Full text of "Life and character of Edward Oliver Wolcott, late a senator of the United States from the state of Colorado"

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I Ate and ( Iharacter

Edward ( Uiver \\ olcotf

Late a Senator of the I nited States

from the Stale ol ( Colorado

homas l;ul(on 1 )a\\ so!)

Volume I

••

CN< ttmiloN tr, (kh. Htw C«tk

C :

In Place ol I'

1 rvm.-m).

.- ■

with hi in II -
Mi tfcC hall- Of

mine ■bilitj ind n

, /T^t^v

.-ii.li.l Loi |

WWM ibl • ' u T *• 1 % h.»n-

turn wlv

tiooi W ii- ■■'!.• • •■ P»WI< !•'■

and

in PL \' I OF PREF H i:

ir with hii

bment for him.

. *PlJZ

^cA^> />

w I I ,

i optional force of char

o the

more bril

reputation irai made ai

• « in. ii moai commended him

it bj

• qui qualii • I and

(miration and affection.

kind, he i ai ■ man of i on* ic

_" ii None i "ill. I be more daring

d none moi i u! in standing

tal quali : Drder. Hii

-l liiillin.

d 1 1 1 * »— t men, and i i( i<»

!• - With a

be would

. I. in he irai
w th I

1 [i

!i<l liis

■

Willi

and

i.
-lu.il iniii. II

|...ini ol

Ii ill. he would bare

• known

: i v7 1 . ;i ■ ;thai

l\ PI H I. O] PREI \« !

public DO

in»r ! i

/S< \

J in. rra-i-.l iluriii^' .ill

ill lll.hr II
'••! Ill

llsh itjle, and

li i in in n. <

w
en in |>ub

HUl li

conricl

Mr v.

g urn. li ol

Intin

the ;•

1 alone in
form

ami

magnitude or ;
Ike point li-

IN 1'1.A< 1. OF PRE] A< 1.

ger in publio hf«*

itj Vi\ *aiOUe,

ij mpethef
alightfnl. Hli nature iraa broadlj gen
e the pretender, he wmm gentle and
The world aw made In
.in f 11 1 In appreciate the
■

W \ S 1 1 I N i . .• I' I

.luii.- 28, i :'"'■'.

\\ great loai I taring

in the Senate, although ire had

• pj fond "f bim. Be \\ ;i- ;i

: i . « 'i i 1 1'- had iint onlj aeen much

art and literature which

i •• had manj aj mpathiei Be w ai

. ading and obaern

dent be made up « haterer in- maj

.• i.\ it 1 1 unnanal rapidirj <«f

. i ii*i in the Senate in- a?on ;> con

■ if unnanal powi ' 'in-

mi. i wiih .I manner

- in moment! of ea

beard When

In ij - made dm • I if ■

.mil rictorioni

.ni.i a hnmoT ■ in- ii never tailed

Ml.- « M\ ll.- -Mill It,

'nil Jnatiot '" in- remarkable natnral

in IMIIII.M Mini

b .it the Bar and In the

in. i i ban eaaed

■ Hi.

CL~&&£~*C%+~

l \ PL \< i "i ri:i i \< i

I In- l - 'hal I

rnj". *u

ml brilliant, was |H«SNMd • >'

: be bad great wenm of humor i
a pin
well, i gi

■

/?.

Crutlj \JJ4VV&±JL.

( .on ten In

r WaiU u

■
in : i Hard

\ • \ i:

In tfc

x N'Tl S'Tfi

■

:»can Cmndidaic fur Governor— The

..Mi-

and Mnk< h —

^ful

. ■ :ler

: tadership Lost but

S.ck-

Bl of

. ;
itical

hie

- . ...

Illustrations

i
Bnrai

■ i •'

. . w
ii i; VI ,:

i . i w

Full-..

R H

\tEU«'W

I I .'.
\ 1 1 . F*

>,,

Y< >uth

I Y

< > u 1 1 p

,mh< " >J

HIRIH • * I IV

El»\\ \i;i I < >i.l\ BR WOU 0 '• -iivit. »

I
Vofonteen in -

-r.nl i fr..in II

mil-

ud I dm mb r of the B - in «li" tai

-
"
I, 1888

rdi Mi W

i i fe I ontribatioD ;«* all P

onlj Approach thai he era made to ;

but

•'

. it \\..if

mely, that in .T;m
p
in the minority lo the i

plete the -

B ih

l :i.\\ \i:i» OLH EB WOLCOTT

quenl otterance, the genial
. ■ be animating purpose,
>lu<! ; the stru
te human interest thej

' lory;
d ■■ hranked " publications,

m p. Wolcott'a birth, la a quiel
b1 ing of one broad elm si
i b a satisfactory place in a hich
waj from a hen the life Btruggle
return to when there la do
uggle, ;ni«l w hen there la oof
•i. i meditate

■ Edward Wolcott'a father and

abode after their marriage In 1843,

ildesl children, Samuel Adama and Henrj

Edward Oliver, were born; and 11 was to

r Wolcotl and Mother Wolcotl re

: their Uvea :ifi<-r they had

familj aii.l eatabliahed mosl «»f Its mem

rorld. After the return <»f tin- family, 11 was

. favorite pla< >rl . largely . "f

e familj were there, and also because it

the world a world which, while 11

• it namea a hich 1 « » 1 1 ^ had
■ I uitli the family, bul In Edward'i case there

i bia custom The na i

;.i\ in honor of < Oliver < Iromwell, a aa

mm thai of Edward \\;i» aew

use of mere fancj .

middle name was preferred by

• • w ord ii gave a aj to 1 he
Dame, or ita abbrei la( ion,

i welded together thai each

iughou( hia life M r.

da and largely to the public

not the ursl of the Dame

\'0\ III AMI VOl S(j M Wlh"

Dumb

of fodep

him

nnmindf

■

1 1
i; State <

hiatoricaJ dooament

the f.nuih had ranked well

thor

ili.-.
•

Sin:
ermined.

literally, it mi ni -. " \
of l

trust i

mocta an
modern, as

i.l. w Ai;i' OLIVEB WOJJ OTT

■ ame froi

e family had liw<l for many

: their tombs stand bj the

irch Be came earlj in i he Puritan

from Plymouth, England, March 20, L630.

;..m\ u ho Bel i i<-'l at l k>rcheeter, Mas*

■ 16 joined the movement i<> < Jon«

... den p of Rev. Thomai Booker. 1 •

the M assachuset ta towm
rtown, and Neu Town, oo\i Cambr

towuM respect ivelj <.f Windsor,
■ !. .Mi-. Wolcott going with Iiis
told that he vrai a " Btont-
j man," and that after the pastor " i e
distinguished man in Windsor." Be
i lonnect lent < leneral < Sonrt or Legisla-
the time of his arrival until his death,
member of the Constitutional Convention of
• i been led to change their abode
tion to t he oligarchical ideas a hich
• felony, and the otter-
Convention naturally w;iv pronounced in its
I onstitution ii the first docu-
ivernment bj the simple
i rned i«\ it, and in tfa
for i he » '«'ii>t it lit Ion <>f t be I totted
this t 'on Ten I ion, a hi< b i on-
fundamental law, was pre
i m ..at line in a short hand n<»t.' boos <»f

- nator w oleott traced his

ii.) • of t he daughter* "i t he

. i he direct male descent « as

on of I lenrj . as was that of

t « '..mi. •-! lent and

B Wolcott «.i Massa*

ii-i (general ion from the

• ol the American family.

•' II. nn . William. an<]

m -• w oleott w ii icupied

^ I »l ill \ \|» V'Ol Sti M.Wlh H )\)

i lao n. in •
Idef of I
name ••l '" '' • i •

founger \

'in I John \

tOD, I In- In-' ... .u|>. nit Of ' ; •

I •

■ nor Woh ■<■' of N'
family, ttj log in ptTt I

:. in the ■ 'Mint.'

■:,il i.— in tin- i

ght, I.ut ■

I
till- f.

Indicia]

1
of tin- pram
.
i
and 'ivii..

I
ol tk

ti ■ «litn |

thai in- would be Dnworthj

frt-.l» loatN to tbC

country, either in tin- h-.ur of

Bimoi R
as did three old r : '

i:i»\\ ai;i> m.i\ EB WOLCOTT

did not join the family until

; i >nd marrii romantic.

i denta of w Lndsor one

grea !>• man's estate and bad

i .in attract i\«- young

. Pitkin, Bister of the Attorney*

- e had *■« • n i«- onlj for a visit, bnt

of membera "f her sax, it was con«

• public policy i" permit her return. The

il their r and <!••-

liable marriageable man ol i he toa a

r itfa a \ iea to matrimony, and thus In-

■ community. Thej concluded

• was most Likely to be successful In such
of the plotting was an earlj match, and

branch <>f the family iw>^\ productive of

\ ong their sons was

cond, who was tin- father of Gideon, who

«, and who became ii>" father ol Samuel

Lion in the Revolutionary War. Thia

ie father <»f Blihn and the grandfather <>f the

i who was the father of Senator Wolcott

er, far more <>f the original Wolcott

us iii;ui iiiis tracing alone

•ii\ through Simon, bul through

iii.i i hrough .Man . li ii to 1 [enrj .

i i onnecl ion a itli the I lenrj and Mar)

mil} came through the mai

i; olut lonarj period to Jeruaba

daughter of < leneral Brastus w ol-

•!. of < lonnecticut, and

lown in direct line from

^tiii fartl • w olcott,

his cousin, Sarah Drake,

i >b I » r. i K « - and daughter of

our lubjecl was a R olcott of the

•! -amlfat Imt. was the

i tabliahed him-

1 hich ai the time seemed to

^ < »i ill AND Vol SCi M\ \||« n

Dr. S..IHW-; W

I |. : 1 1 -i t . - of 1

•
I
t.»wi

Illinois; and < Ileveland, < >hio I • •' •
wai :

.in appo

h and 0 ! '

hoooi

•
will

I did no( personally knon

prop

•ii while
d be fell

old PineoJl B

tbroplst, to tt.<

the B

Phil]

I.m.'k

In "iir qv
HOD Of "'ir triuinj

hx \

Bibl<

i:i»w ABD <>i.i\ EB R I >IX> 1 1 "I"

. and thii \\;^ the

which the friends

parent organisation.

r*i actii ii\ in this

Republican Convention in L893, when

. be was a boy, hi* home lia<l been

11. 1 railway/' a bich help

■ • : d LI of !i.n ing

tiidden in the attic <>f the bonae in
pen! some i Ime a ii li Shen

• • < 'ii-isi [an < '"iii-

• ter part «»f bia Life he a rote a Dum*

<>f which is widely in oae in Christian

for the a orld we sing."

mother a aa Harriel A. Pope, of Millbury,

Her father, Jonathan Adama Pope, \\li<»

■ Nora ich, < tanned lent, a aa an ex-

mill proprietor, and !"• was a grandaon "f

ped into Nea England the

: ; i u . - 1 1 to thai aed ion.

• • Mr. Wo • r iii:in hare

u bo belonged i" anot her

Pomroy, «>f Hebron, Connecticut

in the rei i\;il methods "f Jonathan

i t.. the double charge being made

N< a Light i lewa, and preaching

on in the pariahea of < >M Light

■ fi »re 1 1"- < toneral < Jonrl in t be

Dg in ;m«l "in ..f the

ildiers. The congrcgat i<m

i bia

• bia life "ii the rolun*

Another \\;>s

. i • d Mci Jut ■ Inate of "> ale

rity School, al the

of Nea l [ampehire ;« m« I

There being do cl(

^i < >l III iXI> VofNti MAN 11

in. n in i be Deightx >i
I k V hi

. to the I

i . Q(j y ri Wo

\il of them were born
the date "f the birth ol Samu<

All attained to manh I and

I in in'

iel, Henry, Edwi
children Hari i U I

D ' ; Rev. Willli

- : Kathei ine I lllei

Ann. i I. (

1 rude, "f I

\ ...

A.-.-n pej

j ft-.. in home much <>f
lii« : L848, l<

young I .<\" .ii 'I'v ndven .

f.unil\ at Longmeadow, i

until we

j u ith Julia
in to nienl place, to taki

the flower of our familj « ith me i hen I
warmth ol

111. 1111.-. I I

all I -nf of all hie rhil<

memben
of them took

imenl f<»r In* tin;
the beginning thei

19 i.i'U \i;i» OLH 1:1: WOLOOTT

DDOBIUU ;in«l of more than
. indeed, was bis pn
exl mention of the

■■ •■ ■ Ij
■ in Edward's grandfather under the

_■. 18 19, a ben, after express j l

o law, the mother <>f the three

Bon are the three charming boj b,

and \ i\ :i« i t x ; I [enrj . a iili Mis

. :i.i Eda ard a ii li hi** gubernatorial

hi of superiority sufficiently noticeable

• I attenti m-ii then, and

tl ought in ;i letter dated a(
\|-i :!. 1849, a ben Ed araa onlj a
• "M that date li«- i<-ils of his
London, " jnal three a eeka from
you and tfu R< peating

i lie dear Little felloe i
Samuel aJ
d .i polite request \>> th<
p like .i in. in. I do

• familj remon
and remaining there until is.".::, went

rid, a be in I v"«:» I bi

■ i iioic \ reaidence was i

a bicb < 'leveland, 0 ame

ii.-. i guch urn il I sm. a hen the
ngmeadow, arhere thej continued '<»
death In L901. m
a*o or ill'

ii.n the
and joined them •

e of the j ol the lub

to tell his <'\\ ii storj in
I, however, thai hia life

: thai he waa
• «l u i ing a*eek

•I I II \M»

own

w.-ll

til Who :

• liini "f

■ • ■■! 'I

nd • nit urwl «
li him en

.iti.l rut
nil the I

the '

m perraded the t

«-.>ln vu held .if 'In- old w

the

n i:i>w \i:i» <>i.i\ i;i; WOLOOTl

r\\ the capture of Fort DonelsoiL

i throbbed aa fiercely In Ohicagi

:i.l B lad in blfl ind alert.

. ,i i.\ it. Be sum one of the crowd

»ll..wr<l (In* funeral |irtM-(>ssioii <»f Si.-ph.-n A.
burial place at the s.»utli end «»f iln- city.
ii i earh impressions --f his new home are shown In the
following letter written, five monthi after hia arrival, to a
rho had remained with the relatives al Norwich:

your letten from tin- Post-office thia after-
ring his letter I thought i would

with it. We have had ;i great deal of g i

but mtv little mow, but the reason there
i ;iiim- they ;"''' doa 11 bj the
: the a Ind bloa ag that it ll n't any fun.

of the managen of tin- •• foung ftfen'i
• me the privilege of taking out any b<
. that I choose l like Chicago rery much in
: block in Providence would look almost i>k<- a
. - ,:, ,,• these great seven and eight-story marble
.» much more going on here than
There ai am engine! here In < !h

• ■. them work.

■ Dutchmen here In Chicago than you ever

f the i ost Important itreeti in the citj yon

v ind i.i'i""

i '. %

and iIm- highest natural hill In Chicago

high In the yard of one of our

binet and ti ther

it man) curiosities,
Aunt) f i much oblige! lo her for

. iii% love i" Addie and

bed

brother

i brought to an end by the

VOUTH IND YOUNfl HANIKwi

...ii ..f the famllj ■ ■ •
Oil I
the Iron Indnato
Cleveland 1

■uilv boil

Arenoe, then Bnclid B

•
corner • I clM and i
tcqnired an affection I

• >f the acl I. Be all

man!

and loud irould

Bible reading t«> Impoae diacipline, •

i • i the Kir \
queen and Morde< ai, the J<

the hall."

i nsi i '

the war wa* pnli
\

: coming; there were military fnn<
iiKitiv reterant woondi

• i| hi numberh
the worl

-I l»y the B
other

belonged to boja1 mil

At !.

.law. .i-».i the tem] '

\ of the ' lfs In

Edward added n
it wai one of thoi
the •

He ierred foi
the laal day* of the war. H
D, i fiment of

ing the Bummer of I ft

i:i»\\ \i;i» I >l.l\ ER w I »l.« '< rTT

of the capita] city,

and Mr Woleott

i pa w ritteo bj him at that time

. thai the men u^tti the Dame facetiously

• in for a Bummer vacation.

mi thej are spending

Thai thej made I holi«

dent from the chart

.in. I brief letters written by him daring thai period

friends it -« -; 1 1 1 alighting references

.iinl frith some he left the

I the experience was an unpleasant one BUi

Thai he «li'l ii"t ai all times

\ ,!.- •• • and that occasionally there was

rough work than waa >le t<> him is

I'.ui that in the main tin- service was eni

bis letteri bear abundant testimony. True,

• i ..f not li :i \ i n l: a chance to meet the enemy,

•■» have been his principal cause ol

urallj in hie latei e f<-it that he

i ;i great part in the war. and there were in

■ us win. were disposed i" make rapl-

of a military experience, however trivial, that he

The truth la that he did perform

rnntrj mi a tin f peril, and that

suae he «li<l not have opportunity

. did He enlisted for ;> hundred daj b

He sen ed for

and expressed iii^ w illingni

i ..f like duration, nn i>ii<- brief

opportun waa

II( . p pears not 1.. ha\ ■

a illing to ' he condit ions

. r«iiiL'li tli'Mi^'li 1 1 » • - \ nc<i-ssaril\ musl

. our young soldier probablj had

plaj lug in
1 1 onlj one battle, that at

by Gi DeraJ Jubal A.

in <• ; I. nt on the result <>f that en-

rOUTB tND YOI WOOD

count

w ol<

which ti

A.ir. ji;

t<» the Daceanitj of pro!

don, and the
undertaken In ••ar:

1 hi. :.

gagni in I Idernem \

f<»r r

-uj.pli.il 1,\ ;

m from Uu -

an- 1 i be I i

mailer f"i-

.m.l i

• in. <>n tl.<
Hill, veil

bad i

• r the purpoer*
.1. i . Barnard, i

them, and wt
a bi

IS i:ii w ai;i> I >i.i\ 1:1: w < >i.<< rTT

tl H ■! a .-.ill!:.

■ rerj prominent point, at Inter

bt hundred i" one thousand yards, was occupied bj an

important spproach or depression "t

pi i>\ a battery for field g

l i>\ rifle- trenches irhich were in fact

fantri parapet, furnishing emplscemenl f'»r tiro ranks

■ I communication along tin- line

Mat troops and

ould In- moved rapidly from one point "f tin- Immense

t.. soother, "i- under cover, from point t<> point along

the I

- which prevailed along manj parti <<f the line were
r a mile or !«<• in front <>f the works, tin- counter
irhich were surrounded by ebattia. Bomb-proofi were
:i oearly nil the f<>rts; all guna not solely Intended
• Are, placed in embrasure and \\<-n traversi

■ es, ample i" •« ►iit;tiii one hundred
-mi. constructed; tin- original crude structures, built

I k< for •■ Bold fortification," re

i by others, <»n pli oped, or which the

■ i i<-rii ariiii«T\ made Decessary. ah com*

on which an enemj would be likely i<> concen*
rerpower that "f one or more of « 'u r foi

Dot onlj t.. the fin

ilong the line, bnt also from heavy rifled

hi |M.uit>. unattainable b) the enemy's field-guns.

• lopmen ts i li< sinlj approximated

t" th( i w bich can be attained from

Thej would probablj realise In

atti buted '" fortified lim-^ l>\ Napoleon,

tted earthworks, thej werescarcelj what

■

MM i appear* d i» ton R i hington, all

m in. h iia<i constituted 1 1 mi of

b of the artillery,

ii and iii- mainlj filled bj a few

bundred-daya men," jn-t mustered Into iii<-

under ' ; i of estab

• .1 • 1 1 1 1 • i : i • ementii for

ed Bodies of hastily-

« j 1 1 :i r t « -i- 1 1 1 :i - 1 • • i*- " men, « i t i v. « • 1 1

• t.. the lines, could bardlj go amiss,

\ I >l III \ M> VOl \', M \\||ih.|.

Under «.tf •

\\U to hai

kept tdrin m it With •
fleld euni f..iin.|. w Ithoul

•-I from tl
\i-r\ !•• I hirh tin- t>

I uiM-iif of T h«- defeni

twentj foar and tiiirf> two-pounder
th b limiii-.i proportion «»f I
guna, rlH iii". and guni

light cmlibre vere provide*! for

roandi of ammunition, and pome <>f the
nrorka bad •» considerable extent of bomb proof

h about one third of

slrep and nearly all take temporary

and the} afford an in)
. 1 1 1 jv <-f the young
in the effort to bring I
tin» country araa - on\ ; • d 1
of the period from the youi
bough Nri.-f glimpai
1 1 - lei tern are all written a ith lead p< i
tin-in are on half

Although h<
.•it upon barn
thai the a ril ing t.ii»i<' «

All of Um
nothing from him in either ' I

montha included li

ither and

I :,in\ 1». 0. N. <

ti are full «»f blackberr
ripen about the tirst ..f July.

eable to

i;i»\\ \i;i» < »i.i\ i.i; w I »i.<« >TT

I ■• : just

i en be umonDoei that he had

i of tin- fruit in Ian than an hour, which

found a place where there had n<>t

ad "f him. Three briet low,

the routine doty. u T he says,

d at our fort, and we have more

do than an\ other company. We bai i on '

i *t rather tough,"

bean date of Julj 8th, and li written

r paper, showing thai the boy's fortunes

in this he tells of bai tag received

her enclosing a photograph <>( bis mother.

h gratification over the receipt of the picture,

■ l one, he adds : " I shall value it

;,ll the boxes or greenbacks thai yon could ever

ace to boxes and greenbacks s

., its of bis on a, which he afterward

Further along In this letter, he says : " i

■ want father to think that because l wanted ca box'

discontented with Government fare and with the

I onlj b that I might be on equal terms

< mi the contrary, I think there

me in tin- regiment that takes things and

i 1 1 ,•• •■ Be then explains

port whi( to have reached his home that the

I the regiment were discontented and di

tioning DJ nam.- the author Of this

i that that gentleman bad taken homes wrong

• The onlj men," I that

es like himself, n bo of course would

But the d e fellows were

front a ii \ waj ." and here Mr. Wolcott

real WolcotMike argument, the convincing

i bis after years; M anj way," he

ma that staj at home doing nothing for

, • ose boys
home aot knowing where thej
• , | . . . . ol • • i ana, who, of course,
• L50th."

^ I »l III \\|» > I .1 SO M \ •

•

ton •• which pi

ondei I I P

of offeiiMivr 9

}■ ■ had been Huccewtful il would

arm •

achieved b] (fort

w . • L864 '

were crowdio

der "f t: •

ed the i<l«-.i of M building
and to that end M I ifl> to I

with Mp©

i.f this iii.tTMi u :■ I

' odaj and
Jnly.

led

tw..

baae "f b

th.it « bile earlj in the moi
.ml Doder
enemj filed h

thXOWl) «»nt in fr-
n il* from .i d amber of

feda Bf of the futllltj

decided to withdi

u . h » , i men had I

i:i»\\ \i:i» <»i.i\ j.i: w < >LCOTT

■•iimialiil "f Ilarlv lia> Im-vIi \ at;. M&ly

"i men, the former I rlj 'a

of Major-Genera] \
who commanded ila- Union f"
ither of theme estimates, bol Axes
DO an. i l'ii. linn. There were aboul
in tin- works lfoa( "f them \\<-i«
. tin- point (»f attack, ■
" i 'ook ma. I.- bia beadqoi The defensive

! in the main <<( n.-u recruits, t*tii there were
M.m\ convi from the hospitals and

>yees also were summoned
!i i in- in»jM- thai they might be serviceable in
.mi.- formidable There is do doubt thai
rwards wrote, li«' succeeded in giving w
! fright,*'

mand was located only two or three miles

- reus and unquestionably would have

■ if i;.ni\ bad n..i desisted from bis

i ii j soldier could eaeilj bear the firing of

and, be tells us, be enjoyed peeing the bombs

\- • was, a portion "f lii^ regimen! was

of the Ugh! and some of the members «>f the

■ 1 i lie plau « ben, in i he ii"i aftern

• 1 1 Hi <>f July, Genera] Barlj rode down tin- dust 3

\\ ii li the ii"i f continuing into Washington.

;i ..f young \\o]. ..it's letter "f July
ten jn-i after the receipt <»f the news <>f the
1 ame i\\" hours
me to i«a\ .• 1 be camp, '" drill four hours

;•• ii«l all iii.- real <>f the ii

I from around the fori This looks

i raid 1 \\ i - 1 1 thai 1 in*

. . 1 •: av( noraet hing i" a rite

another addll ion, in a hich, after

id failed e through the mail

, ;•■ r, he add* u W e have

• bunh. Ii 'b mean work

Ave mounted guerillas

YOUTH tND YOU NO MANHOOD 0

from !"■!•• i

r.-.il t. .ii< h -«f I

■

i.\ tii.- cannon and I

■

i|- m line <>f b

Of tllr tl!

• I 1 think
II different pi

■

I ill la' hOI
v .11.

ronrtli tod lai
and Qenn were bo

I ant, an<l added tl

■

i:i»\\ Ai;i» « >u\ 1:1; w i >LO »tt

Mr v - pari for lii* father, ;in«l he was especially

I ^pressing the belief thai I [enry

fortnight after hit arrival, he added:

ire return? if he li n't 11 will

saaure of getting home." The remainder

a. Mill qUOl 1 1 1 j_T. i! follow | ;

I think thai it the end of thii hundred dayi i will look

- • tie pleaaantesl tinw cut We have been

bealthy place, do1 mnch to do, and bare had the satisfaction

liinii two miles of tin- rebe and seeing them drawn

op in line ild he better to have had

ame pretty Dear it :m«i two compi
of the 150th » od one man killed.

j thai they will try and keep us another
hundred daj s. W <• We heard rery little <>f it here, bn1 I would n't
: for another hnndred daw. if «,• conld hare ■
furlough, and if ire didn't hare to l'o hack to the same

lay thai thej are spending me rummer
-

■ l rationi boh rernmenl doei b*1

• i. Bothing bn1 hardtack, and that's irormy.

■ ul down the ration oi . •'. If it wihn'i for

I I, and applet that WG f

on i hat ire w ould do.

If you ha. enback thai you can'1 poaaibly spend

on 10 children pleaae rend it along. I suppose, mother, that

monej a1 the i i I ter ipoili it. but I can'1

here that little

•

; I i.\ a member of his family

w hich hai been preeen ed a aa from

late of July 13, iv«'.i In the

.ti of the acth itiea of other

r the 1 -lily, hut it . ontaJ] • n blcfa

ire over the

■
and yel I can
- w ill rei w aahington.

e to ( aptore and de-
then <>f her desire to have

YO\ in \M» \<>\ KG M INHOOI)

li.T f ;i in i ! -

■

ami wbei

I I • LTtt

nhoold '»•. for we
..f in. in.'*

i' ' in coin and member

■
time, I'Mt later he

..f A'
I

1 1th three or f<»ur Men
i moment

turn.

meat '

luit onlv with in
from :u:

but he d(

-
whil<

lv. i:i»\\ ai;ii < »i.i\ EB w i >I/> >tt

• -ill-mil** would laj tin- action to motives of politics and

to ate ii»<- organisation for

of Denver, at one

committee to wait on Mr. Wolcotl and

Poet ol b - application for member'

forth ill- • i in- committee and «i<-

with much regret He bad bis discharge

I and prised them highly.

ii. often told bis friends that in- had spent the greater

- time while in the service in the guard-house,

lining that it waa pleasanter inside with friends than

I >oub1 1< : drea the picture in a spirit

i»f humorous self -depreciation ; bnt that be was there some

of the time bis brother Benrj confirma. Benrj relates that

■ in. I Ed confined hut.' than once during their service,

ribing himself at this period of life as Ma chunk of ■

nor man." Mr. \\ olcott delighted to tell

■ a in- bad been " squelched '" hj his colonel.

of the monotony li«- went i<» that officer and

him that in- wanted to u«> to it"- front where there

■• \ .-a want to go to the front, do you? S ou

go bach i" your quartera as a starter." ii waa at one

of the annual dinners of the Loyal Legion that the w

on public Brut became acquainted with the fact that

■ i i had been a soldier in the Civil nn a r Be

i-.< I at the speaker's table as the - or of the

and the badge <>f the organization peeking from be-

the lapel of furnished the information that

:.|<- of the several hundred enthusiastic

• • \i r w ol< ot I made a moat patriot Ic and

that aroused generous and genuine

ii onlj sen ice a as i be

e ( War daj - be oned

added that be saw i erj

of ' be i ime be a as i onfined

from the war, young w olcott set out

i • ■• rmined t hat be

YO\ ill \\|. JfOl SO M tXUOOD

1
Preparatory, hoverer, to
took H'i\ .n i.

N
ii. entered U

and nitiHi be told in ■ r.u -

.ili.l u.is full

proepecl of enterii 1 n.

■elf for liis higher il two jean

II t.. .i|»j'l\ liinis.lf MSidOOU

I [e m .H' elj bad rea< bed I ■

i
H
year n the P H ■ •! anil fre»hninn y< «ill

ndid lit for frathman •
DOl I" in

1 1
ringleader Id fun an. I in m

tin. I

trOI • M a\ v .,n.| m. -.i n - u ;•

wild a large family, irbo had io little* m<

mi in w liirh I

Ici bad •

Mini, an. I bo* In- had 1

for n hieh th<

ii-

1 - tir. for

■ w

rding bonne* and ■
much interest. In a letti i

and _

II. w aki» OLIVEB tVOLOOTT

tea ii. and in the coarse
-•\ Identlj
S i * ith Mi i the

i n ripl asking, •• Boi

\ i". '" in w hich lie

•• I would ;i«l \ !«-<• \<»n I., nail dOWII that window in QUI

W 11 won't leave a single grape for the reel of

ear at Sadaoo Ifr. W ipent another twelve

moot • ►rwich, Connecticut, Disking his home at the

• Irandfathei mong the

young men at the Institution, ss manj of

:i testify. 11 - popularity was due not

atom eniaJ manners which are remarked by all. but

dent and his . ■:■ man.

29, L909, S\ - Mice I < In in. Mill

Mr v. orite irith both teachen and clan

■ aial, "in ■pokes msnner. Be ■ si

ction in snj group irhich be Joined. Be lored

sad frolic, hu i l .aim.. i remember that be i ed it

reme Be bsd, even In 1 demy

...lit, and ;inv plan whh Ii In-
pretti BUi ■ .- adopted bv In- class. I re

the
- « inn they left tlnir Alt

h, |i .. a.. I mil. h .|iiickm>s. ami his later ii-.-m-il

b lity.
I • him writh and followed

eer a Ith much

fj :

r M. 1 r Mr Wolcotl

I ; ed well and bsd the repute

ember him aa a Jollj irhoie
often preached

■ N J 1 admired Mr.

II b I think h<-

VOUTU \ M» \ • »l N ' MWIIn.

for

Ith tllC U

be bi

■
much

Mr W

uj» and iend to him fa

And the i

ii'\\ \i:i> < »i.i\ 1:1: w < >L0OTT

es an ; i • served, and th(
ive been Intended at an ap
for tii- »f the letter itaelf. They ran u follows:

' \ :i.l oblige

four Affectionate

her

Oliver

rVolcott"

(Mi the same sheet on which this letter was written was

an original drawing, which, in dew «»f tin- mixed attendance

at t! • - significant It was a silhouette in ink of

tin- head "f a oegro girl and portrays more pointedly Mr.

idea "f the school than could anj language, it

!n.i\ convey a him aa tn tin- reaaoD for his brief stay

: imi i-nj«»\ m i v.-« 1 asso.iat ions.

Mi- \\. .h..!t entered Yale College in 1866. 5e remained
a year, leaving without graduating, No ade-
quate record «-f h •!<■<• at gale has been preacrved
t<» na, Ian in his after iif<- he frequently indicated his
chment for an. I great interest In the college WTe
ter, written not a great while after he left
the Inntitution, an account «»f an incidental return >" it.
risit to one of the faculty there Writing
1 ■ bruarj 27, L86fi

v mdaj aoon for Men Haven, I • ailed, "f

I found la i iii ; "ii^' (he (lUfttV

. tii<- Ilbrai . 1 1. i u --• kind t" me, e\ in< ed bu< h
■ Ddahip f' '.'li 3 "a. i

11 mi shrinking fellow and aever will

All at ..!i than that which ha now occuplen Fet

! alf all BOble, BBftel fifth I-!' .i- I <l

e in the world I If laid be hoped
;■ 1 1 j % hope "f returning; that I would BOt

• ■ now 1 1. .•.•'•! in.- i" w rite him

u riting let tei i r ai

! t.. answer them. Per

n< h about him, but mj

• trip, •in. I if \.-ii knew him you would

STOUTH \\h

lid .il-.
conferred

i \

pmer\> «l I ■

30. itn.

men.

:>. an. I

rm.

in 1 -' nil .-inpl

the ran

his |

i:i»\\ ai;i» i »i.i\ 1:1; w i »i .< H >'i t
insurance N for a Ku^in.--^ bonne.

All <»f t: , ••.iii-iii- t1 i | ^t',7,

ii.i ih<- end "f '!»«• last mentioned year
- linn ai his od preparing to enter

areer <>f a lav

:l'l\ <-f all h . that a! Flint v/as III.'

» Mi v, M-- was it,,- youngest mem-

■•••. .iii-i. aa much <>f the

ii work "f the establishment Ml t<» him, in- <li.l not

relish Lh< isition. if. however, hia fen

months at Flint <li<l DOt estnhlish liiin in hnsim->s and make
Of him the faull W8J DOt <lm- to lack "f

ather. The elder M r. w olcotl wot a man

"f i probity. Be alao was mnch

I for his boy's w « • I r. 1 1 « • He leema to have been

ted in l Id's oh employ ment and t<> have

that he should remain awaj from the large

itrnmental in locating him at Flint, and

1 -'.7. \. rote to the young man from

\ line fron that yon g to

. and 1 hope mat j on are

j introdui ><\ to your nev <im lea. This

II !►<• ».. \ ..ur mother, from i bom,

Icitude about your

.111 Im- 11,

n be iii takin

ii-

if. in the
<>( honorable
I probab
■ nth. in the store srhlcJ

!;..iir.

our employer* and

.ii<- im ome inpport

■ a little, if possible, li the problem

• you « an,

it ?

rouTB \m»

liiiu W

lucrative

■
all my i II

do i |

a suit of clothi ! '

•'link for bin

thlog for Bd; I

'I I' I I

• r him, Is i
I

hi t

tore little mon

« Itfa t In n. In 01

lain

I ITOrt an. I '

tin- money, « In. '

\\«>ui.| be at home Thai

I hai

■

p thom t..

deal "f n.

i:i>\\ .\i:i» < >i.i\ 1:1: w < >LCOTT

be afterwan Mod tome articles borne for the

by a letter from his mother thanking
li i in for them ;ni<l complimenting him opou lii* selection.

letter from the mother was irritten on November
- that by t 1 1 i — time the familj had beguu
Job oote of the son's dissatisfaction with hia employ-
ment i; ihe aaya: " 1 bai e no
doubt yon win bare much to in yon, but yon will i>a\ »*
trials of - In anj situation." The father was not
quite ao philoaophical or gentle, and writing on the -Tih «»f
,Imi- uiiii reference t" an offer which the son had
er insurance work I ork, he a

I an quite aatiafled with your present place, as favorable
for .1 \\ ■ ■ • iii it steadily

f.-r three years ;tn<i <1" well, yon would be In demand In Aral

■. or more, and would occupj an

Independent po ■ '. more bj leaving than bj remain

\\ .■ are aot without anxietj now, and should tremble If yon

But I decide <•• leave the m;i f t .r wholly

w itli en i ouraging nor ptance

:•. 1 >(. 1 hat yOU think !••

difference en father and ^"n were soon ;i«i

justed, and we And the young man transferred from Flint

earlj In the coming year. In Nen 5Tork

be entenn] the office of the Equitable Life Aasurance Society,

then at 92 Broadway.

\| i SVolcott's letters from Neu STork cover onlj the
I from . 1 . 1 1 1 1 i.i i \ '-'"Hi to March 18th, althoug
in i ! • • in in-. I throughout the year M in ii >>f their de-
ken up n it li tints "f ■ ■ irj. boat •

I w Ith old friends "f his f;ii hei .

•a of lm- i • • • on « J 1 1 i i « • a

January 28th, \\<- And him

I* i ■ re s "i I ing for myaelf l

on renewals.

I I * v e | hing for enough

'.- w < • 1 1 ;it present, I. ill hou

I don't know." r,\ ii,.- end <»f February

\ i >l I II \ \ l» ^ i »i \. , MAN
he bad •

I' :

.»r ,i

the Ik York <

fi-

tnillt $

Douallj

1 1. •

k<*pl :

in 11.

dda

■

ami ii

i:i.\\ ai:i» OLH EB WOLCOTT

apparently what an openii made for

he added : " Nou you i Ith my nana]

foolUhnetu I have put mj head in the lion's mouth, aa pe-
on spendthrift habita, where there la do need
Of if. Bo draw it mild, plei

long in the aame letter he comment! upon the
■ 1 infatnation "f the bu I soliciting lif«*

in-ui ring:

peek without 'in- remoteal i<i"a where i am
• . My bread. I am frightened sometimes when I

think <»f i r — t » » think th;it I am liable to |0 ■ iii"iiili without I

man, although i' li said thai if ■ man will devote ■ certain
number "f h..> tent <-!T<>rt. he li just ai mre

-s as ihc Mm I hare probablj talked

Lnaurance to i hundred and arty men, and I bate

. :i-\s it. The IniMiii iiur n-ally

ha im!i q we find from another statement

tn the father that Mr. rVolcott had earned |211 87, and that
he had overdrawn hii account t<> the extent of twenty-five
He pointed "in that tin* Income waa at the rate of
i [e added, I on ever, that not from the Aral
iij. t.» that time had be obtained s single appli*
•• But," !• I have at leaat the satisfaction

'•f knowing that I never worked harder. M\ employers do
a hy Hhould l '.' "
In i \i r. Woli - to have been \ er]

pulot matter of church attendance, and his Ural letter

oi p ^i ork, dated January Inrgerj taken np

mm «if hiii <-\|" that line on t he Bun-

He telle ol eiaiting for the morning service,
b] an old t Ime friend of bis fat her*i
that in the evening he went I ;' i spin's church.
i ■ ; a splendid sermon, not wholly
i, but one of the moat eloquent productions I
i i .i week later, he saj - :

in-, h Sal. l.at h morning
i in\ life. My friende, how*
: he did not <h» himaelf justice In the evenii I

\ < H 111 \ \l> VOI \'. MA!

■ .|.-i| tin- i

-
oother !•

.. igth of "
B

14 1 like I

■

Dl in a li

[{

boom MMonablv. if If i* igreMbk » ■■■■ • • '

morning. If D
trill b

jron. I ■

\..M

th m«>rnh

bath

;t roggMtJon. i «n

r.i'W \i:i> < »i.i vi:i; w < >i.<< >tt

him is in a l. : .it Frankfort, Kentucky, February

IX i *i aed i" ix'th lii» parenta and

i- f 1 1 1 1 ..f . - of his business he -

to-night, but feel more than satisfied. 1 have

il twentj f<»ur hours in three

.•Hilling t< |4500. I obtained full price* and

1 k ii e profit for the H< Bnt il cannot

I happened to itrike tin- merchanti at j n-t the right time,

do drnmmen had recently visited the towns, i irai

For the ireek preriona I lia.l sold comparatively

He en outlined hie desire for the Immediate future,

g that after li«- had finished hie canvass of Kentucky he

would a-k the firm for which he w;h travelling to send him

li;but ii does not appear that hi the plan into

G ring his reason for wishing I utinue In

■• They hare more money than < >hio
peopli resent, and will spend it more freely.M

e in travelling a aa a i aried one, but
- not without pleasure t<> him in his buoyant
young maiiii I i» made <-\ ident :

ontinuing in- lei ter . I i ode about twentj

Khelbyville through 1 1 » « - intrj you

warm ai a lummer day, and In some

- in lummer. In Bhelbyville,

Kentucky towns, the black population ii much

l u. m I.: k <>f the little

o fair, and oei

the yom aa Dot devoid "f interest in the

re woman h I ma\ be gathered from the

'ii from the Frankfort l«-t:-

utiful ipot ai I : i ■ ■ i told la almost

ml iln- t..un is
• .nitifiil women, ;m<l
in\ lif<-. A South

\..i ill \\l> YO\ S(3 MANHOOD M

The 1 1 • - x I .1 ;
ind the buain<
li u r:' •• d fron !"• ■ ' ■ I

• r\ -lull and
making ru.. tOWDI OCT daj

ml . 1 1 ■ ( ■

.... I ,

• k or ten daj i* Froi
p, 1 1 o p k i

l.ti-l up at bil

if ire k 1 1
fori Di

kw-w hill) in

ful, inipulf

i
■ onder th<

one

\\ Mr. Wnlrnlf f

i:i>\\ \i:i» OLIVBB WOLOOTT

• aturaJ b and splendid executive

a lth a little ii- ■ a rought

al world if be had remained in

it. 1 1 ... , ib ,.f ;i pro-
nal life

Bdward'e becoming a

tnd in this determination bad a itaunch supporter

older I W bile Henry bad

in busim ■ after tin- clone ol

and in racceaefnl, be bad

ronnd conditioni •*n t i r«-l \ to his liking ami bad emi-

then territory "f Colorado, where he was

if in tin- bnnineai «>f mining

milling nrc». II. « .n.-.-r --f the Wolcott family In

h he and Edward

repntatioD and wealth, and whence we

And him writ i feeniona] plana. I to

mber, ivi that

••will have application enough to itlch bo

law, for," he aaya, Mhe li capable of making ■

:<>n nf tln-M' plans wr discover Edward located
i office in Boston before the clone of tin' fall
M-asmi <»f ! SOU Previous to »n for 1 he

roung man ipenl
and, but the onlj glimpee

• him there ;- In a let ter '" i

'i . onlj a half

a picture of the home iif«- and

of the Irrepressible jo\ ialitj <>f the

i from hi> Southern i"ur

•i«l. at the time the Ie1 ter w aa penned,

conn I «'f an Inprow ing i"«- nail.

mi trouble Ion rd u I have," be

tudj up to the sofa and a ill
etter, thougl lince Thur
i am a citing on ■ ;
. mna, and I feel a little ' i >r« W al

• the nan •

■ : that

N l »i ill IND Yol'SCJ MAN il

Short, P
I [«

I l DOH I '•'

Ull'l

STUDYING LAW

F0BT1 \ kTELY, Mr. Wolcotl has left a quite complete
• r.l of liis lift- while he was engaged in studying
law. There have been preserved between tort} and
iift\ letters from him covering the i»«-ri<»<i from the time he
u Ihh course in Boston in tin- law office of Charles T.
and Thomaa ll Russell, in September, 1869, until he was
diploma bj the Harvard I. aw School in June, iv7i.
and • torj more graphically than it can be

told i thej will !"• quotLNl liberally. Possessed of

the faculty of observation to an exceptional degree and
otuitive in his judgment, his letters to the
f..lks ai home abound in passages "f abiding interest, inter*
iiii much "f the detail of everj daj life,
I [< >•: n ith the understanding thai his ex-

penditure* should eed iiii\ dollars a month, and oat-

nrallj he found m difficult i«» li\<- as in- desired on this sum.
:n.iii\ <.f his father's acquaintances, all of
oding and, manj "f i hem, of a ealt h,
tent, and even then
in' universal favorite in society
.1 favorit ism w hich he n.\ er espe
■ ii\ w.-ni ..hi • tent,

ho knew
who kne* him then as one of
orial '•' onomiei he
in his studies a ill
• a.

.S4SS.-.I (,f ;i i.'n.i.-iK -\ toward
ii in maiiv of ins letters. Those from

^ . .1 III \Mi \ .»l \«, M VMI<M)1)
tin- li. il>it

pre And
ackiww !••<!.

Win!

thai for

g
-. be tell

hit work, .1- follon

■

;

I All]

I bo|
whicb in

w two weeka afterward, the young

legal fame earned ■ lawyer, and

a relating the i

merchant
a.-.i ti i in about |600, and thai be couldnl collect

and ranted ni<- to <!<• what I COUld toward getting

Mr. Russell »aid I could attend t.. it and idTited me about it.
Ji a iherilf and keeper ami attached hia pro]

etting it all in none] and tecnrity, and learned

law in that oat t r;i n -:i.T i« -n than I lia<l learned in

■

.- conld ii"' keep the money. Aa he had not been

admitted ><• the bar in- <ii<i everything in the nam.- of the

i e charge wai |20, ol which the firm took

half and gave him the other half. He wai satiafled, for be

i f.-it that thej wonld have had a perfect right '«»

i ail. a- my time is i holly theirs."

g, he t«-iis hon his time not onlj belonged t<».
I. in was claimed by, t be firm.

ronld think it • yon had been here daring

thii jht 1 bavenM during thai time read fifty |

the other itndent in the office, bappeni to t"- an annanally
II, in bia palmieal day a; and ao

the paal fortnight, written pi

. for which the
- that we have
■ ■ i hi- h baa been 1 1 ry
derablj t.. my < 1 1 -- : t j -i >« « i 1 1 1

they have a cane like the ■

ablj repreaent the capital "f
to buj np the Ballon1 clalmi and

■art.

be knen I the young student

■ a ..n Iiim preceptors, for we find

I ' .\ olCOtl "Ii -la

2, ] -:■ plimentary terma :

N 01 III Wl'

\\ .• bol h n.\ t.p •'.• r
\ • » u r -••ii If
• lili^''
tin- )■■

I
■

"iif.

On 1 4 February, I -

•i t a kin- i|..w ■

■ »f i Idening thedi

in t; • ,.1 tlttKM

Intereatm ho found the irorl

quick irork taking do« n •

aay*, and

hand ; II a ould

In \|.ni there a*a

..f that mont] !

mdent all the

your Maker '

v ■
mother,

I rather think

r.i»\\ \i;i> <»i.i\ i i; w i >LCOTT

0 that I « an l;i\ iu\ handfl <»n tlu-in at a

. . Bei ioualj . i p "uhl
and whether you will come
i\ bard though the thermoi
• ■ application.

. in i:« 11 .mm i \i>\

Mr Wolcott then was a regular attendant at chnrch . The
• »nl\ h made t«» this practice were on the Sundays

when he was in\ii<-,i to spend tin- daj at the country homes
«»f u\> father's well-to-do friends, and for these he always
ii i;i< ) • o bis parents. Bui li<- n<»i onlj went

regularly e; be was an attentive listener Be beard

(thing and was able to give an account of the sermons
and i" ''-li whj he lik«-<i or <li<l not lik«- them, as a fe*
ill show.

I'luiiili'- church yesterday morning \ li<- tells

il bis colleague in ili«- other

.. preached for him. Not I rerj Interesting

In the afii-nnH.ii i couldn't resist the temptation

6 rray,

and be did preach a real " redhot " discourse on the overbearance

aking their ministers preach two • day.

Be raa full «.f ministers with softening of

on and turned loose b\ the chin

among the old Patrian ba
i
< hurt li.

i mher 15th, after having spent a brief time

. . be tells "f ■ liree aer

■ - in one 'la\ . and be prom

ii.l ao much " in church going \\ hen

Sov< ■: ■ i Jv' li he " bad a

r ; went both m< ad after

I bun li and beard the two ones! sermons

I i Of W illiains

,\ on
1 Anthony Froude, and ap

ui h infatuated \\ ith Fronde, if not a itfa
Job

roi mi ^nd vol so m \v'

mi. I Mr

I hard], ■ b

!. .iii-l eloquent H

long • i

. Iik.- him u 1 I

Rpeaker and

him an. I -

well, I think, and

• all
itinai

this

should be 1 1

. -lnir. Ii.
I think t!,

tendii

lh\\ \i;i» OLIVBB rVOLOOTT

l would tod that they oomprlaed ill the law

■ I .lnll'T BM1 ' ,,!1 V'u

on cannot

-in thorough!; " !' ' '•'

in an epietle of December 5th th< d account of

.. upon a church connciL Mentioning thai i his
• hia •• ftral council," ' "' ' ,,li,lk ''

perfed inquiaitSon ami impoaition. Dr. Blagden wbm i
»r and they all aaked him all tin- tough qneetionj they

COUld think of.'*

h he reapondi t«> a slight reprimand from
ither with the following explanation :

I aotiea that yon nay in your letter that V'U hope 1 1 ill Ittl

I have done no. 1 hare not miaai >i a

ening, hut hare not written «>f them becauae thej

not been eepeclally interaating. I am sorry that all my

Inritationi ipend the Sabbath, it ii becauae bm

in. -n Irving out <>f the aitj are really "at Borne" onlj on thai

Mr. Da Wit B fi JO "ii a text I

meant t.. •-• yon at the time, " For I bare trodden

, md <>f the people <-f 1 1 none

■ ..a earth.
it B . i in.. a in the lentimental line, and Mr.

h,- v. i f«ry Impreeaivelj aith the ■ erj beanti-

rally mpnKMti, that th«- imiN-nitrnt umiiii tread the wine-prom

h'i wrath atom feeterdaj be preached two ei
■ernion^, and Mr. « * 1 1 i l < I — gave u I aort of lecture on
and I

36D be had pnjroped a seal at church,
meet the demand of hie tether for "
i ■ Mr rVolcott was .ii>.|„,v.,.,i to cultivate i re-
when "tit of church may be Inferred from
from a letter of Apt I ,;. L870

: yon e ben I the < renti <>f laat

ItiiihrH'K. If wni realized

ept in1- brotha

mi ii • infloencei which mrround me there,

would be grateful »<> Mr. and Mi H I am, thai

igh t.. mi borne for me too. After

Willi A \ 1 > ! \ Ml' ••

'ill . Inir- h l:-

■

; ■

ill <>ll

t.. II • f

until Ji

will it ■

i:i'\\ \i;i» OUVER WOLOOTT

slue, ami perhaps l bare
• I it fully. 1 like the hymn, bin 1 do DOl
like

. he nrritea M I have compared the three

rit Worship ' and think the Improvement "f

er the ftrat and the third otct the second la

i e proportion of thia hymn originally t<»

• your bymna la about '*',,'< ; after the Aral

•;<-r the last Improvement 85

in a letter on the 20th <»f the aame month ocean the

following commendatory criticism:

i.l the hymn u Tran
quil! : n with your «'iini- and I think it Is

rritten. [I I remember
pari <>f the hymn on your last trip I

\. I think one o! the g 1 points

in tin thai it la not a hymn, l like it because it la

• j to the I ml> i" mli nt 1 w ould
i ihonld think yon ironld prefer
to hymns. Nou ironld be i
ir Bible class you tpo
i think nothing ii especially
og the third and fourth linei begin with "and"
think tli.
ould make llic verae ;i more logical one; but

. of silence

I think j • site the right srord In " The

The ttii: d I lie fourth

ml fourth linei of the ll

me words
rightly lo | our other hj runs.

i the father a • ed a persona

ii in the folio* in'.'

I II T.hIi-\ ' I I. I'-
ll . . . idenl l.\ a rites
i i ;iii<l he ought to form b co-partnership.
• --. I :t 1 1 1 ;i little tempted
thout meaning i'. on <i mighty small capital."

N 01 III INI)
rabj<

ami '

l»«t V

III. Ill I

I I

DOl think

fully 1

nrralh. \

■honl
hdndn

hunt •

i:i»\\ ai;i> OLIVEB WOLCOTT

■■_■•■. v;ii and other

\ ■!.. •«-■• hymni in oar hymn booki ire neurlj die tame

n and i the

I under the different beading* and was but
similarity in the hymns. i».>n*t yon thii

There are many of these long analyses, bat a feu Bpe
cimeni must suffice In the next quoted, onr critic

into detail than in others. The hymn before him la
tied •• i>i\in<' Guidance," and <>f ii he saya:

ityle sre both g I, much better than

Trust," and there li something dignified end impressive in
the •:• But, ii in all your hymm and all your

ons, the last part ii much the bast [n the first rerse
*• flung " isn't good, it ii not ■ int word, anj way,

to < i m i itan r Ith. it ii natural that
■ pillar of fire should "hang" in tin- heavens and "fling" ita

hward." l'.ui COUld a pillar "f cloud !»■ Mid
U) -1<i the lame? in the M-<«.nd vcrsr, •• thai In

ftame" and "cloud" ind "• pillar of flame end

g in the heavens, which though moving could nM
pathwaj ." could it ? I don't

I hi all tin.-.- v.tm-k iln-n- air i.... manv

. n i belli i t" make the

1 n the fourth eerae, :i " columned
rather mild waj -.f designating a pillar of •
i . .ii The last line of the

- splendid, in the

• thing in tin- ■ onstru< I Ion not

the " By "

• the third line, if you i<-ft out that line would

I think \<>u will make the hymn

•

i. .1 -\ 19, 1871, "ii the result of the above
\i r w ol( o

• d "ii not altering 3 our hj mn

regardn tin- first iwn vitm-s. Tin- two

I your changes are, I
ya kept a hymn

^ < »l III Wli \ . .1 SCI M \MI« H

In ol
1870,

not

■

• \\ .

■r a fmi.T. |

in 1 In. h '!"• ti .i in. i

kin.!, \\hil»- thOM uln.li appeal up'

nut ur.' make more freqoej

•_'. ls7l
li\ in:

plinn ' M

..f tl

. ..in-
then H

■ l.rii.u\ 1 . 1^71.

• >r m\ :

in \..nr i

•
to t! | | "

And again on

jroa,

anj thing ■
In itill

.i jnd

and I all

:.i i:i. w \i;i» <»l.l\ 1:1; WOLOOTT

Yom • adi lee his father to

her than poetical •• follow-

illL' !'■ ' ■■■■->. I ""

BDtiooed in mj letter lail week that
your article In the 1 It l remember

f the article In ■ lermon 3 on
peat anmmer. 1 bare been thinking of ■ grand
rblefa I think yon conld accomplish moal in
rriting op the EScnmenical Council tor tome ft
if I had the age and the sbility, there is aothing 1 would
rtudy the Romish Ohnrch from the Oonncil
.•Mt in the sixteenth century to the present time and follow
.1111.il Don litting, in Eta deliberation! ind then write op
the ■ ib you would think 0! it. 1 hope

yon will determine opon baring at least one prose article
each hymn. For l think the one Improves the
other.

ge advice for a young man jual paal twenty'

;-.. And him taking oote of a Dewspaper controversy

hich his father had engaged over the question of the

puleorj oae of the Bible In the public schools, In which

in- lwnl taken the uegi ng with and com'

mending him, Edward wrote, Jolj ~. 1870:

I 1 ■ . .. : 1 n far the 1

1 think, 1 -|ii-i i.iii\ when he

1 ami shutting tht- Bible

1 ea, bon ever, I think,

• red, though I am oof certain.

:-■-- thall

ihment of religion 0

bether it - ould prohibit

I ih ink a

t and the at bool

DStom drop this ll I think

11 infringemenf on

• for the rapport of public

■ •: • brines Instilled

• 1..IH- hurtful. I think
yoa I imp true course, but I should think, from the

VOUTH \ \l« VOI m . MAM

■■niir char

■

H
to follOK in '

>f liii love of .1 joki

• i- 1 1 • i -

h .ink with hit (i iiig ill--

u.iv broaqoe and i

nil Ktrictui
w ng nny pn

■ from t! ■

whetl

Atul inn till U .

era],

Let •

Th»-

i:i«\\ \i:i» OLIVEB WOLOOTT

!i,\ misfit \sh;it dO these *>i^rn> betok
6 ;ui<I I n til In •

replj was u prompt as It was crushing.
u. January Llth, inn bii letter had ool

red "ii the 15th, \vln*n 1M uiMrrKsttl Inin again, saying:

• You make do commenta on 'ii«* poetry <>f the two
i you, I am writing a Byron end until yon

write me that my prodnctiom are unmistakable trai . I
shall probably continue to gush."

The father's remarki mnai bare been received
afterward Sere Ii a bat be aaid :

be 6th| with original ■tansae, perplexed and troubled

ui.-. ii i« the Brat thing irhich l remember to bate

'•■•in yonr pen, which, like your penchant f<>r ■ boman skull,

mental idiosyncrasy, h was a suggestion <>f some

thing written In ■ tn of ■omnambuliam, «>r drawn from 1 1 » • - tonrce

aspiration. Wt were even apprehensive that

if yon wi .1 little deranged. If a\\ tag

rh_\ii - : sifirr I ha*! |';i»m-<I imv ."..'■ th l»irtlula\ rn<nui

of iii\ children t.. do i' before they bate reached iin-ir
I himii feel that I bar* made i double mlitafce.

Be afterward referred i<> the "effort" ai .1 j«'k<-.
ther it waa rack or aot the criticiam was effective 1
reply, <lat<-«i February 6th, follows:

chewing n|'" m> effosion wsi duly re
I ban e world will nerer am mj "poem" Dor 1

■ Og paSSSg ; • lire.

that at til • felt that 1 bad .1 gift that way,

• >ii r letter ban disillusioned • dying notei of 1 ii«-

ipromptu
Ii the la^t that Edward, the Bon of
1 • 1 » . will en

: 1 1 1 1 »- 1 n't 1 rite

M\ 1

• r |.r<>l>'l>l.\ think* In- 's ri^'lit ; —

1 jealoui " - retur '".'

JTOUTB \ M» JfOl SO MANHOOD

It was while '■

tainted hi Mi.tiius. ripf. .in.!
the memben of » be I

..-.i i. mi bat t fun

In fr

■
upon the

■

\
unci

- in the h

If]

for •
roar
dent froi

.•f .!

the nataide Q]
fhar the your
in the iraj

mv ri

• • It will 1

i:i»\\ ai;i> < >i.i\ 1:1; w OLC< itt

.11 be little 1 although

all 1. in oi nkiiivl thai for the last

....•ii to me 1 ■-■ 1 : • — because 1 uronH
_• and plaj backgainnion and i>< •

1 0 prayer'

weeks later he a p

quire \\ hat yoo \\ iah me

1 neceai ■ -•■ the bal n end nnlnter

• l mental application." 1 gel all ged some-

1 find difficulty in : 'l daring

m\ 1 ii;i: I ,iv.- ;m I reading.

the lack <>f oooeentratlon hi reading the r- as

you, the o B irdaj afternoona 1

ill.- Pnblic Library t.. ipend them, and 1

mpoauiblc for me ti >me article

in some "f tin- Engliah reriewi that 1 know I ought i" read,

end which perhaps Mr. Russell has advised me '<• read.

An.i ;i fortnight afterward :

I ;iim a lnili- <! ■ • • ! ;ii ool receiving those 1 Ici from

1 think yon had better direct them »<> tin- Winthrop
1 u.t". about two thirds through the &n\ rolume of
v when l came to the
and found it Impoaaibli d without an Atlas,

I l» but ■ limited time from the Public

i had t>> return it and shall not take it out again

■•• i I have finished Froud* >\ am ju*i beginning

all take op tin- con

1 wiah, Father, thai 700 would, at your

of I on an) budj< 1 ■ - 11 intory,

to n ad. 1 mean t«>

■

d then in. dole and i 1 hi -c

the young Minimi s|„;iks udiuiringlj of

■ • I ;/-;?!'/. he eaj a, " I

1 bare thia" in

•• 1 'i.i\ e -i \ arj

•I f'»r all that In- R litis."

then pi'" ••'■•is t.i comment apon an attack apon

^ I >l 111 Wh '! Wll'" n

tin- I

am '

rell ond(

■
timpU
Mr v

ibonl

much more '

irron

Impr

i doo*1 think It irai .1

an. I

w Bod in Mr
lectin -.

i:i»\\ ai;i» OLT\ EB WOLOOTT

• tares bj Ralph Waldo Emerson.
M • Eb erson n\ hich Mr. vVoleotl at-
tended irere on the distinguished author**! favorite thei

lentaliam, "not twentg words <>f which <"ui<l I

understand," I Thai letter «;ts written in December,

and writing ;• year later in- proi jive a detailed

tmt of Mr i arson's lectures on the human intellect,

which in- prononncee uqnite intereeting and Instruct

If the fnller account was written it baa not been preserved.

1 : ; i r- 1 \ in December, L869, Mr. Wolcotl t.-ik ..f having

i ;i lectnre for the first time by Wendell Phillips, and

. never enjoyed a pnblie address more. " l think.'*

be saya, "1 - ityle ie magnificent Mr. ffoanoll says the

(evolutionists an- his ideal Mirabeau, and the
w .' conrse folly, but hit manner <>f laying

wonderful." April «;. 1^7". we are told: " I have bad
iplendid intellectnal treat* since I wrote last; one, last
hearing President Woleej "i» I : • P
P i-. bn( especially lasl evening when David Dudley Field
-.•ntat i<m «.f \| inorlt ies " He adds :
i think I D( ned to so instructive b lecture. He

• •■l how onjustlj 1 1 1 « - people were represented in our
. >-t .-in <>f elections, and suggested several reme<
ed .it many fans be laid before as, aa, for
pie, that t thirty-two United States

vote ■ New 1 ork State casts for
'] eard and greatly admired Phillips Brooke.
3, 1 870, M p w oli ol of tli<- honors paid

I lurlinga bis death, iaj

l w- nl ilnll In Pi ' •■ when Rurlingame laj in

! iaw the fnneral procession The

i; the Lai

:m i Ie isj i be • ii 'ii<- most ambl

1 Ii office under

■ ipeotstion that ' be

mi to the l

thiol - it It than anj civilian In the

bard that ipeot iii4- whole

it "iT when ii«' was sear the

N I M I II \ \l» . UAN1KNI

■
of th< W

of these

- i

ii.

of Webster, <'l

■
■

it rai the opposite, th<
often

W
w under the date of N ■ ■:• 17. i»i i

imjin " EttMMll. N

in tome
ofl nil nunal pjrroti

■

i and fn

mber 8, 1870

I nm very inu.h '

■

i:i»\\ ai:i» < »u vi.i; w < >LC< >TT

i in. h teem

thing

but • - : \ Friday

the young man's observationa confined entirely

ipon which he was reading He began thus

life t" iliink along Independent line* on national

a, and that hi> thoughts were quite radical mi

inferred from the following extract from a letter »«» hia

father written Maj 27, 1871:

made f<»r the obserraii< •

OW. It IS, I think, a foolish CUBtom.

■ eotion "f soldiers' monuments.

iuioh iii MaMtachiiM e, and in iift.\ yean our

desci'iniants will cart them t" the <-«mi • o gel

ght the reminden of ■ war between brothers. Half

made f<T political •

d1 found that Santo l logo fell flat ;

n \\i mum;

\\ . let ters much concerning hi*

and like auh

em in an interesting way. Re

a limit of fiftj dollars a month for

! difficult] iii living as his

;i young man he required the

• it. and a bile he dei otes pagt

mat ter ol tig, it id e\ ident

hich afterward became bo pro

douh I not intended to repro

the subject The
from :» l< i April L9, 1870, \\ ill

it :

u ben I left home. Theg bate
pd, bul thei -I deal of wet

:<-, thick • .mr|

! of panti I bought here the 27th

rouTn AND

..f \v,-.ii Itill '

I
B]

a long

log •

on 01

likr •

•
dollars, n hi< h pri<

That.

i:i»\\ ai;i» < »u\ EB w I >i.« < A "i"

round in the announcement that be bad
it for himself a fourteen-dollar pair o! si
Ifanj . d boardii - were made, and Hie

■ rally w as the beti We find him tiwajfl

for well-fitted rooma, and, young ai be waa, be
si surroundings Id hia boarding plat ea. « ta one

• i u i ►• hi a long argument to rapport bia
that it was better for him »<• i>«- at a hotel than

at a private boarding-house Be then contemplated locating
in B< •! attorney, and even at that earlj date Looked

forward t.» entering apon a political d which event

in- waa of "|»ini..ii that residence at a I » « » t « - 1 would be of

unce t" liim than a borne In a family
rammer montha were generally apent at country pi

Mr W father adopted the general plan of sending

:i dollars each week with which to paj bia current

-».-s. ; i • 1 . 1 i 1 1 •_: iii"]v when iii'irssan tn mie extra-

demand, and he required not only a strict acknowl*

• ipt of the money, but a detailed statement
«.f the expenditure, which, while cheerfully given when It
could be given at all, still appears to have been the subject
of in. little care to young Wolcott He always was Lmpa-

l, and it ni;i\ readilj beauppoaed that he found

. bat difficult to keep an act a >unt of all hia

Ifore than once his memoranda were lost, and it

Dfrequentlj happened that. ewii when these data were

furii mil1 items were missing. In either event we

find him making due explanation and Eranklj acknowledg

■ p of i kkeeping.

oot the ails Of his . 1 i 1 1 i

rll]i ., •, i\ to r.-iate a few Inataneea

the pnrpoae of showing the character of the boy, who,

i,, r proved to be the father of

• in i: .;. account yon will notice an item of fifty

n ;i letter tO his father written

Id D 369. Hi a hotel, :in<l

[plain : •• \\ hen I • ame to the bouse i

■ a left th< outaide their doore.

In rged for cleaning them, but

.ini.l a hill in mv shoes for two weeks at

VOUTH \ M» fOUNfl MANHOOD

ID f.. ;i v.. •

if be I

belpi

bad i

ten '

ien ing h i in -••! f In th
Mr w

• ir would

f>»r him.

ROIIIUtl ll

I •

-
more libei

bad I

oJl '

* i VHv- ex aJV^ VjOviUL,

•A-

- '

K r\ n~*s\- -~ ft-

H. VrJK ft A^_

I
holding f-»rth DlghtJj In fr-h? ..f tb<

• • fog f.'i .1

well t<> do in-

feel i

lion,

the i expran*

Interest In hli

i:i»\\ a 1:1 » OLIVEB w 1 >LOOTT

itut • true 1 ant knoa '■

ind of the formation <>f gla

extent, onlj moving from Castile :m«1
•.1. M\ ireok li op to-morrow, and 1 shall
• rning ei oog|| iM iiH- evening! <>f <'ii«-
rapport im«- more than two. it maj last bat 1

bl\ it in;i\ continue f<»r three weeka. 1 Ii«>|m-
the latter When this lectni n I found mjaelf

I bought i«" nice ones, ready made, and
I think thej will 1 through* I'm I maj hare to

11 - wish thai the lecturing might « -< > n t in m • for some

length <»f time was ^appointed, for a sreek later, on

January 18, 1870, we find him writing thai his enp

men! bad or four days previously. He could

i) with i .'ih <.n condition thai he would take

enough each day to attend to the advertising. Thai

>uld 1 1 • • t <i" and give proper attention t" his studies,

and he accordingly declined.

inal, the experience broughl Mr R I into a line

n. 1 he «ii«l nol fail to see wherein it bad been

nee t«» him. It had given him confidence before

;m audience, bul at the tame time it bad shown him that,

. •• he w;i- rerj deficient in extemporary speaking."

included thai he muni cultivate this habit

. u qj also \ aluable to him Id anol her re-
Through it he found iiis mice " 1 don'l mean to
callj ." he aaj a, " bul I bai e d la< 01 ered
an nnuaually fine roice for public speaking,

• i in .1 ral her Ml'Ii kej \ ■ 1 pari of the

time l have been troubled with ;i severe cold, bul my roice
:u the lea

am money
• if and :i» ins father's objec

the Line of buaineaa in which in- had been engaged,

Mr. W

loubtedh linnet tied me nomewhal In mj studies, for

Thai 1 ihall gel over now, bul it learei me

0 and some sray to 1 arn

KOUTH AND MAXUtX . •

li..ur* <lin

tin- '•

the youi

U|m.|i li :
e .1 in-. nth ..r
two days whil<

1
M i \' •• I I'm. I I b

I
no ten

In t!i.
fr.'iu in.:
v.. u will |

will pleane *«'n«l m-
will •

\\\ \\

i:i»\\ \i:i> <>i.i\ i;i: w i >LCOTT

Ing ;: ;•. all. I (li<

• uini in rhe habit was probably

.in.* to poor health, from which at this period he lafflered,

. the explanation mad.'
, ifeaan Russell, who attributed It t<>

i >i f hii recitali on thii subject is suffl*

\\ !■:• ,i • .1! her, -i one 28, i v7o. he saj i !

I hail a delightful • last night 1 have jni

to nrj irding-place in Rfedford — the home bj t 1 1 * - wi

rtly with ladiea— and last evening
about n ::i». half an hour after 1 had retired, l treated them
t.. the ile nightmare l hare ere? Indulged In,

1 feel i little need np to daj . I did nM frvi
erday, and to ate no rapper buf I cracker and I
cup ol •• i ''i -l" anything t<> rid myaelf of theae turns, bat
ii if they would never leave me.

' SQ 0O1 I i:n mini' SflEI !' I

While still in the Lai School, and even before he went to

hool, Mr. Wolcott became quite impressed with the idea

• Ing an appointment in th«- nervice of the National

ernment, probably with the vieu of earning enough

e him independent while pursuing his studies,

acquaintance anion- public men,

inclu - Belknap, who was A connection by

Pomeroy, the latter of Kan#fl% and

\ptii. l^T'i. Ed began trying to persuade his

•o lin.i a place for him In the

i □ bis first let ter, he saj i

i f \.. e, it win be ever] thing to

i nothing, i Its.
rtiofl of i - s ork a hicfa test has

d which D U Well 1><- pa'-s.il in pmlltnhle

now. if i oould get the

I would v i hip \\ hi'h

i i "iii. i 1 1 ■ . i u « - profitable

• ; inclined to encourage offl<
prompt replj . saj ing

JTOUTH IND YOU St] "
f.»r i: ■ od, will U

i;.l would !>•• '

Um b

in \\rit;n.

mi I thlnl
blind]

llllll !

When

■

t •

■w, am I

onlj

•II .

i:i»\\ ai;i» OLIVBB w « iU « »tt

:r ahonan call! work ■ kail «'•■

for It - l" ihin stumps"? and then,

you will achieve \uiir fortune in it. " In-art within.

I i : for

- tOOl, makil all. I know-

that it is imwiM to borron trouble hron th«- future; and

I calmlj and contentedly leave It all In Qod's hands
JTou, i j -"ii. maj do
certain that yon could be aided In your
— but four months long) bow much yon maj to

me, with I g on an onreJ

if the ; Fulfilled neither your hopea nor mine, do

opportunity i"- marred bj anj deapert
■ Hi remember that the N< - the time

i .niii them, and fortifj them with a
our oa n.

»tt alao had aome advice to give about

ipoa o! ber son's state of mind. Be seems

to hare fallen into s despondent mood short} before bis

uation, "tn of which both his father and mother were

ag their best endeavors to ralh him. w i

■■•. 1871, only s month before his Anal tern closed

and evidently in reply to s letter from him, lira. IVolcoti

nhlrcKsiMl him :

\\ by, mj son, b een the nnhappieat year yon bai

pAMM-tl'.' l Nupi>ofMi| you were ver) happy, and were looking

...ii. though we wh<

and bow
f themaelTei or their friends.
',.n u blch • rated

■

I't \ I I' iN

• iii'-w hat ahead <>f the main I bread ..f

..wr Ntory, which neces als with Mr. Wolcott's pro-

: the Harvard Law
afterward h<- located in s boarding-

N < 'I III \ M> ^i i .! \« , MAMIi
Ip.ii-.
in.-ri'

1 fad

fln.J

(he n

I Dp "ti '''

i hopeful !!..■

future than i
8

■
them on

.l.mu.ir\. 1871

■ urt cam Invol

them

main the
con( i

i:i»\\ \i:i» <>i.i\ 1:1: vYOLOOTT

in the !• ini <»f the m< there

ih Further reference to the 3 for the purchase ol

hooka, 11. ,t « . 1 1 1 \ for dm In tin- school, bat for the adornment

future las library, r appears that the young 1

dfather then had been appealed '<> and lia<l made aim

a loan with which to Inn tln-sc works, s,, n,., . . him

and afters

(Oth "f April, L871, to ■ question from
. when he would be able to begin the practice

of liis profession, Mr. Wolcott said:

I think I shall i>«- by the end of rammer. Perhaps,
iburae thinks ii is \rv\ unwise foi anj 0
Into practice shun of three Tears' hard itudy, but the
rer <ii<i It I enclose ;i 1
[obb in answer to iuic I w rote him to

■ unit} in :ui o lalarj or with some

lawyer. I hope yon won't delay writing t«» him, for 1
.|«-;ii will be gained if I can itart In my profession with
tainty fop the first two or three yesn of an income. Suc-
cess, I am reasonably confident, would come In time, but if I
started alone it would be after yean <>f poverty and toiL

June 17th he telle hie father that after the close of the

ed to stu.h H], the statutes, pleadings, and the

truss parti ol peal property las and get admitted

r •• 'I e Maasachusel ta bar," he

any in the Qnited Stan - \n

everywhere, and if 1 pass

nation i,, \\ \ shaii feel confident to hang out

• • 1 can have 1 he ose
ion.'* in the same letter, Mr,

u probeblj heard bj tii<- circular tent yon sometime

ember of the

! ' 1 870, whi , . ■ . , must

■ old men get it without. 1 entered for

' in- ini.isi of it. \\ e an

•unit.' : -lit siu. I • ..f u hirh w «■ have

on :it Mil this rear and 1 hare 1 »* -* - r » stud?*

jroi 1 11 \m» jtoi so m \Mi"

! Aril.

■| liii.il ;ui.| !i.ij.|.\ ■

tnd on i

. inf.. rin •

harder '•
About I

If i

• DMT in Dlnd t ha •

Mr. V m bf

bad boped to 'l". bnl left for i>

FIRST YEARS IN COLORADO »

COLORADO claimed Mr. Wolcott rerj i i after in*
bad concluded hia Ian courae Be irai partial to
•II. and would have located In thai city for the
practice of liin profession if conditiona had been favorable,
ivering thai there were more than eight hundred
lawyi . he conclnded that, without meana, ai he wan,
would i>«- little opportunity t" gain a foothold. k<
oglj, we find liim returning to hi* home In Cleveland
aftei ■■ of hia term In the latter part of June, iv7i.
with hie much priaed diploma In oil pocket We may Im
in in enjoying himself for a brief period with hia family,
and then starting ont to win his fortune in the far Wi
in what t<» him waa practically an unknown land.

dence that the young man waa Irresistibly

[o'a aake < londitiom rather

than hia on ii inclination decided hia choii I d after he

surrender iiis ambition of remaining In

ed at ;i leaa remote place if

bad Incement In riew of hia wonderful

. . then a territory, and be-
rach a favorite then-, it would
ml that it had long been predetermined
Miii. i proceed t" t hat terrl

: and if this 1 <T<- a ii"\ el
■. that turn COUld !•«• given t1,.' narrat i\ ••. The

• bat m r w ol( ot t went t«> < Solorado

be for the practice

' ace of hia brother

• ritory led him to t urn his at tent i<>n
thithem ard.

YOUTH AM'
bond of union

wit),

bowei

him

qaentlj ■
would (••

inu'

an- 1

C. Pomeroy,

him to in

tli.>

made

doubtless if he I
an offl< ial ft]

i:i»\\ ai:i> OLIVEB W i >L< X » i T

seek- I thifl fail-

ure ■ w >lcott turning hfo bs^ on the u Sunflower M

ed upon hia w eetern course.
•r bed pi i brother bo Colorado,

: rived, been located i here for about ts <>
al t "it\ in ill*- neighbor*
: -»f which place the lirst important discover] <>f L',>i.i in
redo had \>*t-u made onlj ten yean i- i entral was

■ •initv s*-at « »f liilpin <\>uni\. ;m<l on til 1 I r.\ of

• h depot i i ek, t hat ton n remained the

centre o! the gold producing district in the B

Indeed, in thai earl] day, Gilpin was th ily county in

- prodnclng q d in quant Ity. < m

urn it was i be He i of all the treasui

n jion. i »'-n\ sr a at t he capital of

• ■ • State, and was the

important trading centre of that section <>f the Rock]

"ii : inn it w;t«* entirely dependent upon the

lurrounding region for its existence, and Gilpin County iras

the moat important <>f all its feeders. Central naturally

pe, and in a<l«lit i< >n man\ Dl

• location there in consequence of its

importance the town became the home of many

lawyer! and writeri of ability, and its banks and other

ini* «-s soon .anif to in- known f<»r their itability.

in those dayi one heard seldom of Gilpin County, for

•i Count) waa "The Kingdom of Gilpin." Named In

Gilpin, the first chief executive of the

terrlt county w.i>- destined to give to the State In

the person* of II< rj m Teller and : B Chaffee the

and in the person
; l i lelford, wl Coj dubbed t he " Red

o
p Mill another of th< 8
m the upper Hon and in Henrj

B w • • • Stab ■ f it- earl)

.■

• \>\ and silver and the
ral deve - bad the effect <>f

Mil III \\h

be »*ii
baa beld

i
i

Diner »f I -
i

■
nn» nmrthoaatn
i

men

fli;ii

population <>f onlj
log bad been

n <»ii t! •
ami u n oi j •*-
then

Lett
to and i

I ha •

i:h\\ .\i;n <»i.i\ i;i; Wi.i.iiitt

made Dp my mind that In jean tl i become

the richei >n 1 ban Although they bare

working their minea nou for nearlj ten yean they
hare but madi be writes

in il ■ •• i iik«* thii country rery much Indeed.

Then is the Btrongeat kiinl "f fascination about It, and if

ong man on© be cannot belp doing well

if then i- anything in him and be doee himaell fnal

ii - dee re then was to obtain a position aa a clerk In a
i»;mk. when high aalariea wen paid, bnt in thia ambition
in- « icceaafnl, and aoon afterwanl in- turned bia

ntion i" mining He already bad made friends, and

writing briefly of the people of the section, said: "Then

ire not, of course, many one people ben, but what then

re among God'a chosen few, or I lose my and

again, December l'1>i, ihi> time to Bd :

the place for me. Hare just fitted ap ■ alee i m

■ tting along Brat rata Hare alreadj ;> g l reputation

for milling among the miners Hare been studying assaying,

for the past two weeks. I reached Colorado with thirty

.11 pocket and aot eren an acquaintance. Un aome

ahead, but am going '<> put it :ili ini<» ;i mine I bare

leased.

ber enticing letter, and a longer •. was Bent i<>

the brother, who then was poring orer bia i as in Boston,

on the it'll of January, L870. [\ unx full «»f hope and of
in over i M If I ei er make a fort one

l t-\j ii be m:i«i«' in Colorado/1 he said, in tn

be hi be added, " I

ii in mining."
He then the following captirating pictun of

i il<l like t<> -■•«• von. I'.'l. :in<l "in here,

plendid fellowa hen; plenty "f

ading mal ter, lota of a I and

h;i\<- i hoi nt ) ; _: ■ » - > « i bed blan

and i hare a deriliah imart 'dorg.,w Bunly

• r could I": uch allunment

from Hei > bia brother, which

N < »l 111 A M» VOI v-' • M iMICNHl

be had onlj

■ ml of .1 month be wan i I ui
end of torn ibool ereo, i

i i . .. . • ■ i

on i

fen montha, but did •
the men \\<>ui<l work n

• I I !■

11. u In. 1 1

found 'i •

idda, ■■ I

II.

manager will
quite, fiii.il to thor
in tin- Mill w.rks ..ii i

It. ii, f|

flu- t u.. j.l.i. p# until t! •

»rid

The m

half a million
tailings, and n

i:i»\\ \i;i» OLIVER WOLCOTT

all tl • BWSU-

teparatioD. l ihall keep I attend to

luaineas.

prodocl of the establishment for 1870, the year

Mr \ ed it, was f 650, ; ten years later, dj

jsor Bill's management, the figure bad incn

Hill worka were located at Blackhawk, onlj a
mile or t^<» down the gulch from Central, these two bowna
ther with Nevadaville practically constituting one city.
Combined, the thn bad a population "f I

number.

in: way

idea was to Inform his brother regarding

: tions and prospecta rather than to influence him to

hi Colorado la made evident by the fact thai in one

of in4- lettera he advised him to make aure of employment

• \ place. He wanted him with him In

i rado, I'Mt he also wanted him '<> ascertain before going

that there would thing for bim to do and a

• i\ for him when ii«- should arrive To thia end

tiations were opened with Attorney Hugh Butler, wli<»

doing ;i thriving business in Blackhawk, with a riew

t«. arranging ;i partnership for r.-i. While this negotiation

ilta in the direction intended, it waa one of

which Influenced the young lawyer to

dired from < 51ei eland to ( Solorado.
He i "ii the a ay, «li«- fli ' Icsonville,

Illinois, where an uncle, Bllsur Wolcott,
.i e of bia operations, be entered upon

on roundabout with ;i

place of business

f..r :i yo rnej Uncle Blizur had resided In Jack*

He f..r i! ani ioua to bai e I Sd |-^-

rhere in thai riclnity, and

•mil' man made an effort to connect himself

•i Ja< ksom [lie. Palling in

upper SI

■

DO d

f him which remind* i
• •iiflini- flu- u<l\.u
.; in [llioo

nnlv • ul.l lit 1!

Ignoi

inuiiir \ " 1 1.

nn«l Ihi

If I

feaaion. ami I >'■ 'hat.

i:i»\\ \ i; i ► i u.i vi:i: w « >i.< < m

•• and n ut finding anything i tiers, to Colo-
bention * Senator Pomeroj ,

and if he did not succeed in interesting that gentleman io
behalf, i<> proceed westward* Further, ii had been
»u l a i ii t thai if both ventures >ii"ui«l prove an-
il he Bhould t 1m- n return to Jacksonville and take op
of Ian "ii his own account, which h<- seemed
inclined to <i". Memphis, Tennessee, and enter upon

a bun eer.

»nlj ditl Senator Pomeroj fail t<» offer anj substan

tial inducements to Mr Wolcott to remain In Kansas, but

be made an unfavorable impression on the young man. The

. r\ told the youthful fortune-hunter thai Mhe

would '1" anything tie could for him.'* bu1 <ii<l nothing.

otly, Mi Wolcotl soon discovered thai h<- could expect

1 i 1 1 It- more than agreeable assurances from the Kan*

man. ami uliai he beard from Senator Pomeroy's neighbors

•lid iiui |irtjH>s.v,-ss him in tin* Senator's favor. " Thej tell

I-. i.l • Pomeroj in Kansas," he wrote to hi- father

after hi* arrival in Colorado, ami. adding his own impres

• >f him, he -nil. •• \\\ opinion is that in- is a thorough

demagogue, though in the better sense "f i i • * - word, if ii has

. not a bad man." The onlj real gratifying

results <>f ins gtop in the Sunflower State were the pleasant

• ma. it- i.\ people \\ li«» had become acquainted with

del Wolcotl - an ti -slavery views Speaking "f this

i ■ '■ eral gent lemen, "hi set i lers

i j all knew you, and all spoke of you, the

• I in i he remark of one of them

lung man. your father has got a heap of stock

in this

■ rot i;n \ i Bl \< mi \w K

i rena to Blackball k. w here

in the Hill works, Mr.

»n about September 20, I v7 1.

red "in and unwell/' aa he wrote hi- father

II. found the pi tor an en

! Butler urn e thai gentle

^ i »i in \ \i» vol so m \ Mi"-

man bad

In \ i.-u . bo*

f..r the lime; bo I

;in.|
u.ir.

school

tlu» nun1 he I
n( from

folio*

If I

at $1

■
tie fnrn it-,
r willing

-
I I

■

f..r me here N

for it.
I bad

1 ha\- I tit). I I

i:i»\\ \i;i> i >u\ 1:1: w 1 \U < >TT

. and if 1 can get

Memphis,

ad to pej Henry. Should 1

itart it

and tnortifl 1 unite 1 1 * i -~ letter, bill l must

it.

In the aame l«-t t *-r he telle of • ible news rrom

Mr. Bo tier, adding that thai gentleman had expressed .lis

appointment <»\<-r tin- fact thai he could not take him In
witli him. Se then refers to the gugge&tion bj Mr. Butler
that he should local >u n.

11. '!: Woloott] anziooi that 1 should settle In

d, ;i place of some 8000 Inhabitants, twentj miles

from Oentral and growing. Be aai promised bis Influence

be can w ad n a 1 >•• ssj - thai after the

jit months I could support myself, and soon be

making monej. And \n lallj anxious that I should

the arrangement be has partially made may still

fall through, in irhich event he could talk with me, and iranta

- 1 [( :nitv. 1 f 1 could get 1 1 year 1 irould

iik<* no better place than Oentral In irhich t<' locate.

og tip the subject again In a letter <»f the 29th 0!

.• announced his Arm conviction that he should

n and added : " The place is groi Ing op

derfully of late. The mines there are doing splendidly

and are all mora or lean Involved In litigation. Butler and

the other leading 1 \ anxious that 1 should

',■1 asxim- iif as I heroine

rnrthcri I' • II II had promised Id

"ii all ore from < leorgeto* n which
aid send to th< 11 i smelter.

time he bad consummated the arrangement to

bort t ime 1 i lied, would be 1 rery

• -iii and would bring him In only a email

to paj es f or the time and to

ome of the money he had been com-

jroi in \\i»

pelh ron from

•• I fa and I think I

Ann- .'in- ■
•• ill.

but elthi

■

II-

i.iwn.'* irhlfl

\\ |e Mr W

of people Ih

■ I w lull-

•
knoi od J-.---

til. Ill'

tend)

In* 1 •

w itii and

urvr .-f
thai Mr

i;i.\\ \i:i» < »i.i\ 1:1: w I »i.< « »tt

ii\ -it-.. 11- as ;ui instructor In grammar and
. irai not partial to mathemat

IN | ,\ \

Mr v. i mi during tin- < !hriatmas

1871, and there in- remained until in- removed i>>

I ».n\ i ro months ai a teacher he

earned about s::«Mt. ami bin : a portion "f this

-urn be at list was prepared, although poorlj Prom a tinan-

cial standpoint, t.. enter anon hi- lif«- a- a lawyer. The

part made l: I bj Mr 'I'. II Potter, •> Central

banker, "f whom Mr. Wolcott speaks a- -'a friend sent

!!• a a location an. I arranged for a partner*

ship Nothing was l«-ft i" !»<• done Inn to bare a sign painted.
ii - ■ ■ i was .1 young Bontherner aamed Pope, Prank

\ I';. » known to the people of Colorado aa" J udge"

gentleman lia<l been eatabliahed in Georgetown
for some time, and Mr. vVolcott tells us had bad a prac

during the previous year amounting to |2° which it

believed could be increased during the following twelve

mont inducement to go In a itli him was

that be bad an office and wan pontesm*] -.f a law

liiir.r which were of do mean importance

• Mr w tt'« depleted finances and hi- lack of

law ! ■ - The p. n hi. •rsiiiji did aot cont inu<

while N 1H3 impressed i.\ Mr Pope's ability, Mi-

ni.- convinced that be was disinclined t<»
.in. I. wl im as a " ^<><«\ fellow, with fair

:i..n .is ii in |i-

i w lull- lic» remained i tow n, be

nued « ii i, ..ii' \\ ben he first arrived, M r.

inable to bar bet ause

mtrolling -inh admission This circumstance

• uni ii i v7::. during a hicfa ' ime bis

wl to I

i mil tin- \.nniL' at torney to

he found it convenient to

do in a is brother 8am, written .hi the 29th of

\<»l III \M» \*>\

I '
tln-

■
I

QMMBM>« >. OHtfOBT,

■

■
Then « '

i:i>\\ \i;i> < »i.i\ 1:1; w < >U i »ti

stion of my school year, I bad an oflar

i \ Pop doing ill*- beet bust*

dom (perl -riii a partnership with him.

idaj I • ben be
day, in front of the pi oudly

- gn :

r< .it. ft WOU « ITT

\\v have nM taken In ■ blamed cent yet ; but I •• live in !i<>|«'<."
•a rati rely n.-u place, population L500,
i antral and Blaekhawk and tort} lite
en rather dull, bnt m Ithin
othe large, true silver minee <>f enormoni ralne
ery li vt-l y.
I think m \- chance i good one and mean ho itich to it.
i ■ p .lit a* i bare done.

\ - i . ■ • • \ our brol ber,

i .

Mr Wolcott arrived in Georgetown, thai place

abon< ii\' years old, but only recently had it

• int.. any prominence. Located practically at the foot

of the towering mountain known ai Gray*! Peak, one of

the man) high moantaini in Colorado, it rents

at tip- bead of ■ comparatively level ralley, with mountains

• in three different directions, all "f which

■ •■ and were believed to !•<• "ribbed

• ion li an at trad h >■ one, and is made

ail the i • the fact that the south fork of Clear

of the perpetual snows of

wa\ through the heart <>f the little

The altitude "f the town is high, and ordinarily the

• M ; but the summer cl Lmoat perfect,

sation to the real

it w ill have i • red that in one of hli letten m r.

w ion of the town w hen he went

then i • ii probable that

STOUTD \m»

ill I

in i!

• •mi:

there w ei

had been NQl I

town u.i

oatpul of the LetdriUi

who

both "1

I. Ilr. I U 1*

proda< live Itut, whili
the I

in the iH.r.l.-i

• »f i

doubled

1*7 J.

■

i:i»\\ \i;i> OLIVEB w I >I> « »tt

were opei fen days, it was believed that the conn-

..f iiiiimI.i wealth, .hi. I people flocked in
\ o t i . 1 1 b 1 1 1 . -

blished ; fairlj l""»i hot built; two or three

banks were located in the town, and for a time there were
publ o <lail\ newspapers Denver waa the net

on, I'm there w;i^ a well-managed Btage line,

• numbers <<( peo pie arrived everj day. The for

mnter was much In evidence and the settlement wore

.i bustlinf even beyond whal was justified bj th<-

mining development. Ifanj of the nen arrivala were

people .if education and refinement, but bj far the larger

Dumb adventurers, In i "getown was at

that time a typical mining camp, offering manj Inducements,

. Iiuwever, were coupled with some hardships and an

iv mi pre] conditions li should be added that

me \\ < - 1 1 1 ..n conditions generally Improved until the

town became, aa it ^tiil la, one of the moat staid and orderly

in U ■ -

In hii first letter from Georgetown to bis father, Ifr

ipeaka of the town aa "a lively little place. I

i .ii the hotel," he continues, "there i»<iiiL' no private

rather I'lin- here, among strangers

.in. I awaj from Henry; but I suppose I shall soon be used

H-' n office a aa located on II £ el and

i<- Kinull room. In this, he had a home-made

. . w hich, ' leman a ho knea him, " be

deak, and at night, for I bed,

t upon it blankets which during the daj were stowed

mvenient i ornt

r.-ss waa iloi In the beginning, and the

ng l hat he went Into I leorge

■ ends and without money, hia lucceaa waa

<>nh once during the seven years of hia

mil himself to give attent ion

buaineaa than the lai ption oc-

Wl IN \\|» UANIK*

1 itli \|. \ M • •

■ In- li bi

! I

U .1-
W .1*

.111.1

in 1 1

I '

iM be t!

ill \ lr\\ ..f t

He appt

i:i»\\ \i;i» < » I I \ l i : w < >LC< »tt

which latl tok much

<>ii the poll
■ ii. w h<» w u a . ontemponurj '•' N1 r-
town and afterward In i Denver and
ntaoce a ith leman co-existent prac-

iii Colorado, probably
qualified

ar man. n<- baa prepi
a*ork .i sketch <-f thai portion "f Mr. w..i.

..u n expi I n i bii < "ii-

tribntlon Mr. Morrison suppliea an Interest!] m( «»f

\i: v. ion in the D rea Pelican control

..f w hi, •». •• the ii ran mining conteal

incurred in Colorado.'' 01 that litigation, ha

.• | i\ ami the owners tia.t do morbid
. i(. rompromia initi <>n the d<

. multiplied, and, if wt erer oan truth*
! opoo lawyers, ire
In thin Instanoa, I '■■• rj lawyer In the
• d in tome oapaeitj - the im]

talent

oot onlj litigation hot t h« j •
int\ Into feodi; partiaanahip ran Ihl'Ii and i
part \ had ita sale... ii nn i tie tide ai •
guard or charged and fought for the

I it to make tfa m that could hold

in a month*i tlnx ■ si batl le, mi

idicial corruption, alleged if

ae of tin- at torneji ■ for the I '

litem nf lli.' I lives. 'I'll.- insult

the courtrooi! ooolly :ik

line behind i breastwork <>f
rnton said, " \

i .| the Ui
, ■ ■

I due opoo the < '"l.'ii.-i. w in. h
• •■i the Union tide,
: \ paidi

a the eaai d learned In 'ii«- law,

yOUTH \M» Vol \«. \! IN •»;.

uliili'

'. Mimas,

ntnl t! '

111 "

r.i'W a i;i » i h.i\ EB w i •!.< « >tt
first fen mon mj partner returns we will be pretty

lement <>f the big mining controversy busi-

tivelj quiet, and our lawyer is found mak>

to Denver earlj In August in the hope of obtaining

the DominatioD for 1 > i — 1 1- i « - 1 Attorney on In-half of the terri-

. in which, while be «li<l no! succeed, we are t.>i,i bj bim

ili.it be •• made ■ fair run, and would have bad do difficulty

whatever if mj papers bad been right for admission t" the

This information ii obtained from a letter written

• it to his father on August 12th, and other

out ill*- information that for a time be -

• • obtaining this Domination That be should

el lent an impression within the less than

twelve months' time that be bad been in Colorado certainly

i»ll for both his legal ability and his capacity for

making frienda

Following the effort for ih<- District Attorneyship be dis-
solved bis partnership with Mr. Pope. Business bad fallen
and his partner had returned i" <li\i<h- with him the
• i be "in. e Be (ii«i Dot enjoj making
and apparently had reached the conclusion
that the partner was Dot earning his share <>( the receipts
ntly, be <!••• ided to dissolve tin- partnership. < '• i\ ing
him !«• his father, lie -. 3 - ■ Business bas been rerj
the last i\\<> montha As goon raise the*

iik»im\ in luiv Home \a\\ 1 ks, 1 shall dissolve n,\ connection

with er lie is .1 chivalrous, lasj Southerner, gen

tlemanly, and tut, after all, bii Dame ' Pope1 [Mr.

1 about the onlj

■ nter opon the pract ice alone did

form until well along in the fall, when,

out <»f the business 01 er

• Ir.iu 11. he decided definitely

h|n" ted in a< ■ ordance with

on.

>lution "f p « ame on the first of No-

we find Mr \\ olcott on the oext daj

under bin <»\\ u indii idual letter head.

I . . w

fOUTH 1ND

whirli WMM I I

doodi rid

•r wntii
'J I t!i is \\<«rtli i I !

It )•

■

1 f«>r Inn

•lfCraM to

btmdn

I • u •
from

from thro
tnd |

i.i»\\ \i:i» <>i.i\ 1:1: w « >LOt rTT

• million de
d tin- territory, ltm the countrj la destined

- • it ur«-.

. icover the joang man moralising
uatiun and uncertainty "f mining aa a buai-
i .1^ he waa irriting od .1 Saturday night, he

ght into the condition <>f religiona mat

u frontier post" at thai time. ItuKineaa was <l<-

j. !■.•«.>, ,|. • niinei irere not producing xn « * 1 1 . bat

the reducing worka were not al»i<- \>> handle the

•• I am." he writ.-*., after midnight following a Satur-

particularly blue over the outlook, and it

trred to me aa a bappj thought to write and tell ai •

Bpeaking of the large Dumber <>f m
in town "ii that day, he ^ai.i thej were ael
it in\ other time and that the] generally brought
:.tlu\ <»f buainetu I * i ■ • - < • < I 1 1 •_• . he aaya:

i uli.it ;i f.i>-. inating thing mining

\ independent. In
.1 merchant, agent or pi

But ;i miner hai iii>
on ii in the »•<»< k and ii " beholden
make mone) out "f I • i ?~
it ooe instance In fortj | he a

in telling, for
■

1 deration of the churches, he

1 ; ■ or, .i M p Tut
i i to mon o . 1 1 \ ." he

• ount rj la at a
■\ Ion ebb I be] • four or Are mem*

one church.
The] are
■
22, 1876, in .i letter to bia father
Mr. Coloi ado'n late

■JikIi ever] one who lias
on for ani length of time

VOUTfl WI» Wl \«. M \ Mlni.h ■,-,

Will

ill uIiiki

in« !•

ho* Hi>*«il up DJ nasoii of the i

■
bat i

then the i

1 pen on
I
and • odooed hii Urn pi

■ »f the ■!

< !leveland pa]

he entei

Hon with the '

EDWARD OLIVEB rVOLOOTT

■ l of a mixture «>f editorial
j ..Mil reporting, but it li evident thai be g
lively little attention t<i «*i t ln-r branch. A men

of bh J productions, the following from the Miner

il\ loth <»f tin- M-.tr iii.ini«-iii*<l must sufl

!■■ ■•: the affli< \. i! \ . orators bare dei

. d Lta ten
tboog orded and pigment! known, but seldom

there been s period when the complaint! of bard times bare
ueral and onireraal as th< For onr ^wn part

. .• i. ut h re are

in si: i of dead b - ' ba( \\<- bare come

uur aormal condition, ;mi»1 accept it as the In
rather annoj li i rnallj dnnned

bi \- bnt one t'mali \ used t" everj

i the patient eel loeei iii> skin without i mnrmnr
fn-r our : ence ire can smile bland I j at those

pa, ami i. equanimity during the most nnpleaaant

Inten - Alton are not ^ philosophical, and

their temper!; bnt then thej irill learn better,
.«. », iii time, and ire hopefully l,,(,k f»>rwar<l to a |M>accful
•

the war. more or less oom plaint of the so

of nioncv, ami tin- ilullmss of Imsim-sH, has prt>vuiled. Tbil ll

due • ■ doubt, to the extraragant babiti con

. the fltmb U'nr- ..f p fat contract!, and

■*■ ipeculation, when monej was thought tit onrj t" be

and ihoddj displays, so that when

■ I. ami opportu draw

! ere a Ithdrai n, people > ould not

ought tmple f>T all BeoeB#iti<-h. i>. now io.,i., .i upon

-s«-«i among the lux

Of OOUTM

• I bai k upon legitimati and

the times

ontei

o I.. , ome really

iple. In our own miilst tin- mOOS] w li

ed than heretofore. Aj much

: ■ nth. as at an i . but it in

l'OI l ll AND i'Ol SG M INIIOOD

prod
wortJ

•
than

the in. mi f r. .in our

■ •tlllllllll 1 1 \

w e ■ re Prom neceei

nomlcal in «"ir ii.ii.u-, and n

« In. Ii 1 ill, in tl ml, i •

In .in -i i : i • Ie pi

of the th<
• ew mini i

'he ton ii of Id H r hlch, \\l> I

ton ii. wai an Important min i

a. I while thcr
monj ..i bj two mj

of whom bai

• kn..u led]
M a nun.- I r -.-s the donoi

without thi'ii mak -.-Ivrs known, but the

! fought under 1 1
P

In thii caae the mini* • * 1 1 1 • ♦ 1 1 1 1 \

• ■" ore abandant en
enough to torn the brain of I

: in the

log depth, until one eat
value of 119,280 to the ton.

Unfortum . mlaa

withheld

■
mcoB pl< te i
•

thai he had been Informed regan
i roperty of wl • :

i:i»\\ \i:i» I >LIVEB w <>l < < »'IT

itnre coarse will be we do ool know; w<

r, that the President insist that
cur • i ongress, Honorable J !'■ Chaffee, who is

■ i miner, shall come to Colorado at once ind

look after the jT.'i»ri\."'

. the young lawyer-editor In-
little -iitiiiKMHalitN as foll<

n ujn.il th< fa hundred

I. .ml. vho non wi-.n- the Isurela be m aoblj iron, may

•iifiit from hit high office, nek In Colorado,

• ;iii<l a ho
• iir moimti pour into rs, from their a bund-

• irtune irhich will h«- i ti< recompense '«• him, ami a

■ tido

editorial work scarcely had been began before it

was f-'iiii-i to I"- somewhat onerous, for ;i^ earlj .1- Maj

7 [r. Wolcol to his parent! M Thia edi

ibling me considerablj . I knoa I

could 'l" well at ii f 1 i-.-.tii\ had the time, bat 1 am boss

all daj, an<i when night comes the printers are calling for

and 1 hare to write It oat without time to think or

!• riting for the Uiner was a hit amateurish

m a .1- .1 Ktifflcient ezplanat ion.

•1 tiii last rent ore as an editorial

■ erward identified more or less Inti-

i\ w ith • '.-in. -lit < .f tii. 1 me. Be

for t bat paper, and bia intereal \\ a*

. \ >>t .1 polii ical - I

• I !<>y ■ \.-.ir <t tWO, II 1 W "I
have been without eapecial incident, until
-7i, w hen he made to I he family home

nd We in.i\ imagine him going along from day

me i" him. petting

re among the four

amp, « mp e Id .1 a bile he seems to

let ter to 1 be homefolks,

-i»'.k.- frequently of the prosperous

J < 'I III \\l» I \ Ml. H ih

...k «.f bii

I f.» turn bil

' ' I In in u r

■

i
• ii >>{ |«.r'

\
..il^'lit t.. :
I bOfM '•- '!•• til - .ilnl T h.n ;

tin- on I j i in the

I would rather lire in Bo* ton, I think
tin- world i visa Father would
. bar

n f r. >iii i !i.|, he i •

up iu\ b - •.••• i

III ;i - I

dropping II Into .1 well ; 11 -I-..-- dM Men ?•• make •
: •■! know - I don'l d

iinouii! tli.U 166911 j..i\ in\ . .. . .

infant mm."

DISTRICT AXTORlf] V

1\ 1876, the Centennial year rod the year In which Oolo
rado was admitted i B e Union, Mr. Wolcott

.-■l to tin- tw«> offlcea of State's Attorney for the

rid in which he lived, the I rat District of the State,

and Town Attorney foi i town, which offices he con

tinned to ii<»i»l until elected to the State Senate In is7^.

:i»-<l from both <>f them. The judicial diatrid

i <»f Clear Croak, Gilpin, Jefferson, Bonlder,

mit, and (Jrainl numi irs. ;iu<l iiuhnliMl surd inwns as

Central City, Blackhawk,
en, Boulder, Longmont, Breckenridge, and Bof Sulphur

He had obtained his formal admission t<> the bar In iv7."..
and when theee ti came to him bad been In a<

i, i. nt w it h<»ut going much Into t he
• of til-- time attribute! hii Domination and

■ \ influencet of hii brother Henrj and the

n lnisiiii I'i ifi".s<»r Hill. Doubtless

. t.i him, for, Dota it batand
eountj, they had become li
and wen rilj pos

•.<•->•••. I ..: in t lint

■:<■> . there
doubt thai Ed Wolcott's own personality w:is

■ in in" election. Always m man of ex«
i im, he made friei . and it maj

ma] follow Ing went Into t he
• ion in Mis support
Mr v, I in nomination by Mr. Nathan S.

roi i ii wi. vol i i'

ii.

afterward of D

Hup: ', in addition

bean \n illlam a. « 'lark

w
w

W II. til ; I I I .1 ;

Bpruani e; Judge McCoy; and

rxi • p' Mr II ui'l I
The nomination oi

bj a band

jM.lit ii>. .in. I in I li< .1 nominal i<m mi i l{

■ II a proi
opponent, and !>•• a

tiding ma

in ti • B - an •nt Iretj a( I

ballot for the year on

w • ritorj u.i

i •
D i 1 1

in the ii.
in the D i "limm. i

I J. Tilden would '
s,h of the
i ca n 8
the •

landed on

other elei tion ah

. it. L877, and Mr H

I i>\\ ARD OLIVEB w< >LCOTT

town "ii at tin* mom time that Jacob Filliua, who

lau in hi", office, a*aa Mayor. The « l » 1 1 i« •-

of the Town Attorneyahip were not in anj respect oneroua;

onflicl with 1 D bI i i't At tornej

w ting f«>r the town be compiled tin- ordinancea "f tin*

. i polity.

\n l i;\ "i <.i;<»\\ ill

Important ai waa tin- District Attorneyahip on it^ own

real significance in tin- <;iv,. ,,f Mr Wblcott la

found in tin- bearing it bad upon lii-> Bubeequent career.

.1 much t«» make tin- man. Theretofore Mr. Wolcott

had been known ;i- ■■ .i g I fellow." Be lia<l manj friends

and wan popular; but, lik<- moat young men, was ool pot
m-^.-.i ,,f a \,v\ •_' r. -;i t senae ,,f reeponaibility <»r <>f bii
own Importance aa a factor In tin- world. The dutiea of iii*
cacting, and be aoon came t" know that be
had n"t entered upon any boy's play. Be roae to the

Indeed, it is evidenl thai from the beginning "f iiis
term be \\a* impressed \\ i i ! i tin- sorioiism-ss of the work In-
had undertaken, and there is abundant record of the efficiency
of Mis administration. Writing thirty .\<-;ll's afterward, ■
prominent resident <>f (Jeorgetown said:

ll<- u.i- the in' ■- 1 energetic and the ujohI Burcessful District

-! 1 1 ii in :i it life irai bald rather Lightly hi

that tin i result, there awe manj

I le undi rtooh to bring tome of tin- mnrd

to j". . rror

the t"<> jreara sfter iii*

Four t" the penitentiary for

inent a number <<f minor criminals,

king >>f Mr W D trict it torney,

ii' ii ird lays that it \*;is brilliant from the it

he never let up ' a rites
Mr Hard In < I kne* more about bis a orl

thar part of ,! • it a gang

i i than all ><• tin- pent
, and a joy to all hi

V'Ol ill \M» VOI Sfl M Wll

''
htin • | * 1 1 1 the vorl

I ii \ lev of i '

.\ 00€ "f Mi W

friend i ■ u

be would ii"' prom

ittitnde toward .ill claaaei i
four men in
.id. I | be • hief argument made bj bii opp ■■
would nol

■ \ He Rnrpi

• \ one of the pi
i Countj he did in ■

long • find tin

in .( Ii

will I taall M"t I

the i ■

f..r tli.it |

ken '!"•• i
u.iv . on torn n »ill

ruber 13, 1876, in « hich
There ii another term <>f tl ■

l.i.w .\Kl> OLIVBB WOLOOTT

it will »«• ■ rerj b . : me. i ihall have three murder

cases to

eircoi eculiar brutality. 1 *iiaii undoubtedly be

• • murderer, end then 1 think 1 *iiaii have done

. allowed to resign mj office In favor of

In > pi t«*

miliarity i Itfa crime end crim
an Lndiffi them and deedeni the feasibilities.

Be <li«l not resign at thai time nor at all on account of
• ..f the work, and bj April 8, I -

tation i Itfa more com*

•• i .mi." he saya, * riting I on that date,

•• kept rerj busj moat «»f the time and rather Like it l

alreadj been the meant (under Providence) of lending

pal poor fellowa t" the penitentiary f<>r various b

from ten yean down, and have eome more lerioue Crimea

topi »ming three months." Be added: MThii

• ading i fear, bui don't exactly

k 1 1 < > w what elae i«» write about; so 1 'alk shop."

few daya later, when re of another capital

everted to hie previous itate of

mind. A murder was committed ii i own in April,

1877, and after e ret at having to try the

of a leaf i lurder i

ething akin t" pleasure if I believe

be guilty. « ►them lee/1 he adds, " I never

from Blackhawk to hii

■

one Uttle time, but i have been

:.i\ f..r more than three

■ |ht, and Boulder to-

\ iiH.niii ce Ii

.■ but the and training are a

■.:,:■. \\ . bad

find ImiiIi tli<- prisnnorH have

meni f«>r Life There ii another

nnir iii-r to tn tmd '■tin another here, In March.

roi hi am. roi ho u \mi

more cheerful \
cbarai ler 1 1

Beaded ii

i <>f thnn than I .... -

■ ontj r.»r the lust ten \.
derfttl change in n

•i't ipotl DM. I la- k - ■i.nililri..

1 never do

moDth'i I
■lit- murderer t.» tr% aad perfci

('hri.-'n.i-. 1-77. u m.-s, •<! a l_vmhinL- < n .\

man |

inur-l.T.

taken oul \\r w

the Incident || brief, I

ii. n

the other

the ! B POT iminh-r I

will'' hut imf.

Jurj I then, i and

Church here applauded the
nn.h in n termoo oo the

■

murder :

Ue in 188

• r his ten
he wai employ . . .. w

i
i

thing, bul I i ould no4 declti •

■.I.'"

l LO r.hw \i:i» I »l.l\ 1.1: w I >LOOTT

• ii w hj Mr. NVolcott <lislikr«i the rriiuin.il

• iiini in the fan i hiii it interfered with his

While tlu- work <'f prosecution was more

ar it <liil not ao much moneg as ■ rimilar

ml <»f «i\ii businesa would have brought it served to

him for the other line <>f work, ami then robbed

him of the time for ittending to it.

lalarj paid the District Attorney was onlj
r, but the feea brought the remuneration up to |2500
--ful m«l:< i menU t he feea In those
ch nial for a misdemeanor |15; for
.in ordinary felonj $25; for capital |50 " M\ pre

In- wrote t<» hia parents, "have made a regular
busin< each term indicting liquor saloona and

repul sea for the purpose of levying a aort of Mark

mail I - I will Dot <h>. ami it will nil dOWU m\ Income

fr<»m the office considerably ."

DBVBLOPING TH1 01 kTOI

i osl ■ portant influence of this office upon Mr.

own fortunea waa <m his standing as a jurj la

ami a public Previous t" taking the position, be

mill that h»- could m»t bring himself t<» address a

court < kmfident of ins real ability in that direction, his

la f-Mimi a meana "f forcing him to .» trial of ins powera

wonderful results, aa is told elsewhere,

instituting the First Judicial Dia

claimed th<- honor of being the scene of

ii t Humph at the bar. < me an

0 |pin ( "..11111 \ . M r w olcot t'a

w bile anot her has iai<l t he

ntj But i«'th were In error,

properly claim

all • lion Clinton \i> -..i. m.w of Denver, but

' Wolcott'a prede< i
• • . \ furnish.- i be follow ing i tint :

Mr V and be

ItW, ill Inw

. Mr. Wolcott town and I In

JTOCTH INI) YOt'Xd MANHOOD 111

woold be

■

the n

o.-s oil t! •

■
I

much farce behind

h.i<!

BUUUMT uhi-h WOXlV

Hi- I.

luiil in mitiil
• m tl

ba1 i

lia i h\\ \i:i' OLIVES vVOLCOTT

- the jury, which be <li'l : it n « i while 1

the tint. uned In i.

- mora than Ate or tan minntaa. Be

rapid talker I I beard, and to that brief

i\ end h ante manner to

the Jurj . in fact, it a . to i Jnrj ai I

: <1.

\\ hen be -at down, be turned to me and walapared, uHoi
all tin- points
mpletelj ."
' How lonj ilk? "' he t h«-n aaked.

W.ll. 1 Mid, "I think \.-ii talked ahout half an bOOJ ■;

yon have your man." At which be tnnch

•• Do you know, ciint." be m d, " l conld not aee a tingle
thooa jurymen all the time i a aa

h wai the beginning oi Mr. v wonderful

r, and, if that beginning waa an honor to

the oountj In which it occurred, I Inaiat that Boulder County is

• «.f his Aral oratorical triumph. It rl<

banished forerer all doubt that he might hare had

orator, and from that time on be never

particle when called npon to addreaa a jurj or make

• any political function.

Harper m Oral I, "f Denver, who succeeded Ifr.

\' tornej . aa Mr. Reed had preceded

- deputy a bile h<- held t he office,

kindlj supplied a brief reminiscence of bia chiefs

■ iti\ «ia\ i of his < i face the

-I saji that the feeling was m pro-

• me m r Wo oualj i ontem-

pracl Ice of the lai . 1 1

During Ifr IV< acumbencj of the office of District

■!< bill WOI 'y in

- in • t iniinal cases

it i ark. 1 1, i bj rerj '

1 l« i ci « ivcd a -alary

from the B irt of

an. I paid bj the counties. His

i ffaot

■ ■! tippearing lo court

JTOUTfl Wl» VOUNfl MANHOOD

and i

Mi ii •■: • Mr H

mi fa jm:

i w ■ > 1 1 1 . l -
ind held I

1 he that •

ich ••niiii.

I'llliuo, f

■ \ prosecution <»f two ;

I
M ;■ i: 8 Morr son ; :

i I ikI ( !harl( - \\

■

.
I

•• I

them in n
to then i

them, in ;h thrm.

in i:i»\\ \i;i> <»i.i\ 1:1: w « 'i mi] - r

that 1 ranted them

bole truth tiing bui the truth,

tuple w.i\ Gentlemen of 1 1 » «- jury,

11 1 •« .11 the stand, ami have heard their
ami 1 le«TQ It to
truthfully "i- li"'. 1 know that what I taught 1

bj them, will make them better oil

irhen tin-. uniu-<v.ss;ir\ t«i

! 'hat the jurj promptly brought in a rerdict

of murder in ti •

king <»f tin- same caae, Mi- Morrison alao teatiflea
Wolcott'a able mauagemeul <»f it. and he add* an

int.i' iel He sayi that, next to Mr. Wolcott, Mr.

White iraa the moat powerful advocate at tin- bar of Clear
County, and. proceeding with oil narrative, aaya:

!. and an OVerU MlPJUg tor-

• (I spellbound the audience and tin- jury, in
in tin- can •■ M aj . the d< broken don d

■ .1 "f a degree «>f homicide greater thai

examination would justify. In all ;!:•!•>• the pros

for the ereateet retulti obtainable
- tin- gift of perauaeion hai Induced jui rerity

er than the crime demanded, in this Uurtai part

• aantence had beet otl acceded to the

on for clemency and Ma\ wax pardoned.

Mr Fillioj and Mr Morrison paj high tribute to
Mr Wolcott'a newlj developed oratorical ability. We quote
M r m M r, Pilliua taj 1 1

• •II remember the : • that he had in

. jurj Be araa practically irresistible

•d of condu( Ling ■ proaecution was eminently fair.

1 [e v 'ain \ acuta and hii Instant

wan lit! le ahoii of genius."

mi BTATI SENAT1
WOLCOTTfi

■

!l til." s.

ibly of I

OSCS f.'T *

candidate f..i

• •<l the l'-_'isl.it i\.

an- 1 »

I le tod ' ii rami 1 1 \
cnltai fi

v, itli I >r \\ ol( -'ft in tl I

Dtre of :

ti.'ii

W • brother

of the bmthi
theii appro lation of th<

116 i .i»u \i;i> < »i.i\ 1:1: R « n.« « >TT

Itica, and, as a ill I"- shown in

end, 'ii'i nol j.i ;i- ■ polit leal leader. Be

ii attention t«> politics, and while In- showed

an aptitude in the stiuh <»f liases ..f political

.• involved to inch an extent In the

side of political life aa i" bewilder and In the end

• hiins.-i! i inently, a bile il in his first
for iii" Senate In L879, be fa election after

one term, and never succeeded In regaining bii Inflnence In
the management "f Colorado's political ail

Ti • d of Mr Hill as Senator In is7:i was due

almost entirely to 1 ol th< Wolcott brothers

I i leneral William a. llamiil. of < Jlear
< frees « '"linn .

; Haiinii was "in* "f tii«- strongesl men who ever

figured in Colorado politics. An Englishman by birth, he

if of bis lif<- iii tli<- in 8 es and for sei

re had i"*'*!! in charge "f the Terrible Mine at

..ii. which was owned bj an English syndicate. He

• !,,. possessor "f some wealth, ll<- had the peculiar
faculty (>f controlling men without saying much '«» them, So

has participated in < Solorado polit let
il in deciphering a situation and in so direct-
to Inflnence results He read men as eaailj as
II.- knew from \n\ slight indications what
der "i- that would «i". and he was so familiar

with Conditions in tin- Stair that In- \\;i- able Often 1" '"in

■ ■ others would have failed He was in

rou« manhood when he went i" Georgetown,

i were close friends m p llamiil

aainted a ith P il ill, and naturally would

• • ■ w olcot t influence : but

little doubt that he was Induced by the younger

\\ oli ■ ith his w I... i.- heart into the contest in

i m • n n rapplied a Ith a political

I i ty .

opening for III Hill's ' andidai \ w:is made bj Sen

* hom he ■ i An has been narrated,

• ii one of I he first t s o Senators from

to ;m<l that "f his colleague. Senator

rOUTB IN D YOUNG M INIIOOD 117

March 4, 1C
drea lota, and the ihoi

Teller *

..f the people ami nt \ ■ l
can loobl 11 1I<

.111.1 banking
..f the •etUement «»f tl ry, but

III |H.lit irs, .ili-l w

his f i annoum •

■ f W li.ijli.

innouncei
t.» the fro i

mm^e, but in the
Hill • • for him

announcement

m r I • rminatioD was baaed npoi

the beginning >>f the kidnej trouble whi<

; |
;

innoum ement <>t »

■ v w pre beginning

og u|"'T I .|" poll! i< i end •

while t" r< •;
en tin

30, 1871.

B
through

I"nif<

;un rt in th.

hulnl thai

nron

lis i;i»w ai;i» < >u\ BB w i >i.» < >tt

.• | Dftiblj inv

premtM uith the anifonn k:: \ of my

l part j in timet pol l lun ■

for Which
t i«-f u l beyond 1 1 1 « - power

the public, *»ut I h..|H- 1 may
•hat w\ aim bai always been fot the

pill.! g <»f in \ ft at I lia\ •

'v. It lb to

fr<»m political life, tnd I would ha\. BOOB the

admission <>f the State int«> the (Jaioa, except thai the political

tiOD at that (inn- s«-.-iiinl I.. < l«n i a In 1 the OtmOtl «\.-il •

all n Eloping the Repnblican party maj continiie

.1 ooantrj, I em, rery truly
roar obedient Mirant,

i !'. »'ii MPBa

publication "f Mr. Chaffee's letter had ;i startling

apon the Republican! of the State. The preponder

tepublican party had no1 been established !uffl

'\ t.. cause it! adherents >•• f'-<-i ioi f their Lrr<>uml.

All appreciated that Mr. Chaffee*! retirement meant division

«.f coonael and ;i scramble for his place, and there were

■ apprehension! that it would be difficult t.» And a worthy

i<» him. Many Dame! were mentioned, but none

• the requirement! ontil Professor Mill-- -an

anounced. Be was accepted immediately by

•ronghlj available man. ami Mr. < lhaffee himself

ter of warm endorsement The lal

una illin him up. ami they

■ elect ion ;i^ to

• uat ion.

Mr i; < . i • . tillable little book, Political Cam-

supplied an account "f t be incept ion

ii :- i which throwi light on that gentle

■ the intimate relationship

• n Mr Wnlrnli ami <i«-mral llamill. Mr. hill

the two, Mr. rVolcott

brother regarding the
■ i ! odidj

Mr. hill] wai that ihortly

roi in \M» x"01 SO M tXHOOU
tanor Hill

1 »n ri r .

- bruthrr i I
f ri «iii ■ li to bii p*j

the •

Mr D

the partj Bol

if I ■

«1 fr«i|u.

«»r torn

i would Mttm it . - nd ■»

120 l :i'\\ .\i:h < n.!\ EB w I >JX> »TT

-• . hr picks Up. II I IliaY

maki ixt

Willi [Oft to all.

i . . . .!• ifleotioi

with Mi- ii - candidacy decided upon, it was to be

: thai tin- three men who had been moal Influential

in bringing about lected to take

• tin- campaign. No man wai itrongei with the

-• in Gilpin County than wai Benrj Wolcott, and Ed

thoroughly popnlariaed bimaelf in Clear < 'r<-«u. What

more natural then than that tbeae two brothen ihonld be

the Legislature in Mr. Bill'i behalf? This

wai tin- plan «»f General llatuill. who already bad taken

upon bimaelf the management <>f the Mill content, and in

rdance with thii plan tin- two brothen were nomi

: for the S 'i ae from Qilpin and the other

l lamiii became < Ihairman of i be
i o mm it tee and commander-in-chief "f the Hill
fur< i-.-.

smppign wai a spirited one in Gilpin Oonnty I [enry

Wolcott bad a- bii antagonist i>«-nnis Sullivan, a Democrat

opularitj and a man of much strength "f character.

In < Cn \i-n- two raixlulatt's opposed i" IM

Elenrj was triumphantly elected over Sir. Bulli-
more rotei than both of bii oppo

~<->\ his county under the direction "f

. and Mr Morrison, who was on tin- ground

ami entirely familiar with tin- circumst am <-s, telll 01 that

si doI an element in political work which wai not

:i farOf of Mi- Wolcott The natural

II followed ami th<- eight of the election was . m. • of
w ild enthuiiaam."

w .• And in tin* newspaper* "f tin- daj onlj slight i,.f

. | be campaign. Mountain \ < 101 <»f

at lc paper of t be State, failing,

• • tin- future prominence of the Be

publi< i 'oimt \ . ment ioned his

e during the contest, and this mention was

\ I »i Ill \Mi Vol SG MANHOOD

• mi the -■{••ill >>f Beptemh
i i >

>k on! for

The " • >l'l Wu hone," hoa • ■■■

ral ii • done mm

•■. insiir.- tin- sin . .-s.s ,,f t1

A Pitkli
;ui.| Bonn . \ \\ ' nor

B while he had -I in landinf

he '

interest >>f hii Mend, Ifr Mill, with th<
of .<•
Repobllcani to the aaeemblj

BO DM

With Mr I \\y oat ,.f the

•i had been made largelj In Mill's •

linnHni! ,-h. still,

"f men in I
rominexH i
when the time approached for hold

Including M i

term In the fi I

Pernor ; B
cnlt judge, who
Bon. W. 8. J

■
•• 1 1 1 1 . " . ■

Denvei I Rio Qrande R
l Rontt, the

i:i'\\ \i;i> < »i.i\ BR w i UXX)TT

All ■ found ai l ho

I ' !

d behalf,

1 all of th(

:■• lift\ t! : e< incua

• the night «•• 1 879, end Mr.

Hill t >>w the liftli bell ag thirt j

ted the
Mi Bill <mi
i be two < Colorado H
■ I of imp]
time t hi* Republican party <>f I
two lead*

■in -iit
. marked.

u een Teller and Hill the

two w - -»f the latter, and

. ere knon d ai i be principal rap-

; ward

Mr Mill
■ i"iu-<i the Hill standard before his own
i :i \ eari after M r. Hill'i

m1\ made termi with

and, when hii came on, be

Mi- Teller'i follower! < me

the « l«-f--;i t in 1882 of

ernor and the

1 ...\ ernor of the

We The

f the Wn mAned to

j became

•i i1,.- upper house of the

• 1 1 »mbined ability

dominated the entire assembly.

> Ml Til \SH i'Ol tfflOOD

ll.li:
• lurti
all -••

compl

life I
:i end, the two broi
towi

forward both m

And but

r from him "i» thii iubj< nkJj

•ll II J Ml I) I.V 1

i whole heart Into the work M<

: in into more or

f.ir hi nun

neoftion of thr H

|V ..!!).!

Bppl

Thr >

r.'i i i>\\ \i;i» < »i.i\ EH WOLO I 1 t

publi main 1 j through Benr.v'n

d bj jealousies auMm^ politicians ou

We had ;i clear majority among the Republicans, and

in number, followed da l waa the oolj

and that, more than anything ■ -■ me

ind hasty. 1 unconsciously,

• much ardor mi>> i or oppoaition to

nal feeling
e "ii the pari <>f tb< I am quick

ftte. All thoee irithin "iir own ranks in

i n|M.!i in\ mal light for them. If thej want

bill passed, I must champion it: if ■ bill wai to be beaten on
their account, I mti it. The result lms been, and I

i the odium and all the hostility
no do; tti"-'- irho « 1 i * t nothing but rote In

- !ai<l it m\ door. Ami often

.i>l find my»elf at "out nallj irith some member

when !).• h behalf l bad

undertaken the light had l « »n l: since mad.- up nil differ

• of terms with all the irorld Bj reaaon >!

ion of m\ orerbearing diapoaitioo

ring Utter thlngi which the recipient doea

■ •. ■ l think. m< tniee t ban

itaunch friends.

Km nor'i enei \-tant and assiduous a-

[Ii .:••-.■( !■•. saying that In* wan si-k of [xili t it-H and

did • iln. But we shall

■ bat no compli I is made of t he

I • ature, \ >v\ fevi of Mr.

te have been preserved

0 >il\ a newapaper n ronld take down l few

-. and in ' ■ ■ opj of ■ more ' brilling

■ would prim them. In this waj we gel a fugitive

Benator from « Jlear
. of the bill •' nre in l sTn for I be

on of the B Ht opposed t be bill and in

measure of bin own f<»r the regulation
dure, ■ bi< B Wo. 1 The news-

Mr vYolcott from which we

^ 1 .1 ill \\|i VOl S'CJ MANHOOD

■

lhOW( !\.mtau«--

Bll 1 No I r

flO j'
u.-r.

follows

:|v f..]l..u.

t.nt I do OOllfOM t!

pht bundn

of j as tic

■

U
Montana and •

mil Mr \\ oh ott **as « Chairman «'f the
"ii Education, and be held poeitiom of

a nuiii! M ^ . .'liiiniltiM-s.

Hi \\ j pertaining to

fata area awarded

man for bis colleagues,

he presented i Senator M. A. H

Arapj i intj Mr bad generally antagoniied

Mr. VYoloott in the 8 •• bad 1 1 1 ; u i \ other Bena

tut In* was a man of such slunk iuit-uritv and Of BUCfa un-

I be wob generally loved and respected.

preaeof was iiiteixleo! to express this feeling, which. a»

the moat eloquent as well aa the atauncheat ol

, Mi W olcotl "f • 'I.-, i ed i" put

Into a did, aaj Ing:

Mr. Chairmuu, in the laal boura <>f the session, and juat
• roll-call in this body, i rlae for the Aral time

:\- ..f tin- session, with the full BB8U]

i am about to mj will receive it"- aanetioo and

. other iimiiiImt of this asseiuhh . We

our allotted time; and are bare bad our

quarn and our fighta our triumpha and

tb it all there bare come heart burningi and

troub bui now. ;i» we ;i j.j.i o.i, h the end of the

\.- the laal roll call that this
i of the river, i truat these

n do burdena left la the
■

Ilea mostly in retroKjiection.

; m -•-«•. I ;iw ;i\ . w hen time h;i- w ..rn

■■•III!:.' I.llt the

and remembering thi and

that the in<ii-
gain, under any drcumtfa

ng the things that

! that ha I - • i Of an unpleasant nat

ad remembering that if
■lied year aft I a ould each time

- tli.! t W e kli.iW not

who l tO drop in the liat, nor who would follow

no member of this I [oust . oi thia

tfOUTH iND YOU NO M iNHOOU

raJ Ann I

been •

in ih. B
nr Id

I mtd th 11
the Mmira timt ii;i\«- pundt tin

•i f->r flu* ltd

anv other pertoo. 1

■ -
been mm thing

inan. including
! l>v \..ur

■

that

r f<>r \ ..ii

in in the 8
which i

B ' He

1 that in

i:i»\\ ai;i> <>i.i\ 1:1: WOLCOTT

h the Almighty had Intended should be only thing!
imtv, ami ••\|»ivss»m1 the thought thai the further spread

•• w e Im Ite tourists to
rand and beautiful scenery and not i<>
buy vermifuge," he said. The bill became a law.

During ! m in the 9 Senate li«' Intro-

duced a bill granting equal suffrage to women. The bill
.li.l not find ;i place on the statute books, but it waa the
Forerunner of the Ian which iraa enacted fifteen yean Li

to ^ii«»w Hit- esteem in which the Wolcotta were
li«-l«! ■ e expressiona of ;i fen a ho

Mir\i\»- who were members <>f the Legislature, or wen

,i\ be quoted to a.i\ antage < me
of the most prominent <»f the contempori S sen

i ; i iseph I ' l [elm, a ii" represented I he Tenth
. ;ui«i who afterward held the high office
<»f Chief Justice of the State Ifr. Helm si

I remember thai Ifr Wolcotl showed, during th<

i with him. an unusual b and *UH In grasping the

b bill op measure, and \\:is \<r\ effective in 1 1 1 « - preeen
tatioi imenti were chara< terised bj the

ame more pro

• I him in later life. When he espoused

did it enthusiastically and Impulsively.

• g the members and inspired manj

hi.li continued through lif<-. He

or those a hom

■ ut on the other hand he would

a friend.

• the lower 1 1 « »u ^i- in the Second

i ion. nv iiiiam I » Todd, a ho a aa

e County, with resi*

1 1 iuch interested in the establish'

I I Natural History Society,

Institution, and

! in the House a bill to that end I fe succeeded

bill through tin- House, and when it reached

ed ii]-. ii Ed ^ olcot I to take charge of

^ I »i Tii \ M> VOl SO UANH(H)l)

•rk

ip .1 V

ill III- -

• tT< >n hardly,
of In- •

I
1 v times, .iini i bile i

ild, the little i. ilk oi

i though the «

\| i ■ v e* ii- the f"ll<»u mil'

cotl in ilature

I taring tii<- mo l< lii< h the f"ur rt

Mr V

on it the i immend i

thai delltx

r.. the reaaooiog facol

R ith Imii .

. that li

ml. i I- .irnik' n» "i

unit in I
the elder, wh« on in 1 1 f«- k !••

the othei
and

r.i»\\ ARD i »i i\ 1:1: \\« HX> >TT

Ich 1.-.1 to rxtrava-

•111 of the

< » ] 1 •■!-. w Ik» was editor of the /'■

■ if them, 11 alao he vu
1 . i' .1
principal opponen( in the Senate, fortunately has left an

e two men J ,; bod and the H

n w -i f<ir the ' - four yean after the

en from the 1 Beginning a ith

hia rtM-< I lection ha rei Ired bj 1

• ■ii a train in tin- pro-

1 session in which the u

i-ii ini: si'ssittn f\,-r held in -

up t.i thai time, and he then added :

1 nder of the minority and Ed Wolcotl
oti araa president of the

•1 witii a fierce determination t«>

H( - :ni : 1 1 1 T n LT« .1 1 i -- T Q01 '

hater, for he bad not i»:i rn«-«i the

! he « ai 1 u.nf \ j .-.■. he a ai still

•:«•. He bad fin • oompliah

M»><ii them with efl 1 lorn hope

- the moat <iai .•

• r !i;i«l in tin- Si I' f uti

ranee, he

•: .in ml vantage, Bui II wai

iik<- • • • The w <>i' <>u majority

perating wan tin- '•
«.f tl 1 finer inn lleotual

eaaj atrength; on the other an almoai
1 .1 w rkable

• 1 fertility wm- as u hi* opponent'! \-

rrellooa in tin-ir keenneea and
betaole

returned to tii<- aaaauH

tfOUTB 1KD YOUNQ MANHOOD

■

he h i

i Com

telli us tl Mr J 'shrewd and ]

I | | V.

I. II' '
Judgi d

phi were

v% bom h<- « ill I •

11 - ■
lolled

.•
i
f.»r i 8<
diatriet

132 i:i»\n \i;h OLIVEB WOLCOTT

•■• haw done himself justice In some of

in- l< work He did not have the eon ind induatrj

He might have opjtow**] some measures

ipported bad be been n . ■ n faithful

g i.\ the usual - O. Wol

vs.. M the inoal i

■ ..man aj rit«-r in ! be I ' M I ibrtUUTJ 1."..

is^i, we are indebted for the following pen-picture of the
.it broth<

The two moat prominent persons in the Senate are the praal

hi; w oleott, and his brother, Hon. B. I '

The latter is ih<- younger and appears '" be the more

|m. pular with tin- ma-si-*, inn. «• ought, iterhapa, to be deaoribed

tleman from the Sixth," as be is officially designated,

11 "f medium height, flueh

1 1 1 : 1 1 1 1 \ and graceful bearing. ll<- has

blond hair and rerj handsome brown eyes indeed h<- li i

od points • • \ • • ii the in<>-t superficial discover. He

|.|i\ nil all \ able man. aii. I I lain t><ni

■iia. ii«.ii t.i the majority of bii fellow*
I well adjusted pht sical i on ii

to in- mental operations. He has do

n ami < |i linr

ami inn... in. '..i sophistries as i >,•

i.\ adverse pin -\< al rondit Ions.
■
mi ndequat( ludden emci

. oinmaml ..f his mental

•

• .1 u .11 hnlniK ' 'I man. I \>-

• ann i im id.
t tempi i" browbeat
..in t.. him sari asm
his methods is

His

I imed a --i -i or ' a ... and bis * » j » i » • ►

bandons them, M r. ^ ol

■ l ..f language and red a verj

\ « h in \M> VOI SG MANHOOD

effect ire ipenl
high position

iiln.ir „-.• ami !

■

w In. a II

\ ih<

- .ill that

«| ii.. . I • •• that III

I Inn all hmo aball apeak wH!

11 i; w • ..f the >

tirelj different man II.- - not the mrl • '
tin- nob would be >-u\\
much f"r the -
■
prwMMi . of ■• the leoUemeii fr-.m I
the "l-l it

I ill of the t»«c'»
irerc pot into ti-
i

■
ild pan ham tiu» •

hi an founded ,

eeenre in-
tod bold bimaelf np to the Immutal
effect, Tii-

I
log <>f the «»l<l d

Of tl.. II.- ■ ntllfl

with mm. h digs ire He .

with

ioki 11. • .m M<> not I
olonslr. I

whi. ' - him t..

earth who are in eerneal

i.i'W \i:i' < >i.i\ 1:1; \\« >LO >TT
duty <>r th< who can be patient of at

I Of ili^h

|&OW

Mr. w • •'• otl I ''-ar blue-

graph at 01

experimental em o Impertinent Bern

: \ w iili them lighti that
far Into

aua\ with I lie vu

in them a promise of good

ning that they lia\ I

• rating bat not
r. but not crednloni — lelf-contained, bnt not

but doI -in ali«'L'' I ber the

1 hai i"-«-ii regnant and whose iif<- hai
• !i»t than mere emotion.

•• ] ..ml •• ili.« ;rlin. iiia_\

"f tlii- man"- lift-, hut who

: at him with intell - hai thought b

for I of manhood. Whoever ha

■ his character haa been stimulated to
admire all those attribntea <>f the sonl
i mere ap] • • ■ ■ d

..i i„- Bupposed, however, that only complimen-

ding the Wolcotts, Bd

■ •11 as friends, ami crit icism w as

by do means Infrequent Be did oof shrink from taking any

.n\ and pro] because of possible censore and

■ >1 forth man} exprcKKionfl regarding himself which

- frienda if not t" him. < >fi<-n i<»<.,

■ . k in

. I I lamiii and

Bettor '. L86 i. made

adil Ion, ami. defending M r. w olcott

• //. raid, said :

ii In the Republican party in ihi^ State who

unjustly ricnlt with than the Eton. Edward 0.

: '1 clique • ni .ii- failed

• ■ ■ • : • • • • . ■ had ;i chance. Thei have

>> i >i tii \ \|. rOl SG MANHOOD

■

In t

P i.K

ler Field

. AM) P0U1

MB w "i ' ' 1 1 1 - oo to ill-

important toi

"I'l" :

• If in the •
• upon an

.mi* hi* boaioeai calendar \v i- full.

8
Id the

■
n to t tin

■

v, hi* lifi

si 1» i 1
Railr

li" i:i»w \i;i> OLIVEB WOLCOTT

<»f t hi- ii - for >i.iih.il:.-. a*ere frequent

- to the course to be pursued In the
Klation, and manj prere Inclined to-
.! course Clearlj the roads stood in Deed
of th< I, 1 1 • » t alone "f ■ lawyer, but of ;i man familiar

- ondit \<>\\< a li<« bad th( • and ind<

tiampion their cam uentlj 1 1 1 • - railroad and

lied upon i" • .ui-i

political chicanerj ,
All -»f them demanded ability, loyalty, fearlessness, in their
u-»rk These qualities found exceptional combim
• Wolcott. • drau n '-■ him

*ti unit. -in .-tTori <'ii bii part, and after ;i time more
business a*as offered than could t-< He w

-.f .in attorney able i<» choose hit cl
It i i 1879, thai be transferred bii ofl

1 1 oued bo long at be lived The im-

• >n of tin- change prai bii appointment ai
i I ills* orl ii. i ■- ■' eh er foi
»ad.

em of i be I >eni er ft Rio
• ompani then <-f onlj two or three bun«

■■• track extending from Denver
orado Bpringi and Pneblo to 1
and Alamo a fes short feeders in other dire tiona

i built even to that extent a/ith difficulty,

- ite bad been so dull prei loui to the
• -n.it.- ii, • • i eadi iii<- that

lable Always aenaitiye to gen-
t-ral il renditions, the railroads In Colorado

■ •in i be financial depi ession, and ' be

i- Colonel Elli

w..rtii. it • ' M man, and bad been

-w ii bank, in s bicfa capacity Mr.

w cott <!-•-
• in «.f the change, and after
beei ai ified r*n
Writing father, November 80,

i s mi: men \i»i:i: i 1 1 : i i • in

I :

n be held until b -

in the I- . in- 1 it iinpr-..

with

1 1

■

Nil \

, , ft

found "ti

i
i

K. 11

i
I

Wfll

BDWABD OLTVEB rVOLOOTT

1 1. i^:>. Mr. w olcott « r the following high

• M. led lawyer I ever knew and

H . \ ■ ■ 1 1

the head <»f the legal department of the company

aid w i t ! i the title "f Genera]

miliar with general local condltiona than

Mr lias*., Mr. Wnlroit ln-l«l a \>\-\ responsible position

the beginning. The headquarters of the company were

and Mr. Baas maintained his

■ ,-. p bile ott represented the company at

the more Important commercial centre of Denver. ks Mr.

iih loiitimn-d i.» fail .Mr. Wolcott'a responsibilities

correspondingly increased, until, after .Mi retirement

in 1886, .Mr. Wolcotl was •!' ;i' the

head «»f the law department <»f tin* system, which had grown

int<» large proportion* He was also elected ;i director "f

the company.

In 1*>M i!m- road again passnl into the hands of I P€

ii this instance, was the Colorado Springs
banker, William 8. Jackson. Notwithstanding apprehen-

- that hi- connection with the mad mi^'ht rcasc, Mr.

continued to ad under Ifr. Jackson as legal rep-

■ the railroad company. Sis doubts regarding

on, both before and after the beginning of the

et f.-rth In his letters bo his parents "
of the railroad. < m the 2d of January,
rather, aaj lug :

• ..!• ft Kin (irandf has passed through some

• knew how he might be
ratified to find myself retained as before

spoil the sain. lation as was paid the firm when

f U-. B i .ill be able !" keep t he a. olf

from ■ ;ir at lei

And ' he told his mother

of the return i the control of a receiver.

\. with which i '

BOH . hSS gOI

vt tttribaUble to the present ms

red; but i' wsi oot

in THE BROADER I III D

until tn.i;

OHM.

II continue I
\\ ill turn up."

I I

;;

• W.ls ;ij,;

enter] |uently .!•

: !• \ Afterward be
\» u'lr- Depot k B

•: v, and

th.- hmiri

i MCODd nian - .r\ I

n his offlce irai rapidly enlarged until it ii

In 1--

burn. AJthOt

tern

bora r. ■•
York, where be

skill • ' \

l u EDWARD < >LIVEB w I >L0OTT

solved, if possible, »•• prevail upon Mr. Vails to enter
ifflce; and a little later, In ivsi. we find Mr. Vaile one
of the mainstay! «>f the Wolcott establishment Tims began
an association which in ivvv. ripened into a partnership, and,
with ever growing mntnai attachment and esteem, endured
until Mr. Wolcott passed awaj In 1905,

in 1888 Mr. Wolcott's campaign for the Dnited Btatea
Senate absorbed much of hia time; In issi* he was elected
and t""k up I ence in Washington, leaving the im-

mediate supervision and control of the business in Mr. Vaile's
bands. A diligent student; patient, indefatigable; post
ing a keen and analytical mind; strong and self-reliant, do
man could have been better equipped to assume and direct
tin conduct «»f a large and active practice than was Mr.
\\ - partner. This partnership was unchanged until

1902, when Mr. Charles W. Waterman, who had entered the
some ten years previously and who had in the mean-
Lime developed Into a rerj able lawyer, was admitted im<»
partnership, under Ha- firm name of Wolcott, Vaile ft Water
man; and so the firm remained until after Senator Wolcott's
death.

The dozen years from L880 to iv,.,-j covered a period of
extraordinary activity and development In railroad-building,
mining, smelting, irrigation, and other enterprises in Colo-
rado, The discoveries of Leadville, \ --i ►< n . and Ban Juan
were followed bj iii<- rich yields of silver from Creeds begin-
id the richer -j-'id production of Cripple Creek

The »1 ished and built up, as a «• ba\ e seen,

i.\ Hr. Wolcott, and so ablj maintained in character and

-ill wiiii the aid ol Ifi \ le and Mr. Waterman, grew

in volume and in importance with yeai Perhaps nothing

the iii'jii standard and efficiency of

, it,. in the fad that in several instances retainers

\ir Wolcott in the earlj daw of bis professional

withdrawn. Manj clients ol those days

of w oh "". \ .id.- ft \\ aterman at lir. n\ ol«

blj the l tenvi fl Bio Gi ande Railroad

;..m\ .ind the Chicago, liurlington ft Quincj Railroad

* lompi

I \ THE BROADKR HELD L4fi

In id.- COOTM l( ':••:-. Mr M ill. urn fur

nut <»f tii.- circnn under which bi

I into partnerehip with Mi v. ippluwan

i inn-.

'I T..U

inu 111. in, ihowiog thai under the itimulua .>f ;
• ni.u employment be wai coming rapidlj
U \l llburn'i letter ii dated it Ni JToi Be]

'. .up! reedi

The i i r -* t 1 1 mt- i in.! Edward rVolcotl wai Lb the nunnatif
of ivsJ when wt irere goaeti In tii«- mum boo*
Spin . - mi ban .1 peraonalitj made m-
an inipreavion opoo me. Tall, well prop*

I. in.- • • h and quiet «

tion .in. i h we then ipeol t<>

r .in. I Ik- mured through them lik«- .1 meti

ng up Utw.in us ;(t ,.ii.«-. .ui. I U-furv \vt- pari.-. I \\<- \s.-r--

■o drawn '" --.I'll other that >' bed occurred to i><>'ii "f na In

an. I half . \ ; il.l \\..rl*

pet hex in the profession '<> which we both beloi
took definite »lia|*- m id.
montba, and In Beptemher, 1- I '■• Denrer and

him : .| f..r m-ai

«.f tir Igbtfnl \.-ars ..f m\ iif.- arhen I returned to the

1 - quite •: th relatii 1 ox

• in. ill.- \
B I \' Railroad linen in < 1 bad be

■ in mining, rommm ial ami

tner, bnf 1 m ai.lv aaaii
am bended bj Lex Iw hi I MihiH-n. 1
in. I commodiooa *<-t ..f office* fun

- «sen

wa«

•ui. I n.. 1 1

■'

lowei 1 found in (

of pilea "f law Ih.-.'ks tnd

mammal in

ip; i:i.\\ aki» <»i.i\ i:i: WOl COTT

- law
|
than

I '
«i. j. .

ration.
- and a limited bodj

;•>■ in

i ere the i oodi
under whJ ded.

! qualities as a la*

-••i and impiiN - .ility.

during tii- * our

orker,
■

■. that ererj boor '""k
i different one, I «i«» aof memo bj
pable "f long ttretchei "f work on the

• iinee almost t" an abnormal

•!n- iiupul-

u. t. moring rapidlj over a rabjecl and

."
a ith lumiuoiiH and

.• a domain in which be

patient, painstaking and <iiii-

ither than

barm

,ilit\ thai and held

■-. bumor, diatinotion and a

in.) if
!.. tin- law In*

bii time.
:...t help adding
Ol my

1 .1 linn

• i tain
I i tunnel. We • •

difficult t" rapport them

■

IN THE IIROADEK FIELD

■

v.-r. I. ut |
in f-' B • kIit in

II.

and

for < II

Hon

i \8 i:i»\\ a 1; 1 ► oi.i\ i:i: w < »i.<« »'i t

• in- < Colorado political lottery . With the State
!•*. far from the centre of population i" aupplj ential

caud 8 led as the

i Colorado man'i ambition, and many bent
attain it. Never a public man «>f anj
prominence who did not aooner or later develop Ben
.ii ambit loni i i i a, I ben, thai in i ime

Mr Wolcott came to be ■ BenatoriaJ aspirant, ami thai
people manifested do aetoniahmeni when the] found
one
• nix were there mans candidate! for the Senate In
days, inn there were more than the Dana] Dumber of
- to in- filled. linl<-i-«i bj the time Colorado bad been
in the Union B e bad bad ■ half-dosen rep

ate one Pot eai h year. Theae were
1 Dd Teller, the m-si two choeen; Hill. Chaffee*!

1 tiilcott, appointed bj Governor Pitkin t" lill the
cauaed bj Mr. Teller*! becoming a member of P
dent Arthur".* cabinet; Tabor, who was chosen bj the I>
letup eed Chilcott In filling the unexpired term, and

lected t" take np the work after the expiration of
ii Mi-. \\.»i. on waa active In politics when
four of the all were choeen. Little wonder that in* ambition
■ Ddled!
The differed i - natora Teller and ll ill and

e folio* era a ere ao sharp during all
. olor to all polit leal 'im-*'
time that Mr Hill entered the Senate it became
mid be difficult to maintain » be harmony
< ..ii delegation

i eller, < 'haffee, and Bel ford These
u i in < Ml pin < *< him t \ before going
: the affain "f t he State In
onld ha\ i- Im.-ii expected to <l".
0 i . but a it h bia elec-

• I -.IK 111 IMIIS j,f. s, |,[, ,| 1 ||,.| .-llll lUg

hiui^i-if and M r. Teller, with Reppe
allj in. lining toward the Teller si«l«'.

■ led ion of I he
hul it reallv owed ita ei istence

IN THE BROADER I III h

tbc men thei I

the •

.'
• I in the

I I -it in I8fr

read Mr w
• i \\ iih the Hill fori en \\ hen

D in jM.hr.. | ||. | ,,|

cewful .1- hi .in-lit

be ii

\ D imli\ i.hml i

ranked rerj I But he kn.

wm from tin- beginning

[nation r<« bn

u [mil thei ilk "f doi

ll' !. doubt l' -

man for the promotion of whose political Intel
done to mu< b

Hill fonnd obi
under »|
. omp
iupp
i ith another

mil). : ,r him to

in f -

urn would be
•'■
the man

■
...

I
d the Bill • rati] [

150 i:i»\\ aki> OLIVEB WOLCOTT

•thing «»f his change of heart Indeed, a( the time, there
die information <»f Mr. 11 ill'- defection, and it seems
to have been supposed thai he was strongly advo-
..f his lieutenant Mr. rVolcot I

•in my to the i . and this must be

n horitat i i

msr n m i'»N m. oont]

onventioni in i sv,». the first being
held in Ma\ I eleel ion <d deli N ionaJ

blican Convention, which was t<> meet in Chicagi
the <«'iuiiiL: June, and th<- second in August, f<>r the Domina-
tion 9 in the latter convention Governor
d, who had served mo • the previous
two •■ - renominated bj acclamation, and the principal
I ongreaaional nomination In which Mr.
.i candidate.
Maj convention was s very animated one. I' will
Bcalled that ivvi) was the year in which there wt

art t'» have Genera] Grant nominated for s third

dential term.

Mr. vVolcotl was intensely opposed to the Grant nomina-

ther with General Bamill bitterly antagonised

■i favor of the <'i\il War hero. Both of them

convention an delegate* from Clear Greek County,

Midi\ for Blaine AJt hough

ine enthuc sat, M r. n\ oleott favored

available candidate with whom to defeat

Bamill, on the other hand, was a strong personal

folloi ina

• ed that the State had been so thor-

:-w,.,i and that s<» much attention had been

i - rant delegate**, t hat t<> Btem t he ' ide

■ ..f the queation. in one of his letters, lir.

3 and thirty thousand

< .ram's interest

ritten in advance of the convention, but

. i, plainly t < • r .iit would carrj it.

landing I d, the sent iment of the

I \ THE BRO \i»i:i: FIELD

• U.ls fill. ' t

.•>fllt ill. 8

earnest, howc be «»j>jh.!

one time

itiOD • "l

but little practical
the f( his folloa en " lai ed

;i itaoni

■
in the 1 M kmvent ion 'I

i nrernor John I.. Routt, a peraonaJ Mend ol i

hail hope

liifl f.i\ "\

tion nor

resolution! influenced t! nrention in fa\«>r of

.•1<I. who wrai
■
for :

1 1\ home with I
• .1 in defeat ii | I
it w ithonl ha\ ing promoted ' ; i
..in.! Colorad

and 'ii'- Repi

•

at ?iin»> « 'olorario had onlj
tional H
for I H

mentioned in the

for him. Still he

r.h\\ \i;i» mi.i\ EB WOLOOTT
friends," and would have u*«-n placed io Domination if

bad h«*«i> an\ proliahilin t»f hi* success. It \\a^ soon

•hat in .-as.- hi> name BUOUld 06 brought

rention, the other candidate! would combine
Indeed, I bia combination irai effl
i. -uit of the Informal mention <>f hi*- name, for when
it became probable that he would be aprung ai ;i candidate
the friends "f Thompaon and Decker deserted their n s
ti\.- !■ Belford 'l'lius it happened thai while Woh

cod and hii Bupportera were opposed to Belford more than
t.. either of the other candidate! thej realty forced hie nomi-
nation. Mr. Wolcott hai left ■ word on this subject, and
it appean thai thej were no( acting blindly, but were crowd-
ing Belford '<• the front in the hope that they would thus
the more certainty eliminate him from State politi<

lae of Ifr Wolcott'a name In connection with the

.Tensions] nomination was due entirety t«. the circum«

.• that the Mill faction, if not Mill himself, were anx-

apon the ticket the name of ■ man who would

represent them, ami thej found In Ifr. Wolcott the most

available material for thi* service, [ndeed, the Legislature

cety had adjourned in the winter of 1879 when there

.tl references to Mr. Wolcott as a factor In

the Congressional race, and aa earl] aa May, ivsn. we And

bin taking note of the possibility of bis candidacy. Etc

then was determined, however, t<> remain aloof from the

••■.in. i -hail.*' he aaya in a letter to his father of Ifaj

pp entirety ont <>f the field under any and all cir>

rnniManifs I U'.uhi not tak<- the nomination for Congress

if it were offered t" me, which it will not be. if a man

ami time enough In courting the

popular will, the people want him; if he does n't, thej don't."

tie timet however, th<- convention met, he had been

influ< tude, and if the nomination ha l

tiered t" him he would In a letter

of September 80th, be aaj i

did n't .■<>■ be convention ;it alL I would

thing but the i onal Domination, and would

f"r that if ;i choice oould be ar

I \ THE KKOADEB FIELD

caml . • . if tti%

■prang In taa oooventJoo, Um
gth to the leading

it If'!.

■wart r ! tin-in al

the b ■ all. .iii-i M-t at the last

the strength wt "-Hi. i to Belford, k;
t w>< M .us wiii complete in- i"'in l(

Without • •; m • Wf'olt otl then declared

u.iv againel him. •• «»r would here t>
ti'-i<i !'• Ida, M Henrj waa, aa naviaJ, mj mail

He ex< lount ,.f Influence than alo

i"-i\ in < 8 . and ia the heat backer, ai areU ai
beat brother, In iln- world.*1

in thii - anrention, Hon. « !harlea n Toll, "ii<-
a .1 r . : ' . • herine W I ;

and I '-I W ominated for Attorney I M r

Toll oung lai Orande (

bad been .i member <»f the lower Honae of the Rl I
lature In L878 and L879
sarin- jH^it Ion Hiar i ! < » w
II- ai -• iflv supporter of the Hill int<
fluent speaker. He soon formed an intlnu
R "ft brothera, and hia nomination for i ocral

waa eJr Influei ■'

ef word n
to bit

nominated bj
ihoa lug in •■

on."

• 1 major

151 BDWARD OLIVEB WOLOOTT

ether they \ isited aJ j county.

Mr. Wolcott in later yean and to whom

i uoi onlj ever n ake a speech, l>ut ca-

acquitting himself irith more credit than o1

elation, I B >utl had been

rman of t B I and he d r had

red upon thii e than be sought on(

Mr. v ted from him ■ promise to make ■

nk from it ai I never
anything and fear I shall make a complete failure "f
■.-.I by tin* fact ti'. i' everybody
II But I suppose I
r us the young polit i<
tl er. II'- ii"t only «li<l make the attempt,
but a whirlwind success from it1- '

-l\ had been begun before he had

>Ughl after of all I rS OH t he list.

■ man] tours made bj the young 01

• introduce him to a constituency with whom

ed to become 1 ary familial-. < m t he Bt h

we find him informing h^ parents thai he

pre] • og the itinerary for his speech-making tour,

55th <»f thai mont h.

-»nly fifteen or tu'-ni\

1 her thai in them h<- would " stand
I " •• 1 have," he adds, " done t his

•

arlier than
I, and yel to , .1 the I 1

►men hat latm date for on

.1 \ ing t hat h.- had

11. v. here he had i-

- l\«-r

-i'\ in his report to bii

■ r Plume he had an audiem e of

bundred and 'hat in- ipoke in the

letter h< n to 1 srare his

salts and that of lir.

- • : ; anion. I !■• saj

in THE BROADEB FIELD

.■

ilth.

.1 brief i

1 .-ii K) far parti- u SMfal in

.,n.l : • di won'l lliten to it I

>o| " B

I expreoi
iltv. not!

outlined

pw of pol i I

. f-.r m .1
Itim i

-•• «... much before
The '

■nd all i»f mj
omit

■

tin- mom

\\ i i j eren boh ah

i:.i; i:i.w \i:i» <»i.i\ i;i; WOLOOTT

i the fact thai the end was n Dear. " I am,*' lie
glad it Is over.91 H<- then addi :
•• I hare bad some thirtj Invitations for thia week and have
.ui i shall doI speak again except perhaps
for half an 1 1 « • 1 1 r with Belford the night before election.
i onlj pride 1 have bad In the whole matter was thai
I might gratifj yon and Henry, and might justifj the good
things iii\ friends bare said of nn

Dted In the Tritium will be fonnd in
another pari of this work. If it- author had the difficult)

epreeents In preparing his speeches this specimen i

j i • * t betray it He discussed the broad questions of the daj

in a way thai showed the speaker's grasp of national affaire,

though he modestly professed to lack familiarity with

them. He also evinced a generous Intereel In the welfare of

the candidates on the State ticket, going to the extent of

who had not been so l i t ►« - 1- - 1 1 with him. Ii was

just the kind of speech i<» arouse the enthusiasm <»f i Im*

youi aers, ami ii did arouse 1 1 1 i *- feeling In them

- of no other campaigner did. Wherever Mr.

spoke, the cause was strengthened, and the close

of the contest brought him manj expression! of gratitude as

well a> manj compliments on the method and matter of

ddn-»<-s. i 'mm thai time forward the young Clear

reputat ion * as established in < Jolorado.

.mi won ii utH'eKKarj t<> beat i in- bush i" get an

for him.

|\HK"\ ED I in \\'

i • i .- ■• ■ ■ . ■ ) n <li<l not come on for two years. The

devoted bj Sir. fVolcott t" building ap bis Lav

.ind t'> laying the plans for the Domination of bis

l.r<>> I J work for Re< eiver Ella

• upied mm • during t he first .\<';"' '"' ' wo

tutside l»ii- i ii« — drifted in upon bim.

liu •'■ ei ■• nei bap not ol great importance,

Mr. Wolcoti was ii'»i above taking small

■ eiver was a more lu-

ploymenl than be yet had bad, but it did doI

I \ i in i:i;< > \i»i:i: I u I D

... . 1 1 1 . \ .ill <if hi* I i in.-. and thi

f.-|r thai In- louhl w.-ll laki- — 1 1-

.•

daring I - las

■
that he ronld afford to neglect the r hu* di m n tl i
of the partj

i ame to him .is one ol the reaulta

«>r the 1880 campaign added material!) to bin Ian
and the ne* year ail not pn»^ri'.vH*M| far

titni him indicating In bli letters, and manifeating In hia
manner of I ■ f • - , a degree of opulence which hit
hi- known. Dp to thia time he had been able to i
little toward redeeming i promiae be bad voluntarily i
daring fa it in the edu

brothen and niatei I >r aevei MttlemenC

in Georgetown he found it difficult at timea to make
endi meet S< rer, hon ei er, after

did ' liml it m-.rvsan in jjive him linam i.il a-

ance Now our lawyer and politician had I the

turn in the road, and 1 bile v' ill ' l •
when he did not hare all the fflonej be wanted, there nerer
time when he did not bare all that be
really needed ami more than th< man would

known bos i'» §pend profitably His i, li-
mit il it h. . >s.ii\ f,,r him t<» turn i * a\
!ii\ a> Man li of 1881 Mi fl cott a aa k
money home and Hiipplying younger memben of th<
with the in. ans to Buppori them at school.

In- furnish tin -. hut In- wr^'iil tin1 KjxMulii

monej freelj Remember ii

ami wh.n !
from him the acknowledgment of all rci

d to act ep wonting fr-mi •

his [ ■ ,| h,- all:

that there should I
In one

tion that Id expend T? •

her on luxuries rather than on i

in forwai | :ht liko it if JOU WOUld

i.i'W a 1: 1 » «»i.i\ it; w i iU < 'ii

otmt i<» your general expenses and
- .11 in frivolitj or dissipation «>f Bonn

• onwilling to do thai, in I lu or something else

•a. . ui. 1 n't otherwise hu\ " igain, on October 6th

follows:

i draft oi | « i i » i <>f

which amita

I tl-.n'l want l«> >«•<• anv a.-. .ninl>; lhr\ UTS a

and were itnmbling bio

. alwsji to 1 o let me know

when yon l take ;i great deal more pleat

it to yon thai libry sen In tecelring it,

and I'll . [t if _\«'u'ii write me franklj for anything

yon m

ii, in th«- same rein ;m<l to the same Bister, on
January 18, i -

I l. ■ <\ your letter. Sow san i make yon ander-

l l send yon li a pleaanre n> dm — that I enjoj

ii '/ I ■ .nit to aend It I want yon I mt if yon

on what I tend yon. i want yon t.. test I the

I to i he old adi

i b 3 "ur pleaanrei ai thej flj ;
i time will

.Ml i ^11 let me anon when yon want money,

f-.r l remittances, and am apt t" forget

:• dow before in<- i aether yo
raotice
• would continue good.

ing t" l. on the 5th <>f hlarch, <»f 1881, he

t hat he dndi it t erj
• ■nt ion. I le adds, hon •
pensea ln< i er than my Income

• b which b ould have appreciated.

mion con

■

i S Till. BBO 1DEB 111.11'

\\ ! ■

IMi'l inth!, Mi
that

It, hut t! •

fad much

• f the mi

id anything inn 1 October !*■

-1 not l
bought if might Indue
Writing
dition,

I Me bat little

!
reeenn-h.

out .i rei
w
the emploj I elp. in

nn.l an v thine

i:i>\\ \ki» <»i.i\ i.i: wiii.iiitt

w..rk It nasi require |

kelp. The railroad appointment named bo
Instant (for l think i bat"

• iukiiuukHlgiu^ two letters from jou

- • \. : ind ■■' Labia.

ill your present business, and
i at able . I needful pftrtMtal attention

to Um

ill And ■ better time to oarrj int" effect 1 1 1 • - Ions*
:i->1 importunity of jour nd ezborl

to pi omj. i Irani yon t.. nave ■ tooeb Just ;i touoh

)"> ■

ih.- in. -p.-. i-.-.i niii.c font- .aim- uei an«i better
I more !•• bered from the follow*

• Ifaj 1 1. 1882, i" Dr. and lira, Woh

nee offices are delightful, or will be \\ii<-i!
them fulh arranged. I have been adding rerj extensively
t<» in v law Library ami hare non the report! "f twenty Bl
and an admirable collection «>f English reports. I iriah I
kn.u more "f the Ian thai is in them."

Thai t In- young man WMM not "iil\ w.-ll offlced t'Ul well

I from the folloi Ing ei

from the same i«-i ti

:.'n.. \\ ii\ cannot father return irbeo Henrj doei

• ! a month unit ni here? We. bare I d for bin at

• .in Insure bin I good table. I cannot promise
bin i njoj nifiit. But, seriously, II

vrooUl much if be irould come, and I knon

. sd it irould <i" bin good, i ban
ire so Rituated that hia
in.

in (TBI w 01 ii\i..\

Nii \\oi...!i had begun bj tins time to prepare for the

and probablj s ai I be

.m m tii. ght againal Qenrj Wolcott

4 the diatieaalng political quarrel between the

Telli rhe antagonism bet ireen t be I pro

- early In I be iee ion

in i ill. BKU \i»i K l I ELD

Aj-nl of
bad

• 1 1 1 » t if
them i

;ifr-

• !\ In- Ailed b

■ •uM
\..ir U

II. Will.!:

on, ■ m

in I.-s.h
I
f.T

DMB Wd fnn\

th Teller In •
Bill i in the B

4 tin- mi

r.-.-lv le*'

rand hi mi

Mr
lowed within lew thnn .i u.-.k \>\ iUv .ij.j.

of hi B I !

an.l
all the Ulti Hill I

bini J friend and I

UH II'W ABD OLIVEB w I >LCOTT

him ii better equipped than any of the other aspirants to

• •• the duties <»f tin- gubernatorial office.

.Mr. i>iii thai deacribee la hif work on Political Cam-
the relatiooi of the parties, his testimony
- gnificanl from the fact of hie being
tensely partisan against Mr. Wolcott end personally attached
t<» one of ili»- other candidati

There irai do objeotioo to llr. Wolcott, penonallj. n<- wai
then ed a sterling Republican who deserved well of

hit party, and under other circnj there Ii little <i<>ui»t

that be would bare receiwd the nomination. I
than iiis brother, be had created fewer antagonisms, and among
the i ' " 1 1 1 1 »i »« - 1 1 there were many

who sincerely regretted thai the conteal had aaanmed laon i

• that they could no tor Wolcott The contest wai
purely the outgrowth of the bitterness n< agendered
through persona] ambitions— a condition almost Inseparable from

and which had been enhanced by the i

f the younger Wolcott. Neither Sir. Chaffee nor Mr. Teller

. «i to Wolcott "ii persona] grounds. The} obji

■ thai time for the m that he waa

the !• - nator Hill, and the lenatoria] question

DTolred in the gubernatorial contest, llr. Chaffee replied

to thi i eral Bamill f<>r th<- withdrawal of his

ott, that if Wolcott would wait until after

ri;ii queation wai disposed of he would cheerfully

»rt him for Governor, but be absolutely refused his coo

nlnation <>f Wolcott, with 1 1 » « - certainrj that in

• Ion the ei jth <>f the State adminia

on would )"• i. are the re-election <>f Bill to the

and Teller i<» Hill'i re elect ion

vu i the whole con and led '<. th<*

blnation between those gentlemen <>f which

larj incident The

: Teller on one tide, and

Hill th 'h<- senati n aa the

- Ipimrting ^ -.ill rami 11 and Ed

at forth in t he follow lug
■ r»f Ed v • his fath(

i\ THE HRO \i»i:i: nu D

ii utiwill

tod i

in .t bt Dominated beeaoei
thai ther Bill

• bul H
man throughout tl i -

I ire might poll through, after all. I ihoold

him. hot with th<>

■ .

■ in.

hut ira cannot hope f<>r orach from hli

repnd w i \s..n't t..u. h Pitkio. Hamlll

•i began itv sittings in

I
polll

R ill foi

imelter «

w ■

•

hand man.
and he i Banked i

i:i»w \i:i> i »i.i\i:i; w < »i.<< itt

••• lom "f i; - • bene

irbo were josl coming Into their
own in iM.iiti.s end in tin- ;

ad '«' ackno* ledgi
Ifr v i lender, end it maj .1- well be enid ben

■ ii" man In ]M»iiti«» ever bed a more loyal,

admiring throng of young men aa fol«

lowers than had Ed Wolcott 11. • wai their choice al all

bampion on everj on- win

• linn.- of n ever there

.1 man under middle age who waa strivii abliah

himself in the world, ther waa almost tnre to timl ■

man. And thej were "f the kin<l that stayed with

and supported and made aacriflcea for and on behalf <>f a

were Dombera ««f them sitting in the Denver

-. i. in there were si ill more a bo ba 1

••. t in- convent ion as mere sj

The principal controveray in the convention waa In con'

• n with the Arapah lelegation. At that time Denver

•he connty seat and it had by far the
tion in • - otrol <>f this conntj bad been

In the primaries, ami some <»f the < "i
taken t" tin- < Sonnty convention

principal content* in the Conntg convention had
from the fih wards >>f I •••n

_- charged in both. Prom the former the

•••■i and from the latter the anl l«

Ua bodj I be < tonntj convent i<>n a aa

Mr Wolcott :m<l a delegation to I
• 11.
■ ailed npon to conaider t In*
• ..r 1 he regoli 1 • >i Wolcott
•! claimants The
if th< ^ iiniiniiis. and 1 be
1 1 dent ials a hicfa \\ aa
■

ommendntion ;<- t<»
.• ..f tin- dele
i.h the committei
d that they <ii<i not fairly repreaent the

II K W

I N nil. BUO \i»i.i: PIELD

■ 1 recomi

port wee -

Mr \\ 0 . \\ ..:. .:

M r.

• i the eei

In ins ipeech, Mr i

laring that it bad

.11 w it li B

.1.1 under anfarorable •
\\ . i ..:.!. • project ouj to the p

f.-«-l the Lntenee Interest la tl it hii beu

ire hi

nihl

new end lincerity. < to the printed pege 11 Beemi

ri^'lr In primary eiectioi

Oonrieh at the do Republican!* [t wee,

frit ! that tli«-\ ha. I Imi-ii w it nww.s "f ...

<»t In : ur w ith b

w en he eroei . Mr w

the - x- ' I wil

where I en an-i u hm- I In-i
t to hold

Inti; ...
nnv
Of f

: :t\ of their pr

i:i»\\ ai:i» < >i.ivi:i; w i >LC< »tt

These prill re bald, and m> man T ti inks tlii'in leal '!•••

■ l... in the Plfth Ward, from vrhich the fi

admitted t<> t ii«- oountj .•.•nwmuin. more
• in three boon than during the irhole di

: ft |

ti.-.i i.\ the convention. The
« ere present* d t" t I * ■ - oon*
g that in. fraud «.i» committed; that thi

■ .■ . nity of the tab as, but

that ii" balloti -i opon them. T

v -t that !,. teller man and that

that i ii upon the table. The " dele

• ler, did n't refer t" thii
Dtioo adi lected th.

from tin- Fifth Ward. Thej the

i - \\ .mi. Bad \\<- admitted

then would have bad from eleven t<> fonrteeo

- ia< In- "" has spoken <>f the fa«t that

repn ted in 'hi.- delegation. In < Hlpin

■ - 1 | it week th< some

the town <'f Nevada, bj an overwhelming

cnventiou for Henry

and when thai convention met they win- ohoked "if

•

in the eounrj "f Summit there irae also a time-li

different precincts. In thai

to appoinl a committee

pnrpoae and to adopl the reporl <>f that committee.

found l!.. itTOted ami that t * •

ipportnnitj to expn they

:i ii|H,ii thl i'l tln-\ lifted up t!,

; l.-tclv the iv|...il ,,f tin-

■ four onl t>l tin- precincts

• for the
. • • • tin

in the irapahoe
in majority. Mr. Teller
: a majority, ami \it be

■ .1 tu the State

,,-..,. a Con oonvi

■I'M. or, in fnirm

I n u

1 S THE BROADEN PIE! D
admit 1

tlw i.

i iranl to inform tl

on t! .

pnbllcani "f this 8

inn. h for «in- f «*• • 1 i i .

i thai in

' men at

■

long and loud app
otion, do pro

cliritiea, immediately pi

from Ai
done b 91

I
m, ■ > 1 1 :
!i :

Although

EDWARD OLn BB WOLOOTT

It will !■•• «.«•»• n |i\ a letter herein quoted that Mr.

•a w.i-. ..f the opinion that, if the rota on the I
could here come at once, Ifr. Benrj Wolcott would
--fui. n«- was n"t alone In that be-
lief. . unfortunately was engaged
for an entertainment thai evening, and the convention ad-
jonrned until the oext morning. Thii allowed time for
manv -if the anti-Wolcott d to combii rneai

unpbell of Leadville, and to make bargains In hit

half. One of theae bargains vu frith the delegation of

men froi Frei >m County, who were pcomiaed that

if elected Mr. Campbell wonld appoint ■ Premont County

man aa warden of the penitentiary. Five candidatei bad

placet "ii the Aral ballot of tin* morning, Mr. Wolcott having

out of 811, and Mr. Campbell L49, the latter thus

jacking nven of a major This deficiency was pro

for in the second ballot bj the ahifting of the Fremont < kranty

: from one of the minor candidatei bo Campbell

es also hastened to i»<- a it h the i in-

n.-r. inn it was the Fremont County delegation which gave

him the nomination.

lose of the convention Ed Wolcott was

(led an unexpected opportunity to show his metal

efore he iia<i been willing if do! anxious to

pi the nomination for < 'oii^ivsv, ami with his own con-
ili-il .1- a prospective candidate for < !on«

greai)i<>nai honors Dp to this time he ha<i nut fixed bis
gaxe on i - Knowing of his aspiration to represent

injfton, the Windmills sought to tempt
him With i" of the honor at this lime. Recognising

difficult] • State wit hont the aid of ' he

the Domlnal i ampbell t bey

C ngreaaionaJ oomi-

10 would D6 hih for th<- I !!■ antlj and

Indignant ly refused.

Mr. Hamiii and Mr. Wolcott Dominated as Chairman of

... Mr. < II aflee p. bo had been prominent

in u on of the antl Wolcott forces, and then h-ft

■ >uld Mr.

• ■ be a weak candidate. I fe

i\ Till BRO U>EB I nil'

bad Utile acq through

in law ..f the I ' " H

• •«1 u n h bu\ In
opposing cam i • - l '• < .

dent in '

great imeltisg industry Be wai r gi

hi of tplendld
i U ul. I n- >t

•..I it u.is s.niii fviiiciii thai do thing leei than a
• ui-i prevent Mr. < ampbeir« def<

the aarlj daji of the campaign thai the follow*
lag lei ter a ai a rll

Mi i

i have n't i ritten home
op with ill" qninsj, I hm been j demoralised bj i

JOU

kei beaten, but em un<l<
11 li pmdeni f«>r d
itamp the State, bal thall decline W

i n't anything i.. li.-. -}«eech,
whirlwind, i:
that day, Qearj woald have tx.ru muuiiiattti. if tin-

minated bj
w . stand £

i .
followed

-'«1 in th-

thr.-.- thoosand onl • I • _* -

■
the >• iriag the thir

TVUcr term, and Thomas M I'

EDWABD OLIVEB W( >i .« :OTT
lowing B< Iford was again returned i<» Congi

I. ut !■■

a 1 1 spaper i * ► l < l during

■ • of the frequent experience of Colo-
• - in being i<»1<1 bj Eustern capitalists thai the
oold go into the enterprises preaented to them if
j Wolcott'a endoraemenl could be procured Then
m that his election would have given the B
anding In buaineae and \\<>ul<l ha\ «* Btimn*

commercial development Thii In turn would
servmtive sentiment, and would
have retarded the torrent <»f radicaliam irhich swept

a fen years later. And although they helped to
inflict inch an injurj upon ih<- commonwealth, the dele
from Fremonl County <li<l not obtain the wardenahip <>f
.ill.

:• made an attempt to justify hia
ipbell| I'm during the next campaign, in isM,

■ ion "ii the subject of part} loyalty

as foil

Ice Individuals, become sometime! earelesi of the

:.<i if for the . - sre

sometimes happens that primary

I in the in teres 1 of some unworthy man irho

rment to glase and ©over an unsavory
a win. in the soquisitioD <-f irealtfa irhich he

■ -pf in- brow, lias made ambitious, and

i of brains and

M tin- w ay the minority

• I w hen ire are told tiiat the

< • 1 1 r medicine "

ir unfit in- ii for > of the

gentlemen, maj 'I" for

irhich I belong. I 1<iv»- it fur Its splendid
i in tin- past. I lo the principles upon which it

n.ii rock, i learned to

bidden in the attis

sight to folio* their

slave holding oountn to the

l\ THE BRO \l'i.i: FIELD 171

with the «ri

within il

'i>- un tit men itemaelvea

■

- OWB thinking
in him, ifl unrit •

L79 i:hw aki» OLIVER VTOLCOTT

LOOKING R) ill}

With the beginning of the campaign in 1SM ii \\a* M-t-n

Dti was i to withdraw fr«»m the Hill

b, and lu* did n«'t figure to anj greet extent In this

Hi Blaine was the Republican candidate
dent thie year, and he had the heartg rapport of both
of the w olcott d <•! the prei lous camp

oot been forgotten, however, and while thej <ii<i Dot

permit t: ad out of the party becan*

action "ii that occasion, thej elected to pursue a modest

Ded from anj great activity. Bd deliv-

■ Dumber >ut he made do effort to influence

prim.! i State.

in addition i«» iii«- oational aspect of the campaign the

.i very Important one. Benatori

Teller and Hill continued at swords1 points, and the conflict

ause the Legislature a hich should
: i- ii ill or elect I wr, must be chosen at

action in November. Mr. Teller was still In the I
1 Art bur had tailed i«> obtain the I '
al nomination it was known that <»n the coming 1th
<.f Ifarch the Colorado □ would relinquish bis |

folio. Be had announced over and again ins determination
i" refrain froi entering the pub! . and had

be would n«»i permit the nse of his name

Mr Bill in the Senate. But in the
ed upon i«> change this decision and was
• the man who for the past sii
mist
In i lien Enton of Weld t taunt] a as I be

. I)li< .in ■ . ■ i ernor, and he was •

easily.

■ i i \\ ol< "ii and Mr.
'I'.-il.-r .!■ 1. 1 1 • — <•< l a iiH'Hing ingi-iiiiT in Denver.

1 p as i be appear-

two leaders of the opposing factions on the

The joint meeting was brought about after

ii iat ion, neither side b ; [all] anx-

■ had been made both Mr.

in THE IIHOADER FIELD

Trllrr an. I Mr W

Oaaflli In t
oo Mr W

• I ■ .ss,-,| HI

• from tin' / <■
N
■ fair example i»f tl

mlng tli.- i:

nl viriniiv turned mit to «l" honor !•• the •

i (
•i fhr<>\\

nnlte In ; I hem tin- tru.

R 1'iiri'

■ imii that

the •

• .1 round*

and

II and for

intr • permittii .•

.11. he ]•'■

gbl them boa i
the H

who bMUfd hit:

. . • ,
almOBl niperflt* u 11

! no niatti
. the enthoaiaai noaMOt, i

.is*^s his rt. though

seems an •

i:i l.i'W \i:i» « »u\ 1:1: w i >].<< rTT

i of which was made with telling

• airing the plsudita of hii

from the force and eloquence of the two speakers,

to be it- arm.! from the fact that all personal

•i lost in tin- oo on of the Interests which

question of which partj should

in the coming election,

and the Si • of the bitterness which is said to

the leaden <>f the parrj here, and the joining

the day, ahowi a spirit of

mmodatioa to Aral principles, which should teach those

who heard the ipeakers thai whatever personal pi thej

in local polities, they ahonld !»•: M first, last, and all

the t i in*-.*

also a weeklj publication, spoke
more exclusively of Mr. Wolcd Vb speech, saying:

' in vr man in public life erei I more graceful

Hunt than that which was paid to the Son. Edward 0.

ing man in politlCI

!i nf performance meet the grace of

• i Be l'-ft ail the ' hii ad

robber] of antiques from the political

• t ..f the past. His a< hi aight and • Iran

■ i. 1 1 bad I bonesty throughout

it lafl all the old ways of custom and took the narrow path of
h touched what belonged to the national cam]

ell. it peached the source of all that belongi to

political situation In the State, and

w hat it ed. It wai the splendid

genu! i an who baa the elements of more itrength

-r.-n fur a long time In

What Mr. vV< B evening ia worth re

h is th<- essence of the newer thought In our public

that (be in politici bi n'Jfh,

Pter all. In- auch i serioui mistake to be
. a reminiscent
; j to materialise a mon<

deal 1 ith a pOOf id- al which

will i id the practical, and then-fore will alwaya

• flHhnesa, idealism, and vacuiti in such

in Till: BROADER FIELD

thought which

ht the main hall «.f mir |*.lit

1 In- will. I

quent, <|ui.i*. an. I earnest, h<
thought which mpreaeed it--

Id. II'- ' •

il is thai he nhoald remember it" \<r<<*<

FBI CAMPAIGN "t 1 v -

In i RSfi M r Wolcotl I d candidate f

-.Ml. Ill
« '■.li\.-liti<»!l t | . ;il|\ aillP-llIi

an. I aanumed the i
relinquish until el

later In I b io in gei

langu rred to hie lN.it ..f 1882, bat only to ji

No longer * ne M r. Wi
Mr inn Indeed, with lii^ • I from tl I -

1 had r.-tnrn.-.l with

I. ttie more i <>f him in ■ :

3M
pnbll • over tl - on, he an

rting the pat
long

B
the Inteu

II. .
the Domii
Bechoj :
EL Meyer, of < County,

i;i»\\ ai;i» OLTVEB WOLCOTT

and • • ation ni i rnoc

.. - andidate for re elect ion ; <>\.i 1 1
fterward ■ Repn
• -s. aini I Moynahan, of Park

bad been ■ popalai B
le Wolcotl wss able to Dame bis candidate In
rention, he vraa not ao successful befoi »ple.

mpbellj sras little known, and, ai wai
! .\ I lie candidate of fom yean prei loi
■a i'h hai Republican ti<k«-i

former campaj ntial candidate t«>

•i him, ;ui<l bif < >n tin*

r hand, the l >emo< i fortunate in their

\i\a Adams, of Pueblo, ■ pioneer, young, popu<
aded i heir i icket, and
be, lik( * ted w ith little difficulty.

• I is year was fought by the ( Jolorado

•a national lines. In bit speeches, Mr \\'i»l-

-lv to the popular enthuaiaam for Blaine,

bad been defeated bi < 'leveland for

dency. He I * « - 1 « 1 the Cleveland administration ap

ii and specially denounced Its carpet-bag mel

in the mat deraJ appointment! In Colorado methods

e found to I"- quite In conflict srith thi I

• Mr Cleveland himself. He defended Mr.

and claimed for the entire

ibliran i nuperior el democrat le can

■ ', \\ i;..-.|. a j. «.|.nlar Congregational

ive much attention ; and

, fop ( '..lILTfSS,

v! •• le him the of much sarcasm,

,i.i been true thai " the
of dispul ■ be scab of the « Jhun

II. ; : if not in elect ing Mej er.

til \| r \n olcof t '" i be ' hreshold
• . and w e im.i him now
If •• in dead earnest"

I w < > Senate >rial Elections

■

PWO SI EIATORIAL I I ! < 1 1«

A ill i: Mi \\
III f..r i! i
ii-.n from ■ promise

the Dnlti 8 B i •■■■••

ral with

■ I with ]

f t he H o

do politii

H
lie had l*-«-n In i*-! • • - Mr Wo
- • ■ . 1 1 : far t iw r I
I : : i • •
(loath a

il|w>n !

1878

"f 1m. til -if

in pi

in Jnnonry, lJs*C», th.

8
tli.l n.'i | .
i nv ti ith 8 1 Mil.

180 i.i.w aim ► <»l.l\ EB WOLCOTT

•I until 1886, two yean after Ifir RTolootf had
idrawn from the Hill ranka and had refuted I

eman in hia antagonism to Senator Teller,
\| r w olcott appn i • l i 1 1 lz his on d

I the campaign of that

Bought H i in oof and Informed him of oil ambition

e a member of the Sonne. By thia time Benator

r had had abnndai I odj the chare

of th( an, Be 1 • had diacerned In

him re qualities of leadership and thai tranecendenf

ability which made it poaaible In li - for Hr. \v«'i-

• nmiainl I <»n, n<»i ..f th«- masM-s muIv. but

economic thought both in America and

an wai not then averse bo ■

with thii young man of bo mnch force and of

Sis pracl Bed eye had nol failed to

that when Bd Wolcott was with Mr. Hill, lir, Hill

won and that when Ed Wolcott'a Influence and guiding

prere a Ithdran n, Mr. Hill loot

Wii! - Teller once more aafelj occupying hie

Senate, and with Mr. Hill in private life, there

• • an} sharp conflict between them; but if li

U improbable that the Benator felt i «• friendly

• becauae of the latter'a refusal In ism to

ii for the Benatorahip. Be thii as if may, lir.

\\ ..1 a cordis ; • ef Ing a hen he called upon

He did not, however, hnd any encouragement

in his amliit iun tn ivjirrsrnt tin* Stall- in tin- lower lloufie

I J. Syini'H was I In- rep-

i\. and, while he and
Mr Teller wi icularlj allied in politics, they

red onlj one term,

able, and a itfa man] other

i pller i houghf him enf it led to I

1 Mr n\ olcott, and then -ir_r

■ him that be should be a candidate '<• racceed Ben*

e a "uh I expire in i K89.
• he Inten leu . he said :

■ ill. I nut try f..r the Souse Sj iii.'s ifl .-ii-

TWO BEN \ i"i:i u. KLK<TH 181

efulneai ai

t<» Vol.

would

it could

U"rk from f1

i».-il all .

nation for • Bonn

ill that \shri,

tion . ame "ii there wai bat rerj il

ho wax

• I

r it it» lii" u-ua! '

manner

trol

followed

■ >n in the r and ii> '

ernor in IS>
of the G

politictJ friendi generally, with the partv worker* thr
out the State.
I

Repoblfc

I Will <»f thr nfl

I •

mall -l tttnem for

s>..r. I'.

most

fi>r the B ^ hich ■

really Wai

L82 BDWABD OLD EB SVOLOOTT

and » . . 1 1 1 1 1 \ conventiona, on tli«* huntings and at the polling

■ --'air com • — , the Aral in

the then approaching National

Republican Convention, and the second in September to

Dominate State ofllcera. .\i the ftraf Benrj Wolcotl waa

en chairman '»f the delegation, and the f:i<i «.f bia can*

didacj 1<-<1 t«> a verbal encounter between Bd Wolcotl and

Judge Bel ford, which, whil< >tten bj both,

lerable feeling at the t ime.

The M;i\ convention ras held in Pueblo, and it waa then

t h:iT Mi-. Wolcotl referred to thai cit] ai Ma pleasant little

villa, otended at a joke, and waa

m his enemlea die

reflection on thi letropolis and

it nit ii" small figure in the campaign. The meeting waa

full of incidents. In Mr. Wolcott'a principal speech, he

made brief reference i" his revolt of 1882, saj

• I am glad thai kind friends and time have reared the
ite <>f limitation againal the men who have unwittingly
their i .;ii i \ allegiance, for there are none without
faults. We have all «l< «ih- It, and dot* I suggest thai we are
ad to work together for tin- intereal <>f the party."
aa later in the daj thai the conflict with Judge Bel
ford ar — Mr Wolcotl introduced a resolution providing
ppointment by the chair of a committor i« ku

onal Oonvention Mr.

i to amend bj providing for the selection «>f

the ■ the various county delegations In I

i, Kuppoi amendment, he made a remark which

Mr • bat he had packed the

i . d brought mui a si inging reaponae

fron v • temporary oewapaper account

i j.i_\ •• i here a aa fli • eye." The

ounl quo tea him i m r. Belford a i'li a

i eu ty, and then aaj lug:

of mine might ba
i < ivention; it waa with

TWO OBI \i. l i i:< i !•

■

h in th.- ii.

!. t<>r I would !»••» .nt. -ii .;

Relford denied thai he bad IVol

packing the convention, but he adi

■ •
motion prevailed

pirll at the fall •

• •f the ah

•nan\ ..f them the
grown a i.it older, who had followed him in 18C

I ^uj'jM.rt. an. I

onlj willing t<» folio* \ would lead, bn( di

the u.i\ eren « I

I !

take anv iti.li-

- f..r Hi.- Sfatr "Hi.

copj thai position of Impartial!!

ulti
pprovaJ ii|».n Job \ I

Dei inker, 1 1

Dominated and
ilao friend

\i •• \

of the then Color
menti -
and, second, b

lied upon

I -1 :

ad (or tl

d the I'urpoeee

i:i»\\ ai;i> « 'i i\ EB w I >LOOTT

ami •■• Bi that I QtTC not I straw. \<>

man ran <in\.- me <»ut of the Republican party. I wan born In

It 1 ••! 1 Bball (lit- in it.

I u . . iitmn that if any aspirations

that I may haw or that any ft mine haw for im1,

instant in th.- way >'f i hi- harmony ami the

•h ami th.- progW «»f the K«-|.uMi<au party in «,ur U-

Btati ere ii not a man Ihrii ij to lacrifloa

all ii|M.n tin- altar "f I as am I. The B6D1lblieUII

tnlted, nor uniy in Colorado, i»u t all orar the oountry;

ami <la\ tin- im-ii in tin- WO\ •! in tin- mills

hi- maim', rfc ami OonnOOtlont ami

II deolare that kmerloan i

should be protected, and tin- men end the lorn of the men who
thin Onion will eee t<» it thai bj reaaon «>f
u. are not again subjected t<> four jean mora
of the nnmiliat mooratie role.

Sir \\.....m was the chief factor in the content. Be

rring and ancceoefuJ campaign. Not onlj waa the

ticket elected, hut the Legialatnre was overwhelmingly

Mi. an. «;:: of tin- 7." memben being of thai political

peranaaion. A majority <>f the Etepnbllcan cancna were

pledged in advance to Mr Wolcott in ■ rote of abonl

i, the Harrison PreaidentiaJ Blecton bad a majority

«.f more than 18,000.

i n [on

i • \le\ ■ i nenatorial cancm was bald on the night

• i . ilatnre conld begin to

• l<> li - Jnntified by the ergu

nmnt that until tin- senatorial i|u»'sti<m was si-mIimI the
lature would transact no ntln-r l.usiiii'ss. ( »f a numher

• \ loualj men I ioned for the Ben

oor permitted thei

in tiiat connection to the end of the content,

I- us they fulls realiaed

re nil. M r. \n olcott a aa Dominated

'■> Mr. Bo wen 'a 15 and

Mr . cancna which met at eight o'clock

T\\< > SEN \ I- »i:i \i i in i [<

• [uon B ■
d Mr. Wo 1 cot t In i
eolog

if DOl I

' with thOM of

Dortl

tfon or mountain eh
■

01
- i mentioned for thin bign office, there
wHi equipped Of m permanently quai

|. ller on I non Dominate n I

D u ill In- .1 trio

i»f tin- young men of the Republii dm enthu*

ntnl leal ;i'l.|.-<l "•■ nun-h ti> tin* -in-- ■•••«•« <>f mir i >n nil

il, and I |
•hv with nil tin- Bfl
[••'••I i\> him ;i-

intellect, and ■ for bim i grand

iii«.ii the floor «>f the Ben

i the Domination continued until lata

in the night, but not too late for Mr, Wolcotl to pen
follow

1880.
My D

tin«t line

my iir««t :
moth

shnll n.v.r hr v».|l

•! if rati

d rarj araob aj

Tho election did n«.t take ] of tho

1 l»w \i:i» <»i.i\ i;i; WOLOOTT

ite and House

w I the lull Re-

Si ate nineteen and in th< B

B snate and

the House, was caai for Hon. Charles B r omaa.

there was no speech-making, and when, in

ce with the i<-^ai reqn the balloting waa

ii ut twelve o'clock i hat i»«"i

In tin- Senate both Mr. Wolcott and Mr.
were formallj nomii Senator I

dent pro Senate, who had named l£r.

tned i hie sen ice in hla
ii.

in Domination ■

Mi- Inn also tin- plcasaul 'lui\ "f

ator i.. ill in the oonnetli of

• on the Hli Of Mar- Ii. I ^ '.

we have met to perform that
of the Chamber we havi d our

• liiv name for it" !ins body

wih the unalterable . i

ort with the «

of the State, bat to those of us
,i\ an. I who have watched 1 1 » « - •

an< <• an. I charm. I

he name of Hoi I da ard « »■ ^ ol

- the nominee for the high offl< e of

Mr w d. Be re

n in ilia I community whoae

t the 1 • Kiiam ..f learning. « Soming •

eroih uniil

in it the topmost round

!; qnalitiei and splendid

name

■t the brilliancy >>f hii genius

end ■■:•■•• w hen the

■: \\a- a I OnOS

upon the Republit B id in

[one, and logl'

I W OP I OKI \l. Ill' I |< Is;

that

; ' • -

ronnal n in joint amemblj

of the two Fl "ii the folio*

■ I r1,,- I [ouw

red \lr w ol« utt the choi f M • -

•i the following ltd <»f \i.,t. i
tli Mr v

'••nl iiniisM.il brill
1 1
nd .1 fen

\\ .1 1 Li «1 i|«.\\ I

H
mi ..f th,. i!

■ '

■

the • -i).

The journals >>f I i i

the i a 8

188 ! I » w a l: l » OUVEB WOLOOTT

P • ■ - • i arpenter made formal
election «»f Hi \n olcott
a a committee im eppoioted i«» wait upon the
and officially inform him of the penult <>f the elec*

■ bran, «>f

and Represents! ive* B err a, of Arapt

! '• rtholomew, «»f Summit Count] Vet} soon after ita

atment the committee returned, Mi Wolcott,

• red with prolonged and clamorona applause.

After « 1 1 1 i * - 1 bad been restored, Mr Wolcott made ■ brief

addn tion <«f the honor conferred npon him. In

which be -

Sfcd i. ii inr coold 1"

• '-f thanking yon for bestowing npon dm the

oor in the gift of this Commonwealth, and if mj

and i ipeek with halting tongue, believe me, it if

- 'nil Mini because your confidence tooch<
for n ords. For, j bo < olorado I

\'\ bV I my 1 1 1 : i u 1 1 i ban I

paMM<i hi : m much in \ borne

• ii bOIH within hrr limits. I Hiring :ill tin

the daj dreami which till a young auuva brain, none

often reeni d ;i- one

■ da) perhape I might l><- called npon t<> ahaie in rep

- ate in the eonncila «>f the Nation. "> on

that which I h:i<l f raced

true ;iini real ai la m\ gratitude. And

ull for i - my

• nhould I'

ii i iih«. i- ;imi cruel bitter,

• wnatorial

m and assault
on . ■ ben It Ii all orer, we maj ;iii t :» u «•
pleasun In ren i

• ;i uh bnt the mnd we throw."
And against me bare in

TWO >i N I POR1 \i. l.ii
with

■! • •
■

Aflmnblj, an. I thai 1 a*

i
H

tiled u|H.-

'<il login

i
la ea*<*ntinl for

I
1 kno

•turn who

- who
froi)

y mi\ins. 1
then tli.it Iriw.v:, h nhall l*o

EDWABD OLIVEB JVOl .» , i it

of your tetioo ;" daj . i ihall reed their

fade, ami shall mall with
i shall iiv«-, iiu-ir friendship, tln-ir

•

.f the newspaper chronicler* «»f the time men

v. to hii brother, and

of them, referring to I Eei ry, - d tha(

• ■\\ l.-vs conspicuous than the Benator-eli

lie -.ti midwaj from the entranoe i<> tin- floor of the Bouse,

: his brother's election and th«-
llnmined with the great joj be
b
I i . ii \ touch "f nature in th<-
in the pride <>f l ance <«f the highest

fi <>f the Commonwealth, pointed!) and gracefully
and the other exhibiting the
it felt.

upon tin n, 1 he Hm I -/ Mountain

• I :

it « when Mr. Wolcotl commenced talking,

I sen ral times,

: par

1 1. able 1 1 in i\\ w olcott,

M w ulcol i KtepiMxl
(] and for the next ten or
nils w iih membera
I Ii who crowded •

■«. him at the

eral rejoicing.

ratulation followed,

M\ none i arried faction or touched a

Ion log from i'"

TWO POK1 \i. ill '

-
I thiol

inj from the yoi

ban | ■! i '

■

fatal

ud |
I

Th«» j- ■ :

i:i>\\ .\i:i> <>i.i\ EB WOLCOTT

dud of the attain «>f your country,
ami 1 ik.«- men.

• • tnben ol the * Huh f<>r me, ud
• their Mend end yo

Sown 1 1 . w

Mr. \\ i \ oraldv receh «-«l DJ i be prCM

• Dlorado, I'N maiiv of tin- Democratic papen at wall ai

of the Republican journal* The Rocky Mountain

the leading Dei | . ; • r of the State, devoted

1 1 ii 1 1 1 editorial to Ifr. Wolcott on the daj after h i

Domination bj the Republican cancan, in part:

ould not be ohoaan, the choice of

Mr eminently aatiafactorj ti> the 2fe%o$, and will be

i«» the people of tin- Btate. Hit election In fad is the anal

immution of the overwhelming irhich irai won by

party ai the polli In November Lact, irhich ric

and carried to to lucceatful and

brilliiint a concluaion.

a non-partiaan ttandpoint, the people of Ooloradc are

gratulated upon Ifr. Wolcotfi choice. He Ii youngs

able, ninl rliMjiirnt. lit- is |. iiius, culture, and I

omprehenaive mind. n«' baa daab and bril-

oirj for leaderahip. Aa ■ lawyer be

the ant; ea an orator in- i>- without i peer In

her the elegance of bii composition, the

• or the brilliant rounding of

;i man he baa ;i handsome presence and hearty,

true m ateel to bia friendi and

follon •

- s'orthi

i, in the counaela of the high
ion, and to i bi< h be will bi
fortunate romb if iiit«-n«'ci and manhood, which, when

: ri|H mil t.v ;i^.-, \h ricMined to
' the foren oo and "f

iblican i • ; t it \ honora itwclf by Ifr. RTolcotfi
mi.

N\ i i EiALLY, the free
t i o 1 1 , u.is ^ i \ , ■ 1 1 i . ,

. .iimI we ihall
i.u-\ in. in While forging bii eraj rapidly »■> the Cronl
Washington, he also round much t.» do m

i !•• . onld doI
tool "f the i».ti'\ n

In iddil

• I
Polil allj and o I anl-

dron during Mr u tern In I

-
B
I
B
r in the world el largi
1

red from

required ;
through the turbuli

in the |

B nil of tii-

e of any other political

>n "f tin* countrj \m will appear in the proper

Ither Bo

■

Colorado Senator. But, al«*rt and courageous though

• lit «>f bringing ranch condemnation upon

hi* head fr.Mn the opponent pnda, hii

• 'v prononnced to n I the den

.•lit at home Silver took

almost coiu]»!' • them, and the man

w ' o to follow tin- vagal ;n«li-

mter waa Instantly and viol
and an h
In expreaaion, out
the advocacy of any can* rased, a itndy

of ii :- at E 1 1 WmI.-oi t b1 ill s a* i con

Ifob rnle had do charmi tor him; anarchy was
m lii • believed in law. He waa ever orderly,
.in supported established condition! more steadfastly
•i\ than he While under provocation he
conld be Independent, i «:t r t \ ties were binding opon him to
an Dnusual degree, and, as will be teen In dne course, rather
ike hia party, rather than folios what h<- bel

ble and ineffectual planning! of those who
left the p lilver, he remained ■ Republican, and

r.-iir.Mi himself froni the Senate
final result waa not, however, precipitated nntU
In that body for twelve years, nor until
1 happened, and In Justice it should
• Ion waa responsible for the
uhir '' W '. It also **as of mat*

md election. That ele

in tho ini'Nt "f the agitation ancceedin

clauae i erman .'i«-t authorizing tho

DOfl ouncoi of aili er per mont b, and ;it

;i had hope of restora*

ability aa a nat lonal advo*

aniversally recognised that, so l « > 1 1 lt aa

bility of prevailing npon the Republican party

more f.i\<.rai»l<- stand than had been assumed, hit

rw< ori \i. i.i.i i

folio* • r the ■-• ■•

Hiicli possibilities Bui the

uncertain fatal

In 01

■

In ilir nut nui
Ian metal a \ivi\u

mou< In the irorld U i

w bether <l .
- ■

lv oat "f joini 'hi--
• i- 1 • I , indeed. i was

Ay «li<l i
B
8

mining, the j'.irai:.

indui ■ !«»r:iil<». ! imbined result "f I

<»f t! . if India a nt i

twelve Denver banks failed Id time in '

ploveea of industrial ini re thrown onl

men who had counted their wealth

• I u in, the unempl

cinitj «»f '
imp in th(
men out of v->>rl were tupported fi

I n.

immunity

wl in polil

nmrnt, nml

usjnilitj.

The Populist ;. Litiom

BDWABD OLIVEB WOLOOTT

innii.-.li.i' ding this si t uai i« m, and with thai party

■ the most fan tast i« al ideSJ "f i!"\ minimi that lliis

country baa kOOWD. With it also < ainc the motliest group

• liar ha.l h.-.-n lift«i| in:.' DOWSf in any place

the days of ill.- French Revolution. Not bo compactly or
ganlsed as the anarchists who overthrew tin- French monarchy,
nor, "f course, so regardless <>f human lif»- and human r i lt 1 1 1 - .
thej were aln termined npon rorcing tin- acceptance

of their theorh arnment Many ..f them were elected

to State and county offices in various "f tin- Western States,

ami « 1 1 1 i t • - a sprinkling found s.-ats in the national 00H

:i-' — I'm- |M-r«ciita.L,«' at Washington never araa largi
that the greatest harm done bj them there was the Increase
«'f printing bills and the overtaxation "f the patience of
their innocent colleagues, who were compelled to listen to
their speeches in tin* Halls uf Ci»n<rrt'ss.

Colorado was among th< 8 rhich sent Popnlial mem

ben to Congress; but truth demands the statement that, in
all re i olorado't Popullsl Congressmen were worthy

much d ervative than most "f their compeers

<.f other States, and in ever] waj h<»m-st and devoted '<•
- welfare. Indeed, Colorado was Populistic onlj
on account <>f silver. The Colorado people always arere
. green backi am never gained any foot-
hold in t1 • 8 But with the abutting down "f the silver
mines people sas departing their employment, their fortunes,
their bread and butter. Thej were desperate, and they were
willing t.. turn '" Populism because, if for no other reason, it
the old parties, neither of which prom ised anj relief
erned :i" '" whether an] si ould be given.
With Benjam Barriaon :i^ the Republican standard*
eland leading the 1 democrat i<- hosts,

m 1892, Milrer ••<! whichever "f ti hi parties won,

- * — i « i promised fn - omlsed s hundred other

a illing to take anj hook ' hat <;i i
t, and it swallowed Populism arith James B. Weaver
D 1 1 w site
Mr Wolcott nil. Hi enough to see that Popu

national success, and he araa too true to his
osrn manh I Bee it for mere temporary personal

TW( • rOBl \i. I I I < i u

lo al d< niand 1 1 •
■
greu .hi. i the more nnmero
terniined

duct of Populism ii'- wai the lJ
r In < 'olor

for i wo \,-.u v i ■ ted ' hat

n. il chair COtl the 8 I mil-

lion dollari in money, u> wn nothing

ri-.siiliin^ from his univa>nnal»l»« ' Mir r 1 • 1 1 ■

forth l.\ h

• I e vYaite and I be Waite i •

: 890, in i hich t1,.
ferent Factioni of the Republican party irere the print

ere for u
the •' ' lang " and the ■ in .1

lj u .irfar.- « it h no boi f content loi

and ■ ■• > ofli. .•«.. < 'oiiii. •.;.■■ I u ith • \u*hv »rai

effort on 'tain cor]

their own Interests. This political ■
ed Into th< SI • i suit ing in two

- in the lower Hon-.-, .i iltnntlon which threat

feller in hia candidi ' ion.

M r rVolcott k.-j>f aloof from 1 1 .

told do, but he devoted I mai I
mlg] • d to keeping Republican lam in tl

regardless of factional dinYnm • -s. In this I,.

fnl • 98 G

1 • , • t at its ■

271 h, Mr \\ ol< ot ' made bit ' Bring

deUrered
rado Springs, and the tud

Many of thorn I »H on got]

. but they ioon a
s, and it nt that they mesj

• •:% Tl i addresi i
to nat lone Deluding

he made reply to oei r\ pon hlnn

i:i»\\ aim* OLIVER WOLOOTT

>rado never has bean perj considerate of the feel*

of public men, and Mr. VFolcotl Cell keenly the falsity

i <»f attacks made on aim at thia time from cer-

B< referred to such onfair criticism as

a menace to the welfare of the community, but refrained

from specific discussion <«f the things Bald about himself.

arks aaving been Liberally applauded, Mr. Wolcott

continued i

w ii;iii\.r public ehargei axe made should !>«• Investigated if

they Seem MrionS, but in ninety nine <>f ;i hundred i ;iscs ymi

will find that their source discredits them. We all beliefs in

I public ion oa None ol hi bare any use for unfaithful

The fad Is thai s nev d throw dirt i

r, and in this Btate when- population Is Increas

!i:ii Is apparently respectable

are misled by Its utterances. The] ,lu ""' know the bistorj

of the paper <t <»f Its 01 ner.

the Coliseum In Denver Ifr. Wolcott made a
b <>n the night of November •"•. iv'.m. In which, after
discussing national affairs, he said:

Because this municipality Is renal and corrupt and because
the Iocs! corporations In their effort t<> further their own Interests
iggling for the local machinery and seeking to buj their
<pective >>f the public welfare or the public
renues through which or i>\ which ih<- public maj ex]

are choked with faction and disgraced by local

x*et somehow In the end the wsj is

ad if this community is denied the opportunity of

and united exprwudon at thi^ election it i*- nevertheless

true that the people who care not i one oorporatioo

or the other but wh< i ment and clean govern

will dump Into th bese gutter politioians, \\h<».

■ 1 1 tr bi th- present th< tacle, but \\ bo,

and ■ orporate rotes behind them, seem

omethlng. And the people prill and lome waj to

. the atmoapbere <-f the municipal and official Infamj which

r the community l i w • - a dark oloud a menace t" g I

eminent.

eaking at some length <»n the tariff and the
country at large, he added :

TWt I -i \ \ i< »i;i ai. i. i.i.' i i

\\ uli tins national MOOfd it

there a in i«- do Iron

The St ' oo Domii

fntm a welfare of < ire 1b

■

..n the ticket

pelted to bear the burden <>f

:
Which d hit ani::.

One of t ■ which waa circulated at this tin

that hr was not lending li > Kiip-Mirl lli-r,

who i

following January. Indeed, one of the ai

tooned t he junior
li bending orer ail aenior with a lonj held

and read} to plnnge it Into the back <»f the
the Intimation was crnellj unjust

the election of mi
the Leg i» ire friendly to bii colleague, M r. \ I

: 'in ever} Republican Senator and &
to vote for Teller. Be entro
i friend.
amber of the Legislature, who visited all the h
at their homes in advanre of th.- in.-.- m ._• 1
this ,.ni\. Mr WolcOtt All 1 • 1 1 T DOC "f the

attached to the promim with-

held only becanae "f acruple againal the proceeding,
member in tin- end cast ing I irr.

That in 1 89] M r. W olcotl * rahlo

willii re for the higl impliahmenf the follow*

i11Lr telegram declining an invit

dinner in I Denver in l v •

I 1 : ■ ■ , (

1 1 • .ml of Ti •■

I am in receipt "f jma kind ii.
the annual banqnel of thl
B UU7 Ifftk My put)

i:i>\\ \i;n ni.ivn; WOLOOTT

■ M-iui' here at this t i in« - . ami I must forego the
ting w ith

(jring that at this t i 1 1 1« - the beet h I

\h an- identical with the truest ai;<l best inter-

country. The Increased leonred by

the legislation «.f last tummer, In my opinion, greatlf relieved
tin- t «-n ;- i« m which ■ i bj the trouble! of the Argentine

■ I i « - . and the measure for the fn

product, which ii boh on its triumphant course, win make inch
eontractiou of raluei end financial itringenej u ire ire now
witnessing impossible in the future.

tion it working earnestij end unitedly
• -ult.
:.ai sttacki on mjaelf bj enemies, who own i newa-
paper, charging me with eecret hostilit, coinage, in no

nrb me.
But in Hew of the united ti^iu Western Senator! are mat

any trait.-r. .us attack frmn journals which assume to favor free

coinage ii an attempt t" destroj and disintegrate and n<
opbuild and to strengthen.

Your bodj ie non-partisan and seeka onlj the highest and
opment «»f Colorado. We, on our part, believe that
in view ..f the vast interests Involved, party Unei grow din
on a I ism become! unworthy.

OB) ( '. WOI DOR.

ii UUU801 i' I \« I

it was iii L892 that the top began to bom. For soma
time stiver bad occupied much «»f the attention of both

■ s ,,f ('..iiL'r.-- 'I'll.- -...all.-. I Sherman A< i of 1890

for the purchase of 1,500,000 ounce! ol silver per

i had prored extremely onpopular in the buaineea

because of the f«;ir that the

country would be flooded with silver to the exclnaion of

i i era of both "i«i part lee were com-

.1 of the pnrchaaing proi iaion. Already

dent that only bj the moat strenuous i

could the white metal retain the equivocal position it

• i. in the Senate Mr. Woicott and Mr.

• had labored daj and night to improve conditions; but

unmerdaJ world i rong that

• . . ii r.-«l to foresee t lie hear appn>a< I

TWO SENATORIAL ill.' H<

"f i di it the

a had t;i Of bold

fhboring - -;i.s and !

man} pi
forth fr« >n i ■

< Mi Kebruurj 1 1, 1892, three mont
Iflnneepolii Con rent ion,

ewi a Ith !»«.th the I

in - oding of I •

t<» f I • D€ bad .iiiiiMiin. ed

ti.ui

cand I the anDoaocemeot irae ■ eore diaappointi

wan i»pji
Miinat loo, \i r w ol< ot ' repl led

■nee then 10 la public Lift

■

! thi-
ll Infloee

<-lT«>ri iiiii.|<- I

for ■ rer DMoej i

the di morning

r m. -n in \ . a hare understood

i»ut bare, until ooi

that, if he would aee that
Bland law the maximum Dumber of siiv.-r do
eaoald !-• coined each Booth, it «

m • • v i . l • • 1 1 1 thai •• bill • ould it

timr be peaaed. I It dm lined
kiml aeked for, and

i
mlghl bnpt

fnl of tin

■ |
i
a bill for the fn

x nntruo; whollv untrue li i

itatemenl to -sume re>.

nnnor was fljing
■torj e/ai the eae fold bt •

silver B

1 ;n\\ \i;i» OLIVER WOLOOTT

;!v Implied bj their support Ol llarri-

\<i\ with. .ui anj foundation
reputable man can be brand who erill i
[i .... the ibanrd I inch i law*! erer t »**i n>r

• -- i»r b\ tin- I * : • - • : • : 1 1 it, m apparmt that
: ■ | :■[. I will v.n

■ ■II that twenty men could not !»«• found In Oon<
greae van would rote for inch ■ measure. T) •

of all the Western and Southern States would at. an-
il-, n tin- eilTer - e if they irere •eriouelj aaked bo

paB8 ml h a law.

II. pinion ai t<> who the strongest candidate

ion w in be at the Mlnnee mention 1

n... I dden and unexpected withdrawal of

Mr. B - i « - f f thoae opposing li. renominatiofl at

i. ut tin;. thing that can t»- relied

noon ding men «»f the Bepublican party w1'" ,'av'' '"■,"

pronounced In urging Mr. Blaine to stand ai a cand

will unit.- u j .. .ii -..in.- Other man WOTthj the support ..f 1 i«- j -uW-
OUghout tin- land.

: * - 1 1 t Barriaon at Washington among
unbar of tin- most Influential and leading Republican
mntry is hard i" comprehend. Thi
them that li. in.-. .n cannot I
Dominated, and lince th< el leve that

■ table Bepublican can carrj the country, they will feel
■ • , : :■ in ant e of their duty t<» prerent tli

ud ili.- reporter j MipjM.he when th i-

lahle that HnrriHOn will ]•■

irado delegation under inch
to bring ii about '.'

• ; led Mr. WolcOtt ) can

■ lvi-h in voting for I [arriaonl

■ Bepublican parrj ihall
• •■l to free lilver legislation,
tall <i<» Likewiee, lilrer will

irithJfl the next eighteen
my opinion it . • to tall about boto the

■ -.ut without diaaet

■ fair recognition grren to
partial thii year it will never

T\\< I OKI \l III •

will I

dhoold !»•
apph i

•hat mraii. if M -"t» ihodld be H

tin- f.i.t. if be ihoold l- roald !-• b»

t li • - ooanti

pel i: • "rt hiii). Lei

re Dot personal ; th<

V\ ■ !i in iln» (ui'v <>t ml li ;nl\ i
Mr i i i ••«! the nomii

■

:.
H

[mm his dm nfall. II--.
Whei Bilked
think Mould ••!

I would

■'

ft
tag I

for 1.

I n m wi 1 1 : :

204 1:1 »\\ ai:i » < ►LIVER \n « 'it ■< >TT

: or fall ujM.ii in \ record I Colorado ma

in.i if th< u-h to overwhelm

the Republican perl m of mj public totioni or my

gi with men, 1 ihall, when my kern li out,

anme the garb "f I private dtiaen with the otmoat cheerfoli

confident that I in n<»t t.. blame for the reauH either aa ■ men

Teller end Wolcotl ware delegate! to the National Etc
publican Convention, which m 1892 met In Ifinneapolia,
Mr. Teller wai ■ member of the Committee on Beeolotiona,
and in that capacity brought to bear all the skill and tad
at his command In behalf of ■ poeitive declaration In rap
poii of bimetalliam ai a principle Mr. Wolcotl went to the
conrention ai the eepecia] champion of Jamea G. Blaine,
and to him wai awarded the very marked honor of placing

• leader of hii party In nomination for the P
dency, which wai done regardleaa of Mr. Blaine'a previous
declaration againat the nee of hi* nam.'. n<- made a brilliant
i. and hi- oratorj and magnetiam were mnch extolled in

th DTention and throughout the country. But, aa wai

Ifi Teller In hi* championahip of free coinage,

be failed kga n Benjamin Barrieon waa named aa the

blican standard-bearer, and on a platform which con«

tained no, word of promiae to the ailveritee. Both Teller and

m,.,-,. oppoeed on. Thej bad antagoniaed

hi,,, dorii of office becanae of hia ontapoken op]

• d bad come to dialike him personally.

■ if POPU1 i^N'

turned to l Jolorado, folio* ing the
announcement of the defeat of their ailver plank and of the

teal Of the Candidate whom th«-> ha«l i-KjM»anlly oppoRed,

og. When a abort
• , Democral plat ed Oroyer Cleveland in
i aa much In diacredit aa Bepub*
Olereland waa aa onfriendlj to eilver aa
B . ;,,,,! tUrer waa the principal product of Colo-

talked forth Populiam Populiam brought with
d of everybodj who wa

TWO BEN \ roRI \l. li l • l h

fled with II
1 1 promised fn i mined t..

•
doctrine in th< I 9tate. The Populist National

I: \\ . rer, of lows, wu doi

W 'i.|.ir<l, U

and Republicans, jr.-. it and unall,
the thousand.

i:.
public ■ ii bad (>'l"i

i tenrer municipal it] wn

run only in tin- ii _-.ini. and

bad ' I be macbine " thai the «i' Ik

•ifn th»-ir <»un li:in«l.v In U • Hiil'

Dominated a non p
il it.

< 'onventioo me( for the

p!> «' Helm,
and for i - prerious .1 member "f the Supn

neb of the fi rnor.

w him other excellent men were plai -••! on I

■

ll.lW.

n w ere d<
■■ •

\ friei

on of th<

i .if the

tin* sppr

i: National

• the tit
publi< an party would
mon<

BDWABD OLH EB WOLOOTT

irho have not bean ebl< J their point! on

est on haw [lu- said] thought of nee chan
:i which to makf their Influence felt, bu1 before re break
for Bi i" consider the qaeetion folly end t«»
rhether ire do oof endanger the fotore of the Repub-
lican j.;irt.\. There are manj laaoee to the campaign when we
l.K.k at the win.!.- land, in Colorado there ii no qneetion thai
approaches in importance thai <>f the coinage of silver on ■
parity with gold «>n the ratio that prerailed until the infamous

netization a.-t was passed. The endeavor <.f every in;.

lorado mnal be to obtain thai end abore all i ie. But we

..■ii. and must face the titoation This eleo

ti..n : either Sarriaon or i I In the Presidential

So man of sense i"<>ks for any other remit Bih

party qneation. Tin- Booth and the Wrni are itandlng

,.-, mi it. in tin- Baal there are Btatei heretofore in the

ilican or the Democratic oolnmn in which there ooold be no

man committed to the tree coinage of silver bnt would meet

•

nothing nnder Beaven for ne to do bnl to tabor

m within onr parties in the fotore at in the past.

There are in the People*! party men g l and tree long [denti*

Republican party, and who again will be fonnd in
inka. [1 )- for ne to reason with these man and draw
them bad ir doty to work and to ihoi on electio

. devoted to the party thai hai given i
tuntrj to mankind. no shadou of donbt

in in\ mind as to the triumph of the silver ran-.-. The k

irking in the old parties. The Booth and West are going

:• advocates have In-en denounced for a
but the marching forward and tin das ii

r bill will pass Im.iIi lhniso, and no President

will d -i it.

He dosed as follows "We have met as oft before to

other bj the hand and look ea.li OtheT in the
pledp- our lives, Miir h>\es, and our fortunes

I party.*1

vr airman

one of the moat confusing and axcit-
.sii in the fi i e Popolists everyu here

T\\ < . >i \ \ i < »i:i \i. ill' i i

• I in iii. i!

wen bo ''•■■: trot
beard I

niiiii'iir ..ii in..:.

•urn
■ ii .-f tin* old p

I iloradn outni<le •<(

■ planded •

-s..,l mn- 'i :i man Bhoold ]

ich prominence; but, nnpromiaii

tin' '

..nly i kind F ! from be<

'm1 until the end, I

;?if.'.l without t!

Helm and Man]. in.
the I

M.l in n

1
( ) ! |

Bat 1

turning million innuallv.

i;i»\\ \i;i» < »u\ 1:1; w i )U 1 1 1 t

of Jose, 189S, iiit- doors of the
i, ,,!;.,. ned, the effect was immediately feM

throughout the Centennial State in two weeks the price
,.f bar silver fell from elghty-tl rtj two cents per

\i.m\ of the Largest minee In the State abruptly
hlnit down, and moei <»f the nnelten at Denver, LeadvUle,

and Pueblo banked their furnare*. Tli. n. iii quick sua

mim iin- failure! of numerous business bouses and
the closing of the banks in most of tin- cities and towns
ighout i ■ • 8
The panic of 1898 was on, and it was one of the most din-
Br known to the world Distress i enera] x
nnlv the lai.oiin- .ia»rs. luit tin- well-to-do were directlj

i irhohadmonej In bank were unable to with-

,li->iu pal weeks the banking institutions which

vnr\i\«Mi the panic refused to bonor «'\<-ii their own paper.
ah this was political capital for Hr. Walte and bis

following, and when on the 80th of October snee ling, Don

gresK, which had been convened in extraordinary session by

dent « 'leveluml, j.asM-.i iin- I.ill regaling the rital part

of the Sherman law, the Waiteitee had material which was of

o ili. -in.

i irai during b mass convention In Denver In July, L8
called by the Governor to consider general con

• bat Mr R aite made his " bl I to the bridles "

ton iiia.lt* his nam.' known throughout the

[I irai only one of manj sensational atterances

him, but It was <.f I character to to upon

and It i phed everj s bere The l toi

, ral Popn manj of them

lubject tinder

at ting down <.f the Indian mints In

ii i, I,, e was of grave Import

and to the < lovernor It foreboded

. .i w nil It This Is the

i.rtti-r. iniiiiit.i\ Im-h.t. that blood should

Mian that out national

■ -.I.'"

ilature In exta
i different subjei ts for consideration, the

TWO SENATORIAL ill- l • UQ

principal one <>f i iii<-h

i -llemi

ich |»r«»\

ridicule « hich aln

iijm.ii the B unt of t be W

i.-.l f..r tb
•

omplj i ith th<

■ arrency basis for i
tit of the Union at large, but concurrent n
■
big th€ plan rod unconstitutional. In

connect ion, however, t ; ■

follow!

W nor of th<

h.iv bj pr

session f(

• •f tin.- hi . apoo tin- pceaent ratio of Lfl

1 "f . ;,r f,,r •

■
1

nth

■ •

hereby ai

doabtfnl -

Dome

-
/:- - •

4 the

rhirh tho -
Bitting nuslitim f.-r the Dtee*
that it carry out i'
♦in'l : - ". «s|iinlly wir | th^ nn.noT of the

210 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Constitution, the right of free and unlimited coinage at the mints
of the United States.

The resolutions were presented to the Senate by Mr.
Wolcott, who in introducing them said :

The General Assembly of the State of Colorado was called
to meet in special session by the Governor. The reasons for
calling it together had been stated at length by the Governor
by proclamation, and among other reasons given was that
the Legislature might provide that foreign silver dollars should
be a legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and
private, collectible within the State of Colorado. The Legis-
lature met in pursuance to that call, and among its first acts
was a repudiation by both branches of the General Assembly of
either the intention or the right of the State to legislate respect-
ing its currency.

These resolutions are most forcibly expressed. I ask that
the resolutions may be read as bearing testimony to the fact
that the people of Colorado stand or fall with the laws of the
rest of their country, and that they accept the situation, painful
and unfair as it has been. I may add the pleasing fact that
although the silver industry has been stricken down within the
State, prosperity is returning within its borders and its citizens
have found other channels of industry.

Both Wolcott and Teller used their best efforts to bring
the Legislature to a speedy close and to nullify Waite's in-
fluence for foolish legislation. This was done through per-
sonal messages to members and to the presiding officers of
the two Houses.

Hon. E. M. Ammons of Douglas County, himself diamet-
rically opposed to the Waite policies, was Speaker of the
House, and he scarcely needed the prodding he received from
the Senators to use his influence in favor of curtailing the
length of the session. The interest on the part of the Senators
was manifested in a joint telegram running as follows :

Washington, D. C, Jan. 19, 1894.
E. M. Ammons, Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Denver, Colo.
We have neither the inclination nor the right to interfere in
the slightest degree with any legislative action of the General

TWO SENATORIAL ELECTIONS 211

Assembly of Colorado. We are most anxious, however, that our
State should continue to maintain her high reputation for wis-
dom and fair dealing, and that she should not be subject to
criticism from other sections of the country.

Prosperity will return to us if we do nothing to drive it
away, and we believe a favorable solution of the silver question
will eventually be found. No party question is involved, and
we trust the interests of the State will not be hampered by legis-
lative mistakes. Any prolonged or continued session of the
Assembly would in our opinion be most unwise and would only
result in injury to Colorado.

H. M. Teller,
E. O. Wolcott.

If the Waite administration had resulted in nothing more
seriously disastrous than the calling of the extra session of
the Legislature, the people would have had comparatively
little to complain of. Probably the most injurious effect
was felt in the distrust which was created. Like most new
communities, Colorado was deeply in debt. Possessing ex-
ceptional resources, the State was developing with rapid
strides, and the Colorado people were making large demands
upon their Eastern brethren for capital. When the hard
times came the Waite party began to threaten repudiation,
with the result that Eastern creditors became frightened and,
as one man, rushed in to withdraw their loans. The Colo-
radoans were unable to meet the demand. The result was
the foreclosure of many mortgages, the placing of numerous
attachments, and the transfer of a large proportion of the
property of the State from one person to another for a very
small fraction of the real value.

The administration was also harassing in other respects.
Of querulous and quarrelsome disposition, ignorant of the
law and yet egotistical and self-willed, the Chief-Executive
was constantly getting himself into trouble. His appoint-
ments to office were disappointing to himself, as they were
to the public generally, and on one occasion he called out
the State militia and came near precipitating a real battle
at the City Hall in Denver to aid him in ousting a police
board of his own selection. At another time he ordered the
militia to Cripple Creek for the avowed purpose of support-

212 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

ing one side to a controversy in connection with a mining
strike at that place. Only good fortune prevented disastrous
consequences from these rash acts, and it may well be im-
agined that the State was heartily glad to rid itself of their
author when the opportunity was presented in the campaign
of 1894.

To Mr. Wolcott the Waite administration was a night-
mare. Ever sensitive to the opinions of the better element
of society, he felt that the Governor's acts were a severe
reflection on the good name and the hitherto high credit of
the State. Engaged as he was in making the national fight
in behalf of silver, he found that he was greatly handicapped
by the course of affairs at home. He was not given to use-
less explanations, and in this case he would have found
explanation difficult if disposed to enter upon one. All,
therefore, that he could do was to bear the situation as best
he might and say as little as possible about it outside of Colo-
rado. This course he pursued, but he lost no opportunity
and spared no effort to bring about a change in the State.

THE SECOND SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN

THE campaign of 1S94 resulted in the annihilation of
Waite and in the election of a Legislature which re-
turned Mr. Wolcott to the Senate. But the revolu-
tion cost a great effort. It need not be supposed that,
unpopular as Mr. Waite had become with certain classes
and absurd as had been many of his official acts, he was
without friends or supporters. A most vigorous campaign
was made in his behalf, and it was only by the most strenu-
ous effort that " the grand old anarchist," as one of his
supporters dubbed him, was voted down and his opponent,
A. W. Mclntire, elected.

Mr. Wolcott's health was such that he was compelled to
go to Europe in the spring of 1894. It therefore was im-
possible for him to give much personal attention to this
campaign in its early stages. The reasons for this trip were
fully explained in a letter to his personal friend, O. E.
Le Fevre, written at Washington on May 9th, as follows:

I had laid all my plans to go to Colorado next month and
remain through the meeting of the Republican League to be held
at Denver. I find myself unexpectedly compelled to abandon
this and all other plans I had formed for the summer.

My condition of health is such that my physicians insist that
I shall go abroad for treatment ; that I shall first go to Carlsbad
and then go to Paris, where it is hoped that the surgeon who
treated me last winter may complete a cure which proves to
have been imperfectly accomplished at my former visit. I have
hesitated for some time about going, but I see no alternative.
My colleague, Senator Teller, who is familiar with all the cir-
cumstances, also urges me to go.

The pending tariff legislation is in control of the Democratic
213

214 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

majority in the Senate, which will be able to force its views
irrespective of the wishes of the minority. I shall, of course,
be paired, so that the vote will not be affected by my absence.
We have made every effort before the committee to secure some
adequate protection for both lead and wool in the pending
measure. Lead is somewhat protected, but we have found it
utterly impossible to secure any recognition of the great wool
interests of our country, which will suffer seriously by the pro-
visions of the proposed tariff bill. Outside of these two ques-
tions there is nothing of immediate importance to Colorado,
although we are all interested in the general question of the
protection of American industries. I feel much more relieved
also about going from the fact that the abilities and long ex-
perience of my colleague, who will remain at his post, assure
the full protection of the interests of our people.

My business affairs as well as the interest which I naturally
feel as a citizen in Colorado's welfare, lead me to regret ex-
tremely my inability to be in Colorado during the early summer,
and I regret to be compelled to abandon my visit there. I shall
return, if all is well, in August and shall go at once to Denver.
This will give me ample time to participate in our fall campaign.
I am anxious not to interfere respecting any of the nominations
upon the State ticket, and it is possible that my absence until
August may save some misconstruction which might be placed
upon my movements if I should go to Colorado before that time.

My own personal interests I must leave in the hands of my
friends. There is one question of far greater moment in my opin-
ion than any other, that is that the State of Colorado be re-
deemed from the Populist administration which now controls
it and which has brought so much discredit and dishonor upon
our commonwealth.

To accomplish this result, harmony is required within our
own ranks, and it is essential that personal and factional dif-
ferences should be sacrificed, that the party as a whole may
work together for the best interests of Colorado. I know of no
sacrifice which I am not personally willing to make to secure
that result.

There were two receptions at the Brown Palace Hotel
this year, the first non-partisan and to Mr. Wolcott alone
when he arrived in Denver on his return from Europe,
September 1st, and the second, later, to both Senator
Wolcott and Senator Teller, and of a partisan character.

TWO SENATORIAL ELECTIONS 215

The Denver Republican of the next day gave the follow-
ing account of the first meeting :

The rotunda, grand staircase, and first two balconies of the
hotel were filled with people, while the railings of the third,
fourth, and fifth balconies were lined with faces. The edifice
was decorated in bunting and flowers, and presented a beautiful
appearance. Senator Wolcott and the reception committees of
the Mining Exchange and Chamber of Commerce occupied a
platform at the base of the staircase. Over them hung silken
American flags. At the capitals of the onyx pillars flanking
the platform were floral pieces, one bearing the words " Silver
Ed," and the other a silver dollar mounted in roses. The entire
railing of the first balcony was hidden in trailing, potted and
cut flowers. Standards of colors grouped in threes were mounted
at intervals on all the balconies. The effect was entrancing.
Aside from the floral effects, the appearance of the hotel was
enhanced by the large number of ladies present. An orchestra
was ensconced in a floral bower on the east first balcony. Near
them sat the Apollo Choral Association. During the reception
these organizations rendered many pieces. Senator Wolcott was
much moved by the warmth of the welcome. The entry of the
guest of the evening to the hotel was denoted by ringing cheers.

Hon. W. N. Byers, a distinguished pioneer of the State,
was then President of the Denver Chamber of Commerce,
and in that capacity presided over the meeting. The wel-
coming addresses were made by Hon. Caldwell Yeaman, a
Democrat, and Hon. Earl B. Coe, a Bepublican. Both spoke
in non-partisan terms. Mr. Yeaman said :

Senator Wolcott, on behalf of the Denver Chamber of Com-
merce and the Board of Trade, as well as in obedience to my
own inclinations, I extend to you a cordial welcome home. I
bid you find in the affectionate regard of those whom you have
faithfully served, in the congratulations of your friends and
admirers, a much needed relaxation from the long continued
official service, and, in the life-giving atmosphere of our moun-
tains and valleys, complete and final restoration to health.

The organization which it is my pleasant duty to represent
is without politics and without religious creed. Among its mem-
bers are those from all the industries and professions within
our State; education and benevolence have a place within its
general plan. These interests thus combined, harmoniously

216 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

strive to promote efficient, honest, and economical government.
The system of government under which we live imposes upon
the national legislature duties, and confers upon it powers, the
performance and exercise of which directly affect the welfare
of the whole people. It is to our Senators and Representatives
in Congress that we look for that wise and beneficient legis-
lation which, while securing to the people the greatest possible
return for their energy and toil, lays lightly upon them the hand
of supreme authority and power. Fortunate are the people of
any commonwealth who can universally commend the work of
their public servants. These fervent congratulations to you
show the depth of the appreciation of the people of this State,
and the sincerity of their esteem. You need not be reminded
of the continued devotion of the people of Colorado to silver.
In you their zeal and devotion found a true expotent. They
commend and applaud the advocacy of their Senators and
Representatives.

Mr. Yeaman then closed his address by saying that the
people were above all petty things of life, " and party ties
and party prejudice for this occasion are smothered in the
cordial welcome which Colorado extends to you."

Mr. Coe spoke as follows :

The people of Colorado are glad to have you with them again,
Senator. We are glad to see you with us to-night safe and on
the way to health. Your absence from us has been marked with
sickness, and we feared for you ; but you are with us again, and,
I know, ready to carry on to the very last that difficult duty
which has been imposed upon you.

But these congratulations are not all for you. Some of them
are for ourselves. It is for us to congratulate ourselves upon
having in you so faithful and zealous a servant. It is for Colo-
rado to congratulate itself that in times of peril, when the
welfare of the State was assailed, and that in a dangerous
manner, we had on the floor of the United States Senate two
men who were indeed champions of our rights.

I am sure you will pardon me, Senator, and ladies and gen-
tlemen if I indulge myself in a few party remarks and say
a word or two to our friends the Democrats. There is hanging
above us a flag, with its bright stars and stripes. Every star in
that field marks the progress of republicanism, and not a slur
must be cast upon them or the brightness of one of them dimin-
ished. It is for you to-day to stand by them. Party differences

TWO SENATORIAL ELECTIONS 217

must be buried. We must stand together and, what is more, we
will stand together.

Mr. Wolcott's speech will be found elsewhere. His ad-
dress was not political in character, but it was replete with
patriotic sentiment and full of interest in the welfare of
the people of the State.

The next reception occurred on the night of September
17th, and was given by the East Capitol Hill Woman's Re-
publican Club, and was a notable event. Mr. Wolcott was
introduced by State Senator Charles Hartzell. A chronicler
of the day tells us :

The tinge of aestheticisni which has been introduced by the
women as one of the accessories to a higher standard in politics
was made very manifest last night in the decorations and in
the music, both of which were of a high artistic order. Clematis
was the principal decoration and it harmonized with the original
adornment of the building. The arrangement of the plant was
most artistic; it hung profusely from the first two balconies
and at frequent points it was relieved with bunches of bright
flowers. The American flag was picturesquely displayed in every
part of the rotunda. The throng of people was of the greatest
interest. The balconies to the top were filled with men and
women. It was a solid square of humanity with the square
rotunda at the base crowded. Many could not get inside the
doors at all.

In his speech at the second meeting, Mr. Wolcott dealt
the Waite administration many heavy blows. One or two
specimens will suffice.

For one [he said in the beginning], I am tired of the slanders
and abuse which is heaped upon us and telegraphed all over
the world, defiling our own nest, abusing, vilifying, and slander-
ing the decent men and women of Colorado, and destroying and
ruining every decent industry which our efforts and our time
and our people have built up and which made our State a
glorious one in the sisterhood of States, until he [Waite] came
with his baleful influence to destroy it.

And further along:

These two years of Governor Waite's administration are the
greatest disaster this State has ever known. We used to have
the grasshoppers and we used to think we were afflicted with

218 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

various losses by the hand of the Almighty; but the time is
coming when the two-year Populists will be a far worse
plague than the seven-year locusts ever were. The time is surely
going to come when many of the young women in the hearing
of my voice as they hold their children on their knees, will tell
them how, years and years ago, there was a grotesque, im-
possible sort of an old man, a sort of opera-bouffe governor, who
tried to destroy all the interests in Colorado and who tore
down everything that was decent and invoked all the disorder
and misrule he could, and how the good men and good women
of Colorado got together and talked it over and by an over-
whelming vote sent that opera-bouffe governor back to Aspen,
where he belonged. And the only difficulty your children will
have in believing the story will be in believing that you ever
were big enough idiots and muffs to elect him.

Much invigorated in body and greatly encouraged over
the prospect of obtaining an international agreement in the
interest of silver coinage, Senator Wolcott entered heartily
into the campaign. Waiteism on the one hand and the im-
proved outlook for the white metal on the other, were the
uppermost themes of his discourse. He had met many of
the bimetallists of England and on the Continent, and he had
come to think that all had not been lost with the repeal of
the Sherman law. Colorado still was under the pall of the
panic of 1893, and he preached a gospel of hope and good
cheer — of a bright and prosperous future, which he declared
that even Waiteism could not permanently blight. Still, he
urged the necessity of throwing off the incubus at the earli-
est possible moment, and he labored day and night for the
election of Mclntire and the entire Republican ticket. In
his speech before the State Convention at the beginning of
the campaign, he said:

The office you have conferred upon me is the most splendid
within your gift; the term for which I hold it has nearly ex-
pired. What the future may have in store for me it is not
given us to know ; but whatever personal possibilities there might
be for me as to a continuance of its term I say to you solemnly
I would sacrifice them all gladly in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, if thereby we could render more certain the rescue
of this State from the hands that now throttle it, and I would

TWO SENATORIAL ELECTIONS 219

retire cheerfully to private life, grateful for your past kindness
and confidence, and happy that as a citizen of Colorado there
was any sacrifice I could make that would save this State from
further degradation and dishonor.

It is not intended to follow our candidate through the
ineanderings of the campaign, nor to repeat his speeches,
which were much the same in general argument at all points.
Probably the most notable of his addresses in the contest
was the one delivered at its close. This was made in Denver
on the night of the third of November, and was listened to
by a vast audience. In it, as throughout the State, he de-
voted much attention to the administration of Governor
Waite, which he charged with responsibility for the most
of the evils of the time. He asserted that but for the radical
position of the Governor there would not have been nearly
so many foreclosures of mortgages nor so many attachments
as the result of suits. Speaking of the free coinage of silver,
Mr. Wolcott declared himself as staunch an advocate of
that cause as any man, but he repeated his declaration that
it could not come through any individual party — no more
through the Populist party than any other party. " When-
ever I believe that free coinage can be accomplished through
some other party than the Republican party I will leave that
party," said Mr. Wolcott; "but I will never be drawn into
the crazy ranks of the Kansas and Colorado Populists."

The "A. P. A."— letters which stood for the American
Protective Association— was very much in evidence at that
time, and was a real issue in Colorado politics. The organ-
ization was shortlived, but very active while its existence
continued, and its principal tenet was antagonism to Cath-
olicism. It may well be imagined that the trimming poli-
ticians found it an awkward subject to deal with. It was
difficult to steer between the Scylla of Catholicism and the
Charybdis of A. P. A'ism. The A. P. A's were particuarly
alert in Colorado in 1894, and it was charged that they had
influenced the nomination of most of the Republican candi-
dates. If such had been the case the ticket probably would
have met the antagonism of members of the Catholic Church.
Hence, while not daring to repudiate the society because such

220 EDWAED OLIVER WOLCOTT

a course would have offended its members, the candidates
were at the same time anxious to assure the Catholic voters
that they were not antagonistic to them. No one understood
these issues better than Mr. Wolcott, and when, during this
last address of the campaign, a question relative to the organ-
ization was thrust at him he was prepared to respond to it,
and he did respond on broad grounds, and in a way that
could not have lost him the vote of any fair-minded man.

He was in the midst of his speech when some one in the
audience, taking advantage of a pause, yelled across the
hall at him, "What about A. P. A'ism? " "Oh, go off!"
responded Mr. Wolcott, informally. The questioner, how-
ever, would not be silent, and by repeating his inquiry en-
gaged the serious consideration of the speaker. Facing
around, Mr. Wolcott cried back to the man, " Well, what
about the A. P. A.? What do you want to know about it? "

" I want to know what you think about it and what
your relations to it are."

Realizing that the question was intended to put him on
record as against the Catholic Church, Mr. Wolcott directed
his response to that point. " I believe," he said, " that every
citizen should be allowed to worship God as he sees fit."
Then, after a pause, he added, " I do not believe that any
man should be allowed to disturb a decent meeting."

That Mr. Wolcott was not overconfident of re-election
was evidenced by a letter written to his mother, October
25, 1894, about ten days before the election of the Legis-
lature which did ultimately return him :

I am working very hard [he said]. Last week I made eight
speeches, and am out again this week, and shall be kept going
until after election. I think I made a mistake in going in for
re-election, but it is too late now for regrets. The result is
still doubtful. Populism has a deep hold on people in Colorado.
Wolhurst is delightful, but I don't see much of it. I leave by
the early train and return after dark.

That his pessimistic view was not justified was soon
demonstrated by the result at the polls and not long after-
ward in the Legislature.

TWO SENATORIAL ELECTIONS 221

Very soon after the election in November Mr. Wolcott
turned his face toward Washington for the purpose of
attending the second session of the Fifty-third Congress.
There were many questions pending in which Colorado
was profoundly interested, and he did not permit his
own interests to keep him at home. Consequently, he
was not in Colorado when the Legislature met and could
not give personal attention to his campaign to succeed him-
self as Senator. His presence was scarcely necessary, for
in reality no other Republican was seriously thought of for
the office, and the Legislature was safely Republican. The
only other member of the party mentioned was Myron H.
Stratton, a mining millionaire of Colorado Springs, who
had made his money in Cripple Creek.

In December, about two weeks before the assembling of
the Colorado Legislature, Mr. Wolcott, then in Washington
attending to his Senatorial duties, received a letter signed by
every Republican member of the Legislature, men and women
assuring him that he would be chosen to succeed himself
without opposition and advising him that he need not con-
cern himself about his re-election even to the extent of re-
turning to his State. To this flattering communication
Senator Wolcott addressed an appreciative reply. The
correspondence was as follows:

Denver, Colorado,
Dec'r 12, 1894.
To the Honorable Edward O. Wolcott :

Sir: The undersigned Republican members and members-
elect of the Tenth General Assembly of the State of Colo-
rado, appreciating your services in the Senate of the United
States, and being desirous of your re-election, beg to submit the
following :

For six years you have faithfully and well served this State
in the highest legislative body in the world ; the people of Colo-
rado, irrespective of party, should be in favor of your return
to the Senate; you are the uuanimous choice of the party for
this high office; the Republican party has nationally achieved
one of its greatest and most decisive victories; its leaders will
soon meet in Washington, when the policies and plans of the
party for the future will be carefully considered, discussed, and
in a large measure agreed upon; we want you at this meeting,

222 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

so that your great influence will be there exerted in behalf of
Colorado; we have confidence that the Republican party will
satisfactorily solve the silver question ; we wish to relieve you
of any possible anxiety concerning the result of the Senatorial
election in this State, so that your entire time and best efforts
can be given to a wise solution of the great questions that so
much concern our people. The largest and most representative
convention of the party that ever assembled in the State unan-
imously approved of your conduct in the Senate in the past,
and indorsed you for re-election. We assure you that it is a
pleasure to each of us to obey the voice of the party as thus
expressed, and that it will be our pleasant duty to earnestly
aid in your re-election, and to use every honorable means to
accomplish this result, both in caucus and in open session, and
until the result we hope for is attained.

Charles Hartzell, E. W. Merritt, W. B. Felker, Oscar Reuter,
Dr. Charles E. Locke, P. J. Sours, Frances S. Klock, Louis
Anfenger, Joseph H. Stuart, W. S. Bales, James H. Clarke, H.
R. Brown, George W. Twombley, A. C. Wilkins, J. S. Carnahan,
W. I. Whittier, A. M. De Bord, A. L. Humphrey, I. J. Wood-
worth, Charles G. Collais, M. A. Vigil, John W. Lovell, A. A.
Salazar, Nathaniel Kearney, J. R. Gordon, James F. Allee, W.
A. Colt, Bruce F. Johnson, Amedee L. Fribourg, A. R. Kennedy,
Clara Cressingham, W. H. Macomber, Alexander Stewart, A. I.
Warren, W. B. Rundell, C. W. Campbell, J. T. McNeeley, J. M.
Morris, W. L. Patchen, J. C. Evans, T. S. Harper, Robert D.
Miller, W. N. Randall, G. W. Swink, J. W. Rockefeller, Jacob
C. Funderburgh, Celestino Garcia, Charles Newman, Frank G.
Blake, Joseph H. Painter, J. G. Morton, J. D. Brown, Clara
Clyde Holly, James F. Drake, R. H. Purrington, W. R. Sopris.

Senate Chamber,
Washington, D. C, Dec. 18, 1894.
Hon. Charles Hartzell and Others:

Gentlemen : The joint letter signed by you, who constitute
fifty-six out of the one hundred members of the next General
Assembly, is just received.

While it is true, as you say in your letter, that the Repub-
lican State Convention unanimously passed resolutions indors-
ing my re-election to the Senate, I nevertheless appreciate more
deeply than I can express to you the friendship which has
prompted you to give me this personal assurance of your con-
fidence and regard. If any incentive were needed to constant

TWO SENATORIAL ELECTIONS 223

and unwearied devotion to the interests of our State, you have
furnished it to me by the assurances which your letter contains.
I accept gratefully the suggestion you make that I should re-
main here at my post of duty for the present. Before the session
of your assembly shall have adjourned, however, I shall, unless
prevented, have an opportunity at Denver of meeting you and
thanking you each in person.

Existing conditions here do not seem favorable for the im-
mediate remonetization of silver, and I fear there is little to
be hoped for during the continuance of the term of the present
Chief Executive. There is a growing conviction, however, through-
out the world that prosperity will not return until silver is again
restored to its place as a money metal. It is my firm con-
viction that this result will be accomplished by legislation and I
believe it will be accomplished soon. In assisting to secure this
result I shall devote the years which I may spend in public
service. There is no question in the whole world so important,
and to have assisted, even in some small way, in its accomplish-
ment is all the career I seek.

Again thanking you for your letter, I am yours faithfully,

Edward O. Wolcott.

The Republican Legislative caucus was held on the night
of the first of January, 1895. The two Houses first met
separately, but the House caucus scarcely had been called
to order when a member proposed that the Republican Sen-
ators should be invited to sit with them and thus, as he
said, definitely settle the Senatorial question. Half an hour
later the Senators came in and Senator Felker, of Arapahoe,
was called to the chair. A number of speeches were made,
all of which were complimentary to Mr. Wolcott. These
were followed by a motion to indorse that gentleman for
the Senate and it was carried by a rising and unanimous
vote. No other name was mentioned in the caucus. Sen-
ator Felker was authorized to notify Mr. Wolcott, and he
immediately forwarded the following telegram :

Denver, Colo.,
January 1, 1895.
To Senator E. O. Wolcott,
Washington, D. C:
The Republican members of the Tenth General Assembly in
joint caucus assembled send you New Year's greetings. They

224 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

have by a rising vote, just nominated you United States Senator
to succeed yourself, and each and every member wishes his
name appended to this telegram.

(Signed) W. B. Felker, Chairman.

When two wreeks later the two Houses were called upon
to vote for Senator, Mr. Wolcott was given the solid Repub-
lican vote, but as he did not receive a majority in each House
separately, it became necessary for the joint assembly to
vote on the subject of his successorship at the next day's
meeting. He then received the full party vote of the two
Houses and was declared duly elected as his own successor.
In this as in Mr. Wolcott's first election, the speech-making
wras confined to one House, but in this instance the speeches
were made in the House and not in the Senate, reversing
the previous order.

The speech nominating Mr. Wolcott in the House of Rep-
resentatives was delivered by Representative Sopris, of Las
Animas County, who eulogized the subject of his remarks
in strong terms. He said in part:

Mr. Wolcott has grown up with this new empire, which was
known to him in his school-days as the great American desert.
He now boasts in eloquent language of the siren advantages of
Colorado. His name and fame, his life and his deeds, are among
the choicest gifts to this richly endowed young commonwealth,
and a precious legacy for the example and inspiration of coming
generations. But the thing which most engages us to-day is not
the richness of his genius nor the eloquence which has no paral-
lel in the Senate of the United States; not even the mighty in-
fluence of his work, but the sublime reality for which he lives,
with a vision single and true and the witness he gives to it by
the greatness and the strength and the purity of his devotion
to " Sixteen to One."

Mr. Sopris took occasion in the course of his remarks
to call attention to the fact that for the first time in Colo-
rado the women were taking part in the election of a United
States Senator. " Colorado recognizes their equal rights in
every political opportunity which the State gives to man," he
said, " and on this day the tender youth and delicate woman-
hood are gathered here to meet their new requirements."

TWO SENATORIAL ELECTIONS 225

Closing, he said:

Six years ago the young men of Colorado gathered en masse
and declared that they would send Edward O. Wolcott to the
United States Senate. They did it. Have they regretted the
act? No; a thousand times, no! To-day, Mr. Speaker, let me tell
you that the same sentiment prevails not only among the pioneers
and the young bloods but also at the hearth-stones and in the
homes of the mothers and the wives and the sisters of Colorado.

In the House forty-one votes were cast for Mr. Wolcott
and twenty-three for Hon. Lafe Pence, the Fusion representa-
tive from the First District. In the Senate Mr. Wolcott
received sixteen votes; Hon. Thomas M. Patterson sixteen,
and Hon. Charles S. Thomas two.

When on the next day the two Houses met jointly, Mr.
Wolcott received fifty-nine votes, Mr. Pence thirty-six, and
Mr. Thomas three. Before the vote was taken, there were
some speeches eulogistic of all the candidates. The prin-
cipal address on this occasion in behalf of Mr. Wolcott was
made by Senator Charles Hartzell, of Denver, who, after
referring to Mr. Wolcott's election in 1889, said :

How has he kept the trust? Let us see. We have seen the
reins of government in the hands of an Administration abso-
lutely opposed to the interests of Colorado. We have seen our
beautiful mountain towns laid low by the power of an Executive
controlling a servile majority. But the silver Senators, though
few in numbers, were a host in patriotism, in devotion to right
and justice, and by their masterly parliamentary generalship
warded off the evil day of the Sherman Repeal for a long time.
Like the Spartans at the pass of Thermopylae, like Horatius at
the bridge, stood our little band of Spartan silver Senators.
Edward O. Wolcott has served us long and faithfully. We would
dishonor ourselves by dishonoring him. We all remember how,
he fought for the Plumed Knight, the friend of silver, at Minne-
apolis. We all know how long and well and nobly he has bat-
tled for silver and for Colorado. Mr. President, it gives me
the greatest pleasure of my life to place in nomination the
name of Edward O. Wolcott.

Seconding speeches were made by a large number of Sen-
ators and Representatives, including two ladies. The first

226 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

of the lady speakers was Mrs. Klock, and the other, Mrs.
Holly. Mrs. Holly called attention to the fact that Mr. Wol-
cott had been a friend to female suffrage. Declaring him to
be of international reputation and "a self-respecting and
upright gentleman," she exclaimed, " Let us take no back-
ward step ! Up, up with the oriflamme of our Bayard, satis
peur et sans reproche, and bestow once more the well-deserved
honor of the nomination to the Senate on Edward O.
Wolcott ! "

Commenting upon the election on the day after it took
place, the Rocky Mountain News, still under the manage-
ment of Thomas M. Patterson, who was destined six years
afterward to be Mr. Wolcott's successor in the Senate, said :

" Senator Wolcott is a bright and brainy man. He has
never professed to be faultless. He is bold and daring in
politics, finance, and all the games of life — a regular Dick
Turpin in his own particular lines. Since a Republican had
to be returned, no one should complain because the party
selected its best representative member."

Senator Wolcott was the author of the bill providing
for the establishment of a coinage mint at Denver, and the
bill passed the Senate the day of his second election to
the Senate. The success of the measure was generally
accepted as a sufficient excuse for his absence, pleased as
his friends would have been to have him with them. The
bill carried an appropriation of $500,000 for the building.
The measure afterward passed the House and became a law,
and the mint is now one of the institutions of which the
entire State is proud.

Apropos of Mr. Wolcott's two Senatorial contests former
Governor Charles S. Thomas of Colorado has supplied the
following, valuable alike as a contribution to the political
history of the State and as a testimonial to Mr. Wolcott's
character and ability:

I was Chairman of the Democratic State Committee in 18S8,
that being the occasion of his first Senatorial campaign. This
brought me in constant touch with his work, his friends, and
his enemies. He made an aggressive and overwhelming cam-
paign, dominated and silenced the enemies within his own party

TWO SENATORIAL ELECTIONS 227

by the sheer force of intellectual power, and established himself
as the absolute master of his organization long before the day
of election. I perceived early in the campaign that he could be
beaten only by the success of the Democratic party, and in-
structed the Democratic speakers everywhere to take that posi-
tion. The election was all one way and the Legislature was
Republican by an unusual majority. Shortly after the campaign
closed the late Governor Tabor came to see me, and asserted
his ability to defeat Senator Wolcott provided he could secure
the votes of the small Democratic minority. He asked me to
do what I could to secure them in his behalf. I assured him
that he had been totally misinformed as to the attitude of
Senators and Representatives elect, and nothing but his death
could prevent Senator Wolcott's election; that the Democratic
members would under no circumstances take part in the nomi-
nation of a Republican Senator, and reminded him that we had
declared the issue before the people to be either Wolcott or a
Democrat, and the people having decided for Wolcott we would
not interfere, even though by such interference Wolcott should
be defeated, unless a sufficient number of Republicans could be
induced to unite with the Democrats in the selection of a candi-
date of their own party to the position. Governor Tabor was
much displeased at my frankness, but I think the result of the
ensuing caucus must have convinced him that I was right.

Senator Wolcott was returned for a second term in 1895.
During the early part of the preceding year the factional dif-
ferences in his own party threatened to retire him from public
life. The renomination of Governor Waite, however, compelled
the factions in that party to forget their differences for the
time being if they would defeat Governor Waite's candidacy for
re-election.

From the time that he entered upon his duties in the
Senate, March 4, 1889, until he surrendered the office twelve
years later, Mr. Wolcott was one of the most alert members
of that body. He participated freely in the shaping of legis-
lation both in committee and on the floor of the Senate. He
also spoke on most important questions under consideration,
adding materially to his reputation as an orator and man
of affairs. In order, however, that the continuity of the
narrative of his active life may not be interrupted, the record
of his Senatorial career is presented elsewhere. For the

228 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

same reason a similar course is followed with reference to
his official dealing with the silver question, to which he gave
much attention both in the Senate and as a member and as
chairman of the International Monetary Commission of 1897.
The commission was established in the hope of bringing
about an agreement among the leading nations for a broader
recognition of silver as a money metal, and in the further-
ance of this purpose Mr. Wolcott spent considerable time
in Europe.

' Ninety-Six and After

229

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER

PREVIOUS to the close of his second term in the Sen-
ate, Mr. Wolcott was uniformly triumphant in his
campaigns. He had been defeated in battles for
others, but never in a contest in his own behalf. From that
time he was as uniformly unsuccessful. In 1901 he was a
candidate to succeed himself, and in 1903 to succeed Sen-
ator Teller, but without success on either occasion. He
never regained his lost official footing; but his failure was
due to generally adverse conditions, and not to any diminu-
tion of force in himself, and had his life been spared he un-
doubtedly would have resumed his seat in the Senate. When
he left Denver in 1904 his leadership was re-established and
the way was open for his election in 1907. To adopt a
phrase not in use in his time, he would have " come back."
Indeed, he had " come back."

To the Eastern reader it will seem strange, but it never-
theless is true, that Mr. Wolcott's political reverses were
due to silver — to the opinion in Colorado that he was not
sufficiently radical in his advocacy of the coinage of that
metal. Notwithstanding the Populist Governor Waite had
failed of re-election, there still lingered in the minds of the
people much of the dissatisfaction which had made possible
his selection in the first instance. The people of Colorado
were silverites if not Populists, and the silver sentiment was
so strong that it accepted none but the most direct and the
most pronounced avowal. Favorable results were of course
sought, but profession was demanded regardless of the pos-
sibility of accomplishment. The cry was for " the free coin-
age of silver at 16 to 1, regardless of any other nation," and
the public man must subscribe to this doctrine even though
attainment of the result seemed quite out of the question.

231

232 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Mr. Wolcott was a practical man. If a proposition did
not appeal to him he did not accept it. After the repeal of
the Sherman Purchasing Law, he came gradually to the con-
clusion that no party likely to be in power would contend for
free silver coinage in this country alone; and, advocating
free coinage because he accepted the doctrine as a principle
and not merely for the promotion of his political prospects,
he decided to exercise his influence in favor of a policy which
looked to the co-operation of the leading commercial powers
as the only means that would re-establish the double
monetary standard.

Despite the position of the St. Louis convention in favor
of the gold standard and against silver except under inter-
national agreement, Mr. Wolcott adhered to the Republican
party. He did not believe that free silver coinage was possible
of achievement through either the Democratic or the Populist
party. His State refused to concur with him in that position,
and while he espoused the cause of Major McKinley, the
State became so generally favorable to Mr. Bryan that in
the election in November the Nebraska candidate received
eighty-five per cent, of its vote.

The years that followed were trying years for Mr.
Wolcott. Intensely Republican in politics and proud of
his State, he felt extremely anxious to have it again re-
corded in the Republican column. It cannot in truth
be said that he was inordinately fond of office-holding;
but there were features connected with the Senatorship
which appealed to him, and there can be no doubt that he
would have been gratified to continue the work for which
he had proved to be so admirably adapted. He accord-
ingly made every effort to insure his re-election, when
in 1901 his second term expired, and again when in 1903
Senator Teller's term came to an end. It is probable that
but for his death he would have stood for election again in
1907, but when he left Colorado for the last time, in 1904,
he had not so decided beyond recall. While, therefore, it
may be said that from the time of his second election in
1895 until the time of his death in 1905 he was engaged in
a fruitless struggle to hold or regain his place, the struggle
was not in his own interest. His personal fortunes were

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 233

the subject of least concern to himself. His effort was for
party rather than for self, and for principles which he held
dearer than personal success. Believing his position to be
correct, and firmly convinced that the welfare of the
State would be promoted by the maintenance of that posi-
tion, he exerted himself to that end, sparing neither time
nor fortune. He maintained a position of undisputed leader-
ship until 1902, when an opposing faction proved strong
enough to divide the party and thus prevent his then prob-
able triumph. The leadership was, however, only tempora-
rily and only partially lost, and was rapidly regained as
soon as he came to fully understand the situation and " get
himself together."

THE FIGHT OF 1896

Scarcely had Mr. Wolcott taken his seat for the second
term when symptoms of the approaching storm became dis-
cernible. Up to the time of his last election he had given
his earnest adherence to every measure that had been pro-
posed in the interest of silver, but the white metal had not
become the subject of such sharp party division as it then
was. Indeed, as late as 1892 the Republican party in na-
tional assembly had administered in its platform a sharp
rebuke to the Democratic party for its " betrayal of silver,"
and the Colorado Senator was justified in his contention that
his party was as much a silver party as was any other party.
He had stood side by side with the most pronounced silver
advocates in the advocacy of silver, and, while he had
begun to investigate the possibilities for an international
movement, he had maintained consistently that, if only it
would undertake to do so, this country alone could maintain
the parity of gold and silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. Later
he came to have doubts on the point; and he reached the
conclusion that, whatever the country's capabilities in this
respect, the commercial and financial interests of the country
would not permit the experiment to be tried. He was then
beginning to ask himself whether, in view of these adverse
conditions, it was worth while to continue the struggle for
independent action, so that even before the St. Louis con-

234 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

vention bad actually taken its position lie had decided upon
his course, and, having reached a conclusion, after his usual
frank manner, he lost no time in informing his constituents
where he stood.

The campaign of 1896 was the first in which he was
called upon to engage after his election in 1895, and that
was the most memorable of all his campaigns. He had per-
mitted his friends to use his name as a candidate for the
position of delegate to the National Convention, which was
to be held in St. Louis in June of that year. Senator Teller
also was a candidate, but they were not working so harmoni-
ously together in a political way as they did when, in 1892,
both were sent to Minneapolis to oppose Harrison's renomi-
nation. Previous to the convention of 1896 the senior Sen-
ator took the position that there must be a straightforward
declaration for silver by the national platform with the im-
plied threat of a bolt if this demand was not conceded.
Mr. Wolcott did not go to such length. For months before
the State convention, telegrams and letters urging him to
stand with Teller poured in upon him in great profusion.

That Mr. Wolcott's mental struggle was severe we may
well imagine. He had said on more than one occasion that
if the time ever came when he should have to decide between
his party and silver he would cast his fortunes with the
cause of the white metal. He realized the strength of the
silver sentiment in his own State, and he knew that in all
human probability his determination to remain with his
party, in view of the prospect that it would take a position
antagonistic to free coinage, would mean his own political
downfall. He sympathized deeply with his people. But he
also loved his party. Aside from silver its principles were
his principles. Seeing no way of accomplishing anything
for the favored metal through any other party, whatsoever
its declarations might be, he was deeply puzzled. In this
period of perplexity he said very little to any one. His
manner was reserved, and it was evident that he was under-
going a strain. Yet it is doubtful whether he ever hesitated.
It is quite improbable that at any time he really felt inclined
to desert his party. He, however, did deeply regret the
necessity of breaking with old friends.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 235

As for his previous utterances, they gave hini little con-
cern. They never had been unconditional and it already was
apparent that there would be no situation that would make
them binding. Even then he was ready to say, as he did
say afterward, that, if the advocacy of independent silver
coinage meant consorting with the impractical Populists,
who had no chance of national success, and whose other de-
mands were, in his view, beyond reason, he would not consider
himself bound by previous declarations. " When I discov-
ered that, to be for silver, I must be for so many things
that I could not stand for under any circumstances, I simply
wouldn't stay in the game,"' he said many times afterward
in explaining his position in '96. Finding Bryan standing
on and accepting the Populist platform, he chose to regard
him as a Populist. He did not believe that the Democrats
would, or that the Populists could, insure free silver. That
was the conclusion to which he had come when he wrote the
following letter more than two weeks in advance of the State
convention for the selection of delegates :

Washington, April 28, 1896.
Irving W. Howbert, Chairman

Republican State Committee of Colorado:

My Dear Sir: During the past few weeks I have received
many letters from Colorado friends on the subject of the coming
National Republican Convention, many of them asking me if I
desired to go as a delegate. To. avoid any possible misconcep-
tion as to my position, I write this letter to you as chairman
of the Republican State Central Committee.

I prefer not to go to St. Louis as a delegate, and have care-
fully avoided the slightest indication to anybody of any sort of
wish to be present at the convention in that capacity. I have,
however, an opinion on the subject of our representation at the
convention which it seems proper that I should express to you.

When the Republican State Convention meets in Colorado,
May 14th, it may decline to be represented at St. Louis or it
may select delegates. If the latter, the duty of the delegation,
in my opinion, will be to attend the convention, make the best
fight possible for bimetallism in the Committee on Resolutions
and on the floor of the convention, if there shall be opportunity
for discussion before the whole convention, and, after having
insisted by every proper method upon the duty of the convention

236 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

to declare in favor of the restoration of silver as a measure of
value equally with gold, to accept the will of the majority of
the convention, and endeavor to secure the nomination of the
candidate most friendly to Western interests.

There is no sacrifice I would not make to secure the re-
monetization of silver, not because Colorado is a producer of
silver, but because, in my opinion, prosperity will never return
to us until bimetallism at the former ratio is re-established, and
because the appreciating value of gold and the shrinking of
values which necessarily follow this appreciation, must bring
only disaster and poverty and suffering to all the people of this
country who are not lenders of money.

To secure the unlimited coinage of silver I would count party
ties as nothing. At this moment, however, the situation which
confronts us is this: Both of the two great parties are ap-
parently opposed to free coinage by the United States. The
Populist party favors free coinage, but only as a means to se-
cure more currency and as a stepping-stone to unlimited paper
money, and it unites with its free-coinage advocacy socialistic
and paternalistic doctrines which are dangerous in tendency and
which would be, if adopted, destructive of free institutions. I
know of no fourth party as yet entitled to our confidence and
support, although the wisdom of leaders whose character and
abilities we trust may find some common ground upon which
bimetallists, untainted with Populism, may stand.

Under these circumstances and conditions, therefore, I desire
to be counted as a Republican, proud of the traditions of my
party, glorying in its achievements, and still hopeful that the
great party, which has heretofore stood for the masses against
the classes, may on this great economic question yet range itself
on the side of humanity and of civilization.

If either one of the two great parties shall declare in favor
of the unlimited coinage of silver at our mints, existing political
conditions in Colorado will undergo a sweeping change, and in
this letter I speak only of the situation as it is to-day.

There is in my opinion one event which might involve our
country in worse disaster than gold monometallism, and only
one, and that would be the triumph of Populism. Colorado
suffered under the degradation and blight of Populist rule for
two years. I believe it the duty of every good citizen to stand
up and fight in the open against a repetition of that ruinous
experiment.

One thing further: Our representation is small at best. To

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 237

have the slightest weight it should, if any delegation is sent,
be practically unanimous in sentiment and expression. The
occasion is not one where personal ambitions or desire for patron-
age should influence selection. I have no doubt that the Repub-
licans of Colorado will select delegates to the National Con-
vention who are of a united and friendly spirit, animated by
a common and harmonious purpose, and desirous only of se-
curing the greatest consideration for the interests of our
Commonwealth.

It has seemed to me fitting and proper that the members of
that party, whose commission I hold, should know before the
meeting of the State convention my views as to our duty in
respect to the National convention at St. Louis.

This is no time for differences among our own people. I have
faith and confidence that the way will be made clear for good
citizens in Colorado to cast their ballots this fall without
sacrificing their honor or their convictions.

Yours truly,

Edward O. Wolcott.

The letter was received with expressions of delight by
the press of the Eastern cities, but in Colorado the sentiment
was of a very different character. At home its author was
generally denounced as a traitor to the silver cause. He
was cartooned and caricatured by every daily paper in
Denver. The Washington Post, conservative and non-
partisan, found only words of praise for the letter and its
author. After quoting liberally from the document, that
paper said:

Brave words, wise and patriotic words! Spoken, too, under
circumstances that make them dangerous to the speaker's per-
sonal aspirations — at a time when his political fortunes may
be the price of his courage and his candor. But Senator Wol-
cott has spoken them, nevertheless, and honest and courageous
men of every party will applaud him for them. Here, at least,
is one who holds his country's good above all other things, and
who does not hesitate to stake his prospects of political promotion
on the valiant discharge of honorable duty. All hail !

Two weeks later Senator Teller wired Chairman How-
bert, saying that he could not consent to be a delegate to
St. Louis " unless silver is declared the paramount issue."

238 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Thus the two Senators confronted each other, Teller de-
manding a silver platform, and Wolcott, while contending
for silver, expressing himself as willing to accept the de-
cision of the majority of the St. Louis Convention, whatso-
ever its attitude toward silver. Clearly, after eight years
of most harmonious relations in the Senate, they had reached
the parting of the ways.

They were directly and distinctly opposed one to the
other. If one was elected the other would not be. It was
the first time they ever had been candidates for any place on
different platforms, and the sensation must have been novel
to both. Yet both were so thoroughly in earnest that it is
doubtful whether either stopped long to think over their
mutual opposition. And it is pleasant to recall that, bitter
as was the strife and diametrically opposed as thej were to
each other politically for the next few years, they did not
permit themselves to be personally estranged. There never
was a time when they did not greet each other cordially nor
when each did not speak of the other in terms of respect
and affection. There never was occasion for any other
attitude, for both were acting on conviction. Both had
been sincere silver men, but in a different way. With
Teller bimetallism was almost a religion. It was paramount
to all other questions, and he had long been cooling toward
his party on account of it. He was willing to follow where-
ever silver seemed to lead and to accompany any who might
promise help. The party tie was stronger with Wolcott.
He could not forsake Republicanism for any party's promise;
he wanted assurance that the promise would and could be
redeemed.

The convention for the selection of delegates to St. Louis
was held at Pueblo, May 14tli, and it was a Teller conven-
tion from start to finish. All three of the State's represen-
tatives in Congress, Senators Teller and Wolcott and
Representative Townsend, were endorsed in general terms in
the platform, but there was a special word of approval for
the attitude of Mr. Teller. He alone of the delegation was
named as a delegate to the convention, and all the other
delegates were instructed to " accept him as their leader and
abide by his decision." Bimetallism was declared " for the

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 239

time being the paramount issue," even Protection being given
a second place.

Mr. Wolcott had foreseen this result, and he withdrew
his name as a candidate before the naming of delegates was
reached in the order of proceeding. His decision was an-
nounced in a telegram to J. F. Saunders, Colorado member
of the National Eepublican Committee, from New York
under date of May 11th, which read:

I am very grateful to all my good friends in Colorado for
their unsolicited desire to send me to the National Convention
and for their kindness to me in the past. I understand there
is opposition to electing me as a delegate. I am too good a
Republican to wish to create any division in my party in Colo-
rado and am too much concerned for the success of bimetallism
and the great principles of the Republican party to do so under
any circumstances. I therefore decline to permit my name to
be considered by the convention in electing delegates.

The selection of a delegation in complete accord with
the views of Senator Teller; the declaration of the St. Louis
Convention for the gold standard, with a leaning toward
international bimetallism; the withdrawal from that con-
vention of the Colorado delegation together with about
twenty other Western delegates because of that declaration,
and the subsequent endorsement of the candidacy of Mr.
Bryan for the Presidency — these are matters of history, and
have no place here except for the purpose of showing what
Mr. Wolcott had to contend with.

Mr. Wolcott declined to endorse the bolt, and lost little
time in announcing his decision to support the St. Louis
ticket,y(ith Major William McKinley of Ohio at its head.

Tlie campaign which followed was quite one-sided in Colo-
rado, but not as completely so as at first it promised to be.
A Silver Republican party was organized to hold the Re-
publicans, and that party fused with the Democrats and
the Populists in an electoral ticket. For a few days it looked
as if Mr. Wolcott would have to stand practically alone in
his advocacy of McKinley's election. It was not popular to
avow one's self a straight Republican, and the staunchest of
partisans hesitated to do so. Gradually they came out from

240 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

under cover, however, and forthwith the junior Senator
began to receive letters from all parts of the State express-
ing admiration for his courageous stand, and assuring him
of support in case he would undertake to lead the fight.

Wolcott was recognized everywhere as the mainstay of
the McKinley cause in Colorado, and he was made the ob-
ject of the most general and most persistent attack from all
portions of the State. Not only was he censured bitterly
by the press, but by public speakers and private citizens.
He received hundreds of letters demanding his resignation
from the Senate. He was burned in effigy and many threats
of personal injury were conveyed to him. Because of his
adherence to his party despite its attitude toward silver, he
was declared a " gold-bug," while he was dubbed " Cousin
Ed " on account of his friendship for England as evinced in
his Venezuelan speech. He was denounced in public meet-
ings as a traitor. One assemblage in Creede adopted a
resolution declaring that, " compared with E. O. Wolcott
Benedict Arnold was a patriot and Judas Iscariot a saint."

At first much disturbed, Mr. Wolcott tarried in the East
until after the national convention had been held. When
he arrived in Denver, he betook himself to his country resi-
dence at Wolhurst, and there remained for several days,
seeing only his most intimate political friends. His con-
versation with them indicated a dejected state of mind.
He seemed to have conceived the idea that the entire State
had fallen away from him and that there was not left a
sufficient number to render it worth while even to attempt
to maintain the Republican organization.

His steadfast political supporters and especial personal
followers were in a better state of mind. From the first they
maintained that a sufficient number to form a respectable
organization could be rallied, and they already had begun
to take steps to ascertain the standing of the Republican
State Central Committee with a view to using that if pos-
sible as a nucleus for an organization. Practical politicians
that they were, they realized the great importance of having
the party machinery behind them, and they argued that if
the committee as such could be held in line the result would
be greatly in their favor. With this end in view, they visited

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 241

the committeemen in various parts of the State, and toward
the time of its meeting were enabled to announce to Mr.
Wolcott that the committee would not go over to Mr. Bryan
and that it would declare in favor of its maintenance on
Republican lines. This statement was at first received by
him as incredible, and he refused to accept it until actual
demonstration of the fact was made.

" You will have to show me," he told them.

" Very well ; we will show you," they responded. And
they did.

When the committee came together prior to the hold-
ing of the conventions for the nomination of State officers,
the paramount question was whether the organization should
be turned over to Bryan. Many members advocated that
course, but the work of the regulars was made evident soon
after the body was called to order. The Bryan pro-
pagandists were stoutly antagonized, and at last the regulars
won, 46 to 34.

The size of the majority was as unexpected to Mr. Wol-
cott as it was to the opposition. He realized, of course, that
it did not represent the sentiment of the State at large, but
he appreciated that the result would give him an official
standing that he could not have had if the vote had gone
the other way. With the committee behind him he could
reorganize the party, and he felt sure that in time it would
regain its prestige. As his followers tell the story he took
on new life; his manner changed; he determined that there
should be a State convention, a Republican State ticket, and
Presidential electors, and that a campaign should be made.
- " Now," he said, " we have something to fight for. Engage
headquarters and we will go to work to make the best show-
ing we can." Leaving Wolhurst, he moved into Denver,
'and from that time forward entered heart and soul into
.»*fce campaign. He worked day and night and never was
his wonderful organizing talent displayed more effectively.
Of course the odds were tremendously against him. He was
hooted and jeered and threatened in many places, but he
persevered unto the end.

In the interest of accuracy it should be stated that after-
ward the regularity of the meeting of the committee was

242 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

challenged by the silver wing of the party on account of
numerous proxies, and the vote reversed. But the first
ballot had given Mr. Wolcott the status he sought, and it
proved the beginning point from which he went to work
to rebuild the party — a work in which he labored patiently
and diligently and, in the end, successfully. It proved a
tedious process, but he never tired, and no sacrifice was too
great for him.

ADDRESS TO VOTERS

He began his campaign by issuing an address to the voters
of the State, which, bearing date of August 1st, filled two
long columns in the Denver papers, and fairly bristled with
the terse words and tense sentences which, when thoroughly
aroused by a situation, he could command as few other men
could. In this address he took the position that while silver
was the vital question there was no chance for that metal
in the minority Democratic party or in the hopelessly be-
fuddled Populistic party. Declaring that Mr. Bryan had
been nominated on a Democratic platform, " the financial
portion of which was everything that could be desired and
the rest of it everything that is undesirable and hostile to
the interests of our country," he said : " I decline to stand
upon this platform and vote for this candidate even with
the alluring free-coinage plank; I cannot do it." He cogently
rehearsed his support of the policy of Protection, avowed
his respect for the Supreme Court, which had been criticised
by the Democratic platform, and asserted his general interest
in the maintenance of law and order, which he said would
be subverted under the Bryan doctrine. Declaring then his
intention to stand with his party regardless of the silver
question, he said : " My loyalty to the party which has hon-
ored me is entirely consistent with my loyalty to the highest
and best interests of the State I represent in the Senate of
the United States, and I know no reason why I should aban-
don my party or desert its colors.'' The document is so much
a part of the history of the time that it is given entire:

To the Voters op the State op Colorado:

The recent extraordinary political manifestations, and sweep-

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 243

ing changes of party affiliations seem to render it fitting and
desirable that I should publicly state my position in relation
to the approaching Presidential election. The people of Colo-
rado are entitled to know at such a juncture as this the views
of their representatives at Washington.

Among the greatest privileges we enjoy under republican in-
stitutions are freedom of conscience and freedom of speech, and
if I should hesitate on this, or on any other proper occasion, to
declare my belief and my convictions on any public question,
I should despise myself even more than I despise those incendiary
newspapers and hysterical individuals who assume that threats
and vituperation can choke the utterances of any self-respecting
citizen in Colorado who has an opinion to express or a principle
to declare.

The silver question is most vital. Until silver is restored to
its place as a money metal at the former parity, there can be
no prosperity either in this country or in the gold-using coun-
tries of Europe. Year by year the value of gold increases, and
the value of agricultural products, measured in gold, declines.
International bimetallism at the former ratio would, of course,
be the most desirable method of restoring silver as a money
metal, because the disturbance of values which might follow the
inauguration of free coinage by the United States alone would be
avoided, and the question as to the exportation or hoarding of
gold would be eliminated. In my opinion, however, the United
States alone could, under wise and conservative guidance — such
guidance as should deserve and receive the confidence of all classes
of our people — open its mints to the unlimited coinage of silver
and successfully maintain that metal at a parity with gold, at the
ratio of 16 to 1, independently of the other nations of the world.
During the seven years of my public service in the Senate I
have always held this view; my vote on all questions affecting
the currency has been identical with that of the other Senators
usually known as silver Senators; and while my utterances on
the silver question may not have been as frequent or as long
as those of others whose views I share, nevertheless my record
on this subject is clear and consistent, and the views I hold I
expect always to maintain.

The financial plank of the national Republican platform is
far from satisfactory, and those members of the party who be-
lieve as I believe will struggle earnestly and hopefully for the
full and complete recognition and adoption by the Republican
party of the humane principle of bimetallism; animated by the

244 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

belief that the party which on every other great question in-
volving human freedom and the welfare of mankind has stood
for all that was uplifting and ennobling, will yet realize that
a continuance of the gold standard means only further impover-
ishment and suffering. The platform contains, however, a most
important statement, pledging the party to the furtherance of
bimetallism by international agreement. To the good faith of
this pledge, the history of the party on other questions requires
the fullest credence; the overshadowing importance of the silver
question makes it certain to my mind that every effort will be
earnestly made by the Republican party to secure to this country
the blessings of bimetallism, and it is my sincere conviction
that silver will again be restored to its place as a money metal,
at the old ratio and that, when this restoration comes, it will
be accomplished through the action and efforts of the Republican
party.

Except on the money question, no man in Colorado who be-
lieves in the protection of American labor and American pro-
ducts and American industries, and who loves his country, can
read the platform without hearty approval; and no man doubts
that Major McKinley will bring to his high office every quality
needed by a President of this great people.

Mr. Bryan has been nominated for the Presidency on three
separate platforms, by the Democratic party, the Populist party,
and the Silver party. The last-named party— the Silver party —
does not deserve serious consideration. Most of its members
were present at its recent convention in St. Louis, and the
newspapers report the convention hall as being less than half
full.

The Democratic party nominated Mr. Bryan upon a platform,
the financial portion of which was everything that could be
desired, and the rest of it everything that is, in my opinion,
undesirable and hostile to the interests of our country.

It declares in terms against any tariff except for revenue, and
denounces the tariff bills enacted during the last Republican
administration.

It rebukes the Supreme Court of the United States.

It declares against any changes of our tariff laws until the
money question is settled, except such as are necessary to make
good the deficit caused by the decision of the Supreme Court
in the income-tax cases; and this declaration is made in the
face of the fact that the revenues of this country are grossly
insufficient to meet its necessary expenses, and that the deficit

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 245

is many millions more than any estimated revenue from the
proposed income tax.

It denounces the profligate waste and lavish appropriation of
recent Republican Congresses. Both the Colorado Senators have
been members of these " recent Republican Congresses," and have
voted for most of the appropriations.

Above all, the platform denounces the interference of Federal
authorities in local affairs. This plank was openly stated to be
an attack upon the Government for sending Federal troops to
preserve life and property during the recent railway strike in
Chicago

This, fellow-citizens, is the platform which was adopted unani-
mously by that portion of the Democratic party which nominated
Mr. Bryan, one of the platforms upon which he stands, a plat-
form which those who vote for him must practically indorse.
I decline to stand upon this platform and vote for this candidate,
even with the alluring free-coinage plank. I cannot do it. I
am a believer in protection and shall not abandon that belief.
The Supreme Court of the United States is a pure and able
tribunal, the highest judicial tribunal in the world; I will not
help smirch it. The Government must be enabled to pay its
running expenses, and whenever my vote is needed for that pur-
pose and I fail to vote it supplies to keep it alive, I shall con-
sider that I violate my oath as Senator. The " recent Republican
Congresses " have been neither wasteful nor extravagant, and I
must decline to certify to a statement I know to be untrue.
When, some months ago, the great railway strike at Chicago
grew beyond control, and innocent lives were being sacrificed
and millions of dollars' worth of property was being destroyed
by lawless men ; when the sheriff was powerless and the governor
failed to perform his duty, the President of the United States,
with Federal troops, under sanction of law, saved further blood-
shed and destruction and thereby deserved the thanks of every
man who values our liberties and believes that the rights guaran-
teed us by the Constitution ought to be sacredly guarded against
every form of lawlessness.

The recent travesty at St. Louis, the Populist convention, has
but illustrated the elements which naturally gravitate toward
the candidacy of Mr. Bryan. Every cranky quirk, every incon-
gruous and ludicrous and misshapen idea which the wheels in
the brains of men could evolve, buzzed and whirled through days
of talk, but the net result was Bryan. Government ownership
of railroad, telegraph, and telephone lines, initiative and referen-

246 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

dum, silver money and more money had their advocates, and
at the end, on assurance that all who voted for Bryan would
be equally recognized, Mr. Bryan was almost the unanimous
choice of the convention.

For four years in Colorado we have been fighting Populism
and Populists; that party is as unfit now as it has ever been
to control the welfare of this people. The party stands to-day
just where it has always stood. I am not yet willing to march
under its banner.

Because, therefore, I believe that free coinage will come
through the efforts of the Republican party, and because the
Democratic and Populist platforms, except on the money ques-
tion, are odious and hostile to the welfare of our country, I
shall not cast my vote for Mr. Bryan.

Seven years ago I was elected to the Senate by the Repub-
lican votes of the General Assembly, and against the opposition
of every Democrat in the two houses. My re-election met the
united opposition of every Democrat and every Populist member
of the General Assembly. I hold my commission from the Re-
publican party. Many of its members, including some of its
leaders, in the exercise of their judgment, have announced
their intention of leaving the party. I shall stay. My loyalty
to the party which has honored me is entirely consistent
with my loyalty to the highest and best interests of the;
State I represent in the Senate of the United States, and
I know no reason why I should abandon my party or desert
its colors.

It is to me a source of the deepest regret that my position
is at variance with that of many of the former members of
the Republican party — among them many who have honored
me with their personal friendship. I trust that time and further
reflection and the course of events will bring us together again
in unity of agreement.

But whatever may result, my path of duty is plain. My
one aspiration is for the welfare of the State in which I have
lived for more than a quarter of a century — all the years of my
manhood. Every interest I have is here, and Colorado will be
my home until I am buried in its soil. The differences which
exist are not as to the result we seek, but as to the best method
of reaching that result.

There is to my mind no reason why it was not as much our
duty to vote for Weaver four years ago as for Bryan to-day.
The Omaha platform declared for free coinage and was no more

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 247

objectionable than the Chicago platform; and Bryan is vouched
for by leading Populists as being " as good a Populist as lives."
The Populists have not changed in the past four years. It is
we who are expected to join their aggregation. Others may find
it wise or expedient, but I won't do it. If ever the course of
events should make it possible for me to speak from the same
platform as Tillman or Waite or Ignatius Donnelly, in advocacy
of the same Presidential candidate, I should know there must
be something wrong with me. What we need in Colorado is
less hysterics and more common-sense. We have glorious re-
sources, yet in the infancy of their development; we are suffer-
ing from the imposition of a mistaken financial policy, which it
is our natural and proper desire to see overthrown as speedily
as possible. We are one of forty-six States in the Union, each
free and sovereign. Within our borders live about one one-
hundred-and-fiftieth of the people of the United States. We live
in a Republic where the majority rules. The vast majority of
the people of the United States are honest and of high average
intelligence, and devoted to the perpetuity of free institutions.
Our great desire is to induce a majority of the people of the
United States to believe as we believe. The way to the
accomplishment of this result is not by vituperation and
abuse.

The press of the country, East as well as West, is largely
responsible for the bitter sectional feeling now sought to be
invoked. It is for us who do not own or control newspapers,
and are not in the business of throwing mud, to remember that
of the millions of people who will cast their ballots this fall,
nearly all are as patriotic as we are, and, with us, equally de-
sirous that this Republic shall live and not die. The people
of the East are our brothers; we sprang from the same loins;
we have a common country, a common faith, and the same dear
flag. This gospel of hate, which is now being preached, should
find no followers among sane men, no welcome among good
citizens.

We who believe in the free coinage of gold and silver at
our mints, at the ratio heretofore existing, will secure the adop-
tion of our views when we are able to induce the majority of
our fellow-citizens to share our belief; when people who do not
now agree with us shall be led to agree with us, not alone be-
cause of our arguments on finance, but because our views on
other great questions entitle us to public confidence and respect.
Free coinage will never come, in my opinion, out of the jumble

248 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

and folly of the Chicago platform, nor will it be heralded by
the cap and bells of Populism.

Edward Oliver Wolcott.
Denver, August 1, 1896.

THE CAMPAIGN

The convention for the nomination of candidates for the
State offices was not held until the last day of September,
and it took place at Colorado Springs, the only city in the
State where straight Republicanism could hope to receive
any toleration. The convention was well attended, but its
members were so united in support of the junior Senator
that the work was speedily despatched. It was an orderly,
but determined, body of men, who knew what they wanted to
do and who lost no time in carrying their plans into practice.
Speaking of the character of the members of the convention,
the Colorado Springs Gazette, the only Republican paper of
any importance in the State which had remained loyal, said :

" It was the nicest and biggest body of men that has
ever assembled here for convention purposes. There were
none of the usual scenes of drinking and carousing that usu-
ally accompany political gatherings, and this was a fact
particularly commented on by the visitors."

Judge George W. Allen, a State district judge in Denver,
was named for Governor, and a full ticket was placed in
the field.

General Hamill was chairman of the Committee on Reso-
lutions, and the platform reported by him and adopted by
the convention declared the people of Colorado " irre-
spective of party " to be favorable to the free coinage of
silver; expressed regret at the position on the subject taken
by the national party at St. Louis, and then voiced the con-
fidence that " the remonetization of silver, so essential to
the prosperity of this and of all other civilized, countries,
will be accomplished through the efforts and under the direc-
tion of the Republican party of this country, and through
no other channel." Except upon the silver question, the
convention heartily and cordially endorsed the platform of
the party adopted at St. Louis. Senator Wolcott was
sustained in the following plank :

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 249

" We heartily commend and endorse the noble and fear-
less position taken by the Honorable E. O. Wolcott in his
splendid efforts in the interest of Americanism, Republi-
canism, the people of the State of Colorado, and for the
preservation of the Republican party in Colorado from
disintegration."

Mr. Wolcott was both temporary chairman and perma-
nent chairman of the convention. In his speech assuming
the first position he reviewed the issues of the campaign
thoroughly, and took occasion to refer to a former statement
that he would join any other great party that would de-
clare for free silver. He confessed to that promise, and
said in explanation :

There are two things I must offer in explanation : In the
first place, I did not dream that they were going to join hands
with Populists and give us the anarchistic platform. Nor did
I ever dream that the change would make me stand on the
same platform with Governor Waite and General Coxey, and
when I really came to face the possibility of leaving the dear
old party, I would n't play ; — that 's all. I walked up to the
trough, but I could n't drink.

Speaking of Mr. Wolcott's speech before the convention,
the Gazette said:

It was the most effective speech ever delivered in the State
of Colorado.

It was red hot all the way through to the end, and the end
was the finest flight of oratory founded on genuine patriotic
feeling that the present writer ever heard. Before he reached
the peroration, the audience had been almost uproarious in its
applause of the many telling shots fired into the enemy's camp.
After the first sentence, a death-like stillness came over the
house — men and women fairly held their breath as they hung
upon the orator's lips, and many an eye was moist. Then signs
of a desire to express the pent-up feeling began to be evident;
and before the last sentence had been reached the audience could
hold in no longer, and burst forth in the most tremendous applause
ever heard in that great auditorium. Men stood up on chairs
and flourished their arms and threw up their hats. Women
waved their handkerchiefs, and everybody hurrahed until he was

250 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

tired. It was a magnificent tribute to a most splendid and in-
spiring effort of genius. It was a scene which those who wit-
nessed will never forget. It was an occasion of which Mr.
Wolcott may be proud as long as he lives.

The campaign attracted wide attention, and Mr. Wol-
cott's course was the subject of much commendation from
party leaders throughout the country. Occasionally also
there was a cheering word from the Republican press, a
specimen of which is the following from the New York
Tribune, of October 6, 1896:

While we are having here in the East such an easy fight that
the campaign seems almost to run itself, with an almost certain
prospect of a walkover in November, we must not forget that
there are Republicans in some of the silver States who are quite
differently situated. They are making a hard, heroic, uphill
fight for Republicanism, with the odds heavily against them. In
the whole political field there is to-day no finer figure than that
of Senator Wolcott of Colorado. Deserted by his colleague and
by so many of his old Republican friends and associates that he
seems to be facing almost alone an overwhelming opposition, he
is standing up for McKinley and for Republicanism with the des-
perate courage of a forlorn hope. The magnificent energy which
he has thrown into a desperate encounter against heavy odds,
heightened by the gift of unusual eloquence and the wide per-
sonal popularity due to the attractiveness of his manner and
the evident sincerity of his convictions, recall the famous Mary-
land statesman, Henry Winter Davis, who in similar hostile
conditions braved an overwhelming opposition in his own State
in the struggle for the preservation of the Union and rendered
the greatest possible service to the cause.

Senator Wolcott is entitled to the highest praise for the
manly courage with which he has maintained his convictions,
resisting the turbulent tide of Populism which has apparently
carried Colorado off its feet, and has saved the Republican party
of the State from utter demoralization. . . . We repeat that
the attitude of Senator Wolcott, in making in the silver State
of Colorado a manly stand-up fight for Republican principles
and the integrity of the party, entitles him to something more
than passing praise. His services, even though they may not
prove immediately effective among his own constituents, cannot
fail to be of ultimate benefit to the party and the cause, and

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 251

there can be no reasonable doubt that they will receive grateful
recognition.

The ticket was overwhelmingly defeated, but the party
organization was preserved and was kept in shape for future
campaigns, when Mr. Wolcott predicted the Republican party
would come into its own in Colorado, as ultimately it did.

Mr. Wolcott did not make many speeches in the campaign,
but those he did make were among the most notable of his
career and will take rank in history with the best political
speeches ever made in any State by any orator under trying
circumstances. With the State hostile to him almost to the
point of personal attack, he was notified from many quarters
that lie would not be allowed to speak if he should visit
the sections mentioned. Under the circumstances, he did
not consider it worth while to make an extended tour of
the State, but confined himself to addresses at Colorado
Springs and Denver. The first of these was made at the
Springs on the 16th of September, and the last in Denver
on the 24th of October. Coming midway between these two
was a short speech at the State Convention when it met
at Colorado Springs, on the 30th of September.

Except for his written address to the voters, Mr. Wol-
cott had not been heard from since the national conventions
previous to the first Colorado Springs speech, and intense
interest in his movements was felt throughout the State.
His speech had been widely advertised, and when it ap-
peared in the newspapers was read with eagerness by the
general public. Colorado Springs was then, as it still is, a
city of much culture. Its population was composed very
largely of Northern people, many of whom resided there on
account of health, and were unmoved by local conditions.
It always has been a centre of Republicanism, and there was
less change there in 1890 than in any other portion of the
State. Consequently, Mr. Wolcott chose wisely in selecting
that city as the place for his first appearance and as the
location of his State Convention.

Few men have received a greater ovation than was

252 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

awarded bira upon his arrival during the afternoon pre-
ceding the night in which the address of September 16th
was to be given. The city turned out almost to a man to
greet him when his train pulled into the station, and he
was escorted to his hotel by such a procession as the place
never had seen. Two special trains from Denver and other
specials from other near-by cities augmented the crowd, which
was so large that only a small percentage could find space
within the auditorium in which the meeting was held, not-
withstanding it seated forty-five hundred people. In the
parade ladies marched side by side with their husbands, and
both men and women were greeted by immense throngs on the
sidewalks and on the house-tops as the procession passed
along. Mr. Wolcott was driven to the Antlers Hotel, but
he was not allowed to disappear from sight before lifting
his voice in a word to the throng that crowded the Plaza
in front of that building. He spoke very briefly, but his
words are worth quoting as indicating his method of meeting
the attacks which were constantly being made upon him.
He said:

Ladies and Gentlemen: I thank you from the bottom of
my heart for this welcome. I wish that the papers of this
State that have been saying for the past three months that I
am not in touch with the people of the State were here to wit-
ness this demonstration. I have been here about three months
and I find that I have been " touched " about as often as formerly.
We have nothing to apologize for and nothing to explain. We
do not propose to betray our party and we are not going to
put up a ticket that will fuse with anybody. The most pitiable
exhibition that has ever been seen in the State was the four or
more sets of office-seekers who got together in Denver last week,
ready to fuse with anybody, and seeking to fool one another
and grab everything in sight. There was no principle in it,
nothing but greed. The man from Judea got away with the
baggage. Think of the Silver Republicans putting up as their
leader, as the chief representative of their party, Simon Guggen-
heim ! All that we have is here in Colorado. We will have
to live here for some time yet before we come to believe that
any ticket that has T. M. Patterson at the head of it is for
the best interest of Colorado. If Colorado for the second time
casts its vote for the Populist electors we shall all feel it.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 253

The regular speech at the Springs on this occasion
was one of the most memorable ever made by the Senator.
He touched upon most of the questions of the day, many
of which were quite personal to himself, in such a manner
as to win many admirers if he did not add to the number
of his supporters. The speech appears entire elsewhere, and
only two extracts will be given here. He was defiant and
independent throughout, as witness the following from the
first sentences:

We have no apologies or explanations to make to anybody,
for we have not cut loose from our moorings, or lost our bear-
ings; we stand where we have always stood, with our faces
toward the dawn, presenting a united front against Socialism,
paternalism, and Populism, including Waiteisin, Pattersonism,
Coxeyism, and Bryanism. We have not betrayed our party, nor
do we intend to abandon its great principles. Eight bolting
delegates could not take our consciences and our convictions with
them out of a national convention of our party. We are not
to be delivered over to the Democratic-Populist conglomeration
by manifesto or otherwise; and we meet to-night to send word
to our brothers of kindred faith with us all over the Union, that
at the first organized party rally in Colorado, thousands, many
thousands, of faithful Republicans assembled in El Paso County
to declare their enthusiastic and earnest faith in Republican
principles and their loyal devotion to McKinley and Hobart.

And this from the body of the address :

I am a Republican. Democratic dogmas have no charm for
me, and it is my firm conviction that the doctrines of the Popu-
list party are dangerous and are subversive of the interests and
threaten the perpetuity of this republic. Believing as I do,
therefore, I welcome the hostility of both Democrats and Popu-
lists, if there is now any difference between them. It is in-
finitely pleasanter to me than their approval. It has been my
good fortune to have been twice elected to the Senate of the
United States from Colorado. On each occasion every Democrat
and every Populist member of the Legislature was actively and
bitterly opposed to my election. I was not elected by Demo-
cratic and Populist votes, and please God I never shall be. As
long as I live I expect to combat and fight their teachings and
their tenets, and when either of these two parties, now appar-

254 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

ently united, shall indorse me, or approve my political course, I
shall know it for an everlasting sign that I have betrayed and
abandoned the party whose commission I hold.

His speech in the Coliseum in Denver was delivered to
an audience which in the main was in perfect accord with
him, and when he appeared upon the platform he was re-
ceived with tremendous applause, which continued for many
minutes. Boldly attacking the opposition, he declared in
the beginning that his party was not a party of fusion, and,
referring to the numerous addresses which were being pro-
mulgated by the Silver Republicans and Populists, he de-
clared himself to be a Republican and again announced that
he had no apologies to make on that account. Making the
most that he might of the Republican declaration for inter-
national bimetallism, he asserted that neither of the other
parties could guarantee the free coinage of silver even if
willing to do so. The Democratic platform was denounced
as a menace to Republican institutions. These and many
other reasons were given for not breaking with the Republican
party and going over to either of the other parties which
promised more for the white metal. Declaring himself to
be a citizen of the Union as well as of the State, he said,
" I charge myself with loyalty wider than the borders of
the commonwealth in which I live."

The Denver speech was delivered under very trying cir-
cumstances. That city was largely hostile to Mr. Wolcott,
and there had been an effort to confine the attendance to
his friends. Many others, however, found their way into
the building, and strenuous efforts were made to break
up the meeting and turn it into a Bryan ovation. It looked
for a time as if this plan would succeed, but, when Mr.
Wolcott made his appearance, his magnetism was such
that all possibilities in that direction soon vanished. Be-
ginning his address in the midst of great confusion, he soon
brought order out of chaos, and no man ever had a more
attentive audience than he had for the greater portion of
his speech. This fact was remarked on every hand, and
the comment was common that " those who had come to
scoff had remained to pray." Probably no better illustra-

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 255

tion of his mastery over men was ever afforded than in
this speech, and every incident of the occasion was re-
membered by his followers for many years afterward as one
of the best instances of his great power, not as an orator
only but as a fearless and persevering man.

At that time Mr. Wolcott was without a friend among
the newspapers of Denver, and as a consequence the only
accounts of the Denver meeting were written from a hostile
point of view. There was, however, enough of news interest
in the speech to compel a full report of its text and this was
given, although it was accompanied by harsh denunciation
of its author. In the report of the meeting before us, Mr.
Wolcott is spoken of as an " excrescence " and frequently
referred to as " Cousin Ed." In one place we are told that
the assemblage was composed almost entirely of friends of
Wolcott, admittance being only by card, and in another
that the meeting came near being stampeded to Bryan.
Again, we are assured that there was a poor attendance
while later the reporter, forgetting himself in describing an
anti-Wolcott demonstration, said that " the hall was too
crowded for the Wolcott sergeant-at-arms to reach any one."

Although probably unintentionally, this reporter has left
a very graphic and doubtless an accurate account of one of
Mr. Wolcott's greatest triumphs as a public speaker. He
was intending only to explain the hostility of the crowd,
but in accomplishing that purpose he also placed on record
an account of the man's wonderful magnetism and complete
mastery of such a situation as would have baffled most men.

When Wolcott entered the hall Thomas E. McClelland,
a Republican candidate for Congress, was addressing the
audience, but he suspended to permit a fitting reception.
There was a very hearty salutation. Let the reporter tell
the remainder of the story :

His supporters tried to keep up the shouting just a little
too long. When the first " sag " occurred some one in the
gallery shouted " three cheers for Bryan," and several hundreds
responded.

" Three cheers for Teller," were called for, and they were
given more freely this time.

25« EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

The Wolcott people began to get anxious as the cheering was
taken up in the different parts of the hall.

State Senator McNeeley, late of Custer, rose and put his
foot in it by demanding that the supporters of Senator Teller
be thrown out.

In a moment there was an upturning. The people rose and
yelled defiantly.

The hall was too crowded for the Wolcott sergeant-at-arms
to reach any one. There was general uproar, getting more seri-
ous all the time on account of the McNeeley request, and the
fear that the meeting would have to end.

Mr. McClelland was waiting to resume his speech, but he
was waiting in vain. At the request of Senator Wolcott he
attempted to proceed, but the noise drowned him. The Wolcott
boosters, in their nervousness, were really making the most of
the confusion.

The chairman, Mr. Cook, Greeley W. Whitford, and several
minor lights attempted to get order, but made matters really
worse.

Senator Wolcott, who was chafing in his seat like a reined
war-horse, could stand it no longer, and he bounded to the front
and brushed the others aside. Buttoning his Prince Albert coat
he launched forth, and had there been really an organized gath-
ering opposed to him it might have been dangerous. But his
" bluff " went. There was quiet.

" If there are any persons here disposed to make a disturb-
ance on behalf of Mr. Bryan, I want to tell them that they have
got the right town and number, but the wrong street ; their meet-
ing is up on Sixteenth Street," he shouted. " If any of you here
in this audience are such it is because you have got somebody's
money for being here, and you should go back to the saloons
where those people found you and tell them that when you
got down here you found an audience of ladies and gentlemen,
and there was no room for you. Tell them this is a place of
meeting of decent people, who respect individual opinion, and
allow other people to have their own meeting, and we do not
propose to tolerate the interruption of a lot of bummers and
heelers."

No one took offence and he went after the newspaper press
right away. Then he spoke of the feelings of the State with
respect to silver and his position. He insisted that the McKin-
leyites were being shamefully treated, and some were afraid
to let their sentiments become known. The reign of terror of

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 257

the French Revolution had hardly anything to equal it, the junior
Senator announced.

As Senator Wolcott proceeded he got some of the audience
to warm up and cheer him. But as he got to a glowing period
some one demanded, "What's the matter with Teller?" which
caused a damper for a time. But the Senator had his audience
shouting when he returned to the newspapers.

In this meeting Mr. Wolcott accomplished another won-
derful feat. He rose above the strife of the moment to pay
tribute to the personal worth of his colleague, Senator
Teller. Although the two men had been members of the
same party, they now were rival State leaders, Teller of
the big Silver party, Wolcott of the much smaller Republi-
can party. Notwithstanding these conditions, Mr. Wrolcott
not only recognized the honesty of his antagonist, but he
voiced the recognition in the most public manner possible.

He was referring to the attacks of a Denver paper upon
himself, and for the purpose of showing that he was not
the only object of the newspaper's hostility, he had had
collected a number of criticisms formerly made by that paper
of the senior Senator, and, holding them aloft, called at-
tention to them :

I hold in my hand [he said] typewritten copies, and they are
not five per cent, of what I could have got from the files of
that paper, of the most filthy and dirty and outrageous and
lying attacks that were ever made, upon my colleague, during
the different years he has been in public life. I won't soil my
tongue by reading them. Those of you who have lived here
during the past ten years have read them. They include the
direct charge that since my colleague has been in public life,
fighting the battle for silver in Washington, he has been an
enemy of silver and would defeat it if he could. They charge
him with personal dishonor and personal misconduct, and per-
sonal dishonesty, when there never was a man of purer life
connected with public affairs.

No wonder so magnanimous a sentiment was cheered,
as it was, to the echo.

But, that justice may be done and that another instance
of magnanimity in politics may be recorded, it should be

258 EDWAED OLIVER WOLCOTT

stated that the paper which was the subject of the Senator's
condemnation printed the speech entire and gave the best
account of the meeting that was published.

After Mr. Wolcott's death in 1905, W. S. Boynton, of
Colorado Springs, was quoted by the Denver Republican as
saying :

Senator Wolcott's speech at Colorado Springs in the cam-
paign of 1896 was the finest thing I ever heard. It was grand.
He espoused the cause of McKinley with all his fervor and with
that eloquence for which he was noted pleaded against sectional-
ism. It was the grandest speech ever made in Colorado. Sen-
ator Wolcott practically preserved the Republican party in those
troublous times and it was mostly due to his efforts that the
organization was maintained in 1896, 1898, and 1900.

Continuing its reference to the campaign, the Republi-
can, which in the meantime had become a supporter of
Mr. Wolcott, said:

Practically the same thing is said of the Coliseum Hall
speech, in Denver. Excitement ran high in the city. The Sen-
ator declared that he had a right to speak, as well as any
other man. He declared that he would speak, in spite of threats
against his life. And he did. He called upon John Russell,
then chief of police, for police protection, and a squad of patrol-
men preserved order at the hall. In addition to this, friends
of the Senator stationed themselves near the platform in case
trouble arose. The Senator was at his best. He protested
against sectionalism, he pleaded the cause of McKinley and the
old Republican party with all the eloquence at his command
and before he concluded he had the audience applauding to the
echo. Here was furnished an instance of how his forensic abil-
ity appealed to the people. Crowds flocked to hear him that
evening and the meeting was the most largely attended of any
in Denver during that campaign, not excepting the gathering
which was addressed by William Jennings Bryan.

In its review of Mr. Wolcott's life, the Denver Times bore
similar testimony concerning the campaign of '96. It said :

Speaking in towns and cities where he had been informed
his life was not worth a moment's purchase, the magic eloquence

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 259

of this gifted man stilled vast audiences of those who, although
they hated him and the principles which he supported, could
not remain away from the sound of his voice. Those who came
to sneer and deride him remained spellbound, and, when the
last word had fallen from the speaker's lips, awoke as if from
a hypnotic sleep and found themselves applauding. Senator
Wolcott was never so great as he was during this period. Oppo-
sition of the most virulent kind brought out every latent ability.

No one expected anything less than an overwhelming
triumph for Bryan in the State, and in this respect there
was no disappointment. Not only did the State give Bryan
its vote by the unprecedentedly large majority of 134,882
out of a total of 187,882 votes, but its citizens contributed
large sums of money to the Bryan campaign fund for use
elsewhere.

Owing to the failure to fuse there was not such una-
nimity on the opposition State ticket. For Governor, Alva
Adams, Democrat, received 87,456 votes ; M. S. Bailey, Popu-
list, 71,683, and George Allen, Republican, 24,111. The
Legislature was largely Democratic, and Senator Teller was
re-elected by it.

THE CAMPAIGN OF '98

THE campaign of 1898 was similar in many respects to
that of 1896, and the result, as before, was against the
Republicans. The majority, however, was far less.
This year Henry R. Wolcott was the Republican candidate
for Governor. He was not elected, but his vote was more
than twice that cast for Judge Allen two years before, while
the vote for his opponent, Hon. C. S. Thomas, of Denver, was
94,274. The Thomas figures were about 7000 in excess of
the vote cast for Adams in 1896, but almost 65,000 less
than the vote for Adams and Bailey combined. Thus the
Republican gain was very marked, and the Wolcotts received
a most flattering endorsement.

The State Convention was held at Denver, September
15th, and E. O. Wolcott presided. The speech nominating
Henry Wolcott for Governor was made by General W. A.
Hamill, the old-time friend of the brothers. He said :

This is a representative body and not a body of swappers
and traders. It is the province of this body to place candidates
before the people of Colorado for their approval, and it is
not the province of any committee to perform your functions.
Under the false pretence that they are the only friends of
silver, a certain coterie of gentlemen recently assembled at Colo-
rado Springs, some calling themselves Democrats, others Popu-
lists, and some Silver Republicans, and by a committee that
required some two days and three nights to reach a conclusion,
and which was composed entirely of trading politicians of this
State from the various parties, have presented for the suffrages
of the people of Colorado a mongrel ticket composed of Demo-
crats, Populists, and so-called Silver Republicans, and have pre-

260

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 261

sented it with the excuse that it is the only way to test what
they call the silver issue in Colorado.

Now, as to the silver issue in Colorado, just stop and think
for a moment. There is not a sane man or woman within the
boundaries of this State that is not a bimetallist. All are
necessarily so. Self-interest alone would teach them to be so
if nothing else did. So the question of bimetallism in Colorado
never has been, never can be, and never will be a dead issue
until settled.

I am not going to criticise the men, for I believe there are
good men and women on the patch-work ticket. But take the
head of the ticket. That gentleman four years ago was making
special efforts to beat the Populist party in this State. How
can he with decency and honor and manhood ask any consistent
Populist to support him? I have known the head of that ticket
for over twenty years as a bitter partisan politician. I am
speaking of him politically and not as to his private character.
The burden of all his creeds has been that all the ills that
flesh is heir to are brought about by the Republican party.
How can he ask any Republican to support him, whether Silver
Republican or otherwise?

The man whose name I shall submit to you is a bimetallist
in the broadest and noblest sense of the word. I had the pleas-
ure of his acquaintance many years ago. He was then engaged
as a practical — mark the word — miner in the old county of
Gilpin, and has brought his earnings year by year and his splen-
did business ability to the development of the gold and silver
mines of this State. His name is well and favorably known in
golden Boulder, in the silvery San Juan, in Gilpin, and Clear
Creek and Cripple Creek and Ouray, and all other mining dis-
tricts. His form is familiar on the streets of every mining
camp in this State, and his name is a household word in every
miner's camp. No man in distress, no woman in adversity, no
rising young fellow wanting a helping hand has ever applied
to him in vain. He has brought to this State millions of dol-
lars to develop the mining resources. He has built monument
after monument on your streets, such as the Boston building
and the Equitable building with money he was mainly instru-
mental in raising.

Such a man you can take to your hearts and support at the
polls, as I know he has supported the State. I submit the name
of Mr. Henry R. Wolcott as candidate for the position of
Governor.

262 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

For a time during this campaign Hon. Simon Guggen-
heim of the wealthy New York family of this name, who
afterward was elected by the Colorado Legislature to the
United States Senate as a Republican, was a candidate for
Governor. He was nominated by a branch of the Silver
Republican organization, but he withdrew from the contest
and many of his followers became supporters of Mr.
Wolcott.

There was a slight effort on the part of some delegates
to the regular convention to have the nomination of Mr.
Guggenheim endorsed, but it was not pressed and Mr. Wol-
cott was nominated by acclamation.

The opposition was by no means as harmonious as were
the Republicans, and while in the end complete fusion was
effected, it only came after much wrangling and contention.

Again Senator Wolcott was the subject of all attacks,,
" the storm centre," as he described himself. He was made
the object of much vituperation by the newspapers of the
State. There was, however, a noticeable softening of general
public feeling.

The Wolcott brothers stumped the State together, and
were received cordially wherever they went. Again this year
Senator Wolcott made his two principal speeches in Denver
and Colorado Springs. In those addresses he gave an ac-
count of his mission to Europe in the interest of bimetal-
lism, and he again placed on record the prediction that
ultimately through the efforts of the Republican party
silver would be restored to its old place as a money metal.
In a sense Mr. Wolcott was embarrassed by the candidacy
of his brother. There was evident a constant desire to
praise him, but he was more restrained from motives of
delicacy than he would have been if there had been no bond
of kinship between them. He did, however, assure the peo-
ple that if elected Henry would serve them faithfully and
well.

Henry Wolcott made only short speeches, explaining that
he had entered into a contract with his brother that the
latter should do " all the speaking for the pair." Henry's
continuing popularity in the State was attested in this cam-
paign; his every appearance was a signal for prolonged

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 263

cheers. At Colorado Springs he took notice of a report
which was in general circulation to the effect that he was
a " sacrificial candidate " and that he had accepted the nomi-
nation for Governor with no hope of being elected, but for
the purpose of assisting to prepare the way for his brother's
re-election to the Senate two years from that time.

The papers are trying to make it appear [he said] that
I do not expect to be elected; that I have been nominated
to be defeated, in order that I may, in some mysterious manner,
which I must confess I am too dense to understand, elect some
other person to some position in some other year in the dim
future. I understand that one of the candidates for governor
has withdrawn. The candidate of the Democracy may with-
draw, but I shall be in this race until the 8th of November and
I confidently expect on that day that every one on the Republican
ticket will be elected.

He made his longest speech at a monster meeting held
in Denver on the evening of November 3d, a few days before
the election, when he said :

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I ought to feel en-
tirely at home in any meeting of the citizens of Denver, for I
have spent twenty years of the thirty years I have lived in
the State as a resident of Denver, and I have the pleasure of
personal acquaintance with a majority of the people composing
this vast audience. But somehow, I would rather talk to a
few of you at a time than to address you now from this plat-
form. Those who know me best would be the most astonished
if I were to attempt to make a speech and I shall not disappoint
you.

But even if I were inclined to, I should restrain myself
to-night, for abler speakers will present the issues of the cam-
paign. Besides, I have learned some wisdom from my opponent
who must these days have been wishing he never had made
speeches and that he had never written letters, and never sub-
mitted to interviews for publication.

Fellow-citizens, I am here because I am a Republican, and
I have received the endorsement of every wing and branch of
the party which in any decency is entitled to the use of the
name Republican, as its candidate for governor.

I am very weary of the old lie which has been told, and

264 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

which is repeated now from day to day, that the Republican
party is opposed to silver. We are told that those who do
not vote the fusion ticket are the enemies and the foes of the
white metal.

Is it fair to say that because a Prohibitionist who believes
in the principles of his party votes that ticket, he is there-
fore an enemy of silver? Our different religious organizations
have different views as to which is the true road which
leads to Heaven, but they are all trying to get there. They are
all striving to reach the same gate when all is done. The ways
are many, but the end is one. And so it is with every one
in Colorado. No one can be more interested in silver than I
am, or in enhancing the value of silver, for the greatest pros-
perity I ever had in this State has come through my interest in
silver mining.

What Colorado needs is increased prosperity. We need
greater activity in our mines and in our works. Our manufac-
tures are to be built up. Business is to be improved in every
direction, and this can be accomplished, in my judgment, only
through the Republican party. It is through that party alone
that we can ever expect to see silver restored to the position
which it must sooner or later again occupy as a money metal
the world over.

It seems to me that the time has come for us to take the
position that hereafter we will support this government in every
good measure which is calculated to advance the welfare and
the best interests of the entire country; that the time has come
for us to take the position that while we are residents of Colo-
rado we are, over and above and beyond all, loyal and patriotic
citizens of the United States.

It has been my intention to make no pledges or promises
during this campaign, and so far I have made none. I have
declined to answer letters which have been addressed to me,
and which were calculated to forestall legislation and to com-
mit me to some certain action on matters which will come before
the Legislature, and I have treated all alike, no matter how
much or how little sympathy I may have had with them.

But it seems to me it is fair and right for me to say to
you, citizens of Denver, in no uncertain terms, that I am for-
ever and unequivocally in favor of home rule for our city.
I believe that good and true men can be found, I would
almost say alike regardless of their party, who can give their
time to the upbuilding and the improvement of our city, to the

Henry R. Wolcott.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 265

advancement of its material welfare, and that they should be
allowed to do so without the interference of any outside person.
Fellow-citizens, if I am elected as executive of this great
commonwealth on Tuesday next, as I now confidently believe I
shall be, I must remember that I have predicted here to-night
that the success of the Republican ticket means the return of
prosperity to this State. I must remember that I have promised
you, as I do now, that I shall give my undivided time to con-
ducting the affairs of the State, so far as they are under my
control, upon strictly business principles. I must remember that
my own good name is at stake and my reputation as well; that
I expect to live, so long as God gives me life, among the citizens
of Denver, and it shall be my ambition so to conduct the affairs
of the office that when I shall retire you and I and friend and
foe alike shall feel I did my level best.

THE BIG FIGHT OF 1900

WHILE the result of the campaign of 1898 had been
disappointing, the work done in the interest of the
Republican party was of such a thorough character
that immediately after the election many recalcitrants an-
nounced that henceforth they would be found voting with the
old party. So pronounced was the trend of sentiment that
loug before the opening of the contest in the fall of 1900 hope
of success ran strong among Republican leaders, and there
was a general disposition to " get together and stay together "
in the interest of party success. Not only were the party men
of Colorado in high spirits, but Republicans throughout the
country who had watched the valiant struggles of the loyal
partisans since 1896 had become interested and were looking
forward to the fall election in Colorado as an event which
was sure to bring victory and insure reward for faithful
services. But another disappointment was in store for them.
Mr. Wolcott was not among those who were deceived.
He knew conditions better than most of his followers, and
while he appreciated that the movement in favor of Repub-
licanism had received a decided impetus, he was appre-
hensive from the beginning. Even then, he figured more
on 1902 than on 1900, and as early as January, 1900, we
find him discussing the chances two years forward quite
as much as those of that time. Still, he entered heartily
into all preparations for the immediate work, assumed a
hopeful air, and maintained active control of the party in
the State. He manifested especial interest in getting back-
sliders into the fold again, and, as we shall see, was in-
strumental in having the doors thrown wide open for their
readmission. He advised that no question should be asked

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 267

and that they should be taken in on mere " profession of
faith."

As indicating his state of mind the following from an
interview in the Denver Republican of March 5, 1900, is
quoted :

" It is of infinitely more importance that Colorado again
take her place among the Republican States of the Union
than it is that I or any other specified individual should
represent her in the Senate; and my personal aspirations
should be counted as nothing if they stood in the way of
that result."

Speaking of the outlook in the State, Mr. Wolcott said :

" I think it clearly possible that the State will be car-
ried for the Republican ticket this fall if those voters
in the State who formerly belonged to the party and have
no sympathy with Democracy and are at heart tired of
Bryan ism will come back into the ranks and work as in
former days for the success of our ticket and for Republican
principles."

Frequently during the preparation for this campaign he
urged the readmission on liberal terms of those who had
deserted in '96, and to this end he sought to influence his
fellow-Republicans through private conferences and by letter
as well as by means of published interviews. Success at
the polls, with a friendly Legislature as one of the results,
meant not only his own triumph and complete vindication,
but, better still to his view, the restoration of Colorado
to its old position before the world as an intelligent and
progressive commonwealth. Moreover, he always had con-
ceded integrity of purpose, if not justification, to the Re-
publicans who had deserted the party because of the silver
question. Appreciating the importance of that question to
the State, he had regretted without resenting their falling
away. He knew most of them to be Republican at heart
on all but the money issue, and he wanted them back in
the fold. He knew success to be impossible without them,
and he pleaded zealously for the utmost inducement for their
return. With such inducement he considered it possible
that a sufficient number would come back to make a vastly
improved showing.

268 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Nor was he especially sanguine in his own interest over
the prospects of 1902, for he foresaw the strife in his party,
which in the end actually prevented his return to the Sen-
ate after a lapse of two years. In view of what actually
happened the following letter of January 14, 1900, to his
confidential secretary, Mr. C. A. Chisholm, is entitled to be
ranked as prophecy:

I do not think I shall be able to make the Senate in two
years from now. If I thought I could, I should at once arrange
for my constant presence in Colorado until that time. There
is serious doubt about our ability to carry the State in two
years, and, naturally enough, there is a growing opposition to
me in my own party which will be serious in two years if we
have a chance of success. The latter I could probably overcome,
but it is another obstacle, and it means a harder fight and
more expenditure, and I doubt if it is worth while.

The year 1900 was an important one in Colorado politics.
It was the last year of Senator Wolcott's second term and
of President McKinley's first. Mr. Wolcott or his successor
must be elected by the Legislature to be chosen in November,
and that election, broadened so as to include the entire
country, was to decide whether McKinley should con-
tinue to preside over the destinies of the nation or give
way to some one else. But many interesting events were
to occur before these results could be accomplished. To
say nothing of the nation at large, there must be two State
conventions in Colorado, a stirring State campaign, and a
meeting of the State Legislature. In addition, it was in
store that at the first of the State conventions Senator Wol-
cott was to be chosen the head of the delegation to the
national convention, at which Mr. McKinley was to be re-
nominated and over which Mr. Wolcott was to preside as
temporary chairman.

The national gathering was held in Philadelphia, and
the Colorado delegation was composed entirely of Mr. WTol-
cott's friends, many of them men who had opposed him in
the campaigns of 1896 and 1898.

As going to show the spirit that prevailed in 1900 among
many who had left the party in 1896 and were now finding

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 269

their way back, the following is cited from an account, prob-
ably " more truth than the truth," of a meeting of members of
the State Central Committee, held early in the year to de-
cide upon a date for the formal meeting of the committee.
It is quoted from the Denver Republican, which paper also
was beginning to manifest a disposition to return to the
party of its former allegiance :

Marshal Bailey presided, and the cigars were passed — good
cigars that gave pleasant feeling to the olfactories and filled all
the air with perfume.

It 's like livin' again after bein' dead," said the ornate Jared
L. Brush, erstwhile Lieutenant-Governor, and just then Charles
Brickenstein came in and Mr. Brush made a rush for him.

" I want to congratulate you, Charley," said he, " on your
return to the Grand Old Party."

" I had to do it," added the prodigal, " to keep him from
doin' it to me."

" I would like to know," said the stranger within their gates,
" if anybody has any sort of a kick against Eddy — pardon me
— I refer to Senator E. O. Wolcott. Now 's your chance, you
know. Here 's a minute in which you wear no man's collar.
Before Edward gets a ring in your nose, speak up."

" Nitty, nitty, nit," spoke up the faithful. " Ed 's all right.
He represents McKinley, and McKinley stands for prosperity,
and prosperity means about everything we want."

" Good ! " said A. B. Seaman, coming in, the door having
been prudently left off its hinges. " That 's the way to talk it.
Ed 's all right. Where would Colorado be now if it had n't
been for Ed Wolcott?"

" There 's nobody dissatisfied with Ed except those who want
his place," said State Senator Bromley.

Of course the story is exaggerated, but it serves the pur-
pose of showing how pleased leading members of the party
wrere to find the way open for the resumption of former
affiliations. Many of the rank and file manifested the same
exuberance without getting any of the cigars.

From the beginning of the preparation for the fight, as
early as January, Mr. Wolcott took the position that not
his success but the party's should be the end to be sought.
This was his attitude in his private letters as in his public

270 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

utterances, and be lost no opportunity to impress his views
upon his friends. Confessing frankly his own ambition
but declaring that it ever should be subordinate to the
party welfare, he strenuously urged the most liberal treat-
ment of the returning members of the party. He wrote
freely to his private secretary, C. A. Chisholm, on this, as
on all other points. The most elaborate of his letters to
that gentleman was dated at Washington, January 15th,
and it is of such importance as going to show Mr.
Wolcott's genuine and unselfish interest in his party as to
justify its publication entire. It follows:

I am clearly of the opinion that the wise and politic thing
for us to do is to grant immediately every request that has
been made respecting primaries, etc., and any other concessions
that occur to us. Under no circumstances ought there to be a
hostile speech made by anybody, or any single act committed
by us that may create schism in our party ranks.

What we want is success, and we must have it by votes. It
is undoubtedly true that certain corporation influences are at
work with a desire to control our organization. It is absurd,
however, to think that all the people who are joining with
the opposition are cognizant of this motive. Ninety -five per
cent, of them are men who will vote with us on any fair propo-
sition, and we do not want anything that is not fair.

I have no sympathy with the feeling that it is a surrender
under fire. Suppose it is; — nothing is hurt but our pride, and
that will not count for anything in view of possible success. I
do not mean myself that this factionalism shall be carried any
further with any support of mine, and I would rather lose all
we have built on in the past, and all the excellent work that
there has ever been done to keep the party alive, than invite
defeat now by a factional fight.

The real motive of these people is this :

They have been Silver Republicans, and they are ready to
come back. They don't propose to come back on terms; they
propose to come back, if at all, and have just as much to say as
people who stayed with the party when they have opposed it.
Why not let them come back in this way? What do we care
provided we are successful?

The truth is that within five days after we have opened the
doors wide and let everybody come back, and given everybody
a chance to steal the organization who wants it, matters will

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTEK 271

settle down, and in the future, as in the past, the cleverest men
will control our organization, and I hope control it for good.

I realize what this means. I know that friends, who have
submitted to abuse and suspicion and all sorts of indignity,
don't like to give up the fruit of our labors. Don't let that
stand in our way. If it defeats any possibility of my success
two years from now, I shall be content, provided we have brought
the State back to Republicanism.

It is certainly true that if a fight is conducted in the party
there will be no chance of success this year, or chance of success
two years from now.

If I had my own way I should to-morrow, in the most public
fashion, give notice of every possible concession that could be
made, and I should have no strings to it. Our friends will
naturally keep the State organization, but, if they don't, all
you can say is we are out of luck and are fairly beaten, and
I do not want us to keep the organization if we are not entitled
to it.

It has not been easy for me to reach this conclusion. My
instinct is to say that those of us who have endured contumely
and contempt and hatred, and at a personal risk kept the party
alive, ought not now to turn it over to those people who but
a year or so ago were seeking to destroy it. I have passed that
stage, however, and I would like myself to see every possible
concession made, whether it has been asked for or not.

Two years from now is a long way off. By that time I
believe the party will be again triumphant, provided there is
an open door for everybody who wants to come in. It may
defeat me; it might even re-elect Teller. He will have to be
re-elected as a Republican, however, and it does not make any
difference if he is the man, provided the State is redeemed.

Personally, of course, I am ambitious, as every man is who
takes an active interest in politics, and I should be gratified
beyond measure if I could be re-elected to the Senate this fall,
or two years from now. I cannot be re-elected, however, with
hundreds of good Republicans fighting us. And if we get the
party together our action now may defeat me, but it is a great
deal better that I should be defeated than that the State should
be torn by faction and the party kept disunited.

In similar vein was the statement made through the
Denver Republican of March 5th, in which Mr. Wolcott
further said:

272 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

The Republican party in Colorado is not a close corporation;
it is under nobody's dictation, nor is it under the management
or control of any man or set of men. There is but one test of
Republicanism and it applies equally to everybody in the State.
That test is that the person desiring to vote at a Republican
primary or to be a member of a Republican convention, should
be in truth and in fact a Republican, believing in the principles
of the party and earnestly and unqualifiedly desiring its success.
Any man or woman in Colorado who is a voter and intends to
work and act hereafter with the Republican party is equally
entitled to participate in every step which the party may take,
whether it be at the primaries or in convention, and I know of
nothing which would justify any other construction.

I feel bound to say that I have never heard of anybody in
Colorado who holds any other view of this question. Whether
anybody at some former election may have voted for some other
ticket is a matter of no importance whatever, provided there is a
complete and full return to the Republican party. It is of vital
importance, however, that the existence of the Republican party
in our State shall be for the purpose of keeping alive and burn-
ing the lamp of the Republican faith, and that the organization
should not be used, or sought to be used, as an appendage for
any organization, corporate or otherwise, or any individual. I
have heard some fears expressed in certain sections of the State
that this motive prompted a desire in certain quarters to secure
a leading voice in the affairs of the party. I do not believe,
however, that this fear is well founded.

With the same end in view, that of permitting the easy
return of backsliding Republicans, another letter was writ-
ten to Mr. Chisholm on April 8th. At that date the State
Central Committee had held its meeting, had called the State
convention, and had taken the precaution of appointing in
advance a Committee on Credentials. Mr. Chisholm had
notified him of these proceedings, and his letter was in reply
to this notification. In it Mr. Wolcott said :

I have just received an account of the proceedings of the
Republican State Central Committee.

I confess I cannot at this distance understand what earthly
object there could have been in the appointment of this com-
mittee to pass upon credentials. Any sort of unusual obstacle
placed in the way of the traditional freedom of conventions or
committees is absolutely certain to bring the organization num-

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 273

berless enemies, and is equally certain to be indignantly swept
aside sooner or later.

I have no sort of sympathy with any such action, and I
cannot for the life of me understand why we do not graciously
and freely open the party and its organization to everybody.
Personally, I am not in the slightest degree afraid of the result.
If by any machination the Republican organization shall be
turned against me, I am content to go into private life, but
I am not in the slightest degree afraid of that result. After
all, the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the Republicans
are certain to be followed in State politics, and if I cease
to be the choice of the great majority of the party then I want
to quit.

I suppose it may be too late to undo what has been done,
but I write this line to express my sincere and deep regret
that, when, after the organization had secured friends by certain
concessions, they seem to have invited a still deeper hostility and
bitterness by their unnecessary restrictions upon a course which
has been followed for a generation. I would give a great deal
if it had not been done. The only reason, so far as I can see,
is to create an impression throughout the State that there was
some sort of conspiracy to injure me, which it was necessary
to defeat by unusual and arbitrary methods. As a matter of
fact, this is not true, but the appointment of this committee to
pass upon credentials invites anybody who is discontented to
join in a movement to overthrow the organization.

THE NATIONAL CONVENTION

While, when chosen, the delegation to the Philadelphia
convention proved in every way satisfactory to Mr. Wol-
cott, he refrained from all advance efforts to influence its
personnel. Writing to Hon. A. B. Seaman, chairman of
the State Committee, as early as January 11th, he said with
reference to this subject:

I have not had, nor expressed, any preference as to the make-
up of the delegation. In fact, not one person has mentioned
the subject to me from a personal point of view, or as indicat-
ing a desire to be present. It is important that the delegation,
when selected, shall be representative Republicans, fairly ap-
portioned throughout the State, and should be comprised of
men who intend to stay with the convention to the close of
its deliberations. I have no doubt that the convention, when

274 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

it meets, will be animated solely by the desire to get represen-
tative men, devoted to the principles of the Republican party,
and disassociated with any other interest.

He expressed himself similarly to the newspapers. In
an interview given out about the same time that the letter
was written, he said he would refrain from attempting to
name the members of the delegation. " I have only one de-
sire respecting the delegates," he said, " and that desire is
one which is shared by every true Republican in the State.
It is that we shall be represented at Philadelphia by intel-
ligent representative Republicans, devoted to the welfare of
the party and loyally desirous of aiding in its success."
The same sentiment was expressed a day or two before the
meeting of the convention, when he said:

I know of no slate, and I have no desire to interfere in the
slightest degree with the will of the convention. I know the
convention will send good men to the national convention at
Philadelphia next month, and I hope the choice will be exer-
cised among people who are to-day for Republican success, no
matter what were their views four years ago. I would like to
see a delegation of representative business men go to that
convention.

By the time the State convention met there had come
to be considerable discussion of the Colorado Senator's avail-
ability as a Vice-Presidential candidate. Starting in Colo-
rado, his " boom " had been favorably received by many of
the Eastern press and by some of the party chiefs. The one
circumstance urged against him was his location. There
was no doubt on any hand of President McKinley's renomi-
nation. Though improperly so since the recent great de-
velopment of the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast regions,
Ohio, which State was McKinley's home, was then classed,
as it still is, as a Western State, and there was a gen-
eral feeling that if the Presidency should go West the East
must have the Vice-Presidency. The second place was, as
usual under such conditions, practically conceded to New
York if that State should ask it, and Governor Roosevelt's
name was more frequently mentioned than any other.

There was, however, sufficient discussion of Mr. Wolcott

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 275

in connection with the office to justify the interviewer in
quizzing the Senator about it. Accordingly when he reached
Denver early in May to attend the State convention, he was
asked about the Vice-Presidency. To one reporter he said :

I feel very much flattered, of course, by the mention that
my name has received in certain quarters as a candidate for
the Vice-Presidency. To this I can say only that I have en-
joyed my twelve years in the Senate immensely, and the
next best thing to a place in the Senate, in my opinion, is to
be a citizen of Colorado and to live at Wolhurst, and as I have
one or the other hope before me, I am quite content without
the further honor.

To the questions of another interviewer he responded :

" It certainly is to be considered a very great honor to
receive a nomination for Vice-President of the United States,
but I am not a candidate, nor do I desire the nomination.
It is my impression that it is likely to go to the far East,"

The State meeting was a Wolcott convention throughout.
Every wish was granted as soon as it was expressed, and
while he did not seek to control the selection of delegates,
those chosen were known to be in perfect accord with him.
Mr. Wolcott was made chairman, and his associates were:
David H. Moffat, of Denver; W. S. Stratton, of Colorado
Springs; D. R. C. Brown, of Aspen; H. E. Churchill, of
Greeley ; Earl B. Coe, of Denver ; Crawford Hill, of Denver ;
and Ben W. Ritter, of Durango.

On his return to Washington after the State convention,
Mr. Wolcott gave to President McKinley and to his col-
leagues in Congress a faithful description of the existing
political situation in his State. If the picture that the Sen-
ator drew was not highly colored, it was cheerful, and out
of it grew the report that he was authority for the state-
ment that Colorado was certain to go Republican in 1900.
The Senator did not make such a prediction at that time,
and from an authorized interview with him printed later it
appears that what he did say was merely that Colorado was
surely going back into the Republican party. He did not
say when the change would take place, but expressed con-

276 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

fidence that the signs of a general desertion of Populism and
a return to Republicanism were unmistakable.

His real view of the situation is given in a sentence in
a letter written to a sister immediately after his arrival in
Washington from Denver. The letter is brief and is worth
quoting entire:

On my desk in my committee-room at the Senate, there lies
an unfinished letter to you, commenced long ago, added to once
or twice, but interrupted and never finished. I don't seem to
accomplish much of anything in this world, but somehow there
is always at hand some instant thing that demands attention.

My trip to Colorado was very hurried. I was gone eight
nights and spent six of them in sleeping-cars. There is a great
change in political sentiment there, but it is not enough to
bring success this fall, and after next March I shall have abund-
ant time for the enjoyment of Wolhurst.

For the time I am busy every spare moment trying to get
up a speech for Philadelphia, where I am to preside as Tem-
porary Chairman. It is n't quite easy, but I shall do the best
I can with it.

Did n't seem to " accomplish anything " ! The average
man who had just come from the absolute control of a State
convention of his party, and who was preparing an address
to be made as the presiding officer of a national convention,
would have considered himself as doing " something," not to
mention the fact that he was conducting a private business
of magnitude, running the political affairs of a big State,
and attending to the exacting duties of a United States
Senator.

At Philadelphia, Senator Wolcott was highly popular.
He had been asked to preside over the opening sessions of
the national meeting, and he was expected to sound the
keynote of the coming campaign — McKinley's second, and
a most important one, because it would be necessary for
the party to give an account of its conduct of the war with
Spain and to explain its policy toward the new territory
that had been so suddenly acquired as a result of the war.
How well he performed the task his speech itself explains.
It was received with every indication of favor.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 277

President McKinley, to whom of course it had been sub-
mitted before its delivery, was so pleased with the address
that he requested that all other speeches of the convention
be patterned after it. Secretary Hay wrote Mr. Wolcott
after the convention :

" I knew it would be a great speech, but it is finer
even than I looked for — which shows that your capacity
is stronger than my imagination. I congratulate you with
all my heart. The whole country is your debtor."

In the course of an address of his own delivered at a
later stage in the same convention, Senator Chauncey M.
Depew said of Mr. Wolcott and his speech :

You from the West produced on this platform a product of
New England transplanted to the West through New York, who
delivered the best presiding officer's speech in oratory and all
that makes up a great speech that has been heard in many a
day in any convention in this country. It was a glorious thing
to see the fervor of the West and the culture and polish of
New England giving us an ammunition wagon from which the
spellbinder everywhere can draw the powder to shoot down
opposition East and West and North and South.

THE VICE-PRESIDENCY

In his Twenty Years in the Press Gallery, Mr. O. O.
Stealey, a veteran Washington correspondent, makes the
following reference to the part Mr. Wolcott played in the
Philadelphia Convention :

His opening address as Temporary Chairman of the Republi-
can National Convention of 1900 attracted universal attention.
The convention was captivated by his eloquence. His voice
possessed a most magnetic quality, and his diction was well-
nigh perfect. His speech was frequently interrupted with storms
of applause, and after its delivery there was strong talk of
nominating him for the Vice-Presidency. He was thinking over
the matter when the news reached him that the leaders had
agreed upon Mr. Roosevelt. He then refused to allow his name
to go before the convention, and later was Chairman of the
official committee to notify Mr. Roosevelt of his nomination.

Mr. Stealey is in error in saying that Mr. Wolcott had

278 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

under consideration the suggestion of his own nomination
when Mr. Roosevelt was named for the Vice-Presidency.
That point already had been settled. There, however, was
far more serious consideration of Wolcott for second place
on the National ticket in 1900 than most people knew of.
Tbat this is true the writer has become convinced since
beginning this work. While the convention was in pro-
gress there was frequent mention of him in the press, but
in the perfunctory manner of the reporter who must needs
find " a story." But it is now known that his name was
seriously canvassed by the leaders, and unquestionably his
nomination would have been entirely acceptable to Major
McKinley, whose personal friend he was.

Everything in connection with the Vice-Presidential nomi-
nation depended upon the attitude of Colonel Roosevelt.
Just back from the Cuban War, in which he carried off the
lion's share of glory, it was felt that he would add much
to the popularity of the ticket. Furthermore, for reasons
of their own, there were certain New York politicians who
desired the nomination of Mr. Roosevelt. They wanted to
eliminate him from New York affairs and they believed that
his selection for the second place would not only accom-
plish this result, but that it also would lay him on the
shelf for all time. How that scheming worked out would
be another story, but not for this book. Suffice it to say
that he held aloof for some time, absolutely declining to
permit himself to be considered a candidate, with the result
that the New York delegation accepted his declination and
at a State caucus decided to press Hon. Timothy Woodruff
for the place. In connection with this condition of affairs
a plan was conceived in Mr. Wolcott's behalf, and Senator
Matthew S. Quay was its author.

Apprehensive that Colorado might still prove obdurate
and that Mr. Wolcott might fail of re-election to the Sen-
ate, and being especially desirous of keeping his friend in
public life, Mr. Quay was an ardent advocate of Wolcott's
nomination for the Vice-Presidency. He pressed him as in
every way available — a splendid campaigner and a Republi-
can whose loyalty had been tried in the fire. He also urged
the necessity of bringing the Centennial State back into

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 279

line, which, he argued, would be assured by placing Wolcott
on the National ticket, But no little planning is necessary
to bring about a vice-presidential nomination, even though
it generally seems to come very easily.

So long as there was uncertainty about Roosevelt's atti-
tude, Quay was in a quandary, but the Rough-rider had no
sooner announced his declination than the fertile mind of
the Pennsylvanian had developed what he believed a feasible
course for the accomplishment of his desire. His plan was
this: There should be an apparent effort to force the nomi-
nation on Roosevelt, and Wolcott, disregarding the selection
of the New York delegation, should take the floor and bring
Roosevelt's name to the attention of the convention. All
was to depend on the character of the nominating speech
and the manner of the speaker, for it was intended that
it should result, not in the selection of Roosevelt, but in
the nomination of Wolcott. Knowing Wolcott's oratorical
capacity, Mr. Quay had calculated that the Colorado Sen-
ator would put so much fire and magnetism into his speech
that he would inspire as great admiration for himself as
for the hero of San Juan Hill. Advantage was to be taken
of the situation thus created. Immediately some other
gifted friend of Quay's was to address the Chair, and, mak-
ing the most of Roosevelt's refusal, was to place Wol-
cott himself in nomination, and thus force him through on
the tidal wave of his own creation.

The plan was communicated to a few other trusted friends
of Quay and Wolcott, and the programme was quite com-
plete until some one suggested the necessity of consulting
Wolcott.

Whatever was to be done must be done expeditiously.
Conventions do not wait indefinitely on private conferences.
The plan was concocted the night before the nomination
was to be made. A trusted messenger, who still lives and
from whom the story is received, was chosen to call upon
Wolcott. The Colorado Senator had taken a house on
Spruce Street in Philadelphia for convention week. He was
entertaining a dinner party when Quay's emissary arrived.
Excusing himself from his guests, he went out to greet
his visitor. There is no doubt he would have been pleased

280 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

to receive the nomination, and he listened eagerly to the
proposal. The very daring of the coup appealed to him.
But he did not quite like the indirect method of proceed-
ing. He also pointed out reasons why an Eastern man
would be more available for the place than himself. He
therefore declined; but, in declining, he expressed his ad-
miration for the originality of the plan.

It is great! [he exclaimed in his enthusiasm]. It is worthy
of the general in politics who conceived it. And it might
work. We might do it; but I do not believe it would be best
if we should succeed. So, tell " Mike " [his pet name for
the Pennsylvania Senator] that while I appreciate his inter-
est I cannot consent under the circumstances. It 's splendid
of him to want to do such a magnificent thing for me; but we
shall have to let it pass.

With these words Mr. Wolcott returned to his guests
with never a twitch of countenance to indicate the importance
of the conference in which he had been engaged. His word
was final. The plan was abandoned. Wolcott was not
proposed, and notwithstanding his original declination,
Roosevelt was nominated.

FOREIGN SERVICE POSSIBLE

It is also a fact that previous to the convention and
while there still was a possibility that Mr. Wolcott might
remain in the Senate, he was tendered a foreign ambassador-
ship. The proffer came from President McKinley through
Secretary of State Hay. He was told that he could have
any post then vacant or soon to become vacant. But the
offer did not contain any allurement for the Colorado Sen-
ator and he declined, his declination eliciting from Mr. Hay
a complimentary note of date October 10, 1898, in which that
official said:

" Your letter is precisely what any one who knows you
would have expected — generous, just, and clear-sighted. As
to the question of fitness, there can be no two opinions.
You would be persona gratissima on both sides; but, of
course, you are wise in refusing to leave the immediate field
of conflict."

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 281

Having closely observed Mr. Wolcott's work as Chairman
of the Bimetallic Commission Mr. Hay had become convinced
that he would be successful at the head of any legation and
he was sincerely anxious to utilize his services. Later the
subject was again taken up, but the way was not open for
Mr. Wolcott's appointment. The only available places were
those at Constantinople and St. Petersburg, and diplomacy
at those centres had no charms for the Colorado Senator.
He would have been willing to represent his government at
London or Paris, but at no less important post. Conse-
quently, after more or less correspondence and consultation
the subject was dropped.

NOTIFICATION OF ROOSEVELT

As the temporary Chairman of the Philadelphia Conven-
tion it became Mr. Wolcott's duty to head the committee
appointed by the convention to notify Hon. Theodore Roose-
velt of his nomination as Vice-President on the ticket with
Major McKinley. The proceeding took place July 12, 1900,
on the breeze-swept veranda of Mr. Roosevelt's home on
Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, Long Island, and was so simple
as to be almost informal.

There was no attempt at ceremony. The participants
quietly ranged themselves about the wide verandas which
command a magnificent view of Long Island Sound, and Sen-
ator Wolcott, practically without preliminaries of any kind,
delivered a short address, which was frequently applauded.
His reference to Governor Roosevelt's hunting stories evoked
a hearty laugh. When he stepped forward he stood in a
clear space on the crowded porch, facing the doorway of a
reception-room in front of which the Governor stood in
erect military attitude. To the left were a number of
ladies and other guests, Mrs. Roosevelt and three Roosevelt
children.

The unceremonious character of the proceeding was due
to the hot weather and to Mr. Wolcott, who, as Chairman
of the Notification Committee, gave notice to those who had
been asked to be present that the occasion was to be strictly
informal. There was not a high hat or a frock-coat in the
party. Senator Wolcott himself wore a cool, light suit,

282 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

becomingly set off with a pink shirt and an expansive pink
tie. The Vice-Presidential candidate addressed him as
" Ned," and he called Governor Roosevelt " Ted."

THE STATE FIGHT

The convention over, the Presidential and Vice-Presiden-
tial candidates duly notified, and all the other formalities
complied with, the work of the campaign was taken up.
The Republicans nominated Frank C. Goudy, of Denver, for
Governor, and the Fusionists, James B. Orman of Pueblo.
Mr. Wolcott gave practically all of his time to the Colorado
campaign. Many prominent Republican orators visited the
State and made speeches. Included in the list were the
Vice-Presidential candidate, Hon. Theodore Roosevelt and
Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, United States Senator from
Massachusetts. The battle was fought on broad lines. The
Democrats, led by Mr. Bryan, made bold attacks upon the
McKinley policy in the Philippines, which was character-
ized as " Imperialism." The Republicans were delighted to
have an opportunity to defend and explain their course in
the far-away islands. They had come into the possession
of the United States as the result of the war incidentally,
not designedly, and must of necessity be held for the time
at least, as the defenders of the Administration felt them-
selves abundantly able to show.

There were occasional references to silver, but even then,
only four years after the memorable battle of 1896, the
money question was recognized in most places as a dead
issue. Enough was made of it in Colorado to use it as the
excuse for personal attacks upon the character of Mr. Wol-
cott, These assaults were often bitter, and on one occasion
there was an effort at personal violence. This was at Victor,
when Senator Wolcott visited the great Cripple Creek gold
camp in company with Governor Roosevelt and Senator
Lodge. There a melee occurred and it came near result-
ing in personal injury. At that time the camp was over-
run with miners fresh from the serious labor troubles in
northern Idaho and before the arrival of the party, their
passions had been aroused by the general circulation of a
pamphlet attacking Wolcott, Roosevelt, and others. The

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 283

streets were filled with men of threatening aspect, and ban-
ners carrying the inscription " Remember the Horrors of
Cceur d'Alene " were displayed at every turn. At the hall
in which the meeting was held the speakers were greeted
by a jeering mob, which had taken possession. Many of the
men were intoxicated and they were most insulting. No
one was allowed to speak, and the travelling party soon
left for the train. They were followed by the crowd, which
continued its hostile demonstrations. These reached their
climax when Governor Roosevelt was struck in the breast
with a piece of scantling. Fortunately he was not seriously
hurt, but the affair came near being a riot and was disgrace-
ful in the extreme.

In his very first utterances in the campaign, Mr. Wolcott
gave his attention to the new " paramount question," that
of imperialism and militarism. The opportunity for this dis-
cussion was found at the dedication of a new Republican
meeting place in Denver, known as Windsor Hall, on Sep-
tember 9th, and on that occasion the Senator said among
other things :

As to the danger from this so-called militarism, you know
something of the character of the young men who compose the
United States army, you who sent out regiments of strong young
men who fought and upheld the nation's flag in Cuba and in
the Philippines. Some of these young men lie there in the
islands, others have come home, expansionists; but there is none
among them who wants to establish a military rule, or who is
not an ardent supporter of the nation and the liberties of its
people. This danger of imperialism never existed except in the
perfervid imaginations of the people who want to tear down
the Supreme Court and destroy the safeguards of the Govern-
ment. Such a fear never existed in the young hearts of those
who have striven and are striving to push the nation into its
place among the nations of the earth. If our commissioners at
Paris had given up the Philippines, Mr. Bryan's paramount
issue in this campaign would be that we did give them up. The
entire army of the United States, scattered, as it is to-day, in-
cludes less than nine one-hundredths of one per cent, of the
people of the United States, less in proportion than it was in
1870, in a time of profound peace.

In his speech before the State Convention for the nomi-

284 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

nation of State officers, which was held in Denver, September
18th, Mr. Wolcott again took occasion to say that he did
not consider essential his return to the Senate, but he added
that in the interest of the State he did desire the election
of a Republican.

It is not the purpose to here follow the campaign in all
its details, for while extremely spirited, it was in most
respects like many another political contest.

Fortunately if a review were needed, one has been left
by Mr. Wolcott who in an interview published in the Denver
Republican subsequent to the election not only outlined the
issues as they had been presented, but analyzed the result,
and pictured a bright future for the State. In that pro-
nouncement, he reiterated his intention of continuing his
home in Colorado. The report of the interview follows:

" Have you any comment to make on the result of the elec-
tion?" asked a Republican reporter.

" The Republican party of Colorado ought to be and will be
intensely gratified with the enormous gains made in this State
during the last four years," said the Senator. " It is unparalleled
in the history of politics in any State of the Union. A hostile
majority of 134,000 has been cut down to about 25,000, and 45
per cent, and upward of the people of this State, which includes
a vast majority of the intelligent citizens of Colorado, have
demonstrated their hearty accord with the principles and policy
of the Republican party. The change has been radical and
progressive, and if the election had been postponed a month I
have no doubt the State would have given a substantial Repub-
lican majority. As it was, many of us were hopeful enough to
believe that victory was in sight. We did not make allowance,
however, for the fact that thousands of people in the State,
having once voted for Bryan, had that pride of opinion which
led them to vote for him ' just once more,' although they realized
that Bryanism was dead. These people, naturally, either hesi-
tated or were ashamed to declare their intentions before election
and so the silent vote was cast against us instead of for us.

" It is pitiful, almost grotesque, to realize that this great in-
telligent State has joined hands with Montana, which was al-
ways, even in territorial days, Democratic, and which never went
Republican except when its Democratic magnates quarrelled, and
with Nevada, the population of which is less than at least any
one of six towns in our State, in allying itself with the unprogres-

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 285

sive States of the South. If any one will take a map and mark
the States which have cast their majority for Bryan, they will
see how isolated we are among the great progressive States of
the Union. Even New Mexico went Republican, and we are
entirely surrounded by Republican States."

" To what do you attribute the result in this State? "

" The silver question is, of course, at the bottom of it. It
induced our people, irrespective of party, to vote for Bryan four
years ago, and there are still thousands of people in Colorado
who have a lingering belief that Democracy and bimetallism go
hand in hand. There is a rude awakening in store for them.

" Long before the next national election the Democracy will
formally abandon the silver question and will take its stand
on some other issue ; probably the old issue of general antagonism
to the progressive policies of the Republican party.

" In the general trend and growth of commerce and of our
commercial relations with other countries, especially if the
Orient be opened to foreign commerce, the question of bimetal-
lism will again be raised, probably by some of the nations of
Europe. If it does again become matter for international dis-
cussion it will be through some policy approved by England,
France, Germany, and the leading commercial nations of the
world, at some change of ratio, and under conditions which will
secure an absolute parity of value at a fixed ratio between the
two metals. The question has long ceased to be one which
may be settled by the United States alone. Any adjustment of
it will be international, and it will come without doubt, if it
comes at all, solely through the policy and action of the Repub-
lican party. Except in Colorado, Montana, and Nevada, the
question had ceased to be active and was generally recognized
this year as being no longer a live issue in this Presidential
campaign."

" What part did the Administration's policy of expansion
play?"

" A curious feature of it all as affecting Colorado is that at
heart our people are in entire sympathy with the Administration
in its policy respecting the Philippines and in all the great ques-
tions growing out of the recent war with Spain. Western men
are naturally expansionists and are ready to assume the national
responsibilities which are imposed upon us.

" There was never so interesting a time as now in the history of
our country, and there is no State in the Union which is so certain
to benefit by the policy of the Republican party as Colorado.

286 EDWAED OLIVER WOLCOTT

" The Philippines are ours, and will for all time remain ours.
In the opening and development of the commerce of these islands
Colorado, owing to its geographical situation, and its vast and
varied resources, is certain to have an enormous share.

" Our cattle interests are to be immensely benefited ; our cotton
and other mills now running, and the others sure to be estab-
lished, will conduct an ever-increasing commerce with the islands;
our iron and steel interests are nearer the Philippines than any
others in the world, and we shall be a great gainer in that
direction.

" Kecent events make it certain that the Orient will before
long be opened to foreign commerce. There are 250,000,000 of
human beings who will come into business and other relations
with the civilized world. Our agricultural interests will be
vastly stimulated by this enormous market as well as all of our
iron and steel and manufactured products. In addition to all
this, both in the Philippines and in China, there will be a con-
stantly increasing demand for silver, certain to result in both
steadying and raising the value of the metal. The policy of
this Administration respecting China has been one of rare abil-
ity. We have kept our hands off from all attempts to acquire
territory, but we have successfully insisted that whenever any
section of the country is opened to foreign traffic American
merchants shall have free access to their markets. Within the
next generation tens of thousands of miles of railroad will be
constructed in China, and Colorado iron and steel works will
furnish as much of the material as they are able to produce.

" Important as has been the silver question with the people
of Colorado, I believe our acquisitions in the Philippines and
the establishment of our right to share in the commerce of the
Orient means far greater prosperity to Colorado than it would
have experienced, even under the restoration of bimetallism."

The interview then entered upon the practical present-
day consideration of the best thing to be done under the
circumstances, in which Mr. Wolcott was especially at home.
" How," the reporter asked, " will the Avelfare of Colorado
be affected by the fact that its Congressional delegation will
be entirely Fusion and in the minority? " Mr. Wolcott
replied :

This country is entering upon an era of unparalleled pros-
perity. Colorado is certain to enjoy a share of it. Of course
if a State is in harmony with the general policy of the Govern-

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 287

ment, and its representatives are in accord with the majority
of Congress, it has a great advantage in securing needed and
favorable legislation. Our disadvantage in this respect ought
largely to be overcome by the fact, however, that every decent
citizen of Colorado, whatever may be his political affiliations,
will work with constant and undivided effort toward securing
everything possible for our State. The Eepublican party is in
the minority, but it is equally interested in advancing the wel-
fare and prosperity of our State. We all have, to a greater or
less degree, friendships and influence at the national capital,
and every one of us will do what we can to help Colorado.
Important measures have already passed the Senate, such as the
bill for the Soldier's Home and for certain public buildings.
Unless they pass the House this winter they will have to be
reintroduced into both bodies. I shall, of course, do everything
in my power to secure the passage through the House of all
these measures, and the Congressional delegation, whatever may
be its political character, will naturally do what it can.

It is no time for anybody to sulk. What we want in Colo-
rado are hope and confidence and real prosperity, and every
good citizen, irrespective of party, will seek to build up the
welfare of the State.

We have already secured for Colorado a more ample dis-
tribution of rural free delivery than has been accorded, terri-
torially, to any other State in the Union, and the last few
years have seen a very great increase in the number of our
mail routes and a general extension of our mail facilities. We
have been treated with great courtesy by the representatives of
the other States in the Union, and I trust that the same liberal
policy may continue to prevail in our behalf.

There is another matter of vital importance to Colorado
which I trust will be soon brought about. We appropriate an-
nually millions upon millions of dollars for river and harbor
improvements. Colorado is one of two or three States in the
Union which has no share, or direct benefit, from these appro-
priations. There has been for some years a growing inclination
among the Eastern Senators to recognize the demands of the
arid States for intelligent surveys and liberal appropriations
for the building of reservoirs and the storage of water for irrigat-
ing purposes. With a united and persistent effort I believe that
a system of such internal improvements can be soon commenced
and carried out from year to year, until the irrigable lands of
Colorado will be quintupled in acreage.

288 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

I sincerely believe that within a generation the population
of Colorado will be counted by millions, and that even then we
will have hardly commenced the development of our resources.
If in twenty-five years from now any new-comer should be told
that in the last year of the century a majority of the people
of this State voted in favor of dishonoring the policy of the
Administration, and for a Presidential candidate pledged to
withdraw our soldiers and our authority from the Philippines
and running on a platform which denied the constitutionality
or wisdom of the expansion of our territory, he would find it
difficult of belief. Colorado is full of intelligent and progressive
and patriotic people. We do not belong to the ignorant and
illiterate States, and long before the next Presidential campaign
comes around our people will set themselves right on national
questions and take the position that belongs to us with the
intelligent and progressive States of the North, the West, and
the East.

Asked concerning his own future, Senator Wolcott said :

I shall be going East soon to serve out the remainder of my
term, which ends on the 3d of March.

I shall then return to Colorado, where I have lived for thirty
years, and which is the only home I have ever known. I shall
resume here the practice of my profession. Everything I have
or hope for, all my interests, all my associations, are centred
in the State; I shall live here until I die, and in office or out
of office, I shall continue to be a steadfast Republican believing
in the principles of the party with which I have been identified
since boyhood.

For twelve years I have served my party and the State jn
the Senate of the United States, and during that time I have
cast no vote that I would change if I could. I am not in the
least disturbed by the personal attacks which have been made
upon me for I am conscious of their injustice. The talk of my
accepting other responsibilities out of the State is nonsense.
There is no place like Colorado, and I expect to find here a
field of usefulness and happiness for the rest of my life.

There is one other word I must say. During the last cam-
paign the Republican party was united and earnest and patriotic
as never before in its history. In every county of the State
the members of the Republican party counted no sacrifice too
great, or no work too arduous that might bring success.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 289

Our gains have been tremendous and the size of the Republi-
can vote in every county of the State is most flattering. The
credit of this is largely due to the women of Colorado, and
especially of Arapahoe County, who, with perfect organization
and sincere devotion to the principles of the party, worked
unceasingly to bring about its success.

Personally, I am relieved at the outcome; as a Republican
I feel buoyant and joyful over the great accessions to our party,
and I look forward, as does every other good Republican in
Colorado, to the day of our eventual and final triumph, which
cannot be long postponed.

That after the general election he accepted with equanim-
ity the prospect, even the certainty, of defeat, by the Legis-
lature, is evidenced by the tenor of a speech he made before
the Union League Club at Philadelphia two or three weeks
after the result in Colorado had become known. Declaring
in that address that he was " no mourner," he said :

I have been told for years that " Sweet are the uses of ad-
versity." Fortunately, I have many years in which to ascertain
wherein that sweetness consists. There is no more pitiable spec-
tacle than a man in public life who fancies that the world
owes him something. In this world we are entitled to just so
much of success as we conquer, no more. Somebody has said
that to the strong man life is a splendid fracas, and this is
true. It is infinitely better to have fought and lost than not
to have fought.

The following from the same address is too characteristic
to be omitted in this connection :

She [Colorado] is a wonderful State, of marvellous resources
and unlimited possibilities. The sun shines out of a clear sky
for three hundred and fifty days in every year, and she is set-
tled by as fine a set of people as ever lived under the canopy
of Heaven. I know, for I have lived there since boyhood. I
have served her for twelve years in the Senate. I have been
hanged in effigy in most of her important towns. I have been
burned in effigy in a few of them, and I claim the right to
speak for the people, because I know them. I have known
there days of friendship, and days of adversity, and days of
returning friendship, and, although the sun climbs slowly

VOL. I. — 10

290 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

over its canons and defiles, it gets there finally, and its dawn
is already beginning to illumine the State.

When the Legislature met in January only an even dozen
of its hundred members were Republican, and Hon. Thomas
M. Patterson was elected to succeed Mr. Wolcott, after
twelve years of service by the latter in the highest legis-
lative body in the Union. Mr. Patterson had been Mr. Wol-
cott's consistent and persistent antagonist during most of
the thirty years each had been in the State, both as a party
leader, and as owner and editor of the principal opposition
newspaper in the State. They also had been frequently op-
posed to each other as counsel in cases at bar. In many
ways, indeed, they were rivals, and while in the heat of
controversy many bitter sentiments found expression by
each regarding the other. These, however, were soon for-
gotten, and their antagonisms did not extend beyond politics.
Mr. Wolcott recognized in Mr. Patterson a man of ability,
and after the latter's election did all that he could to in-
fluence his friends in the State to aid in upholding his hands
as a representative of the State in the Senate.

Returning to Washington after the announcement of the
result of the November election, Senator Wolcott continued
to give his undivided attention to his legislative duties until
the close of the term on March 4, 1901. He was Chairman
of the Committee on Post-offices and Post-roads, and the
big appropriation bill providing more than a hundred mil-
lion dollars for the conduct of the postal affairs of the coun-
try continued to hang fire until almost the last hour of
the session. Mr. Wolcott had every detail of the vast meas-
ure at his fingers' ends, and was in the thick of the fray
to the last.

A melancholy interruption of his legislative duties came
about a month before the close of the session, when he wTas
called to Longmeadow by his mother's death.

OUT OF THE SENATE

Poor health kept Mr. Wolcott from Colorado until the
next fall, a year from the time of his previous contest. In
the county elections of 1901 the Republicans again made

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 291

large gains outside of Arapahoe County, and Mr. Wolcott
issued a statement claiming the State to be Republican at
last, He said:

The election just over shows that the majority of the people
of this State are Eepublicans. Outside Arapahoe County the
party scored a glorious victory.

In this county, owing to Democratic frauds, principally,
but partially, as well, to apathy and to dissatisfaction, which I
do not believe to have been well founded, we failed to carry
our ticket, and Arapahoe County will, for two years longer, suffer
from mismanagement, which has increased our taxes and di-
verted our revenues from their proper channels. There are
some political questions affecting the party in Colorado that I
am glad to talk about.

Until 1896 we belonged among the strongest of Republican
States. Then came the Bryan delusion, which swept ninety per
cent, of the voters, including eighty per cent, of the Republi-
cans, into the Populist-Democratic vortex. Less than eleven per
cent, of us stood with the party. Our former friends, naturally
enough, wanted to " make it unanimous," and the story of the
struggle we had to prevent our whole organization from being
taken, body and breeches, into the Bryan ranks would make
very interesting reading. As a natural result, those who re-
mained with the party had to make very stringent rules respect-
ing its primaries, nominees, and conventions. It was done solely
as a measure of self-preservation. But now tbe necessity for
such regulations has long since ceased to exist, for we have
again become a united party.

Two years ago I urged that the rules be widened, and, so
far as possible, all rules be abrogated so that every man and
woman desiring Republican success should have not only full
voice, but equal voice in all its deliberations and in controlling
the policy and organization of the party. I have n't been home
long enough to have talked with any one familiar with the
subject, but if there is a single rule or regulation in our party
organization that prevents the full and fair and free expression
of the views of any Republican, or prevents or hampers the
open and free choice of the majority of the Republicans of the
State from being registered, I am for the unqualified repeal of
such a rule.

Yes [he said further in the same statement], I am back here
to stay this winter and every winter and every summer, unless

292 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

I am called away from the State on business; and I expect to
renew the practice of my profession which I have followed in
Colorado for thirty years this autumn.

Shall I continue to take an interest in Colorado politics?
Of course I shall! And I have no doubt that we will soon take
a place where we belong, among the intelligent, progressive
Republican States of the Northwest.

This statement by Mr. Wolcott covered much important
ground and deserves no slight attention from the biographer.
Portions of it will be quoted elsewhere, but his concession
to aspirants and his estimate of his own place in the party
show a phase of character for which he received little credit.
On those points he said :

The battle for Republican principles in this State for the
past five years has been fierce and bitter. Those of us who
maintained the brunt of the attack aroused, naturally enough,
the greatest hostility; it was inseparable from such a contest.

I have always foreseen that when the day of the party's re-
union should come, as it surely would, I should be a rock of
offence to some good men who had conscientiously left the party,
and who now are inclined to return to it, but who still remember
something of the former rancor.

I both understand and respect this sentiment. Republican
success is of infinitely greater importance to the prosperity and
welfare of our State than that any one man should be called
to represent her in the Senate of the United States, and no
man feels this more deeply than myself.

It would be premature and idle to say that I would not
accept an office that may never be tendered me, and that office
the highest Colorado can bestow.

P.ut I am in no sense an aspirant for the Senate. Colorado
has rewarded me far beyond my deserts, and I shall be wholly
content to spend the remainder of my life as a citizen of Colo-
rado, devoting myself to her advancement, and seeking always
the triumph, in the State and nation, of Republican principles,
under which alone we have ever achieved prosperity.

But broader still was his platform! Hear his plea for
other " bosses " in his own party :

So much for party " bossism," so far as I am concerned. But

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 293

I already hear criticism of other " bosses," criticism which, in
my opinion, has no real foundation. There will always be
" slates,'' as they are termed, and there will always be, in any
vigorous party, a struggle within party lines to secure its honors
and a share in its direction. The cries of " slate " in conven-
tions, so far as they come from men who interest themselves
actively in politics, really mean little, for if they had control
they would be, properly enough, equally active in endeavoring
to manage conventions.

There are, however, thousands of intelligent men in this State,
bound by no rigid party lines, who have an impression that if
they vote one " gang " out they only vote another in.

When Colorado wins its next Kepublican victory it will be
when these voters believe that no man and no set of men domi-
nate our party, and when we present a ticket made up of good
men in whose nomination every Kepublican has had, or has had
the opportunity of having, full and free and equal voice.

And for the successful " bosses " in the other party :

One thing further: Our representation at Washington be-
longs to a hopeless minority. We need, as never before, generous
and intelligent legislation for Western interests, not alone in the
reclaiming of our millions of acres of arid lands, but in countless
directions.

We ought to strengthen the hands of our Senators and Rep-
resentatives in every possible way, assisting them in their presen-
tation of our interests and generously applauding them when
they accomplish something for us. They all seek to help our
State in the national councils, and we owe them every encourage-
ment in this direction. Nothing more seriously hampers honest
effort in Washington than constant and belittling abuse at home.
I know, for I have had more experience of it than most men
in public life.

The next few years mean so much to Colorado ! This republic
has become one of the great world nations, destined to share in
the solution of the vast problems of civilization all over the
globe. We have reached such a plane of prosperity as the most
hopeful of us never dreamed of twenty-five years ago. And we
are only at the threshold of our possibilities. Colorado, with
her limitless resources, can contribute more to the general sum
of prosperity than any commonwealth in the Union, and I be-
lieve we shall never attain the measure of our greatness until

294 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

we renew our devotion to the Republican party, under whose
principles and policy our country has made such giant strides.

Yet, while approving the denunciation of pernicious
political bossism, Mr. Wolcott did not concur in the con-
demnation of his appointees which was indulged in by
some of the Republicans. He realized that this was only
another means of criticising himself, and, convinced of the
loyalty and patriotism of these men, he did not turn against
them because of the public clamor. The two men most
viciously attacked had been among his most devoted fol-
lowers in '96, and he found in the aspersions upon them
assaults upon their party loyalty, which especially aroused
his resentment. While not demanding especial favors for
those who had remained true to the party, he could not
endure reflections on them because of their fidelity.

But if he defended the characters of individual office-
holders he did not attempt to exercise any further influence
in the matter of the distribution of Federal patronage. Once
out of office himself he determined to let the minor office-
holders look out for themselves. He claimed no authority
because of past position. If his party should bestow any
future honors upon him they must come because of the
public recognition of the fact that he had proved himself
worthy of trust and not because of the favor of individuals
won by office barter. Openly avowing this policy, he said
in an interview printed November 17, 1901 :

" With my return to private life my duty as to appoint-
ments is ended. I naturally am interested in preventing
the removal of fit and proper appointees now in office, but
I shall no longer be active in influencing the selection of new
men for the offices."

In a speech made February 14, 1902, he was able to assert :
" Since my retirement from the Senate I have not sent a
single letter about an appointment to the President nor to
any member of his Cabinet," So again, at a still later
period : "Iain in private life and am not counted a pur-
veyor of patronage, but a simple citizen fighting in the
ranks."

Thus he stood when the campaign of 1902-3 opened.

THE LAST SENATORIAL FIGHT

CAME then Mr. Wolcott's final political struggle — the
contest of 1902-3, when the Republicans were again
in the majority, as was attested by the election of a
State ticket, including James H. Peabody as Governor.
The triumph of his party at that time brought to Mr. Wol-
cott his only chance of re-election after the expiration of his
second term in the Senate, and the Fates then seemed to
conspire to prevent his success. Senator Teller's term ex-
pired on the 4th of March, 1903, and if the Republican party
in the State had been harmonious, the re-election of Mr.
Teller, who had become a Democrat, might have been pre-
vented, and, after a lapse of two years, Mr. Wolcott might
have been chosen to resume his old place in the Senate.

But Mr. Wolcott was not so well prepared then to com-
mand the situation as he had been most of the time in the
preceding fifteen or twenty years. During the greater part
of that period his power in the party had been absolute ; but
upon leaving the Senate he had surrendered control of the
machinery, had permitted his supporters to drift away, and
in doing so had allowed his enemies to gain such ascendancy
in the party as to render them capable of accomplishing his
defeat by co-operating with the Democrats. His relinquish-
ment of party authority greatly emboldened his opponents,
many of whom would not have taken a positive position
against him if he had occupied his old position of power.

Aside from the natural ambition which had demurred at
his supremacy, there were special reasons why many were re-
luctant to follow his leadership. Some of those who aban-
doned the party in 1896 retained their personal antagonism

295

296 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

after their return. The quality of his leadership operated
against him. Had he been a dickering politician, working
simply for immediate success he would have stood on a
lower plane. Those who co-operated with him would have
felt that they were using him rather than following him.
But he always had maintained such a lofty tone that those
who had parted with him for a while found themselves
tacitly acknowledging by the very act of returning to
their allegiance that they had been in the wrong and
he in the right. His imperious manner had been at all
times an offence to many persons, some of whom had
schooled themselves to bear it with what patience they
could, but many of whom openly resented what seemed
to them his lack of courtesy. It is probable, moreover,
that persons against whose interests he had appeared in
the courts had a feeling of having suffered wrong through
him, and it is certain that some of the corporations
which he had antagonized were among his determined and
effective foes. In short, all of the grievances which had
accumulated against him during his long political reign,
which had smouldered quietly as long as he was successful,
now sought vent.

The Chairman of the State Republican Committee, J. B.
Fairley, of Colorado Springs, was opposed to Mr. Wolcott.
Indeed, the machinery of the entire Republican Committee
was arrayed against him notwithstanding most of its officers
had been chosen by him. There also was another Colorado
Springs man, Mr. Philip B. Stewart, a recent comer into
the State and a novice in politics, who by reason of his
connections in Washington was regarded as the distributor
of Federal patronage, who exerted himself to the utmost
against Wolcott. In addition to these adverse conditions
in his own party, the Democrats were fairly united.

But notwithstanding all these elements of opposition he
would have stood a fair chance of winning if some of the
Republican members of the Legislature had not conspired
against him, as they did at the crucial time.

Mr. Wolcott's opponents in his own party began opera-
tions by appealing to his chivalry in connection with the
State campaign of 1902. Representing to him that if he

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 297

were absent from the State and had no part in that eon-
test, the fight could be made on the State ticket without
having the question of the Senatorship complicated with
it, thus increasing the prospect of success, they appealed
to him to go away for the time. He had misgivings as to
the wisdom of the course, but yielded. It is evidence of the
openness of spirit of one ordinarily so shrewd in political
matters that he should have been thus hoodwinked. The
rival Republican factions made use of his departure to
strengthen their position. When, after the election of the
Republican State ticket, Mr. Wolcott returned, they claimed
that his absence from the State had been accepted as a
pledge that he would not seek to return to the Senate.

Far from having given such a pledge, he had let it be
known among his friends that a return to the Senate would
be agreeable to him whenever it could be brought about
without injury to the party. He enjoyed service in the
Senate, but his Senatorial ambition was subordinated to the
success of Republicanism. Hence, in becoming a candidate,
he was not inconsistent. He had said over and again that
he was not concerned so much for his own success as for
the restoration of his party to power, and that his chief
desire wras that Colorado should be represented in the Sen-
ate by a Republican — a circumstance which would help to
put the State in accord with the dominant party in the coun-
try, and, as he believed, place it in the way of greater in-
dustrial progress and more rapid material development. He
never had said that he would not be a candidate. He real-
ized as did few others the probability of other aspirants
entering the contest, and he did not seek to discourage them.
He was willing that all should have a fair field, and he asked
as much for himself.

The first open indication of opposition to his candidacy
came immediately after the result of the November elections
became known as favorable to the Republican ticket, and
was made manifest in connection with a meeting in Denver
called for November 18th to ratify and rejoice over the
result at the polls. This meeting was held under the auspices
of the Young Men's Republican Club, and was called by W.
B. Lowry, chairman of the local committee, whose plan was

298 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

to have a number of ten-minute speeches by the candidates
and State leaders. Mr. Lowry obtained Mr. Wolcott's con-
sent by telegraph to deliver one of these addresses, but when
Mr. Fairley learned that Wolcott was on the programme, he
sent telegrams all over the State, calling the meeting off.
Lowry, however, despatched rival messages declaring the
meeting would be held, and it was held.

Wolcott arrived in Denver the day before the meeting.
As the Denver Post tells the story, Lowry went to see him,
feeling very despondent over the withdrawal of speakers.
Wolcott heard Lowry's report in silence. He paced up and
down the room for a few minutes, and going then to Lowry,
laid his hand on that gentleman's shoulder, saying :

" Walter, it is n't the first time Colorado Republicans
have refused to speak from the same platform with me.
We will hold the meeting. You go ahead with the arrange-
ments. If there is nobody on the platform but you and me
we will carry out the programme, and I will endeavor to
entertain the audience for the entire evening."

Chairman Lowry and the local Republicans had prepared
extensive plans in the way of parade and bands and were
expecting to expend considerable money out of their own
pockets, but Wolcott would not permit them to do so. " You
go on and get up the finest demonstration that can be had,"
he said, " and then bring the bills to me."

The absence of Mr. Fairley and his followers did not,
therefore, prevent an enthusiastic demonstration either on
the street or in Coliseum Hall, where the meeting was held.
Giving an account of it, next day, the Denver Republican
said:

Thirty thousand citizens joined last night in the great jolli-
fication over the return of the State of Colorado to the union
of Republican States. Ten thousand marched in line, or rode
in carriages, waving banners, swinging torches, and cheering.
Twenty thousand more lined the streets along the two miles of
the line of march, a solid mass of humanity. Everywhere was
the same enthusiasm shown, the kind which cannot be embalmed,
sealed up, and put in a vault to be brought out for use on
a later occasion.

Five thousand were packed in Coliseum Hall to hear the

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 299

speeches delivered by leaders of the party to whom Republicanism
in wholesale lots means no menace. Two thousand more filled
the street outside, and formed an overflow meeting which was
addressed by speakers from within. Everywhere was good na-
ture. The crowd knew no enemies, and it knew no factions.
All were Republicans, glad that Republicanism had triumphed.

Edward O. Wolcott spoke again from the platform where
six years ago he had to be guarded from the violence of the
opposition while he addressed a small gathering of the faithful.
But this time it was to a cheering crowd, every one recognizing
his leadership in the party which he led through the deserts in
the days when its numbers were few.

In addition to Mr. Wolcott, Congressman-elect H. M.
Hogg, John W. Springer, and Edward P. Costigan delivered
addresses. While in the main devoting his remarks to gen-
eral issues, Mr. Wolcott did not fail to make reference to
the circumstances under which the meeting was held. He
spoke in jocular mood, mentioning several of the more
notable absentees, whom he cajoled unmercifully. Referring
to Chairman Fairley, he said :

I regret the personal attack that has grown out of this
meeting, for I know he will regret it some day. I have spent
my time fighting Democrats, and I don't propose to enter into
a campaign of slander. I believe we should send greeting to
him to-night, and if he does not invite us to his party in Janu-
ary, we will be there. If we are not at the table, we will be
in the galleries.

Especial reference was made by Mr. Wolcott to the device
by which he had been induced to refrain from participation
in the campaign, as follows :

In this last campaign I was requested by the members of
the central committee to withdraw from the convention and
from the State because they believed that if the Senatorial
contest were eliminated and the battle fought out on State
issues, our chances of success would be greater. My pride was
hurt as never before. If I am called upon to abstain from one
contest in Colorado I think perhaps my record is as good as
that of most of the party, and if I am to be debarred from
any campaign in this State I would rather it would be at such

300 EDAVARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

a time as this, when victory was in sight, for I cherish no
memory in my life as precious and as sacred as the associations
formed in those dark days, now happily forever past, when, with
no ray of hope and no star in the sky, facing certain defeat
and hate, it was my blessed privilege to be one of those who
warmed into life the almost dead embers of Republican prin-
ciples in Colorado, until now they have been pressed into victory.,

An important feature of the address was a plea for
party loyalty, in part as follows :

This meeting is given under the auspices of the Young Men's
Republican Club. It seems to me but yesterday when I, too,
used to speak for young men and for young men's Republican
clubs. But the span of political life is short and the workers
drop out, and the new men and the young men come and fill
the ranks. You are to be congratulated that you come upon the
arena at a time when the old battles have been fought and
the old bitterness threshed out, and you have only to preserve
and maintain intact that for which your elders fought. Grow-
ing out of the lessons of the last few years, may I beg of you
to insist to the members of your club and to the young men of
Colorado, to stand always with their party, and if things go
wrong and you want to right them, right them from within
and not from without. And, further, my friends, when you see
factions and personalities in you own party raising their heads,
stamp them out. The individual is nothing, — the party is all.
Faction and slander are the poor creatures of the hour. The
great principles of the Republican party are eternal, and by
your devotion to them, and so only, can you lift this great
commonwealth, with its marvellous resources, into the front rank
of the States of the Union. And so, and so only, can you place
our great beloved country in the forefront of the nations of
the earth, a mighty instrument for progress, for civilization, and
for Christianity.

From the time of Mr. Wolcott's return to the State the
Senatorial contest became the subject of much attention, and
the situation in the Legislature was canvassed with especial
care. When that body, comprised of one hundred members,
assembled it was found to be composed of fifty-five Democrats
and forty-five Republicans, giving the Democrats a majority
of ten on joint ballot. But, because of the allegations of

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 301

fraud in the election of members, the Republicans were not
without hope of overcoming this disadvantage. Of the thirty-
five Senators twenty-four were Democrats and eleven Re-
publicans, and there was no prospect of a favorable change
in that body. In the House there was a Republican majority
of three, there being thirty-four Republicans and thirty-one
Democrats. Among others the fraud charges involved all of
the House members from Arapahoe County, including eleven
representing that county alone and four representing Ara-
pahoe in connection with small adjoining counties who were
known as " floats." The frauds consisted of all manner of
election irregularities, and those in Arapahoe were so fla-
grant as to attract much attention and call forth severe con-
demnation from all believers in righteous government. Still,
it was contended that, even though illegal ballots had been
cast, there were not enough of them to overcome the large
majorities returned for the Democratic candidates, and in
addition there were countercharges in connection with the
election of Republican members in other counties. How-
ever, except in a few cases, the last mentioned charges were
never pressed to a conclusion, so that the Arapahoe elections
still bear an unenviable distinction. Mr. Woleott believed
the infractions of honesty and decency to have been without
excuse, and he spent a large sum in proving them to be so.

It never was intended by the anti-Wolcott leaders that
the fraudulent elections should be exposed if in any way Wol-
cott was to become a beneficiary of the proceeding, and in
the end the fear that he would be such beneficiary prevented
effective action. Notwithstanding Mr. Wolcott's practically
enforced absence from the State during the previous cam-
paign, most of the Republican Senators and an even half,
or seventeen, of the thirty-four Republican members of the
House were advocates of his election, as were enough of
the Republican contestants to insure him a majority in a
Republican caucus in case of the removal of the Democrats
against whom there were charges.

This situation was not a pleasing one to either the Demo-
crats or to Wolcott's Republican antagonists. Independently
and through fusion with the Populists, the Democrats had
been in control of the Legislature as well as the State offices

302 EDWAED OLIVER WOLCOTT

since 1896. Their majorities had gradually dwindled away
until their men had been removed from all the executive
places, and now that they were in danger of losing the Legis-
lature also they were ready to exert themselves to the utmost
to prevent such result. The Legislature was all that was left ;
there they must make their final stand. The fact that the
United States Senatorship was involved in the contest nat-
urally acted as an incentive to a vigorous fight. Conse-
quently they were in receptive mood when advances came
from the Wolcott opponents in Republican ranks. The
anti-Wolcott Republicans were by no means enamored of
the Democrats, but they were willing to forego all party
advantage to insure Wolcott's humiliation. Coalition offered
the surest means of accomplishing this end, and the session
had not proceeded far when the Wolcott opponents were
found working together regardless of party name.

Deep feeling resulted from this state of affairs, event-
uating in a situation such as seldom has been witnessed
anywhere in connection with a Senatorial contest. Six
members of both Houses were expelled; for a time two
Senates were sitting; the legislative halls were barricaded,
and in the control of heavily armed guards. There was talk
of calling out the militia. Bloodshed was imminent at any
moment for almost a week. During much of that time
Senators and members slept at their desks, because they did
not feel safe in leaving them.

As the time approached for the session of the Legislature,
it was felt to be desirable that a caucus should be held to
determine the course of the party representatives, and on
January 6th, the day before the session opened, Mr. Wolcott
addressed the following letter to Mr. Fairley :

Dear Sir: The General Assembly meets to-morrow morning.
There is in the House of Representatives a clear majority of
Republican members.

There was never in the history of the State such an impor-
tant session of the Assembly as this, or one on whose action the
future of the party and the welfare of the State so greatly
depended.

At a time when the Democracy presents a united front, our

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 303

party seems threatened with dissensions of a more or less serious
character.

It is of comparatively little importance who is elected Sen-
ator, but he should be a Republican. Of far more vital moment
is it that our party should be courageous and animated by a
common and friendly purpose. There are gross frauds upon the
ballot to be dealt with. The Republican governor should have
his hands strengthened by a united party.

The very foundations of Republicanism are based upon the
proposition that it acts always through the will of its members,
as evidenced by the wish of the majority, and never in collusion
with the Democracy.

The Speaker of the House must be chosen to-morrow. Before
that hour the Republican members should meet in free and fair
caucus and determine by vote in the ordinary and customary
way their choice for Speaker. I am informed that although
most of the members desire so to meet, no concerted arrangement
for such a meeting has yet been effected.

For these reasons, and because I know your sturdy devotion
to Republican principles and traditions, I take the liberty of
respectfully requesting you, as the recognized head of the party
organization, to call upon the Republican members of the House
of Representatives, to meet in caucus at an early hour, at some
convenient place, to determine by the vote of the majority of
the members present, their choice for Speaker. Yours truly,

Edward O. Wolcott.

No response was made to this appeal, and no caucus
was held. The House was in a deadlock over the Speaker-
ship for forty-eight ballots, the votes for the candidates
standing 17 for the Wolcott candidate, 17 for the anti-
Wolcott candidate, and 31 for the Democratic candidate,
when suddenly the Democrats abandoned their man to vote
for J. B. Sanford, of Douglas County, an anti-Wolcott Re-
publican, with the result that he wTas elected.

With the House organized and ready for business, the
first matter to be settled by the Legislature was the dis-
posal of the contested elections. The new Speaker ap-
pointed a Committee on Elections to consider this subject,
five of whom were anti-Wolcott Republicans and four
Democrats, the latter including two of those whose seats
were in dispute. The Republican members of the Committee

304 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

were embarrassed by the fact that nine of the fifteen Ara-
pahoe claimants of seats were supporters of Mr. Wolcott, a
sufficient number if seated to give him a majority of the
votes of the party. Meantime the Senate, alleging Repub-
lican as well as Democratic frauds, had threatened to unseat
a Republican for every Democratic member of the House
displaced, and to this end had adopted the Goebel rule of
the Kentucky Legislature, by which the Secretary of the
Senate was authorized to put a motion for the unseating
of members if the Lieutenant-Governor refused to do so. At
this juncture, January 16th, Mr. Wolcott issued the follow-
ing appeal :

To the Republicans of Colorado :

The grave and imminent danger which threatens the party
— the certainty that within almost a few hours, unless wise
judgments intervene, our representatives will engulf us in irrepa-
rable party disgrace, of far-reaching injury, and affecting
seriously the future welfare of the State, is my excuse and
justification for this appeal.

It is not a time for recrimination or personalities. It is a
moment when the real earnest Republicans of Colorado, without
rancor, but with earnest purpose, must exercise every possible
influence in their power to induce their own representatives in
the General Assembly to stand by Republican principles, with-
draw before it is too late from disastrous and dishonorable
fusion with Democrats, consent to vote and work with their
fellow-members of the same political faith, and save the country
the spectacle of the election of a Democrat by a Legislature
which every man in Colorado knows to be fairly Republican,
and which only needs honest and united action to make it so.
In the Colorado House of Representatives there are at present
thirty-four Republicans and thirty-one Democrats. There are
pro forma contests for all seats, but the one main contention
is the question whether the fifteen members of the House, eleven
from the county proper, and four tied to Arapahoe County and
known as float members, elected, all of them, through glar-
ing, open, undenied, and undeniable fraud, shall hold their seats.
The facts are familiar to everybody. These crimes against the
ballot have been thoroughly investigated, the summary of the
evidence long since in the hands of every legislator; and unless
there shall be an opportunity of voting upon them by the mem-

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 305

bers of this Legislature, it not only means a Democratic General
Assembly, but it means something far more, a condoning by
Republicans of great and palpable frauds and a perversion and
miscarriage of justice. There are also frauds alleged and said
to be proved, affecting two members from the southeastern
portion of the State.

Before the opening of the session, the thirty-four Republican
members of the House entered, as is usual, into an intense,
but, everybody supposed, a good-natured party rivalry and con-
test for the selection of a Speaker. The very foundation of the
party is based upon control by the majority, evidenced by the
action of its members in convention or conference or caucus.
The day, therefore, before the Assembly was to meet, seventeen
Republicans asked their associates to come into caucus or con-
ference, to arrive at a choice for Speaker. To their amazement
this was refused by men assuming to speak for the seventeen to
whom the request was made. An appeal was made to the Chair-
man of the State Central Committee, as the head of the organiza-
tion, to exercise his influence to bring about such a caucus, but
the appeal was refused. What followed we all know. The thirty-
one Democrats, and seventeen Republicans refusing to caucus,
elected a Speaker and committees, and the patronage was dis-
tributed among them.

It is futile now to discuss the terms of this deal. There must
have been some inducements for such an arrangement. The un-
fortunate evidences of the deal, so far most apparent, are the
appointment by the Speaker of four Democrats on the Elections
Committee, two of whom are from Arapahoe County, upon the
unseating of whose members the whole question of the complex-
ion of the Legislature turns; and upon the fact that when the
non-fusion Republicans urged speedy action by the Elections
Committee, and by resolutions called for a report by the 15th,
the other side first changed it to the 17th, and then, the fusion
Republicans and the Democrats agreeing, again postponed it
until eleven o'clock on the 19th, but twenty-four hours before
the. voting on the Senatorship commences — to an hour when,
unless there is absolute unanimity among all the Republicans,
and a firm resolve to act together with vigor and courage in
the few hours left for action, the election of a Democratic
Senator is certain.

The issue which we must meet and face, as Republicans, is
not the question of who shall be the next United States Senator.
It is solely and only whether the Republican members of the

306 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

House, having right with them, shall do their duty and make
the General Assembly Republican on joint ballot. The threat-
ened importation into the State Senate by Democrats of the
bloody methods which have forever blackened the good name of
the State of Kentucky, must not swerve us. The patriotic Re-
publicans in the State Senate are loyal to their party, and
they are able, backed by a Republican Governor, to take care
of themselves.

There is still time for the seventeen Republicans who declined
to act with their party associates to retrace their steps. They
were elected as Republicans; they are Republicans. They have
been the dupes of designing and unscrupulous men. They may
still save the good name of the State. Let them report the whole
body of the contestants back into the House, and let the thirty-
four Republicans, in the open, and before the sight of the Re-
publicans of Colorado, vote as their names are called, whether
the Arapahoe Republicans, county and floats, shall be seated,
or whether these iniquitous frauds shall be condoned. Thus and
thus only can they show the people of Colorado that they have
neither part, nor lot, nor sympathy with any deal or fusion
with Democracy.

Or, better still : Let the thirty-four Republicans of the House
meet at once in caucus and determine by a majority vote their
action upon these contests. Notwithstanding the unjust and un-
fair treatment of which they have been subjected, I knoio that
the seventeen Republicans who have voted without affiliations
with Democracy, will enter to-day into such a caucus to save our
party the degradation that otherwise awaits us. We can know
no more on Monday than we now know about these frauds. Every
member has had for days before him a synopsis of the evidence.
For the sake of our principles and our party, I beg every Re-
publican to lend his aid to bringing about such a caucus or
conference.

Unless between now and Monday the thirty-four Republican
members of the House reach some agreement to act in unity,
a Democrat will be elected to the Senate for six years, from
Colorado, a Republican State. If it happens we make ourselves
a by-word and a reproach among our fellow-Republicans through-
out the land. In the heat and bitterness of faction, we may not
realize the crime against our party which is about to be per-
petuated; but when the smoke and dust of this conspiracy shall
be cleared away, every Republican in the State, whatever his
present affiliations, will bow his head in grief and humiliation.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 307

Between now and Monday every member of the party in the
State can do something, by letter or telegram or personal ex-
postulation, to prevent giving over our party again to the Democ-
racy. I make this appeal, believe me, animated by no personal
interest, but solely by an earnest desire that the party shall
not be dishonored.

I have no criticisms or denunciations or a harsh word or
thought toward anybody. We have, as a party in Colorado,
passed through enough vicissitudes and suffered sufficient injury
by fusion with Democracy. We love our State and are devoted
to its interests. We believe its welfare to be forever inter-
woven with the welfare of the Republican party; and we need,
as never before, representation in the Senate at Washington in
sympathy with Republican ideals and principles.

Unless prompt and united action is taken by every true Re-
publican, there will be inscribed at the State House next week
a darker page in the political history of our beloved State than
any that has yet been written.

Edward O. Wolcott.

Denver, January 16, 1903.

The Committee on Elections lost little time in reporting.
The Democratic members of the Committee took position
against all displacements. One of the Republican members
recommended the unseating of all of the Arapahoe Demo-
crats, regular and float, and of one Democratic member from
Las Animas County and a float member representing Las
Aminas, Baca, and Bent counties. The other four Republican
members of the committee united in recommendations for
the removal of the four float members and one regular mem-
ber from Arapahoe and of the regular and float members
from Las Animas whose right to their seats had been
questioned.

As the more extreme suggestion of the individual
member included the recommendation of the other four
Republicans, there was a majority for the displacement of
seven Democrats by as many Republicans. But, notwith-
standing the limited recommendation of the four moderate
Republicans, when a vote was reached on the report, they
joined with the more extreme member and cast their ballots
in favor of the displacement of seventeen Democrats. Such
a course had been expected to insure the success of the plans

308 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

of Mr. Wolcott's friends. But here they met with an un-
expected obstacle. Three Mexican members from some of
the southern counties, who had been acting with the Repub-
licans, switched suddenly about and cast their votes with
the Democrats against ousting any of the eleven Democrats
representing Arapahoe County proper. They aided in the
displacement of the four Arapahoe floats and of the regular
and float members from Las Animas County, thus reducing
the Democratic representation in the House to twenty-five
members and increasing the Republican representation to
forty members. With the Senate standing twenty-four
Democrats to eleven Republicans, the removal of the six
Democratic members of the House gave the Republicans fifty-
one members, or a majority of two on joint ballot. The
Democratic Senators immediately retaliated by removing
two of the Republican Senators, thus reversing the condition
and giving the Democrats fifty-one as against the Republi-
cans' forty-nine members.

The action of the Senate in removing two of its members,
against whom, but for the partisan conflict, there would have
been no such proceeding, was severely criticised, and Lieu-
tenant-Governor Haggot, who had been elected on the same
ticket with Governor Peabody, refused to recognize Demo-
crats to make motions connected with a contest case. This
refusal had the effect of causing the Democratic Senators
to take into their own hands the Senatorial organization.
The Republicans continued to assemble under the leadership
of the Lieutenant-Governor, and for a time there were two
Senates doing business in the same chamber. There was
much talk of displacing other Democratic Representatives,
but these threats were met by the announced determination of
the Democrats to oust a Republican Senator for every House
Democrat that might be turned out. On this account, and
because of the danger of physical hostilities, a truce was
tacitly agreed to, and no further steps toward the elimina-
tion of members had been taken when, Tuesday, January
20th, the day fixed for the beginning of balloting for United
States Senator, arrived.

On that date, the House and the two Senates cast their
votes for Senator. Senator Teller received all but one of

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 309

the Democratic votes, and Mr. Wolcott the larger share
of the Republican votes. Immediately after this ballot,
on motion of an anti-Wolcott Representative, the House pre-
cipitately adjourned for three days. This step was avow-
edly taken to permit the Senate to adjust its differences;
but it was in contravention of the Federal law requiring
a joint session of the two Houses on the day following a
vote by the individual Houses in the election of a Senator.
In accordance with this requirement of the law, the twenty-
five House Democrats met the next day, Wednesday, January
21st, in connection with the Senate, when a joint ballot was
taken for Senator. All of the twenty-six Democratic Sen-
ators and the twenty-five Democratic members were neces-
sary to constitute a quorum. Mr. Teller received the votes
of fifty of the fifty-one members present, but as they were
not equal to a majority of the entire Legislature in joint
assembly, no election took place at the first sitting. The
joint meetings were continued until January 24th, when, all
the Democrats being present and all voting for Mr. Teller,
he was declared elected as his own successor.

No Republican member of the Legislature had taken part
in the joint convention, and some of the disappointed as-
pirants for the Senate, raising the point that the proceed-
ings had been irregular, threatened a contest before the
United States Senate. Mr. Wolcott was not one of these.
On the contrary, he took the position that with a quorum
present and the law observed, the election had been strictly
legal. Indeed, immediately after the joint sessions began,
he had told his friends that an election by the organization
would be in accordance with law, and he frequently warned
the Republican members that they were throwing away their
opportunity. Now, with the election consummated, he issued
a formal statement of his views.

The publication of this pronunciamento had the effect
of quieting all talk of contest, and terminated the conten-
tion. Acquainted with the law and familiar with Senate
precedents, Mr. Wolcott understood perfectly that when the
Republicans consented to an adjournment over the period
prescribed for the election of a Senator they opened the
door for just what happened, which was the unopposed

310 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

election of a Democrat. He knew that, whatever the charges
in connection with the election of members of the Colorado
House of Representatives, the United States Senate would
not attempt to go behind the action of the Legislature, as
it was in accord with the legal requirements. Still, there
might have been an excuse for creating temporary annoy-
ance at Washington, and a man of smaller calibre might
have availed himself of it. Not so Ed Wolcott. He was
more anxious to bring peace and quiet to the State and
to restore its good name abroad than he was to keep himself
before the public or to annoy any one. Therefore, while
condemning the processes leading up to the result, he ad-
vised acquiescence in it and absolved his former colleague
from all responsibility even for those processes. The ad-
vice was followed. Those who had criticised the proceeding-
were guided by Wolcott's superior wisdom, and soon ceased
their complaints.

But, while Mr. Wolcott acknowledged the regularity of
Mr. Teller's election and refused sanction to any movement
against him, he waged sharp and unrelenting warfare on his
own opponents. Unquestionably there had been palpable
frauds in the Arapahoe election, and there is no doubt that
the Democratic legislative candidates profited by them. If, on
the other hand, Republican legislative candidates had received
benefit from similar proceedings elsewhere, as was alleged,
Mr. Wolcott had not been a party to the frauds nor even
cognizant of them. If the Republican members of the House
had made a determined and whole-hearted fight for the seat-
ing of the Republican contestants, the result might have been
different. At any rate, it would have been more satisfying
to Mr. Wolcott's sense of proper political warfare, for he
was ever ready to decide the rights of a question by combat.
But the attitude of the anti-Wolcott members was known of
all men. They were willing, even anxious, that the House
should be Republican if unfavorable to Wolcott; not other-
wise. Many of them preferred the election of a Demo-
crat to the Senate. Hence they were without zeal, and
their course was faltering and uncertain, if not treacherous,
as was shown in their action with reference to the report of
the contest committee.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 311

It would be too much to say that Senator Wolcott was
not disappointed by the result of the action of the Legis-
lature. He felt grievously hurt, but not because of any
sordid ambition of his own. While for many reasons he
would have been gratified to receive another election to the
Senate, his heart was not set absolutely upon a return to
office. He had enjoyed all the honors that could be ex-
pected to come through service in the Senate, and notwith-
standing a laudable ambition to improve upon his already
enviable record, he would have been reasonably content to
retire if his defeat had been brought about by the usual
methods. It was the manner of the proceeding quite as
much as the result that met his condemnation. Time and
again he had said that, compared with the triumph of his
party, his own success was of comparatively little importance.
But to be beaten by a member of the opposition as a result
of the machinations of Republicans — that was a little too
much for human nature to endure with equanimity. He had
labored long and against unusual odds to redeem his party
in Colorado, and with redemption attained it was hard to
have the party as well as himself deprived of all the fruits
of victory — a victory which he believed to have been won
indisputably. With the supremacy of Republicanism re-
established, he had anticipated that there would be other
aspirants for the Senate. He had clearly foreseen the prob-
ability of rivalry in Republican ranks, and while, of course,
he would have enjoyed a spontaneous general movement for
his election, he understood human nature too well to expect it.
He knew his own disposition and appreciated it to be of the
kind that creates enmities. Had he not said a year before
that in the day of triumph he would be a rock of offence?
His attitude in 1901 was correctly outlined in a newspaper
interview, and it had not changed in 1903. In that inter-
view he said :

It would be premature and idle to say I would not accept
an office that may never be tendered me, and that office the
highest Colorado can bestow; but I am in no sense an aspirant
for the Senate. Colorado has rewarded me far beyond my de-
serts, and I shall be wholly content to spend the remainder of

312 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

my life as a citizen of Colorado, devoting myself to her advance-
ment, and seeking always the triumph, in the State and nation,
of Republican principles, under which alone we have ever achieved
prosperity.

Controlled by sentiments of such magnanimity, Mr. Wol-
cott naturally was disappointed to meet no reciprocal feel-
ing from the opposing faction in his party, and especially
was he chagrined by the discovery that personal ambition
and resentment should cause such a schism as to bring
about the election of a Democrat. He saw then how deep
had been the plot, the carrying into effect of which had
been begun by enticing him away from the State in 1902
and terminated by the betrayal, not of himself only, but
of the party as well. The iron sank deep into his soul,
and it is not impossible that it remained there as long as
he lived.

Mr. Woleott's statement was a general review of the
campaign, as follows:

To the Republicans of Colorado:

The seed sown on the opening day of the legislative session
has borne its certain fruit. The inevitable has happened, and
the conspiracy entered into between a few Republicans and
the Democracy has brought the only result possible, the elec-
tion of a Democratic United States Senator from Colorado.
The terms of the fusion or deal are unimportant; they will
some day be fully exposed, and the degradation and dishonor
that have come to the party in the Senatorial election indi-
cate the heavy price the Republican conspirators paid for the
coalition.

When the Legislature met there was but one question pre-
sented, Should the fifteen members and float members from
Arapahoe County be unseated? The evidence of fraud was over-
whelming and conclusive. Every honest man in the State knew
that the facts not only justified but required the unseating of
these Democrats. Even when four of the five fusion Republican
members of the Elections Committee of the House reported against
unseating eleven of them, they dared not face the people of the
State in a direct vote, and so the help of " the three Mexicans,"
nominally Republicans, but who by the terms of their agree-
ment of adhesion waived all scruples that other men might

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 313

entertain, came to the rescue and, making with the Democrats
a majority of the House, insured the retention of the fraudu-
lently elected members, and permitted the other fusionists to
vote in favor of the unseating. The refusal to unseat these
Arapahoe County members was a crime against the Republican
party, and against justice, and was the second exposure of the
terms of this wicked deal.

The law, Federal and State, required the two Houses to vote
separately for Senator on the 20th of this month, and thereafter
each day at noon, in joint session. No member of the Legisla-
ture can fulfil his duty to the State and the nation without
compliance with this law. On the 21st of the month, before
twelve o'clock, a fusion Republican member moved an adjourn-
ment of the House until two o'clock on the 23d. It was a pal-
pable trick. Protests from the real Republicans were unheeded,
and being finally informed that it was the Governor's wish, and
might save possible violence, they consented, and, the Democrats
voting aye, the motion was unanimously carried. On both the
22d and the 23d the Democratic members of the House notwith-
standing they had voted to adjourn, met in joint session and
balloted for Senator. Yet on the 23d and 24th, when the trick-
ery of the motion had been made apparent, the same member
of the fusion party again moved an adjournment until the 25th
at ten o'clock, and then until the 26th, and in spite of the votes
and objections of the Republicans, twenty-two in number, the
motion again, with Democratic votes, was carried. On Satur-
day, the 24th, as everybody knows, fifty-one Democrats voted in
joint session for Mr. Teller, no Republican having voted at any
joint session. This was the third demonstration of the corrupt
deal.

On Wednesday evening at eight o'clock, the General Assembly
consisted of fifty-one Republicans and forty-nine Democrats. At
that hour the Senate by a motion, put by its chief clerk,
unseated, without argument or hearing or evidence, two Repub-
lican members lawfully holding their seats. The Lieutenant-
Governor, the presiding officer of the Senate, acting with courage
and patriotism, refused to put this revolutionary motion, and,
assured by his associates in the State government of their
approval and support, sought to protect the legally elected Sen-
ators from this action, and, by steps justifiable and, if properly
supported, legal, presided over the organization of a Republican
Senate composed of nineteen members— the support of which the
Lieutenant-Governor was assured, fell away from him. There was

314 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

still left the House, which, if it promptly recognized the Repub-
lican Senate, might with it constitute a valid and legal General
Assembly. This recognition was sought for in vain. On the
23d and 24th the Republican members notified their associates,
who were allied with the Democracy, of their readiness and
desire to recognize the Republican Senate. This was refused
them by their fusion associates, who insisted, instead, on voting
with Democrats for adjournment. This constitutes the fourth
link in the absolute proof of the terms of the deal or combination.

There were three joint sessions of the General Assembly. At
the last one fifty-one Democrats voted for Mr. Teller. No other
joint sessions have been held, and no Republican has voted in
any joint session. The election of Mr. Teller is tinctured with
fraud; first in the trickery of the adjournment by the Democrats
of the House; second, in the arbitrary and fraudulent expulsion
of two legally elected Senators. There is, however, for the rea-
sons given above, now no other legally constituted Senate, as
there might have been but for this conspiracy, and it is now too
late to undo the wrong, and by unseating the fraudulently elected
members from Arapahoe County insure the valid election of a
Republican Senator.

The welfare of the State requires that there shall be no
possible question or doubt as to the legal status of the two
legislative bodies. Important laws are to be passed, moneys
must be lawfully paid, our public institutions must be protected,
and out State credit preserved. Wicked and unforgivable as is
the wrong done the Republican party, yet from the point of
view of the highest citizenship, there is but one thing to be
done, and that is for the people to accept the deplorable situa-
tion, and for the Governor of the State to issue a certificate of
election to Mr. Teller. It is enough that we are disgraced at
home. The State needs the help of our Senators at Washington
in countless ways for the upbuilding of Colorado, and we should
not, if it can be helped, throw doubts upon their title to repre-
sent us. It is important also that this Assembly should be able
to devote its time to proper legislative work, and not be further
occupied by quarrels over the Senatorship. It is most desirable
also, for the public morals, that the professional boodle brokers,
those foul birds that hover over the Legislature looking for
corruption, representing men whose ambitions or desire for re-
venge lead them to expenditure of money to debauch votes,
should transfer their field of action to some more promising
spot.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 315

The above is a fair and true statement of the situation. Sen-
ator Teller is in no sense a party to the frauds, while he is
the beneficiary of them. He has served Colorado for nearly a
generation at Washington, and whatever may be our regret
that he no longer marches in the ranks of the party that has
so highly honored him, every citizen of the State wishes him
health and strength, and believes that he is single-minded in
his devotion to the material interests of the State.

The Republicans of Colorado have passed through many
vicissitudes, and have faced overwhelming defeat; but always be-
fore at the hands of an open enemy. We have never walked as
deep in the valley of humiliation as to-day; but after the dark-
ness comes the dawn. All honor to the Republican members
of the House who stood firm for party and principle and
whose skirts are clear of Democratic taint! All honor to the
Republican members of the Senate, and their party associates
who left their homes and came here ready to act at the call
of duty! The great mass of Republicans in the State are be-
ginning to understand the situation and the party treachery of
which many of even the fusion Republican members were the
dupes. The lesson of to-day will not be lost, and the party,
purified and strengthened, will guard forever hereafter against
the presence of traitors in its citadel.

For myself I have not the slightest sense of personal disap-
pointment, nor do I cherish rancor toward anybody. My first
vote was cast in Colorado more than thirty years ago. I was
a Republican then, and have been since. I was a Republican in
'96. I am a Republican in 1903, and shall always remain a
Colorado Republican. I have an abiding and indestructible faith
in the principles and teachings of the party, and in the wisdom
and fairness and judgment of its members in Colorado. In this
hour of party shame and humiliation, I see in the heavens only
the day-star of hope.

Edward O. Wolcott.
Denver, Colorado,

January 25, 1903.

During the exciting days of this campaign, Mr. Wolcott
was interviewed by a special writer of the Denver Post.
The occasion of the publication was the printing of a card
by Philip B. Stewart, in which Mr. Wolcott was severely
attacked. Mr. Stewart was on terms of personal friendship
with President Roosevelt, and the fact that he was making

316 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

a vigorous fight upon Mr. Wolcott led many to conclude that
the President himself was opposed to Wolcott's re-election.
Stewart appeared willing to allow this impression to pre-
vail, but Mr. Wolcott met the intimation with a denial. " It
is not," he said, " the province of a President to interfere in
State politics, and President Roosevelt is too wise a man
and too just and honorable an official to overstep the pro-
scribed bounds — and this in spite of any assertion of Mr.
Stewart to the contrary."

Then the Senator spoke of the charge that he had left
the State during the last campaign, saying :

I was never a coward but once in my life, and that was when,
at the solicitation of the party managers, I left the State last
fall. I wish to God I had not gone. It was a great mistake. But
when Mr. Stewart is assailing me in regard to this, he should
remember that two years ago, when I am accused of defeating
the ticket, I had the very active assistance of both President
Roosevelt and Senator Lodge here in the State. More, he for-
gets— or probably does not know — that the proportionate growth
of Republican votes in the past two years is not as great as
during the two preceding years.

The interviewer dwelt upon the difficulty of reproducing
Mr. Wolcott's language and manner, among other things,
saying :

After a lengthy interview I came away sure of just two
things: One was, that I had met a man who was the very in-
carnation of force, and the other, that nothing short of a com-
bination electric dynamo and phonograph could ever catch and
retain his exact language.

To me he seems positive to the point of brutality and most
arbitrary, but tremendously in earnest, alert, keen, scintillatingly
brilliant, and wonderfully magnetic. To a vocabulary of un-
rivalled richness, he brings a clear, incisive mind, a wide knowl-
edge of men and affairs, and a sonorous voice of great capacity
and infinite variation. It is a pleasure to listen to him, but
purgatory to try to report him.

SUPREMACY REGAINED

MR. WOLCOTT'S loss of control of political affairs in
Colorado was not of long duration. He was again
" in the saddle/' having regained the mastery which
he had lost as a result of his absence from the State, and
by the time the next State convention was held he was
as strong as ever he had been, showing that only a little
attention of the right kind at the proper time would keep
him in control as long as he might care to so remain.

There was a campaign in the fall of 1903 for the elec-
tion of a Justice of the State Supreme Court, and the con-
vention for the nomination of a candidate was held in Denver
September 29th of that year — only about eight months after
the failure of the Republican members of the Legislature
to get together for the election of a Senator. Mr. Wolcott
was present as a delegate and was chosen to preside over
the convention. Of the seventeen Republican members of
the House of Representatives who had supported him, four-
teen were present as delegates, while only one of the oppos-
ing members appeared in that capacity. All the nine
Senators who stood with Wolcott were delegates. His
friends were in charge everywhere. Mr. Wolcott was given
a flattering reception when he entered the hall, and the
demonstration was still more pronounced when he was pro-
posed for Chairman.

To Mrs. Anthony, a well-known Denver writer of the
day who used the pen-name of " Polly Pry," we owe a
graphic picture of Mr. Wolcott's reception on this occasion.

317

318 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Mrs. Anthony revelled in the breezy language of the plains,
and her method of dealing Avith men and affairs was original
rather than conventional. Here is her story of this event;

The Republican State Convention, which nominated Judge
John Campbell to succeed himself on the supreme bench, was the
occasion for Mr. Wolcott's reappearance upon the political stage
last Tuesday morning, and likewise the occasion for a Wolcott
demonstration which gave the celebrated Fairley-Stewart-Brooks
faction a dose of knock-out drops that laid them low — at least
for a spell.

" Wolcott as a political factor is dead — as dead as a pickled
mackerel," a sapient politician had remarked as we wended our
way toward Twenty-second and Arapahoe that morning.

" Requiescat in pace ! " I murmured devoutly, looking at
him admiringly and wondering how on earth he managed to
stagger under all he knew.

Then we plunged into the vestibule of that Black Hole of
Calcutta, misnamed East Turner Hall, and a few minutes later,
triumphant but somewhat breathless, were mopping the perspira-
tion from our classic brows and trying to talk against the rag-
time rackets of the band.

Everybody was present and accounted for, including Presi-
dent Roosevelt's " old college chum," Mr. Philip B. Stewart, and
Archie Stevenson, he of the Hyperion curls, the bland smile, and
the witty tongue, when Chairman Fairley rapped for order. Then
a man came in, passed hurriedly through the crowd about the
door, walked half-way up the centre aisle, and took a seat with
the Arapahoe County delegation.

" Hip-hip-hurrah ! " shouted the Denver delegation. " Yip-yip-
yip ! " came the old familiar Twombly yell, and " Yip-yip-e-ip ! "
chortled the mavericks from Huerfano County, while Saguache
chimed in with a " Wa-wa-wa-woop-ee ! " that could be heard a
mile.

" Wolcott ! Wolcott ! Wolcott ! " chorused the crowd, and the
man who was deader than a " pickled mackerel " was escorted
to the stage, where, accompanied by a continuous rumble of ap-
plause, he gave an excellent imitation of a live person with
something to say, and by no means averse to making the fact
public.

For a man who has been reported as among the " politically
dead " so many times, and tommyhawked, knifed, double-crossed,
and solar-plexed, he certainly is a warm member.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 319

In ringing tones and with beautiful hyperbole he pictured
the ends and aims of the Republican party, extolled Republican
principles, and denounced Republican backsliders, Fusionists,
and traitors. With the tremolo stop turned on full, he pleaded
for harmony and a Republican victory, ending with a scathing
denunciation of the political boycott and a stinging arraignment
of the political hucksters who claim to own and undertake to
peddle party patronage through personal friendship with men
high in power.

Mrs. Anthony also supplies the following estimate of the
Colorado orator :

It is said, among other things, of Edward O. Wolcott, that
he is an ingrate, that he admits of no independence except his
own; that he has no friends; that he himself has said that he
recognizes only " slaves and enemies," and that he is selfish be-
yond the understanding of the ordinary man. And yet, even so,
with all of his faults he towers among Colorado Republicans
like the Washington monument in a forest of telegraph poles.

Because why? He is a big man, a great man — not alone in
Colorado, but in Washington, in New York, London — where you
will. There is no Padua with him ; it is all Rome. His reputa-
tion is international, based upon sound money and conservative
principles. He is the Political Nestor of the West, and whether
he attains his ambition and returns to the United States Senate
three years from now or not, his niche in the Temple of Fame
is already secure. Colorado could not forget him — if she would.

His speech on taking the chair was brilliant and effec-
tive. Its keynote was harmony. But he did not spare those
most responsible for the discord that had characterized the
party in recent times. He was ironical and sarcastic re-
garding the " amateurs who were led to burn their fingers
by picking chestnuts from the fire for other people who
ministered to their egotism"; and he was scathing in his
indictment of the real instigators of the trouble.

For himself, he was willing to surrender all responsibility
and join the rank and file should it be so decreed ; and then
he spoke of the dark days in Colorado and of the patriotism
of the few soldiers who had stood fast; but leader and fol-
lowers would go out were it for the benefit of the party.

320 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

His tribute to the vanguard was in lofty measure, and before
it had concluded the audience was cheering and shouting,
causing a long interruption.

The old leader's triumph was complete. Once more he
was the party chieftain of undisputed right, and the party
was overjoyed to have him in his old place. He had com-
pletely re-established himself.

Again, at a banquet given by the Republican Club of
Denver, on Lincoln's Birthday in 1904, he received another
strong assurance of undiminished popularity. A newspaper
chronicler of the time furnishes this account of that
occasion :

When former Senator Wolcott arose to respond to the toast
" Colorado," he was greeted with a great display of enthusiasm.
As soon as Toastmaster Dixon spoke the name of Wolcott, the
audience arose to its feet and applauded. They gave three hearty
cheers after he was introduced, and he was not permitted to
go on until friendly and enthusiastic words of praise and en-
couragement had been shouted to him from all over the hall. It
was a reception to touch a leader's heart. As he proceeded, he
warmed to his work and his terse, vigorous sentences followed
each other quickly. He was greeted at every pause by cheers.
There was no part of his speech that was not given entire ap-
proval. The audience seemed anxious to assure him that he
was its especial favorite and the ovation he received at the close
of the address w;is a personal triumph.

Also at the State convention in May, 1904, for the selec-
tion of delegates to the Republican National Convention
which was to be held at Chicago, he was in complete as-
cendency. This was destined to be the last State conven-
tion he should attend, and he again was chosen to act as
Temporary Chairman, as he again was placed at the head
of the delegation to attend the National Convention. He
was in the best of form for this meeting and made a vigorous
speech outlining the issues involved in the campaign and
especially urging reform in the conduct of the official affairs
of Denver. His associates as delegates were: Hon. James
H. Peabody, Governor; A. M. Stevenson, Denver; Thomas
F. Walsh, Ouray; N. Walter Dixon, Pueblo; Sylvester S.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 321

Downer, Boulder; John W. Springer, Denver; W. B. Miner,
Fort Collins; Charles F. Caswell, Grand Junction, and
Clyde C. Dawson, Canon City.

That he had serious misgiving about attending the con-
vention even after he was chosen to lead the delegation is
shown in a letter to Mr. W. S. Boynton, of Colorado Springs,
as follows:

15 E. 48th St., N. Y.,
Monday, June 6, 1904.
My Dear W. S.

Two or three days ago I received Bailey's despatch, sent, I
know, after consultation with you, saying that I should, he
thought, by all means attend the convention at Chicago. I shall
probably do as you think I should, although if we three were
to talk it over, I doubt if you would so advise me. I have been
here a fortnight, and for three fourths of the time, I have been
in bed with a continuance of the same vicious attack of gout
I had in Colorado, and I am not at all well and need the cure
at Carlsbad. I won't go again into the embarrassments which
will meet me in Chicago. . . . There is necessity for my keeping
quiet, because if I said anything it would be in the nature of
a criticism. I should have thought of all of these things before
I accepted the election as delegate. But there is another feature
that I have not written about and that is the certainty that
my delay in starting (for I must go to Carlsbad after the con-
vention) means my later return here and to Colorado.

Perhaps nothing makes any difference. My friends tell Mr.
Chisholm that unless I come back after the convention they fear
the " Antis " will get control of the committee, and that our
friends are thoroughly disheartened, etc. I can understand this
and I think their fears are well founded. . . .

My one desire has been to control the political situation
because I thought we could serve Colorado better than the fac-
tion that seeks to dominate the party. I have never, I think,
been controlled by any personal desire for the Senatorship. Per-
haps I am a stumbling block to success; if so I don't want to
keep my personality prominent in the councils of the party. . . .

I have been to two National Conventions; in one I nominated
Blaine, and I presided over the other. In this one I must keep
absolutely silent. . . .

Just wire me that you have received this when you do. If
a letter comes from you or Bailey, I will write one of you again.

322 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

But, my friend, I still feel that I ought not to be at the con-
vention, because I cannot help anybody, and the situation has
only humiliation for me. However, I shall be there unless I
am again laid up and am unable to leave my room. . . .

Everything is dull here; I see hardly anybody and am alone
in my rooms most of the time.

Your friend,
To E. O. W.

Hon. W. S. Boynton,

Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Mr. Wolcott attended the National Convention, which was
held at Chicago ; but he kept his word, and for the first time
at such a gathering remained absolutely quiet. He was far
from well, and the political embarrassments in his own party,
growing out of his recent contest, had extended to figures
prominent before the national assembly. Roosevelt was
nominated for President.

After the convention and just before sailing for Europe,
Mr. Wolcott wrote to his friend, United States Marshal
Bailey. His letter possesses a strongly personal tinge, but
it throws so much light on his view of the Colorado political
situation and especially on his state of mind generally that

it is given :

New York, June 25, 1904.
Hon. D. C. Bailey,
U. S. Marshal,

Denver, Colorado.
Dear Bailey :

I have your letters, and better than all, I have received that
photograph, which I was delighted to have and I shall always
keep.

The political situation in Colorado is deplorable. As I un-
derstand it we have to sell the Denver Committee furniture to
pay the unpaid debts of the last compaign. The enormous fund
in control of our opponents, and the defection of former friends
who want to hold on to their offices or get new ones will be
too much for us in the State Committee. My chief anxiety is
for you. . . .

I have been very hard hit in financial matters recently, but
there will always be enough, my friend, to keep the wolf from
both our doors, and you shall not suffer if I can help it. Don't

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 323

worry about the situation. I am unwilling to spend any more
money, and I know that you would be unwilling to have me
do so. It is of no use. We have already wasted thousands
of dollars to make it possible for our enemies to control the
situation. . . .

If things go against us I shall not hurry back, but in any
event shall return early in September and shall remain some
time at Wolhurst, where you and I will have some happy hours
I hope.

As things have turned out, I should not go abroad if I
did not believe it necessary that I take a cure at Carlsbad. I
go away of course depressed over the situation, but neither you
nor I have anything to reproach ourselves with.

I trust you will write me sometimes, and with all good wishes
and sincere regards, as always,

Your friend,

Edw. O. Wolcott.

LAST VISIT TO COLORADO

After the National Convention, Mr. Wolcott was com-
pelled to go to Europe on account of his poor health, and
he did not return to Colorado until the latter part of the
following October. In the meantime the State convention
for the nomination of State officers had been held, Governor
Peabody had been placed at the head of the ticket for the
second time, and the campaign was well under way when
on the 24th of that month he reached Denver for a visit
of brief duration. Mr. Peabody's administration had been
marked by a great activity on the part of the Western
Federation of Miners and by many disputes and even con-
flicts on account of labor troubles, and altogether had been
far from peaceful. In a brief interview given during his
stay in Denver, the ex-Senator said:

I have just returned from New York, where I find the most
intense interest is being taken in the result of the Colorado
election. It seems incomprehensible that the Governor of Colo-
rado should not be supported in the determined stand he has
taken on behalf of law and order in the State.

It seems to me of the greatest possible importance that good
citizens should support the Republican ticket. No matter what

324 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

individual grievances may exist, or however much we may differ
on other matters, the welfare of the State requires that the
course of the chief executive during the last two years shall
be vindicated at the polls.

Mr. Wolcott made but one speech in the campaign of
1904. It was delivered at Coliseum Hall to a packed and
enthusiastic audience on November 7th, the night before
election.

In this contest the principal State issue was Governor
Peabody's controversy with the Western Federation of
Miners, which organization was charged with responsibility
for many atrocities committed in the State, and the cam-
paign was a bitter one. Mr. Wolcott devoted much attention
to the organization, which he denounced vigorously and
fearlessly. His speech had little of the stirring oratory
which usually characterized his campaign addresses. It wras
a closely reasoned argument such as he was accustomed to
give in court-rooms and was a clear, measured, and convin-
cing statement of facts showing how law and human rights
had been ignored and vindicating the repressive efforts of
the State government. The last part was the more effective
because of the self-restraint manifested. He explained his
reason for not taking part in the campaign, and closed with
a beautiful tribute to Colorado, whose future he pictured in
rainbow hues. His explanation of his failure to participate
in the campaign was a frank avowal of his dread of the
criticism which he knew his appearance would arouse, and
was as follows:

I am touched by this cordial and kindly reception, and I
feel moved to make but one personal explanation. It is that
the reason I have not participated more early in the campaign
has been solely because, though I do not count my years as old,
I have become weary to death of personal abuse, vituperation,
and slander.

This abuse has followed me since '96, and while it does not
keep me awake at night, it yet makes me feel that there are times
when the post of honor is the private station, and I can say to
you that I have no political enemy attacked by vituperation and
slander, and no political friend similarly attacked, that my feel-

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 325

ing toward them is not kindlier and warmer when attacks are
made upon their private character.

We have more of personal abuse in Colorado, I fear, than in
most of the States, and while for the moment it meets the pas-
sions that partisanship engenders, in the end it lowers the moral
tone and degrades the community which endures and tolerates it.

The meeting was the last political demonstration in
which Senator Wolcott ever participated. The campaign
resulted in a victory in the State for Roosevelt and Fair-
banks on the National ticket, but on the face of the returns
Alva Adams, Democrat, was elected Governor. The Legis-
lature wras Republican, however, and he was unseated on an
allegation of fraud. His antagonist, Peabody, was not given
the place, but it was awarded to Jesse F. McDonald, one
of the State Senators who had been deposed during the
legislative entanglement of 1903, and who in the fall of
189-1, had been elected Lieutenant-Governor on the Republi-
can ticket,

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

There can be little question that if Mr. Wolcott had
lived and had retained his health, he would have returned to
the Senate. While in Denver in the fall of 1904, he told
his friends that he would be in the race to succeed Mr.
Patterson in 1907, and with his hold upon the party leader-
ship re-established, as it most securely was, the prospect of
success was flattering. Still, there were many ugly com-
plications, and that he had full appreciation of them is in-
dicated by his letters to personal friends during this period.
But in the main he then looked forward with some eagerness
to the contest. He was more anxious to return to the
Senate than he had been in 1901. Then his first concern
had been for party success. But he had not at that time
experienced the bitter personal assaults from inside his own
party organization that were made upon him and upon his
friends in the fight of 1903, and he felt all the generous
impulses of the strong man who has done a great thing. He
was willing, as are all big men under such circumstances,
to share the reward with others or even to entirely divert

326 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

it from himself. Now it was different. Not only he, but
his friends had been attacked. He had been persuaded to
turn his back to his foes and to leave the State in the con-
test of 1902, the first time he ever had submitted to such
humiliation, and we have seen how deeply he regretted his
course. He expressed himself frankly to this effect in his
speech of November 18th, and privately he was even more
emphatic. In conversation with friends he was full of self-
condemnation for permitting himself to be influenced as he
was, and at such times would complain bitterly that he had
allowed any one to make " a renegade " of him. He re-
sented also the criticisms directed against his friends in
public life. While he did not grudge full membership and
high position to any of the Republicans who had been led
away by the sentiment in the interest of silver, he did resent
the strictures of some of the returning members of the party
upon those who had remained faithful in the days of
adversity.

He had still another reason for desiring election at this
time. His intimate personal friend, Grant B. Schley, of
New York, told the writer that it was Mr. Wolcott's ambi-
tion to go back to the Senate and show what he really was
capable of by giving more serious and closer attention to
public affairs than ever he had given.

He had been promised, even before asking, the enthusiastic
support of " the Old Guard," and many new friends, both in
and out of the State and in and out of the Republican party,
had told him that they would do all they could to assist.

He was to go abroad, regain his health, recoup his for-
tune, and come back and make such a fight as never before
had been made in the State. But, alas, he soon was to en-
counter a foe more obdurate and more unrelenting than
even Fusion candidates or party opponents!

LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH

SENATOR WOLCOTT'S last speech, the one made at
the Denver Coliseum November 7, 1904, proved his
undoing. He had been indisposed with a cold when
he went to the meeting, but his condition was not in the
slightest degree alarming.

As always, when the Senator spoke, his whole being was
launched into the effort; voice and gesture were vigorous
and emphatic. The occasion aroused every faculty of the
man. Not only was he at his best intellectually, but the
emotions were stirred by the recollection of past experiences
in the great hall. It had been the scene both of trial
and triumph; he had spoken there in '96. When he took
the platform he was tremendously in earnest. He spoke
with much vehemence, which necessarily involved great phy-
sical effort. In the hall, packed to suffocation and poorly
ventilated at best, the heat was oppressive, and, after speak-
ing under such trying conditions, he left the platform super-
heated and somewhat exhausted. The weather was bitterly
cold, and despite the advice of friends, he insisted on walk-
ing to his apartments in Glenarm Street.

That night he was taken with a chill, and by next day
bronchitis had developed. With his customary indifference,
he at first paid little attention to the attack. Some days in
bed under care of doctor and nurse for the time averted
pneumonia, but the bronchitis was still severe and trouble-
some. He did not improve sufficiently to satisfy his phy-
sicians, and a decision was reached that he should seek
a lower altitude and a milder climate. Henry also was in-
disposed, and the brothers determined upon another journey
across the water in search of health, each going, as he

327

328 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

thought, largely for the benefit of the other. There were
times when Ed realized his own condition, while at others
he spoke lightly of his sickness and freely discussed the
advisability of beginning preparation for the next Senatorial
campaign, which his friends fully expected him to enter as
a candidate. Not even Henry fully appreciated the dan-
gerous possibilities of his brother's attack. He knew, how-
ever, that for a year or two Ed had been far from well, and
was generally apprehensive about him. He was sufficiently
alarmed by the symptoms to determine upon removal to a
lower altitude.

But while it is true that the cold and the Coliseum
meeting doubtless were the immediate cause of Mr. Wol-
cott's collapse, other reasons also must be sought, and they
are easily found. In part at least, he was the victim of
adverse conditions and unjust criticism. His spirit was
weakened by the repeated personal aspersions of the press
and the politicians, and there is little doubt that this fact
had much to do with his ultimate breakdown. He would
not have succumbed so easily five years previous. It is
doubtful whether he cared so much to live as formerly. If
the world was entirely without gratitude, and if one could
succeed only by deserting one's friends, what was there to
live for? Very little for Ed Wolcott !

By November 22d, following the Coliseum meeting, Sen-
ator Wolcott had recovered sufficiently to justify his removal
to New York. But he did not long remain there. The
weather was bleak and harsh, and his bronchitis was so
much aggravated, that, after a stay of six weeks, another
change was decided upon, and by January 7, 1905, the two
brothers found themselves aboard the Deutschland, bound
for the Mediterranean. It was their last voyage together.
Ed did not return. In the early evening of the 1st of March
the news of his death was flashed under the seas from far-
away Monaco.

Before leaving New York, Mr. Wolcott wrote a letter to
his brother William, probably the last to any member of
the family before his departure. It was dated January 3d,
and in it he said that it was the intention that he and
Henry should sail for Cairo via Naples on the following

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTEK 329

Saturday, " to be gone three months or so." He made only
slight reference to his physical condition. Saying that both
he and Henry needed a journey and a change of climate, he
added : " I rarely go down-town, for I have not been very
well lately, being troubled with a rather persistent bron-
chitis." His brother had notified him that he had sent him
a Christmas present, which evidently had been directed to
a down-town address, and he expressed anxiety to get it
before leaving.

The original intention of going to Egypt was changed
en route. The brothers decided to stop at Naples and not
to continue to the region of the Nile. An unfortunate
choice; that winter was the worst Southern Italy had ex-
perienced for thirty years. They next tried Palermo, in
Sicily; Palermo was unbearable — cold, bleak, comfortless.

Ed's condition grew worse. He developed more serious
bronchial trouble, and upon the advice of eminent physicians
decided to go to Southern France. Choice lighted upon
Monte Carlo in the Mediterranean as being the best cal-
culated of all places to coax back health through climate.
Here, with Henry, he established himself soon after the 1st
of February at the Hotel de Paris, and there remained until
the end came a month later.

The last letter of any length from Senator Wolcott, and
unquestionably the last utterance by him on Colorado poli-
tics, was written to United States Marshal Dewey C.
Bailey, from Palermo, January 31, 1905, a short month and
a day before the end. The letter was in Mr. Wolcott's own
handwriting, and he appeared quite broken in spirit. But
there was the same contention for honest politics that so
often had been heard by his friends. It also contained the
assurance that his finances, which of late had been running
down, were now improving. The letter reads :

Grand Hotel des Palmes,

Enrico Ragusa, Prop.,

Palermo.

Tuesday, January 31st.
Dear Dewey :

... If anything could make me well again at once, it would
be yonr interesting and entertaining letter of the 15th, which has

330 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

just reached me here. I was delighted to get it. The fact is
that I have been pretty sick; I have never fully got over the
attack of bronchitis I got in Denver, and in New York I did not
take any sort of care of myself. I have, however, taken more
care ever since I sailed. But a slight cold gave me a very
bad attack, and I have been in bed here for a week.

Henry went on to Rome and Albert [Ed's valet] and I have
fought it out together. It has been rather dismal, but I am
getting a good deal better and hope to get away from here by
the last of the week. If I am well enough I will go to Cannes,
or somewhere in the south of France for a little time, and I '11
be coming home before long. . . .

Away down in my heart, but this is to you alone, I have n't
the slightest idea that I shall enter another Senatorial race.
But it is good to feel that those of us who have always stood
together, still stand for honest politics and do not seek to jus-
tify wrong-doing by the fact that our enemies did wrong at
prior elections. . . .

I know that you will be glad to know that things are com-
ing right with me again. There are still many holes to fill,
and I am by no means back where I used to be, but there 's
enough. . . .

I haven't seen an American newspaper for weeks, and am
three days from London papers, so I cannot keep much track
of what is going on at home.

I think often of you and am very glad when you find time
to write.

With best wishes, as always,

Your friend,

Edw. O. Wolcott.

Hon. Dewey C. Bailey,
United States Marshal,
Denver, Colorado.

When they reached Monte Carlo Senator Wolcott was
not regarded by the physicians as seriously ill. Ever vigor-
ous in movement, he mingled with the crowd and seemed
even then stronger than most men. He drove considerably,
patronized the amusements when so inclined, and seldom
referred to his physical condition. He suffered greatly from
a severely irritating bronchial cough, but for a time after

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 331

liis arrival this trouble improved. Indeed, the change
was at once generally beneficial, and had he exercised
ordinary prudence and care all might have been well. But
it was now the end of February, and the wind had set in
from the north, bringing every afternoon chilling breezes
from the Alpes-Maritimes. Senator Wolcott was more than
indifferent to the precautions ordinarily taken against cold
and exposure. He hated heavy or warm clothing. Rarely
was he seen in Denver wearing an overcoat. He had a
vigorous man's contempt for pampering himself, and in
winter, as in summer, his clothes were of thin and light
texture. To this fact probably may be attributed the final
attack to which he succumbed.

The sudden malignant turn of the disease was unex-
pected. Only a few days before Edward's death a Denver
business friend received a cablegram from Henry, stating
that he and Ed intended to leave Monte Carlo soon and
travel to Paris by easy stages. They were to stay there
a short time and start for America in April.

When driving in the afternoons at Monaco, Henry re-
peatedly warned his brother. He begged him to clothe himself
more warmly and carry an overcoat. All such suggestions
and remonstrances were listened to good-naturedly, but were
unheeded. On the evening of February 21st, the wind being
more than usually biting and dangerous, while returning
from a long drive, the Senator remarked to his brother that
he felt chilled, and he said he would keep to his room for a
day or two. Evidently he was not alarmed, for he did not
call a doctor until two days later. Then Dr. Guigliumenti
was summoned.

The doctor found his patient breathing with difficulty,
coughing considerably, and in an anxious state of mind. By
the next day his general condition had become critical : bron-
chitis had developed into pneumonia. There was a high
fever. Another doctor was called on the 26th, and a third
on the 27th. But the best skill and care were in vain. He
did not rally, and at 9:13 o'clock of tie evening of March
1st, within less than a month of his fifty-seventh birthday
came the end, the Last Scene of All, the scene " that ends
this strange, eventful history."

332 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

There were present at the deathbed only Dr. Guigliumenti
and Henry Wolcott, the stranger and the brother — Henry
Wolcott, the faithful, the brother who had watched over his
progress from infancy to manhood and through manhood's
struggles, rejoicing more over his triumphs and weeping more
over his reverses than did he himself; who had been with
him in his days of health and days of illness, in the flush
time as in the lean time, and who never had been less than
a brother. Surely if only one member of the family — the
family he loved so well — could be present at the last struggle,
it was fitting that Henry should be that one. It was a com-
panionship that never had been interrupted. How appro-
priate that it should continue to the end!

A few days after the demise the body was cremated in
Paris, and the ashes carried to America, where in the beauti-
ful Woodlawn Cemetery at New York, they were interred.
The spot is appropriately marked and is often visited by
admirers from far and near.

THE NEWS AT HOME

Henry Wolcott cabled the distressing information of his
brother's death to the members of the family, to Ed's law
firm, Wolcott, Vaile & Waterman, in Denver, and to various
business associates throughout the country.

Everywhere the news was a surprise and a shock. Wash-
ington found it almost impossible to believe. Denver was
dumbfounded. Ed Wolcott dead? Incredible!

But it was so.

To his friends and admirers, Mr. WTolcott's death seemed
most untimely. He was in the prime of life, and but for
an occasional attack of gout or of quinzy, had appeared in
general good health. His prospects, political and financial,
were promising. Indeed, never did Death seem to enter at
a more inopportune time, causing all to feel the sad truth
of Mrs. Hemans's lines:

Leaves have their time to fall,
And flowers to wither at the north-wind's breath,

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 333

And stars to set ; but all,
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death !

Washington was in the throes of preparation for the
inauguration of President Roosevelt, and the Fifty-ninth
Congress was rushing to a close when the information of Mr.
Wolcott's death reached the National capital, where recently
he had been so active and so well known. But, busy as all
were, the news from across the water did not fail to arrest
the general attention. All expressed grief as well as surprise.
Few men ever left more or more devoted friends upon re-
tiring from the Senate than did Mr. Wolcott. He was loved
for his genial, companionable, helpful disposition, and ad-
mired for his strength and brilliancy. Nor were his mourn-
ers confined to official life or high society. Many a poor
creature who had been the beneficiary of his big-heartedness
mingled his tears with those of the more fortunate of his
friends.

In a somewhat different way and even more intensely
did the news affect Colorado. There he was more generally
and more intimately known; there the grief over his loss
was quite universal. At the time the Legislature was
intensely occupied with the complications growing out of
the previous campaign. The State was torn with partisan
and factional strife. The Capitol was constantly guarded,
and armed men stood over the legislative halls while busi-
ness proceeded. It was a period of great bitterness and
intense excitement. But the news of Wolcott's death had
the effect for the time of stilling all excitement and quiet-
ing all strife. The Legislature and the courts, Federal and
State, adjourned as soon as announcement of the demise
was received, and all ultimately adopted resolutions and
took other action expressive of the deep regret of the com-
munity. The news came at night, and the public expression
of grief was necessarily postponed until the morrow. But
the private utterance was not deferred; it was immediate
and genuine. In the hotel lobbies and the club-rooms the
Senator's death was commented upon to the exclusion of
almost every other topic. Late political foes were quite as
unstinted in their praise of the dead man's noble qualities

334 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

and in expressions of admiration for his genius as were
his friends. The universal thought was that the State had
lost one of its strongest characters and one of its ablest and
most devoted public servants.

The Denver newspapers printed long biographies and
appreciative eulogies of the Senator, and expressions of
sympathy and sorrow poured in from all directions. The
head-lines in the papers on March 2d announcing the death
were illustrative of the general feeling. In them politics
was completely obliterated. In the Denver Republican,
Republican in politics, we find this : " e. o. wolcott, Colo-
rado's greatest statesman, dead " ; in the Post, Indepen-
dent, " E. 0. WOLCOTT, king of diplomacy, politics, and
oratory, is dead at monte carlo " ; and in the News,
Democratic, " edward o. wolcott, orator, jurist, states-
man, DEAD."

In Denver, on the day after the announcement of the
death, evidences of grief were visible on every hand. Re-
publican State Headquarters were draped in mourning. Out
of respect to the memory of the departed statesman, the State
Legislature took a recess. The offices of the law firm of
Wolcott, Vaile & Waterman, of which he was senior partner,
were closed. The depression was especially marked in the
offices of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. As general
counsel for this road his relations with the heads of the
various departments had been exceedingly close and cordial,
and all were deeply touched by the news of his death.

expressions of esteem

Both in Denver and in Washington, many of Mr. Wol-
cott's former associates in public life gave expression to
their feelings through the public prints.

When a sitting Senator dies a day is set apart for
eulogies, but this course is not pursued with respect to a
deceased ex-Senator. No exception was made in Mr. Wol-
cott's case, but in lieu of such action the presiding officer
and all the members of the body in which so recently he had
been so conspicuous a figure expressed themselves person-
ally in strong terms. Included in these expressions were

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 335

those of Mr. Wolcott's former colleague, Senator Teller, and
his successor, Senator Patterson. Senator Teller spoke as
follows :

I am deeply shocked over the sad occurrence. I knew Ed
Wolcott as a young man, when he first came to Colorado. I was
with him when he tried his first case. I sat by him in this trial
at his request and advised him. I also knew him when he
taught school at Blackhawk. Mr. Wolcott was a brilliant man,
and one whom any person could not help admiring. We differed
politically in late years, but our relations were always pleasant.
I regarded Mr. Wolcott as the natural successor to Senator
Patterson should the Republicans have the State at the next
election.

Senator Patterson said:

The death of ex-Senator Wolcott, so sudden and unexpected,
comes with a great shock. The announcement hushes all ad-
verse criticism and calls out acknowledgments of his great
talents and charming manners which fall spontaneously from
the lips of all who knew him. He was a most distinguished
citizen of Colorado, and his public career has shed lustre upon
the name of his adopted State. His power with men is shown
in vivid light from the fact that, though he has been so little
in Colorado for the past six or eight years, he held to the last
thousands of devoted friends who followed his fortunes in sun-
shine and storm and through evil and good repute. The death
of Senator Wolcott removes a powerful element for good in
the politics of Colorado. While his methods in many a political
struggle have been severely criticised, he was nevertheless so
thoroughly independent in his party and kept in closer touch
with the people than any other of the most prominent Repub-
lican leaders.

His death will be a distinct gain for the intolerant autocrats
in the Republican party, for he was the last serious obstacle to
the unquestioned rule.

Other expressions were:

Vice-President Fairbanks. — Senator Wolcott was a man of
great ability; strong and firm in his friendships. His death was
a very great shock to me. I had supposed he was a man of

336 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

the most robust health and reasonably assured of many years
of activity and usefulness.

President Pro. Tem. W. P. Frye. — Ned Wolcott's death was
almost tragic. I have known but few men who possessed so
many admirable traits of character and yet were distinctly men
of force and resolution.

Senator A. P. Gorman. — Wolcott was one of the braniest
men that ever came to the Senate. He was genial and thor-
oughly delightful — a well-spring of pleasure to know.

Senator J. B. Foraker. — He was a gifted man, charming in
manner, but so full of energy that he lived more rapidly than
his constitution could stand.

Senator John T. Morgan. — He was a great, big, broad, splen-
did fellow. He ought to have lived forty years longer, if he had
taken care of himself.

Senator Shelby M. Cullom. — He was one of the most force-
ful men I ever knew. He had wonderful resolution and an
undaunted spirit, and was a power in this body.

Senator John W. Daniel. — Wolcott's death came to me as
a very great shock. We were excellent friends, and I learned
to respect the man's indomitable perseverance and splendid pluck.
He was a fine type of the Western man, trained in one of the
world's great universities to help in the upbuilding of the nation.

The expressions from public men in the State were quite
as warmly appreciative. Of those the following must suf-
fice for present purposes.

Justice John Campbell op the State Supreme Court. — I
followed his lead for many years, and the news of his death
has come to me with a shock that is beyond all description. I
was for him for United States Senator the first time, the last
time and for all time. . . .

I have been a close personal friend of his for many years
and have always been proud to be numbered among his follow-
ers. I know of no blow that has come upon me that has cast
such a chill on my heart. It has made the face of nature seem
lacking in something, wanting in one of her grandest works —
the presence of Edward O. Wolcott.

Archie M. Stevenson, Republican National Committeeman
— Poor Ed ! Gone ! It grieves me greatly. It was so unex-
pected, and yet I knew he was sick and that he had, in fact,
been a very sick man for years. The doctors had him nearly

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 337

scared to death and sent him all over the world a dozen times
to be cured. Had he lived he would surely have been the
next Republican Senator from Colorado. He was strong, gener-
ous, sincere, and brave even to indiscretion and rashness. He
was warm, generous in his friendships, and always open and
manly to his friends. He never turned his back.

Governor Alva Adams. — In his death we lose the most bril-
liant man in the State, and a great national leader; always a
commander and never a follower. Strong and dominating, he
made bitter enemies and loyal friends. A natural leader of men
was E. O. Wolcott. When inclined to please, few could resist
the fascination of the man.

Dewey C. Bailey. — Senator Wolcott was the bravest, kindest,
and best friend I ever knew. Faithful to his friends and to him-
self, the loss is not to this State alone, but to the nation. He
was greater than the State, belonging to the nation. His place
in public life never will be filled.

Irving Howbert. — He was one of our most distinguished citi-
zens, and his loss will be greatly felt by the State. His bril-
liant career in the Senate made him one of the most commanding
figures in that body and he was universally recognized as one
of the brainiest men of the country. Colorado will mourn his
loss.

Judge S. S. Downer. — I regarded Senator Wolcott as one of
the bravest, cleanest, and ablest men in public life in this nation.
I think he has died at a peculiarly unfortunate moment, as the
State needs him and his services more than ever.

Henry Brady. — My sorrow will scarcely let me speak. No
man will ever know the depth of my grief. It is like losing a
father. Side by side we have fought in many a bitter political
fight. His victory was my victory.

John W. Springer.— What a superb leader! What a friend
to his friends! Tears come unbidden when I recall his fight
for me in the mayoralty contest in Denver less than a year
ago. Coming all the way from New York, and rising from a
bed of sickness, and leaning heavily on his cane, he appealed
to the loyal members of the Grand Army of the Republic to
stand by the regular nominees of the Grand Old Party. I would
I could lay a fitting tribute on his bier— but time will make all
things right

Of the newspaper testimonials none was more eulogistic
or more genuinely sorrowful than those of the Denver

338 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Republican and the Rocky Mountain News: the former Re-
publican in politics and then owned by Mr. Crawford Hill,
under whose father's management, that of the late Senator
Hill, the paper had been very antagonistic to Mr. Wolcott;
and the latter Democratic, and still under the management
of Mr. Wolcott's perennial opponent and finally successful
rival for the Senate, Hon. Thomas M. Patterson. The edi-
torial remarks of the two papers are here reproduced as
fair specimens of the tributes from the press of the State.
On the morning following Mr. Wolcott's death, the Repub-
lican said:

EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

In the death of former United States Senator Edward Oliver
Wolcott, Colorado loses its most distinguished citizen and the
nation one of its most noted public men.

A great orator, a sound law-maker, a political leader of rare
magnetism and enthusiasm, a masterly lawyer, and always a
sterling patriot worthy of his splendid lineage reaching back to
the foundation of our government and beyond seas to its Eng-
lish origin, his memory will be fondly cherished by the people
of Colorado long after the dust and din of party strife, in which
he won and lost in such heroic fashion during his somewhat
stormy political career, shall be forever laid in oblivion.

He made mistakes — who does not? — but where shall we seek
for another so gifted in so many ways — so wise and witty, so
keen in his intuitions of men and things, so capable of going
to the very core of any problem, so highly cultured and widely
read, so spontaneous and so full of courageous optimism?

He had faults, but, like his vastly outweighing good qualities,
they were temperamental. As the years passed, the philosophic
spirit triumphed over the impatience and the natural insolence
of ardent youth in him, as it does in most strong natures
fortunate enough to keep sweet through the successes and
failures of life, and we have no doubt that if he had been
spared to fill out the normal span of existence his opponents
would have been disarmed of their hostility, and he would
have seen

" The stubborn thistles bursting into glossy purples
Which outredden all voluptuous garden roses."

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 339

The twelve years which he served as Colorado's first favorite
in the United States Senate would have been prolonged in-
definitely, beyond doubt, if he "had gone with his State" in
the great Presidential campaign of 1896. He stood for unflinch-
ing loyalty to the Kepublican party, not because he was hostile
to the overwhelming silver sentiment of Colorado, but because
he believed that both country and State would fare better in
all desirable things under McKinley than under Bryan.

That was not politics, but it was magnificent, and countless
thousands of Coloradoans who thought otherwise then will now
do fuller justice to his wise foresight and his unselfish patriotism.

This is neither the time nor place to do full justice to the
countless admirable qualities of head and heart of this many-
sided man, with his vast capacity for the making of warm
friends and bitter foes, his undying charm of person and voice
and manner and utterance, his dauntless spirit and his boundless
interest in everything that goes to make up the sum of life.

His great contemporaries at the bar, in the halls of Con-
gress, and in many other fields of human effort will grieve at
his going and will most fittingly do honor to his memory as a
leader among men.

The News's expression of the same date was as follows :

EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Edward O. Wolcott, who died yesterday in Europe, was one
of that remarkable series of young men for whom Gilpin County
was the scene of first prominence and who afterward attained
distinction in many walks of life. Coming to Denver, where his
brilliant qualities were already known through his service as
State Senator, he sprang almost immediately into the position
of a party leader to whom it were well for the older leaders
to pay respectful attention. Soon followed his advancement to
the Senate of the United States, wherein for twelve years he
was a figure of no mean proportions. Since his retirement from
that position in 1901 comparatively little of his time has been
spent in this State, the management of financial transactions
centring in New York and frequent visits to Carlsbad and other
curative springs occupying his attention. Rheumatism of a
severe type had been his relentless enemy. During his last visit
to this city he was compelled to lean heavily upon his cane, and
his friends were deeply moved to see his once stalwart and

340 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

splendid figure bent by the assaults of a disease to which his
ringing voice and merry jokes gave no indication of surrender.

No man in Colorado had a more remarkable gift for making
friends — and enemies. However far away might be their chief,
however dark might seem his fortunes, his friends stood to-
gether like a loyal band of brothers, always with their faces
to the front, always a force to be reckoned with. Whatever
criticism may be passed upon Edward Oliver Wolcott by those
who ranked themselves as his enemies — and they were not few
— no man who held the enthusiastic support which always came
to his standard, whenever he sounded the call to battle, could
be other than a leader of distinguished qualities.

Gifted with a fine presence, a melodious and powerful voice,
an alert and resourceful mind and the air of one fearless, daring,
and born to command, he was a truly impressive figure on any
political stage.

To attempt to consider within the limits of this article an
intellectual equipment so large, a character so complex, and
a life so full of action and color, were idle and unseemly. Only
shall we say that he was a truer man than some who remain
to grieve little at his death.

Of many hundreds printed only one outside obituary
is reproduced here. It is from Goodwin's Weekly of Salt
Lake City, a publication whose editor ever had been a sin-
cere admirer of the Colorado Senator. It follows:

SENATOR WOLCOTT

So the stormy life of Senator Ed Wolcott has worn itself
out. Gifted beyond his fellows, he was handsome, winsome, im-
pulsive, impetuous, reckless, undisciplined, a born leader, a born
fighter, subtile as a serpent, eloquent and high-bred as a Greek
master, implacable toward enemies, enchanting to friends, mag-
netic, imperious, audacious, at home with Bacchus when in the
mood, but ready to look Thor full in the face and challenge
him to bring out his biggest hammer and try conclusions with
him. He was a natural aristocrat by virtue of his lineage, his
learning, his family place in the nation's history, and his own mas-
terful abilities, but still a genuine American in every way, and
especially reverential of the fact that when it comes to a ques-
tion of country and the direction of events all Americans stand
on the same plane, and all have a right to a hearing, and the

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 341

more especially that the aristocracy of a republic rests on brain
and heart alone. So, many-sided, followed by honors and troops
of friends and always shadowed by embittered enemies, for
twenty years he has been more the concernment of the men
of Colorado than any other man ; his comings and his goings
among them were like those of Mercury on Olympus, " to witch
the world." He will be passionately mourned in that State by
those who loved him, and even his enemies will feel as did
Earl Douglas when, his passion cooled, and in justice, he said:
" Bold could he speak, and fairly ride."

He died young, comparatively, and when his intellectual
powers were at their height, and, still, judging by his life for
the past thirty years, he was eighty-seven instead of fifty-seven,
for in those thirty years he lived two years for every one. He
aspired to the very highest honors that the Eepublic can be-
stow; he had abilities that justified his ambition, but he, strong
and controlling as he was, would never control himself, and he
watched as he burned life's candle at both ends and contemplated
calmly what would come when the two flames met.

There also were many tributes in verse, the most notable of
which was from the pen of James Barton Adams, a Western
poet who has contributed many worthy lines to modern litera-
ture. His tribute was printed in the Denver Post and ran :

" Ed Wolcott 's dead." — As comes a thunderbolt
From cloudless skies with harsh, earth-jarring jolt,
So fell the tidings on the startled ears
Of us who knew him best, and sorrow's tears
From pain-drawn eyes of those who loved him well
On pulsing, grief-swept bosoms silent fell;
And e'en his enemies with bated breath
Read of the ruthless stroke from hand of death
With swollen throats, and hearts that seemed to feel

The stinging of bereavement's cutting steel;
And lips in animosity once set
Against the aggressive statesman voiced regret
That death had chosen such a shining mark,

Had dimmed forever the bright vital spark
Of one whose gifted tongue oft thrilled the land
With eloquence immeasurably grand,
And friend and foe in this sad hour of gloom
Clasp hands and place a wreath upon his tomb.

342 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Following these more or less public utterances came pour-
ing in letters of condolence from all over the world. Mani-
festly it is impossible to here give a tithe of these, and a
few only will be reproduced. Generally they were addressed
to Mr. Vaile of Mr. Wolcott's law firm. The few selected
for reproduction follow.

From E. T. Jeffery, President of the Denver and Rio
Grande Railway Company:

I have just received your personal letter of the 4th instant
about the death of our good friend, and can scarcely write you
upon the subject. I saw him the day before he sailed and felt
a little apprehensive about his health; in fact, I had felt so
for several months and often talked with him about it. But
he was so cheery and hopeful, and seemed so full of vitality,
that I believed he would return to us as strong and vigorous
as ever.

You know I was greatly attached to Senator Wolcott and
he was to me. It was a mutual friendship in every way, and
we seemed to understand one another, for in all the thirteen
years of our intercourse, we never had an unpleasant incident of
any kind. I realized his great natural ability and his cultivated,
resourceful mind, and all the winning qualities that go with
so unusual a man ; and yet I knew his faults and we often dis-
cussed them together, for he despised hypocrisy and never pre-
tended to be one bit better than he really was. He made no
pretence of any kind; he was outspoken, and frank, and manly,
and when moved to folly of any kind, spoke of it in an open,
straightforward way. But you know all these characteristics
of him, and a great many more, just as well as I do, and some
day when we are together again, we can sit down and discuss
them and keep his memory warm in our hearts, for he was
deeply attached to both of us. I can't quite tell you how I feel
about the matter, for I am not yet adjusted to his sudden death.

I have read many of the laudatory articles written about him
by those who were formerly his critics and enemies, and I am
glad to see that all, regardless of parties, or factions, or political
controversies, characterize him as Colorado's greatest statesman
in the Republican party.

From C. E. Perkins, President of the Chicago, Burling-
ton, and Quincy Railroad Company:

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 343

I was greatly surprised and shocked to hear of the death
of Edward Wolcott. I have heard no particulars whatever about
his death, and not knowing Henry Wolcott's address abroad I
have not communicated with him. I wish, when you can, you
would tell me about it, and also send me Henry's address. Had
Edward been to Carlsbad? I have always felt, and often told
him, that I feared he would overdo it in going there some time.
Edward Wolcott has been a very near and dear friend of mine
for a great many years, as you know, and I shall miss him
very much. I shall thank you sincerely if you can give me
some particulars, and if you will tell me about his property,
and how it is left. What will become of that most attractive
house at Wolhurst?

From Mr. Wolcott's former law partner, John G. Mil-
burn, Esq., of New York :

I cannot tell you how deeply shocked I was when I heard
of Wolcott's death. The last time I saw him he was looking
so well, so happy, so full of life and energy that it is difficult
to realize what has happened. Though I have not seen much
of him for years, there was never any diminution of my attach-
ment to him or my affection for him. He was a man of extraor-
dinary ability and of the most lovable qualities. From the first
and always afterward, I felt toward him as I have felt toward
few men in my life. Since I came here I have hoped to see
more of him, and now I feel a great personal loss.

From W. H. Rossington, Esq., Topeka, Kansas:

I met poor Ed in Chicago when he was on his way to New
York and to Europe, and spent a very pleasant evening in his
company, and it is hard for me to conceive of him as having
joined the majority. He was so full of life and its experiences
and all high enterprises, political and otherwise, that it is al-
most impossible to believe that his career has been so suddenly
and untimely arrested.

From Ben. B. Lindsey, Judge of the County Court of
Arapahoe County and originator of the Juvenile Court:

I have always been a deep admirer of the noble qualities of
Senator Wolcott. Everyone knew and appreciated his magnifi-
cent attainments as a lawyer and as a statesman, but I never

344 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

felt so deeply touched as when a year or two ago one morning
I received in my mail a personal letter from Senator Wolcott.
It was full of praise and kindly encouragement, for what he
was pleased to term a creditable work in the children's court.
When I went East recently, I took this letter with me as one
of my valuable possessions, and while I always set a high value
on this possession, I cannot express to you how much I prize
this letter now — even more than I ever did, because it will al-
ways recall to me the noble heart of a noble man, expressing as it
does his love for the welfare of the children of Colorado, and
encouraging me beyond all I can estimate to keep up a work
in which I have tried to do some good, but in which I fear I
have sometimes been misunderstood, and therefore needed sym-
pathy and encouragement. It came from him — God bless him!
— at a time when it was most needed, unsought and unexpected,
and coming as the sincere expression of his great heart, I am
sure I would be false to my feelings if I did not recall to you
for the first time this incident among my pleasant memories of
a good man.

Many letters were received from abroad, of which the fol-
lowing from Gilbert C. Clarke, of London, must suffice :

I am truly sorry to learn of the great loss you have sus-
tained in the removal by death of Senator Wolcott. It is now
nearly sixteen years since you and he were so kind to me in
Denver, but its remembrance is as true and keen as though it
were a matter of last year. Though I then met men in great
variety of position and with every variety of political opinion,
I never heard anything but the highest praise of your firm and
personal admiration and respect of its members. The Senator
indeed seemed one of those charmed and charming men that
inspire affection even in those with whom they have but slight
contact.

Over here in England it is perhaps impossible to follow the
internal affairs of your country, though we certainly should be
better informed than we are. But with foreign relationship our
Press does go more into detail, and, on more than one occasion,
as I read a report of a speech by your colleague in the Senate, I
have been warmed through and through by its breadth of view
and boldness of aim. America is the better for his life, and
England with other Nations also has benefited in ways both
seen and unsuspected.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 345

He bore without reproach

The grand old name of gentleman.

You must please excuse my thus writing on a subject and
at a time that should forbid the intrusion of stranger hands;
but I cannot refrain from showing that the loss is not yours
solely.

BY BAR AND COURT

Soon after the death of Senator Wolcott the Bar Asso-
ciation of Denver met to take appropriate action. A
committee was appointed, and it prepared resolutions com-
memorative of the life and character of the Senator to be
presented to the various courts, Federal and State, before
which Mr. Wolcott had practised. The committee consisted
of Messrs. A. M. Stevenson, H. M. Orahood, L. M. Cuthbert,
Clinton Reed, and E. M. Cranston. After being adopted by
the Bar Association, these resolutions were presented to
all the important courts sitting in Denver and by them
ordered spread upon their records.

In addition, the committee adopted the following
resolution :

Resolved, That as an expression of our sympathy with those
who, bound by closer ties to the late Edward Oliver Wolcott,
have the heavier burden of affliction to bear in his death, a
suitable engrossed copy of this memorial be forwarded to the
Hon. Henry R. Wolcott (the best beloved, the most unselfish of
brothers, and the staun chest of friends), with the request that
it be preserved in the archives of the family as a testimonial to
the enduring worth of the deceased from those among whom
and for whom he labored during the best years of his eventful
and honorable career.

The Bar Association expressed itself as follows:

IN MEMORIAM

EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

" A mighty memory has gone

From the full volume of the hour,

346 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

The less a majesty passed on
Than something measureless of pow'r;

A spirit missing from the page
That yet incarnateth the song;

A presence parted from the stage,
Though moves the drama still along."

A masterful force, a mighty intellect, an indomitable spirit,
" something measureless of pow'r " has passed on.

Entering upon the active duties of his profession, hold-
ing his first public office, and first coming into public notice
coincidentally with the admission of Colorado as a State into
the Union, the development and growth of Edward Oliver Wol-
cott kept pace with the advancement of the State, and the for-
tunes and misfortunes, the successes and reverses, the welfare
and the troubles of the man and the State have been so inter-
mingled and commingled that the life of the one is the history
of the other.

He brought to the discharge of the duties imposed upon him
as lawyer, statesman, and diplomat commanding talents such as
few are blessed with, and a rigid, resolute devotion to principle
which was his by nature, by inheritance, and by training.

In every walk of life he was an indefatigable, untiring worker.
As a student he so absorbed and assimilated the wisdom and
knowledge of the sages that he passed rapidly from the class
of learners to that of teacher, scholar, and leader. Ambitious
to achieve, he excelled by virtue of his own personality, genius,
and talents. His motto was ever " Spes sibi quisque."

As a lawyer he had the rare gift of adapting fundamental
principles to the elucidation of points in issue, and could es-
tablish precedents with greater effect than less gifted men could
follow them. He was no less successful in convincing judges
than in persuading juries.

As a statesman he brought to his aid a thorough training
in polemical and political science and a far-seeing, almost pro-
phetic insight into the effect of political events, inspired by a
patriotic love of his country and his State.

As a diplomat in negotiations with the representatives of
foreign powers, who for generations have been trained in all the
subtle arts of diplomacy, he more than held his own, met guile with
frankness, overcame prejudice by the charming grace and courtesy
of his demeanor, and displayed a knowledge of the resources and
politics of foreign countries as novel as it was surprising.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 347

His whole career, social, political, and professional, was il-
lumined by his strong and marked individuality. Controlled by
the courage of his convictions he was always aggressive and
never on the defensive. Often upon the losing side, he was ever
unconquered. A leader of parties, neither the declarations of
principles nor the will of even a majority could induce him to
abandon what he thought his rightful position. Whether it were
a victorious army or a forlorn hope that responded to his call,
he was ever in the front.

With it all, he was master of an attractive and engaging
manner and delivery that was captivating even when it was re-
sented; of a sparkling wit that was not tempered with bitter-
ness; of an occasional shaft of sarcasm that was not tipped
with envy or malice, and of a wonderful gift of eloquence
which made him facile princeps among the orators of his day.
Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re, with equal facility he won
the affections of his allies and compelled the admiration of his
enemies.

In every relation he was a great force. By birth, instinct,
and education, under all circumstances, he was a leader of
thought, a commander of success, a ruler of men.

His character was complex and his abilities extraordinary.
He hated shams and despised hypocrisy. He cherished his
friends and defied his enemies. Perfect he was not, but those
who knew him best, knew his great worth and were proud of
his friendship.

The memory of his attractiveness and his magnetic qualities
may die with those of us who have come within the circle of
their influence, but the forces which he has set in motion will
actuate and influence the conduct of heroes yet unborn, of leaders
now undreamed of.

May we reverentially have confident belief that by virtue of
the divine spirit of immortality, the wonderful gifts which dis-
tinguished Edward Oliver Wolcott from all others are not lost,
but that in another and better realm they are still used for
noble purposes.

" He passes silent to his peers

In that still chamber dim and vast

Where sit, invincible of years,

The uncrowned monarchs of the past;

A grander embassy to know,
In that far country overhead,

348 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Than soul inheriteth here below, —
The white-robed senate of the dead."

Respectfully submitted,

A. M. Stevenson,
H. M. Orahood,

L. M. ClJTHBERT,

Clinton Reed,
E. M. Cranston,

Committee.

The resolutions were presented to the United States
District Court, Judge Moses Hallett presiding, November
25, 1905, by Hon. Earl M. Cranston, United States District
Attorney. In bringing them to the attention of the court,
Mr. Cranston said:

There are many in this State to whom Senator Wolcott was
more than a merely valuable citizen, more than a distinguished
member of the bar, more than a political leader to be followed,
and more even than a great statesman to be honored. He was
to us a friend beloved always. And if we seek the reason for
his pre-eminence in all these things we cannot find it, I think,
in his great intellectual powers alone, although these moved as
rapidly and as brilliantly as the flash of the lightning. Nor
can we find it, I think, in his wit, which was as nimble and
as warm as a sunbeam. And not even in his intense personal
magnetism, which held men to him as irresistibly as gravitation
draws all things to the centre of the earth. I believe the secret
of his great success lay in his intense manliness and his courage.
And if this courage sometimes angered or temporarily embittered
those whom he opposed, it is equally true that always, always,
it stood as a bulwark of defence for his friends, whom he
never dishonored or betrayed in any way. The loyalty of our
friend to old associations was most marked. It leaped over all
the years across the miles of distance, to the old New Eng-
land hearthstone, where the Puritan father and mother sat in
the bright light of his affection as long as they lived. And so
we say that the strong points in the character of Senator Wolcott
were his perfect manliness, his devotion to his friends, his cour-
age, his filial affection, and a personal winsomeness that warmed
and charmed every circle in which he ever sat. Intellectually
accurate and honest in all his methods, he never paltered and
he never quibbled, and he was impatient with anybody who did

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 349

so. He had his faults, perhaps, as all of us have in common,
but he had many virtues. And so we say, Peace to his ashes
and all honor to his memory.

Judge ETallett responded :

I believe that Mr. Wolcott in his lifetime enjoyed the esteem
and commendation of his associates at the bar, and it is gratify-
ing on this occasion to have their sentiments reiterated in re-
spect to his ability and character as a statesman and as a lawyer.
It is appropriate that this record should be made in this forum,
where he was often seen and heard. I respond to the sentiments
of the bar in the fullest degree. The resolution as presented by
Mr. Cranston will be entered of record in the Circuit Court.

Memorial services were not held in the Supreme Court
of the State until February 6, 1906, almost a year after
Mr. Wolcott's death, when there was another pronounced
outpouring of affection for the man and of admiration for
his qualities of head and heart. The committee resolutions
were presented by Mr. Cuthbert, and were adopted and
ordered to be spread on the minutes of the court. Mr.
Cuthbert's address was a careful study of Mr. Wolcott as
a lawyer, and deserves preservation in its entirety. He said :

In the death of Edward Oliver Wolcott the bar of this State
has lost one of its most brilliant lights.

Favored by nature with marked abilities, he added to those
gifts the experience of a life which, though ending in its very
prime, was full of energy and intellectual vigor.

With all the promises for the future which talent and genius
could give, how sad was this death, in a foreign land, and be-
fore the completion of his life-work ! What thoughts of life and
its possibilities must have coursed through his rapid-thinking
mind, as he lay upon that lonely deathbed in the south of France !

" Oh, what hadst thou to do with cruel death,
Who wast so full of life, or death with thee,
That thou shouldst die before thou hadst grown old?"

It was as a lawyer, engaged in active and engrossing prac-
tice, that most of us first knew him and learned to appreciate
and admire his masterful qualities: and while his later years

350 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

were spent in the broader fields of national affairs, his training
and education at the bar were always the governing influence
of his life. He acquired the admirable art of presenting a
case with such clearness and exactness as to carry conviction
in the mere statement; thereby illustrating the remark of a
great lawyer, " that a case is won, not so much by labored and
elaborate argument and eloquence, as by the clearness with which
it is put by counsel before the court or jury."

His preparation of a case was always thorough and effective,
and he possessed, in a high degree, the faculty of discrimina-
tion, and of knowing how to utilize the labor of his assistants.
By reversing an ancient and time-honored maxim, and " never
doing himself what he could get some one else to do equally
well," he was enabled to accomplish more in the way of work
than most men could, under similar circumstances; whereby he
was enabled to concentrate his energies, with splendid success,
upon the vital features of the case in hand.

There was in his manner, in the quickness of his perception,
in his grasp of a situation, a subtle and indescribable element
which distinguished him from other men. There was a wit
peculiarly his own; a rapidity of retort; a promptitude to meet
every adverse situation or proposition, which he alone possessed,
and added to these indefinable qualities there was a sincerity
and force which never failed to impress the individual or tri-
bunal to which he addressed himself.

There has certainly been no man at this bar whose personal
characteristics counted for as much as his. His power of elo-
quence won for him a national reputation. He could sway, with
irresistible force, an audience of thousands — exciting sympathy
or evoking ridicule, or making those rapid transitions from seri-
ousness to gayety which are so effective in a public speaker;
but always carrying conviction, and winning the enthusiastic
admiration of his hearers.

His power of sarcasm was withering; but it took strong pro-
vocation to call it forth. His dominant characteristic was his
magnetic force and effectiveness, whether in addressing an indi-
vidual or an audience. And combined with all these there was,
deep in his heart, a strong and abiding sympathy with his
fellow-men, affection for his friends, and loyalty and patriotic
devotion to his State and country.

No man could attain the eminence which he reached in the
professional and political world, without being subjected to criti-
cism, and even, at times, to bitter partisan attack and hostilitv;

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 351

and his vigorous and aggressive character secured for him a
full and, perhaps, undeserved measure of such treatment.

This is no occasion for a discussion of the merits or de-
merits of personal criticism. The shadow of death has cast its
mantle over this great career, and the voice of censure is hushed
in the presence of that messenger who, sooner or later, summons
us all to a bar where justice and right, in the truest sense, are
administered.

It is the natural disposition of men to speak well of those
who are dead. This inclination is often conducive to unwar-
ranted, and, at times, exaggerated, flattery; and the critic of
the living often becomes the eulogist of the dead. What is more
pathetic than

" To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost,
Which blamed the living man,"

as Matthew Arnold expresses it? This spirit of appreciation
— the desire to see and remember only what was good and true
and beautiful in one whose career is ended — is, however, to my
mind, a virtuous trait, and a tribute to the kindly instinct of
man.

In the career of him, toward whom our thoughts are at this
time directed, are found qualities of the most remarkable and
admirable character; qualities which not only made him the
great and representative man that he was, but which have
stamped his record and memory indelibly upon the history of
his time. His usefulness and effectiveness were not confined to
the limits of his State, or even to those of the United States
Senate, where his influence was felt to a marked degree. His
abilities and accomplishments secured for him an international
recognition — through which there was reflected upon his State
and his country the greatest credit and honor.

As a lawyer his career was eminently brilliant and success-
ful; as a statesman he won laurels both at home and abroad;
and as a citizen his aims and efforts were always for the wel-
fare and betterment of his fellow-men and his country.

Personally he possessed a wonderful magnetism, which drew
men to him, irresistibly and firmly; and, when cemented by
that kindly spirit and generosity which were his great character-
istics, the friendships of his life became strong and abiding.

The later years of his life were saddened by a feeling that
his efforts and aims had not always been justly or fairly

352 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

estimated or appreciated by the people of the State which he
loved so dearly, and whose welfare he so conscientiously and
persistently considered. But to many who were close to him,
it was apparent that there had come to him, with those senti-
ments— depressing as they were — a softening of character, a
broadening of sympathy and consideration, and a deeper respect
for the views and opinions of those from whom he differed. His
later years were certainly

" Mellowed and soften'd as with sunset glow,
A golden day's decline."

I am grateful for the opportunity of presenting to this court
the memorial of the Bar Association, and of paying this tribute
to the memory of a man who has done so much to elevate the
profession of which he was such a distinguished member.

Chief Justice Gabbert replied for the court:

By those who knew Edward Oliver Wolcott well, or are
familiar with the history of our State, his life-work as a citizen,
lawyer, and statesman will at once be recognized in the summary
of his career epitomized in the memorial of the Bar Association.
He came to Colorado in his early manhood and shortly there-
after actively engaged in the practice of his profession. He
moulded his own career; he did not wait for opportunity to come
to him, but created it himself. He did not wait for his ship
to come in, but when he discovered its sails hovering on the
horizon of his life, uncertain and wavering in its course, he
reached out, grasped, and securely moored it to the shore of
success. He was trained in his profession, but no man becomes
a great lawyer by training alone. In addition he must possess
some of those peculiar characteristics of intellect which enable
him, by discipline, to grasp and solve legal problems. Nature
was kind to Edward Oliver Wolcott in this respect. He was
wonderfully successful as a lawyer, but in a great measure this
success was due to the fact that he thoroughly mastered and
understood his cases, and thus he was enabled to make others
comprehend them also. With the advent of his adopted State
into the Union his public career began, and continued almost
without interruption for a quarter of a century. It was marked
with a degree of success at home and abroad seldom achieved
by any man.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 353

Except to gratify a laudable ambition he had no need to
become a United States Senator in order to realize further suc-
cess. His pre-eminence was then established. In the law, in
business, as a leader, as a citizen, he stood prominent. His
sphere of usefulness would have been extended without the Sen-
atorial toga. But the additional honor thus conferred was fully
reciprocated by the services he rendered his State and the nation.

The lifelong friends of the departed are his best judges.
They knew his good qualities and were acquainted with his frail-
ties. The chance acquaintance, the world at large, were more
apt to give heed to the latter; but when intimate friends who
understood the motives which prompted his action and who clave
to him at all times, testify to his many admirable qualities, we
can rest assured and can truly say he possessed many noble
attributes of character.

IN MASS MEETING

Probably the most general expression of the grief of
the people of Denver was heard in a meeting held at the
Broadway Theatre on the anniversary of Mr. Wolcott's birth,
March 26, 1905. This ceremony was under the auspices of
the Colorado Club, but there was no effort to confine at-
tendance to members of the organization. The proceedings
were non-partisan in most respects. John W. Springer
presided. The programme was as follows:

" In Heavenly Love Abiding " Mendelssohn

Double Quartette
Invocation

Rev. Frank T. Bayley, D.D.
Hymn— " Christ for the World we Sing "

Double Quartette and Audience
" The Citizen »

Judge John Campbell
Solo — " One Sweetly Solemn Thought " Ambrose

Mrs. W. J. Whiteman
"The Lawyer"

Hon. Joel F. Vaile
Trio— " Lift Thine Eyes " (from the Elijah)

Misses Davis, Whiteman, and Rost
" The Statesman "

Hon. A. M. Stevenson

354 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Solo—" God Shall Wipe Away All Tears Sullivan

Mrs. Otis B. Spencer
" In Memoriam "

Hon. John W. Springer
Hymn—" Lead, Kindly Light "

Double Quartette
Hymn—" My Country 'T is of Thee "

Double Quartette and Audience
Benediction

Rev. Thomas Nelson Haskell

How appropriate it was that the hymn " Christ for the
World" was included in the services will be better appre-
ciated after it is explained that it is the production of
Mr. Wolcott's father, Dr. Samuel Wolcott. This fact was
of course understood at the time, although but few in the
audience could have known the interest Mr. Wolcott had
always felt in his father's poetical creations. The hymn is
one of Dr. Wolcott's best, and the account of the services
would be incomplete without it. It follows:

CHRIST FOR THE WORLD

Christ for the world we sing ;
The world to Christ we bring,

With loving zeal;
The poor, and them that mourn,
The faint and overborne,
Sin-sick and sorrow-worn,

Whom Christ doth heal.

Christ for the world we sing;
The world to Christ we bring,

With fervent prayer;
The wayward and the lost,
By restless passions tossed,
Redeemed at countless cost,

From dark despair.

Christ for the world we sing;
The world to Chirst we bring,

With one accord;
With us the work to share,

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 355

With us reproach to dare,

With us the cross to bear,

For Christ our Lord.

Christ for the world we sing !
The world to Christ we bring,

With joyful song;
The new-born souls, whose days,
Reclaimed from error's ways,
Inspired with hope and praise,

To Christ belong.

At the right of the stage was placed a picture of Mr.
Wolcott appropriately draped. The boxes were occupied by
the members of the Wolcott family, including Rev. William
E. Wolcott, Herbert W. Wolcott, Miss Anna L. Wolcott, and
Mrs. Frederick O. Vaille, brothers and sisters of the dead Sen-
ator, and several nephews and nieces. Governor McDonald
and the Legislature as a body were present. The theatre
was crowded from pit to gallery.

Justice John Campbell, of the State Supreme Court, de-
livered the first address, speaking of Mr. Wolcott as " The
Citizen." It formed an extended commentary upon his life,
furnishing a character study of value. Excerpts follow:

When the people of Colorado, by their chosen representatives,
twice elected to the United States Senate Edward Oliver Wol-
cott, they honored themselves quite as much as they did him.
That he was not continuously kept there must not be interpreted
as a lack of appreciation by his constituents, or that he had
not faithfully represented their interests. For all concede that
with distinguished ability and rare fidelity he discharged the
duties, and maintained the dignity, of his high office.

It is but natural and seemly to speak kindly of the dead. In
the presence of death, human passions are stilled, jealousies
buried, rivalries forgotten, bitterness and vituperations cease.

If the masterful man whose life went out in a foreign land,
and whose ashes have just been deposited in his native soil, had
fashioned the programme for his own memorial services and
supervised the addresses that are to be made, the editorial blue
pencil would be ruthlessly drawn across every word and sentence

356 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

that savored of fulsome flattery or sycophancy, and the award
of virtues to which he made no claim would be more distasteful
to his honest and discriminating mind than to be accused of
offences of which he was not guilty.

The prime quality of a good citizen is integrity. In the
fiercest controversies in which Mr. Wolcott engaged, in the bit-
terest political battles that centred around him, in legal and
business dealings, no whisper against his personal integrity ever
reached my ears, and I do not now recall that his enemies —
of whom all great leaders usually have a full quota — ever pub-
licly challenged his honesty. They might, and did, disagree with
his policies, question the wisdom of his political doctrines, and
dissent from his judgment, but his personal integrity was con-
ceded by his most virulent foe.

He would be the last man to defend or commend for the
imitation of young men, some of the things he did, and other
things he was accused of doing, but which he did not do. He
was no Pharisee, and the halo of saintship had never been au-
thoritatively conferred upon him, or claimed by him. But the
friends who knew him best — and now that the hot passions
aroused by political controversies have cooled, enemies also —
will testify to his intellectual honesty, his unbending integrity
in the various affairs of life.

I do not intend to criticise, or rebuke, or introduce a dis-
cordant note, or assume to pass judgment on any one's motives,
but I cannot withhold reference to the superb moral heroism
displayed by Mr. Wolcott in 1806, when apparently his entire
party and his State were about to cut loose from the national
political organization to which he belonged. It is so easy to
drift with the current, but Mr. Wolcott made up his mind to
stick to his party. This determination meant much to him. The
breaking of long existing and pleasant social and political friend-
ships was involved, and the almost certain loss of office was
one of the minor penalties that stared him in the face. But
he did not hesitate.

Having decided what his duty to State and nation was, he threw
his whole soul into the fight for principle, never turned back,
never apologized, never asked for, or gave, quarter. Because of
its relation to a national election in which the paramount issue
was a policy of international importance, this act of Mr. Wol-
cott's centred upon him the eyes of the entire country and
made him a national character.

Henry Clay, though a great compromiser; Blaine, the target

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTEE 357

of abuse and party hatred; Randall, charged with misrepresent-
ing a selfish policy of his immediate constituents ; Jackson, the
typical spoilsman, each and all were courageous men. The peo-
ple trusted them, and though all did not achieve the object of
their great ambition, each one was a statesman, and all are
dear to the hearts of their countrymen. In this list of courage-
ous men, Senator Wolcott's name belongs.

Sincerity, the very antithesis of demagoguism, was one of his
dominant characteristics. No one who heard him in public or
conversed with him in private could doubt the sincerity of his
convictions. It rang out in all his utterances because it per-
meated every fibre of his brain and saturated every tissue of
his heart. The arts and insincerity, the hesitation and caution,
of the " gum shoe " politician, constituted no part of his equip-
ment. Fragile glass could not sustain the weight of his con-
victions on questions of governmental policy. His feet were
planted on solid rock, and he made no attempt to muffle the
sound of his footsteps.

Our friend did not escape the common experience of a great
leader. He had his complement of fair-weather friends, and felt
the sting of ingratitude that is so hard even for the strong and
self-reliant to bear.

But while the relation of true friendship lasted, how royally
did he reward his friends with charming confidences and material
aid, and how valiantly he protected and stood by them against
every attack! That he was imposed upon, as President Grant
was, and sometimes shielded bad men, after the world knew
their real character, is true, but so long as his own belief in
the friendship endured, nothing could induce him to withdraw
his protecting arm.

Pious cant he abhorred, and meaningless generalities avoided.
The good things he did he would have us remember, and only
those; for, though he never paraded his religious beliefs, his
godly father's religion was for him the eternal verity.

Hon. Joel F. Vaile, the former law partner of Senator
Wolcott, spoke of him as " The Lawyer." He told of the
dead Senator's career at the bar; of his unimpeachable in-
tegrity; of his brilliancy and wonderful oratorical powers,
and read selections from his speeches. In part, Mr. Vaile
said:

There are those in this audience whose acquaintance with

358 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Senator Wolcott long antedates mine. Graduating in 1871 from
the law school of Harvard University, he came at once to Colo-
rado. And his whole professional career has had its centre of
action here. When I first met him, twenty-three years ago, he
was already, at the age of thirty-four, a commanding figure at
the bar of Colorado and of the West. He was then participating
in most of the important cases tried in the State and Federal
courts, in this jurisdiction. He was then performing the duties
of general counsel of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway Com-
pany, and soon after was appointed general counsel, and held
that position to the end of his days. He was then the repre-
sentative of the Burlington Railway System in Colorado, and
so continued throughout his life. Such positions and respon-
sibilities are obtained, and retained, not by favor, but by worth.
It is because for value received, full value is given in efficient
service.

Mr. Wolcott was a man of phenomenal intellectual powers.
Facile and sure in his mental operations, I have never known
any other man who could so quickly grasp all the features of
a complicated problem; who could so readily unravel all the
tangled threads of a difficult subject and weave them into a
fabric displaying their logical relations and significance. He
had the power of rapid and accurate generalization. This
quality made him not only powerful in argument, but invaluable
as a counsellor. To use an expression of Huxley's, his intellect
was ready, like a steam engine, for any kind of work, to spin
the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind.

That Mr. Wolcott had, in an unusual degree, the power of
moving eloquence, is a fact probably well known to you all.
This faculty was manifested alike in the judicial forum, on
the floor of the Senate, and on the political hustings. But I
conceive that the real basis of that eloquence has not been
sufficiently appreciated. It is to be found expressed in the words
of old John Milton:

" True eloquence," says Milton, " I find to be none but the
serious and hearty love of truth, and that whose mind soever
is fully possessed with a fervent desire to know good things,
and with the dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of them
into others; when such a one would speak, his words, like to
many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command,
and in well ordered files, as he would wish, fall aptly into their
own places."

Mr. Wolcott's addresses, legal, Senatorial, political, or gen-

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 359

eral, were marked by this impress of truth. He always spoke
from conviction. He was never in the slightest degree a time-
server. He spoke the truth as he saw it. It is here you will
find the main structure of his power in address, a structure
indeed embellished by a playful fancy, a ready wit, and a mag-
netic presence.

In considering Mr. Wolcott as a lawyer there is one char-
acteristic of the man that must rank above all others, and that
is the high standard of professional duty and honor, which he
always upheld. The temptations to lower such standard come
often with great force to the lawyer representing numerous and
large and varied interests, and especially in running the strenu-
ous pace set by this money-making age. Yet in these twenty
years of close professional association with Mr. Wolcott I have
never heard a suggestion, affirmative or by consent, of any act
which would fall below the highest plane of professional integrity.

Hon. A. M. Stevenson dealt with Senator Wolcott as a
statesman, saying in part :

It is difficult for one who enjoyed Senator Wolcott's friend-
ship and was proud of it, to speak of him only as a statesman.
There is something so impersonal in the subject assigned me that
I hope to be excused if I wander away from it somewhat in the
little that I may say on this occasion. I had, in fact, hoped
that these exercises might have been delayed until we could
secure the attendance here of one or more of his colleagues in
the Senate, who would best be able to speak of his career as
a statesman.

It was in the closer personal relations of life that I knew
him best, and it is of the charm, grace, and attractiveness of
the man and his personality that I should prefer to speak.

Now that he is gone, those who never agreed with him in
life will admit that he deserved the high place which he at-
tained and always held. He was the peer of any Senator. His
friends and intimates at Washington were the best and greatest
of our statesmen. When he addressed the Senate every member
was in his seat, and the public galleries and those of the diplo-
matic corps and of official Washington were always filled.

We cannot on this occasion follow in detail his work as a
legislator. He accomplished much for his State and was un-
tiring in his devotion to its interests. He went to Washington
thoroughly imbued with the ideas and sentiments of the people

360 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

of the West, and especially those of his own State, upon eco-
nomic questions, and at once became a leader both in counsel
and in debate upon all subjects connected with the monetary
system of his country. He believed then that the free and un-
restricted coinage of silver by the independent action of the
United States was possible. His speeches in the Senate advo-
cating this monetary policy will always be classed among the
most convincing arguments in behalf of the double standard.

Senator Wolcott was always a partisan, but he never allowed
his partisanship to betray him into unwarranted and unjustifi-
able attacks upon those who had carried the banner of the Con-
federacy. He recognized the bravery and chivalry of the men
of the South and when the war was over, it was, in fact, over
with him. He recognized that we are all Americans and his
efforts were ever directed toward bringing about a better feeling
between the sections. He wished to see our country again
united and all the people of all States striving for a common
destiny.

During President Harrison's administration there was intro-
duced in Congress a bill commonly known as the Force Bill. . .
Mr. Wolcott believed the bill injurious to the South and there-
fore unjust to the country. He opposed it and brought all his
wonderful powers of oratory and organization to bear to ac-
complish its defeat. The good feeling between the sections was
tbus cemented. Those days of distrust and hatred have passed
away and we are once more a harmonious and united country.

Senator Wolcott was a partisan, but he was a partisan for
what he thought the right, and the will of even a majority of
his party could not make him abandon what he considered his
rightful position.

It is only minds like his that can see beyond the passion of
the hour, and courage like his that can stand, alone if need be,
for the right.

He was a Protectionist. In all contests for Free Trade or
for Tariff for Revenue, he stood for Protection. He looked beyond
the infant days of Colorado to the time when her great resources
should need the aid of Protection to insure their development.
He believed that the policy of Protection was the best for all
the people of the country.

In all his public career he retained the friendship and affec-
tion of those highest in the counsels of the nation. President
McKinley loved and trusted him ; he was the intimate personal
friend of our great Secretary of State. He knew the men of

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 361

affairs and statecraft in the leading nations of Europe and they
respected and believed in him.

Honors were heaped upon him wherever he went, but no
honors were his that did not honor his State — the State that
he loved and whose people now, too late, all honor and respect
his memory and appreciate his virtues.

He was a manly man; he hated shams and fought in the
open. He was a loyal friend and he has left us a legacy of kind
and generous deeds.

The State mourns the loss of her most brilliant statesman;
his associates mourn the loss of his wise counsels and generous
and hearty sympathy, and I am bereft of a friend.

John W. Springer, as President of the Club, delivered
the memorial address proper, saying:

" The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour, —

The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

In the hush of the eventide, March 1, 1905, a message was
flashed over the fields of France, and under the waves of the
Atlantic, and on over the Alleghanies — to the sunny peaks of the
Rockies :

" Edward Oliver Wolcott died this day in Monte Carlo."

What sorrowful news for all Colorado! There is not a man,
woman, or child within the confines of this commonwealth, but
knew this masterful man — the Alexander Hamilton of the
West.

His scholastic attainments, his intrepid and fearless courage,
his lofty patriotism, coupled with an irresistible personality,
supplemented by his bewitching oratorical ability, made him the
peer of any man during that Senatorial period; and Colorado
became famous as Edward Oliver Wolcott went up and down
the land, swaying tens of thousands with his matchless powers
of oratory, and brilliancy of diplomatic address.

I shall never forget my introduction to Senator Wolcott, in
189G, in Colorado. As I look back, those truly were strenuous
times. The old party was rent in twain, and any man who
would not cheer for " 16 to 1 " was not only considered disloyal
to his State, but an enemy of his country. How well do I re-
member my feelings when I saw this American statesman de-

362 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

serted by thousands of his lifetime friends and partisans, almost
siDgle-handed and alone, go up and down the Rocky Mountain
region, surrounded by what has fittingly been called the " Old
Guard," pleading with the people to fearlessly cling to that
magnificent Republican (our martyred President), William
McKinley.

I followed, as a stranger, this great Colorado champion of
the old Republican party. I heard him denounce this " will-o'-
the-wisp " fantasy of cheap money. I saw him fall, a victim
of this State's delusion. And when I look back and remember
the tens of thousands of dollars of his own earnings he poured
out with a lavish hand ; to say nothing of the weeks, months, and
years, he labored like a dray-horse for the " Old Party " and its
undying principles, I thank God that is was my choice and
my pleasure to stand by him in every succeeding fight, and
to do my best to aid him, in 1903, to return to the Senate
of the United States, which was owing to him more cer-
tainly than to any man within the borders of the Centennial
State.

Edward Oliver Wolcott's record is made up, and his life-
work closed. We loved him in life, and we mourn his untimely
death. Truly, it is a trite saying that " death loves a shining
mark." With only a few years over half a century in his life's
journey, with many a task uncompleted, many a hope crushed,
and many bitter memories, his proud spirit reluctantly gave up
the unequal contest, and had he lived to-day would have marked
the fifty-fourth mile-post in life's journey.

May all the good influences of his active life dwell with us
and linger in our hearts, as we go hence. And may we take one
special lesson from his life and death, and that is — when a public
servant does his duty fearlessly, tell him you appreciate it, while
he is living. A smile, a word of appreciation, a hearty hand-
shake, an earthly reward for service well rendered, is worth all
the eulogiums, the monuments, and the tears shed by multitudes,
after one is dead. A man needs help while he is alive — not
praise after the cold hand of death has been laid upon him.
Adopt the principle of speaking well of a man, or of saying
nothing, and learn by heart the words of Will Carleton :

" Boys flying kites, haul in their white-winged birds.
You can't do that way, when you 're flying words.
Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes fall back dead,
But God Himself can't stop them when they 're said."

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 363

His political vindication was his just desert. It was denied
him here; it will be meted out over there. As we take a part-
ing look at his ennobling features, portrayed upon the canvas
beside us, we shall but mirror his great and good deeds upon
the tablets of our memory, which shall abide with us. Peace to
his ashes, and rest to his soul!

On the 19th of April following, the Board of Directors
of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company adopted
the following:

Whereas, death has taken from us Mr. Edward Oliver Wol-
cott, who since the organization of this company has been a
member of its board of directors and its general counsel, and
prior thereto, throughout nearly all of his professional career,
was connected with the legal department of the railroad, and

Whereas, Mr. Wolcott served his country with much dis-
tinction, and this company with unwavering devotion to duty,
and his friends with loyalty and affection, this Board, whose
members individually feel the personal loss of a friend, as well
as an official associate, desires to give expression, though in-
adequate, to the high place held by Mr. Wolcott in its esteem,
and the deep sense of the loss occasioned by his death. Now,
therefore,

Resolved, that the directors of the Denver and Rio Grande
Railroad Company do hereby express their great sorrow at the
death of the Honorable Edward Oliver Wolcott, who departed
this life on the first day of March, 1905.

Mr. Wolcott was for many years a valued member of this
Board. He assisted in the organization of the company and since
its creation has been its general counsel. He has served the
company with exceptional ability for the past nineteen years,
and we desire to express our sincere appreciation of his ad-
mirable qualities as a man, his great efficiency as the counsel
of the company and the head of its legal department, and his
valuable aid given to the company in many directions during
his long association with it.

The services which he rendered to his State and his country
while holding the office of United States Senator make his loss
a national one, while his lovable qualities as a man make that
loss peculiarly poignant to his relatives and friends.

This memorial is placed of record in the minutes of this
Board as a slight tribute to his memory, and the secretary of

364 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

this company is directed to send an engrossed copy of this reso-
lution to the Honorable Henry R. Wolcott with assurances to him
and his brothers and sisters of our deep sympathy in their day
of affliction.

E. T. Jeffery, President.

As further evidence of the good feeling for Mr. Wolcott
existing among the officials of the Denver and Rio Grande,
the following letter of April 21, 1909, from Traffic Manager
A. S. Hughes, is quoted :

My acquaintance with Senator Wolcott runs back a great
many years, to early in the seventies, when he was a young lawyer
at Georgetown, later District Attorney, and afterward Senator
from Clear Creek district. This was followed by a very pleas-
ant association upon his removal to Denver, through our long
connection with the Denver and Rio Grande, which began with
both of us in 1880 or 1881. The Senator's brilliant attainments,
his fame as an orator, and his distinguished career at the bar,
are too well known to require comment from me. While I was
not of his political faith, at the same time, in common with
many others similarly situated, I — all of us, indeed, were pleased
when he was made United States Senator for Colorado, as we
knew in advance that he would attain the prominence which was
accorded him in the Senate.

LOOKING TO THE END

Many of Mr. Wolcott's friends believe that when he left
Denver the last time in November, 1904, he realized that
probably he never would return. During his stay there he
took a street-car ride to Fairmont Cemetery, and after look-
ing it over and making a general inspection of the surround-
ings he struck out across country and walked back to the
city three or four miles away. Arrived at his home, he
spoke much about the burial-place and told his friends that
he desired to be interred there when he died. " Give me the
blue skies for my canopy and the old Rockies for my monu-
ment ! " he exclaimed with exuberance. Apparently he
spoke in jest, but his listeners now believe that he foresaw
the approaching end. Later, he told other friends that he
desired that his body should rest near New York, and there
his ashes lie.

'NINETY-SIX AND AFTER 365

There are other evidences that at that period his mind
was occupied largely with the possibility of early dissolu-
tion. His intimate friend A. M. Stevenson relates that on
one occasion during this visit Mr. Wolcott went into the
Denver Club just as he (Stevenson) was about to depart.
He asked Stevenson to remain, and when the latter pleaded
an engagement he urged him so persistently that ultimately
he consented. " I want to talk with you," said Mr. Wol-
cott. He and Mr. Stevenson then sat down and went over
many matters together. Toward the close of the interview
Mr. Wolcott said, addressing his friend familiarly : " Now,
Stevey, I am going away, and I doubt very much whether I
ever shall come back. Henry and I are going abroad for
the benefit of his health, but the truth is that I am the
sicker man of the two. I feel that present conditions cannot
long continue, and, as I have said, I don't believe I shall
ever see you again."

Mr. Stevenson remonstrated with him, but with little
effect, for later in the same day, at his own residence, as
Mr. Stevenson relates the story, Mr. Wolcott brought up
the subject again. Mr. Chisholm was then present, and Mr.
Wolcott was making preparations to get away. He had
been going over his will, and he tossed the document over
to Chisholm, asking him to put it away. He then told Mr.
Chisholm that he had not forgotten him in the will and
suggested that he should read it. This Chisholm declined
to do and the document was sealed up.

Already two memorials have been erected to the memory
of Mr. Wolcott, one of them a monument in Woodlawn
Cemetery in New York, where his ashes are interred, and
the other in Denver. The location of the burial-place is a
solemnly attractive one, and the monument erected there by
the loving hands of his brother is an elaborate and beautiful
piece of marble, attesting at once the durability of the dead
man's name and the splendor of his fame. The inscription
on the head-stone is a bare notation of name and date of
birth, as follows:

Edward Oliver Wolcott,
born march 26, 1848 — died march 1, 1903.

366 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

The foot-stone contains the following:

" Warm summer sun shine kindly here,

Warm southern wind blow softly here,

Green sod above lie light, lie light; —

Good-night, — dear heart — good-night, —

Good-night."

The other memorial, the one in Denver, is a life-size
portrait in a stained glass window in the Colorado State
Capitol. It portrays Mr. Wolcott seated in reposeful atti-
tude in his library, and is a very pleasing picture. The win-
dow is in the rear of the Lieutenant-Governor's seat in the
Senate Chamber, and is 5 x 9y2 feet in size. It was pre-
pared on an order from the State, given very soon after
the Senator's death, and was placed in position in March,
1906, just a year after that event.

Wolcott Stained-Glass Window in the State
Capitol at Denver.

Characteristics

367

WOLCOTT THE MAN

THE most striking characteristic of Mr. Wolcott was
bigness. Tall and well rounded out, he rose physi-
cally above the average man, and, whether taller or
otherwise bigger of body, his eyes were more expressive ; his
grip was stronger; his step was more energetic; his lan-
guage readier and more to the point; his grasp of events
quicker and more comprehensive; his generosity greater; his
follies more extreme. Whatever he did, good or bad, he
did on an unusual scale. There was no " half-way house "
on his road. He must needs be a leader, never a follower.
He must mingle and compete with the best and strongest,
and surpass them. His contest was altogether with the
sturdy; he found no pleasure in outrunning the slow, in
outfighting the weak, in outwitting the dullard. He won
fame as a lawyer; he assumed the leadership of a great
State; he forced his way into the Senate and there soon
ranked with the foremost in that body of established leaders ;
he compelled a partially unwilling National Administration
to keep the promise of its party in the interest of Interna-
tional Bimetallism, and he came near to revolutionizing the
world by forcing the double monetary standard upon it. He
controlled men and dictated policies. He was a man of
achievement, not the mere man of words that the popular
speaker generally is. He possessed moral courage far be-
yond the ordinary. His intellectual processes were swift,
independent, and accurate; his mental vision broad and
keen — penetrating, comprehensive. He always thought and
acted on a large scale; he seemed to see all sides and all
phases of a subject at the same time and at the first glance.

VOL. I. -2,, 369

370 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Baseness and meanness were foreign to his nature — petti-
ness quite antipodal. He possessed such magnetism that
involuntarily men were drawn to him. He was impulsive,
but tenacious; intuitive, hut exact; quick, but strong and
determined. In many respects he was what men call a
genius. And if he possessed the good qualities of the genius
he possessed also some of the bad. Was ever there a genius
who had not eaten of the tree of knowledge of both good
and evil?

It is not intended that this shall be a record of the man's
deeds only along the lines of the world's approval. At times
he diverged from those lines, and the story of his life would
not be correctly told without recognition of these delin-
quencies; he would not himself have it so.

What, then, were his faults?

Their enumeration will not require great space. They
were largely social, and were of a character which in an-
other age and another land would scarcely have been con-
sidered such. He drank with his friends, and occasionally
drank more than he should; he smoked excessively at times,
and he was fond of a game of chance. He swore upon
occasion. In addition, it must be said that there were some
phases of manner and temper which had their disagreeable
aspect. Often he was petulant and brusque, and generally
he was arbitrary in disposition. While ordinarily polite
and agreeable under right conditions, he could be very exact-
ing. He did not drink regularly, and he drank excessively
only at rare intervals. He would continue for months with-
out the use of either liquor or tobacco. Frequently he would
say that he would not smoke or drink for a given time, and
he would invariably refrain for the specified time, notwith-
standing it frequently covered many months. His excessive
betting was also spasmodic and infrequent.

Whether all these characteristics or habits were serious
faults or necessarily faults at all must depend upon the
point of view from which they are observed. His brusque-
ness of manner, for instance, unquestionably was the result
of preoccupation and impatience due to the fact that the
minds of others did not keep pace with his own. If he

CHARACTERISTICS 371

appeared arbitrary it was because of his conviction of right
in any position he might take on a subject. To some his
brusqueness and autocratic course might easily appear as
natural consequences of his busy life and preoccupied mind.
To others, to subordinates working under his direction, or
to his equals engaged on the same task but differing from
him, they seemed unreasonable and unnecessary.

But all must agree on the one point that, whatever his
shortcomings or derelictions, they may be traced to his tem-
perament, which, nervous in high degree, caused him to
appear varying, when in reality he was steadfast, and led
him to do many things merely for the purpose of relieving
a strained mental or physical state.

It is no more the purpose to excuse these derelictions,
so far as they were such, than to conceal them. Nor is there
any intention of parading them in an attractive way for
the enticement of others. It is not to be contended that
they were any part of the man's greatness. Their necessary
effect was to lessen his capacity and detract from his pres-
tige. If he accomplished all that he did while indulging
these propensities, he would have done more if he had kept
them in complete subjugation.

Indeed, what could not Ed Wolcott have been but for
the social pastimes which stole away his time? But, on
the other hand, does not such a nature demand relaxation,
and did he not do wonders despite his excesses?

And would he have been Ed Wolcott if he had been dif-
ferent from what he was?

He was a man of the world. He lived the life of the
man of the world. He played his part both night and day,
and he led the game all the time.

A man of the world? A man of many worlds — of the
political, the official, the business, the literary, the art, the
travel, the social, the club world, and of the " about-town "
world. He was a part of all these worlds, and he knew them
all. His experience was wide, his life crowded.

It is undeniable that Mr. Wolcott spent money freely
when engaged in actual political combat, but it should be
stated that he always strongly reprobated the corruption
of the ballot. Never a niggard, never ungrateful, Mr.

372 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Wolcott gave liberally for all legitimate purposes, and it is
possible that inquiry as to legitimacy was not always as
scrutinizing as it might have been. He paid the expenses
of his campaigns, and, whether during a campaign or at
any other time, he did not permit a political supporter to
suffer.

Frequent comment has been made upon the fact that
Mr. Wolcott was not a man of detail and would not delve
as laboriously into the intricacies of a lawsuit or of a piece
of legislation as would others. It was not in him to do
so, and, indeed, it may be seriously doubted whether, if he
had attempted such a course, he would have been as suc-
cessful as he was. It is not always the man of detail who
accomplishes most in life. The proverb tells us that " the
penny soul never comes to twopence." There is ever a pos-
sibility of holding a small object so near the eye as to shut
out all other objects, large or small. Most men have only
a limited stock of energy, and if it be exhausted in one
direction it will not be found available in another. He
utilized the labor of other people, where that course could
be pursued as well as not; but not to the disadvantage of
client or constituent, for he found no difficulty in adapting
the work of others, and he had few equals in discovering the
salient points in a given case and in marshalling them for ef-
fective presentation. His was a policy of conservation. He
did not wear himself out on small matters or on work that
was uncongenial, and hence was prepared to deal with large
problems when they presented themselves. On the other
hand, no one labored more tirelessly over a task that could
not be delegated to others. The preparation of his speeches
is an example. No toil was too severe, no detail too trifling,
for him in that work. Fortunately, he had the capacity
for the larger work, and in " passing up " the drudgery of
small things he did not thus deprive himself of all oppor-
tunity, as has many another who has had the aspirations
without the ability of our subject.

To those who knew him only casually, Mr. Wolcott seemed
a man without a care. He seldom appeared in public when
not in jovial good humor. But, while such was his pre-

CHARACTERISTICS 373

railing disposition, he was not always cheerful nor always
in good humor. On the contrary, he not only occasionally
was resentful, but often was despondent.

His anger scarcely deserved the name. It generally took
the shape of irritation due to impatience with conditions
which were not such as his orderly mind demanded. At
such times he could be and often was disagreeable to the
delinquent. But the storm did not continue long. He did
not hold resentment, and when he offended he usually was
quick to show contrition, and even to make apology, if the
offence called for such a course. In case of prolonged con-
flict, he would fight on day after day and year after year,
but not with personal hatred.

Not so short-lived, but more deep-seated, were his periods
of depression. When he became despondent, he would re-
tire from the world, seeing as few people as circumstances
would permit, and getting rid of those he did see as expe-
ditiously as he could.

To this tendency to melancholy some of Mr. Wol-
cott's more intimate friends attribute many of his most
pronounced faults and greatest excesses. They say that
to such moods invariably could be traced his resort to
liquor in unusual quantity. And, pursuing the baneful in-
fluence further, they declare that it always was while con-
trolled by liquor that he risked his money foolishly
and in excessive sums in the gambling resorts. Following
the drinking, there generally was a reaction, and it was
then that, with nerves unstrung and everything distorted,
he would permit his irritability to get the better of him, caus-
ing him to do and say unjust and unkind things. Thus, not
only the gambling tendency, but the irascibility and even
the drinking itself were due to a mental characteristic such
as is not always easily controlled.

At times his periods of despondency seemed irresistible.
Possessed of an unusually impressionable nature, he was
quick to feel the influence of surrounding conditions. If
these were agreeable, he was genial and merry beyond most
men. He was easily bored and would not remain in un-
congenial company or an unpleasant social atmosphere if he
could get away. He was far more quickly discouraged by

374 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

adverse conditions than was popularly supposed, and when
apparently the situation was beyond control, for a time
he would give way to despondency. At other times the
mood would take possession of him without apparent rea-
son. But, be the origin of the depression what it might, he
occasionally resorted to the use of intoxicants for relief from
it, at times going farther than was dictated by prudence.
It was on such occasions that he made his record as a
" plunger."

This despondent tendency became noticeable to Mr. Wol-
cott himself when a very young man, and he regarded it
as hereditary. We find him mentioning it in his letters
from Cambridge while in the law school there, and his Nor-
wich cousin, Mr. A. P. Carroll, who was closely associated
with him as a young man, noted the trait when, after ob-
taining his law degree at Harvard, Ed was preparing to
start to Colorado and to enter upon his career. Mr. Carroll
says that Ed's grandfather Pope had advanced $500 to
him and that it seemed such a paltry sum with which to
begin life that, when he was leaving Norwich, he was greatly
depressed. " I went with him to the station," says Carroll,
" and as we sat outside the depot, overlooking the river, I
shall never forget the deep cast-down tone in which he said :
' I feel far more inclined to plunge into the water yonder
and end it all than to board the coming train, and face
what is before me.' "

Another notable instance of the manifestation of this
disposition was observable when in 1896 Mr. Wolcott re-
tired to Wolhurst, practically refusing for days to see any
one, because of the state of mind superinduced by the
complicated political conditions of the period. He also
was much more deeply depressed over the failure of
the Bimetallic Commission than the world ever knew.
He never recovered from the treatment he received from
his fellow-Republicans in 1902-3, when he was ostra-
cized by a large faction and his return to the Senate
prevented.

But, while unquestionably it is true that Mr. Wolcott's
depressed periods had a vast influence in causing his de-
parture from the beaten paths, they were not entirely re-

CHARACTERISTICS 375

sponsible for this course. His was a unique and a varied
character, and by no means all of his habits were traceable
to any one trait. Excitement seemed essential to him. His
love of change was unquenchable. Of an intense nature, his
mind must be occupied. He must be looking at or hear-
ing something new; he could not and would not endure the
humdrum of the ordinary. The fact that the path was
beaten was in itself sufficient to drive him from it in mat-
ters of entertainment, Routine was well enough for others,
but would not do for him. If he smoked or drank, or played
pool, or bought " futures," or poked the enemy in the ribs,
he did so largely because there was coming to be too much
sameness in life. If awake, he must be doing something,
and he never slept so long as there was " something doing."
It has been said, and truly, that every moment of his life
was lived intensely. He did everything with zeal and with
all his soul. He devoured books. If he spoke, he gave
utterance to the best in him. If he worked, he worked
hard; if he played, he played zealously. He was most loyal
to his friends; his enemies he let alone — intensely. If he
was for you, he was strongly for you; if against you, he
would exert himself to the utmost ; he " nailed his enemies
to the cross." Success was a passion with him. He always
played to win, and in a way all phases of life were a game
to him. If he gambled, he " went the limit." When a boy
he often attended three church services in one day; after he
grew to manhood, he would " take in " three or four theatres
in an evening. One has said of him that he had " the in-
temperate temperament."

Necessarily there must be another side to so tense a na-
ture. Periods of depression were as inevitable as that the
pendulum of the clock which swings one way must alter-
nately swing in the other direction.

But, as a rule, the depressed period was comparatively
brief. Generally, he was cheerful, frequently jolly. Good
nature was his predominating state of mind. Ordinarily,
he was the inspiring spirit of any company, and any social
occasion in which he long was a participant was sure to be
gay. No one enjoyed a jest more than he, and much of
his ordinary conversation was in the lighter vein. At home

376 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

he was the life of the household, and without him no
gathering of his friends was complete.

With all his frailties and all his talents, Ed Wolcott was
the most generous, the most magnanimous, the most appre-
ciative, of mortals. He never forsook a friend, and he
seldom punished an enemy. He gave lavishly to the unfortu-
nate, and his pity for those in distress knew no bounds. He
was frankness itself.

There was no limit to his gratitude. Benefits conferred
were never forgot and never unrequited. Indeed, he did not
permit any opportunity for manifesting appreciation to pass
without availing himself of it. Proof of this statement is
found in his attitude toward his father and his brother
Henry — indeed in his attitude toward all of his family. He
never tired of aiding the younger members of the household,
and he joined generously with Henry in providing for the
comfort of their father and mother in their declining years.

As with members of the family, so with friends. None
of them served him in vain. When convinced of the loyalty
of a political follower, no amount of abuse — nothing
short of conviction of personal dishonesty — could impair his
attachment or diminish his support. This characteristic was
tested to the utmost in the trying days of the renaissance
of the Republican party of Colorado from 1900 to 1905.
Most of the calumniation of him in that time of triumph and
tribulation was based upon his retention of certain of his
followers in the Federal offices. But he did not let them
out. " How can I ? " he would ask, and then by way of
explanation would add, almost pathetically : " They stood
with me in ?96, you know."

No person ever was franker in speaking of bad habits than
Mr. Wolcott, and none could or did more thoroughly appre-
ciate their baneful effect. His letters to his parents teem
with references to his faults and show that he made many
efforts to permanently break away from them, as he often
temporarily did. He repeatedly told his friends that he es-
pecially wished he could refrain entirely from the use of
intoxicating liquors. " I know that when under their in-
fluence I am not the man I am at other times," he said over

CHARACTERISTICS 377

and again. When told of some friend who was falling into
the drinking habit, he would say : " Tell him to cut it out
— it will get the best of him; he ought not to drink if he
can't stop short of getting full."

But if he drank he did not try to conceal the fact from
any one. Indeed, he was more apt to exaggerate the fault
and make more of it than conditions warranted. Deprecat-
ing his use of liquor to any excess, and distressed when it
caused him to depart from conventional paths, he did not
shrink from discussing the circumstances in a given case.
If occasion required, he would speak of them to his minister-
father or his pious mother as freely as to any one else.
He was not given to secret sins.

No one ever came more honestly by a characteristic than
did Mr. Wolcott by his frankness. It was one of the many
likable traits derived from his father. Writing as far back
as 1836, a classmate of Dr. Wolcott's at Andover speaks
of that gentleman's candor as one of his " faults." Fault
it may not have been in either the father or the son, but
one may imagine that it could be easily so regarded by a
fellow-student, even in a theological school. But, whether
the characteristic was abnormal or not, it was inherent in
both the elder and the younger Wolcott, They concealed
nothing for fear of the ill effect of publicity upon themselves.

A friend of both Senator Wolcott and his father has ad-
mirably portrayed the quality in the following:

" I should say that with both Dr. Wolcott and his son
frankness was neither a fault nor, perhaps, a virtue, but an
instinct — a native endowment, like the leopard's spots — an
inalienable inheritance — together with the wide-open blue
eyes which gave it expression. They loved frankness, and
there was not one particle of guile in either of them."

Senator WTolcott had no secrets except those the telling
of which might affect injuriously other people.

He would never deny or shirk a slur if it was based on
the truth, and often the very boldness of his candor dis-
armed criticism. When charged with the possession of
habits, any one of which would break an ordinary man,
instead of challenging the assertion he would concede it and
add that it was worse than represented. In consequence

378 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

of this trait, the fact became impressed upon his associates
that in spite of vices there was one individual who could
command respect by reason of the abnormal strength of his
personality and the possession of a host of compensating
virtues. On account of these characteristics, Mr. Wolcott
has been compared to Alcibiades, who, as a boy and as he
approached manhood, led the gilded youth of Greece in all
their follies, but as a grown man abandoned all such excesses
and became the leader of the armies of Athens and the
restorer of her liberty.

The fact that Mr. Wolcott spoke so freely of his short-
comings, seeking neither to conceal nor extenuate, should
be kept constantly in mind in considering his self-deprecia-
tory expressions. He did not pretend to be better than
he was. Indeed, he was a much better man mentally and
morally than he claimed to be. His bad side was more often
exposed to view than his good side. Many of his meritorious
acts of charity and kindness were known only to himself
and those to whom they brought benefit, relief, and en-
couragement. He did not discuss his charities, and an in-
timate knowledge of his character and daily life, making
all due allowance for shortcomings of which the public was
made only too well aware, only added to the esteem in which
he was held by those who really knew him.

But he was the soul of honor, and though he did not
attempt to hide his own transgressions, he said little or
nothing of those of others, and he never discussed to their
injury the secret affairs of his friends. In business trans-
actions, he was scrupulously punctilious and most careful of
his good name.

These pages teem with instances of the man's indepen-
dence, courage, and sincerity. If his conscience or his judg-
ment was opposed to a given course in politics or in business
he did not permit his own policy to be dictated by numbers;
and when he decided upon a line of action it was ever con-
trolled by honesty of purpose. His method of proceeding
always was such as to supply the best evidence of his lack
of fear. When his conscience and conviction were aroused
he did not count the consequences to himself.

CHARACTERISTICS 379

Mr. Wolcott's tenacity has been remarked upon. He
would not " let go." This trait of character was as notice-
able when he was a boy as it was after he grew older. Mem-
bers of his family still recall that when in 1864 he started
to the war, he proudly refused to accept aid in carrying his
accoutrement as he marched with his regiment through
Euclid Avenue in Cleveland. He was a strapping fellow,
large for his age; but he was very young, and, quite un-
seasoned as he was to severe physical exertion, the ordeal
was a severe tax upon his powers of endurance. Much
" winded " though he was, he bore up to the end, declining
proffered assistance from first to last. He had enlisted to
be a soldier, and he meant from the first to show that he
possessed the physical requisites for the service. The same
fixedness of purpose characterized his entire life; but, of
course, in his more mature years his zeal was tempered with
a greater degree of wisdom. When he set out to accom-
plish something he did not desist until he had triumphed or
until success was plainly out of the question.

He could not listen placidly to useless and pointless talk.
When waiting for a situation to develop or when in com-
mittee meetings or other consultation, he generally wore an
air of impatience. On such occasions his manner depended
entirely on the course of events. If matters were running
to his liking, his eyes were atwinkle, and he frequently
would interrupt the proceeding with some witty remark or
pertinent story. If the problem to be solved was a knotty
one, or if there was unreasonable or unexpected opposition,
his displeasure was made manifest by physical movement
ratber than by verbal expression. If the situation was dis-
pleasing, he was a veritable caged lion. He would stride
from one end of the room to the other, stop suddenly to
look at a picture or other object, and start impatiently, his
hands jammed deep into his pockets, face and figure showing
in every lineament and outline that conditions were of such
a nature that he feign would get away from them. He
never, however, overlooked a fact nor failed to make a point
when it occurred to him. On such occasions he did not
enter into long arguments, but spoke sententiously and with
telling effect. If he was largely responsible, as when chair-

380 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

man of a committee, he was insistent, often to the point of
being considered arbitrary. If not especially answerable,
or if clearly in the minority, he would enter his protest,
give his reasons in a few clear-cut sentences, and sub-
side, continuing his pace until the close of the meeting. If
presiding, he of course retained his seat; — but then he kept
himself so occupied mentally as to obviate the necessity
for physical exercise.

In support of these general statements, a number of
anecdotes and personal reminiscences have been collected.
It is believed that they will afford a better idea of the
character of the man than could any dissertation, however
accurate or extended. Most of them are from intimate
friends, and either relate real incidents in Mr. Wolcott's
life or give the personal views of those who were close to
him and had an opportunity to study him at first hand.

But even with these aids it is difficult to portray the
actual man. This is true because of his varying character.
Presenting one characteristic, you are liable to discover traits
that would seem to call for a diametrically different por-
trayal. The solution is found in the fact that he was not
always the same man, or, rather, that he did not at all times
present the same phases of character. When he worked he
worked with might and main, and yet he did not work for
the love of labor. Apparently a man of leisure, he turned
out more work than others. He was a business man and
yet was fond of society. He allowed others to do much of
his investigating, but no one was more thorough in his
mastery of a lawsuit or a piece of legislation. Reading was
a passion with him, but he was easily lured from his books.
He would borrow from one friend to give to another. He
was austere, yet kind; aristocratic in bearing, but easily
moved by the recital of any tale of woe. Strong and firm
in essentials, he was weak and yielding in minor matters.
Merry and of good cheer generally, he could be moody and
despondent at times. He appeared the boldest of men ; we
shall see that he was the timidest. He moralized, almost
preached, and still disobeyed some of the Commandments.
He was not the same man to different persons, because he

CHARACTERISTICS 381

was seen under different auspices. What wonder, in view
of these facts, if some of the characterizations appear con-
tradictory and some of the anecdotes seem not to fit !

ESTIMATES OF SOME WHO KNEW HIM

We have heard from Justices Harlan and Brewer; from
Senators Teller, Hale, Aldrich, Lodge, and Penrose; from
his former law partners, John G. Milburn and Joel P.
Vaile, and from such political associates in Colorado as
A. M. Stevenson, Judge John Campbell of the Colorado
Supreme Court, and United States Marshal Dewey C.
Bailey.

Justice Brewer has supplied something more than the
testimonial printed as a part of the foreword. In an ex-
tended interview granted the writer, he said :

I knew Senator Wolcott well. I became acquainted with
him while I was United States Circuit Judge in the Ninth Cir-
cuit. Colorado is in that Circuit, and I met him first in Denver
in 1884. The acquaintance continued until the Senator's death
in 1905, and we were thrown together at frequent intervals. I
liked and admired him for his many excellent qualities. He
was a good lawyer in that he never piled up a lot of useless
matter. It was his habit in presenting his cases to pick out
two or three strong points. He was an analyzer, and he did
not waste either his time or the time of the Court. He selected
the points decisive of the cases he cited, and he did not read
many authorities. He would argue briefly the principal ques-
tions at issue, and let the rest go. Thus he avoided confusing
the Court and made sure that every point counted.

Independence was a strong characteristic with the man, and
he was as courageous as he was independent. He was perfectly
honest with himself. He followed his own reasoning and his
own conclusions. He stood by his convictions. He did not sur-
render to the popular view, nor did he consider that it was
anything out of the way for him not to do so. He did not feel
that he was doing a brave thing in holding out for his own ideas,
for to do so was natural with him. He spoke his own opinions
and did so naturally. The water flowed from the rock, and it
was the pure water of his own thought. It did n't make a bit
of difference what others thought. Some men who talk bravely
think they are courageous simply because they so talk; but he

382 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

did n't have that feeling at all. He unconsciously " talked it
out," and he voiced his convictions regardless of the consequences
to himself. He would oppose your views without hesitation. If
he did not agree with you, " out it came." I believe that if I
had said something on the Bench which did not appeal to him,
he would have opposed me. Of course he would not have said
anything indecorous, but he would have met me as man to man
after I had left the Bench. He had opinions on everything that
was within the reach of ordinary intelligence, and he expressed
them whenever he felt called upon to do so. He did not care a
cent for anybody's opinion if convinced in his own mind. I
was in Denver when he was expecting to run for the Senate.
There was a Republican meeting, and as usual there were sharp
divisions on local questions. He went to the meeting and made
a speech in which he sharply criticised some of the persons who
were supporting him. He did not name them, but assailed their,
principles, and left no doubt as to who was meant. I remember
hearing his friends say he was a fool to attack men to whom
he was looking for support. But they were mistaken as to the
effect, for the speech did n't hurt him.

I heard Mr. Wolcott frequently in Court, and I also heard
him deliver his speech at the Minneapolis Convention in 1892,
placing Blaine in nomination for the Presidency. His man was
not successful, but he made a magnificent plea for him. Blaine
was the kind of man that would appeal to him, and his splendid
voice and thrilling language created a fine effect. He did not
talk for more than twenty minutes, but, as usual, he struck
to the centre.

Wolcott was not only an able man, but he was a lovable
man. We all knew his weaknesses; but we loved him for his
perfect sincerity and for his generous nature. He did a great
many humane acts. While he was general counsel for W. S.
Jackson (Helen Hunt's husband), when Jackson was Receiver
for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, there was a strike on
the line in which a little blood was shed. Some of the strikers
were arrested and were to be tried in the United States Court
sitting in Denver. Judge Hallett did not want to sit in the
case, and I was sent for. Only few knew that I was to be
there to act. After I arrived, and before I went on the Bench,
Ed came to me in the packed court-room, and urged that as the
wife of one of the men was ill, he should be let off " as easy
as possible." I had a private talk with the man, who confessed
that he had been one of the offenders. I asked him if he thought

CHARACTERISTICS 383

he had done right, to which question he replied that he only
went into it to be with the rest. I told him we did not want
to deal harshly with him, and, receiving his promise that he
would make no more trouble, I released him. He went back
to work and kept his promise.

But while he was generous, Wolcott was not always dis-
creet in his charity. He would give to a beggar on the street
without making any inquiry, and he always gave liberally. He
did everything in a big way. He was the luckiest fellow you
ever saw. In those days I was very fond of whist and was
invited around to the Denver Club to play when in Denver. No
betting was allowed between players in the public room, but
the making of bets by onlookers was not covered by the rules.
When Ed came in he would go around among the players and
bet on half the games, and he would win four times out of
five. On one occasion he came to my table and asked, " How do
you stand, Judge?"

" They have one game on the rubber and four points out of
five on the second, while we have n't any," I answered.

" I will bet five dollars you win," he said without a moment's
hesitation.

I replied: "Ed, what are you talking about? We have no
chance at all."

Some one put up the money against him, and he won.

He seemed to have an instinct for winning. He would run
all through the room, and, looking at one after another of the
players' hands, would make bets here and there as he went. In-
tuition seemed to guide him, and the mere fact that he would
lay a wager on a player seemed to increase the man's chances.

Wolcott was a man of tremendous vitality. Starting early
in the morning he would go until late at night, and he was on
the jump all the time. I knew in those days a man who had
gone from Leavenworth to Georgetown, where Wolcott lived
before going to Denver, and he told me about Wolcott's powers
of endurance. This man was one of the characters of the fron-
tier. He had been a scout in the Union Army in the South-
west, and was a fine fellow. He was capable of " going some "
himself, and he told me that Wolcott was equal to any demands in
a test of endurance. Every little while they would go down to
Denver together, and twenty-four or thirty-six hours was nothing
to them; they never stopped while away from home.

To sum up : Mr. Wolcott was a man of engaging personality ;
a lawyer of splendid insight; an orator of convincing power.

384 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

His success in life was marked, but it was not beyond his
deserts. He was absolutely honest in his views, and we have
had few public men who were so courageous in expressing their
real convictions. Whether in private or public life he thought
for himself, and he was never swerved from a purpose by self-
interest or public clamor. I was familiar with his career for
twenty years, and I had sincere admiration and real attachment
for him.

With Justice Brewer's estimate of Mr. Wolcott's power
of analysis agrees perfectly that of Mr. Morrison, Mr. Wol-
cott's old-time Georgetown-Denver friend.

The especial quality that expressed this force and made a
leader of Mr. Wolcott [says Mr. Morrison], was the faculty to
generalize the facts of a complicated lawsuit or of a political
campaign so as to take in at one glance and to state in spe-
cific terms the decisive point in such suit or campaign. The
weak spot being seen, all aid was hurried to that point — just as
a general sees the wavering bend in a line of battle and hurries
his troops to that place, knowing that if the repulse is there
complete all other parts of the line will right themselves. Such
capacity makes the leader not the laborer, not the soldier but
the captain.

Let us next hear from Hon. Chas. S. Thomas, former
Governor of Colorado, who was Henry Wolcott's successful
rival for gubernatorial honors in the Centennial State in
1S98, and Senator Wolcott's Democratic antagonist in many
stubbornly contested political fields. He writes:

Mr. Wolcott was very strong in his likes and dislikes. In-
deed, he was built upon a large scale. There was nothing meagre
about his mental qualities, whether good or bad; what he did
he did with all his might. It was difficult for him to be negative
in anything.

His worst enemy never could accuse him either of hypocrisy
or deceit. He was not only outspoken in opposition, but aggres-
sively so. He could not criticise an enemy unless he did it in
so pointed and personal a manner as to deprive his statements
of the least suspicion of insinuation. He loved a fight, and
seemed at times to be never so happy as when engaged in one
that involved practically all the members of his immediate com-

CHARACTERISTICS 385

munity. This was true whether the quarrel were personal, so-
cial, or political, or whether, if political, the quarrel involved
his adversaries in his own or the opposite party.

Mr. Wolcott enjoyed and suffered very keenly. Yet his love
of approbation never weighed a feather in the scale against
his determination once formed to do or to say things which
were sure to encounter opposition. On the other hand, the cer-
tainty of censure and abuse, with its inevitable pain, was equally
unavailing. What he determined to do, that he did, and what
he determined to say he said, seemingly unmindful of the con-
sequences to himself. Hence, his public life alternated in quick
successions of pleasure and torment.

His temperament was intensely nervous. When excited, or
when interested, or impatient, he paced the room with swift
footsteps, only halting to make some statement or suggestion.
I saw him on one occasion, while smarting under the jibes and
cartoons of a Denver morning paper. He was furious with in-
dignation, but said he tried to comfort himself with the reflec-
tion that no man in America had ever been hanged for killing
an editor.

He was generous to prodigality. I never knew a man who
cared so little for money except as a means to satisfy his wants
or desires. His contributions to the various charitable enter-
prises, and to others of less deserving nature, were generally
so large as to demoralize other contributors in the profession
when confronted with his donations. On the other hand, he
never seemed to need money, as his practice was very large
and his clients abundantly appreciative of his good work.

His refusal to leave the Republican party in 1896 unques-
tionably cost him his popularity and standing in Colorado. At
that time the question of bimetallism was more than acute. It
became synonymous with State loyalty, and no man in public
life could even seem to be lukewarm in its behalf and remain
in public office. But it was characteristic of Wolcott, after de-
termining upon his course, to adhere to it regardless of results to
himself, his friends, or his party. Of course, I could not approve
of it personally, or commend it politically; yet I could not but
admire the sublime courage which such a course demanded, and
which he at all times displayed in breasting the waves of oppo-
sition and calumny, standing almost alone, denounced in public
and in private, and virtually ostracized by the overwhelming
public sentiment of the day. It was an epoch in his life, and
the bitterness of his subsequent defeat doubtless shortened his

386 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

davs. Yet he lived long enough to perceive, as well as to en-
joy, a decided moderation of public sentiment. There is no
doubt that his efforts in 1897 and 1898 to obtain some inter-
national agreement in behalf of silver were sincere and earnest,
and they would doubtless have been successful, if the Adminis-
tration had vigorously supported him, and given him that official
countenance which his political importance and that of his
mission demanded.

Senator Wolcott was not a popular man as the term itself
is generally understood. He held himself aloof from the general
mass, and while he always advocated the public welfare and the
rights of the individual, he seldom mingled with the mass or
resorted to the usual arts of the politician. He was neither
cold nor reserved in his intercourse with men and audiences,
but, on the other hand, he never pretended to that intimacy and
familiarity which is universally observable in candidates during
campaigns. Yet I do not think that he ever weakened himself
or his party by this attitude. It was impossible for him to pre-
tend an intimacy and familiarity which he did not feel, and
his very attitude was an indication of his honesty of plan and
purpose.

He had but few close and intimate friends. His companion-
ships were therefore limited to an unusual degree for the public
man. With these he sometimes had serious differences, but in
general he retained their respect and confidence, albeit he some-
times severed his close relations with them. His life was a suc-
cess socially, professionally, and politically, and his memory
should at all times be cherished as that of one of Colorado's
greatest citizens.

Former Chief Justice John Campbell of the Colorado
Supreme Court has supplied the following estimate of some
phases of Mr. Wolcott's character:

To those who saw him only on the platform, heard the im-
petuous flow of eloquence, the biting sarcasm, the provoking
irony, the fearless attack upon the powerful, the dauntless as-
sault on the intrenched, his jaunty bearing, the boldness of his
argument, his wonderful ease of manner, and felt the charm
and yielded to the fascinating spell of his mellifluous voice — it
must have seemed that timidity had no place in Mr. Wolcott's
mental equipment. The early friends, however, know that he was
naturally disinclined to public speaking, and when he made his

CHARACTERISTICS 387

first political campaign for district attorney, stage fright almost
demoralized him. Once, in a conversation with him, in response
to an assertion that he was not a good mixer, he admitted it
to be so, and said that natural shyness incapacitated him for
that role. I remember well the word he used, because it im-
pressed me at that time as expressing the exact truth.

He was not a vain or egotistical man. Rather was he modest
and as far as possible removed from boasting. Well he knew
his own powers and limitations, and, with that knowledge in
mind, he was careful to confine his activities within the range
of the former, and equally scrupulous to observe the laws of
the latter.

It might be a difficult task to convince those who knew him
only at second hand that he had patience, and could, when
occasion required, exercise a rare self-restraint. The impetu-
osity of his attacks, the fierceness of his onslaughts on traducers
of his character, the apparent zest with which he girded on his
armor for battle, might cause one to conclude that he coveted
opposition and solicited controversy out of sheer love of fight-
ing. These qualities seem, at first blush, inconsistent with
self-repression. But under as trying an ordeal of abuse and vi-
tuperation as a public man ever encounters, under false charges
of personal misconduct that caused him infinite pain, stun* to the
very quick by the grossest perversions of his attitude toward
great questions of state, he at times exhibited a patience and
practised a self-control which were the admiration of friends
and the consternation and refutation of enemies. Do not infer
that he did not often strike back with blows that annihilated
his adversary; but, as he would say, life was too short, and
there was too much of earnest, useful work to do, to stop for
reply to every carping critic who, by slandering others, sou-ht
to attract attention to himself. &

Mr. Wolcott's friend Voorhies, who knew him from the
eany days in Georgetown to the time of his death, says of
his general character :

I believe I can truly say that in all these years, wherever the
atmosphere was congenial— at dinners, in the ballroom, or the
court-room, or in general conversation— I have never met anv
one anywhere who was Ed Wolcott's equal for fine presence and
bright sayings. He possessed a magnetism and charm that were
well-nigh irresistible and indescribable. At all times, even when

388 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

suffering from pain, he could think of and say something in
quite his own way that would drive away gloom as sunlight
does the mist.

He was the boy grown up. His exuberance of spirit, his
trust in his friends, his petulance, and short-lived irritability
were those of a boy. On the other hand, he was capable of
really serious moods, and he could give the closest attention
to any matter that was up for discussion. His power of appeal
and invective was tremendous.

At the Memorial Services held in Denver immediately
after the death of Senator Wolcott, his former law partner,
Joel F. Vaile, who knew whereof he spoke, used this
language :

Cy Warman, the Colorado-Canadian poet, contributes
the following, showing characteristics of the man :

Senator Wolcott was one of the best friends I had in Colo-
rado. When I undertook the establishment of a daily paper in
Creede, I " touched " the Senator gently because I knew that he
knew that I was a Democrat— blown in the bottle— but I had
only hinted that I was forming a little stock company to estab-
lish a daily in the silver camp, when he shut me off by saying,
" Splendid ! Good idea ! "

Here my conscience began to cramp me, and I said : " But
you know, Senator, I am a Democrat."

" Yes, but before everything else you are Cy Warman, and
you are my friend."

Well, I got the Last Chance check, and that was the last
chance they had to say good-bye to it. The repeal of the Sher-
man Law put Creede out of business. Bob Ford was killed,
Slanting Annie contracted pneumonia and went away, Soapy

CHARACTERISTICS 389

Smith left town, the daily Chronicle gave a few convulsive gasps,
stiffened, and succumbed, and so Senator Wolcott's contribution,
along with those of D. H. Moffat and other " angels," went to
the melting pot.

Senator Wolcott never forgot his friends, though sometimes
he got them mixed. I called to see him merely to say, " Howdy "
at the Senate in 1895. He greeted me warmly enough, if I had
not known the Western hand-shake that he handed out at Denver
and Creede.

" I am glad you came in,"' said he. " I want to thank you
for the way you fitted up these rooms for me," and he glanced
up and about, and went on telling me how I had just hit off his
choice.

When he slowed down and stopped, I said to him : " Sen-
ator, have you any idea who I am, and what I am here for?"

He looked perplexed and asked, " Are you not the gentleman
who decorated these rooms ? "

Then I broke the real news to him. I had been abroad for
a couple of years and had not seen him for four or five years.
He took both of my hands now, and backing away brought me
to a window and looked me over. " Xow," said he, " I hope
you won't hold this against me, Cy, and I am awfully glad you
came in. Charlie Thomas quoted a poem of yours against me
in Denver the other night, and I want you to know that I
know that poem was not written for me, but for another party
altogether."

" Well, Senator," said I, " that is just one of the things I
came here to say to you — that that tin was tied to another dog's
tail and not to yours at all."

And so we parted with a new understanding and with our
friendship unmarred, and we never met again.

SOME INSTANCES

The magnetism of Mr. WTolcott has been remarked by
almost all of his commentators. It was one of the secrets
of his success, and it was manifested early in life in a per-
suasiveness that was almost beyond resistance. We have
seen how that as a child Wolcott's parents and grandparents
recognized his commanding presence. Both as boy and man
he was the centre of any group in which he chanced to be;
he was ever the grand seigneur. His eldest brother, Samuel
Wolcott, relates that when he and Ed were boys of about

390 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

the high-school age, they took a boat-ride down New York
harbor, probably to Staten Island, and went to a resort
which consisted of a large room. They found there a crowd
of men, at a fishing club, and he says that within half an
hour Ed was the centre of the entire assembly, although he
was only a boy, and the others were men and strangers.
The same thing happened many years afterward at a Yale
alumni dinner in Denver, as his brother Herbert reports:
" Ed," he says, " came in late, after the guests had gath-
ered around the speaker's table. He took a seat at the foot
of the table, and in a remarkably short time all shifted their
seats and grouped around him. In that case, as generally
happened where he was, ' the head of the table was where
McGregor sat' "

When Mr. Wolcott was in the Colorado State Senate,
Mr. Tabor, as Lieutenant-Governor, presided, and seemed by
the manner of announcing the votes to recognize Wolcott's
pre-eminence. He would look toward him as he would an-
nounce the result in a hotly contested matter, and say:
" You 've got it," or " You 've lost it "; " 20 to 7," or what-
ever the vote might be, apparently never stopping to think
that any one else might be concerned.

An observing visitor to the gallery of the United States
Senate once said after departing : " Most of the Senators
come in with an air of apology; but that man Wolcott acts
as if he owned the place. He assumes the part of host, and
the others appear to recognize him as such."

His Norwich cousin, Mr. A. P. Carroll, relates the fol-
lowing instance of the effect of his persuasive powers even
when a boy:

A gold mine was being promoted on Wauwecus Hill near
this city. It was listed on the New York Exchange in the
'60's, though never an ounce of gold was ever extracted. Ed
and I drove out to it one day — beyond doubt the first mine he
ever visited. A typical hermit guarded the entrance, far back
from the highway, in a deep ravine, who upon our approach
was as set and mum as possible. Yet Ed soon coddled him in
such a way that he laid bare all of his fairy expectations.

A younger brother recalls that in boyhood days, when

CHARACTERISTICS 391

garnered pennies were few and the members of the family
were many, the narrator started off one Saturday morning
with a sum of money, the amount exactly known to all the
family, but hardly exceeding a dollar, and spent the day in
buying Christmas presents for the household. After he was
in bed that night, Ed came to his room and asked him what
he had bought for the various other members of the family.
The junior guilelessly told him what the presents were, and
what was the cost of each, whereupon Ed, computing the
total and deducting it from the amount at the beginning,
and bearing in mind his fondness at that time for minstrel
shows, drew his inference, and said, " You bought me a dime
song-book," which was the fact.

As illustrating Mr. Wolcott's capacity for concentration
and his determination to remain undisturbed when engaged
in mental effort, as well as his liberal inclination, one of
his former private secretaries relates an interesting incident.
It occurred during Mr. Wolcott's Senatorial career, and
he was engaged in dictating a speech. As the amanuensis re-
lates the circumstance, the Senator was pacing up and down
the room in his usual impatient manner, holding tightly
grasped between his teeth a cigar, at which at intervals
he puffed with the vigor of a locomotive, while he snapped
out his usual telling sentences in short, crisp, and forcible
words, — when there came a rap upon the door. He stopped
suddenly in both his walk and his talk and opened the door.
A young man with whom the Senator was barely acquainted
entered. The visitor received a rather cold greeting, but,
regardless of this fact, he began to unfold what the private
secretary designates a " hard-luck " story. He scarcely had
begun the narrative when the Senator thrust his right hand
into his pocket and drew out a roll of money. Without stop-
ping to look what he was doing, he peeled off the outside
bill, and, thrusting it into the man's hand, said: "There;
go!"

The gentleman who narrates the incident caught a
glimpse of the money as it passed from one hand to the
other, and ascertained that it was a twenty-dollar bill, but
he says he is confident that Mr. Wolcott never knew how

392 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Without any comment upon the incident, with no ex-
pression of regret nor even of impatience, Mr. Wolcott re-
sumed his walk up and down the floor and proceeded with
the dictation of his speech as if he had not been interrupted.

HABITS OF STUDY AND WORK

Coming down to particulars in our characterization, we
find that Mr. Wolcott was not inclined to close application
either as man or boy — as lawyer, legislator, or student. The
mere drudgery of learning did not appeal to him. And yet
he could " bone " if necessity required that he should. Wre
find him working hard over his Greek and Latin at Hudson.
But he was preparing for Yale. He was ambitious for a
collegiate education, and he knew that admission to that in-
stitution could be obtained only through thorough prepara-
tion. But, once in the college, his lethargy asserted itself.
He did his best work under the pressure of emergency, but,
unlike most men of this disposition, he was easily aroused;
he was one of the readiest of men. He must, however, have
some especial incentive to cause him to do work not nat-
urally pleasing to him. He once wrote to his mother, " It
is hard for me to understand how a man can work unless
he is spurred by necessity."

His willingness to toil for a purpose is shown in his
law studies, as it was at Hudson. He applied himself satis-
factorily when in the office of the Russell Brothers in Bos-
ton, and he completed the law course at Harvard in less
time than do most students there. But then — beyond lay —
not Italy, but the diploma, and the world — the world which
he was to conquer.

As it had been in his studies, so it was in his law
practice and in his service in the Senate — he would only
work when expediency required. During his term as Dis-
trict Attorney, notwithstanding his own purse was wofully
depleted, he required his assistant, Mr. Orahood, to pre-
pare most of the papers and gave him the fees, which con-
stituted the major portion of the emoluments of the office.
The same policy was followed after his practice had be-
come more extensive; assistants were employed to gather

CHARACTERISTICS 393

the details and even to present them in court, if the case
was an ordinary one. Unless the occasion was worth while
and the achievement of sufficient consequence to afford
an incentive to the exercise of his own master hand,
he would remain out of the case entirely. It is not in-
tended to convey the impression that he enjoyed an oppor-
tunity for mere " show." Nothing was more foreign to his
nature. He liked to do big things, and he did not like to
do little things. He loved to exercise his talents, but not
to exercise them unnecessarily.

The same policy prevailed in his work in the Senate.
Ordinarily he depended upon others to do the routine. But
there were exceptions. If his duties demanded, no line of
labor was too arduous for him; but he did not give close
general attention to questions with which he did not expect
to deal.

We have heard much of his advocacy of the silver cause.
His speeches, in the Senate and out, on that subject were
among the most effective made while the question was be-
fore the country, but one would search in vain for an elab-
orate array of figures in support of his assertions. He
left statistics to his co-laborers. His' was the part of the
cavalry charger; others must prepare against assaults or
cover retreats. He would not go into the subject in a hum-
drum or plodding way.

But when he did work, Wolcott applied himself with
his whole heart, A man of vast, though erratic, energy, he
did not cease in a task until he had accomplished it. But
so quick was his perception, that a subject once taken up
was soon mastered. He grasped every situation almost in-
tuitively. Once an investigation was undertaken, he con-
tinued the inquiry with avidity. He read everything he could
get and utilized all other means of gathering information
on the subject. When so inclined, he could attend to the
details as effectually as any one. While he was at George-
town, he acquired such a name for drawing up contracts
and other legal papers that people came from a distance
to have him do this service for them, and would defer their
business for days, if need be, until he would be at his office
to wait on them.

394 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

LIFE AT WASHINGTON

Mr. Wolcott's life as a Senator served to develop some
of his most pronounced characteristics, and of them a volume
might be written. In many ways he was the most extraor-
dinary man in the Senate. His personality asserted itself
not alone in his speeches, but in his manner of life and
his intercourse with others. During the greater part of
his two Senatorial terms he was the possessor of a large
income. His practice was lucrative, his mining interests
remunerative, and his other investments profitable. He
therefore could afford to live well, and he did so.

Residing for most of his term in a rented house at 1221
Connecticut Avenue, he bought the adjoining lot, and built
on the rear portion of it a library. Above the basement was
one big apartment, connected with his dwelling by a cor-
ridor. A large fireplace, book-shelves, and pictures used
up the wall space, while rugs and reading-tables and easy-
chairs scattered about the room made it an ideal place for
loafing or working or entertaining his friends. Here he
liked to assemble his intimates for the interchange of ideas,
and here conversation covered all possible topics. As will
appear, Mr. Wolcott was extremely practical and " current "
in his public speaking, but in the communion of his own
fireside his discussion took a wide range. He liked to talk
of art and literature and of the theatre and of sports; to
discuss philosophical and speculative themes; to dilate upon
the leading events in history and the participants in them.
He was especially apt in his characterization of current
happenings. No man in public life had a clearer view or a
better understanding of the occurrences of the day, and none
could discuss them more intelligently. He had politics,
local and general, at his tongue's end, and in a few sen-
tences he could summarize the proceedings of Congress for
a week.

He went much into society and he frequented the theatre.
He entertained a great deal, and his hospitality was pro-
verbial. The style of living was in consonance with his
wealth and his liberal disposition. Indeed, wherever he
lived, whether in Washington, Denver, New York, or abroad,

CHARACTERISTICS 395

whether at home or at club or hotel, he lived well; some
would say extravagantly. He was a money-maker and
a money spender. He did not affect " the simple life."
It is not meant to convey the idea that there was a loud
or a pretentious display. Mr. Wolcott was not given to
that course. He had a passion for the elegant, but he
was not capable of vulgarity. He never cared for wealth
for the mere display of wealth. He never sought money
for the impression it enabled him to make on others.
In addition to his many charities, he used his means
for the gratification of his own excellent tastes, and no
man knew better how to maintain a state of quiet mag-
nificence. His manner ever suggested the newly rich.
On the contrary, he created the impression of one who had
been born to wealth and position. Indeed, no man had a
better natural sense of the proper use of large means.

He often said that it cost him f 150,000 a year to remain
in the Senate. Probably, however, he would have spent al-
most as much in any other station of life.

As in his home, so with his person, Mr. Wolcott was an
example of taste and elegance. Every suit of clothes must
be pressed afresh before he wore it a second time. The
florist had a yearly contract to have a fresh bouquet on his
desk every morning. With little exact knowledge of botany
and with little personal experience of gardening, he had a
great fondness for flowers. Waiting once in Boston while
a legal snarl straightened itself out, he walked around to
the Granary Burying Ground half a dozen times a day to
look at the hollyhocks growing there.

It has been said of him that he was the best-dressed man
in public life. There was in his time no man in either House
of Congress who wore as many varieties of clothes and such
fashionable and becoming ones as he. He was a veritable
Beau Brummel, and his manner could be as pleasing as
his dress was elegant. He kept standing orders with Fifth
Avenue tailors and with the shirt- and hat-makers of Paris,
who would send him whatever they thought he ought to
have. Thus his fine figure always was attired in the height
of style.

He insisted on the best of everything. Regarding his

396 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

food be was fastidious to a degree. The choicest cuts must
be his. The table liueu must be immaculate, aud the waiters
must be ou the alert. Indeed, his demands upon the Sen-
ate cafe were such that the management was compelled to
station a scout at the door who would signal his approach.
Instantly a waiter was at his side, his service was immediate,
and his viands the best that human agency could place be-
fore him. A New York friend said that no one knew so
well how to order a dinner as did Wolcott, Toward waiters
he was at once merciless and generous. Once after he had
entertained a friend at a cafe he said to the man who had
served them : " Here 's fifty cents for you ; I 'd give you
more if you were a good waiter; — but you are not."

Mr. Wolcott loved to be a pioneer. He was original and
never would " trail in " on anything. Next to Senator
Chandler, he was the first public man to ride a bicycle in
Washington, and, when the fad was at its height, he was
a conspicuous figure on the streets of the city and of the
suburbs of the Capital. He rode the finest wheel that could
be found in the foreign or domestic market, and as he was
among the first to use, so was he the first to abandon, the
wheel. The Colorado Senator was also one of the first ever
seen riding in an automobile on the streets of Washington.
He was the observed of all observers as he dashed around
in his little electric runabout, and he was very fond of ask-
ing some colleague to ride home with him after adjourn-
ment. He would shoot down Capitol Hill, and, probably
because of clumsiness, would narrowly miss many a for-
midable obstruction. Without conceding his own awkward-
ness, he would laugh like a boy at the fears of his companion.
Few colleagues were known to ride twice in Mr. Wolcott's
electric if they could avoid so doing.

For street-cars he had an abhorrence. He would ride in
almost any kind of an individual vehicle rather than sit
in a traction car. He loved horses with long pedigrees, and
his private equipages were equal to the best. His business
sense showed itself, however, in his employment of an ex-
pert in his purchase of horseflesh.

He loathed the sight of worn and ragged money or even
of bills that had been crumpled. Nothing would suit him

CHARACTERISTICS 397

but crisp money fresh out of the Treasury, and woe be to
him who dared fold the bills. He did not like to have money
counted out to him.

On my first trip to the bank for him I returned with $10,000
[said one of his secretaries]. I started to count the bills, but
he shoved the bunch into his pocket. The next time I counted
the bills, amounting to $3000, outside the door with Old Man
Friday [a nickname for the Senator's messenger], who saw that
the count was O. K. Then I laid the package on the desk and
began counting, when Mr. Wolcott reached for it.

I said, " There may not be $3000 there ! "

" Well," he replied, " suppose there is n't? "

I responded, " You might pay out two hundred and think
you had paid out only one hundred or so, and then you would
not have the right amount ! "

Wolcott looked at me, and said, " You are afraid of money,
are n't you? "

I said, " I 'm afraid of other people's money, and think it
should be counted; it only takes a minute. I might have lost
some ! "

" Suppose you did," he replied ; " that is all there is to it,
is n't it? Counting it would not bring it back."

But just the same [added the confidential man], I always
counted the bills outside the door with some one, and then
handed them directly to Wolcott.

Mr. O. O. Stealey, in his Twenty Years hi the Press
Gallery, says of him :

" Senator Wolcott was an exceedingly popular man with
all classes. He had a charming personality, was very hand-
some, and always dressed in the best style. He was a lion
in Washington society, and was the observed of all observers
at the notable receptions."

Yet, with all his elegance, Senator Wolcott loved to recur
to the simple life of the early days, and no associations ever
were so dear to him as those of that period. He had seen
much of the world and he knew that it did not give peace
of mind. He never cared for mere display. He liked the
best because it was the best; he did not look down upon
others who did not possess all in the way of comfort or
luxury that he enjoyed.

398 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

USE OF PRIVATE SECRETARY

Mr. Wolcott was more than thirty years of age before
he enjoyed the luxury of an amanuensis. He was not in
position to employ one until after he removed from George-
town to Denver, and while he dictated with freedom, even
after the change he generally conducted his private corre-
spondence in his own penmanship. Of all the many family
letters from him, covering a period of more than forty
years, which have come into the hands of the author, only
one was written by another person, and help was employed
in that instance only because of accident. Even when busily
engaged with his Senatorial duties or in the work of the
Bimetallic Commission, he used his own hand in family
correspondence, and he wrote many long letters even during
those intensely occupied periods of his life. Most of his
personal letters to friends also were written by himself. If
compelled by any circumstance to call in help, he apologized
for doing so.

An account of his first employment of a clerk has been
left by Mr. Wolcott. It took place soon after the establish-
ment of his office in Denver, and his father was duly notified,
as it was considered an important transaction. Afterward
as business increased, the clerical force of his law-office grew
rapidly, lawyers as well as stenographers, typewriters, and
other assistants being given places.

While in the Senate, he was supplied by the Government
with a private secretary and with such other clerical assist-
ance as was needed in his labors for the public, and the
Washington force was entirely distinct from the Denver staff.
With his Senatorial secretaries Mr. Wolcott had trouble.
His duties were many, and he was inclined to lean heavily
upon his assistant for details. The work of the secretary
often was greater than any one man should have been ex-
pected to perform. This was the fault of the Government,
but the consequences were suffered by the Senator and his
assistant. While he occupied the office he made many
changes, and he created the impression of being over exact-
ing and irritable. Possibly this was true at times, but Mr.
Wolcott's whims were not the only cause of the secretaries'

CHARACTERISTICS 399

troubles. He thought with the rapidity of a lightning flash,
and it must be an expert man who could anticipate his
wants or even keep pace with them. Often the appearance
of unreasonableness was due to the wide difference in view-
point. Much of his brusqueness was traceable to his ab-
sorption by the subject in hand.

When these conditions led to a severance of relations
the separation generally resulted in no disturbance of per-
sonal regard on either side. Knowing his own exacting
disposition, Mr. Wolcott did not condemn as useless the man
who could not maintain his pace or appreciate his abrupt-
ness. Most of the Senatorial secretaries were exceptionally
competent men, and it is only just to say that as a rule
the change of relationship was due to no fault except that
of not being able to meet all the exacting requirements of
their employer. It also should be stated that none of them
left Mr. Wolcott's employ without profound respect for his
ability. Many of the most appreciative expressions con-
cerning him have come to the writer from men who formerly
served him as private secretary.

The Senatorial secretary was Mr. Wolcott's confidential
man in all things. He trusted him implicitly, and he ex-
pected much of him in many directions. Not only was he
required to give attention to political and official affairs,
but to domestic and social details as well. To him the Sen-
ator entrusted much of his private business. The secretary
signed many of his employer's checks, and to one of them
he gave carte blanche in the matter of the purchase and
sale of stocks.

In Washington the private secretary attended to the
great bulk of the Senator's routine work for his constituents,
while the latter contented himself with general information
as to what was done without acquainting himself with the
minute proceedings. He was, however, always sufficiently
informed regarding any given matter to deal with it intel-
ligently, and he had a way of asking questions at a critical
time which would have been very embarrassing to a sub-
ordinate who was neglecting his work.

The secretary called at the Senator's house in Washington
each morning, including Sundays. There he received and

400 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

went over the mail, and had the programme laid out for
the day. The mail was very large. The Senator had the
distribution of patronage, and it involved an immense
amount of correspondence. He was Chairman of the im-
portant Committee on Post-offices and Post-roads, and took
an active interest in every detail concerning its work, in
Which the secretary necessarily was his right-hand man.
He aimed to meet every business caller, especially constitu-
ents, and to give consideration to each request. When
away from Washington, he was advised by wire daily of
the proceedings in the Senate and of any other important
political or official matter arising. In brief, he was espe-
cially scrupulous in his duties, and insisted that all features
of any given matter should have all the care that the cir-
cumstances demanded. He pursued that course with the
work reserved for himself, and he expected his assistants to
be just as punctilious as he was. He did not permit any
one, constituent or other, to impose upon him or monopolize
his time simply because he was a public official.

He would not allow people to bore him, and he would
not abandon important duties to meet mere tuft-hunters,
or to greet even constituents, who wanted to see him without
reference to business. By this course he occasionally gave
offence, but as a rule the indignation did not continue long
at a time; it would disappear with the Senator's next tri-
umph in the Senate or with his next act of generosity, the
object of which was as liable as not to be the offended
one. On one occasion, when he had been especially beset
by idle visitors, he gave one of his clerks a formula to fol-
low : " If," he said, " a visitor merely calls to shake hands,
you shake with him, and then sometime I will shake with
you ; that ought to satisfy any one on such an errand ! "

Of all the men employed as clerks either in Denver or
Washington, C. A. Chisholm, of the Denver office, was the
only one who held a position with Mr. Wolcott for a long
term of years. Beginning in 1884, soon after the young
lawyer had risen to the dignity of employing assistance,
Mr. Chisholm soon rose to be the head of the clerical force
of the office, and he continued to occupy a responsible
relationship toward Mr. Wolcott so long as the latter lived.

CHARACTERISTICS 401

He remained in Denver during Senator Wolcott's stay in
Washington, giving his attention largely to affairs outside
the National Capital except in an emergency.

Mr. Wolcott's course in engaging Mr. Chisholm was
characteristic of him. A Scotchman by birth, Chisholm had
just arrived in Denver, when, unintroduced and unan-
nounced, he called at Wolcott's office to seek employment.
He at first was told that there was nothing for him to do,
and was about to retire when Mr. Wolcott called him back.

" Do you write a good hand? " asked the lawyer. It was
in the days when typewriters were scarce, and the hand-
writing of clerks was more important than latterly.

Picking up a piece of paper, Mr. Chisholm wrote, repeat-
ing the question, " Do you write a good hand? " and passed
the paper over to the attorney.

Whether Wolcott was pleased with the handwriting or
impressed with the young man's originality, does not appear.
He merely said : " Come back to-morrow, and go to work."

Having obtained the place, Mr. Chisholm had the dis-
cretion not to become offended by the manner of his em-
ployer. Methodical, industrious, and intelligent, he soon
made himself invaluable. Mr. Wolcott became greatly at-
tached to him, and when he died the young Scotch clerk,
who had grown almost gray in the service of Mr. Wolcott
and his firm, was made the only beneficiary of his will out-
side the family. He trusted Chisholm implicitly, and he
once said, " Chisholm has handled millions for me, and I
never have insulted him by asking him for a bond."

There can be no better place than here to acknowledge
the present writer's indebtedness to Mr. Chisholm. But for
his methodical foresight in the preservation of material, his
affectionate regard for Mr. Wolcott's memory, and his in-
telligent attention to detail, the labor of compiling this
memoir would have been doubled. The assistance of others
of the former Senator's clerks also has been freely given
and is hereby gratefully acknowledged.

WRITING, READING, DICTATION

402 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

erally dictated, but as we have seen, most of Mr. Wolcott's
private correspondence was penned by himself. He wrote
with great rapidity, seldom finding it necessary to erase a
word or change an expression.

Mr. Wolcott was ambidextrous, and a stranger could not
easily determine whether any given piece of his manuscript
was from the right hand or the left. He used the two hands
indiscriminately in signing checks, and the banks accepted
those signed by one hand as readily as those signed by the
other. When a boy at school, he would write on the black-
board with both hands simultaneously to the astonishment,
not to say, the envy, of his fellow-pupils. After he grew to
manhood he wrote habitually with the left hand, but often
rested it by using the right. He thus was enabled to turn
off a large quantity of work at a sitting. When first elected
to the Senate he felt that he must make acknowledgment of
all letters of congratulation in his own handwriting, and he
wrote ninety notes of this sort in a single afternoon.

To those who were intimately connected with him while
he was in the Senate the use of the " off " hand was omi-
nous. When " the skies were clear " and " the weather
calm " he always wrote with his left hand ; but when there
was a storm on, when conditions were not agreeable, he
resorted to the use of the right hand, as they tell the story.

A private secretary puts it thus :

When Wolcott wrote with his right hand, something was
wrong, and it was a good time to have important business else-
where for a few hours at least. Whenever his confidential man
Friday, or his secretary, walked into the room and saw Wolcott
writing at a desk and using his right hand, a quick exit followed.
As one said, " What 's the use of hanging around near a piece
of dynamite?" I imagine [added the secretary] that there
are some of Senator Wolcott's right-hand notes still in ex-
istence among the politicians of Colorado, but I doubt whether
the receivers of them would be willing to put them at your
disposal.

He wrote " a good hand " — legible, clear, even, the let-
ters being small, square, and distinct. His writing was
entirely different from what would have been expected of

CHARACTERISTICS 403

one of such characteristics, and it was a serious puzzle to
those who professed to find in chirography an index to char-
acter. The Senator was persuaded once to send a sample
page to such an " expert." The result was ridiculous. The
character reader replied by letter that the Senator was
" even-tempered, deliberate, cool, slow to anger ; indeed,
phlegmatic " !

Mr. Wolcott read with astonishing rapidity, and con-
trary to the general experience of rapid readers, he took in
the meaning of the text as he proceeded. He always knew
" what it was about."

No man [said one of his private secretaries] could read a
book or a newspaper or a piece of manuscript as could Wolcott.
He could read more rapidly and more comprehensively than
any one I ever saw. The secret was that he read a page at
a time. Instead of reading only a word or two, as most peo-
ple do, or a line or two, as others do, he, like Macaulay, read
the page as a picture. I proved this one day. I had written a
very important letter to one of his political enemies and I
wanted Wolcott to say it was O. K. so that there might be
no flareback thereafter.

I gave him the letter and he handed it back again. I
said : " I wanted you to read it." He replied, " I have read it."
"Why, you did not have time enough to read the date line."
"I tell you I read the letter." "Well, just tell me what the
letter says." He did ; he had read it all right.

Another instance of Mr. Wolcott's capacity in this re-
spect is related by the same gentleman. He says that on
one occasion he accompanied the Senator to Denver. They
went straightway from the railroad station to the Senator's
law-offices. After Mr. Wolcott had greeted his partners and
some callers, he sent for a young attorney who was em-
ployed in the office, and asked him if he had prepared a
brief in a certain case which the office had in hand, and
which, before leaving for Washington some months before,
he had instructed him to get up. The young man went out,
and in a few minutes returned bearing a voluminous type-
written document, which he handed to Mr. Wolcott with
no little show of pride. He had worked on the brief for

404 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

months and apparently was quite satisfied with his ac-
complishment.

Standing in the middle of the room, Mr. Wolcott took
the document, laid it on a high table near him, turned over
one page after another almost as rapidly as he could do
so, glancing at each as it went, and within less than five
minutes' time turned upon the young man, saying, " You
have missed the one point which I told you must be covered ;
it will be necessary to do the work over, and quite as neces-
sary that it should be done by some one else."

" He had read that brief as carefully as another man
would have read it in two hours," said the secretary, " and
he knew more of its contents than the ordinary man would
have known if he had read it several times."

" Indeed," added the secretary, " I was so impressed with
his wonderful capacity in this respect that I once spoke to
him about it, asking him if he had been born that way.
He laughed the question off, and did not seem to think the
gift a peculiarly remarkable one."

It is related that on one occasion Wolcott went into the
office of a prominent official of the Denver and Rio Grande
Railroad Company and found that gentleman in apparent
embarrassment. " You are just the man I want to see," said
the railroad man ; " here is a case in which we must have
your judgment, and we want it as soon as we can get it.
Can't you take the papers to your hotel and give us your
opinion some time to-morrow? "

" Let me have them," said Wolcott. Retiring to a corner
he immediately began a rapid perusal of the record. He re-
turned in less than an hour with a brief written statement of
his views, advising a course of action, which being followed,
led to a successful solution of the problem.

When, after years of productive individual prosperity,
the Last Chance and Commodore mines at Creede came into
conflict and a great law-suit became imminent, Mr. Wol-
cott was consulted. He and his friends were heavily inter-
ested in the Last Chance, and his legal services were called
into exercise in behalf of the mine. He had not participated
in the preparation of the case, but when the papers were in
readiness he looked them over with care, though rapidly.

CHARACTERISTICS 405

The survey completed, he pronounced a verdict without a
moment of hesitation.

" Compromise it," he said, and a mutual agreement was
reached outside the courts.

Possibly a long law-suit might have brought success, but
Mr. Wolcott's friends thought enough of his judgment to
accept it.

QUICKNESS OF SPEECH

It is quite impossible to repeat all the " good things "
spoken by Mr. Wolcott during the twelve years he occupied
a seat in the Senate and during his twenty-five years of
political speaking in Colorado. He had a nimble wit, and
he liked to use it.

Whether on his feet making a speech or sitting with
friends at the Club or by his own fireside, Mr. Wolcott never
hesitated for apt expression. He delighted in repartee, and
his utterances were not commonplace. Often they were cut-
ting and severe, but a study of the man's character will
convince one that in many instances they were so only in ap-
pearance and not because of a cruel disposition. He liked
to tantalize, and his best friends often were the subjects of
his sharpest thrusts. He enjoyed the intellectual exercise
found in an exchange of witticisms, and was as willing to
" take " as he was to " give." If, however, the occasion
called for severity he was capable of manifesting that trait,
and when so disposed he could be most sarcastic and ex-
asperating— all the more so because of his ability to express
his thoughts in terse and telling sentences. Whether talk-
ing to or about people, he characterized them in the aptest
language, and would say in a few words what others
would amplify into columns. He never entered a company
that he did not add to its brilliancy, and his friends agree
that quick and apt wit was one of the strongest character-
istics of his conversation. They also say that while others
were generally the subject of his reflections, he did not spare
himself, if greater point could be given a remark by making
himself the butt of it. " I have often wished," says his
friend Voorhies, " that a ' shorthand ' could have been pres-

406 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

ent to take his sayings as repeated by his coterie since
his death. All of them recall much in that way, but none
can remember all. To my mind only another Boswell could
do justice to his memory in this respect."

In the Senate Mr. Wolcott's speeches were given the clos-
est attention, and the galleries were crowded whenever it
became known that he was to take the floor. It was notori-
ous that he was opposed to every form of graft as he was
to every sort of sham, and he was in the habit of saying so
to the edification of the public. As Chairman of the Committee
on Post-offices and Post-roads, he was one of the first to
give warning of the Post-office Department scandals, which
afterward attracted the attention and the interest of the
country. Almost every speech, whether political or other-
wise, contained some witticism that would be worthy of note.

Probably the most famous of Mr. Wolcott's bon-mots
in the Senate was that delivered at the expense of a Western
colleague whose State had just been admitted and who was
comparatively new to the Senate. It had been supposed by
the Western Senators that, when this gentleman should take
his seat, he would assist them in their fight for free-silver
coinage. But he did not, and Wolcott regarded his course
unfavorably. The retort came toward the end of a day of
sharp controversy over the money question. Senator Wol-
cott made a sarcastic attack upon the other Senator for
being a gold man when, as he contended, the new Senator's
section of the country was for free silver, and in his reply
his antagonist was foolish enough to resort to the cheap
method of ridiculing Mr. Wolcott's habit of wearing good
clothes. Wolcott's reply was brief but crushing. Declar-
ing that the gentleman came from that part of the country
where it seemed to be an offence for a man to wear a clean
shirt, he began as if about to make a long and detailed
attack upon him. Apparently thinking better of it, he threw
up his hands, and, as if the subject were worth nothing
more, exclaimed:

" But, Mr. President, in dealing with this subject I am
reminded of the old Spanish proverb : 'It's a waste of
lather to shave an ass.' "

The Senate was thrilled by the boldness and brevity of

CHARACTERISTICS 407

the response, and the subject of it did not rally from its
effect for many years.

As characteristic an expression as ever was uttered by
Senator Wolcott was voiced by him on January 28, 1896,
in response to an address on the Monroe Doctrine by Sen-
ator John M. Thurston, of Nebraska. The speech was made
soon after Mr. Wolcott's remarks on the same subject and,
in a measure, was in reply to the Colorado Senator. Mr.
Wolcott had taken advanced ground of friendship toward
Great Britain, and the Nebraska Senator was just as pro-
nounced in his assertion of ultra-Americanism. He de-
clared that the English press already had seized upon the
utterances of the Colorado Senator as an indication that the
people of this country were ready to abandon their posi-
tion of responsibility toward the South American Republics.
Asserting that both the British newspapers and the Colorado
Senator were mistaken in their view of conditions, he an-
nounced in florid language his determination to support a
resolution that had been brought in, declaring adherence by
the United States to the Monroe Doctrine:

I shall [he exclaimed, with much fervor] vote for the reso-
lution in this time of profound tranquillity, convinced that peace
with honor can be preserved. I would vote for it if we were
already standing in the awful shadow of declared war. I would
vote for it were all the navies of Europe thundering at our
harbors. I would vote for it were the shells of British battle-
ships bursting above the dome of the United States Capitol. I
would vote for it and maintain it at all hazards and at any
cost, with the last dollar, with the last man; yea, though it
might presage the coming of a mighty conflict whose conclusion
would leave me without a son as the last great conflict left
me without a sire!

Mr. Wolcott had remained near his Nebraska associate
during the delivery of his speech, but, instead of making any
general or generally audible response, he simply turned to
the Senator sitting next to him and asked, " Did you ob-
serve that Thurston skipped a generation in his patriotism? "

Discussing the silver question in a speech made in the
Senate on October 9, 1893, Mr. Wolcott said :

408 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

" Senators have differed widely as to the causes of the
existing monetary troubles, and as to the remedy that will
cure them, but on one point there is a perfect accord. We
are all friends of silver; the only distinction seems to be
that some of us are bimetallists and the rest of the chamber
are ' by-and-by ' metallists."

That he was quite as apt in his political and after-dinner
speeches as in his addresses in the Senate, reference to those
speeches will show. Take, for instance, a thrust made at
an opponent at a political meeting at Pueblo. This occurred
in the days of Populism, and Mr. Wolcott had been preceded
there some days before by one of the most popular and most
effective of the orators of the Populist party — a man of small
stature, but an excellent speaker. During the course of a
long speech in discussion of the issues of the day, he at-
tacked Mr. Wolcott violently as the arch enemy of Populism,
as in reality he was. " Now, my friends," he exclaimed,
after paying his respects to several smaller lights in the two
old parties, " now, we come to Mr. Wolcott. Some people
appear to be afraid of him. I am not, and to show you
that I am not, I am going to get into his hair."

Much more the gentleman said, but further quotation is
unnecessary for present purposes.

I have heard [said Mr. Wolcott, in meeting the attack of
his opponent] that Mr. Blank has told you that he means to
" get into my hair." I would not have you think for a moment
that I underrate the seriousness of the threat. I fully ap-
preciate it, and to reassure you on that point I will impart to
you the information that immediately upon learning of his in-
tentions, I proceeded to arm myself with a fine-tooth comb.

He made no further reply to Mr. Blank.

Hon. Charles Page Bryan supplies an incident illustra-
tive of Mr. Wolcott's effective use of sarcasm in his speeches.
The speech in question was made in 1879, when Wolcott was
just beginning his career, and had for its purpose the pre-
vention of the defacement of the magnificent scenery of the
Rocky Mountains by advertisements. Mr. Bryan tells the
story thus :

CHARACTERISTICS 409

Georgetown was long the largest silver-producing camp in
America. It is reached by the Colorado Southern, then the
Colorado Central Railway, which winds through the stupendous
canon of Clear Creek in Colorado. This was the first road that
gave the tourist the opportunity to view the marvels of a Rocky
Mountain gorge from a comfortable seat on a train. In the
earlier days that sublime scenery was marred by huge patent-
medicine advertisements daubed on the rocks, and by other nat-
ural sign-boards. Mr. Wolcott fathered a bill in the State
Senate to prohibit, under heavy penalties, this abomination. He
put forth his best efforts in a speech advocating the measure.
In the peroration he delighted his audience with flights loftier
than the snow-capped peaks, which he described in language
as brilliant as the Alpine glow — a glow, by the way, rarely
seen in the Rocky Mountains.

The torrent of Clear Creek rushing in sparkling beauty
through the sombre chasm which it had forged in the long
aeons ; the " everlasting hills," with their fringe of pines silvered
in the morning sun against an azure sky ; the Golconda treasure-
vaults beneath, honeycombed with veins of precious metals, and
the slopes gilded like an Oriental dream ; the hunter in buckskin
scouring the forest primeval for the elk-monarch; the disciple
of dear Sir Isaac alone amid the solemn grandeur of a storm
in the Rocky Mountains; all these familiar visions the orator
pictured with a splendor of treatment worthy of Dore, who has
in various works illustrated Colorado scenery with a naturalness
marvellous in its chance resemblance.

Mr. Wolcott concluded, in substance, thus : " Mr. President,
the climax is worthy of the approach. In charming contrast to
the awful sublimity of the canon is a lovely valley in which
nestles the pretty town of Georgetown, yclept the ' Silver Queen,'
which is environed by natural battlements of granite towering
heaven-high. Thereon, amid all-surrounding grandeur, you read,
emblazoned in letters that can be deciphered miles away : ' Have
you got worms ? ' "

Writing of Mr. Wolcott soon after his first election to
the Senate, Mr. Bryan related an incident which will serve
to show how readily Wolcott could turn even an awkward
mishap to himself to the discomfiture of his opponents.

His speeches [says Mr. Bryan] are always apt and to the
point. Whether in mass-meeting, at banquets, before juries, in

410 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

conventions or legislatures, he is ready and forcible, with fresh-
ness of matter and individuality of manner calculated to arouse
enthusiasm. In 1880, the struggle in Colorado between the
Grant men and the anti-third-termers was intense. The former
prevailed, and in the convention outnumbered their opponents
three to one. Wolcott was conspicuous in the minority, which
made a fine fight for recognition. When Blaine's name was
first spoken a great shout went up from his followers, and
through his vehemence Wolcott's chair gave way under his
stalwart frame. Of course, the Grant enthusiasts laughed; but
Wolcott, unabashed, stamped on the remains of his seat, and,
kicking them aside, exclaimed: 'So, gentlemen, will we crush
your machine ! ' "

A fellow-speaker at a public meeting during the adminis-
tration of President Cleveland had indulged in criticism of
the acts of some of the Democratic office-holders. Referring
to the criticism, Wolcott asked, " What can you expect but
a muddy stream when you have a muddy spring? "

He was the subject of much bitter attack by the news-
papers in connection with the campaign of 1896. Alluding
to this circumstance in his speech in the Denver Auditorium
of that year, Mr. Wolcott said he hesitated to attempt a
reply. " It is," he said, " like throwing mud at a man who
drives a garbage-cart every day and has it full all the time."

Speaking in the same speech of Hon. W. J. Bryan, of
Nebraska, who that year was the candidate of the Democracy
for President, Mr. Wolcott contrasted him with Buffalo
Bill (W. F. Cody), also a Nebraskan, and then proprietor
of the Wild West Circus. " Nebraska has produced two
great men, and both of them are named Bill," he said.
" There is, however, this marked difference between them :
' Buffalo Bill ' has ' a show,' and Bill Bryan has n't any
' show.' "

In his introduction to the " Anecdotes " volume of
Modern Eloquence, Champ Clark, the Democratic Congress-
man from Missouri, who in 1909 succeeded John Sharp
Williams as the minority leader of the national House of
Representatives, supplies the following as illustrative of Mr.
Wolcott's capacity for extricating himself from an awkward
dilemma by the use of his wits:

CHARACTERISTICS 411

During his twelve years of Senatorial service the Coloradoan
has won for himself the honor of being about the most eloquent
Republican in the Senate. In addition to his oratorical talent,
he is wonderfully clever at campaign repartee. This gift was
well demonstrated before he became nationally known, when he
was sent to a Southern State to advocate Republicanism. At
a certain place he was politely informed that the " rally " would
begin and end about the same time, and that not since 1883 had
any Republican been permitted to finish a speech there. Wol-
cott was determined, however, and upon learning that the citi-
zens, as a rule, were kind enough to permit the speakers to get
out of town and fill their next appointment, he concluded to
make his speech as billed. The chairman was instructed to dis-
pense with the music and introduce him to the audience in as
few words as possible. The advice was followed a little too
literally. He simply pointed at the audience and then at the
speaker, and disappeared behind the scenes.

Wolcott began his speech with one of his best stories. The
audience was separated, the colored folk all being in the gallery,
and only white people below. In about five minutes Wolcott's
discretion was overcome by his Republicanism, and he made a
pointed thrust at the opponent party, whereupon a body of young
men in the centre of the theatre shouted in concert, " Rats ! "
Wolcott paused for a moment, and then, waving his hand at
the gallery, said, " Waiter, come down and take the Chinamen's
orders ! " The effect was electrical and effectual. In laughingly
referring to the incident afterward, the Senator said : " You
should have seen that dusky hillside of faces in the gallery
break into ledges of pearl ! "

As a specimen of his capacity for presenting an ugly fact
in a delicate way and at the same time making a joke of it,
the following from his first New England Society dinner
speech is worth presenting. He was speaking of the assimi-
lation by Colorado of its Mexican population and said :

Where we have a chance to work without precedent [he said],
we can point with pride of a certain sort to methods at least
peaceful. When Mexico was conquered, we found ourselves with
many thousand Mexicans on hand. I don't know how they man-
aged it elsewhere, but in Colorado we not only took them by
the hand and taught them our ways, but both political parties
inaugurated a beautiful and generous custom, since more honored

412 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

in the breach than in the observance, which gave these van-
quished people an insight into and an interest in the workings
of republican institutions which was marvellous: a custom of
presenting to each head of a household, being a voter, on elec-
tion day, from one to five dollars in our native silver.

Out of Mr. Wolcott's brief experience as a stereopticon
lecturer while engaged in his law studies at Boston, have
come many anecdotes. His cousin, A. P. Carroll, was pres-
ent at one of his Providence lectures, and Ed appears to
have added somewhat to his discourse on this occasion for
the benefit of his kinsman. Relating the incident, Mr.
Carroll says:

I accompanied him to the large hall which was packed to
its capacity and was seated on the platform close by his side,
where he could interlude the drollest side remarks and where
I was not seen by the audience. He held the audience
spellbound from start to finish, almost threw me into con-
vulsions of merriment, and drove the managers frantic over the
wild statements made, but which were as captivating to his
hearers as they were wide of accuracy. It was such a pro-
nounced success that he received double the pay originally
promised and the local papers gave most flattering notices of
his lecture.

The views pictured the Arctic regions, and Ed described
them in vivid language, manifesting as great familiarity with
the land of snow and ice as he could have possessed if he
had beaten Peary to the Pole. One of the stories of this
lecture relates that while Ed was descanting upon a glacier,
some one in the audience asked : " How fast does it move? "
Ed did not know, but an answer must be given, and he
quickly replied, " A mile a minute."

" Why, Ed," whispered the man behind the curtain, " it
only moves an inch in ten years."

But Wolcott was equal to the occasion, and pretending
not to have understood the question, he asked to have it
repeated.

" Oh," replied the lecturer, " that glacier only moves an
inch in ten years. I thought the gentleman wTas asking about
the velocity of the winds in that section. The winds blow

CHARACTERISTICS 413

around the glacier at the enormous velocity of a mile a
minute. Hereafter I wish those asking questions would
speak so plainly and distinctly that I can readily hear
them."

Quoting Mr. Carroll further :

The next morning, flush with his unexpected earnings, Ed
hired a pair of horses for a drive about the city, and included
a visit to his old home where his family had lived while his
father presided over a church in Providence. It was not the house
itself that appealed to him, but he drove into the alley at the
rear of the yard and asked me to hold the reins, while he jumped
out and climbed over the tall fence, just as he had done when
a mere lad. It seemed to give him more enjoyment than all
the rest of the drive.

Governor Thomas relates the following:

On an occasion, a somewhat prolix attorney, whom I will
call Smith, was droning through an interminable argument upon
a demurrer, with Wolcott as his opponent. The latter was im-
patient at his detention and paced the room with nervous strides.
Smith finally referred to a case decided in the forties in Massa-
chusetts, remarking that the successful attorneys were Webster
and Smith.

" Was that you, Mr. Smith ? " asked Mr. Wolcott.

" No," replied Smith, " you know very well it was n't."

"Oh! I beg your pardon," said Wolcott. " I ought to have
known it was a son of yours."

The effect of this sally upon the Court naturally abbreviated
the argument, and as Wolcott made none he was soon relieved
of his detention.

When at a time that there was a sharp controversy on in
the Senate between a Republican Senator and a Democratic
colleague, a discussion arose in the Republican cloak-room
as to the relative personal qualities of the men. Neither of
them was especially popular, and the Senators found much
amusement in the speculation as to which of the two men
was preferable. Some gave one reason and some another for
a choice, none apparently satisfactory, until Wolcott was

414 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

heard from. " I like the Democrat best," said the Colorado
Senator; "he sits farther away from me."

After the caucus had voted almost unanimously for his
election of the United States Senate the first time, Ed went
to the Denver Club, where the chosen of his friends were
waiting to celebrate. In all that crowd, and the rooms were
packed, only one faintly discordant voice was heard and
that only so in comparison. George W. Cook, then a rail-
road man, since a Congressman, admired Henry Wolcott
more than he did Ed, which comparison was always objected
to by both brothers. Cook spoke so many times that even-
ing to Ed of his preference for the brother that finally
Ed took George by the hand and shook it cordially, saying:
" George, that shows your good feeling toward my brother,
and I am glad. Now, if you had a brother, I should feel
the same way toward him."

At another time in a small group, a man's name and
business methods were mentioned in a way to provoke Ed
to a terrific review of both, a review which before a jury
would have meant a heavy sentence.

Henry finally remonstrated, asking : " What 's the use? "
and added, " You nor any one else can collect what he
owes."

Ed replied : " Henry, have I put it too strong? "

Henry responded : " Not at all, but what good does it
do?"

To this Ed at once retorted : " By false pretences and
a confidence game he got money from me; now, when I ex-
press my full and unreserved opinion, I credit him on ac-
count, and if I can only think of him a few times more and
say a few more things of him, I will wipe out the score."

When Ed purchased his country place, Wolhurst, he was
urged to buy more land across the road, for protection at
an excessive price. When he refused, he was threatened with
the establishment of a " road-house " on the land, with all
the objectionable features of such a place. This threat
aroused all his ire, and he said to the man who " held the
option," a well-known real-estate dealer : " Let me tell you
for once and all, I will not buy that tract of land even if
you should build a house and live there."

CHARACTERISTICS 415

Governor Shafroth, of Colorado, was at one time pitted
against Mr. Wolcott in the trial of a suit against the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy Railroad for damages. The complain-
ant was an accomplished and handsome widow, and she was
asking for reparation for the death of her husband on the
road. Mr. Wolcott represented the company, and when the
lady entered and took her seat, he leaned over to Mr. Shaf-
roth, and said, " John, I would give five hundred dollars
if she wasn't so darned good-looking." The result of the
trial showed that he had not miscalculated the effect of
the lady's personal appearance upon the jury, for the award
in her interest was exceptionally large.

Naturally, Senator Wolcott was not in a very amiable
frame of mind after his defeat for the Senate in 1903. He
felt especially badly over the fact that some of his former
friends had joined in a conspiracy against him. For many
of them he had done innumerable favors, and the suggestion
of ingratitude was very strong. A few of his remarks show-
ing his frame of mind have been handed down. Some one
came to him with a statement that Mr. So-and-so was abusing
him roundly.

" Abusing me? " asked Wolcott. " I cannot imagine why
he should be abusing me; I do not recall that I ever did him
a favor."

Soon after the Senatorial election he was driving from
Denver to Wolhurst with Judge Carlton M. Bliss. It was
a magnificent winter-day. The snow sparkled upon the trees
and the country stretched out in a beautiful glistening
blanket to the mountains, which were only a few miles away.
Mr. Bliss was struck with the scenery and he said :

" Senator, is n't this a beautiful day? Are n't the moun-
tains a wonderful sight to see? " Then, warming to his
theme, he added: "Who can comprehend their wealth-
producing possibilities? Who can estimate the innumerable
prospects yet to be opened up and developed into mines? "

" Yes," responded Mr. Wolcott, adapting Bishop Heber's
lines, " This is a country ' where every prospect pleases, and
only man is vile.' " ^

After Senator Wolcott had made his Venezuelan speech,
a Western colleague, who was unfriendly in his attitude

416 EDWAED OLIVER WOLCOTT

toward the Colorado Senator, approached him, and instead of
congratulating him as many other Senators had done, said to
him, " Well, Wolcott, you have ruined your reputation."
The response was sharp and quick. He said : " That is more
than you could possibly have done, seeing that you have
no reputation to ruin."

Mr. Wolcott's capacity for caustic and ready speech wTas
never displayed more markedly than in connection with an
interview with President Harrison over an appointment to
a Federal office in Colorado. He did not like the President,
and the insistence of the Executive in making appointments
in Mr. Wolcott's State without giving due heed to the latter's
representations was the cause of still greater variance be-
tween the two. On the occasion in question the Senator
called to make protest over a nomination contemplated by
the President. Finding the latter obdurate, Mr. Wolcott
insisted upon knowing his reason for the selection. The reply
was nettling. The President said : " It should be sufficient
reason that the gentleman is my friend." " Oh, well," re-
sponded the Senator, " if you have a friend in Colorado
appoint him by all means." The retort gained publicity,
but was attributed to John J. Ingalls, who also was at
loggerheads with the President. It would have done credit
to the talented Kansan; but, having heard Mr. Wolcott
relate the incident immediately after his return from the
White House visit, the narrator feels that he takes no risk

The New York Herald of January 26, 1891, supplies the
following :

There was a little interchange of words between Senator
Wolcott of Colorado and Senator Sanders of Montana in the
Senate on Friday, the true inwardness of which escaped most
people. When the Montana Senatorial contest was up in the
Senate last session, Senators Wolcott and Plumb refused to vote
to seat the Republicans, Sanders and Power. The latter natu-
rally have not felt over-kindly disposed toward Wolcott and
Plumb. On Friday Senator Sanders thought he saw a chance
to get in a quiet whack at Wolcott. Senator Gray in the course
of a speech asked if ex-Senator N. P. Hill of Colorado, who

CHARACTERISTICS 417

was recently nominated by the President as a member of the
International Monetary Conference, did not own a newspaper
which opposed the Force Bill. Senator Wolcott said he did,
and that he would be confirmed in the office for which the
President had nominated him.

Now there is a bitter personal feeling between Senator Wol-
cott and ex-Senator Hill, and Senator Sanders, knowing this,
thought this was his chance to rub it in a little on Wolcott.
So Sanders asked if Hill was a good man for the place for
which he had been nominated. Senator Wolcott looked calmly
at Sanders for a moment and then answered : " I desire to
say that he [Hill] has been a member of this body, and that
he did not get his seat after a contest, either." Senator San-
ders turned very red at this pointed reply and did not pursue
the subject further.

In this connection it can but add interest to the incident
to relate that Mr. Sanders had been the leader of the Helena
Vigilantes who in the " sixties " had hanged and driven out
of that city several scores of " bad " men.

Although a showy man and much in the limelight, and
notwithstanding he possessed a sharp tongue, Senator Wol-
cott was at heart modest and of an extremely kindly nature.
He did not knowingly " fool " people, and it was a difficult
thing for any one to " fool " him. He understood his own
limitations and always knew whether he was getting all that
was coming to him. Illustrative of this characteristic the
following is related :

A Washington newspaper friend once asked him for some
information about the proceedings of the Finance Committee.
The Senator replied that he had no knowledge whatever on
the subject; that he was as ignorant as anybody else of what
the Committee was doing.

"But aren't you a member of it?" the Senator was
asked.

" Yes, I am a member of it," he said, with a characteristic
shrug of the shoulders, " but I don't run it. You don't sup-
pose that those who do let me know what they are doing,
do you? "

In this remark he did himself an injustice, for no one
knew better what was going on. He did not want to tell.

418 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

This same newspaper man was once consulting with the
Senator about the advisability of asking some public men
of their mutual acquaintance to take an interest in a pri-
vate business matter of importance to him, and said :

" Of course, Senator, I don't want to ask to have this
thing done simply on the strength of my newspaper
connections? "

" Why, you young blockhead," said the Senator, in his
honest and impetuous way, " you don't think for a minute
they would do anything for you if you were not on a news-
paper, do you? "

Another newspaper correspondent who was on intimate
terms with Mr. Wolcott received a telegram from his paper
one night telling him that the Senator was in possession
of the facts in an important matter, and asked for a com-
plete story. The correspondent called at the Senator's house,
but he was not there and nobody knew where he was. He
hunted the town high and low but without result.

The next day a rival paper had the whole story. The
correspondent also discovered that day that the Senator was
stopping at the Arlington Hotel. He sent up his card, was
invited in, and there in a room big enough for a whole
family sat the Senator all alone. A number of books, com-
prising the latest novels, were strewn about, and cigar ashes
and empty cigarette-boxes indicated that he had been having
a hard time to entertain himself. The correspondent began
to tell the Senator how disappointed he had been at not
being able to find him the day before, when Mr. Wolcott
blurted out :

" Oh, of course you are just like everybody else. When
there is nothing to do you are always around, but here I
have been sitting for forty-eight hours crazy to give some-
body a good newspaper scoop. You never know anything
about it until some fellow over in New York tells you."

The Senator really looked disappointed.

That he did not worry over disaster which might have
befallen, but which didn't, is illustrated by the following:

He had taken a position on a matter before the Senate,
and while he had come out all right the result had seemed
doubtful for a time.

CHARACTERISTICS 419

" You skated on mighty thin ice," said a friend who was
inclined to remonstrate with him.

" Well, I did n't break through," responded the Senator
nonchalantly, and apparently dismissed the subject,

Once a lady residing at Colorado Springs wrote her
sister in Denver asking her to forward a corset to her and
at the same time requesting her to have Mr. Wolcott send
her a pass over the Denver and Rio Grande, which as the
general solicitor of the road he of course could do. The
Denver sister forwarded the entire letter to Mr. Wolcott
and in due time received this reply :

" I take pleasure in enclosing pass for your sister, but
regret to say that, owing to the fact that I have forgotten
the number of her corset, I cannot supply her want in that
respect."

THE GENEROUS SIDE

concerning the generous side of Mr. Wolcott's nature. Many
instances of his broad charity and gentle kindness are
related. No one knew so much about the details of his deeds
of this character as his long-time secretary, Mr. Chisholm,
and he writes :

Of his great, tender heart, his broad charity, and instant,
unfailing sympathy, too much cannot be said. In the long years
of my association with him I cannot recall a case when a story
of misfortune, illness, or an empty cupboard, did not meet with
prompt and generous response. His weakness was known and
occasionally preyed upon. Of ingratitude he had some experi-
ence; but nothing soured or embittered, and the next appeal
found him as sympathetic and susceptible as ever: he could
not turn a deaf ear to misery or want. The very last com-
mission entrusted to me before he left Denver in November,
1904, was to pay off a mortgage on the home of an old friend.
" I want to do it," he said ; " it will bring such peace of mind
to one who was kind to me in the early days." And in another
direction his sympathy and desire to help found expression :
many a man in Colorado and elsewhere could speak of school
and college expenses paid; of advances made to start in busi-
ness, or of a helping hand extended at a critical time. In such

420 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

cases, however, he held that the advance should be regarded as
a loan, to be repaid at the borrower's convenience, not that he
gave grudgingly or coveted the return, but because he believed
that such aid given or accepted on any other conditions would
fail of its purpose and would undermine the recipient's self-
reliance and self-respect.

There was nothing of ostentation in his aid or charity; in-
deed he shrank from publicity, from even the thanks of bene-
ficiaries : cheerfully and freely he gave, content to feel that he
had helped to comfort or relieve.

I speak as one, perhaps the only one, who knows, and it
can be truly said of him that his left hand knew not what his
right hand did — his profit-and-loss account alone bearing silent
testimony year after year to his tenderness and charity.

When he was just beginning to get on his feet financially
at Georgetown, Wolcott confided to a member of his family
his horror of the spirit of avarice which came over some men
as they acquired money, and he expressed the hope that he
should never develop such a propensity. His subsequent ten-
dency was so strongly in the opposite direction that it seems
almost as though he adopted as a deliberate philosophy of
life the theory that the way to prosper was to spend. Be
that as it may, he seemed never to attach any value to money
as such. He not only spent his money lavishly, but gave it
away freely — if not always wisely.

He found great pleasure in his acts of generosity, and
while generally he shrank from any reference to them, occa-
sionally he would speak of his course to friends, but only
to defend it against their remonstrances. " It makes me
feel good to help a poor devil," he would say. " If I did
only one good deed in the course of a year, I would feel
the better for it, and the more I do the better I feel. Re-
ward? Return? The reward is in the doing." Frequently
at the end of a day there would be a brief period of moral-
izing, and he would say : " Well, I 've got through the day
without consciously doing harm to any one, while I know
I have done some good."

A minute afterward he might deny some applicant's re-
quest for a political office or engage in a game of cards with
fellow Senators in which he would exert himself to the ut-

CHARACTERISTICS 421

most to win. But that was a different kind of a game— not
the " giving » game.

In more than one of his early letters from Georgetown,
Mr. Wolcott spoke of the great kindness done him by the
Central City banker, Mr. T. H. Potter, who had assisted
him in locating in Georgetown in the practice of law, and
he evidenced the most sincere gratitude to that gentleman
for his aid. That Mr. Potter did not think so much of what
he had done and that he did appreciate Mr. Wolcott's ten-
dencies m the same direction, the following from him, under
date of June 7, 1909, shows :

" My help to him at that time was of small consequence.
In a very short time he was on his own resources and al-
ways thereafter was eminently capable of taking care of
himself and helping many impecunious friends. & His fun
and jollity cheered up many a poor tramp, who afterward
borrowed from him."

Governor Thomas relates this instance of public spirit
which illustrates the man's immensely magnanimous nature:

When in September, 1S99, the first regiment of Colorado
volunteers returned to San Francisco from the Philippines it
became my duty as Governor to meet and welcome them at the
Golden Gate. It was then proposed to pay their fare from
ban Francisco to Denver by public subscription, and I hastened
back to Denver to raise, if possible, the funds needed for that
purpose. Thirty thousand dollars was required. I at once saw
Senator Wolcott and obtained his endorsement of the plan. On
asking him for his subscription he said : - I will be one of thirty
to give a thousand dollars, or fifteen to give two thousand dol-
lars, or of six to give five thousand dollars, or of three to "ive
ten thousand dollars, and, if necessary, I will be one of two to
subscribe fifteen thousand dollars each." I implored him not
to let his suggestions be known, since they might result in
compelling him to pay half of the entire expense of the proposed
Plan. In this he acquiesced, but requested me to do the best
I could and let him know how much remained to be paid in
after my efforts were exhausted. I did this and received his
cneck, as I now remember, for three thousand dollars with the
assurance that if the estimated amount were insufficient, to draw
on him for the excess. At the same time he requested me to

422 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

say as little about the matter as possible. Such action was
characteristic of the Senator.

Wolcott's qualities as a generous political contributor
were the amazement of his political friends. In one cam-
paign a committee called on another public man soliciting
contributions and received a check for a considerable sum.
The committee started for Wolcott's office, commenting on
the prospect. They agreed that Mr. Wolcott probably would
be liberal, but they were not prepared for such a sum as
they were promised.

"How much do you want, gentlemen?" asked Wolcott,
when the committee called.

" Whatever you feel like giving," was the reply.

Wolcott took his check-book and wrote a check for $ 2500
without another word.

Mr. Nathan S. Hurd, an old-time Georgetown friend, also
bears testimony to Mr. Wolcott's prodigal generosity. Writ-
ing to the author, Mr. Hurd says:

He was big-hearted and kind, and would give his last dollar
to a friend in need, and then borrow from the next friend he
met the amount he had given. He never forgot an obligation,
and if you were his friend he would go any length to assist
you. There never was a man in Colorado who was such a friend
to me for six years as he was. He helped to keep me in the
Insurance Department of the State against the strongest adverse
influence. -

Hon. Thomas Cornish, another Georgetown friend, not
only testifies to Wolcott's delicate tenderness of heart, but
supplies instances of it. He says :

They talk of Wolcott becoming big-headed and exclusive after
he went to the Senate. They forget that he had simply broad-
ened out, that he had become a man among men; that which
had formerly satisfied him became utterly distasteful.

I talked to him about it once. " Ed," I said, " come back
and mix with the crowd. Walk up Sixteenth Street and shake
your friends by the hand. Go up to Georgetown and sit on a
box in Spooner's store, as you used to, and eat cheese and tell
jokes. You can get back all of this popularity if you will. The

CHARACTERISTICS 423

old fellows are still with you, and you will find all the young
ones behind them. Why, I was talking to So-and-So the other
day. You know the votes he controls. He said he would like
to be with you, but you were too uppish. What he wanted was
a man who would go across the street to shake hands with a
man, while you would saunter past him, never even turning
your head to nod."

" Oh, yes, I remember that fellow," answered Wolcott. " He
came to me two years ago and told how a chattel mortgage on
his furniture was to be foreclosed and that his sick wife and
children would be thrown into the street if he did not raise
$250. I gave it to him, and he promised to give it back in ten
days. He has not paid it yet, and I hate to talk to the fellow
much or see him any of tener than I can help ; I 'm afraid he
will think I want to dun him. I don't want the money. I was
only chary of his feelings."

That's the kind of a man Wolcott was. When the great
artist Herkimer died in New York a few years ago, Mr. Wolcott
happened to be there. He saw the artist's easel. It is probably
the finest in the world. And he promptly bought it and shipped
it to me. I have it now; and I value it more highly than anything
else I have.

Mr. Wolcott was always doing things like that; always try-
ing to help a friend or to make life easier for him. He would
go out of his way and to the greatest trouble to please a man
he liked.

Innumerable instances of his generosity to persons in
distress could be related. One of the first cases occurred
when he was studying law in Boston on an allowance of
$10 a week, when, if he had had the money, he easily could
have spent $10 a day on himself. Giving his father an ac-
count of his Christmas expenditures, he told him that he
had given fifty cents to a woman begging in the street.
He realized that because of his limited allowance he had
been over-generous, and, apologizing to his father, said : " I
knew you would have done it."

Once D. C. Bailey went to him with a request for help
for a man who had suffered adversity, and asked the Sen-
ator if he would give him twenty dollars. " Of course I
will," responded Mr. Wolcott ; " I 'd give any man twenty
dollars."

424 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

He had his " ups and downs " in politics. The friend
of yesterday was the enemy of to-day, but when such an
enemy fell into misfortune Mr. Wolcott forgot the condi-
tions of the present, and remembered only past favors. One
notable case is recalled, and the name of the beneficiary
might be given but for the possibility of wounding the sen-
sibilities of surviving relatives. The man had stood with
him at the beginning of his political career, but had been
alienated in later years, antagonizing rather than support-
ing him. In the early days he had been a man of affluence,
but latterly had lost his fortune. He was entirely bankrupt
when he became ill and died. Wolcott paid all the expenses
of his last illness and of his funeral, squared up his club
dues, amounting to $1100, and then gave the widow $1000.

Once a lawyer of opposite political faith, who had set-
tled in Denver after financial reverses in a Southern State,
went to him for help.

" I have got to have some money," he told his more
prosperous brother of the legal profession.

" How much do you need? " asked Wolcott.

" Four hundred dollars," was the response, with the
added explanation that the time of repayment was uncertain
and political support out of the question.

He got the money and died without repaying it. Mr.
Wolcott cancelled the note, and turned it over to the debtor's
executor with the especial request that the family of the man
whom he had assisted should not be told of the obligation.

On another occasion a poor man with a large family went
to Washington while Mr. Wolcott was Senator, in the hope
of finding employment. Without succeeding, he fell ill and
died. Wolcott scarcely knew him, but when the circum-
stances were explained he ordered that the burial expenses
be paid, and that the family be temporarily taken care of
and aided at his expense in getting to friends.

During the early years of his practice in Denver, Mr.
Wolcott became interested in a promising young man who
had become a cripple through disease. One day he met the
young fellow on the street and, after inquiring solicitously
about his condition, asked if there was any hope for the
restoration of normal conditions. He replied that he feared

CHARACTERISTICS 425

not. Mr. Wolcott thereupon expressed the opinion that aid
could be found in surgery. " I am sure some of those emi-
nent surgeons in New York could relieve the condition," he
said. " Take my advice and see them. Give them a thor-
ough trial. Do not hesitate on account of the lack of means;
it will afford me sincere pleasure to supply any deficiency
that may occur in that respect." The advice was followed,
and, notwithstanding there was no occasion to accept the
pecuniary aid, the gentleman to whom the proffer was made
spoke of the incident a quarter of a century afterward in
terms of tender gratitude.

His attention was once called to a fine landscape just
finished by a Colorado artist, who, like so many of his craft,
found it difficult to make both ends meet. Mr. Wolcott
handed |400, the price of the picture, to a friend who was
just fitting up some rooms, and said: " You go and buy the
picture as for yourself, and keep it in your room until I
find some way to dispose of it. If I go to buy it, he will
know that I do it solely for the purpose of helping him."
The young man did as requested, and reported, after a while,
that some one wanted the picture for what it had cost. He
was told to sell it and to order another one painted to
take its place. Mr. Wolcott finally gave the second picture
to another friend.

A stage driver of the early days frequently carried Mr.
Wolcott from Georgetown to Denver and back again. Wol-
cott took a fancy to the driver. Years after the stage line
had been supplanted by the Colorado Central Railroad, Mr.
Wolcott heard that his driver had lost a leg and was living
in a distant part of the State in destitute circumstances.
He made him a regular monthly allowance afterward as
long as he lived.

Another instance was his remembrance of a boyhood ac-
quaintance. While the Wolcott family were in Providence
and Ed was from five to twelve years old, Henry and Ed
spent several summers in Belchertown, on the farm of the
father of a boy who lived at home and helped with the
farming and always was " good " to them. So far as is
known Ed had no communication with him during the inter-
vening years, but while he was in the Senate he regularly

426 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

sent him many valuable publications, and once, when in
Longineadow, he took a two days' drive to Belcher town, and
after hunting up the old-time friend gave him $100.

When as a boy at Cleveland he had charge of the family
cow, he gave her a double allowance on Thanksgiving. The
exceptional feed made the animal sick, — but that is not a
part of the story.

The farm at Wolhurst was stocked with the best horses
and cattle. Some time after Mr. Wolcott located there,
Henry Brady, a political supporter and personal friend,
bought a farm near him. One day Wolcott took him through
the stables and barnyard. Among his horses was a fine
coach stallion. He insisted upon Brady's accepting the
animal as a present, and, when he declined, seemed to think
that his refusal was based upon the belief that the horse
was of little value. To remove this objection, he entered
upon a long explanation of the pedigree of the animal. Brady
still refusing, he then tried to compel him to accept a blooded
cow. " She is all right," he said over and again, " and you
might as well have her as not."

Some Congressmen sell their quota of government pub-
lications and seeds to the junk dealers instead of sending
them to their constituents, but Mr. Wolcott always was in
the market for these and constantly flooded Colorado with
them, every postmaster in the State sending him lists of
names. So much did he buy that he practically put the
dealers out of business. Some to whom the books and seeds
were sent replied, thanking him for them. One wrote a
letter criticising Wolcott and concluding with : " You don't
need to think that you can buy my vote with an agricul-
tural report three years old." Mr. Wolcott at once sent
him a couple of sacks of the choicest books, but no further
reply came from the disgruntled one.

While Mr. Wolcott was earnest in his political contro-
versies and always fought to win, he was not personally
vindictive toward his opponents. On one occasion when
there seemed especial reason to feel resentful toward an
elderly man who was opposing him, one of the Senator's
followers remarked, " Ah, well, he will not be in the way

CHARACTERISTICS 427

very long." Mr. Wolcott responded : " Possibly that is true,
but it never pays to count on death as an ally; it may
be inclined to favor the other fellow."

If he opposed a man for office he generally did so because
of other than mere personal reasons. His intimates recall
only one instance in which he was evidently actuated by
resentment. In this case the applicant for office was an
Ohio man, who asked for a consular appointment. He had
made what Mr. Wolcott considered an unprovoked attack
on him during the first McKinley campaign. He had poli-
ticians of Ohio and Colorado behind him, and his friends
thought this influence would insure him the position. But
Mr. Wolcott opposed him, and a Wolcott man received the
appointment.

We have seen how Mr. Wolcott and Professor Hill, at
first staunch friends, became estranged, and how, while Mr.
Hill still was well and strong, Mr. Wolcott belabored him,
and how when he became critically ill, all was forgotten.
Speaking of Mr. Hill before the State convention at Denver
in 1900, while the ex-Senator lay on his death-bed, Mr.
Wolcott said :

I desire to voice what I know will be the unanimous feel-
ing of this convention, when I express, on your behalf, our
deep and genuine sympathy with that distinguished ex-Senator
from Colorado, Nathaniel P. Hill, who is now suffering a
serious illness. He represented our State as a member of the
Republican party for six years. He rendered it distinguished
and able and patriotic service. When he retired into pri-
vate life, he differed with many of us and he differed with
our party on many questions. It might be that he would yet,
if he recovered; but he rendered us brave service, and whenever
he differed with us, or found ground for criticism, he founded
it upon what he believed to be a sense of public duty; and I
"know you join me in hoping that he may have a speedy and
sure recovery.

The same generous spirit prompted him to select former
Senator Tabor for the Denver postmastership. Tabor had al-
ways fought Wolcott politically, and there never had been any
social, personal, or business friendship between them. How-

-128 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

ever, Tabor had done much for Colorado mining, for Denver,
where he had erected the first big buildings, and for the
Republican party by his campaign contributions. He had
lost his money and was poor again, and Wolcott gave him
the postmastership, with its fat salary, only insisting on
tiie selection of competent assistants that the service might
be properly conducted. The tender was made on Mr. Wol-
cott's own motion. Mr. Tabor had not sought the place, nor
had any of his friends for him. When the thought of giv-
ing him the position came to Mr. Wolcott it so commended
itself to him that he went ahead with it without any in-
quiries as to how it would be regarded in Denver.

Captain Howland, Colorado's wild-animal painter, re-
lates an instance of Mr. Wolcott's loyalty to his political
friends. It was during the trying times succeeding the fight
of 1896, when Wolcott had complete control of the Colorado
patronage. He had given a responsible place to a veteran
Republican x^artisan whose name is not essential to the story.
The appointment was severely criticised. He told Howland
his critics were demanding that he should get rid of the
man in question. " But I can't do it," he said. " He stood
by me and I 've got to stick to him." " He did stick to the
man," says Howland. The consequence was that the oppos-
ing element opened war on him, and within less than three
months had with them the very man the trouble was all
about. " Even then," adds Howland, " Wolcott was not
vindictive."

As going to show the real manliness of the man, the
following, also related by Captain Howland, goes a long way :

He never went under false colors. There was nothing of the
hypocrite in him. For example, it is n't usually known that
he was a soldier of the Civil War. He was only a boy when
he joined the 150th Ohio volunteers in 1864, and was sent to
Washington. He was kept there, and that was one great sor-
row of his life. Time and again I 've tried to get him to join
the G. A. R., but he would always say : " No, Jack, I can't
do it. I was never under fire, and such an organization as
that should be sacred to the men who suffered for their country."

A pretty story is told of Mr. Wolcott while he lived in

CHARACTERISTICS 429

Blackhawk. One evening in the early fall of 1871, a little
half-orphan girl, at whose home there was not an overabun-
dance of this world's goods and to whom actual money in her
own right was an unknown quantity, discovered lying in the
gutter in front of a store a new fifty-cent shinplaster of
the kind in use during and for several years after the Civil
War. It lay open and flat, but it had fallen in a shallow
pool of water and a thin film of ice had formed over it.
The girl was old enough to know that the piece of paper
was money, and she wanted it. Her mind was filled with
doubt, however. Would the money be hers if she could get
it? Would her mother believe she had found it if she took
it home? If not, would she punish her for bringing it?
Above all, seeing that the valuable paper was covered with
ice, how could she get it? It was when she was pondering
these momentous problems that a young giant hove in sight
— a Good Giant, of the kind that always help little fairy
girls out of real difficulties. She did n't say anything, but
she looked her perplexities.

"What is the trouble, little girl?" the Giant asked in
sympathetic tones which lent assurance.
She told him all.

"Certainly it is yours; certainly your mother will be-
lieve you, and certainly we will get it," said the Giant.
" You stay here and stand guard until I return."

The Giant disappeared into a nearby factory, but soon
came back bearing a tin can full of boiling water. To thaw
the ice was the work of only a few moments. He then
picked up the limp and wet, but highly valued, piece of
paper, and handed it to its new owner.

" Take it home to your mother and tell her that I said
it was yours," said the Giant, as he went away smiling —
smiling notwithstanding that in those days the shinplaster
would have been as welcome to him as it was to the little girl.
The Giant was Ed Wolcott. The mother received his
assurance regarding the possession of the money, and the
girl was allowed to go unpunished.

There also is another " little girl " story, which is quite
as characteristic as the foregoing. After he had become a
United States Senator, Mr. Wolcott found a child on Pennsyl-

430 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

vania Avenue in Washington, crying. At the same time he
observed another small member of the sex scurrying around
the corner. His heart was touched by the apparent utter
desolation and despair of the nearby girl. He asked the
cause of her grief. " Mamie " had taken her doll. That
was enough for the Senator. He rushed off to the nearest
shop, and returning, emptied a dozen dolls into the discon-
solate child's lap, to her astonishment and delight,

Commenting on Mr. Wolcott's disposition to relieve dis-
tress, a Denver newspaper published the following the day
after the Senator's death :

One instance was related around the lobby of the Brown
Palace Hotel yesterday. It had to do with the succor of a news-
boy and the discomfiture of an officious policeman. It happened
on Seventeenth Street, near the Equitable Building.

The " newsie " was weeping bitterly when Wolcott stepped
out of the entrance of the building.

" What 's the matter, my boy," asked the big man. " Stuck? "

" Ye-e-s," whimpered the newsboy.

Just then a policeman loomed large around the corner. He
saw the snivelling boy and smacked him sharply on the bare
legs with his nightstick.

" Here, you, hustle out o' here," ordered the policeman.

" If you do that again I '11 punch your face," said the Sen-
ator, hotly, to the policeman. Then he turned to the newsboy,
dropped a big silver dollar in his hand and strode off up the
street.

Yet he was not all smiles to any person, nor did he smile
at all to some. He could be severe and unyielding if the
occasion seemed to demand that course. He could get an
undesirable caller out of his office with much tact, and he
did not permit any one to remain if he did not have the
time or the inclination to hear what the visitor had to say.
On such occasions he would himself gradually move toward
the door, taking the other person with him, until, well ar-
rived at the portal, he would bow him out, and, whether
ready to go or not, the caller found that the adieus had
been said and either the door was closed upon him or
Mr. Wolcott was already so deeply engrossed in other

CHARACTERISTICS 431

matters as to render it quite impossible to again get his
attention.

Tedious or uncongenial people were an abomination to
him and were avoided. He would not even receive a disagree-
able message if he could find a way out of doing so.

When the excitement over the A. P. A. (The American
Protective Association ) was at its height, the Denver branch
of that organization appointed a committee to visit the Sen-
ator and remonstrate with him over the retention in his
employ of two adherents of the Catholic faith. The two
men heard in advance of the prospective visit. It was a
time of political excitement, when all votes were needed and
the A. P. A. was very potent. The intended victims were
not so much concerned about their own fate as they were
regarding the situation and the possible effect of such a
presentation of the issue as was contemplated. They did
not desire that at that time their chief should be required
to take a positive position.

" They '11 never mention it, boys," he said to the two
men, when they carried to him the information of the coming
call. "Rest easy," he repeated; "they will not get to it."
And they did not. When the committee arrived he took the
direction of the conversation in his own hands, and, before
any of the members of the delegation could find an opening
to bring up the object of the call, had bowed all of them
out of his office.

Soon after he first went to Washington as a Senator,
he encountered a Colorado lady who was seeking an official
position. She was very tedious, and, as she could not pass
the examination required to enter the government service,
there was nothing he could do for her except to listen to
her complainings. He had no disposition to give up his
time to such a course, and, taking in the situation at a
glance, he did not permit her to even state her case. She
had no sooner addressed him than he broke in upon her.

I can do nothing for you, Mrs. Blank [he said in a torrent of
words]. I know all about your case; you need not tell me.
You cannot expect an appointment unless you fit yourself for
it, and you can claim nothing because of residence in Colorado.

432 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Most of your relatives have held office almost ever since they
entered the State, and all obligation is from you to the State
and not from the State to you. You should prepare yourself
for the Civil Service Examination. I cannot aid you, and know-
ing I can do nothing, I shall not make pretence of trying to
do something.

Certainly the lecture the woman received was most ab-
rupt. But he was right in that he was powerless to help
her. And he saved her the time and himself the annoyance
of frequent interviews, which otherwise would have been
inevitable.

FRANKNESS ABOUT FAULTS

Reference has been made both to Mr. Wolcott's use of
intoxicants and to his frankness. On account of his candor
concerning the drink habit he attained a reputation which
he did not deserve. An instance is related by early George-
town friends.

He had just returned from a camping out excursion with
some congenial friends, in Middle Park, when his campaign
for District Attorney, his first campaign, was in its incipi-
ency. The details of the tour are not at hand, but the mem-
bers of the party were young and many of them convivial.
It may be imagined that the mountain trout did not get
all of all kinds of the " fish bait." Rumors to this effect
preceded the party to Georgetown, so that when Mr. Wolcott
returned he was met by a sober-minded, elderly citizen who
seemed to feel called upon to remonstrate with the young
man. Meeting Mr. Wolcott on the street a day or so after
his return from the outing, he recounted to him the report
concerning the party's conduct in the park. " And," he
added, " I was surprised to hear that you were among those
who were tipsy." In his reply Wolcott doubtless exagger-
ated the condition, but under such circumstances he would
not hesitate to do so, even at his own expense. He said
that all had been more than tipsy, and declared that he
had been " the worst of the lot."

If the good man regretted the moral delinquency of his

CHARACTERISTICS 433

young acquaintance, lie must have received a lesson in candor
which was not otherwise than beneficial.

A still more striking instance was his conduct during
his first campaign for the United States Senate. It was
just previous to this contest that Mr. Wolcott made his
grand plunge at Daly's club-room at Long Branch, where he
lost a large sum of money. His political friends and ad-
visers were fearful that the episode might hurt his chances,
and begged him to deny the story. He smiled at their fears,
and said :

Whose business is it but mine? I am an unmarried man, and
there is no one but myself upon whom any disgrace can fall.
While it is true that I lost large sums of money at faro, it
also is true that I had won a large sum during the day pre-
vious on the races. It would do no good to deny it if I were
disposed to do so, and I am not.

What could be more candid than the following letter from
Ed Wolcott to his father? It was written from George-
town, January 17, 1875, and runs:

Dear Father:

I guess you are right in most of the good advice you give
me. I know you have always practised self-denial to some ex-
tent, but did you ever realize how much harder it is to follow
good counsel than to give it? In regard to asking assistance
from others, you don't quite understand my position. If I was
not looking forward very anxiously to something definite in the
future, and was not afraid that my debts would be the one thing
in the way, I should rest perfectly easy, whether they were ever
paid or not. My debts don't worry me, but the fear that they
may stand in the way of success does.

You are exactly right, too, when you say that I have been
too much in the habit of relying upon others, that it has been
easier to borrow than to earn. Your telling me so did n't make
the truth any more evident to me. A man always knows his
weaknesses and wickedness better than anybody, even his father,
can tell him. I am always interested, though, in tracing the
causes of such proclivities. I lay it first to laziness, next to
the fact that I was brought up in a minister's family where
we were always looking forward to a donation party, or a Thanks-

434 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

giving turkey, or Mrs. Piper's five dollars; and lastly, because
by persistent cultivation of the habit it has become almost a
second nature with me, I fear.

But, after all, I hope it will all come out right, and some
day after I have repaid my friends and relatives we can afford
to smile at the number of the victimized.

Teach Bertie while he is yet young that beautiful hymn be-
ginning, " I '11 Never Use Tobacco, No," and when he gets older
he '11 not find it as hard work to stop chewing as I do.

Ed.

There was a generous reply from the parent; but more
of the same good advice, with the result that on the fol-
lowing February 10th Ed again wrote his father. The
second letter was quite as frank as the first. It follows :

Your remarks are timely and true, and, moreover, are kind,
and evince, as your letters and life always have, a sympathy
and kindness which my conduct has never justified. Even if I
were so disposed I could n't take the least exception to your
letter. But did it ever occur to you that writing me good ad-
vice is like pouring water on a duck's back? I always see my
faults very plainly, and moralize over them beautifully. Min-
isters always like to talk to me. It encourages them in their
work. I always agree with them, and they leave me feeling that
there is good in me, and that they have succeeded in arousing
me to the necessity of bringing it out. But somehow the matter
always ends right there, until they call again.

There is nothing new. I am behaving myself; am doing a
fair business ; have no ambition and much laziness. I lead, some-
how, a dreamy sort of life. I don't remember much of it; my
past, which I recall, is the past of several years ago, and I dream,
always, like one who has eaten opium, of a future, gorgeous,
happy, and impossible.

If he tried to quit the use of tobacco his conduct was
halting as he himself testifies. Writing to his father from
Georgetown again in February, 1875, he says:

" I did rather make up my mind to begin giving up to-
bacco, and have n't chewed any for a fortnight. There is
no saving so far as expense goes, for I find I smoke all the
more. I am going to try refraining altogether from its use,
but don't anticipate much success."

CHARACTERISTICS 435

He also battled manfully against his smoking habit.
He was always " swearing off " and he wrote many letters
home regarding his experience in this respect.

In December, 1883, he tells his father that he has " gone
thirty-three days without tobacco in any form." " I am ex-
perimenting with myself carefully in regard to the effects
of tobacco on my system," he said. Three weeks afterward
he reported the result of the experiment. Apparently it
was satisfactory. " So far," he said, " my experience is that
I am better with tobacco than without it." He was inclined,
however, to moralize a little, for he added : " Even if this
be so, it only shows us how potent the devil is." He then
asked, " Who runs the anti-tobacco tract business since
Brother Trask died? " adding that he could use " a few."
He was still getting on without the tobacco notwithstand-
ing his conviction that he was better off with than without
it. " Grandfather's heart would be made glad these days if
he could see me eat my simple dish of oatmeal in the morning
and spend the day without tobacco," he said.

How long this period of abstinence continued there is
no record to show, but certain it is that he smoked vigor-
ously most of the remainder of his life. He also was, as
a rule, a liberal patron of the table, but occasionally in his
later years he would order a simple bowl of bread and
milk, and frequently he would pass long intervals without
drinking.

His father appears to have been anxious lest he should
let his use of intoxicants interfere with his work during
the campaign of 1880, the first in which he participated
outside his own county. Replying to evident solicitude
on this point, he wrote from Denver on September 26th of
that year, as follows :

I appreciate both mother's anxiety and yours respecting the
necessity of keeping good hours, and taking care of one's health
on the stump : but there is n't the least occasion for worry so
far as I am concerned. I am living a perfectly regular life
these days, and am indulging in no excesses either in the matter
of late hours or appetite.

He went East shortly after he had begun his connection

436 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

with the railroads, and was elated over the fact that one
road had retained him as counsel at $15,000 a year. A
younger brother remarked that that was just twenty-five
times* the salary of $600 which he then was receiving. Ed
replied : "I'd like to bet that you come nearer paying your
bills at the end of the year than I mine."

Once he expressed his contriteness regarding certain of
his habits under circumstances which brought out a witti-
cism from his friend, Speaker Reed, at the expense of an.
other friend, the lawyer and diplomat, Joseph H. Choate.
The three men were dining together, Reed being the host.
When the wine was served, Choate declined. He did the
same when the cigars were handed around.

" I neither drink nor smoke," observed the New Yorker
in explanation.

"I wish I could say that," remarked Wolcott, half

apologetically.

" Why don't you? " asked Reed; " Choate said it."

" Did I tell you? " he wrote to his father from George-
town, in 1875, "that I received a letter from the

other day? I told Kittie a few years ago that I would
write him, and I have done so. The Wolcotts always keep
their word — sometimes."

And again in the same letter : " In a letter Mr. J. Hunt-
ington Wolcott mentions having seen Henry, and adds, ' he
does credit to his ancestry.' If he had said if of me, and
I had found it out, I should, probably, at once have nego-
tiated a small loan from him."

That he was not overawed by the greatness of deceased
forebears may be gathered from the following extract from
a letter to his father dated December 2, 1884 :

" I bought of a New York autograph collector the other
day a letter of Roger Wolcott's. I had Bert decipher it.
I send you a copy, thinking that it might be of interest
to you, although Roger is long since dead."

In the course of a letter in 1884, he gave an account of
his finances, and added: "I cannot and would not keep
an account of my personal expenses. I would probably
unconsciously begin < doctoring ' the account, and cheating
myself."

CHARACTERISTICS 437

In another letter to his father he speaks of a magazine
article which had been sent him, doubtless for his edifica-
tion. Acknowledging the receipt of the paper, he commended
the writing, saying it was true, " every word of it, and more
too." Then he added, referring to a part of the moral story
- The account of the little boy who paid his debts is touch-
ing; I wish he 'd pay mine." But while he spoke lightly of
his debts and did not lose sleep over them, he never failed
to meet them squarely. Indeed, no man was more punc-
tilious in this respect. But it was not like him to fret
over a situation so long as it could not be relieved.

Mr. Morrison relates some characteristic incidents illus-
trative of Mr. Wolcott's character. He recalls that on one
occasion after the return to Georgetown from a visit to an
Eastern State, he said to Ed, « I always come back with a
last dollar still in my pocket." « I never come back but
that I leave the last dollar in some other man's pocket »
responded Ed.

What fools these merchants are [said Ed one day to Mr
Morrison]. Why do they print their cards on the outside^ of
their envelopes? Whenever I receive a letter from one of them I
know immediately that it is a bill. What do I do then but throw
it aside and, after opening it at my leisure, reply to them with
the statement that my delay is due to the tardiness of the mails'
If they were not so kind as to apprize me of their identity I
should have no such excuse.

Thomas Cornish gives this instance of Wolcott's open-
mmdedness in regard to his own faults:

I remember once, while a crowd of us were playing billiards in
the Denver Club, a politician came in to see Mr. Wolcott Thev
whispered together at the end of the hall, but we could hear
every word. Somebody, the politician said, had raked up an
old scandal which was to be published. It was a bitter thin*
and probably would have done harm.

Wolcott left the politician and came back to make his shot
Then he rejoined him and said, "What does the fellow want?"
Well, I think we can buy him off for flOOO," hesitatingly an-
swered the politician. -You go back and tell him," replied
Mr. Wolcott, "that I know so many worse things about myself

438 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

that I would not pay a cent to suppress what he has." And
that was the last we ever heard about it.

THE GAME

As has been said, Mr. Wolcott had an innate love of
speculation, and when engaged in any game of chance,
he played it to the limit. A friend relates an instance of
his early tendency in this direction. While engaged in the
practice of the law in Georgetown, Wolcott frequently visited
Denver. In those days his income was very limited, but this
fact did not prevent his chancing all that he had when the
impulse came upon him. At the time mentioned, he was
on a brief visit to Denver, and he made a call at one of
the well-known gaming-houses, of which at that time there
were many in Denver. The dealer was a personal acquaint-
ance and a strong admirer of the young lawyer. Ed soon
lost all of the little stock of ready money that he carried,
but when this was gone he importuned the dealer to let
him have twenty dollars worth of chips on the watch he
carried. At first the dealer refused to take the watch, say-
ing that he could have the chips without any security. Mr.
Wolcott declined these terms, and pleaded so persistently
that ultimately the chips were handed to him and the watch
accepted as collateral for the loan. The play proceeded
furiously for a brief time, and, of course, terminated in the
loss of the $20. With this result, Mr. Wolcott disappeared
from the establishment. Within half an hour, however, he
broke into the room, rushed up to the dealer and asked to
be allowed to take the watch. By way of explanation, he
said, " It 's Hen's," meaning that it was his brother Henry's.
In his zeal he had pledged even his brother's watch, but the
cool air outside the gambling-room had soon brought him
to his senses. He then returned and, leaving his own word
as security, carried the brother's watch awray with him.

But we must go still farther back in tracing Mr. Wol-
cott's fondness for games of chance.

The first of his exploits as a plunger took place when
he was a Freshman in Yale. There was an intercollegiate
boat-race which was rowed on Lake Quinsigamond, a small

CHARACTERISTICS 439

body of water near Worcester, Massachusetts. Eight or
ten colleges, among them Yale, had crews entered. Two
or three had exceptionally good crews, but Yale's was con-
sidered a wretched one and no one believed that it had
any possible chance of winning. Ed became stakeholder
for several students of other colleges who were betting on
their respective teams. The boys from the other colleges
taunted Ed a good deal about the Yale crew. When he
could endure it no longer, he finally put up at proper odds
on the Yale force, in addition to the few dollars he had
of his own, the big sum which he was holding as a stake
for others. Yale won, and Ed had so much money that
he went to New York to spend it.

On his first visit to New York after he had become a
citizen of Colorado, Mr. Wolcott made a visit to Wall Street
and immediately became infatuated with that great centre
of speculation. He said to a friend soon after his intro-
duction there:

This is the place for me. I like the game. In ordinary gambling
you take chances on losing your standing in society. Some of
jour best friends show an inclination to " cut " you after a night
at poker; but here — why, here, here on Wall Street, a man
can gamble to his heart's content and still be respectable. But
it 's gambling all the same. Wall Street for me hereafter.

He never lost his interest in the Street. He was at times
a large dealer in stocks, and while not always successful, he
dealt with such a knowledge of conditions that generally he
kept " ahead of the game." He came later to regard Wall
Street as more than a gambling centre, and he frequently de-
fended its operators as among the most worthy specimens of
American citizenship.

But whether in Wall Street, on the race track, or in the
card-room, he played zealously. The excitement of the game
appealed to his temperament. He loved to take the chances,
and he did take them in everything. When anything be-
came a certainty, it seemed to lose much of its charm for
him. He always played to win, but never was there a more
cheerful loser. He accepted adverse results as among the
fortunes of war, and made no long faces over them.

440 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Mr. J. H. P. Voorhies, of Denver, relates an experience
with Mr. Wolcott at Long Branch. In addition to throw-
ing much light on Mr. Wolcott's chance-taking propensities,
the narrative supplies a fine glimpse of the Wolcott view
of things in general. This is Mr. Voorhies's story :

In the summer of '88, Wolcott and I went to the Monmouth
Park races for the opening day, stopping at the Elberon Hotel.
The evening before, with E. A. Buck, then editor of The Spirit
of the Times, we arranged a card to bet on the next day's races.
Buck had considerable knowledge of past performances, and I, of
a little of blood lines, pedigrees, and Kentucky owners and
trainers. As it happened, of the seven events we guessed the
first five winners, and had a " show " on the others. Ed was
always a plunger on every game or sport, — that 's what he
loved. Buck's betting and mine was very modest in compari-
son, but the day was a great harvest. Ed and I drove out in
an open victoria. The day was beautiful, the rig fine, the driver
skilful and polite, and the way crowded with thousands.

From the moment the " books " were ready he was busy, and
by the time the third race had been won, with the multiplied
capital on hand, Ed had several " bookies " well-nigh exclusively
working in taking and placing his bets. Each time, however, the
gong would sound — " horses at the post " — the books would close,
with Buck and I rushing for the stand or clubhouse porch to
see the race, and leaving Ed behind in the betting ring. He
would say to me: " Go ahead; I don't like that mad throng;
I will stay here and see what is doing on the next race."

When the day was over and he and I, again in our victoria
(the driver also a winner on our tips), slowly returning, I be-
came enthused over our winning, the marvellous performance of
the horses and the jockeys we had chosen, the wonderful scene
of crowd and landscape. Indeed, everything was glorious to
me, and I said so to Ed several times. As we neared the hotel,
he said : " Jack, there was only one thing which marred my

day's pleasure, and that was those d d horse-races, when you

and Buck left me alone."

Following Mr. Wolcott's successful attendance upon the
Monmouth races, he made a visit to Daly's gambling estab-
lishment at Long Branch, where he lost his track earnings
and a large sum in addition. His course on this occasion
was characteristic. Putting in his hat the entire amount

CHARACTERISTICS 441

of his winnings on the races, he insisted upon betting the
lump sum on " the high." When remonstrated with by his
friends, he declared that he did not want to keep the money,
because it was " dirty."

The incident found its way into the newspapers, and gave
Mr. Wolcott a reputation from which he did not soon recover.
Many good people obtained an entirely wrong impression of
him. He did not play any game for the love of money, but
played all games for the love of sport. But, money getting
aside, no one could be more daring than he. He would
bet on anything on which there could be a difference of
opinion. At Monte Carlo, only the day before he went to
bed for the last time, he wron over f 30,000 at a sitting. On
this occasion he played with utter abandon, but everything
ran his way. So remarkable was his success that most other
players suspended operations on their own account to ob-
serve and assist in his game. Everybody wanted to help
him in some way, lords and ladies being among those who
were willing to fetch and carry for him. The day before,
he had lost heavily, and after he left the gamin g-hall, he
said : " I wanted to show them that they could not win
all the time; I am more than even now, and I won't go
there any more."

Speaking of his proclivities for gaming, Mr. Stealey says :
" Mr. Wolcott was a dead-game sport, and would stack up
the blue chips on a poker lay-out as high as the ceiling, if
the dealer would permit."

Once Mr. Wolcott visited Jackson City, which in his
time was a gambling resort in Virginia, across the Potomac
from Washington. The place figured much in the news-
papers of the day, and he wanted to see for himself what
it was. Being on the ground, he must play, and he had
been so engaged for only a short time when he found that
he was operating against a " brace " game — a game in which
the dealer stacked the cards to his own satisfaction. After
he had lost a considerable sum, Wolcott pulled the last note
out of his pocket, and, throwing it on the table before the
dealer, said: " What 's the use of working so hard? I un-
derstand your system, but not so well as you do. I know
you '11 win the money in the end ; but I hate to see you

442 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

labor. I therefore turn the money over without requiring
you to go through the rigorous role of dealing so often."
With the speech, he left the place, disdaining to pick up
the note. Afterward he said he thought the house " needed
the money."

He despised ordinary card " sharps " as few other men
could. Illustrative of this disdain is the circumstance of
his compelling one of them to desist from his operations
during an entire voyage across the Atlantic. The fellow was
a Denver gambler who had been run out of the Colorado
metropolis on account of dishonest practices. Wolcott found
him aboard a ship on which he was crossing to England.
When discovered, the " sport " was engaged in a game with
a party of respectable men. At the first opportunity Mr.
Wolcott called him aside.

" How much have you won? " he asked.

The gambler admitted having pocketed f 3000.

" You '11 contribute that amount to the Seaman's Fund
and refrain from playing all the way across," said the
Colorado Senator.

He knew so much of the man's record that the fellow
could not refuse to obey. The Seaman's Fund received an
unexpectedly large contribution the next morning, and doubt-
less many of the passengers were protected from a humiliat*
ing fleecing.

PRACTICAL JOKES

Not only was our subject given to verbal jest, but also to
" practical jokes," in which action as well as speech was
required. The miners of Georgetown tell many yarns of
his funny performances.

Once he noticed a wagon-load of cordwood climbing the
steepest hill of the little camp. He jumped up behind the
pile, which hid him from the driver, and rolled off log by
log until the cart was nearly empty. Those were days when
men were shot for less offences. But the owner was pacified
by double the price of his load, — and it was just like Wol-
cott, in his generous impulse, to leave the cords for the
use of the poor of the wayside.

CHARACTERISTICS 443

When Wolcott went to Yale he was made the subject of
a hazing experience which was not to his liking. He im-
mediately set out to get " even." He organized the Fresh-
men, and a few nights afterward the hazers found their
leader securely chained to a tombstone in a far-away ceme-
tery— the result of Wolcott's planning. Ever afterward he
was a defender of the practice of hazing. He had found it
a game that both parties could play at — fine sport.

" Laughing gas " was a new discovery in Mr. Wolcott's
high-school days, and members of his chemistry class de-
cided upon a demonstration of its properties before the
school. Edward was chosen as the first one to experiment
on ; but he did not feel any effect from his supposed in-
halation. However, he had no thought of disappointing his
schoolmates, and he gave them a fine demonstration of what
the gas should, if it did not, do. The incident occurred in
the days of his minstrel enthusiasm, and he gave a " walk
around " after the most approved fashion, accompanied by
a song and ending with a dance, to the edification of the
entire school. Temporarily the study of chemistry in Mr.
Wolcott's room was much stimulated by the experiment, and
the joke was not discovered until another " subject " was
experimented upon. He failed to get results, and investiga-
tion developed the fact that all the gas had leaked out before
the experiments began.

In a letter to his father of March, 1871, he tells the fol-
lowing relative to an experience with the gentleman at whose
house he was staying:

I do not see the Congrcgationalist. It is a Republican sheet,

and that damns it in 's sight. He is a tremendously bigoted

old gentleman. The strongest kind of a Democrat— thinks slav-
ery was a divine institution, and swallows the Bible bodily. I
have had him tremendously worked up lately by suggesting that
the passage in Job should read " for though after my skin-
worms destroy this body," etc., and giving him learned and
valuable descriptions of the skinworm. He has been consulting
innumerable Concordances, Notes, etc., to prove me in the wrong.

One phase of the man's disposition is illustrated by the
following incident:

444 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

General Hamill took Mr. Wolcott riding one day in
Denver, when both were comparatively young men. From
Hamill's manner Wolcott conceived the idea that his friend
was timid and said to him:

" Why, Bill, I think you are afraid of those horses."

" I am not afraid," replied Hamill.

" Well, we '11 see whether you are or not." With these
words Wolcott seized the lines, and throwing them on the
backs of the horses laid on the whip.

The horses ran away and the two occupants of the car-
riage were thrown to the earth, but Wolcott seemed to think
it a great joke when he proved that Hamill was not exactly
afraid of the horses.

Once when Mr. Wolcott was dining with some friends
at Delmonico's in New York, a Colorado man, who was
noted at home for his vanity, entered the dining-hall and
took a seat without observing the Wolcott party.

" Watch me have some fun," he said to his companions.

Sending for the manager, he pointed out the Coloradoan,
and, taking him into his confidence, told him that he wanted
to pay the visitor's bill.

When the gentleman had completed his meal and volun-
teered to make settlement, the manager intervened. " There
is no charge, Colonel," he said. " Your reputation has pre-
ceded you, and the house feels so flattered at having you
dine here that it desires you to accept its hospitality."

The deception was not suspected, and the air assumed
by the visitor as he left the hall was fully enjoyed by the
Senator and his friends. " It was worth the price," Wolcott
said afterward.

As has been told, Mr. Wolcott was a sleep-walker. The
habit came near getting him into trouble once when cross-
ing the Atlantic; but his readiness of thought and quickness
of speech saved him. It appears that after getting out of
his berth and possibly trying in vain to find the door or
to determine where he was, he shouted excitedly, " Where?
Where?" To the ship's crew the cry sounded like "Fire!
Fire ! " and soon the fire department of the vessel was
thundering so vigorously at his door that he became wide-
awake. He took in the situation immediately, but he did

CHARACTERISTICS 445

not want to attract disagreeable attention to himself by
making an explanation. To be sure be had heard the sound ;
but he was certain it had come from the steerage. So he
told the firemen, and they left him undisturbed while they
proceeded in their unavailing search for the " fire."

While very quick in some matters, Senator Wolcott was
slow in others. He did not always give attention to details.
Once when, during the Harrison Administration, he found it
desirable to obtain an official position for a retainer in Colo-
rado, he sought the advice of Senator Teller, who then, like
Mr. Wolcott, was acting with the Republican party. One of
Wolcott's clerks entered his office while he and Teller were
in close conference on the subject. They had the Blue Book
open before them. This is an official publication giving the
names of Government employees together with their salaries,
and evidently they were scanning it in the hope of discover-
ing a place to their liking. At last they raised their heads,
but seemed to have obtained very little information as the
result of their research. As Mr. Wolcott looked up he saw
the clerk and asked him, " Do you know of some place we
can get for this man?" explaining the circumstances which
made it necessary to give him a position. After some con-
versation the employee reminded him that Congress had
only recently passed what was known as the " Meat Inspec-
tion Bill," which provided for the appointment of several
hundred inspectors at good salaries.

" When did that bill pass? " asked the junior Senator
from Colorado.

" Oh," replied the secretary, " within the last two or three
weeks, and both of you voted for it."

They then recalled the measure and each laughed heartily
at the expense of the other as they walked off arm in arm,
bent upon a visit to the Secretary of Agriculture in the hope
of obtaining from him the coveted appointment, in which
it may be stated, for the satisfaction of the curious, they
were successful.

Generally preoccupied, Mr. Wolcott did not always recog-
nize acquaintances on the street. This trait of character
made many enemies, and it made some that were not de-

446 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

served. Remonstrated with frequently by his brother Henry
for the failing, he would just as often promise to reform,
and he made the effort every time. In one such attempt
he made himself the subject of general jest on the part of
the Denver Club. Meeting on the street one day a familiar
figure, he recalled his promise to Henry and hailed the man
with a hearty greeting that must have surprised him. The
man was going in the direction of the Club building, and
as the Club was Mr. Wolcott's destination he joined him
and walked with him up to and into the building. When he
separated from his companion he was told by his amused in-
timates that his new friend was the Club barber! The in-
cident had in it no feature of annoyance for Mr. Wolcott, but
the joke is still told with zest over the Club tables.

One of a number of artists whom Mr. Wolcott was en-
tertaining at dinner toward the close of his Senatorial ser-
vice engaged the Senator in serious conversation, naively
asking him in the course of the interview whether he was
a Republican or a Democrat. The inquiry greatly amused
the host, and he often quoted it to illustrate a favorite con-
tention that comparatively few people give heed to public
affairs or care much about public men.

The fact of Ed's frequent confinement in the guard-
house, while as a sixteen-year-old boy he served in the Army
during the Civil War, has been detailed elsewhere. There
is a good story going with one of these incarcerations. He
was very fond of a spirited horse, and his captain was the
owner of an animal which appealed to Ed's taste. One day
he prevailed upon the hostler to let him ride the horse for
a canter down the road. The road led to Washington, some
five miles distant, and, well mounted as he was, young Wol-
cott decided to pay his first visit to the Capital of his coun-
try. He did so, and in style. Unfortunately, however, he
met the owner of the horse face to face on Pennsylvania
Avenue. Result: A dreary trudge back to Fort Saratoga,
and an unusual term in the lock-up.

JESTING WITH THE FAMILY

That Mr. Wolcott did not spare his family in the per-

CHARACTERISTICS 447

petration of his jokes is the best possible evidence that he
really loved fun for fun's sake and that he did not employ
his wit merely for the sake of being disagreeable.

Mr. Wolcott's father was the object of many of his
sallies. He never tired of getting off jokes at the expense
of his elder, and many of his best thrusts were made at
him. That this tendency was due to a lack neither of affec-
tion nor respect, his many utterances and acts to the contrary
demonstrate. The explanation comes along more agreeable
channels. It is found primarily in the fact that the younger
Wolcott enjoyed badinage more than most men do, and, like
all men capable of saying a good thing, he did not like to
speak without eliciting a response. The father was as capa-
ble in this line as the son; he gave as good as was sent;
he was a foeman worthy of Edward's steel. Moreover, he
was quick to appreciate an exhibition of intellect even at his
own expense. Edward had full knowledge of all these facts.
The witticisms directed at the father bear internal evidence
of their inoffensiveness, and are fine examples of their au-
thor's capacity to say a bright thing without being bitter.

Already we have told of his suggestion that the father
as a hymn-writer and a gentleman who was a composer
should get together, with the result, as he put it, that in such
event " they could make a great deal of money, and on very
little capital! "

While a student he wrote his father on one occasion that
being somewhat out of sorts he had been drinking " vichy "
with beneficial result. His father replied that he could
not recall any beverage by that name as being neces-
sary when he himself was seeking his education, and he
hoped it was not an intoxicant. His father, who was author
of many church hymns, liked to submit them for his son's
criticism, and in the same letter he enclosed his latest pro-
duction. The reply he sent his father was short and char-
acteristic. " Don't be alarmed," he wrote. " Vichy is wide
from being an intoxicant — as wide as the lines you sent are
from being worthy of publication."

And here, in a letter dated March 5, 1881, is an example
of his forcible manner of calling his father's attention to
the fact that he was growing negligent in letter-writing:

448 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

" I was very glad to get your letter, and to ascertain
definitely that there was nothing wrong with your right arm.
I had begun to be somewhat anxious as I hadn't seen a
line from you since last December."

We have heard of the piety and of the necessarily modest
habits of life of Mr. Wolcott's father and mother, and we
know that he came of a long line of Puritan ancestry on
both sides. Hence, the point of the following: At a time
when Wolcott was suffering from a severe attack of gout,
one of his friends called upon him and was sympathizing
with him. " It seems strange to me," said the Senator,
" why I should be afflicted as I am. I have done everything
I could think of to relieve the pain; my life hasn't been
such that I am entitled to suffer so; I have thought it all
over, and the only conclusion that I can come to is that
it must be hereditary."

While probably he would not agree that Mr. Wolcott's
ills were due to any hereditary taint, Hon. Charles Page
Bryan comes near finding a kindred explanation for his pen-
chant for mischief. " I have," he says, " often thought that
the exuberance of clergymen's sons is largely due to the
pent-up animalism of a self-denying life finding vent in the
children who possess, with virtues of the mind, excessive
weakness of the flesh."

It was at about the Hudson school attendance period that
one evening at a church sociable the elder Wolcott strolled
into a room where several persons were standing and where
his third son was leaning against the mantelpiece in what
struck his father as a lounging attitude.

" Edward," said he, " could you not find anything else
in the room to support you? "

The reply came at once, " Not in your absence, father."
Dr. Wolcott visited Cambridge while Ed was there and
stayed at the son's boarding-place. Ed behaved himself cir-
cumspectly and kept regular hours for several days. But
finally something detained him one night, and he did not
reach the house until ever-so-much o'clock. He let himself
in quietly, and was trying to creep noiselessly to his room,
when, as he was passing his father's door, he heard the
striking of a match, and he was called in. After his wont,

CHARACTERISTICS 449

he made a frank avowal of the circumstances that had de-
tained him, and then his father spoke. He also had the
floor-walking habit, and he moved back and forward as he
reviewed the various opportunities that his son had failed
to improve, and deplored the present revelation of his way
of life. Ed sat in silence until the complaint had been
fully poured out, but in the pause that followed it seemed
incumbent on him to make response.

" Father," said he, « can you tell what is the difference
between the Prodigal Son and myself? "

" No," said the elder man, in nervous vexation ; " I don't
believe there is any difference."

" I will tell you," said Ed. " The Prodigal rose and went
to his father; my father rose and ivent for me."

" Edward," said Dr. Wolcott, " go to bed."

In 1868, when only twenty years old, we find him writ-
ing to his sire from his place of business in New York:
" It is n't quite three weeks since I have heard from home^
but it is pretty near it. I conclude you are locating Lot's
wife or some other mythological landmark, and are too busy
to write."

Writing to his mother in 1875 he said :

Father used to like to tell me how he had never given his father
a moment's anxiety, and what a splendid feeling it was ; I now
appreciate it, and realize it in my parents. Father is travelling
from Birmingham to Cow Corners, but I never retire at night
without the happy consciousness that he is doing his duty, al-
though, as an M. C. said the other day, it is a bad year' for
ministers.

Again, three years later, from school at Cambridge to
his father :

" Your sermon in the Christian Advance was not one of
your best. But I can give it the recommendation that
fathers can introduce it into the bosom of their families
without fear."

Writing to his mother in 1872, of his lack of funds, his
extravagant habits, etc., he tells her of his friend Potter,
who assisted him in getting started in Georgetown. "He
has," says Ed, " attended father's preaching, which evidently

450 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

accounts for his good heart, etc." In this letter he speaks
of his birthday, 26th of March, and draws conclusions from
the fact that it came so near the 1st of April, April Fools'
day. " I never thought of it before," he says, " but it cer-
tainly is not my fault."

That his disposition did not change with age and honors
is evident from the following:

In 1881, after his term as a State Senator had expired,
he received a letter from his father enclosing an obituary.
The father had written of a neighbor who in life had not
been highly esteemed. " By the way, as an Irishman would
say," wrote Ed in acknowledgment of the letter, " we never
know how many good qualities we possess until after we are
dead — do we? "

That he took the same liberty with other ministers that
he did with his father is evidenced by the following from a
letter to the father dated June 13, 1875:

" Those Presbyterian ministers came out, some forty of
them, to Georgetown. I did n't have the pleasure of meet-
ing any of them, but they said here in town that when the
yellow-legged chickens saw them coming they commenced
climbing the mountains."

When at school Ed's allowance was quite inadequate to
meet his wants. He would earn extra money if he could
find a way to do so, and he would borrow — if he could find
a way to do so. Once when his brother Henry called upon
him while he was pursuing his studies, he " struck " that
gentleman, not better supplied, but more economical, for a
loan of ten dollars. At first declaring that he could not
spare so much from his funds, Henry at last yielded on
the promise that the money would be refunded through a
letter when Ed should receive his next allowance at the end
of the month. With the new month came the promised letter
from Ed. " Dear Henry," it ran, " find enclosed ten dollars
— if you can."

For reasons of his own, Mr. Wolcott was not an enthusias-
tic supporter of Mr. Blaine when he made his campaign
for the Presidency in 1881, but he gave him his vote. He
wrote his pious mother about his attitude, and referring to
Mr. Cleveland's election, without expressing regret, added:

CHARACTERISTICS 451

"Fortunately partisanship did not warp our judgment
sufficiently to prevent Henry and me from betting a little
on the winning side. This is wicked. Mother, but after all
it 's a sort of balm."

These two extracts from letters are at the mother's
expense :

From "Cambridge, 1871 ":

1 ""•;m sometime to read some commentary writings after
reading the writings themselves, for since once in Providence
mother and I started to read the Bible through in a rear and
;"' ;l^ far ;ls Leviticus, I have sadly aeglected the Scriptures:
1 hope mother has n't

From Georgetown, L872, referring to one of his sisters

who was then visiting Colorado:

(,"<- thing more would make her about perfect, and thai is a
^ttle spice of the h-v-1. i:„, | d<m>< ,„,,„, to rr]<vn.Arh
Mother, for her early education, for thai is nol responsible for
"• and inheriting your disposition, as she does, how could it
appear in her?

Mr. Wolcott has himself told as how his Grandfather
Pope helped him out of pecuniary difficulties ou more than
one occasion, but he did not always do so when importuned
Following is one of Ed's hints to him through a letter to his
father from Blackhawk, in 1872:

" r may have to ask you for funds as you offered in your
etter>to< I hope 1 won'1 have to. I feel as if I could scrape
throng!, somehow. T know it is vain, but I can'1 help hop-
tog that Grandfather will do as Jesus told Zacchaeus to do
when he | V.. 1 was « up a tree,' i. e.} ' Come down.5 »

That Mr. Wolcoti was the life of the household when
r u;,s;1 ^ there is little doubt, in new of the testimony
of his brothers and sisters on this point. He generally was
1,1 ■•' romp with some member of the family, and was a great
l"^" 0d one occasion, his father wrote to an absenl mem-
"r "f the family: « It seems like Sunday; Ed is -one."

Mr Carroll tells us thai Ed and his friend Ed* Selden
puce drove thirty miles to the Connecticut Kiver to watch

452 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

the fishermen haul for shad. " I well remember a trip with
him, six miles to a pond in the country, to bob through the
ice for pickerel," says Mr. Carroll. " It was a severely cold
day, the ice thick and holes difficult to make. Axes proving
too slow, from the neighboring farmers two crowbars were
secured, and both lost through the ice, that we had to settle
roundly for. Not a fish was caught, but he inserted so
much fun into every bitter experience that it was a day
of rare enjoyment."

AS ORATOR, LAWYER, AND LEGISLATOR

BEGINNING with his career in the Colorado State
Senate, Mr. Wolcott's reputation as an orator soon
travelled beyond the bounds of the State. His first
call to outside effort came from the New England Society
of New York, in 1887, and the address then delivered gave
him immediate rank as one of the great orators of the
country. It is published in the volume of Modern Eloquence
which is devoted to "after-dinner" speeches, and together
with the address delivered before the same Society ten years
later, constitutes a splendid addition to English literature
as expressed in American oratory. After the New England
Society speech came many invitations to attend dinners, and
to make political speeches; but comparatively few of them
were accepted. The reputation as a national orator made
at New York was enhanced by his Yale Alumni speech, by
his speech nominating James G. Blaine for the Presidency
m 1892, by his speech at Philadelphia in commemoration
of Mr. Blaine's virtues after his death, and by campaign
speeches in New York, Iowa, and other States. '

Of all his speeches the most noteworthy was his address
as Temporary Chairman of the Republican National Conven-
tion m 1900. He labored over this speech for weeks, and the
result was an address that won general commendation not
only because of its diction, but on account of its subject-
matter. This may fittingly be given the first place in all of the
Colorado orator's forensic efforts, and it is safe to say that it
long will hold front rank as a keynote convention effort
His Venezuela speech in the Senate is an honorable second
and his Denver speech of 1896 does not trail far behind
the other two, if at all.

453

454 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

The Colorado campaign speeches are full of " local color,"
but interspersed with matter of this character is much of
high patriotism and many gems of eloquence that will long
attract favorable remark from those who read the collection.
Beginning with the first of the speeches, that of 1880, and
running to the last, the notable address at the Coliseum Hall
in Denver, in 1904, almost a quarter of a century after-
ward, the collection is interesting throughout. The con-
test of 1896 was the most trying of all his campaigns, and
the three speeches made in Colorado that year are among
the most unique in modern political history. For variety
of expression; for the blending of sarcasm and persua-
sion; for fairmindedness and high ideals, as also for pug-
nacity and banter, the Denver speech of that year has few
equals among campaign efforts. He had on his fighting
clothes in those days, and his most effective speeches were
always made when the enemy was in the field and when the
odds were against him.

With but few exceptions, his speeches in the Senate were
the most carefully prepared of his oratorical efforts, and
many of them are models of expression. He thought more
of his speech on the Monroe Doctrine as involved in the
Venezuela boundary dispute than any other, but his pref-
erence probably was based on the circumstance that, with
sentiment running strongly against his pro-English utter-
ance, the delivery of the speech required a higher degree of
moral courage than most of his addresses. For the same
reason, his speech in opposition to the Force Bill commended
itself to him. But those two speeches contained other ex-
cellences than daring. He knew that he was right, and to
dare for the right was an enjoyment to him. The fact that
he was making a righteous fight in both cases called out the
best of all qualities in the man, and they are fine spe-
cimens of all-around oratory. All of Mr. Wolcott's speeches
in defence of the Spanish War, as well as those on the sub-
ject of silver coinage, are worth reading as the most succinct
and the clearest presentation of the reasons which actuated
him in taking sides on these two important subjects. Prob-
ably he gave more care to the preparation of his review of
the operations of the work of the International Bimetallic

CHARACTERISTICS 455

Commission of 1897, of which he was Chairman, than to
any other speech made by him in the Senate, and it was
everywhere pronounced a wonderfully lucid explanation of
the Commission's work and of the reasons which brought
it into existence. Indeed, he proved equal to all the ora-
torical tests of the Senate, and well sustained there the
splendid reputation he had made before entering that body
Mr. Wolcott's first speech in the Senate, made after he
had been a member for only a little more than a year, was
m defence of the cause of silver, but it also had in view
the exposure of the attitude of the Harrison Administration,
and this was so skilfully and effectively accomplished that
the Colorado Senator immediately was given front rank not
only as a Senatorial orator but as a man who was to be
reckoned with in shaping national affairs.

STRUGGLES AGAINST ODDS

Probably to Mr. Wolcott's admirers the most surprising
revelation of this memoir will be the fact that he was no^
an orator m his early professional life. He spoke so readily,

iffiT *' !?* S° f0rdbly' aDd With so much aPP^ent self'
confidence that it is difficult to believe that he ever had
any difficulty m facing an audience or expressing his views
-that, indeed, there ever was a time when he was not an
orator. But we already have seen that he was very back-
ward in speaking, and we shall discover that his trouble was
more pronounced than yet has been stated. And, while the
timidity was largely overcome, there were times in the hey-
day of his career that it would assert itself. A Washing-
ton newspaper man relates that on the day in 1898 when
Senator Allen of Nebraska made his attack in the Senate
on he Bimetallic Commission, he found Senator Wolcott
walking up and down one of the corridors of the Senate
wing of the Capitol confessedly much perturbed and greatlv
embarrassed over the necessity of replying.

Nor was the trouble confined to the delivery of his
speeches. He distrusted himself also in the preparation of the
substance matter, especially in the earlier days of his career
Declaring himself deficient in information and ideas we

456 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

find him appealing to his father for assistance even after
he was well started upon his public life. This distrust was
not due to the neglect of early training, but existed despite
it. Indeed, there would appear to have been a sufficiency
of confidence when at school and when preparing for his
career as a lawyer. But be this as it may, the early days
of practice in Colorado were characterized by a timidity
which came near terminating his career almost before it was
begun.

Fortunately we have abundant testimony from men still
living regarding Mr. Wolcott's first oratorical efforts, and
in view of the fact that his great reputation was based upon
his success as a speaker it has been thought well to present
the facts fully. Senator Teller has told us of Mr. Wol-
cott's lack of confidence in himself in his first appearance in
a civil suit, and Hon. Clinton Reed, of his difficulties in the
first criminal case he conducted as Prosecuting Attorney.
While he won the civil suit, it was in the criminal proceed-
ing that he lifted himself into fame. In addition to the
statement of Mr. Reed, we have the testimony of two eminent
witnesses relating to this event, which occurred in Boulder,
the county seat of Boulder County, which was one of the
six counties constituting the First Colorado Judicial Dis-
trict, in which he was public prosecutor from 1877 to 1879.
One of these witnesses is Hon. Charles S. Thomas, former
Governor of Colorado, and the other Mr. R. S. Morri-
son of Denver, a personal friend and a former resident of
Georgetown, where Mr. Wolcott resided. Of him at this
time Mr. Morrison says:

Employed in important cases he shirked no labor imposed
upon him except the defence or attack by oral delivery, placing
the burden of this entirely upon his associates and thus neces-
sarily relegating himself to the less conspicuous portion of a
lawyer's varied duties and neglecting the one item which more
than all others combined advertises the talent of the attorney
and brings him success, remuneration, and fame.

Mr. Thomas bases his statement on Mr. Wolcott's own
impartations to him. In a paper prepared for this work,
he tells of his first acquaintance with Mr. Wolcott while

CHARACTERISTICS 457

the latter was practising law at Georgetown. " The estimate
then entertained of Mr. Wolcott by the bar was somewhat
unusual," he says, and then proceeds :

His abilities, although actual and evident, seemed to be en-
tirely neutralized and rendered worthless by a reluctance to
appear in court, which seemed to be the outgrowth of an almost
unmanly lack of confidence in himself. He could not summon
to his aid sufficient resolution to stand upon his feet in the
court-room and address either court or jury. So patent was
this condition that Wolcott almost became an object of con-
tempt among his associates, who could not reconcile his strong
and dominating personality in the ordinary affairs of life with
such apparent pusillanimity in connection with the most use-
ful and vigorous relations of the profession to the world at
large. This peculiarity, I think, seriously affected Mr. Wolcott's
standing at the bar, and unquestionably interfered with the
attainment of that success which afterward became so great.

There were two men, however, who had the most abundant
faith in Mr. Wolcott's capacity as an attorney, and who de-
termined that he should not fail if they could prevent. One was
his elder brother, the Hon. Henry R. Wolcott, then of Gilpin
County, whose fraternal affection was at all times steadfast and
unwavering, and whose devotion to his brother in my judgment
proved the one great and enduring foundation for all that Ed-
ward O. Wolcott afterward accomplished. The other was the
late Senator Nathaniel P. Hill, then of Blackhawk, a firm friend
of the Wolcott family, and a great admirer of both the brothers.

These two gentlemen procured from the Republican District
Convention in 1876 the nomination of Edward O. Wolcott for
the office of District Attorney, to which he was elected in October
of that year. He immediately qualified and began his discharge
of the duties of that office. In order to compel Mr. Wolcott to
appear in court and conduct prosecutions in person, Messrs. Hill
and H. R. Wolcott quietly secured a promise from all the
attorneys of the district that each and all of them would refuse
to act for or in place of the District Attorney. He was there-
fore compelled by stress of these conditions either to meet and
pass the ordeal or to resign his position and thereby confess
himself a failure. The latter alternative he was not only too
high spirited to consider for a moment, but the moral support
of his brother and Mr. Hill made it absolutely impossible.

His first term of court as District Attorney was at Boulder,

458 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

and his first case an indictment for some unimportant offence,
the nature of which I do not now recall. He tried the case,
addressed the jury, and obtained a conviction. Several times
in after years, in conversations with myself, he referred to this
case as the turning point in his life, and I do not for a moment
doubt that this was so. He said that when he arose to begin
his speech the room swam before him, everything was virtually
blotted from his vision, and he saw neither the jury nor the
partitions forming the enclosure of the court-room; what he
said, if he said anything, he did not know; he only remembered
his statement in closing that, if the jury believed the witnesses
for the prosecution, they must convict the defendant. He took
his seat and was recalled to the consciousness of practical affairs
by the warm congratulations of some of the attorneys, one of
whom was the late Hon. Willard Teller. After the case ended,
the court took a recess, whereupon Judge Beck left the bench,
and, taking him by the hand, spoke a few simple but fitting
words of approbation.

His next case was, of course, a little easier, and when
the term ended he had permanently overcome his great pro-
fessional deficiency. Those who in after years were permitted
to listen to his public speeches will find it difficult to be-
lieve that during his first five or six years at the bar he was
unable to summon sufficient courage to argue the simplest mo-
tion in the simplest controversies. Indeed, he once expressed
astonishment that he ever should have labored under such a
difficulty in view of its total absence after that term of the
Boulder County District Court.

Apparently Mr. Thomas labored under the impression
that there had been no preparation for the speech, as he
tells us that its author informed him afterward that when
he ceased speaking he did not know what he had said. But,
while after a lapse of years it probably was Mr. Wolcott'a
impression that he had been unable to recall his words, we
have his own testimony to the contrary, showing that soon
after its delivery he could have repeated at least a portion
of the speech. This testimony is found in a letter to Mr.
Wolcott's father, of date September 1, 1877. It is evident
from the text that he had made request for suggestions in
framing the speech. Here is an extract from the letter :

I had a crowded court-room to hear me, and many pleasant

CHARACTERISTICS 459

things said to ine afterward. A speech or any part of it never
sounds as well on paper as when spoken. I was able to use
some of the thoughts you gave me. If it were not too long I
would like to repeat from memory a part of the close.

Probably the speech had not been written, but evidently
it had been carefully thought out. Indeed, it was character-
istic of Wolcott to have prepared himself for the ordeal
which he knew must come. He never spoke without prepara-
tion if he could avoid so doing.

Of the same event, Mr. Morrison says :

The case of The People vs. Thomas Kerwin was called. The
jury were sworn and the opening statement made. The examina-
tion and cross-examination of the witnesses brought out his
powers of analysis and the overcrowded court-room began to
appreciate the fact that there had been no mistake in the selec-
tion of a lawyer without trial experience to present the pleas of
the people. But when the concluding speech for the prosecution
at last brought to the surface the latent capacity of Mr. Wol-
cott to move the heart and control the judgment of his hearers,
making him, notwithstanding he was only in his first case, the
greatest orator at the bar of this young State, the surprise,
astonishment, and enthusiasm produced a scene of applause and
victory which that court-house had never seen before.

The only instance in history conspicuously like it in all its
circumstances is that of Patrick Henry when he tried his first
case and made his first speech before the Board of Burgesses.

Speaking of the immediate as well as of the after effects
of the speech, Mr. Morrison tells us that " the greater part
of the strength of Mr. Wolcott lay in those elements which
cannot be reproduced upon paper." But he also tells us,
in continuation of the narrative, that

the influence upon the crowd that heard it was so great that
carrying, as they did, their report to their homes and neighbors,
repeating, as is the instinct of human nature to do, the impres-
sions made upon them to their fellows as they met them, the
news of the wonderful effect of this speech within a day was
carried to every part of the county, speedily spread throughout
the State, and within the compass of a narrow lifetime, the name
of Edward O. Wolcott became familiar in every part of the Union

460 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

as that of one of the few men who pass the bounds that dis*
tinguish the orator from the speaker, and his fame became so
broad as even to cause him to be mentioned as a possible can-
didate for the highest office within the gift of the American
people.

The civil case told of by Senator Teller is that of Edward
Eddy vs. The Western Union Telegraph Company, and ante-
dates the Kerwin prosecution. Mr. Wolcott was not re-
quired to speak on this occasion. Referring to the incident,
Mr. Teller said:

While I was attending court at Georgetown on one occasion
in the territorial days, Wolcott came to me and said he had a
case for trial the next day. He added that it was his first suit,
and saying that he felt a little insecure, asked me if I would
not sit beside him during the trial. I said I would with pleas-
ure, and did so. He got a verdict for all he sued for, about
$150, I think, and while the amount was small, I doubt whether
he ever afterward obtained a verdict that gave him as much
pleasure as did that one.

The record of another very interesting civil case of those
early days in the First District, the conduct of which serves
to throw light upon the character of our young lawyer and
rising orator, has been supplied by Mr. Morrison. This was
the civil suit of Stoll vs. Lee, involving title to the Lone Tree
or Argentine mine. The trial took place in Georgetown.
Says Mr. Morrison :

The plaintiff kept a saloon with all the appurtenances — dance-
hall and singing girls; roulette, faro, and poker. Chips then
were current coin of the realm. Gorgeously lighted, Stoll's
place had more attractions than any resort of the kind in the
mountains. It was the place of congregation for all sorts of
sporting men, where they fattened on the miners, who went in
with pockets full and came out with pockets empty.

Jerry Lee, the defendant, who was Mr. Wolcott's client, was
a negro of marked force of character. Born a slave, he had
purchased with his earnings his own and his wife's freedom,
after which they came as pioneers to Central City, and strange
as it may seem, Lee was almost the first man to project and
build a smelter for the reduction of ores, which was located at

CHARACTERISTICS 461

the base of the mountain where his Argentine lode lay. Of
course, he was a hero among the people of his own color, and he
was known and respected bj every citizen in the community.

The case involved the construction of mining patents and
apex rights and the law was against Lee. His surveyors, Frank-
lin K. Carpenter, afterward a scientific man of international
reputation, and E. Le Neve Foster, who became State Geologist,
informed Wolcott that they could see no line of development
favorable to Lee. Wolcott said : "I am not going to the jury
on the law or the facts, but on the theory that no man with
a record like Jerry Lee's ought to lose what he honestly thinks
is his." I recollect his speech to that jury. He had the ground-
work on which to paint the shades and colors of the artist.
He pictured Lee as a slave toiling on the plantation under the
overlook and lash of the driver, and told of his conception of
the thought of freedom, of his bargain for the purchase of his own
and his wife's liberty by his own labor, and of his migration to
regions thousands of miles removed from his birthplace, to a
country, new, savage, and unknown, where, in spite of the odds
in favor of a dominant race, he became the acknowledged leader
of his own people.

Against this picture Wolcott drew the contrasting scene : the
leadership in vice of a man who held out to the young, to the
inexperienced, to the hard-working laboring class, all the tempta-
tions which allure to the taste of evil pleasures in the bowl,
the dance, the dice, the card-table, and the smiles of painted
women.

The jury found for the negro.

Letters to and from his father reveal the fact that he
not only gave thoughtful attention to the preparation of
each individual address, but that the general subject of
speech preparation and speech delivery was much in his
mind. We have seen that from the beginning of his career
his father and his grandfather regarded him as different
from the ordinary person, and he early was destined for the
profession of the law. Not only was he to be a lawyer, but
in the father's dreams for him he was to attain to eminence.
Generally young Wolcott either fell in with this thought or
suffered it to be entertained without protest. But not so
always. He had not concluded his first State campaign in
1880 when he became tired of the fuss and fury of the life

462 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

of the stump speaker, and we find him writing to his father
and protesting against being regarded as " a Man of Des-
tiny." " It involves too much of sham and pretence," he
said. He appeared at that time to think that he had readied
the zenith of his career, when, poor fellow, he was only at
its threshold!

FIRST LISPINGS

Great as was Mr. Wolcott's fame as a lawyer and bril-
liant as was his career, both were of most modest beginning.
Timid as he was at Georgetown and Boulder, he was not
entirely without experience as a public speaker. He had
been the talker for a picture show! But no! The begin-
ning antedated that experience. It came when a youth of
probably not more than eighteen years of age and while he
was a student at the Norwich Academy. Then his speech
was written — evidently a carefully prepared argument. At
least one must so judge from the only account of it that
has come down to us. The authority is no less than Ed's
sister Kate, — Mrs. Katherine W. Toll, — who in 1870 wrote
her brother a letter on that and other subjects, when she had
reached the mature age of sixteen. The paper on which the
letter is written is yellow with age, but the document tells
its story. It not only supplies a key to the early inclina-
tion of the brother, but it shows that even in that far-away
day he gave attention to the important fact of preparation.
This is the pertinent portion of the letter :

Mr. Jewett asked me the other day if I heard from you, and
how you were getting along. He said he remembered your
taking him to Grandfather's and reading him that speech, or
whatever you call it, in favor of Jeff. Davis. It was a debate
you entered into ; was n't it with Mr. Lyon ? He said he re-
membered it very distinctly, and I told him that I did, too, be-
cause you made me sit and watch the clock to see how long it
took you to go through with it. It began, " From the time
when the Constitution was first drawn up," etc.

Unfortunately for the purposes of history this important
manuscript has not been preserved, and similarly unfortu-
nate is it that the verdict of the jury, or the judge, has been

CHARACTERISTICS 463

lost to the world. If only we could know whether Mr.
Wolcott saved his client ! Some of the other letters bearing
on this period speak of his participation in a joint debate
which was a part of the closing exercises of the school, and
it is probable that the paper here referred to was the speech
prepared for that event.

That, however, the success of the young orator even at
that remote period was not left to chance we may further
infer from the testimony of his teacher in elocution at the
Norwich Academy. This teacher was Prof. Roswell N.
Parish. Prof. Parish's letter was elicited by a request from
A. P. Carroll to him in the interest of this work. Mr.
Carroll wrote Mr. Parish, May 8, 1909 :

The last time I visited the Senator, after listening to one
of his magnetic speeches in the Senate, before crowded galleries
(as was invariably the case whenever it was known that he was
to speak), our conversation on our way from dinner to the Club
turned to the scene of that afternoon, when, taking me by the
arm and stopping me in the park we were crossing, he said :
" Whatever ability I possess as a public speaker I owe to the
training that Parish gave me in the Norwich Academy " — a
tribute to your teaching which ever since I heard it I have
thought you should know.

Writing in reply from Brookline, Massachusetts, on the
16th of the same month, Prof. Parish said :

I remember the boy " Ed " Wolcott as a big, hearty, manly
fellow whom to teach was a pleasure, whose companionship was
a delight. I was young then myself, you know. Among my
treasures is a letter from him dated " Senate Chamber, January
2, 1891," in which, after a statement almost identical with that
of your note, he refers to our declamation work together " in
the library downstairs in that blessed old Academy," and he
adds, " The recollection of it all is more vivid than any other
of my school or college experiences."

Here is the key to his success as an orator, my share in which
was very small indeed : Like all boys who can " speak pieces " he
was ambitious to excel ; but an intense desire to find adequate ex-
pression to thought and feeling and a real pleasure in so doing
were the potent factors determining his schoolboy efforts. " The
recollection of it all " so " vivid " is thus accounted for. So

464 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

quick was he to appreciate the force of a criticism or the value of
a suggestion that he seemed to wait almost impatiently for the
last word of instruction, eager to attack the passage again from
the new point of view. It was too easy for him to " let himself
go," — he might readily have been made a ranter. My office was
simply to hold the reins over his enthusiasm, — to emphasize, —
to secure an indication of power in reserve.

Rut proficiency in declamation was only a small part of
Wolcott's equipment as an orator. I cannot but believe that,
whatever his training in this respect might have been, the abil-
ity, vigor, sincerity, and sense of propriety that so strongly
characterized the boy would still have carried him to the front
among public speakers in later years.

I remember distinctly that last " prize speaking " at the
Academy when Wolcott gave us the " Irish Aliens." He seemed
no Ed Wolcott then, but the original speaker, his soul on fire with
indignation, his voice quivering with rage. " Thrilling " was the
word I heard from an auditor when he left the platform. That
was no schoolboy declamation, but real eloquence, the promise
and foretaste of the future.

I would gladly give you incidents if they had not vanished
with years. But the impressions made by a strong personality
remain. I can see the Senator take you by the arm and stop
you in the park for that remark. Evidently he was still the
boy, alert, impulsive. A charming, lovable fellow, was he not?

Another instance of his success in speaking while still
a youth is given. One day while he was at Yale he and
some other boys started to attend the circus, but they first
determined to see the wonderful mysteries of a certain side-
show. The ticket-seller had had poor luck, and the Yale
boys began to banter him. They told him that Ed Wolcott
could soon get the crowd inside for him, and, much to the
delight of the Yale crowd, Ed mounted the box and began
selling tickets. He soon had most of the people listening
to him and in a short time filled the side-show tent with an
eager crowd, so intensely had he aroused the interest of his
out-of-door audience.

Mr. Wolcott has left a brief account of his participation
in the proceedings of a debating society while in the law
school at Cambridge. Writing to his father under date of
December 8, 1870, he says:

CHARACTERISTICS 465

I am very much interested at present over the question of
Free Trade and Protection, though as yet I have not read up
much on the question. I don't know whether I told you that we
have at the Law School besides smaller societies one to which
almost every member belongs called " Parliament," conducted
very correctly and according to the Manual, and there we settle
conclusively some of the great questions which seem to bother
other statesmen. We have settled almost everything but the
Free-Trade question.

In other portions of this work, Mr. Wolcott's connection
with a travelling panorama has been detailed. It will be
recalled that while studying law in Boston he took this work
to piece out his income. The experience was beneficial to
him in more ways than one. Undoubtedly the deviation
from his duties unsettled him somewhat in his studies. " But
it has," he tells in a letter of the time, " given me con-
fidence before an audience; it has shown me that I am very
deficient in extempore speaking, and that I must cultivate
it, and it has also shown me, although I don't mean to
speak of it egotistically, that I have an unusually fine voice
for public speaking, though pitched in a high key. I had
taken on a severe cold, but my voice has not failed in the
least."

COLORADO BEGINNINGS

From the stereopticon experience in New England in
1870, to the courts in Colorado in 1877, was a long distance
both in point of longitude and time, but what he must have
gained in experience he apparently lost in courage. He still
had the voice, but he lacked the confidence to face an
audience.

Nor, if we may judge from his appeals to his father, was
his confidence in his capacity for preparation complete. We
have seen how, soon after his election as District At-
torney, the young man applied to the elder for help, and
how he acknowledged the aid thus obtained. Mr. Wolcott
was accustomed to consult his father at almost every turn in
the early days of his District Attorneyship. In one case,
where he expected that the defence would try to awaken

466 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

sympathy for a man accused of murder, on the ground of
his advanced age, the young official expressed thankfulness
for a Scriptural quotation, the last clause of which he said
he could use effectively. The quotation ran : " The hoary
head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of
righteousness." This was not the first time that the father's
suggestions were invited; nor was it by any means the last.
The requests went forward as long as Dr. Wolcott lived. Not
only did Ed ask assistance in the preparation of his ad-
dresses, but often when completed they were forwarded for
the careful inspection and trained censorship and criticism,
of the father.

One of the best examples we have of his pleas for help
is contained in a letter dated at Denver, September 30, 1880.
In it he also mentions past favors. " E. O." then had just
come from his triumph at the Leadville State convention,
the first State political meeting in which he ever had figured
conspicuously, if at all. He had been mentioned for Con-
gress and had made a generally good impression. Let him
continue the story:

I have promised Governor Routt, Chairman of the State Com-
mittee, to stump the State this fall. I shrink from it as I
never did from anything, and fear I shall make a complete
failure of it; and my fear is augmented from the fact that
everybody seems to expect me to do so well. But I suppose
I shall have to make the attempt somehow.

I have no knowledge whatever of the political history of
my country and the vaguest ideas of what I can talk about;
I suppose my speeches will be reported more or less fully, and
I 've got to vary them somewhat.

When I was a youngster at school, you used to help me
out with my declamations. When I was to graduate at Nor-
wich, it is my recollection that you composed most if not all
of my address (and by the way, I remember it was very well
spoken of), and when I had my first murder case, and was
entering upon my first prosecution as District Attorney, I re-
lied materially upon you, and was greatly assisted by you. In
fact, whenever I get into a tight place, I find (and I say it
not the least disrespectfully) that I turn involuntarily to the
"Old Man." Won't you help me out again, Father? I have J
got one or two beginnings and ends. I want some more. I can

CHARACTERISTICS 467

never, even in a law case, do anything good unless I can com-
mence and " taper " intelligently. I want also any good speeches
you can lay hold on, and would feel obliged if you can find
at any bookstore any hand-books or compendiums of any kind
that will inform me as to the past of the party and the country,
with dates, details, and statistics, and send me the bills (for
the books I mean ; the other, the help you render me, will have
to go into the old account which nothing I could do would ever
repay) .

Business is not good, and my time is pretty much my own;
but I feel a disinclination even to attempt any preparation.
Did you ever feel this in the face of necessity for work, and
the more pressing the necessity, the greater the aversion?

The response came promptly and was full of points evi-
dently to the liking of the young orator. Acknowledging its
receipt, he said:

Your letter and one of the books came last night, and I
am obliged for your suggestions and Will's. I have the matter
of my speeches now in my mind, and have material for several.
What I was after in my letter to you, were the little turns
which save a speech from dulness, some figures or similes, and
some ideas as to commencings and endings. You are very apt
with these, and I distrust myself.

In this letter Edward Wolcott made an important promise
to his father. " I shall certainly follow your suggestion in
respect to standing always on high ground," he said, and
he added, " I have done this uniformly in my jury cases."

In certain of his moods, Mr. Wolcott was given to self-
depreciation, and he was in the habit of acquainting his
father with his state of mind. A few specimens will suffice.

On October 13th, after the campaign had begun, we find
him analyzing and picking flaws in his own methods. He
had found, he said, that he could not make a speech of
more than thirty or forty minutes' duration.

My material gives out, and I am unwilling to talk statistics.
I speak altogether too fast, something over 200 words a minute,
and I lack self-possession. I shall be able to improve these de-
fects somewhat, but I need more experience than this season

468 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

will give me before I shall become a particularly good talker.
It is in me to a certain extent, but I can see the limit to my
powers in that direction.

He found too, according to this introspective letter, that
his speeches were " always the same." He was not con-
scious at the time of having committed a speech to memory.

And yet [he says] two thirds of it is in precisely the same lan-
guage, word for word, each evening. My mind runs in just that
groove and will not leave it. I could not, to save me, change
that speech, unless, possibly, I had to — that is, had to deliver
two speeches in the same place to the same audience. So I am
accepting the inevitable, and giving them the same speech.

He acknowledged in this letter that he had been " par-
ticularly successful in his stump speaking," and yet he de-
clared he was " heartily sick of it," and he wanted to cancel
most of his engagements. " But Henry and my other friends
won't listen to it. I have shown," he added, " that I can
do that sort of thing, and have satisfied myself of it, and
that seems enough."

On the 25th of October, he had concluded his cam-
paign and he sent home a copy of the Denver Tribune of
that date containing the first full report of a speech by
him that ever found its way into print. After speaking of
the effort he takes his father into his confidence concerning
his recent and new experiences.

I am [he says] so glad it 's over. I 've had some thirty invita-
tions for this week, and have declined them all. I shall not
speak again except perhaps for half an hour with Belford, the
night before election. The only pride I have had in the whole
matter was that I might gratify you and Henry, and might
justify the good things my friends have said of me. I was
glad to get your appreciative letter, but your hope as to my
future is founded on an exaggerated belief in my abilities, and
this in turn comes only from your fondness for me, which blinds
your judgment. It is very pleasant to believe that I could do
almost anything, but if it is all the same, Father, I 'd rather
not be a " Man of Destiny," as you suggest.

A somewhat awkward contretemps occurred in connec-

CHARACTERISTICS 469

tion with one of Mr. Wolcott's early speeches. He was
booked for an address on Forefathers' Day in Denver in
1881, and he was told in advance that he would be expected
to respond to the toast " Connecticut." When, however,
the dinner came on, he was asked to speak on the subject
of " Massachusetts." Necessarily, having prepared his
speech, he was somewhat disconcerted. But he was equal
to the occasion, and the speech is still remembered as one
of the brightest and wittiest of his earlier efforts. It was
in this address he said jestingly that, while, in Heaven,
New Englanders would sing the solos, people of other sec-
tions of the country would be permitted to join in the chorus.

This address, like many others of the period, was the
subject of correspondence with his father. It was at this
time that the ^Yolcott Family Memorial was published, and
acknowledging a copy of it under date of December 9th, he
said: "I haven't had even time to read the Memorial. I
have promised to respond to the toast of Connecticut at a
dinner on Forefathers' Day, at which Governor Pitkin, Gov-
ernor Evans, and others are to speak, and I am glad the
book is here, for I know I can crib something good from
it. I don't for the life of me know what to say about
Connecticut."

Presumably, he got along better with Massachusetts than
he would have done with Connecticut. No adequate report
of the speech was printed in the papers of the day, but the
Denver Republican tells us that he " referred briefly to the
triumphs of the Old Bay State in the Revolution and Re-
bellion and spoke of the influence she had exerted on litera-
ture and politics." A somewhat more extended reference
was made by the Rocky Mountain News, which undertook,
but evidently in the reporter's own language, to supply an
extract. Following is the quotation from the News:

I see that we are not alone here, but that we are surrounded
by others who are so unfortunate as not to have been born in
New England. But I am willing to admit that these are human
beings and that when they die they will undoubtedly go some-
where, and though they may not range so high, they will un-
doubtedly get a harp that they can play on, after a fashion.

470 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

They call this a New England dinner, but I don't think the
New Englanders have ever sat down together to so good a
dinner as this since the days when they used to steal corn from
the Indians.

There is much in Puritanism that will survive forever. It
was a protest against formalism, against the union of Church
and State. The Puritan spirit bred a race of statesmen whose
learning and patriotism shed a lustre over the whole nation,
and they did one thing which we Western States would have
done well to imitate : they annihilated all the marauding Indians
of the border. I am proud of my New England ancestors; and
this leads me to say that I was originally asked to respond for
Connecticut, as some of my ancestors came from that State, but
as Connecticut is known as the land of steady habits I thought
I was not hardly the man to reply for it.

March 5, 1881, about the time his term as a State Senator
closed, he wrote his father saying he was out of politics and
indicating indifference to the law as a profession. Evi-
dently he was in one of his " blue " moods. Referring to
his future, he said : " My business is good, but I am not
very fond of my profession. I hate the jar and contact of
it. I want to be ' let alone.' If some morning I could
wake up and find myself rich, I could do nothing, and be
happy. Not a very honorable ambition, is it? "

In October of the same year, he wrote : " I am far
from being a good lawyer. I lack depth, and I constantly
find myself getting beyond my depth."

It would appear from Mr. Wolcott's correspondence that
up to 1884 he never actually put a speech on paper. He
made prompt report to his father on this first written pre-
paration of an address. At that time he did not believe the
practice would prove beneficial to him, and was inclined
against it because he thought it made him too dependent.
Part of the written speech was delivered in Denver on July
15th of that year. It was the subject not only of a letter
to the father, but of one from him, and as both letters bear
on the general subject of the younger man's oratory they
are given entire. July 13th of that year, Mr. Wolcott
wrote :

A year ago the Press Association elected me their orator for

CHARACTERISTICS 471

this year. I was so busy that I had but a few days to prepare.
The thing was a fizzle and the address never delivered. I was
glad of it, but glad also that I prepared the address. It is
the first time that I ever wrote a speech or address. It is not
a good thing for me. When the written words are before me,
my imagination and my memory both refuse to act, and I am
confined to the written words. I venture to send it to you.
Will you please read it? Give me your candid opinion of it,
and return it to me. I know of no critic whose opinion I would
accept as soon as your own. It seems to me to be true, dignified,
and very commonplace. Unless a man can rise above the level,
he had better not attempt to teach. Some of it I shall use in
a political speech which I am to make next Wednesday evening.
I do not expect to do much in the canvass, but shall probably
have to make a few speeches.

Ten days later, July 23d, Dr. Wolcott replied:

Your favor, 13th instant, was duly received, and I return the
enclosed with thanks, after reading it carefully. The first im-
pression which I receive from the address is, that it is a very
different thing from what they were expecting when they invited
you. They looked for a brilliant and witty effusion; instead of
which they received a sober talk, a solid lecture. This, how-
ever, does not condemn it. Wit should be unpremeditated and
irrepressible; it is apt to become stale if it is bottled up for an
occasion. When you put your thoughts on paper you should
be as practical and sensible as you can be. This was your suc-
cessful aim; and it is better than to have tried to be witty.
If you do not enhance your reputation for wit, you do for good
judgment and sound sense, which is better.

The sarcasm of exempting the youthful press of Colorado
from the sweep of the criticism is perhaps a little too keen. I
hardly think that some of the men before you could have helped
feeling that you were dissecting them, which strikes me as an
undesirable process for such an occasion. Another impression
not wholly desirable is that there is a little too much of ap-
parent self -vindication in it. It is an elaborate justification of
your bolt of last year. It will come with more effect from
you, if deferred for a year, and after you have supported the
regular ticket by a few speeches.

You spoke of using it in part in a campaign speech; and I
did not see how it could be done. But the speech has just

172 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

come to hand, and I see that you have used a portion of it
very effectively. The self-vindication does not seem to me here
to be out of place, but rather to be called for — yet not to be
repeated. This speech strikes me as in every respect admirable
and I am glad that you have made it.

REASONS FOR SUCCESS

To Mr. Wolcott's distrust of himself may be attributed
his success as an orator. It caused him to prepare his
speeches with exceptional care, and this preparation resulted
in a system which in the hands of a person of his taste,
judgment, and general capability must insure success. Anx-
ious ever to excel; humiliated by failure in any undertaking;
confident of his own ability but distrustful of himself before
a crowd, he took no chances in his speeches because of un-
preparedness. Not only did he give thorough consideration
in advance to his speeches, but he put the most important
of them on paper. He appreciated the many disadvan-
tages of the written speech, but far greater than these,
in his mind, was the possibility of failure or of a poor effort.
When typewritten, the speech was committed to memory
and delivered as if extemporaneous. The result was an
oration prepared in the quiet of the study and finished in
every detail of thought and diction, and delivered with all
the charm of voice and manner of which he was capable.

He possessed the impulse of public speech. He told Clin-
ton Reed before he began his oratorical career that he had
an infinite longing to appear before an audience. His abili-
ties were known to his friends. They pressed him to en-
deavor, and their demand corresponding with his own de-
sire must in the end necessarily bear fruit. Mr. Thomas
has told us that he was placed in a position where he could
not avoid talking. If, then, he must speak, he must speak
to the best advantage. He did nothing in an ordinary way,
and his appearances before the public should be no exception.
This was his line of reasoning, and it resulted in a masterful
success.

Not always was the speech reduced to writing, but if
circumstances permitted, it was. But even when there was

CHARACTERISTICS 473

no writing, the facts always were well in hand and the
course of the discussion plainly marked out in his mind.

It is not intended to convey the impression that Mr. Wol-
cott was not capable of extemporaneous speech. Many of
his most telling points were made without especial prepara-
tion. But offhand speaking never was entered upon except
under stress of circumstances, such as a running debate in
the Senate, in an ordinary campaign, or on some other
unforeseen occasion.

In general discussion in the Senate, as in a set speech,
Mr. Wolcott had few equals ; but he did not enjoy this kind
of speechmaking, and, if he could have done so, he would
have avoided it altogether. He prepared for these occasions
by acquainting himself with his subject, but he could not
present his matter in the perfect manner that he liked. The
inference should not be drawn that he spoke merely for
the purpose of arousing momentary attention or that he
courted promiscuous applause. He liked the approval of
the discriminating, but, above all, his purpose was ever the
accomplishment of results. He did not believe illy-chosen
language and illogical utterance capable of influencing
sentiment or changing opinion. He considered himself un-
justified in speaking unless he had something worthy of
presentation, or unless his ideas were dressed in proper garb.
Believing that such material came only by and through
painstaking research and such dress as the result only of
much care, he gave time and attention equally to the collec-
tion of his facts and to their presentation, and then to the
delivery of the speech. The result was a completeness and
polish that could not have been obtained in a less studied
manner.

These are some of the explanations of his success as a
public speaker. But they are by no means all — nor the
principal ones. If others are to be sought one must take
into account his superior intellect, his sincerity, his logical,
forceful, and clean-cut presentation of a subject; his mar-
vellous memory, which rendered at all times available his
wide and careful reading; a courage of conviction which per-
mitted him so to speak the truth as to touch the hearts of
men; his deep insight into human nature; his sympathetic

474 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

appreciation of the mood of his audience, and his capacity
to go to the heart of things. Add to these a discreet sense
of humor, an equal capacity for sarcasm and for pathos, a
love of order, and an artistic temperament, and you have
some idea of Wolcott the orator.

There was no apparent effort at oratory in Mr. Wolcott's
speeches. He did not employ a wide range of language, but
his words were select. He never indulged in platitudes ; few
figures of speech are to be found in his public utterances;
he quoted poetry sparingly, though most aptly; he did not
permit himself to engage in long dissertations; there was
little of mere word painting. He told a friend that his
vocabulary did not comprise more than five hundred words,
but this of course is an underestimate. When he had con-
cluded on a point, he left it with the audience and then
proceeded without loss of time or unnecessary circumlocution
to take up another portion of his subject, which in turn
was similarly disposed of.

While he intimated to his father that he desired sugges-
tions for introductions and perorations, he did not resort
to any great extent to the ordinary " approaches," but, on the
contrary, generally plunged immediately into his subject.
From the start he was direct and spoke to the point. He
studied how not to tire his audiences, and as a consequence
held them to the end. He would not speak unless he had
something to say, and when there was no longer anything
to say he stopped. He never discussed dead issues; he did
not hesitate to call names; he was acquainted with the
world; he knew how to entertain, and he knew that he
must entertain in order to convince. Moreover, in his
speeches, he held aloft a high standard of morals, and, let
its practices be what they may, the world wants its preaching
to be of a high order.

But, beyond and above all other traits contributing to
Mr. Wolcott's success as a popular speaker, was his capacity
to grasp a situation and measure the inclination of his
audience. This faculty was due to his broad sympathy
with, and his complete understanding of, human nature.
Intuitive in high degree, he read the minds of people
almost as easily as he read their books. He seemed to know

CHARACTERISTICS 475

instinctively just how any given situation would affect any
especial community or particular assemblage. He knew how
to play upon the interests and the feelings, how to touch the
sentiment and appeal to the ideals of men ; he appreciated the
full effect of words and of circumstances. He knew where
to use reason, where to play his sarcasm, and where to re-
sort to humor and cajolery. Of vast experience, of broad
interest in many affairs, and acquainted with all sorts and
conditions of men, he could place himself in sympathetic
touch with almost any audience.

Not strange was it, then, that the man had magnetism.
Honesty, earnestness, sympathy, capacity, high ideals, dash,
courage, intellect, genius, superiority, are ever magnetic.

Not Mr. Wolcott's material alone was choice; his man-
ner was most attractive. He possessed a commanding
figure, his dress was tasteful, and his voice was nothing
less than fascinating. All these complements of the orator
he knew how to make the most of. His voice was particu-
larly helpful. It was full of music and it was capable
of withstanding almost any strain. Apparently without
effort, his words reached the remotest corners of the largest
halls, and even when he spoke for the benefit of persons at
a distance he did not produce a disagreeable effect upon
those nearby, as do so many orators who strive for volume
of sound. He did not permit the fact that he prepared his
speeches in advance to mar their delivery. As he eliminated
prosy details in their substance, so he avoided humdrum in
their presentation. His written addresses always were so
well memorized that the ordinary auditor did not know that
they were not extemporaneous.

In a word, Mr. Wolcott made a business of speechmaking.
He never talked except for a purpose; when he spoke, he
had an end in view beyond mere talk. His success was the
reward of unremitting labor for each effort, and of previous
general preparation.

SENATORIAL AND CAMPAIGN SPEECHES

The announcement that Senator Wolcott would address
the Senate never failed to draw a crowded gallery, and he
always reciprocated by giving the best that was in him.

476 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

While he made many notable addresses on the outside, his
fame would be secure if it rested only on his Senate addresses.
He preferred to prepare his speeches, but he was a close
observer of all that transpired, and frequently joined in the
running discussion. Some thought him most effective in
this line of oratory, but he did not think so, and the verdict
of posterity will sustain his judgment. When a subject
was of sufficient importance to merit any unusual effort,
he followed the custom established by him of giving notice
of his intention to speak. In these speeches he always
omitted what to him seemed to be trifling details, and,
to use the common parlance, " hit only the high places."
He spoke with great effect and commanded the absolute
attention of his colleagues as well as that of the crowded
galleries.

He treated every Senate speech seriously. For days and
nights preceding the delivery of an address, he worked la-
boriously upon the mass of data which he would assemble
before him, and when he had prepared himself he proceeded to
dictate to his stenographer. Sometimes, reading over what
was written, he would be wholly dissatisfied with it. Then
the matter was rewritten, and frequently, still unsatisfied, he
would make numerous revisions. So careful was he in his
preparation that there never was anything to add to or sub-
tract from his prepared speeches.

The manner of delivery was not left to chance. The
speech completed, he would enter upon the stupendous labor
of committing it to memory. He memorized with ease, but
often the task was laborious because of the length of the
prepared address. Holding in his hand his manuscript, for
hours he would pace up and down his library or bedroom,
repeating aloud the words, and even then he would throw
into them all the dramatic effect which to him seemed so
essential to render them impressive. No more notable demon-
stration of his virile mentality ever was given than when
he addressed the Senate upon the results of the work of the
Bimetallic Commission. This was a long speech, and yet
every word was memorized by him, and he delivered it in
a superb fashion. Upon its conclusion, notwithstanding the
subject was dry and there was a rare amount of de-

CHARACTERISTICS 477

tail, the usual passiveness of the Senate was broken and
Senators crowded about him and extended profuse congratu-
lations. A newspaper man who " held copy on him " while
this speech was being delivered, reported afterward that
he had not skipped or misplaced a word.

One of his Senatorial secretaries has supplied the fol-
lowing brief but graphic pen-picture of his chief in the
preparation and delivery of his speeches:

When Wolcott was preparing a speech it was his habit to
lock the door, light a cigar, and begin pacing the room just like
one of the wild animals at the zoo. After a long time thus
spent, he would begin dictating, between puffs. He was a good
dictator, his thoughts coming smoothly and his grammar nearly
faultless. Even for his unwritten speeches he made exhaustive
preparation by careful investigation. Notes were made and
elaborated upon, but his memory and his ready wit were de-
pended upon to meet the exigencies of any given occasion. When
he got into action in the Senate on an extemporaneous speech
he kept to his notes for a time; but as interruptions came and
he lost his temper (which was no trouble at all, as Senators
delighted to work him up by prodding), he threw his notes away
or could n't find the place again, and just let himself go. It
was at this period that the real speech began and he was gen-
erally allowed to finish, for oratory had broken loose.

In preparing for a political campaign, he pursued the
plan of making a careful study of the entire range of sub-
jects liable to be under discussion, and of mentally outlin-
ing his views on each of them, if he did not actually commit
them to writing. He thus had a stock prepared to draw
from as occasion might demand. There always was more
than was needed at any one place, and he would select from
the store as seemed best to meet the requirements of his
audience. It necessarily happened, as with all campaign
orators, that often his political speeches " lapped over," and
that there was more or less repetition ; but no two of them
were wholly alike. There was as much variety as the par-
ticular circumstances demanded and as general conditions
would permit. In these speeches, as a rule, there was a
full discussion of national questions, which always were
presented in such a lucid way as to render them easily

478 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

comprehended by the ordinary mind. Local and state issues
were handled " without gloves " ; and abuses were attacked
fearlessly, regardless of the ownership of the ox that might
be gored. Fellow-partymen felt his lash quite as frequently
as did his political opponents, and he did not hesitate to
mention individuals if necessary to make his point or
render his speech effective. The opposition press of what-
ever party never failed to receive its share of attention, and
frequently the castigation administered was most severe.
He could be as sarcastic and caustic as any public man
who ever lived, and he seemed to delight in speaking at the
expense of the press, knowing of course that the press had
at least an equal opportunity to reply in kind. He was not
afraid of newspaper opposition, and did not let the prospect
of it deter him from carrying out any given policy. The
" yellow " press was his especial aversion.

ESTIMATES OF CONTEMPORARIES

Justice Brewer has told how intrepid Mr. Wolcott
was when it would have been more politic to be conciliatory,
and Mr. Thomas tells us that he has known but few men
who excelled him as a public speaker. When asked for
an estimate of the Colorado statesman, Senator Warren,
of Wyoming, replied without hesitation : " He was the most
eloquent man of his day."

Mr. David S. Barry, head of the New York Sun Wash-
ington Bureau during Mr. Wolcott's twelve years of service
in the Senate, says of his power as an orator :

Senator Wolcott was admitted to be the most graceful and elo-
quent public speaker in either House of Congress in his day, and
it is not, perhaps, going too far to say that his place as an
orator was unique. At least it has never been filled. Physi-
cally he was a most attractive personality, and his rich, full, far-
reaching voice was tuneful and most pleasing to hear. His
impetuous style was peculiar to himself and his habit of memo-
rizing his speeches and delivering them as though improvised on
the spur of the moment, enabled him to round out his sentences,
adhere to his style, and keep his rhetoric clear.

Writing of Mr. Wolcott a few weeks after he had been

UttAKAUTJUKlSTlCS 479

elected to the Senate in 1889, Hon. Charles Page Bryan,
afterward Minister to Brazil and also to Portugal, and who
formerly had been a neighbor of Mr. Wolcott's in Clear
Creek County, said:

In addition to the prestige of family, he is gifted with re-
markable persuasiveness of speech. The magnetism of a Blaine
and the domineering determination of a Conkling are likewise
his. No young man has entered on a Senatorial career with
finer chances. His personality is unique. Wolcott's originality
is not eccentricity, but is rather akin to genius. From his great
chest words flow like a torrent from the mountains, or a ser-
mon from Phillips Brooks's inexhaustible fountain. The two
speakers belong to the same school of oratory. Earnestness
of tone is Wolcott's peculiar forte. He persuades his hearers
that he is himself imbued with the belief that dire consequences
must follow disregard of his exhortations. The reformatory
spirit seems to possess him at times, and contrasts curiously with
the buoyant, devil-may-care nature of the man.

Governor Thomas supplies a general estimate of Mr.
Wolcott as a speaker and legislator, as follows:

I have known of but few men during my lifetime who ex-
celled Senator Wolcott as a public speaker. His was the out-
ward form of an orator. He was a man of splendid presence,
with a clear and attractive voice, with beautiful and perfect
enunciation, with few but very expressive gestures, and with
a diction couched in the choicest and purest English, and yet
in words of simple import and easily understood by every one.
I have heard him on the platform, at the forum, in the Senate
of the United States, and on miscellaneous occasions. I have
heard him speak with the deliberation of the drawing-room, with
the fervor of partisanship, and in the fury of passionate denun-
ciation. No man of his time was more expressive, more eloquent,
more sarcastic, more pathetic, or more convincing as a public
speaker; and while serious personal and political differences un-
fortunately marred the tenor of our intercourse during the last
years of his life, I venture to affirm that of all the public men
of Colorado Edward O. Wolcott is easily first in prominence,
capacity, eloquence, and influence. As a Senator he gave the
State a prominence and influence in national affairs that it
never had before and never has had since. I did not agree with

480 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

many of his views, or, except one, with any of his policies; but
I never questioned his great genius, his tremendous ability, and
the potent influence which he wielded in State and national
affairs from the day of his entrance into public life up to the
hour of his death.

IN THE COURT-ROOM

Governor Thomas also kindly furnishes a glimpse of Mr.
Wolcott as a member of the bar, as follows:

From the time of Senator Wolcott's advent as a member of the
Denver bar until 1896, I was intimately acquainted with him,
and at times enjoyed his personal friendship and confidence.
During that time we were associated in the prosecution and
defence of many important controversies, and were quite as
frequently opposed to each other. I was, therefore, able to
judge fairly well of his strength and weakness as a practising
attorney.

He was extremely impatient of details. It was difficult for
him to investigate a complicated mass of facts, consider them
one by one, analyze their characteristics, and either combine or
separate them for purposes of trial. His highly nervous organi-
zation made it almost impossible for him to utilize the time
and exercise the patience which such a task requires. He could
do so, if absolutely necessary, but he almost invariably left such
work to others. He fortunately in time secured the services
and co-operation of Mr. Joel F. Vaile, whose capacity for in-
tricacies of detail was quite as remarkable as Mr. Wolcott's
capacity for other things, and together they formed an almost
perfect combination.

On the other hand, I never knew a man with a greater talent
for seizing upon the vital points of a controversy. This Mr.
Wolcott could do almost by instinct. I have frequently been
in conference with him concerning matters of detail, of which
he heard for the first time, and I have been amazed at his
facility for quickly sifting the vital features of a transaction
from its less important ones, and pointing out the necessity of
establishing or overthrowing these conditions if our client ex-
pected to be successful.

On one occasion he came into the court-room to assist in the
trial of a case, of which he knew practically nothing beyond
its title. He listened to the opening statements of counsel for

CHARACTERISTICS 481

the plaintiff and defence, and then seizing a tablet he outlined
the important issues involved as rapidly as his hand could
trace the sentences upon the blank paper. This, too, was a case
which consumed fully ten days in its trial.

He was most generous and courteous to associate counsel.
He always welcomed them into his cases, and made them
feel, as far as he could do so, that he, as well as his clients,
depended upon them quite as much as, if not more than himself.
There were exceptions to this practice, but they were observed
only when the action of co-counsel justified them.

Mr. Wolcott never liked the drudgery and confinement of
long trials; he participated in them as a matter of course, but
he withdrew more and more as the years passed from these
hotly contested and bitter controversies, preferring the work
of his office, but always having strong representation in court
whenever the interests of his clients required it.

Speaking of Mr. Wolcott as a lawyer in the early Colo-
rado clays, Hon. Jacob Fillius, who knew him intimately,
says :

" I well remember the magnetic influence that he had in
those days before a jury. He wras practically irresistible.
His method of conducting a prosecution was eminently fair.
He was, however, most resourceful, his mentality acute, and
his instant grasp of a legal proposition was little short of
genius."

In another connection will be found a letter from John
G. Milburn, Esq., of New York, in which he presents a
view of the Colorado attorney as he appeared when the
two were law partners in Denver in 1882. His analysis
of Mr. Wolcott's characteristics as a lawyer is so true
to nature and so pertinent to this portion of the memoir
that the following extract is repeated :

To estimate his gifts and qualities as a lawyer is not easy
in the case of such a complex, varied, and impulsive person-
ability. He was not a quiet, methodical, or plodding worker, or
a continuous student by nature or habit. He was so overrun-
ning with nervous force and energy that every hour took its
own line and often a different one. I do not mean by this
that he was not capable of long stretches of work on the same
subject, because he was, and sometimes almost to an abnormal

482 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

extent. He did his work according to the ways of the impulsive,
flashing, intuitive mind, moving rapidly over a subject and yet
seeing into the heart of it and grasping its essential features,
and always with luminous and suggestive results. The me-
chanical work of the profession was irksome to him. His
strength was in advocacy, that being a domain in which he
could avail himself of patient, painstaking, and diligent assist-
ants. His gifts and powers were natural rather than acquired.
He had a distinctly legal mind; a voice of rare charm and
power; a manner and personality that arrested and held the
attention of men ; high spirits, humor, distinction, and a pas-
sionate seriousness when aroused, and the gift of pure and
genuine eloquence. He was an able and effective lawyer, and
if he had given his energies and devotion entirely to the law
he would have been one of the commanding advocates of his
time.

That judges as well as juries had respect for the ability
of Mr. Wolcott to take care of himself is attested by many.
One instance will suffice. It is related by Judge Morton
S. Bailey, a Justice of the Supreme Court of Colorado:

In the fall of 1880 I was a law student at Denver, Colo-
rado, in the office of Messrs. Markham, Patterson & Thomas. At
that time the District court-room was over the old post-office
at the corner of Fifteenth and Lawrence streets. It was my
custom to attend the sessions of this court on motion mornings,
as they were called, which occurred regularly, by fixed ap-
pointment, and were the occasions of bringing together prac-
tically all of the members of the bar. On one of these mornings
I recall the fact that an unusually bright and apparently capable
young lawyer, attractive in dress, manner, face, and style of
speech, argued a motion for a continuance in a case in which
the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company was defendant,
and for which company he appeared. He was noticeably modest
and retiring, and indeed to me seemed quite embarrassed in
urging his application, as if new to and unacquainted with the
work. Still he made a showing, by affidavits and clear-cut, well-
stated argument, which then seemed to me unanswerable.

I was captivated by the young man and his manner of pre-«
senting his cause; not so, however, the trial judge, for scarcely
had the young advocate resumed his seat when the Hon. Victor
A. Elliott, then upon the bench, announced that the motion for

CHARACTERISTICS 483

a continuance was overruled and denied. I was filled with re-
sentment against the Judge, and with sympathy for the young
lawyer, at what I conceived to be an unnecessarily abrupt and
erroneous ruling.

In a talk that evening with Judge Elliott at whose house
I was then stopping, his attention was called to this incident
of the morning court session, the recollection of which had
remained with me all day, and with the outcome of which
I was so thoroughly dissatisfied. I ventured the opinion to
the Judge that he had made a mistake in his action on
the motion, which seemed to me to have merit, and at the
same time expressed deep sympathy for the young man who
had shown such embarrassment, and so much diffidence and
courtesy in the presentation of his application. Thereupon
the Judge, evidently amused by my deep concern, made inquiry
as to whether I knew the young man, and upon being told that
I had never before seen or heard of him, he replied : " Well, my
young friend, there is little need for you to waste sympathy in
this matter. That young lawyer was Ed Wolcott, and he is
not only entirely capable of protecting the rights of his client
in this or any other case, but he is equally well able to take
care of himself, in any controversy, legal, political, or other-
wise, in which he may hereafter become engaged."

Thus it was that I first saw and knew Senator Wolcott, and
the favorable impression then formed grew with the years and
the pleasant personal acquaintance which came later.

On another occasion Judge Elliott said that Wolcott
could come nearer making a jury cry over a railroad's side
of a case than any other lawyer he ever had heard.

Elsewhere account has been given of Mr. Wolcott's rapid
reading and quick apprehension of the essential points pre-
sented by any problem, and his brother Herbert has supplied
a word showing how this faculty was utilized in the court-
room. He says :

I was in Ed's office for a year and he often gave me legal
questions to look up. When I would start to tell him what I
had found, he would listen for the first few words and then,
seeing what I was starting to say, he would stop me before
I had finished the first sentence. This same quickness of
understanding what a person was starting to say he carried
into the trial of lawsuits, and, however unexpected the answer,

484 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Ed was never disturbed by it, but always had his next question
ready; and by his rapid questions, asked in a natural manner
as though about mere formal matters, he would lead witnesses
into places from which they could not readily extricate them-
selves. Ed always kept his good nature when trying a lawsuit.
He would speak in a clear voice and by his bright remarks and
funny turns he kept the close attention of the court and jury.

Mr. Herbert Wolcott also has kindly supplied an ac-
count of his brother's conduct of the Bonnybel mining case,
involving the Bonnybel property at Aspen, Colorado, then
worth millions of dollars. This was one of the most im-
portant pieces of mining litigation ever conducted in the
State and attracted much attention at the time. Of this
suit Mr. Wolcott says:

Ed was busy during the preparation of the case, so that this
had been in the hands of other lawyers who were assist-
ing in the case. Ed's client was clearly and openly very
much provoked that Ed had not given the case more attention
and even carried his " grouch " into the trial of the case. The
trial started, and the men who had prepared the suit called
and examined the witnesses for the defendant, who was Ed's
client and who still was feeling " sore " that Ed had not given
the work more of his personal attention. The plaintiff put on
his chief witness, a famous mining expert who had spent months
in examining the mine and in preparation for the trial. His
direct testimony was overwhelming. Ed then took the witness
for his cross-examination ; and three or four hours of his mas-
terly questioning won the case for the defendant, who turned
up at the office smiling and chuckling and wildly enthusiastic
for Ed.

I recall one slight incident of this cross-examination which
in a small way shows Ed's methods. The defendant was
trying to show that the " Bonnybel " was not taking ore from
a vein but from disintegrated rock, and Ed led the witness
to say that he had been in different parts of the mine. Pointing
out one of the rooms in the mine on a map that was in evidence,
he asked the witness how many loose rocks he had seen in
that particular room. He answered " One." Ed quickly picked up
a rock that was lying on the table and said : " This rock came
from that room; can you tell now whether there is another loose
rock in that room or whether it is all solid vein ? " Every one

CHARACTERISTICS 485

in the courtroom laughed except the witness, who did not know
what to say. Ed started at him again while he was still feeling
dazed and annoyed.

Mr. Wolcott's argument in the Bonnybel case was made
November 26, 1889, less than a year after he entered the
Senate. It was a masterful presentation of the details of
a highly complicated piece of litigation. He showed a won-
derfully clear knowledge not only of the facts, but of the
law involved. The testimony of all the witnesses was ana-
lyzed and all the points favorable to the owners of the Bonny-
bel brought out in strong contrast to the weaknesses of the
opposition, at the head of which stood Mr. D. M. Hyman,
who, although largely interested in Colorado, was a resident
of Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a worthy gentleman. But he
was opposed to Wolcott's client. It was expedient that
such defects as he possessed be made known. And they were.
Mr. Wolcott spared neither opposing litigant nor his counsel
or witnesses, while every point in favor of his own client was
at finger's end and was made to count. For many years
his conduct of the case was cited in Colorado as a model in
mining litigation.

With the litigation long since settled satisfactorily to
Mr. Wolcott and his client, with the silver that made the
mine valuable discredited, and with Aspen no longer the
place of importance that it wTas, it would be unprofitable to
repeat the entire speech. He closed as follows :

With your verdict, whatever it may be, we shall be content.
Our hopes, our interests, and our future are with you. You may
impoverish and take from us our property, and add another
neighbor's scalp to Mr. Hyman's already crowded belt, or you
may give us a verdict that will award to us our Bonnybel mine,
with the right to follow it wherever it shall go into the earth;
and you could never, gentlemen, do a more gracious act, nor
one more consistent with justice and with equity, than to give
a verdict for the defendants in this case.

Whether in the court-room or on the rostrum Mr. Wolcott
was one of the fastest of speakers. He seemed never to
hesitate for proper expression, and words followed one
another with the celerity of shot from a rapid-fire rifle. But

486 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

for the fact that his enunciation was distinct, reporters would
have found it almost impossible to follow him, and even
with this advantage in their favor, the work was difficult.
This was especially true in the examination of witnesses.
With him rapid speech was second nature, and he used the
faculty both to expedite business and confound opposing
witnesses. In the latter effort he was most successful. As
a cross-examiner he was a terror to reporters. One instance
is recorded where a stenographer conveniently mislaid his
notes when called upon for a transcript, for the reason that
the Senator's examination had come too swiftly for him.

Mr. Wolcott argued many cases before the Supreme Court
of the United States involving railroad, mining, and irriga-
tion interests, and was very successful in that tribunal.
That he made a thoroughly favorable impression there is
attested by Justices Harlan and Brewer in their estimates
printed as a foreword in this work. At the time these testi-
monials were written, the Justices were in point of service
the two oldest and most experienced men on that bench,
and their standing as jurists is such as to render their
joint testimony conclusive on such a subject.

His last appearance in any court took place in the State
District Court of El Paso County in connection with the
contest in 1903 over the will of millionaire Myron W. Strat-
ton of that city. He represented Stratton's son, I. Harry
Stratton, who was the contestant. The case was compro-
mised, and did not reach the point of adjudication. It was
before the court long enough, however, to afford Mr. Wol-
cott an opportunity to demonstrate that he had lost none
of his wonderful powers of penetration and analysis. He
showed the same splendid capacity for going to the heart
of a subject and for bringing out its salient points as in
the earlier days, and, as in the former time, witnesses found
it quite impossible to evade his searching questions. There
was no evidence of " rustiness " on account of long absence
from the trial courts.

SOME SPECIMEN EXPRESSIONS

M r. Wolcott never made a dull speech. He did not allow

CHARACTERISTICS 487

himself to do so. But some of his speeches were naturally
better than others, depending of course on the inspiration
of subject and occasion, and the care of preparation and
delivery. Beginning with his campaign of the State in 1880,
he participated in most of the Colorado political contests
during the remainder of his life, and in that quarter of
a century delivered himself of many notable utterances. So
far as it has been possible to collect them, these speeches are
printed as a part of this work, and most of them will prove
interesting reading for many years to come. He always
dealt with current topics, but he seldom failed to treat
them in such a way as to give his speeches permanent value.
All of his varied powers of persuasion, of analysis, of humor,
of sarcasm, and of invective are well illustrated in these
speeches, one being notable for one quality and another for
a totally different.

Probably the most interesting of his campaigns was that
of 1896, when, standing almost alone among men of promi-
nence, he held aloft the banner of Republicanism in Colo-
rado. He made three notable speeches in that campaign,
and probably the most noteworthy of these was the one
made in Denver just before the close. There, surrounded
by a small body of friends whose loyalty would have proved
equal to the extremest test, he boldly faced a partially
hostile audience as, through an antagonistic press, he did
a resentful public. He felt the necessity of winning all
the friends he could, and yet his pugnacity was stirred to
the utmost. He was armed to the teeth for his foes, and
yet he never was more gracious to his friends, — never more
patriotic nor more loyal to his State. Many of his sentences
on that occasion will bear repetition long hence — some for
their aptness and others for their high sentiment. Where,
for instance, will one find a clearer or stronger appeal for
party loyalty in the face of opposition than the following
from this speech?

I want to say to you that intolerance is the sure symptom
of a little soul and a narrow intellect, and wherever you find
any blatant man or any blatant newspaper, who declares that
you are a traitor to your party, or a traitor to the interests of

488 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

your State, and threatens you with what he will do to you,
don't pay any heed to him, fellow-citizens, for the friendship
of such a man or such a paper is a degradation and a dishonor.
My friends, stand up in the open and fight for your party and
for your principles. Why, it is all there is in life worth living
for. It is the very essence of our liberties. It is that which
distinguishes us from the beasts that perish, that we have an
honest opinion, and, please God, we will stand for it in the face
of the world; and it is that which gives the Saxon race the
deathless love of liberty that will not let free institutions perish
from the face of the earth.

There is not in this whole State a mining camp so remote
and so inaccessible, that there are not in it two or three, or more,
people who believe in Republican principles, and I trust they
will have the courage to express their opinions.

Fellow-citizens,

" They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three."

Or where will one find a better or more patriotic vindica-
tion of personal conduct in public office than in this sentence
from the same speech?

The personal fortunes, fellow-citizens, of none of us are of
much value, but it is of vital importance that whoever repre-
sents any State in any public capacity should live up to his
convictions of public duty ; and if after these scenes shall have
passed away, when men come to review these exciting days in
this crisis of our history, if it shall be said of me that I stood
true to the principles of the party whose commission I hold;
if it shall be said of me that when others yielded, I stayed;
that when the path to popularity and applause was easy, I
stood by my party; that when I had only to desert my party
and betray and abandon its principles, and I would be be-
slimed with the praise of former political opponents and a
section of my political adherents, I refused to yield to public
clamor because I believed it hostile to our welfare; that not
only in the day of our victory, but that in the days of adversity
and defeat, I still remained true to that party which has en-
nobled our past and whose policy and whose principles offer
us all our hope for the future ; that not alone in the triumphant
charge, but that on the stricken field, when the deserters were

CHARACTERISTICS 489

many and the faithful were few, I still held aloft the banner
you gave me in defence of what I believed to be the welfare
of our State and the honor of our country, I shall be content.

And for real sublimity of expression or grandeur of
sentiment, what better example could be found than the
following from his address before the Republican State Con-
vention at Colorado Springs in the same year?

Fellow-citizens, the boundaries of the States which form our
Union are imaginary, not real; the mountains yonder, which
look down upon us, stand like a serried column; yet just beyond
our view they open to the West in gentle undulations, and our
fertile orchards merge and blend with those of the common-
wealths of the Occident. To the eastward, the plains slope
into great prairies, the granaries of the world. The rivers which
find their source among our mountain crags wind a tortuous
course through many sister States before they fret their way
to the sea. From the gray summit of the mighty peak which
now casts its shadow over us, on, on to the rocky coast of Maine,
there is but one land, fed by the same dews, watered from the
same Heaven, and kissed by the same sun. No stockades or
bristling forts divide us. We are of one race, one destiny, one
common and immortal hope. In the century now dying, we who
are the inheritors of the liberties secured us by our forefathers
will build no barrier of sectional hate to sunder us from brothers
whom we love, or to exclude from our vision the hills and valleys
far away, where our childhood was nursed and our dead lie
buried.

His speech at Colorado Springs on September 15, 1896,
his first appearance on the stump after the split in the
National Republican Convention at St. Louis, was full of
good things. For the most part, the address was devoted
directly to the questions at issue, and there were some real
bursts of oratory, the character of which is illustrated by
the following extract:

There are forty-five stars in our national flag, representing
as many States, each sovereign and each settled by brothers of
a common race and language, animated by a like and equal
patriotism. The Union of States is indissoluble; for better or
for worse we are allied together in the effort to secure and

490 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

make permanent a republican form of government, where each
man shall be free and equal, recognizing no master but the will
of the majority. Until this attempt at self-government, the
greatest the world in all its centuries has ever seen, shall go
deep in ruin and disaster and failure, this Union of States
must continue. Thirty years and more ago, this question was
forever settled, and even in these days of poverty and depres-
sion, I believe that the vast majority of the honest people of
Colorado have no sympathy with these sectional appeals, and
that the lurid fires of revolution which are threatened to be
kindled among the hills of South Carolina will meet no answering
beacon from the mountains of Colorado.

In many respects Mr. Wolcott's last speech, made at the
Coliseum in Denver on the night before the close of the
campaign in 1904, was different from any other ever made
by him. It was a noteworthy effort, and deserves careful
perusal because of its close analysis of the motives and care-
ful history of the transactions of the Western Federation
of Miners. How strong was his love for law and order
may be understood when it is recalled that, antagonistic as
Governor Peabody had been to him, he still made an earnest
appeal for the Governor's re-election because that official
had exerted himself to hold in check this organization, which,
with him, Mr. Wolcott believed to be anarchistic. Take a
specimen or two. Where can more severe denunciation be
found in four lines than in the following, referring to the
outrages which he attributed to the Federation ists?

" They differ, my friends, only from the crimes of the
Apaches and the Sioux in the early days of Colorado and
the West, in that the Apaches and the Sioux did not know
the use of dynamite."

Or where a better presentation of the point at issue in
an important campaign than the following?

It is not a question whether we shall vindicate Governor
Peabody, because the results have vindicated him. It is a ques-
tion of whether the majority of the citizens of Colorado will
to-morrow put upon record a notice to the world that the State
of Colorado stands for the right to live and the right to labor,
without which the republican form of government is a sham
and a degradation.

CHARACTERISTICS 491

Mr. Wolcott was especially fond of appealing to young
voters to align themselves with the Republican party, and
many of his best sentences were devoted to such appeals. We
cite two instances, the first from a campaign speech at Colo-
rado Springs in 1888, just before his first election to the
Senate, and the second from a campaign speech at Denver
in 1898, during his second term in the Senate and while
he was trying to coax the State back into the Republican
ranks after the split of 1896. In both instances, the appeal
was used as a peroration to noteworthy speeches. In 1888
he said:

For the first time since the close of the Rebellion the men
born since the war will cast their ballot. Soon the control of
the affairs of this nation will be turned over to you. It will
be left in safe hands. It is for you to guard this treasure as
you would the ark of your covenant.

" Of what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail?"

It is for you to choose which party you will serve. On the
one side you have the party whose past is radiant with achieve-
ment and whose future is bright with glory, — the party which
has ever trod the highway of honor, which has nothing to atone
and nothing to apologize for, — the party whose mission it has
ever been to lift up the down-trodden and the oppressed of
every race and plant their feet upon the rock of liberty. On
the other hand, you have the party which seeks for the present —
offices, which seeks for the past — oblivion, and which can give us
no guaranty for the fulfilment of its promises for the future.

How can you falter? You love your country. Ally your-
self to the party that saved it. You heard your fathers con-
fess having voted for Lincoln and for Grant and for Garfield.
What man did you ever hear confess that he voted for Buchanan
or for Breckenridge or for Seymour?

You love your flag. Attach yourself to the party that saved
its thirty-eight stars. Come out with us, I beg of you, and
stand in the sunlight and join the party upon whose brow the
mark of shame was never stamped, whose hands are unsoiled
with treason and unstained with their country's blood

And in 1898 :

492 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

New horizons are opening to us; new duties are devolving
upon us, and to-day no man may venture to predict the great
future in store for us.

It is a glorious time to be alive and it is a noble duty that
devolves upon every citizen of this free country. It may be,
my friends, that this is the first year of your vote. Let me
beg of you to come out into the sunlight of hope and cast your
fortunes with the party which seeks to strengthen the hands
of the Administration, to support the Government, and to main-
tain the honor of the flag wherever it floats. Do not soil your-
selves by joining a party which stands for no principle; which
teaches hate and bitterness; whose only hope for success lies
in creating a disloyal sectionalism and the arraying of class
against class, and which is even now trying to climb into power
by slandering the Commander-in-Chief of our Army and our Navy,
who has guided us so wisely through international breakers and
who has led us to an honorable peace.

When you, in your turn, shall look back upon the days of
your youth, there could be no more bitter memory in store for
you than that you were then helping to erect a wall of hate to
divide this commonwealth from the brotherhood of States, and
that you were seeking only to snarl and to criticise. When the
heroes of San Juan Hill and the survivors of the Colorado regi-
ment who led the charge at the battle of Manila, also grown old,
shall recount their stirring memories by flood and field, how
would you feel if you recalled the fact that you were then en-
gaged in throwing mud at somebody, in criticising an Adminis-
tration which at that time you must at heart have honored, in
voting with a party which places the question of silver para-
mount to that of the protection of American labor; paramount
to that of the maintenance of our cherished institutions; para-
mount to cordial and friendly relations with our brothers to
the east of us ; paramount to the great issues which we are now
facing, and above the honor of the flag? Don't do it, boys.
Your country needs you. The world is to be made better; the
shackles have to be struck from the down-trodden and the op-
pressed the world over. New areas are to be opened to our
commerce, new duties are devolving upon us, and you, who are
in the first flush of your manhood, you are needed, never more
than now, to stand with us in the front ranks in the open day
to fight while life is in you, that this nation shall bear the
flaming sword of righteousness wherever we owe that duty to
civilization and Christianity.

Come with us; face the truth and the truth shall make vou

CHARACTERISTICS 493

free. Hundreds of gallant souls have recently died for our
country and for the sacred cause of humanity; heroes all,
whether they fell by Spanish bullets or wasted by cruel disease.

" On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead."

It is for you to make secure what they have won; to pay your
country the debt you owe her; the debt of chivalrous devotion,
of high patriotism, and of unquestioning loyalty to your govern-
ment and your flag.

We have seen how attached Mr. Wolcott was to his na-
tive NewT England. But, if, on the other hand, we seek
evidence of his love for and his pride and confidence in
the West, we soon find a surfeit of material. His speeches
abound in it, and necessarily only a few specimens can be
given. Probably no more characteristic expression on this
subject can be found than in his two addresses before the
New England Society of New York, delivered ten years
apart, the first in 1887, and the second in 1897. Between
those two periods much had happened to him. When he
made the first speech, he was a private citizen, but a leader ;
— when he made the second, he was a member of the United
States Senate, but he had passed through the trying experi-
ences of 1896, and the political outlook for him was not
promising. But, notwithstanding the change in conditions,
the second speech was as buoyant as the first, and on both
occasions the West was his most inspiring theme. Take the
following specimen paragraph from the speech of 1887 :

The West is only a larger, and in some respects, a better,
New England. I speak not of those rose gardens of culture, Mis-
souri and Arkansas, but otherwise, generally of the States and
Territories west of the Mississippi, and more particularly, be-
cause more advisedly, of Colorado, the youngest and most rugged
of the thirty-eight; almost as large in area as all New England
and New York combined ; " with room about her hearth for all
mankind"; with fertile valleys, and with mines so rich and
so plentiful that we occasionally, though reluctantly, dispose of

494 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

one to our New York friends. We have no very rich, no very
poor, and no almshouses; and in the few localities where we
are not good enough, New England Home Missionary societies
are rapidly bringing us up to the Plymouth Rock standard and
making us face the Heavenly music. We take annually from
our granite hills wealth enough to pay for the fertilizers your
Eastern and Southern soils require to save them from impover-
ishment. We have added three hundred millions to the coinage
of the world ; and although you call only for gold, we generously
give you silver too. You are not always inclined to appreciate
our efforts to swell the circulation, but none the less are we one
with you in patriotic desire to see the revenues reformed, pro-
vided always that our own peculiar industries are not affected.
Our mountains slope toward either sea, and in their shadowy
depths we find not only hidden wealth, but inspiration and in-
centive to high thought and noble living, for Freedom has ever
sought the recesses of the mountains for her stronghold, and
her spirit hovers there; their snowy summits and the long, roll-
ing plains are lightened all day long by the sunshine, and we
are not only Colorado, but Colorado Claro!

And the following from that of 1897 :

The West is not decadent; its views are of men virile, in-
dustrious, and genuine, and their beliefs are honest. They would
scorn any sort of evasion of an obligation. They are patriotic
men. There is in the whole Far West hardly a Northerner born
who was old enough to go to the war whom you will not see
on Decoration Day wearing proudly the badge of his old corps.
They are Americans ; to a proportion greater, far greater, than in
the East, native American citizens. The views they cherish are
held with practical unanimity. The beliefs of the clergyman,
the lawyer, the farmer, and the storekeeper are alike. You
swell their ranks every year from New England colleges. The
young fellows graduate and go West, grateful that you have
developed their ability to reason, and they rapidly assimilate
their views with those of the people among whom they cast
their lot. A distinguished New Englander wrote the other day
that the differences between the sections of our country are
really differences in civilization. No man familiar with the
whole country would, in my opinion, share this view. Our peo-
ple would accept the statement as too complimentary to them,
and, if they thought you cherished the same view, would desire

CHAKACTERISTICS 495

me, in courtesy, to assure you that this very assemblage, in
apparent intelligence and general respectability, would compare
creditably, if not favorably, with any similar gathering at Creede,
Bull Mountain, or Cripple Creek.

There is so much of beauty of expression, so much of
State loyalty and of hope for the future of the State, so much
of real eloquence in the closing lines of Mr. Wolcott's last
speech in Denver, on the night of November 7, 1904, that
they are repeated.

He was concluding the speech from which practically he
went to his death-bed. It was the closing night of the second
Peabody campaign. Toward the end, he undertook to refute
the assertions of his own party friends that the defeat of
Peabody would be a final disaster to the State. This he
declared would not be true, and after asserting that there
was a future for the State regardless of the election result,
he closed in the following language:

When I think of Colorado I recall the great master Watt's
picture of Hope, who sits upon a dim and dark and swirling world,
with her eyes bandaged, with but one star shining in the sky,
holding a lute in her hands, the strings all broken but one,
and leaning over to catch from that one string some note of
melody that shall give her courage to go on. So I say in Colo-
rado, my friends, there are enough brave and good men to face
whatever in the Providence of God may be in store for us, until
the end; to finally make Colorado the home of good men and
good women, where they may rear their children, and bury their
dead ; — to make it the home of a decent, a happy, a prosperous,
and a free people.

His idea of the duty of citizenship as expressed in a
speech at Denver, September 17, 1894, is worth quoting
separately.

He said:

Ladies and gentlemen, when this country was organized, when
this Republic was born, its citizens came together in poverty
and suffering under oppression. They got together and said:
" We vow that all we have we will cast into a common lot ; we
agree that we are each of us entitled to liberty and to freedom,

496 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

but that it shall be just so much liberty and so much freedom
as is consistent with the liberty and the freedom of every other
person." And they met and they agreed that they would give
their lives, their bodies, their minds, and their hearts to the
service of their country; they would serve upon juries, they
would enlist in the armies, they would obey its laws and,
in obedience to law, their lives if necessary were subject to
the call of their fellow-citizens. That, my friends, is what
citizenship in a Republic means; and it does not mean any
less.

Already quotation has been made from the Monroe Doc-
trine speech, in the Senate, on January 22, 1896, but that was
such a remarkable effort from so many points of view that
it justifies frequent mention, and certainly this review would
not be complete without reference to it. Take, then, the
following, pertaining to the relationship between the United
States and Great Britain, as a specimen expression, not only
of patriotism, but of the higher sentiment of brotherly love:

Mr. President, we will protect our country and our country's
interests with our lives, but we wage no wars of conquest or of
hate. This Republic stands facing the dawn, secure in its
liberties, conscious of its high destiny. Wherever in all the
world the hand of the oppressed or the down-trodden is reached
out to us, we meet it in friendly clasp. In the Old World, where
unspeakable crimes even now darken the skies ; in the Orient,
where old dynasties have been crumbling for a thousand years
and still hang together in the accumulation of infamies ; in South
America, where as yet the forms of free institutions hold only
the spirit of cruelty and oppression ; everywhere upon the earth
it is our mission to ameliorate, to civilize, to Christianize, to
loosen the bonds of captivity, and to point the souls of men
to nobler heights. Whatever of advancement and of progress
the centuries shall bring us must largely come through the
spread of the religion of Christ and the dominance of the Eng-
lish-speaking peoples ; and wherever you find both you find com-
munities where freedom exists and law is obeyed. Blood is
thicker than water, and until some just quarrel divides us, which
Heaven forbid, may these two great nations of the same speech
and lineage and traditions stand as brothers, shoulder to
shoulder, in the interest of humanity, by their union compelling
peace and awaiting the coming of the day when, " Nation shall

CHARACTERISTICS 497

not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
any more."

Even on the usually dry subject of the relations of silver
to gold as a money metal, he could grow eloquent and pa-
thetic, as witness the appeal to the Democrats in his speech
in the Senate on August 31, 1893, while the Repeal Bill was
under consideration. Predicting disaster as the result of
that proposed legislation, he said :

No sectional horizon obscures our vision. If the contest for
the people is to be won, it must be because against the selfish
demands of the East are arrayed the united votes of the South
and West. The fertile acres of your section wait for the plough
of the husbandman ; so do ours. You need capital for the de-
velopment of your great resources; so do we. Both sections
alike need fair prices for the produce of the farm, and a stable
and sufficient currency.

It is for us, standing together on this great question, to
save our common country from greater suffering and impover-
ishment than even the horrors of war could inflict; and by our
united votes to maintain, not alone the standard of both gold
and silver contemplated by the Constitution, and consecrated by
centuries of usage, but to maintain, as well, the standard of
American independence and American manhood.

Another specimen of his power of speech and of appeal
in connection with the silver legislation is found in his
speech of October 28, 1893, just before the taking of the
vote on the Repeal Bill, when, conceding that the bill would
be passed, he said in concluding a very brilliant effort:

I know my own people, and I know, as no other member of
this Senate except my colleague can know, the import and mean-
ing to Colorado of the vote which shall be had upon this meas-
ure. We came into the Union of States in the centennial year,
and in the galaxy of commonwealths we are usually known as
the Centennial State. We were fitted for Statehood by popula-
tion and resources. Our people came from all the States in the
Union; they found a desert; they have made it a garden. They
were encouraged to search for the precious metals, and they
poured millions of gold and silver into your treasury. They

498 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

built cities, founded schools and colleges, erected churches, and
established happy and peaceful and contented homes.

The action you contemplate is as if you should take a vast
and fertile area of Eastern land, destroy the structures upon it,
and sow the ground with salt, that it might never again yield
to the hand of the husbandman. These are indeed grave and
sad days for us. Your action drives our miners from their
homes in the mountains and compels the abandonment of ham-
lets and of towns that but yesterday were prosperous and popu-
lous. We shall turn our hands to new pursuits and seek other
means of livelihood. We shall not eat the bread of idleness, and
under the shadow of our eternal hills we breed only good citi-
zens. The wrong, however, which you are inflicting upon us
is cruel and unworthy, and the memory of it will return to
vex you. Out of the misery of it all, her representatives in
this Senate will be always glad to remember that they did their
duty as God gave them the vision to see it.

Here is another expression of lofty and patriotic thought
in connection with a silver speech, that made in the Senate
on April 6, 1892, which is worthy of being separated from its
surroundings that it may be admired for its own beauty :

It is a mistake for the representatives of one section to seek
financial aggrandizement at the expense of any other. We have
a common interest, a common country, and should share a com-
mon prosperity. The music of the looms in New England, the
song of the field-hand on the cotton plantation, the echo of the
woodman's axe in Oregon, and the ring of the prospector's pick
on the granite of the Western mountains, all blend in one melo-
dious harmony, and tell the same story of the energy of free
men who conquer success because in this country industry and
hope are companions. The uniting of all these interests so that
no one shall suffer because of the other and so that each shall
benefit and bless the other is a mission more glorious than one
of conquest — is the noblest task that could be imposed upon
man by his brother man.

Of all Mr. Wolcott's public addresses, none received more
careful thought in subject-matter or diction than that de-
livered as Temporary Chairman of the National Convention
at Philadelphia in 1900, when Major McKinley was re-
nominated for the Presidency, and it was conceded a master-

CHARACTERISTICS 499

piece by all who heard or who read it. It was an exhaustive
and calm review of the first McKinley Administration, with
especial reference to the conduct of the Spanish-American
War, which had been brought to so brilliant a close only
a little more than two years before. He was especially
chosen by McKinley for this service, and the speech was
regarded everywhere as a model campaign keynote.

Let a discriminating admirer who was present give his
impressions of the event.

It was my good fortune to be in the Philadelphia Conven-
tion [he says]. In that convention were many great orators.
Roosevelt, Foraker, Thurston, Knight of California, Depew,
Lodge, and many others spoke, but Wolcott made the speech
of the convention. His speech had all the argument, the beauty
of diction, the scholarly and rhetorical effect of that of Lodge,
and in addition it had a brilliance and fervor which compelled
attention and enthusiasm. He had a commanding presence and
possessed in a high degree that peculiar quality best called
" magnetism." When he reached a climax every one cheered be-
cause he could not help it. I never shall forget this dramatic
period, delivered with wonderful feeling and force at the close
of his brilliant argument on the Philippine question :

" Our dead are buried along the sands of Luzon, and on its
soil no foreign flag shall ever salute the dawn."

Mr. Wolcott's speech in nomination of Mr. Blaine at the
Republican National Convention of 1892 made a deep and
lasting impression upon many who never had heard him
before. It was not known that this duty was to come to
him, and his taking the floor was a surprise to the audi-
ence. It is the custom at National Conventions to call the
States in alphabetical order for nominations, and Mr. Wol-
cott was fortunate in that Colorado came so early on the
list. Alabama, Arkansas, and California had been named,
but had made no response. When Colorado was reached, and
Senator Wolcott addressed the Chair, a hush fell over the
assembly. Taking advantage of the impression thus pro-
duced, he did not leave his hearers to wonder whom he was
to present, but brought forward the name of his candidate
with startling effect in his opening words:

" The Republicans of the West sometimes differ with the

500 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Republicans of the East as to what is wanted. On this
occasion there is remarkable unanimity between genuine
Republicans of the West and genuine Republicans of the
East as to who is needed, and his name is Blaine."

Then followed in choice epigrammatic phrase an enumera-
tion of Mr. Blaine's achievements and a chivalrous expres-
sion of the devotion of his followers, the whole being compact
but comprehensive and inspiring. The speaker was taking
his seat five minutes from the time that he began.

On a later occasion, when Mr. Blaine had passed away,
Wolcott paid a feeling tribute to his memory, the following
being one of many passages which might be adduced to show
how fittingly he could speak of the worthy dead. It is an
extract from his Lincoln Day speech at the dinner of the
New York Republican Club in 1893, Mr. Blaine's death
having occurred but a short time before. He said :

And so, my friends, we pledge each other to the memory of
our departed leader. Brave, sincere, patriotic, gallant, mag-
nanimous, and intrepid, rarely since men have been born has so
lovable and true a soul, a " fairer spirit or more welcome shade "
been ferried over the river. The world is better because he was
of it; we are better for the inspiration of his presence and
the stimulus of his example. He will shine for us, and for
those who come after us, as " the star of the unconquered will."
When the rancors and political animosities of this generation
shall have passed away, patriotic men of all parties will pay
their full tribute of respect and admiration to the memory of
James Gillespie Blaine.

Sensational journalism received much attention from him
in his Colorado campaign speeches, and occasionally was
referred to in his general addresses. In his second New
England Day oration in New York, he addressed himself to
that subject in a few sentences that are almost classic in
their force, terseness, and cleverness. He said:

The continued friction is largely generated both East and
West by a certain modern type of newspaper. The plague may
have started here, but it has spread and sprouted like the
Canada thistle until it is a blight in Colorado, as it is a curse
here and wherever it plants itself. Wherever there is a cause

CHARACTERISTICS 501

to misrepresent, a hate to be fanned, a slander to utter, a repu-
tation to besmirch, it exhales its foul breath. It knows no
party, no honor, and no virtue. It stirs only strife and hatred,
and appeals only to the low and the base. It calls itself journal-
ism, but its name is Pander and its color is yellow.

COURSE IN LEGISLATION

Aggressive and radical though he was in speech, Mr. Wol-
cott was conservative in action. Especially was this true
in matters of importance affecting the interests of others.
In legislation, his tendency was quite as much toward pre-
venting wrong action as toward promoting right action.
He was inclined to think that there was too much law-
making, and no man was quicker to detect the flaw in a
proposed course of legislation.

The critical student of Mr. Wolcott's Senatorial career
may point out that he was not " constructive." The " con-
structive statesman " is the man who outlines policies in
laws written by himself. It must be admitted that the
Colorado Senator gave comparatively little attention to the
drafting of bills. Many reasons may be assigned for this
failure. Most legislative policies are dictated either by the
Administration or by the Elder Statesmen, " the white-
buttoned Mandarins of the Senate and House," as they have
been called by a Western Senator of a later time than Mr.
Wolcott's. Policies belong to crises, and comparatively few
real crises occur in the course of two Senatorial terms.

During Mr. Wolcott's twelve years in the Senate there
were scarcely more than half a dozen occurrences demand-
ing the broad exercise of this faculty. The most important
of these were the Venezuelan embroglio, the situation caused
by the pendency of the Force Bill; the fight for silver, na-
tional and international; and the Spanish-American War.
All these questions except the war had their origin anterior
to Mr. Wolcott's entrance into the Senate, and while he
could have done nothing and really did nothing by way of
constructiveness in connection with the Force Bill or the
Venezuelan matter, he did play an effective part in bringing
to naught the policies out of which these questions arose.
If it be objected that it is easier to tear down than to build

502 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

up, it may be replied that this is not necessarily true when
the Administration is behind the policy, as was the case in
both these instances. If it requires ability to construct, it
requires courage to demolish — and frequently also tact and
skill. Often, too, as much patriotism and wisdom are dis-
played in demolition as in construction; prevention of poor
legislation is as essential to good government as the enact-
ment of good legislation.

Much fine generalship was displayed in the attack on
the Venezuelan policy of President Cleveland and in the
fight on the Force Bill of the Harrison regime. In the strict
sense of the term, there was no " constructive " legislation
in either case. But the Wolcott speech on Venezuela ex-
ercised a vast influence in preventing a growth of sentiment
against the Mother Country and was the beginning of a
reaction favorable to that country, which has gained mo-
mentum from the day the address was delivered until the
present time. So potent indeed was its influence that four-
teen years after its delivery an Anglo-American League was
started to perpetuate the Colorado man's ideas of unity be-
tween the United States and Great Britain. So also with
the Force Bill. Mr. Wolcott's convictions would not have
permitted him to become the author of that measure, but
they did impel him to become its destroyer, and thus again
he aided, though by a negative course, in establishing a
policy.

Judged by these two measures, Mr. Wolcott's faculty
lay in the line of destructiveness or obstructiveness rather
than in that of constructiveness, but neither his destructive-
ness nor obstructiveness was the result of thoughtless reck-
lessness. In these, as in other matters, he did much in the
way of forming policies and changing thought, but he did
not find it necessary to write long and platitudinous laws
to accomplish these results. It is possible to shape policies
by presenting legislation, and Mr. Wolcott was a master in
this art. He believed in natural development unobstructed
by artificial means.

The silver legislation was well under way when he en-
tered the Senate. At best it was largely defensive in char-
acter, but in connection with it he suggested many useful

CHARACTERISTICS 503

ideas; he was the father of the International Commission
of 1897. In the Spanish War he stood with the Administra-
tion throughout, and while from first to last his advice was
sought, the shaping of bills and resolutions was left largely
to the Executive officials and to the committees having in
hand the various subjects which the War made it necessary
for Congress to consider. Three tariff bills were enacted
into law while he was in the Senate, but under the Consti-
tution tariff bills must originate in the House, and all three
were prepared there.

Confessedly Mr. Wolcott did not enjoy detail, but that
he could originate legislation was shown not only in his
silver measures, but in his Private Land Court Bill and
other general measures introduced by him; and there is
every reason to believe that if he had been permitted to
" grow gray " in the Senate he would have performed his
share of this character of work. Still, his conservatism
would have prevented any riot of legislative suggestion. He
did not believe in experimental laws.

But Mr. Wolcott never could have served long enough to
take on the airs of a "statesman." Never a poser, he abhorred
all pretence and assumed no position to which his talents
and achievements did not entitle him. He was in no respect
a professional office-holder. His ambition was to be a prac-
tical lawmaker and a useful legislator, and whatever service
fell within the requirements of these offices he was willing
to perform. He could draw bills and outline policies when
necessary, but, as a rule, his forte lay rather in the direction
of shaping up the measures drawn by others and in assisting
in getting them through if they appealed to him. In a word,
he regarded legislation as a matter of business, and while
he enjoyed the life in the Senate, he never allowed himself
to assume the airs and take on the attitudes of many men
who wear the Senatorial toga. On the other hand, he appre-
ciated the fact that he was capable of rendering more service
than he had given to the Senatorship, and a few months be-
fore his death he told some of his friends that if ever he
should return to the Senate he meant to take up the work
more seriously than hitherto he had done. With that re-

504 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

solve and with his abilities still undiminished, he undoubt-
edly would have given the country much splendid service
even though he did not pose as a " statesman " or seek to
connect his name with statutes.

AS A POLITICIAN

FROM 1886, when he began to lay his plans to go to the
Senate, until 1905, the time of his death, Mr. Wolcott
was the actual and active leader of the Republican
party in Colorado, and in that time there were few who
disputed his right to the place. During the first half of the
period Senator Teller held high rank as a party adviser;
but he did not aspire to active command of the party forces,
and was quite content to leave that service to his co-worker,
who was younger and more willing to assume the duties and
responsibilities of the position. After Mr. Teller left the
party in 1896, there was a considerable period when the
junior Senator was the sole dispenser of party patronage
and the supreme dictator of party policy in the State. For
a brief period after the party began to regain its standing,
following the disastrous campaigns of 1896, 1898, and 1900,
there were efforts by ambitious men within the Republican
ranks to displace him, and while these efforts had the effect
of preventing his return to the Senate, his position of leader-
ship was disturbed only momentarily, and before his death
he had regained complete control.

Necessarily, a large part of this book is a record of Mr.
Wolcott's political career, and there is no intention even to
summarize that portion of his life here. There are, how-
ever, some facts connected with it that can be better pre-
sented in a detached way than as a part of the regular
narrative, and it has been thought worth while to emphasize
some of the qualities to which he owed his success in the
political arena.

From the beginning of its history, Colorado has been a
505

506 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

State of politicians. At the head of the old-time list stood
Jerome B. Chaffee, who rose to the distinction not only of
a seat in the Senate of the United States, but to that of
the head of the Executive Committee of the Republican Na-
tional Committee during the Blaine campaign in 1884. He
was ably flanked by Henry M. Teller, who, while not so
demonstrative, was still more successful; by John Evans,
N. P. Hill, Thomas M. Bowen, John L. Routt, and William
A. Hamill, on the Republican side, and by W. A. H. Love-
land, Bela M. Hughes, Thomas M. Patterson, Charles S.
Thomas, and Alva Adams, Democrats. A history of these
men would be a history of Colorado from early Territorial
days until the present time. All were able and astute, and
each might have been a leader in any field. But none of
them embodied such a virile and happy combination of the
qualities of mind and heart that make for a leader as did
Edward O. Wolcott. Some of them may have been stronger
in certain lines than he, but none possessed so many of the
qualifications necessary to success in conducting the affairs
of a great party. These were equal to the task of keeping
him in the forefront of Colorado political affairs for a quarter
of a century. For much of that time he was not alone the
leader of the Republican party in the State; he was the
party " boss," if you will. He made and unmade men.
He controlled the Federal appointments and selected most
of the candidates for State offices. The National Committee-
men, and a majority of the State Committeemen, also, were
generally designated by him.

That Mr. Wolcott won this distinction by sheer force of
ability the facts bear ample testimony. He had powerful
friends, to be sure. But whence those friends? He did not
have any in the beginning. They came to him as the result
in part of his engaging personality; but there must have
been more than mere address to bring to his aid such men
as at first " boosted " and afterward followed him. From
the first there was more than mere amiability in the man,
and he scarcely had passed from boyhood before his sub-
stantial characteristics began to make themselves manifest.
He never was a dead weight to his friends; he was a real
assistance in any cause which he espoused. He soon de-

CHARACTERISTICS 507

veloped such qualities that his services as an adviser and
then as a director were in demand, and, once tested, whether
in business or politics, they were not soon dispensed with.
The qualities which gave him the place of leadership were
born in him, and their manifestation waited only upon op-
portunity. And what were these qualities? His personal
friend and political co-worker, Hon. A. M. Stevenson, of
Denver, has been asked to answer this question, and he has
done so briefly in the following paragraph :

As a party leader, Wolcott was the Sheridan of party poli-
tics. He was always aggressive and never on the defensive, but
with it all he was not a narrow partisan. He was controlled by
the courage of his convictions, and neither party declarations
nor the will of the majority could make him abandon what he
considered a just position. His aggressiveness was as bold and
attractive when leading a forlorn hope as when directing the
movements of a majority. He always fought in the open. His
weakness as a party leader was his strength as a man. He de-
spised shams and hypocrisy. He was wise in counsel and so
quick that he comprehended in a moment the most complex
situations. It was often difficult to follow his active brain, and
this sometimes made him impatient with friends, but he was
deeply grieved when he saw he had offended. He was liberal,
often lavish, with his money for every possible legitimate ex-
pense of the campaign. He knew human nature well and under-
stood that most men were affected by this environment or that
influence, and he used his knowledge for success. There was
nothing he despised or denounced more than the use of money
for corrupt purposes, and it was hard to make him believe that
men would sell themselves for gold.

Probably one of the most accurate as well as one of the
most appreciative analyses ever made of Mr. Wolcott's char-
acter as a man and as a politician was written by his politi-
cal and personal friend, Ottomar H. Rothacker, in 1885,
before Wolcott had entered the Senate — indeed, before he
was regarded as a candidate for a seat in that body, and
it was the means of calling out an equally appreciative
letter of criticism from Dr. Wolcott, father of the subject
of it all.

Rothacker was himself one of the most brilliant young

508 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

men of early Colorado. A Kentuckian by rearing, if not
by birth, he went to Colorado soon after the admission of
the State into the Union. He became editor of the Denver
Tribune, and it was most natural that he and Wolcott should
be attracted to each other. They became very intimate.
Later the Hill faction came into control of the Tribune,
and the direction of the policy of the paper was entrusted
largely to Wolcott. Wolcott and Rothacker were in perfect
harmony in the management of the sheet, and the latter re-
mained with it until 1884, when he removed to Washington
and became correspondent there for the Denver "News. It
was in this latter capacity that he wrote the Wolcott article.
His letter was dated October 6, 1885, and was based upon
the assumption that Wolcott would be a candidate for Rep-
resentative in the lower House of Congress in 1886, to succeed
Judge Synies.

The letter began abruptly with a declaration of confidence
in Wolcott's strength. " I think," said Mr. Rothacker, " that
Wolcott is the ablest man in Colorado politics," and he then
proceeded :

I don't mean by this that he is the ablest politician. His
disposition is the mortal enemy of expediency. I mean that he
has more striking qualities than any man who has puttered in
the science of office-holding in the State. In many respects he
reminds one of Matt Carpenter. In one point the resemblance
is particularly striking. Every one used to speak of the Senator
as " Matt." When they spoke to him they said Mr. Carpenter.

In CoDgress Ed Wolcott would be the most striking Repub-
lican from the West. He has more ability than any man now
on the floor of the House. He would create there much the
same kind of effect that Blaine did when his effective person-
ality first began to get recognition. He would make more ene-
mies however. He can be sugar one day and vitriol the next.
He would attract attention from the very first and become a
national figure, but bitter enmities would be blended with warm
friendships. He has a singular capacity in handling men. He
has also a fatal facility for driving them away from him. He
has the political weakness for discrediting his best friends and
of crediting his meanest foes. This blindness all politicians
seem to be afflicted with. The best of them are not free from it.

In the main, however, Wolcott is as good as any of them, and

CHARACTERISTICS 509

his memory for service is quite as long. Beyond the lower traits
of office-getting he has some which are very exceptional. He is
a man with a very quick intellect. He has a ready instinct for
the broader phases of public questions which are comprised in
statesmanship. His impulses are all toward the upper plane.
His normal judgment is a high and correct one. On any national
question he is pretty sure to be with the best thought of the
country. On any question of local supremacy he will not hesi-
tate to use the worst. In politics he is decidely practical.

When Campbell was nominated in the convention of 1882,
Wolcott, as everybody knows, bolted the nomination. Never
was a bolt better based. The nomination was forced through
against party sentiment and party expediency. It was gro-
tesque in its absurdity. At no time was it at all certain that
Campbell was even a Republican. Assuredly he had never
held any position in the party that justified his nomination. It
has been claimed that because Wolcott was a member of the
convention he should have supported the nominee. The char-
acter of the nominee was a sufficient release from any pledge.
It has been said that because Hamill and he made Chaffee chair-
man they should have upheld him. The nomination of Chaffee
as chairman was a broad joke. Hamill, who did support the
ticket, said of this : " Chaffee steered the cart into the mud ; let
him drag it out again." The bolt from Campbell was justified
by the action of the majority of the Republican voters of the
State.

I was led to this digression by a recollection that just be-
fore I left the State I heard several able Republicans suggest
that " Ed Wolcott ought to make himself right with the party."
My dear deluded friends did not know him. It can be
better put by saying that the party will have to make itself
right with Ed Wolcott. He is rather an imperious person in
his way. During the last Presidential campaign it took some
urging to get him on the stump, and there was considerable
rejoicing at the Republican State Headquarters when this was
accomplished. The truth is that Wolcott can get along without
his party better than his party can get along without him. He
does n't need it for a living, and one of these days it may need
him.

The plain fact runs that Ed Wolcott has many of the un-
usual attributes which belong in the make-up of a national
politician. He even has some instincts of statesmanship, and I
use the word in its most conservative sense. He has absolute

510 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

genius as an orator. His organizing ability is far beyond the
ordinary. His mind is marvellously alert. His capacity for
absorbing judgment — if such a paradox be allowable — is of the
broadest sort. He could never be a commonplace figure in Wash-
ington. Indeed it would not astonish one if a first experience
there should put him in a position of unusual prominence. He
would bear much the same relation to the Rocky Mountain
country that Conkling does to New York, that Carpenter did
to Wisconsin, that Morton did to Indiana, that Blackburn does
to Kentucky. The dead level of the present House would only
be a pedestal for him. He would rise above it from the very
start. He would be a vastly bigger man in Congress than he
has ever been in any Colorado political convention. The atmos-
phere would be more natural to him, and he would breathe more
freely. It would be like jumping from Sophomore to Senior, and
he would be quite at home at once. He would have the great
advantage of representing a strong and growing section, and this
is a powerful foundation for any politician young in national
history.

If he really means to strive for a place in the larger arena
of national politics it will be easy enough. All he will have to
do will be to recognize some of the people whom he has not
been in the habit of recognizing, to appreciate disinterested sup-
port at its real worth, and forget that he was born with a chip
on his shoulder.

The father's letter which the Rothacker article called out
probably was the last of the many addressed by him to his son
in their long and intimate relationship. He then was suf-
fering from the illness which a few months later terminated
fatally, and the letter was dictated. It was, however, signed
by its author, although in faltering hand. It ran :

Lexington, Mass., Oct. 22, '85.

The occasion of this letter is the Denver News of the 11th
instant, sent me by Mr. Vaille who is now in New York, at
Henry's request. Rothacker's article is written with admiration
and an evident desire to aid you. It is the more valuable for
its criticisms. I have little doubt that politics is your des-
tination, and wish in this connection to offer a suggestion or
two, kindly, but frankly and plainly.

1. Do not needlessly alienate your friends. " One day sugar,
the next day vitriol," is, I fear, a true indictment, and there is

V^X-1-XiXkXi.VJ JL JJJJ.VJ.k3_L AV_/»0

no excuse for it It is not principle that leads you to offend
your friends, but your grim humor, your caustic mood, and for
this there is no apology.

You have no right to wound unnecessarily the feelings of any
one, and you make a radical mistake, my son, when you thus
exasperate your friends. Consider whether the remark which
you are tempted to make or your brusque manner will injure
the feelings of any one, and if it will, by all means refrain
from the infliction. In this respect as in others you have only
to carry out the Golden Rule. If you hurt inadvertently, do
not hesitate to offer an apology. There is no humiliation in
acknowledging a mistake. Begin, if you please, by a letter to
Rothacker, thanking him for the handsome terms in which he
has spoken of you, and telling him that you will endeavor to
profit by his criticisms. One who can make friends and keep
them as easily as you can should be on his guard against alienat-
ing and losing them in this way.

2. Be imbued with the moral sentiment in all your acts.
Rothacker says in substance that in national questions you are
influenced by the best considerations, and in local matters by
the worst. I want you to be equally scrupulous on all questions.
Carry the ethical principle into all. Never appeal to men's
prejudices, but only to their reason and conscience. Recognize
fully the moral features of every issue, and advocate and pursue
the course which you think is right in God's sight. I deem this
the very first quality of true statesmanship.

Mr. Wolcott possessed the rare combination of astute-
ness, courage, and confidence. He was resourceful to an
unusual degree, and daring almost to the point of audacity.
His political foresight, or perhaps intuition, especially in
State elections, was marvellous. In gauging sentiment,
estimating party strength, discounting local issues, and
measuring the volume and direction of the diverse currents
of Colorado politics, he was invariably correct; and, sus-
tained by perennial hope and unfaltering loyalty to a cause
which he believed to be just, he fought one campaign after
another, and always with zeal and vigor. In all things he
was a man of system, and he made thorough preparation
for his contests. He had lieutenants in all parts of the
State, and he held them to him as with bands of steel.
No man knew the State better than he. All portions of it

512 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

were familiar to him, and he knew the character of people
with whom he had to deal in each county. He was ac-
quainted with the local leaders, and generally understood in
advance who would be for him and who against him. He
knew the kind of influence to use, knew what would " catch "
this man and what would influence the other. When a cam-
paign was on he " went after " men in any legitimate way,
and he often was able to bring to bear influences which were
unknown even to the men whom he sought to reach.

If funds were necessary in the preparation of the cam-
paign, to get out votes, or for the general conduct of the
business of the contest, he used them. No corrupter of pri-
vate virtue, Mr. Wolcott did not hesitate to use his means
in a proper way to promote his own interests or the interests
of his friends or of his party in the conduct of a campaign.
In order to understand his course in the use of money, it
is necessary to look at the subject from his standpoint. He
went into politics as he would have gone into a battle. A
battle implies war, and war means bloodshed. He knew that,
metaphorically speaking, his enemy was trying to kill him
and was liable to do so if he did not kill the enemy. He
knew that the " other fellow " was paying for printing, for
halls, for speakers, and for the time given to his cause by
his supporters. If therefore he employed money in a cam-
paign he used it as a weapon of warfare. But if he bought,
he never sold. His allegiance once given to cause or man,
he never faltered, although certain defeat stared him in the
face. Self-reliant, courageous, and well-informed, he went
into each conflict weighing well the conditions and always
determined to win if possible. But, whether to win or lose,
he was " there to stay."

No better fighter ever engaged in the political battle than
this same Ed Wolcott. With him politics was a game,
and he played no game that he did not play to win. He
fought desperately, and he did not often surrender will-
ingly. When, however, the inevitable was forced upon
him, and he found himself without resource, he retired
gracefully. Under such circumstances his retirement was
only temporary, for no sooner had he been beaten in one
contest than he began to prepare for another.

CHARACTERISTICS 513

It has been asserted that Senator Wolcott was not a
good judge of men. His tolerance and forbearance lent
some weight to the statement, but in fact he was rarely, if
ever, wholly deceived. Time and again, after an interview
with this man or that, who protested his interest and loyalty,
he remarked : " He is not with us," or " He is against us,"
or again, " Poor chap, he would like to be with us, but he
can't " ; and sooner or later the accuracy of his judgment
was manifest.

He would read a man at first sight as completely as if he
had made him [said Henry Brady, Mr. Wolcott's right-hand in
Denver politics]. Many a time I have picked up some fellow
for use in the campaign and asked the Senator if I might bring
him to see him. Two to one he would know the man, and if
he did he would either say " Put him to work," or " We don't
want him ; he 's no good." If he did n't know the fellow, he
probably would ask me to bring him to see him; and when I
took him he would size him up in a minute or two. If his
judgment was adverse he often would yield. " You can try
him," he would say, "but you'll find he'll fall down on you,"
or " he '11 betray you," or " he '11 prove worthless." And it al-
ways was as he predicted it would be. It was the same way in
selecting candidates; he warned us against several men whom
we insisted upon nominating, and we always found after a
while that we would have done more wisely if we had heeded
his warnings. But he was loyal when a candidate was agreed
upon, and he gave his earnest support even though he did not
believe in the man. Why [added Mr. Brady], he could read
a letter from a man he had never seen and tell you all about
him.

The reason for his successful predictions lay in his deep
knowledge of human nature. He knew that most men had
their weak points, and his familiarity with conditions
throughout the State was so great that he could foresee
where this or that supporter might be attacked and won over
to the opposition. He knew, also, that he antagonized some
temperaments, and he appreciated that in time such aversion
would bear fruit.

Still, with all these qualities, he was not a perfect leader.
At times he lacked caution, and he was not always mindful

514 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

of popular sentiment. Nor was he at all times amenable
to party discipline. His faults were the faults of impetu-
osity, of self-will, of determination to bring things out his
way. He did not compromise. On at least one occasion he
bolted the ticket of his party. That occurred in 1882 when
his brother failed to obtain the gubernatorial nomination.
The provocation was great, but it was a tactical mistake,
and a man of less genius could not have forced his own
nomination to the highest office in the gift of the State so
soon afterward as did Mr. Wolcott.

The truth is that he was mentally superior to most men.
In that fact lay the secret of his success. He could be for-
given more in politics than any one else, because, while all
knew his failings, all recognized his transcendent ability, his
innate integrity, and his high ideals. Colorado was proud of
his brilliant qualities, and was pleased to have him represent
her in the Senate even though he was somewhat erratic in
politics. He was a favorite son, " a spoilt child," if yon
will, and forgiveness was granted him almost before he
asked.

A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION

Earl M. Cranston, for many years United States District
Attorney for the District of Colorado, relates a series of
experiences with Mr. Wolcott which splendidly illustrate
the characteristics of the Colorado Senator as a political
worker and leader. The first of these portrays his man-
ner of " going after " what he wanted and of beating down
opposition when he could do so. The second shows how he
could be touched by a frank appeal and how, his resent-
ment giving place to generosity, he could be gracious and
magnanimous in the face of antagonism when convinced of
its honesty of motive. The third, a fitting sequel, brings
reward for his magnanimity. It should be stated that be-
cause of his fear of being misunderstood Mr. Cranston sup-
plied the incidents only in response to urgent solicitation.
Here is the narrative:

In the campaign preceding the first election of Mr. Wol-
cott to the United States Senate, it became desirable for
him to have as mayor of Denver, a man who should favor

CHARACTERISTICS 515

his candidacy. Mr. Wolcott lived in the old Second Ward
of Denver, where Cranston had grown up and where he
then was making his first entrance into politics. In a
general way he knew that Wolcott was a candidate for
the Senate, but he did not know that he had any particular
candidate for mayor. Xor had the importance of the city
convention to him ever suggested itself to the young man's
inexperience. The ward delegation consisted of twenty mem-
bers, of whom Wolcott and Cranston were two. with Wolcott
as chairman.

The evening before the convention the delegation met in
Cranston's office for a caucus, and there, for the first time, he
learned that the mayoralty candidate to whom he had pledged
his utmost efforts in the convention was not Mr. Wolcott's
candidate, but that, on the contrary, he favored a different
man. Cranston was able, however, to hold through all the
ballots about a quarter of the delegation for his candidate
as against Wolcott's.

Although Cranston had said and done nothing in his pres-
ence to indicate his preference. Mr. Wolcott, with that light-
ning intelligence which always characterized him. knew where
the trouble lay. and called his antagonist into a back room
alone. " There." says Mr. Cranston, " with his hands in
his pockets, walking up and down with the stride we all
knew so well, and tossing his head from side to side in
the manner peculiar to himself, he began to talk."

•• I want you to understand that this nonsense must
cease." he said abruptly and savagely.

•• Why. Mr. Wolcott," protested Cranston in astonish-
ment, " I don't know what you mean."

The conversation proceeded:

" You can't deceive me. sir : don't deny that you are voting
for on this secret ballot."

- Why. certainly. Mr. Wolcott. I am voting for him." re-
plied Cranston, surprised at the suggestion of attempted
deception on his part.

•• More than that. sir. five of your friends are voting for
him simply because you tell them to do so. and will stay
with him as long as you say. and you needn't deny that
either," persisted Wolcott.

516 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

The response was another confession. Declaring that
he did not understand what was meant about " denial " and
" concealment," Cranston said : " Of course, my friends whom

[ can influence are voting for , and I hope you are

right in saying that they will continue as long as I ask them
to do so."

Wolcott's reply was a demand for the entire delegation.
It must, he said, be perfectly apparent by that time who his
candidate was. " I promised him the support of this, my
home ward, and I am entitled to it," he said, and added:
" It is very necessary for me to deliver this support, and
you are holding out a quarter of it against me. You must
come over right now."

But Mr. Cranston did not yield. " I am very sorry," he
said, " but I can't do it, and I wish you would please listen
while I tell you why."

The Senatorial aspirant was not in a listening mood.
" I don't care to hear you," he said ; " it is enough to know
that you refuse." Then he delivered an ultimatum, saying:
" You might just as well move out of Colorado, because you
will never get a thing in this State as long as you stay
here. I will make it my business to see that you don't,
and every time you poke your head through the fence, I
am going to hit it."

Crushing as was this threat, Cranston was not subdued.
Without feeling on his part and making due allowance for
Mr. Wolcott's interest and excitement, he persisted in being
heard. He said:

" Very well, Mr. Wolcott, you are the most powerful man
in the State, and I am just beginning business life, so that
I suppose you have the strength to do as you say; but be-
fore you finally decide, I mean to tell you why it is im-
possible for me to comply with your request. Then, if you
still have the determination you have just expressed, I will
have to stand it. Six months ago, not knowing, in my in-
experience, that you would have any interest in this cam-
paign for mayor, I promised to deliver all the votes I could

in the Second Ward, to . I have repeated that promise

since. Such an agreement to me seems as binding as a
promissory note or any business undertaking which a man

CHARACTERISTICS 517

may enter into. You are right in saying that I can deliver
the six votes, and I can hold them against anybody, through
the entire convention. Now, if, knowing that I could do
this, after having made such a promise, I should surrender
them at anybody's dictation, I never would respect myself
and my friends would never respect me. Furthermore, if
ever in the future I should make you a promise about any-
thing, you wouldn't place an atom of reliance upon it,
because you would know that I was not a dependable
man, and one of these days, Mr. Wolcott, you may be the
man to whom I will make a promise; I can't go back on
my word."

The plea captured Wolcott. It scarcely had been con-
cluded " when," says Cranston, " he reached both hands
across the table and grasped my own, and with his face
fairly illumined by that smile of friendship which I after-
ward learned to know so well, he said :

" ' My boy, your are absolutely right ; stick to your man
through thick and thin. It won't do you any good, because

we are going to nominate and you can't stop it. But

you and I are friends from now on.' "

Saying that he was pleased to have Mr. Wolcott speak
as he had spoken, because he wanted to be his friend, Mr.
Cranston told him that at the convention which was to take
place the next day, in order to make his support effective,
he would be obliged to follow Wolcott about the floor as
he was trading the delegation, and trade his quarter against
Wolcott's three-quarters.

At that, he threw his head back with a laugh, and said:
" Certainly, my boy, certainly, I understand all that, — the
tail goes with the hide."

" The next day," says Cranston, " in the midst of a dead-
lock lasting all afternoon, with repeated ballots and the ten-
sion at the very highest, time and time again, dogging at
his heels, I would say to some chairman of a delegation :
1 Mr. Wolcott has only three-quarters of our vote, — I am
trading a quarter against him,' whereupon, he would turn
with a laugh, and say : ' Yes, he is right, trade with him
for his quarter,' and then would pass on to the next man."

Mr. Cranston continues:

518 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

The beautiful part of this story is that after Mr- Wolcott' s
candidate had been triumphantly nominated and elected, one of
my solid half-dozen came to me, as he had a perfect right to
do, to ask my help in getting him the best position under the
new mayor, that of private secretary.

Knowing that I had no claim upon the mayor, but appre-
ciating, even then, the noble trait of magnanimity which so
thoroughly characterized Senator Wolcott, I told my friend that
I would do what I could, and went straight to Mr. Wolcott
about it.

Never will I forget the place and time, even the hour of day,
of our interview. After I had made frank disclosure of my de-
sire and confession that I had no right to ask anything of
him, the response came, quick as a flash : " Yes, sir, you have
the right to ask of me anything you please, and it will be an
exceeding pleasure on my part to grant any request you make
that lies within my power. If you are certain that your friend
is a good stenographer, understands men, and has the proper
address and tact in dealing with people, he can have the place.
1 do not mention the qualities of character and personal respect-
ability, because the fact that he is your friend makes this
unnecessary."

" Yes, Mr. Wolcott, he has all those qualities."

" Very well, sir, he shall have the place."

" But, Mr. Wolcott, in fairness to yourself, one other thing
should be said. He was one of those six men that stood with
us against you in the convention."

" I don't give a copper about that ; I like him all the better,
because I tried every way I knew to get each one of those six
fellows away from you, and couldn't do it. They are stayers,
every one of them, and just the sort of chaps I want for my
friends. They are good fighters."

Of course, I overwhelmed him with my thanks, and then
started to go away, only to hear that ringing laugh of his be-
hind me. " Hold on a minute, here! come back," he called, with
a note-book in his hand. " Here we have spent ten minutes
talking about your friend and I have agreed that he shall have
the place, and he shall have; but how the devil do you suppose
I can have him appointed until you give me his name; you
seem to have forgotten all about that."

It is gratifying to add that Cranston's friend was ap-
pointed the same week, and remained throughout the Ad-

CHARACTERISTICS 519

ministration, as one of the most trusted assistants of the
mayor. Both Cranston and the private secretary were
able afterward to render effective service in the Senator's
first election, and it is in that connection that the sequel
is found.

In the following State election Mr. Cranston was chosen
a member of the Legislature from Arapahoe County. He
was unpledged, but by this time his friendship for Mr.
Wolcott had come to be of the most ardent character.
Shortly after the election, and before the Legislature met,
hearing that rumors were abroad as to the loyalty of the
delegation from his county, and never having given any prom-
ise to Mr. Wolcott, the young member naturally felt that
the Senatorial aspirant might perhaps be uneasy as to his
attitude, and be annoyed by the reports which were repeated
and constant; accordingly, he went to Mr. Wolcott's office,
where the following colloquy took place:

Mr. Wolcott: Well, sir, what can I do for you?

Mr. Cranston: I merely dropped in to talk with you
about the Senatorial election.

" Well, what about it? "

" In view of certain rumors which, of course, you have
heard, I think you and I would better have a talk as to
my attitude, because, as you know, we never have had an
agreement."

" Now, see here, my boy, suppose I should go to Alaska
and be gone ten years, do you think that when I came back
to Denver, and announced myself as a candidate for the
United States Senate, I would ask my brother Henry whether
he would support me or not? "

" Why, certainly not. Such a question would, of course,
be very needless."

" Just as much need in that case as in yours. I under-
stand you just as well as you understand yourself, and I
know what you are going to do with your vote in the Legis-
lature. I don't want any promises from you. It takes
enough time to wratch the scoundrels without bothering about
square men. You go back to your office and attend to your
law business, if you have any, and if you have n't any,

520 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

hustle around and get some, and don't waste your time and
mine in telling me what you will do."

Mr. Cranston's was among the first votes cast for Wol-
cott, and it is not too much to say that the latter's election
was almost as gratifying to his former antagonist as to
himself.

A Denver attorney, who had stood with Mr. Wolcott
through the trying times of 1896 and until 1900, and had
then joined the opposition, was asked at the time of his
change why he had made it. His reply probably covers
the experience of many. " Because," he said, " I could not
think under his leadership. He did the thinking for me.
He held me and the rest of the crowd as he willed. He let
you think you were doing your share of the thinking, but
when it came to a show-down, you thought as he thought or
not at all. I wanted to do my own thinking and I broke
away. He was too powerful for me."

" Do you mean he was the Czar of the Republican party
of Colorado? "

" Not that— but "

" But what? "

" Oh, blank it, he is such a forcible fellow — he is so mag-
netic that I felt he would have me in the hollow of his
hand if I stayed under his leadership."

It is interesting to know that this same attorney went
back to the Wolcott fold and afterward worked night and
day in his interest.

Necessarily a man of such pronounced views and of such
outspoken expression made enemies. There was a new
troop of them after every campaign, and a fresh group
after each appointment to office. As a rule these were men
who had been disappointed by some preference shown by
the Senator for others. Unquestionably, too, he antagonized
many by his free manner of handling subjects in his speeches
and conversations. A friendly critic, writing of this phase
of the Senator's character, took the view that in the main
enmity toward him was due to faults in the other person,
saying in part :

An objection was once made to a prominent politician that

CHARACTERISTICS 521

so many were unfriendly to him. The reply was, " We love him
for the enemies he has made." The same thing might be said
of Senator Wolcott. One who listens to political gabble in Colo-
rado must expect to hear harsh things about Wolcott. He is
blessed with talkative foes. In some instances antagonism is
due to narrow-mindedness, in some envy, and in some it is a
case of the pot calling the kettle black. It is a great deal safer
to judge a man by the foes he has than by the friends. Wolcott
is undoubtedly proud of some of the former. The test of great-
ness is the ability to make enemies.

EARLY POLITICAL PREDILECTIONS

That Mr. Wolcott was not enamored of politics in his
early life, his letters to his home people bear witness. As
early as August 12, 1878, just before he was nominated for
the State Senate, in a letter to his father telling him
of his prospect for the nomination, he states it to be his
" sincere wish to keep out of politics altogether." He adds :
" I am no politician, and I have no aspirations."

And again, October 13, 1878, just after his election :

The campaign is over, and everybody is trying to get back to
business again. My majority was a complete surprise to my-
self, as it was, I suppose, to everybody else. I had some 300
more votes than anybody, and a majority of 516 in a vote of
2155. It is all over now, and it has n't been worth the expense
and trouble. There is no especial honor in the office, and it
was won at the cost of a neglected business, considerable money,
and a good deal of toadying and dirt-eating, and a general lower-
ing of self-respect. I find I can be considerable of a political
worker when I choose, but I hate politics and the arts of the
politicians.

On the 23d of October, we find him writing as follows
to his parents, evidently in response to a letter from his
father :

Father's letter came to-day. I read it over carefully three
times, and mail it to Henry to-night. The advice it contains is
capital. It is a splendid letter throughout, and I wish I could
follow its teachings as he would wish. I always do take the
moral side of every public question; it is the one good habit

522 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

that remains as the result of my early training, but the force
of such a position is unfortunately sometimes broken by a man's
private life. I never expect to be in politics again. I regret
to say that I know but little of the history of my country, and
am not fitted for any public place.

March 5, 1881, just before the close of his State Sen-
atorial term, he wrote his father, saying : " I am sick of it
all, and while I live in Colorado I shall never go into
politics."

Again, March 30, 1881, he wrote:

" If I had only followed all the good advice you have
given me in the last twenty-five years, what a different man
I would be ! But if I don't always follow your instructions
and suggestions, I 'm none the less glad to receive them.
However, I shall stick to my resolution to keep out of politics
for good. It is the best thing."

There were more letters to the same effect.

A study of Mr. Wolcott's early career in politics reveals
the fact that he never was hidebound in his allegiance to
party leaders or candidates. There is nothing, however, to
indicate that he was not loyal at all times to the principles
of his party, as certainly he was. Already the fact of his
opposition to Campbell as the Republican candiate for Gov-
ernor in 1882 has been shown, but it probably would not
be suspected that ten years previous he had felt friendly
toward the candidacy of Horace Greeley for the Presidency;
that in 1876, though for party reasons, he favored Tilden in
the contest before the Electoral Commission, and that even
as late as 1884 he was not without consolation over the de-
feat of his later favorite Blaine by the latter's Democratic
opponent, Grover Cleveland. There is no evidence that he
voted for the Democratic candidate in any of these elections,
and there is positive refutation of the charge frequently
made during his life, that he cast his ballot for Cleveland
as against Blaine. The presumption is that he voted for
his party's candidates in every instance, notwithstanding
his dislike for some of them.

Tn a letter written to his father dated at Georgetown,

CHARACTERISTICS 523

August 12, 1872, just after his return from a campaign of
ineffectual effort to obtain the Republican nomination for
the District Attorneyship, he wrote:

" Do you wear a Greeley hat? The usual answer out
here to the question, ' How is North Carolina? ' is, ' I don't
care if I do.' My opinion is that old Chappaquack will be
elected. What is yours? "

If this indicates a friendly feeling for Mr. Greeley, the
fact should be borne in mind that until very recently that
gentleman had been one of the foremost of Republican
leaders. It also soon will appear that Wolcott was not
partial to General Grant, who was Greeley's opponent.

In 1876, the year in which Mr. Wolcott began his public
career by being elected District Attorney, Benjamin H. Bris-
tow, of Kentucky, occupied a position of some prominence.
He was Secretary of War during the last Grant Administra-
tion, and became much talked about in connection with the
prosecution of the so-called " Whiskey ring " of the day.
Wolcott's statement of his attitude toward him and in the
same connection toward Blaine is found in a letter to his
mother of June 7, 1876. It is brief, but it is definite and
comprehensive :

"Is father a Bristow man? I wish he could be nomi-
nated, but I see no chance for him unless they can find
some place where Blaine has n't covered up his tracks."

The next political declaration we have from him is also
in a letter to his mother, dated December 4th, of the same
year, after Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, had been nomi-
nated over Bristow and Blaine and all other opponents,
and after the election between Hayes and Samuel J. Til-
den, of New York, had resulted so perplexingly as to call
for the appointment of a commission of fifteen, which ulti-
mately gave the office to Hayes. This letter also is brief,
but it covers a wide range of subjects pertaining to the
franchise and public policy. It follows:

I take the New York Tribune, World, and Graphic, and am
firmly convinced that Tilden is elected and ought to be in-
augurated. Two things are certain : If Hayes is declared Presi-
dent, the Republican party is gone without hope of resuscitation,

524 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

and the best outlook and the only one for the negro is in joining
hands with the Democratic party. It seems apparent, too, that
the fatal weakness of this Republic is Universal Suffrage, and
that the present form of government won't last very long, say,
not another hundred years.

However, after the contest was concluded and after
Hayes had been declared elected and had been installed as
President, Wolcott gave him support, saying in a letter in
1878, that his sympathy was with the Hayes rather than
the Grant faction of the party.

In a letter to his father of May 22, 1880, just previous
to the Republican Convention in Chicago, at which James
A. Garfield was placed in nomination for the Presidency,
Mr. Wolcott found occasion to express his antagonism both
to Blaine and Grant. For the first and only time in his
long continued and voluminous correspondence with his
parents he wrote on this occasion through an amanuensis.
After apologizing for the necessity for this resort to assist-
ance, he says:

In respect to the political matters about which you write, 1
cannot of course express myself as specifically and freely as if
I were myself writing, but I feel very much as you do respect-
ing the Presidency. I am intensely opposed to General Grant,
whose nomination at the present time seems certain. In our
county of Clear Creek, we elected a unanimous anti-Grant dele-
gation. It seems necessary for all opposed to a third term to
rally around some name, and that name has been Blaine. I am
sorry for it, as I am not a Blaine man, but I have been identified
as such in all our political matters here. We made the strongest
possible fight against a third term, but we are badly defeated,
and the chances are that a solid Grant delegation will represent
Colorado in Chicago.

Writing to his mother two weeks after the election in
1884, when Cleveland won over Blaine, Mr. Wolcott says:
" I voted for Blaine, but I am really heartily glad of the
change. Six hundred Federal office-holders in this State,
three hundred of whom are political dead-beats, will have
the opportunity of earning an honest living. And, fortu-
nately, our partisanship did n't warp our judgment enough

CHARACTERISTICS 525

to prevent Henry and me from betting a little on the
winning side."

Again, soon afterward, he tells his father:

" I am very glad Cleveland is elected. I only hope he
will turn out the office-holders promptly. Half of them will
join the Democratic party."

An analysis of these statements made in the light of
then existing circumstances will convince any impartial in-
vestigator that Mr. Wolcott's preferences were merely find-
ing expression in the direction of what he believed would be
improved conditions. In the contest of 1872, there was much
criticism of the Grant Administration, and Greeley was con-
sidered by many quite as good a Republican as Grant, if not
better. Bristow was regarded by many as a reformer and
far above the plane of the ordinary politician. Many
good Republicans were doubtful of the result in 1876, when
the Electoral Commission gave the votes of some of the
Southern States to Hayes, the Republican candidate. Mr.
Wolcott did not consider it probable that South Carolina,
Florida, and Louisiana would have cast their votes for a
Republican, and he thought Tilden had been elected. Be-
fore becoming personally acquainted with Blaine, Wolcott
accepted the current accusations against him, and it is evi-
dent that as late as 1884 he had not changed his mind.
When, however, he came to know Mr. Blaine, he became his
strong admirer, and in 1892, in a speech that betrayed a
radical change of heart, placed him in nomination for the
Presidency. It should be observed, also, that his attitude
toward Blaine in 1884 was due largely to his dislike of many
of the Republican office-holders in the State. Most of these
had been selected by an opposing Republican faction. Con-
sequently, the condemnation in this instance is not so broad
as it might be construed to be. His antagonism to Grant in
1880 was due largely to fundamental opposition to the third-
term principle, which found representation in the General's
candidacy.

Thus, it will be seen that he opposed what he considered
bad conditions, and, so far as he could, stood for the higher
ideals. He learned later that all was not " reform " that
so labelled itself.

526 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

POLITICAL CRITICISM

Many have supposed that Mr. Wolcott was indifferent
to newspaper and other criticisms, but that such was not
the case his friends testify unanimously. In public he
rarely spoke of the calumnies heaped upon him except to
hit back, but in the privacy of his personal intercourse he
bewailed them bitterly. Hon. A. M. Stevenson, one of Mr.
Wolcott's closest friends, tells us that " he did care as few
men care." " These attacks," says Mr. Stevenson, " cut him
deep to the heart. It was not for office, but for the friends
he would not desert that he kept up his Colorado fight. He
would not have endured so long for himself alone what he
did endure." Mr. Stevenson adds that the nickname "Cousin
Ed," as applied by his enemies to indicate their conception
of his close relationship to the English and his interest
in their country, was especially annoying to him. All this
indicated to him that his own people, whom he sought to
serve, did not understand him or that they intentionally
misrepresented him. The representations of the latter class
in his own State, and especially in his own party, hurt
him grievously, and it is believed by many hastened his
death. No man ever sought more assiduously to serve a
people than did Senator Wolcott the people of Colorado.
Was it unreasonable that he should ask silence if not recog-
nition? He could not endure abuse where he felt that he
had earned praise. Few can.

During the McKinley Administration, and for a short
time afterward, Mr. Wolcott was made the subject of much
harsh criticism on account of his distribution of the Federal
patronage in Colorado, and replying in a statement pub-
lished in the Denver Republican of November 17, 1901, as
an interview, he took cognizance of two of the more specific
charges. They pertained to the participation of Federal
office-holders in politics, and to " boss rule." He explained
his reasons for the appointments made by him and also de-
fended the course of some of the appointees in participating
in political meetings. In the latter connection he spoke
especially of the work of D. C. Bailey and C. D. Ford, both of

CHARACTERISTICS 527

whom were chairmen of committees and office-holders. On
these points he said :

In my opinion a Federal office-holder should not, because he
holds office, cease to interest himself as a citizen and a Repub-
lican, in the welfare of his State and the success of his party,
and in Colorado the two are synonymous. I do not believe,
however, that he should actively participate in the preliminary
work of the primaries, or on the floor of a convention. I have
been away from home since last November, and am not advised
respecting recent occurrences, but I know that up to that time,
since the Bryan slide, there had never been any serious con-
troversy or differences of opinion, at either primaries or con-
vention, and the work of every Republican, office-holder or
not, was solely to get as full a registration and as large a
representation at our conventions and elections as possible.

Some of the men who hold office in Colorado are among its
ablest and best party workers. I venture to say that there is
not one of them, either at the last election or at those preceding
the last, who would n't have infinitely preferred confining his
activities to voting the ticket on election day, and who only
participated in other work because he was urged to it by the
leaders of the party in the several counties. Some of them have
been, and are, chairmen of party committees. In every instance
with which I am familiar, it has been against both their judgment
and their inclinations.

A year ago we had great difficulty in finding for the chair-
manship of our State committee a gentleman who knew the
leaders of the party throughout the State, and who could put
his entire time into the campaign. We had n't as many Repub-
licans then as we have now. I personally urged Mr. Ford to
accept the post. He protested on the very ground that he
held public office. I insisted, and he yielded with great reluc-
tance, and upon the promise that he should be relieved after
the campaign.

I was away during the last campaign, but am told that Mr.
Bailey took the difficult post of chairman of this county com-
mittee under similar circumstances, and I deeply regret that
his efforts in support of an excellent ticket were unsuccessful.
Both of these gentlemen deserve only the highest commendation
and gratitude from their party associates for their efficient labors.

It is true that, in many States of the Union, the chairman-
ship of its committee is held by gentlemen holding either Federal

528 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

or State office, but this does not make it more palatable for
certain members of the party whose views are entitled to
recognition.

On the other subject, that of party bosses, I am compelled
to be a little personal. Five years ago Colorado had three Re-
publican representatives in Congress. In the upheaval of 1896
I was left the only Republican at Washington, and my position
forced me into the nominal leadership of the party in Colorado,
a position I neither sought nor coveted. Necessarily every ap-
pointment, important or small, throughout this great State, was
referred to me. This duty was most unpleasing and embarrass-
ing, but was not to be avoided. In every instance I followed
the advice of party friends and sought only good appointees
and the strengthening of the party. As I have said, we had at
first but twenty per cent, of our party to draw from.

To-day more Federal appointments are held by men who voted
for Mr. Bryan in 1896 than by men who voted then for Mr.
McK'mley, and the differences of '96 are forgotten by every good
Republican.

Most of the appointments have justified themselves. There
were some mistakes. It is pleasant to state the fact that at
Washington the official record of every one of them is clean.
But there were twenty applicants, proper applicants, for every
vacancy, and nineteen Republicans and their friends disappointed
whenever an appointment was made.

With my return to private life my duty as to appointments
is ended. I am naturally interested in endeavoring to see to
it that fit and proper appointees now in office shall not be
unjustly removed, but I shall no longer have to do actively
with the naming of men for Federal office, except, as in common
with every other citizen, I shall oppose the appointment of unfit
men. I know of no good Republican in Colorado, fitted for ap-
pointment, at whose success in receiving an official commission
I would not cordially rejoice. So far, then, as influencing
appointments is concerned, I take my place again in the ranks
of the party.

Like many other men engaged in active politics, Mr.
Wolcott could and did strike viciously when under the excite-
ment of debate or in the midst of a campaign, but that he
did not nurse his enmities we have many illustrations. We
have seen how that in the midst of the bitter contest
of 1896, when Wolcott's political life was at stake, he went

CHARACTERISTICS 529

out of his way to speak in terms of praise of Senator Teller's
purity of purpose as a public man. Mr. Wolcott's speeches
bear abundant evidence of his temporary resentment toward
Senator N. P. Hill, while the latter was conducting a vigor-
ous campaign against him. But when in 1900 it was known
that Mr. Hill was on his death-bed, we find Senator Wolcott
expressing the deepest concern for his recovery.

In the field of national politics, it was natural that Mr.
Wolcott and the Democratic leader, Hon. William J. Bryan,
should have clashed, and in many of his speeches, the Colo-
rado Senator pointedly attacked the Nebraskan because of
his views — and because he was opposed to him. That, after
all, however, he had a wholesome respect for him, he has
left record. Asked in 1899 by an interviewer for his esti-
mate of Mr. Bryan, Mr. Wolcott said :

The people in the East, who do not know Mr. Byran, are
apt to underrate the entire integrity of motive which animates
him, and which is the great element in his strength. No matter
how we may differ from him, and I differ from him in a radical
degree, it is idle not to recognize this fact. I believe that there
is no sacrifice which Mr. Bryan would not make to further
what he believed to be the welfare of this country. This sen-
timent being prevalent in my own section, I can account for
the intensely loyal following which Mr. Bryan enjoys.

MR. WOLCOTT'S FRIENDSHIPS

LIFE without friends would have been a barren waste to
Mr. Wolcott. No man had more friends or more
loyal friends than he. And, as many befriended him,
so he was friend to many. As he bound others to him so
he was attached to them. He was the personification of
gratitude. But he did not base all his friendships on cour-
tesies to himself. Many of them were a thing apart — a
matter of temperament, of affinity, of kindred tastes, of
conditions. He was as full of sentiment as an egg is full
of meat.

There will, of course, be no effort to enumerate his friends.
They were too multitudinous to permit of such a course.
Beginning with his army life, and extending down the years
through Hudson, Norwich, and Yale; his law-student days
in Boston and at Harvard; his early days in Blackhawk,
Central, and Georgetown; his experience as a State legis-
lator, as an attorney of extensive practice, as a State poli-
tician, and for many years the leader of his party in the
State; as a United States Senator and a traveller who cov-
ered a wide field ; as a clubman, a society man, a bon vivant,
and a general man of the world, they constitute a formidable
list. In all these capacities he met and made friends, and
held them.

He did not enjoy the association of all people, nor of any
people all the time; but when not engaged in study or read-
ing he wanted company; sometimes one friend, at other
times another — not always the same one. He was erratic
in this as in many other respects. Much depended on the
mood. The man who liked to talk about books and travel

530

CHARACTERISTICS 531

was most welcome until politics or sport or business or
horses engaged his thought; at such times others were
sought and the book man received scant attention. It
was with women as with men. He enjoyed their society
only as they fitted the mood. There also were periods when
he seemed to prefer to be alone, when not even his intimates
were desired in his immediate presence. Such moods gen-
erally befell during campaigns or in the course of professional
pressure, when, after days given up to strenuous interviews,
he would seek retreat at Wolhurst, have the telephone cut
off, the door-bell plugged, and give himself wholly to restful
quiet and solitude.

These periods were comparatively rare, however, and,
while always shutting out more effectively than most men
those with whom he did not wish to converse, he liked above
all things to gather about him a congenial party and engage
in general conversation. So fond was he of companionship
that when he was in the army he preferred the guard-house
to guard duty, because, forsooth, when locked up friends or
acquaintances shared his fate, while when doing the service
of sentinel he must tread the weary path alone. This con-
dition was intolerable to him.

He was at his best with his friends around him. On
such occasions he was the leader of conversation — the one
man to whom all listened. He was even a greater success
as a conversationalist than as an orator, and if all his witty
remarks in private converse could be recorded there would
be little room for other material in an ordinary volume.
His private talk, like his public speeches, generally dealt
with public questions, but both were enriched by an active
imagination, a keen appreciation of occurrences, and an in-
cisive insight into human nature. Add to these natural
endowments a wide range in reading and extensive travel
and you have a rare companion.

Excitement and variety seemed a requisite of existence,
and companionship was little or nothing to him if it did
not afford entertainment out of the ordinary.

It would be invidious to mention any number of his
Colorado friends, and for this reason no such effort will
be made. Indeed, desirable as it might be to extend this

532 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

list to the ordinary walks of life, it has been found imprac-
ticable to do so, and the discussion here entered upon will be
confined to political associations. Thus limited, first men-
tion should be made of Mr. Wolcott's relationship with
Senator Teller, which is worthy of consideration from both
the political and the personal view-points.

Mr. Teller was a resident of Gilpin County and the lead-
ing lawyer of the State when Mr. Wolcott joined his brother
Henry in that county. The two then became acquainted,
and at Wolcott's request Teller sat with him through his
first trial. His earliest mention of Mr. Teller is found in a
letter to his mother, written in December, 1876. He speaks
of receiving a letter from a friend in the East, and adds:

" I wrote telling him that I had been elected District
Attorney, and he answers congratulating me on having been
elected Judge. I suppose if I should be chosen constable
he would congratulate me on my election to the United
States Senate, which reminds me that Mr. Teller, one of
our new Senators, is a warm personal friend of mine."

The friendship then formed was never broken, though
subjected to exceptionally severe wrenches during Wolcott's
adherence to the Hill faction, as it also was through Teller's
defection from the Republican party on account of silver.

Wolcott had Teller's support in both his elections, and
Teller Wolcott's in his election in 1891. Up to the Repub-
lican split in 1896, which led to Teller's withdrawal from
the party, they were perfectly united on party policy, and
they were much together in the Senate. Temperamentally
and in the matter of personal habits, they were as unlike
as two men could be. But there is a kinship in intellect
and in force of character. In this relationship was found
the tie that bound them together. They were alike in their
outspoken condemnation of fraud of every kind, in indepen-
dence of character, and in quickness and comprehensiveness
of mental action.

Wolcott found Teller a leader in the silver cause when
he entered the Senate, and he gave him the most loyal and
unswerving support as long as there was any chance of
doing anything to rehabilitate the white metal. On the
other hand, Teller was one of the first to boost Wolcott for

CHARACTERISTICS 533

the Senate; the first to sound his praises in the Senate, and
his most attentive and appreciative auditor when he spoke
there.

In a word, Teller " fathered " Wolcott in the Senate.
Two instances may be recalled. One occurred when Wol-
cott entered the body. Four States sent their first Senators
at the same time that Mr. Wolcott's first term began. Sev-
eral of the new men seemed to feel that it was incumbent
upon them to exemplify in the Senate the same quality of
" hustle " that had given them success at home. Accord-
ingly, some of them began to pull wires to procure favor-
able committee appointments, and thus made themselves
unpleasantly conspicuous in a body where tradition and
usage do not readily yield to personal urgency. Mr. Wol-
cott pursued the opposite course. He disclaimed any choice
as to his appointments and allowed no trace of any per-
sonal scheming to appear in the friendly relationships which
he established with his new associates. When, therefore,
Mr. Teller expressed a wish that Mr. Wolcott might have
a chairmanship, as such assignment carried with it the use
of a committee room, his suggestion was readily adopted,
and the new Colorado Senator was placed at the head of
the Committee on Civil Service.

Mr. Teller afterward aided his colleague in getting com-
mittee places generally considered beyond the reach of new
Senators. Long regarded as the most important of the Sen-
ate committees, membership on the Committee on Finance
has ever been assiduously sought by Senators. It was Teller
who found a way of getting Wolcott on that committee,
where he desired to have him placed, not alone for the
honor, but because he felt that in that position Mr. Wolcott
could be most helpful to the silver cause, which then was
the paramount issue with the Colorado Senators.

Wolcott wanted the place. But it looked for a time as
if he would not get it. A much older Senator, an Eastern
man, conceived the idea that he was entitled to the position.
Both could not be accommodated. Teller was much em-
barrassed, but he found a way. Invited to the Eastern
man's house for dinner, he sought out the wife of that gen-
tleman and said to her:

534 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

" Why don't you have your husband try for the vacancy
on the Committee on Foreign Relations? He has studied
foreign questions; it would give him splendid standing, and
he can get it almost without trying."

The wife was socially ambitious. She took the hint,
switched her husband, and the way was opened for Wol-
cott's appointment on the Finance Committee. The fact that
he was on the Committee went far toward rendering him
available as Chairman of the Bimetallic Commission of 1897.

As going to show the relations between the two Senators
the following special despatch from Washington to the
Denver Times of February 23, 1892, is quoted:

Politicians in Washington who understand the political situa-
tion in Colorado have noticed the combination that has been
made between Senators Teller and Wolcott by which Teller is
to do everything to enhance the chances of Senator Wolcott for
re-election when his present term expires. Nearly every bill of
any importance to Colorado that has been introduced this ses-
sion has been presented by Wolcott. Teller has remained in
the background and given the younger man every opportunity
to draw public attention to him as a statesman who is doing
all in his power in the interest of his constituents. The fact is
Mr. Teller is a true Fidus Achates to the breezy statesman from
Denver. Many of the bills fathered by Mr. Wolcott under ordi-
nary circumstances would have been pushed through the Sena-
torial channels by Teller had it not been for the fact that
there was an understanding between the two men that Wolcott
should be given all the benefit of this class of legislative duty.
A little investigation in Washington, however, indicates that it
is probably unnecessary that this combination should have been
made. Very few seem to doubt that Senator Wolcott would
have had smooth sailing for a re-election under any circumstances.
It is considered that he has ably represented his constituents
since his advent into the United States Senate. He has been
determined in his fight for the free coinage of silver and has
been on the right side of every question that has come up in
which his State is deeply interested. Senator Teller can well
afford to aid his young colleague in the interest of his re-election
;it ihe close of his present term. Senator Teller, it is believed,
will have no trouble in retaining his Senatorial seat as long as
he desires.

CHARACTERISTICS 535

Many warm attachments were contracted in Washington,
among the most noteworthy of which were with President
McKinley, Secretary Hay, Speaker Reed, and Senators
Lodge, Allison, Fairbanks, Hale, Aldrich, Evarts, Chandler,
Quay, Carter, Jones of Nevada, Jones of Arkansas, Vest,
Ingalls, Plumb, Bryce, Hoar, Berry, and Spooner.

The friendship between Wolcott and McKinley was very
marked. It began soon after Wolcott entered the Senate,
when McKinley was Chairman of the House Committee on
Ways and Means, and was immensely strengthened by Wol-
cott's support of McKinley for the Presidency in 1896, when
his Colorado constituency was almost solidly against the
Ohio man. He not only sent Mr. Wolcott to Europe as the
head of the Bimetallic Commission, but he was greatly
pleased with his work in that capacity, and he made him
the dictator on all points pertaining to Colorado appoint-
ments. More than that, he consulted him extensively in
matters of general party policy, offered him a choice of two
important European diplomatic posts, and selected him for
Temporary Chairman of the Philadelphia Convention in
1900, when he (McKinley) received the second nomination
for the Presidency.

Senator, and afterward Vice-President, Fairbanks de-
livered in the Senate one of the eulogies over President
McKinley, and in sending a copy of the address to Mr. Wol-
cott, he took occasion to allude to the friendship between
him and Major McKinley by inscribing it : " To Senator
Wolcott, whom McKinley loved and in whom he trusted."
Senator Fairbanks was himself a firm admirer of Mr. Wol-
cott, and never lost an opportunity to manifest his interest.

But while Wolcott loved McKinley, he often found the
kind-hearted occupant of the White House too considerate
of other people whose feelings Mr. Wolcott did not think
should be consulted. He would go to the White House
to expostulate with the Chief Executive over some matter
of policy or some appointment, but, as he was wont to express
it, he would " fall into such a bed of roses " that he could
do nothing but say, " Oh, how beautiful ! " " He is the
best man on earth," he once said of the President; "but
he spends most of his. time every day studying how he can

536 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

get to bed at night without hurting any one." Wolcott
did not hesitate to offend people whose conduct was such
as to merit rebuke, and he did not think that even a President
should so hesitate. Still, he understood McKinley person-
ally, and did not let the different view-point estrange him.

One letter only from McKinley has been preserved. It
was written September 5, 1896, during the memorable cam-
paign of that year, and was in response to a note from
Mr. Wolcott. The following extract will serve to show
McKinley's interest in the Colorado Senator:

When I would read of the situation in your State, I often
thought of you. You are entitled to the sympathy of all loyal
Republicans. I am glad to note, however, that all is not dark,
politically speaking, even in Colorado. I feel assured that for
your steadfastness you will in time be amply compensated. I
reciprocate most heartily your warm expression of good wishes.

When, in 1901, McKinley succumbed to the wound in-
flicted by an irresponsible assassin's bullet, Mr. Wolcott
said in an interview:

The tragic death of President McKinley is too recent, and
my feeling of personal grief too great, for me to care at this
time to dwell upon it. He was the one man in this country
against whom no breast could harbor malice; and his probity
and rectitude of purpose and nobility of character will serve
as an example to young American manhood for all time. I was
abroad at the time of his assassination, and, notwithstanding
the jealousies and apprehension which our commercial supremacy
has aroused, it was touching to an American to witness how
all Europe shared our grief and sympathized in our loss.

Probably the most touching of all of Mr. Wolcott's East-
ern friendships was that with genial, talented, lovable John
Hay, the poet-diplomat, the most sympathetic of friends,
the most perfect of gentlemen, the gentlest of men. The
intimacy took root while Mr. Hay was serving as Ambassador
to Great Britain, and the attachment continued unabated
on both sides until Mr. Wolcott's death, which it is interest-
ing to note occurred just four months, to a day, before Mr.
Hay's. There was a constant correspondence between them,

CHARACTERISTICS 537

and many of Mr. Hay's letters have been preserved. Some
deal with questions too sacred for print so soon after the
demise of the two, and others are given in other connections.
Extracts from two of these letters, both from Washington,
follow. In the first, written in November, 1900, he says:

" I hope to see you here very soon. There are many
things I want to talk to you about. I need your counsel and
your courage."

And in the second, in November, 1901 :

" Next week our summer's work goes to the Senate. I
wish I could feel that your sterling good sense, your power
of bright incisive speech, and your genial personal influence
were there to help us through."

The following letters dealing with the campaigns of 1900
and 1902-3 are worth printing entire:

Washington, Nov. 18, 1900.
My Dear Wolcott:

1 have your letter of Tuesday from Wolhurst and I have
shown it to the President. He is glad to receive your congratu-
lations. Of course we are all extremely sorry that your immense
success in Colorado did not bring you back to the Senate. Never-
theless you have made a glorious fight and won a great victory.
No such change of votes has ever before been made, and it is
due to the courage and the genius you put into the fight.

It must be galling to you to feel that a majority of your
people were still beyond the reach of sound reason, and I can
understand your momentary depression. But that will not last.
You have not only stemmed the tide, you have turned it, and
the future belongs to you.

Yours faithfully,

(Signed) John Hay.

Washington, Jan. 23, 1903.
My Dear Wolcott :

I know it is none of my business — perhaps it is an imperti-
nence^— for me to say anything about your Colorado politics.
But I cannot endure sitting forever dumb while you are engaged
in such a fight. I cannot but send you a word of sympathy
and regard. It is well-nigh incredible that the first result of
the victory which you prepared and made possible two years
ago should have been the malignant treachery of which you

538 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

are now the object. If Colorado wanted to show how immeas-
urably you are the first man in the State, no better means could
have been chosen.

I have no right to say these things even to you, but I must say
them. They do you no good, but they acquit my conscience. I
want you at least to know how heartily I wish you good luck,
not only in this desperate fight, but in all things.

Yours faithfully,

(Signed) John Hay.

Mr. A. M. Stevenson has supplied the writer with the
particulars of an interview at Wolcott's Washington house
between Mr. Wolcott and Mr. Hay, which illustrates not only
the close intimacy between the two men, but also shows how
in time of distress the great diplomat leaned upon and was
guided by his practical friend from Colorado. The details
of the conference were of so sacred a character that they
cannot be revealed even though both the participants are
dead, but enough may be related to answer the purposes
of this volume.

The interview occurred while the first draft of the Hay-
Pauncefote treaty, dealing, broadly speaking, with Isthmian
Canal rights was under consideration. Mr. Stevenson was
a house guest of Mr. Wolcott's. They had sat well through
the evening discussing questions of mutual interest, when
Mr. Hay was announced, and following close upon the heels
of the messenger he came into the room. He seemed em-
barrassed at finding a third person present. Noticing that
the Secretary desired to speak confidentially with the Sen-
ator, Mr. Stevenson was about to retire, when at Mr.
Wolcott's suggestion Mr. Hay invited him to remain.

Mr. Hay then opened his heart to the two Colorado men.
The treaty was undergoing bitter assaults in the Senate and
in the columns of the press of the country, and the Secretary
of State was greatly annoyed — so much annoyed, indeed,
that he had come, not to ask Mr. Wolcott's support for
the treaty, which he then had, but to announce his intention
of resigning his high office. Walking rapidly up and down
the Wolcott sitting-room, he outlined the situation. " I
know I am right, and yet I know the country is against me,

CHARACTERISTICS 539

and there is no honorable course open but to get out of
the way. My continuance in the Cabinet can be only an
embarrassment to the President, and I am resolved to send
in my resignation." This and much more he said, to all of
which Mr. Wolcott listened with patience and in evident
distress.

When Mr. Hay concluded, he entered upon the task
of dissuading him from his announced purpose. The under-
taking was not of easy accomplishment, and the night was
far spent before the effort ceased and the conference came
to a close. It terminated with a promise on the part of
Mr. Hay not to be precipitate, but to await further events
before taking any step in the direction of retiring. He did
wait; the treaty was modified, but was still left in form
acceptable to him, and Mr. McKinley was not deprived of
the services of his most trusted lieutenant. This result the
President owed entirely to the Colorado Senator, but he
probably never knew how deeply he was indebted to him.

Two of Mr. Wolcott's Senate friendships have a romantic
quality because they were with men so much older than him-
self. They are those with George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts,
and William M. Evarts, of New York. Both were men of
scholarship and literary taste and of high standing at the bar.
They shared the same traditions and devotion to Puritan
memories and ideals, although this feeling was stronger in
Mr. Hoar because of his residence in New England. They
doubtless were both drawn to Mr. Wolcott because his
tastes were similar to theirs, and it may also be that in
their quieter and more secluded habits they found pleasure
in the younger man's breezy manner and fresh outlook on
life. Although he opposed both of them in some of their
pet measures, they maintained a cordial esteem for him and
frequently sought chats on matters outside their Senatorial
duties. Mr. Hoar corresponded extensively with the Colo-
rado Senator, and when Mr. Evarts was finishing his days
in blindness and retirement, apparently almost forgotten by
many of his associates, Mr. Wolcott cheered his loneliness
by seeking him out at his home for a long call.

Mr. Hoar found especial satisfaction in the fact that Mr.
Wolcott was of New England origin, and he delighted to

540 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

discuss his genealogy with him. That he was familar with
the antecedents of the mother's as well as the father's side
of the family is shown in the following letter :

Worcester, Mass., April 12, 1895.
My Dear Senator:

The people of Worcester are quite anxious that you deliver
an address here the coming 4th of July. I hope you will be
willing to accept the invitation. Your welcome will be as cor-
dial as possible, and the people are glad to know that on both
sides you are of Massachusetts stock, and on the mother's side
belong to Worcester County. There have been no 4th of July
orations delivered in Worcester for many years. So the occasion
is not common-place, and you will have as large an audience as
the place where you speak will hold, which will be, if you come,
in one of two places, both of which will hold a very large
audience indeed.

It will give me great pleasure personally, if you can accept.

I should be glad to have you for my guest, and to show whatever

may be worth seeing in this region. Mrs. Hoar and I will also

be very glad to welcome Mrs. Wolcott, if she shall come with you.

I am, with high regard, faithfully yours.

(Signed) Geo. F. Hoar.
The Honorable

Edward O. Wolcott.

One letter from Senator Allison has been preserved. It
was written in 1904, after Mr. Wolcott had been chosen to
head the Colorado delegation to the Chicago National Con-
vention— the last ever attended by him, — and is unusually
cordial for the conservative Iowa Senator, who served in the
Senate longer than any other man up to this time, and who
held the respect of the nation during his entire service. The
letter runs:

Dubuque, Iowa, May 8th.
My Dear Wolcott :

Some kind friend has sent me a Denver paper showing pro-
ceedings of the convention at Denver. I want to congratulate
you and also the party, that you are again in the harness, and
that you are to head your delegation at Chicago. I want to
see you in the Senate again, and all say you can go, if you
will give the matter your personal attention. You ought to be

CHARACTERISTICS 541

there now. I hope to take you by the hand soon after your
arrival, and renew the pleasant association of a few years ago.
Your old colleagues in the Senate will be glad to greet you.

Sincerely yours,

(Signed) W. B. Allison.

The friendship between Wolcott and Senator Quay was
known of all men. They read much together, occasionally
played poker together, and they visited very frequently.
Like Wolcott, Quay was a lover of books, and Wolcott often
took refuge from the cares of the day in the Quay library.
Indeed, while on the surface there was little in common
between them, there were no two more congenial souls in
the Senate.

Senator Wolcott's fine courage and his loyal devotion to
his friends were well illustrated by the fight which he, al-
most alone among Republican Senators, made in defence of
Mr. Quay's seat in the Senate at the time he was appointed
by Governor Stone. Quay had no case; at least the Senate
so decided, but Mr. Wolcott's concern was not entirely be-
cause of that fact. Quay was his friend, and he determined
to stand by him, although his advocacy created much antago-
nism in the Senate.

Another instance which illustrates his practical way of
manifesting his friendship is found in his course toward
Senator Quay in connection with the latter's Senatorial
aspirations. The story of his efforts in behalf of the Penn-
sylvania's retention of his seat has been told. But the
public records do not show that when, afterward, Quay
determined upon again standing for election before the
Pennsylvania Legislature, Wolcott sent him a check for
|5000. The letter was addressed " Dear Mike," and was a
mere line expressing interest in Quay's success. " I don't
believe he can afford it," said Quay when the letter was
received, and the check went back through the first return-
ing mail in a letter which was addressed " Dear Ned." We
have seen how Mr. Quay tried to compensate him by having
him given second place with McKinley on the Presidential
ticket of 1900.

Wolcott was a James G. Blaine man to the end, too.

542 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

That he had not been for Blaine originally has been shown,
but when he did become a follower of the Maine statesman, he
stood with him fast and true. He was one of the real
mourners at Blaine's grave. He knew, of course, when he
arose in the Minneapolis Convention in 1892 to put Mr.
Blaine in nomination, that he appeared as the champion of
a lost cause, but that knowledge did not deter him. He had
been asked by Mrs. Blaine to nominate her husband, the man
who had been the beau ideal of the young Republicans, of
whom there was no more enthusiastic and picturesque indi-
vidual than Mr. Wolcott; and he did his part as ably and as
eloquently and as earnestly as if he foresaw a victory instead
of a defeat.

Senator Wolcott said at the time and always afterward
maintained that but for the fact that the office-holders were
organized into a formidable body and the delegates from many
States instructed to vote for the renomination of Harrison,
the Blaine fight would have been won instead of lost. Plausi-
bility was given to this argument by the fact that while the
roll was being called, chairman after chairman cast the votes
of their States for Harrison, saying that they did so under
instructions, and that otherwise they would vote for Blaine.

When he first entered the Senate Mr. Wolcott said of
the Southern Senators : " They 're moss-backs, many of
them; they are living in the past, and don't know the war
is over; they drink too much whiskey and chew too much
tobacco; they're a cantankerous lot, but, after all, they're
so dead rotten poor you can't help respecting and admiring
them."

But the raillery gave place to respect and esteem when
he came to know the Southerners better. He formed agree-
able relations with many of them, and with none were
these relations more pleasing or more cordial than with
Senators Jones and Berry of Arkansas, both ex-Confed-
erate soldiers, and Jones the Chairman of the Democratic
National Committee during the two Bryan campaigns. In
his speech giving account of the European mission, Wolcott
took occasion to praise Jones, and that Jones reciprocated
the sentiment there expressed is shown by the following
letter to Wolcott:

CHARACTERISTICS 543

Washington, D. C, April 29, 1899.
Hon. E. O. Wolcott,

Denver, Colo.
My Dear Senator:

Your letter written me from New York reached me all right.
Since coming here my doctor has rearranged all the plans I
had made without consulting him, and insists on my stopping
at Southampton instead of going to Bremen, and suggests that
I find some quiet place away from the " crowd's ignoble strife,"
and spend several weeks in the South of England, and that I
then go to the mountains of Scotland and stay for a considerable
time, devoting myself absolutely to rest. He says I do not need
treatment at all, and that the treatment at Carlsbad would be
the very thing I do not want.

I enclose you a clipping which I receive in this mail from
Moreton Frewen, showing something of the feeling in financial
circles and the probable action of their Commission. I have
never had words to express my disgust with the course pursued
by our prominent men on this side and the British Government
in '97. It seems to me that the suggestion made in some papers
here that the Administration has redeemed its promise to the
people made by the platform of 1896 by making the effort that
was made through you and that we are under no obligations
to take any other steps in the direction of bimetallism, shows the
real purpose of those in authority. True, in this I may be mis-
taken. I am a very earnest bimetallist, and will be glad to
see bimetallism accomplished by any means, because I believe
it would be best for this country and the world at large.

While I am on the other side I may go to Paris for a short
stay, but will not stay long, and I may go up the Rhine to
Switzerland for a short trip, but I expect now to spend very
little time on the Continent. I wish you would write me c/0
J. S. Morgan & Co., 22 Old Broad Street, London, when you
are likely to come over and where you are likely to be. I want
to see you when you come, and hope I may be able to see a
good deal of you on that side.

Very sincerely yours,

(Signed) James K. Jones.

That Mr. Wolcott was true to his friends, Hon. John W.
Springer, candidate for Mayor of Denver in 1904, testified
at the Memorial meeting in Denver after Mr. Wolcott's
death, when he said:

544 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

" Tears come unbidden when I recall his last fight for
me in the mayoralty contest in Denver less than a year
ago. Coming all the way from New York, and rising from a
bed of sickness, and leaning heavily on his cane, he appealed
to the loyal members of the Grand Army of the Republic
to stand by the regular nominees of the Grand Old Party."

READING, ART, EDUCATION

INTENSELY fond of books, Mr. Wolcott could not be said
to be an omnivorous reader. He demanded the right to
choose. The author must be to his liking and the matter
entirely attractive. He must be amused or entertained.
There must be a strong picture or a good story or a true and
entertaining characterization of human nature to hold him
long. Humanity was always interesting to him, and his
reading dealt largely with its doings — in history, biography,
adventure, commercial achievement, or romance. He espe-
cially enjoyed history and biography because they portrayed
real men and, for the most part, big men. He, however,
found pleasure in any good composition, whether in prose
or verse, if along the lines of his choosing, and novels, essays,
orations, all, came in for attention. He was fond of tell-
ing of his asking John Hay how it was that people did not
read poetry as much as formerly, and receiving as a reply
this question, " How long is it since you stopped reading
it yourself? " He was fond of reminiscences of public
and social life, and he owned many books of travel. The
leading novelists also found a prominent place on his shelves
and the pages of their works bore ample evidence that they
were not there as mere ornaments. With the Bible he
was familiar, but truth demands that it should be stated
that this acquaintance was due to association with those
who had come much into close contact with the sacred book
rather than to any research of his own. As a boy he had
been a church-goer, and he also had absorbed much from
his father and mother. His retentive memory and his dis-
criminating appreciation had enabled him to retain many

vol i.-3S 545

546 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

of the pertinent and beautiful passages in the Book, and
they were most useful to him in his public speeches.
Many of his most striking quotations and aptest illustrations
were drawn from the Scriptures. He enjoyed the artistic,
the well-dressed, the attractive, and his author, whether
sacred or profane, must supply this demand of his nature.

While he read discriminatingly, Mr. Wolcott scanned
many books. Few kept pace with current literature so thor-
oughly as he, and few were more familiar with the old
English writers. Senator Hale, who is such a book lover
that he keeps a small library in his committee-room at the
Capitol, told the writer that when worn out with the Sen-
ate routine or perplexed over any subject, it was a habit
of Mr. Wolcott's to betake himself to his (Mr. Hale's) room,
where he would rush to the book-shelves, take down the work
of a favorite author, and so immerse himself in its pages
as to completely forget all his troubles. He liked to talk
books, and could quote freely from many authors. His
letters to his father and his father's to him reveal the origin
of this propensity. There is much exchange of views about
books. The son is constantly informing the father what he
is doing in the way of reading, and the latter as constantly
counselling and guiding him in this respect.

In his sketch of Mr. Wolcott's life at Wolhurst, Justice
Kent has told us something of his reading habits there,
and Governor Thomas contributes the following:

At the time of Mr. Wolcott's death, and for many years pre-
vious, he was the owner of the finest literary library in the
State, and perhaps in the country west of St. Louis. He had
standing orders for rare and curious volumes, and for standard
works as fast as they were issued from the press. No book
of consequence escaped him, unless it were something belong-
ing to another age and concerning topics of obsolete or ques-
tionable nature. His books were a ruling passion, and he read
them as well. I have seldom met a man better informed upon
matters of current importance, or more thoroughly equipped for
their discussion.

This love of books extended to law-books as well. As soon
as his means would permit he secured full sets of all reports
published in the English language, covering not only England

CHARACTERISTICS 547

and the United States, but English-speaking provinces and
colonies everywhere. Text-books on every possible topic also
crowded his library. Nothing escaped him in the bibliographic
world which appeared in good binding and in the English
language.

He kept a standing order with a Boston book-store for
all of its best books.

He also appreciated art and architecture. His residence
was supplied with good pictures, and his office was adorned
with well-executed portraits of eminent English and Ameri-
can masters of jurisprudence. He was an active participant
in all the debates in the Senate dealing with these subjects.

He was a persistent advocate of education, and he be-
lieved that young people should be sent to the best institu-
tions of learning, on account both of the scholastic and
the social advantages. He was, however, not of the kind
that would place books and study above every other con-
sideration in life, as his " home " letters testify. Indeed, if
thoughtlessly considered, these letters might create the im-
pression that he was indifferent to the work of the schools.
Such certainly was not the case. On the contrary, no one
believed more thoroughly in the advantages of a liberal edu-
cation. To understand his advice to his sisters, the facts
regarding his home relations should be taken into considera-
tion. He was the son of a preacher and of a pious mother,
and in all matters they were strict with their children. Full
of buoyant life, and thoroughly appreciative of the enjoy-
ments of liberal living, Mr. Wolcott felt that his sisters
might be too constrained. His advice wTas therefore in-
tended to influence them toward a more generous course
than would have been consonant with the home training. He
never lost an opportunity to urge the youth of both sexes
to avail themselves of every opportunity for culture, and
he frequently aided them to that end.

Moreover, he felt that his sisters were too much inclined
to close application, and he felt real concern over the pos-
sibility of injury to health by such a course. He would
have them mix school duties with lighter pastimes. Writ-
ing in 1883 to one of the young ladies then in college, he

r- 1; ~ ;

Abb ._-

- - -

550 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

ing to good preaching." Manifestly these expressions were
intended to tantalize the family, but they show a falling
off in zeal. That, however, there was a lingering interest
is evidenced by a letter to his parents as late as 1873, when
he writes complaining of their failure to inform him that
some of his sisters recently had become members of the
Church. " When I joined," he said, " I thought the act of
enough importance to write my relations and notify them."

His Norwich pastor, Rev. M. M. G. Dana, testifies that
he was a worthy member of his organization. Writing to
Mr. Wolcott in 1866 in connection with the granting to
him of a letter of dismissal, he says:

I cannot part from you without assuring you of my continued
interest in your welfare. Your firm and manly Christian course
especially endeared you to me, and I cannot tell you how much
I regret losing you from my Church. You have been of assist-
ance to me in our social evening meetings, while your readiness
to meet the duties of your new life afforded encouragement to
me to labor on. In our young people's meetings we shall always
think of you, and you may have the satisfaction of knowing that
your upright, earnest example has served to keep you in grateful
remembrance by those who knew and watched you.

Mr. Wolcott always maintained a friendly attitude to-
ward the churches, and upon appeal they never failed to
receive his encouragement and support. He simply fell out
of the way of going to service. There was nothing in his
mature life to stimulate interest in church attendance, and
he was too frank to pretend an interest he did not feel.
He did not enjoy prosy sermons any more than he did dull
speeches, and, when he could, he remained away from places
where he would be compelled to listen to either. His atti-
tude is well summarized in a letter written to his father in
1881. He was speaking of a former schoolmate who had
studied for the ministry, and who had been sent to a fron-
tier town to preach. Commiserating the young man's for-
tune, he exclaimed, " Poor fellow ! " and straightway added :
" And yet to know as he knows, that there is a heavenly
kingdom and a life to come, and to have one half the grip
on that heavenly kingdom that he has, I would cheerfully

CHARACTERISTICS 551

change places with him, or, harder still, I would sit under
his preaching the rest of my days."

Justice Campbell supplied this summary of Mr. Wolcott's
religious views at the general Wolcott Memorial Services in
1906:

" Pious cant he abhorred and meaningless generalities
avoided. The good things he did he would have us re-
member, and only those; for, though he never paraded his
religious beliefs, his godly father's religion was for him
the eternal verity."

THE LIFE TO COME

Aside from eulogies delivered over dead friends in
Congress, we find very little in Mr. Wolcott's speeches or
writings regarding life beyond the grave. The one definite ex-
pression in his letters which has come down to us was written
when he was in the law school at Harvard in 1871. He was
discussing a sermon by Horace Bushnell which his father
had sent him. Writing to that parent regarding the sermon
and its author on March 15th, of that year, Mr. Wolcott says :

I know nothing about him, but have a hazy impression that
he is not considered orthodox. This sermon should relieve him
from any such imputation. It was very able, the only difficulty
being that no one ever believed (that I ever heard of) that we
should have a chance to live life over again. Many believe that
we are purified by suffering and the punishment will not be
eternal, which I think is very plausible, reasoned humanly; but
after all I can see but one question in regard to here and here-
after. And that is, Do I believe the Bible as it is written and
in its entirety? If I do, there is but one course, and the man
is a fool who tries to make Jesus Christ less than divine or
Hell shorter than eternity and founds his reasoning on the
Holy Bible. But the moment you let in a doubt as to the
genuineness or inspiration of a single book or the truth of a
single miracle or try to account for any unaccountable event in
any other way than that it is a miracle, you are filled with
perplexities and are in a condition to drift into almost any
belief. Am I not right?

Apparently he speculated very little concerning the

552 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

future. In the absence of specific knowledge or definite opin-
ions, it was like him to remain mute. When he touched
upon the subject in his writings he generally did so in con-
nection with an outburst of moralizing over the lack of com-
pensation in the present existence, as witness the following
in a letter to his father, written from Colorado toward the
close of the campaign of 1880 :

What a lot of clap-trap there is in public life anyway! A
man is always compelled to pose before some sort of a con-
stituency. If a man could only live a quiet life passed either
with his books (not law-books) or in travel he could lay up
for himself treasures for his old age, if he reached one, and
could reap genuine enjoyment and happiness. We none of us
know anything about the other world ; we know a good deal
about this — and wherein are the greatest and most famous men
who are dead any better or happier than those old Wolcotts
whose very existence you can ascertain only by deciphering some
dusty parchment or unearthing some old tombstone?

Or the following in 1881, to the same correspondent :

When one is reasonably busy and following the humdrum life
that knows no difference between one day and another, there
is n't much news to write home. The only variety I have is
that one day my time is taken up with an examination into
a claim for damages, and another respecting some breach of
contract, or the examination of a title. It 's all very fine. You
have with you the consciousness of having done your duty and
earned your salt, but there is very little spice in it after all.
There ought to be a next world for such people; they cannot
find much enjoyment in this one.

In his first published speech, delivered at Denver during
the campaign of 1880, we find an incidental but interesting
reference to the possibilities of a future life. He was speak-
ing especially of the responsibilities of citizenship, when he
said:

We can none of us know what awaits us in that hereafter,
in that unknown to which we in our turn shall go, as a bird
flies from the lighted room out into the darkness and the night.

CHARACTERISTICS 553

It may be that we shall realize the Buddhist hope, and spend
the illimitable future iu calm and passionless contemplation of
the worlds below us, without longing and without desire. Per-
haps there await us the Heavens of Mohammed, with their
barbaric splendors; or it yet may be, as so many of us hope
and believe, that, redeemed and sanctified, we shall sit at the
feet of the crucified Saviour, the Christ no longer bearing upon
His body the marks of the spear that pierced Him, or of the cruel
nails or the crown of thorns, but rehabilitated in His majesty
and resplendent in the ineffable glory of His divine presence.
It is not given us to know of these things; but it is given u£
to realize and to remember that until we go to join the silent
majority, silent to all human ears, we dwell in the living present;
that to our times and this generation is confided, in the govern-
ment of men, the one hope of the world ; that to us is entrusted
the manhood, the equal manhood, and the liberty, the equal
liberty, of mankind. These duties and these trusts are upon us.
And the young men of Colorado will highly resolve that to
these duties and these trusts they will not prove false. Our
eyes are turned upward, our feet press forward. Armed with
these resolves, we can never be dislodged, for our feet are planted
upon the eternal rocks.

Mr. Wolcott joined in but two of the ceremonies in Con-
gress in eulogy of the dead, and on both occasions spoke in
commemoration of the services of personal friends. The first
address of this character was delivered March 1, 1893, on
the character of Senator Randall Lee Gibson, of Louisiana,
a Yale alumnus with whom the Colorado Senator was on
terms of close friendship. The only reference to a future life
in that address was contained in the following paragraph :

He has travelled the way of all men born of woman, the
great souls and the little. " One event happeneth to them all,"
and from none has yet come a voice our ears can hear. If there
be somewhere souls of men who have lived, he sits in goodly
company, with the truest and the best. If that which was Gib-
son now lies in the earth returned to our common mother, he
will yet live in the higher and purer thoughts and nobler en-
deavor of his fellow-men, toward which his blameless life was
both the incentive and the example.

The second memorial address was delivered Februarv 18,

554 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

1899, and John Simpkins, late a member of the House of
Representatives, was its subject. In his remarks on that
occasion, Mr. Wolcott said:

The world keeps full enough, as far as numbers are con-
cerned, and in the conduct of the business and affairs of life
there is always somebody to take the vacant place. But a lost
friend is not so easily replaced. We gather ourselves together
and life goes on about as usual; but there is something gone
that never comes back. He left us, however, that which neither
time nor his death can take from us — the remembrance of an
honorable, true-hearted, straightforward man, who brought good
alone to those who knew him, and who has left behind him
only pleasant and happy memories.

Only a few days before he died we stood together on the
heights near Arlington overlooking the Potomac. It was a
glorious morning in early spring; the city lay at our feet bathed
in mist, and the swelling hills and the broad river stretched far
away until they mingled with the horizon. He spoke of the
wonderful beauty of the landscape and of the pleasure it gave
him. When I was next in his presence, it was as a mourner
at the touching burial service of that beautiful religion which
he cherished, and great banks and masses of flowers covered all
that was left of him. And as my thoughts turned back to that
vision of hill and river, closed to him forever, I realized that
perhaps his eyes had already opened where no horizon limited
his gaze, in pure ether, and, illumined with the " white radiance
of eternity," he looked with unclouded vision upon fairer scenes.

When taken to task for alleged inconsistency by Senator
Harris on October 9, 1893, in connection with the discussion
of the Repeal Bill, Senator Wolcott said :

I may as well say here now that if by act inconsistent with
my entire political life, if it be still an act of honor, I would
redeem this country from its present peril without a moment's
hesitation. As individuals, of what consequence are we? We
are here for a day and gone to-morrow, fleeting through time
on our way rapidly from one world to another. What matters
much the record we make, so we make it for the safety and
welfare of the country?

IN BUSINESS

SENATOR WOLCOTT'S success in business is noticed
in another connection; and reference is made to his
career in that respect in this place only for the pur-
pose of directing especial attention to a trait of his char-
acter of which the world took little note.

First and foremost he was a business man, and to his
faculty as a man of affairs was largely due his success
as an orator, lawyer, and statesman. To many this broad
statement must appear contradictory, in view of the fact
that his reputation was for achievement in other fields of
activity; but it is believed that careful analysis of his char-
acter and career will sustain it. Close scrutiny of Mr. Wol-
cott's speeches will reveal the fact that their convincing
force is due to the insight of their author into human affairs.
They deal largely with every-day questions; with the busi-
ness of the world, with which he manifests a knowledge
sufficient to convince the reader that he knew more of the
subject than most men.

What, after all, is statesmanship but the application
of business methods to affairs of State? The best business
man ought to be the most capable executive, the most suc-
cessful diplomat, the wisest legislator. And he would be if
only he would study some of the little arts of politics and
take the time to master the law applicable to business — the
business of nations as well as that of the commercial world.
The great trouble with most men of business is that they
live in a circle which they permit to become too restricted.
With a broader culture added to proper commercial methods
most of them would be happier and more useful citizens.

555

556 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Something of an Admirable Crichton, Mr. Wolcott was
a master in many spheres. He easily took on the broader
culture of his profession and turned it to use in unravelling
the mysteries of finance and commerce, in turn making his
natural business instincts promote his success as a lawyer
and afford him his best guide as a public speaker. He was
a born organizer. Referring to him, one of his admirers has
said : " He was a great lawyer. Oratory and business ca-
pacity are elements which do not combine under ordinary
circumstances, but in the peculiar composition of Mr. Wol-
cott's mind these elements found complete and harmonious
representation.''

We have seen how that when a mere youth Mr. Wolcott
devoted himself to insurance and merchandizing and how
also for one of his age he proved exceptionally success-
ful. In later years we find him filling the highly responsible
position of director of the great Denver and Rio Grande
Railroad system, promoting important mining enterprises,
and becoming a successful operator in Wall Street.

From the time of their first entrance in Colorado, the
Wolcotts were interested in mining. Henry gave the busi-
ness more systematic attention than Edward, because mining
was in the line of his employment; but the latter also made
a close study of mining conditions and frequently expressed
the opinion in his letters to friends that mining opened the
most direct and certain avenue to wealth. He did not be-
come a mine owner in Clear Creek County, the place of his
first location, but soon after removing to Denver, he ac-
quired an interest in a mine at Leadville and in the Little
Annie Mine at Aspen. Later he and his brother Henry were
large owners in the Last Chance, one of the big mines at
Creede, and out of it they made a great deal of money. They
also held other mining interests in various parts of the State
and in Montana and Mexico. While mining was uncertain,
the profits were large when there were any; therefore it
appealed strongly to Mr. Wolcott. No inconsiderable part of
his fortune was taken out of the ground.

Ed's first letters from Georgetown indicate not only a
careful study of the mineral resources of that rich district,

CHARACTERISTICS 557

but a determination to control some of these avenues to
wealth and ease. In November, 1872, only a year after his
arrival in Colorado, he wrote his father:

You can have no idea what a fascinating thing mining is.
If a man has a good-paying lode, he is wholly independent. In
every other business, as a merchant, agent, or professional man,
you must toady more or less to some one. But a miner has his
wealth and his sustenance down in the rock and is " beholden
to nobody," and when a man does make money out of his mine
(which happens in about one instance in forty) he always makes
it fast. The money in mining, however, and this holds good in
all mining countries, is in selling; for you get your money all
at once.

Referring to his financial condition he says, writing from
Georgetown in 1877 : " An economical man could save
money and buy a mine." Both of the brothers, however,
were accustomed to say in later years that if a man put
any money into a mine, he would best charge it to profit
and loss, and then regard as clear gain any return he might
receive. Ed probably had reference to the Leadville mine
when, in January, 1884, he wrote his parents asking whether
Henry had " told them anything about a wonderful mine
we own," and adding: " If a mine does nothing else for a
man, it at least keeps him always hopeful."

Mr. Wolcott became largely interested in lands and ir-
rigation enterprises, and in Denver suburban property; and
his ability was nowhere more conspicuous than in the facility,
tact, and success with which he brought men together for
the exploitation and development of these various interests.

Mr. Wolcott also dealt heavily in stocks, and in this line
of business he at times made large sums of money. In
stock dealing, he was not so much inclined to be a " plunger,"
as in gambling. He acted less on impulse, and was
far more deliberate and conservative, weighing conditions
carefully and listening to advice. In these as in all
other business transactions he controlled a wider knowledge
of affairs and possessed a mind more capable of analyzing

558 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

conditions than do most men. While, therefore, he often
appeared reckless in his dealings, such was not necessarily
always, nor indeed generally, the case. True, few men ever
lived who loved the excitement of risk as did Ed Wolcott,
and when bent on mere sport, his abandon was limitless.
He " played " everything to the limit. But when engaged
in actual business he proceeded with more caution and al-
ways with due regard to the probabilities, after careful
scrutiny for himself.

While his disposition to take all the chances found vent
at the gaming-tables, in stock speculation he used the in-
formation derived from his study of business conditions and
obtained from men high in business circles, many of whom
gave him their confidence.

This statement is in line with the opinion of Mr. Grant
B. Schley, the New York banker, through whom Mr. Wol-
cott conducted most of his stock business and who in a
letter to the author says of Mr. Wolcott :

In many ways Mr. Wolcott was extremely conservative and,
I always felt that, if I had a proposition needing careful atten-
tion and close insight, there was no better mind to present it
to than our friend, as he was never optimistic — as was his repu-
tation— but extremely careful and critical in his examination
of any complicated proposition and always extraordinarily clear
in placing the debits and credits in their due proportion.

He profited largely through the merging of the Chicago,
Burlington, and Quincy Railroad with the Great Northern
and probably reached the zenith of his fortune at the time
this combination was consummated. Later he lost heavily, but
the last year of his life was marked by compensating gains,
and lie was a wealthy man when he died. In conversation
with friends during his last visit to Denver in the fall of
1904 he spoke freely of his losses during the previous year,
but he added that latterly there had been a turn in his
affairs for the better, and said that business conditions were
improving.

As such Mr. Wolcott's sporting proclivities had nothing
to do with his business career. And yet in them are found
some of the strongest indications of his general character.

CHARACTERISTICS 559

While doubtless his devotion to games of chance was due,
as has been said, to love of variety and excitement, the in-
dulgence of the propensity brought into play many other
mental qualities which were common to his participation
in any labor or any pastime. One of these qualities was
courage — " nerve." He was as daring in his bets as in his
speeches, but probably not always so wise. If, in speaking,
his judgment or his instinct told him to risk a bold attack
involving personalities or unpopular positions, he did not
hesitate to " sail in." The same was true of his speculations,
and when under the excitement of " the game," neces-
sarily there was less appeal to reason than when engaged
in a purely intellectual exercise. He acted largely from
impulse. But even then he won oftener than he lost, so
that it can be stated that he was successful in this as in
most other respects. Justice Brewer tells us he had an
instinct for winning. It should be said of him that he did
not covet the mere possession of wealth. He had all of the
Western man's love of the game for its own sake, and money
was valued only for what it brought.

In his speeches in and out of Congress, Mr. Wolcott
dealt courageously and incisively with business questions.
He did not hesitate to say a good word for the railroads
when convinced that their interests were unfairly attacked,
and on more than one occasion Wall Street and Wall Street
operators were the subject of his favorable comment. On
the other hand, if railroads or speculators were found to
be infringing the law or violating good morals, he was as
quick to condemn as he had been ready to praise.

On two occasions while in the Senate, in connection with
committee investigations, Mr. Wolcott had occasion to speak
of his business methods. One of these arose during the
silver agitation, when a special House Committee with Hon.
Nelson Dingley, of Maine, as Chairman, was appointed to
investigate the existence of an alleged silver pool, supposedly
formed for the purpose of promoting legislation for the pur-
pose of speculation in silver. Because they were from a
silver-producing State, but, without being summoned, Sen-
ators Teller and Wolcott appeared before the committee and

560 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

made statements. Both said they had had no previous know-
ledge of such a pool, if any existed, and Mr. Teller added that
he neither owned any silver mines nor had any knowledge of
speculation of any character. Denying all knowledge of any
silver pool or syndicate, Mr. Wolcott stated that not since he
had been in the Senate had he speculated in anything. He
created a laugh by saying that he wished he was as innocent
of all knowledge of speculation as was his colleague.

The other occasion on which he spoke of his business
operations occurred during the inquiry into the operations
of the Sugar Trust in 1894 in connection with the passage
of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Bill, when it was charged that
some Senators had been influenced by business considera-
tions to vote for the sugar schedule that was adopted. All
the members of the Senate were called before a Senate Com-
mittee, and asked to state whether they had been approached
in any way in the interest of the schedule or had speculated
in sugar with knowledge of the provision before it was en-
acted into law. Mr. Wolcott replied emphatically in the
negative.

Mr. Wolcott did not see in trusts the dangerous element
that some have professed to find in them. He spoke very
seldom on the subject, but when it was under consideration'
he did not hesitate to express himself frankly. Probably the
tersest exposition of his views on this subject is given in an
interview published in the Washington Post of November
16, 1897, in which he is quoted as saying:

I have always believed that an accumulation of capital could
do business to better advantage and with more benefit to the
public and the employee, than smaller concerns handicapped by
lack of capital. Personally I see no danger in the transaction of
business by these combined corporations. I do believe, of course,
that they should be called upon to deal with the public with
the utmost publicity and that their corporate transactions should
be subjected to the most searching scrutiny; but, when this is
done, I cannot see that any great danger threatens the country
through their existence. It is certain that labor was never so
well paid or so contented as at present. The only large com-
bination of capital that has affected us in the West has been

CHARACTERISTICS 561

the smelter combine, and it is rather gratifying to note that the
steadiness and firmness of the price of silver has been largely
caused by the fact that there are not twenty or thirty smelters
bidding against each other in the markets for the sale of their
silver.

He was in the Senate when the Sherman Anti-trust Bill
became a law and he did not oppose it.

RELATIONS TO FAMILY AND HOME

Denver, Colo.,

January 3, 1899.
My Dear Mother:

This is the first line I have written since my nomination by
the caucus, and I want my first letter to be to you, my dear
mother. I feel very happy and very humble. I shall do my
best. I know my limitations and my weaknesses, but I trust
I shall never bring discredit to the name I bear. If I do well
it will be because God gave me the best father and mother any-
body ever had. If father were only alive!

I love you very much and dearly,

Your son,

Ed.

This letter is a key to one of Mr. Wolcott's strongest
characteristics — his love for the members of his family, and
especially for his parents. From his earliest days, he was
exceptionally fond of his father and mother. He also main-
tained an affectionate regard for all of his brothers and
sisters, and sought in every possible way to assure them
of his interest. His letters are full of avowals of attach-
ment, and that his words were not mere empty expressions
was evidenced by innumerable acts of tenderness. After his
own fortunes improved, he was tireless in his efforts to
better conditions for other members of the family.

As he was partial to his family, so also was he fond of
home, of locality, and of friends. And his attachment was
strongest for his first home — for New England, and espe-
cially for Massachusetts, the State of his birth. Man of
many contradictions that he was, he loved the East better

562

CHARACTERISTICS 563

than the West, the country better than the city, his home
better than his club, although a city man, a man of the
world, and a resident of a Western State. Notwithstanding
his marked success in Colorado, he was an Easterner in
many of his inclinations.

Mr. Wolcott always professed to long for a country life,
and he even went to the extent in one or two of his letters
of asserting that he wanted to be a farmer. This tendency
found expression in the establishment near Denver of his
country place, Wolhurst; but it was so closely connected
with the city, and the life lived there was so opposed to
the ordinary idea of the rural as to almost contradict his
verbal expression. Whatever the attraction, there is no
doubt that he was extremely fond of the place, and it is true
that while he provided himself with city comforts he also
enjoyed the beauties of nature which surrounded him in
profusion at Wolhurst. English-like in many of his ten-
dencies and modes of life, he possessed the English gentle-
man's love of land and all that it implies. He liked the
quiet and the beauty of the country side. But the other
aspect of his nature — the passion for activity — found better
expression in the city than it could have found amid rural
scenes, and it may well be imagined that he would have been
most miserable if condemned to abide by his own professed
preference for a continuous residence outside a large city.

The letter to Mr. Wolcott's mother was only one of many
showing strong filial affection. In one of these, written
in November, 1874, while on his first visit to the parental
home from Colorado, he expressed himself strongly. The
letter was to his father, who was absent in the performance
of his ministerial duties, and it was penned for the sole pur-
pose of telling the parent how sorry he was not to see him.
It ran as follows:

Home, Saturday Evening,

7 November, '74.
My Dear Father:

I have been at home two days and have had a very happy
time; but I missed you more than I can tell you. I have never
visited Cleveland before when you were not here, and when we
did not have at least one pleasant talk together. There were

564 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

many things I wanted to tell you and advise with you about.
Perhaps I can write of them to you.

I am sitting at your table where you have written me many
fatherly, encouraging letters. And I hope I shall receive many
more " from the old stand," and that although you are con-
tinually travelling about doing missionary work, you will not
forget you have a son on whom much good advice could be profita-
bly spent, and who, though bad in many things, does love his
father and mother.

Ever your affectionate son,

Ed.

As was expressed in another letter, all of the Wolcott
sons were fond of their home, and yet, as he says else-
where, " they had all been away from it more than most
boys." As a matter of fact, Ed never was at home after he
was sixteen years old except on a visit. His recollections
of the home-life were, however, most vivid and as pleasing
as vivid. He seemed to revert to the time spent there with
more pleasure than to any other period of his varied life.

FONDNESS FOR PARENTS

Ed was his father's boy.

That [said one of his sisters, writing to the author] was
always his position in the family — and I never knew of any
one's resenting it. Mother told me once, of father's coming
home from the funeral of a child in Belchertown and telling her
that the child had been the flower of the family, and that its loss
meant what it would mean to them " to lose Ed." Mother said
it was her first intimation that he did not regard all the children
alike. [She adds interestingly:] By the time my remembrance
begins, Henry had come to hold the same place with mother that
Ed did with father. She said that when they were boys, and
there was an errand to be done, while the others were discuss-
ing whose turn it was, Henry would go and do it.

But if especial interest was manifested for the son by
the father, the attachment between the son and the mother
was none the less sincere and touching.

Dr. Wolcott was a man of accurate knowledge of the
affairs of the world, and if his education and early inclina-

Mrs. Harriet Pope Wolcott,
Mother of Senator Wolcott.

CHARACTERISTICS 565

tion had not placed him in the pulpit, he would have found
most congenial employment in other walks of life. His
son had the opinion that he would have been a superb
lawyer. If he entertained ambitions for secular activity,
they were subordinate to his clerical calling; but be that
as it may, it is certain that from the first he held them
for his third son. He never ceased to urge him to the ut-
most endeavor in preparing himself for high attainment.

If Ed " went wrong " the father was quick to administer
rebuke; but he was just as prompt in awarding praise for
worthy conduct, and in this watchfulness there was a con-
stant expression of interest and of hope for the future. Many
sacrifices were made and much effort exerted in the in-
terest of his ambition for the boy. As from early youth
Ed was almost constantly absent from home this interest
involved much correspondence, and many long letters of
counsel and advice were the necessary product. Occasion-
ally we find Ed's love of fun breaking over all barriers and
pricking the armor of the parent, but underneath the sur-
face there ever was a substantial love which failed never
in finding vent when there was reason for its expression.
Not only did he feel a deep natural affection for his father,
but his respect for his parent's superior knowledge and his
gratitude for his help were very marked. He relied upon
the elder in many matters and never appealed in vain. Of
a grateful disposition, he did all in his power to avoid dis-
appointing the parental expectation, and there is no doubt
that in his earlier career the spur of the father was quite
as important a factor in determining the young man's career
as was his own ambition. Indeed, we find him writing home
in 1880 and saying that he had been pleased to achieve a
reputation as a public speaker only on account of Dr. Wol-
cott's interest in him, and adding that with that accom-
plished he desired to quit public life.

Did his father consent to his quitting? By no means.
So long as he lived, he did not fail to urge the son to fresh
endeavor. Indeed, there never was a time up to the father's
death in 1886 that he was not a constant support and en-
courager of the son. Through their letters they were a help
one to the other — the son as critic and censor; the father

566 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

as whip and spur and general counsellor. They resembled
each other in physical traits and possessed many similar
mental characteristics.

It is no small tribute to the strength and loftiness of
Dr. Wolcott's character that his son, who had gone out
from home at the age of sixteen and who had formed habits
and associations that were at variance with his father's
manner of life, should yet retain throughout his career, both
in public life and in business, an unfaltering loyalty to the
high ideals which from his earliest youth the father had
held before him.

Many letters on both sides attest the comradeship of
father and son, but the following extracts in addition to
those already given must suffice in this connection.

October 9, 1876, Ed wrote :

" I cannot bear to have you feel that you are growing
old, for to me you have always seemed the same. I could
see no difference in you during my last visit home and the
old Providence days when we lived on High Street and I
first began to know you intelligently."

And in September, 1877, after a visit by Dr. Wolcott to
his sons in Colorado:

" Excuse me for not having written before ; it has not
been for lack of filial affection, for that has been renewed and
strengthened a thousand times by your visit and mother's,
but solely because I haven't had time."

Again in September, 1880:

" I was more pleased than I can tell you to find your
long letter awaiting my return. It is a good many montlis
or years since you've written me such a letter, and it is
a kind you would feel repaid for writing if you knew how
much good it does the recipient."

And, more expressive still, the letter to the mother after
his selection for the Senate three years after Dr. Wolcott's
death. " If father were only alive! " he said.

As tlie time of young Wolcott's absence from home length-
ened there naturally was a falling off in letters, and while
he did not himself write as frequently as he might have
done, he felt keenly any neglect on the part of the home

•

Dr. .Samuel Wolcott,
Father of Senator Wolcott.

CHAKACTEKISTICS 567

folks. His letters are replete with confessions of his own neg-
ligence and equally full of upbraidings of parents and sisters
and brothers. The following, to the father, of December
12, 1883, after Ed had established himself and was prosper-
ous in Denver, was one of a series of letters to the family,
but is in a strain somewhat different from others:

Since I have been away from home, now nineteen years, there
has never been a time, except during one season of my George-
town life, when you have not written me about once a month. I
have received but one letter from you since last April. If there
is no reason why you do not write, except that it has happened
so, I can feel equably about it; but if there is a reason, or if
you have lost any of the interest in me you used to feel, then
1 shall feel very badly. I know of nothing that could render
me more unhappy. Will you please write and tell me before
the year ends?

It is a pleasure to record the father's response, which
came promptly and which hinted at a tenderness of feeling
which was not fully revealed. Writing from Cleveland on
the 17th of the same December, Dr. Wolcott explained that
his failure to write had been due to his absence from home,
and added:

Your favor of the 12th instant reached me this morning; and
I regret (and yet do not regret) the delay which has occasioned
it. I welcome the proof which it furnishes that you prize so
much an occasional letter from home; while I am sorry that
you should harbor for a moment the thought that there has
been any loss of interest in or affection for you at this end of the
line. I am reminded of a Sabbath morning in the country years
ago, when I was visiting the churches, and was alone in my
study — an experience which I have never spoken of, and will
not now revive. I loved you then when I felt anxious for you,
and certainly do not love you less now that a kind Providence
has lifted my most pressing anxieties.

You have not only done better than I hoped in my anxious
moods, but better than I anticipated in my most hopeful mo-
ments. You are apt to write depreciatingly of yourself and
your performances ; but your success appears to us to have been
phenomenal. It strikes us that you have the highest possible

568 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

incentives to diligence and to faithfulness; I can think of no
desirable attainment or position which does not seem to be
within your reach.

Mr. Wolcott's love for his mother was especially tender
after the father's death, and no opportunity was lost to
show the feeling. Frequently during his service in the Sen-
ate he would go to Longmeadow on Friday night in order
to spend the following Saturday and Sunday with her. Mr.
David S. Barry, of Washington, one of Mr. Wolcott's Wash-
ington newspaper friends, relates this anecdote illustrative
of Mr. Wolcott's interest in his mother :

Down at the bottom Mr. Wolcott was of a gentle as well as
of a modest nature, although as a rule these qualifications were
very successfully concealed. When he first came to the Senate
the correspondent of a Boston newspaper wrote a letter about
him which was most flattering. Later the Senator asked a news-
paper friend to get a copy of it for him and wrote a note to the
author thanking him for his courteous consideration. " There 's
not much truth in your article," the Senator said ; " but I
know it will please my dear old mother up in Massachusetts,
and that after all is the important point."

The mother gave constant evidence of her great fond-
ness for her brilliant son, but no expression is more char-
acteristic of her than the following letter to Henry, written
November 17, 1888, a few days after the result of the election
of that year was made known :

I have not congratulated you by letter, though I have often
in my thoughts, on the result of the election in Colorado. I
suppose it makes Ed's election comparatively sure, does it not?
To be the mother of a United States Senator is an honor, of
which I had not dreamed until very recently, and I can hardly
believe it possible now. I have not written to him, but have
hoped he would find time to write a line to me, though I kndw
he must have much to absorb his time and thoughts.

Not the least interesting fact connected with the letter
is that notwithstanding it refers to Ed it is addressed to

CHARACTERISTICS 569

Henry. Mrs. Wolcott knew the two sons and knew that
the triumph was quite as much Henry's as it was Ed's, as
in reality it was. She accomplished a double purpose in
writing to Henry.

We have heard something of Mr. Wolcott's tendency to
despondency. He recognized it in himself and regarded it
as a hereditary trait, varying from time to time in his
opinion as to which side of the house it was derived from.
The following from a letter to his mother dated at George-
town, June 7, 1876, is a specimen expression on the point :

Court is in session. I have but little to do in it this term,
but am a steady looker on. Business is not exactly brisk, but I
am well and happy in the hope that it will some day be better.
The elasticity of spirits with which some of your children are
endowed, comes I think from father. I have always had the
impression that you were somewhat inclined to be rather
despondent. I am, sometimes, but it doesn't last long; perhaps
it would be better if it lasted longer, but we are what we are,
and there are many traits that nothing can change.

Writing to his mother again in December of that year,
concerning a matter of mutual interest, he broke off ab-
ruptly and remarked : " And this reminds me, mother, that
you are a little disposed, and have been ever since I first
had the pleasure of knowing you, now some years since, to
look somehow on the gloomy side; — don't you think so?"

Quite a contrary view was, however, expressed in a letter
to his mother, written from Denver in 1884, in which he
said:

" Happiness in this world depends very little on success,
but is almost wholly a matter of temperament, and I hope
Bert has inherited his mother's disposition, and has not been
afflicted, as some of us have, with the gloomy and morbid
and misanthropic tendencies which some unhappy old Wol-
cott bequeathed to his posterity."

OBSERVANCE OF BIRTHDAYS

Birthdays were ever events of moment in the Wolcott
family, and there always was trouble for the one who over-

570 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

looked Ed's anniversary. But if he expected a recognition
of his natal day he did not forget those of others, and he
was especially punctilious about his mother's.

As early as 1862, we find Mrs. Wolcott writing to her
husband and mentioning the fact that the letter was written
on Ed's fourteenth birthday. She seemed then to think that
he was getting to be quite old, and appeared disposed to
moralize over that fact. A letter from her written to him
on his twenty-third anniversary has been preserved. The
date was March 26, 1871. Here it is:

These anniversaries always carry me back to the years and
scenes of the past. I remember very distinctly the day of your
birth (it was the Sabbath), and many occurrences of your in-
fancy and childhood. How full of mother's pride and hope my
heart was in those days, and so it still is, only subdued and chast-
ened by time and experience. If my hopes have not all been
realized, my Heavenly Father's kindness has been very great to
me, and I am, I trust, truly grateful.

Twenty-three years ! A large section of our brief lives. And
yet it does not seem a long time to look back upon. How soon
these passing years will bring us to the close of our lives! Our
great concern should be to improve wisely those that remain,
and may the number of yours be many, my son, and that the
Lord may bless you in them all, and make you a blessing to
others is the sincere prayer of your affectionate mother.

Ed appears not to have received this letter as early as
he should have, for we find him writing to a sister a few
days after its date and complaining that no one had taken
notice of his birthday. The letter to the sister shows a
sense of light humor, which, if cultivated, would certainly
have brought him a reputation in that direction. Here is
the letter :

Cambridge, April 3, 1871.
Dear Sister:

When my birthday came a week ago, and nobody said any-
thing about it here, and no letter came to me from anywhere or
anybody, and I found that everybody had forgotten all about it,
] came to the conclusion that it was because I was so old. You
know some people get so old that they and everybody else forget

CHARACTERISTICS 571

how old they are, and all anybody knows about them is that
they are like

" The Polar Star-
Always thar."

And I thought of going to see an old darkey who lives here
in Cambridge, who does n't just remember whether he is one hun-
dred and forty or tico hundred and forty and who remembers
all about the flood and how Noah

" Led in the animals three by three,
The elephant and the bumble-bee,"

and of asking him if he did n't remember the divine and after-
ward the poet " which his name was Dr. Wolcott," and how in
the year '48, either 1748 or 1848, he became the father of a
beautiful infant, and Edward was his name.

But in a day or two your letter came and with it a real
pretty present, and then I knew I was n't old enough yet to
be forgotten.

In place of his signature a photograph of himself, of
thumb-nail size, was pasted on the end of the sheet.

That he had not been " forgotten " his mother's and his
sister's letters, and probably other letters from other mem-
bers of the family, would, of course, have been sufficient to
reassure him, if he had needed reassurance, which he did not.

Two touching letters from the son to the mother, grow-
ing out of the birthday observance, are now available.
One was written from Denver on June 29, 1884, the mother's
sixty-third birthday, and the other from Washington, March
26, 1897, when he was forty-nine and had been eight years
in the Senate.

In the first of these letters he says:

I spent an hour at Kittie's. We were talking of home and
of you, when Anna reminded me that it was your birthday. I
have usually recalled the date, but this year the day would have
passed without my remembering it. I write home rarely, and
am punished by not having frequent letters. Years ago when
we were all little ones, everybody's birthday was celebrated in

572 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

a quiet fashion, and yours among the rest, and now that we
are all grown older we ought still to keep them in mind. I
doD't believe you feel as old these days as I do.

Then he dealt with other subjects, but returning to his
mother's anniversary, concluded by touchingly saying:

I am glad you are so well this summer. I wish I could be with
you to-night. I 'd give you sixty-three pats on the shoulder, but
they should all be love pats and very light, and I would kiss
you good-night as I used to. I don't have the opportunity often
now, but when bedtime comes, after all these years, I frequently
think that it is time to " kiss mother good-night." And you
think of us all, don't you?

The pertinent portion of the letter of 1897 follows:

It is my forty-ninth birthday. My first thought this morn-
ing was of you, and I do not want the day to pass without my
writing you of the grateful memories I have always of you.
I think as we grow older we dwell more constantly on our youth-
ful days, and as I recall mine, I have no recollection of you
that is not a precious one. Somehow it seemed to me from your
last letter that you were not quite as well as usual. I trust you
are getting all right again. I am coming soon to see you. My
own plans are somewhat uncertain. Confidentially, the Presi-
dent wants me to go abroad again on the International Money
Question. I am also one of the sub-committee of four members
of the Finance Committee having charge of the Tariff Bill, and
we are having hearings constantly, and the days are not half
long enough to finish each day's work. As soon as I can tell
definitely what I shall do, I will write you.

ATTACHMENT FOR HENRY

Of Mr. Wolcott's brothers, Henry unquestionably was
the favorite, but his letters abound in expressions of deep
affection for all of them. With the eldest brother Samuel
he early in life entered into a compact for a constant ex-
change of letters, and while the agreement appears not to
have been very scrupulously observed by either of the parties
to it, still there was sufficient communication to show a
deep mutual interest. Will, next younger than himself, was

CHARACTERISTICS 573

his playmate and companion when the two were at home,
and they were warm friends. Later in life he looked to
Will as he did to his father as a critic and counsellor in
his rhetorical productions. Herbert, who was fifteen years
his junior, was the subject of his constant interest and deep
concern. His letters contain many expressions of tender
solicitude for him, and when he grew to manhood he took
him into his law office at Denver. His sisters also were the
subjects of his unfeigned affection. From the time that he
and Henry became established in Colorado, some of the young
ladies were with them almost constantly. Miss Katherine
found there a husband in Hon. Charles H. Toll, who was
Attorney-General of the State, and afterward, until his un-
timely death, a successful lawyer there. Miss Harriet was
married in Denver to Frederick O. Vaille and after remain-
ing there for a time removed to Massachusetts. Later they
returned to Denver and have continued to reside in that city.
Miss Anna located in the State and made a place of her
own as the head of the popular " Miss Wolcott School " of
Denver. Whether in Colorado as visitors or as residents,
the presence of the sisters was a source of gratification to
both brothers, as Ed's letters abundantly express.

It would be quite impossible to present an adequate bi-
ography of Ed Wolcott without multiplied references to his
brother Henry. They were constant chums and companions,
and the lives of both were full of acts of devotion on the
part of each toward the other. As we have seen, Ed was
indebted to Henry for encouragement and guidance through-
out his entire life. Indeed, it is not too much to say that
without Henry his career would have been much more diffi-
cult of achievement than it was. Henry loved Ed as few
brothers ever have been loved. He found the greatest pleas-
ure of his life in the younger man's success while the latter
lived, and after his death his memory became the subject of
his constant care.

Sturdy, strong, and immovable, Henry was ever in sharp
contrast with his volatile, buoyant, and irrepressible brother.
Ed Wolcott always was pugnacious enough and always
strong enough, even from his early years, to take care of
himself; but if he had needed a defender Henry would have

574 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

been found acting in that capacity, and, while not called
upon to serve in this way, he did play the part of counsellor
and adviser, and always effectively. The more deliberate
and conservative of the two, he was more cautious in
avoiding " scrapes," and probably wiser in finding a way
out of them. But, whatever the call in Ed's interest,
Henry was ever ready to respond to it. Nor is it in-
tended to imply that this good-will and this service were
not reciprocated. From first to last Ed regarded Henry
as a mentor and supporter whose judgment was better
and whose aid more to be desired than the judgment and
assistance of any other person. When at the front during
the war, and afterward while at college, we find the younger
brother making constant inquiries concerning the where-
abouts and the welfare of his senior. For a boy, he mani-
fested deep concern regarding Henry's first business venture,
which was entered upon in Chicago soon after he left the
army. So when, later, Henry turned his faculties to the
development of the mineral resources of the Rocky Moun-
tains, and sought to establish himself there, as he most effec-
tively did, we again find in Ed his most ardent admirer, as
he was the most zealous prophet of his success.

We have seen how Henry assisted Ed when he first went
to Colorado, and the constant help of all kinds that he gave
afterward constitutes a theme too delicate for detailed
narration. It is a well-known fact that Henry was Ed's
chief supporter in politics, and that to the brother more
than to all others he owed his ultimate elevation to the
Senate. Already a letter from Ed to his father has been
quoted expressing his gratitude to Henry for his help in
1880, when he first entertained aspiration for a national
career. After his election to the Senate in 1889, he gave
public expression to the same feeling when in his speech to
the Legislature, with moistened eye and voice on the verge
of breaking, he said: "Nobody knows as I do what a
brother's constancy means." In fact, they demonstrated at
all times the truth of Solomon's proverb : " A friend loveth
at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." Each ever
was to the other the loving friend, the brother in adversity.

As illustrative of the fondness of Henry and Ed for each

CHARACTERISTICS 575

other, a Denver friend recalls a characteristic instance. It
occurred at the residence of a lady on a New Year's day,
probably in the early eighties, when the social practice of
making general New Year's calls was in vogue. The two
brothers had been together all day, and had called at many
places. When they arrived at the residence of this particular
lady, they met a number of acquaintances, many of them
ladies. These were, of course, properly greeted by the two
brothers; but they had not been in the house ten minutes
when they were found sitting together in a corner convers-
ing as earnestly and as interestedly as if they had not seen
each other for a year. The incident is recalled as a proof
that they found in the society of each other more than they
did in that of others. They seemed never to tire of the closest
association, and they lived together from year to year with
ever increasing mutual regard.

As they advanced side by side in Colorado, they were
closely connected in many business transactions. Until
Ed's membership in the Senate set them somewhat in dif-
ferent grooves, they knew each other's affairs intimately.
Each felt free to commit the other to any enterprise, and
whenever they were separated, even though it were by the
width of the continent, each sent to the other a daily tele-
gram touching on all matters that the day had brought
before him. Indeed, there was no time so long as Ed lived
that they were not the most intimate friends, the fondest
companions, the most affectionate brothers.

INTEREST IN SISTERS

Of all the Wolcott sisters, Miss Clara was most at home,
and there are many references to her in Edward's letters.
He seemed to remember with especial gratitude that she
had been a friend to him when he especially needed friends,
when she was six and he eighteen. They were both staying
with Grandfather Pope in Norwich. " I imagine the atti-
tude of the household was rather severely critical toward
the lively boy and that the presence of the uncritical child
was a good deal of a solace," she says, and adds : "I do
not remember the time, but my brother referred to it almost

576 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

every time I ever saw him." Evidently, the experience ap-
pealed strongly to his sense of gratitude, which we have
seen was ever strong. When he grew to manhood, he be-
stowed upon her, as upon all his sisters, every favor that
a prosperous and generous older brother could bestow.

When the health of one of the young ladies became im-
paired, he was most solicitous for her welfare, and urged
every reasonable remedy upon her. This occurred while
he was in Europe giving attention to the work of the
bimetallic campaign in 1897, when, busy as he was, he
wrote her an eight-page, closely lined letter, advising her
as to the various resorts in America and Europe, closing
with an urgent entreaty to try the foreign ones and volun-
teering to pay all the expenses. The letter was full of de-
tailed information concerning the various " cures," and
would be a splendid handbook on this subject. The follow-
ing extract from the letter, throwing light on a historic
period, should interest:

Personally, I fear I can be of little or no service to you
on this side of the water, as my plans are so absolutely un-
certain and not under my control. I go from here on Friday to
Marseilles to meet some French bimetallists ; then to London
where I shall await the answer from the English Ministry. Then
I shall either go home, or to France or to Germany. My work
is engrossing in interest, and far the most important I have
ever attempted, and these are anxious days.

He was especially concerned about the health of his
sisters while at college, and frequently admonished them
against too close application to their studies. To one of
them, after he was well established in Denver, he wrote:

" Don't study too hard. If you have a real good time,
you will look back upon your college course with a good
deal of pleasure, even if you don't know all the Greek and
mathematics in the world."

And in similar vein to another:

Henry has told me how much you enjoy college life. I find
that college recollections are about the pleasantest of all. But

CHARACTERISTICS 577

I want to suggest one thing to you, and I do it in all serious-
ness: don't study too hard. You won't remember anything you
learn after five years anyway, and, if I were you, I would try
to make the time pass as pleasantly as possible, and not spend
too much time on my books. It is a splendid thing to stand
well in your class, but it has its drawbacks.

PREFERENCE FOR NEW ENGLAND

For one who loved his people as Ed did, he was at
home very little. Indeed, never after he enlisted to go to
the war in 1864, when he was sixteen, did he see much
of the family. After returning from his army service, he
spent two years in school, and then went into business.
Without returning home to remain any length of time, he
began his law studies in 1869, and as soon as he received
his degree from the Harvard law school, he transferred his
abode to Colorado, where he maintained residence until his
death.

A younger sister, writing of him when at home, says :

Ed was full of life and fun, and I remember his visits home
as occasions when everything was stirred up, and we all had
a good time. I was very fond of him and very proud of him in
those days, but as a younger sister in a very large family I was
not on especially intimate terms with him, and it seems to me
that within my recollection he never lived at home. . . . The
humdrum and matter-of-fact tone of the life at home was always
dissipated by Ed's appearance on the scene. He was decidedly
a tease, but in a good-natured way, which left no sting.

Yet, long as he was away from the parental roof, he
always dreamed of a return to it, and he especially longed
to establish himself in New England. It probably will be
a surprise to most people to learn that Colorado was not
Mr. Wolcott's preferred place of residence. But such is the
fact. Proud as he was of the State of his adoption, his
strongly sensuous nature found more satisfaction in the
verdure of the New England landscape than in the un-
dulating plains and rugged mountains of the far West.

578 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Moreover, he enjoyed the refinement of the New England
civilization more than he did the crudities of the then un-
developed West. Quotations are given in support of these
statements, but they should not be too seriously considered.
In weighing his expressions on the subject, allowance must
be made for the conditions under which they were uttered.
Engaged as he was in politics, and political leader that he
was, there was little repose for him in Colorado, where his
activities were exerted. The parental home offered solace
and quiet, and naturally all New England, far removed from
solicitous follower or hungry constituent, seemed a haven
of refuge. It also should be remembered that he was
writing to the " home folks," and doubtless his interest in
the East was tinged with a longing to see them. But, be the
reasons what they may, it is undeniable that his preference
was for New England, and especially for Massachusetts, as
a place of residence, and he was delighted when in 1884,
after an absence of more than a third of a century, and
through his brother Henry's generosity, the family again
found themselves established at Longmeadow.

From the time of his first location in Colorado, Mr. Wol-
cott was engaged in expressing longing for the State of his
birth. In 1874, this feeling took shape in the following
letter to his parents :

Georgetown is very quiet, but is becoming more prosperous
every season. It will never be a large place, but with the excep-
tions of portions of Nevada, it undoubtedly contains in its vicinity
the best and richest silver mines in the country. A man who at-
tends to business here ought to make a comfortable fortune in
ten or fifteen years. I hope to do this and then move back to
New England, the only civilized section in the United States.
1 would rather live in Boston, I think, than anywhere else in
the world. I wish father would get a call to some Eastern
church, even if it is a small one and in some quiet village.

To a sister, Mr. Wolcott wrote from Denver, April 17,

1881:

"For the last month I have been wanting to go East,
and have been hoping to get away, but it looks as if it would
be impossible. I almost envy you the delightful summer

CHARACTERISTICS 579

that is just commencing around Northampton, and the
glimpses you have of the broad Connecticut."
And to his mother on November 18, 1884 :
"Winter commenced in earnest yesterday. Until then
we had had a month of Indian summer. Business is good.
I work pretty hard, but don't seem to accomplish much. Our
mine looks promising again, but is n't vet paying a profit
I am considering the advisability of saving my money, get-
ting rich, and moving East. Is n't it a good idea? "

Many similar expressions are found. In one letter he
wanted to practise his profession in Boston; in the next' his
fancy ran to a country home, when for the moment he rev-
elled in the thought of becoming a tiller of the soil; in a
third, he would be located in a quiet New England village
where the world would be without excitement, and life
beautiful, peaceful, quiet. Vain human hope ! Vain at least
for a man engaged in Western politics and immersed in the
cares of the world. Once in an after-dinner speech, he
spoke of Heaven as a place where the New Engenders were
to sing the solos and other portions of mankind were to
be permitted only to join in the chorus. But that was a
speech to New Englanders only and was not without its
vein of sarcasm.

FAMILY HOME AT LONGMEADOW

When the family left Longmeadow, as they did soon after
Eds birth m 1848, they were possessed of only moderate
means; but now that the two brothers had so prospered in the
^est, the parents were enabled to live in a way which was
much more becoming their station as members of one of the
oldest and best of New England connections. A splendid man-
sion was erected for them by Henry, and he and Ed combined
to make it a home indeed for the rapidly-aging parents and
tor their sisters and younger brothers. It should also be
stated that both Dr. and Mrs. Wolcott had inherited prop-
erty and that, while the two brothers did a great deal to
promote the luxury of life, the other members of the family
were by no means dependent upon them.

How the establishment of this permanent abode was re-

580 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

garded by the parents may be inferred from the following
letter from Mrs. Wolcott to her son, written from Cleveland
in October, 1883, after the return to Longmeadow was
definitely decided upon.

It seems very strange to me [she wrote] that I should be
going back to the spot to live where just forty years ago I
went, a bride. The sad fact about it is that those who received
me so kindly then, and endeared themselves to me, have all
passed away. Instead of the fathers are the children. But the
place is associated with some of the pleasantest memories of
my life, not least of which is the birth and childhood of three of
my children. It seems to me a kind Providence that is leading us
back to that quiet spot for the evening of our days. God grant
that the pleasant anticipations may be realized!

The new home appealed strongly to Edward. In June,
1884, very soon after the removal, he wrote his mother :

"What is father doing? Still planting trees? If he
only holds on to his present fancies, Longmeadow will be an
elysium for him. The house will be a pleasant one, and if
there is no malaria to make Clara miserable, it ought to be
a happy home for us all. I am sure that I shall see much
more of you than if you continued to live at Cleveland."

On the previous January 2d, before the change had oc-
curred, he had written more at length regarding it. In that
letter he gave his fancy wider range concerning his own
future. Then he said:

I think this is the first time I have written the number of
the New Year. I wish you happiness all through it; and I sin-
cerely believe that the return to New England is going to bring
a new lease of years and happiness, and that we who live in
Colorado will share in the result, though we can visit home but
rarely.

There is no such commonwealth as Massachusetts, unless it
be her neighbor Connecticut, and there is surely no pleasanter
village than Longmeadow. I had intended to go East this winter,
but have been compelled to abandon the trip and have about
made up my mind to wait until next summer and then take
a good long vacation, and spend it in driving through parts of
New England, more especially the towns about Longmeadow.

^^m^m::;t.^ ****** ,._^y

HLiiS

CHARACTERISTICS 581

We had a very quiet day yesterday; the girls received, and
I think enjoyed the day. I suppose Henry wrote you that we
had sold the house. We are going to move into a much more
comfortable one. We shall have one or two guest-chambers, and
when father wants to give his Pegasus another rest we shall
be glad to see him here again, although I hope he won't wait for
that time before coming. I hope we shall not have to move
again while we live in Denver, which won't be very many years,
I trust.

The only people who get the good out of life are the tillers
of the soil, and if this quarrelsome profession of mine will only
yield me enough to buy a modest farm in Massachusetts, you
will see me there.

June 29, 1884, he wrote his mother asking her " what
sort of farmer " she thought he would make, and added:

" I often feel as if I would like to go back to New
England, and settle down in the country somewhere."

Doubtless his desire for an Eastern country home had
been aroused by the example set by his brother-in-law, Fred-
erick Vaille, who for a time lived on a place owned by him
in historic Lexington. Writing, half seriously and half jest-
ingly, to his mother, in November, 1884, about Mr. Vaille's
venture, Mr. Wolcott said:

Bert showed me yesterday a letter from you written at Lex-
ington. Isn't Fred's place fine? If I were to choose a farm
anywhere, and were willing to be away from the sea or from
running water, I could select no pleasanter home. I never hear
from Fred or Hattie except occasionally through the letters of
some of the family who are visiting them ; but I 'm not entitled
to hear, for I don't write. I still think Fred should follow out
the suggestion I made him, of scattering about the place a few
old musket balls and skulls. They will be ploughed up in a
few years, will be placed among the Revolutionary relics at Lex-
ington, and will add to the value of the estate. Won't you speak
to him about it?

WHERE COLORADO " COMES IN "

The words of one who was so much the creature of
mood and impulse must not always be taken implicitly at

582 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

their face value when he is speaking only to intimates;
and it is not surprising if, along with these expressions
of admiration and devotion for New England, we find
others equally as ardent in favor of Colorado, the home
of his adoption. In many of his letters he made boastful
reference to the new State, and he delivered few speeches
in which there was not some allusion to it. Often, indeed,
Colorado was his principal theme. It was his unquestion-
able intention to reside at Wolhurst as long as he might
live, as his letters to Judge Kent and to others testify. His
glowing eulogies of the Centennial State in his two New
England Day orations are given elsewhere, and bear eloquent
testimony to his intense loyalty toward and pride in it.
That it was his intention to make his home in Colorado
after his retirement from the Senate was announced
frequently both publicly and privately. In an interview
printed in the Denver Republican in 1900, he referred to
the necessity of returning to Washington to complete his
term in the Senate and added:

After such tributes as these, surely no others are neces-
sary, but there are a few so strong that they cannot in jus-
tice be withheld, and they are here given.

Of his high hopes for Colorado we find splendid expres-
sion even in his Denver speech of October 23, 1880, the first
of his published addresses.

Colorado [he said, in closing that address] is the youngest, the
latest-born, the Centennial State. She brings to the Union
youthful blood and fresh devotion to liberty. Do you not
know that in all ages the mountains have been the haunts and
homes of Liberty? Thwarted and defeated on the plains, she
has ever sought refuge in mountain fastnesses, and there hurled
defiance at her foes. The hill-country of Judea, the highlands of
Scotland, and the summits of Switzerland have once and again

CHARACTERISTICS 583

borne witness to this scene. Our whole country, hill and valley
and plain, consecrated by a fresh baptism of blood, will, we
trust, be loyal to those principles which our fathers sealed with
their life's blood a hundred years ago. But should there be
wavering elsewhere, there must be no faltering here. The heights
on which we dwell are consecrated forever to liberty.

" We are watchers of a beacon
Whose lights can never die;
We are guardians of an altar
'Midst the silence of the sky."

At the Republican State Convention at Denver, Sep-
tember 15, 1898, he said :

Colorado, my friends, was settled by the best crowd of people
that ever lived. They came out here, and have been coming
for the last thirty years, from the New England States, from
New York, Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota — splendid citi-
zens, starting out after the war, prompted by that restlessness
which came when so many officers and soldiers were mustered
out, and seeking to find some new fields for their industry. It
has been followed up by as splendid and fine and intelligent a
population as ever settled a State. You go into the mining
camps of the State, and you find more college graduates and in-
telligent men in proportion to the population than you find any-
where else in the United States. We have resources that no
other State in the Union has. There is not a single piece of
land on the footstool that has more mineral resources than
Colorado has, including gold and silver. We have more coal
than the State of Pennsylvania. Our oil-fields and our iron
deposits, together with other resources, make this the richest land
ever kissed by God's sunshine. Everything conspires to make
Colorado the most fruitful and the most prosperous and the
most splendid State in the Union.

At the Colorado State Republican Convention, May 11,
1900:

Colorado has more at stake in this great question than any
of the commonwealths of the Union. There is no area of land
of the same size in the whole world of equal richness. The
young men before me to-day, before they die, will see the popu-

584 EDWARD OLIVER WOLOOTT

lation of Colorado counted by millions where it is now counted
by hundreds of thousands. Our great plains and valleys will
furnish the meat and the food and the grain for mankind. The
coal from our inexhaustible mines will feed the furnaces of
the world and speed her iron ships. The iron from our mines,
rolled out by our great mills, will supply the rails that will
open up countries that are yet unexplored and undreamed
of. Our mines of gold and silver will furnish a circulating
medium for the world and all its nations.

Voicing the same thought he expressed himself thus in
an interview in 1901:

The next few years mean so much to Colorado ! This Republic
has become one of the great world nations, destined to share in
the solution of the vast problems of civilization all over the
globe. We have reached such a plane of prosperity as the most
hopeful of us never dreamed of twenty -five years ago. And we
are only at the threshold of our possibilities. Colorado, with
her limitless resources, can contribute more to the general sum
of prosperity than any commonwealth in the Union.

At the Lincoln celebration of the Colorado Republican
Club in 1904, the last speech but one that he made, he said :

I feel myself fitted to respond for Colorado. There is not
out of doors, anywhere under the canopy of Heaven, a piece of
ground like it, or as rich as it is. Everything that would grow
anywhere is within our soil. There is not an acre of land in
the State that water can reach that if you would tickle it with
the hoe, but would bear the harvest. There is not a cereal or
a vegetable that would not grow more to the acre here than
elsewhere. We have more coal in Colorado than has ever yet
been developed and produced, or in prospect, in the great coal
State of Pennsylvania; we have inexhaustible deposits of iron
and of all the base metals, and we have the precious metals
of every kind, and from one end of the State to the other, wait-
ing for the industry of the prospector. These we have, and,
unlike most States, we do not carry all our goods on the counter.
We have hidden in the recesses of the mountains for the
children yet unborn wealth for them, and in the centuries to
come it will be seen that we have but to grub at the surface
and there is waiting for the generations that are to follow us
wealth beyond the dreams of avarice.

CHARACTERISTICS 585

HOME OF HIS OWN

Notwithstanding he lived the greater part of his mature
life a bachelor and regardless of the fact that he was a man
of the world, Mr. Wolcott liked to maintain a house and
to live at home. Even while a resident of Georgetown, he
kept up an establishment part of the time, and after he and
Henry removed to Denver they " kept house " constantly.
They set up housekeeping largely at Ed's solicitation. It
is related that Henry only consented to the arrangement on
condition that Ed would agree to remain at table until the
serving of the meals should be concluded. His nervous
energy asserted itself at meal-time as at all other times,
and it was difficult to hold him to the formalities. Doubt-
less he promised and probably he broke the promise. Henry
and Ed were the prime movers in the organization of the
Denver Club, and were fond of it, but Ed did not live in
the club-house long at a time. Nor would he accept an office
in the Club, although frequently solicited to do so. " My
brother Henry is a good housekeeper," he would say ; " I
am not; he likes it — I don't; give it to him." Henry was
the first governor of the Club.

Early letters from young Wolcott in Colorado contain
frequent reference to his manner of living. February 1,
1875, he told his mother:

" For the past year I have slept in my office ; it has
been unpleasant, living in one room, and a little one at
that, all the time, and I have furnished a little sleeping-
room, and enjoy the change."

By the end of the year 1876, after he had been chosen
District Attorney, conditions evidently had improved some-
what, and on December 16th of that year he wrote :

I am talking of changing my office and taking a nice little
house with four rooms, all small, and using two for an office,
and the other two for sleeping- and dressing-rooms. Then, there
is a nice cellar under the house, where I can keep my coal-oil
and bath-tub. It is a little removed from the centre of the
town, but the rent is reasonable, $30 a month. I am now paying
$37 for two small rooms an eighth of a mile apart.

586 EDWAED OLIVER WOLCOTT

In one of his first letters from Denver, dated November
30, 1879, written to both his parents, he says : " Henry and
I are living in quite sumptuous apartments, and my office
is a particularly pleasant one."

Again, on May 11, 1882, he speaks of new offices which
he says " are delightful, or will be when I get them fully
arranged." In the following extract from the same letter,
he indicates the style of life of the two brothers:

I have a scheme: Why cannot father return when Henry
does, and spend a month with us here? We have room for
him at our house, and can insure him a good table. I cannot
promise him any particularly hilarious enjoyment; but, seriously,
it would gratify me very much if he would come, and I know
father would enjoy the trip, and I know also it would do him
good. I have a fair miscellaneous library, and we are so situated
that his visit would be pleasant to him.

" I wish," he writes in June, 1884, " you could see the
house Henry and I live in. It is charming and very comfort-
able." In his last years he spent much time at the Denver
residence of his brother Henry, known as " The Paddock,"
which was located in Glenarm Street in that city.

In Washington Mr. Wolcott lived a part of the time at
the Arlington Hotel, and much of the remainder of the
time at 1221 Connecticut Avenue, where he occupied his
own house and where he maintained a splendid state.

WOLHURST

Mr. Wolcott's longing for a country home found expres-
sion at last in the establishment of a place in Colorado
which he named Wolhurst, and which is located fourteen
miles south of Denver, on the Platte River.

When he bought the place in 1890, it was a ramshackle
old ranch of two hundred acres, with most of its possibilities
yet to be developed. It, however, had a grove of great
cottonwood trees. These had been planted by the original
owner, Gene Estlack, who had taken up the land in 1859.

CHARACTERISTICS 587

Additional purchases brought the area to five hundred
acres.

Artesian wells were driven for a water supply. A lake
was excavated, and extensive grading enlarged the lawn
space. Trees were planted wherever they could be placed
to advantage. Among others, two rows of spruce were set
out to border a driveway, and the driveway was afterward
changed to a footpath, that the trees might have a better
chance. Long lines of graceful Lombardy poplars were
placed along the highway. Wherever attractive shade-trees
were discovered within available distance, negotiations were
entered into for their purchase, and among those transplanted
were two dozen exceptionally fine spruces from the ground
of the old H. A. W. Tabor mansion in Denver. It cost
$50 or $60 apiece to remove them. Shrubbery and flower-
ing plants were obtained from all over the world, many of
them being brought direct from Japan.

At the side of the entrance to the grounds stood two
stone posts, surmounted by carved bulls' heads, modelled
from the crest of the family coat-of-arms. Conspicuous in the
grounds were a pair of large totem poles, which had been
obtained from Alaska by the assistance of Admiral Evans
and which have been preserved by Henry Wolcott as
ornaments of his beautiful home at White Plains. A
space near the house was laid out as a garden in more
formal fashion. This was adorned with a marble fountain,
brought from Italy, and with an elaborately carved sun-dial
on which was inscribed, "What shadows we are; what
shadows we pursue ! " In the spacious yard there towered
high above the trees a slender flag-pole, from which the
Stars and Stripes floated whenever Mr. Wolcott was at
home, causing facetious, if not envious, neighbors to remark
that " the Senate was in session."

The house was designed by T. D. Boal, a skilful artist
of Denver. It was originally sheathed with rough slabbing,
but brick was substituted for this. It was not all built at
one time, but was continually receiving additions and being
subjected to alterations to meet the demands of the restless
disposition of the owner. It was a rambling structure, the
principal parts of it being in the form of a right angle, and

588 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

much of it only two stories high. Sculptured reliefs and
other curios, picked up mostly in France, Italy, and Spain,
were set in the walls here and there.

The most notable room was the library, about sixty feet
long with a great fireplace and carved mantel at one end,
and windows on both sides. Between the windows were
book-cases, and over them paintings. Among the artists
represented were many of long-established renown, as well
as those belonging to later schools. He had portraits by
Moreelse, Rootius, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Prud'hon, and
landscapes by Cotman and Constable. He had also speci-
mens of Gerome, Weissenbruch, Bloemers, and W. T.
Richards. But in the later years of his life, when he visited
Paris more frequently and for longer stays, his taste
turned more to the French artists, and especially to the
Impressionists or Luminists. Michel, Thaulow, Pissarro,
Monet, Boudin, and Sisley were accordingly among those
who were represented on his walls.

His taste in books was inclusive. His Wolhurst shelves
contained all the standard authors in history, poetry, and
belles-lettres, and many of them in rare editions and fine
bindings. It was no mere " gentleman's library," bought
by the yard and intended to look well upon the shelves.
On the last page of each of many of the books would be
found his autograph with the date and place, when and
where, he had finished the reading of it. He had also a
fancy for extra-illustrated books, and he owned many and
costly specimens.

His study adjoined the library, and here were kept most
of his books of reference. The walls of this room were
adorned with photographs, chiefly of his associates in the
Senate, and these generally contained autograph inscrip-
tions. The billiard-room was close at hand, where it was
convenient to run in and pick up a cue when one had only
a moment to spare. The dining-room connected with a sunny
breakfast-room, and that with a series of sun-parlors,
straggling on one after the other.

All of the lower floor was fitted with Oriental rugs and
with comfortable and curious bits of furniture, and with
a profusion of odd bits of bric-^-brac. Here and in the

CHARACTERISTICS 589

thirty bedrooms of the second floor was a great array of
framed pictures, oil and water-color paintings, etchings, en-
gravings, often old and scarce, and photographs of works
of art. He had a collection of pictures of famous men,
mostly artists and authors, many of them unusual, which
were generally framed in groups, and it was a favorite pas-
time among the guests to see who could identify the greatest
number of these.

Wolhurst was the source of much pleasure to its owner,
and his life there developed many of his most charming
characteristics. He sought to make the place attractive in
every way. He was a sincere friend of the birds and of
all inoffensive wild creatures. It is a fact not generally
known, but still a fact, that he introduced into Colorado
the Mongolian pheasant, a fowl of rare plumage. He im-
ported three or four dozen of them at considerable expense,
and had them and their progeny protected and cared for
at Wolhurst until they had increased to many times the
original number. Under this fostering care the birds mul-
tiplied rapidly until in time they became very numerous
throughout the valley of the Upper Platte, and now con-
stitute the most attractive game-bird in the State. He never
permitted the killing of birds or other game within his boun-
daries. The result of this protection was that the Wolhurst
lands became the resort for all kinds of wild creatures, for
something more than instinct teaches them where to find
refuge. In the spring-time, to the great delight of the pro-
prietor, the big cottonwood trees in the river bottom were
full of the music of the feathered flock, and there never was
a time that there were not many of them in sight. It is
a pleasure to add that Mr. Thomas F. Walsh, who succeeded
Mr. Wolcott as proprietor of Wolhurst, continued the pro-
tection of the feathered pets, practically maintaining the
place as a bird reserve as long as he lived.

Mr. Wolcott's love of trees was strikingly manifested in
his protection of a giant cottonwood he found standing in
the way of an extension to his kitchen. Not wishing to
destroy the tree, and yet bent on the addition, he directed
that the kitchen be built around it, thus leaving the tree

590 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

standing. So long as he owned the place the tree continued
to thrive although its trunk was enclosed.

At great expense he ran water from the Platte to
make a lake near his house, and this body of water was
the source of much pride to him. He was very fond of
walking around the lake, a distance of almost a mile. On
one occasion a party of friends who were visiting him took
advantage of this habit to play a practical joke on him.
One after another of them proposed the walk, and so pleased
was he to show the beauties of the water and its surround-
ings that for some time he did not realize that he was being
made the subject of a teazing process. When at last he
did discover the prank he enjoyed it quite as much as any
one else, and declared that each circuit made had been a
pleasure to him. " You can't get too much of a good thing,"
he said. He also found much enjoyment in tramps along
the banks of the Platte and through other portions of his
grounds.

When he wanted to be really secluded at Wolhurst, as
often was the case when political problems taxed him, he
would have the telephone disconnected and thus protect him-
self from much intrusion. The roadway through the grounds
was so constructed that those who continued driving after
passing the house soon found themselves facing an exit —
possibly a hint that the merely curious were not expected
to remain long.

MANNER OF LIFE

At Wolhurst, Mr. Wolcott lived splendidly and in excel-
lent taste. There he was more at home than probably at
any other place, and there he dispensed a hospitality in
keeping with his generous and lordly nature. His house
was most spacious, and in it he entertained not only in-
numerable of his Colorado friends, but many persons of dis-
tinction from other States and from foreign countries. The
house was built for comfort, and within its generous en-
virons were the most attractive corners and the easiest
chairs. The walls were lined with pictures, the floors strewn

i*5WPK

CHARACTERISTICS 591

with rugs. The library contained the choicest volumes ; there
was music for those who desired it, and invitation for
a row on the lake, for a spin to the mountains, or for one
of many games was ever open to all invited guests. He
knew how to entertain, and he was quite as careful not to
surfeit the visitor with attention as he was not to neglect.

Hon. Edward Kent, now Chief Justice of Arizona, who
for several years was Mr. Wolcott's neighbor across the
Platte, and who was a frequent visitor at the Wolcott resi-
dence, has kindly furnished the following picture of Mr.
Wolcott at home at Wolhurst:

Shortly after my arrival in Denver, where I removed to
from New York in 1896, I went to live in the country some
three miles from Wolhurst, the home of Senator Wolcott, and
across the Platte River from him. The slight acquaintance that
I had had with Senator Wolcott was soon increased by constant
meeting upon the trains to and from Denver and in the country,
and ripened shortly into a close friendship which existed until
his death. For a number of years, when the Senator was at
home, I was a frequent visitor at his house. He was fond of
being with people whom he liked, and his house was constantly
filled with guests, sometimes singly but oftener, particularly
at the week-end, in numbers.

Senator Wolcott was a royal host and his invitations were
greatly prized by all who were fortunate enough to receive
them. Life at Wolhurst and the week-end gatherings there were
much like similar life and similar gatherings at English country
houses, entertainment of all sorts being available for the guests,
and with full liberty to make such choice thereof as might
seem best to each individual— only the formal dinner at night
bringing together at any stated time all those staying with him.
His magnetism, so strongly felt by all who have listened to
his wonderful oratory, was not lost in the more intimate and
closer relations of host and guest. His cheery smile, his deep
and ever ready sense of humor, combined with the magnetism
that radiated from him, kept the atmosphere charged with a
sort of mental electricity, as it were, that sharpened the wits
of others and made his dinners and evening gatherings not only
attractive but brilliant.

Senator Wolcott was not only a widely-read man, but a
man of learning on many and varied subjects. What he knew

592 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

he knew well, and he had little patience with superficial
knowledge in others, or, indeed, in himself. I remember one
evening when he had been speaking most entertainingly of
certain customs and beliefs and superstitions of the Chinese,
-of whose country he was very fond and of which he had
a wide and accurate knowledge — some mention was made of
certain analogous facts in Roman history, concerning which
he was appealed to for corroboration. His sweeping statement
that he knew nothing of Rome or of Roman history was most
characteristic, for though his actual knowledge of such history
was probably greater than that of any one there present, he
himself felt, since it was not so deep or so accurate as his
knowledge of most things, that it was but superficial and not
available.

A student of history and a lover of it, like most great men,
his chief delight was in the reading of the actual doings and
sayings of other great men, and the books he preferred and
spent the most time over were biographies. A man of action
always and of a nervous temperament, he took his rest and
recreation actively. I do not recall ever seeing him at home
sitting quietly doing nothing as is the wont of most of us at
times. He was fond of cards and played most games fairly
well, though hardly an expert at any of them. He was par-
ticularly fond of solitaire, and at home when only a few were
with him played it incessantly, taking part the while in the
general conversation, his active mind and restless spirit needing
the additional outlet the game afforded.

Fond of his State and zealous of her good name, loyal to
her and his country's interests, with the recollection of the part
he had so well played in the councils of the nation, conscious
of his ability still further to be of great use to his State and
the nation, and with a great desire to continue to use his great
talents and knowledge in such service, his defeat for re-election
to the Senate was not only a great loss to his State and the
nation, but a great shock to his pride and his sense of what was
justly due him for his past services. The evidence of the in-
gratitude of his own people whom he loved and had so well
served sorrowed his later days at Wolhurst, if indeed it did
not, as the expression is, break his heart, and contributed in
no slight degree to his early untimely death.

His faults and failings were those of the man whose blood
runs red and strong in his veins, and he was a man so big and
so full of brain as to be almost in the class of men we call men

CHARACTERISTICS 593

of genius, who, as Napoleon said, are not to be judged by
the standards applied to ordinary mortals. Orator, statesman,
lover of his country, loyal friend, generous, and ever ready with
help and advice, well hated as well as well loved, as a strong
man should be, Colorado was proud of him and the fame he
brought her, even when she discarded him, and held him, as she
holds him now, as her greatest son.

In 1900, Mr. Wolcott became interested in the establish-
ment of a National Soldiers' Home in Colorado, and while
he was laboring in that interest some " good friend " printed
a rumor that his principal object in pressing the subject
was to open the way for the sale of Wolhurst to the Gov-
ernment for the Home. The report aroused his indigna-
tion. Referring to it in an interview printed in a Denver
newspaper, he characterized it as untrue, saying:

"There isn't money enough in the Government to buy
Wolhurst. It never occurred to me that any one should
even think of such a thing until I saw it in that paper."

The pursuit of health and attention to business affairs
kept Mr. Wolcott much away from Colorado after his re-
tirement from the Senate, but that it was his fixed intention
to remain in the State and to make his home at Wolhurst
he told many persons, and he " put it in black and white "
in two letters to Judge Kent. The first of these was written
from the quaint frontier resort Luchon, in the Pyrenees,
whither on account of his health he went soon after he left
the Senate in March, 1901. It is dated August 17th of that
year, and the portion pertaining to his residence plans is
as follows :

I read with great interest what you say about my returning
to Colorado, and I appreciate the friendship that prompts the
suggestion. But there is n't the slightest ground for anxiety.
I hope to be able to remain out here a couple of months yet,
and am in no haste about returning. But when I do get back,
I intend going to Wolhurst for good, and to spend the whole
winter there, and the months following. It would be idle for
me to say that I did n't hope to go East frequently. I have
always done this. But for the bulk of every year while I live
it is my intention to live at Wolhurst. If you could see the

594 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

bills I 've paid lately to fix up its water supply, and generally
improve it, you wouldn't doubt it. It is going to be a little
hard at first, because I 've had to be so much away, but up to
this time I 've never had a thought of spending less than eight
months of every year in Colorado.

The second letter to Judge Kent was written from
Denver, January 29, 1903, immediately following his de-
feat for the Senate. In that letter he not only declared
his purpose of making his home at Wolhurst, but indi-
cated his intention of retaining his hold on political affairs.
The letter follows :

The result changes all my plans of life, and I shall stay
here for the next few years the bulk of the time and make
an active fight all along the line.

Believe me, I have no deep sense of personal disappointment,
but I do feel outraged at this betrayal of the party ; the more
so as I am inclined to fear that the line of representations of
this cabal really have influence at Washington. I am going
East for the purpose of spending a short time in Washington,
but shall be back here by the first of March, and shall reopen
Wolhurst permanently and make this my home.

I feel too deeply to write much about the whole situation,
but I hope you will be this way before long and we can talk
it over.

So it was that Mr. Wolcott lived his varied life, flitting
from Denver to Washington and from Washington to Europe,
and never failing to put in a day with the " home-folks "
at Longmeadow when he could find the time to do so. After
all, the dearest place to him was the home of his father
and mother so long as they remained there.

Unfortunately, Father Wolcott did not live long enough
to witness the full fruition of his hope for his favorite son.
However, before his death, he was fully satisfied with the
young man's achievement in the world and so expressed
himself.

MARRIED LIFE

Mr. Wolcott was married soon after entering upon his first

CHARACTERISTICS 595

term as Senator and divorced about a year before the close
of his second term. His wife was Frances Metcalfe, widow
of Lyman K. Bass, Mr. Wolcott's predecessor as general
counsel of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The wed-
ding ceremony was performed at St. Paul's Church, Buffalo
New York, on May 14, 1891. Owing to temperamental dif-
ferences, the marriage was not a happy one, and throu-h
a mutual understanding it was annulled by a decree of
divorce, which was granted March 5, 1900.

In his early years Mr. Wolcott would seem to have
had comparatively few love affairs, but there were some.
His manner was so full of charm, and he tasted so fully
of all the delights of life that he could hardly fail to fall
under the spell of the gentler sex. In his Cleveland days
he entertained an attachment for one of his schoolmates,
which ran through most of the years of his adolescence.
The letters given earlier from his Norwich schoolmates show
that he was on cordial terms with the ladies of his class
at the Academy. He tells of an infatuation contracted at
Keokuk, Iowa, when on his way to Colorado, but evidently
there is more jest than earnestness in the account. He said
in effect that the lady in this case was very charming, but
that "her father was in too robust health to render pos-
sible an alliance," a phrase which does not indicate great
seriousness. It is probable that his poverty and the meagre
social attractions of the town in those early days guarded
him from any entanglement while he was at Georgetown.
About the time of his removal to Denver, he became engaged
to a young woman from a middle Western State whom he
had met on his first trip to Europe. The engagement was
suddenly broken off, and soon after its annulment the young
Coloradoan was travelling eastward. Passing through the
State in which the lady resided, he fell into conversation
with a fellow-traveller. Upon learning the Colorado man's
name, the other gentleman, who had heard of the engage-
ment, made reference to it and showed an inclination to
converse about it. Quite embarrassed for the time, Mr. Wol-
cott found little difficulty in getting out of the predicament.
"I wish," he said, "you would not press that subject; the

506 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

gentleman who was engaged to the young lady is a relation
of mine, and I feel a little sensitive about it."

" I see by a newspaper sent me by Addie Carroll," he

wrote in 1876, " that , an old Norwich flame of mine,

is just married. The flowers of the forest are ' wede
awa.' "

He found Georgetown a lonesome place when he first
arrived there, and two months afterward wrote his father :

Your remark (probably in a joke) in regard to my getting
married has more in it than you suppose. No man can live
in this country a life of any comfort or satisfaction unless
he has a home. It would n't cost me any more, if as much, to
live, if I were married, as it does now. I have no one in view,
or in mind. If you will select one for me, — a little money or
some law-books, no hindrance, — I will come on in the summer
aDd marry her. Will you do it?

Almost six years later, December 29, 1877, we find him
writing to his mother:

I spent Christmas day at Blackhawk and was taken quite
by surprise to receive from you the very work I had been
wanting to own and to read. Henry was also very much pleased
with his present. A man should be married, or live at home,
properly to appreciate and remember the holidays. It seems as
if they came and went with less interest every year, and like
most everything else, their pleasure is in the recollections they
recall. I have still on my table a little basket for papers given
me by you in 1857, just twenty years ago, on Christmas day.

Much in the same strain as late as July 13, 1884, in a
letter to his father, he said : " You are busy at Longmeadow.
I wish I had a wife and a lot of babies and could spend
the rest of my life quietly in some country town, tilling
the soil ; but I cannot, and that is the end of it."

He liked to tease his mother over the possibility of
getting married, as, for instance, when, in 1875, he wrote
in a postscript to a letter to his father :

" Please ask mother if it is the business of the gentle-
man to see about wedding cards and such trash."

CHARACTERISTICS 597

On another occasion in the same year, to his mother
herself, concerning his accounts, he wrote:

" If a kind Providence ever blesses me with a son (and
there 's no telling what a kind Providence won't do) I '11
not make him keep an account; would you? "

In a campaign speech in Colorado in 1886, reviewing the
Cleveland Administration, Mr. Wolcott said:

" The one act of President Cleveland in his whole Ad-
ministration of which the people approve, is his getting
married and then going fishing — and the high example this
furnishes should induce you, my fellow-citizens, to ' go and
do likewise.' "

DEATH OF FATHER AND MOTHER

Dr. Wolcott died at Longmeadow, February 24, 1886, two
years after the removal of the family from Cleveland, and
his death was a sad blow to Ed, as indeed it was to all
the members of the family. Fortunately, a family account
of his demise has been preserved. It is in the shape of an
undated letter from Miss Clara Gertrude Wolcott to her
brother Edward, and is as follows:

All last week, we could see that Father was losing strength,
but it was very gradual, until Saturday night. Saturday after-
noon he insisted, as usual, on being completely dressed, even
to collar and cuffs and neck-tie, and then he walked to the end
of the hall and back again. But this exhausted him evidently.
Sunday he was so weak that he did not try to move himself,
but was lifted into his chair several times. He took nothing
Sunday or afterward but a few spoonfuls of wine and milk
at intervals. After Sunday we did not try to move him, except
from one side of the bed to the other, for a change of position.
Wednesday morning was a beautiful morning. Mother spoke of
it several times before breakfast. Lottie and I stayed with
Father while the others were at breakfast. We noticed that
his breathing was a little harder than it had been, but just a
little. But when Mother came up, she saw there had been a
change in his face — a pallor, and the others were called.

Father breathed for about ten minutes after this. His breath-
ing became fainter and then just stopped. That was all. I
could not imagine anything so peaceful and lovely — just like

598 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

the day that had so impressed Mother. He is still in his
room, and his face is so beautiful. It expresses all the patience
and trustfulness that Father has shown through all his sick-
ness. I think he had been so brave, Ed, longing to stay, but
willing to go. I do not think any one could see him now and
have any doubt of the Resurrection. Once on Sunday, when
he was lifted into his chair, he raised his hand with considerable
effort, and held it up while he pronounced the benediction —
clearly, every word, and then wanted to go back to bed.

We miss our older brothers, the three who were born in
Longmeadow.

As I think of Father's illness, I can see so many things to
be thankful for — that he was so free from suffering, and could
be made so comfortable.

A few years after Dr. Wolcott's death there was a move-
ment looking to the preparation by the family of a biography
of Dr. Wolcott, and Edward did all that was possible to-
ward encouraging and promoting the undertaking. Some
of the members of the family went to the extent of writing
an extended sketch, and Senator Wolcott wrote part of an
introduction, which it is believed should be preserved here
for many reasons, the principal of which are: That it
presents in succinct form many of the virtues of the father
as outlined by his favorite and distinguished son, and that
so far as known it is the only effort the son ever made in the
direction of writing a biography of any one. He did not
contemplate the construction of the entire preface, but un-
dertook to supply only the opening and the closing portions
of it, These were written at Hot Springs, Virginia, in
September, 1889, following his entrance into the Senate
in the preceding March. He was at the Springs on account
of gout, and while there read the manuscript which had
been prepared by others. He wrote at length about the
production, making suggestions for changes here and there
and preparing his part in his own hand. His suggestion
for the introduction opening was as follows:

This volume, for private circulation only, is printed because
there are many among Dr. Wolcott's old parishioners and friends
Avho will be glad to have, in enduring form, some little memorial
sketch of his life, because his hymns published through different

CHARACTERISTICS 599

channels, some of them having found their way to extensive
circulation, were thought worthy of being collated in one volume.
The sketch of his life and work is slight, and can give but
little impression of Dr. Wolcott to those who did not know
him. His personality, his glowing enthusiasm, quick, noble im-
pulsiveness, and ardor, entered into all his work; the dignity
of his presence and his clear voice lent strength to his utter-
ances, and in his daily life his sunny side and happy tempera-
ment brightened the days for those who came in contact with
him. Those who knew him well will recall him as they read
this little volume, and if it should fall into other hands it
will at least serve to tell the simple story of a life devoted to
the Master's work : a life in which those who knew him best
can recall nothing but sweet and gracious memories, and as
such it may not be entirely without interest.

For the close of the foreword he suggested the following :

The foregoing tells in outline Dr. Wolcott's more public
labors. In his profession and calling he had high standing, and
won the respect of every man who knew him. In any other
calling or profession he would have commanded equal respect,
and would have won greater fame. At the Bar he would have
attained eminence. He had fine presence and bearing, and he
did not know moral or physical cowardice. His mind was ana-
lytical and clear and logical, and in his oratory he was effective,
impassioned, and moving. Whatever he did, he did with all
his might. He chose to devote his life to the ministry, or rather
his calling was chosen for him when he was a lad, with his
acquiescence, and throughout all the years of his ministry he lived
a life of self-effacement, seeking only the advancement of Christ's
Kingdom, and whatever honors came to him came always un-
sought. His temperament was always sunny and hopeful, and
he was frank and as open as the day. He had a large family
to be educated; he found a way to keep them all at school and
college as long as they were willing to attend, and the economies
he practised to give his children an education really brought him
pleasure, and with them ail he was always generous wherever he
could find something or somebody to help. Nothing moved him so
deeply as injustice or wrong to others. During the earlier years
of his ministry his mind dwelt constantly on the existence of
slavery in the States, and his thought and utterances were deeply
affected by it. During the War his soul was constantly astir,

600 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

and if he had not known that he could do better and greater
service in his Church and with the Christian Commission, he
would have taken his musket and marched in the ranks. Yet
when the War was over, and there was no more human slavery,
he gladly devoted himself to the work of building up the poorer
churches in the West, work which would be uncongenial to most
men of his training and temper, but he made it congenial to
him because it was work. Apparently, perhaps, he belonged
rather to the Church Militant, yet in all his ministrations,
whether visiting the sick or the afflicted or burying the dead, he
was always a pastor beloved.

The biography was not completed.

There is no record of the last days of Mother Wolcott
similar to that of the father's illness and death which is
given in the letter quoted. She lived until February 5,
1901, surviving her husband fifteen years. Her son Samuel's
tribute to her memory has been preserved. It was written
from Laredo, Texas, his place of residence, on the day of
his mother's death, and reads:

Even to-day as I think of my mother the picture which
comes to me oftenest and most vividly is as she was in Cleve-
land and in Providence. No matter how much we children
tried her she never spoke a fretful or hasty word to us.

Her judgment in regard to every question that arose seemed
deliberate and perfect.

To her might have been applied the eulogy of the mother
of King Lemuel :

" She openeth her mouth with wisdom ; and in her tongue is
the law of kindness. Her children arise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have
done virtuously, but thou excellest them all."

A picture of the family group of the father and mother
with their ten children was taken at Thanksgiving-time 1S80,
when they were all assembled at Norwich for Katherine's
marriage to Mr. Toll. Mr. Elizur Wolcott, of Jacksonville,
Illinois, a brother of Dr. Wolcott, wrote on the margin of
a copy of this picture which hung in his home the following:

" The woman sitting near the middle of this group is the
mother of the ten sons and daughters who are about her,

CHARACTERISTICS 601

nearly all of whom have reached manhood or womanhood,
and neither her husband nor any of her children has ever
heard from her an impatient or ill-natured or unadvised
word."

Ed Wolcott's death was a signal for Henry's removal
from Colorado, and since then he has resided on a farm at
White Plains, New York, where, surrounded by agreeable
conditions and near his friends in New York City, he has
continued to live, as Ed lived at Wolhurst, the life of a
country gentleman.

Thus the year 1905 saw the close of the careers of both
of the Wolcotts in Colorado, one permanently, and the other
at least temporarily. Each left his impress upon the young
commonwealth. Both had been closely and helpfully iden-
tified with the formation and early history of the State,
and the memory of the substantial achievements of the one
will continue long to be cherished in connection with the
recollection of the brilliant characteristics of the other.

WOLCOTT ABROAD

ALL your sons are fond of their home, and yet they have all
been away from it more than most boys. We are all in-
clined to be restless, or have been. I cannot read of a
steamer's sailing for Europe without wishing that I was on board
of it. I always am wanting to " go somewhere." I suppose the
cure for this feeling comes when a man either acquires some
money and interests in a locality, or when he finds that he
has influence among particular people. I possess neither at
present, but " live in 'opes."

So wrote Mr. Wolcott to his father from Georgetown,
February 19, 1875. Henry had just been on a visit to " the
old folks." Keferring to the brother's trip, Edward was led
to a dissertation upon home and its attractions, and in thus
indulging himself he divulged two interesting traits of char-
acter: No man liked more to have a permanent abiding
place, and few were fonder of travel.

He had been in Colorado only a year or two when there
was an opportunity for him to go abroad to assist in the
sale of a mining property. He was sorely tempted, but be-
cause of the possible injury to his business resisted the offer,
much as he wanted to see the outside world.

AYriting from Georgetown concerning the Centennial,
June 7, 1876, he said:

" I should be more anxious to see it if I did n't still
expect to some day see the rest of the world and have my
' Centennial ' in the different countries I visited."

He made a trip to England on business before he left
Georgetown, and the journey was extended to the Continent.
On his way back, he said, " How the men at Georgetown

602

CHARACTERISTICS 603

will open their mouths at the stories that I shall have to
tell them about what I have seen." He made a voyage to
China about 1880, while a member of the State Senate,
and once visited Central America. He crossed the ocean
to Europe many times, the journeys becoming more frequent
after he was elected to the United States Senate, and par-
ticularly after he began to be interested in international
bimetallism, which subject had served to introduce him to
some of the higher official and social circles of the capitals
of the Old World, in which he found much enjoyment. After
his retirement from the Senate he lengthened his visits
abroad, and it was his fate to die in a foreign land.

The object of the European trips was threefold: He
went in search of health or pleasure or in promotion of
the interests of the country. The waters of Carlsbad he be-
lieved to be beneficial to him, and he spent much time at
that resort. He had many friends in England and France.
He enjoyed being with them. Italy appealed to him on its
own account. From 1893 to 1900 he gave much attention
to the promotion of an agreement in the interest of the gen-
eral coinage of silver, and while he did not succeed in ac-
complishing the full scope of his desire in that direction, he
laid broad foundations which yet may be built on, and he
added largely to his list of foreign friends.

Among the letters from Mr. Wolcott which have been
preserved is one to his mother, written from Carlsbad, June
27, 1899. It affords a fleeting view of many phases of a
trip abroad and is given entire:

Here I am again in this place of wonderful waters. I reached
here Thursday, having been detained ten days in Paris with a
most painful tooth, which I had to have treated there. My
partner, Mr. Vaile, who has been far from well lately, is also
here, and we see much of each other.

There are thousands of visitors here from all over the world,
although the German language largely predominates. Most of
the people are uninteresting to look at, and there are any
number of Jews among them. Everybody, however, is devoted
to the one purpose of taking the waters and following the diet,
and nobody has time for pleasure.

I rise soon after six and go to bed at nine, and spend most

604 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

of the day walking over the hills. One is always more or less
irritable and depressed while here, but, after the treatment is
over, the years fall away and one feels a different person. It
was a very great disappointment to me that Henry could not
come also. These waters would have done wonders for him. I
am selfish about it, too, for I should have enjoyed the days if
he had been here with me, while now I am lonely enough.

We had a wonderful voyage over. There was no day that
the sea was not as smooth as glass, and not a single passenger
was ill. I fear it has spoiled me for all other sea-journeys. I
sat at table next Godkin of the Evening Post, with whom I
disagree on almost every subject, and we got on famously. For-
tunately on the other side of me was an old English friend, an
ardent bimetallist whom I had known well in London.

Everybody in London was most kind to me. Mr. Choate
asked me to luncheon and dinner, but I was so engaged that
I could not accept. The Chancellor of the Exchequer made me
the guest of honor at his Queen's Birthday dinner, and the
same evening I went to Lord Salisbury's reception, where I met
all sorts of pleasant Englishmen. The most interesting event
to me of my English visit, however, was hearing the debate in
the House of Commons over the grant to Lord Kitchener, who
sat with Field Marshal Lord Roberts close beside me in the
gallery.

I soon tire of foreign travel, however, except in Italy, and
am already counting the days before my return, which, I hope,
will be early in August.

An old friend writes of a week-end visit Wolcott made
to Warwick Castle:

We were a very large party, politicians, sportsmen, fashion-
able ladies, and odds and ends. I can recall the Duke and
Duchess of Beaufort, Mr. Winston Churchill, Lady Londes-
borough, Lady de Trafford, Mrs. Sneyd; Prince Francis of Teck,
the brother of the Princess of Wales, now the Queen of Eng-
land; Lord and Lady Algernon Lennox, who had been Wolcott's
guests at Wolhurst; Lord Herbert Vane Tempest; Miss Plowden,
now Lady Lytton, and others.

Wolcott brought to a gathering ennuy6d with a London season
a complete change of atmosphere. I remember at luncheon on
Sunday one delicious episode. Lord Warwick, referring to the
recent death of Queen Victoria, said : " With Her Majesty's taking

CHARACTERISTICS 605

off, the word ' veneration ' has really disappeared from our dic-
tionary. We admire and greatly respect Lord Salisbury, but
whom do we ' venerate ' any more? " The Senator's eye twinkled
and he said : " Yes, the magic of that one word ' Queen ' when-
ever an Englishman was within earshot ! It mattered not though
a black Queen had been referred to; still always the image of
the little lady at Windsor filled the mind's eye. I recall a gro-
tesque instance." And then there was a silence at table; what
was this prodigious man going to say next? He continued
slowly and quite seriously : " I was in the stalls of a New York
theatre a year since and a travelling couple, evidently English,
probably straight off the ship, sat next to me. It was the won-
derful spectacular play, ' Antony and Cleopatra,' and after that
river scene and the furious love passages with Antony when the
barbaric Queen bares her breast to the asp and dies, the husband
said : ' My dear, fine ! fine ! it could hardly have been better
staged in London itself.' 'Fine!' said his lady, 'fine! well per-
haps so ; but, after all, if you come to think of it, how very little
it resembles the domestic life of our own dear Queen!'"

After luncheon he told me lovely Lady Warwick had taken
him off in an electric launch to explain the future " Socialist
State." " I told her," he said, " that I would weigh it all care-
fully, but I thought the State of Colorado was more to my
liking," and he added : " Will all you charming ladies dress as
becomingly in the Socialist State? I doubt it."

One of the ladies of the party said to me later : " What part
of America does he represent in Congress? I think you said
Venezuela? " " Yes," I said, " Venezuela ! " Greatly we miss the
Senator from Venezuela !

The last trip abroad was that made in the winter of
1904-5, on which he was accompanied by his brother Henry,
and which, though made in search of health, ended only in
death.

OUT OF THE ORDINARY

OCCASIONALLY, but not often, Mr. Wolcott tore him-
self away from his immediate surroundings to enter
upon the discussion of questions which did not per-
tain to the moment. He was in no sense a dreamer; he was
extremely practical — perhaps it were better to say he was
entirely " current." He was too much occupied with the
pressing problems to give frequent heed to matters the con-
sideration of which might be postponed or left to others.

Still, there were times when he liked to enter upon the
discussion of such questions. He could be speculative, con-
templative, introspective, when occasion tempted the mood.
But he was more disposed to indulge his fancy in those re-
spects by the quiet of the fireside and in the presence of a few
friends than in public. Nor was he much inclined to write on
speculative or sentimental themes. Indeed, he seldom wrote
on any subject for print. Aside from his contributions to
Cleveland papers regarding Colorado soon after he reached
that Territory, and to the Georgetown Miner while editor of
the paper, very few instances of his writing for the public
are recalled. A notable exception was an editorial tribute to
President Garfield, printed in the Denver Tribune of Sep-
tember 20, 1881, the day following the death of the President
as the result of his shooting three months previous by the
assassin Guiteau. The editorial is given entire :

OUR PRESIDENT DEAD !

No lips can utter and no words express the grief of the
606

CHARACTERISTICS 607

Nation — the desolateness — which has fallen upon the people.
Garfield, our Great Heart, is dead; the bruised and wounded
body, torn by the cruel bullet, emaciated by disease, and worn
by pain, is already bathed in the eternal splendors.

The alternate hopes and fears of the past eighty days had
in no wise prepared our minds for the possibility of this sad
event, for the remembrance of his clean life, and the realization
of the great need we had of him, and the belief that God is
good, had induced the hope that somehow, we knew not how,
the Almighty would spare this splendid life; but the prayers of
a great, a Christian, people could not avail him, and at eleven
o'clock last evening " Nicanor lay dead in his harness."

Only a few short days ago, and he was the embodiment of
manly vigor — strong and brave, wearing his honor as his shield.
Only a few short days ago, and now the patient eyes are for-
ever closed; the voice which so nobly and so fearlessly spoke
for the right, is forever stilled, and the brave hands that lifted
high the battle flag of the Republic and never faltered in defence
of his country's liberty, are nerveless and cold in death.

The waves off Elberon fell and rose, and rose and fell last
night, but they no longer brought repose to our dying leader;
the waves off Elberon will rise and fall, and fall and rise until
time shall melt into eternity, but he whose gaze fell lingeringly
upon them while his long night was coming on, has crossed a
mightier ocean, whose waters are waveless and whose shores
return no echo.

The humdrum of busy life will commence again and the world
move on as before,

" But, O, the heavy change now thou art gone,
Now thou art gone, and never must return ! "

The least of all considerations at this time is his assassin;
whether the dog lives or dies, or how he lives or how he dies,
is of no sort of moment, for Garfield is dead.

The lesson of the hour has not yet been burned into our
hearts; our grief is too recent for that, but even at this hour
there comes to every true American heart the determination
that the Republic must live and not die; that no assassin's
bullet shall destroy, and no faction dismember it; that so long
as men love liberty and hate oppression, so long shall this Gov-
ernment, founded on the will of the people, be perpetuated.
Garfield's life was devoted to this high resolve. We, who loved

608 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

him in his life, will show reverence to his memory by following
in his footsteps.

May God save our country!

Although frequently urged to contribute to the periodical
press, Mr. Wolcott consistently declined to do so, except in
the case of Harper's Weekly, for which he prepared the
article on the silver question which is referred to elsewhere.
He did not fall into the habit of some public men of signing
compositions written by other people.

He hesitated even to make speeches out of the ordinary
lines, such as school commencement orations, and frequently
wrote his father telling of the difficulties he encountered in
that labor. A fitting example is the following letter of
December 2, 1884, concerning some remarks made by him
before a Denver charity organization :

Bert tells me that he sent you the papers containing my
short address at the Opera House on Sunday evening. I am
anxious to know what you think of it. You can hardly have
an idea of the difficulty I experienced in preparing something
so entirely out of the line of my ordinary professional work,
to deliver before an audience so different from any I had ever
before addressed. Fortunately, it was enthusiastically received,
but I am through with that sort of thing. The nervous wear
and tear is too great.

FEDERAL LEAGUE

That, when opportunity afforded, Mr. Wolcott could and
did discuss the fundamental problems of government, is evi-
denced by the following in the American Correspondence
column of the National Review of London for April, 1905,
the month following his death :

The sudden death in France of ex-Senator Wolcott, of Colo-
rado, removes one of the most brilliant orators of his day, a
man of charming personality and high ideals, who recognized
the debt his country owed to England, and always endeavored
to remove friction between the two people, and bring them
close together for their own good and the lasting benefit of
the whole world. An English friend, who was very close to

CHARACTERISTICS 609

Mr. Wolcott during the past fifteen years, has sent me the fol-
lowing interesting letter, which I gladly make public.

" During December Senator Wolcott was confined to his rooms
by an acute attack of bronchitis, and I was in the habit of spend-
ing an hour or two with him almost daily. The position in
Colorado was much in his mind and on his spirits; his relations
with his State were difficult, indeed almost impossible, although
his service to the Republican party in the crisis of 1896 had
won him the affection and the gratitude of President McKinley.
With, perhaps, a prophetic insight into the future of his diffi-
culties, Wolcott declared, in a speech made in Colorado just
after the assassination of the President:

' Let others hail the rising sun,
I bow to him whose race is run.'

" But I do not venture to burden your notes with these merely
local issues, issues which have died with him. During the last
few days that he was in America, he opened up a subject of
extreme interest, namely, the service done by Washington and
Hamilton to all mankind, and the great success which continues
to attend the development of the Federal principle of government.
Rut for the Federal nexus, he thought that perhaps now, but
certainly later, these forty-five States would have become forty-
five nations, with government on the South American plan. To
commemorate the splendid success of the Washington-Hamilton
experiment, he talked of the possibility of establishing within
our two great communities a Federal League — an association
outside politics, but which would recruit itself to enormous di-
mensions by the enrolment of those who would secure peace and
good-will through the expansion of the Federal principle.

" The Irish difficulty, which he ever regarded as such a menace
to good relations and good politics equally here and in Great
Britain, would, he thought, disappear if public opinion, instructed
by inter-Federal discussion and literature, were to discover that
Ireland demanded something more than the ' State Right.' She
is entitled to the State Right of a Federal unit; but she would
have no sympathizer on the continent, he held, did she demand
the right to secede. He thought that some such league of Fed-
erals, interchanging visits and securing speeches from the best
men of all parties, would do more to inform and harmonize public
opinion in the two bodies politic than could be effected in any

Vol.5l.-39

610 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

other way. Our two communities, if once convinced that the
growth of the Federal principle points the road to the kingdom
of peace, would, if acting in concert and yet with no formal
or ' entangling alliance,' be not twice, but ten times more power-
ful in international diplomacy than either the one or the other
acting singly.

" Wolcott thought that the initiative should be with America
— with some group of distinguished Americans ; that the platform
should be prepared here and sent over. My friend having rep-
resented in the Senate Colorado — a State where women exercise
the franchise — disapproved woman's suffrage; but he thought
that women might do almost the more valuable share of the
work of a Federal League such as that which he foreshadowed.
I feel that in this imperfect sketch of an idea there is the
last will and testament of one who greatly loved England and
all England stands for; he loved her indeed hardly less than
he loved his own country."

The friend quoted is Mr. Moreton Frewen.

Five years after Mr. Wolcott's death the Federal idea
for the British Empire advanced by him in the conversa-
tion quoted by Mr. Frewen materialized in general gather-
ings in its support, and there were many indications of
growing favor. Unquestionably some Englishmen had con-
temporaneously cherished the views he entertained, but his
enunciation of them on what was practically his death-bed
lent to his utterances a weight which might not have at-
tached to the expressions of others along the same line.

He had endeared himself to all Englishmen by the friendly
sentiments expressed in his Venezuelan and other speeches,
and had many personal friends among the English people.
No result of the Spanish War was more pleasing to him than
the effect it had in bringing England and America into
closer relationship, and if he had lived there can be no
doubt that he would have exerted himself to make the tie
stronger. It is fitting, therefore, that the English should
show their appreciation of his interest and of the im-
petus his words gave the cause, as they are doing by frequent
mention of his name in connection with the Federal move-
ment— a movement which many of them dream may include
— in a different way, of course — the United States.

CHARACTERISTICS 611

A union for offence and defence has not infrequently been
suggested, and that such a combination would have its advan-
tages on this side the Atlantic is believed by many to have
been demonstrated by the aid given by Great Britain in pre-
venting other European nations from interfering while the
United States gave attention to Spain. How far Mr. Wol-
cott would have gone in support of such alliance no one
can now say. His words speak for themselves. They have
been printed in pamphlet form and circulated throughout the
Britisli Empire, and Mr. Wolcott's English friends consider
them one of the strongest influences in bringing the people
of that Empire into closer relations.

LITERARY POSSIBILITIES

If Mr. Wolcott had turned his attention to literature,
success would have been certain. His speeches and letters
afford abundant evidence of the attractive quality of his
style, and his broad reading, retentive memory, and gen-
eral understanding supplied all that could have been neces-
sary to insure the attention of a large circle of readers.
In his letters, as in his speeches, he dealt generally
with questions of the hour, and very seldom entered upon
a description of surroundings or an elaboration of detail.
There were exceptions to this rule, however, and two letters
have been segregated from the volume of his correspondence
to demonstrate his capacity in this respect.

One of these was written to a sister, and is as follows :

Georgetown, Colo., May 5, 1878,
Sunday Evening.
My Dear Clara :

A long time ago, when I used to go to the High School in
Cleveland, there was a boy named Cutter — I remember him as
having a sort of bullet head — whose father had a lazy bob-tailed
horse; and we used to take him in the fall of the year, and
drive out to just this side of the same Shaker settlement you
write about, and gather hickory nuts. I remember it always
rained in a drizzly kind of way. We used to take ten cents
apiece with us, and with it we would buy of the Shakers all
the milk we could drink, and all the apple-pie and preserves we
could eat. I don't know where Cutter is now, and the hickory

612 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

trees may be cut down, but I imagine that the Shakers still
keep cow; and make pies and preserves. I wouldn't know the
road now, but I recollect it as a very pleasant drive.

Tf it isn't too far, there is another little place worth visit-
in. It is what is left of an old Mormon settlement, and the
ruins of the temple were very pretty when I saw them fourteen
years ago. I went by the place on foot, selling pictures, and
getting from Chardon to somewhere else-I forget where.

Once in a while I used to go on the horse-cars as far as
Wilson Avenue (they did n't go any farther then) and walked out

to East Cleveland to see a girl named who was as sweet

as the morning, and whose father kept bees and sold Dorking
eggs She's married now and has a lot of children, I believe;
but I remember the road down by her house was a particularly

pleasant one.

I never used to care much about the Rocky River road, ex-
cept once when Father went out to marry a couple one evening,
at a half-finished brick house (I don't believe it's finished yet)
fast beyond the toll-gate, and he took me with him; we had a
nice supper and Father and I both kissed the bride, and we
drove home in the moonlight. It was as light as day. The
bridegroom either worked at Maltby's oyster-stand in Superior
Street or at the shoe store next door; perhaps he sold oysters
during the months that an R is in them and shoes the balance

of the year. .

Then there is a man who sells leather, and has a beautiful
place way out on the Lake Shore on the same side of the river
you live on. We used to get permission Sundays after Sunday-
school to walk in the old cemetery on Erie Street (Father
thought it would divert our minds from the vanities of this
world) and get Johnny Outhwaite's or somebody else's wagon
and drive out to his place on the Lake Shore and go swimming.
Lon- afterward Mother and I went out to a house close by
there on the St. Clair road, I think, and spent the day. It
was very warm and there were lots of flies, and we went out
and picked berries. What was the lady's name, Mother? And
wasn't it with Mrs. Spencer's horse and buggy we drove out
there and home again?

Just this side of the house there is a gully where there
are woodcock in the fall. I went after some there once with
somebody, I don't remember who, who was the proud possessor
of a gun. We did n't get any woodcock, I believe, but I recol-
lect a random shot sent one or two buckshot into my pantaloons

CHARACTERISTICS 613

just grazing my skin, and for a moment I thought I was mortally
wounded.

I 've told you of all the drives I think of, Clara. You 've
probably found them all before this, and many others too. It
will be splendid exercise for you, and after awhile you '11 look
back and wonder at what pleasant times you 've had. Nearly
all the pleasure in the world is in remembering, and memories
of days at home are very tender. Write often. With love,
Your affectionate Brother,

Ed.

All this to induce his sister, who was delicate, to take
outdoor exercise.

The other letter was to his mother and was written just
after a visit to her at Longnieadow. It ran :

The New Mathewson,
Narragansett Pier, R. I., July 2, 1900.
My Dear Mother:

The day has been a long one, and rather tedious, but I got
here finally. There were nearly two hours to wait at Providence,
and I spent it in renewing my memories of the place. I walked
up Westminster Street. The place on High Street near the
corner of Dean, where the church used to be, is all built over,
but on Dean Street, a little way back, is the same lumber yard
that was there when we lived in Providence. The old Hoyle
Tavern is gone, and all High Street seems poverty-stricken and
full of second-hand stores and the like. Few of the old houses
are left, but our old house in High Street is standing exactly
as it used to when we lived there. It is evidently a boarding-
house. I thought of little Mary Alice whom I remember so
well as she lay in the front room, and of the black men whom
once or twice father hid in the attic, to the terror of us all.1

I could n't look over into the yard, but the foliage seemed
luxurious, and I wondered if any of the pear trees father planted
were still there. Do you realize, dear Mother, that I am speak-
ing of a time forty-five years ago? As I came away I looked
into the little area next our house, not on the Butts' side, and
recalled " Fatty Bailey " whose father was a sign painter. Do
you recall him? and the two thin misshapen boys who

1 Mary Alice was a sister who died in infancy. The black men re-
ferred to were fugitive slaves to whom Dr. Wolcott gave refuge and
shelter.

614 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

lived upstairs across the way? The old Beneficent Church seemed
rather neglected.

Then I followed, at the other end of the town, along North
Main Street, and saw the little building where, upstairs, some-
body we knew made and sold " the Royal Game of Goose." You
remember we had it once. Then I followed along Benefit Street
and back over the hill, and through the Brown University grounds
to the station. The old Arcade we once thought so grand was
rather shopworn. I was struck by the number of Irish faces
I encountered.

After all, I think Longmeadow the pleasantest of all our old
homes. I wish I could write you of the hundreds of early
memories that swept over me, and most of them you would share :
The Sunday they excommunicated Deacon Knight's widow, be-
cause the poor woman thought she conversed with her dear
husband through a spiritualist medium; the time the railroad
lost your new bonnet, and found it just after you 'd got another

like it; the different qualities of the four girls, and any

number of others.

I had such a happy visit at Longmeadow, my dear Mother,
and I hope I may have another before many months.

I am almost the only guest here, and feel as if I owned a
Beach.

Ever your affectionate Son,

Ed.

Is there not a suggestion of Dickens in these letters? Or
of Stevenson?

And does n't the narration given by Mr. Wolcott in the
second letter take one back to the time when a third of
a century previous he hauled his cousin " Addie " Car-
roll all around Providence to afford him an opportunity
to jump over into the back yard of the same house,
just as he had done when a boy? It should be borne in
mind that this letter was written when Mr. Wolcott was
nearing the end of his twelve years of service in the Sen-
ate and just after the Philadelphia National Convention
in which he was one of the most conspicuous figures. The
letter was one of his last to his mother, as she died early
in the following year.

INTEREST IN SPORTS

ATHLETICS received no little encouragement from Mr.
Wolcott. When a young man he was in the habit
of indulging in long walks, of which he spoke with
enthusiasm in his letters, showing that his enjoyment of
them was quite unfeigned. The following from a letter to
his father, written while he was living in one of the Boston
suburbs in 1871, will suffice to indicate how vigorous a
walker he was in those days :

" I had taken very little exercise the last week. So I
started yesterday, with a friend early in the morning and
walked through Watertown, Newton Corner, Newton ville,
West Newton, and Auburndale, then across to Waltham and
back through Waverly, Bellemont, and Arlington, between
twenty-five and thirty miles, and as a consequence feel much
better to-day."

We also hear considerable, through his correspondence,
of the young man's interest in baseball, in which as an
amateur he was a frequent participant in his youth. He
learned bicycling and was quite an expert on the " safety "
when it first came into use. On his last visit to Denver in
1904 he walked from Fairmont Cemetery into the city, a
distance of several miles. He was then far from well, but
he enjoyed the exercise. For the most part, however, his
interest in physical culture, during the later years of his
life, was theoretical rather than practical; but even then
he gave close attention to the general subject of athletics.

Captain James T. Smith of Denver, himself an enthusiastic
lover of outdoor sports, tells us that Mr. Wolcott was firmly
convinced that Colorado would produce the very best athletic

615

616 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

skill. He was well informed concerning the records of Colo-
rado performers in all branches of sport in and out of col-
lege and never failed to manifest enthusiasm over an especial
achievement by any of them. His views on the subject of
rowing were expressed in an article by him published in
the Georgetown Miner of July 10, 1873, when he was editor
of that paper, and it is illustrative of his ideas on the
general question of " sports." The article dealt with a
regatta then about to be rowed at Springfield, Massachusetts,
in which eleven colleges were expected to participate. In
his handling of the subject Mr. Wolcott not only showed
a thorough knowledge of the capacities of the various crews,
but he learnedly discussed the general subject of training.
Of the benefits to be derived from exercise with the oars,
he said:

Rowing is fast coming into general favor throughout the
country, and it will not be strange if the annual races, between
our various universities, become as generally observed and at-
tended as is the Derby in England. The amusement is healthy,
and recent investigations have proved that no ill effects need
be apprehended from the training. Certainly it is better that
our young men should strive to excel in these athletic sports,
which require temperance and hard work, rather than squander
their leisure hours in billiard halls and fast living; so let us
lend what encouragement we can to all of them.

THE FRANCHISE FOR WOMEN

ONE of the most important and far-reaching official
acts of the State of Colorado while Mr. Wolcott was
in the Senate was that of conferring the right of
suffrage on women. This step was taken in a State election
in 1893, during Mr. Wolcott's first term in the Senate and
during Governor Waite's administration. The question was
submitted to the voters as the result of an act of the pre-
vious Legislature. That was an " off " year in politics, as
there were no State officers to be chosen. Consequently, the
suffrage question was not involved in partisan matters. The
contest was a sharp one, but the result was favorable to
the sex, the majority in support of the proposition being
about five thousand.

The first opportunity afforded the ladies to exercise the
newly conferred right came in connection with the cam-
paign of 1894, and was generally taken advantage of.
They, even more than the men, were disgusted with the
turn that public affairs had taken in the State, and a ma-
jority of them unquestionably exerted themselves to over-
throw Waiteism. Mr. Wolcott had signalized his term in
the State Senate by introducing a franchise bill, but had
not otherwise given especial indication of favoring the move-
ment. Upon the whole, however, he was accepted as a par-
tisan of the cause, and when his campaign for re-election
came on, as it soon did, many of the women gave him vigor-
ous and effective support. He made frequent references
during this campaign to the new condition in State politics,
always indicating confidence that the influence of the oppo-
site sex would have a beneficial effect upon politics.

617

618 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Upon his return to Denver in August, 1894, after an
absence in Washington of some months, Mr. Wolcott was
informed of a line of policy adopted by the Republican
County Committee looking to the deprivation of the women
members of the committee of their rights. He expressed
deep regret over this occurrence.

How unfortunate! [he exclaimed]. I can conceive no greater
blunder than to shut out the women from a full share in thei
duties of the campaign. We are fortunate to have the help of
the women of the State in the impending struggle, and it is
only through them that we can hope for success. The difficulty
I had feared all along was that the good women of the State
would shrink from exercising the rights the law gives them. I
see my fears were groundless. Every possible inducement should
be held out to secure their active co-operation. They are en-
titled to a full participation in the work and responsibility of
the campaign, and should not be denied it.

On the memorable occasion of his reception by the ladies
at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver on September 17th
of the same year, he spoke directly to them, saying in part :

I know of no honest desire which I might have as a citizen for
the welfare of the State which is not shared by every good
woman in Colorado for the same reason. The suffrage was ex-
tended to you not because you are women, but because you are
human beings with the same interest that every honest man
has in the administration of government, with the same intel-
ligence to bring to bear upon the questions at issue from time
to time, with the same splendid love of your State and of your
country.

The hope to be obtained by suffrage is the advancement of
society as a whole. This is to be accomplished by the enact-
ment and the enforcement of good laws. There is nobody on
earth more interested in the enactment and the enforcement of
law than the good geniuses who preside over our homes and
our firesides. Acrimony and hate have been the accompaniment
of political campaigns almost since the history of our country.
They bring no good; they settle no issue. I believe that with
the advent of woman into politics and into government, much
of that acrimony and hate will pass away.

CHARACTERISTICS 619

In December, soon after the close of the campaign, Sen-
ator Wolcott united with Senator Teller in a letter con-
cerning the operation of equal suffrage in the State. The
statement was made in response to a request from Senator
Hoar, who was a supporter of a movement for woman suf-
frage in municipal government in Massachusetts, and it was
wanted for use in a campaign in that State which had that
end in view. The Colorado Senators did not content them-
selves with testifying to the effect of equal suffrage in the
Centennial State, which they declared to be good, but they
entered upon an account of the participation of women in
their first campaign, thus rendering the document of rare
historical value.

Prefacing their report with the announcement that their
observations had been confined largely to Denver and to the
Republican party, they said:

Many weeks before the conventions were held, the women of
the larger cities began to organize political clubs, composed
exclusively of women, for the discussion of political questions.
At these meetings men who had had experience or knowledge of
political affairs were invited to make addresses, and frequent
meetings were held. In Denver, and perhaps elsewhere in the
State, parliamentary clubs were organized by the women for
the purpose of enabling their members to familiarize themselves
with the rules of parliamentary procedure.

The women's political clubs attracted from the first a large
membership which increased as the time for the conventions
drew near, and the fact was developed that among the women
themselves there were great interest and intelligence respecting
political questions. It further appeared that there were among
their own membership many women who were able to discuss
the political situation clearly, intelligently, and effectively, and
a few women developed unquestioned oratorical ability.

The political machinery in Colorado, as in most of the States,
includes committeemen for the different wards and precincts in
all the large towns, and also a committeeman for each county
in the State. The first step taken by the women was to secure
some representation upon these committees. In some localities
there was a little resistance to this suggestion, but, generally
speaking, it was welcomed and the suggestion accepted as a
valuable one, with the result that in each county of the State

620 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

a woman acted as a member of the State committee with the
male member of such committee from each county, and in the
towns a woman was appointed in each precinct to act in an
advisory capacity.

The primary elections preceded the county and State con-
ventions by a few days. The women's clubs had meanwhile been
organized most effectively, and their members had made a house-
to-house canvass of the most careful character, and they very
generally interested themselves in the primary elections. In the
history of Colorado there has never been an instance where
the primaries have been so generally attended, and fully one third
of the attendance in the cities was composed of women. The
result was that the primaries were of the most orderly char-
acter, entirely free from any sort of disorder or violence, and
the result was accepted by all members of the party as being
the full, free, and fair expression of the will of the voters.

In the county conventions which followed the primaries the
women were largely represented as delegates, and participated,
though in a quiet and unobtrusive fashion, in their deliberations.

A number of women from many counties in the State were
elected as delegates to the State convention. This convention
was the largest in the history of the State, and was more gen-
erally attended in person and less by proxies than any other
party convention since the State was created. It was held in
a large theatre in Denver, and was composed of some eight
hundred delegates, including a very marked sprinkling of women.
Pending the report of the Committee on Credentials, and at a
time when the convention was calling for speeches from members
of its party from whom it was desired to hear, there were sev-
eral women called for, who made brief addresses, and all of
them were appreciatively listened to by the convention. In the
proceedings of the convention the women took an active and
efficient part. They had much to do with the shaping of the
ticket, which was a very strong and acceptable one to the peo-
ple of the State.

The women also attended personally to the registration of
the women in the different wards of Denver, and it was very
fully and completely done. The work of the women was perhaps
more important in this direction than in any other. There has
never been known such careful, perfect, and complete registra-
tion, and it was practically looked after in the larger cities by
the women themselves. The election was remarkable in the fact
that the vote was much larger than ever before in the history

CHARACTERISTICS 621

of the State. Not only was it larger because of the fact that
the women voted, but the vote was much closer to the registra-
tion than ever before. In Denver, where we were able par-
ticularly to observe the working of suffrage, the reason for
this is manifest. Some twenty-five thousand women voted in
Denver. A far larger proportion of women who were registered
voted than of men who were registered. The women were on
hand early in the morning to cast their ballots; the great ma-
jority of them had voted long before noon, and they devoted
the remainder of the day to procuring the attendance of the
women who had not theretofore voted.

Another somewhat noteworthy fact concerning the election
may be stated. It had always been assumed that the personal
likes and dislikes of women would count for much when they
came to exercise their right of suffrage. In this election, all
these feelings were obliterated in their determination that the
ticket that they advocated should win, and the overwhelming
majority of the women voted straight tickets without change
or erasure.

In reviewing the occurrences of the election so far as women
are concerned, we think the following are the fair and neces-
sary conclusions:

Women bring to the exercise of the right of suffrage an in-
telligence fully equal to that of the male voter. They gave
evidence of intense earnestness in the election. We feel it is
yet to be determined whether or not this earnestness will be
evinced generally in elections, or is to be attributed to the
unusual state of facts existing at the time of the last election.
One of the apparent results of the presence of women as par-
ticipators in political matters is that political parties must ex-
ercise greater care than before as to the character and standing
of nominees for office. The tendency of the women is to stand
by the party ticket, and not to let personal favor or prejudice
affect the exercise of their right of suffrage.

There were no unpleasant results apparent as the consequence
of the voting by women at this election. There has been an
undefined fear that the bestowal of the right might lead to
certain offensive demonstrations in the way of what is termed
the strong-mindedness of women. Nothing of the sort was in
the slightest degree apparent. Women voted in a far greater pro-
portion than men; they apparently felt they were performing
a duty rather than exercising a privilege. Upon our State ticket
a woman was nominated as Superintendent of Public Instruc-

622 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

tion, and there were three women elected as members of the
Legislature. There was no unusual desire on the part of the
women of Colorado to be candidates for office, and the women
who were nominated and elected received their nominations
without wire-pulling in their behalf.

Tn conclusion, we think we may say that in Colorado there
is hardly a lover of good government who does not believe that
the presence of women at the polls in November last was an
undisguised blessing. If the question as to whether the right
of suffrage should be bestowed on women should be again sub-
mitted to the voters of Colorado, it would, in our opinion, be
carried in the affirmative by a far greater majority than it
received a year ago. The influence and vote of good women will
always be cast for the preservation and permanence of the home
and of our institutions, and their presence as an influence in
determining public questions brings hope and promise for the
future of our country.

If there was any hesitation in Mr. Wolcott's endorse-
ment of equal suffrage it was due to the apprehension that
good women, occupied with other matters and trustful of
their husbands and brothers, might fail to avail themselves
of the privilege. The right once extended, he urged its ex-
ercise by women having the public welfare in mind. With
their active co-operation, he was assured that the change
would result in improved conditions.

The Long Fight for the Coinage
of Silver

623

THE LONG FIGHT FOR THE COINAGE OF SILVER

TO no other question did Mr. Wolcott give so much at-
tention while in the Senate as the coinage of silver as
money, and, notwithstanding the apparent paucity of
results, the capacity he displayed in that interest must form
the basis of all proper estimates of him as a legislative
advocate. Not only was his first Senatorial speech made in
behalf of silver, but scarcely a session during his twelve
years of service was permitted to pass in which he did not
lift his voice in support of the white metal. Beginning his
work by assisting in the passage in lglfcT'of the bill authoriz- °l b
ing the purchase of 4,500,000 ounces of silver a month
(which subsequently, though inappropriately, took the name
of the "Sherman Law"), he two years later did all in
his power to prevent the repeal of that law, and, failing in
that effort, he concentrated every energy upon an effort to
obtain an international agreement looking to the recognition
of silver as a coinage metal on an equality with gold. He
made many speeches on the different phases of the subject
and ever was willing to devote any resource at the command
of his fertile mind to the advancement of the cause. He
entered the Senate a silver advocate and he left it a silver
advocate.

The pages of a biography are no place for any elaborate
presentation of the silver question as such; but during the
two concluding decades of the nineteenth century, political
developments in the United States were so deflected by
this great issue, and Mr. Wolcott's relations with his State
and his party were so intimately influenced by these develop-
ments, that a short retrospective survey is essential to a

vol. 1.-40 625

626 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

right understanding of the history of the period and of his
place in that history.

From times almost prehistoric the two metals had been
admitted freely to the leading mints of the world, and jointly
they had constituted the international volume of full legal-
tender money, the expansion or contraction of which volume
raised or depressed the entire level of wages and prices.
But in 1873 the world's established currency system was
tampered with, first by one national legislature, then by
another. To the United States belongs a doubtful pre-
eminence. In February, 1873, the surreptitious demonetiza-
tion of silver was procured at Washington. Almost on the
heels of this action came the attempt of the German Govern-
ment to exchange the whole mass of its currency at the
French mints for its gold equivalent, and this move was
followed by the enforced closing of the French mints to the
free coinage of silver. Thus in 1873 the question of silver
became a matter of extreme urgency. The production of
gold from the world's mines was rapidly diminishing. Pro-
fessor Suess and other leading geologists were of the opinion
that the prospect for further considerable gold discoveries
was not hopeful. Meanwhile prices of commodities were
falling fast and the added burden of debt, whether national
or private, was threatening a social upheaval.

In 1878 on the initiative of Congress, President Hayes
issued invitations to the first Monetary Conference at Paris.
It was perhaps natural, even though some may regard it
as unfortunate, that the silver-mining States should have
been the first to resent this novel proscription of silver and
that the arguments of some of their representatives in Con-
gress should have been based on the restricted ground of
protection to a native industry. Be that as it may, the
question thus emerging as a "local issue" immediately ob-
tained the philosophic endorsement of the leading professors
of political economy. On the continent of Europe the bril-
liant pens of Emile de Laveleye, of Wolowski, and of Cer-
nnsr-hi were at work before Washington was fairly awakened.
In Great Britain the younger professors, such as Foxwell and
Shield Nicholson, were teaching in their schools the necessity
of what had now begun to be called "Bimetallism," and

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 627

the franc-tireurs and skirmishers in the coming Battle of the
Standards were in evidence over a very wide field. In
the United States, Professor Francis A. Walker, whose for-
mative influence in the field of economics is admitted even
in Europe to be greater than that of any teacher since John
Stuart Mill, was writing the whole theory of the concurrent
legal tender of the two metals in his great work Money, a
work destined to be translated into seven languages. From
every direction the note of warning was borne in on the
legislatures as to the perils of that novel experiment, the
" Crime of 1873." Save only two, the political protagonists
within the halls of Congress have now gone over to the
majority upon the farther shore of time. But for those two
survivors, Henry M. Teller of Colorado and John P. Jones
of Nevada, it is fair to claim an undisputed pre-eminence in
the laboriously acquired philosophy of this question. Gen-
eral A. J. Warner, of Ohio, one of the most consistent and
efficient of American silver-coinage advocates died after the
preparation of this work was begun.

Fully acquainted with this history and intensely awake
to the situation, Mr. Wolcott was from the beginning a
loyal supporter of the double standard. He believed in
bimetallism because he believed bimetallism right, Find-
ing that from the beginning of history until very recent
times silver had been given the same recognition as gold,
as a money metal, though at a lower valuation, he believed
that the long-established order was in the interest of the
general welfare. He was distinctly a hard-money man-
never a greenbacker; but he did not believe that the gold
stock afforded a sufficient money basis for the accommoda-
tion of the currency of the world. He adhered to the quanti-
tative theory regarding money, and, believing that the
complete disuse of silver as money would cause untold suffer-
ing by reducing the volume of the circulating medium, he
opposed the policy as unjust and inhuman.

To what extent his views were influenced by environ-
ment he probably could not himself have told. Represent-
ing a constituency whose chief industrial interest lay in
silver mining, he foresaw the devastation that must follow

628 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

any adverse action, and that his big heart was touched by
the prospect there are many evidences. But he did not
admit the local influence as controlling; he maintained that
the question was of world-wide importance and his interest
general and not sectional. Possibly the material interest of
his State in promoting the commercial value of the white
metal had the effect originally of causing him to investigate
more closely the silver side of the money question than he
would have done under other circumstances, and to this
extent we may concede the influence of surroundings and
of local interest.

Was he right in his contention that silver coinage is
essential to the welfare of the world? His speeches were
made from ten to twenty years before the preparation of
this volume was undertaken. In them he prophesied dis-
aster as the result of the general adoption of the single gold
standard. It will be said that the prophecies have not been
realized. Nor have they been fully or continuously. Was,
then, our orator a real prophet?

The reader of Mr. Wolcott's speeches must not pro-
nounce against him simply because he finds that prosperity
has been as much the rule since the general official pro-
nouncement against silver as it was before that edict went
forth. The purpose of this volume is to record facts rather
than to propound argument, but it cannot be considered out
of place to mention the one circumstance that in no pre-
vious period of like duration has there been anything like
so large a production of gold as there has been since the
general demonetization of silver. Almost coincident with
the shutting down of the silver mines, as a result of this
disparaging action, came the opening up of vast new gold
fields.

As if in response to the command of a master, as soon
as silver was discredited, the prospectors of Colorado turned
their backs on the silver croppings and began to search
for gold. The result was that they found much of the yellow
metal where hitherto they had looked only for its white com-
panion. Cripple Creek soon began to pour its twenty or
thirty millions a year into the lap of the world; Leadville
was transformed from a silver to a gold camp; Gilpin County

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 629

and the San Juan region continued sending out large supplies
of gold.

The result of the newly directed effort was that the
Centennial State soon took as a gold producer the lead
which hitherto it had held as a producer of silver. Other
of the Rocky Mountain States also increased their gold out-
put, and the gold-producing activity of the United States
was reflected throughout the mineral-yielding world. The
frozen north came to the front with its Klondyke and Nome,
and the yellow stream that soon began to flow from the
direction of the North Pole was met by even a larger cur-
rent from the Transvaal of far-away South Africa. Thus
there was no lapse. As if providentially, the loss of silver
was made good by the increase of gold.

Is there not, after all, then, some justification of Mr.
Wolcott's quantitative theory in the present situation?
Who can say what the result upon the human race would
have been but for this fortunate augmentation of the gold
supply? Who can say that but for the new gold discoveries
the Wolcott prophecies would not have been realized even
now? And, alas! who can say that with a diminution of
gold production there may not be yet a fulfilment of the
predictions of the Colorado Senator? Ten or twenty years
is a very brief period of history. Prophecy covers a much
longer time.

Not only did Mr. Wolcott enter the Senate an advocate
of the free coinage of silver, but he favored its coinage by
the United States regardless of the action of other nations.
He left it an advocate of international co-operation. This
is a broad statement of fact, and, like many broad state-
ments, would do injustice if left unqualified or unexplained.
In the beginning of his Senatorial career he did not con-
sider international action possible of attainment; otherwise
he would not have opposed it. Toward the end he saw
that silver coinage was out of the question except by such
international action, and, in addition, there was such a
change in world conditions that for a time a general move-
ment in behalf of the white metal did not seem improbable.

In view of the fact that Mr. WTolcott's silver speeches

630 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

are published, there will be no effort to review them here.
Only brief extracts from them will be given, and these will
be inserted for the purpose of showing his attitude from
time to time — of giving point to the narrative.

If space permitted, it would be both profitable and edify-
ing to insert more extended excerpts, for the purpose of
illustrating his force as a speaker and his skill as a tacti-
cian, for seldom if ever has a more forcible or a more con-
vincing campaign been made in the interest of a losing
cause. No man who ever sat in the Senate had greater
capacity for sarcasm than the Colorado Senator, and few
could plead more effectively. But, superior as he was in those
directions, his greatest strength lay in his logic; in his direct-
ness of speech and his appeal to reason. All of his great
powers were used in this, to him, the dearest of all interests.

Courageous to the verge of rashness when conviction was
involved, he did not hesitate to attack a foe, concealed or
open, with all the weapons at his command, and many and
pronounced were the conflicts with opposing Senators over
this same silver question. In one breath he resented all
accusations of personal interest in silver on the part of
the people of the West and chided the East for attempting
to break down and destroy so great an industry as silver
mining. But so greatly charmed were all by his manner
and by his convincing argument in support of each branch
of his contention that no one pointed out this inconsistency.
Every possible appeal was made to all sections and all
parties. He showed that both Republicans and Democrats
had pledged themselves to stand to the bitter end for silver,
the Republicans in former years, the Democrats more re-
cently. To the New En glanders he intimated that anti-
si her legislation might be followed by the abandonment
by i he West of the Protective policy; the Southern Senators,
whose pel theories had been attacked by the Force Bill, were
reminded of the assistance that had been given by their
Western colleagues in defeating that measure. Knowing
the partiality of the Senate to the privilege of unlimited de-
bate, when the talk on the bill repealing the purchasing
clause of the Sherman law had proceeded for several weeks
and there was an attempt to curtail the speech-making by

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 631

a rule of cloture, he announced a willingness to submit,
but said that the rule must be general and for all time
and not special and confined to the Silver Bill. He espe-
cially chided Senator Sherman of Ohio for repudiating the
platforms of the Republican party, and he took the utmost
delight in flaying Senator Hill of New York and Senator
Voorhees of Indiana, both Democrats, because, while pro-
fessing to be friendly to silver, they still were advocates
of repeal. Of Mr. Hill he said : " He keeps the word of
promise to our ear and breaks it to our hope " ; of Mr.
Voorhees : " His words were writ in water."

Briefly reviewing the course of Mr. Wolcott in the Sen-
ate, we find him making his first speech in advocacy of the
passage of the Sherman law providing for the annual pur-
chase, for coinage in the American mints, of 54,000,000 ounces
of silver. By the time this speech was delivered, June 17,
1890, it had become evident that President Harrison would
oppose any effort at independent free coinage by the United
States, and the discovery was a sore disappointment to the
pro-silver men. His previous utterances had justified them
in looking for something better. Never awed by high func-
tionaries, the Colorado Senator did not hesitate to attack
from his seat in the Senate the President's position, and
the attack was so forceful and so eloquent that it commanded
universal attention.

As going to show his general attitude on many phases
of the question during the early days of his Senatorial
career, the following extract from a speech made by Mr.
Wolcott March 1, 1893, may be quoted:

The people of the West are for silver, not alone because they
produce it, but because they believe in hard money, gold and
silver; because they believe there is not gold enough in the
country to stand back of the credit of the nation in the propor-
tion that money should stand back of credit. I believe the time
is surely coming when the people of the West who do thus be-
lieve will stand like a stone wall with the people of the East
against the issue of irredeemable paper and fiat money. We
are silver people because we believe that the credit of the Gov-
ernment should be properly backed. A majority of us are Re-
publicans. If it conies to a question between silver and the

632 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Republican party, we are for silver; but we do not believe tbat
well-advised and sincere patriots will ask that that be made a
party issue. We continue our allegiance in the ranks of the
Republican party because we cannot but believe that better
counsels and wiser judgment will not attempt upon a financial
question which has no place in party politics to drive men out
of a political party in which they were born and whose principles
they love.

Mr. Wolcott's anti-repeal views on silver were concretely
outlined in a page contribution made by him to Harper's
Weekly of May 27, 1893. A few extracts from that article
are therefore reproduced as follows :

The West believes in the free coinage of silver because its
people have been taught, as has the whole civilized world out-
side the money centres, that the stock of gold in the world is
insufficient for the needs of the world in the transaction of its
business, and that the annual supply applicable for coinage by
no means keeps pace with the growing demands of commerce and
increasing population, the development of vast areas of country,
new industries which invention and enterprise are creating, and
the infinite and constantly extending needs for money as a
medium of exchange in new communities remote from old
commercial centres.

The vast majority of the people cherishing these convictions
are solvent, intelligent, thoughtful citizens, to whom the national
well-being and the stability of our institutions are as dear as
life itself. They have no sympathy with paternalism, or with
any movement which shall rob human effort of the fruits of
industry and ability.

An international coinage agreement would be of incalculable
benefit, but without it the United States, with free coinage at
the present ratio, would maintain the parity of the metals.

REPEAL OF THE SHERMAN LAW

With the extraordinary session of Congress in 1893 came
the greatest of all silver contests. Called for the express
purpose of repealing the Silver Purchase Law, that subject
received undivided attention during the three months the
session continued, from August 7th to November 3d. The
measure was put through the House after very brief dis-

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 633

cussion, so that almost all the time of the session was con-
sumed by the Senate. There never was much hope for the
opponents of Repeal, but they struggled to the last, even going
to the extent of conducting an open filibuster to postpone
the day of fate. Mr. Wolcott was an active participant in
these proceedings, and at all times was prepared to go to
the front when necessity demanded sharp and effective
speech.

In his call for the special session President Cleveland
had specified no other subject for consideration. Finding,
as he said in his proclamation, that " the present perilous
condition is largely the result of a financial policy which
the Executive branch of the Government finds embodied in
unwise laws which must be executed until repealed by Con-
gress," he convened Congress " to the end that the people
may be relieved through legislation from present and im-
pending danger and disaster." In his message to Congress,
which was received August 8th, the day after Congress met,
the President said:

I earnestly recommend the prompt repeal of the provisions
of the act passed July 14, 1890, authorizing the purchase of
silver bullion, and such legislative action as may put beyond all
doubt or mistake the intention and the ability of the Govern-
ment to fulfil its pecuniary obligations in money universally
recognized by all civilized countries.

Thus the single object of the session was plainly an-
nounced, and it had not long proceeded when the Repeal
Bill was brought in.

Strangely enough the question of international agree-
ment received attention from Mr. Wolcott in the first speech
made by him on the bill, and it shows not only his own
state of mind, but the general view of the American silver
advocates of the time. He said :

The friendship for silver expressed by every member of each
House of Congress who has spoken on this question is re-
markable and unanimous. No Senator in favor of the un-
conditional repeal of the Sherman Act has failed to announce
in solemn words his belief in bimetallism. The statement may

634 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

be soothing to his conscience, but it serves no other purpose so
far as favorable legislation is concerned. The Senators who
state that they are bimetallists, but that international agree-
ment is necessary before we can adopt the double standard,
misstate the proposition. International agreement must depend
on the attitude of Great Britain. If Great Britain consents to
a double standard, they are bimetallists. The policy of Great
Britain, which they are powerless to shape or to control, is
the policy they advocate. They are willing to sacrifice not only
a great region of our country, whose resources are of infinitely
more material value to the East than all our trade with Great
Britain, but also the welfare and prosperity of every farmer
and toiler in the land, in order that we may be in entire accord
with Great Britain in our financial policy.

Later in the same speech, he said :

We are constantly assured that our abandonment of silver
will force England to an international agreement. This may
be true. There is not gold enough in the world to do its business,
and some day this will be recognized by monometallist coun-
tries. But the time is far away. Capital is strong and selfish.
This Senate Chamber to-day is the best possible exemplification
of its power, and a long period of suffering and a shrinkage will
pass before we return to the double standard.

A few weeks afterward, on October 9th, he spoke even
derisively of international action, saying:

The people of this country, the largest producer of the pre-
cious metals, who believe in the double standard, are referred
to Great Britain for legislation and for relief. International
agreement is a chimera, a myth. Two members of the late
conference are in this body. They will not hesitate to tell us
that there is no hope for it at this time, Without Great
Britain's assent it is impossible. Why should she consent?
Her policy is plain, her interests are evident.

Then followed this wonderful picture of the result of
repeal, which all too soon was to be partially, though
fortunately, only temporarily realized:

Meanwhile the sections heretofore devoted to the search for

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 635

silver will become largely depopulated. The mines will fill with
water, the timbers which sustain their walls will rot, the vast
industries dependent for success on the mining regions will be-
come bankrupt, and a generation will not serve to renew their
prosperity, even after silver may be remonetized. The in-
vestments in railroads, mines, smelters, and other property
directly and fatally affected by the action recommended by the
Finance Committee aggregate more than $1,000,000,000, and they
are all to be sacrificed that we may make our financial policy
in exact accord with Great Britain, the creditor of the world.

Probably in no connection did he more forcibly present
in condensed form his reasons for his position than in the
following from one of his speeches of 1893 :

The people of the far Northwest favor the resumption of the
free coinage of silver because they believe in the principle of
bimetallism. We are not inflationists ; but we do not advocate
fiat money. We believe that, as the Senator from Nevada [Mr.
Jones] so aptly put it, the rude obstacles which nature inter-
poses offer a better safeguard for the people than the wisdom
or unwisdom of their rulers. We oppose the single standard
because there is not enough gold to do the business of the world
and furnish the inhabitants with the currency they need.

The history of all times has shown that a scarcity of cir-
culating medium means a continuous fall in prices, depression
in business activity, the impoverishment of the people, and a
decline in civilization. The last twenty years have but em-
phasized the experience of the centuries. Silver has not de-
preciated; gold has appreciated. The double standard lessens
the tension which may be caused by the lessened production of
the one metal or the increased production of the other. It
secures to the debtor at the maturity of his debt money of the
value he received when his debt was incurred. The two metals
together furnish a standard which has permanency, stability,
accessibility, and is a suitable and adequate measure of value.

Mr. President, the question as to whether silver shall by the
passage of the bill before us be finally demonetized is national
and not local. The claims we urge in behalf of the recognition
of silver are not pressed because we of the mountains ask
your sympathy for a region which your proposed action would
impoverish and ruin. If we represented any other section, with
our knowledge of the possibilities of the great West, we would

636 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

be equally tenacious for the preservation of the white metal as
a standard of value. No man removed from the money centre,
and realizing the illimitable resources of this Republic and its
constantly expanded needs, will ever stand for the contraction
of a currency already insufficient.

Our interests, our hopes, and aspirations are identical with
those of the other sections of our country which are borrowers
and not lenders; with those of the Carolinas, of Alabama and
Mississippi, and Arkansas and Missouri, the Dakotas and Wash-
ington in the remote Northwest. We demand the coinage of
both metals because the history of our country and of all lands
has taught us that they afford the safest and most adequate
basis for the currency of the people.

We are not influenced by our environment. It is true that
for a generation at least many States, some of them larger in
population than any one of three of the New England States,
and having greater resources, minerals included, than all of
them put together, will suffer if this bill shall become a law,
to an extent impossible to describe, and which in our lifetime
cannot be repaired; but we can endure it. The strong will
survive and the weak will go to the wall. It is the lot of
man. But before you complete your work, I beg of you to
pause long enough to realize that this is the first time in the
history of republics — nay, even of governments — that a people
devoted to one of the noblest of human industries, the search
for the precious metals of the world, were doomed to destruction
by their fellow-men because they produced too much of them.

Almost immediately after the repeal of the Sherman
Law Mr. Wolcott began to investigate the possibility of
obtaining international action in the interest of bimetallism.
But he moved with caution, and in the meantime he exerted
every effort to find a means of relieving the situation and
of easing the blow which had been struck at the silver-pro-
ducing industry. In that interest he at one time proposed
a resolution inviting negotiations with Mexico looking to
the coinage of Mexican dollars in the mints of the United
States and out of metal produced in the mines of this coun-
try, and at another, he introduced a resolution providing for
the coinage of the silver seigniorage which, owing to the far
greater value of silver as coin than as bullion, was no in-
considerable sum. The former proposition failed of passage,

LONG FIGHT FOE COINAGE OF SILVER 637

but the seigniorage measure went through Congress. On
both bills Mr. Wolcott spoke at length, and after the veto
of the Seigniorage Bill he made a review of the silver ques-
tion as affected by politics, in which he plainly indicated
that because of the President's position, as well as because
of the opposition of the Eastern States, he recognized the
hopelessness of further effort in the interest of independent
coinage by the United States. In the course of this speech,
which was delivered on the 9th of April, 1894, he said:

We were told by Senators upon this floor, including members
of the Finance Committee, that as soon as the infamous Sher-
man Act should be brushed aside, the first moment would be
utilized in reintroducing a bill for the free and unlimited coin-
age of silver, for which the President of the United States would
undoubtedly stand as sponsor. That position has been some-
what cleared. If by this veto any one thing has been made
clear to the minds of the people of the United States, it is
that its Chief Executive is the consistent and implacable and
eager enemy of silver. He has been consistent throughout and
has had the courage of the convictions of the national banks
and the trust companies of the United States, to all of which
the name of silver is a stench and an offence.

The veto has further shown us that the silver sentiment of
the country is local and not political. In the New England
States and in the Northeast both parties have vied with each
other in adulation and praise of the President's action, while
in the rest of the country the veto has been viewed with sorrow
and with indignation. In the New England States and in the
Northeast the unanimous feeling is that the President of the
United States is infinitely better than his party. So universal
is this the prevailing sentiment that the Democracy of that
section apparently intend to endorse the openly expressed con-
tempt of the President of the United States for the Democratic
party at large by voting overwhelmingly in favor of the Repub-
lican ticket; while in the West and South, irrespective of party,
there is a prevailing and unanimous sentiment that the Presi-
dent of the United States has betrayed not only the platform
of his party but the interests of his people, and that he has
treated the just claims of those great States of the Union, which
are devoted to mining and to agriculture, which are borrowers
and not lenders, with scorn and with derision.

638 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

The veto has further taught us that during the incumbency
of the present Executive there is no hope whatever for the
cause of bimetallism. And the self-respect of those of us who
believe that the day of prosperity will never come to this coun-
try again until silver is rehabilitated and restored to its place
as a money metal should require of us that we advocate and
vote for no makeshift and no temporary expedient. If the
lesson is to be learned it may as well be learned during the
present Administration as at any other time; and we owe it
to our own dignity, and the respect due the cause, that we
oppose upon this floor every measure which does not follow
upon the lines of the free and unlimited coinage of silver at
the ratio of 15y2 or 16 to 1.

INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT

In the spring of 1893, Mr. Wolcott was compelled to go
to Europe on account of the precarious condition of his
health, and while in England and France he met many of
the bimetallists of those two countries. From all of these
he received encouragement to believe that an agreement
for a general recognition of the white metal could be
brought about. Indeed, generally, the Europeans showed a
willingness to take the initiative in urging the wisdom of
a movement by the United States in the interest of a new
international conference. But, while as zealous in their
advocacy of silver coinage as he was, they were united in
preaching the necessity for concerted action.

Soon after Senator Wolcott's return to the United States
the following statement regarding this visit, evidently
authorized by him, was published:

Senator Wolcott had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Balfour
socially and had a very enjoyable time with him in London.
The silver question was discussed in all its relations, and while
Mr. Wolcott knew, of course, that Mr. Balfour was a strong
advocate of bimetallism, he was surprised to find him so deeply
interested and thoroughly informed on this question, especially
in view of the fact that Mr. Balfour's efforts in behalf of the
double standard were purely philanthropic and based upon the
belief that the masses were suffering untold calamities by reason
of the adoption of the single standard, the demonetization of

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 639

silver, and the great increase in the purchasing power and value
of gold.

Mr. Wolcott went abroad again in 1894, this time with
a far more friendly inclination toward concerted action
than before. He had thought much of what he had heard
on the previous visit, had become convinced of the sincerity
of his European friends, and was almost satisfied that they
were right in their contention that the only road to the
rehabilitation of silver lay through general international
co-operation. Unquestionably the closing of the Indian
mints and the cessation of the large and regular monthly
purchases of silver by the United States were forcible factors
in bringing him to this point of view. At any rate, he now
was found a willing listener to the suggestions of his Eng-
lish and French friends who had differed from him only on
the one point of the method of carrying bimetallism into
execution. He was forced to concede that because of its
comprehensiveness their plan was preferable. But was it
practicable? For a time it seemed to be.

In 1894 there were many interviews with people of distinc-
tion on the silver question, and there was one notable dinner
in London, given by Sir William Houldsworth, at which the
unofficial American envoy received much encouragement to
believe that even England might be influenced to grant such
concessions as hitherto had not been considered possible.
The dinner was tendered to a number of Americans of dis-
tinction, including Senator Wolcott, Hon. W. C. Whitney,
General Francis A. Walker, and Mr. Brooks Adams, and
there were invited to meet them the Right Honorable Arthur
J. Balfour, the Right Honorable Henry Chaplin, the Right
Honorable William Lidderdale, Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Grenfell,
Mr. Moreton Frewen, Mr. Herman Schmidt, Prof. Foxwell,
Mr. Heseltine, and Mr. Murray Guthrie, all more or less
pronounced advocates of bimetallism. Indeed, it was an
informal, unauthorized international conference on silver
under the guise of a social function.

There were a number of speeches, and most of them were
encouraging. There was an exception in the case of Mr.
Chaplin. Quite as earnest a bimetallist as any present and

610 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

just as desirous of success, he still did not fail to point
out the great difficulties in the way, principal of which
were the conservative character of the English people and
the self-interest of the London bankers. The sequel proved
that he was right, for there can be little doubt that, what-
ever the instrument with which the final blow was struck,
the London influence directed it.1 His speech was not, how-
ever, intended to throw a damper on the movement for a
conference, and at the time it received comparatively little
attention.

Senator Wolcott was among the speakers. He said:

I feel that much more real interest attaches to the attitude
of Mr. Whitney and General Walker at the present time than
to the attitude and efforts of those who think with me that
the United States with open mints can single-handed act as the
world's money-changer, and can maintain the parity of the
metals. And seeing that for three years to come no effective
silver legislation can be secured at Washington, such legisla-
tion during President Cleveland's term being impossible, the
bimetallic contest has to-day shifted itself from Washington
to Westminster. But I am glad to endorse General Walker's
assertion to-night that ninety per cent, of the people of the
United States are earnest and convinced bimetallists. The ques-
tion then for us in the United States is not one of principles,
but of methods only — how best we can encourage action on the
part of Great Britain ; and this being the position we think,
some of us, that perhaps the offer to your colonies and India
of lower tariffs as contrasted with prohibitive tariffs may attract
your colonial premiers to a little friendly but determined gird-
ling at Downing Street. I notice, however, that just as a dis-
tinguished American humorist was prepared to demonstrate his

1 In his Autobiography, Senator Hoar, who gave much attention to
the question of an international agreement, attributes the failure of
the mission to the influence of the London banks. " I conjecture," he
says, " that the English Administration, although a majority of the
Government, and probably a majority of the Conservative party, were
bimetallists and favored an international arrangement on principle, did
not like to disturb existing conditions at the risk of offending the
banking interests of London, especially those which had charge of the
enormous foreign investments, the value of which would be constantly
increasing so long as their debts were payable, principal and interest,
in gold, the value of which, also, was steadily appreciating."

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 641

patriotism by sending his wife's relatives to the field of battle,
so also, whether in Australia or at the Cape, England at the
present time contemplates the sufferings of her relatives with
considerable equanimity.

In concluding a speech that was followed with very close
attention Senator Wolcott said that just as the promise of
improvement to come immediately after the repeal of the
Sherman Act had been delusive, so also the improvement
to follow after tariff reform might be not less visionary, and
that many who had voted for repeal less than a year since
were likely at the coming elections to accept the alternative
of free coinage.

As in London, the Colorado Senator's reception in Paris
was again cordial, and upon the whole his investigations
greatly strengthened his conviction in favor of an inter-
national movement. He reached the conclusion that Europe
might inaugurate such a course at any time, and he de-
termined to do all that he could to place the United States
in the way of co-operation in case it should be undertaken.

Accordingly, having returned to the United States, on
the 23d of February, 1895, he introduced in the Senate
as an amendment to an appropriation bill a measure pro-
viding for the appointment of a commission. This provision
was incorporated in the law and, wiiile no action was taken
under its authority, it proved the forerunner of the subse-
quent legislation under which the Wolcott Commission was
appointed. This amendment authorized participation by the
United States in any international monetary conference that
might be determined upon by the European powers. In
presenting it, Mr. Wolcott said that he had felt under some
embarrassment from the fact that it might be construed
abroad as indicating an undue desire on the part of this
country for an international compact, but, taking all the
circumstances into consideration, he had concluded that it
would be wise to give the authority in order that the ap-
pointment of commissioners might be made, if occasion
should arise for them during the Congressional recess which
then was approaching. In his comment he could not resist
the opportunity to take a fling at the professed bimetallists

642 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

who had not shown their faith by their works. " It is,"
he said, " entirely satisfactory to those bimetallists who vote
for bimetallism; it should be equally satisfactory to that
devoted band of bimetallists who talk for us and vote against
us, and who look with ravished eyes for English approval
before they register their votes." He added: " We are for
the establishment of bimetallism by the United States alone.
If other countries will join us so much the better."

Speaking again on the 28th of the same month to the
same amendment, Mr. Wolcott gave utterance to a few sen-
tences showing the real reason for his interest in silver
coinage.

The result of my studies [he said] is the conviction that the
suffering and poverty all over the world have been caused by
the abandonment of silver and the appreciating value of gold.
If by any act of mine I could bring all over the world some
amelioration of existing conditions, I should feel that I had
played an important part in the legislation of my country ; and
as a citizen of a Christian nation I should be unwilling to shut
out from view the nations of the world.

Replying to objections to the measure from Senator
Stewart of Nevada, Mr. Wolcott briefly referred to the
struggles of the European bimetallists.

Why, Mr. President [he asked], does the Senator from Nevada
forget that, under the most unfavorable circumstances, all
through these years the bimetallist party of England, with both
the great parties against it, has been struggling year after
year to make its converts ; that in the heart of the great creditor
nation of the world, where every instinct of every man who has
a dollar due him is to oppose silver, these men have, unaided,
fought a gallant fight with such glorious outcome that the other
day in the House of Commons the leader of the party in power
did not dare to oppose a motion made by a member in behalf
of bimetallism? [He added:] Rather than contest it in the
House of Commons he yielded his opposition, and, declining to
permit the vote to be taken, abandoned the position which for
years the Liberal party has held, and virtually announced that
for years the English Government would share in any inter-

LONG FIGHT FOE COINAGE OF SILVER 643

national conference which might be called upon the question
of bimetallism.

So in Germany, where the owners of land have gradually
seen their land grow less in value; against the Government,
against the great banking houses of Berlin and the other Ger-
man centres, the bimetallists have steadily, year by year, fought
their fight, until in spite of the opposition of the Government,
the Socialists, and the Radicals, they have forced the Reichstag
to agree practically to the calling of an international conference.

The Senator from Nevada refers to the Republic of France,
as if that country might not favor international bimetallism!
Fortunately I have just received an accurate statement of what
took place in the French Assembly the other day upon an inter-
pellation on this very subject; and with the permission of the
Senate I will read it, for it is vital to the great questions which
are now at stake.

He then read a statement showing marked progress by
the bimetallic movement in the French Republic, and, con-
tinuing, said :

So, Mr. President, does this great question press forward.
In England success is almost at hand. In Germany success is
practically reached. In France there is hearty co-operation.
This movement has been brought about not by our enemies, but
by our friends ; by earnest men who have the solemn conviction
that prosperity and civilization can be advanced only by a return
to the double standard. We in this country, certainly in my
section, believe that America alone can maintain the double
standard. But, for that reason, shall we reject advances of
other countries?

Mr. President, in the six years I have been in the Senate
I have seen wandering about these corridors, day after day
and week after week, the same hungry faces of lean men with
claims pending before Congress. I am told some of them have
been here thirty years and more, seeking some payment or
restitution by Congress of something they have lost. So day
after day they haunt these chambers, and they plot and plan
and dream. If they met success and Congress should give them
what they seek, they would die. So I fear it is true with some
of the advocates of bimetallism. They have preached their gos-
pel, their true gospel of salvation, so long, that, if the people

644 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

of the world became converted, their occupation would be gone
and they would have to close up shop.

I am for bimetallism not because I want to fight; I am for
bimetallism — and I am for waging an unceasing fight for its
accomplishment — because I believe that out of the contest we
can bring success. And for that reason, Mr. President, I stand
for the amendment as it is. We are for American bimetallism,
with or without international agreement, but if we fail to grasp
the extended hand of other countries when it reaches out to meet
ours, we will deserve and receive the eternal odium which should
attach to us for having failed to embrace the greatest oppor-
tunity that has been since silver was stricken down.

Speaking in Denver on August 13, 1894, of his observa-
tions in England, Mr. Wolcott said:

I happened to be in England when Professor Francis A.
Walker, Brooks Adams, ex-Secretary Whitney, and other promi-
ment Americans were there, and attended a banquet at which
I met many English bimetallists. This and other meetings have
served to bring the bimetallists of both countries into closer
alliance and will result in much good. It is none the less true,
however, that there is no sound reason why this country should
wait for the action of Great Britain. My own belief is that
if the United States entered on the free and unlimited coinage
of silver and at the same time maintained a fair protective tariff
Great Britain would be more speedily forced into bimetallism
than by any other pressure.

Our great hope in England must lie in a change of Govern-
ment. The first advantage was gained by the retirement of
Gladstone, who was the open enemy of silver. Lord Rosebery
has never declared himself hostile to the white metal, and many
of his friends express a hope, from what they know of him, that
he will not oppose it. At best, however, it will be a long time
before we can hope for any radical change in the policy of Great
Britain on this question.

The present English policy toward India is admitted to be
a failure. I am inclined to think that Great Britain would
even now be glad to make concessions as to its Indian policy,
if we should see fit to enter upon the free coinage of silver. All
over Europe, wherever there is an owner of land dependent upon
its products for support, there is a growing and abiding con-
viction that, until silver again takes its place as a standard, the

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 645

price of gold is certain to appreciate, and the price of agricul-
tural products and of lands to decrease. I fear, however, that
it will take years of further suffering to work a change in the
European financial policy.

I find a wonderful interest shown over there in the pro-
gress of the silver cause in this country. No important speech
was made by my colleague, Senator Teller, upon which the
English bimetallists were not informed. They are preparing
themselves fully for the struggle, when it does come to them.

PARTY POLITICS AND SILVER

These were the preliminary steps looking to the appoint-
ment of an international commission, but the real action in
that interest did not take place until about three years
afterward. In the meantime Senator Wolcott had vigor-
ously continued his efforts in support of silver legislation
in Congress. He had been re-elected to the Senate in the
face of the determined opposition of Waiteism and Populism
in his own State, and later the Republican National Con-
vention of 1896 had come, bringing with it a split in the
Republican party, and resulting in the defection from the
party of his colleague and a large following of that gentle-
man throughout the West.

To Mr. Wolcott the period was a trying one. He had
said repeatedly that when it came to a choice between his
party and silver his support would be given to the white
metal. That time had come, and he remained a Republican.
Failing to discover any probability of relief from any party,
he had concluded that he could not promote bimetallism by
leaving one political organization to join another. True,
the Populist party was committed to free-silver coinage, but
Senator Wolcott felt assured that that party never could at-
tain to national control, and the result shows that in that
respect his conclusion was correct. Moreover, free silver
was only one of the tenets of Populism. It stood for almost
everything else which established society had not seemed to
want. The Colorado Senator was in sympathy with it only
on the one point of silver coinage. For these and many
other reasons he found it impossible to cast his lot with
this organization.

646 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Probably as fair an expression as Mr. Wolcott has left
as to his attitude toward his own and other parties in
conDection with silver is found in his speech before the
Republican State Convention of Colorado in 1894. This was
two years before the test of leaving the party came, and it
will be observed that his threat of departure was not
unconditional.

Whenever I am convinced [he said] that the free coinage
of silver is not attainable at the hands of the Republican party,
and is attainable at the hands of some other party, I will join
that party. And so will every citizen of Colorado. But, my
friends, that determination will never bring you or me into
party affiliation with Mrs. Lease and Governor Waite. My
earliest recollections are associated with the Republican party.
When I was a lad our house was a station on the underground
railway. After nightfall, in our New England home, some black
man would be secretly let in to sleep in the attic, and started
off at daylight on his road to Canada. The first years of my
manhood are associated with the attack on the flag and its res-
toration. All the life I have known is identified with that of the
Republican party, and draws its inspirations from that party's
achievements in the protection of American labor, and American
products, and American manhood; in its eternal vigilance for
the maintenance of the honor of the flag at home and abroad,
and in its elevation of the human race. And since that event-
ful session of Congress a year ago, what growth we have seen
has come through and in and by the Republican party. My
friends, with you I love the party and every line in its history,
and when we leave it it will be to different music than any
Populistic party has yet piped.

Not very different was his speech at Colorado Springs,
September 16, 1896, after the die had been cast and he
had decided to remain with his party. Then he said:

" We don't want silver if we must take mob law with it;
and if in this country any man who wants to labor is not
protected in the exercise of that right, even if it takes all
the armies of the United States to secure it to him, then
this Government is not worth preserving, nor will any
change of financial policy bring it prosperity."

To turn elsewhere with any prospect of accomplishing

LONG FIGHT FOE COINAGE OF SILVEE 647

results was quite as impossible. The Democracy was
hopelessly in the minority, as Senator Wolcott realized.
Moreover, the country had found in Cleveland, the only
Democratic President of modern times, the most implacable
and determined foe that silver ever had encountered in the
Presidency. And Cleveland did not stand alone in his party
in opposition to silver. A large percentage of the Eastern
Democracy ardently supported his view. There was, there-
fore, at least no certainty of favorable silver action in case
of Democratic success. Had not a Democratic President
compelled the repeal of the Sherman Law?

Why, then, in view of these conditions, should Senator
Wolcott leave the party into which he had been born and
of which he had been a member during his entire life, for
another party which to his mind promised no more than
the Eepublican party? If by taking such a step he could
have insured the rehabilitation of silver he would in all
probability have taken it. He had no such assurance.

In his heart of hearts, Wolcott was ever a party man, and
he could not and would not break with a great historic party
over an economic issue merely as such. There was nothing
pontifical in his nature. True, he was a leader, but not the
leader of any pilgrimage to Canossa ; not of an exploring ex-
pedition into uncharted seas; and when in the late 'eighties,
and still more after the failure of the last Monetary Con-
ference at Brussels in 1893, there were ominous symptoms
that the Eepublican party could not subdue organic dis-
sensions arising from this issue, it was clearly the time to
take careful soundings. The great party which Wolcott
loved was in danger; the career of its leaders might be
compromised; the ship with a rapidly falling barometer
was off a lee shore. That he counted all the cost — this was
well known to his friends. He had come, however reluc-
tantly, to the conviction that silver must needs be fought
out upon a wider stage.

From this time he gradually drifted away from the
counsels of the silver Senators, taking his new inspiration
more from Senator Hoar of Massachusetts perhaps than
from any other one man. For his new mood and for wise
guidance he could have found no better mentor in the entire

648 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

United States. Mr. Hoar was no reactionary. He was, in-
deed, one of the most courageous men in public life. He
had a nation of admirers because he was the very embodi-
ment of all those moral and yet liberal principles which
form the rugged traditions of New England. Granted that
he knew far less about currency than the silver Senators,
yet, doubtless, argued Mr. Wolcott, he had a wide view of
history and was quite as likely to see the blazed trail over
and beyond the mountain. And, above all, he, like Wol-
cott, was a devoted party man. Hoar, too, was entirely
sound on the international aspect of silver. It may be well
to quote here a cable drafted, or at least amended, by Senator
Hoar, which was sent to a reform gathering at the London
Mansion House in May, 1895 :

The Lord Mayor op London, the Mansion House, London :

We desire to express our cordial sympathy with the move-
ment to promote the restoration of silver by international agree-
ment, in aid of which we understand a meeting is to be held
to-day under your Lordship's presidency. We believe that the
free coinage of both gold and silver by international agreement
at a fixed ratio would secure to mankind the blessing of a suf-
ficient volume of metallic money and, what is hardly less import-
ant, secure to the world of trade immunity from violent exchange
fluctuations.

(Signed) John Sherman, W. B. Allison, D. W. Voorhees,
George F. Hoar, Nelson W. Aldrich, William P. Frye, C. K. Davis,
S. M. Cullom, Henry Cabot Lodge, Calvin S. Brice, O. H. Piatt,
A. P. Gorman, Edward Murphy, David B. Hill.

It will be observed that this comprehensive message bears
the signatures of all the Senators from the three great States
of New York, Massachusetts, and Ohio, and is signed by
every Senator who had been active in promoting the repeal
of the Sherman Act. It shows vividly the state of mind
of the " sound money " Senators of that day.

There was a further influence which was probably assist-
ing Mr. Wolcott in his growing conviction that the silver
issue would be settled on international lines. During his
visits to England in 1889 and 1890 he had established very
pleasant relations with Mr. Henry Chaplin, at that time in

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 649

Lord Salisbury's Cabinet, and the acquaintance had been
renewed on each subsequent visit. In England Mr. Chaplin
was and is a very interesting figure both in politics and in
society. He was the intimate friend of King Edward. A
thorough man of the world and of affairs, he had won with
Hermit the blue ribbon of the English turf in the most sen-
sational Derby of that generation. Mr. Chaplin was second
only to Mr. Balfour in his earnest advocacy of international
bimetallism. The Cabinet in this matter was much di-
vided. Lord Salisbury was benevolently neutral, but the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Goschen, was strongly
opposed, for the temperature of the City of London was
then, as always in treating this question, below zero.
Mr. Chaplin was greatly attracted to the Colorado Sen-
ator, as was the Senator to him. The two men had much
in common, joyous, vigorous, vital sport-loving natures —
natures which look forward and not back. Through Mr.
Chaplin the visitor saw no little of Mr. Balfour in these
early visits. The tide seemed running strongly for the res-
toration of silver even in England, and especially in France
and Germany, and the world of finance appeared to be com-
ing to its senses. Doubtless Mr. Chaplin had strong influ-
ence in causing his American friend to give consideration
to the world-wide aspect of the silver question.

Extremely important as showing the set of the wind was
the resolution adopted by the British House of Commons,
February 20, 1895, which was in line with previous pro-
nouncements by the legislative bodies of France and
Germany :

That this House regards with increasing apprehension the
constant fluctuations and the growing divergence in the relative
values of gold and silver, and heartily concurs in the recent
expressions of opinion on the part of the Governments of France
and Germany as to the serious evils arising therefrom; it there-
fore urges upon Her Majesty's Government the desirability of
co-operating with other Powers in an international conference
for the purpose of considering what measures can be taken to
remove or mitigate these evils.

Again on March 17, 1896, the following resolution was
adopted by the House of Commons:

650 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

That this House is of opinion that the instability of the rela-
tive value of gold and silver, since the action of the Latin
Union in 1873, has proved injurious to the best interests of
this country, and urges upon this Government the advisability
of doing all in their power to secure by international agreement
a stable monetary par of exchange between gold and silver.

Thus apparently the three principal European nations
had committed themselves voluntarily and authoritatively
to silver coinage. Is it surprising that the American advo-
cates of international agreement felt encouraged?

Following close upon the action of Parliament, Sir
Michael Hicks Beach, a monometallism but fair-minded,
was reported to have declared that if the other nations
formed a bimetallic league, the British Government would
reopen the Indian mints and by other means promote an
increased use of silver in coinage, to help the general move-
ment. Mr. Balfour asserted that in these circumstances
Great Britain would do more for bimetallism than any other
country in the world.

Fortunately Mr. Wolcott has left us an explanation of
his conversion to the international theory, which saves the
necessity for speculation. In a speech made February 12,
1900, one of the last of his speeches in the Senate, he said :

When I entered the Senate eleven years ago, and afterward,
I believed, and asserted my belief, that the United States alone,
unaided by any other nation, could establish and maintain for
the whole world the parity between gold and silver if it opened
its mints to the free coinage of both metals at the old ratio of
10 to 1; and under the conditions then existing, and which
seemed certain to follow our action, I still believe it might then
have been accomplished. What was true a few years ago is
no longer true. The commercial value of silver was then far
greater than now; India had but just closed her mints, we
believed temporarily; Russia had not declared her ratio of 24
to 1; Japan was still upon the silver standard, and the annual
product of gold was normal, showing a slight but steady increase
year after year, and the world's supply of metal money was
grossly inadequate. To-day we face a vastly different condition
of affairs, and for one I should shrink from entering upon the
experiment alone and at the old ratio. Not only the hostility

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 651

of the vast majority of the taxpayers of our own country, but
the attitude of the civilized governments of the world, the ex-
istence in India of a thousand million ounces and more of silver,
uncoined, sold from day to day in the bazaars, the uncertainty
as to the future of the Orient, — all these vexed and unsettled
problems might well make us pause. It is not necessary now
to discuss further that question, but it is my judgment that,
if Mr. Bryan were to-day President of the United States, and
if a majority of Congress were of his way of thinking, they
would never dare seek to impose upon this country the respon-
sibility of entering alone and unaided upon the duty of main-
taining a parity at the old ratio.

For these and many other reasons, the environment in
which Wolcott now moved greatly influenced his drift away
from the predominant sentiment of his own State, which
was almost unanimous for the free coinage of silver by
the United States without regard to other nations.

Then came the St. Louis platform of 1896. The die was
cast ; he would attempt to hold Colorado for the Republican
party and for international action if only a corporal's guard
would follow him.

THE FOREIGN SITUATION

In its declarations at the St. Louis Convention the party
placed itself on record as " unreservedly for sound money,"
and for the first time declared itself " opposed to the free
coinage of silver except by international agreement with
the leading commercial nations of the world." Then fol-
lowed a promise to promote such agreement, which in turn
was succeeded by a declaration for the maintenance of the
existing gold standard until such agreement could be ob-
tained. This was an advance over previous platforms in
favor of gold monometallism of such a pronounced nature as
to render the situation very trying to the Republicans who
favored silver. The only relief was in the pledge for the
promotion of an international agreement.

The campaign was fought on this issue, and Mr. McKin-
ley, was triumphantly elected over Mr. Bryan, although
seven-eighths of Colorado's vote was cast for Bryan. Very

652 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

little had been said during the campaign about the party's
declaration for international bimetallism; but Mr. Wolcott
and his fellow silver men in the party who had remained
true were quite determined that it should not be lost sight
of. No sooner, therefore, had Congress convened after the
election than they set themselves to work to vitalize it and
make it the basis of an active propaganda. At the first
caucus of the Republican Senators, Mr. Wolcott called at-
tention to the declaration, and at his instance the ball was
set rolling in the interest of an agreement.

At this conference Senator Hoar related the particulars
of interviews he had had with prominent bimetallists during
a recent visit to England and France, and added his plea
to Mr. Wolcott's in favor of taking steps toward an inter-
national agreement. After considerable discussion, a caucus
committee was agreed upon to further the movement, and
Senator Wolcott was placed at the head of it, with Senators
Hoar, Chandler, Carter, and Gear as his associates. It was
due to their labors that the law of March 3, 1897, providing
for a commission, was enacted.

Mr. Wolcott did not, however, confine his efforts to Con-
gress. He lost no time in placing himself in communication
with the new President, who even then was seeking a way
to aid silver. The result was his second silver prospecting
trip to Europe. This trip was made at the instance of the
President and was therefore semi-official in character.

The Colorado Senator's determination to adhere to his
party, notwithstanding the St. Louis platform, rendered it all
the more important that he should demonstrate to the world
that he had been consistent in his advocacy of bimetallism,
and that his party had been in earnest in pledging itself in
the recent platform to an international arrangement. His
confidence in the President was so great that he believed that
he would do all in his power to promote the movement, and
in his inaugural address, delivered March 4, 1897, after Mr.
Wolcott had sounded the European Governments, the Presi-
dent went far toward justifying this confidence. In that
pronouncement the President declared his adherence to the
platform pledge as well as to other portions of the financial
plank of the St. Louis Convention, saying:

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 653

The question of international bimetallism will have early
and earnest attention. It will be my constant and earnest at-
tention to secure it by co-operation with the other great com-
mercial powers of the world. Until that condition is realized
when the parity between our gold and silver money springs from
and is supported by the relative value of the two metals, the
value of silver already coined and of that which may hereafter
be coined must be kept constantly at par with the gold by every
resource at our command. The credit of the Government, the
integrity of its currency, and the inviolability of its obligations
must be preserved. This was the commanding verdict of the
people, and it will not be unheeded.

Independently of his personal attitude, the election of
William McKinley marked a death-blow, as we now see, to the
" free silver " agitation. The basis of that agitation was the
painful fall of prices. There was, it is true, in the background
the great problem of the silver exchanges with Asia, a prob-
lem which may yet emerge as the real and paramount silver
issue — a great racial danger. But it was the fall of prices
occasioned by the contraction of the currency which formed
the stock argument of almost every speaker. Had it been
imagined for one instant that the tide had just turned
in 1896 and that the world already had crossed the thresh-
old of such enormous and unprecedented supplies of new
gold from the mines as must quickly inflate the Western
currencies and raise all prices, it is possible that the Demo-
cratic platform of 1896 would have contained no " free
silver " plank. In the new President, however, the silver
men had a good friend. When a member of the House of
Representatives McKinley had voted for free coinage. In
1892 in an address to the Republican League of Ohio he had
said of President Cleveland:

During all the years at the head of the Government he was
dishonoring one of the precious metals, one of our own great
products, discrediting silver and enhancing the price of gold.
He endeavored even before his inauguration into office to stop
the coinage of silver dollars, and afterward and to the end of
his Administration he persistently used his powers to that end.
He was determined to contract the circulating medium and de-

654 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

monetize one of the coins of commerce, limit the volume of money
among the people, make money scarce and therefore dear. He
would have increased the value of money and diminished the
value of everything else— money the master, everything else the
servant. He was not thinking of the poor people then. He had
left their side. He was not standing forth in their defence.
Cheap labor, and dear money; the sponsor and promoter of
those professing to stand guard over the poor and lowly. Was
there ever more glaring inconsistency or reckless assumption?
... He believed that poverty is a blessing to be promoted and
encouraged, and that a shrinkage in the value of everything
but money is a national benediction.

Holding such views it was inevitable that the President
should consider how best to employ the prerogative of his
great office in order to forward an international settlement
and this without a day's delay. He looked round for the
emissary most agreeable to Europe. Who, by reason of his
services to and sacrifices for his party, because of his know-
ledge of the silver question, and particularly because of his
intimate acquaintance with the chief pieces on the European
chess-board, could do better service at this juncture than
Wolcott? The new President at once despatched him to
Europe, unofficially, to inform himself as to the lay of the
land. Lord Salisbury was again in power. Without com-
mitting the President or his Administration Wolcott could
discover from Mr. Balfour and Mr. Chaplin the prospect
for a successful formal commission later. A commission
could only harm the party and the President if the posi-
tion in Europe was hopeless; but if, on the other hand, suf-
ficient encouragement was vouchsafed Wolcott understood
that he was to return soon to Europe with a full-fledged
official body.

Mr. Wolcott inevitably regarded the mission as the
grand climacteric of his life. If it was possible to achieve
a lasting settlement, the Republican party would splendidly
justify its attitude in the recent furious campaign, and he
himself in view of the line he had taken in Colorado
would emerge an historic figure. A very great opportunity
had come to him; what had the Fates in store? And his
friends remarked in him during the year that followed a

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 655

greatly increased sense of responsibility. He sailed for
Europe during the winter of 1896-97, spending the months
of January and February in England and France with the
exception of a few days in Germany.

Since his previous visit, the unfriendly Gladstone Ad-
ministration had terminated and the Conservatives had come
into power, placing many of the foremost bimetallists of
Great Britain in positions of responsibility. M. Meline, the
French silver champion was Premier in France. Senator
Wolcott was received with open arms in both the French
Republic and the British Empire. He was a social lion
among the leaders of the bimetallic thought in both London
and Paris, and he was told that an American commission
would receive a cordial welcome, in case it should be ap-
pointed. France was especially reassuring in her attitude.
Mr. Wolcott was informed that, if in the then approaching
tariff legislation in this country French interests could be
properly considered, such a course would have a most bene-
ficial influence upon the French people. Mr. Wolcott, who
had become a member of the Senate Committee on Finance,
promised to give his attention to these representations, and
it should here be said that he afterward did so, influencing
many important changes in the Dingley Tariff Law in the
interest of French exporters to this country without in any
wise impairing home industries.

It is important to recognize that in England in 1897
the views of the bimetallists had undergone an important
modification. The Indian mints had been closed to free
coinage in 1893 with a resultant collapse in the price of
silver for which history has no precedent. Thus it was
appreciated for the first time how very much Great Britain
had done for silver during the previous century by keeping
the mints of her vast dependency open to the free coinage
of that metal. So that on Wolcott's arrival the best friends
of the white metal advised him not to advance extreme pro-
posals as to the inclusion of Great Britain, but to rest satis-
fied with the restoration by her of silver monometallism in
India with open mints there, and the promise of a continued
free gold market in London.

The all-important point was to persuade France, her

656 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

traditions all friendly to free coinage, to go liand-in-hand
with her sister Republic in restoring that monetary system
which before 1873 had served the world so well. The view
of those consulted as to Germany's attitude was rather to
let Germany make the advances if and when she wished.
The two great Republics were to take the lead. England's
partnership, though very important, was to be looked upon
as subordinate. It was thought that all that was scientific
in French and American finance and all the idealism of the
two great nations would respond to a settlement in which the
" effete monarchies " were to knock later for admission on
the door of the allied Republics.

This Plan of Campaign was not devoid of audacity.
Would France rise to such a fly? Would it satisfy the
McKinley Administration? If so, the inclusion of India,
though all important, might, it was felt on all hands, be
taken for granted.

After leaving London Wolcott next spent a fortnight in
Paris and found to his delight and surprise that M. Mag-
nin, the Governor of the Bank of France, was most sym-
pathetically with him in the conviction that the monetary
area of the two Republics, with India, was quite wide enough
within which to establish free coinage and fixed exchanges,
and that the arrangement proposed would give Paris and
New York a predominant position in the world's bill market;
that not only would a great and profitable exchange busi-
ness be obtained by the two partners, and this largely at the
expense of London, but that projects such as Asiatic rail-
roads and other constructions requiring capital would be
likely to come where, because of open mints, the world's
silver markets had been localized.

Immensely satisfied with the beat of the European pulse,
Wolcott returned to America to carry his report to the
White House. The business depression in the United States
at this time showed no sign of lifting. Not the President
only but the Republican chiefs, Hanna, Allison, and Aid-
rich, were quite with the President in thinking that a ra-
tional settlement to which France was a party and for the
sake of which England would coin silver freely for three
hundred millions of her people, would not merely be at-

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 657

tended by a business revival but would be regarded as the
crowning triumph of the Republican party; that where the
Democrats would, if victorious, have taken a devious and
dangerous road leading into a possible morass, the " Grand
Old Party " had procured by a quick diplomatic effort a
practically invincible Triple Alliance.

THE BIMETALLIC COMMISSION

When, in March, 1897, Mr. Wolcott returned from his
informal mission, he found that the way for the appointment
of a commission had been prepared by the passage of the
Caucus Bill, the essential portion of which read :

Whenever after March fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-
seven, the President of the United States shall determine that the
United States should be represented at any international con-
ference called by the United States or any other country with
a view to securing by international agreement a fixity of relative
value between gold and silver as money by means of a common
ratio between these metals, with free mintage at such ratio, he
is hereby authorized to appoint five or more commissioners to
such international conference; and for compensation of said
commissioners, and for all reasonable expenses connected there-
with, to be approved by the Secretary of State, including the
proportion to be paid by the United States of the joint expenses
of any such conference, the sum of one hundred thousand dol-
lars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby
appropriated.

That the President of the United States is hereby authorized,
in the name of the Government of the United States, to call, in
his discretion, such international conference, to assemble at such
point as may be agreed upon. And he is further authorized, if
in his judgment the purpose specified in the first section hereof
can thus be better attained, to appoint one or more special
commissioners or envoys to such of the nations of Europe as
he may designate, to seek by diplomatic negotiations an inter-
national agreement for the purpose specified in the first section
hereof. And in case of such appointment so much of the appro-
priation herein made as shall be necessary shall be available for
the proper expenses and compensation of such commissioners
or envovs.

658 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

The bill was a Republican measure, passed in accord-
ance with the pledge of the St. Louis Convention, but it did
not antagonize the views of President Cleveland, and he
attached his signature to it March 3, 1897, only a few hours
before retiring from office.

Very soon after the Colorado Senator's arrival from
Europe the Commission was appointed. For the purpose
of showing his good faith President McKinley decided that
all the members should be silver men of pronounced views,
and to that end he selected Mr. Wolcott as Chairman, giv-
ing him as colleagues Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, a
Democrat who had been Vice-President of the United States
when Mr. Cleveland was President and who had been the
recent running mate of Mr. Bryan for the same office he
previously had held, and General Charles J. Paine of
Massachusetts, a private citizen, but a bimetallist and a
Republican.

In view of the fact that the Commission came within an
ace of complete success and that the failure came from a
quarter not for an instant anticipated, it is perhaps un-
gracious to criticise its make-up. But at the time it was
felt that in a matter of such transcendent importance Mr.
Wolcott should have strengthened his Commission by the
inclusion of Senator Allison or Senator Aldrich, because his
companions, though both men of zeal, position, and intel-
ligence, could not bring to their chief all the assistance he
needed in meeting the infinitely complex problems which
were daily in evidence and often from the most unexpected
quarters.

Much attention was given by the Commission and by the
Administration to the method of proceeding. In view of
the fact that since the general demonetization of silver in
1873 there had been three futile attempts to establish
world-bimetallism through international conferences, it was
thought best not to suggest another such conference without
definite knowledge of conditions. Hence, it was decided that
the great commercial powers should be officially and still
further sounded on the subject before suggesting a con-
ference. If there was sufficient encouragement, the con-
ference was to come later. The first part of the programme

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 659

was carried into execution; the second was not. No con-
ference was held. The Commission appointed, the plan was
to first proceed to France, " the point of least resistance,"
and, in case the French authorities were found to be
friendly, as Mr. Wolcott was confident they would be, to
go thence to England, and if there should be encouragement
there, to then lay the subject before the German and other
European Governments in succession, when, if a sufficient
number were willing, the conference was to be called. It
was quite generally believed, however, that the United States
and France could maintain the double standard if the con-
sent of Great Britain to the re-opening of the Indian mints
could be obtained. In the event of such union, Germany's
co-operation would have been welcomed though not abso-
lutely necessary.

France yielded without remonstrance, and it was quite
well understood that if England would make the concessions
desired of her there would be no objection from Berlin.
England was asked to reopen the Indian mints, if not her
own. She unexpectedly referred the question to the Indian
Government. The Indian Government just as unexpectedly
declined the proposition. This refusal meant the total fail-
ure of the mission, and so it proved. The preliminary in-
quiry did not go further. The authority for an international
conference was not withdrawn, but after the return of the
American emissaries because of the attitude of the Indian
authorities, the subject never was revived seriously.

From the time of the appointment of the Commission,
President McKinley manifested the deepest interest in its
movements and he insisted upon being fully informed con-
cerning its negotiations, as he constantly was by its chair-
man, both by cable and by letter. He undertook to give
the envoys all the assistance in his power, and this he did
by fostering favorable sentiment in the United States and
by instructing the American representatives in Great Britain,
France, Germany, and Russia to further their purposes by
every legitimate means. By despatches sent at his instance
from the State Department while the Commission was en
route to France, Ambassadors Hay, Porter, and Uhl, and
Minister Breckenridge were instructed to take immediate

660 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

steps to ascertain the views of England, France, Germany,
and Russia respectively on the advisability and practicability
of holding a new monetary conference. The instructions also
set forth the importance to the commissioners of having at
an early date full and trustworthy information as to the
attitude of the four countries toward international bi-
metallism. To this end the American representatives were
instructed to visit the proper officials in London, Paris, Ber-
lin, and St. Petersburg and endeavor to ascertain from them
the views of their respective Governments. These instruc-
tions were faithfully carried out. Ambassador Hay espe-
cially was untiring in his efforts to promote the objects of the
mission in London, and Mr. Wolcott never flagged in sound-
ing praises of that official's tact and zeal in behalf of the
mission.

NEGOTIATIONS IN FRANCE

The Commission sailed from New York on the 8th of
May, 1897, and arrived at Paris on the 16th of the same
month. Headquarters were established immediately at
the Hotel Vendome, and steps were taken for the begin-
ning of the work of the mission. The members first put
themselves in communication with the officers of the Bime-
tallic League of the French Republic, and, in the absence
of Ambassador Porter, utilized Senator Edward Fougeirol,
the president of that league, and M. Edmond Thery, the
head secretary, as their intermediaries in communicating
with the officials of the French Government. Through them
they brought about interviews with President Faure, Premier
Meline, and M. Hanotaux, Minister of Foreign Affairs. M.
Meline was cordial and encouraging, as he had been during
Mr. Wolcott's former visit, and he did not fail to lend all
the support of his great office to the furtherance of the
Commission's labors. Messrs. Faure and Hanotaux were
more conservative and more inclined to raise obstacles, but
apparently these were due rather to difference in tempera-
ment than to divergence in conviction. At any rate, the
Meline view triumphed, and within less than a month's time
the French Government had decided to co-operate with the

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 661

American envoys in presenting the necessity for silver coin-
age to the British Government and to other European
powers.

The Commission was enthusiastically received by the
French National Bimetallic League, by which its members
were tendered a banquet at Paris on May 29, 1897. In
his speech of welcome, President Fougeirol greeted the
envoys cordially, saying :

We have the great honor to have in our midst Mr. Wolcott, the
American Senator, Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson, late Vice-President
of the United States of America, and General Paine.

These gentlemen, who arrived in France only a few days ago,
and who have been invested by the United States Government
with a special mission to the Governments of Europe in order
to establish with them the basis of an international understand-
ing for the re-establishment of bimetallism, have also been kind
enough to accept our invitation.

I thank them in the name of the French League, which sees
in their acceptance a valuable testimony of their esteem for
its efforts and work.

Are not their presence and the official mission with which
they are charged by the Government of Mr. McKinley, the best
proof, gentlemen, that in the last Presidential struggle in the
United States it was not the gold standard, as our adversaries
have been pleased to say, but international bimetallism itself,
such as we have always defended, which has triumphed in the
person of Mr. McKinley?

We salute these official representatives, and we see in their
presence here the pledge of the near solution of the monetary
question.

Thus you can see, gentlemen, the way covered and the progress
made in so short a time.

As to France, the presence of M. M61ine in power is a sure
guarantee to us that his Government will respond to the appeal
that is made to it and that there will be a loyal and sincere
union between the two great sister Republics for the re-estab-
lishment of monetary peace in the world.

We are firmly convinced that in the presence of this union
the gold-standard Governments of Europe, and especially those
of England and Germany, will understand that the hour has
come for them to take their part resolutely in a work in the
success of which they are perhaps more interested than ourselves.

662 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

M. Meline was also a guest at the banquet. He was
most sanguine of success, and after declaring the cause
practically won, spoke of the American commissioners,
of whom he said:

To-day the situation is changing its aspect. The government
of a great power is taking the initiative, and is taking a decisive
step in approaching the principal powers of Europe. It is send-
ing as ambassadors statesmen who are capable of assuring the
success of the cause they espouse, for they combine with their
incontestable ability and with the high authority which they
enjoy in their own country a very just idea of the difficulties
which they will encounter in their negotiations. They have
made every effort to overcome them before their arrival here,
and we must thank Mr. Wolcott, in particular, for the con-
ciliatory disposition of which he has recently given proof.

I am convinced that this disposition will be strengthened
still further by his stay among us. For he will find that our
co-operation will not be wanting on behalf of the great cause
which we are ready to defend with him.

It may be worth mentioning that for a time at the begin-
ning of their negotiations in Paris the commissioners fouud
themselves considerably puzzled over the attitude of M. Hano-
tanx, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. That official at first
had raised a question about the American tariff as fixed by
the then recently enacted law, but when shown by Mr.
Wolcott that, in accordance with promises made by him in
his previous visit, the features in the bill which had been
considered objectionable to the French exporters had been
modified, apparently he still was obdurate. Interviews with
him were unsatisfactory and his general bearing was such
as to create a feeling of uneasiness. But when the fore-
bodings aroused by these conditions were imparted to M.
Meline, he laughed them away as unfounded, and apparently
they were, for not only did the French Government give its
adherence to the plan of the American envoys, but the French
Ambassador to Great Britain, Baron de Courcel, was in-
structed to co-operate with the American Commission in its
effort to obtain the assistance of the Island Empire in
bringing about a return to bimetallism.

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 663

An agreement with the French authorities to press for
a general restoration of silver coinage with the French
ratio of 15% to 1 in favor of gold was reached ; and with the
assurance of the support of the Parisian Government the
American envoys immediately betook themselves to London,
where they lost no time in communicating with Ambassador
Hay, who in turn brought them into official touch with Lord
Salisbury and his Cabinet.

IN LONDON

Noting the arrival of the Commission in London and
commenting upon the attitude of Mr. Wolcott a press
correspondent remarked :

He is at once as cheerful and reticent as ever. His faith
in the ultimate success of the movement for international
bimetallism is unclouded with doubt or suspicion. The reasons
for that faith he is too wary to disclose, and he is wise. His
success in dealing with the French Government and the British
Ministry has been due in large measure to his talent for silence.
He confers confidentially with financiers and Ministers, and has
the good sense to keep his work out of the newspapers. He
cannot be drawn into an interview or premature statement of
his purposes, which would serve only to excite controversy and
expose him to attack.

Another journalist commented:

Whatever may be the final outcome of the bimetallist mis-
sion, it cannot be doubted that the McKinley Administration
has succeeded in presenting this question to the European Gov-
ernments in the best possible way and in employing the right
men for the work. Senator Wolcott is not only a keen controver-
sialist, whose heart is in his work, but he is also a thorough
man of the world, with a talent for conciliating opponents and
convincing them, not infrequently against their will. His suc-
cessful work during his previous silver tour was not adequately
appreciated in America. It was remarkable for diplomatic
finesse and intellectual force.

Even with influential members of the British Government

664 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

friendly conditions in Great Britain were not so favorable
as in France. London as the heart of the commerce and
finance of the world had for many years been recognized
as the centre of gold monometallism. A large majority of
the banks and business houses and of the press stood for the
single standard. It was scarcely hoped that any influence
could be brought to bear to bring about the opening of the
English mints to silver, but the conditions in India were
such that it was thought probable that the Indian mints
might be reopened. Only a few years previous the Gov-
ernment of that dependency had evinced a willingness to
such a course provided there should be sufficient co-opera-
tion on the part of the great commercial nations, and no
silver advocate dreamed of the possibility of a change of
front in that quarter.

Upon their arrival in London the commissioners im-
mediately began preparation for their negotiations with the
British Government. They were formally presented to Lord
Salisbury, the Prime Minister, on July 7th, and we are told
by the press of the day that they were " cordially received."
For the first time the public learned that the two Republics
were not only united in sentiment on the subject but ac-
tually co-operating. Noting the interview with the Premier,
the London correspondent of the New York Tribune wrote :

An important point which is not yet understood outside of
the Foreign Office, is that these envoys will have two Embassies
behind them in place of one. They produced so good an impres-
sion upon the French Government during their stay in Paris
that the French Embassy in London has been instructed to
co-operate with the American Embassy in such conferences and
negotiations as may be conducted with the British Government.
It has been known that M. Meline and the French Ministry were
outspoken in expressing their sympathy for the objects of their
mission and in promising that their concurrence would not be
wanting for the triumph of the cause of rational bimetallism on
international lines, but it has not been suspected that the French
Government would be prepared to lend diplomatic as well as
moral support to this movement of the McKinley Administra-
tion in favor of bimetallism. It is, nevertheless, true that these
envoys in their negotiations with the Foreign Office and the

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 665

Chancellor of the Exchequer will have the hearty co-operation
of the French and American Embassies.

Messrs. Wolcott, Stevenson, and Paine are not here on an
errand of political adventure, devised for the sake of duping
Western and Southern voters and playing a game of impossible
compromise for moral effect in America. They are successful
negotiators, who have carried their main point in Paris, and
have enlisted not only the good-will, but also the active co-
operation and diplomatic support of the French Government
in their London campaign. Ambassador Hay has been ardu-
ously at work on the same lines ever since his arrival in Lon-
don, and his prestige and influence are now of the greatest
possible service in facilitating the work of the envoys, who are
likely to remain here several weeks before returning to Paris.

What was originally a sincere effort on the part of the
McKinley Administration to carry out the pledges of the Re-
publican platform respecting bimetallism grounded upon inter-
national agreement has become already a joint movement on
the part of the United States and France to bring about a settle-
ment of the monetary question through the action of a new
conference. France is the natural ally of the United States in
this movement, because she has greater interest than any other
European State in bimetallism. The Bank of France contains
in its vaults over $255,000,000 in silver which has been with-
drawn from circulation. Both Governments have a common
interest in obtaining the adjustment of this monetary question
which has caused a disturbance throughout the commercial world,
and they are naturally supporting each other in the negotiations
now opening in London.

Senator Wolcott and his colleagues will say nothing for pub-
lication on this subject, and the American Ambassador is equally
reticent, but the main fact that the two Governments are acting
together through their representatives here is not to be ques-
tioned. It proves that the McKinley Administration is not
leaving any stone unturned to bring about a satisfactory solu-
tion of the silver question by international action, and that
it is having greater success than has been generally supposed
on either side of the Atlantic.

The first formal presentation of the proposals of the
envoys in England took place at the Foreign Office, July
12th, when, as noted by the account of the interview pub-
lished by the British Government, there wrere present :

666 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

The Marquess of Salisbury, Her Majesty's Prime Minister
and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

The Right Honorable Lord George Hamilton, Secretary of
State for India.

The Right Honorable Arthur James Balfour, First Lord
of the Treasury.

The Right Honorable Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Chancellor
of the Exchequer.

His Excellency the Honorable John Hay, Ambassador Ex-
traordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States.

The Honorable Edward O. Wolcott, ) Envoys of the United

General Charles J. Paine, > States on Special

The Honorable Adlai E. Stevenson, ) Mission.

The joint proposals of the United States and France as
then made were as follows :

1. The opening of the Indian mints, and the repeal of
the order making the sovereign legal tender in India.

2. The placing of one-fifth of the bullion in the issue
Department of the Bank of England in silver.

3. (a.)— The raising of the legal tender limit of silver
to, say, 10 1.

(b.) The issue of 20s. notes based on silver which shall
be legal tender.

(c.) The retirement, gradual and otherwise, of the 10s.
gold pieces, and substitution of paper based on silver.

4. An agreement to coin annually I.1 of silver.
[Present silver coinage average for five years about

1,000,000/., less annual withdrawal of worn and defaced
coin for recoinage about 350,000/.]

5. The opening of English mints to the coinage of rupees
and of a British dollar, which shall be full tender in Straits
Settlements and other silver-standard Colonies, and tender
in United Kingdom to the limit of silver legal tender.

Alternative for Proposal 4. Agreement to purchase each
year I.1 in silver at coinage value.

1 These blanks were not formally filled, but the American and French
envoys were united in the opinion that England should purchase an-
nually 10,000,000/. of silver in case the English Government refused to
concede the opening of the English mints to free silver coinage.

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 667

6. Action by the Colonies and coinage of silver in Egypt.

7. Something having the general scope of the Huskisson
plan.

The only official account of this interview was prepared
by Senator Wolcott at the request of Lord Salisbury. Later
it was submitted to the two Houses of Parliament by Her
Majesty, Queen Victoria, and thus became public. It is of
sufficient importance to be given entire, and is as follows :

Lord Salisbury invited a statement from the Representatives
of the United States as to the nature of their mission, where-
upon Mr. Wolcott, on behalf of the Special Envoys, recited the
essential provisions of the law under which he and his colleagues
had been appointed, and explained the objects of their mission.
He said also, in substance, that the Special Envoys had de-
termined that it was important to ascertain, as definitely as
possible, in advance of an International Bimetallic Conference,
if one should be called, the views of the Governments which
might participate therein, and the extent to which they would
contribute to bring about a favorable result of such Conference.

Mr. Wolcott explained that the Special Envoys had de-
termined, in the first instance, to ascertain the views of the
French, English, and German Governments on the question of
reaching an international agreement respecting bimetallism.
This determination was based upon the Resolutions heretofore
passer! by the English House of Commons on the 17th March,
1800, by the Prussian Landtag and Herrenhaus on the 16th and
21st May, 1896, and upon the Resolution proposed in the French
Chamber of Deputies by M. Meline, on the 17th March, 1897,
and signed by 347 of his colleagues, all of which Resolutions
Mr. Wolcott read.

Mr. Wolcott said that the Special Envoys had proceeded first
to France, and that they had reached a complete and satisfac-
tory preliminary understanding with the Government of that
country ; that in the negotiations to be carried on in England,
the Special Envoys believed they would have the full co-operation
of the Ambassador of the French Republic in London, his Ex-
cellency Baron de Courcel; that the French Ambassador was,
for the moment, absent from England, and that the Special
Envoys of the United States would have asked a postponement
of the meeting, had it not been for the fact that the French

668 EDWAKD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Ambassador had requested them to proceed with the meeting
in his absence.

Mr. Wolcott then presented some reasons which, in the opin-
ion of the Special Envoys, rendered it desirable that some inter-
national agreement for the restoration of bimetallism should
be reached, and explained why, in their opinion, the success of
this effort depended upon the attitude which England would
take regarding the question. He then stated that the Special
Envoys requested that England should agree to open English
mints as its contribution to an attempt to restore bimetallism
by international agreement, and dwelt upon the importance of
the fact that France and the United States were together en-
gaged in an attempt to bring about such an agreement, and
were co-operating to that end.

Lord Salisbury desired to know if the French Government
would co-operate upon the basis of opening their mints to the
free and unlimited coinage of silver. Mr. Wolcott answered in
the affirmative. Lord Salisbury then asked at what ratio, and
was informed by Mr. Wolcott that the French Government pre-
ferred the ratio of 15y2 to 1, and that the United States was
inclined to yield this point and accept this as a proper ratio.
Considerable discussion on the question of the ratio and the
method by which it should be settled then took place, the Special
Envoys taking the ground that the countries which opened their
mints should among themselves determine the ratio. The Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer suggested that if Indian mints were
to be opened, England might be held to be interested in the
ratio, but the Special Envoys did not accede to this view, and
called attention to the fact that by opening Indian mints the
English Government did not thereby adopt bimetallism in any
form.

It was then suggested that further proceedings should be
deferred until the French Ambassador also might be present.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in further conversation,
said that if the suggestion of opening the English mints was
to be made, he thought an answer in the negative would undoubt-
edly be given. The First Lord of the Treasury asked whether,
assuming this request for opening English mints to be refused,
it was desired that the subject be discussed upon the basis of
something different and less than the opening of English mints.

Upon a mutual understanding that in the absence of the
French Ambassador anything said should be considered as said
informally, a discussion then took place as to the concessions

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 669

that England might make toward an international solution of
the questions, if it should refuse to open English mints.

Mr. Wolcott, for the Special Envoys, presented the list of
contributions which, among others, England might make towards
bimetallism if an international agreement could be effected, and
some general conversation followed in regard to the suggestions.
The interview terminated, to be resumed on the 15th July, 1897,
when it was understood that the French Ambassador would
also be present.

When on the 15th the conference was resumed, the
French Ambassador, His Excellency Baron de Courcel was
present, as was also M. L. Geoffray, Minister Plenipoten-
tiary from the French Republic. On this occasion Baron
de Courcel was the principal speaker. He discussed at some
length the contributions which England could make toward
the proper recognition of silver in the absence of the free
coinage of that metal by the English Government. The
official account continues :

Lord Salisbury asked whether the French Government would
decline to open its mints unless England would also open her
mints. The French Ambassador replied that he preferred to
discuss the subject upon the basis that France would go to open
mints if England would consent to open her mints, but that he
would not exclude from his view the question of contributions
by England toward maintaining the value of silver, short of
open mints. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in response to
this suggestion, stated definitely that the English Government
would not agree to open English mints to the unlimited coinage
of silver, and that, whatever views he and his colleagues might
separately hold on the question of bimetallism, he thought he
could say they were united upon this point.

The French Ambassador, upon being asked what contribu-
tions he suggested, replied that among other contributions he
thought England should open her Indian mints, and should also
agree to purchase annually, say, 10,000,000Z. of silver for a series
of years.

The suggestions made by the Special Envoys at the inter-
view on the 12th of July were again read, and the Special Envoys
accepted also as important and desirable the proposal that the
English Government should purchase annually, say, 10,000,000?.

670 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

of silver, with proper safeguards and provisions as to the place
and manner of its use.

REFERENCE TO INDIA

There is no available record of the subsequent proceed-
ings of the British Cabinet, but it is known that a deci-
sion to refer to the Indian Government the question of the
reopening of the Indian mints was arrived at, and this
reference was made in a communication from Lord George
Hamilton, Secretary of State for India, bearing date of
August 2d. In his despatch Lord Hamilton enclosed a com-
munication from the Foreign Office containing the American-
French proposals, and after referring to it said :

It will be seen that among the proposals is one for reopening
the Indian mints to the free coinage of silver, and the repeal
of the order making the sovereign legal tender in India. My
Lords regard this as the most important of the proposals which
they are invited to consider. The question which it raises in-
volves serious issues in India; and, before expressing any opin-
ion on it themselves, they will be glad to learn the views of
the Secretary of State and of the Government of India.

Foreseeing no antagonism from India, the American com-
missioners regarded the reference as a mere formality. It
was expected that when received the reply would materially
aid the Salisbury Cabinet in reaching a conclusion favorable
to the proposals and not that it would block the negotiations,
as it did.

While awaiting the response of the Indian Government
the envoys were not idle. They were engaged in every way
that might possibly assist in bringing about the favorable
termination of their mission. Possibly their most import-
ant accomplishment was the obtaining of the consent of
the governor of the Bank of England to keep one-fifth of
the reserve of that great and conservative financial institu-
tion in silver. This achievement was of such importance
as to attract the attention of the world of finance, and,
important though it was, it may well be doubted whether it
did not result in more injury than benefit. Not until the

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 671

announcement of the fact was made did the money centres
have knowledge of the progress the Americans were making.
This publication opened their eyes, and they lost no time
in putting into operation all the vast and potent influences
at their command, in opposition, not only to the proposition
regarding the bank reserve, but in antagonism to all the
proposals of the envoys. Presumably if there had been a
further compliance with the wishes of the Wolcott Com-
mission, this opposition would have been manifested in the
end, but if it could have been postponed for a time it might
have been less harmful.

The willingness of this great central bank to do so much to
aid the purpose of the Commission was announced in an official
letter. The press on which the communication was printed
was not dry when the enemies of silver coinage throughout
the Empire were shouting their disapproval from the house-
tops. The papers, hitherto silent, were called into active
service. The Salisbury Government was soundly denounced.
Especially severe was this denunciation in London, where
columns were devoted daily to excoriation of the commis-
sioners and to condemnation of the friendly attitude of the
Government toward the mission. Discussing the question
at this juncture, the Times spoke of the " characteristic
crudeness and boldness of American diplomacy," which it
claimed was shown " in sending a bimetallic commission to
ask for the reopening of the Indian mints while at the same
time dealing the worst possible blow at British commerce by
passing the Dingley Tariff."

While the delay due to this reference to the Indian
authorities was unfavorably commented upon by Mr. Wol-
cott's detractors in America, it was recognized by thinking
people as necessary if the Indian Government was to be
permitted to voice its wish in the matter, and the real friends
of the movement saw in it no real menace. That, however,
Mr. Wolcott was not entirely at ease, we have his own testi-
mony. In a letter from France to a sister, dated September
19th, he speaks of the engrossing interest of his work, and
adds : " These are anxious days." But some silver advo-
cates who had been skeptical were converted to a more favor-
able view. Among those of this class was Mr. More ton

672 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Frewen, the most tenacious as well as the most consistent
of English bimetallists. Mr. Frewen wrote a letter to Judge
C. C. Goodwin, of Salt Lake City, soon after the announce-
ment of the postponement. The letter throws so much light
upon the situation and shows so clearly that Mr. Wolcott's
hopes for a favorable outcome of his negotiations were not
without substantial foundation, that it is here reproduced
almost entire. Writing from London under date of August
7th, Mr. Frewen said:

The situation here is extremely complex. The personal fac-
tor—the attitude of half a dozen men, here, in Berlin, in India
— upon this seems to be turning at this moment, the monetary
history of the twentieth century. Your men, it is only fair to
admit, have done extremely well here. I was one of those who
thought that little good could come of such a mission at such
a time. I feared that it might sidetrack the energies of silver
men on your side, while adding nothing to the movement of
public opinion here. But this is not the case, and I am quite
surprised at the serious way in which the right people here
are now discussing the problem.

This quite unexpected movement toward free coinage by
France has come as a bolt from the blue. French finance has
always appeared to us wholly admirable. That thrifty, con-
servative France should adopt the attitude, that the two great
Republics could safely "go it alone," if our Indian mints re-
opened, and if Berlin would agree to take a little silver an-
nually, and sell none — it is hardly possible to overrate the moral
effect of such a development as this. It is not America then
that is to-day dragging forward an unwilling France; it is
rather France that is about to become the target of your gold
press! When Wolcott returned from France last February and
declared that M61ine, the French Prime Minister, was in a likely
mood, he said very little more, and the thing seemed to us wholly
improbable. But here is Baron Courcel, the French Ambassador,
collaborating with your men at every step, and M61ine declared
to a friend the other day : " If we [the Government] are put
out because of our support of silver, we shall not be out long."
You can then imagine the surprise of our people at the attitude
of the French Ministry. Bryan, we were told, was a low fellow;
he was a " repudiator " — a " fifty-cent-dollar " man ; but here is
the French Government working quietly for a " forty-five-cent "

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 673

dollar, for a ratio of 1 to 15%, and our press, in dumb surprise,
has not jet found any adjectives.

It is strange that the member of this Cabinet from whom
the least was hoped, Sir Michael Hicks Beach, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, is apparently the most anxious of all to help
things forward to a speedy settlement ; while, on the other hand,
that member whose speeches in the past have done the most to
arouse public opinion here to the great dangers impending, is
to-day making all the trouble within the Cabinet. I refer to
Mr. Goschen, who was the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord
Salisbury's former Government.

Bimetallism at 1 to 15y2! That is rupee exchanges at ten
to the sovereign ; the tael and the yen and all the exchanges with
eight hundred millions of Asiatics deprived of the present gold
premium of 100 per cent. This seems to be too good to be
true. Commercially it means a new heaven and a new earth;
a far better world to-morrow for all the white races. It is
better not to anticipate such blessing as near at hand; but I
do feel, after a period of despondency, that perhaps the very
last chapters of this strange history of financial anarchy, which
dates back to 1873, are even now being written.

INDIA'S REJECTION

The announcement of the adverse decision of the Indian
Government and of Great Britain's consequent rejection of
the proposals was delayed almost three months after they
were submitted. It came through official communications
from Lord Salisbury to Ambassador Hay and Baron de
Courcel.

These letters were dated October 19th. They were iden-
tical in language and read:

Her Majesty's Government have given their most careful con-
sideration to the proposals respecting Currency which were sub-
mitted by the representatives of the United States and France
at the Conferences held at the Foreign Office on the 12th and
15th of July last. Of these proposals it is evident that the first,
which relates to the reopening of the Indian mints for the free
coinage of silver, is by far the most important, and consequently
a despatch was addressed on the 5th of August to the Govern-

674 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

inent of India by the Secretary of State in Council asking for
an expression of their opinion on the subject.

I have the honor now to enclose a copy of a letter from the
India Office to the Treasury, forwarding the reply of the Gov-
ernment of India to this country. It will be observed that their
" unanimous and decided opinion is that it would be most un-
wise to reopen the mints as part of the proposed arrangements,"
and that this conclusion is endorsed by the Secretary of State
in Council. Her Majesty's Government have carefully consid-
ered the reasons by which this conclusion is supported. Among
other arguments, the Government of India point out that they
can hardly be expected to give up the policy which for four
years they have been endeavoring to make effective, in the ab-
sence of substantial security that the system to be substituted
for it is practically certain to be stable. If, owing to the rela-
tive smallness of the area over which the bimetallic system is
to be established, to the great divergence between the proposed
ratio and the present gold price of silver, or to any other cause,
the legal ratio were not maintained, the position of silver might
be much worse than before, and the financial embarrassments of
the Government of India greater than any with which they have
as yet had to contend.

These are arguments against the proposals as they stand of
which it is impossible to deny the force. But even were they
less strong than they appear to her Majesty's Government, or
than they will probably appear to the representatives of the
United States and France, the Government of India could hardly
be compelled against their own decided opinions to make a
second important change in Indian currency within so short a
period as four years at a time of exceptional difficulty and
suffering.

In these circumstances her Majesty's Government feel it their
duty to state that the first proposal of the United States repre-
sentatives is one which they are unable to accept. Due consid-
eration has also been given to the remaining proposals, but her
Majesty's Government do not feel it to be necessary to discuss
them at the present moment. The proposal respecting the In-
dian mints was not only alluded to by the First Lord of the
Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the debate in
the House of Commons of March 17, 1896, as by far the most
important contribution which could be made by the British
Empire towards any International agreement, with the object of
securing " a stable monetary par of exchange between gold

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 675

and silver," but it would also appear that the representatives
of the United States and France entertain a similar opinion
with regard to it. Her Majesty's Government are, therefore,
desirous to ascertain how far the views of the American and
French Governments are modified by the decision now arrived
at, and whether they desire to proceed further with the negotia-
tions at the present moment. It is possible that the time which
has elapsed since the proposals were put forward in July last
may have enabled the representatives of the two Governments
concerned to form a more accurate estimate than was then prac-
ticable of the amount of assistance which they may expect from
other Powers, and of the success which their scheme is likely
to attain. Her Majesty's Government might then be placed in
a position to consider the subject with a fuller knowledge than
they now possess of many circumstances materially affecting the
proposals before them.

In their response the Indian Viceroy and his Council gave
many reasons for the rejection of the proposals, one of
the principal of which was that the proposed ratio was too
favorable to silver. The imposition of the ratio of 15^ to 1,
while the actual market ratio was 35 to 1, would, it was con-
tended, shatter, for the time at least, the export trade of
India; would gravely affect the relations between the State
as landlord and the cultivating classes; would diminish the
receipts from the State railways, and would give a shock to
commercial and social relations by a sudden and large in-
crease in the value of the rupee from 16d. to 23c?., to be
followed, in all probability, if the anticipations of the bi-
metallists were not realized, by as rapid a fall, " probably to
9d. or even lower." The whole cost and risk of the experi-
ment would, it was contended, be, substantially, borne by
India alone. The fact that France and the United States
had a certain stock of gold on which they could rely if
the new system were to break down, and which they would
undoubtedly take measures to protect, was pointed out and
made much of. But India, " reduced to a monometallic
silver basis," would be unable to help herself. She could
not hope to get back to her position by again closing the
mints. Moreover, the change in prices to which France and

676 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

the United States looked with hope would be injurious to
India's commercial interests.

They could not think that France and the United States
would be likely with the help of India to be able to main-
tain the relative value of the two metals at the ratio sug-
gested. Only a general international union of all or most
of the important countries of the world, they argued, could
accomplish so much. Then a further doubt arose in the
possibility of either Prance or the United States being re-
duced for a time to a paper currency, when the agreement
would cease to operate for an indefinite period. This they
admitted would be of no importance in a union comprising
all the important countries of the world, but could not be
disregarded when only two or three were concerned. More-
over, an agreement between two or three nations was open
to much greater risk of termination than a wider union.

The position was then taken that unless England was in
full co-operation India could not see her way clear to enter
the proposed union. On this point it was said :

We believe, however, that whatever inducements are held out
to us by other nations, our best policy in monetary matters is
to link our system with that of Great Britain. Our commercial
connections with that country are far more important than those
with all the rest of the world put together, and more than a sixth
part of our expenditure is incurred in that country and meas-
ured in its currency. The advantages which in this respect we
gain by following the lead of Great Britain are not obtained, or
not fully obtained, if we become members of a monetary union
in which Great Britain takes no part. And, indeed, as we have
already explained, we have little hope of an efficient union being
formed unless Great Britain is a member. We think it a rea-
sonable position for us to take with regard to the present pro-
posals by France and the United States, that we should say
that the Government of India strove long and earnestly to
further the formation of an International Union; that when
they saw that the opposition of England rendered impossible
the attainment of that object within any measurable time, they
temporarily abandoned their efforts in that direction, and de-
cided, as the least prejudicial of the courses open to them, to
throw in their lot with Great Britain, and to adopt the gold
standard; that, as it appears improbable that an effective union

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 677

will be formed without the adhesion of Great Britain, and aa
the measures adopted to introduce a gold standard in India are
now approaching final success, they consider that it will be wis-
est to adhere to the course adopted in 1893 until Great Britain
is prepared to join in International Bimetallism; and that they
therefore wish to adhere to the same monetary standard as
Great Britain, with which nation they are most closely linked
both in respect of their commercial relations and in all other
respects, and to refrain from becoming a party to arrangements
with other nations in which Great Britain sees ample reason
for refusing to join.

The despatch concluded:

To sum up, our reply to your Lordship's reference is a strong
recommendation that you should decline to give the understand-
ing desired by France and the United States. Our unanimous
and decided opinion is that it would be most unwise to reopen
the mints as part of the proposed arrangements, especially at
a time when we are to all appearance approaching the attain-
ment of stability in exchange by the operation of our own
isolated and independent action.

Plainly, nothing was left to the American Commis-
sioners but to discontinue negotiations. They recognized that
without the opening of the mints of India it would be im-
possible to obtain the co-operation of France, to say nothing
of Germany and the other Powers, in the interest of silver
coinage. They therefore decided upon an immediate return
to the United States. This resolution was carried into
effect and, sailing soon after the receipt of the communica-
tion, they arrived early in November, 1897. The mission
was of six months' duration.

AFTERMATH

That the failure of the mission was due to the mys-^
teriously potent money centres is now certain, and this
influence was exerted unfavorably from the time the com-
missioners set foot on British soil. Coincidently with the
beginning of their work silver began a rapid decline, and
down it continued to go until in a very short time it had

678 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

reached the then unprecedentedly low price of 55% cents an
ounce.

Probably the exact means used for the accomplishment
of the result never will be generally known, but the reason
for the opposition is not so difficult of determination. There
was but little effort on the part of the English press of
the time to conceal it, as witness the following from the
London Graphic of October 18, 1897:

Gold may yet become current in India if the policy of 1895
is boldly pursued. Then the single gold standard would rule
throughout the Empire. That is our interest, but as producers
and lenders of gold we are not going to throw it away in order
to put money into the pockets of Colorado mine owners, or to
help Mr. McKinley out of electioneering difficulties.

with comments on the proposals of the Commission :

" Every one who really knows English opinion must be
aware that no Government that ever existed in this country
could venture upon such an experiment, and that if any
Minister were rash enough to propose it he would be in-
stantly hurled from power."

The reference by the Imperial Government to the Cal-
cutta Viceroy in dealing with a question such as this is
probably without precedent in British administration. The
question of the Indian currency is pre-eminently a question
for the Imperial Parliament, and the mouthpiece of that
Parliament is the Secretary of State for India, not the Vice-
roy and his Council in India. The event almost justifies a
suspicion of bad faith somewhere in high places.

The disappointment left Wolcott a changed man. His
hope, amounting for a few weeks to a conviction that he
had with such facility and expedition settled a question
which had baffled all previous monetary conferences; which
had led to one of the fiercest controversies of the century;
which had come very near to disrupting both parties in
the United States — this hope was shattered at a moment
when he had the right to suppose that the goblet of suc-
cess was at his very lips. It made the disappointment all
the keener that the final reference to the Calcutta Govern-

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 679

ment was really an afterthought of the Imperial Govern-
ment, a matter of official or diplomatic courtesy. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer had said to Wolcott on an
afternoon soon after the conference: "I suppose that we
should in a matter of this sort ask the views of the Indian Gov-
ernment," but he left no doubt whatever in the mind of his
auditor that the reference to Calcutta which elicited the de-
spatch of disapproval was hardly more than a matter of form.
To the student of history the entire course of events
connected with the Wolcott Commission furnishes the mate-
rial for perpetual surprises. The decision of the two Repub-
lics that they would reopen their mints to silver if the great
Indian dependency would revert to silver monometallism,
was in the highest degree unexpected by the whole world of
contemporary finance. Again, the Government of India was
in the greatest straits. It was believed by all competent
economists that just as the closing of the mints had been a
colossal blunder, so also India would find it necessary to re-
open them without waiting for outside help ; that the refusal
to reconvert into money the silver ornaments of the peasantry
at any time of famine must swell the death-rate immensely
during these frequent and sinister visitations, and that by
the full difference between the exchange value of the rupee
and its bullion value the export trades of India were being
crippled and reduced. In short, every Government of India
since 1873 had been praying for just such outside support
for silver as France and America had now offered. And
yet, when the offer was made, it was refused in a despatch
bristling with jejune fallacies in every paragraph.

The surprise and disappointment were heart-breaking, and
Wolcott returned home greatly depressed. Yet it is not
improbable that his work may yet bear fruit. The pres-
ent awakening of China is destined to prepare the way for
a vast absorption of silver and for a great rise in its price,
and when the moment comes, some offer linking on to that
of 1897 may be made to the British Government, when wiser
counsels may prevail.

Though in great trouble over the result, it is fair to
add that Wolcott never referred to the English Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer without indicating high regard

680 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

and appreciation. Sir Michael Hicks Beach was a mono-
metallist of the straitest sect; he had the reputation in his
own country of being a strong but essentially a narrow-
minded official, steeped in Tory prejudice and stewed in
Tory juice; but throughout these complicated negotiations
the American Commission found the Chancellor not merely
anxious to promote the desired co-operation of Great Britain
and India, but prepared also to disregard, and on more than
one occasion to disregard with expressions of contempt and
disavowal, the ignorance and the obsession of so-called
" City influences." The Chancellor of the Exchequer was
aware, what even London's City Fathers are sometimes in-
clined to forget, that silver is the money metal of some
eight hundred millions of their smaller customers, and
that, as this metal loses its value in exchange, so also the
purchasing power of the Orient shrivels and shrinks with
catastrophic consequences to British trade.

There was, of course, much and varied comment by the
American as well as the foreign press on the result of the
mission. The gold-standard papers were pleased, and they
did not hesitate so to express themselves. The more radical
silver advocates had never believed England would yield,
and their disappointment over the failure to obtain silver
coinage was visibly tempered by their satisfaction at having
their prophecies fulfilled. Probably as fair and impartial
a statement as was printed in the United States was con-
tained in the editorial comment of the Washington Post of
October 24, 1897. In part the Post said :

The Administration's course in the premises so far has been
characterized by conscientiousness and good judgment. The St.
Louis platform has properly been its guide of action. That
platform committed the Republican party to an effort to reha-
bilitate silver by international agreement. It did not pledge suc-
cess to such an effort. It could not do that, because the question
was recognized as a very difficult one.

The Administration upon coming into power promptly took
the subject up. But not without a protest here and there. In
more than one quarter there was a feeling and an opinion was
expressed that no action at all should follow. The cynical sug-

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 681

gestion was made to treat the matter merely as a campaign
promise without binding force in the day of success. The Ad-
ministration vetoed this, and announced that the promise should
be kept to the letter.

Then came the question of procedure. It was decided to
send a special commission abroad, and to select its members
from the ranks of those known to be earnest advocates of bi-
metallism. The country expressed the liveliest satisfaction with
the three men chosen — all men of substance, experience, high
position, and undoubted abilities. It was at once arranged to give
them all the support that the leading American embassies abroad
could afford. So equipped, with full support at home, and as-
sistance provided for abroad, the special commissioners entered
upon their work, and have carried it along with patience and
tact and much dignity. They have found sympathy in France,
and respectful attention even in England, and the sum of their
knowledge as well as of the world's knowledge on the subject
as it exists up to date has been enhanced.

As the case stands to-day, therefore, the Administration has
followed the line of the St. Louis platform, and the special com-
missioners have followed the line of the Administration's instruc-
tions. Difficulties in the way of accomplishing the end desired
were known to exist, and they have been encountered. The
commissioners will report the situation accurately, and it will
then be for the Administration to determine its future steps.

MR. WOLCOTT'S ACCOUNT OF THE MISSION

Of all the opponents of the Commission in the Senate,
probably Senator Allen of Nebraska and Senator Stewart
of Nevada were the most pronounced. Soon after Mr. Wol-
cott's return the Nebraska Senator took him to task on the
floor of the Senate concerning the Commission. He was
pressing for a report, and in the course of his speech ex-
pressed the opinion that the $100,000 appropriated for the
payment of the Commission's expenses had been " thrown
away."

Wolcott replied that if Allen would take the necessary
time to investigate the accounts of the Commission, on file
at the State Department, he would possibly correct the state-
ment— a statement he had sent broadcast over the country
and had " published in those patent insides in the West,

682 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

which constitute the bone and sinew and most of the brain
of the Populist party." He added that of the $100,000 appro-
priated for the Commission but $16,000 had been spent. No
member of the body had, he said, gone abroad except at
the sacrifice of thousands of dollars of his own money.
Continuing his reply, he said :

The Senator from Nebraska says he always knew that any
attempt to obtain international bimetallism would be a fail-
ure. I suppose the sapient Senator from Nebraska and his
fellow-Populists at some cross-roads in the western part of
his State, who know where Europe is on the map and know
but little else of the countries of the world, got together and
determined that no country but the United States was intel-
ligent enough to have ideas upon the money question. They were
unaware of the fact that the great leaders of thought in England,
in France, and in Germany were, for more than a generation be-
fore the party of which the Senator from Nebraska is such a shin-
ing light was ever heard of, bimetallists from conviction and from
principle, and from that day to this they have preached it as
the one doctrine that can bring prosperity to the people of the
world and can advance civilization.

On the 17th of January, 1898, Senator Wolcott made
his official explanation of his mission to the Senate and
the country. Like all his speeches, it was clear-cut and
well expressed, but it was devoid of the spirit which was
a marked characteristic of most of his speeches. This was
due to the fact that he was reluctant to make the statement.
He confided this fact to those nearest to him just before
he began to talk. He did not like to speak of failures, and
the non-success of his mission probably was one of the great-
est disappointments of his life. He had been more hopeful
of the result than any one had suspected, but, as he said
on t lie floor of the Senate, the adverse reply of India to the
note of the home Government concerning the opening of the
Indian mints was " like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky
to him." He had not counted upon opposition from that
direction and had been quite unprepared for the blow when
it fell. There also lingered within his breast the feeling
that he had not received from the President's subordinates

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 683

in the Administration that co-operation which he thought
he should have had, and he especially felt that the then
Secretary of State, John Sherman, of Ohio, as well as the
Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. Lyman J. Gage, had been
remiss in this respect. Indeed, he asserted that they had
placed such obstacles in his path as greatly to embarrass
his every effort in the negotiations. He mentioned Mr. Gage
in his speech, but not Mr. Sherman. For a period he was
quite bitter on account of their course. He became so nerv-
ous that those who were connected with him at the Capitol
found it pleasanter not to mention the subject of the mis-
sion in his presence. In time, however, his buoyancy re-
asserted itself, and he grew reconciled to the inevitable.

In this speech he gave a detailed account of the work
of the envoys, explaining how in the end only failure had
resulted, and at the same time how near they had been to
achieving success, a success which, if it had resulted, would
have revolutionized the finances of the world and influenced
for ages the affairs of all mankind. The various proposals,
including the Huskisson plan (which was a silver bank
reserve scheme), were outlined and explained.

He gave the McKinley Administration credit for in the
main assisting the work of the Commission, but severely
criticised the utterances of Secretary Gage of the Treasury
and of some of his subordinates. To President McKinley
personally he awarded the highest praise, as he did to John
Hay, American Ambassador to Great Britain.

The attitude of France and -of Great Britain respectively
was explained at length, and while there was much praise
for the French, there was no censure for the English — not
even for the authorities of India, to whose attitude failure
was due. On this latter point, he said :

I am sure that I violate no confidence when I say that the
answer of the India Government protesting against reopening
Indian mints was as much a surprise to the English Ministry
as it was a disappointment to us. While the protest was not
final and while the English Government in London could have
overruled the objections from India, yet such action would have
been contrary to all precedent. As a matter of fact, the home
Government, it is said, unanimously upheld the report.

684 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Frequent statements in our papers assert that the answer of
India was dictated from London. It may be that the blind and
unreasoning fury of the City of London directed against any
suggestion of contributions or concessions to an international
settlement of the currency question which should recognize silver,
and which threatened a panic, and the overthrow of any ministry
which attempted it, may have rendered the reply of the India
Government not wholly unwelcome; but the policy outlined in
the letter of September 16th, signed by the Viceroy and his
associates, must stand as the deliberate and uninfluenced judg-
ment of that Government.

His peroration was an appeal for continued interna-
tional effort in the interest of the double standard.

Whatever differences of opinion may exist as to the ability
of this country to maintain alone the parity between silver and
gold [he said], there is no question that the concurrence of
other nations would help and not hinder the cause of bimetal-
lism in the United States, and efforts to secure it ought to
receive the cordial support of every citizen who is opposed to
gold monometallism.

International bimetallism is not a myth, a chimera. The peo-
ple of Europe are, even as we are, struggling to keep their heads
above water and seeking blindly for that which may make for
prosperity and for progress. The evils of falling prices and
dearer gold bring poverty and disaster to them as to us. It is
said that the influence of money grows year after year. So
also does the influence of those great masses who toil from
dawn till dark upon soil which God made rich and unwise laws
of man can make profitless.

With useless endeavor

Forever, forever,

Is Sisyphus rolling

His stone up the mountain!

And every year of added burdens and lessened prices swells
the ranks of those who refuse longer to believe that over-
production, cheaper transportation, and labor-saving inventions
can account for the steady decline in values since the mints
were closed, nearly a quarter of a century ago. Dollar wheat is

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 685

dollar wheat the world over; but it does not tell the same story
in France and Germany, where drought and flood have left only
starvation in their wake, that it does here where the misfortunes
of the Old World have brought prosperity to the New.

Much of the recent legislation in Europe looking to the in-
crease of gold holdings and the depreciation of silver, finds its
origin in the exigencies of a situation where readiness for war
is the paramount necessity. There is hardly a statesman in
Europe who believes the last word has yet been said upon the
question of the remonetization of silver, and hardly one who
would not welcome an effort to settle the question internation-
ally. Only a few days ago, just before Christmas, in a debate
in the French Chamber, M. Meline again declared that the
French Government was at one with the United States on the
question of bimetallism.

In the face of such a declaration it is as cowardly to abandon
hope as it is false to talk about failure. International bimetal-
lism is to the gold monometallist a stumbling block, and to
the silver monometallist foolishness, but it is nevertheless a
splendid possibility. Its accomplishment would be the greatest
blessing that could befall our people, and to achieve it we might
well afford to sink for the time the hostilities of party and the
bickerings of faction.

The English popular explanation of the conference was
made by Sir Michael Hicks Beach, who, in a speech at
Bristol, October 29, 1897, said:

We consulted the Government of India. We gave them cer-
tainly not too much time to consider this most important matter
and to give us at adequate length their views in regard to it.
Those views reached us in the despatch that has been made
public. Now I should not like to bind myself to every state-
ment or every argument in that despatch. I wish it had more
clearly stated what are the reasons for which the Government
of India believe that they will soon be able to make a gold
standard effective in that country. But take the main argu-
ments in the despatch, and bring them to bear upon the particular
proposals which the United States and France have made.
Speaking for myself, I certainly concur in those arguments and
think that the Government of India was certainly right in re-
jecting the proposal that was made to them. Now, I dare say
that that view is not shared by all my colleagues. But this

686 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

I may tell you, that, though some of them might not share the
view, we were perfectly unanimous on this point, that it was
impossible for us, in face of the views which the Government of
India had expressed upon the particular proposals which had
been made to them and of the nature of those proposals them-
selves, to override the judgment of the Government of India on
a matter primarily affecting the interests of India herself and
to compel her to make a change in her coinage system a second
time within four years. Therefore, we returned, as we felt bound
to return, a negative answer to the United States and France
with regard to that most important one of their proposals, without
the acceptance of which it certainly did not appear to me that
it was worth while considering any of the others which they
submitted to us.

In his message to Congress, delivered six weeks after
the suspension of the Commission's labors, President McKin-
ley seemed to entertain a hope that later the negotiations
might be renewed with the possibility of better success, and
Mr. Wolcott himself entertained the opinion that on another
ratio, say 1 to 20, something might be accomplished. To
make the record complete and to show the good faith of
the President, his expression on the subject is here re-
produced. The message bore date of December 6, 1897, and
in it he said:

The gratifying action of our great sister Republic of France,
3, 1897, for the promotion of an international agreement respect-
ing bimetallism, I appointed on the 14th day of April, 1897,
Hon. Edward O. Wolcott, of Colorado, Hon. Adlai E. Steven-
son, of Illinois, and Hon. Charles J. Paine, of Massachusetts, as
special envoys to represent the United States. They have been
diligent in their efforts to secure the concurrence and co-operation
of European countries in the international settlement of the
question, but up to this time have not been able to secure an
agreement contemplated by their mission.

The gratifying action of our great sister Republic of France
in joining this country in an attempt to bring about an agree-
ment among the principal commercial nations of Europe whereby
a fixed and relative value between gold and silver shall be se-
cured, furnishes assurance that we are not alone among the larger
nations of the world in realizing the international character of

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 687

the problem and in the desire of reaching some wise and prac-
tical solution of it. The British Government has published a
resume" of the steps taken jointly by the French ambassadors in
London and the special envoys of the United States, with whom
our Ambassador at London actively co-operated in the presenta-
tion of this subject to Her Majesty's Government. This will be
laid before Congress.

Our special envoys have not made their final report, as further
negotiations between the representatives of this Government and
the Governments of other countries are pending and in contem-
plation. They believe that doubts which have been raised in
certain quarters respecting the position of maintaining the
stability of the parity between the metals and kindred questions
may yet be solved by further negotiations.

Meanwhile it gives me satisfaction to state that the special
envoys have already demonstrated their ability and fitness to
deal with the subject, and it is to be earnestly hoped that their
labors may result in an international agreement which will bring
about recognition of both gold and silver as money upon such
terms and with such safeguards as will secure the use of both
metals upon a basis which shall work no injustice to any class
of our citizens.

At frequent intervals after his return to America, Mr.
Wolcott engaged in discussion of the silver question both
in and out of the Senate Chamber, always championing the
cause of bimetallism, ever predicting the ultimate return to
the system, and consistently defending the international
movement as the only plan to insure that result.

In an interview printed in the Washington Post of No-
vember 16, 1899, eighteen months after the close of his
mission to Europe, Mr. Wolcott expressed his conviction
that international co-operation would be necessary to the
restoration of silver coinage.

" My views upon bimetallism do not change," he said,
" but it is becoming perfectly evident that silver will never
be restored to its parity by any act of the United States
alone. When relief comes it will come through interna-
tional action, and not otherwise."

In a speech made in the Senate in support of a legis-
lative affirmation in favor of the double standard, as late
as February 12, 1900, he took occasion to refer to his mis-

688 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

sion to Europe and then threw further light on the work of
the envoys. In that speech he predicted reaction from the
then prosperous conditions, when, he declared, " public in-
terest will be again aroused to consider the wisdom of a
policy which would do more than any other to ameliorate and
lessen the hard times which seem the invariable attendant
of our commercial life." The provision which he was advo-
cating was an amendment to the pending bill, and concern-
ing it he declared :

The amendment, together with the law of 1897, creating a
commission for negotiation with foreign governments, still in
force, is in accord and in line with its former declarations, and
furnishes to the United States their only hope for an honest
effort toward a restoration of a parity between gold and silver.
It is true there are doubt and hostility in certain quarters, but
the great mass of the voters of the country are bimetallists,
provided always bimetallism can be secured without impairment
of the national credit. " Truth is the daughter of Time," and
sooner or later, when other experiments have failed, the principle
will secure adoption by the intelligent nations of the world.

In this speech he took note of the then recent gold
discoveries, but voiced the opinion that even with the vast
additions the new mines were making to the world's stock
of the yellow metal, silver still would be necessary to the
proper transaction of business. On this point he said:

If this great output of gold shall continue and increase, as
it bids fair to do, it will go a long way toward making per-
manent that general rise in values which is now bringing the
world prosperity. But even so, Mr. President; if the Transvaal,
when days of peace shall return in that region now devastated
by war, should quadruple its output; if the Klondike and Cape
Nome shall rival the Rand in wealth; and the wonderful gold
production in Cripple Creek and throughout our mining regions
continues and increases, as there is every reason to believe it
will, it is still true that every civilized gold-using country which
relies upon agriculture or which may compete with the silver-
using countries in the labor employed in its mills and manufac-
tories will still suffer great and destructive disadvantage until
at some fair ratio the two metals again march side by side.

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 689

Finding in the lapse of more than two years of time
an excuse for a fuller revelation of some of the proceedings
of the International Commission, he said :

The position of France was that she was bimetallic, and that
under no conceivable circumstances would she make a change
in her financial system. Unless there were important concessions
from England, including the opening of the Indian mints, France
would not proceed further.

There was another fact which lapse of time permits me to
state without embarrassment to anybody, and that is the un-
doubted fact that when our envoys— for there was no conference
called — had their interviews with the English Ministry in the
late summer of 1897, before the proposals which we had made
were forwarded to India, the English Ministry were of the unani-
mous opinion that the India authorities would quickly avail
themselves of our offers, and that the result of our proposals
would be the acceptance of them. That fact is as undoubted
as any fact in existence. When people talk here of the futile
efforts of the envoys, they little realize how near to the achieve-
ment of success we came.

There is one further fact of great importance in view
of what I am going to say, and that is, I sincerely believe
that if we had then been in a position, either in the summer
before our proposals went to India, or afterward, upon their
return, to negotiate with the English Government upon the basis
of a change of ratio, not great, not enormous, but something of
a change to meet the altered conditions, we might still then
have come back with an agreement executed and not with fail-
ure. But we were not at liberty so to do. The hostility that
prevailed here would have prevented.

Mr. President, it is undoubtedly true that our final success
was perhaps neither furthered nor hindered by the attitudes and
actions of parties and individuals on this side of the water. But
there was nothing left undone by the extremists on both sides
to injure and destroy our usefulness and the possibility of our
success.

I do not care again to refer to the action of Administration
subordinates. Above them all was the President of the United
States, and it is beyond any question that he, as well as the
ambassadors abroad, cordially and zealously co-operated with
the Commission, gave us a free hand and the fullest power.

690 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

Discussing at some length the attitude of what he termed
the " Bryan Democracy " in opposition to the work of the
Commission, Mr. Wolcott referred with feeling to the an-
tagonism he had experienced in his own State, and added :

I rejoice to say that there is a radical change taking place
not only in Colorado, but in all the far Northwestern States.
Our people are tired of hearing only a gospel of hate and sec-
tionalism. We do not pay as much attention as we formerly
did to the prophets of despair and doom, who are eternally
warning us against the wrath to come, that somehow does
not come. We are getting a glimmering shadow of an idea that
if we want friendship, and prosperous communities, and capital
for our marvellous resources, we are as apt to get them by
maintaining cordial relations with the rest of the country, even
if they do not fully agree with us on the silver question, as
we are by bitter words and savage hate toward everybody who
happens to differ with us; and that perhaps the cause of bi-
metallism is not really furthered by an alliance with people who
want to tear up railroads and tear down the Supreme Court,
and whose principal mission seems to be to persuade mankind
that they are on their way to the poorhouse.

Life is not all cheerfulness and content; but some of it is,
and we are going to take ours without waiting for Mr. Bryan,
for he may not arrive. The black spectre of the " Crime of
'73 " no longer walks abroad in Colorado and keeps us awake
nights. It has gone " over the range," and we are coming out
from the caves of gloom into the open sunshine of hope.

Our Commonwealth is the richest in natural resources in the
whole Union, but its chief value is in the fact that it lies
in the heart of this great free Republic, one of an eternal
brotherhood of States, linked together in one common and
immortal destiny.

He closed this memorable speech, his last in the Senate
on the merits of the silver question, with a glowing predic-
tion of a general return to bimetallism, declaring, however,
that it could be brought about in this country only through
the aid of the Republican party, " the party which has ever
stood for the national honor and the national credit."

When a few days later there was an effort in the Senate
to alter the phraseology of the amendment so as to declare
that " the people of the United States are in favor of bi-

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 691

metallism," Mr. Wolcott opposed the change, not because
he did not favor the broadest possible expression, but because
his common sense told him that it was better to take what
he could get, even though it was only partially satisfactory,
than to hold out for what he could not get.

Mr. President, if I could frame the language of this side of
the Chamber respecting an amendment which reiterates and re-
affirms the principles and policy of the Republican party as to
the restoration of bimetallism, I should [he said] make it strong
and vigorous and unqualified and earnest. I should probably
add many phrases to the declaration as it appears in the amend-
ment reported by the committee. But, Mr. President, I cannot
make the language for the Committee on Finance; I cannot
frame the language for this side of the Chamber. In good faith
I accept the declarations of honorable Senators belonging to a
party whose record is one of honor and not of dishonor; and
when, to a man, they state on the floor of this Senate that
they are believers in the principles of international bimetallism,
that they stand ready to assist in bringing about the accom-
plishment of that beneficent result, as an honest man I accept
that statement and am grateful for that admission and that
appendage to this bill respecting the currency. I accept it, Mr.
President, because I know it is made in good faith. It may
be, in the opinion of the Senator from Nebraska [Mr. Allen]
puny and futile; it may be, in the opinion of the Senator from
Missouri [Mr. Cockrell] humiliating and disgraceful; but it is
enough for me and enough for any man who wants to be a
Republican and is a bimetallist and wants to believe that the
Republican party will not agree to the reopening of the Ameri-
can mints at 16 to 1 without considering the wishes of any
other country, but do stand ready to assist in bringing about,
with the consent of the leading nations of the world, the restora-
tion of the bimetallic system at some fair ratio. And because
I believe that I accept it, and I am not going to be driven from
my earnest desire as a Republican to stand with the committee
and stand with the party by changes of phraseology, however
specious or however attractive they may be.

After returning from Europe Mr. Wolcott expressed a
willingness to depart from the American and French ratios
for silver and accept a wider margin, say 22 to 1 of gold.
The low price of silver was responsible for this change of

692 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

view. To Mr. Wolcott's practical mind silver at fifty-five
cents an ounce was not worth as much gold as silver at
twice that figure. The English bimetallists were behind
this proposition and it develops that it was the subject of
semi-diplomatic treatment. The suggestion contemplated the
leaving out of France, which was not inclined to make any
concessions on the ratio. The matter was presented to
Secretary Hay, who, passing the proposition on to Mr.
Wolcott, said in a note of October 10, 1898:

What our friends in England would like to receive from us
would be an assurance that we are ready to act, upon the open-
ing of the Indian mints alone at something like 22 to 1, without
regard to the action of France, and even in view of a positive
refusal from that country. I am inclined to think that our
Government is not ready to go quite so far as this. We should
probably not pledge ourselves to act in spite of the refusal of
France, and I doubt if we should care to commit ourselves posi-
tively except with a fair chance of the adhesion of the French
Government. I wish you would take a minute from your en-
grossing occupations to tell me what you thing about it.

Nothing came of the English suggestion, but the Secre-
tary did not abandon his efforts as is shown by the following
letter :

Washington, April 19, 1899.
My Dear Senator Wolcott:

Understanding that you are about to visit Europe this summer,
I take this occasion to say that I should be greatly obliged to
you if, in the course of your travels, you could see and converse
with some of the leading public men in England, France, and
Germany in regard to the questions relating to currency, in
which you were so much interested during your mission to Europe
two years ago.

You know better than any one else the attitude of public
opinion in this country, and of the leading men of the Govern-
ment in regard to the question of practical bimetallism, and I,
therefore, need not repeat to you that it is not considered ex-
pedient for the Government of the United States to reopen the
subject at present. But the information which you might ac-
quire as to the present point of view of some of the leading
European States in regard to the matter could not but be use-

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 693

ful to us all, and I hope you may find it convenient to give a
little time and attention to the subject during the summer.
I am

Very sincerely yours,

(Signed) John Hay.
Hon. E. O. Wolcott,

United States Senate.

In his address in connection with the Wolcott Memorial
Services held in Denver soon after the Senator's death, his
intimate personal and political friend, Hon. A. M. Stevenson,
dwelt at length and upon first-hand information on Mr.
Wolcott's efforts in behalf of the white metal, and in a
recent letter he has added somewhat to his previous remarks.
These contributions throw so much light on the subject that
liberal extracts are given. In his address, he said :

Mr. Wolcott went to Washington thoroughly imbued with
the ideas and sentiments of the people of the West, and espe-
cially those of his own State, upon economic questions, and at
once became a leader both in counsel and in debate upon all
subjects connected with the monetary system of his country. He
believed then that the free and unrestricted coinage of silver
by the independent action of the United States was possible.
His speeches in the Senate advocating this monetary policy will
always be classed among the most convincing arguments in be-
half of the double standard. He fought the fight until to con-,
tinue the battle longer upon those lines, in his opinion, meant
not only defeat, but more, the absolute certainty of accomplish-
ing nothing for either his people at home or for silver as a
money metal. He saw and realized long before the rest of us
saw or realized that the inevitable result of a continuance of
the struggle for free and unlimited coinage by the independent
action of the United States meant defeat and failure, and he
appreciated, as few Western men could appreciate, that some
compromise must be accepted, or that legislation would be en-
acted which would cast aside silver as a money metal, and debase
it to an ordinary commodity of commerce; he knew what that
meant to thousands of his constituents. His first home here
had been a silver-mining camp and he had all the sympathy that
a loyal Coloradoan could have for men who worked and delved
in the silver mines of the State. He realized that if silver was

694 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

cast aside, thousands of men throughout the entire West, and
especially in Colorado, would be unemployed; that fortunes would
be dissipated in a day, and that flourishing towns would be
depopulated and their citizens left in want or driven from the
State.

What was he to do under these circumstances? Had he
better act the part of a demagogue and continue the hopeless
fight, certain of applause and popular approval at home, or
should he do what he considered best for the people of Colo-
rado? He was a statesman, brave and courageous, and chose
the latter course. He determined to seek some middle ground
upon which he hoped all could meet, and which he knew would
be of lasting benefit to his own people and work no injury to
the rest of the country. He tried with all his energy and abil-
ity to convince his colleagues that at least American silver
could be coined by the United States at a fixed ratio without
danger of injury, and it is now to be regretted that in this
masterful effort for Colorado he met with no encouragement at
home.

He soon learned that the contest had been carried on so long
and the opposition to silver had become so strong that even the
free coinage of American silver was an impossibility ; but he still
refused to surrender unconditionally, and almost single-handed
and alone he persuaded President McKinley during his first
Administration to appoint a Monetary Commission, to visit the
leading nations of Europe and try if possible to agree upon
the relative value between gold and silver as money, with free
mintage at a common ratio.

The trouble with it all was that most of us were still hoping
for i he impossible, and we did not see as the statesman, Wol-
cott, saw, that it could not be accomplished. His broad-minded
statesmanship disclosed to him the true situation long before
silver was abandoned as money, and long before the conditions
which exist to-day had been accomplished. He refused, against
the wishes of a great majority of his people, to continue the
hopeless fight for free and unrestricted coinage by the inde-
pendent action of the United States, and tried to do something
for their interests upon the lines that I have indicated.

This was the cause of the unfortunate estrangement between
Senator Wolcott and the majority of his party, and a majority
of the people of his own State, in 1800.

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 695

In a personal letter to the author dated October 8, 1909,
Mr. Stevenson wrote:

You will recall that Senator Teller and Senator Wolcott were
never happy during the Harrison Administration. They both
saw the tendency to adopt the gold standard and in addition to
this they felt personally aggrieved at the President. Wolcott
was then as devotedly attached to the cause of bimetallism as
any other man in public life.

During the Harrison Administration at a banquet given to
Senators Teller and Wolcott at the Brown Hotel, Senator Wolcott
stated that should the Republican party declare for the gold
standard he should not be bound by its declaration. I am con-
fident that he never changed in his devotion to the bimetallic
principle and that his statement at the Brown Hotel was from
his heart and sincere. But up to that time Wolcott had not
been much of a student of monetary questions. It was after
this time that he commenced to investigate, read, and study, and
finally he came to the conclusion that the unrestricted coinage of
silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 by the United States alone was
something that could never happen; that it was impossible, and
that the only hope for silver as a money metal was through
an agreement between the principal nations for a limited coin-
age at an agreed ratio. Wolcott therefore corresponded with the
leading statesmen and financiers of England and the Continent
and was encouraged to believe that he could bring about such
a result. President McKinley promised to aid him in his efforts.

Wolcott also became convinced that the Democratic party
was not honestly for the free coinage of silver and that it was
using the silver question to get votes, and he believed that if it
ever again came into office the result would be a repetition of
the Cleveland Administration. He was not wanting in proof
of this idea even from Democratic sources. Some of his Demo-
cratic friends in the Senate did not hesitate, in the cloak-room,
to tell him that the Democratic party, if in power, would never
enact a bill for the unrestricted coinage of silver. I have talked
with him many times in a confidential way concerning these
matters and I bear witness that his every action on the silver
question was prompted by the highest and most patriotic mo-
tives. He sincerely believed he was best serving the people
of his State by the course he finally adopted.

L'ENVOI

THAT the efforts of Mr. Wolcott and his co-laborers in
behalf of silver may yet bear fruit is the opinion of
a growing number of thinkers, among whom are some
Englishmen and Americans who have had especial reasons
for studying conditions in the Orient. As the question pre-
sents itself to them, it is one of trade and exchange rather
than of coinage, and as such they find in it possible poten-
tialities which were not in operation when the problem was
under consideration in Mr. Wolcott's day, although he fore-
saw that in time they would appear. One of these, a close
observer of the times, a conservative Briton who enjoyed
Mr. Wolcott's confidence and shared his views, has consented
to prepare for this work an outline of the future possibilities
as seen from the new view-point. Writing from London
under date of July 11, 1910, he says:

I suppose that what most we desire for the lives of our
friends is the fruition, however long delayed, of the work on
which those lives have been expended. The subject of these
memoirs was capable of prodigious, though, too often of inter-
mittent, energies; and there is no doubt that the impression he
so nearly succeeded in stamping on his time, and the superscrip-
tion which he chiefly desired to make to the pages of our his-
tory, was some permanent settlement of the great problem of
the currency.

Strange though it may seem in view of the lethargy of public
opinion since his death, the probability is growing from day
to day that the great silver issue is again destined to emerge.
Whether almost at once, or more probably a decade later, it is
likely that the work of the Wolcott Commission yet will be

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 697

extricated from the archives of the State Department and that
on these foundations the world will yet clamber to safety.

That silver is politically dead — this is essential to its resur-
rection, if, as Professor Francis Walker declared, its unsolved
problem is " a menace to our Western civilizations."

The verdict of the historian will probably agree with Wolcott
that in 1896 the Democratic party blundered out upon the po-
litical stage, possessed of a great half-truth, but in an unwork-
able platform, and that the ignorance of the masses of the
electorate was not, and could not have been, leavened by a Presi-
dential candidate whose knowledge of the question was so in-
complete that only a very few years later he had apparently
abandoned all interest in the issue. This is no unfriendly criti-
cism of Mr. Bryan ; far from it. The men who, in all the world,
had in 1896 any thorough conception of the ramifications of this
question could have been numbered on the fingers of one hand.
Nor either were they men in the limelight of politics anywhere;
nor had they followers anywhere; nor, again, were they any-
where in touch with the organs of the press in either hemisphere.
Their voices, as of those who cry in the wilderness, would needs
be listened for in bank parlors here and there in the far East:
such men as Sir Thomas Jackson of the Hong-kong and Shanghai
Bank, or Mr. T. H. Whitehead, the manager of the Bank of
India and China. With Wolcott's death therefore it is not too
much to say that the silver question temporarily disappeared,
and monetary science as a science became not so much dis-
credited as clean wiped off the slate. The leading reviews in
Europe as in America had in the 'eighties and early 'nineties
fairly bristled with the goose-quills of the professors, but for
thirteen years after the debacle of the Wolcott Commission the
entire subject was erased.

But in the early months of 1907 there was again in waiting
for the world of finance, had it but known it, a new and conclusive
object-lesson in silver, and this, too, on a scale hitherto un-
precedented. The coming twelve months were destined to dis-
close the greatest collapse of all time in the world's history
of the metal, a steady and continuous fall of some thirty-
three per cent. Once again, as after the silver crisis in
1893, the financial earthquake was such that the very proudest
of the modern credit sky-scrapers were seen to totter to their
fall. The wreckage is now removed, the atmosphere is clearing,
and there to-day emerges in full sight of all men the great crisis
in the exchanges. Men no longer talk of " silver," but they

608 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

are none the less discussing everywhere the effect of its recent
tremendous descent as governing all those Asiatic industries
which, with fleet steamships and railway expansion at low rates,
have started on a ruinous competition with the like industries
of the white races. It would not be easy to subject this vast
question to a compression more remarkable and more luminous
than that of the Chinese Mandarin Tong Shoa Yi, the leader of
the " Young China " party, who was himself educated at Columbia
University.

Writing to a well-known English bimetallist in February,
1908, the Chinese Imperial Commissioner says:

" In China fluctuations in exchange, such as those of last year,
are of course very troublesome for our importing merchants;
still no doubt last year's fall in silver greatly assists our mills
and other manufacturing industries which might be damaged
by the competition of imported foreign goods if the exchange
rose. Thus the fall in exchange is even as an increasing tariff;
but unlike a tariff our exports are not reduced, but are, so to
speak, subsidized."

This letter of the Chinese Imperial Envoy at once attracted
the attention of Senator Henry M. Teller, who, having agreed
to serve on the National Monetary Commission, wrote to a friend
in England to enquire what " index numbers " of Oriental and
especially of British India prices might be available to assist the
new Commission. To guide his correspondent as to the direction
given to his own mind by the Mandarin Tong, Senator Teller
wrote :

" Five gold dollars, or one sovereign, used to purchase three
taels, and three taels formerly paid a day's wage to twenty-one
Chinese mill-hands; while to-day five gold dollars purchase, not
three, but eight taels, and eight taels pay a day's wage to sixty
Chinese mill-hands."

Meanwhile there had been, albeit all unknown either to Wash-
ington or to Wall Street, a master mind attracted, nay magne-
tized, by this great problem of Oriental competition as fostered
by a low silver exchange. In the spring of 1909 it began to be
rumored in New York that Mr. James J. Hill, the President of
the Great Northern system of railroads, had the entire exchange
situation under review. In July a short authorized interview
with Mr. Hill appeared in the cable columns of the London Times.

Mr. Hill said (Times, June 22d) :

" We must await the proposals of the Monetary Commission
at Washington. The silver problem is full of difficulty, and I

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 699

wish it were possible to ignore it. Our Consuls in Asia warn
us, however, that at the present rate of silver exchange Asia has
ceased to import American wheat, lumber, or flour, and that the
Shanghai merchant who eighteen months ago bought a sovereign
with five taels must now pay nearly eight taels. The result is
disaster; he no longer buys."

The financial collapse of 1907 had sufficed to demonstrate the
exchange crisis to the acute mind of Mr. Hill. But two years
earlier the big Pacific steamships connecting with his vast sys-
tem of railroads had been carrying to the East, from Puget
Sound, wheat, lumber, and steel rails; but now, since the great
fall in exchange, these ships were running to Shanghai empty
and were returning filled with competing products of Chinese
manufacture, such as pig-iron. Next a great steel rolling-mill
with a capacity to roll four hundred tons a day had started at
Hankau. Might not this perhaps be the very " menace to West-
ern civilizations " which Professor Walker had adumbrated nearly
twenty years earlier to a profoundly puzzled and skeptical world?
Replying to a letter from Earl Grey, the Governor-General of
Canada, Mr. Hill wrote as follows:

" Great Northern Railway Building, Saint Paul,
January 17, 1910.

" My Dear Lord Grey:

•' I must apologize for my delay in replying to your favor of
the seventeenth ultimo.

" Your letter expresses forcibly and accurately the practical
effect of the fall in exchange with the Orient, not only upon its
trade with the rest of the world, but upon domestic industrial
conditions in those other countries as wTell. I have expressed
very briefly my opinion of the importance of the matter in an
article on ' Oriental Trade,' published in the January number
of The World's Work, a copy of which I take pleasure in sending
you herewith. In addition to my own views I have quoted from
a letter from Mr. Moreton Frewen, who has covered the subject
exhaustively in a number of articles published within the last
few years. Whatever one may think of Mr. Frewen's general
theory of monetary standards, his discussion of the fall in ex-
change and its economic consequences is quite valuable, being
matter of fact and not all theory.

" It seems to me that such facts as you cite, which are now
becoming familiar in the experience of every country and are
affecting profoundly industrial conditions throughout the world,

700 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

call, as you say, for a ' good deal of scientific thinking.' Nor
will it be easy to discover and agree upon a remedy. The ad-
justment to each other of two civilizations differing not only in
monetary standards and customs but in wages, hours, standards
of living, industrial methods, and almost every physical and men-
tal peculiarity that separates one race from another, is a slow
and difficult process. It will not be accomplished without some
cost to us.

" It appears certain that, as long as the workers of the Orient
are content to accept silver at par for their low wage, while
the merchant and manufacturer can sell their products abroad
for gold and turn it into silver at current rates of exchange, not
only must exports to the Orient tend to decrease rather than
increase; but it will presently become a question whether the
markets of the rest of the world can be saved from a competi-
tion stimulated by exchange conditions that we are powerless
to control.

" Undoubtedly this subject needs as much attention as is being
bestowed upon the general rise of prices, with which it is con-
nected. It is not understood or even mentioned in the discus-
sions of our time. But it will presently force itself unpleasantly
upon the notice of other countries, not only in their changing
trade balances with the Orient, but in the appearance in their
home markets of a competition with which they are unpre-
pared to deal. The adoption of prohibitive tariffs against the
Orient, which implies retaliation and the destruction of tbat
trade; the reduction of standards of living and of wages in
other countries until the difference between these and those of
the Orient shall cover only the difference in efficiency of labor,
and some form of agreement upon monetary standards and ratios
that will equalize exchanges once more, are the only remedial
measures that suggest themselves. The matter is becoming suf-
ficiently urgent to call for their earnest consideration.
" Faithfully yours,

" (Signed) J as. J. Hill."

From England, it is true, there is little to chronicle that
affords any immediate encouragement. Here the deplorable dead-
lock in politics and the rapid movement toward Protection at
present holds the economic field. But the Government of India is
understood to be much perplexed as to the operation of their novel
" gold standard." May not their admitted tampering with the
Indian currency be perhaps connected with the growing unrest

LONG FIGHT FOR COINAGE OF SILVER 701

of their people? And, again, will not the new Chinese cotton-
mills, which have shown such a mushroom growth during the
past two years in Shanghai and elsewhere, be likely to super-
sede for the very consumption of India itself the fabrics of
Bombay? May not India with "rated gold exchanges" lose
not merely the Chinese market for cotton goods but her own
market also? This is the opinion of Sir David Sassoon, the
representative of immense financial interests in the great city
of Bombay.

Lord Desborough of Taplow Court, an intimate friend of
Senator Wolcott's and now the President of the London Chamber
of Commerce, has written a pamphlet on The Yellow Peril, which
has focussed attention on the new exchange problem, with all
of the racial significance that it involves. To revert to America
again, it is known that, shortly before he died, Mr. Edward
Harriman had declared himself to a friend " a good deal of a
silver man," and that he had announced to one who is himself a
master mind in finance, Mr. Otto Kahn, a partner in the great
international banking house of Kuhn, Loeb, & Co., that the whole
subject of silver in its relation to the awakening of China had
become of the first importance to the United States.

Such being the sporadic symptoms of our day, it is increas-
ingly evident that important developments may not be very far
ahead. Mr. Blaine once said, "No question is settled until it
is settled aright." And if for the lack of proper settlement the
Western nations are supplying Asia with all the weapons for
their own destruction, then the silver question, at last under-
stood, must again attract to its solution the wisest and the best
minds of the civilized world.

How completely in accord with the above is the follow-
ing from Mr. Wolcott's own lips, dating back to 1900, and
to be found in an interview published just after the
November election of that year :

In the general trend and growth of commerce and our
commercial relations with other countries, especially if the
Orient be opened to foreign commerce, the question of bimetal-
lism will again be raised, probably by some of the nations of
Europe. If it does again become matter for international dis-
cussion, it will be through some policy approved by England,
France, Germany, and the leading commercial nations of the

702 EDWARD OLIVER WOLCOTT

world, at some change of ratio, and under conditions which will
secure an absolute parity of value at a fixed ratio between the
two metals. The question has long ceased to be one which
may be settled by the United States alone.

. «.!.*«

«5^ :

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Full text of "Life and character of Edward Oliver Wolcott, late a senator of the United States from the state of Colorado"

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