Yale University Library

39002005006896

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

In Memory of
JOY CURTIS BOURNIQUE
Yale 1918
from the fund established in 1924
by his mother
STELLA CURTIS BOURNIQUE
and his father
EUGENE A. BOURNIQUE

FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE

Ph«W. br Printr Toll,, Ifash i„i:to„ . D. C.

\A.^i^A-.^<-^'

'l^t-t-/

FIFTY YEARS
OF
PUBLIC SERVICE
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF
SHELBY M. CULLOM
SENIOR UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM ILLINOIS
WITH POETRAITS

CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1911

COPTBIGHT
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1911

Published October, 1911

PRESS OF THE VAIIi COMPANY
COSHOCTON, XJ. S. A.

chapter I
II

III IV V
VI
VII
VIII IX X
XI
XII
XIII XIV XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII XIX XX
XXI
XXII
XXIII XXIV XXV

CONTENTS PAGE
Birth to Admission to the Bar, 1829 to 1855 . . 1
Service as City Attorney at Springfield, 1855 and
1856  14
Election to the Illinois Legislature: Lincoln-
Douglas Debates, 1856 to 1858  22
Other Distinguished Characters op that Day, 1858
and 1859  33
Nomination op Lincoln and Douglas for the Presi
dency, 1859 and I860  57
Speaker of the Illinois Legislature, and a Mem
ber of Congress, I860 to 1865  74
Lincoln, I860 to 1864  82
Notables in the Thirty-ninth Congress, 1864 to
1870  109
The Impeachment of President Johnson . . . 143
Speaker op the Legislature, and Governor, 1871 to
1883  159
Grant  1 69
General John A. Logan  180
General John M. Palmer ......... 190
Governor Richard J. Oglesby  198
Senatorial Career, 1883 to 1911 ...... 203
Cleveland's First Term, 1884 to 1887 . . . .224
Cleveland's Defeat and Harrison's First Term,
1888 TO 1891  246
Cleveland's Second Term, 1892 to 1896 .... 257
McKinley's Presidency, 1896 to 1901 . . ,., . . 272
Roosevelt's Presidency, 1901 to 1909 . . ., i. . 292
Interstate Commerce  805
John Marshall Harlan  333
Members of the Committee on Foreign Relations . 338
Work of the Committee on Foreign Relations . . 368
The Interoceanic Canal  380
V

vi CONTENTS
chapter page
XXVI Santo Domingo's Fiscal Affairs  387
XXVII Diplomatic Agreements by Protocol  393
XXVIII Ahbitration  S96
XXIX Titles and Decorations from Foreign Powers . . 407
XXX Isle of Pines, Danish West Indies, and Algeciras . 412
XXXI Congress under the Taft Administration . . . 419
XXXII Lincoln Centennial: Lincoln Library .... 428
XXXIII Consecutive Elections to United States Senate . 436
XXXIV Conclusion  456
Index  461

LIST OF PORTRAITS PAGE
S. M. Cullom  Frontispiece
Shelby M. Cullom, while a Law Student  16
Richard Yates  44
Stephen A. Douglas  64
Abraham Lincoln  106
James G. Blaine  120
Andrew Johnson  146
Shelby M. Cullom, while Governor op Illinois  l64
Ulysses S. Grant  176
John A. Logan  184
John M. Palmer  194
Richard J. Oglesby  • 200
Grover Cleveland  218
James A. Garfield  230
William McKinley . .  274
William Howard Taft  • - 302
Cushman K. Davis  ^*0
William P. Frye  346
John C. Spooner  ^^0
Theodore Roosevelt  ^"^
Elihu Root  '^^^

FOREWORD
OH, that mine adversary had written a book!"
Such was the exclamation of one who, through the
centuries, has been held up to the world as the symbol of pa
tience and long suffering endurance, and who beheved that
he thus expressed the surest method of confoimding an
enemy. I have come to that age in life where I feel somewhat in
different as to consequences, and, yielding to the suggestions
and insistence of friends, I determined that I would under
take to write some recollections, as they occurred to me, of
the men and events of my time.
Naturally, to me the history of the period covered by my
life since 1829 is particularly interesting. I do not think
that those who do me the honor of reading this narrative will
say that I am prejudiced when I assert that while this period
has not been great in Art and Letters, from a material,
scientific, and industrial standpoint it has been the most won
derful epoch in all the world's history.
About the period of my birth General Andrew Jackson
was first elected President of the United States. Jackson
to me has always been an interesting character. Theodore
Roosevelt has declared very little respect for him, and has
written deprecatingly — I might say, even abusively — of
him. But the truth is, there were never two Presidents in
the White House who, in many respects, resembled each
other more nearly than Jackson and Roosevelt.
Jackson was sixty-one years old when elected President — ¦
an unusually old man to be elected to that high oifice; and
ix

X FOREWORD
he had served his country during the War of the Revolution.
When I consider this the thought occurs to me. How young
as a Nation we are, after aU. Why, I date almost back to
the Revolution! President Taft jocularly remarked to me
recently: "Here's my old friend. Uncle Shelby. He
comes nearer connecting the present with the days of Wash
ington than any one whom I know." And I suppose there
are few men in public life whose careers extend farther into
the past than mine.
During my early life the survivors of the Revolutionary
War, to say nothing of the War of 1812, were very numer
ous and abundantly in evidence. Up to that time, no man
who had not served his country in some capacity in the Revo
lutionary War had been elevated to the Presidency, and this
was the case until the year 1843.
During the year 1829 the crown of Great Britain de
scended from King George IV to King WiUiam IV. That
reign passed away, and I have lived to see the long reign of
Victoria come and go, the reign of Edward VII come and
go, and the accession of King George V. Charles X ruled
in France, Francis I in Austria (the reign of Francis Joseph
had not yet begun), Frederick William III in Prussia,
Nicholas I in Russia; while Leo XII governed the Papal
States, the Kingdom of Italy not yet having come into ex
istence. The (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire
land had not yet a population of 24,000,000, all told.
From the dawn of this epoch may well date the practical
beginning of a long cycle of political and intellectual up
heaval, and the readjustment of relations which go to make
up world-history, arriving at a culmination in our great
Civil War.
In the last half -century — nay, I might say, within the
last two decades — there has been a mighty impulse in the di-

FOREWORD

XI

rection of scientific investigation, of mechanical invention, of
preventive medicine, of economic improvement, and the like.
Germany, in some respects, has led, but our own country has
not been far behind. Independent research has been won
derfully productive, and rivalry has been keen. Often the
mere suggestion of one scientist has been taken up and elabo
rated (or discredited) by other scientists; the idea of one in
ventor has been seized upon and bettered, or possibly proved
valueless, by other inventors. The paths to the remote and
inaccessible have been toiled over by rival explorers; new
records have been made by rival aviators; while competitive
and cooperative activities in every hne have known a phe
nomenal growth. New names have been placed in the Pan
theon of the immortals, new planets discovered in the solar
system, new stars added to the clear skies of our nightly
vision. Out of all the striving has come a sweeping advance
in hngual requirements. In most departments of Science,
Art, and Manufacture, the processes and methods of to-day
are not those of yesterday, and the doers of new things have
freely coined new words or given new meanings to old ones.
The most complete and exhaustive encyclopsedia of yester
day is to-day found not entirely adequate to the already in
creased wants. Upon all these momentous factors must
these "Recollections," in one way or another, touch from
time to time. Shelby M. Cullom.
Washington, D. C.
July, 1911.

FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC
SERVICE CHAPTER I
BIETH TO ADMISSION TO THE BAE
1829 TO 1855
TIDES of migration set in about the close of the Revo
lutionary War, originating in the most populous of
the late Colonies (now States) , debouching from the western
slopes of the mountain border-passes into the headwaters of
Kentucky's rivers, and mingling at last in the fertile val
leys through which those rivers, in their lower reaches, find
an outlet into the Ohio.
The westward flowing current brought with it two fam
ilies — the Culloms of Maryland, and the Coffeys of North
Carolina — who settled in a beautiful vaUey, not far from
the banks of the Cumberland, which bore the euphonious
name of Elk Spring Valley. Richard Northcraft Cullom,
of the first-named family, married Elizabeth Coffey. They
remained in Kentucky until seven children had been born to
them, I being the seventh, the date of my birth occurring on
the twenty-second day of November, 1829. We were a
large family, but not extraordinarily numerous for those
times, there being five brothers and seven sisters.
Kentucky was a Slave State, and my father did not be-
1

2 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
lieve in slavery. He was only fairly well to do, and after
considering the situation he determined to seek a home m a
Free State and live there to the end of his days.
A treaty with the Indians in 1784, at Fort Stanwix, had
secured from the Iroquois all claims to the lands which now
make up the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. At the
time of our removal the State of Illinois was only eleven
years old, and but a small portion of it had any considerable
settlements. These were mainly in the south half of the
State. Chicago was then a small village. Fort Dearborn
being at that time of more consequence than the village.
Now Chicago is the second greatest city in the Union in
population and business.
My father, together with Alfred Phillips and William
Brown, his two brothers-in-law, entered land in the same
portion of the County of Tazewell, and at once, on their
arrival from Kentucky, pitched their tents and began the
erection of log cabins, in preparation for winter. Phillips
was a large, vigorous man, both in body and mind. He
was a man of the highest integrity, and soon became one
of the leading citizens of Tazewell Coimty, continuing so
until his death. WilUam Brown was a Methodist preacher,
and was a worthy example of the consistent minister of the
Gospel of Christ. He was called upon by the people for
many miles around to perform ceremonies on wedding oc
casions and, in times of sorrow, to preach at the funerals of
departed friends.
My father lived longer than either Phillips or Brown.
They both raised large families, and to-day the youngest
son of Phillips — the Hon. Isaac N. Phillips — is recog
nized as one of the able lawyers of the State, and is the
reporter of the Supreme Court of Illinois. My father was
a farmer, but he always took great interest in the affairs of

BIRTH TO ADMISSION TO THE BAR 3
the country, and especially of the State in which he hved.
He was a Whig, and beheved in Henry Clay. He took an
active part in political campaigns, and was several times a
member of the House of Representatives of the State Legis
lature, and once of the State Senate.
Tazewell County, in which he resided, became a very strong
Whig county, the Whigs having their own way until the
Free-soil party, which soon became the Republican party,
took its place as against the Democratic party. When that
time came, Tazewell, hke Sangamon, became Democratic.
Sangamon County, in which I live, and Tazewell County, in
which I was raised, were both strong Whig counties while
the Whig party survived; but when it died, the population
being largely from Kentucky and other Southern States,
naturally sympathized with the South on the question of
slavery. They drifted into the Democratic party in large
numbers, and gave the control to the Democracy for a time ;
and the two parties still struggle for control in both counties.
My father became well acquainted with Abraham Lincoln
while the latter was a young man. The first time I even
heard of Lincoln, was when two men came to my father's)
house to consult with him on the question of employing an
attorney to attend to a law case for them at the approaching
term of the Circuit Court. I remember hearing my father
say to them that if Judge Stephen T. Logan should be in
attendance at court, they should employ him; but if he
were not, a young man named Lincoln would be there, who
would do just about as well. Readers will see by this that
while Lincoln was yet a young man he was ranked among
the foremost lawyers at the Bar. At that time Stephen A.
Douglas was beginning to be heard from.
Judge Logan was one of the best lawyers of the Missis
sippi Valley. He was a Kentuckian by birth, and, as a

4 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
lawyer, was a very great man. Douglas was a great states
man and a leader of men ; a great debater, but, in my opinion,
not a great lawyer. The law is a jealous mistress ; there are
no great lawyers who do not give undivided attention to its
study, and Douglas devoted much time to pubHc affairs.
On the arrival of my father at the grove where he had
previously determined to locate his family, he pitched his tent
near a httle stream, then called Mud Creek, afterwards called
Deer Creek, because it was a great resort for wild deer.
He soon erected a log cabin and moved into it with his
family. I was less than one year old when the family located
in lUinois. We lived in the cabin for several years. It was
not a single cabin, but there were two cabins connected to
gether by a covered porch; which was a very pleasant ar
rangement in both summer and winter.
Finally, my father built a frame house. During all this
time the wild deer were numerous, and often I have counted
from the door from five to twenty deer feeding in a slough
\ not a quarter of a mile away.
? I never kiUed a deer. The beautiful animals always
tseemed to me so innocent that I had not the heart to shoot
jthem.
/ The Winter of 1830-31 was long remembered by the early
settlers of Illinois, and of aU the now so-called Middle States,
as the "winter of the deep snow." For months it was im
possible to pass from one community to another in the
country. My education was obtained at the local schools and at the
seminary at Mount Morris two hundred miles distant from
my father's home.
In my boyhood years there were no confimon schools.
There were only such schools in the country as the people by

BIRTH TO ADMISSION TO THE BAR 5
subscription saw proper to provide. The schoolhouse in the
neighborhood in which I lived was built of logs, covered
with thick boards, and supphed with rude benches on its
puncheon floor for the scholars to sit upon. We sat bolt up
right, there being nothing to lean against. There were no
desks for our books ; and had desks been obtainable there were
but few books to use or to care for. We boys whispered to
the girls at our peril; but we took the risk occasionally.
It was my duty as a school-boy, after doing the chores and
work inseparable from farm life, to walk every morning a
long distance over rough country roads to school. After I
had attained to a fair common-school education, I concluded
that I could teach a country school, and was employed to
teach in the neighborhood; first for three months at eighteen
dollars per month, and then for a second term of three
months at twenty. I think I have a right to assume that I
did well as a teacher, since the patrons raised my wages for
the second term two dollars per month.
My efforts in teaching school did not secure sufiicient funds
to enable me to remain at school away from home very long,
and I determined to try another plan. My father had five
yoke of oxen. I prevailed on him to lend them to me. I
obtained a plough which cut a furrow eighteen to twenty
inches wide, and with the oxen and plough I broke prairie for
some months. I thereby secured sufiicient money, with the
additional sums which I made from the institution at Mount
Morris at odd times, to enable me to remain at the Mount
Morris Seminary for two years.
I never shall forget the journey from my home in Taze
well County to Mount Morris, when I first left home to enter
the school. As it well illustrates the difficulties and hardships
of travel in those early days in Illinois, I may be pardoned
for giving it somewhat in detail.

6 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
It was in the Spring of the year. My father started with
me on horseback from my home in TazeweU County to
Peoria, a distance of fifteen miles. A sudden freeze had
taken place after the frost had gone out of the ground, and
this had caused an icy crust to form over the mud, but not
of sufiicient strength to bear the weight of a horse, whose
hoofs would constantly break through. Whereupon I dis
mounted and told father that he had better take the horses
back home, and that I would go to Peoria on foot, which
I did. The weather was cold, and I was certainly used up when
I arrived in Peoria. I went to bed, departing early the fol
lowing morning, by steamer, for Peru, a distance of twenty-
five miles. From there I took the stage-coach to Dixon, a
distance of twelve miles.
There came up another storm during the journey from
Peru to Dixon, and the driver of the stage-coach lost his way
and could not keep in the road. I ran along in front of the
coach most of the way, in order to keep it in the road, the
horses following me. From Dixon I crossed the river, pro
ceeding to Mount Morris by private conveyance. I never
had a more severe trip, and I felt its effects for very many
years afterwards.
The days I spent in old Mount Morris Seminary were the
pleasantest of my hfe. I was just at the age which might be
termed the formative period of a young man's career. Had
I been surrounded then by other companions, by other en
vironment, my whole future might have been entirely differ
ent. Judged by the standard of the great Eastern institu
tions. Mount Morris was not even a third-class college ; but it
was a good school, attended by young men of an unusually
high order. In those early days it was the leading institution
of higher learning in Northern Illinois. I enjoyed Mount

BIRTH TO ADMISSION TO THE BAR 7
Morris, and the friendships formed there continued through
out my hfe.
I do not know whether I was a popular student or not, but
I was president of the Amphictyon Society, and, according
to the usual custom, was to deliver the address on retiring
from the presidency. During the course of the address I
fainted and was carried from the chapel, which 'was very hot
and very crowded. I was rolled around in the snow a while
and speedily revived. I was immediately asked to let one of
the boys read the remainder of the address, but the heroic
treatment to which I had been subjected stirred me to pro
fane indifference respecting its fate. Later I was selected
to dehver the valedictory. So I suppose I must have enjoyed
a reasonable degree of popularity among my fellow students.
It was at Mount Morris that I first became intimate with
the late Robert R. Hitt. He and his brother John, who re
cently died, were classmates of mine, their father being the
resident Methodist preacher at Mount Morris. Robert R.
Hitt remained my friend from our school days until his death.
He was a candidate for the Senate against me at one time,
but he was no politician, and I defeated him so easily that he
could not harbor a bitter f eehng against me. He was quite
a character, and enjoyed a long and distinguished public
career in Illinois. One of the early shorthand reporters of
the State, the reporter of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, he
became intimate with Lincoln, and Lincoln was very fond of
him. He filled numerous important positions at home and
abroad, and married a most beautiful lady, who still survives.
He was later appointed Secretary of Legation at Paris.
Bob Hitt told me that he asked President Grant for the
appointment, and the President at once said that he would
give it to him. Washburne, who had been Secretary of State
for a few days, and who was then minister at Paris, was much

8 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
astonished when Hitt appeared and said that he had been ap
pointed Secretary of Legation. Mr. Washburne denounced
both President Grant and Secretary of State Fish for ap
pointing anybody to fill such an intimate position without his
consent. Ambassadors and ministers, however, are not consulted as
to who shall be appointed secretaries. These appointments
are made by the President, by and with the advice and con
sent of the Senate ; but Mr. Washburne, as usual, thought
that he was a bigger man than any one else, and that an ex
ception should have been made in his case. But, when offi
cially informed of the appointment, he submitted gracefully,
and they got along together quite amicably. Strange to say,
Hitt represented Washburne's old district in Congress for a
number of years — many more years than Washburne him
self represented it.
It was as a member of Congress that Mr. Hitt distin
guished himself. He did what every man should do who ex
pects to make a reputation as a national legislator ; and that
is to speciahze, to become an expert in some particular branch.
He was peculiarly fitted for foreign affairs. He was a man
of education and culture, a student always, had served abroad
for years, had mingled in the highest society, and it is not
strange that in a comparatively few years he was recognized
as the leading authority on all matters coming before the
House pertaining to our foreign relations.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the House is not nearly
so important a committee as the Foreign Relations Commit
tee of the Senate, and I may be pardoned for saying this, as
I am chairman of the latter committee myself.
The reason is this : The Constitution provides that treaties
shall be made only with the advice and consent of the Senate;
hence it is that all such treaties, and consequently the foreign

BIRTH TO ADMISSION TO THE BAR 9
policy of the general Government, must pass the scrutiny of
the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate while the
House and its committees have nothing whatever to do with
them. But nevertheless of all the House committees, that of
Foreign Affairs is at times the foremost, and it never had an
abler chairman than Robert R. Hitt. He was certainly in
the most remarkable degree what might be termed a special
ist in legislation. He gave but scant attention to any other
branch of legislation. He had little time or liking for the
tariff, finance, appropriations, or for any branch of legisla
tion that failed to come within his own especial province. He
was, in fact, so indifferent to the general business of the
House that he told me one day that he did not even take the
trouble to select a regular seat ; that when any question came
up in which he was interested he would talk from the seat of
some absent colleague. Hence it was that he was seldom
seen on the floor of the House except when some question
was raised concerning our foreign relations ; at which time he
was immediately sent for. And it is only justice to him to
say that he was the only man in the House in his time, and no
one has since appeared there, who could so successfully de
fend or attack the pohcy of an administration concerning its
foreign affairs.
The late Senator Morgan of Alabama, a most extraordi
nary character, of whom I shall have something to say later,
and Robert R. Hitt and myself were appointed members of
a commission to frame a form of government for the Terri
tory of Hawaii, which we had just acquired. We travelled
to Hawaii together. No two more delightful, entertaining,
or interesting men could be found. They are both dead, and
it was my sad privilege to eulogize their pubhc achievements
in the Senate.

10 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
In what I am writing from time to time, now, as the months
and years go by, when I have the leisure from my public
duties to devote to it, and without knowing whether what I
am writing will ever be published, I do not want to eulogize
any one. If what I say about men and events shall offend
their friends living, I can not help it. I want only to give
my own estimate of the men whom I have known. Robert
R. Hitt was a good man; his honesty and uprightness were
never questioned; he never did a great deal for his district;
but he was one of the most useful legislators in his own line —
foreign affairs — whom I have ever known during my service
in Congress. I think this is a fair and just estimate of him.
But to return to Mount Morris, Professor D. J. Pinckney
was president of the Seminary when I was a student there.
He knew my father intimately, and naturally took more than
ordinary interest in me. When I became ill at school, he
took me into his own home and kept me there for a month or
more, treating me with the greatest kindness and consid
eration. Years after I left the institution he became interested in
politics, and ran as an independent for Congress against
Horatio C. Burchard, Republican (who was, by the way, a
very excellent man and my friend), Burchard defeated;
him. When the campaign was on I was invited to go to
Galena and make a speech for Mr. Burchard. It never oc
curred to me at the time that I was going into Pinckney'ss
district; but when I discovered the truth, I could not very
well back out. I made my speech, but was careful not to
say a word against Professor Pinckney, simply advocating
the election of Mr. Burchard as a good Republican. Profes
sor Pinckney, however, took great offence, and was very cold
toward me from that time until his death. I felt that he had

BIRTH TO ADMISSION TO THE BAR n
been misled, that it would all come right, and that some day
I would have a plain talk with him; but he died before we
ever got together. He has a son now Hving in Chicago, a
prominent circuit judge of Cook County.
Among other classmates of mine at Mount Morris, was the
late General John A. Rawhns, who became a distinguished
officer and was General Grant's chief of staff. No better,
no truer, man ever lived than General Rawlins. He was es
sentially a good man and never had a bad habit.
Rawhns was a Democrat, and a strong one, during his
school days, and I believe that he remained one until the Civil
War. Robert Hitt and his brother John, together with
Rawlins and myself, formed a sort of four-in-hand, and
we were very intimate. We would take part in the discus
sions in our society, and Rawhns was especially strong when
a political question was raised. I have heard him, during his
school days, make speeches that would have done credit to a
statesman. He would have done himself and country credit
in any civil office. He served as Secretary of War a few
months. Like so many others who entered the war without
the shghtest military training, he came out of it with a bril-
Hant record as an officer and soldier.
Judge Moses Hallett, a United States judge, retired, of
Colorado, was another classmate of mine. He was an excep
tionally good man, and developed into a very able lawyer and
judge. He is still hving, and has become quite wealthy
through fortunate real-estate investments in the vicinity of
Denver. But I fear I might tire the reader by dwelling longer on
my school life at Mount Morris. To look back over those
happy early days is interesting to me ; but it is sad to think
how few, how very few, of my schoolmates, then just begin
ning the journey of life, with aU the enthusiasm and hope of

12 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
youth, are living to-d^y. They soon scattered, some to one
vocation, some to another; some to achieve distinction and
fame, some failure; but certain it is that I know of very few
who are now hving.
My health was impaired when I left school, and I returned
home to work on the farm. Soon I became strong again, but
the labor was so arduous and uncongenial that I determined
upon a change: if there was any other way of making an
honest living, I would try to find it.
In the meantime I had leased a farm of one hundred and
sixty acres from my father. When Spring came I told him
that I wanted to be released from my contract; that I had
dehberately come to the conclusion that I could make my
hving some other way — that I intended to study law. My
father did not hesitate to reheve me of my obhgations, and in
the succeeding October, 1853, I started for Springfield to
enter upon the study of law. I consulted with Abraham
Lincoln, and on his advice I entered the law offices of Stuart
and Edwards, both of whom were Whigs and friends of my
father. They were both very good men and distinguished
lawyers. At that time Abraham Lincohi and Stephen T. Logan and
Stuart and Edwards were the four ablest lawyers of the
capital city. I studied two years ia the offices of Stuart and
Edwards, pursuing the usual hfe of a law student in a coun
try law office, and was admitted to the Bar in 1855, and
elected City Attorney the same year.
Meanwhile, however, I had been iU of typhoid fever for
several months. During the period of my convalescence I
was advised to return to my home in the comitry and spend
much time riding horseback. I did so, but the time seemed
to drag, and finally I went to the city of Peoria to learn

BIRTH TO ADMISSION TO THE BAR 13
whether I could direct my restorative exercise to an ad
ditional profitable end. The result was that for several
ensuing weeks I rode about the countryside, buying hogs
for Ting & Brotherson; at the expiration of which time
I had regained my health, was richer by about five hundred
doUars, and was thus enabled to return at once to Springfield
and take up again my interrupted studies.
Having been inducted into the office of City Attorney,
I was fairly launched upon a pohtical career, exceeding in
length of unbroken service that of any other pubhc man in
the country's history. In fact I never accepted but two
executive appointments: the first was an unsought appoint
ment by Abraham Lincoln, after he had become the central
figure of his time, if not of all time; and, second, an ap
pointment from President McKinley as chairman of the
Hawaiian Commission.

CHAPTER II
SERVICE AS CITY ATTORNEY AT SPRINGFIELD
1855 AND 1856
MY election as City Attorney of Springfield signahzed
at once my active interest in pohtics at the very mo
ment when the war cloud was beginning to take shape in
the pohtical heavens — a portentous cloud, but recognized as
such at that time by comparatively few of the thinking peo
ple. It had seemed certain for years that a struggle was
sure to come. Being a very young man, I suppose I did
not reahze the horrors of a civil war, but I watched with
keen interest the signs of dissolution in pohtical parties, and
realignments in party ties.
In 1854 the country seemed on the verge of a war with
Spain over Cuba which happily was averted. The Black
Warrior had been seized in Havana Harbor, and the ex
citement throughout the country when Congress prepared
to suspend the neutrahty laws between the United States and
Spain was intense.
It was about this time also that the famous Ostend mani
festo was issued without authority from any one. The
American representatives at the Courts of England, France,
and Spain met at Ostend to confer on the best method of
settling the difficulties concerning Cuba and obtaining pos
session of the island. They issued a manifesto in which
they recommended that Cuba should be purchased if possible,
faihng which that it should be taken by force:
14

CITY ATTORNEY AT SPRINGFIELD 15
"If Spain, actuated by stubborn pride and a false sense of honor,
should refuse to sell Cuba to the United States, then by every law, hu
man and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain, if we
possess the power."
The Ostend manifesto was repudiated; but it is certain
that we would have then intervened in favor of freeing Cuba,
had it not been for the dark war clouds which were so quickly
gathering over our own country.
Among the other vital conditions which helped to keep
the country's interest and attention divided at this critical
time was the Missouri Compromise repeal. May 30, 1855.
This repeahng act early began to bear political fruit. Al
ready treaties had been made with half a score of the Indian
Nations in Kansas, by which the greater part of the soil for
two hundred miles west was opened. Settlers, principaUy
from Missouri, immediately began to flock in, and with the
first attempt to hold an election a bloody epoch set in for
that region between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery fac
tions, fanned by attempts in Massachusetts and other East
ern States to make of Kansas a Free State.
By methods of intimidation, Whitfield, a slave-holder,
was elected the first delegate to Congress. At a second elec
tion thirteen State Senators and twenty-six members of a
Lower House were declared elected. For this purpose
6,320 votes were cast — more than twice the number of legal
voters. Foreign affairs other than Spain's unfriendly activities
also had a share in distractmg attention. The United States
paid Mexico ten miUion doUars to be free of the Guadalupe
Hidalgo obhgation to defend the Mexican frontier against
the Indians.
My first experience after I was elected City Attorney, was
to prosecute persons charged with violating the ordinances

16 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
prohibiting the sale of intoxicating hquors. One of my
preceptors, the Hon. Benjamin S. Edwards, was a very
strong and earnest temperance man. He volunteered to
assist me in the prosecution of what we caUed "hquor cases."
The fact is that for a time he took charge of the cases, and I
assisted him. Life was made a burden to violators of hquor
ordinances that year in Springfield.
The following year, 1856, was a Presidential year. I
was chosen as an elector on what was called the "Fillmore
Ticket." I did not at that time beheve very strongly in
Fremont for President. During the same year, I was
nominated as a candidate for the House of Representatives
of the Ilhnois Legislature, and was supported by both the
Fillmore party and the Free-soil party and thus elected.
The House of Representatives of the Legislature of 1856
was so close that if aU the members who had not been elected
as Democrats united, they had one majority. If any one
of them went to the Democrats, the Democrats would have
the control. One of the men elected on the Fillmore ticket
went over, thus giving the Democracy the coveted one neces
sary. The Repubhcans, or as they were then called, Free-
soilers, attempted to organize the House by recognizing the
clerk of the previous House, who was a Free-soiler, it then
being the custom to have the clerk call the House to order
and preside until a temporary organization was perfected.
The Democrats refused to recognize the clerk whom the op
position recognized. The Democrats declared by vote the
election of a temporary chairman, nominated and elected a
sergeant-at-arms and a deputy, and ordered the two latter
officers to carry the clerk out of the haU; which was promptly
done at the expense of a good suit of clothes to the clerk,
who departed reluctantly. This was my first experience in
legislation.

SHELBY M. CULLOM

Wliile a l;i\v student

CITY ATTORNEY AT SPRINGFIELD 17
A careful reading of the annals of the State of Ilhnois
wiU show that this incident is by no means unique in its
history. To go back a few years, when Edward Coles, who had
been private secretary to President Madison, was elected
Governor, it was by a mere plurahty vote over his highest
competitor, and — to use the language of former Governor
Ford — he was so unfortunate as to have a majority of the
Legislature against him during his whole term of service.
The election had taken place soon after the settlement of the
Missouri question. The Ilhnois Senators had voted for the
admission of Missouri as a Slave State, while her only Rep
resentative in the Lower House voted against it. This aU
helped to keep ahve some questions for or against the intro
duction of slavery.
About this time, also, a tide of immigrants was pouring
into Missouri through Ilhnois, from Virginia and Kentucky.
In the FaU of the year, every great road was crowded with
them, aU bound for Missouri, with their money and long
trains of teams and negroes. These were the most wealthy
and best educated immigrants from the Slave States. Many
people who had land and farms to seU, looked upon the
good fortune of Missouri with envy; whilst the lordly im
migrant, as he passed along with his money and droves of
negroes, took a malicious pleasure in increasing it by pre
tending to regret the short-sighted policy of lUinois, which
excluded him from settlement, and from purchasing and
holding lands.
In this mode a desire to make Ilhnois a Slave State be
came quite prevalent. Many persons had voted for Brown
or PhiUips with this view, whilst the friends of a Free State
had ralhed almost in a body for Coles.
Notwithstanding the defeat of the Democrats at this elec-

18 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
tion, they were not annihilated. They had been beaten for
Governor only by a division ni their own ranks, whilst they
had elected a large majority of each House of the Assembly,
and were determined to make a vigorous effort to carry their,
measure at the session of the Legislature to be held in
1822-23. Governor Coles, in his first message, recom
mended the emancipation of the French slaves. This served
as the spark to kindle into activity aU the elements in favor
of slavery.
Slavery could not be introduced, nor was it beheved that
the French slaves could be emancipated, without an amend
ment to the Constitution; the Constitution could not be
amended without a new convention, to obtain which two-
thirds of each branch of the Legislature had to concur in
recommending it to the people; and the voters, at the next
election, had to sanction it by a majority of aU the votes
given f or* members of the Legislature.
When the Legislature assembled, it was found that the
Senate contained the requisite two-thirds majority; but in
the House of Representatives, by deciding a contested elec
tion m favor of one of the candidates, the Slave party would
have one more than two-thirds, while by deciding in favor
of the other, they would lack one vote of having the ma
jority. These two candidates were John Shaw and Nicholas
Hanson, who claimed to represent the County of Pike, which
then included aU the mihtary tract and aU the country north
of the Illinois River to the northern limits of the State.
The leaders of the Slave party were anxious to reelect
Jesse B. Thomas to the United States Senate. Hanson
would vote for him, but Shaw would not; Shaw would vote
for the convention, but Hanson would not. The party had
use for both of them, and they determined to use them both,
one after the other. For this purpose, they first decided in

CITY ATTORNEY AT SPRINGFIELD 19
favor of Hanson, admitted him to a seat, and with his vote
elected their United States Senator; and then, toward the
close of the session, with mere brute force, and in the most
barefaced manner, they reconsidered their former vote,
turned Hanson out of his seat, and decided in favor of
Shaw, and with his vote carried their resolution for a con
vention. There immediately resulted a very fierce contest before
the people, characterized by lavish detraction and personal
abuse — one of the most bitter, prolonged, and memorable in
the history of the State — and the question of making
Ilhnois permanently a Slave State was put to rest by a
majority of about two thousand votes. The census of 1850
was the first that enumerated no slaves in our State.
In this connection I cannot avoid giving a httle account of
Frederick Adolphus Hubbard, who was Lieutenant-Gov
ernor when Coles was Governor. Hubbard seemed to be a
very ignorant man, but ambitious to become Governor of
the State, or to attain some other position that would give
him reputation.
"It is related of him that while engaged in the trial of a lawsuit,
involving the title to a certain mill owned by Joseph Duncan [who after
wards became Governor], the opposing counsel, David J. Baker, then
recently from New England, had quoted from Johnson's New York
Reports a case strongly against Hubbard's side. Reading reports of
the decisions of courts before juries was a new thing in those days;
and Hubbard, to evade the force of the authority as a precedent, coolly
informed the jury that Johnson was a Yankee clock-peddler, who had
been perambulating up and down the country gathering up rumors and
floating stories against the people of the West, and had them published
in a book under the name of 'Johnson's Reports.' He indignantly Re
pudiated the book as authority in Illinois, and clinched the argument
by adding: 'Gentlemen of the jury, I am sure you will not believe

20 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
anything that comes from that source; and besides that, what did this
Johnson know about Duncan's mill anyhow ? ' " ^
Hubbard, in 1826, became a candidate for Governor of
Ilhnois. He canvassed the State, and the following is a
sample of his speeches, recorded by Ford :
"Fellow-citizens, I offer myself as a candidate before you for the of
fice of Governor. I do not pretend to be a man of extraordinary tal
ents, nor do I claim to be equal to Julius Caesar or Napoleon Bona
parte, nor yet to be as great a man as my opponent, Governor Edwards.
Nevertheless I think I can govern you pretty well. I do not think it
will require a very extraordinary smart man to govern you; for to tell
you the truth, fellow-citizens, I do not believe you will be very hard to
govern, nohow." ^
In 1825, Governor Coles notified Lieutenant-Governor
Hubbard that he had occasion to leave the State for a time
and required the latter to take charge of affairs. Hubbard
did so, and when Governor Coles returned Hubbard de
clined to give up the office, asserting that the Governor had
vacated it. He based his contention upon that clause of the
Constitution which provided that the Lieutenant-Governor
should exercise all the power and authority appertaining
to the office of Governor, in case of the latter's absence from
the State, until the time provided by the Constitution
for the election of Governor should arrive. He claimed that
the Governor had vacated the office until the time of the
election of a new Governor, and declined to surrender. The
result was, the Governor had to get a decision of the Su
preme Court, which was to the effect that there was no
ground on which to award the writ. Coles was obhged to
submit, but not until he had appealed to the Legislature,
where his contention was equally unsuccessful.
At one time, after repeated and annoying apphcation, ',
1 Moses, page 334. 2 Ford, page 61.

CITY ATTORNEY AT SPRINGFIELD 21
Hubbard obtained from Governor Edwards what he had
reason to beheve was a recommendation for a certain office.
He became a Uttle suspicious that the letter was not
very strong in his behalf, and in speaking of it afterwards,
in his hsping manner, said: "Contrary to the uthage amongst
gentlemen, he thealed it up; and contrary to the uthage
amongst gentlemen, I broke it open ; and what do you think
I found? Instead of recommending me, the old rathcal
abuthed me like a pickpocket."

CHAPTER III
ELECTION TO THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE: LINCOLN-DOUGLAS
DEBATES
1856 TO 1858
IN the year 1856 I had rather unusual experiences of both
victory and defeat in one and the same pohtical cam
paign. As candidate for the Legislature I won out, being
elected; as the chosen elector on the Filhnore ticket, I went
down in the party's defeat. The Whig party was in its ex
piring days, and what was called the "Know-Nothing".;
party was apparently a temporary substitute for it. Fill
more carried one sohtary State — Maryland. Buchanan
was elected by quite a large majority over both Fremont and
FiUmore combined.
The administration of President Buchanan has been so
frequently and fully described that there is little, if any
thing, new to say about it; but such were the fearful re
sponsibilities incurred by it for the subsequent bloodshed, that
its shortcomings cannot be entirely ignored in the inteUigible
presentation of the course of events which gave direction to
my observations and activities.
The campaign of 1856 had been one of the most exciting
and hotly contested ever fought in the State. The only*
hope the Democrats had of success was in the division of
their opponents and in preventing their fusion. Their
denunciations of abohtionists and "Black Repubhcans," as
they termed their antagonists, were without bounds. But
22

ELECTION TO ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE 23
here and there some one would be caUed to account, as in the
case of the late John M. Pahner, since distinguished in war
and peace, and some years ago candidate of the Gold Demo
crats for the Presidency.
Between him and Major Harris, then running for Con
gress in his district, there had been considerable ill-feeling.
The major had written a letter to be read at a Democratic
meeting at which Palmer was present. It was very abusive
of the Repubhcans, and Pahner rising, remarked that the
author would not dare make such charges to the face of
any honest man. Harris, as related by the historian Moses,
hearing of this, announced that he would resent it at the
first opportunity. This Palmer soon gave him by attend
ing one of his meetings. The major in the course of his
remarks indulged in the most vituperative language against
abolitionists, caUing them disturbers of the peace, incen
diaries, and falsifiers; and at length, turning to Pahner and
pointing his finger at him, said, "I mean you, sir!" Palmer
rising to his feet, mstantly rephed, "WeU, sir, if you apply
that language to me you are a dastardly har!" And draw
ing a pistol, he started toward the speaker's stand. "Now,
sir," he continued, "when you get through, I propose to re
ply to you." The major had not anticipated this turn of
I affairs, but prudently kept his temper and finished his
speech. Then Palmer arose and, laying his weapon be
fore him, cocked, proceeded to give the Democratic party
such a castigation as none of those present had ever heard
; before. It was in the campaign of 1856 that I first began to make
pohtical speeches. James H. Matheny, who was then our
circuit clerk, accompanied me to several meetings where we
'both delivered addresses. He was an old Whig inclined to
ward Democracy, and I was a Whig inchned toward Repub-

24 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
hcanism. The result was I made Repubhcan speeches,
while Judge Matheny made Democratic speeches.
Our first meeting away from home was at Petersburg,
Menard County. Being a candidate for elector on the Fill
more ticket, I made my first away-from-home speech, which
I thought was a pretty good Repubhcan speech. Matheny
followed me with a hot Democratic speech, attacking
especiaUy Judge TrumbuU, then our United States Senator.
I remained pretty steadily in .the campaign of that year,
making about the same character of speech wherever I went.
Fillmore was very popular in Central Illinois, where the
Whig party also had quite a large foUowing during its
pahny days, but he did not receive votes enough to come
anywhere near carrying the State. Sangamon, my home
county, and TazeweU County, where I was brought up, both
gave their majority votes for Fillmore.
The Hon. John T. Stuart and his partner, the Hon. B.
S. Edwards, with whom I studied law, besides being able
lawyers and first-class men, were both Whigs ; Mr. Stuart es
pecially took an active part in the campaign. The latter was
invited to attend what was caUed a Fillmore meeting at Shel-
byville, several counties away from Sangamon. It so hap
pened that he could not go, and the people of ShelbyviUe
telegraphed for me. I went, and it turned out to be a com
bined Fremont, Buchanan, and FiUmore meeting — at least,
the three meetings there were held all on the same day.
The Fillmore camp gathered its forces out in the woods
untU about two o'clock in the afternoon. The Buchanan and
Fremont crowds then marched in, informing the first-comers
that they regarded their right to have the first meeting pre
eminent. An agreement was arrived at after some littlf
wranghng, and old General Thornton was chosen to presidf
He determined that, as I was not only a young man but the

ELECTION TO ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE 25
farthest from home, I should make the first speech — an ar
rangement which suited me very well.
I made my speech, as good a one as I could, and in closing,
somewhat hurriedly announced that I was obhged to leave for
home, much as I might wish to remain with them to the close
of the meeting. The result was that most of the Fillmore
people f oUowed me away and came nearly breaking up the
whole performance. I urged them to go back and hsten
to the other speakers ; but they dechned to do so until I had
gotten off for home. It was my first venture at speech-
making away from home on national issues.
I worked and voted for Fillmore because I had a very
high opinion of him as a good man, and did not then think
very much of Fremont as a proper candidate for the Presi
dency. Subsequently Fremont became better known, and
occupied a high place in the estimation of the people of the
United States, as a gallant soldier and a statesman, enjoy
ing the unique honor of having been the first candidate of
the Republican party for President.
I have taken an active part in every campaign since 1856,
excepting when poor health prevented a regular speaking
campaign. The animosities of the campaign of 1856 were carried into
the Legislature and kept ahve in the House during the en
tire session. Governor Bissell's inaugural address was a
dignified State paper in which he referred to the adminis
tration of his predecessor in highly complimentary terms.
He concurred in all his recommendations, but suggested no
measures of his own. Although he had commented briefly
upon the Kansas-Nebraska controversy, and in mild terms,
his remarks stirred the ire of the Democrats. Upon the mo
tion to print the address, a virulent attack was made upon
hhn, led, strange to say, by John A. Logan, afterwards the

26 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
foremost volunteer general of the Union, and a Republican
of Republicans. The rancor of the Democrats against
Governor Bissell, who at that time was a physical wreck
from a stroke of paralysis, though mentally sound, was
largely due to their recollection of the fearless manner in
which he had responded, some years before, to a challenge
given him by Jefferson Davis to a duel. That episode has
long since become historic, and I need not enlarge upon it
here. As was the political temper in the State of Illinois, so
was it, to a greater or less degree, throughout the entire
Nation. Buchanan's first message repeated the assurance that the
discussion of slavery had come to an end. The clergy were
criticised for fomenting prevalent disturbances. The Presi
dent declared in favor of the admission of Kansas, with a
Constitution agreeable to a majority of the settlers. He
also referred to an impending decision of the Supreme
Court, with which he had been made acquainted, and asked
acquiescence in it. This was Judge Taney's decision in the
Dred Scott case, rendered two days after Buchanan's inau
guration. An action had been begun in the Circuit Court in Mis
souri by Scott, a negro, for the freedom of himself and
children. He claimed that he had been removed by his
master in 1834 to lUinois, a Free State, and afterwards
taken into territory north of the compromise hne. San-
ford, his master, replied that Scott was not a citizen of Mis
souri, and could not bring an action, and that he and his
children were Sanford's slaves. The lower courts differed,
and the case was twice argued. The decision nullified the
Missouri restriction, or, indeed, any restriction by Congress
on slavery in the Territories. Chief -Justice Taney said:

ELECTION TO ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE 27
"The question is whether the class of persons (negroes) compose a
portion of the people, and are constituent members of this sovereignty.
We think they are not included under the word 'citizen' in the Constitu
tion, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges of that
instrument." Negroes, as a race, were at that time considered as a sub
ordinate and inferior class who had been subjugated by the
dominant whites, and had no rights or privileges except
such as those who held the power and the government might
choose to grant them. They had for more than a century
been regarded as beings of an inferior grade — so far infe
rior that they possessed no rights which the white man was
bound to respect; and the negro might justly and lawfully
be reduced to slavery for his (the white man's) benefit.
The negro race by common consent had been excluded from
civihzed governments and the family of nations, and
doomed to slavery. The unhappy black race was separated
from the whites by indelible marks long before estabhshed,
and was never thought of or spoken of except as property.
The Chief -Justice further annulled the Missouri restric
tion, by asserting that "the act of Congress which prohibited
a citizen from holding property of this kmd north of the
hne therein mentioned is not warranted by the Constitution,
and is therefore void." Benton said that it was "no longer
the exception, with freedom the rule; but slavery was the
rule, with freedom the exception."
It was a year of financial distress in America, which re
called the hard tunes of twenty years before. The United
States treasury was empty. ,
Early in this year (1856) a Legislature had met at To-
peka, Kansas, and was immediately dissolved by the United
States marshals. A Territorial Legislature also met at
Lecompton and provided for a State Constitution. The

28 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
people of Kansas utterly refused to recognize the latter body
which had been chosen by the Missouri invaders, and both
parties continued to hold their elections.
Thus it may be seen that these episodes were the culmina
tion of a long series of events leading to a new ahgnment
of the country's pohtical forces. The Republican party
was the child of this ferment of unrest. The formation of
a new political party, or the regeneration of an old one, is
always due to events, and not to the schemes and purposes
of men except as events sometimes originate in such pur
poses and schemes. In this case the steps in the course of
events which had rendered the formation of an anti-slavery
party inevitable were : the pro-slavery provisions of the Con
stitution, the foreign slave trade, the acquisition of the Ter
ritory of Louisiana, the invention of the cotton-gin and its
effects, the Missouri Compromise, the nulhfication scheme
of South Carohna, the colonization and annexation of
Texas, the Mexican War, the contest over the admission of
Cahfornia, the Compromise Measure of 1850, and finally,
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854.
The name of the party was an incident only, and not an
essential or very important incident ; its principles and pur
poses were the vital facts. When events demand a new
party, or the reorganization of an old one, all resistance is
usually borne down speedily. On the other hand, it is a
wasteful exhibition of human power to attempt the creation
of a new party by the force of combined will and resolutions
formulated in pubhc meetings. Abraham Lincoln's greater ,
experience or keener penetration, or both, guided him at
the outset of the reahgnments on political issues, and at the
opening of the Congressional campaign of 1858, I followed
him firmly and without mental reservation into the ranks of
the Repubhcan party.

ELECTION TO ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE 29
Hence it was that I was present on that historic occasion
when the Repubhcan party of the State of Illinois held a
convention at Springfield, June 17 of the year named, and
nominated Lincoln for the seat in the United States Senate,
then held by Stephen A. Douglas, who at that time was
usually affectionately referred to by his partisan f oUowers
as "The Little Giant." This nomination was anticipated,
and Mr. Lincoln had prepared a speech, which he then de-
hvered, in which he set forth, in a manner now universally
recognized as masterly, the doctrines of the Repubhcan
party. He arraigned the administration of Mr. Buchanan
and denounced the repeal of the Missouri Compromise un
der the lead of Senator Douglas. In that speech he made
the declaration, which I remember as clearly as though
an event of yesterday, then characterized as extravagant
but long since accepted as prophetic: "I believe this
Government cannot endure permanently, half slave and
half free."
That address inaugurated a discussion which has no ex
act parallel in history — certainly no equal in American
pohtical history. It introduced Mr. Lincoln to the coun
try at large, and prepared the way for his nomination to
the Presidency two years later. On the declaration above
quoted Mr. Douglas based many arguments, in vain at
tempts to prove that Mr. Lincoln was a disunionist.
During this period Douglas addressed an enthusiastic
assemblage at Chicago, and in the course of his speech ad
verted to the arraignment of hunself by Mr. Lincoln. He
took direct issue with that gentleman on his proposition that,
as to Freedom and Slavery, "the Union will become all one
thing or all the other," and maintained strenuously that "it is
neither desirable nor possible that there should be uniformity

30 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
in the local institutions and domestic regulations of the dif
ferent States of this Union."
An announcement that Mr. Lincohi would reply to Mr.
Douglas on the following evening brought out another as
semblage, July 10, which was awakened, before the speaker
had concluded, to an enthusiasm at least equal to that which
the eloquence of Douglas had aroused.
The issues involved in this famous series of debates are
too f amihar to aU students of our Nation's political history
to be considered at length in these pages. Mr. Lincoln
analyzed and answered the various arguments advanced by
Mr. Douglas the evening before; and the closing para
graphs of his reply to the insistent reminders "that this
Government was made for white men," were memorable :
"Those arguments that are made, that the inferior race are to be
treated with as much allowance as they are capable of enjoying; that
as much is to be done for them as their conditions will allow. What are
these arguments.? They are the arguments that kings have made for
enslaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all
the arguments in favor of kingcraft were of this class; they always
bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but
because the people were better off for being ridden. That is their
argument, and this argument of the Judge is the same old serpent that
says: 'You work, and I eat; you toil, and I will enjoy the fruits of it.' "
Six days thereafter, July 16, Senator Douglas in a great
speech again tried to break the force of his opponent's facts
and logic. This was at Bloomington, and Mr. Lincoln was
again a careful Hstener. On the evening foUowing, July
17, at Springfield, before an enthusiastic audience, he pro
ceeded to dissect the matters so plausibly presented.
At the same hour Douglas was addressing a Springfield
audience of his own, ridiculing especiaUy Mr. Lincoln's al
leged attitude toward the Supreme Court.

ELECTION TO ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE 31
Contrasting the disadvantages under which, by reason of
an unfair apportionment of State Legislature representa
tion and otherwise, the Repubhcans labored in that cam
paign, Mr. Lmcoln on that occasion said in the course of
his talk:
"Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anxious poli
ticians of his party, or who have been of his party for years past, have
been looking upon him as certainly, at no distant day, to be the President
of the United States. They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face,
post-offices, land-offices, marshalships, and cabinet appointments, charge-
ships and foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in wonderful
exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands. And as
they have been gazing upon this attractive picture so long, they cannot,
in the little distraction that has taken place in the party, bring them
selves to give up the charming hope; but with greedier anxiety they
rush about him, sustain him, and give him marches, triumphal entries,
and receptions, beyond what even in the days of his highest prosperity
they could have brought about in his favor. On the contrary, nobody
has ever expected me to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face, no
body has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out."
He affirmed that Popular Sovereignty, "the great sta
ple" of the Douglas campaign, was "the most arrant Quix
otism that was ever enacted before a community."
As a result of these prehminary speeches of the Congres
sional campaign it was generally conceded that, at last, the
"Little Giant" had met his match, and the intellectual and
pohtical appetites of the pubhc caUed for more. In recog
nition of this demand, Mr. Lincoln opened a correspondence
which led to an agreement with Mr. Douglas for a series of
joint discussions, seven in number, on fixed dates in August,
September, and October. Alternately they were, in suc
cession, to open the discussion and speak for an hour, with
another half -hour at the close after the other had spoken
for an hour and a half continuously. My friend and school-

32 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
mate, the late Mr. R. R. Hitt, an efficient stenographer,
was employed to report the entire series, and thus we have
a fuU record of the most remarkable debate, viewed from
all points, that has ever occurred in American history —
possibly without a parallel in the world's history. Vast as
semblages gathered from far and near and hstened with
breathless attention to these absorbingly interesting discus
sions. Notwithstanding the intense partisan feehng that was
evoked, the discussion proceeded amidst surroundings char
acterized by the utmost decorum. The people evidently felt
that the greatest of all political principles, that of human
liberty itself, was hanging on the issue of this great pohtical
contest between inteUectual giants, thus openly waged be
fore the world. They accordingly rose to the dignity and
solemnity of the occasion, as has been well said by one who
was then a zealous follower of Douglas, vindicating by their
very example the sacredness with which the right of free
speech should be regarded at all times and everywhere.
I have elsewhere described the disappointment I person
ally felt at the result, when the election returns came in.
Although the popular vote stood 125,698 for Lincoln to
121,130 for Douglas — showing a victory for Lincoln
among the people — yet enough Douglas Democrats were
elected to the Legislature, when added to those of his friends
in the Illinois Senate elected two years before and held over,
to give him fifty-four members of both branches of the Legis
lature on joint baUot, against forty-six for Mr. Lincoln.

CHAPTER IV
OTHER DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS OF THAT DAY
1858 AND 1859
MORE than four months had elapsed since Lincoln's
epoch-marking speech at Springfield had brought
on his great discussion with Douglas, when on Octo
ber 20, 1858, Governor Seward at Rochester, New York,
intensified the political inflamination of the times by saying
in a notable speech:
"These antagonistic systems (free labor and slave labor) are con
tinually coming close in contact. It is an irrepressible conflict between
opposing and enduring forces; and it means that the United States must
and will, sooner or later, become either an entirely slave-holding or en
tirely a free-labor nation."
A book written by a young Southerner, "The Impending
Crisis in the South — How to Meet It," was recommended
in a circular signed by a large number of the Repubhcan
Congressmen, and thus given a vogue and weight out of
aU proportion to the standing of the author, whose recent
death under tragic circumstances at an advanced age has
drawn the name of Hinton Rowan Helper for a brief hour
from its long obscurity.
"Dred, a Tale of the Dismal Swamp," by, the author of
"Uncle Tom's Cabin," served, if such service were at aU
needed, to keep fresh in aU civihzed lands the name of Har
riet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe. The British Museum has a
3 33

34 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
long shelf fiUed with different translations, editions, and
versions of her greatest literary work.
In the month of September Mr. Lincoln dehvered a
speech at Cincinnati, in reply to Mr. Douglas. In that
speech he addressed himself to the citizens of Kentucky, and
advocated the nomination of Mr. Douglas to the Presi
dency, upon the ground that he was more devoted to the
South than were the Southern leaders themselves, and that
he was wiser in methods for defending their rights.
This was a form of attack which Douglas had not antici
pated, and which he could neither resent nor answer. As
the event proved, the seed thus sown was to bear fruit
abundantly in results at the ensuing National Democratic
conventions, and at the Presidential election two years later.
Until June, Mr. Lincoln was unknown outside of Ilhnois
and Indiana. Judge Douglas had already taken a high
place among the able men of his time of national and inter
national reputation. In September, Lincoln's character
was understood and his ability was recognized in aU the non-
slaveholding States of the Union. His mastery over Doug
las had been complete. His logic was unanswerable, his
ridicule fatal; every position taken by him was defended suc-
cessfuUy. At the end Douglas had but one recourse. He
misstated Lincoln's positions, and then assailed them.
But Lincoln was ever on the alert to expose his oppo
nent's faUacies, and to hold up their author to the derision
or condemnation of his hearers.
Mr. Lincoln's first fame rests, therefore, on that great
debate. Judge Douglas had long been famous as an ex
perienced pohtician and an exceptionally skilful debater.
As lawyers both ranked high in their State at a time when
the bar of Illinois could boai*it of exceptionally brilliant and
able forensic talent.

OTHER DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS 35
As it is my purpose to treat of both these great men in
some detail in subsequent pages of this work, devoting at
least a fuU chapter to Mr. Lincoln, so long my admired
and never faihng friend, I shall now proceed to give some
personal recoUections concerning certain other of the dis
tinguished characters of that day, chiefly those connected
with the bar.
I knew Judge David Davis very weU. He was Circuit
Judge on our State circuit for a number of years, and until
Mr. Lincoln became President, when he was made Asso
ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
When a young lawyer Davis was a Whig; and my father,
being also a Whig, took a great interest in him, as he did
in every young lawyer he knew who became affihated with
that party. My father thought hunself justified in be-
heving that Davis would become a power in the land.
Hence he took up the young man soon after he had
settled in the practice of the law at Bloomington; and I
have heard him state that he gave Davis the first case he
ever had in Tazewell County, by advising another to employ
him. But he reenacted, on the less conspicuous forum, the
distressing experience of failure of Disraeli in his first at
tempt to address the Enghsh House of Commons. Davis
broke down in the speech he had prepared to make, to the
great mortification of my father, who had exhibited such
unusual pride and confidence as to counsel his employment
in the case. Subsequently Davis redeemed himself, as did
Disraeli, and became a most prominent and successful
lawyer. Among other interesting circumstances of his career was
that of a httle claim he had for a chent in Boston against
a merchant in Chicago. He could not collect the debt, ex-

36 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
cept by levying on a tract of land in Chicago — eighty
acres, I think. Davis reported what he had done, and his
chent manifested dissatisfaction with the result. He so
vigorously stated his disappointment to Davis, that the latter
immediately redeemed the land by taking it himself and
paying the amount of money due the chent. This tract
grew in value with the growth of Chicago until it became
worth a miUion doUars or more.
Judge Davis was a remarkably popular man on his circuit.
He was thoroughly honest, and could not endure a dishonest
man on the witness-stand or anywhere else. I remember a
man in Chicago who on one occasion filed a biU of discovery
for the purpose of finding real estate that he seemed once
to have had an interest in, and which also involved the
insertion of Judge Davis's own name, since he had himself
at one time owned the tract of land involved. The man
had lost his voice to a considerable extent, so that he had
come to be called "Whispering Smith." He became notori
ous as a successful coUector of debts, where persons had
failed and were unable to pay their debts. He had filed in
this case a biU of discovery consisting of thirty or forty
printed pages which included the names of many people
who had been found to have owned the real estate at one
time or another, among them being Judge Davis. Dis
covering this, and being entirely innocent of any complicity i
with the party who had failed, the Judge denounced Smith
in open court for the outrage of swearing to something he
did not know anything about, and practicaUy threw him out
of court.
There was an incident characteristic of his fidehty to
friendships which I thmk well worth relating. It occurred ;
when I was Governor of Illinois. I was invited by the
Agricultural Society of McLean County to dehver an ad-

OTHER DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS 37
dress, and went to Bloomington on the day designated. I
was called upon by Judge Davis, who resided there. He
was a very polite man, and asked me if he could not take me
out to the fair-ground. I told him I would be dehghted if
he would do so. He came for me with his carriage, and on
our arrival at the grounds took me to the stand, disregard
ing the prearrangements of the officials of the fair, and mtro-
duced me to the audience. In doing so he made a speech,
very comphmentary to my father, but scarcely mentioning
me at all — not more than to introduce me at the end of
his eulogistic remarks. Many of the lawyers of the town
were present. I knew them all, and they were much amused
at this unusual style of introduction. And so was I. I
knew, of course, that he was a great friend of my father,
and a great friend of mine as weU.
Judge Davis was elected to the Senate in 1877 to succeed
General Logan, and resigned his seat on the bench to accept
the position. He became quite fond of the Senate, and dur
ing his one term there he was elected president pro tempore
of the body under somewhat unusual conditions. The
Senate at that time was almost evenly divided between the
two parties. The two senators from New York, however
(both Repubhcans), and Mr. Aldrich, of Rhode Island,
had been elected by their respective Legislatures, but had
not taken their seats. This gave the Democrats a temporary
majority, and the Senate proceeded to elect Senator Bayard,
of Delaware, as its president pro tempore. Within the next
day or two, however, the two New York senators and Sen
ator Aldrich were admitted to their seats; this left a major
ity of two for the Republicans if Davis acted with them, and
the two parties tied if Davis acted with the Democrats.
Under these circmnstances. General Logan, who after being
out for two years had been reelected to the Senate, moved in

38 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
the caucus that David Davis be the Repubhcan candidate for
president pro tempore. Later he made the motion in the
Senate itself, and Senator Davis was elected, Senator Bay
ard descending, amid general laughter, from the chair which
he had occupied for but a short time.
Senator Davis was very proud of the position of president
pro tempore, which he retained to the end of his Senatorial
term. He had been acting quite independently, but seemed
to inchne a httle toward the Democrats. After he became
president pro tempore, while he never announced himself a
Republican, he generally acted with the Repubhcans.
I was in the Senate the day before Senator Davis's term
expired. He was sohloquizing to himself in the intervals
of putting motions and attending to the routine of his of
fice. He was very fond of Senator Isham G. Harris of
Tennessee, and when he had occasion to caU a senator to
the chair, generaUy it would be Harris. He called Harris
to him while I was there, and I heard him say as his friend
came up : "Harris, Harris ! When I get out of here I won't
have to hsten to old Bayard any more! "
He was a very remarkable man and a friend of Lincoln,
and Lincoln was a friend of his. I suppose that Davis did
as much to secure Lincoln's nomination over Seward as any
one man, although Judge Logan worked with equal zeal.
But Davis knew more people than did Judge Logan, al
though the latter was, in my opinion, the better lawyer.
In the days of Davis's judicial life on the State bench,
the judge and the lawyer had a pretty large circuit. Dav
is's circuit was composed of several large counties. It was
the custom to travel the circuit, judge, lawyers, and all, to
gether. At that period there were no railway facilities
worth mentioning, and they had to go by private conveyance
1 — wagon or carriage or on horseback as the case might be.

OTHER DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS 39
Probably a dozen lawyers might go together, all putting
up at the same hotel, and generally having a good time at
night, spinning yarns. Lincoln was a good story-teUer, and
so was Davis; and the evenings were made exceedingly
agreeable to all concerned.
In no smaU measure as a result of the influences thus put
into operation, the lawyers of the period were better quali
fied to get along ui hfe than those of later days; that is to
say, for the rough-and-tumble hfe they were better able to
take care of themselves than the lawyers of a more recent
date have been, as a general rule.
Judge Stephen T. Logan was, I think, the best lawyer
that I have ever known in Illinois. He went to lUinois at
an early age and hved there until his death ; he had attained
the age of a httle more than eighty years before he died.
He was purely a lawyer. I think I never knew another
¦ lawyer who could so everlastingly ruin a man who under
took to misrepresent the truth. He seemed to understand
iatuitively whether a man was trying to teU the truth or was
Ijang; if the latter, his words would so effectually be torn to
pieces that they could be of no earthly value. But he was
not an adept as a politician. He ran for Congress at one
time against a man named Thomas L. Harris, and was
beaten. He also ran later for Judge of the Supreme
Court, and was beaten. This defeat was not his fault, how
ever, as the community was a strongly Democratic one. I
recall a story current in those days, to the effect that some
man who had recently come from the East inquired, while
talking with him, "By the way. Judge, didn't you run for
the Supreme Court last year?" In his squeaky voice, the
judge rephed, "No; I hardly walked."
But the judge was a true man in every respect, — honest.

40 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
faithful to his friends, and fearless in doing whatever he
beheved to be right. He felt, I think, a httle bit^ disap
pointed that President Lincoln did not appoint him instead
of Davis a Judge of the Supreme Court.
I came to Washington and saw Mr. Lincohi in Judge
Logan's behalf without any suggestion that I do so from
Logan or any one else, but simply because I beheved that the
President ought to appoint him on the Supreme Bench in
preference to any other man in the State.
Logan was a better lawyer than Davis; but Davis was an
abler pohtician than Logan. I have always felt that in
view of the fact that Lincoln and Logan had been partners
earher, and also neighbors and close friends, he ought to
have nominated Logan instead of Davis. Davis, Logan,
and Browning were all well qualified for the Supreme Court,
all of them friends of Lincoln, and aU Whigs. Lincoln had
to make the choice, and I think the selection was influenced
by Davis's great assistance in securing his nomination.
Judge Logan was also a close Whig friend of my father,
and earnest in his friendship for me on that account. When
I was a candidate for the nomination for Gk)vernor I had
a pretty stiff fight for the first term. There were rumors
that men were going to attack my personal character. I did
not know about the judge's action in the premises, but when
the convention met. Judge Logan went to it as a private
citizen and crowded himself into the hall, remaining there
until I was nominated. Then he went home. I was told
afterwards that he had gone there for the purpose of de
fending me in case of an attack against my personal
character. Of course, I could not but greatly appreciate a friendship
so manifest.
He had a son, David Logan, who went to Oregon as a

OTHER DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS 41
young lawyer, and became very eminent there. In later
years the judge wrote to him, proposing that if he would
come back home he would take him into partnership. To
this the father received a reply from David, proposing thai;
if he would come out there a partnership with the son was
subject to his acceptance or refusal. The judge died after
attaining full four-score years, and the son at an age less
advanced. I think Judge Logan also felt a bit sour toward Mr.
Lincoln because the latter, he thought, ought to have been
mpre helpful than he was to his son in his effort to be
elected to the United States Senate from Oregon, at the
time Baker was elected.
Speaking of Judges Logan and Davis, I am reminded
of the exceptionally high character of the lawyers of lUi
nois of that day, and more especially of Springfield. I
think there has never been a time when it had another such
splendid bar. It must be that high personal character in
Iqaders has a direct and marked influence in elevating the
general characters of the followers. The young lawyers,
especially, are impelled by a force implanted by nature to
admire and to strive to imitate or attain to the great qual
ities manifested in the hfe of those to whom leadership is
conceded by common consent.
Colonel E. D. Baker was a very good lawyer. Also Or-
viUe H. Browning, of Quincy, who was in Springfield at
tending the various courts whose sittings were at the State
capital much of the time. Then there was Archibald Wil-
hams; and Stephen A. Douglas, a great man in every way,
was on the bench a part of the time. Abraham Lincoln was,
of course, the equal of any man, on the bench or off of it.
Such men prominently jn the lead as lawyers, and as men

42 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
among men, could not but stimulate the ambitions and loftier
aspirations of other lawyers, especiaUy the younger ones.
In striving to pay the tributes — imitation, etc., — that can
be accorded to greatness, they become great themselves; and
perhaps here may be found the real or chief cause of the
very large numbers of conspicuously eminent men congre
gated at the capital of Illinois in those days.
Judge Lyman Trumbull I always regarded as one of the
exceptional lawyers of the country. I came to know him
well while I was a member of the House and he a United
States Senator. During those days I saw very much of
him. When Trumbull came to the Senate there was some
prejudice against him, growing out of circumstances (re
lated elsewhere in these pages) which prevented the election
of Mr. Lincoln, and which seemed to be plainly within Mr.
TrumbuU's control. But the feeling soon vanished, and.
Trumbull's course in the Senate was so true to the principles
of the party which Mr. Lincoln had championed, that the
manner in which he had secured the election was soon forgot
ten, or at least condoned, and the judge remained there for a
long period of service — three terms.
While he was there I came to the House of Representa
tives, and came to be, as our association grew more and more
intimate, very fond of Senator Trumbull. I also admired
his abihty. He was one of the few in that body who could
hold his own with Judge Douglas in debate, and when he
came into the Senate he at once took issue with Douglas, they
being in controversy with each other very frequently on
slavery and other political questions, until Douglas's career
ended, about the beginning of the Civil War.
I was, perhaps, as intimate personally with Judge Trum
bull during my stay in the House as any other member.
Barton C. Cook and Norman B. Judd also were as intimate

OTHER DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS 43
with the judge, as any other members of the Ilhnois delega
tion. Nothing ever happened to change these conditions,
until the vote which Trumbull cast against the impeachment
of Andrew Johnson. Mr. Cook and Mr. Judd, especiaUy
the latter, seemed to be almost bitterly angry agamst Judge
TrumbuU. As a result of that vote opposition to him began to grow
in the party. However, almost immediately after the im
peachment he was reelected, although at the time not a
candidate. He was subsequently nominated by the Demo
cratic party for Governor of Illinois. I ran against him as
the candidate of the Repubhcan party, and was elected over
him by a majority of about thirty-eight thousand. He im
agined, so I have heard, that he was going to beat me, and
was considerably surprised at his failure to do so.
He died only a few years ago, at an advanced age. His
first wife, now living at the age of eighty-five, was a sister
of Dr. Jayne, an excellent man, and, I am glad to add, he
and I are warm personal friends. I am very sorry to say,
though, that his children, I beheve, are all gone, as are mine.
There were other men who had risen to prominence in
Ilhnois, of whom I wish to write, and some who were then
new upon the stage of pubhc hfe, whom I knew and who
subsequently achieved distinction. I have already postponed
my reminiscences of Mr. Lincoln to a later chapter than I
could wish, but in point of time we have now come to the year
of his nomination and election to the Presidency of the
United States, and the beginning of a career which was to
be finished in the course of only a httle over four years.
The reference to my old friend Doctor Wilham Jayne
reminds me that I should say something of my Springfield
friends, — some Uving, but many dead. It is to these friends

44 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
that I am indebted for my success in pubhc hfe, and they
have generally loyally supported me, although friends in
other parts of the State have been quite as loyal and de
voted to my interests when I have been a candidate for high
pubhc office.
In the days of Lincoln, I do not beheve that there ever
was a community that contained so many really splendid
men, men who were so well fitted to fiU any place in the
State or Nation, as did Springfield. I can refer to only a
few of those of State and National renown. If I have over
looked some whom I should have mentioned, I hope I wiU
be pardoned.
First of all comes Lincoln. From time to time, as I have
written these recollections, I have spoken of him. I wiU
later give my estimate of Douglas, who, while not a citizen
of Springfield, spent a great deal of time there as a member
of the Supreme Court, as a member of the Legislature, and
on legal, pohtical, and social affairs. In the last-mentioned
connection he at one time was a rival for the hand of Mary
Todd, afterwards Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. I have thou^t
and written something of Stephen T. Logan, and to my
own old law partner, Milton Hay, I refer in other parts of
these recoUections. There were no better lawyers in their
day. Wilham H. Hemdon, Lincoln's law partner, was a ca
pable lawyer also. He wrote an exceUent hfe of his
distinguished partner. Herndon was one of the earliest Re
pubhcans of the State. While Lincoln believed in the prin
ciples of the party from the very beginning, the truth is, he
was a httle slow in becoming a member of it ; and Herndon
always claimed that he had much to do with making Abra
ham Lincoln an active member of the Repubhcan party.
Hemdon beheved that he was qualified to fiU almost any

RICHARD YATES

OTHER DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS 45
office, and I think he was a httle dissatisfied that Lincoln did
not give him some high position;.
WiUiam Butler, belonging to this same period, was one
of the leading citizens and a devoted friend of Lincoln
and an excellent man. Nor can I forget Antram Camp
bell, one of my first law partners. We we^e always warm
friends. I saw him on his death-bed when I returned home
from Washington, where I was serving as a Member of
Congress. He recognized me, but could not speak, and I
can see now the tears falling from his eyes.
Of the State officers of that day, Richard Yates was Gov
ernor. The State, under the lead of its War Governor, did
not waste time or spare money in putting the troops in read
iness for the field, and perhaps there was no governor of
any State more watchful of the State's interests, or more
devoted to the interests of the Union, or more loved by the
people of his own State, including the troops in the field,
than was Governor Yates. He was loyalty itself, and for
many years was an apostle of liberty. He retired from the
office of governor, to take his place as a senator from Ilh
nois in the United States Senate. His fame, however, rests
on beiag the great War Governor of the State of lUinois,
the compeer of Morton, Andrews, and Curtis.
His son, Richard Yates, many years later succeeded to
the office of governor, and is one of the prominent men of
Springfield to-day.
O. M. Hatch was Secretary of State. He was among
my early influential friends m Springfield. Uncle Jesse K.
DuBois, for whom I had high regard, and who was quite
weU known in and out of lUinois, was one of the State of
ficers. O. H. Miner was Auditor of the State at one time.
He was a very good man. His son, Louis Miner, and
Harry Dorwin, a nephew of my deceased wife, are joint

46 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
owners of the Springfield Journal, one of the oldest Re
pubhcan organs of the State.
Colonel John Wilhams could not be said to be a National
or State character, but he was a good business man, and one
of the best friends I ever had, so I cannot refrain from a
passing tribute to his memory.
When I was elected to Congress the first time, in 1864, my
friends knew that I had spent a considerable sum of money
for election expenses. It being Lincoln's district, and Lin
coln being a candidate for reelection as President, the
National Committee helped some ; but I was naturaUy com-
peUed to spend a great deal myself. I considered to whom
I should apply for assistance, and thought of Colonel Wil
hams. I went to him, candidly explaining that I should be
unable to make the race Avithout financial assistance; he told
me to draw on him for whatever funds I might want, and at
the end to let him know the total amount, and that he would
take care of it. I did so. He gave me what I asked for,
and I gave him my note, which I paid as soon as I could;
but he never bothered me about it. I always had a warm
spot for him in my heart.
Nicholas H. Ridgely, the grandfather of the Hon. Wil
liam Barret Ridgely, who married one of my daughters,
and who served as United States ComptroUer of the Cur
rency for a number of years, was one of the leading bankers
of the State, and was reputed to be one of the first mil
lionaires of Ilhnois. He was a very careful banker, and
was probably too careful to be popular among the people
generaUy; but every one knew that there was no sounder
institution in the State than the Ridgely National Bank.
His son, Charles Ridgely, whom I always regarded as one
of the most interesting men in Springfield, has passed away
just about the time that I am writing these lines. Mr.

OTHER DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS 47
Charles Ridgely was a man of great reading and great culti
vation, and a man whom any one would hke to meet. His
death was a loss to Springfield of one of its most interesting
and enterprising characters.
S. H. Jones ("Sam" Jones, as he was known) was an
other weU-known character in Springfield, as weU as through
out Illinois. He was a warm friend and supporter of mine
in the early days.
James C. Robinson was twice elected to Congress. He
and Governor Oglesby were opponents for State Senator
from the district. A httle story in this connection occurs
to me, which Oglesby used to tell.
When running for the Senate, before the Civil War,
Oglesby and Robinson travelled together over the district.
The settlements in those days were very scattering, and as
the rivals were good friends personally they agreed to go
together and hold joint discussions. They held one every
day, the understanding being that if either desired to talk
anywhere else aside from the joint debate he had a right to
do so.
At one place Robinson announced that he would make
a speech in the courthouse. A large crowd greeted him,
which he captured with one of his characteristic speeches.
Oglesby was sitting in front of the hotel across the way by
himself, and hstening to the cheering. He became very
uneasy lest Robinson should get the best of it.
Now it chanced that Oglesby could play a violin splen
didly. A man came along with one in his hands, and
Oglesby asked if he might borrow it for the evening, to
which the man consented. He commenced playing in order
to attract the crowd from Robinson, and in order to break
up his meeting. 'He succeeded; one by one they came out
of the courthouse, and when Oglesby swung into a stirring

48 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
dance measure the crowd at once responded with an im
promptu hoe-down.
Robinson, seeing his audience dwindhng, quit speaking
and came out himself. Taking in the situation at a glance,
he pulled off his shoes and became the most enthusiastic
participant, dancing first with one and then with another
of his late hearers, winnuig them all back again and com
pletely turning the tables against his adroit opponent.
This is a good illustration of early campaigning in the
country districts of Ilhnois. There was the utmost good
feeling, and a disposition to let the best man win.
Among the early men and incidents connected with the
practice of the law in Springfield, in the sixties, and before
and during the tune I was Speaker of the House, the
Rev. Peter Cartwright must not be forgotten. He was one
of the prominent figures in the pioneer educational and
religious life of the Western country, more particularly of
Ilhnois. He was a wonderful type of the times — a man of
great courage, of considerable abihty, and most remarkable
in his capacity as a minister of the Gospel. He believed ia
camp-meetings; and when Peter Cartwright conducted a
camp-meeting the loafers and rowdies inchned to interrupt
the worship knew they would invite trouble if they ventured
to interfere with or annoy the meeting. He was ready, not
only to preach the Gospel but to fight, as sometimes he felt
it his duty to do. No man dared in the presence of Cart
wright to interrupt the meeting, as in those times irresponsi
ble parties hanging about such gatherings frequently at
tempted to do in his absence.
Cartwright was not only an able pioneer preacher, but
he Was a loyal Democrat, too. He beheved in Democracy,
and was ready to run on the Democratic ticket, or to ad
vance the party's cause in any other way. He was nomi-

OTHER DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS 49
nated for Congress as against Mr. Lincoln, the only tune
Lincoln ever ran for Congress.
Some persons disapproved of Cartwright's activity in
politics, questionmg the propriety of it on the part of a
minister. Among these was Judge Treat, then our Federal
Judge in the Springfield district. The story goes that the
judge signified to Mr. Lincoln his dishke of Cartwright,
and his wilhngness to lend a helping hand in case Lincoln
should need help and would let him know the fact. He
thought he could get a good many votes for Lincoln, and
the latter thanked him and told him if he found need of his
help he would let him know. On one occasion during the
campaign Lincoln was walking along one side of the street
when he saw Treat on the farther side, proceeding in the
opposite direction, toward his home. Lincoln caUed out to
him: "Judge, I won't need your help. I have got the better
of the old Methodist preacher, and I will beat him; so I wiU
not have to call upon you for help." This so embarrassed
the judge, lest some one should hear what was being said,
that he almost ran, in his hurry to get into his house.
It so happened that some of Peter Cartwright's grand
children were somewhat reckless boys, and one of them
killed another young man. Mr. Peyton Harrison, the
father of the slayer, was a friend of Mr. Lincoln and also
of Judge Logan, and had grown to be a good friend of
mine, I being a young lawyer. The two and I were em
ployed in the defence of the young man. I did the run
ning about, and other things necessary to be done until the
time arrived for the trial. I had the accused man in my
house part of the intervening time. When the Circuit
Court convened he, having been previously indicted, was de
livered up and the trial came on. It lasted some ten or
twelve days. In the meantune, Peter Cartwright, and his

50 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
daughter Mrs. Harrison, the mother of the young man on
trial, were at my house most of the time. They drove into
town from where they hved, some ten or twelve miles out,
every day, and remained until nearly night, going back and
forth as long as the trial lasted. Cartwright became some
what attached to me on account of my efforts in the young
man's behalf.
The trial resulted in the acquittal of young Harrison, in
whose behalf Mr. Lincoln and Judge Logan exerted them
selves very earnestly.
Springfield seems changed to me since my old friend,
David T. Littler, passed away. If I visited Springfield dur
ing the heat of Summer, when every one else was gone, I
was always sure that Dave Littler would be there to greet
me. Littler was a unique character. His manners and
speech were bluff and frank; he never was afraid of any
one, and never was afraid to speak just exactly what he
thought. Senator Littler, Colonel Bluf ord Wilson, a par
ticularly devoted friend, and I traveUed through Europe
together, and we had a great time.
Littler was for many years a member of the State Senate
of Ilhnois, and was a very useful member in securing
favors for his district; and there is no district in the State
more dependent upon the Legislature than the Springfield
district. He was very ambitious, and when many of my
friends in Ilhnois believed that President McKinley would
honor me with an appointment to his cabinet, he thought
he was pretty sure to succeed me in the United States Senate.
My secret opinion was that the pohticians who were running
State affairs at that time were fooling him; but it never
came to a test, as I did not enter the cabinet.
It is a pleasure to record that I was able to show a sub
stantial token of friendship when, through my influence,

OTHER DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS 51
Senator Littler was appointed by President Cleveland one of
the Pacific Railroad Commissioners.
Speaking of Colonel Littler reminds me of our mutual
friend, Mr. Rheuna Lawrence, an estimable citizen of
Springfield in his day. When I was reelected to the Senate
in the Winter of 1901, Rheuna Lawrence and David Lit
tler were both desperately iU. I visited them both before
leavmg for Washington. Lawrence died soon after, but
Littler recovered and lived for a year or two.
Rheuna Lawrence was intensely interested in my campaign
in 1900. He attended the Peoria convention as one of the
Springfield delegates. There was a contesting delegation
from Sangamon County, and my friends, among whom were
Lawrence and Littler, were seated. My friends won out
all along the hne, and the excitement was too much for
Rheuna, who was not a drinking man at all; but he and Dave
got in their cups, and it was very amusing to those who
knew Mr. Lawrence as one of the cleanest and most estima
ble of our citizens to hear Littler refer to him as "my
drunken friend, Rheuna." All of which, of course, was
only a httle pleasantry which I repeat for the benefit of
those who attended that convention, and who knew Lawrence
and Littler well.
James C. Conkhng was a prominent lawyer at home, in
the days of Lincoln. He was a zealous Repubhcan and a
stanch supporter of Lincoln; also a lawyer and a business
man; but for some reason or other, I do not know why, he
became involved and failed, and the people, especially the
older citizens, insisted that he be appointed postmaster. I
recommended him, and the appointment was made. He
served a term and passed away. His son, Mr. Chnton
Conkhng, is now one of the leading attorneys of the city.
Henry Green was noted as a great lawyer. He came to

52 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Ilhnois from Canada and studied law in Clinton County
with the Hon. Lawrence Weldon, who was a prominent
lawyer himself, and for years served as a member of the
Court of Claims at Washington. Weldon was a lovable
character. Green was for some years the partner of Mil
ton Hay, the firm being Hay, Green and Littler; it changed
later to Green and Humphrey. While I always beheved
that Hay was the best lawyer in the State, many lawyers
beheved that Green was the ablest in connection with rail
road htigation.
The Hon. O. H. Browning was one of the most promi
nent men of lUinois in the early times, and was about
Springfield, the capital, a great deal, attending the Federal
Court, and also the Supreme Court of the State. Brown
ing, Archibald Williams, and Jack Grimshaw were all three
very excellent lawyers, quite prominent in their profession,
as well as associates in the Whig party. Browning was
probably the most prominent of the three. He was ap
pointed by Governor Yates to succeed Douglas, after the
death of the latter, in the United States Senate. Of course
he did not remain there long, being succeeded, I think, by
Wilham A. Richardson, a strong Democrat of Quincy,
and a man of considerable ability. After he went out of
the Senate, Browning was appointed by Andrew Johnson
as Secretary of the Interior. He became a foUower of Mr.
Johnson, who had broken with the Republican party, and
when he got out of office, I think he ceased to take any part
in pohtics. He had been talked about a good deal at one
time as the proper man for the Supreme bench, but as be
tween him and Logan and Davis, Mr. Lincoln decided in
favor of Davis.
It is impossible to mention aU of the many friends and
supporters loyal and devoted to me who are now living, but

OTHER DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS 53
I shaU be pardoned, I am sure, for saying a few words in
reference to some of them at present in Springfield, who are
especiaUy esteemed.
I have been away from Sprmgfield most of the time for
nearly thirty years, and as I go back there during the va
cations for brief periods, I feel lonely, because so many of
the famihar faces of earher days have passed away. As
I waUs: the streets now it seems that I know comparatively
few people; but I have the best of reasons for knowing that
among them are many splendid men.
I hke to feel, on the eve of visiting Springfield, that I
shaU see my friend. Judge J. Otis Humphrey, United States
District Judge for the Southern District of Ilhnois. I
have all the affection and interest in Judge Humphrey
that one could entertaui for a brother, and I know that he
has the same feehng for me. He is an able man, and is
regarded by the Bar as the ablest judge who has ever oc
cupied the United States District Bench at Springfield.
I have known him from his boyhood, and knew his father
before him. It was one of the great pleasures of my pubhc
career to have been able to secure from the late President
McKinley his appointment as United States Attorney for
the Southern District of Illinois, and later to have secured
his promotion to the position of United States District
Judge. He is now the senior United States District Judge
of the seventh circuit, and I regard him as the ablest judge
of them all. I sincerely hope that higher honors, which he
so weU deserves in his chosen career, are still in store for
him. In connection with Judge Humphrey I am Reminded of
the late Judge Solomon H. Bethea, who was appointed
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ilhnois,
and who was later promoted to the Federal Bench. Hum-

54 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
phrey and Bethea I have always regarded as my two
judges, as they were both appointed on my recommenda
tion. Bethea was a man of a very strong and positive
character. These traits were so conspicuous that his man
ners were, by some, regarded as extremely dictatorial. He
was highly educated, a student all his life, and a very culti
vated man. At the same time he was a first-rate pohtician.
I do not know of two more useful men to lead a floor fight
in a convention than Bethea and Humphrey. Judge Bethea
was my friend and supporter from the time I was elected
to the United States Senate, in 1883, until his death. He
made a splendid record as United States Attorney, and I
am informed that during his incumbency of that office, he
never lost a case before a jury. Very unfortunately, just
when he reached the goal of his highest ambition, a Federal
judgeship, his health failed. I have never for a moment
doubted that had he hved and retained his health he would
have made an enviable record on the bench.
There is no better man in Springfield than John W.
Bunn. He has been my friend ever since I first went to
Springfield. He was a friend of Lincoln, and there was
no one in Springfield in whom Lincoln placed more con
fidence. I beheve that one of the first appointments he
made, after entering the office of President, was that of
John W. Bunn as Pension Agent at Springfield. He was
the trusted friend of the War Governor, Yates, and per
formed many important duties for him during the Civil'
War. From those early days down to the present, every
one has had confidence in John W. Bunn and in his integrity^
and honesty. I am glad to say that he is stiU hving as one
of the foremost citizens of his city.
The Hon. James A. ConneUy, who for two terms repre
sented the district in Congress, was a very influential and

OTHER DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS 55
popular member of Congress; and being a good lawyer
he was a prominent member of the Judiciary Committee of
the House. He is a forcible speaker, and has always taken
an active part in behalf of the party in campaigns in the
State. Mr. E. F. Leonard — Frank Leonard, as he was fa-
miharly know among his friends — was my secretary when
I was Governor of Illinois. He was later president of the
Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad, stationed at Peoria,
and I have always beheved him to be one of the best raU-
road presidents in the State. He was particularly noted
for his sound common sense and as a scholarly, weU posted
man in public affairs. I do not think he ever said or did a
foohsh thing in his hfe. He has retired from business, and
lives quietly and elegantly, being a man of wealth, at the
beautiful little college town of Amherst, Massachusetts, in
the vicinity of which he was born.
One of the oldest men in Springfield is Edward Thayer.
He has been a merchant in that town ever since I first went
there, and was engaged in business there some years before
that, I beheve. His father was hving when I first went to
Springfield, and was a very refined, cultivated, elegant
Eastern gentleman. Mr. Thayer, although over ninety-
five, still seems to enjoy the best of health, and attends his
store every day.
The present Governor of lUinois, the Hon. Charles S.
Deneen, although a citizen of Chicago, has hved in Spring
field for nearly six years, during his incumbency of office.
Governor Deneen has had a very successful public career.
He has creditably filled every pubhc office which he has
held. I have been interested in him, not only on his own
account, but on account of his father, whom I knew well
and whom I respected highly. Years ago I obtained his

56 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
appointment in the consular service, in which he served dur
ing the Harrison administration. Governor Deneen has
taken a prominent part in pubhc affairs in Cook County
and has held several responsible positions there. He made a
splendid State's Attorney of Cook County. His honesty
and integrity were above suspicion. His record as State's
Attorney paved the way to the higher office of Governor
of Ilhnois. He is a conservative man, and has given the
State a conservative administration. Unfortunately he has
had difficulties with the Legislature, but on the whole I re
gard his administration as a successful and creditable one.
Governor Deneen and I are the only two men in the history
of the State who have been honored by its people by being
reelected to succeed themselves as Governor.

CHAPTER V
NOMINATION OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS FOB, THE PRESIDENCy
1859 AND 1860
RETURNING to the period preceding the CivU War,
we observe that the whole nation was stirred by the
conduct of a man whom most people beheved to be crazy,
but who in my judgment was not. He was an enthusiast,
fired by an abnormal zeal, perhaps ; but he filled a most im
portant place in the developments leading to the Civil War.
I refer to old John Brown.
With a score of f oUowers he seized the arsenal at Harpers
Ferry in October, 1859. The nation was then on the very
verge of civil war. There was tremendous excitement even
in far-off Springfield when the news came over the wires
that John Brown had opened war almost single-handed and
alone. Under order from General-in-Chief Winfield Scott,
Colonel Robert E. Lee with a battalion of soldiers marched
on Harpers Ferry, and, after a series of siege operations,
summoned John Brown to surrender, the demand being
borne to the besieged by J. E. B. Stuart, a young heutenant,
afterwards distinguished as the foremost cavalry leader of
the Confederacy.
The story of John Brown is too famihar to be repeated
here; but how strange that in so short a time his captor,
Robert E. Lee, should become famous as one of the great
est leaders of force in rebeUion against the government he
then served.
John Brown was captured and hanged. He had but few
57

58 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
sympathizers m the North, but his attempt to incite the
slaves to rebellion greatly stirred up the entire South, and
hastened secession.
Very soon the second National Repubhcan Convention
was held at Chicago. At this convention, whicli nominated
Lincoln for the Presidency, the resolutions declared for
"the maintenance inviolate of the right of each State to
order and control its own domestic institutions according
to its own judgment exclusively," and condemned the at
tempt to enforce the extreme pretensions of a purely local
interest (meaning the slave interest), through the inter
vention of Congress and the courts, by the Democratic
administration. They derided the new dogma that the
Constitution of its own force carried slavery into the Ter
ritories, and denied the authority of Congress, or of a Ter
ritorial Legislature, or of any individual to give leave of
existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States.
After the failure of the efforts to make of Kansas a Slave
State, it had become plain that the South could not hope to
keep its equality of representation in the Senate without
reversing what appeared to be settled popular opinion con
cerning the status of the Northern Territories. Resolutions
to this general effect were moved by Jefferson Davis early
in February, 1860, and passed by the Senate. It was in
effect the ultimatum presented to the Democratic party at its
National Convention when it assembled, April 23, at
Charleston, S. C. The warring factions failed to come
to an agreement, and the convention adjourned to meet at
Baltimore on the eighteenth of June. There Douglas was
at last nominated. The delegates who had seceded at
Charleston were joined by other seceders at Baltimore, and
nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for Presi
dent. A month later, May 19, a third faction, calhng itself

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS NOMINATED 59
the "Constitutional Union Party," assembled in convention
at the same city, Baltimore, and nominated John Bell of
Tennessee and Edward Everett of Massachusetts, on a
platform whose distinguishing battle-cry was "The Con
stitution, the Union of the States, and the enforcement of
the laws." Three days before this. May sixteenth, the Re
pubhcan Convention had met at Chicago, and had nominated
Lincoln and Hamlin on a platform which rang true on great
principles and with high resolve.
In many particulars this platform was a contrast to,
rather than a growth from, that of 1856. It asserted that
the normal condition of all the territory of the United States
was that of freedom; it denounced the outrages in Kansas,
and demanded her immediate admission into the Union,
with her Constitution, as a Free State; it branded the re
opening of the African slave-trade as a crime; and in ex
pressing the abhorrence of the Repubhcan party to aU
schemes of disunion, the Democratic party was arraigned for
its silence in the presence of threats of secession made by its
own members. The doctrine of encouragement to domestic
industry was announced; the sale of the pubhc lands was
condemned ; the coming measure of securing homesteads for
the landless was approved; and a pledge of protection was
given to aU citizens, whether native or naturalized, and
whether at home or abroad. The party was again pledged
to the construction of a railway to the Pacific Ocean, and to
the improvements of the rivers and harbors of the country.
During the four years preceding, the home State of
Lincoln and Douglas had decreased its pubhc debt $3,104,-
374. She had become the fourth State of the Union in
population and wealth, having during the decade then clos
ing outstripped Virginia, Massachusetts, North Carohna,
Georgia, Tennessee, and Indiana. In production of wheat

60 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
and corn she now surpassed aU other States and occupied
the foremost position. She had in successful operation
two thousand, nine hundred miles of railways, being sur
passed in this respect by Ohio only. Chicago, her mar
vellous lake mart, had grown from a population of 29,963
to 109,206, an increase of nearly three hundred per cent.
From nine Congressmen in 1850, she was entitled in 1860
to thirteen; and so, on every hand, might the recital of
her growth be continued indefinitely.
For the first time in twenty years, during the progress
of a pohtical campaign in Ilhnois, the voice of Lincoln was
not heard. But, the record of his former speeches, printed
by an enterprising Ohio publishing firm, in a volume which
sold in enormous numbers, afforded the text from which
the Republican stump-orators in every Free State gathered
at once their logic and their inspiration. Though the orator
himself remained silent, the potent echo of his eloquence
resounded in countless voices from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. The political contest that foUowed the various nomina
tions was a memorable one. Douglas made his last effort for
the Presidency with wonderful vigor and spirit. He can
vassed the whole country, and great throngs were greatly
moved by his eloquent and energetic oratory. Jefferson
Davis and other Southern orators canvassed portions of the
Northern States in support of the nominee of the Southern
wing of the Democratic party. In some parts of the North
fusions were attempted among the opponents of the Re
pubhcan candidate. In the South the interest in the con
test was even more intense than in the North. Douglas had
a good following in many portions of the South, but a ma
jority of the ruling class there, whether they had formerly
been Democrats or Whigs, were now disposed to bring the

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS NOMINATED 61
long sectional controversy to an issue. Therefore, besides
the debate over the Presidential issue, there was serious dis
cussion also of what course the South should take in the
event of Mr. Lincoln's election. In aU the Cotton States
the sentiment for secession was now very strong. The
Alabama Legislature, early in 1860, had instructed her
Governor to call a convention in case a "Black Repubhcan"
should be elected President in November. South Carohna
had long been ready to join in such a movement, or to lead it.
At last, election day came, and the results, immediate as
weU as ulterior, are deserving of some remark. The ag
gregate popular vote exceeded four mUhon, six hundred and
eighty thousand; and of the total, one milhon, eight hundred
and sixty-six thousand votes were given for Mr. Lincoln;
and of the three himdred and three electoral votes, he re
ceived one hundred and eighty. Mr. Breckinridge, the
candidate of the South, received eight hundred and forty-
seven thousand votes, and seventy-two votes in the Elec
toral College; while Mr. Douglas received only twelve elec
toral votes, although his popular vote reached a million,
three hundred and seventy-five thousand. Bell received
thirty-nine electoral votes on a popular vote of less than
six hundred thousand. Thus the popular vote for Mr.
Lincoln was nearly a half -milhon less than a majority; but
his predecessor, Mr. Buchanan, was also a minority Presi
dent, so that this fact as a pretext for secession was whoUy
without point.
Eleven States voted for Mr. Breckinridge, including
Delaware and Maryland; and eleven States became mem
bers of the Confederacy, including Virginia and Tennessee,
which had voted for Mr. BeU. It aU went to show that the
Democratic party as represented by Breckinridge was in
fact a secession party first of aU. The division of the

62 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Democratic party decided the election in favor of Mr.
Lincoln. Had that party supported Mr. Douglas in good faith,
his election would probably have been secured; but the
South would have been left without excuse had it persisted
in the scheme of secession.
Therefore it came to pass that the Democratic party was
disorganized by its own leaders of the South as a step pre
hminary to the election of Mr. Lincoln, and the making of
that election a pretext for disunion. This part of the con
spiracy was managed with consummate skill and eminent
success ; but the conspirators were perfectly well aware that
ultimate success depended largely on prompt, effective, and
decisive steps which inust be taken while their efficient
friend in the Executive Mansion still remained in office.
This allowed them four months of precious time between
the election of Mr. Lincoln and his inauguration as Presi
dent. The vigilance and effectiveness of their work is an
interesting and familiar story, but I shall not attempt here
a narration of it. This work eventuated in war, and with
the opening of war, Mr. Douglas was quickly found in the
attitude of a leader in the cause of the Union — the closing,
and the noblest episode of his whole remarkable career.
I knew Senator Douglas quite weU. Of course, he was
considerably older than I, and was one of the great men of
the Nation, while I was just starting in pubhc hfe. I
knew him before the Civil War. He was a wonderful man
with the people. I do not think there was ever a man in
pubhc hfe who was more thoroughly loved by the party to
which he belonged than Senator Douglas. His adherents
were devoted to him at all times and under all circum
stances. When he came through the State, the whole Demo
cratic party was ahve and ready to raUy to his support.

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS NOMINATED 63
I heard him dehver addresses on two occasions before the
War. I heard one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates at Ot
tawa. I heard Lincoln dehver the famous Springfield ad
dress, in which he uttered the immortal sentiment, "A house
divided against itself cannot stand." To this address
Douglas afterwards rephed. When Lincoln was inaugu
rated, Douglas was present on the platform and held Lin
coln's hat while he dehvered his inaugural address; the tre
mendous significance of which trivial act can be appreciated
only in the light of later years.
But Douglas did not hesitate for a moment after Fort
Sumter was fired upon, April 12, 1861. He voluntarily
called upon President Lincoln and tendered his support to
the cause of the Union, and immediately gave ^ out to the
Associated Press a statement, calling upon the people of
the North, regardless of party, to rally to its defence.
I beheve it was Mr. Lincoln who asked him to visit
Ilhnois, where, especially in the southern part of the State,
there was considerable disunion sentiment. There was a
great effort to induce the region where the Democracy pre
dominated, the people being loyal followers of Douglas, to
go with the South instead of the North. Douglas alone
could save it. He came to Ilhnois, as he told me, partly
on that account; to rally the State to the support of the
Union, earnestly desiring that the country should under
stand where he stood.
He visited Springfield while the Legislature was in ses
sion. Senator Douglas was invited to address a joint ses
sion of that body, which he did on the evening of April 25,
1861. Being Speaker of the House, I presided. In addi
tion to the members of the Legislature, there was a great
crowd present.
I have a vivid recollection of the evening. Prior to that

64 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
time I had not beheved in Senator Douglas; which was only
natural, I having been a Whig and an enthusiastic adherent
of Lincohi. The duty of introducing Senator Douglas to
the joint Assembly devolved upon myself; I cannot at this
late day recall the words I used, but I am sure that I pre
sented him in as complimentary a manner as my prejudices
aUowed. As he continued speaking, however, I, as thousands —
nay, miUions — of others had done, succumbed to the magic
of his eloquence and the irresistible logic of his brilliant
mind; and I must here confess that never before or since
have I heard a more masterful, a more inspired, plea for the
integrity of the Union and the indivisibility of the Nation
than Senator Douglas dehvered upon that occasion.
It seemed to me, as he hurled the thunders of his eloquence
broadcast, that the very rafters rang in harmony, that the
air vibrated in accord with his denunciations of rebellion.
The address was not a long one. As it was printed by
order of the General Assembly, I shaU take the hberty of
presenting it in fuU:
"Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen op the Senate and House of Rep
resentatives: I am not insensible to the patriotic motives which have
prompted you to do me the honor to invite me to address yon on the mo
mentous issues now presented in the condition of our country. With a
heart filled with sadness and grief, I proceed to comply with your request.
"For the first time since the adoption of the Federal Constitution, a
widespread conspiracy exists to destroy the best government the sun
of heaven ever shed its rays upon. Hostile armies are now marching
upon the Federal Capitol, with a view of planting a revolutionary flag
upon its dome; seizing the National archives; taking captive the Presi
dent elected by the votes of the people, and holding him in the hands
of secessionists and disunionists. A war of aggression and of extermi
nation is being waged against the Government established by our fathers.
The boast has gone forth by the authorities of this revolutionary Got-

STEPHl^'.N A. DOUGLAS

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS NOMINATED 65
ernment that on the first day of May the revolutionary flag shall float
from the walls of the Capitol at Washington, and that on the fourth
day of July the Rebel army shall hold possession of the Hall of Inde
pendence in Philadelphia.
"The simple question presented to us is, whether we will wait for
the enemy to carry out his boast of making war upon our soil; or
whether we will rush as one man to the defence of the Government
and its capital, and defend it from the hands of all assailants who have
threatened to destroy it. Already the piratical flag has been unfurled
against the commerce of the United States. Letters of marque have
been issued, appealing to the pirates of the world to assemble under
that revolutionary flag and commit depredations on the commerce car
ried on under the Stars and Stripes. The navigation of our great river
into the Gulf of Mexico is obstructed. Hostile batteries have been
planted upon its banks; custom houses have already been established;
and we are required now to pay tribute and taxes, without having a voice
in making the laws imposing them, or having a share in the proceeds
after they have been collected. The question is, whether this war of
aggression shall proceed, and we remain with folded arms, inattentive
spectators; or whether we shall meet the aggressors at the threshold and
turn back the tide of revolution and usurpation.
"So long as there was a hope of peaceful solution, I prayed and
implored for compromise. I can appeal to my countrymen with con
fidence that I have spared no effort, omitted no opportunity, to secure
a peaceful solution of all these troubles, and thus restore peace, happi
ness, and fraternity to the country. When all propositions of peace fail,
and a war of aggression is proclaimed, there is but one course left for
the patriot, and that is to rally under that flag which has waved over
the Capitol from the days of Washington, and around the Government
established by Washington, Madison, Hamilton, and their compeers.
"What is the alleged cause for this invasion of the rights and au
thority of the Government of the United States? The cause alleged is
that the institutions of the Southern States are not safe under the
Federal Government. What evidence has been presented that they are
insecure? I appeal to every man within the sound of my voice to tell
me at what period from the time that Washington was inaugurated
down to this hour, have the rights of the Southern States — the rights
of the slave-holders — been more secure than they are at this moment?

66 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
When in the whole history of this Government have they stood on so
firm a basis? For the first time in the history of this republic, there
is no restriction by act of Congress upon the institution of slavery, any
where within the limits of the United States. Then it cannot be the
Territorial question that has given them cause for rebeUion. When was
the Fugitive Slave Law executed with more fidelity than since the in
auguration of the present incumbent of the Presidential office? Let the
people of Chicago speak and tell us when were the laws of the land
executed with as much firmness and fidelity, so far as the fugitive slaves
are concerned, as they are now. Can any man tell me of any one act
of aggression that has been committed or attempted since the last
Presidential election, that justifies this violent disruption of the Federal
Union ?
"I ask you to reflect, and then point out any one act that has been
done — any one duty that has been omitted to be done — of which any
one of these disunionists can justly complain. Yet we are told, sim
ply because a certain political party has succeeded in a Presidential
election, they choose to consider that their liberties are not safe, and
therefore they are justified in breaking up the Government.
"I had supposed that it was a cardinal and fundamental principle of
our system of government that the decision of the people at the ballot
box, without fraud, according to the forms of the Constitution, was to
command the implicit obedience of every good citizen. If defeat at a
Presidential election is to justify the minority, or any portion of the
minority, in raising the traitorous hand of rebellion against the con
stituted authorities, you will find the future history of the United States
written in the history of Mexico. According to my reading of Mexican
history, there has never been one presidential term, from the time of the
Revolution of 1820 down to this day, when the candidate elected
by the people ever served his four years. In every instance, either
the defeated candidate has seized upon the Presidential chair by the
use of the bayonet, or he has turned out the duly elected President
before his term expired. Are we to inaugurate this Mexican sys
tem in the United States of America? Suppose the case to be reversed.
Suppose the disunion candidate had been elected by any means — I
care not what, if by any means in accordance with the forms of the
Constitution — at the last Presidential election; then, suppose the Re
publicans had raised a rebellion against his authority — in that case

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS NOMINATED 6T
you would have found me tendering my best efforts and energies to
John C. Breckinridge to put down the Republican rebels. And if you
had attempted such a rebellion I would have justified him in calling
forth all the power and energies of this country to have crushed you out.
"The first duty of an American citizen, or of a citizen of any constitu
tional Government, is obedience to the Constitution and laws of his
country. I have no apprehension that any man in Illinois, or beyond the
limits of our own beloved State, will misconstrue or misunderstand
my motive. So far as any of the partisan questions are concerned, I
stand in equal, irreconcilable, and undying opposition both to the Repub
licans and the secessionists. You all know that I am a very good par
tisan fighter in partisan times, and I trust you will find me equally as
good a patriot when the country is in danger.
"Now permit me to say to the assembled Representatives and Senators
of our beloved State, composed of men of both political parties, in my
opinion it is your duty to lay aside, for the time being, your party creeds
and party platforms; to dispense with your party organizations and
partisan appeals; to forget that you were ever divided, until you have
rescued the Government and the country from their assailants. When
this paramount duty shall have been performed, it will be proper for
each of us to resume our respective political positions according to our
convictions of public duty. Give me a country first, that my children
may live in peace; then we will have a theatre for our party organiza
tions to operate upon.
"Are we to be called upon to fold our arms, allow the national capital
to be seized by a military force under a foreign revolutionary flag; to
see the archives of the Government in the hands of a people who affect
to despise the flag and Government of the United States? I am not
willing to be expelled by military force, nor to fly from the Federal
capitol. It has been my daily avocation six months in the year, for
eighteen years, to walk into that marble building, and from its portico
to 'Survey a prosperous, happy, and united country on both sides of
the Potomac. I believe I may with confidence appeal to the people of
every section of the country to bear testimony that I have been as thor
oughly national in my political opinions and actions as any man that
has lived in my day. And I believe if I should make an appeal to
the people of the Statp of Illinois, or of the Northern States, for their
impartial verdict, they would say that whatever errors I have com-

68 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
mitted have been in leaning too far to the Southern section of the
Union against my own. I think I can appeal to friend and foe — I
use the term in a political sense, and I trust I use the word foe in a
past sense — I can appeal to them with confidence, that I have never
pandered to the prejudice or passion of my section against the minority
section of this Union; and I will say to you now, with all frankness
and in all sincerity, that I will never sanction nor acquiesce in any war
fare whatever upon the constitutional rights or domestic institutions
of the people of the Southern States. On the contrary, if there was an
attempt to invade those rights — to stir up servile insurrection among
their people — I would rush to their rescue, and interpose with what
ever of strength I might possess to defend them from such a calamity,
While I will never invade them — while I will never fail to defend and
protect their rights to the full extent that a fair and liberal construc
tion of the Constitution can give them — they must distinctly under
stand that I will never acquiesce in their invasion of our constitutional
rights. "It is a crime against the inalienable and indefeasible rights of every
American citizen to attempt to destroy the Government under which
we were born. It is a crime against constitutional freedom and the
hopes of the friends of freedom throughout the wide world to attempt
to blot out the United States from the map of Christendom., Yet this
attempt is now being made. The Government of our fathers is to be
overthrown and destroyed. The capital that bears the name of the Fa
ther of his Country is to be bombarded and levelled with the earth
among the rubbish and the dust of things that are past. The records
of your Government are to be scattered to the four winds of heaven.
The constituted authorities, placed there by the same high authority that
placed Washington and Jefferson and Madison and Jackson in the chair,
are to be captured and carried off, to become a byword and a scorn to
the nations of the world.
"You may think that I am drawing a picture that is overwrought.
No man who has spent the last week in the city of Washington will
believe that I have done justice to it, You have all the elements of
the French Revolution surrounding the capital now, and threatening
it with its terrors. Not only is our constitutional Government to be
stricken down; not only is our flag to be blotted out; but the very foun
dations of social order are to be undermined and destroyed; the demon
of destruction is to be let loose over the face of the land, a reign of

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS NOMINATED 69
terror and mob law is to prevail in each section of the Union, and the
man who dares to plead for the cause of justice and moderation in
either section is to be marked down as a traitor to his section. If this
state of things is allowed to go on, how long before you will have the
guillotine in active operation?
"I appeal to you, my countrymen — men of all parties — not to allow
your passions to get the better of your judgment. Do not allow your
vengeance upon the authors of this great iniquity to lead you into rash,
and cruel, and desperate acts upon loyal citizens who may differ with
you in opinion. Let the spirit of moderation and of justice prevail.
You cannot expect, within so few weeks after an excited political canvass,
that every man can rise to the high and patriotic level of forgetting his
partisan prejudices and sacrifice everything upon the altar of his coun
try; but allow me to say to you, whom I have opposed and warred
against with an energy you will respect — allow me to say to you, you
will not be true to your country if you ever attempt to manufacture
partisan capital out of the misfortunes of your country. When calling
upon Democrats to rally to the tented field, leaving wife, child, father,
and mother behind them to rush to the rescue of the President that
you elected, do not make war upon them and try to manufacture partisan
capital at their expense out of a struggle in which they are engaged from
the holiest and purest of motives.
"Then I appeal to you, my own Democratic friends — those men that
have never failed to rally under the glorious banner of the country
whenever an enemy at home or abroad has dared to assail it — to you
with whom it has always been my pride to act — do not allow the
mortification, growing out of defeat in a partisan struggle, and the
elevation of a party to power that we firmly believe to be dangerous to
the country — do not let that convert you from patriots into traitors
to your native land. Whenever our Government is assailed, when hos
tile armies are marching under new and odious banners against the
Government of our country, the shortest way to peace is the most
stupendous and unanimous preparations for war. The greater unanimity,
the less blood will be shed. The more prompt and energetic the move
ment, and the more imposing in numbers, the shorter will be the struggle.
"Every friend of freedom — every champion and advocate of con
stitutional liberty throughout the land — must feel that this cause is
his own. There is and should be nothing disagreeable or humiliating
to men who have differed in times of peace on every question that could

70 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
divide fellow men, to rally in concert in defence of the country and
against all assailants. While all the States of this Union, and every
citizen of every State has a priceless legacy dependent upon the suc
cess of our efforts to maintain this Government, we in the great valley
of the Mississippi have peculiar interests and inducements to the strug
gle. What is the attempt now being made? Seven States of the Union
chose to declare that they will no longer obey the Constitution of the
United States; that they will withdraw from the Government estab
lished by our fathers; that they will dissolve without our consent the
bonds that have united us together. But, not content with that, they
proceed to invade and obstruct our dearest and most inalienable rights,
secured by the Constitution. One of their first acts is to establish a
battery of cannon upon the banks of the Mississippi, on the dividing line
between the States of Mississippi and Tennessee, and require every
steamer that passes down the river to come to under their guns to re
ceive a custom-house officer on board, to prescribe where the boat may
land and upon what terms it may put out a barrel of flour or a cask
of bacon.
"We are called upon to sanction this policy. Before consenting to
their right to commit such acts, I implore you to consider that the same
principle which will allow the cotton States to exclude us from the
ports of the gulf, would authorize the New England States and New
York and Pennsylvania to exclude us from the Atlantic, and the Pa
cific States to exclude us from the ports of that ocean. Whenever you
sanction this doctrine of secession, you authorize the States bordering
upon the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to withdraw from us, form alli
ances among themselves, and exclude us from the markets of the
world and from communication with all the rest of Christendom. Not
only this, but there follows a tariff on imports, levying taxes upon every
pound of tea and coffee and sugar and every yard of cloth that we may
import for our consumption; the levying too of an export duty upon
every bushel of corn and every pound of meat we may choose to send to
the markets of the world to pay for our imports.
"Bear in mind that these very cotton States, who in former times have
been so boisterous in their demands for free trade, have, among their
first acts, established an export duty on cotton for the first time in Amer
ican history.
"It is a historical fact, well known to every man who has read the

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS NOMINATED 71
debates of the convention which framed the Constitution, that the South-
em States refused to become parties to the Constitution unless there
was an express provision in the Constitution prohibiting Congress to
levy an export duty on any product of the country. No sooner have
these cotton States seceded than an export duty is levied, and if they
will levy it on their own cotton do you not think they will levy it on
our pork and our beef and our corn and our wheat and our manu
factured articles, and all we have to sell? Then what is the proposi
tion? It is to enable the tier of States bordering on the Atlantic and
the Pacific and on the Gulf, surrounding us on all sides, to withdraw
from our Union, form alliances among themselves, and then levy taxes
on us without our consent, and collect revenues without giving us any
just proportion or any portion of the amount collected. Can we sub
mit to taxation without representation? Can we permit nations foreign
to us to collect revenues off our products, the fruits of our industry? I
ask the citizens of Illinois — I ask every citizen in the great basin
between the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghenies, in the valley of the
Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri to tell me whether he is willing to sanc
tion a line of policy that may isolate us from the markets of the world
and make us dependent provinces upon powers that thus choose to sur
round and hem us in?
"I warn you, my countrymen, whenever you permit this to be done in
the Southern States, New York will very soon follow their example.
New York — that great port where two-thirds of all our revenue is col
lected, and whence two-thirds of our products are exported, will not
long be able to resist the temptation of taxing fifteen millions of peo
ple in the great West, when she can monopolize the resources and release
her own people thereby from any taxation whatsoever. Hence I say
to you, my countrymen, from the best consideration I have been able
to give to this subject, after the most mature reflection and thorough
investigation, I have arrived at the conclusion that, come what may, —
war if it must be, although I deplore it as a great calamity, — yet, come
what may, the people of the Mississippi Valley can never consent to be
excluded from free access to the ports of the Atlantic, the Pacific, and
the Gulf of Mexico.
"Hence, I repeat, that while I am not prepared to take up arms or to
sanction war upon the rights of the Southern States, upon their domestic
institutions, upon their rights of person or property, but, on the con-

72 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
trary, would rush to their defence and protect them from assault, I
wiU never cease to urge my countrymen to take up arms and to fight
to the death in defence of our indefeasible rights.
"Hence, if a war does come, it will be a war of self-defence on our part.
It will be a war in defence of our own just rights; in defence of the
Government which we have inherited as a priceless, legacy from our pa
triotic fathers ; in defence of those great rights of the freedom of trade,
commerce, transit, and intercourse from the centre to the circumference
of our great continent. These are rights we can never surrender.
"I have struggled almost against hope to avert the calamities of war
and to effect a reunion and reconciliation with our brethren of the South.
I yet hope it may be done, but I am not able to point out to you how
it may be effected. Nothing short of Providence can reveal to us the
issue of this great struggle. Bloody — calamitous ¦: — I fear it will be.
May we so conduct it if a collision must come, that we will stand justi
fied in the eyes of Him who knows our hearts and who will judge our
every act. We must not yield to resentments, nor to the spirit of ven
geance, much less to the desire for conquest or ambition.
"I see no path of ambition open in a bloody struggle for triumph over
my own countrymen. There is no path for ambition open for me in
a divided country, after having so long served a united and glorious
country. Hence, whatever we may do must be the result of conviction,
of patriotic duty — rthe duty that we owe to ourselves, to our posterity,
and to the friends of constitutional liberty and self-government through
out the world.
"My friends, I can say no more. To discuss these topics is the most
painful duty of my life. It is with a sad heart — with a grief that I
have never before experienced, that I have to contemplate this fear
ful struggle; but I believe in my conscience that it is a duty we owe
ourselves and our children and our God, to protect this Government and
that flag from every assailant, be he who he may."
Of all the members of that joint assembly who listened to
the eloquence of Senator Douglas that evening, forty-nine
years ago, aside from Dr. William Jayne of Springfield,
and myself, I do not know of a single one now Uving.
After he concluded his address, the joint session of the
Legislature dissolved. He and I remained together in con-

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS NOMINATED 73
versation, and I accompanied hhn to his hotel. During that
talk he expressed to me the great anxiety which he felt for
the safety of the country and the preservation of the Union.
I am satisfied that it was his ambition to enter the army and
possibly lead it in suppressing the Rebelhon. What would
have been the result in that case, no one can tell; but I am in
chned to think that he would have made a very great general.
Senator Douglas's Springfield speech had a tremendous
effect on public opinion. It brought his followers, and they
were legion in all parts of the country, to the support of
the Government and the North.
Senator Douglas went from Springfield to Chicago,
where he dehvered another eloquent address, along the same
hues as the one dehvered at Springfield, to tens of thou
sands of people. Very soon thereafter he was taken iU with
pneumonia and passed away.
He was a man of extraordinary intellect. He did his
fuU part, at one of the most critical periods in our history,
in saving the Nation. His speeches in and out of Congress
are among the most able and eloquent dehvered by any
American statesman.

CHAPTER VI
SPEAKER OF THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE AND A MEMBER
or CONGRESS
1860 TO 1865
THE election of Mr. Lincoln was made the pretext for
secession. It has always seemed to me that the South
was determined to secede no matter at what cost ; and it has
also seemed to me that this determination was not due to the
great body of the people of the South, than whom there were
no better, but to the jealous politicians of that section, who
saw the gradual growth in wealth and power of the Northern
States threaten their domination of the National Govern
ment, which they had firmly held since the days of Washing
ton. They saw that domination shpping away, and they
determined to form a nation of their own — in which slavery,
indeed, would be paramount; but it was not so much slavery
as it was their own desire for control that influenced them.
As soon, therefore, as Mr. Lincoln was elected President
they began the organization of a Government of their own.
President Buchanan declared in his message that the South
ern States had no right to secede — "unless they wanted to,"
as some one. aptly expressed it; in other words, that he had
no right under the Constitution to keep them forcibly in the
Union, and thus the constitutional opinions of the President
harmonized effectively with the purposes of the secessionists.
Fortunate it was that Mr. Buchanan had so short a term re
maining after the election of Mr. Lincoln. Had a year or
74

SPEAKER AND CONGRESSMAN 75
two elapsed, the Confederacy would have been firmly and
irrevocably estabhshed.
It has never been quite clear to my mind whether Mr.
Buchanan cared to preserve the Union or not. In the heat
and passion of that day, we aU thought he was a traitor.
As I look back now and think of it, remembering his long
and distinguished service to the country in almost every
capacity — as a legislator, as a diplomat, as Secretary of
State, as President, I think now he was only weak. His
term was about expiring, and he saw and feared the awful
consequences of a civil war.
One State after another seceded; the United States' arms
and arsenals were seized; on January 9, the Star of the West,
carrying supphes to Fort Sumter, was fired upon and
driven off. South Carohna, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas went out. The Confederate
States of America were organized in the capital of Alabama
on the fourth of February, and Jefferson Davis was elected
President. We watched with great interest the famous Peace Con
ference which met in Washington and over which John
Tyler, ex-President of the United States, presided. It sat
during the month of February, preceding Mr. Lincoln's
inauguration, and recommended the adoption of seven ad
ditional articles to the Constitution, which were afterwards
rejected by the Senate of the United States.
But the fourth of March finally came, and new hfe was
infused into the national councils.
Mr. Lincoln's speeches on his way East were a disap
pointment, in that they failed in the least to abate the rising
Southern storm; the calmly firm tone of his inaugural ad
dress impressed the North, but his appeals to the South were
in vain. Said he :

76 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
"I declare that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to inter
fere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. . . .
The Union of these States is perpetual. It is safe to assert that no
Government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own
termination. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy,
and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and
to collect the duties and imposts."
It was a notable appeal that he made, m closing, to the
Southerners :
"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is
the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you.
You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I
shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it.'
"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not
be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break
our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from
every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone
all over this broad land, wiU yet swell the chorus of the union, when
again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
At the same time that Mr. Lincoln was first elected Presi
dent of the United States, I was for the second time elected
to the Legislature of lUinois. I received the vote of what
they called the Repubhcans, or Free-soil men, and of those
who were previously known as Fillmore men. I was always
in thorough accord with Mr. Lincoln in pohtical sentiment,
though I had supported FiUmore rather than Fremont in
1856. I most heartily supported Lincoln's candidacy, and
as candidate for the Legislature received more votes than
Mr. Lincoln received in Sangamon County. Douglas car
ried the county as against Lincoln, and I carried it as against
my opponent. There was great enthusiasm for Mr. Lincoln
in the county, but he was so positive and outspoken in his
convictions on the slavery question that he failed to get a

SPEAKER AND CONGRESSMAN 77
considerable number of votes ; many went to other Repubh
cans who did not express their views so vigorously as he did.
Of course, what he lost at home because of zeal and earnest
ness in his cause, was more than made up to him on the wider
field covered by his candidacy.
Stephen A. Hurlbut was a member of that Legislature,
and afterwards became a prominent general in the army.
I might say that General Hurlbut and Lawrence Church
were two very strong men, both from the northern part of
the State, and both became prominent in the public service.
I might say also that but for those two men, who put me
forward as a candidate for the Speakership, I probably
would not have become a candidate. On the Saturday night
before the Monday on which the Legislature was to con
vene, they pressed me so strongly that I consented, and
became the nominee of my party associates. J. W. Single
ton was the Democratic nominee. Before the Legislature
convened, and during the intervening Sunday, a feehng
got abroad among the older members of the Legislature that
I was too young to be trusted in such a responsible position
as that of Speaker. When I came down-town on Sunday
I found that feeling prevaihng.
I at once took notice of it, and stated that if there was
any feehng that I had done wrong in becoming a candidate,
I would submit the question to another test of the sense of
the Repubhcans in the Legislature, and if they thought I
ought not to have the position I would cheerfully yield to
their judgment. The caucus was called together Monday
morning, and I stated that I had heard that there was some
dissatisfaction, and I desired to have another vote. A
vote was accordingly taken, and I was again nominated,
and by a larger vote than in the first instance; whereupon
the older men gave in, and I was duly elected, receiving

78 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
thirty-nine votes to twenty-nine cast for the Democratic
candidate. I think I made more friends, in the conduct of the office
of Speaker during that term, than I ever did afterwards;
and in subsequent campaigns I was frequently gratified to
find men, some of them Democrats, who had been in the
Legislature with me at that tune, working for me with a
stronger zeal and earnestness because of the associations and
intimate relations there formed and cemented. All classes,
Republicans and Democrats alike, took occasion to manifest
their satisfaction, and some who became my friends there
continued so as long as they hved. I think, of all that
Legislature, I am the only one left,
A httle incident occurred at a reception given by Mr.
Lincoln after he was elected President, but before he left
his home to come to Washington, that vitally affected my
life. In speaking to the President, I expressed a desire to
visit Washington while he was President of the United
States. He replied heartily: "Mr. Speaker, come on."
And that was about the origin of my thinking seriously that
I would hke to come to Washington as a member of Con
gress. The more I thought of the idea, the more interested I be
came, and I so shaped matters during that session of the
Legislature as to secure a district in which some Repubhcan
could hope to be elected. In the apportionment under the
census of 1860, I had our Congressional district elongated
to the north and south rather than to the east and west, and
let it be known that I would be a candidate.
But when the time came for a nomination the Hon. Leon
ard Swett, who was then a prominent lawyer and pohtician,
also took the field to secure the Repubhcan nomination. He
visited Springfield, and persuaded some of his friends there

SPEAKER AND CONGRESSMAN 79
that he ought to be the nominee, and they determined to
try their hands toward securing my withdrawal, if possible
by persuasion. They sent for me to come to the library,
where they were proposing to hold a meeting. I went over,
and found that their project was to get me to withdraw in
favor of Swett, and I declined. But I said I would "draw
straws," or assent to any other fair means that could be
found by which it was to be settled who was to be the nom
inee of the party. Then, after some further parleying, I
finally left the conference.
That evening after dusk I met Swett on the street. We
sat down upon the curbstone, as it was growing a little dark,
and talked the matter over. Swett said to me that he was
an older man than I was ; that he had been knocked about a
good deal, and, though he had done much work for the
party, he had never got anything ; and if the present oppor
tunity for reward for services were allowed to pass him by
another opportunity was not likely, at his age, to come to
him. FinaUy I said: "Mr. Swett, if you had come to me
and made this suggestion at first, I would have been very
glad indeed to make the concession to you, and I am ready
to do so now. Here is my hand on it, and I will help you at
the convention." He became the party candidate by gen
eral consent, as I remember it. At aU events he was the
candidate, and unfortunately he was beaten at the poUs.
That was in 1862. So that while the Congressional district
was made by me, and for myself, I gave way to Mr. Swett,
and the opposition carried it. Two years afterwards I was
the candidate and was elected.
The majority in the counties composing the district was
ordinarily Repubhcan. As a result of Mr. Swett's defeat,
he left the district, though a very prominent lawyer, and
went to Chicago, never to return to the Congressional district

80 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
in which he had hved so manj; years, reaUy quitting pohtics
entirely. I suppose I ought to state the fact that, having made the
district for myself and then given it up to Mr. Swett, I de
termined to be a candidate at the next election; whereupon
I found that Mr. James C. Conkhng, a friend of mine, and
a special friend of Mr. Lincoln also, some of whose fam
ily are still hving, was disposed to try for the same office.
I made up my mind that in order to keep myself in trim for
the future it was weU to keep in touch with the voters; so
I determined to nm for the State Senate, though the four
counties composing the Senatorial district were aU Demo
cratic and aU in the Congressional district in which Swett
was the defeated candidate, yet I desired to rvm for the
Senate, in order to keep Conkhng from getting such a hold
on the district as to strengthen him for the contest two years
afterwards. So I made the run, arid was beaten, of course, every
county in the district being Democratic ; and the rest of my
plans also worked out as I had calculated they would.
Soon after I was elected to Congress, and soon after Mr.
Lincohi was elected the second time, I came on to Washing
ton. Having been intimate with Mr, Nicolay and Mr. Hay,
who were his secretaries, I was in the habit of frequenting
their rooms without ceremony. One evening, just after
dusk, I went to the White House and quietly, as usual, en
tered Nicolay's room. It so happened that Mr. Lincoln
and Mr. Seward, with some other cabinet officers, were in
the room, holding a consultation. I had opened the door
before I observed who were there. President Lincoln saw
me quite as soon as I saw him, and I was very much embar
rassed. He sang out cheerily, "Come inl " and turning to
his Secretary of State, he added, "Seward, you remember

SPEAKER AND CONGRESSMAN 81
my old friend Stuart? Here is the boy that beat him." I
stayed for only a moment, and then went out. That is the
nearest I ever came to participating in a cabinet meeting.
That incident in my life, as I now look back, punctuates,
in my individual way of thinking at this moment, the sub
stantial close of what was mortal in that great man's earthly
career. The close of the four years of civil war was clearly
in sight. It was in many respects a record-making and a
record-breaking war. The navies of the world, rendered
helpless by the incidental effects of its thundering guns, had
to be rebuilt. For the first time in the world's history the
railroad and the electric telegraph played a very considerable
part. The grip of insatiate despotism on Democratic insti
tutions was effectually loosened far and wide. For the first
tune in war the lessons taught in the art of warfare by Alex
ander and Caesar were utterly ignored, and the "Maxims of
Napoleon" were relegated to the shelf, there to gather dust.
In short, it inaugurated a new era in the history not only of
our own country but of the entire world.

CHAPTER VII
LINCOLN
1860 TO 1864
AS days and years pass by and an enhghtened humanity
studies and comprehends the real greatness and sun-
phcity of Abraham Lincohi, he comes nearer and becomes
dearer to all. No weak compliment of words can add to
his renown, nor wiU any petty criticism detract from the
glory which has crowned his memory. The passing of time
has only added brightness to his character; the antagonisms
of bitter war have left no shade upon his name; and the
hatred which, for a brief time, spent itself in harmless words
has turned to reverence and love.
Had he hved until February 12, 1911, he would have been
one hundred and two years old. Less than forty-five years
ago, in the very prime of hfe, he was the Chief Magistrate
of the Nation, guiding and controUing it in its great strug
gle for national existence. Such a vast accumulation of
history has been compressed into those years, and such a won
derful panorama of events has passed before us in that com
paratively brief time, that we are apt to think of Lincoln
as of the long ago, as almost a contemporary of Washing
ton and of the Revolutionary fathers. The immensity of
the history which has been crowded into those forty-five
years has distorted our mental vision, as ordinary objects are
sometimes distorted by refraction. Yet when we reflect, the
distortion disappears. But the wonder stiU remains. The
82

LINCOLN 83
years during which the deeds of Lincoln have been a memory
to us do not carry us back to the early days of our own
country. They do not carry us back even to the time of
Jackson, Webster, Clay, or Calhoun ; yet the sacred halo of
patriotic veneration invests as completely the name of Lin
coln as of Washington,
The many personal memories of the martyred patriot that
I can recall seem almost a dream to me. It seems almost
a vision of the unsubstantial imagination, when I think that
I have known the one immortal man of the century, and
enjoyed his friendship. He was the very impersonation of
humanity ; his stature was above and beyond all others. One
hand reached back to the very portals of Mount Vernon,
while the other, giving kindly protection to the oppressed,
still reaches forward to guide, encourage, and sustain the
people of this Nation.
It was my great good-fortune to know something of
Abraham Lincoln from the time I was about twelve years
old, and even earlier than that I have a distinct recollection
of hearing my father advising men to employ Lincoln in
important htigation. Lincoln at that time was about thirty
years old, and even then was regarded as a really great
lawyer. The first time I ever saw hun in court he, assisted by Colo
nel E. D. Baker (afterwards a senator from Oregon, and
killed at Balls Bluff) , was engaged in the defence of a man
on trial for murder. The conduct of the defence made by
those great lawyers produced an impression on my mind that
will never be forgotten. Lincoln became then my ideal of a
great man, and has so remained ever since.
In 1846, Mr. Lincoln was the Whig candidate for
Congress, and it was then that I first heard him deliver a
political speech. The county in which my father resided

84 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
was a part of his Congressional district. When Lincoln
came to the county my father met hun with his carriage and
took him to all his appointments. I went to the meeting
nearest my home — an open-air meeting held in a grove.
On being introduced, he began his speech as follows : "Fel-
law citizens, ever since I have been in Tazewell County my
old friend. Major Cullom, has taken me around; he has
heard aU my speeches, and the only way I can hope to fool
the old Major and make him beheve I am making a new
speech is by turning it end for end once in a while."
When I determined to abandon the hard work on the
farm to enter the study of law at Springfield, my father
being so close to Mr. Lincoln, I went to him for advice.
He expressed a wilhngness to take me into his own office as
a student, but said that he was absent on the circuit so much
that he would advise me to enter the law office of Stuart and
Edwards, two prominent Springfield lawyers, of whom I
have written more at length in an earher chapter. There I
would have the advantage of the constant supervision of one
or the other member of the firm.
From that time until he left Springfield never to return,
I had constant means of observing Lincoln as a lawyer. I
was at times associated with him as a junior counsel in the
trial of law suits. I was employed in a murder case which
Lincoln and Logan were defending, I being the boy lawyer
in the case. They made a wonderful defence. I do not
know whether the defendant was guilty or not, but I do
know that he was acquitted.
During my hfe I have been acquainted witH very many
able lawyers, and I have no hesitation in sajmg that Lincoln
was the greatest trial lawyer I ever knew. He was a man
of wonderful power before a court or jury. When he was
sure he was right, his strength and resourcefulness were

LINCOLN 85
well-nigh irresistible. In the court-room he was at home.
He was frank with the court, the juries, and the lawyers, to
such an extent that he would state the case of the opposite
side as fairly as the opposing counsel could do it; he would
then disclose his chent's case so strongly, with such honesty
and candor, that the judge and jury would be almost con
vinced at once in advance of the testimony. Judge Davis
once said that the framework of Lincoln's mental and moral
being was honesty, and that a wrong cause was poorly de
fended by him.
The story is told that a man offered to employ him in a
case and told him the facts, which did not satisfy Lincohi
that there was any merit in it. He said to him: "I can gain
your case; I can set a whole neighborhood at loggerheads;
I can distress a widowed mother and six fatherless children,
and thereby get for you six hundred dollars, which it ap
pears to me as rightfully belongs to them as to you. I will
not take your case, but I wiU give you a little advice for noth
ing. You seem to be a sprightly young man, and I advise
you to try your hand at making six hundred doUars in some
other way." .
Mr. Lincoln was for a time employed by the Ilhnois Cen
tral Railroad as one of its attorneys. In a case in one of
the counties of Judge Davis's circuit to which the railroad
was a party, it was announced that the company was not
ready for trial, and the court inquired the reason ; to which
Mr, Lincoln rephed that Captain McCleUan was absent.
The court asked, "Who is Captain McCleUan? " Lincoln
replied that aU he knew about him was that he was the en
gineer of the Illinois Central Railroad.
What a strange jugghng of destiny and of fate ! In little
more than two years McCleUan's fame had become world
wide as the general in charge of all the armies of the Re-

86 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
public, only to prove in the estimation of many people the
most stupendous failure as a commander in all our military
history; Davis had become a Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States; and Lmcoln had reached the Presi-
dencvT^ In the trial of the murder case to which I have referred,
I never saw more striking evidence of Mr. Lincoln's power
over a court. There came a question of the advisabihty of
certain testimony which was very vital to the defendant.
The question was thoroughly argued by Judge Logan and
Mr. Lincoln until the court took a recess for dinner at noon.
The Judge announced that he would render his decision
when the court reconvened. The courthouse was fiUed on
the reconvening of court in the afternoon, and the Judge
began rendering his opinion on the point in dispute. It
seemed to Mr. Lincoln and those present that he was about
to decide against the admissibihty of the evidence. Lin
coln sprang to his feet. Apparently he towered over the
Judge, overawing him. He made such a tremendous im
pression that the court apparently gave way, and decided
the point in the defendant's favor.
Mr. Lincoln was not only a great statesman, but he was
one of the ablest, most astute, and shrewdest pohticians whom
I have ever known. From my earhest recollection of him
he took keen interest in pubhc affairs and was the foremost
pubhc man or pohtician in his section of the State, He was
not among the first to join the Repubhcan party. He clung
to the old Whig party as long as a vestige of it remained.
Almost immediately after he drifted into the Republican
party, he became its recognized leader in lUinois, and his
pubhc utterances attracted the attention of the Nation to
him.

LINCOLN 87,
I recollect having heard him utter the memorable words
in the Repubhcan Convention of my State in 1858:
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. This Government can
not permanently endure half slave and half free. I do not expect the
Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do
expect that it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or
all the other."
What words of wisdom ! He looked through the veil be
tween him and the future and saw the end more clearly than
any other man in pubhc hfe. This was a carefuUy prepared
speech, in which every word was weighed. Some of his
friends, to whom it was read, advised him not to use the
clause I have quoted, "a house divided against itself." He
was wiser than any of them. With a self-rehance born of
earnest conviction he said that the time had come when the
sentiments should be uttered, and that if he should go down
because of their utterance by him, then he would go down
hnked with the truth.
I hstened to much of the great debate between Lincoln
and Douglas, the greatest pohtical debate which ever took
place in this country. I have always felt that Lincoln never
expected to be elected to the Senate in 1858. I think he
saw more clearly than any of us that the advanced position
which he took in that debate made his election to the Senate
at that tune impossible. He was then fighting for a great
principle. He did carry a majority of the popular vote,
but Douglas secured a majority of the Legislature.
His defeat apparently affected him httle, if at all. I felt
very badly when it became apparent that Douglas had se
cured a majority of the Legislature. I met Lincoln on the
street one day, and said: "Mr. Lincoln, is it true that
Douglas has a majority of the Legislature?" His reply

88 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
was an affirmative. I then expressed the great sorrow and
disappointment that I felt. He placed a hand upon my
shoulder, and said: "Never mind, my boy; it will all come
right," I beheve that he then felt certain that the position
he took in that memorable debate would make him the logi
cal candidate of the Repubhcan party for the Presidency
in 1860, which it did. And two years from that very day the
Repubhcan party celebrated its first national victory in his
election as President of the United States,
It has been said that Mr. Lincohi never went to school;
and he never did to any great extent, but in a broad sense
of the word, he was an educated man. He was a student,
a thinker; he educated himself, and mastered any question
which claimed his attention. There was no man in this
country who possessed to a greater degree the power of
analyzation. He was a student aU his hfe. One incident that oc
curred in Springfield, some years before he finaUy left, will
serve as an iUustration.
An old German came through the town and claimed
that he could teach us aU to read and speak German in a
few weeks. A class was organized for the purpose of
studying German. Lincoln became a member of the class,
and I also was in it, and I can see him yet going about
with the German book in his pocket, studying it during his
leisure moments in court and elsewhere. None of the rest
of us learned much, but Lincoln mastered it, as he did every
other subject which engaged his attention.
His home life was a pleasant one. I often visited at his
home, and so far as my observation went, I do not hes
itate to say that not the shghtest credence should be given
to the many false stories that have from time to time ap
peared, manufactured largely by those who desired to

LINCOLN 89
write something new and sensational concerning the hfe of
President Lincoln in his home, and concerning Mrs.
Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln was regarded generaUy as an ungainly man,
and so he was; and yet on occasions he appeared to me to
be superior in dignity and nobihty to almost any other man
whom I have ever seen, I was present when the committee
from the National Convention, that gave his first nomina
tion for President, came to Springfield to notify him of his
nomination. He stood in the rear of a double parlor in his
home, and as the Hon. George F, Ashmon, president of the
convention, presented the members of the delegation one by
one to him, I thought that he looked what he was — the su
perior of any man present. Many of the eminent men
composing that delegation had believed that Lincoln was
some sort of a monster. I stood among them after they
had met him and hstened to their comments. The lofty
character, the towering strength, the majesty of the man
had made a great impression upon them. They had come
expecting to see a freak; they discovered one of the princes
of men.
In this connection, I must be permitted to refer to an
other occasion. It so happened that I was in Washington
when the President's son WiUie died. The funeral cere
mony took place in the East Room of the White House,
in the presence of the President and his cabinet and a few
other friends. When the ceremony was about concluded
and President Lincoln stood by the bier of his dead boy,
with tear-drops faihng from his face, surrounded by
Seward, Chase, Bates, and others, I thought I never beheld a
nobler-looking man. He was at that time truly, as he ap
peared, a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief, possessing
the power and responsibihties of a President of a great Na-

90 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
tion, yet with quivering hps and face bedewed with tears,
from personal sorrow.
The morning that Abraham Lincohi left his home in
Springfield never to return is not to be forgotten. It was
early on the morning of the eleventh of February, dark and
gloomy, with a hght snow falling. There was a large crowd
of his neighbors and friends at the station to bid him good
bye. He held a sort of impromptu reception in the little
railroad station. There was no noisy demonstration. As I
recoUect it now, it was a solemn leave-taking. Just before
the train puUed out, Mr. Lincoln appeared on the rear plat
form of his car. Every head was bared, as if to receive a
benediction, as he uttered his farewell address :
"My Friends: No one not in my situation can appreciate my feeling
of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these
people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century,
and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have
been born and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether
ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested
upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who
ever attended him, I cannot succeed; with that assistance, I cannot fail.
Trusting in Him, who can go with me, and remain with you, and be
everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well.
To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will com
mend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell."
I was not present at the first inauguration of President
Lincoln, but I visited Washington many times during the
years that he was President, and, knowing him as weU as I
did, and having known both Nicolay and Hay, his secre
taries, in Springfield, I naturaUy spent much time around
the executive offices. I had many conversations with him
during the early years of the war. He had no military
education, but he soon demonstrated that he was in fact the

LINCOLN 91
real commander-in-chief. He liked General McCleUan, and
stuck to him until McCleUan had demonstrated his abso
lute inefficiency for command. McCleUan was a great
organizer. He made the Army of the Potomac the
most perfect fighting machine, I might almost say, that
was ever known in military history. But there he stopped.
He could organize, but he could not and did not, despite the
urging and the anxiety of Mr. Lincoln, push forward his
army to victory, I knew something of Mr. Lincoln's anx
iety at the failure of McCleUan to inaugurate an aggressive
campaign. The late O, M. Hatch of Ilhnois told me of a rather in
teresting incident which occurred on one occasion when the
President, accompanied by Mr, Hatch, visited McCleUan's
army a few days prior to the battle of Antietam in Sep
tember, 1862. They spent the night in a tent, and, rising
very early, at the President's suggestion they took a walk
before sunrise about the great camp, inspecting the field,
the artillery, the quarters, and all the appurtenances of the
army. Lincoln was in a pensive mood, and scarcely a word
was spoken. Finally, just as the sun was rising, they
reached a commanding point; the President stopped, placed
his left hand upon Mr, Hatch's shoulder, and slowly wav
ing his right in the direction of the great city of tents, seri
ously inquired: "Mr. Hatch, what is all this before us? "
"Why, Mr, President," was the surprised reply, "this is
General McCleUan's army,"
"No, Mr. Hatch, no," returned Lincoln soberly, "this
is General McCleUan's body-guard."
It wiU be understood what these utterances signified: they
expressed perfectly the prevaihng behef that McCleUan had
failed to appreciate the purpose for which that magnificent
fighting machine had been created.

92 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
I thmk I am justified in saying that after the earher con
tests of the war had proven that great soldiers and great
generals were not always great leaders. President Lincoln
became the able director, the actual commander-in-chief
of the forces of the United States. He planned and or
dered the larger movements of the War, and he held the
reins above and about aU his armies, scarcely relaxing his
watchful care for a moment, — until events demonstrated
the wisdom with which he confided the mihtary interests of
our beloved country and the conduct of the war to Ulysses
S. Grant.
Some of us remember with what persistence during the
Winter of 1862 and 1863 many newspapers and a large
share of the Northern people joined in the cry of "On to
Richmond! " Censure and criticism ran riot even among
Northern Repubhcans, In a three-hne memorandum the
President showed the faUacy of that outcry, when he wrote:
"Our prime object is the enemy's army in front of us, and
not with or about Richmond at all, unless it be incidental
to the main object," At a later day he said to Hooker:
"I think Lee's army, and not Richmond, is your sure objec
tive point."
Modest and simple he always was, never seeking power
with inordinate ambition, simply that he might use power;
still he was never afraid to assume responsibihty when it
was his duty to assume it.
I caUed on him one evening at the Soldiers' Home. We
spent the evening together, and naturally we talked of the
war. He discussed almost aU of his generals, beginning
with McCleUan. At that tune McCleUan was down on the
James, and Pope was in the saddle in Virginia. Pope, he
feared, would be whipped, unless he could get more troops,
and he was trying to get McCleUan back in order to save

LINCOLN 93
Pope. At that time he had not yet lost his faith in McClel-
lan, but he was complaining that McCleUan was never
ready for battle. After making all possible preparations,
and with the enemy in front, he would overestimate the
size of the enemy's force, and demand more troops. Yet
Mr. Lincoln said that he would rather trust McCleUan to
get his army out of a tight place than any other general that
he had.
After his election he invited his principal competitors for
the nomination to enter his cabinet. He had not the
shghtest jealousy of any hving man. He was not afraid,
as some of our Presidents have been, to have his cabinet com
posed of the greatest men of his time. He was a bigger
man than any of them, and no thought of jealousy ever
entered his mind. Both Seward and Chase fancied they
were greater men than Lincoln, and each of them, at the
beginning at least, entertained the idea that on him rested
the responsibihty of the administration, Seward felt that
he should have been the nominee of his party. Chase felt
perfectly sure that he, and not Lincoln, should have been
President, Before many months had passed, Seward was compelled
to acknowledge that Mr, Lincoln was the superior of any
of them, as he expressed it in a letter to his wife. He soon
became one of the most devoted friends and loyal supporters
of the President. The publication of the diary of Gideon
Welles, Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1865, shows
that Mr. Lincoln was the leader of them aU, and was in
fact the real head of every department of his administration.
Chase was an able man, and loyal to the Union; but,
unhke Seward, he was never loyal to the President per-
sonaUy, and was constantly plotting in his own interest to
supplant Lincoln as the nominee of his party in 1864, — a

94 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
most reprehensible course on the part of a cabinet officer.
This did not give concern to Mr, Lincoln in the shghtest
degree. He cared very little what Mr, Chase said or
thought of him personaUy, so long as he was doing his duty
as Secretary of the Treasury,
I was in Washington the latter part of February, 1864,
before he was nominated the second time. I happened to
hear of the Pomeroy letter in behalf of Mr. Chase, and I
learned with amazement that Chase was conspiring with his
friends to secure the nomination for the Presidency, and was
untrue and unloyal to his chief. I felt justly indignant. I
saw Mr. Lincoln and talked with him about it Avith great
earnestness. I told him that Chase should be turned out.
He answered by saying: "Let him alone ; he can do no more
harm in herej;han he can outside."
If things did not go to suit him, Chase was in the habit
of tendering his resignation every few days. It was not
accepted; but he offered it once too often, and, very much
to his surprise and chagrin, it was promptly accepted; and
Chase was relegated to private life, where he belonged, and
where he should have remained.
Chief Justice Taney passed away unmourned, the most
pathetic and desolate figure in the Civil War, with his long,
faithful, and distinguished service on the bench forgotten. ,
Chase's friends, and Chase himself, at once commenced over
tures of friendship toward Mr, Lincoln, in the interest,
solely, of securing Chase's appointment as Chief Justice.
Considerable pressure was brought to bear in behalf of
Chase. The President would give no intimation as to what
he intended to do, although I myself beheve that he all the
time intended appointing him to the vacant position, and
that the so-caUed pressure on the part of Sumner and other
radicals had httle, if any, influence with him.

LINCOLN 95
During this period, after the death of Chief Justice
Taney, Chase was not at aU averse to writing the President
the most friendly letters. One day his secretary brought
him a letter from Mr. Chase, The President asked, "What
is it about? " "Simply a kind and friendly letter," the sec
retary answered. Mr. Lincoln, without reading it, replied
with his shrewd smile: "File it with his other recommenda
tions." Chase was finally appointed Chief Justice of the United
States. After his conduct as a member of the cabinet, I
do not believe we have ever had another President, except
Lincoln, magnanimous enough to have made that appoint
ment imder similar circumstances. Lincoln entertained a
very exalted opinion of Chase's abihty as a lawyer and man.
He believed that he possessed the qualifications of a great
Chief Justice, and the appointment was made entirely free
from any personal feelings or prejudices.
I happened to be alone in Mr. Nicolay's room in the White
House when Mr. Chase called to thank the President for
his nomination. He came into Mr. Nicolay's room first,
and inquired of me if the President was in. I told him I
did not know, but his room was next to the one we were in,
and he might ascertain for himself. Knowing of Chase's
disparaging remarks concerning Mr, Lincoln, and of his dis
loyalty as a member of his cabinet, I was very curious to hear
what he would have to say to the President. He left the
door ajar, and I overheard the conversation. Mr. Chase
proceeded to thank the President for his nomination, Mr,
Lincoln's reply was brief, merely that he hoped Mr. Chase
would get along well and would do his duty. Very few
words passed between them, and the interview closed,
Montgomery Blair was Postmaster-General in President
Lincoln's cabinet. He was appointed from the District of

96 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Columbia, He was a man of considerable abihty, and was
thoroughly loyal to the President, Montgomery Blair be
came exceedingly unpopular among certain classes, not only
on his own account, but because of his brother Frank, whose
home was in Missouri, I thought his remaining in the
cabinet was injuring the Administration, and I told Mr. Lin
coln, in a conversation I had with him at the White House,
that under all the circumstances Montgomery Blair should
be reheved from office; that he was unpopular; that the peo
ple were not for him. Mr. Lincoln seemed annoyed, even to
the extent of petulance (a rare thing with him), that I
should say anything against Montgomery Blair. He as
serted that Blair was a loyal man, was doing his fuU duty
as Postmaster-General, and that he would not turn him out.
Later, Montgomery Blair, always loyal under aU circum
stances, told the President that he was ready to tender his
resignation whenever, in the judgment of the President, his
remaining in the cabinet would be an embarrassment; and
Mr. Lincoln in a very kindly note sometime afterwards
said that he felt himself compeUed to accept Mr. Blair's
offer and ask for his resignation. They continued personal
friends until the President's death.
The year 1862, on account of the proclamation of Presi
dent Lincoln, in September, that he would free the slaves
in those States or parts of States whose people continued
in rebelhon on and after January 1, 1863, was a disastrous
year to the Republican party; but the final effect of the
proclamation was beneficial to the cause of the Union, It
stimulated greater enthusiasm on the part of those who de
sired to see the end of slavery in this country. Many people
so hated that institution that they were more desirous of hav-'
ing it abohshed than to have the Union preserved with it.
While President Lincoln was always opposed to slavery.

LINCOLN 97
unequivocally opposed to it, yet his oath called upon him to
preserve the Constitution and the Union. He said that his
paramount object was to save the Union and not to save
or destroy slavery.
In 1862 President Lincoln appointed three men, namely.
Governor George S. Boutwell, the Hon. Stephen T, Logan,
and the Hon, Charles A. Dana, a commission to go to Cairo,
Illinois, and settle the claims of numerous persons against
the Government, arising from property purchased by com
missary officers and quartermasters in the volunteer service
before the volunteers knew anything about military rules or
regulations. Judge Logan went to Cairo, remained a few
days, became ill, tendered his resignation, and returned
home. The President telegraphed me an appointment, and
asked me to go at once to Cairo for duty, which I did, I
had not known either Boutwell or Dana before. The com
mission finished its work ui about a month, and forwarded
to Washington all papers, with its report. The claims were
paid on the basis of our allowance, and justice was done to
aU concerned.
Early in 1862 an old friend of President Lincoln's, James
Lamb, came to see me, stating that he had been furnishing
beef cattle to the army; that he had received orders to furnish
a given number on hoof at a certain place in the South, which
he had done; but before his cattle arrived the army had gone,
and he had thereby suffered great loss. He asked me to
look after his claim when I went to the National capital, and
I agreed to do so, I knew nothing about such things in
Washington, nor how such business with the Government was
transacted. I went to the President as the only official with
whom I was acquainted, and stated to him, "Uncle Jimmie
Lamb, your old friend, has a claim," setting forth the same
in fuU, "You know he is a good man," I urged, "and he

98 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
ought to have his money." Lincoln answered me by saying :
"Cullom, there is this difference in dealing between two indi
viduals and between an individual and the Government : if an
individual does not do as he agreed and the other person is
injured thereby, he can sue the one responsible for the injury,
and recover damages; but in the case of the Government,
if it does not do right, the individual can't help himself,"
He gave me a note, however, to the proper officer and the
matter was arranged. '
The gossip around the Capitol in Washington among
Senators and Representatives is a very poor gauge of pubhc
sentiment in the country toward a President. I was in
Washington a few months before the second nomination.
I talked with numerous Representatives and Senators, and
it really seemed to me as if there was hardly any one in favor
of the renomination of Mr. Lincoln, I felt much dis
couraged over the circumstance. When I was about to
leave for home, I caUed at the White House, I asked the
President if he permitted anybody to talk to him about him
self. He rephed that he did. I said: "I would hke to talk
to you about yourself." He asked me to be seated. Where
upon I told him that I had been in Washington some ten
days or more, and that everybody seemed to be against him,
"WeU, it is not quite so bad as that," he said. He took
down his directory, and I soon discovered that he had a far
more intimate knowledge of the situation than I had. He
had every one marked, knew how he stood, and the hst made
a better showing than I had expected.
The truth is, however, that many of the strong men in
Congress, especially the radicals, were against his renomina
tion, and would have rejoiced to see some one else the
nominee of the party ; but they knew full weU, that the great

LINCOLN 99
body of the people of the North were with him, and that
it would be useless to attempt to prevent his renomination.
The next time I caUed at the White House after the con
vention, he reminded me of our previous conversation, and
remarked that it did not turn out so badly after all.
He was reminded of a httle story, A couple of Irishmen
came to America and started out on foot into the country.
They travelled along until they came to a piece of woods.
They thought they heard a noise, but did not know what it
was. They deployed on either side of the road to find out,
but were unable to do so, and finally one called to the
other, "Pat, Pat, let 's go on; this is nothing but a domned
noise." So the opposition to him, he said, was apparently
nothing but a noise.
But if he never had any doubts as to his renomination,
he at one time almost despaired of being reelected, as did
many of his closest and most intimate friends. The Demo
crats had not yet selected their candidates, and as he re
marked: "At this period we had no adversary, and seemed to
have no friends,"
An incident in this connection is related by the late Sec
retary, John Hay, The President felt that the campaign
was going against him, and he had made up his mind
dehberately as to the course he should pursue. He resolved
to lay down for himself a course of action demanded by his
then conviction of duty. He wrote on the twenty-third of
August the foUowing memorandum:
"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly prob
able that this administration will not be reelected. Then it will be my
duty to so cooperate with the President-elect as to save the Union be
tween the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his elec
tion on such grounds that he cannot possibly save it afterwards."

100 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
He then folded and pasted the sheet in such manner that
its contents could not be read, and as the cabinet came to
gether he handed this paper to each member successively,
requesting him to write his name across the back of it, without
intimating to any member of the cabinet what the note con
tained. In this manner he pledged himself to accept
loyally the anticipated verdict of the people against him.
Mr. Hay's diary relates what took place at the next cabinet
meeting after the election, as follows:
"At the meeting of the cabinet to-day the President took out a paper
from his desk and said: 'Gentlemen, do you remember last summer I
asked you all to sign your names to the back of a paper of which I
did not show you the inside? This is it. Now, Mr. Hay, see if you
can open this without tearing it.' He had pasted it up in so singular
a style that it required some cutting to get it open. He then read this
memorandum (quoted above).
"The President said; 'You will remember that this was written at
the time, six days before the Chicago nominating convention, when as
yet we had no adversary and seemed to have no friends. I then sol
emnly resolved on the course of action indicated in this paper. I re
solved in case of the election of General McCleUan, being certain that
he would be the candidate, that I would see him and talk matters over
with him. I would say, "General, the election has demonstrated that
you are stronger, have more influence with the American people than
I. Now let us together, you with your influence, and I with all the
executive power of the Government, try to save the country. You raise
as many troops as you possibly can for the final trial, and I wiU devote
all my energies to assist and finish the war." '
"Seward said: 'And the General would have answered you, "Yes,
yes," and the next day when you saw him again and pressed these views
upon him, he would have said, "Yes, yes," and so on forever, and would
have done nothing at all.'
" 'At least,' rejoined Lincoln, 'I should have done my duty and have
stood clear before my own conscience.' "
Not the least of his troubles and embarrassments during
the trying period preceding his second election was the over-

LINCOLN 101
zealous advice, — persistence, I might say — on the part of
certain New Yorkers and New Englanders who seemed to
think that they had the interest of the Union and the country
more at heart than had Mr. Lincoln.
Horace Greeley was one of the most troublesome of this
lot. He was an honest and a most loyal man, but was wilhng
to temporize upon the most vital questions. At one time he
advised that the "erring sisters " should be permitted to de
part in peace. At this particular time of which I speak he
had devised a plan for a peace conference, with certain promi
nent Confederates, Clement C. Clay, among others, to be
held in Canada. Mr. Lincoln felt sure that the conference
would do no good, and that the Confederates were fooling
Mr. Greeley, and that they had no real power to act.
This turned out to be exactly the truth. I was with the
President just as he was sending Mr, Hay to Niagara with
written instructions, which were given to see that nothing
which threatened the interests of the Government should be
done. The President was very much annoyed, and he re
marked to me: "While Mr. Greeley means right, he makes
me almost as much trouble as the whole Southern Confed
eracy," While, as I have previously observed, Greeley was in
tensely loyal to the country, yet he was so nervous and un
stable in his mind that he could not resist the effort to bring
about a condition of peace. I think he would have consented
to almost anything in order to secure it. He was very
anxious for the issuance of a proclamation abolishing
slavery, and on the nineteenth of August, 1862, addressed
a very arrogant open letter to President Lincoln on the
subject. Lincoln's reply was so good, so perfect, and so conclusive
that I give it, as follows:

102 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Executive Mansion,
Washington, Friday, August 22, 1862.
Hon. Horace Greeley:
Dear Sir: I have just read yours of the nineteenth instant, ad
dressed to myself through The New York Tribune.
If there be any statements or assumptions of facts which I may know
to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them.
If there may be any inferences which I may believe to be falsely
drawn, I do not now and here argue against them.
If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive
it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to
be right.
As to the policy "I seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have not meant
to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it
in the shortest way under the Constitution.
The sooner the National authority can be restored, the nearer the
Union will be — the Union as it was.
If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could
at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them.
If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at
the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them.
Ml/ paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or
destroy slavery.
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it;
and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I
could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do that.
WTiat I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe
it helps to save the Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do
not believe it would help to save the Union.
I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the
cause, and shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the
cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall
adopt new views so fast as they will appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my view of oflicial duty,
and I intend no modifications of my oft-expressed personal wish that all
men everywhere could be free. Yours,
A. Lincoln.

LINCOLN 103
It is said that Mr. Greeley remarked after reading the
letter that he had been knocked out by one letter from Mr.
Lincoln, and that he "would be damned if he ever wrote him
another." There was more personal bitterness evinced against Mr.
Lincoln in the campaign of 1864 than ever before or since
in a Presidential campaign. He was denounced in the most
intemperate language as a tyrant, a dictator, whose admin
istration had proven a failure. A certain element of so-
caUed "high class" New Englanders, men of the WendeU
Phillips type, were particularly bitter in their denunciation.
And I may remark in passing that the New England men of
letters never did have a proper appreciation of the worth of
Abraham Lincoln.
He was triumphantly reelected amid the universal re
joicing of the friends of liberty throughout the North. He
took the election very quietly. He apparently felt no sense
of personal triumph over his opponents and those who had
so bitterly attacked him during the campaign. He seemed
only to have a feehng of deep gratitude to his f eUow citizens
who had testified their confidence in his administration. On
the evening of election day, when it became evident that he
was reelected to the Presidency, in response to a serenade he
said:
"I am thankful to God for this approval by the people. While deeply
grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my
gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph, but I give thanks
to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by
free government and the rights of humanity."
And again in that eloquent, simple little response which
he made to the joint committee of Congress appointed to
wait upon him to notify him of his second election, after

104 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
the count of the electoral votes by a joint session of the
Senate and House of Representatives in Congress, he said:
"With deep gratitude to my countrymen for this mark of their con
fidence; with a distrust of my own ability to perform the duty required,
under the most favorable circumstances, and now rendered doubly diffi
cult by existing national perils; yet with a firm reliance on the strength
of our free Government, and the eventual loyalty of the people to the
just principles upon which it is founded, and, above all, with an un
shaken faith in the Supreme Ruler of Nations, I accept this trust. Be
pleased to signify this to the respective Houses of Congress."
These utterances show more clearly than any one else can
describe the state of mind in which the President received
his reelection, and in which he was about to enter his second
term as President of the Republic. Without any personal
feehng of pride, he was certain in his own mind that his re
election was necessary in order to save the Union.
I attended the second inauguration, March 4, 1865. I
have a particularly vivid recoUection of the scene which took
place in the Senate chamber when Mr. Johnson took the oath
as Vice-President. The simple truth is, and it was plain to
every one present in that chamber, Mr. Johnson was intoxi
cated. Johnson delivered a rambling, senseless address. I
sat next to Senator Lane of Indiana, and I remarked that
somebody should stop him. Lane sent up a note to the Sec
retary of the Senate, telhng him to get Johnson to cease
speaking and take the oath. We felt Johnson was making
an exhibition of himself in the presence of the President, the
Cabinet, the Foreign Representatives, the two Houses of
Congress, and a gathering of the most distinguished men of
the Nation. The Secretary wrote some hnes and placed
them before Mr, Johnson, who did not appear to notice them.
Finally he was made to understand that he must take the
oath, as the time had come when the President, according to

LINCOLN 105
usual custom, would have to go to the east front of the
Capitol to take the oath as President of the United States.
Johnson, with a sort of wild sweep of his arm said, "I will
take the oath, but I regard my devotion to the Union as
greater evidence of my loyalty than any oath I could take."
I was close to Mr. Lincoln at the solemn moment when
Chief Justice Chase administered to him the oath of office.
There was a vast crowd of people, great enthusiasm and re
joicing, and the war was practically over, — a far different
scene from the one which took place just four years before,
when Chief Justice Taney in the same place administered
the same oath. At that time there was no noisy demonstra
tion. There was a solemn hush, as every one realized that
the country was about to be plunged into one of the mightiest
civil wars of aU history. Indeed many men believed that
there was a concerted plot to assassinate Mr. Lincoln at that
time, and that he would never be permitted to enter upon the
duties of his office.
I heard him dehver his second inaugural address, — one of
his two greatest speeches.
The last time I saw Abraham Lincoln alive was about
three weeks before his assassination, as I now recollect. He
was at the White House, There had been constant rumors
throughout his first term that he was in danger of some such
outrage, but as the war drew to a close, with the natural
bitter and resentful feeluig in the South, these rumors seemed
to increase. I told him what I had heard, and urged hun to
be careful. It did not seem to concern him much, and the
substance of his reply was that he must take his chances;
that he could not live in an iron box, as he expressed it,
and do his duty as President of the United States,
It is difficult for one who did not hve in those terrible
days from 1861 to 1865 to reahze the awful shock of horror

106 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
that went through the whole Nation on the morning of April
15, 1865, when the message came, "Abraham Lincoln is
dead," In his old home in Springfield, it seemed that the
whole population assembled in the pubhc square, and the
duty devolved on me to announce to the assembled people
that the great President had passed away. There was in
tense suppressed excitement. No one dared utter a word
in disparagement of Abraham Lincoln, The crowd was in
the humor for hanging to the limb of the first convenient
tree any one who dared to make a slighting suggestion. It
was not alone in Springfield, but it was throughout the en
tire North that this feeling prevailed. There was fear that
the Government would go to pieces, almost that the end of
the world was at hand.
Soon the news came from different sources that he was
to be buried in Washington, or somewhere in the East. The
people of Springfield became very much worked up, A
committee was appointed to go to Washington to insist that
the remains should be taken to Springfield. I was a member
of this committee. We left inmmediately, but before we
arrived at Harrisburg it had been determined that the only
fitting final resting place of aU that remained of the immortal
Lincoln was at his old home in Springfield ; and the funeral
train had already left Washington. The committee waited
at Harrisburg for its arrival. Through the courtesy of
Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, we were permitted to
board the train, and we accompanied the remains from there
to Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland,
Indianapohs, Chicago, and finaUy to Springfield. At each
place the remains lay in state and were viewed by hundreds
of thousands of people.
In aU, the entire journey consumed some twelve days
from the time the party left Washington until it arrived

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

LINCOLN 107
in Springfield. It was determined that the funeral train
should f oUow the same route and stop at practicaUy the same
places that Lincoln visited on his way to Washington to be
inaugurated as the first Repubhcan President of the United
States. The country was so wrought up no one seemed
certain what was to happen; no one knew but that there
would be a second and bloodier revolution, in which the
Government might fall into the hands of a dictator; and it
was thought the funeral trip would serve to arouse the pa
triotism of the people, which it did,
I never witnessed anything hke the universal demonstra
tion of sorrow, not only at every city where the remains lay
in state but all during the entire route, at every little village
and hamlet; even at cross-roads thousands of people would
be gathered to catch a ghmpse of the funeral train as it
passed by. In Philadelphia the casket rested in Independ
ence Hall. In New York I suppose not less than half a
million people passed by to view the body. General Scott
came down with the procession to the station, and to him I
introduced our Illinois friends. His response was given in
a most dignified and ponderous style: "Gentlemen, you do
me great honor,"
The farther west we proceeded, drawing constantly
nearer to the home of Lincohi, the more wrought up the
people seemed to be. In the West there were not only ex
pressions of deep sorrow, but of vengeance as well, espe
cially toward the South, Before the facts became fully
known, it was thought that the assassination was the result
of a Southern conspiracy, and there was a feehng that the
whole South should be punished for the act of one of her
misguided sons. The body lay in state for two days in Chi
cago, and then came the last stage of the journey to Spring
field. It first was taken to the State House, and was after-

108 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
wards placed in the old vault at the foot of the hiU in Oak
Ridge Cemetery, where it remained until the monument was
completed. Bishop Simpson, one of the most eloquent men
in the Methodist Church, and a devoted friend of Mr. Lin
coln during his hfe, preached the funeral sermon. The ser
vices at Springfield were simple in the extreme, just as
Mr. Lincoln would have wished. Steps were at once taken
for the erection of the monument, which stands in Oak Ridge
Cemetery to-day.
So far as I can learn, every member of the funeral party
that accompanied the remains of Abraham Lincoln from
Washington to Springfield, with the exception of Mr. E. F.
Leonard and myself, has passed away.
It was my good fortune to know Abraham Lincoln in aU
the walks of hfe. I knew him as President, and I was per
mitted to know him in the sacred precincts of his family at
home. I have studied the lives of the great men of the world,
and I do not hesitate to say now, after nearly fifty years have
passed away since his death, that Abraham Lincoln was the
peer in all that makes a man great, useful, and noble, of any
man in aU the world's history.

CHAPTER VIII
KOTABLES IN THE THIETY-NINTH CONGRESS
1864 TO 1870
I HAD a very active campaign for election to Congress
in 1864. As I have stated elsewhere, I had, while
Speaker, so framed the district that I thought it would surely
be a Repubhcan one; but very much to my surprise, it went
Democratic when Mr. Swett was a candidate. For a number
of reasons I was more than anxious to carry the district.
First, naturally I did not want to be defeated; second, I
wanted to show that it was reaUy a Republican district, and
more especially still on President Lincoln's account, I was
solicitous that a Republican should be elected from the Presi
dent's own district, as was President Lincohi also. The
National Committee assisted a good deal, and the President
himself helped whenever there was an opportunity. I was
elected by a good, safe majority, and entered the Thirty-
ninth Congress in December, 1865.
The Ilhnois delegation in the Thirty-ninth Congress, when
I entered the House, while containing few members, still
compared favorably with other delegations, and consisted of
very good men who reflected credit on the State, and some
of whom had far more than ordinary abihty. General John
A. Logan, of whom I have written in another part of these
memoirs, was a very prominent member of the delegation and
of the House. E. B. Washburne was also a leading member.
He was very influential, and at one time was in a sense
109

110 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
the leader of the House, He early became prominent as one
of the intimate friends and supporters of General Grant,
who, every one supposed, would be the nominee of the Re
pubhcan party to succeed President Johnson, Thaddeus
Stevens was the real leader on every occasion when he chose
to assume that position. His whole interest, however, seemed
to be concentrated on reconstruction, one of the greatest
problems that has ever confronted this country, and conse
quently he gave httle attention to general legislation. This
gave Washburne quite a commanding voice in shaping the
general legislation of the House,
John Wentworth was one of the best known citizens
of Chicago of his day, and was closely identified with the
early history of the city. He was several times a member of
the House. I found him to be a capable member of the
Thirty-ninth Congress, a man of influence, and I liked him
very much. He was Mayor of Chicago when President
Lincoln was assassinated, and I recall that he was at the sta
tion at the head of the committee when the funeral train ar
rived in Chicago, John Wentworth was quite a character in
our State pohtics, but he was particularly noted as being one
of the foremost citizens of his home city.
Burton C. Cook, of Ottawa, was one of the ablest men in
the Illinois delegation. He was a splendid man, a man of
high character, one of the leaders of the bar of the State of
Illinois, and retired from Congress to become general counsel
of the Northwestern Railroad. He occupied a very im
portant place in the House, and was chairman of the Com
mittee on the District of Columbia. He could not endure
ridicule, and he was not particularly quick in argument,
although a very good debater.
A rather humorous incident occurred on one occasion when
he was pushing a bill to have Pennsylvania Avenue paved.

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 111
Proctor Knott, from Kentucky, was then a member of the
House, and one of its cleverest and wittiest speakers. I
was caUed to the chair because Cook knew that I would take
care of him the best I could in the conduct of the bill through
the committee of the whole. We got along with the bill
very well for a good part of the day, until Knott took the
floor and made one of his incomparably funny speeches, de
picting the situation on Pennsylvania Avenue, with its fine
carriages and outfits, with buckles on the coachmen's hats as
big as garden gates. He made so much fun of the bill that
Cook, being unable to stand it, moved that the committee
rise. We never heard of the bill afterwards,
S. S. Marshall, a Democrat from Southern lUinois, and
prominent as such, was a member of Congress for many
terms, and at one time was the leader of the minority in the
House, At that time the Democrats in the House were so
few in number that occasionally they were unable to secure
the ayes and noes. They exercised very httle influence on
legislation, and were not much in evidence in debate, the main
contest then being between the radical and conservative ele
ments of the Republican party over Reconstruction.
General John F. Farnsworth of St. Charles was quite in
fluential as a member, and a very strong man, but was
particularly noted for his dauntless courage. On one oc
casion I saw him shake his fist in General Benjamin F. But
ler's face, daring him to resent it, Butler did not resent it,
as the House was in session ; and, any way, excepting with
his tongue, Butler was not a fighting man.
Eben C. IngersoU, who was f amiharly caUed by his friends
Clark IngersoU, served in that Congress. He was a very
clever man, possessed of considerable talent, and could on
occasions dehver a capitally witty speech. I remember a
rather ingenious passage from one of his speeches dehvered

112 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
when the controversy between the President and Congress
was at its height. He asserted that the country was sorely
afflicted; that it suffered aU sorts of troubles, trials, em
barrassments and difficulties. First, he said, it was afihcted
with cholera, next with trichinae, and then with Andy John
son, all in the same year, and that was more than any
country could stand. Eben C. IngersoU was a brother of
the famous Robert G. IngersoU, the world's greatest ag
nostic, Robert G. IngersoU was one of the most eloquent men
whom I have ever heard. He could utter the most beautiful
sentunents clothed in language equally beautiful. Speaking
of death and the hereafter one day, I heard him express him
self in about the same language he afterward used on the
lecture platform. It made a wonderful impression on me.
He said:
"And suppose after all that death does end all? Next to eternal
joy, next to being forever with those we love and those who have loved
us, next to that, is to be wrapt in the dreamless drapery of eternal peace.
Next to eternal life is eternal sleep. Upon the shadowy shore of death
the sea of trouble casts no wave. Eyes that have been curtained by
the everlasting dark, will never know again the burning touch of tears.
Lips touched by eternal silence will never speak again the broken words
of grief. Hearts of dust do not break. The dead do not weep.
Within the tomb no veiled and weeping sorrow sits, and in the rayless
gloom is crouched no shuddering fear.
"I had rather think of those I have loved, and lost, as having re
turned to earth, as having become a part of the elemental wealth of the
world — I would rather think of them as unconscious dust, I would
rather dream of them as gurgling in the streams, floating in the clouds,
bursting in the foam of light upon the shores of worlds, I would rather
think of them as the lost visions of a forgotten night, than to have even
the faintest fear that their naked souls have been clutched by an ortho
dox God. I will leave my dear where Nature leaves them. Whatever
flower of hope springs up in my heart, I will cherish, I will give it

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 113
breath of sighs and rain of tears. But I cannot believe that there is
any being in this universe who has been created for eternal pain."
Had it not been for the manner in which Robert IngersoU
outraged the members of every Christian denomination by
attacking and ridiculing their beliefs, he would certainly have
been caUed to high office in the Nation. He did not spare
any denomination. Beginning with the Cathohcs and end
ing with the Baptists, he abused them all, made fun of them,
and mercilessly pointed out their weak points. He was
always particularly bitter against the Presbyterian Church,
because, he declared, he was raised a Presbyterian, and knew
more about that church than any other. The two brothers
were very fond of each other, and Eben C, never seemed to
tire of talking about his brother's great talent. Robert G.
was nearly broken-hearted when his brother died. One of the
most touching and eloquent addresses which I have ever heard
was the address he dehvered on the occasion of Eben's fun
eral. He stood at the head of the casket and once or twice
nearly broke down. It was in that address, standing there
in the presence of death, that he expressed some doubts
as to the truth of his own teachings and intimated the pos-
sibihty of the existence of some hfe beyond the grave. This
was the only public occasion of which I have any knowledge
in which Robert G, IngersoU seemed to falter in his course.
We were very intimate, and it is a real pleasure to me
to pay him here a tribute. He was a man of extraordinary
talent and ability, one of the most lovable natures, and a man
of the cleanest, most dehghtf ul home life. In many respects,
I regard him as one of the greatest men of his day; certainly
he was the greatest agnostic of his time, if not of all time.
No one has taken his place. The very name. Agnostic, is
now rarely heard. And why? Because Robert G. Inger-

114 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
soil mercilessly tore down. He did not create, or build any
thing; he attempted to take away the behef s in all rehgion,
and he offered nothing in return. Hence it is that his teach
ings have practically died with him.
Another member of the Illinois delegation in the Thirty-
ninth Congress, a weU-known citizen of the State, was
Anthony Thornton. He had been a member of the Supreme
Court of the State, was a fine lawyer of the best type of
manhood, and he enjoyed the confidence and respect of the
members of the House, He resided in ShelbyviUe, but after
retiring from Congress he decided to go to Decatur, where
there was more business for a lawyer, and better opportuni
ties. He did not succeed very well, however, because it was
too late in his hfe to make a change and enter new fields,
A httle incident connected with him occurred while I was
Governor of the State. A young boy, whose parents the
Judge knew, committed a burglary and was sent to the
penitentiary. The parents of the boy were naturally anx
ious to get him out, and appealed to Judge Thornton to as
sist in securing his pardon. The Judge and I had served in
Congress together, and, naturally, any plea bearing his en
dorsement would have great weight with me. Beheving that
the boy had been influenced by bad companions, he jrielded
and came to Springfield to see me. I looked the case over
and finally said :
"Judge Thornton, you are an older man than I am; you
were in Congress with me; you have been a Judge of the
Supreme Court of the State ; if you will say that you would
issue this pardon if you occupied the chair I now occupy as
Governor of this State, I will pardon hun,"
He rephed: "Governor, I would not ask you to do a thing
I would not do myself, to save my right arm."
Whereupon I at once issued the pardon.

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 115
"Judge," I told him, "the train will leave in a short time;
go to Joliet and take the boy home with you."
He did not do this; but he thanked me very cordially and
said that he would see the boy as soon as he got home. The
very night that the boy left the penitentiary and returned
home, he committed another burglary and was immediately
arrested, I happened to see an account of the crime in the
papers next morning, and I cut it out and sent it to Judge
Thornton, Avith the inquiry, "Judge, what does this mean? "
He at once came to Springfield, and told me that he had been
fooled in prevaihng upon me to pardon the young man, and
pledged me that he would foUow him to the ends of the
earth if necessary in order to punish him for his crime. The
boy was sent back to the penitentiary and I never heard of
him afterwards.
Judge Thornton was one of the most honorable of men, a
man of learning and legal abihty as weU.
One day, before I was elected to the Thirty-ninth Con
gress, President Lincoln was talking with me about the dif
ferent members of that body. "There is a young man by
the name of Blaine now serving in Congress," said he, "who
seems to be one of the brightest men in the House. His
speeches are always short, always full of facts, and always
forcible, I am very fond of him. He is one of the coming
men of the country."
This was one of the reasons why I was early attracted to
Mr. Blaine,
He was candidate for Speaker in the Forty-first Congress.
I was rather zealous in his behalf, and had more or less of
a prominent part in his selection. When Mr. Blaine con
cluded that he would be a candidate for the Speakership, a
little dinner was given at Welkers', a rather famous restau-

116 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
rant in Washington, at which Judge KeUey, Judge Orth, the
late Senator Alhson, who then was a member of the House
from the State of Iowa; Mr. Mercur of Pennsylvania, the
gentleman at the head of the Associated Press in Washing
ton, and myself were present. After the dinner it was given
out to the press that Mr, Blaine was a candidate for Speaker,
As the campaign progressed it seemed to depend on Mr.
Allison and me more largely than on any other members to
take care of his interests. He was elected^ Speaker, and I had
been given to understand by him, and had so communicated to
friends in Congress whom I had induced to support Mr.
Blaine, that I should be consulted in the make-up of the
committees. Mr. Blaine never said a word to me on the
subject, but almost at the last moment wrote me this note:
"Dear Cullom:
"Which committee would you prefer. Territories or Claims?
"James G. Blaini."
I selected Territories and became chairman of that com
mittee. Allison told me he never spoke to him in reference
to committees, although he gave him important assignments.
Probably the most bitter enemy Mr. Blaine ever had in
public hfe was Roscoe Conkhng, a Senator from New York.
The quarrel between Blaine and Conkhng commenced in the
Thirty-ninth Congress, over some very trivial matter, and
continued from that time on until Blaine was nominated as
the candidate of the Republican party for the Presidency, in
1884, in which contest he was defeated by Grover Cleveland.
I occupied a seat next to Mr, Conkhng during the early
years of my service in Congress. He was a very friendly,
companionable man, especially to any one whom he did not
consider a rival, and, as I was a young man just entering
Congress and pohtics, he gave me his friendship. I was

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 117
present, sitting next to Conkhng, when the famous contro
versy in the House took place between Blaine and Conkhng.
During the session, from tune to time, they had been quar-
reUing. Conkhng had seemed to have a httle the best of the
argument. Blaine became exasperated one day, and in the
course of the debate gave Conkhng the worst "tongue lash
ing" probably ever given by one man to another on the floor
of the House. Conkhng, although unable to reply effec
tively, demeaned himself with great dignity. His manners
were placid and his reply was in measured terms. It was in
striking contrast to what Mr. Blaine said. To use a phrase
graphic if inelegant, he jumped on Conkhng with both feet
and hteraUy tore him to pieces without any attempt at dig
nity. This controversy with Conkhng probably caused the
defeat of Mr. Blaine for the nomination — first, in conven
tions prior to 1884, and finaUy after he became the nominee
of that year.
Blaine was a candidate for President for many years. It
seemed to be his destiny, as it was that of Henry Clay, to be
able to secure the nomination only when the Repubhcan party
went down in defeat, as it did for the first tune since the elec
tion of Lincoln. He was beaten in the Repubhcan National
Conventions by men of mediocre abihty when the party was
victorious. He was a leading candidate at the Cincinnati Convention,
when Hayes was nominated. I was there and heard Inger-
soU's great speech placing him in nomination. I have al
ways felt that Blaine would have been nominated by that
convention if a strong, courageous presiding officer had been
in the chair. As I sat behind Mr. McPherson, the presid
ing officer, and watched the proceedings, I thought that if
I had had that gavel in my hands there would have been no
adjournment and James G. Blame would have been nom-

118 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
inated. An adjournment was secured, however; the hghts
were extinguished, and the enemies of Blaine united, and
Hayes became the nominee.
But at the convention held in Chicago, in 1884, no other
candidate was seriously considered, and Blaine was nomi
nated for President and Logan for Vice-President.
I had to do much in connection with Blaine in the cam
paign of 1884. He was a very agreeable man so long as
things went to suit him; but he did not attempt to control
himself when things went at all against him. He was cam
paigning through Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois, in 1884 ; I had
been on the platform with him at Massillon, Ohio, when the
people would scarcely hsten to any one except Mr. McKmley.
It was arranged that Blaine should come from La Fay
ette, Indiana, to Springfield, Ilhnois. I was chairman of
the delegation consisting of one hundred of the most promi
nent men of the State, selected to accompany him to Spring
field. The delegation went to La Fayette, and the Adju
tant-General of the State and I waited on Mr. Blaine at
the residence of Mr. George Williams, who is stiU living,
and whom I have always known intimately. Mr. Blaine's
son came down in response to our caU, announcing that his
father had retired, ill, and would not be disturbed until
eight o'clock in the morning. At the hour appointed we
still had difficulty in seeing him, and finally I enhsted the
assistance of Mr. McKinley, who was there, and the Hon.
Joseph MedUl of The Chicago Tribune, to help me to pre
vail upon Blaine to keep his engagement. He had come
to the conclusion that he ought to go back East ; that he was
needed there more than he was in the West, The truth
was that he was trying to evade the Springfield engage
ment. I told him that there would be no less than a hun
dred thousand people from all parts of the State gathered,

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 119
at Springfield to see him, and it would not do to disappoint
so vast a crowd. He finally consented to go, but was very
ungracious about it, telhng us not to disturb him during the
trip from La Fayette to Springfield, and at once retired
to his drawing-room.
We soon came to a city in Indiana where there was a
large crowd to greet him, and following his orders, the
train did not stop. He emerged from his drawing-room
very angry because the train had not been stopped when a
crowd was waiting to hear him. Afterwards we halted at
almost every station on the hne to Springfield, where we
did not arrive until almost dusk. Probably a hundred
thousand people had been gathered there during the day,
and at least fifty thousand waited until we arrived; but it
was so dark that the audience could scarcely see the speaker.
He left for Chicago that night, hurrying through that city ;
thence to Wisconsin, I beheve, making enemies rather than
friends. He had gained the election by his Western tour,
but lost it during his stay in New York City. "Rum, Ro
manism, and RebeUion," the Delmonico dinner, the old row
with Conkhng beginning in the Thirty-ninth Congress,
caused his defeat. I told him afterwards that if he had
broken his leg in Sprmgfield and been compeUed to remain
as my guest there, he would have been elected. He agreed
with me that he would.
Notwithstanding his defeat, however, he continued as
one of the foremost leaders of the Repubhcan party up to
the time of his death. He might have been nominated
at the Chicago Convention, when Mr. Harrison received
the nomination the first time had he not retired to Eu
rope, apparently so disgusted at his own defeat four
years before that he had not the heart to make the race
again.

120 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
I do not think Harrison ever did hke Blaine, but he in
vited him to become the Premier of his cabinet, a position
which Mr, Blaine had held for a few months under General
Garfield. Harrison and Blaine never got along. As I
say elsewhere in these recollections, Harrison seemed jealous
of Blaine, and Blaine was not true to his chief. Mr. Blaine
sent for me one evening, and I caUed at his house. He re
lated to me with considerable feehng how the President had
treated both his family and himself. He urged me to be
come a candidate for President, but I told him that I would
not think of doing so. I afterwards supported Mr. Har
rison for reasons personal to myself, and not because I was
particularly fond of Mr. Harrison.
James G. Blaine retired to private hfe^and died soon
afterwards, a broken, disappointed man. ^.He was one of
the greatest men of his day, and was the most brilhant and
probably the most popular man with the masses in the his
tory of the Repubhcan party.
Rutherford B. Hayes was the nineteenth President of
the United States, and preceded General Garfield in that
office. He was neither as great a man nor as great an
orator as General Garfield, although he was a much better
executive officer, and in my opinion gave a better admin
istration than General Garfield would have given had he
served the term for which he was elected. Rutherford B,
Hayes was an inconspicuous member of the House, as I
recollect him now. He was what I would term a very good,
conscientious man, who never made any enemies ; but I do
not think that any one would say that he was a great man.
He did not talk very much in the House, nor accomphsh
very much. I became quite friendly with him there. Sub
sequently he was nominated for Governor of Ohio, and he

JAMES c;. BLAINE

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 121
invited me to come to the State and campaign for him,
which I did.
Thurman was his opponent, a very strong and able man,
who subsequently became a Senator from Ohio, and was a
nominee of the Democratic party for Vice-President. But
Hayes defeated him for the Governorship, and was once
reelected. He was nominated for President at the Cin
cinnati Convention of 1876, when Blaine really should have
been the nominee, and would have been had the permanent
chairman of the convention, Edward McPherson, grasped
the situation and held it with a firm hand.
McPherson, while a man of good intentions, earnest and
sincere, was clerk of the house for many years and had oc
cupied what might be termed a subordinate position. The
fact of the matter is that he permitted the convention to
get away from him; an adjournment was secured, and the
same night it was framed up to beat Blaine by nominating
Hayes. Hayes was just the kind of man for a compromise candi
date. He was seriously handicapped aU throu^ his ad
ministration owing to the manner in which he secured the
office. The Electoral Commission, an unheard-of thing,
created by act of Congress, by eight to seven declared that
Hayes was elected over Tilden. Very many people were of
the opinion that Tilden was entitled to the office. The
Electoral Commission never would have been agreed to by
the Democrats had they known that Justice David Davis,
of our own State, would retire from the Bench to take a
place in the Senate; and it is almost as certain that had
Judge Davis remained on the bench he would have been a
member of the Electoral Commission, and would have
surely voted in favor of Tilden, which would have made him
President. ^

122 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
While Hayes was President the "green-back craze"
seemed to almost take possession of the country. I dehvered
an address at Rockford, lUinois, before an agricultural
society, taking issue to some extent with the pubhc senti
ment of the country, and favoring sound money. The
President was going through the country at that time
on a speaking tour, and in the course of some of his ad
dresses he commended what I had said. He, accompanied
by General Sherman, visited Springfield, and I entertained
them at the Executive Mansion.
President Hayes, himself reahzing the embarrassment
under which he entered the office of President, was not a
candidate for renomination, and very wisely so. But as
I have said. President Hayes was a good man; he made
a very commendable record as President of the United
States, and he was speciaUy fortunate in the selection of
his cabinet, showing rare discrimination in selecting some
of the ablest men in the country as his advisers. Evarts
was his Secretary of State, and John Sherman Secretary of
the Treasury.
It is a rather peculiar cwncidence that both James R,
Garfield and R, B. Hayes were members of the Ohio dele
gation in the Thirty-ninth Congress, and both afterwards
arrived at the Presidency.
James R. Garfield was a man of extraordinary abihty,
I was very intimate with him during our service in the
House, He was an extremely likable man; I became very
fond of him, and I believe the feeling was reciprocated.
Also he was distinguished for his eloquence, and I have
heard him make some of the most wonderfully stirring
and impressive speeches in the House, He was probably
not the orator that Robert G, IngersoU was, but I should

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 123
say that he was one of the most effective pubhc speakers of
his period; his speeches were deeper and more serious, ut
tered in a graver style than the beautiful poetic imagery of
the great agnostic. President Lincoln hked Garfield, and
he was one of the younger men in the House who always
supported the President, and on whom the President relied.
He entered the Thirty-eighth Congress and served many
terms. He enjoyed the peculiar distinction of being a mem
ber of Congress from Ohio, Senator-elect from Ohio, and
President-elect of the United States, all at the same time,
I attended the National Republican Convention of 1880,
in which Grant and Blaine were the leading candidates, I
was at the time Governor of Illinois and a candidate for re
election myself; consequently I could not take any active
part in the contest between Blaine and Grant, but of course,
naturaUy, my sympathies were with General Grant,
I was not a delegate to the National Convention, but I
attended it, and it so happened that I occupied a room di
rectly opposite that occupied by General Garfield,
One evening, leaving my room, I met General Garfield
just as he was leaving his, and we dropped into general con
versation and walked along together,
I have always been considered a pretty fair judge of a
pohtical situation in State and National conventions, and it
struck me as soon as Garfield had completed one of the most
eloquent of aU his eloquent addresses, placing in nomina
tion Mr. Sherman, that he was the logical candidate before
that convention.
To digress for a moment, it is a peculiar coincidence that
McKinley made his great reputation, in part, by nominating
Mr. Sherman as a candidate for the Presidency in the
Minneapolis convention of 1892. Like General Garfield in
1880, Mr. McKinley was perfectly willing to receive the

124 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
nomination himself, although he was then, as Garfield was in
1880, the leader of the Sherman forces.
But to return. General Garfield and I walked down
the haU together, and being very intimate friends, I used
to call him by his first name, as he did me. I said: "James,
if you wiU keep a level head, you will be nominated for the
Presidency by this convention before it is over," This was
a couple of days before he was actually nominated.
He rephed: "No, I think not."
But as we walked along together discussing the matter,
I contended that I was right.
At the end of that memorable struggle between Grant
and Blaine, in which the great Republican party refused to
accept General Grant, the foremost Repubhcan and soldier
of his time, Garfield was nominated.
I remember vividly the form and features of Garfield in
that convention, I see him placing Sherman in nomina
tion, probably not reahzing at the time that he was nomi
nating himself. I see him taking an active part in aU the
debates, and as I look back now I do not think I ever saw a
man apparently so affected as General Garfield was when
it was announced that he was the nominee of the Repubhcan
party for the Presidency of the United States. Seemingly
he almost utterly coUapsed, He sank into his seat, over
come. He was taken out of the convention and to a room in
the Grand Pacific, where I met him a very few minutes
afterwards. After General Garfield was elected to the Presidency,
but before his inauguration, I determined that I would
urge upon him the appointment of Mr, Robert T, Lincoln
as a member of his cabinet, I thought then that his selection
would not only be an honor to the State, but that the great
name of Lincoln, so fresh then in the minds of the people,

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 125
would materiaUy strengthen General Garfield's administra
tion. With this purpose in view, I visited Garfield at his home in
Mentor, The journey was an extremely difficult one, ow
ing to the circumstance that the snow was yet deep on the
ground; so I arranged with the conductor to stop at the
nearest point to General Garfield's house to let me off,
which he did, I walked from the train through banks of
snow, and after the hardest kind of a walk, finaUy reached
his house.
I at once told him the mission on which I had come. We
had quite a long talk, at the end of which he announced
that he would appoint Mr. Lincoln his Secretary of War.
In this connection I desire to say a few words concerning
Robert T. Lincoln. He is still hving. I have known him
from his boyhood. He has the integrity and the character
which so distinguished his father, and was marked in his
mother's people as weU. It is my firm conviction that long
ago Robert T. Lincoln could have been President of the
United States had he possessed the slightest political aspi
ration. He has never been ambitious for public office;
but, on the contrary, it has always seemed to me that the
Presidency was especially repugnant to him, which would
be natural, considering the untimely death of his father, if
for no other reason. He was almost forced to take an
active interest in pubhc affairs, but as soon as he was per
mitted to do so he retired to private hfe to engage in large
business undertakings, and finaUy to become the head of the
Pullman Company.
It seems strange to me that he should consider the pres
idency of a private corporation, no matter how great the
emoluments, above the Presidency of the greatest of all Re-
pubhcs. How unhke his father! He was a most exceUent

126 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Secretary of War, and one of General Garfield's cabinet
officers whom General Arthur invited to remain in his cab
inet, which he did.
Under President Harrison he consented to become Min
ister to England. Neither my colleague, Senator FarweU,
nor I favored this appointment — not because of any an
tipathy for Mr. Lincoln, for whom I not only have the
highest respect and admiration, but like personally as well;
but Mr. Blaine, who was Harrison's Secretary of State,
called on me one day and asked me to recommend some
first-class man from Ilhnois for the post. After a consul
tation with my colleague, we determined to recommend an
eminent lawyer and cultured gentleman of Chicago, John
N. Jewett. We did recommend him, and assumed that his
appointment was assured; but Harrison — probably to hu-
mihate Mr. Blaine — caUed Senator FarweU and me to him
one day and announced that he had determined to appoint
Robert T. Lincoln Minister to England,
FarweU was extremely angry, and wanted to fight the
nomination. However, I counselled moderation, I pointed
out that no criticism could be made of Mr. Lincoln, and
that since he was my personal friend I could not very weU
oppose him. So I was glad to favor the appointment, al
though I was as humihated as my colleague at the cool man
ner with which Harrison had snubbed us after Mr. Blaine's
overtures. I recollect very well the telegram which Mr, Lincoln
received when he was in Springfield, attending the business
of the Pullman Company, It was from his office in Chi
cago, It stated that there was a letter there that demanded
immediate attention, and asked whether it should be for
warded. He gave instructions to forward it to Springfield.
It turned out to be the invitation of General Garfield to

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 127
enter his cabinet as Secretary of War, and asking an im
mediate reply. He brought it to me in the Governor's office,
where he sat down and wrote his reply accepting General
Garfield's invitation.
But to return to General Garfield. He was not a strong
executive officer. In the brief period in which he occupied
the White House, he did not make a good President, and in
my judgment would never have made a good one. He
vacillated in the disposition of his patronage. When I
visited him while he was yet President-elect, he told me that
Mr, Conkhng would be with him the next day, and asked
my advice as to what he should say to him. It was under
stood that Conkhng was coming to protest against the ap
pointment of Blaine as Secretary of State, My advice was
to let Mr. Conkhng understand that he would appoint
whomsoever he pleased as members of his cabinet; that he
would run the office of President without fear or favor; and
that he would appoint Mr, Blaine as Secretary of State be
cause he considered him the very man best qualified for that
high office. Garfield agreed with me, asserting that I had
expressed exactly what he intended saying to Conkhng; but
if we are to beheve the stories of Senator Conkhng's friends,
he made far different promises to Senator Conkhng in refer
ence to this as also to other appointments.
But the culmination of the trouble between Garfield and
Conkhng was the appointment of Robertson as CoUector
of Customs at the Port of New York, The President took
the ground, for his own reasons, that the Collector of Cus
toms of New York was a National office, in which every
State had an mterest, and was not to be considered as Sen
atorial patronage. Conkluig strenuously contended that it
was exclusively Senatorial patronage, and in this he was sus
tained by precedents.

128 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
It so happened that I was in Washington when the trou
ble between Conkhng and Garfield was at its height, over
the appointment of Robertson, I called to see the Pres
ident to pay my respects. He asked me if I knew what
General Logan would do in reference to the nomination of
Mr. Robertson, I told him I did not know, and he asked
me if I could find out, and to come to breakfast with him
next morning, I did find out that General Logan expected
to stand by the President, and I so reported to him next
morning. I bade him good-bye and this was the last time that I
ever saw him alive. I attended his funeral at Cleveland, and
as I saw his body laid away, I thought of the strange ca
price of fate. Was it premonition that made him so sad
and castdown — so utterly crushed, as it seemed to me —
when he became the Repubhcan candidate for President be
fore that great convention of 1880? Had he not been
elected President, he would probably have enjoyed a long,
useful, and highly creditable pubhc career. He would have
been one of the most distinguished representatives that
Ohio ever had in the upper branch of Congress. He was to
a most eminent degree fitted for a legislator. In the na
tional haUs of Congress his pubhc hfe had been spent ; there
he was at home. He was not at all fitted for the position of
Chief Executive of the United States. And I say this not in
a spirit of hostihty, but in the most kindly way, because I
loved General Garfield as one of my earhest friends, in those
days of long ago, when I served in the Thirty-ninth Con
gress. There was no man in the Thirty-ninth Congress with
whom I was afterwards so long and intimately associated as
I was with the late Senator WUham B. Allison of Iowa,

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 129
with whom I served in the Senate for a quarter of a cen
tury. Senator Allison was quite a prominent member of the
House when I entered Congress, and was serving then as
a member of the important Ways and Means Committee.
He was regarded as one of the ablest and most influential of
the Western members.
From the very earhest time I knew him. Senator AEison
was an authority on matters pertaining to finance. While
he was in favor of a protective tariff, he was not particularly
a high-tariff advocate ; he, and the late General Logan who
was then in the House, and I worked together on tariff mat
ters, as against the high-tariff advocates, led by General
Schenck. On one occasion we defeated a high-tariff proposition
that General Schenck was advocating. He was furious,
and rising up in his place, declared:
"I might as well move to lay the bill on the table and to
write as its epitaph — 'nibbled to death by pismires ! ' "
The remark made General Logan terribly angry; but
Senator Alhson, who had a quiet, keen sense of humor, and
I were very much amused, — as much at the fury of Logan
as at the remark of Schenck.
As a member of the House, Senator Alhson foUowed the
more radical element against President Johnson. He was
much more radical than I was in those days, and he attacked
President Johnson repeatedly on the floor of the House, in
tone and manner utterly unhke himself when later he served
in the Senate.
In the upper body he was decidedly a conservative. He
never committed himself until he was absolutely certain.
He was always regarded as a wise man, and he exercised an
extraordinary control over members, in setthng trouble-

130 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
some questions and bringing about harmony in the Senate.
He had powerful influence, not only with members of his
own party, but with members of the opposition. Every one
had confidence in him. His statements were accepted with
out question. He never attempted oratory, but by cool
statement of facts he moulded the opinions of legislators.
He was one of those even tempered, ievel-headed, sound,
sensible men to whom we naturally turned when there were
difficult questions to settle.
There has been no man in our history who had a longer or
more distinguished pubhc career, and I do not know of any
man who was more often invited to enter the cabinets of
different Presidents than was Senator Allison. The Sec
retaryship of the Treasury was urged and almost forced
upon him repeatedly. I visited Indianapohs to see the
President-elect, Mr. Harrison, and it so happened that Sen
ator Allison and I entered together, Mr. Harrison having
sent for him. I saw Harrison first, and he told me that he
was going to ask Senator Allison to become his Secretary
of the Treasury. I assured him that I was confident that
he would dechne the office — an assertion that occasioned
much surprise, even a display of temper. Mr. Harrison
seemed to think that it was Senator AUison's duty to accept
the place. When Senator Alhson saw him a short time
later, the office was tendered him and he promptly dechned
to accept it. Nothing that Mr, Harrison could do or say
would induce him to change his mind,
Mr. McKinley was anxious to have Senator Alhson in
his cabinet, and I do not think I shall be violating any con
fidence, now that they are both dead, in saying that in de
clining the appointment Alhson urged McKinley, as he
afterwards told me, to appoint me as Secretary of the
Treasury, and McKinley gave him so strong an assurance

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 131
that he intended to invite me to enter his cabinet, that when
Alhson saw me in Washington at the beginning of the ses
sion, I being a member of his Committee on Appropria
tions, he said: "Cullom, you are to enter the cabinet; now
you wiU not be able to do much work on the Appropriations
Committee, and you had better devote your time to getting
your affairs in shape preparing to leave the Senate and be
come Secretary of the Treasury."
I had urged President McKinley to beg Senator Alhson
to enter his cabinet. Coming from the source that Alhson's
assurance did, I naturally took it more or less seriously, but
I did not give the matter much thought.
The nearest that Mr, McKinley came to inviting me to
enter the cabinet, was an inquiry he made of me, which po
sition I would prefer in a cabinet. Secretary of State or
Secretary of the Treasury, I replied that, personally, I
should prefer the Treasury, as I had at that time no par
ticular interest or training in foreign affairs. I know now
that Mr. McKinley did fully intend to tender to me the
Treasury portfoho, and I also know, but I do not feel at
hberty at this time to reveal, the influence in Ilhnois which
induced him to change his mind, I am very glad now that
the position w;as not tendered to me, as I might have ac
cepted it, because of the known desire of certain friends in
this State to secure my seat in the Senate, in which event I
should have been long since retired to private hfe.
Senator Alhson was the trusted adviser of President after
President — Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison,
McKinley, Roosevelt aU called upon him. There was no
Senator who had to a greater extent their confidence. Had
he hved he would have been as close, if not closer to Pres
ident Taft. He served in the Senate longer than any other
man in aU our history. He broke Benton's long record.

132 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
He broke the long record of Senator MorriU. He served
eight years in the House and more than thirty-five years in
the Senate, a total of forty-three years and five months in
Congress. For forty-three years the history of his hfe em
bodies the complete financial legislative history of the United
States. Another conspicuous member of the Thirty-ninth Con
gress was Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts. He had
a long, varied, and interesting career, both in public and
private hfe. He was many times elected to Congress from
Massachusetts, and in 1856, after a long contest which lasted
more than two months, was elected Speaker of the House
of Representatives. He was Governor of his State, and in
1861, for a short time, president of the Ilhnois Central Rail
road, from which position he resigned to enter the Union
army as a major-general, serving throughout the war.
I did not know him when he was stationed at Chicago,
but I became very well acquainted with him in Congress.
He was Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs,
of which committee I was a member. Not only was Gen
eral Banks a polite, agreeable man, but he was an excep
tionally effective speaker, and very popular in the House.
There occurs to me a httle controversy which he had with
the late Senator Dawes, who was at that time a member of
the House from Massachusetts.
General Banks was undertaking to pass a bill to which
Mr. Dawes objected. Banks was nettled. Taking the
floor, he accused his coUeague of always objecting to bills
he attempted to pass, Dawes arose in his place, and in the
most ponderous fashion, turned to Banks.
"I appeal to my colleague," he asked, "when did I ever
"before object to any bill which he was attempting to pass? "

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 133
Banks jumped to his feet, and said in his high-pitched
voice: "I do not know that my colleague ever did, but I
always thought that he was just about to."
General Banks served during the six years that I was a
member of the House, and several terms afterwards, his
public service ending with the Fifty-first Congress. He
died at his home in Massachusetts, in 1894.
Daniel W. Voorhees was another celebrated member of
the Thirty-ninth Congress, and was later a Senator from
Indiana. Senator Voorhees was a very able man and a
zealous, consistent Democrat. He was charged, and I have
no dqubt at aU that it was true, with being a Rebel sympa
thizer, and a prominent member of the Knights of the
Golden Circle. A fine, gifted speaker, a kind-hearted gen
tleman, he was very popular with the people of Indiana.
Dan Voorhees and Thomas A. Hendricks, who was after
wards Vice-President of the United States, were the two
most prominent Democrats of Indiana in aU its history, and
indeed were two of the foremost Democrats of the North.
Senator Voorhees' seat, as a member of the House in the
Thirty-ninth Congress, was successfully contested; and I
can see him now, with his imposing presence, making his
final speech in the House, after the result of the contest had
become known. Garbed in a long cloak, he defended his
right to his seat with the greatest dignity. The vote was
taken; his opponent was seated; then he drew his cloak
about him, and with the air of a king, walked out of the
House, almost triumphantly. I had voted against him, but
the dignity with which he carried off the occasion certainly
commanded my deepest admiration.
He was a great admirer of Mr. Lincoln: He knew him
well; had been associated with him in many lawsuits on the
circuit, at Danville, and in the eastern part of the State;

134 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
and although they belonged to opposing pohtical parties, he
evinced for Lincoln a very warm feehng.
Senator Voorhees once told me a rather interesting story
in connection with President Lincoln. It was the occasion
of the dedication of what was known as the Foundery
Methodist Church in Washington. Mr. Lincoln was pres
ent, Voorhees was there, and Bishop Simpson dehvered the
dedicatory address. The bishop was an eloquent speaker
and his sermon was a characteristic one. The President
was seated in an armchair in front of the pulpit, with
his back to the minister, and after the sermon was over, an
effort was at once made to raise funds to pay the debt of
the church. This phase of the meeting was tiresomely pro
tracted, the minister, in the customary style, earnestly urg
ing an unresponsive congregation to contribute until
nearly every inducement had been exhausted. Finally
somebody started a movement to raise a certain definite
amount of money, the achievement of which would make the
President a hfe member of some church society. But even
this scheme was not accepted with much enthusiasm, and
Bishop Simpson renewed his plea for donations. At last
Mr. Lincoln, who had been growing tired and bored at the
performance, craned his head around toward Bishop Simp
son, and said in a tone that everybody heard: "Simpson,
if you wiU stop this auction I will pay the money myself."
And since Bishop Simpson's name has been mentioned,
another incident in which he figured is suggested, which
might as weU be related here.
In the Methodist Church Bishop Simpson's name is a
household word. He was one of its most prominent divines,
and in sympathy with that branch which remained loyal to
the Union. NaturaUy he was a great admirer of Mr. Lin
coln — in fact, so close was he to the President; that it was

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 135
his influence that secured the appointment of Senator Har
lan of Iowa as Secretary of the Interior, What follows
wiU demonstrate that this statement is not made on hear
say. Several prominent men of Illinois, and other parts of the
coimtry, were in Washington trying to secure the appoint
ment of Uncle Jesse K. Dubois (the father of Senator Du
bois of Idaho who served in the United States Senate two
terms with great credit to himself and State) , as Secretary of
the Interior. Uncle Jesse Dubois was there himself, and we
all met one evening at the National Hotel, at which meet
ing I was designated to go to the White House and use my
influence with President Lincoln in Uncle Jesse's behalf.
Uncle Jesse had no business coming to Washington when he
was being pushed for a cabinet office; but he did, neverthe
less, and he was not in good health. About ten o'clock at
night I saw the President, and laid before him Uncle Jesse's
claims. His reply was :
"I cannot appoint him. I must appoint Senator Harlan.
I promised Bishop Simpson to do so. The Methodist
Church has been standing by me very generaUy; I agreed
with Bishop Simpson to give Senator Harlan this place, and
I must keep my agreement, I would hke to take care of
Uncle Jesse, but I do not see that I can as a member of my
cabinet," I rephed: "If you have determined it, that is the end of
the matter, and I shall so report to the friends who are gath
ered at the National, so that Uncle Jesse may go on home."
President Lincoln seemed much affected. He foUowed
me to the door, repeating that he would hke to take care of
Uncle Jesse, but could not do so.
Jesse Dubois went home to Springfield, but he remained
as stanch a I'riend to Lincoln as ever, and was one of the

136 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
committee sent from Springfield to accompany the remains
of the immortal President to their last resting-place.
George S. Boutwell was another member of the Thirty-
ninth Congress who merits some attention. He afterwards
became very influential among the radical element, and was
one of the managers on the part of the House in the im
peachment of- President Johnson. It is hard to xuiderstand
in a man of his sober, sound sense ; but I am convinced that
he firmly beheved President Johnson to have been a con
spirator in securing the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. He
was Secretary of the Treasury under President Grant, who
had for him the greatest respect and coiifidence. I never
was very intimate with him, but I knew him fairly well, and
considered him one of the leading pubhc men of Massachu
setts of his day.
One of the leading members of the Pennsylvania dele
gation in the Thirty-ninth Congress was WiUiam D, Kelly.
He was a prominent member of the House, a good speaker,
although he always prepared his addresses at great length,
principally on the tariff; but he did not confine himself
to his manuscripts entirely. His specialty in Congress was
the tariff. He was called "Pig-iron Kelly" because he was
for high duties on pig-iron and, in fact, everything man
ufactured in Pennsylvania. That State, as everybody
knows, is the great iron and steel manufacturing State of
the Union, and its representatives in Congress were in that
day, as they are in this, the highest of high protective tariff
advocates. Before entering Congress, William D. Kelly for a num
ber of years had been a judge of one of the more important
courts of PhUadelphia. He was elected to and kept in the ,
House, without any particular effort on his own part, be
cause he was considered one of the most valuable men in

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 137
Congress in matters pertaining to the tariff. When I was
a candidate for reelection to the House he visited my district
and made several very able speeches for me at my request,
and, with his wife, was my guest in Springfield for several
days. At that time Repubhcans were for a high protective
tariff, and it was not considered then, as it seems to be in
these days of so-called insurgency, a crime for a Republican
to stand up and say that he was in favor of high tariff duties.
In any event. Judge Kelly did me much good in the speeches
he made in my district.
We occupied apartments in the same house in Washing
ton — on F Street near the Ebbitt House, at which hotel
we took our meals. F Street is now the heart of the business
centre, but it was then one of the principal residence streets,
and many Representatives and Senators lived in that vicin
ity. The only objection I had to living in the same house
with Judge Kelly was that he was always preparing
speeches, and when he got ready to dehver a speech he would
insist on reading it aU over to me ; and as his speeches were
generally two or three hours long, and always on the tariff,
in which I did not take an extraordinary amount of inter
est, I became pretty tired of hearing them.
On one occasion when he was making quite an eloquent
speech in the House, he was interrupted by a member from
Kentucky, whose name I do not remember. He had already
answered him once or twice and then gone on. He was in
terrupted agaui, and this time he answered: "Oh, don't
interrupt me when the glow is on." The "glow " did hap
pen to be on at that tune, and naturally he did not desire to
be interrupted.
In the same Pennsylvania delegation there were two mem
bers named Charles O'NeU and Leonard Meyer, who were
very short in stature. For some reason or other, some wag

138 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
dubbed them "Kelly's ponies," They heard of it and be
came very angry, and on every occasion, when there was
half a chance, they watched to see how Judge Kelly voted
and would then vote the opposite.
They were both good men and good Republicans, and
O'Neil served the same number of terms as Judge Kelly —
fifteen — but O'Neil remained his full fifteen terms and re
tired from Congress. Judge Kelly was serving his fifteenth
term when he died in Washington, in 1890.
Samuel J. Randall was one of the prominent Democrats
of his day; but strange to say he favored a protective tariff.
He also served about fifteen terms, two of them in the
Speaker's chair. He had an anxious sohcitude for the
success of his party, and made many pohtical speeches.
He was a young member when I first knew him, away
back in the sixties, but even then he occupied an influential
position. I remember meeting him in Mr. Blaine's office one day,
when the latter was Secretary of State, and Mr. Blaine not
being in, we sat on the settee and had a talk. He was in
poor health, but curious respecting the relations between
President Harrison and his party, I told him they were
not getting along very well ; that he satisfied his party about
as well as Mr. Cleveland satisfied his when he was in the
White House,
"I think," he observed, "he is better than our President.
We never could do much with Cleveland," Then he added
this characteristic remark: "If you want an army to fight,
you must feed it. It is the same with a pohtical party: if
a party is to take care of itself, its workers must be recog
nized in the distribution of its patronage,"
I never saw Samuel J, Randall afterwards.
Judge Godlove S. Orth was one of my most ultimate

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 139
friends in the House of Representatives, He was a splen
did man, and was regarded as an honorable and able mem
ber. He and I saw much of each other every day, as we
roomed in the same neighborhood and generally visited the
departments together. We were seen with each other so
often on the streets, in fact, that when we were separated,
friends would ask either one or the other of us: "What has
become of your partner? " At one time I canvassed his dis
trict for him and he was reelected.
He had a peculiar name, "Godlove." I never heard of a
man named Godlove, either before or since. The story was
told of a lady sitting in the gallery, hstening to the pro
ceedings of the House. She could not hear very weU.
When the roll was being caUed, and she heard the name
"Godlove" caUed by the clerk, she did not understand it;
she went down stairs and told her friends that the House of
Representatives was a most pious body; that every time they
caUed the roll, and the clerk got about half way through,
he would stop and exclaim: "God love us aU!"
Judge Orth has been dead for many years, but I have
always remembered with great pleasure our friendship
when we served as coUeagues in the House, nearly half a
century ago,
Oakes Ames of Boston was a prominent niember of the
House, He had charge of the Union Pacific Raih-oad con
struction, and it was charged — and proven, I beheve, after
wards — that he secured the concessions for the railroad by
imdue influence, — the use of money, gifts of stock, etc, —
and the whole thing finally culminated in what is known as
the Credit Mohilier scandal, the exposure of which came after
I retired from the House.
Ames was a member of the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth,
Fortieth, Forty-first, and Forty-second Congresses, and I

140 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
knew him very well during my six years' service. I was
made chairman of the Committee on Territories in the For
ty-first Congress, by Mr. Blaine, who was then Speaker.
Ames annoyed me very much by coming to me almost every
day in the interest of legislation in the Territories affecting
the Union Pacific, and I asked him one day, being a httle
out of temper, whether he was so absorbed in the Pacific
Railroad that he had no time to devote to anything else. He
made some light rejoinder; sometime later the exposure
came, and I found that he was engaged in most unfortunate
and unlawful practices in securing legislation in the interest
of his road.
I never believed that Oakes Ames was naturaUy a dis
honest man, but the proof was against him, and the scandal
resulted in his death, as it also did in the death of James
Brooks, of New York, and the ruination of other pubhc
men, I knew S. S. Cox ("Sunset" Cox, as he was caUed), as a
member of the Forty-first Congress, He had served in
some previous Congress as a member from Ohio ; but when
I knew him he was serAdng as a member from New York,
Cox was an able man, as a speaker, a writer, and a diplo
mat. He was always listened to with great respect and at
tention when he addressed the House, but a considerable
amount of fun was poked at him after a certain occasion
when he had interrupted General Butler a time or two in
debate, and the General, finally losing patience, replied to
one of his questions with the admonition : " Shoo, fly, don't
bodder me! " I was present at the time; the gaUeries were
filled, as they always were in those days ; and when General
Butler uttered this reproof the whole House, galleries, and
floor, was in an uproar, maintaining the confusion for some
minutes. When it seemed like subsiding, it would break

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS 141
out again and again, and so it continued for quite a while.
When order was finaUy restored Cox undertook to reply;
but he could not do so. He had been so crippled by the
response of the audience to Butler's remark that he never
recovered from it.
Cox was a splendid man. He always thought in those days
that he had not been quite appreciated by his friends in the
Democratic party, and they thought the same way; but he
was so good-humored, and such a whole-souled man and
so fond of wit that he reaUy never did get what he was en
titled to.
I was trying to pass a biU which I had prepared for the
purpose of prohibiting and wiping out polygamy in Utah.
I had reported the biU from the Committee on Territories,
and was doing my best to pass it. For some reason or
other (afterwards I learned it was an ulterior reason to help
out a friend). General Schenck undertook to defeat the
measure, and for this purpose he asked to have it referred to
the Committee on Judiciary. This committee probably had
jurisdiction over the subject; I did not think so at the time,
and beheved that such a reference would kill the biU. He
seemed to be making some headway with the Repubhcans,
when Cox came over to me from the Democratic side of the
House, and proposed that if I would yield to him for five
minutes he would help me to pass the bill. I told him to
go back to his seat and that I would yield to him directly.
When I did Cox took the floor, and to my utter astonishment
he denounced the bill as the most outrageous bill that had
ever been brought before the House, declaring in the most
spirited manner that of course it ought to be referred to
the Judiciary Committee, because every one knew that such
a reference would kill it.
But he was shrewder than I apprehended at the moment.

142 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
His talk had the desired effect, for the Repubhcans who had
been foUowing Schenck determined that they would not be
responsible for kilhng the biU; they came back to me, and
the measure was passed through the House by a substantial
majority.

CHAPTER IX
THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON
1865
As I look back now over the vista of the years that have
come and gone, it seems to me that I entered the
Lower House of Congress just at the beginning of the most
important period in aU our history. The great President
had been assassinated; the war was over; Andrew Johnson,
a Union Democrat, was President of the United States.
Reconstruction was the problem which confronted us, how
to heal up the Nation's wounds and remake a Union which
would endure for all time to come. These were the difficult
conditions that had to be dealt with by the Thirty-ninth
Congress. Andrew Johnson was the queerest character that ever
occupied the White House, and, with the exception of Lin
coln only, he entered it imder the most trying and difficult
circumstances in all our history; but Lincoln had, what
Johnson lacked, the support and confidence of the great
Repubhcan party. Johnson was never a Republican, and
never pretended to be one. He was a lifelong Democrat,
and a slave-holder as weU; but he was loyal to the Union,
no man living more so. As a Senator from Tennessee, alone
of all the Southern Senators he faced his colleagues from
the South in denouncing secession as treason. His subse
quent phenomenal course in armed opposition to the rebel-
143

144 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
hon brought about his nomination for the Vice-Presidency
as a shrewd stroke to secure the support of the War Demo
crats of the North and the Union men of his State and
section. He came to the Presidency under the cloud of President
Lincoln's assassination, when the majority of the North be
lieved that a Southern conspiracy had laid the great Presi
dent low. The seceding States hated him as a traitor to his
own section; the North distrusted him as a Democrat. At
first I believe the very radical element of the Repubhcan
party in Congress, led by old Ben Wade of Ohio, than whom
there was no more unsafe man in either house of Congress,
were disposed, if not openly to rejoice, which they dared not
do, to see with some secret satisfaction the entrance of John
son into the White House, It is well known that Wade did
say in his first interview with President Johnson, when, as
a member of the committee on the conduct of the war, he
waited on him, "Johnson, we have faith in you. By the
gods, there will be no more trouble in running the Govern
ment," I have already, in another chapter, described the scene
which took place in the Senate chamber when Johnson was
inducted into office as Vice-President ; the exhibition he made
of himself at the time of taking the oath of office, in the
presence of the President of the United States and the rep
resentatives of the Governments of the world, AU this, ad
vertised at the time in the opposition press, added to the
prejudice against Johnson in thq North and made his posi
tion more trying and difficult.
There were two striking points in Johnson's character,
and I knew him well: first, his loyalty to the Union; and,
second, his utter fearlessness of character. He could not be
cowed; old Ben Wade, Sumner, Stevens, all the great lead-

PRESIDENT JOHNSON 145
ers of that day could not, through fear, influence him one
particle. In 1861, when he was being made the target of all sorts of
threats on account of his sohtary stand against secession in
the Senate, he let fall this characteristic utterance:
"I want to say, not boastingly, with no anger in my
bosom, that these two eyes of mine have never looked upon
anything in the shape of mortal man that this heart has
feared." This utterance probably illustrates Johnson's character
more clearly than anything that I could say. He sought
rather than avoided a fight. Headstrong, domineering,
having fought his way in a State filled with aristocratic
Southerners, from the class of so-caUed "low whites" to the
highest position in the United States, he did not readily yield
to the dictates of the dominating forces in Congress.
Lincoln had a well-defined pohcy of reconstruction. In
deed, so liberal was he disposed to be in his treatment of the
Southern States, that immediately after the surrender of
Richmond he would have recognized the old State Govern
ment of Virginia had it not been for the peremptory veto of
Stanton. Congress was not in session when Johnson came
to the Presidency in April, 1865, To do him no more than
simple justice, I firmly believe that he wanted to foUow out,
in reconstruction, what he thought was the policy of Mr.
Lincoln, and in this he was guided largely by the advice of
Mr. Seward.
But there was this difference. Johnson was, probably in
good faith, pursuing the Lincoln pohcy of reconstruction;
but when the Legislatures and Executives of the Southern
States began openly passing laws and executing them so
that the negro was substantiaUy placed back into slavery,
practically nuUifying the results of the awful struggle, the

146 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
imtold loss of life and treasure, Mr. Lincoln certainly wouh
have receded and would have dealt with the South with an
iron hand, as Congress had determined to do, and as General
Grant was compelled to do when he assumed the Presi
dency. From April to the reassembling of Congress in December,
Johnson had a free hand in deahng with the seceding States,
and he was not slow to take advantage of it. He seemed
disposed to recognize the old State Governments ; to restrict
the suffrage to the whites; to exercise freely the pardoning
power in the way of extending executive clemency not only
to almost all classes, but to every individual who would ap
ply for it. The result was, it seemed to be certain that if
the Johnson policy were carried out to the fullest extent,
the supremacy of the Republican party in the councils of the
Nation would be at stake.
To express it in a word, the motive of the opposition to
the Johnson plan of reconstruction was the firm conviction
that its success would wreck the Republican party, and by
restoring the Democrats to power bring back Southern su
premacy and Northern vassalage. The impeachment, in a
word, was a culmination of the struggle between the legis
lative and the executive departments of the Government
over the problem of reconstruction. The legislative depart
ment claimed exclusive jurisdiction over reconstruction; the
executive claimed that it alone was competent to deal with
the subject.
This is a very brief summary of the conditions which con
fronted us when I entered the Thirty-ninth Congress.
Representatives of the eleven seceding States were there to
claim their seats in Congress, The Republican members met
in caucus the Saturday evening preceding the meeting of
Congress on Monday. I, as a member-elect, was present,

ANDREW JOHNSON

PRESIDENT JOHNSON 147
and I remember how old Thaddeus Stevens at once assumed
the dominating control in opposition to the President's plan.
Stevens was a most remarkable character, — one of the most
remarkable in the legislative history of the United States.
He believed firmly in negro equality and negro suffrage.
As one writer eloquently expresses it:
"According to his creed, the insurgent States were conquered provinces
to be shaped into a paradise for the freedman and a hell for the rebel.
His eye shot over the blackened southern land; he saw the carnage,
the desolation, the starvation, and the shame; and like a battered old
warhorse, he flung up his frontlet, sniffed the tainted breeze, and snorted
*Ha,Ha!'" It was at once determined by the Repubhcan majority in
Congress that the representatives of the eleven seceding
States should not be admitted. The Constitution expressly
gives to the House and Senate the exclusive power to judge
of the admission and quahfication of its own members.
We were surprised at the moderation of the President's
message, which came in on Tuesday after Congress assem
bled. In tone and general character the message was
whoUy unhke Johnson. It was an admirable state docu
ment, one of the finest from a hterary and probably from
every other standpoint that ever came from an Executive
to Congress. It was thought at the time that Mr. Seward
wrote it, but it has since been asserted that it was the product
of that foremost of American historians, J. C, Bancroft, one
of Mr. Johnson's close personal friends.
There existed three theories of dealmg with the Southern
States: one was the President's theory of recognizing the
State Governments, allowing the States to deal with the suf
frage question as they might see fit; the Stevens pohcy of
wiping out all State lines and dealing with the regions as
ponquered military provinces; and the Sumner theory of

148 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
treating them as organized territories, recognizing the State
hnes, Johnson dealt in a masterful manner with the subject in
his message. He said:
"States, with proper limitations of power, are essential to the existence
of the Constitution of the United States.
"The perpetuity of the Constitution brings with it the perpetuity of
the States; their mutual relations makes us what we are, and in our
political system this connection is indissoluble. The whole cannot exist
without the parts nor the parts without the whole. So long as the
Constitution of the United States endures, the States will endure;
the destruction of the one is the destruction of the other; the preserva
tion of the one is the preservation of the other.
"Thq true theory is that all pretended acts of secession were, from
the beginning, nuU. and void. The States cannot commit treason, nor
screen the individual citizens who may have committed treason, any
more than they can make valid treaties or engage in lawful commerce
with any foreign power. The States attempting to secede placed thism-
selves in a condition where their vitality was impaired but not extin
guished, their functions suspended but not destroyed."
It was but the Johnson theory which we presented to the
world, denying the right of any State to secede; asserting
the perpetuity, the indissolubility of the Union.
But the question was, whether the members from the se
ceding States should be admitted to the Senate and House;
and he dealt with this most difficult problem in a statesman-
hke way. He said :
"The amendment to the Constitution being adopted, it would remain
for the States whose powers have been so long in abeyance, to resume
their places in the two branches of the National Legislature, and thereby
complete the work of restoration. Here it is for you, fellow citizens
of the Senate, and for you, fellow citizens of the House of Representa- _
tives, to judge, each of you for yourselves, of the elections, returns and^
qualifications of your own members."

PRESIDENT JOHNSON 149
On the suffrage question, he said :
"On the propriety of making freedman electors by proclamation of
the Executive, I took for my counsel the Constitution itself, the inter
pretations of that instrument by its authors, and their contemporaries,
and the recent legislation of Congress. They all unite in inculcating
the doctrine that the regulation of the suffrage is a power exclusively
for the States. So fixed was this reservation of power in the habits
of the people, and so unquestioned has been the interpretation of the
Constitution, that during the Civil War the late President never har
bored the purpose, — certainly never avowed it, — of disregarding it;
and in acts of Congress nothing can be found to sanction any departure
by the Executive from a policy which has so uniformly obtained."
Aside from the worst radicals, the message pleased every
one, the country at large and the majority in Congress; and
there was a general disposition to give the President a
reasonably free hand in working out his plan of reconstruc
tion. But as I stated, the Legislatures of the Southern
States and their Executives assumed so domineering an atti
tude, practically wiping out the results of the war, that the
Republican majority in Congress assmned it to be its duty
to take control from the Executive.
What determined Johnson in his course, I do not know.
It was thought that he would be a radical of radicals. Be
ing of the "poor white" class, he may have been fiattered by
the attentions showered on him by the old Southern aristo
crats. Writers of this period have frequently given that as
a reason. My own belief has been that he was far too strong
a man to be governed in so vital a matter by so trivial a
cause. My conviction is that the radical Republican lead
ers in the House were right; that he believed in the old
Democratic party, aside from his loyalty to the Union; and
was a Democrat determined to turn the Government over
to the Democratic party, reconstructed on a Union basis.

150 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
I cannot undertake to go into aU the long details of that
memorable struggle. As I look back over the history of it
now, it seems to me to bear a close resemblance to the begin
ning of the French Revolution, to the struggle between the
States General of France and Louis XVI. Might we not,
if things had turned differently, drifted into chaos and revo
lution? If Johnson had been impeached and refused to sub
mit, adopting the same tactics as did Stanton in retaining
the War Department; had Ben Wade taken the oath of
office and demanded possession. Heaven only knows what
might have been the result.
But reminiscing in this way, as I cannot avoid doing when
I think back over those terrible times, I lose the continuity
of my subject.
An extension to the Freedman's Bureau biU was passed,
was promptly vetoed by the Executive, the veto was as
promptly overruled by the House, where there was no sub
stantial opposition, but the Senate failed to pass the bill, the
veto of the President to the contrary notwithstanding.
I had not the remotest idea that Johnson would dare to
veto the Freedman's Bureau bill, and I made a speech on
the subject, declaring a firm conviction to that effect, A
veto at that time was almost unheard of. Except during
the administration of Tyler, no important biU had ever been
vetoed by an Executive. It came as a shock to Congress
and the country. Excitement reigned supreme. The ques
tion was: "Should the biU pass the veto of the President
regardless thereof? "
Not the slightest difficulty existed in the House; Thad
deus Stevens had too complete control of that body to allow
any question concerning it there. The bill, therefore, was
promptly passed over the veto of the President.
But the situation in the Senate was different. At that

PRESIDENT JOHNSON 151
time the Sumner- Wade radical element did not have the
necessary two-thirds majority, and the biU failed to pass
over the veto of the President. The war between the ex
ecutive and legislative departments of the Government had
fairly commenced, and the first victory had been won by the
President. The Civil Rights bill, drawn and introduced by Judge
TrumbuU, than whom there was no greater lawyer in the
United States Senate, in January, 1866, on the reassembling
of Congress, was passed. Then began the real struggle on
the part of the radicals in the Senate, headed by Sumner and
Wade, to muster the necessary two-thirds majority to pass
a biU over the veto of the President.
Let me digress here to say a word in reference to Charles
Sumner. For ten years he was chairman of the Foreign Re
lations Committee of the United States Senate, and no man,
by education, experience, knowledge of world politics, and
travel, was ever more fitted to occupy that high position.
He was one of the most cultivated men of his day, a radical,
and filled one of the most important places in the history of
his time. When he entered the Senate, the South domi
nated this Government; the great triumvirate, Webster,
Clay, and Calhoun, had just passed. The day he entered.
Clay for the last time, feeble, emaciated, appeared on the
Senate floor. Compromise was the word, and the Southern
ers so dominated that it was considered treason to mention
the slavery question, Charles Sumner was an abolitionist;
he was not afraid, and at the very first opportunity he took
the floor and denounced the institution in no unmeasured
terms. Chase and Seward were present that day, and
quickly followed Sumner's lead. Seward, however, was far
more conservative than either Sumner or Chase.
It was the mission of Charles Sumner to awake the pubhc

152 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
conscience to the horrors of slavery. He performed his
duty unfalteringly, and it almost cost him his hfe. Mr.
Lincoln was the only man living who ever managed Charles
Sumner, or could use him for his purpose. Sumner's end
has always seemed to me most pitiful. Removed from his
high position as chairman of the Foreign Relations Commit
tee of the Senate, foUowed relentlessly by the enmity of
President Grant, then at the very acme of his fame; drift
ing from the Republican party, his own State repudiating
him, Charles Sumner died of a broken heart.
But to return to the struggle between the President and
Congress. Trumbull, Sumner, Wade, and the leaders were
boxmd in one way or another to get the necessary two-thirds.
The vote was taken in the Senate: "ShaU the Civil Rights
biU pass the veto of the President to the contrary notwith
standing? " It was well understood that the vote would be
very close, and the result uncertain.
The excitement was intense. The galleries were crowded;
members of the House were on the Senate floor. The result
seemed to depend entirely on the vote of Senator Morgan, of
New Yol-k, and he seemed to be irresolute, uncertain in his
own mind which way he would vote. The caU of the roll
proceeded. When his name was reached there was pro
found silence. He first voted nay, and then immediately
changed to yea. A wonderful demonstration burst forth,
as it was then known that the bUl would pass over the veto
of the President, and that the Republican party in Congress
at last had complete control. Senator TrumbuU made a
remarkable speech on that occasion, and I was never prouder
of any hving man.
So the struggle went on from day to day and year to year,
growing all the time more intense, I have always been dis
posed to be conservative; I was then; and it was with pro-

PRESIDENT JOHNSON 153
found regret that I saw the feeling between the President
and Congress becoming more and more strained.
I disliked to follow the extreme radical element, and when
the row was at its height. Judge Orth, a colleague in the
House from Indiana, and I concluded to go and see the
President and advise with him, in an attempt to smooth over
the differences, I will never forget that interview. It was
at night. He received us pohtely enough, and without
mincing any words he gave us to understand that we were
on a fool's errand and that he would not yield. We went
away, and naturally joined the extreme radicals in the
House, always voting with them afterwards.
The row continued in the Fortieth Congress. Bills were
passed, promptly vetoed, and the biUs immediately passed
over the President's veto. Many of the biUs were not only
unwise legislation but were unconstitutional as weU. We
passed the Tenure of Office bill ; we attempted to restrict the
President's pardoning power; and as I look back over the
history of the period, it seems to me that we did not have
the shghtest regard for the Constitution. Some of Presi
dent Johnson's veto messages were admirable. He had the
advice and assistance of one of the ablest lawyers of his day,
Jeremiah Black.
To make the feeling more intense, just about this time
Johnson made his famous "swing around the circle," as it
was termed. His speeches published in the opposition press
were intemperate and extreme. He denounced Congress.
He threatened to "kick people out of office," in violation of
the Tenure of Office act. He was undignified in his actions
and language, and many people thought he was intoxicated
most of the time, although I do not beheve this.
The radicals in both the House and Senate determined
that he should be impeached and removed from office. They

154 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
had the votes ui the House easily, and they thought they
could muster the necessary number in the Senate, as we had
been passing all sorts of legislation over the President's veto.
When the subject was up, I was doubtful, and I really be
heve, strong Repubhcan that I was, that had it not been for
Judge Trumbull I would have voted against the impeach
ment articles. I advised with the Judge, for whom I had
profound respect. I visited him at his house. I explained
to him my doubts, and I recall very clearly the expression
he used in reply. He said: "Johnson is an obstruction to
the Government and should be removed." Judge TrumbuU
himself changed afterwards, much to the astonishment of
every one, and denounced the impeachment proceeding as
unworthy of a justice of the peace court.
It seems to me difficult to realize that it was as far back
as March 2, 1868, that I addressed the House in favor of
the impeachment articles. I think I made a pretty good
speech on that occasion and supported my position very well.
I took rather an extreme view in favor of the predominance
of the legislative department of the Government, contend
ing that the executive and judiciary departments of the
Government, while they are finally responsible to the people,
are directly accountable to the legislative department.
The first and principal article in the impeachment pro
posed by the House was the President's issuance of an order
removing Edwin M, Stanton as Secretary of War, he hav
ing been duly appointed and commissioned by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate, and the Senate having been
in session at the time of his removal.
I contended then, on the floor of the House, that such a
removal was a violation of the Constitution and could not
be excused on any pretext whatever, in addition to being a
direct violation of the Tenure of Office act.

• PRESIDENT JOHNSON 155
I do not intend to go into the details of the various articles
proposed by the House; suffice it to say that they were
mainly based on the attempted removal of Mr. Stanton, and
the appointment of Mr. Thomas as Secretary of War.
I was very serious in concluding my speech. My words
were:
"Mb. Chairman: The administration of Mr. Johnson since he became
President of the United States has been characterized by an utter dis
regard of the laws and Constitution of the United States. And, sir,
I am of the opinion that there should be another article adopted by
this House, and sent to the Senate, upon which he should be tried,
the substance of which should be that Andrew Johnson, President of the
United States, is guilty of high crimes in office, in that he violated
the Constitution and laws of the United States, by using his influence,
patronage and power of said office to hinder, delay and prevent a
restoration of the States lately in rebellion against the Government, to
their proper practical relations to the Union. Congress provided by
law for the reconstruction of the rebel States. The President, from
whatever motives it matters not, stands in his Executive Office, and by
all his influence and power opposes restoration according to law. As
an Executive Officer, he has no such right, and his opposition to the
laws of Congress on the subject of reconstruction has cost this Nation
thousands of loyal men who have been murdefed in the South on account
of their devotion to the Flag, and millions of money which is to be
added to the enormous public debt to be cast upon the necks of the
people. Shall the Nation endure it longer? Shall we struggle on and
on until the welcome day comes when his term shall expire? The
people say 'No'; men struggling in business say 'No'; men longing for
peace and harmony in the land say 'No'; the loyal men of the South,
who have been abused and hunted by wicked rebels, say 'No' ; and I trust
that the answer of all these may be the answer of this House to-day,
and the answer of the Senate of the United States within a reasonable
time after these articles shall be sent them."
Needless for me to say, that as the subject continued feel
ing remained at a high pitch in the House. It was debated
from day to day. Stevens was urging the impeachment

156 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
with aU the force at his command; some were doubtful and
holding back, as I was ; some changed — for instance, James
G. Blaine, who was taunted by Stevens and sneered at for
his change of front.
Under the law then existmg the President of the Senate
succeeded a Vice-President who became, by the death or re
moval of the President, President of the United States.
The radicals in complete control — and I have no doubt that
Stevens had a hand in it — elected the most radical of their
number as President of the Senate — Ben Wade, of Ohio.
Johnson removed. Wade would have been President, and the
extreme radicals would have been in supreme control of the
legislative and executive departments of the Government,
This condition is what made Mr. Blaine hesitate. He told
me on one occasion: "Johnson in the White House is bad
enough, but we know what we have; Lord knows what we
would get with old Ben Wade there, I do not know but I
would rather trust Johnson than Wade." But in the end
Blaine supported the impeachment articles, just as I did,
and as Senator Allison and other somewhat conservative
members did, all feeling at the same time not a httle doubt
ful of our course.
Stevens, Logan, Boutwell, Wilhams, and Wilson were ap
pointed managers on the part of the House, and solemnly
and officially notified the Senate of the action of the House
in impeaching the President of the United States, The
Senate proceeded without long delay to resolve itself as a
High Court of Impeachment, for the purpose of trying the
President of the United States for high crunes and misde
meanors. The most eminent counsel of the Nation were
engaged. Mr. Evarts was President Johnson's principal
counsel. He was ably assisted by lawyers of scarcely less
renown.

PRESIDENT JOHNSON 157
The trial dragged along from day to day. Part of the
time the Senate considered the matter in executive session.
The corridors were crowded; and I remember with what
astonishment we heard that Judge TrumbuU had taken the
floor denouncing the proceeding as unworthy of a justice of
the peace court. The Ilhnois delegation held a meeting, and
Logan, Farnsworth, and Washburne urged that we unite in
a letter to Judge TrumbuU, with a view to influencing his
vote for conviction, or of inducmg him to withhold his vote
if he could not vote for conviction, A number of our dele
gation opposed it, and the letter was not sent,
I do not think that it would have made the shghtest effect
on Judge TrumbuU had we sent it. All sorts of coercuig
methods were used to influence wavering Senators. Old Bob
Schenck was the chairman of this movement, and he sent
telegrams broadcast all over the United States to the effect
that there was great danger to the peace of the country and
the Repubhcan cause if impeachment failed, and asking the
recipients to send to their Senators pubhc opinion by reso
lutions and delegations. And responses came from all over
the North, urging and demanding the impeachment of the
President. It is difficult now to reahze the intense excitement of that
period. General Grant was there, tacitly acknowledged as
the next nominee of the Republican party for the Presi
dency. He took no active part, but it was pretty well
understood, from the position of his friends such as Logan
and Washburne, that the impeachment had his sympathy;
and in the Senate Conkhng was especially vindictive.
Grimes, Fessenden, and TrumbuU led the fight for acquittal.
Many were noncommittal; but in the end the struggle turned
on the one doubtful Senator, Edmund G. Ross of Kansas.
It was determined to vote on the tenth article first, as that

158 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
article was the strongest one and more votes could be mus
tered for it than any other. It was weU imderstood that the
vote on that article would settle the matter.
More than forty-three years have passed into history
since that memorable day when the Senate of the United
States was sitting as a Court of Impeachment for the pur
pose of trying the President of the United States for high
crimes and misdemeanors. The occasion is unforgettable.
As I look back now, I see arising before me the forms and
features of the great men who were sitting in that high
court: I see presiding Chief Justice Chase; I see Sumner,
cold and dignified; Wade, Trumbull, Hendricks, Conkhng,
Yates; I see Logan as one of the managers on the part of
the House; I see old Thad Stevens, weak and wasted from
iUness, being carried in — all long since have passed to the
beyond, the accused President, the members of the high
court, the counsel. Of all the eminent men who were pres
ent on that day, aside from the Hon. J. B, Henderson, I do
not know of a single one now living.
As the roll was caUed, there was such a solemn hush as
only comes when man stands in the presence of Deity.
Finally, when the name of Ross was reached and he voted
"No" ; when it was understood that his vote meant acquittal,
the friends of the President in the gaUeries thimdered forth
in applause.
And thus ended for the first, and I hope the last, time the
trial of a President of the United States before the Senate,
sitting as a Court of Impeachment for high crimes and mis
demeanors.

CHAPTER X
SPEAKER OF THE LEGISLATURE, AND GOVERNOR
1871 TO 1883
AFTER my six years' service in the Lower House of
Congress, I returned home, not expecting ever again
to take office, or engage in pohtics. There was a contest
going on in the State over the location of the State Capitol,
The State had committed itself to the erection of a new
Capitol building, and had reaUy made considerable progress
on its construction.
In the meantime, the question of changing the location
from Springfield to some other city was agitated. Peoria
made a very strong effort for the removal to that city.
The work on the new building, as an immediate result, was
stopped. The Legislature had adjourned, and another elec
tion of members was to occur. This condition of local af
fairs existed when I returned home after my service was
finished in Washington.
The friends in my home county, in which the State Capitol
is located, waited on me and expressed a desire that I should
aUow my name to be used as a candidate for the Legislature,
I made known my resolve not to enter politics again; but
they based the proposal upon a ground that made it ex
tremely difficult and embarrassing not to accede, to-wit:
they had been with me for anj^hing I had ever wanted, and
now they wanted me to reciprocate, and do as they desired.
I did not feel that I could disregard their wishes, and so
yielded to their demand; it was nothing less.
159

160 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
They then went to the Hon. Milton Hay, who was a great
lawyer, and as good a man as I ever knew, and made the
same demand upon him. He was under no special obliga
tion to yield to their wishes, for he had never asked for office
at the hands of the people. He declmed; but they also de
chned to take " No " for an answer. The result was that
both Hay and I became candidates, were both elected, and
the contest over the removal of the State Capitol was not
renewed, I was chosen Speaker. Mr, Hay was the foremost lawyer
of the Legislature, One miUion dollars was reported from
the proper committee of the House, and passed without
opposition, and the work on the Capitol was once more
taken up.
Finding myself again in pohtics, I determined to become
a candidate for Governor, To be successful, it seemed to be
important that I should go back into the Legislature, which
I did. After my reelection I was supported by the Re
pubhcan party for Speaker for my second term.
However, the House of Representatives was in control of
the opposition, composed of Democrats and Independents,
the latter being more generaUy wrong than the Democrats, —
and much less rehable. The combination organized the
House, the Hon, Ehjah Haines being elected Speaker, and
the Repubhcans casting their united vote for me. This
Legislature has ever since been known as the " Haines Legis
lature," the most notorious Legislature ever known in the
State. Haines was a man of abihty — especiaUy, to stir up
strife and produce confusion.
The Legislature convened in the Winter of 1875. I was
nominated for Governor early in 1876, elected in November
of the same year, and sworn in January, 1877.
On reexamining my inaugural address, I find much stated

SPEAKER AND GOVERNOR 161
there that is at the present time, and must long remain, of
historic interest to the people of Ilhnois ; but since its length
precludes reproduction here, I can merely touch upon cer
tain points, more fully covered in the address, that offer
many curious aspects and contrasts in the hght of latter-day
conditions. To begin with, the Legislature of that year was the first
to meet in the new Capitol. The effects of the financial
panic of 1873 were still felt, but it was pointed out that
the State's resources were in no way impaired; that on
the contrary — circumstances to be proud of — the volume
of private indebtedness had been materiaUy reduced, while
the productive wealth of farms, buildings, factories, mines,
and raUroads had never before been so great.
Of matters educational, there had been enroUed as pupils
the preceding year (1876) 687,446 persons, and appropria
tions for pubhc-school purposes for the corresponding period
had amounted to $8,268,539.58.
Among other matters of local interest adverted to, which
to-day are as ahve and momentous as they were then, were
the subjects of navigation — particularly on the Ilhnois
River and the canal — and the supervision of the railroads
by the Railroad and Warehouse Commission. At that
time there were 7,285 miles of railroad in the State — a
greater mileage than any other State in the Union could
boast of.
Only eleven years had elapsed since the close of the Civil
War, and its after-effects stiU worked hke an obnoxious fer
ment in the State's pohtical conditions; closely allied with
this was the influence of the Hayes-Tilden contest, all of
which commanded a large proportion of my speech.
One extract I wish to quote in full, since it was a prelude
to events which followed so soon afterwards :

162 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
"I desire to add one suggestion in reference to the afi'airs of our own
State, by calling your attention to the Militia Law. I believe a more
perfect law should be enacted, which will secure a more thorough organiza
tion of the State militia.
"The spirit of our institutions and the temper of our people are hos
tile to a standing army, and I am opposed to any policy. State or
National, looking to governing the people by bayonet; yet in the most
highly civilized communities a trained militia, recruited from the in
telligent and industrious classes, is an almost indispensable auxiliary to
the civil power in the interests of peace and good order."
Little did I dream that within six months of my inaugu
ration the timehness and force of the suggestions, and any
recommendations contained in the closing paragraphs above,
would find convincing illustrations in conditions throughout
the Nation, and more especiaUy in Ilhnois,
In July, 1877, the famous strike of the railway employees
came on. It was exceptionally strong in the cities of Illinois
— Chicago, Decatur, Springfield, Galesburg, East St,
Louis, and every other city of considerable size. The State
was ill prepared for such a crisis. The strike ran along for
several days with the State unready to bring the matter to
a close. Having been in office but a few months, I had not
yet secured any arms or other military equipment with which
to combat organized violations of the law. The Ilhnois Na
tional Guard was inchoate — in fact, scarcely organized at
aU, except in companies voluntarily formed, which were al
most entirely without mihtary equipment. Finally, however,
I determined to order the National Guard to East St, Louis,
I telegraphed to Chicago for a locomotive and- car to take
me to East St. Louis about two o'clock on a specified night.
After ordering the troops from different parts of the State
to assemble at East St, Louis on a given day, I went to East
St, Louis myself, three or four gentlemen accompanying me.
There I found several thousand men sitting about on the

SPEAKER AND GOVERNOR 163
curbs of the sidewalks, apparently perfectly quiet and inof
fensive, if not unconcerned, and I concluded that there was
no reason why trains should not move.
However, I first consulted with several railroad men, ex
pressing the opinion that the strikers and their sympathizers
did not seem desirous of disturbing anybody, and insisted
that they proceed to move out their trains.
The superintendent of one of the roads finaUy promised
to have a train made up, and undertake to move it,
" AU right," said I. " Fire up, and I wiU come around
about the time you are ready to move," He did as he had
promised, and I went around with the friends who were ac
companying me.
But about the time the train was ready to move, these mild-
mannered laboring men, to the number of five or six hundred,
gently closed in upon the train, and put out the fire in the
engine so that it could not be moved.
Thereupon, I stood upon the sidewalk and addressed this
crowd of five or six hundred fire-extinguishers, I told them
that I had come there to move the trains, and while I did not
want to hurt any one, that the trains would be started, if
everybody who interfered first ha,d to be disabled. They
graduaUy skulked away, and I ordered the fire built up
again, asserting that I would be back in half an hour to see
the trains move. But the men notified the engineer that they
would kill any man who undertook to take the train out, and
in the face of that threat no one could be prevailed upon to
man engines or train.
Finally, however, one man agreed, if I would accompany
him as far as Decatur, about a hundred miles, to endeavor to
go out with the train. I told him I could not do that, but I
would stand by his side whUe he was going through the
streets of East St. Louis. But he would not agree to this.

164 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
so that my efforts to move a single train had met with com
plete failure. The result was that I was driven to the
expediency of caUing upon the mihtary arm of the State au
thority. That evening the troops began to arrive. They were sta
tioned at the strategic points of the city during the night,
and the next morning the trains moved out without a single
accident or disturbance.
In Chicago, the National Guard did not seem to accom
phsh anything. The people there did not take them seri
ously, and the result was that I called upon the National
Government to send to that city a few companies of regular
troops. I think they came from Omaha. When they ar
rived, and marched up the streets — that was the end of the
strike in that city.
So I managed to get through the trouble without injury
to a single person, or the loss of any property except that
caused by the delay in the transaction of business. These
results were quite different from those in some other parts
of the country. My chief private secretary was in the East
somewhere, and could not return to me until the trouble was
aU over.
As Governor of a State in a time when actual war was
not flagrant, I could only watch, as might any other Ameri
can citizen, the exciting proceedings at the National Capital,
and hope that our country might issue from the pohtical
contest without a weakening of our institutions or loss of
prestige. At the same time, I felt that I might appropri
ately express my approval of the attitude of the National
administration, which I did in a letter to the President,
When I was Governor of the State of Illinois, I had the
good fortune of becoming intimately acquainted with one of

SHKLBY M. CULLO.M

Wliile (lo\fnior of Illinois

SPEAKER AND GOVERNOR 165
the great soldiers of the recent Civil War, who was, in my
judgment, the greatest cavalry leader of modern times, —
General Phil Sheridan. He was Commander of the De
partment of the Lakes during my administration, and I had
the pleasure of meeting him on numerous occasions.
At an immense reunion of volunteer soldiers from North
ern Ilhnois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, which was held in
Aurora, I, as Governor of the State, was invited to make
the first address. General Sheridan was invited to be present
and take part in this celebration, and he came down from
Chicago, accompanied by his wife. I met them at Aurora,
We rode in the same carriage, at the rear of the procession,
to the fair grounds, a mile or so distant from the city. The
day was hot, and as we entered a dense grove, on the road,
the soldiers halted for a breathing spell, and while at rest
many of them went to a weU near by for water. It was
observed by some of the soldiers that General Sheridan re
mained in the carriage, and they immediately surrounded
us. He greeted aU cordially and good-naturedly, being very
fond of soldiers who had fought on the Union side of the
great struggle between the North and South. What imme
diately foUowed pleased Mrs, Sheridan and those who were
near, and amused Sheridan hunself, A big Irish soldier-
boy got hold of Sheridan's hand and puUed him out of the
carriage. Being of smaU stature. General Sheridan was at
the mercy of the stalwart Irishman, who dealt with him in a
very rough way, slapping him on the back with great force,
and with as much earnestness exclaiming: " Boys, this is
the damnedest, bravest httle Mick in America! "
As is well known now, the operations of General Sheridan
in the Shenandoah Valley and the region of Richmond called
forth the plaudits of the Nation and the commendation of his
superiors. His victories had much to do with bringing the

166 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
CivU War to a close. He was conscious of the power and
value of the cavalry arm of the army. In discussing his
great achievements he made the remarkable statement that
with a force of five or ten thousand cavalrymen, well organ
ized, he could run over an army of almost any size. Whether
this be true or not, it remains that General Grant had imphcit
confidence in Sheridan's abihty to command the cavalry
forces in a manner superior to any other officer in the Union
Army. It was on the suggestion of Grant that Sheridan was
brought from the West to take command of the cavalry.
After coming East, he was presented to President Lincoln.
The President scrutinized him closely. He did not appear
to be the officer recommended to him by Grant as the one man
who could bring the cavalry forces to that standard which
was so much desired.
The first time Lincoln met Grant after Sheridan called
on him he expressed his doubt, "The officer you brought
from the West seems rather a httle f eUow to handle your
cavalry," said he.
Grant, however, unshaken in the behef that he at last had
an officer under him whom he could trust in charge of all
the armies of the Union if necessary, rephed: " You wiU
find him big enough for the purpose before we get through
with him."
Sheridan was not only popular with his superior officers
and men under him, but with the people generally. He was
held in the highest esteem by the people of my State. After
his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant-General, the citi
zens of Chicago presented him with a house in Washington,
as a mark of their friendship and devotion.
While Governor I rendered a decision in an extradition

SPEAKER AND GOVERNOR 167
case, which formed a precedent, and which is referred to by
writers on extradition.
Moore comments on it as follows:
"In December, 1878, an interesting decision was made by Governor
Cullom, of Illinois, in the case of two persons named Gaffigan and
Merrick, whose surrender was demanded by the Governor of Pennsyl
vania on a charge of murder committed in that State in January, 1865.
Accompanying the requisition was an indictment found against them
in Pennsylvania in March, 1865, for the crime for which their rendition
was demanded. It was alleged in their behalf that soon after the mur
der was committed, and before the indictment was found, they left their
place of residence in Pennsylvania and went to lUinois, where they had
resided continuously in an open manner, bearing their own names, trans
acting daily business, and holding responsible public positions. In 1870 or
1871 Gaffigan was joined by his father, who left their former place of resi
dence in Pennsylvania with the avowed purpose of joining his son in Illi
nois. The residence of the latter in Illinois was also known to other per
sons in the particular locality in Pennsylvania, among whom were a consta
ble and a witness whose name was endorsed on the indictment. On the
other hand, the prosecuting attorney in Pennsylvania denied that there
had been any laches in the matter, and declared that he had acted upon
the first knowledge that he had acquired in respect to the whereabouts
of the persons charged. Governor Cullom held that while it might be
inferred from the fact that the accused left the State of Pennsylvania
shortly after the date of the murder that they were fugitives from jus
tice, yet this character did not always adhere to them; and that their
long residence in Illinois, which was so entirely unconcealed and well
known, that the officers of justice in Pennsylvania could have been
ignorant of it only because they made no effort to find it out, had purged
them of the character of fugitives from justice. It may be argued that
this decision rests on moral rather than upon strictly legal grounds. It
is generally held that there is no limitation as to the time in the recovery
of fugitives from justice other than such as may be established by
statutes of limitations of the Governments concerned, and it does not
appear to have been suggested in the case under consideration that any
such limitation had been established either by the laws of Pennsylvania

168 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
or of Illinois. The decision of Governor Cullom may also be thought
to involve the theory that the authorities of the demanding State may be
called upon to show that they have used due diligence in pursuing the
fugitives and in seeking their surrender."
The decision created much comment at the time, some ad
verse, suggesting that it amounted to the exercise of the
pardoning power by a Governor of one State for a crime
committed in another.
LMy administration as Governor of Illinois was a very
quiet, uneventful one. I endeavored to give the State strictly
a business administration, and I believe I succeeded. I ap
pointed the very best men that I could find to State offices, I
did not interfere with the conduct of the various departments
and institutions, except to exercise a general supervision over
them, I held my appointees strictly accountable for the con
duct of the affairs of their respective offices, and did not at
tempt to dictate to them the appointment of their subordi
nates. During the six years I served as Governor there was not
a single scandal connected with the executive department of
Illinois, I never had the slightest trouble with the Legisla
ture, I never interfered in the organization of the Senate
or House. I believed then, and I beheve now, in the inde
pendence of the three coordinate branches of the Govern
ment. I no more thought of influencing the Legislature
than I would have thought of attempting to influence the
Judiciary. My recommendations were made in official mes
sages, as the Constitution prescribes, and generaUy, I might
say, the Legislature carried out my recommendations. The
administration was an economical one, and it was during this
period that the entire State debt was paid.*!

CHAPTER XI
GRANT
MY acquaintance with General Grant began when he
visited Springfield the first time immediately after
the beginning of the Civil War. He came to Springfield
with a company of soldiers raised in Galena. General John
A. Rawlins, afterwards Secretary of War under President
Grant, one of the best men whom I ever knew, and especially
my friend, was with this company. General Grant offered
his services to Governor Yates in any capacity, and the Gov
ernor requested him to aid General Mather, then our Adju
tant-General. General Grant, having been a West Point
graduate, and having served as a captain in the regular
army, rendered the Adjutant- General very material service.
On the morning I saw him in the Adjutant- General's office
at Springfield, nobody ever dreamed that this quiet, unas
suming subordinate would, in less than four years, become
one of the greatest generals in all the world's history. At
the outbreak of the war he resided at Galena, where he was
in business.
He was sent by Governor Yates to muster in the various
regiments, and continued in that work until made Colonel
of the Twenty-first Ilhnois Regiment. This regiment had
been raised and organized by another man, whose habits
were not regular, and under whose command the regunent
had become demorahzed. General Grant took the Twenty-
first lUinois on foot from Springfield into Missouri, and be
fore he had traveUed very far with it, the men quickly learned
169

170 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
that he was a real commanding officer, a strict disciphnarian,
and that orders were issued to be obeyed. The regiment
became one of the best in the service.
General Grant was soon made a Brigadier-General, the
first to be commissioned from Illinois, and was sent to com
mand at Cairo.
I became pretty well acquainted with him at Springfield,
and subsequently I visited Cairo, and found there General
Grant, Governor Oglesby, and other Ilhnoisians in command
of regiments.
General Grant's career as a soldier is too weU known by
the world to be repeated by me here. The history of that
career is the history of the Civil War. He was formaUy
received by the people of Springfield on two occasions : once
while he was stiU in command in the army; and again in
1880, after his trip around the world, he was my guest at
the Executive Mansion in Springfield, He was then ac
companied by Mrs, Grant, and by E. B. Washburne, who
had been one of his closest personal friends during his ad
ministration. The time was approaching for the National Convention at
Chicago, and General Grant's friends had prevailed upon
him to permit the use of his name as a candidate for a third
term. Washburne had become considerably flattered by the
demonstration that was made over him on the road from
Galena to Springfield, and I believe he had an idea that he
might be the nominee instead of General Grant, and hence
for some reason or other he did not want to identify himself
with General Grant at all. When the time came to go to
the reception at the State House, Washburne could not be
found. It seemed that he had hid in his bedroom until the
party left the Executive Mansion for the State House, and
then went by himself to the State House, and secreted him-

GRANT 171
self in the office of the Secretary of State, where he surrepti
tiously watched proceedings from behind the sheltering folds
of a curtain.
His conduct in the evening was stiU more remarkable. I
had arranged a reception to General and Mrs. Grant and
Mr. Washburne at the Executive Mansion that same evening,
but Mr. Washburne gave some excuse which he claimed ne
cessitated his presence in the East, and departed — apparently
with the conviction that he might secure the Presidential nomi
nation himself, and feehng that his presence in company
with General Grant — an avowed candidate — created an
embarrassing situation that he could not endure. I know
that General Grant was deeply grieved at his conduct. The
General's friends were so outraged that they determined
Washburne should have no place upon the ticket at aU.
General Grant was not a candidate for reelection at the
end of his second term ; I am not at all sure whether he would
not have been glad to be reelected for a third term — at
least, he would have accepted the nomination had it been
tendered to him. But the third-term proposition, at that
tune, received a severe blow when, in December, 1875, the
House of Representatives passed a resolution by a vote of
234 to 18, declaring that in its opinion, the precedent estab
hshed by Washington and other Presidents of the United
States, in retiruig from the Presidential office after their sec
ond terms, had become, by universal concurrence, a part of
our repubhcan system of government, and that any depar
ture from this time-honored custom would be unwise, un
patriotic, and fraught with perU to our free uistitutions.
The passage of this resolution, the scandals in the admin
istration, the hard tunes, and the bitter and determuied oppo
sition to General Grant at this tune, put an end temporarily
to aU third-term talk.

172 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
But during his absence, when he was making his tour of
the world, after he had retired from the Presidency, Senator
Conkhng, General Logan, Don Cameron, and other leading
pohticians concluded that they would nominate him to
succeed Rutherford B, Hayes, who was not a candidate.
After his return to the United States, they secured his con
sent to use his name as a candidate for the nomination in
1880; but after a bitter fight in the Chicago Convention they
failed, and General Garfield obtained the nomination,
Mr, Blaine, before the Convention met, was the leading
candidate against General Grant. I had been a warm friend
of Mr. Blaine's in Congress; but as General Grant was a
candidate from my own State, and as I was at that time
Governor of Ilhnois and a candidate for renomination, I
did not feel that I could take any part in the contest between
Grant and Blaine.
When the State Convention met to select a candidate to
succeed me as Governor, the contest between Grant and
Blaine was very bitter. Mr. Blaine and I had been very
friendly in the House ; indeed, I was one of the few personal
friends who brought him out as a candidate for Speaker of
the House. From our past relations, he felt perfectly free
to write me, and about the time of the Convention, I re
ceived a letter from him, in which he said, among other things:
"Why cannot you put yourself at the head of my forces, and
lead them? If you are not careful you will faU between."
The tone of the letter annoyed me, and I did not answer it
until the contest was over, which resulted in my own nomina
tion, and until after the National Convention met, in which
Blaine was defeated. I then wrote him a letter, informing
him that I had been nominated; but, of course, I did not
refer to his defeat.
During the session of the convention in Springfield, or

GRANT 173
about the time it was to convene. General Logan came down
from Chicago, proceeding at once to my house. He told
me that he desired that I should help him to secure the dele
gation for General Grant,
I rephed: "General Logan, if you are my friend, and I
suppose you are, you wiU not ask me to take any part in this
contest, as I am a candidate for renomination myself."
He was a httle huffy about it, and seemed to be disap
pointed that I would not do as he asked. And I may re
mark that this was characteristic of Logan. He went away
considerably out of humor, but saying nothing especially to
the point,
A short time afterwards the Hon. Charles B. FarweU,
who was later an honored coUeague of mine in the Senate,
drove up to my house and said: "CuUom, I want you to help
me carry this State for Blaine,"
"Charley," I replied, "you know very well that I am a
candidate for reelection; and you know very well, also, that
if I were to take a hand in this contest, I would probably be
beaten," He agreed with me, and went away satisfied, as
suring me that in his opinion I was doing the right thing.
The contest in our State Convention between Blaine and
Grant lasted for at least three days, and resulted in the di
vision of the delegation to the National Convention, part
for Grant and part for Blaine, I had quite a contest for
the nomination, but was finaUy named on the fourth bal
lot, I had expected to be nominated on the third ballot,
FarweU was about my office a good deal during the conven
tion. When the third ballot was taken, and I had not been
nominated, I said: "FarweU, there is something wrong up
stairs; I wish you would go up and straighten it out."
He went; but what he did, if anything, I do not know.
However, I was nominated on the next baUot.

174 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
General Grant was nominated both the first and second
times without opposition. He was first nominated in Chi
cago, with great enthusiasm. The second time he was nom
inated in PhUadelphia. I was chairman of the Ilhnois del
egation at PhUadelphia, and as such placed him in nomina
tion, I beheve I made about the shortest nominating speech for
a Republican candidate for President ever made in a Na
tional Repubhcan Convention. I said:
"Gentlemen op the Convention: On behalf of the great Republi
can party of Illinois, and that of the Union — in the name of liberty, of
loyalty, of justice, and of law — in the interest of economy, of good
government, of peace, and of the equal rights of all — remembering with
profound gratitude his glorious achievements in the field, and his noble
statesmanship as Chief Magistrate of this great Nation — I nominate as
President of the United States, for a second term, Ulysses S. Grant."
There was a considerable contest over the platform, and,
as usual, it was determined to adopt the platform before
making the nominations of President and Vice-President,
But the Convention became very restless after the day of
speechmaking; evening was approaching, and the Committee
on Platform being stiU out, it was determined to make the
nomination for President that day. I mounted the plat
form, and in the brief speech I have quoted, placed General
Grant in nomination. I never saw such a fervid audience.
The floors and gaUeries were crowded, and the people seemed
wild with enthusiasm for Grant. As I uttered the word
"Grant," at the conclusion of my speech, and his picture was
lowered from the ceihng of the haU, the demonstration was
indescribable. While we were waiting for the Committee on Platform
to report, there were quite a number of speeches by favorite

GRANT 175
sons of the different States, Senator Logan and Governor
Oglesby, from Ilhnois, being among them.
Senator Logan's speech is not very clear in my memory;
but I do remember very well the speech by Governor Oglesby.
He made a wonderful impression, I do not recaU that I
ever saw a man electrify an audience as did Governor
Oglesby on that occasion. It was the first convention where
there were colored men admitted as delegates. Some of the
colored delegates occupied the main fioor. Old Garret
Smith, the great abohtionist, was in the gallery, at the head
of the New York delegation, Oglesby took for his theme
first the colored man, represented there on the fioor of that
convention, and then Garret Smith. He set the crowd wild.
They cheered him to the echo. We adjourned for luncheon
immediately after he concluded his speech, and many of the
delegates asked me who that man was, I was proud to be
able to teU them that it was Governor Oglesby of Ilhnois ;
and the remark was frequently made that it was no wonder
that Ilhnois gave sixty thousand Repubhcan majority with
such a man as its Governor,
The platform was finally adopted, and Wilson of Massa
chusetts was nominated for Vice-President, in place of
Schuyler Colfax. Colfax was much mortified at his defeat,
but it turned out for the best, because Colfax became in
volved in the Credit Mohilier before the campaign was over,
and his name on the ticket would have injured the chances
for success. Wilson, who was nominated to succeed Col
fax as Vice-President, was a very good man. He was a
Senator, and it was said of him that he came from the shoe
maker's bench to the Senate of the United States.
General Grant got along very weU during his first term
as President. He was wonderfully popular, and no one

176 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
could have beaten him; but during his second term, so many
scandals came to light, and the finances were in such bad
shape, that generaUy his second term as President cannot be
said to have been a success. One trouble with him as Pres
ident was that he placed too imphcit rehance on those about
him, and he never could be convinced that any friend of his
could do a wrong. Some of his friends were clearly guilty
of the grossest kind of misconduct, and yet he would not be
convinced of it, and stuck to them until they nearly dragged
him down into disgrace with them. He was not a politician.
Before entering the White House he had had no previous
experience in pubhc office. For a considerable time he at
tempted to act as Chief Executive with the same arbitrary
power that he used as commander of an army; hence he was
constantly getting into trouble with Senators and Repre
sentatives, I remember one httle experience along this hne which I
had with him. It is an unwritten rule that Representatives
in Congress, if in harmony with the Administration, control
the post-office appointments in their respective districts. On
my recommendation Isaac Keyes was appointed postmaster
of my own city of Springfield. Much to my astonishment
and mortification, in a month, without any warning, without
any request for Keyes' resignation. General Grant sent in the
appointment of Elder Crane, When I came to inquire the
cause, he said he had just happened to remember that he
had promised the office to Elder Crane, and he immediately
sent in the appointment without considering for a minute
the position in which he left Keyes and the embarrassment it
would cause me.
Sometune afterward, as Colonel Bluf ord Wilson tells me.
General Grant asked Colonel WUson, then Sohcitor of the
Treasury, who would make a good Commissioner of Internal

LILYSSES S. GRANT

GRANT 177
Revenue, Colonel Wilson rephed that CuUom was just the
man for the place, and General Grant said at once, "I will
appoint hun," When Colonel Wilson went to the White
House with the commission prepared for my appointment.
General Grant said: "I have changed my mind about mak
ing that appointment, I offended CuUom in reference to
the appointment of a postmaster of his town; and if I
should appoint him Commissioner of Internal Revenue now,
I know he would dechne it, so I will not appoint him."
And in this he was quite right. I would have declined
the office, not because I was offended at him, but because I
would not accept that or any other appointive office.
Not being quite certain that my memory served me cor
rectly in reference to this incident, I took occasion to ask
Colonel Bluford Wilson, who had called on me at Wash
ington, to give me the facts, which he later did in a long letter
that sets forth the facts somewhat more elaborately than I
have given them, but presenting the incident in an identical
hght. While I would not say that General Grant was a failure
as President, certain it is that he added nothing to his great
fame as a soldier. Indeed, in the opinion of very many
people, who were his friends and well-wishers, when he re
tired from the White House he had detracted rather than
added to his name. It would probably have been better if
General Grant had been content with his mihtary success,
and had entered neither pohtics nor business.
General Grant was one of the greatest soldiers of modern
times; indeed, if not of all time. Standing as he does the
peer of Frederick, Napoleon, Welhngton, the time wiU come
when the very fact that he was President of the United
States will be forgotten, while he wiU be remembered only
^s one of the world's great captains.

178 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
The last time I saw the General was about a month before
he died, I was in New York, with the select Committee on
Interstate Commerce, and on Sunday morning we learned
that General Grant, General Arthur, and ex-President
Hayes were aU in town, and that Grant and Arthur were
ill. We determined to call on each of them.
We first called on General Grant at his home, and found
that his son. General Frederick D. Grant, was with him.
To him we sent our cards and asked to see his father. He
said he would ascertain, and he came back directly and said
that his father would be glad to see us, but cautioned us
not to permit hun to talk too much, as the trouble was in his
throat. We went in and took seats for a moment. He
greeted us aU very cordially, and seemed to be speciaUy inter
ested in meeting Senator Gorman. He wanted to talk, and
did talk so rapidly and so incessantly that, fearing it was
injuring him, we arose from our seats and told him that we
had caUed simply to pay our respects, and expressed our
gratification that he was so weU.
I can see him yet, as I saw him then. He was sitting up,
surrounded by the manuscript of his memoirs. He knew
that his end was approaching, and he talked about it quietly
and unconcernedly ; said he was about through with his book,
that if he could hve a month or two longer he could improve
it, but did not seem to feel very much concern whether he
had any more time or not, Mrs, Grant and Nelhe, and
Mrs, Frederick D, Grant were in an adjoining room, with
the door open, and knowing them all very well, I went in to
pay my respects. Mrs. Grant at once inquired about my
daughters. I told her that one of them was married, and
she expressed surprise. General Grant, hearing us, came
into the room and said, "Juha, don't you remember that we

GRANT 179
received cards to the wedding? " He again began to talk,
so I took my leave.
From there we caUed on General Arthur, and then on
General Hayes, Both passed away within a short time,
I returned to my home in Springfield, and in about a
month the news came that General Grant was dead. On
the day of his funeral in New York, in cities of any im
portance in the country, services were held. Services were
conducted in Springfield, on which occasion I dehvered the
principal address.

CHAPTER XII
GENERAL JOHN A, LOGAN
GENERAL JOHN A, LOGAN was a man much more
capable of accomplishing results than either General
Pahner or General Oglesby.
I first met him when he was a member of the Legislature,
in 1856, He was a Democrat then, and a very active and
aggressive one. It was in that year that we first elected a
Repubhcan Administration in Ilhnois, the Repubhcan party
having been organized only two years previously. BisseU
was elected Governor; Hatch, Secretary of State; and Du
bois, Auditor.
Governor BisseU was iU, having suffered a stroke of pa
ralysis, and it became necessary for the Legislature, after
organizing, to go to the Executive Mansion to witness the
administration of the oath of office to him. After the Legis
lature reconvened in their respective Houses, General Logan
immediately obtained recognition and made a bitter attack
on Governor Bissell on the ground that the latter had sworn
to a falsehood, he having challenged, or been challenged by,
Jefferson Davis to fight a duel. The duel was never ac-
tuaUy fought; but Governor Bissell took the ground that
whatever did occur was outside the jurisdiction of the State
of Ilhnois, and he therefore could truthfully take the oath of
office. Logan was then about as strong a Democrat as he
afterwards was a Repubhcan. His attack on BisseU was
resented by Repubhcans and under the circumstances was
180

GENERAL JOHN A, LOGAN 181
regarded as cruel, I became very much prejudiced against
him. After this episode Logan was elected to Congress as a
Democrat, and was a follower of Douglas, Douglas was
true to the Union, and after he made his famous speech be
fore the Legislature at Springfield, General Logan entered
the war and finaUy became a Republican.
It was aUeged that there was an understanding between
Douglas and the Democratic delegation in Congress from
Ilhnois that they should all act together in whatever course
they pursued. The delegation from lUinois contained some
very able men, among them being General Logan. 'Douglas
came out for the Union without consulting his colleagues in
the delegation, and it was said that General Logan and the
other Democratic members of the delegation were quite an
gry. However, they aU foUowed Douglas and became loyal
Union men.
Like Governor Oglesby, General Logan had a brief mil
itary service in the Mexican War, and also like Governor
Oglesby, and General McClernand, he was among the first to
raise a regiment for service in the Civil War. He resigned
his seat in Congress in 1861, and immediately went into
active service. Senator Douglas and General Logan did
much to save Southern Illinois to the Union, and that por
tion of the State contributed its full quota to the Union
Ariny. To describe the part General Logan took in the Civil War,
after he raised the Thirty-first Ilhnois Regiment and took
the field, would be to recite the history of the war itself.
The records of his bravery at Belmont ; of his gallant charge
at Fort Donelson, where, as a Colonel, he was dangerously
wounded; of his service as Major-General commanding the
Army of the Tennessee; of the memorable siege of Vicks-

182 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
burg, when with the great leader of the Union armies he
stood knocking at the door of that invincible stronghold; of
his service with Sherman on his famous march to the sea, aU
are written on the pages of history and lend undying lustre
to the name of Logan.
He was a natural soldier. His shoulders were broad, his
presence was commanding; with his swarthy face and coal-
black hair, "and eye hke Mars, to threaten and command," he
was every inch a warrior. There is no question that Gen
eral Logan was the greatest volimteer officer of the CivU
War. After the war Logan returned to lUuiois, intending to
reenter the practice of the law; but he loved public hfe and
politics, was the idol of the people of his section of the State,
and was soon elected Congressman-at-large on the Repubh
can ticket. When I entered the House in 1865, I found
General Logan there, ranking as one of the leaders of the
more radical Republicans, He was a forceful speaker, and
did his fuU share as one of the managers on the part of the
House in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson,
He was devoted to General Grant and General Grant
was very fond of him. General Grant, in talking of General
Logan and Senator Morton of Indiana, used to say that
they were the two most persistent men in the Senate in se
curing offices for their friends ; but there was this difference
between them: if Morton came to him and wanted ten offices
and he gave him one, he would go away feehng perfectly sat
isfied, and make the impression on the people that he was run
ning the Administration; while if Logan came to the White
House to secure ten offices, and did not get more than nine
of them, he would raise a great row, and claim that he could
not get anything out of the Administration,
But Logan stood strongly for General Grant, not only

GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN 183
during his two terms, where he had httle or no opposition,
but he was one of the leaders in the unsuccessful attempt to
nominate him for a third term, Logan, Conkling, Cameron
and others failed, and I beheve that General Logan felt the
failure more than even General Grant himself.
General Logan was a tremendously industrious man. He
was always doing favors for his people, and seemed to de
light in being of service to any one. That was the difference
between him and Governor Oglesby, Logan was always
wilhng and anxious to do favors for people, while Oglesby
was not.
I remember an incident that iUustrates this very weU.
Jacob Bunn, of Springfield, as honest a man as ever hved
and a man of high standing, was compelled to take a distillery
in part payment of a very large debt which was owing to
him, and to make it of any account he had to operate it until
such a time as he could dispose of it. He had some explana
tion he desired to make to the Commissioner of Internal Rev
enue, and he came to Washington and asked Governor
Oglesby, who was then in the Senate, to introduce him to
the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Oglesby knew
Bunn very well, and yet he cross-examined him at great
length and detail. Bunn left Oglesby and next morning
sought Logan, who at once agreed to perform the favor,
with the result that Mr, Bunn very readily adjusted the mat
ter with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Bunn
afterwards said to me : "I had a good deal more trouble con
vincing Governor Oglesby that I was an honest man than I
had convincing the Commissioner of Internal Revenue,"
I give this incident as iUustrating the difference between
the characters of Oglesby and Logan.
The latter's honesty and integrity were never doubted. I
believe he would not have hesitated for a moment to kill any

184 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
one who would have questioned his honesty. He was a poor
man, and when I came to the Senate as his coUeague we often
sat together condohng with each other on our poverty, and
"abusing" the men in the Senate who were wealthy. That
was one of the common bonds between us. When I became
weU acquamted with General Logan, I beheved in hun and
admired him as one of the ablest men of Ilhnois. He was
a man of intense feeling, intense friendships, and I might
also add that he was a man of the most intense hatreds.
General Logan, while never doubting his friends, yet ex
pected his friends to swear devotion to him every time they
saw him. He was "touchy" in this respect, and would not
readily overlook any fancied shghts. On one occasion, my
old friend, the Hon. David T, Littler, now deceased, of
Springfield, Ilhnois, who was also a warm friend of Logan,
went to Washington, and neglected to caU on Logan until he
had been there several days. Logan knew that he was in
town, and when he finally did call, Logan abused him roundly
for not coming to see him the first thing. It made Littler
angry for the time being, and he showed his resentment as
only Littler could. He made Logan apologize and agree
never to find fault with him again. They were on good
terms as long as they lived.
General Logan was my friend, and was always for me
when I was running for office. It was sometimes tolerably
hard for him to be for me as against a soldier, because there
was never a man who was more thoroughly devoted to the
soldiers. As colleagues in the Senate, we got along very
agreeably and never had any cross-purposes or differences
of opinion.
The only time I remember of ever having any. feehng at
all was on one occasion when Senator Logan, Senator, Evarts,
and Senator Teller were strongly advocating the seating of

Pairileil and copyrighieii hy H. K. Saiindt'rs

JOHN A. LOGAN

GENERAL JOHN A, LOGAN 185
Henry B, Payne, of Ohio, as a matter of right and without
investigation, I was disposed to vote for the taking of evi
dence and an investigation. When the discussion was going
on, I stated to Logan that I felt like voting in favor of the
investigation. He was very much out of humor about it. I
consulted with some friends in the Senate as to what I
ought to do under the circumstances, and they advised me, in
view of General Logan's personal feehng on the subject —
and he felt that he was personaUy involved — that I ought
to vote with him.
After the vote was announced, I went around to General
Logan's seat, and he expressed intense gratification that I
had voted with him, remarking that if I had been involved in
a struggle as he was, he would take the roof off the House
before he would let me be beaten ; and I beheve he would have
gone to almost any extent.
I then said to him: "General Logan, I want to assure you
that hereafter you must not feel concerned about my vote
being the same as yours. In other words, when I want to
vote one way and you want to vote another, I shaU be per
fectly satisfied, and shaU have no feehng against you on ac
count of it ; I want you to feel the same way when conditions
are reversed." He acquiesced in this proposal; but we never
afterwards had occasion to differ on any important question
before the Senate.
General Logan had an ambition to become President, and
I beheve he would have reahzed his ambition had he lived,
I placed him in nomination for President at the National
Convention which met at Chicago in 1884. In The Wash
ington National Tribune appears the foUowing report:
"The next State that responded was Illinois, and as Senator Cullom
mounted the platform to present the name of General John A. Logan,
cheer after cheer followed him. When he was at last allowed to pro-

186 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
ceed, he began by referring to the nominations of Lincoln and Grant,
both from Illinois, and both nominated at Chicago:
"'In 1880, the party, assembled again in Chicago, achieved success
by nominating Garfield; and now in 1884, in the same State, Illinois,
which has never wavered in its adherence to the Eepublican party, pre
sents, as the standard-bearer of that party, another son, one whose name
would be recognized from one end of the land to the other as an able
statesman, a brilliant soldier, and an honest man — John A. Logan.
"The announcement of General Logan's name was received with a
wild burst of applause, a great many persons rising to their feet, wav
ing their hats and handkerchiefs, and the thousands of people in the
gallery joining in the roars of applause. The cheers were renewed
again and again. The speaker resumed:
" 'A native of the State which he represents in the Council of the
Nation, reared among the youth of a section where every element of man
hood is early brought into play, he is eminently a man of the people.
The safety, the permanency, and the prosperity of the Nation depend
upon the courage, the integrity, and the loyalty of its citizens. . . .
Like Douglas, he believed that in time of war men must be either pa
triots or traitors, and he threw his mighty influence on the side of the
Union ; and Illinois made a record second to none in the history of States
in the struggle to preserve the Union. . .
" 'During the long struggle of four years he commanded, under the
authority of the Government, first a regiment, then a brigade, then a
division, then an army corps, and finally an army. He remained in
the service until the war closed, when at the head of his army, with
the scars of battle upon him, he marched into the capital of the Nation,
and with the brave men whom he had led on a hundred hard-fought
fields was mustered out of the service under the very shadow of the
Capitol building which he had left four years before as a member of
Congress to go and fight the battles of his country.
" 'When the war was over and peace victoriously returned, he was
again invited by his fellow-citizens to take his place in the Councils of
the Nation. In a service of twenty years in both Houses of Congress he
has shown himself to be no less able and distinguished as a citizen than
he was renowned as a soldier. Conservative in the advocacy of measures
involving the public welfare, ready and eloquent in debate, fearless —
yes, I repeat again, fearless — in defence of the rights of the weak
against the oppression of the strong, he stands to-day closer to the great

GENERAL JOHN A, LOGAN 187
mass of the people of this country than almost any other man now en
gaging public attention.' "
At the conclusion of my speech there was a tremendous
demonstration, and General Prentiss seconded the nomina
tion. General Logan received sixty-three and one-half votes
on the first ballot, and sixty-one votes on the second and third
ballots. Immediately after the third baUot, I received this telegram
from General Logan, who was in Washington:
"Washington, D. C, June 6. 1884.
"To Senator Cullom, Convention Hall, Chicago, III.:
"The Republicans of the States that must be relied upon to elect the
President having shown a preference for Mr. Blaine, I deem it my duty
not to stand in the way of the people's choice, and recommend my
friends to assist in his nomination. John A. Logan."
When Illinois was called on the fourth ballot, I attempted
to read the telegram to the convention, but a point of order
was raised by Senator Burrows, which the Chair sustained.
It was thoroughly well understood in the convention that I
had such a telegram, and after the chair sustained the point
of order I made the following statement : "The Ilhnois del
egation withdraws the name of General John A. Logan, and
gives for Blaine thirty-four votes, for Logan seven, and for
Arthur three."
This announcement was punctuated with another deafen
ing outburst, and Blaine was nominated amidst great en
thusiasm. After I withdrew General Logan's name and
cast the vote for Blaine the result was a foregone conclusion.
There was immediately a strong disposition to place Logan
on the ticket as our candidate for Vice-President. There
was considerable doubt as to whether he would accept.
Finally he sent a telegram in which he said: "The Conven-

188 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
tion must do what they think best under the circum
stances." He was then nominated for Vice-President without much
opposition. It was a superb ticket, and every one thought it would
sweep the country. Blaine, in the opinion of many people,
was the most popular statesman since the days of Henry
Clay ; Logan, the greatest volunteer officer of the Civil War,
I do not, however, beheve that Blaine and Logan got along
very weU together in the campaign. In my opinion Logan
felt that he would have been a stronger candidate for the
Presidency than Blaine, as after events proved that he
would. Had Logan headed the ticket, there would have been
none of the scandal nor charges of corruption that were
made in the campaign with Blaine at the head. There would
have been no "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion," which in the
opinion of many people resulted in the defeat of Blaine and
Logan, Whatever the causes, the ticket was defeated; and then
came Logan's famous fight for reelection to the Senate, con
tinuing three and a half months, the Legislature being tied ;
but the fight ended by a rather clever trick on the part of
Dan Shepard and S. H. Jones of Springfield, in electing by
a "still hunt" a Republican in the thirty-fourth District to
succeed a Democrat who died during the session, and finaUy
on May 19, 1885, 1 received a telegram from Logan while in
New York saying, "I have been elected."
Three or four days before General Logan's death he and
Mrs. Logan were at my house to dinner, to meet some friends
— General and Mrs. Henderson and Senator Alhson. After
dinner, we were in the smoking-room. General Logan was
talking about the book he had recently written, showing a
conspiracy on the part of the South, entitled "The Great

GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN 189
Conspiracy," He had sent each of us a copy of the book,
and he remarked that he ventured to say that neither of us
had read a word of it ; the truth was that we had not, and we
admitted it.
General and Mrs, Logan went home a little early, because
he was then suffering with rheumatism. They invited Mrs,
CuUom and me to dinner the foUowing Sunday evening.
General Logan had grown worse, and he could not attend
at the table, but rested on a couch in an adjoining room. He
never recovered, and passed away some two or three days
afterward. I was present at his death-bed. The last words
he uttered were, "CuUom, I am terribly sick."
The death of no other General, with the possible exception
of General Grant, was so sorrowfully and universaUy
mourned by the volunteer soldiery of the Union as was the
death of General Logan.

CHAPTER XIII
GENERAL JOHN M. PALMER
GENERAL PALMER had a long, varied, and honor
able career, beginning as an Anti-Nebraska Democrat
in the State Senate of Ilhnois, ui 1855, and ending as a Gold
Democrat m the United States Senate in 1897, after being
for a time a Repubhcan.
I first met him as a member of the State Senate, in
which service he showed considerable abihty. His one
leading characteristic, I should say, was his independence,
without any regard to what party he might belong to or
what the question might be. He would not yield his own
convictions to his party. If the party to which he belonged
differed from him on any question, he did not hesitate to
abandon it and join the opposition party; and this change
he did make several times during his pubhc career. He
was one of the four Anti-Nebraska Democrats in the Leg
islature of 1855, who might be said to have defeated Lin
coln for the Senate by supporting Trumbull, until it be
came apparent that if Lincoln continued as a candidate.
Governor Matteson would be elected, Lincoln sacrificed
himself to uisure the election of Judge Trumbull, a Free-
soiler. The other Anti-Nebraska Democrats, who with
General Pahner, elected TrumbuU, were Norman B, Judd,
Burton C. Cook, G. T. AUen, and Henry S. Baker, the
last two from Madison County.
For some reason or other General Palmer resigned from
the Senate, He was one of the first to join the Repubhcan
190

GENERAL JOHN M. PALMER 191
party. He was a delegate to the first Republican State
Convention of Illinois, I attended that convention, and
recall that General Palmer made quite an impression on the
assemblage, in discussing some question with General Tur
ner, himself quite an able man, and then Speaker of the
House of Representatives of the Ilhnois Legislature. In
tellectually, General Palmer was a superior man, but he
lacked stability of judgment. You were never quite sure
that you could depend on him, or feel any certainty as to
what course he would take on any question.
His quahfications as a lawyer were not exceptional, never
theless I would rather have had him as my attorney to try a
bad case than almost any lawyer I ever knew ; his talent for
manipulating a jury nearly, if not quite, offset aU his legal
shortcomings. General Palmer was weU known as the friend of the col
ored people, both individually and as a race. His sym
pathy for them was so thoroughly understood, that when
ever a colored man had an important case, or whenever there
was a case involving the rights of the colored people — such,
for instance, as the school question of Alton — General
Pahner was appealed to, and he would take the case, no
matter how much trouble and how httle remuneration there
would be in it for him.
He started out as a Democrat, but became a strong Re
pubhcan, and so continued for many years; but finally he
became dissatisfied with the Repubhcan party and left it to
support Tilden for President. He continued a Democrat,
being elected to the United States Senate as such; but he
left the regular organization of that party, and became the
head of the Gold Democratic party, was its candidate for
President, and as such advised his friends to vote for Mc
Kinley.

192 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
He was the Repubhcan Governor of Ilhnois during the
great Chicago fire. He acted with the poorest kind of
judgment in his controversy with General Sheridan and the
National Administration, for using the Federal troops in
Chicago to protect the hves and property of the people of
that stricken city. He had visited Chicago, witnessed the
splendid work which the troops were doing, seemed to be
satisfied, returned to Springfield, and commenced a quarrel
with General Sheridan and President Grant over the right
of the National Administration to send troops into Chicago;
and this quarrel finally became so bitter that it was one of
the reasons for his leaving the Republican party.
General Palmer had a fairly good record as an officer
during the Civil War; but he did far better at the head of
the Department of Kentucky than he did as a fighting gen
eral. He was a native Kentuckian, understood the people,
was a man of good nature and considerable tact, and handled
that trying situation very much to the satisfaction of Mr.
Lincoln. He might have had a briUiant record as a general
had it not been for his unfortunate controversy with General
Sherman at the capture of Atlanta, which resulted in his re
signing his command as head of the Fourteenth Army
Corps, and being granted leave to return to Illinois, there
to await further orders. General Sherman says of this inci
dent in his memoirs :
"I placed the Fourteenth Corps (Palmer's) imder General Scho-
field's orders. This corps numbered at the time 17,288 infantry and
826 artillery; but General Palmer claimed to rank General Schofield
in the date of commission as Major-General, and denied the latter's
right to exercise command over him. General Palmer was a man of
abUity, but was not enterprising. His three divisions were compact
and strong, well commanded, admirable on the defensive but slow to
move or to act on the ofi^ensive. His corps had sustained up to that
time fewer hard knocks than any other corps in the whole army, and

GENERAL JOHN M. PALMER 193
I was anxious to give it a chance. I always expected to have a des
perate fight to get possession of the Macon Road, which was then the
vital objective of the campaign. Its possession by us would in my
judgment result in the capture of Atlanta and give us the fruits of vic
tory. . . . On the fourth of August I ordered General Schofield to
make a bold attack on the railroad, anywhere about East Point, and or
dered General Palmer to report to him for duty. He at once denied
General Schofield's right to command him; but, after examining the
dates of their respective commissions, and hearing their arguments, I
wrote to General Palmer:
" 'From the statements made by yourself and General Schofield to
day, my decision is, that he ranks you as a Major-General, being of the
same date of present commission, by reason of his previous superior
rank as a brigadier-general. The movements of to-morrow are so im
portant that the orders of the superior on that flank must be regarded
as military orders and not in the nature of cooperation. I did hope
that there would be no necessity for my making this decision, but it is
better for all parties interested that no question of rank should occur
in actual battle. The Sandtown Road and the railroad if possible must
be gained to-morrow if it costs half your command. I regard the loss
of time this afternoon as equal to the loss of two thousand men.'
"I also communicated the substance of this to General Thomas, to
whose army Palmer's corps belonged, who replied on the fifth:
" 'I regret to hear that Palmer has taken the course he has, and I
know that he intends to offer his resignation as soon as he can properly
do so. I recommend that his application be granted.'
"On the fifth I again wrote to General Palmer, arguing the point
with him, as a friend, not to resign at that crisis lest his motives might
be misconstrued and because it might damage his future career in civil
life; but at the same time I felt it my duty to say to him that the
operations on that flank during the fourth and fifth had not been satis
factory, not imputing to him any want of energy or skill, but insisting
that the events did not keep pace with my desires. . . .
"I sanctioned the movement and ordered two of Palmer's divisions to
follow in support of Schofield, and summoned General Palmer to meet
me in person. He came on the sixth to my headquarters and insisted on
his resignation being accepted, for which formal act I referred him
to General Thomas. He then rode to General Thomas's camp, where
he made a written resignation of his office as commander of the Fourteenth
«3

194 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Corps and was granted the usual leave of absence to go to his home in
Illinois, there to await further orders."
I quote freely from General Sherman on this incident, as
I do not want to do General Palmer an injustice. No one
for a moment doubted General Pahner's bravery, and I
must say that it took a brave man, and I might add an ex
traordinarily stubborn man, to resign a magnificent com
mand just before one of the great movements of the war on
a mere question of some other general's outranking him,
I happened to be on the same ferry-boat crossing from St.
Louis with General Palmer when he was taken home iU.
He had brought a colored servant with him, who accompanied
him to his home in CarhnviUe. It created considerable ex
citement, and General Palmer was indicted for bringing the
colored man into the State. There was not much disposition
to try him, but he insisted on being placed on trial, con
ducted his own defence, and was acquitted.
He made an honest, conscientious Governor, but did not
work in harmony with the Legislature. He vetoed more
bills than any other Governor before or since. His vetoes
became too common to bear any influence, and a great many
of the biUs were passed over his veto.
I was very much opposed to his renomination. I sup
ported Governor Oglesby, and I prepared a letter, to be
signed by members of the Legislature, asking Governor
Oglesby to become a candidate. Furthermore, an agent was
employed to go to Decatur to remain there until he obtained
a favorable reply from Oglesby, and then go to Chicago and
have the lettier and reply published in the Chicago papers.
The scheme worked successfuUy. Governor Oglesby was
nominated and elected.
Oglesby, Palmer, Logan, and Yates were aU ambitious to
go to the Senate, and were rivals for the place at one time or

JOHN M. PALMEH

GENERAL JOHN M. PALMER 195
another, and they all succeeded in their ambition, Palmer
being the last. When Governor Yates was a candidate, in
1865, Senator Palmer thought that he should have been
elected, I liked Governor Yates and beheved that his record
as Governor entitled him to a seat in the Senate, Governor
Palmer complained of me for taking any active part in the
contest, and thought that as I was a member of Congress
I should remain neutral. In those days Governor Palmer
and I were not on very friendly terms, although after he
came to the Senate we became quite intimate. He had a
struggle in securing his election as Senator, It was a long
contest, but he was finaUy successful.
General Palmer was very popular with his coUeagues in
the Senate, He was one of the best raconteurs in the Senate,
and he dehghted to sit in the smoking-room, or in his com
mittee room, entertaining those about him with droll stories.
During his term he made some very able speeches, and was
always soimd on the money question. He was consistently
in harmony with President Cleveland, and consequently he
controlled the patronage in the State. He was a man of
great good heart, fuU of generosity and good humor; and
altogether it would have been impossible to have a more
agreeable colleague.
We had been neighbors in Springfield, and when General
Palmer was elected to the Senate, he felt quite free to write
to me. I retain the letter and quote it here :
"Springfield, March 14, 1891.
"Hon. S. M. Cullom,
Washington, D. C.
"My dear Sir : —
"I am just in receipt of your kind ,;, or of the eleventh inst., and
thank you for its friendly and neigl . ^rly expressions. More than
once since my election, Mrs. Palmer has expressed the hope that when
she meets Mrs. Cullom at Washington, or here, they may continue to

196 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
enjoy the friendly relations that have so long existed between them,
to which I add the expression of my own wish that in the future as in
the past, we may be to each other good neighbors and good friends.
"I do not know what the usage is in such cases, but I suppose I might
forward my credentials at an early day to the Secretary of the Senate,
who is, I believe, my old army friend. Gen. Anson G. McCook. If
such is the proper course I would be glad to do so through you, if
agreeable to you. I will depend upon you also for such information
as your experience will enable you to furnish me. I will be glad to
know about what time you will probably leave Washington.
"I am, very respectfully,
"John M. Palmer."
While General Sherman and General Palmer were not
particularly friendly. General Pahner was always ready to
forgive and forget and do the agreeable thing.
On the occasion of a celebration in Springfield, where
there was a very large crowd. General Sherman was present,
and, with General Oglesby and General Palmer, occupied a
seat on the platform. Looking over the crowd. General
Palmer recognized General McClernand in the audience.
McClernand and Sherman were not friends, McClernand
being bitterly inimical to Sherman. General Pahner, think
ing only of doing an agreeable act, at once pushed his
way through the crowd to where General McClernand was
seated and invited him to come onto the platform. It was
only after a great deal of urging that he consented to go, but
he finally said, "I will go, pro forma." He did go "pro
forma," and paid his respects to General Sherman, but re
mained only a short time.
General Palmer retired from the Senate at the end of his
term, the Legislature of Ilhnois being Repubhcan.
I recollect that I went home from Washington to Spring
field, and on arriving there was informed that General Palmer
had just died. I immediately called at the house. He had

GENERAL JOHN M. PALMER 197
only just passed away, and was stiU lying on his death-bed.
I attended the funeral at his old home in CarhnviUe, and I
do not know that I was ever more impressed by such a cere
mony. He was buried with all the pomp attending a military
funeral.

CHAPTER XIV
GOVERNOR RICHARD J. OGLESBY
I KNEW the late Governor Oglesby intimately for very
many years. As a young man, he served as a heutenant
in the gallant Colonel E. D. Baker's regiment in the Mexi
can War, was at the battle of Cerro Gordo, and fought aU
the way thence to the City of Mexico, He remained with the
army until he saw the Stars and Stripes waving over the halls
of the Montezumas. Returning to Ilhnois, he took up again
the practice of law; but with the gold fever of 1849 he took
the pioneers' trail to Cahfornia, where, in a short time, he
was financially successful, then returned home, and later went
on an extended tour through the Holy Land, where he re
mained nearly two years.
On his return home, in 1860, he was elected to the State
Senate. I recall the night the returns came in. He had a
fisticuff encounter with "Cerro Gordo" WiUiams, in which
he came out victorious, having knocked WUhams into the
gutter. By many of the onlookers this was regarded as the
first fight of the RebeUion,
With his military experience in the Mexican War, it was
only natural that he should be one of the first to enlist for
service in the Civil War, He resigned from the Senate,
raised a regiment, was appointed its Colonel, and participated
in a number of important engagements under General
Grant, acquitting himself with great honor at Donelson,
and was subsequently appointed a Brigadier-General. He
was severely wounded at Corinth, and his active service in
198

GOVERNOR RICHARD J, OGLESBY 199
the Civil War was over. Although he was elevated to the
rank of Major-General, he was assigned to duty at Washing
ton, where he remained until 1864, and saw no more service on
the field of battle.
He enjoyed the distinction of being elected Governor of
Ilhnois three times, first in 1864, again in 1872, resigning the
following year, after having been elected to the United States
Senate ; and after he had served one term in the Senate and
retired to private life, he was again elected Governor of Illi
nois in 1884.
Governor Oglesby was a remarkable man in many re
spects. Judged by the standards of Lincohi and Grant, he
was not a great man. In some respects he was a man of far
more than ordinary ability. He was a wonderfuUy eloquent
speaker, and I have heard him on occasions move audiences
to a greater extent than almost any orator, aside from the
late Robert G. IngersoU.
I have already referred, in these reminiscences, to the
speech he delivered at the Philadelphia Convention of 1872,
He produced a greater impression on that assemblage than
any orator who spoke. On rare occasions he would utter
some of the most beautiful sentiments. For instance, his
speech on "Corn" at Chicago was a masterpiece in its way.
But generally speaking, with all his eloquence, he seldom de
hvered a speech that would read well in print; hence it was
that his speeches were hardly ever reported. His earnestness,
his appearance, his gestures, his personahty, all carried the
audience with him, as much as, if not more, than the actual
words he used, and hence it was that when a speech appeared
in print, one was very apt to be disappointed.
His record in the Civil War was honorable, but not excep
tional. He was not the dashing, briUiant soldier that General
Logan was, and I may remark here in passing that after the

200 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
war was over there was considerable jealousy between Gen
eral Logan and General Oglesby, They were rivals in poh
tics. On one occasion both Governor Oglesby and General
Logan made each a splendid address, and each was cheered to
the echo by the audience, but Governor Oglesby sat silent and
glowering when the audience applauded General Logan, and
General Logan occupied the same attitude when the audience
cheered Governor Oglesby, I was present, and was glad to
cheer them both.
Under the administration of General Oglesby, as Gov
ernor, the affairs of the State were administered in an
honest, businesslike manner. There was no scandal or
thought of scandal, so far as the Executive was concerned,
during all the years that he was Governor, although there
was considerable corruption in one or two of the Legisla
tures, and some very bad measures were passed over his
veto. Having been a Major-General in the Civil War, and con
sidering his excellent record as Governor, his popularity, his
eloquence, it seemed certain that Governor Oglesby would
take his place as one of the foremost United States Senators,
when he entered the Senate in 1873; but strange to say, his
service in that body added nothing to the reputation he had
made as a soldier and as Governor of Ilhnois ; indeed, I am
not sure but that it detracted from rather than added to his
reputation. Perhaps too much was expected of him. The
environment did not suit him. His style of oratory was
neither appreciated nor appropriate to a calm, deliberative
body such as the United States Senate. He did not have the
faculty of disposing of business. As Chairman of the Com
mittee on Pensions, he was so conscientious that he wanted to
examine every little detail of the hundreds of cases before his
committee, and would not trust even the routine to his sub-

RICHARD J. OGLESBY

GOVERNOR RICHARD J. OGLESBY 201
ordinates. The result was the business of the committee was
far behind, much to the dissatisfaction of Senators,
I do not believe that Governor Oglesby ever did feel at
home in the Senate ; but nevertheless he was much chagrined
at his defeat, and retired reluctantly.
But he was soon again elected Governor of Ilhnois, a place
that suited him much better than the Senate of the United
States, His honesty, his patriotism, his earnest eloquence, the
uniqueness of his character, made him beloved by the people
of his State ; and wherever he went, to the day of his death.
Uncle Dick Oglesby, as he was called, was enthusiastically
and affectionately received.
He was a true Repubhcan from the very beginning of the
party, although toward the end of his hfe I do not believe
that he was quite satisfied with the expansion pohcy of the
party. The last campaign in which he took an active part was that
of 1896, Owing to his advanced years and failing health,
and perhaps being somewhat dissatisfied with our candidate
for Governor, it took considerable urging to induce him
to enter that campaign actively; but when it was arranged
that aU the living ex-Governors of Illinois — Oglesby, Bev-
eridge, Fif er, Hamilton, and myself — should tour the State
on a special train, he consented to join, and christened the ex
pedition, "The Flying Squadron," He did his full part in
speaking, and seemed to enjoy keenly the enthusiasm with
which he was everywhere received. He was particularly
bitter in his denunciation of Mr, Bryan — even to the extent
of using profanity (to which he was much addicted) , greatly
to the delight of the thousands of people whom he addressed.
Governor Oglesby was one of the most dehghtfuUy enter
taining conversationahsts whom one would wish to meet. He

202 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
wiU go down in the history of Ilhnois, as one of the most
popular men among the people of our State.
Late in life Governor Oglesby took up a church affihation.
It always seemed strange to me, in his later life, that a man
of his undoubted bravery should have such a perfect horror
of death, which was an obsession with him. To his intimate
friends he constantly talked of it. It was not the physical
pain of dying ; with a man of his pronounced religious con
victions it could not have been the uncertainty of the here
after. What was the basis of the fear I cannot imagine —
but certain it is, I do not remember ever knowing a man
who seemed to have such a fear of death.
At an advanced age, he passed away peacefully and pain
lessly at his beautiful home at Elkhart, lUinois, mourned by
the people of the whole State, whom he had served so long
and faithfully and weU.

CHAPTER XV
SENATORIAL CAREER
1883 TO 1911
AFTER I was reelected Governor of Ilhnois, in 1880,
my friends in the State urged me to become a candidate
for the United States Senate to succeed the late Hon. David
Davis, whose term expired March 3, 1883. I finally con
sented. There were several candidates against me. Governor
Richard Oglesby and General Thomas J. Henderson being
the two most prominent. It was not much of a contest, and
I had no very serious struggle to secure the caucus nomina
tion. The objection was then raised in the Legislature itself
that I was not eligible under the Constitution of our State for
election to the United States Senate while I was serving as
Governor of Illinois. The point looked somewhat serious to
me, and I consulted with my friend, the Hon. Wm. J. Cal
houn, then a member of the Legislature, later Minister to
China, for whose abihty I had the most profound respect.
I asked him to give attention to the subject and, if he
agreed with me that I was eligible, to make the fight on the
floor of the House. He looked into it and came to the con
clusion there was no doubt as to my ehgibihty. He made a
speech in the Legislature, which was regarded then as one
of the ablest efforts ever dehvered on the floor of the House,
and he carried the Legislature with him. When the time
came, I received the vote of every Repubhcan member of
both Houses, excepting one, the Hon. Geo. E. Adams. He
was thoroughly conscientious in voting against me, and did
so from no ulterior motive, as he honestly beheved that I was
203

204 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
not ehgible. We became very good friends afterwards, and
I never harbored any ill feehng against hun on account of that
vote. I appreciated the high distinction conferred upon me by
the people of the State, through the Legislature, in electing
me to the United States Senate, but I confess that I felt con
siderable regret on leaving the Governorship, as during my
six years I had enjoyed the work and had endeavored to the
best of my ability to give to the people of my State a business-
hke administration.
I retired from the office of Governor on February 5, 1883,
and remained in Springfield until sworn in as a member of
the Senate, December 4, 1883, General Arthur was Presi
dent at that time, having succeeded to the office after the
assassination of General Garfield.
I liked General Arthur very much. I had met him once
or twice before. I went with my staff to attend the York-
town celebration, and I may remark here that it was the first
and only time during my service of six years as Governor
on which my whole military staff accompanied me. We
stopped in Washington to pay our respects to the President.
It was soon after the assassination of General Garfield, and
Arthur had not yet moved into the White House. He was
living in the old Butler place just south of the Capitol, and
I called on him there and presented the members of my staff
to him. The President was exceedingly polite, as he always
was, and was quite interested, having been a staff officer him
self, by appointment of Governor Morgan of New York.
We were all very much impressed with the dignity of the
occasion and the kindly attention the President showed us.
General Arthur had taken considerable interest in New
York pohtics and belonged to the Conkhng faction. He
came into the office of President under the most trying cir-

SENATORIAL CAREER 205
cumstances. The party was almost torn asunder by factional
troubles in New York and elsewhere, Blaine, the bitter en
emy of Conkhng, had been made the Secretary of State;
Garfield had made some appointments very obnoxious to
Conkhng — among them the Collector of the Port of New
York — and, generally, conditions were very unsatisfactory.
Arthur entered the oflSce bent on restoring harmonious con
ditions in the party, so far as he could. He did not allow him
self to be controUed by any faction, but seemed animated by
one desire, and that was to give a good administration and
unite the party.
He was a man of great sense of propriety and dignity,
beheving more thoroughly in the observance of the etiquette
which should surround a President than any other occupant
of the White House whom I have known. He was very pop
ular with those who came into contact with him, and especiaUy
was he popular with the members of the House and Senate.
I have always thought that he should have been accorded the
honor of a nomination for President in 1884; as a matter
of fact most of the Repubhcan Senators agreed with me, and
many of us went to the National Convention at Chicago,
determined to nominate him; but we soon found there was
no chance, and that the nomination would go to Blaine.
President Arthur was very kind to me in the way
of patronage. He not only recognized my endorsement for
Federal offices in my State, but gave me a number of appoint
ments outside. One of the first of these was the appointment
of Judge Zane as Territorial Judge of Utah. President
Arthur showed his confidence in me by appointing Judge
Zane, without any endorsement, excepting a statement of
his quahfications, written by me on a scrap of paper in the
Executive Office. The Senate Committee on the Judiciary
caUed on the President for the endorsements of Judge Zane,

206 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
and Senator Edmunds was quite disgusted when the Presi
dent could send him only this httle shp of paper written by
me, which was all the President had when he made the ap
pointment. Senator Edmunds hesitated to recommend his
confirmation. There was no question about Judge Zane's
quahfications. He had been a circuit judge in our State for
many years. I saw Senator TeUer, whom I knew, and who
knew something of Judge Zane, and asked him to help me,
as he could do, being then Secretary of the Interior. On
one occasion I spoke to TeUer about Judge Zane, and pur
posely spoke so loud that Senator Edmunds could hear me.
I said, among other things, there had not been a man nom
inated for Territorial Judge in the country who was better
quahfied for the position. Judge Zane's nomination was
soon reported from the committee and confirmed. He made
a great record on the Bench and did much to break up the
practice of polygamy. He is still hving, a resident of Salt
Lake City, Utah.
I entered the Senate at a very uninteresting period in our
history. The excitement and bitterness caused by the Civil
War and Reconstruction had subsided. It was what I would
term a period of industrial development, and there were no
great measures before Congress, The men who then com
posed the membership of the Senate were honest and patri
otic, trying to do their duty as best they could, but there was
no great commanding figure. The days of Webster, Clay,
and Calhoun had passed; the great men of the Civil War
period were gone, Stevens, Sumner, Chase of the Recon
struction era, had all passed away.
Among the leaders at the beginning of the Forty-eighth
Congress were Senators Aldrich and Anthony, of Rhode Is
land; Edmunds and MorriU, of Vermont; Sherman and Pen
dleton, of Ohio; SeweU, of New Jersey; Don Cameron, of

SENATORIAL CAREER 207
Pennsylvania; Piatt and Hawley, of Connecticut; Harrison,
of Indiana; Dawes and Hoar, of Massachusetts; AUison, of
Iowa; Ingalls, of Kansas; Hale and Frye, of Maine; Saw
yer, of Wisconsin; Van Wyck and Manderson, of Nebraska;
all on the Repubhcan side. There were a number of quite
prominent Democrats — Bayard, of Delaware; Voorhees, of
Indiana; Morgan, of Alabama; Ransom and Vance, of North
Carohna; Butler and Hampton, of South Carolina; Beck, of
Kentucky; Lamar and George, of Mississippi; and CockreU
and Vest, of Missouri,
The Senate was controUed by the Repubhcans, there being
forty Repubhcan and thirty-six Democratic Senators; and
Senator George F. Edmunds, of Vermont, was chosen Presi
dent pro tempore. In the House the Democrats had the
majority, and John G, Carhsle was chosen Speaker.
Senator Edmunds is stiU living, and he has been for
many years regarded as one of the foremost lawyers of
the American bar. I know that in the Senate when I entered
it, he was ranked as its leading lawyer. He was chairman
of the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and, with
Senator Thurman, of Ohio, dominated that committee. I
became very intimately acquainted with him. He was dig
nified in his conversation and deportment, and I never knew
him to say a vicious thing in debate.
I believe I had considerable influence with Senator Ed
munds. He always seemed to have a prejudice against ap
propriations for the Rock Island (Illinois) Arsenal. He
had never visited Rock Island, but he seemed to think that
the money spent there was more or less wasted, and he was
disposed to oppose appropriations for its maintenance. One
day we were considering an appropriation bill carrying sev
eral items in favor of Rock Island, and I anticipated Senator
Edmunds' objections. Sitting beside him, I asked him not

208 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
to oppose those items. I told him that I did not think he
was doing right by such a course. He asked me where they
were in the bill and I showed them to him without saying a
word. Just before we reached them I observed him rising
from his seat and leaving the chamber. He remained away
until the items were passed, then he returned, and the subject
was never mentioned between us afterwards.
Senator Edmunds resigned before his last term expired.
There were two reasons for his resignation, the principal
one being the illness of his only daughter; but in addition, he
had come to feel that the Senate was becoming less and less
desirable each year, and began to lose interest in it. He did
not hke the rough-and-tumble methods of debate of a number
of Western Senators who were coming to take a more prom
inent place in the Senate. On one occasion Senator Plumb,
of Kansas, attacked Senator Edmunds most violently, and
without any particular reason.
During his service in the Senate, Senator Edmunds seemed
to be frequently arguing cases before the Supreme Court of
the United States. His ability as a lawyer made him in
constant demand in important litigation before that court.
Personally, I do not approve of Senators of the United
States engaging in the active practice of the law or any
other business, but his practice before the Supreme Court did
not cause him to neglect his Senatorial duties.
Justice Miller, one of the ablest members of the court, was
talking with me one day about Senator Edmunds, and he
asked me why I did not come into the Supreme Court and
practise, remarking that Edmunds was there a good deal. I
replied that I did not know enough law, to begin with; and in
addition it did not seem to me proper for a Senator of the
United States to engage in that kind of business. Justice
MiUer rephed that Senators did do so, and that there seemed

SENATORIAL CAREER 209
to be no compl.aint about it, and he urged me to come along,
saying he would take care of me. But needless for me to
say, I never appeared in any case before the Supreme Court
of the United States during my service as Senator.
Senator Edmunds' colleague, Justin S, MorriU, was one
of the most lovable characters I ever met, I served with
him in the House, Later he was a very prominent mem
ber of the Senate, when I entered it, and was Chairman of
the Committee on Finance, He was a wonderfully capable
man in legislation. He had extraordinary power in origi
nating measures and carrying them through. He was not a
lawyer, but was a man of exceptional common sense. His
judgment was good on any proposition, I do not beheve
he had an enemy in the Senate. Every one felt kindly to
ward him, and for this reason it was very easy for him to
secure the passage of any bill he was interested in.
While Senator MorriU was chairman of the Committee on
Finance, owing to his advanced age and the feeble condition
of his health the real burden of the committee for years be
fore his death fell on Nelson W. Aldrich, of Rhode Island.
He was prominent as far back as the Forty-eighth Congress,
and was a dominant unit even then. His recent retirement
is newspaper history and need not be aired here.
Senator Aldrich has had a potent influence in framing aU
tariff and financial legislation almost from the time he en
tered the Senate. Personally, I have great admiration for
him and for his great abihty and capacity to frame legis
lation, and it is a matter of sincere regret with me that he has
determined to retire to private life. His absence is seriously
felt, especially in the Finance Committee.
The Hon. John Sherman, of Ohio, was one of the most
valuable statesmen of his day and one of the ablest men. He
was exceedingly industrious, and well posted on all financial

210 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
questions. Toward the close of his Senatorial term, he f aUed
rapidly, but he was just as clear on any financial question as
he was at any time in his career. He was Secretary of the
Treasury when in his prime, and I believe his record in this
office stands second only to Hamilton's. He was of the
Hamilton school of financiers, and his judgment was always
rehable and trustworthy. He was a very serious man and
could never see through a joke. He was one of the very
best men in Ohio, and would have made a splendid President.
For years he was quite ambitious to be President, and the
business interests of the country seemed to be for him. His
name was before the National Convention of the Repubhcan
party many times, but circumstances always intervened to
prevent his nomination when it was almost within his grasp.
I have always thought that one reason was that his own
State had so many ambitious men in it who sought the honor
themselves, that they were never sincerely in good faith for
Sherman. At least twice he went to National Conventions,
apparently with his own State behind him, but he was un
fortunate in the selection of his managers, and, really, when
the time came to support him they seemed only too ready to
sacrifice him in their own interests,
I have always regretted that he closed his career by ac
cepting the office of Secretary of State under President Mc
Kinley, It was unfortunate for him that it was at a most
trying and difficult time that he entered that department.
The Spanish-American War was coming on, and there
was necessity for exercising the most careful and skil
ful diplomacy. Senator Sherman's training and experience
lay along other lines. He was not in any sense a diplomat,
and his age unfitted him for the place. He retired from
office very soon, and shortly thereafter passed away. His
brief service as Secretary of State wiU be forgotten, and he

SENATORIAL CAREER 211
will be remembered as the great Secretary of the Treasury,
and one of the most celebrated of Ohio Senators.
Senator George F, Hoar, of Massachusetts, was quite
prominent at the beginning of the Forty-eighth Congress.
He was jealous of New England's interests, and was always
prejudiced in its favor, and in favor of New England men
and men with New England ancestry, or affihations. He
opposed the Interstate Commerce Act because he thought it
would injuriously affect his locahty, although he knew very
well it would be of inestimable benefit to the country as a
whole. Senator Hoar was a scholarly man. Indeed, I
would say he was the most cultivated man in the Senate. He
was highly educated, had travelled extensively, was a student
all his life, and in debate was very fond of Latin or Greek
quotations, and especially so when he wanted to make a point
perfectly clear to the Senate. He opposed imperialism and
the acquisition of foreign territory. He opposed the ratifi
cation of the treaty of peace with Spain. When the Phihp-
pine question was up in the Senate, I made a speech in which
I compared Senator Hoar with his coUeague, Senator Lodge,
said that Senator Lodge had no such fear as did Senator
Hoar on account of the acquirement of non-contiguous terri
tory, and made the remark that Senator Hoar was far behind
the times. He was not present when I made the speech, but
afterwards read it in the Record. He came down to my seat
greatly out of humor one day and stated that if three- fourths
of the people of his State were not in harmony with his po
sition he would resign.
He was one of the most kindly of men, but during this
period he was so deadly in earnest in opposition to the so-
called imperiahsm that he became very ill-natured with his
Repubhcan colleagues who differed from him. I do not
fojpw bjit that the passing of time has demonstrated that

212 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Senator Hoar was right in his opposition to acquirement of
the Phihppuies; but at the tune it seemed that the burden
was thrust upon us and we could not shirk it.
Senator Hoar was disposed to be against the recognition
of the Republic of Panama, and it has been intimated that
he was of the opinion that the Roosevelt Administration had
something to do with the bloodless revolution that resulted in
the uniting with the United States of that part of Colombia
which now forms the Canal Zone.
President Roosevelt entertained a very high regard for
Senator Hoar, and he wanted to disabuse his mind of that
impression. He asked him to call at his office one mornmg,
I was waiting to see the President and when he came in he
told me that he had an engagement with Senator Hoar, and
asked me if I would wait until he had seen the Senator first.
I promptly answered that he should see the Senator first at
any rate, as he was an older man than I, and was older in the
service. Senator Hoar and the President entered the room
together. Just as they went in, the President turned to me,
"You might as weU come in at the same time," said he, I
accompanied them. And this is what took place:
The President wanted the Senator to read a message which
he had already prepared, in reference to Colombia's action in
rejecting the treaty and the canal in general; which message
showed very clearly that the President had never contem
plated the secession of Panama, and was considering different
methods in order to obtain the right of way across the Isth
mus from Colombia, fully expecting to deal only with the
Colombian Government on the subject. The President was
sitting on the table, first at one side of Senator Hoar, and
then on the other, talking in his usual vigorous fashion, try
ing to get the Senator's attention to the message. Sen
ator Hoar seemed adverse to reading it, but finaUy sat down,

SENATORIAL CAREER 213
and without seeming to pay any particular attention to what
he was perusing, he remained for a minute or two, then
arose and said: "I hope I may never hve to see the day when
the interests of my country are placed above its honor." He
at once retired from the room without uttering another
word, proceeding to the Capitol.
Later in the morning he came to me with a typewritten
paper containing the conversation between the President and
himself, and asked me to certify to its correctness, I took
the paper and read it over, and as it seemed to be correct, as
I remembered the conversation, I wrote my name on the bot
tom of it, I have never seen or heard of the paper since.
Senator Hoar was very much interested in changing the
date of the inauguration of the President of the United
States. March, in Washington, is one of the very worst
months of the year, and it frequently happens that the
weather is so cold and stormy as to make any demonstration
almost impossible. Inaugurations have cost the hves of
very many men. I was looking into the subject myself, and
I took occasion to write Senator Hoar a letter, asking his
views. He rephed to me very courteously and promptly.
I was so pleased with the letter that I retained it, and give it
here. "Worcester, Mass., August 26, 1901.
"My dear Senator: —
"I do not think the proposed change of time of inauguration can be
made without change in the Constitution. I prepared an article for
so changing the Constitution. It has passed the Senate twice cer
tainly, and I think three times. It was reported once or twice from
the Committee on Privileges and Elections^ and once from the Com
mittee on the Judiciary. It received general favor in the Senate, and
as I now remember there was no vote against it at any time. The only
serious question was whether the four years should terminate on a cer
tain Wednesday in April or should terminate as now on a fixed day of

214 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
the month. The former is liable to the objection that one Presidential
term should be in some cases slightly longer than another. The other
is liable to the objection that if the thirtieth of April were Sunday or Sat
urday or Monday, nearly all persons from a distance who come to the
inauguration would have to be away from home over Sunday.
"The matter would, I think, have passed the House, if it could have
been reached for action. But it had the earnest opposition of Speaker
Reed. It was, as you know, very hard to get him to approve anything
that was a change.
"I have prepared an amendment to be introduced at the beginning of
the next session, and have got some very carefully prepared tables
from the Coast Survey, to show the exact length of an administra
tion under the different plans. The advantage of the change seems to
me very clear indeed. In the first place, you prolong the second session
of Congress until the last of April; you add six or seven weeks, which
are very much needed, to that session. And you can further increase
that session a little by special statute, which should have Congress meet
immediately after the November election, a little earlier than now. In
that case, you can probably without disadvantage shorten the first ses
sion of Congress so as to get away by the middle of May or the first
of June and get rid of the very disagreeable Washington heat.
"I wish you would throw your great influence, so much increased by
the renewed expression of the confidence of your State, against what
seems to me the most dangerous single proposition now pending before
the people, a plan to elect Senators of the United States by popular vote.
"I am, with high regard, faithfully yours,
"Geo. F. Hoar.
"Hon. S. M. Cullom,
Chicago, Ills."
Senator Dawes, of Massachusetts, Senator Hoar's col
league, was not the cultivated man that Senator Hoar was,
and neither would I say he was a man of strong and inde
pendent character. He was very popular in the Senate,
probably far more popular with Senators than his colleague,
and it was much easier for him to pass bills in which he was
interested. He was influential as a legislator and a man of
great probity of character.

SENATORIAL CAREER 215
For some reason or other — why, I never knew — he was
one of the very few Eastern Senators of my time who gave
special attention to Indian affairs. He was chairman of the
Committee on Indian Affairs for years, and was the ac
knowledged authority on that subject in the Senate. When
he retired he was placed at the head of the so-caUed Dawes
Commission, having in charge the interests of the tribes of
Indians in Oklahoma and the Indian Territory. He was an
honest man, and having inherited no fortune, he conse
quently retired from the Senate a poor man. The appoint
ment was very agreeable to him on that account, but it was
given to him more especially because he knew more about
Indian matters than any other man.
As I have been writing these recollections of the men with
whom I have been associated in pubhc hfe for the last half-
century, I have had occasion to mention a number of tunes,
Senator OrviUe H. Piatt, of Connecticut, who was two years
older than I, and who took his seat in the Senate in 1879,
serving there until his death in 1905.
We became very friendly almost immediately after I en
tered the Senate. One bond of friendship between us from
the beginning was, we each had as senior coUeague a cele
brated General of Civil War fame — Hawley, of Connecti
cut and Logan, of lUinois. Senator Piatt and I necessarily
were compeUed to take what might be termed a back seat,
our coUeagues being almost always in the hme-hght. As a
member of the select committee on Interstate Commerce,
Senator Piatt rendered much valuable assistance in the in
vestigation and in the passage of the Act of 1887, although
he was almost induced finally to oppose it on account of the
anti-poohng and the long-and-short-haul sections.
He was a modest man, and it was some years before Sen
ators that were not intimate with him really appreciated his

216 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
worth. Had he not yielded to the late Senator Hoar, he
would have been made chairman of the Committee on the
Judiciary instead of Senator Hoar, a position for which
there was no Senator more thoroughly quahfied than Sena
tor Piatt. It seems strange that he never did succeed to an
important chairmanship until he was made chairman of the
Committee on Cuban Relations during the war with Spain,
and he really made that an important committee. Not only
in name but in fact was he the author of those very wise
pieces of legislation known as the Piatt Amendments. I
was a member of the Committee on Cuban Relations, and
know whereof I speak in saying that it was Senator Piatt
who drafted these so-called amendments and secured their
passage in the Senate. They were finally embodied in the
Cuban Constitution, and also in the treaty between Cuba
and the United States.
After the late Senator Dawes retired. Senator Piatt
was an authority on all matters pertaining to Indian af
fairs. As the years passed by he became more and more influen
tial in the Senate. Every Senator on both sides of the cham
ber had confidence in him and in his judgment. As an
orator he was not to be compared with Senator Spooner, but
he did dehver some very able speeches, especiaUy during the
debates preceding the Spanish- American War.
I have often said that Senator Piatt was capable in more
ways than any other man in the Senate of doing what the
exigencies of the day from time to time put upon him. He
was always at his post of duty, always watchful in caring for
the interests of the country, always just and fair to all alike,
and ever careful and conservative in determining what his
duty should be in the disposition of any pubhc question; and

SENATORIAL CAREER 217
I regarded his judgment as a httle more exactly right than
that of any other Senator.
General Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut, was quite a
figure in the Senate when I entered it, and was regarded as
one of the leaders, especially on mihtary matters. He was
a man of fine abihty and address, brave as a hon and en
joyed an enviable Civil War record. He was president of
the Centennial at PhUadelphia and permanent President of
the Repubhcan Convention of 1868, which nominated Gen
eral Grant. He was a very ambitious man, and wanted to
be President; several times the delegation from his State
presented his name to national conventions. He had no
mean idea of his own merits; and his colleague. Senator
Piatt, told me once in a jocular way that if the Queen of
England should announce her purpose of giving a banquet
to one of the most distinguished citizens from each nation,
and General Hawley should be invited as the most dis
tinguished citizen of the United States, he would take it as a
matter of course.
Senator F. M. CockreU and Senator George Vest repre
sented Missouri in the United States Senate for very many
years. Senator CockreU was one of the most faithful and useful
legislators I ever knew. I served with him for years on the
Committee on Appropriations. That committee never had
a better member. He kept close track of the business of the
Senate, and when the calendar was called, no measure was
passed without his close scrutiny, especially any measure car
rying an appropriation. He was a Democrat all his life,
but never allowed partisanship to enter into his action on leg
islation. It was said of him that he used to make one fiery
Democratic speech at each Congress, and then not think of

218 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
partisanship again. He was not given much to taUdng
about violating the Constitution, because he knew he had
been in the Confederate Army himself and that he had vio
lated it.
One day Senator George, who was, by the way, a very able
Senator from the South, was making a long constitutional
argument against a bill, extending over two or three days,
I happened to be conversing with CockreU at the time, and
he remarked: "Just hsten to George talk. He don't seem
to reahze that for four years he was violating the Constitu
tion hunself," Senator CockreU retired from the Senate
in 1905, his State for the first time in its history having
elected a Repubhcan Legislature.
President Roosevelt had the very highest regard for him,
and as soon as it was known he could not be reelected, he
wired Senator CockreU, tendering hun a place on either the
Interstate Commerce Commission or the Panama Canal
Commission. He accepted the former, serving thereon for
one term. He gave the duties of this position the same atten
tion and study that he did when a member of the Senate.
Senator Vest was an entirely different style of man. He
did not pay the close attention to the routine work of the
Senate that Senator CockreU did, but he was honest and
faithful to his duty, and an able man as weU, He was a
great orator, and I have heard him make on occasions as
beautiful speeches as were ever delivered in the Senate. At
the time of his death he was the last surviving member of the
Confederate Senate.
He told me a rather interesting story once about how he
came to quit drinking whiskey. He said he came home to
Missouri after the war, found httle to do, and being almost
without means, took to drinking whiskey pretty hard. He
awoke one night and thought he saw a cat sitting on the

GROVER CLEVELAND

SENATORIAL CAREER 219
end of his bed. He reached down, took up his boot- jack
and threw it at the cat, as he supposed. Instead, a pitcher
was smashed to atoms. Needless to add there was no cat
at aU, which he reahzed, and he never took another drink of
hquor. Senator Vest was not a very old man, but he was in poor
health and feeble for his years. One day he looked partic
ularly forlorn, sitting at his desk and leaning his head on
his hands. I noticed his dejected attitude, and said to Sen
ator MorriU, who was then eighty-five or eighty-six years
old: "Go over and cheer up Vest," MorriU did so in these
words: "Vest, what is the matter? Cheer up! Why, you
are nothing but a boy."
Senator Vest retired from the Senate, and shortly there
after died in his home in Washington.
AUen G. Thurman, of Ohio, was another very prominent
Democrat in this Congress, He was one of the leading
lawyers of the Senate, ranking, probably, with Edmunds in
this respect. He was chairman of the Committee on the
Judiciary for a brief period, was later nominated for Vice-
President of the United States, but was defeated with the
rest of the Democratic ticket.
Senator Eugene Hale, who retired from the Senate on his
own motion, March 4, 1911, was elected in 1881, and was
always regarded as a very strong man. It was unfortunate
for the Senate and country that Senator Hale determined
to leave this body. He was chairman of the Committee on
Appropriations, and chairman of the Republican caucus, in
which latter capacity I succeeded him in April, 1911. He
was for years chairman of the Committee on Naval Af
fairs; and there is no man in the country, in my judgment,
who knows more about the work and condition of the Navy
and the Navy Department than does Senator Hale. Hence

220 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
it has been for years past, that when legislation affecting the
Navy came up to be acted upon by Congress, generally we
have looked to Senator Hale to direct and influence our
legislative action.
He is a very independent character, and was just the man
for chairman of the great Committee on Appropriations.
Senator Hale was more than ordinarily independent, even
to the extent of voting against his party at times, and was
very httle influenced by what a President or an Administra
tion might desire. I regretted exceedingly to see him leave
the Senate, where for many years he served his country so
weU. Charles F. Manderson, of Nebraska, was twice elected to
the United States Senate, and was an influential member.
I have regarded him as one of the most amiable men with
whom I have served. He was a splendid soldier, a splendid
legislator, and a splendid man generally. He was the pre
siding officer of the Senate, and a good one. I have always
thought that he ought to have been the Republican nominee
for Vice-President of the United States ; but for some reason
or other he never seemed to seek the place, and finally he be
came one of the attorneys for the Chicago, Burhngton, and
Quincy Railroad, since when he seems to have lost interest in
political affairs. He visits old friends in Washington once
each year, and it is always a great pleasure for me to greet
Mr, and Mrs, Manderson.
Another Senator who first served many years in the
House, was Philetus Sawyer, of Wisconsin. It was in the
Senate that I served with him, and came to have for him a
very great respect. He was not very well educated, not a
lawyer nor an orator, and excepting in a conversational way,
not regarded as a talker; yet he was an uncommonly ef
fective man in business as well as in politics, and was once

SENATORIAL CAREER 221
or twice invited to become chairman of the National Repub
hcan Committee,
I cannot resist the temptation to tell a little story in con
nection with Senator Sawyer. One day he was undertaking
to pass an unimportant bill in the Senate concerning some
railroad in his own State, and as was his custom when he had
anything to say or do in the Senate, he took his place in the
centre aisle down close to the clerk's desk, so that he could be
heard. Senator Van Wyck offered an amendment to the
bill, and was talking in favor of the amendment, when Saw
yer became a httle alarmed lest the biU was going to be
beaten. He turned his back to the clerk, and said in a
tone of voice that could be distinctly heard:
"If you will stop your damned yawp I will accept your
amendment." Van Wyck merely said, "All right." The amendment
was adopted, and the bill passed.
As is quite the custom in the disposal of new members, I
was appointed a member of the Committee on Pensions —
really the only important committee appointment I received
during my first service in the Senate, I naturally felt very
hberal toward the old soldiers, and it seemed that every case
that was referred to me was a worthy one, and that a liberal
pension should be aUowed, I became a httle uneasy lest I
might be too liberal, and I went to Sawyer, knowing that he
was a man of large wealth, seeking his advice about it.
He said, and I have been guided by that advice largely
ever since: "You need not worry; you cannot very weU make
a mistake in aUowing liberal pensions to the soldier boys.
The money wiU get into circulation and come back into the
treasury very soon; so go ahead and do what you think is
right in the premises, and there will be no trouble."
Senator Sawyer retired from the Senate voluntarily at a

222 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
ripe old age. He was largely instrumental in selecting as
his successor, one of the greatest lawyers and ablest states
men who has ever served in that body, of whom I shall speak
later, my distinguished friend, the Hon. John C, Spooner,
In the Forty-eighth Congress the Democrats had a ma
jority in the House and the Republicans a majority in the
Senate, and as is always the case when such a situation pre
vails, httle or no important legislation was enacted.
I entered the Senate having three objects in view: first,
the control of Interstate Commerce; second, the stamping
out of polygamy; third, the construction of the Hennepin
Canal. I was not quite as modest as I have since advised younger
Senators to be, because I see by the Record that on January
11, 1884, a little more than a month after I had entered the
Senate, I made an extended address on the subject of Ter
ritorial Government for Utah, particularly referring to po
lygamy. I was especially bitter in what I said against
the Mormons and the Mormon Church. I used such expres
sions as these:
"There is scarcely a page of their history that is not marred by a
recital of some foul deed. The whole history of the Mormon Church
abounds in illustrations of the selfishness, deceit, and lawlessness of its
leaders and members. Founded in fraud, built up by the most audacious
deception, this organization has been so notoriously corrupt and im
moral in its practices, teachings, and tendencies as to justify the Gov
ernment in assuming absolute control of the Territory and in giving
the Church or its followers no voice in the administration of public
afi'airs. The progress of Mormonism to its present strength and power
has been attended by a continual series of murders, robberies, and out
rages of every description; but there is one dark spot in its disgraceful
record that can never be effaced, one crime so heinous that the blood
of the betrayed victims stUl calls aloud for vengeance."

SENATORIAL CAREER 223
I introduced a biU on the subject, in which I provided for
the appointment of a legislative council by the President, this
council to have the same legislative power as the legislative
assembly of a Territory. I distrusted the local Legislature
because it was dominated by men high up in the Mormon
Church. Durmg this Congress I pushed the bill as best I could, but
was never able to secure its passage. Laws were passed on
the subject, and the Mormon question is practically now a
thing of the past.
Since that time conditions in Utah and in the Mormon
Church have changed greatly. The Prophets received a new
revelation declaring polygamy unlawful, and I believe that
the practice has ceased. As a matter of fact. Judge Zane,
the Territorial Judge in Utah, did more to stamp it out than
any other one man. He sentenced those guilty of the prac
tice to terms in the penitentiary, and announced that he would
continue to do so until they reformed. I do not think that
the Church or the Mormon people deserve to-day the se
vere criticism they merited twenty-five years ago.

CHAPTER XVI
Cleveland's first term
1884 TO 1887
THE Repubhcan Convention of 1884 was held at Chi
cago, The names of Joseph R. Hawley, John A,
Logan, Chester A. Arthur, John Sherman, George F.
Edmunds, and James G. Blaine were presented as candi
dates for the Republican nomination for President of the
United States. Blaine and Logan finally were the nominees,
neither of them having much of a contest to secure the nom
ination for President and Vice-President respectively.
The Democratic Convention met later, and nominated
Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks.
The Presidential campaign of 1884 was unique in the
extreme. It was the most bitter personal contest in our his
tory. The private hves of both candidates, Cleveland and
Blaine, were searched, and the most scandalous stories cir
culated, most of which were false.
The tide was in favor of Blaine only a short time before
the election. I do not intend to go into the cause of his
defeat. It was accomphshed by a margin so narrow that
any one of a dozen reasons may be given as the particular
one. The Burchard incident, the dinner given by the plu
tocrats at Delmonico's, certainly changed several hundred
votes — important when we remember that a change of less
than six hundred votes in the State of New York would
have elected him. Conkling, too, was accused of playing
224

CLEVELAND'S FIRST TERM 225
him false, and it was alleged there were hundreds of frau
dulent votes cast in the city of New York and on Long
Island. Colonel A. K. McClure, in "Our Presidents and
How We Make Them," says, with reference to this contest :
"Blaine would have been matchless in the skilful management of a
Presidential campaign for another, but he was dwarfed by the over
whelming responsibilities of conducting a campaign for himself, and yet
he assumed the supreme control of the struggle and directed it abso
lutely from start to finish. He was of the heroic mould, and he wisely
planned his campaign tours to accomplish the best result. In point of
fact, he had won his fight after stumping the country, and lost it by
his stay in New York on his way home. He knew how to sway multi
tudes, and none could approach him in that important feature of a con
flict; but he was not trained to consider the thousand intricacies that
fell upon the management of every Presidential contest."
Grover Cleveland was inaugurated on the fourth of
March, 1885, being the first Democratic President since
James Buchanan, who was elected in 1856, and marking the
first defeat of the Repubhcan party since the election of
Lincoln. There was a wild scramble for offices on the part of the
Democrats as soon as Cleveland was inaugurated. He pro
ceeded to satisfy them as rapidly as he could, and out of 56,-
134 Presidential positions he appointed 42,992 Democrats,
I always admired Grover Cleveland, I first saw him at
the time of his inaugural address, which he delivered with
out notes. He never faltered from the begmning to the
end, never skipped a hne or missed a word, or made a false
start. He was the first, and so far as I know the only Pres
ident who did not read his inaugural address. His speeches,
his messages, and his pubhc utterances generaUy all showed
that he was a man of extraordinary abUity, He made a
wonderful impression upon the country. As Chief Exec
utive, he was strong-minded and forceful, and adhered to

226 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
his views on pubhc questions with a remarkable degree of
tenacity, utterly regardless of his party.
He appointed a very fair cabinet. There was reaUy no
great man in it, but they were aU men of some ability. His
Secretary of State, Thos. F. Bayard, of Delaware, was one
of the prominent Democrats of the Senate when I entered
it, and had represented his State in that body for many
years. I beheve he conducted the affairs of the State De
partment satisfactorily, and he was later made Minister to
the Court of St. James.
Daniel Manning, of New York, was Secretary of the
Treasury. And, referring to Manning, I am reminded of a
httle story.
Soon after he came into the office I had occasion to go to
the Treasury Department on some business. I saw the of
fice secretary, who had been there under the previous Admin
istration, and whom I knew weU. He informed me that the
Secretary of the Treasury was not in, but that he would be
in a few minutes. I expressed a desire to see him and said
that I woiUd hke very much to be introduced to him. Mr,
Manning came in presently, and I was introduced, after
which I disposed of my business without delay. Looking
around, I saw Senator Beck and a number of other Sena
tors, accompanied by a horde of Democratic office-seekers
from the South, sitting against the wall waiting for me to
get through with my business. Beck came forward, and in
a half serious sort of way said to me: "You do not seem to
know that the Administration has changed. You march in
here and take possession, and we Democrats are sitting here
against the wall cooling our heels and waiting for an op
portunity to see the Secretary. You have seen him already,
and are ready to go," It did plague me a httle, as I was
not quite sure whether Beck was in earnest or not. He soon

CLEVELAND'S FIRST TERM 227
returned to the Senate from the Treasury, and coming into
the Senate Chamber a little later I found that he had been
teUing my colleagues how he had "plagued Cullom" and
how CuUom was much embarrassed about it. He considered
it quite a joke on me.
L. Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi, was made Secretary of
the Interior. Lamar was also one of the prominent Dem
ocrats of the Senate when I entered it. I had the very
greatest respect for him as a Senator and as a man. Later,
Mr. Cleveland nominated him for Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court. The nomination pended before the Ju
diciary Committee for a long time, as it was weU known
that Mr, Lamar had not been an active, practising lawyer,
I happened to be at the White House one day, and Mr.
Cleveland said to me: "I wish you would take up Lamar's
nomination and dispose of it. I am between hay and grass
with reference to the Interior Department. Nothing is be
ing done there ; I ought to have some one on duty, and I can
not do anything imtil you dispose of Lamar."
He had, I suppose, spoken to other Senators along the
same line. The nomination was taken up soon after, and
he was confirmed. I voted against his confirmation in the
Senate; not because I had anything against him personaUy,
or because he was a Southern Democrat, but I understood
that he had not practised law at all, and I did not beheve that
sort of man should be appointed to fill so high and responsi
ble a position.
Generally speaking, I got along very weU with President
Cleveland, considering the fact that he was a Democrat and
I a Republican, I visited the White House frequently, and
he generally granted anything that I asked for.
He was keenly interested in the passage of the first In
terstate Commerce Act. It became a law under his adminis-

228 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
tration, and although the Democrats supported it, it suc
ceeded mainly through the influence of Republican Sena
tors and a Repubhcan Senate. When the bill went to the
President, an(J while he had it under consideration, he sent
for me to explain one or two sections which he did not un
derstand. I caUed one night about nine o'clock and found
him surrounded by a multitude of papers, hard at work
reading the biU. I explained the sections concerning which
he was in doubt as best I could, and he said: "I will approve
the biU."
I immediately took advantage of the occasion to say:
"Now, Mr. President, I might just as well take this oppor
tunity to talk with you with reference to the appointment
of a Commission, A Repubhcan Senate has passed this
bill, and as I had charge of it in the Senate, I think you
ought to permit me to recommend the appointment of one
commissioner," He agreed to this, asking me to present
the name of some Repubhcan whom I desired appointed.
Afterward there were comphcations with the members of
his own party in Congress, and he sent for me to tell me that
Colonel Morrison, of Ilhnois, had been recommended by the
whole "Free Trade Party," as he called it, and that he did
not see how he was going to avoid appointing him. I sug
gested that he give Morrison something else. He under
took to do so ; but Morrison, true to his independent nature,
dechned to accept anything else, declaring that he would
like to have the office of commissioner, and if he could not
have that he would accept nothing.
The President sent for me again, and told me he could
not satisfy Morrison, and he did not know how he was going
to solve the comphcation. I said, in effect, that I had
been Governor of a State and I knew sometunes that an
executive officer had to do things he did not expect to do.

CLEVELAND'S FIRST TERM 229
and did not desire to do, but that he had to yield to party
pressure. I ceased insisting upon an appointment, and
aUowed Morrison to be named. At the same time I was
a little provoked and out of patience and I added: "Colo
nel Morrison knows nothing about the subject whatever. If
you are going to appoint broken-down pohticians who have
been defeated at home, as a sort of salve for the sores caused
by their defeat, we might as weU repeal the law."
I inquired of him: "Who else are you going to appoint
on that Commission?" I had previously recommended
Judge Cooley.
"I will appoint Cooley," proposed the President.
"WiU Cooley take it?" I asked; to which he rephed, "I
will offer any place on the Commission he desires, and wUl
telegraph him at once."
I expressed my satisfaction with this arrangement. He
did telegraph Judge Cooley, who accepted, and was the
flrst and most distinguished chairman of the Interstate Com
merce Commission.
The Forty-ninth Congress assembled on December 7,
1885, with Thomas A. Hendricks, Vice-President, presiding
in the Senate, John Sherman having been elected President
pro tempore. The Senate was still in the control of the
Republicans by a majority of five. The Democrats had a
majority of something like forty in the House, and elected
John G. Carlisle Speaker. This is practically the same
situation that had prevailed during the previous Congress,
except this time the Democrats, in addition to a majority,
had the Chief Executive as weU, But they were just as
powerless to enact legislation as they had been before.
Senators Evarts, of New York; Spooner, of Wisconsin;
TeUer, of Colorado; Stanford, of Cahfornia; Gray, of Del
aware; Brown, of Georgia; Blackburn, of Kentucky; and

230 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
WalthaU, of Mississippi, were a few of the prominent men
who entered the Senate at the beginning of the Cleveland
Administration, Senator Evarts was recognized for many years as the
leader of the American Bar. He was not only a profound
lawyer, but one of the greatest pubhc speakers of his day.
I remember him as a good natured, agreeable man, who was
preeminently capable of fiUuig the highest places in public
hfe. He was Attorney-General under President Johnson,
Secretary of State under President Hayes, and counsel rep
resenting the United States before many great international
tribunals. He defended President Johnson in his unpeach-
ment proceedings, and I remember yet his lofty eloquence
on that memorable occasion. He did not accomphsh much
as a Senator, but he did take an active part where a legal or
constitutional question came before the Senate.
Illustrating how great lawyers are as apt to be wrong on
a legal question as the lesser legal hghts. Senator Evarts ex
pressed the opinion that Congress did not possess the con
stitutional power to pass the Act of 1887 to regulate com
merce. He contended in the debate that the act was a re
striction and not a regulation of commerce, and consequently
was beyond the power of Congress. The Supreme Court of
the United States very soon afterwards sustained the con-
stitutionahty of the act.
Before his term expired he became partially blind, and the
story is told by the late Senator Hoar that Senator Evarts
and he had delivered speeches in the Senate on some great
legal, constitutional question. Senator Hoar on one side.
Senator Evarts on the other. The latter asked Senator
Hoar to look over the proof of his speech and correct it, and
in reading over the proof Senator Hoar told me that he be-

'/V

JAMES A. GARFIELD

CLEVELAND'S FIRST TERM 231
came convinced that his position was wrong and that Evarts
was right.
I do not know of a Democrat with whom I have served
in the Senate for whom I have greater respect than George
Gray, of Delaware, We became quite intimate and were
paired aU during his service. He was one of the few Sen
ators that every Senator on both sides believed in and was
wilhng to trust. Indeed, our country would not suffer if
he were elected President of the United States. He has
held many important positions, — Senator, member of the
Paris Peace Commission, United States Circuit Judge, mem
ber of many arbitration commissions, — in all of which he
acquitted himself with great honor.
My friend. Senator Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, re
turned to the Senate at the beginning of this Congress. He
had previously served in the Senate, and resigned to accept
a Cabinet position under President Arthur. Senator TeUer
has had a long and honorable pubhc career. He was elected
to the Senate several times as a Repubhcan, and appointed to
the office of Secretary of the Interior as a Repubhcan, He
continued this affiliation until the silver agitation, in 1896,
when he regarded himself as being justified in leaving the
party, and was twice elected afterward to the Senate by the
Legislature of his State, and during this last term I be
heve he became a pretty strong Democrat; yet he never al
lowed partisanship to enter into his action on legislation,
excepting where a party issue was involved, when he would
vote with his party.
I served with hun on the Appropriations Committee and
other committees of the Senate, and regarded him as one of
the best Senators for committee service with whom I was
ever associated. The friendly relations between Senator

232 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
TeUer and myself have been very close and intimate since I
first knew him, and I am glad to say that the fact that he
left the Repubhcan party has not disturbed them in the
least, Mr. TeUer's withdrawal from the Repubhcan party after
its declaration for the Gold Standard in the St. Louis Con
vention of 1896 was due to his abiding conviction in support
of the principles of bimetallism. He had been a member of
the party almost since its organization, and up to '96, al
though independent upon many points at issue, had been
regarded as one of the party's stanchest and most reliable
adherents. The severance of the ties of a lifetime could not
be made without producing a visible effect upon a man of
Mr, TeUer's fine sensibihties, but I was pleased to observe
that he did not allow the incident to change his personal
relations. He continued as a member of the Senate for
twelve or thirteen years after he left the Repubhcan party,
and I am isure that he did not lose the respect or personal
regard of a single Republican member of the body. Per
sonally, I regarded him just as warmly as a Democrat as I
had esteemed him as a Republican, and I am sure that my
attitude toward him was refiected by his attitude toward my
self. The Colorado Senator's nature is such that he cannot dis
semble, and when his conviction led him to condemn the
Repubhcan party because of its position on the money ques
tion, he could not find it in his conscience to remain in that
party. Time has shown that he was mistaken as to the
results that might follow the adoption of the gold standard,
but it has not served to alter the character of the man. He
will stand for what he believes to be right, whatever the con
sequences to himself. As a legislator, he was faithful in his

CLEVELAND'S FIRST TERM 233
work in committee and in the Senate. No man was more
constant in his attendance, and none gave more conscientious
attention to the problems of legislation. An unusually
strong lawyer and a man given to studious research, he never
failed to strengthen any cause which he espoused nor to
throw hght upon any subject which came within his range of
vision. With the exception of three years spent as Secre
tary of the Interior he was a member of the Senate from
1876, the year of Colorado's admission to the Union, untU
1909, during which time he had nine different coUeagues
from his own State.
Mr. TeUer was a resident of Ilhnois before he removed
to Colorado in 1861, and was one of the earhest supporters
of Mr. Lincoln. His father and mother remained in Ilhnois
as long as they hved, and Senator Teller always has retained
interests in that State. I think he stiU has relatives residing
in Whiteside County.
William Eaton Chandler, of New Hampshire, was one of
the first government officials with whom I became acquainted
when I came to Washington, in 1865, as a member of the
House of Representatives. He was Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury. We became quite intimate and our relations
ever since have been the most cordial and friendly.
Senator Chandler is a man of wonderfully acute inteUect.
For many years he served his people in the Legislature of
New Hampshire and was a member of the Senate of the
United States for several terms. After he retired from the
Senate in 1901, President McKinley appointed him a mem
ber of the Spanish Claims Commission. In the discharge
of the duties of that office he manifested the same high con
ception of his trust as in every position he occupied, either
elective or appointive, and I think he saved to the govern-

234 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
ment of the United States many milhons of doUars in the
adjudication of claims growing out of the Spanish- Ameri
can War.
While Senator Chandler is very combative m his attitude
towards others, yet his innate sincerity draws one close to him
after becoming acquainted with him. A httle incident,
which wUl illustrate this trait, occurred in the Senate of the
United States some years ago. Mr, Chandler was induced
to beheve that the late Senator Proctor, of Vermont, did not
hke him very much. So Chandler went up to Proctor and
said: "Proctor, don't you like me? " Proctor in liis coarse,
gruff voice replied: "I have acquired a liking for you."
He estabhshed the point without circumlocution or diplo
macy. As Chairman of the Committee on Interstate Commerce
of the Senate, I objected to the appointment of Chandler as
a member of that committee. I did not believe he would be
very attentive. It turned out that I was mistaken and I
often wished that he would stay away from the meetings,
because he was always stirring up some new question that
involved the time of the committee. He was inspired, how
ever, by the highest motive, recognizing as he did that the
control of the railroads of the country was a matter of su
preme importance to the people of the United States. He
rendered valuable service on the committee in the enactment
of legislation on this important subject.
Senator Leland Stanford, of Cahfornia, was a man of
large wealth, and became famous on account of his having
built the Central Pacific Railroad. He was a man of wide
business experience and made a valuable Senator. He died
as a member of the Senate, and his wife founded Leland
Stanford Jr. University.
Senator Stanford's colleague. Senator Hearst, who en-

CLEVELAND'S FIRST TERM 235
tered the Senate two years after Senator Stanford, was also
a man of very large wealth and the possessor of an inter
esting character. Concerning him many amusing stories are
told. He gave an elaborate dinner one evening, which I
attended. There were twenty-five of us present with our
wives, and after dinner was over the men went down to the
smoking-room. Senator Hearst had thought out a httle
speech to make to us, in which he said: "I do not know
much about books; I have not read very much; but I have
traveUed a good deal and observed men and things, and I
have made up my mind after aU my experience that the
members of the Senate are the survival of the fittest."
Senator Hearst died while serving as a member of the
Senate. Matthew Stanley Quay was a conspicuous figure in our
pohtical history. He had been a soldier in the Civil War
and afterwards occupied many positions of importance in
civU affairs in his State. Few men in American pohtical
life have had so constant a struggle as did Senator Quay
to retain his ascendancy in Repubhcan pohtics in Pennsyl
vania. Quay in Pennsylvania, and T, C, Piatt in New York,
were regarded as two of the greatest political bosses in the
country. In national convention after national convention
they exercised a paramount influence over the nominations
of Presidents, and the two usuaUy worked together. Their
political methods were about the same. Quay was the bigger
man of the two; but it must be said, in justice to both of
them, that the word of either was as good as his bond. Sen
ator Quay was returned to the Senate after a desperate
struggle. I was glad to see him return, but saddened to see
that he was sorely afflicted with a disease that finaUy proved
fatal. Senator Quay and Senator Piatt have both passed
away. They were the two last survivors of that old coterie

236 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
of pohticians who so long dominated Republican national
conventions. Toward the close of the Cleveland Administration, a va
cancy occurred ui the office of Chief Justice of the United
States, to fill which President Cleveland appointed the Hon.
Melville W, FuUer, of lUinois, I had something to do with
this appointment.
Chief Justice FuUer has only recently passed away, after
serving as Chief Justice of the United States for a longer
period than any of his predecessors in that high office, with
the two exceptions of Marshall and Taney. I knew Mel
ville W. FuUer for many years before he became Chief Jus
tice, Away back in war times, I knew him as a member of
the Ilhnois Legislature and as a member of the Constitu
tional Convention, and subsequently as one of the leading
lawyers of the Chicago Bar.
President Cleveland was in a considerable quandary over
the appointment of a Chief Justice. He wanted to bestow
the seat upon an able lawyer, and he wanted a Democrat;
but as the Senate was in control of the Republicans he wanted
to make sure to name some one whom the Senate would con
firm. He at first seriously considered Judge Phelps, of
Vermont, a cultivated and able man, who had been Minister
to England, but for some reason or other — why I never
knew — he finaUy rejected Phelps as an available candidate
and determined upon a Western man as Chief Justice.
Prior to this, however, he had considered the appointment
of Justice Scholfield, of our own State, who was then a mem
ber of the Supreme Court of Illinois, which never had an
abler or better lawyer as a member of its personnel. He
would have been given the honor had he signified a willing
ness to accept; but when he was approached by Representa
tive Townsend, at the suggestion of President Cleveland,

CLEVELAND'S FIRST TERM 237
after considering the matter, he demurred, asserting that al
though he would enjoy the distinction of being Chief Jus
tice of the United States, he did not think the hfe in Wash
ington, and especially the social side of the hfe which the
Chief Justice of the United States naturally is expected to
lead, would suit either him or his family. He had a family
of growing children who had been raised in the country,
and they would naturally have to accompany him to Wash
ington, He feared that Washington life would ruin them,
so he finally dechned the appointment.
Judge FuUer had been a close friend of President Cleve
land, had been a member of the national convention that
nominated him, was recognized as one of the leading Demo
crats of Ilhnois, and had been consulted by Mr, Cleveland
in the distribution of the patronage in that State; so natu
rally Judge Fuller was considered in connection with the
office. It was not surprising, considering that the Senate
was then in the control of the Repubhcans, that he would
want to enhst my aid in securing his confirmation.
I caUed on Mr. Cleveland about nine o'clock one morning
in regard to some personal matter. He at once sent out word
for me to come in, that he wanted to see me. I apologized
for appearing at so early an hour, whereupon he said that
he was very glad that I had come because he desired to have
a talk with me. Then he inquired whom I considered the
best lawyer, belonging to his party, in Illinois, who would
make a good Chief Justice. He at once himself mentioned
Judge Fuller, I told him that Judge Gowdy was probably
the ablest Democratic lawyer in Illinois, but that he was a
railroad attorney, and it would probably not be a good thing
to appoint him. He next questioned me particularly about
Fuller. I told hun that I knew Fuller very well indeed;
that if I were called upon to name five of the best lawyers

238 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
of lUinois belonging to his party, I would name FuUer
among the five; that he was not only a good lawyer, but a
scholarly man, a gentleman who would grace the position.
He at once intimated that he would send his name to the
Senate. I said to him: "Mr. President, the selection of a Chief
Justice is one of the greatest duties you have to perform.
You can make a mistake; we can raise the devil in Congress;
but with a capable Supreme Court standing steady and firm,
doing its full duty, the country is safe."
He agreed with me; and very soon thereafter Melville W.
FuUer was nominated as Chief Justice of the United States.
But this was only the prelude to the real struggle. The
nomination was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary,
of which Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, was chairman.
The latter was very much out of humor with the President
because he had fully expected that Judge Phelps, of his
own State, was to receive the honor, and he did not take it
kindly that the appointment shotild go to Ilhnois, He had
told me himself, in confidence, that he had every assurance
that Judge Phelps was to be nominated.
The result was that Senator Edmunds held the nomina
tion, without any action, in the Judiciary Committee for
some three months, as I now recollect. FinaUy there began
to be more or less scandal hinted at and suggestions of
something wrong, and so forth; which I considered so en
tirely uncaUed for and unfair to Judge Fuller that I ap
peared before the Judiciary Committee of the Senate and
asked that the nomination be reported favorably if possible,
unfavorably if the committee so determined; and if the
committee was not disposed to report the nomination either
favorably or unfavorably that they report the nomination
to the Senate without recommendation, so that the Senate

CLEVELAND'S FIRST TERM 239
itself might have an opportunity to act upon it. The latter
action was taken, and the nomination was laid naked before
the Senate, The matter was considered in executive session.
Senator Edmunds at once took the floor and attacked Judge
Fuller most viciously as having sympathized with the Re
bellion, together with much to the same effect.
In the meantime some one had sent to me a printed copy
of a speech which Judge Phelps had dehvered during the
war, attacking Mr. Lincoln in the most outrageous and
undignified fashion. When I read that speech I then and
there determined that Judge Phelps would never be con
firmed as Chief Justice, even though the President might
send his nomination to the Senate. I put the speech in my
desk, determining that if I ever had a good chance I would
read it to the Senate, at the same time pointing out that the
only objection which Senator Edmunds opposed to Judge
Fuller was his pique because Phelps had not received the ap
pointment. Edmunds' attack on Judge FuUer gave me the
opportunity, and I read the speech of Judge Phelps to the
Senate, much to the chagrin and mortification of Senator
Edmunds. The Democrats in the Senate enjoyed the controversy be
tween Senator Edmunds and myself; Senator Voorhees was
particularly amused, laughing heartily all through it. Nat
urally, it appeared to them a very funny performance, two
Repubhcans quarrelhng over the confirmation of a Democrat.
They sat silent, however, and took no part at aU in the debate,
leaving us Republicans to settle it among ourselves. The
vote was taken and Judge FuUer was confirmed by a substan
tial majority.
Judge Fuller was very grateful to me for what I had
done in behalf of his confirmation, and afterwards he wrote
me a letter of thanks :

240 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
"Chicago, July 21, 1888.
My dear Senator: —
"I cannot refrain from expressing to you my intense appreciation at
the vigorous way in which you secured my confirmation. I use the
word 'vigorous' because, though it was more than that, that was the
quality that struck me most forcibly when I saw the newspapers this
morning. When we meet, as I hope we will soon, I would very much
like to talk this matter over with you. I hope you will never have
cause to regret your action. I can't tell you how pleased I am that
Maine and Illinois, both so dear to me, stood by me. But because I love
them, I do not love my country any the less, as you know.
"And so I am to be called 'Judge' after all ! This is between ourselves.
"Faithfully yours,
"M. W. Fuller."
Senator Frye voted in favor of Judge Fuller's confirma
tion. He did this partly, I beheve, because Fuller was a
Maine man and a classmate of his at Bowdoin College, he
previously having entertained some doubts, as he told me
afterwards, whether Fuller was reaUy quahfied to be Chief
Justice of the United States. Very soon after his appoint
ment, the Chief Justice was invited to deliver an address
before the Joint Session of the two Houses of Congress. I
think it was on the occasion of the one-hundredth anniver
sary of the inauguration of the first President of the United
, States. Senator Frye and I walked together over to the hall
of the House where the joint session assembled, and he said
as we went along: "I will determine to-day, after I hear
FuUer dehver his address, whether I did right or wrong in
voting for his confirmation as Chief Justice." Judge Fuller
dehvered a most beautiful speech, which would have done
credit to any man, no matter how high a position he occupied
in this or any other country; and as we returned together
to our own chamber. Senator Frye remarked: "Cullom,
it is aU right. I am satisfied now that I did right in voting
in favor of the confirmation of Fuller's nomination."

CLEVELAND'S FIRST TERM 241
MelviUe W. FuUer fiUed the position of Chief Justice of
the United States with great credit and dignity. He wrote,
during his long term of service, many very able opinions, I
did not agree with his conclusions in the Income Tax case ;
but I think every lawyer will concede that this opinion was
about as able a presentation of that side of the case as
could be made. He was a most conservative and safe man
for the high position which he occupied. Of necessity the
Chief Justice of the United States must be an executive
officer as well as an able lawyer and judge. There was no
better executive officer than Chief Justice FuUer. Justice
MiUer told me on one occasion that Fuller was the best
presiding judge that the Supreme Court had had within his
time ; and in addition he was a most lovable, congenial man.
The last time I saw Judge Fuller he was particularly
agreeable, I called to invite him to dehver an address at a
great banquet to be held in Springfield on Lincoln's birth
day in February, 1909. I have had a great deal of experi
ence in trying to prevail upon prominent men to dehver
addresses in lUinois, and I know how they always hesitate,
and hem and haw, then, if they do accept, destroy all feelings
of gratitude and appreciation by the ungracious manner in
which they do so. It was certainly a pleasant surprise and
a contrast to custom to hear Judge Fuller's reply when I
extended the invitation to him, "Why, certainly," he re
sponded promptly; "I wUl be dehghted to accept. I have
been wanting to visit Springfield for twenty years, and I am
glad to receive the invitation."
This reply was quite characteristic of Chief Justice Ful
ler. I could not imagine him saying an unkind word to
any one. His disposition was to treat his colleagues on the
Bench, the members of the Bar who appeared before him,
and every one with whom he came in contact, with the great-

242 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
est kindness and consideration. He passed away, quietly
and peacefuUy, as he would have wished, honored and re
spected by the Bench and Bar of the Nation, and by the
people of his home State, who took pride in the fact that
Illinois had furnished to the United States a Chief Justice
for so long a period.
Chief Justice FuUer was succeeded by Hon. Edward D.
White, of Louisiana, with whom I served for three years in
the Senate of the United States. Justice White was an able
Senator, and in the disposition of some of the most important
cases which have come before the Supreme Court in recent
years affecting corporations he has shown great abihty and is
a worthy successor of his predecessors in that high office.
Aside from the act to regulate commerce, an act pro
viding for the Presidential succession, and an act in refer
ence to polygamy, there was very httle, if any, important
legislation during the first Cleveland Administration.
It was a very quiet administration. The country clearly
comprehended that the Senate stood in the way of any
Democratic doctrine being enacted into law, and generaUy,
as I remember it now, the country was fairly prosperous.
This condition continued until President Cleveland's famous
Free Trade message of December 5, 1887, came as a
starthng blow to the business and manufacturing interests
of the United States.
Why he should have sent such a message to Congress
when his administration was about to come to a close, and
when he knew perfectly well that no tariff legislation could
be enacted with a Democratic House and a Repubhcan Sen
ate, I do not know. He for the first time stepped out
boldly and asserted his Free Trade doctrine, and made the
issue squarely on tariff for protection as against Free Trade,

CLEVELAND'S FIRST TERM 243
or tariff for revenue. This message naturally precipitated
a tariff discussion in both House and Senate, and the Demo
cratic majority of the House considered it incumbent on
them to make some attempt to carry out the President's
pohcy. As a result the so-called MiUs Bill was reported,
upon which debates continued for many months. One mem
ber in closing the discussion very aptly said:
"This debate will perhaps be known as the most remark
able that has ever occurred in our parliamentary history.
It has awakened an interest not only throughout the length
and breadth of our own country, but throughout the civil
ized world, and henceforth, as long as our Government shaU
endure, it will be known as 'the great tariff debate of 1888.' "
It was in this debate in the House that both Mr. Reed
and Mr. McKirU^ so distinguished themselves as the great
advocates of Protection. Mr. Reed was then the floor leader
of the minority. He made a magnificent speech against
Free Trade in which he used many famihar aUegories, one
of which I have often used myself in campaign speeches.
It is substantiaUy as follows :
"Once there was a dog. He was a nice little dog — nothing the mat
ter with him, except a few foolish Free Trade ideas in his head. He
was trotting along, happy as the day, for he had in his mouth a nice
shoulder of succulent mutton. By and by he came to a stream bridged
by a plank. He trotted along, and looking over the side of the plank,
he saw the markets of the world, and dived for them. A minute after
wards he was crawling up the bank the wettest, the sickest, the nastiest,
the most muttonless dog that ever swam ashore."
Thomas B. Reed was one whom I unquestionably would
term a great man. He was conspicuous among the most
brilhant presiding officers that ever occupied the chair of
the Speaker. He ruled the House with a rod of iron, thus
earning for hunself the nickname of "Czar."

244 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
And this was more or less warranted. He was the first
Speaker to inaugurate the new rules. He found a demor
ahzed House in which it was difficult to enact legislation,
and in which the right of the majority to rule was questioned
and hampered. He turned the Lower House into an orderly
legislative body in which legislation was enacted expeditiously
by the majority. He had more perfect control over the
House than any former Speaker, and his authority remained
unquestioned luitil he retired. He ruled alone; after he
became Speaker he had no favorites; he had no Uttle coterie
of men around him to excite the jealousy of the members of
the House, and it has even been said that so careful was he
in this respect that he would scarcely venture to walk in
pubhc with a member of the House. He was a powerful
man inteUectually and physicaUy, and he looked the giant
he was among the members of the House. He wanted to
be President; and it seems rather a queer coincidence that
his election as Speaker paved the way for his rival, Mr.
McKinley, as by his acceptance of the chair Mr. McKinley
became the leader of the majority, chairman of the Com
mittee on Ways and Means, the author of the McKinley
BiU, which finally resulted in its author's defeat for Con
gress, but in his election as President of the United States
m 1896.
But to return to the MiUs Bill. It passed the House by
a substantial majority and came to the Senate, where a sub
stitute was prepared by the Finance Committee and reported
by Senator AUison early in October. I remember the dis
cussion on it in the Senate very weU. We all thought it
incumbent upon us to make speeches for home consumption
for campaign use, showing the iniquities of the Mills Bill
and of the Democratic tariff generally, although we knew
it was impossible for either biU to become law.

CLEVELAND'S FIRST TERM 245
The Congressional session continued until about the mid
dle of October with nothing done in the way of practical
legislation. This was the situation when the National Repubhcan Con
vention assembled in 1888.

CHAPTER XVII
Cleveland's defeat and Harrison's first term
1888 TO 1891
AT the time the delegates gathered, Cleveland's Free
Trade message of 1887 was before the country, inter
est in it having been augmented and enhvened by the passage
of the MiUs BUI and the renowned tariff debate of that
year. The issue was clear. It was Protective Tariff versus
Free Trade. After a rather strenuous contest in the con
vention in which nineteen candidates were voted for, for the
nomination for President, including the leading candidates,
John Sherman, of Ohio, Walter Q. Gresham, of Indiana,
Harrison, of Indiana, and Alhson, of Iowa, Benjamin Har
rison finally was chosen on the eighth ballot.
In his autobiography Senator Hoar affirms that William
B. Alhson came nearer being the nominee of the party than
any other man in its history who was a candidate and failed
to secure the endorsement. According to Senator Hoar, it
was the opposition of Senator Depew, angered by the
agrarian hostihty toward himself, that prevented Senator
Alhson's nomination. I have no personal knowledge that
might refute this statement, but I have been disposed to
question its correctness.
President Cleveland was of course renominated. The
campaign came on, and he was defeated squarely on the
Tariff issue, and the Republicans were again in the ascend
ancy in both branches of the Government, the Senate being
246

HARRISON'S FIRST TERM 247
composed of forty-seven Repubhcans and thirty-seven Dem
ocrats, while the House contained one hundred and seventy
Republicans and one hundred and sixty Democrats, Mr.
Reed being elected Speaker,
President Harrison was inaugurated with a great civic
and military display, equalhng, if not surpassing that of
any other President, There was great rejoicing among Re
publicans on account of the return of the party to power.
The Cabinet was duly appointed, with Mr. Blaine, the fore
most Repubhcan and statesman of his day, as Secretary of
State — which, by the way, was an unfortunate appoint
ment both for Mr. Harrison and Mr, Blaine. There was
the usual scramble for offices, the usual changes in the
foreign service, in the executive departments in Washing
ton, and in the federal offices generally throughout the
country, Robert T. Lincoln, of whom I have already writ
ten, was appointed Minister to the Court of St, James.
Colonel Clark E. Carr, of lUinois, was appointed as Min
ister to Denmark, and made a splendid record in that posi
tion. He was very popular with the royal family, I had
the pleasure of visiting Copenhagen while he was Minister
there, and was the guest of Colonel and Mrs, Carr, who en
tertained me very handsomely. They gave a dinner in my
honor, which was attended by the whole diplomatic corps at
Copenhagen. The Colonel also arranged for a private audi
ence with the King, and he presented me to him, as he also did
my friend. Colonel Bluford Wilson, who accompanied me
on my visit to Copenhagen, Altogether, through the
courtesy of Colonel Carr, I enjoyed my stay in Copenhagen
exceedingly. He retired from office after Mr. Cleveland was elected, and
has since achieved distinction as an author. He has written
several very interesting books which have had a wide circu-

248 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
lation. For many years Colonel Carr has taken an active
part in our State and National campaigns. He is a forceful
speaker, so naturaUy his services have been in constant requi
sition by the State and National Repubhcan Committees.
He has rendered very valuable service to the Republican
party both in the State and in the Nation.
I had known President Harrison for many years. He
represented a neighboring State in the Senate, of which body
he was a leader when I entered it in 1883, I probably knew
him as weU as any of my Repubhcan colleagues; but his
was a very cold, distant temperament, even in the Senate,
hardly capable of forming a very close friendship for any
one, and he had no particular friends.
In justice to Mr. Harrison, however, it must be said that
he was a masterly lawyer, and his appointments generally
were first-class. EspeciaUy was he fortunate in his selection
of Federal judges. He selected them himself, and would
tolerate no interference from any one. He did select the very
best men he could find. For instance, he appointed such
men as Justice Brewer, of Kansas ; Justice Brown, of Michi
gan; Judge Woods, of Indiana; and it was Harrison who
appointed President Taft as a Federal Judge, He was an
exceptionally able President, and gave the country an excel
lent administration.
But at the same time he was probably the most unsatis
factory President we ever had in the White House to those
who must necessarily come into personal contact with him.
He was quite a pubhc speaker, and the story has often been
told of him that if he should address ten thousand men from a
pubhc platform, he would make every one his friend ; but if he
should meet each of those ten thousand men personally, each
man would go away his enemy. He lacked the faculty of

HARRISON'S FIRST TERM 249
treating people in a manner to retain their friendship. Even
Senators and Representatives calhng on official business he
would treat with scant courtesy. He scarcely ever invited
any one to have a chair.
Senator Piatt, of Connecticut, asked me one day if I was
going to the White House to dine that evening, stating that
he had an invitation, I told him no, that I had not been in
vited, that I had never yet during the Harrison administra
tion even been invited to take a seat in the White House.
Some one overheard the remark and it was pubhshed in the
newspapers. I visited the White House shortly afterwards,
and I assume that Harrison had seen it because as soon as
he saw me, without a smile on his face or a gleam in his eye,
he hastened to get me a chair, inviting me to be seated, I
declined to sit down, explaining that I was in a hurry, and
closed the business I had come for, and left. Afterwards
he invited me to dinner and treated me with marked con
sideration. I have sometimes wondered whether President Harrison's
apparent coldness may not be ascribed to an absorption in
his duties that made hun unintentionaUy neglectful of the
httle amenities of pohte usage, they never even having oc
curred to him. Despite his cold exterior and frigid manner,
it may have been he was sympathetic at heart. When the
Tracey homestead was destroyed by fire, which resulted in
the death of several persons, including the daughter, and
finaUy resulted in the death of Mrs, Tracey, President Har
rison took the famUy into the White House and did every
thing a man could do to reheve their sufferings.
I suppose he treated me about as weU in the way of patron
age as he did any other Senator; but whenever he did any
thing for me it was done so ungraciously that the concession
tended to anger rather than please.

250 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
In lookmg over the letters which I received from President
Harrison, I find one which would show that he placed con
siderable confidence in my recommendations. "Executive Mansion,
Washington, Oct. 24, 1889.
"Hon. Shelby M. Cullom,
Springfield, Ills.
"My dear Senator: —
"I want to say a few words further to you about the Chicago ap
pointments. There has been for some months a good deal of complaint
that changes were not made.
"I find that the Collector of Customs and the Collector of Internal
Revenue were appointed, the one Sept. 14, and the other Sept. 10, 1885,
and that the first was confirmed May 17, 1886; and the last, April 17,
1886. I do not have before me the record as to the appointment of
the United States District Attorney. The Assistant Treasurer was ap
pointed Sept. 29, 1885, and confirmed May 6, 1886. If there had
been no question raised as to the qualifications and fitness of the per
sons recommended, it is quite possible that I would have taken some
steps in the matter during this month; but the fact is, as you have told
me, that at least one, and possibly two, of the persons suggested were
not of a high order of fitness, to say the least, and some members of
your Congressional delegation interested have given me the same im
pression, while from outside sources there have been a good many things
said to the prejudice of persons named for appointment. I am informed
that Senator Farwell desires to leave the case just where his recom
mendations have placed it, feeling that he cannot change to any one
else. I write to know whether you also feel in that way, or whether
you desire to make any further suggestions about the matter. I have
no other purpose in connection with these appointments than to find
men, the mention of whose names will commend them to the great busi
ness community they are to serve. No one of those named, so far as I
know, is suggestive of any personal claim upon me, and I have no per
sonal ends to serve. You agreed with me, I think, when we conversed,
that the appointees there should be men of as high character for integrity
and intelligence, etc., as those they would supersede.
"In the case of the Assistant Treasurer I found on examining the
papers yesterday, very full and strong papers for Mr. Nichols, whom

HARRISON'S FIRST TERM 251
I do not know. He is supported, apparently, by the bankers and many
leading merchants of Chicago, and their letters give in detail his busi
ness character and experience. Of the gentleman recommended by you
and Senator Farwell, there is absolutely nothing said in the papers,
so that Mr. Windon or I could have any information as to whether his
business experience had been such as to fit him for this place. Now,
I am sure that on reflection you wiU agree that we ought to have full
information, and that it should be upon record.
"I told Mr. Taylor, in conversation, day before yesterday, that I could
not appoint Mr. Babcock marshal, as I told you when you were here;
and I remember that you said you had yourself refused to recom
mend him. If things have assumed that shape that you are of the opin
ion that it must be left to me as it stands, then I will do the best I can
with it. I do not conceal the fact that after the essential of fitness is
secured that I have a desire to please our party friends in these selec
tions. But I cannot escape the responsibility for the appointments, and
must therefore insist upon full information about the persons presented,
and upon my ultimate right, in all kindness to everybody, to decide upon
what must be done. It would be very gratifying to me if the responsi
bility were placed upon some one else.
"Please let me have any suggestions you may care to make.
"Very truly yours,
"Benj. Harrison.
"P. S. Responding to your telegram asking delay till Nov. 5, I would
say that I have no disposition to hurry a decision. Others have been
pressing me and complaining bitterly of delay. I think, however, that
the sooner some of these cases can be treated as submitted for decision
the better. If the appointments are delayed till the middle of Nov.
there is little use of making temporary appointments, as the appointee
would have to make two bonds. If you can in writing, confidentially if
you prefer, give me your views and submit any alternative suggestions
for these places I will carefully consider them. But if you prefer to
see me personally before any decision is made as to Collector of the Port
I will of course lay that case to one side till the time you have suggested.
"Yours,
"B. H."
I never became entirely estranged from hun, however, and
when his term was about to expire, and he wanted a renomi-

252 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
nation, I supported him. My motive in so doing was not
so much that I favored Harrison as because I felt outraged
at the way The Chicago Tribune had treated me. The
Tribune was then supporting Blaine with all its power, and
I determined that Mr. Medill should not have his way ; hence
I became one of the leaders in the renomination of President
Harrison. Before leaving Washington for the convention I called
to see the President to learn what information he had to
impart to me as one of the delegates who expected to sup
port him. He was more friendly, free, and frank than he
had ever been during his term as President. We talked
about different things, and in the course of the conversation
he adverted to Secretary Blaine.
Harrison and Blaine had f aUen out. Jealousy was proba
bly at the bottom of their disaffection. Harrison did not
treat Blaine with that degree of confidence and courtesy one
would expect from the Chief Executive to the premier of
his cabinet ; while on the other hand Blaine hated Harrison
and was plotting more or less against him while he was a
member of the cabinet. The President talked very freely
about Mr. Blaine. He declared that he had been doing the
work of the State Department himself for a year or more;
that he had prepared every important official document, and
had the originals in his own handwriting in the desk before
him. And yet, he said, Mr. Blaine, as Secretary of State,
was giving out accounts of what was being done in the State
Department, taking all the credit to himself. He expressed
himself as being perfectly wiUing, to use a famihar figure, to
carry a soldier's knapsack when the soldier was sore of
foot and tired, and all that he wanted in return was acknowl
edgment of the act and'a show of appreciation. This was
aU he expected of Mr, Blaine. He said, in closing the con-

HARRISON'S FIRST TERM 253
versation, that he intended some day to disclose the true
condition of their relations.
The Harrison Administration was a very busy one, and
should have been a very satisfactory one to the country at
large. The first great subject taken up by Congress was
the tariff, the final disposition of which was embodied in
what afterwards became known as the "McKinley Tariff
Bill." I never thought that Mr. McKinley showed any par
ticular skill in framing that tariff. My imderstanding is
that it was prepared by the majority of the Committee on
Ways and Means.
The manufacturers of the country appeared before that
committee and made known what protective duties they
thought they ought to have in order to carry on their indus
tries, and the committee gave them just about the rate of
duty they desired. It was a high protective tariff, dictated
by the manufacturers of the country. It resulted in a great
stimulus to the country's industries, and great prosperity
followed its enactment. It has been difficult from then till
now to reduce duties below the McKinley rate. The manu
facturers have since persisted and insisted upon higher duties
than they reaUy ought to have.
I may remark here, in passing, that the McKinley Law
was not passed until October, and we were immediately
plunged into the campaign. The McKinley Law was the
issue, and the Democrats swept everything before them,
carrying the House by the overwhelming majority of ninety-
seven. The Senate stiU remained Republican, forty-seven
Repubhcans to thirty-nine Democrats. McKinley himself
was beaten and never afterwards returned to Congress.
It is strange what a revolution periodically occurs among
the voters of the United States, When the MiUs BUI

254 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
was the issue the Democratic party was beaten, and badly
beaten; the Repubhcan party came into power; the McKinley
BiU was passed, and we suffered about as bad a defeat as
had the Democrats two years previously. The difference
was that the Democrats were cleaned out on the shadow of an
issue, without the reahty (the Mills BiU never having become
a law), and we went down in defeat on the reahty, the Mc
Kinley Bill having become a law.
It was during this time also that the bill known as the
Sherman Law, or the Coinage Act of 1890, was passed,
which directed the purchase of silver buUion to the aggre
gate of 4,500,000 ounces in each month, and the issuance for
such purchases silver buUion treasury notes. This was prob
ably the beginning of the silver agitation. It created a long
discussion in Senate and House, and that subject was con
stantly before Congress until it was finally settled by the
election of McKinley, in 1896.
It was this Congress also that passed the Sherman Anti-
Trust Act ( AprU 8, 1890) , It was one of the most impor
tant enactments ever passed by Congress; and yet, if it
were strictly and hteraUy enforced, the business of the coun
try would come to a standstill. The courts have given it a
very broad construction, making it cover contracts never con
templated when the act was passed. It was never seriously
enforced until the coming in of the Roosevelt Administration,
when the great prosperity brought about under the McKinley
Administration tended to the formation of vast combinations
which seriously threatened the country. The people do not
seem disposed to consent even to its amendment, much less
to its repeal; and yet we all realize that if strictly enforced
as construed by the courts, it would materiaUy affect the
business prosperity of the nation. The people take the same
attitude towards the Sherman Law as they take toward the

HARRISON'S FIRST TERM 255
anti-pooEng section of the Interstate Commerce Act: they
wiU allow neither of them to be tampered with by Congress.
There has been considerable dispute as to the paternity of
the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. Senator Hoar claims he
wrote it; it bears Senator Sherman's name; and my own
opinion is that Senator Edmunds had more to do with
framing it than any other one Senator.
It was during the first and second sessions of the Fifty-
first Congress that the Federal Election BiU, so-called, or as
it is familiarly known, the "Force Bill," was discussed. It
was in charge of Senator Hoar, and occupied the attention
of both sessions for a long time. The Repubhcans seemed
determined to force it through, but the Democrats from the
South were bitterly opposed to it, resorting to all sorts of
tactics to delay or kiU it.
This measure I never considered much of a "force" biU.
I could never see that there was any force to it, but on the
contrary, considered it a very mild measure, and gave it my
support. The opposition to it was so bitter and strong and
so skilfully managed by the late Senator Gorman on the part
of the minority, and it stood for so long a time in the way
of other legislation, that one afternoon Senator Wolcott
arose in his seat and, very much to the astonishment of every
one, moved to lay it aside and take up some other biU. The
motion carried, and that was the last we heard of the Force
BiU, The McKinley Tariff Act, the Anti-Trust Law, the Sher
man Coinage Act, and the Federal Election Bill were the
important bills passed before this Congress,
Notwithstanding the magnificent record in the way of
legislation made by the first Congress under the Harrison
Administration, the Democratic victory was so complete that
at the beginnmg of the first session of the Fifty-second Con-

256 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
gress, which met December 7, 1891, there were but eighty-
eight Repubhcans in the House, as against two hundred and
thirty-six Democrats, and Mr. Charles F. Crisp, of Georgia,
was elected Speaker, The Senate stiU remained in the con
trol of the Repubhcans,
It was during this Congress that the silver agitation came
to the front as one of the foremost issues. Senator Stewart,
of Nevada, introduced his bill for the free coinage of gold
and silver bulhon. The free comage question consumed
months of the tune of both Senate and House, and finally
came to naught.
The Act to estabhsh the World's Fair at Chicago was
passed. I took a very active interest in this in behalf of
Chicago, A meeting was held in the Marble Room of the
Capitol, where Senator Depew represented New York, and
Colonel Thomas B, Bryan, Chicago, They each made a
speech. Very much to my surprise. Colonel Bryan's was the
more effective. We afterwards, by all sorts of efforts in
the House and Senate, captured the location for Chicago.
The Fair, when it was finally held, was the greatest world's
fair ever known. There was an almost utter abandon in the
expenditure of money, and Congress assisted by a hberal
appropriation. That Fair was a great injury, rather than
a benefit, to the city of Chicago. The hard times came on,
and it was years before the city was restored to normal con
ditions. Toward the end of this session, the Homestead riots were
a subject of debate and investigation by Congress. A
Presidential campaign was approaching, and the Democrats
were eager to throw upon the Repubhcans the blame for all
labor disturbances, the riots at Homestead in particular.

CHAPTER XVIII
Cleveland's second term
1892 TO 1896
I HAVE already, in other parts of these recollections,
referred to the National Convention of 1892, and the
reasons which induced me to support President Harrison
for renomination. I attended as one of the delegates, and
took a more or less active part in the work of the convention.
Harrison was chosen on the first ballot. No other candidate
had any chance. Mr, Blaine and Mr, McKinley on that
baUot received one hundred and eighty -two votes each, but
neither was really considered for the nomination.
Grover Cleveland, of course, was the principal candidate
before the Democratic Convention, and had no serious
opposition aside from the bitter personal enmity evinced
toward him by David B. Hill, of New York, who had suc
ceeded him as Governor of that State, and had hoped to
succeed him as President, Senator HiU has only recently
passed away. He was one of the most astute and ablest
politicians in the history of the Democratic party. Presi
dent Cleveland determined, for some reason or other, to drive
him out of pubhc hfe, and he succeeded in doing so during
his second administration as President,
The campaign of 1892, just as the previous Presidential
campaign had been, was entirely fought out on the tariff
issue; and the question in general was the McKinley Law
17 257

258 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
and its results. The Democrats were able to show that there
had been increase in cost in many articles regarded as neces
saries, while the Repubhcans pointed to a great era of
national prosperity. The Repubhcans contended also that
wages had advanced and prices dechned under the McKinley
Law; but I have always doubted whether we were able to
sustain that contention. For instance, the department stores
and retail merchants generaUy marked up prices, and whoUy
without reason, on articles on which there had been no in
crease in the tariff ; and when asked why, they would reply,
"It is because of the McKinley tariff."
For these economic reasons, added to the labor disturb
ances, Mr. Cleveland was again elected President of the
United States, and carried with him for the first time both
the Senate and House. The Democrats now had complete
control of aU branches of the Government, and were in a
position, if imited, to enact any legislation they might de
sire. The result of the election was a complete surprise to
every one. Why the voters should have turned against the
Repubhcan administration, it is hard to say. Mr. Harri
son's personahty had much to do with it.
The times were never more prosperous. Iij his message
to the Congress which convened after his defeat. President
Harrison appositely said: "There never has been a time in
our history when work was so abundant, or when wages were
so high, whether measured in the currency in which they are
paid, or by their power to supply the necessaries and com
forts of life." And yet, with this admitted condition prevaU-
ing, the Democratic party was returned to power.
I felt very badly over President Harrison's defeat, as I
had done everything I could to secure, first, his renomination
and then his reelection. After the election I wrote President
Harrison as f oUows :

CLEVELAND'S SECOND TERM 259
"U. S. Senate Chamber,
Washington, D. C, Nov. U, 1890.
"Dear Mr. President: —
"I have delayed writing you since the election for the reason that the
result so surprised me I scarcely knew what to make of it. We lost
Illinois by the overwhelming Democratic vote in Chicago. I feared
that city all the time, but was assured by the committees that it would
not be very much against us. I said all the time that we would take
care of the country and carry the State if the Cook County vote could be
kept below ten thousand Democratic, and was assured by all hands
there that it would be. We did carry the country about as hereto
fore. As things have gone bad nearly everywhere, I am not feeling so
chagrined as I would if Illinois had been the pivotal State. I specially
desire to say that the cause of the defeat does not lie at your door
personally. Any man in the country standing upon the doctrine of high
protection would have been defeated. The people sat down upon the
McKinley Tariff Bill two years ago, and they have never gotten up.
They were thoroughly imbued with the feeling that the party did not do
right in revising the tariff up instead of down. They beat us for it
in '90 and now again.
"Hoping to see you in ten days, I am, with great respect,
"Truly yours,
"S. M. Cullom."
Curtis, in his work on the Repubhcan party, in comment
ing on the result of this election, said :
"It will be seen that to the Solid South were added, California, Con
necticut, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, and
Wisconsin; while Mr. Cleveland obtained one electoral vote in Ohio,
and five in Michigan. The result was certainly disastrous, and left no
doubt that the people at large for the time being had rebuked the Re
publican party for what they wrongly supposed to be against their best
interests. And yet, though a large majority of the people had voted
for Mr. Cleveland, they were probably sorry for it within twenty-four
hours after the election. There was no such rejoicing as took place in
1884. In fact, as soon as it was determined without doubt that the
next Congress would be Democratic in both branches, and would enable
Mr. Cleveland and his party to carry out their threats to repeal the

260 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
McKinley Law and enact in its stead a Free Trade measure, appre
hension and alarm took possession of the industrial and financial inter
ests of the country, and could the election have been held over again
within ten days, it may be estimated that a million or more votes would
have been changed from the Cleveland column to that of Harrison.
The people, as it were, awoke from a dream; they saw at once how they
had been deceived by the methods of the Democratic campaign man
agers, and how an incident which had no bearing whatever upon the
issue of the campaign had influenced their vote in a time of temporary
anger and resentment."
This perfectly sums up the situation, as I now recoUect it,
on the election of President Cleveland; it was the beginning
of the most protracted era of hard times that this country
has ever known.
Mr. Cleveland was inaugurated the second tune on March
4, 1893, and, as Mr. Curtis says, there was very httle en
thusiasm. The ceremonies were quiet and tmenhvened.
Of course, it goes without saying, that I was not glad to
see the Democratic party returned to power; but I confess
I was a httle pleased to meet President Cleveland in the
White House again. His manner, his treatment of those
with whom he came in contact, was so different from that
of his predecessor, that it was a real pleasure, rather tham
a burden, to call at the executive offices.
Mr. Cleveland promptly proceeded to remove Republicans
from Presidential offices and appoint Democrats. This even
went to the extent of the removal of postmasters, large
and small, against whom almost any sort of charge might be
trumped up.
Adlai E. Stevenson was a past master in this respect. He
was First Assistant Postmaster-General under Cleveland's
first Administration and removed Repubhcan postmasters
whose terms had not expired, without cause or reason. He

CLEVELAND'S SECOND TERM 261
was elected Vice-President when Mr, Cleveland again came
into office. He was a great favorite among the Democrats,
because he beheved in appointing Democrats to every office
within the gift of the Executive.
I remember, after Stevenson was elected. Senator Harris,
of Tennessee, remarking to me: "Now we have got Cleve
land and Stevenson elected, if Cleveland would drop out and
Stevenson was President, we would get along finely."
He meant that Stevenson would never permit a single Re
pubhcan to remain in office, if he could help it,
Mr. Stevenson made a popular presiding-officer of the
Senate. He has been a strong Democrat all his hfe, and it
has repeatedly been charged against him, although I beheve
he denies it, that he was a Southern sympathizer during the
Civil War, He served in Congress for two terms, having
been elected from the Bloomington district, and was quite
an influential member. He was defeated as a candidate for
Vice-President with Mr, Bryan in 1900, and was also de
feated as a candidate of the Democratic party for Governor
of Ilhnois, in 1908,
As a candidate for Governor he made a splendid showing
in 1908, as he was defeated by 23,164 votes, whUe President
Taft carried lUinois by 179,122.
President Cleveland's Cabinet contained some very able
men. He appointed Judge Walter Q. Gresham as Sec
retary of State, Why he should have appointed Gres
ham, I do not know. It would seem to me that there were
men of as much abihty in his own party whom he might
have selected, but for some reason or other he did ap
point him.
Judge Gresham was then serving as United States Cir
cuit Judge, at Chicago. He had always been a Repubhcan,
and in the convention which nominated Harrison he received

262 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
on one ballot one hundred and twenty-three votes as the
candidate of the Republican party for President of the
United States. He probably supported Mr. Cleveland, al
though of this I am not sure. He was a bitter enemy of
President Harrison, — so much so, indeed, that he could
scarcely be polite to any one whom he thought favored Har
rison, He was holding court in Springfield, during the
Harrison Administration, when I met hun, and, not appre
ciating his feeling, I casually commended President Harri
son for some particular thing which I approved, Gresham
did not like it, and he almost told me in so many words that
he did not think much of me or any one else who thought
well of Harrison. Whereupon we separated somewhat
coolly, I giving him to understand that I would insist upon
my views and my right to commend a man who I thought
was following a proper course. I do not believe he ever
avowed himself a Democrat, and in the State Department he
always declined to make any recommendations for appoint
ments, on the ground that he was not a Democrat, and that
those appointments must be left to the President himself. I
had more or less intercourse with him as Secretary of State,
and always found him polite and agreeable. He was re
garded as an able Secretary, and served in that office untU
his death.
Richard Olney succeeded him as Secretary of State. He
had been the Attorney-General in the cabinet. He was to me
a much more satisfactory Secretary than Judge Gresham,
and fuUy as able a lawyer.
John G. Carhsle was appointed Secretary of the Treas
ury. He had been seven times elected to Congress and
three times Speaker. He resigned his seat in the House,
having been elected as a member of the Senate from Ken
tucky, and remained in the Senate until he resigned to

CLEVELAND'S SECOND TERM 263
accept the position of Secretary of the Treasury under
Cleveland. Mr. Carhsle was in entire harmony with the President on
the tariff and also on the monetary question — and, indeed,
I remark here that Mr. Carlisle had very much to do toward
the defeat of Mr. Bryan in 1896. Although a life-long
Democrat himself, he beheved that Mr, Bryan's theories on
the monetary question would ruin the country, and he stood
with Mr. Cleveland in opposing his election. Had Cleve
land, Carlisle, and other patriotic Gold Democrats stood
with their party, Mr. Bryan would probably have been
elected and the history of this country would have been writ
ten differently.
After Mr. Cleveland's election, our industrial conditions
became so depressed — and it was alleged by many that the
cause for this was the Sherman Coinage Act of 1890 —
that a special session of Congress was called to meet August
7, 1893. The President said in his message to this Congress :
"The existence of an alarming and extraordinary business situation,
involving the welfare and prosperity of all our people, has constrained
me to call in extra session the people's representatives in Congress, to
the end that through a wise and patriotic exercise of the legislative duty
with which they are solely charged, present evils may be mitigated and
dangers threatening the future may be averted. . . . With plenteous
crops, with abundant promise of remunerative production and manu
facture, with unusual invitation to safe investment, and with satisfactory
returns to business enterprise, suddenly financial fear and distrust have
sprung up on every side. . . . Values supposed to be fixed are fast
becoming conjectural, and loss and failure have involved every branch
of business. I believe these things are principally chargeable to Con
gressional legislation touching the purchase and coinage of silver by the
general Government."
And Mr. Cleveland earnestly recommended the prompt
repeal of the Sherman Coinage Act of 1890.

264 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
The extra session continued until October 30, when the
Sherman Act was finally repealed.
But the repeal of the Sherman Act did not at aU remedy
industrial conditions. It was not the Sherman Act that was
at fault, but the well-grounded fear on the part of our man
ufacturers of the passage of a free trade measure. The
panic commenced, it is true, under the McKinley Bill, but
it was the direct result of what the business interests felt
sure was to come; and that was the passage of a Democratic
Tariff act.
The year 1893 closed with the prices of many products at
the lowest ever known, with many workers seeking in vain
for work, and with charity laboring to keep back suffering
and starvation in aU our cities. And yet, in view of this
condition, Mr. Cleveland sent to Congress at the beginning
of the annual session a free trade message, advocating the
repeal of the McKinley Act and the passage of a Demo
cratic free trade, or Tariff for Revenue, measure. From
the tone of this message, however, he seems to have changed
somewhat from his message of 1887; yet it was strong
enough to startle the business interests, and make more wide
spread financial panic.
Speaker Crisp at once proceeded to the formation of the
committees of the House, and particularly the Committee
on Ways and Means.
I was naturally anxious concerning our industries in Illi
nois, and I wanted one of our strongest Ilhnois Representa
tives placed on that committee, I happened to enjoy par
ticularly friendly relations with Mr. Crisp, he having been
a House conferee on the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887,
and I felt quite free to caU upon him. After looking over
the Ilhnois delegation, I came to the conclusion that the
Hon. A. J. Hopkins, my late colleague in the Senate, and

CLEVELAND'S SECOND TERM 265
who was then serving in the House, was the very best man
he could select for the place. I urged Mr, Crisp to appoint
him, saying that he was capable of doing more and better
work on the committee than any other man in the delegation.
Crisp was very nice about it, and whether he did it on my
recommendation or not I do not know; but he appointed
Hopkins, Senator Hopkins was, during his service on that
committee, regarded as one of its leading members, and had
a prominent part in framing the Dingley tariff. He served
in the House until elected to the Senate, where he remained
for six years. Senator Hopkins is an able man, and was
constantly growing in influence and power in the Senate.
He was an agreeable coUeague, and I regretted very much in
deed that he was not reelected.
It did not take long for the Democratic majority of the
Committee on Ways and Means of the House to frame and
report the Wilson Bill, repeahng the McKinley Bill, and
recommending in its stead the enactment of a Tariff for
Revenue, which was fairly in harmony with Democratic
Free Trade principles, and in harmony with the President's
message. The bill was passed without long delay, Mr.
Reed leading the ineffectual opposition to its passage in the
House, with a speech of great eloquence, in which he de
picted conditions that would surely arise after the passage
of such a measure.
But this bill stiU had to run the gantlet of the Senate,
where many Democratic Senators did not sjonpathize to
the fuU extent with the Cleveland- Carhsle Free Trade the
ory. Senators Gorman, Hill, Murphy, Jones, Brice, and
Smith of New Jersey, led the opposition, uniting with the
Republicans in securing some seven hundred amendments,
aU in the mterest, more or less, of Protection.
The truth is, we were all — Democrats as weU as Repub-

266 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
licans^ — trying to get in amendments in the interest of
protecting the industries of our respective States. I my
self secured the adoption of many such amendments. After
I had exhausted every resource, I went to Senator Brice one
day and asked him if he would not offer some httle amend
ment for me, as I felt pretty sure that if Brice offered it,
it would be adopted, and I knew if I did it myself it stood
a good chance of being defeated. Brice, by the way, was
a very bluff, frank man; he rephed to me, half jocularly:
"Now, you know when your party is in power you will never
do anything for a Democrat, and I won't offer this amend
ment for you. You go and get your colleague. Senator
Palmer, to offer it for you." I left him and went to (Gen
eral Palmer; he presented the amendment, and it was
adopted. The bUl passed the Senate; and after going to con
ference, when it seemed hkely the Conference Committee
would not agree, the Democratic leaders of the House, fear
ing the bill would fail entirely, decided to surrender to the
Senate and accept the Senate biU with aU its amendments.
President Cleveland denounced this temporizing, coining his
famous expression, "party perfidy and party dishonor" in
the Wilson letter, evidently referring to Mr. Gorman and
other leaders of the Senate,
- There has been endless controversy and discussion over
the attitude of Senator Gorman on the Wilson Bill. I my
self have always beheved that Senator Gorman felt
that the industries of the country could not prosper
imder a Democratic Free Trade Tariff, and that he
was wiUing to afford them a certain amount of
protection. Especially was he criticised on account of the
sugar schedule. Senator Tillman in his memorial address

CLEVELAND'S SECOND TERM 267
in the Senate, on the occasion of the dehvery of eulogies on
Senator Gorman, said in reference to this:
"In the conversations I had with the Democratic leaders, it was clearly
brought out that the sugar refineries were ready to contribute to the j
Democratic campaign fund Jf it could be understood that the industry '
would be fostered and not destroyed by the Democratic Tariff policy, and/
I received the impression, which became indelibly fixed on my mind then)
and remains fixed to this day, that President Cleveland understood thei
situation and was willing to acquiesce in it if we won at the polls. I'
did not talk with Mr. Cleveland in person on this ^subject, though I
called at his hotel to pay my respects, and I am thoroughly satisfied that
the charge of party perfidy and party dishonor was an act of the grossest
wrong and cruelty to Senator Gorman. If Mr. Cleveland, as I was told,'
knew of these negotiations and was the beneficiary of such a contribu
tion, it is inconceivable how he could lend his great name and influence
toward destroying Senator Gorman's influence and popularity, in the way
he did."
Senator Gorman himself was very justly indignant and
displayed much feehng when he addressed the Senate on
July 23, 1894, replymg to Mr. Cleveland's letter.
He used, in part, the foUowing language :
"As I have said, sir, this is a most extraordinary proceeding for a
Democrat, elected to the highest place in the Government, and fellow
Democrats in another high place, where they have the right to speak
and legislate generally, to join with the commune in traducing the Sen
ate of the United States, to blacken the character of Senators who are
as honorable as they are, who are as patriotic as they ever can be,
who have done as much to serve their party as men who are now the
beneficiaries of your labor and mine, to taunt and jeer us before the
country as the advocates of trust and as guilty of dishonor and perfidy."
It was a Democratic controversy, and I am not in a posi
tion to say whether Mr. Cleveland or Mr. Gorman was
right; whether it was a bargain in advance of the election

268 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
to secure campaign funds; whether the sugar schedule was
framed to secure the support of the Louisiana Senators;
but I do know that Mr. Cleveland's attacks on Mr. Gorman
turned the State of Maryland over to the Republicans and
relegated Mr. Gorman to private hfe.
The Wilson Bill became a law without the approval of
the President, Mr. Cleveland taking the position that he
would not permit himself to be separated from his party
to such an extent as might be imphed by a veto of the tariff
legislation which, though disappointing to him, he said was
still chargeable to Democratic efforts.
There was one provision of the Wilson BiU which, I
have become convinced since, was a very wise measure, and
which will yet be enacted into law; and that is the income-
tax provision. That bill provided for a tax of two per cent
on incomes above four thousand dollars. A separate vote
was taken on this section and I voted against it. It was
Republican policy then to oppose an income-tax, and the
view I took then was, that if we started out taxing incomes
the end would be that we would derive, from that source,
sufficient amount of revenue to run the Government and
that it would gradually break down the protective pohcy.
It was declared unconstitutional by a vote of five to four
of the Supreme Court. A previous income-tax had been
declared constitutional during the Civil War, and I am very
strongly of the opinion that if the case is again presented
to the Court the decision will be in harmony with the first de
cision, overruling the decision of 1895, An income-tax is
the fairest of aU taxes. It is resorted to by every other na
tion. It faUs most heavUy on those who can best afford it.
The sentiment in the Repubhcan party has changed, and I
believe that at no far distant day Congress wiU pass an in
come-tax as well as an inheritance-tax law.

CLEVELAND'S SECOND TERM 269
The passage of the Wilson BUl increased, rather than
diminished, the hard times commencing with the panic of
1893. The Democratic party, or the free silver element of
it, claimed that the panacea was the free and unlimited coin
age of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. The silver ques
tion was argued week after week in both branches of Con
gress, and was never finaUy settled until the election of Mc
Kinley and the estabhshment by law of the Gold Standard.
In recent years we hear very httle about free silver; but the
Democratic party split on that issue, Mr. Cleveland heading
the faction in favor of sound money.
In those closing days of the Cleveland Administra
tion, it was very seldom that a Democratic Senator was
seen at the White House. The President became com
pletely estranged from the members of his party in
both House and Senate, but it seemed to bother him ht
tle. He went ahead doing his duty as he saw it, utterly
disregarding the wishes of the members of his party in
Congress, I saw him many times during this period, and I remember
on one occasion I had seen a notice in one of the papers in
dicating that the President was about to appoint my old
friend Mr. Charles Ridgely, of Springfield, Ilhnois, as
ComptroUer of the Currency. I had the highest regard for
Mr. Ridgely, and I called at the White House to congratu
late the President on the selection. He seemed to be out
of humor, and was more than usually abrupt. He declared
that he knew nothing about it, that he did not know Ridgely,
and never had had any intention of appointing him. I re
peated that I had seen the announcement in a newspaper,
adding that it looked to me as though the report were au
thentic, and that I only wanted to congratulate him. But
the President merely reiterated, somewhat curtly, that he

270 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
knew nothing about it. I became a httle annoyed, finally
losing my temper.
"I don't care a damn whether you appoint him or not,"
I exclaimed; "Ridgely 's a Democrat, anyhow."
Thereupon his attitude quickly changed, and he inquired
about Ridgely, hstening with interest to what I had to say.
He then talked with me on the sUver question and other mat
ters, detaining me whUe he kept his back to the crowd wait
ing to see him. I almost had to break away in order to give
others a chance.
Among the other embarrassments and difficulties of the
Cleveland Administration were the famous Chicago riots of
1893, The trouble grew out of a railroad strike; much
damage was done and a great deal of property was de
stroyed, with consequent loss of hfe. The city itself seemed
to be threatened, the business and manufacturing interests
appealed to the Governor first, and then to the President,
to send troops to Chicago to protect property. When the
Governor failed to act, the President ordered Federal
troops to Chicago. The action was regarded as very wise,
and it endeared him to the business people of that city.
Governor Altgeld protested, and that was one of the reasons
why he became Mr. Cleveland's most bitter enemy,
I think I should say a few words in reference to Gov
ernor Altgeld. He has been called an anarchist and a so
cialist. In my judgment, he was neither. Of his honesty,
his integrity, his sincerity of purpose, his determination to
give the State a good administration, I never had the slight
est doubt. The mainspring of the trouble, I beheve, was an
inabihty to select good men for public office. He was not
a good judge of men; he surrounded himself with a coterie
that betrayed his trust and used the State offices for per
sonal gain. I have always sympathized with Governor Alt-

CLEVELAND'S SECOND TERM 271
geld. Had he been eligible I beheve he would have been
the nominee of his party for the Presidency; but he was bom
abroad. One can scarcely imagine industrial conditions in a worse
state than they were at the close of the Cleveland Adminis
tration, The election of a Republican Congress in 1894
had helped some, but the revenues were not sufficient to meet
the ordinary running expenses of the Government; bonds
had to be issued, labor was out of employment, the mills and
factories were closed, and business was at a standstiU.
This was the condition of affairs when the Repubhcan
National Convention assembled in 1896.

CHAPTER XIX
Mckinley's presidency
1896 TO 1901
THE hard times, the business depression, all attributable
to the WUson Tariff Bill, made the Repubhcans turn
instinctively to Governor McKinley, the weU-known advo
cate of a high protective tariff, as the nominee of the Re
publican party, who would lead it to victory at the polls.
The Repubhcan National Convention of 1896 was held at
St, Louis, It was one of the few national conventions which
I failed to attend. Since entering the Senate, I have been
usually honored by my party coUeagues in the State by be
ing made chairman of the Illinois delegation to Repubhcan
national conventions. But for some reason or other — just
why I do not now recollect ¦ — I was not a delegate to the
St. Louis Convention, Congress was in session until near
the time when the convention was to meet, and Mr, McKin
ley, who, it was well known, would be the nominee of the
party, invited me to stop off at Canton on my way from
Washington to Illinois and spend a day with him. I did so,
arriving at Canton about nine in the morning, Mr, Mc
Kinley meeting me at the station and driving me to his
house, where I remained until my train left at nine in the
evening. From his residence in Canton, I wired the Illi
nois delegation, appealing to them to vote for McKinley.
He received all but two of the votes of the delegation. He
was nominated without any serious opposition, through the
272

MCKINLEY'S PRESIDENCY 273
briUiant generalship of that master of party manipulation,
the Hon. Marcus A, Hanna.
I was talked about a little as a candidate for President
during the closing days of the Cleveland Administration. I
was urged to lend my name for the purpose, particularly by
men in the East whom I always regarded as my friends.
I afterwards learned, although I was not so informed at the
time, that they had determined to beat McKinley at all
hazards and nomuiate Speaker Reed if they could, their
policy being to have the different States send delegations in
favor of "favorite sons." Senator Alhson was selected as
the "favorite son" from Iowa, and efforts were made to
carry the lUinois delegation for me. They hoped by this
means, when the delegates assembled at St. Louis, to agree
on some one, almost any one, except McKinley — Reed if
they could, or Allison, or me,
Mr, McKinley, through friends, about this time offered
me all sorts of inducements to withdraw. Judge Grosscup
was the intermediary, and there was hardly anything in the
Administration, or hardly any promise, he would not have
made me if I had consented to withdraw. I felt that I could
not do so. When they found it was impossible to beg me
off they determined to carry the State over me. Money
was spent freely in characteristic Hanna fashion, his motto
being, "accomphsh results." McKinley was exceedingly
popular, in addition, and after our State Convention had
assembled and endorsed him, I withdrew from the contest.
At the tune I thought that if I could have carried the dele
gation from my own State, as Senator Allison did his, it
would have broken the McKinley boom, and one or the
other of us would have been nominated. But as I look back
on it now, it seems to me that no one could have beaten Mc
Kinley ; and even if he had lost Ilhnois, as he lost Iowa, he
i8

274 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
stiU would have had sufficient delegates to secure his nomi
nation. The McKinley campaign was one of the most mter-
esting and quite the hveliest in which I have ever partici
pated. It was a campaign of education from beginning to
end. At first the Republicans tried to make the tariff the
issue, and in a sense it remained one of the most important ;
but we were soon compeUed to accept silver as the issue,
and fight it out on that line. Silver was comparatively a
new question; the people did not understand it, and they at
tended the meetings, hstening attentively to the campaign
speeches. There was considerable satisfaction in speaking during
the campaign of 1896 : one was always assured of a large and
interested audience. In addition to this, the prevaihng sen
timent was one of cheerful good-feeling; and while there
had been several candidates before the St. Louis Conven
tion, including Speaker Reed, Senator AUison, and Levi P.
Morton, the convention left no bitterness — the party was
united, and every Repubhcan did his fuU duty. Southern
Ilhnois was a little uncertain; but it finally came around, and
the full Republican vote was cast for McKinley and Hobart.
I took a very active part in this campaign. Mr. Mc
Kinley was exceedingly pohte to me and invited Senator
Thurston and me to open the campaign in Canton, which in
vitation I accepted, addressing there a vast audience. It
was said that some fifty or seventy-five thousand people
were assembled there that day. Subsequently I spoke in
Kentucky and Michigan, and made a thorough campaign in
my own State.
While the Republicans were united, the Democrats were
hopelessly divided. The so-called Gold Democrats held a
convention and nominated my colleague. Senator Palmer,

WILLIAM McKINLEY

MCKINLEY'S PRESIDENCY 275
and General Buckner as its candidates for President and
Vice-President respectively. They did not receive a very
large vote, because I beheve they advised the Gold Demo
crats to vote for McKinley. The Gold Democrats had
great influence in the election. General Pahner was thor
oughly in earnest on the silver question, more so perhaps
than any Democrat whom I knew. He believed strongly
in the Democratic doctrine on the tariff, and was a Democrat
on every other issue; but he could not follow his party in
espousing free silver.
There was doubt aU the time over the result of the elec
tion. After the Democratic convention was held in Chi
cago, and in the early Summer and Fall, the Democrats
certainly seemed to have the best of it ; but later in the cam
paign, as the people became educated, it began to look
brighter. I was very much surprised at the result, how
ever. McKinley carried the election by a vote of 7,111,000
as against 6,509,000 for Mr. Bryan, and the electoral vote
by 271 as against 176 for Mr, Bryan,
When President McKinley was inaugurated I cannot
forget the expression of apparent rehef in President Cleve
land's face, as he accompanied his successor to the ceremony.
He seemed rejoiced that he was turning his great office over
to Mr, McKinley. The last days of his Administration had
been troublesome ones. Estranged from his own party, war
clouds appearing in the near distance, — I do not wonder that
he gladly relinquished the office,
Mr. McKinley came into office under the most favor
able circumstances. A Congress was elected fully in har
mony with him, whose members gladly acknowledged him as
not only the titular, but the real head of the Republican
party. We have never had a President who had more in
fluence with Congress than Mr. McKinley, Even Presi-

276 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
dent Lincoln had difficulties with the leaders of Congress m
his day, but I have never heard of even the shghtest friction
between Mr, McKinley and the party leaders in Senate and
House. In many respects. President McKinley was a very great
man. He looked and acted the ideal President, He was
always thoroughly self -poised and dehberate; nothing ever
seemed to excite him, and he always maintained a proper
dignity. He had the natural talent and make-up to be suc
cessful in a marked degree in deahng with people with
whom he came into contact. He grew in popular favor
from the day of his election until his death, and I have al
ways maintained that he would go down in history as our
most popular President among aU classes of people in aU
sections of the country. His long training in pubhc life —
his service as a member of the House and Governor of Ohio
— had well fitted him for the high office of President. He
had many favorites whom he desired to get into office; and
on many occasions, instead of going ahead and appointing
his friends without consulting any one, he asked me if I
woiUd have any objection to his appointing some personal
friend hving in lUinois to one office or another in or out of
the State. I always yielded; in fact it was impossible to
resist him.
Illustrating this, there happened to be a vacancy in a Fed
eral Judgeship in Chicago, Presidents usuaUy have se
lected their own judges regardless of Senatorial recom
mendation, and McKinley selected his; but he managed to
secure Senatorial recommendation at the same time. I was
in favor of the appointment of a certain lawyer in Chicago
whom I regarded as thoroughly well quahfied for the place,
and the President wanted to appoint Judge Christian C.
Kohlsaat, My colleague and* I insisted for a long time on

MCKINLEY'S PRESIDENCY 277
our recommendation. The President and I debated the
question frequently, he always listening to me and seeming
impressed with what I had to say, at the same time remain
ing fully determined to have his own way in the end. Fi
naUy, when I was in the executive office one day, he came
over to where I was and, putting his arm on my shoulder,
said : "Senator, you won't get mad at me if I appoint Judge
Kohlsaat, wiU you? " I rephed: "Mr. President, I could not
get mad at you if I were to try." He sent the nomination
in; Judge Kohlsaat was confirmed, and is now serving on
the United States Circuit Bench.
Mr. McKinley wanted to appoint his old friend and com
mander. General Powell, as Collector of Internal Revenue
at East St. Louis. I did not want General Powell to have
the office, as I did not believe he had rendered any service to
the party sufficient to justify giving him one of the general
Federal offices in the State. State Senator P. T. Chapman,
who has since been elected to Congress several times, and
Hon. James A. WUloughby, then a member of the Illinois
State Senate, were both candidates, and I should have been
very glad to have had either one of them appointed.
Chapman came to Washington to my office, where he
waited whUe I went to the White House to attempt to have
the matter of the appointment settled. I saw the Presi
dent, to whom I expressed a wilhngness to have the post of
Collector of Internal Revenue for the East St, Louis Dis
trict go either to Chapman or Willoughby,
"CuUom," returned the President, "if you had come to me
this way in the first place, and urged me to appoint one of
them, I would have done it ; but you have waited until every
thing is filled, and now I must either appoint PoweU to this
place, or turn him out to grass." He continued: "I was a
boy when I entered the army, and General Powell took me

278 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
under his wing; he looked after me, and I became very much
attached to him, I was standing only a little way off and
saw him shot through," The tears came to the President's
eyes and ran down his cheeks. When I saw with what feel
ing he regarded the matter, I threw up my hands.
"I am through," said I ; "I have nothing more to say."
General PoweU was given the office. This illustrates the
manner in which Mr. McKinley always managed to get his
own way in the matter of appointments without the slight
est friction with Senators and Representatives.
During the early days of his Administration I did not feel
so close to him as I had felt toward some of his predecessors.
I did not feel that he quite forgave my not yielding to him
and declining to become a candidate for President in 1896.
He was always polite to me, as he was to every one, yet I
could not but feel that he was holduig me at arm's length.
My colleague. Senator Mason, who was an old friend of his,
had secured a number of appointments, and the President
himself was constantly asking me to yield to the appoint
ment of this or that "original McKinley man," mostly either
my enemies or men of whom I knew nothing. I was much
out of humor about it, and, several consular appointments
having been made about that time, I wrote some one in the
State a letter setting forth that those appointments were
but the carrying out of promises made in advance of Mc
Kinley's nomination. This letter, or a copy of it, was sent
to the President. I called at the White House one day con
cerning the appointment of some man, whose name I do
not remember, but whom I regarded as my personal en
emy. I told him I had no objection, but that I regarded
the man as a jackass. McKinley evidently did not like my
remark very well; he reached back on his table, pulled out
this letter, or a copy of it, and asked me if I had written it.

MCKINLEY'S PRESIDENCY 279
I rephed that I did not know whether I had or not, but that
it sounded very much as I felt at the moment. He said
that he had not expected an expression of that sort from me.
Whereupon we had a general overhauling, in the course of
which I told him with considerable feeling that I had been
more or less intimate with every President since, and includ
ing, Mr. Lincoln, and had always been treated frankly and
not held at arm's length; but with himself that I had been
constantly made to feel that he was reserved with me. We
quarreUed about it a little, and finaUy he asked me what I
wanted done. I told him. He promptly promised to do it,
and did.
That quarrel cleared the atmosphere, and we remained de
voted friends from that day until his death.
Had it not been for the Hon. Marcus A. Hanna, Mr. Mc
Kinley would probably never have been nominated or elected
President of the United States.
I knew Mr. Hanna very many years before he became
identified with the late President McKinley. He always
took an interest in Republican politics, particularly in Ohio
pohtics ; and when Mr. Blaine was a candidate for the Pres
idency, and I was campaigning in Ohio, I rode with Mr.
Hanna from Canton to MassiUon, some seven or eight miles
distant, where a great meeting was held, with Mr. Blaine as
the central figure. I was even then very much impressed
with Mr, Hanna as a man of the very soundest judgment and
common sense.
But it was not until Mr, McKinley became a candidate
for President that Hanna took a very great interest in na
tional political affairs. He had the deepest affection for
the late President, and was determined that he should be
nominated and elected President of the United States, at

280 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
whatever cost, Mr. Hanna took hold of Mr. McKinley's
campaign for the nomination and controlled it absolutely,
and, to use the common expression, he "ran every other can
didate off the track."
He came into Ilhnois and carried the State easily. He
was not sparing in the use of money, but beheved in using it
legitimately in accomplishing results.
It must have been a great satisfaction to him when the St.
Louis Convention nominated his candidate, William Mc
Kinley, of Ohio, on the first ballot by a vote of 661 as against
84 votes for Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, the next highest
candidate. He had it all organized so perfectly that the St.
Louis Convention was perfunctory so far as Mr. McKinley's
nomination was concerned. The Convention recognized that
it was Mr. Hanna who had achieved this great triumph ; and
after Senator Lodge, Governor Hastings, and Senators
Piatt and Depew had moved that the nomination of Mr.
McKinley be made unanimous, a general call was made for
Mr. Hanna, He finally yielded in a very brief address.
"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention : — I am glad
there was one member of this Convention who has had the intelligence at
this late hour to ascertain how this nomination was made — by the people.
What feeble effort I may have contributed to the result, I am here to
lay the fruits of it at the feet of my party and upon the altar of my
country. I am now ready to take my position in the ranks alongside
of my friend. General Henderson, and all good Republicans from every
State, and do the duty of a soldier until next November."
Naturally, Mr. Hanna was made chairman of the Re
publican National Committee, and as such conducted Mr.
McKinley's campaign for election just as he had conducted
the preliminary campaign for the nomination. He there
showed the shrewdest tact and ability in its management,

MCKINLEY'S PRESIDENCY 281
and many people beheve that he elected McKinley very
largely by his own efforts.
I do not know whether Mr, Hanna was very ambitious to
enter the Senate or not, but I do believe that Mr, McKinley
saw that he would be probably the most useful Senator to
his Administration; and he contrived to make a vacancy in
the Senatorship from Ohio by inducing John Sherman to
accept the position of Secretary of State in his Cabinet,
thereby making a place for Mr, Hanna in the Senate. Sen
ator Sherman resigned to enter the State Department ; and
on March 5, 1897, Mr. Hanna was appointed by Governor
Bushnell to fill the vacancy.
From the very first Mr. Hanna took rank as one of the
foremost leaders of the Senate. Of course, he had every
thing in his favor. He had nominated and elected McKin
ley; he had been Chairman of the Republican National Com
mittee, and it was known that he stood closer to the Presi
dent than any other man in pubhc life.
But notwithstanding this, he had the real abihty naturally
to assume his place as a leader. He assumed a prominent
place more rapidly than any Senator whom I have ever
known. He took hold of legislation with a degree of skiU
and confidence that was remarkable, and carried his meas
ures through apparently by his own individual efforts and
energy. He changed the whole attitude of the Senate con
cerning the route for an interoceanic canal. We aU gen
erally favored the Nicaraguan route. Senator Hanna be
came convinced that the Panama route was best, and he soon
carried everything before him to the end that the Panama
route was selected.
During the first McKmley campaign, Mark Hanna was
probably the most caricatured man in public hfe. He was

282 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
made an issue in that campaign and was usually pictured as
being covered with money-bags and dollars. But it is very
strange how public sentiment changed concernmg him. Be
fore the first McKinley Administration was over, Mark
Hanna enjoyed quite a degree of popularity; but it was not
untU he entered the campaign of 1900 that he really became
one of the popular figures in American pohtics.
Some one, I do not know who, induced him to go among
the people and show himself, and try to make some speeches.
His first few efforts were so successful that it was deter
mined he should make a speech-making tour. Senator
Frye, of Maine, one of the oldest and most experienced and
finest orators in the country, accompanied him on his tour.
Senator Frye told me he prevailed upon Senator Hanna to
make short campaign speeches first. He requested him to
try a fifteen-minute speech, then extend them to thirty mui-
utes. Before their tour was ended, he was making just
as long and just as good a speech as any old expe
rienced campaigner. During this campaign, there were
more calls on the Repubhcan National Committee for Sen
ator Hanna than there were for any other campaign
speaker. Everywhere he went he made friends, not only
for President McKinley, the nominee of the party, but for
himself as weU, Mark Hanna became one of the most pop
ular leaders in the Repubhcan party, and I have never for
a moment doubted that he could have been the nominee of
the party for the Presidency in 1904, had he consented to
accept it. He told me in a private conversation his ambi
tion had been gratified when he had seen his great personal
friend, Mr, McKinley, twice elected President of the United
States, and now that he had passed away he had no particular
ambition on his own account.

MCKINLEY'S PRESIDENCY 283
Mr. McKinley promptly proceeded to call a special ses
sion of Congress, which convened March 15, 1897, and in
which Mr. Reed was elected Speaker of the House. This
session was caUed for the purpose of enacting a law for the
raising of sufficient revenue to carry on the Government;
and on March 31 the Dingley Bill passed the House. The
bill was debated in the Senate for several weeks, and after
eight hundred and seventy-two amendments were incorpo
rated, it passed the Senate July 7, 1897. The conference re
port was agreed to, and the act was approved July 24, 1897.
The country was in such condition then that we heard no com
plaint concerning the high protective tariff. The Republi
cans were united in advocating such a protective tariff as
would enable the mills and factories to open, thereby af
fording employment and restoring prosperity.
From the election of President McKinley and the enact
ment of the Dingley Law I do not hesitate to say that we can
date the greatest era of prosperity, and the greatest mate
rial advancement, of any period of like duration in our his
tory. Toward the close of the Cleveland Administration and all
during the first part of the McKinley Administration, con
ditions were leading up inevitably to the Spanish-American
War. The enthusiasm of some Senators, especially Senator
Proctor, of Vermont, and my own coUeague, Senator Mason,
of Ilhnois, became so intense that war was brought on be
fore the country was really prepared for it. Mr. McKinley
held back. He knew the horrors of war and, if he could
avoid it, did not desire to see his country engage in hostUities
with any other country. He acted with great discretion,
holding things steadily untU some degree of preparation
was made ; and I have no doubt at aU that the war would have

284 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
been averted had not the Maine been destroyed ui Havana
harbor. The country forced us into it after that appalhng
catastrophe. The entire Nation stood behind the President, and so did
Congress. One of the most dignified and impressive scenes I
ever witnessed since I became a member of the Senate was
the passage of the bill appropriating fifty milhon dollars to
be expended under the direction of the President, in order to
carry on the war. The Committee on Appropriations, of
which I had long been a member, directed Senator Hale to
report the biU. It was agreed in committee that we should
endeavor to secure its passage without a single speech for or
against it. Some of the Senators who seemed disposed to
talk, were prevailed upon to desist, and it was passed without
any speeches. The ayes and nays were called, and amid the
most solemn silence the bill was passed. The galleries were
crowded; a great many members of the House were on the
fioor, and it reminded me of the days when the great Recon
struction legislation was being enacted, in the sixties. It
was a demonstration to the country and the world of our con
fidence in the President, and the determination on the part of
'Congress to do what was necessary to uphold the dignity and
honor of the United States. The vote for the bill in the
Senate was unanimous.
The war came on immediately afterwards. The history of
it is yet too fresh in the minds of the people to need repetition
here. It was soon over, and with its conclusion came new
and greater responsibUities. Whether it was wise for the
United States to assume these new responsibilities, I am not
prepared to say. Time alone can determine that,
I have always had great sympathy for General Russell A.
Alger, of Michigan, who was in President McKinley's
Cabinet as Secretary of War. It was not his fault that con-

MCKINLEY'S PRESIDENCY 285
ditions in the War Department were as they existed in 1897,
when he assumed office. We must remember that the coun
try had enjoyed a continuous period of peace from 1865 to
1898. We were unprepared for war, and in the scramble and
haste the Department of War was not administered satisfac
torily, the whole blame being laid upon General Alger. It
had been the policy of the Democratic party in Congress to
oppose hberal appropriations for the maintenance of the
War Department and Army. Many Republicans thought
that the best means of limiting appropriations was in cutting
down the estimates for the War Department. They seemed
to think that we would never again engage in a foreign
war. General Alger was a thoroughly honest man, of whose in
tegrity I never had any doubt. He was made the scapegoat,
and President McKinley practically was forced by public
sentiment to demand his resignation. Personally, I have al
ways beheved the President should have stood by General
Alger. I was much gratified when his own people in Michi
gan showed their confidence in him, very soon after he was
forced out of the McKinley Cabinet, by electing him to a
seat in the United States Senate made vacant by the death
of the late Senator McMiUan.
During his Administration, President McKinley did me
quite an honor by appointing me chairman of a commission to
visit the Hawaiian Islands, investigate conditions there, and
report a form of government for those islands. He ap
pointed with me my colleague. Senator Morgan of Alabama,
and my friend the Hon. R, R. Hitt, chairman of the House
Committee on Foreign Affairs. In aU my public hfe this
was the second executive appointment that I ever received,
the first being from President Lincohi during the Civil War,

286 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
to investigate commissary and quartermasters' accounts, to
which I have already referred.
It had been the weU-known pohcy of the United States for
many years that in no event could the entity of Hawaiian
statehood cease by the passage of the islands under the dom
ination or influence of another power than the United States.
Their annexation came about as the natural result of the
strengthening of the ties that bound us to those islands for
many years. The people had overthrown the monarchy and
set up a repubhc. It seemed certam that the republic could
not long exist, and they appealed to the United States for an
nexation. The treaty of annexation was negotiated and
then ratified by Hawau, but it was withdrawn by President
Cleveland before the Senate acted upon it ; finaUy, the islands
were annexed by the passage of an act of Congress during
the McKinley Administration.
It was under these circumstances that Senator Morgan,
Mr. Hitt, and I visited the islands. The appointment came
about in this way. I had been urging the President to ap
point Mr. Rheuna Lawrence, of Springfield, lUinois, as one
of the commissioners. The Hon. James A. Connolly, then
representing the Springfield district in Congress, had also
been very active in trying to secure Lawrence's appoint
ment. He came to me in the Senate one day and told me
that there was no chance of Lawrence being appointed and
that the President had determined to appoint me, I told
Connolly I did not see how I could accept an appointment,
under the circumstances, and that Lawrence might misunder
stand it. Connolly said he thought I must take the place.
The President himself afterwards talked with me about it.
I hesitated. He urged me, insisting that I could not very
well afford to decline, FinaUy I said that if he insisted, I
would accept. He nominated us to the Senate for confirma-

MCKINLEY'S PRESIDENCY 287
tion. This precipitated considerable debate in the Senate,
for, by the members of the Committee on the Judiciary, the
appointment of Senators and members on such a commission
was regarded as unconstitutional; but the committee deter
mined to take no action on the nominations at all, so we were
neither confirmed nor rejected. President McKinley urged
us to go ahead, however, visit the islands, and make our re
port, which we did. This was the beginning of expansion,
or Imperiahsm, in the campaign of 1900.
One writer, in speaking of the acquisition of these islands,
said:
"One of the brightest episodes in American history was the acquisition
of the Hawaiian Islands, and Senator Cullom's name is prominently
associated with that act. He read aright our history as a nation of ex
pansionists. He was not afraid to permit the great republic to become
greater. He deemed it wise that to the lines of our influence on land
should be added a national influence on the seas. This view was ac
cepted by the people and by the national Legislature. By President
McKinley, Senator Cullom was appointed chairman of the Hawaiian
Commission, composed of Senator Morgan of Alabama, and Congressman
Hitt of Illinois, and Senator Cullom, to visit the islands and frame a
new law providing for their civil government and defining their future
relations with the United States. Since the days of Clyde in India,
few men have been clothed with a more important duty than this com
mission, whose mission it was to prepare a Government for the Hawaiian
Islands. The bill recommended by the commission was enacted by Con
gress, and stands as the organic law of the islands to-day."
We had an exceedingly interesting time in the Hawaiian
Islands. They were not known so well then as they are to
day. We visited several of the islands composing the group,
and pubhcly explained our mission. The people seemed to
have the impression that American occupancy of the islands
was only temporary, and that as soon as the Spanish- Ameri
can War was over they would return to old conditions. We

288 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
told them that annexation was permanent, and they would
remain a part of the United States for aU tune to come. I
did not favor giving them statehood. There was not a suf
ficient number of whites and educated natives to justify giv
ing them the franchise as an independent State in the Ameri
can Union, Senator Morgan and I differed on this a great
deal, and on several occasions in the hearings of the commis
sion, he stated that they were to become a State, I always
interposed to the effect that, so far as my influence was con
cerned, they would remain a Territory,
There was one island of the group called Molokai devoted
entirely to the care of lepers, leprosy being quite common
in the Hawaiian Islands. We deemed it our duty to visit this
island as weU as the others. It was one of the most interest
ing and pathetic places of which the human mind can con
ceive — a place of grim tragedies. There were about twelve
hundred lepers on the island, divided into two colonies, one at
each end of the island. The island itself forms a natural
fortress from which escape is almost impossible, the sea on
one side and mountains on the other. We spent the day
there and ate luncheon on the island. We saw the disease in
all its stages. We entered a schoolhouse in which there were
a crowd of young girls ranging from ten to sixteen years of
age. They were all lepers. They sang for us. It was
very pathetic. We visited the cemetery and saw the monu
ment erected to the memory of a Cathohc priest. Father
Damien, who went there from Chicago, to devote his life to
the spiritual care of the unfortunates, but who, hke all others
residing on the island, finally succumbed to the disease. We
met an old lady at the cemetery and I asked her if there was
any danger of contracting the disease. She said there was
not unless we had some abrasions on the skin, and advised

MCKINLEY'S PRESIDENCY 289
us as a matter of caution to wear gloves, I promptly put
mine on and kept them on until I left the island.
I was told that they expected me to speak to them, and I
did make them a speech. A large number of them assembled.
I have addressed many audiences in my hfe, but this was the
queerest I was ever obliged to face. There were men and
women in all stages of the disease. Leprosy attacks the
fingers and they fall off, and some natural instinct prompts
the victim to hide his hands ; but as my speech was translated
to them, in the excitement they would forget and throw out
their hands and applaud. It was a hideous sight and I most
fervently wish never to see the hke of it again.
For our expenses one hundred thousand dollars had been
appropriated, I am not one of those who believe in lavish
expenditures of public money by commissions. While I was
wilhng as chairman of the commission to permit traveUing
expenses and the reasonable necessaries and probably the
luxuries of life while abroad, yet I differed with my col
league. Senator Morgan, and insisted that no money should
be spent for entertaining. Out of the hundred thousand
dollars we spent something like fifteen thousand; and Sena
tor Morgan, Mr. Hitt, and I agreed that it would not be
lawful or right for us to accept any compensation for our
services as members of the commission. Something hke
eighty-five thousand doUars reverted to the Treasury.
We returned and made our report to Congress, and the
bill which we recommended was enacted. I do not think the
present form of government of Hawaii will be changed for
many years to come, I have regretted exceedingly that,
despite the repeated recommendations of Presidents McKin
ley and Roosevelt, Congress has not seen fit to make an ap
propriation to improve the harbor and fortify the islands.

290 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
It is true they afford us a coahng station in the middle of the
Pacific, but that is aU, Should hostilities break out in the
Far East, our country being a party, it would be almost im
possible for us to defend them, and they would become easy
prey to foreign aggression. I hope that this policy wiU
change in the near future, and that Pearl Harbor will be
improved and the islands fortified.
The important events of the first McKinley Administra
tion were the enactment of the Dingley Tariff, the success
ful conclusion of the war with Spain, the ratification of the
Treaty of Peace, the independence of Cuba, and the acquisi
tion of Porto Rico, the Philippines, and the Island of Guam;
the establishment of the gold standard by law, and the an
nexation of the Hawaiian Islands.
At the close of the Administration no one questioned that
the country was in a more prosperous condition than it ever
had been before, and that McKinley was probably the most
popular President that ever occupied the White House.
He was unanimously nominated at the Repubhcan Conven
tion, at Philadelphia, for a second term.
The campaign of 1900 was fought out on the issue of
Imperiahsm ; the tariff was almost forgotten, and the silver
question was only discussed incidentally.
Mr. McKinley's popular vote was not much greater than
it was in 1896. He received 7,207,000 as against 6,358,000
votes cast for Mr. Bryan.
During the short session which convened after his reelec
tion, the Piatt amendment concerning our future relations
with Cuba was passed. The War Revenue Act was reduced.
It was an uneventful session, and Mr. McKinley was again
inaugurated March 4, 1901.

MCKINLEY'S PRESIDENCY 291
On September 6, 1901, the President attended the Buffalo
Exposition, accompanied by Mrs. McKinley and the mem
bers of his cabinet, and during the reception which he held at
the Temple of Music on that day, he was shot and wounded
by an assassin, one Leon F, Czolgosz, After hngering along
until Saturday, September 14, he passed away, and Theodore
Roosevelt, Vice-President, was sworn in as President of the
United States. On taking the oath of office, he uttered but
one sentence :
"I wish to say that it shall be my aim to continue absolutely unbroken
the policy of President McKinley for the peace, prosperity, and the
honor of our beloved country."

CHAPTER XX
Roosevelt's presidency
1901 to 1909
COLONEL ROOSEVELT served as President of the
United States from September 13, 1901, to March 4,
1909, What he accomphshed during those years is stiU too
fresh in the minds of the people of the United States to
justify its recital by me here; suffice it to say that he gave
one of the best Administrations ever known in the history of
the United States. He accomphshed more in that term
than any of his predecessors; more laws were enacted, laws
of more general benefit to the people; but above all, his
Administration enforced all laws on the statute books as they
had never been enforced before.
The Sherman Anti-Trust Law was a dead letter untU Mr.
Roosevelt instructed the Attorney-General to prosecute its
violators, both great and small. No fear or favor was shown
in the enforcement of the laws against the rich and poor
alike. There were many other notable features of his ad
ministration, but that, to my mind, stands out conspicuously
before aU the others. By his speeches, by his public mes
sages, he awakened the slumbering conscience of the Nation,
and he made the violators of the law in high places come to
realize that they would receive the same punishment as the
lowest offenders. He did more than any of his predecessors
to prevent this country from drifting into socialism.
I have known Colonel Roosevelt for many years. I knew
292

ROOSEVELT'S PRESIDENCY 293
him as Civil Service Commissioner under President Harri
son. In that position, as in every other public office he held,
he saw to it that the law was strictly enforced. I once wrote
him a note, when he was Civil Service Commissioner, re
questing him to act favorably on some matter, which he con
sidered was contrary to his duty. He promptly returned
this characteristic reply: "You have no right to ask me to
do this, and I have no right to do it."
As Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President
McKinley, he was able, aggressive, and pushing in prepar
ing the Navy for the Spanish-American Wax. He seemed
so interested in what he was doing that he would appear to
an outsider to be nervous and excitable. My old friend, the
Hon. W. I. Guffin, than whom there was no better man, was
visiting the Department with me one day, and I took occasion
to introduce him to Colonel Roosevelt, who was then Assist
ant Secretary. Guffin was astonished at Roosevelt's man
ners and his way of speaking, and I recall Guffin's remark
when we left the office. I was very much amused at it. He
said: "Well, that is Roosevelt, is it I He is one hell of a Sec
retary." Doubtless that was the impression that Colonel
Roosevelt left on many people whom he met in the Navy
Department, who did not know him and who had not yet
come to know the degree of promptness and ability with
which he despatched public business.
I was at the Philadelphia Convention which nominated
Colonel Roosevelt for Vice-President. I know that he did
not desire the nomination, but it was thrust on him through
the manipulation of Senator T. C. Piatt, of New York, then
the acknowledged "easy boss" of that State. Piatt himself
said afterwards that he did it to get rid of hun as Governor
of New York, and that he regretted it every day of his hfe
after Roosevelt became President, The pohticians of New

294 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
York did not want Roosevelt in control at Albany, and they
thought it would be an admirable plan to remove him from
the State, and eventually relegate him to private life — to
nominate him for Vice-President. But the fates willed dif
ferently, and the nomination for Vice-President opened the
way for him to become Mr. McKinley's successor, in which
position he made such a splendid record that no one thought
of opposing him for the nomination for President in 1904.
As President, Colonel Roosevelt was not popular with
Senators generaUy. PersonaUy, I got along with him very
weU, In all the years that he was President, I do not think
he ever dechned to grant any favor that I asked of him, with
one exception. In that case, while he dechned to give a
very distinguished gentleman in Ilhnois a position, for which
I thought him admirably qualified, and for which I was urg
ing him, he later tendered him another office, which my friend
declined to accept. His methods of transacting business
were far more expeditious than those of any of his predeces
sors. President McKinley, in every case, insisted on Sena
tors placing in writing their recommendations for Federal
offices ; I do not think he ever made an appointment without
such written endorsements; but Colonel Roosevelt never
bothered much about written endorsements. He would
either do or not do what you asked, and would decide the
question promptly.
He took a deep interest in the passage of the necessary
amendments to the Interstate Commerce Act, and as I have
said elsewhere, had it not been for Colonel Roosevelt, the
Hepburn BiU would not have been passed. He thought
that I could be of very great service in securing the passage
of the amendments which both he and I deemed necessary
to the Interstate Commerce Act, by remaining chairman
of the Senate's Committee on Interstate Commerce, and

ROOSEVELT'S PRESIDENCY 295
when the time came for me to decide whether I should re
main chairman of that committee, or accept the chairman
ship of the Committee on Foreign Relations, he took occasion
personally to urge me to remain at the head of the Interstate
Commerce Committee. But at the time the personnel of the
committee was such that I had despaired of securing favor
able action in the committee on an amended Interstate Com
merce Act, and I retired to accept the chairmanship of the
Committee on Foreign Relations.
Colonel Roosevelt has proven over and over again, in every
position he has occupied, from Police Commissioner of New
York to the Presidency itself, that he is a marvellous man, a
man of great resources, great intellect, great energy and
courage, and a man of the highest degree of integrity. He
will go down in the history of this country as the most re
markable man of his day.
The Hon. John Hay, at the urgent request of Colonel
Roosevelt, continued to act as Secretary of State (to which
position he had been appointed by President McKinley) im-
tU his death in 1905. John Hay was the most accomphshed
diplomat, in my judgment, who ever occupied the high posi
tion of Secretary of State.
I knew him from his boyhood, and knew his father and all
the members of his famUy, The Hon. Milton Hay, whom
I have mentioned elsewhere, and who was my law partner,
was an uncle of John Hay, John was a student in our law
office in Springfield, and as a student of the law he showed
marked intellectual capacity and grasp. It was from our
law office that President Lincoln took him to act as one of his
private secretaries when he left Springfield for Washington
to be inaugurated as President of the United States, and Mr.
Hay continued to act as such imtil the President's death.

296 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
He abandoned the law as a profession and became finaUy the
editor of The New York Tribune. I probably knew him
more intimately than any one else in public hfe, and when
Mr. McKinley became President I urged him to appoint
Hay as Ambassador to Great Britain, He served in that
position with great credit to himself and his country. He
was very popular with the members of the British Govern
ment, and seemed to have more influence, and to be more able
to accomphsh important results, than any of his predecessors
in that office. When it was rumored that there was to be a
vacancy in the State Department, by the retirement of Mr.
Day, who was ambitious to go on the Federal Bench, I wrote
Mr. McKinley a letter, in which I told hun that he could find
no better man to succeed Mr. Day as Secretary than his
Ambassador to Great Britain, John Hay. And he was ap
pointed. As Secretary of State, Mr, Hay was successful in carry
ing to a triumphant conclusion our Far Eastern diplomacy.
For years the situation in the Far East, and especiaUy in
China, had been delicate and critical to an extreme. The
acquisition of Hawaii and the Philippines gave to the United
States an extraordinary interest in events occurring in the
Orient. The United States stood for the "open door" in
China; and as the result of the diplomacy and influence of
Secretary Hay, freedom of commerce was secured, and the
division of China among the powers has been prevented. In
our relations with China, we have pursued a disinterested
policy of disavowal of territorial aggrandizement, and a dis
position to respect the rights of that Government, confining
our interests to the peaceful development of trade. Secre
tary Hay never hesitated on all proper occasions to assert
our influence to preserve its independence and prevent its
dismemberment.

ROOSEVELT'S PRESIDENCY 297
For many centuries China had been a hermit nation, suc
cessfully resisting foreign influence and invasion; but grad
uaUy, on one pretext or another, she was compelled to open
her ports, and Great Britain, Russia, and Germany had
gained special advantages and exceptional privileges in
portions of China, where, under the guise of "spheres of in
terest," they were exercising considerable control over an im
portant part of that Empire. It seemed probable that not
only would these nations absorb the trade of China, but
that the Empire itself would be dismembered and divided
among the powers. To prevent this. Secretary Hay ad
vanced the so-caUed "open door" policy and successfully
carried it out.
In September, 1899, he addressed communications to the
Governments of Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Italy, and
Japan, suggesting that, as he understood it to be the settled
policy and purpose of those countries not to use any privileges
which might be granted them in China as a means of exclud
ing any commercial rival, and that freedom of trade for
them in that ancient empire meant freedom of trade for aU
the world alike, he considered that the maintenance of this
policy was alike urgently demanded by the commercial com
munities of these several nations, and that it was the only one
which would improve existing conditions and extend their
future operation. He further suggested that it was the de
sire of the United States Government that the interests of its
citizens should not be prejudiced through exclusive treat
ment by any of the controUing powers within their respective
spheres of interest in China, and that it hoped to retain there
an open market for aU the world's commerce, remove dan
gerous sources of international irritation, and promote ad
ministrative reform. Secretary Hay accordingly invited a
declaration by each of them in regard to the treatment of

298 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
foreign commerce in their spheres of interest. Without
inconsiderable delay the Governments of Great Britain,
Russia, Germany, Italy, and Japan rephed to his circular
note, giving cordial and full assurance of endorsement of
the prmciples suggested by our Government, Thus was
successfully begun the since famous "open door" policy in
China. But this great triumph in the interest of the freedom of
the world's commerce was foUowed by the Boxer out
break of 1900, The German Minister was murdered in the
streets of Peking, the legations were attacked and in a state
of siege for a month.
The Boxer outbreak was made the occasion of a joint in
ternational expedition for the relief of the diplomatic repre
sentatives and other foreigners whose lives were in peril.
Congress was not in session, but on Secretary Hay's advice
there was despatched a division of the American Army com
posed of aU arms of the service. This almost amounted to a
declaration of war, or the waging of war without the con
sent of Congress, The Executive was justified, however,
and did not hestitate to assume the responsibihty.
In the midst of the intense excitement throughout the
world, when the downfaU of the Empire of China seemed al
most certain. Secretary Hay, with the foresight which always
distinguished his official acts, issued a circular note on July
3, 1900, to all the powers having interests in China, stating
the position of the United States ; that it would be our pohcy
to find a solution which would bring permanent safety and
peace to China, preserve its territorial and administrative
entity, protect all rights guaranteed by treaty and interna
tional law, and safeguard for the world the principle of equal
and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese Empire.
Secretary Hay's note gave notice to the world that the United

ROOSEVELT'S PRESIDENCY 299
States would not permit the dismemberment of China, and it
was so in accord with the principles of justice that it met with
the approval of aU.
After the relief of the legations and the suppression of the
Boxer troubles by the allied powers, there followed a long
period of negotiation, and an enormous and exorbitant de
mand was made by the allies as an indemnity. So exorbitant
was it at first that China probably never would have been
able to pay. Secretary Hay constantly intervened to reduce
the demands of the powers and cut down to a reasonable
limit the enormous indemnity they were seeking to exact.
Finally the protocol of 1901 was signed, imposing very heavy
and humiliating burdens on China. It has been the province
of the United States to alleviate these burdens, and we have
only recently remitted a very large portion of the indemnity
which was to have come to the United States.
Later, Secretary Hay negotiated a very favorable com
mercial treaty with China which further strengthened the
"open door," gave increased privileges to our diplomatic and
consular officers, and to our citizens in China, and opened
new cities to international trade and residence.
One of Secretary Hay's last acts in the State Department
was another diplomatic triumph in the interest of China. It
had been apparent for some time that war between Russia
and Japan was inevitable, and Mr. Hay reahzed that war
might seriously impair the integrity of China and the benefits
of the "open door" policy. Immediately after the war com
menced, therefore, on February 10, 1904, Mr. Hay ad
dressed to the Governments of Russia, Japan, and China,
and to all other powers having spheres of influence in China,
a circular note in which he said:
"It is the earnest desire of the Government of the United States that
in the military operations which have begun between Russia and Japan,

300 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
the neutrality of China, and in all practicable ways her administrative
entity, shall be protected by both parties, and that the area of hos
tilities shall be localized and limited as much as possible, so that undue
excitement and disturbance of the Chinese people may be prevented,
and the least possible loss to the commerce and peaceful intercourse of
the world may be occasioned."
Mr. Hay's proposition was commended by the world and
was accepted by the neutral nations, and also by China,
Russia, and Japan.
Secretary Hay's measures respecting China were of the
greatest importance and significance, because they not only
tended to the peace of the world, but they have preserved the
extensive territory and enormous population of that empire
to the free and untrammeUed trade and commerce of all
countries. In addition to securing from Great Britain, through the
Hay-Pauncefote treaty, the abrogation of the Clayton-Bul-
wer treaty, thereby making it possible for the United States
to construct the Isthmian Canal, Secretary Hay succeeded in
settling the controversy over the Alaskan boundary, which
had been a subject of dispute between the United States and
Great Britain for half a century. The treaty of 1868, be
tween the United States and Russia, by which we acquired
Alaska, in describing the boundary of Alaska, adopted the
description contained in the treaty of 1825, between Great
Britain and Russia. Years ago it was discovered that the
boundary described in the treaty of 1825 was incorrect as a
geographical fact.
While the country remained unsettled the definite bound
ary was not so material, but since the first Cleveland Ad
ministration the Alaskan boundary had been an important
subject of dispute. The feeling among our people in Alaska
and among the Canadians became very bitter. This was one

ROOSEVELT'S PRESIDENCY 301
of the principal reasons for the creation of the Joint High
Commission in 1899, whose purpose it was to settle all out
standing questions between the United States and Canada,
the principal one being the Alaskan boundary. The Joint
High Commission made considerable progress in adjusting
these questions, but failing to reach an agreement as to the
Alaskan boundary, the commission adjourned without dis
posing of any of the subjects in controversy. President
Roosevelt and Secretary Hay, in view of our long and undis
puted occupation of the territory in question, declined to al
low the reference of the Alaskan boundary to a regular arbi
tration at the Hague, but instead. Secretary Hay proposed
the creation of a judicial tribunal composed of an equal
number of members from each country, feeling confident
that our claim would be successfully established by such a
body. There was very great opposition, and there were
many predictions of failure, but on January 24, 1903, a
treaty between the United States and Great Britain was
signed, providing for such a tribunal.
The treaty was duly ratified, and the tribunal appointed,
and on October 20, 1903, reached a conclusion which was a
complete victory for the United States, sustaining as it did
every material contention of our Government.
The settlement of the Alaskan boundary was a very not
able diplomatic triumph, and Secretary Hay is entitled to
much credit for it.
I cannot go into the many important matters which Mr.
Hay disposed of as Secretary of State, He left a splendid
record. I made it a point to keep in constant touch with
him by visiting at his office frequently, and he always talked
with me frankly and freely concerning the important negotia
tions in which he was engaged. The only criticism I have to
make of hun as Secretary of State is, that he was disposed.

302 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
wherever he could possibly do so, to make international agree
ments and settle differences without consulting the Senate.
And, in addition, I never could induce him to come before
the Committee on Foreign Relations and explain to the com
mittee personaUy various treaties and important matters m
which the State Department was interested. Why he
would not do so I do not know. He was an exceedingly
modest man and shrank from all controversy. It is seldom,
however, that the State Department has had at its head so
briUiant and scholarly a man as John Hay, He will g'
down in history as among the greatest of our Secretaries <-t
State. I wiU make some further references to the important re
sults of the Roosevelt Administration in what I shall say in a
later chapter concerning the work of the Committee on
Foreign Relations.
WiUiam Howard Taft, now President of the United
States, was President Roosevelt's Secretary of War, and a
very able Secretary he was, I first knew him in Washing
ton, when, as a young man but thirty-three years of age, he
was serving as Sohcitor General under President Harrison,
I followed his career very closely from the time I first became
acquainted with him.
As a United States Circuit Judge, to which position he
was appointed by President Harrison, he was regarded as
one of the ablest in the country. The Circuit Court of
Appeals on which he served was a notable one. It was
composed of three men who have since occupied the highest
positions in the United States. Wilham R, Day was first
Assistant Secretary of State, then Secretary of State, one of
the negotiators of the Paris Peace Treaty, Circuit Judge,
and later a Supreme Court Justice. Judge Taft was first

Photo, copyright 1909, Moffett Studio, Chicazo

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT^'

ROOSEVELT'S PRESIDENCY 303
civil Governor of the Phihppines, Secretary of War, and
then President; and he has only recently appointed his old
colleague. Judge Lurton, the third member of the Court of
Appeals, to the position of Justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States.
Judge Taft has occupied many high positions, aU of which
he has filled with great honor and distinction. I doubt
whether he has enjoyed the high office of President of the
United States. I myself have always thought that he would
have made one of our greatest Chief Justices had he been ap
pointed to that position.
Just before the National Convention of 1908 assembled
at Chicago, in which convention I was chairman of the Ilh
nois delegation, when every one knew that Taft was sure to
be the nominee, I called on him at the War Department, and
in the course of the conversation I took occasion to remark
that I had always been in favor of him for Chief Justice,
but it seemed now that he was certain to be the nominee for
President, and his career would consequently go along an
other line. He replied: "If your friend Chief Justice
Fuller should retire and the President should send me a
commission as Chief Justice, I would take it now,"
It is my purpose to practically close these memoirs with
the end of the Roosevelt Administration, for the reason that
I do not feel at hberty to write in detail of events occurring
within the past two years. All that I will venture to say is
that my relations with Mr. Taft as President have been of the
most cordial and friendly character; and no one can question
that he has been thoroughly conscientious in the discharge
of the duties of President of the United States, That in
1910 the party went down in defeat for the first time in
eighteen years cannot be charged to President Taft, Noth
ing that he did as Chief Executive was responsible for that

304 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
defeat, I myself beheve that it was sunply the result of the
people becoming tired of too much prosperity under Repub
hcan administration. The newspaper agitation over the
Aldrich-Payne Tariff BiU was mainly instrumental in turn
ing the House of Representatives over to the Democracy,
The Hon, PhUander C, Knox was Attorney-General in
President Roosevelt's cabinet, as he had been in the cabinet
of his predecessor. He is now serving as Secretary of State
under President Taft. He has had a long and highly dis
tinguished career at the bar, and is probably one of the great
est lawyers of his day. He served in the Senate of the
United States for some years, and upon entering that body
he at once took his place as a leader on all questions of a
legal and constitutional nature. As a member of the Judi
ciary Committee, he had quite a commanding influence on
important legislation coming from that committee. As Sec
retary of State Mr, Knox has been successful to an eminent
degree, and I have no doubt that his career as the Premier
of the Taft Administration will add to his great fame as a
lawyer and statesman.
I cannot refrain from saying a word in reference to the
Hon. James Wilson, who was appointed Secretary of Agri
culture by President McKinley, in which position he has
been retained by both President Roosevelt and President
Taft. He has served as a cabinet officer for a longer con
secutive term than any man in our history.
I have been more or less familiar with the administra
tion of the Agricultural Department ever since its crea
tion, and I do not hesitate to say that Mr. Wilson has been
the most efficient Secretary of Agriculture that we have
ever had. He has accomplished greater results in that office
than any of his predecessors, and should remain there as
long as he wiU consent to serve.

CHAPTER XXI
interstate commerce
AT the time I am writmg these lines, no question of
governmental pohcy occupies so prominent a place
in the thoughts of the people as that of controUing the
steady growth and extending influence of corporate power,
and of regulating its relations to the pubhc. And there
are no corporations whose proceedings so directly affect
every citizen in the daUy pursuit of his business as the cor
porations engaged in transportation.
Of the many new forces introduced into every depart
ment of civihzed life duruig the past century, none have
brought about more marveUous changes than the railroad,
as an instrumentality of commerce. The substitution of
steam and electricity for animal power was one of the most
important events in our industrial history. The commercial,
social, and political relations of the nations, have been
revolutionized by the development of improved means of
communication and transportation. With this changed
condition of affairs in the commercial world came new ques
tions of the greatest importance for the consideration of
those upon whom devolved the duty of making the nation's
laws. In the early days of railroads, the question was not how
to regulate, but how to secure them ; but in the early seven
ties their importance grew to such proportions that the rail
roads threatened to become the masters and not the servants
of the people. There were all sorts of abuses. Railroad
20 305

306 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
officers became so arrogant that they seemed to assume that
they were above all law; rebating and discriminations were
the rule and not the exception. It was the pubhc indigna
tion against long continued discrimination and undue pref
erences which brought about the Granger Movement, which
resulted, seventeen years later, in the enactment of the first
Interstate Commerce Act,
With the Granger Movement of the early seventies, and
the passage of State laws for the control of raUroad trans
portation, began the discussion which is still before Congress
and the public as one of the live issues of the day.
It so happens that I have been intimately connected with
this subject from the time I was serving as Speaker of the
Ilhnois House of Representatives in 1873.
The State of Illinois, like most of the Western States,
had a law on the subject of railroad regulation; but it was
ineffective, and the commission under it had no practical
power. I appointed the committee of the House of Rep
resentatives of the lUinois Legislature in 1873, of which
John Oberly, of Cairo, Illinois, was a member, and it was
that committee that reported to the House the bill which
finally became a law, known as the Railroad and Warehouse
Law of 1873. It is still the existing law in lUinois, and
was for many years regarded as one of the broadest and
most far-reaching of State enactments.
After I became Governor of the State, in 1877, I ap
pointed a new Railroad and Warehouse Commission under
the new law, and naturally took a deep interest in its work.
During my term as Governor a resolution was adopted by
the General Assembly really looking to the abolition of the
Railroad and Warehouse Commission, but on its face in
quiring of me as Governor for information concerning the
cost of maintaining the Railroad and Warehouse Commis-

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 307
sion, and the benefits, if any, of the commission, to the peo
ple of the State of Illinois,
To this resolution I promptly responded in a message
to the General Assembly, dated February 17, 1879, which
in part I take the liberty of quoting here, because never
afterwards in Illinois, so far as I know, was there any move
ment to abolish the Railroad and Warehouse Commission and
repeal the Illinois Raiboad and Warehouse Act.
After giving the pay and expenses of the board, I con
tinued :
"To answer this portion of the resolution in a manner satisfactory to
myself would include a recital of the many attempts that have been
made in this and other countries to control railroad corporations by legis
lation. In a paper of this kind such a reply can not be made. I must
therefore be satisfied with a glance at the advance that resulted in the
enactment of the railroad and warehouse laws of this State.
"Since the passage of the laws creating the railroad and warehouse
commission, in 1871, Illinois has made very important advances toward
the solution of the railroad problem.
"The questions involved in this problem have not only been before the
people of this State, but in other States and countries.
"In England, after the railroad had become a fact, it was recognized
as a public highway. The right of Parliament to fix rates for the trans
portation of passengers and freight by railroad corporations was there
fore asserted, and schedules of rates were put into their charters. Those
familiar with the subject need not be told that the attempt to establish
rates in this manner was a failure. Then it was asserted that compe
tition, if encouraged by the Government, would prove a remedy for
the abuses with which the railroads were charged. The suggestion was
acted upon. The Government encouraged the construction of compet
ing lines. As a result, rates fell. Competition, however, finally began
to entail disaster upon the competitors and compel them to become allies
to escape destruction. The competitors combined; railroads were con
solidated; rival lines were united, and competition was thus destroyed.
The danger of great combinations of this kind, not only to the business
interests of the country, but also to the State, was at once suggested, and

308 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
occasioned alarm. This alarm resulted in a public opinion that the
Government should own the railroads. But consolidation, to the sur
prise of the prophets of evil, did not result in higher rates. On the con
trary, lower rates and higher dividends resulted.
"Thus by a logical process of attempt and failure to control railroad
corporations, the conclusion was reached that wise policy required per
mission to such corporations to operate their railroads in their own
way upon ordinary business principles. But at the same time a board
of commissioners was wisely created and authorized to hear and deter
mine complaints against railroad corporations, and to exercise other im
portant powers. This board was created about five years ago; and the
most notable feature in its career, says Charles Francis Adams, junior,
'is the very trifling call that seems to have been made upon it. The
cases which come before it are neither numerous nor of great importance.
It would, however, be unwhoUy safe to conclude from this fact that such
a tribunal is unnecessary. On the contrary, it may be confidently as
serted that no competent board of railroad commissioners clothed with
the peculiar power of the English board, will, either there or anywhere
else, have many cases to dispose of. The mere fact that a tribunal is
there, that a machinery does exist for the prompt and final decision of
that class of questions put an end to them. They no longer arise.
"The process through which the public mind in America has passed
on the railroad question is not dissimilar to that through which the pub
lic mind of England passed. But here competition was relied on from
the first. To all who asked for them railroad charters were granted.
The result has been the construction of railroads in all parts of the coun
try, many of them through districts of country without business, or even
population, as well as between all business centres and through populous,
fertile, and well cultivated regions. Free trade in railroad building, and
the too liberal use of municipal credit in their aid, has induced the build
ing of some lines which are wholly unnecessary, and which crowd, dupli
cate, and embarrass lines previously built and which were fully adequate
to the needs of the community.
"In Illinois, railroad enterprises have been particularly numerous and
have made the State renowned for having the most miles of railroad
track — for being the chief railroad State.
"But competition did not result according to public anticipation. The
competing corporations worked without suflScient remuneration at
competing points, and, to make good the losses resulting, were often

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 309
guilty of extortion at the non-competing points. They discriminated
against persons and places. Citizens protested against these abuses in
vain. The railroad corporations, when threatened with the power of the
Government, indulged in the language of defiance, and attempted to
control legislation to their own advantage. At last public indignation
became excited against them. They did not heed it. They believed
the courts would be their refuge from popular fury. The indignation
of the people expressed itself in many ways and finally found utter
ance in the Constitution of 1870. In this Constitution may be found
all the phases of opinion on the railroad question through which the
English mind has run. The railroad is declared a public highway.
The establishment of reasonable rates of charges is directed; competi
tion between railroads is recognized as necessary to the public welfare;
and the General Assembly is required to pass laws to correct abuses and
to prevent unjust discrimination and extortion in the rates and passenger
tariffs on the different railroads of the State, and enforce such laws by
adequate penalties to the extent, if necessary for that purpose, of forfeit
ure of their property and franchises.
"The Constitution did more than this. To correct abuses of the inter
ests of the farmers from whose fields warehousemen in combination with
corporate common carriers had been drawing riches, it declared all ele
vators or structures where grain or other property was stored for a
compensation, public warehouses, and expressly directed the General As
sembly to pass laws for the government of warehouses, for the inspection
of grain, and for the protection of producers, shippers, and receivers of
grain and produce.
"Promptly after the adoption of the Constitution the Legislature at
tempted to give these provisions vitality by the enactment of laws to
carry them out. One of these created the Eailroad and Warehouse Com
mission and imposed on it important duties. Another was an act to regu
late public warehouses and warehousing. By this act other important
duties were imposed upon the Railroad and Warehouse Commission."
After reviewing the attempt to enforce these laws the
message continues :
"In 1873, the present law to prevent extortion and unjust discrimina
tion in rates charged for the transportation of passengers and freight
on railroads in this State was passed. It was prepared and enacted with

310 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Illinois vs. C. and A.
B. R., fresh in the minds of the members of the General Assembly, and
every suggestion made by the court was observed.
"The Commission since the enactment of this statute has brought many
suits against railroad corporations for violation of the law."
After reviewing the various cases I proceeded:
"In 1871, the RaUroad and Warehouse Commission was established.
Its creation was resisted by both railroad corporations and public ware
housemen, and after its organization they treated it with little consid
eration. They refused to recognize its authority, but after the decision
of the Supreme Court of the United States declaring the doctrine that
the Government may regulate the conduct of its citizens to each other,
and, when necessary, for the public good, the manner in which each
shall use his own property, the railroad corporations and public ware
housemen began to grow less determined in their opposition to the at
tempts to control them, until at this time there is very little opposition.
They now give prompt attention to requests of the Commission for the
correction of abuses called to its notice by their patrons; and thus the
Commissioners not only settle questions arising between railroad cor
porations and those who patronize them, but it may as truthfully be
said of this as of the English or Massachusetts Commmission, that the
very fact of its existence has put an end to many of the abuses formerly
practised by such corporations, and which were angrily complained of by
the people. . . .
"It is a curious fact that the conclusion reached by the English states
men in 1874, was reached in Illinois in 1873; the conclusion that rail
road companies ought to have the right to control their own affairs,
fix their own rates of transportation, be free from meddlesome legisla
tion, and, as has been said, work out their own destiny in their own way,
just so long as they show a reasonable regard for the requirements of
the community."
After analyzing the law of 1873, referring to the pro
cedure under it, to the decision of the courts, and the fact
that the Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners made un
der it a schedule of maximum rates of charges, I said :

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 311
"The schedule will require revision from time to time, and this work
""Nian be done only by men who can give it their whole time, and who will
become students of the great subject of transportation.
"Before action by the Supreme Court it has not been deemed advisable
that the Commissioners should revise the schedule, and put the State
thereby to what might be unnecessary expense; nor that they should
multiply suits under the law of 1873, against railroad companies for sim
ilar offences to those set up in the cases now pending.
"Ever since its organization the board has been putting into operation
new laws founded upon old principles applied to new facts and it has
been compelled to walk with slow step. It has been required, in the
assertion of its authority to go from one court to another, and await the
approval by the Supreme Court of the legislation directed by the Con
stitution of 1870.
"It has won a victory in the warehouse controversy and secured the
judicial endorsement of doctrines which in this age of concentration
and monopoly, are absolutely necessary to the public welfare. . . .
"Leaving out of view the benefits that have resulted to the people by
the mere fact of the existence of the Board, which has prevented many
abuses that would have been committed save for its presence in the
State, it has been at work, and useful. It has perfected the organiza
tion of the Grain Inspection Department at Chicago; it has gathered
statistics in reference to transportation that are of very great benefit to
the public; it has adopted the policy of railroad examinations with a
view to security of life; and, in my judgment, the 'authority of the Com
mission ought to be enlarged so as to enable it to compel the railroad
companies to improve their tracks and bridges, when, in the judgment
of the Commission, such portions of railroads become unsafe. The Rail-
"^road Commissioners act as arbitrators between the railroad companies
and their patrons; and in the Commissioners' report they say they
have succeeded in settling most of the complaints made to them in a
manner satisfactory to all the parties to the controversies.
"In my judgment if the Commission were dispensed with by the Legis
lature, difficulties would soon arise, agitation would commence again, and
controversies would run riot. New legislation would follow, another
board of some kind would soon be created, and the track we have just
passed over would be again travelled by the people's representatives.
"The Board should be sustained in the interest of all the people. In
stead of being destroyed it should be strengthened. It should not only

312 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
have the authority with which it is now vested, but more. It should be
made a legal arbitrator in all matters of controversy between railroad
companies and warehouses and their patrons; and it should be required
to make ex' iination of roads, and be invested with authority to com
pel repara.ion of unsafe and defective bridges, culverts, track, and
rolling-stock. "(Signed) S. M. Cullom, "Governor."
My experience, as Chief Executive of the State, with the
practical workings of the Railroad and Warehouse Law,
clearly demonstrated to me that a State statute, no matter
how drastic it might be, was utterly inadequate to meet the
evils complained of, and that effective regulation must be
Federal and not State, or probably Federal and State com
bined. Some of the States had attempted to exercise con
trol over interstate traffic which originated in the State,
but it seemed perfectly clear from a long hne of decisions
of the Supreme Court, beginning with Gibbons vs. Ogden,
and continuing with Reading Railway vs. Pennsylvania;
Baltimore and Ohio vs. Maryland, and many other cases,
that the States as such had no control over interstate com
merce. But it was not until our own Ilhnois case ( Wabash
Railroad vs. Illinois), that the Supreme Court settled it
once and for all. It was clearly stated in that case that
the power of Congress was exclusive, and the Court said
that, "notwithstanding whatever dicta might appear in other
cases, this court holds now and has never consciously held
otherwise, that a statute of a State intended to regulate
or to tax or to impose any other restriction upon the trans
mission of persons or property from one State to another
is not within the class of legislation which the States may
enact in the absence of legislation by Congress, and that
such statutes are void."

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 313
This decision of the Supreme Court was rendered just
about the time I was elected to the United States Senate,
and I then and there determined that I would make it one
of my great aims in the Senate to secure the enactment of
a Federal statute regulating interstate commerce.
It would seem astonishing that the Commerce clause of
the Constitution should have remained dormant, as it did
for nearly a century. Aside from two unimportant acts,
no statute had been passed under it from the beginning of
the Government until the Act to Regulate Commerce was
passed in 1887.
Not even a serious attempt had been made to pass an
act for the regulation of interstate commerce. Bills were
introduced from Congress to Congress and laid aside; some
investigations were made — as, for instance, the Windom
investigation by a select committee of the House in 1873
— but it aU came to naught. It seemed that no one man,
either in the Senate or House, had made it his business to
secure the passage of such an act.
Very fortunately, as I see it now, when I first came to
the Senate, I received no important committee assignments.
Having been in public life for many years, member of Con
gress, Governor of my State, I naturaUy felt that I would
be properly taken care of without appealing to my older
coUeagues for assistance. Even my own colleague. General!
Logan, did not interest himself in the matter. I attended
the caucus "when the committee announcements were made,
and observing that I received nothing of any consequence,
I addressed the caucus and protested that I had not been
treated properly. Later Senator Edmunds resigned his
place as a regent of the Smithsonian Institution and I was
appointed to succeed him in that position.
I was assigned, however, to the Committee on Railroads

314 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
— which was then what we know now in the Senate as a
non-working committee. I determined that the committee
should have something to do, and I immediately became
active in securing the consideration of an act for the regula
tion of interstate commerce. I drew up a bill, introduced
it, had it referred to the committee, and finally secured its
consideration and report to the Senate. No one paid any
particular attention to what I was doing until then. When
the bill was reported to the Senate, and I was pushing and
urging and doing everything in my power to secure its con
sideration. Senator Alhson, always my friend, always want
ing to assist me in any way in his power, came to me one day
and said:
"CuUom, we know nothing about this question; we are
groping in the dark; and I beheve that there ought to be
a select committee of the Senate appointed to investigate
the question, to go out among the people, take testimony,
and find out what they know about it, — what the experts
know, what the railroad officials know, what public opinion
generaUy is, and report their conclusions to the Senate
at the beginning of the next session. I am willing to help
you secure the passage of a resolution with that end in view."
This was perfectly agreeable to me and, on March 17,
1885, a resolution of the Senate, introduced by me, was
adopted. This resolution provided —
"That a select committee of five Senators be appointed to investigate
and report upon the subject of the regulation of the transportation by
railroad and water routes in connection or in competition with said rail
roads of freights and passengers between the several States, with au
thority to sit during the recess of Congress, and with power to summon
witnesses, and to do whatever is necessary for a full examination of
the subject, and report to the Senate on or before the second Monday
in December next. Said committee shall have power to appoint a clerk
and stenographer, and the expenses of such investigation shall be paid

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 315
from the appropriation for expenses of inquiries and investigations or
dered by the Senate."
The committee, of which I was made chairman, was ap
pointed in due course, my coUeagues being Senator O. H.
Piatt, of Connecticut; Senator Warner MUler, of New
York; Senator Arthur Pugh Gorman, of Maryland; and
Senator Isham G. Harris, of Tennessee. Leaving out any
reference to myself, the selection was regarded as having
been most judicious and suitable.
And here let me digress to say a few words in reference
to my colleagues on that committee.
Senator Warner MUler was a strong man intellectually,
and a good business man. He had succeeded Senator T,
C, Piatt on March 4, 1881, and readily took his place in
the Senate as one of its infiuential members, although he
served but one term. He was a valuable man as a member
of the committee, and took a very prominent part in the de
bates preceding the passage of the act.
Senator Gorman had a remarkable public career. With
out the advantages of influential family, without wealth,
with only limited education, through his own exertions alone
he arose from the position of a page in the United States
Senate to the position of Senator and leader of his party
in the Senate. He was a protege, friend, and follower of
that Ulustrious son of lUinois, Stephen A. Douglas. He
was one of the most sagacious politicians of his day. By
his shrewd management of the Cleveland campaign he se
cured the defeat of Mr. Blaine and the election of Mr. Cleve
land. His charming personality, his suavity of manner, his
magnetic influence over men with whom he came into con
tact, combined with his marked ability, made it easy for him
to retain the difficult position of a leader of his great party.
He enjoyed in the highest degree the respect and confidence

316 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
of every Senator with whom he served, on both sides of the
chamber, and speciaUy was his infiuence felt in securing
the support of the Democratic Senators in the passage of the
Act of 1887.
Senator Harris, of Tennessee, was a very useful member
of the Senate, and was a man possessed of more than or
dinary ability. His abihty, perhaps, was not as great as
Senator Gorman's, although he was a very influential and
highly respected member of the Senate. He was a hard
worker; and one trait in particular that I remember about
him was, he never failed to attend promptly on time the
meeting of any committee of which he was a member. In
deed, I do not know of any man with whom I have served
in the Senate, aside from my respected colleague. Senator
Frye, who was so punctual.
He was a man of convivial habits, and used to poke con
siderable fun at me because I would not drink or play poker.
At the time when the select committee was to meet in Mem
phis, the home of Senator Harris, the prominent business men
of that place waited on him and told him they understood
a very eminent committee was coming there in a few days,
and they would hke to show them some courtesies. Harris
replied that he did not know who would be there; that
Senator Piatt would not, and he did not believe Senator
Gorman would — in fact, he did not believe any one would
be there, excepting the chairman and himself; and so far
as the chairman. Senator Cullom, was concerned, they could
not do anything for him, as he did not drink or smoke, and
was "one of the damnedest, poorest card-players he had ever
known." So, about all the entertaining they could do for
him would be to show him about the city.
Many amusing stories were told of him. When I called
the committee together, preliminary to starting out on our

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 317
tour, I told them that I would be very glad to allow them
everything within reason that was necessary, but the Gov
ernment would not pay for their whiskey and cigars, Harris
promptly rephed: "That's right, Mr. Chairman. So far
as I 'm concerned, if I can't get my whiskey by standing
aroimd the bar when other people are drinking, I wiU pay
for it myself."
When the committee were in Minneapolis, we were sit
ting at a long table at dinner ; I was at one end, and Harris
was at the other, facing me. An old soldier came up to
speak to me, and glancing down toward the other end of
the table, he asked: "Is n't that old Harris of Tennessee? "
When I rephed that it was, he continued: "WeU, well!
The last time I saw him, he was wearing a hnen-duster,
riding a mule, and going South like hell."
Harris was a man of the most rigid honesty. He not
only rendered valuable assistance in conducting the in
vestigation, especially through the South, which sec
tion of the country he particularly represented, but took
a prominent part in the debates and generally performed
his full share toward securing the passage of the act.
Of Senator O, H, Piatt I have already written.
But to return. Immediately after the adjournment of
Congress this select committee visited Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, St, Louis, Des
Moines, Omaha, Minneapolis, and St, Paul, where we ad
journed to meet in the South, We went to Memphis first,
then to New Orleans and Atlanta, whence we returned to
Washington, where I prepared the report of the committee
which was submitted to the Senate, January 18, 1886.
The committee began its work unpressed with the im
portance of the duty with which it had been charged, and
with each step taken in prosecuting the inquiry we reahzed

318 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
more fuUy how heavy were the obstacles to be overcome,
how serious were the abuses that existed, how the public
sentiment over the entire country was aroused, and how diffi
cult it was going to be to frame and secure the passage of
a measure adequate to relieve the situation. After many
sessions and long conferences the select committee finally
agreed upon a biU which, in its opinion, would correct the
evils complained of.
Even after the committee had agreed to the bill, I was
not entirely satisfied; I feared the existence of some absurdi
ties, some features, which the railroads could not possibly
comply with; and so I asked Senator Piatt to meet me in
New York, previously having arranged with Mr. Fink and
Mr. Blanchard, two of the great railroad men of their day,
and a gentleman representing specially the people's interests,
whose name I do not recall, but who had been interested in
securing regulation in New York and was an expert on
the proposition, to meet with us in that city. We aU met
as planned, I stated that I desired to take the bill up
with them, section by section, paragraph by paragraph, and
if anything absurd or impracticable was found, or anji;hing
that could not be carried out, attention should be called
to it, and we would discuss it and amend it if necessary.
We went ahead on this hne and were arguing over some
proposition, when Mr, Fink got up and remarked: "Let
it go; the whole thing is absurd anyhow." I arose and said
that if that was the attitude of the railroad men, when the
committee's only object was to report to the Senate a fair
biU, that the conference might as well end. The other mem
bers of the conference intervened and said it was not fair
that the chairman of the committee should be treated in that
way, that Senator CuUom was acting in absolute good faith;
whereupon Mr. Fink apologized, and the reading was re-

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 319
sumed, and some amendments made where found neces
sary. And this incident recaUs to mind another aspect of the
investigation. While the select committee was considering
the subject, travelhng from city to city, the high railroad
officials paid no attention to us; rather, I might say, they
avoided being called before us, probably considering it a waste
of time, as they had no serious thought that anything would
come of the investigation. They considered the railroads
superior to the laws of Congress, and depended upon their
old State charters. In those days they were the most ar
rogant set of men in this country; they have since learned
that they are the servants and not the masters of the peo
ple. But when the bUl seemed pretty certain to pass, the
attitude of the railroad officials suddenly changed. They
came to Washington and complained that they had not been
given an opportunity to be heard; that it would not be fair
under the circumstances to pass a bill so largely affecting
them; and they seemed to be sorely aggrieved when they
could not prevent or delay its passage.
I introduced the biU in the first session of the Forty-
ninth Congress, and after a great deal of difficulty, even
with my coUeague, General Logan, against it, finally had,
it made the special order. General Logan knew nothing
about the subject; he cared nothing about it, and on one oc
casion he told me that I would ruin myself by advocating it.
When I called the bill up for consideration, I was so
anxious to press it along that I did not care to make any
general speech, excepting to explain as carefuUy and mi
nutely as I could the various provisions of the measure. I
said, in opening:
"I believe I am justified in saying that there is no subject of a pub
lic nature that is before the coimtry about which there is so great

320 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
unanimity of sentiment as there is upon the proposition that the National
Government ought in some way to regulate interstate commerce. The
testimony taken by the Committee shows conclusively to my mind, and I
think to every man's mind who reads it, that there is necessity for some
legislation by the National Government, looking to the regulation of
interstate commerce by railroads and by waterways in connection there
with. "I believe the time has gone by when it is necessary for any one to
take up the time of the Senate in discussing the proposition that Con
gress has the power to regulate interstate commerce. These questions
have been discussed over and over again in Congress, and the highest
judicial tribunals of the country have decided over and over again that
Congress has the power to regulate commerce among the States. So I
do not feel at liberty, if I were disposed, to occupy the attention of the
Senate in discussing the general subject of whether the people of the
United States want Congress to do anything, or whether there is any
necessity for our doing anything, or the question of constitutional right
of Congress to pass some act regulating commerce among the States.
"If the three propositions are correct: that the public sentiment is
substantially unanimous that we should act; that the necessity for ac- ¦
tion exists ; and that the power of Congress is admitted, — the only ques
tion left us is, what Congress ought to do specifically ; in other words, what
kind of an act should Congress pass. The committee has reported a
bill which is the best judgment that the committee had upon the sub-
ject." I then proceeded to explain the bill carefully, section by
section, and concluded by saying:
"I am led to believe that the bill as it stands is perhaps a more per
fect bill on this subject than has ever been introduced in the Congress
of the United States before. There may be many suggestions of amend
ment by honorable Senators during the consideration of the biU; and if
any Senator has any suggestion of amendment to make, of course it
is within the privilege of the Senate to adopt it, but I am very anxious
that this bUl shall be as promptly considered as possible, and as
promptly acted upon and passed as possible, if in the judgment of the
Senate it ought to be passed at all.
"As the Senate know, this subject has been up for consideration from

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 321
one term of Congress to another, almost time out of mind, until the
people of the United States have come almost to believe that there is no
real purpose on the part of Congress to do anything more than introduce
and report bills and discuss them a while, and then let them die before
any final action is reached upon them.
"I said in the outset that in my judgment there is no public ques
tion before the American people to-day about which there is greater
unanimity of sentiment than there is upon the proposition that the Con
gress of the United States ought to enact some law looking to the regu
lation of commerce among the several States, and I trust without taking
up the time of the Senate longer that every Senator will give attention
to this subject until we can pass some bill and get it to the other branch
of Congress in the hope that before this session adjourns we shall get
some legislation on this subject that will be of some service to the people
and reasonably satisfy public expectation."
I pressed the bill on the attention of the Senate every
day, never allowing it to be displaced where I could avoid
it. I was determined that some bill should be passed at
that session. The debate was long and interesting. There
were comparatively few set speeches. It was a hot, run
ning debate almost from the beginning, participated in by
the strongest men in the Senate, many of whom were the
ablest men of their day. Senators Aldrich, Edmunds,
Evarts, Gorman, Hoar, Ingalls, Manderson, Miller, Mitch
ell, Morrill, Piatt, SeweU, Sherman, Spooner, Teller, Vest,
Morgan, Cameron, Dawes, Frye, Hale, Harrison, and
Voorhees aU engaged in it.
The biU was finaUy passed May 12, 1886.
In the meantime, Mr. Reagan, of Texas, who had been
urging a biU in the House, and had it up for consideration
during the same time the Senate bill was being considered,
passed his biU, which differed essentially from the Senate bill.
Both bills went to conference together, Mr. Reagan being
the head of the conferees on the part of the House, and I be
ing the head of the conferees on the part of the Senate,

322 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Then came the real struggle, the two measures remaining in
conference from June to the foUowing January. The con
tention finally centred on the pooling provision, Reagan
had yielded on nearly everything else ; but Piatt of Con
necticut was bound there should be no prohibition against
poohng, Reagan affirmed that the whole matter would
have to drop, that he would never yield on that. I came
back and consulted the leaders in the Senate, AUison among
others, and they advised me to yield; that the country de
manded a biU, and I had better accept Reagan's anti-pool
ing prohibition section than offer no measure at all — which
I did. Whether it is right or wrong, I do not know even to this
day. I have never been quite certain in my mind on the
question of pooling, and it is stiU a subject on which legis
lators and statesmen differ. But one thing does seem cer
tain — public sentiment is as much opposed to pooling to
day as it was twenty years ago. There was a great fight
in the Senate to secure the adoption of the conference re
port. Its adoption was opposed by such Senators as
Cameron, Frye, Hawley, Hoar, MorriU, Sawyer, SeweU,
Sherman, and Spooner. The pooling and the long-and-
short-haul clauses were the most fought over. Senator
Piatt, although a member of the conference, made a very
able speech on the subject of pooling, in which he showed
considerable feeling, and I at one time feared that he would
oppose the adoption of the conference report on that ac
count altogether. He concluded a very able address during
the last days of the consideration of the report, by saying:
"Nine-tenths of all the interstate commerce business done to-day is
done under these arrangements which are sought to be damned because
of the evil meaning which has been given to the word 'pooling.' What
ever stability has been given to the railroad business, and through it to

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 323
other business of the country, has been secured by these traffic arrange
ments, and in my judgment a bill which breaks them all up ruthlessly
within sixty days, which invites the competition which is to demoralize
business, will be far-reaching in its injurious results. For one I pre
fer to stand by my judgment. I will try to have the courage of my
convictions; I will try to do what I believe to be right, and I cannot as
sent to a bill which, though I accept its other provisions, contains a pro
vision which I regard as positively vicious and wrong."
I was greatly provoked, almost outraged, at the manner
in which Senators opposed the adoption of the conference
report. It became almost a personal matter with me, and
I finaUy concluded on the very day the vote was to be taken,
whether the adoption of the report was to be beaten or not,
that I would make a speech, and in that speech I indicated
just how I felt. I said in part:
"I have been sitting here to-day listening to the assaults upon this
bill, until I have become almost convinced that I am the most vicious
man toward the railroads of any man I know. I started in upon the
investigation of this subject two or three years ago with no prejudices,
no bias of sentiment or judgment, no disposition whatever to do any
thing except that which my deliberate judgment told me was the best
thing to do. I have believed I have occupied that position ever since, until
within the last twenty-four hours, when the attacks upon this bill have
become such that I have become a little doubtful whether I have not
been inspired from the beginning, so far as my action has been con
cerned with a determination to destroy the railroads of this country.
To listen to the Senator from Alabama [Mr. Morgan] descanting upon
the provisions of the bill, one can scarcely resist the conclusion that it
is a bill to destroy the commerce of the country, and especially to break
down all the railroads.
"So far as I am concerned, I repeat I have had no disposition of
that kind, and I am unaware that either of the Senators on the confer
ence committee have had any such disposition. We tried to do the best
we could with the bill the Senate passed during the last session, to keep
the bill as near to what the Senate had it as we could do, and to arrive at
an agreement between the House and Senate conferees.

324 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
"I submit that the majority of the assaults have been against pro
visions that were in the bill when the Senate voted for it during the last
session of Congress. I am of the opinion that if this discussion lasted
another day Senators would find in every line of the biU a very serious
objection to its adoption. They started in to object to some portions
of the fourth and fifth sections. The Senator who has just concluded
his remarks got over to the thirteenth section and I believe went one
or two sections beyond that, and if there are any more speeches to be
made against the bill I suppose the very last section of it will be attacked
before a vote is taken.
"The Senate conferees regarded it as their duty to cling to every
portion of the Senate bill, as it was passed, that they could cling to
and reach an agreement between the conferees of the House and Sen
ate. Hence it was that all those portions of the Senate bill not objected
to by the House conferees were allowed to remain in the bill by the
Senate conferees, the Senate conferees, as a matter of course, believing
that the Senate of the United States knew what it was doing when it
voted for the bill in the first place, and thinking that it remained of
the same mind stiU. . . .
"The Senator from Georgia assaults the bill because he says that under
it the provisions are so rigid that the railroads of the country can not
do business at all. The Senator from Oregon assaults the bill because
he says the fourth section amounts to nothing, and that the words "under
like circumstances and conditions' ought to be taken out.
"The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Hoar] assaults the bill be
cause he says it is going to interfere with foreign commerce, and that
the fourth section will be construed as not allowing a rebate of five
cents a hundred upon commerce shipped across the country for exporta
tion. "So I might go on referring to every Senator who has spoken against
the bill, and nearly every one of them has founded his objections to the
bill upon the use of the language that he had previously voted for in the
Senate of the United States before the bill went to conference at all."
Men who opposed any legislation at aU never supposed
that the conference report would be agreed to, and I so
stated in the Senate of the United States. I pointed out,
moreover, that when they were met by a conference report

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 325
the railroad men of the Senate rallied to the support of the
transportation companies. I continued:
"Sir, it has just come to the point where you have got to face the
music and vote for an interstate commerce bill, or vote it down. That
is all there is to it. I have nothing more to say. I have discharged
my duty as best I knew how. I reported on the part of the Senate
conferees the bill that is before you. I am not responsible for what the
Senate does with it. I am not going to find fault with anybody upon
the question whether we concur in the report or reject it, but I warn
Senators that the people of the United States for the last ten years
have been struggling to assert the principle that the Government of the
United States has the power to regulate transportation from one end of
this country to another. I believe that if this report is rejected it is
very doubtful whether we shall get any legislation at all during the
present Congress, so when the Senate acts upon the question my duty
will have been done so far as I am able to see it.
"I have believed from the time I have given any attention to public
affairs that it was necessary to bring into force the provisions of
the Constitution giving Congress the power to regulate commerce among
the States. The Senator from New York [Mr. Evarts] attacked the
bill and said that it was unconstitutional because, as I im'lprstand it,
the Constitution was framed for the purpose of facilitating commerce,
and this was a bill to hinder or to militate against it.
"I undertake to say that the purpose of the bill, at least, whatever
may be the strained construction which has been placed upon it or
which may be placed upon it by the transportation companies of the
country, has been to facilitate commerce and to protect the individual
rights of the people as against the great railroad corporations. I have
no disposition to interfere with their legitimate business. I have no
disposition, God knows, to interfere with the commerce of the country,
properly conducted, but I do say that it is the duty of the Congress of
the United States to place upon the statute book some legislation which
will look to the regulation of commerce upon the railroads that they wiU
not treat one man differently under similar circumstances and condi
tions. . . .
"The Senator from Alabama [Mr. Morgan] says that we had better
go slow and remain quiet under the old regime. Well, Mr. President,
I remember only a few days ago hearing the Senator from Alabama

326 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
alleging that the railroads, the common carriers of the country, were
eating up the people, were destroying the interests of the people. I
do not know whether he confined his remark to his own State or extended
it to the country, but I should have inferred from the language he
used against the railroad companies that he would have been in favor
of almost any legislation that would in any way restrict them in their
reckless disregard of the rights of the people. I can only conclude
that the Senator from Alabama would rather that destructive system
should go on, as he charged it to exist when he made his speech the
other day, without control, than to trust a commission who he says are
individually liable to corrupt infiuences either at the hands of the Presi
dent or somebody else outside.
"Sir, we have got to trust somebody. We must either leave this
matter to the discretion and judgment and sense of honor of the officers
of the railroad companies, or we must trust the commission and the courts
of the country to protect the people against unjust discrimination and
extortion on the part of the common carriers. Is it the President of
the United States as against a corporation? Is it an honest commission
honestly selected by the President of the United States as against a rail
road company? I say that there are not those inducements to be placed
in the hands of a set of men selected for their integrity, selected for
their ability, selected for their capacity to regulate railroads and enforce
the law, that are left in the hands of the officers of the railroad companies
themselves. "I take it that there is somebody honest in this country, and that the
President, if this bill becomes a law, will select the broadest gauge men,
the men highest in integrity and intelligence as the men to enforce this
law as against the corporations and as a go-between, if you please, be
tween the shippers and the railroads of the country. I am willing to
trust them. If they are not honest the President has the right to re
move them; and if the shipper is unwilling to submit to their judgment,
under the bill he has a right to go directly to the courts. I say that
there is not anything that can be done by these corporations against
individuals where the shipper himself has not a right to get into court
in some way or other, if he is not willing to abide by the decision of the
commissioners appointed by the President."
The conference report was adopted by a vote of thirty-
seven yeas to twelve nays ; but it was a rather significant fact

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 327
that there were twenty-six absent, including Senators Aid-
rich, Dawes, Evarts, Morgan, and some of the most bitter
opponents of railroad regulation.
The provisions of the Act of 1887 are too well known to
need any recital here. In a word, it was partly declaratory
of the common law, its essential features being that rail
road charges must be reasonable; that there must be no
discriminations between persons and no preference between
locahties; railroads were prohibited from charging less for
a long haul than for a shorter haul, "included within it under
substantiaUy similar circumstances"; pooling was prohibited;
and a commission was estabhshed with power to hear and
decide complaints, to make investigations and reports, and
generaUy to see to the enforcement of the Act,
Considering the abuses that existed, the Act of 1887 was
conservative legislation, but in Congress and among the peo
ple generally it was considered radical, until the courts
Tobbed it by judicial construction of much of its intended
force. During the debates. Senators remarked that never
in the history of governments was a bill under consideration
which would inevitably affect directly or remotely so great
financial and industrial interests. It marked the beginning
of a new era in the management of the railway business
of the United States. It was the beginning of Govern
mental regulation which has finaUy culminated in the legis
lation of the Sixty-first Congress, And it is no little satis
faction to me to say that the fundamental principles of the
original Act of 1887 have been retained in all subsequent
acts. No one has seriously advocated that the fundamental
principles of the Act of 1887 be changed, and subsequent
legislation has been built upon it.
After the passage of the original Act of 1887, a per
manent Interstate Committee of the Senate, of which I had

328 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
the honor to be chairman, and in which position I remained
for many years, was created. It was a very active com
mittee at first. Necessarily, amendments were made to the
law, and the railroads generally observed the law in good
faith. Even the long-and-short-haul clause was observed,
as it was intended by Congress that it should be. That is,
the railroads did not set up at first that competition would
create a dissimilarity of conditions and circumstances so as
to justify them in charging more for the short than for
the long haul. But it was not many years before the rail
roads attacked first one and then another provision of the
law, and they generally secured favorable decisions from the
courts. I do not intend to go into the details of these de
cisions, the last one being the decision in the case which
-held that the Commission had no power to fix a future rate,
because the act did not give it that express power. My
own judgment is, and was at the time, that the original act
' by implication did give to the Interstate Commerce Com
mission the power to say after complaint and hearing, and
after a given rate had been declared to be unreasonable,
what in that case would be a reasonable rate; but the courts
decided otherwise. Immediately, I drew up and intro
duced a bill, number 1439, of the Fifty-sixth Congress,
and had it referred to the Committee on Interstate Com
merce, This biU contained provisions substantially the same
as were contained in the Hepburn Bill which passed the
Senate in 1906, And in addition it was designed to give
effect to the provisions of the original act which had been
nulhfied by judicial construction, I worked my hardest to
secure a favorable report of this bill. We had many hear
ings; but the Committee on Interstate Commerce, far from
being in favor of favorably reporting the bill, were inchned
to dechne to allow me to report it to the Senate at all. I
insisted that I would report it even though adversely, which

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 329
I was finally permitted to do. But when reported to the
Senate I stated that I reported it adversely because a ma
jority of the committee were against it, but that I favored
the bill personally, and would do what I could to secure its
passage. This was in the year 1899.
It was not until seven years later that public sentiment
was aroused to such an extent that it was possible to secure
the amendments to the Act of 1887 which were embodied
in Senate biU 1439.
I think it is only justice to myself to say — and I say
it with much regret — that there were two reasons why it
was impossible to secure at that time the report and passage
of Senate bill 1489. First of all, the Executive did not
manifest any special interest in securing additional railroad
regulation. Secondly, the railroads themselves had been
very active in securing a change of the personnel of the
Committee on Interstate Commerce, and men had been
elected to the Senate and placed on that committee whose
sympathies were in favor of very conservative regulation,
if any regulation at all. The railroads had firmly deter
mined to stop any further railroad regulation. And finally,
in the make-up of the Committee, a majority of Senators
placed on the Committee on Interstate Commerce were men
whose sympathies were with the railroads.
But even with the personnel of the committee made up
against me, I have thought that had the late President Mc
Kinley given me the active support which he could have
given, I could have secured, in 1899, practically all the legis
lation that was secured six years later. It is only justice
to ex-President Roosevelt to say that had it not been for
his earnest advocacy of railroad rate regulation the Hepburn
Bill would never have been passed. With a chairman of
the Committee on Interstate Commerce well known for his
conservatism on the subject, with a majority of Republicans

330 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
on the committee in sympathy with him, without the arous
ing of pubhc sentiment by President Roosevelt, nothing
would have been done,
I continued to take an exceptionaUy active part in rail
road regulation until I was placed at the head of the
Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate, and even
afterwards I remained as the ranking member, next to the
Chairman, of the Committee on Interstate Commerce, where
I was glad to further as best I could such measures as came
before the Committee in the way of strengthening and giv
ing force to the original act,
I consented very reluctantly to leave the chairmanship
of the Committee on Interstate Commerce, where I had
served during all my term in the Senate, and I do not be
heve I would have done so had it not been for the manner
in which the committee was packed against me in the in
terest of non-action. At the last it became so that even the
simplest measures which affected the railroads in the shght
est degree would receive adverse action or none at all. I was
utterly disgusted, a,nd on several occasions told prominent
railroad men that if they continued such methods the time
would surely come when the people would become so aroused
that they would see enacted the most drastic of railroad rate
laws. I had much to do with the passage of the Hepburn Act
of 1906. After President Roosevelt had repeatedly urged
it in his messages to Congress, and privately brought in
fluence to bear on Senators, it seemed pretty certain that
public sentiment demanded that practically the amendments
to the original act embodied in Senate biU 1439, to which
I have already referred, would sooner or later have to be
enacted into law. As usual, those opposed to such legis-

INTERSTATE COMMERCE 331
lation demanded that hearings be held, and the Committee
on Interstate Commerce was authorized to sit during the
recess of Congress and to hold hearings. Many weeks were
consumed in these hearings, and many volumes of testimony
were taken, I do not believe I missed a session of the com
mittee, and I tried as best I could to bring forth from the
numerous witnesses summoned before the committee evi
dence to assist in securing the passage of the amendments
to the original act, which I then thought necessary to per
fect it,
I had expected to render what assistance I could during
the next session, which convened in December, in framing
the bill in committee and to assist in its passage in the Sen
ate. But very unfortunately, just at the beginning of the
next session of Congress, when the hearings were all con
cluded and the committee was prepared to go into executive
session to consider the biU itself, I was taken ill and com
pelled to spend a couple of months in Florida to recover
my health. It may seem strange, but the fact is, that my
absence expedited the consideration of the bill by the com
mittee and its report to the Senate. I had telegraphed and
written my late coUeague, Senate Dolliver, to record me as
voting for the favorable report of the bill from the committee
to the Senate. It was expected that the committee would
have to hold many sessions to consider the numerous amend
ments that had been offered. Senator Dolhver, at one of
the first meetings of the committee called to consider the
bill, read my telegram and letter asking to be voted in favor
of reporting the bill. Objection was made to recording
me, and one distinguished Senator raised the point respecting
how I was to be recorded on the question of amendments.
Considerable controversy, I understand, took place, and

332 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Senator Dolhver then moved to report the biU to the Senate
with the amendments already adopted in committee. This
closed the discussion in the committee; the vote was taken,
and the biU was ordered reported to the Senate, my vote
being recorded in the affirmative; after which Senator Aid-
rich, in order to make it appear all the more ridiculous,
moved that Senator TiUman, a minority member of the com
mittee, be authorized to report the biU. This motion pre
vailed; Senator Tillman did report it, and he had charge
of its passage in the Senate. So, as I have stated, my ab
sence, through the controversy over counting my vote, really
expedited the biU through the committee.
I returned to my seat in the Senate in February, while
the bill was being considered, and assisted as best I could
through conferences with President Roosevelt and mem
bers of the Senate in agreeing on sections of the bill which
were in controversy, particularly the court review: section,
I was also one of the conferees on the part of the Senate
that finally settled the differences between the two Houses.
It was a very satisfactory biU, in the form in which it
finally became a law.

CHAPTER XXII
JOHN MABSHALL, HAKLAN
I HAVE always admired Mr, Justice John Marshall
Harlan, who has served some thirty-three years as a
member of the Supreme Court of the United States, and
who for a time after the death of Chief Justice FuUer acted
as Chief Justice of the United States.
Upon the death of Judge Allen, who had for many years
been United States District Judge for the Southern Dis
trict of lUinois, it was suggested that his portrait be placed
in the court room of the United States Circuit and District
Court at Springfield, Ilhnois, The movement developed
into the broader suggestion that portraits of other dis
tinguished judges, who had presided over the United States
Court at Springfield, and also a portrait of Chief Justice
MarshaU, be procured and added to the coUection. The
portraits of Judges John MarshaU, Walter Q. Gresham,
David Davis, Samuel H. Treat, Thomas Drummond, William
J. Allen, John McLean, Nathaniel Pope, and John Marshall
Harlan were procured, and it was planned that a suitable
ceremony should take place in Springfield on June 2, 1903.
Judge Humphrey wrote me, telling me of the plans of
the committee appointed by the Bar of the United States
Court at Springfield, and asking me to say something con
cerning any one of these distinguished judges whom I might
designate, leaving the selection to me,
I thought the matter over and determined that, inasmuch
as I had known Justice Harlan more or less intimately ever
333

334 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
since I became a member of the Senate, I should hke to
talk about him.
The occasion was quite a notable one. Vice-President
Fairbanks delivered an address on Judge Gresham; Judge
Kohlsaat, on Chief Justice Marshall; Lawrence Weldon,
on David Davis; Judge Creighton, on Samuel H. Treat;
Mr, John M. Jewett, on Thomas Drummond; J. C, Allen,
on W, J. Allen; Mr, Logan Hay, on John McLean; Gen
eral Alfred Orendorff, on Nathaniel Pope; and the por
traits were accepted in the name of the Court at Spring
field by the Hon. J. Otis Humphrey, the District Judge.
There was a very distinguished gathering of lawyers, of
Federal and State judges from Ilhnois and adjacent States,
and of many members of the f amihes of the deceased jurists.
Judges Kohlsaat, Humphrey, and Anderson occupied the
bench. The whole proceeding was a very dignified and ap
propriate one.
I cannot give a better estimate of my regard for Justice
Harlan than by quoting some extracts from the address I
dehvered on that occasion:
"The Supreme Court to-day is composed of nine eminent justices,
of one of whom I have been asked to speak; and I do believe that the
Justice of whom I speak, in all that goes to make a noted and able jurist,
is second only to that learned Chief Justice, John Marshall, of whom
Judge Kohlsaat has so interestingly spoken.
"I speak of John Marshall Harlan, who has been an honored mem
ber of the Supreme Court of the United States for more than a quarter
of a century.
"Justice Harlan from his youth was the architect of his own fortune;
he has been a man of remarkable individuality and force of character;
he impressed himself from boyhood upon the community in which he
lived. Before he reached his nineteenth year he was made Adjutant-
General of the State of Kentucky. Like Lincoln, he performed the obli
gations of a citizen, both in private and official life, with zeal and faith
fulness to duty. . . .

JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN 335
"When Justice Harlan was but a young man, slavery became the para
mount issue of the day, and naturally being a staunch Union man, he
took an active part in the discussions and struggles that became more
or less bitter in his very early manhood. He was one of the first to
enlist and lead his regiment in the field in favor of the Union and was
assigned a place in that division of the army commanded by the gallant
old soldier and patriot. General Thomas. . . .
"Justice Harlan's record as a soldier was a brilliant one. Certain
promotion and higher honors were assured him, and he was nominated
by President Lincoln to the position of Brigadier-General; but the re
sponsibilities resulting from the death of his father compelled him to
abandon what was certain to have been a distinguished military career,
and he reluctantly returned to Kentucky. . . .
"Following the struggle in arms came important reconstruction legis
lation and important Constitutional amendments, necessitating judicial
interpretations. These grave questions of state gave opportunity for the
development of great statesmen and judges.
"Great crises produce great men. Justice Harlan was at home in
the thickest of the struggle, through the period of reconstruction, an
able lawyer, an uncompromisingly bold man, asserting his position with
out fear or favor. While many of the important judicial and Constitu
tional questions growing out of reconstruction legislation remained un
settled. Justice Harlan took his place on the Supreme Bench, having
been appointed by President Hayes in 1877, and an examination of the
decisions of the Court since that year will show the prominent part he
has taken in the disposition of these Constitutional questions.
"It has been said that there never was a very powerful character,
a truly masculine, commanding man, who was not made so by struggles
with great difficulties. Daily observation and history prove the truth
of this statement. Hence I believe that the rough-and-tumble existence
to which the majority of ambitious young men of our country are sub
jected, does much to prepare them for the higher duties of substantial,
valuable citizenship. The active life and early struggles of Justice Har
lan in his State have had their influence in making him the fearless jurist
that he is.
"Shortly after his appointment. Justice Harlan was assigned as the
Supreme Justice for this circuit, and served here for eighteen years.
Many of you present remember his visit to Springfield and his holding
court in this room.

336 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
"To be a member of the Federal Judiciary is the highest honor that
can be conferred upon an American lawyer. The crowning glory of
our Nation was the establishment, by the fathers, of the independent
Federal Judiciary, which is the conservator of the Constitution. I have
unbounded faith in it. It is the protector of those fundamental lib
erties so dear to the Anglo-Saxon race. State Legislatures and the
Congress may be swayed by the heat and passion of the hour; but so
long as our independent Federal Judiciary remains, our people are safe
in their legal, fundamental. Constitutional rights.
"Perhaps there is nothing that illustrates so well Justice Harlan's
character, the equality of all men before the law, as do some of his
dissenting opinions."
I then referred to his famous dissent in the Civil Rights
case, delivered in 1883; to his dissent in the Income Tax
case, and others of his notable utterances from the Supreme
Bench; and at the same time I referred to the fact that he
had written more than seven hundred opinions, covering
nearly every branch of the law, the opinions on Constitu
tional questions being unusually large, I added:
"In many respects Justice Harlan resembles his namesake, John
Marshall. Like John Marshall, he received his early training for the
bench in the active practice at the Bar. Like John Marshall, he en
listed and fought for his country. Like John Marshall, while still a
young man, he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court, and has
for more than a quarter of a century occupied that position. And like
John Marshall, his great work on the bench has been in cases involving
the construction and application of the Constitution. He has been espe
cially assigned by the Court to the writing of opinions on Constitu
tional Law. In my opinion he stands to-day as the greatest living
Constitutional lawyer.
"If the Court please, I desire to refer to one more phase of Justice
Harlan's character. He is a religious man. He does not parade his be
lief before the world, yet he possesses deep and devout convictions and
has given deep study to church questions. And it may be said that the
great men of the world from the earliest dawn of civilization, vdlii but
few exceptions, have believed that the life of the soul does not end with

JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN 337
the death of the body. Cicero, long before the birth of the Saviour,
said: " 'When I consider the wonderful activity of the mind, so great a
memory of what has passed, and such a capacity of penetrating into the
future; when I behold such a number of arts and sciences, and such a
multitude of discoveries thence arising, I believe and am firmly per
suaded that a nature which contains so many things within itself can not
be mortal.' Centuries later the famous Dr. Johnson well said: 'How
gloomy would be the mansions of the dead to him who did not know
that he should never die; that what now acts shall continue its agency,
and what now thinks shall think on for ever.'
"Justice Harlan is a firm and devout believer in the immortality of the
soul. "He is now approaching the age when under the law he may retire
from the bench, yet he is in the vigor of health and is perhaps the greater
judge to-day than at any time in his past career. I am sure I voice the
general desire of the Bar of the whole country that he shall, so long
as his health and strength continue, remain an active member of that
great Court."
It is more than eight years since I delivered that ad
dress. In the ensuing period, five justices of the Supreme
Court have either retired under the law, or passed away,
none of whom enjoyed a length of service equal to Judge
Harlan's; and yet Justice Harlan is attending daily to his
duties as a member of that court, apparently in vigorous
health and certainly as profound and learned a judge to
day as at any time in his past career. And I repeat now
what I said eight years ago — that I hope he shall for
years to come remain an active member of that great court.

CHAPTER XXIII
MEMBEES or THE COMMITTEE ON FOBEIGN RELATIONS
IT has been said that Charles Sumner considered the chair
manship of the Committee on Foreign Relations as the
highest honor that could have been conferred upon him by
the United States Senate,
I have been chairman of the Committee on Foreign Rela
tions for a longer consecutive period than any man in our
history, aside from Mr. Sumner, who served as chairman
for ten years. If I continue as chairman during the re
mainder of my term, I shall have exceeded the long service
of Mr. Sumner.
The Committee on Foreign Relations was among the
first of the permanent standing committees of the Senate,
Prior to 1816, there were no permanent standing com
mittees, the custom being to appoint select committees to
consider the different portions of the President's messages,
and for the consideration of any other subject which the
Senate might from session to session determine necessary
for committee reference. On December 13, 1816, the
Senate, by rule, proceeded to the appointment of the fol
lowing standing committees, agreeably to the resolution of
the tenth instant, which was as follows :
"Resolved, that it shall be one of the rules of the Senate that the
following standing committees be appointed at each session: A Com
mittee on Foreign Relations, a Committee on Finance, a Committee on
Commerce and Manufactures, a Committee on Military Affairs, a Commit
tee on the Militia, a Committee on Naval Affairs, a Committee on Public
338

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 339
Lands, a Committee on Claims, a Committee on the Judiciary, a Com
mittee on Post-offices and Post-roads, and a Committee on Pensions."
It wUl be noted that under this rule, the Committee on
Foreign Relations was named first, and Mr. Barbour, of
Virginia, was its first chairman. Whether it was at that
time considered the most important committee, I do not
know; but I do know that from the date of its formation, the
Committee on Foreign Relations has been among the most
important committees of the Senate, and at times in our his
tory it has been the most important committee. It has been
from the beginning particularly noted for the high charac
ter of the men who composed its membership, and we find
in the archives of the Senate the names of some of the great
est men in our national history, who have from time to time
acted as its chairmen,
Barbour of Virginia, Henry Clay, James Buchanan,
Rives, Benton, King, Cass, Sumner, Windom, John F.
Miller, John T. Morgan, John Sherman, and Cushman K,
Davis are a few of those who have at different times oc
cupied the position of chairman of the Committee on For
eign Relations,
My predecessors, as their names wUl indicate to those
famihar with American history, have been noted for their
conservatism in dealing with matters pertaining to our for
eign relations, and there is no position in the Senate where
conservatism is so essential. My ambition has been so to
conduct the business coming before the committee as to keep
up the high standard ',et and the high standing maintained
by the distinguished^ statesmen who have preceded me in the
position. The work of the Foreign Relations Committee is almost
exclusively executive and confidential, and consists largely
in the consideration of treaties submitted by the President

340 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
to the Senate for ratification. Very httle unportant legis
lative business comes before this committee, although it has
jurisdiction over claims of foreign citizens against the United
States, and aU legislation that in anywise affects our rela
tions with other nations.
It was almost, I might say, by accident that I became a
member of this important committee, I had been a mem
ber of the Committee on Commerce for a number of years,
and took quite an interest in the very important legislation
coming before that committee; and the improvement of
rivers and harbors was a subject in which Ilhnois was greatly
interested. The late Senator MitcheU, of Oregon, was in 1895 chair
man of the Committee on Organization, having in charge
the make-up of the committees of the Senate, and he wanted
a place on the Committee on Commerce for some Western
Senator. He came to me and explained his embarrassment,
and asked me if I would be willing to be transferred from
the Committee on Commerce to the Committee on Foreign
Relations. I wanted to accommodate Senator Mitchell, and
I told him that I would consent to be transferred, but at
the same time I was not at all anxious to leave the Com
mittee on Commerce. The transfer was made in due course,
and I have served continuously on the Foreign Relations
Committee since that time, 1895.
John Sherman was chairman of the committee when I
became a member of it. It was at a period when there were
very few material foreign matters to engage the attention
of the Senate, Sherman served as chairman of the com
mittee, at different periods, for nearly ten years. He was
a wise, conservative chairman; not especially brilliant, as
was Senator Davis, or Senator Sumner; but every one had

CUSHMAN K. DAVIS

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 341
confidence in him and felt that in his hands nothing unwise
or foohsh would emanate from the committee,
I was chairman of the Committee on Interstate Commerce
at that time, and the work of that committee, added to the
work devolving upon me as a member of the Committee on
Appropriations, engrossed most of my time; and while I
regularly attended the meetings of the Committee on For
eign Relations, I cannot say that I took a prominent part,
or, indeed, a very deep interest, in it until I became its
chairman, succeeding the late Cushman K. Davis in 1901.
Cushman K. Davis was a warm personal friend of mine.
As the years passed by and I grew to know him more and
more intimately, I became more deeply attached to him,
and my respect for him as a statesman constantly increased.
He was what I would term a speciahst in legislation. He
took httle or no interest in any other subject than matters
pertaining to our foreign relations. He was a prominent
figure in pubhc affairs for many years, A soldier in the
Civil War, serving in many prominent places in civil af
fairs in his State, including the position of Governor, he
came to the Senate as a ripened statesman. He entered
the Senate in 1887, and in 1891 became a member of the
Foreign Relations Committee, and very early became one
of its leading members. Succeeding the late Senator Sher
man, in 1897, he became its chairman and served in that
position until his death. Few more scholarly or cultivated
men have ever occupied a seat in the Senate.
He was a pecuhar man in many respects, and did not
court, or even encourage, the advice of his colleagues on
the committee, or even of the Secretary of State. I had
served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House
when Mr. Seward was Secretary of State and I knew what

342 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
a help it was to the committee to have the Secretary meet
with us personaUy and discuss matters of more or less im
portance. We aU listened to Secretary Seward with the
profoundest respect and attention; but as I look back on
it now, I think that Secretary Seward probably enter
tained more than he instructed the members. He seemed
to enjoy attending the sessions,
I thought that it would be a help if we could have Mr.
Olney, then Secretary of State, before us, I suggested to
Senator Davis at one meeting, that Secretary Olney should
be invited to come and explain some question concerning
which we seemed to be in doubt. Senator Davis dechned
to invite him, and said so in so many words. Apparently
he did not desire any interference or information from the
Executive Department. I felt pretty free to express my
opinion to Senator Davis, and I told him that inasmuch as
he did not care to invite Secretary Olney, I would invite
him myself, if he did not object. I did so, and Secretary
Olney, at a subsequent meeting, met with the committee
and very quickly explained the question under consideration.
Senator Davis was a well recognized authority on inter
national law, both as a lecturer on that subject and a writer.
Judging from his display of abihty, he ought to have been
able to write a monumental work on the subject. But he
was an indolent man and contented himself with pubhsh-
ing merely a httle volume containing a resume of his
lectures before a Washington coUege of law. The publica
tion of this work detracted from, rather than added to, his
reputation as a student and writer.
He was not an orator, but on occasions, in executive ses
sion, when great international questions were before the
Senate, I have heard him dehver wonderfully eloquent
speeches. He always commanded the closest attention

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 343
whenever he spoke in the Senate, whether in executive or
open session (which latter he only infrequently did, by the
way), and he always exhausted the subject.
President McKinley appointed him a member of the Paris
Peace Commission to frame the treaty of peace with Spain.
How well he performed that service those of his colleagues
on the commission who are still living, can attest. He
returned from Paris and had charge of the ratification of the
treaty in the Senate,
I have always believed that Senator Davis's death was
the result of his indolent habits. I do not believe he ever
took any physical exercise; at least he did not do so during
the time that I knew him. He was so much of a student, and
so interested in books, that he seemed to think that time de
voted to the proper care of his physical condition was so
much time wasted. The result was that when disease at
tacked him he became an easy prey, and when he passed away
it was said that he bore all the marks of a very old man, even
though he was comparatively young in years. It was my
sad duty, as a member of the United States Senate, to attend
his funeral in St. Paul, in 1900.
The northwest section of the United States has not now,
and never had before, as capable a scholar and statesman as
Cushman K. Davis.
I succeeded Senator Davis as chairman of the Committee
on Foreign Relations. I have enjoyed my work on the com
mittee more than I have enjoyed any other work that I have
done in the Senate. There are a number of reasons for this.
First, the members of the committee, during my service,
have been particularly able and agreeable men, and duruig
those years some of the greatest men of the Senate have
been numbered among its members. Aside from one, whom
I have long since forgiven, I do not recaU now that I have

344 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
had a single controversy or unkind word with any member.
In addition, the work is not only of the greatest impor
tance, but it has been very satisfactory, because partisan
ship has not at all entered into the disposition of matters
pertaming to our foreign affairs. The members of the com
mittee during my time have always seemed to take a deep in
terest m the work coming before them, and, unhke most of
the committees of the Senate, it has never been difficult to
secure the attendance of a working quorum. In the ten
years that I have been chairman, I do not believe the com
mittee has ever been compelled to adjourn for want of a
quorum when any important business was before it.
Until his death in 1911, Senator Wm. P, Frye, of Maine,
was in point of service the oldest member of the committee.
He had served as one of its members ever since 1885. He
could have been chairman, by right of seniority, when Mr.
Davis was made chairman in 1891, on the retirement of Mr.
Sherman; and again he could have become chairman when
Senator Davis died. He did act in that capacity for nearly
a year, but he always seemed to prefer the chairmanship of
the Committee on Commerce.
I believe that the late Senator Hanna had a good deal to
do with Senator Frye's declining to succeed the late Senator
Davis as chairman. Ship-subsidy and the building up of
the merchant marine of the United States were then before
the Senate, and Senator Hanna, a ship owner himself, was
deeply interested in that legislation. Senator Hanna and
Senator Frye were devoted friends; and, although I do not
know, I have always felt that it was Senator Hanna who in
duced Senator Frye to remain at the head of the Committee
on Commerce.
Senator Frye was a very capable and faithful Senator,
and enjoyed the confidence and respect of the people of

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 345
his State to a greater degree than any other Maine states
man, with the exception of Mr. Blaine. As chairman of the
Committee on Commerce, I would say he dominated that
committee, and at the same time he was a most satisfactory
chairman to every Senator who served on it. He was thor
oughly familiar with every question pertaining to rivers and
harbors, the shipping interests, and the multitude of matters
coming before the committee. Senator Burton, of Ohio, is
probably the only member of the United States Senate at
present who is as well posted on matters before the Com
mittee on Commerce.
Mr. Frye was an active member of the Committee on For
eign Relations, and during the brief periods when I have
been compelled by reason of illness to remain away from
the Senate I always designated Senator Frye to act in my
stead. Among his colleagues in the Senate, he enjoyed the great
est degree of popularity ; and aside from one or two occasions
when his own colleague opposed him, no Senator ever ob
jected to any ordinary biU which Senator Frye called up
and asked to have placed on its passage. In fact it was his
custom to report a bill from his committee, or the Com
mittee on Foreign Relations, the only two working com
mittees of which he was a member, and ask for its immediate
consideration. No one ever objected, and the bill went
through as a meritorious measure without question, on his
word alone to the Senate,
He was an ideal presiding officer. For years he was presi
dent pro tempore, and the death of Vice-President Hobart,
and the accession of Mr. Roosevelt to the Presidency, neces
sitated his almost constant occupancy of the chair. With
the pecuhar rules existing in the Senate, the position of pre
siding officer is comparatively an easy one. Senator Frye
made an especially agreeable presiding officer, expediting the

346 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
business of the Senate in a degree equal to that of any presid
ing officer during my service,
I recollect when he was elected president pn-o tempore, in
1896, 1 had been talked of for the place, but he had not heard
that I desired it; and a Republican caucus was held which
named him president. Senator Chandler, for whom I have
always had the greatest respect as a man and as a Senator,
after the caucus was held told Senator Frye that he had
heard I had some ambition for the place. Mr. Frye came
at once to my house and to my study and asked me, in so
many words, if I had desired to be president of the Senate.
I rephed that I had not, adding that I had had no particular
concern about it at any time. He thereupon asserted that
he had called simply to apprise me that whenever I wanted
the position he would very cheerfuUy resign and yield it to
me, I assured him that if he did not yield it until I asked
him to do so, he would hold it for a long time. He never
had any opposition, and on both sides of the chamber he was,
as presiding officer, equally popular. He voluntarily re-
hnquished the office at the beginning of the Sixty-second
Congress. When the tariff was one of the issues — during the first
Cleveland, the Harrison, and the second Cleveland cam
paigns and to a lesser degree in 1896 and 1900, — Senator
Frye was regarded as one of the foremost orators and stump
speakers on the tariff question. During his later years it
was very much to be regretted that he did not feel able to
take an active part in national campaigns.
The news of Senator Frye's death comes to me while I
am engaged in reading the proof of what I have said about
him in this book. He died at four o'clock on the eighth day
of August, 1911, passing away at the age of eighty-One
years. When asked by a newspaper man for a brief estimate
of Mr, Frye's character, I said: "He was not only one of

WILLIAM P. FRYE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 347
the ablest and most devoted of pubhc servants, but one of the
most charming men that I have ever known," This expres
sion I desire to repeat here for perpetuation in endurable
form. Seldom has this country commanded the services of a more
enUghtened or more self-sacrificing man than Mr. Frye.
He was patriotic to the very heart's core ; no sacrifice for the
country woiUd have been too great for him. He, and his
colleague Mr. Hale, and Senators Alhson, of Iowa, Piatt, of
Connecticut, TeUer, of Colorado, CockreU, of Missouri, Mor
gan, of Alabama, and Spooner, of Wisconsin, constitute a
coterie of public men of the last half century such as any
nation should be proud of. Unselfish, energetic, and patri
otic, they have done much to keep the United States on the
proper level. Let us hope, as we must, that the pubhc coun
cils of the nation may always be guided by men of their
character and abihties.
Senator Frye's death leaves me the oldest member of the
Senate in point of service. He entered the Senate in March,
1881, giving him more than thirty years of service, whUe I
entered in March, 1883, which gives me more than twenty-
eight years up to date. It thus will be seen that we have
served together for almost an average lifetime.
Senator Jacob H, GaUinger of New Hampshire, who was
promoted from the House to the Senate in 1891, now be
comes the second member of the latter body in respect to
length of service, Mr, Galhnger is not a member of the
Committee on Foreign Relations, of whose membership I
am now especially speaking, but it cannot be out of place for
me to pause here to give him a word of commendation and
salutation as I pursue my way through this maze of mem
ory, A physician by profession, and a native of Canada,
Mr, Gallinger has shown marked adaptabihty in taking on

348 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
the American spirit and in performing the pubhc's service.
He has for many years been Chairman of the Senate Com
mittee on the District of Columbia, which, possessing many
of the attributes of an ordinary city council, requires minute
attention to detail, Mr, Galhnger is the second member of
the important Committee on Commerce, and one of the lead
ing members of the Committee on Appropriations, His
committee work therefore covers a wide range of subjects.
Never has he been known to fail in the performance of his
duties in aU these connections. Moreover, he is a constant
attendant upon the sessions of the Senate, and one of the
most alert of its members. Apparently, often, he is im
pulsive and explosive, and occasionaUy under the excitement
of debate says what seems to be a harsh thing. If, however,
his manner is indicative of feeling, such a feehng, like a
passing summer cloud, is soon dissipated, and almost im
mediately gives way to the sunshine of his reaUy genial and
lovable nature. Senator GaUinger as a member of the
House and Senate has given the American pubhc as much
genuine and patriotic service as any man in pubhc hfe dur
ing the past quarter of a century. I hope he may continue
long to adorn the Senate.
Senator John T, Morgan, of Alabama, was appointed a
member of the Foreign Relations Committee in 1879, and
served continuously as a member of it imtil his death in 1907,
a total service of twenty -eight years. I do not know of any
other Senator who served on that committee for so long a
period. When the Senate was in control of the Democrats
under the second Cleveland Administration, he was chairman
of the committee.
Senator Morgan was an extraordinary man in many re
spects. He had a wonderful fund of information on every
subject, but was not a man of very sound judgment, and I

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 349
would not say that he was a man on whose advice one could
rely in solving a difficult problem. At the same time, no one
could doubt his honesty and sincerity of purpose. He did
not have the faculty of seeing both sides of a question, and
once he made up his mind, it was impossible to change him,
or by argument and reason to move him from a position delib
erately taken. I probably had as intimate an acquaintance
with him as any other Senator enjoyed, for we not only
served as colleagues on the Committee on Foreign Relations,
but, as I have stated in another chapter, we served together
on the Hawaiian Commission. He was one of the most de
hghtf ul and agreeable of men if you agreed with him on any
question, but he was so intense on any subject in which he
took an interest, particularly anything pertaining to the
interoceanic canal, that he became almost vicious toward any
one who opposed him.
If an Isthmian canal be finally constructed. Senator Mor
gan must be accorded a large share of the credit; and his
name will go down as the father of it, even though he him
self affirmed in debate in the Senate one day, after the
Panama route had been selected, that he would not be
"the father of such a bastard." Senator Morgan fought
for the Nicaraguan route with all the power at his command.
He fought the treaties with Colombia and Panama, first for
many weeks in the committee, and then in the executive
sessions of the Senate, He wanted to arouse public senti
ment against the Panama route, and he addressed the Senate
about five hours every day for thirteen days on the subject,
desisting only when we consented to publish his speeches and
papers on the subject, nothwithstanding they had been made
and presented in executive session. Nevertheless, it was
Senator Morgan who for very many years kept the subject
of an interoceanic canal before Congress and the country.

350 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
and finally, partiaUy through his efforts, interest in the pro
ject was kept ahve until it was determined, first, that a
canal should be constructed; and second, that it should be
over the Panama route. Many people thought that the
selection of the Panama route would break Senator Mor
gan's heart ; but they did not know him. He made the best
fight he could, and when the Panama route was selected he
took the same deep interest in the legislation to carry the work
forward that he had always taken in the possible alternative
route. He was firmly convinced that the canal, on account
of certain physical reasons, could never be constructed across
the Isthmus of Panama.
Time alone will tell whether or not Senator Morgan was
right. Time has demonstrated that he was right in his con
tention that the Panama Canal could never be constructed
for the amount estimated by the engineers, one hundred and
eighty-three miUion dollars. It has already cost over two
hundred million dollars, and it is not yet nearly completed.
The latest estimates are that it wiU cost over three hundred
and eighty-five milhon dollars. How much more it wiU cost
the United States, no one can say.
During the later years of his hfe, he was probably the
most interesting and unique figure in the Senate, Toward
the close of his Senatorial career he became very feeble, but
he attended to his Senatorial duties as long as he was able
to be about at all. The last time I saw him alive was on the
fourth of March, 1907, the last day of the session, and the
last time he ever entered the Senate or the Capitol, He
looked very emaciated and feeble. I spoke to him, inquir
ing about his health. He rephed, "I am just tottering
around," and after a pause, added, "Cullom, when I die
and you die and Frye dies, and one or two others, this Senate
wUl not amount to much, will it?"

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 351
He died a few months afterwards at his home in Wash
ington, and in his death there passed away the last of the old
familiar type of Southern statesmen, so frequently to be
met with in Washington before the Civil War, and the last
Senator who served as a Brigadier-General in the Confed
erate Army,
cSenator Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, became
a member of the committee at the same time that I was
placed on it; but, by reason of my longer service in the
Senate, according to the usual custom, I outranked
him. Senator Lodge, by general consent I beheve, is regarded
to-day as the most cultivated man in the Senate, He is a
scholar, an author, and a noted historian. He is a very able
man in any position in which he is placed. Judged by the
standard of his great predecessor in the Senate from Massa
chusetts, Daniel Webster, he is not an orator, but he is a
very effective speaker and a good debater. He is one of the
very active members and has always taken a prominent part
in the disposition of matters coming before the Upper House.
He is always ready to work, and when I desire any matter to
be disposed of without delay, I refer it to Senator Lodge as
a subcommittee, with confidence that it will be attended to
quickly and correctly.
He is a strong, active Republican, and a pohtician (using
that term in its higher sense) of no mean order. For years
in Republican National Conventions he has been a conspicu
ous figure ; and twice at least — once at Philadelphia in 1900,
and again at Chicago in 1908 — he has been permanent
chairman. On both occasions — and I attended both con
ventions — he proved himself to be a splendid presiding of
ficer. He regards his position as the senior Senator from
Massachusetts, the successor of Webster and Sumner and a

352 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
long hne of noted men, as even a higher honor than the
Presidency itself.
I have seen it repeatedly stated that Senator Lodge is un
popular in the Senate, — that he is cold and formal. From
my long acquaintance with him, extending over some seven
teen years, I have not found this to be true. In times of
trouble and distress in my own life, I have found hun to be
warm and sympathetic.
I hope that he will remain in the Senate for many years
to come. Should he retire, his loss would be severely felt
both as a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations and
as a member of the Senafcg^
Senator Augustus O. Bacon, of Georgia, is now the senior
member of the minority on the committee; and should the
control of the Senate pass into the hands of the Democrats,
he will, if he remain in the Senate, naturally become its chair
man. He is an able lawyer, and if subject to criticism at
all, I would say that he is a little too technical as a jurist. I
do not say this to disparage him, because in the active prac
tice of his profession at the bar this would be regarded to his
credit rather than otherwise; and even as a member of the
Judiciary Committee of the Senate, this disposition to
magnify technicalities makes him one of the most valuable
members of that committee. As a Senator, he is jealous
of the prerogatives of the Senate, and vigorously resists the
slightest encroachment on the part of the Executive. He
is one of the effective debaters on the Democratic side of the
Senate, and seems to enjoy a controversy for its own sake.
My intercourse with Senator Bacon as a member of the
Committee on Foreign Relations has been most agreeable,
and I have come to like and respect him very much. In my
time, he has been an exceptionally active, useful member,
and he has often told me that he prefers his place as a member

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 353
of the Foreign Relations Committee to any other committee
ship in the Senate, He is weU equipped, by education and
training, for the work of the committee, and gives close at
tention to important treaties and other measures coming be
fore it. He stood with Senator Morgan in opposing the
ratification of the Panama canal treaty, and he was as much
in earnest in his opposition to it as was Senator Morgan ; but
unlike the Senator from Alabama, he did not attack Sen
ators personally who differed from him. When technical
matters of importance came before the committee I usually
appointed Senator Spooner and Senator Bacon as a sub
committee, as I felt that anything that these two might agree
upon would be right, and would be concurred in by the com
mittee and by the Senate as well.
Senator Clarence D. Clark, of Wyoming, was a member
of the House for two terms, and has served in the Senate for
about fifteen years. In point of service, he is one of the
oldest of the Western Senators. Unlike the Eastern States,
very few of the Western States return their Senators for
term after term ; and the value of this, as a matter of State
pride, is well demonstrated in the case of Senator Clark. It
has enabled him to reach the high position of chairman of the
Judiciary Committee, the successor of a long line of able
lawyers, — Trumbull, Edmunds, Thurman, Hoar, and
O, H. Piatt being a few of his immediate predecessors.
Senator Clark has been a member of the Committee on
Foreign Relations for thirteen years, and a more agreeable
member of a committee it would be difficult to find. He is
a capable la^vyer, and a man of sound common sense. I
regret that his arduous duties as chairman of the Judiciary
Committee do not permit hun to give as close attention to
the Foreign Relations Committee as I would hke; but he
always attends when there are matters of particular unpor-

354 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
tance before it; and I have great respect for his judgment
in the disposition of matters in which he takes any interest
at all.
The Hon. Hernando de Soto Money, of Mississippi, has
for years been one of the leading Democratic members of
Congress. For fourteen years he was a member of the
House of Representatives, a prominent member, too, and he
has been a member of the Senate since 1897. His long serv
ice in the House at once enabled him to take his place as a
leader of his party, a Senator admired and respected by his
colleagues on both sides. He was appointed to the Foreign
Relations Committee in 1899, and I have been intimately ac
quainted with him since.
Senator Money is a highly educated, cultured gentleman,
and has traveUed extensively over the world. His broad,
liberal education, added to his travel, and his extensive knowl
edge of world history, made him an especially valuable
member of the committee of which I am chairman. During
the past few years I have sympathized with him very greatly
as he has suffered physical pain to a greater degree than any
other man whom I have known, and yet has insisted on at
tending diligently to his official duties. He must be a man
of extraordinary will power, or he would never have been
able to conquer his physical suffering to such an extent as to
enable him to attend to his Senatorial duties, and at the same
time to obtain the fund of information which he possesses, as
he demonstrated over and over again in the Senate.
He retired voluntarily from the Senate on the fourth of
March, 1911.
Of the many Senators with whom I have been associated
in the committee on Foreign Relations, and especiaUy since
I became its chairman, there are two, both now retired to
private life, in whom I had the greatest confidence and for

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 355
whom I entertained great affection, as they both did for
me — these Senators were the Hon, J. B. Foraker of Ohio,
and the Hon. John C, Spooner of Wisconsin.
Senator Foraker preceded Senator Spooner as a member
of this committee by some four years, I do not know how
it first came about, but I became very intimate with Senator
Foraker almost immediately after he entered the Senate,
and at once grew to admire him exceedingly. He is a very
briUiant man, and has had a notable career. He enlisted in
the Union Army as a private when sixteen years old, and
retired at the close of the war, a Captain. He then com
pleted his education, and entered upon the practice of the
law. He was elected Judge of the Superior Court at Cin
cinnati, and later became a candidate for Governor. The
occupant of many civil positions of importance in his State, a
prominent figure in national convention after national con
vention, nominating Senator Sherman for the Presidency in
1884 and 1888, and placing in nomination Mr. McKinley in
1896, Senator Foraker had estabhshed a record in pubhc
hfe, and had gathered a wealth of experience, sufficient
to satisfy the ambitions of most men, before his great
public career really commenced as a member of the United
States Senate, in 1897. He also nominated McKinley in
1900. Senator Foraker was one of the most independent men
with whom I ever served in the Senate. He was a man of
such ability and unquestioned courage that he did not hesi
tate to take any position which he himself deemed to be
right, regardless of the views of others. It would inure to
the advantage of the country if there was a more general
disposition among public men to adhere to their own con
victions, regardless of what current opinion might be. Sen
ator Foraker always made up his mind on pubhc questions

356 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
and clung to his own opinion in the face of aU criticism.
The most striking instance of this trait was when he, the
only Republican Senator to do so, voted against the Hep
burn Rate Bill, because he believed it to be unconstitutional.
The very fact that he stood alone in his opposition to that bill
did not seem to bother him in the least.
On the recommendation of President Roosevelt, the Com
mittee on Immigration of the Senate attempted to pass a
very drastic Chinese exclusion law. I examuied the biU and
became convinced at once that it was absolutely contrary to
and in violation of our treaties with China. I was very
much surprised at the time that even Senator Lodge, one of
the most conservative of Senators, supported the bill. I was
deluged with telegrams from labor organizations, as I know
Senator Foraker was, favoring the passage of the biU; but
he, with Senator Piatt of Connecticut, and some others in
the Senate, whom I assisted as best I could, led the opposi
tion to the biU reported by the Committee on Immigration
and defeated it. Senator Foraker very well knew that his
opposition to this bill would not strengthen him at home, but
he disregarded that fact and opposed it because he believed
it was contrary to our treaty obligations,
A more recent case in which he showed his independence
was his taking up the fight of the troops dismissed on ac
count of the so-caUed Brownsville affair. This was very
unselfish on the part of Senator Foraker, He had nothing
to gain by espousing the cause of a few negroes, but much to
lose by antagonizing the National administration. He did
not hesitate a moment, however. There is no question that
President Roosevelt acted hastily in dismissing the entire
company; but this was one occasion when President Roose
velt would not recede even though it became perfectly clear
to almost every one in Congress that he was wrong.

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 357
Senator Foraker always did make it a point to attend the
meetings of the Committee on Foreign Relations, but for
some reason or other he was never punctual and was seldom
in attendance when the committee was called to order. But
at the same time he was prepared on aU important ques
tions coming before the committee. He seemed to me to
have given attention beforehand to subjects which he knew
would come before a particular meeting, and his opinion on
any treaty or biU before the committee was always sought by
his colleagues and listened to with respect, and almost with
out exception his opinion prevaUed,
I regretted exceedingly to see him retire from the Senate.
From the time he entered that body, he was consistently one of
the principal defenders of Republican policies and Republi
can administrations on the floor of the Senate.
Senator John C. Spooner, of Wisconsin, was, in my judg
ment, one of the best lawyers who ever served as a member
of the Senate, and among its membership we find the names
of the greatest lawyers and judges of America. He had
served in the Civil War, having retired at its close with the
brevet of Major. He early took up the law as a career, and
never abandoned it, even when elected to the Senate ; and as
I write this, I believe he is regarded as one of the foremost
lawyers of New York,
He came into the Senate two years after I entered that
body, and I remember him there as opposing the conference
report on the Interstate Commerce Act. His State hav
ing passed into the control of the Democrats, he retired
from the Senate in 1891, but was reelected in 1897. He
declined several tenders of cabinet positions, preferring to
remain independent as a Senator.
I knew him for a good many years. Representing a
neighboring State, as he did in the Senate, I became very

358 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
intimate with him, and never had the slightest hesitancy in
seeking his advice when I was in doubt concerning any legal
or constitutional question.
Senator Spooner was a much more technical lawyer than
Senator Foraker, but not quite so technical as Senator Bacon.
On questions coming before the Committee on Foreign Re
lations, his advice was always to be trusted. My judg
ment in this respect may be influenced by our close personal
friendship ; but I always felt that when I had his support on
any question I was safe and right in the position I took
respecting it. Seldom within my knowledge did the Sen
ate fail to agree with any attitude that Senator Spooner as
sumed on a controverted question.
Senator Spooner was placed on the committee at the time
I became its chairman. At that time there were before the
committee treaties, legislation, and matters of the utmost
importance. He entered upon the work with the greatest
interest, and exercised commanding influence in the disposi
tion of matters xuider consideration. He always seemed to
take particular interest in my success as chairman of the
committee, and always wanted to assist and help me wherever
he could.
We were wrestling with the Reciprocity treaty with Cuba
at a meeting. It had been before the committee for a num
ber of meetings; Senator Spooner feared that I was about to
turn the treaty over to another Senator to report, and he sent
me, while the committee was in session, a brief note marked
"Confidential." It read :
"The report is that you will give this treaty to another to report. I
think you should report it yourself, as you are not only chairman of
the committee, but you are also a member of the Committee on Relations
with Cuba. Piatt spoke to me about it. He felt sensitive in the first
place because the treaty did not go tp his committee. The fact that

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 359
you and others on this committee were on his committee reconciled him.
I will stand to your shoulder in the fight for its ratification. "Yours,
"Spooner."
I hope Senator Spooner, if he does me the honor of glanc
ing through these rambhng recoUections, wiU forgive my
quoting this confidential note without his consent; but I do
so only to show the very friendly and confidential relation
ship that existed between us.
I doubt very much whether the Colombia or Panama treaty
would have been ratified, or the Panama route selected in
preference to the Nicaraguan route for the Isthmian canal,
despite the great influence of Senator Hanna, had not Sen
ator Spooner joined in advocating the Panama route.
It was a long and difficult struggle, not only before the
Committee on Foreign Relations, but before the Committee
on Interoceanic Canals, and resulted in the retirement of
Senator Morgan as chairman of the last-mentioned com
mittee — a position he had held for many years — and in
the selection of Senator Hanna to succeed him. But Sen
ator Spooner, through his technical knowledge, dominated
the Committee on Interoceanic Canals, and succeeded finaUy
in the passage of the Spooner act which designated Panama,
if that route could be purchased, as the route for the canal.
Senator Spooner was one of the real leaders of the Senate
from 1897 imtil he retired. He was one of the most eloquent
men who served in the Senate during that period. During
all the debates on the Cuban question, the important results
growing out of the Spanish- American War, the question of
Imperiahsm — his participation in all these momentous sub
jects was above criticism, I have heard him in the Senate,
speaking day after day. He never grew tiresome; never re
peated himself; always held the most profound attention of

360 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
the Senate ; and his closing words were listened to with the
same attention and with the same mterest, by his colleagues
and by the galleries, as marked the beginning of any of his
speeches. After his conclusions his Repubhcan colleagues
invariably gathered around him, offering their congratula
tions. Senator Spooner and Senator Foraker have both retired.
It was thought at the time that their places could not be fiUed,
and I, as one of the older Senators who remember them weU,
can not believe that their places have been fiUed. Of all the
Senators with whom I have served, Spooner and Foraker
were most ahke in their combative natures, in their willing
ness to take the responsibihty to go to the front to lead the
fight. Senators come and go, the personnel of the Senate
changes, one Senator will be replaced by another, but the
Senate itself will go on as long as the Republic endures.
One of the most dignified, honest, straightforward, capable
men with whom I have served, was the Hon. Charles W.
Fairbanks, of Indiana. He was a devoted adherent, friend,
and follower of the late President McKinley, and had been
his friend long before he was nominated for President in
1896. Senator Fairbanks took a very prominent part in
that convention, was its temporary chairman, and in 1900 was
chairman of the Committee on Resolutions of the National
Convention which met at Philadelphia. He entered the Sen
ate in 1897, and during the following year was appointed by
President McKinley a member of the United States and
British Joint High Commission for the adjustment of all
outstanding questions concerning the United States and
Canada. The commission was an exceedingly important
one, but failing to agree on the Alaskan boundary, it was
compelled to adjourn without settling any of the questions
before it. Its labors were not wasted, however, as it fur-

JOHN C. SPOONER

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 361
nished the nucleus for the final adjustment of those questions
under the administration of Mr. Root, in the State Depart
ment. Senator Fairbanks was a close personal friend of Presi
dent McKinley, and almost immediately assumed quite an
important position in the Senate. He was appointed to the
Committee on Foreign Relations, of which he was quite an
able and influential member, as he was of every committee of
the Senate on which he served. He accepted the nomination
of the Republican Convention of 1904 for Vice-President.
I considered that his proper place was in the Senate; but
for some reason or other he gave it out that he would not
decline the nomination for the office of Vice-President, and
neither would he seek it. The Convention very wisely de
termined that he was the best candidate that could be nom
inated. The duties of the Vice-President are not very ardu
ous; but in aU my service in the Senate I do not know of a
Vice-President who so strictly observed the obligation ad
herent to the office as did Mr. Fairbanks. He was a can
didate for President in 1908 but was defeated by President
Taft. Since his retirement from the Vice-Presidency, he has at
least twice been tendered high appointments in the diplomatic
sei-vice, first as Ambassador to the Court of St. James, and,
later (it having been rumored while he was travelhng in
China that he had expressed himself as favorably inchned
toAvard the acceptance of the position of minister to that
country). Secretary Knox indicated a desire through mu
tual friends to have him appointed, Mr. Fairbanks thanked
his friends, but declined the appointment.
In his tour around the world after retiring from the office
of Vice-President, he conducted himself with great dignity
and propriety.

362 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Senator Albert J. Beveridge succeeded Senator Fair
banks, as a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations.
For years Senator Beveridge had seemed more than anxious
to become a member of this committee. When he first en
tered the Senate he thought he should have been made one
of its members, as he had always taken a deep interest in
foreign matters; but the Committee on Organization deter
mined that his coUeague, Senator Fairbanks, was entitled
to the preference. When Senator Fairbanks retired, I re
quested the Committee on Organization to place Senator
Beveridge on my committee, which it did,
I have always admired Senator Beveridge. He is an ex
ceptionaUy engaging speaker, a brilliant man, and so talented
that one cannot help being attracted to him, I had heard
of him years before he entered the Senate. The late Senator
MacDonald of Indiana, a strong, gifted lawyer and the
highest type of man, told me one day that he had a young
man in his office, named Beveridge, who knew more about
the pohtics of the day than almost any other man in the
State, and he beheved he would be a controlhng factor in
Repubhcan politics in Indiana.
Senator Beveridge is a popular magazine writer, as he is
one of the most popular pubhc speakers of to-day. As a
campaign orator, his services are constantly in demand,
I regret very much to say, that notwithstanding Senator
Beveridge's prior anxiety to become a member of the Com
mittee on Foreign Relations, after his appointment he
attended very few meetings and apparently took little
interest in its business. His duties as Chairman of the Com
mittee on Territories, combined with work on other com
mittees, necessarily consumed most of his time.
For a number of years after the Hon. John Kean, of New
Jersey, entered the Senate, I had no speoial acquaintance

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 363
with him, and I did not welcome hun particularly when he
was made a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations,
in 1901. Since then I have become very intimate with Sen
ator Kean, and there have been few men on the committee
for whom I entertained a higher regard, or in whom I placed
more confidence. He was a very industrious and useful
member, as he is in the Senate. He fiUed quite a prominent
place in the Senate, and watched legislation probably more
closely than any other member. He was always familiar
with the bills on the calendar, and made it a point to object
to any questionable measures that came before the Senate.
He advanced in influence and power very rapidly in the
last few years of his service. Through Senator Kean, I
have been enabled very often to expedite the passage of
measures, not only coming from the Committee on Foreign
Relations, but bills in which I have been interested pertain
ing to the affairs of my own State, If the Senate had what
is known as a "whip," I would say that Senator Kean comes
more nearly being the Republican "whip" than any other
Senator, with the possible exception, in recent years, of Sena
tor Murray Crane, of Massachusetts.
Senator Thomas H. Carter, of Montana, a member of
the committee in the Sixty-first Congress, was one of the
most popular members of the Senate. His ability as a
lawyer and legislator, combined with his wit and keen sense
of humor, enabled him to assume quite a commanding
position in that body. When feeling ran high in debate,
sometimes almost to the extent of personal encounter. Sena
tor Carter would appear, and by a few well-chosen words,
voiced in his calm, quiet manner, throw oil upon the troubled
waters, and peace again reigned supreme,
I have known Senator Carter for very many years. I
knew him as a young man. His home was at one time in

364 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Illinois, at the little town of Pana, about twenty-five mUes
from my own home in Springfield. He has held many pub
hc offices. Delegate from the Territory of Montana, mem
ber of the Fifty-first Congress, Commissioner of the General
Land Office, Senator from 1895 to 1901 and from 1905 to
1906, Chairman of the Repubhcan National Committee in
1892, he has in all these positions distinguished himself as a
man of a high order of abihty, I have always liked Senator
Carter very much, and I was glad indeed that he was named
a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations. He is a
very useful and influential member, as he is of the Senate.
Senator William Alden Smith, of Michigan, was only
recently placed on the Committee on Foreign Relations,
quite a distinction for a Senator who had served for so brief
a time as a member of the Senate. Senator Smith, how
ever, was a prominent member of the House for many years,
and was elected to the Senate while serving as a member of
the House of Representatives. He has taken position in the
Senate very rapidly. He is a lawyer of experience and long
^practice, and an industrious and competent legislator. He is
always watchful of the interests of his State. He took a
prominent part in the consideration of the treaties between
the United States and Great Britain concerning Canada,
more especially the boundary and water-way treaties. It was
through his efforts that an amendment to the latter treaty
was adopted, which he considered necessary to protect the
interests of his State, and which I greatly feared would re
sult in the rejection of the treaty by the Canadian Parha-i
ment. I am very glad to say, however, that the treaty has
been ratified by both Governments, and only recently pro
claimed. Senator Smith has taken a keen interest in matters before
the Committee on Foreign Relations, and with his experience.

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 365
industry, and capacity, he is bound to become a very useful
member of the committee.
Ipne of the last members to be appomted on the Com
mittee on Foreign Relations was the Hon, Elihu Root, of
New York, He is one of the greatest men and ablest Sen
ators who have ever been members of the committee. When
he became a member of it, he was not at aU a stranger, for
the reason that he, on my invitation, had, while Secretary of
State, for two years previous to his retirement from that of
fice, attended almost every meeting of the committee. Be
tween Mr. Hay and the members of the Senate, there was
not the close relationship which should have existed between
that body and the State Department,
Secretary Hay- was not disposed to cultivate friendly rela
tions with Senators, and certain remarks he made concerning
the Senate as a body were very distasteful to Senators; and
although I had invited him, he seemed very averse to coming
before the Committee on Foreign Relations. I did not press
the point. The result was that important treaties and other
matters were constantly sent in, with which the members of
the committee were not famihar, and we had to grope in the
dark, as it were, and inform ourselves concerning them as
best we could.
But when Mr. Root became Secretary of State, I resolved
to insist that the Secretary meet with us from time to time,
and explain such treaties and measures as might need ex
planation, and upon which the Administration was anxious
to secure favorable action. In other words, there should be
closer relationship between the Committee on Foreign Rela
tions and the State Department than had formerly existed.
I first saw President Roosevelt and told him that I hoped
Mr. Root would come before the committee as occasion
might require. The President seemed at once impressed

366 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
with the propriety of the proposed plan, and remarked in his
own characteristic fashion: "That is just the thing." I
then saw Mr. Root, whom I knew very well as Secretary of
War, and he was more than pleased with the suggestion, as
serting that it was just what he wanted to do. It so hap
pened that during his administration of the State Depart
ment he found it necessary to negotiate more treaties, and
treaties of greater importance, than any of his more recent
predecessors in that high office, and he became so constant
and punctual in his attendance at the meetings of the com
mittee that we grew almost to regard him as a regular mem
ber, even before he entered the Senate.
He has served on the committee but two sessions, but even
in that short time he has proved his fitness to fill the gap left
by the retirement of Senators Spooner and Foraker, As a
lawyer he is as briUiant as either of those men, and probably,
owing to his executive experience, a more efficient statesman,
I regard him as the best quahfied man in this country for
any position in the public service which he would accept.
He would make a strong President, and as a Senator he is
equipped with extraordinary qualifications. If he remains
in the Senate, by sheer force of abihty alone he is bound to
become its acknowledged leader. We have never had a
stronger Secretary of State. Mr. Hay was a very great man
in many respects, and could handle an international question,
especially pertaining to the Far East, with more skiU than
any of his predecessors ; but Mr. Root, whUe probably not so
well versed in diplomacy as Mr. Hay, is one of the foremost
lawyers in America, and has the faculty of going into the
minutest detaUs of every question, large or small, even to the
extent of reorganizing aU the multitude of details of the State
Department. He was the real head of the department, and
supervised every matter coming before it.

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 367
As Secretary of State he made it one of his policies to bring
the repubhcs of this hemisphere into closer relationship with
one another. He visited South and Central America, and
did much to bring about a friendly feehng with the repubhcs
of those regions.
He is one of those who insisted upon the absolute equahty
of nations, both great and small; and in this he was particu
larly pointed in his instructions to the delegates represent
ing the United States at the Second Peace Conference at
The Hague.
He did not retire from the State Department until he had
adjusted almost, if not all, outstanding questions between
the United States and other Nations. He closed up the
work of the Joint High Commission, and by a series of
treaties adjusted every factor of difference between the
United States and Great Britain concerning Canad«0
Bringing the consideration of the personnel of the com
mittee up to the close of the Sixty-first Congress, there re
main to be mentioned only William J. Stone, of Mis
souri, and Benjamin F. Shively, of Indiana, both Democrats.
Mr. Stone and Mr. Shively are not only new men on the
committee, but both of them are comparatively new to the
Senate. They had, however, been sufficiently tried in other
fields of effort to justify their States in sending them to this
exalted body, and the records both have made here have
well vindicated their selection. In a comparatively brief
tune they have attained to positions of leadership on the
Democratic side of the chamber, and since they have become
members of this committee they have manifested an unusual
grasp of international subjects. They are from States
which adjoin my own State of Ilhnois, and I am especiaUy
pleased to have them as members of the committee of which
I am chairman.

CHAPTER XXIV
WOEK OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN BELATIONS
WHEN I became chau-man of the Committee on For
eign Relations, in 1901, I found a large quantity of
undisposed of matter on the dockets, both legislative and
executive. I determined that I would at once proceed to
clear the docket and endeavor to make the committee an
active working one. I have since made it a policy, as best I
could, to secure some action, favorable or luifavorable, on
every matter referred to the committee by the Senate.
The first subject to which I turned my attention was the
reciprocity treaties between the United States and Barbados,
Bermuda, British Guiana, Turk Islands and Caicos, Jamai
ca, Argentine Repubhc, France, Dominican Republic, Ecua
dor, and Denmark.
These treaties had been pending before the committee for
two years, and I resolved as I expressed it to one Senator
who was opposed to them, that I would get them out of the
committee "if I had to carry them out in a basket." These
treaties were negotiated under the authority contained in
the fourth section of the Dingley Act, which provided :
"Section 4. That whenever the President of the United States, by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate, with a view to secure reciprocal
trade with foreign countries, shall, within a period of two years from
and after the passage of this act, enter into commercial treaty or treaties
with any other country concerning the admission to such country of goods,
wares, or merchandise of the United States . . . and in such treaty
or treaties shall provide for reduction during a specified period of the
368

WORK OF THE COMMITTEE 369
duties imposed by this act, to the extent of twenty per centum thereof
upon such goods, wares, or merchandise as may be designated therein,
. . . or shall provide for the transfer during such period from the
dutiable list of this act to the free list thereof of such goods, wares, or
merchandise the product of foreign countries; and when . . . any
such treaty shall have been duly ratified by the Senate and approved by
Congress, then and thereafter the duties which shall be collected by the
United States upon any of the designated goods, wares, or merchandise
from the foreign country with which such treaty has been made, shall,
during the period provided for, be the duties specified and provided in
such treaty, and none other."
There was considerable opposition to the ratification of
these treaties in the Senate, and very strong opposition to
them in the committee. President McKinley was very much
in favor of their ratification, and as one treaty after another
expired, a new one would be made reviving it.
The first problem which confronted me was this: The
fourth section of the Dingley Act provided that such treaties
should be made only within two years after the passage of
the act; the two years had long since expired — -could the
Senate ratify them at all?
I submitted to the Senate a report on the constitutional
question. The single question covered was, whether the
treaties not having been ratified by the Senate within the
two years specified in the Dingley Act were stiU within its
jurisdiction. The committee determined that the President and the
Senate are, under the Constitution, the treaty-making power.
The initiative hes with the President. He can negotiate such
treaties as may seem to him wise, and propose them to the
Senate for the advice and consent of that body. The power
of the President and the Senate is derived from the Con
stitution. There is under our Constitution no other source
of treaty-making power. The Congress is without power to
24

370 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
grant to the President or to the Senate any authority with
respect to treaties ; nor does the Congress possess any power
to fetter or hmit in any way the President or the Senate in
the exercise of this constitutional function. It cannot in
any way enlarge, limit, or attach conditions to the treaty-
making power, and the subcommittee concluded their report
on this branch of the subject with this statement:
"The committee is clearly of the opinion that nothing contained in sec
tion four of the Dingley Act constitutes any valid restriction upon the
jurisdiction and power of the Senate to act upon the commercial treaties
now pending."
That question being disposed of to my satisfaction, I pro
ceeded to urge the consideration of the treaties at every meet
ing of the committee for many months, but it was not until
June, 1902, that I secured the favorable report of aU the
treaties, excepting the treaty with the Argentine Republic
and that with Jamaica.
There was another very serious question which I raised
myself, and that was, whether legislation was necessary to
carry them into effect, or whether the treaties were self -ex
ecuting. None of the treaties contained any provision for
legislation, and by their terms, they would go into effect
without legislation, John A, Kasson, who negotiated them,
told me that he purposely left out any reference to legislative
action, because the executive department had serious
doubts on the subject, and preferred to permit the Senate
itself to pass upon it.
I have always contended that reciprocity treaties, like other
treaties in general, are self-executing, if by their terms they
do not provide for legislative action.
I made a very extended address in the Senate on January
29, 1902, because I wanted to get the attention of the Senate
to this unportant constitutional subject. I said in opening:

WORK OF THE COMMITTEE 371
"Has Congress any power or authority, under the Constitution, over
treaties? This subject has been discussed at difi'erent times during our
entire Constitutional history. It is a very complicated question, not only
because the authority of the House on the subject of treaties has been
disputed and argued almost from the very adoption of the Constitution, but
the fourth section of the Dingley Act specifically provides how and when
such treaties shall be made. ... In my opinion the fourth section
of the Dingley Act, so far as it attempts to confer, limit, or define
the treaty-making power is not only an unwarranted interference with
the powers of the President and Senate, but is unconstitutional, because
it comes in conflict with that clause of the Constitution which says that
the President shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of
the Senate to make treaties. No law of Congress can in any way modify
or limit those powers. The Dingley Law can not limit the time in which
we shall be allowed to make a treaty; it can not give to Congress any
power on the subject of treaties not given it by the Constitution, and
under the Constitution Congress as a legislative body is not a part of
the treaty-making power."
I contended that the fourth section of the Dingley Act, if
considered by the Executive at all, should be merely as an
expression of the views of Congress in the adjustment of the
specific terms of each treaty.
But the particular question in which I was more inter
ested and to which I devoted most of my remarks was,
whether a reciprocity treaty, which by its terms provides
that the duties to be collected after its ratification shaU be
those specified in the treaty, and none other (and which
makes no reference to further Congressional action), would
of its own force operate to repeal so much of the tariff act as
may come in conflict with it, or whether it would be necessary
for Congress to act on a treaty before those duties are re
duced, and before the treaty shaU become the supreme law
of the land,
I then proceeded to a minute examination into the his
tory of the treaty-making provision in the Constitution, trac-

372 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
ing it through the Constitutional Convention, and giving the
views of the framers of the Constitution as to its scope and
effect. It was Alexander Hamilton who drafted the treaty-
making clause of the Federal Constitution, and it was pur
posely so framed as to exclude the House from all considera
tion of treaties. Twice it was proposed in the Constitutional
Convention to unite the House of Representatives with the
Senate in the approval of treaties, but both times it was re
jected almost unanimously, Pennsylvania alone voting in
the affirmative. The treaty-making clause of the Federal
Constitution was adopted in the Constitutional Convention
only after a most vigorous fight against it by those who con
tended that the authority conferred was too great, Patrick
Henry thought that, "If the clause were adopted as it was
submitted to the State, two-thirds of a quorum of the Senate
would be empowered to make treaties that might relinquish
and alienate territorial rights and our most valuable com
mercial advantages. In short, should anything be left, it
would be because the President and Senators would be
pleased to admit it. The power of making treaties under
the Constitution extends farther than in any country in the
world. Treaties have more force here than in any part of
Christendom," And he begged the convention to stop be
fore it conceded this power unguarded and unaltered.
The power was conferred on the President and the Sen
ate, unguarded and unaltered, when the Constitution was
adopted. The question came before the House of Representatives
the first time just seven years after the Constitution was
adopted, and has been before the House many times since
then. The Jay Treaty called for an appropriation of
eighty thousand dollars. It was a very unpopular treaty,
and a very notable debate took place on the resolution re-

WORK OF THE COMMITTEE 373
questing the President to lay before the House copies of the
correspondence and other papers relating to the treaty.
President Washington declined to furnish the papers, on the
ground that the treaty needed no legislative action, and the
House had nothing whatever to do with treaties, but was
morally bound to make the appropriation, thereby carrying
out the contract. The House responded by passing a long
series of resolutions ; but finaUy the appropriation was made.
The whole question has been discussed in the House, prac
ticaUy every time an appropriation has been called for
to carry out a treaty; but the House, while always contend
ing that it had a voice in the treaty-making power, never de
clined to make the appropriation, and only on one occasion
do I now recaU that the House declined to enact legislation
to carry out a treaty where the treaty specifically itself pro
vided for such legislation. This was in the case of the reci
procity treaty with Mexico, negotiated by General Grant.
I concluded my speech in the Senate with this statement:
"This question before us here has been before the Senate for a hun
dred years. The Executive and Senate have taken one position, and that
is, a treaty is the supreme law of the land. That position has been
sustained by the Supreme Court. On the other hand, during all these
hundred years, the House of Kepresentatives has, as a rule, insisted that
they should be considered in reference to certain treaties. That does
not relieve the Senate from standing by its prerogatives and rights
and insisting that the rights of the Executive be maintained. The point
here is this: The Constitution gives to the Executive, with the advice
and consent of the Senate, the right to negotiate treaties. We have been
negotiating commercial treaties continuously prior and subsequent to the
adoption of the Constitution, and those treaties have been sustained as the
supreme law of the land.
"It is said that the Constitution has given to Cwigress the right to
regulate commerce with foreign nations, to lay and collect taxes, duties,
and imposts, and to the House of Representatives the right to originate
bills for raising revenues, and to the President and Senate the right to

374 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
make and ratify treaties. These are all co-equal and independent powers.
One does not interfere with the other. One is not exclusive of the other.
A law passed in any of the ways provided by the Constitution is the
supreme law of the land until it is changed or repealed. A treaty made
by the Executive and ratified by the Senate is the supreme law of the
land as well as an act of Congress. If the Congress is not satisfied
with the treaty, it has a perfect right to repeal it, as it has any other law;
but until such action is taken, the treaty remains as a part of the su
preme law of the land; and I cannot see any distinction between treaties
which afi"eet the tarifi" laws, and treaties aff'ecting any other law."
The subject was very seriously and carefully considered,
but it was thought expedient that the committee should not
take any position either for or against the unlimited power
of the Senate over reciprocity treaties. It was Senator
Spooner who suggested that each of the treaties be amended
by inserting therein a provision that "the treaty not take
effect until the same shall have been approved by the Con
gress." The merits of the question were not considered; but my
position was, and stiU is, that amending the treaties in the
manner suggested by Senator Spooner, by inference indi
cated that if such a provision had not been inserted, the
treaties would go into effect immediately without any Con
gressional action.
Aside from the reciprocity treaty with France, none of
the treaties was considered by the Senate itself. I pressed
them as best I could, but Senator Aldrich, Senator Hanna,
and other advocates of high protection, were so bitterly op
posed to them — no one in the Senate aside from myself
seeming to have much interest in them — that they were
dropped and allowed to expire by their own terms. I par
ticularly regretted that the Kasson treaties were not ratified.
Had the Senate ratified those treaties, a large number
of other treaties probably would have been negotiated, and

WORK OF THE COMMITTEE 375
we would not have been compelled to go through the long
struggle and agitation over the passage of the Aldrich-Payne
Tariff BiU. There would have been no tariff revision neces
sary. At the same time, we could not possibly help vastly
increasing our foreign commerce. It was a very short
sighted pohcy on the part of Senator Aldrich and others in
the Senate when they insisted that those treaties should be
killed. After it was determined, and it became so known
to the country that it would be impossible to secure the rati- \
fication of reciprocity treaties, the agitation for tariff revi
sion commenced, and finally culminated in the act of 1909,
which resulted in the election of a Democratic House of
Representatives. The committee did favorably report, and the Senate rati
fy, a reciprocity treaty with Cuba. This was the treaty of
December 11, 1902, and it was the third reciprocal agree
ment in aU our history ratified, proclaimed, and placed in
effect. The first one was the treaty of 1854, providing for
reciprocity with Canada. The second was the treaty of
1875, with the Hawaiian Islands, and the third and the only
one now in effect is the treaty with Cuba.
That treaty would never have been ratified, and would
have suffered the same fate as the Kasson treaties, had it not
been for the determined, vigorous fight made by President
Roosevelt for its ratification, and had not Cuba stood in a
relation to us entirely different from any other country.
We bound her to us by insisting that the Piatt amendments
be made a part of her Constitution, and in addition that a
treaty be made between the two countries embodying those
amendments. This treaty with Cuba and the law carrying it into effect
were the occasion of a very bitter struggle in both Senate

376 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
and House. The sugar and tobacco interests used all the
power at their command to defeat, first the treaty, and then
the law carrying the treaty into effect. The beet-sugar
people asserted that it would ruin that industry, and that
a reduction of twenty per cent on Cuban sugar would
enable the Cubans to ship their sugar into the United
States and undersell the beet sugar, I never could see that
there was any force in their contention, because the United
States does not produce more than half the sugar we con
sume, and it was absolutely necessary to import sugar from
Cuba and other sugar-producing countries.
When the treaty was before the committee for consider
ation, it was amended by inserting the foUowing proviso:
"Provided that while this convention is in force, no sugar exported
from the Republic of Cuba and being the product of the soil or indus
try of the Republic of Cuba, shall be admitted to the United States at
a reduction of duty greater than twenty per centum of the rates of duty
thereon as provided by the tariff" act of the United States, approved July
24, 1897; and no sugar, the product of any other foreign country, shall
be admitted by treaty or convention into the United States, while this con
vention is in force, at a lower rate of duty than that provided by the tariff
act of the United States, approved July 24, 1897."
The effect of this amendment was not only to prevent a
greater reduction being made on Cuban sugar, but it had a
more important effect in that it made reciprocity treaties
with the sugar-producing countries, including the West In
dies, impossible so long as the Cuban treaty remains in force.
I had charge of this treaty in the Senate, and addressed
the Senate at considerable length explaining its provisions.
There was a spirited contest in the Senate over the ratifi
cation of the treaty, but there was more of a contest both
in the Senate and the House when the biU to carry the
treaty into effect came up at the next session of Congress, it

WORK OF THE COMMITTEE 377
first having been considered at a special session called by
President Roosevelt in November, 1903. A provision was
inserted in the treaty (which I opposed, as I thought it was
unnecessary) , that it should not go into effect until it was ap
proved by the Congress. The bUl was passed in the House
and came to the Committee on Foreign Relations, was con
sidered there, and favorably reported to the Senate, The
bill, of course, was considered in open session, and I again
made some remarks, probably more in the nature of a re
port than a speech, trying to show where the treaty was not
only absolutely necessary, if Cuba was to be prosperous at all,
but that it would open a considerable market for American
products. The Cuban reciprocity treaty has increased very materially
our trade with that Republic. Since that treaty went into
effect our imports from Cuba have increased from $62,942,-
000 in value to $122,528,000 in value; and our exports to
Cuba have mcreased from $21,000,000 in 1903, to nearly
$53,000,000 in 1910, or more than doubled. But even with
this considerable increase in our exports to Cuba, I had hoped
that by this time we should have increased them to at least
one hundred milhon dollars. Our own exporters and manu
facturers are at fault, because they will not do business with
the Cubans on the same credit basis as wiU the exporters of
Spain, Germany, and England ; and American exporters do
not cater to the peculiar needs of the Cubans. They seem
to go on the theory that if their goods are good enough for
Americans they should be good enough for Cubans, too.
The Cuban treaty is a good Ulustration of the scare and
the unwarranted opposition on the part of American indus
tries when even the slightest reduction of the tariff is at
tempted. To listen to the beet-sugar and tobacco interests
during the consideration of the Cuban treaty, one would

378 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
think they would have been absolutely ruined if the treaty
were ratified. The Cuban treaty has not in the slightest
degree injuriously affected the American sugar or tobacco
interests. The principle of Reciprocity as heretofore applied in this
country has been extended somewhat by the agreement of
1911 between the United States and Canada. This com
pact was negotiated by President Taft and Secretary Knox
on the one side, and by Premier Laurier and Mr, Fielding
on the other. Under this agreement a wide exchange of
articles of every-day use is provided for, and it is hoped and
beheved that if the treaty becomes effective it wUl prove
more satisfactory and enduring than the previous reciprocal
agreement with the Dominion of Canada,
The pending agreement was entered into between repre-
sensatives of the two Governments in January, 1911, but
it was not until the latter part of July of that year that a
law was enacted by Congress to provide for its enforcement.
Much opposition was manifested, especially in the Senate,
in both the Sixty-first and Sixty-second Congresses, on the
ground that under its terms a great many agricultural prod
ucts are admitted free from Canada; but this objection has
been, I think, successfully met by the Administration and
its friends in the argument that any injury that might be
sustained by agriculture would be more than compensated
for by the benefits derived by the manufacturing interests.
For one I never have believed that agriculture would suffer
in any degree through the operation of the agreement, and
I do believe that the general industries of the country wiU
experience much benefit. Too much is to be gained through
the cultivation of proper trade relations with our great and
growing neighbor on the North to abandon the general prin-

WORK OF THE COMMITTEE 379
ciple involved in the agreement on account of an apprehen
sion which may not and probably will not be realized.
In many respects nations are hke individuals, and in their
relations with one another they should be controlled by the
same rules of amity and equity as pertain to the associations
of mankind generally. In the end no nation can lose
any material thing through an act of generosity or fair-
dealing. Notwithstanding the United States has acted favorably
upon the agreement, it is not yet in force. This circum
stance is due to the fact that in the matter of ratification
Canada has waited upon this country. There is opposition
there as there was here, and at this writing (August, 1911)
Sir Wilfred Laurier is engaged in a struggle for favorable
endorsement such as that from which President Taft has
just emerged.

CHAPTER XXV
THE INTEKOCEANIC CANAl,
PROBABLY the most important work before the Com
mittee on Foreign Relations since the treaty of peace
with Spain, were the several treaties concerning the con
struction of the Isthmian Canal.
In 1850, the United States entered into what is known
as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Great Britain, the pur
pose of which was to facihtate the construction of a canal;
but instead of operating to this end, it stood for fifty years
or more as an effectual barrier against the construction by
the United States of any canal across the Isthmus of
Panama. Succeeding Administrations had endeavored to
secure the consent of Great Britain to its abrogation, but it
was not until Secretary Hay's time that Great Britain
finally agreed to annul it and substitute in its place a new
treaty. Secretary Hay had been Ambassador to Great
Britain, and he enjoyed the confidence of the then existing
British Ministry to a greater degree than almost any minister
or ambassador we have ever sent to Great Britain. After
entering the State Department, Mr. Hay at once directed his
attention to the making of a new treaty with Great Britain
and this resulted in the first Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. This
convention was considered by the committee, but was not
found satisfactory, and certain amendments were added to
it. These amendments Great Britain would not accept, and
the treaty died.
Secretary Hay was very much disappointed, but he at
380

THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL 381
once set to work to negotiate such a treaty as would go
through the Senate without amendment and such a one as
Great Britain would consent to. He wrote to a number of
Senators, members of the committee, I suppose, asking for
suggestions as to just what the Senate would agree to. I
was not at that tune chairman of the Committee on Foreign
Relations, but I was very deeply interested in the subject
and had given it considerable study and thought. Secretary
Hay wrote me, and I replied at length, giving my views
both as to the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty and what I thought!
should be inserted in the new treaty.
Mr. Hay promptly renewed negotiations, which resulted
in what is known as the second Hay-Pauncefote Treaty.
After a good deal of effort this agreement was ratified with
out amendment. This act signalized the beginning of my
service as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations.
The principal contention arose over the subject of fortifi
cations, a question that is stiU a mooted one. It occurs to
me that the proper reasoning is this — and I believe I took
the same position when the treaty was under consideration:
The first and second Hay-Pauncefote treaties must be
construed together; the first Hay-Pauncefote Treaty con
tained a prohibition against fortification; the second Hay-
Pauncefote Treaty neither prohibited nor in terms agreed to
fortifications, but was silent on the subject; therefore, the
legal construction would be that Great Britain had receded
from the position that the canal should not be fortified. In
any event, we will go ahead and fortify the canal, and do
with it whatever we please, regardless of any of the nations
of the world.
That obstacle having been finally removed, the question
which next arose was: What route should be selected? The
selection of the route was not a subject over which the For-

382 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
eign Relations Committee had jurisdiction; but after the
Panama route was decided on, it became necessary to nego
tiate with Colombia, the owner of that route, for the right of
way for the canal. Secretary Hay promptly proceeded with
the negotiation, as it was his duty to do, under the Spooner
Act, and on January 3, 1903, submitted the treaty to the
Senate for its Constitutional action thereon. Senator Mor
gan and others led the fight against it ; but a vote was taken,
and the treaty was ordered favorably reported. On Febru
ary 12, 1903, I caUed it up in the Senate and made quite
an extended speech, explaining its provisions, and urging
its ratification. The session was to close on March 4, and
it finally became manifest that it would be hopeless to at
tempt to ratify it before that day, and the effort was
abandoned. President Roosevelt called a special session of
the Senate after the fourth of March, when there would be
nothing for the Senate to consider except the Colombia
treaty and other executive matters. According to the usual
rule, the treaty was referred back to the committee, at the
beginning of the special session, and the subject was again
gone over in committee as if there had been no proceedings
on it at aU during the regular session. The proposed agree
ment was finally reported to the Senate, and ratified. There
is no need for me to go over the story of its rejection by
Colombia. The action of the Colombian Congress was a
hold-up pure and simple, and the treaty was rejected in the
hope that the United States would offer a greater amount
for the right-of-way, Panama promptly seceded, which she
had a perfect right to do. Many people have charged that
the Roosevelt Administration actually incited the revolution.
Whether this is true or not, I do not know. I contended
at the time, and still believe, that it is not true. I hope it
is not; but the correspondence did show that the State De-

THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL 383
partment had pretty close knowledge of events which were
occurring on the Isthmus, and had seen to it that there was
a sufficient naval force in the vicinity "to protect American
interests," It was a remarkable revolution — I think the
most remarkable I have ever read of in history. It was
practically bloodless. One or two shots were fired, a China
man was killed, and yet a new and independent republic
entered the family of Nations.
We were able to make with Panama a much more satis
factory treaty than we had with Colombia. Senator Mor-.
gan this time was assisted by most of his Democratic col
leagues; he denounced the treaty and made all sorts of
charges against the Administration; but after numerous long
sessions of the Committee on Foreign Relations, I was
authorized to report it to the Senate with certain minor
amendments, which, in my opening speech, I asked the Sen
ate to reject, and to ratify the treaty without amendment.
I did this at the earnest insistence of the State Department.
And, in addition, I did not think that the amendments were
of such importance as would justify resubmitting the treaty
to Panama after that little country had once ratified it. The
State Department was led to this action by the receipt of the
following cable from Mr. Buchanan, the first Minister of
the United States to Panama: "Panama, January 22, 1904.
"Hay, Washington:
"I can not refrain from referring to my belief that no amendments
to the treaty should be made. The delimitation of Panama and Colon
involves several things which can only be satisfactorily adjusted on the
ground by joint action. There are several other points in the treaty
which will require a mutual working agreement, or regulation, including
sanitation. While the treaty covers broadly all these things, my observa
tion here is that the details of development of the authority conferred
by the treaty in these regards can not be satisfactorily carried out by

384 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
amendments, but should be done through a mutually agreed upon regu
lation or understanding reached here on the ground between the two
countries. The executive power here can secure from the convention
ample authority to do such things without their being referred to the
convention hereafter. Would it not be possible and best to adopt this
course with these amendments to the treaty; will bring up here much
discussion of many articles which can all be avoided and our purpose
gained by above course. Any time when any specific grants of land
or power not implied in the treaty is desired, it appears to me the wise
course to take will be to do this by a supplemental convention.
"(Signed) Buchanan."
Secretary Hay showed the most eager anxiety to have the
treaty ratified as it stood, and he wrote me quite a lengthy
letter on the subject, which I now feel at liberty to quote.
"Department op State, Washington.
"January 20. 1904.
"Dear Senator Cullom: —
"I enclose a copy of a letter from the Panama Minister which he sent
me last night. He, as well as Mr. Buchanan, who is on the ground,
is greatly disturbed over the possible complications which may arise if
amendments are added to the treaty in the Senate. Of course, I need
not say nobody questions the right of the Senate to amend the treaty as
may seem to them best. I am only speaking of the matter of op
portuneness and expediency. We insisted on an immediate ratification of
the treaty by the Panama Government, and they acceded to our wishes.
If we now, after a very long delay, send the treaty back to them amended,
you can at once imagine the state of things that it will find there. The
moment of unanimity and enthusiasm, which only comes once' in the
life of a revolution, will have passed away and given way to the play '
of politics and factions. They will have a certain advantage which
they have not had before in dealing with the matter. We shaU. have
ratified the treaty with amendments, which gives them another chance to
revise their perhaps hasty and enthusiastic action. They will consider
themselves as entitled to make amendments as well as we, and it needs
only a glance at the treaty to show what an infinite field of amendments-
there is from every point of view. The Junta in making their report
to the present Constitutional Convention said that, although many of

THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL 385
the provisions seemed harsh and hard, yet it was judged for the public
good to accept it as it was. When they get the amended treaty in their
hands again, they will compare it with the treaty we made with Colom
bia, and see how vastly more advantageous to us this treaty is than that
one was, and there are never lacking in a body of men like the Consti
tutional Convention a plenty of members who like to distinguish them
selves by defending the interests of their country through the advantageous
amendment of a treaty. Meanwhile the country will be open to the
intrigues of the Colombians, and even to the military attacks upon the
frontier. "All these considerations would, of course, have no weight whatever
if the amendments were vital to our interests, but, as I said to you"*
yesterday, it was the opinion of all of us who have studied the matter
that every point made by the amendments was intended to be covered —
I do not say how successfully — by the provisions of the treaty itself.
This letter of Mr. Varilla's shows that the intentions of each Govern
ment were thoroughly understood by the other, exactly in the sense of the
amendments now proposed. I earnestly hope that our friends in the
Senate may see the strength of our present position if the treaty is
ratified without amendment, and the certain complications that will
arise if, after a long debate here, the treaty is put once more in the hands
of the Panamans for reconsideration and amendment.
"If the obj ect of the amendments, as some people say, is to get it rati- ]
fied by the new permanent Government, nothing is easier. I have no
doubt we can have a solemn resolution of that sort adopted by the Con
vention at any time. "Very sincerely yours,
"The Honorable S. M. Cullom, "John Hat.
United States Senate."
After nearly a month and a half of debate in executive
session, devoted to its consideration, the treaty was finally
ratified without amendment.
Considerable discussion arose over the question of the
recognition of Panama and the right of that country to make
the treaty at all. I contended in the Senate, in open as well
as executive session, that the new Repubhc of Panama had
a perfect right to make the treaty with the United States
25

386 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
because it was a complete, sovereign, and independent State,
The recognition given the new Government was the highest
recognition we could accord. It was not a recognition of
belligerency, which is only a recognition that war exists; it
was not a virtual recognition, which is a recognition only for
commercial purposes ; but it was what Pomeroy and Fillmore
define to be a formal recognition — that is, an absolute recog
nition of independence and sovereignty. The recognition of
the Republic was a complete and formal recognition of in
dependence, because the President had received an envoy-
extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary from that State.
The United States Senate was a party to that complete and
formal recognition, because we confirmed the nomination of
Mr, Buchanan as envoy-extraordinary and minister-pleni
potentiary to that country.
This ended the long fight over the construction of the
Panama Canal — at least, so far as it in any way involved
the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Relations.
With the ratification of the treaty, the subject was trans
ferred to the Committee on Interoceanic Canals, where, dur
ing every session, matters of more or less importance con
nected with the canal are considered.
I do not know whether or not it was wise to change from
the Nicaraguan to the Panama route. Senator Hanna and
Senator Spooner were responsible for the change; and time
alone wiU demonstrate whether we acted wisely.

CHAPTER XXVI
SANTO DOMINGO'S FISCAL AFFAIRS
FOR some years the Santo Domingo protocol and treaty
were before the Committee on Foreign Relations, and
in the Senate. They came before the Senate very suddenly.
On January 20, 1905, there appeared in the press what pur
ported to be a protocol, agreed to by Commander DiUingham
on the one hand, and Minister Sanchez of the Dominican
Repubhc on the other, by the terms of which the United
States was to take charge of the custom houses of the Do
minican Republic, adjust and liquidate its debt, and gen
erally to take charge of the fiscal affairs of the Repubhc.
By the terms of this protocol, it was to go into effect Feb
ruary 1, and there was no provision at all for Senatorial
action. Senator Beacon and other Democratic Senators be
came very much aroused over this as a usurpation of the
rights of the Senate. Resolutions were introduced, calhng
upon the State Department for information, and the sub
ject was considered by the committee at several meetings.
In the meantime the protocol of an agreement was sub
mitted to the Senate for ratification. It substantially em
bodied the Dilhngham-Sanchez agreement.
I confess that I too was considerably surprised at the
action of the State Department, and I called on Secretary
Hay one morning and asked to be informed as to the facts.
Secretary Hay stated that he would communicate with
me in writing, which he did on March 13, 1905, saying:
"In answer to your verbal request, I submit herewith a statement of
the facts with reference to the making of the Santo Domingo protocol,
387

388 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
and enclose herewith a copy of the protocol of January 20, 1905. That
protocol was not drawn up by the Department of State and was never
seen by any of its officials until it appeared in the newspapers on Janu
ary 22d last, as given out by the Dominican officials. The Department
has never authorized its signing; it never gave any instructions author
izing its signature; and no full powers had ever been given authorizing
the signature on the part of the United States Government. The Min
ister of Foreign Afi'airs of the Dominican Bepublic visited Washington
during the Spring of 1904, and during a stay of nearly three months
repeatedly solicited the assistance of the United States Government for
the restoration of order in the island and for the regeneration of his
country, but the responsible officials of the Department advised against
meeting his request, and the President, to whom the matter was referred,
decided against taking any action as long as it could wisely be avoided.
"The Dominican Government again brought the ma1i;er to the atten
tion of the United States Minister at Santo Domingo the latter part of
1904. In the meantime an investigation had been going on quietly
by our Government through Commander Dillingham, to obtain informa
tion as to the real condition in the island. After the President became
thus familiar with the situation there, and on the report of the United
States Minister, and after repeated requests for help from the Dominican
Government, the Department of State, on January 6, 1905, prepared a
cablegram setting forth the basis on which alone the United States would
be able to render assistance. . . .
"Neither that cablegram nor any other despatch whatsoever went further
than simply lay down a basis; and acting on this, but without instruc
tions authorizing it, the Dillingham-Sanchez protocol was signed. The
Department was advised by cable on January 20 that an arrangement
had been agreed to, and thereupon the Department officials at once set
to work to prepare a treaty; and its officials were actually engaged in
drafting one to send to Santo Domingo, when the publication of the pro
tocol of January 20 appeared. The Department at once cabled to Santo
Domingo to forward a copy of the protocol; and as soon as its text could
be received, the Department began work in making amendments and
adjusting terms on which the United States Government could consent
to act. As soon as the two Governments could arrive at substantial
agreement as to the terms, full powers were communicated to Dawson,
and the protocol now before the Senate was accordingly signed.
"In view of the misapprehensions that at once arose, growing out of

SANTO DOMINGO'S FISCAL AFFAIRS 389
publication of the protocol, which upon its face stated it was to go
into eff"ect February 1st, and from which it might naturally be inferred
it was intended to go into eflfect before the Senate could have an oppor
tunity to consider it, and without its having been referred to the Sen
ate for consideration, I considered the question of the propriety of
stating the fact that no instructions and no powers had even been granted
authorizing the signing of the protocol of January 20. The decision
was reached that repudiation of the action of Dillingham and Dawson
might be construed as a censure, and that it might cause ofi"ence to them
as well as to their friends, who might feel that when the circumstances
should become fully known, that Dillingham and Dawson were justi
fiable in assuming the responsibility they did in signing the protocol
instead of making a formal memorandum of the basis agreed on and
communicating it to the Department for the drafting of a treaty. Both
of these officials have a record of faithful and skilful service and compe
tency, and it was hoped when the facts should become more fully known,
a correct understanding of the actual situation would remove any ill ef
fects of previous misapprehension.
"The department has been advised that the protocol of January 20 was
given out for publication by the Dominican Government in order to
calm the popular mind on account of its uncertainty as to the character
of negotiations which were actually being carried on between the two
Governments. (Signed) John Hay."
From 1865, until the time that the United States assumed
the collection of customs, conditions in Santo Domingo were
about as bad as they could be in every respect. One revolu
tion succeeded another. There had been twenty-six different
Administrations since 1865, only one of which was brought
about by means of a regular election. Most of the others
were caused by revolutions, assassination, forced resigna
tions, and a general condition of anarchy. Debt after debt,
bond issue after bond issue, pUed up, each Administration
seemingly bent only on seeing how much actual cash could
be raised, utterly regardless of obligations assumed. None
of the principal and only a trifling portion of the interest
were paid, and it seems that the different Administrations

390 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
never had any intention of hquidating the obhgations of the
Repubhc. The principal portion of the bonds was held by
European creditors.
But finaUy the Santo Domingo Improvement Company,
an American corporation, succeeded as the fiscal agents of
the Repubhc, to float its bond issues. The improvement com
pany was displayed, and its claun was settled for f oilr million,
five hundred thousand doUars. Then a protocol was entered
into between the United States and Santo Domingo by which
the manner of payment was submitted to arbitration, our
arbitrators being Judge George Gray and John G. Car
lisle. An award was rendered providing that an agent of
the United States should take possession of certain custom
houses, in order to pay a debt which the Government of
Santo Domingo had acknowledged to be due an American
corporation. This did not satisfy foreign creditors, French, Belgian
and Italian, who had actually been given, by an agreement
with Santo Domingo, the right to coUect revenues at certain
custom houses. Santo Domingo appealed to the United
States and the foreign Governments threatened that if the
United States did not enforce some remedial plan, they
would be compelled to take action for the relief of their own
citizens, whose claims aggregated twenty million dollars.
Italian warships were already in Santo Domingo waters
ready to enforce their demands. This, briefly, was the con
dition of affairs when the protocol of 1905 was submitted
to the Senate for ratification.
For more than a quarter of a century we have had a pe
cuhar interest in Santo Domingo. As is well known, under
the Administration of President Grant a treaty was nego
tiated and sent to the Senate providing for the annexation of
Santo Domingo. Senator Sumner was Chairman of the

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

SANTO DOMINGO'S FISCAL AFFAIRS 391
Committee on Foreign Relations, and as such was able to
prevent the consideration of the treaty by the committee,
and its ratification by the Senate, Some one said that the
only objection that Charles Sumner had to the treaty was
that President Grant had suggested it first. This was one
of the reasons why Senator Sumner was deposed as chair
man of the Foreign Relations Committee, It would prob
ably have been better for the United States, and it certainly
would have been better for the Dominican Republic, if the
treaty had been ratified.
The protocol submitted to the Senate involved very large
responsibilities on the part of the United States, It pro
vided that the United States was to adjust all the obhgations
of the Repubhc, the arrangement of the payment, to pass
upon all claims of Santo Domingo, determine their amount
and vahdity, take charge of all the custom houses, and col
lect and disburse the customs receipts, giving to Santo
Domingo forty-five per cent of the customs receipts and de
voting the balance to the hquidation of her debts.
This protocol had the active opposition of the minority
on the committee and in the Senate and, in addition, such
conservative members as Senator Hale and other prominent
Republicans opposed it. We fought over it in committee
month after month; but finally, on March 10, 1905, it was
reported by me to the Senate with a large number of amend
ments. It was considered by the Senate, recommitted at the
end of the Congress, and again reported at the following
Congress, But those in favor of it became convinced that
we did not have the two-thirds necessary to ratify it, and
it was never brought to a vote. It was thought that noth
ing more would be heard of the Santo Domingo protocol;
but Senator Root, when Secretary of State, took the subject
up de novo, and made a new treaty, in which the United

392 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
States did not assume the broad obhgations it assumed under
the first one, and which was not generally of so complicated a
character. It imposed the duty upon the Santo Domingo Republic
itself of arriving at an adjustment with its creditors, con
ditioned only on the administration of the custom houses by
the United States.
In the meantime, an arrangement was made by American
banking houses to furnish the money to liquidate the debt;
the creditors were satisfied; the foreign debt was liquidated
on a basis of fifty per cent of the face value, and domestic
debts and other claims less than ten per cent. A loan of
twenty million dollars was made through Kuhn, Loeb &
Company, of which the Dominican Repubhc received nine
teen million dollars for the payment of its debts; seventeen
milhon dollars was used to satisfy thirty-one million, eight
thousand dollars worth of bonded debts, and the remaining
two million, two thousand dollars were to go for internal im
provements. There was some objection to the ratification of the treaty
negotiated by Secretary Root, but not of a very serious
character, and the treaty went through, even Senator Mor
gan not opposing it. I had the honor of reporting it and
having charge of it in the Senate.
The treaty has now been in force several years, and it
has proved even more advantageous than was expected when
it was ratified. It has restored order in the Repubhc, and
the country's debts are rapidly being hquidated. The time
may come when the United States may be compelled to take
similar action with some of the other repubhcs south of us.
Such action would be beneficial both to the United States
and to the people of those repubhcs.

CHAPTER XXVII
DIPLOMATIC AGREEMENTS BY PROTOCOL
DURING the public discussion of the Santo Domingo
question and the protocol by which the Santo Do-,
mingo Improvement Company claim was sent to arbitra
tion, and later during the consideration of it, there was
criticism of the Executive branch of the Government on ac
count of its disposition to make international agreements of
various kinds, and put them into operation without submit
ting them to the Senate, The practice became more general
under President McKinley and Secretary Hay than it had
under other Administrations, and it seemed the policy to get
along in every case, if possible, without Senatorial action.
It was a subject in which I took very great interest; I came
to the conclusion that the practice had become too general,
and I took occasion to tell Secretary Hay my views.
I found that the State Department, under different Ad
ministrations, had submitted private claims of our citizens
against foreign Governments to arbitration by protocol.
This has been the rule frequently adopted for very many
years. There were cases, I found, where the protocol sub
mitting a claim to arbitration had been sent to the Senate
and ratified, and it was the general rule that where a claim
is presented by a foreign Government agamst this Govern
ment, and the same is submitted to arbitration, it is done
by treaty.
I took occasion to look into the question of the effect of
an unratified protocol. It may be said generaUy that an
393

394 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
unratified protocol differs from a treaty in that the protocol
is not ratified by the Senate and is not a part of the supreme
law of the land. Under our system of government, treaties
occupy a unique position. They are not only binding inter
nationally, but the Constitution makes treaties a part of the
supreme law of the land — that is, a part of our own munici
pal law. A treaty, if of later date, and in conflict with a
law passed by Congress, repeals so much of the law as it
conflicts with; but an unratified protocol, or any other in
ternational agreement, no matter by what name it is called,
not submitted to the Senate, does not have the effect of a
treaty, as that term is defined in the Constitution. A
protocol is binding merely on the Executive who makes it,
and, as has been well said, such protocol is binding on the
administration in a moral sense only.
Nevertheless it has been the practice to make so-called
diplomatic agreements concerning very important matters
without their submission to the Senate.
For instance, the agreement of 1817, concerning the naval
forces on the Great Lakes, was considered in force and ob
served by the two Governments for a year or more before
it was submitted to the Senate at all. Horse Shoe Reef,
in Lake Erie, was transferred to the Government by a mere
exchange of notes between Lord Pahnerston and Mr.
Lawrence, our Minister to Great Britain; and I might refer
to a long hst of arbitrations, some of very great impor
tance, agreed to by unratified protocols. The very impor
tant protocol concluded by the powers after the Boxer
troubles in China was not sent to the Senate. Important
agreements are often made under the name of modus vivendi
without submission to the Senate.
Very little comment is to be found in books on inter
national law concerning protocols or diplomatic agreements.

AGREEMENTS BY PROTOCOL 395
There is no doubt that the Executive has the right to enter
into a protocol preliminary to the negotiation of a treaty.
This is a common practice. We have such protocols pre
liminary to treaties of peace. As to the clauns protocols,
the Executive Department has taken the position that the
President, who is ui charge of our foreign relations, has
wide discretion in settling disputes by diplomacy; and that
a claims protocol is in the nature of a settlement of a claim of
a citizen of our country against a foreign Government, by
diplomacy. The term "protocol," or diplomatic agreement, or modus
Vivendi, is not found in the Constitution, The Constitution
uses only one term in describing agreements between this
Government and foreign powers, and that is the term
"treaty"; and every agreement between the United States
and a foreign Government, to have the effect of a treaty,
to be a part of the supreme law of the land, must be rati
fied as the Constitution prescribes, by a two-thirds vote of the
Senate. When Mr. Root entered the State Department, it seems
to me that he stopped the practice very largely of making
diplomatic agreements. It seemed to be his pohcy, and a
very wise one, to seek, rather than avoid, consulting the
Senate, I know that under his administration agreements
were made in the form of a treaty and sent to the Senate
which other administrations woiUd consider they had a per
fect right to make without consulting the Senate, It will
be wise for future Administrations to adhere to Mr, Root's
pohcy in this respect.

CHAPTER XXVIII
ARBITRATION
DURING the year 1904, there was a great general
movement all over the world in the direction of arbi
tration treaties. Indeed, so general did it become, and so
universal was the form used, that it became known as the
Mondel or world treaty. The treaties were very brief, and
merely provided that differences which may arise of a legal
nature or relating to the interpretation of treaties existing
between the two contracting parties, and which it may not
have been possible to settle by diplomacy, shall be referred
to the permajient court of arbitration estabhshed at The
Hague; provided, nevertheless, that they do not affect the
vital interests, the independence, or the honor of the two
contracting States, and do not concern or involve the in
terests of third States. There was a second article in the
treaty, which provided that in each case a special agreement
should be concluded defining clearly the matter in dispute,
the scope of the powers of the arbitrator, the periods to be
fixed for the formation of the arbitral tribunal, and the sev
eral stages of the procedure.
President Roosevelt and Secretary Hay were very much
in favor of these treaties, and sent to the Senate, for its
ratification, treaties in substantially the foregoing form, with
France, Portugal, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany,
Italy, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Norway, and Mexico. The
treaties were considered with great care by the Committee
on Foreign Relations. We all favored arbitration in theory,
396

ARBITRATION 397
and I do not think any one wanted to oppose the treaties;
but a number of questions confronted us, I neither have
the right nor do I expect to detaU what has taken place m
the Committee on Foreign Relations; but I can say that the
subject was discussed m the press, whether such treaties
would not compel us to consider as matters for arbitration
claims against the States, growing out of the CivU War and
Reconstruction. In the judgment of some, such claims were proper sub
jects of arbitration under this Mondel form of treaty.
President Roosevelt, who was following closely the treaties
in the Senate, and with whom I had talked concerning these
objections, wrote me a letter, which he marked personal,
but which appeared in the afternoon papers almost before
the letter reached me, it having been given out at the White
House, in which he said:
"January 10, 1905.
"My dear Senator Cullom:
"I notice in connection with the general arbitration treaties now be
fore the Senate, that suggestions have been made to the efi^ect that
under them it might be possible to consider as matters for arbitration
claims against certain States of the Union in reference to certain State
debts. I write to say, what of course you personally know, that under
no conceivable circumstances could any such construction of the treaty
be for a moment entertained by any President. The holders of State
debts take them with full knowledge of the Constitutional limitations
upon their recovery through any action of the National Government,
and must rely solely on State credit. Such a claim against a State
could under no condition be submitted by the general Government as a
matter for arbitration, any more than such a claim against a county or
municipality could thus be submitted for arbitration. The objection to
the proposed amendment on the subject is that it is a mere matter
of surplusage, and that it is very undesirable, when the form of these
treaties has already been agreed to by the several Powers concerned, need
lessly to add certain definitions which aff'ect our own internal polity
only; which deal with the matter of the relation of the Federal Govern-

398 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
ment to the States which it is of course out of the question ever to
submit to the arbitration of any outside tribunal; and which it is cer
tainly absurd and probably mischievous to treat as possible to be raised
by the President or by any foreign power. No one would even think of
such a matter as being one for arbitration or for any diplomatic nego
tiation whatever. Moreover, these treaties run only for a term of five
years; until the end of that period they wiU certainly be interpreted in
accordance with the view above expressed.
"Very truly yours,
"(Signed) Theodore Roosevelt.
"Hon. S. M. Cullom, U. S. Senate."
But a more serious question was met when we came to
consider the second article of the treaty, which provided that
in each case a special agreement should be made defining
clearly the matter in dispute, the scope and powers of the
arbitrators, and the periods to be fixed for the formation of
the arbitral tribunal. The difiiculty confronting us was,
whether it was the intention to submit the special agree
ments referred to in article two for the ratification of the
Senate. It was the unanimous opinion that these special
agreements should be submitted to the Senate.
I beheve that as the treaties were drafted it would be the
Constitutional duty of the President to have each special
agreement submitted for ratification, because the article
provided that "the high contracting parties shaU conclude
such special agreement," The Senate is a part of the treaty-
making power, and would be included in the term "high con
tracting parties." But the wording of article two left some
doubt as to the intention of those negotiating the treaty;
and then, again, it might have been claimed that article one,
agreeing to arbitrate the questions therein enumerated, might
be construed as an agreement in advance on the part of the
Senate, to give to the Executive the general power to make
arbitration agreements without reference to the Senate, Of

ARBITRATION 399
course, the Senate, even if it so desired, could not thus dele
gate the treaty-making power to the Executive alone.
There was so much difference of opinion that I took oc
casion to submit the question to both President Roosevelt
and Secretary Hay, whether it was the intention on the part
of the executive department to send these special agree
ments to the Senate for ratification. They both replied that
it was not; that one of the purposes of the Executive in
making the treaties was to enable the Administration to go
ahead and make the special agreements without consulting
the Senate,
Under these circumstances, it was almost the unanimous
judgment of the Senate that the treaties should be amended^
by striking out the words "special agreement" and substi
tuting the word "treaty," a Constitutional term about which
there could be no doubt. I considered at the time that the
declaration and agreement contained in these treaties in
favor of arbitration were just as strong, just as broad, and
just as obligatory with the proposed amendment as without
it. It was an agreement on the part of the President and
Senate that the President and Senate, the treaty-making
power, would submit differences to arbitration.
The Senate was severely criticised at the time for being
too technical and standing in the way of arbitration; but in
my judgment it was not a trifling question. It could not
be put aside. Even if the amendment had not been adopted,
the President, if he foUowed the Constitution, should have
submitted these special agreements to the Senate for rati
fication; but he took the positive stand that he would not
submit them, and nothing remained for the Senate to do
but to assert and uphold its rights as a part of the treaty-
making power, and adopt the amendment to which I have
referred.

400 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
I do not think I violate any of the rules of etiquette by
quoting here President Roosevelt's letter written to me
after he had learned, through the press, that the Senate Com
mittee on Foreign Relations had amended the treaties.
"White House, Washington,
"February 10, 1905.
"My dear Senator Cullom:
"I learn that the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has re
ported the arbitration treaties to the Senate, amending them by substitut
ing for the word "agreement" in the second article the word "treaty."
The eflfect of the amendment is to make it no longer possible, as be
tween its contracting parties, to submit any matter whatever to arbitra
tion without first obtaining a special treaty to cover the case. This will
represent not a step forward but a step backward. If the word "agree
ment" were retained it will be possible for the Department of State to
do as, for instance, it has already done under The Hague treaty in the
Pious Fund arbitration case with Mexico, and submit to arbitration such
subordinate matters as by treaty the Senate had decided could be left
to the Executive to submit under a jurisdiction limited by the general
treaty of arbitration. If the word "treaty" be substituted the result
is that every such agreement must be submitted to the Senate; and these
general arbitration treaties would then cease to be such, and indeed in
their amended form they amount to a specific pronouncement against the
whole principle of a general arbitration treaty.
"The Senate has, of course, the absolute right to reject or to amend
in any way it sees fit any treaty laid before it, and it is clearly the
duty of the Senate to take any step which, in the exercise of its best
judgment, it deems to be for the interest of the Nation. If, however,
in the judgment of the President a given amendment nullifies a proposed
treaty it seems to me that it is no less clearly his duty to refrain from
endeavoring to secure a ratification by the other contracting power or
powers, of the amended treaty; and after much thought I have come to
the conclusion that I ought to write and tell you that such is my judg
ment in this case.
"As amended, we would have a treaty of arbitration which in effect
will do nothing but recite that this Government will when it deems it
wise hereafter enter into treaties of arbitration. Inasmuch as we, of
course, now have the power to enter into any treaties of arbitration.

ARBITRATION 401
and inasmuch as to pass these amended treaties does not in the smallest
degree facilitate settlements by arbitration, to make them would in no
way further the causeofjijternational peace. It would not, in my
judgment, be wise or expedient to try to secure the assent of the other
contracting powers to the amended treaties, for even if such consent
were secured we would still remain precisely where we were before, save
where the situation may be changed a little for the worse. There would
not even be the slight benefit that might obtain from the more general
statement that we intend hereafter, when we can come to an agreement
with foreign powers as to what shall be submitted, to enter into arbi
tration treaties; for we have already, when we ratified The Hague
treaty with the various signatory powers, solemnly declared such to be
our intention; and nothing is gained by reiterating our adherence to
the principle, while refusing to provide any means of making our inten
tion effectual. In the amended form the treaties contain nothing ex
cept such expression of barren intention, and indeed, as compared with
what has already been provided in The Hague arbitration treaty, they
probably represent not a step forward but a slight step backward, as
regards the question of international arbitration. As such I do not think
they should receive the sanction of this Government. Personally it is
not my opinion that this Government lacks the power to enter into gen
eral treaties of arbitration, but if I am in error, and if this Government
has no power to enter into such general treaties, then it seems to me
that it is better not to attempt to make them, rather than to make the at
tempt in such shape that they will accomplish literally nothing what
ever when made. "Sincerely yours,
"(Signed) Theodore Roosevelt.
"Hon. S. M. Cullom, U. S. Senate."
This letter was read to the Senate, and notwithstanding
the positive declaration by Mr. Roosevelt that he would not
ask any of the foreign Governments to consent to the amend
ment made by the Senate, the treaties were amended and
ratified by the Senate,
I told the President in advance of the action of the Senate
what would be done, and he rather curtly remarked that
the matter was closed, and that he would not ask the other
26

402 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Governments to agree to the treaties as amended. And no
further action was taken on the treaties.
When Secretary Root entered the State Department he
took an entirely different view of the subject. I do not
know whether Mr, Root was of the opinion that the Senate
was right in insisting on what it considered to be its duty
in amending the treaties, but I do know that he negotiated
arbitration treaties with Austria, China, Costa Rica, Den
mark, France, Great Britain, Haiti, Italy, Japan, Mexico,
The Netherlands, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Sal
vador, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, every one of which
treaties contained the stipulation that the special agreements
referred to in article two were to be made by the President
of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of
the Senate, These treaties were promptly ratified and are
a part of the supreme law of the land to-day.
Secretary Root was very wise in negotiating and send
ing to the Senate this series of Mondel or world treaties.
All the Nations of the world were agreeing to these treaties
among themselves, and it would have been a rather remark
able condition if the United States, of all the great Nations,
should have remained aloof. I do not believe that Mr. Root
had any difficulty in obtaining the consent of the signatory
powers to the treaties, with the stipulation that the special
agreement should come to the Senate for ratification; but
for some reason or other, at the time when the first treaties
were under consideration. President Roosevelt, as indicated
in the letter which I have quoted, and probably more par
ticularly Secretary Hay, were both very much incensed at
the action of the Senate, and permitted the first treaties to
expire. This general movement in the direction of arbitration was
one of the most important events of the beginning of the

ARBITRATION 403
twentieth century. The importance of the adoption of this
principle by the Nations of the world cannot be over
estimated. It has been well said that international arbitra
tion is the apphcation of law and of judicial methods to the
determination of disputes between Nations, and that this
juristic idea in the settlement of international disputes is
largely an outgrowth of the international relations, the new
and advanced civihzation of the nineteenth century,
I do not believe the time wiU ever come when wars will
cease, — the United States obtained its independence by means
of revolution and war; but peace and arbitration have been
advocated by the great majority of the enlightened states
men of the world. There were many great wars during the
nineteenth century, including our own Civil War, the great
est, the bloodiest, recorded in aU history ; but during this cen
tury arbitration has made wonderful strides. In the same
period there were four hundred and seventy-one instances of
international settlements involving the apphcation of the
principle of international arbitration. Many of these arbitra
tions were of the greatest importance; and I remark here
that in the number of arbitrations and the importance of the
questions involved, the United States and Great Britain have
unquestionably led the way. In fact, smce the War of 1812,
every subject of dispute between the two Nations, which it
was found impossible to settle by diplomacy, has been sub
mitted to arbitration. Only within a few years the Alaskan
boundary was settled by arbitration, and within the past
year a fisheries dispute, a cause of embarrassment since
1818, was submitted to The Hague tribunal and a decision
rendered, which, though not entirely satisfactory to the
United States, we accepted as the final settlement.
We have uniformly adopted arbitration as a means of
settlement for disputes with the Central and South Ameri-

404 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
can Republics. With Mexico the treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, of 1848, stipulates that future disputes between
the two republics shall be submitted to arbitration. We
have a general arbitration treaty for the settlement of
pecuniary claims with all the Central and South American
Repubhcs, At the first Hague Conference, which met in
1899, a general arbitration treaty was agreed to. It was
a non-compulsory arbitration, and at the time represented
the farthest steps in advance in the direction of arbitration
which aU the Nations were willing to take together. That
treaty was perfected at the second Hague Conference of
1907; and, in addition, a series of treaties were agreed to
concerning the opening of hostihties, the laws and customs
of war on land, the rights and duties of neutrals, submarine
contact mines, bombardment by naval forces, the right of
capture in naval war, neutral powers in naval war, an inter
national prize court, and the discharge of projectiles from
balloons, and the Geneva Convention was revised. Aside
from the prize court treaty, concerning which there were
Constitutional objections, these treaties were ratified by the
Senate, the United States being one of the first Nations of
the world to take this step. Unhke the first Hague Con
ference, the South American Repubhcs participated in the
second Conference, and it was the first time in aU the world's
history that the representatives of aU the independent Na
tions in the world gathered together in the interest of peace
and agreed on certain principles which should guide them
in the conduct of war, if war must come.
I take pride in the fact that the treaties agreed to at the
first Hague Conference, and the treaties agreed to at the
second Hague Conference, and the series of Mondel treaties,
were reported from the Committee on Foreign Relations,

ARBITRATION 405
and ratified by the Senate during my chairmanship of the
Committee on Foreign Relations.
The last step to date in the interest of the peaceful settle
ment of international disputes has been taken by President
Taft in the arbitration treaties between the United States
and Great Britain and between the United States and
France, both of which were signed by the representatives of
this and the other two Governments in August, 1911, The
ban of secrecy has been removed from these documents, and
I feel at hberty to make brief mention of them, although,
as they still are pending in the Senate, I should not feel dis
posed to discuss them at length. The treaties mark an
advance over the arbitration treaties of 1908 in that they
bring into arbitration a much wider range of subjects than
is covered by the older conventions. In the latter, questions
of "national honor," "vital interest," etc., were excluded
from consideration, whereas, under the pending agreements,
"all differences which are justiciable in their nature by
reason of being susceptible of decision by the application of
the principles of law and equity," are made subject to arbi
tration under the rules laid down in the documents.
There also is a provision granting to the Commission
created by the treaties the right to determine whether any
given question presented to it may be considered justiciable
under the language of the treaties. This latter provision is
regarded by the President and Secretary Knox as highly de
sirable in the interest of the expedition of business, but it
met such opposition in the Committee on Foreign Relations
that its ehmination from the treaties was recommended to
the Senate. The objection to the provision is based upon
the theory that it would deprive the Senate of its constitu
tional right to pass upon all treaties. I have not accepted

406 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
this Aaew, because I do not beheve in hampering working
bodies when such a course can be avoided without doing vio
lence to the fundamental law as I believe in this case it can be.
With this provision expunged, the Committee is largely
favorable to the treaties, and they are now pending in the
Senate, It, however, has become evident that they cannot
be speedily acted upon, and as I write, in the closing days
of the special session, called at the beginning of the Sixty-
second Congress, the indications are strong that they will be
compelled to go over to the regular session in December for
final consideration. What their fate then may be no one
can foretell.
It is well understood that if these treaties should be rati
fied they will be followed by similar agreements with the
other civihzed nations of the world. The spirit of arbitra
tion has taken strong hold on our big-hearted and peace-
loving President, and I am confident that he will leave no
stone unturned to prornote good will among nations as he
is wont to do among men. Whatever differences of opinion
there may be, regarding the details of any particular nego
tiation, no person of whatever party or creed can doubt
President Taft's splendid patriotism and devotion to the
highest ideals of citizenship. I am sure that these treaties
have been inspired by these sentiments, and, being honest
and benevolent in their purpose, the principle they embody
must prevaU in the end.

CHAPTER XXIX
TITLES AND DECORATIONS FROM FOREIGN POWERS
^HE Constitution of the United States provides:
"No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and no per
son holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the
consent of Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of
any kind whatever from any king, prince, or foreign State."
When I became chairman of the Committee on Foreign
Relations, there were numerous bills pending, and numerous
requests submitted through the State Department, for au
thority, on the part of officers of the United States, to ac
cept gifts and decorations from foreign Governments. At
first I was disposed to consent to the report and passage
of such biUs, and during the first year or two they were re
ported from the committee from time to time and passed
in the Senate. The House did not act upon the individual
bills, but a so-called "omnibus bill" was passed in the House
containing aU the bills that previously had been passed by
the Senate, and in addition quite a number of House bills.
I had not realized until then how extensive the practice had
become, and I thereupon determined to use what influence
I had to put a stop to it. Since then but two decorative
biUs of an exceptionaUy meritorious nature, one in favor of
Captain T. deWitt Wilcox, and one in favor of Admiral
B. H. McCalla, have been enacted by Congress.
I thoroughly disapprove of the practice, and wanted to put
an effectual stop to it. At the same time the requests came
407

408 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
pouring in from session to session, and eertain Senators,
both on the committee and others who were not members
of it, insisted and urged that favorable action be taken in
behalf of officers of the United States in whom they were
interested. After more than two hundred requests had ac
cumulated, I determined to appoint a subcommittee to con
sider the whole matter and report to the committee such cases
as were meritorious, or to adopt a general rule against the
whole practice. As chairman of that subcommittee, I ap
pointed Mr. Root, and with him Mr. Lodge, Mr. Carter,
Mr. Bacon, and Mr. Stone, The subcommittee, on March
10, 1910, submitted its report, which was adopted by the
fuU committee and submitted to the Senate, Besides re
viewing at considerable length the reasons for legislation, the
report included the following salient features :
First, the existence of the prohibition in the Constitution
indicates that the presumption is against the acceptance of
the present, emolument, office, or title. A habit of general
and indiscriminate consent by Congress upon such applica
tions would tend practically to nullify the Constitutional
provision, which is based upon an apprehension, not without
foundation, that our officers may be affected in the perform-'
ance of their duties by the desire to receive such recognition
from other Governments, A strong support for the view
that the practice should not be allowed to become general is
to be found in the fact that the Government of the United
States does not confer decorations or titles, or — unless in
very exceptional cases — make presents to the officers of
other Governments, The report then recommended that the
following five rules be observed :
"1. That no decoration should be received unless possibly when it is
conferred for some exceptional, extraordinary, and highly meritorious act,
justifying beyond dispute a special mark of distinction.

TITLES AND DECORATIONS 409
2. That no presents should be received except such articles as are ap
propriate for souvenirs and marks of courtesy and appreciation, and hav
ing an intrinsic value not disproportionate to such a purpose.
S. That the acceptance of presents within the limitation above stated
should be further limited to cases in which some exceptional service or
special relation justifying the mark of courtesy exists between the re
cipient and the Government offering the present.
'4. That no offer of any other title or emolument or office should be
considered. "5. We consider that membership in learned societies, even though the
appointment thereto may have a quasi Governmental origin, should not be
considered as coming within the Constitutional provision, and it may well
be that as to certain triffing gifts, such as photographs, the rule of de
minimis lex non curat should be deemed to apply."
I agreed to the report of the subcommittee and agreed to
the bill, permitting certain officers to accept the presents
tendered to them, where there were good reasons therefor;
but I am free to say that I was somewhat disappointed that
the subcommittee had not reported in favor of abolishing
the practice entirely, instead of discriminating between
presents and decorations, as they did.
The bill passed the Senate without debate and without ob
jection. It went to the House, and the House Committee
on Foreign Affairs, through Mr. Denby, of Michigan, sub
mitted a most admirable report, which was far more in hne
with my own ideas than was the report of the Senate Com
mittee on Foreign Relations. I agree with the conclusions
arrived at by the Committee on Foreign Affairs so thoroughly
that I am going to give most of that report here:
". . . The subcommittee expresses the hope that this adverse dis
position of these bills, which contains items fairly representative of the
great majority of the requests for Congressional sanction for the ac
ceptance of foreign orders, decorations, or presents, by officials of the
United States, will be regarded as notice to officials of the United States
that this committee at least, and it is hoped all future committees dealing

410 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
with this subject-matter, will refuse to consider such requests, except as
hereinafter noted.
"The Committee of Foreign Affairs has been required to devote much
time to the consideration of bills to grant permission to accept such
gifts. The committee has in the past very generally declined to recom
mend favorably any such legislation, except in the case of decorations of
fered to American citizens by official or guaji-official scientific associations
for eminent scientific achievements."
Article 1, section 9, paragraph 8, of the Constitution of
the United States is quoted, and the report proceeds :
"The Congress has been frequently importuned since the adoption
of the Constitution to grant its consent for the acceptance of orders,
decorations, and presents offered to officials of our Government, fre
quently upon pretexts the most trivial and for services the most com
monplace, when services of any kind were rendered at all. A glance
at the requests now on file, summarized in Calendar No. 378, which ac
companies S. 7096, will show that the offers of foreign gifts, decora
tions, etc., have been made in the great majority of cases to officials for
services in the direct line of their duty, and which in themselves, in the
maj ority of cases, were not deserving of any special commendation. Fol
lowing a practice which, because of reciprocal considerations, probably
operates satisfactorily between foreign powers, the Governments of the
world frequently tender to our officers decorations or presents upon such
occasions as the first visit of a fleet to a foreign power, or the presence
of individual officers representing our Government at reviews and pub
lic ceremonials, and to our diplomatic officials upon the termination of
their missions, or upon occasions of rejoicing, jubilees of sovereigns,
etc. While the practice of exchanging such graceful souvenirs is
not unpleasing among the nations which recognize and reciprocate the
courtesy, it is entirely inappropriate that officials of this Government
should accept, or desire to accept, such presents.
"The prohibition of the Constitution appears to have been put there
out of a well-founded desire to safeguard our officials from the insidious
infiuence of a natural but not desirable sense of obligation toward the
powers donor. The history of nations abounds with instances of the giv
ing of rich presents to retiring ambassadors and ministers upon the
conclusion of treaties or the satisfactory termination of negotiations.

TITLES AND DECORATIONS 411
There can be no doubt of the danger of recognizing that the agent of
one Government may properly be compensated by another to which he
is accredited. Another and obvious objection to permitting our officials
to receive gifts or decorations from foreign powers is that, having no
orders of nobility and no decorations in this country, and not recognizing
the propriety of offering to officials of other powers, we can in no way
i' reciprocate. It is beneath the dignity of the American Government to
receive, through its representatives, presents for which it can make no
return. The Constitutional prohibition is, in the opinion of the subcom
mittee, a wise one, to which Congress should very seldom permit any
exception. "Therefore the subcommittee earnestly hopes that the Committee may
put itself on record so unequivocally in this instance as to clearly indi
cate that it will not, except under circumstances the most unusual and
extraordinary, grant permission to any official of the Government to re
ceive such presents.
"To that end the subcommittee further recommends that this report
may, by resolution, be adopted as expressing the view of the members of
the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives ; that
this report may be printed, and that a copy may be communicated to the
Secretary of State. "(Signed) Edwin Denby,
H. W. Palmer,
H. D. Flood, Subcommittee.
"Adopted by the Committee of Foreign Affairs, April 7, IQIO.
"Frederic L. Davis, Clerk."
I have no doubt that these two reports, first the report of
the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, and sec
ond, the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the
House, taken together, wiU effectually stop the apphcation
for permission to accept both presents and decorations from
foreign Governments. Indeed, I do not think that the Sec
retary of State wiU again consent to apply to Congress in
behalf of officers who have been tendered presents and decora
tions.

CHAPTER XXX
ISLE OF PINES, DANISH WEST INDIES, AND ALGECIRAS
FOR a number of years there was considerable contro
versy over the ownership of the Isle of Pines, a small
island separated from Cuba by about thirty miles of water,
containing 1200 square mUes. This dot of land was not of
the shghtest account to the United States, so far as I could
see; but after the treaty of peace with Spain, a number of
Americans purchased land there for the purpose of estab
lishing homes. When the United States withdrew from
Cuba and the Cuban Repubhc was estabhshed, and the flag
of Cuba was extended over the Island of Pines, those Ameri
can residents protested and insisted that the island belonged
to the United States. They had considerable ground for
this contention, as Mr. Meikeljohn, when Assistant Secre
tary of War, had written a number of letters in which he
stated that the Isle of Pines had been ceded to the United
States by Spain, and therefore was a part of our territory, al
though attached at the time to the division of Cuba for
governmental purposes.
The treaty of peace provided in article one that Spain
rehnquishes all claims of sovereignty over, and title to, Cuba;
and in article two, that Spain cedes to the United States the
Island of Porto Rico, and other islands under Spanish
sovereignty in the West Indies, and the Island of Guam in
the Marianas or Ladrones,
A strict construction of the treaty of peace with Spain
412

ISLE OF PINES 413
would probably give the island to the United States under
article two,
Cuba, however, insisted that the island was a part of Cuban
territory, but it was provided in article six of the Piatt
amendments that the title to the island should be left to
future adjustment by treaty.
Cuba granted to the United States two very valuable
coahng stations, and the United States on its part agreed to
enter into a treaty by which we should rehnquish whatever
title we might have to the Island of Pines in favor of Cuba.
A rather interesting incident occurred in connection with
this treaty which I beheve I violate no confidence in now de
tailing, as both Presidents have retired from office. Presi
dent Roosevelt was very anxious that the treaty be ratified;
he was also most sohcitous that we should retain friendly
relations with the Republic of Cuba, and felt that the island
was not of the slighest importance to the United States
from any standpoint, declaring that he would not accept it.
I was at the White House one day when the treaty was be
fore the committee, and he showed me a letter written to him
by President Palma, of Cuba, and my recoUection is that he
gave me a copy of it for such use as I might desire to make.
Mr. Palma urged in that letter that the Senate act favorably
on the treaty, because if it did not his reelection as President
of the Cuban Repubhc would thereby be endangered.
So much opposition to the treaty developed in the Senate
that I deemed it useless to endeavor to bring it to a vote; and
really, as I look at it now, there is very little use for the
treaty at aU, as Cuba is and has been exercising jurisdiction
over the Isle of Pines. Cuba must be givuig the island a
good government for the American residents, as I have
heard nothing from the island for several years.

414 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
It was during the Fifty-seventh Congress that the treaty
with Denmark, providing for the purchase by the United
States of the Danish West Indies, consisting of the Islands
St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix, came before the com
mittee, I reported the treaty to the Senate and urged, and
finally secured, its ratification.
The United States by this treaty agreed to pay five mil
lion doUars to Denmark for the islands.
We first attempted to purchase the islands in 1865, dur
ing the administration of President Lincoln, Secretary
Seward was particularly anxious that the United States
shoiUd acquire them, and a treaty was negotiated and agreed
to by Denmark, The treaty was not acted upon during the
administration of President Johnson, and because President
Grant was particularly anxious for its ratification, Charles
Sumner, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations
(as in the case of the Santo Domingo treaty), opposed its
ratification by the Senate, and it was defeated.
President Grant showed a far-sighted policy in favoring
the acquisition of every foot of territory which we could
secure in the West Indies. The Danish islands are of great
importance to the United States in a strategic way, whether
the strategy be military or commercial, St. Thomas is the
natural point of call for all European trade bound for the
West Indies, Central America, or Northern South America.
These islands, together with Porto Rico, occupy the north
eastern corner of the Caribbean Sea; and they are of more
importance now than ever, because of the fact that we are
constructing the Isthmian canal. In view of that canal, and
the European settlements in South America, every addi
tional acquisition by the United States in the West Indies is
invaluable. Porto Rico is difficult of defence. The harbors
are poor, while the harbor in the Island of St. Thomas can

ISLE OF PINES 415
be made one of the very best in the West Indies, Our own
officers who mvestigated the subject reported that the Island
of St. Thomas possesses aU the natural advantages of a sec
ond Gibraltar,
The Danish Parhament, after a long debate, declined to
ratify the treaty of 1901 which had been ratified by the Sen
ate, and for the present at least the subject is in abeyance,
I still hope, before I shall retire from the Committee on
Foreign Relations, that the United States may succeed in
purchasing these valuable islands.
During the Winter of 1906 there occurred in the Senate
a very interesting debate over the appointment of repre
sentatives of the United States to participate in the so-called
Algeciras Conference, held in Algeciras in 1905 to consider
conditions in Morocco, No action was taken by the Senate,
and in due course the act or treaty agreed to at that con
ference was submitted to the Senate for ratification.
I do not think there can be the slightest doubt that Presi-
den Roosevelt had full authority to appoint the delegates on
the part of the United States, and that he was thoroughly
justified in contending that it was not only the right but the
duty of the United States to participate in this conference.
The action of the President in accepting the invitation to the
conference and appointing the delegates, and the very im
portant part therein which he took personaUy, in addition to
the interest manifested through his representatives, very
properly received the commendation of the people of this
country and of the whole European world.
The Moroccan Empire was one of the earhest and most
interesting of the world's Governments, During the latter
part of the eighteenth century Morocco occupied the at
tention of the maritime nations of the civihzed world, as it

416 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
was the home of the Barbary pirates who preyed upon the
commerce of aU the nations. The United States itself paid
tribute for the purchase of immunity from these pirates.
One of our earliest treaties, made before the adoption of the
Constitution in 1787, was a treaty of peace and friendship
with Morocco. We entered into several treaties with Mo
rocco later, and joined in treaties concerning that country
in 1865 and 1880 with Austria, Belgium, Spain, France,
Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, and other Nations,
For many years Great Britain and France have claimed to
have superior rights in Morocco, and it has seemed to be the
desire of France to annex it. Germany has intervened, and
the country has been a bone of contention among the Euro
pean Nations, In 1904 Great Britain and France, by a
secret treaty, agreed that France should have the dominat
ing control in Morocco, and that Great Britain should domi
nate in Egypt, Germany opposed the French Protectorate
and insisted that an international conference of the powers
should be caUed. At one time it seemed that war was in
evitable, and it probably was averted only by the Algeciras
Conference. The United States was asked to participate,
as we had participated in the conference of 1880. If we
had not accepted the invitation there would have been no
conference, as two of the great powers had served notice that
all nations represented at the 1880 conference must partici
pate in the Algeciras Conference, or they would withdraw.
Our participation was in the interest of averting a European
war. The General Act or Treaty agreed to at that conference
was a lengthy and important one. Its details are not of so
much importance, as our delegates signed it under a signif
icant reservation that we would not assume any obligation
or responsibility for the enforcement of the Act.

ISLE OF PINES 417
When it came to the Senate, there was quite a contest over
its ratification. We could not secure its endorsement dur
ing the session which closed the first of July, 1906, but we
were able to reach an agreement that it should be voted on
in committee and in the Senate during the month of Decem
ber following.
President Roosevelt was very much concerned about its
ratification, and on June 26, 1906, when it seemed pretty
certain that the Senate would adjourn without acting on the
general Act, he wrote me this quite characteristic letter :
"White House, Washington, June 26, 1906.
"My dear Senator Cullom:
"Having reference to the letter which Secretary Root wrote you yes
terday about the Algeciras Convention, I can only add that I earnestly
hope this matter will receive favorable report from the committee at
this session. I am literally unable to understand how any human being
can find anything whatever to object to in this treaty; and to reject it
would mean that for the first time since the adoption of the Constitution
this Government will be without a treaty with Morocco. It seems in
credible that there should be a serious purpose to put us in such a posi
tion. "Sincerely yours,
"(Signed) Theodore Roosevelt."
The General Act would probably not have been ratified
by the Senate had we not agreed on the form of the resolu
tion of ratification. That resolution provided:
"Resolved further, that the Senate, as a part of this act of ratification,
understands that the participation of the United States in the Algeciras
Conference and in the formation and adoption of the general Act and
Protocol which resulted therefrom, was with the sole purpose of preserv
ing and increasing its commerce in Morocco, the protection as to life,
liberty, and property of its citizens residing and travelling therein, and
of aiding by its friendly offices and efforts in removing friction and
controversy which seemed to menace the peace between powers signatory
with the United States to the treaty of 1880, all of which are on terms
of amity with this Government, and without purpose to depart from the
27

418 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
traditional American foreign policy which forbids participation by the
United States in the settlement of political questions which are entirely
European in their scope."
After this form of resolution had been agreed to by those
favoring and those opposing the treaty, I showed it to Presi
dent Roosevelt, He expressed his satisfaction with it, an^
the Act was ratified by the Senate,
I have endeavored to cover only a very few of the more
important matters which have come before the Committee
on Foreign Relations since I have been its chairman. The
treaties before the committee have embraced almost every
subject of contract between two independent Nations, Nu
merous treaties involving extradition, boundaries, naturali
zation, claims, sanitation, trade-marks, consular and diplo
matic friendship, and commerce, and many other subjects,
have been before the committee and have been acted upon
and ratified by the Senate, During the period of which I
am now writing, I believe that we have ratified treaties with
almost every independent Nation of the world. The many
important matters now pending, or of more recent date, I
am not at liberty to refer to, the in j miction of secrecy not
yet having been removed.
The Foreign Relations Committee wiU continue in the
future, as it has in the past, one of the Senate's foremost
committees.

CHAPTER XXXI
CONGRESS UNDER THE TAFT ADMINISTRATION
IT had been my intention to close these recoUections with
the beginning of the Taft Administration, but their
pubhcation has been deferred untU the Administration ex
tended so far that it seems proper to bring my observations
up to date. I am especially impelled to this course by the
fact that the present era has developed a very marked change
in the character of the Senate, and, to a hmited extent at
least, in the trend of political thought in the country at large
¦ — a change which should be noted in any permanent writing
dealing with the period. Still, I have no intention of enter
ing upon a detaUed consideration of men or of conditions.
My only purpose is to make brief mention of these condi
tions and to refer in very general terms to some who have
given direction to recent public affairs.
Observers of pubhc events and students of pohtical ques
tions probably were given their first insight into the tendency
of the times through the resignation from the Senate of
Honorable John C. Spooner, of Wisconsin, which was ten
dered March 30, 1907. I have made frequent reference to
Mr. Spooner's connection with the Senate, and I do not
intend to say more of him here than that he stood for con
servatism and the old traditions. Sensitive to a degree to
the promptings of his conscience, and still desirous of repre
senting the sentiment of his constituents, apparently he
found himself embarrassed by the growth in his State of
- 419

420 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
what, without intending any disrespect, I may designate as
"La FoUette-ism,"
Gradually Hon, Robert M, La FoUette, who previously
had served several terms in the House of Representatives,
had been forging his way to the front in Wisconsin politics
until in 1905 he was elected to serve as Mr, Spooner's col
league in the Senate. He stood for radicahsm in the Re
publican party as against Mr. Spooner's conservatism; he
was the advocate of many innovations and experiments,
while Mr. Spooner held to the old and tried forms of pro
cedure in public affairs. Whether Mr. La FoUette was the
leader of this new propaganda or the follower of a growing
sentiment in the State does not matter to this record. It is
sufficient to know that apparently Wisconsin public opinion
did not support Mr. Spooner to a sufficient extent to justify
a man of his conscientious disposition in retaining his place
as the representative of the people of that State in the
highest legislative body of the Nation. Moreover, splendid
lawyer that he was, he knew that he could find much more
lucrative employment outside the haUs of legislation, and
he felt the need of making adequate provision for his family.
In consequence of these conditions, he left the Senate, and
thus opened the way for the more rapid promotion in that
body of the new school of politics for which his coUeague
stood, a school which, while it has found some exponents in the
House of Representatives, is not comparatively so largely
represented there as in the Senate,
The La FoUette group is designated by its own disciples
as "Progressivism," whereas by outsiders it is generally
referred to as "Insurgency," Mr, La FoUette came to the
Senate with the Fifty-ninth Congress, and no sooner had he
entered that body than he began to propound his doctrines
there. At first, he stood alone, but natural mchnation soon

ELIHU ROOT

TAFT ADMINISTRATION 421
drew to him such of the older Senators as the late Jonathan
P, Dolhver, of Iowa, and Moses E, Clapp, of Minnesota,
both of them men of splendid attamments and of high moral
character. With the incoming of Mr. Taft as President
came also Albert B. Cummins, of Iowa, Joseph L. Bristow,
of Kansas, and Coe I. Crawford, of South Dakota, aU of
whom joined heartily with Mr. La FoUette in his efforts to
shape legislation.
During the Sixty-first Congress, the tariff law was revised.
The Dingley Act of 1897 had grown unpopular in some
portions of the country, because it was believed that under
it the duties were not equitably distributed, and the cam
paign of 1908 had been fought upon a platform declar
ing for a revision. When, therefore. Congress met in
March, 1909, being called together in extraordinary session
by President Taft, every one recognized the necessity for
entering upon this work. There had been no specific dec
laration in the platform as to the character of the revision.
Some, commonly called "stand-patters," contended for a
readjustment without any general lowering of rates, while
others held out stiffly for a reduction all along the line. The
result of the work of Congress was the enactment of what
is known as the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Law of 1909, the
measure taking its name on account of the joint efforts in
its behalf of Honorable Sereno Payne, of New York,
Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of the
House, and Honorable Nelson W. Aldrich, of Rhode Island,
Chairman of the Committee on Finance of the Senate. The
Payne-Aldrich law is a Protective measure, as it was in
tended to be. The Progressives, in both the Senate and
House, sought at every step to reduce the schedules, but
generally without success. In this effort, they were sup
ported by Democratic Senators and Representatives, but the

422 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
"Old Guard" controUed such a pronounced majority in both
Houses as to render the opposing efforts futile, fierce
though they were. So general was this confiict that in many
matters the Progressives soon established a faction of their
own. There were many skirmishes all along the line.
Their divergence from the views of Regular Republicanism'^
was indicated not on the tariff alone, but on many other
questions of pubhc policy which I may say I regard as
extremely visionary and impracticable.
The controversy also covered the methods of procedure
of both the Senate and the House, and the fight on "Uncle"
Joe Cannon as Speaker, or on "Cannonism," which charac
terized the last session of the Sixty-first Congress, was one of
the instances of this difference of opinion in the party. In a
less pronounced manner the Progressives also have shown
an inclination to antagonize and overturn the customs of
the Senate. They feel the restraint of some of the Senate's
estabhshed rules, and, together with the radical element
which has been introduced on the Democratic side of the
Senate Chamber, they manifest evident impatience with
these regulations. That fine old term "senatorial courtesy"
has lost much of its meaning as a result of the brusque and
breezy manner of the time. No longer is it said that the
young Senator must be seen rather than heard. Indeed,
whUe formerly the spectacle of a Senator rising to make a
speech before the close of his second year in the Senate was
regarded as unusual, it recently has come to be remarked
upon if a new man remains in his seat for two months before
undertaking to enlighten the Senate as to its duties towards
itself and the world. !
I am not undertaking here to pronounce against these in- \
novations, but merely to record facts. I have shown my .
advocacy of proper railroad legislation and of other progres- .

TAFT ADMINISTRATION 423
sive legislation which commended itself to my judgment.
However, I am classed as a Regular and desire to be. My
votes have been with the party organization. I have made
it a rule throughout my political career to stand for the
general principles of the party as enunciated by its author
ized bodies ; but while that is my course, I do not pretend to
say that that organization always represents all that is good
and best for the country or that in many cases the Progres
sives and Insurgents may not be nearer right than the Reg
ulars. In the main, however, I have found that the best
results are obtained through following the course indicated
by the united wisdom of the party. My plan has been to
exert my influence in the direction of careful and conserva
tive progression within estabhshed party lines, and in such a
lourse do I beheve that the Republican party can best in
sure its perpetuity.
Senator Spooner's resignation from the Senate was fol
lowed by the refusal of Senators Hale and Aldrich to stand
for reelection in 1911. The retirement of those three dis
tinguished leaders constitutes the best index of the tendency
of the times. Men of experience, dignity, and conservatism,
they voluntarily gave way before the press of pubhc exi
gency. True, they consulted their own inclinations, but I
always have thought that if the old conditions had continued
in the Senate they woiUd have elected to remain there.
Their seats are filled by good and true men, but by men of
very different characteristics, unless an exception may be
made in Senator Aldrich's case, whose successor, Henry F,
Lippitt, appears to be a man much hke his predecessor.
Whether the change will be beneficial or otherwise remains
to be seen, but my optunism is so great I do not believe that
anything but good can come permanently to this great coun
try of ours, I confess to a likuig for the old methods.

424 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
This general change of pubhc sentiment has brought into
the Senate not only Mr. La FoUette, Mr. Bristow, Mr.
Clapp, Mr. Cummins, and Mr. Crawford, but also a number
of other men of similar views, so that within six or seven
years the progressive group has increased to thirteen mem
bers, more than one-fourth of the membership of the Senate.
I shall not undertake to mention all of those contained in
this httle body, but I have been so impressed with the bear
ing of Senator WUliam E. Borah, of Idaho, and Senator
Joseph M. Dixon, of Montana, that I do not feel justified in
passing them by unnoticed. They are both very able men
and men of high purpose. They do not stand with this
group aU the time ; neither goes where his convictions do not
lead. Moreover, these Republicans of supposedly advanced
thought have found their counterpart in a number of new
Senators who have taken their seats on the Democratic side.
The Democrats, as well as the Republicans, have their Pro
gressive, or Radical, element, and while the Democratic rep
resentatives of this thought differ from those on the Repub
hcan side on the subject of Protection, they have cooperated
in the interest of what they consider a closer approach to
the demands of the people on other subjects of legislation.
On the tariff schedules, which have been presented during
the special session of the Sixty-second Congress now com
ing to a close, they also have stood together, forming what
some have been pleased to christen the "Unholy AUi-
ance," Both Repubhcans and Democrats of the radical
type are contending for a lower tariff, but this one impor
tant difference is noticeable: while there is a tendency on
the Democratic side toward free trade, the Republican mem
bers of the alliance hold out for the protective principle.
It is pleasant to me to be able to record that while a suffi-

TAFT ADMINISTRATION 425
cient number of new men have come into the Senate to cause
a modification of its general appearance and apparent pur
poses, there stiU are enough representatives of the old ele
ment to cause it to retain its distinctive character as the most
conservative dehberative body in this country. In addition
to the new men, such capable legislators remain as Lodge
and Crane, of Massachusetts, Brandagee, of Connecticut,
Burton, of Ohio, Jones, of Washington, Root, of New York,
Galhnger and Burnham, of New Hampshire, Heyburn, of
Idaho, Penrose and Ohver, of Pennsylvania, Perkins, of Cal
ifornia, Smoot and Sutherland, of Utah, Clark and Warren,
of Wyoming, Dilhngham and Page, of Vermont, Wetmore,
of Rhode Island, Curtis, of Kansas, McCumber, of North
Dakota, Gamble, of South Dakota, Wilham Alden Smith
and Charles E. Townsend, of Michigan, Bradley, of Ken
tucky, and others, all Repubhcans, while among the old-
time Democrats should be mentioned such stanch and true
men as Martin, of Virginia, Bacon, of Georgia, Bailey and
Culberson, of Texas, Taylor, of Tennessee, Shively, of In
diana, Tillman, of South Carolina, Fletcher, of Florida, Fos
ter, of Louisiana, Johnston and Bankhead, of Alabama,
Stone, of Missouri, Clarke, of Arkansas, Newlands, of Ne
vada, and stiU others who, though their names may not be
mentioned, aU command the high regard of their coUeagues.
The question is often asked, "Who has succeeded Aldrich
as leader of the Senate?" No one. Practically, there are
three parties in the Senate, consisting of thirty-seven Reg
ular Repubhcans, forty-one Democrats, and thirteen Insur
gent Repubhcans. In caucus, the Insurgents act with the
Regulars, but in legislation, they more frequently hne up
with the Democrats. The consequence is that no party is
in control, and therefore that no party can dictate the course
of leadership. Under such circumstances, real leadership

426 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
is out of the question. Senator Penrose succeeds Senator
Aldrich as Chairman of the Committee on Finance, and is
proving thoroughly competent for his work in that capacity.
If emergency should arise throwing the direction of affairs
into the hands of the Repubhcan party, he might also suc
ceed the Rhode Island Senator to the leadership of the Re
publican forces, but until such emergency presents itself, no
one can see whether that position would fall to him or to
some other Republican, Leaders are bom, not made.
Leadership is not a matter of selection, but of fitness.
Up to the present writing (August, 1911 ) , President Taft
has been in office almost two and a half years, and while,
like all Presidents, he has been criticised, I am confident that
in the end the first half of his administration wiU receive
the approval of the historian. PersonaUy, no more popular
man ever occupied the office of Chief Executive, and his pop
ularity is due to his honesty of purpose and his love for his
fellow man. His administration has witnessed such a prose
cution of the unlawful trusts as never before has been
known, and the President himself has been engaged in a
constant endeavor for legislation which would equahze the
benefits of American citizenship, reheve the distresses of the
less fortunate, and put a stop to graft, wherever foimd.
Under his direction, the Interstate Commerce Law has been
vastly improved, postal savings banks have been estabhshed,
and the conservation of our natural resources has been placed
upon a safe and sane basis. He has pressed Reciprocity
and Arbitration with other Nations, and he has estabhshed
such an era of good fellowship among public men of all par
ties and behefs as seldom has been known in our history.
If the remainder of his administration proves as successful
as that which has passed, he wUl deserve, as I beheve he wiU

TAFT ADMINISTRATION 427
receive, the endorsement of the people through an election
to a second term.
The present presiding officer of the Senate is Hon, James
Schoolcraft Sherman, who was elected Vice-President on the
national ticket of 1908 with President Taft. Mr. Shei-man
brings to this office an experience of twenty years as a mem
ber of the House of Representatives from the Utica
district, much of which time he was a member of the
Committee on Rules. He is an accomphshed parliamen
tarian, a fact which taken in connection with his genial dis
position, his kindness of heart and, above all, his love of
justice, renders him one of the most acceptable presiding
officers that the Senate ever has had. He has held his office
during aU of the regular session of the Sixty-first Congress
and has been constantly in his seat during the special session
of the Sixty-second Congress, and it is safe to say that in so
brief a time no man ever has more thoroughly endeared him
self to members of the Senate of whatever party or faction.
Occasionally, of course, as is the case with all presiding offi
cers, his decisions are challenged; but I believe he has been
uniformly sustained; and even such proceedings are stripped
of all appearance of rancor through his kindness of manner
and his evident conviction. He is a fit successor of Hobart
and Fairbanks,

CHAPTER XXXII
LINCOLN centennial: LINCOLN LIBRARY
THE name of Springfield wiU forever be immortalized
as the home and burial-place of Abraham Lincoln,
As the hundredth anniversary of his birth approached, it
was determined to hold a great celebration, and it was gen
eraUy agreed that Springfield was the fitting and proper
place in which to hold it.
In 1907 the Legislature of Illinois passed a joint resolu
tion providing:
"Whereas, the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lin
coln will occur on the twelfth day of February, 1909; and,
"Whereas, it is fitting and proper that the State of Illinois should cele
brate the anniversary of the birth of this greatest of all American states
men; therefore, be it
"Resolved, by the Senate of the State of Illinois, the House of Repre
sentatives concurring therein, that the one hundredth anniversary of the
birth of Abraham Lincoln be celebrated in the City of Springfield, on the
twelfth day of February, 1909, and, be it further
"Resolved, that the Governor is hereby authorized and empowered to
appoint a commission of fifteen representative citizens of this State to
have charge of all arrangements for such celebration."
The Governor thereupon appointed fifteen of the most
distinguished citizens of Springfield as the State Centennial
Commission to have charge of the celebration.
It was determined that the celebration should not be a
local one, but should be more in the nature of a State cele
bration, and that it would be well to incorporate it under the
428

LINCOLN CENTENNIAL 429
name of "The Lincoln Centennial Association," The orig
inal incorporators were :
The Hon. MelviUe W. FuUer, Chief Justice of the United
States ; the Hon. Shelby M. Cullom, United States Senator ;
the Hon. Albert J, Hopkins, United States Senator; the
Hon, Joseph G. Cannon, Speaker of the National House of
Representatives; the Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson; the Hon.
Charles S. Deneen, Governor of Ilhnois; the Hon. John P.
Hand, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of
Illinois; the Hon. J. Otis Humphrey, Judge of the United
States District Court ; the Hon. James A. Rose, Secretary of
State of Illinois; the Hon. Ben. F. CaldweU, Member of
Congress ; the Hon. Richard Yates ; Melville E, Stone, Esq. ;
Horace White, Esq.; John W. Bunn, Esq.; and Dr. Wil
ham Jayne,
I was requested to secure speakers of national reputation,
and it at once occurred to me that I would invite the Ambas
sadors of France and Great Britain, and Senator J. P. Dol
hver, to visit Springfield, on February 12, 1909, and deliver
addresses. These distinguished gentlemen at once accepted
the invitation which I extended them on behalf of the Gover
nor and the committee. Later, the Hon. WUham Jennings
Bryan was invited to be present also and deliver an address,
which invitation he accepted.
The memorial exercises celebrating the hundredth anniver
sary of Lincoln's birth were held under the direction of the
State Centennial Commission, appointed by the Governor,
working in conjunction with the Lmcoln Centennial Associa
tion. There were a number of distinct events, but the most
important were the great memorial exercises held in the State
Armory, at which addresses were made by Ambassadors Jus-
serand and Bryce, and by Senator Dolhver and Mr. Bryan,
and a banquet served to eight hundred guests. The celebra-

480 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
tion was in every way a great success, largely due to the ef
forts of Judge Humphrey,
It was quite an event in the history of Springfield, as it
was the first time, so far as I know, that the Ambassadors of
two great Nations visited Springfield.
I regretted very much that I was so engaged in matters
pertaining to my official duties in Washington that it seemed
impossible for me to be present, I was requested to write
something which could be read at the banquet, and so I ad
dressed to Judge Humphrey the following letter:
"Wamiington, D. C,
February 6, 1909.
"Hon. J. Otis Humphrey,
President Lincoln Centennial Association,
Springfield, Illinois.
"My dear Judge :
"It is a matter of sincere regret to me that I am unable to be present
at your great anniversary celebration of the birth of the immortal Lin
coln, and to welcome to my home city the Ambassadors of Great Britain
and France and the distinguished guests who are to be with you.
"Abraham Lincoln, greatest of Americans, greatest of men, emanci
pator, martyr, his service to his country has not been equalled by any
American citizen, not even by Washington. His name and life have
been an inspiration to me from my earliest recollection.
"On this one hundredth anniversary of his birth, the people, without
regard to creed, color, condition, or section, in all parts of this Union
which he saved, are striving to do honor to his memory. No American
has ever before received such deserved universal praise. Not only in
his own country, but throughout the civilized world, Abraham Lincoln
is regarded as one of the few, the very few, truly great men in his
tory. His memory is as fresh to-day in the minds and hearts of the
people as it was forty years ago, and the passing years only add to his
fame and serve to give us a truer conception of his noble character.
The events of his life, his words of wisdom, have been gathered together
in countless volumes to be treasured up and handed down to generations
yet to come.
"I knew him intimately in Springfield; I heard him utter his simple

LINCOLN CENTENNIAL 431
farewell to his friends and neighbors when he departed to assume a task
greater than any President had been called upon to assume in our his
tory; it was my sad duty to accompany his mortal remains from the
capital of the Nation to the capital of Illinois; and as I gazed upon his
face the last time, I thanked God it had been my privilege to know
him as a friend; and I felt then, as I more fully realize now, that the
good he had done would live through all the ages to bless the world.
"Springfield, his only real home, the scene of his great political triumph,
was his fitting resting-place. In the midst of this great continent his
dust shall rest a sacred treasure to myriads who shaU pilgrim to his shrine
to kindle anew their zeal and patriotism.
"Again expressing regret that I can not be with you to take part in
honoring the memory of our greatest President, on the one hundredth
anniversary of his birth, and feeling sure that the Springfield celebra
tion will be the most notable of all, as it should be, I remain
"Sincerely yours,
"(Signed) S. M. Cullom."
Of aU the notable celebrations held on the one hundredth
anniversary of the birth of Lincoln in every part of the
United States, the Springfield observance was the most
dignified and impressive; and it was determined that on
Lincoln's birthday each year, under the auspices of the Lin
coln Centennial Association, fitting memorial exercises
should take place in Springfield, to which guests and speak
ers of national and international renown, from all parts of
the United States, should be invited.
Springfield has a great public hbrary, caUed the "Lincohi
Library," toward which Andrew Carnegie very generously
contributed seventy-five thousand dollars. I took consid
erable interest in the Springfield Library, and I did what I
could to prevaU upon Mr, Carnegie to make as generous a
contribution as he would toward the project. I remember
that I wrote hun a letter on the subject.
It was at first proposed by the Sprmgfield people to
name the Library "The Lincoln-Carnegie Memorial Li-

432 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
brary"; but after Mr, Carnegie had made his contribution,
through his secretary he informed the Rev. E. S. Walker, of
Springfield, who carried on the correspondence with him, that
he would consider it a desecration to have any name hnked
with that of Lincoln. "He trusts that the hbrary will be
known as the 'Lincoln Library,' not the 'Lincoln Memorial'
Library,' as Lincoln needs no memorial, being one of the
dozen supremely great rulers of men the world has ever
seen." The Library was completed in 1904, and I was invited to
deliver the dedicatory address, which invitation I was very
glad to accept. It was an interesting occasion, held in the
main room of the hbrary building, which was crowded with
the very best people of the city. I give a few extracts from
the speech I dehvered that evening:
"Mr. Chairman : It was a great pleasure to me to be invited by your
library board to participate in these exercises attending the opening of
this splendid library building.
"I can not resist on this occasion the inclination to say a few words in
reference to Springfield and my early relations to it.
"Old historic Springfield! Here have taken place many of the most
important events in the history of Illinois. Springfield has been the
centre of the political struggles of both parties since it has been the
capital of the State. Many of the great statesmen of Illinois have oc
cupied seats in the legislative hall in Springfield. Here were mobilized
during the Civil War the thousands of troops who went forth to do and
die for the Union. Here the greatest General of the age received his
first command. Here Lincoln and Douglas met, and from here Lin
coln went forth to assume a task greater than any President has been
called upon to undertake in all our history.
"Springfield is endeared to me by all the sacred memories of friend
ship, family, and home.
"I came here fifty years ago. In Springfield I received my legal edu
cation, was admitted to the Bar, and in your old courthouse here I
practised my profession. In Springfield I married and reared my family,
and here my children are laid in their final resting-place.

LINCOLN CENTENNIAL 433
Those early days of my residence here are among the happiest of
my life. Official duties have necessitated my absence a great part of
the time for the past twenty years, but my heart lingers with it, and the
ties which made those early days so happy will never be broken so long
as I shall live."
After giving a history of the library and referring to the
generosity of Mr. Carnegie, I continued:
"This is a material age. Carnegie, the great captain of industry, is
a typical representative of the leaders of this age. It is well worth
our while to stop to consider why he should devote a part of his great
wealth to the founding of public libraries.
"Andrew Carnegie was a poor boy, enjoying none of the advantages
and opportunities which are afforded by a good library. He missed in
his early life the opportunity for culture which is now obtained through
the facilities supplied by libraries in the towns and cities. He knew
that there was no other agency so valuable for the purpose of spreading
culture among the people as the public library. No word so precisely
describes the influence of good reading as does the word 'culture.' Emer
son tells us that the word of ambition of the present day is 'culture.'
"Andrew Carnegie, the great leader of the industrial world, desiring
to give to the young men and the young women of this day an oppor
tunity for education, for culture, whose value to the young he realizes so
well, has devoted the enormous fortune of over one hundred million dollars
for the founding of public libraries. . . .
"There should be no pleasure like the pleasure derived from reading
a good book. Emerson, expressing our debt to a book says: 'Let us
not forget the genial, miraculous, we have known to proceed from a
book. We go musing into the vaults of day and night; no constella
tion shines, no muse descends, the stars are white points, the roses brick-
colored leaves; and frogs pipe, mice cheep, and wagons creak along the
road. We return to the house and take up Plutarch or Augustine, and
read a few sentences or pages, and lo, the air swims with life, secrets of
magnanimity and grandeur invite us on every hand, life is made of them.
Such is our debt to a book.'
"The founding of public libraries is the surest mark of advanced
civilization. The origin of libraries is lost in the dim twilight of the
parly ages. When they commenced, how they commenced, we do not
28

434 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
know; but we have authentic records that centuries before the Christian
era the temples of those countries of the East where civilization had
made the greatest advances, contained libraries of clay tablets, carefully
shelved in regular order. Among the Greeks, private libraries existed at
least four hundred years before the birth of Christ. The Roman Caesars
returning from conquest to the development of the arts of peace, estab
lished libraries in the then great Capital of the World.
"But the United States is preeminently the home of the free public
libraries, supported by taxation. This country has more free public
libraries than any other country in the world.
"What a great thing it is for our people to have these advantages!
The foundations of our Republic are being well laid. The family, the
church, the school — and the library ! A people who will adhere to
the great principles of the sacredness of the family, the church, and the
school, will not perish from the earth. Virtue and intelligence are the
neeessary foundations on which a republic must rest. Education is more
necessary in a republic, where the people are the sovereigns, than it
is in a monarchy, where the people are subjects. With education and
the library comes culture. The family, the church, the school, and the
library are all necessary to qualify the citizen for the great duties of
life. . . .
"Mr. Carnegie has given us this building and has requested that it
be named in honor of the great emancipator, Abraham Lincoln. Like
a number of others who are in this room to-night, I knew Abraham Lin
coln intimately and well. We are proud that this city was the home of
Abraham Lincoln while living, and now that he has passed away, it is
the home of his sacred dust. The words of Mr. Carnegie, that no name
should be coupled with the name of Mr. Lincoln manifested the high
est appreciation by him of the great name of Lincoln. He was a noble
man. Only forty-three years ago, he was going in and out among us,
interested in the local afi'airs of our city, doing his duty in the common
afi'airs of our community, and at the same time grappling with the great
questions pressing upon the attention of the people and touching the life
of the Nation.
"My friends, in the language of Mr. Carnegie, Lincoln has been,
'one of a dozen supremely great rulers of men that the world has seen.'
He was one of a few men in the world's history whose great and noble
life and deeds will be remembered forever. I rejoice that he lived

LINCOLN CENTENNIAL 435
among us and that he was loved by our people while he lived, and that his
memory is fresh and green in our hearts.
"My friends, as we reflect upon the progress of our Nation in wealth
and power and influence among the Nations of the world in the century
just closed, our hearts swell with pride and thankfulness that we have
been so favored. As a Nation we are now in the first rank of the nations
of the earth.
"Let us do our part in maintaining our national supremacy. We can
hold our place by standing by the right as a community, as a State, and
as a Nation, adhering rigidly to the foundation principles of our Re
publican Government, cherishing liberty, and obeying law; upholding the
sacredness of the family, the church, and the school; with school, the
library will follow, and in the time to come our Nation will endure, and
its people will cultivate from generation to generation, a better and
higher civilization."

CHAPTER XXXIII
CONSECUTIVE ELECTIONS TO UNITED STATES SENATE
I WAS twice elected Governor of Ilhnois, and have been
elected to the United States Senate for five consecutive
terms, and as I write this narrative I have served in the Sen
ate more than twenty-eight years. I consider this a greater
honor than an election to the Presidency of the United
States. I owe the deepest debt of gratitude to the people
of the State of lUinois, who have for so many years con
tinued me in the pubhc service. To my many friends who
have so loyaUy supported me during all these years, I am
profoundly grateful.
I have already referred to my first election to the United
States Senate, At the conclusion of my first term, I was, on
January 22, 1889, reelected without opposition.
The country had turned the Republican party out of power
and elected Mr, Cleveland in 1892; and for the first time
since 1856, the State of Illinois went Democratic and elected
Mr. Altgeld as Governor. I returned to Illinois, from
Washington, to enter the campaign in 1894, having little or
no hope that I could be reelected to the Senate, as I sup
posed, of course, that the State would continue in the control
of the Democratic party. Having been twice elected to the
United States Senate, I deemed it my duty to make the
best fight I could for Repubhcan success, regardless of my
own personal interest in the matter. The Democrats were
confident they would carry the Legislature, and Mr. Frank
lin MacVeagh, who is now Secretary of the Treasury imder
436

CONSECUTIVE ELECTIONS TO SENATE 437
a Republican President, was the candidate of the Democratic
party for the Senate to succeed me. Mr. MacVeagh made
a canvass of the State as a candidate for United States Sen
ator against me. Very much to his surprise, the State went
overwhelmingly Repubhcan and elected a Repubhcan Legis
lature, insuring the election of a Republican to the Senate.
While I had made the canvass of the State, it was not
untU after the election, when it became known that we had
elected a Repubhcan Legislature, that opposition to my
reelection developed in the Repubhcan party.
Mr. George E. Adams, and Mr. George R. Davis who had
served in Congress and been Director General of the World's
Columbian Exposition at Chicago, were candidates against
me. Mr. Joseph E, MedUl, the owner of The Chicago
Tribune, also considered the question whether he would be a
candidate. He advised with the late Hon, John R. Tan
ner, asking him if he thought that he (Medill) could be
elected if he could secure the sohd support of the Cook
County delegation. Mr. Tanner replied that he could not,
that I had a sufficient number of votes in the country outside
of Cook to defeat every candidate; whereupon he dechned
to consider the possibihty of election at all.
The Hon. John R. Tanner managed my campaign. He
had served in the Legislature, where he had been a very in
fluential member, and was then chairman of the State Cen
tral Committee. He was popular and possessed shrewd
pohtical sagacity. Tanner was very loyal to me then, and
for many years I considered him my closest and most devoted
pohtical friend. I have always had the firm conviction that
if he had remained loyal and had supported me for reelection
in 1900, he would have been reelected Governor himself, and
would have succeeded the late John M. Palmer as my col
league in the Senate,

438 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
The Legislature met in January, 1895, I secured the
caucus nomination, and on January 22, in the joint session of
the Thirty-ninth General Assembly, I was elected the third
time to succeed myself in the United States Senate.
There were a number of very complimentary speeches
made on that occasion. My old friend, the Hon. David T.
Littler, who then represented the Springfield District in the
Senate, made the first speech. He began by saying:
"Mr. President: Twelve years ago, from my seat as a member of the
Lower House of this General Assembly, I had the honor to place in
nomination as the candidate of the Republican party for the great office
of United States Senator, the Hon. Shelby M. Cullom. I took occasion
at that time to predict that in the office to which he had been elected he
would show his usefulness and increase his reputation not only among
the people of our own State, but the whole people of this country. After
the lapse of twelve years and with his record perfectly familiar to the
people of the whole country, I ask you Senators whether my prediction
has not been fulfilled. His name has been connected with every im
portant measure introduced in the United States Senate ; and his discussion
of important questions there on many occasions testified as to his patriot
ism and as to his ability as a statesman. I take great pleasure on this
occasion to place in nomination for that high office the same Shelby M.
Cullom who has served the people of this State so long and so creditably.
In doing so I believe I state but the truth when I say he has the longest
and most distinguished record in public life of any man who ever lived in
the State of Illinois."
Speeches were made in the Senate by Senators Coon,
Aspinwall, and Mussett; and in the House by Representa
tives WiUiam J. Butler, of Springfield, E. CaUahan, George
W. Miller, D. S. Berry, A, J. Dougherty, J, E, Sharrock,
and Charles E, Selby.
I was present in Springfield, and was invited before the
joint session of the General Assembly, after they had elect
ed me, to deliver an address. I appeared before the joint
session and expressed my obligations to the members of the

CONSECUTIVE ELECTIONS TO SENATE 439
Thirty-sixth General Assembly for the high honor conferred
upon me, I made a short address, reviewing conditions in the
State and the country generally, and concluded by saying:
"The prosperity and happiness of the people depend upon wise and
just laws to be enacted both by the State and by the Nation. In the
discharge of the high duty which you have just imposed upon me, it
shall be my single aim to do my part in so shaping the policy of the
country, that we shaU soon stand upon the high ground of permanent
prosperity. "Gentlemen, it should be our ambition so to legislate that the freedom
and rights of every citizen shall be secured and respected; that all inter
ests shall be protected; that one portion of our people shall not oppress
another, and so that ample remedies shall be found and applied for every
existing wrong. To this end an enlarged humanity bids us look forward
with renewed hope and trust."
My reference to the Hon, Joseph E, Medill in connection
with this contest reminds me that I should say something of
Mr. Medill. I regarded him as one of the three reaUy great
editors of his day — Horace Greeley, Henry Watterson, and
Joe MediU,
He made The Chicago Tribune one of the most influential
newspapers of the United States. At times Medill and I
were very friendly, and he gave me his hearty support. At
other times he was against me, but we always remained on
speaking terms at least, and I admired and respected him
very much.
He was one of the most indefatigable and inveterate letter-
writers within my experience. From the time I was Gov
ernor of Illinois, and even before that, and almost to the
time of his death, he wrote me at great length upon every
conceivable pubhc question. His letters were always in
teresting, but as he did not avail himself of a stenographer,
and as he wrote a very difficult hand to read, they became at
times a trifle tiresome. I have retained a large number of

440 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
his letters, and as they are so characteristic of the man I
venture to quote a few of them.
"The Chicago Tribune, Editorial Rooms.
"Hon. S. M. Cullom, Feb. 6. 1887.
"Dear Sir: —
"Well, he signed the bill, and it out of the woods. All right so
far. His signing it shows that he is a candidate for a second term.
That was the test. The next thing is the composition of the Board of
Commissioners. The successful working of the law depends upon the
action of the Board. There is an impression that he will probably let
you name one of the commissioners and Reagan another. If that be
so, let me suggest among other names Mr. C. M. Wicker, manager
Chicago Freight Bureau, for the position. You probably know him.
He has had large experience in freighting, and is widely known to both
shippers and railroad men, and is well liked. He is a friend of the law,
and supported it vigorously while before Congress, writing some good
letters in its explanation and defence for The Tribune. He is a sound
Republican though not much of a politician. You may find other and
better men to recommend, but I don't think of any belonging to this
State at this moment. I hear Judge Cooley 's name mentioned. He is of
course a first-class A No. 1 man, but I write on the hypothesis that your
preference will be for an Illinois man if you are allowed to have a say
in it.
"The passage of the bill is a great triumph for you, if the bill works
well. People always judge of measures by their efi^ects; hence the act
should have fair play.
"Now that it is safely in the shape of a law, I thought The Tribune
might indulge in a little horn-blowing as per enclosed article.
"Yours truly,
"(Signed) J. Medill."
"Hotel Ponce de Leon,
St. Augustine, Fla.,
"Hon. S. M. Cullom, March 12, 1888.
"My dear Sir: —
"I have just received your favor of 9 inst. and confess that I am
taken a little by surprise. I had got the impression from various quar
ters that you did not desire to secure the Illinois delegation, and did

CONSECUTIVE ELECTIONS TO SENATE 441
not want to be considered a candidate. Acting on this idea The Tribune
has been leaning towards Gresham as an available candidate, as you
have noticed. However, you have lost no ground by standing in the
shade. If I was managing your boom I would keep your name in the
background and out of the newspapers as a candidate seeking the nomi
nation until the last. A few strong judicious friends among the Illinois
delegation is all you want to watch events and move quickly at the
opportune moment, if it arrives. I should say that on general principles
you would be the second choice of any set of Illinois delegates and
the chances are all in the direction of some second-choice candidate.
Harrison is likely to have a pledged delegation from Indiana, but what
good will it do him? Logan had a pledged delegation from Illinois;
Sherman, from Ohio; Windom, from Minn.; and Hawley, from Conn.
The convention will be largely chiefiy actuated and governed by the avail
ability idea. Personal friendship won't count for much in that search
for the most available candidate. This you see as clearly as I do. What
ever Western man the New York delegation (or the majority of them)
favor wUl stand a good chance of getting it. It is almost impossible to
figure out a victory without the electoral vote of New York. Indiana
and Connecticut would be absolutely indispensable in the absence of New
York. But even then we have doubtful States that voted for Blaine.
Michigan, for instance, and the three Pacific Coast States, in case any
such man as Sherman, Harrison, or Hawley, who voted against restrict
ing Chinese immigration, should be nominated. And then it remains to
be seen what sort of action will be had in Congress on tariff" reduction.
If we are obliged to go before the people defending the present tariff",
that is breeding trust monopolies all over the country, a nomination will
not be worth having. High protection is a nice thing for those who
pocket it, but not so fascinating to the unprotected classes who have to
pay the big bounties out of their products sold at free trade prices. All
these things must be taken into consideration. I am about leaving Florida
for home, either via Atlantic or Washington. If the latter, I shall see
you when I get there, when we can talk over the whole matter more fully
than on paper. All I can really say is, I am peering about in the dark
for the strongest candidate, the most available man on an available plat
form, and even then we shall have desperate hard work to win in the
face of the immense losses our party is suffering from the ravages in
our rank and file, committed by the prohibitionists. We shall have to
face a loss of fifty thousand in New York. How is that to be made

442 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
good? and twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand in Illinois and five to
seven thousand in Indiana, and thirty thousand in Michigan. How can
we stand this loss of blood and men ? "(Signed) J. Medill."
"Niagara Falls, N. Y.,
Aug. 5, 1888.
"My dear Sir: —
"Searching for a cool place I found it here, where I shall remain a few
days and then proceed to Kaetershill Mountain top, which is the best hot-
weather place I found last year.
"I take it for granted that some of your friends keep you posted about
the secret negotiations going on between Palmer and the Socialistic Labor
element for a fusion. You have seen by The Tribune that all the labor
element is not disposed to support Palmer, in consideration of his pardon
ing the imprisoned anarchists. You may rely on The Tribune venti
lating this unholy alliance. At the same time there are ten thousand to
twelve thousand of those socialists who will vote for Palmer and the Dem
ocratic ticket in Cook County; and this fusion may with the aid of the
prohibitionists cost the Republicans second seats in the Legislature,
which is the phase of the matter in which you are specially interested.
There is considerable coldness among the Irish Catholics toward Cleve
land, but whether it will continue until election night remains to be seen.
They think he is too pro-English, but they dislike Harrison. Blaine was
their ideal.
"I have spent a good deal of spare time to point out flaws and tricks
in the sugar and whiskey sections of the Mills bill. The latter really
opens and invites universal evasion of taxes and the multiplication of
small moonshine distilleries; and the former perpetuates the sugar trust
profits and affords the public no relief.
"The Republican members of the House did not expose these defects
enough. Cannon did well on sugar, but nobody dissected the whiskey
sections which bored gimlet holes into the bottom of every barrel of high
wine to let it out without paying a cent of tax. The Democrats are there
fore the real free whiskeyites. This ought to be shown up thoroughly in
the Senate. Our miserable platform places us on the defensive. The
Mills bill places the Democrats on the defensive if it is rightly handled.
I do not mean attacking the free wool part of it, for that portion if en
acted would do your constituents certainly ten or twenty times more

CONSECUTIVE ELECTIONS TO SENATE 443
good than harm, nor the free lumber or free salt or free soap, etc., etc.,
which would benefit all Illinois ; but I mean fraud free sugar, and fraud
free whiskey, and a hundred per cent tax on rice — these are the things
to hit. On these the Democrats are placed with their noses on the
grindstone. "I have been reading the discussion in the Senate over your resolution
in regard to the competition of the Canadian railways with our transcon
tinental railway freight charges. It is well enough perhaps to inquire
into the matter, but I have a notion that the sharp competition is of great
benefit to the masses. I know that I am a little heterodox in looking
at the interest of the consumers instead of railroad plutocrats, of the
millions instead of the millionaires, but I can't help it. Senator Gor
man had much to say in his speech about the undue advantage the Ca
nadian roads had over ours by reason of Government subsidies received
in constructing the Canadian railways, and to a line of steamers from
Victoria to Japan and Hongkong. But his memory failed in the most
astonishing manner to recall and perceive the fact that all the American
roads west of the Mississippi to the Pacific have been enormously sub
sidized by our Government. In fact the subsidies amount to a good deal
more than the actual total cost of the construction of the whole of them.
For twenty years some of these roads have been plundering the Amer
ican people by the most outrageous charges, and Congress, the people's
representatives, have not lifted a finger to stop the rapacious robbery.
And now, when the Canadian road, built by Government subsidies, begins
to compete with the American roads built with Government subsidies, the
latter who have pocketed hundreds of millions of subsidy spoils and over
charge plunder, appeal to the Senate to protect the scoundrels against
a little healthy competition, and Senator Gorman pleads for the robbers
on the floor of the Senate with tears in his voice ! So whatever extent
the competing Canadian roads cause our contiguous roads to lower their
freights so much the better for the public. They act just the same as
competing waterways. The Grand Trunk, beginning at Chicago and run
ning through Michigan to Sarma; crossing at Niagara Falls and feeding
the Lackawanna and Erie to New York; running to Boston through Ver
mont, etc., and also to Montreal; and the Alden line of steamers carry
ing cattle to England, as a healthy competition with our pooling trunk
lines east from Chicago, is of enormous value to Chicago and all the ship
pers, cattle-dealers, grain-raisers, farmers, and merchants of half a
dozen States in the Northwest. Any interference with its competitive

444 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
activity will harm millions of Western people, tending as it will to in
crease cost of transportation and reestablish trunk line pooling mo
nopoly. "So the competition of the Canadian transcontinental at the Red River
and at the "500" ensures cheaper freights for all Minnesota and Da
kota, and the eff"ect extends clear down into Nebraska and Iowa. So,
too, the Canadian road's rates at its Pacific terminal — Victoria — are ex
ercising a most beneficent and ameliorating infiuence on the charges of
the enormously subsidized Northern Pacific, forcing down to a reasonable
rate Pacific Coast; and as it climbs down from its extortionate schedule
of charges the Union and Central and Southern and Santa Fe Pacifies
will be forced to do likewise. I 'd give something handsome to have had
the opportunity to reply for thirty minutes to Senator Gorman, to present
the other side of the question from the American standpoint. On one
point I am in agreement with you, viz: that the British fiag should be
removed from this continent. This territory along our northern border
should be incorporated into the American Union. It is ridiculous that
Uncle Sam should allow a foreign power to hold it. We have as much
need for it and right to it as England has for Scotland. If we had a
respectable navy and a supply of fortification guns the problem would be
easy of solution, and won't be until then.
"Each day convinces me more and stronger that if we lose this elec
tion McKinley — will be the cause. They make the party say in its
platform "Rather than surrender any part of our protective system, the
whiskey, tobacco, and oleomargarine excises shall be repealed." The
Democrats are making much capital out of this. The tax on lumber and
on salt are parts of our "protective system." Now the Mc. plank dis
closes that rather than reduce the tax on lumber, the Rep. party will
repeal the tax on oleo butter. How many farmers' votes will that gain
us? Rather than allow any lowering of the high taxes on clothes, or
salt, or lumber or crockery, etc., the tax on whiskey must be repealed,
and the old evil era of cheap rotgut and still-houses everywhere shall
be restored! Do you really think that position will make votes for us
this fall among the farmers? The final outcome will probably turn on
the character of the Senate bill, of which I am not sanguine. About two
thousand millionaires run the policies of the Rep. party and make its
tariff"s. What modifications will they permit the Rep. Senators to sup
port? We other thirty million of Republicans will have precious little
voice in the matter. Turn this over in your mind, and you will see that

CONSECUTIVE ELECTIONS TO SENATE 445
I am right. Whatever duties protect the two thousand plutocrats is
protection to American industries. Whatever don't is free trade.
"(Signed) J. Medill."
"The Windsor, N. Y.,
"Senator Cullom. Nov. 25, 1890.
"Dear Sir:
"I did not think the blow would be a cyclone when I saw you just be
fore the election. I knew that a storm was coming, but did not dream
that its severity would be so dreadful.
"The thing to do this Winter is to repeal the McKinley bill, and
strengthen the reciprocity scheme by giving Blaine the sugar duties to
trade on — freeing no sugar before reciprocal equivalents are secured
from respective cane-sugar tropical countries; or (2) fail to pass the
chief appropriation bills, so that an extra session of the Dem. Congress
must be called, and that party must deal with the tariff and be respon
sible for their action or failure to act; or (3) pass the apn. bills; ad
journ; next year, have the Senate defeat the Dem. tariff bill, or the
President veto it, and go before the people in 1892 on the issue of stand
ing by the McKinley bill till overwhelmed and wiped out in Nov. of
that year, as the Whigs were in '52 when standing by the Forsythe-Stone
Law of Fillmore and Clay.
"The last course I presume is the one that will be pursued. When men
who are statesmen of the Quay-Reid-McKinley calibre start in wrong
their pride keeps them in the same downward path till they tumble the
whole outfit into the bottomless pit.
"I do not consider a Presidential nomination for any man worth a
nickel on the issue of standing by the McKinley bill. The fate of Gen.
Scott in '52 surely awaits him.
"Either of the other mentioned courses might give our party a fighting
chance. But it won't get it, if the perverse members who have landed us
in the ditch have their way.
"Read the suggestions from the article from The N. Y. Times for Re
publicans. "Yours truly,
"(Signed) J. Medill."
I was elected to the Senate, the fourth time, in January,
1901. This time I had a very serious contest. More op-

446 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
position had developed, and there were more strong men
against me, than at any previous election. This was largely
the outgrowth of the opposition of the late Governor Tanner,
who had just completed his term as Governor of Ilhnois,
and who had announced he would not be a candidate for
renomination, but would be a candidate to succeed me. I
beheve it was mainly through the efforts of Governor Tan
ner and his friends that the Hon, Robert R. Hitt, the Hon.
Joseph G, Cannon, and the Hon, George W. Prince were
induced to become candidates, in the hope of weakening me
in their respective districts. I do not beheve that either Mr.
Hitt or Mr, Cannon was a party to any particular scheme
to defeat me. They were candidates in good faith, and as
pired to the office of United States Senator, but neither
of them had any desire to defeat me unless he could get the
ofiice himself.
The campaign continued for a year or more. My friends
were active, as were the friends of Governor Tanner, He
had a horde of office-holders whom he had given places while
Governor, who had been more or less actively working for
him as my successor almost from the very time that the
Governor entered that office. The bitter personal attacks
made on me by the Governor and his friends did not help
him, but tended rather to help me.
The preliminary contest was in the State Convention held
at Peoria in 1900, There were a number of candidates for
Governor before that convention. The Hon, Walter
Reeves, the Hon. O. H. Carter, and Judge Elbridge Hanecy
were the leading aspirants. My friends had insisted that
I should be endorsed for reelection by the State Convention,
and my friends controUed the organization of the conven
tion and elected the Hon, Charles G, Dawes temporary

CONSECUTIVE ELECTIONS TO SENATE 447
chairman and the Hon. Joseph W- Fif er permanent chair
man. Governor Fifer has always been my friend, as I have
always been his. He was a brave, gallant soldier in the Civil
War, in which he served as a private until he was so badly
wounded that his life was despaired of. He has been forced
to go through hfe under exceptionally difficult circumstances,
never fuUy recovering from his wound. He is entitled to
far more than ordinary credit for the success which he
achieved in life. He is an able lawyer, and as State's Attor
ney he was one of the most vigorous of prosecutors. He
was nominated and elected Governor, and gave the State an
honest and capable administration. He was renominated,
but local questions in the State, combined with the Demo
cratic landslide of 1892, resulted in his defeat. President
McKinley, on my recommendation, appointed Governor
Fifer a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission, in
which position he served with credit for some years. He
resigned voluntarily and returned to his home in Blooming
ton to resiune the practice of the law. I have always hked
Governor Fifer, and consider him one of the foremost citi
zens of the State living to-day.
Returning to the Peoria Convention, over which Governor
Fifer presided, I will only say that Mr. Reeves had the votes
in that convention to be nominated ; but for reasons I do not
care to discuss, he did not secure the nomination, and the
Hon, Richard Yates became the nominee. I was endorsed
by the convention as the candidate of the Republican party
to succeed myself as United States Senator. The opposi
tion to me in the convention was by Governor Tanner and his
friends, he being the only avowed candidate against me. I
thought that the endorsement of that convention should have

448 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
settled the matter ; but the contest went on, and Messrs. Hitt,
Cannon, and Prince entered it actively. Several others were
standing around waiting for a chance, and this continued to
be the situation imtil the Legislature met in January, A
sufficient number of the members of the Legislature to elect
me had pledged themselves in writing to stand by me as long
as I was a candidate. The other candidates, probably aside
from Governor Tanner, did not believe I had these written
pledges. I told them so, but they did not believe me. Gov
ernor Tanner and his friends realized that I would have a
majority of the caucus, and they then began scheming for
the purpose of having a secret ballot in the caucus, hoping
that if certain members who had been pledged to me would
not have to vote openly, they would go back on the pledges
and vote secretly for one of the other candidates, thus de
feating me. I had enough votes to defeat the secret ballot
proposition, as many of the supporters of Tanner were really
in favor of my reelection. Hon, Fred A. Busse, one of
the most influential members of the State Senate at that
time, and more recently Mayor of Chicago — one of the
best the city ever had — and who has long been my personal
friend, was pledged to vote for the Governor, but at heart
was strongly for me. With many others, Busse would not
consent to a secret caucus, and this really ended the contest.
Tanner, after trying to induce the other candidates to unite
on him, or on some one else to defeat me (which proposition
Mr. Cannon and Mr. Hitt rejected), announced that he
would withdraw. Friends of the Governor in the Legisla
ture came to me and announced that Tanner had quit the
race, and later Mr. Cannon and Mr. Hitt came to my room
and announced their withdrawal.
This ended the contest; my name was the only one pre
sented to the caucus, and I was the only Republican voted

CONSECUTIVE ELECTIONS TO SENATE 449
for in the joint session of the Legislature, It was an
interesting fight, and as it may weU be supposed, the result
was very satisfactory to my friends and to me.
When I returned to Washington after having been re-
, elected, I was warmly greeted by my colleagues in the Sen
ate who had been watching the contest; and I recollect that
Senator Hanna was particularly warm in his congratula
tions, and remarked that it was the prettiest political fight
he had witnessed in a long time.
I want to say something ui reference to the Hon. Joseph
G. Cannon, who was a candidate against me at this time,
and who is now, as he has been for years past, the leading
member of the Illinois delegation,
I regard him as my personal friend, and was very glad
indeed to support his candidacy for the Presidency in 1908,
I being chairman of the Illinois delegation to the Chicago
Convention that year.
At the time he entered the contest against me, he had long
been one of the leaders of the House of Representatives in
Congress. After refusing to enter the scheme of Governor
Tanner to defeat me, as I have stated, he retired from the
contest, was soon reelected to Congress, and almost immedi
ately elected as Speaker, in which position he continued for
a larger number of consecutive terms than any statesman
in our history. He is a strong, courageous man, and a man
of splendid abihty. He had rather a stormy career as
Speaker, but he controlled the situation aU the time. Dur
ing his last term as Speaker he might have gotten along with
the House a little more smoothly, and at the same time just
as satisfactorily to himself, if he had yielded a little to his
coUeagues in his party who differed from him. If he had
been disposed to do so, much friction could have been avoided,
and at the same time he would have had his own way in caring

450 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
for the interests of the country. I have believed in him and
have stood by him through thick and thin, and I know he
has done nothing but what he himself believed right.
Joseph G. Cannon has his own notions of what is right and
what is wrong, and fearlessly follows what he thinks is right,
without reference to what anybody else may think or say.
The apparently determined effort on the part of the masses
of the people, and especiaUy the newspapers, to discredit the
Payne-Aldrich Tariff Bill resulted in the Democrats carrying
the House in the campaign of 1910 with the result that in
the Sixty-second Congress the Democratic party has a sub
stantial majority, causing the retirement of Mr. Cannon
from the Speakership,
For a time Mr. Cannon was apparently very unpopular,
and the people seemed disposed to hold him responsible for
much they did not approve of in legislation; but this feehng
is passing away, and Mr. Cannon wiU be regarded as an able
legislator, an able Speaker, a man who has during his service
in Congress saved the Government untold milhons. His
honesty and devotion to duty cannot be doubted, and he wiU
go down in history as one of the foremost leaders in Congress
of his day, when those who are now criticising him are for
gotten. On January 16, 1907, I was by the Forty-fifth Gicneral
Assembly elected for the fifth time as United States Senator
from the State of Illinois, This was an entirely different
contest from any previous one I had ever had, as the State
had enacted a primary law which contained a proviso that
the names of candidates for United States Senator could be
placed on the ballot and voted for at the primaries, but that
such vote was advisory merely. This is as far as the primary
law can go on the question of the election of United States
Senators. I had not the slightest objection to having my

CONSECUTIVE ELECTIONS TO SENATE 451
name go before the people, the individual voters, as a candi
date for the Senate. The first primary law was declared
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the State, and as
soon as I heard the decision I promptly wired the Governor,
)>' commending him for his announcement that he would call a
special session of the Legislature to enact a new prunary law,
and I took occasion to add that I hoped my friends would
work with him in the passage of the law, and that it would
provide for a vote on United States Senator,
The Legislature did enact a new law, providing that the
primaries be held in August, 1906, Former Governor
Richard Yates was the only candidate against me. He
made a canvass of the State, and a very thorough one. He
had considerable advantage in that he had almost all the
politicians in the State who were holding State offices actively
working for him. I made no canvass and personally did very
little about it at all. I was willing to leave the matter to the
people, and determined, if it was a fair vote, to abide by the
result of the primaries, and if defeated at the primaries to
support Governor Yates. I believe that Governor Yates
had the same determination, — at least his conduct after the
primaries, in withdrawing from the contest, would indicate
that he had. I am glad to be able to say that throughout the
contest and at its close, he acted very fairly. He made a
straight, fair fight, and lost, then abided by the result, just
as I would have done had I lost. My friends in different
parts of the State took an active interest in my behalf, for
which I want to avail myself of this opportunity to express
to them my appreciation, I might add here that all dur
ing my public career it has been my good fortune to have
the support and friendship of a very high class of men, men
whose honor and integrity were beyond question, and who
were capable of filhng any office. I cannot undertake to

452 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
name them, but I know that they will understand the deep
debt of gratitude that I owe to them.
It was very fiattering to me that I carried the primaries by
a substantial majority, having carried the popular vote, a
majority of the Senatorial districts, and a majority of the
Congressional districts. It demonstrated to me that the peo
ple had confidence in me and were satisfied with my record as
a Senator, It was the first time that I had been voted for
directly by the people for any office since my reelection as
Governor in 1880. The result could not but be gratifying.
Every one in the State accepted the result of the primaries,
and the question was regarded as settled. When the Legisla
ture convened, I was the unanimous choice of the Repubhcan
caucus and was voted for by every Republican in the Legisla
ture on joint ballot. There seemed to be no bitterness or
hard feeling on the part of any one.
After the general election in November, I returned to
Washington to prepare for the session of Congress, and there
was so much important work before my committee and in the
Senate generally, that it seemed impossible for me to leave
there in order to thank the members of the Legislature for the
high honor they had conferred upon me.
I addressed a letter to the members of the Forty-fifth Gen
eral Assembly, which was read, and from which I will quote:
"I desire to express to the Republican members of the Forty-fifth
General Assembly my profound gratitude for your action in unanimously
declaring in favor of my reelection to again represent Illinois in the
United States Senate.
"In electing me to the United States Senate for five consecutive terms,
a greater distinction will be conferred by the State than has been con
ferred upon any other man in the history of Illinois.
"I shall appreciate this election the more, because for the first time
the question of the selection of a United States Senator was submitted

CONSECUTIVE ELECTIONS TO SENATE 453
to the people, and without any active campaign on my part, the great ma
jority of the voters declared me to be their preference.
Until the recent primaries, my name had not been submitted directly
to the voters of the State since I was reelected Governor in 1880, and
it was no small gratification to me, after twenty-six years had come and
gone, to have this expression of continued confidence and approval of my
record as a Senator.
"I wish now to return my most sincere thanks to the people of the State
who have thus signally honored me.
"During the twenty-four years I have represented the State in the
Senate, I have endeavored to the best of my ability to perform my whole
duty to the country and the State, and the only pledge I can make is,
that I shall continue in the performance of my duty in the future as in
the past.
"I would prefer to have the pleasure of being present when a Sena
torial election takes place, in order to express personally to the Legisla
ture my appreciation; but there are so many important questions to
settle, and so much important legislation to enact during the short session
of Congress, ending as it does on March 4, that it has seemed to me to
be more in accord with my duty to remain in Washington in the perform
ance of my official business.
"Your Legislature assembles this year in the midst of the greatest era
of prosperity that has ever prevailed in this country. There has never
been a time in our history that we have had so long an uninterrupted
period of prosperity. This prosperous and happy condition has come as
the result, in a large part, of Republican rule and Republican policy.
"For nearly forty-five years the history of the United States has been
the history of the Republican party, because, with the exception of two
short periods. Republican administration has guided the destinies of the
Nation* and the achievements of Republican administrations during those
forty-five years constitute the greatest record in our history, and that
record is a complete defence of the party against assaults from what
ever quarter.
"We stand to-day at the head of all the Nations in the value of im
ports and exports, and these maintain the prosperity our country has
enjoyed since the American people declared in favor of a protective tariff
and a sound-money standard.
"The people do not prosper under vicious government. Good govern
ment is essential to real prosperity, to properly develop and to advance

454 FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
it. The Republican party has always secured for the Nation stability,
confidence and prosperity at home, and respect and prestige abroad.
"We are to-day at peace with all the Nations of the world. Perhaps
never before in our history have we had such intimate and friendly rela
tions with all the great Nations as we have to-day. Our coimtry has
the respect of all the Governments of the world, great and small. We
are gradually assuming the first place among the naval powers; but,
unlike the older Nations, we are acquiring a great navy in the interest
of peace. Under the policy of this Government, such a navy is one of
the surest assurances against war. The Nations know that the United
States stands for peace, and under Roosevelt's Republican administra
tion, greater progress has been made in the direction of international
arbitration as a means of settling disputes among nations than under any
other previous administration in our history.
"While the nations know that we stand for peace, they also know that
we will not tamely submit to the imposition of wrong, or to off'ence
against our own honor and dignity, or to the oppression of our sister re
publics in this Western world. We have no desire to rob these repub
lics of their independence, or a single foot of their territory. Our recent
action in Cuba has been an object lesson to these republics, and to the
world at large, of our disinterested friendship. As we have repeatedly
assured them, our only desire is that they shall follow us in peace and
prosperity. "The construction of the great canal across the Isthmus of Panama
will bind them closer to us, and at the same time will almost double our
strength as a naval power.
"Too much credit can not be given to President Roosevelt for the great
and wonderful results which he has accomplished in the interest of his
country, but the legislative branch of the Government has done its full
share. "The record made during the last session of Congress in the enactment
of wise laws for the direct benefit of the people has not been equalled
since the Civil War — if at all, since the adoption of the Constitution.
"I will not detain the caucus longer than to repeat my sincere obli
gations to you and to express through you my thanks to the people ofi
the State, whose representatives you are, for the signal honor that has
been conferred upon me."

CHAPTER XXXIV
CONCLUSION
GENERALLY I might say that I am quite content; but
as I sit down now in the evening time of my life, it is a
source of sadness and wonder to me that I have survived both
my wives and all my children. One by one I have laid them
away in beautiful Oak Ridge Cemetery, in Springfield,
where I myself will one day be laid beside them. I have
had a delightful home life; no man could have had a more
happy and peaceful one. As I look back now, I cannot re
member that either wife or children ever caused me one
moment's pain. I was twice married. My first wife, Han
nah M. Fisher, to whom I was married in 1855, and who died
in 1861, was of a very amiable spirit, a woman of more than
ordinary culture, and was the mother of my first two chil
dren, Mrs. Ridgely and Mrs. Hardie, who lived to woman
hood, but both of whom have passed away. My second wife,
Julia Fisher, was the sister of my first wife. No better or
truer woman ever hved. She was a devoted helpmate to me
during all the years that I have occupied high pubhc office
and needed the support and help of a woman. She did her
fuU part and fiUed her place on every occasion with dignity
and propriety. It seems that her death is the last great
sorrow I shaU have to bear.
The memory of the children whom I lost in their infancy
is naturaUy dimmed by the passage of time, but it is hard for
me to understand the justice of things when I remember the
death of my two daughters, EUa, wife of WiUiam Barret
455

456 CONCLUSION
Ridgely, and Carrie, wife of Robert Gordon Hardie, who
were taken just in the very prime of womanhood, just in the
most beautiful period of a woman's life, and just at a time
when they had the most to hve for.
As I think of it now, I do not know where I obtained the
strength to survive all these sorrows, I have no great fear of
death, except the natural dread of the physical pain which
usually accompanies it, I certainly wish beyond any words
I have power to express that I could have greater assurance
that there wiU be a reuniting with those we love and those
who have loved us in some future world ; but from my read
ing of Scripture, and even admitting that there is a here
after, I cannot find any satisfactory evidence to warrant
such a belief. Could I believe that I should meet the loved
ones who have gone before, I do not know but that I should
look forward with pleasure to the "passing across." Not
having this behef, I am quite content to stay where I am as
long as I can; and finaUy, when old Charon appears to row
me over the river Styx, I shaU be ready to go.

INDEX

Adams, Charles Francis, junior, 308.
Adams, George E., 203, 437.
Alaskan boundary, controversy over,
300, 360, 403.
Aldrich, Nelson W., 37, 206, 209, 321,
327, 332, 374, 421, 423, 425, 426.
Aldrich-Payne Tariff Bill, the, 304, 375,
421.
Algeciras Conference the, 415-417.
Alger, Russell A., 284, 285.
AUen, G. T., 190.
Allen, J. C, 334.
Allen, William J., 333, 334.
AlUson, William B., 116, 128-131, 156,
188, 207, 244, 246, 273, 274, 314, 322,
347.
Altgeld, Governor, 270, 271, 436.
Alton, school question of, 191.
Ames, Calces, 139, 140.
Amphictyon Society at Mount Morris
seminary, 7.
Anderson, Judge, 334.
Andrews, Governor, 45.
Anthony, Senator, 206.
Antietam, battle of, 91.
Arbitration, settlement of international
disputes by, 396-406, 426, 454.
Army of the Tennessee, 181.
Arthur, Chester A., 131, 178, 179, 187,
204, 205, 224, 231.
Ashmon, George F., 89.
Aspinwall, Senator, 438.

Babcock, Mr., 251.
Bacon, Augustus O., 352, 353, 358, 387,
408, 425.
457

Bailey, Senator, 425.
Baker, David J., 19.
Baker, E. D., 41, 83, 198.
Baker, Henry S., 190.
Bancroft, J. C, 147.
Bankhead, Senator, 425.
Banks, Nathaniel P., 132, 133.
Barbary pirates, see Morocco.
Barbour, Mr., of Virginia, 339.
Bayard, Thos. F., 37, 38, 207, 226.
Beck, Senator, 207, 226, 227.
BeU, John, 59, 61.
Benton, Senator, 131, 309.
Berry, D. S., 438.
Bethea, Judge Solomon H., S3, 64.
Beveridge, Albert J., 201, 362.
BimetaUism, see Silver Agitation, the.
BisseU, Governor, 25, 26, 180.
Black, Jeremiah, 153.
"Black Republicans," 23, 61.
Black Warrior, the, 14.
Blackburn, Senator, 229.
Blaine, James G., 115-121, 126, 127, 138,
140, 156, 172, 173, 187, 188, 205, 224,
225, 247, 252, 257, 279, 315, 345, 441,
442, 445.
Blair, Frank, 96.
Blair, Montgomery, 95, 96.
Blanchard, Mr., 318.
Borah, Wm. E., 424.
BoutweU, George S., 97, 136, 156.
Boxer outbreak, the, 298, 299, 394.
Bradley, Senator, 425.
Brandagee, Senator, 425.
Breckenridge, John C, 58, 61.
Brewer, Justice, 248.
Brice, Senator, 265, 266.
Bristow, Joseph L., 421, 424.
British Joint High Commission, 360.

458

INDEX

Brooks, James, 140.
Brown, John, 57.
Brown, Justice, 248.
Brown, Senator, 229.
Brown, William, 2.
Browning, OrviUe H., 40, 41, 52.
Brownsville, dismissal of troops at, 356.
Bryan, Colonel Thomas B., 256.
Bryan, WUliam Jennings, 201, 261, 263,
275, 290, 429.
Bryce, Ambassador, 429.
Buchanan, James, 23, 24, 26, 29, 74, 75,
225, 339.
Buchanan, Minister of the United
States to Panama, 383, 384.
Buckner, General, 275.
Buffalo Exposition, 291.
Bunn, Jacob, 183.
Bunn, John W., 54, 429.
Burchard, Horatio C, 10.
Burnham, Senator, 425.
Burrows, Senator, 187.
Burton, Senator, 345, 425.
Bushnell, Governor, 281.
Busse, Fred A., 448.
Butler, Benjamin F., Ill, 140, 141.
Butler, Senator, 207.
Butler, WilUam J., 45, 438.

Caldwell, Ben. F., 429.
Calhoun, John C, 151, 206.
Calhoun, Wm. J., 203.
Callahan, E., 438.
Cameron, Don, 172, 183, 206, 321, 332.
Campaigning in Illinois, early, 48.
CampbeU, Antram, 45.
Canada, dispute with over Alaskan
boundary, 300, 301; treaties with,
360, 364, 367; proposed reciprocity
treaty, 375, 378, 379.
Cannon, Joseph G., 422, 439, 442, 446,
448-450.
Capitol, location of State, 169.

Carlisle, John G., 207, 329, 262, 363,
265, 390.
Carnegie, Andrew, 431, 433, 434.
Carr, Clark E., 247, 248.
Carter, O. H., 446.
Carter, Thomas H., 363, 364, 408.
Cartwright, Rev. Peter, 48-50.
Cass, Senator, 339.
Central and South America, interna
tional relations between the United
States and, 403.
Central Pacific RaUroad, building of,
234.
Cerro Gordo, battle of, 198.
Chandler, WilUam Eaton, 233, 234, 346.
Chapman, P. T., 277.
Chase, Chief Justice, 89, 93, 94, 95, 105,
151, 158, 206.
Chicago, in 1784, 2; growth of 60;
strike in, 164; fire in, 192.
Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Rail
road, 220.
Chicago riots of 1893, 270.
Chicago Tribune, The, 363, 437, 439-
445.
China, the "open door" poUcy in, 296-
299; exclusion of immigrants from,
356.
Church, Lawrence, 77.
Cicero, citation from, 337.
CivU Rights BiU, the, 151.
CivU Rights case, the, 336.
Clapp, Moses E., 421, 424.
Clark, Clarence D., 353, 425.
Clarke, Senator, 426.
Clay, Clement C, 101.
Clay, Henry, 3, 117, 161, 188, 206, 339,
446.
Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 300, 380, 381.
Cleveland, Grover, 116, 195, 224-247,
267-271, 275, 283, 286, 300, 315, 346,
348, 436, 442.
CockreU, F. M., 207, 317, 218, 347.
Coffey, Elizabeth, 1.
Coffeys, the, of North Carolina, 1.
Coles, Edward, 17, 18, 30.

INDEX

459

Colfax, Schuyler, 176.
Colombia, relations with, 213, 349, 359,
382-385.
Commerce, Committee on, 340, 344.
Confederacy, estabUshment of the, 75,
101.
Conkling, Clinton, SI.
Conkling, James C, 51, 80.
ConkUhg, Roscoe, 116, 117, 119, 137,
128, 157, 158, 172, 183, 204, 205, 224,
225.
ConneUy, James A., 54, 55, 286, 287.
Conservation of natural resources, 426.
"Constitutional Union Party," 69.
Conventions, National, at Chicago, 58,
59, 118, 119, 170, 172, 173, 185, 186,
305, 224, 376, 303, 351, 449; at
Charleston, 58; at Cincinnati, 117,
121; at MinneapoUs, 133; at Phila
delphia, 199, 390, 293, 3S1, 360, 446;
at St. Louis, 232, 272, 274, 280; at
Peoria, 446, 447.
Cook, Burton C., 43, 43, 110, 111, 190.
Cooley, Judge, 229, 440.
Coon, Senator, 438.
Cox, S. S. ("Sunset" Cox), 140, 141.
Crane, Elder, 176.
Crane, Murray, 363, 425.
Crawford, Coe I., 421, 424.
OrMit Mobilier, 139, 175.
Creighton, Judge, 334.
Crisp, Mr. Charles F., 256, 264, 266.
Cuba, relations with Spain and the
United States, 14, 216, 290, 358, 375-
377, 412, 413, 454.
Culberson, Senator, 425.
Cullom, Richard Northcraft, 1, 2, 3, 4,
84.
Cullom, Shelby M., parentage and
birth of, 1; removal to IlUnois, 2;
education of, 4, 5; as a teacher, 5;
journey to Mount Morris, 5-7; life
in seminary, 7-11; classmates of, 7-
11; working on farm, 12; studying
law, 12; as City Attorney, 12-16;
Ul of typhoid, 13; as chairman of

Hawaiian commission, 13; in the
lUinois House of Representatives,
16, 23, 43; first speech away from
home, 33-25; joining the Republican
party, 28, 29; friends in Illinois, 35-
56; as governor of lUinois, 36, 37, 43;
election to Congress in 1864, 46, 80,
109; introducing Senator Douglas,
64; second election to the Legisla
ture of Illinois, 76; proposed as
Speaker of the House, 77, 78, 160;
personal recollections of Lincoln, 82-
108; chairman of Territories' com
mittee, 116; attempts to prohibit
polygamy, 141; interest in the im
peachment of President Johnson,
143-168; as governor of Illinois,
160-168, 173; acquaintance with
President Grant, 169-179; senatorial
career, 203-223, 436-455; proposed
candidate for president, 273; visit to
the Hawaiian Islands, 286-290; in
terest in work of the RaUroad and
Warehouse Commission, 306-312; as
a member of the committee on In
terstate Commerce, 314-330; as a
member of the Foreign Relations
committee, 338, 418; views on Cana
dian reciprocity, 376, 378, 379; views
on arbitration, 403; attempts to stop
practice of accepting titles and dec
orations, 407-411; attitude to "in
surgency," 422, 423; letter read at
the Lincoln Centennial, 430, 431;
dedicatory address at completion of
the Lincohi Library, 432-436.
CuUoms, The, of Maryland, 1.
Cummins, Albert B., 421, 424.
Curtin, Governor, 106.
Curtis, Governor, 46.
Curtis, Senator, 426.
Czolgosz, Leon F., 291.
D
Damien, Father, 288.
Davis, Cushman K., 339, 340-344.

460

INDEX

Davis, Judge David, 3S-38, 40, 62, 85,
86, 131, 333, 334.
Davis, Frederic I., 411.
Davis, George R., 437.
Davis, Jefferson, 26, 58, 60, 75, 180.
Dawes, Charles G., 446.
Dawes, Senator, 132, 207, 214, 216, 321,
327.
Day, WiUiam R., 296, 302.
Dearborn, Fort, 3.
Debt, state, of Illinois, 59, 168.
Deer Creek, 4.
Delmonico's, dinner at, 224.
Democratic party, the, 3, 16-18, 32, 23,
32, 69, 61, 63.
Denby, Edwin, 409-411.
Deneen, Charles S., 55, 56, 439.
Denmark, treaty with, 414, 415.
Depew, Senator, 346, 256, 380.
DilUngham, Commander, 387-389.
Dillingham-Sanchez agreement, 387,
388.
Dingley Act, the, 265, 283, 290, 368-
371, 421.
Dixon, Joseph M., 424.
DoUiver, Senator, 331, 332, 421, 429.
Donelson, Fort, 181.
Dorwin, Harry, 46.
Dougherty, A. J., 438.
Douglas, Stephen A., 3, 4, 39-32, 34,
41, 42, 44, 52, 58-64, 72, 73, 76, 87,
181, 186, 316, 432.
Douglas's address at Springfield, 64-
73.
"Dred, a Tale of the Dismal Swamp,"
33.
Dred Scott case, 26, 27.
Drummond, Thomas, 333, 334.
Du Bois, Jesse K., 46, 135, 180.
Duncan, Joseph, 19.

E

Edmunds, George F., 206-309, 224, 338,
239, 255, 313, 321, 353.

Edwards, Benjamin S., 13, 16, 20, 31,
34, 84.
Elk Spring Valley, Kentucky, 1.
Emerson, citation from, 433.
Evarts, Senator, 132, 166, 184, 329-231,
321, 326, 327.
Everett, Edward, S9. P
Fairbanks, Charles W., 334, 360-363,
427.
Farnsworth, John F., Ill, 157.
Farwell, Charles B., 126, 173, 250, 261.
Federal Election BiU, see "Force BUl,"
the.
Fessenden, Senator, 157.
Fielding, Mr., 378.
Fifer, Joseph W., 201, 447.
Fillmore, President, 33, 34, 25, 76, 445.
"FUlmore Ticket," the, 16.
Fink, Mr., 318.
Fish, Secretary of State, 8.
Fisher, Hannah M., 456.
Fisher, Julia, 456.
Fisheries dispute, 403.
Fletcher, Senator, 435.
Flood, H. D., 411.
"Flying Squadron, the," 201.
Foraker, Hon. J. B., 366-358, 360, 366.
"Force BiU," the, 255.
Ford, citation from, 20.
Foreign Affairs Committee of the
House, 8, 407, 409, 411.
Foreign Relations, Committee on, 8, 9,
303, 330, 338-379, 381-386, 391, 396,
400, 404, 405, 407, 409, 411, 414, 415,
418.
Forsythe-Stone Law, the, 445.
Foster, Senator, 425.
Fort Sumter, 63, 75.
Foundery Methodist Church, 134.
Freedman's Bureau bUl, 160.
Free-soil party, see Republican party.
Free Trade, 139, 137, 242, 243, 246, 269,
260, 264-270, 274, 276, 421-426. 441.

INDEX

461

"Free Trade Party," the, 228.
Fremont, as presidential candidate, 16,
33, 24, 25, 76.
Frye, WiUiam P., 207, 240, 282, 316,
321, 322, 344r-347, 350.
Fuller, MelviUe W., 236-242, 303, 333,
429.

GalUnger, Jacob H., 347, 348, 425.
Gamble, Senator, 425.
Garfield, James R., 120, 122-128, 131,
186, 204, 206.
Geneva Convention, 404.
George, Senator, 207, 218.
Gold Democratic Party, the, 191.
Gold Standard, the, see Silver Agita
tion, the.
Gorman, Senator, 255, 365-268, 315,
316, 321, 443, 444.
Gowdy, Judge, 237.
Granger Movement, the, 306.
Grant, Frederick D., 178.
Grant, Mrs., 170, 178.
Grant, Nellie, 178.
Grant, Ulysses S., 7, 8, 11, 92, 110, 124,
131, 136, 146, 162, 157, 166, 169-179,
183, 183, 189, 192, 198, 199, 217, 373,
390, 414.
Gray, George, 229, 230, 390.
"Great Conspiracy, The," 189.
Greeley, Horace, 101, 439.
Green, Henry, 51, 52.
"Greenback craze," the, 132.
Gresham, Walter Q., 246, 261, 262, 333,
334, 441.
Grimes, Senator, 167.
Grosscup, Judge, 273.
Guadalupe Hidalgo oMigation, 15.
Guam, Island of, 290, 412.
Guffin, W. I., 293.

H

Haines, Elijah, 160.
"Haines Legislature,"

the, 160.

Hale, Eugene, 207, 219, 284, 321, 347,
391, 423.
HaUett, Judge Moses, 11.
Hamilton, Alexander, 210, 372.
Hamilton, Governor, 201.
HamUn, Vice-President, 59.
Hampton, Senator, 207.
Hand, John P., 429.
Hanecy, Judge Elbridge, 446.
Hanna, Marcus A., 273, 279-283, 344,
359, 374, 386, 449.
Hanson, Nicholas, 18, 19.
Hardie, Mrs. Carrie, 457.
Hardie, Robert Gordon, 457.
Harlan, John MarshaU, 333-337.
Harlan, Senator, 135.
Harper's Ferry, arsenal at, 57.
Harris, Isham G., 38, 261, 315-317.
Harris, Thomas L., 23, 39.
Harrison, Benjamin, 119, 120, 126, 130,
131, 138, 346-253, 357-362, 293, 303,
321, 346, 441, 442.
Harrison, Peyton, 49.
Hastings, Governor, 380.
Hatch, O. M., 46, 91, 180.
Hawaii, government for the Territory
of, 9, 285-290, 296, 376.
Hawaiian Commission, the, 13, 286, 349.
Hawley, Joseph R., 207, 216, 217, 234,
322, 441.
Hay, John, 80, 90, 99-101, 295-300,
365-367, 380-382, 386, 387-389, 393,
399, 402.
Hay, Logan, 334.
Hay, Milton, 44, 52, 160, 295.
Hay-Pauncefote treaty, the, 300, 380.
Hayes, Rutherford B., 117, 118, 120-
132, 131, 172, 178, 179, 230, 335.
Hayes-Tilden contest, the, 161.
Hearst, Senator, 234, 235.
Helper, Hinton Rowan, 33.
Henderson, J. B., 158.
Henderson, Thomas J., 188, 203.
Hendricks, Thomas A., 133, 158, 224,
229.
Hennepin Canal, the, 232.

462

INDEX

Henry, Patrick, 372.
Hepburn BiU, the, 354, 338-330, 356.
Herndon, WiUiam H., 44.
Heyburn, Senator, 425.
Hill, David B., 257, 265.
Hitt, John, 7, 11.
Hitt, Robert R., 7-11, 32, 285-287, 289,
446, 448.
Hoar, George F., 207, 211-214, 216,
230, 246, 255, 331, 333, 334, 353.
Hobart, Vice-President, 374, 345, 427.
Hopkins, Albert J., 264, 266, 439.
Horse Shoe Reef, in Lake Erie, 394.
Hubbard, Frederick Adolphus, 19-21.
Humphrey, Judge J. Otis, 53, 64, 334,
439, 430.
Hurlbut, Stephen A., 77.

230, 331, 255, 264, 294, 295, 30S-SS3,
341, 357, 426, 447.
Isle of Pines, 412-418.

Jay Treaty, the, 372.
Jayne, WiUiam, 43, 72, 429
Jewett, John N., 126, 334.
Johnson, Andrew, 43, 52, 104, 105, 110,
112, 129, 136, 143-168, 182, 230, 414.
Johnson, Dr., citation from, 337.
"Johnson's Reports," 19.
Johnston, Senator, 425.
Jones, S. H. ("Sam" Jones), 47, 188.
Jones, Senator, 265, 425.
Judd, Norman B., 42, 43, 190.
Jusserand, Ambassador, 439.

Illinois, as a Free State, 17, 19.
IlUnois Central RaUroad, 85, 133.
IlUnois Railroad and Warehouse Act,
307.
Illinois River and canal, navigation of,
161.
Immortality, author's views on, 336,
337, 457.
"Impending Crisis in the South — How
to Meet It," 33.
ImperiaUsm, or Expansion, 287, 390,
359.
Inauguration of president, change of
time for, 213, 314.
Income Tax case, the, 341, 336.
Income-tax provision, the, 268.
Indian Affairs, 216, 216.
Indians, treaty with, 2, 15.
IngaUs, Senator, 207, 321.
IngersoU, Eben C, 111, 112, 113.
IngersoU, Robert G., 112-114, 117,
122, 199.
Inheritance-tax law, 268.
"Insurgency," in the Senate, 420-423.
Interstate Commerce and Interstate
Commerce Acts, 211, 216, 332, 227,

K
KaetershiU Mountain top, 442.
Kansas, as a Free State, 15, 26, 27, 58,
59.
Kansas-Nebraska controversy, S5.
Kasson, John A., 370, 374, 375.
Kean, John, 363, 363.
KeUy, WUUam D., 116, 136-138.
Keyes, Isaac, 176.
King, Senator, 339.
Knights of the Golden Circle, 133.
Knott, Proctor, 111.
"Know-Nothing" party, the, 22.
Knox, Philander C, 304, 361, 378, 405.
Kohlsaat, Judge Christian C, 276, 377,
334.
Kuhn, Loeb & Company, 392.

La FoUette, Robert M., 430, 421, 434.
Lamar, L. Q. C, 207, 337.
Lamb, James, 97.
Lane, Senator, 104.
Laurier, Premier, 378, 379.
Lawrence, Mr., Minister to Great
Britain, 394.

INDEX

463

Lawrence, Rheuna, SI, 286.
Laws, proper enactment and enforce
ment of, 464, 455.
Lawyers of Illinois, 38, 41.
Lee, Robert E., 57, 92.
Leland Stanford, Jr., University, 234.
Leonard, E. F., 55, 108.
Leprosy in the HawaUan Islands, 388,
289.
Libraries, value of, 431-435.
Lincoln, Abraham, 3, 7, 12, 13, 28-32,
34, 38, 40-42, 44, 49, 64, 58-64, 74r-
76, 78, 80-109, 115, 123, 133-136, 143-
145, 152, 190, 192, 225, 233, 239, 341,
376, 279, 285, 295, 334, 335, 414, 428-
435.
Lincoln, Robert T., 124^126, 247.
Lincoln, WiUie, 89.
Lincoln Centennial, the, 428-435.
"Lincoln Centennial Association, The,"
429.
Lincoln Library, the, 431-435.
Lincoln-Douglas debates, the, 7, 29-32,
63, 87.
Lincoln's address at Springfield, 63; in
augural address, 76, 76.
Lippitt, Henry F., 423.
Liquors, prohibition of sale of, 16.
Littler, David T., 50-52, 184, 438.
Lodge, Henry Cabot, 211, 280, 351, 362,
356, 408, 425.
Logan, David, 40, 41.
Logan, John A., 25, 26, 37, 109, 118,
138, 139, 173, 173, 175, 180-189, 194,
199, 200, 215, 224, 313-319, 441.
Logan, Stephen T., 3, 4, 12, 39-41, 44,
49, 52, 84, 86, 97, 156-168.
Lurton, Judge, 303. M
McClellan, Captain, 85, 91, 92.
McClernand, General, 181, 196.
McClure, A. K., 235.
McCook, Anson G., 196.
McCumber, Senator, 435.

MacDonald, Senator, 363.
McKinley, WiUiam, 13, 50, 53, 118, 123,
130, 131, 191, 210, 233, 243, 244, 263,
264, 367, 369, 372-291, 294, 296, 329,
343, 355, 360, 361, 369, 393, 444, 447.
"McKinley Tariff BiU," the, 253, 255,
258-260, 264, 265, 446.
McLean, John, 333, 334.
McMiUan, Senator, 286.
Macon Road, the, 193.
McPherson, Edward, 117, 121.
MacVeagh, Franklin, 436, 437.
Maine, the, 284.
Manderson, Charles F., 207, 220, 321.
Manning, Daniel, 236.
Marshall, John, 236, 333, 336.
Marshall, S. S., 111.
Martin, Senator, 426
Mason, Senator, 278, 283.
Matheny, James H., 23, 24.
Mather, General, 169.
Matteson, Governor, 190.
MediU, Joseph E., 118, 252, 437, 439-
446.
Meikeljohn, Mr., 412.
Mercur, Mr., 116.
Mexico, relations with, 400-404.
Meyer, Leonard, 137.
MiUer, George W., 438.
MiUer, John F., 339.
MiUer, Justice, 208.
MiUer, Senator Warner, 315.
MUls BiU, the, 243, 244, 246, 263, 264,
442.
Miner, Louis, 46.
Miner, O. H., 46.
Missouri, settlement of, by slave-hold
ers, 17.
Missouri Compromise repeal, 15, 29.
MitcheU, Senator, 321, 340.
Molokai, the island of, 388.
Mondel or world treaty, 396, 397, 402,
404.
Money, Hernando de Soto, 364.
Montezumas, the, 198.
Morgan, John T., 9, 207, 285-289, 331,

464

INDEX

323, 327, 339, 347-350, 353, 359, 882,
383, 392.
Morgan, Governor, 204.
Morgan, Senator, of New York, 153.
Mormons, see Polygamy in Utah.
Morocco, treaty of peace with, 415, 416.
MorrUl, Justin S., 133, 306, 309, 219,
321, 322.
Morrison, Colonel, 338, 229.
Morton, Governor, of lUinois, 45.
Morton, Levi P., 274.
Morton, Senator, of Indiana, 182.
Moses, the historian, citation from, 19,
20; reference to, 23.
Mount Morris, seminary at, 4, 6, 7, 10.
Mud Creek, see Deer Creek.
Murphy, Senator, 265.
Mussett, Senator, 438. N
National Guard, lUinois, 162, 164.
National Hotel, Washington, 135.
Naval strength of the United States,
464.
Negroes, attitude to, in the United
States, 26, 27.
NeutraUty laws, 14.
Newlands, Senator, 425.
Iffew York Tribune, The, 296.
Nicaraguan route, see Panama Canal.
Nichols, Mr., 260.
Nicolay, Mr., 80, 90, 95.

Oak Ridge Cemetery, 108, 456.
Oberly, John, 306.
Oglesby, Richard J., 47, 48, 170, 175,
180, 181, 183, 194, 196, 198-203.
Oliver, Senator, 426.
Olney, Richard, 263, 342.
O'Neil, Charies, 137, 138.
Orendorff, Alfred, 334.
Orth, Godlove, S., 116, 138, 139, 163.
Ostend Manifesto, the, 14, 15.

"Our Presidents and How We Make
Them," 225. P
Page, Senator, 426.
Palma, President, 413.
Palmer, H. W., 411.
Pahner, John M., 23, 180, 190-197, 266,
374, 375, 437.
•Palmerston, Lord, 394.
Panama, RepubUc of, 312.
Panama Canal, the, 212, 281, 349, 360,
369, 380-388, 414, 464.
Panic of 1873, 161.
Paris Peace Commission, 343.
Parties, poUtical, in the Senate, 425,
426.
Payne, Henry B., 185.
Payne, Sereno, 421.
Payne-Aldrich tariff, see Aldrich-
Payne tariff biU.
Peace Conference, at Washington, 75;
at The Hague, 367, 396, 403, 404.
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, improvement of,
289, 390.
Pendleton, Senator, 306.
Pennsylvania Avenue, paving of, 110,
111.
Penrose, Senator, 436, 436.
Pensions, granting of liberal, 331.
Perkins, Senator, 435.
Phelps, Judge, 336, 238.
Philippine question, the, 311, 313, 390,
396.
PhiUips, Alfred, 3.
PhiUips, Isaac N., 3, 17.
Pinckney, D. J., 10.
Pious Fund arbitration case with Mex
ico, 400, 401.
Piatt, OrviUe H., 307, 315, 316. 349,
380, 393, 315-318, 321, 322, 347, 363, ;
356.
Piatt, T. C, 235, 293. nil
Piatt Amendment, the, 316, 290, 376, i , , i
413.

INDEX

465

Plumb, Senator, 208.
Polygamy in Utah, 141-143, 306, 223,
333, 242.
Pomeroy letter, the, 94.
i Pope, General, 92, 93.
j Pope, Nathaniel, 333.
Porto Rico, ceding of, to the United
States, 412-114.
Postal savings banks, estabUshment of,
426.
PoweU, General, 277, 278.
Prentiss, General, 187.
Primary law, unconstitutionality of the
flrst Illinois, 450, 461.
Prmce, George W., 446, 448.
Proclamation of 1863, 96.
Proctor, Senator, 234, 283.
"Progressivism," see "Insurgency."
Protection, see Free Trade.
Protocol, arbitration by, 393-396.
PuUman Company, 126.

Richardson, WiUiam A., S3.
Ridgely, Charles, 46, 47, 369, 270.
Ridgely, Mrs. EUa, 457.
Ridgely, Nicholas H., 46.
Ridgely, WUUam Barret, 466.
Ridgely National Bank, 46.
Rives, Senator, 339.
Robertson, Collector of Customs, 137.
Robinson, James C, 47, 48.
Rock Island (IlUnois) Arsenal, 307.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 131, 312, 218, 254,
389, 291-304, 329, 330, 332, 346, 356,
365, 376, 377, 382, 396-402, 413, 415,
417, 464, 455.
Root, Elihu, 361, 365, 366, 391, 392, 396,
402, 408, 417, 425.
Rose, James A., 429.
Ross, Edmund G., 158.
Russia and Japan, war between, 299.

Q
Quay, Matthew Stanley, 336.
R
Railroad and Warehouse Commission,
161, 306-312.
RaUroads, in the United States, 81,
305; regulation of, 305-332; senti
ment against pooUng and rebating,
306, 322, 327.
Randall, Samuel J., 138.
Ransom, Senator, 307.
Rawlins, John A., 11, 169.
Reagan, Mr., of Texas, 331, 333, 440.
Reciprocity treaties, 358, 368-378, 436.
Reconstruction, poUcy of. 111, 143, 145-
148.
Reed, Thomas B., 343, 344, 347, 365,
273, 274, 380, 383.
Reeves, Walter, 446, 447.
RepubUcan party, the, 3, 16, 38, S9,
180, 259, 453.

St. Croix, island of, 414.
St. John, island of, 414.
St. Louis, East, strike in, 163-164.
St. Thomas, Island of, 414, 415.
Sanchez, Minister, 387.
Sandtown Road, 193.
Sangamon Coimty, 3, 34, 51, 76.
Santo Domingo, fiscal affairs of, 387-
393.
Santo Domingo Improvement Com
pany, 390.
Santo Domingo protocol, 387-392, 393,
414.
Sawyer, Senator, 207, 320-233, 333.
Schenck, General, 129, 141, 143, 157.
Schofield, General, 193, 193.
Scholfield, Justice, 336.
Schools and schoolhouses, in Illinois, 5;
appropriations for, 161.
Scott, General, 57, 107, 446.
Secession of the Southern States, 74,
143, 146.
Selby, Charles E., 438.

466

INDEX

Seward, Governor, 33, 38, 80, 89, 93,
145, 147, 151, 341, 342, 414.
SeweU, Senator, 206, 321, 322.
Sharrock, J. E., 438.
Shaw, John, 18.
ShelbyviUe, political meeting at, 24.
Shepard, Dan, 188.
Sheridan, General Phil, 165, 166, 182,
192, 194, 196.
Sherman, James Schoolcraft, 427.
Sherman, John, 122, 123, 124, 206, 209,
210, 211, 224, 229, 246, 256, 281, 331,
332, 339, 340, 341, 344, 355, 441.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 254, 265, 393.
Sherman Law, or the Coinage Act of
1890, 254, 256, 363, 364.
Shiveiy, Benjamin F., 367, 436.
Silver agitation, the, 332, 266, 263, 364,
269, 274, 275, 290.
Simpson, Bishop, 108, 134, 136.
Singleton, J. W., 77.
Slavery, 2, 3, 17, 18, 26, 39, 58, 59, 74,
76, 96, 151.
Smith, Garret, 176.
Smith, knovm as "Whispering Smith,"
36.
Smith, Senator, of New Jersey, 266.
Smith, WiUiam Alden, 364, 435.
Smoot, Senator, 425.
Spanish-American War, 14, 210, 216,
283, 284, 290, 293, 359, 412.
Spooner, John C, 216, 222, 229, 321,
322, 347, 353, 365, 357-360, 366, 374,
386, 419, 420, 423.
Spooner Act, the, 359, 383.
Springfield Journal, the, 46.
"Stand patters," the, of the 61st Con
gress, 421.
Stanford, Leland, 229, 234, 335.
Stanton, Edwin M., 145, 150, 154, 165.
Stanwix, Fort, 3.
Star of the West, the, 15.
Stevens, Thaddeus, 110, 144, 147, 150,
155, 156, 158, 206.
Stevenson, Adlai E., 260, 261, 429.
Stewart, Senator, 266.

Stone, MelvUIe E., 429.
Stone, WilUam J., 367, 408, 426.
Strike of 1877, railway employees', 162.
Stowe, Harriet EUzabeth Beecher, 33.
Stuart, J. E. B., 57.
Stuart, John T., 12, 24, 81, 84.
Sumner, Charles, 144, 147, 161, 152, 168,
206, 338-340, 361, 390, 391, 414.
Sutherland, Senator, 425.
Swett, Leonard, 78-80, 109.

Taft, President, 248, 261, 30^-304, 361,
378, 379, 405, 406, 419-427.
Taney, Chief Justice, 26, 27, 94, 96,
105, 236.
Tanner, John R., 437, 446-449.
Tariff, see Free Trade.
Taylor, Senator, 425.
Tazewell, County of, 2, 3, 6, 24, 84.
Telegraph, use of, 81.
TeUer, Henry M., 184, 206, 329, 231-
233, 321, 347.
Tenure of Office biU, 153, 164.
Thayer, Edward, 65.
Third-term elections, 171, 242.
Thomas, General, 155, 193, 335.
Thomas, Jesse B., 18.
Thornton, Anthony, 24, 114, 115.
Thurman, AUen G., 121, 207, 219, 353.
Thurston, Senator, 274.
TUden, nominee for Presidency, 131,
191.
TiUman, Senator, 266, 332, 425.
Ting & Brotherson, 13.
Titles and decorations, attitude of the
government to the conferring of, 407-
411.
Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad,
55.
Townsend, Charles E., 436.
Townsend, Representative, 236.
Tracey homestead, destruction by fire
of the, 349.
Travel in the early days in Illinois, S.

INDEX 467
Treat, Samuel H., 49, 333, 334. Weldon, Lawrence, S3, 334.
Treaties, provisions in Constitution in Welles, Gideon, 93.
regard to, 8; see also Arbitration. Wentworth, John, 110.
TrumbuU, Lyman, 24, 43, 43, 151, 153, West Indies, Danish, purchase of, 414.
•164, 157, 158, 190, 353. Wetmore, Senator, 425.
Turner, General, 191. Whigs, the, 3, 33, 24.
Tyler, John, 75, 150. White, Edward D., 242.
White, Horace, 429.
J-, Whitfield, a. slave-holder, 15.
Wicker, C. M., 440.
"Unholy AlUance," the, 434. Wilcox, Captain T. de Witt, 407.
Union Pacific Railroad, construction WiUiams, Archibald, 41.
of, 139, 140. WiUiams, "Cerro Gordo," 198.
WilUams, George, 118.
.y. Willoughby, James A., 377.
Wilson, Bluford, 60, 176, 177, 347.
Vance, Senator, 207. Wilson, James, 304.
Van Wyck, Senator, 207, 221. WUson, Senator, 166, 175.
Vest, George, 207, 217-219, 331. WUson Bill, the, 265, 266, 368, 369, 373.
Vicksburg, Siege of, 181. Windom, Senator, 339, 441.
Vorhees, Daniel W., 133, 134, 207, 239. Windom Investigation, the, 313.
321. "Winter of the deep snow," 4.
™. Wolcott, Senator, 255.
Woods, Judge, 248.
Wade, Ben, 144, 160-152, 166, 158. World's Fair, at Chicago, 256, 437.
WaUser, Rev. E. S., 432.
Walthall, Senator, 230. Y
War Revenue Act, the, 290.
Warren, Senator, 425. Yates, Richard, Governor, 45, 429, 447,
Washburn, E. B., 7, 8, 109, 110, 167, 461.
170, 171. Yates, Richard, War-Governor, 45, 52,
Washington, President, 171, 373. 64, 158, 169, 194, 195.
Washington National Tribune, The,
186, 186. 1
Watterson, Henry, 439.
Webster, Daniel, 151, 206, 351. Zane, Judge, 306, 206, 333.

3 9002 00500 6896

s^^^**"" t ^'Z'*^

..ns-,

¦W":

-A -fp

^^'

^1
- - . j;
U V- ¦
>^A.
•¦...-•¦•.--'.¦'iiifflsa.