Department called at my
office and informed me that the Secretary of State, Judge Gresham,
desired to see me. Judge Gresham and I had been warm personal friends
for many years. He had occupied many positions of prominence and
responsibility. He had been a major-general in the Union army, and was
with Sherman's army during that celebrated March through Georgia. He was
one of the leading candidates for the Presidential nomination before the
National Republican Convention at Chicago in 1888, when General Benjamin
Harrison, of Indiana, was nominated.

I was a member of that Convention and one of Judge Gresham's active
supporters. In the campaign that followed Judge Gresham gave General
Harrison his active and loyal support, but, for some unaccountable
reason, he supported Mr. Cleveland against General Harrison in 1892. Mr.
Cleveland was not only elected, but, contrary to public expectation, he
carried the State of Illinois,--a State in which Judge Gresham was known
to be very popular, especially among the colored people of Chicago;
many of whom, it was said, voted for Mr. Cleveland through the efforts
and influence of Judge Gresham. Mr. Cleveland evidently believed that
his success in Illinois was due largely to Judge Gresham, and as
evidence of that fact, and because Judge Gresham was known to be a very
able man, Mr. Cleveland paid him the distinguished honor of appointing
him to the leading position in his cabinet,--that of Secretary of State.

When I called at the State Department the Judge invited me to a seat in
his private office. He said there was an important matter about which he
desired to talk with me. My name, he said, had been the subject of a
recent conversation between the President and himself. The President, he
said, was well aware of the cordial relations existing between us, and
believed that if any man could influence my action he, Gresham, was that
man.

"Now," said the Judge, "the President has formed a very favorable
opinion of you. He is anxious to have you remain at the head of the
important bureau over which you are now presiding in such a creditable
and satisfactory manner. But you understand that it is a political
office. As anxious as the President is to retain you, and as anxious as
I am to have him do so, he could not do it and you could neither ask nor
expect him to do it, unless you were known to be in sympathy with, and a
supporter of, his administration,--at least in the main. Now, you k