Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1904-12-02
Story OF the Stenographer Who
Became National Commit
tees Chairman.
LUCK PUSHED HIM ALONG
Gath Writes OF the Series of Acct.
dents and Incidents That Made the
Young courtier One Of the
Leaders of the Nation.

AotOf Ob1H VA NAtttt tb<tt~E ~ M n
on Long Island between Brooklyn ahW
Coney Island. HIS chief utterance was 70
receipt for as much power as MS mliieia
captain used. He never spoke again. n
200 years, till. instead OF Jacques anu
Pieter Corteljouw and Cortiiliou, = plain
clerk, George Bruce Cortelyou, came ous
OF four years public school teSching 20
exercise his craft OF shorthand writer IN
the New York postofice, 1889. at the age o.
27. lie Is four years the young presidents
junior. AZ years old.
CorteIyou was handed over from the
postoffce of New York 70 a deputy post
master general, only TO sit still and take
notes. Al year and a quarter before Ileve-
land went out OF the presidency finally, ne
obtained Cortelyou as one specially re-
garded for secrecy. understanding and
confidence. President Cleveland rapidty
passed him on 20 executive clerk IN the
White House, where Mckinley found him
among several other clerks, appoiifted ana
retained with no regard except 20 thelr
fitness. There is Warren Young, one q
those clerks today, who was taken our
Of the document room Of congress by ms
representative, Garfield, probably IN
Hayes time. and served seven presidents
without opening his mouth.
Cortelyou, as New York city hoy,
probably looked the maturest and most
official when the timid Mckinley wanted
discretion and backbone, so he made COR
telyou assistant secretary over six years
ago, and fun secretary six months BEFORE
McKinley's second election.
C%ortelyou remained with Roosevelt, IN
obedience to that public tyranny which
would not let Roosevelt discharge any
body OF McKinley's lcavings. Probably
Roosevelt would have preferred someone
to hear his oral orders who had not been
so close TO Mark Hanna and the Old cab
met, but the public, under a chgap class
OF instruction, chiefly from offlceholders
and goody-goodies. watched the president
as IL he might be going TO rob the corpse
OF some OF his fringcs. so Cortelyou re-
mained twenty-eight months with this
third president, having been equally com
mended and distinguished by Cleveland,
Mckinley and Roosevelt. He got his FIRST
dagger thrust from the republican party
when Roosevelt, with his consistent re-
gard for virtuous wayfarers, raised him
to be a cabinet minister In February. 1909,
and took another private secretary.
I heard II at once said that Corteiyou
was probably not a republican. had served
under Cleveland and never had been a
worker among New York state republic
ans. He was neither Platt's man nor
0deIla.
Here he. was, however, q member of the
cabinet in a place Alexander Hamilton
vi VAAtAt NtN@t $50 - fNN :"
Conkling was chairman OF the committee
OF commerce or the senate by his own se-
lection and Alexander Hamilton organ
lied and operated the treasury by the
counsel OF the merchants, who always
sustained him.
The simple living OF Corteiyou from his
youth up should have spared him invec-
tive and ~ferocity.
Born in the midst Of the civil war he
was brought up at Hampstead, 4. r, q
poor community, afterwards acquired by
A. T.. Stewart and never profitable to any
body. and there he went to the public
schools and fell IN loye with the school
teachers daughter, now his wife.
To become also a teacher ,Cortelyou
went to a normal school at Westleld,
Mass. out of which he came at 20 IN
1882.
Singularly, the final fury OF this cam
paign has ragged about a man with a pas
sive record who was enyied and belittled
by every aspiring head Of division and as
sistant secretary In Washington because
he had done nothing for the republican
party" yet had become an attending
member Of the cabinet. "Ife can't make q
speech" they cried. III is not connected
with any line OF policy He wasn't
recommended by either Of the New York
senator's,
ii,Tsiso 5asaS --Sy 1:tl.c...site ehaend
Van Buren, for having President Jackscn's
favor, and Calhoun, Webster and Clay,
with doctrinaire ~nJeanness. refused a COM
firmation 10 their fellow senator after he
had reached England as minister. Wash
ington Irving wrote from England to his
brother Peter. II look upon his rejection
as a very shortsighted and mean spirited
act Of hostility. and regret that Clay
SHOULD haye suffered party politics so far
to have corroded his naturally generous
and chivalrous nature as TO have been
concerned inl II. / should not be surprised
II this vote Of the senate goes far toward
ultimately ~elevating Mr.. Van Buren, 10 the
presidential chair. He is one OF the gem
TEST and most amiabIe men / have eyer
met with; with ar affectionate disposition
that attaches itself to those around him
and wins their kindness In return"
In four years more Van Buren, was
president, at the age OF 81.
None OF the t~roglodytes who insulted his
kindness ever reached the presidency. He
never retorted upon them.
Amidst the rage OF noise, the mystic
M silent Cortelyou has lived far from
the social stew or Washington city. His
home is In the northeast end, near the
capitol. where few OF the congressman
IN senator's do their legislative depart
ment the respect TO live near Ii. Instead.
they go OF TO the presidents purlieu IN
AAS "a %4tAS VI tAG WESl Glu.
There they eat and they confab. fatter
the rich old women and condone the grass
widows offenses.
The congressional class is suggestive OF
the Parie rnaidens who wash and iron all
day and go to the Prado to dance all
night.
C~ortelyou is the only executive minister
who leaves the festive west end at night
to sleep where senators and congressman
ought TO be. where Jefferson walked from
his rooms to his inauguration, where SAM
uel J. Randall livedhand died. where Thad-
deus Stevens and John J. Nicolay
Joseph Holt lived and died. upon the
plateau OF the capitol. near the beautiful
congressional library.
There. on Maryland avenue, lives the
dreadful Cortelyou who assesses the mer-
chants and gets Judge Parker' excom-
munication.
Cortelyou has been decorated with the
censure OF presidents as 'opcs to be.
This collection OF funds to elect presi
dents was at high water mark in 1896 and
in 1906. /
In 1855 a rich family IN New york
claimed that Ito private assessment II
$4,000 wan stolen In the national con-
mittee and not q voucher G1ven.
On 1899 the plrist class resolved q hV,x
TN Hooslcrs ara een< xn6nSfI "a e&ofp