The autobiography of Thomas Collier Platt

Front matter

Class _L_Lkt

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

Cl'O

Chapter I 1833-1853 Ancestry— Boyhood— Yale Student— Druggist— Marriage. C H A PT E K II

1853-1860 I Begin my Political Career as a Warbler— Lead Fremont Glee Club— Songs it Sang— First Office— Writer of Advertisements — Editor and Poet.

Chapter III 1860-1873 I Help to Elect Lincoln— Join Conkling and Arthur in Elevating Grant to the Presidency— Nominated but Refuse Congressional Honors — Renominated and Elected — Become Conkling's Lieutenant, and Aid in Building Up the New York Organization.

Chapter IV 1873-1879 Enlist in the Congressional Fight for Specie-Payment Resumption and other Grant Legislation— I Espouse Conkling's Candidacy for President, but Hayes is Nominated— Support Hayes against Tilden in Electoral Commission Contest — First Important Speech in the House — Unite with Conkling in Revolt against Hayes— President Tries to Disrupt the Party— I Excoriate Hayes at Rochester Convention—Hayes-Curtis Faction Beaten— I Become a Member of the First "Big Four"— Aid in Nomination and Election of Cornell for Governor — My First State Office.

Chapter V

1879-1880 Get In behind Grant for a Third Term- Conkling's "Appomattox Apple Tree" Speech Nominating Grant— Garfield Wins after Sensational Struggle— Sherman, the Icicle— My Brothers, the "306"— How Death Has Mown Down All but Seven— A Eulogy for the Heroes.

ix

The Aidobwiirapiiii of Thomas Collier Piatt

Chapter VI 1880-1881 Conkling Declines to Aid Garfield — He and Grant Take the Field When I Exact Pledges from the Candidate — Garfield Elected — His Written Thanks for My Services.

Chapteu VII 1881-1882 Initial Election to the U. S. Senate— Garfield Repudiates His Promises to Me — Conkling and I Resign — We Appeal to the Legislature — Both Defeated for Reelection — Genesis of the Stalwart-Half-Breed Imbroglio — Garfield Assassinated— Arthur President — Lives of Arthur, Conkling and Myself Threatened.

Chapter VIII 1882-1884 Am Instrumental in Choosing Folger for Governor — Origin and History of the Famous "Forged Telegram"— Half-breeds Knife and Defeat Folger— Conkling Quits Politics and Surrenders the Titular Leadership to Me — I Rehabilitate the Machine and Elect the State Ticket.

C H A P T E n IX 1884-1887 I Disown Arthur for Following Garfield's Practices — Advocate Blaine's Nomination for the Presidency— Oppose Roosevelt, Curtis, et ah. Who Favor Edmunds — Blaine Nominated — Mugwumps Massacre Him — Cleveland President — Estimates of Arthur and Blaine.

Chapter X

1887-1888 I Join in Electing Hiscock U. S. Senator — Remarkable and Unprecedented Feat of Swinging the Entire Morton Phalanx to Hiscock to Defeat Miller.

Chapter XI 1888 I am Removed by Governor Hill from the Quarantine Commissionership — The Trial a Farce — Acrimonious Correspondence with the Judge Who Presided— My Friends Cause His Permanent Retirement from the Bench.

X

'rhe Autobio^rapluf of Thomas Collier Flatt

C II A r T K u XII 1888-1891 My Part in the National Convention of 1888~How We Nominated Harrison for President— Quay and I Carry New York for Him— The Promised Secretaryship of the Treasury Refused Me— The Spanish Mission Offered and Declined — I Nominate Fassett for Governor — Flower Wins- New Plans for My Burial — Advice to Young Men to be Active in Politics.

Chapter XIII 1891-1899 Tammany Corruption Compels Me to Direct Three Legislative Inquiries — Startling Disclosures of New York City Maladministration by the Fassett, Lexow and Mazet Committees — Laws Enacted to Correct the Abuses Revealed.

Chapter XIV 1892-1893 Harrison Provokes Quarrels with Reed, Quay, McKinley, Myself and Other Influential Republicans — Appoints Our Enemies to Office — Retaliatory Opposition to His Renomination — We Put Blaine against Him — Harrison Renamed, but Badly Defeated by Cleveland — Sketch of Harrison.

1893-1894 Reconstruction of the Party in New York after Bitter Factional Battle — Ante-nomination Pledges of Mayor Strong and How He Deliberately Broke Them — My Differences with Whitelaw Reid — His Attacks and My Roland for His Oliver — McKinley Heeds My Protest against Reid's Going to the Court of St. James's.

C H A P T E B XVI 1894-1897 I Choose Morton for Governor, and He is Elected — Creation of the Greater New York and Framing of Great Excise and Election Measures — Morton-McKinley Contest for the Presidency — The Gold Plank Controversy and How I Won it — Why I Refused a Nomination for Governor and Named Black.

xi

Chapter XVII

1897-1898

Am Reelected to the U. S. Senate — How I Defeated Choate— Catlin-Storrs Dispute Over My Candidacy— My Speech of Acceptance — Why Tracy Was Nominated for Mayor of New York — My Opinion of Low and the Citizens' Union.

Chapter XVIII

1898-1900

I Nominate Roosevelt for Governor — Seeks to Withdraw, but Agrees to Stick when I Ask Him: "Is the Hero of San Juan a Coward?" — Elected — Roosevelt Consults with Me, but Does as He Pleases — Controversy Over Franchise Tax and Other Propositions at Albany.

Chaptek XIX 1900-1901 How and Why I Nominated Roosevelt for Vice-President — Promoted, Not Shelved— Murder of McKinley— Roosevelt President— Strives to Carry Out McKinley Policies— Estimate of the Martyred President.

Chapter XX 1901

Low's Nomination for Mayor, and How it was Engineered — He Fails to Turn the Tammany Rascals Out — Their Retention and Alliance with Mugwumps Drive Him from OflBce.

Chapter XXI 1901-1906

How I Made Odell Governor — At Odds with Him about Appointments and Legislation— The Governor Plays for the State Leadership — Defeats Sheldon for Lieutenant-Governor and Names Higgins — Barely Reelected — Forces Reorganization of the Party and Lops off Heads of My Friends —I am Reelected to the Senate — Dispute with Odell Over Ousting State Chairman Dunn— Roosevelt and Fairbanks Nominated— Higgins Beats Woodruff— My Final National and State Contests— Who and What Hughes is.

xii

The Autohiograpluj of Thomas Collier Piatt cu AFTER xxir

Laws Promoted and Enacted at Albany— Excise and Election Reform Statutes Approved by My Direction — Testimony of Raines, Kelsey, Barnes and Others as to the Wisdom of the Attitude I Assumed — Liquor Tax Law Put Through Despite a Seventy Thousand Dollar Bribery Fund.

Chapter XXIII

The "Amen Corner" — The Hallowed Spot in which Presidents, Governors and Other Men of Note Were Chosen — The Trysting Place where Leaders of All Parties Swapped Political Yarns and Decided the Destinies of the Nation and State — Dignitaries Who Have Sat and Counseled There — Pathetic Farewell Ceremonies.

Chapter XXIV

Clarkson's Review of My Stewardship — "Legislation Made Better and More Progressive" — "Four Great Governors" — I Nursed No Revenge, but Erred on the Side of Forgiving Enmity or Wrong.

Chapter XXV

Making of Faithful and Unmaking of Disloyal Organization Men — List of the Devoted Rewarded and Instances of Discipline Administered to the Insubordinate — Fassett, Brookfield, Worth and Others Punished for Mutiny — Rules which Must Be Enforced to Maintain a Successful Party and Machine — "God Bless Thomas Collier Piatt!" — Finis.

Addenda

Piatt President Maker and Financier — Provocation for Issue of His Memoirs Due to Quarrel with Odell — How He Acquired the "Easy Boss" Title — The First Federal .Job He Got for Roosevelt and How a $60,000 Campaign Contribution Made the Rough Rider Governor — Home Life — Development of the United States Express Company from a Pigmy to a Giant.

• • •

Xlll

LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS

PAGE

Thomas Collier Platt Frontispiece

Mrs. Thomas C. Platt 5

Birthplace of T. C. Platt 32

Gen. U. S. Grant 50

Thomas Collier Platt, 1873 66

James A. Garfield 98

roscoe conkling 138

Rutherford B. Hayes 1 '9

Chester A. Arthur 1 ' 9

Grover Cleveland 1 ' 9

James G. Blaine 188

Benjamin Harrison 204

Thomas Collier Platt. 1S02 226

Levi P. Morton 296

David B. Hill 296

William McKinlkv 328

Theodore Roosevelt 384

Timothy L. Woodruff 421

Frank W. Higgins 421

John Ravines 421

Chauncey M. Depew 448

Elihu Root 448

Frank S. Black 448

Charles E. Hughes 463

T. C. Platt's Birthday Party 466

J. Sloat Fassett 486

Mark Hanna 486

Matthew S. Quay 486

William H. Taft 502

XV

Introduction

In presenting, at the request of members of my Old Guard, memoirs of a life now within striking distance of its eightieth year, I am reminded that Alexander Hamilton once wrote George Washington :

''No man has ever written a true biography of himself, but that he was apt to blame himself excessively, or to be too prone to self-defense. An autobiography is written either from vanity to present a man favorably to posterity, or because he desires, for his own pleasure, in the study of himself, to recall the events of his career."

I do not intend to blame myself excessively. Nor am I inclined to a general defense of public acts. I make no confession of vanity. Neither do I make any apologies. During the greater portion of fifty-three years spent in the political arena, I have been the target for many arrows. My words and deeds have often been either ignorantly or maliciously misunderstood and misconstrued. At times my very life has been threatened by those who preferred to take snap judgment, rather than inquire what actually inspired me in the promotion of the principles of a, party

xvii

The Autohiograplii) of Thoma.s Collier Piatt

which, I am proud to say, I helped in an humble way to found.

That which is set down in the forthcoming pages comprises incontrovertible facts, easily corroborated by my associates, many of whom, like myself, were sponsors at the birth and the christening of the Republican party. They have stood shoulder to shoulder with me, fighting its battles, neither asking nor giving quarter.

Starting as a warbler of campaign songs for Fremont in 1856, I have, through the suffrages of the people, been elected to high offices I never sought. The party for over a score of years recognized me as its leader in the Empire State — a commonwealth containing three times the population of the American colonies when they rebelled against the tyranny of King George.

Twice chosen to the House of Representatives against my personal wishes; thrice elected United States Senator from this imperial State; maintained in the party leadership until, because of physical infirmities, I was compelled to release the reins to a younger and more virile lieutenant — honors from my own State should adequately answer calumnies which have been incessantlv hurled at me.

To one charge I plead guilty. T did contribute toward transforming a once Democratic State into an impregnable Republican stronghold. To another charge. General James S. Clarkson, former Chairman of the Republican National Com-

xviii

Tlie Autohio^rnpfii/ of Thomas Collier Piatt

mittee, replies that I saved the election of three Republican Presidents. They were James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley.

I have rejoiced in the personal and political confidence of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester A. Arthur, William McKinley and Theodore Eoosevelt, I have been most happy in the company of such Stalwarts as Roscoe Conkling, Matthew S. Quay, James S. Clarkson, Thomas B. Reed, Charles W. Fairbanks, William B. Allison, Russell A. Alger, Joseph H. Manley, GaiTet A. Hobart and Samuel Fessenden. With such intrepid comrades I have fought successfully for an honest dollar-for-dollar currency, a protective tariff, and other great and vital issues which the people have so overwhelmingly endorsed that during the period since the Republican party came into being it has won eleven of the fourteen national contests.

As a member of the rank and file, and then as chief of the Republican organization, I have aided in giving to New York State ten of the eighteen governors elected since the Republican party wore swaddling clothes. I was a worker in the infant State organization when Edwin D. Morgan, who distinguished himself as the Civil War governor, was chosen the first Republican chief magistrate; when Reuben E. Fenton supplanted Horatio Seymour, and was at the front when John A. Dix, of ''Shoot-him-on-the-spot" celebrity, entered the

xix

TJie xiutoh'w^raplni of Thomas Collier Piatt

executive chamber at Albany. I was the stanch supporter of Alouzo B. Cornell. I was the political godfather of Governors Levi P. Morton, Frank S. Black, Theodore Roosevelt and Benjamin B. Odell, Jr. I also was influential in securing to the people Eepublican Legislatures continuously, with two exceptions, from 1883 to the present day.

AVere I asked why I became a Eepublican I might reply that I could not be a Democrat. Early in life I became a believer in the Hamiltonian theory of politics. From that time I have held consistently to the doctrine of government by party, and rule of the party by the regular organization.

I have been accused of squaring principles to the rule of the party, rather than squaring party rule to principles. ^ly friend, St. Clair McKelway, has written: ''Mr. Piatt looks upon principles as something to help the party to obtain and retain power, rather than upon party as something organized to advance and enforce principles."

I am much impressed with Dr. McKel way's perspicacity. Ever have I been the implacable foe of hjTDOcritical and fraudulent shams, perpetrated and perpetuated by professional civil sei-vice reformers. From the outset I have contended that a party intrusted by the people with the control of the government is responsible for that government, and is entitled to man the ofli-

XX

The AufoJ)i()iiTaph// of Thaw as ('oilier Plait

ces with fit representatives of that party. If the people lose faitli in that party they will surely drive it from ]^ower. I have experienced intense personal delight in driving out of the ]:)arty the guerillas, jay-hawkers and sycophants who have tried to shoot it to death from ambush and who have courted favor by mean adulation.

Invariably has the party and the organization been strengthened by the casting out of such characters.

I drifted into politics— just drifted. I drifted into Congress. I also drifted into the party leadership, as I drifted out. Never was I ambitious for place. There came a time when political friends simply patted me on the back and called me leader. Apparently I had done something that endeared me to them and a majority of the Eepublican party. This was their manner of recognizing it.

Let me observe right here that no leader can exist any longer than his party desires him. And no party can last longer than a majority of the people wish. I became leader because night and day I sought to ascertain public sentiment and get abreast of it. By personal contact and by correspondence, averaging at some periods five hundred letters daily, I learned what the people wanted. Then I did my best to give it to them. Thus I made myself acquainted with the thought of the masses upon the great national questions of abolition of slavery, the reconstruction act,

xxi

The Aut()hi()!j;r(ip]ni of Tliomas Collier Piatt

currency, tariff and other propositions. Tims I discovered their preferences for President, for U. S. Senators and members of the House of Representatives. Thus I familiarized myself with their views about excise, ballot and municipal reform, the creation of the Greater New York, and otlier projects which have agitated the State since I entered upon my career. In this way, too, I found it easy to gain my knowledge as to who was most available and likeliest to be elected for Governor, other State offices, members of the Legislature and municipal places. In choosing my subordinates I took pains to select only such as knew voters in their home districts almost as well as the members of their immediate families.

The popular idea that in order to be a successful political leader, or a boss, one nmst possess ability to pull strings while puppets dance, is most absurd. It is not necessary to equip one's self with strings. Nor is it essential to make any persons dance. Conduct a political organization as a general commands an army, or the head of a great business concern conducts its affairs, and you have solved the ])roblem. Political leaders are born. Few who asjiire to leadershij) attain it. Without the full confidence of his followers the leader's power dies.

Let me impress upon those who seek political honors that tliey must first be honest. Then they must be faithful to the last blood-drop to their friends, diplomatic about making new ones, grate-

yxii ful and quick to reward service, regard a promise as sacred, fulfil it at the earliest possible opportunity. Above all, they should march abreast oi" the people and strive to procure for them what they demand.

XXIU

The Autobiography of Thomas Colher Piatt

CHAPTER I

1833-1853

How my father sought to make me a 'preacher — I become a pill doctor instead — I take a ivife, helpmeet and adviser.

My original ancestor, Richard Piatt, came across the sea in 1638. He settled in New Milford, Connecticut. My great-grandfather, and his father, were soldiers in the American Revolutionary army. The former was captain in the Fourth Regiment of the line. He is mentioned in Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution as one of the "distinguished patriots who constituted the Committee of Safetv at White Plains in 1776." A year before he represented New York in the Provincial Congress. My father, William Piatt, was a lawA'er, long in practice at Owego, N. Y. My mother was Lesbia Hinchman, whose ancestors hailed from Jamaica, L. I. The male members of her family were soldiers of the Revolutionary and Colonial wars.

Such was my lineage.

I was born at Owego, July 15, 1833. I was

The Aut(jJ)iof(rapJtf/ of Thomas Collier Plait

the youngest of five sons. iNfy brothers were William Hinchman, Frederick Edward, Edward, and Humphrey. There were four sisters : Stella Avery, Susan Calhoun, Emily Elizabeth, and Anna. But one of the eight is living. She is Mrs. Emily Elizabeth Skinner, of Owego.

My father had Puritanical ideas. He was a blue-blooded Presbyterian, and sought to bring up his children in that faith. Early in my boyhood, father informed me that I must prepare for the ministry. As a preliminary education, I was compelled to attend family prayers daily; go to church at least twice and maybe three times, and to school once on Sunday. My Sabbath Day recreation — the only one allowed me — was the rather gruesome habit of walking in the \'illage cemetery.

So firmly was my father's mind made up that I should become a preacher, that each Sunday he invited a clergjnnan or two to dine with us. Wliile partaking of food cooked on Saturday — for father would permit the serving of nothing hot except tea and coffee on the Sabbath Day — our clerical guests endeavored to convince me of the attractiveness of their calling.

I was not at all favorably impressed. T might have been had I not been forced to listen to them.

AT YALE

After a rudimentary course at the Owego Academy I entered Yale College. I was sixteen

Tlie Auiohiogrdplnj of Thomas Collier Piatt

years old. My father's purpose was, that after securing the degree of Bachelor of Arts I should go after that of Doctor of Divinity. Ere my curriculum ended I was constrained, because of ill health, to leave the institution. I had hoped to graduate with the class of 1853. Though unable to finish and get my sheepskin, I managed to win a prize for Latin translation, attested by President Woolsey, Twenty-three years later there was bestowed upon me the honorary degree of Master of Arts.

Returning home, I sought first to mend my shattered health. By rowing, swimming across the Susquehanna, playing the old-fashioned game of patch baseball, and other outdoor sports, I succeeded so well, that my father renewed his arguments that I go back to Yale and study for the ministry. The suggestion was so distasteful that I pleaded for a chance to go into business.

A DRUGGIST

For years I had nursed the longing to become a druggist. Very reluctantly father consented to my learning to put up prescriptions. I went behind the counter of a small local drug store, and gradually acquainted myself with the secret of compounding pills. Ultimately I saved enough money to make part payment on the purchase of a drug establishment, and proudly hoisted my own sign along with a young friend, Frederic K.

Hull. With a few hundred dollars in my pocket, I married Ellen Lucy Barstow, of Owego, December 12, 1852.

WIFE. HELPMEET, ADVISER

If ever a man was blessed in a wife, it was T. To her I owe much of whatever has made for success and uplift during the subsequent years. Mrs. Piatt was a woman in whose splendid loyal nature was combined a fine discrimination, keen intuition, and cool-headed judgment which never failed me at any crisis or exigency during the almost half century we traveled the road of life together. Her counsel, sagacious always, came to my aid in matters of politics, and (for I used to make her my confidante in the things which were vital to any and all my interests) I invariably found it unerring. It was never the expedient with her. It was the same conservative judgment of a woman of deep convictions and unflinching character. She would stoop to no mean thing. Right was always right to Ellen Piatt.

In the tenderer relations, as mother, homekeeper, I look back upon her with the finest emotions that can possess a man; for no woman was more loval or devoted to her familv than she. She was at her best when her hair had grown gray, the strong and once smooth forehead had become seamed, the bloom of the cheeks had faded away. She never lost her youth of mind and heart though Time had implanted upon her fea-

MRS. THOMAS C. PLATT

The AutobiograpJty of Thomas Collier Piatt

turcs its outward signs. She lived again in her children and children's children.

Three sons were born to us: Edward T., now superintendent of the U. S. Express Company; Frank H., a successful New York law^-er for a score of years; and Harry B., superintendent of the money order department of the U. S. Express Company, and vice-president of the Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland. From the beginning of my career, until death robbed me of her, February 13, 1901, Mrs. Piatt was constantly at my elbow. When in the early eighties we removed from Owego to New York, she fitted up for me a home-like suite of rooms at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Night after night, while we wicked politicians connived for the public good, Mrs. Piatt worked at her embroidery. Now and then she would drop a word of sage advice to me. She probably knew more about political secrets and methods than any woman of her day in the East. But she never *' peached" on us.