The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-06-14

Honorable George Tcknor Curtis, LID,
etc, etc, etc ~ | never held amy public
oiIicc or post IN which, by n custom that
would be more huu0r,d in the breach than
The Observance, is supposed to put the pre-
fl Vt honorable tn a mans name, nor did
ever receive from NV own Harvard or any
othrr institution Of learning the degree Of
LII u. or any other honorary degree. The
fonlupss Of orr people for titles and the
readiness with which they are bestowed are
remHrknlir.
Wh'u was in coll gc Mt Harvard, more
than GO -o.rS aro, there dwelt Mt Cam
brid cp Mr.. I'll M Dowse, who car
ried u. ..erespec, W occupation of leather
dresser. Being a prosperous man and
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 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 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 oyerseers Of Harvard uni
versity thinking that they could induce
him to bequeath his library to the college,
made him an LIZ 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 ways dubbed him Lit
eiary Leather Dresser
About the same time there was II dean of
the theological faculty in Harvard who, be
sides being man Of small stature, was
also very unpopular. He was made II
d. 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 LIZ 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. l 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 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
hin, - ,f hie In, ,fat
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 plac,
: in the First congress relative to the it'll,
proper to be given to the president of tn,
United States afford curious illustration
of the tendencies of some public men a
that period.
On the 23d of April, 1850, the senate in
structed committee of three Of its mem
bers to consider and report what style o.
title IL will be proper to annex to the Office
, of president and vice president of tn,
United States, if any other than those giveI
in the constitution" This led to confer
ence on the subject with II committee of tn
house of representatives, and the result
: was disagreement.
The president had in the meantime beei
inaugurated-viz, on the Both of April-an,
in the address in answer to his Inaugural
speech, presented to. him by the house OIL
the 9TH of May, he had been addressed sim
ply as George Washington, president O
the United States" On the sth of May tn
! senate appointed Il new committee of it
} own body to consider and report unde
what title it would be proper for the senat
to address the president. This committe
on the 14th proposed as title, His high
n ness the president of the United States an
. protector Of their liberties" But withou
proceeding to the adoption of title tina
was certain to be rejected by the hous,
S and that would have led to n difference i
the practice of the two bodies, the senat
proposed the following resolution:
"From decent respect for the opinio
and practice of civilized nations, wheth,
under monarchical or republican forms
government, whose custom it is to anne
titles of responsibility to the Office of the
chief magistrate, and that, on intercours
S with foreign nations, IA due respect for Il
c majesty of the people of the United Stat,
may not be hazarded by an appearance
II singularity, the senate have been induce
a to be of opinion that 1t would be proper
annex respectable title to the Office
J president of the United States but the SCI
r. ate, DESTROYS of preserving harmony wit
the house of representatives, where u
It practice lately observed in presenting q
address to the president was without II
addition of titles, think it proper, for Il
d present, to act in conformity with the pra
tice of that house. Therefore, resolve
that the present address be To the Pre-.
l. dent of the United States without add
ton of title"
This method of receding from the p
N sition that had been taken by the sena
4 was resorted to in consequence of deba
" which took place in the house on the IL
id Of May upon proposition made by the Sc
ate for further conference in regard to t
IL future mode of addressing the presder
D. As the house had already determined tn
it would not be proper to annex any 9th
vi style or title to any of the offices than tn
given in the constitution, and had, in a
dressing the president, acted in pursuan
of this decision, opposition was manifest
to further consideration of the subject.
But after an earnest discussion, viii
. exhibited no difference of opinion on t
. question of additional titles, the house &C
scented to the appointment of new CO
mittee of conference, and Mr.. Madison "
placed at the head of it. The conferer
between the two committees was held, l
on the l4th the senate was informed Il
D. the disagreement remained. The Sent
is then adopted the resolution which is abe
quoted, and from that time the matter
titles was allowed to sleep.-George Til
m nor Curtis in New York Sun.