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Title: Washington : Its sights and insights, 1903
Author: Monroe, Harriet Earhart
Language: English
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[Illustration:
Copyright by Clinedinst
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT
]
_Washington_
_ITS SIGHTS AND INSIGHTS_
BY
MRS. HARRIET EARHART MONROE
_Author of “The Art of Conversation,” “The Heroine of the Mining Camp,”
“Historical Lutheranism,” etc._
[Illustration: F W]
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
1903
COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY
HARRIET EARHART MONROE
[_Printed in the United States of America_]
Published in April, 1903
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. The City of Washington 1
II. A Genius from France 4
III. The Capitol Building 12
IV. Interior of the Capitol 17
V. The Rotunda 21
VI. Concerning Some of the Art at the Capitol 26
VII. The Senate Chamber 33
VIII. The House of Representatives 40
IX. Concerning Representatives 46
X. The Supreme Court Room 53
XI. Incidents Concerning Members of the Supreme Court of the
United States 58
XII. Teaching Patriotism in the Capitol 67
XIII. People in the Departments 73
XIV. Incidents In and Out of the Departments 80
XV. Treasury Department 84
XVI. Secret Service Department of the Treasury of the United
States 92
XVII. Post-Office Department 100
XVIII. Department of Agriculture 105
XIX. Department of Chemistry on Pure Foods 109
XX. Department of the Interior 114
XXI. Branches of the Department of the Interior 121
XXII. Bureau of Indian Affairs 126
XXIII. The Library of Congress 131
XXIV. The Pension Office 138
XXV. State, War, and Navy Departments 146
XXVI. State, War, and Navy Departments (_Cont’d_) 155
XXVII. Department of Commerce 161
XXVIII. The Executive Mansion 166
XXIX. Interests in Washington Which Can Not Here be Fully
Described 179
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
President Roosevelt _Frontispiece_
Bird’s-eye View of Washington, Looking East
from the Monument _Between_ 4 _and_ 5
Bird’s-eye View of Washington, Looking Down the
Potomac from the Monument _Between_ 8 _and_ 9
The Capitol _Between_ 12 _and_ 13
Plan of the Principal Floor of the Capitol 15
Brumidi Frieze in Rotunda 22
Brumidi Frieze in Rotunda 23
The First Reading of the Emancipation
Proclamation 27
GROUP I _Between_ 32 _and_ 33
Statuary Hall
“Westward Ho!”
Washington Declining Overtures from Cornwallis
The Senate Chamber
Some Prominent Senators
The House of Representatives
Some Prominent Representatives
The Rotunda Bronze Door
The Mace 41
The Speaker’s Room 42
Seating Plan of the Supreme Court Chamber 54
GROUP II _Between_ 80 _and_ 81
Justices of the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court Room
The Treasury Building
The Old Bureau of Engraving and Printing
The New Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Gallaudet College for the Deaf
The Smithsonian Institution
The National Museum
Macerating $10,000,000 of Money 88
The Patent Office 114
GROUP III _Between_ 128 _and_ 129
The Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Congressional Library
Grand Stairway of the Congressional Library
The Rotunda (Reading-room) of the Congressional Library
The Pension Office
The State, War, and Navy Departments
The German Embassy
The British Embassy
The French Embassy
The Russian Embassy
One of the Bronze Doors of the Congressional
Library 133
The Declaration of Independence 148
Fish Commission Building 163
Mrs. Roosevelt 166
GROUP IV _Between_ 176 _and_ 177
The President and Cabinet
New Entrance to the White House
New Wing of the White House
South Front of the White House
North Front of the White House
New Grand Corridor—White House
New State Dining-room—White House
Mount Vernon—From South Lawn
Tomb of Washington—Mount Vernon
Home of General Lee
Monument to the Unknown Dead, Arlington National Cemetery
The Washington Monument
Charlotte Corday 181
WASHINGTON
_ITS SIGHTS AND INSIGHTS_
I
THE CITY OF WASHINGTON
The City of Washington is the central point of interest of that stage on
which is being performed the second century act in the great drama of
self-government.
The actors here are the representatives of 85,000,000 of people. The
spectators are all the peoples of the world, to be succeeded by those of
all future ages.
If this experiment in self-government should fail, all other republics
will surely perish; but we believe that the Republic of the United
States of America has taken its place as a fixed star in the galaxy of
great nations, and that the stars on its flag will not be dimmed till
dimmed in the blaze of humanity’s millennium. Therefore, the actors and
the buildings of this great city, which are parts of the _dramatis
personæ_ and the furniture of the stage, can not fail to be interesting
to any child of the republic.
Baron Humboldt, in 1804, when standing on the west balcony of the
Capitol building, said: “This point gives the most beautiful view of its
type in the world.”
Senator Sumner said: “The City of Washington is more beautiful than
ancient Rome.”
Besides what one can behold of the great city from that point, across
the Potomac can be seen the heights of Arlington, where sleep so many of
the sacred dead of the nation.
The place is also famed as having been the home of Robert E. Lee, noted
in early days for a generous Southern hospitality. If walls could speak,
what thrilling stories of chivalrous men and fair women could be there
heard!
On the south of Washington, in plain view, lies the quaint old town of
Alexandria, where Ellsworth was killed, while far to the north is Howard
University, used chiefly for the education of colored people—the one the
type of the departing past, the other the emblem of the possibilities of
a coming hopeful future.
Washington is the only city in the world built exclusively to serve as a
capital. Just after the Revolution, Congress, sitting in Philadelphia,
was grossly insulted by the unpaid returning troops, against whom the
city offered no adequate protection. Congress then adjourned to the
collegiate halls of Princeton, where resolutions were offered to erect
buildings for the exclusive use of Congress, either on the Delaware
River or on the Potomac River.
Several States were applicants for the permanent seat of government, but
diplomacy and a good dinner settled the question in favor of its present
site.
We are apt to think everything was done in _that_ day on the high plane
of patriotism, but prejudice, provincialism, and avarice each played its
part.
Hamilton was desirous of having his treasury policy adopted. The North
favored this policy, but the representatives from that section,
accustomed to the comforts of New York and Philadelphia, had no
inclination to establish the Capitol on a swampy Southern plantation,
away from the usual lines of travel.
Washington was with the South. Jefferson gave a great dinner, where,
under the influence of rare old wine and the witching words of Hamilton,
Northern ease, in exchange for Southern consent to the treasury policy,
gave way to the Southern desire that the nation’s Capitol should be
located in its present position.
The land was purchased from four planters—Young, Carroll, Davidson, and
David Burns. Mr. Burns was not willing to part with his land at the
rates offered. When Washington remonstrated, the old Scotchman said: “I
suppose, Mr. Washington, you think that people are going to take every
grist that comes from you as pure grain; but who would you have been if
you had not married the widow Custis?”
Posterity is apt to inquire, Who would ever have heard of the widow
Custis if she had not married George Washington?
But government had ways, then as now, of bringing about conclusions when
property was wanted for public purposes.
II
A GENIUS FROM FRANCE
Among the pathetic figures of the early days of the Capitol City is that
of Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant, who was selected by Washington to
draft plans for the new city.
L’Enfant was a skilful engineer who had come to America with Lafayette
in 1777. He did not go back to France with his countrymen in 1783, but
remained in this country, and was employed by Washington as an engineer
in several places.
He devoted the summer of 1791 to planning, not the capital of a small
nation, but a city which could be sufficiently enlarged should this
continent be densely populated from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
There was no other man in this country at that time who had such
knowledge of art and engineering as Major L’Enfant. Plans of
Frankfort-on-the-Main, Carlsruhe, Amsterdam, Paris, Orleans, Turin,
Milan, and other European cities were sent to him from Philadelphia by
Washington, who had obtained the plan of each of these cities by his own
personal effort.
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF WASHINGTON, LOOKING EAST FROM THE MONUMENT
]
Washington himself desired the new city planned somewhat like
Philadelphia, a plain checkerboard, but L’Enfant, while making the
checkerboard style the basis, diversified, beautified, and complicated
the whole by a system of avenues radiating from the Capitol as the
centre and starting-point of the whole system. The streets running east
and west are designated by letters. They are divided into two classes or
sets—those north of the Capitol and those south of it. Thus, the first
street north of the Capitol is A Street North, and the first street
south of it is A Street South, the next is B Street, North or South, as
the case may be, and so on. These distinctions of North, South, East,
and West are most important, as forgetfulness of them is apt to lead to
very great inconvenience.
The streets are laid off at regular distances from each other, but for
convenience other thoroughfares not laid down in the original plan have
been cut through some of the blocks. These are called “half streets,” as
they occur between, and are parallel with, the numbered streets. Thus,
Four-and-a-half Street is between Fourth and Fifth streets, and runs
parallel with them.
The avenues run diagonally across the city. New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Delaware avenues intersect at the Capitol, and
Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, and Connecticut avenues intersect at
the President’s house. Pennsylvania Avenue is the main thoroughfare. It
is one hundred and sixty feet wide, and extends the entire length of the
city, from the Eastern Branch to Rock Creek, which latter stream
separates Washington from Georgetown. It was originally a swampy
thicket. The bushes were cut away to the desired width soon after the
city was laid off, but few persons cared to settle in the swamp. Through
the exertions of President Jefferson, it was planted with four rows of
fine Lombardy poplars—one on each side and two in the middle—with the
hope of making it equal to the famous Unter den Linden, in Berlin. The
poplars did not grow as well as was hoped, however, and when the avenue
was graded and paved by order of Congress in 1832 and 1833 these trees
were removed. Pennsylvania Avenue is handsomely built up, and contains
some buildings that would do credit to any city. The distance from the
Capitol to the President’s house is one mile, and the view from either
point along the avenue is very fine.
Every circle, triangle, and square dedicated to monuments bears
testimony to the taste of the original design. So little respect,
however, was held for Major L’Enfant’s plans that Daniel Carroll, one of
the original owners of the land, was in the act of building a handsome
house right across New Jersey Avenue. L’Enfant ordered it torn down.
This was done, much to the disgust of Carroll and to the indignation of
the commissioners. The government rebuilt the house for Carroll, but was
careful to place it in a more suitable location. The old Duddington
House, on Capitol Hill, was long a landmark of the early Washington
architecture.
There were some other acts of irritability on the part of L’Enfant, acts
which now show his just appreciation of his own great work. He was paid
$2,500 for his services and dismissed. He believed he should have been
pensioned, as would have been done in Europe.
Afterward he saw the city expand as the nation grew strong, while he, a
disappointed, poverty-stricken man, wandered, a pathetic figure, about
the Capitol until 1825, when he died. He had lived for years on the
Diggs farm, about eight miles from Washington, and was buried in the
family cemetery in the Diggs garden, and when the dead of that family
were removed his dust was left there alone—to sleep in an unmarked
grave.
Mr. Corcoran, the great banker of Washington, who died in 1888, said he
remembered L’Enfant as “a rather seedy, stylish old man, with a long
green coat buttoned up to his throat, a bell-crowned hat, a little moody
and lonely, like one wronged.” The heart of a stranger in a strange,
ungrateful land.
The City of Washington is his monument. No one can now rob him of that
honor. Let us hope that he has awakened in His likeness and is
satisfied.
Could the Colonial Dames or the Daughters of the Revolution do a more
beneficent and popular act than to mark the resting-place of Peter
Charles L’Enfant, who drew the original plans of that city which will
eventually become the most beautiful city in all the world?
The letters of General Washington abound in references to the difficulty
of obtaining money to fit the new city for capital purposes. Virginia
made a donation of $120,000 and the State of Maryland gave $72,000.
Afterward the latter State was induced to loan $100,000 toward fitting
the city for a capital.
The City of Washington was officially occupied in June, 1800. Since then
it has been the ward of Congress. Strangers, even at this late day,
often comment on the long distance between the Capitol building and the
Executive Mansion; but Washington strongly impressed upon the mind of
Major L’Enfant that the latter must be at a considerable distance, so
that members of Congress should not fall into the habit of coming too
frequently to call upon the President, and thus waste the time of the
executive head of the nation.
It is not the purpose in these sketches to dwell too much on the history
of Washington, but rather to make a picture of the city as it is in the
first decade of the twentieth century. A glimpse of it, however, in the
summer of 1814 is really necessary to complete our references to the
early days of the nation’s capital.
In 1814 the city was captured by a small British force under General
Ross, and both wings of the Capitol building, with its library and
almost all the records of the government up to that date, were destroyed
by fire, also the White House, as the Executive Mansion was even then
called, and most of the departments, including the Navy-yard.
Mrs. Madison, in a letter to her sister, gives a graphic picture of the
time:
“DEAR SISTER,—My husband left me yesterday morning to join General
Winder. He inquired anxiously whether I had courage or firmness to
remain in the President’s house until his return on the morrow or
succeeding day, and on my assurance that I had no fear but for him and
the success of our army, he left me, beseeching me to take care of
myself and of the Cabinet papers, public and private. I have since
received two despatches from him, written with a pencil; the last is
alarming, because he desires that I should be ready at a moment’s
warning to enter my carriage and leave the city; that the enemy seemed
stronger than had been reported, and that it might happen that they
would reach the city with intention to destroy it.
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF WASHINGTON, LOOKING DOWN THE POTOMAC FROM THE
MONUMENT
]
“... I am accordingly ready; I have pressed as many Cabinet papers
into trunks as to fill one carriage; our private property must be
sacrificed, as it is impossible to procure wagons for its
transportation. I am determined not to go myself until I see Mr.
Madison safe and he can accompany me, as I hear of much hostility
toward him.... Disaffection stalks around us.... My friends and
acquaintances are all gone, even Colonel C., with his hundred men, who
were stationed as a guard in this enclosure.... French John (a
faithful domestic), with his usual activity and resolution, offers to
spike the cannon at the gate and lay a train of powder which would
blow up the British should they enter the house. To the last
proposition I positively object, without being able, however, to make
him understand why all advantages in war may not be taken.
“Wednesday morning (twelve o’clock).—Since sunrise I have been turning
my spyglass in every direction and watching with unwearied anxiety,
hoping to discover the approach of my dear husband and his friends;
but, alas! I can descry only groups of military wandering in all
directions, as if there was a lack of arms, or of spirit, to fight for
their own firesides.
“Three o’clock.—Will you believe it, my sister? We have had a battle,
or skirmish, near Bladensburg, and I am still here within sound of the
cannon. Mr. Madison comes not—may God protect him! Two messengers,
covered with dust, come to bid me fly; but I wait for him.... At this
late hour a wagon has been procured; I have had it filled with the
plate and most valuable portable articles belonging to the house;
whether it will reach its destination, the Bank of Maryland, or fall
into the hands of British soldiery, events must determine. Our kind
friend, Mr. Carroll, has come to hasten my departure, and is in a very
bad humor with me because I insist on waiting until the large picture
of General Washington is secured, and it requires to be unscrewed from
the wall. This process was found too tedious for these perilous
moments. I have ordered the frame to be broken and the canvas taken
out; it is done, and the precious portrait placed in the hands of two
gentlemen of New York for safe-keeping. And now, my dear sister, I
must leave this house, or the retreating army will make me a prisoner
in it by filling up the road I am directed to take. When I shall again
write to you, or where I shall be to-morrow, I can not tell.”
We all know the story of Mrs. Madison’s flight, of her return in
disguise to a desolated, burned, ruined home. She would have been
without shelter except for the open door of Mrs. Cutts, her sister, who
lived in the city. From that point she visited the ruins of all the
public buildings while she awaited her husband’s return.
We are apt to think of the White House as a place of teas, receptions,
gayly dressed people, light, music, flowers, and laughter; but it, too,
has seen its tragedies.
Fifty years after the burning of the city the famous Stuart picture of
Washington, referred to in Mrs. Madison’s letter, was retouched and hung
in the East Room, and still constitutes one of the few ornaments of the
Executive Mansion.
III
THE CAPITOL BUILDING
The corner-stone of the old Capitol, which constitutes the central
portion of the new edifice, was laid the 18th of September, 1793, by
General Washington, in the presence of a great concourse of people and
with imposing ceremonies.
The corner-stones of the wings were laid by President Fillmore, July 4,
1851. Webster delivered the oration of the occasion.
The old building is of yellow sandstone, kept painted white to beautify
and preserve it; the wings are of white marble. On its central portico
all our Presidents, from Andrew Jackson to President McKinley, have
taken the oath of office. President Roosevelt took the oath of office at
Buffalo. This building, which fronts the east, was set in accordance
with the astronomical observations of Andrew Ellicott, an engineer from
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who succeeded Major L’Enfant as general
surveyor and engineer in the new city.
Ellicott is described as bearing a marked resemblance to Benjamin
Franklin, except that he was more of a Quaker in appearance, wearing a
long, fine gray broadcloth coat and a Quaker hat. He awaits the
resurrection in an unmarked grave at Ellicott City, Maryland.
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE CAPITOL
]
The original building was constructed from plans submitted by Stephen
Hallet, the work undergoing some modifications from the plans of Dr.
William Thornton.
The great wings were added during Fillmore’s administration from designs
submitted by Thomas N. Walter, architect, who not only superintended the
building of the additions, but also managed to harmonize them with the
original design.
Years ago it was quite the fashion for Americans returning from Europe
to make disparaging remarks concerning the Capitol building, but that
spirit seems to have passed away, and the dignity, grace, and beauty of
its architecture now receive universal commendation.
Prince Henry of Germany remarked of this noble structure: “For Capitol
purposes it surpasses every other building in the world. Its
architectural beauty is most impressive.”
It is not our purpose to give a minute description of the building. We
have said that it faces east, for the founders of the Capitol believed
the city would grow in that direction, but the landholders of early days
asked such high prices that the city began to stretch toward the
northwest, which is to this day the fashionable part for residences,
although Capitol Hill is much more beautiful as to situation.
The base of the building is ninety-seven feet above the river. The
central structure is of Virginia yellow sandstone, which is kept painted
white. The wings are of Massachusetts marble, and the one hundred
columns of the extension porticoes are of Maryland marble.
The building covers three and one-half acres. It is seven hundred and
fifty-one feet long and three hundred and fifty feet wide.
The height of the dome above the rest of the building is two hundred and
fifty-seven feet, and its weight is eight million pounds. This dome is
surmounted by Crawford’s statue of Freedom, nineteen and one-half feet
high, and weighing fifteen thousand pounds. The entire edifice
constitutes the highest public building in America not located on a
mountain, being sixty-eight feet higher than Bunker Hill monument, and
twenty-three feet higher than the steeple of Trinity Church, in New York
City.
Thomas G. Walker resigned his place as architect in 1865, and was
succeeded by the late architect of the Capitol, Mr. Edward Clark, who
died early in 1902. His great work had been to finish the west front
facing the city, and to harmonize the conflicting and foreign tastes of
the many decorators of the building.
Mr. Elliott Wood, the successor of Mr. Clark, had been the latter’s
chief assistant. Mr. Wood had long been virtually in charge of the
Capitol.
The architects had a candidate ready because Mr. Wood was practically an
engineer; to meet this and yet give a faithful man his due, the name of
the position was changed to that of Superintendent of the Capitol. He,
like his predecessor, has much to do in getting rid of the foreign
artists’ effects and in Americanizing the whole.
[Illustration:
PLAN OF THE PRINCIPAL FLOOR OF THE CAPITOL
(Rooms numbered are for committees, etc.)
]
Mrs. Mary Clemmer Ames says of the Capitol: “It not only borrowed its
face from the buildings of antiquity, but it was built by men strangers
in thought and spirit to the genius of the new republic, and to the
unwrought and unembodied poetry of its virgin soil. Its earlier
decorators, all Italians, overlaid its walls with their florid colors
and foreign symbols; within the American Capitol they have set the
Loggia of Raphael, the voluptuous anterooms of Pompeii, and the baths of
Titus. The American plants, birds, and animals, representing prodigal
nature at home, are buried in twilight passages, while mythological
barmaids, misnamed goddesses, dance in the most conspicuous and
preposterous places.”
An Art Commission was appointed as early as 1859 to decide on all
artistic decorations, and it has done much. More remains to make the
Capitol, like the Library of Congress, the highest exponent of the
thought, taste, and artistic execution of the period which produced it.
IV
INTERIOR OF THE CAPITOL
In 1808 Jefferson made Benjamin Henry Latrobe supervising architect of
what we now call the old Capitol, being the central portion of the
present building.
He constructed the original Senate Chamber, now the Supreme Court Room,
on the plan of the old Greek theater, the general outline of which it
yet retains. The House (now Statuary Hall) also had a decidedly Grecian
aspect. It was finished in 1811. Statuary Hall is semicircular in shape,
and has a vaulted roof. Its ornamentation is not yet completed. This is
right. It would not be well to occupy all the space in one generation.
We need the perspective of time to know that which will be of permanent
interest to the world.
Here Clay presided, here Webster spoke, and here Adams stood for the
right of petition and for the abolition of human slavery. What pictures
these scenes would make! A plate in the floor southwest of the center
marks the spot in the House where John Quincy Adams fell stricken with
paralysis. In a room opening from the Hall is a memorial bust, whose
inscription reads: “John Quincy Adams, who, after fifty years of public
service, the last sixteen in yonder Hall, was summoned to die in this
room February 23, 1848.”
The room has special acoustic qualities which in early days occasioned
much trouble. A whisper scarcely audible to the ear into which it is
breathed is distinctly heard in another part of the hall. It is one of
the most remarkable whispering galleries in the world, and its peculiar
properties, accidentally discovered, produced no end of disturbances
before they were fully understood. Their effect has been much modified
by a recent change in the ceiling.
Each State is now permitted to place in Statuary Hall two statues of its
most renowned sons.
Virginia has Washington and Jefferson. Think of that! New Hampshire has
Daniel Webster, who made these walls echo with his thrilling, patriotic
sentences, and John Stark, of Bunker Hill fame, who cried: “See those
men? They are the redcoats! Before night they are ours, or Molly Stark
will be a widow!”
Pennsylvania has Robert Fulton, the inventor, and John Peter Gabriel
Muhlenberg, the preacher, Major-General in the Revolution. He was also
Senator and Member of Congress. New York has Robert R. Livingston, of
the Continental Congress, and Alexander Hamilton. The latter was
Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury during both of his Presidential
terms. He had much to do with securing a good financial system for the
new government. His pathetic death enhanced his fame and ruined Burr;
but under the search-light of history one can not help wondering had
Burr been killed and Hamilton survived that duel, would the halo of the
latter have faded? The statue of Hamilton is one of the best in the
Hall. It was made in Rome by Horatio Stone.
The Illinois memorial is the famous Vinnie Ream statue of Lincoln. I
wish, because it was done by a woman, that I could like it, but it is
weak and unworthy. In every line of his strong, patriotic face lived the
gospel of everlasting hope. This figure might well stand for one
vanquished in the race. (Was Jesus vanquished? Was Paul? Was Luther? Was
Lincoln?)
There is a small bust of Lincoln, by Mrs. Ames, which approaches nearer
the true ideal of the great apostle of Liberty.
Illinois is further represented by James Shields, Senator. It would seem
that men like Washington and Lincoln, who were the product of national
influences, should be venerated as representatives of the nation rather
than of individual States.
Missouri is represented by Frank Blair and Thomas H. Benton; Vermont, by
Jacob Collamer and Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga; Oregon, by
Edward Dickinson Baker, whose fine statue is by Horatio Stone.
Jacques Marquette (by G. Trentanore), in the garb of a Catholic priest,
represents Wisconsin. Ohio has President Garfield and William Allen.
Roger Sherman and John Trumbull represent Connecticut, and Rhode Island
memorializes Roger Williams and General Nathanael Greene, of
Revolutionary fame—the former, in his quaint sixteenth century garb,
standing as well for religious freedom as for the State which he
founded.
Massachusetts presents Samuel Adams’s statue, by Annie Whitney, and John
Winthrop’s, by R. S. Greenough. What a goodly company they are, those
New England heroes!
Will Kansas have the courage to place there the statue of John Brown, of
Osawatomie? He yet is a type of that unconventional State, which regards
no precedent, follows no pattern; that State which, in a blind way, is
striving to put the Ten Commandments on top and to uphold the principles
of the Sermon on the Mount, no difference what man or what party goes
down in the strife; that State of which Whittier truthfully said:
We cross the prairie as of old
The pilgrims crossed the sea,
To make the West, as they the East,
The homestead of the free.
Upbearing, like the ark of old,
The Bible in our van,
We go to test the truth of God
Against the fraud of man.
A brave fight the State has made against fraud. The fight is yet on; but
who doubts that the truth of God “shall yet prevail,” and who would
better stand for such a people than one who went down in that fight with
the “martyr’s aureole” around his grizzled head?
Much, of course, must be left untold here; but it is hoped that what has
been said will create a desire to see and learn more of those whom the
State and the nation has here honored. As good Mohammedans must visit
Mecca, so every good American should see these things for himself, and
decide on their merits from his own standpoint.
V
THE ROTUNDA
It is not the purpose in these sketches to go into any minute
descriptions of places or things in Washington. To do that volumes would
be needed, and then much left untold.
The Rotunda is the central part of the old building of the Capitol, and
lies beneath the dome. It is circular in form, with a diameter of
ninety-five feet, and with a height to the canopy above of a little over
one hundred and eighty feet.
The panels of the Rotunda are set with life-size pictures, illustrating
important scenes in American history. There are “The Surrender of
Burgoyne, October 17, 1777”; “The Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown,
Virginia, October 19, 1781”; and “The Resignation of Washington,
December 23, 1783.” These are by Trumbull. They may not be perfect,
considered as works of art, but they commemorate events whose memory
should never die.
The surrender of Burgoyne was the greatest triumph of American over
British arms up to that date (October 17, 1777). Had his twelve hundred
Hessians been English patriots the result might have been different.
When the British officer was sent to inquire their condition for a
fight, the answer of the British was, “We will fight to a man.” But the
Hessians replied, “Nix the money, nix the rum, nix fighten.”
[Illustration:
BRUMIDI FRIEZE IN ROTUNDA
]
It was in a cold, drizzling rain that Lord Cornwallis made his
surrender. He sat on his horse with his head uncovered. General
Washington said, “Put on your hat, my lord; you will take cold.” He
replied, “It matters not what happens to this head now.” In our
exultation we are apt to forget his side.
No writer that I know of praises the scene of Washington’s resignation,
yet the faces are so clear-cut that you recognize every face which other
pictures have made familiar. The costumes are correct historical
studies, and I would not wish a line of them changed.
Another picture of the Rotunda is “The Declaration of Independence.” How
familiar, how dear each face has become, from Lee, Jefferson, Franklin,
John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Livingston, to the plain Quaker who
stands by the door! Adams afterward wrote: “Several signed with regret,
and several others with many doubts and much lukewarmness.” That shows
in the picture, and contrasts with the enthusiasm of the few, who with
clear vision felt the dawn of a larger liberty for the race.
We are so apt to enjoy the music and forget the singer, to enjoy the
painting and forget the artist, that we venture a reminder concerning
Colonel John Trumbull, the artist aide-de-camp of General Washington. He
studied art in this country and in Europe. In London he painted John
Adams, our first Minister to England, and, in Paris, Thomas Jefferson,
our Minister to France. General Washington gave him sittings, and he
traveled through the entire thirteen colonies securing portraits. It was
not until 1816, after thirty years of careful preparation, that Congress
gave him the commission to paint the four great historical paintings now
in the Rotunda. They are the best authentic likenesses now in existence
of the persons represented.
[Illustration:
BRUMIDI FRIEZE IN ROTUNDA
]
“The Embarkation of the Pilgrims,” by Wier, is considered the best
picture of the Rotunda. All the self-sacrifice of leaving country, home,
and friends is in the women’s faces, “All for God” is in the men’s
faces. It is the little leaven of Puritanism which yet keeps this
country sweet.
It is amusing to see the bands of Indians who are sent here to meet the
“Great Father” stop before “The Baptism of Pocahontas,” painted by
Chapman. Evidently neither the faces nor the costumes suit them, for
they hoot and laugh, while they grunt with evident approval at the
picture of Boone’s conflict with the savages and that of William Penn’s
conference with the Indians of Pennsylvania.
At a height of sixty-five feet above the floor, and encircling the wall
at that point, about three hundred feet in circumference, runs a fresco,
by Brumidi and Castigni, in imitation high relief, which well depicts
periods of American history, illustrating from the days of barbarism to
civilization. It is incomplete at this time.
Brumidi was, while yet a very young man, banished from Italy for
participating in an insurrection. He went to Mexico, and finally was
brought to Washington through the instrumentality of General Meigs. His
first work is in the room of the Committee of Agriculture of the House,
where he represented Cincinnatus leaving the plow to receive the
dictatorship of Rome; General Putnam, in a similar situation, receiving
the announcement of the outbreak of the Revolution, and other fine works
are scarcely appreciated by the clerks who daily work beneath them. For
eight dollars a day, the compensation he first received, Brumidi did
work which thousands of dollars could not now duplicate. Almost every
one knows that Brumidi began the decoration of the frieze around the
Rotunda of the Capitol. He had completed in charcoal the cartoons for
the remainder of the decoration, and these drawings he left to his son,
supposing that the designs would be purchased from him by the successor
selected to complete the work. This man, however, obtained in some
unknown way an idea of the sketches Brumidi had made, and attempted to
carry them out without the aid of the originals.
At the east door of the Rotunda are the famous bronze doors designed by
Randolph Rogers at Rome in 1858, and cast at Munich. The high reliefs
illustrate leading events in the life of Columbus.
From near the Rotunda one can ascend to the dome and overlook the entire
District of Columbia.
VI
CONCERNING SOME OF THE ART AT THE CAPITOL
Among the interesting pictures in the Capitol is Frank B. Carpenter’s
picture, “The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, September
22, 1862.” Mr. Lincoln was accustomed to speak of the act which this
picture represents as the central act of his administration. Historians
have recorded it the leading event of the nineteenth century.
It changed the policy of the war, and was received by the army and the
people as a necessary war measure. According to Mr. Carpenter, he takes
the moment when Mr. Lincoln has just said: “Gentlemen, I now propose to
issue this Emancipation Proclamation.”
Montgomery Blair said: “If you do, Mr. President, we shall lose the fall
elections.” To this no one offered a reply. Mr. Seward, who sits in
front of the table, said: “Mr. President, should we not wait for a more
decisive victory, so that the rebels may know we are able to enforce the
Proclamation?” Mr. Lincoln leaned forward and said, in a low voice: “I
promised my God, if Lee were driven back from Maryland, to issue the
Proclamation.” Mr. Seward said: “Mr. President, I withdraw every
objection.” Chase, who stands back of the President in the picture, and
who was not always in sympathy with Mr. Lincoln, laid his hand
affectionately on Mr. Lincoln’s shoulder, to show the President that in
_this_ matter they were in perfect accord.
[Illustration:
THE FIRST READING OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
]
The Proclamation came just after the battle of Antietam, which was far
from being a decisive victory. The Proclamation set forth that, unless
rebellion ceased by January 1, 1863, the slaves at that time would be
declared free. It was a case of “man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.”
Another picture which well merits a full description (which we have not
space to give) is W. H. Powell’s spirited picture, “The Battle of Lake
Erie, September 13, 1813.” It represents Commodore Perry transferring
his colors from the disabled flagship _Lawrence_ to the _Niagara_ in the
midst of a fire from the enemy. Perry deserved all the glory he so
richly won.
Mary Clemmer Ames thus beautifully describes that great picture,
“Westward the Star of the Empire Takes its Way.” The picture is in the
stairway of the south wing:
“At the first glance it presents a scene of inextricable confusion. It
is an emigrant train caught and tangled in one of the highest passes of
the Rocky Mountains. Far backward spread the eastern plains, far onward
stretches the Beulah of promise, fading at last in the far horizon. The
great wagons struggling upward, tumbling downward from mountain
precipice into mountain gorge, hold under their shaking covers every
type of westward moving human life. Here is the mother sitting in the
wagon front, her blue eyes gazing outward, wistfully and far, the baby
lying on her lap; one wants to touch the baby’s head, it looks so alive
and tender and shelterless in all that dust and turmoil of travel. A man
on horseback carries his wife, her head upon his shoulder. Who that has
ever seen it will forget her sick look and the mute appeal in the
suffering eyes? Here is the bold hunter with his raccoon cap, the
pioneer boy on horseback, a coffeepot and cup dangling at his saddle,
and oxen—such oxen! it seems as if their friendly noses must touch us;
they seem to be feeling out for our hand as we pass up the gallery. Here
is the young man, the old man, and far aloft stands the advance-guard
fastening on the highest and farthest pinnacle the flag of the United
States.
“Confusing—disappointing, perhaps—at first glance, this painting asserts
itself more and more in the soul the oftener and the longer you gaze.
Already the swift, smooth wheels of the railway, the shriek of the
whistle, and the rush of the engine have made its story history. But it
is the history of our past—the story of the heroic West.”
There are pictures and busts, or full-length statues, of almost every
great man of our nation. Some of them, within one hundred years, will be
turned over to the man’s native State or town, with complimentary notes
and speeches the inner meaning of which is: “We need the room for bigger
men.”
Before leaving the Capitol plaza a word must be said of Horatio
Greenough’s statue of Washington, which sits in lonely grandeur before
the Capitol. Greenough was much in Rome, and the antique became his
model. The statue represents Washington sitting in a large chair,
holding aloft a Roman sword, the upper part of his body naked, the lower
part draped as Jupiter Tonans.
This conception brings out the majestic benignity of the face of
Washington, and shows to the life every muscle and vein of his
magnificent form. Greenough said of his own work: “It is the birth of my
thoughts; I have sacrificed to it the flower of my days and the
freshness of my strength; its every lineament has been moistened with
the sweat of my toil and the tears of my exile. I would not barter its
association with my name for the proudest fortune that avarice ever
dreamed of.”
The work, however, has met with more of criticism than of praise. A
statue should represent a man in the costume of his time. Washington
should have been shown either in the knee-breeches or in the full
military costume of his period. We want no foreign effects in our
statues. Washington had no aspiration to be either Jupiter or Mars, but
he earnestly desired to be a good and useful man. As such he should be
represented.
In this connection a few words in relation to the character of future
paintings that shall be selected for the adornment of the nation’s great
Capitol building may not be amiss.
In Paris, at the Exposition in 1900, the writer was greatly impressed by
the manner in which France perpetuates historic events. The best picture
of the commission which settled the Spanish-American War was painted by
a Frenchman, the best picture of the Peace Commission at the Hague was
also French. One picture, which will ever be valuable, represented
President Carnot and his Cabinet in the Exposition of 1889 receiving the
representatives of all the colonies of France.
Our country should have pictures of the inauguration of the President,
with his leading men about him; also of the receptions on New-year’s
day, showing faces of foreign Ministers, the Cabinet, Members of the
Supreme Court, and our naval and military commanders.
I remember one brilliant company at Secretary Endicott’s, during the
first Cleveland administration. The Ministers of various foreign
nations, in court costumes and with all their decorations, were present.
General Sheridan, full of life and repartee, was there. General Sherman
had come over from New York to grace with his presence the reception
given by the Secretary of War. General Greely, of Arctic fame, wore for
the first time the uniform of a brigadier-general. All the leading army
officers, in brilliant uniforms, were present. Senators Edmunds,
Sherman, Logan, Evarts, Ingalls, Wade Hampton, Leland Stanford, Vance,
Voorhees, Allison, with many others, were part of that memorable
company. Mrs. Stanford wore the famous Isabella diamonds. Among the
guests were Secretaries Vilas, Whitney, Bayard, and their accomplished
wives; Mr. Carlisle, then Speaker of the House, and his stately, genial
wife; and President and Miss Cleveland, who made an exception to the
Presidential rule of non-attendance at such functions, and by their
presence added to the pleasure of the occasion. Chief Justice Waite and
Justices Field, Miller, Blatchford, Gray, and Strong were present.
What a picture for history that representative company would now be! We
need an art fund—perhaps the Carnegie University beneficence may provide
it. Concerning the Capitol building, Charles Sumner said: “Surely this
edifice, so beautiful, should not be open to the rude experiment of
untried talent.”
The Commission of Artists said: “The erection of a great National
Capitol occurs but once in the life of a nation. The opportunity such an
event affords is an important one for the expression of patriotic
elevation, and the perpetuation, through the arts of painting and
sculpture, of, that which is high and noble and held in reverence by the
people; and it becomes them as patriots to see to it that no taint of
falsity is suffered to be transmitted to the future upon the escutcheon
of our national honor in its artistic record. A theme so noble and
worthy should interest the heart of the whole country, and whether
patriot, statesman, or artist, one impulse should govern the whole in
dedicating these buildings and grounds to the national honor.”
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
STATUARY HALL
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst From the painting by Emanuel Leutze
“WESTWARD HO!”
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst From the painting by Brumidi
WASHINGTON DECLINING OVERTURES FROM CORNWALLIS
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE SENATE CHAMBER
]
[Illustration:
SOME PROMINENT SENATORS
William P. Frye (R.), Maine, President _pro tem._
1. Marcus A. Hanna (R.), Ohio
2. John T. Morgan (D.), Ala.
3. Henry Cabot Lodge (R.), Mass.
4. Edward W. Carmack (D.), Tenn.
5. George F. Hoar (R.), Mass.
6. Henry M. Teller (S. R.), Col.
7. Benjamin R. Tillman (D.), S. C.
8. John C. Spooner (R.), Wis.
Photos of Senators Lodge and Spooner copyright by J. E. Purdy, Boston
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
]
[Illustration:
SOME PROMINENT REPRESENTATIVES
Joseph G. Cannon (R), Ill., Speaker
Copyright by J. E. Purdy, Boston, Mass.
1. William P. Hepburn (R.) Iowa
2. George B. McClellan (D.), N. Y.
3. J. D. Richardson (D.), Tenn.
4. Champ Clark (D.), Mo.
5. David A. De Armond (D.), Mo.
6. Charles E. Littlefield (R.), Me.
7. Sereno E. Payne (R.), N. Y.
8. J. W. Babcock (R.), Wis.
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE ROTUNDA BRONZE DOOR
]
VII
THE SENATE CHAMBER
In visiting the Capitol building most people desire first to see the
Senate Chamber, possibly from the fact that the names of the Senators
are more familiar, because, as a usual thing, men have been long in
public life before they have become Senators.
The Senate Chamber is 112 feet in length, 82 feet wide, and 30 feet
high. The floor rises like that of an amphitheater; the walls are white,
buff, and gold in color, and the ceiling consists of panels of glass,
each one bearing the coat of arms of a State. Opposite the main
entrance, on a platform of dark mahogany, are the desk and chair of the
President of the Senate, who is the Vice-President of the United States,
or, as in the present administration, a Senator elected by his
colleagues to preside over them when the office of Vice-President has
become vacant. Below the President is a larger desk for the use of the
Secretary of the Senate and his assistants.
The heating and ventilating of the Senate Chamber is said to be very
good. In winter, however, the room seems to be too warm. After an
absence of fifteen years, I find men who have been in the Senate during
that time have aged much more in appearance than their contemporaries
outside.
The mahogany desks of the Senators stand on a moss green carpet, making
a good color combination. The room is surrounded by a gallery which
seats about a thousand persons. This gallery is divided. There is a
private gallery for Senators’ families and friends, one part of which is
set apart for the family of the President. It is seldom occupied by the
dwellers in the White House, but often by visiting friends. The
reporters’ gallery is over the Vice-President’s desk. There sit those
busy, bright men who keep you informed of what the Senate is doing. The
gallery opposite is for the diplomats. It is always interesting to watch
the faces of these distinguished foreigners as they scan this body of
lawmakers. Besides these there are the gallery for ladies, or for
gentlemen accompanied by ladies, and the public gallery for men.
The Senate is the citadel of American liberty. Its great debates have
defined our constitutional rights and duties, and prevented many
violations of fundamental law. Here Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Benton,
Chase, Sumner, Seward, Harrison, Edmunds, Evarts, Ingalls, Logan, and
Wade Hampton, with hundreds of others equally eloquent and equally
patriotic, have stood for the right as they saw it, or sold their souls
for the mess of pottage.
The Republicans sit on the Vice-President’s left and the Democrats on
the right. Although differing in ideas of governmental policy, we must
believe both sides are actuated by a love of country.
The world is beginning to expect the United States to be the final court
of appeals in behalf of the lesser nations, especially the other
American republics. It is the Senate’s natural destiny, because of its
treatymaking power, to facilitate a better understanding between
nations, to prevent wrongs, to increase commerce, to secure
international peace, and thus to improve the governmental powers of the
world. So will our republic be the bridge over which the nations of the
earth will enter on a period of universal education and modified
self-government.
In my youth, on a visit to Washington, I saw Schuyler Colfax preside
over the Senate. He was a nervous, restless man, who gave no attention
to the Senator speaking, and while he was in the chair the Senate became
a noisy, turbulent body. At another time, for a few hours, I saw Henry
Wilson, who was Vice-President under Grant’s second term, preside over
the Senate. Quiet, self-contained, serene, watchful, attentive, he was
an ideal presiding officer. Every battle of life had left its mark on
his strong, rugged face.
In December, 1885, I came to Washington and remained three years.
Vice-President Hendricks had died, and the Senate, which was Republican,
was presided over by John Sherman. He was in public life from 1848 to
the time of his death, and his name was identified with almost every
public measure from that time to the end of the century. He was a man of
great wisdom and good judgment, but cold and without any of those
qualities which tend to personal popularity. Later, John James Ingalls,
of Kansas, was elected President _pro tempore_. Tall, stately,
dignified, scholarly, thoughtful, a skilled parliamentarian, it is
probable the Senate never had a better presiding officer. When Senator
Ingalls occupied the chair the business of the Senate was put through
with such celerity and dispatch that a visit to that usually prosy body
became interesting.
Later, I saw Levi P. Morton, of New York, preside as Vice-President. He
was a fine business man who had served his country with honor abroad,
but had no training as a presiding officer. He was regarded as fair in
his rulings.
The Senate is now presided over by Senator Frye, of Maine, who has had a
long experience in legislative bodies, having served six terms as
representative from Maine, and having been elected to the Senate in
1881, to fill the vacancy left by Blaine when he became Secretary of
State under Garfield. He was also a member of the Peace Commission which
met in Paris, September, 1898, to settle the terms of peace between the
United States and Spain. He was elected President _pro tempore_ of the
Senate in 1896, and reelected March 7, 1901. He is considered extremely
fair to both sides, and is an able officer.
When I take friends to the Senate now I notice they ask first for Mr.
Hoar, of Massachusetts; Hanna, of Ohio; Spooner, of Wisconsin;
Dollinger, of Iowa; Quay, of Pennsylvania; Hawley, of Connecticut;
Lodge, of Massachusetts; Nelson, of Minnesota; Depew and Platt, of New
York. Then strangers desire to see Tillman and McLaurin, of South
Carolina; Vest, of Missouri, and Morgan, of Alabama.
When I was here from 1885 to 1888 the following were the stars: Edmunds,
who for quiet strength, massive force, persistent effort, fertility of
resource, and keen sagacity was never surpassed on the floor of the
Senate. Like Mr. Hoar, his sentences in rhetorical and grammatical
construction were fit for the Record just as they fell from his lips.
William M. Evarts, of New York, famous as counsel in the Beecher trial,
and attorney for the Republican party before the Electoral Commission.
He seemed like a man about to do some great thing, but he originated no
important national or international law. Leland Stanford, noted for his
philanthropy and great wealth, and Wade Hampton and Senator Butler, both
of South Carolina, were picturesque and interesting figures. General
Logan, Don Cameron, Preston B. Plumb, Blackburn, and Beck, of Kentucky,
stood next in interest, but most of these have given place to a younger
generation.
The most interesting rooms in the north wing beside the Senate Chamber
are the President’s room, Vice-President’s reception-rooms, and
committee room of the District of Columbia.
The walls of the President’s room are in white and gold, with crimson
carpet, table, and chair effects—rather high lights if one had to live
in it, but very pleasing for the short visits made by the President to
the Capitol. On the last day of each term of Congress the President
comes to this room for an hour or two and signs any bills which yet
remain. He also answers the perfunctory question as to whether he
desires to present any further business to the Senate.
The Vice-President’s room is much more used. When the Vice-President in
the Senate chamber grows tired “of weary lawyers with endless tongues,”
he calls some one to the chair and slips into the Vice-President’s room,
to rest and attend to his correspondence.
Among our Vice-Presidents who have occupied this room were William R.
King, in the administration of Pierce; then John C. Breckenridge, under
Buchanan; Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln’s first Vice-President, and Andrew
Johnson, his second Vice-President; Schuyler Colfax and Henry G. Wilson,
under Grant (Henry G. Wilson died November 22, 1875, in this room);
William A. Wheeler, Vice-President during Hayes’s administration;
Chester A. Arthur, under Garfield for a short time; Thomas A. Hendricks,
in the first Cleveland administration; Levi P. Morton, under Harrison;
Adlai E. Stevenson, under Cleveland; Garrett A. Hobart, in the first
McKinley term, and Theodore Roosevelt, in the second. In addition to
these were many other distinguished men who were acting Vice-Presidents.
Garrett A. Hobart was the fifth Vice-President of the United States to
die during his term of office. The others were Elbridge Gerry, William
Rufus King, Henry Wilson, and Thomas A. Hendricks. Gerry was one of the
great statesmen of the revolutionary period and hailed from
Massachusetts. He was Vice-President in 1812, and died November 23,
1814, while on the way to the capital.
King, of Alabama, was chosen Vice-President in 1852. He was obliged to
go to Cuba during the campaign on account of his health, and the oath of
office was administered to him there by special act of Congress. He
returned to the United States April 17, 1853, and his death occurred on
the following day.
Wilson, of Massachusetts, was elected Vice-President on the ticket with
General Grant in 1872. He suffered a stroke of paralysis in 1873, and
was infirm until the time of his death, which was caused by apoplexy
November 22, 1875.
Hendricks, of Indiana, was elected on the ticket with Cleveland in 1884.
He died in Indianapolis November 25, 1885.
VIII
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
The Hall of Representatives is in the south wing of the Capitol, and is
similar in form and design to the Senate Chamber, being semicircular,
with a gallery of twelve hundred seating capacity extending around the
entire hall.
Like the Senate, the walls are white, buff, and gold, and the ceiling
panels of glass, each showing in connection with a State coat of arms
the cotton plant in some stage of development.
The Speaker of the House sits at a desk of pure white marble, and in
front of him are several desks for the Secretary and his many
assistants.
A silver plate on each desk bears the name of its occupant. As in the
Senate, the Republicans occupy the left of the Speaker and the Democrats
the right.
When the House is in session the mace is in an upright position at the
table of the Sergeant-at-Arms on the right of the Speaker, and when the
House is adjourned, or in committee of the whole, it is removed.
[Illustration:
THE MACE
]
The mace is a bundle of ebony rods, bound together with silver bands,
having on top a silver globe, surmounted by a silver eagle. In the
British House of Commons the mace represents the royal authority, but in
the United States it stands for the power of the people, which, tho not
present in bodily form, yet is a force always to be reckoned with. The
one now in the House has been in use since 1842. The Sergeant carries it
before him as his symbol of office when enforcing order, or in
conducting a member to the bar of the House by order of the Speaker.
The Speaker’s room is across the lobby back of his chair, and is one of
the most beautiful rooms in the building. It has velvet carpet, fine,
carved furniture, large bookcases and mirrors, and its walls, as well as
the walls of the lobby, are hung with the portraits of every Speaker,
from our first Congress to the present one.
Most of the pictures in the House of Representatives with which I was
familiar fifteen years ago have been removed. Now there remains but
one—Brumidi’s fresco representing General Washington declining the
overtures of Lord Cornwallis for a two days’ cessation of hostilities.
Washington, like Grant, was an “unconditional surrender” man.
Each State is entitled to a number of Representatives in Congress,
proportioned upon the number of its population. The State is districted
by its own State Legislature. Then the district selects its own man, who
is supposed to understand its wants and needs, and elects him to
represent his people for two years.
He must be twenty-five years of age, seven years a citizen of the United
States, and a citizen of the State which he represents. There are about
three hundred and fifty-six members and delegates. The latter represent
the territories of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and Hawaii.
[Illustration:
THE SPEAKER’S ROOM
]
Congress is an aggregate of selfish units, each fighting for his
district. No doubt good influences prevail, but no one class of men,
either the extremely good or the extremely bad, has the entire say, for
law is the formulated average public opinion of the age and country in
which it is made.
It can not be too strongly impressed upon the voters of this country
that it is their duty to select good, strong, noble men with high
convictions of public duty, and then to keep them in Congress term after
term if they desire their district to be represented by anything more
than a mere vote. Important places on committees are given men not alone
in proportion to intellectual merit, but in proportion to Congressional
experience. All men will not become leaders from remaining there a long
time, but none will without it.
It is a wonderful thing to note the changes in the House since 1885. At
that time John G. Carlisle was Speaker of the House. So fair in his
rulings was Mr. Carlisle that one might spend hours in the gallery and
be unable to decide which side he favored.
Samuel J. Randall and Roger Q. Mills, of Texas, were the leaders on the
Democratic side, and the Mills bill concerning tariff the chief object
of legislative interest before the country. Springer, of Illinois, and
Breckenridge, of Kentucky; Crisp, of Georgia; Hooker and Allen, of
Mississippi, were also among the leaders of the Democracy. Of these some
are now out of politics, some are dead, and one disgraced.
Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, was the acknowledged leader of the Republican
side, with McKinley, Cutcheon, Burrows, Boutelle, Holman, Butterworth,
Henderson, Payne, Morrill, of Kansas, Negley, of Pennsylvania, and
Cannon his backers.
It was great fun to see Reed come down the aisle ready to puncture the
pet plans of the Democrats. In sharp, keen, extemporaneous, partisan
debate he has never been excelled in this country, and possibly never in
any other. No man ever appreciated his own power more accurately than
he. He charged on few windmills; but when he placed himself in
antagonism to a measure, it usually failed to pass, altho the Democrats
had a working majority. When he became Speaker of the House, old members
assured me, in spite of his name “Czar” Reed, he was not more arbitrary
than either Blaine or Randall in the same position. As a presiding
officer no man ever put the business of the House through more rapidly
or more gracefully. He was a fine parliamentarian, quick in decisions
and most able in his rulings.
My note on McKinley in 1885 says: “He can not be considered a leader,
for a leader is one who can champion a party measure. This he can not
do, as he is not keen in repartee—the opposition walk all over him; nor
can he support a _new_ man. He makes two or three well-prepared,
eloquent speeches each _year_; these are usually on the tariff. He is a
genial, pleasant gentleman, probably with more personal friends in the
entire country than any one man now before the nation.”
William C. P. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, was considered the most
eloquent man for a prepared speech on the Democratic side. But it was
the eloquence of a musical voice, graceful gesture, and an abundant use
of adjectives, not the eloquence of deep thought. While he was speaking
it was hard to believe that it was not the best speech which could
possibly be made on that subject. When one read it in the Record he
wondered that he had been even interested.
In December, 1889, Mr. Breckenridge lectured in Clearfield,
Pennsylvania, to the Teachers’ Institute. His subject was “Kentucky’s
Place in History.”
He began by saying: “I was a rebel. I am glad of it. If I had it to do
again, I would do the same thing!” Now, think of that before a Northern
audience, especially in a mountain county which is always noted for
patriotism. If his audience had been petrified they could not more
quickly have frozen in their places.
He told the thrilling story of Kentucky in words of matchless humor and
pathos. He tried fun; no one smiled, I was sitting on the platform, and
the stories were so amusing I was obliged to retire to the wings, as to
laugh in the face of that angry audience would have been an indignity.
He tried pathos. No one melted. As he came from the stage, I said:
“Colonel, you gave a most eloquent address.”
“What in thunder is the matter with that audience?” he said. I replied:
“When you said you did not regret being a rebel, and you would do the
same again, you killed that audience so far as you were concerned.”
Just at that moment Mr. Matthew Savage, the County Superintendent, came
up. He flung down on the table his check for one hundred dollars, and
said: “Take that, but I hope never to see your face again. I am a
Democrat, and the people of this county will think I hired you to come
here and talk treason. You have spoiled my chances for the Legislature.”
The people, however, understood the case, and it did not hurt Mr. Savage
politically.
IX
CONCERNING REPRESENTATIVES
It is not all “skittles and beer” to be a Senator or a Representative at
Washington. The continued pressure from a man’s constituents that he
shall accomplish certain legislation for his district, and the iron-clad
rules which prohibit his every movement, if in the House of
Representatives, are enough to break an ordinary man’s health.
A new member goes to the House full of enthusiasm, hoping to accomplish
great things for those who have trusted him; he finds that he is
scarcely permitted to open his mouth the first term. But he does his
best in committee, which is little enough; he runs his feet off to get
places for some hundreds of people from his district who must be taken
care of. Then he keeps trying to be a good party man, and to do some
favor for the leaders, who, he hopes, will reward him by giving him an
opportunity to accomplish much-needed legislation for his district, till
in his second or third term he becomes desperate, breaks out in meeting,
and knocks things about generally. If he proves to be really an orator
and succeeds in catching the ear of the House, he may then begin to be
more than a mere party voter. On the other hand, he may be so squelched
that he subsides into “innocuous desuetude.”
In the meantime he has borne all forms of unjust and unkind criticism at
home. His opponents of his own party and of the opposite party point, in
scorn and malice, to how little has been done for the district, and tell
in startling sentences how they would do it and how they _will_ do it
when they are elected. Then a “nagger” comes to Washington, who is still
worse. He _demands_ a position, tells the Representative how the latter
owes his place to said nagger, and insists on being immediately made
chief clerk of some department accessible only through the Civil
Service, and needing four times the influence a new member can bring to
bear. A man must learn to be serene under nagging, misrepresentation,
and even positive lies, and rely upon time and his own best efforts to
vindicate him.
There have been more caucuses held during the last term than usual. A
caucus is a good thing, as it gives a man a chance to influence in a
very slight degree the decisions of his party. (See Henry Loomis
Nelson’s excellent article in the _Century_ for June, 1902.)
The House is at present (session 1902–1903) ruled by only a few leading
Republicans: Speaker Henderson, Grosvenor, Payne, Dalzell, and about two
or three others. How long will such a hierarchy, dominating nearly three
hundred intelligent men, be permitted to exist? The House is run like a
bank, of which the President and a few clerks do all the deciding. Any
correspondent who has the ear of any of these few can tell you the fate
of a measure before it comes to vote.
The chairmen of committees, and a few others who have been long in the
House, are called into a committee room to decide on how much debate
will be permitted, who will be heard, and whether or not the bill shall
pass; and the rank and file, desiring to be good party men, obey orders,
and the bill fails or goes through in exactly the form decided upon by
the clique. This is most un-American. It is true, more business is thus
accomplished; but the business does not represent the average public
opinion of the House.
The Committee on Rules, or its majority, constitutes a stone wall
against which men break their hearts and ruin their reputations. Let us
have less done, but let what is done be an average result of public
opinion.
The President can do but little to influence legislation. His clubs are
personality and patronage. If as persistent as Mr. Roosevelt, he may
eventually get an “Administration” measure (like Cuban reciprocity)
through, despite opposition. Present Congressional methods make
politicians out of men capable, under broader training, of becoming
statesmen. But Mr. Roosevelt did not “arrive” by the good will of the
machine, but in spite of it. If he attains a second term, it will be
against the plans of the machine; but as in Lincoln’s second term,
politicians may be forced to nominate him, or themselves go down before
the storm of public indignation.
In the meantime legislators in the House will go on presenting little
bills which they know they can never get passed, but printed copies of
which can be sent to constituents to make them believe that their
representatives are really doing something.
The present method has this benefit: it shuts off much of the lobbying
which formerly disgraced the anterooms of Congress.
There is a small cloud in the horizon. Mr. Littlefield, of Maine, whom
rumor claimed, at the opening of the last Congress, to represent
Presidential opinion, has seen his trust bill turned down. However, Mr.
Littlefield always delights his hearers, who realize that his fight
against commercial monopolies is no make-believe.
The following extracts from a late speech of Hon. F. W. Cushman, of the
State of Washington, on the question of reciprocity with Cuba, will
throw much light on present legislative methods in the House of
Representatives:
THE RULES OF THE HOUSE
We meet in this Chamber to-day a condition that challenges the
consideration of every patriotic man, and that is, the set of rules
under which this body operates, or perhaps it would be more nearly
correct to say, under which this body is operated. [Laughter.]
Mr. Chairman, I deem it my duty, knowing as I do that this measure
could not have been brought here in the shape in which it now is, save
and excepting for the remarkable conditions created in this House by
these rules—I say, sir, I deem it to be my duty to pause for a moment
or two on the threshold of this debate and place a few cold facts
about these rules into this Record and before the 70,000,000 of people
to whom we are responsible.
I approach this subject with a decided degree of deference. In the
three years which I have been a member of this body I have endeavored
to conduct myself with a modesty that I conceive to be becoming alike
to the new member and to his constituency. I represent a Congressional
district comprising the entire State of Washington, a Congressional
district with half a million people in it, and with vast and varied
interests demanding legislation for their benefit and protection in
many of the channels of trade and branches of industry.
It is with humiliation unspeakable that I rise in my place on this
floor and admit to my constituents at home that in this House I am
utterly powerless to bring any bill or measure, no matter how worthy
or meritorious it may be, to a vote unless I can first make terms with
the Speaker.
It may be a matter of news to some of the good people within the
confines of the American Republic to know that there is no way of
getting an ordinary unprivileged measure considered and voted upon in
this House unless it suits the Speaker. I am aware that there are
several _theoretical_ ways of getting a measure up; but they have no
actual reality—no fruitage in fact. I make the statement on this floor
now, that no member of this body who introduces a bill—not a private
bill, but a public bill—can get it considered or brought forward for
final determination unless it suits the Speaker. And if any one wants
to deny that statement I am in a personal position and in a peculiarly
happy frame of mind right now to give a little valuable testimony on
that point! [Applause and laughter.]
Imagine, if you please, a measure—not a private measure, but a public
measure—which has been considered at length by a great committee of
this House and favorably reported with the recommendation that it do
pass. That bill is then placed on the “Calendar.” The Calendar! That
is a misnomer. It ought to be called a cemetery [laughter], for
therein lie the whitening bones of legislative hopes. [Laughter.] When
the bill is reported and placed on the Calendar, what does the member
who introduced it and who is charged by his constituency to secure its
passage do?
Does he consult himself about his desire to call it up? No. Does he
consult the committee who considered the bill and recommended it for
passage? No. Does he consult the will of the majority of this House?
No. What does he do? I will tell you what he does. He either consents
that that bill may die upon the Calendar, or he puts his manhood and
his individuality in his pocket and goes trotting down that little
pathway of personal humiliation that leads—where? To the Speaker’s
room. Ay, the Speaker’s room. All the glories that clustered around
the holy of holies in King Solomon’s temple looked like 30 cents
[prolonged laughter and applause]—yes, looked like 29 cents—compared
with that jobbing department of this government! [Applause and
laughter.]
Then you are in the presence of real greatness. What then? Why, the
Speaker looks over _your_ bill, and then _he_ tells _you_ whether _he_
thinks it ought to come up or not!
There is a condition which I commend to the patriotic consideration of
the American people. Contemplate that for a method of procedure in the
legislative body of a great and free republic.
WHO IS THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE?
Who is the Speaker of this House who sets up his immaculate and
infallible judgment against the judgment of all comers? Is there
anything different or superior in the credentials that he carries from
the credentials that were issued to you and to me from 70,000,000 of
American people? When he entered this House at the beginning of the
Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh Congresses he was simply a
Congressman-elect, bearing credentials like every other man on this
floor. He has no greater power now than any other member, save the
additional power we ourselves bestowed upon him by electing him
Speaker and then adopting this set of rules. The question that now
arises to confront us is: Have we put a club in the hands of some one
else to beat us to death? Have we elevated one man on a pinnacle so
high that he can not now see those who elevated him? Is the Speaker of
this House a mere mortal man of common flesh and clay, or is he
supernatural and immortal? What miracle was wrought at his birth? Did
a star shoot from its orbit when he was born, or did he come into
existence in the good old-fashioned way that ushered the rest of us
into this vale of tears?
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
I make no onslaught on the individual. I have a high regard for the
Speaker of this House personally and for him politically; but we face
the fact that we have adopted a set of rules in this body that are an
absolute disgrace to the legislative body of any republic.
Throughout the entire three years of my service in this body I have
been up against the little machine that dominates the proceedings and
the deliberations of this House. During the entire three years prior
to this time I have always treated that machine with the deference due
to its age and its reputation. I trust you will excuse my frankness
when I tell you that from this time on I shall devote a little of my
time and a tithe of my energy to putting a few spokes in the wheel of
that machine that the designers of the vehicle never ordered.
[Laughter.]
I for one expect to live to see the day in this House not when the
Speaker shall tell the individual members of this House what he is
going to permit them to bring up, but when those individual members,
constituting a majority, will inform the Speaker what they are going
to bring up for themselves.
X
THE SUPREME COURT ROOM
Continuing our examination of what is called the original Capitol
building, we would stop next at the Supreme Court room, once the Senate
Chamber of the United States. For quiet, harmonious beauty it is
unequaled by any other room in the building.
It was designed by Latrobe, after the model of a Greek theater—a
semicircular hall, with low-domed ceiling, and small gallery back and
over the seats occupied by the dignified judges of the Supreme Court of
the United States.
“The Bench” is composed of large leather upholstered chairs, with the
chair of the Chief Justice in the center, and those of the Associate
Justices on either side. In front of these is a table around which the
counsel are seated, and back of a railing seats are arranged around the
wall for spectators.
On the walls are the busts of the former Chief Justices of the United
States: John Jay, of New York; John Rutledge, of South Carolina; Oliver
Ellsworth, of Connecticut; John Marshall, of Virginia; Roger B. Taney,
of Maryland; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio; and Morrison R. Waite, of Ohio.
Back of the judges is placed a number of graceful Ionic columns of
Potomac marble, the white capitals copied from the Temple of Minerva.
The Standard Guide of Washington pictures the present court in this way:
+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
+--+ |8 |6 |4 |2 |1 |3 |5 |7 |9 | +--+
|10| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |11|
+--+ +--+
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
+--+ +--+
|13| |12|
+--+ +--+
+------+
| 14 |
+------+
SEATING PLAN OF THE SUPREME COURT CHAMBER
Chief Justice occupies Chair No. 1
His colleagues sit on either side
No. 10—Clerk’s Desk
No. 11—Marshal’s Desk
No. 12—Reporters’ Desk
No. 13—Attorney-General’s Desk
No. 14—Counsel’s Desk
In this hall Webster answered Hayne, and here Benton and John Randolph
made their great speeches. On the left side of the Senate stood Calhoun
in many a contest with Clay and Webster on the right.
One day Calhoun boasted of being the superior of Clay in argument. He
said: “I had him on his back; I was his master; he was at my mercy.”
Clay strode down the aisle, and, shaking his long finger in Calhoun’s
face, said: “He my master! Sir, I would not own him for my slave!”
It is said to be the handsomest court room in the world. Every week-day
from October till May, except during Christmas and Easter holidays, just
at twelve o’clock the crier enters the court room and announces: “The
Honorable Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court
of the United States,” at which everybody, including visitors and
lawyers, stand. Just then nine large, dignified old gentlemen, led by
Chief Justice Fuller, kicking up their long black silk robes behind
them, enter the room; each, standing before his chair, bows to the
lawyers, the lawyers and spectators bow to them, then all are seated.
The crier then opens court by saying: “O yea! O yea! O yea! All persons
having business with the honorable the Supreme Court of the United
States are admonished to draw near and give their attendance, as the
court is now sitting. God save the United States and this honorable
court.”
After this quaint little speech business begins.
The members of the court wear gowns like the ecclesiastical robes of the
Church of England. This began in early days when this country took
English law and customs for pattern and precedent.
The seats of the judges are placed in the order of the time of their
appointment, the senior judges occupying seats on either hand of the
Chief Justice, while the latest appointments sit at the farthest end of
each row.
This order of precedence extends even into the consulting-room, where
the judges meet to talk over difficult cases, the Chief Justice
presiding at the head.
Our country is justly proud of its judiciary. The Supreme Court of our
country is the last rampart of liberty. Should this court become corrupt
our free institutions will surely perish.
The Supreme Court of the United States has, however, made some grave
mistakes—witness the famous decision of Justice Taney—but, for the most
part, time has only verified their decisions.
The men who have sat here have not only been fair representatives of the
legal knowledge of their day, but also men of unimpeachable integrity
and of the highest patriotism. Many of them have been devout Christians.
Some on the bench at present are among the best church workers of
Washington.
Courts are conservative bodies. Conservatism produces nothing, but is
useful in preserving that which enthusiasm has created.
This Supreme Court room has been made further memorable as being the
place in which, in 1877, sat the Electoral Commission which decided the
Presidential contest as to whether Hayes, of the Republican party, or
Tilden, of the Democratic party, should be the Executive of a great
nation for four years.
In the fall of 1876, when the elections were over, it was found that the
result was in serious and dangerous dispute. The Senate was Republican,
the House Democratic. Each distrusted the other. It was feared that on
the following 4th of March the country would be forced to face one of
two series dilemmas: either that the country would have no President, or
that two would-be Presidents would, with their followers, strive to
enter the White House and take violent possession of the government. Men
would have shot the way they voted. On the 7th of December, Judge George
W. McCrary, a Representative of Iowa, afterward in Hayes’s Cabinet,
later a circuit judge of the United States, submitted a resolution which
became the basis of the Electoral Commission. Three distant Southern
States had sent to the Capitol double sets of election returns—one set
for Mr. Tilden, one set for Mr. Hayes. On these nineteen votes depended
the Presidency for four years.
If they were counted for Tilden, he would have two hundred and three
votes and Hayes one hundred and sixty-six; or, if counted for Hayes, he
would have one hundred and eighty-five votes and Tilden one hundred and
eighty-four. The States whose certificates of election were in dispute
were Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon.
The members of the Electoral Commission were selected either as
representatives of their party, or men considered the embodiment of
honor and justice. The Commission consisted of five Senators, five
Judges of the Supreme Court, and five Representatives from the Lower
House of Congress. The attorneys were the leading lawyers of each party.
The Cabinet, leading Senators, Congressmen, foreign Ministers, and
distinguished people from all portions of the country, were present. The
wit, the beauty, the writers, the wisdom of the country assembled in
this room to weigh the arguments, and at last to hear the decision that
Rutherford B. Hayes was rightfully to be the President of the United
States.
This tribunal, and the wise patriotism of Mr. Tilden and his party,
saved the country from a bloody civil war.
XI
INCIDENTS CONCERNING MEMBERS OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
The Chief Justice of the United States is the highest legal officer in
this country.
The position has always been filled by men of great learning and of high
integrity, and, differ as we may concerning the wisdom and justice of
some Supreme Court decisions, yet we must believe the judges were
sincere and honest in their renditions.
When the country loses confidence in the integrity of this court, the
very foundation of our government will be in danger.
The first Chief Justice was John Jay, appointed September 26, 1789. He
soon resigned to accept the position of Envoy Extraordinary to England,
where, after the Revolutionary War, the adjustment of our affairs
demanded a person of great learning and skill. The country was fortunate
in having John Adams, John Jay, and, later, John Quincy Adams as its
representatives in this delicate and important service.
John Rutledge, of South Carolina, was a later appointment to the Chief
Justiceship, but the Senate refused to confirm the nomination. Then
William Cushing, of Massachusetts, one of the Associate Justices, was
nominated and confirmed, but declined to serve. Oliver Ellsworth, of
Connecticut, was then appointed, and was confirmed by the Senate March
4, 1796. He served till 1799, when he resigned to go as the Special
Envoy and the Minister to England.
John Jay was again nominated and confirmed by the Senate, but refused to
serve. John Marshall, of Virginia, was appointed Chief Justice by
President John Adams in 1801. He died in 1835. His term and that of
Chief Justice Taney cover over sixty important years in the history of
our government.
John Marshall had served on the personal staff of Washington in the
Revolutionary War, and had suffered the miseries and trials of the camp
at Valley Forge. At the time of his appointment he was Secretary of
State in Adams’s Cabinet. He served in both capacities till the close of
Adams’s administration.
The Supreme Court, when Marshall was called to preside over it, was held
in a low-vaulted room in the basement of the Capitol, and remained there
until the new wings were finished, about 1857. Mr. Ellis, in “Sights and
Secrets of Washington,” tells this story of Marshall: “Upon one occasion
Marshall was standing in the market in Richmond, Va., with his basket
containing his purchases on his arm, when he was accosted by a
fashionable young gentleman who had just purchased a turkey. The young
man’s foolish pride would not allow him to carry the fowl through the
streets, and, taking the Judge for a countryman, he asked him to carry
it home for him. The request was promptly granted, and when the young
man’s home was reached he offered the supposed countryman a shilling for
his trouble. The money was courteously refused, and upon asking the name
of the person who had rendered him the service, the young man was not a
little astonished and chagrined to learn that his thanks were due to the
Chief Justice of the United States.”
A bet was once made that the Judge could not dress himself without
exhibiting some mark of carelessness. He good-humoredly accepted the
challenge. A supper was to be given him upon these conditions: If his
dress was found to be faultlessly neat upon that occasion, the parties
offering the wager were to pay for the entertainment; but if they
detected any carelessness in his attire, the expense was to fall upon
him. Upon the appointed evening the guests and the Judge met at the
place agreed upon, and, to the surprise of all, the Judge’s dress seemed
faultless. The supper followed, Judge Marshall being in high spirits
over his victory. Near the close of the repast, however, one of the
guests who sat near him chanced to drop his napkin, and, stooping down
to pick it up, discovered that the Judge had put on one of his stockings
with the wrong side out. Of course the condition of affairs was
immediately changed, and amidst the uproarious laughter of his
companions the Chief Justice acknowledged his defeat.
Mr. Ellis also says: “The following incident in his (Marshall’s) life is
said to have occurred at McGuire’s hotel, in Winchester, Virginia:
“It is not long since a gentleman was traveling in one of the counties
of Virginia, and about the close of the day stopped at a public house to
obtain refreshment and spend the night. He had been there but a short
time before an old man alighted from his gig, with the apparent
intention of becoming his fellow guest at the same house. As the old man
drove up he observed that both of the shafts of the gig were broken, and
that they were held together by withes formed from the bark of a hickory
sapling. Our traveler observed further that he was plainly clad, that
his knee-buckles were loosened, and that something like negligence
pervaded his dress. Conceiving him to be one of the honest yeomanry of
our land, the courtesies of strangers passed between them, and they
entered the tavern. It was about the same time that an addition of three
or four young gentlemen was made to their number—most, if not all of
them, of the legal profession. As soon as they became conveniently
accommodated, the conversation was turned by the latter upon an eloquent
harangue which had that day been displayed at the bar. It was replied by
the other that he had witnessed, the same day, a degree of eloquence no
doubt equal, but it was from the pulpit. Something like a sarcastic
rejoinder was made as to the eloquence of the pulpit, and a warm
altercation ensued, in which the merits of the Christian religion became
the subject of discussion. From six o’clock until eleven the young
champions wielded the sword of argument, adducing with ingenuity and
ability everything that could be said, _pro_ and _con_. During this
protracted period the old gentleman listened with the meekness and
modesty of a child—as if he were adding new information to the stores of
his own mind, or perhaps he was observing, with philosophic eye, the
faculties of the youthful mind and how new energies are evolved by
repeated action; or, perhaps, with patriotic emotion, he was reflecting
upon the future destinies of his country, and on the rising generation,
upon whom these future destinies must devolve; or, most probably, with a
sentiment of moral and religious feeling, he was collecting an argument
which, characteristic of himself, no art would ‘be able to elude, and no
force to resist.’ Our traveler remained a spectator, and took no part in
what was said.
“At last one of the young men, remarking that it was impossible to
combat with long and established prejudices, wheeled around, and, with
some familiarity, exclaimed, ‘Well, my old gentleman, what do you think
of these things?’ If, said the traveler, a streak of vivid lightning had
at the moment crossed the room, their amazement could not have been
greater than it was with what followed. The most eloquent and
unanswerable appeal that he ever heard or read was made for nearly an
hour by the old gentleman. So perfect was his recollection that every
argument urged against the Christian religion was met in the order in
which it was advanced. Hume’s sophistry on the subject of miracles was,
if possible, more perfectly answered than it had already been done by
Campbell. And in the whole lecture there was so much simplicity and
energy, pathos and sublimity, that not another word was uttered. An
attempt to describe it, said the traveler, would be an attempt to paint
the sunbeams. It was now a matter of curiosity and inquiry who the old
gentleman was. The traveler concluded it was a preacher from whom the
pulpit eloquence was heard. But no; it was the Chief Justice of the
United States.”
Judge Marshall was followed by Roger Brooke Taney, of Maryland. He was
nominated by President Jackson, and confirmed by the Senate in 1836. He
died October 12, 1864. His decision in the Dred Scott fugitive case may
be ranked as one of the factors which brought about the Civil War. The
case was substantially this: A negro slave, with a wife and two
children, sued his master for freedom under the plea that, having been
taken North into free States a number of times, they were therefore
entitled to freedom. The decision covers many pages, but the nation
summed it up in these words: “The black man possesses no rights which
the white man is bound to respect.” Since Moses established a judiciary
no decision ever made such a disturbance. In the memory of most people
Taney’s singularly pure life goes for nothing beside the infamy of this
decision. It outraged the conscience of mankind. Taney claimed that he
did not make the law, he simply gave its interpretation. The decision
was approved by the majority of the court, but he alone was made to
suffer the obloquy which followed.
This decision proved sufficient to bring down the wrath of a just God on
a nation so lost to human justice. The South suffered for the sin of
slavery, the North for conniving thereto.
Judge Taney sleeps at Frederick, Md. (where most of his private life had
passed), beside his wife, who was sister to Francis Scott Key, author of
“The Star-Spangled Banner.”
In the summer of 1888 I heard Dr. Wardell, at Ocean Grove, N. J., tell
this incident concerning Salmon P. Chase, who was appointed Chief
Justice by President Lincoln in 1864, and who died in 1873. Dr. Wardell
claimed to have the story direct from Dr. Newman, then pastor of the
Metropolitan Methodist Church, Washington, D. C.
He said that Chief Justice Chase was in the habit of attending the
Metropolitan Church, on Four and One-half Street, Washington, and Dr.
Newman (afterward Bishop) noticed that while the Chief Justice was a
member of the official Board, and attended faithfully to its duties, yet
he always left the church when the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was
administered.
After one such occasion Dr. Newman went to him and said: “Why do you not
avail yourself of the means of grace in the Lord’s Supper?”
The Chief Justice answered: “I do not consider myself worthy to partake
of the communion.”
The Doctor said: “We invite all who love the Lord, and who do truly and
heartily repent of their sins, to join with us in this service.”
“Yes, that is just it. What do you mean by ‘repent’?”
Then the Doctor gave him a full and clear explanation of repentance.
On the next communion day instead of leaving the church the Chief
Justice remained in his seat. After all had communed, Dr. Newman said:
“If any soul feels its unfitness for this service, to him this
invitation is specially given. If such a one fails to acknowledge the
Savior and his own unworthiness before his fellowmen, we are assured
that the Savior will not acknowledge him before his Father and His holy
angels.”
The Chief Justice rose, and staggered, rather than walked, to the front,
and fell on his knees at the altar railing. After giving to the kneeling
man the bread and wine, the Doctor, seeing the strong face of the
penitent drawn with grief, with the Justice still kneeling, pronounced
the benediction and dismissed the congregation.
The next day, in the robing-room of the justices, Chief Justice Chase
said to Justice Miller: “Oh, I want to tell you to-day what the Lord has
done for my soul! He came very near me yesterday.”
Justice Miller replied: “Well, we will talk of that some other time; now
we have the wages of sin and not righteousness before us.”
After court adjourned that afternoon, the Chief Justice went down to
Alexandria to see an old servant who had sent for him. He said to her:
“Oh, Auntie, I received a great blessing yesterday; all life is
different. I want to have a closer walk with God.”
Within a few days he went to New York to transact some business. The
morning after his arrival he did not come down to breakfast. The clerk
waited till eleven o’clock, and receiving no answer to his frequent
knocks, the door was forced, and there was found the dead body of the
Chief Justice. He had entered on his closer walk with God.
It was well known throughout the country that Lincoln was not in harmony
with Chase, even when the latter was Secretary of the Treasury, but
Carpenter, in his “Six Months in the White House,” says:
“Notwithstanding his apparent hesitation in the appointment of a
successor to Judge Taney, it is well known to his intimate friends that
there had never been a time during his Presidency, when in the event of
the death of Judge Taney, Mr. Lincoln had not fully intended and
expected to nominate Salmon P. Chase for Chief Justice.”
The appointment must have come to Chase with a little of the effects of
“coals of fire,” for he had not been very loyal to Lincoln. He had the
Presidential bee in his own bonnet.
From 1874 to 1888 Morrison R. Waite, of Ohio, was Chief Justice. Our
present Chief Justice, Melville W. Fuller, of Illinois, was called to
the highest judicial position in the country in 1888.
XII
TEACHING PATRIOTISM IN THE CAPITOL
One can fancy a patriotic Englishman taking his son to Westminster
Abbey, and there telling him the story of liberty, in the history of the
renowned dead who sleep about him, until the youth is inspired with a
patriotism deeper than the love of kindred, and second only to the love
of God.
So an American father who desires his children to assume their proper
place among the great force of American youth who are to perpetuate
American institutions, might well bring them to the Capitol of the
nation, and there in glowing words, and amid reminders of every decade
of the nineteenth century and the latter part of the eighteenth, tell
the story of liberty as shown in republican institutions.
He could also take his children to Mount Vernon for a day; there they
might read together the history of that serene, majestic character whose
eminence has carried him beyond national lines and made him belong to
the world as well as to us—a citizen of all lands and of all ages.
History is best told by biography. Around Washington would be grouped
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. These men, without
a precedent to follow, launched a new government, establishing all the
departments of its great machinery with such wisdom, justice, and
patriotism that what they did, what they thought and planned, but were
not able to complete, is to-day the standard of patriotism and national
achievement.
Then would follow that man whose life grows radiant in the strong
search-light of history—John Quincy Adams; that Adams, who could
truthfully say at the close of a long, brilliant, and useful life, in
the words of an old Roman: “I have rendered to my country all the great
service she was willing to receive at my hand, and I have never harbored
a thought concerning her which was not divine.” With him would be his
compeers, Madison, Monroe, Burr, Clay, Webster, Jackson, John Randolph,
the elder Bayard, and Calhoun.
That father would not fail to make plain the stern patriotism of Andrew
Jackson and Daniel Webster against the insidious treason of Calhoun and
his coterie.
During the early days of President Jackson’s administration he gave a
state dinner in honor of Jefferson’s birthday. On his right sat Calhoun,
Vice-President of the United States, and up to this time the intimate
friend and confidential adviser of the Executive. On Jackson’s left sat
Webster, with the black brows of Jove.
The toasts of the evening had been ambiguous. Mr. Calhoun gave this
toast: “Our union, next to our liberties the most dear; it can only be
preserved by respecting the rights of States, and by distributing its
burdens and its benefits equally.”
Webster nudged the President. Old Hickory sprang to his feet and gave
the toast: “Our federal union; it must be preserved.” Every man drank it
standing, Calhoun among the rest.
How near our country came to open rebellion is shown in the last hours
of Jackson. A friend at his bedside said: “What would you have done with
Calhoun and his friends had they persisted in nullification?” “Hanged
them, sir, as high as Haman. They should have been a terror to traitors
for all time,” said the dying statesman.
That father could tell part of the story of liberty in the life of the
younger Adams. At the age of eleven Adams decided that he would be a
Christian. He said: “Of this one thing I must make sure: I shall humbly
serve God. If He makes me a great man, I shall rejoice; but this He
surely will do: if I trust Him, He will make me a useful man.”
God took Adams at his word. He sought the Kingdom first. God added
place. Adams was diplomat, Senator, Secretary of State, President,
Congressman. He might well say with his dying breath, as he was carried
from his place in the old House of Representatives to the Rotunda, “This
is the last of earth, but I am content.”
Well he might be content. He had been a faithful, honest, upright
Christian man, who had received at the hands of his fellow citizens the
highest honors they could confer, and in his death he passed to a home
among the redeemed, there with enlarged intelligence and clearer vision
to continue his work for God in the beyond.
In this day, when writers are striving to make black appear white, the
father who would mingle Christianity with patriotism would not fail to
sketch the life of Aaron Burr in contrast with the young Adams.
Burr tells us that at the age of eighteen the Spirit of God came upon
him with such power that he fled to the woods to settle that great
question which faces every human being—“Shall I be a Christian?” He said
to himself: “I purpose as a lawyer to succeed by the tricks of the
trade. There is many a short cut in business which a Christian could not
take, therefore I shall not be a Christian.”
He tells us that the Spirit of God never again troubled him. He sinned
against the Spirit, that unpardonable sin. Left to himself, his destiny
led him to a high place only to make his fall more terrible. Socially he
was the most charming man of his day, but he entered no home which he
did not defile. No woman loved him but to her sorrow.
Burr was holding the position of Vice-President as a Republican when he
was nominated by the Federalists for Governor of New York. Some of the
leading men of that party refused to support him, among them Hamilton.
This led to the duel in which Hamilton was killed, July 11, 1804.
Burr was disfranchised and banished by the laws of New York, and was
indicted for murder by the authorities of New Jersey for having killed
Hamilton on the soil of that State. He could not enter either New York
or New Jersey to settle his business. He was bankrupted, and more than
$5,000 in debt when all his property had been sold and the results paid
over.
The day before the duel Burr had a right to suppose himself a more
important man than Hamilton. Was he not Vice-President? Had he not just
received a majority of the votes of the City of New York for Governor of
that State, in spite of Hamilton’s greatest exertions? Yet the day after
the duel the dying Hamilton had the sympathy of every human being, and
Burr was a fugitive from justice, not knowing friend from foe. Never was
there a greater revulsion of feeling.
Southern men tried to console him by their more courteous demeanor.
Between the time of the duel and the convening of Congress, Burr had
kept himself south of Mason and Dixon’s line, for in any Northern State
he would have been arrested on a requisition on the Governor.
He went back to Washington and again presided over the Senate, but was
simply scorched by the open, daily manifestations of the scorn of
Northern Senators. The Southern men were more courteous in their
demeanor. On Saturday, March 2d, he took leave of the Senate. That body
was in executive session, therefore no spectators were present. Mr.
Burr, one of the most eloquent as well as one of the handsomest men of
his day, rose in his place after the galleries had been cleared. He
began his address by saying that he had intended to remain during his
constitutional time, but he felt an indisposition coming upon him and he
now desired to take leave of them.
The silence could be felt. There was no shorthand reporter present, and
exactly what he said is not now known—perhaps nothing very different
from what other retiring Vice-Presidents have said. No reference was
made to the duel, none to the scorn he had merited, unless it were in
his words, “For injuries received, thank God, I have no memory.”
He thanked the Senators for kindness and courtesy. He prophesied that if
ever political liberty in this country died its expiring agonies would
be witnessed on the floor of the United States Senate. As he walked out
no man rose, no man shook hands with him; when the door closed on him it
shut him out forever from position, usefulness, home, country, the love
of women, and the friendship of men.
At the President’s reception on the following Morning two Senators were
relating the circumstances to a group which had gathered round them. On
being asked, “How long did Mr. Burr speak?” one of them answered, “I can
form no idea; it may have been a moment and it may have been an hour;
when I came to my senses I seemed to have awakened from a kind of
trance.”
Burr, hurled from power and honor, wandered a fugitive from justice, and
at last would have been laid in a pauper’s grave but for the care of a
woman who had loved him in his better days.
Surely the Psalmist was right when, speaking of the righteous and the
unrighteous, he said: “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers
of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also
shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are
not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.”
XIII
PEOPLE IN THE DEPARTMENTS
About one-third of all the employees in the government departments at
Washington are women. Several receive over $2,500 per annum, about fifty
receive $1,600 per annum, one hundred receive $1,400 per annum, four
hundred and fifty receive $1,200, three hundred receive $1,000, and the
remainder receive from $600 to $900 per annum.
The Civil Service Commission records for last year show that 3,083 women
were examined for the various positions opened for them under the civil
service. Of these, 2,476 passed and 444 were appointed. Of the
applicants examined, 1,351 came under the head of “skilled labor.”
The most popular examination for women is that of stenographers and
typewriters. “Good stenographers” is the ceaseless demand of the
department official—not mediocre, but good par excellence.
Government work is well paid only when well done. Promotions are at
least sometimes the reward of merit. A very striking illustration of
this occurred last winter, when a young woman was made chief of one of
the divisions in the Post-Office Department because she knew more about
the work of that particular division than any other employee in it. She
receives a salary of $2,240—among the highest paid to any woman in the
service.
In the States a position at Washington is looked upon as most desirable,
but except for the highest positions, and for the name of it, no
ambitious man or woman who desires to secure a competence by middle life
should consider a place in the departments.
There are nearly six thousand classified clerkships in the departments,
and many thousands of ungraded positions. Clerks of the first class
receive $1,200 per year; of the second, $1,400; of the third, $1,600; of
the fourth class, $1,800. In ungraded positions, salaries range from
$700 to $1,000.
Chief clerks receive from $1,800 to $2,700; stenographers and
translators of languages from $1,200 to $2,000; copyists from $60 to $75
per month. Thirty days’ vacation, without loss of salary, is allowed
each year, and in case of violent illness no pay is deducted.
Hundreds of fine young men, well educated, who ought to be in the
manufacturing businesses of our country where they could develop, tamely
accept from $700 to $1,000 a year for mechanical work. In the last few
years there has been wonderful improvement in the work done by
department people. In 1885 I was impressed by the flirtations in
corners, the half hours which were wasted in visiting by people
receiving government money. But few are idle now—at least, where a
visitor can see. They are all at their desks promptly at 9 A.M.; they
work till 4 P.M., with half an hour at noon for luncheon. No bank
records as to punctuality, regularity, and diligence can be more closely
kept than those of the departments. There are so many who are eager to
take an idler’s place that no one dares to fritter away his or her time.
It is said that if a woman banks on her femininity with chiefs of
divisions, or has unusual Senatorial backing, she may dare to take some
liberties—she may be idle or incompetent, and not be reported; but these
cases grow fewer in number.
Now, as to civil service examination. No one can get into the classified
service without it; but in most places, when one has passed the highest
examination, it takes Congressional influence to get a position.
Whatever may be the conditions in the future, there never has been a
time when influence was more used than in the session of Congress ending
July 1, 1902. In making up the Bureau of Permanent Census, it was not
merit but influence which secured a place. Merit, of course, helps
everywhere, but in the session referred to three-fourths influence to
one-fourth merit were necessary to secure any position.
There were twenty places to fill in the Congressional Library, where it
is claimed influence counts least. Eighteen hundred people applied for
the twenty places, and of course those with Senatorial influence were
appointed. No doubt their qualifications also entered into the account.
Seven hours, frequently spent in close, confined rooms, doing work which
brings no mental improvement, often with a fretful, over-critical chief,
anxious to get an incumbent out in order to put in his own friend, does
not look to me like a desirable position.
It is evidently intended to give places more and more to men who can go
home and help manage elections. It will not be until woman suffrage
prevails in the States that women will have an equal opportunity with
men, even in the work world. Then department people are ever anxious
about their places. At each change of Congress new people _must_ be
taken care of, and much more is this true when the Executive is changed.
The Washington _Post_ of July 15, 1902, has this editorial:
The latest civil service order of President Roosevelt is addressed to
this evil. One can not avoid wishing that it had been issued early in
December, 1901, instead of in July, 1902—before, instead of after, a
long session of Congress, during which the “pull” was industriously
plied with the usual results. But “better late than never.” It is a
good order, and its influence should be seen and felt in the
improvement of the service. Altho it was printed in the _Post_ as soon
as it was made public, it will bear reproduction. Here it is:
No recommendation for the promotion of any employee in the
classified service shall be considered by any officer concerned in
making promotions except it be made by the officer or officers under
whose supervision or control such employee is serving; and such
recommendation by any other person with the knowledge and consent of
the employee shall be sufficient cause for debarring him from the
promotion proposed, and a repetition of the offense shall be
sufficient cause for removing him from the service.
When we speak of that order or rule as good, we mean to say that it
will prove so if faithfully and impartially enforced; otherwise, it
may only aggravate existing wrongs. For example, suppose three clerks,
A, B, and C, in the same division are aspirants for promotion to fill
a vacancy in a higher grade. Suppose each of them to have very
influential friends, whose recommendation, were it proper to use it,
might be the controlling factor in the disposal of the prize. But A
and B obey that rule, relying on their respective records, while C
quietly hints to his friend or friends that a little boosting would do
him a great service. A personal call on the official “under whose
supervision or control such employee is serving”—a personal call by
Senator X or some other statesman of weight—ensues, and C is promoted
as a result of that call. That is what has happened in almost
numberless cases. Will it stop now? If “yes,” the President’s order
will prove a great promoter of reform in the civil service; if “no,”
it will work in the opposite direction.
I took this editorial to a number of leading people in the departments.
“Yes,” they said, “something like that usually comes out about this time
of the year when Congress has adjourned. Even if President Roosevelt
means what he says, it can scarcely be executed. The system is so
complex, with so many wheels within wheels, that patronage can hardly be
stopped. If a chief fails to promote a Senator’s niece, Mr. Chief will
be apt to lose his own place, and this consideration brings wisdom.”
When a man or a woman has been four or five years in a clerical
government office, he or she is scarcely fit for any other kind of
place. In that time has been lost ingenuity, resourcefulness,
adaptation, how to placate or please the public, and, above all,
confidence to fight in the great battle of industries; consequently,
when dismissed, the former place-holder hangs about Washington, hoping
for another situation. One can see more forlorn, vanquished soldiers of
fortune in the national capital than in any other city of its size in
the world.
If one desires to make a living only, and not lay up for a rainy day, or
if one has clerical talent only, then a Washington position might be
desirable; but when one sees great, able-bodied men opening and shutting
doors for a salary, or a man capable of running a foundry operating an
elevator in a government building, it disgusts him with the strife for
place. Government clerkships may be desirable for women, but few of them
should claim the ability of first-class men. It is commercial death to
become once established in a department at Washington.
The government has many first-class scientists in its employ, people
with technical knowledge. These are the rare souls who, while they know
more than their fellow men, care less for money, and have neither time
nor ability to make it. For such men a good position in the
Agricultural, Geological, Smithsonian, Educational, Indian, or other
scientific departments is desirable, but for no other class.
In no other place than Washington can one better see the fact
illustrated that once in each generation the wheel of fortune makes a
complete revolution, turning down those at the top and turning up those
who are down. In the departments are now many widows and daughters of
men who were prominent in Civil War times. One woman eighty-two years of
age was during the war the wife of a great general. She now sits at a
department desk from nine to four daily, and no one does better work.
The old charge of immorality among the women of departments is now
seldom heard in Washington. Among the thousands there must be a few
black sheep, but women have ways of making life so uncomfortable for a
derelict that she prefers to resign and occupy a less public position.
No Congressional influence can shelter her head from the scorn of other
women.
Corruption is more likely to originate with chiefs of subdivisions, as
in the recent case of young Ayres of the Census Bureau, who was killed,
and Mrs. Bonine, who was acquitted of his murder. The trial was a mere
farce, for society felt that whoever killed the vile libertine who had
used his place to seduce or browbeat young girls had served society.
Justifiable homicide would doubtless be the verdict should death strike
a few others. Such cases are, however, rarer than in commercial
communities. The people of the departments largely constitute the
membership of the churches of Washington. Senators and Congressmen, with
their wives, do not bring letters from their home churches, but the
department people do. The latter practically support the churches and
the religious institutions and religious work of the district.
XIV
INCIDENTS IN AND OUT OF THE DEPARTMENTS
“I must go down to the Census Office to hold a scrub-woman in her
place,” said a Western Congressman to me. He added: “Let me tell you
about her. She does not belong to my State, but you will not be
surprised that I propose to hold her in her poor place, which brings $40
per month, when I explain her case. She is the widow of a regular army
officer. Her husband in the Civil War was twice promoted for personal
bravery. His native town presented him with a sword as a tribute of his
courage. His widow scrubs floors along with colored people, and his only
daughter does menial service twelve hours a day in the printing-office.
Of course the widow is too old for a Civil Service place, and that is
the best I can do for her. She has no G. A. R. influence, her husband
was so long a regular that she has no State back of her. I am glad to do
what I can.”
Not long ago the beauty of a country town, let us say of Texas, was
brought to Washington for a place. Her Congressman’s quota of positions
was full; he knew, however, of one place which was ably filled by a
Southern woman who came here with President Johnson’s family as
instructor for his grandchildren. President Johnson had, before leaving,
secured her a place in a department, and now the Texan asked her
official head in the interest of the beauty. The girl was bright,
flippant, and loud. She used her first month’s wages to obtain a red
velvet dress cut square in the neck to show her white, firm skin. She
did her work fairly well, but one day people in her department heard a
scream, and they also heard some one getting a severe slapping of the
face amid cries of “I have a big brother in Texas, and it will take him
only two days to get here, and he’ll beat the life out of you!” etc.
[Illustration:
THE SUPREME COURT
Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller
1. Justice Henry B. Brown
2. Justice Joseph McKenna
3. Justice John M. Harlan
4. Justice David J. Brewer
5. Justice Oliver W. Holmes, Jr.
6. Justice Rufus W. Peckham
7. Justice William R. Day
8. Justice Edward D. White
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE SUPREME COURT ROOM
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE TREASURY BUILDING
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE OLD BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE NEW BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
GALLAUDET COLLEGE FOR THE DEAF
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM
]
A shamefaced clerk was seen to emerge from the room. When the others
rushed in they found the girl in a dead faint which was followed by
hysterics. Then the women said, “Aha! you got what you deserved with
your red dress, your loud manners, and flippant talk.”
The girl replied, “Well, I think you should have had the decency to tell
me that before, if my dress and manners exposed me to insult. You will
see, I shall learn.” Sure enough, the girl did learn to dress quietly,
and is now an efficient, decorous helper.
The wife of one of the new-rich, who have come to Washington to spend
their money in social life, was being taken through the Census
Department when they had on the full force of several thousand. Looking
over that crowd, every one of the intellectual rank of a first-class
teacher, she said: “Ah! I see now what makes servants so very scarce in
Washington!” Each one of these classed as of the rank of servants had
passed an entrance examination which her ladyship could not have stood,
even if her life had depended upon it.
One of the peculiar features of department life is that it seems to dry
up the milk of human kindness. A man will move heaven and earth to get a
high situation under the government, then when others ask from him less
than he has asked of his friends, the applicant is made to feel like a
beggar. He is advised to go home and tend to his own affairs—which may
be very good advice, but comes with bad grace from a government
official.
I knew a man from the South, the editor of a religious paper, the most
important man in the county, who came to Washington to ask for the
post-office of his own town. His credentials had the endorsement of
every bank, every business house, every preacher, doctor, and teacher in
his town. He was permitted to get as near headquarters as the Fourth
Assistant Postmaster, where he was told Senator Blank would have that
appointment. The Senator appointed a Catholic in that town where there
are not over forty Catholics, and where a Lutheran College alone gets
more mail than the entire Catholic population. The new man was a person
_non grata_ to the entire town, but the Senator had paid a campaign
debt.
Every person knows the sad life story of Kate Chase Sprague, but it will
be fifty years before the full depth of her infamy can be fully told.
Daughter of Salmon P. Chase, Senator from Ohio, Secretary of the
Treasury under Lincoln, Chief Justice of the United States, the loved
wife of Senator Sprague, of Rhode Island, and the leader of the highest
social life of the capital, she was divorced, and then began a downward
course of amours, flirtations, and baseness which had best remain untold
for this generation.
Older people will remember that one of Grant’s Cabinet was forced to
resign because of fraud in the War Department. Valuable contracts were
let, and the wife of this official, totally unknown to her husband, took
thousands of dollars for her influence in securing these contracts. At
last trouble was threatened. Congress appointed a committee to
investigate. The night before the exposure madame attended a great ball
at one of the legations. The French Minister said: “I have been in most
of the courts of Europe; I have never seen any one, not even queens,
better dressed than madame.” She wore a dress literally covered with
point-lace, a point-lace fan, and more than $40,000 worth of diamonds.
Three Congressmen present knew what the next day would reveal. On that
day the Secretary was called before the committee. They soon saw that he
knew nothing about the matter. Madame heard what was going on and
suddenly appeared before the committee. She threw herself on her knees
before them and entreated shelter from disgrace.
The Secretary resigned at once. He sacrificed his entire property to pay
back the fraudulent money. He opened a law office in Washington, but
soon after died; of course, people said he died of a broken heart.
Madame went abroad at once, and did not return till after her husband’s
death. She now conducts a house in Washington where men and women lose
their souls in gambling or worse.
XV
TREASURY DEPARTMENT
The Treasury building, on Pennsylvania Avenue and Fifteenth Street, was
located by President Jackson just east of the White House so as to
obstruct his view of the Capitol, at the other end of Pennsylvania
Avenue. It is said that he grew tired of the little differences of
opinion between the commissioner and the architect, Robert Mills, and
one day in ill humor he struck his staff in the earth and said: “I want
the chief corner-stone of the Treasury building placed just here!” You
may be sure it was placed just there.
The Secretary of the Treasury superintends the collection and
disbursement of all government revenue from every source, except the
Post-Office Department. It takes many buildings to provide for the work
of the Treasury Department.
The Congressional Directory says:
The Secretary of the Treasury is charged by law with the management of
the national finances. He prepares plans for the improvement of the
revenue and for the support of the public credit; superintends the
collection of the revenue, and prescribes the forms of keeping and
rendering public accounts and of making returns; grants warrants for
all moneys drawn from the Treasury in pursuance of appropriations made
by law, and for the payment of moneys into the Treasury; and annually
submits to Congress estimates of the probable revenues and
disbursements of the Government.
He also controls the construction of public buildings; the coinage and
printing of money; the administration of the Revenue-Cutter branch of
the public service, and furnishes generally such information as may be
required by either branch of Congress on all matters pertaining to the
foregoing.
The routine work of the Secretary’s office is transacted in the
offices of the Supervising Architect, Director of the Mint, Director
of Engraving and Printing, and in the following divisions: Bookkeeping
and Warrants; Appointments; Customs; Public Moneys; Loans and
Currency; Revenue-Cutter; Stationery, Printing, and Blanks; Mails and
Files; Special Agents, and Miscellaneous.
A few minutes’ thought on the above will show that this is the very
heart of the government of our country. Its pulsations send the currency
through all the avenues of commerce; if it became bankrupt, disaster
would follow in every other department of the government, and the
prosperity of other nations would be unfavorably affected.
The Treasury building was completed in 1841. It has undergone
considerable enlargement and many modifications since that time. It is
460 feet on Fifteenth Street, and has a frontage of 264 feet on
Pennsylvania Avenue. It is Grecian in architecture. On each of the four
sides are large porticoes with most graceful yet massive Ionic columns.
The flower gardens about the Treasury are among the most beautiful in
the city.
It would greatly surprise Alexander Hamilton, our first Secretary of the
Treasury, if he could see every day at 4 P.M. the 3,000 workers pour out
of the 300 rooms of the great building at Fifteenth Street and
Pennsylvania Avenue, and be told that this is only the central office of
the Secretary of the Treasury. The salary list of this building alone is
about half a million dollars annually.
The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet, and receives $8,000 a year for
his services. He has two Assistant Secretaries, who each receive $4,500,
and a Chief Clerk, who has a salary of $2,700. The Chiefs of Divisions
receive about $2,500 each.
There are subtreasuries in most of the large cities of the Union; also
assay offices in Boise City, Idaho, Charlotte, N. C., and St. Louis,
Mo., to see that the money is kept pure and up to the standard.
The scales upon which the United States coin is weighed are said to be
so accurate that if two pieces of paper, in all respects the same except
that one has writing upon it, be laid one on either scale, the
difference in weight of the one bearing writing upon it will show in the
scale.
The cost of maintaining these subdivisions of the Treasury is nearly one
and a half million dollars annually.
The First Comptroller seems to be the important man of the Treasury.
Every claim is submitted to him. Not even the President’s salary can be
paid unless he signs the warrant and vouchers for its correctness. His
salary is $5,000 per annum, but it takes $83,000 to maintain all the
appointments of his office.
The Treasurer of the United States receives $6,000 per year. He gives a
bond for $150,000. He receives and disburses all the money of the
country and has charge of the money vaults. He has an army of
assistants.
The Treasurer’s report for 1901 says that the condition of the Treasury
as to the volume and character of assets was never better, and, in spite
of the unusual expense of the army in the Philippines and the raid on
the Pension Bureau, nearly $78,000,000 surplus remained in the Treasury.
On June 30, 1902, at the end of the fiscal year, the surplus was over
$92,000,000. What a magnificent showing as to the prosperity of our
country, and what an occasion for national thanksgiving!
No robbery of the Treasury vaults has ever been attempted. When one sees
the solid walls of masonry and the patrol of soldiers, on duty night or
day, with every spot bright with electric light, no such attempt seems
likely to occur. The entire vaults inside are a network of electric
wires. If, for instance, a tunnel were made under the building, and a
robber should reach the vaults, the wires would ring up the Chief of
Police, who has telephone connexion with Fort Meyer and the navy-yard,
so that within twenty minutes a detachment of troops could be on the
ground.
A few years ago a negro charwoman, in doing her cleaning, found a
package of bonds of more than a million dollars in value. That faithful
woman sat by the package all night guarding it, knowing that it must be
of great value. Her faithfulness was rewarded with a life position.
Bowed and broken, she was an historic figure in the building until last
year, when she died.
In this building all money from the Printing Bureau and the mints is
counted and verified. Here worn money, that which has been buried,
rotted by water or charred by fire, is identified by the skilled eyes
and hands of women. Of the charred money received from the great fire in
Chicago, eighty per cent. was identified, and new money issued in its
place. Sometimes money taken from bodies long drowned or buried has to
be handled. In such cases these women have the entire room to
themselves, as their usual neighbors find that business in other
quarters needs immediate attention.
[Illustration:
MACERATING $10,000,000 OF MONEY
]
The banks of large cities send in their soiled money weekly or monthly
and receive fresh notes in exchange, the government paying
transportation both ways. This soiled money is made into pulp, which is
sold to paper-makers at about $40 a ton.
It is only the old money that is counterfeited. Counterfeiters rumple
and muss their money to give it the appearance of being long in use.
Women are especially skilled in detecting counterfeit money. If among
the returned coins or notes one single piece proves to be counterfeit,
the amount is deducted from the salary of the examiner. Yet this great
government pays these women less than two-thirds what it would pay to
men for the same service, if men could do it at all.
From the government of the United States it would seem that the world
had a right to expect that ideal justice which each soul shall receive
when it stands in the presence of Eternal Justice.
The United States Treasury has charge of the Bureau of Printing and
Engraving, where all the paper money, postage, revenue stamps, and bonds
are made.
Bills, when sent from the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, require the
signatures of officials of the bank from which they are to be issued
before becoming legal tender.
Secretary Shaw has at the Bureau of Printing and Engraving his personal
representative, who locks up the plates, sees to the minutiæ of things,
so that even the smallest scrap of paper bearing government printing
must be shown, or the house is closed and search made till it is found.
The custom officers who insult and browbeat you at the port are of this
department. Once on arriving at New York, after being very ill all the
way from Antwerp, I had declared I had nothing dutiable, yet in spite of
that every article in my trunk was laid out on the dirty floor of the
custom-house. When I saw the bottom of the trunk, I said: “Well, you
have only proved what I told you. I believe you think because I am
trembling from weakness that I am frightened?” “Yes, that is about the
size of it; there is your trunk, you may put the things back.” “No,” I
said, “my baggage is checked through, and I am not able to pack it.” I
saw with some satisfaction the custom-house officer do the packing. It
had required my best efforts to get the stuff into the trunk, but he did
it.
This country has very silly custom-house rules on personal clothing and
small articles of art and vertu, and the average artistic standard of
dress and home ornamentation of the country is lowered by these
ridiculous embargoes.
In 1895 I was abroad with a company of Presbyterians; among them was
Professor G., of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of California. He
happened to fall in with a little coterie of friends of whom I was one.
The most of us bought photos and souvenirs in almost every city. The
professor bought nothing. One day he said: “I would so like to have
brought my wife with me, but I was not able to do so. I shall be very
saving, so I can take her back a nice present.” When we were in Italy
some fool woman suggested a cameo pin as a suitable and beautiful
present for his wife. Cameo pins have been out of fashion for twenty
years. He purchased one of great beauty for $30. As we came into port, a
friend said: “Professor, you had better let some woman wear that pin for
you or you will have trouble.” “Thank you, no; I expect to pay the
required duty to my country.” “Oh, you do not know your country yet;
you’ll get a dose!” He paid $27 duty, and had not money enough left to
get home. I felt that this duty was an outrage. Things of beauty which
are not for sale should surely be admitted free.
The Treasury is the heart of the whole machine that we call the “United
States Government.”
XVI
SECRET SERVICE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY OF THE UNITED STATES
Every one is interested in what is called the Secret Service of the
government. The name covers many things, altho we usually associate it
with the government’s protection of the coin and greenback currency of
the country.
The detectives of this department are often employed in assisting to
find out or run down robbers of banks, railroad trains, express offices,
etc. They are also used in detecting frauds at the custom-houses, frauds
in the departments of justice, pertaining to naturalization papers,
post-office robberies, and attacks on the Mint. In the Pension Bureau
they unearth fraudulent attempts to represent dead pensioners, etc. For
work outside of their own departments they are paid by their employers.
In the last report of the Secret Service, dated July 1, 1902, the chief
enumerates 253 persons convicted of attempt of counterfeiting currency,
and 106 yet awaiting action of the Court. The arrests for the current
year have numbered 573; of these, 413 were born in the United States; of
the 106 remaining, Italy furnished 65 counterfeiters; Germany, 25;
Ireland, 15; the others, except 6 Mexicans, are of the different
countries of Europe. Of the different States, New York produced 85
counterfeiters (including those who make false representations of any
kind in passing currency); Missouri, 47; Pennsylvania, 45; while almost
every State has one or more. Altered and counterfeit notes to the value
of $46,004.95 have been captured, and counterfeit coins to the value of
$19,828.47.
The Chief of the Secret Service says that the year has been fruitful in
that class of criminals who alter bills of small denomination to one of
higher value. Any change in a bill renders the maker liable to a fine of
$5,000, or fifteen years in prison, or both.
The walls of the Secret Service office are covered with samples of
counterfeiters’ work. The history of each would sound like a dime novel,
but the government is certain to catch any one who persists in
demoralizing the currency. Chief John E. Wilkie, a first-class Chicago
newspaper man, was brought East by Secretary Gage. He has called to his
assistance, as Chief Clerk, Mr. W. H. Moran, who learned his business
from Mr. Brooks, one of the best detectives any country has yet
produced. Other officials tell me the office has never been more ably
conducted than it is at present.
This bureau is urging that for persistent crime a longer penal sentence
shall be given. To illustrate the persistence of two of these criminals,
the following extracts from the Secret Service records are, by courtesy
of the bureau, submitted:
JOHN MULVEY, _alias_ JAMES CLARK, arrested October 16, 1883, at New
York, N. Y., for having in possession and passing counterfeit coin.
Sentenced, October 22, 1883, to _three years_ in Auburn, N. Y.,
penitentiary and fined $1.
WILLIAM STEVENS, _alias_ JOHN W. MURRAY, _alias_ JACK MULVEY, was
again arrested June 14, 1886, at Baltimore, for passing counterfeit
25c. silver coins, and was sentenced, September 7, 1886, to serve _one
year_ in Maryland penitentiary and fined $100.
Was again arrested under the same name October 5, 1887, at
Philadelphia, Pa., for passing and having in possession 25c. coins,
and sentenced, December 1, 1887, to _eighteen months_ in the Eastern
Penitentiary of Pennsylvania and fined.
JOHN W. MURRAY, _alias_ WILLIAM STEVENS, _alias_ JACK MULVEY, was
again arrested, July 10, 1889, at Hoboken, N. J., for passing
counterfeit standard $1, 25c., and 10c. coins, and sentenced, January
22, 1890, to _six months_ in State Prison at Trenton, N. J., and pay
costs.
JACK MULVEY, _alias_ JAMES W., _alias_ JOHN CLARK, _alias_ JOHN W.
MURRAY, _alias_ “PANTS,” _alias_ STEVENS, etc., was again arrested
January 12, 1891, at Pittsburg, Pa., for having in possession and
attempting to pass counterfeit 50c. coins, and was sentenced, March 5,
1891, to _two years_ in Western Penitentiary at Allegheny, Pa., and
fined $25.
JOHN MURRAY, _alias_ JACK MULVEY, was again arrested, January 25,
1894, at Chicago, Ill., for manufacturing counterfeit 25c. and 10c.
coins and having same in possession, and was sentenced, March 12.
1894, to _three years and six months_ at hard labor in the
penitentiary at Joliet, Ill., and to pay a fine of $1.
JAMES FOLEY, _alias_ JACK MURRAY, _alias_ JACK MULVEY, was again
arrested, February 24, 1897, at Chicago, Ill., for having in
possession and passing counterfeit silver dimes, and escaped March 22,
1897, but was rearrested, under the name of JOHN O’KEEFE, in New York,
N. Y., April 6, 1897, for passing counterfeit 10c. pieces, and
sentenced. May 12, 1897, to _seven years_ in Clinton Prison and fined
$1. Released from this prison February 27, 1902.
Another case from the records of the Secret Service would read as
follows:
One day the doors of the Moundsville, W. Va., prison opened on a tall,
slender, mild-eyed man, upon whose face and form time and confinement
had left their impress, and he passed out to take up again the broken
thread of his life.
This was John Ogle’s first day of freedom for more than three years. On
July 4, 1898, he was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for trying to
increase the negotiable value of one-dollar bills by altering their
denominational characteristics.
Little more than a year before his brother, Miles, was released from the
Ohio penitentiary, where he had paid the extreme penalty imposed by law
for spurious money making, only to die two days later of paralysis, with
which he had been hopelessly stricken over a year before.
The Ogles, father and sons, during the past fifty years have had much to
do with the making of the criminal history of this country. George Ogle,
the father, was a river pirate and farmhouse plunderer, the Ohio River
and its tributaries being the scene of his operations. The sons, bred in
an atmosphere of crime, early embarked in independent unlawful
enterprises. Miles displayed pugnacity, intrepidity, and skill, while
John was shrewd, plausible, and cunning.
After serving five years for killing an officer who attempted to arrest
the family, and when but twenty-six years old, Miles allied himself with
the notorious “Reno” gang of bandits, and became the pupil and
confederate of Peter McCartney, that past master of the counterfeiter’s
art. How well he applied himself the records of the Secret Service will
testify. An even dozen skilfully executed spurious note issues were
directly traceable to him, despite the fact that two-thirds of his
manhood were spent behind prison walls.
John Ogle, while not possessed of the dangerous skill of his brother,
was his equal in hardihood, and, in his way, quite as detrimental to
society. For cool daring, ingenuity, and resourcefulness he was without
a peer in his chosen profession, and some of his escapes from the
officers of the law bordered on the miraculous. He was introduced to
prison life in 1864, being sentenced in the fall of that year to five
years in the Jeffersonville, Ind., penitentiary for burglary. Shortly
after his release he was traced to Cairo, Ill., with twenty-eight
hundred dollars of counterfeit money intended for one of Miles’
customers, and, after a desperate fight, was placed in jail. He managed
in some way to effect his escape, but was soon recaptured at Pittsburg.
This time he told the officers that he knew of a big “plant” of spurious
bills and tools near Oyster Point, Md., which he was willing to turn up
if it would benefit him. Being assured of leniency, he started with a
marshal for the hiding-place. _En route_ he managed to elude the
watchfulness of his guard, and jumped from the car-window while the
train was at full speed. At Bolivar, Tenn., Ogle was arrested, January
8, 1872, with five hundred dollars of counterfeit money in his pocket. A
sentence of ten years was imposed; but John had a reputation to sustain,
so he broke from the jail where he was temporarily confined awaiting
transportation to the penitentiary. Several months later he was arrested
and indicted at Cincinnati for passing bad five-dollar bills. Pending
trial, he was released on five thousand dollars bail, which he promptly
forfeited, and was again a fugitive.
February 18, 1873, one Tom Hayes was detected passing counterfeit money
at Cairo, Ill., but it was not discovered that “Tom Hayes” was none
other than the much-wanted John Ogle until after he had made good his
escape. So chagrined were the officers over this second break that all
the resources of the department were employed to effect his capture, and
but a week had passed before he was found in Pittsburg and taken to
Springfield, Ill., for trial. This time there was no escape, and he
served five years in Joliet. As he stepped from the prison door Marshal
Thrall, of Cincinnati, confronted him with an order for his removal to
answer the indictment of May, 1872. The Cincinnati jail was undergoing
repairs. A painter had left his overalls and hickory shirt in the
corridor near the cage where Ogle was placed. Adroitly picking the lock
of his cell with his penknife, he donned the painter’s clothes, took up
a paint-bucket, and coolly walked down-stairs, past the gate (which the
guard obligingly opened for him), through the jailer’s office, and into
the street. Proceeding leisurely until out of sight of the prison, the
daring criminal made his way to the river, which he crossed at
Lawrenceburg, and, discarding his borrowed apparel, struck across the
country, finally bringing up at Brandenburg, Ky., where he obtained
employment as a stonecutter. Respectability was, however, inconsistent
with Ogle’s early training; so about a week after his arrival he broke
into a shoe-house of the town, stole $200 worth of goods, and was
arrested three days later while trying to dispose of his plunder in
Louisville. Fearing a term in the Frankfort prison for some reason, he
informed the Kentucky officers that a large reward was offered for his
return to Cincinnati. This had the desired effect, and he was sent to
the Ohio penitentiary to serve five years.
Returning to Cincinnati at the expiration of this enforced confinement,
he met his brother, who had just been released from an eight-year
“trick” in the Western Pennsylvania penitentiary, and, altho no real
affection existed in the breast of either for the other, John needed
money, and Miles had money and required assistance in a contemplated
enterprise. An understanding was soon reached, and these two dangerous
lawbreakers joined forces in another scheme to debase their country’s
currency. Using the same conveyance employed by their father in his
plundering expedition (a house-boat), they started from Cincinnati and
drifted down the Ohio River, John steering and keeping watch while Miles
plied the graver. When the plates for a twenty-dollar silver note and a
ten-dollar issue of the Third National Bank of Cincinnati were complete,
Miles took the helm and John went below to do the printing. $150,000 of
the “coney” had been run off by the time they reached the mouth of the
Wolf River, and here the trip ended. Disposing of the boat, the brothers
started back to Cincinnati. _En route_ they quarreled over the division
of the notes, and separated with the understanding that John was to
receive $500 of the proceeds of the first sales.
Miles did not keep faith, and John subsequently assisted the government
officers in locating and securing his brother, who was arrested in
Memphis, Tenn., on Christmas day, 1884, with $6,000 of the counterfeits
in his pockets.
For a number of years thereafter John steered clear of offenses
penalized by the federal statutes, and successfully feigned insanity
when he could not escape punishment for crimes against the State by any
other means.
This is what happened to one town marshal who caught Ogle in the act of
burglarizing a store and failed to appreciate the character of his
prisoner. It was between two and three o’clock in the morning when the
capture was made, and as the lockup was located about a mile from the
scene of the crime, the officer decided to keep the rogue in his room
until morning. Carefully locking the room door and handcuffing John, he
lit his pipe and made himself as comfortable as possible—so comfortable,
in fact, that he was soon fast asleep. When he awoke his bird had flown,
and the officer’s watch and purse were missing.
XVII
POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT
Every man and woman in the republic has a personal interest in this
department of the government. You pay two cents for a stamp, throw a
missive into a box, and start the machinery which requires 100,000
persons to run it. If your letter is for the Philippines, you use the
railroad and the ocean steamer, with many relays of men and engines to
perform your bidding. If your letter is for Alaska, you use the
railroad, the steamship, and the reindeer team to deliver it. Not an
hour, day or night, the entire year through, but men are toiling to
hurry your mail to its destination If your letter is for one of the
large cities, skilful men board the train, and as it approaches its
destination distribute the mail for each district, so that your letter
will not lie for hours in the central office. If your letter is to a
busy farmer who may be in the midst of his harvest and has no time to go
for his mail, one of the government’s faithful servants takes that
letter to him. Yet we are much more likely, withal, to growl at Uncle
Sam than to remember the faithful service we receive for so little
money.
The Post-office Department is one which is not yet self-supporting. The
last annual report of the Postmaster-General shows that the receipts
from ordinary postal revenue amounted to $146,531,778.67; the receipts
from money-order business, including for post-office orders which were
uncalled for, added to the usual revenues, amounted to $111,631,193.39.
The government expended $3,923,727.48 more than it received. This
deficit is occasioned by the second-class matter, which includes
newspapers and magazines paying less than cost of transportation. It is
also due partly to the glaring abuse of the franking privilege by
members of the Senate and House. If a description of what some of these
men commit to Uncle Sam to carry for them free of charge were published
they would hide their heads in shame. While this abuse continues we are
not likely to get a one-cent rate on letters, a rate which would greatly
benefit the entire country. Poor people are paying the postage for these
Congressmen.
The United States Post-office Department and the post-office for the
City of Washington are in a building on Pennsylvania Avenue, which
extends over an entire square from Twelfth to Thirteenth Streets, N. W.
The Postmaster-General is a member of the President’s Cabinet. He
receives $8,000 per annum for giving to his country services which a
railroad or great newspaper would consider cheap at $25,000 per annum.
There are four Assistant Postmaster-Generals who receive each about half
as much as their chief. These are appointed by the President and
confirmed by the Senate.
The Postmaster-General makes postal treaties with foreign governments,
by and with the advice of the President, awards contracts, and directs
the management of the domestic and foreign mails.
The First Assistant Postmaster-General has charge of the salary and
allowance division, free delivery system, post-office supplies,
money-order division, dead-letter office, and the general
correspondence.
The Second Assistant Postmaster-General has charge of the contract
division, division of inspection, railway adjustment (which includes
weighing and deciding on what pay shall be given railroads), the mail
equipment division, and foreign mails.
The Third Assistant Postmaster-General has charge of postage stamps and
postmasters’ accounts, registry office, and the special delivery system.
The Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General has the appointment of many
postmasters and of post-office inspectors, and has charge of the bonds
and commissions for postmasters. This last place is now filled by Mr. J.
L. Bristow, of Kansas. During the first year of Mr. Roosevelt’s
Presidency Mr. Bristow officially decapitated as many as fifty
postmasters a day, and it is claimed it was a slow year in the business.
Of course, for every one who lost his place some other fellow was made
happy.
No impure books, pamphlets, or papers are allowed transportation by the
United States mail. Men in this employ have a right to insist that their
work shall not include indecent matter. As far as possible the
government tries to prevent advertisers of dishonest businesses from
using the mails for fraudulent gain. It is to be hoped that the time may
soon come when all financial schemers who now defraud the wage-earning
class by circulars on mining, oil, or industrial stock, or other
doubtful enterprises, shall be obliged to prove to the government
officials that the scheme represented is just what the circular sets
forth. All Building Associations and Insurance Companies should pass
under the same law. Good people would be glad of this inspection, and
bad people make it necessary.
The Postmaster-General recommends that the government have inspectors
appointed who shall see that neither telegraph nor express companies be
permitted to carry matter for lotteries or any known fraudulent
enterprise. The McKinley and Roosevelt administrations will be noted for
the improvement and extension of the rural delivery system.
The dead-letter office is one of great interest, and is found in the
general post-office building. Of unclaimed letters there were last year
nearly six million; of misdirected letters, 454,000; and of letters
without any address, 39,837. Any letter which is unclaimed at a
post-office after a few weeks is sent to the dead-letter office. Here it
is opened, and if it contains the name and address of the writer, the
letter is returned; but letters signed “Your loving Amy,” “Your devoted
mother,” “Your repentant son,” fail to reach the eyes and hearts of
those who wait for them in vain. East year 526,345 unclaimed letters
written in foreign countries, probably to loved ones in the United
States, were sent to the dead-letter office. Think of the heartaches
which that means! Think of the loves and friendships wrecked thereby!
Letters whose envelopes display the business card of the writer are
returned to the sender by the local postmaster after a certain period.
Papers, magazines, and books with insufficient postage are sent to the
dead-letter office, held for a short time, and then distributed to
hospitals, asylums, and penal institutions.
Wherever “Old Glory” floats, there the servants of Uncle Sam carry his
mail. Of this department every citizen should be proud, for its speed
and efficiency is equaled by no other mail service in the world.
XVIII
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
About fifty years ago, at the request of Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, the sum
of one thousand dollars was set apart in the interest of agriculture;
now there is a Department of Agriculture, and its Secretary is a member
of the President’s Cabinet.
The present Secretary of this department is Hon. James Wilson, of Iowa.
He served several terms in Congress, was Regent of the State University
of Iowa, and for six years prior to his present appointment was Director
of the Iowa Experimental Station and professor of agriculture at the
Iowa Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa.
The Department of Agriculture consists of twenty different divisions,
each one of which is worthy of a complete chapter. The department has
many buildings, but the main one stands within the grounds of the
Smithsonian Institution, in a bower of blooming plants and clinging
vines. Every kind of plant from the tropics to the Arctic Circle which
can be made to grow in this climate can be found in this department.
Studies in ornamentation, best methods of grafting, pruning, budding,
hybridizing, and treating diseases of plants, trees, and animals are
thoroughly investigated at its experimental stations.
Vegetable and flower seeds, grass seeds, plants, trees, bulbs, and
grape-vines are distributed in the department through the Senators,
members, and delegates of Congress. By this means the best varieties of
the vegetable kingdom are carried throughout the United States. During
the coming year the country will be more carefully districted, and only
such seeds and plants as have been thoroughly acclimated will be sent to
the several districts.
Members of Congress from cities exchange their quota of vegetable and
crop seeds for flower seeds, thus leaving more of the former for members
with a farming constituency.
The following statement shows the amounts of seeds, bulbs, plants, and
trees, so far as the allotments have been made, for the fiscal year
1902–1903:
Each Senator, member, and delegate will receive—
_Vegetable Seed_ 12,000 packages, 5 papers each.
_Novelties Vegetable Seed_ 500 packages, 5 papers each.
_Flower Seed_ 500 packages, 5 papers each.
_Tobacco Seed_ 110 packages, 5 papers each, to districts
growing tobacco.
_Cotton Seed_ 70 packages, 1 peck each, to districts
growing cotton.
_Lawn Grass Seed_ 30 packages.
_Forage Crop Seed_ Allotment not yet made.
_Sorghum Seed_ Allotment not yet made.
_Sugar Beet Seed_ Allotment not yet made.
_Bulbs_ 10 boxes, 35 bulbs each; or 20 boxes, 17
bulbs each.
_Grape-vines_ 8 packages, 5 vines each.
_Strawberry Plants_ 10 packages, 15 plants each.
_Trees_ 20 packages, 5 trees each.
For seed distributed alone the government appropriates $270,000. Think
of the beneficence of that! The rarest and best seeds that money can buy
will be planted in every State and Territory of this country. Experts
are continually sent abroad to find new cereals, fruits trees, animals,
and flowers.
The department has at least one correspondent in every county of the
United States through whom the statistics on acreage, quality of crops,
and success of experiments are reported at stated times.
All questions pertaining to farming are answered by this department. If
a man desires to buy a farm in Kansas or Alaska, a portion of the
country of which he knows little, the department will tell him of the
climate, the crops likely to be remunerative, and the obstacles of soil
or climate to overcome. A chemist will analyze the soil for him, tell
him what it contains, and what it needs to produce certain crops. An
entomologist will tell him the insects prevalent which may destroy his
crops. The scientist will also tell him how to destroy the inserts, what
birds to encourage and what to banish.
At Summerville, S. C., the government has a tea farm with a fully
equipped factory, and the tea produced is claimed by experts to equal
the best imported article. This year one thousand acres of rice land
near Charleston, S. C., will be put in tea. The cost of producing
American tea is about fifteen cents a pound; the yield is four hundred
pounds to the acre, the wholesale selling price forty to fifty cents per
pound, and the retail price seventy-five cents to one dollar per pound.
In the wheat-growing States the government is trying a fine variety of
macaroni wheat, in order to compete successfully with the imported
article, of which $8,000,000 worth enters this country annually.
In the cotton States the government is trying Egyptian cotton, which is
now imported to the value of $8,000,000 annually.
In Arizona and other dry tracts dates and other Egyptian fruits are
being successfully acclimated. In the hot states rubber, coffee,
bananas, and cocoa are being tried.
Our fruit markets are being extended into Europe, and special agents and
consuls are using every influence to enlarge this market. At the Paris
Exposition our pears, apples, peaches, and plums were a never-ending
surprise to people of all lands. Californians made us all proud of them
by their lavish generosity, and the result has been that pears and
apples have been sent in large quantities to Southern Europe, also to
Russia and Siberia.
New cottons are being sent throughout the South, new prunes and plums
along the Pacific Coast. Important experiments are being made in sugar
producing. Pineapples are being acclimated in Florida, plants which
produce bay rum and various perfumes are being introduced in several
states, and olives from Italy are being tried in Porto Rico and the
Philippines.
In many different States soils have been examined. In Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, it was found certain soils contain ingredients to produce
the finest Cuban tobacco, and other soil regarded as useless was shown
to be capable of producing certain rare plants. Every state should call
for this kind of analytic help, until we make the United States the
garden of the world.
XIX
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY ON PURE FOODS
DIETETICS
This subject of the relative value of foods is one that interests every
individual. The Department of Agriculture is making a brave effort to
secure a law regulating interstate and international commerce, requiring
that all foods sent from one state to another, or to foreign countries,
shall be labeled for just what they are, and shall conform to the
government standard in excellence.
For instance, renovated or “process” butter is now passing its ordeal.
“Process” butter means that a large quantity of butter has been sent to
a factory or elsewhere, and there worked together and colored to secure
uniformity of appearance, and then placed on the market. The government
requires that it shall be properly labeled. It is of less nutritive
value than either oleomargarine or butterine. A government leaflet gives
householders and merchants full directions for discovering the real
value of anything called butter. Every farmer should secure a copy of
the Agricultural Year-book.
I remember once, a number of years ago, at a table in London, discussing
with some merchants from South America the subject of buying their goods
in the United States instead of England.
One man from British Guiana said: “It is impossible to deal with the
United States; they have no food-test laws, and we buy one thing and get
another. Then take machinery and implements. The first three or four
purchases will be all right, after which they put off on us shelf-worn
goods which they could not sell at home.”
When the government can put an official stamp on each article exported
it will be good for the permanence of our export trade.
No such general law now exists, and the best our government can do is to
certify that the goods comply with the standard of the country to which
they are to be sent. It is believed that many of the preservatives used
with food products are harmless to the human body, and a scientific test
of this is now being conducted (December, 1902). The Agricultural
Department has called upon the young scientists of the colleges and
universities to assist in settling this question. A picked body of
students have been supplied with the purest food to bring them to
perfect condition, and soups, meats, vegetables, jellies, etc.,
containing preservatives claimed to be harmless will be given them, and
as soon as a touch of dyspepsia is manifest the test will be dropped. It
was doubtful whether football and baseball managers, not to mention such
insignificant factors as professors and mothers, would consent that
their favorites should be submitted to such experiments. But scientists
are earnest seekers for truth, and enough subjects were readily found to
make the trial.
It is not so much the making of impure foods that is objected to as it
is an effort to provide that goods shall be labeled for what they
are—that is, a can labeled raspberry jam shall not consist of gelatine
with a few raspberry seeds and juice used for coloring, but shall be the
real thing.
In recent testimony before Congress a case of this kind was brought out.
A certain firm made jelly from the refuse of apples—that is, rotten and
wilted apples, peelings and cores, stuff which when made cost the firm
one and a half cents a pound—and this they sold as apple and currant
jelly, selling hundreds of buckets. The government forced the firm to
label the buckets correctly, and the sale became insignificant. Now, the
poor need cheap foods, but it is not fair that they should have to pay
more than a thing is worth; besides, such frauds interfere with the
industry of the farmer’s wife who sells pure jelly.
The government now sends agents into every city, who buy from the
shelves of grocers just what they offer for sale. The grocer, of course,
does not recognize the government agent. The stuff is then sent to the
laboratory, and the grocer and manufacturer notified as to results. The
latter is told that his formula will be published, and before that is
done he will be permitted to offer any statement that he may think
advisable.
We are apt to think the “embalmed” meat agitation during the Spanish war
will injure the trade of the country more than the war itself, but that
agitation was right if it saved the health of even one soldier, and,
above all, if it secures society in the future against deleterious
canned meats.
It is well known, tho not approved by the government, that there are
several canneries in the West where horse-flesh only is used. The
government watches them closely and forces them to label the goods for
just what they are. These goods are sent to such foreign countries as do
not object to the use of horse-flesh.
Most States have stringent food laws, but so much food is sent from the
State in which it is produced to another that State laws become
inoperative.
The government finds glucose (not in itself harmful) to be the basis of
many frauds. Colored and flavored it is sold as honey, and it is the
foundation of very many jams. Cocoas and chocolates are made from wheat,
corn, rice, potatoes; pepper, cinnamon, allspice, nutmegs, and mustards
are made from almost every cereal. Pure vinegar is rare. Almost any kind
of wine can be drawn from the same spigot, colored and flavored to suit
the requirements of the wine desired.
Sometimes in foreign lands I have thought that London particularly needs
a commission on pure coffee. I think I shall know the taste of chicory
as long as I live from experiences in that city.
Most foreign countries make stringent food laws chiefly on liquors and
butter. Germany draws close lines on meat, including all forms of
sausage, with some restrictions on butter, wine, coloring on toys, and
coloring matter generally.
Every European country has stringent laws on the composition of beer. I
wonder how long American beer which rots the shoes of the bartender, and
brings paralysis to his right hand, would be tolerated in Germany or
Britain? At the Buffalo Exposition, in the government display, was one
sample of “peach brandy,” the formula of which was forty gallons of
proof spirits, one-half pound of an essence, one quart of sugar syrup,
and a sufficient amount of coloring matter. The “bead oil” on the same
shelf, it was claimed, was a solution of soap intended to produce a
“bead” on liquors, and thereby give the appearance of age.
Could anything better prove the need of a government standard than the
above, or the further facts that one man is now in the penitentiary for
fraudulent use of the United States mail in advertising ground soapstone
as a flour adulterant, and that fifteen cheaper oils are now used to
adulterate pure olive oil?
If I were a young college woman I would go in for chemistry, and make
myself a food specialist for grocers, exporters, and importers. I would
make my home in some large institution where the food question as to
what nutriments the body needs, and what will produce best results at
the least cost, could be tested scientifically. I would take the cook
and her helpers into a loving partnership to improve the dietetics of
the establishment, and yet reduce expenses. There is a new business now
ready for earnest college women.
XX
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
The Department of the Interior was created by act of Congress in 1849.
When the names of its subdivisions are enumerated, it will readily be
seen that no adequate description of it can be given in one or two
chapters.
It comprises the Patent Office, the Pension Office, General Land Office,
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Education, Commissioner of
Railroads, and the Office of the Geological Survey. Each office is
managed by a commissioner or director, who has under him a large force
of officials and clerks.
In the chief building of the Department of the Interior, fronting on F
Street, and extending from Seventh to Ninth, and from F to G Streets,
may be found the Patent Office of the United States. No other department
so well reveals the inventive genius of the most inventive people on
earth.
Once at a table in Paris a Frenchman said to me: “The Americans are
inventors because they are lazy.”
“Well,” I said, “I have heard many surprising charges against my
countrymen, but that excels all. How do you make that out?”
“Well, I am a manufacturer. I set an American boy to keep a door open;
before half an hour he has invented a machine which will open and shut
it, and I find my boy playing marbles.”
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE PATENT OFFICE
]
“Sensible boy! Yes, with that view of it, maybe we are; we certainly do
not care to do by hand that which a machine can better perform.”
The Patent Office is one of the few departments which is more than
self-supporting. In the year 1836 but one patent was taken out; during
the year ending December 31, 1901, the total number of applications was
46,449. The total receipts for the year were $6,626,856.71; total
expenditures, $1,297,385.64—leaving a balance far over five million
dollars in favor of the government.
There are divisions for different classes of inventions. When a patent
is applied for, examiners make all necessary investigations, and
carefully look into the invention claimed to be new, comparing it, part
by part, with patents already existing before determining whether a
patent can be granted. They have a library with plates and descriptions
of about everything under the sun. From this library inventors can have
books and plates sent them in order to compare their work with
inventions now existing.
The Secretary of the Interior is a member of the President’s Cabinet,
and receives $8,000 per year. He has charge of the Capitol (through the
architect), the Insane Asylum, and the College for Mutes—indeed, it
would seem that his work is sufficient for ten Secretaries.
There is an Assistant Secretary of the Interior, who receives $4,000 per
annum, and commissioners of different divisions and bureaus who receive
from $3,000 to $6,000 annually.
Many officers of this department could command higher salaries in the
commercial world, but these positions secure honor and respect not only
for the man himself but also for his descendants, hence these
commissionerships are very desirable. For that reason men give up a
legal practise or a railroad position, bringing salaries eight or ten
times as large, to serve the government.
The present Secretary, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, of Missouri,
great-grandson of Ethan Allen, of Vermont, has a wide experience in
manufacturing, railroad, and mining interests, and has served as
Ambassador at the Court of Russia. He was called to his present place by
President McKinley in 1898.
The Secretary in his report for 1901 entreats that at least twenty more
persons of fine mechanical ability be appointed as examiners, as his
force is much behind in their work, altho many labor far over allotted
time.
The Bureau of Education, established in 1867, is probably as little
known to the general public as any branch of the government. It is the
clearing-house for educational matters of the entire United States.
The Commissioner of Education, Hon. William T. Harris, is one of the
great educators of the world. It is probable if the teachers of the
United States could have a personal vote, their unanimous choice would
fall upon Dr. Harris as their Commissioner. The offices of the Bureau of
Education are in a brick building at the corner of G and Eighth Streets.
The Commissioner has about forty assistants, who are confined to about
twenty-eight rooms. This office collects, tabulates, and reports on all
schools in the United States. Any one who desires to compare the
curriculums of different institutions consults the Commissioner’s
report. Or should one desire to know what is being done in Europe, or
any other part of the world, along the line of art in schools, or manual
or industrial training, or the advanced education for women, all such
inquiries can be answered by reference to the Commissioner’s report.
This bureau is held in high estimation in Europe. Many of the South
American republics and some Asiatic countries are trying, through the
reports of Dr. Harris, to model their school systems after that of the
United States.
Miss Frances G. French has charge of the foreign correspondence, and
tabulates statistics and reports on thirty-two foreign countries.
The school work presented by the Department of Education at Paris in
1900 secured favorable commendation from the best educators of Europe.
Only three commissioners have preceded Dr. Harris: Hon. Henry Barnard,
1867–1870; Hon. John Eaton, 1870–1886; Hon. N. H. R. Dawson, 1886–1889.
The latter was a brother-in-law of Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Harris was
appointed by President Harrison, September, 1889. The best work of the
Bureau of Education lies in bringing about homogeneity in the work of
education throughout the United States. Without the tabulated work of
the Superintendents of States, how would the Superintendent of, say, one
of the Dakotas, know whether the work of the public schools of his State
corresponds with the work done in New York or Pennsylvania? Yet the boy
educated in Dakota may have to do his life-work in Pennsylvania. Then
the Commissioner’s report keeps us informed what the State, Nation, or
Church is doing for the education of the colored race, the Indian, or
the people of our new possessions.
A short extract from the Commissioner’s report of 1899 will give an idea
of the tabulated work for women:
The barriers to woman’s higher education seem effectually removed, and
to-day eight-tenths of the colleges, universities, and professional
schools of the United States are open to women students. As is stated
by ex-President Alice Freeman Palmer, of Wellesley College, “30,000
girls have graduated from colleges, while 40,000 more are preparing to
graduate.” The obtaining of a collegiate education gives the women
more ambition to enter a profession, or, if they decide to marry, it
is stated that—
The advanced education they have received has added to their natural
endowments wisdom, strength, patience, balance, and self-control ...
and in addition to a wise discharge of their domestic duties, their
homes have become centers of scientific or literary study or of
philanthropy in the communities where they live.
It is stated that the advancement of women in professional life is
less rapid than in literature. The training of women for medical
practise was long opposed by medical schools and men physicians.
Equally tedious was the effort to obtain legal instruction and
admission to the legal profession, and even to-day the admission to
theological schools and the ministry is seriously contested; yet all
these professions are gradually being opened to women. In 1896–97
there were in the United States 1,583 women pursuing medical studies
to 1,471 in 1895–96; in dentistry, 150 women in 1896–97 to 143 in
1895–96; in pharmacy, 131 in 1896–97 to 140 in 1895–96. In law courses
of professional schools were 131 women in 1896–97 to 77 in 1895–96; in
theological courses 193 women in 1896–97.
The only aggressive work done by this bureau is in Alaska, and of this
Dr. Sheldon Jackson is agent or superintendent. Besides doing a great
work in education, this department has brought about 1,300 deer from
Siberia to take the place of dogs, mules, and horses in transportation,
and at the same time to give milk, butter, cheese, and meat to the
population. The reindeer are self-supporting, living on the moss which
grows abundantly.
These animals are loaned to individuals or missions, and at the end of
five years the government requires an equivalent number to be returned.
The Eskimo, the Lapp, and the Finn become expert in handling these
herds, now numbering many thousands. By them mails are carried, and
whalers, sealers, miners, and soldiers rescued from starvation, danger,
or death.
The education as well as religious training of Alaska is up to this time
conducted through the mission stations, all of which are visited,
encouraged, and assisted by Dr. Jackson.
The _Youth’s Companion_ tersely states the present condition of things:
When the churches first planned to send missionaries and teachers into
Alaska, representatives of the several denominations met and divided
the territory among them. Should the traveler ask the ordinary Alaskan
miner what is the result of effort, he would probably be answered that
there has been no result. The miner, in the words of Dr. Sheldon
Jackson, is unconscious that the very fact of his presence there at
all is the direct outcome of Christian missions. In 1877 Sitka and St.
Michaels were armed trading-posts, out of which the soldiers shut the
natives every night, that the inhabitants might rest in safety. For
ten years not a single whaler dared to stay overnight at Cape Prince
of Wales, so savage was the native population. Now, in all those
ports, the miner and whaler and traveler can dwell in safety, because
of the civilizing work of the missionaries. Probably ten thousand
natives have been brought under Christian influences, and many public
as well as mission schools have been opened.
Among the Moravian missions of the Yukon Valley few of the natives can
read or write. At bedtime a bell rings, and the entire population goes
to the churches. A chapter in the Bible is read, a prayer offered, a
hymn sung; and the men, women, and children return to their homes and
go to bed. Where in the United States can be found a better record?
In introducing religion with the arts, sciences, and conveniences of
civilization, Dr. Jackson’s work reminds one of the words of Whittier:
I hear the mattock in the mine,
The ax stroke in the dell,
The clamor of the Indian lodge,
And now the chapel bell.
I hear the tread of pioneers,
Of nations yet to be,
The first low wash of waves where soon
Shall roll a human sea.
XXI
BRANCHES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
The Gallaudet College for the Deaf is situated in Northeast Washington,
at Kendall Green. It is surrounded by about one hundred acres of ground.
Until within a year it has been known as the Columbian Institution for
the Deaf and Dumb, but the Board of Directors, at the request of the
alumni, wisely changed it to Gallaudet College, in honor and memory of
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of deaf-mute education in America. The
honor is also deserved by the Hon. Edward M. Gallaudet, LL.D., its
president at the time. He is probably the greatest teacher of mutes now
living. He is certainly the most distinguished one. It is the only real
college for this unfortunate class in the world. All the other schools
for mutes in this country only prepare them to enter this institution.
The college embraces, in a four years’ course, languages, mathematics,
natural science, history, philosophy, and political science—about the
usual classical course in any college.
They are instructed by what is known as the combined method—that is,
both the oral and sign methods are used.
Mutes among themselves greatly prefer signs. All mutes can not learn the
oral method, and I know by experience among mutes that the talking which
they learn is not very satisfactory. Their voices are too loud or too
low; in some of them the sound of the voice is most distressing, not
having the ear by which to regulate it.
I met one woman in Washington stone-deaf who could talk as well as any
one, and I had met her three times before I knew she was deficient in
any sense. Then she took me by the shoulders and turned me toward the
window, saying: “I do believe you are talking. You know I can not hear
thunder, so I must see your lips.”
The director for the school of mutes in Japan made a lengthy visit to
Washington to study the methods of the college instruction, and several
countries of Europe have sent delegates to examine its workings. Dr.
Gallaudet has visited every great school for mutes in Europe—not once,
but several times—so that he brings to his great work not only his own
skill, knowledge, and experience, but also the results of his
observations in many lands.
Congress appropriates about $50,000 per year for the support of this
college. Here the mutes from the District of Columbia and of the Army
and Navy, besides sixty indigent students from different parts of the
country, without charge for board, receive a college training. Beside
these there are many who pay full tuition. The annual attendance is
between one and two hundred. About six hundred young men and women have
been graduated, showing that deafness does not interfere with the
highest mental culture.
The following extract from the report of 1893 will give an idea of the
beneficent work of this government institution. The report says:
Fifty-seven who have gone out from the college have been engaged in
teaching; four have entered the Christian ministry; three have become
editors and publishers of newspapers; three others have taken
positions connected with journalism; fifteen have entered the civil
service of the government—one of these, who had risen rapidly to a
high and responsible position, resigned to enter upon the practise of
law in patent cases in Cincinnati and Chicago, and has been admitted
to practise in the Supreme Court of the United States; one is the
official botanist of a State, who has correspondents in several
countries of Europe who have repeatedly purchased his collections, and
he has written papers upon seed tests and related subjects which have
been published and circulated by the Agricultural Department; one,
while filling a position as instructor in a Western institution, has
rendered important service to the Coast Survey as a microscopist, and
one is engaged as an engraver in the chief office of the Survey. Of
three who became draftsmen in architects’ offices, one is in
successful practise as an architect on his own account, which is also
true of another, who completed his preparation by a course of study in
Europe; one has been repeatedly elected recorder of deeds in a
Southern city, and two others are recorders’ clerks in the West; one
was elected and still sits as a city councilman; another has been
elected city treasurer and is at present cashier of a national bank;
one has become eminent as a practical chemist and assayer; two are
members of the faculty of the college, and two others are rendering
valuable service as instructors therein; some have gone into
mercantile and other offices; some have undertaken business on their
own account, while not a few have chosen agricultural and mechanical
pursuits, in which the advantages of thorough mental training will
give them a superiority over those not so well educated. Of those
alluded to as having engaged in teaching, one has been the principal
of a flourishing institution in Pennsylvania; one is now in his second
year as principal of the Ohio institution; one has been at the head of
a day-school in Cincinnati, and later of the Colorado institution; a
third has had charge of the Oregon institution; a fourth is at the
head of a day-school in St. Louis; three others have respectively
founded and are now at the head of schools in New Mexico, North
Dakota, and Evansville, Ind., and others have done pioneer work in
establishing schools in Florida and in Utah.
In Dr. Gallaudet’s travels he was met in every country by the educated
mutes, and by his sign language could converse with them, showing that
the world has at least one universal language. Every honor that grateful
hearts could shower upon a devoted friend and philanthropist was shown
the doctor in his travels in Europe. He deserves them all.
The Smithsonian Institution is situated on a fifty-two acre reservation
between the Capitol and the Potomac River. The main building is near the
center of the grounds opposite Tenth Street, West. It is built of a fine
light purplish gray freestone which is soft when it comes from the
quarry, but becomes almost like granite on long exposure to the air. It
constitutes the great National Museum, in animal, vegetable, geological,
and even social life. Relics of almost every administration,
particularly from Washington’s to Jackson’s time, are preserved here.
James Smithson was the natural son of Sir Hugh Smithson, first Duke of
Northumberland. James Smithson took a degree in Oxford in 1786. He died
in Genoa, June, 1829. He desired to found in the United States, a land
he never saw, an institution which should live in the memory of men when
the titles of his ancestors, the Northumberlands and the Percys, were
extinct and forgotten.
The institution is for the increase of knowledge among men. It assists
scientific men in original research, and it publishes the results, which
are sent to leading libraries, and are also accessible to scientists
throughout the land.
The bequest was for several years before Congress, but in 1846, when the
funds had reached three-fourths of a million dollars, the Smithsonian
Institution was founded.
Its translators turn all scientific works into English, so that
Americans can have the benefit of them in their own language.
Miss Thora Steineger, a Norwegian lady, has charge of the classification
of all animals received by the Smithsonian. Women’s work in the
scientific departments is gradually increasing, as colleges, like
Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, and Bryn Mawr give more and more attention to
science.
Here one can see the birds of all lands, animals of every clime,
vegetation from every latitude. The idols of heathendom glare at
passers-by; the quaint costumes of the Asiatics, the Eskimos of the
extreme North, and the inhabitants of the islands of the sea are worn by
wax figures so lifelike that one almost fears to make any comment in
their presence.
The fruits of much of the learning of the world are under this roof, and
every youth in our land should see its classic stores.
XXII
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
This bureau is located in a beautiful white marble building between
Seventh and Eighth streets, facing the Patent Office. These two
buildings are among the very best specimens of architecture in the
capital.
Hon. William A. Jones, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, receives a
salary of $4,000; the Assistant Commissioner receives $3,000. They have
about one hundred assistants in Washington, consisting of clerks,
bookkeepers, stenographers, superintendents, architects, draftsmen, etc.
Of persons connected with Indian affairs, on the field, including Indian
agents, storekeepers, teachers, farmers, and artisans, fully 10,000 are
paid government money. There are in the United States, exclusive of
Alaska, 269,388 Indians under the government care. Of these, 184,881 are
not included in the five great tribes. Over 98,000 of these Indians wear
the dress of civilization, and over 46,000 can read and write. Of
communicant church-members there are 30,935—not a very large proportion
after two hundred years of instruction.
There are 59 agencies, and about 20,000 Indians outside of the agencies.
The reservations are, generally speaking, the lands which white men
considered they would never want, being the most barren, forlorn,
hopeless spots in the state or territory in which they are located. Bad
as they are, many of them are now coveted by the white man, who, under
the plea of breaking up Indian tribal relations, will within a few years
buy or appropriate the last acre.
There are now no nomadic tribes; the hunting-grounds are all taken, and
the Indian must work, receive government rations, or die. The Indians
receive over $200,000 in money, some by contract receive rations through
removal, and all are assisted with agricultural implements, seeds, and
breeding animals.
It was once my lot to see an Indian tribe forcibly removed from some
place in the North to the Indian Territory. A more sorrowful sight can
scarcely be imagined. My recollection is that they were the Nez Percés.
They were large men with fine heads and faces. The women were worthy to
be the mothers of warriors. As they camped for the night, the men
gathered in small circular groups, sat Turkish fashion on the ground,
and smoked their pipes in absolute silence. Sorrow, dejection, and
despair were written all over them. The women pitched the tents and
cooked the suppers, with the bent bodies and cast-down countenances of
broken hearts.
A company of regular army men was their escort. I spoke to the officers.
The captain said: “I hope my government will never again detail my
company to do such work. It simply uses me up to see these
broken-hearted people. Many have escaped, but I can not shoot them.”
That they have been deeply wronged, no one doubts; that they are still
in many cases victims of the white man’s cupidity, is self-evident; but
the government is trying to do the best now possible for them. It is not
possible in a short time to correct the errors of a century, but when
kind hearts and wise brains are acting in their behalf the future may be
considered more hopeful.
It is gratifying to see that the present Commissioner urges that local
schools shall do the work with the Indians, for even tho the Indian
should learn less, his home ties will be maintained, and his knowledge,
as it is acquired, will be applied in the home. Then the _reconcentrado_
methods can be abolished.
Young Indians should be placed with farmers to learn farming, and paid
as much as their work is worth. In the same way girls should learn
housekeeping. Of all people the Indian is a social being. If placed on
farms all the homes would center in one place. Our young white people
can not stand the loneliness of the farm; how can we expect people who
have had tribal relations to endure it?
The white man’s trades and occupations only to the degree positively
needed should be forced upon them; but their own bead-work, fancy
baskets, queer pottery, and Navajo blankets should be greatly improved,
and their artistic tastes in their own line cultivated. Let us make them
see that we white people like their own characteristic work, and we will
not need to turn their industry into new lines.
Miss Estelle Reel, Superintendent of Indian Schools, visits all the
Indian schools, whether in civilization at Carlisle and Hampton or at
the farthest reservation. She receives a salary of $3,000, with an
allowance of $1,500 for traveling expenses. Stage-coach, buckboard,
railroad, boat, and canoe are familiar servants in her work.
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY
Looking from the Capitol
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
GRAND STAIRWAY OF THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE ROTUNDA (READING-ROOM) OF THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE PENSION OFFICE
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE GERMAN EMBASSY
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE BRITISH EMBASSY
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE FRENCH EMBASSY
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE RUSSIAN EMBASSY
]
Every line of her splendid reports teems with heart-and-soul enthusiasm.
She has just put out a book entitled, “Course of Study for the Indian
Schools of the United States, Industrial and Literary.” Besides the
common school branches, it treats of the elements of agriculture,
bakery, basketry, blacksmithing, carpentry, cooking, housekeeping,
laundry, physiology, shoemaking, tailoring, upholstering, and, in fact,
almost everything needed in daily living. Through it all runs a real
practical teaching in morality—that good work is truth, bad work is
untruth. Work in any one is the measure of character.
You remember President Roosevelt, in his New York speech concerning
missions, spoke of the great underpaid army of faithful clergymen all
over this land who, in obscure places, hold up the correct models of
morality, who keep the ideals of the nation to honest, simple, earnest,
true daily living. Much more is this true of the missionaries among the
Indians.
I remember once visiting the Indian school at Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Professor Bryan was then at the head of it. The school was partly
supported by funds from the Presbyterian Church and partly by government
money. At the table I was trying to find from each one his or her share
in the great work they were doing. I asked each one, and each gave me a
short, graphic account of his work. I sat at Professor Bryan’s right
hand; just opposite me sat a brightfaced German, looking the wisest
person at the table. As I came to him I said, “And you, Professor?”
“Madam, I am the cook.” Whether my face flushed with surprise or not I
do not know. No one smiled. After a somewhat embarrassing moment for me,
he said: “Madam, since I was a little boy I have desired to be a
missionary to the Indians. I received a good education, graduated at the
Berlin University, took a course in theology at a seminary in Germany,
then came here, where I found that my imperfect English was an
insurmountable barrier to religious work among the Indians. We had no
cook. Some of our best teachers were ill nearly all the time, so I
became the cook, and I do it unto God, believing that every soul saved
by these devoted workers, whose health I have improved, is part of my
work. Do you approve?”
“Do I approve?” I said. “Why, every pot and kettle becomes a sanctified
implement in your hand. The Master said: ‘And whosoever of you will be
the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom
for many.’”
XXIII
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The great necessity for a separate building for a Congressional Library
was first urged by Mr. A. R. Spofford, in his Librarian’s Report in
1872. An appropriation was made for the purchase of the ground in 1886.
The site consists of ten acres of ground, facing the east front of the
Capitol. The ground and the old buildings upon it cost $585,000, and the
building itself, $6,032,124.34.
It is the handsomest, most convenient, and best lighted and ventilated
library building in the world, and I believe it to be the handsomest
building for public purposes in the world. The building is of the
Italian Rennaissance order of architecture. It has three stories and a
dome, and covers three and a half acres of ground. Its dimensions are
470 × 340 feet, and the height of the wall 69 feet.
The Library, or collection of books, was founded in 1800, Congress
appropriating $5,000 for that purpose. When the Capitol building was
fired by the British, this Library was nearly destroyed. It also
suffered from fire in 1851.
The Library of Congress purchases rare books from all lands. Its chief
source of supply is through the copyright law, which requires that two
copies of every book copyrighted should be sent to the Library. It has
acquired by gift or purchase the Library of Thomas Jefferson, of 6,700
volumes, for which $23,950 was paid, the Force Historical Collection in
1865, the Smithsonian Library in 1867, and the Toner Collection in 1882.
The Smithsonian division is largely composed of books on scientific
subjects. The law library of over 92,000 books yet remains in the
Capitol building.
The Force Library is a fine collection of books, manuscripts, and papers
concerning the early history of America, especially of the Colonial
times.
Every picture, photograph, piece of music, engraving, dramatic
production, pamphlet, or brochure published in the United States can be
found here in the copyright edition. The collection is the largest in
the western hemisphere, comprising about 1,000,000 books and pamphlets.
The Library has forty-five miles of shelving, which is more than twice
its present requirements. There are in the book division 207 employees,
and in the copyright-rooms 49. The caretakers number 116. The
appropriations by Congress for service, and for the printing, binding,
and purchasing of books, amount to not less than $1,000,000 annually.
Any one can read or study in the Library, but only Congressmen, members
of the Supreme Court or their families, or the President’s family, are
permitted to take books from the building. No pen-and-ink work is
allowed in the Library, for fear of stains.
In the basement, one room is set apart for the blind, where they may
read for themselves, and almost every afternoon they have a concert, or
some noted author reads from his own writings, or some distinguished
speaker lectures before a most appreciative audience of blind people.
[Illustration:
ONE OF THE BRONZE DOORS OF THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY
]
The present Librarian is Mr. Herbert Putnam, of Boston. The most
interesting personality in the building is Mr. Ainsworth R. Spofford,
who was the Librarian from 1864 to 1897. He was appointed during Mr.
Lincoln’s administration. He is a walking encyclopedia.
I once asked him for the names of a few books on anthropology. He poured
out such a stream of titles and authors that I was obliged to call for
quarter. He then wrote me out a list of fifteen titles and authors,
taking only a minute or two for the whole matter. He seems conversant
with every subject. His memory concerning books is simply phenomenal.
In the Library is a perfect copy of Eliot’s Indian Bible, published in
Cambridge in 1661, the last copy of which brought $1,000. Here, too, may
be found the works of Cotton and Increase Mather (1671 to 1735), and
leading journals, all publications of our country from 1735 to 1800.
Bound volumes of many of them can also be found here. The first edition
of the Mormon Bible, published in 1830, and printed at Palmyra, New
York; Archbishop Cramer’s version of the Bible, 1553; Martin Luther’s
Bible; and the Catholic version of the New Testament, 1582, are among
the rare volumes in the Library of Congress.
An extract from a copy of the Washington _Post_ of 1897 well describes
the official test of the device for sending books to and from the
Capitol:
An official test of the device for transporting books between the
Capitol and the new Congressional Library was made yesterday
afternoon. Mr. John Russell Young, the Librarian; Chief Assistant
Librarian Spofford, and Superintendent Bernard R. Green assembled in
the small receiving-room, just off Statuary Hall, about 2 o’clock. Mr.
Young had prepared for the test a list of books known only to himself
until they were ordered from the Library.
The first volume sent for was William Winter’s poems. Mr. Young gave
out the name and Mr. Green wrote it on a slip of paper. This was
placed in the pneumatic tube, which flashed it to Mr. David Hutcheson,
who is in charge of the reading-room of the new Library. The book was
ordered by Mr. Hutcheson from the shelf-clerk and sent to the desk in
the center of the reading-room by the Library carrier. It was then
taken to the big carrier in the basement and started on its journey to
the Capitol. The time consumed from the moment of sending the order by
pneumatic tube until the leather case containing the desired volume
deposited its cargo before Mr. Young was exactly ten minutes.
Mr. Young then sent for a copy of “Faust” in German, Hugo’s “Les
Châtiments,” and Hildreth’s “History of the United States,” vol. i.,
all on one order, and for the London _Times_ of 1815, the year of the
battle of Waterloo, on a separate order. The “Faust” and the history
arrived in eight minutes and “Les Châtiments” on the next carrier. The
order for the London _Times_ was an extreme test, as the volume is so
large that the carriers in the Library connecting with the shelves
would not accommodate it, and a messenger had to be sent from the main
desk to the top deck of the south stack, where the newspaper files are
shelved. When the messenger returned he just missed the carrier, which
had been sent off with one of the other volumes ordered, and he had to
wait the four minutes consumed by the transit of the carriers before
he could start the _Times_ on its journey. It arrived at the Capitol
just thirteen minutes after the order for it was sent.
The carrier consists of an endless cable, with two metal baskets at an
equal distance from each other. These work on the cable, the power for
which is furnished by the Library dynamo. The books are carried
through the tunnel, and when they reach the wheels which change the
direction, the speed is automatically slackened, so that the delivery
is made gently and without the possibility of damage. Smaller books
are first placed in a large sole-leather case. The carriers are taken
through the tunnel at the rate of six hundred feet per minute. Should
any trouble occur, the mechanism can be instantly stopped by an
electric button, one at each end. The machinery of the carriers and
its instalment was largely the work of Superintendent Green.
All who witnessed the test were surprised at the ease and swiftness
with which the books could be sent for, taken from the shelves, and
transported a distance of about a quarter of a mile. Librarian Young
was very much gratified. He characterized the system as remarkable.
The test also demonstrated that the arrangement of the books in their
new quarters is perfect, as those sent for were selected at random and
were readily picked out from the enormous collection by those in
charge of the shelves.
In this labyrinth of beauty, known as the Library of Congress, I believe
a man would see no fault. But women, except as allegorical characters,
such as imaginary figures of history, science, pomology, art, etc., have
no share in the scheme of ornamentation. But men of all ages, of all
branches of art, science, commerce, and literature, are memorialized in
painting, sculpture, writing, or suggestion of some kind, either
concrete or abstract. It is true, Sappho (whom I suppose the artist
thought was a man), grown dim in the long vista of years, is a lone
woman among the world’s _élite_. No George Eliot, nor George Sand, nor
Harriet Hosmer, nor Rosa Bonheur, nor Mrs. Browning, nor Mrs. Stowe now
stands near Holmes, Whittier, Longfellow, Byron, or Landseer. This
omission is not like our gallant American men.
I remember once at a table in London some distinguished English women
were complimenting the achievements of American women. I replied, “I
have met the college women of almost every European country. I do not
find American women in any way mentally superior to the women of Europe.
But American women accomplish much more than their sisters east of the
Atlantic simply because of our men. Now here in England your husband and
brothers insist on silence, but with us if a woman sings or talks well
it is the hand of her husband or father that leads her to the front, and
it is the kindness of our men that starts us on our public life, helps
us at hard places, and encourages us everywhere. No, it is not our
_women_ who are superior, it is our men, our gracious, helpful men.”
Whatever women in the United States have accomplished beyond their
sisters in foreign lands has been done because of the friendly, cordial,
helpful encouragement of their husbands, brothers, and fathers; so in
this Library the womanhood of the world is slighted in the house of her
friends.
XXIV
THE PENSION OFFICE
The Pension building is situated on Judiciary Square, near G Street. It
is the largest department building in Washington, being 400 feet from
east to west and 200 from north to south, and 75 feet high.
The walls surround an interior courtyard, two galleries extend around
this court, and from these galleries access is attained to the rooms on
the second and third stories. The building cost half a million dollars;
it is of mixed architecture, not beautiful in appearance, but the best
lighted, heated, and ventilated department building in the city. It is
sometimes called “the Meigs (name of architect) Barn,” because its
outline is not unlike a Pennsylvania red barn.
When the architect had finished escorting General Sheridan through the
building, just after its completion, the former inquired
enthusiastically, “Well, Sheridan, how do you like it?”
“I find only one fault,” said the General, solemnly; “it is fireproof.”
At the close of the year 1900 there were on the rolls 993,529
pensioners. During 1901 there were added 44,225 new ones, and 3,567 were
restored to the rolls, making in all 1,041,321. This number is 4,000 in
excess of that of any other year.
There remain on the rolls the names of four widows and five daughters of
Revolutionary soldiers. In the last report of the Commissioner of
Pensions but one soldier of the war of 1812 survived. He was at that
time (September 10, 1901) 101 years of age. Of the Mexican War, the
names of 1,086 soldiers and 3,479 widows are still on the rolls; of the
Indian wars (1832–1842), 7,568 survivors and 8,109 widows. The war with
Spain left a legacy of 2,643 invalids, 1,176 widows, and 650 nurses,
drawing pensions. Besides these there is the great army of Civil War
pensioners.
If the government would, at least twice each year, publish in each
county the names of persons receiving pensions, the amount paid, and the
alleged cause of disability, it would bring the blush of shame to the
face of many a liar who now draws a handsome sum from his government.
The money is largely paid into the United States Treasury not by the
rich of our country, but by the laboring class of men and women.
Patriotism which requires a life-long stipend is of doubtful color.
Soldiers of the Spanish War at the time of their discharge were obliged
to sign papers declaring any disability which existed. Then each soldier
was examined by the surgeon and his company officers, and these again
certified either to his perfect health or to his disability. It was
found that the health of many had been greatly improved by exercise in
the open air, free life, and plain diet.
Eleven years after the Civil War only six per cent. of the Union
soldiers and sailors had applied for a pension; now only a little over
three years has passed since the close of the one hundred days’ war with
Spain, yet more than twenty per cent. of the soldiers and sailors of
that war have applied for pensions.
The great majority of those mustered out had declared over their own
signatures, and that of the surgeon and commanding officer of the
company to which they belonged, that they had no disability whatever.
Yet thousands of these very men have applied for pensions, and in their
applications have set forth in minute detail the large number of
disabilities acquired in the service. One man within forty-eight hours
after his discharge as a sound man discovered ten physical ills, any one
of which should suffice to secure the bounty of a generous government.
I submit the following extract from Commissioner Evans’ last report:
A good object-lesson in this regard is furnished by the history of a
volunteer regiment which was recognized as one of the “crack”
regiments in service during the war with Spain. Its membership was
notably a fine body of men, and its officers were men of experience
and ability and skilled in military matters. Few regiments had as good
a record for service as this one. It was at Camp Alger for a time,
then at Camp Thomas, then at Tampa, Fla.; thence sailed for Santiago
de Cuba, where it was placed in the trenches and did good service
until it returned to Montauk. From there it was returned to the place
of its enrolment, and at the expiration of a sixty days’ furlough was
mustered out of service.
This regiment had a membership of 53 commissioned officers and 937
enlisted men. There were no battle-field casualties, but 1 officer and
22 men died of disease while in the service. _The published report of
the medical officer on the muster out of this regiment shows that 1
per cent. of the men of the regiment were improved by military
service; 5 per cent. were in as good physical condition as at time of
enlistment; 24 per cent. were but slightly affected, and, as a rule,
the troubles were not traceable to military service. Of the remainder
(70 per cent.), or 528 men, the general condition was as follows_:
Irritable heart, due to fever 365
Mitral regurgitation 4
Chronic bronchitis 214
Acute bronchitis 47
Phthisis 3
Gastritis 158
Enlarged or congested liver 116
Enlarged spleen 316
Inflammatory condition of intestines 53
Irritability of bladder and incontinence of urine 76
Nephritis 5
Hemorrhoids 11
Varicocele 61
Inguinal hernia 3
Rheumatism 26
Myopia 19
Slight eye strains 29
Slight deafness, due to quinine 17
Chronic nasal catarrh 9
Sprain of back 3
Old dislocation, right shoulder 1
Gunshot wounds, left forearm 2
Badly set Colle’s fracture 1
Secondary syphilis 2
Suffering from pains in the muscles, especially the calves of the
legs and lumbar region, loss of weight from 10 to 30 pounds,
accompanied by more or less debility 471
Relapses of fever continuing to recur up to January 4, 1899 87
Up to June 30, 1901, 477 claims for pension have been filed in this
bureau on account of service in said regiment for disabilities alleged
to have been contracted during the brief term of its existence.
I am fully convinced that a small pension of $6 or $8 per month for
alleged obscure disability, such as diarrhea, piles, rheumatism,
impaired hearing, bronchitis, etc., is conferring a misfortune upon a
young man—in fact, a life-long misfortune—for the reason that it puts
him to a decided disadvantage in the race for a livelihood always
thereafter in the way of securing employment.
The fact that he is drawing a “disability” pension puts him on the
list as disabled and unable to perform the amount of labor that is
expected of a sound man, and it seems like misplaced generosity on the
part of our government to thus place a handicap upon the young
ex-soldier in his search for employment, as it is well known that a
large percentage of the young men that served in the war with Spain
depend upon manual labor for a livelihood.
Mr. Eugene F. Ware, the new Commissioner, has issued the following
table, to show the difference between the regulars and volunteers of the
Spanish-American War:
────────────────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────
REGIMENTS │ │ │ │ _Claims
│ │ │ │filed for
│_Killed_ │_Wounded_│_Missing_│pensions_
────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────
Volunteers— │ │ │ │
1st—District of Columbia│ 0│ 0│ 0│ 472
9th—Massachusetts │ 0│ 0│ 0│ 685
33d—Michigan │ 0│ 0│ 0│ 573
34th Michigan │ 0│ 0│ 0│ 615
8th Ohio │ 0│ 0│ 0│ 652
│ —————│ —————│ —————│ —————
Total │ 0│ 0│ 0│ 2,997
│ │ │ │
Regulars— │ │ │ │
6th U. S. Infantry │ 17│ 106│ 17│ 162
7th U. S. Infantry │ 23│ 93│ 0│ 249
13th U. S. Infantry │ 18│ 90│ 0│ 87
16th U. S. Infantry │ 13│ 107│ 17│ 143
24th U. S. Infantry │ 12│ 75│ 6│ 123
│ —————│ —————│ —————│ —————
Total │ 83│ 471│ 40│ 764
────────────────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────
It is believed that this spectacle, which indicates lack of patriotism,
is due to the solicitation of the pension agent, who receives $20 for
every pension secured. Now this condition of things is an outrage. The
name of every man who receives a pension should be published. If he
really deserves it, no other citizen will object; if not, he should be
scorched by the community.
Is it any wonder that with such a raid upon the United States Treasury
that the pension work is slow, and that many soldiers and widows of
soldiers of the Civil War have not yet received their deserved pensions?
It seems to me the following extract from the report of the Commissioner
of Pensions, in reference to illegalities connected with applications,
may be of interest as showing the condition of affairs in 1902:
The 226 indictments tried, which resulted in convictions, were based
upon the following charges:
False claim 64
False certification 26
False affidavit 16
False personation 5
Perjury 40
Forgery 18
Illegal fee 26
Personating government officer 21
Retaining pension certificate 2
Prosecuting claims while a government officer 4
Conspiracy 2
Embezzlement 1
Attempted bribery 1
It has been the uniform practise not to recommend prosecution in any
case unless the criminal intent of the parties was clearly shown; and
in the cases of soldiers and their dependents, to resolve every doubt
in their favor, and not to recommend prosecution where it was apparent
that they had been drawn into a violation of the law by others. As a
result of this practise, the majority of the convictions secured were
against attorneys, agents, sub-agents, magistrates, and others
responsible for the preparation and filing of false and fraudulent
claims and evidence, and those who falsely personated soldiers or
soldiers’ widows.
Eugene F. Ware succeeded Mr. Evans as Commissioner of Pensions early in
1902. Mr. Ware is a Kansas man, prominent both in the literature and
politics of that State for the last twenty-five years. He has stirred up
matters in the Pension Bureau by making even the humblest clerk feel
that good work will meet with promotion, and that no influence can keep
inefficiency in that responsible place. He has also announced that no
one who habitually uses intoxicants can be entrusted with the
responsibility of looking after the aged and indigent soldiers, forlorn
widows, and helpless children. The consequence is some have been
dismissed for drunkenness, others have resigned, others have quit their
cups. Mr. Ware comes from a state where prohibition has made the jail a
useless building except for storing the great surplus of corn. One of
his poems says:
The horse-thief went, the cowboy joined the church,
The justice of the peace is laughed to scorn;
The constable has tumbled from his perch,
The school has left the sheriff in the lurch—
The jail is full of corn.
His poem on John Brown, the hero of freedom, satisfies. The first three
verses read as follows:
States are not great except as men may make them;
Men are not great except they do and dare.
But states, like men, have destinies that take them—
That bear them on, not knowing why or where.
The why repels the philosophic searcher,
The WHY and WHERE all questionings defy,
Until we find, far back in youthful nurture,
Prophetic facts that constitute the WHY.
All merit comes from braving the unequal,
All glory comes from daring to begin;
Fate loves the state that, reckless of the sequel,
Fights long and well, whether it lose or win.
XXV
STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS
The State, War, and Navy departments are in one handsome four-storied
granite building, with a frontage of 343 feet and a depth of 565 feet,
situated on Pennsylvania Avenue, just west of the White House. The
building is one of the handsomest in the city, being of the French
Rennaissance, modified by American ideas. It has five hundred rooms and
two miles of marble halls. In the west wing of the building the
Secretary of War, Hon. Elihu Root, and General Miles, Commander of the
Army, have handsome rooms for themselves and their many assistants. In
the east wing can be found the Secretary of the Navy and rooms for the
Admirals and their corps of helpers, and in the south wing the popular
Secretary of State, the Hon. John Hay, with a comparatively small number
of assistants.
STATE DEPARTMENT
In the department of the Secretary of State one sees the portraits of
all the great men who have occupied the position of Secretary of State
from the time of Washington down to the present occupant. Most people
would be interested in the Huntington portraits of Grant, Sherman, and
Sheridan, and in a copy of Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Washington. In
the State Department the most interesting are the portraits of Thomas
Jefferson, 1789, Washington’s first term; Daniel Webster, 1841 and 1850;
William H. Seward, 1861 and 1865; Elihu B. Washburne, 1869; Hamilton
Fish, 1869; William M. Evarts, 1877; James G. Blaine, 1881 and 1889; and
F. T. Frelinghuysen, 1881. A portrait of Lord Ashburton recalls the
“Ashburton Treaty” of 1842, which defined the boundaries between the
United States and the British Possessions in North America, and provided
for the suppression of the slave-trade.
In the State Department are some of the most precious archives of the
nation. Here can be found the original Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution with the original signatures. Here can be seen the
handwriting of most of the rulers of the world during the last hundred
years affixed to treaties. One of the most unique of these is a treaty
with Japan. The clear Japanese characters cover many pages, the royal
signature is at the top, and you read from the bottom. The treaty was
brought to Washington by two Japanese officials of high rank, who were
charged with its safe delivery on penalty of their lives. One day they
triumphantly entered the State Department bearing aloft on two bamboo
poles a curiously constructed box, in which was the precious document.
They were greatly relieved when they saw it safely deposited with the
Secretary of State.
Here are the papers of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson; here are all
the flags taken in all the wars in which the United States have engaged.
[Illustration:
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
]
The diplomatic rooms are of great beauty. Here Mr. Hay receives foreign
ministers, consuls, and special messengers from foreign lands. Here at
almost any time can be seen members of some of the thirty-five foreign
embassies and legations. Many of these legations own and maintain
handsome residences. A statement prepared by District Assessor Darneille
shows that foreign governments own over $500,000 worth of real property
in the District of Columbia, the estimated value of the land being
$330,776, and the improvements $284,500. The French and Chinese
governments have recently purchased valuable tracts of land, and will
erect magnificent legation buildings which will increase the value of
property held by foreign governments to nearly $1,000,000.
Probably the most characteristic feature of both political and social
life in Washington is afforded by the presence of these legations. The
members are more conspicuous here than at any other national capital in
the world, except, possibly, Peking. Not to speak of Asiatic costumes
and customs, European manners and morals, if we except those of England
and Germany, which are much the same as our own, contrast most decidedly
with their American correspondents. Most of the men are pure
pagans—cynics and materialists. They look upon a profession of
Christianity at its best as a mark of intellectual weakness, and at its
worst of hypocrisy. Their own faces, however, do not indicate that they
are exceptionally broad-minded or good and sincere men.
I have seen them in public receptions stand on one side and chatter in
French, Spanish, or Italian, poking all sorts of fun at the hostess and
her entertainment, and then, as she approached, rush to greet her with a
mock homage which made my flesh creep. I have heard them declare that
“all Americans are cads,” and the next instant prove the less sweeping
proposition that “all cads are not Americans” by fulsome compliments to
a distinguished Justice or Senator.
They, however, dispense a generous hospitality, and society, which has
learned to estimate them by their own cynical standards, and is neither
elated by their smiles nor annihilated by their snubs, cultivates them
as best suits its own purpose.
The United States supports abroad thirty-eight embassies and legations,
consisting of ministers, secretaries, and attachés, besides about one
thousand consuls.
The Congressional Directory gives the personal history of Secretary Hay
as follows:
JOHN HAY, of the District of Columbia, Secretary of State (800
Sixteenth Street, Northwest), was born in Salem, Ind., October 8,
1838; graduated at Brown University in 1858, and studied law in
Springfield, Ill.; was admitted to practise before the Supreme Court
of Illinois in 1861, but immediately came to Washington as Assistant
Secretary to President Lincoln, remaining with him until his death;
acted also as his Adjutant and Aide-de-Camp, and served under Generals
Hunter and Gillmore, and was brevetted Colonel; was appointed
Secretary of Legation to France, March 22, 1865; retired March 18,
1867; appointed Secretary of Legation to Austria-Hungary, May 20,
1867, where he acted as _chargé d’affaires_ until August 12, 1868;
appointed Secretary of Legation to Spain June 28, 1869; retired
October 1, 1870; then became an editorial writer on the New York
_Tribune_, remaining five years, during seven months of which he was
editor-in-chief; removed to Cleveland in 1875, and took an active part
in the Presidential canvasses of 1876, 1880, and 1884; was appointed
Assistant Secretary of State November 1, 1879; retired May 3, 1881; in
that year he represented the United States at the International
Sanitary Congress in Washington, of which he was president; was
appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Great
Britain March 19, 1897; retired September 19, 1898; appointed
Secretary of State September 20, 1898.
THE WAR DEPARTMENT
In time of war or just following a war the most interesting department
is that which is now occupied by the Hon. Elihu Root, of New York City.
He is noted as a great corporation lawyer, and at first seemed to
consider that the government of the United States could be run on the
same principles as a great corporation—that is, “We shall do as we
please in spite of public opinion.” But when he was severely brought to
task several times he found his limitations.
In spite of this, the report of this department, dated December, 1901,
shows difficult, conscientious, magnificent work performed by the War
Department since the close of the war with Spain. Possibly the quiet
prejudice which exists throughout the country against Mr. Root is
largely the result of his treatment of General Miles. He does not like
the old General, but the country does. Mr. Root may do many splendid
things before the farmer, who only reads his weekly paper and to whose
brain new things come slowly, forgives him for rudeness to a man of the
people, whose merit has placed him at the head of the army. Any one who
thinks he wins favor by calling General Miles “old fuss and feathers,”
as some newspapers do, quite forgets that the American people like fuss
and feathers. In spite of the above, Mr. Root is a great patriotic man,
who, with mental ability enough to earn $100,000 per year, gives his
country the benefit of his talents for what must seem to him the paltry
sum of $8,000. As an organizer and great executive officer he has no
superior now in the government employ. His last report shows the army
located as follows:
DISTRIBUTION OF THE ARMY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1901
──────────────────────────────────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────
COUNTRY │ │_Enlisted │
│_Officers_│ men_ │ _Total_
──────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────
United States │ 1,922│ 31,952│ 33,874
Philippine Islands │ 1,111│ 42,128│ 43,239
Cuba │ 166│ 4,748│ 4,914
Porto Rico │ 51│ 1,490│ 1,541
Hawaiian Islands │ 6│ 250│ 256
China │ 5│ 157│ 162
Alaska │ 17│ 510│ 527
│ ——————│ ——————│ ——————
Total │ 3,278│ 81,235│ 84,513
──────────────────────────────────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────
[In this table are included the 4,336 men of the Hospital Corps and
the 25 officers and 815 men of the Porto Rico Provisional Regiment,
leaving the strength of the Regular Army 3,253 officers and 76,084
enlisted men.
In addition there are also in the Philippines 172 volunteer surgeons,
appointed under section 18 of the act of February 2, 1901, and 98
officers and 4,973 native scouts.]
Of course, now that the war in the Philippines is practically over, many
more men have returned to the United States.
In reading Mr. Root’s report, nothing impresses one more than the
splendid arrangement for the better education of army officers, not only
as to military tactics, but for full intellectual equipment. Enlisted
men who fit themselves by study, and retain good characters by passing
complete civil service examination, become eligible to official
positions among the regulars. Also officers of volunteer regiments by
the same process become eligible to official positions in the regular
army.
Mr. Root recommends that officers of the National Guard, or officers of
former volunteers, be permitted in their vacations to study with regular
army officers at West Point, and at the army post schools, so that we
may never again be caught without competent officers for volunteer
regiments. His report contains full accounts of the forming of the new
government in Cuba, the Cuban Constitution, a full account of all the
troubles in the Philippines, the wonderful work accomplished by the
signal corps, the territorial and military divisions of the Philippines,
and recommendations as to the proper currency and system of banking
necessary in our Oriental possessions.
He recommends the purchase of the lands of the friars, who can not
continue to hold their possession peacefully on account of the hostility
of the people, whom they have grossly wronged.
His account of the very valuable unexplored timber lands of the islands,
and the industries needed, make his report of great practical
importance.
Men of the United States army have always been noted for their high
standard of honor. The country believes in the integrity of the officers
of the regular army. When any of them fail themselves and betray the
trust imposed in them, it causes a shock to public feeling such as
malfeasance in no other official position ever produces. To an unusually
large extent they have been worthy of the trust reposed in them by a
great nation.
The French are no more jealous of the good name of their army than are
Americans. The person who takes away the good name of our brave,
patriotic, self-sacrificing men, “who are a-doing and a-dying” in the
Philippines, because of the evil actions of less than one-twentieth of
their number, deserves public execration. The least we can do for our
army is to give them their hard-earned laurels unspoiled.
XXVI
STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS (_Continued_)
THE NAVY DEPARTMENT
The offices of the Navy Department are situated in the same building as
those of the War Department. The Secretary of the Navy occupies some of
these handsome rooms. On their walls are the pictures of eighteen
Secretaries, more than half the number of those who have occupied the
high place being yet unrepresented. Secretary Long urges that the
pictures of those yet waiting should be secured and given a place among
these worthies. Down to Lincoln’s day the following persons occupied the
place of Secretary of the Navy:
During Washington’s administration the Secretaries of the Navy were also
Secretaries of War. Three men occupied the double position: Gen. Henry
Knox, of Massachusetts; Timothy Pickering, of Massachusetts; and James
McHenry, of Maryland. In John Adams’s administration the Navy was made a
separate department. The Secretaries of the Navy since 1798 have been as
follows: Benjamin Stoddert, of Maryland; Robert Smith, of Maryland;
Jacob Crowninshield, of Massachusetts; Paul Hamilton, of South Carolina;
William Jones, of Pennsylvania; Benjamin W. Crowninshield, of
Massachusetts; Smith Thompson, of New York; Samuel L. Southard, of New
Jersey; John Branch, of North Carolina; Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire;
Mahlon Dickerson, of New Jersey; James K. Paulding, of New York; George
E. Badger, of North Carolina; Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia; David
Henshaw, of Massachusetts; Thomas W. Gilmer, of Virginia; John Y. Mason,
of Virginia; George Bancroft, of Massachusetts; William B. Preston, of
Virginia; William A. Graham, of North Carolina; John P. Kennedy, of
Maryland; James C. Dobbin, of North Carolina; Isaac Toucey, of
Connecticut; Gideon Welles, of Connecticut.
Those later are well known. John D. Long, of Massachusetts, late
Secretary, who ably administered the department during the war with
Spain, has the following record in the Congressional Directory:
JOHN DAVIS LONG, of Massachusetts, Secretary of the Navy, was born in
Buckfield, Oxford County, Me., October 27, 1838; received his
preparatory education in the common school of his native town and the
Hebron Academy, Maine; was graduated from Harvard in 1857; taught
school two years in Westford Academy, Massachusetts; studied law at
Harvard Law School and in private offices; was admitted to the bar,
and has since practised; was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature
in 1875, 1876, 1877, and 1878; was Speaker of the House during the
last three years; was Lieutenant-Governor of his State in 1879, and
Governor in 1880, 1881 and 1882; was elected to the Forty-eighth and
reelected to the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses; was for several
years on the Statehouse Construction Commission of his state; is
senior member of the law firm of Long & Hemenway; was appointed and
confirmed Secretary of the Navy March 5, 1897.
Secretary Long resigned in 1902. He was succeeded by William H. Moody,
also of Massachusetts.
Now that the United States has become a world power, the navy is the
right arm of the government in taking needed supplies to our distant
colonies, and in protecting the property of America the world over.
The last annual report of the Secretary of the Navy showed that the
United States has 252 regular naval vessels, 55 of special classes,
besides as many more of inferior classes called standard vessels, such
as steam-cutters, launches, cutters, etc. The Secretary’s report shows
that $84,181,863.89 was appropriated for naval expenses, of which about
seventeen millions yet remain unused. A large part of this has gone for
new vessels. No part of the government is increasing so rapidly as the
naval service. When all men are enlisted for which legal provision has
been made, the naval and marine force will reach 34,810 men, or nearly
8,000 more than were in the army prior to the war with Spain. By the
Congressional acts of 1864, 1868, and 1876 the navy was fixed not to
exceed 7,000 men; the act of March 3, 1901, fixes the number at 25,000,
but the necessities of the country have increased it beyond this.
The average citizen knows far less about the navy than about the army.
Yet in time of war the army would be of little use without an efficient
navy. In the Civil War no great progress was made in conquering the
South till the blockade shut in the Southern States, preventing the
export of cotton and the bringing in of the necessities of life.
In the late war with Spain, brilliant as was the service of the army,
yet our navy carried away the greater laurels.
Secretary Long (since succeeded by Mr. Moody) says that the North
Atlantic Squadron during the last fiscal year has been engaged in severe
training in markmanship and evolutions, gaining facility in landing
large guns, etc. The vessels of this squadron have extended their
operations from Maine to Central America, particularly among the West
Indies. The South Atlantic Squadron has assisted in commercial interests
along the coast of South America. The European Squadron is now mostly in
the Mediterranean Sea. The Pacific Squadron is scattered over such a
great length of coast from Alaska to South America that the ships can
not drill as a squadron, but are obliged to maneuver singly. The
apprentice and training squadrons have been along the coast of Europe,
but are now in the West Indies. These are afloat continually, except
when stopped for repairs or supplies.
Possibly no condition in the war with Spain annoyed us so much as the
use of powder which emitted smoke and thus showed just where our men
were located, while they dealt with an unseen foe. The navy has taken up
this matter, and is experimenting on the use and making of smokeless
powder. We shall not be caught napping again. The navy is also
practising wireless telegraphy; and while it can not be said to have
adopted any of the half dozen systems now before the public, yet so far
it has secured the best results from the Marconi system. This is used by
Great Britain and Italy. Germany uses the Slaby system, France and
Russia the Ducretet system. Secretary Long insists that none of them are
a perfect success, as the difficulty of interference has not yet been
entirely overcome. Wireless telegraphy has carried messages correctly
between British war-ships 160 miles apart.
We have eight navy-yards, the principal one being at Brooklyn. The
barracks for the marines in Washington are situated on Eighth Street, a
short distance from the navy-yard; they cost $350,000. The navy-yard at
Washington does not build large ships, but produces chains, anchors,
ordnances, such as rifles, breechloading guns, etc., together with a
long list of materials used in the navy.
Admiral Dewey is not only the pride of the navy but of the nation. He
receives $13,000 per year. Rear-Admirals are paid $6,000; Commodores,
$5,000.
Extensive and important improvements are to be made at the Annapolis
Naval Academy. The country expects great proficiency in its army and
navy, so no pains, no expense should be spared in the preparation of men
of whom so much is required. A number of years ago Commodore Perry,
speaking to the students of Antioch College (Ohio), told the following
anecdote:
“Some twenty-five years ago I was carelessly walking on the levee of a
city of the Adriatic. A short distance from the shore lay a man-of-war
at anchor. I called an oarsman to me, and had him take me out to the
vessel.”
“I saw no one on board, but by a rope hanging over the side I went on
deck, hand over hand. I paid the oarsman, and told him to return for me
in an hour.”
“I wandered over the beautiful ship, admiring its guns, its keeping, its
admirable appointments, and its excellent management, shown by its
condition. At the end of my hour I began to look for my oarsman. Just
then I discovered a door on my right. I opened it, and in that room sat
thirty-two boys. I had been there an hour and had not heard stir enough
to show that so much as a bird was alive on that boat.”
“The youngest cadet came to the door and welcomed me with his cordial
military salute. ‘Boy, where is your teacher?’ ‘Gone ashore, sir.’ ‘Do
you keep absolute order while he is gone?’ ‘Certainly, sir.’
“Then passing to the front, I said to one of the older boys: ‘Young man,
why do you act so differently from other boys? Are you afraid of being
punished?’
“The cadet rose to his feet. ‘Sir,’ said he, ‘you see before you
thirty-two cadets. We all expect to govern others in our future work.
The first element of a good governor is self-government; sir, we are
practising that.’”
The Commodore added: “That was twenty-five years ago. In the providence
of God none of these young men have been called to eternity. I will now
read you their names.” And the audience recognized in each man a name
famous in the navies of Great Britain, Germany, France, or America.
Now those lads had not merely kept silent. The mastery of self made them
victorious over temper, bad habits, and all depraved tastes. They were
men in soul as well as in body. Truly, “He that ruleth his spirit is
greater than he that taketh a city.”
XXVII
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
At the present time of writing (February, 1903) the President has
nominated to the head of the new Department of Commerce and Labor his
secretary, George B. Cortelyou, and to be Commissioner of Corporations
in that department James R. Garfield, who is a son of President
Garfield, and a member of the Civil Service Commission. Of these
appointments the New York _Times_ expresses the general opinion of the
press of the country:
The former appointment is significant chiefly because the new
Secretary is intimately known to the President, and his policy in the
department will probably represent the President’s views very closely.
It can not in any special sense be regarded as a political
appointment. The selection of Mr. Garfield is also conspicuously on
the merits of the appointee, who is not an active politician, is an
able lawyer, has been prominent and useful in the promotion of
municipal reform and of the merit system in Ohio and as a Civil
Service Commissioner. He has plenty of energy, a cool head, experience
in public affairs, and may be expected to do all that can be done with
the powers of his new office, the value of which must depend much on
the character of the Commissioner and the support and direction of the
Secretary and of the President.
Mr. Cortelyou has been so long engaged in recording other people’s
thoughts as a secretary that it remains to be proved whether he
possesses any opinions of his own. It is only the confidence of the
country in President Roosevelt’s judgment of men whom he has been in a
position to judge which prevents a general expression of surprise that
our great “captains of industry” have been passed by in the selection of
the first occupant of a position destined to be one of the most
important in the Cabinet. Mr. Cortelyou, however, may do very well while
we are playing at the department, but when we get down to business the
portfolio of Commerce will have to be held by hands accustomed to
weightier affairs than a stenographer’s note-book.
Mr. Garfield, having been called to deal with the great corporations, is
confronted with the greatest problem of the times. He comes to his
responsible place a comparatively unknown man. His name carries
something of the halo which surrounds the name of his distinguished
father, and for that reason he will start with the best wishes of his
countrymen.
A feeling, however, prevails that if the government really meant to
regulate trusts some heroic figure would have been called, like Joseph
W. Folk, the brave circuit attorney, who, single-handed, is yet fighting
the corruptionists of St. Louis, or Hovey C. Clark or D. Percy Jones,
who sent the vile city conspirators of Minneapolis into prisons or
exile, or some great corporation lawyer who has known the trusts from
the inside, and now with change of heart could really work from the
outside.
We hope for great things from Mr. Garfield. It may be well, like the
Greeks, to keep crying, “Let us fight Philip!” whether we do much
fighting or not.
[Illustration:
FISH COMMISSION BUILDING
]
The new department has a wide scope, and under efficient administration
may exert a good deal of influence. It takes over practically the
scientific and statistical work of the government, especially the Coast
Survey, the Bureaus of Statistics from the Treasury and State
Departments, and the Fish Commission, besides the Labor Bureau, the
Immigration Bureau, and the enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act,
and it has a new Bureau of Manufactures, with considerable duties. But
undoubtedly the most important work it can perform is in the Bureau of
Corporations, at the head of which Mr. Garfield is placed. The powers of
this bureau extend to “diligent investigation into the organization,
conduct, and management of any corporation, joint stock company, or
corporate combination engaged in commerce among the several States and
with foreign nations, excepting common carriers.” For this work the
Commissioner is to have the “right to subpœna and compel the attendance
and testimony of witnesses and the production of documentary evidence
and to administer oaths.” One of the objects of this power is to enable
the Commissioner to “gather such information and data as will enable the
President of the United States to make recommendations to Congress for
the regulation of” interstate and foreign commerce.
The Survey, Quarantine, Immigration, and Life-Saving bureaus are next in
importance. Along the coast new harbors and coast lines are constantly
being surveyed. When the quarantine officer boards your ship at the
entrance of New York harbor, and scares you thoroughly lest he keep you
in quarantine for the sake of some poor Italian baby in the steerage, he
represents the Secretary of Commerce guarding a great nation from
disease. When the immigrant lands he is interviewed by an agent of this
department and his money changed into United States currency. Some of
these agents recognize in the poor, frightened, lonely, and
travel-stained foreigner a human being who needs a friendly word and
helping hand, but others would scare even an American woman, who knows
her own value, out of her wits; what, then, must be the effect of such
men on the feelings of these strangers? Nearly a half million of
foreigners a year enter our ports, and I have seen many of them treated
like cattle.
The Life-Saving Bureau has charge of the continuous line of life-saving
stations which guard our coasts. No braver men have ever lived than the
devoted servants of the government who patrol our shores. There are 269
life-saving stations on the coasts of the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the
Great Lakes, and one at the Ohio Falls, at Louisville, Ky. The men of
these stations were present last year at 693 disasters and saved 3,377
lives. Our government pensions soldiers and sailors who are hired to
destroy lives; surely greater pensions should be awarded these heroes of
the main for saving life.
XXVIII
THE EXECUTIVE MANSION
The President’s house is generally known as the White House. It is
situated on Pennsylvania Avenue, one mile west of the Capitol building.
It contains two lofty stories above ground and a basement.
[Illustration:
MRS. ROOSEVELT
[Copyright by J. Schloss, New York]
]
It was modeled after the palace of the Duke of Leicester by the
architect, James Hobon. The foundation was laid October 13, 1792, and
the building was first occupied by President John Adams in the summer of
1800. It was partially burned by the British in 1814. The front is
ornamented by Ionic columns and a projecting screen with three columns.
The space between these two sets of columns constitutes a carriage-way,
admitting to the main entrance.
The building contains thirty-one rooms. The whole has been refitted and
almost rebuilt by the present occupant, President Theodore Roosevelt.
Whether seen through the tracery of leafless trees or through the
verdure of summer, the White House always looks cool, restful, and
beautiful. The situation is not regarded as very healthful, but
everything that modern science can do is now being employed to improve
its sanitary condition.
All official duties will in time be attended to in the offices which are
situated just west of the White House, so that the latter will be used
only as the private residence of the President’s family.
Longfellow says:
All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses.
How true this must be of the home of our Presidents! George Washington
watched its building, and with his stately wife walked through it when
it was finished, and was satisfied. They were about ready to leave the
scene of action, but they did much to prepare the stage for the
procession of Presidents which has followed.
For the last fifty years much complaint has been made that the house has
not been large enough and that it was lacking in modern conveniences,
but in spite of these objections no trouble has yet been experienced in
finding men who were quite willing and even anxious to occupy it.
The walls are covered with portraits of the Presidents and their wives.
All these portraits are interesting.
Mrs. John Adams bewailed the unfinished condition of the house, and used
the now famous East Room for drying the family linen.
Of all the noble matrons who have graced the White House, Abigail Adams
was the wisest and greatest. Her letters make her the Madam de Sévigné
of our land. Her letter (written February, 1797) to her husband, who had
just succeeded Washington, sounds like the voice of an oracle. We quote
a portion: “You have this day to declare yourself head of a nation. ‘And
now, O Lord, my God, thou hast made Thy servant ruler over the people;
give unto him an understanding heart, that he may know how to go out and
come in before this great people; that he may discern between good and
bad. For who is able to judge this Thy so great a people?’ were the
words of a royal sovereign, and not less applicable to him who is
invested with the Chief Magistracy of a nation, tho he wear not a crown
nor the robes of royalty. My thoughts and my meditations are with you,
tho personally absent, and my petitions to heaven are that ‘the things
which make for peace may not be hidden from your eyes.’ My feelings are
not those of pride or ostentation upon this occasion. They are
solemnized by a sense of the obligations, the important trusts, and
numerous duties connected with it. That you may be enabled to discharge
them with honor to yourself, with justice and impartiality to your
country, and with satisfaction to this great people, shall be the daily
prayer of yours—”
The first New-year’s reception at the White House was held by President
Adams in 1801. Mrs. Adams kept up the stately, ceremonious customs
established by President and Mrs. Washington. It was her son, John
Quincy Adams, as Monroe’s Secretary of State, who was afterward to write
out a definite code for almost every public ceremony. This code is
largely in force at the present time.
Martha Washington comes into history simply as the wife of a great man,
but Abigail Adams was inherently a superior woman. Of all the women who
occupied the White House she, only, gave the country a son who became a
great man, and occupied the highest position in the gift of his country.
After John Adams came Thomas Jefferson, who had imbibed ultra-democratic
ideas in the French Revolution. The ceremonies which prevailed in the
Washington and Adams period were temporarily laid aside by this plain
Virginia gentleman. He received the formal dames of the land in his
riding-suit, covered with dust, riding-whip in hand, and with clanking
spurs on his heels. His lovely daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, did
her best to give the great house the air of a pleasant home. She
succeeded well, and Jefferson’s accomplished daughter smoothed many of
the asperities existing among public men who had lived through the
Revolution and suffered from the jealousies, misunderstandings, and
injustices of the times.
Mrs. Dolly Madison was probably the greatest social genius that has ever
occupied the White House. The papers of that day declare “Mrs. Madison
is the most popular person in the United States.”
Washington social life yet abounds in pleasing legends of her graceful,
courteous kindness, not only to the gentlemen and ladies of the
legations, but to the ignorant and socially unskilled who were among her
worshipers. James Fenimore Cooper, in a private letter, gives a picture
of the White House in the days of James Monroe:
“The evening at the White House, or drawingroom, as it is sometimes
pleasantly called, is, in fact, a collection of all classes of people
who choose to go to the trouble and expense of appearing in dresses
suited to an evening party. I am not sure that even dress is very much
regarded, for I certainly saw a good many there in boots.... Squeezing
through a crowd, we achieved a passage to a part of the room where Mrs.
Monroe was standing, surrounded by a bevy of female friends. After
making our bow here, we sought the President. The latter had posted
himself at the top of the room, where he remained most of the evening
shaking hands with all who approached. Near him stood the Secretaries
and a great number of the most distinguished men of the nation. Beside
these, one meets here a great variety of people in other conditions of
life. I have known a cartman to leave his cart in the street and go into
the reception-room to shake hands with the President. He offended the
good taste of all present, because it was not thought decent that a
laborer should come in a dirty dress on such an occasion; but while he
made a mistake in this particular, he proved how well he understood the
difference between government and society.”
The Monroes came to the White House after it had been restored after the
burning in 1814. It was barely furnished at that time, and contained but
few conveniences for entertaining. Mrs. Monroe brought furniture
directly from Paris, which she used for the East Room. This has been
frequently upholstered, and constitutes part of the handsome furniture
at the present time.
John Quincy Adams, the fifth President of the United States, was one of
the greatest men this country has yet produced. Repellant manners
injured his usefulness and obscured the luster of his great name. It is
said he could grant a request and thereby lose a friend, while Clay
could say “No” so kindly as to win a friend.
The life of Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, is one of
surprising interest. She was the daughter of Joshua Johnson, of
Maryland, was educated and married in London, accompanied her husband to
the many different courts to which he was minister, and brought to the
White House a larger social experience than any of her predecessors.
She reestablished the stately ceremonials of the Washington period,
which greatly resembled the customs of the English Court. Among the
great men who frequented her levees were Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and
Andrew Jackson (the latter always in buff pants and vest with blue
broadcloth coat and gilt buttons).
Then came strenuous Andrew Jackson as President, with only the memory of
his beloved Rachel, who had passed away before he became Chief
Magistrate. She had been buried in the beautiful dress prepared for her
husband’s inauguration. A private letter yet extant gives this picture
of the days when Emily Donelson (wife of the President’s nephew) was the
chief lady of the land:
“The large parlor was scantily furnished; there was light from the
chandelier, and a blazing fire in the grate; four or five ladies sewing
around it; Mrs. Donelson, Mrs. Andrew Jackson, Jr., Mrs. Edward
Livingston, and others. Five or six children were playing about,
regardless of documents or work-baskets. At the farther end of the room
sat the President in an arm-chair, wearing a loose coat, and smoking a
long reed pipe, with bowl of red clay—combining the dignity of the
patriarch, monarch, and Indian chief. Just behind him was Edward
Livingstone, the Secretary of State, reading a despatch from the French
Minister for Foreign Affairs. The ladies glance admiringly now and then
at the President, who listens, waving his pipe toward the children when
they become too boisterous.”
Jefferson, Jackson, Van Buren, Tyler, and Arthur were widowers when they
entered the White House.
Van Buren was the Talleyrand of American politics. Secretary of State
under Jackson, he had won the heart of his chief, whose influence
secured him the Presidency. His son’s wife, Angelica Singleton Van
Buren, gracefully conducted the ceremonies of the White House during the
Van Buren administration.
General William Henry Harrison became President in 1841. His wife never
came to Washington. He died one month after his inauguration. It was
declared that he was worried to death by the fierce office-seekers of
the time. His was the first funeral from the White House.
John Tyler, who succeeded Harrison, was a polished, cultured gentleman
from Virginia. His was the literary period, when Washington Irving,
Edward Everett, and John Howard Payne received foreign appointments.
His first wife, Letitia Christian Tyler, made her first public
appearance at the White House at the marriage of her daughter. She died
in 1842. Eight months before Tyler’s term expired he was married to Miss
Julia Gardner, of New York. The festivities of the time began with her
wedding reception, and lasted till the end of that administration.
James K. Polk, of Tennessee, became President in 1845. He was rather
small physically, and so spare or thin that the tailor had to make his
clothing too large to help out his appearance.
Mrs. Polk much resembled in manners Martha Washington. She dressed well
and gave frequent levees, as receptions were then called. She received
her guests sitting, with the President standing by her chair. A
gentleman once said to her, “Madam, there is a wo pronounced against you
in the Scriptures: ‘Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of you.’”
In 1849 Gen. Zachariah Taylor was inaugurated as the twelfth President
of the United States. He lived sixteen months and five days after he
became President. His wife, Margaret Taylor, was an invalid, but his
daughter, “Miss Betty” as she was familiarly called, made the White
House attractive.
Millard Fillmore, of New York, elected Vice-President, became President
July 10, 1852. He was an eminent lawyer from Buffalo. His manners were
marked with great simplicity and affability. Mrs. Abigail Fillmore was
one of the few literary women who have presided in the White House. She
drew to her side the literary men and women of the nation, and her
receptions resembled the French _salons_ in their literary tone.
Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, became President in 1853. He was a
shy, modest man, who could not cope with the strong men of the South,
who were even then preparing for secession. He was six feet high. His
coal-black hair and eyes gave him a most striking appearance. His wife,
Mrs. Jane Appleton Pierce, was not a strong woman physically, but
managed to discharge the duties of the White House with great dignity.
James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, became the fifteenth President of the
United States in 1857. The throes of the Civil War began in his
administration. He was a politician, not a statesman, and tried to suit
both sides, but ended by suiting neither. But the duties of the White
House were never more elegantly administered than while Miss Harriet
Lane, the niece of President Buchanan, presided. There are white-haired
diplomats living to-day who compare everything now done in the White
House with Miss Lane’s graceful administration. She had been much with
her uncle when he was minister at foreign courts, and they both had many
friends among the scholarly men of the legations, so that the White
House became the rendezvous of that class more than at any other period.
She received the Prince of Wales and his suite most gracefully, omitting
nothing which would add to the dignity of the occasion.
Jefferson Davis said: “The White House under the administration of
Buchanan approached more nearer to my idea of a Republican Court than
the President’s house had ever done since the days of Washington.”
Abraham Lincoln, “the noblest Roman of them all,” became President March
8, 1861. He is the greatest American that has yet lived. Washington was
the result of English influences, but Lincoln is the highest
representative of republican influences that has yet governed this
nation. A giant in stature, being six feet and four inches in height,
his grand physique was but a type of the great heart and strong
intellect of a great man. He was called to preside over this nation at
the most critical time in its history.
Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln found it difficult to keep up the ceremonious
customs of the White House with a husband who followed no
conventionalities, but believed the Executive Mansion should be opened
at all times to every citizen. Mrs. Lincoln devoted much time to the
soldiers in the hospitals, and the White House conservatory was kept
stripped of flowers for the benefit of the wounded and sick.
Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, came to the Presidency on the death of Mr.
Lincoln in 1865. He was not wise in his judgments, and had he been more
amenable to men of experience in governmental affairs his life in
Washington would have been much easier. Time is revealing more and more
that his troubles were in a great degree the result of the jealousies
and disappointments of politicians. The sufferings of the people of the
White House during the days of President Johnson’s trials can never be
estimated.
Martha Patterson, widow of Senator Patterson, of Tennessee, and daughter
of the President, administered the social duties of the Executive
Mansion during Johnson’s administration, Mrs. Johnson being an invalid.
Mrs. Patterson said: “We are plain people from the mountains of
Tennessee, called here for a short time by a national calamity. I trust
too much will not be expected of us.” But sad as her heart must have
been in those days, she filled the duties of her high place to the
satisfaction of even the exacting great dames of the period. Andrew
Johnson’s lovely family are yet fondly remembered and deeply loved by
many who enjoyed the friendship of “the plain people from Tennessee.”
General U. S. Grant, of Illinois, became President in 1869, and his
administration was one long carnival of social duties and enjoyments.
Mrs. Julia Dent Grant and her accomplished daughter, Nellie, led the
society of the Capitol through eight brilliant years. The White House
was entirely refurnished, and the festivities were on a scale of
magnificence never equaled there before or since.
In 1877 Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, became President. He came in at a
difficult and dangerous time, but his administration brought peace and
tranquility to the nation.
Mrs. Lucy Webb Hayes was noted for her plain dressing and strict
temperance principles, which she enforced even in the White House, much
to the disgust of the legations and to the delight of the Christian
people of the country.
[Illustration:
Cortelyou Payne Moody Hay Roosevelt Hitchcock Root Shaw Wilson
Knox
THE PRESIDENT AND CABINET
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
NEW ENTRANCE TO THE WHITE HOUSE
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
NEW WING OF THE WHITE HOUSE
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
SOUTH FRONT OF THE WHITE HOUSE
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
NORTH FRONT OF THE WHITE HOUSE
]
[Illustration:
Copyright by Clinedinst, 1903
NEW GRAND CORRIDOR—WHITE HOUSE
]
[Illustration:
Copyright by Clinedinst, 1903
NEW STATE DINING-ROOM—WHITE HOUSE
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
MOUNT VERNON—FROM SOUTH LAWN
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
TOMB OF WASHINGTON—MOUNT VERNON
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
HOME OF GENERAL LEE
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
MONUMENT TO THE UNKNOWN DEAD, ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
]
[Illustration:
Photo by Clinedinst
THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT
]
James A. Garfield, of Ohio, became President in 1881. His life in the
White House from March to September, 1881, scarcely gave time to show
what the social life in Washington would have been had he lived to
complete his term. His assassination cast a gloom over the social life
for a full year after Chester A. Arthur became the Executive. He served
to the end of the term, in 1885. President Arthur being a widower, the
hostess of the White House during his term was his accomplished sister,
Mrs. Mary Arthur McElroy.
Grover Cleveland, of New York, became President in 1885. The Republican
party had been in power for twenty-five years, and when Mr. Cleveland
was elected the change of officers was as great as in the days of Andrew
Jackson. Cleveland was a man of the highest integrity and the most
unfaltering courage, so that the change proved beneficial to the entire
land.
Miss Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, sister of the President, presided at the
White House until his marriage, June 2, 1886, to Miss Frances Folsom,
who became, next to Dolly Madison, the most popular woman who ever
entertained in the historic old house.
In March, 1889, Benjamin Harrison became Chief Magistrate. The first
Mrs. Harrison was a woman experienced in Washington society, and was
much loved by a very large circle.
In 1893 Grover Cleveland again became President, and in 1897 William
McKinley, probably the best-loved man by the people of any President
since the days of Mr. Lincoln.
Mrs. McKinley, altho an invalid, with the assistance of her nieces, kept
up the reputation and social festivities of the White House.
Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States in September,
1901.
What a goodly company they are, our Presidents and their families! No
scenes of unseemly revelry or base debauchery such as so often disgrace
the courts of Europe mar the reputation of this stately company.
“Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”
XXIX
INTERESTS IN WASHINGTON WHICH CAN NOT HERE BE FULLY DESCRIBED
In the third story of the Congressional Library strangers can find two
papier-maché models which are of great interest. One represents the City
of Washington in 1902, the other represents the Washington of the
future.
Congress has called the great engineers of the War Department and four
of the leading artists of the United States as a committee on civic
improvement for the capital city. The artists are: Mr. Daniel H.
Burnham, of Chicago; Mr. John C. Olmstead, the noted landscape artist;
Mr. Charles F. McKim, and Mr. Augustus St. Gaudens.
By the plans the public buildings of the future will be arranged around
Capitol Square (which has now two sides occupied by private residences),
and will then extend on both sides the mall, or flat, low-lying district
1,600 feet in width, extending from the Capitol building to the Potomac,
a distance of one and a half miles, and inclosing the Washington
monument. The buildings are all to be of white marble, harmonious in
design, and with a standard sky-line. The latter feature is not pleasing
in effect in the model. The Pennsylvania Railroad will give up the
location of the present depot, and join with the B. & O. in a union
depot near the site occupied by the latter.
At the front of Capitol Hill will be Union Square, where the statues of
war heroes will be grouped. The streets from that point to the
Washington monument will have four rows of trees on each side. A great
theater, gymnasium, lakes, fountains, and baths will remind one of
ancient Rome. A magnificent memorial to Abraham Lincoln will be placed
south of the Washington monument. Obelisks and arches which have been
used as memorials from the earliest ages will form part of the
ornamentation. People smile over this wonderful design, but if from now
on all public work is done under this intelligent supervision even one
hundred years may make the dream of these artists a glorious reality.
Not a lamp-post will go up in this new day, not a business sign will be
displayed without the approval of this art commission.
Designs for private houses as well as business houses must be made to
harmonize with the landscape and other buildings which already exist.
“May we all be here to see.”
Among the buildings and objects of interest which can not here be fully
described, nor their histories elaborated, is the Ben Butler building on
Capitol Square, where President Arthur made his home while the White
House was being repaired.
There is also the old Capitol or Capitol Square (now numbered 21, 23,
25), which was used by Congress after the British had destroyed the
Capitol in 1814. These buildings were used as a military prison during
the Civil War, and here Wirtz, of Andersonville prison memory, was
executed. In one of them died John C. Calhoun.
[Illustration:
CHARLOTTE CORDAY
(_One of the paintings in the Corcoran Art Gallery_)
]
The Washington monument, nearly six hundred feet high, is said to be the
highest monument in the world. It was erected in memory of George
Washington. This grand structure is of pure white marble. From the top
there is a magnificent view of the surrounding country. The monument,
however, has suffered from the disintegrating effects of the weather,
and from the ruthless hands of the relic-hunters. The majestic
appearance of the monument grows upon the beholder, and its pearly
whiteness reminds him of the character of Washington, which grows fairer
in the mellowing light of history.
Arlington Cemetery should be visited by the pilgrim to Washington. There
sleep many of the sacred dead of the nation, and there is the home of
Robert E. Lee, where he was called to decide between his country as a
whole or his native state.
Around Lafayette Square, which faces the White House, history, poetry,
romance, and chivalry have twined an immortal wreath. Every monument
commemorates a hero. Here, too, is the old private residence of Dolly
Madison, the old home of the British Embassy, where Owen Meredith wrote
“Lucile”; also the Webster home, where once lived the French Embassy;
and St. John’s Episcopal Church, where many Presidents have worshiped.
Here Webster, Sumner, and Slidell lived at different periods. The old
Decatur house stands on this square. The Admiral had a window cut
through, so that he could signal the President in the White House. They
missed the telephone. On this square lived Diaz, of Mexico; here Don
Cameron and Blaine each lived in the same house, now occupied by Senator
Hanna. On the north side is the handsome residence of Secretary of State
John Hay.
Georgetown, named after George III. of England, is much older than
Washington City. The stories of its former grandeur and its
distinctively Southern tone make it a quaint object of interest. Its
most interesting literary shrine is the home of Mrs. E. D. E. N.
Southworth, the novelist, who wrote one novel for each year of her long
life.
The Corcoran Art Gallery, on Seventeenth Street, extending from New York
Avenue to E Street, just southwest of the White House, has many objects
of interest both in painting and sculpture.
No traveler should fail to visit Mount Vernon, the home of George and
Martha Washington. The house was built in 1783 by Lawrence, half-brother
of General Washington. The rooms seem small and cramped, according to
our modern ideas, but they were the stage upon which lived and loved two
names of sacred memory. The buildings are in the custody of the ladies
of the Mount Vernon Association, and the care of each room is in charge
of some one State.
The United States Naval Observatory, north of Georgetown, will interest
lovers of astronomy, while every square, circle, and triangle of
Washington City has some reminder of those whose heroic deeds, spiritual
devotion, or literary and scientific achievement have beautified,
ennobled, and glorified the world, and made it more beautiful because of
their lives.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in
spelling.
2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
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