The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1894-05-31
TITLES AND DEGREES.
George TicknOr Curtis Writes Of the
American Productions,
College HOn0B That tRalIet RdcuIe,-HN Congress
Made Handle" for The Presidents Name

Honorable George Ilcknor Curtis, LID,
etc, etc, etc" | never held any public
Office or position which, by custom that
would be more honored in the breach than
the observance, is supposed to put the pre-
fix of honorable to a mans name, nor did
| ever receive from my own Harvard or any
other institution Of learning the degree of
LII. d. or any other honorary degree. The
fondness of our people for titles and the
readiness with which they are bestowed are
remarkable.
When was in college at Harvard, more
than 60 years ago, there dwelt at Cam
bridgeport Mr.. Thomas Dowse, who car
ried on the respectable occupation of leather
dresser. Being prosperous man and a
bachelor, he accumulated good property.
He built handsome house on the main
street, in which he had an apartment on
the second floor where he lived 1t was Gus
tomary in those days for tradespeople to
put in front of their shops some image
which typified their business.
Mr. Dowse had figure of a sheep in full
fleece, erected on high column in front Of
his building. His manufacture of leather
chiefly sheepskin, was carried on in the rear
of his premises He had fondness for ac-
cumulating books in fine binding, mostly
English classics At the time of which
speak he had quite large library, and the
corporation and overseers of Harvard uni
versity, thinking that they could induce
him to bequeath his library to the college,
made him an LII. ID. | fancy that the
worthy man did not know much about the
inside of his books, nor do l remember what
disposition he ultimately made of them
of tho coll pup W dnhhaI him 81 81
erary Leather Dresser"
About the same time there was dean of
the theological faculty in Harvard who, be-
sides being man of small stature, was
also very unpopular. He was made a
d. D. at first and afterward an LII. d. The
same facetious undergraduate translated
his degrees to mean, I'D Dirty Little
Dean"
When General Jackson was president,
during his first term of office, he visited
Boston, attended commencement at Har-
ward and received the degree of LII. D.
This was very much ridiculed at the time
by some of the Wings, who said that Gen
eral Jackson was an illiterate man, and
that he could not write an English sentence
correctly. This was not true. | have seen
autograph letters of General Jackson writ
ten as well in point of style, spelling and
punctuation as any of Hie public men of
that time were accustomed to write In
these letters there were very few erasures.
| do not suppose that as president he wrote
his messages and other state papers. His
famous proclamation against the nullifiers
was written by Edward Livingston, his
secretary of state. The president, however
always corrected such papers carefully with
| his own hand.
On one occasion the public printer brought
him proof of one of his messages in which
the proofreader had changed certain ex-
pressions which quite altered the meaning
mo, by the Eternal" Old Hickory ex-
claimed, print it as | wrote it, or l will
turn you out of office"
Passing now from small things to greater
things, the proceedings which took place
in the First congress relative to the title
proper to be given to the president of the
| United States afford curious illustration
of the tendencies of some public men at
( that period
On the 23d of April, 1889, the senate in
structed a committee of three of its mem
bers to consider and report what style or
title it will be proper to annex to the offices
Va plColuShu anu NlIC pltSlutllJ VI VIC
United States, if any other than those given
in the constitution" This led to confer
ence on the subject with a committee of the
house of representatives, and the result
was a disagreement.
The president had in the meantime been
inaugurated-viz on the Both of April-and
in the address in answer to his inaugural
speech, presented to him by the house on
the 9Th of May, he had been addressed sim.
ply as George Washington, president OF
the United States" On the Sth of May the
senate appointed a new committee of its
own body to consider and report under
what title it would be proper for the senate
to address the president. This committee
on the l4th proposed as a title, His high
ness the president of the United States and
protector of their liberties" But withou,
proceeding to the adoption of title that
was certain to be rejected by the house
and that would have led to a difference il
the practice of the two bodies, the senate
proposed the following resolution:
From decent respect for the opinion
and practice of civilized nations, whether
under monarchical or republican forms O
government, whose custom it is to annex
titles of responsibility to the Office of thei
chief magistrate, and that, on intercours,
with foreign nations, a due respect for tn,
majesty of the people of the United States
may not be hazarded by an appearance o
singuarity, the senate have been induced
to be of opinion that it would be proper tt
annex respectable title to the Office o
president of the United States, but the sen
ate, DESTROYS of preserving harmony will
the house of representatives, where thu
practice lately observed in presenting al
address to the president was without thu
addition of titles, think it proper, for TIN
present, to act in conformity with the prac
tice of that house Therefore, resolved
that the present address be To the Presi
dent of the United States without add
ton of title"
This method of receding from the DC
sition that had been taken by the senat
was resorted to in consequence of debat
which took place in the house on the It'll
of May upon proposition made by the sen
ate for further conference in regard to tn
future mode of addressing the president
As the house had already determined tina
it would not be proper to annex any othe
style or title to any of the offices than tina
given in the constitution, and had, in ad
dressing the president, acted in pursuanc
of this decision, opposition was manifesto
: to further consideration of the subject.
But after an earnest discussion, whic
| exhibited no difference of opinion on tn
question of additional titles, the house col
sented to the appointment of new con
mittee of conference, and Mr.. Madison wa
placed at the head of it, The conferenc
between the two committees was held, bu
, on the l4th the senate was informed tha
the disagreement remained. The senat
then adopted the resolution which is aboy
, quoted, and from that time the matter
titles was allowed to sleep.-George Ticl
nor Curtis in New York Sun.