The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-02

putes.
By his service in congress E G.
Spaulding brought to New York such
H. y aS il deserved for perhaps tins
most important, certainly the most
far-reaching financial legislation of the
/ war time. Spaulding's share in this
! probably the greatest achievement of
modern legislative f1nancier1ng, has
/ not been fully acknowledged. Mr..
Blaine ought to be good authority upon
that point He is recorded as saying
that ''on the 22d of January, 1862 e. G.
Spaulding of New York, reported the
/ legal tender bill to the house Mr..
Spaulding is entitled to rank as the au-
thor of the measure" 1t led to the
creation of the national banking sys-
tenn with which Mr.. Spaulding's name
I is also identified.
J That, so far as leading influence is
( concerned, is a creation for which
/ whatever credit may be associated
4 with 1t is conspicuously due to a New
+ YORK representative in congress- Other
! New York men counseled the national
! banking system. John Thompson.
/ known long before war days to every
person who received state bank bills
1 py MS publication setting forth their
! exchange value and the counterfeits
OF them, always claiming that he sug-
| gested the idea of the national bank
70 secretary Chase and Mr. Spaulding.
If he did he found apt scholars. Mr.
thompson was the first to take adj
/ vantage of the law. In his extreme
/ old age, sitting in the directors room
/ of the bank which is the Successor If
the first chartered national bank. with
MS teet Shod in rubber overshoes
1 resting with lofty altitude upon desk
/ Whereon millions had been counted
+ ne USED to tell with chuckling glee how
ne outwitted some of his banking
IN
achievement
Spaulalng was not a politician at
| least politics was not his vocation, A
score or more of men were in that
congress of 1852 who could have claim
ca higher authority as statesmen than
/ ne by right. His business was bank
ing. He was trained as a financier
ana BuI1alo city. which has given the
/ united States two presidents. was his
! nome. Yet Spaulding certainly had
/ one OF the essential qualities Of the
! statesman. For he was capable of act
! ing with certainty and swiftness when
/ &otlon was necessary On the Goth of
december, 1851, the New York banks
/ suspended specie payments On that
Jay without advice, or even consulta-
/ Iloh, Spaulding introduced the original
!egal tender bill in the house. Spauld-
! lng.s measure and Secretary Fish s Gre
/ dtlon OF an International tribunal are
the only important achievements of
I New York's sons in national councils
I since 1860.
! COX AND CONKLING HAD LITTLE
REAL INFLUENCE.
Two of New Yorks representatives
/ IN congress were for more than twenty
! years so conspicuous that strangers in
I the gallery sought them with their ewes
before they did any Of the others in
; etthef mouse, save, perhaps, Blaine,
Sherman, Randall and Garfield These
two were Cox in the house ana Conk-
Hng IN the senate. Cox, paying the
penalty as Tom" CorWin did. which
MS reputation as q humorist entailed.
was watched with the amusement
which his career had by no means JUS
tifled. Abr said he once to a friend.
now much l could do for my party
and my state if it were only believed
th9t 1 am a serious man"
Elaine is reported TO have once said
mat ne thought he could have succeeded
as an actor. Conkling's associates of
long relation in congress were well aware
that he did not need the mimic stage
for his simulations. Like Lord Beasons- /
held the world was stage that suited
MIN, and like Beaconsfeld he acted well
upon It. Yet 1t was not a personal man
nerism, however impressive, that caused
Conkllng to be SO distinguished that dur
ing the twenty years he was in congress
some Of the brilliant men New York
sent to the capital. Nor was it wholly |
his great capacity for the give-and-take |
of extemporaneous debate. It was also a |
singularly striking physical presence, !
combined with such extraordinary com |
mand OF atfiuent and picturesque diction !
as no man in either house of congress has |
ever surpassed, as Mr.. Blaine said ex-
cept possibly Rufus Choate. Moreover no !
one knew when some sudden flash Of 7
oe!lghtful perslnage might not charm the /
10 writ 70
EvARTs AN EXCEPTION.
What it may be that dwarfs or sup
presses the abilities of really able men
thIrty-dve years to represent her at the !
capital, has been the interesting SUP
ject of many, differing conjectures.
Speaker Randall placed Fernando Wood |
at the head of the ways and means com
mittee. That veteran politician displayed |
some of the force OF will which years
before had enabled him as mayor of New
York to defy the legislature, but it was
a grim and almost CHASTITY display, since
as ne stood in his place his face as white
as his snowy hair, holding his tariff bill
which contained the strong medicine that
maintained his vital powers from day to
day. IL was made plain to all that
Woods plea for his bill was swans
song. and when that bill was passed he
put his cup away and went home to
die. He had mastered New York city.
He had even brought Tammany once to
his feet, but when he entered congress
he found world he could not master.
and could but slightly influence.
New York sent Theodore NJ. Pomeroy
for many years to Congress. He went
with the repute Of ability, second only
to that of his great teacher, William H
Seward. The repute was fairly earned,
yet the ability was not maintained IN
Congress. Not until reconstruction days |
did William a. Wheeler gain in congress
any portion of that influence which he
mad earned In the st. Lawrence valley
of New York State. Francis Herman
went to the senate ranking with the |
ablest men Of New York state. 1t is al
most forgotten now that he ever served |
there. Lyman Tremaine, one Of New |
York's ablest legal intellects, made al
most no impress upon Congress, and |
Thomas c. Plat, when in the lower
house, did not suggest to his associates
that gift for political management of |
in recent years in New York State Great |
as are the abilities Of Abram S. Hewitt |
he has confessed that the atmosphere |
OF congress was oppressive, and Henry
that body.
Conspicuous above all in this expert |
ence was William M. Evarts, who en- /
tered the senate soon after an able adj |
minlstration OF the state department. He
was the recognized leader of the Amerl- |
can bar. He had gained fame before he |
was 40 He was one of the American i'm I
mortals, and yet Of all his public service |
that which alone was inconspcuous and |
commonplace was that which character |
lied his term in the senate.
Was Thurlow Weed right when he de- |
clared in 1860 that New York because of |
Stewards defeat was to become the SER
want. and not the master of the new |
party? DANIEL STRONG.
Poor Maria" said Sophia.