The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-02-28
OF The
SILENT ADMIRAL"
remarkable Career Of VIM. T.
Sampson, Who Patiently
Awaits the Final Call.
MAN OF GREAT ABILITY
IN the Venezuelan Crisis He Was
Cleveland's Choice for Naval
Commander-in-Chief-Mis-
understood by Public.


'~pondence: Rear Admira Sampson has
'etired from active service, his active ca
-eer closing last Sunday. He is 60 years of
age. No ceremony marked the passing
from active duty of the man who COM
manded the Santiago fleet in the war with
Spain.
The admiral was born in Palmyra, N.
T., February 6, 1910, and entered the navy
n 1851. He served through the civil war
as a lieutenant, and was on the Petapses
when that monitor was blown up.
"A war cloud was gathering from over
seas, and soon, its shadow might shroud
he nation. 1t was for us a national ques-
lion of right and wrong. and If the storm
must break, 1t were well to be as pre-
pared as might be. The brunt would bear
irst upon the weakest arm of the service
our untried navy. The president called
ais counselors about him, and there We're
ong and serious deliberations. If war
must come-and all hoped that it would
De averted-our ships must be got In or
Ter and there must be a man to command
whatever of battle front our navy could
make. According to very high authority,
he president went slowly down the naval
list until his finger rested on a name.
Cleveland Recognized His Worth.
There is the man." he said. II should
BE the commander in chief of our provi-
sional battle squadron"
The mar thus honored was William
Thomas Sampson. His name was far down
the list.
I'll make him a rear admiral if it ever
comes to the point" said the president.
The war cloud was not coming out Of
Spain. The president was not William
Mckinley, the head of a republican admin
Stration, jumping Sampson over the heads
Of some of his senior captains for parti-
:anship, or favoritism, or what else. The
president was Grover Cleveland, the time
was 1894, and he was jumping Sampson
not only over the heads of a few cap
aims, but of nearly all the captains. Cleve-
land then had never seen Sampson.
That war did NOT come. Another came
alter. A new administration selected the
same man as the commander in chief of
our fighting ships.
He fought the war to the glory of his
country. Our entire naval service and the
naval authorities of the other nations of
seaman of history. He is dying of a
broken heart.
What manner of man is this, who, solely
upon his record, is twice selected above
all his fellows, by different administra-
lions, to lead our naval forces to battle;
who Is looked upon by his fellow-oftcers
as the genius of our new navy, and who
IS heaped with reproaches by his fellow
citizens?
William Thomas Sampson was never
popular His qualities were not OF that
order. But he was well-beloved by those
who knew him intimately, and he was re-
spected by all with whom he came in con-
tact.
Worker, Student and Actor.
Sampson devoted his whole life to the
service Of his country. He strove to make
this service as valuable as possible. He
differed in that from a too-familiar type
Of army and navy officer the world over.
He was not content to let the requirement
If his commission mark the end Of his
effort and attain promotion by the mere
passage Of time. All his life, while 9TH
srs played, Sampson worked. While 9TH
srs talked, Sampson studied. While 9TH
srs posed, Sampson planned. When the
time for action came, while others hest
lated, Sampson acted.
The general public attitude toward
Sampson forms one of the most curious
.paradoXes of the times. He is the very
antithesis of almost everything that he
is popularity pictured to be. He is carica-
tured as a tea drinkc:,'' "a drawing
room hero when the two places he most
liked to be were in the quiet of his study
or on the bridge of a lighting ship.
He was pictured as a poseur, when he
actually had to strive to overcome a ma
tive shyness.
Because, in his declining strength of
mind, a secretary equivocally expressed
his undeniably sound view that a naval
academy training was of the greatest ad-
vantage to an officer of the United States
navy, he was execrated as a snob, in de-
fiance of his lifetime Of thought, habit
and manner. He was held up to scorn
as an "aristocrat" In the offensive sense
of the term, when his great sense Of per-
scnal satisfaction lay in the thought that,
unaided, he had succeeded. from the most
humble beginnings, in becoming of use to
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