ory. 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 passed 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 passed 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
Constitutional 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