The record-union., 1893-01-14
ONLY A PRINTERS BOY.
Yet He Became a Most Powerful
Politician
And a President-Maker- - Something
About the Career of the Late Thur
low Weed of New York-Why He
Would Not Accept Ohice-His Ad-
vice to Young Men.

vice to Young Men.
When Abraham Lincoln was President
ne used sometimes to say that he thought
Thurlow Weed was one of the shrewdest
politicians whom he had ever met, and
that part OF his shrewdness was due to the
training which he received in early life
when he was poor boy. Almost all of
the famous men who were Senators or
Governors or Presidents from the time
that John Quincy Adams was President
until General Grant held that Office knew
Mr.. Weed and had very much the same
opinion of him which Mr.. Lincoln did.
So great politician was he that although
he has been dead nearly fourteen years,
yet the politicians of to-day talk about
him as though he was one who did Won
ders when alive and perhaps has not his
equal nowadays.
The story of Thurlow Weeds early
days is very interesting one, and when
we remember how great his successes
were IN life. this story suggests that there
is opportunity in this country for every
lad, no matter how poor he is, or how
many obstacles may seem to be in his
pathway to success. The writer has
early experiences, and he has also list
ened to anecdotes told by some of Mr..
Weeds most intimate friends.
Thurlow Weeds father was a poor
laborer living in the town of Catskill, n.
T.. He was so poor he could not give his
children any other education than that
which taught them just to read and write,
and when Thurlow was a little boy only
10 years of age, he had to do something to
help him earn his living. There was an
other lad in the village named Edwin
Crosswell, and he used to have sympathy
for little Thurlow as he saw him doing
odd chores bare-footed and clad in ragged
clothing, and yet the time came alter
wards when little Crosswell found in
Ihurlow Weed powerful and successful
competitor. and in his old age it was
Thurlow Weeds generosity which saved
Crosswell from abject poverty.
Little Thurlow, before he was in his
teens, used to look with delight into the
printing office in Catskill, and even then
made up his mind that some day he
would become printer. He heard of a
chance to get employment as printers
devil, and he tramped part of the way
barefoted through the snow to the distant
town where this opportunity was. He
was employed, and it seemed to give him
greatest joy to pick up the type and to
work the heavy press, or to use the roller
10 INK the forms. he worked from before
daylight often till or ten o'clock in the
evening. 1t was not work for him, but
gave him more enjoyment than the games
do many boys. So he got along rapidly,
and by and by he became a journeyman
printer, and had no further idea of his
future than that he would be all his days
printer, and perhaps at some time own
a little office of his own
BY pure chance he got employment as
he supposed for few days in a newspaper
Office in what was then the little village of
ngfn W11t t,rvr, Il !. l.
man OF the paper and occasionally wrote
local Item or even an editorial para
graph, and very proud was he when he
saw his first composition appear in print.
But he did so well that the owner of the
paper used occasionally to rely upon him
not only to get it up, but to write almost
all OF the news and editorials that were in
1t, and then Thurlow Weed began to have
ambition, not only to be the owner of a
printing-office, but the editor of a paper.
One day he was crossing a muddy
street IN Rochester, when coach passing
by broke down, and there came tumbling
out OF II TWO or three passengers, among
others boyish-looking person. whom
Weed helped to his feet, and thus beoan
an acquaintance which lasted for fiftv
years, and in which Thurlow Weed
showed such friendship that he made this |
young man twice Governor of New
York, United States Senator, and almost
brought him to the Presidency. This
young person whom he rescued from |
stage coach accident was William TT
Seward, whom almost every member of |
ms party east OF the Allegheny Mount |
aims expected to see nominated for the |
Presidency in 1860 instead of Abraham
Lincoln.
The acquaintance with Seward made in
this accidental manner was renewed five
or SIX years later, when Mr.. Seward be-
came member OF the State Senate and
Mr.. Weed was in the lower House.
1t was pure chance, Thurlow Weed
used TO say, that took him into politics
although men who knew him we'll bava
always felt that sooner or later he wonId
nave become politician, because he nos
sessed great genius for political affairs.
The chance of which he spoke was this.
The people of Rochester wanted to get a
charter for bank, and thew thoueht II
would be well to send somebody to Al
bany to plead with the members of the
Legislature Tor such charter. Somebody
suggested that Thurlow Weed be sent
and when they asked him to 90 he
seemed surprised that they should come
10 him, an humble printer for snch a
mission. he was only "a years of ape
ne. ne dld not know many people, but he
eolu snein Inat ne would do the best he
could. So they gave him money enouoh
to pay his expenses. That was his on
portunity and he took it. A great many
other men were there seeking for charters
Tor banks IN the towns in which they
lived, but Thurlow Weed was the only
man who was able to induce the Leqis-
lature to grant a charter. He made the
acquaintance of every member. and he
made each OF these members like him
That Is an art in politics. and Thurlow
Weed then showed that he possessed this
gift, while other politicians had to culti-
vate it.
The people of Rochester were SO greatly
pleased that they chose him member of
the Legislature the following year. and
thus Thurlow Weed started upon his ca
reer as politician. In year or two he
had got such influence that he was able to
control many OF the members, and it was
said that it was due to him that the vote
OF New York was cast for John Quincy
Adams, and that had it not been for this
vote MIR. Adams would not have been
President of the United States. Then
Thurlow Weed was only 25 years of age,
Afterward, when he was 80 years of age.