Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-05-28

legal training in that State, he abandon.
ed prosperous law practice and mem
bership in the State legislature in Au-
gust, 1861, to throw his whole energies
into the prosecution of the war for the
defense of the Union. His gallant and
conspicuously able services in that ca
pacity secured him the strong friendship
OF General Grant and the respect of his
confederate opponents, which was fire.
quently manifested in after life.
He entered the service as lieutenant
colonel of the 4Sth Indiana Volunteers,
was brevetted brigadier general for gal
lantry in the siege of Vicksburg, and re-
tired as major general. In the opera
| tions before Atlanta, Ca, while COM
mandlng division in Gen. Frank Blair
| corps, he received wounds while charging
at the head of his brigade, which put him
in the hospital for nearly year and to a
considerable extent incapacitated him
up to the end of his life. He was award
ed pension for this disability but after
he became Secretary of State declined to
receive it, although the constant and in
tense suffering resulting from those in
Jurles undoubtedly hastened his death.
After the war closed he was brought
forward prominently as a political can
dictate. He ran for Congress in the New
Albany, Ind, district in 1866 as a Re-
publican, and was defeated.
Then he was appointed financial agent
of his state in New York City, and while
holding this position was selected by
President Grant for United States Dis
trict Judge in his native state.
In 1880, when change in the COM
| plexion of the Indiana Legislature made
it possible to elect a Republican to sue
| ceed Joseph E. Mcdonald to the United
States Senate, Judge Gresham and Benz.
Harrison were the leading candidates
| for the position and Mr. Harrison carried
the election.
Vfter the death of Garfield in 1882
Judge Gresham was offered the position
of Postmaster General in President
Arthur's re-Organized cabinet, and re-
signed his district judgeship to accept it,
When Secretary Folger died in 1884,
after his defeat as candidate for COVER
nor of New York by Grover Cleveland,
Mr.. Gresham was transferred to the
treasury portfolio thus vacated.
The duties of a cabinet officer and the
exacting requirements involved in the
disposal of the patronage of one Of the
greatest executive departments of the
government were not to his taste, and at
his own request President Arthur nomi-
mated him, after barely three months
service as Secretary of the Treasury, to
the position of Circuit Judge for the
seventh judicial circuit, which embraces
the states of Indiana, Illinois and Wis
cOnsin. He retained this position until,
at Mr.. Cleveland's urgent personal re-
quest, he joined Mr.. Cleveland's second
cabinet as Secretary of State.
But in the meantime varying political
movements had brought his name for
ward as candidate for the presidency.
In an interlude in the convention at
Chicago, which subsequently nominated
Benjamin Harrison, Col. Robt G. Inger-
soil was called to the platform for a pa
triotic speech, and after holding the con-
vention with one of his finest bursts of
eloquence, suddenly sprung the name of
Judge Gresham as presidential nominee
and attempted to stampede the conven-
ton to his support. The utterly unex-
peCted anti-climaX which followed this
dramatic incident is something which
even the most experienced frequenter of
political conventions will always bear in
memory. 1t seemed as if the entire con-
vention rose as one man and hOoted
down the eloquent speaker for what was
regarded as an attempt to take snap
judgment on them, and Judge Gresham's S
name was not again seriously considered
by the convention.
In 1892 the Populist party sent dele
CATION to tender Judge Gresham a nomi
nation at the head of their ticket, but he
declined to accept the offer, and re-
NAMED on the bench until he resigned
at the personal request of Mr.. Cleveland
TO heCOmp SeprptarV of State