Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1912-08-23
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Real Cause Of aFamOuS
Political Quarrel
By Holland

Il have always thought that the
most unfortunate incident which hap
poned to General Grant when he was
President was the complete breaking |
off of all relations. personal or Off
cial, between him and Charles Sum-
ner. Senator from Massachusetts
said the late Senator William p.
Frye of Maine to me during the
course of a chat which | had with
him on a railway train running be-
tween New York and Boston In the
fall OF 1884.
81 am sure that the Generalization
in the Republican party which was
followed by the capture by the Demo-
cratic party OF the lower House Of
Congress in 1874 began with the Bit
ter personal quarrel between Grant
and Sumner. That quarrel alienates
all of Summers friends from Presi-
dent Grant; and you know he had a
somewhat large personal following
among Republicans. Yet a little tact,
a little kindly consideration on either
side would have removed all cause
for hard feeling or would, at least
have made IL possible for the Presi-
dent and the great Senator from
Massachusetts to maintain, superb
cially. at least, pleasant relations.
The quarrel began in this way.
President Grant sent his private Sc
cretary, General o. e. Babcock. to
San Domingo in 1870 for the purpose
OF negotiating a treaty by means of
which the republic of San Domingo
Ar~ e. IN
the United States. Very likely there
was a want OF tact In doing this with
out consulting with Summer, who was
chairman of the Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations. As chairman of
that committee Sumner would have
charge of any treaty brought be-
fore the Senate for ratification.
Il presume that Sumner felt a lit
| tie hurt that General Grant and the
Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish,
had secured a treaty of annexation
with San Domingo without in any
way consulting with Sumner. At all
events, when General Grant sent this
treaty to the Senate for ratification
and recommended very earnestly that
it be ratified. Summers manner made
il evident that he would do all he
I
81 DO not suppose that Grant would
have made il a matter of personal Of
tense il Sumner had simply, as Sena-
tor and on what he believed to be con-
sclentious conviction. opposed the
ratification of the treaty. Sumner
was not a very congenial man. either
to Grant or TO Lincoln But Lincoln
displayed superb tact in all his deal
ings with Sumner, although he once
said that Sumner seemed to him to
have all the characteristics of a bis
hop of the English church.
Sumner, however, made a speech
/ in which he asserted that the Presi-
/ dent had sent an epauleted aide-de-
camp TO San Domingo, and that this
aide-de-camp. who spoke of the Presi-
dent as His Excellence had actually
| negotiated a treaty with the blacks of
San Domingo by WHICH that republic
was TO yield its sovereignty to tho
United States. Sumner rang changes
on the word aide-de-camp so effective
ly that some of the Senators who
heard him we're convulscd with
laughter as he described this military
puppet of the President dancing at
tendance before the rulers of San Do
mingo
Some Senator who heard the
speech had the bad taste and worse
judgment to go Immediately to Presi-
dent Grant and tell him that Sumner
had been making fun Of General Bah
cock. calling him a military puppet
and an ejauleted aide-de-camp whom
/ Grant had sent to san Domingo to
negotiate a treaty.
1T was this twitting of the Presi-
dent and the satircal reference to
Babcock, who had served as aide-de-
camp to Grant in the Richmond cam
paign and during his command of the
regular army after the war. which
touched Grant to the quick He look
ed upon IL as a personal affront. and
he announced that If Senator Sumner
called at the White House to see the
President he would make call in
vain. And all this trouble could have
been prevented and the subsequent
friction In the Republican party
avoided had President Grant consult
ed with Sumner before sending his
commissioner to San Domingo, or had
Sumner refrained from his INVITING
Characterization Of General Babcoclx
THE public always presumed that
Grant was angry with Sumner bC
cause he opposed the San Domingo
treaty. But the real cause OF the
quarrel was Summers allusion tc
Baboock as an aide-de-camp to the
President"
Copyright, 1912, by e. ]. Edwards
All rights reserved.)
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tell o
THE Famous Senator Who StOod Tso
lated for Three years"