Fifty Years of Public Service

Years of Public Service, by Shelby M. Cullom

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Title: Fifty Years of Public Service
Author: Shelby M. Cullom
Release Date: October 20, 2007 [EBook #23097]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE ***

Produced by Ed Ferris

Transcriber's notes:
The dieresis is transcribed by a preceding hyphen. Caps and small caps have been set as upper and lower case. Names have been corrected
Chapter VIII
: "La Fayette", Indiana, kept as a contemporary variant spelling. McPherson, "clerk of the house" changed to "Clerk of the House" (of Representatives).
LoC call number: E661.C9
FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
[Frontispiece] Photo, by Prince Tota, Washington, D. C. [Facsimile signature] SMCullom
FIFTY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF SHELBY M. CULLOM SENIOR UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM ILLINOIS
WITH PORTRAITS
SECOND EDITION CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG & CO. 1911
Copyright A. C. McCLURG & Co. 1911
Published October, 1911 Second Edition, December, 1911
PRESS OF THE VAIL COMPANY COSHOCTON, U. S. A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Birth to Admission to the Bar, 1829 to 1855 II Service as City Attorney at Springfield, 1855 and 1856 III Election to the Illinois Legislature: Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 1856 to 1858 IV Other Distinguished Characters of that Day, 1858 and 1859 V Nomination of Lincoln and Douglas for the Presidency, 1859 and 1860 VI Speaker of the Illinois Legislature, and a Member of Congress, 1860 to 1865 VII Lincoln, 1860 to 1864 VIII Notables in the Thirty-ninth Congress, 1864 to 1870 IX The Impeachment of President Johnson X Speaker of the Legislature, and Governor, 1871 to 1883 XI Grant XII General John A. Logan XIII General John M. Palmer XIV Governor Richard J. Oglesby XV Senatorial Career, 1883 to 1911 XVI Cleveland's First Term, 1884 to 1887 XVII Cleveland's Defeat and Harrison's First Term, 1888 to 1891 XVIII Cleveland's Second Term, 1892 to 1896 XIX McKinley's Presidency, 1896 to 1901 XX Roosevelt's Presidency, 1901 to 1909 XXI Interstate Commerce XXII John Marshall Harlan XXIII Members of the Committee on Foreign Relations XXIV Work of the Committee on Foreign Relations XXV The Interoceanic Canal XXVI Santo Domingo's Fiscal Affairs XXVII Diplomatic Agreements by Protocol XXVIII Arbitration XXIX Titles and Decorations from Foreign Powers XXX Isle of Pines, Danish West Indies, and Algeciras XXXI Congress under the Taft Administration XXXII Lincoln Centennial: Lincoln Library XXXIII Consecutive Elections to United States Senate XXXIV Conclusion
Index
LIST OF PORTRAITS
S. M. Cullom Shelby M. Cullom, while a Law Student Richard Yates Stephen A. Douglas Abraham Lincoln James G. Blaine Andrew Johnson Shelby M. Cullom, while Governor of Illinois Ulysses S. Grant John A. Logan John M. Palmer Richard J. Oglesby Grover Cleveland James A. Garfield William McKinley William Howard Taft Cushman K. Davis William P. Frye John C. Spooner Theodore Roosevelt Elihu Root
FOREWORD
"Oh, that mine adversary had written a book!"
Such was the exclamation of one who, through the centuries, has been held up to the world as the symbol of patience and long suffering endurance, and who believed that he thus expressed the surest method of confounding an enemy.
I have come to that age in life where I feel somewhat indifferent as to consequences, and, yielding to the suggestions and insistence of friends, I determined that I would undertake to write some recollections, as they occurred to me, of the men and events of my time.
Naturally, to me the history of the period covered by my life since 1829 is particularly interesting. I do not think that I am prejudiced when I assert that while this period has not been great in Art and Letters, from a material, scientific, and industrial standpoint it has been the most wonderful epoch in all the world's history.
About the period of my birth General Andrew Jackson was first elected President of the United States. Jackson to me has always been an interesting character. Theodore Roosevelt has declared very little respect for him, and has written deprecatingly--I might say, even abusively--of him. But the truth is, there were never two Presidents in the White House who, in many respects, resembled each other more nearly than Jackson and Roosevelt.
Jackson was sixty-one years old when elected President--an unusually old man to be elected to that high office; and he had served his country during the War of the Revolution. When I consider this the thought occurs to me, How young as a Nation we are, after all. Why, I date almost back to the Revolution! President Taft jocularly remarked to me recently: "Here's my old friend, Uncle Shelby. He comes nearer connecting the present with the days of Washington than any one