The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-02-11

gut ana POTtGr having DeSi du-
mirals only. From March 90,
1900, to the time of his death
Dewey was president of the gen.
eral board of the navy and IA
miliar figure on the. streets Of
Washington as one of its most be-
loved citizens-despite the tenn
porary eclipse of his popularity
following his marriage and the
announcement of his candidacy
for President.
A Beautiful Young Widow.
Dewey's second wife was the
daughter of Washington Mclean,
Cincinnati publisher, who had
been not only a friend of Lin
coin and Grant but of Jefferson
Davis as well. She had married
Gen. John B. Hazen, who had
served in the Union army, while
still very young and she was a
still youthful and altogether
charming widow when Dewey,
who had met her in Washington
years before, returned to his tri-
umph in the capital. Before long
the gossips were linking the
names of the elderly naval hero
and the young widow and pre-
dieting their marriage.
Partly because of a prejudice
against Mrs. Hazen's religious af-
filiations, partly because of her
social ambitions and partly be-
cause of a feeling that it was
somehow undignifed for the
Hero of Manila Bay" to marry
a woman much younger than he
was, the public disapproved Of
the match. Needless of this dis
approval Dewey went ahead and
married Mrs. Hazen. The public
might have forgiven him for thus
deciding that his marriage was
his, and not the public's, affair
but when he decided to his wife
the house in Washington which
had been bought by popular SUBJ
scription, popular resentment
famed high.
Then on the morning of April
4, 1900, the New York World
printed an interview with Dewey
in which he said in part: eff the
American people want me for
this high office (of President) I
shall be only too willing to serve
them Since studying this
subject I am convinced that the
office of President is not such
very difficult one to fill, his du-
ties being mainly to execute the
laws of Congress"
Dewey had been approached on
the subject of being a candidate
for President but had disclaimed
any such ambition. However,
"Stop Bryant" element in the
Democratic party had persisted
in promoting his candidacy. At
last he had yielded to the tempta-
ton and made his ill-advised an
nouncement which resulted in
much ridicule being heaped upon
his head.
However, the tickle public soon
forgot, as it always does, that
George Dewey had ever been
anything less than the great hero
it had once hailed back in 1898-99.
His last years with his wife were
idyllically happy until that day in
January, 1917, when he contract
ed a cold. Put to bed by his
doctor, he grew gradually worse,
mostly with the ills which he hui
morously described as "anno
domini."
It is said that as he lay half
conscious he began to fight over
once more the battles of his life
and, as though he were giving
commands from the bridge of
the Mississippi at New Orleans
or the Olympia at Manila, his
voice rang out with some of it's
old-tlme resonance until Death
stilled it at last.
His body was first entombed
temporarily in the mausoleum
of Gen. Nelson A. Miles at Ar
lington, then moved, with mill
tary and naval honors, to an
other Arlington tomb which his
widow had built. Later it was
removed to the Bethlehem chapel
at Mount st. Alban, Washington.
and finally given its last resting
place in the Washington cathe-
dral-the American equivalent of
a combined Westminster Abbey
and st. Paul's. In these four en-
tombments there is strange an
alogy between the careers of
Dewey and another American ma
val hero. For John Paul Jones
was given three temporary buri-
ais before his body was finally
laid to rest in the chapel crypt
at Annapolis.
n