Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-04-18
The Late Kenneth Rayner.

mruOn. hayueF WIS OHc VI wv VI"
Southern gentlemen of the old type
who have held Office under the recent
Administrations. He was ready to weep
or fight on the instant, according as
his temper prompted. Rayner was an
old man. The Congressional biogra-
plies make him born in 1909, and there
fore seventy-three years old, but he
always insisted that lie was born in1Sl6.
But the record shows that he was q
member of the North Carolina Legisla-
ture in 1885, and that could hardly have
been when he was nineteen years old.
He would always say that although
siNty-seven hefelt twenty years younger:
Within a month of his death he boosted
that he was 'good for twenty years
yet" Rayner 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,
a niece of the then future President.
At that time Rayncr was looked upon
as one of the rising men of the South.
His wife brought him a large estate in
Mississippi, and the two were worth
$3.50, OO0.~ In 1874, at the election which
made his wife's uncle President, the
Democratic wave swamped Rayner's
political craft. He went back to North
Carolina, served in the Legislature at
intervals, and then was on the Taylor
and Fillmore ticket Of 1848. After that
success he was promised a foreign mis-
sion, but the death of Taylor left
him out in the cold. So he lived along
until the war broke out. He was as
much of @ Union man as he dared
to be then. When Sherman's army
arrived at Raleigh, Rayner emerged
from his seclusion and announced HIM
self as an ardent Unionist. He was
made considerable of. In 1866, as a
member of the Constitutional Conven-
ton, he took a prominent place. I
have been told that a frmer legislative
body never met in North Carolina than
that convention. 1t was called the An
drew johnson convention. Rayner X
pectcd some office from johnson, but
failed again, although he had prepared
. life of johnson, written in the most
fulsome manner. At last he drifted
down to one of his wife's plantations in
Mississippi. But he could not manage
to get along under the altered condi-
ton of things, and in 1874 General
Grant took him up and put him on the
old court of 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 content
ment. The court came to an end after
q time and left Rayner out of a place.
just then Mr.. Hayes was trying to re-
suscitate the Wing party in the South,
and Rayner was picked out as q suit
able person to recognize. He was given
the 5000 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
Folger. 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 in
Weighing against the lessened glories of
his position. There the old Southern
~hangers-on loved to congregate to en-
Joy Rayner's tobacco and talk of the
Republican party they could build>u up
in the South, provided offices were given
them. They told of the duels, slavery
and beautiful women in the South be.
fore the war, and sometimes indulged
. tride too freely in their cups. Rayner,
however, never drank anything. He
was a man of generous impulses and
high character. This last winter he set
his heart on being put il 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 mopcd
about the department., imagined that
every mans hand was against him,
wrote his famous opinion about the
propriety of women becoming steamboat
captains, and then died, just when the
Woman Suffrage Convention was abus.
ing him for his opinion. In an office
where he could have made a fortune he
died almost penniless.
Whenever the department iokers
wanted sport they had only to stir up
the Solicitor. One day a number OF
them gravely informed him that he wa.
to be given a smaller room, and his Of
fee used for the clerks. He posted up
to the Secretary. That officer tried tc
tell him that he had been m~isinformed,
but Rayner would not hear, and for an
hour poured a torrent of indignant elo-
quence into the Secretary's ear regard
ing so serious an attack upon his dig
nifty. 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
report of more than one hundred pages,
in which he proved that it was in bad
shape throughout. The document has
never been given out. Rayner had the
power of recommending compromises in
suits under the Treasury Department.
He was constantly besiegcd by parties
trying to obtain relief. One attorney
yentured to suggest to him that he was
not acting like a gentleman in the mat
ter. Rayner Indignantly drove him out
OF the door; two minutes afterwa1d had
followed him to the sidewalk, when he
asked forgiveness, and that day the
necessary recommendation was made
WASHINGTON Cor. Boston advertiser.
The late Judge Otis Philips Lord. Of
Massachusetts, is said to have made but