The Yale expositor., 1896-04-17
COL. AARON 7. BLISS
Is Our Choice for Governor
of Michigan.
The Gallant Citizen-Soldier- Our
Motto in this Campaign, "Bliss,
Union and Victory"
(Allegan Journal, April ,, 1860

| NAHcBdH Jouiiiai, AprH d, iooo')
The February March number of the
Sturgis Coffee COOler-COmrade Coop
er's spicy sheet-has capital sketch of
Colonel Aaron II. Bliss of Saginaw, a
leading candidate for our governor at
the forthcoming election. We take
great pleasure in endorsing our Sturgis
contemporary timely article. There
is no question as to the popularity and
capacity of Colonel Bliss for the gov
ernorship. He has been tried and
found true in various important pO-
sitiOns both as a union volunteer and
legislator and is in every way qualified
to fill the chief magistracy of our great
and progressive state. No man in the
state is more familiar with our states
great material interests than Colonel
Bliss-who is not only union veteran,
but farmer, and a lumberman and
has seen service in the state legisla-
ture and in Congress.
| But read the article in the Sturgis
paper which we spread before the
readers Of the Journal below:
| We kindly invite attention to our
candidate for governor of Michigan,
subject to the action of the Republican
State convention. Col. Bliss belongs
! to the party of Lincoln, and his ener-
getic work will be for the advancement
of republicanism whether he is nOmi-
mated or not He and his friends are
| in favor of the candidate who receives
| the approval of the convention. He
and his friends will kick only against
the other parties and not against
the good sense of the delegates who
may nominate another man. Two
fnr 10
enough i'll receiving a handsome vote
in the convention, but. he was appre-
ciated most highly for his manly
pledged his honor to stand by Rich.
are patriots. COmrade Bliss is q
patriotic politician, such as our country
needs.
Ills record of patriotic and unselfsh
devotion to his country and the Repub-
lican party is well known, and his
strength as candidate for the Office of
governor is best attested by the fact
that as a candidate for state senator
and congressman he has redeemed
overwhelming democratic districts, and
in both instances ran ahead of his
ticket.
His native home was Smithfeld,
Madison county, n. Y, where he was
born May %, 1897. Reared on q farm,
he easily acquired frugal and steady
habits which have been his basis of
success. Thrown upon his own re-
sources at an early age he acquired
his schooling, not in college but in the
busy ranks of men.
In 1871 he enlisted as private IL the
10th New York cavalry, serving three
years and five months, including six
months in the rebel prisons at Ander-
Sonville, Charleston and Macon. He
escaped from the latter place and after
eighteen nights of travel through the
cOnfederacy he reached the union lines.
His soldierly qualities were recognized
and the earnest musket bearer was pro-
NOTED to sergeant, first lieutenant and
captain for meritorious and brave
conduct. Our eX-prisOners of war in
Michigan need not be told that today
he is prominent III the national assOci-
alton and full of zeal in their cause.
lie led fOrlOrn hope with a picked
body of men when he was captured.
Today he leads a body of men who
prize him for his warm hearted COM
radeship and have picked him because
he is noble exponent of the grandest
philanthropy and citizenship.
In 1860 he settled at Saginaw and en-
gagged in the lumber business. lie first
worked in the woods and as foreman
and jobber acquired the small means
which, prudently invested, laid the
foundation of his modest competence.
Since his settlement in Michigan he
has been steady employer of men,
giving labor to from four to five hun
dred men annually, and his fairness in
his dealings with labor is best attested
by the good feeling that has always
existed between himself and his en-
plOyees.
In every movement for the advance
ment of the city, county and state he
has been q prime mover. When the
timber of Michigan began to grow
scarce and lumberman thought they
must seek elsewhere for basis of
operations, Bliss was one of the first
to suggest the feasibility of buying
logs in Canada and saving them in
Michigan, thus maintaining the mills
of this state, which were threatened
with extinction, throwing out of employ
ment thousands of men who had built
homes in Michigan.
Our comrade has equal success in
other lines of business. lie is a practi-
cal farmer, owning a farm of 600 acres
on the outskirts of Saginaw, which is
in high state of cultivation, and
proves that his early training as a
farmer has not been lost. While
director in one of the leading banks of
Saginaw, he planned and carried out
the idea Of a bank for the savings of
small depositors and today is president
Of the Saginaw savings bank, which
has had phenomenal success and is re-
garded as one of the safe deposits for
all wage earners.
As a politician he has had an inter
eSting career. Living in a democratic
ward, he was elected as a straight Re-
publican as supervisor, and later as
alderman, each time at the request of
his neighbors. When it was desired TO
redeem the senatorial district of Sagi-
nav county from the apparently hope
less grip of democracy, the Republicans
looked around and selected him as a
winning candidate. After being salts
fled that his candidacy might inure to
the benefit of his party he consented to
make the race and carried the demo-
cratic county of Saginaw by over 900
majority.