New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-07

Tracy are his son, Frank, OF OWego,
n. Y, who has two children, and Mrs.
Wilmerdng, his daughter. Mrs. Will
merdng has four children.
Career Covered Sixty Years.
General Tracy, father of the fight
ing navy" which won the Spanish war.
was born at 0wego, Tioga County.
y. Y. April 26, 1880, the son of Ben
iamin Tracy. one of the early settlers
in the Southern Tier" He had been
in the public eye for more than sixty
years as a lawyer. soldier. jurist and
statesman, and his career was brilliant
and versatile.
lie was a schoolmate of Senator
Thomas Plat, and was admitted to the
bar as soon as he was of age. Two
years later he was named District At
torney of Tioea County, and was re-
elected in 1856. defeating Gilbert c.
Walker, who was later Governor of
Virginia. When Tracy refused third
nomination as prosecutor he and
Walker became law partners.
Tracy helped Horace Greeley organ
ize the Republican party when he was
only twenty-five. and in 1861 was
elected to the Assembly. He was a
member of several important com
mittees when the call came for men to
go to the front He recruited two reg
iments, the 1O9th and 18th. New York.
and on August 2S, 1862. became colonel
OF the former
Won Medal of Honor.
The Battle of the Wilderness, one Of
the Civil Wars crucial points. was a
stepping stone for the ambitious
colonel. When his regiment faltered
he sprang forward, and. snatchng a
flag, called for a charge against the
Confederate breastworks. He was fol-
lowed by what was left of his men,
and the works were captured and the
day saved For this he received. thirty
years later, the Congressional Medal
Of Honor. In the firing Colonel Tracy
was wounded, but refused to go to
hospital until his troops reached
Spottsylvania. where he collapsed. and
was sent North.
In the following September he was
chosen colonel of the 127th United
States negro regiment. and was later
assigned TO the command of the mill
tary post at Elmira, n. Y. where at
one time there were more than 10000
prisoners. In 1865 he was brevetted
brigadier general Of volunteers.
After the war General Tracy became
a member of the law firm of Benedict.
Burr & Benedict. from which he re-
signed in 1865 to become United States
District Attorney for the Eastern Dis
trict of New York. He was reap
pointed by President Grant. and served
until 1873. During his term he prose
cuted many important cases against
whiskey distillers. and drew up the in
IL het
TALLY the present law. He resumed
his law practice when his term was
completed and was retained in several
important cases. among them the suit
Of Theodore Tilton against Henry Ward
Beecher, in which he was one of the
clergyman counsel
Brooklyn Republicans nominated
General Tracy for Mayor in 1881;
against him the Young Republican Club
and the Citizens Committee united
upon Ripley Ropes. Tracy took the
initiative in solving the problem and
proposed TO Mr. Ropes that both with
draw. This was done. and the way
was paved for the nomination and cleo
ton Of Seth Low.
On Appeals Bench.
General Tracy was appointed in De.
cember, 1881, TO fill temporarily the
place in the Court Of Appeals vacated
by Judge Andrews. During his year
on the bench he wrote the opinion of
the court in several important cases.
the best known being that of Story vs..
The Elevated r. r.
President Harrison at the beginning
of his administration appointed Cen
eral Tracy Secretary of the Navy, and
he entered upon this, the most impor-
tant work of his life, March 5, 1889.
Almost every vessel which participated
in the Spanish War was the product of
his brain, Their in construction or de-
sign He had added to the feet three
types of ships the battleships Indiana,
Oregon and Massachusetts,, the great
armored cruisers New York and Brook
Ign and the scout cruisers Minneapolis
and Columbia. All were the best in
the world at the time they were built.
At the close OF the Harrison admin
istration General Tracy resumed his
law pr; ctice and returned to activities
in political and public affairs. He
served IN 1896 as chairman of the COM
mission named by Governor Morton to
draft the charter of greater New York
and in the following year was nomi-
mated By the Republicans for Mayor of
New York.
The division in the party and the
naming of Seth Low led TO his defeat
and Il e election of Robert Van Wyck
General Tracy was counsel for Vene-
zuela in the boundary arbitration with
Great Britain and in 1900 became asso-
ciated with Coudert Brothers. leaving
the firm of Tracy. Boardman & Platt,
whose head he had been for many
years.
Practised at Eighty three.
He was selected member of the
international Policyholders' Committee
which in June. 1905. undertook TO re-
form life insurance methods, and in
May. 1887. became one of its trustees
In 1909 he was chosen by the Appel
late Division OF the Supreme Court to
determine she citys legal debt, and his
report was approved with only a single