Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-16
THE LATE KENNETH RAYNoR.
A Peculiar Character at Washington
His Interesting Political Career.

n Peculiar Character at Washington
His Interesting Political Career.
A peculiar character was Kenneth Ray
nor, says a Washington letter to the Bos-
ton AdUerttSer. For the past seven years
he has been Solicitor of the Treasury, and
since 1874 well-known figure in Wash
ington. Raynor was one of the few
Southern gentlemen of the old type
who have held office under the recent adj
mlnlstrations. He was ready to weep or
hgnt on the instant, according as his tenn
per prompted. RaynOr was an old man.
The Congressional biographies make him
porn In 1909, and therefore % years old,
but he always insisted that he was born
In 1916: But the record shows that he was
member OF the North Carolina Legisla-
ture In 1885, and that could hardly have
been when he was 10 years old. He would
always say that although 81 he felt 20
years younger. Within a month of his
death he boosted that he was 'gOOd for 20
years yet" RaynOr belonged to one of the
old Wing families in North Carolina. and
in 1888 was elected to Congress from the
Raleigh district. During his six years
service he married Miss Polk, neice Of
the future President. At that time Ray
nor was looked upon as one of the rising
large estate in Mississippi, and the two
were worth quarter of a million dol
lars. In 1874, at the election which made
his Wlte's uncle President, the Democratic
wave sWamped RaynOr's little political
craft. He went back to North Carolina.
served in the Legislature at intervals. and
then was on the Taylor and Fillmore tick
ct OF 1S4S. After that success he was
promised foreign mission, but the death
OF Iay.or left him out in the cold. So he
nVed along until the war broke out He
was as much of Union man as he dared
to be then. When Sherman's army ar
rived IN Raleigh, Raynor emerged from his
seclusion and announced himself as an
ardent Unionist. He was made cOnside-
rable of. In 1866, as a member of the
Constitutional Convention. he took a
prominent place. | have been told that
frmer legislative body never met in North
carolina than that convention. 1t was
called the Andrew johnson convention.
Raynor expected some Office from john
son, but failed again, although he had
prepared life of johnson, written in the
most fulsome manner. At last be drifted
down to one of his wife's plantations in
Mississippi. But he could not manage to
get along under the altered condition of
things, and in 1874 General Grant took
him up and put him on the old Court c.
Alabama Claims. He was never happier
than there. With his vest opened way
down in front, and his hair unkempt, he
used to sit on the bench, a perfect picture
Of cOntentment. The court came to an
end after time and left RaynOr out of a
place. just then Dir. Hayes was trying
10 resuscitate the Wing party in the
South, and RaynOr was picked out as a
suitable person to recognize. He was
given the 1000 position of Solicitor of the
Treasury. He always claimed that he
was promised the first vacancy on the
Court OF Claims. 1t never was given him,
and he dragged along as Solicitor with
Secretaries Sherman, Window and Fol
ger. They took away the duties pre-
scribed by law to the Solicitor. and en-
trusted them to minor officials under their
own direction. This worried the old North
Carolinian, and he used to sit for long
days in his great sunny office inveighing
against the lessened glOries of his posi-
ton. There the old Southern hangers-on
loved to c0ngregate, to enjoy RaynOr's to-
bacco and talk of the Republican party
they could build up in the South, prOvi-
ded offices were given them. They told of
the duels, slavery and beautiful women
in the South before the war, and some
times INDUCED trif1e too freely in their
cups. RaynOr, however, never drank any
thing. He was a man of generous i'm
pulses and high character. This last
winter he set his heart on being put in the
Court OF Claims. He went to see the
President and believed he was certain.
When Judge Weldon was named, the old
Judge declared that his last hope was
gone-the failure would kill him. He
moped about the department, imagined
that every mans hand was against him,
wrote his famous opinion about the pro
prlety OF women becoming steamboat
captains, ard then died, Just when the
Woman's Suffrage Convention was abus-
ing him for his opinion. In an office
where he could have made fortune he
dled almost pennileSs, honest, but too
lrasclOle to have many friends.
Whenever the departmenti0kers wanted
sport they had only to stir up the Solicit
tor. One day number Of them gravely
informed him that he was to be given a
smaller room, and his office used for the
clerks. he posted up to the Secretary.
That officer tried to tell him that he had
been misinformed, but Raynor would not
hear, and for an hour poured a torrent of
indignant eloquence into the Secretary's
ears regarding so serious an attack UPON
his dignity. The Secretary once asked
the heads of bureaus TO give their views
IN writing upon any needed reforms in the
department. The Solicitor submitted a re-
port of more than 100 pages, in
which he proved that it was in bad shape
throughout. That document has never
been given out. Raynor had the power Of
recommending compromises in suits under
the Treasury Department. He was con-
stantlY besieged by parties trying to OBJ
tain relief. One attorney Yentured to sug-
gest to him that he was not acting like
gentleman in the matter. Raynor indig-
nantly drove him out of the door; two
minutes afterward had followed him to
the sidewalk, 3 hen he asked forgiveness,
and that day the necessary recommended
ton was made.