Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-09-08
TWENTY OF OUR PRESIDENTS.
Henry Watterson Knew All of Them
But Six.

Henry Watterson Knew All of Them
But Six.
Henry Watterson has given the
readers of the Youths Companion a
pleasant account of how it was that
he, born in 1S40, personally knew
and can distinctly remember all the
presidents of the United States except
six," according to a paragraph which
has been going the rounds of the
press. 1t requires the explanation, he
SAYS, that he was "a child Of Tennes-
see parentage born in Washington
city"-because to cover Jackson and
John Quincy Adams-not to say Polk
and Taylor-it must have been so; for
Jackson was not in Washington be-
tween 1910 and his death in 1S45,
while Adams died there in 1S4S, the
four of them, Adams, Jackson, Polk
and Taylor, all being In their graves
before l was IL years old. To say
that I personally knew them would
need to be qualified as the knowledge
of a child, especially Mr.. Adams. who
used to take me across the rotunda to
the library of Congress and get me
books to read, his arm often about my
neck; and when ne fell in the house
Of representatives, I followed the ex-
cited cortege to the speakers room
and knelt weeping, by the old mans
outstretched form as he lay dying
upon the sofa-bed improvised for the
occasion.
Mr.. Watterson's grandfather was a
fellow soldier with Gen. Taylor, and
took the boy to see the president-elect
when he stopped in Nashville on his
way to Washington in 1S49; the
grandfather had also been on Gen.
Jackson's staff, and, moreover. was his
lifelong friend and neighbor, so that
1--WE children were often driven over
to the Hermitage. to sit on the
hero's knee although, truth to
say, it is a kind of dream, the far
away memory Of the very white-hair-
ed and rather decrepit old man." Then
the Polks and the Wattersons were
closely connected. my father sue
ceeded Mr.. Polk in congress-" and so
the boy knew him in the White House
and at his home in Nashville. The
other presidents he met when full
grown man, all except William Hen
ry Harrison, who died when Henry
Watterson was a babe in arms. So
that the presidents he did not know
were the first five, Washington,
Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Mon
roe, and then Gen. Harrison, Presi-
dent Pierce and the elder Watterson
were itimate friends during their con-
gressional service together, and Mr..
Watterson says of the New Hamp-
shire general: Franklin Pierce was
a beautiful man. He did not look
day over five and thirty when he took
office. He was a sentimentalist, and
loved his friends with a consuming
love"
He describes Fillmore as "a most
substantial man, not unlike Grover
Cleveland in some of his physical as
pects." He adds: I'm connection with
Fillmore a 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. FL
nally pressed for his reason, Garfield
said, 81 am not going to turn out Of a
little office a meritorious and capable
old gentleman who came within a sin
gle vote of occupying the place now
occupied by me- This was indeed sur
prising. What exclaimed his inter-
locutor, Kenneth Rayner, president OF
the United States?' Yes said Gar
field, exactly that You amaze me, l
never heard of such a thing-could
never have dreamed of it. Neverthe-
less the president continued, 1t Is
fact. In the Whig convention of 1S4S,
the night of the day when Taylor was
nominated for president, a conference
was held between the friends of MIL
lard Fillmore and Kenneth Rayner, as
pirants for the vice presidential nomi-
nation. 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 distin-
guished and brilliant Of the two. Al
ter q free and friendly interchange OF
opinion it was agreed to take a ballot
and whichever received a majority Of
those present should be given the field.
On that ballot Fillmore led Rayner by
a single vote. He was next day NOM
mated for vice president. The ticket
was elected, and fifteen months later,
Taylor dying while in the White
House, Fillmore became president
When in 1855 Mr.. Watterson's pa
rents were sojourning in New York,
Mr.. Van Buren came frequently to Wis
it them. The young man was one OF
the newspaper reporters of the so-call-
ed Peace Congress" in 1861. He says
Of these two men: "The Philosopher
of Kinderhook" was certainly dear
old gentleman. There may have been
a bit of the fox about him, but his
manners were gentle and suave to a
degree. Mr.. Tyler was plain Vir-
ginia farmer. made myself known to
him a 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 as often as might at his ho-
tel. Neither ne nor Mr.. Van Buren,
however had the look of great man,
and 1 was disappointed in both OF
them" Concerning Pierce's successor,
Mr.. Watterson writes: For all his
oblioueness of vision, his too great