Page images
PDF
EPUB

to neglect it and takes exercise regularly. Mr. Hanna is a man of large estate, but he has no idle hours or dollars. He is active in capital and labor, and an example that head and hands may work together with profit and show each other fair play. As there are several thousand men employed in the various enterprises in which he is influentially interested, he has not escaped incidents of differences of opinion between employers and employed that passed into a stage of warfare

He holds the respect of workingmen because he treats them with respect, and he gains their good will because he is fair, and in nothing does he show them greater consideration than in never trying the blandishments of demagogues with them. He has no ability or inclination in that direction.

Mr. Hanna has been chairman of the Republican National Committee since the convention of 1896, and has won a reputation for great executive skill by his successful management of that campaign. It became his duty to call together the convention at Philadelphia and to introduce the temporary chairman. He was appointed to the United States Senate by Governor Bushnell, March 5, 1897, to fill the vacancy caused by resignation of Hon. John Sherman. He was elected to the succeeding short and long terms, and his present term expires March 4, 1905.

Hon. Cornelius N. Bliss

MR. BLISS was born in Massachusetts sixty-eight years ago. When he was a mere boy he moved to New Orleans, but afterwards came North, living in Boston a short time. In 1866 he went to New York City where in course of time he became one of the most highly esteemed leaders of the great metropolis. Mr. Bliss is a man of marked intellectual breadth, culture of mind, taste and spirit. He was selected by President McKinley for his Secretary of the Interior, which portfolio he accepted. Life in Washington did not suit him, and his business interests in New York requiring his attention he resigned his portfolio in December, 1898, to be succeeded by Mr. E. A. Hitchcock.

Thomas Brackett Reed

The Great "Speaker" and Debater.

THOMAS BRACKETT REED was born in Portland, Maine, October 18, 1839. He attended the common schools of the city, and was graduated at Bowdoin College in 1860, being among the first in his class and taking the highest honors possible-the prize for excellence in English composition. He possesses rare gifts in this respect, his writings showing a clear, vigorous, but limpid style, which have brought him a national reputation, while his speeches are eloquent, sparkling, logical, and corruscating with humor, sarcasm, and wit. No man surpasses him in readiness of repartee. No more enjoyable treat could be imagined than that of a debate in the House, where he was beset with all sorts of questions from political opponents. His instant replies were inimitable, and the man that could unhorse him in debate did not appear on the floor of Congress during Mr. Reed's long service as member and speaker.

After his graduation, Mr. Reed taught in a Portland high school, studying law at the same time. He went to California in 1863, expecting to make his home in that state. He taught school there and began the practice of law, but at the end of the year, for family reasons, returned to Maine. In April, 1864, he was appointed acting assistant paymaster in the United States navy and assigned to duty on the gunboat Sibyl, which patrolled the Tennessee, Cumberland and Mississippi rivers until the close of the war.

He was discharged from the service in August, 1865, and returned to Portland, where he was admitted to the bar.

His advance was rapid. He was interested from the first in politics, and his power and popularity were so marked that, without his knowledge, he was nominated by his party in 1868 for the State House of Representatives. His election followed as a matter of course, and his reputation as a brilliant lawyer going with him, he was placed on the Judiciary Committee. Maine was quick to see that she had secured the right man and re-elected him in 1869,

promoting him to the Senate in 1870, but he resigned the senatorship to assume the duties of Attorney-General, to which office he had been elected.

His name was well-known throughout the state, and it was in the natural order of events, that, in 1876, he was nominated for Congress and elected in the district composed of Cumberland

and York counties.

Mr. Reed took his seat in Congress, October 15, 1877. He made his first speech April 12, 1878, and drew the attention of the House by his keen, convincing logic. His great ability was recognized by political opponents as well as friends. In 1889, when the Republicans had a bare majority, he was elected to the Speaker's chair, receiving 166 votes to 154 cast for John G. Carlisle.

There are few who are not acquainted with Speaker Reed's career as presiding officer of the House of Representatives. For a time indeed he was the central figure in the eyes of the country. On January 29, 1890, when the Democrats had sat mute while their names were being called by the clerk, Speaker Reed coolly counted sufficient numbers "present but not voting," to constitute a quorum.

The Speaker, notwithstanding the storm of opposition, resolutely held to his decision and the business of the session which had been blocked so long moved forward, though it cannot be said without friction.

Four years later, when a Democratic House was caught in precisely the same dilemma, it adopted precisely the same rule. Mr. Reed was chosen speaker again of Congress, in December, 1895, and again in March, 1897.

At the National Republican Convention, which met in St. Louis in 1896, Mr. Reed's name was prominently spoken of for President; but William McKinley, of Ohio, was nominated, and the "Courtly Knight" from Maine supported him in some of the most able speeches delivered during the campaign.

Quite unexpectedly Mr. Reed resigned his seat in the 56th Congress and gave himself to the practice of law in New York, of which city he became a citizen.

Grover Cleveland

Successful Lawyer, Governor and President.

GROVER CLEVELAND, twenty-second and twenty-fourth President of the United States, was born in the village of Caldwell, Essex County, New Jersey, March 18, 1837. He was the son of Richard Falley Cleveland, a Presbyterian minister, who was graduated at Yale in 1824, and five years later married Annie Neal, daughter of a Baltimore merchant.

When the son was four years old his father accepted a call to Fayetteville, near Syracuse, New York, where the boy attended the academy, and afterward served as clerk in a country store. Some time later the family removed to Clinton, in Oneida County, and Grover was a student at the academy there. At the age of sixteen he became a clerk and assistant teacher in the New York Institution for the Blind, in New York city. In the same institution his elder brother, William, now a preacher, was also a teacher.

He took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1859. Meanwhile his father died, and, that he might be able to support his mother, Grover remained three years longer with the firm with whom he studied at a moderate salary.

His worth and ability had attracted favorable notice, and he was appointed assistant district attorney of Erie County, January 1, 1863, holding the office for three years. He was defeated in 1865, as the Democratic candidate for district attorney, and became a law partner of Isaac V. Vanderpool, uniting, in 1869, with the firm of Lanning & Folsom. By this time he had attained marked success, and in 1870 was elected sheriff of Erie County. At the end of his three years' term, he formed a law partnership with his intimate friend, Lyman K. Bass, who had defeated him for the district attorneyship, the firm being Bass, Cleveland & Bissell. Ill health compelled the retirement of Mr. Bass, when the firm became Cleveland & Bissell. It was very successful, and Mr. Cleveland's reputation increased.

state.

In September, 1882, he was nominated for governor of the
Governor Cleveland made no blunders that could, mar

his prospects.
He was able, honest, and wholly devoted to the
interests of the state. At the Democratic national convention, held
in Chicago, in July, 1884, he received the nomination for President,
which he formally accepted by letter on the 18th of August. Mr.
Cleveland received 219 electoral votes to 182 for Blaine.

President Cleveland was inaugurated on the 4th of March following, and called around him an able cabinet. He favored a reduction of the tariff, with the ultimate establishment of freer trade.

In the autumn of 1888, Cleveland received 5,540,329 and Harrison 5,439,853, while of the electoral votes 168 went to Cleveland and 233 to Harrison.

In 1892, the same gentlemen were the leading candidates, and the verdict was reversed; Cleveland received 5,553,142 and Harrison 5,186,931 on the popular vote, while in the electoral college 276 votes went to Cleveland and 145 to Harrison. It was the first time in our history that a President was re-elected after being out of office for one term.

In President Cleveland's second term a monetary stringency and a great depression of business were accompanied by a formidable railway strike which necessitated the calling out of the United States troops in several parts of the country. President Cleveland "struck fire," in his message to Congress, on December 17, 1895, when he said that the United States could not view with indifference the dismemberment of a sister republic Venezuela, on the American continent, for it would be a flagrant violation of the Monroe doctrine enunciated in 1823, which declared in language not to be mistaken that no part of North or South America from that time forward should be open for colonization by any foreign power.

President Cleveland was declared to be an American in the highest sense of the word, and an exalted patriot who had sounded the bugle to which hundreds of thousands of loyal spirits would respond. Since the close of his term he has become a highly respected citizen of the University town, Princeton, N. J.

« PreviousContinue »