The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1911-08-04

five, Washington, Adams. Jefferson,
Madison, and Monroe, and then Gen.
Harrison. President Pierce and the
elder Watterson were intimate friends
during their congressional service to-
gether, and Mr.. Watterson says of the
New Hampshire general: "Franklin
Pierce was a beautiful man. He did
! not look a day over five and thirty
when he took Office. He was a senti-
mentalist, and loved his friends with
consuming love-"
He describes Fillmore as "a most
| substantial man, not unlike Grover
Cleveland in some of his physical as
pects." He adds: tsIn connection with
Fillmore curious incident occurred
to me. President Garfield was urged
to remove Kenneth Rayner, then more
than 70 years old, from the solicitor
ship of the treasury which he had held
for some years. He refused. Finally
pressed for his reason, Garfield said,
"I am not going to turn out of a little
Office meritorious and capable old
| gentleman who came within a single
vote of occupying the place now occu-
pied by me- This was indeed surpris-
ing. What exclaimed his interlocu-
tor, Kenneth Rayner, president of the
United States?' Yes said Garfield,
exactly that You amaze me. I nev-
er heard of such a thing-could never
have dreamed of it, Nevertheless the
president continued, it is fact. In
the Whig convention of 1S48, the night
of the day when Taylor was nominated
for president, conference was held
between the friends of Millard Fill
more and Kenneth Rayner, aspirants
for the vice presidential nomination.
They both had been members of the
lower house of congress, the one from
New York and the other from North
Carolina. They were good friends,
Rayner much the more distinguished
and brilliant Of the two. After a free
and friendly interchange of opinion it
was agreed to take a ballot and which
ever received a majority of those pres
ent should be given the field. On that
ballot Fillmore led Rayner by a single
vote. He was next day nominated for
vice president. The ticket was elected,
and Is months later, Taylor dying
while in the White House, Fillmore be-
came president
When in 1855 Mr.. Wattersons par
ents were sojourning in New York,
Mr.. Van Buren came frequently to
visit them. The young man was one
OF the newspaper reporters of the so
called "Peace Congress" in 1861. He
says OF these two men: "The *Philoso-
pher OF Undertook was certainly a
dear old gentleman. There may have
been bit Of the fox about him, but
his manners were gentle and suave to
a degree. Mr.. Tyler was a plain vir-
ginla farmer. made myself known to
him day Or two after congress con-
vened, and he was exceedingly kind
and gracious to me, asking me many
questions and inviting me to come to
see him often as might at his hotel.
Neither he nor Mr.. Van Buren,, how
ever, had the look of great man, and
was disappointed in both Of them. u
Concerning Pierce's successor, Mr..
Watterson writes: For all his obli-
queness of vision, his too great height
and, certain awkwardness of move
ment Mr.. Buchanan looked every inch
the president. He had a winning way
of making himself hateful when he
was in a hateful mood; but he could
especially among ladies-quite the
courtfer. His voice had disagreeable le
drawl. He appeared habitually in a
quasi-full dress-black swallow-tai]
coat and white cravat-giving to his
appearance the cast and cut of a
bishop.
There never was a more consistent
domestic autocrat Even his accom-
plished niece, Miss Harriet Lane, had
to walk the chalk line in the White
House. The last six months of his in
cumbency were full of worry and
dread. He was in reality an able and
conscientious man, with vast knowl-
edge of public men and experience in
public affairs. The rising tide of re-
Volution and war was simply beyond
him. He had been nominated in 1856
purely On account of his availability
He was self-Willed and headstrong,
rather than firm, yielded himself to
the strong Southerners in his cabinet
-ThOmnSOO and F1ovd o,,orra11a1