The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-07-15
NAMED AFTER A
BATTLEFIELD
Federal Judge Who Summoned
Rockefeller Is Called kene-
saw Mountain Lands.
HIS HONOR A "LIVE WIRE"
WENT TO WASHINGTON WITH
GRESHAM.
HIS HONOR A Give WIRE"

Washington. D. c., July 14-Judge Ken
esaw Mountain Lands, before whom John
ID. Rockefeller was examined in Chicago,
was joy forever to Washington during
his residence here as a private secretary
10 Walter Q. Gresham in 1893 to 1895.
Judge Gresham had commanded the reg
1ment in which Judge Lands father
served, and there always had been a warm
friendship between Gresham and the Lam
dis family.
When Judge Gresham was leaving for
Washington to become secretary of state
in the cabinet of a Democratic president.
and asked young Lands TO go with him
as his private secretary, Lands turned
Democrat and accepted. He had been
practlcing law in Chicago, but clients were
few and far between, and the chances of
official experience in the nations capital
were too alluring to resist
The state department woke up when
Lands came. His manner was new, his
style Of address was original and his
seeming profundity was intermixed with
humOr in a way that left the uninitiated
in doubt as to whether the young man
was joker or person of great depth.
Arrives in Vexed Period.
There was much important work done in
the state department while Lands was
there. The Cleveland policy to put back
Queen LiliuOkalan on the Hawaiian
throne was undertaken. The Boring
arbitration was on, the Venezuelan bound
airy controversy with England was con-
ceived and the Alliance affair occurred.
Many persons have forgotten the Al
lianca affair probably, but it was a stir
ring question at the time. The Alliance,
an American passenger vessel, was over
hauled by a Spanish gunboat when out
side the three-mile limit of Cuban juris
diction and searched the suspicion of
its being loaded with munitions of war for
the Cuban insurgents. The gunboat fired
shots to make the Alliance pull to. When
the news got to this country there was
great hubbub and a strong sentiment de-
Veloped in favor of demanding an apoi-
ogy from Spain.
1t was said along about that time that
lands came pretty near running the
state department. Secretary Gresham was
President Cleveland had gone down the
Potomac on a duck hunting expedition.
Mr.. Cleveland failed to leave his address
and there was no wireless biography
those days. Meanwhile the country cried
out for action
Secretary Acts for Superior.
Edwin H UhI of Michigan was acting
. secretary of state. He was all at sea as
TO what to do, but finally yielding to the
popular cry of lis there an American in
the state Department." ne wrote tele-
gram to Hannis TAYLOR, United States
minister at Madrid. instructing Mr.. Tay-
Tor to demand an apology from the Span
ish government In accordance with the
custom he signed it;
"Uhl, acting
BY the merest accident. Private Secre-
was sent. He took the responsibility of
withdrawing it from the departments tel
egraph operator and hurried with it over
TO Mr. Gresham. Under Lands advice,
Mr. Gresham scratched out ''Uhl, acting,
and signed his own name. A few days la
ter the text of his telegram got into the
newspapers with Mr. Gresham's name at
tached and the dying secretary of state
was praised from one end of the country
10 the other. According TO Lands view
the responsibility was Greshams and to
him belonged the credit. When President
Cleveland returned home and learned
what had occurred he was furious. He
declined to sanction the demand for an
apology and it looked for awhile as il he
would haul Lands over the Goals.
Suspected of News Leaks.
There were news leaks in the state de-
partment in that stirring period. These
leaks disturbed Mr. Cleveland. The i'm
portant Information that Minister Willis
at Honolulu had been instructed to put the
crown On LiliuOkalanis head again got
into the newspapers before Mr.. Willis had
received the instructions, and the news
that the administration had demanded the
recall of Lorrin NJ. Thurston, the Ha-
r-waiian minister at Washington, was print
Cd prematurely.
TshGrston incident. Mr<Ct9veiand decided
tfydo Something. He made an inquiry and
found out that Lands was a frequent
visitor at the local press club. This ex-
cited his suspicious and hef told Secretary
Gresham that lands would have to go.
Mr.. Gresham responded tpat Lands was
innocent and that If lands was dis
missed. Mr.. Cleveland WOULD have to find
n new secretary of State. Mr. Cleveland
would not have it that way and both
Gresham and Lands remained AS a mat
Ter of fact. Lands was entirely innocent
OF any connection in the Thurston story
leak.
Later on Mr.. Cleveland became attached
TO the young private secretary and Of
fered to send him to Venezuela as minis
Ter But lands had seen enough of d.
4I,4 v.ruo mi 10
liking and declined. He preferred law
and politics.
"Fires" His Senior Partners.
When Gresham died Lands went back
10 Chicago TO practice law. he formed a
partnership with Mr.. Uhl. who had been
ambassador to Germany after leaving the