The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-25
HILL AND SHEEhAN
THE TWO NEW WORKERS COM
PARED AS LEADERS.
The One Always Suspicious and In
credulOus-The Other Believes
In Men Until De-
ceiyed.

CGIveOs
Hollands New York q Special to Chicago
In 1896 almost the first Democrat in
New York to repudiate by official act
the nomination of Colonel Bryan for
President was William F. Sheehan. His
warm friend, and in sense his politi-
cal mentor, Governor Flower, had In.
stantly 'repudiated the nomination CT
Bryan by emphatic speech. Mr.. Shee-
hans method. however, was even more
emphatic, since he resigned his place
as member of the National Committee
representing New York State. From
that time until the spring of this year
Mr.. Sheehan has had no personal as
ISOLATION with politics, and in so short
a time as that so rapid is the course
of political events he seemed almost to
have been forgotten, remembered mere
ly as young politician who, in early
ernor of New York.
1t is not clear as yet to those in this
city who are watching political move
ments exactly what the attitude OF
David B. Hill toward candidates and
Mr.. Sheehan is to be. There seems to
have come a break al st. Louis. possibly
not of friendship. although some strain
ing of that relation by reason of the
time of the receipt of Judge Parker's
telegram. No one here knows exactly
what authority either Mr.. Sheehan or
Mr.. Hill had as personal representa-
tive of Judge Parker at st. Louis. al
though it is the inference that as Judge
Parker sent his now historic telegram
to Mr.. Sheehan, he either had a better
understanding of Mr. Sheehans discre-
that Mr.. Sheehan was in a sense his
personal representative, while Mr.. Hill
was not.
ND tro iva a
in the same political school One was
always suspicious, incredulous and III
a sense shy. The other was of happy
disposition-a disposition to trust men
until they broke faith, and If not cred
ulous, yet free from the excessive
doubling and suspicion which have al.
ways >een the characterization of Mr..
Hill. Therefore, Sheehan always had
gan life in almost similar circumstances
that is to say. in such humble way
that it was necessary for each or them
to begin to earn a livelihood in the
ways when all youth of happier cir
cumstances may attend school. One
of the directors of the New York Cen
trail Railroad remembers David B. Hill
as a lad who sold apples and other fruit
and newspapers to passengers upon one
of the little railroads of Central New
York. Many men in Buffalo now not
yet of venerable years recall a bright
faced. bright-eyed and energetic yell
upon the public streets-and that was
Mr.. Sheehan's beginning.
The sense of constant struggle
against adverse circumstances, the in
herited feeling that every man was
against him and that he must fight his
own way, combined with a natural Sc
cretiveness and almost hermit-like dis
position. caused Mr.. Hill as he passed
from boyhood to the first of his oppor
tunities, that of politics in the caucus
and ward. to gain his victories by
strategies; and as he at that time be-
gan to be trained in the school of Sam
uel ]. Tiloen who was probably the
most suspicious and most incredulous
of all the politicians of New York, Mr..
Hill In his early days in Elmira per-
absolute mastery over him. He not
only liked the indirect method, the
whispered conferences, the disguised
handwriting, but he could not employ
any other method in his early politi-
cal activity.
With him politics had no conscience
1t was all a game of empire. and as IN
war. all things are permissible that are
politics a man may be guided by diff
ferent standard in political activity
from that which rules him in his pri-
vate life. Mr.. Hills moral code as an
al relations to the community is per-
feet. His financial integrity is unques-
tionew. He has no small vices not
knowing the taste of liquor. nor even
the use of tobacco.
In these resi- > is Mr.. Hill and Mr..
Sheehan differ. II it be a vice to
smoke Mr.. Sheehan has that vice, and,
while he is abstemiouS in the use of
liquor, being almost a total abstainer.
yet he does not disdain a glass of
champagne or at time make himself
uncordial when with congenial COM.
T. 1wv1
Hill did, through the ward caucus.
where he early demonstrated qualities
of leadership, thence on and on. taking
advantage of an opportunity to read
disclosed unusual ability, not so much
in understanding the philosophy or the
profundity of law as in the practice of
OF both Mr.. Hill and Mr.. sheehan
members of the bench of the Court o.
Appeals speak in the highest terms.
1t has been sometimes surprise to
members of that bench that a man ca,
of the principles of law. of mastery
grouping of facts, OF the application of
principles to them, should nevertheless,
the instant he touches politics. per-
a STANDARD of morality and of justice
as he would not for an instant tolerate
in purely professional practice.
WI mn anu MI SHetndn came TO-
gether during Mr.. HIS first term as
Governor Buffalo had sent Mr. Shee-
han to the Legislature and he there
revealed unusual gifts for high legis-
lative activity, gifts which justified
his party in naming him for Lieuten-
ant-Governor and which caused Ros-
well P. Flower, one of the most capa-
Bile Judges of men of his generation, to
say that he regarded Mir. Sheehan e.
one Of the broadcast as well as the most
skillful politicians of the Democratic
party, needing only few years expo
rience thoroughly to ripen all his un-
usual gifts. Those years of experience
undoubtedly would have come to him
mad 1t not been for the sudden capture
OF the Democratic party by Colonel
BRYAN and his dogmas.
The striking difference between David
B. Hill and William F. Sheehan as
to methods, temperament and under
standing of politics was finely illus
trated just after the nomination Or
Colonel BRYAN. Mr. Sheehan openly
ana boldly cut himself aloof from the
Democracy of 1896. Mr.. Hill did not
do that. He remained taciturn, hermit
like. or to use his now traditional ex-
preston, he remained still a Demo-
crat-verv still"
Mr. Hill and Mr.. sheehan worked
cordially. in sympathy. at ST. Louis un-
til the moment when Judge Parker's
telegram came. In that crisis the dis
characteristics of the two men were
revealed as by a flashlight We arc
just beginning to learn precisely what
took place. Mr.. Hill declared instant
ly: TT is forgery, suppress it," and
that much of what he said has been