Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-11-19
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WITH THE DEATH of Mrs
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BY Victor Rosewater
WITH THE DEATH of Mrs. Henderson
w there is none left among. US to represent one
of Omaha's most distinguished pioneer families.
At the funeral my thoughts went back to the days
when the Mandersons were in the spotlight in
Washington, for no one from Nebraska ever
welded more influence in the senate or maintained
better the prestige of the position socially than
did Senator Henderson with the help OF his
amiabe wife. | remember attending one or two
of Mrs. Manderson's receptions which were made
brilliant by the presence of all the notabes OF
the day then in public life the general then being
president pro TEN OF the senate as tribute to
his popularity among his colleagues with ofhcial
precedence over almost everybody OUTSIDE OF the
presidents cabinet family.
The slender thread upon which big things so
often hang is illustrated by one OF the turning
points in General Mandersons career. Having
settled in Canton, Ohio, after the war, ne became
a candidate in 1866 for the republican congress
sional nomination against the then incumbent
The fight in the convention was extremely close
and exciting and after long-continued balloting.
some of the ballots being tie, his competitor
won the nomination by one vote. 1t is safe to
say that had the single delegate Jared loose from
his mooring been one to come over to Mander-
son instead Of leaving him, he would have gone
to congress from Ohio and would never have
taken up his residence in Nebraska at all
Without wishing to be brash with the presi-
dent Of our Nebraska State Historical society,
| have to take exception to the statement given
out by my friend John L. Webster, referring TO
the recent senatorial election to the effect that
General Charles F. Henderson was the only
other, senator who won reelection from this
state" We have had several senators from
Nebraska who served more than one term, though
perhaps not, strictly speaking, reelected Alger-
non S. Paddock, for example, represented Ne
braska in the senate two full terms covering
twelve years, although not consecutvely, and
af@a g..
back again by appointment to fill a vacancy One
of Nebraska's first two senators, however Chaplain
Thomas W. Upton, was reelected He had been
elected, along with General John NJ Thayer, at
the time Nebraska was admitted to statehood,
but had drawn the short term Of two years, and
when that term was concluded was reelected for
full term. During the last four years of his
senatorial service Upton was colleague Of the
father Of our present sepator. Senator Upton
was succeeded by Senator Paddock who again
succeeded General Van Wyck, who came after
him. Even by the most technical use OF the
word reelection" therefore, the present instance
is not the FIRST but the second in Nebraskas
history.
While reverting to history let me make ref
erence to the revised and enlarged edition OF
Stanwoods History of the Presidency, which
appeared from the press of the well-known Hough-
ton-Mif1in publishing establishment few weeks
ago and which will well repay perusal by all inter
ested in our political development. Stanwoods
book is the standard work on this subject, giving
the results OF much detailed and painstaking inves
tigation. This new edition is brought up to date
by the addition of chapter covering the 1912
conventions and campaign which, being review
Of such recent current history, naturally chal-
lenges special attention. The author captions this
chapter, THE Republican Schism," which empha-
sizes the fact that President Wilson's election
four years ago was brought about only as re-
suit Of republican division. His analysis of the
contests which preceded the bull moose bolt for
which justification was sought by charging fraud
leads him to render a verdict against those who
made this charge. Let me quote ,Stanwood's
exact words: '-'T se g." 1- 't.'r, - 81
r"As nearly as can be made out, from the
somewhat confused reports, there were in, all
210 nominally contested seats in the full con-
vention Of 1,078 members OF the whole num-
Der, l0S were abandoned by the contestants
and were not even brought before the national
committee. All but two of those abandoned
contests were in southern states-twenty-fou
from Georgia, fourteen from Louisiana, six
teen from Virginia ten from Florida. The evil
dent purpose was to have as many contests as
possible to be ready for contingencies. The
committee credentials passed separately
upon the remaining l02 contests and made re-
ports upon them. No less than sixty-two again
were from southern states; as to forty of the
whole number there was minority report;
the action of the committee and of the conven-
| the maximum number upon which grievance
| seems possible. The committee on credentials
| presented statements in detail of the evidence
| upon which it made its reports upon those
contests. In the cases OF thirty-six Of them the
| minority made no contradictory statements, but
| contented themselves with protests against GER
| tain members of the committee. In none of
those cases did they dispute the statement
upon which the, majority reached its decision
| but in every one they reported that the con-
testant was entitled to the seat OF course
that does not make it certain that the state
ments made by the majority members were
uniformly true and that the decision was right
| but It does create presumption to that effect
| There are now left twenty-six OF the total of
| 2l0 threatened contests that had substance
enough to elicit contradictory statements by
the committeeman representing the two candi-
dates. Mr. Root had thirty-eight majority over
| all others in the election of temporary chair
man. If all the twenty-six really contested
seats had been awarded to the contestants,
Root would still have been elected"
| This covers the crux of the situation that led
up to the republican sehism in 1912 give this
excerpt as showing the deliberate judgment
formed long after the heat of the contention by
the recognized authority on the history of the
presidency and reached by him after a careful
| effort IN oct AT the truth -.5