In Their Own Words: A Washington Dinner
An Appreciation of William Walter Phelps

copied from A Washington Dinner
An Appreciation of William Walter Phelps

(An appreciation of Frances Phelps-Penry's maternal grandfather William Walter Phelps [1839-1894], corporation lawyer, Republican congressman, diplomat and jurist. For the writer's relation to them see Family History.)

Introduction

Biographers make their choices as to what material to present to the reader and the reasons for them are not always clear. When a biography is commissioned, it's assumed that best feet will be vigorously thrust to the fore and any glaring flaws glossed over or blended with the overall picture so as to reduce their prominence. Congenial associations with celebrities, especially those with a broad audience, enhance any subject. That is why it is all the more surprising that Hugh M. Herrick's biography of William Walter Phelps, William Walter Phelps: His Life and Public Times, commissioned by his daughter Marian following his death in 1894, makes no mention of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), other than to note the instance of an address by the celebrity to Phelps's mission and its guests at the Thanksgiving Day celebration in Berlin, in 1891.

The distinguished author and personality was a visitor on several occasions in the 1870s to the Grange at Teaneck, William Walter's* New Jersey home. In Berlin, during William Walter's term as minister (ambassador) in the early 1890s, Clemens was a frequent visitor to the legation and their families socialized together. In a letter to Mrs. Crane, Mrs. Clemens' sister, in 1892, he wrote from Lucerne, Switzerland, ".....The Phelpses came to Frankfort and we had some great times--dinner at his hotel, the Masons, supper at our inn..." And William Walter's papers at the Huntington Library include several letters from the author, who writes a humorous sketch of a dinner at the Berlin legation in his autobiography. Who can say why Herrick made no mention of any of this? Perhaps Mr. Clemens' humor was not to the liking of some of Mr. Phelps's surviving family. Herrick, however, does not overlook William Walter's sociable nature.

* William Walter Phelps was addressed by his friends and associates in a variety of ways -- "Walter," "William Walter," "William," the New York Tribune editor Whitelaw Reid, simply by his initials "WWP," the historian Henry Adams, "Willy-Wally," even; in the newspapers he was "William Walter Phelps." I have always thought of him idiosyncratically as "William Walter."

When men of wealth belonged to clubs as a way of life, they were, if known for their hospitality, described as ‘clubbable.' William Walter was one who deserved the epithet. He was a generous host at Teaneck, his New York City home on Madison Avenue and his Washington D. C. house at Dupont Circle. When he sold another house at Dupont Circle to his friend James G. Blaine, a proviso was that the buyer incorporate "a commodious dining-room" for guests.

William Walter's genial nature expressed itself in a tolerance for those with differing views. As a politician he cultivated a broad spectrum of opinion, as the list of dinner guests in the following account demonstrates. Indeed, he seems to have been less concerned with dissuading others of their views than bringing them together in ways that might offer opportunities for consensus. His diplomacy was evident at all levels of life - in the House, as a Minister, and in relations with friends and relatives. Though a loyal Republican on most issues, he was not afraid to oppose his party on the grounds of principle. In his first congressional term he voted against the "salary grab," a scheme to back-pay congressional salaries, and spoke against the abuses of the franking privilege. His lone party vote against the Republican-sponsored Civil Rights bill of 1874, on the grounds that it lacked constitutionality and ran counter to his opposition to legislating human behavior, put him out of office in the next elections. Though ratified in 1875, the act was rejected by the Supreme Court in 1883 as unconstitutional, serving to confirm his view. Again, in 1884, he spoke cogently in favor of a bill to exonerate a Union general and constituent, Fitz-John Porter. The general had been cashiered for dereliction of duty during the war and then exonerated by a board of enquiry in Hayes' administration, but this had never formally been recognized by Congress. Republicans, scapegoating the general, had exploited the issue to score off the Democrats and were loath to pass the bill. When William Walter spoke on its behalf in a strong speech that attracted the press, he was lambasted by his own party and cheered by the Democrats. The bill passed. In another strong performance in 1886, he spoke out against the US failure to uphold its agreement to indemnity payments with China. Attacked by a mob in Wyoming when they refused to join a strike, the Chinese had suffered twenty-eight dead and fifteen wounded. In taking this stand William Walter clashed with his political mentor and friend, James G. Blaine, whose sentiments were anti-Chinese. The related bill passed.

While politics may make enemies among participants, little evidence exists that any were so aggrieved by William Walter, other than in the customary cut and thrust of the public arena. If anything was untoward about his public figure it was perhaps an element of the absurd. Combined with compensating qualities of powerful natural ability, he presented a paradox.

His self-confident, even dandyish, figure was noted for the plain gray $25 suits he perennially wore accompanied by a crimson red necktie, his favorite color. He suffered early on from poor eyesight and was cross-eyed. His hair was combed in a bang to hide a receding hairline and the press noted a shiny bald spot on the crown. Possessed of a soft voice, his delivery was smooth and his manner of argument persuasive. His detractors accused him of effeminacy, whereas his admirers noted his tact and perceptiveness. Speaking of William Walter's mooted vice-presidency during the Republican nominating convention of the 1888 elections, "Jim" Belford, from Colorado, " the red-headed rooster of the Rockies," declared, "no man can run the Republican party who bangs his hair." John Milton Hay, diplomat, statesman and man of letters, writing to Whitelaw Reid of the New York Herald Tribune, his editor in the instance, following a visit to Teaneck, wrote, "I never had really talked with Walter Phelps before, and I should not have felt like leaving the world without meeting so original and lovable a character. He is charming - mind and heart both - one of the fellows that ought to live forever to help sweeten a brackish world." The vanity that provoked William Walter's hairstyle was perhaps most evident in his marital plans for his daughter, Marian. It was she in whom he saw a dynastic future for the family, rather than his two older sons, John Jay II and Sheffield. This, despite appointing the former to manage the family's finances following his death. A Germanophile from his student days when he first visited the country, he greatly admired the race for their industry and intellectual ability. It was his belief that a marriage between a noble-born German and his daughter, who had, it was assumed, inherited all the singular traits of American know-how, would produce an able standard-bearer to continue the family's traditions. In this assessment he reflected the Darwinian social-engineering preoccupations consistent with his class. To this end he took her to Berlin during his posting as Minister. Unblessed with looks and wit and tending to plumpness, Marian was first and foremost a dutiful daughter. Despite the legation's hospitality, a string of well-heeled potential suitors declined to take the bait, until the process became a subject of mirth at the German court and was reported in the yellow journalism of the American press. At last, Franz von Rottenburg, a widower twice her age with two children, proposed and was accepted. Von Rottenburg, then in the government, had been a close aide to Chancellor Bismarck and chief of the Imperial Chancellery. Bismarck's son, Count Herbert, had been William Walter's first choice for his daughter.

William Walter's political career did not commence until after his father John Jay's death in 1869. Before that and following his graduation from Columbia in 1863, he practiced corporate law out of his office in the city. Among many clients he was counsel for the United States Trust Company, Morris, Ketchum & Co., the government bankers who failed during the Civil War, and William E. Dodge of the Phelps Dodge Mining Company, whose son Reverend David Stuart Dodge married his sister, Ellen Ada. On the death of his father, he inherited the bulk of his large estate and retired from his practice to manage it. Until that moment he had lived in the city with his wife, Ellen Maria (Sheffield) and their children. Since 1865, he had been buying land in Bergen county and, with his father's passing, he moved to Teaneck. Thus it was that he came to represent the New Jersey Fifth District as a Republican representative in 1873 in the Forty-third Congress.

In contemplating William Walter's political career questions arise as to the nature and extent of his ambitions. To assess these it may be useful to discuss the manner in which aspirants ran for office in those times. Campaigning, then, was a dance of a different sort than it is today, and we would probably draw different inferences from it.

Typically, political districts discussed potential candidates in meetings of local organizations. A candidate having been decided on, a discreet query was made as to their availability. Once a candidate had indicated a willingness to run, the local party managers organized support. The individual would then be openly called upon to run for office and, following expressions of reluctance, would graciously accept the party's favor. Following a speech duly noted in the papers, the candidacy was a fait accompli. This tradition of noblesse oblige, whether feigned or real, persisted until Benjamin Harrison broke with it in his presidential campaign in 1888. Making himself available at his home to all who came, he addressed the issues of the day, propounding his political views. James A. Garfield had adopted a similar practice during his presidential run, but had confined his expressions to those of national sentiment.

In respect of William Walter's political career there is report that he initially favored the Democrats. The local party machine, however, considered him too effete for the ticket. When the local Republicans, impressed with his wealth and manners, sounded him out, he accepted.

William Walter's politics were moderate as applied to the day. The Republican party, but a few years in existence, was rift by the rampant corruption that accompanied Grant's terms in office. A reforming wing of the party was led by the charismatic James G. Blaine, a representative from Maine and notable house speaker. During his first term William Walter made fast friends with him. Throughout his career Blaine was a perennial party favorite, receiving the presidential nomination twice. Tainted with charges of taking railroad commissions, he lost his first bid in 1876. The second in 1884 also fell victim to charges of corrupt associations. Despite this, William Walter remained an ardent supporter and his fate would be closely linked with the older man.

William Walter supported a protective tariff and was an advocate of sound money, two policies closely associated with the Republicans. Not for him free trade and an endless supply of unsupported printed money, two of the frequent persuasions of the Democrats. Though his was the party of Reconstruction and he was appointed to a commission to resolve a political impasse in the government of New Orleans in 1874, he was against the policy. Attracting attention as an able speaker and strong advocate for his principles, he was appointed to the Banking and Currency committee, where he spoke in favor of introducing the gold standard. He was mooted as an Assistant Secretary of State, even the secretaryship itself, but declined, as he had earlier refused a judgeship, fearing it would be a dead-end to his career and finding himself out of step with the administration.

Outside the political theatre, there occurred in this period a misfortune that would have a critical, perhaps crucial, effect on William Walter's career. In the run up to the elections before his first term in office, while at a hotel in Baltimore, he contracted typhoid fever. His health, never robust, was chronically impaired as a result, and frequent bouts of fatigue were claimed as a reason for his periodic withdrawal from the public arena.

Out of office following the elections of 1876, William Walter busied himself with his estate at Teaneck. There, it was noted, he took great interest in landscaping the 2,000 or so acres, having 600,000 trees planted and eight miles of macadam laid. A railroad, in which no doubt he had an interest, intersected the property, having two stations on it. Herrick's biography notes the comfort he took in walking about his land with his daughter Marian, pointing to the special relationship the pair developed.

Ellen Maria, William Walter's wife, was a domineering woman, one of a family that included a number of strong-willed female offspring. Their father, Joseph Earl Sheffield, came from a seafaring family in Connecticut and made his money as a cotton broker. Later, a railroad financier, he retired to devote his life philanthropically to the development of the Sheffield Scientific School of Engineering at Yale. Ellen ran the household with a tight fist and there is the sense of a distinct contrast in the couple's temperaments -- hers brash and imperious, his gentler and more inclined to sympathy. An anecdote has it that some years after William Walter's death a New York bank, in which Ellen was a principal stockholder, sent an employee of the bank to inform her that her account was overdrawn. Writing a check, she instructed the bank to fire the messenger for his impertinence. In contrast, hearing, while traveling in Europe following Garfield's successful presidential run in 1880, of the failure of the Bergen Savings Bank of Hackensack, NJ, because of a cashier's embezzlement, William Walter, under no obligation except that which he morally assumed towards alleviating the misery of small depositors, instructed his office to pay all accounts under $100 out of his own money.

In respect of William Walter's generous instincts it may be noted that he mentored the political radical and investor in pneumatic mail-tubes, John Milholland. The teenaged John had moved to Paterson, NJ, with his father in 1871, and his keen intellect attracted his future patron. William Walter paid for his tuition to New York University and helped him to buy the Ticonderoga Sentinel, a Republican paper. Other friends of William Walter, Whitelaw Reid, editor and publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, and John Wanamaker, the department store magnate, would promote Milholland's business ambitions.

In 1880, William Walter campaigned for James Garfield, another close friend. In consequence, he was appointed to his first diplomatic post, Minister to Austro-Hungary at Vienna. When Garfield was assassinated, he returned and, pressed by his district, ran successfully for a second congressional term. Whether truly fatigued or affecting reluctance, he would only accede to the entreaties on a promise that the party conduct the day to day running of the campaign without him.

In the hot fought elections of 1884 William Walter campaigned vigorously for Blaine. It is said that had Blaine prevailed he would have made his supporter Secretary of State.

During his three consecutive and final congressional terms, William Walter sat on the Foreign Affairs, Civil Service and Tenth Census committees, as well as a select committee to investigate ordinance and naval shipbuilding, which received considerable impetus under the Secretary of the Navy, William C. Whitney. He introduced a bill providing for a civil government in Alaska and education for native children; supported a bill to pay indemnities to the French for damages incurred during the Revolution; supported a labor arbitration bill designed to resolve employer/employee disputes; presented a joint resolution to support exhibitors at the Exposition in Antwerp, Belgium, and spoke on behalf of a similar appropriation for a centenary exhibition at Melbourne, Australia -- in opposition to his party and on behalf of the Democrats; supported liberal appropriations for American mail ships and the Post Office; and, supported Blaine's initiatives as Secretary of State under Benjamin Harrison in promoting trade with Mexico and South America. The latter demonstrates his constant advocacy for overseas trade subsidies. He was a firm believer that such money spent would reap returns many times greater.

The issue of the tariff, the excise duty on overseas goods to protect home industries, dominated these years in politics. The Republicans, protectionists, favored a high tariff; Democrats, free traders, a low tariff or none at all. William Walter followed his party's line, while striving to break down European tariffs on American imported goods. Later, as Minister to Germany, he was instrumental in persuading the Germans to open their markets to American pork, though political machinations at home prevented him from receiving due credit.

Another issue that raised fevers in Congress was that of US fishing rights in respect of Canadian waters. Both parties exploited the issue, offering competing bills that did little to pour oil on the troubled political waters. William Walter stood ably to the fore, lending his oratorical skills to the debate. During the congressional session following Grover Cleveland's defeat of Blaine for the presidency, Representative Reagan of Texas, author of a bill regulating interstate commerce, assailed William Walter for his past railroad activities in the state. Opposing the bill and responding to the representative's accusations of unfair freight-charging, William Walter charged the state with failing to honor its agreement to bond subsidies for the railroad. It was not, he said, railroad managers like himself who were gouging the consumer, but railroad stock speculators. This, as I will show later, was disingenuous. I choose to digress here, because this era, the Gilded Era, saw the rapid accumulation of great wealth in the development of the railroad, and William Walter was a railroad man, a fact for which there is scant detail in the public record.

The expansion of the railroads across the country was effected at the expense of huge amounts of public money in the form of subsidies and bonds granted by the federal and state governments. This process was attended by much corruption. Railroad men fought amongst themselves without scruple. Indeed, the accumulation of capital was seen as the greatest good, no matter the means employed. These included lavish offerings to members of congress in return for favors. Many were accepted. In some cases a congressman would take money from two competing railroad men and later decline both their interests. Washington was awash in railroad money and many were tainted by it. Garfield (the Credit Mobilier scandal of 1872) and Blaine (the Mulligan Letters of 1876) were both affected, though both may have been guiltless and neither demonstrated any profit by their alleged involvement.

None of this is to suggest that William Walter accepted railroad bribes. The circumstances of his interests in Texas are as follows.

The International & Great Northern Railroad Company, formed in 1873, constituted a major component of the Missouri Pacific lines in Texas. William Walter was a principal investor along with William Dodge and others. In 1878, the company went into receivership. The land granted to the railroad through bonds and subsidies, three million acres in the Panhandle, was held in the Texas Land Company. As a consequence of the line's default, this land passed into the hands of William Walter, William Dodge and two New York financiers, Samuel Thorne and John S. Kennedy. Henceforth, it was known as the New York and Texas Land Company. Not long after, the company acquired a further two million acres discounted by the state legislature, making it the biggest private land company in Texas at that time since the Civil War. The land would provide valuable grazing rights and, in the next century, oil. By the turn of the century, a few years after William Walter's death in 1894, the company's lands had been sold and it was terminated. Though the company's papers were burnt at a celebratory event - an action it was entitled to as a private company - enough evidence exists to show that it had been an immensely profitable venture.

Concerning William Walter's railroad interests, the foregoing lies in the public record. Beyond this, as mentioned, there is precious little else readily available. Hugh Herrick, his biographer, notes his directorship on the boards of nine railroads, but tantalizingly fails to identify them. In addressing this omission I have uncovered activities that detract from the honorable character William Walter would have wished for his legacy. Of particular note are his associations with the era's consummate speculator, Jay Gould.

In 1872, Horace Greeley, editor and publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, died campaigning on the Democrat-Republican ticket in the presidential elections. A struggle for the influential paper's ownership ensued between the right wing of the Republican party led by the New York party boss, Roscoe Conkling, and a reforming element including William Walter. Formerly a noted Civil War correspondent, Whitelaw Reid, fast-becoming a close friend of William Walter, was the paper's assistant editor and funds were sought to enable his ownership. Reid's biographer, Bingham Duncan, states that Jay Gould, seeking favorable press following the turmoil of the Erie railroad wars, was brought into the group and made a loan. Because Gould's name could not be publicized, William Walter presented himself as the de facto leader. This latter is corroborated by Reid's other biographer, Royal Cortissoz, and Herrick's biography of William Walter. Towards the end of the presidential elections of 1880, William Walter, identified as Gould's attorney, participated with Whitelaw Reid as intermediaries in a bribe of Garfield by the speculator. In return Gould demanded the controlled appointment of three supreme court justices. Ted Nace's Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy presents a detailed account (pgs. 90-93) based on Reid's correspondence with Garfield. The bribe, accepted in the last days of the campaign when funds were dangerously low -- the party needed to secure Indiana to ensure success - was $150,000 (currently approximately 2.6 million). Gould's quid pro quo, initially realized by the successful nomination of his former Midwest attorney Stanley Matthews, was cut short by Garfield's assassination.

A further detailed source for aspects of this event, though omitting mention of William Walter's involvement, can be found in C. Peter Magrath's study of the Waite Supreme Court, Morrison R. Waite: The Triumph of Character (pgs. 243-247). This also refers to a claim that railroad man Collis P. Huntington colluded in the bribe, matching Gould's offer (p.246, footnote).

The presidential election of 1884, pitting Blaine against Grover Cleveland, was particularly acrimonious. Blaine and his supporters were depicted as the embodiment of corruption in the popular press: HarpWeek (online) archives a number of stark cartoons, including a series devoted solely to Phelps and Reid. Gould was also present as a contributor to Blaine's campaign.

As to William Walter's railroad connections to Gould, Bob Griffin of Bergen Books has unearthed a number of lines in which they were both involved. These include the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W), the Morris & Essex in New Jersey, the Oswego & Syracuse and the Lake Erie & Western. William Walter's father, John Jay, was an early investor in the DL&W, and John Jay II had an interest in another line, the Cayuga & Susquehanna, also controlled by Gould. Gould was also a director of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, William Walter's father-in-law Joseph Earl Sheffield's old line, and of the International & Great Northern, following its bankruptcy that led to the establishment of the New York and Texas Land Company. Another line of which William Walter was a director, though Gould is not mentioned, was the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western; also, the Western Car Company, a provider of rolling stock.

It is clear from all this that William Walter was in the thick of things and a fixer for moneyed interests.

In consideration of William Walter's character, family legacy must be considered. His father, a silent and critical man who had worked his way up from a humble farm life to a position of wealth and prominence in the country's most powerful city, had high expectations for his only surviving son. No doubt, the loss of another, Francis while a child, sharpened his concern for the family's future. Deprived by circumstances of any but the lowliest education himself, he sent William Walter to Yale and Columbia, educational institutions associated with national leadership. William Walter, a Bonesman, 1860, would be a Yale trustee for twenty years. Phelps Gate on the Old Campus was endowed in his memory by the family.

In addition to his ill-health as a reason for bowing out of the public sphere on occasion, there is also the hint of a reluctance to pursue his father's goals. Did the one act as a pretext for the other? It is interesting to note that William Walter took second place at his graduating examination at Yale by choosing to take a drive with his wife-to-be, Ellen Maria, over writing a required paper. He married her on the eve of graduation. Whatever the merits of this and nonetheless, his career demonstrates persistent ambition. Responding to a query as to whether he would ever refuse office, he said: "By no means. From boyhood I have always held and avowed the opinion that the people could command the services of any citizen for any post. If I were elected poundkeeper I would serve. I should, of course, prefer that they should summon me to more congenial duties,.............but my preference would not prevent my obedience to any call, whether I wanted it or not." (Herrick)

In 1887, William Walter divested himself of his business interests. A Sherman/Phelps -- Senator John Sherman, from Ohio - ticket was mooted for the coming elections. The following year he was paired with Benjamin Harrison on the fifth ballot, and there is evidence to suggest that he would have been acceptable. However, the New York banker, Levi P. Morton, prevailed on the sixth, bringing with him the more powerful New York delegation. Though there was no love lost between them, Harrison's victory owed significantly to Blaine, who declined to stand against him. Blaine was appointed Secretary of State and William Walter rewarded with the ministerial posting to Germany. Whatever their expectations for further office, ill-health would bring about their deaths within a few years: Blaine with Bright's disease, a diabetic condition, in 1893, and William Walter with tuberculosis, a year later.

A cameo of William Walter in the House may serve to underscore his particular individuality. It involves a New York Democrat, Perry Belmont.

As a new member of the House in 1882 and placed on the Foreign Affairs committee, Perry Belmont had aggressively attacked James Blaine over matters involving Chili and Peru, going so far as to call him "a bully and a coward." Strong words for a freshman to a man of Blaine's lengthy and notable career in the House. Subsequent reports of Belmont indicate that, while he may have found it easy to attack another, he was woefully inadequate as a speaker in promoting legislation. In 1887, in the Fiftieth Congress, by which time Belmont had become chair of the Foreign Affairs committee, William Walter tore him to shreds in a debate involving a retaliatory fisheries bill, forcing him to sit down. It may be said that in doing so he avenged the insults to his friend Blaine. Later, in the same session, Belmont proposed an appropriation for American exhibitors to the aforementioned centenary exposition in Melbourne, Australia. This was a bill strongly opposed by the right wing Republicans, yet close to William Walter's heart. Crossing the floor, he coached Belmont and made the presenting and defending speeches. A remarkable comment on the intellectual state of the Democrat-controlled House that prevailed then.

Diplomacy was another strong suit for William Walter.

In 1884, a member of the German Liberal Union party noted for his socialist views, Dr. Eduard Lasker, died while on a visit to the U.S. A resolution of the House was passed proffering sympathy for the death and praising the statesman's political philosophy. This was presented to the German Foreign Office by the American Minister and sent to parliament. Chancellor Bismarck, hostile to the views of the late statesman, refused to present it. When the Liberal Union party presented its thanks to the House, a diplomatic impasse occurred: accepting the thanks would acknowledge political views which were anathema to the powerful German Chancellor. Some members of the House wished to stand by the resolution, others were concerned not to give offense. A way out was found when William Walter drafted a resolution which, while acknowledging the more general sympathies of the resolution, omitted any mention of the dead man's political views. Incorporated was a disavowal of any interest in the relations of the executive and legislative branches of the German government, while an accompanying resolution thanked the Liberal Union party for its recognition.

As one of three commissioners to the Berlin conference in 1889 to resolve the Samoan Islands' dispute, William Walter was described as a ‘peacemaker.' The problem of the Samoan Islands is too involved to enter into here in detail. Briefly, it concerned territorial issues that had arisen from German, American and British interests in the islands. There had been a prolonged period of internal strife, with wars amongst the natives and involving the three powers. Matters had come to a head when a number of German soldiers were killed in a battle with a native faction. While the conference failed to resolve the underlying issues ­- another ten years would pass before that happened - a major sticking point was the composition of the municipal governing council in Apia, the principal community. After a lengthy period of argument, William Walter proposed an arrangement satisfactory to all.

As Minister to Germany, one of William Walter's duties was to host an annual Thanksgiving Day celebration for members of the American colony. A group composed of varied sentiments and behaviors, rich and poor, they seldom got along with one another and the celebration frequently figured discord. For the first such occasion William Walter arranged a series of lavish events -- a banquet, a concert and a ball -- underwriting many of the expenses himself so as to make it affordable for all. While the reception of these by his guests is unrecorded, a subsequent Thanksgiving celebration reveals a different approach. Striving for harmony, he separated the guests into three groups -- members of the mission, physicians, and the King's Daughters of the American Church. This required three different dinners, at each of which he made an appearance.

In respect of his relatives, the affair involving William Walter's father's first cousin and partner, Amos Richards Eno, highlights his ability to broker a deal in a time of crisis. As with the Samoan Islands, I must abbreviate a detailed account.

In 1864, Amos Eno opened a bank, the Second National City Bank, in the hotel he had built, the Fifth Avenue Hotel. In May, 1884, it came to light that Amos's son, John Chester, whom he had made president of the bank, had embezzled all the funds. The bank was broke to the tune of four-and-a-half-million, including Amos's securities. Amos's wealth, twenty million, was principally in city real estate. It was a desperate situation. He sent a telegram to William Walter urging him to come at once, which he did. For three days William Walter engaged with an angry father and a board of directors who were reluctant to pony up the cash. At the last, after two infusions of cash himself, the bank was secured. Though he had once been on the board of directors of the bank, William Walter had no obligation to it, other than his voluntary assumption of support for the relative who owned it.

Loyal, generous and sympathetic, William Walter was ever present for his friends. The wedding of Blaine's daughter, Alice, in 1883, took place at the family's house adjacent to William Walter's at Dupont Circle. Mrs. Blaine writes, "...Mr. Phelps (assisting with the reception)...came and went from the top of the house to the bottom 100 times in his anxiety lest anything unforeseen and unprovided should mar the occasion........Another moment and W. W. P. came in view to say that the stairway was cleared for the family. So down we went."

There is also consideration of the age in which William Walter lived. John Jay, William Walter's father, was of the mercantile class, whose social values prevailed before the Civil War. Mercantilists were predominantly traders -- John Jay Phelps and Amos Eno were dry goods wholesalers. The ethics of the mercantile class presumed a society in which every man might rise to his natural level of ability. Trading required little manpower and, once an individual had apprenticed themselves and learned a trade, it was customary for him to go off and start his own business. For this reason, the view of society expressed by the most influential class of the day was one in which everyone could share the same prospects for advancement. It was socially inclusive. The Civil War, requiring huge amounts of money and manufacture, created new classes who rapidly replaced the mercantilists and their view of society. The bankers and financiers and industrialists who rapidly rose to prominence following the Civil War had different needs. Manufacturing required a steady supply of cooperative employees. Working conditions were often appalling and there was little chance for advancement. This produced a socially exclusive ruling class and a working class that came to be increasingly at odds with it.

William Walter sensed these changes with concern. As he saw it, the encroachment of wealth in public life was producing a hollow shell and robbing society of its spiritual core. Speaking at a New York celebration in 1880 on the anniversary of the birth of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, on the theme "Highland Hospitality," he commented: "Already we feel that the lack of the age is not the hospitality that warms the body, but a hospitality that shall warm the heart. A stimulated sympathy makes us build hospitals, libraries, and galleries, and Bible and tract societies - enough to make the outer life of the citizen comfortable and comely, and then? How easy to share our homes! How hard, our hearts! How easy to give money; how hard to give sympathy and love! Yet these qualities only are divine and the most vital to the happiness of man. But these qualities are the very ones that civilization - modern life - with all its infinite resources, is powerless to give..... Shall our schools and colleges, our railways and telegraphs, our galleries and museums, our colossal fortunes, putting into single hands the resources of empire, make a nation whose manners and morals shall be good, because their intellectual perception of the right and proper shall be perfect; whose institutions of education and charity shall be complete and satisfactory; who shall discharge all duties perfectly, but mechanically and without heart? Then life will indeed be perfect and not worth living; and the human hearts, when not changed to brains, starving in the midst of apparent plenty, longing for sympathy and love, dying in the midst of life, shall cry in despair: 'Who shall deliver us from the bondage of death?' Yet this is the tendency of modern culture."

Here, then, was an East coast capitalist who, coming of age and formed in part by a more respectful era, was faced with the challenges posed by the stultifying indifference towards others implicit in the virtues of the new era that the Civil War so rudely and rapidly ushered in on the nation. Money would no longer provide the glue that held different classes of society together by offering a route to advancement. Instead, it would become the weapon that threatened to destroy the whole fabric. Ambition made William Walter blind to his collusion with these dark forces and act against his better nature.

William Walter's last appointment was to the New Jersey State Court of Errors and Appeals in 1893. He was dying of tuberculosis and it was obvious to those around him. In the spring of the following year he traveled to Old Point Comfort, Virginia, where he stayed with his secretary, Hugh Herrick, at the Hygeia Hotel. His natural sociability was drained by the disease and he sought seclusion. Hoping for a remission, they went to Hot Springs, a spa in West Virginia. But there was to be none. Returning to Teaneck, he died on June 17 surrounded by his family, two months shy of his fifty-fifth birthday on August 24. ­William Walter Phelps's Washington, D. C. dinner.

With his description of the Washington dinner, Herrick signals the high point of William Walter's expectations for national office. His business interests divestiture make it clear that he was preparing himself for such. The presence of Senator Sherman at the dinner may have been pointed, given talk of a ticket by the pair. Though there were, again, calls for Blaine's nomination, Blaine had settled for Harrison. Once victory was achieved, Harrison would have to repay Blaine, and that would put Blaine in a position to help his friend William Walter. In the event, poor relations between Blaine and Harrison blunted this initiative.

The following is excerpted from my family memoir Dear Gordon: Speaking of the Past, which provides a lengthier treatment of William Walter's life.

"Shortly before Congress ended in March (1887), William Walter gave a dinner at Chamberlain's in Washington for his friend, the popular Representative Frank Hiscock of New York, another of Blaine's close confidants, who had just been elected to the Senate. So as to avoid giving offense in a crowd of such varied views, William Walter diplomatically had his guests seated at a circular table, he furthest away from the door, his guest of honor opposite. To his right sat Sir Lionel Sackville-West, British Minister to Washington, Colonel Henry Watterson - known as ‘Marse Henry' - Democrat and editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, Senator Thomas C. Platt, a Republican senator from New York and boss of the state party machine, Senator William M. Evarts, statesman and Republican Senator from New York, William R. Morrison, a Democrat from Illinois and a trenchant advocate of a low tariff, Senator Sewell, a New Jersey Republican, the Hon. Levi P. Morton, a Republican and New York banker who would be Benjamin Harrison's vice-president and Minister to France, Murat Halstead, Republican and editor of the Cincinnati Commercial, Chauncey M. Depew, Republican Senator from New York and president of the New York Central Railroad, Lucius Q. C. Lamar, a Mississippi Democrat with wide railroad interests, then Interior Secretary in Cleveland's administration, he would later be a Supreme Court Justice.

"To the host's left were John G. Carlisle, a Kentucky Democrat and House Speaker, Whitelaw Reid, a Republican and editor and publisher of the New York Herald Tribune and later Minister to France and England, Samuel J. Randall, a Pennsylvania Democrat, Justice Samuel Blatchford, who had worked in the US District Attorney's office, General Philip Sheridan, the celebrated Union soldier, Major William McKinley, a Republican congressman, future Governor of Ohio and the twenty-fifth President, William Waldorf Astor, a New York legislator and Minister to Italy, Thomas B. Reed, a Republican representative from Maine who would be Speaker of the House, William C. Whitney, a Democrat and New York financier, then Navy Secretary, and John Sherman, the Republican Representative from Ohio and Treasury Secretary in Hayes' Administration. "Amongst the groups' individual differences were Watterson's known anti-British aristocracy views - he was seated next to Sir Lionel - in addition to his similarly stinging editorializing on Sam Randall, who was one of a small number of Democrats who supported the tariff; William Morrison had forcefully spoken against the new tariff bill, of which many present were in favor; Tom Reed had filibustered successfully against Navy Secretary Whitney's plan for reorganizing the navy; while, there were many in the room who were critical of Lucius Lamar's performance as Interior Secretary. Whatever their views, these were all men joined in the seat of power.

"The mustachioed William Walter, with his unabashed profile, was to all appearances a typical member of the East coast establishment - and appearances mattered greatly between the coasts. At the age of thirty-four, he was noted by a contemporary journalist as standing five feet nine and a half inches, weighing170 pounds, and walking with ‘a live, springy step.' His manner was described as ‘simple, gracious and winning.' In his twenty-five dollar suits, customarily sporting a red necktie, as the newspaperman Frank G. Carpenter observed, William Walter Phelps was a familiar figure about the streets of the capital. His probity and influence were noted by the historian Henry Adams, who wrote to John Hay in 1884 deploring the rottenness of banking and politics, referring in particular to the troubles of the Second National Bank and William Walter's support for Blaine, ‘The only wise man is Willy Wally, and wisdom has cost him $250,000 for the reformer Eno, besides whatever the Blaine campaign thus far has come to. W. W. P. is to be our next Secretary of State.......' In this prediction he was wrong. In another letter, written to Ann Cabot Mills Lodge in 1890 from Samoa, including remarks disparaging of the inhabitants for which he begged her discretion, Adams referred to William Walter's voice, which, though soft, carried much weight, ‘...........a whisper (in the gossipy atmosphere of Samoa) echoes like W. W. Phelps's voice.....'

"In addition to the distinctive timbre of his voice and cross-eyed appearance, an uncomplimentary aspect which appears to have been overlooked by the press, vanity provoked William Walter to part his hair in the middle and comb it forward in a bang to hide advancing baldness, an affect with which he came to be associated as Winston Churchill would be with his cigar or Chaplin with his cane. These characteristics suggested effeteness to the Western temper and, when Blaine urged a Presidential ticket of Benjamin Harrison and Phelps to avoid his own nomination in the 1888 convention, the West coast delegates would have none of it. Ironically, the successful vice-presidential nominee was Levi P. Morton, from New York, who, newspaperman Henry L. Stoddard wrote, was ‘literally hairless - no eyebrows and a head as bald as a billiard ball.'"

Biographical data and notes for William Walter Phelps and his Washington, D. C. dinner guests. PHELPS, William Walter, (1839-1894), a Representative from New Jersey; born in New York City August 24, 1839; attended private schools near Bridgeport, Conn., and Mount Washington Institute, New York; was graduated from Yale College in 1860 and from the law department of Columbia College, New York City, in 1863; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in New York City; retired from the practice of law in 1868; engaged in banking in New York City, with residence in Englewood, N.J.; also served as a director of numerous railroads; elected to the Forty-third Congress (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1875); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1874 to the Forty-fourth Congress; delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1880 and 1884; Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria in 1881; relinquished the position in 1882; elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, and Fiftieth Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1889); declined to be a candidate for re-nomination in 1888; appointed by President Harrison one of the commissioners to represent the United States at the International Congress on the Samoan Question, which met in Berlin in 1889; appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Germany in 1889 and served until 1893; appointed a special judge of the court of errors and appeals of the State of New Jersey in 1893; died in Englewood, Bergen County, N.J., June 17, 1894; interment in the City Cemetery, Simsbury, Conn.

Seated to William Walter's right in order –
SACKVILLE, Lionel Sackville-West, 2d Baron, (1827–1908), British diplomat. He served in numerous diplomatic posts before being appointed (1881) ambassador to the United States. He helped to settle (1887–88) the quarrel between the United States and Canada over fishing rights in the North Atlantic. In 1888 he was tricked, by a letter falsely purporting to come from a nonpolitical source, into making a statement implying that the reelection of Grover Cleveland would be to the British interest. His reply was publicized to further the Republican campaign for Benjamin Harrison. He was recalled (1888) to London upon President Cleveland's demand. He succeeded to his brother's title in 1888 and retired the following year. Comment: His illegitimate daughter, Victoria Josepha Dolores Catalina, was the mother of Vita Sackville-West, the poet, novelist and friend of Virginia Woolf.

WATTERSON, Henry, (1840-1921) (son of Harvey Magee Watterson and nephew of Stanley Matthews), a Representative from Kentucky; born in Washington, D.C., February 16, 1840; completed preparatory studies under private tutors; attended the Academy of the Diocese of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa.; engaged in newspaper work as correspondent and editorial writer; his first newspaper employment was on the Washington States, a Democratic paper, 1858-1861; became editor of the Republican Banner in Nashville, Tenn., in 1861; during the Civil War entered the Confederate service; aide to Gen. N.B. Forrest; was on the staff of Gen. Leonidas Polk; chief of scouts in Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army; edited the Chattanooga Rebel in 1862 and 1863; resumed newspaper pursuits in Nashville after the war; moved to Louisville, Ky., in 1867 and purchased the Louisville Journal, consolidated it with the Courier, and served as editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal for fifty years; temporary chairman of the Democratic National Convention in 1876; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Edward Y. Parsons and served from August 12, 1876, to March 3, 1877; declined to be a candidate for re-nomination in 1876; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1880, 1884, 1888, and 1892; died in Jacksonville, Fla., December 22, 1921; interment in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Ky.

PLATT, Thomas Collier, (1833-1910), a Representative and a Senator from New York; born in Owego, Tioga County, N.Y., July 15, 1833; was prepared for college in the Owego Academy and attended Yale College in 1849 and 1850; in 1852 engaged in business as a druggist and continued for twenty years; president of the Tioga National Bank; interested in the lumbering business in Michigan; clerk of Tioga County 1859-1861; elected as a Republican to the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1877); elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1881, and served from March 4, 1881, to May 16, 1881, when he resigned because of a disagreement with President James Garfield over federal appointments in New York; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate to succeed himself; chairman, Committee on Enrolled Bills (Forty-seventh Congress); secretary and director of the United States Express Co. in 1879 and elected president of the company in 1880; member and president of the Board of Quarantine Commissioners of New York 1880-1888; member of the Republican National Committee; elected to the United States Senate in 1896; reelected in 1903 and served from March 4, 1897, to March 3, 1909; not a candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard (Fifty-fifth Congress), Committee on Printing (Fifty-sixth through Sixtieth Congresses), Committee on Cuban Relations (Fifty-ninth Congress), Committee on Interoceanic Canals (Fifty-ninth Congress); died in New York City, March 6, 1910; interment in Owego Cemetery, Owego, N.Y.

[Comment: A lieutenant of Roscoe Conkling, NY Republican party boss, he was known as "The Easy Boss" and "The Machiavelli of Tioga County."]

EVARTS, William Maxwell, (1818-1901), (grandson of Roger Sherman), a Senator from New York; born in Boston, Mass., February 6, 1818; attended the Boston Latin School and graduated from Yale College in 1837; studied at Harvard Law School; was admitted to the bar in New York City in 1841 and practiced law; assistant United States district attorney 1849-1853; unsuccessful Republican candidate for the United States Senate in 1861; member of the State constitutional convention 1867-1868; appointed Attorney General of the United States by President Andrew Johnson 1868-1869; chief counsel for President Johnson in the impeachment proceedings in 1868; counsel for the United States before the tribunal of arbitration on the Alabama claims at Geneva, Switzerland, in 1872; counsel for President Rutherford Hayes, in behalf of the Republican Party, before the Electoral Commission in 1876; appointed Secretary of State of the United States by President Hayes 1877-1881; delegate to the International Monetary Conference at Paris 1881; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1885, to March 3, 1891; chairman, Committee on the Library (Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses); retired from public life due to ill health; died in New York City, February 28, 1901; interment in Ascutney Cemetery, Windsor, Vt.

MORRISON, William Ralls, (1824-1909), a Representative from Illinois; born on a farm at Prairie du Long, near the present town of Waterloo, Monroe County, Ill., September 14, 1824; attended the common schools and McKendree College, Lebanon, Ill.; served in the war with Mexico; went to California with the gold seekers in 1849, but returned to Illinois in 1851; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1855 and commenced practice in Waterloo, Ill.; clerk of the circuit court of Monroe County, Ill., 1852-1854; member of the State house of representatives 1854-1860, 1870, and 1871, and served as speaker in 1859 and 1860; organized and was colonel of the Forty-ninth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War; while in command of his regiment in the field was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1863-March 3, 1865); unsuccessful candidate in 1864 for reelection to the Thirty-ninth Congress and in 1866 for election to the Fortieth Congress; continued the practice of law in Waterloo, Ill.; elected to the Forty-third and to the six succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1887); chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Forty-fourth, Forty-eighth, and Forty-ninth Congresses), Committee on Public Lands (Forty-fifth Congress), Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury (Forty-sixth Congress); unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 1885; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1886 to the Fiftieth Congress; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1856, 1868, 1884, and 1888; also a delegate to the Union National Convention at Philadelphia in 1866; appointed in 1887 by President Cleveland a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission; reappointed by President Harrison on January 5, 1892, and served from March 22, 1887, to December 31, 1897; was chairman of the commission from March 19, 1892, to the end of his term; resumed the practice of law in Waterloo, Monroe County, Ill., and died there September 29, 1909; interment in Waterloo Cemetery.

SEWELL, William Joyce, (1835-1909), a Senator from New Jersey; born in Castlebar, Ireland, December 6, 1835; immigrated to the United States in 1851; engaged in mercantile pursuits in Chicago, Ill.; moved to Camden, N.J., in 1860; during the Civil War, served with the New Jersey Volunteers, beginning as a captain in 1861; brevetted brigadier general and major general in 1865; awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1896, ‘for having assumed command of a brigade at Chancellorsville, Va., May 3, 1863'; after the war became connected with railroads in New Jersey; member, State senate 1872-1881, serving as president in 1876, 1879-1880; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1881, to March 3, 1887; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1887, and for election to the United States Senate in 1889 and 1893; chairman, Committee on Enrolled Bills (Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Congresses), Committee on Military Affairs (Forty-ninth Congress), Committee on the Library (Forty-ninth Congress); one of the national commissioners for New Jersey to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893; was in command of the Second Brigade of the National Guard of New Jersey; appointed a member of the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers; again elected to the United States Senate in 1895; reelected in 1901, and served from March 4, 1895, until his death in Camden, N.J., December 27, 1901; chairman, Committee on Enrolled Bills (Fifty-fourth through Fifty-seventh Congresses); interment in Harleigh Cemetery.

[Comment: With his railroad interests he represented a powerful figure in NJ.]

MORTON, Levi Parsons, (1824-1920), a Representative from New York and a Vice President of the United States; born in Shoreham, Addison County, Vt., May 16, 1824; attended the public schools and Shoreham Academy; clerk in a general store in Enfield, Mass., 1838-1840; taught school in Boscawen, N.H., in 1840 and 1841; engaged in mercantile pursuits in Hanover, N.H., in 1845; moved to Boston in 1850; entered the dry-goods business in New York City in 1854; engaged in banking in New York City in 1863; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress; was appointed by President Rutherford Hayes honorary commissioner to the Paris Exhibition of 1878; elected as a Republican to the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses and served from March 4, 1879, until his resignation, effective March 21, 1881; United States Minister to France 1881-1885; elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with Benjamin Harrison and served from March 4, 1889, to March 3, 1893; Governor of New York 1895-1897; was an investor in real estate; died in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, N.Y., on May 16, 1920; interment in the Rhinebeck Cemetery.

[Comment: He replaced William Walter Phelps on the Republican nominating ballot as vice-president with Benjamin Harrison, in large part because of his ability to bring the New York delegation.]

HALSTEAD, Murat, (1829-1908), journalist, born in Paddy's Run, Butler County, Ohio, 2 September, 1829. He spent the summers on his father's farm and the winters in school until he was nineteen years old, and, after teaching for a few months, entered Farmer's college, near Cincinnati, where he was graduated in 1851. He had already contributed to the press, and after leaving college became connected with the Cincinnati "Atlas," and then with the "Enquirer." He afterward established a Sunday newspaper in that city, and in 1852-'3 worked on the "Columbian and Great West," a weekly. He began work on the "Commercial" on 8 March, 1853, as a local reporter, and soon became news editor. In 1854 the "Commercial" was reorganized, and Halstead purchased an interest in the paper, in 1867 its control passed into his hands. After pursuing for a time a course of independent journalism, he allied himself with the Republican party, which he has since supported. The Cincinnati "Gazette" was consolidated with his paper in 1883, and he became president of the company that publishes the combined journal under the name of the "Commercial Gazette."

[Comment: The following demonstrates the process whereby William Walter Phelps was confirmed as Minister to Germany in place of Halstead. Note also Watterson's role. Henry B. Payne was an associate of J. D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil). In marrying Payne's daughter, William Whitney launched himself on a powerful career.]

The Halstead Affair

Other nominations were contentious for similar reasons. The Senate's implacable hostility to the president's ideas on the civil service affected those close to Harrison, and this was never more apparent than when Harrison selected Murat Halstead to become minister plenipotentiary to Germany. Halstead was the editor of Cincinnati's Commercial Gazette, the city's major Republican newspaper, and Harrison considered him a particularly close friend and loyal supporter. There were also more concrete policy objectives at work for the president. German Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck had wanted to make the Samoan Islands, in which the United States had commercial interests, into a protectorate, and a threat of war was in the air as a conference on the matter was set to begin in Berlin on 29 April. Harrison wanted "a strong and implacable fighter" for American interests in Germany, and he thought Halstead to be that man.

Unfortunately for the President, the Senate thought differently. Differences on policy matters were not the problem with Halstead, however.

Halstead had been a vocal critic of corruption in politics, especially in the case of Ohio Senator Henry B. Payne. The legislature had sent Payne to the Senate several years earlier, and a subsequent investigation revealed that Standard Oil had bribed a number of legislators to secure Payne's Senate seat. A new legislature in Columbus sent evidence from this investigation to Washington in hopes of starting a full inquiry and eventually unseating Payne. Senatorial courtesy and matters of honor dictated that Payne should welcome such an inquiry, but he did not, and the Senate refused to investigate. Halstead's Commercial Gazette had been a vocal critic of the Senate in the Payne affair, and many senators remembered his barbs. They took this opportunity to send a message to Halstead (and the president) by rejecting the editor for the ministry to Germany.

The Senate's action in this case touched off a firestorm of criticism in the press, as editors stood up for their rejected colleague. Democrat Henry Watterson of Louisville's Courier-Journal supported his Republican counterpart, stating that the fate of the Halstead appointment "carries with it primarily a warning from the Senate to the press of the country to look to its utterances when dealing with that body or any of its members." Senator John C. Spooner of Wisconsin, who had supported Halstead, made a similar point in his speeches on the Senate floor. Had Harrison wanted to appoint Halstead to the post in Germany without the Senate's approval, he could have done so. Public sentiment was with the president. However, as much as the rejection hurt the President personally, he dropped the Halstead matter. For one, he knew that Halstead was an excitable man whose presence in Berlin might not help the already tense situation between the two countries. More importantly, however, "he preferred to hold to the rule that Executive appointments be made by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, which was responsible for judging a nominee's competency, fitness, and character." Harrison strongly supported the limited, conservative presidency of the Founders, and he quietly appointed former Representative William Walter Phelps to the German ministry after Phelps helped the United States score a major victory for American interests at the Berlin conference on Samoa. (HarpWeek)

DEPEW, Chauncey Mitchell, (1834-1928), a Senator from New York; born in Peekskill, N.Y., April 23, 1834; attended private schools; was graduated from the Peekskill Military Academy in 1852 and from Yale College in 1856; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1858 and commenced practice at Peekskill, N.Y., in 1859; member, State assembly 1861-1862; secretary of State of New York 1863; appointed United States Minister to Japan by President Andrew Johnson, was confirmed by the Senate, but declined; unsuccessful candidate for election as lieutenant governor in 1872; colonel and judge advocate of the fifth division of the New York National Guard 1873-1881; unsuccessful Republican candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1881; appointed president of the New York Central Hudson River Railroad Co. 1885-1899, and later became chairman of the board of directors of that railroad system; unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1888; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1899; reelected in 1905 and served from March 4, 1899, to March 3, 1911; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1910; chairman, Committee on Revision of the Laws of the United States (Fifty-seventh through Sixtieth Congresses), Committee on Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico (Sixty-first Congress); resumed his legal and corporate business pursuits in New York City, where he died on April 5, 1928; interment in Hillside Cemetery, Peekskill, N.Y.

LAMAR, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus, (1825-1893), (uncle of William Bailey Lamar and cousin of Absalom Harris Chappell), a Representative and a Senator from Mississippi; born near Eatonton, Putnam County, Ga., September 17, 1825; attended schools in Baldwin and Newton Counties; graduated from Emory College, Oxford, Ga., in 1845; studied law in Macon; was admitted to the bar in 1847; moved to Oxford, Miss., in 1849, where he practiced law and served one year as professor of mathematics in the University of Mississippi at Oxford; moved to Covington, Ga., in 1852 and practiced law; member, Georgia State house of representatives 1853; returned to Mississippi in 1855; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses and served from March 4, 1857, until his retirement in December 1860 to become a member of the secession convention of Mississippi; drafted the Mississippi ordinance of secession; during the Civil War served in the Confederate Army as lieutenant colonel until 1862; entered the diplomatic service of the Confederacy in 1862 and was sent on a special mission to Russia, France, and England; member of the State constitutional conventions in 1865, 1868, 1875, 1877, and 1881; professor of metaphysics, social science, and law at the University of Mississippi; elected to the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1877); did not seek re-nomination in 1876, having been elected Senator; chairman, Committee on Pacific Railroads (Forty-fourth Congress); elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1876; reelected in 1883 and served from March 4, 1877, until March 6, 1885, when he resigned to accept a Cabinet post; chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs (Forty-sixth Congress), Committee on Railroads (Forty-sixth Congress); Secretary of the Interior in the Cabinet of President Grover Cleveland 1885-1888; appointed by President Cleveland to be Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and was confirmed January 16, 1888; served until his death in Vineville, Ga., January 23, 1893; interment in Riverside Cemetery, Macon, Ga.; re-interment in St. Peter's Cemetery, Oxford, Miss., in 1894

Seated to William Walter's left in order -

CARLISLE, John Griffin, (1835-1910), a Representative and a Senator from Kentucky; born in Campbell (now Kenton) County, Ky., September 5, 1834; attended the common schools; taught school in Covington and elsewhere for five years; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1858 and commenced practice in Covington, Ky.; member, State house of representatives 1859-1861; member, State senate 1866-1871; lieutenant governor of Kentucky 1871-1875; editor of the Louisville Daily Ledger in 1872; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fifth and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1877, to May 26, 1890, when he resigned, having been elected Senator; Speaker of the House of Representatives (Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, and Fiftieth Congresses); chairman, Committee on Rules (Forty-eighth through Fiftieth Congresses); elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James B. Beck and served from May 26, 1890, until February 4, 1893, when he resigned to accept a Cabinet portfolio; Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet of President Grover Cleveland 1893-1897; moved to New York City and resumed the practice of law; died in New York City July 31 1910; interment in Linden Grove Cemetery, Covington, Ky.

REID, Whitelaw, (1837-1912). Born in Cedarville, Greene County, Ohio, October 27, 1837. Republican. U.S. Minister to France, 1889-92; candidate for Vice President of the United States, 1892; U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, 1905-12, died in office 1912. Editor of New York Tribune. Died in London, England, December 15, 1912. Interment at, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.

[Comment: A very close friend of William Walter.]

RANDALL, Samuel Jackson, (1828-1890), a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Philadelphia, Pa., October 10, 1828; attended the common schools and the University Academy in Philadelphia; engaged in mercantile pursuits; member of the common council of Philadelphia 1852-1855; member of the State senate in 1858 and 1859; served as a member of the First Troop of Philadelphia in 1861 and was in the Union Army three months of that year and again as captain in 1863; was promoted to provost marshal at Gettysburg; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-eighth and to the thirteen succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1863, until his death; chairman, Committee on Appropriations (Forty-fourth, Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, and Fiftieth Congresses), Committee on Public Expenditures (Forty-seventh Congress); Speaker of the House of Representatives (Forty-fourth through Forty-sixth Congresses); died in Washington, D.C., April 13, 1890; interment in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pa.

BLATCHFORD, Samuel M., (1820-1893). Born in New York, New York County, N.Y., March 9, 1820. Lawyer; Judge of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1867-78; Judge of U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, 1878-82; Justice of U.S. Supreme Court, 1882-93; died in office 1893. Episcopalian. Member, Freemasons. Died in Newport, Newport County, R.I., July 7, 1893. Interment at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y.

SHERIDAN, Philip, (1831-1888), of New York. Graduated West Point 1853. Assigned as a 2nd Lt. to Ist Infantry at Fort Duncan, Tx. In 1855 transferred to 4th Infantry in the Pacific Northwest. In April, 1856, assigned to duty at the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation in Yamhill County, Or., and promoted to Ist Lt. April 4, 1861, following start of the Civil War, promoted to Captain. Called east to St. Louis in September for supply duty under Gen Halleck. Reassigned to Gen. Curtis. Given command of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry and was promoted to Colonel, May 25, 1862. Superior tactics while outnumbered in successful confrontation with Confederates under Gen. Chalmers at Booneville, Miss., caused him to be commissioned Brig. General. Attached to Gen. Rosecrans at Murfreesboro on Stones River south of Nashville, Tenn., he played a crucial role in saving the general's army in confrontation with the Confederate Gen. Bragg. April, 1863, promoted to Major General. Fought with Gens. Grant and Sherman at Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tenn. When Gen. Grant was appointed General-in-Chief of the Union Armies, Sheridan joined him and was appointed Chief of Cavalry, Army of the Potomac. In the Shenandoah Valley he contested Confederate Gen. Early, defeated and killed Gen. J. E. B. Stuart (famous southern cavalry leader), and drove Early out of the valley at Cedar Creek. Engaged in forcing Gen. Lee out defenses at Petersburg, Va., and cut off his retreat at Appomattox Court House. Following the end of the war sent to Texas to maintain peace with Mexico. Served a controversial posting in New Orleans as head of Reconstruction. Relieved and ordered to take command of the Department of the Missouri in Sept. 1867. Charged with subduing Indians and placing them on reservations. In 1869, appointed Lieutenant-General under Gen. Sherman, who had become General of the Army following Grant's accession to the presidency. Headquarters in Chicago. Traveled throughout the West and instrumental in having Yellowstone declared a national park. Served as an observer with Prussia in the French and Prussian War, 1870. Administrative duties connected with the Great Chicago Fire of October 7-8, 1871. When Gen. Sherman retired in 1883, he succeeded him as General of the Army, though still with the rank of Lieutenant-General. Awarded his fourth star by President Cleveland when Congress revived the grade of full General in 1888. The fourth so honored in U. S. history; the others being Washington, Grant and Sherman. Died August 5, 1888, at Nonquit, Mass. Interment at Arlington National Cemetery, August 11, 1888.

McKINLEY, William, (1843-1901), a Representative from Ohio and 25th President of the United States; born in Niles, Ohio, January 29, 1843; attended the public schools, Poland Academy, and Allegheny College; teacher; Union Army, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1865; lawyer, private practice; prosecuting attorney of Stark County, Ohio, 1869-1871; elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and to the two succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1877-March 3, 1883); chair, Committee on Revision of the Laws (Forty-seventh Congress); presented credentials as a Member-elect to the Forty-eighth Congress and served from March 4, 1883, until May 27, 1884, when he was succeeded by Jonathan H. Wallace, who successfully contested his election; again elected to the Forty-ninth and to the two succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1885-March 3, 1891); chair, Committee on Ways and Means (Fifty-first Congress); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress; delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1884, 1888, and 1892; Governor of Ohio, 1891-1896; President of the United States, 1897-1901; shot by an assassin in Buffalo, N.Y., on September 6, 1901; died in Buffalo, N.Y., on September 14, 1901; interment in the McKinley Monument (adjacent to West Lawn Cemetery), Canton, Ohio.

[Comment: Known as the "Idol of Ohio."]

ASTOR, William Waldorf, (1848-1919), of New York, New York County, N.Y. Born in New York, March 31, 1848. Member of New York state assembly, 1878-79; member of New York state senate 10th District, 1880-81; U.S. Minister to Italy, 1882-85. Heir to Astor family fortune of about $100 million; moved to England in 1890 and became a British subject. Died October 18, 1919. Burial location unknown.

[Comment: The Waldorf Hotel.]

REED, Thomas Brackett, (1839-1902), a Representative from Maine; born in Portland, Cumberland County, Maine, October 18, 1839; attended the public schools; was graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, in 1860; studied law; acting assistant paymaster, United States Navy, from April 19, 1864, to November 4, 1865; was admitted to the bar in 1865 and commenced practice in Portland, Maine; member of the State house of representatives in 1868 and 1869; served in the State senate in 1870; attorney general of Maine 1870-1872; city solicitor of Portland 1874-1877; elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and to the eleven succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1877, to September 4, 1899, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (Forty-seventh Congress), Committee on Rules (Fifty-first, Fifty-fourth, and Fifty-fifth Congresses); Speaker of the House of Representatives (Fifty-first, Fifty-fourth, and Fifty-fifth Congresses); moved to New York City and engaged in the practice of his profession; died in Washington, D.C., on December 7, 1902; interment in Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, Maine.

WHITNEY, William Collins, (1841-1902), of New York, New York County, N.Y. Grandfather of John Hay Witney. Born in Conway, Franklin County, Mass., July 5, 1841. Democrat. Lawyer; delegate to Democratic National Convention from New York, 1876; U.S. Secretary of the Navy, 1885-89; established the Naval War College, in Newport, R.I.; delegate to the New York state constitutional convention 7th District, 1894. Died, following appendicitis surgery, in New York county, N.Y., February 2, 1902. Interment at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, N.Y.

SHERMAN, John, (1823-1900), a Representative and a Senator from Ohio; born in Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio, on May 10, 1823; attended the common schools and an academy in Ohio; left school to work as an engineer on canal projects; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1844 and began practice in Mansfield, Ohio; moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1853; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1855, to March 21, 1861, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Thirty-sixth Congress); elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1861 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Salmon P. Chase; reelected in 1866 and 1872 and served from March 21, 1861, until his resignation on March 8, 1877; chairman, Committee on Agriculture (1863-67), Committee on Finance (1863-65, 1867-77); appointed Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet of President Rutherford Hayes in March 1877, and served until March 1881; again elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1881 in the place of James A. Garfield, who had been elected President of the United States; reelected in 1886 and 1892 and served from March 4, 1881, until his resignation on March 4, 1897; Republican Conference chairman (1884-1885, 1891-1897); President pro tempore (1885-1887); chairman, Committee on the Library (1881-87), Committee on Foreign Relations (1885-93, 1895-97); appointed Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President William McKinley and served from March 1897, until his resignation in April 1898; retired to private life; died in Washington, D.C., October 22, 1900; interment in Mansfield Cemetery, Mansfield, Richland County, Ohio.

[Comment: Brother of the Union general William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890. This act sought to curb the business excesses of the era, but was largely ineffective.]

Seated opposite William Walter, the guest of honor –

HISCOCK, Frank, (1834-1914), a Representative and a Senator from New York; born in Pompey, Onondaga County, N.Y., September 6, 1834; graduated from Pompey Academy; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1855 and commenced practice in Tully, Onondaga County; district attorney of Onondaga County 1860-1863; member of the State constitutional convention in 1867; elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and to the five succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1877, until his resignation on March 3, 1887, at the close of the Forty-ninth Congress, having been elected Senator; chairman, Committee on Appropriations (Forty-seventh Congress); elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1887, to March 3, 1893; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on Organization, Conduct, and Expenditures of Executive Departments (Fifty-first and Fifty-second Congresses); resumed the practice of law in Syracuse, N.Y.; died in Syracuse, N.Y., June 18, 1914; interment in Oakwood Cemetery. Not present but a public figure of the age, a friend and principal political inspiration for William Walter -

BLAINE, James Gillespie, (1830-1893), a Representative and a Senator from Maine; born in West Brownsville, Washington County, Pa., January 31, 1830; was graduated from Washington College, Washington, Pa., in 1847; taught at the Western Military Institute, Blue Lick Springs, Ky.; returned to Pennsylvania; studied law; taught at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind in Philadelphia 1852-1854; moved in 1854 to Maine, where he edited the Portland Advertiser and the Kennebec Journal; member, State house of representatives 1859-1862, serving the last two years as speaker; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-eighth and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1863, to July 10, 1876, when he resigned; Speaker of the House of Representatives (Forty-first through Forty-third Congresses); chairman, Committee on Rules (Forty-third through Forty-fifth Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for nomination for President on the Republican ticket in 1876 and 1880; appointed and subsequently elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Lot M. Morrill; reelected and served from July 10, 1876, to March 5, 1881, when he resigned to become Secretary of State; chairman, Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment (Forty-fifth Congress), Committee on Rules (Forty-fifth Congress); Secretary of State in the Cabinets of Presidents James Garfield and Chester Arthur from March 5 to December 12, 1881; unsuccessful Republican candidate for President of the United States in 1884; Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Benjamin Harrison 1889-1892, when he resigned; aided in organizing and was the first president of the Pan American Congress; died in Washington, D.C., January 27, 1893; interment in Oak Hill Cemetery; re-interment at the request of the State of Maine in the Blaine Memorial Park, Augusta, Maine, in June 1920.

[Comment: Known as "The Plumed Knight," "Belshazzar Blaine" and "Magnetic Man," his charismatic personality was a continuing focus of many in the Republican party following the Civil War until his death. Like James Garfield (Credit Mobilier), the assassinated president and also a close friend of William Walter Phelps, his reputation was tainted with allegations of taking railroad money while in the House (the Mulligan Letters), and this was perhaps the principal reason he never attained the presidency.]

(These political profiles are from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress and the Political Graveyard - both online).

Copyright by FranKanTru, 2010