The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-10-08
7 HI Rio V v Fed
B Y S AV 10Y A r D.

This man was power behind the
throne and a consummate party man
ager. He was nearly a match for the
Albany Regency, and more than
| once he prevailed over that combina-
ton. He named two of the Presidents
| of the United States and his faVor1te
would have been nominated at'Chlcago
! in 1860 but for the merest chance. he
was long the antagonist OF Martin van
| Buren,, but in 1S48 he gained his ENDS
| by the aid of Van Buren,, with whom
he was never in accord politically. His
| ambition was to make William II. Sc
ward President, and when that hope
was defeated by the nomination OF
| Lincoln his disappointment was sore,
and had there been united Democ-
racy it would have cost the new Re-
| publican party dear.
An anecdote illustrates his charac-
| ter When Seward was governor of
| New York he was one day making
journey by stage coach from Auburn
to Albany. The weather was delight
full, and the governor, with fellow
passenger, had a place outside" They
fell into conversation, and in the course
of it the governor made his identity
konwn. His companion was incredul-
Gus, for the persoal presence OF VIII
liam II. Seward was not at all impos-
ing, and all the protestations of the
governor fell on deaf ears. Finally
they met a gentleman, an acquaintance
of the governor, but a Democrat, trav-
cling in the other direction, and to
him Seward appealed to identify him
The answer was: Il cannot agree
! with you, sir. Everybody knows that
Thurlow Weed is governor of New
York"
Born in 1897. Thurlow Weed was
the child of poverty His father was
! not only a poor man, but an unlucky
poor man, a day laborer whom mis-
fortune loved to pursue When but
eight years old the boy earned six
cents a day operating the bellows OF
the primitive blacksmiths shop OF
that day, and to reach it he was stood
on a box. He was next boy of all
work at a country tavern. Then he
was a cabin boy of a sloop, and with
rather pathetic memory he told the
story of his first shilling and how he
expended it for fruits and cakes for
his mother and the other children al
home. He would have become sail
or for life but for dizziness that
| seized him when aloft and that would
not wear off He tells of how he
walked barefooted to see Gov. Morgan
Lewis. He was then ten years of Lge
and perhaps little dreamed that a
| time would come when he should be
| the Warwick of American politics and
make not only governors of New
York but Presidents of the United
States. In 1908 the family removed
to CORTLAND county. and there the boy
was employed boiling I've for "blacn
salts" and making sugar from maple
strip. He had learned to read, and
! he tells us the enjoyment he got
reading borrowed books while in the
sugar camp Later he worked in an
iron foundry, and in 1911 he entered
newspaper office to learn the printers
| trade. He was then fourteen years of
age, William H. Seward was a lad of
ten. and Horace Greeley was child
of three in New Hampshire. Before
1910 they composed the celebrated
firm of Seward, Weed & Greeley, from
which the junior member withdrew.
in disgust in a letter that is one OF
the most wonderful productions in po-
litical and journalistic literature.
Weed had now found the trade for
which he was born. He was printer
and a newspaper man, and now be-
gan the education that made him the
consummate party leader he became.
From the day he entered that news
paper office his fortune was made and
his destiny fixed He was not great
editor like Greeley or Richie. He
was not doctrinaire. There never
WAS d IUOIUenI ltldL lie NOulu ldlilSi
have been right than successful, never
a moment that he would not rather be
wrong than defeated. For example.
he took a leading part in the absurd
anti-Masonic movement, and was the
soul of that party. He denies that
he said the body found at Batavia was
good enough Morgan till after the
election but that is what he thought.
and he admits that it was something
"a hp
General Jackson vetoed the bank
charter. Weed, then editor of the ia
nous Albany Evening Journal, saw
what would happen. Webster made i
great speech in answer to Jackson's
veto, a great speech, and the Wing
were delighted with it, and demanded
that Weed print it in the Journal, He
refused, though he agreed with every
word Of it. But he said there We're
two things in Jackson's message that
would carry the election, and it was
foolish to make a fight already lost.
Those two things were the citation oil
the fact that much of the stock OF
the bank was owned in Europe, and
the expression, so often repeated in
our own day, that the bank was max
ing the rich richer and the poor poor
err" There was nothing Weed had 81.
little use for as d defeat at the polls
He was no martyr and no hero-Wor-
shipper. He would have gone to vic
tory with the veriest scrub in the Whic
party sooner than follow Henry Clay
to defeat. He was no doctrinaire.
In 1923 Weed became the editor o.
the Rochester Telegraph. the frs
paper in America to advocate the cleo.
ton of John Quincy Adams as Presi-
dent of the United States, and that
was the suggestion of Weed and az
example of his political acumen. h
was patient, Industrious, temperate
sagacious, and good natured. To these
add good health hope of the future
a profound knowledge of men, and I;
thorough acquaintance with things
and it is no wonder that Thurlow
Weed succeeded and became the chief
of-staff of a great party. Early in
life he was a "Clintonian,' and adj
hered to that faction when he located
at Rochester. He was always oppos-
ed to Jackson and the Democratic
party, and whilst protesting that Henry
Clay was his first choice for Presi-
dent. he defeated his nomination in
1910 and 1S4S because he did not be-