David B. Henderson

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Fifty-sixth Congress.

He re

DAVID BREMNER HENDERSON was born at Old Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, March 14, 1840; son of Thomas and Barbara Bremner Henderson, grandson of Walter Henderson on father's side. He was taken to America by his parents, who located on a farm in Winnebago County, Illinois, in 1846. In 1849 they moved to Fayette County, Iowa, where the son was educated, attending the district schools and Upper Iowa University. He enlisted in the Union Army, September 15, 1861, and was mustered into service November 5th, as First Lieutenant of Company C, 12th Iowa Infantry. He participated in the battles of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Corinth, being severely wounded at Fort Donelson, and losing a leg at Corinth, October 4, 1862. entered the army June 10, 1864, as Colonel of the 46th Iowa Infantry and served until the close of the war, when he was appointed a collector of internal revenue. He was admitted to the bar in 1865, and practiced in Dubuque, Iowa. He was afterward an assistant United States district attorney, and in 1882 he was elected as a Republican Representative in the 48th Congress. He was re-elected to the 49th, 50th, 51st, 52d, 53d, 54th, 55th and 56th Congresses, serving as chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary and as a member of the Committees on Rules and Appropriations. It is through this committee that the Speaker exercises a large part of his great authority in the handling of the business of Congress; and Mr. Henderson's position has made him as familiar as any other man with the methods of Speaker Reed. For the first time in the history of the country the Speakership has been conferred upon a representative of a state west of the Mississippi River. Mr. Henderson has great personal popularity in his district, where many Democrats are accustomed to vote for him, although his Republicanism is of the most aggressive type. He is also a favorite among his colleagues in Congress regardless of party.

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Journalist, Politician and Cabinet Officer

CHARLES EMORY SMITH, one of the best known journalists of to day, a public orator of great reputation, was born in Connecticut in 1842. His family removed to New York while he was a child, and he received his preparatory education at Albany Academy and Union College. During the Civil War he served in several military capacities, and at its close took up journalism. In 1880 he removed to Philadelphia, and became editor of the Philadelphia Press. President Harrison appointed him as our Minister to Russia in 1889, where he served for two years. During the Russian famine in 1891 and 1892, while he was in St. Petersburg, he had charge for distribution of the American contributions of over $100,000 in money and five ship loads of food. President McKinley nominated him for Postmaster-General in 1898, and he was promptly confirmed by the Senate. He was prominently named before the convention met in Philadelphia as a possible candidate for the Vice-Presidency.

James Daniel Richardson

Democratic Leader and Congressman From Tennessee. JAMES D. RICHARDSON, one of the most distinguished representatives from the South, and a leader of his party in the House, has served in Congress continuously in eight successive Congresses, beginning with the 49th. He was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee, March 10, 1843, and acquired his education at a public school, and at Franklin College in his own state. Although but 18 years of age, at the beginning of the Civil War, he entered the Confederate services, and was in the army nearly four years. After the war he served in his state Legislature, and was elected Speaker of the House in 1871, although he was then only 28 years He was delegate to the St. Louis Democratic Convention in 1876, and also to the Chicago Convention in 1896.

of age.

Fitzhugh Lee

Virginia's Favorite Son

MAJOR-GENERAL FITZHUGH LEE is not, as has been sometimes supposed, the son of the famous Commander-in-Chief, General Robert E. Lee.

He was born on November 19, 1835, at Clermont, Fairfax County, Virginia. He is a nephew of General Robert E. Lee, and a grandson of the famous "Light-Horse Harry Lee" (Robert E.'s father) of Revolutionary fame. His well-deserved popularity is not merely incidental to his late office as Consul-General to Cuba, and as one of the commanding generals in the Spanish-American War, but is built upon a splendid career as a man, a soldier, and a patriot.

Fitzhugh Lee entered West Point Military Academy in 1852 and graduated in 1856, as he humorously says, "third in my class if you commence to count from the bottom." During the Civil War he participated in all of the campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia.

After the war Fitzhugh Lee, like other Southern men of note, returned to his ordinary vocation, and lived in a quiet, retired way during the days of reconstruction.

In 1885 General Lee was elected Governor of Virginia, in which capacity he served his state for four years, with marked credit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents.

After the expiration of his term as Governor, General Lee returned to private life until he was appointed Consul-General to Cuba by President Cleveland in 1897. In this capacity his services were so satisfactory and valuable that, though he tendered his resignation to the new administration in 1897, President McKinley requested him to retain his position, which he did until the breaking out of hostilities between this country and Spain in 1898. When hostilities were declared he returned to the United States and was appointed Major-General in the army of invasion, and placed in command of the Seventh Army Corps, comprising

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five regiments of troops at Tampa and the troops at Jacksonville, numbering at the beginning of June, 1898, about 10,000 men.

He served with distinction through the war and continued in service of the army in Cuba.

General Lee is a typical American, chivalrous, patriotic, magnanimous, and as great in forbearance as he is valorous in defense of the principles of justice and humanity.

Nelson Appleton Miles

Commander of the United States Army

"If young Miles lives he will be one of the most distinguished officers in the service," said Major-General Hancock when the subject of this sketch was little more than a boy. That General Hancock was a true prophet, or a good guesser, the after-life of his young friend fully proved.

Major-General Nelson A. Miles, Commander of the United States Army, was born in Westminster, Mass., August 8, 1839. Hence he was nearly 61 years of age, when in June, 1900, he was raised to the rank of Lieutenant-General of the armies of the United States.

Curiously enough, General Miles is the only soldier in the last half-century who has reached the position of chief in command of the American Army without having graduated at West Point. His success must be attributed to the fact that he is a born soldierbrave and wise-and that he is a man of the most extraordinary strength of character, combined with irresistibly winning personal characteristics.

During his career in the Civil War, General Miles was engaged in all the battles of the Army of the Potomac except one-and this his wounds at the time rendered him incapable of participating in. He commanded successively regiments, brigades, and divisions, and in 1865 was put in command of the Second Army Corps, numbering over 25,000 men, said to be the largest command ever held in America by an officer only 25 years of

age.

General Miles was particularly prominent in the closing scenes of the war. His immediate command was the First Division of the Second Army Corps, which was in such close proximity to the Confederate forces that all the correspondence between Generals Grant and Lee regarding the terms of surrender passed directly through General Miles' command, and it was to his line that General Lee first came when he surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia, April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House.

Since the war General Miles has been perhaps the most prominent active soldier in the service of the government. When the army was first reorganized he was appointed Colonel of Infantry. In 1880 he was made Brigadier-General, and in 1890 Major-General of the United States Army, and has since succeeded General O. Howard as chief-in-command of the land forces. During the past twenty-five years he has figured prominently in our frontier troubles, and successfully conducted an Indian campaign against the Kiowas, Comanches, and Cheyennes in the Indian Territory and the Southwest; the Sioux, Cheyennes, Perces, and others in the Northwest; and the Apaches in Arizona and New Mexico. For his efficient services he received the public thanks of the States of Montana, Kansas, Arizona, and New Mexico, where he not only quelled outbreaks of the savages, but on several occasions prevented Indian wars by the judicious and humane settlement of difficulties without the use of military power.

After General Miles' active life in the West, and prior to the opening of the Spanish-American War, he devoted a considerable portion of his time to literary work. His articles on various phases of military science, tactics, history, and achievements have contributed very materially to that branch of American literature, and added to his high distinction as a commander the honors of authoritative authorship along the lines of his professional calling.

This brilliant record General Miles maintained during the war with Spain, and that he should be honored with the rank of Lieutenant-General is approved by all.