The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-14

anu tuCn 0GNdtuC q StAuNhL a. Sut AAAVANAf
from which institution he was graduated
in 1856 with high rank as a scholar. debater
and writer After leaving college Mr.. Ding
ley studied law in 1886 with Merrill &
Fessenden. in Auburn, to which city his
parents had removed while he was in coll
lege, and in the latter year he was admitted
to the bar. Instead Of entering on the prac-
tice Of law he decided to become a journal
ist, for which profession he always mani
tested a decided taste. In September 1856,
he purchased the Lewiston Journal, of
which he had been practically the editor
while studying law, and to which. in 1851,
he added a daily edition. The paper rapidly
Increased in circulation and influence under
his management.
HIS FIRST VOTE.
Mr.. Dingey's first vote was cast in 1854,
for Hon. Arson p. Morrill, the anti-slavery
and temperance candidate for Governor, a
political combination from which arose the
Republican party of Maine during the fol-
lowing winter He threw himself into the
Fremont campaign in 1856 with all the ardor
of youth and ability of age. In 1861, at the
age of twenty-nine, he was elected rep
resentative from Auburn to the State Legis-
lature, in which body he at once took high
rank, was reelected in 1862 and chosen
speaker of the House at the session of 1863
In 1868 he removed to Lewiston, where, a
few months afterward he was elected to the
Legislature and with the opening of the ses-
sion of 1864 was unanimously reelected
speaker. AT the state convention of 1864
he was elected to the House a fourth time,
and with the session Of 1865 was again ten
dered the position of speaker, which he de-
clined, preferring to take his place on the
Hp tVa a n OFF 10 no
Legislature from Lewiston in 1868 and 1873.
In 1873 Mr.. Dingley was nominated as the
Republican candidate for Governor of Maine
by vote of two to one against two popu-
lar opponents and was elected by about ten
thousand majority. In 1874 he was reelected
by over 11,0OO majority, declining a third
nomination in 1876 He was one of the dele
gates at large from Maine to the Republic
an national convention in 1876 and served
on the committee resolutions and was
one of the subcommittee of five which
drafted the platform He actively partici-
pated in the presidential campaign of 1876
and in the state conventions of 1877, 1878 and
1879. In 1S79-S0 he was chairman of the Re
publican executive committee. In 1881 Mr..
Dingley was nominated by the Republicans
of the Second congressional district of
Maine to fill the vacancy in Congress caused
by the resignation of Hon. w. p. Frye.
He was elected by a majority of over five
thousand, nearly twice as large as ever be-
fore given to any candidate in that district.
He served on the committee on banking and
currency and as a member of the select
committee on alcoholic liquor traffic. and
during the session he presided several times
over the House in committee of the whole.
FIRST SPEECH IN CONGRESS.
Mr.. Dingley's first speech in Congress was
made April %, 1882, on Protection to Amer
ican Shipping the House being committee
of the whole on the bill to create a tariff
commission. Under joint resolution intro
duced into the House by Mr. Dingley, and
passed Aug. 7, 1882, he was appointed a
member of the joint committee to investi-
gate the condition and wants of American
shipbuilding and shipowning interests. The
report of the committee, drawn up by Mr.
Dingley, and unanimously agreed to by the
committee, was regarded as a very able and
valuable document The committee reported
a bill to remove certain burdens on Amer
ican shipping, framed by Mr.. Dingley, which
passed the House, but there was not time
to reconcile disagreeing amendments before
the two houses of the Forty-seventh Con-
gress expired. While this bill was under con-
sideration in the House he made a speech
on the Revival of American Shipping" in
reply 70 Congressman Cox, which placed
him at once in the front rank of congress-
men and gave him national reputation
In 1881 he was re-elected as a congress-
man at large for the Forty-eighth Congress-
AT the opening of Congress in December,
1854, Speaker Carlisle appointed him at the
head of the Republican minority on both
the banking and currency committee and
the select committee on American ship
building and ship owning interests. Mr.
Dingley at once reintroduced his shipping
bill, which was passed by the House and
sent to the Senate. The latter body
amended it by adding a provision for the
encouragement of American postal steam
ship lines, but subsequently the difference
was adjusted in conference and the bill vas
approved by the President on June "a, 1884.
On Feb. z, 1884, Mr. Dingley reported from
the shipping committee his bill to constitute
a bureau of navigation in the Treasury De-
partment, and later in the month it was
passed by the House under a suspension of
the rules Subsequently the Senate con-
Cured and the bureau was organized. Mr.
Dingley was reelected to the Forty-ninth
Congress from the Second Maine district in
1884
At the annual meeting of the Congress
SIGNAL Temperance Society in February,
1887, Mr. Dingley was elected president In
June, 1886, Mr. Dingley was reelected to the
Fiftieth Congress, and again reelected to
the Fifty-frst Congress in 1885, to the Fifty
second in 1890, the Fifty-third in 1892, the
Fifty-fourth in 1884, and the Fifty-ffth in
1896. by large and increased majorities. In
the F1fty-second and Fifty-third Congresses
on appropriations.
In forming his Cabinet, prior to entering
on the duties of chief executive on March 4.
1897 President Mckinley rendered the posi-
ton of secretary Of the treasury to Mr..
Dingley, but he declined the offer, prefer
ring to remain in his position as chairman
of the ways and means committee and floor
leader of the Republican majority of the
House.
Under his lead the House, within sixteen
days after the Fifty-hfth Congress was con-
vened in extraordinary session on the 18th
Of March, 1897, by President Mckinley.
passed a bill revising the tariff.
TRAINED BY HIS MOTHER.
Mr.. Dingley's father was a trader, not
particularly welt to do, and the boy bent
himself to work at an early age. His stead
mess of purpose came from his old Puritan
stock but his intellectual ability came from
his mother woman educated far beyond
her station or the average of cultivation
in do he