New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-19

W no C1eu IN W washington yesterday
ton for the bar. He then went to WoTces-
ter Mass, where he entered the law Office
of Emory Washburn, who later became
Governor of the state and Bussey pro
fessor of law at Harvard University Upon
his admission TO the bar of Massachusetts
Mr.. Kasson made a speciality of Inercan-
tile and marine practice, but soon removed
to St Louis. where, in 1852. he was chosen
To deliver the address of welcome TO Kos
suth on the occasion of the Hungarian
patriots visit TO that city. In 1857 Mr.
Kasson went to Iowa, and made his home
in Dies Moines, where he was Immediately
recognized as a man of unusual force and
ability He was made State Director OF
the State Bank in 1858, and in the follow
! ing year he was appointed state commits
sioner to investigate the condition OF the
Executive Department of Iowa. He soon
became one of the Republican leaders IF
the state, and from 1853 to 1860 he was
chairman of the Republican State Com
mittee, and in the latter year he was a
delegate TO the Chicago convention. In
writing of the platform adopted by that
todv. Mr.. Greeley said in The Tribune:
THAT the platform is so generally salts
| factory is ennfneatly due to John a kas-
son OF Iowa. whose efforts to reconcile
differences and to secure the largest lib
erty of sentiment consistent with ndeltty
to Republican principles were most effec-
tive and untiring"
Mr. Kasson served continuously as a
member of the popular branch of the Iowa
Legislature from 1865 TO 1873. He was elect
ed again to Congress in 1874. sitting in
| both the 43d and 44th Congresses. In
| April. 1877. President HAYES appointed him
Minister to Spain. lie declined this mis-
sion on account of the stand that he had
publicly taken in the House OF Repre-
sentatives on the subject of Spanish atroc-
tiles in Cuba The President thereupon
appointed him Minister to Austria.
| He remained at the Austrian capital
| until 1881. when he returned, once more to
take his old seat in the House of Rep
! resentatives. He served in the 47th Con-
| gress and in the 18th until July 4, 1894,
when President Arthur appointed him
! Minister to Germany. He held this post
/ until he was succeeded by ex-senator
| George Hunt Pendleton. of Ohio, in 1885.
While at Berlin Mr.. Kasson acted as
! American delegate to the Congo confer
| ence.
Bunsen, in his published account of the
conference, states that the American dele
gate took leading part in it's deliberations
motion that the territory acquired by dis
| covery was extended to include the con-
yentional rather than the actual basin of
the Congo, so as TO embrace the lakes in
! the east In this convention Mr.. Kasson
| demanded that the rights. personal and
commercial. of all Americans who might
! live in or visit the new country for what
| ever purposes should be respected; and,
| looking far ahead he made it a condition
! that. whether it should remain as whole
under the sovereignty of the King of Bel
| GUM or should be partitioned into little
! states among other powers, this provision
/ should stand. Foreign diplomatists COM
| mended Mr.. Kasson's course, and he was
| regarded as far seeing and astute in look
/ ing after his country's interests; but Mr..
! Cleveland did not approve Of the treaty,
believing he said, that it involved this
country III entangling alliances and il was
never signed.
Two years after his return 10 the United
States Mr. Kasson was chosen, in 1887 as
president of the Interstate Committee on
! the Centennial of the Adoption of the Con
/ etitution in Philadelphia. In March, 1887,
/ President Harrison nominated Mr.. Kasson
/ as one of the commissioners to represent
/ rho United States at the Berlin conference
! an Samoan affairs. the other commissioners
being William Walter Phelps, Of New Jer-
coy and George II. Bates. Democrat. of
| delaware. Mr. Kasson acted as chairman
/ ~ the American commissioners, and was
} commissioned as special envoy extraordi-
navy and minister plenipotentiary. In that
| csnacfty he was one of the signers of the
! Berlin General Act concluded on June II.
/ 1888
! Mr.. Kasson was lawyer of ability and
was one of the Republican counsel who
ars,lled the Florida before the EIec-
! toraI Commission in 1877. his argument
/ betue regarded as of the strongest
made before that tribunal. In Congress he
served many years on the Ways and Means
| committee and was for one term on the
| Committee on Appropriations. He was the
| first chairman of the Committee on Coin
age Weights and Measures and was the
author and reporter of the act legalizing
the metric-decimal system of weights and
measures in the United States. One of his
personal triumphs was the passage of an
! amendment 10 the national bankruptcy act
/ bv which the homestead of a debtor was
saved for the use of his family.
For many years DR.. Kasson made his
home m the national capital lie was pres
idert Of The Columbia Historical Society