The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-09
MAJ. GENERAL WHEELER
PICTURESQUE PERSONALITY OF THE
ALABAMA CONGRESSMAN.
Small of stature, Active as Hornet
and an Ideal Cavalryman-His
Peculiar Qualities.
w. G. Nicholas. in Chicago Post.

major generals chosen from civil life is one
of the picturesque characters of the House
of Representatives. He is a very small man
physically, perhaps five feet six inches in
height. and Weighing 10 pounds, but he
is a marvel of activity. He is always on
the go, and at a very rapid rate, lodging
into his committee room, then out into the
corridors, talking one moment with con-
stituent while the next will find him over
in the Supreme Court looking after some
legal interest, and before ordinary man
would have chance TO turn round he will
be back again at his seat in the hall of
representatives busy writing letters. He
does everything nervously and rapidly, and
his short speeches in the House, when he
asks for single minute to say one word,
have become one of the standing jokes
among his colleagues. He talks so fast dur
ing that one minute that no stenographer
can take him down. and then blandly asks
permission to insert the rest of his speech
in the Record, which the next morning may
be found to cover twenty pages. 1t has
sometimes been suggested in jocular way
by his associates when this permission
was asked for that space limit should be
placed upon his volubility, but such things
never disturb the celebrated cavalry leader
of the Confederacy. He is intensely earnest
the world as if he meant business" with
whatever he undertakes. AS illustrative of
these pre-eminent characteristics it is re-
lated that a number of congressman were
gathered in the speakers room one day just
after the death of j. G. Holman and Mr..
Milliken, of Maine. when the conversation
| turned to the familiar topic of the dropping
out, one after another, of the elderly men of
| the House. Some one noticing that General
| Wheeler was sitting there ventured to re-
mark: We'll General Wheeler is still left
with u.s."
Yes drawled out Mr.. Reed in his char
| acter1stic way 1.-The Almighty could never
find Wheeler in one place long enough to
| put his finger upon him.
But Speaker Reed, Notwithstanding his
oft-observed inclination to crack a joke at
| General Wheeler's expense entertains the
highest regard. as do the members of the
| House generally for the newly appointed
major general. He is universally regarded
as of absolute integrity, and one of the
kindest hearted of men. 1t is said that
more visitors are chasing after him, due
throughout the South, than any other man
in the chamber, and yet he is always
teous and attentive to an extreme degree.
and no one ever goes away feeling that he
| has been sighted or ignored by the Ala
! bama congressman.
ALWAYS COURTEOUS
II. M. Lord the clerk of the committee
on ways and means, of which General
| Wheeler is member, relates that an elder
ly lady called at the committee room a
few days ago and said she wanted to see
some representative from New York. Gen.
Wheeler was busily at work with his cor
respondence, which he dropped before Mr.
Lord had chance to offer his assistance
to the visitor, and in less time than it takes
to tell it General Wheeler was darting
through the corridors in search of New
York member until he triumphantly pro-
duced Mr.. Sherman. whom he found in his
committee room. Mr.. Lord asserts that
the aged woman was an utter stranger to
| General Wheeler, but that this courtesy is
only typical of the way he treats every
body.
1t is said that he does more for his con-
stituents in the way of supplying public
| documents, maps and perhaps their own
representatives. speeches, than almost any
other member of the House. He maintains
an office on street, few doors from the
Capitol, where from four to six clerks are
employed at his own expense in collecting
and addressing these valuable mssives. AT
| the time Secretary Morton shut off the free
seed supply General Wheelers old friends
seemed TO feel so bad about it, and wrote
so persistently for explanations. that he is
self and sent them out in little packages
General Wheeler's coming into Congress
was quite characteristic of his career there.
| He was elected to the Forty-second Con-
gress from the Eighth Alabama district, or
at least received certificate of election
over William Lowe, his Republican oppo-
nent. But the Republicans were then in
control of the House of Representatives
| and unseated General Wheeler. Hardly had
they done that, however, before Providence
| took a hand in the matter and made the
seat again vacant through the death of Mr..
| Lowe. General Wheeler promptly
| nominated and that time reelected almost
without opposition, so that he was permit
| ted to serve out in peace the term to which
he claimed to have been twice elected. His
service in the House has been conspicuous.
| He Is one of the strongest men on the Dem
| ocratic side of the ways and means COM
mittee and is free-trader of the old school.
| He probably never disgusted in
| his life than with the Southern men who
came before the ways and means committee
| last year asking for protective duties
Southern agricultural products, principally
| cotton. He looked up to one of the petit
toners and asked if he not Offering to
sell his birthright for a mess of pottage.
| floor the old gentleman by asking rather
bluntly: What birthright? What is he
prompt and dramatic: Free trade, an es-
sential to free institutions and one of the
natural rights of free men,"
In personal appearance General Wheeler
is unintentionally striking. He always wears
soft black hat, which is creased in
way peculiar to himself. He wears wide
| band of Grape not only about that, but also
on his sleeve. His beard is long and gray,
and he is one of the members of the House
| usually pointed out to visitors in the gall
lery Since the Cuban question has come
up he has been an ardent sympathizer with
Dnglev asSed him in Committee ni Wndnna I
day if he would not like to go to Manila as
military governor the general replied that
he wanted to go to Cuba, where he would
more readily help bring things to a close.
| He has studied the military movements on
the island, well as any one could study
them at d distance. and has acquired so
much contempt for the methods of Spanish
warfare that he has declared to his asso-
ciateS that with two cavalry corps of the
kind that he led during the rebellion--one
from the South and the other from the
North--he believed he could clean out all
the Spanish forces in Cuba.
HIS WAR SERVICES.
His services during the civil war were
most noteworthy. Senator Davis, of Min
nesota. when asked if he knew General
| Wheeler well. replied:
Il ought to; he chased me through three
States
Another Union veteran. who is now in the
Postoffice Department, says that the
markable feature of General Wheeler's
leadership was that in spite of the tremen-
dous activity of his troopers, their unex-
pected sales by night and by day, their
almost miraculous jumping from point to
point, the fact remained that both horses and
men always appeared in good condition and
did not have the fagged-Out look of most
of the commands that endured a like
amount of hard service. Wheeler was adj
mitted to West Point as cadet in 1854.
when eighteen years of age He entered the
1860 made a second lieutenant in
Of cd ri nd paH