The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-09-15
TITLES AND DEGREES.
GEORGE TlcKNoR CURTIS ON THE
AMERICAN PRODUCTIONS.

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, I'll ID.
etc, etc, etc. | never held any public
office or position which, by n 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
Ill. ID. 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 typiiied their business.
Mr.. DOwse had Il figure of a sheep in full
fleece, erected on a high column in front of
his building His manufacture of leather,
chiefly sheepskin, was carried on in the rear
Of his premises He had II fonduess for ac-
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 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 remember what
! lion, l.. al II,
| One of the college ways dubbed him Lit
erary Leather Dresser"
About the same time there was a dean of
the theological faculty in Harvard who, be-
sides being man of small stature. was
also very unpopular. He was made a
ID. d. at first and afterward an LII. ID. 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 Ii. d.
| This was very much ridiculed at the time
by some of the Wings, who said that Cen
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 rs any of the 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 nullifers
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 ey-
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
! i'll 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 23d Of April, 1889, the senate in
structed 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, ii any other than those given
in the constitution" This led to confer
ence on the subject with committee of the
house of representatives, and the result
was Il disagreement.
The president had in the meantime been
inaugurated-viz on the 3Oth 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 renort undar
what title it would be proper for the senate
to address the nresident This comnittao
on the 18th proposed as a title. "His bipb-
ness the president of the United States and
protector of their liberties" But without
proceeding to the adoption of a title that
was certain to be rejected by the bouse
and that would have led to a difference in |
the practice of the two bodies. the senate |
proposed the following resolution.
From decent respect for the onisior |
and practice of civilized nations, whether |
under monarchical or renublican forms of |
government, whose custom it is TO annex
titles of responsibility to the office of their
chief magistrate, and that. on intercourse |
with foreign nations n dine resnact for tho |
majesty of the peoDle of the ITnited states
may not be bazarded nv an annearance of |
singularitv, the senate have been induced
to be of oDinion that IL ,vould ha n,o,,a, -,
annex n respectable titIe 10 tho nGioa -
president of the limited states Int tho con,
ate. desirous of nresarviny barr,o,,,, ,,,iti,
the house of renresentativns where tha
practice lately observed In nreson,ino, ao
address to the president was ,yithont tha
addition of titles think IL nrnner ror tbo
present. to act In conformity viii tha ,,,' s',e