The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-01-25

his already slender patrimony, we are moved to
protest Why not call things by their right
names? The boy was no more charge upon
his fathers estates after that fathers death
than before. To call boys unwillingness to
spend his own money on his education unwill-
ingness to diminish his slender patrimony,"
is putting too. fine point on it, 1t is pure
miserliness and meanness of spirit. AS mat
ter of fact great-grandson has undoubtedly
wronged him. Mr.. Cabot had ever keen eye
to the main chance; but undoubtedly he went
to college because his father wished 1t, and
left it as soon as his father was no longer
alive to wish it-left it not from unwillingness
TO spend his mothers money or his own, but
simply because he liked better to go to sea
and make money, than to stay in college and
spend it.
When the war began Mr.. Cabot, with the
same eye to the main chance, went straight
way privateering and made hundreds of thou
sands OF pounds There is no fault to be fouEd
with tt il. 1t was right and proper-but it is
hardly worth while to spend much admiration
on what the author himself calls profitable
patriotism" nor does it seem quite fair to call
his bad ventures sacrifices" Least of all is
it fair to lump "the men of Essex" and send
them to sea in the same boat wherein George
Cabot sailed to wealth. Privateeriug was not
disgraceful, and doubtless George Cabot
served his country while serving himself
to more money than all his life before
had brought him. But there were too many
"men of Essex" who served their country
toll and hunger and cold. with no return in
any fortune but freedom-to Justify or permit
Mr.: Lodges sweeping classification.
The same euphemistic glamour is thrown
over Mr.. Cabots public life. 'Mr. Cabot's
faith in the government measure" says his
great-graudson, naively, "rose, doubtless, in no
small degree, from his relations with their au-
thor, Alexander Hamilton, and from his own
share i'll devising them" Precisely. That is
what the old warehouses say about the reform
ers-that their discomfort comes because they
are out and want to get in-but we hardly ex-
rect the reformers to say as much for themselves.
Yet here we have Mr.. Lodge admitting that
the reason his great-grandfather approved of
things was because he was consulted in arraog-
ing them.
Mr.. Cabot had been appointed president of
the Boston branch of the United States bank
when that institution was first organized.
"rbis,'' says his great-grandson, naturally
afforded fine opportunity for references to
corrupt Treasury squadrons; and Mr. Cabot
had no liking for the position of target, IL it
could be hOnorably avoided. His application
to BIZ released from bank duties failed" But it
is hard to see that he made any application for
release. He wrote to Secretary Hamilton, Il
hope you will say definitely whether my con-
tinuance in the bank Is TO be desired or not,
since it furnishes SO copious topic for COM
plant" This was not an application for re-
lease. 1t was an application to know whether
they wanted him to resign. Undoubtedly Mr..
Cabot did not like to be slandered any better
than other men. Undoubtedly his position as
president of the United States Back, Senator
and intimate ally of the Administration ex-
posed him to numerous charges of corruption;
but he was too greedy of office, as the Reform
ers would say, to give it up. Let us say rather,
he was too much man to retreat before SLAM
| der, and man enough not to cling to office
| should his superiors desire his resignation.
| The slenderness of Mr.. Cabot's hold upon the
memory of posterity is displayed with singular
naivete by his great-grandson. "rhe only
town office ever held by Mr. Cabot was that OF
fireward," but he went into the Beverly Bridge
] building with earnestness, and was subsequent
ly made director and president of the compaDyl
The rescue from oblivion of his oratorical
prowess in the State Legislature his great
| grandson ascribes to the chance presence Of
nameless stranger, on single occasion! HIS
| career in the Senate of the Nation is sgnazed
by the thrilling record of having been delighted
with the firm and manly tone of the Presidents
Message; of moving to strike out the words
'that magnanimOus nation from resolution
of thanks to the French Republic; and we are
| deprived of reading the names of all the vari-
| Gus committees on which he served. for the To-
| explicabe reason that sit would be tedious"
| We have several pages of the history of the
| French Commission of 1897, because Mr..
| Cabot's name is 80 mixed up 10 the whole
| affair."" though the sole extent of the mixture
l visible to the trans Cabot world Is the casual
| suggestion of his name for one of the commits
l sioners. Emboldened by this foray into foreign
politics, Mr.. Lodge then gives us the whole
i history OIL tno second MISSION 10 rance ID llJJ
| without even the pretence of his great-grand-
| fathers name as an Ingredient. He merely
| alleges that Mr.. Cabot was prominent rep
resentative of the opinions he Id by most of the
leading Federalists" 1t is difficult to conceive
Of more negative provocation to immortality.
| Biography would assume alarming proportions
| If its legitimate scope comprised history OF
| all the public measures which are adopted
during mans lifetime without his approval.
We admit, with Mr.. Lodge, that the commits
| sion was in all ways of the deepest and most
| far-reaching consequence; but as Mr.. Cabot had
| nothiDgswhatever to do with it, we not clear
| why Mr.. Lodge could not, with equal propriety,
| have subsidized the requisite number of pages
| with dissertation on the Man in the Iron
| Mask. it is not impossible, however, that
| Mr.. Lodge considers his great-grandfather to
| have been magma pdrS in that matter, for his
/ ideas of public performance are somewhat
vague He speaks of Mr. Stoddert as Ar.
| Cabot's successor in the Navy Department. aud
| says emphatically, 81 say successor, because
| Mr.. Cabot actually held the office for month." !"
| Mr. Cabot was appointed May 3. Secretary
| Pickering sent him his commission May 5. On
May IL he declined the proffer, and on May q
Benjamin Stoddert was appointed. So that by
the utmost stretch OF time only eighteen days
elapsed between his own appointment and that
| of his successor, and the month of secretary
ship dwindles at the first clip into eighteen
days. As an appreciabe part of these eighteen
days must have been consumed in getting his
| commission to him; as Mr. Cabot declined as
/ sOOu dS Nc roCetF6u ". as u6 u6Nor pcrlOIUcu
any of the duties of the office, never took the
oath of office nor for one moment left his
home in Brookline, he seems to have been a
sort of Secretary nedlgre luj. 1t is certain he
never considered himself Secretary of the Navy,
aud it is not a little odd TO see politician OF
the disinterested, anti-office-holdng type, to
which Mr.. Lodge belongs, clinging with such
desperate clutch to shadowy and incoHse-
| quent fortnight of ancestral office holding
| eighty years ago!
| The Hartford Convention was godsend tC
Mr.. Lodge. His great-grandfather was presi-
dent of that assembly, and on the strength OF !!
| Mr.. Lodge disports himself through $50 octave
| pages. 1t is true that Mr.. CABOT not only bad
no part in bringing the convention into exist
| ence, but Mr.. Lowell complains that he could
| not even find out what Mr.. Cabots opionions
| were about it, aud those who could find out his
| opinions, learned them to be those Of indiffer-
| ence or opposition. IL is true that in the 15C
| pages Mr.. CADETS name is but desert island
| rising rarely in vast seas OF history. OF The
| fifty pages of Convention Correspondence,
| Mr.. Cabot's letters occupy ouly about six lines
| and letters to Mr.. Cabot only two pages, whlls
the remaining forty eight are filled with the
letters of King, Lyman, Hgginson, Morris
Hillhouse, Tracy, Reeve and others to sscb
| other; but not for that is Mr. Lodges nob''
| ardor to be repressed and flying the flag o
| his great-grandfather at his masthead ht
\ filings himself upon the Hartford Convention
with the abandon of the ingenious author wh'
| Waterloo into the biography of tue little
druLnmer boy who chanced to beat . rsveill,
for the Coldstream Guards on that fatefu
field. GAIL HAMILTON.
| New York World1