 
 tent cynicism, which had no place in their 
 conception of public duty, that seeing those 
 evils would succumb to their dominance 
 in indifference or despair. As in the past, 
 so in the future, may the Republic never 
 lack in her sons something of the indom- 
 itable spirit of the Puritan, his fidelity to 
 conscience and to duty, his faith in God 
 and in man, his stern righteousness and 
 downright honesty — for of such qualities 
 are made up brave manhood and loyal 
 citizenship." 
 
 In the midsummer there was pitched 
 a great tent on Boston Common for the 
 convention of the Christian Endeavor So- 
 ciety. Some ten thousand people gathered 
 no 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 within and outside its curtains to hear the 
 opening address of the lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor of the Commonwealth. The air was 
 electric with religious and patriotic emo- 
 tion. The strangers were captured first by 
 the bearing of Mr. Wolcott as he stood 
 to speak; then as he kindled in response, 
 and spoke with fervor, directness, and 
 power, the whole audience arose and 
 cheered to the echo. 
 
 " Christian Endeavor ! I know of no 
 two words in the English language that 
 are more freighted with deep significance. 
 The spirit of the religion of Jesus Christ, 
 the spirit which finds its truest expression 
 in the mandate, 'Do unto others as ye 
 would that they should do unto you,' that 
 divine spirit, inspired and put into active 
 operation by the noble endeavor and ear- 
 nest effort of men : I know of no title that 
 you could have chosen that could be more 
 III 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 heavily weighted with blessing and divine 
 inspiration than those two words." 
 
 The speech made a profound impression 
 on the multitude; the secret of the power 
 was not so much, however, in the speech 
 as in the revelation of the man, a high 
 official, and, at the same time, so simple, 
 so direct, so transfigured with the spirit of 
 Christian service. 
 
 Now and again we catch the refrain that 
 was his constant inspiration, the memory 
 of his brother Huntington. 
 
 Memorial Day was to him full of sacred 
 associations. As he spoke at the Wolcott 
 Post on that day, in 1895, he said: — 
 
 " Historians have drawn attention to 
 the surprising youth of most of those 
 brave and far-seeing men who were the 
 signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence. Youth saw more clearly and dared 
 more than age. In like manner, as we 
 112 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 read the story of the heroes of '6i, we are 
 amazed to note how many of them had 
 lived long lives of achievement, of suffer- 
 ing, and of responsibility before they were 
 twenty-five. In that fierce fire of experi- 
 ence the dross was burned away: boys 
 became men, and men became heroes. . . . 
 Such was he whose name your Post bears. 
 It was no mere love of adventure, no 
 boyish impulse which claimed his young 
 life. It was rather that deliberate, firm 
 resolve which, from century to century, 
 has taken possession of men of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race, and has led them to say, ' This 
 thing is worth fighting for, and by God's 
 blessing we will win it; ' and when they 
 have said this, whether at Runnymede, or 
 Marston Moor, or Bunker Hill, or Gettys- 
 burg, they are irresistible. He had counted 
 the cost and was ready to pay it. And so 
 he died at a little over nineteen years, 
 113 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 high-minded, pure, and fearless, a willing 
 sacrifice to country and humanity." 
 
 On the 5th of March, 1896, Governor 
 Greenhalge died, and, on the next day, 
 the lieutenant-governor, having formally 
 announced his death to the legislature, 
 assumed the duties of governor. It is an 
 interesting coincidence that, just a century 
 before, in the year 1796, Oliver Wolcott, 
 then lieutenant-governor of Connecticut, 
 announced to President Washington that, 
 in consequence of the death of Governor 
 Samuel Huntington, he had entered upon 
 the duties of the office of governor. 
 
 Mr. Wolcott's association with Gov- 
 ernor Greenhalge had been so close and 
 harmonious that it was easy for him to 
 take up the details of administration. One 
 bill before the legislature, giving the Mas- 
 sachusetts Pipe Line Company power to 
 make and distribute gas, had attracted 
 114 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 much public notice. Attention was called 
 by a part of the press to the fact that ex- 
 traordinary and unsafe powers were to be 
 granted by the State. Nevertheless, the 
 bill passed the legislature. It promised 
 cheaper gas, and was supported by strong 
 influence. In returning it with his veto, 
 the acting governor pointed out the re- 
 markable privileges granted, the injustice 
 of the provisions of the bill towards towns, 
 cities, and citizens, and the lack of power 
 on the part of the State to enforce the 
 promises of the promoters. He said: — 
 
 " Experience has demonstrated that un- 
 restricted competition by public-service 
 corporations, although the temporary re- 
 sults may make cheaper prices to the pub- 
 lic, seldom accomplishes any permanent 
 good. The public must eventually pay 
 the bills. 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 " I can see no permanent advantage to 
 the community in arming this company 
 with a club, by which it may strike down 
 those already in the field. Temporarily 
 it may cheapen prices; indeed, it must do 
 so, or promise to do so, that it may strike 
 them down; but the history of such com- 
 petition demonstrates that it is the public 
 that suffers. . . . 
 
 " In my opinion, it is not justice to 
 vested rights, nor sound business policy, 
 nor for the interests of the public, to au- 
 thorize the discriminations which this bill 
 proposes to establish, especially without 
 assurance by actual demonstration or suf- 
 ficient guarantee that the public bene- 
 fit which could alone justify them must 
 ensue." 
 
 He suggested certain changes which 
 would make the bill safe and just. His 
 veto was sustained, his suggestions were 
 ii6 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 
 
 adopted, and the bill was passed and 
 signed. 
 
 The people again recognized in Mr. 
 Wolcott a wise and just official, alert to 
 protect their rights. 
 
 117 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 GOVERNOR 
 
 [N the summer of 1896, the 
 presidential election was ap- 
 proaching. There was a great 
 contrast between the situation 
 then and in 1892, when Mr. Wolcott was 
 elected lieutenant-governor to Governor 
 Russell. 
 
 During his second term, Mr. Cleveland 
 had been unable to hold his party to- 
 gether; the hard times had developed the 
 forces of silver and populism. On the 
 other hand, better financial prospects had 
 given courage to the advocates of gold. 
 The Republican party went into the 
 n8 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 campaign pledged to gold, with Mr. Mc- 
 Kinley, of the Middle West, whose name 
 was associated with high tariff, as the 
 presidential candidate. The Democrats 
 by their action made the issue clear. They 
 selected Mr. Bryan, the champion of sil- 
 ver, as their standard-bearer, and in addi- 
 tion to the silver plank put into their 
 platform resolutions upon the Supreme 
 Court and the constitutional power of the 
 executive that shocked the country and 
 caused a recoil against populism. It was 
 one of the critical elections in the national 
 history. The campaign was fortunately 
 marked by very little vituperation, and by 
 much reasonable and intelligent discus- 
 sion. In Massachusetts, the Republicans 
 were sure to win: the question was by 
 how great a majority. 
 
 Mr. Wolcott, who had filled the office 
 of lieutenant-governor so acceptably, was 
 119 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 unanimously nominated for governor, and 
 took an active part in the campaign. 
 
 " I believe," he said, at a ratification 
 meeting, " that in this great struggle which 
 confronts us now, there will be thousands 
 of honor-Democrats who will refuse to im- 
 peril the financial honor of the United 
 States, to follow the motley crowd that 
 has led the way into the Cave of Adul- 
 1am." 
 
 The title " honor - Democrats " went 
 through the press of the country. 
 
 Upon his acceptance of the nomination 
 at the state convention, he appealed to 
 all citizens of Massachusetts by the honor- 
 able record of the State. 
 
 " I should like, gentlemen," he said, " to 
 take only a moment of your time to re- 
 hearse to you a little of the history of the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I wish 
 the Republicans and the Democrats alike 
 
 I20 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 of Massachusetts to know what has been 
 the position of this Commonwealth as re- 
 gards meeting every obligation with the 
 highest and most complete honor. During 
 the years between the suspension of specie 
 payments and the resumption of specie 
 payments, in the years between 1862 and 
 1879, all the debt of the Commonwealth 
 contracted previous to, and paid during 
 that period, was made payable in dollars 
 simply, and by the Legal Tender Act might 
 have been paid legally and without ques- 
 tion in greenbacks. The Commonwealth 
 of Massachusetts declined to avail herself 
 of this advantage. The debt of Massa- 
 chusetts was paid in gold. It amounted 
 to $5,924,000. And adding the war loan 
 of $3,505,000, which was made payable 
 in lawful money of the United States, we 
 have a total of $9,429,000 voluntarily paid 
 in gold, when it might legally have been 
 121 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 paid in greenbacks. Not only that, gen- 
 tlemen, but of the foregoing debt, nearly 
 one million dollars was issued by the 
 Commonwealth in aid of domestic cor- 
 porations, they agreeing to pay interest as 
 it became due, and the principal at its 
 maturity; but they, availing themselves of 
 their technical agreement, in which they 
 were sustained by the courts of Massa- 
 chusetts, paid to the Commonwealth cur- 
 rency only, while the Commonwealth in 
 all her obligations paid principal and in- 
 terest in gold. How much did it cost the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts to pre- 
 serve her honor? The premium alone 
 paid in the purchase of gold to meet these 
 obligations amounted to $35703,556. 
 
 " So much did our fathers pay to pre- 
 serve the honor of the Commonwealth of 
 Massachusetts; and I venture to say that 
 no expenditure ever made by this Com- 
 122 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 monwealth was more wise and more far- 
 seeing than that expenditure that I have 
 referred to." 
 
 The success of the Republicans was be- 
 yond all expectations. In Massachusetts, 
 Mr. Wolcott, leading the ticket, swept 
 every city and town (except one) in the 
 State. He was elected by a much greater 
 majority than that ever before given to a 
 governor of Massachusetts. His vote was 
 258,204. The vote for all other candi- 
 dates was 126,860. His native city of 
 Boston, which had gone Democratic for 
 years, gave him a great majority. This 
 result was not only a victory for party 
 and principle, but was also "a personal trib- 
 ute and an expression of confidence in 
 his past administration. 
 
 During the next three years, Mr. Wol- 
 cott gave himself with characteristic devo- 
 tion and conscientiousness to the duties of 
 123 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 his high office. Apart from the war with 
 Spain, there were no exceptional incidents, 
 no radical reforms or marked movements : 
 none were called for. There were, how- 
 ever, improvements made at several points, 
 especially in the care of the insane, and 
 the administration of the public institu- 
 tions. 
 
 With the development of the Common- 
 wealth, the tendency to centralization, and 
 the increasing power and responsibility 
 of the executive, the office of governor 
 becomes more and more important, labori- 
 ous, and intricate. Many interests come 
 to the State House, such as insurance, 
 water, sewerage, police, railroads, trolley 
 lines, municipal government, and parks, 
 which were almost unknown there a gen- 
 eration ago. The business interests are 
 large. 
 
 In fact, the real work of the governor 
 124 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 is chiefly that of which the people hear 
 nothing, — the routine of administration, 
 the conferences in the executive cham- 
 ber, the careful selection of state officers, 
 and the adjustment of the different de- 
 partments whereby friction is avoided 
 and the whole administration made to run 
 smoothly. 
 
 There are, however, certain acts or in- 
 cidents, sometimes unimportant in them- 
 selves, of a personal kind which catch the 
 public eye, and are really important on 
 account of the weight that is given them 
 by the people. 
 
 We will glance over the record of the 
 three years, first as it caught the people's 
 attention. 
 
 The day of Governor Wolcott's inaugu- 
 ration was brilliant without and within the 
 State House. There was that about him 
 which always interested the people in his 
 125 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 official acts. By his dignity and grace he 
 gave distinction to a function of which he 
 was the centre. The hall of the House, in 
 which the whole general court, the justices 
 and other officers of the Commonwealth 
 were gathered, was unusually crowded: 
 the galleries were bright with the company 
 of ladies. His mother, wife, and five chil- 
 dren, his college classmates and friends 
 were there. It was a day of reasonable 
 joy and pride to the governor. His studies 
 of Massachusetts history had given him a 
 high conception of the office; his ances- 
 tors had graced the same position in Con- 
 necticut. The name of Roger Wolcott 
 was already historic in the annals of New 
 England. No other motive had brought 
 him there than a desire to serve the 
 people; he had come by no other path 
 than that through which his own con- 
 science and high ideals had led him. He 
 126 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 had served the State as a private citizen 
 and in various offices; now the people who 
 knew him had placed him there by the 
 greatest vote ever given to a governor of 
 Massachusetts. His satisfaction was none 
 other than that which comes to any honor- 
 able public officer, but there was in the 
 minds of all present something peculiarly 
 happy, fortunate, and brilliant in the life 
 of Roger Wolcott. 
 
 His first inaugural message, as were his 
 later ones, was businesslike, direct, and 
 clear. As a Democratic paper said the 
 next day, there was "not a whisper of 
 party politics." 
 
 He called attention to the increase of 
 the state debt, and even though more 
 prosperous times were at hand, asked for 
 care in expenditure; he noted and ap- 
 proved the tendency towards consolida- 
 tion of interests in the metropolitan dis- 
 127 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 trict of Boston; he urged restriction in the 
 number of liquor saloons. 
 
 He pressed the point that street railways 
 should pay for their franchises, but that in 
 return the rights of the corporation should 
 be made secure. He closed with the 
 warning, "The volume of legislation is a 
 poor criterion of its necessity or wisdom." 
 
 The reference to the limitation of 
 licensed saloons suggests a subject which 
 caused him much thought. The police 
 commissioners of the city of Boston, who 
 are responsible for the licensing of saloons, 
 are appointed by the governor. It was a 
 general characteristic of Mr. Wolcott that, 
 when he had once approved a commission 
 or appointed men to official positions, he 
 would leave them free and thus hold them 
 responsible for the efficient conduct of 
 their office. It required much time and 
 evidence to convince him that the condi- 
 128 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 tions were such that he should interfere; 
 but when he was convinced he never 
 shirked the responsibility, but himself took 
 hold and made his position clear. 
 
 In the granting of licenses there is al- 
 ways room for high-minded and efficient 
 officers to disagree as to the wisdom of this 
 or that action or as to the interpretation of 
 the law. Governor Wolcott was convinced 
 not only that the people of Boston wanted 
 a strict enforcement of the laws, but also 
 that in certain districts they wished no 
 saloons. He did not think that because of 
 this, saloons should be multiplied in other 
 districts, especially among the poor. He 
 had occasion, therefore, publicly to call the 
 attention of the commission to these points 
 several times in strong terms. 
 
 In the winter of 1897 rumors appeared 
 in the papers against the official integrity 
 of the chairman of the board ; even formal 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 chareres were made that he had had such 
 business relations with liquor dealers as to 
 compromise his official influence if not his 
 honesty. 
 
 The chairman had been a gallant gen- 
 eral in the war, a mayor of Boston, and 
 had shown himself active and efficient in 
 the enforcement of the laws. The charges 
 were such and the evidence so strong as 
 to warrant the governor in asking imme- 
 diately for his resignation on the ground 
 that his official usefulness was gone. Many 
 wise friends of the governor felt that he 
 ought to take sharp action, and many citi- 
 zens thought it weak and injurious to 
 public morals for him to delay. 
 
 In his action here Mr. Wolcott showed 
 the judicial temper so characteristic of 
 him. Although he could think quickly on 
 his feet, he was slow in his decision of 
 knotty questions. He gave each point 
 130 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 careful consideration. Such an attitude 
 suggested to some minds weakness and 
 indecision. At times he seemed to be 
 over-conscientious, too ready to look on 
 all sides, and too judicial for strong lead- 
 ership. Mr. Wolcott appreciated the high 
 character that the chairman had hitherto 
 borne, he knew that a great many people 
 still trusted him, that he was also a pro- 
 minent Democrat; above all he felt that 
 the chairman, even though his official influ- 
 ence was gone, had a right to be heard 
 and to meet his accusers. The result was 
 a long and painful hearing. The gov- 
 ernor, having looked upon all sides, made 
 his own decision, wrote it with great care 
 and exactness with his own hand, and on 
 the evidence given by the chairman him- 
 self, recommended his removal. The pop- 
 ular sympathy for the chairman was so 
 strong that Mr. Wolcott in preparing his 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 verdict believed that it would meet with 
 general disapproval. As he handed the 
 paper to his wife when he had written the 
 last word, he said, " Do you want to see 
 my political death-warrant ? " 
 
 The council refused to concur. The 
 chairman remained in office to the end of 
 his term. The governor had, however, 
 by his action escaped the charge of injus- 
 tice, and had shown himself wise and 
 appreciative of the dignity of public office, 
 and the sober second thought of the peo- 
 ple, enforced by the cogency of Mr. Wol- 
 cott's reasoning, affirmed the justice of his 
 cause. 
 
 The refusal of the council to concur 
 prompted some members of the legislature 
 to present a bill giving the governor abso- 
 lute power of removal of police commis- 
 sioners. Mr. Wolcott, however, said pub- 
 licly: — 
 
 132 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 " I have in many speeches expressed 
 my high appreciation of the usefulness of 
 the executive council, and my belief that 
 it should be retained as an important and 
 valuable portion of our constitutional gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 " I believe fully in the requirement that 
 nominations made by the governor shall 
 receive the consent of the council. 
 
 " I have many times said in public that 
 in the matter of removals there is in my 
 mind more doubt. The tendency in the 
 more recent municipal charters is to give 
 the sole power of removal to the mayor, 
 and I think the governors of Massachu- 
 setts can be as safely intrusted with this 
 power as the mayors of her cities. 
 
 " There are both advantages and disad- 
 vantages likely to follow such absolute 
 power of removal, and, in my opinion, 
 these should be deliberately and carefully 
 133 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 weighed by the legislature at some other 
 time than the closing weeks of the legisla- 
 tive session, and when their action may 
 embody principles and not be due to the 
 exigency of an individual case." 
 
 He illustrated his sensitiveness to offi- 
 cial dignity again in publicly rebuking a 
 state commission for allowing their em- 
 ployees to lobby against a bill which would 
 withdraw some powers from the commis- 
 sion. The talk of the papers about " irre- 
 sponsible commissions " ceased during the 
 official term of Governor Wolcott. 
 
 After the death of Governor Green- 
 halge, Mr. Wolcott was enabled for a time 
 to escape many of the public functions and 
 social events which draw upon an official's 
 strength. As time passed, these engage- 
 ments increased. The routine of his office 
 occupied the day, the evenings were often 
 spent in public engagements, or, as the 
 134 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 close of the legislative session drew near, 
 at work upon official business. 
 
 A few historic incidents, however, re- 
 lieved the monotony and again enabled 
 the people to recognize the brilliant per- 
 sonality of the governor. 
 
 At the dedication of Grant's tomb in 
 New York in April, 1897, the great pro- 
 cession included the civil and military 
 representatives of the States. It was a 
 bitter day, and the wind swept down the 
 Hudson. Those who saw Governor Wol- 
 cott will never forget the sight. Well 
 mounted, dressed with the severe simpli- 
 city of the governor of Massachusetts, — a 
 black frock coat and tall hat, — with no gilt 
 or gay caparison to call attention to him 
 or to detract from his radiant beauty, he 
 sat in the saddle for hours in that bitter 
 wind, waiting the command to move. 
 Then, as he and his staff swept up the 
 135 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 avenue and broke from the rolling cloud 
 of dust into the sight of the people, the 
 flash of his white hair, the flush of his 
 face, and the brilliancy of the whole man 
 moved the multitude, and there burst forth 
 such a shout as would in other ages have 
 welcomed home a Crusader. For to the 
 people, even those who knew not his name 
 or office, he seemed to represent the 
 beauty and glory of the knighthood of 
 America. 
 
 On the 26th of May an interesting his- 
 toric scene was enacted at the State 
 House. The officials of the Common- 
 wealth, with the senate and house, met 
 in the hall of representatives. At the 
 hands of Mr. Bayard, late ambassador to 
 England, the governor received the origi- 
 nal manuscript of " The Log of the May- 
 flower," which, at the time of the Revo- 
 lution, had mysteriously disappeared from 
 136 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 the Old South Meeting House, — a manu- 
 script which, fifty years later, had been 
 discovered in the library of Fulham Palace, 
 London, and which, by the courtesy of the 
 Bishop of London, was hereafter to rest 
 in the capitol of the Old Bay State. Gov- 
 ernor Wolcott said : — 
 
 " There are places and objects so inti- 
 mately associated with the world's great- 
 est men, or with mighty deeds, that the 
 soul of him who gazes upon them is lost 
 in a sense of reverent awe, as it listens to 
 the voice that speaks from the past in 
 words like those which came from the 
 burning bush : ' Put off thy shoes from off 
 thy feet, for the place whereon thou stand- 
 est is holy ground.' 
 
 " On the sloping hillside of Plymouth, 
 
 that bathes its feet in the waters of the 
 
 Atlantic, such a voice is breathed by the 
 
 brooding genius of the place, and the ear 
 
 137 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 must be dull that fails to catch the whis- 
 pered words. For here not alone did 
 godly men and women suffer greatly for a 
 great cause, but their noble purpose was 
 not doomed to defeat, but was carried to 
 perfect victory. They established what 
 they planned. Their feeble plantation be- 
 came the birthplace of religious libert}^, 
 the cradle of a free Commonwealth. To 
 them a mighty nation owns its debt. Nay, 
 they have made the civilized world their 
 debtor. In the varied tapestry which pic- 
 tures our national life, the richest spots 
 are those where gleam the golden threads 
 of conscience, courage, and faith, set in the 
 web by that little band. May God in his 
 mercy grant that the moral impulse which 
 founded this nation may never cease to 
 control its destiny; that no act of any 
 future generation may put in peril the 
 fundamental principles on which it is 
 138 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 based, — of equal rights in a free state, 
 equal privileges in a free church, and equal 
 opportunities in a free school. 
 
 " In this precious volume which I hold 
 in my hands — the gift of England to the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts — is told 
 the noble, simple story ' of Plimoth Plan- 
 tation.' In the midst of suffering and pri- 
 vation and anxiety, the pious hand of 
 William Bradford here set down in ample 
 detail the history of the enterprise from 
 its inception to the year 1647. From him 
 we may learn that ' all great and honour- 
 able actions are accompanied with great 
 difficulties, and must be both enterprised 
 and overcome with answerable cour- 
 ages.' " 
 
 Five days later was unveiled the mon- 
 ument to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. 
 Standing as it does, a noble work of art, 
 opposite the State House, from the steps 
 139 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 of which Governor Andrew reviewed the 
 colored regiment as it passed, and repre- 
 senting a crisis in the history of civiliza- 
 tion, its unveiling was worthy of honor. 
 In the procession were the officials of the 
 State, the militia, the veterans of the Civil 
 War, past members of Shaw's regiment, 
 led by his lieutenant-colonel, and includ- 
 ing the color-sergeant who carried the 
 flag at Fort Wagner. In the Music Hall 
 the governor represented the Common- 
 wealth, and as presiding officer said: — 
 
 " We are here to commemorate not only 
 a gallant, noble death, not alone the gallant 
 deaths of those who fell side by side with 
 Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, but an epoch 
 in the history of a race. On the blood- 
 stained earthworks at Fort Wagner, a 
 race was called into manhood." 
 
 The centennial celebration of the erec- 
 tion of the State House had peculiar inter- 
 140 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 est, for at that time was rededicated the 
 Bulfinch front. 
 
 The commission having in charge the 
 extension of the State House had recom- 
 mended that the whole building, the dome 
 and facade, be demolished, and that a fire- 
 proof building be erected conforming with 
 the architecture of the extension. This 
 aroused the sentiment of a great many 
 citizens. Active work for the preserva- 
 tion of the Bulfinch front was undertaken. 
 The legislature was convinced that it 
 could be made fireproof, and a bill was 
 passed to carry out the plan. The work 
 was completed, and one hundred years 
 from the time of its erection, the Bulfinch 
 front assumed within and without its ori- 
 ginal form. The officers of the State met 
 with the legislature, and the governor ad- 
 dressed them as follows: — 
 
 " We are met in joint assemblage of 
 141 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 the two branches of the General Court, 
 and in the presence of the governor and 
 council, to rededicate to the public use 
 of the Commonwealth the stately and 
 beautiful edifice which was, one hundred 
 years ago, in the eloquent words of Gov- 
 ernor Sumner, dedicated to the honor, 
 freedom, independence, and security of 
 our country. Since then it has been the 
 State House of the Commonwealth of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 " Its walls have resounded to the tread, 
 and have echoed the words of statesmen, 
 soldiers, jurists, and men of affairs, who 
 have had their share in the fame of the 
 Commonwealth. Here have been enacted 
 the laws which have made Massachusetts 
 an example and a leader to the other States 
 of the Union. Whatsoever pride its peo- 
 ple may feel in their citizenship, in large 
 measure finds its source within these 
 142 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 halls. For a century this building has 
 symbolized the dignity and majesty of the 
 Commonwealth. 
 
 " Its cornerstone was laid by Samuel 
 Adams, the great popular leader of the 
 Revolutionary period, and by Paul Revere, 
 skillful mechanic and immortal patriot. 
 Its design was the work of Charles Bul- 
 finch, the foremost architect of his time 
 in America, and it stands to-day his most 
 worthy monument. 
 
 ^'Either as an owner of the site, or as 
 official occupants of the structure, every 
 one of the signers of the Declaration of 
 Independence from the colony of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay held close relation with this 
 building. Here presidents of the United 
 States, from James Monroe to Ulysses S. 
 Grant, have been received and entertained 
 with the honor due their exalted office, 
 and the character and achievement which 
 143 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 they brought to the performance of its ar- 
 duous duties. Here Webster has spoken, 
 and Everett and Choate and Sumner, and 
 many another with lesser fame who yet 
 has deserved well of the Republic. Here, 
 in honored death, lay a vice-president of 
 the United States, and a senator of the 
 Commonwealth who had dared and suf- 
 fered in her cause. Here have acted and 
 labored the long line of my predecessors 
 in office, who have made the title of gov- 
 ernor of the Commonwealth of Massa- 
 chusetts one of the most honored in the 
 nation. Here John A. Andrew gave his 
 heart's blood to the cause of union and 
 nationality. From yonder steps have 
 marched to death or victory the gallant 
 youth of the State, ready to give their 
 lives to a great cause. Here, year by 
 year, have successive legislatures patiently 
 wrought to embody in the statutes of the 
 144 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 Commonwealth the fundamental principles 
 laid down in the Constitution. 
 
 " These halls are eloquent with the pre- 
 sence of the great dead. They speak to 
 us with the compelling voice of the past, 
 and bid us be not unworthy of the trust 
 it has imposed. May we meet the pro- 
 blems of the present with the spirit which 
 inspired our fathers, and may we dedicate 
 ourselves anew to the maintenance of a 
 government of the people, by the people, 
 and for the people; so may God bless 
 us of this generation as he has hitherto 
 blessed the Commonwealth of Massachu- 
 setts." 
 
 At the Commencement of Williams Col- 
 lege, in 1897, he received the degree of 
 Doctor of Laws. 
 
 As the year closed there was evident 
 satisfaction throughout the State with the 
 administration. The Boston " Post " ex- 
 145 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 pressed the feeling: "Governor Wolcott 
 has made a good governor. He has made 
 a pretty good governor according to the 
 Democratic standards. He has shown 
 great abiHty and fearlessness in standing 
 by the interests of the people of the State." 
 
 At the election of 1897 Mr. Wolcott, 
 who had been renominated, received the 
 largest majority ever given a governor of 
 Massachusetts, except his own the year 
 before, and he again carried the city of 
 Boston. 
 
 The war with Spain so engrossed the 
 attention of the people as well as the gov- 
 ernor that little else than routine work in 
 legislation was done. 
 
 The following year he again received a 
 heavy plurality, and again carried Boston. 
 As it is a tradition that a governor of 
 Massachusetts should serve only three 
 years, Mr. Wolcott's love for Massachu- 
 146 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 setts prompted him to break through the 
 businesslike character of his inaugural and 
 close with these words: — 
 
 " Gentlemen of the senate and house of 
 representatives: ... In all their deliber- 
 ations, and in all their official acts, the 
 executive and the legislature alike will do 
 well to remember that they are adding to 
 the history of a State which, for more 
 than two and three-quarters centuries, has 
 written her name large and fair on the 
 record which tells of lofty aspiration and 
 honorable citizenship. During this length- 
 ening period the Commonwealth has main- 
 tained a pure and learned judiciary, which 
 has administered justice without discrimi- 
 nation between the rich and the poor, the 
 powerful and the humble; as she was the 
 first to acknowledge the duty of the State 
 freely to educate all her children, so she 
 has ever with wise liberality promoted the 
 147 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 general diffusion of knowledge ; to all she 
 has extended freedom of religious belief 
 and the equal protection of her laws in 
 the public worship of God; in war her 
 sons have never failed to show resolute 
 purpose and unflinching courage ; in peace 
 her statesmen have possessed the clear 
 vision which reads the coming future, and 
 her citizens, through industry and enter- 
 prise, have attained a degree of general 
 prosperity scarcely equaled among the 
 peoples of the earth; her homes have been 
 virtuous, her people contented; her poets 
 and historians have made honorable the 
 fame of American letters; her inventions 
 and discoveries have aided to revolution- 
 ize industry, and to make comfortable the 
 lives of those who toil; from generation 
 to generation she has kept aflame a beacon 
 light of intelligence and high purpose, 
 which has carried into many dark places 
 148 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 the illumination of humanity and civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 " Such is the Commonwealth whose 
 public and trusted servants we are. Such 
 is the lustre of her fame, which is in our 
 power to tarnish or to transmit with its 
 full radiance undimmed. In serving the 
 common weal we serve the Common- 
 wealth. May our service be worthy of 
 her great past and of her greater future." 
 
 The three acts most worthy of record 
 in the routine of the executive were all 
 done in protection of the people's rights. 
 
 In the original Subway Act, it was re- 
 quired that the West End Railroad should 
 take up the surface tracks on Tremont 
 Street. This the road had done. A bill 
 was before the legislature empowering the 
 road to re-la}^ the tracks. The pressure 
 was very strong upon the governor to 
 sign the bill, if it should pass. He had 
 149 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 made up his mind that, if the bill passed 
 without clauses for a referendum and for 
 compensation for use of streets, he would 
 veto it. It would have been natural and 
 more in harmony with the traditions of the 
 office for the governor to veto the bill 
 after its passage. Feeling, however, that 
 valuable time would be wasted and that 
 it would be better for all interested to 
 know his mind, he told the supporters of 
 the bill the conditions on which alone it 
 would have his signature. The clauses 
 were inserted, the bill signed, and in the 
 referendum vote the movement to re-lay 
 the tracks was heavily defeated. 
 
 On several other occasions he antici- 
 pated legislation in a similar way, and 
 aroused thereby some criticism. It was 
 thought to be an interference with freedom 
 of legislation. His action was entirely 
 informal. In view of the increase in the 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 volume of business before the legislature, 
 the value of time, and the inadvisability 
 of allowing long discussion on measures 
 which, with some change, might avoid a 
 veto, he felt it to be one of the reasonable 
 movements in administration that must 
 come. Since his day, experience in na- 
 tional and state legislation has shown that 
 his surmise was correct. Expedition of 
 business requires closer understanding be- 
 tween the executive and the legislative 
 bodies. The fear of a veto is sometimes 
 as effective as a veto, and often more 
 useful. 
 
 A bill passed the legislature, supported 
 by representatives of the trades-unions, ex- 
 empting the unions from making returns 
 to the insurance commissioner. When the 
 bill came to the governor it was clear that 
 the labor organizations would make it 
 an issue as to his sympathy with them. 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 The governor in his veto message lifted 
 the subject above partisan considerations 
 when he wrote : — 
 
 " It has long been the policy of this 
 Commonwealth carefully to guard the 
 business of insurance which it permits to 
 be conducted within its limits. The va- 
 rious statutes relating to the method of 
 conducting this important business are not 
 intended unnecessarily to hamper or con- 
 trol it, but solely to protect the rights of 
 the insured, who, as experience has shown, 
 without such protection would often be 
 subjected to serious loss. I see no good 
 reason why wage-workers should be de- 
 prived of the benefits or denied the pro- 
 tection of these salutary laws. If the bill 
 now under consideration should become a 
 law, it would remove all statutory restric- 
 tions whatsoever from the class of associa- 
 tions described therein, and consequently 
 152 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 deprive the members of such associations 
 of every safeguard which the wisdom of 
 the legislature has imposed on all other 
 persons conducting a similar business." 
 
 The third instance was his veto of a bill 
 giving the veterans of the Spanish War 
 preference over civilians in the public 
 service : — 
 
 " And yet the veterans of the Civil War," 
 he said, " neither asked nor received stat- 
 utory preference over civilians in the pub- 
 lic employ until the lapse of nineteen years 
 from the close of the strife, and the pre- 
 ference then accorded was only to be given 
 ' other qualities being equal.' Eleven years 
 later these words were stricken out, and 
 the absolute preference was first enacted. 
 ... I have yet to learn that any consider- 
 able number of the soldiers of this war 
 have expected or asked for more. I should 
 feel that I were doing them dishonor if I 
 153 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 believed that the expectation of such pre- 
 ferment to public office as is provided in 
 this bill entered into the motives which 
 prompted their enlistment, or that the de- 
 sire for it was general so soon after the 
 close of their honorable service." 
 
 The varied interests of the State of 
 Massachusetts demand of the governor the 
 abilities and habits of a business man. 
 Mr. Wolcott inherited business habits and 
 had a good general knowledge of com- 
 mercial interests. He was conscientious 
 and intelligent in the details of his office. 
 He knew the worth of proper accounting 
 and a clear financial statement. He was 
 prompt and exact himself. He met his 
 engagements, often at the risk of his health 
 or at much sacrifice of his own conven- 
 ience. In coming to a decision upon mat- 
 ters of state, and in seeking the advice of 
 others, he never revealed by his questions 
 154 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 or conversation in what direction his 
 judgment was moving; and, until his de- 
 cision was announced, his closest friends 
 knew not what it would be. 
 
 An essential talent in an administra- 
 tor is that of judging correctly of men's 
 abilities and characters, and their fitness 
 for certain positions, and in public ser- 
 vice of getting the best men to accept 
 office. 
 
 In selecting men for office Mr. Wolcott 
 was very careful in his inquiries. He 
 distrusted letters about men; so much so, 
 indeed, that in his correspondence there 
 is hardly a letter upon that subject. 
 He trusted to individual research through 
 friends, to incidental conversation, and to 
 a personal acquaintance with the man. In 
 this way he reenforced a good instinctive 
 knowledge of character. There were, at 
 rare intervals, appointments which wise 
 155 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 friends criticised. Mr. Wolcott had, how- 
 ever, the faculty of keeping men at their 
 best, and encouraging the finer elements 
 of their character. Like every public 
 officer he suffered from his inability to get 
 the men of his first choice to serve: not 
 so much so, however, as most administra- 
 tors, for there was such attractiveness and 
 enthusiasm about him that men who came 
 into his presence determined to refuse 
 office fell before his persuasion and ap- 
 peals to public duty. 
 
 In making appointments, his first and 
 last interest was the public service. He 
 appreciated the traditional rights of par- 
 ties, the necessity of harmonious political 
 relations in certain departments, and the 
 advisability of considering the requests of 
 politicians when they urged good and effi- 
 cient men who were also politically use- 
 ful. He took no interest in appointments 
 156 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 for the sake of political advantage, and 
 frankly opposed any use of the public ser- 
 vice for appointees unworthy of the posi- 
 tion. 
 
 " These fellows do not understand that 
 such peanut politics is the most short- 
 sighted policy for the party itself, let alone 
 the cause of good government," he would 
 say as he paced up and down the room. 
 " The people can't be hoodwinked. Give 
 them time, and they will discover which 
 party is best administering the State." 
 
 He fully appreciated, nevertheless, the 
 worth of party organization and political 
 work. He had the wisdom to trust the 
 management and the details of the organ- 
 ization to those who had undertaken them, 
 and unless the administration of the party 
 transgressed some moral principle, he fol- 
 lowed it loyally. 
 
 Because he was of this temper, and 
 157 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 because, much as he believed in polit- 
 ical parties, he had little interest in the 
 machinery of the organization, many peo- 
 ple called him a poor politician. He al- 
 ways had an eye, not so much to the 
 present as to the future welfare of his 
 party; he had the statesman's prophetic 
 vision. And confiding as he did in the 
 good sense and honesty of the people, he 
 knew that frank and high-minded action 
 would in time win their approval. He 
 wanted the people to know his mind: 
 sometimes he seemed unnecessarily frank. 
 At the state convention of 1896 the ques- 
 tion of biennial state elections was a local 
 issue. The party was divided on the sub- 
 ject; the committee on resolutions, fearing 
 an uncomfortable debate in convention, 
 had quietly slipped that plank out of the 
 platform. The resolutions were read; Mr. 
 Wolcott was nominated and escorted to 
 158 
 
GOVERNOR 
 
 the platform, when to the dismay of the 
 politicians on both sides he spoke out his 
 conviction in favor of biennial elections. 
 He wanted them and the Commonwealth 
 to know just where he stood. Unwise 
 from a short-sighted point of view, it was 
 the wisdom of a sincere man, for the 
 people saw that he was one in whose per- 
 fect transparency they could trust. In 
 short, his whole political life was one 
 instinctive appeal behind party, politicians, 
 and the machine to the intelligence and 
 heart of the people. Men were surprised 
 again and again that he was such a vote- 
 getter. It was because in Massachusetts 
 there was no political machine powerful 
 enough to distort or suppress the senti- 
 ments of the people. They voted as they 
 felt. In voting for Roger Wolcott they 
 felt that he was one of them: his strength 
 was their strength; through him their 
 159 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 authority was expressed and their rights 
 were vindicated. 
 
 Mr. Wolcott was fortunate in the time 
 in which he came to the front. The year 
 of his election as governor was a great 
 Republican year. With all allowance for 
 his good fortune, however, one cannot but 
 marvel at the change in Massachusetts 
 political parties from the time when Cleve- 
 land and Russell swept the State, and 
 when Russell swept the State without 
 Cleveland, to the period of the great pop- 
 ular support of Roger Wolcott during the 
 seven years of his administration. He was 
 fortunate in the conditions. The question 
 may well be asked, however, whether he 
 did not have something to do with the 
 creation of the conditions, and whether 
 the spirit expressed in his first Republican 
 Club speech did not do much to open the 
 way for him and his party to walk in. 
 i6o 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 |HE incidents leading to the 
 outbreak of the Spanish War 
 are too recent to require nar- 
 ration. Even the youth of the 
 country recall the rising indignation of the 
 people at the cruel treatment of Cuba by 
 Spain, the destruction of the Maine, and 
 the anxious suspense of the following 
 weeks. The efforts of the administration 
 towards a peaceful settlement, the debates 
 in Congress, and the pressure of an angry 
 people are fresh in all memories. 
 
 Mr. Wolcott's sympathies were with the 
 President in his efforts to use every honor- 
 able means to avert the war. He counseled 
 i6i 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 patience and self-restraint. Conscious, 
 however, that war might come, he was 
 advising with his military staff, conferring 
 with the War Department at Washington, 
 and doing everything possible without 
 public knowledge to prepare the militia 
 for immediate service. 
 
 As early as December, 1897, four 
 months before war was declared, the work 
 of preparation was begun. On January 
 15 an order was issued requiring all militia 
 organizations at armory inspections to ap- 
 pear equipped as if for two days' field 
 duty. Commanding officers were perfect- 
 ing themselves for active service. As the 
 War Department at Washington said that 
 they were unable to furnish supplies and 
 equipment, these were sought for in many 
 directions, so that if the emergency should 
 come and an appropriation be made, they 
 could be immediately obtained. 
 162 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 On the 29th of March resolutions de- 
 claring war with Spain and recognizing 
 the independence of Cuba were introduced 
 into both houses of Congress. 
 
 On the nth of April the President, 
 having become convinced that the re- 
 sources of diplomacy were unavailing to 
 alter the conditions in Cuba, asked Con- 
 gress to give him power to intervene in 
 behalf of the nation. 
 
 On the 15th of April, Governor Wol- 
 cott sent this special message to the legis- 
 lature : — 
 
 " To the Honorable the Senate and 
 House of Representatives : — 
 
 " In the present grave and threatening 
 conditions of the relations of the govern- 
 ment of the United States with the king- 
 dom of Spain, growing out of the inhuman 
 and unavailing warfare in the island of 
 Cuba, I deem that the time has come when 
 163 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 it is my duty to ask that your honorable 
 bodies place in my hands the means to 
 enable me to meet with promptness and 
 efficiency whatever demands the exigen- 
 cies of possible war may require the na- 
 tional government to make upon the Com- 
 monwealth of Massachusetts. 
 
 "Whenever, in the past, heroism and 
 sacrifice in a just cause have been de- 
 manded, Massachusetts has generously 
 given of her blood and treasure. She will 
 not falter now. 
 
 " I ask that $500,000, or such part 
 thereof as may be necessary, may be ap- 
 propriated to be expended under the direc- 
 tion of the commander-in-chief, in defray- 
 ing the military and naval expenses which 
 the existing emergency may render requi- 
 site and proper." 
 
 Within twenty-five minutes of the time 
 that the message had left the governor's 
 164 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 hand, it had been passed unanimously in 
 each house, engrossed, carried back to the 
 executive chamber, and approved by the 
 governor. 
 
 Such action was typical of the prompt- 
 ness with which the Commonwealth met 
 every call upon her in the nation's war 
 against Spain. It was typical also of the 
 confidence which she reposed in her chief 
 magistrate. Said Mr. Wolcott, at the end 
 of the war, in referring to this incident, 
 " I consider the ready confidence of the 
 legislature of Massachusetts, without re- 
 gard to party, as one of the great honors 
 of my life." 
 
 On the 19th of April the resolution 
 asked for by the President passed Con- 
 gress, and on the 23d a call was issued for 
 one hundred and twenty-five thousand 
 troops. On April 25 war was declared 
 by Congress. On the next day, the First 
 165 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment, 
 equipped for war, marched through Bos- 
 ton to garrison Fort Warren. As in 1861, 
 so now Massachusetts had the first state 
 troops immediately available for national 
 defense. 
 
 A new generation had come to man- 
 hood since in the sixties the regiments, 
 after review by the governor, had passed 
 through Boston to the seat of war. The 
 men and women in whose memories those 
 scenes were but as yesterday were re- 
 kindled with enthusiasm as they heard the 
 tramp of the soldiers, and the sound of 
 the fife and drum; and the youth who 
 had been bred to stories of the last war 
 were alert to catch sight of the first regi- 
 ment. 
 
 Standing on the State House steps, 
 whence Governor Andrew had reviewed 
 the troops, was Governor Wolcott, sup- 
 166 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 ported by his staff, and behind them a 
 company of officials and ladies. Gratified 
 as he was that Massachusetts should have 
 responded so promptly to his call, there 
 was a touch of personal pride in the hearts 
 of himself and Mrs. Wolcott, for in the 
 ranks of Battery A marched their oldest 
 son, Roger, who, the evening before, had 
 enlisted for service. Neither then nor later 
 in the war did the governor give his son 
 a commission, for his son's wish coin- 
 cided with his own that he should go forth 
 like other patriots, in the ranks. 
 
 The whole city seemed to pour into the 
 streets. Up Beacon Street the regiment 
 marched, and as they passed the State 
 House, the governor bared his head. 
 Down State Street to the dock they 
 tramped amidst the cheers of the people. 
 
 The incident is worth}^ of record for its 
 significance: the loyalty of Boston and 
 167 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 the State to the nation in her time of trial, 
 and their prompt response to her call. 
 
 It is difficult for us, since the Spanish 
 navy was so easily destroyed, to recall the 
 nervousness and fear that ran along the 
 New England coast lest Spanish cruisers 
 should appear in the offing and bombard 
 the cities. That their securities and valu- 
 ables might be removed at the approach 
 of danger, bankers and other citizens 
 rented boxes in the safe deposit vaults of 
 Worcester. One bank in that city in- 
 creased its number of boxes under the 
 pressure. Summer cottages could not be 
 rented, and solid citizens looked anxious 
 as they discussed the possibility of the de- 
 struction of their buildings and property. 
 Mayors and selectmen appealed to the 
 governor for protection and fortifications. 
 
 In response to a letter of inquiry from 
 the governor, the Secretary of the Navy 
 1 68 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 wrote that the War Department consid- 
 ered Boston well protected, and that for 
 the defense of other ports on the Massa- 
 chusetts coast, a deep-sea patrol was being 
 organized. He added, — 
 
 " While, therefore, I do not think that 
 the coast of Massachusetts will be in much 
 danger from privateers or Spanish men- 
 of-war, I do think it would be well to 
 throw up earthworks at the most exposed 
 points, the guns to be mounted and handled 
 by the state militia." 
 
 The governor and his military council 
 had been anxiously waiting for orders or 
 instructions about the troops from the 
 War Department, but up to April 25 
 none had been received. Meanwhile, 
 citizens were volunteering their services, 
 and others were importuning him for com- 
 missions for themselves, their sons, or 
 their friends. 
 
 169 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 On the evening of the 25th, a telegram 
 was received from the Secretary of War, 
 stating that the number of troops required 
 from Massachusetts under the call of the 
 President, of April 25, would be four 
 regiments of infantry, and three heavy 
 batteries of artillery, and adding : — 
 
 " It is the wish of the President that the 
 regiments of the national guard or state 
 militia shall be used as far as their num- 
 bers will permit, for the reason that they 
 are armed, equipped, and drilled. Please 
 wire as early as possible what equip- 
 ment, ammunition, arms, blankets, tents, 
 etc., you have, and what additions you 
 will require. 
 
 "Please also state when troops will be 
 ready for muster into the United States 
 service. Details to follow by mail." 
 
 The answer of the governor was imme- 
 diate : — 
 
 170 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 "Four regiments infantry, and three 
 batteries artillery ready for immediate ser- 
 vice. For infantry, sufficient equipment, 
 ammunition, arms, blankets, and tents on 
 hand; same for heavy artillery, except 
 that we have no heavy guns or ammuni- 
 tion." 
 
 Information came to the governor that 
 some of the officers and privates of the 
 militia regiments, in their desire to enlist, 
 would leave the militia service and enlist 
 in the regular army, and there was danger 
 that the organized militia now ready for 
 service would be broken up. There was 
 also a feeling that, as the militia regi- 
 ments had entered the militia for state 
 service, they could not fairly be called 
 upon to enlist as a body for national ser- 
 vice. 
 
 As he could get no definite instructions 
 from the War Department, and as mem- 
 171 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 bers of his staff were told by the officials 
 at Washington that the Massachusetts 
 troops would be used for coast defense, 
 the governor, by the advice of his military 
 council, issued, on April 25, the following 
 statement: — 
 
 '^In view of the possibility that an im- 
 portant theatre of war may be on or near 
 the New England coast, and that a num- 
 ber of troops substantially equal to the 
 present militia force of the Commonwealth 
 will be necessary for the coast defense in 
 Massachusetts, I am advised by the coun- 
 cil of officers to make public announce- 
 ment of my opinion that it would be 
 detrimental to the efficiency of the ser- 
 vice to encourage or permit the depletion 
 or disintegration of existing organizations 
 by wholesale enlistments of officers or 
 commands in the service of the United 
 States. 
 
 172 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 "If, as is probable, an additional num- 
 ber of volunteers is called for beyond the 
 present force of the militia, this number 
 should, in my judgment, be made up in 
 large measure by new enlistments of patri- 
 otic citizens, not at present connected 
 with organizations, although opportunities 
 should also be open to individual members 
 of the militia to volunteer, subject to a 
 proper consideration of the welfare of the 
 State. Any member of the militia desir- 
 ing so to volunteer should make applica- 
 tion for discharge to his commanding offi- 
 cer, and await favorable action thereon. 
 His place in the militia should then be 
 filled by enlistment. The defense of the 
 coast line of this Commonwealth is a 
 necessary and honorable service, which 
 should be loyally performed by all on 
 whom the duty devolves, and should not 
 be made secondary to any service else- 
 173 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 where, however patriotic the motives 
 which might influence such action, unless 
 in obedience to definite orders from Wash- 
 ington. The Commonwealth will respond 
 promptly and enthusiastically to any call 
 for volunteers which may be made, and 
 believes that in maintaining the efficiency 
 of her military organizations for coast de- 
 fense, she is acting in accordance with the 
 wishes and purposes of the national gov- 
 ernment." 
 
 The motive of the statement was imme- 
 diately misunderstood. It was interpreted 
 by some people in Washington as a notice 
 to the administration that Massachusetts 
 would take care of herself first and of the 
 nation afterwards. The Massachusetts 
 senators and representatives met and sent 
 a telegram to the governor, urging him to 
 fill up the quota of Massachusetts and 
 leave the protection of the coast to the 
 174 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 government. The governor telegraphed 
 to Senator Lodge : — 
 
 " Am informed there may be some mis- 
 understanding as to the statement made 
 by me regarding the use of state militia 
 on our coast. I think a careful reading of 
 statement makes meaning clear. Any and 
 all definite orders from Washington for 
 existing regiments or new regiments for 
 service out of the State will be promptly 
 obeyed. If existing regiments are left 
 within the State for coast defense, their 
 organization must be maintained, oppor- 
 tunity to be given for enlistment of indi- 
 viduals from militia for service elsewhere, 
 but not of commands. No definite orders 
 of any description yet received." 
 
 The next day the governor publicly 
 said: — 
 
 " Any idea that the government of the 
 Commonwealth has had an intention of 
 175 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 antagonizing the national government in 
 the matter of furnishing our quota of men 
 for the war is entirely a mistaken one, 
 and, I think, due to careless reading of 
 my original statement. My position is 
 simply this : I think our militia should be 
 kept intact until it is specifically called for 
 by the national government, and that it 
 should not be allowed to disintegrate 
 through the enlistment of any consider- 
 able number of its members in the regular 
 army. My reason for making the state- 
 ment that seems to have caused so much 
 comment was that I had been told that 
 many members of the militia, in some 
 cases whole companies, contemplated leav- 
 ing their present organization to enlist in 
 the regular army. That tendency I wished 
 to arrest as far as practicable. 
 
 " Now, I have supposed that our militia, 
 under control of the national government, 
 176 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 of course, would be utilized to man our 
 own coast defenses, and I have never 
 believed the national government would 
 call upon them to go elsewhere, but sup- 
 posed men from the inland States, that 
 have no coast to defend, would be called 
 on for distant service. And, assuming 
 that our own men are to stay right here for 
 home service, I have tried to keep their 
 organization intact in order that we may 
 get the best possible service from them. 
 Now, in all this there is no antagonism to 
 the national government, for I have not 
 yet received an order from that direction. 
 When it comes it will be obeyed, if it calls 
 for only a portion of the militia, or for 
 every man in it." 
 
 On the night of the 27th the governor 
 
 received the long-expected letter from the 
 
 Secretary of War, giving the quota of 
 
 Massachusetts for the national troops, four 
 
 177 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 regiments of infantry and three batteries 
 of artillery, to serve for two years unless 
 sooner discharged. He acknowledged the 
 letter by a telegram: "Massachusetts will 
 respond with the utmost promptitude and 
 patriotism to the request." 
 
 On the 29th, the governor issued his 
 call for state troops, designating the Sec- 
 ond, Ninth, Eighth, and Sixth regiments 
 of infantry of Massachusetts Volunteer 
 Militia, giving to the officers and men of 
 those regiments the first opportunity to 
 volunteer for the national service. He 
 thus preserved the integrity of the regi- 
 ments, and filled the places of the men 
 who were unable to volunteer with re- 
 cruits, giving the preference to those who 
 had some military training. The procla- 
 mation closed with the words : — 
 
 " I enjoin upon all officers and enlisted 
 men the paramount duty of securing and 
 178 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 maintaining in the volunteer force and in 
 the state militia the highest military effi- 
 ciency and the best citizenship. To this 
 end all other considerations should be 
 rigidly subordinated. 
 
 "In both services alike there will be 
 abundant opportunity for the display of 
 that finer type of patriotism which not 
 only dares and endures, but subordinates 
 selfish interests and ambitions in a great 
 cause. 
 
 " May God save and bless the Common- 
 wealth of Massachusetts and the greater 
 nation of which it is a part." 
 
 In his boyhood Roger Wolcott had 
 heard at home the earnest talk of his par- 
 ents about the work of the Sanitary Com- 
 mission, of which his father was the trea- 
 surer. It was natural that as soon as the 
 first steps toward military equipment and 
 service had been taken he should prepare 
 179 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 for the effects of war, — the sick and 
 wounded soldiers. On April 30 he sent 
 out an invitation to a number of citizens 
 to meet at the council chamber to "form 
 at once a soldiers' relief organization with 
 purposes similar to those of the Sani- 
 tary Commission during the Civil War." 
 It was the first action of the kind taken 
 in the country. On May 3 the Massa- 
 chusetts Volunteer Aid Association was 
 organized, and the next day it was at 
 work. 
 
 One by one the regiments went into 
 camp at Framingham, the Second on May 
 3, the Ninth on May 4, the Eighth on 
 May 5, and the Sixth on May 6, and were 
 mustered into the United States Volunteer 
 Army. Their equipment was complete, — 
 tents, ovens, medical stores, uniforms, 
 guns, working suits, rubber blankets, and 
 everything else required for service at the 
 180 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 front. In order that the coast might have 
 some defense and that the nervousness of 
 the people might be relieved, detachments 
 of the militia were sent, with the approval 
 of the authorities at Washington and New 
 York, to various points along the coast 
 to camp for eight days, covering twenty- 
 four days in all, preceding the arrival of 
 the United States Volunteer troops. The 
 Signal Corps established and maintained 
 stations from Plum Island to the State 
 House. 
 
 On May ii came a message from the 
 Secretary of War, asking how soon the 
 governor could send a regiment to New 
 York to be sent on a transport to Tampa. 
 The answer was, " The Second Regiment 
 of Infantry waits orders.'' 
 
 The order came for the regiment to 
 start the next day. On that day the gov- 
 ernor went to the camp at Framingham. 
 i8i 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 The regiment formed in a hollow square 
 and stood at attention. Memories of his 
 boyhood, of the camp at Readville, and of 
 his farewell to his brother, must have shot 
 through his mind. He lifted his hat and 
 with a voice strong but full of emotion, 
 said : — 
 
 "Colonel Clark, officers and men: You 
 are now about to leave the Commonwealth 
 of your birth to endure hardship and peril 
 in a righteous war waged for the promo- 
 tion of humanity and to uplift an oppressed 
 people from the domination of a cruel and 
 corrupt power. 
 
 " The Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
 through me, their official representative at 
 this time, bids you godspeed. Our hopes, 
 yes, our high confidence, go with you, 
 men of Massachusetts. We feel sure that 
 as you carry the stars and stripes of the 
 United States and the pure white flag of 
 182 
 

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THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 Massachusetts you will so bear yourselves 
 that no stain of dishonor shall rest on 
 these colors which to-day are committed 
 to your keeping. 
 
 " Keep a brave heart and a clean body. 
 Remember that a part of the glory of Mas- 
 sachusetts is committed to you. Be obe- 
 dient, courageous, and temperate at all 
 times. 
 
 " May the God of our fathers hold you 
 in his keeping and bring you glory and 
 honor and peace." 
 
 In the next few days he reviewed the 
 other, regiments, and in touching and elo- 
 quent words spoke to each. 
 
 To the Sixth, which is a Middlesex 
 regiment, he said : — 
 
 "You are the direct heirs of the men 
 
 who stood at the bridge at Concord and 
 
 fired the shot heard round the world. 
 
 You are the heirs of the men whose blood 
 
 183 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 stained the mob-cursed streets of Balti- 
 more, — a city to-day, thank God ! ready to 
 greet a Massachusetts regiment with the 
 full-hearted loyalty of a reunited nation. 
 
 " Men of the Sixth, thus the memory of 
 those and other great days in the history 
 of the nation will travel with you wherever 
 you go, and whether stationed to protect 
 the national capitol, which symbolizes the 
 dignity of the republic, or whether sum- 
 moned to some other post of duty and 
 danger, may every northern breeze bring 
 you the whispers of the old Common- 
 wealth of Massachusetts, bidding you to 
 quit you like men and be strong." 
 
 As the Sixth Regiment entered Balti- 
 more a few days later, they were formally 
 welcomed by the mayor, and as they 
 marched through the city by the same 
 route which the old Sixth took in 1861, 
 they were given a great ovation by all 
 184 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 the citizens. It was the first act of the 
 Spanish War which, followed by many 
 others, strengthened the unity of the na- 
 tion. 
 
 On the 25th of May the President issued 
 a call for 75,000 more volunteers, and the 
 governor was notified by the Secretary of 
 War that the share of Massachusetts was 
 3041. His response was, "The number 
 will be furnished on receiving detailed 
 instructions." 
 
 On the 15 th of July the governor gave 
 commissions to the officers of the Fifth 
 Regiment and presented colors to the regi- 
 ment. 
 
 Throughout that exceptionally hot sum- 
 mer, the governor was at his office all day 
 and often well into the night, organizing, 
 directing, conferring, meeting the parents 
 or friends of those who were reported sick, 
 wounded, or dead; clearing his desk of its 
 185 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 heavy load of letters, and responding to 
 every appeal for counsel or sympathy. 
 
 He followed with intense interest the 
 movements of each of the regiments, and, 
 as far as he knew them, of the individual 
 soldiers and sailors of Massachusetts. 
 
 The Second Regiment, arriving at 
 Tampa, Fla., was the first infantry regi- 
 ment to report in a United States camp. 
 It was also the first volunteer regiment to 
 land in Cuba. It participated in the en- 
 gagement at Siboney, was on the firing 
 line at El Caney and San Juan, suffering 
 in killed and wounded, and was intrenched 
 before Santiago at the time of the surren- 
 der. 
 
 The Sixth was ordered to Cuba, but did 
 not disembark there. Ordered to Porto 
 Rico, it was engaged with the enemy, and 
 in October returned to Boston by trans- 
 port. 
 
 i86 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 The Eighth went into camp at Chicka- 
 mauga. Suffering severely from illness 
 there, it was moved into camp at Lex- 
 ington, Ky., and Americus, Ga., gaining 
 wherever it went an excellent name for 
 discipline and equipment. It went later 
 to Cuba to reduce the district of Matan- 
 zas to order. 
 
 The Ninth, stationed at Camp Alger, 
 Va., was ordered to Cuba, and was eigh- 
 teen days in the trenches, suffering se- 
 verely from sickness. 
 
 The Fifth, which was the only Mas- 
 sachusetts regiment to have time to 
 " harden " for service, went into camp in 
 South Carolina, and showed itself to be of 
 the very best material and discipline. 
 
 The First Regiment of Heavy Artillery 
 did excellent service in manning the coast 
 defenses of Massachusetts throughout the 
 summer. 
 
 187 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 The naval brigade, made up of eight 
 divisions, was detailed on various duties. 
 One detachment, ordered to Brooklyn, 
 N. Y., was the first naval volunteer or- 
 ganization in the country to report for 
 duty. Details of the brigade served upon 
 the United States Ship Prairie on the 
 coast defense fleet, and later in blockade 
 duty on the southern coast of Cuba; also 
 upon the monitors and other vessels for 
 coast defense. Details also responded to 
 the calls of the government in other lines 
 of service. 
 
 The promptness in response to call and 
 the excellent equipment of the Massachu- 
 setts troops led the War Department to 
 turn to them for service at the front. 
 Hence Massachusetts had a larger propor- 
 tion of her troops in Cuba and Porto Rico 
 than any other State in the Union. 
 
 With the victory at Santiago and the 
 i88 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 close of the war came the return of the 
 soldiers. The country had already been 
 aroused at what seemed to be gross in- 
 efficiency in the War Department in 
 caring for the health and comfort of the 
 men. Added to this were the inexpe- 
 rience of many officers and the indiffer- 
 ence of others to camp discipline and sani- 
 tary conditions. These features, combined 
 with the fact that Northern men, unaccli- 
 mated, were under a torrid sun and in 
 malarial districts, resulted in an appalling 
 sick list, crowded hospitals, and many 
 deaths. 
 
 The Second and Ninth regiments, whose 
 ranks had been thinned by hard service, 
 were sent back from Cuba to the camp at 
 Montauk Point in filthy transports, arriv- 
 ing, as the governor telegraphed Secretary 
 Alger, in a " pitiable condition." In the 
 organization of the Volunteer Aid Society, 
 189 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 through his military staff, and by the vol- 
 unteer work of civilians like Sherman 
 Hoar, who laid down his life in that noble 
 service, the governor had done everything 
 in his power to anticipate the sickness and 
 sufferings of war. 
 
 A steamship was bought by the Volun- 
 teer Aid Society, and, having been re- 
 named " The Bay State," was fitted up with 
 every appliance for transport hospital ser- 
 vice. Though intended especially for the 
 aid of Massachusetts soldiers, she was 
 always at the service of any troops need- 
 ing her. She plied from port to port, 
 bringing home sick soldiers, carrying food 
 for invalids, and medical supplies; and 
 apart from her immediate service, gave 
 the nation an object lesson as to what 
 could be done by the volunteer work of 
 patriotic citizens aided by the best medi- 
 cal skill. 
 
 190 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 At a dinner of the Republican Club in 
 October, 1898, the governor, after refer- 
 ring to the fear of attack on the part of the 
 people along the seacoast, said : — 
 
 " It was five o'clock on the afternoon of 
 April 27 that the first definite orders re- 
 garding the quota of this Commonwealth 
 were received by me at the State House. 
 It was a call for four regiments of infantry 
 and three heavy batteries, and it was stated 
 that, in providing this quota, the prefer- 
 ence was to be given to the National 
 Guard or the Militia, as we are in the 
 habit of calling it in this Commonwealth, 
 and that the several commands as organ- 
 ized would be accepted in filling the quota. 
 The next morning, the four infantry regi- 
 ments were designated in general order of 
 seniority, — the Second, the Ninth, the 
 Eighth, and the Sixth. The next day the 
 First Heavy Artillery Regiment was ac- 
 191 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 cepted as a unit, instead of the three bat- 
 teries of heavy artillery called for in the 
 original quota. On April 29, two days 
 after the first knowledge of what the Mas- 
 sachusetts quota was to be, orders were 
 issued for these four infantry regiments to 
 go to camp at Framingham on the four 
 consecutive days beginning with May 2, 
 and that was done. Within five days of 
 the call, Massachusetts regiments were in 
 camps equipped with tentage, guns, — not, 
 to be sure, provided with smokeless pow- 
 der, but the best and most recent Spring- 
 field rifle that the government at that time 
 could furnish. 
 
 " These regiments remained, as you are 
 aware, at Framingham for a period not 
 made necessary by their lack of prepara- 
 tion, but made necessary by the fact that 
 arrangements at Washington had not ad- 
 vanced suflSciently far for definite orders 
 192 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 to be issued as to their new places of 
 assembly; but on May 13 the gallant 
 Second Regiment left for Florida, to be 
 followed on the i6th by the Eighth to 
 Chickamauga, on the 20th by the Sixth to 
 Camp Alger, and on the 31st by the Ninth, 
 also to Camp Alger. I wish I could say 
 what is in my heart about these regiments. 
 They were made up of the young men of 
 Massachusetts, brave, earnest, loyal to the 
 government, ready to sacrifice their lives 
 if need be at the call of duty, and they 
 have made a record that will forever re- 
 main an honorable record in the annals of 
 this Commonwealth. 
 
 " Your president has spoken of the de- 
 gree of preparation and equipment with 
 which those regiments were placed in the 
 field. Testimony to the superiority of 
 Massachusetts troops comes not alone from 
 Massachusetts men. It has come to my 
 193 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 knowledge and to my ears from men from 
 other States, from officers in the regular 
 army, and from newspaper correspondents 
 and others in position to judge. . . . 
 
 " The service of these Massachusetts 
 regiments is known to you. You know 
 the perils, the dangers, the hardships, the 
 disease they have been called upon to 
 meet. I can assure you that the spirit 
 that sent them forth is still strong and 
 fresh in the hearts of those who have re- 
 turned. 
 
 " It may interest you to know how many 
 troops Massachusetts has furnished in this 
 war. I give figures that are as accurate 
 as they can be made up to the present 
 time. . . . Under the first and second call 
 Massachusetts furnished 6988 men and in 
 the signal corps and regulars about 1500 
 more, making a total of 8500. In the naval 
 brigade about 600, and in the navy and 
 194 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 marine corps about 2000, bringing the 
 total in the army and navy up to 11,000.^ 
 Out of the sum of $500,000 placed in 
 my hands for expenditure at my discretion, 
 the sum of $307,000 has already been 
 paid out, chiefly for arms, equipment, pay 
 allowance, subsistence, and clothing. The 
 legislature of Massachusetts, with wise 
 generosity, provided that for all soldiers 
 of Massachusetts, whether enlisting in the 
 volunteer service of the United States or 
 in the regular service, whether on land or 
 afloat, the Commonwealth would supple- 
 ment the payment made by the United 
 States government by a monthly payment 
 of seven dollars. Under this generous 
 policy, over $210,000 has already been 
 paid from the treasury of the Common- 
 
 1 Report of the Adjutant-General of Massachu- 
 setts, 1 898 : Call of the Government, 73SS men ; 
 number furnished, 11,780. 
 
 195 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 wealth. Not only that, but it provided 
 that upon the death of a soldier, this 
 monthly payment of seven dollars should 
 be continued after his decease. The Com- 
 monwealth has also made provisions for 
 hospital treatment for all soldiers of the 
 Commonwealth in whatever hospitals they 
 may have been received, and in cases 
 where the condition of the family is such 
 as to make it necessary, it aids also in the 
 final solemn rites of burial. 
 
 " Your president has referred in brief to 
 a part of the work of the Volunteer Aid 
 Association. . . . Two hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars has been placed in the 
 treasury of that association, without per- 
 sonal solicitation, coming from the rich 
 out of their plenty, coming from those of 
 moderate means, where a gift of this nature 
 meant the depriving themselves of some 
 comfort or luxury, and coming also, thank 
 196 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 God for it, from the very poor. There 
 have been the most touching stories told 
 of how people rose up to furnish this 
 assistance to the soldiers and sailors of this 
 war. A stevedore. comes into the office 
 with his hand full of one dollar bills, and 
 says: ^ Those have been collected from 
 the 'longshoremen on our wharves.' He 
 does n't ask for a receipt. He simply says, 
 ' That is for the soldiers.' Factory girls, 
 laborers, school children, everybody, 
 seemed desirous of aiding in some way 
 and up to their means. In nearly every 
 city and town branch associations have 
 been organized. They have received the 
 soldiers upon their return; they have 
 looked after them; they have looked after 
 their families; they have carried on an 
 immense correspondence when the fami- 
 lies, through ignorance of the whereabouts 
 of their loved ones, were unable to do so; 
 197 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 and in this way, stretching out their hands 
 and grasping the hands of men and women 
 of like spirit with themselves, they built 
 up a strong association that has been fruit- 
 ful of good, and on which, in my humble 
 opinion, the blessings of God have abun- 
 dantly rested." 
 
 Excellent as is this statement, and hon- 
 orable as is the record, the governor 
 necessarily omitted one of the finest ele- 
 ments in the history — in fact he was un- 
 conscious of it — the confidence, enthusi- 
 asm, and loyalty kindled by the personality 
 of the governor himself. There was that 
 about him which defies analysis, which 
 eludes definition, but which is found in 
 those rare characters, who, like Philip 
 Sydney, Chevalier Bayard, or Robert 
 Louis Stevenson, gain our confidence, win 
 our admiration, kindle our affection, and 
 who, in their unconsciousness, make us 
 198 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 conscious that we are in chivalric com- 
 pany. 
 
 Roger Wolcott was a practical New 
 Englander with a dash of idealism, with- 
 out which no New England character is 
 complete. From boyhood he gained the 
 affection of all sorts of people. He drank 
 deep, in poems, history, and the Bible, of 
 chivalric life. In form and countenance, 
 in presence and atmosphere, he was of na- 
 ture's noblest. 
 
 When, then, a transport loaded with re- 
 turning soldiers steamed slowly up the har- 
 bor, and when the men, sick and wasted 
 with disease, caught sight of the governor, 
 or in their cots between decks heard his 
 voice, it was as if they had in one moment 
 been carried into the very heart of New 
 England, to health and home. 
 
 Was a returning regiment expected by 
 rail? The governor would take train to 
 199 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 Springfield and be among the first to wel- 
 come the men. He led the cheers, and in 
 person directed how everything should be 
 done for their comfort. A message from 
 the lower harbor that the Bay State, Vig- 
 ilant, or Olivette was signaled, prompted 
 him to drop official business and in all 
 haste reach the dock or take the tug to 
 meet the men, tenderly care for the sick, 
 place them in ambulances, or assist them 
 to their homes. 
 
 At the hospitals he visited them. In the 
 wan faces and wasted forms his sympa- 
 thies saw again his brother Huntington 
 lying upon his bed at Milton, sinking 
 into rest. His natural reserve was broken 
 through, his voice became tender, and he 
 told them the story of his boyhood sor- 
 row. Then, as one and another soldier 
 died, he sent to those in the home messages 
 weighted with sympathy. Anxious parents 
 200 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 and friends followed him to his home at 
 Blue Hill. There they received his hospi- 
 tality and hopeful word. They all spoke of 
 him as " our Governor; " they sought him, 
 however, for himself. His solicitude ran 
 out to every soldier. Men from Maine and 
 New Hampshire, passing through Boston, 
 experienced his kindness. " Extend the 
 same treatment to the regulars," was his 
 message to those who were caring for 
 Massachusetts soldiers. 
 
 Thus was Roger Wolcott bound by ties 
 of affection and sympathy to thousands of 
 men, women, and children throughout the 
 State. His friends saw that he was work- 
 ing hard; citizens knew that he was ad- 
 ministering the high office in trying times 
 with ability and devotion; the people were 
 feeling the touch of his sympathetic heart. 
 
 The fourteenth of October, 1899, marked 
 the closing incident of the war. 
 
 20I 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 It was a brilliant day. The population 
 from all parts of the State had poured into 
 Boston, for it was the day on which the 
 Commonwealth and the city gave their 
 welcome to Admiral Dewey, the hero of 
 Manila. The morning was given up to 
 the procession. The whole state militia 
 was in line. Later the officers and sailors 
 of the flagship Olympia led the column 
 through the gates of the Common to the 
 parade ground. The governor took his po- 
 sition on the slope of the hill just below 
 the soldiers' and sailors' monument. Two 
 hundred trumpeters gave the call to col- 
 ors, and seventeen sergeants with their 
 colors stood before the governor. The 
 commanding officers took their positions 
 in front • and one by one the officers turned 
 the colors over to the governor, who, in 
 accepting them, said: — 
 
 " On behalf of the Commonwealth of 
 202 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 Massachusetts and in her name, I receive 
 into her perpetual custody these flags borne 
 by Massachusetts men in a righteous and 
 triumphant cause, and emblematic of the 
 power of the nation and of the fortitude 
 and valor of her sons. 
 
 " Worn with service on land and afloat, 
 in camp, in garrison, and in battle, their 
 lustre is undimmed and their radiance un- 
 tarnished. In the presence of our honored 
 and illustrious guest and of the military 
 organizations which cherished and guarded 
 them, with popular acclaim, and to the 
 strains of martial music, they are returned 
 with fitting honors to the Commonwealth 
 which a few short months ago sent forth 
 their defenders with prayers and tears, and 
 which, alas! proudly mourns many of her 
 sons who return not with them. 
 
 " To officers and enlisted men she now 
 publicly and gratefully acknowledges her 
 203 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 obligation for the courage and fortitude 
 which have added to her historic fame, 
 and have borne witness that the memories 
 of '765 of 181 2, and of 1861, have not 
 been unheeded by her children. Like their 
 sires, the loyal and generous youth of 1898 
 showed themselves quick to hear the sum- 
 mons to duty and danger, and ready to suf- 
 fer and to die if need be, wheresoever that 
 summons might lead them. 
 
 " The gain will be worth the sacrifice. 
 To have banished oppression, and to have 
 opened the way to health and order and 
 justice among communities which for cen- 
 turies have felt the iron heel of despotism, 
 will be the justification of history and the 
 praise of future time. 
 
 " So long as a single thread of their 
 
 silken fabric resists the slow ravages of 
 
 time, these banners shall be jealously and 
 
 reverently guarded by the Commonwealth, 
 
 204 
 
THE WAR WITH SPAIN 
 
 together with the precious memorials of 
 an earlier and more stubborn conflict, 
 mutely but eloquently to teach their les- 
 son of patriotism and loyalty, and to breathe 
 their inspiration to the generations that are 
 to come after us." 
 
 205 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE LAST YEAR 
 
 OR ten years Roger Wolcott 
 had served the Common- 
 wealth: three years as repre- 
 sentative, three as lieutenant- 
 governor, one as lieutenant-governor and 
 acting governor, and three as governor. 
 He had brought to each position high 
 character, ability, and devotion; he had 
 grown steadily in force, wisdom, and 
 statesmanship; he had gained the affec- 
 tion as well as the confidence of the peo- 
 ple of the Commonwealth, and his name 
 was held in respect at Washington, and 
 in many other parts of the country. His 
 own wishes coincided with the traditions 
 206 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 of the State, that he should lay down his 
 office of governor at the end of three 
 years. 
 
 Seven continuous years of such consci- 
 entious and efficient service as he had 
 given draw upon the vitality, and tend to 
 age a man. On the last day of public duty, 
 Mr. Wolcott left his home on Common- 
 wealth Avenue, and walked to the State 
 House with the same elastic step that 
 was his at the first. The body was erect, 
 the smile and bow were as bright and 
 cordial as ever; the hair was white, but 
 that was an inheritance; the color of his 
 face was bright and fresh. It was clear, 
 however, to those who were near him, that 
 he needed a change, and he himself was 
 anxious to break away from associations 
 which had been happy, but which re- 
 minded him only of work. His children, 
 too, had grown up during his public life, 
 207 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 and although he was a devoted father in 
 the busiest days, he wanted to know them 
 better, and to have some months of com- 
 plete companionship with them and his 
 wife, who had been a strong support to 
 him in his public duties as well as in the 
 home. He anticipated, with the zest of a 
 boy before the holidays, a trip with his 
 family in Europe. 
 
 Mr. Wolcott was a man of domestic 
 tastes and social temperament. To those 
 who knew him intimately, his public life 
 was the incidental expression of his char- 
 acter, laid upon him by the people, and 
 entered on by him from a sense of duty, 
 public spirit, and the laudable ambition to 
 make himself felt for the good of others. 
 The centre of his life was his home, and 
 not the State House: the chair that best 
 suited him was not in the executive cham- 
 ber, but in the circle of his nearest friends. 
 208 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 Like his father, he made his home in 
 Boston, and at Blue Hill, Milton. In each 
 place he built a house for himself, near 
 enough to his parents to be in and out 
 through the day. Until the death of his 
 mother in 1899, his devotion to her was 
 constant beyond measure. Simple, almost 
 severe in his tastes, he desired comfort, but 
 not luxury. He was careful in expendi- 
 ture, exact in all money matters; realizing 
 like a true Yankee the value of money, 
 and desiring to give to his children an ex- 
 ample in judicious living^ As soon as he 
 could escape from work, he sought his 
 wife and children. At Blue Hill, it was 
 his delight to explore the by-roads, drop 
 in on the neighbors, and greet his fellow- 
 townsmen. " A decently constituted man 
 goes back to nature as iron to a magnet," 
 he used to say. In all the interests of the 
 community he was interested, the church, 
 209 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 the school, the roads, and town improve- 
 ments. When an evening was free in 
 Boston, it was given to his home or to the 
 company of his nearer friends. He be- 
 lieved in the abiding influence of the home. 
 He always retained his boyish simplicity, 
 and counted no time lost that was given 
 to the most trivial interest of his children, 
 or to the answering of every question. In 
 their names — Roger, William Prescott, 
 Samuel Huntington, Cornelia Frothing- 
 ham, and Oliver — he gathered the family 
 associations of past and present, and he de- 
 lighted to watch the family characteristics 
 revealing themselves. To Mrs. Wolcott 
 he always turned with perfect confidence 
 for sympathy and support. In the first 
 years of marriage, a sorrow had crossed 
 their life in the death of the first son, Hunt- 
 ington Frothingham. 
 
 Among his friends, he was at fifty what 
 
 2IO 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 he was at twenty, simple, frank, alert, 
 bright, full of wit and story, or serious in 
 conversation. His force and purity of 
 character created an atmosphere in what- 
 ever company he entered. His presence 
 never suppressed fun or light talk, and the 
 gayest welcomed his coming; the tone, 
 however, was always pure, elevated, and 
 refined. He never lost the reserve of his 
 youth : very few, perhaps none, of his 
 friends ever felt that they reached his 
 inmost self. He knew it and regretted it; 
 but the reserve was something born with 
 him, and no doubt it gave him an advan- 
 tage in some public associations. 
 
 He was sensitive to the feelings and 
 prejudices of others, and to the conditions 
 about him. It was this that gave him the 
 tact to extricate himself from difficult situ- 
 ations, and to say the right thing at the 
 right time in his public speeches. He 
 
 211 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 never said of a man behind his back what 
 he would not say to his face; and before 
 he criticised or condemned a man, was 
 always sure of his facts. 
 
 He believed in frankness in public as 
 well as private life. When the Republican 
 party was hesitating as to its position on 
 the question of gold and silver, he said, at 
 a dinner in honor of ex-Governor Bout- 
 well's eightieth birthday: — 
 
 " I believe, further, speaking as a Re- 
 publican to Republicans, that it would be 
 well-nigh fatal to the Republican party to 
 go into the next Congressional election 
 without having shown that it, at all events, 
 whether it succeeds or not, is placed with- 
 out question in the line of aggressive hon- 
 esty in legislation. 
 
 " I believe and have always believed, 
 whether temporary defeat or partial lack 
 of success comes or not that, on a question 
 
 212 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 of that nature, an appeal to the educated 
 and intelligent honesty of the people of 
 the United States is absolutely sure to re- 
 sult in victory in the long run. There 
 is honesty abroad through the land, my 
 friends, just exactly as there is heroism 
 among the people of the United States." 
 
 He had a large share of the Puritan con- 
 science, which drove him, but drove him 
 happily and by his own consent, from duty 
 to duty throughout the day. Even plea- 
 sure, friendly talk, and " loafing " had to 
 him their uses in enabling him to do 
 better work the next day. Such a rea- 
 sonable conscience creates, perhaps, the 
 most healthy, happy, and useful manhood. 
 
 He left his home in the morning earlier 
 than most of his busy friends, and, after 
 a brisk walk, greeting his neighbors, the 
 cabmen, school children, policemen, and 
 other citizens as he passed up the avenue, 
 213 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 through the Public Garden, and by the 
 Common, was at his desk and well into 
 his mail before nine o'clock. The list of 
 his public duties in his early manhood 
 reveals the industrious nature of the man. 
 Whether in office or out, he worked up to 
 the limit of his strength; he too often 
 worked beyond it. Strong and vigorous 
 as he looked, his physique was too fine 
 and nervous to stand great strain, and four 
 attacks of pneumonia during manhood gave 
 him warning that there was a limit to his 
 endurance. 
 
 From his earliest childhood, religion 
 was an element in the daily life of the 
 horrie. His parents were devout Unitari- 
 ans. Every morning was opened with 
 family prayer, at which parents, bo3^s, and 
 guests read in order the verses of a chap- 
 ter of the Bible. Then all joined in the 
 Lord's Prayer. On Sunday the piano was 
 214 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 closed, and everybody went morning and 
 afternoon to church. Strict as were the 
 religious habits of the household, there 
 were such parental influence and loving 
 guidance as to win the sympathy of the 
 boys. To Roger Wolcott religion was a 
 natural and essential element of life. His 
 faith was simple. He had little interest 
 in dogma or the differences of theologies. 
 He did, however, have a profound belief 
 in the teachings of the Christian faith as 
 he understood them. He had no sympa- 
 thy with the idea that faith and the church 
 were matters of taste or convenience. To 
 him the Christian Church, representing 
 the Christian faith, was essential to the 
 welfare of society and to the upbuilding of 
 men's characters. He believed in the 
 church and in public worship. He was 
 a communicant. Every Sunday he went 
 with his family to service at King's Chapel 
 215 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 in Boston or in the Unitarian Church at 
 Milton, and every month received the 
 communion. 
 
 His addresses at the annual festivals of 
 the Unitarian Association were always 
 keenly anticipated, and they reveal some- 
 thing of his religious attitude. 
 
 Called upon to welcome the clergy in 
 behalf of the laity in 1889, he said: — 
 
 " Sweep away, if you must, literal faith 
 in the Old or the New Testament, belief 
 in the miracles, or whatever else science 
 or scholarship shall undermine; but re- 
 member always that the life and teachings 
 of Christ are the noblest, the most sacred 
 facts within the knowledge of man, and 
 are to be approached, never with flippancy 
 or sensationalism, but with the bowed 
 knee of reverence and faith." 
 
 Again, in 1893, he said: "Flippancy in 
 the pulpit and that futile straining after 
 216 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 effect which aims to make the messenger 
 of greater import than the message, are to 
 me abhorrent. The congregation demands 
 of its minister sincerity of life and conse- 
 cration and reverence of spirit. If these 
 be lacking, brilliancy of intellect, elo- 
 quence, learning, will never possess the 
 lunar force which heaps up the billows 
 and draws the tides." 
 
 He said in 1897: "And so we recog- 
 nize that our religion rests not on dogma 
 or creed. We recognize that true religion 
 is a fair blossom that blooms in the heart 
 of him who strives to pattern his life on 
 the teachings and on the life of Jesus 
 Christ. We recognize all who strive hum- 
 bly to follow in his footsteps. We do not 
 limit the title of ' Christian ' to one pro- 
 fession or to another. We recognize all 
 good men of every profession. We know 
 that as good a Christian as stands in a 
 217 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 pulpit or sits in the pew visits, as the lov- 
 ing physician, the bed of suffering. We 
 know that he who strives in the court of 
 justice to lay down the rules of everlasting 
 right that shall regulate the conduct of 
 man and man, that the citizen who gives 
 loyal service to the State, that all men in- 
 spired with like purpose, are good Chris- 
 tians." 
 
 The bond between himself and Har- 
 vard University was one of the strong and 
 happy influences of his life. His college 
 career, his oration, and his 'services as 
 instructor and overseer are already famil- 
 iar to us. 
 
 He always felt it a privilege to respond 
 to the call of the University. Was it to 
 welcome the Freshmen in Sanders Theatre 
 on the first Monday evening of the term? 
 He seized the opportunity to preach his 
 gospel of the college life as a preparation 
 218 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 for the service of the State. Did he pre- 
 side at a Harvard- Yale debate? By his 
 tact he kindled the best of feeling and 
 softened the disappointment of defeat. 
 Even in one of the great football games, 
 he with Theodore Roosevelt, then gov- 
 ernor of New York, stood before the thou- 
 sands of students and graduates and led 
 their cheers and songs. 
 
 When the class of '70 celebrated their 
 twenty-fifth anniversary in 1895, Roger 
 Wolcott was of course chief marshal. 
 Every graduate who was there remembers 
 the ardor with which, mounted on a chair 
 in the yard near Massachusetts Hall, he 
 called off the classes in their order, and 
 with what enthusiasm his ringing voice led 
 the cheers at the dinner in Memorial Hall. 
 It was one of the happiest days of his life, 
 for his position and popularity were a 
 recognition from those by whom he was 
 219 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT * 
 
 best known and whose judgment he most 
 esteemed. 
 
 For four successive Commencements 
 he represented the Commonwealth. Es- 
 corted from Boston, according to ancient 
 custom, by the Lancers with their bril- 
 liant uniforms, he entered the college gate 
 amid the applause of the graduates. In 
 the theatre, during the procession to Me- 
 morial Hall, and at the dinner, he was 
 always sure of cordial greetings. 
 
 Behind his official words was always 
 the tender tone of a son receiving the wel- 
 come of his alma mater. Upon receiving 
 his first welcome as the representative of 
 the Commonwealth in 1896 he said: — 
 
 '' It has always seemed to me that, 
 should it ever fall to me to receive words 
 of commendation at this feast, I should 
 prefer to receive them for something done 
 in the public service, that makes to-day 
 220 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 the strongest demand on the educated 
 man. I would not obscure the services of 
 the quiet scholar and teacher, the physi- 
 cian, the lawyer, the scientist: I mean 
 something a little different. All of this 
 service can be rendered, and is rendered, 
 in every country and under every form of 
 government, but what I wish to emphasize 
 is that the government of America makes 
 further demands upon citizenship, de- 
 mands that I see answered by the men 
 here. 
 
 "I need not speak of the service done by 
 lawyers and business men. To the college 
 man there must be impossible the spirit of 
 snobbishness. Leave that to the merely 
 rich. In him there must be no chilling of 
 enthusiasm, no enfeebled patriotism. The 
 education that Harvard gives must arouse 
 enthusiasm, kindle ardor, add truer flames 
 to the altar of patriotism. 
 
 221 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 " The graduates of Harvard are render- 
 ing this exalted service all over the land. 
 Do not mistake that I refer to those in 
 office simply. It is the spirit, not the 
 office, by which this college would show 
 her graduates to be true to the highest 
 lessons of her past." 
 
 His last official message to the univer- 
 sity in 1 899 was characteristic in style and 
 thought ; — 
 
 "This stately and historic Common- 
 wealth comes here and greets the gracious 
 and benign figure of the University whom 
 we, her sons, love to reverence and honor 
 as our alma mater. The ' cloth of gold ' 
 is made up of the woven tapestry which 
 represents the history of the Common- 
 wealth and the University. It is red with 
 the deep crimson of manhood; it is white 
 with the clear color of a pure life and high 
 endeavor. And here and there, every- 
 222 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 where shot through the fabric, are the 
 golden threads that tell of the few happy 
 lives that have attained distinction and are 
 remembered as the years pass by. 
 
 " In that great ode, which seems to add 
 something of even greater consecration to 
 this hall, already made sacred by the lives 
 it commemorated, Lowell spoke of the 
 white shields of expectation hung upon 
 the arms of generous youth and catching 
 the rays of morn. Upon these walls hang 
 not only the white shields of expectation, 
 but also the dinted, but unsullied shields 
 of high attainment and noble achievement. 
 
 "If we allow the imagination to travel 
 beyond the mystery of death, we may be- 
 lieve that here are assembled to-day not 
 only the living sons of the Commonwealth 
 and of the University, but also those 
 knightly spirits who, in the past, have won 
 the golden spur of noble manhood, and of 
 223 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 generous service to Commonwealth and to 
 University. 
 
 " If the sphinx of the coming days re- 
 clines silent and without utterance, with 
 no prophetic CEdipus to read the riddles 
 of the future that lie within her closed lips, 
 nevertheless may Commonwealth and Uni- 
 versity alike face the problems of the 
 future, whatever they may be, not with 
 despair, nor with despondency, nor with 
 fear, but with the high and lofty courage 
 which is born of conscious strength." 
 
 On the next day, however, he spoke not 
 for the Commonwealth, but for himself. It 
 was at the Phi Beta Kappa dinner. Both 
 orator and poet had touched upon national 
 questions, and had expressed in somewhat 
 pessimistic tones the outlook for the fu- 
 ture. Roger Wolcott was by temperament 
 and conviction an optimist. Intelligent 
 and timely criticism he respected; but the 
 224 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 critical attitude which seeks faults rather 
 than virtues offended him. Only a week 
 before, at Holy Cross College, he had 
 spoken from his own experience : — 
 
 " If I have learned nothing else since I 
 have held office, I have learned to believe 
 in the American people. I have learned 
 to believe that virtue is more common 
 than vice ; that noble manhood and woman- 
 hood have not died out from us. I believe 
 God has made a law of progress, not a law 
 of retrogression, and I urge you, young 
 men, not to give way to pessimism. Be 
 courageous, be hopeful. Believe in the 
 destiny of America; believe in the purpose 
 of Almighty God; believe with all hope 
 in the future." 
 
 When Mr. Wolcott was called upon to 
 speak, it was evident that his deepest con- 
 victions of patriotism and hope had been 
 touched and fired. He had a temper of 
 225 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 which he had had the mastery for many 
 years; it did not master him now. He 
 gave his convictions, however, freedom of 
 utterance, and spoke with warmth and 
 power. He presented the nation in her 
 nobler features, and appealed for a deeper 
 loyalty to her chosen leaders. The sun- 
 light, pouring through the windows, was 
 blinding some of those at the upper table: 
 a student, throwing off his college gown, 
 had pinned it across the sash to shut out 
 the light. In the full flood of his speech, 
 appealing to the courage and loyalty of 
 educated men, Mr. Wolcott caught the 
 allegory, and pointing to the window, 
 said, " Do not let the academic gown 
 (absit omen) shut out the sunlight." As 
 he started to leave the hall, the whole 
 assembly rose and cheered enthusiasti- 
 cally. Little they realized that they were 
 giving him his last farewell from Harvard. 
 226 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 He had spoken his message in word and 
 in life. Amidst the generous applause of 
 Harvard, he passed out of the door of Mas- 
 sachusetts Hall and through the College 
 gate. 
 
 While Mr. Wolcott was planning his 
 trip to Europe, his friends and a great 
 body of citizens were questioning how the 
 nation could make use of such an efficient 
 servant. 
 
 It is one of the glories of our demo- 
 crac}^, and at the same time one of its mis- 
 fortunes, that after a man has held high 
 office he returns to private citizenship. 
 Unless there happens to come some change 
 in the movement of political life and offices, 
 the State or the nation may lose the bene- 
 fit of such a man's large experience, high 
 character, and public service. 
 
 It was well known that Mr. Wolcott 
 had the laudable ambition to serve the 
 227 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 nation when he could do so consistently 
 with other duties. In fact, the one compel- 
 ling motive of his life was that of public 
 service. He never sought an office, but 
 when an office came to him, he accepted it 
 with a sense of pleasure and gratification as 
 an opportunity to use his powers in congen- 
 ial work, and in the service of his country. 
 
 For the present he was happy in his 
 freedom. He was conscious that he had 
 done his work well, and that the people 
 were grateful to him and trusted him. The 
 future could take care of itself. A dinner 
 given him by a number of his old friends, 
 who were also representative citizens, was 
 a pleasant token to him of appreciation by 
 those in whose confidence and affection 
 he took delight. Congratulations through 
 the press and by letter continued to come 
 to him. 
 
 Five weeks after his retirement, Presi- 
 228 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 dent McKinley offered him an honorable 
 though arduous position upon the Philip- 
 pine Commission, which was to have 
 authority to organize civil government 
 throughout that great archipelago. The 
 work of the commission interested him 
 deeply, and the great opportunity for serv- 
 ing his fellow-men appealed to him, but his 
 duty to his family compelled him to de- 
 cline. Citizens continued to seize him for 
 public functions. He presided at a public 
 meeting to prepare for the reception by 
 Harvard University of 1400 Cuban teach- 
 ers. He presided also at a great dinner 
 of the National Association of Manufac- 
 turers, at which several members of the 
 President's cabinet were present, and 
 spoke upon the future relations of the 
 nation to the Philippines : — 
 
 " If our aim shall be only to see how 
 much we can get out of these new posses- 
 229 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 sions by extortion, trickery, or corruption, 
 then will our occupancy of them be a 
 curse to their inhabitants, and a shame to 
 us and our children. If our purpose shall 
 be to lift them to a higher civilization, to 
 give them education, honest administration, 
 peace and industrial prosperity, with an 
 ever-increasing degree of self-government, 
 then will these years of the nineteenth 
 century add one other lustrous page to our 
 national story. 
 
 " It is not given to man to see with cer- 
 tainty into the future, but unless I mistake 
 the character and purposes of my country- 
 men, they will meet this new crisis and 
 these novel responsibilities as they have 
 met every other great crisis in our history, 
 with seriousness of judgment, right pur- 
 pose, intelligence, and courage; and the 
 day will come in the not distant future 
 when these backward peoples shall grate- 
 230 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 fully concede that the great republic of the 
 west is not only powerful and just, but 
 generous and beneficent as well." 
 
 Early in May he, with his family, sailed 
 for Europe. Visiting Paris and the Expo- 
 sition, to which Mrs. Wolcott, represent- 
 ing the department of charities and cor- 
 rection, was a delegate from the national 
 government, and from the city of Boston, 
 they passed on to Holland, Germany, 
 and Switzerland. Returning by way of 
 England, they arrived home on November 
 4, in time for Mr. Wolcott, after making 
 a campaign speech the next evening at 
 Quincy, to vote, on November 6, for 
 President McKinley and for his friend 
 and co-worker. Governor Crane, and for 
 the Republican party, of which he was a 
 presidential elector. 
 
 While he was in Europe, Mr. Wolcott 
 received from the President an appoint- 
 231 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 ment to be ambassador to Italy. This was 
 welcomed with hearty commendation by 
 the press throughout the country. With 
 his boys at school and in college, he did 
 not feel at liberty to separate himself from 
 them: for the present, home was his place, 
 and he declined the mission. 
 
 The city of Washington was preparing 
 for the centennial celebration of the na- 
 tional capital, on December 9. The gov- 
 ernors of the States and the national offi- 
 cials were to be there. Mr. Wolcott had 
 been selected as one of the four speakers. 
 
 On the sixteenth of November he was 
 taken ill. Symptoms of typhoid fever, 
 which thirty-five years ago had laid his 
 brother low, appeared. His good consti- 
 tution, temperate life, and all other condi- 
 tions, seemed to point towards a favorable 
 result. The disease steadily increased its 
 hold, the strength yielded, life ebbed out. 
 232 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 On December 21, before the people real- 
 ized the danger, Roger Wolcott fell asleep. 
 
 For the moment the Commonwealth 
 seemed to stand still. It was in the after- 
 noon. The sun dropped to its setting. The 
 news spread fast, faster than the press 
 could carry it. Word went from city to 
 town, from town to village. The mill- 
 hand, leaving work with his dinner-pail in 
 hand, stopped as he heard the news, and 
 then passed on to tell his fellows of the 
 kind word once spoken to him by the gov- 
 ernor. The children in the homes sorrowed 
 as they recalled his bright greeting to them 
 when he passed through the town. The 
 veterans of two wars, citizens of both par- 
 ties and of all creeds, mourned as for 
 the loss of one of the household. " Our 
 governor is gone," they said one to an- 
 other. 
 
 It was a time when the depths of senti- 
 233 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 ment are touched. He had been a faithful 
 servant of the State, a wise administrator, 
 a just officer, and a strong leader. He had 
 upheld in political life the banner of purity 
 and honor. He had done his work well. 
 The people loved him, however, not so 
 much for what he had done, as for what 
 he was. He was a true man, transparent, 
 faithful, and chivalric. Moral force and 
 spiritual light transfigured his life and 
 countenance and made them beautiful 
 and radiant. He had entered into the 
 hearts of the people and dwelt there. 
 
 Christmas-eve was a day of mourning 
 in Massachusetts. Noontime, the day be- 
 fore Christmas, is usually the busiest hour 
 for shops in the year. At that hour the 
 shops were closed and silent. Trinity 
 Church, which had been offered for the 
 funeral services, was filled with a repre- 
 sentative and sorrowing company. Crowds 
 234 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 pressed about the doors. Details of mili- 
 tary organizations were present on duty, 
 but there was no military pomp. All was 
 as simple and sincere as the character of 
 him who lay in the choir of the church. 
 His two pastors of King's Chapel, Boston, 
 and the Unitarian Church at Milton, read 
 the service, and the body was borne forth. 
 
 Huntington's mother had written him in 
 1865: "After the war is over, we shall 
 need wise men, pure patriots in the coun- 
 cils of the country, and high-minded gen- 
 tlemen, men of large culture, refinement 
 of taste. Christian integrity, and virtue, 
 more than the soldier." 
 
 From the dying breath of Huntington, 
 Roger caught the life of patriotism and 
 service. His brother's image went with 
 him day by day, and gave him inspiration. 
 The body of Roger was laid at rest beside 
 that of his brother: fit types of Massachu- 
 23s 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 setts in these two generations — a soldier 
 who in war and bloody strife gave his life 
 to save his country; a citizen who, no less 
 chivalrous, gave himself to upbuild his 
 country in unity, peace, and righteousness. 
 
 In a noble memorial service citizens of 
 the Commonwealth, officials of the nation 
 and State, representatives of the religious, 
 military and patriotic societies, and mem- 
 bers of the chief musical associations of 
 Boston joined in a noble service in his 
 memory. The governor of the Common- 
 wealth presided, and Senator Henry Cabot 
 Lodge was the orator. The mass of peo- 
 ple, the prayer, oration, and requiem, gave 
 eloquent and touching expression to the 
 uplifting power of his character. 
 
 Knowing that the people wished to erect 
 sofne memorial, a committee of citizens 
 offered to receive gifts. Without solicita- 
 236 
 
THE LAST YEAR 
 
 tion and without the mention of the amount 
 of any gifts, offerings poured in. 
 
 From fifty newsboys of Park Street cor- 
 ner, who lined up every Sunday morning 
 to salute the governor as with his family 
 he passed them on his way to church, 
 came fifty contributions. Hotel bell-boys, 
 policemen, classmates, cab-drivers, shop- 
 girls, business men, mill-hands, veterans, 
 associations of all kinds, militia regiments, 
 men and women, boys and girls of every 
 station in life, from all parts of the State 
 and nation, from Cuba, Porto Rico, the 
 Philippines, and foreign countries, sent in 
 their gifts. 
 
 When over ten thousand persons and or- 
 ganizations, representing from fifteen to 
 twenty thousand individuals, had given of- 
 ferings amounting to over forty thousand 
 dollars within ninety days, the committee 
 asked that no more be sent. 
 237 
 
ROGER WOLCOTT 
 
 Thus, by the grateful and spontaneous 
 gift of many thousands of men, women, and 
 children, a statue of Roger Wolcott will 
 speak, to all who pass, of one who in pub- 
 lic office as in private station was pure, 
 chivalrous, and true. 
 
 238 
 
Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton &» Co, 
 Cambridge, Mass., U.S. A. 
 
OV 28 W02 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 069 096 A