The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-01-08
COLD STATESMEN.

| aker for the United States senatorsnlp
from Ohio, called up the old sneer at Sher-
man as 'the iceberg statesman" He was
too cold to please people who are consti-
tutionally warm and are therefore natur-
when not "hot' themselves, are generally
making it shot for somebody"
Go back to the foundation of our govern
ment and you find Washington denounced
by the Satanic press of his day as ''cold'
man in contrast with Jefferson who was a
social man and shoue in conversation.
John Quincy Adams, statesman and
scholar at once able, independent and
| philanthropic, was always derided as a
"cold" man in contrast with The fiery,
| explosive Jackson. Webster, Calhoun,
Madison, Clinton, Van Buren,, Everett,
Chase, Stanton, Marcy, Fessenden, Thad
| Stevens, Morton, Sumner, Conkling,
Grant and Benjamin Harrison were
all stigmatized as "cold" men.
| The 'cold" statesmen of the Democracy
include Tilden, Bayard. Randall, Pendle-
ton, He witt and Carlisle. The worst ana
cheapest Democratic statesmen have been
the so-called warm" men, like Douglas.
Bill Tweed, Bob Toombs, Pierce, Voor-
hees and Blackburn.
Hamilton, Henry Clay, Silas Wright,
Lincoln, Seward, John A. Andrew, James
G. Blaine and President Arthur were men
at once conspicuously able and pure in
action and genial in social intercourse,
but they are signal exceptions to the rule.
The iceberg" statesmen, so called in our
history, include the majority of our ablest
and most useful public men. The truth is
that the popular judgment of men as
"cold" or the reverse is superficial. Cold
blood, distant manners and reserved
speech quite as often go with kind heart
and humane spirit as warm blood and
cordial manners. Calhoun was cold, yet
he was as kindly and gentle in life and
speech as Clay, but it was totally impossi-
BILE for him to be ELUSIVE, eloquent and
magnetic, like the great Kentuckian.
Webster was Of sluggish blood and cold
outside, but he was tender and
generous to all in his domestic life. He
had bright little colored lad for page
when he was secretary of state, and was
wont to hold him on his lap and pet him
as kindly as he would any white child.
There is plenty of evidence that the great
Daniel had heart as we'll as brains. The
elder and younger Adams were not only
cold, but they were men of acrid, bitter
speech; they hated with intensity and
long endurance. Jefferson was fascinat-
ing man in social intercourse. Garfield
was in far more boisterous way than
Blaine warm" man. His speech was
ford and effusively warm in public and
private life. He was not what Blaine,
Clay, Seward and Arthur were, well-bred
gentlemen, for Garfield embraced his po-
litical friends and slapped them on the
back in private, and once went so far as to
hug Democratic Dan VOORHEES, to his
heart. President Pierce was q man
of charming manners in his prime,
and probably the worst man that ever
sat in the presidential chair. Lincoln had
a cold head, but a very tender heart, but
he was of genial rather than magnetic
temperament; man of grave and
austere intellect, his mental gloom
affected at times his manners and speech.
President Arthur was as handsome and
non-magnetic man as Judge Chase.
The truth is, social manners. whether
cold or cordial, are merely the test of
mans physical temperament, not at all
of his true inward spirit. Reserve is often
merely shyness of spirit, and nine-tenths
-
cold by the crowd, because they do not
relish the noise, the incessant babble and
eruptive horse-play of mixed public
gatherings. Jack Falstaff was as warm.
cordial and captivating as possible in
his convivial manners, and as mean,
wicked, cowardly, dishonest, selfish and
corrupt IN conduct as man could be,
while the upright chief justice whom
Falstaff twits with having thin blood and
a cold liver was just and upright per-
son. Warm blood may stand for a genial
gentleman like Clay or Blaine, or for
traitor like Judas Iscariot, whom Da Vinci
painted as having red hair and a warm
complexion, rs did Danton, the author of
the September Massacres," one of the
most dreadful episodes of the French Rev.
olution.
Jefferson and Washington were both
warm blooded men. Jefferson's hair was
red, and Washington had fair hair and
blue eyes, magnificent blonde. Wash
ington's youthful modesty and shyness
became reserve in manhood. but he was
naturally OF a very passionate tenn
per, which he ruled into habitual
self-restraint Jefferson's vastly superior
social opportunities when young as law
yer, legislator and politician developed his
powers of conversation, and impaired
grace and ease to his manners and on this
slight basis of difference of manner Wash
ington was invariably described by even
those not unfriendly TO his party as the
iceberg statesman of his time. Alexander
Hamilton was conyivial, sang good song,
told a good story and made a rafting
speech; Burr. his great rival, was a calm.
cool, cultivated. polished man; a cold
heart hid beneath fascinating manners.
Grant passed for silent. cold, selfish man
with many Of his countrymen until his
last sickness revealed him, with the mask
dropped from his face, as simple, kindly.
grave and magnanimouS man as Lincoln.
In the light of history our iceberg states
men have generally heen our superior
men, and John Sherman can take comfort