Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1904-02-24
First Citizen of the Republic" is
the Title Given Hanna by Wal.
ter WelImsn.
ENTRANCE TO PUBLIC LIFE
The Cool Reception Accorded Him
by Old Republican Leaders and
His Subsequent Triumphs.

Marcus AlonZo Hanna died regard
ed by many as the first citizen of the
republic. That he was a power in
the land everyone knows. But his
power came not from Official station.
not from great wealth. not from any
of the usual sources of power. He
was great man, not because he had
helped to make a president of the
United States; not because he was
the official head of the Republican
party as the chairman of its nation
al committee; not because he was a
United States senator-but because
he was Mark Hanna.
Few men in the history of the
country had achieved position COM
parable to that which Mr.. Hanna had
achieved when fate overlook him. II
was a position unique, well night IN.
precedented, altogether admirable.
When death called him this man of
strikingly simple character, this mere
business man. this man of affairs. who
lacked the polish. the learning. the
eloQuence of our traditional states
men. was undoubtedly the second
most powerful man in the dominant
party at Washington, the second in
influence over policies and legislation.
Only the president of the United
States had more potent voice than
he-the president with all the paraph-
ernalia and panoply of executive and
political power behind him; Mark
Hanna with just himself and his
friends.
Hanna and His Friends.
Mark Hanna and his friends! Here
we strike the keynote of 1t ala
note that rings true and sweet, a note
that should go singing through the
land and reverbating down the corri-
dors of time. an inspiration to the
men and women of the future. II is a
song with a lesson in it, lesson so
useful and beautiful that in some
slight degree it softens the bitterness
of this hour.
Mark Hanna rose to power through
the love and confidence of his fellow
men, through the faith men and wom-
on placed in his sterling character
his fine sense, his wisdom and his JUS
tice. He was potent in all the public
activities of L-- time and country be-
cause he had more devoted personal
friends than any other living Ameri
can! Thus 1t was at the end; but
it was not so at the beginning. Mark
Hanna started his career as a public
man under a cloud.
One of the most marvellous stories
in the annals of our American life is
the story of Mark Hanna's rise and
progress during his last five years
his coming into his own. Well do I
remember the day Mr.. Hanna made
his debut upon the stage of the the.
ater of life at this capital of the ma
ton. II was December. 1895. II had
come to Washington as the known
manager of the movement that had
been set on foot some time earlier for
the purpose of making William Nc
Kinley president.
An Unknown Quantity.
Mr.. Hanna was then known to few
public men. When he came here to
attend the meeting of the Republican
national committee, just before the
presidential campaign of 1896, he had
to seek acquaintance with the leading
men of his party. 1t cannot be said
that they gave him warm welcome.
They knew little about him, save that
he was a business man with a pen
chant for politics, hobby of taking
up some friend in public life and try
ing to make president of him. They
knew he had once tried to do this
with John Sherman, and now he was
essaying the same achievement, with
far better chance of success, for vii.
liam Mckinley.
Not much was known of his meth.
ods or character, but the little that
was known did not win warm ap-
proval. He was supposed to be a ty'
pical business man in politics. He
was an organizer. a man who carried
business principles and methods into
politics-that much everyone knew.
In the animosities and jealousies
incident to a spirited contest for the
presidential nomination. 1t was nat
ural for those who favored other as
pirants than Mark Hanna's man, &c
assume that he was debauching the
party; that he was buying up the
'nigger" delegates from the south
that he was becoming a man of power
through the use of his check book
And so II came to pass that at thu
outset of his career Mr.. Hanna wal
regarded by many who should hav,
known better as a somewhat vulgal
paryenu in politics, as a brutal over
rider of all the niceties and ameni
ties of public life; as a man whit
might. indeed, make a president o
the United States, but who coul,
never make anything of himself.
Prejudice Died Hard.
When Mr.. Hanna had won his frs
great success. the prejudice whicl
had thus been aroused against hin
subsided slowly. We all know that Il
politics II is true that nothing sue
ceeds like success, and yet there wa
constantly at work tnat other prime
pie of human nature, the persisten
and unreasonable stubbornness of
prejudice, the immortality of a SUI
picion.
complete. Thanks to the persons