The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-19

and Nathaniel Hazard. The history of our navy could not be written with | out copious narration as to at least
 two of these, the eldest. hero Of Lake | Erie, and the third son, Matthew o., | the man who introduced Japan to civ ilization. The Rodgers family com | tributed as abundantly to the Ameri- | can navy as did the Perrys, and the | two are of close kin.
 Commodore Matthew C. Perry's wife | was a sister of John Slidell, formerly United States Senator from Louisiana, who. with James M. Mason. of Vir- ginia, was Confederate commission CT to the courts of Europe. They were taken from the British merchantmen Trent during tho war of 1861-1S65, and but for the coolness and good sense of Abraham Lincoln the episode would have been followed by war, when the United States hati on hand all the war she could stand. August Belmont mar ried daughter of Matthew c. Perry, and of that union Perry Belmont was the eldest child
 Perry Belmont was born December 2S, 1851. He received his education at the best schools of both hemispheres Harvard. the University of { Berlin, and Columbia law school. He chose the law for a profession. and upon his
 
 of the firm of which William M. Evarts was the head. His father and Charles O'Conor, the dean of the American bar, were intimate associates and per sonal and political friends: but OConor had practically retired from practice' and perhaps that is why young Bel mont was not associated with him "On form" as the race folk say. Evarts was our greatest lawyer. He appeared for Andy Johnson in the impeachment nt proceedings. He was chief counsel or the United States before the GeneVa tribunal of international arbitratlon' : He was senior counsel for Hayes De- fore the electoral tribunal. He was successful in all. It was in the ofnce of the firm headed by this great jurist, whose life ambition 1t was to be Chler Justice of the United States Supreme Court, that Perry Belmont was fitted for public career
 In 1880 young Belmont was elected to Congress from a Long Island dis- trict It is the general impression tnat he was a Tammany man. That IS an error. He first appeared in the na- tional councils in 1881. upon the as- sembling of the Forty-seventh Con- eress. Refer was Speaker and the Republican majority very narrow. NO one dreamed that Perry Belmont Iame would be on every tongue be1ore 'he first session was completed, put II was heraIded from one end of the country to the other in the spring of 1882, when he had the temerity to enter the lists aeajnst James G. Blaine. then the fdol of the Republican Party and one or the very powerful individuals in rub- lie affairs in the United states.
 Mir. Blaine became Secretary of Stae in 1881 against the advice Of his | friends, and contrary to his personal | inclination. Nobody knew better than he that his place was in the forum l rather than in the closet He had no | training for the Cabinet, least of all | the State Department, whose head IS expected to write dispatches for the criticism of every Foreign Office of the Old World. In the Senate or the House he was at home, ready for all corners | if not the ablest. certainly the most 1 dashfng and audacious debater Of hls | day. But Blaine was uxorlous; that | accounts for his becoming the head of 1 the Cabinet. He could and would have managed Garfield anyhow. from the Senate Chamber as from the State De- | partment Tn little while Blaine fell in love with his new job, and doubt less had dreams of Richelieu, of Chat ham. of Bismarck. Maybe he hoped to splinter a lance with that greatef Blaine-Beniamin Disraeli.
 Perry Belmont speaks, reads and | writes French like the most cultivated | Parisian, and one day Samuel J. Ram | dall said to him that a Frenchman was | persistently after him about some claim | or other in connection with Peru. and he asked Belmont to talk with the man 1 in his own tongue and find out wha' | 1t was. Belmont did have the Inter
 view and that is the beginning of the l story Chile and Peru were just out l of A war in which Peru was disaSt- rously defeated. It was a good time
 to administer on her affairs. and our | Government was sought to be made a | collecting agent for some rather shady
 claims. Morton, Bliss & Co. were iu-
 terested in it. and MT. Blaine hP6
 written letter the import of which | was to force the collection. I wish
 had the space to enter into the partic-
 ulars. though it is a not very edifyins
 chapter in our history
 Belmont was on the Committee o'
 Foreign Affairs. He cared nothin'
 about the claim but he cared mucl
 about the practice of making the Uni
 ted States a collecting agent for al
 sorts of scamps, and especially foreig1
 scamps whose pretensions had bee
 repudiated by their own state depart
 ments. Then, as now, in the matter O
 campaign funds. Belmont hoped to cur
 the disease and disregard the symp
 toms. He prepared a resolution of in
 quiry, but MT. Kasson, another mem
 Der of the committee rose at the sam
 time, was recognized, and offered
 resolutions practically identical wit
 Belmont's. The investigation began
 and the House Committee on Foreig1
 Affairs became the news center of tn
 Capital Belmont had no disposition t
 assail Blaine, and no intention of doinj