Part 20 (1/2)
Before his term expired he became partially blind, and the story is told by the late Senator h.o.a.r that Senator Evarts and he had delivered speeches in the Senate on some great legal, const.i.tutional question, Senator h.o.a.r on one side, Senator Evarts on the other.
The latter asked Senator h.o.a.r to look over the proof of his speech and correct it, and in reading over the proof Senator h.o.a.r told me that he became 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 all during his service. He was one of the few Senators that every Senator on both sides believed in and was willing 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, member of many arbitration commissions,--in all of which he acquitted himself with great honor.
My friend, Senator Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, returned 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 Teller has had a long and honorable public career. He was elected to the Senate several times as a Republican, and appointed to the office of Secretary of the Interior as a Republican. 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 believe he became a pretty strong Democrat; yet he never allowed partisans.h.i.+p to enter into his action on legislation, excepting where a party issue was involved, when he would vote with his party.
I served with him on the Appropriation Committee and other committees of the Senate, and regarded him as one of the best Senators for committee service with whom I was ever a.s.sociated. The friendly relations between Senator Teller 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 Republican party has not disturbed them in the least.
Mr. Teller's withdrawal from the Republican party after its declaration for the Gold Standard in the St. Louis Convention 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, although 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. Teller's fine sensibilities, 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 Republican party, and I am sure that he did not lose the respect or personal regard of a single Republican member of the body. Personally, I regarded him just as warmly as a Democrat as I had esteemed him as a Republican, and I am sure that my att.i.tude toward him was reflected by his att.i.tude toward myself.
The Colorado Senator's nature is such that he cannot dissemble, and when his conviction led him to condemn the Republican party because of its position on the money question, 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 consequences to himself. As a legislator, he was faithful in his 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 light upon any subject which came within his range of vision. With the exception of three years spent as Secretary of the Interior he was a member of the Senate from 1876, the year of Colorado's admission to the Union, until 1909, during which time he had nine different colleagues from his own State.
Mr. Teller was a resident of Illinois before he removed to Colorado in 1861, and was one of the earliest supporters of Mr. Lincoln.
His father and mother remained in Illinois as long as they lived, and Senator Teller always has retained interests in that State.
I think he still has relatives residing in Whiteside County.
William Eaton Chandler, of New Hamps.h.i.+re, was one of the first government officials with whom I became acquainted when I came to Was.h.i.+ngton, in 1865, as a member of the House of Representatives.
He was a.s.sistant 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 intellect. For many years he served his people in the Legislature of New Hamps.h.i.+re 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 member of the Spanish Claims Commission. In the discharge of the duties of that office he manifested the same high conception of his trust as in every position he occupied, either elective or appointive, and I think he saved to the government of the United States many millions of dollars in the adjudication of claims growing out of the Spanish-American War.
While Senator Chandler is very combative in his att.i.tude toward others, yet his innate sincerity draws one close to him after becoming acquainted with him. A little incident which will ill.u.s.trate this trait, occurred in the Senate of the United States some years ago. Mr. Chandler was induced to believe that the late Senator Proctor, of Vermont, did not like him very much. So Chandler went up to Proctor, and said: ”Proctor, don't you like me?” Proctor in his coa.r.s.e gruff voice replied: ”I have acquired a liking for you.” He established the point without circ.u.mlocution or diplomacy.
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, however, by the highest motive, recognizing as he did that the control of the railroads of the country was a matter of supreme 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 California, was a man of large wealth, and became famous on account of his having built the Central Pacific Railroad. He was a man of 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 entered the Senate two years after Senator Stanford, was also a man of very large wealth and possessor of a interesting 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 little speech to make to us, in which he said: ”I do now know much about books; I have not read very much; but I have travelled a good deal and observed men and things, and I have made up my mind after all 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 political history. He had been a soldier in the Civil War and afterwards occupied many positions of importance in the civil affairs in his State. Few men in American political life have had so constant a struggle as did Senator Quay to retain his ascendancy in Republican politics in Pennsylvania. Quay in Pennsylvania, and T. C. Platt 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 nomination of Presidents, and the two usually 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. Senator 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 finally proved fatal. Senator Quay and Senator Platt have both pa.s.sed away. They were the two last survivors of the old coterie of politicians who so long dominated Republican national conventions.
Toward the close of the Cleveland Administration, a vacancy occurred in the office of Chief Justice of the United States, to fill which President Cleveland appointed the Hon. Melville W. Fuller, of Illinois. I had something to do with this appointment.
Chief Justice Fuller has only recently pa.s.sed 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 Melville W. Fuller for many years before he became Chief Justice. Away back in war times, I knew him as a member of the Illinois Legislature and as a member of the Const.i.tutional 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 confirm. 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 finally 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 member 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 willingness to accept; but when he was approached by Representative Townsend, at the suggestion of President Cleveland, after considering the matter, he demurred, a.s.serting that although he would enjoy the distinction of being Chief Justice of the United States, he did not think that life in Was.h.i.+ngton, and especially the social side of the life 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 Was.h.i.+ngton. He feared that Was.h.i.+ngton life would ruin them, so he finally declined the appointment.
Judge Fuller had been a close friend of President Cleveland, had been a member of the national convention that nominated him, was recognized as one of the leading Democrats of Illinois, and had been consulted by Mr. Cleveland in the distribution of the patronage in that State; so naturally Judge Fuller was considered in connection with the office. It was not surprising, considering that the Senate was then in the control of the Republicans, that he would want to enlist my aid in securing his confirmation.
I called 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 him that I knew Fuller very well indeed; that if I were called upon to name five of the best lawyers of Illinois belonging to his party, I would name Fuller 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. Fuller 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 should go to Illinois.