FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   382   383   384   385   386   387   388   389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406  
407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422   423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   >>   >|  
character, a man of great common sense, public spirit, with a wonderful memory, and a rare fund of knowledge of the political history of the Northwest. Indeed he was an embodiment of the best quality of the people of the Ohio Territory, although born in Virginia. His great capacity was that of a politician. He made excellent stump speeches, managed political conventions with great shrewdness, and also with great integrity, and had great skill in constructing platforms. Colonel Thompson was a very valuable political adviser. It has never been the custom to select Secretaries of the Navy on account of any previously acquired knowledge of naval affairs, although the two heads of that Department appointed by Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt have conducted it with wonderful success in a very difficult time. A day or two after the Inauguration, John Sherman, the new Secretary of the Treasury, gave a very brilliant dinner party to the Cabinet, at which I was a guest. The table was ornamented by a beautiful man-of-war made out of flowers. Just before the guests sat down to dinner a little adopted daughter of Secretary Sherman's attached a pretty American flag to one of the masts. Somebody called attention to the beauty of the little ornament. I asked Secretary Thompson across the table to which mast of a man-of-war the American flag should be attached. Thompson coughed and stammered a little, and said: "I think I shall refer that question to the Attorney-General." David M. Key was appointed Postmaster-General in furtherance of President Hayes's desire, in the accomplishment of which he was eminently successful, to promote harmony between the sections, and to diminish, so far as possible, the heat of party feeling which had blazed so intensely at the time of his election. Mr. Key was a Democrat, and never, I believe, certainly not during President Hayes's Administration, abandoned his allegiance to the Democratic Party. He had been a member of the Senate from Tennessee, and Lieutenant-Colonel in the Confederate Army. His appointment was a popular one. Mr. Key administered the affairs of the Department very satisfactorily, in which he was aided very much by his Assistant Postmaster- General, Mr. Tyner, who had been an eminent member of the House, to whom, I suppose, he left the matter of appointments to office. Carl Schurz was a very interesting character. When I entered the House he was a member of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   382   383   384   385   386   387   388   389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406  
407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422   423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Thompson

 

Secretary

 

member

 

General

 

political

 

Colonel

 
President
 

Department

 
appointed
 
affairs

Postmaster

 
Sherman
 
dinner
 

knowledge

 
attached
 

American

 
character
 

wonderful

 
successful
 

question


sections

 
eminently
 

ornament

 

harmony

 

beauty

 

promote

 

accomplishment

 

desire

 

furtherance

 

coughed


Attorney

 

stammered

 

Assistant

 
satisfactorily
 
appointment
 

popular

 

administered

 

eminent

 

Schurz

 

interesting


entered

 

office

 
suppose
 

matter

 
appointments
 
Confederate
 

Lieutenant

 
intensely
 
election
 

Democrat