William Walter Phelps : his life and public services

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Cornell University Library

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William Walter Phelps

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3 1924 030 913 382

Cornell University
Library

The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.

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the United States on the use of the text.

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William Walter Phelps

His Life

and

Public Services

Compiled by
Hugh M. Herrick

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1904

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Copyright, 1Q04

BY

HUGH M. HERRICK

Published, March, 1904

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PREFACE

IN this volume is told the story of the life of William
Walter Phelps : of his surroundings of refinement
and culture in his early years ; his youthful training and
devotion to study, fitting him for a career of renown as
a lawyer, orator, and statesman; how it was his good
fortune to be intimate with the most exalted men of his
time and to become the compeer of the leading statesmen
of the age; how on attaining the highest rank in diplo-
macy he conferred, with honor to himself, notable and
enduring benefits upon his country; how he took the
joys of life sedately and endured its sufferings silently
and heroically; how, after reaping the honor of many
high stations, he died in the prime of his manhood, leav-
ing no stain upon his private or public life.

If any explanation be needed of what might seem to
be more than an amplitude of detail or appear to be an
irrelevant digression in these annals, it may be said that
there was available much tempting material that told of
Judge Phelps's life and its manifold events, his wide sur-
roundings and his striking personality, and that, even as
it is, much had to be omitted ; yet the writer was willing
to incur the charge of being tiresome rather than leave
the record incomplete. Also, that the career of a public
man of eminence cannot be thoroughly portrayed with-
out flashing occasional side-lights upon travellers along
the same roadway other than the main character.

There are numerous quotations from the newspapers
of the land. Much of Judge Phelps's activities were

iv Preface

chronicled in the newspapers because he was constantly
within the focus of public observation and was continu-
ously doing or saying something that editors thought
worth telling to the world. The acts of few men in public
life will bear close scrutiny ; those of Judge Phelps's will ;
consequently he was seldom the subject of comments by
the press which were not laudatory.

This memorial has been prepared for the family and
descendants of Judge Phelps and for circulation among
his friends. There was so much in his open life to praise
and so little to blame that his biographer has given,
largely upon the testimony of others, the praiseworthy
record that he made, without any fear that he has over-
estimated the departed statesman's virtues. It has been
written, therefore, in no spirit of criticism, but with the
chief purpose of correctness of statement in the chrono-
logical arrangement of the occurrences and incidents of
Judge Phelps's life, and with a desire to give them fully
and completely.

It is also intended that this volume shall not only per-
petuate Judge Phelps's memory with posterity, but be a
reminder to his descendants of how their distinguished
ancestor was honored among men in his day and genera-
tion, and inspire and guide them to an emulation of his
industrious and useful life.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

The Phelps Family in England — William Phelps, the Founder of
the American Branch, Lands at Nantasket in 1630 — Settles at
Simsbury, Conn. — A Race of Public-Spirited Men — John Jay
Phelps I

CHAPTER II

Early Life of William Walter Phelps — Enters Yale at Sixteen —
Leaves College to Travel in Ireland for His Health — How He
Acquired a Phenomenal Memory — Married on Evening of
Graduation to Miss Ellen Maria Sheffield— The Sheffield
Family — A Bridal Tour in Europe 14

CHAPTER III

Studies Law at Columbia — His First Jury Case — A Successful
Lawyer — Some of His Largest Cases — Declines a Seat on the
New York Bench and Settles in New Jersey .... 23

CHAPTER IV

His Large Business Interests Compel Him to Give up His Law
Practice — Builds Railroads and Acquires Land in Texas — En-
ters New Jersey Politics and Becomes a "Favorite Son" —
Famous Paramus Convention — Elected to Congress . . . 31

CHAPTER V

Takes His Seat in the Forty-third Congress— A Personal Descrip-
tion—James G. Blaine Becomes His Friend— Comes quickly to
the Front as a Parliamentary Orator and Debater — Denounces
the Famous "Salary Grab " — Energetic Speech against the
Franking Privilege Abuses — A Parliamentary Tilt with a Kan-
sas Granger 40

vi Contents

CHAPTER VI

PAGB

Takes a Leading Part on the Currency Question and Gains Fame
for His Clear Exposition of a False Currency — Opposes the
Civil Rights Bill and Loses Caste with His Party — Urges the
Repeal of the Infamous Moiety Law — Review of His First
Session — Defeated for Re-election in a Democratic Tidal Wave
— Felicitous Correspondence with His Successful Opponent . 50

CHAPTER VII

His Second Session — Investigates Louisiana Affairs and Exposes the
Carpet-Baggers — Feted by New Orleans — Leaves Congress —
His Love for Newspapers and Newspaper Men — Goes to
Rescue of the New York Tribune — Life at Teaneck — Travels
for Health 62

CHAPTER VIII

Great Love for Trees — Plants Six Hundred Thousand Trees on His
Teaneck Estate — Studies Arboriculture in Many Lands — Sup-
ports Blaine in 1880— Re-elected to Congress — Hackensack
Savings Bank Fails — Generosity of Mr. Phelps ... 72

CHAPTER IX

Appointed Minister to Austria — His Real Estate in Washington —
Assassination of President Garfield — Sympathy of the Austro-
Hungarian Government and People — Generous Contribution to
the Garfield Fund — A Tour in Oriental Lands — Resigns His
Mission ........... 86

CHAPTER X

Discovers the Resting- Place of His Ancestor, John Phelps, at Vevey,
Switzerland — Erects" a Tablet to His Memory — Letter to His
Children ........... 103

CHAPTER XI

Urged to again Enter Congress — Pathetic Letter to a Friend — Con-
sents to Be a Candidate — Elected to the Forty-eighth Congress,
after a Vigorous Campaign, over a Popular Opponent . . 108

CHAPTER XII

His Road-Building around Teaneck — His Offers to Englewood
Start the " Good Roads " Movement in Bergen County and
over a Million Dollars is Spent as a Result .... 116

Contents vii

CHAPTER XIII

PAGE

Re-enters Congress in 1883 and again Becomes Prominent in the
House — Presents a Bill to Establish Civil Government in Alaska
— First Appropriation for a National Building in Paterson —
His Memorable Fight for the Relief of General Fitz-John Porter
— Smooths out Troubles with Bismarck — Important Committee
Work to Establish the Manufacture of Ordnance and Armor
Plates in this Country — Famous Speech to New Jersey Farmers
— Farming for One's Country I2I

CHAPTER XIV

The Eno Embezzlement — Mr. Phelps's Successful Efforts to Save
the Second National Bank of New York from Ruin — A Finan-
cial Panic Averted by his Skill and Energy .... 141

CHAPTER XV

The Blaine Presidential Campaign — Phelps's Brilliant Work for His
Friend — Caricatured and Maligned — The Sealed Letter — Hard
at Work in Congress — Recuperating in California . . . 147

CHAPTER XVI

Elected to Forty-ninth Congress by Increased Plurality — First Ef-
forts to Raise Embargo on American Pork in Europe —
Arbitration in Labor Troubles — American Mail Steamship
Appropriation — Favors Indemnity for Outrage on Chinese —
Oleomargarine Campaign — He Champions the Cause of the
Dairy Farmers — Declines to Become Candidate for Governor
of New Jersey I59

CHAPTER XVII

New Year's Reception at Teaneck Grange — Description of the
Grand and Famous Mansion — The Art Gallery — Mr. Phelps's
Marked Social Characteristics— A Most Pleasing Host— Unique
Banquet to U. S. Senator Hiscock— Writes a Noted Biogra-
phy of Garfield— Helps to Secure Sea Girt to the State— His
Political Prominence in New Jersey — Friends Put forth His
Claims for U. S. Senate — Speaks to the Manufacturing
Jewellers' Association i73

CHAPTER XVIII

A Member of the Fiftieth Congress— Takes an Active Part in the
Debates— Opposes the Mills Tariff Bill— Able Defence of the
Industrial Interests of the Country — Advocates a Fractional

viii Contents

PAGH

Paper Currency — Sharp Criticism of the Democratic Adminis-
tration for Abandoning the Cause of American Fisheries — Aids
a Political Opponent — State of New Jersey Presents Statues of
Richard Stockton and General Philip Kearny to Congress —
Mr. Phelps Makes an Eloquent Presentation Speech — His
Views on Paternalism 183

CHAPTER XIX

Destruction of Beautiful Teaneck Grange by Fire — Bears the Severe
Loss with Calmness — The Picturesque Ruins to Remain Un-
touched — Stables and Out-Buildings Consumed Five Months
Later — Family Move to a New Home 193

CHAPTER XX

Declines to Continue in Congress — New Jersey Republicans Re-
solve to Name Him for the Presidency in the National Con-
vention of 1888 — He Refuses to Have His Name Presented
— Consents to Become a Candidate for the Vice-Presidential
Nomination — Receives a Gratifying Support in the Convention,
but the Claims of the Empire State are Paramount and a Com-
bination Nominates Levi P. Morton — Active in the Presidential
Campaign — Takes Part in Nomination of President Harrison —
The Phelps Guards of Paterson, and Their Warm Reception
in Washington — Mr. Blaine His Guest when Appointed
Secretary of State ......... 200

CHAPTER XXI

Commissioner to Samoan Conference — His First Meeting with Bis-
marck — Interesting Extract from His Diary — Has English
Adopted as Language of Conference — Dubbed the "Peace-
maker" — Splendid Diplomatic Success — Returns with "Peace
and Honor" Treaty — Warmly Received by the President, Who
Presents Him with a Commission as Minister to Berlin — De-
clines Receptions . 207

CHAPTER XXII

Minister to Germany — The Appointment Popular in the United
States and in Germany — Cordial Reception at the Berlin Court
— The Emperor's Friendly Speech at the Presentation — Search
for a Residence — His First Thanksgiving Dinner at Which
Many Americans Were Present — Reception by the Empress —
The Life of a Diplomat — Its Varied Duties and Many Social
Obligations 223

Contents ix

CHAPTER XXIII

PAGE

The Phelps Home in Berlin — Mr. and Mrs. Phelps Dine with the
German Chancellor — Fall of Bismarck — Intimate Friendship of
the Iron Chancellor and the American Minister — Begins the
Struggle for the Introduction of American Pork into Germany
— American Rifle Teams in Germany — International Medical
Conference — Fourth of July Celebrated at the Kaiserhof —
The American Minister Presides and Makes a Notable Speech
— A Trip Home Creates a Political Sensation — Newspaper In-
terviews — Speech on Irish Home Rule in Paterson — Visits
His Ancestral Home in Connecticut — A Reception by the
Union League Club of Hudson County — Interview with Presi-
dent Harrison and Secretary Blaine — Given Dinner at the
Union League Club, New York — Returns to Berlin . . . 235

CHAPTER XXIV

Koch's Lymph — Phelps's Social Fame in Germany — Hoyt Extradi-
tion Case — Chicago World's Fair — Takes the Homburg Water
Treatment, and Meets the Prince of Wales .... 249

CHAPTER XXV

American Pork — Grand Official Dinners with Homely American
Products on the Table — Persistent Work by Phelps Wins Suc-
cess, but the Closing Negotiations Taken from Him — Newspaper
Canards — Another Trip to Egypt — Relinquishes His Office to
His Democratic Successor— Appointed Judge of New Jersey
Court of Errors and Appeals 254

CHAPTER XXVI

Reasons for His Appointment to the Bench — His Commission —
Return to New Jersey— Tells of His Parting Interview with
the German Emperor— Sworn in as Judge of the New Jersey
Court of Errors and Appeals— An Impressive Ceremony . . 265

CHAPTER XXVII

Mr. Phelps's Interest in Englewood — Some of the Things He Did
for the Township— Honored by His Neighbors— A Warm
" Welcome Home " from Them on His Return from Germany . 270

CHAPTER XXVIII

Yale Makes Him a Doctor of Laws— His Continuous and Important
Work for that University— His Many other Benefactions to
His Alma Mater— Leader of the "Young Yale" Movement —
The Charter Amended— He is Elected a Fellow and Serves
on the Board for Twenty Years 280

X Contents

CHAPTER XXIX

PAGE

Koppay's Historical Painting of Phelps and Bismarck — The Minis-
ter also Depicted on Canvas by Carl Gutherz — His Work on
the Bench — Dedication of Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at
New Brunswick — His Reception at the Hamilton Club —
Elected an Honorary Member of the Chamber of Commerce
— His Portrait in the New Jersey Capitol .... 301

CHAPTER XXX

His Last Illness — Seeks Rest in the South — He Ends His Diary-
Resigns His Last Public Appointment — His Fortitude in Sick-
ness — His Daughter Hurries across the Ocean to His Bedside
— A Peaceful Death 316

CHAPTER XXXI

His Funeral — A Day of Mourning in Englewood — Church Filled
with People from All Ranks of Life — The Sermon — Estimates
of His Life and Work by Many Writers 321

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

Sound Currency 339

Against the Franking Privilege ....... 360

In Behalf of Fitz-John Porter 373

International Commerce ......... 393

Interstate Commerce ......... 396

Increasing Subsidies to Mail-Carrying Steamers .... 402

Chinese Indemnity .......... 405

Post-Office Appropriation Bill ....... 409

Presenting the Statues of Stockton and Kearny to Congress by the

State of New Jersey 416

Speech of Mr. Phelps before the New Jersey State Board of Agri-
culture, February 5, 1884 420

Grand Army of the Republic ........ 442

Honoring a Dead Soldier ........ 454

At a New England Dinner 456

WILLIAM WALTER PHELPS

His Life and Public Services

As this memorial is printed for private distribution, it
is possible that some who are desirous of possessing the
volume may not be reached, in which case a limited
number of copies may be obtained, at the cost price of
publication, from The Knickerbocker Press, 27-29 West
Twenty-third Street, New York.

WILLIAM WALTER PHELPS:

HIS LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES

CHAPTER I

The Phelps Family in England — William Phelps, the Founder of the
American Branch, Lands at Nantasket in 1630 — Settles at Simsbury,
Conn. — A Race of Public-Spirited Men — John Jay Phelps

WILLIAM WALTER PHELPS was born at Dun-
daff, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, August
24, 1839. f^is father was John Jay Phelps, one of the
most successful and distinguished merchants and financiers
of New York City. The progenitor of the Phelpses in
this country came from England. The ancestry of this
branch of the Phelps family has been traced back to the
eleventh century.

It is recorded that the Phelps family originally came
from Northern Italy, in the Middle Ages, the name then
being Guelph. In the early part of the eleventh century
some of the family emigrated to Germany, where the
name was spelled Felps, Velps, or Vulps. Some of these
who emigrated to Germany went in after-years to Eng-
land, where the name in time became Phellyppes, but
always pronounced Phelps. The superfluous letters were
dropped during the reign of Edward VI., in the middle
of the sixteenth century. The race became numerous in
Somersetshire and Gloucestershire and for several hundred

2 William Walter Phelps

years furnished many personages of celebrity in English
history.

The founder of the family in America from which Wil-
liam Walter Phelps descended was William Phelps of
Tewkesbury, England, who came to this country in the
ship called the Mary and John, which sailed from Ply-
mouth in 1630. He and his children landed at Nantasket
(now Hull, Massachusetts), and lived at Dorchester, near
Boston, for iive years, when they moved to Windsor,
Connecticut. In those days geographical lines were not
very closely drawn in the colonies, and what was after-
ward known as Simsbury was considered by general con-
sent as a part of Windsor, but in fact it was outlying and
unsurveyed land under Indian titles, and was known as
Massacoe. Connecticut, however, acquired these lands
from the Indians, and made a grant of them under cer-
tain conditions to inhabitants of Windsor. Among those
who took up land under this grant was Joseph Phelps,
the son of William Phelps, and he removed there with
the other grantees before 1669. In 1670 petition was
made to the General Court of Connecticut for township
privileges, and the court ordered that the plantation at
Massacoe be incorporated as the township of Simsbury.

The Indian neighborhood where Joseph Phelps located
his lands was called Weatogue, and that is now the name
of a railroad station about a mile from the first Phelps
settlement, which of late years has been known as Bushy
Hill. It is eleven miles from Hartford and two miles or
more from the present village of Simsbury. The origi-
nal Phelps homestead at this place is still the home of
descendants of the pioneer. A few acres and the old
farmhouse built by Alexander Phelps, who came in a
direct line from Joseph, and who was John Jay Phelps's
father, are an inheritance of Captain John J. Phelps, a son
of William Walter Phelps, but the remainder of the origi-
nal Phelps estate at Bushy Hill has been acquired by the
Rev. D. Stuart Dodge, D.D., President of the Board of

His Life and Public Services 3

Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United
States of America, who married Ellen Ada, the only
daughter of John Jay Phelps, and the large stone mansion
on this beautiful spot is the country home of Mr. Dodge
and his family.

George Phelps, a brother of the first William, also
settled at Windsor and Simsbury, but later removed
to Westiield, Massachusetts. From this branch of the
family sprang Anson G. Phelps, the widely known New
York merchant of the firm of Phelps, Dodge & Co.

Simsbury is pleasantly situated on the Farmington
River, which winds down from the Berkshire Hills of
Massachusetts and enters the Connecticut River above
Hartford, and following the course of the waters, many
of the descendants of the original settlers went to the
metropolis, and they and their children became scattered
all over the country, even to the Pacific States.

The Phelps family in this country seems always to have
taken very readily to politics and public affairs, perhaps
having inherited that propensity from its English ances-
tors and the pioneer William, for the latter, as soon as
he made his home in Connecticut, began to be interested
in the politics and public questions of the day. He held
various ofifices high and low and was the first Judge of
the Circuit Court of the State. Not only was he the
ancestor of a line of thrifty farmers, but many of his de-
scendants have been distinguished throughout the Union
as soldiers, scholars, jurists, governors, diplomatists. State
and national legislators. William Walter Phelps's great-
grandfather represented the town of Simsbury for thirty
successive years in the Legislative Assembly of Connecti-
cut, and the name of Phelps is found all through the
roster of the congresses.

John Jay Phelps, father of William Walter Phelps, was
born in 1810, at Bushy Hill. The line of descent from
the pioneer William Phelps was this: I. William Phelps;
II. Joseph, m. Hannah Newton ; III. Joseph, b. 1667,

4 William Walter Phelps

m. Mary Collier, Sarah Case, and Mary Case ; IV. Ensign
David, m. Abigail Pettibone; V. Captain David, b. 1773)
m. Abigail, daughter of Edward Griswold; VI. Alex-
ander, m. Elizabeth Eno; VII. John J. Phelps.

The father of John Jay Phelps, although the farmer of
many acres, had many sons and little wealth. He could
not give his boys a fine education, but in their home they
were taught to be industrious, frugal, persevering, and
honest, and thus was laid in the character of John Jay
Phelps the foundation upon which he built a great fame
as a successful merchant and foremost man of affairs.
He had the usual life of toil as a farmer's boy on stubborn
New England soil, a few months' schooling in the short
days of the winter, and hard work during the long hours
of the summer. He followed the plough before he was
twelve years old, and treading the furrows, there begun
in his heart a feeling of unrest and a longing for the
greater knowledge and the greater life beyond the farm.
His entreaties to be allowed to go out and make "a
struggle with the world " were finally yielded to by his
father and mother, and at the age of fourteen, without
resources except a "brave spirit," he left his country
home, as many other New England boys have done, to
seek his future in the world, and, like many other boys
to whom a college course was impossible, he sought a
printing-office education. He became an apprentice in
a newspaper office in New Haven. His progress was
varied, but he worked so assiduously that several years
before he attained his majority he was the owner of the
New England Review, published at Hartford, which was
then his home. He had George D. Prentice, who later
became the famous editor of the Louisville Journal, as his
partner, and the afterwards distinguished poet Whittier
as his apprentice. A memoir of him by his gifted son said :

He longed for a wider field, for action, for wealth that should
spare his children the sacrifices of poverty. In the romances

His Life and Public Services 5

he sometimes penned for his country circulation it was easy to
see the influence of a metropolitan splendor, of a successful
New York life upon his imagination. His heroes were merchant
princes, their mansions were rich with the refinement of Euro-
pean civilization, paintings, statues, books, all the appliances
of art exercised a softening influence upon their homes; and
in the midst of this material splendor, they ruled a household
growing up in the practice of every New England virtue — in-
tegrity, charity, public spirit, and patriotism. To believe
that capital had more influence than a country editor was for
him to seek capital. Action immediately followed conception.

The newspaper w^as sold. He set out to seek increased
fortune and prominence, going into a new country which
was then the wilds of Pennsylvania, but which has since
become the best known "coal region" of the world.
There, in the little village of Dundaff, he went into the
service of Col. Gould S. Phinney, a glass manufacturer.
His services were so valuable that he soon became a part-
ner in the business, and then married, in 1835, Rachel
Badgerly Phinney, his partner's daughter. He strove to
become a successful manufacturer and accomplished his
purpose. The future possibilities of a country business
did not satisfy his restless ambition. He sold out his
interests in Dundaff, and with the profits he went to New
York, where he was joined by his cousin of the same age,
Amos R. Eno. They began business in a humble way,
but in a few years Eno & Phelps were among the leading
merchants of that city. After ten years of business suc-
cess, they dissolved partnership and each established new
firms. There sprung from the Eno & Phelps concern a
number of most noted and prosperous mercantile houses
of New York, among which were Phelps, Chittenden &
Bliss, S. B. Chittenden & Co., George Bliss & Co., in all
of which John Jay Phelps was financially interested. His
energy and indisputable uprightness, and his unerring
judgment, which was unsurpassed, were the causes of his
unprecedented success.

6 William Walter Phelps

Gradually he retired from the mercantile business, be-
came an operator in real estate, and made large sums of
money. He erected blocks of business buildings in New
York, and was also then one of the very largest owners of
personal property in the whole country; He was also an
investor in many other business enterprises, in which he
was invariably successful, and was in the vanguard of the
great railroad progress of his time.

It was through his business foresight in regard to the
development of the Pennsylvania coal regions that what
is now known as the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western
Railroad was constructed. He was its largest stock-
holder and first President, and was one of its Boards of
managers to the close of his life. He was a director in
other railroads in which he was a stockholder. During
the latter part of his life he gave his whole time and at-
tention, outside of his real-estate demands, to the man-
agement of railways, banks, trust companies, and other
corporations in each of which he was a director, and
in all of which it was said "his will was always the
law. ' '

The next day after this man of power and eminence was
laid in his grave, William Walter Phelps, in order that his
children, when they should grow up, might have a true
knowledge of their grandfather's character and great
worth, wrote a letter addressed to his infant daughter,
Marian, containing a memoir of his father's life, a writing
which was unexcelled in its tender expressions of filial
affection, its beauty of thought, the simplicity and true
eloquence of its diction. From this beautiful tribute by
the son has been derived most of the history of John
Jay Phelps that will be found recorded in this book.

Before he was forty years of age he retired from active busi-
ness with every wish gratified. He was a strong man ; to those
who knew him but slightly he might have seemed a hard man.
Having made up his mind to a proper course he was indifferent

His Life and Public Services 7

to public comment. He did not despise it: he was indepen-
dent of it. I can look back to infancy, boyhood, early man-
hood, and through all the scenes of these varied stages,
recognize the shadow of his presence ever with me ; in them
all— school, college, political and professional life, I knew his
eye was on me, his watchful sympathy mine. In them, all
through these thirty years of life was no declaration of sorrow
when defeat came to me, or of joy when success crowned my
efforts. He was an iron furnace so hermetically sealed that
the seven-fold fire within exhibited no gleam. I never knew
the philosophy of this strange reticence; probably the lone-
some hours of boyhood on the Simsbury Hills, the more lone-
some hours of the fierce struggle he waged for wealth and
position in youth aided in developing a natural tendency to
this self-restraint.

But this man, so apparently cold and austere, was really
capable of the warmest friendships and the kindest inter-
est in those whom he thought worthy of his intimacy and
regard, as letters from him in his early manhood most
plainly show. Not long after he was settled in business
at Dundaff, which he then called "The West," and when
not quite twenty years old and unmarried, he wrote to
Nathan C. Ely, a young man who had been one of his
associates in Hartford, as follows:

As I hear nothing from you I am beginning to believe that
you consider me minus a letter. If so, here goes. By the
way, I should like to make such a bargain with you as I en-
deavored to make with Eno when I lived in Hartford, /. e., I
offered to go and spend one night in four with him, in return
for which he was to spend the remaining three with me. To
bring the matter about, I argued that my accommodations
were so much superior to his, that they stood respectively as
one to four. Now what I wish to make of this, is — that you
in consideration of the abundance of your materials shall fur-
nish me with three letters, while I return one. Not that this
arrangement would be perfectly just — but fact is, Ely, this is
a woful barren country in incident, and 't would be worse

8 William Walter Phelps

than horrible to make one out of such " measley " materials.
However, I will do as you direct in this matter.

Well, my good friend, how do you flourish? How prosper-
ing? Like the " green bay tree " I trust. But how can you
content yourself in that psalm-singing city of yours? Hast
no desire to go out from among the heathen and make a way
for yourself in the wilderness regions of the West ? Can you
content yourself there, treading the same road and pursuing
the same track with those who are at least twenty-five years
behind the balance of our people in industry and enterprise?
They tell me, however, that Hartford is improving— that a
new era is commencing — that the citadel of Aristocracy has
been stormed, and its inmates made to " hide their diminished
heads " — that Jacksonism has disappeared from your borders,
and that nothing is left of the foul monster but a kind of
sulphurous smell, which would seem to insinuate that the old
fellow had gone to " his own place."

Well, go on ; there is a power which can ' ' change the skin
of the Ethiop " and the spots of the leopard. That and that
only, will change Hartford this century.

But come to think again, Hartford is not such a bad place
as many would suppose, and come to reflect again, I am almost
inclined to rub out every unkind word I have written over the
leaf. 'T is even so; when I think a second time of the many
kindnesses I experienced there — of the many pleasant associa-
tions connected with my sojourn there — of its city associations
for improvement and its country advantages for recreation — I
can say in reference to Boston, New York, New Haven, etc.,
etc. — Many cities have done nobly, but thou, Hartford, ex-
cellest them all. There, when you read my first opinion of
Hartford, read the above codicil annexed and say it is like the
politician's course, on both sides of the fence.

This woody, hilly country of railroads and canals — of anthra-
cite coal and " Bitumenous " Irishmen to dig it — of Mynhers
Dutchmen — of fair weather and pretty girls — is improving
wonderfully. The operations made by the Delaware & Hud-
son Canal Co. six miles from us, at Carbondale, are really
astonishing. They are expecting to send down by the canal
this season ten thousand tons of coal for the New York market.

His Life and Public Services 9

They have excavated the banks to the distance of more than
four hundred feet in several places, — having small railroads
entering the mines on which the coal is brought out. Ely,
come out here this fall, will ye, and see me. A visit from you
will be like the consolations of religion to a dying man — of ex-
treme unction to the soul of a buried Catholic — for know ye
that I am in a scripture sense dead to the world — having re-
nounced it — that is, till I go to New York or Hartford, which
latter place I am making calculations to visit some four weeks
hence.

Why do I never meet with you in New York ? I am in the
city on an average about once each three weeks.

How do the Lyceums flourish in your city ? How does my
old friend the Review flourish ? In your next tell me all about
them, and everything else — not forgetting ' ' old men and
young men — old maids and maidens."

This epistle displays just a slight flash-light picture of
Hartford more than seventy years ago. It shows that
the writer had a sense of genuine humor, while it gives
quite a new impression of what John Jay Phelps was in
his younger days. Other letters written by him show
that he was a most tender and loving husband. While
establishing himself in business in New York, his young
wife remained for a time in Dundaff, and then how he
began to make a proper home in New York is told in the
following letter. He always addressed his wife in the
most endearing terms.

Your extremely short letter of the 3rd is received bearing
tidings of your continued good health. I have a piece of good
news to tell you. And first, I have hired a house; Second,
have bought my furniture; and Third, go to house-keeping
the first of May. There, now you can wander as much as you
please. Yes, I have hired N. C. Ely's house on Third Street,
a long way up town, you know, and bought all of his furniture,
excepting bedding, silverware, and one carpet. So everything
is in complete order. Two pine tables, two sofas, carpets.

lo William Walter Phelps

tubs, kettles, pots, bakers, crockery, and everything you can
think of. Rent fSoo.oo. Now, I hope the Colonel will be
satisfied.

Now dear, shall I let Eno and his wife keep house until you
come down or shall I keep hoiise, or how shall we manage?
I have possession the first of May. Perhaps you can come
down about the tenth of May. However, I shall expect to
see you before a great while. My shirt does not fit. The
bosom comes up so high that the collar will button over my chin.

I have no news yet from Simsbury. Have not seen Mr. or
Mrs. High since I last wrote.

I am in a hurry dear and must bid you good-by.

Mr. Ely it seems abandoned Hartford for New York,
as was suggested to him in the letter of his friend Phelps.
He became a prosperous and leading citizen of the me-
tropolis and for many years w^as well and favorably known
in business and political circles, and as president of a
prominent fire insurance company. One day in the
latter part of his life, William Walter Phelps received
from Mr. Ely a reminiscent communication concerning
his old tenant. The letter contained a time-worn copy
of an old lease and a small piece of silk. Here is what
the letter said :

Peter Cooper Fire Insurance Company,
N. C. Ely, President.

New York, ig Jan'y, 1885.
Hon. Wm. Walter Phelps,
Dear Sir :

I think you may have been born in this Third Street house.
At all events you should be glad to know that your father (no
more honorable man ever lived) of his own free will gave my
wife a very rich silk dress pattern, because one of his servants
in stirring a coal fire with a long poker chipped a small piece
from the under side of the marble mantle.

I should never have discovered it in any probability, but
your father did and gave the valuable silk dress pattern. I
have a small piece saved with the rental agreement, which I

His Life and Public Services 1 1

have kept together for 47 years. I send them to you that you
may continue to keep them together if you wish.

Respectfully yours,

N. C. Ely.

It should be borne in mind that a silk dress in those
days was of a great deal more importance and of far more
value than now.

When John Jay Phelps was in the height of his pros-
perity as a merchant, there was little trade for New York
houses west of Ohio and Michigan, but this enterprising
and sagacious man of affairs sought to push the business
of his firm to the Mississippi, and while on one of his
tours to extend his trade to the then far West, the letters
he wrote to his wife contained much that was descriptive
and interesting relating to the conditions in that new
section of the country at that time, and one of them is
here introduced. It is dated Burlington, Iowa, August
22, 1841 :

You would not get a line from me here, were it not that I
am likely to be detained here for some little time unexpectedly.
I wrote you last from Saint Louis. From there I took the
steamboat up the Mississippi as far as the Illinois, and there
up that river about 100 miles to a small town called Florance.
The current of the Illinois river has hardly a perceptible move-
ment. It is a dead sluggish mass of water. The banks are
regularly overflowed and the waters set far back, where they
remain until they are absorbed by evaporation. This renders
the country in the neighborhood of the river unhealthy to a
great degree. Indeed, every place we passed on the river was
filled with fever. It was literally engraven upon the water,
and on the shore. After doing my business at Florance, I
started for Springfield, east of the Illinois river, when, after
travelling 4 or 5 miles, my eye was gratified with the first sight
of a prairie. Indeed the road to Springfield is literally through
a succession of prairies: vast fields, sometimes 15 or 20 miles
in extent, frequently with not a tree or shrub to relieve the
eye in the whole distance — nothing save a rank growth of

12 William Walter Phelps

coarse grass intermingled with a species of plant bearing gaudy
flowers, which grow some 5 or 6 feet in height. These prairies
are bounded by small strips of timberland generally a mile or
two in breadth, and frequently little islands of timber are seen
in the centre of their vast solitudes. On the way to Spring-
field is Jacksonville, a very pretty town, in which is a college.

Springfield is to be the capital of the state, and is a flourish-
ing place. This town, or rather city, as also Jacksonville, is
situated on the edge of large prairies. From Jacksonville to
Springfield I went in a one horse buggy, and on my return to
Jacksonville I took stage to Quincy, crossed the Illinois river
at a place called Naples. There had been four deaths the
week before, tho' the place was almost deserted. I counted
2o stores and shops vacated. There was not a well person at
the tavern — the ferry man was sick, and all his people — and
the driver rowed us across the river — and I can assure you I
was glad to get away from a scene of such distress. We upset
once in the stage and arrived at Quincy Thursday, p.m. Here
I found many friends, and a first rate hotel. I stayed until
Friday p.m. when I hired a man to take me to Blooming-
ton, above here. We got along very well till within twenty
miles of here, yesterday, when we found the late prodigious
showers of rain had raised the rivers and creeks to such an
extent that we could not possibly get our horse across. I
got a horse-back ride to this place, where I shall probably
have to stay a day or two, and perhaps more, waiting for
a boat to go to Bloomington. From Bloomington I go to
Chicago, when I shall consider myself almost home.

I have been through some pretty tough scenes, but my
health is good, and spirits ditto. I have not heard from you
since I left Louisville and I am very anxious. Perhaps you
will want to know what I think of Illinois. I should say
about one half the state was richer in soil than any country I
have seen; but I would not undertake to live on it for India's
wealth. The other half is situated more high, soil good, and
is extremely desirable as a residence. The first half is filled
with flowers, and always will be. The other part is somewhat
unhealthy but I think when the country becomes more im-
proved it will be healthy as most countries.

His Life and Public Services 13

Tell Ellen Papa thinks of her every day. She must be a
good girl and learn to read before I return. Kiss the babies
for me.

The penmanship of these letters was firm and very-
plain and neat ; there was not an erasure or interlineation
in any one of them. They were in expression and ex-
ecution characteristic of the man. No one could read
them without feeling that the estimate of the character
of the father by the son was correct, and that he was a
man of generous emotions, under whose cold exterior
beat the warmest of hearts.

John Jay Phelps, after he became a man of wealth,
built in 1852 a large and handsome house at the corner
of Madison Avenue and Thirty-sixth Street ; the grounds
attached to it extended along the avenue nearly a whole
block. Although his prosperity led Mr. Phelps into no
self-indulgences or wasteful habits of gratification, yet
chiefly for those whom he cherished he created a home
of luxury, refinement, and artistic taste.

But all this did not keep the destroyer from the door.
About the year 1865 it became too plainly foreshadowed
that the dreaded malady consumption would surely and
speedily shorten the great financier's life ; yet to the last,
as his strength gradually wasted away, he never became
inactive. He lost no interest in his own affairs nor in the
current events of the day. He was always cheerful and
never once complained as the shadows darkened. It was
in his last days that this "strong man armed " laid aside
his armor, revealing to wife, children, and close friends
the tender and loving nature of a most remarkable man.

Surrounded by those whom he loved best, he died a
true Christian May 12, 1869, at the age of fifty-eight.
His funeral sermon was by the Rev. Dr. Stephen H.
Tyng, in St. George's Episcopal Church. Mr. Phelps
had built in the cemetery at Simsbury a spacious family
vault, and therein his ashes repose.

CHAPTER II

Early Life of William Walter Phelps— Enters Yale at Sixteen — Leaves
College to Travel in Ireland for His Health — How He Acquired
a Phenomenal Memory — Married on Evening of Graduation to
Miss Ellen Maria Sheffield— The Sheffield Family— A Bridal Tour
in Europe

THE family of John Jay Phelps lived but a few years
in the Third Street house, to which allusion has
been made, but removed to a more spacious residence in
Waverly Place, fronting Washington Square. At times
the family spent the summer at Dundaff, and while at
their temporary home in that place in 1839, William
Walter Phelps was born. There was a younger son
named Frank, but he lived only to the age of seven. A
daughter, Ellen Ada, was born earlier. These were the
only children of the family.

It had been the continuous ambition of John Jay
Phelps to become the founder of a family which should
be not only one of permanent wealth, but of distinction in
the world. After the death of the younger son it was
natural that it should be impressed upon the mind of the
elder, even in his youthful years, that it would be ex-
pected of him to sustain the high social rank in which his
family was moving and that the opportunities would be
within his reach to add still greater lustre to the family
name.

Saratoga was at that time the summer resting-place of
the most eminent and fashionable New York families.
In his later life William Walter Phelps when visiting Sara-
toga told how he used to be sent up to his family at the

14

His Life and Public Services 15

beginning of the school vacation in the city, when he
would meet the stately family carriage at Ballston, then
the terminus of the railroad. There, with liveried coach-
man and footman in their places, he would ride in the
great coach alone, dashing through the town to his home.
The next day he and other boys, barefooted and with
trousers rolled up, would be splashing the water on each
other and wading into the pond filled from Congress
Spring. Congress Park was not then the elegant place
it is now, for the spring and the grounds were in a quite
primitive condition, and the flow from the spring made a
large mud puddle, which was a favorite play spot for the
village urchins. Mr. Phelps would laughingly relate this
incident as an evidence of the levelling tendency of boy-
hood fellowship and the natural democracy of mankind
when unembarrassed by artificial conditions and social
restraints. In his future intercourse with his fellow-men
of all stations, Mr. Phelps conspicuously acted upon the
belief that a man of high position, true greatness of char-
acter, and real ability never added to his influence, dignity,
and importance by keeping aloof from the common people.
Mr. Phelps had his first school experience at Mount
Washington Institute, New York, of which Rev. Dr.
George W. Clark was principal, and where Roscoe Conk-
ling was also a scholar. He is described by one who knew
him well as a round-faced, rosy-cheeked boy, with spark-
ling dark eyes. He was not physically very strong, but
was active, and attracted notice by sprightliness. When
at this school at the age of twelve, he made what may be
called his first appearance in public. A Dr. Skinner, an
enthusiast on the subject of the prevention of the drink-
ing and sale of liquor, originated a device through which
he thought he could get the youth of the city interested
in the subject of prohibition. He offered a large prize to
the pupil of any school who would write and deliver the
best speech on that subject. The speeches were to be
made by youths of sixteen or under, and a committee, of

1 6 William Walter Phelps

which Rev. Dr. S. H. Tyng was chairman, received the
manuscripts and selected from among them the fifteen
believed to be most worthy. The writers delivered their
speeches in the old Broadway Tabernacle, situated on
Broadway below Canal Street, then a famous place for
public gatherings of all kinds. Young Phelps, not thir-
teen years of age, had the good fortune to be one of those
selected. He was the youngest competitor, but delivered
his address with a fluency and gracefulness that attracted
especial attention and elicited rapturous applause, but
perhaps his youth told against him, for the prize went to
a young man from Manhattan College, greatly to the dis-
appointment of a vast assemblage of people whose sym-
pathies were intensely with the younger lad.

Soon after this event William Walter was sent to the
private school at Golden Hill, near Bridgeport, Connecti-
cut. This institution was conducted by Rev. Henry
Jones, whose wife was the daughter of Noah Webster,
the distinguished lexicographer. His advancement in his
studies was so rapid that when a little over fifteen he was
fitted for college. But his health, which during his whole
life was never robust, became somewhat impaired, and it
was then deemed advisable to keep him away from his
books for a time. Consequently, for a year he remained
at home in New York engaged in the study of literature.
In the meantime his father removed from Waverly Place
to the Madison Avenue house on Murray Hill, which then
was the largest private residence in the city. William
Walter Phelps inherited it and it was his winter home for
some years after he became a citizen of New Jersey, and
it figured with some prominence in one or two episodes of
his political days.

The young man entered Yale College before he had
reached his sixteenth year. Although the youngest of
his class, he rose to the head of it, when the serious
condition of his eyes again compelled him to forego his
studies, and on the advice of an oculist he crossed the

His Life and Public Services 1 7

Atlantic, landing in Ireland. He arrived there during
the high tide of emigration from that country to America.
Much of the time he tramped around from village to vil-
lage on foot and often at night found himself sitting at a
peat fire in a cabin surrounded by a group of peasants,
who listened most eagerly to the tales he told of the life
and future before those who should seek a home in this
country. His close intercourse with the Irish people of
all classes during this tour created in his breast a warm and
lasting sympathy for the Irish in all their political troubles.

After spending nearly a year in travel without deriving
any benefit to his eyes, young Phelps returned to Yale
College determined at all hazards to pursue his studies,
and employed another student to read everything to him.
He had to give his undivided attention to the readings,
and through this practice, it is believed, was developed
that phenomenal memory that was so notable in his after-
life, when he seldom forgot an incident or the most care-
less remark. But with all this disadvantage he was
enabled to keep up with his class, and at the end of four
years graduated with honor. One who knew him well in
those days, and ever after, said of him: "At college his
great ambition was to stand high. He was never a lazy
student, and study was never onerous. He was rather
more proficient in the classics than mathematics, but was
no mean scholar in the mathematical branches. He did
not at any time live in the college building, but was well
known and popular among all the college boys, and his
ever genial disposition and easy politeness made him a
favorite among his classmates. ' '

Among his classmates, who until the close of Mr. Phelps's
life maintained the closest friendship and intimacy with
him, was one who is now a prominent clergyman in a
flourishing city. This old classmate, and no one knew
more of Mr. Phelps as a collegian, in recalling the college
days of his loving friend, since the latter's death, made
these feeling remarks :

1 8 William Walter Phelps

He was most studious and systematic in his hours for study,
yet he acquired so easily, and had such an exceptionally re-
tentive memory that apparently without excessive effort and
certainly without "digging" and "grubbing" he won and
maintained a place in the first rank of scholarship. He had
come to college from a small preparatory school of a limited
local reputation. At once he entered into successful compe-
tition with the best accredited scholars from the largest schools.
Had his eyesight not failed him, necessitating his absence from
college and an entire cessation of all study for a year and the
consequent entrance into the next class for graduation he
would no doubt probably have carried off the honors of the
valedictorian. The scholarly instinct was very strong in him.
He was especially proficient in the languages, finding much
pleasure in the study of the Greek and Latin classics. He
was a ready debater, a fluent speaker and his essays and
literary productions were of a very high order.

It was very remarkable that this high standing in scholarship
and excellence in general literary work should have been gained
with such comparative ease, for he had abundant leisure for
social pursuits and the amenities of life, evidenced by the fact
that he was married in the evening of his graduation, an occa-
sion to which all his class men were invited.

It was a serious question with him upon leaving college
whether or not to devote some time at least to teaching with
the view of possibly making that his life work, he was so thor-
oughly in love with study and with the student life. The
position of tutor in the college was offered to him with the
understanding that a professor's chair would in time be pro-
vided for him. It was with reluctance that he finally turned
aside from this attractive pursuit to the study of the law.

In his college days there was the bright promise of what his
future would be as to the social side of his character. He had
a genius for friendship. The spirit of comradeship was born
in him and college life gave ample opportunity for its manifes-
tation and exercise. The warm friendships he then made he
cherished to the end of his life, counting them the most pre-
cious of all his possessions.

Athletics did not then occupy so much of the thought and

His Life and Public Services 19

time of college students. This is quite a modern development
— the wide and intense interest in college athletics. But he
never had the physical robustness to permit of any very vio-
lent exercise. He was fond of horse-back riding, always kept
in New Haven a fine spirited saddle horse, and made good
use of it both for recreation and health.

Such was his prominence as a scholar and such his character
as an all-round Christian gentleman, that he was chosen as one
of the fifteen of his class for the Senior Society of Skull and
Bones, an honor recognized by his own class beyond all dis-
pute as most richly merited. This society had then and since
among its members many of the most eminent men of the
country. His theme, one of the most notable essays, was this
— which accords with the spirit of his college life and whole
life — "Work for Work's sake — the joy and pleasure work
brings." And this though a large fortune was awaiting him.

At the graduating examination Mr. Phelps was passed
by John M. Morris, who got the valedictory, and Mr.
Phelps took the second place and was the salutatorian.
There was a story that he lost the prize on the last day
on a written examination in Butler's Analogy. He neg-
lected to write out a paper which would have required
three or four hours' work, choosing to run the risk of
a failure rather than lose a drive with the young lady
to whom he was engaged. But he had the satisfaction,
however, of having carried off many of the principal
prizes of the college, some of which were: the Town-
send premium ; Bishop Barkley's prize for Latin com-
position ; first prize for English composition ; first prize
for debate.

On the evening of his graduation Mr. Phelps was mar-
ried to Ellen Maria, the daughter of Mr. Joseph Earle
Sheffield of New Haven, the generous founder of the
renowned Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College.
The wedding was attended by all the classmates, and its
pleasures and joyfulness were often recalled by the grad-
uates for many years after.

20 William Walter Phelps

The Sheffield family was an old and distinguished one
in New England, and more particularly in Connecticut,
and the father of Mrs. William Walter Phelps was a man
whose memory will not for ages die out in this country,
and none deserves more enduring fame. He was born in
Southport, Connecticut, June 19, 1793. His father and
grandfather were extensive shipowners, and took an active
part in the War of the Revolution in a vessel commissioned
by Congress, but equipped and sailed by themselves.
His early education was obtained in the common schools,
which he left in 1808, when hardly fifteen years of age, to
become a clerk to Stephen Fowler of Newberne, North
Carolina. In 181 3 he formed a partnership with a house
in New York, residing himself in Newberne and attending
to the business in that city. He soon became one of the
largest shippers of cotton in the country. He returned
to Connecticut in the summer of 1835, and established
himself in New Haven, which place was ever after his
home. He was one of the chief projectors of the railroad
between New Haven and New York, and was the founder
of the New Haven and Northampton Railway Company,
of which he was for many years president. In 1851 Mr.
Sheffield engaged with a partner, Mr. Farnum, in the
construction of the Rock Island Railroad, the beginning
of what is now known as the Chicago, Rock Island and
Pacific Railroad. Within two years after the signing of
the contract, and one year short of the time allowed, the
road was finished at an expense of over $5,000,000. By
the terms of the contract Mr. Sheffield and Mr. Farnum
secured by the early completion of the road the right to
control it up to a specified date, and to receive all its
earnings. The result was found exceedingly profitable,
as the earnings of the road were large, and Mr. Sheffield's
ample fortune was considerably increased. After this he
visited Europe, remaining two years, and after his return
he continued as long as he lived an active business life,
giving constantly his personal superintendence to the

His Life and Public Services 21

various great enterprises with which he was connected.
Mr. Sheffield was prominent in banking circles, being
identified with a leading bank in New Haven and hold-
ing a large amount of stock in banks in New York
City.

Mr. Sheffield was always a man noted for his noble-
hearted charities to the needy, but is best known through
his spontaneous and enormous benefactions to educational
institutions. In 1846 he began the work of establishing
the Scientific School which bears his name, and which is
a lasting monument of his philanthropy and virtues. He
also made large donations to Trinity College, Hartford,
and to the Theological Seminary of the Northwest, in
Chicago. From the foundation of the Scientific School
up to the time of his decease his donations to that institu-
tion were continuous according to its development and
needs, and in his will he left to it one seventh of his large
estate.

Miss Sheffield was reared in a home of wealth and cul-
ture and although young in years when married, she had
seen much of society, and consequently was well fitted,
as the wife of William Walter Phelps, to become, as she
did in time, the gentle and kind-hearted mistress of the
far-famed Phelps homestead at Teaneck. Here were
brought up her three children, two sons and a daughter.
Over the extensive hospitalities of her home Mrs. Phelps
presided, with an amiability and cordiality which at once
put all guests at perfect ease. She inherited the bene-
ficent traits of her father, but her many quiet charities
were known to few save the recipients. Every employee
at Teaneck in sickness or distress always received
promptly from its mistress warm-hearted sympathy and
generous help.

Shortly after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Phelps sailed
for Europe. They were absent more than a year, spend-
ing a large portion of the time in Germany. It was while
on this tour that Mr. Phelps acquired much of that

2 2 William Walter Phelps

knowledge of the German language, society, institutions,
and government which subsequently enabled him, while
in an official capacity, so readily to familiarize himself
with the conditions in that country and to become at
once very much liked by its rulers and people.

CHAPTER III

Studies Law at Columbia— His First Jury Case— A Successful Lawyer-
Some of His Largest Cases— Declines a Seat on the New York
Bench and Settles in New Jersey

ON his return to New York Mr. Phelps entered the
Columbia Law School. Here he must have been
a most painstaking and diligent student. Records left by
him show that he made full notes of the lectures and read
the text-books with great care and thoughtfulness. Be-
sides, he read closely all of the current decisions of the
appellate courts with comments upon them, and he
watched and made memoranda of all the important trials
that were taking place in the courts at that date. Before
he was admitted to practice he had a law office, an ample
law library, and was acquiring quite a large legal business.
He was giving particular attention to commercial law, as
he was expecting to make a specialty of that branch of
legal practice.

In the meantime he and Mrs. Phelps were living happily
with his father at the Murray Hill home on Madison
Avenue. On the first day of January, 1862, he made this
entry in his diary :

A rainy, cloudy day. I started later than usual to make my
calls. Of course alone. I made about the usual list. The
day was not generally celebrated as in past years. Mourning
in many for lost friends or property in these days of war cloud
closed many hospitable doors that were wont to be open to
graceful hospitality. It became windy and dark by the time
I reached the Hill on my return, so I lost heart to further

23

24 William Walter Phelps

continue my visits and came home to rest. Our presents were
very acceptable. We found them ranged by our plates at the
breakfast table, and had a merry time inspecting the gifts of
each. What hard work it is to gather these little memorials:
there are so many pretty objects to choose among and so many
different tastes. But procrastination in this as in everything
else is the fruitful source of perplexity. If one only started
in season he might by gradual acquisition through the autumn
create and complete a circle of gifts that would satisfy him-
self and friends without one half the bother of the after Christ-
mas searching.

In January, 1862, Horatio Seymour was inaugurated
as Governor of the State of New York and Mr. Phelps,
already on the alert for business advantages, wrote the
Governor a letter which read :

I beg leave to suggest my name to his Excellency in any
nominations he may hereafter make to the office of notary
public for the City and County of New York. Aware that the
legislature has limited the number of these offices, I should
deem myself under greater obhgations did your Excellency see
fit to send my name to the Senate.

This is among the first records of Mr. Phelps's business
career, and it affords an apt illustration of the remarkably
concise style that was so easily at his command in all his
correspondence. A young man, however, he fell into the
common error of conferring upon governors and high
officials in this country the title of "Excellency," a usage
that he soon learned most carefully to avoid. It is prob-
able that his request was not granted by the Governor.
But it is worthy of mention that this small office was the
only public appointment ever solicited by a man who
afterward had bestowed upon him so many high official
positions.

As might be expected, Mr. Phelps was graduated with
the highest honors in the class of 1863, and delivered
the valedictory at the Law Commencement. He at once

His Life and Public Services 25

began practice as a full-fledged lawyer at his office in
Exchange Place. An amusing story was published in
the newspapers descriptive of his first jury trial. It was
as follows:

The client of the young lawyer was a young woman who
claimed that the landlord of a house in which she had lodged
had called after her one night as she entered her room, " There
goes a thief." The defendant denied the accusation and wit-
ness after witness was produced, till the Court refused to hsten
to another, all testifying positively that they had heard every-
thing, and nothing of the kind was said. The case looked
desperate, the young woman's attorney had nothing but his
single interested witness to prove his side of the case. The
opposing attorney, with an assumption of indignation at the
evident untruthfulness of the plaintiff, grew exceedingly sharp
in his cross-examination, and plied question after question,
until, overstepping the bounds of common decency, he was
interrupted by Mr. Phelps, who, with the conventional anger
of a practised barrister, called on the Court to protect his
client. With conventional indifference the Judge refused and
allowed the defendant's attorney to continue, until the plaintiff
burst into tears and Mr. Phelps's indignation grew speechless.
The case was closed, and in one sentence the Judge charged
that there was really no evidence on the side of the prosecu-
tion. The jury went out and Mr. Phelps sat down expecting
nothing after the charge of the Judge but a verdict for the de-
fendant. But very much to his surprise the jury in a very few
moments returned and rendered a verdict of fifty dollars darrt-
ages to the plaintiff. The Judge in indignation immediately
ordered the court to be adjourned. Mr. Phelps while gather-
ing up his papers was approached by the foreman, who said:
" We did n't believe he called her a thief, and we did n't be-
lieve that you expected any damages, but you were so good-
natured that we thought we would give you damages enough
to make the costs."

This ended his first experience on his first jury trial,
and it is said that he never failed to get a verdict from a
jury in any case that he ever tried.

26 William Walter Phelps

Very few of those who knew him in his later days are
aware of his close application to his profession in the be-
ginning of his legal practice. He would day after day
take a late dinner at the English Chop House on Pine
Street, west of Broadway, known as "Old Tom's," the
resort of merchants, brokers, and lawyers in those years,
and then go back to his office down town and work until
late in the evening. The result of this yielding so wholly
to the demands of his profession was that at the age of
twenty-five he found himself in the possession of a large
office in which he employed several assistants and had all
the business to which he could well give attention. He
was counsel for Moses Taylor, George Bliss, Marshall O.
Roberts, Amos R. Eno, and many corporations of which
he afterwards became a manager, including the United
States Trust Company. He, about this time, took part
in a litigation which gained for him much reputation. It
was connected with the failure of the firm of Morris,
Ketchum & Co., the great government bankers in the
early part of the Civil War. The son of the senior
partner had fled, taking with him nearly all of the securi-
ties that were lodged with the firm by its customers. He
was subsequently arrested and brought to trial. Mr.
Phelps was the leading counsel for the defence and made
a plea for the criminal which attracted great attention
and favorable public comment. The questions involved
in this litigation were intricate and vigorously contested.
For one argument, which was reported verbatim in the
daily journals, Mr. Phelps received a fee of $10,000.

Connected with his legal work at this period was a pro-
ceeding that Mr. Phelps always looked back to with great
pride and satisfaction as one of the most creditable of his
early triumphs. It was a contest by his sister's father-in-
law, William E. Dodge, against James Brooks, Sr., for a
seat in the national House of Representatives. The
election was in 1864, when the conditions growing out of
the Civil War were at their worst, and the Democratic

His Life and Public Services 27

National Convention of that year had denounced the war
for the restoration of the Union a "failure." New York
City was the stronghold in the North of all those who
sympathized with the South and opposed the war policy
of the national administration. Mr. Lincoln had been
nominated for re-election, and in the Eighth Congressional
District of New York City a candidate was sought who
could rally to his support all the Union voters of whatever
party, and the leaders selected William E. Dodge. He
was a prominent merchant, of the most exalted character,
unquestioned ability, and fervent patriotism. He was
enlightened on all the issues of the day, and withal a good
public speaker. His Democratic opponent was Mr. James
Brooks, who had already held the seat for three terms and
was the recognized Democratic leader in Congress, where
he was the champion of the "rights of the South." He
was also editor of a New York daily newspaper, and was
skilled in all the tactics of New York Democratic politics.
The nomination of Mr. Dodge was made but a few days
before the election. He accepted with reluctance, as he
had little taste for official life, but yielded in this instance
to a sense of duty. The leading citizens residing in his
district supported him with vigor and the patriotic voters
rallied at the polls with enthusiasm. The total vote of
the district was twenty-two thousand and the returns to
the police headquarters on the night of the election gave
Mr. Dodge a plurality of more than seven hundred votes.
The reports of the Associated Press elected Mr. Brooks
by about one hundred and fifty, the Democrats having
control of the canvassing of the votes and of the election
machinery. Mr. Brooks was given the certificate of elec-
tion. The irregularities at the polls were well known, and
it was evident that there had been fraud in the count and
juggling of the returns. Those who had supported Mr.
Dodge and the Republicans throughout the country
urged him to contest the election and he finally con-
sented. He selected for his attorney William Walter

28 William Walter Phelps

Phelps, who put all of his energies into the management
of the case. He collected testimony with great industry,
arranging it and presenting it to the court in the most tell-
ing shape. Those who were present at the court where the
testimony was taken pronounced his cross-examination
of opposing witnesses as exceedingly shrewd and tactful.

The evidence on the part of Mr. Dodge filled a volume
of over five hundred pages, and it proved conclusively a
conspiracy to secure by any means the return of the
Democratic nominee, and showed beyond all reasonable
doubt fraudulent registration, illegal voting, false returns,
violations of the election law by the election officers, as
well as bribery of voters and corruption without stint.
The taking of the testimony occupied six weeks, and at
the opening of Congress in December, 1865, the papers
were presented and the case referred to the Committee
on Elections. Mr. Brooks as a sitting member had the
advantage in the privilege of being present at all the dis-
cussions. He was a plausible talker, was skilled in the
use of parliamentary expedients and familiar with all the
devices to delay action on any proceedings. He had
been the Democratic candidate for Speaker of that Con-
gress, and was very popular with his party, who stood by
him to a man. He formulated numerous charges against
his opponent, his case occupying nine hundred pages of
printed matter. The delays were vexatious, but the com-
mittee finally made its report, finding that Mr. Brooks
had not proven any of his charges against the contestant
and that the latter was entitled to the disputed seat, and
the House, on April 6, 1866, passed a resolution seating
Mr. Dodge, who was immediately sworn in. The leading
incidents of this contest have been derived from the
Memorial of William E. Dodge, compiled by his son,
Rev. Dr. D. Stuart Dodge.

At this time Reuben E. Fenton had become Governor
of the State of New York. He had heard of the rising
young lawyer in the city and an intimate and lasting ac-

His Life and Public Services 29

quaintance grew up between them. The Governor ten-
dered to Mr. Phelps a seat on the bench, but the offer,
flattering as it was, Mr. Phelps declined, as its acceptance
would interfere with other projects he had in mind regard-
ing his future. He had never liked the city as a place of
residence. He began to look for a rural home, and much
persuasion was used by friends and acquaintances to
have him settle in their respective localities, and even
very promising inducements were held out to him by
those whom he had met to "go West." He finally fixed
upon a place in Bergen County, New Jersey, for a sum-
mer home, expecting to live during the winter season in
the city so long, at least, as his father should live. The
property he selected and purchased was a farm of moder-
ate size on which there was an old-fashioned Dutch farm-
house. It was situated at what was called Teaneck Ridge,
on the highway leading from Englewood to Hackensack,
about two miles from the first-named village, and a little
more distant from Hackensack, the county seat. It was
the "Old Garrit Brinkerhoff Homestead" of Revolution-
ary days. Mr. Phelps began making additions to the
house for the comfort and convenience of the family,
keeping up strictly the old Dutch style of architecture.
It was his intention at first to erect at his convenience a
handsome mansion of the modern style, but the birth of
his daughter, Marian, which took place at the old farm-
house, so endeared it to the hearts of himself and Mrs.
Phelps that he determined that it should stand and to
transform it into a most picturesque cottage. His efforts
were successful, and the old farm building became thence-
forth widely known as Teaneck Grange. A more detailed
description of this structure when finished will be given
farther on in this book. Adjacent farms were bought
year after year, until the original purchase was obscured
by the broad estate that grew around it, reaching from
the Hackensack to the Hudson, a distance of nearly five
miles, and embracing quite two thousand acres.

30 William Walter Phelps

In the years following Mr. Phelps's location of Tea-
neck, he gave to the development of his country estate,
and particularly to road improvement in that vicinity, all
the time he could spare from his busy law office in the
city. He had a great and natural love for acreage and
would look with the pride of ownership over the fair lands
of his home so far as sight carried — lands that had be-
longed to others in past generations, but now were his to
improve and beautify. The wide and rolling fields, the
vivid green of the meadows, the blue range of the Palis-
ades beyond, and the cottages of his dependants half
hidden by the trees, all delighted him, and love for this
rural abode increased with every year.

CHAPTER IV

His Large Business Interests Compel Him to Give up His Law Practice —
Builds Railroads and Acquires Land in Texas — Enters New Jersey
Politics and Becomes a "Favorite Son" — Famous Paramus Con-
vention — Elected to Congress

MR. PHELPS'S father died in 1869 and bequeathed
to his son a very large property just at a time when
the latter was reaching to the highest prizes of his pro-
fession. The cares incident upon the management of
his inherited estate and the unavoidable assumption of
weighty responsibilities for others demanded so much
of his time and strength that very shortly he was com-
pelled to withdraw regretfully from active practice at the
bar and give his whole attention to his private affairs.

About this time also he began to feel strongly the at-
tractions of public life and to realize the possibilities of
the service and distinction which politics offered to a man
of his capabilities and position. These were the stormy
days of the Reconstructive period. Mr. Phelps from the
start was conscientiously a Republican ; the patriotism
and intense Americanism of that party strongly attracted
him. He believed most sincerely that upon the policy
of the Republican party depended financial stability, mer-
cantile and industrial prosperity, and all that labor had to
hope for in the equalization of the human lot and cor-
recting the apparent injustice of nature. He observed
that the Republican party usually consulted the conserv-
ative yet progressive public sentiment without veering
to the gale of popular clamor, while in his view the

31

32 William Walter Phelps

opposite party was apt to change its attitude and policy
at every election.

He became a legal resident of New Jersey in 1867, and
took an interest in all the public affairs of his own and
neighboring localities, forming many feasible plans for
improvements. His genial disposition and sprightly man-
ners made him quickly acquainted with the people of all
kinds. In going to and fro on the New York trains he
met a high class of business men living in Englewood and
all along the Northern Railroad valley, and it was not
long before his name became a familiar one throughout
Bergen County. Numbered among his new friends were
many of the Republican leaders of Bergen County, who
caught the idea that he would be a good and available
man to be brought into political prominence, and they
laid their plans accordingly.

Until this time Mr. Phelps had taken only a modest part
in a few local political gatherings, but began to be spoken
of as the "rising young man from Bergen County." His
first real entrance into the politics of New Jersey, in
which he was destined ^n future to play so prominent a
part, was when he was sent as a delegate to the conven-
tion of the Fourth Congressional District of the State,
held at Paterson in the autumn of 1870. The district at
that time included Bergen, Passaic, Morris, and Sussex
counties, and the townships which were called "the
Oranges," in Essex County. It was the design of Mr.
Phelps's friends here to introduce him to the district by
making him the permanent presiding officer of the con-
vention. There were difficulties in carrying out this plan,
as the convention was a large one and there were others
ambitious for the position. The Bergen candidate, with
the exception of a small body of ardent admirers from
Sussex, was not largely known outside of his own county.
But the Committee on Organization reported Mr. Phelps's
name and on taking the chair he delivered an address
which was a surprise to all on account of its inspiriting

His Life and Public Services 33

eloquence and thorough exposition of the issues that
were foremost in the campaign of that year. John Hill,
of Morris County, a man of the highest personal and
political integrity and standing, had held tlie seat from
that district for two terms and seemed to be booked by
the party managers for another nomination. But Mr.
Phelps's speech had aroused for him so much enthusiasm
and popular applause that a strong inclination arose on
the part of many delegates to put his name before the
convention for the nomination. This Mr. Phelps would
not permit, but there was a reported understanding
among various party leaders from the district that the
Bergen County man should be the next candidate without
opposition from Mr. Hill or his friends. At this conven-
tion, too, he made the acquaintance of several active and
influential men of his party, who remained ever after his
warm personal friends and safe political advisers. Mr.
Hill was elected after a close contest. Mr. Phelps gave
valuable aid to the Republican cause in this campaign
and at its close had become well known and had gained
unlimited popularity throughout the district.

Mr. Phelps's slight dip into the bubbling political caul-
dron did not divert him from legitimate business enter-
prises. In 1870, with several other New York capitalists
and financiers, he became interested in the development
of railroads in Texas. At that time the State of Texas
had few if any railroads, little money, a doubtful credit,
and a great deal of land. One or two enterprising citi-
zens of the State had secured from the legislature soon
after the Civil War immense grants of land for building
certain specified railroads. There was also provided in
the legislative grants a subsidy per mile to be paid in
money. The roads with their branches were to extend
through the most populous sections of the State, con-
necting the chief cities — one of them to connect in the
northern part of the State with a line running south
from St. Louis. A misunderstanding arose between the

34 William Walter Phelps

original projectors and the State officials as to the terms
of payment of the subsidies, and the builders of the road
were unable to carry on the work. It was then that the
aid of Northern capital was sought, and Mr. Phelps and
others, including Moses Taylor, William E. Dodge, and
John J. Cisco, were induced to advance capital to carry
on these enterprises, taking in security land, stocks, and
mortgage bonds. With this financial aid the railroads in
question were finished, and the companies were consoli-
dated into one, which is now known as the International
and Great Northern Railroad Company. But further
complications ensued with the State, partially through
antagonisms of its officials, and also through adverse acts
of the legislature, which repudiated obligations created
by previous legislatures. This enmity and bad faith dis-
played toward those whose money had built the roads
existed despite the fact that the people, and especially
the agriculturists of the vast sections which the roads
opened up, were immensely benefited and the value of
their property enormously increased. The road was
forced into the hands of a receiver and sold, becoming a
part of the Gould system, which now extends from St.
Louis to the City of Mexico. Mr. Phelps in the settle-
ment of affairs exchanged his large holding of second-
rriortgage bonds for the lands which had been granted to
the company in the Pan-Handle and Western part of the
State. Thus was acquired by Mr. Phelps and some of
his associates three millions or more of acres of land, then
of no great cash value. In 1880 Mr. Phelps was chiefly
instrumental in organizing the New York and Texas Land
Company, of which he was the largest stockholder. His
interest in this company, what was thought at one time
to be a doubtful financial venture, resulted in creating a
very valuable asset of his estate. He always had an
abiding confidence in the uhimate profitableness of real-
estate holdings, and this acquisition of Texas acres, and
holding them so tenaciously in his grasp all through the

His Life and Public Services 35

hard panic times of 1874 is a striking instance of his busi-
ness prudence and foresight.

In 1872 there was an election for President. General
Grant was a candidate for re-election, and a new Congress
was to be chosen. The census of 1870 had made neces-
sary a Congressional re-districting, therefore a new district
in New Jersey, designated as the Fifth was created, com-
prising the counties of Bergen, Morris, and Passaic. It
had been known for two years that Mr. Phelps would this
time be brought forward by his admirers and friends for
the Republican nomination. There was opposition, for
Mr. Hill was desirous of still further service. He had
supporters in Morris and Passaic counties, who denied
any knowledge of an understanding two years previously
that Mr. Hill should step aside at this election for the
Bergen County favorite. Nor in Bergen was the field
quite clear. Some of the old party leaders there thought
that Mr. Phelps was too new a man in the county
to entitle him to a nomination for so important an
office, while others raised the objection that he was
too young. There were other prominent citizens of
that county who aspired to a seat in Congress and
placed themselves in opposition to the young lawyer.
One was General Thomas B. Van Buren, who had mar-
ried a sister of Mrs. Phelps, and who had become a
resident of Teaneck. He was a man of impressive per-
sonal appearance, great ambition, and an effective public
speaker. He was later United States Commissioner to
the Vienna Exposition, and for many years Consul-
General at Yokohama, Japan. The other opponent to
Mr. Phelps was Charles H. Voorhis, a talented lawyer,
practising in Hackensack. He was from an old Bergen
County family of large connections, and was well known
in every section of the county, a sarcastic talker, and a
very keen politician. Spirited and persevering efforts
were made by each of the contestants to secure delegates
from Bergen County. It was then the custom in that

36 William Walter Phelps

county for the Republicans to select delegates to nomi-
nating bodies through a mass convention of the party
called to meet at some designated place. The voters
thus assembling from the respective townships there
conferred together, and after making their selection of
delegates, reported them to the mass convention. This
practice resulted in 1872 in one of the most memorable
political gatherings ever held in the county and ha* come
down in local history as the "famous Paramus Conven-
tion." It was called at Union Hall, Paramus, a some-
what inaccessible spot. It was a pleasant, mellow,
September afternoon. There came crowds on foot, and
adherents of the rival candidates arrived from all parts
of the county in carriages, express wagons, furniture
carts, and other vehicles, some of which were decorated
with flags. On the ground the excitement was intense.
The convention, after going through the formalities of
organization in the hall, adjourned for an hour to give
the various townships time to select their delegates.
Forthwith there was a great rush out-of-doors and shouts
of "Saddle River this way," "Englewood under the
apple tree," "Lodi on the left," "Union here by the
fence," "Ridgefield along the road," and so on through
all the townships — there were only twelve at that time
and no boroughs. The late Judge William S. Banta of
Hackensack stood on the tail end of a farm wagon taking
votes, using his hat as a ballot box. It was soon evident
that Mr. Phelps's partisans were not only more numerous,
but better organized. Ridgefield township, which in-
cluded Fort Lee, had over three hundred representatives,
and among these was a spirited opposition to Mr. Phelps,
inspired by a strong local leader who wished to head a
delegation of his own followers. The Phelps voters were
arrayed on one side of the road, their antagonists directly
opposite. There was an exciting time and as a result
contesting delegates presented themselves to the conven-
tion, and a tumult ensued. The delegates from Ridge-

His Life and Public Services 37

field favoring Mr. Phelps were admitted by an over-
whelming vote, which assured him all the delegates to
the Congressional convention except four who were
claimed by Mr. Voorhis. General Van Buren had with-
drawn his name in the early part of the proceedings.

Space has been given to this convention because it was
there that Mr. Phelps had his first real experience in
partisan strife, and there also was made sensible, as never
before, of that misrepresentation and calumny which, it
is sad to say, but few who are named for political posi-
tions ever escape, however pure their motive or upright
their conduct. It is worthy of note that the most ardent
champions of Mr. Phelps at this outset of his political
career were young men whose energy and enthusiasm
contributed largely to his success, and subsequently in
all his political contests he could rally around him the
younger voters of his party, toward whom in turn he was
always ready to extend a helping hand.

Mr. Hill's friends made a vigorous effort for him in
Passaic County and elected a majority of the delegates,
but at the preliminary proceedings of the convention his
own county of Morris did not stand by him with any-
thing like unanimity, consequently he withdrew from the
contest. Mr. Voorhis, on the contrary, kept up the fight
and sought to bring to his side the delegates chosen for
Mr. Hill. The effort was fruitless, for when the vote
was taken in the convention Mr. Phelps was the choice of
each of the three counties, the total vote being seventy-
three to thirty-two, the announcement of which was re-
ceived with much popular applause. The nominee was
brought before the convention and accepted the nomina-
tion in a brief speech during which he alluded in compli-
mentary terms to Mr. Hill, and expressed his thanks for
the honor which had been done him and Bergen County.
He dwelt upon the general issues of the campaign and
indicated his own course should he be elected, assuring
his hearers that he should always be found faithful to the

38 William Walter Phelps

Republican party and its principles. He had never been
anything but a Republican, and he hoped to die a Re-
publican, for the Republican party would live so long as
there remained a governmental wrong to be righted.

Having been once launched on the troublous sea of
political candidacy, Mr. Phelps threw himself heart and
soul into the campaign. He spoke at mass meetings in
all the counties of the district and attended the local con-
ventions, which gave him an opportunity to come in
direct contact with the active men of the party. He was
heartily received by the German organizations and ad-
dressed the members of the French Club at Paterson in
their own tongue. As an undeniably rich man he was a
most conspicuous object of attack by the Democratic
journals of demagogic tendencies. His private character
was conceded to be irreproachable, but he was charged
with almost everything else likely to militate against one
who is solicitating popular suffrage. His neatness and
peculiarities of dress caused him to be held up as a dude.
It was said that he was an interloper and a carpet-bagger,
and, although he was a large property Irolder and tax-
payer, it was contended that he was really a New Yorker
who had no interest in the people or industries of the dis-
trict, and an aristocrat too proud to mingle with the com-
mon people. But the voters as they became acquainted
with the Republican candidate soon found out what was
the fact, that he was a man of true democratic sentiments,
who never paraded h'is wealth in his associations with his
fellow-men and that unstudied politeness and urbanity
were invariably shown to all — high and low, rich and poor.

The Democratic candidate was Col. Absalom B. Wood-
ruff, a well-known lawyer and afterwards judge, who up
to this time had been a Republican, but for some reason
had suddenly gone over to the other side, where he was
welcomed by a Congressional nomination. He was not
a polished or eloquent speaker, but he talked fluently,
and in a controversy had a habit of selecting a few prom-

His Life and Public Services 39

inent points on his side and then testing their utmost
malleability, a style that he found very taking with many
of his auditors. One of his constant iterations during the
campaign was that his opponent was not a resident of the
State. Mr. Phelps in those years lived for a few weeks
each winter in his New York house, and for this reason
his name was recorded in the directory of the city long
after he became a citizen of New Jersey. Colonel Wood-
ruff, in taking full advantage of this fact, at a large mass
meeting had piled up at his side ten huge New York
directories dating from 1863 to 1872, and taking them up
one after the other read amid bursts of laughter from his
audience: "Phelps, W. W., lawyer, 26 Exchange Place,
house, 2ig Madison Avenue."

Colonel Woodruff had also the support of a political
faction known as "Liberal Republicans," which through
dissatisfaction with General Grant's administration had
split from the Republican party and joined with the
Democrats in trying to elect Mr. Greeley for President.

Few men who ever had the good or bad fortune to be
the nominee of a political party were more mercilessly
vilified than was Mr. Phelps in this struggle. Stories
were published that he was an oppressive employer, pay-
ing the numerous workmen on his estate the most nig-
gardly wages, and treating them like serfs. Emissaries
were sent from Paterson to induce those in his employ
to tell a tale of woe that could be used for political effect.
These envoys came back with the story that all they
could get was the united testimony of these workmen
that their wages were satisfactory and that Mr. Phelps
was the kindest and most considerate of employers, treat-
ing all in his service in such a manner that they were
always glad to do anything to please him.

The long and harassing canvass came at last to an end,
and Mr. Phelps's reward for all that he had gone through
was the gratifying vote of the district; Mr. Phelps, 12,-
701 ; Woodruff, 8986.

CHAPTER V

Takes His Seat in the Forty-third Congress— A Personal Description —
James G. Blaine Becomes His Friend — Comes Quickly to the Front
as a Parliamentary Orator and Debater — Denounces the Famous
" Salary Grab "—Energetic Speech Against the Franking Privilege
Abuses— A Parliamentary Tilt with a Kansas Granger

WHEN Mr. Phelps, in December, 1873, started for
Washington to begin his work in Congress he
was accompanied to the railroad station in Jersey City by
his intimate personal friend, Charles Nordhoff of the New
York Evening Post, who there introduced him to the
veteran Representative from Vermont, Judge Lake A.
Poland, with a request that the latter should take the
young member under his wing and see him safely over
the first stages of his strange life. The charge was cheer-
fully accepted, and accompanying his venerable protec-
tor, Mr. Phelps soon found himself seated in a parlor car
flying towards Washington. The youthful member was
naturally anxious to make a good impression on the Ver-
mont veteran and talked away in his most entertaining
manner. He did not know then that Harriet Beecher
Stowe and Mary Clemmer Ames were near him, but the
next week found it out by the following, which the
former published in the New York Independent :

William Walter Phelps, the new yo,nng member from the
desert of New Jersey, has the reputation of owning more rail-
roads than I can take time to count. That he is a most
loquacious gentleman I can bear witness, for, coming to
Washington in the same car with him, I decided that he talked

40

His Life and Public Services 41

faster and longer than any masculine mortal I ever beheld, and
concluded that he was a wild Bohemian just let loose from his
lair on his way to the capital, to write up "Injun" story
chronicles of Congress. Instead he is one of the menagerie
himself, and threw off from that flying tongue of his, the other
day, a very bright speech, which made everybody laugh, even
when translated to the newspapers — a very stern test.

Mr. Phelps fairly entered upon his career in national
politics when he took his seat in the House of Repre-
sentatives at the opening of the Forty-third Congress,
and voted for Mr. Blaine, who was elected Speaker.
Although unacquainted with nearly all the members of
that House, he was by no means an obscure personality.
A newspaper fame based upon many interesting incidents
of his canvass for election and a knowledge of his stand-
ing and reputation in the great city of New York had
preceded him. In the brief biography of the members
published in the Congressional Directory of that session,
this was said of the Representative from the Fifth Dis-
trict of New Jersey :

Wm. Walter Phelps, of Englewood, was born at Dundaff,
Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, August 24, 1839; was
graduated at Yale College in i860 with high honors; after-
ward he pursued his studies in Europe, and later at Columbia
College Law School of New York, where he received the
valedictory appointment of his class; then entered immedi-
ately upon the practice of law; he is a director of the Na-
tional City Bank and Second National Bank of New York,
the United States Trust Company, and Farmers' Loan and
Trust Company; also in the following railroad companies,
namely: Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, Oswego and
Syracuse, Syracuse and Binghamton, Cayuga and Susque-
hanna, International of Texas, Houston and Great Northern,
New Haven and Northampton, Morris and Essex, and others;
he was elected Fellow of Yale College in July, 1872.

Mr. Phelps was then thirty-four years of age and the
following not inaccurate personal description of him as

42 William Walter Phelps

he appeared at the beginning of this term was written by
one of the renowned journalists of those days:

Mr. Phelps is just five feet nine and a half inches tall and
weighs about 170 pounds. He is lithe of limb and very active,
and walks with a live, springy step. His face is refined and
handsome, with a wide, grasping, intellectual forehead, and we
think he has the finest eyes of any man in Congress, They
are large, well set, and of a beautiful hazel hue — a Tom
Moore eye. They are not hard. They are kind and tender
and have penetrating honesty in their gentle gaze, and they
seem to reflect in a sympathetic way your own thoughts when
conversing with him. There is a light that falls between you
and the inner light of those glorious eyes, and that light reflects
the soul — a soul plain to your sight as noonday's sun.

Mr. Phelps's manner is simple, gracious and winning, and
in pleasing harmony with his thoughts, and he never utters a
platitude. Patient, industrious and resigned, he is a model
of the highest type of culture.

The young Representative from New Jersey at the
outset had before him the task of winning fame in a
legislative body which had among its members an unusual
number of very strong men, a few of whom were; Ben-
jamin F. Butler, Samuel J. Randall, William D. Kelley,
Stephen B. Elkins, Clarkson N Potter, Henry L. Dawes,
George F. Hoar, Fernando Wood, Daniel W. Voorhees,
James A. Garfield, Charles Foster, Samuel S. Cox, James
H. Beck, Levi P. Morton, Joseph R. Hawley, William P.
Frye.

The real work of the session did not begin until after
the holiday vacation, but the standing committees of the
House were immediately announced at this session. Mr.
Phelps was given a place on the Committee on Banking
and Currency, with one exception the most important
committee of that House, which was a very high com-
pliment to be paid a first-session member. But he had
for ten years previously given diligent study to questions

His Life and Public Services 43

of currency, revenue, tariffs, and internal taxation, and
his extensive acquaintance and his associations with finan-
ciers in New York had so well equipped him for the con-
sideration of all financial questions that he was able to
give assistance to the oldest and most experienced mem-
bers of his committee.

James G. Blaine, the Speaker of the House, was then
young, aggressive, and brilliant, guiding all the proceed-
ings of the body over which he presided with masterly
skill and dash. No public man exceeded him in intuitive
knowledge of the ability men possessed to advance them-
selves and the capacity they had to aid him, and he was
endowed with a foresight into the political future that
was almost miraculous. He was not long in discovering
in this New Jersey Representative a successful young
lawyer, ambitious, with money and energy, who would be
likely to make his mark in politics and statesmanship.
He learned, too, that one of Mr. Phelps's most distin-
guishing traits was an unfailing loyalty to his friends
which never stinted either service or money. A much
less shrewd man than Mr. Blaine would quickly have
seized the opportunity to tie such a young man to his
fortunes. How he succeeded and what it was worth to
him is partly known, for in after-years, when Mr. Blaine
needed the service, Mr. Phelps more than requited him
for all the favors received from the Speaker's chair. The
social intimacy between these two able men became very
close, and the New Jersey member was a welcome visitor
daily and at all hours at the Speaker's historic house on
Fifteenth Street, and nothing of a social or political
nature transpired in which they were not together. Thus
grew that ardent and sincere mutual friendship which
prompted these distinguished public men to afford each
other powerful assistance for the rest of their lives.

Mr. :^helps was not long in getting into the harness.
The Congress just previous had passed a salary bill which
had increased the compensation of the President, United

44 William Walter Phelps

States Senators, Representatives in Congress, Judges of
the Supreme Court, and some other high officials. This
increase of compensation was not so much objected to
by the country as the provisions the bill contained that
allowed those benefited to claim back pay for a certain
specified date, and in this way members of Congress had
voted themselves several thousand dollars each, that they
were not entitled to during their time of service. A few
renounced this back pay at once ; others awaited an ex-
pression of public opinion ; while those who were bolder
and more rapacious drew their back pay as soon as the
bill became a law. The President had no sooner signed
the bill than a storm of indignation broke out all over the
country. All who had voted for the measure were de-
nounced by the newspapers of all parties as "back-pay
grabbers" and despoilers of the public treasury. During
the Congressional interim, State legislatures, political
conventions, and public gatherings of all kinds demanded
a repeal of the obnoxious law.

As soon as the House of the Forty-third Congress was
organized, bills were introduced to repeal what was stig-
matized as the "salary grab" measure, and there followed
a flood of amendments providing for various modifica-
tions and compromises, rather than a repeal of the entire
law.

The proceedings in the House were momentous, and
the action to be taken would be of vital importance to the
Republicans, public sentiment having made a Republican
Congress responsible for the odious enactment. All the
giants of both parties in the House took part in the dis-
cussion. The law sought to be repealed was not wholly
bad; the increase of the salary of the President from
$25,000 to $50,000 a year and the addition to the pay
of the Supreme Court Judges were right and proper.
The difficulty was in making a just discrimination.

It was held to be hardly in good form for a new mem-
ber to talk during his first session. But the young

His Life and Public Services 45

Jerseyman had no intention to serve any sort of an ap-
prenticeship designed by the unwritten rules of the
House. On December 8th, only a week from the begin-
ning of the session, when Mr. Phelps arose and the
Speaker announced "the gentleman from New Jersey
has the floor," the old members turned in their seats to
look at the new Representative who had the temerity to
ignore the time-honored usage of the House, and the
newspaper reporters in the gallery sharpened their pencils
and made ready to chasten in their reports a neophyte
who had assumed that he was qualified to enter at once
upon the full discharge of his duties. The new member
from New Jersey showed no sign of embarrassment. His
voice was not deep nor strong, but clear and distinct, and
could be easily heard. His manner was deliberate and
argumentative, and it was soon discovered that his know-
ledge of the matters under consideration was superior to
that of some of the members of far more experience who
had already spoken in that discussion. He contended
for a thorough reform of the system of compensation to
Senators and Representatives; that all "back pay" not
already drawn should be refunded to the treasury; that
the franking privilege should be abolished ; the mileage
abuse rectified ; that the pay of the members should be a
certain fixed sum, without allowances for stationery, news-
papers, or mileage, except the actual amount paid for
transportation. He argued for the retention of the in-
crease to the salaries of the President, members of the
Cabinet, and Judges of the Supreme Court. He did not
attempt a pretentious address, only spoke incidentally in
the course of the debate, but with a force and clearness
and precision of statement that created surprise on the
floor and commanded the admiration of the reporters in
the gallery. After this he never addressed the House
without at the very start catching the attentive ear of the
newspaper men, who always found that he had something
to say worth reporting. He was on his feet less than

46 William Walter Phelps

fifteen minutes, but in that time made his mark as a par-
liamentary speaker and debater of the highest grade.

Immediately after the passage of the reconstructed
salary bill, an attempt was made to restore the former
franking privilege, with all the old abuses, which were part
of a law repealed by a previous Congress. This was to
be done under the guise of a bill for the "distribution of
public documents, seeds, and the free circulation of news-
papers in the mail in counties where published." It was
claimed that these concessions were in the interest of
farmers, country editors, and the people generally. This
measure was strenuously advocated by the members from
the West especially, who courted the favor of the
"Grangers," then an organization of much power. The
debates in the House were animated and there was much
dodging by those who really wanted a renewal of the
franking abuses, but wished to escape the odium of assist-
ing in the revival. When the bill was under discussion
on February 14th, Mr. Phelps attacked it in a speech
which became memorable for its humor, pungency, and
sarcasm. He demonstrated that its provisions were con-
trary to all the Republican pledges of economy, and their
enactment would fasten upon the country an uncalled-for
expense for the distribution of public documents that
very few wanted. He held up to ridicule and scorn the
practice of members in franking of government docu-
ments and seeds. His entire speech, while argumenta-
tive, was enlivened with sparkling wit and the keenest
irony. No more genuinely humorous speech was ever
delivered in Congress and he fairly ridiculed the franking
clauses of the bill into utter contempt and defeat. (This,
with other speeches of Mr. Phelps, will be found in an
Appendix to this volume.)

The next day, Mr. Cobb of Kansas, a ready talker of
considerable eloquence, who essayed to be a champion
of the Western agriculturists, and who was somewhat of
a chronic ofifice holder, sought to neutralize the effect of

His Life and Public Services 47

the Jerseyman's caustic address by assailing him with
gross personalities. On the floor he taunted Mr. Phelps
with being an investor in speculative enterprises, a director
in banks and other capitalistic corporations, a defender
of railroads, and therefore he was an enemy of the farm-
ers and land workers of the country. He read from the
Congressional Directory the New Jersey member's record
to sustain his assertions. No one was ever more tolerant
of personal criticism than Mr. Phelps, but his financial
doctrines and his business relations had been so palpably
misrepresented that he thought the tirade of the Kansas
man called for some notice. He embraced the first
opportunity that came the next morning to make a re-
sponse to his critics, and he spoke in a more serious but
not less caustic manner than on the day previous. He
did not deny his connection with railroads, nor that he
was their defender when he thought they were unjustly
assailed, and in his reply to his assailant he said :

He has found facts, and read them from the Congressional
Directory, in which there were extracts from the New Jersey
Legislative Manual. With the propriety of the method with
which he constructed that portion of his argument, I find no
fault. If it suits him it suits me. . . . But why did not
the gentleman, when he was presenting that record, say some-
thing like this: " It is a disgrace to this member of the House
that he has secured these positions. It is a disgrace to this
member that widows and orphans have been willing to trust
him with their funds. It is a disgrace in my State, and in
other States, that he buried his money in railways which made
the country rich, and which have left him poor. But it is
proper to say that when he had done all these disgraceful acts,
still when the people of his district sent him to Congress, he
announced publicly his misfortune. " If it be a disgrace to be a
director of trust companies and of banks; if it be a disgrace
to be a director of railroad and express companies; if it be
wicked and contrary to the spirit of American institutions
that I should endeavor by thrift and honesty to accumulate

48 William Walter Phelps

that property for which others toil, yet I take the credit that
I made a clean breast of it. My friend from Kansas might at
least have done me that justice. A friend suggests that it
might be proper to review the record of the gentleman from
Kansas.

Take the book. There is nothing in it of which he need be
ashamed. I find that instead of wasting his time in increasing
the material interests of this country, instead of building rail-
roads, or establishing banks, or doing anything of that dis-
reputable, but humble and useful kind ; but wiser than I, he
preferred, as a non-producer, to continually feed at different
corners of the public crib. The gentleman's record, there-
fore, was different from mine. I earned my own support; he
took his from the people. I labored every day to accumulate
that material wealth which is the secret of a new country's de-
velopment and growth; he chose in a politic way, to use in a
proper manner the wealth which others had accumulated. It
is no disgrace to me, that, having a taste for material interests,
I chose to labor for the development of the country; neither
is it any disgrace to him that, having a taste and capacity for
public life, he went into it and from his majority has held office.

This felicitous retort, which is only quoted briefly here,
and its pertinent criticism of the Kansas Representative,
viras so disconcerting to the latter that he hurriedly aban-
doned the offensive, but retreated in good order with the
following pleasant remarks about his opponent :

I want to say to the gentleman from New Jersey that I never
intended to arraign him in the shghtest degree because he held
these positions. I honor him for what he acquired; I honor
him for his ability displayed upon this floor; I honor him for
his general ability and for his distinction as a man. No man
on this floor goes before me in respect for the gentleman from
New Jersey; but I called attention to a fact which I believed
I had a right to do; and when I saw the representative of an
enormous number of these corporations rising upon this floor
and arraigning the grangers of the West, I thought it my duty
to myself and my constituents to say that he ought not to do

His Life and Public Services 49

it. I did it without any intention to insult, and without in-
tending any offence at all to the gentleman from New Jersey.

It is hardly necessary to say that after this no one in
the Forty-third Congress tried to crush out the young
man from New Jersey.

This forensic duel between the Kansas and New Jersey
Representatives had a rather happy sequel. Mr. Cobb
was unpopular with a faction of his own party at home
and the opposition to him was bitter and unscrupulous.
His enemies collected a cubic foot of newspaper clippings,
affidavits, judicial records, etc., which it was expected
would annihilate Mr. Cobb's political career, and all this
mass was sent by express to his New Jersey antagonist,
with a very earnest request that Mr. Phelps would use
the contents "to give old Cobb" a merciless excoriation.
Mr. Phelps glanced at the enclosures arid without reading
immediately sent them to Mr. Cobb's lodgings with this
note:

Mr. Phelps regrets that Colonel Cobb has such base con-
stituents; he regrets still more that they should think Mr.
Phelps base enough to use such material.

The Kansas member sought out his late adversary
without delay, thanked him gratefully, and as long as he
lived, Mr. Phelps had no warmer friend than Stephen
Alonzo Cobb, who, despite his varied record, was popu-
lar among the frontiersmen, and although he lost his seat
in Congress, he was kept in office as Mayor, Assembly-
man, and State Senator to the end of his days.

CHAPTER VI

Takes a Leading Part on the Currency Question and Gains Fame for His
Clear Exposition of a False Currency — Opposes the Civil Rights Bill
and Loses Caste with His Party — Urges the Repeal of the Infamous
Moiety Law — Review of His First Session — Defeated for Re-election
in a Democratic Tidal Wave — Felicitous Correspondence with His
Successful Opponent

THE legislative appropriation bill of this session was
a very complicated affair, involving not only ques-
tions of expenditures, but of collecting the revenues, the
methods of the revenue officials, and the distribution of
national currency. The discussions of this bill were pro-
longed during the winter, and as Mr. Phelps was well in-
formed upon all the subjects under consideration, he took
an active and influential part in all the deliberations.

On April i, 1874, he made the speech which gave him
his greatest fame as an orator and an expert on finance
and currency. It was on the Banking and Currency Bill
which was reported by his own committee, and to which
he added an amendment providing for the immediate and
gradual resumption of specie payments which had been
suspended by the government since the beginning of the
Civil War. It was the greenback era of irredeemable
paper currency, and gold was at a high premium. Mr.
Phelps presented, on behalf of his amendment, all the
arguments for a currency redeemable in gold which
twenty years later became so trite and familiar to the
whole country, but which at that time were novel to the
mass of the people. His opening remarks were these:

50

His Life and Public Services 51

Mr. Speaker, we are bound to give the people of these
United States a sound currency. We are bound to give them
specie payments; for only gold, or a credit based on gold, is
a sound currency. We are bound, whether we be liberals,
republicans, or democrats, by express promise; we are bound
by the provisions of a law, the first ever signed by our Chief
Magistrate ; we are bound by the oath we took as members of
this House to support the Constitution; we are bound by the
conventions of Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Baltimore, which
pledged the three great parties to ' ' speedy resumption " ; we
are bound by the act of March, 1869, which " solemnly
pledged the public faith to make provision at the earliest
practicable period for the redemption of the United States
notes in coin " ; we are bound by the Constitution, which was
formed ' ' to promote the general welfare. ' ' Can we better
provide for the general welfare than by giving to the people a
uniform, stable currency ?

For the general welfare, for the interests of other classes,
others may speak. Let me to-day speak for the interests of
labor — the labor of the farm and of the shop. I believe, and
I think I can show, that while the moral evils resulting from a
depreciated currency fall uniformly, the material ill, the real
suffering and loss, fall upon the laborer and the farmer. The
capitalist and merchant, in the resources of varied exchanges
and varied investments, may adjust and shift the loss; the
poor man receives it all. Wall Street, and Beacon Street, and
Chestnut Street may escape ; the farm and the workshop never.
Therefore I urge to-day the resumption of specie payments in
the name of the farmer and mechanic.

The New Jersey member vs^as no longer the humorist
of the House, but the practical economist and sober
reasoner, versed in the art of finance. For nearly tvi^o
hours, with not a written word before him, he intelli-
gently and logically presented the learning connected
with a sound currency, giving the history, the theory,
and the philosophy of money, with distinctions so fine,
so subtle, and so novel, and yet so just that the elemen-
tary truths, as he so grouped them, have been made the

52 William Walter Phelps

basis of most of the arguments since made on that side
of the currency question. The House found that it was
learning something of value and every member listened.
The time of the young economist was extended for half
an hour by unanimous consent and he concluded with the
following words :

I ask the Government to pay the promises that it made
twelve years ago, and pay these greenbacks on demand, dollar
for dollar, and ask the Government to do so by borrowing on
its bonds, payable fifty years after date, money with which to
pay its present indebtedness. In my opinion there is but one
way to make the currency equal to money, and that is to fol-
low that straight, narrow path, which is the path of honesty.
The Government must pay its debts when they are due.
Then alone can we expect to be again a prosperous and happy
and honored nation.

The speech was telegraphed in full across the continent
and published the next day in all the leading newspapers
of the East. It was pronounced by influential journals
and experts in finance the best speech purely on the sub-
ject of national currency that had ever been made in
Congress. It was published and distributed broadly by
individuals and societies, and was republished in Eng-
land, Germany, and France. In Germany it was made
the basis of a financial primer and introduced into the
public schools. Benoni Price, the eminent Professor of
Political Economy at Oxford University, made a per-
tinent criticism upon this speech, saying :

I have nowhere seen the evils of inconvertible currency
traced out in detail with so much power and so much fullness
as in his simple straightforward words. It is always most re-
freshing to me to meet with plain, direct, intelligible language
in the region of jungle and confusion. This false currency
has been treated by many speakers and writers, but I still had
felt all along that the cruel injury to traders — most of all, the
small ones — had not been traced in visible and vivid colors

His Life and Public Services 53

before the eyes of his countrymen. This is the great service
Mr. Phelps has performed for them.

In 1873 and 1874 the Republican party was losing a
good deal of its prestige and standing in the country, and
its leaders in Congress adopted a plan which they thought
would permanently establish negro domination in the
South and force negro political and social equality over
the whole land. To carry out this scheme, General Ben-
jamin F. Butler of Massachusetts introduced in the House
a bill designed not only to place the control of elections in
the Southern States in the hands of Federal officials, but
which proposed most strenuously to protect colored people
in all the civil rights which were claimed for them. The bill
in question contained clauses which forbid any discrimina-
tion against negroes in enjoying all the privileges of every
public school, place of amusement, hotel, restaurant,
public conveyance, or benevolent institution. In fact it
was intended to enforce negro equality in everything.
The bill was discussed for many days, during the whole
of the Forty-third Congress, and numerous amendments
were offered. Mr. Phelps opposed this legislation in all
its stages from first to last and voted against it on its
final passage in the second session of that Congress. He
held firmly to the opinion that the passing of the bill was
bad for the colored race and would do them more harm
than good. More than all, as a lawyer he was convinced
that the Civil Rights Bill, as it was called, was a violation
of the Constitution, which he and all other members of
the House had sworn to support. The foremost consti-
tutional lawyers of the House and Senate strove in vain
to convince him of its constitutionality. His opposi-
tion to the bill was distasteful to the Republican leaders,
and to those of his own State especially, who expected to
reap from the passage of this bill and the fostering of a
prejudicial public sentiment great partisan advantages.
Influential Republicans of New Jetsey, one or two of

54 William Walter Phelps

whom subsequently reached the highest government
stations, tried to impress upon the Congressman that it
was his duty to support the bill as a party measure,
creating legitimate political capital, and to allow the re-
sponsibility of determining its constitutionality to devolve
upon the Supreme Court. Mr. Phelps could not be
made to view the question in that light for a moment.
He had a wholesome independence of adverse criticism,
and although an ardent Republican, he was not the hide-
bound partisan to sustain through thick and thin every
measure which might be demanded by party clamor or
partisan expediency. At the close of the debate on this
bill, these were his remarks :

You are trying to do what it seems to me this House ever-
lastingly tries, in one form or another, to do — to legislate
against human nature. You are trying to legislate against
human prejudice, and you cannot do it. No enactment will
root out prejudice, no bayonet will prick it. You can only
educate away prejudice; and to endeavor by a law to change
the constitution of human nature is as idle as to send your
cavalry to charge a mountain mist. In this view this measure
is only idle and foolish. But worse than that, if enacted,
while it will not be carried out, it will effect positive and per-
nicious ill. Let us end this cruel policy. Let us not have
bayonets! " Let us have peace."

But after you leave matters of opinion and come to matters
of conviction, then I no longer recognize the claims of party.
Then come the claims of manhood and of conscience, which
are higher, and them I choose to obey when it comes to a
matter of conscience and right hke this. ... In my
opinion it is clear as the noonday sun that this whole legisla-
tion, both in spirit and in letter, is hostile to the Constitution;
hostile to the Constitution which protects the minority; hostile
to the Constitution which we swore to defend.

Three Republicans only in the House had the courage
to vote with Mr. Phelps against this bill, which, as he

His Life and Public Services 55

predicted, carried only contention to the South, where it
could not be practically enforced, and brought vexation
and annoyance to the North, where its mandates were
evaded. When the question of its legality finally reached
the Supreme Court of the United States, its civil rights
clauses were decided to be unconstitutional, null, and
void.

Mr. Phelps had caused to be appointed a committee
to investigate the abuses prevailing under the infamous
"Moiety LaWj" which created a horde of rascally spies,
informers, and conspirators that centred at the collector's
ofifice in the New York Custom House. Under the color
of law, honest importers had been fleeced out of hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars, a large part of which lodged
in the pockets of these scoundrels and their tools, and
among the latter were some lawyers of more acuteness
than conscience. The shameful practices permitted by
this law were so strongly exposed that when a movement
was made in Congress for its repeal it met with little
opposition.

When the final adjournment of the House came in the
latter part of June, the Representative from the Fifth
District of New Jersey had performed his full share of
the work of that busy session. His influence had been
felt in the disposal of the most important measures. He
had been industrious in the committee room, in the in-
troduction and passage of numerous bills, and in all the
routine labors of the House. His ofificial life had greatly
increased his correspondence, which always had been
large. He was always prompt in answering letters of
every kind, so that he required at Washington the ser-
vices of a stenographer and several clerks. Yet he
found time hospitably to entertain his many friends, ac-
quaintances, and visitors, including politicians from his
own State and district. He had been given by the
Speaker proper opportunities on the floor and had spoken
upon most of the pending bills of consequence. His per-

56 William Walter Phelps

ceptions were so quick and his memory so retentive that
he soon became proficient in a knowledge of the perplex-
ing rules of the body of which he was a member, that few
are enabled to master except through the experience of
several sessions, and when the separation came he was
well up to that small body who are recognized in each
Congress as "leaders of the House." It was before the
close of this session that President Grant wanted to make
Mr. Phelps First Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, but
the latter felt that he could not accept the offer.

In the latter part of July, 1874, there was a great cele-
bration in Paterson, arranged by veteran soldiers. It
was begun with an immense military and civic parade,
in which were President Grant and a body of national
government dignitaries and State officials of New Jersey.
The exercises were in a large wigwam and Mr. Phelps
was the orator of the occasion. He made a very thought-
ful address upon the blessings of peace, picturing the evils
and horrors of war, and urging arbitration for the settle-
ment of national difficulties in every case possible. His
remarks were listened to with attention and greeted with
frequent applause, but the glamor of the war was still
over the land, and the soldiers of the victorious North
were everywhere receiving political preferment and dis-
tinguished honors. Consequently, arguments for peace
were not so impressive as they are to-day, when Mr.
Phelps's thoughts of thirty years ago are those prevailing
among the great and most civilized nations of the globe.

Congress not having ended until it was well in the sum-
mer, Mr. Phelps did not have much rest in private that
year, for in the fall a new Congress was to be elected and
the campaign began early.

The times were inauspicious for the Republican party.
There had been a general monetary panic in 1873; the
business of the country continued to be prostrated, its
manufacturing industries paralyzed, and the working
classes of the nation lacked remunerative employment

His Life and Public Services 57

and were dissatisfied and soured. Under such conditions
it is always tlie party in power at Washington that is held
responsible by the not very deeply reasoning masses of
voters. Besides all this, the many scandals of the Grant
administration — the Credit Mobilier exposure and the
back-pay grab, the revelation of defalcations and corrup-
tions among important public officials, persistent rumors
and charges that still greater criminality had been con-
cealed, and the general laxity of official morals growing
out of a long war, had created a deep distrust of the Re-
publican party even in its strongholds. This was the load
with which Republican candidates were weighted that
year. The State elections in the fall, prior to Novem-
ber, were almost without exception disastrous to the Re-
publicans and ominous of the general defeat of the party
a few weeks later.

Mr. Phelps was renominated by his party without op-
position, and this result was hailed with commendation
by the Republican and independent press the country
over, and with complimentary notices from fair-minded
Democratic journals. But some adverse influences were
at work. From personal jealousy of his rapid rise into
prominence and his display of partisan independence, a
few of the Republican leaders of New Jersey were indif-
ferent to his success, if not actually hostile, and partly for
the same reason the administration was lukewarm, when
it might, within proper bounds, have lent its influence
and encouragement.

The Democratic candidate was Augustus W. Cutler,
a well-known lawyer of Morris County. He was a man
of moderate ability, whose amiability and fair reputation
personally had enabled him to be elected from a county
usually Republican, to the State Senate, where he made
a clean record. Mr. Cutler accepted the nomination with
reluctance, and as he said himself, without any expecta-
tion of being elected. It was the prevailing belief with
Republicans and Democrats that Mr. Phelps had made

58 William Walter Phelps

such a favorable impression by his first service in Con-
gress, and that the district was so proud of him, that his
defeat was hardly possible.

Mr. Phelps was never what might be called a good
politician. He had a remarkable distaste for the minutia;
of practical politics and avoided them wholly whenever
possible. This was the only qualification for public life
in which he was deficient. Nor at this time did he want
the close confidence of the political advisers and managers
who subsequently aided so much in making every one of
his campaigns a success. Although this year he made
the customary tours through his district and addressed
the mass meetings, which were not many, he did not enter
into the canvass with his usual vim, but permitted himself
to be misled by indiscreet admirers into over-confidence
of the result, and awakened from his delusion too late to
recover lost ground.

While he was subjected to unrestrained partisan abuse
throughout his canvass, not one act or vote of his in
Congress was assailed, except his vote on the Civil Rights
Bill. This vote had been uniformly approved by the
Democrats, who used it now, with partial success, to
prejudice the colored vote against the Republican candi-
date. The fact stood out plainly that in Congress Mr.
Phelps had sustained every measure of economy and re-
form, and he defied his enemies to point out a single in-
stance where he was unfaithful to the interests of the
people he represented.

Election day came and a tempest of discontent swept
over the entire country, carrying nearly all the well-
anchored Republican States from their moorings. Massa-
chusetts elected its only Democratic governor for nearly
half a century. In New Jersey, the Democratic plurality
for governor was phenomenal, and the Republicans elected
but nineteen of the sixty members of the Assembly. The
Republican candidate in the Fifth District of the State
went down in the crash, as did scores of his Republican

His Life and Public Services 59

Congressional associates, and for the first time since the
beginning of the Civil War the Democrats secured a
majority in the national House of Representatives.

The Democratic majority for governor in Mr. Phelps's
district was 1061. The vote for Congressional candidates
was: Cutler, 11,677, Phelps, 11,670. Mr. Phelps there-
fore was beaten by seven votes only in a district which
gave a Democratic majority of over one thousand. Al-
though suffering the misfortune of his party, Mr. Phelps
felt very proud of the discriminating vote in his favor, as
he had cause to be, and there was never a denial after
the result of this election of his strength and popularity
as a candidate for popular suffrage, and at all elections
he led at the polls every candidate running upon the same
ticket.

There were irregularities and violations of the law
charged against the Democrats at the election which the
supporters of the defeated candidate for Congress thought
would justify him in contesting the seat of his opponent,
believing that with so small a plurality against him there
would be a good chance of success.

The geniality and good-fellowship which Mr. Phelps
displayed while associating with his political adversaries
put him on the most friendly footing with the Democrats
of the House. No sooner had the result in the New
Jersey Fifth District become known than Mr. Phelps
received letters from leading Democratic members of the
old Congress, who would have control of affairs in the
next House, telling him that if he should determine to
make a contest, they would see that he had the utmost
fair play and a most liberal consideration of his case.
But Mr. Phelps, without hesitation, turned a deaf ear to
all these alluring suggestions. What made him one of
the most agreeable of men was his disposition always to
make the best of everything. He did not now sulk in
his tent, nor whine over his bad fortune, but with the
magnanimity that he never lacked, as soon as the result

6o William Walter Phelps

of the election was definitely settled through the official
returns, he penned the following letter to his rival :

Teaneck, near Englewood,
Nov. 24th, 1874.
Hon. Augustus W. Cutler:

Dear Sir : To-day's canvass breaks my silence, and I can
tender you my hearty congratulations. Pardon a delay,
which was necessary, but which seemed ungracious.

The close vote and the strange irregularities of ballot and
count forced me, in justice to others, to wait for the assurance
of your election.

As a candidate, I was representing those who voted for me,
and in their name I asked the fullest evidence, that their
wishes had been legally denied.

Otherwise the first news of your success should have come
from your opponent. I can now justly acknowledge my defeat
and your election.

I shall not contest your seat — all rumors to the contrary
notwithstanding. I have no grounds, for I have in my own
case received that fair play and full justice which I have often
boasted was the assured possession of all Jersey men.

The cause of my defeat was very simple — a lack of votes.
" Only this and nothing more." A majority of the citizens
who went to the polls preferred another. And I should be
the last one to question or impede their choice.

It is a pleasure for me to thank you for the uniform courtesy
of the canvass, and to ask you, if you cahnot say to our many
common friends, that neither publicly nor privately did your
Republican competitor find any fault in you, except your
Democracy.

I prized the honor of representing this constituency and I
regret the loss of it; but I am not without consolation in the
thought that my loss has been your and the public gain.

You and them, do I congratulate; you, that you have
secured this large opportunity of serving the people; and
them, that the voice of their district shall be as before — only
more eloquently and more efficiently — against those enemies
of the Republic who would perpetuate an irredeemable cur-

His Life and Public Services 6i

rency, increase the central power, and plunder the national
treasury.

I am with respect and good wishes for your success, one of
your constituents.

Wm. Walter Phelps.

Mr. Cutler's response was gentlemanly and very cordial,
and he said in part :

It is a matter of pleasure to me that you recognize the per-
sonal honor and courtesy of the canvass, and I can truly say,
that in looking back, I cannot recall an expression or remark
that grated harshly on my ear or left an unpleasantness in
memory.

I need not say that success was the farthest from my
dreams, nor did I anticipate that any tidal wave could reach
you, but now that I am elected, I am painfully conscious of the
fact, that I immediately succeed one who has secured in a
single Congressional term a national reputation, made his Dis-
trict celebrated, compelled all parties to do homage to his
talent, admire his eloquence, and acknowledge his power.

I doubt if any Congressman-elect can boast of a constituent
more chivalric and high-minded than yourself, and I know
that none can feel more honored than I do when I remember
that among my constituents I can number you.

This manly and rather unique correspondence attracted
much attention and brought out vi'ords of approval from
the most reputable journals of New Jersey and other
States.

CHAPTER VII

His Second Session — Investigates Louisiana Affairs and Exposes the
Carpet-Baggers — Feted by New Orleans — Leaves Congress — His
Love for Newspapers and Newspaiper Men — Goes to Rescue of the
New York Tribune — Life at Teaneck — Travels for Health

THE second session of the Forty-third Congress con-
vened in December, 1874, and Mr. Phelps was on
hand with numerous bills to present, some of them
emanating from his own committee on Banking and Cur-
rency. It was then the heydey of greenbackism and
irredeemable paper money. Mr. Kelley of Pennsyl-
vania introduced a bill to further inflate the national
currency by the issue of many millions in paper money,
which should be a legal tender for all government bonds
and all government and individual liabilities. This bill
Mr. Phelps attacked in a speech in which he denounced
the whole irredeemable paper currency policy as pernici-
ous, unjust, and dishonest. He said in concluding:

My friend from Pennsylvania, whose measure is now before
the House, comes and looks at this problem and offers a dif-
ferent solution. He ignores the public creditor, and glories
in national protests. He would let the debt stand forever,
and recognize insolvency as the permanent condition of a free
people. This attempt we are making to-day is an attempt
which has strewed these six thousand years with failures, and
which will fail to the end — an attempt to make money. There
is no way to get money except to earn it or steal it. You can-
not make it. I wish only to reiterate that in my opinion there
is but one way to make this currency equal to money, to bring

62

His Life and Public Services 63

it to a par with gold. That is to follow that straight and nar-
row path which is the path of honesty. The private citizen
has to follow it; the Government, too, must follow it. The
citizen pays his debts. We must pay our debts. Then only
can we expect to be prosperous and happy ; then only shall
we again be a happy, a prosperous, and an honored nation.

Mr. Kelley's bill did not pass.

The House ordered the appointment of a special com-
mittee to investigate the chaotic condition of affairs in
Louisiana, where there were two rival State governments,
each claiming to be legally chosen at the election in the
fall of 1874. The Democratic legislature had been arbi-
trarily interfered with by General Sheridan under what he
interpreted to be his instructions from Washington. The
White League, a very large organization of New Orleans
citizens, had come to the desperate determination to dare
anything, legal or illegal, rather than to submit longer to
the recklessness and pillage of the carpet-baggers, who
were using for their own profit the State and government,
which was sustained only by Federal power. The Speaker
appointed on the committee George F. Hoar of Massa-
chusetts, William A. Wheeler of New York, William P.
Frye of Maine, Charles Foster of Ohio, William Walter
Phelps of New Jersey, James C. Robinson of Illinois,
Clarkson N. Potter of New York.

This was the era of Reconstruction, when the ashes of
the great volcanic eruption in the South were still hot to
the tread. It required, therefore, on the part of any
Northern Congressman unflinching courage, a cool and
unbiassed judgment, and the most unbending, non-
partisan determination to deal justly with any question
relating to the South. Mr. Phelps was selected as one of
the sub-committee to go to New Orleans and take testi-
mony. The work was done in the custom house of that
city, the committee toiling day and night for several
weeks. Each side had agreed to accept the committee

64 William Walter Phelps

as final arbitrators, and to cause the resignation ot any
or all members claiming seats in the respective legislatures
as the committee might determine, so that there should
be but one legislature and one State government,
the legality of which should not be questioned. The
testimony offered was very conflicting; all of it biassed
and much of it perjured. Mr. Phelps was convinced
that the Federal government had gone further than was
justifiable in many instances and that there were legisla-
tive seats illegally claimed by both parties. He drafted
the report of the sub-committee, which was submitted
to the whole committee and practically adopted by that
body. Out of this action grew a plan of adjustment
which was accepted by the opposing parties in the con-
troversy. It seated and unseated contesting members of
the legislature, but affirmed the legality of the Kellogg
State government, which had been in power for more
than a year. Political quiet followed in Louisiana until
troubles growing out of the disputed election of Mr.
Hayes broke out in the fall of 1876.

The investigation made by this committee exposed
many of the abuses of the carpet-bagger rule and was the
first heavy blow struck at that iniquity. The South un-
doubtedly owed a great deal to Mr. Phelps and appre-
ciated it. The city of New Orleans gave him an imposing
public dinner. His course was not pleasing to some of
the radical Republicans of the North, nor was the award
of the committee very favorably received by the national
administration, but time fully justified the wisdom of its
arbitration.

When the Louisiana investigation was concluded, there
was an end to Mr. Phelps's work in the Forty-third Con-
gress, which expired March 3, 1875. No man in that or
any succeeding Congress ever elicited from the press of
the country more attention and comment. He was, as
a rule, on the best footing with the entire journalistic
fraternity. He valued newspapers very highly and gave

His Life and Public Services 65

all the time he could spare to their reading. He said they
kept him in constant touch with all the throbbing
world — with its incidents, pleasures, pains, and whole
history. All this he liked, for he was remarkably fond
of travelling on the open highway of the world. With
few exceptions, throughout his whole life, the decent
newspapers of his own and of other countries treated him
fairly and courteously. Correspondence with the editors
of newspapers was with Mr. Phelps a lifelong habit, and
this intercourse was not wholly confined to the press of
his own political party. Watterson, McLean, Pulitzer,
Dana, John Bigelow, Godkin, Horace White, and other
editors of leading Democratic newspapers were his warm
personal friends.

He was a most liberal subscriber to newspapers — politi-
cal, religious, and independent — of all parties and sects,
including the leading journals of New Jersey and nearly all
those of his own county and Congressional district. His
benefactions and gratuities to newspaper publishers and
to journalists were extremely liberal, and were ceaseless
from the very beginning of his participation in politics.
He seldom refused when appealed to by a newspaper
man for aid.

Shortly after the death of Horace Greeley, a syndicate
of capitalists and politicians, representing certain interests
in the Republican party, planned to obtain a controlling
quantity of the stock of the New York Tribune establish-
ment, which they thought was at that time within their
reach. It was reported that a large sum of money would
be required almost immediately to keep the paper under
the control existing at that juncture and that Mr. Phelps
was largely instrumental in the advancement of the funds
which saved the Tribune from being transferred to strange
hands.

He had now acquired, both in and out of Congress, a
fame for the highest class of oratory, the lustre of which
never became dim. He had not the "Front of Jove" —

66 William Walter Phelps

none of the physical presence or massiveness that makes
oratory so impressive with many speakers. Nature sealed
a great heart and graceful mind in a body not large in
stature. But yet he owed much to his personality, for
there was that about him that inspired all whom he met
with a sense of his capacity and more than ordinary ac-
quaintance with human affairs. He possessed in an emi-
nent degree the touchstone that drew attention to him
in every assemblage.

He wrote some of his speeches, but never studied them
afterward. When a speech was written, the manuscript
was immediately thrown aside and never looked at again.
When speaking extemporaneously, his thoughts came to
him clearly and well-formed and he seemed never puzzled
with half-formed ideas. He adored the fresh and original,
and seldom in his speeches, writings, or conversation did
he indulge in stock quotations. His language was strik-
ingly plain, and no one ever heard him utter a sentence
that was not clean-cut, or that was capable of more than
one meaning. With such a command of diction as he
possessed, there is a temptation to resort to glittering
rhetoric as a substitute for knowledge, but to this he
never yielded. One of the highest compliments he
thought was ever paid to his mental and verbal clearness
was that of a Holland working man of the First Ward of
Paterson, who understood English with difficulty. This
man, after listening to a political speech by Mr. Phelps,
said: "Why, he talks in such a way that we poor Hol-
landers can understand every word he says." Yet no
man was less of a platitudinarian, and on the rostrum, as
in ordinary conversation, he was so bright, direct, and
sincere that few listeners failed to be fascinated by the
magic of his voice, the gracefulness of his language, and
the cleverness of his thoughts.

While serving his first term in Congress, Mr. Phelps
had the usual experience of national legislators in the
disposal of Federal offices. This was one of the most

His Life and Public Services 67

disagreeable of all his public duties. It created for him
the most virulent enemies that he afterwards found in the
Republican ranks in his district. He listened in patience
to all applicants who in personal interviews sought his aid,
and replied to all letters asking his assistance in office-
getting with courtesy and with sympathy for disappoint-
ment when the writer's request could not be granted.
Doubtless he had to encounter no more than the usual
diiificulties of those who have public offices within their
control, in placating disappointed ofifice-seekers, never-
theless his experience in this official business was very
disagreeable.

When he took his departure from Washington, there
was a general wish and expectation that his absence from
the national legislature would be but temporary

Mr. Phelps went to his home, not to indulge right away
in rest and recreation, but to meet the cares of his busi-
ness office in New York, for, as was the case of most men
of affairs then, his private estate had become impaired by
the general depreciation in values caused by the recent
panic. His offices were on the corner of Broadway and
Wall Street and were intended solely for convenience in
the management of his own estate and private affairs.
On arriving there in the morning, it was his practice to
proceed at once to the transaction of such business as
required his personal attention, and he would dispose of
it in the rapid and careful manner characteristic of him in
everything. There was a chief of staff and a head for
each department — corporations, law, real-estate invest-
ments in and out of New York, and politics. This is the
manner in which the affairs of his estate are conducted
to-day, politics omitted. All of his assistants had ex-
perience in their several departments and they never
consulted Mr. Phelps except in cases of more than ordi-
nary difficulty and importance. It was his custom when
he once trusted a person in his employ to trust him
absolutely. He would say that it was most distasteful

68 William Walter Phelps

to him, and in fact, abject slavery, to be constantly on
the watch of those serving him. He would rather en-
dure faithless service than keep up such an intolerable
vigilance. He never had cause to regret the confidence
placed in the executive heads of his business affairs.
Like his father, he had a strong partiality for successful
men. He was ready to give money lavishly to those who
were unfortunate, but he could not often be induced to
place a business trust in the hands of any one who had
not shown an ability to succeed in the world.

Naturally, he would have many business engagements
to meet. He was prompt in fulfilling them and expected
all who had appointments with him to appear at the fixed
time. It can be said also that in all social engagements
he observed the same punctuality. He required exact-
ness in all the work of his office, and was extremely
critical in all that related to neatness and accuracy, espe-
cially in correspondence.

It was his habit daily to attend to business without
intermission until one o'clock, when he would go to
luncheon at the Downtown Club, then the most preten-
tious place of entertainment in his vicinity. There were
very few of his New Jersey friends who did not at some
time enjoy the hospitality of this favorite retreat with
him. Senators, Congressmen, distinguished journalists,
and literary men, far and near, when in the city readily
embraced an opportunity to meet Mr. Phelps at luncheon.
While he could bear patiently with dull persons, he
courted bright people, and he had a constant longing for
brightness, sunshine, and warmth. It is not strange,
therefore, that more than once there were seated at Mr.
Phelps's club table, Blaine, Evarts, Thomas B. Reed,
McKinley, Halstead, Watterson, and other shining intel-
lects of their class.

From the club, Mr. Phelps would usually return to his
office to sign the letters dictated in the morning, and then
go up-town to meet friends, and, more often than other-

His Life and Public Services 69

wise, conduct some of them to share the hospitality of
Teaneck, where the social life was so attractive and de-
lightful to all visitors. He seldom went home without
being accompanied by one or more guests.

After his return from Congress, in the spring of 1875,
Mr. Phelps spent many hours in planning improvements
to his homestead and looking out for further landed in-
vestments. He was also taking much interest in the
education of his sons, who were at school at Newburgh,
New York. He kept up a continuous correspondence
with them, and noted attentively the reports of their pro-
gress. He went with his family to Bushy Hill in the
latter part of the summer, and later had a long drive
through the Berkshires.

In February, 1876, he started on a brief trip to Cali-
fornia, by the way of Aspinwall, stopping at Acapulco
and other Mexican ports, and reached San Francisco in
March. He returned East overland, visiting and noting
the progress of many of the Western cities.

While Mr. Phelps was in Washington during his Con-
gressional service, an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out
in the hotel where he was stopping, which was caused by
what was afterward ascertained to be defective drainage
in the cellar of the building. Many of the guests, in-
cluding Congressmen and other prominent personages,
were prostrated, and several deaths resulted. Mr. Phelps
was one of the victims of the malady. The disease kept
him in a low physical condition for weeks. Then fol-
lowed a slow, fluctuating convalescence. But his physi-
cal health and strength was never again permanently
recovered. He was always after this a constant physical
sufferer, rarely knowing an hour free from pain. For the
repair of his health, he and Mrs. Phelps went in the spring
of 1876 to spend some months in Europe. In the large
body of friends who went to the vessel to bid them fare-
well were a goodly number of representative Republicans,
who had been Mr. Phelps's political intimates, and who

70 William Walter Phelps

came to emphasize the strong desire and lively expecta-
tion of their party that on his return he would again
participate in public affairs.

He had entrance in Europe to the highest circles
everywhere, and on this tour he gave much time to in-
vestigation of institutions of learning and art in England,
France, and Germany, and to the society of scholars,
authors, and scientists. He visited Oxford University in
England and like institutions of other nations. The com-
ments recorded in his diary on the colleges, literature,
drama, and paintings in the art galleries in the cities he
visited are proof of what a close and clever observer he
was. His animadversions on European statesmen then
in power were exceedingly original and interesting.

Looking at mementos of Voltaire at Potsdam led him
to an analysis of that philosopher's character, as well as
those of the skeptics Hume and Rousseau. One Sunday
in Paris he attended the American Chapel, where he
heard a sermon, the sentiment of which he heartily ap-
proved. The discourse was on ' ' The Thorn in the Flesh, ' '
and deprecated the folly of being over-curious over
Scriptural puzzles. The comments made by Mr. Phelps
are evidences that he had a sound faith in the religion of
Christ. He wrote :

A personal Christ may be discredited, but his teachings are
conquering the world. Equally logical are the processes of
science and religion. There are different premises, however.
The premises of the Christian are certainly as well founded in
reason as those of science.

He had a naturally reverent mind and never referred to
the Deity lightly. On occasions when he would sum-
marize and pass judgment upon the eminent qualities of
the greatest men he had known, he would in conclusion
quote the words of a renowned French theologian, who
began the funeral sermon of Louis XIV. by saying,
"God alone is great."

His Life and Public Services 71

While on his European travels, Mr. Phelps seemed to
find time to read many books, and in his diary criticised
them in a manner rare for its novelty and originality. In
his intercourse with distinguished people in England, he
gathered much, of the history of the titled personages,
statesmen, and historic characters of recent times and
past eras that has never been published.

Mr. Phelps returned to his own land the latter part of
October and went to the Centennial Exposition at Phila-
delphia, and then going home, he voted, as he records
on November 7th, "the whole Republican ticket."

Before he left Europe, a Republican convention had
been held in his Congressional district, and the prevailing
sentiment of that body was that he should be the candi-
date. The Democratic tidal wave of 1874 had sensibly
subsided, and it was contended that Mr. Phelps could
surely recover the district for the Republicans. He had,
however, sent most positive word to the party leaders
that his name must not go before the convention.

CHAPTER VIII

Great Love for Trees — Plants Six Hundred Thousand Trees on His Tea-
neck Estate — Studies Arboriculture in Many Lands — Supports
Blaine in 1880 — Re-elected to Congress — Hackensack Savings Bank
Fails — Generosity of Phelps

IF William Walter Phelps really indulged in a "hobby,"
it was his unceasing love for trees and woods. Ar-
boriculture was with him at all times an absorbing in-
terest, so strong that it may be called a passion. As
soon as he made his first purchase of land at Teaneck he
began the planting of trees, and this before he com-
menced the reconstruction of the old farmhouse, and
from 1870 to 1893, the planting and growing of trees was
one of the leading activities on his estate. At first he
had only his coachman to help him, and before he went
to New York of a morning and after his return at night,
they would spend a few hours putting trees in the
ground. This was the small beginning of that extensive
arboriculture on his homestead, where in after-years there
were growing hundreds of thousands of trees of many
species. He enjoyed this work, but the initial process
soon became too slow for him, and therefore experienced
assistants were engaged and larger and more systematic
methods were adopted.

The ornamentation of so large an estate, formed by
many additions to the original tract at various periods,
was one of the problems that required intelligence in
conception and execution, as the scheme had to be de-
veloped by an accretive process in keeping with the

72

His Life and Public Services 73

extension of the domain. Adaptability to soil and
climate was an important factor to be considered, as
many exotics were to be introduced, and experiments
were tried, some of which turned out to be costly fail-
ures. But these mishaps never for a moment discouraged
the proprietor in his struggles to reach his ideals.

From 1875 to 1880, the arborical progress was very
great, and Mr. Phelps then began happily to realize some
of the success of his early efforts, and when the year 1893
came, there had been planted on his domain fully six
hundred thousand trees, from single growths and small
clumps and groups to masses forming a number of acres
of woodland. In addition to this, natural wood-belts
were cleared of underbrush and undesirable timber, other
trees being substituted to produce the wished-for effect.
In some of the more secluded nooks of woodland, rabbit,
quail, and partridge lived free from fear of the hunter's
gun; here in the early springtime blue violets and trail-
ing arbutus peep through moss or leaf-strewn soil before
the grass begins to garb sunny dells in emerald tints.

In tree planting, the stately Norway spruce preponder-
ated, the number being 70,000. Of arbor-vitse, 60,000
were used; of American elms, 65,000; white pine, 50,000 ;
Scotch pine, 25,000; Austrian pine, 35,000; lindens, 25,-
000. Larch, English elm, imported hemlock, white and
scarlet maple, Norway maple, ash-leaved maple, beech,
red cedar, gum, tulip, golden willow, catalpa, oak, cop-
per beech, and several other varieties were planted in
quantities of from 2000 to 10,000. He liked all kinds of
arbor and forest trees, but there was something in the
American elm that was more than ordinarily pleasing to
him. There were two thousand oaks grown from acorns
planted in boxes, the success of the experiment amply
verifying the poet's declaration that "Tall oaks from
little acorns grow." An experiment of raising chestnut
trees from the nut was almost equally successful, 60,000
of the plants having been set out in groves. At first

74 William Walter Phelps

threatened with complete destruction, the tops were
mowed off with a scythe, after which a thrifty growth
set in, and there is now promise of extensive groves of
the trees bordering some of the more remote drives.

Mr. Phelps personally planned an elaborate scheme of
decorative and protective planting that promised the
most effective result artistically and gave the greatest
benefit of shade to the driveways and bridle-paths. This
was especially illustrated on Bennett's Road, a private
way nearly three miles long, extending from the armory
in Englewood to the present mansion. Starting at the
entrance gate at Railroad Avenue in Englewood city was
a planting of silver and white maple, then, in order,
scarlet maple, flowering catalpa, white pine, hemlock,
and white pine again. Succeeding this came a stretch of
natural growth known as the "hickory woods," com-
posed of hickory, elm, beech, chestnut, oak, black birch,
with here and there an imported tree set in for compan-
ionship with the towering natives, whose wide-spreading
arms and rugged bolls proclaim them the offspring of
ancient times.

What is referred to as the poplar experiment was made
on Sheffield Street, which runs from Teaneck to Nord-
hof, a mile and three fourths. This grand avenue was
bordered by alternating rows of Lombardy poplar, laurel-
leaved willow, and white oaks, producing an effect not
equalled in any other portion of the grounds. Standing
at the top of the rise and looking down through the vista
until the eye lost the symmetrical formation in the van-
ishing point of the perspective, the diversity of form and
color was an alluring attraction to the senses. The pic-
ture evidenced the true artistic conception of the master
mind and the fidelity with which its ideas and instructions
were carried out. But this delightful product of mind
and matter was of only fleeting duration. The deadly
oyster scale and sap gall soon manifested their power,
and the tall poplars succumbed to the irresistible enemy.

His Life and Public Services 75

This left the beautiful avenue with ragged edges that
were temporarily remedied by successive plantings, each
in turn perishing. Here and there on high ground, where
spots of soil seem to have extended a more friendly
greeting to the immigrants from Lombardy, an occasional
poplar may yet be seen, but the glory of the tree as a
correlative element in a broad landscape scheme departed.

The Diagonal Road, from Teaneck Road and Cedar
Lane to Englewood, a mile and a half, is heavily bordered
with a great variety of trees in alternate rows, clumps,
and belts. The grounds west of Teaneck Road and
north of Cedar Lane, being more strictly the demesne
attached to the original home, present some exquisite
effects and surprises in road borders, massing, and minor
grouping, the rolling nature of the land presenting in-
viting possibilities in dips and rises. Riding or walking,
there is a succession of entrancing views, near and far,
caught as they appear through breaks in trees, where
velvety lanes stretch away to glades and dells or ascend
to grassy knolls.

Negundo, ash, maple, elm, Norway spruce, willow, and
several other varieties of trees define and carefully main-
tain bridle-paths that occasionally run parallel with the
driveways and then diverge and carry the rider on from
delight to ever-recurring charm.

Near the mansion and at more remote points many
varieties of green and blooming shrubbery added to the
beauty of the picture. Lilacs, golden -bells, flowering
japonicas, rose of Sharon, snowballs, syringas, spireas,
and other shrubs contributed their beauty to the scene
and their fragrance to the pure air.

The vines that now cover the ruins are an indication of
the creepers that gave the house a coat of varying green
tints from early spring until late fall, and largely main-
tained the bright colors through the severest winter.

At one time, somewhat elaborate designs in bedding
plants were carried out on the immediate home grounds.

76 William Walter Phelps

These were abandoned after the burning of the mansion,
although the greenhouses, with their thirty thousand
square feet of floor space, produced ample material for
any venture in this line of ornamentation.

Wherever Mr. Phelps went during the journeying of
his entire life, the trees of every clime were an attraction
and a pleasure to him. In California, Europe, Asia, and
Africa, he was an interested observer of forests and all
fine parks. When absent from home, he kept in mind all
the localities on his estate, in each of which different
kinds of trees were growing, and was habitually writing
to his Teaneck manager inquiring after the growth of
each variety of trees, giving careful directions for their
care and for additional plantings after sending on new
species from other countries. On his travels he would
make a study of the soils on which each species of trees
would flourish.

In the small but numerous parks in Washington he
was, during his whole Congressional service, a most
familiar figure, so frequently would he seek some one of
these resorts in which to read his morning newspapers ;
and at Teaneck, its woodlands were his favorite places
for walking and thought. They appealed to the intense
idealism and poetry of his nature, while their umbrage
and quietness soothed him. No odor of the city polluted
their atmosphere, and no noise of factory was vibrant
under their shade.

He had his favorite trees, which he respected, admired,
and cherished as he would human beings ; they seemed to
have for him an intelligent presence, and in his adoration
he almost believed they could think.

Now, in these after-years, it often seems in the autumn
that there can be heard on the crisp fallen leaves of these
wooded paths the invisible tread of the one who so often
walked there in his living manhood.

It was in 1878 that Mr. Phelps and several associates
organized a company which they named the "Palisades

His Life and Public Services ^^

Land Company." The purpose of this organization was
to develop a tract of land of two thousand acres or more,
purchased of various owners prior to the panic of 1873.
Since the organization of the Palisades Land Company,
some of this tract has become the property of others, but
the company, of which the Phelps estate is by far the
largest stockholder, still possesses a great many valuable
acres bordering on the river shore of the Hudson and ex-
tending along the top of the Palisades from near Engle-
wood to beyond Alpine. The beautiful views these lands
afford from the top of the Palisades cannot fail to make
them the finest sites for elegant country homes to be
found anywhere near the great metropolis of the nation.
The anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns was cele-
brated in New York in January, 1880. It was a rare
assemblage of brilliant intellects. Mr. Phelps was an
invited guest, and in the speaking he followed Henry
Ward Beecher. The theme given him was "Highland
Hospitality." After paying an appropriate tribute to
the proverbial hospitality of Scotchmen, he remarked :

Already we feel that the lack of the age is not the hospi-
tality that warms the body, but a hospitality that shall warm
the heart. A stimulated sympathy makes us build hospitals,
libraries, and galleries, and Bible and tract societies — enough
to make the outer life of the citizen comfortable and comely,
and then ? How easy to share our homes ! How hard, our
hearts! How easy to give money; how hard to give sympathy
and love! Yet these qualities only are divine and the most
vital to the happiness of man. But these quahties are the very
ones that civilization — modern life — with all its infinite re-
sources, is powerless to give. . . . Shall our schools and
colleges, our railways and telegraphs, our galleries and mu-
seums, our colossal fortunes, putting into single hands the re-
sources of empire, make a nation whose manners and morals
shall be good, because their intellectual perception of the right
and proper shall be perfect ; whose institutions of education
and charity shall be complete and satisfactory, who shall dis-

78 William Walter Phelps

charge all duties perfectly, but mechanically and without
heart? Then life will indeed be perfect and not worth living;
and human hearts, when not changed to brains, starving in the
midst of apparent plenty, longing for sympathy and love, dy-
ing in the midst of life, shall cry in despair: "Who shall
deliver us from the bondage of this death ? " Yet this is the
tendency of modern culture.

The speaker then made an earnest plea that in religion
should be confirmed the old gospel of love, and that
"under its teachings the heart and the soul shall keep
pace wfith the intellectual and material progress of the
age ; and that hospitality in its widest scope shall offer
not only a home, but a heart." These w^ere rather un-
usual opinions to be set forth in an after-dinner speech,
but the earnest and heartfelt expressions of the orator
were loudly applauded.

In the last of January, 1880, Mr. Phelps went to
Europe and spent the remainder of the winter in
Southern France and Italy. Letters from public men
and political leaders from all over the country followed
him. They discussed the political conditions then exist-
ing, foreshadowing the policy of the Republican party in
the approaching presidential election of that year, and
urging the absent Jerseyman to again enter into the arena
of politics. His relations with Mr. Blaine continued to
be of the most intimate and confidential nature, and he
was always in correspondence with the Maine statesman.
Mr. Blaine was in a dilemma. His friends were deter-
mined to put him in the field in opposition to the third-
term movement for General Grant, which was led by
Roscoe Conkling, who had a great dislike for Mr. Blaine.
The latter did not wish to make the fight, as the an-
tagonism which it would arouse would be distasteful to
him, and further, would imperil success. Nevertheless,
he held, with John Sherman and the most cool-headed
Republican leaders, that to attempt to elect any man to

His Life and Public Services 79

the Presidency for a third term would be disastrous to the
Republican party. This belief no doubt had an influence
in his finally yielding to the persuasions of his supporters
to allow his name to go before the national convention.

Mr. Phelps returned from Europe in April to do battle
for his friend. He presided over the Republican conven-
tion of Bergen County, which elected delegates to the
State convention to be held at Trenton, and he made a
warm and enlivening address, citing the reasons why the
party deserved and might expect success at the elections
that year. He went as a delegate to the Republican
State convention in May, called to elect delegates to
the national convention. The Grant third-term project
had no small following in New Jersey. Senator Frederic
T. Frelinghuysen and other Republicans of influence
favored it. Mr. Phelps labored to have a solid Blaine
delegation chosen from his own State, and he displayed
much political talent of the highest degree in accomplish-
ing his end. During the all-night session of the Com-
mittee on Platform, he introduced this resolution :

Resolved, That reasonable dread of executive power, and
the experience of other republics which have fallen through
the ambitions of their chief rulers, justify the American peo-
ple in amending the constitution to provide for one Presi-
dential term of ten years and the inehgibility of any President
to succeed himself.

This was the signal for a high-pressure debate, in which
the author of the resolution gallantly defended it against
the assaults of the third-term men. It was denounced as
a direct insult to the ex-President. Its champion showed
that over and over again the Republican party had com-
mitted itself to a limit of eight years and claimed that the
present candidate for a third term had himself indorsed
the principle of this resolution. After an hour's discus-
sion, it was laid on the table by a vote of nineteen to
sixteen, eleven members of the committee being absent.

8o William Walter Phelps

Although the resolution was not adopted, its introduc-
tion and the debate upon it killed the third-term move-
ment in the convention and in New Jersey, which was
the end Mr. Phelps sought. When the convention as-
sembled the next morning, the entire delegation selected
from the State was for Mr. Blaine, and Mr. Phelps was a
delegate-at-large.

At the national convention, General Grant and Mr.
Blaine were the leading candidates in the ballotings, while
Senator John Sherman had the solid support of the in-
fluential State of Ohio and some votes from other States.
There were before the convention the names of several
"favorite sons" with delegates from their own localities.
It required three hundred and ninety-nine votes to make
a nomination. The highest vote for Grant was three
hundred and six, and that for Blaine two hundred and
eighty-five. After prolonged ballotings, Ohio abandoned
Sherman for Garfield, who then received the Blaine vote
and was nominated, a result that was satisfactory to Mr.
Blaine's supporters, who found that their favorite could
not be named.

In 1878, Charles H. Voorhis of Bergen County, a Re-
publican, was elected to Congress from the Fifth New
Jersey District. He became unavailable as a candidate
for re-nomination, as he had become involved in disas-
trous bank failures in Hackensack. As the time for
selecting a candidate to succeed Mr. Voorhis in 1880 ap-
proached, Mr. Phelps was implored by his warm admirers
and by representative party men in his district to enter
the field as a candidate. This he declined to do, pleading
that his feeble health would not allow him vigorously to
carry the Congressional banner in the district that year.
Under pressure, however, he yielded to an agreement
that he must not be announced as a candidate and posi-
tively no attempt should be made at the primary elections
to choose delegates pledged to him, but if the conven-
tion should, under these conditions, decide to make him

His Life and Public Services 8i

its candidate, he would do his best in the canvass. At
the convention the Bergen County delegation claimed
that under the party usage their county was entitled to
name the candidate for Congress for two terms in succes-
sion, and they would name Mr. Phelps, who should in
justice be given the nomination without opposition. But
John Hill of Morris County was very desirous of occupy-
ing a seat in Congress again, and his adherents had made
strong eflorts for him at the primary elections. Al-
though Mr. Phelps had positively forbidden that any
struggle should be made to place him in nomination, he
had in the convention but six votes less than Mr. Hill,
who was named. The result created much public disap-
pointment, and the Bergen County Republicans felt that
much injustice had been done their county, and while the
delegates were separating at the adjournment of the con-
vention, many of them made the declaration that two
years later on they would, either with or without Mr.
Phelps's consent, put him forward as an aggressive can-
didate for the Congressional nomination. It will be seen
that they kept their word.

An active part was taken by Mr. Phelps in the manage-
ment of the presidential campaign of 1880 up to the first
of October, when he was overtaken by an utter physical
collapse which seriously alarmed his family and his phy-
sicians. The most skilful medical advisers insisted that
he should at once give up everything — free himself from
all care of business and politics — and go abroad. He felt
that he would have to yield, but he did not depart until
he had made two telling speeches at mass meetings, one
of which was in Paterson, where he was heard by a vast
assemblage. But so feeble was his health that when the
vessel that was to bear him away left its dock at Hoboken,
many of his friends awaiting his departure expressed well-
grounded fears that they were bidding him a final farewell.
He landed at Bremen, but before proceeding to Italy and
the south of France, where he intended to spend the

82 William Walter Phelps

coldest months of the winter, he made a tour through
Southern Germany and Austria. At the beginning of
January, 1881, just as the train which was to convey him
to Italy was starting out of the station, a clerk from the
hotel where he had been stopping came running up and
tossed into his car letters and papers which had just
arrived from the United States. He examined his mail
leisurely as the train went on, and finally coming to his
newspapers, the first one he opened gave an account of
the wrecking of the savings bank at Hackensack. His
first thought was that the closing of the doors of the bank
at the beginning of the winter would put to loss and
serious inconvenience, and probably actual suffering,
many of the depositors of lesser amounts — workers in the
brick-yards and others who had accumulated small sav-
ings. Just as soon as he reached a stopping-place of the
train from which a message could be wired, he sent to his
New York ofifice this telegram :

Pay immediately all deposits in savings bank, of one hun-
dred dollars and under, principal and interest, and charge the
same to me.

Sheriff David A. Pell of Bergen County, Mr. Phelps's
old and tried friend, was entrusted with the payment of
these moneys. He was furnished with funds within a
few hours after the cable dispatch was received and was
ready to make full payments upon the books without any
delay. The sum that was thus disbursed was about
eighteen thousand dollars. Mr. Phelps was afterwards
partially reimbursed by the dividends made by the re-
ceiver of the bank. Fair-minded men and newspapers
credited this advance of funds by Mr. Phelps justly as an
act of disinterested generosity and it elicited great praise
from the common people. The New York Evening Post
said:

The purpose we believe to be entirely disinterested. Mr.
Phelps has done a good many good things in his lifetime, but

His Life and Public Services 83

this is certainly one of the very best. If sincere gratitude
possesses any curative quahty, Mr. Phelps may be expected
back in New York very soon in perfect health.

Like praise came from many other newspapers far and
near, and a Hackensack local journal said :

With all the expressions of sympathy for the poor whose
scant savings were reduced by the thieving cashier, and the
little left tied up in the meshes of a just but tardy law, none
of our wealthy citizens — not even the most heated denuncia-
tor of the crime and the criminal — have given practical effect
to their uttered feelings. Individual cases of suffering have
been frequently mentioned, but beyond the meagre aid fur-
nished by church societies, the victims of the Bergen Savings
Bank have received a portion so insignificant as to escape
public notice.

With this phase of the situation in mind, it is with an en-
hanced degree of gratification that we call attention to the act
of Hon. Wm. Walter Phelps, who, hearing in a foreign land of
the distress among his poor home-neighbors, views their con-
dition from the broad plane of unselfishness, and flashes to
them the cheering words, " I pity you to the extent of your
loss," accompanying the message with the solid evidence of
sincerity. This deserves the more positive commendation
from the fact that Mr. Phelps believed that the deficiency in
the savings bank would be much greater than at present in-
dicated. But we know that he did not weigh the matter sor-
didly — his sole object was to give speedy relief to the suffering,
and his action will receive no other interpretation from those
who avail themselves of his generosity, if they are not wholly
void of conscience.

In this day and community, such an exhibition of practical
philanthropy from a man in no wise interested in or respon-
sible for the shortcomings of the broken bank, naturally ex-
cites wonder and comment among those unacquainted with the
gentleman ; but to his friends it is no surprise — it is simply an
additional proof that he is a man, clothed in that warm mantle
of charity which is proof against the abrading contact of a
selfish world.

84 William Walter Phelps

The Englewood Standard said this :

Though compelled by ill health to be absent in a foreign
land, Hon. Wm. Walter Phelps does more to help the people
of this county than is generally supposed. About half of the
1078 depositors in the Savings Bank, who were for a time de-
prived of their savings by the conduct of Berry, and who had
a natural fear that they might lose at least a large part of their
reserves, are thus saved from loss or further inconvenience.
There are not many men who have the true unselfishness for
such an act of kindness, to persons for the most part personally
unknown. Yet it is hard to conceive of a more truly benevo-
lent way of using means. Those who are aided in this case,
it is fair to presume, are in almost every instance persons who
have deserved assistance in any emergency, because they have
been frugal and industrious. To each of them, and to one
or two thousand more who are dependent upon them, the
mere advance of money which they would ultimately recover
is a great relief. The sudden escape from prolonged and tor-
turing anxiety, the assurance that they and their families are
not to suffer whether the final settlement of the bank's affairs
is to be near or long delayed, are benefits which cannot be
measured in dollars and cents. The more fortunate, who
have thousands in reserve, usually have also other incomes.
But those who have deposits of only $100 or less, in very
many instances have nothing else to protect them against
actual suffering in case of sickness or failure of employment.
Generosity is always admirable. But it deserves four-fold
appreciation and honor where it is guided, as it is here, by a
wise regard for the circumstances, the needs, and the probable
merits of those to whom the helping hand is extended. Mr.
Phelps has done many things to make the people of Bergen
County respect and honor him. But perhaps he has never
had opportunity to do any other thing that could show more
clearly how well he deserves the affection which his friends
in this county and elsewhere have for him.

In the Atlantic Monthly Magazine of July, 1881, was
this paragraph :

His Life and Public Services 85

Leaving the realms of prayer and faith, and returning to
the palpable ground of good works, we actually have some
magnificent charities. When the Bergen Savings Bank failed,
Mr. William Walter Phelps, a politician and an office-holder,
late a member of Congress, and now minister to Austria, him-
self, though entirely irresponsible for the loss, paid to the
small depositors their dues. It is said to have cost him twenty
thousand dollars, and from a business point of sight I do not
see how it can be justified; but for solid happiness how can it
be surpassed!

Mr. Phelps made a careful record of much that he ob-
served in various countries and places, and he wrote in a
letter from Florence :

I see lots of suggestions in building; and if I could only

draw, how often I should jot them down for future use.

. I 've been in many countries, old and famous and

rich, but there is no country where the poor man has his rights

and chances as in our own.

CHAPTER IX

Appointed Minister to Austria — His Real Estate in Washington — Assassin-
ation of President Garfield — Sympathy of the Austro-Hungarian
Government and People — Generous Contribution to the Garfield
Fund — A Tour in Oriental Lands — Resigns His Mission

M

R. GARFIELD had been elected President, and Mr.
Phelps had been informed by letters from Mr.
Blaine early in the winter of 1881 that the Maine states-
man would be Secretary of State. The new administra-
tion was inaugurated on the 4th of March. Mr. and Mrs.
Phelps had been at Nice for some time, but had left for
Florence in the early days of March, just a day previous
to a very disastrous theatre fire at Nice. The newspapers
published the following incident connected with Mr. and
Mrs. Phelps's arrival at Florence :

When Mr. Phelps reached his hotel two cable dispatches
were handed to him that had been forwarded from Nice.
The first was from his friend, Mr. S. B. Chittenden of
Brooklyn, which read: "Are you hurt?" This puzzled
Mr. Phelps very much, for, having been on the road, he
had not heard of the fire at Nice, and his friends in this
country not having received any word of reassurance
from him or Mrs. Phelps were much alarmed, fearing that
he might have been at the theatre, and sent a cable
dispatch to inquire. The second telegram was opened,
which was unsigned, and contained these words: "Nom-
inated Minister to Austria." This only intensified the
mystery, and there was quite a wonderment for a time
until Mr. John Bigelow, who had been wintering at Flor-

86

His Life and Public Services 87

ence, came in and on being shown the dispatches ex-
claimed: "I can explain! " and then Mr. Phelps for the
first time learned of the theatrical fire, and that he had
received the unexpected appointment to the Austrian
mission.

Mr. Phelps returned at once to the United States and
went to Washington to receive his commission as Minister
to Austria and the instructions of the State Department.
It was while awaiting these formalities that he was in-
duced to make an investment in Washington real estate.
At the beginning of the march of improvements toward
the northwestern section of the national capital, a dis-
tinguished member of Congress from Ohio bought a plot
of ground on Dupont Circle, a locality then but very little
developed. He became impoverished in health and some-
what in purse and needed to sell his land to a cash pur-
chaser. It was then that the owner's friends, finding Mr.
Phelps in Washington, persuaded him to advance the
money and take the property at fully its value. Real-
estate experts did not hesitate to say that the purchaser
had allowed his sympathy to impair his judgment, but in
a few years that section became the most desirable in the
city, and in 1890 Mr. Phelps had disposed of most of this
land for more than three times what it cost him. It was
on a part of these lots that Mr. Blaine built his large and
famous house. While owning the Dupont Circle prop-
erty, Mr. Phelps bought for less than ninety thousand
dollars some acres of land on the heights at the foot of
Massachusetts Avenue, which was once part of a renowned
country seat called "Kalorama, " the home of Joel Bar-
low, a celebrated Connecticut statesman of the early days
of the republic. This property was afterwards parted
with in whole or in part at a satisfactory profit. Mr.
Phelps made other large investments in Washington real
estate, and at one period owned property in that city
approximating in value one million dollars.

The comments of the leading newspapers and of public

88 William Walter Phelps

men on President Garfield's selection for the Austrian
mission were exceptionally complimentary. The choice
was no doubt a wise one. Mr. Phelps had the patience
and the tolerant disposition of a natural diplomat, to-
gether with tact, skill, and cleverness for seeing the right
time and the right method in transactions. This is the
way the commission read that Mr. Phelps received :

yames A. Garfield, President of the United States of America,
to William Walter Phelps of Neiv jpersey. Greeting.
Reposing special trust and confidence in your Integrity,
Prudence, and Ability I have nominated and by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate, do appoint you Envoy Ex-
traordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States
of America, to Austria-Hungary; authorizing you, hereby, to
do and perform all such matters and things as to the said
place or office doth appertain, or as may be duly given you
in charge hereafter, and the said office to hold and exercise,
subject to the conditions prescribed by law.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the Seal of the United
States to be hereunto affixed.

Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the Fifth
day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand
(Seal) eight hundred and eighty-one, and of the Indepen-
dence of the United States of America the one hun-
dred and fifth.

James A. Garfield.
By the President.

James G. Blaine,

Secretary of State.

The new Minister reached Vienna in June and was
most graciously received by the Austrian Emperor, with
whom he could talk fluently in French, that being the
customary language of the Austrian Court. The Ameri-
can Minister in a short time established himself in a mag-
nificent home, having hired for a residence and for the
business of the legation a marble palace, owned by one of

His Life and Public Services 89

the princes of the Empire. He fitted it up with an eye to
comfort as well as to elegance, and here the American
Minister began to entertain officials of the Government
and other guests with lavish hospitality.

Our Minister was barely settled in his new home when
very early on a lovely Monday morning in July there
came to the American embassy the startling news that
President Garfield had been shot by an assassin on the
Saturday previous. The sad news spread throughout
Vienna with lightning rapidity. All the ambassadors and
foreign ministers present in the capital ; all the chiefs of
the civil and military departments called at the legation,
or left cards, or sent notes; while telegrams from every
quarter where tourists seek protection from the invading
summer's heat begged for information.

In European Court circles paramount are the rules of
etiquette. Acknowledgment of each courtesy must be
made before midnight, and for once a triumph of etiquette
must be recorded in the annals of the American legation.
Minister and secretary went post-haste to thread the
quaint old lanes where high functionaries have their
palaces, and told in different salons and in hurried breath
the thanks of the Government and the hopes of recovery.
In the meantime the young men of the legation had to
get up steam to answer questions by letter and telegram.

Then began that long series of watches for Mr. Blaine's
telegrams, which came daily, though at all hours of the
day, and for the revelations of which the reporters of
Vienna waited at the gates. During the hours and days
of anxious expectancy that followed, the best of Austria
never lost their interest, but called or sent to the Chancel-
lerie of the Empire to get the contents of the latest mes-
sages from Washington.

When the September night brought the sad end of it
all, — the death of the President, — there began the second
series of diplomatic condolences. There was this differ-
ence, however, that the Minister had no need to return

go William Walter Phelps

the calls this time. Etiquette again. All the require-
ments of the occasion were fulfilled by his Excellency,
the Minister, answering promptly and gracefully all who
chose to offer their condolences in writing.

With his accustomed care for details and proprieties,
Minister Phelps addressed a State document to the De-
partment at Washington, giving a concise report of the
attitude of the Austrian press on the great tragedy ; the
sympathy of the Emperor and Empress, the conduct of
the Foreign Office, the Diplomatic Corps, especially the
representatives of Great Britain and the Pope. This paper
was worded as follows :

Legation of the United States,
Vienna, July 12, i88i.
To the Secretary of State,

Sir ■

A telegraphic message from you to Mr. Minister Lowell
and by him transmitted to this Legation, where it has just been
received, gives us such assurance of the President's recovery
as to encourage me to break the inaction of painful suspense.
And the first wish — after expressing the gratitude and delight
with which the Legation, in common with all their country-
men, welcome the good news — is to convey to the Department
some idea, if it be possible, of the interest and feeling mani-
fested for the President by this great Empire, its people and
its government. And it seems to me not inappropriate that
the archives of the Department should receive and retain some
formal record of a natural sympathy at once so hearty and so
universal.

Under that impression I have taken the liberty of noting in
this dispatch some few of its more striking features. Horror
at the deed and anxiety stimulated by the fluctuating char-
acter of the frequent telegrams as to the fate of the victim,
filled the popular heart. It is true that popular feeling has
not here so many ways to manifest itself as with us, but all
were used to give it expression.

Telegrams of question and sympathy poured into the Lega-
tion and we were constantly occupied in sending replies, see-

His Life and Public Services 91

ing anxious visitors and returning the visits of certain high
personages with the promptness which diplomatic custom
enjoins.

The press gave the news with great fullness, and accom-
panied it with comments that never failed to be friendly.
Nor even after the forebodings of a fatal issue were removed,
was there any reflection that could be construed other than
friendly, unless the use of the occasion as a text to attack the
character of our civil service, and the so-called "Stalwart"
party as responsible for its defects. But in reflections of this
nature, the Austrian journalists only kept in line with the
press of the rest of Europe.

The Austro-Hungarian government, from its august head,
through all it departments of internal and external administra-
tion, sought at all hours by note, messenger, or personal call,
to obtain the latest news and to express continuing interest.
I had the honor to telegraph the Department that, within a
few hours after the news of the occurrence reached the conti-
nent, the Emperor telegraphed from Isehl, where he was visit-
ing, for all particulars, and soon after by telegram instructed
Count Wolkenstein to call to ask me to transmit directly to the
President his Majesty's sympathy and good wishes.

I may presume to remind the Honorable Secretary, that I
called his attention at the time of my first interview with the
Emperor to the singular knowledge his Majesty had of the
President's history and deep admiration for a character in
which the conscientious habit of constant labor was the same
to both Imperial and Repubhcan ruler. Her Imperial Ma-
jesty was also considerate enough to send distinguished mem-
bers of her suite for the same purpose.

These examples were followed by all subjects of conspicuous
rank in the civil and by many in the military service.

I transmit herewith a hst of some of the more conspicuous
persons who called during the first day or two to express their
respectful condolence.

I noticed that the newspapers here made the remark that
the attack upon the President was "treated at the Foreign
Office as an attack upon a legitimate sovereign." I certainly
have seen nothing omitted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs

92 William Walter Phelps

which would have increased my faith in his sincere sympathy.
I transmitted to him copies of telegrams, as soon as received,
and intelligent and appreciative recognition of their changing
character were promptly returned.

All the members of the Diplomatic Corps were prompt and
assiduous in their attentions.

Were it not invidious, where all had done and expressed so
much, I should like to express my gratification at the pecu-
liarly intelligent and sympathetic view of the case taken by the
Ambassador of her Britannic Majesty and the Nuncio of the
Pope. Perhaps it was the skill of scholarship that gave such
delicacy and grace to the words of Monsignore Vanutili, but
only a heart filled with love for a people among whom he had
once labored could have given birth to the feelings they
expressed.

I trust that all the words of congratulation and cheer which
have already been exchanged by so many Austrian well-
wishers for those of sympathy and condolence, to which I
have referred, may not prove vain, and that the President
may long live to enjoy the respect and admiration which the
world has had an occasion to show him.
I am. Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

Wm. Walter Phelps.

When President Garfield died, after the prolonged suf-
fering of many days, the American Minister sent to his
Government a full account of what then took place at
Vienna, in these words :

Legation of the United States,
Vienna, October 13, 1881.
To the Secretary of State,
Sir :

A lull in the varied manifestations in which this Empire has
sought to show its sympathy in our national bereavement, sug-
gests the propriety of transmitting to the Department a minute,
which shall record, however imperfectly, some features of the
strange picture.

The Legation received the first intelligence of the death of

His Life and Public Services 93

President Garfield from Mr. Attorney-General MacVeagh, in
a brief and informal telegraphic communication. By the
same method, I promptly imparted the sad news to the Min-
ister of Foreign Affairs. His reply, also telegraphic, promptly
and heartily expressed his personal sympathy and gave the
assurance that the people of Austro-Hungary were already
sharing in the sorrow of the United States. I did not com-
municate Baron Haymerles' kind assurances to the Depart-
ment, because in the same telegrams to which I have referred
he was kind enough to inform me that the Austrian Legation
at Washington had already been charged to communicate his
Majesty's sentiments directly to our government.

Soon after, on receiving from the Secretary of State fuller
particulars of the President's death, I prepared and sent to the
Minister of Foreign Affairs a fuller communication, which
should furnish to the archives of the Empire, to which I have
the honor to be accredited, formal and official notice that on
the evening of Monday, September 19th, at ten minutes before
eleven o'clock, James A. Garfield, President of the United
States, died at Elberon, New Jersey; that for nearly eighty
days he suffered great pain and during the entire period ex-
hibited extraordinary patience, fortitude, and Christian res-
ignation; and that sorrow throughout the country was deep
and universal, fifty millions of people standing as mourners by
his bier. I also announced that President Arthur had already
qualified and assumed office as his successor.

By this time the news was generally known throughout this
vast empire, and from that moment all the resources of the
Legation have been exhausted in the effort to note and prop-
erly recognize the various methods in which the different
nationalities of this composite Empire sought to give sign of
their sympathy and interest.

It seemed my first duty to provide some method by which
our own citizens, brought to Vienna by various chances, might
meet and solace their sorrow in a common expression and par-
ticipation. In this distant city, there is generally no American
colony, indeed the Legation has no record of a single Ameri-
can family resident here. And yet so penetrating and pervad-
ing was the idea of nationality, that a notice of little more than

94 William Walter Phelps

eighteen hours found among the crowd of passing tourists and
the young students of our hospitals, enough to fill the German
Reformed Church, which was kindly and gratuitously offered
for the use of the meeting.

The meeting was held Thursday, September 2 2d, at noon.
The building was black with the festoons of woe, hung by Aus-
trian hands that insisted upon the sad privilege. The chancel
was hid in flowers, and among these surroundings, a band of
American citizens, in a strange, though friendly land, gathered
to think of their fatherland and to commemorate its loss. In
my telegraphic dispatch of September 23d, I had the honor to
inform the Department of these memorial services and to ex-
press my gratitude to the distinguished men who by a fortunate
chance were in the city, and patriotically made a painful effort
to give voice to the feelings of the occasion. Consul-General
Weaver called the meeting to order; the American Minister
presided. Appropriate remarks were made by Mr. Weaver,
Judge Field of the United States Supreme Court, Whitelaw
Reid, Charles A. Whitney of New Orleans, Edward King,
Messrs. Taylor, MacArmor, Gillig, and others. A pleasing
incident was when Mr. Fraser Rae, who had entered the room
in company with Edward Jenkins, rose and asked that he
might in behalf of Englishmen speak of the universal sorrow
as one in which they claimed a share as kinsfolk. Resolutions
were passed, a copy of which is hereto annexed. Other copies,
initially engrossed on parchment, have been sent to His Ma-
jesty the Emperor and to Mrs. Garfield. The meeting was
closed with prayer, led by the Pastor of the Church, in obedi-
ence to the custom, which from the foundation of our govern-
ment has prevailed in solemn gatherings of American citizens.

In the meantime appropriate resolutions had been passed by
Vienna and other municipalities; and since by the Diets of the
various principalities composing this Empire. Some were pre-
sented in person, but more were transmitted in writing by the
Presidents and Burgomasters of the respective corporations.
All expressed similar sentiments of horror at the assassin's
deed, regret for its results, and sympathy for the country and
family deprived of their head. I noticed with peculiar pride
many cases in which the loss was admitted to be not solely that

His Life and Public Services 95

of a Republic that lost a great ruler, but that of the world that
lost a great and good man. Styria, Silesia, and Nuder Oester-
reich are some of the historic names which I recall with pleas-
ure as those of peoples whose local parliaments were among
the promptest to take ofificial cognizance. In many cases, to
add dignity to the act, the parliamentary confirmation was by
a standing vote.

One of the earliest telegrams received was read to the In-
ternational Literary Congress, then holding its sessions in this
city, and amid manifestations of great sorrow, the session was
adjourned for the day. But not these conspicuous honors,
not the march of Emperor and nobles, of cities and parHa-
ments as they wheeled into the world's funeral procession,
were signs so touching and significant as the voices that came
from humble Austrian homes.

To hear their utterance of spontaneous grief, sometimes in
letter sadly lacking of pencraft but rich in eloquent feeling,
sometimes in telegram, with careful and studied use of this
unwonted method, sometimes from the lips of a man poor and
illiterate, who came boldly to the Legation's Chambers, know-
ing that every man was there welcome who came to speak ten-
derly of an American President, this was a proud privilege
which did not fail to soften the bitterness of my personal grief.

It was not official, but no single utterance of sorrow from
foreign lips was more tender and comforting than a few lines
from Julius Hubner, the president of the Dresden School of
Fine Arts. An old man, famous in both continents, he had
laid down his brush and seized his pen to tell how Art, too,
joined in the general mourning.

Nor should I fail to call attention to the interest felt and
expressed by our business population. This has been so
marked in the experience of Mr. Consul-General Weaver that
he has formally called my attention to it in a letter, a copy of
which is enclosed.

I have mentioned only the incidents connected with the
President's death and peculiar to it, or at least, not noticed by
me in the early days of July, when Austro- Hungary joined
with us in celebrating the probable restoration of General
Garfield to health.

96 William Walter Phelps

All the methods and incidents then used to show national
interest and sympathy were again in activity. The press filled
its columns with the news and with comments of sense and
feeling. The diplomatic corps called or left cards, also many
officials and nobles of the higher rank. But I made at the
time so full mention of all these incidents in my dispatch No.
8 that I need not recall them, but beg leave to say in brief,
that nothing was left undone that could show the deep feeling
of this great Empire, a feeling which made it akin with the
world.

I have the honor to be, Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

Wm. Walter Phelps.

At the meeting of Americans in Vienna, called to ex-
press their sorrow at the death of the President, Minister
Phelps, on taking the chair, said :

General Garfield is dead. A nation mourns for its chief
magistrate and the world for a good man. It is proper that
a little band of Americans happening to be in this distant
capital should assemble to commemorate such a sad loss. We
have changed our skies but not our hearts — the sky is Aus-
trian, the heart American. We are caught by the circuit of
national sympathy which to-day is experienced by all American
wanderers, and connects them with fifty millions of their coun-
trymen who in their own land stand by the grave of a mur-
dered President. With them let us mourn for our country,
but not as those without hope. The life of the nation is above
and beyond that of any citizen. A bullet may kill James Gar-
field, but the institutions which nourished him are immortal.
Never can they die until we forget the epitome of Republican
duty which Rome formulated but could not follow, or we de-
spair of the Republic, and cowardly let it receive detriment.

As soon as it was known that President Garfield was
dead, steps were promptly taken in Republican financial
circles to raise a fund for his family, which was not pro-
vided with abundance for their future. Hearing of this.

His Life and Public Services 97

Mr. Phelps sent to the Chamber of Commerce, New
York, a telegram in these words :

Death has removed all danger of misconstruction. Let me
subscribe five thousand dollars to the Garfield fund.

When Mr. Garfield's funeral ceremonies were over, Mr.
Phelps at once telegraphed to the State Department at
Washington his resignation of the Austrian mission.
He believed that the new President, Mr. Arthur, should
be left entirely untrammelled to select his own foreign
ministers. The post in the first instance was conferred
upon Mr. Phelps without his solicitation and unex-
pectedly. He accepted it reluctantly and wholly out of
consideration for President Garfield, who was his personal
friend, and with whom he had served in Congress. The
appointment was not suggested by Secretary Blaine, but
came directly from the President. The diplomatic and
business relations between the United States and Austria
were not of such weight and prominence as to give the
representative of our Government at the Austrian Court
matters of serious importance to consider. It was not to
Mr. Phelps's taste to serve as ambassador to a Court
where there was much etiquette and little serious diplo-
matic work. There was a supposition that Mr. Arthur
would be a candidate for the presidential nomination in
1884, and Mr. Phelps knew that it was the intention of
Mr. Blaine's followers to nominate him for the Presidency
that year in spite of all obstacles. In this movement,
Mr. Phelps expected to take a foremost part. Conse-
quently, if he retained his mission, he would be placed
politically in an unpleasant antagonism to his chief.
Further, Mr. Arthur had been a prot6g6 of Roscoe Conk-
ling, and the inference was a fair one that under the new
regime at Washington there would exist a political anti-
pathy to the admirers of Mr. Blaine. Therefore to re-
lieve himself and the President of all embarrassment, Mr.
Phelps very judiciously, and with gladness, asked to be

98 William Walter Phelps

relieved from his ministerial duties as soon as his successor
could conveniently reach Vienna and assume the duties of
the position. President Arthur received the resignation
in the same friendly and courteous manner with which it
was tendered, and the incident did not produce the slight-
est personal coolness between these two distinguished
men who had for years enjoyed each other's friendship.

Judge Alonzo Taft, who succeeded to the Austrian
mission, did not reach Vienna until a year after Mr.
Phelps had resigned. In the meantime, the latter had
become highly popular at Vienna, not only with the Im-
perial Government, but with the foreign ambassadors.
He was the youngest of all the plenipotentiaries at the
Austrian Court, but with his public experience at home
and the knowledge he had acquired through his acquaint-
ance with government affairs gained in foreign travel, he
was the equal of any of the foreign representatives at
Vienna in all that pertained to diplomacy. Many of his
friends and acquaintances who happened to be travelling
in Europe found their way to Vienna to meet his hearty
welcome and enjoy his company. He gave the utmost
care to the comfort and entertainment of American
guests, gave elegant dinners to the officials of the govern-
ment and the nobility, and the gay society of Vienna
found him a very desirable accessory. He received in
return conspicuous social and official attention. The
Emperor invited him to a private dinner, and he was a
distinguished guest at a banquet given by the Emperor
to the English, American, and Italian ambassadors. A
visit of the King and Queen of Italy to the Emperor of
Austria made that a time of banquets, receptions, balls,
concerts, dazzle, and Court etiquette. At a royal recep-
tion King Humbert had a long talk in French with our
Minister, and Queen Margherita addressed Mrs. Phelps in
English and told her how pleased she was with some of
the American magazines for young people and said that
she had her son read them.

His Life and Public Services 99

A little later, Minister Phelps travelled for a short time
in Germany and Austria, in aid of his investigations into
the local governments of Austria, and his studies of the
history of the smaller governments of which the great
German Empire is composed. Then came a tour to
Greece, Turkey, and Sicily, and finally his travels for the
winter were concluded with a visit to Egypt and a trip up
the Nile. His diary at this time is replete with records
of the thoughts that were awakened in his mind by the
scenes, the history, and the marvels of these old and in-
teresting lands. At Palermo, where Garibaldi first landed
to drive the Bourbon dynasty from Naples, and to carry
unity and a liberal government to all Italy, he made this
comment upon the great liberator :

The world was his country ; to do good his religion. Gen-
erous impulse more attractive than discreet service. Italy
needed an example of unselfish enthusiasm, not statecraft.
He was like a religious leader in the hold he had upon the
people, reckless of any alteration in events. Italy looked up
to him as the French did to Jeanne d' Arc.

At Constantinople, accompanied by the United States
Minister to Turkey, General Lew Wallace, Minister
\Phelps was honored by being invited to inspect the Sul-
Y^an's treasure in the vaults of the imperial treasury. This
is regarded as a high compliment which is only vouch-"
safed to visitors of exalted rank. This collection of gold,
silver, and precious stones in great variety has been
looked upon as one of the wonders of the East, notwith-
standing the repujtedgoverty of the Turkish Government.
"Ar'Giiro~T:he American Minister was received with
honor by the Khedive, with whom he conversed, the
Egyptian potentate inquiring closely into our methods of
government. The Minister was a guest at a great ban-
quet given on Washington's Birthday by our Consul-
General to Egypt and the American gentlemen who had
been stopping at Cairo through the winter. The entire

loo William Walter Phelps

Egyptian Cabinet was present. The Consul-General of
the United States presided. On his right was Minister
Phelps, and next to him the Prime Minister of the
Khedive, and opposite the famous Arabi Bey, Minister
of War. Speeches were made in English, French, and
Arabic. The Rev. Dr. H. M. Field of New York, who
was present, wrote to the newspaper of which he was
editor: "The last speech was by Minister Phelps, who
mingled wit and wisdom in such a way as to put every-
body in the happiest mood, and formed a pleasant close
to the entertainment." A new Khedive had been re-
cently installed in power and his government just organ-
ized. Mr. Phelps in his speech referred to the late
unsettled condition of Egypt and expressed the belief
that "the man was now in position who would guide the
ship of state safely through the troubled waters." The
Egyptian authorities seem to have noted this compli-
ment, for Minister Phelps, on his return to Cairo, wrote
on March i8th to a friend in New Jersey:

Down the river from Arabia and in a sea of accumulated
letters. As I sat on a sofa to-day with the Khedive the same
as I would with you, I was rather delicately reminded that I
had made a forceful speech on Washington's birthday. This
accounted for something that had surprised me, for all the
way up the Nile I had banquets and illuminations, and salutes,
and no end of speech-making. I now go to Beirut — Dodge's
College — then Constantinople, Vienna, Carlsbad, and home,
and the Congressional nomination if so it be.

After Mr. Phelps returned from his tour in the Turkish
provinces, he made a written report to the State Depart-
ment of what he learned of the conditions of trade and
commerce in the East, as they affected business relations
with the United States, and he dwelt upon the influence
of American education in developing among Oriental
nations a high regard for our country and everything
bearing its name. This statement referred particularly

His Life and Public Services loi

to the work of the American colleges on the Bosphorus
and in Syria, and the educational labors of our mission-
aries.

Release from his ministerial functions came at last to
Mr. Phelps by the arrival in June, 1882, of his successor,
who was at once presented to the Emperor, to whom Mr.
Phelps's letter of recall was delivered. This document
was written in the high and mighty style of such State
papers and read :

Chester A. Arthur,

President of the United States of America,

To His Imperial and Royal Majesty

Francis Joseph,

Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, and

Apostolic King of Hungary.

Great and Good Friend :

Mr. William Walter Phelps, who has for some time past
resided near the government of Your Majesty in the character
of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the
United States, having been at his own request recalled, and
being about to return to his country, I have directed him to

take leave of

Your Majesty.

Mr. Phelps, whose standing instructions have been to culti-
vate with Your Majesty's government, relations of the closest
friendship, has been directed to convey to Your Majesty, upon
his leaving Austria-Hungary, the assurance of our sincere de-
sire to strengthen the friendly feeling now happily subsisting
between the two Governments. The zeal with which he has
fulfilled his former instructions leaves us no doubt that he will
carry out this, his last commission, in a manner agreeable to
Your Majesty.

Written at Washington, this 8th day of May in the year 1882.

Chester A. Arthur.
By the President.

Fredk. T. Frelinghuysen,
Secretary of State.

I02 William Walter Phelps

The late Minister informed the State Department that
his successor had assumed the duties of his ofifice, and
with the courtliness that was natural to him, expressed
his thanks to the Department for "uniform courtesy and
assistance. ' ' This ended his ofificial duties as Minister to
Austria.

CHAPTER X

Discovers the Resting-Place of His Ancestor, John Phelps, at Vevey,
Switzerland — Erects a Tablet to His Memory — Letter to His
Children

WHILE Mr. Phelps was living in Vienna, he em-
braced an opportunity to do honor to a renowned
personage of the ancient Phelps stock in England, from
which he descended.

John Phelps, brother of William Phelps, who was the
first of that name to come to this country, and was the
founder of the Phelps family that was settled at Simsbury,
Connecticut, was the private secretary of Oliver Crom-
well, and also clerk of the court which tried Charles I.
Upon the restoration of the Stuarts, he had to leave his
home, with others who took part in the trial and con-
demnation of the King, and until recent years no trace of
his subsequent whereabouts could be found. During his
service at the Austrian Court, William Walter Phelps on
several occasions exhibited his faith in republicanism in
a manner that attracted the attention of other European
capitals and the European press. Consequently some of
these newspaper reports were seen by the secretary of the
British Museum, and that official thought he saw in the
character of the independent American diplomat some-
thing similar to the prominent characteristics of Crom-
well's clerk. He therefore rather more than suspected
that Minister Phelps was a descendant of the family of
the illustrious John Phelps, and he wrote to the American

103

I04 William Walter Phelps

Minister, pointing out this resemblance. Then Rev.
William Prior, at that time rector of the little Episcopal
church at Vevey, Switzerland, heard of this correspon-
dence between the American diplomat and the English
secretary, and he wrote to the former that the remains
of John Phelps were interred at St. Martin's Lutheran
Church at that place. Minister Phelps had a careful in-
vestigation made, which satisfied him of this fact, and he
applied to the authorities of the church for the privilege
of marking with a handsome tablet the resting-place of
the sturdy old Puritan. It seems that others of the
tribunal that sentenced King Charles to death found a
refuge at Vevey and were buried at this same quaint old
church, and among them were Broughton and General
Ludlow. The last named had put his name to the death-
warrant of Charles and was one of the most illustrious of
the parliamentary soldiers and statesmen in the revolt
against that monarch. It is written that some of the
refugees were a little timid over the record they had made
in their native land, but Clerk Phelps was not. He was
so proud of his participation in the trial of the King, and
so willing that it should be known, that he wrote his
name in full wherever it could be properly done all over
the minutes and on all the papers of the trial. His fate
as a refugee apparently was not a very hard one, and the
end of Lake Geneva, where Vevey is situated, is not a
bad place to live, and for that matter, to die in, after a
man has done encrugh to justify his having been born,
and the presumption is that old John Phelps had this
feeling to the end.

The request of Minister Phelps was graciously acceded
to by those in charge of the church, who very kindly dis-
placed the record of some one not distinguished for aid-
ing to put out of the way a bad King, so that the Phelps
marble could be placed next to that of the heroic General
Ludlow in the walls of the old church. It bears the fol-
lowing inscription :

His Life and Public Services 105

In Memoriam

of him who, being with Andrew Broughton joint clerk of

the court

which tried and condemned Charles the First of

England

had such zeal to accept the full responsibility of his act

that he signed each record with his full name,

John Phelps.

He came to Vevey, and died, like the associates whose

memorials
are about us, an exile in the cause of human freedom.

This stone is placed at the request of

Wm. Walter Phelps, of New Jersey, and

Charles A. Phelps, of Massachusetts,

descendants from across the seas.

Subsequently Mr. Phelps received from the secretary
of the British Museum a copy of a print made at the time
of the royal trial, in which John Phelps is represented
sitting at the table in front and to the left of the presid-
ing officer. The drawing was said to have been made by
an eye-witness of the trial named Pye. This picture was
hung in the Phelps library at Teaneck. As a companion
to this picture, Mr. Phelps had another which was painted
by Javurck, the best historical painter in Bohemia, and
was presented to him when he resigned the Austrian mis-
sion by the American Consuls to Austria, as an apprecia-
tion of his gentle sway over them. The latter mementos
were lost in the disastrous fire which destroyed the famous
Teaneck mansion in 1888.

Having paid a generous and proper tribute to the
liberty-loving old Englishman of his name, Mr. Phelps
penned the following letter to his children :

Vienna, April 25, 1882.
My dear Children:

This solemn address does n't spring from the solemnity of
my subject, but because our English tongue gives no less formal

io6 William Walter Phelps

style in which to group you when I don't want to rehearse all
your names. Here is a copy for each of you of a little photo-
graph that tells its own story. It represents a monumental
tablet just put into the wall of old St. Martin's Church in
Vevey, Switzerland, at my expense. The inscription tells
pretty much the whole story that has any interest for us now.
He was clerk of the memorable court that tried and beheaded
Charles Stuart. He did his part with proud conscientious-
ness and had so noble a courage of his opinions that while he
might have discharged his duty less conspicuously and have
escaped in comparative insignificance terrible responsibility, he
courted it and certified with needless frequency, and on every
occasion, each proceeding of that august tribunal, with his full
name in bold hand, " John Phelps."

I think we know all the intervening links between him and
us. And in what quiet churchyards in our own and our
mother country they all now sleep; the most, I think, in our
own Simsbury, the line of grandfathers to the sixth remove.
Exiled upon the return of the Stuarts, this John Phelps disap-
peared from his home in Tewksbury, and from the eyes of his
descendants. By chance, during my residence here, I heard
that with Ludlow, Broughton, Gove, and other regicides, he
fled to the shelter of the Swiss republic and ended his life by
the waters of the placid Leman in the little village of Vevey.
And now these actors in that stormy scene sleep together far
from the country where their bold deed made constitutional
liberty a sure British possession. The tablet of our ancestor
is next to Ludlow's. I caused Mr. Charles A. Phelps's name
to be associated with mine in the inscription, because to his
loyal zeal in research I owed the discovery. Besides he is a
worthy descendant of the worthy regicide and has himself done
good service to the state. I send with this a letter of his,
written upon receipt of one of the photographs, which shows
at once the singular sweetness of his nature and a few of his
graceful accomplishments.

Not knowing how heartily I am a democrat at heart, believ-
ing unreservedly in the equal rights of all men, and that posi-
tion and honor should be awarded to each according to his
own character and achievements, you may wonder at the

His Life and Public Services 107

pleasure I experienced in finding and putting into our lineage
an ancestor more than two centuries dead. I admit a warm
pride in my ancestry and do not see that it is at all inconsistent
with these political sentiments. I am proud of my ancestors
because they were all honest and useful men, who loved their
country, and in their stations — often humble ones — did their
duty. And the recollection of these virtues, which form a
family inheritance of great value, is a pledge, in a certain
sense, for the good behavior of their descendants. When a
man has such hostages given for his conduct, it is an induce-
ment to keep him in the path of honor. Often a man would
be desperate enough to stain his own record, and yet hesitate at
the thought that the stain would trickle upon and stain his
forefathers. So every man who had good ancestors should
cherish and cultivate their memory.

Your affectionate father,

Wm. Walter Phelps.

CHAPTER XI

Urged to Again Enter Congress — Pathetic Letter to a Friend — Consents to
Be a Candidate — Elected to the Forty-Eighth Congress, after a
Vigorous Campaign, over a Popular Opponent

AS soon as Mr. Phelps sent to Washington, in 1881,
the resignation of his Austrian commission, letters
began to be showered upon him by his political admirers
at home, and from the most influential party men of his
district, insisting that they should be permitted to an-
nounce him as a Republican candidate for Congress in
the election of the following year. He remained a con-
stant martyr to ill health, and while abroad he had
made up his mind no longer to pursue a public career-
to forego politics, except so far as he might be able to
assist Mr. Blaine to the next Republican presidential
nomination, and it was with the latter view only that he
was keeping a close watch upon political affairs in New
Jersey. For himself, he had a wish to go back to his
ample estate at Teaneck, and settle down permanently to
the life of a country gentleman, and for diversion going
back to his first love — the law, the successful practice of
which, circumstances some years before had compelled
him reluctantly to relinquish. He thought he would like
to resume the study of legal and economic questions and
write upon them for law journals and periodicals which
made a specialty of such literature. But under the im-
portunities of his confidential friends and old political
associates who had stood by him so loyally, he began to
have doubts as to which was his duty. While in this

108

His Life and Public Services 109

frame of mind, he wrote from Vienna, in January, 1882,
to one in his district whom he knew had his best interests
at heart and who was a representative of a circle of his
truest friends, the following:

You ask what are my plans. They are uncertain, as must
always be the plans of a man with no better health than I.
This is most likely to be the result. My successor to get here
— say in March. I would travel until May. Then May and
June to Carlsbad, getting home say about July loth. This
can be altered — only if nothing to alter it, Carlsbad ought to
be taken, for it does me undoubted good.

If I sink my preferences and go again into politics, then I
do it only upon your express understanding to run the machine.
By this I mean you and others must tell me what to do in the
active work and I will do it. This is for two reasons. First,
I 've no confidence of my scent in practical politics. Second,
while you need n't tell Mrs. Phelps, I 've such a wretched body,
even at the best, that there is very little work or go in me.
This lack or weakness affects me more in the inclination than
in the execution ; so that while I would sit still and do nothing,
if I waited for my own suggestion, yet if I were prompted to
something, I could still pick up and do it with some force.
Therefore, if you want to enter such a spavined colt, do it,
knowing you must jockey the run. Again, because of this
lack of physical stamina for aggressive and continuous political
effort, I want to let the United States Senatorship, for which
my name has been suggested, drift. If you decide to enter
me for the Congressional race, then inform me. I shall leave
it to my friends when, how, and to whom to make the an-
nouncement — or no announcement at all. You can manage
everything as you see best. But it will be better for my health
if I can spend the summer at Carlsbad.

Here were breathed the pathetic yearnings of a robust
mind in a frail body, and scarcely hidden in all is the
saddened belief of the man in his innermost soul that,
hampered as he was, he still had in him capacity for
great work for his country and mankind. It was not Mr.

I lo William Walter Phelps

Phelps's habit to make plaint of his bodily infirmities,
therefore it should be kept in mind that this was a private
letter to a most confidential political friend and adviser
at a crisis which was likely to be a turning point in the
writer's political fortunes. Mr. Phelps correctly diag-
nosed his own case. When his mental energies were
awakened to an arduous task, so intense would be his de-
sire to accomplish it that his physical inertness would
seem temporarily to vanish and his force of execution
become truly marvellous, and this would continue day
after day, until the work in hand was finished. No one
could ever perform more vigorous and persistent mental
labor when he was once aroused to its necessity. After
the date of the rather despairing letter just quoted, he
did some of his greatest work in statesmanship and diplo-
macy, and his achievements stand forth conspicuously in
the history of two continents.

Those who knew Mr. Phelps best sincerely believed
that with his active mind, and at his age, he would chafe
in retirement, even to a point of danger, and that his
health would be likely to be better and his life prolonged
by active employment in public life, a sphere for which
he had such eminent fitness. They consequently resolved
that the Rubicon should be crossed, and word was sent
that when he should come home he must expect to face
a Congressional canvass which would be managed and
made as easy for him as possible. He then wrote to the
recipient of his former letter:

I will sail for home on the Elbe, August 30th. I choose that
date because I get very eager to see Teaneck before the frost
can possibly take the leaves from the trees which have two
years' growth for me to see.

It was always the trees of Teaneck.

This entry is found in his diary: "1220 steerage pas-
sengers. Two babies died. Reached New York 8 A.M.,
Saturday, 9th of September."

His Life and Public Services m

The primary elections for delegates to the Congres-
sional convention were called soon after Mr. Phelps
reached home. John Hill was again a candidate. He
had supporters who used all their endeavors to have dele-
gates elected who were favorable to him in Passaic County
and in his own county of Morris. In the latter he ob-
tained most of the delegates. The Hill interest in Pater-
son was aided by one or two disappointed office-seekers,
whose enmity originated during Mr. Phelps's first term in
Congress. He met also the antagonism of a small body
of Republican silk manufacturers, who were alleged to
have had a grievance against him on a point of etiquette
growing out of an occurrence when they went as a com-
mittee to Washington on one occasion when he was hav-
ing his first Congressional experience. Their efforts at
the primary meeting were futile, and Mr. Phelps obtained
almost the entire body of delegates from Bergen and
Passaic counties, and his nomination was made in the
convention without difficulty. The successful candidate
did not attend the convention, so that its choice could
be entirely free from any influence his presence might
create. He was informed of his nomination by a com-
mittee and in response to their written notification he
said :

I have received the kind letter in which you communicate
to me the honor which the Fifth New Jersey Congressional
District Republican Convention have done me, in unanimously
nominating me as their candidate for Congress.

And I find enclosed a copy of the resolutions which the
Convention adopted as the sense of the party in the District.

I accept the nomination so generously offered without solici-
tation or effort on my part. I did not think it right to seek it,
but I should think it wrong, after receiving it, to omit any
honorable effort to secure an election.

Striving to follow the example of the young men of the Dis-
trict, to whom I am informed I owe in a great measure my
present position, I shall immediately begin a personal canvass,

112 William Walter Phelps

in the hope of meeting in each school district the people,
whose interests I seek the opportunity to represent. The
frankness with which in an earlier Congressional experience,
I expressed my sentiments on most national issues, and the
industry with which friendly and unfriendly papers, during
the succeeding years, have canvassed any public expression I
have since had occasion to make of them, renders it unneces-
sary for me to do more, than to say that I still advocate:

A fair, free, and full election everywhere, no matter which
party it helps or hurts.

A reform of the Civil Service which shall make the tenure
of office, during the term of appointment, co-eval with the ca-
pacity and honesty of the office-holder.

A watch over the Public Treasury which shall guard its
money, its lands, all its assets against private and corporate
assault.

An improvement of the currency, so that no creditor shall
be forced to receive any dollar worth less than a dollar in gold.

And protection, in the interest of labor, for our young and
varied industries.

On reading your platform, I see nothing in it at variance
with these my life-long sentiments, and nothing therefore
which I cannot approve and work for.

The Democrats, thinking to create a factional diversion
in the Republican ranks through the disaffection of the
combination of Paterson silk manufacturers, nominated
for Congress John Ryle, a leading silk manufacturer, who
had once been a Republican, and as such, Mayor of
Paterson. He learned the business of a silk fabricator
in his native England, emigrated to Paterson when
young, and there became the pioneer of the silk industry
in this country. He was English in build, manners,
speech, and force of character, but withal a patriotic
American and enterprising and most widely known citi-
zen, respected as a man for his intelligence and integrity.
He was well along in years and his ambition was stimu-
lated by the suggestion that he should round out his life,

His Life and Public Services 113

as the saying is, with a term in Congress. The silk
manufacturers largely rallied to Mr. Ryle's support and
contributed liberally to his election fund. A Prohibition
candidate, in the person of a popular Methodist minister,
was also put in the field, whose candidacy could only
divert votes from the Republican nominee. Altogether
the opposition to Mr. Phelps seemed to be a formidable
one. But his campaign was being managed by confi-
dential advisers who knew the district, the temper of the
voters, and their confidence and pride in Mr. Phelps, and
these managers never for a moment believed that with
the canvass the Republican candidate was making, defeat
was possible. Mr. Phelps seconded the efforts of his
friends industriously and energetically. He met and
talked with the people of the three counties in their
homes and at all kinds of gatherings. His pleasant and
unaffected manner gained for him a cordial reception
among all classes and made him more popular than ever.
At a great mass meeting held in the Opera House, Pater-
son, October 24th, the Republican nominee for Congress
began his speech in these words :

Eight years ago, after the tidal wave that had swept seven-
teen Republican States from their moorings and made it almost
an act of heroism to vote the Republican ticket; in the face
of a long and heated canvass ; after earnest efforts had been
made to bury me under the odium of wealth and prosperity ;
in the face of persistent efforts to turn every humorous allusion,
in what they are pleased to term my witty speeches, and every
kindly word in which a young representative expressed his
cordial regard for a most partial constituency, into words of
arrogance and contempt; with the hostile newspapers holding
in standing proof at the head of their columns extracts from
speeches skilfully selected and printed so as to pervert their
meaning — what was the result? This district gave me one
thousand votes more than a popular Republican candidate for
Governor. A thousand independent men left their party
ranks for the purpose of stamping their reprobation on such

114 William Walter Phelps

injustice. This was the answer which the people gave to
these old slanders eight years ago — and the answer was so
emphatic, that I shall not attempt to improve it. And this,
gentlemen, is the only personal allusion I shall make this
evening, and I make it now, because this is my first oppor-
tunity to thank the loyal city of Paterson for the conspicuous
part it took then.

He then proceeded to make an exposition of the posi-
tion held by the respective parties on the tariff question,
showing in his most concise style the danger that would
threaten the protective industries of Paterson from a
Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.
This address had a damaging effect upon the Democratic
campaign.

The Democratic leaders knew what the success of Mr.
Phelps at this time would mean — the loss of the district
to them probably so long as he might be a candidate, and
they did not intend, if they could by any means prevent
it, that he should gain another foothold in Congress.
For this reason the contest became, in some measure,
of national importance. The Democratic press attacked
Mr. Phelps most venomously and endeavored to rouse a
prejudice against him in the ranks of labor because he was
a rich man, notwithstanding his Democratic opponent
was also a man of wealth. These tactics were always
used against him in all his campaigns, but it was never
perceptible that this sort of arraignment was ever suc-
cessful in drawing away from him the votes of the wage-
workers. He had an amazing popularity with that class
from first to last.

The colored voters who had opposed him in 1874, be-
cause he voted against the Civil Rights Bill, had come to
realize their mistake and now gave him a hearty and al-
most unanimous support. The campaign was conducted
up to the very eve of the election with unceasing vigilance
and energy. It was plain to close observers, two weeks
before the voting, what the result would probably be, but

His Life and Public Services 1 1 5

those who had the Republican cause in hand meant that
the victory should be such an overwhelming one that it
would discourage and stamp out all future factional oppo-
sition by the Republican followers of Mr. Ryle, and when
the time came such a victory was won.

It is but fair to say that the silk manufacturers who
opposed Mr. Phelps at this election were afterwards
among his warmest and most effective supporters.

The counting of the votes disclosed that Mr. Phelps
had run ahead of his ticket in all the counties of the dis-
trict, as he had done in his previous contests. Bergen
County, although it remained a Democratic stronghold,
gave him a handsome plurality. In Passaic County, the
average Republican plurality was but 288 ; that of Mr.
Phelps 639. In the whole district the general Democratic
ticket had an aggregate plurality of 357, but the total
majority of Phelps over Ryle was 1638. This victory,
under all the circumstances, was one that Mr. Phelps and
the Republicans had good reason to be proud of, and
again, for the third time, the result at the polls afforded
undoubted proof of the confidence and respect of the
great mass of the voters of the Fifth District of New
Jersey for the distinguished citizen of Bergen County.

CHAPTER XII

His Road-Building around Teaneck — His Offers to Englewood Start the
" Good Roads " Movement in Bergen County and over a Million
Dollars is Spent as a Result

{T would be more than a year from the date of the
election to the opening of the new Congress in which
Mr. Phelps would be a member. This interim gave him
a coveted opportunity to devote considerable time to the
development of his large property in Bergen County, and
to enhance the beauty and add to the conveniences of his
homestead acres, where he was making improvements
without a parallel in individual enterprise in the State.
He devised and carried out plans of road-making which
created a network of thoroughfares through his whole
estate. He did not confine his enterprise to his own
lands, but labored to have his neighbors enjoy the benefits
of his progressive ideas, and as a consequence he became
the pioneer of good roads in Bergen County.

When he came to New Jersey the roads were noted for
red mud in some sections and deep sand in others. He
immediately set about creating a sentiment for public
road improvement. He attended meetings of road boards
in his own and neighboring districts, and urged macadam-
izing instead of expensive dirt road repairs which never
resulted in lasting benefit. When his persuasion began
to show an influence and the voters authorized what to
them appeared to be liberal appropriations, Mr. Phelps
stepped in with an offer to duplicate any additional sum
they would name. This practice was kept up to the end

Ii6

His Life and Public Services 117

of his life, and an example of his persistent and generous
encouragement to road-making is given in the following
letter :

Berlin, January 22, 1891.
To THE Citizens of Englewood:

In my recent visit to my home, I had great pleasure in see-
ing everywhere the signs of progress. I do not want to see it
stop. In the hope of encouraging this spirit of improvement,
I respectfully submit the following offers:

1. I will give one-third of the amount necessary to buy, on
the west side of the station at Englewood, the land necessary
to make a park corresponding to that already made on the east
side.

2. I will give one-third of the amount necessary to buy a
steam roller for our road-making.

3. I will give one-third of the amount necessary to be raised
by popular subscription to secure the new station at Linden
Avenue or Railroad Avenue: — Either situation seems to me a
fit one.

4. I will pay half of the expense necessary to dredge the
canal, which is the main channel of our sewerage. As this
offer was rejected last year, although this work is admittedly
necessary to the health of Englewood, I can think of but one
reason. I am ashamed to mention it, but answer it by saying
that a moment's inspection will show that I have constructed
ditches on both sides of the canal, by which my low lands are
drained whether the canal be deepened or not.

5. I will pay one-half of the expense necessary to macadamize
Cedar Lane from the track of the West Shore Road to the
Hackensack River.

6. I will give one-half of the cost of a village monument to
our dead soldiers, on the lines laid down by Col. John D.
Sherwood, if in it the claims to honor of James Harrison
Dwight, priest and soldier, be conspicuously represented.

Wm. Walter Phelps, of Teaneck.

This method inspired the people of adjoining districts
to engage in friendly rivalry in stone road-building, and
as they were giving to the limit of their taxable ability,

ii8 William Walter Phelps

there was no feeling of dependence upon their generous
neighbor.

The recognized influence of an object lesson, especially
upon the public, was soon manifested on all sides. The
fine hard and dry roads of Englewood township (of
which Teaneck township was then a part) spread rapidly
throughout Bergen Countj', and it has ever since shown
a larger expenditure for macadamized highways, without
State aid, than any rural county in New Jersey. The
total expenditure for building roads in the county since
the work was started in Englewood exceeds a million
dollars, all cheerfully voted by taxpayers who were edu-
cated up to the idea by the one influence.

Of thirty miles of road on the Teaneck estate, about
eight miles are macadamized, the other portion being
dirt or grass roads. These included Sheffield Avenue,
from the mansion to Nordhoff; the Diagonal road from
the residence to Englewood; West Englewood road,
from the residence to West Englewood; Hackensack
road, from the residence to the Hackensack River ; Ben-
nett road, from the residence to Englewood ; Demarest
road, three miles long, from the residence east through
the woods, and the Fyke, then south over hills, and down
near the West Shore road, connecting with nearly all
other roads to North Cedar Lane.

In addition to these principal roads, dirt and grass
roads extend throughout the estate in every direction,
arranged with such system as to make access to all parts
of the estate easy. Miss Phelps was fond of horseback
riding through the woods, and her father spared no pains
to cut wide and widening bridle-paths through the most
deeply shaded woodlands, that she might, as he hoped,
be always able there to indulge in her favorite exercise
and pastime.

One of the most important of Mr. Phelps's contributions
to road-building is Cedar Lane, connecting Teaneck road
with Hackensack at Anderson Street bridge. This was

His Life and Public Services 119

originally the crudest imaginable thoroughfare, over which
trafific was possible with any degree of safety only under
the most favorable weather conditions. Mr. Phelps
widened it and cut down steep grades, filled in the de-
pressions and macadamized it, making one of the finest
highways in the vicinity. The outlay for this two miles
of work was $3S,ooo, the figures indicating the extent and
thoroughness of the work.

The difificulty of obtaining stone during the earlier
period of this road-building enterprise was such that Mr.
Phelps had to adopt his own measures. In several in-
stances he induced farmers to join in the good-roads
movement by offering to work highways if they would
furnish field stone for foundation. Then he purchased a
stone-crusher and established it on the Palisades, where
the supply of trap-rock is inexhaustible.

A road in which Mr. Phelps took especial interest is that
extending from his later residence to the armory at Engle-
wood. It is three miles long, abounds in picturesque
effects and views, and is entered through a stately stone
lodge. All the private roads of the estate were thrown
open to the public for pleasure driving, use of the bridle-
paths even being permitted to horsemen. Large numbers,
increasing yearly, avail themselves of these privileges.
The private character of the Grange drives is main-
tained by several artistic gate-lodges, built at points of
intersection with public thoroughfares. These lodges
are artistic in design and contribute largely to the beauty
of the surroundings.

While utility was the prime consideration in road im-
provement on the Grange and connecting highways,
beauty of effect was not lost sight of, the artistic sense of
the owner being ever present where its influence would
contribute to the attractiveness of a scene. This is seen
in the many bridges throughout the park, about sixty in
number, some of them wood, but many of stone ; several
of these are quite imposing structures.

I20 William Walter Phelps

Next to the love for trees on his estate, Mr. Phelps
manifested this strong sentiment for good roads. His
correspondence with the manager shows this persistently.
Travelling in far-off lands, he never forgot his New Jer-
sey home and plans for its improvement and beautifying
were being constantly evolved. He wrote from Califor-
nia, in the summer of 1885: "I am going to make the
connection with the Teaneck road — our puzzle — as direct
as possible, even if I have to cut deep."

This determination to "cut deep," wherever Mr.
Phelps's acute judgment saw opportunity for improving
the material or aesthetic surroundings, culminated in a
series of stone and turf drives unsurpassed for views,
romantic and picturesque, and to him every mile of those
broad and level roads and tree-lined paths was a constant
delight.

CHAPTER XIII

Re-enters Congress in 1883 and again Becomes Prominent in the House —
Presents a Bill to Establish Civil Government in Alaska — First Ap-
propriation for a National Building in Paterson — His Memorable
Fight for the Relief of General Fitz-John Porter — Smooths out Troub-
les with Bismarck — Important Committee Work to Establish the
Manufacture of Ordnance and Armor Plates in this Country — Fa-
mous Speech to New Jersey Farmers — Farming for One's Country

IN the spring of 1883 the affairs of the district began to
claim the attention of the Congressman-elect. Let-
ters were numerous, asking his aid for all kinds of things
that were wanted from the Government. The demands
for those who had claims for pensions were many, and to
these he gave a patient hearing and faithful support. Of
the many private bills for relief that he introduced and
had passed at the eight sessions of Congress where he was
a member, by far the larger number were for the benefit
of old soldiers, whose cause he was ever ready to plead.
A well-known leader among the veterans of Morris
County wrote to the editor of a local journal in 1884:

On January 31st I wrote a letter to Hon. William Walter
Phelps pleading that he would use his influence, his voice,
and his vote in behalf of the Union soldier of the late war in
all just measures introduced in Congress for his benefit, and
on February 4th he wrote me, from the House of Representa-
tives, the following reply:

" My dear Sir:

" I have read your letter with much interest, and sympathize
with you heartily in all efforts that are made to provide for

122 William Walter Phelps

those who suffered either by sea or on land in the country's
cause. Nearly all the cases in our district have received very
kindly treatment, and the number of orphans and widows
whose homes are made comfortable by the monthly stipend is
very large.

" Yours truly,

" Wm. Walter Phelps."

I trust the old comrades will make a note of this kindly let-
ter, and the manly feeling toward them expressed in it, and in
November next remember the author.

The newly elected Congressman had also to encounter
the constant demand for public documents, a vexation
from which no Senator or Representative can free himself.
His predecessor had left him the quota for his district of
the government seeds, the distribution of which is always
a great bother, and he found at this time that there were
at least a dozen lady applicants for every package of
flower seeds at his disposal. His reputation for politeness
and courtesy had increased his difficulties, hundreds of
requests coming from outside his own district. To one
of the newspapers he had occasion to write :

It looks as if the whole State of New Jersey wanted flower
seeds. I have requests from all the counties in the State, and
am at a loss what to do. Of course I have not seeds enough
for the demand in my own district, and cannot well accede to
demands outside it. That does not trouble me, but it troubles
me that these outside applicants who write such pretty notes
should think they were entirely neglected, and yet I cannot
answer them.

Late in 1883 Mr. Phelps went to the Adirondacks for
a short stay and returned in time to attend the Repub-
lican State Convention to nominate a candidate for
governor. He strongly urged the nomination of his pre-
decessor in Congress, Hon. John Hill, who had many
other ardent advocates. But the convention named

His Life and Public Services 123

Judge Jonathan Dixon, which was not a fortunate choice,
as the result of the election afforded abundant evidence.

Before December, Mr. Phelps went to Washington to
look for a dwelling. Just as he found one he thought
suitable, he heard from a house on the next street in the
rear the noise of a brass musical instrument, evidently
being played by a learner. He then declined to take the
house, as he said, laughingly, because there came to his
mind the published quotation from the famous Spurgeon :
"Can a man who practises for a brass band get into
heaven? No reason why he should n't, but very difficult
for his neighbors. ' '

The Congressman, however, secured a desirable house
on Massachusetts Avenue, which made him a home of
comfort. Here he entertained generously and hand-
somely, and there was no more hospitable mansion in the
city. Distinguished men, in and out of Congress, were
welcomed there and his guests were from the world over.
He was especially popular with the Diplomatic Corps and
it was said that he could speak to half the members in
their own language.

The Forty-eighth Congress assembled December 3,
1883, ^nd ^^- Phelps was in attendance. It was now
ten years since he had first appeared at the national
Capitol to take a seat in the House of Representatives.
Since then there had been marked changes in Congress
and in the country. In several instances, the principles
he had struggled to maintain in the Forty -third Congress
had been adopted in the government policy and been put
in practice by legislation. In finance the country had
been educated up to his views, and his financial theories
had been formulated into law. Specie payments had
been resumed, the national credit upheld, and a stable
currency established. The national debt was being con-
stantly diminished and the rate of interest upon it de-
creased. The movement for the abolition of the moiety
methods in collecting the revenue of the country, which

124 William Walter Phelps

he had inaugurated and eagerly promoted, had been suc-
cessful, and importers of merchandise were no longer
blackmailed and fleeced by harpies protected by law.
The losses and destruction of the Civil War had been
regained and repaired. Commerce and all the industries
of the country had responded to the improved policy of
the Government. Business was being expanded in every
direction and the republic was making astonishing prog-
ress in wealth and prosperity.

Mr. Phelps, with his years of busy intercourse with the
moving influences of the world in his own and other
countries, had come to a wider experience and a larger
information and his character was more fully rounded
out. But his lofty purposes were the same, with en-
larged abilities to carry them into effect.

Great, also, were the individual changes in the House.
The leaders in the Forty-third Congress were the leaders
of neither party in the Forty-eighth. Of Mr. Phelps's
old Congressional associates some had died, a few had
gone up to the Senate, many had been retired to private
life. Mr. Garfield had been made President and become
the victim of an assassin. Mr. Blaine was a private citi-
zen, busy preparing his famous book which recorded his
recollections for many years of public men and events.

Conspicuous among the Democrats of the House now
were Randall, Carlisle, Curtis, and Hewitt; among the
Republicans, Reed, McKinley, Dingley, Kasson, and
Hiscock. There were others of great talent on each
side.

The Congressional elections in 1882 had generally been
disastrous to the Republicans and there was a large Demo-
cratic majority in the House. The very able John G.
Carlisle was chosen Speaker, and Samuel J. Randall, the
strongest intellect and the most skilful parliamentary
manager among the Democrats, was the leader of the
majority.

The new Speaker, at the start, recognized Mr. Phelps's

His Life and Public Services 125

knowledge of foreign matters and made him one of the
members of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He was
also placed on the Committees on Civil Service and on
the Tenth Census. Early in the session he was compli-
mented by the Speaker in being appointed one of the
Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, of which bod> of
scholarly men Chief Justice Waite and Senator Edmunds
were members.

A few days after the House was organized, Mr. Phelps
introduced a bill providing for a civil government in the
Territory of Alaska, to be simple in form and inexpen-
sive. One distinctive feature of this bill was that it com-
mitted the education of the native children to the United
States Commissioner of Education. This interest had
been grossly neglected. Under Russian control there
were schools. When the United States took possession,
these schools, which had been sustained by the Russian
Government, were abandoned and none took their place.
This grave omission had been noticed and deprecated
by the leading churches and missionary societies of the
country. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church had appointed a special committee to wait on
Congress and solicit action. Interest in various ways
had been manifested by the Baptist, Methodist, and Mor-
avian Churches. A like bill was introduced in the Senate.
The provisions of both bills were finally incorporated in
one and passed and a civil and civilized territorial govern-
ment was thus established in Alaska.

At this session Mr. Phelps presented a bill for the erec-
tion of a Federal building in Paterson. It was not an
auspicious time for such a procedure, as Republican mem-
bers were not favored in that overwhelmingly Democratic
body in having granted to them appropriations for pub-
lic buildings. Notwithstanding the discouraging circum-
stances, Mr. Phelps used every exertion to forward his
bill, but met strenuous and persistent opposition from
one or two spiteful majority members of the Committee

126 William Walter Phelps

on Public Buildings and Grounds, who, after an appro-
priation was agreed to, were determined that the New
Jersey member should not get his bill up before the
House for consideration. He persevered against all ob-
stacles, and although failing in that House, he succeeded
in the next Congress in obtaining the first appropria-
tion for the handsome and commodious Federal building
that is now an ornament to the lively, industrial city of
Paterson.

There was before the House what was called a bill for
the relief of Fitz-John Porter. It may be recalled to the
memory that General Porter, commanding the Fifth Corps
of the Union Army at the battle of Manassas, more fa-
miliarly known as the second battle of Bull Run, was
charged with disobedience of orders and neglect of duty,
and by sentence of court-martial was dismissed in disgrace
from the army. These proceedings were taken in a time
of passion when the North was smarting under the reverse
that General Pope had met with at Manassas. Some one
had blundered and a scapegoat was in demand, and in an
hour of despondency and gloom, the country was easily
made to believe that Porter was a traitor. After the war
came a reaction in favor of Porter, and in the highest
military circles it was felt that his case did not have the
impartial consideration that would have been given to it
at a time when the passion of the people was not unduly
aroused. Generals Grant, Schofield, Terry, Slocum,
Rosecrans, and scores of other prominent Union ofificers,
after a careful review of the testimony and in the light of
revelations made subsequent to the court-martial, came
to the conclusion that Porter was sacrificed on insufificient
evidence and by a tribunal misled by testimony taken in
an atmosphere of defeat, "sitting within the roar of the
enemy's artillery." A Board of Inquiry, appointed by
President Hayes, consisting of Generals Schofield, Terry,
and Getty, made a careful inquiry into the facts and re-
ported that justice required the setting aside of the find-

His Life and Public Services 127

ings of the court-martial and the restoration of General
Porter to his former position in the army. On this report
was founded the bill reported to the House by General
Slocum. Practically the same bill was introduced in the
Senate by General Sewell of New Jersey, an officer of the
Union Army whose patriotism and bravery no one will
have the hardihood to dispute.

The bill was not acceptable to the general mass of the
Republicans, who had no opportunity and no inclination
to examine the evidence coolly and critically, and the
Republican politicians and office-seekers still found in
denunciation of Fitz-John Porter much useful political
capital. The bill was warmly debated by the best speak-
ers of the House day after day in January and came up
for final action on February ist. Mr. Phelps was selected
to make one of the closing speeches for the bill. His in-
tuitions were invariably accurate, and in reasoning upon
any matter, a calm and final conclusion seldom evaded
him. In this case he made no reliance upon this faculty,
but putting aside as many demands upon his time as pos-
sible, for three weeks he gave every moment he could
spare to the tiresome work of reading the voluminous
testimony taken at the court-martial. Therefore when
he arose to speak in concluding the debate, he stood
there not only as an orator, but as a lawyer, giving a
most thoughtful and keen analysis of the testimony that
had been produced at the court-martial. Fitz-John Por-
ter was a resident of Morristown, New Jersey, and Mr.
Phelps, in the beginning of his argument, said :

It is my duty to speak to-day for Fitz-John Porter because
he is my constituent. It is at the same time a pleasure and an
honor because he is my friend, and I believe him to be an
honest man and a loyal soldier.

It was twenty years last week (Monday) since the last signa-
ture was put to the verdict of a military jury which drove him
out of the Army and made him a leper which his Government
should never touch with an office of trust or profit. This

128 William Walter Phelps

verdict awarded him such infamy that for a while Iscariot and
Arnold were his only competitors. A blundering Department
furnished to an anxious President, a baffled Army, and an in-
dignant people this sacrifice ; and fifteen millions straining unto
death to save their country in an hour of supreme despondency
and gloom found a momentary relief in cursing the name of
Porter.

Who was this sacrifice ? One whose ancestry deserved well
of the Republic; one, who as a boy of gentle heart and ways
learned in the National Academy to hold a stain upon his
honor as a wound, and to conceive all honor as sphered in
loyalty to his country; one, who as a youth stood the most
chivalrous and accomplished officer in a guild whose military
code gives to the testimony of a member under oath no greater
force than his formal declaration; one who in manhood won
wounds and glory in the field, and who on the 27th day of
August, 1862, as said the gentleman from Michigan, "stood
the consummate flower of the American Army and its pride. ' '
This was the gentle, chivalrous, illustrious soldier who was
thus lifted up into a storm of obloquy and reproach as a traitor
to his country. What can he do ? His fate is worse than
Arnold's or Judas's. Arnold, hating his country, fled from it
and received the rewards of treason; but Porter loves his
country, and has no thought except of loyal service. Judas
went out and died conscience stricken; but Porter's conscience
is clear, and remorse refuses to lead him to the field of blood.
He does what an honest man ought, and only an honest man
can do ; he takes up his burden and bears it. He will live, and
live down his wrongs. He will wait, and trust to God and his
country for redress. He withdrew to the quiet of a New Jersey
village and established his home. There he faithfully dis-
charged all his duties, neither seeking nor shunning observa-
tion. He was a good husband, a good father, a good neighbor,
citizen, and friend. That little village for twenty years has
watched, honored, and loved the man. They have seen his
eye grow sad and his hair grow white with hope deferred. But
he never talked of his grievance nor asked for pity. He was
fulfilling a sentence which, for such a man, Edward Everett
truly said, was "in some respects worse than a sentence of

His Life and Public Services 129

death." This was his home life. His life abroad was a con-
slant struggle to regain his good name. That was his mission,
and he prosecuted it without pause or rest. On every proper
occasion, in every proper place he declared his innocence,
offered his evidence, and asked for examination.

The testimony of Generals Grant and Sherman bearing
on the case, and the written opinions of some of the most
eminent lavifyers of the day, were quoted by the speaker.
He pictured the valiant deeds of Porter on many battle-
fields, and then concluded his remarks in these words :

Mr. Chairman, the chief of the rebellion walked down the
steps of this Capitol threatening to return and destroy it. He
attempted its destruction and failed. Yet Jefferson Davis
walks in freedom. Men who penned our soldiers in Ander-
sonville and Libby still live.

Officers trained at West Point, whose treason is not investi-
gated, for they practised it from the Mississippi to the Potomac,
sit in this House. Shall Porter, innocent in heart if erring in
act, alone be punished ? Must he be a sacrifice for a nation ?

The hero of Mexico and Malvern and Manassas asks only
for justice; if you refuse him justice, I plead, against his
wishes, for mercy. Take this innocent man from the side of
Judas and Arnold and place him by the side of those who
honor him — by the side of Getty and Sykes and Terry and
Schofield and Grant.

The most rabid of the Republican journals condemned
Mr. Phelps in no sparing language for the stand he took
in defence of the disgraced soldier. Other newspapers of
the same party, but of cooler judgment, expressed their
regrets at his course mildly, but the unprejudiced press,
as a whole, commended his plea for Porter and all acknow-
ledged its marked ability. It met with the approbation
of the New York journals, and the Tribune correspondent
said:

Mr. Phelps had not been speaking many minutes when men
9

I30 William Walter Phelps

began to walk over from the Democratic side, and during the
last half hour of his speech he was the centre of a large group
of Representatives who were anxious to lose none of his telling
sentences in behalf of Porter. The speech was a model of
terse and vigorous eloquence, clear, logical, and polished.
Toward the close Mr. Phelps's delivery became more animated
and he made his points with an energy that awakened en-
thusiasm from the jury he was addressing. He was repeatedly
and heartily applauded, and when he sat down everybody who
had listened to the entire debate was ready to declare that this
was the best speech ever made in behalf of Porter. His frank-
ness and willingness to admit points which seemed to tell
against Porter disarmed his opponents and made them almost
willing to accept the explanations offered in his behalf.

The scene in the House was a very exciting one and
the newspaper correspondents at Washington may be left
to describe it.

The Boston Advertiser :

Fitz-John Porter sat in the gallery for more than eight hours
this afternoon and evening. At the close he received the con-
gratulations of scores of friends that, after all these years, the
House of Representatives, by more than one hundred majority,
had done all in its power to make reparation for the injustice
toward him for years. It was a proud moment for him. His
eyes glistened with old-time lustre as he looked over the bal-
cony and heard the verdict given. All day long the parlia-
mentary battle had raged. The spectators could almost see
the clash of arms and hear the thunder of artillery, as they
were depicted by the hot debaters. Marengo, Balaklava,
Bannockburn, and all the great battles of history were ap-
pealed to for illustrations. The handling of troops, the head-
long charge, the duel of artillery, the surges of victory and
defeat could almost be felt as the veterans of the war fought
their battles over again, charging again and again to restore or
to further disgrace Porter. On the Republican side the party
whip was cracked to keep this one man down. Grant was
belittled, Schofield accused. Porter hissed at, in the hope of

His Life and Public Services 131

making a little party capital at the expense of this one old man.
Federal soldiers pleaded Porter's cause, and Republicans voted
for his restoration. Among Porter's friends were nineteen
who had fought in the Union army, — three generals, seven
colonels, three captains, and six privates. Of the New Eng-
land members, thirteen were for Porter and but nine against
him. Calkins made his speech, significant only for his notice
that the Republicans might call out General Sherman as their
presidential candidate, and then William Walter Phelps made
the speech of the whole debate. Beginning with studied cool-
ness, it was soon apparent that he had mastered the subject:
while members recalled his reputation as an orator, the listless-
ness disappeared around him. As he stood in the front row,
the seats filled and members came in from the cloak-rooms,
while Keifer and Calkins went out. The Democrats came
over from their side and made an admiring circle in the area.
At his front Slocum, Cox, Mills, and others stood listening to
his plea. Mr. Morse's two little boys, playing about their
father, stopped and watched Phelps with open-eyed admira-
tion. His voice could be heard in every corner as he told of
Porter's heroic career, and showed how, at Gainesville, he had
done his duty; aye, more than that, for his discretion had
prevented what might have been a catastrophe. With galling
emphasis he read from the Comte de Paris's revised history,
praising Porter; the author whom Calkins had praised as fair
when he read from the old editions, written before the Comte
had seen the new evidence. He offered opinions from
O'Conor, Reverdy Johnson, Sidney Bartlett, and other great
lawyers, regarding the court-martial verdict. Then, in con-
clusion, he pleaded for Porter because his vindication is but
just, and then because it is but mercy to a man who has suf-
fered enough. " Give him back," he said, " to his old Fifth
Army Corps, who have loved him and will so long as one man
remains. Take him in from the Iscariots and the Arnolds,
and place him with our Getty, our Terry, our Schofield, and
our Grant." And, while the house and galleries trembled
with applause, Phelps looked up once at Porter and sat down,
while a crowd of both parties shook his hand and rejoiced at
the best speech for Porter ever heard in Congress.

132 William Walter Phelps

The Detroit Free Press :

The debate in the House to-day was the most interesting of
the session. The members were present in unusual numbers
and many Senators were upon the floor. The galleries were
occupied to the last seat and many people stood up. Perhaps
the engrossing nature of the proceedings will be best shown by
the fact that hundreds of the audience remained from the com-
mencement to the close, seven and a half hours, in their seats.
In point of logical arrangement, elegance of diction, strong
presentation of facts, many of them new, and scholarly de-
livery the speech of Wm. Walter Phelps, of New Jersey, was
the best of the whole series of speeches upon the bill.

The Boston Journal :

It was by far the most effective one on that side, and the
most eloquent of the session. The latter part of Phelps's
speech was animated and eloquent, and drew not only hearty
applause from the galleries, but brought around him nearly
every member present. They stood before him in crowds and
listened to every word. If a vote could have been taken at
the close of his speech probably many who had made up their
minds otherwise would have cast a vote for Porter.

The Boston Herald:

His speech was an admirable argument, clearly and elo-
quently expressed. He delivered it very gracefully. Interest
in it in the crowded galleries and on the well-filled floor
increased as he proceeded. Members left their seats and
crowded around Mr. Phelps, and he grew more and more
eloquent, until at the close they thronged about him and shook
his hand until it was tired. Old members of the House said
to-night that Mr. Phelps made to-day one of the best speeches
in the House since the war.

The Cleveland Leader :

William Walter Phelps established himself as one of the great
speakers of this Congress by his defence of Fitz-John Porter.

His Life and Public Services 133

A New Haven journal:

The best speech during the debate was that of Mr. William
Walter Phelps of New Jersey, and in some sort of Connecticut,
as he has a fine old homestead at Simsbury. He fairly tore to
pieces the misrepresentations of Cutcheon and others, oppo-
nents of the bill, and while never departing from parliamentary
courtesy, he convicted them of either the grossest and most
culpable ignorance or deliberate falsehood.

A prominent Philadelphia paper said :

That speech was one of the most brilliant that Congress has
heard for many a day. Broad, grand and elastic with human
emotion, it touched every chord of a manly heart. Based on
simple justice, solidified with common sense, and scintillating
flashes of surprising beauty, that speech will take its place in
history as one of the ablest and most original in its happy con-
struction that ever was delivered in our national Congress.
New Jersey has a right to feel proud of William Walter Phelps.

The Albany Argus :

William Walter Phelps showed himself to be a very able
speaker, a thorough scholar, and a charming wit, by his speech
in Congress years ago on the Franking Privilege. The speech
on Fitz-John Porter was very able, manly, and true.

A Washington newspaper said editorially :

William Walter Phelps's speeches in the present Congress
have attracted more attention than any of the session in either
House. His defence of his neighbor, Fitz-John Porter, was
made with delicacy and warmth, and exercised a civilizing
influence over party divisions, setting the way for patriotic
differences across party lines.

Many pages could be filled with extracts from impartial
newspapers approving the independent and courageous
action of Mr. Phelps in this affair, and praising the

134 William Walter Phelps

eloquence and skilfulness of his defence of the unfortunate
general.

A joint resolution was introduced by Mr. Phelps au-
thorizing the Secretary of War to assist in cancelling the
debt and enlarging and improving the grounds and col-
lections of Washington's Headquarters at Morristown,
N. J., and in securing suitable ground on which to gather
the remains of Revolutionary soldiers there buried, and
in erecting monuments over the same.

There came up in this House for settlement a very
vexatious matter, made important only by circumstances.
In the early part of the winter. Dr. Eduard Lasker, a
distinguished member of the Liberal party in the German
Parliament, died while on a visit to this country. Where-
upon one of his admirers in the House offered some reso-
lutions of sympathy with the body of which Lasker was
a member, and in the resolutions were a few words of
commendation of Lasker's political principles. At a
glance, the resolutions seemed to be harmless. Little
attention was paid to them and they were passed. It
seems that the resolutions had to be transmitted to the
American Minister at Berlin and by him presented to the
German Foreign Office, and through that channel sent to
the Parliament. Lasker was probably nearly or quite a
Socialist, and the German Chancellor Bismarck declined
to deliver the resolutions because it was held that Lasker's
political principles were dangerous to the Government and
injurious to the German people. In sending the resolu-
tions back, the Chancellor said that he would have grate-
fully received and transmitted them had they concerned
only the personal qualities of the departed statesman, but
that he was reluctantly obliged to return them because
they contained an estimate of Lasker's political views,
which the Chancellor believed to be incorrect, and having
that belief, he felt that he had no authority to transmit
them to his Parliament. Matters were additionally com-
plicated because the members of the Liberal Union of

His Life and Public Services 135

the German Parliament had passed and sent to the House
a memorial containing an avowal of their appreciation
and hearty thanks for its action upon the death of their
deceased associate, and also expressing their cordial good
wishes to our people. Here was a dilemma. The hot-
headed members of the House wished to stand by its first
action, but those of more sober judgment felt that the
House had carelessly, but unintentionally, done some-
thing that could be construed as offensive to a friendly
Power. At this juncture, the ex-Minister to Austria,
with his knowledge of diplomacy and his familiarity with
the methods and etiquette prevailing in foreign official
departments, was prominent in unravelling this tangle.
In the Foreign Affairs Committee he suggested a resolu-
tion which was reported to, and adopted by the House,
to the effect that the original resolutions were intended
only as a tribute of respect to the memory of an eminent
foreign statesman who had died within the border of the
United States, and an expression of sympathy with the
German people, of whom he had been an honored repre-
sentative; and further, that the House having no official
concern with the relations between the executive and the
legislative branches of the German Government, did not
deem it requisite to its dignity to criticise the manner of
the reception of the resolutions, or the circumstances
which prevented their reaching their destination. This
was accompanied by another resolution, intended to make
all smooth with the German Laskerites by saying, "That
the House cordially reciprocates the wishes of the Liberal
Union of the members of the German Parliament for a
closer union of the two nations, and recognizes their
graceful appreciation of its sympathy with those who
mourn the death of Eduard Lasker. "

A very felicitous and adroit speech was made by Mr.
Phelps in advocacy of these resolutions. He argued
that they contained no word of apology and no word of
insult to the German Empire, and that the receipt of the

136 William Walter Phelps

memorial of the Liberal Union was acknowledged with a
reciprocation of all the cordial wishes which it contained.
This he said was a pathway in which we could walk out
of the slough pleasantly, and make the atmosphere warmer
and all things rosier between the two nations. This
speech seemed to melt away the opposition ; the resolu-
tions were adopted, and this queer parliamentary incident
ended.

Late in the session a resolution was adopted creating a
select committee, with extensive powers to sit during the
recess of Congress, and in any place, to inquire into and
investigate the matter of ordnance ; the capacity of steel
works in the United States to produce metal of suitable
quality and sufficient quantity of high power, and for
metal plates and armor for war vessels ; to inquire into
all matters concerning the capacity of our navy yards for
manufacturing armament for war vessels and seacoast
defences, and to report the best localities in the United
States for building large guns, engines, and iron and steel
ships of war. This Committee as appointed was com-
posed of some of the most competent men in the House,
including Samuel J. Randall, Abram S. Hewitt, Frank
Hiscock, William Walter Phelps, Thomas B. Reed, and
Charles F. Crisp. The Committee was continued through
the succeeding Congress and in these continuous years
performed a great deal of very important and valuable
work. Much time was given to the testing of cannon
and armor plates by experts. American manufacturers
were encouraged to compete with the Krupp works, and
as a result of the labors and investigations of the Com-
mittee, Congress passed various bills for the manufacture
in this country of ordnance, armor plates, and armored
vessels, thus giving an impetus to the reconstruction of
the American Navy, which has since become so formidable
in its great armored ships.

When midsummer was reached. Senators and Repre-
sentatives became anxious to get home to look after their

His Life and Public Services 137

own re-elections and to take part in the presidential con-
test of that year, which had already begun, and a final
adjournment took place July 7th.

Notwithstanding he was busy with his public duties,
Mr. Phelps, at the request of the New Jersey State Board
of Agriculture, took the time to make an address at the
annual meeting of that body in February, 1884. This
annual meeting always brought together a large number
of the most intelligent and progressive agriculturists of
the State. The theme of the speaker was : "New Jersey,
Her Farmers and Her Farms." In his opening remarks,
Mr. Phelps said that he did not claim any superior know-
ledge of agriculture derived from its practice, yet he could
not entirely exclude himself from the guild of farmers.
He could not recall the time when he did not own a piece
of land, which he tilled always with pride, though not
always with profit. His conviction was that every citizen
of a republic who deserved well of it should, even at a
sacrifice, supplement his other activities, however pressing
and numerous, with a little agriculture. He believed if
it were a sweet and honorable thing to die for one's
country, so it was to farm for it, and he had acted ac-
cordingly. The reason of the ancients, when they made
this practice one of the tests of republican character, yet
exists. Agriculture is still the basis of national pros-
perity, and duty calls upon the patriotic citizen who suc-
ceeds in the forum, the market, or on the field, to use
some of the resources he has won there in fostering agri-
culture.

Mr. Phelps used much information and many statistics
bearing upon his subject, derived from the Agricultural
and other public departments at Washington, and some
of the t®pics upon which he discoursed were: Roads,
fences, trees, farmers' profits, home and foreign markets.
Western advantages and disadvantages, and a comparison
of New Jersey's crops with those of other States. He
pointed out the special advantages of New Jersey for

138 William Walter Phelps

farming, showing that there was no necessity for her sons
to "go West " to become prosperous farmers.

This address was published in pamphlet form for general
circulation and it was uniformly referred to in flattering
terms by the newspapers, excepting the ultra free-trade
journals, which excepted to his declarations that protec-
tion to American industries builds up cities, increases the
profits of farming and the value of land. A leading New
England agricultural journal said : "The agricultural ad-
dress of the Hon. William Walter Phelps has attracted
more attention than any other address of its kind."
Among the criticisms from other newspapers were these :

The Newark Advertiser :

No other agricultural address attracted so much attention
and brought out so much comment. The speaker narrated
many interesting facts, showing by the census the farmers of
our State to be worth more than those of any other.

The Morristown Jerseyman :

Through a mistake, we did not receive a sufficient number
of copies of Mr. Phelps's great agricultural speech to supply
our subscribers; but as more have been ordered we expect
to accommodate all. There appears to be one opinion with
reference to this speech — that it surpasses any effort of its
class ever presented to the pubhc. Wherever it is discussed,
in public print or private conversation, it is the subject of
praise.

The Newark Journal :

The speech of Hon. Wm. Walter Phelps deUvered early in
the last month before the State Board of Agriculture at Tren-
ton, is full of interesting and instructive matter. It calls so
strongly for permanent and continuous attention, that nothing
has been lost by our taking such time as we have, to carefully
peruse and consider it. It does not belong to the sensational
and ephemeral hterature of the day. It is a comprehensive,
and powerful presentation not only of questions strictly agri-

His Life and Public Services 139

cultural, but of others only broadly and perhaps remotely so,
as those of general public policy; in fact it is the work of an
able patriotic statesman. All may not agree to Mr. Phelps's
position, but all will, we think, concede his sincerity and that
his positions are most ably sustained.

The New York Tribune :

A most forcible plea for the diversification of American in-
dustries was recently made by the Hon. William Walter Phelps
at Trenton. He discussed the relations of agriculture to other
industries and proved by official statistics that the prosperity
of the farmers, not only of New Jersey but of the United
States, was attributable in large measure to Protection. This
masterly address, the full text of which appeared in the
Tribune, was the most powerful argument which has been ad-
dressed to American agricultural classes since Mr. Greeley's
fingers were stiffened in death.

Mr. Phelps's conclusions are fully confirmed by the Feb-
ruary report of Mr. J. R. Dodge, Statistician of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture.

The Jersey City Journal :

Mr. Phelps takes clear and strong positions and presents
strong grounds in their support. He seems determined to
prove what he says to the satisfaction of his hearers; and his
opponents will admit he comes as near to that as anybody.
He disclaims all oratorical display, and certainly nothing is
indulged in of the " High Falutin " or " Spread Eagle " order:
but as a statesmanlike view of all the policies of the country
in connection with agriculture, we must look for its equal to
the days of Henry Clay.

The Trenton Times :

Congressman Phelps showed the agriculturists of the State
last evening that he was thoroughly posted respecting farm
economy and the means by which farm land can by made
exceedingly profitable. Mr. Phelps's discourse was timely,
thoughtful, and decidedly entertaining.

I40 William Walter Phelps

The Newark News :

For his really interesting and carefully prepared address on
agriculture the farmers of this State should be grateful to Con-
gressman William Walter Phelps. He has given them what
must be most gratifying information concerning their own
wealth and the agricultural resources of the State.

From a New York newspaper:

Representative Phelps, of New Jersey, delivered an address
on farming yesterday which will surprise even his warmest
friends by its ability and mode of treating topics usually con-
sidered commonplace and threadbare. Indeed, when one
remembers how many addresses have been made on similar
occasions and on the same topic, it is remarkable to meet with
a speech so new and interesting as well as strong as the one
fully reported to-day. The statistics which Mr. Phelps pre-
sents are full of interest, and will attract the attention of
farmers in every part of the country.

The Philadelphia Press :

The recent speech of William Walter Phelps before the
Agricultural Society of New Jersey has attracted wide atten-
tion. It was an exceedingly clear and cogent exposition of
the great value of Protection to the farmers. The Republi-
cans might do much worse than nominate Mr. Phelps for Vice-
President.

CHAPTER XIV

The Eno Embezzlement— Mr. Phelps's Successful Efforts to Save the
Second National Bank of New York from Ruin — A Financial Panic
Averted by his Skill and Energy

IN 1884 Mr. Phelps figured grandly in an affair wherein
his business activity and generosity relieved the dis-
tress of many people and saved the community from a
financial panic.

On Monday, May 12th, while he was in the House, a
messenger handed him a telegram which read: "Come
immediately to New York," and was signed by Amos R.
Eno. Mr. Eno was his father's old business partner
and relative, a solid man of many millions, who had
never sent him a dispatch before and had scarcely written
him a letter. He knew that such a message from Mr.
Eno meant trouble of the most serious kind. In a mo-
ment he suspected that it meant disaster to the Second
National Bank of New York City, of which Mr. Eno's
son was president. So, greatly distressed and perplexed,
Mr. Phelps left immediately for New York. Arriving in
that city late in the evening, he went at once to Mr. Eno's
residence, where his coming was expected and the family
were all up. In a few minutes he heard the startling in-
telligence. On Sunday, the day previous, John C. Eno,
the young president, when he found that his defalcations
could no longer be concealed, confessed his crimes to his
father. He had defaulted to an amount without prece-
dent and that challenged belief. He had squandered the
money of his brothers and sisters, which was in his charge,

141

142 William Walter Phelps

had made away with more than a million and a half of
his father's personal securities left for safety in the bank
safe, and had embezzled three millions of the bank's ready
cash, and not one dollar of any kind of securities was left
to represent the loss.

The father was at first astounded at the son's confes-
sion, then mortified, then enraged, only finally to become
heart-broken over the ruin of his boy, and the blemish
on his family name. He did not know what to do for
twenty-four hours, and turned for support to one much
younger than himself, and looked to the son in time of dif-
ficulty as he had often looked to the father years before.
This was the situation as William Walter Phelps found it
when he heard the revelations of his father's old partner.

What was to be done? There was a loss of over three
millions to be made up to a bank whose capital was only
$300,000. The deposits were four and a half millions,
and these had to be paid, or else three thousand de-
positors, of whom perhaps two thousand were women —
many of those widows and orphans — must be made to
suffer. This suffering would not be confined to de-
positors, but the fall of a bank which enjoyed as high
credit as any other financial institution in the land would
precipitate a panic which might inaugurate a general na-
tional suffering and prostration of business. Mr. Phelps
then thought of nothing except to save the country from
this loss. For some years after his father's death he had
been a director, but with the understanding that nothing
was to be expected of him in the way of superintend-
ence or care. But for some time he had not been a
director. When Mr. Eno put his inexperienced son in as
president, the understanding was that the father would
take entire charge and responsibility, and this guarantee
from a man of such unvarying honesty and worth so many
millions seemed to be satisfactory. But Mr. Phelps's
thought of any moral responsibility on his part was soon
lost in his earnest desire to save a panic.

His Life and Public Services 143

He spent many hours in persuading Mr. Eno, an old
man of seventy-three years, that it was better for him in-
stantly to pay the whole than to be, through his son, the
occasion of such suffering. Hours went by and he pleaded
warmly, and all the children sincerely joined with Mr.
Phelps in his efforts to induce the father to make the
sacrifice. AU his kin, without any hesitation, told him
that they preferred absolute poverty rather than to in-
herit money which had been saved at the cost of the name
of the family. The next morning the father yielded so
far as to agree to pay two millions if the stockholders
would pay one. It seemed hopeless to get one million
of dollars from them, because their extremest legal lia-
bility was $300,000. But it seemed worth while to try
and the forenoon was spent by Mr. Eno and Mr. Phelps
in efforts to save the bank. The latter in the afternoon
drove to the residences of the leading stockholders to ask
for their co-operation. He was met everywhere with
the natural reply: "It is Eno's fault. His son was put
in at his request. We understood him to guarantee any
loss from his son. We will pay our legal part and no
more." Mr. Phelps in each case offered to pay one fifth
of the sum, but it was in vain, and he returned discour-
aged, to struggle with the heart-broken father. He in-
duced Mr. Eno to raise the amount he was willing to
contribute and then arranged for a meeting of the leading
directors and stockholders that evening at the house of
Mr. Isaac N. Phelps, a quiet residence not likely to at-
tract the attention of reporters, who had, however, heard
of the place of meeting, and when the gathering was
ready to proceed to business at eight o'clock, there were
seven reporters from the prominent journals of the city
waiting on the steps and in the vestibule of the house.

The discussion was long and full of difiSculties, and
there were constant alternations of hope and despair.
Some would do nothing, others a little, and Mr. Eno,
who was present with his counsel, stolidly refused to do

144 William Walter Phelps

more. Mr. Phelps offered to put in $200,000 if the rest
could be raised. The offer was not accepted. After
midnight, when the meeting was about to adjourn with-
out a decision, Mr. Phelps and the counsel for Mr. Eno
took the latter into another room, and after this con-
sultation and at the last moment, he consented to give
$2,600,000 if the rest were raised. Then, in private in-
terviews, stockholders and directors who were unwilling
were induced to make certain promises which Mr. Eno
required ; that was, that each stockholder present should
pay in cash three times the amount of his stock, and then
Mr. Eno would pay the remaining deficiency.

The reporters were informed that the deficiency had
been provided for, and the meeting broke up. Day was
breaking, but Mr. Phelps could not go to rest, for ar-
rangements had to be made for the rush which would the
next morning crowd the corridors of the Second National
Bank. Presidents of trust companies and bank directors
sleeping in freestone mansions around Murray Hill were
awakened and told the facts. It was the time of a finan-
cial depression, when the banks were doing their utmost
to be ready for a threatened panic. Not a bank or a
trust company refused aid to the extent of their ability
when Mr. Phelps asked them, as his coupe rattled in the
sunrise hours from house to house. Mr. Eno had no
security to give for money, as his securities had all been
taken. He would give his notes and would meet them
by mortgaging property, a part of which was the great
Fifth Avenue Hotel, as soon as it could be done. Mr.
Phelps would give his own name as security.

Before nine o'clock Mr. Phelps, with Mr. Amos R. Eno
on his arm, started for the bank. A crowd had already
gathered and they could enter the building only through
the aid of policemen. The bank was opened at half-past
nine, although ten was the legal hour, and the payments
began. The first money received in aid of the bank was
$90,000 in greenbacks, which came up early from Mn

His Life and Public Services 145

Phelps's office. This was his contribution toward making
up the deficit. He subscribed it first as an example to
other stockholders to come forward. Everything at the
bank was going along well until a little after ten o'clock,
when consternation came to all the directors in the bank
and to Mr. Eno, when a draft for $95,000, which had
been accepted by the Clearing House and cashed, was
brought in. It had been drawn by the president the
afternoon before, and after his confession of guilt to his
father. But it was an additional loss to be provided for.
In his despair, Mr. Eno broke down and no entreaties
could move him. Yet they must raise the extra amount
or the bank must close. The National Bank examiner
stood pale with the rest. No one present felt able to
assume the additional burden. The examiner said: "I
must close the doors then. ' ' But after a moment's pause,
the examiner approached Mr. Phelps, who had just con-
tributed $90,000, and saying, "It is cruel to ask it after
you have done so much, but the fate of so many depends
upon it, can you not make another effort to save the bank
and avert the consequences of its closing?" Mr. Phelps
then said to Mr. Eno: "I will share this with you."
After consulting with his counsel, Mr. Eno consented
and the examiner congratulated Mr. Phelps, saying that
the last rapids had been passed and everything was saved.
Mr. Phelps consequently became responsible for $47,500
more, and Mr. Eno's note for an equal sum was accepted
by the Clearing House.

Money that had been promised came pouring into the
bank all the forenoon, and its doors were kept open until
six in the evening. The next day the run on the bank
ceased and its customers were making deposits.

Mr. Eno subsequently reimbursed all the stockholders
for the amounts they paid consequent upon his son's mis-
conduct, and some years after sent Mr. Phelps a check,
with interest added, for the $47,500 he had paid as a last
act in rescuing the bank from insolvency, but Mr. Phelps

146 William Walter Phelps

was not repaid the $90,0(X) he voluntarily and without
solicitation contributed at the very start of the efforts to
save the bank. Mr, Phelps tried to keep the part he
took in the transaction as quiet as possible and from the
newspapers, but his beneficial action was understood
in banking and business circles and he received from
financiers all over the country letters of appreciation and
thanks.

A letter published in the papers from John A. Stewart,
President of the United States Trust Company, said:
"If Walter Phelps lives to be a hundred years old, he will
never again have the opportunity of doing so big a service
to this community, and indeed, to the country, as he did
last Tuesday."

CHAPTER XV

The Blaine Presidential Campaign — Phelps's Brilliant Work for His Friend
— Caricatured and Maligned— The Sealed Letter— Hard at Work in
Congress — Recuperating in California

IT was well known in the spring of 1884 that the name of
James G. Blaine would be brought before the Repub-
lican National Convention of that year for the presidential
nomination. The sentiment of the party in New Jersey
was not unanimous. Senator Edmunds of Vermont had
supporters. Mr. Frelinghuysen, President Arthur's Sec-
retary of State, with United States Senator Sewell, and
nearly all the Federal office-holders, advocated the nomi-
nation of Mr. Arthur, but the preference of the rank and
file of the party was plainly for Blaine. Mr. Phelps at-
tended the New Jersey State convention, and although
the delegation there chosen for the national convention
was divided in their preferences for President, the Blaine
men predominated, and Mr. Phelps was one of the dele-
gates.

Mr. Blaine himself did not want to be a candidate in
the contest this year. He did not wish to keep out of
public life, but he had a feeling that the office of Secre-
tary of State was one of nearly equal dignity, though of
less conspicuity, than the Presidency, and he believed that
to him would easily fall the first position in the Cabinet
of a Republican President. But this was not all. With
his almost supernatural insight into coming public events,
and his thorough knowledge of political uncertainties,
there became impressed upon him various forebodings of

147

148 William Walter Phelps

defeat. His confidential friends were not unaware of his
feeling. In the winter of 1884 he wrote a letter to Mr.
Phelps, asking the latter to use his discretion in making
it public at a proper time, in which he asked that his
name should not be brought into the convention as a
candidate. Mr. Phelps was one of those who held firmly
to the opinion that a man of Mr. Blaine's mental gifts
and executive capacity ought to be President, and not
sharing his friend's forebodings of defeat, he consulted
with other Blaine leaders, when it was found that the
movement for the nomination of the Maine statesman
had gone too far to be counteracted and his letter was
not made public. Mr. Blaine was easily put in nomina-
tion.

Weeks before the assembling of the convention, when
the nomination was foreshadowed as practically certain,
he was assailed by the opposition press and politicians in
the most malignant manner possible. Not only his private
character, but his public integrity was impeached. Old,
exploded, and forgotten slanders were revived, but the
main charge against him was that he had acquired stock
in a Southwestern railroad as a price of certain rulings he
made while in the Speaker's chair, when legislation affect-
ing this corporation was pendmg in the House. When
these accusations were fresh and were aimed at Mr.
Blaine in 1876, they were brought before the House and
disposed of completely. What was more than anything
else reprehensible in their revival at this time was that
they were set on foot and encouraged by jealous rivals
who were at the head of factions in the Republican party
inimical to Mr. Blaine.

Mr. Phelps did not hesitate to appear at once as the
champion of his esteemed friend, and as he had long
known all about these charges of years before, he was
able to initiate a sound defence of the great Republican
leader. His first statement was made public through a
letter to the New York Evening Post, which had greatly

His Life and Public Services 149

fostered the warfare upon Mr. Blaine. Of this letter the
New York Tribune said editorially :

The letter of the Hon. William Walter Phelps given to-day,
treats with courteous severity the stale slanders of the Evening
Post against Mr. Blaine. No other man in the country could
have spoken with greater weight on this matter. His own high
character, the keen sense of honor which has more than once
compelled him to sacrifice personal interests to a sense of duty,
and his close personal knowledge of Mr. Blaine's business
affairs for many years, more than justify him in saying: "I
think I may claim some qualifications for the task. I have
long had a close personal intimacy with Mr. Blaine, and during
many years have had that knowledge and care of his moneyed
interests which men concerned in public affairs are not inapt
to devolve upon friends who have had financial training and
experience. I do not see how one man could know another
better than I know Mr. Blaine, and he has to-day my full con-
fidence and warm regard. I am myself somewhat known in
the city of New York, and think I have some personal rank
with you and your readers. Am I claiming too much in claim-
ing that there is not one among you who would regard me as
capable of an attempt to mislead the public in any way? With
this personal allusion — pardonable, if not demanded under the
circumstances — I proceed to consider your charges."

Mr. Phelps arrayed his facts with crushing force and
showed that Mr. Blaine had not the slightest interest,
present or prospective, in the railroad in question at the
time of the action in Congress. He proved that Mr.
Blaine acquired his interest as an investment years after-
ward, precisely on the same terms as others, among whom
were some of his then accusers. This defence of the Re-
publican presidential nominee was quoted and criticised
by nearly every newspaper in the country. Mr. Blaine's
supporters maintained that it was a complete vindication
of their chief, and his enemies denounced it, asserting
that it was a lame and mistaken defence. The warfare

ISO William Walter Phelps

of slander and vituperation against the Republican presi
dential candidate was carried on industriously and relent-
lessly until the close of the polls on Election day. During
much of the campaign the enemy's guns were trained
upon Mr. Phelps, as well as the friend whose cause he
was upholding, and he was a great deal of the time under
a shower of abuse and defamation. If the New Jersey
Congressman had never before enjoyed a national reputa-
tion, he certainly acquired it now through the widespread
attention he received vicariously from the opposition
press and platform speakers.

After the election, one of the leading newspapers of
the day said :

Hon. William Walter Phelps of New Jersey was the best
caricatured member of Congress in the last campaign. Puck
literally kept his picture, or rather, a farcial representation,
continually in its pages. Consequently his uncertain Con-
gressional district gave him the most flattering majority ever
given to any Congressman in Northern New Jersey.

Early in the campaign Mr. Phelps went to Bar Harbor
for a consultation with Mr. Blaine ; then he came home
and took the stump. His regard for Mr. Blaine had
aroused him to a brilliant activity. The Republican
candidate's superb mentality, his services to his party
and his country, his earnest championship of a protective
tariff, his long and useful experience in public affairs, and
his grand and intense Americanism, were some of the
subjects that inspired Mr. Phelps's glowing and impres-
sive oratory. He spoke in all the counties and in all the
towns of any considerable size in New Jersey. In all the
chief cities he addressed immense audiences and was re-
ceived by the people everywhere he went with ovations
and demonstrations of welcome. He spoke almost daily
from the middle of September until the election and with
telling effect. It was assumed that he was to some ex-

His Life and Public Services 151

tent a personal representative of the Republican presi-
dential standard-bearer.

Conditions seemed to the Republicans to promise cer-
tain success, but the contest was an unusually heated one.
On the eve of the election there came rolling from the
tongue of a fanatical and officious cleric the three famous
and fatal " R's" — Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion — when
too late to counteract their baneful effect.

On the night of the election, Mr. Phelps went to the
ofifice of the Tribune in New York to hear the returns.
He was accompanied by his young daughter, who had
the closest and warmest sympathy with her father in
all his political undertakings, aspirations, and ambitions.
As the news came into the editorial rooms that evening,
where there was a gathering of noted Republicans, dis-
appointment and gloom began to gather on the faces of
those present. The returns received up to midnight
were not positively decisive, but discouraging, and Mr.
Phelps and his daughter remained in the city all night.
The later returns the next morning were just a little more
hopeful, but not conclusive. Then followed several days
of doubt and conflicting reports. It was, however, de-
veloped that New York State held the balance of power,
and it also became known that Mr. Blaine had the State
by a handful of votes. General Butler had been running
for President on a Greenback-Labor ticket. In the slim
plurality for Blaine was the opportunity of the skilful and
practised manipulators in New York of election returns.
A few-hundred votes transferred from Butler to Cleveland
and the work was done, and there vanished all reasonable
hope of James G. Blaine ever reaching the Presidency of
the United States. There was never a more pointed in-
stance of the great mischief that is sometimes wrought by
small incidents, nor a better illustration of the axiom that
there is nothing certain in politics that has not been made
history.

The whole chapter of Mr. Blaine and the Presidency

152 William Walter Phelps

may be closed in the following words from an eminent
writer :

Nothing can ever take from him his position in the first rank
and stature of the pubHc men of our country. He will be in-
voluntarily remembered and honored among the class of states-
men of America for whom the conditions surrounding were so
fashioned that they did not become Presidents. He was one
of the very few the people expected to reach the Presidency,
by reason of his strength and personal primacy, and were dis-
appointed that he did not. It was a distinction for him, as
for Clay and Webster, not to be President.

Mr. Phelps had been renominated for Congress by his
party by acclamation. His own canvass called for little
personal attention and gave him no concern. In working
for the cause in the whole State, he assumed that he was
doing all that was required for his district. He was re-
elected by a greatly increased plurality. The Republican
plurality in the district for the electoral ticket was 1882;
the plurality for Mr. Phelps, 2244 — the largest that had
ever been given in the district for any candidate.

Greatly exhausted mentally and physically by the
ceaseless labor of the campaign, Mr. Phelps was so
grieved over the result on the Presidency that he scarcely
welcomed his own proud victory with joy. The attach-
ment of Mr. Blaine and Mr. Phelps to each other was
sincere and disinterested, but their political fortunes could
hardly be otherwise than somewhat interwoven. There
was nothing better understood in political circles during
Mr. Blaine's candidacy for President than that, if suc-
cessful, his faithful adherent of long standing from New
Jersey would have the first place in the Cabinet. When
the latter was at Bar Harbor, Mr. Blaine handed him a
sealed envelope, telling him not to open it unless the
writer, Mr. Blaine, should be elected President. There
is no doubt that in this letter Mr. Phelps was told that
he would be made Secretary of State. The letter was

His Life and Public Services 153

of course returned to Mr. Blaine unopened, and if Mr.
Phelps ever knew of its contents, the knowledge was
never divulged.

In less than a month after the election, Mr. Phelps was
in his seat at the opening of the second and short session
of the Forty-eighth Congress. One of his first actions
was the introduction of a joint resolution, providing that
the Government take steps to enable the people and pro-
ducers of the United States to be represented in the Ex-
position to be held at Antwerp, Belgium, in 1885. This
resolution was favorably received and a bill giving the
President ample power to appoint commissioners, and to
use the national ships to convey exhibits to this Exposi-
tion, passed both houses.

In the prolonged discussion on the Inter-State Com-
merce Bill in January, Mr. Phelps and the author of the
bill, Mr. Reagan of Texas, became engaged in a contro-
versy of a personal character, which grew out of an attack
upon the New Jersey Congressman relating to his invest-
ments in railroad-building years before in Texas. The
latter, in his reply, attested the bad faith of the Texas
legislature in repudiating its promises and obligations to
Northern capitalists who had built railroads in Texas of
incalculable value in developing the agricultural regions
of that State. Mr. Phelps's well-known readiness in de-
bate never served him better than in this encounter, where
it enabled him to turn the tables upon his assailant and
place him in a most awkward position, by proving that his
extensive farm lands had been made immensely more
valuable by the railroad that Mr. Phelps and his associate
capitalists had built through them, for which Mr. Reagan
paid nothing, while it cost the builders millions of dollars,
without their ever having received a cent of the money
promised as compensation.

Efficient support was given by Mr. Phelps to the efforts
made at this session, which were successful, in finally set-
tling the long-standing French Spoliation Claims. These

154 William Walter Phelps

claims grew out of the hostilities between France and
England during, or shortly after, our war of the Revo-
lution, when French cruisers seized vessels manned by
English-speaking sailors without any discrimination. The
owners of American merchant vessels made a claim against
France for damages aggregating $20,000,000. France
presented an offset of $280,000,000 for our violation of
certain treaty stipulations. In the settlement between
the two countries the United States assumed the pay-
ment of the American ship-owners and merchants. In-
stead of promptly and honestly fulfilling its obligations,
our Government for eighty years dodged the payment of
the claims of its own citizens. The pending bill provided
that all those alleged obligations should be referred to our
Court of Claims, and if they were found just, there could
be found no further decent or even possible excuse for
not paying them. The opposition to the bill took the
ground that as all the original claimants were dead, it was
illegal and an unnecessary act of extravagance to pay their
heirs and assignees anything at this late day. Mr. Phelps
was next to the last to address the House in this long de-
bate. In reviewing the case of the claimants he said :

This is certainly a piece of ancient history, but none the
worse for its age, if it be a true piece. We are now at the end
of the nineteenth century providing for the debts of the eigh-
teenth. If they are just this delay is the strongest reason for
our action; and that they are just I honestly believe, and to
that conclusion public opinion has at last settled. Fortunately
the origin of these claims is so simple that the obscurity of the
past cannot becloud it.

They followed the different Congresses down the century
and got what? Forty reports, of which thirty-eight were
favorable and the other two decidedly unfavorable. They got
committed in the reports which they prepared the greatest
lawyers of the age — Webster, Clayton, Choate, Everett, Sum-
ner, Cushing, each preparing one or more reports indorsing

His Life and Public Services 155

the legality of the case. Their minds were too robust to find
in the ingenious but minute objection of my young friend from
Wisconsin any obstacle to bar.

But these waking claimants got no money. It is time now
that they did ; and our committee to-day are taking a first step,
not a long one, in the direction of giving them some. We are
sending their claims to the Court of Claims, that they may
there be judicially examined and judicially stated. And when
they come out in legal shape I hope, and I hope that the House
wishes, that the moral claim which they will have to payment
may be promptly recognized. There are but two substantial
objections. They tell us the claims are stale and assigned.
Mr. Speaker, will there ever be a private claim against this
Government which will not be so delayed as to be stale? Will
there ever be a number of citizens, owning claims, who will
not in this delay be forced by their necessities to sell their
rights? But delay when the Government only is at fault and
assignment are no bars to legal claimants. And these claims
have the rights of law, not the charities of equity.

The bill was passed and our government at last paid
all the genuine claimants their honest dues.

In the consideration of the annual Post Office Appro-
priation Bill, one of the leading subjects that was under
discussion was the amount that should be appropriated
for compensating American steamships for carrying mails
to foreign ports, which involved the question of building
up the American marine through the aid of government
subsidies. Mr. Phelps, in his Congressional career, from
first to last was a strenuous advocate of liberal appropria-
tions for this service. He addressed the House several
times during this discussion, and gave a great deal of in-
formation relating to the policy of other governments in
securing foreign trade by financial assistance to their mail-
carrying vessels. In support of an amendment that he
proposed to offer to increase the amount of the appro-
priation named in the bill for American mail steamships,
he said :

156 William Walter Phelps

This is surely not too much to expend for objects every way
worthy, and especially dear at this time to the hearts of Amer-
ican people. It is to revive American commerce and to re-
create the merchant marine of which our fathers were so
proud. The sum is small compared with the vast sum spent
by our rivals in this great enterprise. They give all their net
revenue ; more, they add to it all their treasuries will allow.

He then gave statistics of the amounts paid by the
European governments, great and small, to their mail
steamers, and the amount of trade that these nations had
gained by this policy, while the amounts appropriated by
us were insignificant in comparison and our foreign trade
correspondingly small. He said in addition that non-
manufacturing countries, like the South American states
and the countries in the Far East, are the markets for
which civilizations compete. We can secure them only
by sending our flag and our mail bags. Trade never
fails to follow the flag. It is the pioneer that opens the
way, and when the way is open, American manufacturers
will walk profitably in it. The Peninsula and Oriental
Steamship Company of Great Britain has for years re-
ceived millions of pounds from that government, in return
for which it carried the flag of Great Britain to the East
and brought hundreds of millions of dollars to British
commerce. To sustain his views, Mr. Phelps arrayed
facts and figures bearing upon the subject under discus-
sion with skill and potency, and the correctness of his
statements the anti-subsidy advocates made no attempt
to dispute. It must be recalled to the memory that this
was a House with a large Democratic majority, and that
the general policy of that party was opposition to all sub-
sidies. But by sheer persistency, importuning, and intel-
lectual force, the friends of American ships and commerce
did succeed in the very last hours of the session in squeez-
ing out of this reluctant House a moderate appropriation
for mail subsidies. A few hours later, a Democratic ad-
ministration was installed in power for the first time since

His Life and Public Services 157

the Civil War, and the Democratic Postmaster-General
refused to devote this money to the use for which it was
voted. In a speech at a mass meeting, during a subse-
quent Congress, in which the House was again Demo-
cratic, Mr. Phelps alluded to this incident when saying :

England stands first in the commerce of the world, having
given $240,000,000 to her commerce, and she now holds forty-
two per cent, of the commerce of the world. She carries
15,000,000 tons of our merchandise. She is not alone in her
belief in a generous policy. Germany has contributed $i, loo,-
000 to her commerce, and France has followed in her tracks.
We, to-day, need the business of South America, but we can-
not get from the Democrats the grant of a single subsidy. We
did get a gift of $800,000, and that at three o'clock in the
morning after a great struggle, and then a Democratic Post-
master-General refused to use it.

Mrs. Phelps and Miss Phelps were at the Washington
home during the session this year and all participated in
the social life at the national capital, so the winter months
passed pleasantly and quickly by.

After the inauguration of the new President, Mr. Cleve-
land, a trip to Florida was made by Mr. and Mrs. Phelps
before returning to Teaneck.

Early in July Mr. Phelps went to California, stopping
on the way to view with critical interest all the sights and
wonders of the Rocky Mountain region. He spent July
and August at the Villa that was then a noted hotel on the
San Gabriel Mountains, near Pasadena. Senator and Mrs.
Don Cameron were also guests at the hotel and afforded
congenial companionship. Mr. Phelps wrote from there
that he liked California ; that his health was very much
improved, and that he was pleased to know that he
weighed one hundred and forty-six pounds in his "riding
suit. " In September he journeyed over most of the State
of California, and as he was known personally or by repu-
tation to many of the proprietors of the large estates, he

158 William Walter Phelps

became by invitation their guest. From the Hotel Del
Monte he wrote to his «uperintendent at Teaneck:

I was n't going to write to you at all, but Miss Marian says
everything on the farm looks so well that it occurs to me that
I should be ungrateful if I did n't send you a line. This
climate is wonderful. They grow grapes, oranges, and figs,
yet no one need ever suffer with cold or heat. It agrees
wonderfully with me and I have gotten through the summer
with less inconvenience than for a long time. I have visited
the estates of these great millionaires. They spend ten thou-
sand to our one thousand. But from the lack of good taste,
their results are not so satisfactory as ours, always excepting
that they pay extravagantly to get water, and I am inclined to
think that there they are wise.

Ending his stay in California, he visited Oregon, and
returned to New Jersey to begin work in the fall cam-
paign in that State. He made speeches in several of the
principal cities and was gratified that the election resulted
in a Republican majority in both branches of the legis-
lature.

CHAPTER XVI

Elected to Forty-ninth Congress by Increased Plurality — First Efforts to
Raise Embargo on American Pork in Europe — Arbitration in Labor
Troubles — American Mail Steamship Appropriation — Favors In-
demnity for Outrage on Chinese — Oleomargarine Campaign — He
Champions the Cause of the Dairy Farmers — Declines to Become
Candidate for Governor of New Jersey

WHEN the roll was called in the House at the first
meeting of the Forty-ninth Congress, December
7, 1885, Mr. Phelps answered to his name. The House
was again Democratic, but by a less majority than of the
last Congress. The Representative from the Fifth Dis-
trict of New Jersey was reappointed to his old committees
and again named as one of the Regents of the Smith-
sonian Institute. At the beginning of the session there
was an animated and prolonged debate over the revision
of the rules. In the debates, Mr. Phelps earnestly advo-
cated proposed amendments which would give the leading
committees less latitude in forcing legislation and leaving
more power to the House itself.

He offered at this session a resolution relating to the
restrictions imposed by the authorities of certain Euro-
pean countries upon the importation into those countries
of American pork. Later he presented a memorial from
the State Board of Agriculture of New Jersey upon this
subject, which he accompanied with a resolution that the
Secretary of State be "requested to transmit copies of
all correspondence between his Department and the rep-
resentatives of France, Germany, Austria, and any other
European country which has partially or entirely restricted

159

i6o William Walter Phelps

the importation of American pork, referring to the facts
of such exclusion or restriction and the reasons therefor."

The resolution was adopted, and this was the first action
of a practical nature made in our Congress to do away
with the exclusion of American pork from European
countries, a movement in which Mr. Phelps a few years
later took such a notable part.

Another measure to which he gave aid was the Arbi-
tration Bill, which was designed to promote the speedy
settlement of controversies and difficulties between com-
mon carriers engaged in inter-State commerce and trans-
portation and their employees. This would affect nearly
all the railroad employees in the country. While speak-
ing on the bill, he said :

I have no fear that the working men of this country will not
get all their rights. It is only a question of time and manner;
and, for my part, I do not dread the result, but I do dread the
processes, and I would do what I could to make these more
orderly and more efficient.

The working man will get the rights that he lacks, just as
he got those he has, by public opinion. He will attract, per-
suade, and convince the public. But the processes by which
he gets his rights are naturally more or less wasteful, dis-
orderly, and turbulent, because he gets his rights by proving
his wrongs. He uses every effort to get public attention for,
public sympathy with, and public recognition and conviction
of his wrongs. As soon as he convinces the public of his
wrongs the public gives him his rights so promptly, so fully,
that he does not need court or Legislature. Society awards
them in a flash.

Is not this the splendid record of labor's achievement in the
past? Why shall it not be the experience of the future?
When the workman, anxious to obtain a right, starts to con-
vince the public he moves with the zeal of long repression.
His success at first is too great. He masses and exhibits his
wrongs in such shape of enormity and number that he himself
is surprised and indignant, while unfortunately the public is
made only more incredulous. So the spectacle which makes

His Life and Public Services i6i

the working man most impatient for action and redress makes
the people slower and more reluctant to give it. Hence
friction. This is the dangerous stage of the process. This is
the stage we should unite all our efforts to eliminate, to shorten,
at least to modify in its extremest manifestations. And this
we can do only by suggesting or providing the way and means
by which the working man can more quickly prove his wrongs.
Methods are needed by which he can quickly, clearly, and
conspicuously make his case and discover and publish its
merits. This is the stage where this bill enters and this is its
method. It provides a method by which the working man
may more quickly prove and advertise his wrongs.

When the Post-Office Appropriation Bill was being dis-
cussed, Mr. Phelps renewred the efforts he made at the
previous session for liberal appropriations for American
mail-carrying steamships, and he made sharp attacks
upon the enemies of American shipping. His power in
this long debate was very sensibly felt. When these dis-
cussions were pending, he had occasion to say :

I am one of those who voted in the last Congress to authorize
the Postmaster-General to give $400,000 to American vessels
for carrying the foreign mails. It was not much compared
with the millions that England, France, and Germany gave,
but it was a step in the right direction, so it was a gain. It
inaugurated a new policy. It accomphshed two purposes dear
to the American heart: It fostered American manufacturers by
getting them their share in the new markets of the world ; and
American shipping, by giving it protection against foreign com-
petition. So we were glad to vote for it; the gladder, because
it was about the only opportunity that Congress, with eighty
Democratic majority, gave us to vote for anything the people
wanted. And what good came of it all? EngHsh ships still
carry our mails; English sailors still get our money. Why?
Did the President veto the measure? Was the Treasury un-
able to furnish the money? No. One of his Secretaries
repealed the provision. He pitied a Congress which could
not see the force of objections four times rehearsed to them,

1 62 William Walter Phelps

corrected their judgment, and overruled their decisions. And
we are, alas! without consolation or redress. . . . I know
well enough that the friends of American industry on the sea
and land are, by reason of an ecclesiastical blunder for which
they are not to blame, made powerless to do anything except
protest, and I only rise up to protest in their name against
this irregular veto, which is as insulting to the dignity of Con-
gress as it is harmful to the business of the American people.

On another date in the discussion he went into an able
illustration, quoting facts and figures to show how vastly
the trade and commerce of other nations had been bene-
fitted at our expense, through their policy of fostering
their steamship lines. He showed that the prices paid
to our steamship companies for carrying the mails were
much lower for the same amount of service than were
paid by any other nation. He then supplemented his
arguments by saying:

This measure has so many advantages, it supplies so many
wants, we ought promptly to adopt it. We want steamships;
this measure will give them. We want markets for our sur-
plus; this measure will give them. We want to defend our
coasts; this measure will give us a merchant marine — the
militia of the sea. Why should we refuse to pass a measure
so useful and so reasonable because its enemies call it a sub-
sidy? It is not a subsidy, for it is neither a gift nor an exces-
sive payment. It is a fair payment to American ships for
carrying the mails, to secure the foreign trade, and the foreign
markets that we want and need.

When the River and Harbor Bill was about to be voted
upon and the Representative from the Newark district
in New Jersey was struggling to increase the insufificient
amount named in the bill for improving the Passaic River,
Mr. Phelps went to his assistance, and his influence with
the House helped to increase the needed appropriation.
As usual, he had solid facts and figures at his ready com-
mand, and he gave the House some weighty reasons why

His Life and Public Services 163

New Jersey's most important water-way should be treated
more justly than was proposed. In his argument he said :

The city of Newark has 150,000 inhabitants, all at work ex-
cept those who are in the cradle or the grave. There are four-
teen hundred large factories, and in them or about them labor
forty thousand workmen every day. Most of them may be
Knights of Labor. If they are, I hope they are watching the
votes of Representatives here to-day. This hive of industry
gives to commerce every year seventy million dollars' worth
of a varied industry. But this vast trade and commerce call
for better accommodations. Newark lies on the banks of the
Passaic, three or four miles from Newark Bay. The river is
broad, but its channel is narrow. Up and down this river
passed last year twenty-two thousand vessels. They have to
pass each other painfully and slowly, as in a canal. A canal
may be picturesque, but it is not fitted for a business like this.
The Chief Engineer proposes to make it a practicable water-
way. He says for $125,000 he will make it two hundred feet
wide and ten feet deep. It ought to be done. This commit-
tee ought to vote the appropriation. I ask it not for this State
or this city only. I ask it for a general commerce.

President Cleveland, in March, sent a message to Con-
gress in which he called attention to the outrages perpe-
trated by a mob upon peaceful Chinese living in what
was then the Territory of Wyoming. In our treaty with
China, the United States were under obligations to in-
demnify the victims of such acts of violence. A bill for
this purpose was before the House. Under the rule,
there were but ten minutes allowed to each speaker. In
this time, Mr. Phelps made one of the most potent and
statesmanlike of all his speeches in Congress. In referring
to the victims of this outbreak, he remarked :

Their houses were burned; their goods pillaged; twenty-
eight of them were killed and fifteen wounded. The only
provocation was that they would not join in a strike. We
should pay for the property destroyed, not for charity's sake,

i64 William Walter Phelps

but for the solid reason that it is an international obligation
and a single reciprocity for a hundred cases where China has
paid an indemnity to us in cases less monstrous than this.

The history of our diplomatic relations with China for nearly
fifty years has been only the history of prompt and greedy
claims for indemnity on our part and of prompt and generous
payment on its part. It has paid for the rights of every
American citizen, when violated. It has paid for the violated
rights of Chinese subjects when they were connected with
ours; as when they paid a Chinese landlord, whose house was
destroyed by a mob, because an American leased it, and as
when they paid for the property and clothing of native helpers,
which were lost in the service of American missionaries. This
is the way China paid indemnities up to 1858. In this fashion
she paid them in detail, then she paid them in gross. She
took more than $700,000, gave it to the United States Govern-
ment and said, " Take this and pay your countrymen." We
took it, we paid all claims generously, with twelve per cent,
interest; but the generosity of China was so ample that after
all this we had left nearly one third of the original sum to re-
turn to China. China did this and shamed the grudging spirit
in which Christian countries pay their international bills.

The speaker then discussed our legal liability in this
case, urging the House to take this opportunity to show
our disposition to keep good faith under the solemn obli-
gations of treaties with foreign powers.

The bill was not passed at this session, but at the ses-
sion following Congress voted an ample sum in reparation
for this territorial lawlessness.

This session of Congress was a very long one, extend-
ing into August, and the work of the active members
was unusually heavy. Mr. Phelps had introduced and
passed a large number of meritorious private bills, and
was instrumental in pushing through several important
measures, not perhaps of national interest, but for the
benefit of different localities in New Jersey. He made
frequent arguments before the House in furtherance of

His Life and Public Services 165

measures of interest to his own and other constituencies
of his State. He took especial interest in promoting
legislation for the establishment of government powder
works near Dover, N. J. ; the building of a railroad and
passenger bridge over Arthur's Kill to connect New Jer-
sey with Staten Island, and for the protection of fisheries
on the coast of New Jersey.

One of the questions of the greatest consequence which
occupied the attention of the House this session was that
of the tariff. The Democratic majority of the House
was intent upon the reduction of the tariff then existing
to a point that would be injurious to all American manu-
facturers, and ruinous to several of the special industries
of New Jersey. Mr. Morrison, who had succeeded Mr.
Randall as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee,
and was therefore the leader of the majority, concentrated
at last all the efforts of his party for the reduction of im-
port duties upon what was called a horizontal bill, which
enlarged the free list and provided for a cut of twenty-
five per cent, indiscriminately upon all articles left on the
tariff schedule. The struggle over this measure was a
determined and vigorous one on each side. The energies
of the Republican leaders were taxed to their utmost to
maintain a protective system under which the industries
of the nation were flourishing, and labor was remunera-
tive. When the vote was taken, the Morrison bill was
defeated by a very close shave. It would have been
carried only for the support of thirty-five protectionist
Democrats under the leadership of Samuel J. Randall.
As an evidence of the temper of the Democratic party on
this subject, out of the thirty-five followers of Mr. Ran-
dall on this vote, only ten were returned to the succeed-
ing Congress.

The dairy farmers all over the country now took action
to have a law made that would prevent the sale of oleo-
margarine as butter. So great a public interest had been
aroused by the contest in Congress on this question in

1 66 William Walter Phelps

the winter and spring of 1886 that it was referred to as
the "oleomargarine campaign." The dairy and butter-
making interests in some parts of New Jersey were very
important, and the representation from that State in both
branches of the national legislature was alive to them.
Mr. Phelps, when the subject was introduced, appeared
before the Committee on Agriculture in behalf of the
New Jersey farmers, and after some delay, a bill satis-
factory to the farming and dairy interests was reported to
the House, and before the close of the session, but after
strong opposition, it became a law.

A letter was sent to Mr. Phelps, signed by the Presi-
dent of the American Agricultural and Dairy Association,
which thanked him in the name of the organization for
his support of the bill and said that he had rendered the
dairy farmers of America an inestimable service by his
well directed efforts and arduous labors in behalf of the
measure. It continues:

You are entitled to their lasting gratitude. The passage of
the bill is of the utmost importance to them, and they are de-
lighted to know that they have representatives in Congress
such as yourself, who appreciate their necessities and have a
lively concern for their interest and the interest of the country
at large. I hope that the farmers of America will see that
they are represented in Congress by such men as yourself, re-
gardless of politics. I express not only my sentiments, but
those of the butter and cheese trade of New York and other
cities, besides 5,000,000 of dairy farmers.

When portraying the abilities and standing of the indi-
vidual members of this House, the Washington corre-
spondent of the Chicago Journal wrote: "A careful
observer and a member who has been here a long time
says that not one in ten of the members are listened
to when they speak. He intimates that about seven
members of each party direct the whole business." In
noting this Harper s Weekly gave five of those on the

His Life and Public Services 167

Republican side as: Reed, Hiscock, McKinley, Phelps,
and Long.

In personal allusions to the House at this date, the
Philadelphia Bulletin published this :

In this Congress Mr. Phelps spoke frequently and with
marked success. The Right Honorable Mr. Forster, the old
Cabinet friend of Mr. Gladstone, whose recent death was so
much deplored, spent some weeks at this time in Washington
for the purpose of studying American parliamentary debate.
He stated subsequently to Mr. Morton, late minister to
France, that in neither House of Congress had he heard any
one speak with so much effect as Mr. Phelps.

In the winter of 1886, the House of Assembly of the
State of New Jersey, accompanied by its Speaker and
other officers and several State officials, paid a visit to
Washington. They were handsomely entertained by Mr.
Phelps and he gave them a reception at his home which
afforded an opportunity to the Jersey legislators to meet
well-known Senators and Representatives and distin-
guished officials and personages who were invited to be
present.

As Congress was drawing to a close in the last days of
July, Mr. Phelps started across the water for a few weeks'
stay at Carlsbad, a place always beneficial to his health.

The long session of the House of 1886 made such a
demand upon the energies of Mr. Phelps that he found it
impossible, except in a few instances, to accept the many
requests made of him to deliver addresses here and there
and upon a great variety of subjects. But he found time
to make a pleasing speech at a great Irish Liberty meeting
held in Washington to encourage the Home Rule cause
in Ireland, that was then advocated by Mr. Gladstone.
He took the view that when a Prime Minister of England
arose in Parliament to offer a bill to do justice to Ire-
land, it was evident that the world's public opinion was

1 68 William Walter Phelps

influencing the noblest and best in England to help redress
the wrongs of centuries, and that this would continue until
it finally compelled the granting of local self-government
and independence to the Irish people.

Invited by the Grand Army of the Republic, Mr.
Phelps delivered an oration on Memorial Day before a
large gathering of people at Mt. Holly, New Jersey. It
was an address that was widely quoted. After treating
upon the topics immediately suggested by the occasion,
he declared that peace had its dangers no less than war,
and that the soldiers of the Grand Army should be ready
to meet them. He mentioned one of these dangers to
be a neglect of political duties by a class of good men,
because of a fear of being called politicians. He declared
it to be the duty of every man to do political work for
the community in which he and his family live, and also
for the whole country if need be :

The men who made and signed the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, and afterward framed our Constitution, were
farmers, doctors, clergymen, and lawyers — men working with
brain or hand — and so representatives of the toiling millions
for whom our government is formed — made politics a study
and a duty, and we cannot do better than to follow their ex-
ample. Any other course involves disaster to the public weal.

He had some good words to say for Congress in con-
tradiction of the thoughtless and flippant criticisms so
often published, that Congress holds unnecessarily long
sessions, prolix and tedious debates, and works too
slowly. He contended that Congressional debates were
not time wasted. That Congress confers other benefits
upon the land besides making laws. Its discussions edu-
cate the press and the people on public questions, and
no debate is fruitless, no matter what its termination may
be. He said :

Our country is large, our people many, our interests diversi-
fied and often conflicting; and it takes time to consider and

His Life and Public Services 169

ascertain the middle ground, where justice dwells, and decide
what is for the greatest good of the greatest number.

He referred to the fear that often exists that accumu-
lated wealth is a danger to the government. From this
source can be seen no serious danger:

Inequalities of fortune must exist until all men are created
with the same tastes and capacities; they are evils which the
ballot cannot cure. Destroy our present form of government,
and change our present society, and the same inequalities
would reappear in' any structure built upon the ruins. They
cannot be cured — they can be mitigated. Education will do
the most toward it, and virtue and philanthropy — teaching the
rich the duty of shaping their lives to the spirit of the Golden
Rule, and teaching the poor the great truth that happiness,
self-respect, and the respect of others may exist without money.
The world, by education and experience, will yet learn the
undoubted truth that Agur prayed for the best; and that the
estate within the grasp of every one of our countrymen, that
midway between riches and poverty, is the happiest of all
conditions.

In conclusion he paid a fine tribute to the Grand Army
of the Republic, and praised them for the care they take
to see that none of their comrades suffer. Cicero said :
"The men who serve a nation are as worthy of honor as
those who founded it," and this nation as long as it lives
will do honor to the soldiers who saved it.

The regard which the New Jersey orator had for those
who fought to save the Union was not exhibited wholly
in words. General John A. Logan, the gallant soldier
and able statesman, died this year, while representing
Illinois in the national Senate. He had given years to
the service of his country and little time to acquiring
wealth. His friends began an effort to raise a memorial
fund to be given to Mrs. Logan. Mr. Phelps went to
their aid immediately with a subscription of $iooo, and
was instrumental in having others of his acquaintance

lyo William Walter Phelps

contribute until the fund reached the generous sum of
$64,000.

Before Mr. Phelps went to Europe, the Republican
leaders in New Jersey, who voiced the party sentiments,
were desirous that he should be a candidate for governor
of the State. They believed that with a standard-bearer
of his reputation and popularity, the long-time Demo-
cratic majority of the State could be overcome. Mr.
Phelps turned a deaf ear to all this solicitation. At no
time did he have any aspiration for the governorship.
He did not think his strength adequate to the exacting
duties of that office. When he returned in September,
and on the eve of the State convention, the nomination
for governor was undoubtedly at his command, but he
could not be moved from his first determination. He
went to the convention, and furthered the nomination of
his associate in the House of Representatives, Benjamin
F. Howey. He was selected for permanent chairman of
the convention and one of the newspaper reports thus
describes the scene :

A committee was appointed to escort Mr. Phelps to the plat-
form, and he was greeted with the most enthusiastic applause.
For a few minutes the Convention was a perfect pandemonium,
and the delegates after tiring of using their hands and feet in
applauding, wound up with three cheers for the Chairman.
It was a magnificent ovation to Mr. Phelps and indicated in a
marked manner his popularity and strength in the State. He
made one of the most felicitous speeches ever delivered on a
like occasion, and the wit and humor with which his remarks
were interspersed kept his auditors in a manifestly happy
humor. Mr. Phelps was frequently interrupted by applause.
One old gentleman remarked to us that Mr. Phelps was not a
very large man, but he was a splendid speaker. He said: " I
could listen to him all day."

Mr. Howey was nominated and his friend from the
Fifth Congressional District took an active interest in his

His Life and Public Services 171

campaign, speaking in behalf of Mr. Howey frequently
both in and out of his own district.

While Mr. Phelps was abroad, the delegates to the
Congressional convention in his district had been elected.
No other man was thought of as a candidate, and no other
was named in the convention, which was held in Paterson,
and was a combination of nominating convention, ovation,
and jubilee. The nominee addressed the convention, and
his first words were these :

I shall not attempt to conceal, gentlemen, the satisfaction I
feel in this hearty greeting. For nearly twenty years I have
thought a great deal of this district, and I am naturally much
pleased when I see any sign that the district thinks something
of me. Nominated five times for Congress, though rotation
is the rule and the custom in it, and receiving this fifth nomi-
nation, as I have done to-day, with absolute unanimity and
without solicitation or effort or care on my part, and even
without my presence in the country during the preparations
for it, I cannot but feel it a matter of honorable pride, and I
know that it will be a fresh spur to my efforts to advance its
interests. . . . You put me in office almost in my boy-
hood. You have had patience with all my shortcomings and
your confidence in me continues. It is nearly twenty years
since, over in the old Opera House, I first spoke to the people
of this district of the principles which would control my po-
litical course. I have rehearsed them often enough since. I
do not know that I have changed one of them, and if to-day I
take a few minutes of your time to recapitulate them it is be-
cause these principles are the principles of the Republican
party and constitute a creed with which we cannot be too
familiar.

At the election the Republican candidate for Congress
swept the district as he had never done before, leading
his Democratic opponent in each of the counties, and
with a total plurality of 2836.

In December the post of the Grand Army of the Re-
public located at Westwood, Bergen County, went to

172 William Walter Phelps

Washington to place a marble tablet over the grave in
Arlington Cemetery of their venerated brigade-comman-
der in the War of the Rebellion, General Gabriel R. Paul.
Congressman Phelps, who was already in Washington,
was called upon to deliver the address at the ceremonial.
There was a gathering of prominent Jerseymen, and Mr.
Phelps spoke under the trees and in the snow, briefly but
feelingly and eloquently. The veterans went back to
their homes pleased with the attentions they had received,
and with the success of their noble undertaking.

Two weeks later, December 22d, at the annual dinner
of the New England Society in New York, he was one of
the invited speakers, and the toast to which he responded
was "Our Congress." Here he again took the oppor-
tunity to speak favorably of the merits of Congress and
in commendation of the ability and honesty of his fellow-
legislators.

CHAPTER XVII

New Year's Reception at Teaneck Grange — Description of the Grand and
Famous Mansion— The Art Gallery— Mr. Phelps's Marked Social
Characteristics — A Most Pleasing Host — Unique Banquet to U. S.
Senator Hiscock— Writes a Noted Biography of Garfield— Helps to
Secure Sea Girt to the State — His Political Prominence in New-
Jersey — Friends Put forth His Claims for U. S. Senate — Speaks
to the Manufacturing Jewellers' Association

AT the close of the year 1886, Mr. Phelps found that the
quaint old Dutch farmhouse that he had first chosen
for his New Jersey home, through making additions for
many years under the supervision of a skilful architect,
had at last been transformed to his liking and stood a
completed residence. The last addition — the large pic-
ture-gallery, which also was to be used as a dancing
hall — had been finished and all the pictures hung. He
thought, therefore, that on January i, 1887, there should
be something more than his ordinary New Year's recep-
tion — an open house in its fullest sense, to mark the
event. His friends far and near were invited, and it was
understood that all Jerseymen would be heartily welcome.
The consequence was that it became a day made memor-
able for many of his Bergen County neighbors, as well as
for political guests and prominent personages and officials
from more remote parts of the State, who mingled in a
joyous throng that overflowed the extensive apartments,'
partook of his hospitality, and joined in praise of all they
saw and admired.

The mansion was especially noticeable and attractive
because of its dissimilarity to the prevailing architecture

173

174 William Walter Phelps

of the locality ; it was original in design and arrangement,
with distinctive features, but its exterior lines gave no
adequate hint of the elegance and taste reigning within.
Its length was about three hundred and fifty feet, with a
width varying from twenty-five to fifty feet, and one or
two stories in height. The room forming the north end
was the combined office, workshop, and private retreat
of Mr. Phelps. It occupied the width of the building,
with high wooden ceiling. A fireplace in which a tall
man could stand erect received great logs of wood that
blazed and crackled on massive andirons, filling the place
with generous warmth and peaceful glow. From the
centre of the room a staircase extended to a bedroom
above, where Mr. Phelps frequently retired after a long
night's work without disturbing the family. Built in the
head-board of the bed was a wooden pillow used by Mr.
Phelps's great-grandfather. Captain David Phelps, in the
Revolutionary War. This apartment was a platform
rather than a room, as it was merely surrounded with a
railing and not partitioned off. From the bed nearly the
whole room below was in view and the moving shadows
cast by the blazing logs were a soothing charm to the
wearied toiler. This private combination-room, although
furnished with extreme modesty, was one of the most
interesting to visitors because it was so characteristic of
the man whose personality was impressed upon every de-
tail of its arrangement.

Next came the library, an oblong low-ceilinged room the
width of the house, with another large fireplace, faced by
a fine-meshed brass fender. The ceiling was finished in
oak. On three sides the walls were hidden by bookcases
holding one of the most complete private libraries in the
State, books on every subject of value to the scholar and
the statesman, and comprising the working tools of the
master mind.

Ascending two steps the hall of the old farmhouse was
entered. It ran from east to west, with a broad staircase

His Life and Public Services 175

reaching to the second floor. Then came the richly fur-
nished parlor, on the east side of which ran a corridor
south to the large dining-room, an apartment with light
on three sides, including a great bay-window that served
as a breakfast-room. Here some of the rare views for
which Teaneck Grange was so often praised by visitors
stretched across the broad lawns through tree clumps,
coppice, or shrubbery. Sleeping-rooms and a music-
room connected with the dining-room. From the music-
room a second staircase led to the extension, and from the
upper landing another flight of stairs descended to the
grand picture-gallery, the glory of the house.

The upper floor of the extension was devoted to sleep-
ing apartments, each furnished in different style and all
entered from a corridor on the western side. In the
basement was the billiard-room, kitchen, servants' apart-
ments, and laundry.

The picture-gallery was at the southwestern extremity
of the building, and was built of stone. Its high walls
were covered with pictures chiefly by modern artists of
celebrity and recognized merit. One of the most gen-
erally admired of these was "Damascus," by Church, a
companion to which was a bold landscape of mountain
and lake with three hunters in the foreground. Another
picture, by an unknown artist, fascinated all who visited
the gallery. It was the head and bust of a young Vene-
tian girl reclining on a pillow, with face of marvellous
color and expression, and eyes that seemed to follow the
observer about the room. A stage-coach race, and a
Russian ofificer attacked by robbers while driving across
the plains, were examples of spirited animation on canvas
of which there were several. Conspicuous on the east
wall was a fine full-length portrait of James G. Blaine,
which was one of Mr. Phelps's most highly prized pictures.
On the south wall, an old Dutch garden, with its rich-
colored flowering plants, won much praise. At the op-
posite end of the gallery, to the left of the staircase on

176 William Walter Phelps

entering, was a painting that had an admirer in nearly
every person who saw it. It illustrated a scene in one of
John Hay's poems, representing Jim Bludsoe, pilot of
the Mississippi River steamboat Prairie Belle, with his
hands on the wheel, crying through the smoke and flame
that enveloped and was consuming him : "I '11 hold
her nozzle ag'in the bank 'till the last galoot's ashore."
The realism of the subject appealed strongly to all
visitors.

Perhaps the most conspicuously noted picture in the
house, however, was a full-length portrait of James A.
Garfield, companion to that of Mr. Blaine. It was hung
in the front hall, near the foot of the staircase leading
from the art gallery. It was the last picture ever taken
of Mr. Garfield, and was in his room at Elberon until after
his death, when it was presented to Mr. Phelps by Mrs,
Garfield.

The gallery was but the formal display of art works
in the Teaneck home. Rare etchings, engravings, water-
colors, oil paintings, tapestries, mosaics, carvings, bronzes,
and other gems adorned the rooms and halls, while the
floors were covered with fine rugs from many marts. All
of the apartments of the house revealed that it was the
cherished home of an extensive traveller, and one of
means, for its owner was ever bringing to Teaneck curious
and beautiful objects collected during his wanderings.

It was under such conditions, with his home represent-
ing the fruition of a dream of nearly two decades, that
Mr. Phelps surrounded himself with neighbors, his most
staunch and loyal supporters, and made merry all the
New Year's day and evening. The threatening weather
of the morning was succeeded by a clear and starlit sky,
and for hours the crisp air carried the sounds of happy
voices as the guests drove away to homes on hillside and
in valley. Teaneck Grange was the scene of numerous
gatherings, and many men and women of national repute
were entertained within its hospitable walls; but no as-

His Life and Public Services 177

semblage ever gave more genuine pleasure to host and
hostess than that which marked the opening of the com-
pleted home.

In size and general equipment this was the most com-
modious residence in Northern New Jersey at the period.
It was furnished with every convenience for comfort and
promptness in service. Through frequent entertainment
of distinguished people, and the somewhat elaborate social
functions inseparable from the private and public life of
a family whose head was associated with national and
international affairs of state, Teaneck Grange attained a
repute that soon constituted it one of the show-places of
the land. Many strangers visited and admired it, capti-
vated by the minarets, tall chimneys, corners, and swells
that constituted the exterior, the central figure in a beau-
tiful picture, and were charmed by the interior with its
rich adornment of furniture, art, and curios.

The large carriage house and stables, built to conform
to the architecture of the residence, formed a near-by
group of buildings that added to the picture viewed from
a short distance, and presented an imposing aspect.

The scene on the first day of January, 1887, was but
typical of life at Teaneck whenever the master or the
mistress was at home. It was said of Mr. Phelps, and
repeated by many who knew him, that he had a "talent
for friendships." He never desired loneliness anywhere.
He was fond of entertaining visitors, and especially liked
the company of bright men and women at his table, where
in originality and genial humor he was unsurpassed as a
conversationalist. He had an obvious and quiet enjoy-
ment in all the oddities and droUnesses of life. Still,
when dwelling upon events in the lives of others, he did
not lack sympathy for all that was serious or tender.
Surrounded by guests, with a half mischievous, but
always merry twinkle in his eyes, he enjoyed directing
the conversation so as to bring out the various phases in
the characters of those present, to contrast them and

178 William Walter Phelps

mentally compare the impressions that the words and
acts of each made upon the others.

No one could excel him in his faculty of making all
visitors at ease, and he was pleased and his enthusiasm
aroused when they showed a desire to see what marvel-
lous developments had been made on this great estate of
so many acres and its surroundings. He never counted
the moments lost that he spent in pointing out to visitors
the pleasant places of his fair domain, and when the sight-
seers were willing, he preferred, rather than riding, to
walk with them over the clean earth, the sweetness of
which was always grateful to his senses.

This was the Phelps home at Teaneck in the fulness
of its majesty. What a crowd of journalists and literary
figures, men of affairs and men of state, and political bat-
tlers — the greatest and the humblest — thronged to this
shrine in the days of its plenitude and power !

In the short session of the Forty-ninth Congress, which
occupied the winter of 1887, Mr. Phelps took his usual
active part in the work and the debates. He spoke ear-
nestly for the bill promoting and encouraging reciprocal
commercial relations with Mexico, Brazil, and the South
American republics. With voice and influence he was
foremost in the enactment of legislation which authorized
the President to protest and defend the rights of Ameri-
can fishing, trading, and other vessels, which was known
as the "Fisheries Retaliation Bill."

Congress ended in March and shortly before its close a
dinner was given by Mr. Phelps in honor of his close
friend. Representative Frank Hiscock, who had just been
elected to the United States Senate by the legislature of
New York. This entertainment was noticeably unique
on account of the different characteristics and opposing
political doctrines conspicuously held by those who were
invited. But all were most genial and harmonious on this
pleasant occasion. A special Washington dispatch pub-
lished next day in all daily papers of the land said of it :

His Life and Public Services 1 79

Mr. William Walter Phelps's dinner to Senator-elect Frank
Hiscock at Chamberlain's to-night brought together one of the
most remarkable assemblages that have ever sat down to the
same table in Washington. All parties, all factions, and nearly
all professions were represented. Sir Lionel Sackville West
was there at the right of the host, representing England. Mr.
Watterson, who has said almost as many sharp things about
the English aristocracy as he has about Mr. Randall, was be-
side him. Mr. Randall himself was just over the way as pleas-
ant as if he never had read any of Mr. Watterson's editorials,
while around the table a little farther was Mr. Morrison, evi-
dently forgetful of the fact that he had used the strongest
language in the Democratic vocabulary to express his determi-
nation that the new tariff bill should not go through. Secretary
Lamar was there, entirely regardless of what other gentlemen
at the table had said of his Interior Department, and Secretary
Whitney also, with no visible grudge against Mr. Reed for his
filibustering defeat of his cherished plan for reorganizing the
naval department.

Nobody but Mr. Phelps could have brought such a party
together, and it is hardly going too far to say that nobody
but Mr. Phelps could have kept their good humor continu-
ous. In order to avoid any questions of precedence he
had seated them around a circular table which made it dif-
ficult to distinguish the head from the foot. As host he sat
farthest from the doorway and had the guests of the evening
directly opposite. Between them the other guests were ar-
ranged in this way: On the right of Mr. Phelps Sir Lionel
Sackville West, Henry Watterson, Senator Piatt, Senator
Evarts, Mr. Morrison, Senator Sewell, Hon. Levi P. Morton,
Murat Halstead, Chauncey Depew, and Secretary Lamar. On
the left Speaker Carlisle, Whitelaw Reid, Samuel J. Randall,
Justice Blatchford, General Phil Sheridan, Major McKinley,
Mr. W. W. Astor, Thomas B. Reed, Secretary Whitney, and
John Sherman.

The speaking was not formal. Mr. Phelps proposed the
only toast of the evening to the health of the Senator-elect,
and Mr. Hiscock made the only formal response. After that
the speeches followed pretty rapidly and each either made

i8o William Walter Phelps

part of the brilliant after-dinner talk that such an assemblage
could produce or else alternated with it.

The most of the summer of this year Mr. Phelps was
in enjoyment of the attractions and comforts of his home
and revelled in literary pleasures. It was during these
weeks that he wrote for Appleton's Encyclopedia of Amer-
ican Biography a sketch of the life of James A. Garfield.
In a review of this volume of the Biography in a journal
of high standing, this was said.:

Mr. Phelps's "Garfield " is a model which cyclopedia writers
might well study. It is full without prolixity, animated with-
out rhetorical flourish, concise without dryness, and abound-
ing in evidences of an exceptional familiarity with the subject,
which, however, never betrays the author into extravagant
opinions. His account of General Garfield's miUtary and po-
litical career is equally striking in both chapters; and he deals
with the controversies which preceded and followed the presi-
dential election with entire frankness. In technical workman-
ship the article is one of the best in the book.

In August the State of New Jersey was in danger of
losing its fine camp-ground at Sea Girt, because the owner
raised his price to the extent of $20,000 more than the
legislature had appropriated. Mr. Phelps gave $5000 to
supply the deficiency ; others made up the remainder, and
New Jersey secured one of the largest and best situated
camp-grounds in the country.

At this time the Congressman from the Fifth District
held the highest place among the political leaders of New
Jersey. His office in New York was a Mecca for the
politicians of the State, who went there for consultation,
information, and advice. The State Senators to be
elected in 1887 would have a vote in the election for
United States Senator in January, 1889. It was the
urgent demand of the party managers that Mr. Phelps
should permit himself to be announced as an aspirant for

His Life and Public Services i8i

that office, they believing that if he would speak in the
counties that were to elect Senators, a great gain would
be made for the Republicans in the legislature. Mr.
Phelps was becoming a little weary of the House and at
that time a seat in the United States Senate would doubt-
less have been acceptable to him. The Republican ma-
jority in that body was a small one and its continuance
uncertain. It became, therefore, important to gain a
seat from New Jersey. Mr. Phelps yielded to the general
desire of his fellow-partisans. He entered into the work
energetically with body and soul, as he always did when
he assumed any undertaking. He accepted appointments
for speeches in all the pivotal counties and important
centres. "Phelps Will Speak," naming the different
places, was a displayed heading constantly in the news-
papers. He delivered addresses without number at charity
fairs, county fairs, soldiers' reunions, local conventions,
and mass meetings. He was never wrought up to a
higher pitch for political talk and work, and his activity
aroused the ire of the Democratic journals, which declared
that his utterances were "piquant and rampant," and
that he was putting unwonted life into the campaign.
He gave his critics additional cause for resentment by in-
spiring his hearers with predictions of a splendid Repub-
lican victory in the presidential election of the next year,
and these prophecies were fulfilled. His efforts had a
most marked effect, particularly in Democratic counties,
in every one of which, where he made speeches, the Re-
publican candidate for Senator was elected. The New
York Sun, in those years Democratic, commenting on
the result of this election, said :

We invite the attention of all who may be interested to the
results of the quiet but very thorough canvass made in New
Jersey a few weeks ago under the able leadership of Mr.
William Walter Phelps.

There was no State ticket to be elected. The voting was
only for legislators; and the special interest which Mr. Phelps

1 82 William Walter Phelps

and his friends felt in the result is partly explained by the fact
that Mr. McPherson's term as United States Senator ends one
year from next March, and partly by the fact that there is to
be a presidential election in November of next year. The full
official returns of last month's election in New Jersey are now
at hand. They show what a Protectionist Republican leader
can do in that State when he gives his mind to the work.
They are therefore full of interest to Democrats, particularly
just now. On the total vote for Assemblymen, the Protec-
tionist Republicans, under Mr. Phelps's leadership, carried
New Jersey by a plurality of 2,619 over the Democratic
candidates.

Mr. Phelps now thought that he had talked enough for
that year. But the Manufacturing Jewellers' Association
of New York gave a great dinner on December ist, at
which Chauncey M. Depew, Abram S. Hewitt, and Gen-
eral Sherman were to be among the orators. The man-
agers insisted that Mr. Phelps should go and talk to them
on the subject of "The American Union: Its Relations
to, and Influence on the Nations of the World." He
complied with their request and in his address pointed
out several of the many instances, and some of them sur-
prising, in which France, Germany, and other govern-
ments of Europe have profited by the example set before
them by our form of government and our Federal Union.

CHAPTER XVIII

A Member of the Fiftieth Congress — Takes an Active Part in the Debates
— Opposes the Mills Tariff Bill — Able Defence of the Industrial
Interests of the Country — Advocates a Fractional Paper Currency —
Sharp Criticism of the Democratic Administration for Abandoning
the Cause of American Fisheries — Aids a Political Opponent — State
of New Jersey Presents Statues of Richard Stockton and General
Philip Kearny to Congress — Mr. Phelps Makes an Eloquent
Presentation Speech — His Views on Paternalism

THE first session of the Fiftieth Congress was one of
the longest in the history of the country. It con-
tinued from December 7, 1887, to October 20, 1888.
The Democrats were again the ruling power, but their
majority was a small one. Mr. Carlisle was once more
Speaker. Mr. Phelps retained his position on his old
Committee on Foreign Affairs, and was appointed for the
third time to the Regency of the Smithsonian Institution.

Mr. Morrison, of Illinois, the Democratic leader of the
last House, was not a member of this Congress, and the
chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee was
given to Mr. Mills of Texas, who therefore became the
majority leader.

The most sagacious of the Democratic leaders in the
country now realized that the preponderancy of their
party in Congress was gradually slipping away and that
Mr. Cleveland's administration was drawing to an end
without any practical legislation to carry out the Demo-
cratic doctrine of what was called "tariff reform." It
was consequently demanded of the Democrats in Con-
gress that they should use their utmost endeavors at this

183

1 84 William Walter Phelps

session to reduce the duty on imports. The measure
that was reported for this purpose by the Ways and
Means Committee has gone into history notoriously as
the "Mills Bill," and the struggle for its passage lasted
until it was nearly time for the next session to meet.

The Republicans in the House were put on their mettle
in this contest, for they had but little aid this time from
the Democratic side. Mr. Randall's little band of Pro-
tectionist Democrats were now less than a dozen, and the
great Democratic Commoner and party leader was absent
from the House much of the time on account of ill health,
for the shadow of death had begun its near approach.

All of the manufacturing industries of Mr. Phelps's
district would be injuriously affected by the pending bill
and to several of them its passage would mean utter ruin.
He fought the bill with the greatest energy. The Demo-
crats had voted down with stolid solidity every amend-
ment not approved by their caucus. This aroused Mr.
Phelps's indignation and called forth his first speech, in
which he began by saying:

I do not know, Mr. Chairman, that it is worth while to say
anything. I cannot help thinking that whatever the fact and
whatever the argument, it will be of no avail, and I cannot
help feeling that I speak to a court that has already made its
decision. How can I feel otherwise when I recall the facts?
The Committee on Ways and Means refused to let any laborer
or manufacturer tell them about the facts, refused to let any
Representative make to them any argument, and then withdrew
into the dark, privately, to prepare the Mills Bill, a code of
decisions, which, like the laws of the Medes and the Persians,
altereth not. This was the first step in their great drama,
which, if it is successfully carried to the end, will be a tragedy
to the interests of American industries.

He then proceeded to show the fallacies and danger of
the measure under discussion, which, if adopted, would
throw thousands of his wage-working constituents out of

His Life and Public Services 185

employment. He was thoroughly familiar with all the
points at issue, and his incisive remarks would at times
bring a half-dozen of his opponents to their feet at once
with interruptions and protests, and his sharp and tell-
ing retorts elicited loud applause from the Republican
benches. The outbursts of Republican applause increased
the anger of Mr. Mills and his followers, and a systematic
attempt was made to stop Mr. Phelps in the middle of
his argument, but without heeding the opposition storm,
he made the most pungent speech of the debate.

The "Mills Bill " never became a law.

A bill was before the House to arrange a conference
for the purpose of promoting arbitration and encouraging
reciprocal commercial relations between this country,
Mexico, and the South American countries, a policy that
had been originated by Mr. Blaine, during the brief ad-
ministration of Mr. Garfield. This measure Mr. Phelps
advocated as vigorously at this session as he did a like
bill in the previous Congress.

Petitions, numerously signed, had been presented to
Congress for the issue of a few millions of dollars in paper
currency to represent fractional parts of a dollar and a bill
was brought before the House providing for such an issue.
Mr. Phelps approved of this measure, and in his argument
in its favor, he contended that working men and farmers,
and all those living not conveniently to money-order
ofifices, were in absolute need of such a currency which
they could use in the mails when they wanted to buy any
article worth less than a dollar. The bill providing for
such a fractional currency, which would be a public con-
venience even to this day, was adopted in the House by
a large majority, but failed in the Senate.

The "Fisheries Retaliation Bill," designed to protect
our fisheries, especially on the Canada coast, which failed
of passage in the preceding Congress, came up again and
Mr. Phelps never appeared to better advantage in any
debate. At times this one was very acrimonious. No

1 86 William Walter Phelps

speech he ever made received more laudation than his
opening remarks on this measure, in which he denounced
in scathing language the vacillating and reprehensible
policy of the Administration in not enforcing the laws
and treaties already in existence. He showed the whip-
saw game of the Administration in this whole affair^
pointing out how Secretary Bayard made a decision in
one direction and the President in the opposite, so that
two political points could be made on the same subject.
His comments on the refusal of the President for eighteen
months to apply the retaliatory law while hundreds of
American fishing vessels were being boarded by Canadian
officers, held up, and our fishermen thrown into prisons
without even an explanation from the Canadian Govern-
ment or a demand for one on the part of our Government,
cut like a razor, and made the Democrats wince, while
the Republicans applauded vigorously.
A report in the Baltimore American said:

Mr. Phelps's speech was grandly eloquent, and when he
assured his hearers that the Republicans were willing, aye,
eager, to give the President all the power he wanted to enforce
the retaliatory act, and that the country would back him even
in war, if necessary, to retain the self-respect of the American
Government and its people there were storms of applause
from the galleries. Mr. Phelps not only demonstrated his
oratorical powers, but he displayed statesmanship of the highest
order. Perry Belmont, who is Chairman of the Committee* on
Foreign Affairs, attempted to ask questions and assume fa-
miliarity with the subject under discussion, but he made a
botch of the whole thing.

For some time before Mr. Phelps began talking and during
the speech Postmaster-General Dickinson, who is credited with
having written the jingo message on the retaliation act, sat be-
side Mr. Belmont and coached him continually. Evidently
Mr. Dickinson went to the House for that purpose. He sat
within arm's length of Mr. Belmont while the latter was de-
livering his alleged reply to Mr. Phelps, and he attempted to

His Life and Public Services 187

put words into the mouth of the Chairman of the Committee on
Foreign Affairs. Dickinson's action in coming on the floor of
the House to coach a member who was defending the Adminis-
tration of which he was a Cabinet member, was unprecedented
in this country.

A prominent Democratic newspaper, which was never
very friendly to the New Jersey Congressman, portrayed
the incident in this way :

The debate on the retaliation bill in the House was more
interesting to-day. The speeches were better and the oratory
was more animated. William Walter Phelps spoke first. He
is a very smooth talker; his sentences are like parts of a fin-
ished oration, and what he says is not effeminate if his manner
is. Indeed, the contrast between his manner and his speech
seemed almost a paradox. His bang was brushed down more
smoothly than usual over his forehead, and reached from his
eye-brows to the crown of his head. This is a long distance
on Mr. Phelps's head, and when you get to the crown you find
a very pretty, shiny little bald spot. In the vigor of his speech
the bald spot flashed into sight every now and then like a flash-
light on a dark coast. Mr. Phelps wore a gray sack suit, whose
waistcoat buttoned so high in the neck that it only allowed to
show about three square inches of a very bright crimson scarf.
The coat was opened, and one of Mr. Phelps's favorite atti-
tudes during his speech was to stand with his thumbs in his
waistcoat pockets and make gestures with the muscles of his
face. In this feat he was very successful, and in what he said
the New Jersey Congressman was no chicken. He handled
the President's special message with keener sarcasm than was
used the day the sensational document was read in the Senate.
He spared neither the President nor Mr. Belmont. Indeed,
he worried the latter as a terrier worries a rat. He was down-
right mean toward the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Com-
mittee when the latter ventured to interrupt him with a
question. Mr. Phelps purposely misunderstood the question
and put a wrong interpretation on it. Mr. Belmont tried to
explain, but Mr. Phelps would not let him. Mr. Belmont

1 88 William Walter Phelps

flushed and raised his voice. Mr. Phelps continued to mis-
construe the question. Both the gentlemen were talking at
the same time — Phelps cool and heartless, and Belmont pro-
voked, embarrassed, and unable to get in a word of explana-
tion. Mr. Phelps would not yield, and Mr. Belmont was
forced to sit down and wait until his own time came for
speaking.

But Mr. Phelps was not always in cruel antagonism to
his political opponent, Mr. Belmont, who, as the head of
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, was occupying a chair
somewhat too large for him. The latter had on one oc-
casion reported from his committee a resolution appro-
priating $50,000 for an American exhibit at a forthcoming
centenary exposition at Melbourne, New South Wales.
This appropriation was spitefully opposed by that class of
members who have a disposition to give the British lion's
tail an uncomfortable twist whenever an opportunity oc-
curs. How Mr. Phelps went to the aid of his Demo-
cratic colleague was told in a dispatch to the Boston
Herald:

Mr. Grain had yesterday read a description of Australia and
that part of the world from an old copy of Colton's Atlas, and
poked fun at that far-off heathen and benighted country.

To-day Wm. Walter Phelps proceeded to give the present,
the real and amazing, figures of wealth, population, and pro-
gress in those countries, and his speech put a very different
face upon the matter. *

Of course. Perry Belmont, as Chairman of the important
Committee on Foreign Affairs, was the manager of the bill,
but he was utterly helpless.

It is most pitiful sometimes to witness Mr. Belmont's weak-
ness and embarrassment when any bill from his committee
comes before the House. He stammers and breaks down and
looks the picture of hopelessness. To-day Mr. Phelps came
over from the Republican side and took a seat beside Mr.
Belmont, coached him, and made the speech presenting and
defending. It was a queer comment on the intellectual aspect

His Life and Public Services 189

of the Democratic side of the House when the Chairman of
one of its most important committees is obliged to send for a
Republican to do what is expected of a Chairman. It was a
complete and unqualified acknowledgment of helplessness and
incapacity.

Mr. Phelps's speech in support of the bill appropriating
$50,000 was characteristic of the man. He never speaks ex-
cept when he has something to say, and never speaks for effect,
except effect upon the vote of the House, and does not appear
to care for or observe the existence of the galleries. When he
has something to say which he thinks is of moment and ought
to be said, he rises and says it in terse, pure, and vigorous Eng-
lish, and stops as soon as he has said it. His arguments and
oratory carried the day and the resolution went triumphantly
through.

The State of New Jersey presented to the National
Government two statues of distinguished Jerseymen.
One was a marble statue of Richard Stockton, a famous
statesman of the Revolutionary era and a Signer of the
Declaration of Independence; the other was a bronze
figure of General Philip Kearny, the most dashing and
heroic soldier who ever went to the battlefield from that
State. Both names were honorably identified with the
history of New Jersey and with the United States. Con-
gress passed a joint resolution accepting the statues and
assigning them to positions in Statuary Hall, in the
Capitol — the old hall of the House of Representatives,
set aside by Congress for the statues of citizens of exalted
fame.

August 21, 1888, was designated for the ceremonies and
both Houses adjourned to attend, while many citizens of
New Jersey were among the throng of spectators. Mr.
Phelps was chosen to make the presentation address.
The occasion did not call for argumentation, but oratory,
and in no address that the speaker ever made was there
displayed a more pure and classic eloquence. He sketched
briefly the lives of the two celebrated men, so widely

iQO William Walter Phelps

different, and drew a charming comparison between the
genius of the calm and reasoning statesman and the daring
and fearless warrior. In conclusion he said of Kearny :

He cared nothing for details; he ignored them all, that he
might concentrate all his energies upon the great principle
for which he strove. Toward that object he rolled in molten
stream his past, his present, his future, his memories and
hopes, his courage and his parts, all that there was in him.
Such enthusiasm could not wait for the slow processes of rea-
son. He appealed often to instinct, knowing that he was a
child of genius and that genius is kind to her children. The
appeal was often not in vain, and then Indian and Mexican
and Algerine and Italian and Confederate looked upon him in
his rapid strategy and magnificent charge as an inspired maid-
man; and yet, when unwilling to trust to these dangerous gifts,
he appealed to the ordinary processes of mankind. He would
show the power to plan and organize, which is the basis of the
most solid military character. His intensity of nature, how-
ever, generally controlled him, and brought with it all its
natural advantages and disadvantages. He could see only
the object at which he aimed, and in pursuit of that object he
would ride roughshod over everything in his way, not from in-
difference, not from unkindness, but his look was focussed on
the distant object, and could not be changed. Had this fierce
enthusiasm, this concentration of fiery genius, been for an un-
worthy object, it would have been inexcusable and baneful.
Fortunately, it was almost always directed to a noble and un-
selfish end, and those over whom he rode healed their wounds
and forgave him, knowing that he was riding desperately at a
common enemy. Brave as a lion, tender as a woman, his
portrait remains the beau ideal of a soldier, and the picture of
that slim, handsome figure riding alone to its death at Chan-
tilly, with his bridle in his teeth and his only remaining arm
waving his sword, goes down to history as symbolic of the
character and conduct of this gallant leader, the Murat of our
volunteer army.

The statues were unveiled after the speaking was over,

His Life and Public Services 191

Mr. Richard Stockton taking the white drapery from the
statue of his great-grandfather, and Mr. J. Watts Kearny
drawing the flag from the bronze figure of his father,
General Kearny.

When this unusually long session of Congress termi-
nated, the record showed that Mr. Phelps had partici-
pated infiuentially in all the work of the House, and that
many bills for useful purposes that had not attracted na-
tional attention had been made laws largely through his
efforts, and he was justified in viewing with gratification
and pride the public duties he had faithfully performed
throughout a laborious session.

He found it, however, impossible to conscientiously do
all that some of his constituents asked of him. A power-
ful labor organization asked him to vote for a bill to
establish a system of telegraphy to be controlled by the
government of the United States. He replied in a letter
defining his reasons for declining to support such a pro-
ject. He declared it to be one of the fundamental prin-
ciples of democratic government in this country, and had
always been, that nothing should be done for the people
that the people could do for themselves, and in that doc-
trine he believed. He held that our people are capable
of managing their own business enterprises. What they
really need is encouragement to depend upon govern-
ment powers less and upon themselves more. Govern-
mental control of telegraph is one of the methods of
"paternal government" practised in Europe. We do
not want to borrow these methods. Among other ob-
jections, there is the one that they necessitate con-
stant espionage and interference with the affairs of the
people. All such meddling, our ideas, natural and
acquired, would promptly resent. The control of the
telegraph would be only the first step. The next would
be to make the government seize and operate express
and railroad companies, and all other corporate enterprise
of extensive service, and give it power to appoint a vast

192 William Walter Phelps

army of public officials, and thus foster all the demorali-
zation of perpetual office-seeking by the people.

Before leaving Washington there came to him an op-
portunity to do a generous act, not only for the Govern-
ment, but for the whole people of a Texas town. He
had the controlling ownership in a large tract of land
in the Panhandle of the Lone Star State. The United
States Government had come into possession of several
sections of this land, on part of which was built a fort,
and the Government sold what it did not need to settlers.
As a consequence, the town of Mobeltie, a county seat,
grew up around this fort. The Government had made
its own survey, but it was subsequently discovered that
a blunder had been made in this survey and that the fort
was located on the land controlled by Mr. Phelps, and
that the latter was practically the owner of the fort,
court-house, jail, cemetery, and the homes of several hun-
dred inhabitants. The settlers were alarmed for fear that
they might be evicted from their homes, but Mr. Phelps
quieted them at once by making an offer to the Govern-
ment, which was accepted, to exchange for the fort and
village site, an equal number of sections of unimproved
land, relinquishing all claim to the improvements made
by the settlers.

CHAPTER XIX

Destruction of Beautiful Teaneck Grange by Fire — Bears the Severe Loss
with Calmness — The Picturesque Ruins to Remain Untouched-
Stables and Out-Buildings Consumed Five Months Later — Family
Move to a New Home

IT seems to have been well understood that on New-
Year's Day, 1888, Congressman Phelps would, as
usual, be at home to all callers from Bergen County and
other counties of his district, and in fact, to all his friends
from everywhere. Hundreds came — those on every step
of the social scale — Bergen County farmers, men from
New Jersey and New York whose names were familiar in
politics, business, and literature. There was something
of a repetition of the social function that marked the
completion of the new home the year before. Mrs.
Phelps being too ill to be present. Miss Phelps did the
honors of this reception, giving all the visitors a truly
hearty welcome. One of the guests, inspired by the un-
usual experience, manifested his pleasure in these lines,
which were printed in a local newspaper:

Soft and glimmering the rays of the orb of the day,
Flickered thro' the heated halls of Teaneck Grange,
Kissing here and there a spot in Nature's nest,
For beauty, love, and honor.

Without ostentation, the touch of cultured hands,
The choice of trained and gifted eyes
Hath multiplied the favors that unfold themselves to view:
Beauty in bric-a-brac, rich and rare,

193

194 William Walter Phelps

Love in colors and art, blending with thoughts that study

And travel alone could weld into one.

Grand gift divine — a home.

And yet fit for a king, for house of royal line.

Its portals open wide this day to sons of Bergen,

The yule log burned and threw back

The challenge to rays of sun — for hospitality.

The warm grasp, the kind words, the hearty welcome,

Were cheer enough from genial host

Held high in the esteem of a favored people.

May the New Year bring him his heart's desire;

May it bless indeed his own;

May his cup o'erflow with health and honor;

And may the Grange ever stand

A fit setting for Bergen's noblest son.

L. FOSDICK.

It was no doubt far from the thoughts of any present
on this occasion that it would be the last of the happy
gatherings of the kind that would ever take place in that
great and quaintly constructed house, with its priceless
collection of art treasures from the ends of the earth, to
feast the sense of the beautiful and curious.

It was nearly midnight on the 1st day of April, 1888,
that Mr. Phelps, when returning to his apartments in
Washington after an evening spent with friends, found
on the table in his bedroom two telegrams which told him
that at an early hour that evening his home at Teaneck,
where his family then was, had been totally destroyed by
fire, with a loss of very nearly all of its valuable con-
tents. He disturbed no one on receiving this startling
news, but very early in the morning quietly awakened his
secretary, told him what had happened, stating that he
was going to take an immediate train for New York. He
asked the secretary to accompany him to the station,
which would save his time in talking over some matters
and giving him instructions. He left on the train with-
out once alluding to the great calamity which no doubt

His Life and Public Services 195

was making him sore at heart, but it was a fine test of his
philosophy to never lament over misfortunes which can-
not be averted.

The fire which destroyed the Teaneck mansion was
caused by an explosion of gas which had in some unac-
countable manner filled the art gallery, and it has been
supposed that some one unconsciously turned on the gas
in the pipe that supplied the seventy-five jets in the
gallery. It was Sunday evening and the attention of the
Superintendent of the Grange was called to the odor of
escaping gas by the inmates of the house. He traced the
origin of the leak to the art gallery, and when he opened
an outlet in the gallery the escaping gas came in contact
with a lighted jet in the hallway which caused a terrific
explosion, prostrating the Superintendent and filling the
whole gallery with flames. All effort to stay the fire was
unsuccessful and the flames in a short time spread along
every thoroughfare of the house, and very soon all efforts
to save the building had to be abandoned, for the facili-
ties for checking a considerable conflagration were neither
at hand on the premises, nor could they be procured from
the neighboring towns of Hackensack and Englewood in
time to be of practical benefit. In this dilemma the only
course of action was that of saving as much as possible of
the contents of the house. The report of the explosion
and the blaze that soon illuminated the surrounding
country drew many people from a considerable distance,
the earlier arrivals being of service in the work of salvage.

The gallery was so quickly a mass of flames that it was
impossible to save many of the pictures, only three or
four being taken out. Aided by the willing hands of
neighbors, some of the furniture, art works, books, etc.,
were saved from the other apartments, as the fire did not
spread so rapidly from room to room, owing to the solid
walls. Mrs. Phelps and Miss Phelps, while their hearts
were filled with grief at the calamity which had so sud-
denly befallen them, did not become prostrated or stand

196 William Walter Phelps

idly by, but shared with others in the work at hand and
with the utmost coolness gave directions to those who
came to their aid in saving from destruction the articles
of the most value.

When the fire first started, messengers were dispatched
to Englewood and Hackensack for assistance, but the con-
dition of the roads was such that the building was con-
sumed when the firemen arrived. They rendered valuable
service in removing and protecting the saved property.

Thus, within about an hour, this beautiful home, with
its associations of love, friendship, hopes, ambitions, and
achievements, was a smouldering ruin, only bare walls
and four tall chimneys marking the spot so lately orna-
mented by tower, gables, minarets, dormers, and slanting
roofs.

The single piece of wood in the structure unconsumed
was a bit of timber forming part of a small porch at the
south end of the art gallery. Now it still protrudes from
the wall immediately over the iron door — a door, by the
way, that is credited by some with responsibility for the
destruction of the residence. It could not be opened
from the outside and therefore impeded efforts in the im-
portant first moments. At the north of the residence,
and within a few feet of it, the wooden cover over a well
escaped the fire and still stands.

The "Phelps Ruin " at once became a great curiosity,
not only to the neighboring communities, but throughout
a wide extent of country. Driving, bicycling, and walk-
ing parties visit it daily in pleasant season to admire the
picturesque beauty of its vine-covered walls standing in
irregular and massive outline, while the tall chimneys
stand like green crowned sentinels over the scene. At
this period tall trees, grown from seed dropped by pass-
ing birds, rear their heads above the highest walls. An
especially attractive example of this is a white birch in
the very centre of the art gallery, its symmetrical and
delicate outlines suggestive of the glory which the room

His Life and Public Services 197

presented before its destruction. Those who were familiar
with the house in its completeness now gaze along the
irregular rows of crumbling stones, moss- and vine-covered
by Time's unrelenting hand, and picture it as it was:
Here adjoining the parlor and music-room were the apart-
ments of the mistress of the manse; along this eastern
wall, bordered in its outer length and turnings by a
piazza, ran the corridor from entrance hall to dining-room,
along which the guest paused at intervals to inspect gems
of art from many lands ; at this spot in the hall was the
Garfield portrait ; there hung the pastel of the Bernhardt
in a subdued light that gave striking effect to her dramatic
pose; a curiously wrought box of aromatic wood stood
near, its fragrance penetrating the entire house when a
humid atmosphere prevailed — it was a memento of Capt.
John J. Phelps's trip around the world and was procured
in the Far East. Up there, in the second story of the
original farmhouse, was the large private room of Miss
Phelps — an apartment wholly original in finishing and
furnishings, with whitewood desk built into the old
dormer window, with broad couch, grill-work screen,
with a decorative scheme unique, original, rich in quaint
sketches, etchings, carvings, and bric-a-brac from pen,
pencil, and brush of intimate friends. This was above
the hallway and drawing-room where friendship and hos-
pitality felt their warmest glow, and political policies of
far more that local import were discussed and given their
place in the schedule of events. Over to the left is all
that is left of the master's "den" — the spot where he
worked out the many problems of private business and
public service which engaged his active and fertile mind.
That rusty remnant of an iron box was the safe which
contained his personal papers — some of them secrets of
state and party purposes. Memory becomes instantly
alert in gazing upon the spot to-day — rehabilitating the
building in its former glory, filling it with the fulness of
social graces of hospitality and philanthropy.

198 William Walter Phelps

Mr. Phelps reached Teaneck as soon as he could get
there the day after the fire, and there he found Mrs.
Phelps and his daughter, with the Superintendent, wait-
ing for him and looking sadly upon the ruins. He was
deeply moved while he looked upon the work of the de-
stroyer, but soon calmly mastered the situation, and the
next morning he leased for the occupancy of his family
what was known as the "Griggs House," a pretentious
structure, located upon a plot of twenty acres of ground
adjoining the Teaneck estate. This property was shortly
afterwards purchased, the grounds handsomely laid out
and improved, and the house reconstructed into the large
and attractive country residence which has since been the
Phelps home at Teaneck. Two days later the Congress-
man was back in Washington occupying his seat in the
House and busy with the affairs of the nation.

The thoughtfulness and appreciation of Mr. Phelps
for any service or kindness is indicated in the appended
note, which was printed in a local newspaper:

A CARD OF THANKS

Editor Times : — I shall have to ask the courtesy of your
columns, after all, to thank my friends and neighbors for their
kind services at the fire which destroyed Teaneck Grange. I
have sought to avoid the necessity of the formal and usual
public acknowledgment. I was reluctant to bring my private
loss again to the public eye, and besides, the services rendered
were so prompt and zealous, that I wanted to thank each one
who rendered them, personally. But I find the brief period
of my home visits allowed by Congressional duties makes it
impossible for me to meet them all, so I am compelled in this
way to express to those whom I have not yet met, my deep
gratitude. Especially I want to thank the Fire Companies of
Hackensack and Englewood. The united efforts of all have
saved for me some memorials of my old home. As these
memorials are seen within new walls, they will serve to remind
me that the friendship of Bergen County, which for nearly a

His Life and Public Services 199

quarter of a century never failed me in prosperity, was found
as warm and as helpful when misfortune came.
Yours very truly,

Wm. Walter Phelps.
Teaneck, April 30, 1888.

It was in the night of August 14, 1888, nearly five
months after the burning of the mansion, that the ex-
tensive stables and all adjoining out-buildings and coach-
men's quarters were destroyed by fire, thus completely
wiping out every structure connected with the private
residence and appointments of Teaneck Grange. The
origin of the fire was unknown, and it was so rapid in its
spreading that little could be accomplished in the work
of saving the contents, excepting the horses, which were
all rescued. Nearly all the carriages, harness, and other
equipments of the large buildings, with a considerable
quantity of goods stored after the destruction of the resi-
dence, were lost in the consuming flames.

At this date Mr. Phelps was in the southern part of
New Jersey, busy with campaign work, and did not hear
of this fire until the evening of the next day, when he
arrived at Asbury Park, where he was to address an im-
mense mass meeting under the auspices of all the New
Jersey Republican clubs. When informed of the catas-
trophe, he merely remarked : ' ' Well, the fire fiend seems
to be pursuing me," and then went on the platform and
made the most logical and effective political speech of his
life, to an audience the largest he ever addressed.

CHAPTER XX

Declines to Continue in Congress — New Jersey Republicans Resolve to
Name Him for the Presidency in the National Convention of 1888
— He Refuses to Have His Name Presented — Consents to Be-
come a Candidate for the Vice-Presidential Nomination — Receives a
Gratifying Support in the Convention, but the Claims of the Empire
State are Paramount and a Combination Nominates Levi P. Morton
— Active in the Presidential Campaign — Takes Part in Nomination
of President Harrison — The Phelps Guards of Paterson, and Their
Warm Reception in Washington — Mr. Blaine His Guest when Ap-
pointed Secretary of State

AFTER accepting the nomination for Congress in 1886,
Mr. Phelps gave out distinctly that he would not
again be a candidate for a seat in the national House of
Representatives. At the end of that term he would have
served eight years in the House, and he thought that was
all that his party, or the voters of his district, could rea-
sonably call upon him to do in the line of Congressional
service. As the time for another election approached,
all the political signs pointed to a Republican majority
in the next House. In that case, it was certain that if
Mr. Phelps were a member he would be placed at the
head of one of the most important committees, and the
probability was that he would be made the Chairman of
the Committee on Ways and Means, which carries with
it the leadership of the majority. He felt that he lacked
the physical strength to undergo the strain and respon-
sibilities which must always devolve upon a foremost
member of a majority party in the House. He therefore
thought himself justified in resisting all importunities to

His Life and Public Services 201

accept another nomination for the seat he had so long
occupied. His party was finally convinced that in all
fairness it should respect his wishes, and thus he took the
initial step for his voluntary retirement from Congress at
a time when there existed no evidence of satiety on the
part of the people.

It was known to Mr. Phelps long before 1888 that
there was no possibility of Mr. Blaine allowing his name
to go before the Republican National Convention of that
year, but the New Jersey leader intended to do his best
in rallying all the "thick and thin" Blaine men in the
party to an earnest support of whoever might be the
party nominee.

One of the advance movements of the campaign of 1888
was a notable banquet given in Baltimore, in January, by
the Central Republican Club of that city. It was at-
tended by leading Senators and statesmen from Washing-
ton, and several Governors of States. Senators Evarts,
Hawley, and Chandler were of the speakers, but Con-
gressman Phelps made the rousing speech of the evening,
marking out what must be the issues of the approaching
campaign, and encouraging the Republicans to deserve
and expect victory in the presidential contest. It was
one of the best displays of the speaker's inspiriting ora-
tory, and being widely quoted in the newspapers pro-
duced a visible public effect.

Ever since the election of 1886, it had been constantly
suggested in Republican councils that Mr. Phelps would
make a most available candidate for the Vice-Presidency
on the next Republican ticket. His fine national record,
his acknowledged ability and familiarity with government
affairs, all qualified him for a vice-presidential nominee.
It was urged that his family relations to Connecticut, his
business connections and acquaintance in New York, and
his citizenship and personal popularity in New Jersey,
would contribute largely to the chances of the Republi-
cans carrying those usually doubtful States. As the time

202 William Walter Phelps

for the convention drew near, his was the leading name
for the Vice-Presidency canvassed by thousands of Re-
publican journals from one end of the Union to the other.
It was also a strongly expressed opinion in many jour-
nals that his name would be an excellent one for the first
place on the national ticket, in the event that a choice
could not easily be made from the unusual number of
prominent Republicans whose names were foreshadowed
to be presented to the convention. Mr. Phelps gave
little thought to this suggestion, but the Republicans of
New Jersey regarded the prompting as worthy of con-
sideration, and in their State convention which met
to choose presidential delegates, the following resolution
was read :

Resolved, That the Republicans of New Jersey are proud to
call the attention of the National Convention to the name of
one who is eminently fitted to lead the party in the next cam-
paign. With an honorable record in foreign diplomacy; with
a long experience as one of the leaders in the National Con-
gress; wise in council and prompt in action; a publicist and
yet a man of affairs whose extensive business relations acquaint
him with the wants of the people ; an early and persistent and
recognized champion of the rights of labor; with a name in all
the States as a synonym of honesty and capacity; we pledge
to him the electoral vote of New Jersey, and, believing him to
be the strongest candidate in the doubtful States, present the
name of William Walter Phelps.

The rules were suspended and the resolution passed
unanimously and with vociferous cheering for New Jer-
sey's choice.

All kinds of tickets were made up by the newspapers,
which combined the name of Mr. Phelps with that of all
the leading statesmen who were aspiring to the first posi-
tion. A ticket comprising the name of Robert T. Lincoln
and William Walter Phelps was largely mentioned and
aroused much enthusiasm among the young men of the

His Life and Public Services 203

party, but before the convention, Mr. Lincoln's name was
withdrawn from the list of candidates and Illinois gave its
support to Judge Gresham of Chicago.

On the first ballot in the convention, the leading can-
didates stood in this order: Sherman, Gresham, Depew,
Alger, Harrison, Allison.

Mr. Phelps refused to have his name presented to the
convention for the Presidency. Nevertheless, he received
twenty-five votes, including those of his own State. Had
he not discountenanced the formal introduction of his
name, doubtless his vote would have been much larger,
for he had warm friends in a number of the State delega-
tions who would gladly have given him their support had
he been announced as a candidate.

There was a phenomenally long contest in this con-
vention; the balloting continued for five days, during
which the supporters of each of the foremost candidates
adhered loyally to their favorite. But the time came
when some sort of a compromise became a necessity, and
after much manceuvring, New York was induced to lead
off in such a movement by withdrawing from the field Mr.
Depew. Following this, but after some delay, Iowa
dropped Mr. Allison's name, and then came the combina-
tion of the large States of New York and Pennsylvania,
Indiana and Iowa, which terminated the struggle in favor
of Mr. Harrison, with an understanding that there should
be yielded New York its candidate for the Vice- Presidency,
Mr. Morton.

This result put at an end any probability of Mr. Phelps
for the second place, but his adherents were by no means
content with the ' ' arrangement ' ' for the vice-presidential
candidate, in which they had no part. They believed that
while Mr. Morton would be strong in one doubtful State,
Mr. Phelps would be strong in all, and they decided that
the name of their favorite should be placed before the
nominating body. He was therefore named in behalf of
New Jersey by Hon. John W. Griggs in a bright speech

204 William Walter Phelps

which arrested much attention, and the unanimous criti-
cism of the speaker was : " That young man will be apt to
be heard from hereafter." Mr. Griggs's nomination of
Mr. Phelps was seconded in able remarks by General
Gibson of Ohio, Congressman J. P. Dolliver of Iowa, Con-
gressman Boutelle of Maine, Judge Rosenthal of Texas,
Mr. Eagan of Nebraska, Mr. Fuller of North Carolina, and
Mr. Sims of Virginia. It follows that Mr. Morton, with
all his advantages, was successful, the vote received by
Mr. Phelps being 119. While the New Jersey Congress-
man was acceptable to all the candidates in the field as a
running mate, he was the decided preference of those
who at the start had the highest votes — Mr. Sherman and
Mr. Gresham.

Mr. Phelps took a cheerful view of the result and was
quickly back at his desk in Washington, striving to finish
up his ofificial labors so as to take a lively part in the presi-
dential campaign as soon as it should fairly open. In a
published interview he said :

When New York united all its factions and strength and
asked for the nomination of Mr. Morton, the Convention did
well not to refuse the request of the Empire State.

The office of Mr. Phelps in New York was a thronged
and busy political centre throughout the fall of 1888.
The callers were so numerous from all sections of New
Jersey and elsewhere that it was impossible for him to
give them all interviews, and part of that work had to be
done by his political secretary. Mrs. Phelps and Miss
Phelps were in Europe, and the Congressman gave his
whole time to the presidential canvass. He was on the
platform almost daily, it being his custom to remain in
his office in the forenoon and each afternoon go to some
point in New Jersey where he had an appointment for an
evening speech, so that before Election day was reached
he had addressed great mass meetings in every important

His Life and Public Services 205

point in the State, and in addition he gave some time to*
platform speaking at large places in other States.

After the election, and at the beginning of December,
he went to the opening of the short session of the House
which would last only until the 4th of March following,
when his Congressional career would finally close.

The Democrats had lost the Presidency and the next
House and were in no mood to enact any more legislation
of any moment, therefore but little save the routine work
was performed during this brief three months' life of the
House.

The Republicans had failed to secure a majority on
joint ballot in the New Jersey Legislature, and at the
election for United States Senator in January, a Demo-
crat was chosen. Republican members of the Legislature
wished to compliment their leading Congressman with
their votes in the caucus, but he was disinclined to a fruit-
less nomination and that honor was bestowed elsewhere.

Mr. Phelps was one of the Committee of Arrangements
appointed by the House to conduct the ceremonies of
Mr. Harrison's inauguration, and this was his last official
duty as a Representative in Congress.

The inauguration was attended in a body by the
"Phelps Guards" of Paterson, two hundred strong.
This organization was formed in 1872, when its namesake
was for the first time nominated for Congress, and it fol-
lowed his fortunes all through his political career. Its
members were the most prominent and respectable young
Republicans of Paterson, and from that class year after
year its recruits came, and it was always an acknowledged
power in all the political campaigns of the memorable
Fifth District. The New Jersey statesman welcomed the
"Old Guard" to the National Capitol with his accustomed
cordiality, and all in his power was done to make their
stay interesting and pleasant. Before leaving for their
homes on the day following the inauguration, the Guards
serenaded Mr. Phelps at his hotel. While standing on

2o6 William Walter Phelps

'the balcony with Mrs. Blaine and Miss Phelps behind
him, he made a brief and encouraging address to the
visitors drawn up in line before him, telling them that
they could go to their homes with the utmost confidence
that the new Administration would serve the country
faithfully, intelligently, and patriotically. He then ac-
companied the Guards to the White House, where, at his
invitation, the new President came on the piazza and re-
viewed the fine body of New Jersey's Republicans as
they marched in front of him. This was Mr. Phelps's
last meeting with an organization of zealous friends and
followers who had for so many years borne his name with
honor and pride.

Mr. Blaine went to Washington in January, 1889, and
was for a time the guest of Mr. Phelps. It was apparent
to all that he was to be the Secretary of State in the
Harrison Cabinet, therefore when his appointment to that
position immediately followed the inauguration, it but
fulfilled public expectation.

CHAPTER XXI

Commissioner to Samoan Conference — His First Meeting with Bismarck —
Interesting Extract from His Diary — Has English Adopted as
Language of Conference — Dubbed the " Peacemaker " — Splendid
Diplomatic Success — Returns with "Peace and Honor" Treaty —
Warmly Received by the President Who Presents Him with a
Commission as Minister to Berlin — Declines Receptions

NEARLY the first important business that made a
claim upon the new Administration was the naming
of three commissioners to act in conference with Hke
officials from England and Germany in the adjustment of
the difficulties in which these three countries were in-
volved concerning affairs in the Samoan Islands.

For ten years German merchants and German officials
had been trying to gain advantages in Samoa and fre-
quently their efforts were not attended by the circum-
spection and regard for the rights of others which is
required of enlightened nations when such actions are
exposed to the criticism of their peers. The Government
at Berlin had been encouraging and fostering colonization
and not only failed to call its officials sharply to account
for their actions in Samoa, but it seems as if it, at least,
overlooked many of their high-handed transactions. As
a matter of fact, when these transactions were investi-
gated, it was found that the German Government had not
taken any part in their conception or execution, yet its
failure to check the overzealous officials left the Govern-
ment in a very lame attitude.

Internal dissension had been fomenting among the
natives until these beautiful and once peaceful islands of

207

2o8 William Walter Phelps

the Pacific had been reduced to a state of anarchy and
harassed by the baleful hand of civil war. In this reduced
state, the German officials attempted acts which were
tantamount to annexation, in violation of their treaty,
and but for the protection of the American consul
and his courageous interference it is very probable the
Germans would have accomplished their purpose and the
German flag would have remained floating over Apia.

Malietoa, the lawful king, was deeply attached to the
English-speaking residents. Treaties had been made by
Samoa with the United States in 1878, with Germany in
January, 1879, ^^^ with England in August, 1879. ^^
1884, under pressure, a fresh treaty was made with Ger-
many, practically handing over the islands to that power,
which was afterwards disallowed by England and America
and repudiated by Malietoa himself, as having been ex-
torted by threats.

For the next three years the condition of the Samoan
Islands was one of turmoil and civil war, instigated by
German officials, who kept an armed force there con-
tinually. The German policy finally culminated in the
imprisonment and banishment of Malietoa and the estab-
lishment by German authority of a rebel chief named
Tamasese as king. All this time there were vigorous
protests by the United States against the conduct of
Germany. There was a constant diplomatic correspond-
ence, and a conference at Washington, all without any
practical result. In the meantime, affairs on the islands
were growing worse and there was a rebellion of the
natives against the government of Tamasese.

Secretary of State Bayard seemed to have been unfor-
tunate in his handling of the Samoan affair. Prince Bis-
marck grew more irritated and impatient as the troubles
became protracted and no friendly solution presented
itself, and the correspondence between Berlin and Wash-
ington on the subject became strained. Bismarck laid
all the blame on the American consuls in Samoa, whom

His Life and Public Services 209

he charged with continually opposing and thwarting Ger-
many and encouraging disputes between the natives and
the German officials. Mr. Bayard replied that the troubles
in Samoa were owing to German influence in supporting
Tamasese in his rebellion. There was a strong public
opinion in the United States at this time that Samoa and
its king had been unjustly treated by the Germans and
that the American Government had been to some extent
outmanoeuvred. Mr. Bayard had asked the assent of
Lord Salisbury and Prince Bismarck to the publication of
all the documents and proceedings in the Samoan matter,
but both the German and English Ministers refused.

This was the state of the Samoan affairs, accentuated by
a new outbreak of hostilities among the natives, when the
Democratic Administration retired and President Harri-
son was inaugurated on March 4, 1889. Congress had
provided for the appointment of three commissioners to
attend a second conference with commissioners from
England and Germany to be held at Berlin. Mr. Blaine
at once thought of Mr. Phelps, in whom the American
statesman had the greatest confidence at all times, and
especially where a knowledge of diplomacy and acquaint-
ance with European methods and a natural tact in con-
troversy were required.

When Mr. Phelps was informed of his selection, he
hesitated to accept the commission. He had retired to
his New Jersey estate and did not expect active service
for some time. It was well known that he was booked
for diplomatic service. In the newspapers and in high
official circles his name was constantly mentioned for
either the mission to England, France, or Germany. It
was understood that he had expressed a preference for
France, while at the same time it was expected that Mr.
Whitelaw Reid would receive the appointment to Eng-
land. Circumstances arose which prevented the President
from appointing Mr. Reid to the Court of St. James, and
he was offered the French mission, which he accepted.

2IO William Walter Phelps

It was then that Mr. Blaine wrote to Mr. Phelps saying
that it had been his hope to send Mr. Phelps to France
and expressing the belief that Mr. Reid would not wish
to remain a long time at Paris, and if Mr. Phelps should
so desire it, Mr. Blaine would try to have him named as
Mr. Reid's successor. In the same letter, the Secretary
of State, who had been a faithful friend and admirer of
Mr. Phelps, urged him to accept the temporary appoint-
ment to the Samoan Conference, saying:

But no friend, let me add, should make you underrate the
Samoan appointment. The question referred to your commis-
sion is far the most important (unless it be the fisheries) we
have had to settle for many years — the most important that I
can recall on the Continent for fifty years. I intended to pay
you a compliment of a very high order when I recommended
your nomination. You can always rest with the utmost con-
fidence of my having you at all times on the tablet of my
memory and of my heart and that nothing I can do shall ever-
be left undone to promote your wishes.

This reminder of the ardent personal friendship that
had so long existed between these brilliant men at once
overcame Mr. Phelps's objections to undertaking the
public duty thus pointed out to him, and he accepted the
commission which gave him the opportunity of meeting
the great Bismarck in diplomacy and winning a victory
of much advantage to his country and credit to himself.
His conferees on the commission were John A. Kasson
of Iowa and George H. Bates of Delaware. These ap-
pointments were confirmed by the Senate on March i8,
1889. Mr. Kasson had served as Minister to Austria, as
had Mr. Phelps. Mr. Bates was a Democrat and a dis-
tinguished lawyer in Delaware. He had been Mr. Bayard's
special Commissioner to Samoa, sent out when the Sa-
moan Conference in Washington broke up. He acquired
very decided opinions about the conduct of Germany in
the islands.

His Life and Public Services 211

In the Century Magazine for April, Mr. Bates had an
article which was evidently written before he knew of his
appointment as a Commissioner to the Berlin Conference,
and in which he said :

The course pursued by Germany, the insults to our citizens
and our flag, and more than all, to our government itself, in
deceiving us with assurances which were belied by simul-
taneous inconsistent actions, certainly should forbid further
efforts in the direction of co-operative action until disclaimers
are accompanied with fruit meet for repentance.

This article was taken up and commented upon by all
the newspapers of the day as incautious and undiplo-
matic language for a man chosen for a delicate mission,
and it was suggested that he had better stay at home, but
no importance was attached to the article in the United
States or German Governments, and it was soon forgotten.

The appointment of Mr. Phelps and Mr. Kasson met
with universal approval, albeit there was considerable
levity in some newspapers over Mr. Phelps's bang and
its probable diplomatic effect on the grim German
Chancellor.

The Samoan Commissioners, immediately after their
appointment, sought all the information they could ob-
tain at the departments in Washington, relating to the
Samoan controversy. The newspapers, commenting on
the appointments, mentioned the rumor that after he had
discharged the duties of Samoan Commissioner, Mr.
Phelps would be named for Minister to Germany. This
rumor soon reached Europe, and Mr. Pendleton, who
was then Minister to Germany, sent a dispatch which was
shown to Mr. Phelps while he was receiving his instruc-
tions from the State Department. It said that Bismarck
had sent up the Emperor's request to know what he could
learn of William Walter Phelps, who was spoken of as
Mr. Pendleton's successor.

The instructions of Secretary Blaine to the Commis-

212 William Walter Phelps

sioners emphasized the fact that the conference to be held
at Berlin was a renewal of the conference at Washington
in 1887, "for the purpose of establishing peace, and an
orderly, stable government in the Samoan Islands, on
the basis of their recognized independence and the equal
rights of the three treaty powers." Mr. Blaine gave the
Commissioners all the latitude he could on the subject,
telling them that the Government of the United States
desired a speedy and amicable solution of all the ques-
tions involved, yet he desired them to urge with "tem-
perate firmness " the restoration of the status quo, which
meant the independence of the natives and the return of
Malietoa, and likewise the equality of the three treaty
powers in commerce and navigation.

If, Mr. Blaine said, it became absolutely necessary that
the three treaty powers should administer the government
of Samoa, it was the earnest desire of the President that
this intervention should be temporary and avowedly pre-
paratory to the restoration of as complete independence
and autonomy as was possible in the islands ; that the in-
tervention of the three treaty powers must be on terms
of absolute equality, and that the adjustment of claims
and titles to land should be matters of important con-
sideration, because the claims of foreigners to land in the
islands amounted to more than the whole area of the
group.

It will thus be seen that Mr. Blaine adopted essentially
the plan and the attitude of Mr. Bayard at the previous
conference, and it is a signal proof of the ability of Mr.
Phelps and his conferees that they won every point in
Berlin after the failure in Washington. In the develop-
ment of the Conference, it appeared that the American
Commissioners had the advantage of being in a more
logical and secure position than the Germans.

Mr. Phelps sailed from New York on the 13th of April,
1889, and arrived in Berlin on the 27th of that month.
The Commissioners made their headquarters at the Kaiser-

His Life and Public Services 213

hof, where a magnificent suite of rooms had been engaged
for them. The Commissioners representing Germany
were Count Herbert Bismarck, Baron de Holstein, and
Dr. Krauel. The English Commissioners were Sir Ed-
ward Baldwin Malet, at Berlin, the British Ambassador
Mr. Charles Stewart Scott, English Minister to Switzer-
land, and Mr. Joseph Archer Crowe.

Count Herbert Bismarck was head of the German dele-
gation, and his father, the great iron Chancellor, was in
closest touch with the developments of the negotiations,
even to the smallest details, and he dictated the German
policy. Mr. Phelps became the leading spirit on the
American side, and he was thus pitted in diplomatic con-
test with the master mind of the century. Through all
the arduous and trying work of the Conference he dis-
played such rare tact and fertility of resource that he won
the admiration and lasting friendship of Prince Bismarck
and his son, a friendship that was advantageous to the
American statesman later in his career, and of great benefit
to the American people.

Official calls occupied the time of the American Com-
missioners during the first few days before they took up
the work of their mission. Among the first calls was one
paid to Prince Bismarck in his palace, given him by Em-
peror William I., at Wilhelm Strasse. Mr. Phelps thus
records the event in his diary, May, 1889:

Called at 2 p.m. on Prince Bismarck. In vestibule — an
open hall, level with the street — met by Count Herbert. In a
few minutes met at the door of the adjacent room by his
father. Old, large, feeble, in military coat, carelessly unbut-
toned. He told of the Emperor's gift, so valuable because he
could go without any descent directly from his library into the
garden, which he said was very beautiful, and the only place
where he could walk now. He could not walk in the street on
account of his popularity. He needed to keep his hat off all
the time, or to keep constantly touching it, which was just as
bad, and two policemen to keep the crowd back, for every one

214 William Walter Phelps

seemed to know him. Was not always so popular, and it was
pleasanter. It was n't necessary to notice frowns and stares
— and, inside (pointing to his heart) their hate did n't harm.
He spoke of cause of his popularity and the reverse. After
the war, 1872 to 1878, was most unpopular. The Conserva-
tives said he had deserted them — too much water of liberalism
in his conservatism. If a man wishes most to serve his coun-
try, he must sacrifice his personal pride, or his own consistency
— people to manage, parties to manage, monarchs to manage
— all can give something to the successful government, and the
wise statesman will secure contributions from all. Germany
found a monarch necessary; the United States seemed not to.
He mentioned the opportunity the Commission had of seeing
one of the military functions when the new colors had been
given to the first regiment. This caused us to laughingly
allude to the awkward appearance we must have made in dress
suits, unattractive in the sunlight, beside so many brilliant
uniforms. This caused him to remark : "I was wont, when
younger, to give one hour a day to changing my clothes.
There was my ordinary dress. Then there was need to change
to a military suit, followed by a civil dress upon summons from
the Emperor. Next came a resumption of citizen's dress, after
which there would be another summons in the afternoon when
a military dress must be worn. Finally I had to don an even-
ing dress for a dinner party. But later the Emperor graciously
consented that I might wear military dress always, and so save
thirty hours per month — five good working days." The
Chancellor plead sweetly that we would not work Herbert too
hard in the Conference — he was very proud of his boy. He
spoke cheerfully of the work of the Commissioners and hoped
they would speedily settle matters in those unhappy islands.
He thought the zeal and self-sufficiency of the consuls were to
blame for much that occurred, supposed that we knew the
government was not responsible for all they did. He spoke
of his Ulm dogs (two of which were by), one given him by the
Emperor. Said: " Wife was always happy when she got some-
thing of Bret Harte's to read." He was reading Motley's
letters. They had roomed together in Gottingen— rone talking
English and the other German. The English of Prince Bis-

His Life and Public Services 215

marck was slow and rugged like himself, but his conversation
always interesting.

The first session of the Conference was held on the
29th of April, 1889, and Count Herbert Bismarck was
chosen president. On the initiative of Mr. Phelps, who,
with all the American Commissioners, could understand
and talk French, it was decided to conduct the Conference
in the English language. This was an innovation in dip-
lomatic negotiations which was very widely commented
on at the time and led to much speculation as to the de-
cadence of French and the adoption of English as the
future language of diplomacy.

At this session Count Bismarck announced that the
German Government had received an ofificial report that
Malietoa had expressed his regret and his earnest wish to
be reconciled with the German Government. On receiv-
ing this report, the Emperor had ordered the release of
Malietoa, who was now at liberty to return to Samoa if
he chose. This was an important piece of news to the
Commissioners as it opened a way by which the status
quo ante could be regained and thus settle one of the
fundamental difficulties of the situation. The announce-
ment was received with gratification.

It was agree.d upon to keep the transactions of the
Conference secret for the time being, and that pledge
was sacredly kept by all the Commissioners. Scraps of
information began to leak out through other sources later
on and the newspapers published rumors that the Ameri-
cans were successful in their mission. It soon became
known that Mr. Phelps had taken the lead on the Ameri-
can side, and that it was due to his tactful and diplomatic
bearing that many concessions were obtained by the
Americans, especially in the matter of the immunity
granted to Mataafa in the settlement of the government
of Apia and of the land question.

The real work of the Conference was done in sub-com-

2i6 William Walter Phelps

mittee and it was there that Mr. Phelps showed to advan-
tage. His suavity and grace, combined with a fine logical
mind and magnetic effectiveness in conversation, gave him
that subtle power which overcomes and conquers in
struggles of this kind. He was the American member of
the sub-committee to consider the form of the future
Samoan government and its connection with municipal
affairs, but he also attended the meetings of the other
sub-committees and took an active part in their debates.
While he clung closely and consistently to the original
policy of the United States Government, he always main-
tained a friendly attitude and address, winning the
friendship and admiration of the German and English
Commissioners, and even of the great Bismarck himself,
who kept in close touch with the work of the Conference,
even to the smallest details. Such was the influence of
Mr. Phelps upon the progress and development of the
negotiations that he was soon dubbed the "Peacemaker,"
and in this role he accomplished what had before been
thought impossible because of the failure at the Confer-
ence in Washington. Although he was punctilious in
attending all the social functions that naturally accom-
panied such a mission, he worked indefatigably during
the weeks the Conference was pending. Every day he
was for hours at his desk working out the plans he formed
and meeting the suggestions made at the sessions of the
sub-committees. He was also in constant communication
with Blaine at Washington.

Early in the negotiations, Mr. Phelps saw that it would
not be difficult for the American Commissioners to gain
what they contended for if a way could be devised to
let the Germans retreat gracefully. The Chancellor had
apparently seen that his position, or rather the position
which overzealous officials and avaricious adventurers in
Samoa had forced upon him, was untenable; but it was
not to be expected that the imperious Bismarck would
completely back down and acknowledge that Germany

His Life and Public Services 217

had made a flat failure in the Southern Pacific Islands.
For two years the press and the people of Germany had
presented a bellicose front on the subject and although
now the German Government recognized that mistakes
had been made and was willing to seek a friendly settle-
ment, yet it would have to come out of the Conference
claiming something in order to mollify the press and peo-
ple, and to this phase of the subject Mr. Phelps addressed
himself with all the ingenuity at his command. He got
valuable assistance from the English Commissioners, who
were willing to act as "honest brokers" between the
American and German Commissioners.

One of the first pieces of information to find its way
into the newspapers was the agreement on the form of
the municipal government of Apia and this was called
the "Phelps Compromise."

After seven plenary sittings, the Conference practi-
cally finished its work on the 29th of May, but the final
meeting was not held until June 14th, because the Amer-
ican Commissioners had to obtain the approval of the
Department at Washington. This took longer than was
expected on account of some slight differences which
were ultimately overcome. It was on the 13th of June
that Mr. Phelps cabled to Mr. Blaine that everything was
settled and the work of the Conference was done. He
asked if the Commission should break up, and the re-
sponse of the Secretary of State was: "Yes, if well and
successfully done." The treaty was not made public at
that time, as it had to be ratified by the United States
Senate, and the usual courtesy to that body dictated
secrecy. As it was afterwards made public, the treaty
showed that the United States had won on every material
point in contention. The first article provides :

It is declared that the Islands of Samoa are neutral territory
in which the citizens and subjects of the Three Signatory
Powers have equal rights of residence, trade, and personal

2i8 William Walter Phelps

protection. The Three Powers recognize the independence
of the Sainoan government and the free right of the natives to
elect their Chief or King and choose their form of government
according to their own laws and customs. Neither of the
powers shall exercise any separate control over the Islands or
the government thereof.

The same article declared that Malietoa should be
recognized as king and his successor should be elected
according to the laws and customs of Samoa. A supreme
court was provided for and the chief justice, who was to
be the supreme judicial officer in the land, with jurisdic-
tion over both local and international disputes, was to be
named by the three signatory Powers in common accord,
or, failing that agreement, be named by the King of
Sweden and Norway. The treaty prohibited the natives
from selling their lands to foreigners except under certain
restrictions, and it provided for a land court to investigate
titles already acquired. The town of Apia was to be
under the control of a municipal council consisting of six
members and a president, the latter to be agreed upon by
the three Powers, or, failing such agreement, to be selected
from the nationality of Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzer-
land, Mexico, or Brazil. The six councillors were to be
elected by the tax-payers of Apia, and as the Germans
preponderated, this seemed to give the control of Apia
to the Germans. Perhaps this was the only point in
which the Germans gained a material advantage in the
Conference.

The treaty also established a scheme of taxation and
revenue for the islands and restricted importation of arms
and ammunition and intoxicating liquors.

The treaty was signed by the Commissioners of the
three Powers at the Foreign Office in Berlin on the 14th
of June. The Commissioners separated with mutual
compliments and good wishes. Throughout the negotia-
tions the utmost courtesy and good feeling had been

His Life and Public Services 219

maintained and all sides seemed satisfied with the result.
Within half an hour after the tri-partite agreement had
been signed, Count Bismarck left Berlin for Koenigstein,
on his regular leave of absence, and Mr. Phelps took a
train for Bremerhaven, there to catch the Fulda for New-
York. Messrs. Kasson and Bates tarried in Europe a
short time before returning to America.

Mr. Phelps had not only made many friends among
the German officials at Berlin, but he had become popular
with the German press and people. His hard work and
his friendly bearing had earned for him the good wishes
of every one and the hope was frequently expressed that
his Government would send him back to Berlin in the
more permanent position of Minister. These expressions
were entirely spontaneous, but the same sentiment was
being voiced in America on account of his splendid dip-
lomatic success.

He reached New York on the 24th of June, and was
greeted by a number of friends and newspaper men, the
latter all being eager for interviews on the "Peace and
Honor" treaty which he carried with much care in a little
yellow leather bag.

The first talk he had with representatives of the press
on landing was in response to their inquiries whether the
report was correct that English was the language used in
the Conference. He said :

It is a fact, and one of some significance. It is the first
time in the history of diplomacy that negotiations have not
been carried on in French, the language of diplomacy. It was
done on our motion, and as English was the national language
of six out of nine of the Commissioners, and the Germans,
who speak English well, fell good naturedly in with us, that
became the language of the Conference, though we started out
in French, which all the Commissioners spoke. It may be
that German antipathy to anything French helped to establish
this important precedent. I don't know. However, the fact
remains. Even the language of the treaty is English, and it

220 William Walter Phelps

is the first European treaty written in English, which I do not
doubt is going to become the language of diplomacy, for the
English tongue, through American and English colonization,
travel, and trade, is gaining so much more rapidly in use over
all other languages in every important part of the world. We
all found that good, sturdy, Anglo-Saxon was the most exact
and satisfactory tongue in which to couch delicate and in-
tricate points. I rejoice that the new era was inaugurated
by us.

The prediction of the thoroughly American diplomat
in this interview^ has been partially fulfilled at least, for
since the innovation which he promoted in the Samoan
Conference, the proceedings of several noted conferences
and international gatherings on the European continent
have been conducted in English.

Mr. Phelps hastened the same day of his arrival to
Washington, which he reached the following morning and
called upon Secretary Blaine, with whom he went to the
White House and presented the treaty to President Har-
rison, who greeted him very cordially.

The best evidence of the satisfaction of President
Harrison with the work of Mr. Phelps and his conferees
was given with a promptness that surprised and pleased
the New Jersey statesman. After a short talk about the
Conference and the treaty which had just been delivered,
President Harrison opened a drawer and took out a com-
mission as Minister to Germany, which he handed to Mr.
Phelps with a very high compliment and an invitation to
Mr. Phelps to take breakfast at the White House the
following day. With this handsome recognition for bril-
liant work from the ruler of the nation in his possession,
and the compliments of friends and the praise of the press
from all parts of the country in his ears, Mr. Phelps re-
tired to his estate in New Jersey to enjoy a well-earned
rest.

Many efforts were made to do honor to Mr. Phelps in
a public manner for the distinguished triumph obtained

His Life and Public Services 221

by America in the diplomatic battle at Berlin, but with a
modesty and fair-mindedness which always characterized
him, he courteously declined such honors. His reasons
were given in full to the Phelps Guards of Paterson, N.
J. His letter to them shows how he regarded the work
of his colleagues. He wrote:

Gentlemen : Your note was one of the pleasantest things
which greeted me on my arrival. I mean the note signed by
Hilton and Griggs and others of the old members, as your
committee, to tell me that " the Guards wished to express their
appreciation of my service at the Samoan Conference in Berlin
and to tender me a reception and congratulations."

Now, I '11 tell you why I was so long in answering it. I was
trying to reconcile inclination with duty, because I wanted
very much to accept your invitation.

I cannot do it after all, and I feel sure that you will think
my reasons are good ones when you hear them. While wait-
ing to make up my mind I have had many suggestions that
various organizations with which I am connected for pleasure
or profit proposed to do me similar honor. This has made me
think that were I to accept these kindnesses I should lack the
time which I must devote to my private affairs, in view of the
responsible duties abroad to which the President has assigned
me. But another objection is more conclusive — because other
people's interests are concerned and I can't disregard them.
I don't like to celebrate the results of the Samoan Conference
when my colleagues on the Commission are absent. If there
is anything to celebrate — and, while a diplomatic padlock ties
my own lips, I have not failed to read in the English and Ger-
man press that in their opinion the interests of the United
States and of Samoa were not neglected at Berlin — the credit
must be shared at least equally with my accomplished col-
leagues on the American Commission. To these were largely
due the success of the Conference, and I should be loath, by
any public celebration in their absence, to indicate that I
claimed any more than my share with them of a battle honor-
ably fought.

With grateful acknowledgments of this fresh proof of a

222 William Walter Phelps

devotion on the part of the Phelps Guards which nearly twenty
years has not chilled, I am gratefully yours,

Wm. Walter Phelps.
Teaneck, July 10, 1889.

After the first wave of gratification and applause had
passed over the country, partisan papers began to cast
doubts upon the measure of success secured by the Amer-
ican Commissioners. These criticisms were all made in
the dark, as the terms of the treaty were all kept secret
until it was presented to the Senate for ratification.
Then the treaty came before that body in January, 1890,
and it was published. Then it was known and acknow-
ledged that the American Commissioners had secured
practically everything contended for by the Government.
It was ratified by the Senate on February 4, 1890, by a
vote of 38 to 12, and events proved that it was a wise
and successful settlement of difiSculties which had for
many years disrupted the peace of the beautiful islands
in the South Pacific. Happiness and peace were restored
to a naturally amiable people.

CHAPTER XXII

Minister to Germany — The Appointment Popular in the United States and
in Germany — Cordial Reception at the Berlin Court — The Em-
peror's Friendly Speech at the Presentation — Search for a Residence
— His First Thanksgiving Dinner at Which Many Americans Were
Present — Reception by the Empress — The Life of a Diplomat — Its
Varied Duties and Many Social Obligations

WITH a unanimity that was surprising the press and
the people of the United States greeted the
appointment of William Walter Phelps to be Minister
Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the German
Court as a graceful recognition by President Harrison of
the splendid diplomatic service the New Jersey statesman
had rendered to his country. The appointment became
known within a day or two after Mr. Phelps had returned
with his Samoan treaty in the famous yellow leather bag,
and the country was ringing with the praises of the
American Commissioners who had won such a gratifying
victory in diplomacy, so that the prompt and substantial
reward bestowed upon the leading diplomat found a cor-
dial response in the hearts of the nation. Even the anti-
administration newspapers congratulated the Government
on such a graceful act and all critics admitted that Mr.
Phelps was eminently qualified for the position. Thus
were fulfilled the prognostications of the political prophets
when Mr. Phelps was appointed a Samoan Commissioner,
and thus were fulfilled the political hopes of the German
Court after it had become acquainted with the admirable
qualities of Mr. Phelps, that he would succeed Minister

223

2 24 William Walter Phelps

Pendleton. Seldom, if ever, has a political appointment
met with such universal approval, and it was a peculiar
tribute to the genius of Mr. Phelps that after wringing
from Germany such a material diplomatic victory, the
Germans should be so glad to have him among them
permanently.

After receiving his commission from President Harri-
son, Mr. Phelps retired to the enjoyment of his New
Jersey home for a short time. During the summer he
visited relatives in Pennsylvania and, with his daughter,
spent some time at Bar Harbor, where Mr. Blaine and his
family were staying. He spent a great deal of time in
putting his business affairs in shape for a protracted ab-
sence and on September 7, 1889, he sailed for Europe on
the steamer Elbe. For several days before he sailed Mr.
Phelps was in constant receipt of letters and telegrams of
congratulation and farewell from all over the land and a
great many friends and relatives were at the pier to see
him off. The new Minister arrived in Berlin on Septem-
ber 1 8th, and took rooms at the Kaiserhof. He took
charge of the Legation the following day, and his first
public function occurred on September 26th, when he
presented his credentials to Emperor William, being
introduced by Count Herbert Bismarck. The Emperor
gave him a most cordial reception, and in response to Mr.
Phelps's assurance that he would do his best to maintain
and foster the friendly relations existing between Ger-
many and the United States, the Emperor made some
impromptu remarks that were widely quoted and com-
mented upon at the time as being free from the stiffness
usually accompanying such audiences and more cordial
than might have been expected. He expressed pleasure
at the appointment of Mr. Phelps, whose words of assur-
ance gave him great gratification, and he did not doubt
that Mr. Phelps would be successful in his endeavors to
continue the good relations which had obtained between
the two countries for over a century.

His Life and Public Services 225

From my early youth [he said] I have been a great admirer
of the mighty and growing commonwealth, which you repre-
sent, and the study of your history in peace and in war has
always interested me very much. Of the many prominent
qualities possessed by your countrymen it is especially their
enterprise, their sense of order, and their inventive genius
which direct the attention of the world to them. The Ger-
mans feel themselves so much the more attracted toward the
people of the United States, as they are bound to the Ameri-
cans through the many ties which the community of race pro-
duces. The most prominent feeling of these people is that
of kin and of tried friendship and the future will only increase
the heartiness of our relations.

The audience was extended far beyond the usual time
of such functions so that Mr. Phelps and Count Bismarck
missed the train by which they intended to return to
Berlin. That evening Count Bismarck gave a dinner to
Mr. Phelps, which was attended by the principal attaches
of the United States Legation, and the other guests were
the Italian Charg6 d'Affaires, Marquis de Beccaria Incisa,
the English Charg6 d'Affaires, Mr. Beauclerk, the chief of
the German navy, Admiral von der Goltz, General von
Hanke, Chief of the Emperor's military cabinet. General
Aide-de-Camp Count Wedel, Captain and Imperial Aide-
de-Camp Baron von Senden, Baron von Alvensleben,
Lieutenant von Below, Baron von Holstein, Count
Kanitz, Professor von Gneist, and other distinguished
gentlemen. Mr. Phelps took Countess William Bismarck,
who acted as hostess, in to dinner.

This marked his reception into official life in Berlin and
thereafter Mr. Phelps was a prominent figure at all the
social events of the German Court and of high official
Berlin circles. On October nth he was presented to the
German Empress at a gala performance at the Royal
Opera House given in honor of the Czar of Russia. He
was the only man in the brilliant assemblage who had
neither color in his clothes nor gold upon his coat as he

226 William Walter Phelps

was led to the foyer by Marechal de la Cour Count von
Eulenburg. Three days later he was presented to Em-
press Frederick at her palace in Unter den Linden.
These social distinctions and others of lesser note kept
Mr. Phelps constantly before the public, both in Ger-
many and the United States, and he very quickly got the
reputation of being the most popular Minister America
had ever sent to Berlin.

While he yielded much time to the demands of society,
Mr. Phelps never for a moment neglected his official
duties and all through his public career he was known as
a hard worker. Although he entertained and was enter-
tained a great deal, he was constantly at his desk during
business hours and within a month after taking charge of
the Legation he had practically mastered the routine
work of his office. His first difficulty was in finding a
suitable residence. Aided by the Foreign Office, his
numerous friends at the Court and in the diplomatic
corps, he searched through all the desirable parts of Ber-
lin offering to pay any price asked for suitable quarters.
He was temporarily located at the Kaiserhof in the suite
of apartments once tenanted by Lord Rosebery and
afterwards by Mr. Villard, the American railway magnate.
He tried to rent the famous Borsig palace, built by the
great German ironmaster but never occupied, and which
had been sought in vain by the governments of France,
England, Italy, and even Germany for official purposes.
Mr. Phelps offered to pay a rent of $20,000 a year during
the period of his residence in Berlin, but his offer met
with the same polite refusal that had attended all previous
efforts of the same kind. He finally secured a home in
the large new building at the corner of Dorotheen and
Neue Wilhelm Strasse and spent a small fortune in re-
building, remodelling, and furnishing it according to his
own tastes and those of Mrs. Phelps.

Mrs. Phelps left him in October and returned to Amer-
ica to make final preparations for her permanent removal

His Life and Public Services 227

to Berlin. During the same month he received notice
that Rutgers College in New Jersey had conferred upon
him the degree of LL.D.

Early in November Count Schouvaloff, the Russian
Ambassador in Berlin, gave a dinner in honor of Minister
Phelps. During that month Mr. Phelps entertained Ber-
lin society and American visitors with lavish hospitality,
ending up with the magnificent Thanksgiving Day ban-
quet, which was the greatest affair of its kind ever seen
in Berlin. At that time the American colony in Berlin
was not homogeneous and although they all celebrated
Thanksgiving Day as the national holiday they were not
united. The members of the so-called "American
church " would have a celebration of their own, apart
from the more aristocratic Episcopalians, who worshipped
in the chapel of St. George. The ladies who had been
brought up in the principles of strict temperance looked
with horror upon those rollicking students who found no
harm in a glass of foaming lager beer or the bon vivantes
who dallied with the sparkling champagne. The dissen-
sions caused war and disunion in the American camp.
Minister Phelps in looking forward to the celebration of
Thanksgiving Day saw this dissension and determined to
bring about peace, union, and good fellowship among his
countrymen. He called a meeting composed of men
from all factions, old residents of Berlin and late arrivals,
the millionaire and the poor student, the votary of re-
ligion and the worldling. With diplomatic tact Mr.
Phelps reconciled the conflicting factions, and when the
meeting adjourned, all had pledged themselves to a
hearty support of the measures proposed. A great ban-
quet, a concert by American musical students of talent,
and a ball were to be given on Thanksgiving Day and all
Americans were welcome. The price of admission was
placed so low as to allow the poorest to attend. In order
to meet the heavy expenses, which could not be covered
by the admission fee, Mr. Phelps placed his purse at the

2 28 William Walter Phelps

disposal of the two committeemen having this matter in
charge, but in order to spare the feelings of the poorer
students nothing of this was said to any one. Every-
body was supposed to have contributed his full share of
the expenses.

The dinner and the festivities following it were a great
success. Never before had there been so large and so
brilliant a party of Americans gathered in Berlin. Min-
ister Phelps's popularity among the leading circles at Ber-
lin induced men of such high standing as Count Herbert
Bismarck and Prince Radziwill to grace the feast with
their presence and their oratory. But the main result
and the most important one was that thenceforth the
Americans in Berlin kept a united front. They might
differ in their personal views, but in their manifestations
of public spirit and of national kinship they acted in uni-
son thereafter. Nearly four hundred and fifty Americans
sat down to that famous dinner in the great hall of the
Kaiserhof. Minister Phelps presided. At his right sat
Count Bismarck, at his left Prince Radziwill. At the
right hand of Count Bismarck, Mrs. Phelps, who had re-
turned from America a few days before, was seated.
Miss Phelps sat by the side of Prince Radziwill.

In opening the proceedings Mr. Phelps said that it was
the largest and most successful Thanksgiving ever held
in Berlin and that was saying a great deal, as for twenty-
five years they had the credit of giving a better Thanks-
giving than any other American colony in Europe. His
predecessors had vied with each other in the effort to
break the record, considering that this achievement would
be the greatest of their respective missions. In telling
what they had to be thankful for, he said :

We are thankful that we cherish here the traditions and
virtues of our own country: simplicity, industry, cheerfulness,
brotherly kindness, and morality. It is easy to cherish them
here in Germany, because Germany cherishes the same virtues,

His Life and Public Services 229

and the same traditions. That makes it easier for us to
practise them and we do practise them. Five hundred young
men pursue their education at school or at the university,
who are neither deficient in spirit nor in youth; and not a
story of disorder or crime reaches the Legation. Three hun-
dred young women, young and — and in the presence of Mrs.
Phelps I dare not say more, and in the presence of these speci-
mens before me I cannot say less — young and not unattractive
— pursue their studies here, go to the opera and theatre and
concert, are largely without male protection; and yet, not a
breath of scandal ever clouds the white mirror which reflects
their honorable life. If you want another fact, go to the Amer-
ican chapel late and see if you can get a seat, or go to the
Anglo-American church, and ask Mr. Earee to get you a sitting.
In the sweetest modulation of his most comforting voice, he
will have to tell you, ' ' There will be no sitting, until we build
our additions."

I will admit there are some drawbacks. We are living in
Berlin and it is not yet a paradise. Sometimes there is scarcity
of sunshine, there seems to be always a superfluity of police.
But what are these to you ? who in the fog and in the police
station can comfort yourself with this thought ! ' ' We are here
in person, we need to write no letters and to send no attorneys.
We are here in person and can receipt on the spot for our share
of the great fortune left us by our ancestor, who died in Pome-
rania in 1763, leaving many millions of dollars and not a single
heir."

If we can have such a Thanksgiving here, what Thanks-
giving ought our friends to have at home ?

They will thank God — least of all, for that material pros-
perity which is a wonder of the century. It mocks all prece-
dents and defies all description. They will thank God more,
though, because every citizen can have a home — the only
nation yet born into the world where a poor man can have
one. They will thank God most of all, that in the midst of
its material prosperity, in these prosperous homes, they still
practise the virtues of their fathers. They prize education,
they honor and practise industry, they love their country, they
worship their God. Sixty miUions in happy and comfortable

230 William Walter Phelps

homes enjoying civil and religious freedom, all of them, and
all of us — all our countrymen at home and abroad shall to-
day, as they gather about their well spread board, give one
glance to their country's happy present, to their country's
wonderful future, and then gratefully and proudly say: " Thank
God we are Americans ! ' ' Ladies and gentlemen, I propose
the health of the President of the United States.

Count Bismarck responded to the toast of "The Em-
peror of Germany," and concluded by proposing the
health of Mr. Phelps. Prince Radziwill to ' ' The Ladies, ' '
ex-Consul-General Kreismann to "The Day we Cele-
brate," and Consul Hubbard to "The Consular Service."
After the dinner Mrs. Phelps, assisted by a committee of
ladies, held an informal reception, after which followed
the ball.

Thanksgiving over, the usual routine of life was re-
sumed. Mr. and Mrs. Phelps continued to reside at the
Kaiserhof, receiving daily new social ceremonies. Christ-
mas was kept with the usual ceremonies, nor were the
poor forgotten. Naturally enough the numerous kind
acts and benefactions of the United States Minister and
his family were kept a secret, but two acts of charity out
of a hundred unnoticed became known to the newspapers
and were given publicity. On the 28th of December the
Empress Augusta gave a special reception to Mr. Phelps
in the presence of her full Court. Count Nesselrode, as-
sisted by Baron von Ende, made the presentation. The
Empress, in the course of her cordial conversation with
Mr. Phelps, expressed her lifelong interest in American
affairs and her great desire that the people of the United
States should use their immense resources always in the
interest of the peace of the world.

Mr. Phelps was now in the full tide of his official life at
Berlin — popular and busy. While the newspapers of the
day were constantly reporting public incidents and affairs
with which he was connected they did not nor could they

His Life and Public Services 231

show the daily routine through which he ploughed and
by which he accomplished valuable service to his country
and innumerable acts of kindness and courtesy to his
fellow-citizens. This part of his duties required patient
and energetic work and a practical knowledge of men.
Not a day elapsed but some "military case," passport
application, or other question of citizenship was brought
to the notice of the minister, and Mr. Phelps gave them
all careful attention and consideration. There: were ques-
tions of all kinds from scientific, educational, charitable,
and legal institutions at home requiring careful and fre-
quently lengthy answers. Some college desired to obtain
information as to certain new scientific processes or a
library wrote to know about some rare books. Charitable
institutions inquired about philanthropical work in Ger-
many and legal institutions sought information on points
of law. American inventors, merchants, railway men, and
others of all kinds and all degrees of worthiness asked his
aid in presenting their interests to the German Govern-
ment and people. Students as well as agents of the
different departments of the United States and the sepa-
rate State governments came in large numbers to study
the public institutions, the schools, the mines, the methods
of government in Germany. For all of these permission
had to be obtained from the German Government to visit
the different institutions in their pursuit of knowledge.

The Minister standing in loco parentis to all Americans
within his jurisdiction, to him come all his countrymen in
trouble — the American who does not wish to submit to
the tax laws of Germany, the American who has gotten
into trouble through no fault of his own, and the Ameri-
can who has gotten into trouble through his own fault.
Every American artist who wishes to make his or her
d^but in Berlin, the Mecca of American musical students,
went to the Legation for aid and encouragement. Many
who were in financial difficulties called and great care and
pains were taken to help all worthy cases. There were

232 William Walter Phelps

also numerous auxiliary congresses of the World's Colum-
bian Fair that called for information and advice and con-
sumed much time.

Added to these strictly business matters were the social
obligations of the Minister — obligations which in a city
like Berlin, where so many eminent Americans congre-
gate, were far from being light. The hospitality of the
Legation, however, was not confined to prominent peo-
ple alone. All Americans were welcome, and frequent
entertainments were given to the whole American colony,
a service not to be undervalued in a city where hundreds
of American young men and women had a studious and
lonely life. To these the opportunity for social inter-
course under the care and protection of their Minister
meant a great deal. It will thus be seen that the life of
the American Minister at Berlin was far removed from
the butterfly existence which such missions are sometimes
thought to be. On the contrary, if understood and car-
ried out, as Mr. Phelps did understand and practise it,
the work of the Legation was exacting and important.
The attention and patronage he gave to American stu-
dents of talent caused his fame to spread in these circles,
and the numbers of such students increased by hundreds
during his stay in Berlin. His high social standing and
his friendship with the best families of the German no-
bility attracted a great many wealthy Americans who
were travelling in Europe to Berlin, so that the American
colony within a year or so after his appointment was
multiplied many times in numbers and Berlin became a
popular stopping-place for all American travellers.

Repeatedly during the year 1890 there appeared reports
in the newspapers that Mr. Phelps contemplated resigning
his post at Berlin in order to return and re-enter New
Jersey politics. These reports, it is believed, were the
outcome of the fears of his political foes, because as a
matter of fact there was no truth in them. Some of
these reports had it that he intended to re-enter Congress

His Life and Public Services 233

as a member of the Lower House, while others said he
wanted to become Senator from New Jersey. There was
even another rumor that Secretary Blaine was about to
retire and that Mr. Phelps was to become Secretary of
State. However lacking in fact these reports were, they
caused a great deal of speculation in his native State and
considerable uneasiness among certain politicians who had
nothing to gain by the presence of the German Minister.

The social season in Berlin in 1890 was a short one
owing to the death of Empress Augusta. Mr. and Mrs.
Phelps attended the grand Cour held on New Year's
Day by the Emperor and Empress and a brilliant dinner
given by the Count and Countess Waldersee, the object of
which was to bring together the families of Field Marshal
von Moltke and Minister Phelps. Mrs. Phelps had issued in-
vitations for a large dinner which was to open relations be-
tween American and other circles but she had to withdraw
them on account of the death of the Empress Augusta.

At the reception given by the Young Men's League of
the American church to all the English-speaking young
men studying in Berlin, Mr. Phelps made a speech in
which he referred in the most feeling terms to the late
Empress whose last function was her reception to him on
Saturday afternoon before New Year's Day. He spoke
of her love of peace, which seemed to be uppermost in
her mind all the time, and of her behest to him that he
would promote the friendship between her country and
his own, ending with, "And you will not forget that I
have the peace of the world at heart."

A day or two afterward [continued Mr. Phelps], my mind
still full of the earnest, pleading tones in which she had
spoken, I met in print an account of an interview which Bayard
Taylor had had with the Empress Augusta in 1878. It seemed
that the Empress had been forced by the illness of the Emperor
to take his place in the interview. And to my delight I found
that she had expressed to Mr. Taylor twelve years before — not
as her sentiments, as words from her husband — almost identical

234 William Walter Phelps

wishes. The duty her husband taught her, she was following
to the end — the duty of brotherly love and kindness — the things
that make for peace.

The Empress said to the Countess von Hacke, ' ' I have only
one desire, and that is, that people will say of me when I am
dead, ' She was a good woman.' "

She has her wish. When the purple standard dropped on
the palace roof, the faithful watchers in the street wept — not
for an Empress, but for a good woman. The wires told her
death in every capital and the echo that came back was of
universal sorrow. Not for the consort of a Prince, a King,
and an Emperor, but for a good woman, who was dead.

Mr. and Mrs. Phelps viewed the solemn pageant of the
funeral from the Hotel Royal, which offered a command-
ing view of the great procession, and they had as guests
at their window Mrs. Carpenter, Mr. and M. Ghika, the
Servian Minister, Mr. von Pavlovitsch, Professor and
Mrs. Leyden, Dr. Krauel, of the Foreign Office, and Mrs.
Krauel, Mr. Coleman, Mr. Crosby, and others.

All formal social functions were suspended for a time
in Berlin, but Mr. and Mrs. Phelps generally had two or
three guests at their table. Among those who were oc-
casionally seen at their board during the season of mourn-
ing were Ceremonienmeister von Usedom, Mr. Kirchenius,
of the Siamese Legation, Mr. French, First Secretary
of the British Legation, Count Bismarck, Baron von
Wangenheim, Count Murawieff, the Russian Charge
d' Affaires, Paul von Below, Baron von Eckertstein.
During this season the American Minister had private
audiences with Prince Alexander and Prince George of
Prussia, cousins of the late Emperor Frederick, and they
exhibited great cordiality toward Mr. Phelps and spoke
pleasantly of their friendship with several Americans. In
February Miss Bowler of Cincinnati, a niece of the late
Minister Pendleton, was married to Mr. John Livingston
of New York, in Berlin, and Mr. Phelps acted as one of
the witnesses.

CHAPTER XXIII

The Phelps Home in Berlin— Mr. and Mrs. Phelps Dine with the Ger-
man Chancellor — Fall of Bismarck — Intimate Friendship of the Iron
Chancellor and the American Minister — Begins the Struggle for the
Introduction of American Pork into Germany — American Rifle
Teams in Germany — International Medical Conference — Fourth of
July Celebrated at the Kaiserhof — The American Minister Pre-
sides and Makes a Notable Speech — A Trip Home Creates a Political
Sensation — Newspaper Interviews — Speech on Irish Home Rule in
Paterson — ^Visits His Ancestral Home in Connecticut — A Reception
by the Union League Club of Hudson County — Interview with
President Harrison and Secretary Blaine — Given Dinner at the
Union League Club, New York — Returns to Berlin

MR. PHELPS and his family moved into their new
home at the beginning of the month of February
and Mr. and Mrs. Phelps gave a reception there on Feb-
ruary 6th. It was described at the time as one of the
largest gatherings of Americans that had occurred in
Europe for a long time and they all admired the palatial
interior of the new residence at the corner of Dorotheen
and Neue Wilhelm Strasse. It was a revelation to the
many notable Germans who also attended the reception
and who for the first time saw an ideal "American home"
in the German capital. The wealthy American Minister
had spared no expense to provide a private house suitable
for his lavish hospitality. What had formerly been stores
on the ground floor had been ripped out and converted
into a great kitchen and dwelling rooms for the servants.
The second floor, which had eight windows on each street,
was arranged for state reception rooms and dwelling
rooms. The third floor was used for domestic purposes.

235

236 William Walter Phelps

To bring all these rooms into easy communication an-
other store on New Wilhelm Street was converted into a
second vestibule and stairway. The ladies of the family
carried out their own idea in making the rooms inhabit-
able and agreeable, and it was no- light task for the Berlin
decorators to follow their views, although they afterward
acknowledged the effect to be charming. No dust and
darkness collectors were allowed. Throughout the second
floor all the doors were removed so that an unobstructed
view through the entire suite of rooms was given. Al-
coves and arches marked the divisions of the rooms and
light-colored draperies and curtains furnished the win-
dows. The walls were hung with beautiful pictures and
etchings. The floor was covered with wooden mosaic
and the ballroom was the wonder of the German nobility.
The patriotism of the Minister was manifested by a thirty-
six foot American flag in the main vestibule of the house.
There was one picture in the house which Mr. Phelps
prized very highly and to which he frequently called the
attention of his visitors. It represented the scene in the
Parliament Court when the ill-fated Charles I. of England
was tried and condemned. John Phelps, the ancestor of
the American Minister, was clerk of the court and he ap-
pears in the picture sitting at his desk, with the king, as
prisoner, sitting in front of him. Prince Bismarck had
the pleasure of viewing the picture, but his comments on
the court of regicides have not been preserved.

At this time the Samoa treaty was ratified by the
United States Senate and this gave Mr. Phelps great
satisfaction. When the news reached Berlin, Count
Herbert Bismarck called upon Minister Phelps at the
American Legation before ofiice hours to offer his con-
gratulations, and Minister Phelps and his wife were invited
to dinner by Prince Bismarck to make the acquaintance
of the family and to drink a glass of Rhenish wine over
the settlement of the Samoan troubles. The dinner hour
was an early one and the only person present exclusive of

His Life and Public Services 237

the family and Mr. and Mrs. Phelps was Dr. Schwenninger.
After dinner they went to the library and the Chancellor
lighted his long pipe and sent for some whiskey which,
he said, was a recent gift from a friend in the United
States. The Chancellor then proposed, and all drank,
the health of the President of the United States.

One of the notable events of the month of March was
a dinner given to the Honorable Charles Emory Smith and
Mrs. Smith, who were the guests of Minister Phelps dur-
ing their brief stay in Berlin on their way to St. Peters-
burg. Mr. Smith had just been appointed American
Minister to Russia.

Prince Bismarck resigned the German Chancellorship in
March, 1890, and retired to his country estate, Friederichs-
ruhe. There was a complete breach between the Emperor
and the great Chancellor, and it was a perilous undertak-
ing to give proofs of friendship to the retiring statesman.
Minister Phelps, however, had contracted such an intimate
friendship with Bismarck that he was one of the few manly
spirits who did not fear the royal displeasure. He was
one of the last guests at the Bismarck palace, and accom-
panied the ex-Chancellor to the railway station upon his
dramatic departure from Berlin. Wearing the uniform
of the cuirassiers. Prince Bismarck left his palace at 5 P-M.
and entered an open carriage that stood in waiting. As
soon as he appeared he was greeted with stormy enthusi-
asm. The windows of the houses in the vicinity were
crowded with spectators. The entire route was a sea of
waving handkerchiefs. The crowd was so dense that the
ex-Chancellor's horses were compelled to walk the entire
distance from the palace to the station. There was a
continuous roar of cheering. Following the Prince's car-
riage came another carriage occupied by Princess Bismarck
and other members of the family. A third carriage was
filled with members of the American Legation. A num-
ber of other carriages filled with friends and admirers of
the Prince closed the procession. At the railway station

238 William Walter Phelps

great heaps of bouquets for the Prince and Princess were
piled in the waiting-rooms. Prince Bismarck bade all
farewell, Mr. Phelps and Chancellor von Caprivi being
among the last to shake hands with him.

The American Minister exercised his great diplomatic
tact in this crisis, and so well discerned the dividing line
between his personal friendship for the greatest statesman
of the time and the duty of his high diplomatic position
to abstain from every interference with the internal policy
of the country to which he was accredited, that the Ger-
man Emperor, so sensitive on such points, could find no
fault. While Mr. Phelps still maintained his personal
intimacy and warm friendship with the great Bismarck,
now fallen into disfavor, yet the high regard in which
Mr. Phelps was held at the German Court was not only
maintained but, if possible, increased by his manly and
dignified attitude in this critical affair. With Bismarck's
successor. Von Caprivi, Mr. Phelps enjoyed the most
pleasant relations, and so far as American interests were
concerned the great change in the German administration
had no appreciable effect.

It was about this time that Mr. Phelps began his active
campaign for the admission of American pork into Ger-
many. That nation had, without good reason, excluded
that class of American food products, and some years
before the then American Minister to Germany caused
considerable stir and excitement by his efforts to force
Germany to admit this article of food. Such an attempt
to bully Bismarck into a repeal of the obnoxious restric-
tions very naturally failed. Mr. Phelps adopted an en-
tirely different course. He took advantage of the oft
expressed desire of Germany to cultivate the friendship
of the United States, and broached the subject of an
abrogation of the restrictive laws against American meats
and lard in a quiet and friendly spirit. It was well known
that there was a great market for certain kinds of Ameri-
can food products in Germany, and the only obstacle was

His Life and Public Services 239

the legal barrier erected by the German Chancellor as an
economic measure. When Mr. Phelps took the matter
up he found that there was a growing sentiment in Ger-
many in favor of the removal of these restrictions, as it
was felt that Germany must be fed in part from other
countries. He met the greatest opposition from the great
landed gentry of Germany and the smaller fry of Agrarians
based on the well-known policy of Bismarck. Against
these factors Mr. Phelps engaged all his diplomatic tact
and strength of persistency. Gently and imperceptibly
over the dinner-table, at a friendly game of whist, any-
where and everywhere friends were made and the hostile
feeling removed, while in the Reichstag the opposition,
among whose members Minister Phelps also had many
warm friends, made motion after motion for the repeal of
the obnoxious pork ordinance. In this way, little by
little, the power of resistance became weakened, but it
was a long and trying struggle for two years before he
finally swept away the prohibitory laws, and as Mr. Phelps
wittily expressed it, the American pig "marched in tri-
umph through the Brandenburger Gate." His first public
efforts in this campaign were occasioned by the refusal to
admit Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which comprised
a number of buffaloes that fell within the prohibition
against the importation of American cattle. Of course
this was a mere enforcement of the letter of the law, oc-
casioning a great deal of levity at the time, and Mr. Phelps
quickly obtained the necessary permission for the admis-
sion of the show cattle, and it proved to be a somewhat
happy manner for Mr. Phelps to break the ice.

An excellent opportunity for the display of the friendly
relations existing between Germany and the United States
was given during the summer of 1890 when the American
rifle teams visited Germany and took part in the great
Deutsches Bundes Schutzenfest. The German-American
rifle clubs entered Berlin in formal procession on July 3d
and were greeted by Minister Phelps. A great Fourth

240 William Walter Phelps

of July dinner was given at the Kaiserhof with Mr. Phelps
presiding. He made an eloquent speech to the toast of,
"The Day We Celebrate and the President of the United
States." After the usual felicitations on the day and a
eulogy of the President, Mr. Phelps spoke at length on
the advantages of travel and the return to be obtained
from the money spent in that way. He said that Ameri-
can travellers spent $150,000,000 in Europe every year,
and some critics had remarked that they had nothing to
show for it, but Mr. Phelps was of the opinion that the
traveller could take more from Germany alone than was
enough to pay his part of that great expenditure, and
then he depicted German family life and the manner in
which the German takes his pleasure as an object-lesson
well worth observing, concluding thus :

As for recreation — which we Americans need more of and
spend more for than any other people — he sees the German
get more for a mark than we for a dollar. Why ? Because we
insist that our entertainments shall be expensive. And be-
cause they are expensive many of us must content ourselves
with few. But our traveller, looking around him, sees the Ger-
man always amusing himself. He can, for he takes all he can
get, however inexpensive and however simple. If he cannot
hear Patti he won't refuse the delight of song — at the worst he
will sing himself. If he can't hear Strauss he won't turn his
back on humbler orchestras. And here in Berlin, if all else
fails him, he pays five pfennige for his chair across the way in
our " Wilhelm Platz," happy as a king because he can look at
the Radziwill Palace, where his great Bismarck once lived.
With such lessons might we not return more genial friends and
more cheerful citizens ?

What may not the American traveller learn in a score of
directions, where we are lacking ? — of an economy, which he
sees here everywhere practised and respected ; of a love for the
open air so strong that a German prefers to do everything in
it, except to die; of a love for art and nature, painting, sculp-
ture, and music, and sky and tree and river and mountain,

His Life and Public Services 241

which gives as much happiness to the pauper as to the
prince.

All unseen of inspector or statistician, you may carry inside
of Sandy Hook, when you go home, gentlemen, this priceless
invoice — a larger respect for personal virtues, like simplicity,
economy, cheerfulness, new views of the charm and extent of
family intercourse, and a wider recognition of the ministry of
art ; all motives to make you struggle in the interests of the
man against our overwhelming material prosperity. So with
good heart and conscience let us enjoy to the full this foreign
outing. It is happiness for us, and we will make it profitable
for the land we love.

God bless the United States, our country! We love it so
much, we would have it perfect.

This speech was widely quoted and commented upon
in the German and American papers, most of which
agreed with the philosophy and the economic theory
expressed by the Minister, and the extensive publicity
given to the speech showed the weight attached to the
public utterances of Mr. Phelps.

The Minister continued to work indefatigably, attend-
ing to the routine duties of his office, making new friends
and strengthening in many ways the ramifications of his
many diplomatic projects. Before the social season had
closed, Mrs. Phelps had been presented to the Prince of
Wales at a state concern ; Mr. Phelps had given a dinner
to Count Herbert Bismarck, another to Count Pappen-
heim on the occasion of his departure to America to
attend the marriage of his elder brother to Miss Wheeler
of Philadelphia, a banquet to Henry M. Stanley the Afri-
can explorer, and still another to Chancellor Caprivi. At
the opening of the Reichstag the Emperor took occasion
to praise Mr. Phelps privately and to say that he prized
his acquaintance. He succeeded in getting the German
Government to act with the United States in establish-
ing post-offices on the trans-Atlantic steamers of the
German lines, thereby securing a delivery of the mails

242 William Walter Phelps

from twelve to twenty-four hours quicker than thereto-
fore. The United States postal authorities had en-
deavored to get England and France to enter into a
similar arrangement, but failed at that time.

Mr. Phelps rendered material service to his countrymen
who attended the Tenth International Medical Congress in
Berlin in August of that year. Over six hundred Ameri-
can physicians and surgeons, many of them men of high
standing in their profession, some of them famous the
world over, attended the congress. The Minister ex-
tended to them his princely hospitality. He saw that all
their wants were supplied and that they gained admittance
everywhere. At the congress the Americans were the
lions of the day, and, while this success was due to some
extent to their great scientific attainments, the popularity
of Mr. Phelps among the scholarly classes of Germany
had much to do with the warm reception given to his
countrymen. For his services and sympathy he received
a letter of thanks from Professor Virchow, the great
pathologist, who was president of the congress.

In September, 1890, it was learned from the American
Legation that the American Minister intended to go home
on a vacation. At once all the American newspaper cor-
respondents in Berlin were on the alert. The New York
Herald representative obtained an interview which was
published in that journal and in part was this :

Yes, I am going home for as long a leave as the Department
will grant me. I think I deserve it, for I have n't been away
from my post for a year and have been tolerably busy, for
there have been three conventions, any one of which would
have been enough for a year of old in Berlin — the Schuetzen-
fest, the Medical Congress, and the Consular Conference,
which was adjourned after a fruitful and pleasant session. I
shall not have anything to do with politics except to vote.

You ask what is the prospect of American pork getting into
Germany. Good, I think. Germany resents anything like
menace. She can generally be coaxed into anything that is

His Life and Public Services 243

right, but not driven into anything. Bismarck out, or Bis-
marck in, Germany does not change in that respect. The
German Empire is a large body, and moves slowly; but I 'm
not discouraged, for it moves itself in the right direction, and
about as rapidly as the different business interests connected
with the pork industry can stand and adapt themselves to the
change. I see by the newspapers here that the German
municipalities and business interests one after another fall into
line to bombard the Chancellor, and their facts are hot shot.

I see that Representative Ritter, in his famous speech on
der deutsche Kaiser, gives great prominence to your epithet,
" poor man's emperor."

Well [replied Mr. Phelps], it was true, and there was no
reason why I should n't call him so. There is n't an utterance
nor an act of that young sovereign that does not respond
quickly to this test — his love and care of that class of his sub-
jects who most need help.

On September 23d, the German steamship Elbe sailed
into New York harbor, elaborately and gaily decked with
flags of all colors, and presented a most beautiful sight.
The decoration was in honor of the American Minister to
Germany, who, with Mrs. Phelps, was a passenger. The
newspaper reporters, intent upon interviewing the Min-
ister, had boarded the ship down the bay, and a half-score
more were awaiting his landing, where he was met at the
pier by his daughter and several personal friends. To
the inquiries of the reporters he said :

I have come home to rest and enjoy myself. I intend to
spend my vacation upon my Teaneck farm. I feel as if I were
already a Jersey farmer again. See, there is one of my farm
wagons on the pier, ready to take off my luggage, and those
lusty-looking fellows have come down fresh from Teaneck to
give me an early welcome. I expect to live among the trees
until I get rested, and then hunt up my friends to see that they
have not forgotten me. No politics this time, only that I shall
vote the Republican ticket in Bergen County at the coming
election, and soon after return to my official duties at Berlin.

244 William Walter Phelps

Mr. Phelps and his party were then seated in their own
landau and quickly driven out over the Hudson and
Bergen County hills and along roads lined with the golden-
rod and purple autumnal flowers, which never look more
beautiful than when one returns from a long absence
abroad. Just as night was falling, the returned diplo-
matist passed the vine-clad ruins of his former celebrated
mansion and entered once more his Bergen County
home, from which he had been absent more than twelve
months.

Notwithstanding Mr. Phelps's positive disclaimer that
his visit was intended to have no political significance
whatever, his arrival enlivened the newspapers through-
out the country with rumors, conjectures, and predictions.
The old cuts were brought out from the printing offices,
his portrait appeared in hundreds of publications, and of
the headings that were daily seen in the newspapers,
these are a small sample : ' ' Phelps the Centre of Political
Attraction" ; "Anxious for Phelps" ; "Phelps's Influence
Needed in Congress"; "Must Put on the War Paint in
his Old District " ; "All Parties would Welcome him to
his Old Seat in Congress"; "Will Be the Republican
Leader in the Next Congress." The Governorship and
the United States Senatorship were also suggested.
While all these allusions may have been very flattering,
they had not the slightest influence in diverting the Ger-
man Minister from his purpose to return at the end of his
vacation to finish his work at Berlin.

During his short stay in this country he received much
social and political attention. In October he was given
a great reception by the Union League Club of Hudson
County, at which were present many of the distinguished
men of New Jersey, Senators, Congressmen, Judges, ex-
Senators and ex-Governors, and prominent party leaders.
After warm personal greetings, in response to formal in-
troductory remarks, the guest of the evening made a,
graceful speech, giving as an excuse for avoiding all

His Life and Public Services 245

politics that many of his Democratic friends were
present.

A great public meeting was held in Paterson to promote
the cause of "Home Rule" in Ireland, at which Governor
Green and other leading men of the State were speakers.
The audience seemed to be looking to Mr. Phelps for the
main speech, and he did not disappoint them. He made
a strong argument, showing why it was right that Ireland
should govern itself in home matters. He claimed that
international law now claimed the right of self-government
to any community that was distinctly separated from
others by race, situation, or creed. He claimed that the
insular situation of Ireland, its Celtic blood, if not its re-
ligious faith, made self-government not only a right, but
a necessity. What Ireland demanded was Irish law, not
English law. In the course of his remarks he said :

Irishmen do not ask for national independence. That cry
was of the olden times. They see that no new nation, how-
ever valorous, is able to step into the map of Europe nowa-
days, and stay there, unless mighty in size and resources.
Europe is a series of armed camps, and neutral independence
is secure only to those who have large ones. What could
Ireland do as a nation against Germany, or France, or Russia,
or even, in the event of quarrel, against Great Britain herself ?
But besides, even if Irishmen see a possibility of separate na-
tional existence, they do not want it. They know what Ireland
has contributed in the past to Great Britain. They know that
the treasures of that great Empire, the accumulations of cen-
turies, are largely the result of Irish effort and belong in part
to them. Why should they surrender this magnificent herit-
age ? Why should they give their share of British glory to
their associates ? The eloquence of Sheridan, the learning of
Burke, the wit of Swift, the lyres of Goldsmith and Moore;
aye ! the swords of Nelson and Wellington are but suggestions
of what Ireland gave to Great Britain. And she does not
purpose to leave that great Empire, which her children have
so largely helped to develop and adorn. Ireland purposes to

246 William Walter Phelps

stay in the Empire to which she belongs and in it to have her
rights.

In October Mr. Phelps made a brief visit to the State
of Connecticut, and spent a few days at the old Phelps
home at Simsbury, and while there made a flying trip to
Hartford. Here, as usual, he did not escape the atten-
tion of the ubiquitous newspaper reporters, and in an in-
terview he told that he had an ancestral interest in that
city because when his father was a poor boy he walked
there and obtained employment, and there got his start
in life. He spoke of the many friends that he had him-
self made in that city, and of its prosperity and growth,
and of the sterling qualities of its citizens, saying that his
recollection of Hartford and its vicinity had given the
whole State of Connecticut an interest to him. In reply
to a question he responded :

I have found life in Berlin especially enjoyable because of
the great similarity both in taste and manners between the
Germans and the New England folk to which I belong. The
people are simple, intelligent, industrious, and without pre-
tence. The absence of all extravagance and the simplicity
with which Germans of the highest rank live are characteristic
of them as of our best New England people.

The annual banquet of the Chamber of Commerce of
the State of New York was on November 19th. The
Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements for that
brilliant affair received this letter :

Dear Sir:

It is with great regret that I find my engagements compel
me to decline the honor you offer me of meeting you and your
associates of the Chamber of Commerce at their annual dinner
this year.

I have not only great pride in the good work and name of
your historic institution, but a tender feeling in the thought of
the many old members, friends of my father and myself, whose

His Life and Public Services 247

number makes your portrait gallery seem to me almost as a
private collection of my own.

I would like to dwell upon their virtues, except that they
would suggest how little I had profited by their splendid
example.

Truly yours,

William Walter Phelps.

At this date, the New York World published the report
of a little incident which is worthy of preservation because
it shows so pleasantly one of Mr. Phelps's marked char-
acteristics — a willingness always to do something for the
comfort and welfare of others. The account read :

Seated at a table in the dining-room of the Downtown Club
Saturday was a good-looking man of medium stature, with a
bronze face and a moustache tinged with gray. These points
are not so distinctive as to make recognition of a gentleman
lunching at the Downtown Club general. But this particular
gentleman wore a red necktie, and of course everybody knew
at once that he was William Walter Phelps, United States
Minister to Germany. His lunch was interrupted frequently
by the necessity of shaking hands with a large number of
acquaintances, but the fact that he is in reality an Envoy
Extraordinary was not fully brought out until a distinguished-
looking stranger, apparently a Southerner and certainly one-
armed, approached. He informed Mr. Phelps that he was a
South Carolinian, just elected to Congress, and that his family
was in Dresden. He had expected to go over to spend Christ-
mas, but business would not permit. Did Mr. Phelps know
anybody in Dresden who might feel inclined to relieve the
tedium necessarily experienced by a strange American family?
Mr. Phelps did. He knew the whole American colony, and
would see that it took the strangers in.

" Moreover," said he, " if you will send me the name and
address of your wife, I will ask Consul Palmer to call and
extend any courtesy possible. And please write to your wife
that if she or any of her family fall ill to telegraph me at Berlin
and Mrs. Phelps will run down to Dresden and look after her."

248 William Walter Phelps

The newly-elected Congressman's eyes lighted and he ex-
pressed his thanks in the heartiest manner possible. When he
had gone, a friend asked the Minister to Germany if that were
not an unusual case.

" Why, not at all," was the reply. " I am responsible for
all good Americans, am I not ? It is my duty to make life as
pleasant for them as I can, and if they fall ill it is my duty to
see that they are cured. Of course it is, and that is one of
the things I have been trying to do. And, you know," he
added, with a twinkle in his eye, " I never enjoyed any work
so much in my life."

The Minister, before his return to Germany, had several
interviev^s with President Harrison at Washington, and
he accompanied Secretary Blaine on a trip to Chicago,
which was wholly of a social character.

On the eve of the departure of Mr. Phelps for Europe
in December, thirty of his friends, all men of high dis-
tinction, gave him a dinner at the Union League Club in
New York. He sailed on the steamship Werra, on De-
cember 6th, accompanied by his daughter, Miss Marian
Phelps. Upon his arrival in Berlin, Mr. Phelps resumed
his diplomatic duties, and at the same time opened the
social season with great splendor.

CHAPTER XXIV

Koch's Lymph — Phelps's Social Fame in Germany — Hoyt Extradition
Case — Chicago World's Fair— Takes the Homburg Water Treat-
ment, and Meets the Prince of Wales

THE Minister, upon his return, found himself over-
whelmed with applications for "Koch lymph."
The famous bacteriologist had just published his discovery
of a remedy supposed to be a sure cure for phthisis, and
from all parts of the globe flocked physicians and patients
to Germany. The excitement at Berlin, the rush of
seekers after health, and of those who sought wealth by
possession of the famous "tuberculine, " was almost as
mad and exciting as the historical rush for the gold fields
of California. Professor Koch, not yet confident of the
value of his discovery, fearful of intrusting it to inex-
perienced hands, was unapproachable. The medicine
itself was manufactured in small quantities, scarcely suffi-
cient for the demand of the Berlin hospitals. Sums as
high as $20(X) and more were in vain offered for a single
vial, the original price of which was $6, yet Minister
Phelps, the moment he arrived in Berlin, secured an in-
terview with Professor Koch and managed to secure an
arrangement for supplies of lymph to American hospitals
and medical institutions. The American physicians, who
bore the necessary credentials, were quickly supplied, and
long before any other foreign nation America tested the
value of the German discovery. It was peculiarly flatter-
ing to the national pride of American physicians who went
to Berlin, to witness the popularity and great personal

249

250 William Walter Phelps

influence of their Minister. On the steamer Werra, which
took over Mr. Phelps, were a number of American physi-
cians all anxious to study the new remedy. They knew
that it was almost impossible to reach the famous pro-
fessor or to procure any of the fluid. Mr. Phelps came
to their assistance, and when they landed in Bremen he
telegraphed to Professor Koch asking him to find some
method by which American physicians could be accom-
modated. The great savant at once replied, expressing
his willingness to call upon Mr. Phelps and discuss the
matter with him. Professor Koch, who refused to see
even crowned heads because his time was so completely
occupied by his investigations, found time to call upon
Minister Phelps and to make the arrangement already
mentioned. Mr. Phelps thus secured what all other for-
eign ministers and even high German authorities had
failed to do.

The social season of 1890-91 was an unusually brilliant
one at the American Legation. Not a day passed with-
out its great luncheon, ball, or other festivity. On
Thursday, the regular reception day, all Americans in
Berlin were welcome and made to feel at home. More
than five hundred cards were left for Minister Phelps
at the Christmas reception. Mrs. Phelps remained in
America to look after the building operations at Teaneck
and the hospitality of the Legation was under the charge
of Miss Phelps, with her cousin, Miss Boardman. Mrs.
Phelps arrived in Berlin at the end of January, and a
brilliant ball was given at the Legation in honor of her
return. Toward the end of February she gave a grand
reception, those invited being mostly Americans and it
was by far the most distinguished gathering of Americans
in Berlin. It marked the great transition which had been
effected by Mr. Phelps and his family in one short year.
Previous to his appointment, American society in Berlin
was composed almost entirely of students, and although
this serious element continued to increase, a great many

His Life and Public Services 251

gay American butterflies of fashion had settled in Berlin,
attracted by the cordial welcome which our Minister and
his gracious wife extended to all their countrymen and
countrywomen, and by the increased social life which had
thus been brought into the colony. So great was the
social fame of the Phelpses and so much were they men-
tioned in the newspapers that an American journalist with
more imagination than veracity perpetrated a gross fake
on his paper by wiring a story from Berlin that Minister
Phelps had appeared at the "Schleppen cour " in regula-
tion court costume instead of the traditional dress-suit of
American diplomacy. This story was widely circulated,
accompanied with cartoons, and commented upon until it
was shown to be entirely without foundation.

This was probably the most active period of Mr.
Phelps's life in Berlin. Looking over the field of his
operations, one wonders at the ceaseless energy of a man
who was so delicate physically. The tireless activity he
displayed has come to be known as the "strenuous life,"
but no such robust name would be applied to the polished
labors of the American Minister who always employed
the art which conceals art. He undoubtedly overtaxed
his strength and incurred an illness which required a sur-
gical operation in June, 1891. He was confined to his
bed for a time, but soon rallied sufficiently to sit up and
attend to his official business. The Legation work was
carried on by him through this period as if he were per-
fectly well.

It was at this time that the Hoyt extradition case arose
and prompted Mr. Phelps to seek the enactment of a new
extradition treaty between Germany and the United
States. True W. Hoyt, the New York agent of the In-
candescent Gas-Light Company of Philadelphia embezzled
$icxx) belonging to the company and escaped from New
York on the German steamer Normannia. He was in-
dicted and the State Department sought to have him
arrested at Southampton on the arrival of the steamer

252 William Walter Phelps

there, his crime being extraditable by America's treaty
with England but not by its treaty with Germany.
When the officers tried to board the steamer at South-
ampton they were prevented by the steamer's captain.
Germa«ny had always refused to accept the almost uni-
versal rule of international law that a merchant ship is
amenable to the police regulations at the ports she visits.
In nearly all of her treaties with other governments Ger-
many insisted that her merchant vessels should be con-
sidered her territory in the same manner as if they were
on the high seas. Hoyt was carried to Hamburg and
held there for a time pending the efforts of Mr. Phelps
to have him extradited, but he was finally released as
nothing could be done under the existing treaty. The
case aroused much indignation in America, and although
Mr. Phelps had to drop the matter for the time being
owing to the pressure of more important business, he
took it up later and succeeded in having the extradition
treaty revised in a manner satisfactory to both nations at
the time.

The warmest personal relations continued between
Prince Bismarck and Mr. Phelps, who had a natural liking
for each other, and on the birthday of the old statesman,
April I, 1 89 1, he received from the friendly American
diplomat this telegram :

I want to remind you that millions of your countrymen and
of my countrymen are thinking of you to-day with admiration
and affection.

To this greeting he received from Prince Bismarck the
reply :

Many thanks for your kind words and friendly reminiscence.

Mrs. Phelps spent the summer vacation in 1891 in
Carlsbad, where she took the waters with Mrs. John
Wanamaker. Mr. Phelps remained in Berlin, assisting

His Life and Public Services 253

the Chicago World's Fair Commission in obtaining from
Germany a representative exhibit of that great nation's
manufactures and products. The German officials were
at first reluctant to go to any great expense in the matter,
but Mr. Phelps used his personal influence and enthused
the officials in power and aroused the self-interest and
national pride of German manufacturers so that the Fair
commission was eminently successful in Germany. The
Minister tried to induce Herr Kruppto exhibit his guns
at Chicago, but the famous ordnance manufacturer said
it would cost him a quarter of a million dollars for the
transportation and exhibition, and the idea had to be
abandoned. As soon as he had accomplished this work,
Mr. Phelps and Miss Phelps left Berlin for Homburg,
where he took the famous treatment of the waters.
There he met the renowned men and women of two conti-
nents, the chief of whom was the Prince of Wales. The
days were spent in taking the waters of the famous Spa,
and the evenings in social festivities. Yet business was
not neglected during the gayeties of Homburg. Minister
Phelps was in constant communication with the office of
the Legation in Berlin, the Department of State at Wash-
ington, and the Foreign Office at Berlin. It was during
his stay at Homburg that he realized the greatest accom-
plishment of his mission — the introduction of American
pork into Germany.

CHAPTER XXV

American Pork — Grand Official Dinners with Homely American Products
on the Table — Persistent Work by Phelps Wins Success, but the
Closing Negotiations Taken from Him — Newspaper Canards —
Another Trip to Egypt — Relinquishes His Office to His Demo-
cratic Successor — Appointed Judge of New Jersey Court of Errors
and Appeals

AS already mentioned, Mr. Phelps had begun the ne-
gotiations in behalf of American meat interest almost
at the very outset of his Berlin career, and he never ceased
in his efforts until he had accomplished his purpose, and
this most national achievement of his mission was hailed
in America as a great victory of his diplomacy. What be-
fore had been denied when sought by bluster, had now
been gained by suavity and firmness. The year 1891
brought a combination of circumstances especially favor-
able to the Minister's plans. The reciprocity policy of
Secretary Blaine, the clause of the McKinley Tariff Bill
empowering the President to take retaliatory measures
against any foreign government which should discriminate
against American products, and the agitation in the Ger-
man Reichstag and press for a repeal of the pork ordi-
nances — all these factors combined to give Mr. Phelps a
good opportunity to consummate the negotiations. The
German Government as early as April, 1891, conveyed to
Mr. Phelps the intimation that the obnoxious pork de-
crees were soon to be repealed. In the meantime, early
in March, Minister Phelps had succeeded in bringing
about a modification of the stringent law regarding the
importation of American cattle into Germany. Thereto-

254

His Life and Public Services 255

fore cattle thus imported had to undergo a four weeks'
quarantine. The cost of feeding the cattle during so long
a period made the quarantine law practically prohibitive.
The first concession was the removal of this quarantine
and the establishment of model abattoirs at Hamburg
where the cattle were killed immediately on landing and
shipped in refrigerator cars to all parts of Germany.
This naturally brought about a large increase in the
exportation of American cattle, thus greatly benefiting
American farmers and cattlemen. One of Mr. Phelps's
artful arguments in this campaign was a series of dinners
to high German officials to whom he served American
beef in the most tasty and tempting forms, thus putting
into practical and successful operation the very old adage
regarding the proximity of a man's stomach and his good
will.

This accomplished, Mr. Phelps continued his efforts
for the removal of the embargo on pork, and he worked
steadily at it all summer, and the German Government
opposition gradually weakened before the popular senti-
ment which the American Minister had fomented in the
Fatherland. One of the aids of the settlement of the
difficulty was the establishment of a meat inspection by
the United States. Government — not indeed because the
German Government believed in the thoroughness of the
inspection, for trichinae had been frequently found in
certified American pork, so that Germany was compelled
to prescribe a re-inspection, but because this inspection
gave Germany an opportunity to retire gracefully from
her position which Minister Phelps by his diplomacy and
the logic of his arguments had made untenable.

Strange to say, at the very end of the negotiation, and
when Mr. Phelps had practically succeeded, the final pro-
ceedings were taken out of his hands by his own Govern-
ment and the negotiations were transferred to a conference
held at Saratoga. The German statesmen who had charge
of this affair were elated at the change. These disciples

256 William Walter Phelps

of Bismarck knew that Minister Phelps held the trump
cards and that in dealing with him they were at a disad-
vantage. They could only gain by a change in the field
of operations. Nor were they mistaken. America had
given to Germany free sugar — a present of some $16,000,-
000 — in return for the re-admission of pork, which Mr.
Phelps had practically made a fait accompli before the
Saratoga convention, and for reductions of the duty on
cereals equal to that granted in the recent commercial
treaties between Germany, Austria, and other countries
of Europe, while as a matter of fact that reduction be-
longed to America by treaty right and there was no need
of buying it by reciprocal concessions. This treaty right
is contained in the "most favored nations " clause of the
treaty of 1828. Had the consummation of the negotia-
tions been left in the hands of Mr. Phelps, it is safe to
say that the re-admission of pork would have been ob-
tained without any concession on the part of the United
States. Mr. Phelps knew that the German Government
had virtually decided upon the concession because of the
favorable sentiment among the German people. Why
the final negotiations were taken out of his hands has
never been explained. In the newspapers of that time
there was evidence that Secretary Rusk desired to take
from Mr. Phelps the credit due to him for his great work
in this affair, and it is a fact that in all the Secretary's
statements on the subject no mention of Minister Phelps
was made.

American public opinion, however, was not mistaken
as to where the credit properly belonged for the re-admis-
sion of the American pig into Germany. Indeed, the
only name mentioned in connection with the matter was
that of Minister Phelps. The popular verdict was that
to Mr. Phelps belonged the credit of having settled the
pork question. Not only was this so in America, but the
same opinion prevailed in Germany. He received many
letters of congratulation from public men and friends, and

His Life and Public Services 257

votes of thanks from many corporations and public boards
interested financially in the result.

As soon as the pork question was settled Minister
Phelps set about preparing the ground for the introduc-
tion of American corn into Germany. He adopted his
former tactics of serving it at his table to the German
officials who partook of his hospitality. It was said at
the time that the German notabilities were delighted with
the gastronomic pleasures of American cornbread and
bacon as supplied by a cook who could not be surpassed
in Virginia in the art of making cornbread toothsome.
Dr. Miguel was reported as having praised both the bacon
and the cornbread, and declared that thereafter they
would be among the supplies at his table, and that the
duties on corn would soon be removed. Mr. Phelps's
idea was to have Indian meal introduced as a part of the
supplies for the German army and thus at once open up
a great market for it. The German War Department
made a number of experiments with American corn, and
a favorable report was made. The department decided
to introduce it into the rations of the German soldier.

Although very little was said at the time about the
difficulties experienced by the Standard Oil Company
and the American life-insurance companies in Germany,
when these interests were attacked by German rivals
during this year, yet they were very important matters
and required very delicate handling by Mr. Phelps, who
came forward to the protection of American interests
with his usual energy and influence. It was claimed that
the Standard Oil Company was trying to establish a
monopoly in Germany. Mr. Phelps laid the case of the
great American company before the German Department
of Commerce, and smoothed out the difficulty which
threatened the company. As to the insurance companies,
the law required them to invest the premiums received in
Germany in 3^ per cent. Prussian consols. Some of the
companies received nearly 5,000,000,000 marks yearly in

258 William Walter Phelps

German premiums, and this money they were investing
at five per cent., which brought down the Finance Min-
istry upon them. Mr. Phelps successfully interceded
with Herr Miguel, the Imperial Finance Minister, and
secured a reduction of the Government's demands with
a prospect of the repeal of the law. Mr. Phelps called
the attention of the Minister to the fact that German fire-
insurance companies which operated largely in the United
States were permitted to do business on depositing
guarantee sums. The American life-insurance companies
doing business in Germany were willing to accept a
similar arrangement.

Owing to the influences already mentioned, the Ameri-
can colony in Berlin had grown so numerous that it was
impossible to have the Thanksgiving dinner of 1891 in
one place, as there was no one hall large enough to con-
tain them. The celebration was therefore divided into
three sections, one comprising the government representa-
tives, another under the auspices^ of the Association of
American Physicians, and the third under those of the
King's Daughters of the American Church. Mr. Phelps
appeared at all of the three places. Mark Twain, who
made a protracted stay in Berlin during Mr. Phelps's
term there, was a prominent figure at the celebration this
year, and made a characteristic address.

In December Mr. Phelps quitted Berlin on a leave of
absence and took a two months' trip through Egypt in
order to recuperate from the effects of the exhaustive
work of the year. At Alexandria he was the guest of
Judge Barringer, of the International Appellate Court,
and was entertained by Sir William Butler, the English
Admiral, and others. At Cairo Judge Kelly gave a din-
ner in his honor at which Tigrane Pasha and the leading
American visitors in Cairo were present. He remained
in Cairo until February, and then took a trip up the Nile.
At Luxor he was entertained by the American consul, a
rich old Arab who had been there twenty-two years and

His Life and Public Services 259

who had given a similar reception to General Grant when
he was on his tour up the Nile. On his return he visited
the Abdin Palace at Cairo, where a reception was tendered
to him by the new Khedive. Mr. Phelps had known the
Khedive's father, Tewfik Pasha, and personal reminis-
cences made the reception a very pleasant one. The
Minister returned to Berlin in March, 1892, completely
recovered from the poor health into which he had fallen.
In April a newspaper "canard" was started to the effect
that the United States were about to annex San Domingo.
Some German correspondent then started a story about
an alleged misunderstanding between Minister Phelps and
the German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Baron
Marschall von Bieberstein. It was said that Germany,
after long-continued efforts had succeeded in the attempt
to coerce the government of San Domingo into granting
to her the same commercial privileges as those enjoyed
by the United States; that Mr. Phelps had called upon
Baron Marschall von Bieberstein in regard to this matter,
and that the German Secretary had curtly refused to dis-
cuss the subject. This story caused much comment and
produced a great deal of adverse criticism from the Ger-
man press. A number of American papers also treated
it in a sensational manner, and it assumed all the propor-
tions of a diplomatic "incident " until it was exploded as
a hoax, and the excitement subsided as quickly as it had
started. It was originated by Dr. Hugo Jacobi, editor
of the Munich Allgemeine Zeitung, who was a notorious
hater of everything American, and was based on a passing
remark made by Mr. Phelps. The latter had gone to the
Secretary of State's office on business relating to the new
extradition treaty which was being concluded between
Germany and the United States and during the conversa-
tion about that treaty, Mr. Phelps jokingly referred to
San Domingo, stating that the United States had made
considerable concession to that republic. Baron Mar-
schall von Bieberstein likewise jokingly replied: "I did

26o William Walter Phelps

not know that America is exercising a protectorate over
San Domingo, but nevertheless Germany could not act
differently toward San Domingo." It is needless to add
that the relations between Minister Phelps and the Ger-
man Cabinet were pleasant, and so remained.

Disregarding the best interests of Mr. Blaine, some of
his ardent but indiscreet admirers brought him forward as
a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination of
1892. This was a movement in opposition to President
Harrison, whose re-nomination, it was contended by
many who stood high in Republican councils, would
mean unavoidable defeat for the party. Mr. Blaine felt
that this action of his friends would naturally cause the
relations between himself and the President to be some-
what strained, and shortly before the meeting of the Na-
tional Convention, the Secretary of State tendered his
resignation, which was accepted. Straightway Mr. Phelps
came under discussion as Mr. Blaine's successor in the
Cabinet, and prominent party leaders, who had the confi-
dence of the President, opened communication with the
Minister at Berlin on the matter. But Mr. Phelps was
so adverse to having it thought for a moment that he
would willingly succeed his old friend in office that the
further mention of his name for the position was discon-
tinued.

While strictly loyal in his friendship for Mr. Blaine,
Mr. Phelps, as was customary and proper, sent a letter of
congratulation to the President upon his renomination,
to which he received the following pleasant response :

Executive Mansion, Washington,

June 24th, 1892.
Hon. William Walter Phelps,

Legation of the United States, Berlin.
My dear Mr. Phelps:

I have your letter of June nth and thank you very sincerely
for your congratulations which were promptly conveyed by
cable and are now renewed in your letter. I have always known

His Life and Public Services 261

— before your appointment and since — of your close personal
relations with Mr. Blaine. I have never been one who sought
to rob another of his friends, or to make friendship for another
the basis of suspicion on my part. I have always regarded
Convention preferences as free, and have more than once said
to those who expressed their desire to serve me that I thought
their service was due to another by reason of their closer
relations.

With very kind regards to your family.

Sincerely yours,

Benj. Harrison.

While all the other American ministers in Europe re-
turned home in the summer of 1893 to look after their
political interests and to take an active part in the cam-
paign of the follow^ing autumn, Mr. Phelps remained at
his post and gave the closest attention to the duties of
his oiifice. These were mostly of a routine character and
received little attention from the newspapers of the day,
and it was not until the Thanksgiving dinner of that year
that another splutter was made in the newspapers over
another fake which had even less foundation than that of
the San Domingo "incident." Minister Phelps gave a
great reception at his house on Thanksgiving Day, and
at the dinner he toasted both the incoming and the out-
going parties, the Democrats having defeated Mr. Harri-
son for re-election. He said:

President Harrison has given the cleanest and most success-
ful administration in American annals. When history makes
up its record, on every page will be written the name of Ben-
jamin Harrison. America is the only land on which God has
poured forth such a river of good things that it takes a Thanks-
giving Day to dispose of them. America is the only nation
that could have a national Thanksgiving. Other nations try
it, and the day instead of becoming a day of thanks becomes
a day of prayer. When other nations pray, they pray for just
what the United States has got. The Jew and the Gentile are

262 William Walter Phelps

the same in America. A man's faith or his lack of faith does
not hurt him there.

Imagine the surprise of Mr. Phelps and his friends when,
a few days later, there appeared in the American news-
papers a report that he had gone out of his way to give
the German Government a slap in the face and to praise
Bismarck to the disparagement of the Government. Be-
fore it could be contradicted, the story had been widely
circulated in America, but as soon as the truth was known,
the American newspapers with rare exceptions recalled
whatever adverse criticisms had been made upon the fab-
ricated report. The German press had from the begin-
ning refused to take notice of the "canard," while the
members of the German Government took special pains
to show by numerous courtesies that they were aware of
Mr. Phelps's correct utterances and that, far from offend-
ing, his speech had, if possible, increased the regard in
which he was held at the German Court.

Indeed, Mr. Phelps was receiving every day expressions
of the most sincere regret from German officials in all the
Government's departments on the prospect of his leaving
Berlin as a result of the defeat of the Republican party
in America. Now that they were about to lose the popu-
lar and hospitable American Minister, the Germans frankly
showed the esteem in which they held him, and although
they all felt glad of the success of the anti-protection
party in the United States, yet they were sorry to lose
such a cultivated and tactful diplomat as Mr. Phelps. It
was about this time that Charles Lowe, writing in the
Cincinnati Tribune of the Ministers who had represented
America at the German capital, said of Mr. Phelps :

It may be doubted whether any American Minister in Berlin
ever enjoyed more of the confidence and intimacy of the oflficial
world there than Mr. Phelps, whose mansion, however, is none
the less a meeting ground for the social and intellectual ale-

His Life and Public Services 263

ments of distinction which used to form almost the exclusive
objects of his predecessor's hospitality — a meeting ground
where the honors are so warmly and gracefully done by Mr.
Phelps and his cultivated daughter. With his spare and
slender frame, dark, sparkling eyes, and olive hue, Mr. Phelps
has more the air of a Romanic than of an Anglo-Saxon race.
But if his appearance is southern, his mental fibre is of the
north in its sunniest and most inviting aspect, while his
subtlety is such as could not be surpassed in Spain.

In January, 1893, Minister Phelps's health being some-
what affected by the trying climate of Northern Germany,
he went south on leave of absence. He travelled through
Spain, Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Italy. While he
was away on this vacation, Governor Werts of New Jer-
sey appointed him Judge of the Court of Errors and
Appeals of that State, and when he returned to his post
in Berlin he closed up all the business of the Legation on
hand and turned over the Legation to General Runyon,
his successor, upon the latter's arrival in Berlin. In his
last report to the Secretary of State at Washington, Mr.
Phelps wrote :

And as I now relinquish the charge of it, I want to call the
attention of the Secretary further to the fact that the business
of the Legation up to date is completed, every paper on file
and every record made, so that the secretaries, the clerks, and
the messengers stand ready to give their undivided attention to
any new business which may be submitted by their new chief.
I make this statement with the less reserve, because it suggests
the propriety of my saying a word about the staff of the Lega-
tion to whose credit this condition of affairs is almost entirely
due. All connected with the Legation have had long experi-
ence, and used the fruits of it with zeal and fideUty for the
public service.

Thus Mr. Phelps left Germany, where he had spent four
of the most fruitful and happy years of his busy life in

264 William Walter Phelps

the service of his country. His achievements in those
years had attracted the attention of the world and had
brought distinction to himself and credit and advantage
to his country. He was happy in the satisfaction that
attended his labors, and happy in the warm and lasting
friendships he had made with many of the greatest men
of his day. He was almost as popular in Germany as in
America. His high purpose and his sterling integrity in-
spired the highest esteem and secured the confidence and
affection of the Germans, who could fully appreciate those
qualities of heart and mind, while his intellectual accom-
plishments and his ability as a man of affairs won their
admiration.

When Mr. Phelps returned from Germany, he sought
his own estate and again became a real Jerseyman. He
was welcomed home by his political friends, among whom
were most of the eminent party leaders of the State. They
had a hope and expectation that he would again actively
enter into political movements and become a candidate
for United States Senator; but he no longer had the am-
bition that had formerly inspired him and he would not
seek a seat in the Upper House of Congress.

When he arrived, he expressed the greatest delight to
get back to his New Jersey home, and he was pleased
with the words of praise with which nearly every news-
paper in the country greeted him. Plans were formed
for bringing him to the front for further political honors,
but his health and his inclinations prompted him to retire
from an honored public life and enjoy quietly a position
on the bench of the highest court in the State, to which
he had been appointed by the Democratic Governor, Mr.
Werts.

CHAPTER XXVI

Reasons for His Appointment to the Bench — His Commission — Return to
New Jersey — Tells of His Parting Interview with the German Em-
peror — Sworn in as Judge of the New Jersey Court of Errors and
Appeals — An Impressive Ceremony

THE appointment of Mr. Phelps to the bench and his
acceptance amazed the poHticians of all parties,
puzzled the newspapers, and surprised the general public.
The reasons given at the time for the choice made by the
Governor differed very widely, and were largely without
substantial foundation. The political discreditors of Mr.
Phelps originated the absurd report that the appoint-
ment was the forerunner and an inducement for a change
of political faith on the part of the recipient of that honor,
but, although this rumor received wide circulation, it soon
perished for lack of substance.

The facts, however, were that a previous Democratic
governor of New Jersey had made it a rule to ap-
point no Republicans to judgeships of any kind, with
the result that the bench of the State became filled
with Democrats, who were in many instances most in-
tense partisans. This practice was vigorously denounced
by the Republicans and began to meet the disapproval
of fair-minded Democrats. Governor Werts, himself a
lawyer of high standing, was desirous of raising the tone
of the court of last resort and of preventing politics in-
fluencing its decisions. A vacancy having occurred in
the Court of Errors and Appeals, he determined to
signalize a departure from the policy of his immediate

265

266 William Walter Phelps

predecessors by the appointment to the vacant seat of
some Republican lawyer of unmistakable talent, whose
whole qualification for the position would be beyond
any cavil. He respected and admired Mr. Phelps, with
whom he had a personal acquaintance, and knowing that
the popular diplomat was soon to return to his home,
the Governor tendered him the office.

This offer came to Mr. Phelps when he had had his fill
of partisan strife and its rewards. He felt no craving for
further political honors. During all his diverse and suc-
cessful career he ever had a longing to get back into the
realm of the law, which, in his early manhood, circum-
stances compelled him to leave. The law and its study,
with its problems, axioms, intricacies, certainties and un-
certainties, its application and decisions, all had for him
a constant and enduring attraction. The offer of the
judgeship reached Minister Phelps at Berlin at a timely
moment and a reply of acceptance immediately followed,
for his ambitions were always pure and such as led to
valuable service to his countrymen.

There were rabid Democratic politicians in the State
who, favoring the old strictly partisan methods, predicted
that the Senate, in which there was a large Democratic
majority, would not confirm the appointment, but when
the matter came before that body in February, confirma-
tion ensued without the slightest opposition. The Secre-
tary of State then forwarded to Mr. Phelps the following
notification :

Trenton, N. J., March 4, 1893.
My dear Judge:

It gives me great pleasure to hand you herewith your com-
mission as a Judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals of this
State; and permit me at the same time to congratulate you,
as the State also is to be congratulated, upon your appoint-
ment. Of course I very well know that it is a little premature
to address you by your forthcoming title, although the records
of this Department are complete on that point, except as to

His Life and Public Services 267

the matter of your official oath. I trust and believe you may
find the position a most congenial and agreeable one. Your
term of office begins on the i8th instant.

Sincerely yours,

Henry C. Kelsey.
To Hon. William Walter Phelps,
Berlin.

The commission which was enclosed read :

The State of New Jersey

To William Walter Phelps, Esquire, Greeting:

Reposing special trust and confidence in your integrity, pru-
dence and ability, I have, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate, appointed you, the said William Walter Phelps,
to be a judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals in and for
the State of New Jersey. You, the said William Walter
Phelps, are therefore by these presents, commissioned to be
Judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals in and for the said
State of New Jersey. To have and to hold and enjoy said
office with all the powers, privileges, fees, perquisites, rights
and advantages to the same belonging or appertaining for and
during the legal time.

In testimony whereof, the Great Seal of the State is hereunto
affixed.

Witness, George T. Werts, Governor of the State of New
Jersey, at Trenton, this eighteenth day of March, in the year
of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three,
and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred

and seventeenth.

George T. Werts.

By the Governor.

Henry C. Kelsey,

Secretary of State.

Mr. Phelps reached New York in the middle of June.
The inevitable newspaper reporter was on hand to meet
him, and this is a portion of the interview that followed :

268 William Walter Phelps

" I am just delighted to get home," said Mr. Phelps. " To
be sure, my experience in Berlin has been extremely agree-
able. But now I can eschew politics, fortunately. You know,
there is none, or rather, ought to be none on the bench ; so
when, next Tuesday, I am sworn in as Judge of the Court of
Errors and Appeals, an office which came to me very unex-
pectedly from the Democratic Governor of New Jersey, I shall
retire from politics, at least for the term as Judge. No; all
my political ambition has been gratified, and there is no office
— not even a United States Senatorship, as I feel now — that I
would willingly accept."

' ' German newspapers have said you will soon return to
Berlin and make it your future home."

" There is no foundation for such a story."
" What of your farewell reception by the Emperor ? "
" The Emperor paid the United States a great compliment.
The Sunday before my departure the Emperor drove in from
Potsdam, fifteen miles, for the special purpose of receiving
General Runyon, my successor, and bidding me good-by. In
parting with me the Emperor, taking me by the hand, said:
' Come, now, Mr. Phelps, you will agree with me that my sub-
jects who have emigrated to the United States have proved
themselves the best citizens there ? ' I replied that I thought
the native-born Americans made pretty good citizens. I as-
sured him, however, that the Germans in America were very
highly appreciated, and were among our best citizens. Then
the Emperor told me how pleased he was that his sailor boys
had acquitted themselves so well during the naval review. He
appeared to be particularly delighted with the reports that the
peculiar marching of his soldiers had evoked even more ap-
plause than did the fine appearance of the Russians and the
French. He is very proud of the navy as well as of the army.
He was deeply grateful for the courtesies extended his naval
representatives here, and desired me to express his gratitude
to President Cleveland. The Emperor jokingly referred to
the fact that one of his subjects had succeeded in capturing my
daughter. He seemed to enjoy my loss far more than I did."

A regular term of the Court of Errors and Appeals met

His Life and Public Services 269

on June 20, 1893. The swearing in of Mr. Phelps as a
Judge of the court, was expected at that time, and it was
looked for as an interesting event because so much sig-
nificance had been attached to the appointment. Conse-
quently the courtroom was crowded with lawyers, judges,
ex -judges, and men prominent in politics and public life
from all over the State. When the newly appointed Judge
arrived at the Capitol he was warmly greeted by several
of the heads of the State Departments, who wished to
show him around the recently enlarged and improved
building, which he had not seen since its reconstruction.
At the hour for opening the court, members of the bar
in attendance appointed a committee to seek Mr. Phelps
and escort him to the courtroom. In making his way to
the bench, he had to stop every few steps to shake hands
with some of the lawyers and officials in the crowded
room who were old acquaintances. He was approached
and welcomed by the Chancellor and Chief Justice, who
introduced him to the other members of the court.
When the court was called to order, it was announced
that the first business would be the administration of the
oath of office to William Walter Phelps as an Associate
Judge. The bench and bar then arose while Mr. Phelps
solemnly swore to administer justice without fear or favor,
and to uphold the Constitution of the United States and
the State of New Jersey. After signing the oath. Judge
Phelps took his seat upon the judicial bench in New Jer-
sey, almost thirty years after he had declined a judgeship
offered to him by a governor of New York. What an
eventful life had been his in the meantime !

CHAPTER XXVII

Mr. Phelps's Interest in Englewood — Some of the Things He Did for the
Township — Honored by His Neighbors — A Warm "Welcome
Home " from Them on His Return from Germany

AMONG the many events of Mr. Phelps's life, the
tributes of respect and affection which he received
from his friends and neighbors at Englewood were per-
haps to him the most pleasurable. From the first settle-
ment at Teaneck he considered Englewood his home town
and never failed to manifest his loyalty to and interest in
it. It was friends here who assisted him, by offering
their acres for sale, in acquiring the great estate, the im-
provement of which contributed so largely to surrounding
land values. This he referred to happily in a speech at a
local reception: "Englewood gave me more land than I
wanted. Indeed, it was rather forced upon me. It hap-
pened in this wise: My sanguine friends who forced it
upon me could n't keep it and I could n't get rid of it."
In those early days when the town had scarcely gradu-
ated from village life and was innocent of even dreams of
the growth that was about to set in and develop a beauti-
ful and properous city, public improvement was very slow ;
even that private enterprise which is displayed in a regard
for appearances in home surroundings was awaiting the
influence of example and incentive. Although an entire
stranger in the community, except in the few acquaint-
ances of business channels, Mr. Phelps promptly entered
into the active life of the community, evincing a keen in-
terest in all its affairs. This sentiment broadened as asso-

270

His Life and Public Services 271

ciation with the people developed personal characteristics.
He rapidly acquired an intimacy with public and private
needs, and was constant in devising methods to meet
them individually or offering incentives to others to join
in acts for the common good. Conspicuous in this re-
spect was his extensive road-making, referred to else-
where.

In 1 891 Mr. Phelps made six different propositions to
the citizens, to bear a large share of the expense of cer-
tain improvements. These included a soldiers' monu-
ment, a new railroad station, a public park, enlargement
of the National Guard armory, and additional road work.
There were impediments to carrying out all these pur-
poses, but this did not check the public spirit or generosity
of Mr. Phelps. He gave a valuable strip of land to the
Englewood Field Club, in addition to a liberal cash con-
tribution to the new club-house fund, an incentive which
assured stability for that semi-public enterprise. This
stimulus was felt in so many channels for the betterment
of Englewood and its people that few movements of any
moment were undertaken or carried through without his
interest being voluntarily manifested. He was especially
gratified with the work of the Englewood Improvement
Association, which carried out many ideas for promoting
the good of the place. After receiving the report of the
Association for the year 1891, at Berlin, Mr. Phelps sent
to its president a note of congratulation and a check.
His note was in the cordial, informal manner that marked
so much of his correspondence :

I have just finished reading your report. You said it so
nicely, and what you said was so nice, that I want to celebrate
last year's success of the Association by sending it a thousand
dollars. Please put the money where it will do most to benefit
the Englewood we both like so much.

This money was used to place a clock in the tower of
the Lyceum, which marks the passing hours and recalls

2 72 William Walter Phelps

to old and new generations him who was so soon to enter
upon the eternal day that is limitless and uninfluenced by
Time.

The failure of the soldiers' monument project was one
of the few causes of regret to Mr. Phelps. The citizens
of Englewood rarely evinced a lack of patriotism or regard
for the memory of the heroic dead ; but in this instance
they failed in appreciation of a proposition that few com-
munities would have permitted to pass unfulfilled.

When a noted burglar was caught in the act of robbing
the Teaneck schoolhouse, and in the desperate encounter
that ensued nearly killed a young man of the community,
Mr. Phelps, telegraphing from Washington, promptly
added one thousand dollars to the reward for the capture
of the desperado. The burglar, who was severely pun-
ished in the fight with the young man, was apprehended
and sent to State prison for a long term.

An important work, which has resulted in great benefit
to Englewood, was the Overpeck Canal. A ditch ran
through a long stretch of land purchased by Mr. Phelps.
He conceived that a canal could be built here that would
be a practical utility to the town for commercial purposes,
especially in the transportation of coal, lumber, and heavy
freight, by way of the Hackensack River and Overpeck
Creek. There was somewhat of an engineering problem
involved, which failed to solve the difficulty, as a sufficient
depth of water could not be obtained except at an outlay
far beyond any possible compensating result. So far as
the work was carried out, however, the canal became of
great value to Englewood by forming an outlet for a sys-
tem of surface drainage. In this canal improvement, Mr.
Phelps was unavoidably involved in a prolonged litigation
over a mill-right of unknown value until his enterprise
entered upon the premises. Many hundreds of acres of
land were reclaimed through the drainage afforded by the
canal.

Mr. Phelps was one of the first to see the importance

His Life and Public Services 273

of protecting and improving the Palisades, and through
his efforts much was accomplished in this respect by indi-
vidual owners of tracts of land before the public movement
was inaugurated. The future of this wild and rugged
section, then in the first stages of development into sum-
mer homes and country seats, was clear to his vision, and
his love of nature prompted him to urge upon all the
wisdom of preserving it from the despoilers who more
recently had to be dislodged at great expense.

Of the gentlemen most prominent in and near Engle-
wood at the period of Mr. Phelps's settlement at Teaneck,
many have passed to their reward ; but a few remain, still
conspicuous in the successful direction of private and
public enterprises, and laboring for the further advance-
ment of everything tending to maintain the (now) city in
its position as an example to all neighbors in whatever
makes for charity, public spirit, patriotism, and progress.
In this respect, the city recently received the gift of a
home for the public library, and through several private
benefactions and annual public appropriations, a thor-
oughly equipped free hospital is maintained. When
stricken with his final illness, Mr. Phelps expressed to
his family physician a determination to make a special
provision for this new institution, but the progress of his
disease, more rapid than was anticipated, prevented the
consummation of such a purpose.

The leading men of affairs in and about Englewood
with whom Mr. Phelps held more or less intimate business
and social relations during the earlier days included J.
Wyman Jones, credited with being the "father of Engle-
wood " ; Daniel Drake Smith, Lebbeus Chapman, Living-
ston K. Miller, David Hoadley, Washington R. Vermilye,
Frank B. Nichols, General T. B. Van Buren, Sheppard
Homans, I. Smith Homans, Colonel H. W. Banks, Jeffrey
A. Humphrey, William A. Booth, James Otis Morse,
Wm. H. De Ronde, Wm. P. Coe, Colonel William M.
Grosvenor, General Samuel A. Duncan, and Donald

274 William Walter Phelps

Mackay. These and others, regardless of political affilia-
tions, were always ready to manifest their appreciation
of the neighbor who had won such distinctive honors at
home and abroad.

In October, 1890, Mr. Phelps and his family were ten-^
dered a reception at the Englewood Club. As ladies and
gentlemen were included in the membership, it was a large
family organization, embracing the leading citizens, and
the reception assumed the proportions of a neighborhood
demonstration of appreciation. The sincerity, unanimity,
and spontaneity that were the actuating influences
prompting this gathering, received frank expression by
the president of the club, Mr. Sheppard Romans, in
brief words of welcome :

Ladies and gentlemen:

We are met this evening to welcome our distinguished
fellow-citizen, the Hon. William Walter Phelps, American
Minister to Germany, who is spending a brief vacation among
us. We meet to do honor, not to the statesman and diplo-
matist, but to our friend and neighbor, in whose growing
reputation we take a just pride and pleasure. We know that
amidst the splendors of the German court, amidst the mo-
mentous issues in which he is taking such a conspicuous part,
there is a warm corner in his heart for those amongst whom
he dwelt for so many years, and we know that our welcome is
grateful to him.

Mr. Phelps, allow me, in the name of the members of the
Englewood Club, to extend to you our hearty greetings, and
to wish that you and yours may enjoy many years of health
and happiness.

The reply of Mr. Phelps, following an enthusiastic
demonstration by the company, was as follows :

I thank you, Mr. Homans, for your kind welcome. You
are right; I did not forget my friends and never shall. This
was, and is, and ever will be, my home. I should love to

His Life and Public Services 275

speak of its past, its present, and its future, but I am aware
that any speech making on this social occasion would be out
of place, and I shall say but a word. I want especially to
make it plain by my own declaration that I highly appreciate
the honor the Englewood Club has done me, and in my name
and Mrs. Phelps's to thank you all, ladies and gentlemen, for
the pleasure you are giving us.

I knew before this that the occasion was without political
coloring, and I recognized with greatest satisfaction that on
the committee of arrangements were the names of two distin-
guished leaders of the political party I have so long and
vigorously fought. However bad I may be as a politician,
they welcome me as a neighbor and a friend. It is an especial
compliment. If this and other flattering circumstances of this
evening are calculated to foster an excessive pride in me, I
shall be saved by this consideration: for twenty-four years,
first with the ardor of youth, afterwards with the strength of
manhood, I struggled to make Englewood grow. I was called
away, and now I return to find that Englewood has grown
more in all directions during my one year of absence than in
my ten years of presence. May this growth continue, whoever
comes or goes, and may Englewood give to new thousands the
peaceful, happy lives that it has given to us and to our
children.

It was three years later, when Mr. Phelps had finally
returned from his mission abroad, that his friends and
neighbors of Englewood, ignoring party lines, resolved
to give him such a "Welcome Home" as would make
the occasion memorable. The returned diplomat, since
arrival, had declined many invitations from business,
political, and social bodies desirous of displaying apprecia-
tion of his distinguished public services at home and
abroad and their respect for his personal worth ; but he
said that this was an invitation which no Englewood man
could decline. His only hope was "that this occasion
may be kept strictly as a neighborhood gathering, and
that I may not be considered as thinking that I have any

276 William Walter Phelps

claim to the honor you now do me, except that I have
been away from home a long time and am eager to meet
again my friends and neighbors."

The committee complied with the guest's wish and still
had a company of more than five-score gentlemen, includ-
ing many names notable in business, religion, literature,
and art. In an assemblage of such diversified talents
there were naturally speakers who contributed the varied
elements of instruction and entertainment, and they
made the "welcome" remarkable in local annals. Mr.
Phelps was himself in one of his most felicitous moods,
largely reminiscent, as the occasion suggested. In his
catalogue of credits due to Englewood for what it had
given to him, including a home, health, and public spirit,
Mr. Phelps caused much amusement by recalling the early
means of railroad transportation to and from the city,
which he did in this manner:

It gave me friends. There is no time for such things in
town. And friendships that last long take time to grow.
Here we pioneers found abundant time and opportunity.
Modern Englewood life still gives great opportunities; but
nothing like the one train which took us all to town in the
morning and brought us back at night; the morning exchange
which met twice daily and "cleared" the business of the town.
No one will forget its start, which never occurred until 'Squire
Miller at the corner had waved and smiled his good-bye; nor
its return, which never occurred until the conductor was as-
sured that all his passengers had found it, so haphazard was its
position outside the Jersey City station, and always shifting
between freight cars and coal cars.

Mr. Phelps paid tribute to the fealty of Englewood
politically, a town with natural Democratic leanings that
generally followed its leanings at the polls :

And yet, if the clouds were gathering thick against their
young townsman, in some way or another the weary wire on

His Life and Public Services 277

election nights would announce such a majority in favor of one
Republican candidate as to make my election sure.

The debit side of his relationship to Englewood was
touched upon with equal happiness in his reference to
the acquirement of land, and in this way :

Sometimes I meet a man who asks me for the loose stones
on a Palisade lot; I yield, and soon afterwards I learn that he
has started a quarry. Again, I tell some poor man he can
have the dead wood on some wood lot; the next time I drive
that way, I discover that he has cleared the field and is
ploughing.

Englewood was especially generous in its support of
athletics, and the rivalry between its Field Club base-ball
players and those of the Oritani Field Club at Hacken-
sack was thus introduced by Mr. Phelps, a trivial inci-
dent, but of so popular a nature that it was received with
the enthusiastic demonstration always accorded the victors
in manly sports :

I grumble some against Englewood, and worst about my
Teaneck roads. I take great pride in keeping them smooth
for my pleasure in driving and that of my friends. To do that
I have to strenuously ward off all loaded teams. The tempta-
tion naturally is for all such to make short cuts, at times when
they think they won't be caught. And when I do catch them
the interview is never a pleasant one. Then I make the
heaviest charge against Englewood for wear of temper. Why,
only last Tuesday, the Fourth of July, as all Englewood was
in Hackensack, I thought I could have a quiet drive as an old
man, with an old horse, on his old farm would like to have.
Lost in pleasant contemplation, I turned a bosky thicket to
discover in flagrante delicto, the heaviest of express wagons
laden with a score of heaviest fellows. Could there have been
a more troubled moment? I saw at a glance the situation.
It was our victorious ball club, flushed with victory and think-
ing at the moment that the world belonged to them. Should

278 William Walter Phelps

I check their hilarity? If I did not, where were discipline
and order and the doctrine of trespass, which both as a land-
owner and Judge I was to enforce? The moment of decision
was painful to both parties, as we viewed each other, and while
hesitating I was lost.

Your captain was master of the situation. In a second he
was on the driver's seat, his men were on their feet, and he
waved his flag in wild enthusiasm as he ordered, "Three
cheers for William Walter Phelps. ' ' It was a knock-down for
me. The loaded team rattled off to Englewood, rutting a
score of pretty road-beds, and I dropped into one of my
densest groves and drove slowly home, as Napoleon drove
from the field of Waterloo.

And that was n't very bad, for it was the Fourth of July,
and it was to celebrate an Englewood victory. And so are all
the grudges I have against Englewood ; each so small, so in-
significarit, that, like Rip's drink, it does n't count.

Departing from local topics for a few moments, the
guest of the evening said :

Perhaps I can divert the stream of reporters from Teaneck,
who come like flies, notebook in hand, to know what this going
out of politics means, if I tell you, who did so much toward
keeping me in, that it means that after thirty years of active
practical political life, and that includes attending caucuses,
suggesting some candidates, suppressing others, attending
primaries, stumping all October, attending conventions, local.
State, and national, I think I have done my duty and am en-
titled to a rest. And were I not thus discharged by completion
of a pretty good round term of political service, I should feel
that I was debarred from partisanship, offensive or otherwise,
when I became a judge.

I entertain an old-fashioned idea on the subject of the
judiciary, and think that a judge ought to so conduct himself
as to inspire his fellow citizens with such an idea of impartiality
that Republican or Democratic suitor would have no fear of
bias against himself in any political question that might be
brought before this court.

His Life and Public Services 279

Somewhat similar was the feeling I had, that, when I was a
foreign Minister and representing the American people as a
whole, I ought not to give my time and my efforts to advancing
the interests of a part of them, however much my pohtical
sympathies were with that party. It was different when I was
a representative in Congress ; I was sent there to advocate a
certain class of political opinions.

The voters in the district at the polls decided that these
were the opinions they wanted, and unless the man who was
elected by them represented these opinions there could be no
government by a majority and consequently no government by
the people.

Happy speeches followed by the leading guests, and
Mr. Herbert Turner, one of the speakers, commended the
career of Mr. Phelps to the attention of young men as an
example of the gentleman and scholar in politics. He
said that the young men of the country would find in the
illustrious career of our former Minister to Germany an
example well worthy of imitation.

One of the incidents of the evening that was very
pleasing to Mr. Phelps was the delivery to him during
the festivities of a telegram of congratulations from his
daughter in Berlin, Marian von Rottenburg-Phelps.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Yale Makes Him a Doctor of Laws — His Continuous and Important Work
for that University — His Many other Benefactions to His Alma
Mater — Leader of the "Young Yale" Movement — The Charter
Amended — He is Elected a Fellow and Serves on the Board for
Twenty Years

ON going through his mail one morning, at the lega-
tion in Berlin, Minister Phelps opened a modest
little envelope, which promised nothing unusual, but, as
he read the letter, the diplomat leaned back in his chair
and a flush mantled his cheek. The remainder of the
morning's mail was forgotten and, for the moment, all
else passed from his mind, as he absently iingered the
little missive, while his memory was busy with the scenes
of his youth at old Yale. Thirty years had intervened,
years of absorbing struggle and manifold success in the
law, in finance, in statecraft, and in diplomacy, the fruit-
bearing years of a man's life devoted to duty and his
country, but these scenes of brilliant achievement in the
arena of the world's work did not obscure the memory of
those earlier days spent at his loved Alma Mater.

There he again saw himself a happy and care-free
youth, resting under the shade of the Elms, with his
companions ; in the recitation room, easily sustaining his
own part and secretly causing harmless mirth at the ec-
centricities of the professors or his classmates; in the
debating club, and through all the varied life at a great
college, dreaming of the future, with high aspiration and
half-conceived purposes, all the time forming friendships

280

His Life and Public Services 281

which endured through life, and imbibing a love for the
old place second only to family ties.

These were the scenes recalled by the letter in his hand,
which informed him that Yale had crowned him with one
of her most coveted laurels and that he was now a Doctor
of Laws — a reward for his brilliant achievements and his
successful services to his country. It read :

Yale University,
New Haven, Conn., July 3, i8go.
Mv DEAR Mr. Phelps:

It is my duty to send you a formal notice of the action taken
by the President and Fellows, at the recent public commence-
ment, in conferring upon you the honorary degree of Doctor
of Laws.

The corporation were glad to avail' themselves of such an
opportunity to testify their appreciation, not merely of your
general public life and influence; but specially of those recent
diplomatic services, which have deserved and received the
distinguished approval of the whole nation.

The diploma certifying to this act I have ventured to retain,
as the President's signature is wanting, and perhaps it will be
safer to postpone its delivery until your return.
Very faithfully yours,

Franklin B. Dexter,
Secretary.
Hon. Wm. Walter Phelps, LL.D.

This recognition was very gratifying to Mr. Phelps,
though not merely as a reward for his public services.
To him it was the complete and final indorsement by his
Alma Mater of his labors on her behalf — labors that were
not at all times accepted in the spirit in which they were
olTered.

Yet, though his judgment was sometimes questioned,
the motive that prompted him could never be doubted.
To the natural pride every man has in his own college,
his interest in Yale became increased by the trust reposed
in him by his father on behalf of the institution and by

282 William Walter Phelps

his marriage with the daughter of one of its great bene-
factors. Needless, then, to say that at all times and in
all places, Yale held a warm place in his heart.

While he was at the German Court, Mr. Armstrong, a
brother of General Armstrong of Hampton, Va., fame,
came there clothed with considerable dignity as an am-
bassador from the then Hawaiian Court on some ofificial
business. At a fixed time, with much ceremony and the
usual diplomatic etiquette, he Was introduced to the resi-
dent foreign plenipotentiaries. Watching his opportunity,
the American Minister drew Mr. Armstrong aside into an
adjoining room, saying:

"We 've had enough of this conventionalism and non-
sense. Let s talk about good old days at Yale."

They had been students at Yale at the same time.

Just one other incident of a different kind may be cited
here to illustrate his active interest in the old college and
to show that his exertions could always be depended
upon when Yale was in need of money. It also shows
how powerful his influence was when he chose to put it
forth. The story is obtained from a classmate who now
occupies a distinguished position :

It was in the sixties. I was calling upon him at his office in
Exchange Place. He said to me:

"I wish you had come in earlier. Professor Thacher has
just been here — came with his bag, evidently expecting to stay
two or three days in New York, trying to raise some money —
wants $10,000 to meet some emergencies. I told him that I
would attend to it, and that he might go back to New Haven
this afternoon, confident of having it. As soon as he left the
office I went to Dodge, to Chittenden and two or three others.
We made up the money and then I stopped on my way back
at the office of the Evening Post, and gave them the item:
' Professor Thacher came to New York this morning to raise a
considerable sum for Yale, expecting to spend several days in
doing it, but the amount required was raised so quickly that
the Professor returned to New Haven this afternoon.' "

His Life and Public Services 283

Mr. Phelps, in further conversation with me, while his eyes
showed their wonted sparkle, remarked :

"Won't Thacher be surprised to see that item when he
takes up his Post to read in the cars on his way home! He
will wonder how the Post ever got track of his movements."

In many ways, all of vi^hich have not been made public,
Yale was financially benefited by the generosity or friendly
interest and exertions of Mr. Phelps. In 1880, he donated
to the college 212 volumes (of which 69 were folios) re-
lating chiefly to the history of Great Britain. The ma-
jority of these works or the editions were new to the Yale
library, and were consequently the more valuable.

In 1889, he gave to the Yale gymnasium fund $1000.

At the commencement, in 1892, contributions were an-
nounced from Mr. Phelps, as follows : $5000 for the new
scientific school building, $3000 to the university library,
and $1000 to the medical school fund.

In the fall of the same year, he bore the expense of
uniforming the Yale Republicans. Before he knew any-
thing of this movement, the young Republicans at Yale
had organized eight hundred strong and adopted the name
of the "Phelps Battalion." Mr. Phelps was in Berlin at
the time, but when he was notified of the action of the
Yale men, he instantly cabled :

Berlin, Oct. 8, 1892.
James F. Burke, New York City.

I claim the honor of uniforming Yale Republicans. Have
sent check for entire amount necessary.

Wm. Walter Phelps.

Twelve hundred students turned out in the Phelps
Battalion that year, and it was said at the time that never
before had there been such political enthusiasm among
Yale men as was displayed on the night when Chauncey
M. Depew addressed them after being escorted through
the streets by the Phelps Battalion.

284 William Walter Phelps

For about twenty-five years Mr. Phelps paid to the
college, usually to the library fund, a yearly sum
amounting to about $30CXD. This was the income of a
trust fund of $50,000 bequeathed by the will of John Jay
Phelps to his son, in trust, to use the annual income of
the same for the interest and advantage of Yale College
in such a manner as the son should deem best, during his
natural life ; and upon the son's death, the $50,000 should
be paid to the college for what use or purpose the son
should direct.

When Judge Phelps died he added in his will, to the
bequest of his father, an additional $50,000, directing
that the sum of these gifts should be devoted to building
a memorial gateway and building at Yale. This direction
was executed as speedily as possible. The executors of
the will and the corporation of the university readily
came to an understanding and it was decided to erect a
Memorial Gateway and Recitation Hall on College Street,
as recitation and lecture rooms were at that time one of
the greatest needs of the institution. The executors
designated Mr. C. C. Haight as the architect, he having
designed the Vanderbilt hall. Mr. Haight produced a
plan of an imposing structure and, although its cost was
estimated at over $100,000, it was adopted, the Phelps
family making up the extra amount.

The Phelps Memorial forms the main entrance to the
campus and completes the quadrangle which Yale men
had long desired. It stands between Lawrence and
Welch halls. It is in the collegiate gothic style and in
design is a tower flanked by four octagonal turrets, with
an elevation from the ground level to the top of the
parapet of about one hundred feet. In the centre there
is a lofty arch sixteen feet wide leading from College
Street, making the principal entrance to the campus.
The monotony of the line of buildings on that side of the
quadrangle is relieved by the Phelps building, which pro-
jects fourteen feet east and west beyond the walls of the

His Life and Public Services 285

former, while the massive tower rising above the roofs of
the Welch and Lawrence, and projecting boldly in ad-
vance of them, serves admirably to unite their somewhat
different styles of architecture. It is built of brown-
stone, and its interior is very substantial — the walls of
masonry, the floors of iron and cement, the staircases of
cast and wrought iron, with marble treads. Above the
archway, which is 20 feet high, are four floors containing
fourteen classrooms and also rooms for the Classical Club
of Yale. It was the first building at Yale to be fitted
with an elevator.

The interest of Mr. Phelps in the welfare of Yale was
too deep and abiding to restrict his activity to gifts. He
was always on the alert to do things that would be bene-
ficial to it and to exploit its worth and advantages. He
was too clear-headed to be blinded by his enthusiasm.
He saw what was being done at other colleges and de-
sired Yale to forge ahead. His pride in his Alma Mater
caused him to yearn for her pre-eminence as an institution
of learning. He found others, as loyal as he, who agreed
with him, and there grew up among the younger Yale
alumni a strong sentiment for a change in the government
of the college. As it crystallized it became known as the
"Young Yale" movement, and if Mr. Phelps was not the
actual originator, he was the foremost leader of the move-
ment. On him devolved the labor of pushing the move-
ment, on him fell the responsibility and the criticism, and
to him was due the credit of carrying the agitation to a
successful consummation.

By a charter granted by the Connecticut legislature in
1745 the government of Yale College was constituted of
the president and ten Congregationalist clergymen who
called themselves "Fellows," and this continued until
1792, when, in consideration of certain grants from the
State, the corporation voted that the governor, lieutenant-
governor, and six senior assistants in Council of State
should become Fellows, making a corporation of eighteen.

286 William Walter Phelps

besides the president. They had control of all depart-
ments of the college. In 1819, on the adoption of the
new constitution, the six senior senators were substituted
for six senior assistants. The State senators gave but
little attention to the duties of this honorary ofifice and
the whole government practically was, as before, in the
hands of the ministers, who filled all vacancies at their
will, electing their successors, and consequently the gov-
ernment was a self-perpetuating body.

For a number of years there had been a great deal
of criticism of the management, especially among the
younger alumni, whose interest in the college was yet
fresh and active. This sentiment, however, had found
no formal expression until it was voiced by Mr. Phelps,
around whom had rallied all those who believed that new
blood should be introduced into the management to give
the college new life, a wider field of operation, and a
more progressive spirit. It was at an alumni meeting at
the commencement of 1870, when the Young Yale move-
ment took the open field. The older alumni had been
discussing the desirability of a change in the constitution,
and they had to confess that they could not agree upon
any recommendation. They unanimously approved the
general policy of the college, its discipline and curriculum,
and the management of its funds. Speeches were made
by the president. Governor Hawley, Professors Trow-
bridge, Weir, and others. When they had done, there
was a loud and imperative call from the younger of the
alumni for William Walter Phelps of the class of i860.
Mr. Phelps responded with a speech that inaugurated the
reform and caused a breeze of surprise among the staid
old members of the corporation. He said :

What I desire to say to you is the message of Young Yale
to Old Yale — it is what the graduates of the last fifteen years
think and say to each other, what they have not yet had oppor-
tunity and courage to say to you. Doubtful with the becom-
ing modesty of youth, taught to believe that old men were for

His Life and Public Services 287

counsel, we have gathered for many a year in pilgrimage to
this literary Mecca, and have held our peace. Now that we
gather here, full grown men, who, outside in other spheres, are
doing the heavy work and shouldering the highest responsi-
bilities, it would be a false modesty that should refuse to give
utterance in public and at the college altar to what is said
abroad.

The younger alumni are not satisfied with the management
of the college. They do not think that in anything except
scholarship it keeps progress with the age. They find no fault
with the men; they find much fault with the spirit of the
management. It is too conservative and narrow. Our youth-
ful admiration and love for president and professors burn with
a greater warmth now that we can recognize their superiority
to ordinary men. What the fiery Spaniard said to Lincoln —
' ' Humblest of the humble before his own soul ; greatest of the
great before the world," — we claim for our president. What
no pen records, except that which tells of the highest moral
and intellectual gifts unselfishly devoted to the cause of edu-
cation, do we claim for Porter, Hadley, Thacher, and their
noble associates. What man can do, they do.

But they cannot do everything. The college wants a living
connection with the world without — an infusion of some of the
new blood that throbs in every vein of this mighty republic —
a knowledge of what is wanted in the scenes for which Yale
educates her children; this living connection with the outer
world, this knowledge of the people's wants, can be acquired
only from those who are in the people and of the people.

This great want can be supplied only by the alumni. Put
them into your government; get them from some other State
than Connecticut, from some other profession than the min-
istry. Call them, and they will gladly and eagerly come. Call
them, and with the reform will pass away every appearance of
alumni coldness and indifference. Men love that for which
they scheme and toil. Selfishness — " an enlightened selfish-
ness," like Mayor Gunther's patriotism — will make them push
an institution, whose success is their own encomium. Let her
thousand alumni from Maine to California be Yale College —
and the bounding blood of youth will throb in every one of its

288 William Walter Phelps

ancient members. Believe me, men — who sit on the Supreme
Bench, who control the Cabinet of the Executive, who, in all
moral and intellectual reforms, are the leaders of their country-
men — Yale men, who got their training here, are as able to
manage its affairs as the Rev. Mr. Pickering of Squashville,
who is exhausted with keeping a few sheep in the wilderness,
or the Hon. Mr. Domuch of Oldport, who seeks to annul the
charter of the only railway that benefits his constituents.

Young Yale asks more — that that worldliness which is not
inconsistent with godliness, which is an absolute condition of
earthly success ; that tact, that recognition of human weakness
and infirmity to which all successful men cater, and which
gives one Yalensian the largest and richest church in the
metropolis ; which makes another the first law officer of a late
administration, shall not forever, by its absence, check Yale's
growth. Don't let Harvard, our great rival, alone have the
benefit of it. Let Yale condescend to be worldly wise.

The son of a president is " a young gentleman about to
enter college. " Yale says, " It is folly to secure him." Mr.
Porson thinks other young men will more quickly recognize
the force of "Aga." "We will make no effort to secure
him, ' ' and saintly Yale folds her arms in the dignity of saintli-
ness, and young Vicksburg goes to Harvard. The press, in
a telegram, carries the fact to hamlet and prairie, and the
fame of Harvard enters a thousand households for the first
time.

Again, Yale says: " Learning, not festivity, is the true object
of a college. We will not cater to the weakness of alumni by
offering other attractions than the philosophical orations of its
graduating class. " Five hundred Yalensians, needing a very
little impetus to gather them under the old trees, find nothing,
and stay away. Five hundred Harvard men, needing the same
impulse, pack their portmanteaus and go to Cambridge, be-
cause Lord Lackland and the Hon. Mr. Blower, the distin-
guished Senator from Alaska, will be on the platform.

Harvard takes great poets and historians to fill its vacant
professorships; Yale takes boys, who have proved their quali-
fications by getting their windows broken, as tutors. Gentle-
men, members of the Board of Trustees, fill better the duties

His Life and Public Services 289

of your priceless legacy. By the memories of Killingworth and
Branford and Saybrook, by a glorious and historic past, don't,
from a false dignity, let slip the future. Let in the young
blood that warms the outer world — put in some alumni, and let
that spirit of growth and progress that makes the Yalensian
everywhere successful, be the baptism of Yale itself.

Mr. Phelps's speech caused great excitement and
elicited constant applause. At its close, the meeting
broke up, and Young Yale gathering outside the Alumni
Hall cheered and congratulated Mr. Phelps, while repre-
sentative men of the last fifteen years exclaimed that their
class stood by what he had said, and that the ice was at
last broken.

Mr. Phelps, in fact, made the speech of the whole com-
mencement; he expressed the wishes and aims of the
younger alumni, who take a lively interest in the future
of Yale, and who have been too long excluded from its
management. His speech went to the hearts of this large
and important class, and, as many said, "broke the ice"
for them.

The movement thus intrepidly launched met with a
storm of opposition, ably led by Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon,
who cleverly responded to the role of "Rev. Timothy
Pickering of Squashville. " The agitation was carried on
vigorously, undaunted by the opposition it encountered.
The discussion cropped out at every meeting of Yale men
and was continued with some acerbity in newspapers and
periodicals. Naturally Mr. Phelps was frequently mis-
quoted both by friend and foe and the public letters of
Dr. Bacon were trenchant and biting in their sarcasm of
the young reformers. Nevertheless, Young Yale halted
not, but was rather spurred on to greater efforts to ac-
complish their object. Mr. Phelps with his great execu-
tive ability and powerful influence rallied support in the
next State legislature, which amended the charter. It
was done with such haste, however, that it was found

»9

290 William Walter Phelps

necessary to make a further amendment in the following
legislature.

It may be stated here that Dr. Bacon and Mr. Phelps
afterwards became united on another issue when the
learned clergyman published an open letter to Mr. Phelps
which attracted much attention, discussing the currency
question and commending Mr. Phelps's position thereon.
It should also be mentioned that even in the heat of the
Young Yale struggle Mr. Phelps tried to keep his true
attitude clearly before his colleagues and fellow-alumni.
With this purpose he wrote a letter from Germany to the
Rev. Mr. Jos. Twichell, who read it at the commence-
ment dinner of the alumni in 1871. He said:

You will remember that I made last Commencement an
after-dinner speech, which afterwards became the text for dis-
cussion in the daily, weekly, and quarterly press. In this dis-
cussion what I said and wished has, as you know, been greatly
misrepresented; but I have been silent, believing that the
individual is nothing, the cause everything, and finding all
needed encouragement in its rapid growth and progress.

It is a great disappointment to me that I cannot be with you
now; for after a year's silence I think I might justly claim a
right to vindicate myself, at least within the walls of Alumni
Hall, against the various charges made or insinuated against
me, namely:

That I despised the Christian ministry, and wished to drive
its members from the corporation ;

That I had personal antipathy against certain members of
the corporation and faculty, and held them up to ridicule;

That I censured and found fault with the management of
the College funds;

That I did not know what I wanted, etc.

These were the main charges, and to them I plead " Not
guilty."

I beheve the minister's profession is the highest calling of
man, and that, as a class, those who follow it are the best of men.

I believe that religion itself is the supreme and only good in

His Life and Public Services 291

this life, and I would rather that Yale College should cease to
exist than exist under a spirit hostile to Christianity. But I
do not think it inconsistent with this respect for religion and
its teachers that I should believe:

That there are men not in the pulpit who love Christianity;

That there are men not in the pulpit who love ability and
learning ;

That there are men not in the pulpit who, by reason of a
wider experience, have the pre-eminence in other branches
which the clergyman has in theology.

I sincerely regret that my remarks of last year were supposed
to have any personal bearing, for I certainly had no intention
to reflect upon any individual, and was no less surprised than
grieved that any one should have so misconstrued them.

I have never alluded to the financial management of the col-
lege ; I have not the slightest doubt, however, that its money
has been kept with scrupulous honesty, and without what is
popularly called ' ' loss, ' ' and yet I think it might be shown, if
necessary, that if the funds had been managed by men trained
to finance, the curators would have more to boast of than that
they had simply kept the talent entrusted to them.

There were many who pretended to doubt what young Yale
wanted. This pretence has recently been dropped, and her
cry is so loud and distinct that no one now misunderstands it.
Her alumni, scattered throughout the Union, ask that Yale
shall not be governed solely by clergymen, however worthy,
of a single denomination in a single State. They ask that some
of their number from other States and other professions shall
be placed where they may give counsel and participate in the
control.

To give the alumni a representation is the only method to
attract their interest and aid, and to hold the college in the
proved pre-eminence it has occupied for a century.

Remember me to all the Fellows, my friends, whether they
inquire after me or not, and accept my earnest wishes that the
alumni festival may be bright and cheerful, with lasting good
for old Yale. Ever sincerely yours,

Wm. Walter Phelps.

KissiNGEN, Germany, June 26th, 1871.

292 William Walter Phelps

The amended charter constituted the corporation of
the President and eighteen Fellows : ten representing by
succession the founders and original trustees of the insti-
tution ; the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor represent-
ing the State of Connecticut; and six representing the
graduates from all departments of the university, elected
by alumni of not less than five years' standing, one of the
six going out every year, but eligible for re-election.

The first election under the new charter took place in
1872, and naturally Mr. Phelps was made a candidate by
his supporters in the reform movement. The most dis-
tinguished Yale men in the country were also put in the
field as candidates for the six new places. A vigorous
canvass was conducted among the electorate all over the
country and the factional disputes which marked the re-
form agitation were carried into this campaign. Mr.
Phelps, however, was elected one of the six by a heavy
vote, his associates all being men of distinction.

Mr. Phelps was re-elected successively without oppo-
sition and served the Yale corporation as trustee with
earnestness and ability until 1886. When his term was
about to expire that year, several aspirants for the honor
entered the field. Mr. Phelps was indifferent about re-
election, and only consented to be regarded as a candidate
after persistent urging by his friends, some of these being
the most prominent men in the college. During this
period of indifference and inaction on his part, one of the
candidates made assiduous efforts to further his own elec-
tion and he became an aggressive opponent to Mr. Phelps,
whose friends and hundreds of the alumni who appreciated
his services then began to make a somewhat vigorous can-
vass. All the tactics that could be decently used in such
a contest were employed against Mr. Phelps, and the
Yale reform contest, not yet quite forgiven by all of the
old Yale adherents, doubtless contributed some aid to
the opposition. The contest received a good deal of
attention from the newspapers throughout the country.

His Life and Public Services 293

In an interview in the New York Tribune, Chauncey M.
Depew, then president of the New York Alumni Associa-
tion, was quoted as follows:

I received a notification some time ago from the secretary of
the Yale corporation, to the effect that I had received twenty-
five votes for nomination as Fellow of the College, in place of
William Walter Phelps. That made me, under the rules, a
candidate, unless I declined. I refused to stand, because I
thought Mr. Phelps should be his own successor. Very few
among the living graduates of Yale have taken as deep and
intelligent an interest in the welfare of the college as he.
Many years ago, Mr. Phelps originated the movement to have
young Yale represented in the government of the college, and
its success aroused and kept alive an interest all over the
country, which has since become a conspicuous feature in the
support and liberalization of the institution. There is no one,
too, among the surviving members of the alumni who has done
so much toward the financial prosperity of the university. Be-
sides that, there are always at least two students at Yale who
owe their ability to continue their studies to his generosity,
and he has shown his faith in the faculty and in the superiority
of the present instructors and present methods of instruction
by sending there both his sons.

The election was watched with the greatest interest.
When the ballots were counted it was found that Mr.
Phelps was more popular than even his friends anticipated,
and it was a great triumph for them, as the vote he re-
ceived was nearly equal to the combined vote of all his
opponents. Thus Mr. Phelps was continued in the po-
sition he had honorably filled so long in the government
of the institution he loved and cherished so dearly all his
life.

After all these years of Yale's growth and prosperity
under the new and progressive management which was
instituted in 1872, it is wholly unnecessary now to seek
arguments to show that the change in the government,

294 William Walter Phelps

which was due largely to the efforts of Mr. Phelps, was
highly beneficial to the institution. The venerated ex-
President Dwight, in a letter recently written, said, in re-
ferring to this change: "I think the election of trustees
by the graduates has given very general satisfaction to
the friends of the university ; and the introduction of
graduates chosen by their fellow-graduates is believed to
have awakened in a much greater measure the continued
sympathy of Yale men." Could there be any better
authority? There is also the testimony of numbers of
other distinguished friends of Yale to the same effect. A
graduate of Yale, whose family has done much for that
institution and has himself reflected credit upon it by his
eminence in the religious work of the world, says of this
movement: "More and far better results grew out of it
than its promoters ever anticipated."

At the expiration of his term as a Fellow of the Uni-
versity in 1892, Mr. Phelps was filling the German mission
and most positively declined to be a candidate for re-
election, although urged by several of the faculty and
many of those most interested in the prosperity of Yale
to continue his services. One of the leading journals of
Connecticut said at that time :

The time has passed when a great collegiate institution
has simply educational functions. It has to handle and invest
large sums of money coming to it by bequest or subscription.
It builds new buildings, purchases real estate, is obliged to
care for the housing and feeding of hundreds of young men ;
furnishes them opportunities for gymnastic exercises and out-
door recreation ; gathers them together at religious, social, and
oratorical meetings, as well as for the studies of the college
curriculum.

The drift of sentiment at Yale lately has been plainly towards
men of first-rate business qualifications for trustees rather than
"figure-heads." Those who have studied the needs of the
institution are united in their demand that each of these trus-
tees' chairs shall be filled by a man who will be on hand regu-

His Life and Public Services 295

larly for work. Better a man of only ordinary capacity, with
zeal and faith and above all regular attendance, than a bright
star who has consented to have his name appear in the cata-
logue as a Fellow, but who never does a stroke of real work
for the progress of the college community which he represents.

The Hartford Post, which has always been foremost
among the newspapers of Connecticut in promoting the
welfare of the colleges and educational institutions of the
State, referred to the Yale election in these terms :

The next vacancy in the board of Yale trustees will be caused
by the expiration of the term of Hon. William Walter Phelps
of New Jersey. The Fast is able to make the announcement
that Mr. Phelps will not be a candidate for re-election. This
will doubtless be a great disappointment to his host of friends
throughout the country, who of course have renominated him,
and to the Faculty of the University, some of whom have
urged him to run again. For we may say, without exaggera-
tion, that the Academic and Scientific departments have never
had a more loyal, generous, or devoted friend and helper than
William Walter Phelps. The present representation of alumni
upon the official board of the university — a long step forward
in progress and a system which has been copied by many other
colleges — was inaugurated largely owing to Mr. Phelps's wise
foresight and practical energy some twenty years ago, when
Connecticut used to be represented as a matter of form by its
six senior senators. By the change the State lost nothing
while the college gained much.

From 1872 to the term of his ministry to Germany, Mr.
Phelps has been a very regular and active attendant at the
regular Fellows' meetings. He has always sought to make
them more than matters of form. The policy which he has
advocated has been a broad and liberal one, worthy of Yale's
claim as our greatest national university. We believe that Mr.
Phelps could easily be elected for another term, notwithstand-
ing it would be his fourth. But at the present time there is
no prospect of his return to this country and he is right in
standing for the principle that until the board of trustees is

296 William Walter Phelps

further enlarged — which ought to be and we presume will be
done at no distant date, for circumstances are annually demon-
strating its necessity — each one of the six men elected to repre-
sent the alumni should attend all the present meetings and have
more frequent ones.

Other Connecticut journals referred to this affair in the
same strain and the Hartford Courant said :

Mr. Phelps was the moving force in securing the alumni
representation on the corporation and was one of the first
trustees chosen. Until he went abroad he was an active force
in that body.

The following is from the Press of Paterson, N. J., the
editor of which, Mr. Wurts, always took a warm interest
in Mr. Phelps's Yale work, and whose son was a graduate
of that institution :

William Walter Phelps, the American Minister at Berlin,
who has been for twenty years one of the alumni representa-
tives in the Yale corporation and ardently devoted to the in-
terests of the University, some time ago, as stated in the Press,
addressed the secretary of the college, declining to be a candi-
date for re-election. Many friends of the college, appreciating
the value of his services to their Alma Mater, have been urging
him to reconsider his decision. A dispatch has been received
from him stating that, while his interest in Yale is unabated,
his long term of service and his absence from the country
have prompted him to this decision.

There were several candidates for this vacancy, but
Judge Henry H. Howland, an eminent lawyer of New
York City, whose election was favored by Mr. Phelps,
was easily chosen.

President Dwight of the university opened his pub-
lished report in 1892 with reference to Mr. Phelps:

Mr. Phelps was one of the first six gentlemen who were
elected by the graduates for membership in this body in the

His Life and Public Services 297

year 1872, when, in accordance with the request of the corpora-
tion, an act of the legislature of the State was passed allowing
such a selection to be made. By the allotment which was then
arranged among the new members, a term of two years was
assigned to him. His first period of service accordingly came
to its end in 1874, but he was then re-elected for a full term
of six years, and a similar re-election took place in 1880, and
again in 1886. The public duties to which he was called, in
1889, as Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States Govern-
ment to the German Empire have necessitated his absence
from the country nearly all of the time since that date. He
has thus been prevented, within this period, from taking the
active part which he could have wished, and the importance
of which he appreciated, in the administrative affairs of the
institution. But he has at no moment lost sight of its interests
or failed to keep in mind its prosperity and success.

Mr. Phelps always held the presidents of Yale during
his time — Woolsey, Porter, and Dwight — in high esteem
and delighted to do them honor whenever an occasion
presented itself. This feeling of respect and friendship
was fully reciprocated by these worthy men and distin-
guished scholars. In 1885 he gave a great reception at
his residence in Washington in honor of President Porter,
who was on a visit to that city. It was a notable affair
to which were invited all the Yale graduates located in
or around Washington or who were visiting the national
capital. Senators, members of the House, and other
officials were among the number, and President Arthur
and Mr. Blaine were among the especially invited guests.
Old college days and incidents were recalled ; old college
songs sung, and it was a jovial time, long remembered by
those who were present.

President Porter retired in 1886, after a service of forty
years as a professor and afterwards president of Yale
College. At the alumni dinner given in January of that
year, at which the retiring president was the guest of
honor, Mr. Phelps, who could not be present, sent a

298 William Walter Phelps

letter from Washington, in which, among other things,
he wrote :

I solace myself with the thought that I am sure to be pleas-
antly missed by my old friends and possibly by an older — the
distinguished guest in whose honor the dinner is given. I
suspect he knows I should have to shock his modesty; for
who, who knows so much of his page of the college history as
I, could say anything and not allude to the continual, healthy,
and permanent growth which Yale College has made under
President Porter?

To an increase in the number of students, which is thirty-
three per cent. — in the first year of his presidency they num-
bered 809, this year they number 1076, and this increase is
regular; in the first five years the average for each year was
950, in the second five years 1028, in the third five years 1078.
To an increase in the number of instructors — he found 71 ; he
leaves 114. Nor has it been only a growth of men. There
has been an increase in funds. President Porter found
$1,227,305 in the treasury; he will leave $2,155,705 — an in-
crease of over seventy-five per cent. And he will leave, be-
sides, contingent inchoate rights to property that are estimated
at more than $2,000,000. These are facts and figures. And
as for the influence of Yale College in Church and State, law,
business, medicine, and society, was it ever greater? Has it in
this, the highest test, a rival? May not the most enthusiastic
friends of the college content themselves with the wish that
under his successor Yale College may prosper materially and
morally, as it did under the reign of President Porter, the wise
and good?

President Porter was succeeded in the presidency by
Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight, one of the professors. While
the new president was in Washington in 1887, the alumni
residing in that city gave him a complimentary dinner, at
which many celebrated people were present. Mr. Phelps
was one of the selected speakers, and the following is a
report of his address which appeared in the Washington
Star:

His Life and Public Services 299

Mr. Phelps spoke to the toast of ' ' Yale Characteristics, ' '
alluding to the peculiar loyalty with which all Yale men cling
to their college, of the college feeling between classmates
which expanded and included all alumni, and dwelling at most
length on the variety in men, in their characters and occupa-
tions, which the catalogue of Yale graduates exhibited, and
said:

" Why this little gathering at Chamberlin's is itself an illus-
tration of Yale's variety and Yale's success in that variety. Is
it a question of jurisprudence? There is the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Source of American Law (Fuller), and by his side
his white-haired colleague (Strong), about whom an intelligent
people has not yet made up its mind whether his learning is
the greater or his virtue. Is it a question of statesmanship?
Here is a Senator so loved by Democrats and Republicans in
his own State that he is called ' Our Evarts. ' And here he
seems always to have been. He was here counsel for a Presi-
dent in, who did not want to be put vout; here, counsel for a
President out, who wanted to get in ; here, Attorney-General
for one President; here, Secretary of State for another Presi-
dent; and now here, the only representative the imperial city
of New York has sent to the United States Senate since the
days of Alexander Hamilton. And now may his stay here be
long and unbroken as his longest sentence."

Mr. Phelps continued, making humorous allusions to the
various distinguished alumni of the Washington association.
He thought Secretary Whitney looked very natty and clean
for an old tar constantly engaged in scraping barnacles from
the navy. He said the best illustration that Yale's training
applied at the same time would fit different recipients for
different fates was, that there was Professor Marsh, Captain
Button, and himself in the same class. Marsh was now presi-
dent of the National Academy, a great scientist; Button was
a gallant soldier, who had conquered the volcanoes; and
Phelps was nothing but a poor Jersey pohtician.

In conclusion, Mr. Phelps, turning to President Bwight,
said : ' ' This is only a glance at the glories of the trust so re-
cently committed to you. As one who, as a trustee, is directly
responsible for this transfer, I declare here the satisfaction and

300 William Walter Phelps

pride with which I review my actions. It has been ratified by
the large constituency I represent with enthusiastic unanimity,
a unanimity as remarkable as that with which the Board of
Fellows representing Old Yale and Young Yale and Middle-
aged Yale, representing New York, which criticises everything
Yalensian, and New Haven, which approves everything
Yalensian, at the first ballot put upon your shoulders the
gown once worn by Stiles and Clapp and Day and Woolsey and
Porter. And by this action history shall repeat itself ; or rather
Providence, in the interest of pure Christianity and sound
learning, shall force history to record that in the beginning of
the nineteenth century Yale College and in the beginning of
the twentieth century Yale University was under the efficient
and successful administration of Timothy D wight."

CHAPTER XXIX

Koppay's Historical Painting of Phelps and Bismarck — The Minister also
Depicted on Canvas by Carl Gutherz — His Work on the Bench —
Dedication of Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at New Brunswick —
His Reception at the Hamilton Club — Elected an Honorary Mem-
ber of the Chamber of Commerce — His Portrait in the New Jersey
Capitol

ALTHOUGH Judge Phelps had made the sincere an-
nouncement that he no longer desired political pre-
ferment, he was too prominent a figure in the public eye
to be allowed to disappear. Shortly after the reception
given him by his Englewood friends in July, 1893, he re-
ceived a compliment of a somewhat different character,
originating on another continent. Attention was called,
by the publication in Harper s Weekly, to a picture taken
from Koppay's historical painting then on exhibition in
Berlin, of Mr. Phelps as American Commissioner discuss-
ing the Samoan treaty with Prince Bismarck. This picture
was announced by the foreign art critics as possessing a
high historical value. Unfortunately this valuable paint-
ing was destroyed by a fire, which occurred a few years
since, in the present Phelps mansion at Teaneck. Har-
per' s Weekly published its copy of the painting with this
introduction :

The portraits of Hon. William Walter Phelps and Prince
Bismarck, which have recently been completed by Koppay,
are now on exhibition in Berlin, and will shortly be sent to
New York for exhibition also. The painting from which the

301

302 William Walter Phelps

illustration in this number is taken is a very large canvas, both
figures being full-length and nearly life-size, and it is said to
be one of Koppay's most successful pieces of work. It will
have a peculiar interest to all Americans for several reasons,
and will be sure to attract considerable attention when it arrives
in this country. Herr Koppay is probably the most famous
of German portrait-painters to-day, and he is said to have
painted more " crowned heads " than any other living artist,
except possibly Angeli of Vienna. Originally one of Len-
bach's pupils, he has fairly outstripped his master. He works
quickly, sketching the heads from life — Mr. Phelps's having
been drawn just previous to his return to America,- — and then
transfers them to the canvas, magnifying the strong features
almost to caricature, and leaving the finishing touches to a less
famous but more painstaking artist.

The painting is complete in itself, of course, but it is also a
forerunner of the great picture of the Samoan Conference
which Koppay is now at work upon. The Conference sat at
Berlin in 1889 under the presidency of Count Herbert Bis-
marck, the Prince's son, who then held the position of Im-
perial Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Phelps was the chief
commissioner for the United States; and Prince Bismarck,
though he did not himself take part in the sittings of the Con-
ference, followed the whole matter very closely from day to
day, and often invited either the whole Conference or indi-
vidual members to his famous Radziwill Palace, at 76 Wilhelm-
strasse, almost across the way from the Auswdrtige Ami, where
the sittings were held.

During the course of the proceedings Mr. Phelps and he be-
came fast friends, and the incident of Koppay's picture repre-
sents one of the many friendly visits which Mr. Phelps made
to the Chancellor's palace. The two used to sit together, or
walk about the fine old hall, discussing the progress of the
Conference, the Chancellor's two immense and well-known
hounds following them about wherever they went. Koppay
has caught them all at a moment when Mr. Phelps has ap-
parently just finished an earnest discussion of some detail of
the treaty. Bismarck, with his hand on one hound's head, is
on the point of making a reply after a moment's reflection,

His Life and Public Services 303

with the fixed look in his eyes of one who is still thinking of
his coming remark.

When Mr. Phelps settled in Berlin afterwards as American
Minister to Germany, this friendship with Bismarck was re-
newed and strengthened, and the painting, while it is sug-
gested by the Conference over the question of Samoa, is also
a monument to the keen friendship of these two distinguished
men.

A few weeks later there was placed in the Corcoran
Gallery of Fine Arts, Washington, a remarkable picture
intended to commemorate a very striking passage in
American history. The subject is a scene from an im-
portant diplomatic episode in which the United States
bore a part — that of the Bering Sea Tribunal of Arbitra-
tion between this country and Great Britain, which sat
in Paris from April to June, 1893. Mr. Phelps, then
through with his German mission, but before returning
home, had been called upon by the Washington authori-
ties to defend the claims of the United States in oppo-
sition to the ablest English lawyers.

This picture is the work of Carl Gutherz, a native of
the United States who had lived and studied in Paris for
many years. The canvas is about ten feet by six,, and
very rich in coloring, the scene being laid in a magnificent
room in the building of the French Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, where the sittings of the Arbitration were held.

The moment chosen by the artist is when Mr. Phelps,
the leading American counsel, is addressing the tribunal.
He stands immediately in front of Baron De Courcel,
the president; Justice Harlan and Senator Morgan, the
American arbitrators, appearing at the left of De Courcel.
The chief British counsel. Lord Charles Russell, has just
risen at the right of Mr. Phelps, apparently for the pur-
pose of interposing an objection. On either side are
attaches, counsel, correspondents, and distinguished spec-
tators, — ladies and gentlemen who were in daily attend-
ance, for the most part Americans. The portraits and

304 William Walter Phelps

figures of the Amerian arbitrators and Mr. Phelps are
excellent, and the picture holds a place as a masterpiece
of historic art.

In Jul}' of this year also, a very graceful national event
occurred in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was the unveil-
ing, with appropriate ceremonies, of a statue of Abraham
Lincoln. It was erected in honor of the Scottish-Ameri-
can soldiers who fought for the Union in the American
War of the Rebellion, and who returned to their native
land where they were buried with no mark to their
graves. The monument originated with Mr. Wallace
Bruce, then United States Consul to Edinburgh, and Mr.
Henry K. Heath of Brooklyn. The city authorities gave
a handsome site in Colton Hill Cemetery, and the monu-
ment was erected by aid of contributions from patriotic
Americans. Mr. Phelps was one of the very first con-
tributors to this fund and took great interest in the affair
from first to last.

After the final adjournment, late in July, of the term
of the Court of Errors and Appeals, in which Judge
Phelps sat for the first time, he visited the State encamp-
ment of the New Jersey National Guard at Sea Girt,
where he was the guest of Governor Werts, and where he
was at home among officers and guardsmen, all of whom
learned to know him. There and at Long Branch and
other coast resorts in the vicinity, he met many old
friends and acquaintances from New York and New
Jersey and other places, who were summering at the sea-
shore. Numerous inquiries were made of him about the
Germans, especially of the characteristics of their public
men, historical characters, and the royal family. He al-
ways talked well and what he told of men of national and
international fame was charmingly related and drew the
closest attention. Out of the newspaper quotations of
these conversations probably grew the reports, widely
circulated by the press, that Judge Phelps contemplated
writing his personal recollections of the distinguished

His Life and Public Services 305

personages he had met during his life, which would in-
clude most of the men of the world of marked ability
with whom he had associated on terms of equality. One
prominent journal said:

A book of this kind from Judge Phelps would certainly be
a fascinating one. Few Americans, few men, indeed, of any
nationality, have enjoyed such opportunities for studying emi-
nent characters on both sides of the Atlantic, from what may
be called the inside point of view, as Mr. Phelps. If it be
true that he meditates adding a trip into the fields of author-
ship to the many-sided variety of his life, we sincerely trust
that the intention will be carried out, as a record of personal
reminiscences from his pen would be a rare treat. So long as
Mr. Phelps was in the diplomatic service, of course his lips
had to be sealed on shadowed topics of the deepest interest
upon which he could if he chose shed a briUiant light. May
we not hope that now, when he is a free man once more, he
will meet what seems to be a reasonable demand that he shall
tell what he knows and what we all want to know, about mat-
ters not merely personal but cosmopolitan? He could do
much to give what is called ' ' history ' ' a direction from which
ignorance, imagination, or prejudice would not be able here-
after to swerve it.

A newspaper published at the national capital expressed
this view:

Hon. William Walter Phelps is reported to be on the verge
of writing a book of reminiscences. If our ex-Minister to
Berlin tells all he knows about public men and women, he
will astonish the world, for Mr. Phelps's memory is so phe-
nomenal as to be absolutely appalHng. His present occupa-
tion is very congenial. Mr. Phelps has always loved the law,
which would have been his profession had fortune been less
kind.

Had Judge Phelps chosen to indulge in this pastime he
probably would have been excelled by few writers in

3o6 William Walter Phelps

ability to portray with vividness the personal character-
istics of the men whom he had known. The newspaper
reports of the summer of 1893 led a publishing house of
distinction to persistent efforts to have him write a book
of reminiscences, but he never for a moment had such
an intention and could not be induced to entertain the
suggestion.

Judge Phelps was in daily attendance at the November
term of the court and found the duties very agreeable to
him. He gave close attention to all the details and made
himself familiar with all the routine and formalities. At
the close of this term a New Jersey journal, whose editor
had an unusual knowledge of court matters in the State,
made this allusion :

We have it on the very best authority that the new Judge
has made a very favorable impression on his colleagues of the
bench and the members of the bar. He shows excellent judg-
ment and an intelligent grasp of the law as well as " sound
horse sense " in his conclusions.

Judge Phelps is a lawyer, a man of affairs, a man of wide
and varied business experience, and his long public career has
equipped him with a fund of special and general knowledge
that would make him useful in any position.

It is the opinion of all who know him that he is a valuable
addition to the bench of the court of last resort of the State.

A special correspondent at Trenton of the Newark
Advertiser, mentioned what seemed to be a singular fact,
that an ex-Minister to Germany and a man of the highest
and broadest culture, who had occupied so many high
stations, should be there so regularly when the court was
sitting, hearing dry arguments and lengthy legal disquisi-
tions. The writer continued :

I spoke to Judge Phelps coming from the court-room, when
he said, in that easy, graceful manner that always evokes ad-
miration: "Is n't it curious that I should sit right next to

His Life and Public Services 307

Judge Leon Abbett all the time? We have been political op-
ponents for years, and perhaps, to a certain extent, political
rivals. Yet here we are, as chummy and friendly as you
please. The funniest part of it all is that in the months we
have presided together we have always agreed on the points
presented and in the decisions rendered. Our unanimity of
judgment is quite remarkable. The ex-Governor seems to
like his position. He is alert and active, when it was sup-
posed, after the series of political disappointments he encoun-
tered, he might be sullen and disgruntled, but he is cheerful
and fond of his work."

" How do you like the position of Judge? " was asked.

" Well, I find it rather laborious. It is not the motions and
the long arguments I mind so much. But I am trying to think
up the law that for thirty years I thought out of my mind.
You see I paid no attention to the law for years, being occu-
pied with other matters. Now I am compelled to try and re-
call what I once knew and apply it to the facts as presented."

Mr. Phelps tells a good story of his career as a lawyer. He
had the large estate to handle that was left by his father. His
counsel was Jacob Vanatta, a famous lawyer years ago, and
Attorney-General of New Jersey in 1875. Phelps was inter-
ested in a railroad in this State, but he kept his connection
secret. His counsel was not aware of it. Opposition to some
of the plans of the company suddenly arose, and Mr. Va-
natta was retained by the opposition.

"I heard one day," says Mr. Phelps, "that an important
motion and argument were to be made by Vanatta the next
day. There was no time to hunt up counsel. I concluded to
defend the road myself. So I studied up the law on the sub-
ject as best I could, and the next morning presented myself in
court. Vanatta made his argument, little suspecting what I
was there for. When he finished, I got up and made my
speech."

" Did you win the case against your counsel? "

" I did," laughingly replied the Judge.

Ex-Senator Large, of Hunterdon County, came along in
time to hear Mr. Phelps tell the above story, and as it was
concluded, he remarked:

3o8 William Walter Phelps

' ' Yes, and I can tell you something about it. Vice-Chan-
cellor Van Fleet narrated the instance to me one time, and
said that he was present in the court-room at the time. He
saw you get up, and after you got started he became interested
in your manner and the cleverness of your argument. The
more you talked, the more interested he became. He said
it was one of the most enjoyable addresses he had ever heard.
Never having seen you, nor, I believe, heard of you, he in-
quired your name of a friend. When told, he said you would
make your mark. ' '

Two characteristics of Mr. Phelps are well brought out
in the foregoing quotation — his entire freedom fronti parti-
san resentment, and his self-reliance, indulged in often to
perverseness and seeming recklessness.

On November 15th an imposing Soldiers' and Sailors'
monument was dedicated at New Brunswick. The cere-
monies were elaborate and there was a great civic and
military display. Judge Phelps was one of the speakers
and he began his address in his accustomed easy and
humorous style, saying that New Brunswick was the
easiest to pass through and the hardest to stop at of any
city in New Jersey. The politicians wanted to reach
Trenton and Washington, the business man New York
or Philadelphia. Judge Phelps, sometimes politician,
sometimes business man, had suffered under both con-
ditions, but he always looked out when he went through,
and he always thought of all New Brunswick's good
things and bad things. After alluding to some of the
well-known politicians living in that city, he launched out
seriously, saying:

It is a credit now, and it will be a greater one as the years
roll by to link one's name with any effort to spread and per-
petuate the fame of the soldiers and sailors who killed seces-
sion. Under the apple tree at Appomattox they buried the
only enemy that ever was or could be strong enough to strangle
the national life. The conflict of those who on one side found

His Life and Public Services 309

in the nation and on the other side in the State their country-
was the conflict of patriotism itself. For that we could fight
each other.

We shall quarrel, and our sons and grandsons shall quarrel,
over different questions of policy, but we shall not fight. We
fought in the Rebellion, not for policies, but for the country
— the one side believing the State was his country, the other
side the nation. All questions less than that of the existence
of our country American citizens- — always patient, always law-
abiding, always believing in the final efficacy of moral forces
— will settle on the platform, not on the field — by ballots, not
by bullets.

To-day some of us differ, and earnestly, on important ques-
tions. Can you imagine the American people going to war
with each other on these questions? Can you imagine them
fighting each other on any question — the question of union
and disunion being settled forever?

So the soldiers and sailors of the republic fought better
than they knew, when they put a bloody but final injunction
on the heresy that any star might at will leave our galaxy,
shoot itself into darkness, and so, piecemeal, blot out the
light and glory of the heavens. They assured to us liberty
and peace for all time by assuring to us immunity from the
only danger that threatened our national existence. For this,
the soldiers and sailors of New Jersey fought, to whom to-day
we consecrate this monument. Let them sleep in peace and
honor. They died that liberty and union might live.

The annual dinner of the Chamber of Commerce in New
York is always an event of importance. The orators on
each occasion are limited to a small number, invited from
the professional men, scholars, and statesmen of the day.
The audiences they address are composed chiefly of
notable merchants and financiers of the city. Judge
Phelps was chosen to speak at the dinner on the 2ist of
November, 1893. A conspectus of his address is taken
from the newspaper reports of that entertainment. On
being introduced by President Charles S. Smith as a

3IO William Walter Phelps

"scholar and philosopher as well as a business man,"
Judge Phelps said :

I thank you, Mr. President, that you have at last found
time to say those kind things of me. When I met you on your
trip you seemed too busy to say them to me. Indeed, you
were so anxious to get rid of me that I thought at first you
feared I wanted to borrow money of you. But when I noticed
the book you carried, I made up my mind you were simply
preoccupied. I could n't help reading the title; you carried
it as if you wanted me to. It was Their Wedding 'journey.

Of course you did n't remember. It was at Naples, and the
sight of you made me very homesick. And yet it was n't you
so much ; it was the Chamber of Commerce that, in your per-
son, was making the circuit of the earth. As you walked
quickly away, leaving the odors of Ceylon and the East behind
you, I no longer saw the smoke of Vesuvius nor the haze of
Capri. I saw only the old Chamber in William Street; the
historic gatherings whose minute guns roused the nation when
anything on rebel field or legislative floor threatened the public
weal; the procession of noble presidents, all of whom since
Pelatiah Perrit have been my personal friends; and even these
dinners. I saw this table, with its victims waiting the hour of
electrocution, and more unhappy than the condemned, for
they doubt, and we know, that the operation will be a painful
one. In short, gentlemen, I thought so much of you all that
I grew homesick, and when I came back I found all other
things so changed that I never felt quite sure until to-night
that I was at home. But you are not changed. The Old
Guard never surrenders, and the Chamber of Commerce never
changes.

The speaker had evidently become impressed with the
changed American conditions since the beginning of his
political and public career, and among other changes he
had noticed were these :

When I went away, a man read one newspaper of a morning
and believed much that he read in it; now he reads as many

His Life and Public Services 311

as he has time to, and believes nothing except the few things
in which they all agree. I am not rash enough to trace the
effect of this journalistic debauch upon the reader, who prac-
tises it daily — for journalists have heavy hands and are quick
to use them on any critic, ^but I am sure of its effect on the
newspaper: it increases the circulation and diminishes its in-
fluence. Time was when the chief object of a great journalist
was to lead and instruct public opinion. Now, with rare ex-
ceptions, he is content to follow public opinion and uses his
best gifts to amuse or attack. There is but one logical con-
clusion to this ambition: the editor must make his journal
personal. But what excuse is there for personal journalism,
and what limit? With the appetite growing on what it feeds
on, can it stop its downward trend until some triumphant Sun-
day issue prints the New York Directory, with a sketch and
portrait for every name, and this ignoble competition dies of
satiety?

Nevertheless, he found that new^spapers of to-day were
getting and printing all the news as that was never done
before. As another change, he found that party spirit is
not so strong. One manifestation of this was the dis-
crimination of voters in crossing the names of bad candi-
dates. He continued:

This indiscriminate reading of all newspapers has much to
do with the change. People nowadays, reading all the papers,
know who good candidates are, and have to have it out with
their consciences if they vote for a bad one. I think here is
another reason why party ties rest lightly. We are now far
enough from the fires of the war to perceive that all policies
which bear the party name are not of vital importance.

But perhaps a third reason operates more strongly than any
other in inducing men to vote independently, or, rather, for
the best in men and measures selected from all parties. It is
the discovery that a party organization nowadays is an im-
mense and complicated machine; that in our eagerness to load
the party with all attainable force, so that its momentum for a

312 William Walter Phelps

good cause should become irresistible, we have created an
organization compact and welded, which is irresistible also for
harm.

Another change he found was in the popular regard for
the United States Senate. Of this he said :

Admiration is gone. In its place there is manifest in speech
and opinion almost pity for a body, where wealth and party
service of the lowest kind have filled so many seats, and where
Senators have shown themselves incapable of transacting the
ordinary business of an assembly. The time has ceased to be
when dignity, character, and ability were quickest summed up
in the phrase " a Senatorial figure."

He was glad to find that Americans are not worrying
so much or working so many hours as they used to do^in
the East, that is. He was struck with the procession of
careworn faces at the Chicago Fair. He said as he looked
at them he felt prouder than ever of his countrymen as
possessing beyond all other peoples the noblest elements
of manhood and womanhood. "But I felt that one thing
was wanting — to drop care that made Martha worry un-
necessarily over many things."

This frank and direct talk was highly enjoyed by those
who heard it and evoked much applause. This address,
so marked in its originality that when published it was
numerously and variously criticised. It received the de-
nunciation of one class of newspapers, but journals of the
best repute admitted the justness of its strictures, and
from the public, by whom it was largely read, came gen-
eral approbation.

In his closing remarks the vigorous Americanism of the
orator cropped out, and the last words that William
Walter Phelps ever addressed to a public audience con-
tained the following glowing and heartfelt tribute to his
own country :

Pardon me, gentlemen, if, in conclusion, I say that my four
years' friendly residence among the nicest people of Europe

His Life and Public Services 3^3

only confirms my impression, that God gave to us the best
country in the world, and, in the fulness of time, filled it with
the best people. And, after fifty years' study of my country
and my countrymen, I hold the gift of American citizenship
God's best gift, weighted though it be with the terrible re-
sponsibility of each citizen to see that such a republic receives
no detriment.

There was a reception given to Judge Phelps on the
evening of December 14th, by the Hamilton Club of
Paterson, the leading social organization of that city.
Although this complimentary demonstration originated
with members of the Club, the affair was participated in
by the leading men of the city, representing all depart-
ments of life, — law, finance, manufacturing, trade, and
the professions. They wished to express their regard for
him who had once represented them in the councils of
the nation and was always loyal to the true interests of
his constituents ; who had afterwards filled other posts
of honor, but who never forgot those who were his old
and early friends. The reception was without politics,
speeches, or formalities. When Mr. Phelps came, accom-
panied by Hon. Garret A. Hobart, there was no need of
a formal introduction. Mr. J. E. Crowell the editor of
the Paterson Call, in his report of the entertainment,
said:

With the exception of a few out-of-towners everybody knew
him, and it was simply "How d' ye do" here and "Good
evening " there with this one and that one, just the same as if
meeting on the street or in a railroad depot. Judge Phelps's
memory for names is remarkable, and his customary salutation
to those with whom he has been specially well acquainted is
by addressing them by their Christian names in the most in-
formal and intimate manner imaginable.

Judge Phelps has not changed very much since he was here
before his departure for Germany, with the exception that his
hair, formerly very dark, is decidedly gray — in fact, almost

314 William Walter Phelps

white. Taking notice of this fact, the writer commented
upon it.

" I have been gray," said Mr. Phelps, very gravely, "ever
since Mr. Blaine died. That was one of the greatest blows of
my life. Had it not occurred, I would not be gray- haired now.
Had it happened sooner, I would have been gray-haired earlier.
I attribute my gray hair to the shock caused by the death of
my dear friend, James G. Blaine."

Judge Phelps seemed to really feel what he said, but after a
momentary silence, during which a cloud could be seen to pass
over his face, he lapsed into more pleasant topics and began
to indulge in reminiscences of former visits to Paterson.

Every one present seemed to w^ant to have a talk with
Mr. Phelps, consequently a lively conversation was kept
up, and the evening passed pleasantly to all, notwith-
standing there were no oratorical accompaniments to the
banquet. Nearly every one present bid the guest of the
evening a cordial good-bye before he took his departure,
and in this way ended the last public social gathering
Mr. Phelps ever attended, and it was in a city that had
adhered to him so steadfastly in all his Congressional
contests, and had constantly felt an honest pride in his
subsequent successful and honorable career.

The old-time home life was kept up in Teaneck in
January and February, 1894, and there was much quiet
entertaining of friends. Sleighing was good in January,
and Judge Phelps took marked pleasure in driving over
the new roads which he had recently constructed. His
diary shows that he was enjoying the reading of the new
books of the year and he wrote interesting criticisms of
those that most attracted him.

In letter writing Judge Phelps was almost as happy as
in conversation. Throughout all his busy life, and espe-
cially during his periods of rest at Teaneck, he gave much
attention to personal correspondence with friends and inti-
mate acquaintances. These letters, — from his own hands,
— noticeable for their virile and upright chirography.

His Life and Public Services 315

graphic in style, cheerful in tone, and full of pleasing
personalities, could hardly fail to be welcomed and valued
by all who received them. He never wrote a letter to a
friend that was not interesting or that did not display
some of his well-known characteristics.

Early in February the New York Chamber of Com-
merce elected Judge Phelps an honorary member. This
was an unusual honor and he esteemed it highly. The
Chamber has always been very exclusive in bestowing
this distinction, and at that date only five men living bore
it. Besides Judge Phelps, the New York Chamber of
Commerce had never made but one citizen of New Jersey
an honorary member — Mr. Edison, for services rendered
commerce in the domain of science, — and now Mr. Phelps
was honored for services in diplomacy. In his letter ac-
cepting this favor. Judge Phelps wrote :

You have given me great pleasure in admitting me by this
golden gateway to the official society of my father's friends
and mine. It seems to me that those of my fellow-citizens
with whom I have had the greatest intimacy were largely
members of the Chamber of Commerce. Indeed, I remember
in a speech at one of your banquets, I said I felt as much at
home in the picture gallery of the Chamber of Commerce as if
I were walking among the portraits of my friends.

The portrait of Judge Phelps was afterwards placed in
this gallery, where that of his father had been for years.

An admirable portrait of Judge Phelps painted by
Huntingdon the artist, has been placed by the New
Jersey authorities in the rotunda of the Capitol at Tren-
ton, among those of the governors and other prominent
Jerseymen who served the State with distinction.

CHAPTER XXX

His Last Illness — Seeks Rest in the South — He Ends His Diary— Resigns
His Last Public Appointment — His Fortitude in Sickness — His
Daughter Hurries across the Ocean to His Bedside — A Peaceful
Death

IN February Mr. Phelps's throat began to trouble him
seriously, and resultant illness confined him to his
home for many days. He took his seat, however, in the
court at the beginning of the term soon after the ist of
March, and was in regular attendance until the final
adjournment for that term, on the 28th of that month.

But it was noticed that the long sittings of the court
had apparently become painful to him and that he was
enduring their irksomeness with labored patience. A few
days after he was released from the work of the session
he went to the Hygeia Hotel, at Old Point Comfort,
Virginia, a resort that had been restful to him. He was
there but a short time when he sent a request to one who
had been his secretary and political confidant to join him.
It turned out that he wanted the companionship of some
one who well understood him and knew when conversa-
tion would be agreeable to him, and when, owing to his
condition, he wanted silence and seclusion. His friend,
on reaching him, found a startling change. He was
avoiding company and observation. Acquaintances of
prominence in society, business, and the aiTairs of the
country, some of whom he had associated with officially,
were constantly coming and going from the hotel, but he
shunned their recognition. This was little like his old

316

His Life and Public Services 317

self, for he had always liked the broad and sunny thor-
oughfares of life, and it had never been his custom to sit
in the dark corners. But now, one who had always
mingled with his fellow-men in all walks of life, for the
first time during his existence, was seeking seclusion.
Yet he was neither morose nor melancholy, for the change
was wrought by sheer physical inability to maintain formal
conversation, and it was evident that disease which he
inherited was at last making dangerous inroads upon his
feeble system. It was then that he found himself un-
equal in strength and ambition to continue his diary.
The last entry was made April lo, 1894. He probably
never hated a human being. If he had, it would most
certainly have been disclosed in his diary, where little
that was even unpleasant was written of any one. It has
been truly said: "There is always a superfluity of gall in
a diarist's ink." There was never any of that with Mr.
Phelps. Even the serious misfortune of constant ill-
health after reaching manhood created in him no taint of
bitterness regarding men and things. His philosophy,
which he was now called to put into practice, was to
take life as he found it with composure, and he felt it to
be a man's part to accept with equanimity good days and
evil days, and no one ever accepted the latter with more
unflinching courage.

He was in the open air as much as possible, riding and
sailing, hoping thereby to revive his waning vitality and
stay his malady, but after a few weeks spent at Old Point
Comfort without a sensible improvement in health he
went to the Hot Springs of West Virginia. There so-
ciety was lively and he met bright men and women who
had known him in Washington and New York life. A
temporary revival of physical strength brought out a little
of his natural vivacity, but a recurrence of weakness com-
pelled him to seek more of the quiet of his own apart-
ments, where in occasional and quiet talks with his friend,
who was yet with him, he would speak of the past, but

3i8 William Walter Phelps

never of the future. He had doubtless come to realize
that the close of his days could not be far away, and now
that the bonds of ambition were entirely broken, he
showed by his demeanor that he felt that pain and sor-
row, and even death, need have no terrors for those who
dare them and meet them bravely.

Finding no lasting improvement in health at the Hot
Springs, Mr. Phelps sought his home at Teaneck, where
he arrived May i8th. At once he received not only pro-
ficient medical aid, but treatment from most skilful sur-
geons and specialists of New York, who resorted to all
the remedies medical science had devised. But the dis-
ease, which had developed into tuberculosis, involving
the base of the brain and spine, steadily progressed.
Mrs. Phelps, who was in Europe, was informed by cable
of his danger, and hurried home to give him, after her
arrival, every care and comfort.

All this time none could discern that he was enduring
the tortures of disease unless they questioned him if he
were suffering pain, so uncomplaining was his nature and
so sturdy his fortitude in bearing physical agony.

Judge Phelps had been appointed by the Governor one
of the Commission, created by the Legislature, to make a
revision and amendments to the constitution of the State
of New Jersey, which was to meet in the first days of
June. It was proposed by members who had held con-
sultation to make Judge Phelps the presiding ofificer of
that body. He had lost sight of the time of meeting and
was reminded by his former secretary that the commis-
sion would meet for organization in a few days. It was
of course plain that he could not attend, and he said he
would write a letter of resignation to the Governor. He
rose weakly from his couch in his library and reached his
desk, where, resting his face in both hands, he appeared
unable to write. The secretary told him he would go at
once to the Governor and tender the resignation verbally.
Judge Phelps said, "I wish that you would," and then,

His Life and Public Services 319

with a grateful look and the sweetest of smiles, reached
out his hand feebly to his old and tried friend, and the
two never saw each other again.

Governor Werts received the resignation with surprise,
for it was not publicly known that Judge Phelps was so
sick, and the announcement drew from the Governor ex-
pressions of disappointment and genuine sorrow. He
did not fill Mr. Phelps's place in the commission.

A few days passed wearily and painfully, and after May
31st the invalid did not leave his bed. If he had ever
indulged in fair illusions which had ended in defeated
purposes and prostrated hopes, such disappointments
did not cloud the clear sunshine of his closing days, for
to the last hours of his perfect consciousness he was the
same sweet-tempered and love-worthy man, friend, hus-
band, and father.

His serious illness became known to the newspaper
world. Reporters were daily on the alert to chronicle
favorable or unfavorable symptoms. Letters and tele-
grams of inquiry and splicitude from every quarter poured
in upon the family.

When the sick man came fully to realize there was no
hope of recovery, he expressed pathetically a wish to look
once more upon the face of his only daughter. At this
very time she was hurrying with all the speed of modern
travel to his bedside from Berlin to Cuxhaven to catch
the first steamer leaving for her native land. She arrived
at the Quarantine in New York harbor at daylight on
June 15th. Arrangements had been made with the cus-
tom-house authorities to waive formalities and facilitate
her landing. Her brother, Sheffield, awaited at Quaran-
tine on a fast tugboat, the deck of which he had paced
all night in anxious waiting for the arrival of her vessel.
The worn and impatient traveller had anticipated the
possibility of extraordinary preparations to hurry her to
her New Jersey home, and she was all ready to disem-
bark. After a few hurried words with the sorrow-worn

320 William Walter Phelps

brother, she hastened over the ship's side, and her feet
had scarcely touched the deck of the little vessel when it
sped away in the early dawn. When the brother had left
his father's bedside a few hours before, it was with the
knowledge that the end was not far away, and with fear
and misgivings the two travellers on the tug talked of
reaching the dying father in time. The brother knew
also that for several days the physicians had exercised all
their skill to keep their patient alive until his daughter
should arrive. For a week he had been unconscious ex-
cept at brief intervals, and the nerves of the entire house-
hold were strained to their utmost tension. The boat
landed at Fort Lee. Not a moment was lost in getting
ashore and into an awaiting carriage, which was driven
with all the speed of fast horses until the Teaneck home
was reached at half-past seven. On the threshold the
worst fears of the careworn daughter were almost real-
ized. She was told that her father was not dead, but had
sunk into a lethargy from which the doctors said he could
hardly recover. So that now, after the heartsore and dis-
tressing trip across the Atlantic and the lightning race on
the shore of home, the daughter had arrived to find that
she was too late to hear any last words from her dying
father. When she spoke, that he might understand that
she had come, a feeble pressure of the hand, a mere
tremor, told that he knew she was there, but this faint
recognition was everything to her. It was the last gleam
of departing intelligence from the dying man. This was
on Friday. On the Saturday evening following, it was
evident that all would be over before another sunrise, and
a few minutes after one on Sunday morning, with all his
family present, Mr. Phelps died so peacefully that those
around him hardly knew when there had passed from
earth the spirit of one who had lived

"To make the world within his reach
Somewhat the better for his being.

And gladder for his human speech."

CHAPTER XXXI

His Funeral — A Day of Mourning in Englewood — Church Filled with
People from All Ranks of Life — The Sermon — Estimates of His
Life and Work by Many Writers

THE shock of Judge Phelps's death was felt in his
county severely, and all over the State and country.
Hundreds of messages of sorrow and condolence came
from all sections, and a sense of public loss was genuinely
felt and expressed.

The funeral was on Wednesday, June 20th. Early in
the morning there was a brief service at the house, in the
room where the body lay, the casket being covered with
flowers, the gifts of the employees of the estate. Only
the family and a few close friends were present. The
services were conducted by Rev. James Eells, pastor
of the Presbyterian Church at Englewood. He read a
chapter of Scripture and, after a prayer, spoke for a few
minutes of Mr. Phelps and his Christian character and
the kindness and affection he had always shown to
those in his employ. Then an opportunity was given
for those present to look for the last time at the face
of the dead, and all the older retainers filed slowly
through the room and said a silent good-bye. The
pall-bearers were those who had been assistants and
employees of Mr. Phelps in various departments of his
business, — those who knew him best, — which was in keep-
ing with his simple life and tastes and his regard for all
who had served him.

It was one of the most pleasant of June mornings when

21

32 2 William Walter Phelps

the cortege with the mourners started for the church.
The route for a large part of the way lay through the
Teaneck estate, and over valley lands the dead master
had spent a lifetime in beautifying, passing the ivy-clad
ruins of his former mansion in which he had taken so
much pride, along roads that he had made which were
lined with trees, many of which he had planted with his
own hands.

The scenes along the route were constantly suggestive
of the passing away of one who had engrafted himself
into the hearts of all who knew him. Flags everywhere
were at half-mast upon lawns and private residences, and,
reaching Englewood, the people on the streets stopped
and reverently lifted their hats as the cortege passed. All
the business places of the city were closed during the
hour of the funeral.

The church and streets in the vicinity were crowded,
and it seemed that almost all the State were present.
Special trains came filled. They brought, among others,
the Governor and State officials. The Judges of the
Court of Errors and Appeals, the members of the Supreme
Court of New Jersey, and the State Bar Association, each
attended in a body. Many other organizations were
represented. Farmers, mechanics, merchants, lawyers,
journalists, scholars, soldiers, and statesmen — those in
every sphere of the nation's activity — came to show their
esteem for one whose death was felt to be a public calam-
ity. Among those who grieved most deeply were the
college classmates, some of whom came long distances to
be present at these sad last rites. One of them, in placing
a wreath of remembrance on his bier, said :

Among the circle of friends who will sorrow that they will
see his face no more on earth, none, next to his own house-
hold, will grieve more sincerely for Mr. Phelps than his class-
mates, who walked and talked with him, laughed and sang
with him, studied and wrought with him, in the fellowship of

His Life and Public Services 323

student life under the elms of New Haven. Alas! that his
genial smile, his brilliant wit, his courtly manners, and Chris-
tian spirit will grace our reunions no more.

Rev. Mr. Eells officiated at the church. The services
began by the singing of Jesus, Lover of My Soul, by a
quartette, then there was the reading of an appropriate
selection of Scripture. This was followed by the solo, /
Know that My Redeemer Liveth. After prayer, the choir
sang Sun of My Soul, Thou Saviour Dear. Then the
pastor's words were these:

It is not as the Statesman, brilliant, worthy, renowned, not
as the Representative, beloved and honored and wept for by his
constituents to-day, not as the Judge nor as the Minister, that
true American Minister of ours — not as such a one to-day have
we come to do him honor. I am sure that you who have come
from a distance have been speaking together of the friend that
he was to you. And those of us who knew some little time
ago that our friend was to be taken, began telling each other
how much we should miss him and how much he meant to
our town and to ourselves.

And it is that part — the irreparable part of his loss — that we
have come to speak about, to think about and to honor to-day.
The Statesman can be praised again, the Minister may do larger
things than our friend at another time. There are men in
God's keeping who are being kept for the time of their great
need, as he was. But the friend and the citizen and the in-
timate one it is only given to us occasionally to know. When
they go, our life is poorer till we shall find them again, and put
them back in their places of honor and of love.

Thinking over the great characteristics of Mr. Phelps as a
friend, there was that which came out most prominently, and
that was his faithfulness. How true it was of him: "Faithful
in that which is least, faithful also in much." How true, if
you invert that saying: "Faithful in much, faithful also in the
least."

Whether it be as an American, as a young Representative in
our national Congress, daring to go against his party for the

324 William Walter Phelps

sake of an honest and manly conviction, throwing his emphasis
and doing all that his manly strength could enable him to do
for his side of the Civil Rights bill, or coming to his home and
entering the door, unknocked, of his humblest tenant, Mr.
Phelps was the faithful man, always true to what he thought
was right, always giving his power, his magnificent attainments
and intellect and his winning way to what was right. "Faith-
ful in that which was least; faithful also in much." Faithful
at home and faithful abroad, faithful to the great men and
faithful to the humble.

Mr. Phelps is to be remembered for that large, large faith-
fulness, and that was possible to him because of his simplicity.
How genuine and simple he was! There are anecdotes that
come to your minds, I know, as you sit here, and you remem-
ber the things that bring them up to your minds and you say:
"For all of the honor that was given to him, for all of the
wealth that was his, for all of the position and the friends, Mr.
Phelps was simple ; simple in his tastes, simple in his doings,
in his words, in his actions." Always that deep simplicity
that can never be changed.

We are told that he was always a stanch Republican. So
he was, in the party way. But Mr. Phelps was democratic
with that greatest of all democracies, manhood's sympathy
with manhood. Shakespeare wrote, "None so poor to do him
reverence." He should have added, None too poor that he
should reverence. To that is to be attributed his wonderful
success in a political way. The fact that he could meet men,
bring them to himself, and hold them to himself, was of great
value to him in his career. Ever that greatness of character,
that simplicity, that faithfulness to them and to their interest
with which he knew how to impress them.

He was generous in giving, generous not of money only, but
in the way of giving, generous also of himself. Hardest of all
things, he knew how to give liberally and upbraid not. It
would be useless, it would be folly to speak of the great public
deeds of Mr. Phelps, written as they are on history. It needs
not the emphasis that we give at such a time as this to the best
things a man did and the greatest things a man ever said lest
they be interred with him. He needs no emphatic eulogy at

His Life and Public Services 325

this time. But it is that earnest, genuine manliness that we
shall miss, and it is that that has come to you that has made
his name especially sad to-day, and it is that that has bound
men fast to him. It is that which will be always identifying
us in closer relation with our friend.

There is one other thing I must not fail to say. We wonder
why Mr. Phelps left his political career. He had no wonder.
He loved to be out and at work on his place. He loved to be
there, caring for the things he loved, and the trees that he
planted like "the trees of righteousness, round about." How
he cared for them and how he loved them ! He had told some
of us early in the winter: "I am impatient for the spring to
come, for I must be about my place and open new roads and
make it more beautiful." And so he, who, in the love of
Nature, had communion with her visible forms, spoke her
varied language. In calm trust he could wrap the drapery of
his couch about him and lie down to pleasant dreams. God
take us with him in the morning's dawning.

The audience was deeply affected by Mr. Eells's re-
marks. At the conclusion of the address the choir sang
the hymn, Art Thou Weary? Art Thou Languid? and
then the benediction was pronounced.

The casket, accompanied by the pall-bearers, was con-
veyed directly to Fort Lee and across the river to a rail-
road station in upper New York City, and from thence
by special train to Simsbury, Connecticut, the place of
interment in the massive granite tomb of the Phelps
family. When the funeral party arrived at Simsbury, a
large number of citizens of that and other towns were
gathered at the station and the cemetery to show their
respect for one whose ancestors were born and lived
among them. A short funeral service took place at the
cemetery, conducted by Rev. Mr. Croft, after which the
body was laid in its final resting-place. There the scholar,
orator, statesman, and diplomatist, sleeps with his fathers,
free from the commotion and strife of the world and the
cares of men.

326 William Walter Phelps

To publish the resolutions and testimonials of esteem
that emanated from clubs, societies, boards of directors
of corporations, and the many organizations with which
Mr. Phelps was in some way connected, would be to go
beyond the limits of this memorial. In the court of
which he was a judge, besides the other testimonials to
his worth, his vacant chair was draped in mourning.

In Berlin the intelligence of the demise of the much
respected and popular ex-Minister was received with
marked sadness, especially in diplomatic circles, and
his memory was fitly honored there in the American
Church.

New Jersey was the departed statesman's home, but
the hundreds of memorials published in the newspapers
of the whole Union show that he belonged to the nation,
and it is perhaps better that his character and worth
should now be measured in this larger perspective —
removed from the bias and partiality natural to those
whose ties of intimacy and affection bound them closely
to him. To them his personality and career could never
be the objects of cold, calculating criticism ; to them his
rare accomplishments and brilliant achievements were re-
garded with admiration and cherished with jealous pride;
to them his unselfish toil and pure life, his manliness and
sincerity of purpose, his bountiful generosity and mag-
nanimity were best known and valued ; to them he was a
warm and sympathetic friend whose sunny nature ever
shed encouragement and gladness and whose loss was
irreparable.

As one of those whose friendship with Mr. Phelps was
long and intimate, the writer of this memoir feels it un-
necessary that he should look with a critic's eye over
the life of his friend, or round out this chronicle with
a closing summary. Instead, he gives the testimony of
a number of writers who had unusual opportunities to
observe Mr. Phelps's career from various standpoints.
A few lines only can be given from each. The selection

His Life and Public Services 327

is made from well-known journals and noted journalists
who have expressed their estimate of Mr. Phelps as a
man and the value of his life to the world :

New York Sun.

Mr. Phelps unaffectedly regarded public office as a
public trust; and whether he was serving his country or
his State, in the most conspicuous or the most modest
station, the principle of his activity was the same. He
was an honorable, clear-headed, high-minded man; and
by his untimely death the nation has lost a good citizen.

Brooklyn Eagle.

He adhered to the highest standards. He had a taste
for public life and achieved prominence in it, but not be-
cause of his millions. The possession of millions enabled
him to do many things which helped to gratify worthy
ambition, nor do they explain the regret with which the
American public will hear of his demise.

New York Herald.

He built up a reputation that to-day caused every man,
woman, and child for miles around his home to speak of
his death with tear-dimmed eyes.

New York Mail and Express.

All who personally knew this generous and gifted man
on both sides of the Atlantic, — the poor and the rich, the
toiler and the thinker, will join hands over ocean and
continent in a common grief.

New York Tribune.

He possessed a rich store of affection and sympathy on
which all who knew him drew at will, with full assurance
that their drafts would never be dishonored. Not on
friends alone, but wherever he detected the need of as-
sistance or of consolation, he bestowed the best gift in his
keeping. He won in life the only reward he wanted, but
the tribute of tears which would have grieved him must
follow him to the grave.

328 William Walter Phelps

New York Telegram,

William Walter Phelps's character and service as a
statesman belong to his country, to which they are be-
queathed, and are known to the world which they have
enriched. The memory of his personality will be cher-
ished by his friends — and who can number them?
New York Advertiser.

The death of William Walter Phelps takes away from us

a man who can ill be spared. He was an example of the

highest type of American citizen in public and private

life, and his career in every respect is worthy of imitation.

New York Press.

Of his patriotism and personal worth it is needless to
speak. These are matters of common knowledge. It is
enough to say that in his death the United States loses an
eminent citizen, who in every station he filled reflected
honor upon the Republic.
New York Evangelist.

The descendant of a family distinguished in this country
from Colonial days, the heir of great wealth and high
social position, he always looked upon his privileges as so
many opportunities to serve his fellow-men.
The Nation.

It seemed natural to Mr. Phelps to interest himself in
all matters which concerned the public welfare.
New York Town Topics.

Mr. Phelps had every incentive that can be given to a
man to lead a life of luxurious and artistic ease. He had
decided artistic and literary tastes and he was never
vigorous of body, and yet so strong was his sense of what
a man in his position owed to the community that his
whole life was one of strenuous exertion in every cause
and every movement for reform.
New York Recorder.

He left no opportunity for good unutilized.
Brooklyn Standard.

The high cultivation of Mr. Phelps, his intimate ac-
quaintance with the history of Europe, his knowledge of
languages, his familiarity with the manners and customs

His Life and Public Services 329

of polite people, the grace there was in his speech and the
soft touch he knew how to give with a firm hand, qualified
him for diplomatic service, and when he was Minister to
Vienna and Berlin, he was not merely an unreproachable
representative of his country, but one who was honored
in his individuality and held in high favor at those courts.

Philadelphia Telegraph.

The career of Mr. Phelps will be an inspiration to
every one striving to reach a high ideal. He never low-
ered his dignity in or out of the House, or in the diplo-
matic world to please the groundlings. The death of this
worthy man has been made the subject of unusual com-
ment among the best-informed journals and public men,
and there are substantial reasons for this.

Philadelphia Record.

By the death of William Walter Phelps the country has
lost one of its brightest, most active, and best-informed
public men. Although an ardent Republican, he was
independent in judgment and action.

Philadelphia North American.

His life was dotted by achievements which proved him
to be a man of exceptional ability. The world is better
because he lived in it. Would that there were, especially
among those in active political life, many more like him
than there are.

Philadelphia Ledger.

He was a man of advanced thought.

Lancaster (Pa.) Examiner.

If Congress and the executive places of the land had
more men like Mr. Phelps in public service, the whole
line of our politics and policies would take such a turn
that the world would be amazed and our happiness and
prosperity become the wonder of the age.

Baltimore Herald.

Mr. Phelps was at one time a conspicuous Republican
leader, and as a member of Congress and as the American
Minister to Austria and Germany he displayed the highest
qualities of statesmanship and diplomacy. As a citizen
and as a man Mr. Phelps was beloved by all.

330 William Walter Phelps

Nevrark (N. J.) News.

The cares and honors of official life wrought no change
in the personality of Mr. Phelps. He was essentially a
social man. Ever accustomed to the refineruents which
great wealth brings, and reared in an atmosphere peculiar
for a certain exclusiveness, this distinguished son of New
Jersey was always in sympathy with his fellow-man, how-
ever humble his lot. He was always approachable, always
ready to lend a sympathetic ear to those in trouble, ever
solicitous about his friends, and never indifferent to the
affairs of those who might be classed as not his friends.

Trenton (N. J.) Gazette.

The life of strenuous endeavor and self-sacrificing labor
of William Walter Phelps was in notable contrast to the
useless life led by some of the favorite sons of fortune.
He lost nothing in any way by living a life of labor and
usefulness instead of giving himself up to the indolence
of wealth. And he had the respect and admiration of the
world.

Elizabeth (N. J.) Herald.

Very few public men have left a grander record behind
them than that bequeathed to posterity by WiUiam Walter
Phelps. Editors all over the land, of every known politi-
cal hue, sect, race, or condition, have nothing but eulogy
for the departed scholar and statesman.

Paterson (N. J.) Press.

One of his characteristics was his habit of never speak-
ing ill of dignitaries or any one else. Very rarely was
Mr. Phelps ever heard to speak a word in derogation of
man or woman. A dash of sub-acid persiflage, or gleam
of polished satire, was the nearest he would approach to
punishment even of a personal or political adversary.

Sussex (N. J.) Independent.

In the death of Mr. Phelps this nation has lost one of
its grandest sons. He was a large-hearted, cultured
gentleman, tender and sympathetic as a woman, lavish in
his benevolence, always good to the poor and kind to the
unfortunate, with ever an encouraging word for all things
for the betterment of mankind.

His Life and Public Services 331

Paterson (N. J.) Call.

The world is made poorer by his removal, but he leaves
behind an example worthy of emulation — that of an up-
right and pure-minded citizen, whose creed might be
summed up in the few words "Do unto others as you
would that they should do unto you."

Chicag^o Record.

Some of his speeches stand as models of scholarship,
logic, and oratory. But it was in diplomacy that he made
his greatest success. He had great tact, was shrewd and
accurate in his penetration of other men's minds and
motives, and had a power of persuasion that was seldom
surpassed. Prince Bismarck once said that Mr. Phelps
was the most agreeable and the cleverest American he had
ever known. The great German Chancellor never liked
nor praised weak men, whether they were for him or
against him.

Chicago Herald.

His regard for what he deemed the right separated him
from his party on several occasions. He could not be
whipped into line against his convictions, and his detrac-
tors unjustly charged him with Pharisaism when he was
really conscientious.

Cincinnati Gazette.

He had a vast store of varied and singularly accurate
intelligence, and there were constant surprises that Mr.
Phelps should have known so much that would seem to
be so remote from his life and studies.

Indianapolis Journal.

As a lawyer, Congressman, statesman, and diplomat, he
made for himself a prominent place in American history.

Bloomington (111.) Paragraph.

His liberal education and manners, and his thorough
knowledge of foreign affairs, made him one of the most
capable ambassadors that ever represented our country
at a foreign court.

Toledo (Ohio) Blade.

His life was one of useful public service.

332 William Walter Phelps

Louisville Journal.

Mr. Phelps belonged rather to the early days of the
Republic than to this present era of half-made public
men. He was a scholar without affectation, and a pub-
licist and economist of extraordinary equipment. There
were men more noisily notable in public affairs than
William Walter Phelps, none of more sterling worth,
or of more commanding talents, or of purer life.
Mobile Register.

He was a rich man in whose hands riches became a
blessing to others.
Danville (Ky.) Advocate.

His contributions to the literature of political economy,
both on the floor of the House of Representatives and
through the public press, always commanded attention,
even from his political enemies.
Nashville American.

It may be truly said that honors were thrust upon him.
Charleston (S. C.) Courier.

A statesman in the true sense of the word.
Kansas City Star.

No accusation was ever made against him affecting his
personal integrity. He served his country faithfully at
home and abroad.
San Francisco Call.

He was an encyclopedia of information on all subjects.
. The life of Mr. Phelps is the best answer to the
assertion — which is often made in circles not well in-
formed — that in this country politics is so dirty a trade
that men of culture cannot engage in it.
San Francisco Chronicle.

The qualities of statesmanship so needed during a criti-
cal period in our history were possessed and exercised by
him in a marked degree.
Oregonian (Portland, Ore.).

He was manly and strong and a true friend to humanity.
Seattle (Wash.) Post-Intelligencer.

He was an able lawyer, and his talents and learning
made him the best Ambassador to Berlin we ever had.

His Life and Public Services 333

Schenectady (N. Y.) Union.

The more he learned of foreign government, the greater
he loved his country.
Auburn (N. Y.) Advertiser.

Mr. Phelps was a true-born American citizen. He
always had the interests of his nation at heart. His death
will be mourned by this nation and all other nations.
Elmira Advertiser.

Few men have attained more natural prominence in the
public service.
Troy Times.

His death is a State and a national loss.
Albany Journal.

He represented the best type of American manhood.
Syracuse Standard.

He had, among others, that splendid trait, a gift for
friendship.

Binghamton Republican.

We cannot have too many practical politicians of his
type.

Poughkeepsie Star.

Would that New Jersey and the country at large had
many more such men.

Albany Express.

There never was a fair fighter who failed to like William
Walter Phelps better after crossing swords with him.

Syracuse Herald.

He did what so few men ever do — made the most of the
capacities with which he was endowed and of the influences
placed in his hand.

Utica Observer.

In everything he was an enthusiast. His Republican-
ism was intense. His friendships were the same. So was
his patriotism. He loved his country devotedly.

Os'vrego Times.

He honored his country by his presence in her legisla-
tive halls, and by his services in her behalf in ministerial
circles abroad, as he also honored friendship.

334 William Walter Phelps

Troy Press.

His ties of friendship were always enduring.
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

He was one of the most useful public men of his time.
A man of noble aims and sterling patriotism.
Springfield (Mass.) Republican.

The respect of men came to him justly and in ample
measure.
Boston Advertiser.

A noble man. His memory will be an inspiration.

Portland (Me.) Advertiser.

A prominent and influential figure in the public affairs
of America.

Boston Globe.

Mr. Phelps was a natural orator and never liked to
make set speeches. Whenever he spoke in Congress it
was upon important matters and he was always listened
to with close attention.

Boston Herald.

Mr. Phelps belonged to that class of wealthy men in
this country who go into politics with a lofty purpose be-
fore them.

London (England) Star.

The news of the death of Mr. Phelps has caused great
regret in the diplomatic circles of London, where he is
remembered as a courteous and able United States Am-
bassador to European courts.

Mr. Dingley, in the Lewiston (Me.) Journal.

The writer, who was in Berlin in the winter of 1889-90,
bears witness to the influence there of Minister Phelps.
It is probably not too much to say that, since Benjamin
Franklin, this Government has been represented in Eu-
rope by no man so well adapted to represent a republic
to a monarchy as William Walter Phelps.

Eugene Field.

He was always strong to sustain the weak. Struggling
men received from him a helping hand, but his charities
were never on parade.

His Life and Public Services 335

Carl Schurz.

I never could think of him without the greatest esteem
for his brilliant gifts and the high qualities of his character,
and without a deep affection for the loveliness of his
nature.

Charles Emory Smith.

His talent for public life was of a rare and high order.
He had elements of real greatness. When he entered
Congress, he at once took high rank as a parliamentary
orator. His style was lucid, epigrammatic, and incisive.
He was sure in his grasp of principles, and his perceptions
were as quick as a woman's intuitions. Had he remained
a longer period in the House or gone to the Senate, he
would have had an enduring place as one of the foremost
parliamentary speakers of our days. His diplomatic life
was no less successful. He was eminently fitted for that
atmosphere.

Whitelaw Reid.

No man had more, or more widely cultured, or warmer
friends; and the whole country, in all sections, and in all
parties, will regret the loss of a public servant of distin-
guished ability, of the most transparent and courageous
integrity, and the most high-minded and generous public
spirit.

Murat Halstead.

Mr. Phelps has been before the country for more than
twenty years as a man of national reputation. The
country will honor him with long remembrance, enduring
affection, and sincere regrets. But one had to know him
well to estimate truly the generosity of his nature, the
geniality of his temper, the manliness of his intellect, and
the chivalry that was an inspiration in his brave and
beautiful life.

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

337

SOUND CURRENCY

Speech of Mr. Phelps, of New Jersey, in the House of Represen-
tatives, April I, 1874

[The House having under consideration the bill (H. R. No. 1572) en-
titled " An act to amend the several acts providing a national currency and
to establish free banking and for other purposes."]

Mr. Phelps said:

Mr. Speaker, we are bound to give the people of these
United States a sound currency. We are bound to give them
specie payments ; for only gold, or a credit based on gold, is
a sound currency. We are bound, whether we be Liberals, Re-
publicans, or Democrats, by express promise; we are bound
by the provisions of a law, the first ever signed by our Chief
Magistrate; we are bound by the oath we took as members of
this House to support the Constitution ; we are bound by the
conventions of Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Baltimore, which
pledged the three great parties to "speedy resumption "; we
are bound by the Act of March, i86g, which "solemnly pledged
the public faith to make provision at the earliest practicable
period for the redemption of the United States notes in coin" ;
we are bound by the Constitution, which was formed " to pro-
mote the general welfare." Can we better provide for the
general welfare than by giving to the people a uniform, stable
currency ?

For the general welfare, for the interests of other classes,
others may speak. Let me to-day speak for the interests of
labor — the labor of the farm and of the shop —

FOR THE POOR MAN

I believe, and I think I can show, that while the moral
evils resulting from a depreciated currency fall uniformly, the

33g

340 William Walter Phelps

material ill, the real suffering and loss, fall upon the laborer
and the farmer. The capitalist and merchant, in the resources
of varied exchanges and varied investments, may adjust and
shift the loss; the poor man receives it all. Wall Street, and
Beacon Street, and Chestnut Street may escape ; the farm and
the workshop, never. Therefore I urge to-day the resumption
of specie payments in the name of the farmer and mechanic.

I ask a sound currency for those whose ploughs rust in the
furrow; for those who darken the streets of Paterson with their
patient waitings.

I SPEAK FOR MY OWN PEOPLE

And let no man smile that I speak for those whose wants I best
know and most feel: I speakyi^r them, not to them. Shall I
tell them of sufferings they have felt? Shall I point them to the
silent forge, and spindle, and loom? They have lived and
moved among them all this dreary winter, as men can live and
move, even among the silent monuments of departed life.
They ask for a sound currency; as their representative, I ask
for it in their name. They have waited, they are still waiting,
with patience. So far, they have asked for bread, and their
Government has given them a stone; they have asked for
money, their Government has given them a rag.

Mr. Speaker, I could spend much time in proving financial
truths that were never disputed before this year of our Lord.
Why should I? Shall I put up a man of straw, to knock him
down? Shall I tell truths that the theory and experience of
the world have established? Could I write them better than
Smith, Ricardo, Say, Rice, and Bagehot? Can I speak them
better than Jefferson, and Benton, and Webster, and Clay?
If there is a man who believes there is any other basis for a
sound currency than gold, and who maintains that belief in
the face of the world's testimony and the world's experience,
I cannot convert him; I will not attempt it.

It seems to me that most of the confusion of thought and
expression that appears in this discussion is the result of in-
accuracy of terms. The words are used inaccurately. The
confusion is one, not in the subject, not in the mind that

His Life and Public Services 341

grasps it, but in the terminology. Give that strict definition
to terms, give that strict use of terms when defined, which
rules in other sciences, and all confusion must give way to
order and harmony. In the great process of exchange there
are two parts, two functions. For these two functions two
different instruments are needed. Let us give these different
instruments different names, and carefully maintain the dis-
tinction. What is money? It is the measure of value. It is
the instrument devised to transact the first step in an exchange.
It is the commodity used to estimate the relative value of other
commodities.

Before we can exchange commodities we must know what
is their real value. We must take a commodity of fixed value,
and, dividing it into units, make these represent the ratio which
other commodities bear to each other. This measure of value
is money.

THIS MEASURE OF VALUE IS GOLD

Why? Because gold has the mechanical qualities for such
a measure. It is divisible and indestructible. It has, too,
a universal and stable value. Now money must have value,
because it is used to measure value. If we wished to measure
the length of commodities, we would take a measure that had
length. Did we wish to measure weight, we would take as a
measure a commodity that had weight. So when we measure
values we must have a measure that has value. And gold is
the only article that has a universal and stable value. Uni-
versal, for here civilization and barbarism, the past and the
present, meet. Abraham counted shekels in the first recorded
bargain, and William exacted from France a coin subsidy.
The Pacific islander clamors for gold ; and for gold the poet
laureate of Great Britain sells his muse. "But," says an ob-
jector, ' 'have not other commodities a universal value? How
with wheat? Abraham gathered wheat before shekels. Glid-
den's mummy unfolded wheat mixed with gold, and your
islander sometimes says 'wheat' first, 'gold' afterward." All
of which is true. But the demand for wheat is finite, and
can be supplied. When supplied, the price falls, for there is
a glut. Not so with gold. The demand is infinite ; there can

342 William Walter Phelps

be no glut. It grows on what it feeds. The Incas, when their
eyes were dazzled with its ubiquitous sheen, schemed for it;
and our richest grangers — most virtuous of men — are still
Olivers, asking for more. And gold has a stable value; not
perfectly so (for I have heard of California and Australia),
but more stable than any other commodity. Hence for our
money, for our measure of value, we take gold.

But besides money we hear of currency. What is that?
Money was the measure of value.

WHAT IS CURRENCY ?

Currency is the medium of exchange. It is the instrument
that performs the second process in exchange. After money
has fixed the relative values of commodities, currency makes
the exchange. And what is currency? What does it consist
of?

Mainly of credit, — credit in one of its many forms, draft
and note, bill and check and account. So we have two dif-
ferent instruments, and two sets of names for them; one set is,
the measure of value — gold, money; the other is, the medium
of exchange — paper credit, currency.

And here is the only opportunity for mistake in keeping this
distinction. Money is the measure of value — is gold. Cur-
rency is the medium of exchange — is paper representing gold.
But as a principal can do what its representative can — money,
gold, can also discharge the second process of exchange, can
also be currency. It can perform the two functions. But
when money performs the second function, makes the ex-
change, it is currency. Hence a deal of confusion. From
this we escape by bearing always in mind that, while money is
currency, currency, except the small part which is gold, is not
money. And perhaps just here it is well to say that no bul-
lionist, no hard-money man, as far as I know, wants to use
gold for currency. We want to use gold for money, for the
measure of values. We want to use paper as currency, as the
medium of exchange. In other words, we think gold the best
measure of value; paper the best instrument of exchange, the
best currency. But it must be paper that represents value,

His Life and Public Services 343

that represents gold, and can be turned into it. Why, then,
are we dissatisfied with our present currency, which is paper?
For the reason that it is not real currency, it does not repre-
sent value. It was not born, it was made.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF A SOUND CURRENCY?

How does it get its birth? It is born in some transaction,
and represents some value, money or property, which the
transaction concerned. This is truest of the lowest and high-
est forms of credit. Take the earliest conception of currency.
It is in the very infancy of trade before money is yet used as
a measure of value. My friend has a skiff on the Hudson ; I
have a skiff on the Potomac. We wish to exchange. My
friend takes my skiff. He gives me a writing which empowers
the bearer to take his. This writing is

A DRAFT,

the simplest form of credit, the first piece of currency. And
in the market any man who wants the skiff, or knows the value
of it, will accept it as currency. This draft was born in a
transaction — the exchange of skiffs; and represents value —
property, the Hudson skiff, which exists to redeem it.

Take a step further in the development of currency. Money
is now used as a measure of value, and exchanges are to that
degree simplified. My friend this time wishes to buy my
house. We fix the price. He has no money, but I trust him.
He gives me a written promise to pay. Here is another form
of credit. I walk off with another kind of currency —

THE PROMISSORY NOTE

This note, too, was born in a transaction — the purchase and
sale of the house. And the note, too, represents property,
value ; for it represents the house which my friend owns, and
which still exists as a means of payment. If my friend, when
the note falls due, has the house, he can, by sale or mortgage,
pay it. But suppose my friend has sold the house before the
note falls due. If he sold it, he sold it for something — money

344 William Walter Phelps

or currency or property, — and he holds the money or draft or
property in place of the house and the representative of his
note, and ready for its redemption. Just as the skiff stood
behind the draft, the house stands behind the note.

But before my friend's note fell due, I needed a still higher
kind of currency, one capable of wider circulation. Strangers
refuse it ; so I go to my bank. The bank will discount if I
will take the bank's promise. The bank's promise passes as
money; so I take it. This time I go out with another form
of credit — another kind of currency —

THE BANK-NOTE

This bank-bill came into being in a transaction, and repre-
sents value — the house of my friend, which still stands ready
to furnish the money to pay the note, which pays the bank-bill.

So under natural laws currency in all forms comes into the
volume of circulation, as the result of transactions, as the
representative of value. Its volume, therefore, regulates
itself. There is as much as there are transactions, as there
are values, and no more

But there comes a

DISTURBING ELEMENT

The Government injects it into this natural stream fed by
the business of the country. Government issues its promises,
not as the representative of gold, not as the representative of
property, but as the representative of debt. Natural currency
comes as the representative of wealth — the Government cur-
rency as the representative of poverty.

Why, then, do not the laws of trade eject it, this foreign
element — this bastard currency? They would. Men would
refuse to take it. Nature would cure herself. But supreme
sovereignty interferes and forces it upon the people. The
people submit because they are law-abiding.

"But," says the friend of the greenback, "you argue as if
the Government gave away its currency. This is not true.
The Government received value for it." Certainly; the
Government received property for its notes; but the property

His Life and Public Services 345

was bought for consumption or destruction. The property
immediately upon its transfer ceased to exist as the means for
paying the notes. If I sold a citizen a cargo of grain and he
gave me his note for it, the cargo of grain in his hands, or
some one else's, exists as the means of paying it. If I sell the
cargo to the Government and take its note, the Government
takes the grain and distributes the grain amongst its soldiers,
and it is consumed, and no grain is left to pay the notes, nor
can it be sold to furnish other means of paying them. In the
case of the Government note the property perished, leaving
the note unprotected. In the case of the private note the
property remained to produce the means for payment. This
examination of the nature of credit, of the origin of currency,

SHOWS ITS prope:r limits

Credit can act beneficently till it reaches the consumer;
there it should stop. Bankers and merchants are simply agents
for the exchange of commodities, and as such they may safely
promise to pay with merchandise in existence, not for their
own consumption, but for sale; and thus they may conduct
their operations forever without failure, through the various
degrees of subdivision until the actual consumer is reached
through the retail dealer. Here the point is reached where
credit is most pernicious and should be avoided. The prom-
ises issued by the consumer, whether it be the Government or
the laborer, are not from their nature currency, and any effort
to force their circulation produces only confusion and loss.
But this is what our Government did when, in the stress of
war, it issued its promises against property, which it consumed
or destroyed. Hence came the greenback, fruitful source of
all our woes. This increased the currency beyond its natural
limits. It was in excess. There was more currency than
there was property for it to represent, and

THERE WAS A DEPRECIATION

Let me not waste time to chronicle the now familiar effects
of a depreciated and irredeemable currency. It is always in
excess. This excess stimulates extravagance and speculation.

346 William Walter Phelps

There is constant temptation to be rid of a currency whose
value is uncertain. Use it now, it is worth something; retain
it until to-morrow, it may be worth nothing. And so the spirit
of the gambler enters into the heart of the nation, and after
extravagance come speculation, crime, moral and material
ruin. To chronicle what of this moral and material ruin is
general, I do not pause. I pass this to show that the worst
evils of an unsound currency fall upon the poor.

The harm of wrong legislation in finance, as in taxation,
falls and rests at last upon them. As a direct consequence of
depreciated money, prices fluctuate, so the man who buys
cannot tell for what he will sell, or what his money will be
worth when he gets his pay. Against this uncertainty the rich
man who sells can insure himself by adding a percentage to
his price. The poor man who buys, buys to consume, not to
sell again, and pays this percentage out of his poverty. The
rich man adds to the price of his commodities the premium
on gold at each rise, and by continual exchanges adjusts or
shifts the loss. The poor man has but one thing to exchange
— his labor, — and does not know the hourly, daily, or weekly
rise of gold; and if he does, he cannot daily, hourly, weekly,
or even monthly add it to his wages. He cannot readily make
new contracts for his labor, and, unfortunately, it is the only
contract he can ever make. So the premium on gold reaches
his wages last of all.

Certainly, then, an

IRREDEEMABLE CURRENCY IS NOT FOR THE POOR MAN

If it is for the benefit of any, it is for the rich man and for the
speculator. The more rich the man, the more desperate the
speculator; the more easily he avoids the losses, the more cer-
tainly he profits by the fluctuations. Increase the number and
variety of transactions, and you increase the opportunities to
adjust or shift the burdens of a fluctuating currency. The
poor man, who has nothing to sell but his labor, and who has
everything to buy — lodging, food, clothing, — finds his labor
receiving only the premium on gold. This is bad for him at
one end, and it is equally bad at the other; for, for his sup-
port, he pays, in each case, something beyond the premium.

His Life and Public Services 347

And this brings us to the general principle, that the premium
on gold does not accurately measure the advance of prices,
except in those articles that we export. In all other articles,
prices rise beyond the gold premium, and this rise is due to
the percentage added on each exchange, to insure the seller
against subsequent depreciation of the money in which he
shall be paid.

Naturally the increase in price will be least in those com-
modities which pass directly from producer to consumer, and
greatest in those which are subjected to most frequent trans-
fers. When Mr. Low buys his tea in China, he pays for it in
gold. The Chinese as yet are not intelligent enough to accept
"the best currency the world ever saw." When the tea is in
his warehouse, — freight, duties, and exchange all paid, — he
fixes the price. He adds to cost the usual percentage of profit
and the premium on gold; but he does not stop here. He
sells on time, and before the time expires gold may rise 2 or 3
per cent. He does not think it will rise so much ; but it may,
and, as he sees no propriety in running any risk, he adds 3 per
cent, and the jobber gets Mr. Low's tea into Chicago at a cost
of 3 per cent, above the premium on gold, and when my friend
from Kansas stopped over last November and bought his
family chests to send to Wyandotte, the Chicago merchant
said: "This M. C. will not remit before the 5th of next month;
by that time some more of the $44,000,000 will be out, and the
premium on gold, instead of being 6, as it is now, may be 10
or 12 ; I will add 5 per cent, to guard against loss." So when
this tea reaches the little grangers at Wyandotte, though gold
is up only 10 per cent., tea is up 18 per cent.; 3 per cent,
added by the New York importer, and 5 per cent, added by
the Chicago jobber. So in any article, especially manufac-
tured articles, where the materials have passed through many
hands, we shall have the price naturally raised far above the
gold premium.

And this is

WHY THE FARMER, THE WESTERN FARMER, SUFFERS

more from a depreciated currency than any one else, except
the poor man who has only his own labor to sell. Why?

348 William Walter Phelps

Because the western farmer gets for his produce only the price
of the foreign market. They raise and sell cotton, pork, beef,
corn, wheat, cheese. The price of these in New York is
always the price in Liverpool, less the price of transportation.
It must be so. If the price in Liverpool were more, we should
export, or raise the home price. If the price in Liverpool
were less, we should cease to carry produce there and the sur-
plus accumulating in New York would force the New York
price down to the Liverpool level. This is the theory, and
this is the fact, that Liverpool fixes the price of our farm pro-
ducts. "But," say the friends of an irredeemable currency,
"the farmer gets his price in gold and he gets the benefit of
the premium; how, then, is he hurt? " He is hurt because
the depreciation of our currency does not measure the increase
in the prices of the commodities he buys. Say gold is no;
say lo marks the depreciation of our dollar, and the farmer
gets a gold dollar and changes it intofi.io, will his fi.io buy
what it once did? No; rent, clothing, food, tools, horses, tea,
coffee, all have advanced beyond the gold premium, and we
have seen the reason. Each dealer added a percentage to
guard against the loss of an uncertain currency.
And what is the

RESULT TO THE FARMER ?

He gets for his produce, in paper money, what he got before
the war, plus the premium on gold; but everything he buys
he buys at an advance greater than the premium. Wheat in
Chicago before the war was $i.io per bushel, good sugar 9
cents per pound. Now, in the same market, wheat brings
$1.25 and the same sugar iij^ cents. The price of the wheat
shows the premium of gold, the price of the sugar shows the
premium of gold plus an advance of 12 per cent. The im-
porter and jobber have not only charged the premium on gold
to the consumer, they have also taken from him an extravagant
rate for shielding them from further loss. So here the fluctu-
ating currency was a source of wealth to the rich trader, a
source of poverty to the farmer and consumer. All the manu-
facturers and merchants have made themselves their own
insurers. They have charged the premiums, which they

His Life and Public Services 349

themselves fixed, and the laborer and farmer have had to pay
them.

It is not the worst of the farmer's case that his bushel of
wheat shall not bring him as much sugar, as many books, as
before. It costs him, alas ! more to grow it. He pays more
for land, for service, for tools, for horses — more than before.

And yet the perpetuation of a financial system which robs
the laborer and the farmer to fill the coffers of the merchant
and the speculator is a policy urged by those who pretend to
be the enemies of the rich and the friends of the poor.

In the name, then, of the laborer who consumes, and the
farmer who produces, whose welfare is the welfare of the
country, and whose welfare is sapped by a dishonest currency,
give us a currency which has gold for its basis. This much at
least we can do. We cannot do all; we cannot cure

ALL THE EVILS OF THE FINANCIAL WORLD

Men will still fail; panics will still blast; Indianapolis will still
want money; corn raised too far from market will still warm
the disappointed husbandman; railroad robbers will again
drive their four-in-hands; the wicked will flourish; the good
will pine ; Lazarus will lie outside ; Dives will feast inside — in
a word, man will still be human whatever currency triumphs.
But with a redeemable currency we can make fewer the fail-
ures, fewer the panics, fewer the Lazaruses, fewer the Diveses,
less the suffering, less the vice. Yes, I admit with it — even
with an honest currency —

WE SHALL STILL HAVE PANICS

A world which does its business on a credit basis cannot escape
them; and this basis is one which grows wider as the world
grows older.

The demands on credit must increase; for the world does
not contain money enough to effect its business, and credit in
one of its multiform shapes must continue to be the principal
instrument of exchange. Only in rude barbarism does money
discharge all the functions of exchange; and as civilization

350 William Walter Phelps

increases the business of the world, credit by bill, by note, by
check, by book account, is forced into greater exercise.

How large a part credit plays in the business of our own
country let the accomplished gentleman from Ohio tell, who
long ago, by careful investigation, obtained and recorded the ,
figures. From him we learn that that part of the currency,
which is money, really so or legalized — in other words, the legal-
tender of a nation, — bears an insignificant ratio in the grand
total of exchanges. He found that the history of the

CLEARING-HOUSE ASSOCIATION

of the New York banks showed that an average of 4 per cent,
in legal money was employed. In an existence of seventeen
years, the association had made exchanges amounting to $273,-
661,000,000, and used $11,207,000,000.

IN THE REDEMPTION BANKS

he found the percentage 12. i per cent. In six business days
these banks effected exchanges of $154,959,665, and used
$18,770,708.

IN CERTAIN COUNTRY BANKS

fairly selected from different States and Territories as having
transactions nearest to the farming population, where credit is
less generally used, he found the percentage 28 of money to
100 of receipts. The receipts for six days were $2,102,488,
the legal money $599,328.

This was the humble part played by legal money in our own
bank exchanges. What the exact percentage is in the sections
without banking facilities it would be difficult to say. There
it varies and in different nations it varies; but it is always
small. In London, Bagehot assumes the ratio of legal-tender
to total circulation is 3 per cent. In New York, as a whole,
it is properly assumed at 5 per cent. In other words, out of
transactions involving $100,000,000, not more than $5,000,000
of coin, greenbacks, and bank-notes are used. At least ninety-
five out of every one hundred millions is paid by checks, drafts,

His Life and Public Services 351

bills, and the like. And small as this ratio is, as a more ad-
vanced civilization forces new inventions to add to the many
forms credit can assume, the future will probably see that that
part of the currency which is money, will, as the years go by,
bear a smaller and smaller ratio to the whole amount of com-
mercial transactions.

Try to realize this — the extent to which our people carry on
their transactions on mere promises to pay, their commerce,
their manufactures, their trade, all their industries, with money
to pay for only fifteen one-hundredths of their business. And
yet this vast system of credit stands the strain, this complicate
industry goes on for years, until its delicate support is broken.
That support is trust: the trust my friend has that his bank
will pay his check ; the trust I have that my friends debited
in my ledger for money loaned will pay when I ask them.
This enables the bank-check and the book credit, or any cur-
rency, to take the place of money.

When this support is broken, when citizens begin to doubt
the solvency of banks and bankers, and neighbors the solvency
of each other,

THEN COMES A PANIC —

the child of distrust — and all, refusing every form of credit,
note, or draft, or bill, or check, demand money. Currency is
valueless; the delicate machinery of credit which the ages
have perfected ceases to work, and man, in the frenzy of dis-
trust, remitted to his original barbarism, will take only gold.
Until the panic is hopeless, if law interferes, they will obey it,
and take the legal money, which the law enforces. If the
panic is hopeless, the creditor, doubting the ultimate solvency
even of the Government, refuses its legal-tender, and peace
comes only in the utter ruin of bankruptcy. The trouble is
the people have asked fifteen miUions of legalized money to
do the work of one hundred millions, and it cannot.

This shows the cause of panics — the possibility in the human
heart suddenly to lose its normal trust in its kind. And the
human heart is the same and will act to the same causes,
whether the legal money is gold or whether it is paper. We
shall be liable to panics always ; for we can never make the

352 William Walter Phelps

exchanges of our present civilization for money, but must
always use credit mainly. And when we use credit, and the
human heart remains as it is, we are always subject to the in-
cursion of that distrust which will suddenly palsy the activity
of currency, and panic will reign. All we claim is that the
liability to this incursion of distrust, this panic, is naturally
greater under an irredeemable currency. The evils of an
irredeemable currency, to which I have already alluded, tend
strongly to produce it, tend strongly to aggravate and perpetu-
ate it when produced. The reign of paper money gives us
speculation and extravagance. Both use up money rapidly,
extravagance consumes, speculation wastes it, or buries it in
unprofitable investment. This twofold drain is felt, and a
people whose morale has been sapped by an artificial prosperity
are forced to look about them. They recognize and exagger-
ate consequences which they have no courage to endure; and
in speedy loss of hope and faith they rush to save all that to
them has worth — money. And the loss of trust, which leads
men temporarily to despise credit and seek only gold, is panic.
Paper money has produced it; paper money will aggravate it.
Had we a redeemable currency, a currency that the solvent
world has, the insane want of money would be met. The gold
of a thrifty population, ever looking for the most profitable
market, would come to our relief. The profits offered would
overcome all obstacles and drain the world, were it necessary.
But it is not. It is an unreasoning panic. The arrival of a
little gold, the news of it on a westering ship, breaks the spell,

AND CONFIDENCE REIGNS AGAIN

Where we have a national currency of our own — the best in
the world — there is no such remedy, no such cure. The
national issue, if it has any value, has a limit. The people
know that limit, know that the limit fixed for a normal condi-
tion of the market is inadequate now. And if it has no limit,
the most ignorant know it is worthless, its legality fails to give
it currency, and the national issue disappears with the Con-
tinental scrip, the French assignat, the Texas red-back, the
South American shin-plaster.

His Life and Public Services 353

Specie payments will not prevent panics, but they will retard
and cure them.

And here, too, is the folly of an argument based on a sup-
position that governments can tell how much legal money is
needed for a nation's wants. The per capita theory is a vain
one; for the amount shifts from day to day, from market to
market. In normal condition, New York needs five millions
of legal money to do the work of one hundred millions; in
times of panic, New York needs one hundred millions of legal
money to do the work of one hundred millions. What amount
shall the anxious legislator manufacture for New York's wants?
Shall he make it one hundred millions? Then it will take two
dollars to buy a ten-penny loaf when there is no panic. Shall
he make it five millions? If the panic continues he can buy
his ten-penny loaf for half a cent. I would counsel the anxious
legislator under these circumstances to hold off, and let God
and nature take care of man's wants.

Without further discussion let us assume :

1. That gold is the only basis of a sound currency.

2. That paper redeemable in gold is the best currency.

3. That currency must always perform the larger part of the
world's exchanges.

4. That currency is that form of credit which gets its birth
in business transactions, and represents an existing value —
either gold or property.

5. That currency, untrammelled by governmental interfer-
ence, regulates its own volume.

6. That governmental credit, not representing gold in the
Treasury, not issued against property in existence, but against
property consumed or destroyed, is a bastard currency; and,
as a foreign and superfluous element, depreciates the currency
of the people.

7. That a depreciated currency inflicts moral ill upon all
classes, but throws the material loss and suffering mainly on
the farmer and laborer.

8. That a depreciated currency tends to create and aggravate
panics.

9. That it is our duty to legislate in the direction of specie

payments.
23

354 William Walter Phelps

Now we come to the

BILL OF THE COMMITTEE

I break no confidence in saying it is the bill of no member — it
is literally the bill of the committee — the result of conflicting
views. A part of its provisions I like, a part I do not. But
I am willing, as a whole, to take it. I believe there is more
good in it than harm. It points and moves in the direction of
specie payment. That is something. It tells the people we
mean to be honest, when we can afford it; that we will make
no more forced loans — issue no more greenbacks; but will by
degrees redeem them all. Perhaps, after all, it is not safe to
go faster.

But with so strong a motive I would dare the risk of proclaim-
ing resumption as the chief glory of our Centennial; relying
upon our ability to borrow sufficient gold by the sale of our
bonds. It would be the brightest star in Philadelphia's galaxy.
I believe that gold enough, without panic, could be obtained in
the European market to answer the demands of a graduated
resumption, which should be complete on the Fourth of July
1876. The sufferings, in my opinion, occasioned by such re-
sumption would be slight compared with those following a
depreciated currency.

But in this opinion a majority of my colleagues of the com-
mittee do not share, and the result is the

COMPROMISE OF THE EIGHTH SECTION

which provides for the gradual reduction of the amount of
legal-tender. That method was selected as the one involving
the least distress. The contraction is gradual and slow. At
the beginning the currency is not contracted at all. The
quantity of national notes is not changed. A portion of them
are changed in quality, are of a higher value; but this value
is not for some time appreciable, and to the end they can be
used as legal-tender. For the two millions each month with-
drawn, two milHons are immediately substituted. These two
minions discharge all the functions of the original greenback,

His Life and Public Services 355

although they have the further merit of carrying the promise
of repayment in gold at a definite time.

We have, therefore, until two years have elapsed, still four
hundred millions of promises out; but of these promises two
millions monthly are assuming a definite and respectable char-
acter. For two years, then, there can be no contraction of
the volume. But will not the gold greenback be hoarded?
Yes, by the banks, who, being forced to keep a reserve in
greenbacks, will release their paper greenbacks, and use these
instead. The banks need one hundred and forty millions for
their reserve, so that the banks will furnish a depository for
more than the fifty millions which can be issued for two years.
After two years there will be contraction by the amount of two
millions for each month. In the meantime, should private
citizens compete with the banks for the gold greenback, which
is scarcely probable until the reserve of the banks is supplied,
the gold greenbacks in private hands furnish a slight elasticity
to the currency which may have its use.

THE GOLD GREENBACK

at the issue is worth scarcely more than the paper greenback;
but as it approaches the time of payment increases rapidly in
value, so that the tendency constantly increases to withdraw
it from circulation. But, as it is still money, a great demand
for money increasing its rate would force it into market again.

Let us not forget, in examining this method, that the action
taken is final and cannot, by indirection, be repealed by the
Government. The dishonored and indefinite promises that
have been withdrawn are cancelled, never to be reissued. In
their place are promises so explicit and definite that no Con-
gress would dare to break them. Two millions of irredeem-
able paper is destroyed each month, and cannot, except by
direct act of sovereignty, be re-created.

It should not be unnoticed in considering the value of this
measure that

IT IS A SIMPLE MEASURE

free from subtlety and complication ; one within the compre-
hension of the plain citizen. This is as it should be. If

35^ William Walter Phelps

Government will meddle with that which it should leave alone,
at least let this interference be such as the people can under-
stand and intelligently conform to.

This is an easy measure, and alas! a slow measure of
resumption.

If we offered no quicker results we were bound to make
provisions which should guard the long interim as far as pos-
sible from the evils of our depreciated currency. It was not,
therefore, sufificient for this committee to offer only a method
of resumption which in many years would bring this country to
specie payments. It was necessary that they should also pro-
vide what safeguards could be devised against the recurrence
of panics in the meantime.

We have seen that the natural tendency of a depreciated
currency is to lead indirectly to the destruction of that trust
which is the foundation of all currency. We have seen that
this destruction of trust is the occasion of panic. In the ab-
sence of trust, in the temporary destruction of currency, only
money is prized. In countries where the currency is normal,
the duration of panics is stopped, by attracting to the points
of stringency, by the offer of large interest, the money of the
world. Here is an analogy which should guide us in the
organization and management of the artificial currency which
we have created.

When, under our system, this lack of trust destroys the
functions of currency, and a frightened people refuse to accept
aught else than the substitute the law forces upon them, if the
amount of money is limited, from what source can the panic
get its relief? It cannot fall back upon the markets of the
world. The world, unfortunately, has not its best currency.

What is wanted, is that elasticity which the laws of trade
supply in those countries which enjoy the currency of the
world. In what way can an artificial elasticity be established
which shall measurably supply this want? There seems to be
no other than

THAT PLAN OF FREE BANKING

which the bill embodies. Government cannot supply it. How
can the Government bank? On what? Could it issue, it

His Life and Public Services 357

would be an unnatural currency. It would pass only under
the compulsion of law. But the circulation of the bank would
be regulated by demand, and would represent and be backed
by the capital of the bank or other property. This is, of
course, only true of a bank that expects to redeem.

Banking without such expectation would tempt the banks to
use, in other forms, their capital and to preserve none of it in
a shape ready for the redemption of its notes. Having put
out their notes, without fear of redemption, the capital which
represented these notes, and the property in exchange for
which they issued them, would be by them placed in perma-
nent investments, out of their reach for purposes of redemption,
practically destroyed. Then the bank-note would cease to
be legitimate currency. Like the Government note, it be-
comes the representative of poverty, not of wealth — of that
consumed, not that existing — and would be only an additional,
foreign, and dangerous element in the circulation.

But if the

BANKS ARE FORCED TO REDEEM

they are forced to maintain within their control the values
which their notes represented, and their notes, therefore, re-
main a sound and healthy currency. The health of free
banking depends entirely upon redemption. Were the banks
required to redeem in gold, there could be no doubt of the
wisdom of removing any restrictions upon the volume of their
issue; but in our case Government has interfered with the
laws of trade and redemption may be made in legalized rather
than real money.

Under these conditions redemption is an experiment.
Whether the legal tender, itself a piece of paper, can be made
so superior to the bank-note that the holder of the bank-note
will prefer to exchange it for the legal tender, is yet a problem
to be solved. To insure the success of the experiment, all
artificial means of increasing the value of the legal tender
should be adopted. The bill of the committee finds the legal
tender now superior to the bank-note, mainly in the fact that
the legal tender is the bank's reserve. This insures the co-
operation of the banks. They will force redemption as far as

358 William Walter Phelps

their influence reaches. Is their influence sufficient to regu-
late the whole issue? I am of opinion that it is; that whether
the citizen prefers the national note to the bank-note or not, if
the banks do, a safe and practical redemption is secured. The
danger of a fixed volume of such currency as passes for money,
in view of the probability of panics, is such that the prudent
mind may well choose the risk of practical redemption. There
is danger of less suffering from an excessive issue of bank-
notes which are not sent home for redemption, than there is
from the devastations of a panic, which would be aggravated
by a limited issue. Even without the restraints of redemption
there is little danger of an excessive issue. The profits of the
banking system are no longer great. The purchase of the
bonds requires much money. The $56,000,000 issued in 1870
has but just been distributed. Under these circumstances the
risk cannot be great.

We could afford to run a greate rrisk simply to check that
cry of "monopoly," which will be urged loudly and with
reason as long as a restriction which has let in certain citizens
excludes others from the profits of the banking business.

NOTICE THE LAST PROVISION

It practically directs that we shall not use our gold to buy
bonds; that we will pay, or save our gold to pay, obligations
that are due, before we anticipate the payment of obligations
not due. This is simple business thrift and honesty. Our
gold can still be used for the expenses of Government when
needed. With this drain upon the Treasury and the dimin-
ished income of the Government, gentlemen who deal in gold
need have no fear that the accumulations will be much beyond
the necessities of the monthly payments. I fear they may fall
short. In that case the deficiency must be met by a sale of
bonds or increased taxation. Against such deficiency the
Ways and Means Committee of another Congress may need to
report. But the sale of a few bonds, or a tax upon tea and
coffee, is better than forever to continue the disgrace of an
irredeemable currency.

Another objection is, the gold greenback makes another kind
of currency. That is an objection; but both kinds perform

His Life and Public Services 359

the same functions, and, if in circulation, must pass at the
same value.

THE LAST OBJECTION

is, — gradual as the process is, it is a process ultimately of con-
traction, and must entail some suffering. This is true. It is
idle to disguise it. We can regain specie payments only at a
cost. But it is worth the cost. The people are ready to bear
the pain; they clamor for the knife that shall save them.
Shall we lack the courage to apply it to a willing patient? It
needs only the determination, the start. Begin to rid us of a
depreciated currency that stops our trade, saps our morals,
and makes the rich richer, the poor poorer. Begin to give us
a sound currency, the dollar of the fathers, the dollars of the
world. We freed the slave ; we saved the Union ; we will pay
our debts.

Mr. Farwell. — I desire to ask my friend from New Jersey
a question. He announces that he speaks in behalf of the
poor laborer of his State and of other States, who, he says, has
suffered and is suffering on account of this depreciated cur-
rency. The question I desire to ask him is this : Whether the
advanced price of labor is not four times greater than the
present premium on gold?

Mr. Phelps. — My answer to that would be, first, to deny
the premises. I do not think "the price of labor is four times
greater than the present premium on gold. ' ' If my friend is
correct in supposing that labor has increased fourfold beyond
the premium on gold, I make this reply: Much more certainly
than he can show the price of labor has increased four times
beyond the premium of gold, I can show the price of living
has increased six times. Grant that the laborer gets 40 per
cent, more than he once did, it costs him 60 per cent, more to
live than then. And my answer to him now, which has been
categorical, does not include the moral influences of a de-
preciated currency, which ultimately stops manufactures, ulti-
mately stops trade, and so tends to deprive the laborer of all
wages.

What is the result? A depreciated currency slowly raises
the wages of the laborer; but at last the bubble bursts.

36o William Walter Phelps

Laborers instead of obtaining advanced wages cannot obtain
wages at all. And if the gentleman wants to know whether
the laborer with our depreciated currency gets an increase of
wages four times greater than the premium on gold, let him
go to Paterson and ask those five thousand mechanics who do
not get any wages at all.

AGAINST THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE

Speeches in the House of Representatives, February 24. and 25, 1874

Mr. Phelps said :

Mr. Speaker, I shall oppose the bill introduced by the
committee. I shall oppose the amendment suggested in
his speech by the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Tyner];
I shall oppose the substitute which will be offered at the
proper time by my friend from Iowa [Mr. Kasson]. In a
word, I shall oppose, with all due respect to those who differ
from me in opinion, every bill, every amendment, every sub-
stitute, which proposes in whole or in part, directly or in-
directly, to re-enact the franking privilege. I believe that a
privilege for the few is an injustice to the many, and I for one
shall try to give privileges to none, equal rights to all.

My opposition to this bill in the first instance, Mr. Speaker,
is on the ground of that economy which we praise so much,
which we practise so little. And if it is not presumptuous to
criticise, let me say that in my opinion the record of this
House in that regard has been singularly illogical and unsatis-
factory; and when I remember that we are what my friend
from Massachusetts [Mr. G. F. Hoar] so appropriately called
us a few days ago in a moment of great excitement; when I
remember that in his words we are a "body of intelligent
statesmen," I submit, Mr. Speaker, our record is puzzling and
unsatisfactory.

What is that record? We came here fresh from the people,
eager to win reputation for ourselves, and to save the Com-
monwealth. What did we do? We began to speak; you
spoke, Mr. Speaker; I spoke; and every man who got the
floor spoke — for what? To demonstrate to the people our

His Life and Public Services 361

willingness to sacrifice even our own salaries. We wasted ten
days in talk, and when an end came, when we were all tired,
when we were all hungry, when we were all sleepy, my inde-
fatigable friend from Maine [Mr. Hale] insisted we should
stay here late into the evening that he might read us a lecture
on the selfish extravagance which would cut down our salaries
to only $6000 instead of $5500, — a sum which he had recom-
mended and more than once urged us to adopt. And the
father of the House [Mr. Dawes], rising to the height of the
great subject, in a voice whose sepulchral warning yet Hngers
in my ear, assured us again and again that he could bide his
time — he could bide his time.

I went home that night distressed that I could not look
upon this matter of $500 as one of such stupendous import-
ance. But, sir, at the same time it entered my heart to think
that under leaders so zealous the Republic could never take
any detriment. But, mark you, the very next morning, or the
next morning but one, my friend upon my right, the gentleman
from Iowa [Mr. Donnan], the chairman of the Committee on
Printing, modestly stepped to the front, and in this same
House and before the same earnest economists proposed a
bill — for what? To print for gratuitous distribution two hun-
dred and fifty thousand copies of the Agricultural Report;
not two hundred and fifty; not twenty-five hundred; not
twenty-five thousand; but two hundred and fifty thousand
copies, of the Agricultural Report. How I admired the
audacity of my friend from Iowa ! How I pitied his fate ! If
there had been such protests and speeches for a poor $500,
what would be the fate of a man who dared to come before
this House and propose that we should throw $500,000 into
the rag-bags and barber-shops of the nation?

Mr. Speaker, my indefatigable friend from Maine never
once took the floor upon that question; the father of the
House refused utterly to prophesy, and the bill of my friend
from Iowa went through almost without objection, certainly
without discussion. And then day after day followed, and
bill after bill was introduced, and the session began to grow
old. Was there a man of us who got the floor who did not
cry out for economy? Was there a man of us able to find

362 William Walter Phelps

that particular measure on which he was willing to practise
it?

By and by there came an occasion, and the brave and elo-
quent gentleman before me [Mr. Woodford] seized it. He
offered the House an opportunity to reform and improve its
record. He rose up very boldly — very unfortunately as the
issue showed — and clearly placed the issue before the House.
Does the House wish to discuss the finances of the nation, or
does it wish to discuss its garden-seeds? And after full con-
sideration the House, by one of the most unanimous votes I
have witnessed this session, declared that as for them they
would provide first for the distribution of garden-seeds, and
after that for the distribution of the currency. When I sought
the explanation of this seemingly inexplicable decision, what
was it? The reply which I never hear upon this floor, but
which I hear in my seat or whispered in the lobby, "It was
the grangers"; that the grangers had called the attention of
their Representatives to the fact that spring had come and the
earth was waiting for its seeds, and there could be no further
delay.

And so we get a bill before us which I say, in perfect sin-
cerity, revives the franking privilege. I say it explicitly and
boldly, this bill of the committee gives the member every right
he had before except one. We cannot write our autograph
letters and frank them. Wonderful restriction! We may
frank documents that weigh one hundred pounds; we cannot
frank a half-ounce letter. The gentlemen of the committee
take from us the only privilege that is desirable and not sub-
ject to abuse. Who will write letters enough to burden the
mails? Does the committee know how hard it is for members
to write? Does it know how hard it is for constituents to
read? The abuse lies elsewhere.

What was the abuse of the franking privilege which was
complained of? Was it not the free transmission of heavy
material, masses of binding and printing which we crammed
into the mails of the country, to the damage and delay of the
business and social correspondence of the people? And it is
this heavy material that the bill proposes to frank — public
documents, books, periodicals, seeds, roots, plants, scions,

His Life and Public Services 363

everything else that is worthless and heavy. The committee
in preparing this bill have revived the old abuse. They have
taken the poor old castaway of the Forty-second Congress;
they have given him a silk hat, and have dyed his mustache.
But he is the same old original Jacobs still.

Why not be fair; why not be frank; and come out and say:
"Behold the old bill; we have rebaptized it; but only —

Keep the word of promise to our ear.
And break it to our hope " ?

I think it was my friend from Missouri [Mr. Buckner] who
said that the abuse of the franking privilege was that members
of this House and members of the Senate used it dishonestly.
Mr. Speaker, judging others by myself, no one can think more
poorly of this House than I, and yet I am perfectly convinced
that neither in this House nor in the other are there to be found
men who would dishonestly use a privilege like this. The
statement is false on the face of it. Am I to believe with my
friend from Missouri [Mr. Buckner] that any of these mem-
bers now gathering round me — members who represent intel-
ligent constituencies — any in this "collection of intelligent
statesmen" would use his frank to send his dirty linen home
to the wash? Sir, the idea is preposterous. A member who
would use his frank to send his soiled linen to his washer-
woman would never have any. And if there is any one who
supposes that any Senator at the other end of the Capitol is
about to frank home his furniture, when the people have no
longer need of his services here, he must suppose that Senator
a blockhead. No ; the only abuse of the franking privilege is
that which we propose to revive ; that is, to load the mail with
a mass of heavy material which does not pay its way.

What is urged in favor of this proposition? We are told that
it is our bounden duty — my friend from Wisconsin [Mr.
Hazleton] puts it the shortest — to provide the people with
information. Now I will admit that my friend needs informa-
tion; I think the people need information. But the people
need other things — many more than we can supply. The
people heed warmth, cleanliness, virtue. But no one here

364 William Walter Phelps

comes forward and proposes a free distribution of fires, of
baths, or of Bibles.

The people need something else. And just here for once
the sentiments of him who dwelleth in cities and him who
dwelleth on the prairies, of him who lives in the East, and of
him who lives in the West, of him who lives in the North, and
of him who lives in the South, agree. Here is the one great
want of the country. Why, Mr. Speaker [Mr. Monroe in the
chair], did you ever meet one of your friends who was from
the noble West who did not tell you that the noble West
needed money? Did you ever meet any one from the sunny
South who did not tell you that the sunny South needed
money? And I am willing frankly to confess, in the presence
of this "collection of intelligent statesmen," that my own State
of New Jersey needs money. More; I have the best of
evidence, to come nearer home, that in my own district there
is scarcely a man, woman, or child who does not need money.
And yet I do not propose, nor do you propose, neither does
this committee propose, to distribute to your people or to my
people the free bath, or the free fire, or the free Bible, or the
free greenback.

Now, my friend from Illinois [Mr. Cannon] who addressed
you three or four days ago, with an eloquence that was un-
tutored but very effective, whose imagination flashed along the
iron network of his logic in a way that fairly astonished the
House, spoke of a great many things that filled me with won-
der and amazement. He spoke of the hayseed in his hair,
and under the magic touch of his voice that hayseed glowed
around his head like the halo of the martyrs; and when he
spoke of the oats in his throat, it was with such a force and
such eloquence that I knew he felt them ; and to all of this I
had not the slightest objection. I listened and wondered; I
gazed and admired until he came to praise his country folk at
the expense of mine. This I would not stand. He represents
a country constituency, just as I do. He has no large cities
in his district, just as I have none. And he had no business
to boast of the intelligence of his farmers on the prairies, just
as if there were no intelligent farmers in New Jersey. How
he boasted of their literary taste ! And when he began to tell

His Life and Public Services 365

us all that his farmers sent him letters to ask for books, I
wanted then and there to rise up and say: "I represent farm-
ers ; they write to me for books ; day after day I get similar
letters from my constituents. They are wonderful letters,
and sometimes the energy of their petition is such that it defies
Noah Webster and Lindley Murray. They never fail to make
the proviso that I should pay the postage. ' '

Sir, I do not believe that among the letters from his prairie
constituents, of which he speaks so bravely, he can find one
that asks him for the history of the silurian period, or the
crustacean formation, or the isothermal theory. It takes the
Jersey farmer to ask for such ! I appeal to the House, shall
he boast over the intelligent requests of his farmers because
they live on the prairies, and I be tongue-tied here and not
suffered to speak of the intelligence of my farmers who live on
the banks of the Passaic, the Hackensack, and the Hudson?

But, Mr. Speaker, I have concealed part of the truth. For
every letter which I receive asking for the silurian period, or
the crustacean formation, or the isothermal theory, I receive
two letters which prefer a different request. For every letter
asking for a public document, a Patent-Office Report, or even
an Agricultural Report, I get a letter politely and kindly ask-
ing the loan of five dollars. Now, I ask if we are to furnish
all our constituents with all they want — with their heat, with
their information, with their cleanhness, with their virtue —
must we not also furnish them with money? Yet I do not
hear one single member, even if he represents a grange, who
stands upon this floor to ask that, in addition to the Agricul-
tural Report and the isothermal theory, we shall also by free
distribution send five dollars to each of our constituents.
And yet would not the five dollars help more than the Agricul-
tural Report in our elections next fall?

But my friend from Illinois is confident that the people at
large want these documents. Now, Mr. Speaker, far be it
from me to run against the people. I have great respect for
them in view of the fact that an election occurs so soon. But
let us be sure first as to what the people want. My friend
from lUinois himself aided to show that the people do not want
the franking privilege and do not want the public documents

366 William Walter Phelps

at the cost of taxation. He very properly ruled out from the
discussion all the disreputable members of the community.
He said, and said truly, that the railways do not want the
crustacean formation or the isothermal theory or the Agricul-
tural Report. I do not think they do ; and I do not want to
give it to them. I think the railways have no rights that we
on this floor are bound to recognize except the right to be
taxed and to carry the people for less than cost. If they
wanted the public documents, we would not listen to their cry.
Fortunate railways, that they do not! Neither, he says, do
the express companies — another disreputable portion of so-
ciety, useless and contemptible. They do not want public
documents, and it is well they do not ; for they could not have
them. They have no rights which we are bound to respect
except the right to suffer taxation and receive abuse.

And so he went through the list to banks and manufactories.
But when he had covered the whole class of disreputable peo-
ple who do not want the public documents, why did he stop?
Ah, Mr. Speaker, there was an important omission in this
catalogue which was supplied by my friend from Iowa [Mr.
Kasson]. As I read the signs of the times, a majority of the
people who dwell under the protection of these United States
vote the RepubHcan ticket. They voted it two years ago;
they voted it last fall. Why did my friend from Illinois forget,
until the gentleman from Iowa told him, that the Republican
party do not want the franking privilege; that the last time
they had an opportunity to speak they said in words as explicit
as words could make the declaration, that they would abolish
the franking privilege? My friend from Illinois had over-
looked or forgotten the Republican party. Where then, in the
name of common-sense, are the people who do want the frank-
ing privilege? When I pause for a reply I get it: "The
grangers want it"; and inasmuch as the grangers, so far as I
can judge, want everything, let us admit that they want these
public documents. . . .

Mr. Speaker, I find that in discussing this franking privilege
I have got into the printing-house; and that, as my friend
from Wisconsin [Mr. Hazleton] said, is the real issue. This
is our best argument. If you revive the franking privilege you

His Life and Public Services 367

revive all the abuses of the public printing ; and a blow aimed
at the franking privilege is a blow aimed at the printing-house.
May blows fall so many, so heavy, that this country may be
saved the wasteful expenditure which proceeds from that
source! Who would regret the fall of the Printing Bureau?
Who really wants these public documents? Does it never
occur to our friends that the inexorable laws of trade — those
which even a paternal government cannot always successfully
interfere with — show that the people do not want them? There
is no town or village in this country where a traveller cannot
go to any second-hand book-shop and buy any public docu-
ment — whether it be the Agricultural Report, the Patent-Of&ce
Report, the crustacean formation, or the silurian period — by
paying a little more than it is worth as old paper.

Evidently the demand is small, and we can easily answer it
by providing a system by which reports, which contribute to
the education of our people in political matters, may be brought
more economically within their control ; sending a few copies
to the public libraries, or enabling all who wish to own them to
purchase them at their real cost. If we are bound, notwith-
standing what I think is forcibly urged, to furnish information,
do not, for pity's sake, distribute Patent-Office Reports, nor
give the people the Agricultural Reports. Certainly let us not
send down to our districts any more treatises on the isothermal
lines, or crustacean formations, or silurian periods, or salary
grabs, or any one of these things. If we must tax the many
to give books to the few, let us give them the spelling-book, the
arithmetic, the reading-book — something that will really benefit
them, which they will appreciate, which will make them better
citizens, and more sure to vote the Republican ticket.

I said I opposed this measure in the interest of economy.
I oppose it now in the interest of that universal justice which
we all praise as we do economy, but which we refuse to prac-
tise just as we do economy. But my borrowed time allows
only a question on this point. Is it fair to the people of these
United States to tax them all, A, B, C, and D, all down to Z,
in order that we may give a book to A? I claim this is not
Republican doctrine. It is wrong; and we have no business to
compel fifty people to pay taxes to give a luxury to one. . . .

368 William Walter Phelps

The Speaker /r^ tempore (Mr. Monroe). — The time of the
gentleman has expired.

Several Members. — Go on; go on.

The Speaker pro tempore. — If there be no objection the
gentleman may proceed. The Chair hears none.

Mr. Phelps. — There is an amendment to this bill. "It was
not always so." When this bill was first presented by the
committee it was not there. The amendment is in italics, as
much as to say, "Beware! " And I ask gentlemen to lend me
their attention for a few moments while I state why the com-
mittee introduced the amendment, and urge all my Republican
friends if they must pass this bill to see that they pass it with
the amendment in. Briefly, when this bill was reported with-
out the amendment, it came to the ear of a gentleman upon the
committee that another Democratic friend of mine from New
York was preparing a circular which he intended to send next
fall, under the exercise of the franking privilege, to all Re-
publican districts. He was enabled to obtain a copy of this
circular; it was found to be short — in that respect, of course,
unlike my friend — but, on the whole, witty, as my friend is
always witty; but it was terribly damaging to the Republican
party. . . .

Under these circumstances, I ask my Republican friends in
this House — I have nothing to say to my friends on the other
side — Ought we not, if we pass this bill, to see that there is in
it this amendment? For the provision is carefully drawn that
the Republican postmaster, if at any time, which would be
about September, he thought the public welfare required it
(and no doubt he would so think if a number of such circulars
were deposited in the post-office), might, in that case, retain
these circulars "in whole or in part for thirty days," or until
the country was carried safely over the Pennsylvania election.
I assure you he would retain them " in whole." The amend-
ment is important. If we pass this bill, let us pass the amend-
ment with it. It is our only safety.

And when we pass the amended bill, let us do it in a credit-
able manner. A bad deed derives some merit from a bold
performance. Let us be bold in this. Let us own up that it
is the original Jacobs. Let us take off the silk hat; let us

His Life and Public Services 369

wash away the dye, and surrender all pretences. Let us so
act that the people will not despise us, though they censure.
If we attempt to deceive, we shall only win contempt. They
are as intelligent as we are. We cannot deceive them. We
shall fail in the attempt.

It is therefore better policy, as it is better manhood, if we
purpose to re-enact the franking privilege, not to do it by this
bill, but to do it boldly and openly. Take and adopt the amend-
ment of the gentleman from New York [Mr. Mellish], and
by it tell the people that we do re-enact the franking privilege.
Do not let us ever again make the mistake of attempting to
deceive them by a false issue.

[The next day Mr. Cobb, of Kansas, made a personal attack
upon Mr. Phelps, charging that he had spoken disrespectfully
of the House, and reproaching him for being rich, and also
criticising him as a director in trust companies and other cor-
porations, and a stockholder in railroads. To this demagogic
tirade the member from New Jersey immediately replied as
follows :]

I do not want to make any speech. I only want to say
something. I confess to trouble in deciding in what man-
ner I shall answer the indictment which has been so sud-
denly and unexpectedly entered. I had not the good fortune
to be in the House at the opening of the gentleman's re-
marks; fortunately I heard the middle and the end. I hope
I shall not dwell on the personalities in them further than to
make one or two necessary corrections. He tried to thrust
upon me some issues for which I am not responsible, and which
lie between this House and myself. These I must correct.

It is not true that I spoke disrespectfully of this House. It
is not true that I entertained any but the highest regards for
its members. And it is wrong in my friend from Kansas to
drag in a foreign issue.

Did I violate any proper rule of criticism in saying that in
my opinion — an opinion which I share with many others — this
House had not displayed during this session that practical in-
terest in economy which the country expected, and which the

2,70 William Walter Phelps

necessity of the Treasury required? It was proper criticism,
and it is the truth.

But the gentleman has made personal charges to which I
must plead guilty. He has found the facts and read them
from the Congressional Directory. With the propriety of the
method in which he conducted that portion of his argument I
find no fault. If it suits him it suits me. As to the facts
which he has exhibited to this House, they are correct. I
have been unfortunate enough by hard work, industry, and a
moderate amount of honesty, to have secured the positions he
mentions. They involve a deal of labor, a deal of care, a deal
of responsibility, and if any man envies me therefor I pity
him. I will cheerfully yield the positions if he will assume the
care. Yes, I am guilty.

But why did not the gentleman, when he was presenting this
record to the House, say something like this: "It is a disgrace
to this member of the House that he has secured these posi-
tions. It is a disgrace to this member that widows and orphans
have been willing to trust him with their funds. It is a dis-
grace that in my State and other States he buried his money
in railways which have made the country rich and which have
left him poor. But it is proper for me to say that while he
has done all these disgraceful acts, still, when the people of
his district chose to send him here to represent them, he an-
nounced publicly his misfortune. It is a redeeming feature in
his case that he said, in effect: ' Though I have done wrong,
though I have accumulated wealth, though I have aided where
I could the developing of distant parts of the country, yet still,
knowing the disgrace of such conduct, and unwilling that any
man here should suppose that my acts are influenced by inter-
ests which the House assumes but does not know, I will send
to the Congressional Record an extract from the New Jersey
Manual, which will give to all this damning record of my
past.' " My friend from Kansas might at least have done me
this justice.

Sir, if it be disgraceful to be a director of trust companies
and of banks ; if it be a disgrace to be ^ director of railroad
and express companies; if it be wicked and contrary to the
spirit of American institutions that I should endeavor by thrift

His Life and Public Services 371

and honesty to accumulate that property for which others toil,
yet I take this credit that I made a clean breast of it. Did I
not, in anticipation of the polite curiosity that might introduce
a resolution of inquiry, boldly and voluntarily go upon the
record? . . .

Take the book; read the honorable gentleman's record.
I admit, without one feeling of disappointment, that in that
record I find nothing which is not creditable. I find nothing
to censure, except that he endeavored to obtain at the uni-
versities that education which has enabled him to speak so
forcibly here. Aside from that, nothing of which he need be
ashamed. I find that instead of wasting his time in increas-
ing the material interests of this country, instead of build-
ing railroads or establishing banks or doing anything of that
disreputable, but humble and useful kind, wiser than I, he
preferred, as a non-producer, continually to feed at different
corners of the public crib.

The Speaker pro tempore. — The time of the gentleman from
New Jersey [Mr. Phelps] has expired.

Several Members. — Let him go on.

The Speaker pro tempore. — If there be no objection, the
gentleman will proceed. The Chair hears none.

Mr. Phelps. — The gentleman's record, therefore, was dif-
ferent from mine. I earned my own support; he took his
from the people. I labored in every way to accumulate that
material wealth which is the secret of a new country's develop-
ment and growth ; he chose, as a politic way, to use in a proper
way the wealth which others had acquired. Now, mark you,
Mr. Speaker, I could run on some time in this strain; but that
would be just as unfair to him as he was to me; for really it is
no disgrace to me that, having a taste for material interests, I
chose to labor for the development of the country ; neither is
it any disgrace to him that, having a taste and capacity for
public life, he went into it, and from his majority held office.
And, sir, had I been as successful as he has been, up to the
present time, in receiving the honors of my party, I fear that
like him I would n'ever hesitate on any occasion, at any risk
of good sense, of good breeding, of politeness — nothing should
forbid me — to seize every opportunity, whether fair or unfair,

372 William Walter Phelps

to speak as I thought would please my people, though to do it
I had to twist the eternal rules of truth, and make the wrong
appear the better reason.

Mr. Speaker, I regret I have occupied at all the time of this
House. I did not wish to speak; but it seemed to me that,
after an assault which was so directly personal, I should seize
the opportunity of stating what I have endeavored to say in an
inconsequential way.

It is true that I have wealth — I beg pardon, Mr. Speaker;
that expression only shows that there is no proposition which
a man can state absolutely. Before the panic it might have
been well said that I could support myself and my family with-
out the daily toil of the laborer, or the salary of the office-
holder. But that panic, which was the result of paper money
— I am glad to get in one good point in this wretched mess of
personalities, — that panic, the result of an issue of irredeem-
able currency, did so injure me that I would be to-day willing
to compare my possessions with those of my friend from Kan-
sas; and upon such a comparison, he counting the money
which he had got from the people, and I deducting the money
which I had lost in Kansas railways, I am pretty sure he would
find that, standing here to-day, he is a richer man than I.
And the only bitterness I feel on this occasion is, that in these
very railways in which I have made investments, and which
pass mostly through the Western States, I have lost a great
part of the fortune for the possession of which I am taunted.

My friend from Illinois, in his remarks, rather implied that
I was a railway man, and therefore hostile to the prairies. Is
it improper to say that through his own prairies, through his
towns of Urbana and Champaign, there was a railroad built in
which I was interested? It raised the value of those prairies
at least one hundred percent., and caused the growth of little
cities all along its line. So his district gained by my railway;
and as yet I have not got, and see no chance of getting back,
my money. Yet these representatives of the "grangers," who
have got our Eastern money and kept it, who have received
from us these railways and given us nothing in return except a
series of hopeless investments, stand up here in holy horror
and declare that we shall not be allowed to speak on this mat-

His Life and Public Services 373

ter, because we lost our money in the West. Under these
circumstances, is it fair for my friend from Kansas to take
Eastern money, use it in his railways, grow rich upon the pro-
ceeds of it, and then taunt us because we were foolish enough
to go to Kansas and invest it?

If I am forced to speak of these railways, I think I may
safely say that if my friend will look all through the disgraceful
record of railways with which I am connected, there will not
be found (unless I am deceived) one that ever received or ever
asked aid from this Government, either in the way of money
subsidy or land gratuity. I am a representative of New Jersey.
I have acquired wealth, and spent it in Kansas, in Illinois, and
in Texas, getting from it, in many cases, no return; getting
from it in no case returns until long years have passed. Shall
I for these reasons be prevented from speaking in this House
what I may think with reference to the merits of the great
questions which are brought before us? If my own modesty
or the fear of the grangers should counsel silence, there is that
in my representative position here which forbids me ; and so
long as the farmers of New Jersey send a man so stained with
the achievements of honest industry to represent them on this
floor, I shall, whether I am to be followed the next morning
by my friend from Kansas or not, speak in the interests of the
people as I understand those interests; speak for the welfare
of the whole country as I understand its welfare ; and no taunt
of this kind from any source shall ever prevent me from meet-
ing promptly every charge which may be hurled against me
here or elsewhere.

IN BEHALF OF FITZ-JOHN PORTER

Speech in the House of Representatives, February I, 1884

Bill for the relief of, and to restore to his former position in the army, Fitz-

John Porter

Mr. Phelps said :

Mr. Chairman, speaking for the one most interested, I
express his deep regret for the unkind allusions to the living
and the dead which have been made in the heat of this discus-
sion. In his long search for justice he has carefully avoided

374 William Walter Phelps

any reflection upon those who have impeded him in the pursuit,
and he refuses to accept any responsibility for these allusions,
whether made by those who are friendly or those who are un-
friendly to the bill. And may I not assume that if those who
had made them had the floor they, too, would express their
regret: the gentleman from New York [Mr. Slocum] who has
charge of the bill, that he reflected upon the great war minis-
ter, whose great faults history will pardon for his greater
achievements; the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Steele], that,
in his surprise at finding that a general on the board of
examination viewed the evidence different from him, he inti-
mated that he looked at the evidence with an eye upon the
Presidency; the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Cutcheon],
that he checked the course of his strong argument to intimate
that there was another general who wished to be reinstated;
my colleague from New Jersey [Mr. McAdoo], a young Rupert
in debate, that he suggested that a conviction of the military
incompetency of still another general was a universal condition
of sanity; my peaceful friend from Michigan [Mr. Horr], that
he confessed that he could think just as General Grant did in
everything, except in military matters ; and my neighbor here
from Ohio [Mr. Taylor] — but I cannot give the time to recall
all the illustrious names that have been unnecessarily dragged
into this debate.

Could they all be eliminated it were better; and this case
could stand or fall on its own merits. It is my duty to speak
to-day for Fitz-John Porter because he is my constituent. It
is at the same time a pleasure and an honor because he is my
friend, and I believe him to be an honest man and a loyal
soldier.

"The mills of the gods grind slowly" in his case.

It was twenty years last week (Monday) since the last sig-
nature was put to the verdict of a military jury which drove
him out of the army and made him a leper whom his Govern-
ment should never touch with an office of trust or profit. This
verdict awarded him such infamy that for a while Iscariot and
Arnold were his only competitors. A blundering department
furnished to an anxious President, a baffled army, and an in-
dignant people this sacrifice ; and fifteen millions straining unto

His Life and Public Services 375

death to save their country in an hour of supreme despondency
and gloom found a momentary relief in cursing the name of
Porter.

Who was this sacrifice? One whose ancestry deserved well
of the Republic ; one, who as a boy of gentle heart and ways
learned in the National Academy to hold a stain upon his
honor as a wound, and to conceive all honor as sphered in
loyalty to his country; one who as a youth stood the most
chivalrous and accomplished officer in a guild whose military
code gives to the testimony of a member under oath no greater
force than his formal declaration; one who in manhood won
wounds and glory in the field, and who on the 27th day of
August, 1862, as said the gentleman from Michigan, "stood
the consummate flower of the American army and its pride."
This was the gentle, chivalrous, illustrious soldier who was
thus lifted up into a storm of obloquy and reproach as a traitor
to his country. What can he do? His fate is worse than
Arnold's or Judas's. Arnold, hating his country, fled from it
and received the rewards of treason; but Porter loves his
country, and has no thought except of loyal service. Judas
went out and died, conscience stricken; but Porter's con-
science is clear, and remorse refuses to lead him to the field of
blood. He does what an honest man ought, and only an
honest man can do ; he takes up his burden and bears it. He
will live, and live down his wrongs. He will wait, and trust
to God and his country for redress. He withdrew to the quiet
of a New Jersey village and established his home. There he
faithfully discharged all his duties, neither seeking nor shun-
ning observation. He was a good husband, a good father, a
good neighbor, citizen, and friend. That little village for
twenty years has watched, honored, and loved the man. They
have seen his eye grow sad and his hair grow white with hope
deferred. But he never talked of his grievance nor asked for
pity. He was fulfilling a sentence which, for such a man,
Edward Everett truly said, was "in some respects worse than
a sentence of death." This was his home life. His life
abroad was a constant struggle to regain his good name.
That was his mission, and he prosecuted it without pause or
rest. On every proper occasion, in every proper place he

376 William Walter Phelps

declared his innocence, offered his evidence, and asked for
examination.

What was his crime? He did not obey an order of his
superior to fight. And what was his defence ? That the
order came at night, and when it was too late to execute it.
And second — for he was no coward, and only one man on this
floor has been desperate enough to impute cowardice to him —
and second, had the order come in time he would not have
obeyed it, for its execution was the fruitless and assured
destruction of his corps. I speak of one order. You say you
have heard much of several orders. True, much in this
House, but nothing in the report of the minority. The charges
connected with the other orders brought into this discussion
were so trivial and unimportant, and the answers to them were
so complete and satisfactory, that the members of the com-
mittee to whom the opposition to this bill was intrusted, the
prosecutors of this case, ignored them. Not so, however, the
free-lances on the floor, who found in this ocean of facts about
the sky above and the earth beneath and the atmosphere be-
tween so fruitful a head of eloquence that the galleries thought
they heard the famous chorus of the opera, "Let us talk
about the weather. " Neither of these two orders was to fight.
They were simply to march. Though not important enough
to be mentioned in the minority report, as they have been the
source of so much eloquence in the House, let me refer to
them to escape confusion.

"[Order No. i.]

" Headquarters Army of Virginia,
"Bristoe Station, August 27, 1862 — 6.30 p.m.

"General: The major-general commanding directs that
you start at i o'clock, and come forward with your whole
corps, or such part as is with you, so as to be here by daylight
to-morrow morning. Hooker has had a severe action with the
enemy, with a loss of about three hundred killed and wounded.
The enemy has been driven back, but is retiring along the
railroad. We must drive him from Manassas, and clear the
country between that place and Gainesville, where McDowell

His Life and Public Services 377

is. If Morell has not joined you, send word to him to push
forward immediately, also send word to Banks to hurry for-
ward with all speed to take your place at Warrenton Junction.
It is necessary on all accounts that you should be here by day-
light. I send an officer with this dispatch who will conduct
you to this place. Be sure and send word to Banks, who is
on the road to Fayetteville, probably in the direction of
Bealeton. Say to Banks, also, that he had best run back the
railroad trains to Cedar Run. If he is not with you, write him
to that effect.

"P. S. — If Banks is not at Warrenton Junction, leave a regi-
ment of infantry and two pieces of artillery as a guard till he
comes up, with instructions to follow you immediately. If
Banks is not at the junction, instruct Colonel Clary to run the
trains back to this side of Cedar Run and post a regiment and
section of artillery with it. "

The first order was that General Porter should start at i
o'clock on the morning of August 28, 1862, and march his
force nine or ten miles to Bristoe Station, that it might there
join at daybreak with the main army for the purpose of clear-
ing the country between that place and Gainesville. General
Porter, upon receiving it, summoned his generals and they
looked at the state of affairs. The night was dark and misty ;
the road, surface and ditch, was blocked with wagons and
cannons and their wrecks. It was doubtful if any effort made
before the first glimmer of light would accomplish anything.
It was certain that no effort could get the troops to Bristoe
Station at daybreak, as was desired. These troops were
fatigued and would need rest. They should be fresh for the
all-day task of wandering in pursuit, which the order fore-
shadowed. The order showed, too, that the task to which
they were summoned was not one of immediate importance.
It was not a summons to a defence, or to an attack where great
haste and exact punctuality was demanded. The order said
that the enemy had already been driven back and was retiring.
The task was to "clear the country" behind them. That task
could begin as well any hour after daylight. These facts upon
which that little council of war passed were not conjecture.

378 William Walter Phelps

Before the order was received Porter had sent out two aids to
view the road and report. This he did in anticipation of
orders, and when he and his associates decided that it was not
wise to make the start at i o'clock, he promptly sent a mes-
senger to Pope and informed him of the decision and its
reasons. He started at 3 o'clock with the first glimmer of
light that made the start practicable, and there is no evidence
that loss resulted to anybody from the delay. Pope admitted
in his testimony (volume i., page 19) that it did no harm.
The whole charge is so trivial that it was evidently brought as
a make-weight, as something to buttress the main charge.

"[Order No. 2.J

" Headquarters Army of Virginia,

" Centreville, August 29, 1862.

" Generals McDowell and Porter:

" You will please move forward with your joint commands
toward Gainesville. I sent General Porter written orders to
that effect an hour and a half ago. Heintzelman, Sigel, and
Reno are moving on the Warrenton turnpike, and must now
be not far from Gainesville. I desire that as soon as com-
munication is established between this force and your own the
whole command shall halt. It may be necessary to fall back
behind Bull Run at Centreville to-night. I presume it will be
so on account of our supplies. I have sent no orders of any
description to Ricketts, and none to interfere in any way with
the movements of McDowell's troops, except what I sent by
his aid-de-camp last night, which were to hold his position on
the Warrenton pike until the troops from here should fall upon
the enemy's flank and rear. I do not even know Ricketts's
position, as I have not been able to find out where General
McDowell was until a late hour this morning. General Mc-
Dowell will take immediate steps to communicate with General
Ricketts, and instruct him to rejoin the other divisions of his
corps as soon as practicable.

" If any considerable advantages are to be gained by depart-
ing from this order, it will not be strictly carried out. One
thing must be had in view, that the troops must occupy a posi-

His Life and Public Services 379

tion from which they can reach Bull Run to-night or by morn-
ing. The indications are that the whole force of the enemy is
moving in this direction at a pace that will bring them here
by to-morrow night or next day. My own headquarters will
be, for the present, with Heintzelman's corps or at this place.

"John Pope.
"Major-General Commanding."

The second order was addressed to McDowell and Porter.
It is the joint order. It directed that their forces should
move toward Gainesville. And what is the defence? First,
Porter might have disobeyed without censure, for it was a
discretionary order. The order says: "If any considerable
advantages are to be gained by departing from this order, it will
not be strictly carried out. ' ' The second defence is that it
was carried out, for the order found Porter with McDowell,
just where it ordered him to be. Says McDowell (volume i.,
page 349): "I commanded Porter's corps and my own division.
We there on the ground received the joint order which directed
the very thing we had done." And Pope knew that this joint
order had been obeyed, for in his dispatch numbered 26 A
(volume i., page 329) he says so. Why, then, did gentlemen
discuss this joint order which was executed, as say both Mc-
Dowell and Pope ? There would seem to be no reason except
for the temptation to warm our blood with the battle-cries of
McDowell, "Fight? That is what we are here for," and "You
go in there. ' ' These are good cries either for the House or
for the field, but they were better had they been uttered by
McDowell on the field as they were' repeated by the gentleman
from Ohio [Mr. Keifer] in the House, in a voice that could
be distinctly heard; for General Porter never heard them;
Lieutenant-Colonel Locke, chief of staff, never heard them;
Captain Martin, of a Massachusetts battery; Captain Earle,
Lieutenant Davis, and General Patrick never heard them;
but, being all six by and present, did hear General McDowell
say: "This is no place to fight a battle; you are too far off."
And when General McDowell was recalled to explain the
dilemma, that the three gallant officers did not hear, ' ' That
is what we are here for," and "Go in there," but, on the

38o William Walter Phelps

contrary, " This is no place to fight a battle," what was Mc-
Dowell's explanation? I repeat his very words:

"I can not recollect precisely what occurred or what con-
versation or what words passed between us at that time. I
can not say what language I used or how it may have been
understood whilst talking on that." (Pages 217 and 218.)

Why did not the gentleman from Ohio declaim what General
McDowell was heard to say, and not what he wished he had
said? The cry "This is no place to fight a battle" would not
be so good for the House, but would have been a better order
in the field; for it has never seemed to me a very creditable
picture, even when painted by the gentleman from Ohio, to
see McDowell take eighteen thousand men (ten thousand of
Ricketts's, eight thousand of King's) from Porter, leave him
with only nine thousand, and march away with his great force
from the field, while he pointed to Porter in the opposite
direction and said, "You go in there." It always seemed to
me and to the world that McDowell, if either, should have
gone in there himself.

" Headquarters in the Field,
"August 29, 1862 — 4.30 P.M.
"Major-General Porter:

"Your line of march brings you in on the enemy's right flank.
I desire you to push forward into action at once on the enemy's
flank, and, if possible, on his rear, keeping your right in com-
munication with General Reynolds.

"The enemy is massed in the woods in front of us, but can
be shelled out as soon as you engage their flank. Keep heavy
reserves and use your batteries, keeping well closed to your
right all the time. In case you are obliged to fall back, do
so to your right and rear, so as to keep you in close communi-
cation with the right wing.

"John Pope,
"Major-General Commanding."

And now for the order of 4.30, an order which the minority
report did discuss. Upon it stands or falls the guilt of Porter.

His Life and Public Services 381

This order required Porter to fight. It instructed him to at-
tack the enemy on his flank and, if possible, on his rear. He
did not attack the enemy on his flank or on his rear. And
what is his defence? First, he received the order after six
o'clock at night, when it was too late. But, again, Porter,
notwithstanding the cowardice with which the gentleman from
Ohio [Mr. Keifer] taunted him, chooses to accept a braver
defence, and admits that had the order come in time he would
not have made the attack.

First, as to the time that this order was received. Before
the court-martial there was no documentary evidence to fix it.
There was much oral testimony, and some of it conflicted.
The vast preponderance, however, seemed to establish the
fact that Porter received it at sunset. Major-General Sykes
says he was present when the order was delivered, and says,
"It was as near sunset as I can remember." Colonel Locke,
too, saw the delivery, and says it was between sundown and
dusk. Captain Monteith, too, was present; he says it was
sundown. The testimony of these three officers joined with
that of General Porter would seem to be sufficient. But be-
fore the advisory board, sixteen years afterward, some new
dispatches of Porter were produced. General McDowell pro-
duced one which is marked as No. 38 P. The whole context
of this dispatch shows that Porter was at the time of writing it
without any information from Pope, and eagerly awaiting it.
He pleads, "Please let me know your designs." After Mc-
Dowell had presented it to the board and it had been read.
Porter with a listless curiosity took it up, when his eye fell
upon the date obscurely written in the corner, "August 29,
6 P.M." This settles the matter. The 4.30 order was not re-
ceived until after 6 p.m., August 29, 1862. It was received
later, and, if later, it was received too late to make the attack
it directed.

But had it been delivered earlier, as it ought to have been.
Porter would not have made the attack. He could not make
it. He could not attack upon the flank, much less upon the
rear, of Jackson's force, as he was ordered to do. He knew
that a great force had come to Porter's front of which the
order showed his commanding general knew nothing. This

382 William Walter Phelps

new force of the enemy blocked his way, and he could attack
the flank or the rear of Jackson only by annihilating the force
of Longstreet. Longstreet had twenty-five thousand men in
front of Porter; Jackson had twenty- three thousand in front,
but to his right; and Porter had what McDowell had left him,
nine thousand. Porter could attack and lay their bodies at
the feet of Longstreet' s guns. The gentleman from Indiana
[Mr. Browne] thought he ought to have done so, as he thought
that the charge at Balaklava was war and not a spectacle.
Porter thought otherwise, and his opinion seems to have been
approved by General Grant, General Schofield, General Terry,
and General Getty. He must bear this difference of opinion
between himself and the gentleman from Indiana in such com-
pany as this.

It is charged that Porter did not know at that time that
Longstreet's forces were before him. What evidence shows
that he had this knowledge on the afternoon of the 29th of
August, 1862? First, the whole tenor of his dispatches shows
that he had watched the progress of the enemy's forces and
had been constantly expecting Longstreet's appearance. On
the 27th Porter says in a dispatch. No. 20, "Everything has
moved up north," and says that he gets his information from
an intercepted letter of Lee's. McDowell knew it, and said
that Longstreet was coming through Thoroughfare Gap
(volume i., page 349), and McDowell says he told Porter all
he knew. Again, in the dispatch that Porter sent at six
o'clock, August 29th, asking Pope for information, he says:

"From the masses of dust on our right, and from reports of
scouts, I think the enemy are moving largely that way."

Earlier in the day Porter had captured prisoners from
Longstreet's army. At noon McDowell showed him Buford's
dispatch, which said that a large force had passed Gainesville,
only three miles off, before nine o'clock that morning. (Volume
i., page 82.) At about that time the enemy fired musketry at
McDowell and Porter while their forces were together, and
during all that afternoon Marshall and Morell were flying over
the country testing the enemy at every point, and reported in

His Life and Public Services 383

a dozen messages that they found him everywhere present in
front and in strong force. (Dispatches 29 to 31, both inclus-
ive, volume i., pages 333 to 335, 380 to 382.) These were the
means by which Porter gained his information and he testified
that he had it before the court-martial in 1862:

"To begin, the fundamental averment of the order upon
which it all rests is entirely untrue. That averment is that my
line of march as pursued under the joint order above referred
to brought me in on the enemy's right flank. The fact is that
my line of march as so pursued brought me not in on the
enemy's right flank, but it brought me directly upon the front
of a separate force of the enemy from ten to fifteen thousand
strong, of the presence of which thus directly in my front
General Pope, when he wrote the order, was wholly ignorant."

Do gentlemen want better evidence than this? Here is
Pope's announcement on the 27th that the enemy is coming.
Here is McDowell's testimony that he knew on the morning
of the 28th that the enemy was coming through the gap.
Here are prisoners taken on the morning of the 29th, and here
are Marshall and Morell in a dozen messages in the afternoon
of August 29th confirming his knowledge. And here, as well
as anywhere else, let me say that I do not find that the new
testimony, whether obtained from loyal or Union sources, in-
troduces anything new. It only serves to confirm what Porter
and his witnesses had testified to in the trial.

These were the offences. What was the court-martial that
passed the sentence? It was composed of nine soldiers,
gathered hastily in this city out of the gloomy atmosphere of
defeat. They sat within the roar of the enemy's artillery and
their faces were black with the smoke of battle. They were
honest and honorable men, but they were human, and when
a stern Secretary of War who made and unmade generals at
his will ordered them to vote and go, they voted and went.
When they voted, they gave, just as you and I would have
done, to their country the benefit of the doubt. They sat
forty-five days; they gave the accused thirteen days out of
them. They neglected to produce any of his witnesses for

384 William Walter Phelps

whom he asked, but Stanton's order was read in the morning
and they closed the testimony that day and went.

The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Keifer] said this was a
"most august tribunal." Has he forgotten the Long Parlia-
ment and its prompt obedience and adjournment at the
command of Cromwell, compared with which this ' ' august
tribunal" was a slow coach?

They voted and went. The world will never know but that
it was by a vote of five to four that Stanton got his will. I
hope it was not so. For one judge left the bench and went to
the witness-box to testify for conviction, and four other judges
received promotion within two weeks of the time they rendered
their judgment. I wish the world on this point might appro-
priate the exclusive information of the gentleman from Michi-
gan [Mr. Cutcheon]. He says: "The nine able generals who
tried him with all the essential facts before them said there
could be but one verdict." This is the information that we
want, the unanimity of the nine generals, but unfortunately it
is confined to that gentleman, and history may not appropriate
it. He has, too, exclusive information, for which Englishmen
would pay a million of pounds. They would give that or
more to make Admiral Byng a subordinate and the commander
of a single ship. It would wipe out a bloody page in British
history, and the stinging epigram of Voltaire, who thought
that the English had to kill every now and then a brave
admiral to encourage the rest. The gentleman from Michigan
had, also, exclusive, but this time inaccurate, knowledge of the
course of history. He says, "Impartial history will declare
that there could be but one verdict," yet the report of the
minority which he signed calls attention to the opinion of a
writer which it calls "a careful military historian, the author
of perhaps the best history of our civil war that has been writ-
ten." The report says that "he was supplied with ample
facilities to inform himself and so situated that he can and
does write without prejudice or passion." This historian, the
Comte de Paris, writes:

"Impartial history should censure Lee's lieutenant rather
than Pope's for his inaction during the 29th; and whether the

His Life and Public Services 385

latter did or did not neglect the orders of his chief, it must be
acknowledged that Porter's mere presence in front of Long-
street condemned forces outnumbering his own to remain
inactive which otherwise might, with great advantage to the
Confederate cause, have been employed to attack Porter or to
re-enforce Jackson."

How happened my accurate friend from Michigan to make
this great mistake? It came naturally from the unwillingness
of his side to look at any new evidence. He read the first
edition of this history, which censured Porter, and neglected
to read the new edition, where the princely author, having
read the new evidence, dared, like Grant and Schofield and
Terry, to change his opinion in the presence of new and con-
clusive facts. And inasmuch as the ability, fidelity, and im-
partiality of the Comte de Paris have been so generously
avouched by our opponents, let me read what was his final
opinion :

"His attack" —

Speaking of that which the gentleman from Indiana [Mr.
Browne] wished him to make on the night of August 29th, so
that the country might have seen another Balaklava —

" His attack, therefore, could not have produced the results
upon which the general-in-chief had counted. In spite of the
impossibility of his executing literally Pope's order, and what-
ever may have been the orders given him by McDowell during
the day, Porter might undoubtedly have pressed the enemy
more closely. Perhaps he might even have obtained a partial
success before Wilcox's arrival. But under no circumstances
could this movement have had the slightest effect upon the
result of the engagement which was now taking place on the
right of the Federal army, for Longstreet could have resisted
Porter with forces superior to the latter without being obliged
to detach a single man from that engagement. Therefore
impartial history should censure Lee's lieutenant rather than
Pope's for his inaction during the 29th, etc."

But it is scarcely fair to leave the gentleman from Michigan
alone to bear the errors which the side he so ably but inaccur-

386 William Walter Phelps

ately defended has everywhere made, I have time now to
allude to a misrepresentation, unintentionally made, of the
opinions held with reference to the conduct of the trial by
Reverdy Johnson. One gentleman assumed that this august
tribunal, which closed its evidence upon the day that the
Secretary of War ordered, which sent one of its judges to the
witness-box and saw four others promoted within two weeks of
the verdict, was all right, because Reverdy Johnson had said:

" Whatever may be the result, neither General Porter nor his
friends can have any ground of complaint against the court.
I consider the trial to have been perfectly fair. ' '

This would have been a great help to the character of this
august tribunal had it been true ; unfortunately it was a news-
paper story; fortunately I have the newspaper in which it was
published, and across its lying face are written these words:
" False, absolutely false. — R. J."

Here is the newspaper, and here is the indorsement, and
here is the letter written by Reverdy Johnson, in which he
says :

' ' I have obtained a copy of the Chronicle, and inclose you
the article on the reply. The fact it states as to what I said
in the presence of high officials of the Government is entirely

false."

The generals who sat on the court-martial voted and went
back to the fight. They hoped they had done their duty, but
feared. Their uneasiness increased when lawyers, soldiers,
and States began to examine their report. They examined it
sitting apart from the noise of battle and they weighed calmly
the evidence. Lawyers like Daniel Lord, Sidney Bartlett, B.
R. Curtis, J. G. Abbott, William D. Shipman, and Charles
O' Conor declared over their own signatures that the original
verdict was against the original evidence. Said Daniel Lord:

"At the time of General Porter's trial I read the proceedings
with astonishment at the testimony received and acted on, and
am convinced that the trial was substantially conducted on an
order to convict. ' '

His Life and Public Services 387

Said Judge Curtis:

" I think General Porter was improperly convicted on the
evidence before the court which tried him, and he is at liberty
to use this opinion when and where he chooses."

Said Bartlett:

" You are entitled to my judgment in the matter, which is
that the evidence fails to support the charges against you, and
that acquittal instead of conviction should have been the
result."

Said Abbott:

" The finding of the court seems to me so unwarranted by
the whole evidence that I should be glad to think it was the
judgment of a tribunal utterly illegal and not recognized by
the laws of the land."

Said Judge Shipman:

' ' With all deference to the members of the court, I thought
then, and still think, their conclusions unwarranted by the
evidence. ' '

Said Charles O' Conor:

" I am convinced that a new trial ought to be had in the case
of Fitz-John Porter. There is no adequate evidence of the
misconduct alleged, and the record leaves it very doubtful
whether any opinion was ever formed against him which can
justly be regarded officially authoritative.

These lawyers, in writing, without pay, over their own signa-
tures, thus declare that on the original evidence Porter should
have been acquitted, and asked that the President of the
United States should open the case. The President who put
the last signature to the verdict expressed to a governor of
New Jersey his ardent wish that it might be opened.

Governor Newell writes to Governor Randolph :

"I had several conversations with President Lincoln. The

388 William Walter Phelps

President was much interested, and said cheerfully that he
would gladly grant a reopening if any new evidence exculpa-
tory of General Porter could be adduced. He said that he
had no prejudice, but had been obliged to form his opinion
from Judge Holt's examination, as in his multitude of cares
he had not been able to make a personal investigation. ' '

The charge has been made that notwithstanding these senti-
ments President Lincoln refused an application for a review of
the case. No application was ever made. A few months after
the judgment of the court-martial, Edward Everett, Robert C.
Winthrop, Amos A. Lawrence, and others, of their own mo-
tion and without the knowledge of General Porter, prepared
an eloquent memorial to the President, in which they asked
him to reconsider the proceedings of the court-martial. The
memorial got into the newspapers, as anything signed by such
illustrious names naturally would, but was never presented.
General Porter heard of it and sent his earnest request to Mr.
Everett that no such action should be taken. He said wisely
that it was premature. Another, who became President, and
whose presence upon that court-martial gave its decision
greater weight, on the i8th of January, 1875, moved in this
very House that a board of examination might be appointed
who should receive the new evidence which was offered. He
introduced this resolution unsolicited, and wrote to General
Porter that he believed it would be adopted; and here is the
resolution :

' 'Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled. That it shall be
the duty of the President of the United States to convene a
board of officers of high rank in the army, unconnected with
the armies or transactions in question, to examine the evidence
alleged to have been discovered by and to be in the possession
of Fitz-John Porter, unattainable at the time of his trial, and
report what, if any, bearing such evidence, if substantiated,
would have in the findings and sentence of court-martial in
his case."

And here is the letter, with that signature so familiar and so

His Life and Public Services 389

dear to many of us. I present it now because it has been
made public before:

"Washington, D. C, February 19, 1875.

" Dear Sir : Your two letters came duly to hand, together
with the pamphlet. I owe you an apology for not answering
you sooner.

" I introduced the bill to which you refer, not because I was
conscious of any intentional wrong done you by the court, for
I have never concurred in the severe reflections which have
from time to time appeared in the public press on the motives
and conduct of that court; but I am willing that any new evi-
dence you may have shall be presented to the Government in
an official form, and reported to the President by a board of
officers who were in no way connected with the trial or with
the operations of the army to which the trial related.

" I have spoken to several members of the Committee on
Military Affairs, and understand them to be willing to report
the bill to the House. They have not yet had an opportunity
to do so, but I hope they will before the session closes.

" I shall consider your pamphlet as confidential, unless you
otherwise direct me.

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"J. A. Garfield.

" General Fitz-John Porter,
" Morristown, N. J."

Gentlemen who have used their wit to belittle the dignity
and methods of the advisory board and claim great friendship
for General Garfield would employ their wit better in telling
how it differs from the board proposed in this resolution by
him. Garfield proposed that the President should appoint.
Garfield proposed that the appointees should be officers of high
rank in the army. Garfield proposed that this board should
examine the evidence alleged to have been discovered by and
to be in possession of Fitz-John Porter, unattainable at the
time of his trial, and report what, if any, bearing such evidence,
if substantiated, would have in the findings and sentence of the
court-martial in his case. How does the advisory board here
proposed and described differ from the one whose report is

390 William Walter Phelps

before us ? There has not been even an attempt to show the
difference. One gentleman, when pressed, exclaimed, "Gar-
field meant to have no such board as this."

Two of the board were so prejudiced against the accused
that they at first refused to serve. Did the gentlemen object
because one of the judges had no prejudice ? This resolution
introduced by Garfield shows that he was willing to have the
proceedings of the court-martial open and its findings reviewed
by an advisory board. And unless our opponents can destroy
the records of the Forty-third Congress they should cease their
efforts to misrepresent his position. I draw my conclusions
from this public act of General Garfield. As his friend, I
cannot produce his private letters to show how near under
provocation he came to breaking the secrecy on which honor
shut his lips, and if I did this dishonor to his memory I should
■want to find something stronger for my case than the Cox
letter, where he says:

" I have not yet made, in the light of the new testimony, a
careful strategic study of the field and map as you have done. ' '

Can there be a stronger comment on the impropriety of this
practice than the effort to claim an opinion from General
Garfield out of a letter in which he admits that he had made
no careful study of the subject? I, too, have letters, and they
have allusions to this subject not unfavorable to the side I ad-
vocate. Here are two of them, but they are marked " Per-
sonal" ; and I will not read them to hurt the dead that I may
help the living.

A third President listened, approved, and acted. He named
a board of examination just like that suggested by Garfield.
He put on it " officers of high rank in the army, unconnected
with the armies or transactions in question." He put on it
Generals Schofield, Terry, and Getty, men whom the gallant
Sherman declared to be "officers than whom three better do
not exist in the army." They made, as Garfield suggested,
"an examination of the evidence alleged to have been dis-
covered by and to be in the possession of Fitz-John Porter,
unattainable at the time of his trial," and they reported that

His Life and Public Services 391

the bearing of such evidence should reverse the findings and
sentence of the court-martial in his case. They had new
evidence from the Confederates against whom General Porter
was ordered to march. They had new evidence in the dis-
patch es of General Porter which had been concealed or
withheld. They had accurate maps of the ground and the
disposition of the forces. On these they report and acquit
Porter of all guilt. Gentlemen hesitate because they are un-
willing that the proceedings of this court-martial, this august
tribunal, should be reviewed. They claim that the review of
a court-martial is unconstitutional. I do not agree with this
view. They speak as if court-martials were the Supreme
Court, and established by the Constitution. They were, how-
ever, created by the Legislature, and the power that created
can review, correct, or destroy. But the action of the House
to-day is not a review of the court-martial or its proceedings.
We are hearing no appeal from that court. We are exercising
a frequent and undisputed right. We are putting into the
army of the United States an illustrious general whose ser-
vices there will be valuable to the Commonwealth. If our
action seems to reflect upon the view of General Porter's
merits which the court-martial expressed, that is an unpleasant
discrepancy between that board and this House. Let the
verdict stand and go into history. But outside of the courts
and irrespective of that court's decision the world now knows
and admits that General Porter was a good soldier and suf-
fered a wrong. And Congress, recognizing the inexorable
logic of facts, accepts the conclusion and completes a pardon
which the Executive began. It were as well to claim that the
pardon of the President overruled the court-martial as that
our action in restoring General Porter has overruled it.

The advisory board did not sit to review the trial of the
court-martial. They sat to review a case in which the parties
were the same, but the evidence was very different. Their
report contributed to that general conviction and that popular
knowledge on which with the report we are acting. On the
facts derived from this report and elsewhere we are asked to
restore General Porter to his position in the army. He does
not ask money for services he was always ready and willing to

392 William Walter Phelps

perform. He does not ask compensation for suffering and
loss almost unparalleled in history. He only asks that the
ranks of the army from which he was driven should be open
to receive, and that the sword which was taken from him
should be placed at his side. Shall this scanty justice be
refused him? While I make the appeal I pause to admit his
faults — serious faults, but excusable; faults, but not crimes.
He was not a traitor. Punish him if, in his anxiety to furnish
the information for which Burnside, McClellan, and Lincoln
constantly pressed him, he spoke with a frankness and free-
dom which was characteristic of his nature, but contrary to
the military discipline when he spoke of one who was his
superior in the field. Remember that dispatches were coming
from Lincoln, from McClellan, from Burnside, saying that
their only knowledge of the momentous events transpiring in
the front must come through him, and that, in grateful obedi-
ence to three men whom he especially honored and trusted,
he wrote just what he thought; and remember, too, that his-
tory has stamped just what he thought and wrote as the truth.
For this breach of military discipline, however, let him be
punished. He had no faith in his commanding ofificer, and
he improperly communicated his suspicions and dislikes to the
President of the United States and to his commander-in-chief.
This was an offence, and so was Washington's, when on the
hot Sunday at Monmouth he cursed General Lee loudly for
his cowardice or folly. But this offence is slight and has been
already punished. Don't think of this little fault. Think
of his great virtues. Remember how he fought on the 30th !
That order came in time and from a superior who at last had
learned his surroundings. And with Porter at their head the
Fifth Army Corps charged into the gates of hell, and into the
jaws of death. This was magnificent, and this was also war
— war at its sternest. They went in six thousand — they came
out leaving twenty-two hundred on the field. It was a loss to
Porter , of twenty-two hundred friends, for the Fifth Army
Corps was, and is to-day, and while one veteran survives will
be, the faithful, unfaltering, loyal friend of its gallant com-
mander. Give him back to them.

Mr. Chairman, the chief of the rebellion walked down the

His Life and Public Services 393

steps of this Capitol threatening to return and destroy it. He
attempted its destruction and failed. Yet Jefferson Davis
walks in freedom. Men who penned our soldiers in Anderson-
ville and Libby still live.

Officers trained at West Point, whose treason is not investi-
gated, for they practised it from the Mississippi to the Poto-
mac, sit in this House. Shall Porter, innocent in heart if
erring in act, alone be punished? Must he be a sacrifice for
a nation?

The hero of Mexico and Malvern and Manassas asks only
for justice; if you refuse him justice, I plead, against his
wishes, for mercy. Take this innocent man from the side of
Judas and Arnold and place him by the side of those who
honor him — by the side of Getty and Sykes and Terry and
Schofield and Grant.

INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE

Speech in the House of Representatives, December 19, 1884
The Bill to Regulate International Commerce under discussion

Mr. Phelps. — I rise to oppose the amendment. The dis-
cussion begins already to emphasize the unwisdom and injustice
of the bill. It is a vain effort to make a code which shall con-
trol the management of railways in all cases. But these cases
are infinite in number, and very nearly infinite in variety.
How absurd to suppose that all these cases can be held in the
iron grasp of half a dozen absolute restrictions ! Absolute re-
strictions belong to morals, but have no control in railway
management, where each case makes its own right and wrong.
You may say to a man, "Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not
commit adultery, thou shalt not bear false witness," for theft,
adultery, and slander are everywhere and always wrong. But
you cannot say to a railroad company, "You shall not dis-
criminate, you shall not rebate, you shall not pool, you shall
not charge more for a longer haul," because in many cases all
these methods are right and in many cases they are necessary
— necessary even to the very existence of the road. And be-
cause they are necessary often to their very existence the rail-
ways will elude, evade, and openly transgress the restrictions.

394 William Walter Phelps

looking to popular opinion to shield them from the penalty;
just as the gentleman from Texas, if his life were threatened,
would, in defending it, violate all laws and escape all punish-
ment.

Nor in so doing are the people indifferent to their rights;
they are watchful of them and are willing to judge the future
by the past. They see that the laws of man and the laws of
nature have shielded them in the past; why should they doubt
them in the future? The law of common carriers in every
State inhibits injustice and inequality. The laws of nature,
acting in the sphere of commerce, make the greed and ambi-
tion of man the instruments of justice and equality.

They see that united the result has been a constant triumph
of progress and reform. Does any one dispute history? Are
there not more railways and better service than ever before?
Have we not more trains and better, more equipment and bet-
ter, cheaper and more efficient management everywhere?

Does the gentleman from Texas deny that goods and pas-
sengers are carried cheaper by us than anywhere else in the
world, and cheaper by us now than ever before? Perhaps he
fears that these great laws of nature have lost their force.
Have they? Was competition ever more aggressive on water
and on land? Why, the gentleman from New York [Mr.
Hewitt] cannot take his first excursions over a new road with-
out seeing from his window the surveying party that already
lays the deadly parallel. And if you fear that some obstacles
are too mighty, remember that ten years ago we all said, with
the Erie, the Central, and the Pennsylvania railways in the
field. New York can secure no relief except from the resources
of the national Treasury. But while we spoke competition,
raising $100,000,000 without public knowledge or public
solicitation, threw the Nickel Plate and West Shore into the
arena, and there they will remain.

Nor has the desire to succeed in business ceased to be a
rule, which includes railway managers in its healthy influence.

Managers were never more solicitous for business and never
more ready to make sacrifices to get it. They know that
rivals are so many they must themselves create and develop it,
and in a one-sided partnership, where the customer gets all

His Life and Public Services 395

the benefit, they aid him in its creation or development. I
challenge contradiction when I say that there never was a time
when a company that wished to open a mine or a factory could
get better returns than now. It is almost accurate to say that
the miner or the manufacturer can fix his own rates for the
years of experiment. Nor has the power of public opinion
weakened. It controls the management of railways as a man-
agement and as individual men. The management knows
that the surest path to business is that of public favor; that
the popular road makes money, and to secure this popularity
they spend money lavishly, they make concessions generously.
Nor is generally enough stress laid on the character of the
management and their natural desire as men to have the ap-
probation of their neighbors and to secure that good report,
that good reputation which is the highest prize of life.

Do not confound the managers of whom I speak, and whom
I honor, with the great speculators in its securities, whom I
despise. It is the speculators and the stock exchange that re-
ceive the public attention; it is the railway and its managers
who deserve it. It is a great injustice to confound them.
The managers are men of high character and great abilities.
Theirs is a profession, and they are proud of it. They are
sure to spend their lives in its practice, and most of them
practise it in the same railway corporation. They are faith-
ful, public-spirited, and as a rule honored and beloved by
those among whom they live and with whom they deal. In
their desire to retain and deserve this good opinion of their
vicinage they are more apt to sacrifice their road than the
public. But the great speculators, unlike you or me or them,
remote from intercourse with the customers of the road, are
indifferent to public opinion, and should be curbed. But,
remember, these men, while their names are allied to the
roads, almost never interfere with their practical management.
Their sole interest is in the stock. That they seize; they
hold it for a day, until they have worked their own wicked
will on it, and then they cast it out dishonored, to be the prey
of the next adventurer. If they retain it longer, it is only to
elect a board of directors which shall suffer them to manipu-
late the securities, and, that accomplished, their interest ends.

39^ William Walter Phelps

The managers of the road meantime go on with their regular
business, and have no more connection with the speculators
whose names are in stock circles allied with their roads than
you or I, Mr. Speaker, except the bitter disgust with which
they see these bad men so confusing the distinction between
themselves and the actual managers that in the public mind
they are apt to stand in the same light and receive the same
censure.

Let, then, the laws of man and of nature continue their
work of progress and reform. Why attempt to restrict, why
pass restrictions which will interfere with these general laws,
which are working out the results you pretend to wish? Your
effort is vain ; your restrictions will be disregarded.

INTERSTATE COMMERCE

Controversy with Mr. Reagan

January 7, 1885, Mr. Reagan, of Texas, having the floor of the House,
made a speech reflecting upon Mr. Phelps personally, in reference to
the position the New Jersey member took in relation to railroads in
his speech of December 9, 1884. The latter followed Mr. Reagan
immediately in reply

Mr. Phelps was recognized, and asked how much time he
was entitled to.

The Speaker. — The gentleman from New Jersey is entitled
to five minutes under the rules of the House.

Mr. Phelps. — It will be scarcely possible to treat of this
whole subject, as touched by the gentleman from Texas, in so
short a time. The time, however, is sufficient for me to say
that I recognize in his remarks just that intellectual defect, if
I may say it without offence, which has made it impossible for
him to prepare a bill which would be operative and therefore
useful; one that would work, and therefore that could be
enforced. It is an inability to make proper and natural dis-
tinctions. I stated what under the laws of trade and nature
will be ; and the gentleman claims that I stated what ought to
be, as if I were the Almighty, and threatened what should be.
He has failed to recognize the distinction between a prophecy

His Life and Public Services 397

and a threat. I made no threat. I have no power to carry a
threat into execution, and certainly have no wish to see the
prophecy fulfilled and the business of this country blocked by
the gentleman's bill and the action of the railways under it.
Whether I am a true prophet or not time will show. Whether
I have grounds for making this prophecy or not the past and
its history fortunately can show.

Mr. Speaker, perhaps I now yield to an indiscretion — I cer-
tainly yield to a very natural feeling of injury, in view of the
fact that it is the gentleman from Texas who makes this attack
and seems to inspire it with a certain suggestion of personal
feeling. I recognize this, I say, with an impression that it is
unbecoming and unjust. He has been pleased to class me as
among those citizens of this Republic who by frugality and
industry, by honorable and honest methods, I hope, have ac-
cumulated a competence. He has been pleased to call me a
rich man. If I may make a personal confession — and I make
it now only under his taunt and in the interest of the truth,
which we all search for in this great discussion — I can say this:
If once I enjoyed that distinction, such as it is, which belongs
to wealth, that distinction has been diminished, has been al-
most entirely destroyed ; and if I were asked where I found the
origin of my misfortunes, I should be obliged to say that the
gentleman himself knows the origin ; and the gentleman him-
self lives in the very section and uses the same railway in which
half a million of dollars intelligently and honestly invested
were sunk, and apparently were sunk forever.

I have no hesitation in charging that the railway which
made his home at Palestine valuable, and gave it distinction
other than the solitary distinction which it enjoyed before of
being the residence of an able and patriotic citizen, obtained
its railway connection, secured its growth and all the advan-
tages which it now enjoys and which the gentleman from
Texas himself shares, through the efforts and sacrifices of my-
self and some dozen of my friends, who, in a New York office,
agreed to embark in the enterprise. It was an enterprise to
build a railway which, starting at Houston, should traverse the
State and open up counties which were then almost worthless

398 William Walter Phelps

to connection with the North and the South. This was an
honorable and a useful purpose; I put in my money cheer-
fully, and citizens associated with me, of more wealth but with
equally honest purpose, put in still larger sums. The money
was expended, dollar for dollar, in the construction of the
road; we took for it stock at par; we received for it nothing
else, not even bonds, which we might have sold.

It was our pride to test and settle this question: Could a
railway be built honestly, with each dollar that was actually in-
vested represented and no other, no watering of stock or bonds,
and pay a fair interest upon the money invested? So dollar
after dollar, to the amount of some millions, each one of which
passed through my hands, was faithfully sent down to the
State of Texas and put into the Great Northern Railroad. It
was invested in buying land, in making cuts and fillings, in
bridging streams, in purchasing and laying the rails upon the
road which now connects the Gulf of Mexico with the great
system of railways by which Palestine has become an import-
ant station on a great through route. That was the result for
Palestine and Texas. What has been the result for us? Our
money is in that railroad, honestly and carefully expended as
a man expends his own, and as yet I have not received one
dollar of interest upon that stock, nor do I ever expect to
obtain any. The investment would be to me and to my friends
an absolute loss, that money would all have been lost, except
for this precaution: I foresaw the benefits that would be re-
ceived by the gentleman from Texas and others who owned
land along the route, so I wisely made some investment in it
myself.

The lands did receive the benefit — were so far benefited by
this New York money which was made to enrich them, and
among them the farm and other real estate of my friend in
Palestine, that our loss, although not recouped, was somewhat
broken by their appreciation in value. Land on this road now
sells for two, three, or four times its value at the time this
undertaking was begun.

If, then, this railroad has accomplished so much for his sec-
tion; if it has made us who gave it lose all of the money which
built it ; if we built it nor asked one dollar from the gentle-

His Life and Public Services 399

man, though his farm was sure to get an advantage from it ; if
not one dollar was received from any other citizen of Texas,
is it strange that having had this experience in that State and
similar experience in other States we are hurt at the reception
we receive here when we get up and speak not from theory
but from experience, not immodestly, not arrogantly, telling
only what we know, even if we do in the interest of truth tell
the gentleman from Texas that we speak of actual knowledge
while he speaks only as a theorist.

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to show exactly
how each one of his four restrictions — that against discrimina-
tion, against rebates, against pooling, against charging more
for shorter than for longer hauls, — all of them would injure
every single acre of his farming land around Palestine, and
crush, as if under an avalanche, every growing industry in its
streets.

Mr. Reagan. — In the first place, Mr. Speaker, I wish to
disabuse the mind of the gentleman from New Jersey that I
was in any way animated by any feeling of special malevolence
against him, as such was not the fact. I was dealing with a
great public question, and to the language I then used I refer
the House and the country to see whether the animadversions
which I felt it my duty to make are justly founded or not.

I should regret, Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman had his in-
vestment sacrificed in building up the country or its railroads,
but I apprehend the gentleman's picture is deficient in the
statement of all the facts. He says the investment was made
in that railroad. There were two of them, but both were under
one charter. One of them received sixteen sections of six hun-
dred and forty acres of land to the mile, and the other received
twenty sections of six hundred and forty acres of land to the
mile. The one which received the smaller amount received
a bonus, upon which I am now paying a tax, to the amount
of $150,000, from the poor county in which I Hve, in order to
induce the building of a depot there. And I contributed also
my full portion of about $50,000 in money and property in
order to secure the building of a depot of the other road at
that place.

Therefore, while the gentleman is speaking of the munifi-

400 William Walter Phelps

cence of his liberality, he ought to remember that he and the
others to whom he has referred received liberal charters from
the State and most generous treatment on the part of the
county in which I live.

I wish to say further, that notwithstanding the magnificent
treatment on the part of the State, the county, and district in
which I live to these railroads, there is not one there to-day
who would desire to see any injury befall these railroads, so
far as I know. We wish them to prosper. We regard them
as valuable, as excellent servants; but we regard them also as
detestable masters. We do not wish them as masters. We
do not intend to have them as masters. We wish them well.
We hope they may be profitable. In view of the liberal char-
ters granted to the roads in which the gentleman is a stock-
holder, besides the bonus of land and money given by others
in the State, I do not think that his remarks on this subject
were quite what they ought to have been.

Mr. Phelps. — Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose the amend-
ment. I did not mean to say the railroads did not receive
any aid from the State of Texas, nor do I think I made any
statement as to warrant that conclusion. What I said was,
that there was no citizen of Texas asked to subscribe, or who
did, so far as I know, subscribe one dollar of his private funds
to the construction of this railroad. It was the gift exclusively
of Northern capital.

With reference to the generosity of the State I want to say
this: The inducement to build this railroad, for at that time
the unoccupied country offered no business to encourage its
construction, was the formal act of the State by which it
agreed to give us its bonds. I regret that truth requires me
to state what I had no intention of stating, and what is now
drawn out by the comments of the gentleman, that the State of
Texas, having agreed with us that in consideration of building
this road it would give us of those bonds a certain number
to the mile, did absolutely refuse to keep its bargain, and did
repudiate its obligation.

Every effort was made by appeals to the Legislature and to
the Executive and elsewhere throughout the State to obtain
a fulfilment of their promise, but the State persisted. The

His Life and Public Services 401

bonds were prepared, signed, and ready for delivery, but
Texas refused to issue and deliver them to the railroad com-
pany. Had the State of Texas kept its promises, had it not
repudiated its just obligations, and had it given to us the $8000
to the mile that were promised — a repudiation and refusal,
which they wisely made after the railway was constructed and
built — I believe that before this time we might have received
some interest upon our investment. As it is, the investment
is there; it produces no results for the investors. And the
road is there; it is run satisfactorily and produces valuable
results to Texas and its citizens who use it. It satisfies all
their reasonable wants ; it is giving them rates of freight and
passage cheaper than any known outside of the United States ;
and yet we are not getting from it one dollar of interest. And
while the gentleman from Texas tells us that the charter is so
good and the State is so good that we shall see in time a
profit, are we impatient when we complain in the face of his
statement that he would be glad to administer the investment
himself under the laws of the United States, that we ought to
be paid some of the interest of the last twelve years before our
property is taken from us ?

I would like to show, Mr. Speaker, in the three minutes re-
maining, how the first restriction imposed by the gentleman
would affect his own home at Palestine. He would forbid all
discrimination. In the shipment of all classes of freights
brought to the same station at the same time, he would en-
force, under penalty, equal dispatch. If the railway moved
one parcel before another it would be punished. Well, let us
see how such a provision would work at Palestine. Let us
suppose three kinds of freight are delivered at this station for
transportation on the same day. Let us assume that one is a
shipment of fruit, one a shipment of coal, and another a
shipment of grain. They are delivered at the Palestine station
at the same time, and must therefore, under the Reagan law,
be carried off at the same time. The daily freight train comes
along to its regular morning task with the usual number of
vacant cars ready for the ordinary needs of Palestine, but the
three shipments make more than the usual tonnage. The
capacity of the empty cars is not sufficient for all the freight,

402 William Walter Phelps

and only part of it can be taken. The wise conductor, re-
membering the law and knowing its penalty, glances at the
three piles of freight, then at the empty cars on his train, and
recognizes the fact that he has not accommodations for the
whole. He signals the engineer, the whistle is blown, and
the train goes southward to Houston, ignoring fruit, coal, and
corn. All three classes of goods are left at the station. What
is the result? The fruit, which might have been carried for-
ward without injury, is either injured or destroyed by the de-
lay. The coal, which was needed at Houston to keep in blast
an iron furnace, is left at Palestine; operations stop at the
furnace, its fires burn low, and its workers stand in enforced
idleness — loss of capital and of work.

The law of the gentleman from Texas must be charged
with the loss of this work and capital and with the loss or de-
struction of the fruit. And with what is it credited? What
has it accomplished? Nothing; and all this is done in order
that the grain, which might have been delivered days after
without loss or injury to anybody, shall have the same facili-
ties and be deHvered at the same time as the coal and the fruit.
It has estopped the owner of the grain from assailing his mem-
ber of Congress at Palestine with the complaint that some one's
coal and some one's fruit were carried by the railway before his
grain ; that it was an outrageous discrimination, and that he
demands that the laws of the United States shall be made to
prevent such outrages. And that is all it has done.

[During the delivery of the foregoing remarks, when the five
minutes of Mr. Phelps had expired, Mr. Kean of New Jersey
obtained the floor and yielded his time to Mr. Phelps.]

INCREASING SUBSIDIES TO MAIL-CARRYING
STEAMERS

Speech in the House of Representatives, February 13, 1885

Mr. Phelps. — Mr. Chairman, if I get the opportunity I
shall move to amend the section by striking out the limit of
$600,000, so that the net revenue of our foreign mail may

His Life and Public Services 403

be placed without reduction in the hands of the Postmaster^
General to use for these great objects. The net revenue last
year was $1,700,000. This surely is not too much to expend
for objects every way worthy, and especially dear at this time
to the hearts of the American people. It is to revive Ameri-
can commerce and to re-create the merchant marine, of which
our fathers were so proud. The sum is small compared with
the last sums spent by our rivals in these great enterprises.
They give all their net revenue; more, they give all their gross
revenue; more, they add to it all that their treasuries will
allow.

England gave last year a million and a half of dollars more
than her gross receipts, making nearly five millions; France
gave four and a half millions; Italy two millions; Austria one
million; Spain one million; little Holland $300,000. Our
great Republic gave $327,000! Are you proud of this, gentle-
men of the committee? And why should we treat our foreign
service so much worse than our domestic? Will members be-
lieve it? We sent our steamships the dreary width of the
Pacific and paid them 2|- cents per mile. We sent our steam-
ships down the coast that they might deliver the mail in sight
of their homes, and paid them 57 cents per mile; and if you
want to carry in your minds a neat illustration of the crying
injustice of this discrimination, remember that to carry the
mail from Brashear to Galveston, a single night's trip, we paid
a company $50,000; and at the same time we paid the vessels
that carried the American flag to China, to Japan, and to
Australia the munificent sum of $14,849.

If we pay 57 cents a mile to carry our mails on the coast, is
50 cents a mile too much to pay the American owner who sends
his steamer half way round the globe?

England, and America, and France are struggling for the
commerce of South American ports. England sells in them
one hundred and twelve millions of her products; France,
seventy-seven millions, and the United States, sixty-four mil-
lions. Why this anomaly? Our neighbors on this continent
prefer our manners and our merchandise, but American men
and American manufactures can reach them only by Liver-
pool. A double trip across the Atlantic is a burden which

404 William Walter Phelps

crushes even American energy and hope; and we have to see
the country tributary to these ports suppUed from the Euro-
pean market. What ought to be our home market is left for
foreigners to profit by.

Non-manufacturing countries everywhere are the markets
for which civilized nations compete. We can secure them
only by sending our flag and our mail-bags. Trade never
fails to follow the flag. Do you doubt it? Do you doubt that
these are the pioneers that open the way, or that when the
way is open American manufacturers can not walk profitably
in it?

Look at our commerce under this medicine. Look at the
countries where we have managed to secure some kind of
regular or irregular communication. Since 1866 our Mexican
trade has multiplied four times; our Central American trade
eighteen times ; and our Australian trade three times.

Our exports to Mexico were $3,700,000, now they are $14,-
300,000; to Central America were $120,000, now they are
$2,000,000; to Australia were $3,400,000, now they are $9,-
600,000. And yet these are the very countries where British
trade fights us with the resources of a generous government
and the determination to check and destroy our competition.
Last year Great Britain paid the steamships that carried her
flag and mail-bags to Mexico and the West Indies $420,000;
we gave $9,800. She gave for the encouragement of her trade
in China and the East Indies $1,700,000; we gave $14,800.
Does the American merchant have a fair chance with the
British merchant? We ask that he should have some aid in
this bitter competition. And my friend from Pennsylvania
[Mr. Bayne], generally considerate and wise, strives to frighten
us from giving it by raising the ghost of a subsidy. This is
too bad, for the average member starts at the ghost of a
subsidy as Macbeth started at the ghost of Banquo. And yet
this ghost ought "to down." This is no subsidy. A subsidy
is a gift without consideration. Or it is a payment so exces-
sive as to grossly overmatch the service rendered and to be-
come a gratuity. Here is no gift, no excessive payment, no
subsidy. The provision asks only a payment scarcely ade-
quate to the service rendered ; a service vital to the interests

His Life and Public Services 405

of our manufactures and to the men they employ ; a service
vital to the existence of American shipping.

I hope, Mr. Chairman, that this provision will pass, for it is
the first step in a policy which will revive our manufactures,
employ our labor, and place again in the ports of the world
the vessels of American merchants busied in the pursuits of
peace.

CHINESE INDEMNITY

Speech in the House of Representatives, February 13, 1886, on the bill
to indemnify Chinese for damages done them in a miners' riot in
Wyoming Territory in 1885

Mr. Phelps. — Their houses were burned; their goods were
pillaged ; twenty-eight of them were killed and fifteen wounded.
And the only provocation was that they would not join in a
strike. That is the case, and the question is, ' ' What are we
going to do about it? ' ' and the answer ought to be, and I be-
lieve will be, "Do what the administration recommends and
what this bill provides for and pay for the property destroyed."
Not for charity's sake, but for solid reasons. Because it is
good policy, as urged by the gentleman from Illinois [Mr.
Worthington] ; because it is a single reciprocity for a hundred
cases, where China has paid an indemnity to us, as urged
by his colleague, Mr. Hitt, and because it is an international
obligation, as urged by the gentleman from Massachusetts
[Mr. Rice].

It is good policy, because we have more property in China
than China has in the United States. We need millions to
measure our property, thousands will measure theirs ; and if
we change the old rule of practice and adopt the new one,
that the National Government may throw the obligation to de-
fend the rights of foreigners on one of its members, call it
State, Territory, province, or vice-royalty, the United States
will in the future lose a great deal more than China. If the
new rule had prevailed in the East, the great fortunes which
have been brought to this country, and whose splendor is yet
conspicuous in Wall Street and Fifth Avenue, would never
have got across the Pacific. But there is a moral obligation

4o6 William Walter Phelps

stronger than these considerations of policy. We ought to pay
this indemnity to China, because China has paid indemnities
to us in a score, perhaps in a hundred cases similar to this,
only less meritorious.

The history of our diplomatic relations with China for nearly
fifty years has been only the history of prompt and greedy
claims for indemnity on our part and of prompt and generous
payment on its part. It has paid for the rights of every
American citizen when violated. It has paid for the violated
rights of Chinese subjects when they were connected with ours;
as when they paid a Chinese landlord, whose house was de-
stroyed by a mob, because an American leased it, and as
when they paid for the property and clothing of native helpers,
which was lost in the service of American missionaries. This
is the way China paid indemnities up to 1858. In this fashion
she paid them in detail, then she paid them in gross. She
took more than $700,000, gave it to the United States Govern-
ment, and said: "Take this and pay your countrymen."

We took it, we paid all claims generously, with twelve-per-
cent, interest ; but the generosity of China was so ample that
after all this we had left nearly one-third of the original sum
to return to China. China did this and shamed the grudging
spirit in which Christian countries pay their international bills.

This is the moral obligation, but there is a legal one — the
international obligation. The United States has treaties with
the Empire of China. In these treaties she promised to pro-
tect Chinese subjects. The United States has failed to keep
its covenants. It did not protect Chinese subjects, and it is
liable in damages for a broken contract unless it can establish
and maintain as a doctrine of international law that when a
nation makes a treaty with another nation and breaks one of
its covenants it can shift its liability by saying that it was the
covenant and therefore the liability of one of its members.

Unfortunately it is easy to declare this doctrine, but it seems
impossible to establish and maintain. All writers on inter-
national law from Grotius to Woolsey have examined and
rejected it. We have accepted it in declaration but have
always rejected it in practice. We have generally asserted
this doctrine most vehemently at the very moment we were

His Life and Public Services 467

about to transgress it. Our habit has been to assert bad law
and practise good. We did this in the famous case at New
Orleans. A mob destroyed the property of Spanish subjects.
Her Spanish Majesty demanded indemnity.

The powerful voice of Daniel Webster was heard in reply.
He declared this bad law magnificently and referred them to
the State of Louisiana and its courts. Her Spanish Majesty
ignored all this eloquence in declaration of bad law and asked
for the usual practice, and the Secretary of State recommended
Congress to vote the indemnity and say nothing more of the
State's liability. But more significant yet was the case in
China at the time of the Anglo-Chinese war. China, learning
the verbal tricks of civilization, concluded she would declare
bad law and see the result. She told our Department of State
that the vice-royalty of Canton was the party liable and that in
its tribunals the American claimants must find redress. Our
Secretary, Lewis Cass, said little against the bad law in the
plea. — How could he? — but insisted on the usual good practice,
and China, the nation, the empire, paid the bill.

And in European countries the same uniformity of action
prevails, accompanied still in some cases by the same declara-
tion of the bad law, that would relieve national obligation and
substitute local. Indeed, comprehensive as was the claim made
yesterday by the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Rice],
that no text-book in its summary of principles and no civilized
nation in its practice had ever followed this bad law, I believe
it is the truth. If, then, in this case we put the bad law for
the first time into practice against a semi-barbarous nation,
public opinion will say we did it because China was weak and
could not enforce its rights, and the world will compare the
pagan civilization of the Chinese Empire with the Christian
civilization of the great American Republic, and not to our
credit.

The Chairman. — The time of the gentleman from New
Jersey [Mr. Phelps] has expired.

Mr. Henley. — I desire to ask the gentleman from New
Jersey a question.

The Chairman.— The time of the gentleman from New
Jersey has expired.

4o8 William Walter Phelps

Mr. Phelps. — I shall be glad to answer the gentleman's
question if time be given me.

The Chairman. — The gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Mc-
Creary] is entitled to the floor.

Mr. Henley. — Will the gentleman from Kentucky permit
me to put a question to the gentleman from New Jersey?

Mr. McCreary. — I yield for that purpose, but I trust the
gentleman will be very brief.

Mr. Henley. — It was stated yesterday, and the gentleman
from New Jersey doubtless heard the statement, that Mr.
Blaine, when Secretary of State, adopted a different rule from
that for which the gentleman contends and which is asserted
by the Committee on Foreign Affairs in presenting this bill;
in other words, that upon outrages being committed upon
certain Chinese subjects in the city of Denver and upon in-
demnity being demanded, Mr. Blaine or Mr. Evarts, I forget
which

Mr. McKenna. — Both of them. It was I who made the
statement yesterday.

Mr. Henley. — Denied the right to indemnity. I should
like to hear from the gentleman from New Jersey on that sub-
ject, because upon these matters everybody knows him to be
facile princeps.

Mr. Phelps. — If I answer the gentleman in the way he
wishes me to do, I do not see that it involves any contradic-
tion of my statement that Daniel Webster, Lewis Cass, Hamil-
ton Fish, James G. Blaine, and Frederick T. Frelinghuysen
all made the declarations I have cited. I admitted that the
declarations had been made by almost all our administrations
that we were exempt from obligation under a treaty if we could
refer the party complaining to a local authority or tribunal;
but at the same time I claimed that there was no break in the
practice of these very Secretaries, who, after making their
declarations, followed the fashion of American diplomacy and
paid the indemnity whenever it was due and demanded.

His Life and Public Services 409

POST-OFFICE APPROPRIATION BILL

Speech in the House of Representatives, May 19, i886. The question
under discussion, whether the House should appropriate $375,000 for
the transportation of foreign mails, or appropriate $800,000 as provided
by amendment of the Senate

Mr. Millard having the floor, said: "I yield the remainder
of my time to the gentleman from New Jersey."

The Chairman. — The gentleman has twenty-two minutes
of his time remaining.

Mr. Phelps. — This amendment, and especially the action
of the Senate when they passed it, is full of encouragement to
the friends of American shipping. Thirty-nine Senators voted
for the measure; only eighteen voted against it. In the dis-
cussion and in the division there was no effort to make it a
party question. Each Senator spoke and each Senator voted
according to his view of the merits of the question, and on the
final passage eight Democratic Senators

Mr. Blount. — I rise to a question of order.

The Chairman. — The gentleman will state it.

Mr. Blount. — It is not in order to comment on the opinions
or action of Senators.

The Chairman. — The Chair thinks the point of order is
well taken.

Mr. Phelps. — I am not making a comment upon the opin-
ions of Senators beyond stating the facts which are given to
the world by the press and the Congressional Record. I think
the gentleman from Georgia should be proud that eight Demo-
cratic Senators had the courage

The Chairman. — The gentleman will suspend his remarks
till the point of order is determined.

Mr. Phelps. — I trust that the objection of the gentleman
from Georgia to hearing the truth about the action of his col-
leagues in the Senate will not be taken out of my time.

Mr. Blount. — The gentleman from New Jersey is dealing
unfairly in continuing his remarks.

Mr. Phelps. — Why could not the matter of order be settled
if I simply say I read in the public prints that eight Democratic
Senators voted to give free ships to American commerce?

Mr. Blount. — I call the gentleman to order.

4IO William Walter Phelps

The Chairman. — The Chair asks the gentleman from
Georgia to cite the rule under which he makes the point of
order.

Mr. Phelps. — If this is exhausting my time I would rather
print the extract from the Congressional Record which gave
the vote and pass on.

Mr. Burrows. — I presume while the point of order is being
considered that will not be deducted from the gentleman's
time.

The Chairman. — The Chair will take care of that.

Mr. Steele. — I rise to a question of order.

The Chairman. — The gentleman will state it.

Mr. Steele. — Is it in order to delay the business of the
House while the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Blount] is
studying the rules?

The Chairman. — The business of the House is not being
delayed. The rule is being sought at the request of the Chair.

Mr. Blount. — I will ask the Clerk to read from page 132
of yefferson' s Manual.

The Clerk read as follows:

"It is a breach of order in debate to notice what has been
said on the same subject in the other House, or the particular
votes or majorities on it there, because the opinion of each
House should be left to its own independency, not to be influ-
enced by the proceedings of the other; and the quoting them
might beget reflections leading to a misunderstanding between
the two Houses."

The Chairman. — The Chair stated to the gentleman from
New Jersey that he thought the point of order was well taken,
but would be willing to hear from the gentleman after the
reading of the rule.

Mr. Blount. — Mr. Chairman, then, with the view of saving
time, I will withdraw the point of order.

The Chairman. — The point of order being withdrawn, the
gentleman from New Jersey will proceed.

Mr. Phelps. — I tharrk the gentleman for waiving his point
of order and will trespass no further than to say that I read in

His Life and Public Services 411

the public press and the record of Congress that eight Demo-
cratic Senators had the courage to vote to give new ships to
American commerce and new markets to American manufac-
tures. And now, the Senate having done its duty, it is time
for this House to do theirs. The measure has so many ad-
vantages, it suppHes so many wants, we ought promptly to
adopt it. We want steamships; this measure will give them.
We want markets for our surplus ; this measure will give them.
We want to defend our coasts; this measure will give us a
merchant marine, the militia of the sea — the most efficient
means of doing it.

Such a measure, so useful, so reasonable, we shall refuse to
pass, if we do reject it, because its enemies call it a subsidy.
It is not a subsidy, for it is neither a gift nor an excessive
payment. What is it? It is a fair payment to American
ships for carrying the mails, and if you ask me how I ascertain
that the payment is a fair one, I answer, as I ascertain the fair
price for any commodity or any service. I go out into the
markets and I ask the price, and in this case I go out into the
market of the world and learn that this price which we propose
to pay for carrying our mail is less than the price paid by any
other nation. No one has yet challenged the proposition,
except in the case of Germany. Let us pause, then, for a
moment to look at the history of Germany in this relation.
Germany did not encourage her shipping by liberal payment
or gift, and because she did not the gentleman from Georgia
[Mr. Blount] in great enthusiasm exclaimed: "How business-
like! How worthy the great statesman at the head of the
German Empire! "

But what was the result of all this business and all this
statesmanship? Germany secured only two steamship lines
worthy of mention. They run between Hamburg and Bremen
and New York, between old and wealthy ports. These have
done a good business and increased their ships, but only be-
cause they had the business of carrying emigrants, which is
always lucrative. A line to Australia tried to live; but its
service was so wandering and dilatory, it was such a fleet of
tramps, that the Germans sent their mails and their freight in
British bottoms; and look at the result! The old principle

412 William Walter Phelps

operated: business followed the flag, and the Germans found
that London bankers got all of the exchanges and London
merchants were beginning to get all of the business. So Ger-
many acted the part of wisdom. These facts were stated in a
memorial, which was the foundation of new legislation in the
Reichstag, and upon their presentation the German Parliament
acted — reversed its policy, and started courageously upon the
path long trod by its successful neighbors. It agreed to give
$1,000,000 to a single line for carrying the German mail one
year to Australia. One million dollars to a single line ! The
gentleman from Georgia praised the old policy of Germany,
which Germany publicly declared was a failure. Why does
he refuse to praise the new policy of Germany? Must we take
the words from his mouth, and, in view of $1,000,000 voted
directly to the North German Lloyds, exclaim for him: "How
business-like! How worthy the great statesman at the head
of the German Empire! "

But we think this an excessive payment. We have more
moderate notions. Our Pacific Mail Company has for years
been performing this same service upon almost the same terms.
She has carried our mails to Australia promptly, safely, and
frequently. But we did not give her $1,000,000; we gave her
$20,000; and for this paltry sum she carried them during the
year 1884 750,000 miles.

This is the service rendered to the mail service of this coun-
try; and this is all for many a year we have paid her for it.
And yet the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Guenther] has
spoken of this company as an enemy to the country. Yes, an
enemy, if to multiply our trade many times and to get no pay
for doing so is worthy of censure. Yes, if to multiply our
trade with Australia three times, our trade with Mexico four
times, and our trade with Central America fifteen times, and
to do it for nothing, is the act of a public enemy, but not
otherwise. Yet this is what the Pacific Mail has done for us
in the last ten or fifteen years.

This is the payment that Germany makes nowadays for
carrying her mails. I will take one example from the policy
of France, and choose one that is near by and familiar, be-
cause it is easier to understand and to remember.

His Life and Public Services 413

For many years France has had a steamship line plying be-
tween Havre and New York. It was old and faithful, but not
excellent. France sought to improve it. She offered an in-
ducement, and as a result five new steamers of magnificent
proportions are entering the line. And what is the induce-
ment ? France gives each steamer that makes the round trip
$14,500. The round trip is 6000 miles; so if we pay the
highest rate warranted by this amendment the United States
will pay to the American steamer that renders this service
$3000. France pays $14,500 for what we are to pay — if our
opponents will let us give this "subsidy" — $3000. And Ger-
many now pays $1,000,000 for what the United States has
been paying $20,000.

I will not seek other examples, but will repeat my original
declaration without fear of contradiction, that no nation pays
so little for similar services as we propose to do even under
this amendment. And I also repeat, in view of that truth,
that this amendment proposes only a fair payment to American
ships for carrying the American mails.

Now, let us consider what we get besides if we make this
fair payment. We get two things that we want very much —
steamships and trade. And if you ask me again how do I
know this, my answer is: First, because there are capitalists
versed in nautical business who have again and again declared
their readiness to establish new lines between all the old ports
and to any of the new if the vote of this amendment can be
assured for years; but, secondly, because this has been the
policy of all European nations and has always had the same
results. This nation wanted ships and wanted trade. They
paid their money after this fashion we are speaking of and
they got ships and trade, and almost in the ratio in which they
paid their money. England paid the most, so England got
the largest returns.

Since 1840 England has paid $250,000,000 in such subsidies.
A monstrous sum, and yet there was thrift in it. She paid
$250,000,000, but she has to-day 55 per cent, of the foreign
tonnage of the world and 44 per cent, of all its tonnage.
EngUshmen can proudly look over the world and see these
results, and if there were time for details how many separate

414 William Walter Phelps

proofs of the wisdom of this policy might be cited like this.
The United States now sends across the seas 25,000,000 tons
annually. Statisticians say it is fair to assume that each ton
costs |6. If that is so, this country alone pays to Great Brit-
ain $150,000,000 for freight each year. But this only shows
the liberality with which England spends money to encourage
the mercantile marine. I want to show further, by a little
incident, the courage and energy with which, under all cir-
cumstances, she pursues this policy. France got her steamship
line into Brazil first — Brazil for whose trade civilization com-
petes and whose trade ought to be ours. This French line
carried English mails and freight with safety and dispatch. It
was practically direct connection for England, as the French
vessels stopped at Southampton.

But this did not satisfy England. She had learned the les-
son too well that trade follows the flag, and she determined
to send her own flag to Brazil, so she made this extraordinary
offer, to guarantee eight per cent, on all the capital which
should be invested in a new English line, and this was in effect
the form of her guarantee : If the profits made by this company
shall not equal eight per cent, on the capital invested, then the
Government will make up the deficiency. Was it a bad invest-
ment? Look at the trade of Brazil to-day. France and Eng-
land to-day buy from Brazil about as much of its productions
as we. These two nations buy between fifty and sixty millions
of Brazilian products, and so does the United States. But
when we look for the reciprocity how different the picture!
Brazil buys of the United States nine millions; Brazil buys of
France and England forty-nine millions of merchandise. And
yet, as the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Burrows] showed,
the bulk of the merchandise which Brazil buys consists of just
those articles which are American specialties, and which our
countrymen can produce better and cheaper than any competi-
tors. The articles consist largely of cotton goods, machinery,
agricultural implements. But France and England are willing
to pay for it and own their transportation. We have no direct
communication, and that disadvantage more than balances the
natural advantages which we possess.

I have no time to speak of our long coast, which no navy

His Life and Public Services 415

can protect, and which must be left to the care of our mercan-
tile marine.

The Speaker. — The gentleman from New Jersey has already
exceeded his time by two minutes. But the Chair will recog-
nize him in his own right of

Mr. Bingham. — How much time does the gentleman want?

Mr. Phelps. — Five minutes are enough.

Mr. Bingham. — I will yield eight minutes of my time to the
gentleman from New Jersey.

Mr. Phelps. — Mr. Speaker, I shall not abuse my friend's
courtesy, and I will sum up the rest of the points I wanted to
make.

There are several questions the friends of this measure ask
and never get an answer. Let me repeat them. Why do the
opponents of the measure do so much and pay so much for
our domestic mails and do so little and pay so little for our
foreign mails? What is the difference? Why have they given
so much to railways — too much — in money, $100,000,000; in
land, 200,000,000 acres? And why do they refuse to give
anything to steamships? What is the difference? And why
do they encourage us to pay for carrying our mails on the
land and along the coast more than the service returns, and
exhibit horror when we suggest that they expend in the de-
velopment of our foreign commerce scarcely half the money
which our foreign mails have paid into the Treasury? We
ask»You to give $800,000 to encourage this great interest and
you refuse, although you collect over $1,600,000 in ocean
postage. Shall we encourage home trade and frown upon
foreign commerce?

Mr. Speaker, I want again to refer to the action of the
Senate, not to abuse the courtesy of the gentleman from Geor-
gia, who waived the point of order, but to recall a remark
which the Record officially recorded and the newspapers re-
ported. A Senator had the courage to state the whole truth
in this matter. He said his only regret in voting for this
amendment was that the amount appropriated was too small.
That Senator was the Senator from Georgia; and I say now,
not in taunt of the gentleman from Georgia, whose sincerity I
greatly honor, but in kindness for him — if what we hear of his

4i6 William Walter Phelps

great State is true ; if it is growing in wealth, population, in-
telligence, and energy, the sentiments of her Senator are likely
to be sentiments which his own people will approve and
reward.

PRESENTING THE STATUES OF STOCKTON

AND KEARNY TO CONGRESS BY THE

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

[Mr. Phelps was selected to make a presentation address
August 21, 1888, in which he said:]

In response to the invitation of 1864, New Jersey to-day
tenders to Congress the statues of Richard Stockton and
Philip Kearny. They are two of her citizens who are illus-
trious for their historic renown, which was acquired by the
one in the civil service and by the other in the military service
of his country. As you may imagine, she looked long at the
line of heroes that have illustrated her history before she could
call out from it the fortunate two who shall for all time repre-
sent the Commonwealth of New Jersey at the Capitol. She
had essayed in vain to make the selection had she not deter-
mined to choose a statesman and a soldier, a citizen of the
distant past and a citizen almost of the immediate present,
that these marble figures might tell at the first glance that the
sons of New Jersey at all periods and in all callings had but
one supreme motive — the welfare of their country. Richard
Stockton, the statesman, was born at Princeton in 1730, of the
earliest and best New Jersey lineage. He received the best
of academic and collegiate educations ; he pursued the profes-
sion of the law and became the head of the New Jersey bar.
For personal improvement he spent two years in Great Britain
and received there the distinguished attention his disposition
and talents entitled him to. He was presented to the King in
London and consulted there with Rockingham, Chatham, and
other good friends of his distant home. Edinburgh gave
him the freedom of the city, and in Dublin he gave the Irish
that sympathy his countrymen at this distant day still feel for
that unfortunate island. Upon his return in 1768, he was
appointed a member of the King's council, and six years after-

His Life and Public Services 417

wards one of the judges of His Majesty's supreme court. In
June, 1776, he was elected by the provincial congress of New
Jersey to be one of its representatives in the General Congress
then sitting at Philadelphia. As such representative he signed
the Declaration of Independence. In September the Legisla-
ture, in selecting a governor, divided its suffrages between him
and WiUiam Livingston. Upon Stockton's withdrawal from
that contest, he was elected a few months afterwards chief-
justice. Before assuming these duties he visited the Congres-
sional army as one of a Congressional committee on investigation
intrusted with extraordinary powers, which were wisely used.
Returning to his home to superintend the removal of his
family, whose safety was threatened by the approach of the
British army, he was himself captured. He was imprisoned
in Amboy and New York under circumstances of such cruelty
that his health was lost. After his release, which was made
the concernment of General Washington by a special resolu-
tion of Congress, he retired to the ruins of his home at Prince-
ton a broken man, and died there aged fifty years.

Philip Kearny, the soldier, was born in New York in 1814.
He received a fair education, and when of age entered the
army as a second lieutenant of dragoons. He fought on the
frontier with the Indians; he was sent to Europe to report on
French tactics, and fought the Algerines so well as to win the
decoration of the Legion of Honor. Returning, he went to
the Mexican war; he was made captain in 1846 for gallantry
at Contreras and Churubusco; he was brevetted major. He
pursued the flying enemy into the City of Mexico, and was the
first to enter its gates. In accomplishing his escape he lost
his left arm. Afterwards he rendered service in California,
and is entitled to a large share of the credit of adding that
territory to our national domain. He went to Europe, con-
tinued his studies, and served in the ItaUan war in 1859.
When the Civil War broke out he came back, and May 17,
1861, took command of a New Jersey brigade. His promo-
tion was rapid, won by gallantry in many a familiar field — Wil-
liamsburgh. Fair Oaks, Centreville. He was a major-general
at Warrenton Junction. At Chantilly, telling orderly and
aids to keep back, he rode forward himself to see the position

41 8 William Walter Phelps

and was killed September i, 1862, only forty-eight years
old.

Could two characters have been more different, or two
careers? Contemplation and action. Peace and war. Stock-
ton was the model of a statesman; fond of study and contem-
plation ; a man fitted at every point for the duties of peaceful
society. Kearny was the model of a soldier, fond of excitement
and action, a man fitted at every point for the stern duties of
war. Their supreme devotion to patriotic duty was the only
trait in common. They were two most dissimilar types of
character, and their grouping in equal honor on this occasion
teaches us another lesson that an earnest purpose and not a
special temperament is all that is necessary to make a man
some way useful to his fellow-men. The Quaker blood in
Stockton gave him that moderation which philosophy says is
the one essential of statesmanship. The Irish blood in Kearny
kindled in him that ardor which gives the courage to despise
obstacles and to anticipate success, qualities which are indis-
pensable to military leadership. Stockton did everything after
mature consideration, upon a judgment carefully instructed
by study and experience. He was the great lawyer, the wise
counsellor, the prudent statesman ; he did not lack in courage,
physical or moral. He wounded and fought off a robber who
assaulted him in the streets of London, and met the physical
privations of his capture without a murmur.

Nor did he hesitate longer than to convince his judgment,
before he declared his independence of a sovereign who had
shown him personal courtesy and given him public ofifice and
honor. But, for all that, he was a natural conservative, who
preferred to run no risks, but to stand by all precedents where
honor would permit it. He had a love for a complete de-
corum in all relations, which made him as careful with the
mint and anise and cumin as in the weightier matters of the
law. As farmer, lawyer, judge, member of Congress, son,
husband, father, and friend, he was a model. The well-
rounded symmetry of his character always reminded me
of Washington, whose friendship he enjoyed. Except that
Stockton's life and character had no military tinge, there was
a striking resemblance between these two men. They were

His Life and Public Services 419

both perfect gentlemen of the antique world: courteous, dig-
nified, methodical, never forgetting themselves, and in justice
let me say, never forgetting any one else whom they ought to
remember. Just as I can picture Washington at Mount Ver-
non, I can picture this New Jersey gentleman sitting on the
broad acres of Princeton which his grandfather had acquired
in the seventeenth century. I can believe he had no greater
pride than in recaUing his stainless and distinguished hne of
ancestry, unless Providence had kindly lifted for him the veil
of the future that he might behold his son, his grandson, and
his great-grandson occupying seats in the Senate by their
merits as regularly and as surely as if they were a Stockton
heirloom.

How different from this picture is the active life and restless
genius of Phil Kearny! He cared nothing for details; he
ignored them all that he might concentrate all his energies
upon the great principle for which he strove. Toward that
object he rolled in molten stream his past, his present, his
future, his memories and hopes, his courage and his parts, all
that there was in him. Such enthusiasm could not wait for
the slow processes of reason. He appealed often to instinct,
knowing that he was a child of genius and that genius was kind
to her children. The appeal was often not in vain, .and then
Indian and Mexican and Algerine and Italian and Confederate
looked upon him in his rapid strategy and magnificent charge
as an inspired madman ; and yet when, unwilling to trust to
these dangerous gifts, he appealed to the ordinary processes
of mankind, he would show the power to plan and organize,
which is the basis of the most solid military character. His
intensity of nature, however, generally controlled him and
brought with it all its natural advantages and disadvantages.
He could see only the object at which he aimed, and in pur-
suit of that object he would ride roughshod over anything in
his way — not from indifference, not from unkindness, but his
look was focussed on the distant object, and it could not be
changed. Had this fierce enthusiasm, this concentration of
fiery genius been for an unworthy object, it would have been
inexcusable and baneful. Fortunately it was almost always
directed to a noble and unselfish end, and those over whom

420 William Walter Phelps

he rode healed their wounds and forgave him, knowing that he
was riding desperately at a common enemy. Brave as a lion,
tender as a woman, his portrait remains the beau ideal of a
soldier, and the picture of that slim, handsome figure riding
all alone to its death at Chantilly, with his bridle in his teeth
and his only remaining arm waving his sword, goes down to
history as symbolic of the character and conduct of this gal-
lant leader, the Murat of our volunteer army. Soldier and
statesman, hail! farewell! May our country never lack the
unselfish wisdom in her later councils which Richard Stockton
gave in her earliest, and may she never lack in the execution
of them the self-devotion which made Philip Kearny, for his
country's sake, ride to death as to a festival!

SPEECH OF MR. PHELPS BEFORE THE NEW
JERSEY STATE BOARD OF AGRICUL-
TURE, FEBRUARY 5, 1884

As we are to spend an hour together let us, at the start,
come to an understanding.

I claim no superior knowledge of agriculture derived from
the study of it as a science, or the practice of it as an art.
Perhaps, when I consider that I address the State Board of
Agriculture, whose members have, in many cases, made the
interests of the soil their business, I can without undue humil-
ity assume that I know less than they do about everything
except the special topic to which I have given some study,
and of which I shall speak to-night.

And yet I would not have my disclaimer so sternly construed
as to find that I had excluded myself from the guild of farm-
ers. I cannot recall the time when I did not own a piece of
land which was tilled, always with pride, though not always
with profit. I have gathered from reading and the traditions
of a Puritan ancestry the conviction that every citizen of a
republic who deserved well of it, should, even at a sacrifice,
supplement his other activities, however pressing and numer-
ous, with a little agriculture. I believed, in brief, that if it
were a sweet and honorable thing to die for one's country, so
it was to farm for it, and I have acted accordingly. The

His Life and Public Services 421

reasons of the ancients, when they made this practice one of
the tests of republican character, still live. Agriculture is
still the basis of national wealth and prosperity ; still the prizes
it offers are less brilliant and attractive than those which other
pursuits offer to the ambitious and capable. A duty still calls
upon the patriotic citizen, who succeeds in the forum, the
market, or the field, to use some of the resources he has won
there, in fostering agriculture. Even more than to others
does this duty appeal to the successful American, for his Gov-
ernment is singularly indifferent. Where France spent last
year $20,000,000, Russia $15,000,000, little Sweden $500,000,
the United States spent only $174,686 in helping an industry
in which 7,710,000 out of its 17,400,000 workers find their
livelihood. Nor are Americans all deaf to the appeal. Let
Roman agriculture boast of contributions from poets like
Horace, orators like Cicero, soldiers like Caesar; Roslyn and
Marshfield and Windsor and "The St. Louis Farm" show
that the American poets, orators, and lawyers find considera-
tion for the money they spent at the model farm in the de-
lights of country life, and in the consciousness of patriotic
contribution to a great and neglected industry.

Not presuming to class myself with men like Bryant, and
Webster, and Evarts, and Grant, whose devotion adds lustre
and dignity to farm life, I may yet congratulate myself and
you that a similar taste and experience do me this service;
I shall not repeat the old story. I shall take something for
granted, and assume that the common doctrines of agriculture
are known and accepted by you.

If, then, at the threshold I touch some of them by simple
allusion, it is as the Apostles' Creed is recited in the churches,
not to teach but to remind. They are the farmers' creed,
which no well-regulated farmers' meeting should be without.

FENCES, TREES, AND WISE ECONOMY

I believe in removing the fences which cut and slash the
face of our fair Jersey landscape like an ill-kept razor. The
wood and stone with which our ancestors laboriously shut
up broad acres which had no intention to get out served no

422 William Walter Phelps

purpose outside of the pasture lot, except to occupy useful soil,
spoil the view, and drain the pocket. Fences cost us twenty
millions at the start; they take at least five per cent, on this
cost to keep them in repair. This is $1,000,000. They take
six per cent, on this cost to pay the interest. This is $1,200,-
000, so that they cost us annually $2,200,000 — mostly waste.
The fences must go.

We believe in making good roads and in spending money
judiciously but liberally to keep them so. This is sound policy
for farmers everywhere. It saves the team, the wear and tear
of the wagon, and aids not only in transportation, but in the
other operations of the farm, in nearly all of which transporta-
tion is an important factor. But the good road is especially
important to our fortunes as Jersey farmers. We have a right
to consider among the probable gains of our future the prob-
ability of great and rapid increase in the value of our land.
Young men and old, weary of city life, in all seasons of the
year, spend their holidays in exploring our State ; they swarm
upon our hill-tops and straggle into our deep valleys, intelligent
and thoughtful explorers. The first thing they notice is the
highways. How can they help it ? It is the path by which
they come. It is the last thing they notice. How can they
help it? It is the path by which they return. The condition
of that highway will generally fix their choice to purchase or
seek elsewhere. Business necessity for them demands that
access shall be easy; and that impatience for freedom, which
drives them from the crowd and block of the city streets, finds
rest only in the smooth and open road which invites and as-
sures unchecked activity. We must spend money on our
roads as the surest way of increasing the market value of our
land. Bad roads must go.

Nor need we pause because the amount is small — perhaps
limited to the meagre sum that the district has for a century
expended each year on what it calls "keeping them up" —
only we must change the fashion of the expenditure. We will
not "keep up" the roads; we will not plough and scrape to
the middle of the road the same dirt which nature will more
slowly, but certainly, wash back to the sides. Let such im-
provement cease, and let us expend the appropriation in

His Life and Public Services 423

making one piece of complete and permanent roadway. The
condition of the whole road district would not under this
neglect be much worse, while the condition of that section
would be much better. The people among whom I live have
adopted this modern practice after many wasted years, and, as
a result, Englewood already boasts miles of park drives which
are an asset adding immensely to the value of the township.

We believe in trees. Plant them on the roadside, and
cherish the scattered specimen that an irrepressible nature
has managed under all obstacles to keep in our fields. They
stand for comfort and beauty. Save your forests and use them
as a perpetual wood and lumber yard. You do not kill your
cow, you keep her to milk ; why kill your forest? You keep it
not for lumber and wood only. The forests stand, too, for a
wider utility as having influence for good on the climate, rain-
fall, and the watercourse.

And finally, we believe in the intelligent economy that the
close trade of farming demands. This economy would paint
the buildings, house the cattle, fill the tool shop, enrich the
soil, and educate the children — not as scholars, but as intelli-
gent farming men and women. And all of us believe nothing
should tempt these intelligent men and women to run into
debt unless it were for manure. We could make this creed
much longer. But this is long enough, if practised, to make
our land worth as much as that in the island of Jersey. That
is worth ;^ioo per acre; and many an acre, in our State,
would under similar tillage be worth as much, for it would re-
turn an income on that valuation. This is a claim I would
not dare to make for any other State in the Union, and in
making it I am brought directly to the subject of this evening's
discussion — the superior advantages the State of New Jersey
offers the agriculturist. For some time I have thought that
our State offered him better prospects for comfort and wealth
than any other. I grew to think so by watching the general
drift of facts and talk and public opinion, not blind to the
wonderful resources of the West, but forced everywhere to
recognize the wonderful and peculiar resources of New Jersey.
The examination of better — because more definite — informa-
tion for the purpose of this address, has confirmed this opinion.

424 William Walter Phelps

and I am tempted to say " That which I thought, now I
know." Mindful of the extent and intricacy involved in such
a comparison, I will not assume infallibility. But I feel sure
enough of the results to assume the responsibility of changing
the counsel of the past, and I say ' ' Young man, dorCt go
West, but stay East! " Will you review with me the com-
parison which I have made. First, let us state fairly the
advantages of the Western States.

WESTERN ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

The land is cheap. True; although, if the land is good
and fairly situated, not so cheap as it used to be. There is a
demand nowadays at a fair price for all good Western lands.

The land is fertile, easily tilled, and needs no manure. True,
too; and here is, perhaps, the chief advantage to which the
West for the last twenty years has owed its popularity with the
emigrant. The land constantly increases in value ; rapidly in
some points, but at some rate everywhere. This appreciation
insures a return beyond the natural rewards of his labor, and
is a bounty to the husbandman.

The Western farmer can introduce a new method without
the expense and loss of change from old methods of production
and transportation. This is a great advantage. He has no
ruts to get out of, no old-fashioned machinery to store, no old
apple-trees to root out, no traditions and habits of the neigh-
borhood to impede and harass him. His land is ready, like
potter's clay, for him to mould it as he pleases.

Finally — His holdings are so large that he can farm at
wholesale and secure the economies of large transactions.
The man's arm yields to the horse's leg and to the engine's
piston.

Now for his disadvantages. His markets are remote. That
implies long transportation and higher rates. Long transpor-
tation requires simple and unvaried agriculture. He must
confine himself mainly to grain and cattle. These are in-
dustries where the profits are chiefly made by the great farmers.
Grain and cattle are in that small number of products where
the rich and wholesale producer has great advantages. It is

His Life and Public Services 425

cheaper to raise a million bushels of wheat or a thousand head
of cattle than it is to raise a thousand bushels or a hundred
head. There is no such difference between the production at
wholesale or at retail of eggs and chickens, and fruits and
vegetables and flowers, and the thousand varied and pleasant
industries which a nearer market and unrestricted choice give
to all. Remote markets crush the small farmer. Even the
great farmer suffers, because the facilities of transportation
must be scant and imperfect. The distant markets can be
reached only by a single railway, and his success is marred or
made by the corporation that owns it. The problems of trans-
portation to him are always full of anxiety and often of loss.
Sometimes the railway is new and lacks sufficient equipment
to move the crops. Oftener it is a feeble corporation and
cannot work its way into a trunk line. Again, the rate is so
high, as to forbid export, or worse yet, the great farmer sees
some bonanza farmer, who sends a thousand tons to his hun-
dred tons, receive upon his larger shipment, or perhaps upon
his larger investment in the railway stock, special rates of
transportation. The Western farmer, great or small, may
well envy the man who has his market near and many routes
to reach it.

But the gravest objections are those that strike his home.
Under its roof he looks for the rewards of his toil. All the
rest is a struggle for living, and here he must test the life he
has won. It need not be luxurious to make it worth living,
but it should be comfortable and should have some intellectual
color. A great many homes have the color. But too often it
is the home of the pioneer, and dark and empty with the lack
and pain of pioneer life ; the house rude, often unceiled, with-
out the necessary conveniences, is tasteless inside and out.
The economy within is rough and sordid, for few male or
female assistants can be found to take the ruder tasks. His
table is confined to the products of the farm. Fresh meat is
a rarity, and so are fruits, fish, vegetables, and everything that
would be a variety to his fare. Nor can he find diversion or
compensation outside. There is no refined society for him or
his family, no church or school; they have yet to be built.
Such life is a struggle for mere existence, and can satisfy

426 William Walter Phelps

only the foreign emigrant whom tradition and experience have
taught to find his chief enjoyment in the discovery of new
economies, to prolong it. It is unsatisfactory and odious to
the Jerseyman who has known a fuller and better life.

NEW JERSEY AND HER SISTERS

We have spoken of the East and the West. Now let us look
at our own State. Our manufactures, with their masses of
masonry, their talk of tariffs, and the noise and the struggle
of their trades-unions absorb our attention, and we forget that
New Jersey is a State of most extensive and successful agri-
culture. It is small, is counted the forty-third among the States
and Territories, nor is grain its great industry, yet in the an-
nual production of wheat New Jersey is twenty-third in the list,
with a crop of nearly 2,000,000 of bushels. In the annual
production of oats it is twentieth, in the list, with a production
of nearly 4,000,000 of bushels. And, generally, we may claim
that in these simplest forms of agriculture our position is above
the average, and in agricultural and horticultural specialties
our position is the first. But even after this statement you
will wonder at the details. Look at the percentage which the
annual products of the farm bear to the capital invested in two
of our counties — one about the worst, the other about the best
for such a comparison. In Bergen County the value of the
products is ten per cent. This county lies opposite to New
York, and the interest is moderate because, in many cases,
the farming acre has to bear the assessment of a villa lot, and
many villa lots which produce nothing are counted as farming
acres. But in Burlington County, which crosses our State
like a zone, and whose character is agricultural and not sub-
urban, it is twenty per cent. This is not a bad result in
either county. But our object is to compare our State with
other States in all particulars which would decide its relative
grade as a farming State. We will take the land itself first.
What is the value of the farming acre in New Jersey and the
value of the farming acre in the United States? The answer
shows the value of the land without tools, or machinery, or
crop, or stock. As we look through the tables we pause a

His Life and Public Services 427

moment to notice the preponderance of the industry which
your association helps to foster.

The farms of the United States are worth 10,197 millions,
while all other real estate, including the dweUing and ware-
houses of the city, the capital employed in business and the
water power besides, is but 9,881 millions; railroads and their
equipment are worth but 5,536 millions; and mines, including
petroleum wells and gold and silver bonanzas and stone and
other quarries, are worth but 780 millions. To the ten thou-
sand millions invested in farming lands New Jersey contributes
the most valuable land, for while the average acre of the
United States is worth but $19.02, the New Jersey acre is
worth $65.15. If, having ascertained the value of our acre,
we look to see the average value of what it produces in the
different States we find that in 1879 it was:

The United States $7-77

Connecticut 10.97

Illinois 7-8i

Indiana 8.24

Massachusetts II-34

Ohio 8.66

New Jersey I4- ^4

In 1869 the value of all produce was exceptionally high. In
that year New Jersey maintained its supremacy and showed
$21.61 as the value that was raised on each of her cultivated
acres.

In 1879 each acre, sown with seed of com, wheat, or oats,

produced in the

United States In New Jersey

Corn 24-6 28.9

Wheat 13-6 I3.6

Oats 26.14 29.2

Or, if we look at the value of the live stock, we find this result:

United States New Jersey

Horses I20.59 ^9-48

Mules 79-49 "7-65

Milch cows '. 30.21 39-63

Sheep 2.53 4-44

Swine 6.75 12.75

428 William Walter Phelps

Let us next see where the farming folk are the richest. Each
person engaged in farming is worth in the

United States |i,578

Connecticut 3i070

Illinois 2,688

Indiana 2, 195

Massachusetts 2,529

Ohio 3,496

New Jersey 3,591

But let US look to see where labor engaged in farming gets
the largest return. Each person engaged in this work earned
in the year 1879 in the

United States $314.63

Connecticut 409.08

Illinois 467.51

Indiana 346.30

Massachusetts 371.46

Ohio 394-41

New Jersey 500.00

This rapid survey of results is startling. It places New
Jersey at the van among agricultural States. In all particu-
lars her record places her above the average, and in most, at
the very top. If we look at the land which is the source from
which agriculture draws all its wealth, we find that an acre in
New Jersey is worth more than an acre in any other State. If
we look at what this acre produces, we find that it produces
more bushels of grain than the average, and more of the pro-
ducts of a varied agriculture than any other acre, for the out-
come of the Jersey acre sells for more. If we look at the
Jerseyman who gets such results from the Jersey acre, we find
that he has more capital than any other farmer, and that he
ought to have, because each year gives him a larger income
than his rival.

These results are very encouraging; nor are they startling
when we examine with equal care the peculiar conditions
under which this industry is practised. The results which
these statistics reveal come logically from advantages which
New Jersey possesses over all other States, and which we will
now summarize.

His Life and Public Services 429

SPECIAL ADVANTAGES OF NEW JERSEY

New Jersey, by her fortunate position, combines advantages
which are peculiar to the Eastern and to the Western States.
In our summary of the inducements which the West offers to
the Eastern farmer, we mentioned the facts that Western land
was cheap; that it was increasing in value; and that it was
easy of tillage. In all these three, our old Eastern State
competes with her new Western sisters. If you speak of
cheap land, I think I am correct in claiming that land can yet
be bought in the southern part of New Jersey for $ro per
acre, not more than four hours from the great cities of Phila-
delphia and New York, and that within two hours of either of
these markets good farming land, which has been tilled for
two centuries, may be bought for $ioo per acre. The
southern and cheaper acre at the touch of marl yields large
crops, and the northern acre at the touch of ordinary manures
— which neighboring villages and towns offer at moderate cost
— blooms prolific as the plains of Lombardy. The farmer
who wants cheap land need not go West. We spoke of the
regular and rapid increase in the values of Western lands, and
thought this element played, probably, the largest part in the
Western farmer's gains. Railways come, and a village grows
upon his prairie; then came a town, then a city. This, of
course, was an exceptional, but by no means an extraordinary
fortune. It is not an exceptional but a natural result that this
prairie, even if it misses the advent of a town, shall regularly
increase in market value; for the State of which it is apart
swells rapidly and regularly with wealth and population. This
increase in value, ordinary or exceptional, no Eastern State
can claim, except New Jersey. It comes from her position.
Lying between two great cities, and traversed by innumerable
railways that connect all parts of her domain with them, the
overflow of their populations makes a constant and healthy
growth. No other State of the Eastern or Middle groups
grew in population as did New Jersey during the last two
decades. In this regard it stood with the Western States, and
was compared with them. To this rapid increase of popula-
tion it owes the regular and ordinary increase in the value of its

430 William Walter Phelps

acreage. But it has also cases of exceptional and extraordinary
appreciation, numerous and dazzling as any found in the his-
tory of Western development. A peculiar charm of surround-
ings; a quiet lake; a forest of pine trees; a successful factory
on a little stream; or the mere whim of a wealthy speculator
whose eye has caught a pretty view as he is whirled from the
Exchange in Broad Street to the Exchange in Third Street, is
often all that is necessary to wave, as with a wand, a village
or a town into being. Cases are not infrequent where in less
than two years the village lot has sold for the same money
which bought the farming acre from which it is cut. A
prudent farmer should not rely upon, or anticipate such
extraordinary increase, but he has a right to expect and rely
upon regular increase, which is derived from regular causes,
and to count it a proper and certain element in estimating the
results of his work. And as he cannot shut his eyes to the
extraordinary advances which come by frequent accident in
his neighborhood, his own chances in that direction figure in
the ambitious dreams which fill his moments of leisure.

NEAR MARKETS

Easy as the Western prairie is to till where the ploughshare
and cultivator's tooth moved without let or hindrance, we find
equal facility of tillage in our Jersey land. The fertile land
of the northern half, originally rough and stony, has been
worked by so many generations that it lies now without stump
or stone, a mass of mellow land ready for garden culture ; and
nature made the sandy loam of the southern half equally mel-
low, and it lies as ready to receive marl as the dough of the
cook to receive yeast. These are the advantages New Jersey
has in common with her Western sisters. She has in common
with her Eastern sisters, but to a greater extent, the neighbor-
hood of great markets. On the wrong side of the Hudson,
and of the Delaware, are cities where, in one case, two mil-
lions, and in the other one million of human beings stand
waiting to receive their food ; and on the right side of these
rivers, within the borders of this fortunate little common-
wealth, are cities of a hundred thousand like Newark, of fifty

His Life and Public Services 431

thousand like Paterson and Camden, of twenty thousand Hke
Trenton, Elizabeth, New Brunswick, into whose morning
streets are wheeled from the neighboring farms the food for
thousands of human beings. The neighborhood of such
markets may be of little value to the great farmer who fills his
trains with wheat and sends them to the seaboard for foreign
export, but to the small farmer of varied industries who raises
flowers, and fruits, and vegetables, and poultry, the value is
incalculable. In this matter of transportation New Jersey has
extraordinary advantages. Few spots in the State are without
two railway communications, many have more, and some of
the best farming centres are in such propinquity to the great
cities, that in case of any unjust discrimination they could,
with a slight increase of cost, transport their own products.
To the neighborhood of these great cities the Jersey farmer
owes to a great extent the superiority of his home in all that
adds to the comfort and happiness of its inmates. The city,
its libraries, its galleries, its daytime amusements, are within
the reach of all, and half of the population of New Jersey,
without extraordinary hardship, can participate in those eve-
ning entertainments which are the peculiar attraction of city
life. Constant intercourse with city friends gives that variety
of interest and thought which keeps the country mind from
stagnation.

PRESENT DISCOURAGEMENTS ,

It is a discouragement to the casual observer that the rural
population diminishes. A moment's thought would show that
this does not indicate, of necessity, diminished production.
Machinery now does the work of many men who are released
and can seek different employments in the towns. The in-
dustries connected with the farm — spinning, weaving, wdgon
and tool making is no more done at the cross-roads, but in the
villages and towns which a protective tariff has built in the
neighborhood. Not an unmixed evil, for while these towns
are of great value in furnishing the market they furnish
great temptation, especially when they grow into cities on a
hill, to attract the ambitious youth. The superior luxury, the

432 William Walter Phelps

excitement, the amusements for the evening, and most of all
the stories of the great millionaires whose millions vie with those
of kings, give an unhealthy stimulus to his imagination. They
know that these pleasures are, and they think that such gigan-
tic success is within the reach of all, forgetting that in a popu-
lation of fifty millions under circumstances of rapid national
development which may never occur again, these favorites of
fortune can be counted on a single hand.

FEWER FARMERS, GREATER PROFITS

This reduction in the number of farmers, so far from being
a loss to the agriculturist, is a gain, if the population otherwise
employed increases as it does in New Jersey. Indeed, the
reason why our Jersey land is worth so much, and the income
derived from it is so large, lies in the paradoxical fact that
there are so few farmers in the State. One would naturally
suppose that the more farmers there were the greater would
be the demand for farms and the greater would be their value.
But investigation shows that the reverse is the case. For
when there are many farmers in proportion to the number of
those not engaged in that industry the farmers compete with
each other, and so lower the price of their products that the
produce of the soil sells for less, and naturally the soil itself.
Let us look again at the figures:

Per cent, of Agricultural Workers Value of Acre

Massachusetts has 9 $43. 52

Connecticut 18 49-34

New York 20 44.41

Pennsylvania 21 49.30

New Jersey 15 65.16

New Hampshire 31 20. 38

Illinois 44. 31.87

Virginia 51 10.89

Kentucky 62 » 1392

Georgia 72 4. 30

Mississippi 80 5.86

This table shows clearly that the smaller ratio the farmers
bear to the whole population the greater is the value of their
farms. Massachusetts has only 9 per cent, of its popluation

His Life and Public Services 433

at work on the farm and its land is worth $43.52 per acre.
Then as we pass down the column we see the value of the
land diminishing with fair regularity, just as the relative num-
ber of those engaged in farming increases, until we strike Mis-
sissippi. Here 80 per cent, of the population are farmers, on
land worth only $5.86 per acre.

In this table New Jersey's ratio is fifteen per cent, of
agriculturists. As we know, its land is worth the most of any
State — ^$65.16. This would seem to be a break in the uni-
formity of the rule. But the proportion of the population of
the adjacent cities fed by New Jersey ought, for the purposes
of this examination, to be considered as within her jurisdiction,
and would reduce the rate from fifteen per cent, to possibly
six or seven per cent. There would seem to be no doubt, in
view of these figures, of the great principle that the value of
agricultural land increases with the increase of the non-agri-
cultural part of the population. Fertility of soil, position of
markets, mines, and other resources may affect particular
areas, but the general principle is assured. We shall find the
same laws governing, if we look at the value of the products
of the land as represented by what each farmer earns, and
compare it with the ratio of the agricultural to the ratio of
the non-agricultural population.

THE BENEFITS OF PROTECTION

Here you meet one advantage of the system of protection:
it increases the number of those who leave the ranks of agri-
culture and engage in other pursuits. How the encourage-
ment which this system gives to manufactures and other
branches of home industries tends to this result, may be best
seen by taking an area of country as it would be early in its
settlement, and then noticing its transformation under this
economic application. The land will be found at first filled
with farmers and no others. These will all be engaged in the
production of the larger crops. They are raising corn and
cotton. They have no market except that which they find by
export. They send their grain and cotton to Liverpool. To
get the com there costs a dollar, and the corn which they sell

434 William Walter Phelps

at their station for 25 cents a bushel brings $1.25 in Liverpool.
It adds 20 per cent, to the price which they receive to put
their cotton in the same market. The EngHshmen consume
the corn and manufacture the cotton at these increased prices.
Then they send their calico back to the American farmer, and
in buying it he buys back his corn and his cotton at this
increased value and pays in addition the wages and other
expenses of manufacture, of transportation and insurance.
Some one among their number, wise enough to recognize that
the struggle to live under such conditions is going against
them, recognizes also the value of the protection which the
tariff offers to all who will manufacture calico within the
United States, and starts his little factory. The calico manu-
factured in this little building is made of corn that costs 25
cents and of cotton 20 per cent, less than in England. No
money has been spent for transportation ; and the money spent
for wages and insurance has been spent at home. That little
mill was the beginning of a new era for the neighborhood.
Other industries followed after this. Now, the weak who can-
not work outdoors get employment indoors ; and those who are
skilful, but not strong, use their skill. Labor and skill are put
to the best uses. Meanwhile, the farmer finds a larger market
for the simpler productions, the grain and the cattle, with
which he began his work; but finds a greater advantage in a
market which can consume fruits, poultry, vegetables, etc., so
that he can now start upon that varied production which is the
surest source of agricultural wealth. And the variety of in-
dustries here inaugurated, — for with the mill, come the
grocery and other trades — tends to produce that balance be-
tween the consumption and distribution and production which
is the surest pledge of the State's growth and prosperity. An
objection urged to this view is that at the beginning, at least,
the foreign article of manufacture can be sold cheaper than
the native, and the foreign manufacturer is willing to take the
corn, and the cotton, and the wool in exchange. True, but
the foreign manufacturer cannot take the egg, the chicken, the
vegetable, the hay, or the potatoes; nor can he aid to build
schools and churches, and to pay the taxes. These are all
left to the farmers themselves. Besides the farmer knows that

His Life and Public Services 435

the foreign article will not long be cheaper. He has found
this out in a hundred cases. The superior quickness of the
American artisan, the superior ingenuity of the American
mind in devising labor-saving inventions almost invariably
brings such a result. He looks around him and sees that al-
ready nearly everything made at home, that he uses, is cheaper
than in England. Cotton fabrics, the articles most generally
used for all purposes in the American farmhouse, are cheaper.
American cottons are found on the shelves of the English
shopkeeper. Boots and shoes are cheaper, and the English
already import some of ours. Our forks are cheaper and the
English buy them, as they do our axes and our reapers. The
American farmer would lose if he had to buy any English tools
or implements. He can buy here wagons, carts, and carriages
cheaper than in England. Furniture is not a small item in
the well-kept house of the American farmer, and our furniture
is at least ten per cent, cheaper. So are clocks and watches,
tinware, woodenware, and the common glass used by the
plainer housewife — all these are cheaper. Every manufac-
tured article is cheaper to-day in the United States than it was
thirty years ago. Then ninety per cent, were made abroad,
now less than ten per cent. The farmer may well follow the
lead of such experience.

THE farmer's direct AND INDIRECT PROTECTION

It is so common for the friends of free trade to assume that
the tariff is for the protection of the manufacturer only, and
then to inquire with an air of indignant pity of the neglected
farmer "why do you submit ? " that at the risk of wearying
you I must insist on reading the list of agricultural productions
which are protected against importation from Canada and else-
where. The great staples of the North and South — wool and
sugar — are, and have been, always protected. Besides on
these, the present tariff laws impose the following direct pro-
tective duties on agricultural products: Rice, cleaned, 2 J
cents a pound; wheat, 20 cents per bushel; Indian corn, 10
cents per bushel; oats, 10 cents per bushel; rye, 15 cents per
bushel; barley, 15 cents per bushel; butter, 4 cents per pound;

43^ William Walter Phelps

cheese, 4 cents per pound; potatoes, 15 cents per bushel;
poultry, 10 per cent, in value; peas, from 10 to 20 per cent.;
beans, from 10 to 20 per cent. ; tobacco, unmanufactured, 35
cents per pound! unstemmed, 50 cents, in addition to a
revenue duty of 24 cents per pound; on horses, cows, bulls,
oxen, steers, calves, sheep, lambs, goats, hogs, and pigs, ex-
cept for breeding purposes, 20 per cent. ; those for breeding
purposes are admitted free to benefit the farmers; beef and
pork one cent per pound; mutton, 10 per cent., and hay, 20
per cent.

This is the direct protection the farmer gets by the Ameri-
can system.

But the indirect is much more valuable. By fostering other
industries, giving opportunities and inducements for folks
willing to labor, to go into other avocations, it diminishes the
number of farmers, increases the population non-agricultural,
and by diminishing the number of the farmer's competitors,
increases his gains. By causing the growth of villages, towns,
and cities, it gives him a home market. In our home market,
remember, we are now selling ninety-two per cent, of our pro-
duction. This shows its importance. But free traders say:
"It would be better to diminish this large percentage of home
sales and increase the percentage of foreign." I don't think
so. And these are my reasons: The home market is the only
place where you can sell perishable products — and perishable
products include nearly everything raised in varied agriculture,
and varied agriculture gives the largest return for the individual
and the surest support for the many. Varied agriculture —
what we raise near the house and in the garden, flowers, ber-
ries, fruits, vegetables, poultry — is what makes the profit of the
smaller farm; and the smaller farm is what makes the safety
and the true grandeur of our country.

THE FOREIGN MARKET LIMITED

And another reason is, that the foreign market is limited
and can be supplied elsewhere. The quantity of grain that
Britain needs is very nearly a fixed quantity. She takes this
from us, if we sell it cheaper; if not, from Germany, or Rus-

His Life and Public Services

437

sia, or Turkey. But were we always able and willing to
undersell our rivals; in the English market the demand is un-
certain, and its uncertainty is always against us. It is certain
that the English demand won't be above the usual figure, but
it is not certain that it won't be below. The demand will vary
with the excellence of their harvests. What we have said does
not apply to cotton and tobacco. There is for these just such
a demand as there is for the articles of manufacture.

And for these the demand is practically unlimited. It rises
and falls with the wealth and taste of the community that uses
them. Nearly all manufactured articles are, like a few agri-
cultural products, in some sense, a luxury. They certainly
are, except in a moderate use, luxuries. Take the fabrics
with which we cover our bodies: from these the humble house-
wife takes two dresses; the Newport belle, perhaps, fifty.
The two dresses are a necessity ; very many of the fifty are a
luxury.

Take sugar. Life can be, and is often, supported without
any. The poor man will use a little for his tea and coffee,
but the pastry-cook and the confectioner use large quantities
to tickle the palate of a rich man's child. But wheat, and
corn, and potatoes, and much that the farmer raises are neces-
sities, and not luxuries, and the consumption is practically
limited. Whether rich or poor you will eat the same amount
of bread, but if you are rich you will have more furniture,
more clothes, more carriages, more wares and merchandise.

THE HOME MARKET THE BEST

I enlarge on this well-known rule of consumption because I
want strongly to impress upon the farmer a reason why the
foreign market is worth so little to him, less even than to the
manufacturer. In view of the continent which we hold and
the swelling millions that are tiding into it, and the varying
wants of the different zones that girt it, I think lightly of the
foreign market even for the manufacturer; much less do I
esteem it for our craft. It is the home market where Ameri-
can manufacturers and farmers find their profits ; they should
labor with at least equal zeal to protect and keep it. Originally

438 William Walter Phelps

all Americans did, for they were neariy all farmers, and South-
em statesmen agreed with Northern that neither material
prosperity could be secured nor political independence main-
tained unless we fostered our manufacturers and provided op-
portunities for varied industry to our people. How came the
broad line, which so soon separated the policy of the South
from the policy of the North? Like all political changes —
from a discovery that their interests were different and put
them on opposite sides of it. The South wanted manufac-
tures, but it wanted another thing more — it wanted to keep its
laborer ignorant and poor. If it kept its laborer ignorant and
poor he could attain neither the skill of the handicraftsman
nor the genius of the inventor. There was no such handicap
on the Northern laborer, and under the stimulus of manufac-
ture his fingers grew skilful, and his mind fertile and inventive.
Southern statesmen quickly saw their mistake, receded from
their position, and began, and have continued, to oppose a
protective system, the provisions of which gave to the North
a prosperity which the South could only, at the cost of the
abolition of slavery, participate in. They preferred to lose
the home market and keep the foreign, rather than to educate
the slave. But for their staples, fortunately for them, the
foreign market was better than for ours. Their staples were
such that the world offered no real competition, and such,
too, that the demand for them was unlimited. Their staples
were cotton and tobacco. Both are luxuries, so that the
world could always increase the use of them as they increased
their capacity to buy them. Both staples, in those ante-
bellum times, before high prices stimulated the production in
Egypt and India, monopolized the markets of the world. So
long as the fertility of the soil refused to yield to the unceasing
draughts of these constant and greedy crops, the Southern
planters really were in an enviable position of commercial in-
dependence; they could smile at the rest of the world and
disdain all political or economic safeguards and aids. That
our view is correct; that the narrow view of their own interests
made the Southern people leave the camp of the protectionists,
is made still clearer by the exception. Louisiana raised sugar
principally. Sugar had competition. It could be raised

His Life and Public Services 439

cheaper elsewhere. The Louisiana planter needed protec-
tion, and, caring more for his only crop than for his negro,
insisted upon protection, and always on that account voted
the Whig ticket. In the middle of the great broad avenue
that divides the old part of New Orleans from the new, stands
in bronze the famous statue of Henry Clay, erected in grate-
ful recognition of his services . in protecting that, with other
American industries.

FOOLISH FREE-TRADE OBJECTIONS

To such practical results as these, what say the friends of
free trade? They rush to hide themselves in the misty regions
of glittering generalities. Here they are hard to catch, be-
cause their theories are too impalpable to take the practical
and formulated shape of propositions. The best one can do,
who seeks to compress this thin air into something which can
stand long enough and firm enough to bear an assault, is to
say that the friends of free trade claim that the system of pro-
tection is unnatural; that it destroys foreign trade which they
call commerce; that it stimulates home growth and protection
to an extent which causes disaster to those engaged in the
business. The first objection is, that protection interferes
with the natural laws of trade. Our answer is, that it inter-
feres with the unnatural laws of trade. Older countries, for
generations, by legislative provisions and money subsidy, have
forced trade into channels that conduct it all to their ware-
houses. These efforts have gotten trade to flow so easily into
these well-worn channels that they need no longer to force it,
and as they stand on the banks of their canal and watch the
enriching ride, they exclaim: "This is the natural flow of
these precious waters."

Now when our American friends seek to divert any of it
they cry, " It is a crime against nature! " To drop all figures
Great Britain by every contrivance, just and unjust, simulated
manufactures until they were well established, the capital in
them and back of them was so large, and asked so little inter-
est, the laborers are so skilful, so many, and so ill-paid that
she could withdraw all supervision and let them take care of

440 William Walter Phelps

themselves. And because they now take care of themselves
she says her trade is natural. But when we proceed to get
our manufactures by the same methods into the same condi-
tion, so that we, too, may leave it to natural laws, the Cobden
Club speaks ill both of our head and our heart.

Their second objection is that protection destroys foreign
trade, which they call commerce. I meet this squarely. It
does not destroy it, but it looks first to the interests of the
home trade. We need foreign markets only to take our sur-
plus. Our surplus in agriculture is only eight per cent, of our
total production. It does not stand to reason that we should
care so much for that market as for the market that takes and
consumes ninety-two per cent. Nor is it by any means sure
that commerce as now practised is the great enginery to bring
wealth to the commercial centres. It used to be, but com-
merce in olden times was different. The great commercial
cities that made the exchanges of the world and did it so
profitably that citizens of Tyre, Constantinople, Venice, and
Genoa had the incomes of kings, did a different business.
They did not sell their own products. They gathered into
their hospitable harbors the products of all climes, and there
made the exchanges, taking care that the rates of exchange
were profitable to the merchant prince. When commerce
means the same things for us, that other continents shall send
their goods here for distribution, and all consumers shall come
here to get them from us, then foreign commerce may ask us
to consider her a rival to our domestic industry. It is not
now.

The third objection is that it stimulates growth and pro-
duction, and excessively — ^so it does. And the few who are
carried away by greed or a noble enthusiasm suffer. But
these characteristics lead to suffering in any case, and in this
case the suffering of the few leads to the gain of the many.

The money made as the new industry is first developed is so
much as to excite the cupidity of others. They rush in and
glut the market. The weaker fail, but the price of the com-
modity falls, the people get cheap articles, and the manufac-
turers who are in excess seek other occupation. So goes on
constantly the process of development, distribution, and ad-

His Life and Public Services 441

justment. We accept this loss to the few who are too greedy
and too sanguine, as a natural law, by which the few suffer
for the many. Its operation no community can escape.
Nature uses it to develop all new industries, to exploit and
popularize all discoveries. It is her method to get new
machinery into working order, new material into use. When
gold is first discovered the profits of mining it are immense.
The story of the miner's success fires the imagination. The
adventurers of the world seek the mine, and the profits begin
to diminish just as soon as enough laborers are gathered there
to ensure regular and continued production. From that time
the rewards of labor fall to the normal rate. Many who
crossed the seas or risked all are ruined, but the mines are
open, have become, and will continue to be, a permanent con-
tribution to the world's wealth. So with oil or any other new
discovery— so with the electric light. At the start great profits
— nature's way to tempt in enough labor and capital to pro-
duce and distribute the novelty — and then ordinary profits and
a loss to a few who expected fortune in the business, but a gain
to the many, to the world of consumers who have secured for
ever a cheap commodity. Unless free trade can do better
than this free trade must go.

RECAPITULATION

One word of recapitulation and I will relieve your courtesy.
We have seen the advantages which our little State offers for
the pursuit of agriculture. We have seen that each acre of the
farming land is worth more than the land in any other State, and
yet that the emigrant can still buy land at ten dollars per acre
within four hours, and at one hundred dollars per acre within
two hours, of the largest cities on the continent. We have seen
that this acre produces as much grain as the average, and in
the products of a varied agriculture the most, and that this acre
produces the most in money. We have seen that, nor have
we failed to recognize the great law, which raises the value of
the land and its produce as the farmers decrease and the non-
agricultural population increases. And we have seen how
favorably this ratio is affected by that protective system which

442 William Walter Phelps

all Jerseymen, whatever their party affiliations, are sworn to
protect. In view of the facts gathered in this rapid survey,
we are convinced that our neighbors and our children, who
wish to secure the comfort and independence of country life,
need not go West, but can stay with us, in the firm assurance
that New Jersey offers the best field for agricultural industry.
This is a consummation devoutly to be wished for. And if
there is disappointment that in telling my story to-night I have
touched nothing of sentimental or dramatic interest and have
passed by the sensibilities and appealed to the judgment, con-
sole yourselves that it is the story of a brave little State, whose
present is so prosperous and whose future is so bright that it
has the monotony of peace and comfort. Happy the people,
who have no annals. Happy the State, where peace and
comfort quench all the fires of eloquence.

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC

Speech of Mr. Phelps at Mount Holly, N. J., on Memorial Day,
May 30, 1886

I come to-day directly from the task of legislating for sixty
millions of human beings that I may speak to some of the sur-
vivors of that Grand Army, which saved the Republic, in
whose councils I am sitting as a representative of the people.
I thank you for the invitation which brings me among you,
that I may assist you in honoring the memories of the dead,
and that I may tender to you, who, tho' battered and worn
by past perils, are still living, the grateful salutations of New
Jersey. She salutes you in recollection of these services in
which you honored yourselves, your country, and especially
the staunch old State herself, from whose soil you marched
more than twenty-years ago to the battle-field.

THE GRAND ARMY

It is indeed a " Grand Army " to which you belong. Its
history is the household story of the North. A volunteer sur-
geon of the Army organized it in Illinois just twenty years ago.
And I have seen it grow from that humble beginning, until

His Life and Public Services 443

now it counts five thousand posts and calls the roll on three
hundred thousand members. How could you expect other
than this lusty growth when you recall among its earliest com-
manders men like Hurlbut, Burnside, Devens, Hartranft, and
Logan? Your organization represents all the soldiers and
sailors of America, who were true to their country and their
flag, and is the only one that opens its doors to every man who
stood in our great civil contest. And within these doors
soldiers and sailors of all ranks, brave men of every national-
ity, color, and creed— officers and privates— all stand comrades
upon a common level. Its great and hospitable roof covers
the country. Wherever you wander, east and west, in the
city or village, ranching on the plains, or mining in camp, you
still find the veterans of this Grand Army breathing and living
the Christian principles of its motto, "Fraternity, Charity, and
Loyalty. ' ' A fraternity established and proved by all those
who offered all they possessed for the common safety; a
charity, which watches to protect from want the unfortunate
brother and his helpless family; and a loyalty which is to keep
alive that ardent patriotism which, like magic, created the
Grand Army and sent it to the front.

Alas ! Of those who went, how many were brought back by
tender hands to the graves which flowers have decorated to-
day!

Happy dead ! if they see that the old banner waves above
them, and they can hear the hymns in which their countrymen
praise God that their defenders died not in vain.

THE CITIZEN SOLDIER

You do not expect me to say much of military matters, of
which I know so little and you so much ; and I shall soon pass
on to speak of some of our privileges and duties as American
citizens. But standing almost within sight of fields where were
fought some of the great battles of the Revolution, and having
in mind the splendid record of citizen-soldiers at Trenton,
Princeton, and Monmouth, I wish to record my interest and
faith in a well-equipped and well-disciplined militia.

We used to laugh at them, at the proud tread, the gold-lace

444 William Walter Phelps

trimmings, and the resplendent trappings of line, field, and
staff in our National Guard. Now the laughter dies at the
recollection that these first rushed to the front and saved the
capital from rebel hands, and these, returning in other organi-
zations and under other names, stayed at the front until they,
the bedizened officers we used to smile at and the holiday
soldiers we used to think so little of, became the veterans of
every army corps, and, as veterans, bore the hardships of the
camp and the march, the perils of the lonely picket, the dan-
gers of battle, and the horrors of prison. These are the tradi-
tions of New Jersey's National Guard, and I am glad that she
has to-day a State military organization in which we can take
pride; and this county has especial reason to do so, for it was
under a commander from this county that a battalion of New
Jersey's militia took and wore the palm at Yorktown.

As in the past so it shall be in the future. We can trust to
our volunteers. The experiences of the war on both sides
established that proposition. It was fought by volunteers
hastily gathered, and yet no armies were ever marshalled any-
where that were composed of better material. European
military critics trained to the old methods sneered at these
republican armies at the start, but actual experience demon-
strated in a few months' time that the United States could
improvise an army of citizens equal to the defence of our
country against any military power on the globe, and Europe
sneers no more.

I am not belittling the importance of organized strength to
the existence of all human government. Organized force is
necessary, but you multiply its power manifold by moral con-
ditions. A handful of policemen at Chicago repelled an armed
mob of murderous anarchists. Were the policemen with their
clubs and revolvers enabled to do this because the anarchists
with rifles in their hands and bombs under their coats were
cowards? No; it was because the mob knew that behind the
little squad of policemen were the moral forces of society.
The policemen suggested the militia of the State, and behind
them all the resources of the United States.

At Milwaukee a mob of thousands, in a premeditated out-
break, threatened arson, robbery, and murder. It was con-

His Life and Public Services 445

fronted at the outset by three or four companies of State
soldiers directed by a governor who never trifled with a public
duty. One volley was given; no other was needed. It
quieted that mob, which slunk back to its holes and carried
its dead with it.

Cincinnati had a foreign element as large and as dangerous as
Chicago and Milwaukee. It, too, first whispered and then
roared its threats of mischief ; but the Governor of Ohio, who
was one of your comrades, was ready to assume responsibility.
Though young in years, he was a veteran in the service, and
knew what was the value of a State musket loaded with Gov-
ernment powder in the preservation of peace. He did not
wait for the outbreak before he called out four regiments of
the National Guard, and these guards, while the streets of
Chicago and Milwaukee were drenched in blood, looked down
upon Cincinnati quiet and peaceful as a Quaker meeting.

And while our citizen soldiery keep the peace at home, they
keep off insult and invasion from abroad. Europe does not
fear our army, which is little, nor our navy, which is less, but
the certainty that a million of men trained to the use of arms
in the National Guard would, at a moment's notice, drop the
tools of peace and seize the implements of war, did their
country give the signal.

NEW jersey's war RECORD

But mine shall be the duty to remind you that New Jersey
had only 98,806 men Uable to do military duty, and that out
of these we furnished to the Union army 88,305, 10,000 more
than were called for by the Government. And, remember,
there were naval and marine enlistments numbering nearly
5000 men besides.

That record of patriotism has not been excelled. And you
may be proud that you were a part of it. Shall you ever for-
get how you left the field, the workshop, the store, and the
office to rally around your country's flag? It was a great
uprising of the people of the land. And it was one where
labor and capital were not antagonistic. Employer and work-
man, rich and poor, fought for the same object, in the same

446 William Walter Phelps

army, in the same regiment, in the same compapy. There
was real equality, the rich soldier and the poor one had equal
chances of honor, and equal chances of death. There was
no better fighting and there was no devotion to the cause more
self-sacrificing than that of these men of New Jersey. For
that New Jersey is proud of you ; for that New Jersey asks
you each year on this day to accept her grateful salutations.

PRIDE IN NEW JERSEY

New Jersey is proud of you, soldiers of the Grand Army.
And ought you not to be proud of New Jersey? Its past, with
the legacies of legal and political achievements in its Dicken-
sons. Southards, Walls, Vrooms, Stocktons, and Frelinghuy-
sens. Its present, with all natural gifts supplemented and
augmented by the thrift and skill of man. A land, beautiful
to the eye, rich in agricultural resources, and out of whose
bowels you may dig iron — all framed by an attractive coast
and the shores of lordly rivers, and everywhere crossed by
lines of rail and canal, that bear to neighboring markets the
products of its soil and its skill. The State has colleges older
than the Republic itself. Normal schools, model schools,
scientific schools, by which the State insures the education of
its children; while a geological survey, an agricultural experi-
ment station, a bureau of vital statistics, and of labor and in-
dustries show the jealous care with which we are gathering
every item of practical knowledge which can increase the
wealth and power of our State. With these natural advan-
tages, so fully and conscientiously improved, who shall dare
to paint its future? Its population, gentlemen, has doubled
since you went to the war, and what another twenty years will
do for it, I dare not predict. Let me hope that we may all
live to see it.

THE DANGERS OF PEACE

This is the State in which you live — and these the ennobling
conditions of your life. Such privileges suggest correspond-
ing duties. What are they? In a republic, the soldier who

His Life and Public Services 447

rescued his country in war must, as a citizen, preserve it in
peace. Peace has its dangers no less than war, and the
soldiers of the Grand Army must be ready to meet them.
There is the danger you will neglect your political duties.

ATTEND TO POLITICS

Do not have too much fear of becoming politicians. Every
right-minded man, in addition to what he owes to his family
and himself, ought to feel that he owes something politically
to the community in which he lives. He has n't finished his
duties to the community when he has participated in the
social enterprises and charities of his locality. He has politi-
cal work to do for it. He has the duty of ± citizen — to edu-
cate and give proper direction to public opinion, and to see
that the force of public opinion is so directfed as to have a
practical effect in legislation. Public opinion can get practical
effects only through party organizations. He must join and
work with one of these. These organizations are not danger-
ous so long as they remain the agents and instruments of the
people — not their masters. And they are useful and necessary.
You must be politicians, as were your fathers.

OUR FATHERS WERE POLITICIANS

The men who made and signed the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, and afterward framed our Constitution, were farmers,
doctors, clergymen, and lawyers — men working with brain or
hand — and so representatives of the toiling millions for whom
our Government is formed — they made politics a study and a
duty, and we cannot do better than follow their example.
Any other course involves disaster to the public weal.

The citizen who goes about his business and will not concern
himself with elections, because it is distasteful, must expect
that others will seize the opportunity — others less worthy, who
will make politics their trade and get their living out of it.
The neglect of the worthy to attend to their political duties
defeats our scheme of government. Its founders never antici-
pated or provided for a contingency where any considerable

448 William Walter Phelps

portion of our citizens would neglect the duties of nomination
and election. Had they foreseen this political sloth or pride,
they would have, in all probability, provided for it by a very
different kind of government. The voter who neglects his
great opportunity deserves very little respect.

NO GROUNDS FOR POLITICAL DISCOURAGEMENT

Again, there is danger that you may accept false and dis-
couraging views of our political present and future ; and that
you may, worse than all, by your careless words, convey them
to others. Discouraging views are false. No Government was
ever so honest as this; and this Government was never so
honest at any other time as now. The Government for which
you fought is growing better every day, not worse. Most of
the things that trouble you would disappear, did you take
time to examine them.

OUR PUBLIC MEN HONEST

You must not cast aside your faith in the honesty of your
public men. The only reason you have to say that public
men are degenerating is because your partisan newspaper says
so. Let me tell you, from the knowledge your partiality has
given me the means of acquiring, your Government, State and .
National, is not officered and controlled by scoundrels; neither
are the political parties simply the instruments of designing,
selfish, and unscrupulous demagogues. I grant you that party
papers tell a different story ; so do stump speakers in October.
But that does n't make it so. Papers and party orators have
always made this charge, and no wise man believes it. These
charges of corruption, extravagance, and incapacity are no
more emphatic and extensive now than in the days of Wash-
ington Adams, Jefferson, and Jackson. Indeed, the admin-
istration of Jackson marked the highest tide of newspaper and
oratorical detraction. The merciless assaults upon personal
reputation then made have never since been equalled. Al-
though before, even in colonial times, he who read the history
in hostile records, read that the motives of the founders of the

His Life and Public Services 449

Government were narrow partisanship, personal ambition, and
greed for the emoluments of official position.

THE SCANDALS OF THE PAST

The jealousy and scandal of these earlier years in our history
are shocking. And there was truth in it. At that time all
there was of the Government was personal. The great families
of Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia, and I am not sure
but of New Jersey, were a close corporation, who ran their po-
litical machinery with a skill and selfishness not outdone by the
bosses of the present day. Their relatives and their adherents
obtained most of the lucrative offices, and when there were not
enough to go round it was charged that offices were increased
for the purpose. There were more rogues in those days ; and
if they differed from ours I fear it was only that then there
was less to steal. And personal grudges were allowed to oper-
ate in public places. If the old narratives can be relied upon,
John Adams referred to the immortal Washington as " that old
wooden-head," and it is recorded that the Father of his
Country, who could not tell a lie, spoke of Jefferson after the
latter left his Cabinet, as a "most profound hypocrite." Does
our especial correspondent at Washington get anything spicier
than this nowadays. Hamilton denied, or at least very
strongly intimated, that Jefferson's claim to the authorship of
the Declaration of Independence was fraudulent; and that
pure patriot, John Jay, our first great Chief-Justice, aspersed
Hamilton's character behind his back. The peace of Wash-
ington's Cabinet was destroyed by the intrigues of Jefferson
and Hamilton, rival aspirants for the succession. And the
President had to dismiss another member of his Cabinet,
Randolph, the Secretary of State, because he tried to extort
money from the French Minister. Then followed Adams,
who had to break up his Cabinet because three of its members
were conspiring not against each other, but against their Chief.

For the first twenty-five years of our existence party feeling
was carried to that intensity that Republicans would not let
Federal judges try their cases, and Federalists would not take
their chances before Republican judges. Nor did it stop in

450 William Walter Phelps

cabinets and courts — it invaded private life and social circles.
Bitter and false as is our criticism to-day of all public men,
who are leaders in opposition to us, the criticism made by our
fathers was worse.

And as for the merits of the case, I speak advisedly when
I say our Government is to-day better and purer than it was
then, and our public men in the average are as meritorious.
They are, in my opinion, less self-seeking and their honor far
more sensitive. And if we have not the intellectual giants of
those days, the average of our statesmanship is wiser and
higher.

These are the three duties which you must not shirk. If
you attend to them, how shadowy are the dangers which
threaten our Republic !

THE LABOR MOVEMENT

Does any thoughtful man anticipate permanent injury from
the labor question? Under any other system of government
there might be. There is none in ours. There is disturbance
because a great class is opening, readjusting, and settling a
social question ; the workingman is seeking to secure a larger
share of the profits. He deserves a larger share; and both
parties seem willing to give all the legislative aid that is prac-
ticable. Think what our form of government has done for the
workingmen and how it is exhibited in this struggle. The
working class inaugurated it, not under the impulse of want,
but of philosophy and reason. Their dissatisfaction did not
come because they were poor and suffering. They were never
before so rich and comfortable. The National Commissioner
of Labor states that only seven and a half per cent, of the
working people were idle during the year 1885 ; and all through
it their wages were constantly increasing. The savings banks
of the States where mechanical industries are most numerous
never had so large an aggregate, nor so large a per-capita de-
posit, or such a large number of depositors. The industrious
and frugal wage-workers — the men who really wanted to work
— were never before more prosperous. Then, what reason for
the bitterness and intensity of their demand and their effort?

His Life and Public Services 45 1

It is because of certain things the workingmen saw, and a
certain injustice these things suggested.

LARGE FORTUNES NOT DANGEROUS

One thing they saw was large fortunes held by capitalists
and corporations who had paid scant wages and had exacted
long hours of labor. They saw, too, that their employers
worked few hours and ostentatiously and uselessly spent much.
And they felt an injustice when they contrasted it with their
case, and determined to seek for themselves a larger share of
what their labor produces. They ought to have it. They saw
great grants of public lands to railroads ; the sale of large areas
of soil to combined capitalists of this and other lands. And
they felt an injustice that their patrimony was diverted, and
determined to stop it. And they are right. Organized labor,
keeping within the bounds of the law, with what aid legislation
can aiford, will settle this social and economical question in
due season. The American workingmen are sensible, and do
not expect the impossible. They know that under no state of
societ)' can all be equally rich and great. They know that our
institutions — so far as human institutions can — give all equal
chances to acquire wealth and distinction. To those who
have achieved success, the workingmen of this country have
always been able in the past to contribute their full number.
Nor is it less true to-day than it has been at any time in the
past that the American who is intelligent, industrious, and
persevering will find the road open to him. Why, almost all
the employers of to-day are the workingmen of yesterday.
Why should the wage-worker of to-day despair of being an
employer to-morrow? Never fear; labor will get its rights
under the Constitution, and without harming it. Nor need
you fear any permanent danger that seems threatened by the
accumulation of wealth in a few hands. Such accumulations
are evil, but they are a temporary evil.

These great fortunes disappear almost as soon as they ap-
pear. You can count on one hand the great fortunes, most of
them accumulated under your eyes, which still remain intact.
And yet you have seen thousands of fortunes accumulated and

452 William Walter Phelps

lost, either in the hands of those who accumulated or those
who inherited them.

Natural laws tend irresistibly to the distribution and scatter-
ing of wealth. Human laws, however skilfully drawn to defeat
this law of nature, only retard the process; and we make laws,
thank God ! to accelerate and not to retard the healthy pro-
cess. Wealth can only be kept by the qualities that got it —
watchfulness, prudence, and self-denial. But self-denial and
the kindred virtues are nourished in adversity — they don't
grow in the rich soil and perfumed atmosphere of inherited
wealth. And the son who inherits prefers to spend or is robbed
under the forms of law by hardier and cleverer men, who
come out from the healthy poverty of the village to spoil the
effeminate dwellers in cities. If nature had other laws, and
under them transmitted the ambition and energy of the father,
who made the fortune, to the son, so that the same care would
nurture the growth which founded the fortune, we should in a
short time see a concentration of wealth which would be ap-
palling. But that danger we shall dread only when the laws
that govern the heart and mind of men are radically changed.

CLASS PREJUDICES ABSURD

These are the considerations why any attempt to arouse and
to organize class prejudices has never yet had a permanent
success in our midst, and there is no likelihood that it ever
will. And these are the reasons why any attempt to incite the
poor against the rich by an appeal to passion and prejudice
should receive the condemnation not only of those who mean
well, but of those who, to say nothing of moral motives, have
good sense. Where there is equality of rights and privileges
under the law, where education and speech and the press
are free, where suffrage is universal, elections frequent, and
the conditions of life at the start, as a rule, so nearly equal,
there is no merit or sense in organizing classes to oppose each
other. All the while the individuals of the classes that are to
fight are shifting from one class to the other; and the classes
cannot stand long enough as classes to face each other for a
conflict. The deserters from one class to the other can be the

His Life and Public Services 453

only combatants, as they encounter each other in the passage.
Sometimes the classes seem to stand in fixed ranks. At inter-
vals in our history business depressions and other causes have
led men to clamor for a social or legal revolution, which should
loose the cohesion of social forces and precipitate a change.
At such times they have put into power leaders who promised
impossibilities, who promised to alter even the laws of nature,
and then have found they were deluded, and the hard condi-
tions of life, of which they complain, were not in the least
mitigated. Such evils of which the poor complain are not
within the powers of government : so politics is not the remedy.

SOME THINGS LAWS CANNOT CURE
Inequalities of fortune must exist until all men are created
with the same tastes and capacities; they are evils which the
ballot cannot cure. Destroy our present form of Government,
and change our present society, and the same inequalities
would reappear in any structure built upon the ruins. They
cannot be cured — they can be mitigated. Education will do
the most toward it, and virtue and philanthropy — teaching
the rich the duty of shaping their lives to the spirit of the
Golden Rule, and teaching the poor the great truth that hap-
piness, self-respect, and the respect of others may exist with-
out money. The world, by education and experience, will yet
learn the undoubted truth that Agur prayed for the best ; and
that the estate within the grasp of every one of our country-
men, that midway between riches and poverty, is the happiest
of all conditions.

I close as I began, with some things strictly personal to you.
I hope the time will never come, veterans of the Grand Army,
when you or I or our fellow-citizens shall forget this day. We
should be recreant to ourselves and our dead if we did so
while those men who stirred up civil strife, and who are re-
sponsible for the waste and blood of a great war, are still pro-
claiming to the world the justice of their "lost cause," and
while its chief, marching in triumph through the States whose
prosperity he wasted, is greeted as a hero and a patriot — he
the prime mover in a causeless war that sent so many of our
youngest and fairest and best to untimely graves.

454 William Walter Phelps

Keep warm your recollections of those brave comrades who
lie among us asleep in death. Keep warm your camp-fires for
the brave comrades who still honor us among the living. See
to it that your Government does n't forget them, either dead
or living, and that your children recognize the debt they owe
to them. By them the Government lives; by them your chil-
dren have life, liberty, and happiness. Neither Government
nor citizen must let a veteran suffer. The country is rich, and
the soldier who saved it has the first claim on its resources.
The Government must generously provide for the soldier who
lost the power to earn his own living while defending his
country, and no man is worthy to represent his fellow-citizens
in State or national legislation who lacks in sympathy with
these brave and unfortunate men. Eighty-eight thousand
Jerseymen left their homes for the battle-field. I do not know
how many survive; but whether few or many, none must
suffer.

And this is the first and great duty of your Grand Army, to
see that none of your comrades suffer. Cicero said: " The
men who save a nation are as worthy of honor as those who
founded it."

Soldiers of the Grand Army, you saved this nation, and
while the nation lives it will render you the honor which is
your due!

HONORING A DEAD SOLDIER

In December, 1886, the Grand Army Post of Westwood, N. J., went to
Washington to place a tablet upon the grave of their commander in
the Ci^^il War, General Gabriel R. Paul. Mr. Phelps was invited to
make the address at Arlington Cemetery, and spoke as follows :

Not for him — not for him so much as for us — is all this that
we do to-day in this national cemetery.

These touching services, where your programme success-
fully blends the gentle suggestion of Christian worship with
the sterner forms of military prescription :

The stone which we dedicate to-day and commission forever
to be the sentinel of a great soldier's name — all are more for
us than for him.

His Life and Public Services 455

In this beautiful park, amid the fit companionship of heroic
souls, he found rest before we came. He had secured it for
himself by the unselfish, the patriotic labors of half a century,
and that peaceful rest no friendly hands can increase, nor un-
friendly diminish. That rest is his own forever, As for his
fame, before we cut his name in stone he had written it by his
own glorious achievements in history. And history shall keep
his memory green longer than this marble, for his memory
shall last as long as his country. His fame is his own forever.

General Paul needed no monument. Perhaps he was better
without one. The Romans claimed that the hero was happier
who had no monument, that the visitor, indignant at such
neglect, might ask, " Why has he none? "

Had this been the fate of General Paul, how frequent would
have been the rapid questionings? He was the hero of three
wars. He fought the Seminoles in the Everglades, the Mexi-
can in his chaparral, the rebel in the wilderness — where is his
monument?

Is it on Tampa Bay, where he captured a camp of the
savages?

Is it on Chapultepec, up whose heights he led the band that
captured the citadel and lowered the Mexican flag?

Is it at Gettysburg, where a fratricidal bullet closed the
eyes that for thirty years had looked defiance at his country's
foes?

Had there been no tablet, would riot a hundred questions
like these have kept his name and his fame among the living?

But it was fit and necessary for you, soldiers of New Jersey,
who were in the brigade which he commanded, and who owe to
his daring and masterly leadership your pride in that flag and
in your individual records, that this visit should be made and
this tablet should be placed and dedicated by you, his soldiers
and his children. And you have done it well. Nor will you
ever regret any difficulties of the undertaking. The conscious-
ness that you have done to the utmost all that gratitude could
suggest for your gallant commander will long warm your hearts.
And when you return to your happy homes in your favored
State your honored seat in the chimney corner, for you are old
men now, will be the softer for your patriotic journey.

45^ William Walter Phelps

You have honored yourself, your post, and the Grand Army,
whose traditions you have obeyed, whose annals of effective
work in preserving a living recollection of our soldier dead,
you have by this act illustrated. Persevere in this good work,
work as those whose time is short.

For each fortnight a full company is mustered out. Each
year a brigade marching with mufHed drum enters the eternal
camping-ground. So working you can enter sustained and
soothed by the thought that the honor and recollection you
worked to give to others shall be given to you; and that your
name and your doings will be held in honored memory, as
becomes the soldiers and friends of Gabriel R. Paul.

AT A NEW ENGLAND DINNER

Address delivered by Mr. Phelps at the annual dinner of the New England
Society in New York, December 22, 1886

This is certainly very trying, unless one is like Sherman and
Woodford and Talmage, who don't care a rap what they say.
I wish I were back this moment in Congress. No one listens
there, and a man speaks so much better when no one listens !
This silent attention with which you are starting makes me
nervous. I am not used to it. I never saw anything like it in
Washington except last week at Arlington. I went out there
with a few Jersey veterans to place a tablet on the grave of
their old commander. 1 made a long speech under the trees
and in the snow, yet the vast majority of my audience never
stirred until I was through. Nor did they then. I wish you
had all been there, gentlemen. I wish your fascinating Chair-
man, who always gets what he wants, except now and then a
fee, were there now. I told him I would better not come.

" Think it over," said he, " and you '11 feel better about it."

And I did think it over, and I am thinking it over now, and
if you want to know how I feel, ask Dr. Talmage about the
drunken man he found sitting on the steps of his Tabernacle.
Dr. Talmage takes every one in, in that Tabernacle; so he
tried to take this man. But the man refused.

" I was thinking! would join your Church," he said, " but
the longer I think about it, the sicker I feel."

His Life and Public Services 457

Another thing against your President. He promised to
send the last report, that I might see how I ought to speak.
That is one promise he kept. The report came in an envelope
that cheerfully suggested a public document or a receiver's
fee — something that you get for nothing. And when I opened
the report I read: " The Last Speech of Daniel Webster be-
fore the New England Society of New York."

Do you wonder, gentlemen, that I am forced to say that I
feel, like Artemus Ward, with naked cannibals brandishing
their spears at his breast, " not dismayed but somewhat dis-
couraged ' ' ? Indeed, nothing encourages me but the recollec-
tion of the heroic sufferings of the Pilgrim Fathers, and the
knowledge that not a man who hears me can vote at the Jersey
polls; and yet, if we can beUeve New England orators, the
Pilgrim Fathers never had a dinner, and if they never had a
dinner how could they have an after-dinner speech? Or if
they had a bad dinner, what kind — ? But Mr. Depew can
answer that. For he cannot deny that the subject was
brought to his attention, in the course of business, by a recent
letter of this purport :

' ' To the President of the Central Road.

" Sir: They say you are a great after-dinner speaker. Will
you kindly inform me what kind of a speech you could make
if you got your dinner at the Poughkeepsie restaurant? ' '

I thought I would speak about Congress to-night. I thought
it would be a novelty to this sated audience for a man to speak
of anything he knew something about. Great orators can't
afford to do it. Whoever heard Dr. Talmage speak of re-
ligion ? And yet he speaks on everything else — the Brooklyn
Bridge, the shop-girl, the Stock Exchange, and the Devil. Or
Depew speak of railways? Yet who ever made a greater rail-
way success ? " Labor reduced from 75 to 55 per cent.," says
the last report. Why, at this rate there will be no labor at all
on the Central ! and that 's just what his friends said when
he took the road. Well, one thing is certain, the Vanderbilts
won't get much work out of Chauncey!

And our fiery Grady, did he say one word of newspapers ?
And yet he has made the New South he spoke so touchingly

458 William Walter Phelps

of — made it with his Atlanta Constitution, whose weekly has a
circulation of ninety thousand, gentlemen. And he knows
how to run a paper, too. He noticed a citizen as dead. The
citizen appeared alive! "Can't correct it," said Editor
Grady. " But I '11 put you in among the births."

CONGRESS FROM PERSONAL OBSERVATION

I want to say two or three things about Congress. They
are the results of personal observation, and they are very dif-
ferent from the common impression. For these wrong impres-
sions I think the newspapers are to blame, our city papers
more than our country ones. For that matter, I sometimes
think that our city papers, as a class, are singularly out of
sympathy with the millions of Americans who live off of Man-
hattan Island. It was certainly from them that I got my ideas
about Congress. When I went up to Washington first, some
fourteen years ago, I felt sure I was going into bad company
— that I should find Congressmen a bad lot, many of them cor-
rupt, a majority self-seeking, and nearly all stupid. Actual
contact soon convinced me of my error. And I am here to-
night to say that I do not know where one could elsewhere find,
in a collection of citizens of the same size, a larger number of
high character than in the House of Representatives. The
papers spoke of gross intemperance. I found a majority of
them men who conscientiously abstained from all intoxicating
drinks, while moderation was conspicuously the rule. I
have seen but two cases of intemperance on the floor of the
House, and these were not gross, and were, in a measure,
excusable.

I expected to find most of the Members irreligious, disso-
lute, and profane. I don't pretend to know the secret vices
of any of them — how fortunate, gentlemen, that no one can
know yours! — but I know that as far as their associates can tell
very many are religious, while the general tone of conduct and
conversation is that of self-respecting gentlemen. Especially
I was taught that many were corrupt, selling their votes and
turning ready ear to every solicitation to private gain. What
were the facts ? In the Forty-third Congress, when carpet-

His Life and Public Services 459

bag districts made it a bad average, there were but thirteen
men of whose motives any one had a suspicion, and only five
who were known to be venal. And so exceptional and con-
spicuous were these cases that the greenest Member knew them
by name, and their influence was n't worth paying for. I re-
member having a desk between MacDill of Iowa and Mac-
Dougal of New York, both young Members like myself. I
often entered when the roll-call was in progress on some
claim.

"Well, Mac," I would ask, turning to either Member,
" which way do we vote ? "

And in a score of times the answer would be made and re-
ceived with intelligent chuckles: " I don't myself know any-
thing about it, but I see that such a Member " — naming one
of the thirteen — " has voted for it, so we 'd better vote against
it." And we always did. This was the Forty- third Congress,
and in no one since has there been anything like so many sus-
pects. There are three hundred and twenty-five of us, taken
from all sorts of districts, nominated and elected in all sorts of
ways. Does not this give most gratifying evidence of the deep
underlying recognition of civic responsibility, which controls
the average American citizen ? I don't mean to say that these
Representatives are not eager to retain their positions and in-
crease their influence and fame, nor that they are not often
unscrupulous as to the means; but I do mean to say that all
of them, even the worst, have a great regard for their country,
and a great sense of the honor of being a trustee of its good
name, and that this feehng is in nearly all cases a controlling
one. The Member may be rough and coarse, indifferent to
delicate considerations of manner, and even of matter, which
you and I consider most important; but for all that, no one
will get him to vote for what he thinks is against the public
good any quicker than you or I would. If he does vote
wrong, as you and I think he does pretty often, it is because
he is ignorant and mistakes the relation of the measure to the
public weal. If he votes for a bad measure, the reason, in
ninety-nine cases out of the hundred, is because he thinks it is
the right one. Shall we not recognize the purity and worth
of his motive ?

46o William Walter Phelps

REPRESENTATIVES COME FROM THE PEOPLE

Does this surprise you ? Consider these men are Represen-
tatives of the people who elect them, and the people still,
thank God, are singularly moral and patriotic. Don't fail to
notice the distinction I make between moral principle and in-
telligence. I don't claim that all the Members of Congress
are intelligent ; neither are the constituencies. Few Members
have any knowledge of historical precedent and of economic
science, or skill in the arts of statesmanship, the power to
reason and persuade — to sum their lacking in one word, cul-
ture. But how few constituencies have any culture themselves
or want it in their Representatives. Nor am I sure if these
ruder constituencies found their Members full of this culture,
that they would find them so ready to express and enforce the
peculiar wants of their districts in Congress. The Member
might represent better what the district ought to want, but
would be less likely to represent what the district actually
does want.

The editor does n't think of this. He belongs to the cul-
tured class, and has no patience with a Member's slow appreci-
ation of economic truths. Ignorant of the honest purpose
of the Member, the editor thinks his indifference is not intel-
lectual, but moral. He assumes that because it is so plain to
him it must be plain to the Member, and that the Member re-
fuses to recognize the value of the truth, because he is per-
verse; whereas if the editor knew the Member, he would see
that the Member's ignorance of political theories was dense,
but that his wish to adopt the theory which was best for the
country was an ardent one, and a sure ground of hope and
encouragement. The discovery would show the editor that
all that was needed was patience and time, till the well-dis-
posed Member should understand the truth. Besides, the city
editor with all his culture, and the city Member with all his
economic lore, is not always the one who is wholly right. Po-
litical economy is a science which is not a science. There are
too many elements which will not come to stand for generali-
zation, and too many truths which seemed like axioms yester-
day, and which the facts of to-day turn into untruths; so

His Life and Public Services 461

sometimes I feel tempted to confess that the Western Member,
by his stolid hold upon facts, may have been as helpful to
legislation as we in the ambition of our theories. If the West
accepts theory too slowly, how often have we seized it with
an excessive zeal.

FINANCIAL QUESTIONS AS AN EXAMPLE

Take the money questions. Here we are apt to be dog-
matic, and seem to have most right to be. Shall we not con-
fess that we said, and said it according to laws which have
governed human affairs from the beginning, ' ' There can be
no resumption when we lack the money, and every creditor
knows that there is not enough to pay him and the rest," while
the Western Member, who knew nothing of laws which had
governed human affairs from the beginning, and who seemed
to care less, but who knew and cared very much what the peo-
ple of his district wanted, said, " The way to resume is to re-
sume ' ' — and resumption was a fact. Or take another instance.
If ever there was a monometallist it was I, and when ten years
ago Members who lived near the silver mines spoke to me of
bimetallism I felt outraged that they should insult me in what
seemed to me an unblushing effort to aid their section and indus-
try at the expense of God's truth and the National safety. The
silver men are not all right yet, and they are very wrong to
cling still to a depreciated dollar. But because they are wrong
at this point, I am not going to forget that I was wrong at the
other. I admit now, as the world does, that gold as the only
legal tender is impracticable, and that the ultimate outcome of
our currency troubles must and will be the use of two metals.
A silver dollar shall pass as a gold dollar, only the silver dollar
must have enough silver to be worth the gold dollar; and that
is nothing but bimetallism, and the "stupid " Western Member
has brought us and the world to that conclusion.

If I have, in the few moments allotted to me, done anything
to correct a local public opinion that has done great injustice
to an earnest, patriotic, and worthy body of men, I shall be glad
that I came here this evening; glad for the sake of the House
of Representatives, which I greatly respect, and of which I am

462 William Walter Phelps

proud to be a Member; glad for your sake, for it is a pleasanter
thing to think well of those whom you have made your rulers.
And for my own part, if you are dissatisfied with what I have
said this evening, my only comment is that which a little girl
made to her mother, who chided her because God would not
be pleased with her sleepy prayer: "Well, it 's the best He
will get out of me to-night."

THE END