The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-03-07
TITLES AND DEGREES.
GEORGE TlcKNoR CURTIS ON THE
AMERICAN PRODUCTIONS.

Ever |rappled WIN u Handle Tor the
Presidents Nance College Honors That
Entailed Bidicule.
Not long since n gentleman who meant to
he polite, and who affects English spelling,
addressed letter to me as follows, THE
Honorable George Ticknor Curtis, LII D.,
etc, etc, etc. ] never held any public
office or position which, by a custom that
would be more honored in the breach than
the observance, is supposed to put the pre-
fix of honorable to n 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 go years ago, there dwelt ut Cam
bridgeport a Mr. Thomas Dowse, who car
ried on the respectable occupation of leather
dresser. Being a prosperous man and
bachelor, he accumulated "A 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 tradespeope to
put in front of their shops some image
which typiied their business.
Mr.. Dowse had figure of 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 a fonduess for &c
cumulating books in fine binding, mostly
English classics. At the time of which |
speak he had quite a large library, and the
corporation and overseers of Harvard uni
versity, thinking that they could induce
him to bcuueath 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 remember what
disposition he ultimately made of them.
One Of the college wags dubbed him Lit
erary Leather Dresser"
About the same time there was dean of
the theological faculty in Harvard who, be
sides being a man of small stature, was
also very unpopular He was made
d. d. at first and aftcrward an LII. ID. The
same facetious Undergraduate translated
his degrees to mean, Did 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 the public men OF
that time were accustomed to write. In
these letters there were very few erasures
do not suppose that us president he wrote
his messages and other state papers. His
famous proclamation against the nulliiers
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 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 a curious illustration
of the tendencies of some public men at
that period.
On the Esd 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
of president and vice president of the
United States, if any other than those given
in the constitution" This led to a confer
ence on the subject with IL committee of the
house of representatives, and the result
was disagreement.
The president had in the meantime been
inaugurated- on the 30th of April--and
in the address in answer to his inaugural
speech, presented to him by the house on
the 5th of May, he had been addressed sim
ply as George Washington, president of
the United States" On the Sth of May the
senate appointed 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 without
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 n decent respect for the opinion
and practice of civilized nations, whethe
under monarchical or republican forms o
government whose custom it is to anne,
titles of respectability to the office of thei
chief magistrate, and that, on intercours
with foreign nations, due respect for thu
majesty of the people of the United State
may not be hazarded by an appearance o.
singularity, the senate have been induced
to be of opinion that it would be proper Il
annex a 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 tn,
practice lately observed in presenting al
address to the president was without the
addition Of titles, think it proper, for tn,
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 aqdi
ton of title"
This method of receding from the 20
sition that had been taken by the senat
was resorted to in consequence of debat
which took place in the house on the iii
of May upon proposition made by the sen
ate for Il 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 toany Of the Offices than tina
given in the constitution, and had, in ad
dressing the president, acted in pursuance
of this decision, opposition was manifested
to further consideration of the subject.
But after an earnest discussion, whicl
exhibited no difference Of opinion on tn
question of additional titles, the house con
scented to the appointment of a 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 tina
the disagreement remained. The senat
then adopted the resolution which is abOv
quoted, and from that time the matter o
titles was allowed to sleep.-George Tick
nor Curtis in New York Sun
Mrs. Corisande's Elder Brother.
Mrs Corisande was born only two years
earlier than her brother Tom When Tom