Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-12-01

Catharine Ostrander, of Cooperstown
when was working In Cooperstewn,"
he said, 81 and two other young fell
lows were arrested for insulting some
girls while going home from meeting.
l was never more innocent of any
thing In my life, but / had no friends
and was threatened with jail. Sud
denly man whom / did not know
stepped forward and gave bail for me,
and lawyer whom mad barely seen
offered to serve me as counsel. NY
trial came on and the girls completely
exonerated me from having had any
thing to do with it. A year Or two
after this fell in love with Catharine
Ostrander, of Cooperstown, and mar
RED her, and better wife no man
ever had. 1t was ten years before I
found out how I came to be defended.
Meeting the lawyer in Albany I asked
him. Why said he. it was Catharine
Ostrander's work She had felt rather
shy md had not told me in all that
time. But the next year that lawyer
was surprised by being nominated and
elected Attorney General of the state.
Not altogether because he had inter
coded for me; he was just the man for
the place. very rarely had man
elected or appointed. to Office for
reasons personal to myself"
The close relation that existed be-
tween Mr.. Weed and Mr.. Seward forms
tie most interesting part OF the lives
! of both men. 1t was about the time
that Mr.. Weed went to Albany to edit
the Journal lin 1830) that Mr.. Seward
was elected to the state senate as an
anti Mason, and from that time till
Mr.. Stewards death they kept up 8
constant correspondence and lived
like brothers. Mr. Weed was not an
orator. He told the writer that he had
never made a speech in his life, and
he seems to have been fascinated
at first by his young friends oratorical
talent. He certainly did more to bring
him forward than all other influences
put together. The letters written by
Seward to Weed during the forty years
that began with 1880 are in the library
of Mr.. Weeds house, No. u East
Twelfth street, bound into nine COM
pact volumes. The writer has never
seen finer example of personal affec-
ton, honest purpose, devotion TO high
| principle and sincere service of the
| public than those volumes exhibit. It
is not chronicle of intrigue or even
of undue ambition, but an unconscious
testimony to the writer's high character
as statesman. Mr.. Weed was actually
sick after Stewards failure to win the
nomination to the presidency in 1856
and again in 1860. but Seward wrote
back in tone of cheerful banter and
with expressions of gratitude to Mr..
Weed that are very touching.
A LIFE SPENT FOR OTHERS.
Mr.. Weed has spent his life in obtain
ing Office for others. Never, except in
the brief service of the legislature, has
he held public Office, though he might
have had almost any position-Vice
President or Cabinet Minister, Gov
ernor or United States senator. Re-
peatedly, more than dozen times, he
declined the Office of governor of New
York. 81 always found my chief pleas
ure in getting good men into Office" he
said one day, ''and for thirty years I
appointed m.re men to place than any
other man in the community, except
the president himself" He was
maker of politicians political War
wick, like Richard Neville. Little of
importance was ever done by the Wing
or republican parties without mis- coun-
sci or cooperation. Junius Henri
Browne has written of him: 'The GUS
tom house of this city appears to have
been moro under his control than if he
had been collector of the port. To
obtain the favor of Weed is tossecure
office, and his smile and frown have
been for five and twenty years the de-
light and terror of all place seekers
along the Hudson. 1t used to be said
that no man could be sent to the legis- |
lature whom Weed could not win over
to his side if he deemed it worth the
while. He understands human nature |
thoroughly, has admirable tact and |
profound insight into character. He
flatters the vain, supports the weak,
softens the bold, encourages the timid, |
sympathizes with the strong, and leads
men by seeming to follow them"
During at least seven national adj
ministrations he was permitted to name |
the collector and postmaster of New |
York city, and more than a thousand |
officers in this state alone; aed so abso-
lutte was this power that generally he |
said, in abiding to it afterwards: II ap-
pointed so-and-so to Office" "But,"
he said, one day from his sick bed, 81 |
was always genuine civil service re-
former-not the bogus kind. l never |
believed in the nonsense of competi- |
tive examination, which only multi |
plies office seekers, and [ do believe |
that the party in power ought to fill a
majority of the Offices with its parti- !
sans, for that is the only way in which |
deep political interest can be kept |
alive; but there are always some men
who cannot be spared, and some depu-
ties who ought to be promoted, and
there are good many democrats In
Office to day in this country whom
have kept in place for thirty years."
DURING THE REBELLION.
1t was during the rebellion that Mr..
Weed was able to render the greatest
service to his country. During the first
summer he stationed himself in New
York, where he served as an uncom-
missioned and unpaid agent of the
president, organizing regim ents and
hurrying them off, buying stores and
forwarding them, raising millions of
money and telegraphing for commits
sions Tor anybody that he wished to
put in command. In the winter he
was sent, with Archbishop Hughes and
Bishop McIlvaine, commissioner to
France and England, to explain mat
tiers and secure peace, as that other
printer, Benjamin franklin, had been
sent exactly one hundred years before,
to plead the cause of the colonies. On
Mr.. Weed, as the lay member of the
delegation, rested, of course, the bur-
den of responsibility. The writer saw
him OH November IA, 1882, and from
his sick bed he told the story as fol-
lows:
when we got to London all was ex-
element. Recruits were drilling for
war with the United States on account
of the Mason-Slidell capture on high
seas. The shipyards were working
nights and Sundays. CIamorous crowds
were in the streets. Newspapers de-
manded war. We knew that the Rebel
commissioners must be surrendered to
England, but the peril was that the de-
mand from Palmerston would be so Of
fensive as to incense our already ang-
cred peo. lie and make war inevitable.
Our Minister Mr.. Adams, was very
blue bllt Thought we MIGHT he able to