Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-17
ANOTHER SILENT MAN.
A Unique Figure In Congress-A Friend
Of Grant, the Silent.
From the New York Mail and Express.

From the New York Mail and Express.
Down in front seat on the republican side,
| in the Hall of Representatives, visitor at the
| capitol may see a man of full habit, with red
dish mustache and hair getting thin on top,
who takes no part in the debates, but who sits
! there day after day, and has sat there for over
twenty years, silently serving the interests Of
his constituents. A physical defect prevents
his taking part in the rough and tumble fights
OF the House, his hearing having been affected
by the reports of cannon while commanding in
| Sherman's army in his march to the sea. But
| no member is better informed as to what occurs
| in the House or in the committee-rooms.
The Congressional Directory says that Gen.
John II. Ketcham was born at Dover. n. Y,
IN 1882. he was supervisor of his town when
twenty-five years old, assemblyrnan when
| twenty-four state senator when twenty-eight,
and leaving politics at thirty entered the war
in 62 as colonel of the one hundred and fif-
tieth volunteers. Afterward appointed briga-
dier-general it was while with Sherman that he
was wounded nearly unto death, and, after six
months illness, he resigned. having been
elected to Congress by an overwhelming ma
jority by his people at home in a democratic
district, while he lay wounded in the south.
He was afterward appointed major-general by
brevet.
He continued in Congress during the Thirty
ninth, Fortieth, Forty-frst and Forty-second
Congresses, and as a candidate for the Forty
third Congress he met with what was probably
the only political defeat of his life. During
the Grant-Greeley campaign his district-known
as the Hudson river district-contained many
republicans who sympathized with Greeley,
and Gen. ketcham notified that if he
would not push the canvass for Grant he would
go through all right. The general notified
them that he rose or fell with Grant Mr.
Whitehouse was the democratic congressional
candidate, and he was elected, having spent
$4,000. The contest was probably as hard a
fight as ever took place in this country, but the
republicans were overwhelmed, and ketcham
was retired.
Grant knew of the fight and the motives IN
DERIVING as every one knew them, and in 1874
he appointed Gen. Ketcham Commissioner of
the District of Columbia. he serving till 1877,
when he resigned, having been elected to the
Forty-tifth Congress. At the beginning of
hetcham's reign the District bonds were of
small value, and when he left they were above
par. Since then the general has served in the
Forty-fifth. Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty
eighth. Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses,
and has been reelected to the Fifty-first by a
majority of something like IA, 000 and this in a
district naturally 5000 democratic.
Kelley, of Pennsylvania is the only man in
the present House who has served his people
longer. No representative from New York
has ever served as long as Ketcham. He never
makes speech at home or abroad. The
POughkeepsie district is as rich and educated
as any in the country. Democrat after demo-
crat has bucked up against him, always with
failure. save once. 1t is said that he accumu-
lated some little property through his faith in
the old Harlem road and in some of Austin
Corbin's early successes. but his election ex-
penses are no larger than the majority of the
northern members.
What then. is the secret of his success? One
of the greatest Senators New York state ever
had once said that John Ketcham had the best
political Judgment of any man he ever knew.
His friends at home say that no man, black or
white, rich or poor, Protestant Catholic,
ever asked favor of him in reason but that he
spent his time and money to bring it about,
and that he is as frequent visitor to the houses
of the poor as the homes of the rich after an
election as well as before. A department clerk
here says that when during this administration
any of his people were discharged from the de-
partments Gen. Ketcham took care of the fami-
lies till the heads could find something else to
do, and he knows it because he himself was
stranded by dismissal. And no one ever
hears of these things from ketcham himself
And so one rather imagines as he sits there ST.
lent and unobtrusive, while others are filing
the public eye and posing for the applause of
the people, that he is sent there again and
again because of Ibis humanity to his fellow
M