Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-03-08
LBY Associated Press.)

NEW YORK. March 7.-Senator
Thomas C. Plat, who died here yester-
day. had known personally and intimate
ly every president since Lincoln, as
we'll as most of the men prominent in
national politics during that time. Some
of his views of these men are summed
up in private conversation few days
before his death and were made public
here today for the first time:
Party leaders whom I have known
I said Senator Platt We'll, regard Lin
coin as our greatest president; Grant as
the greatest warrior and peacemaker;
Mckinley as the most lovable; Arthur
as the most princely; Hayes and Gar
! field as the most ungracious. Roosevelt
was the best organization governor the
party ever had; Black was the most
stalwart; Odell the most forgetful; Nor
ton the safest; Hill peanut politician;
Hughes a tyrant. Quay was the clever
est politician the country ever produced;
Blaine was the ideal American, and
Thomas b. Reed was the most expert
parliamentarian congress ever saw"
Platt died at 3;45 o'clock yesterday
afternoon in the apartment of Mr.. and
Mrs. Gustav Adele, on West Eleventh
street. from whSm he had rented three
rooms for the Mast four years. Mrs.
Adele had been his nurse.
HAD BRIGHT'S DISEASE.
DR.. Paul Auterbridge, his physician,
said the cause of death was chronic and
acute Bright's disease. The body was
removed to the home of Frank II. Plat,
| his son, and will be taken on Tuesday 10
! Oswego, NJ ", the senator's birthplace
where it will be buried. Funeral SER
vices will be held Wednesday.
| The end was startlingly sudden. An
/ hour before the senator died. his two
sons, Frank and Edward, with their
families, and his widowed son, Harry.
with the laters daughter. Charlotte, and
son, Sherman, had left the house, after
| their usual Sunday visit.
The senator said at that time he felt
very well, and thought he would read
| the Sunday papers. At O'Clock he was
taken with fainting fit, and Dr. Auter-
| bridge was hurriedly called. The fami-
| ly was notified, and returned in haste.
Mr.. Platt recovered from his first lapse,
| but sank into consciousness again at
$3.50 and died Is minutes later. The
relatives were all at the bedside.
IN FEEBLE HEALTH.
On last Wednesday,, Senator Plat was
at his Office downtown. For several
years he had been in feeble health, and
latterly the use of his legs had almost
deserted him; but his condition until
| today was not looked upon as more Sc
rious than usual, although a physician
called upon him daily. Thursday at
breakfast. the senator had a romentary
| fainting spell, but rallied quickly
year ago his feebleness was markedly
accentuated, and his life was despaired
of for period; but with remarkable
vitality he recovered, and went about
his business as usual.
Thomas Collier Platt, the "easy boss''
of earlier and brighter days, was for
many years not only the Republican
leader of his state. but a figure in ma
tional politics, shoulder to-shoulder with
men of such rank and reputation as the
late Matthew Stanley Quay, of Pennsyl-
vania. Both were men of exceptional in
tellectual attachments, and both devoted
them, with signal success to party organi.
cation. Quay died still a power: Plat
oulived his time and felt himself in
late years out of touch with the moving
spirit of events
In Twenty Years in Congress James
G.. Blaine described Platt as - a business
man of great personal popularity. He
had an aptitude for public affairs and is
a man of strong influence in his state He
is no debater but has strong common
sense and q quick judgment of men,"
Yet with all his native judgment wide
experience and skill as an organizer it
became the fate of Plat to win remem-
brance more for his associations with
others than for anything he did of his
BROUGHT OUT ROOSEVELT.
Twice in his life Plat was the center
of the national stsge--once when he re-
signed, with Roscoe Conkling. from the
United States senate and was instantly
nicknamed me, Too Plat and once
when he induced Theodore Roosevelt tc
run for vice president with Mckinley
very much against Roosevelt's better
judgment and in the face of his repeated
declarations that nothing could induce
him to accept the nomination. There could
be no better instance of Platt's skill in
persuasion and manipulation or of the
irony that Knocked his ripest wisdom
Mckinley was shot, Roosevelt became
president, and the days of Platts domina-
ton in the state lapsed into senility. His
bodily strength declined rapidly He made
a second marriage. which ended in the
courts and was sued by Mae Woods, form
erly clerk in government employ, for
divorce, on the strength of q third mar
riage, never proved to have taken place.
The episode with Conklng, which was
not exceeded in public excitement, say
the newspaper files of that day, by any
event in the civil war. was as follows:
Plat was elected to the senate in 1881.