Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-03-07
Former Senator from New
York State Is Dead.
Passes Away Sunday Night
In New York City.
For Many Years Leader In State
And Figure In National Politics.

New York. March 6.-Thomas Collier
Platt, formerly United States senator
| from New York and for many years
a national figure ia Republican poll
! ties, died at 3.45 o'clock this afternoon
! in the apartment of Mr.. and Mrs. Gus
| tave Adele on West 18th street, from
whom he had rented three rooms for
the last four years. Mrs. Adele had
been his nurse.
Paul Auterbridge, his physician, said
tonight that the cause of his death
| was chronic and acute Bright's disease.
The body was removed tonight to the
| home of Frank H. Plat, his son and
will be taken on Tuesday to Owego.
n Y. the ex-senator's birthplace for
burial Funeral services will be held
Wednesday at the Presbyterian church
| in Owego.
The end was startlingly sudden, as
| an hour before the ex-senator died he
had remarked to his sons that he felt
very well. For several years he had
been in feeble health and latterly, the
| use of his legs had almost deserted
him, but he had refused to give up his
| work.
|
boss" was for many years not only
the Republican leader in his state, but
figure in national politics, along
with men of such political. rank and
reputation as the late Matthew Stanley
Quay Of Pennsylvania. Both were
| men of exceptional intellectual attain
| ments and both turned them, with sig
nal success, to party organization.
Quay died still in power; Plat out
| lived 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 Plat al
"a business man of great personal
popularity. He has an aptitude for
public affairs and is man of strong
influence in his state. He is no de-
batter. but has strong common sense
and q quick judgment of men,"
Yet with all his astuteness, expert
ence and skill it became the fate Of
| Plat to win remembrance more from
| his association with others than from
anything he did of his own initiative.
Twice in his life Plat was the Gen.
ter of the national stage-once when
he resigned with Roscoe Conklin from
the United States Senate and was in
stantly nicknamed me Too Plat.
and once when he induced Theodore
Roosevelt to 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 ac-
cept the nomination. There could not
be better instance of Platts powers
of manipulation of the irony that
marked his wisdom. Mckinley was
shot. Roosevelt became President and
Platt's domination in the state lapsed
into desuetude. His bodily strength
declined rapidly. He made a second
marriage which ended in the courts
and he was sued by Mae Wood, for
merly a clerk in the government en-
ploy, for a divorce, involving third
marriage, never proved to have taken
place. .N@
The episode with Conkling, which was
not exceeded in public excitement say
the newspaper flies Of that day, by any
event of the Civil War, was as follows:
Plat was elected to the Senate In 1884,
He and his colleague. Conklin, became
embroled with President Garfield In a
of William II. Robertson to be collector
of the port of New York. The nominal
| ton was distasteful to the organization
and both Plat and Conklin refused to
| confirm itiini the Senate. Thereupon
President Garfield withdrew all other
| New York nominations made at their In
stance, among which were those Of Gov
ernor Stewart L. Woodford to be United
State district attorney, and Lou F. Paine,
| recently remembered as an "accelerator
of public opinion" to be United States
marshal.
| Finding themselves in a hopeless dead
| lock, Platt and Conklin both resigned.
Plat became state leader again In 1894
and in 1897 was elected second time to
the United States Senate, succeeding Da-
vid Bennett Hill. He fell out with Gov
ernor Frank Black and, to defeat his re-
nomination, put forward Theodore Roose-
welt, a type whose undeveloped possible
ties he had not justly estimated. It was
Roosevelt's rapid progress toward popu-
larity which had led Plat to suggest him
| for the Vice Presidency, hoping that in
that quiet, dignified office he might be
| forgotten.
Platt was born in Owego, N. r, July
| Is. 1888 of Puritan ancestry. He en-.
tered Yale College with the Class OF
1S49, but left in the middle OF his
Junior year because Of III health. His
father wished him to study for the
ministry, but he never advanced farth-
err in that direction than to sing in
the church choir. In 1879 he was elect
ed general manager and secretary OF
the United States Express Co., Of
which company he became president
Continued on Page Twelvs.)