"Uncle Jerry" : life of General Jeremiah M. Rusk, stage driver, farmer, soldier, legislator, governor, cabinet officer

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight
hundred and ninety-five,

BY HENRY CASSON,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

To MARY EDITH RUSK

The loving daughter, confidant and adviser,
whose one ambition was the full success of her
distinguished father, to which her constant de
votion in a large degree contributed, this im
perfect history of his life and public services is
dedicated.

427237

PREFACE.

It is the intention of the writer to present to the
public a plainly written story of the life of a plain
man who was great, whose greatness was widely
recognized and appreciated, and whose character,
both private and public, affords an example well
worthy of study and emulation.

No more picturesque life than that of Jeremiah
McLain Eusk has had its being upon this soil. He
was a perfect type of the best American citizen
ship, and his career is its own sufficient eulogy;
for it was without the adventitious aid of fortune,
patronage or liberal education, but solely by the
right of his individual manhood, that he made his
way from the plow and the stage driver's box to
the cabinet of one of the greatest men who has
served as our Chief Magistrate.

Kindly deeds and generous friendships were al
ways his. The public services he rendered form
a part of the nation's history, and it is believed
that their record will interest the American peo
ple, to whose interests, in wisdom and in strength,
the best years of his life were given.

The writer is under deep obligation to ex-Presi-

vi PREFACE.

dent Benjamin Harrison for the tribute paid by
him to his dead friend and cabinet minister in the
introductory chapter.

The chapters relative to General Rusk's ances
try and the formative period of his life were pre
pared under the direction of Mr. James M. Rusk,
and involved a great amount of labor.

Acknowledgments are also due to Dr. James B.
Naylor, of Malta, Ohio, Geu. Charles King, who
commanded the state militia at the time of the
Milwaukee riots, Mr. George William Hill, of the
United States Department of Agriculture, and Mr.
Talma Drew, who was for a time private secretary
to General Rusk.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

EX-PRESIDENT BENJAMIN HARRISON'S ESTIMATE OP GEN
ERAL RUSK, 1

CHAPTER II.
HISTORY OF THE RUSK FAMILY, 20

CHAPTER III.
VALLEY OF THE MUSKINGUM, 27

CHAPTER IV.
PIONEER DAYS IN THE VALLEY, 44

CHAPTER V.
BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY TRAINING OF JEREMIAH M. RUSK, 63

CHAPTER VI.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, 69

CHAPTER VII.
LIFE ON THE RUSK FARM, 77

CHAPTER VIII.
YOUNG JERRY'S EDUCATION, ...... 86

CHAPTER IX.
PRIMITIVE FARM IMPLEMENTS, 89

viii TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.

His FATHER'S DEATH. THE CARE OF THE FAMILY,

CHAPTER XI.

RUSK AND GARFIELD,

CHAPTER XII.
RUSK AS A RAILROAD FOREMAN, 102

CHAPTER XIII.
RUSK AS A COOPER, . . .... 106

CHAPTER XIV.

EMIGRATES TO WISCONSIN, . .... Ill

CHAPTER XV.
ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE, 114

CHAPTER XVI.
RECRUITS A REGIMENT FOR THE WAR, .... 118

CHAPTER XVII.
RUSK'S BRAVERY IN BATTLE, 148

CHAPTER XVIII.

RETURNS FROM THE WAR. PROMPT RECOGNITION OF His

SERVICES BY THE PEOPLE, 150

CHAPTER XIX.
ELECTED TO CONGRESS, 158

CHAPTER XX.

DELEGATE TO THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION.
GARFIELD AND CONKLING. ALL NIGHT INTERVIEW WITH
PRESIDENT GARFIELD, 163

CHAPTER XXI.

ELECTED GOVERNOR. RAILROAD TROUBLES, . . . 167

TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix

CHAPTER XXII.
His LABORS AS GOVERNOR. HUMANE ACTS, . . . 174

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE MILWAUKEE RIOTS OF 1886, . . . . .179

CHAPTER XXIV.

COMMENDATION OF THE GOVERNOR'S COURSE IN UPHOLDING

LAW AND ORDER, 195

CHAPTER XXV.

NOMINATED FOR GOVERNOR A THIRD TIME. His MESSAGE

ON THE RIOTS, . 205

CHAPTER XXVI.
DECLINED TO BE A CANDIDATE FOR A FOURTH TERM, . 211

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1888. SENATOR

SPOONER'S SPEECH, 213

CHAPTER XXVIII.

His STAFF OF MAIMED HEROES. VISIT TO GENERAL HAR
RISON, 223

CHAPTER XXIX.
CHAUNCEY DEPEW ON GENERAL RUSK, .... 228

CHAPTER XXX.
A JOURNALIST'S PEN PORTRAIT OF GOVERNOR RUSK, . 232

CHAPTER XXXI.
CABINET OFFICER, 235

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, ..... 238

CHAPTER XXXIII.
SECRETARY RUSK'S POLICY, 254

x TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

SCOPE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT,

CHAPTER XXXV.
EXPERIMENTAL WORK, , 273

CHAPTER XXXVI.
BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY, ...... 28i>

CHAPTER XXXVII.
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT— His LAST REPORT, . . 297

CHAPTER XXXVIII.
GENERAL RUSK'S IDEAS ON PROTECTION, .... 315

CHAPTER XXXIX.
AMERICAN FARMING ONE HUNDRED YEARS HENCE, . . 353

CHAPTER XL.
AN AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS, ...... 3G7

CHAPTER XLI.
His DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION, .... 390

CHAPTER XLII.

SECRETARY RUSK'S LOYALTY TO His CHIEF, . . . 413

CHAPTER XLIII.
CLOSING WORK, 424

CHAPTER XLIV.
RETIRES TO PRIVATE LIFE, ...... 430

CHAPTER XLV.
ILLNESS AND DEATH, 437

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE FUNERAL, . . 412

TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi

CHAPTER XLVII.

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. EX-SENATOR SPOONER'S

EULOGY, 450

CHAPTER XLVIII.
GENERAL RUSK'S FAMILY, 480

CHAPTER XLIX.

GENERAL RUSK'S CIVIL RECORD, 483

CHAPTER L.
CLOSING WORDS, 485

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PORTRAIT OP GENERAL RUSK, . Frontispiece.

HOUSE IN WHICH HE WAS BORN, 63

LOG SCHOOL HOUSE, . 86

MAJOR JERRY RUSK, 118

GOVERNOR RUSK AND STAFF AT GENERAL GRANT'S FUNERAL, 178

GOVERNOR RUSK'S STAFF OF MAIMED HEROES, . . . 223

PRESIDENT HARRISON AND CABINET, 297

THE RUSK RESIDENCE AT VIROQUA, 430

THE MONUMENT TO GENERAL RUSK, 472

JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER I.

PEESIDENT HAERISON'S ESTIMATE OP GENERAL

RUSK.

I have been asked to contribute to a biography
of General Jeremiah M. Rusk such impressions of
his character and of his public services as were
derived by me from four years of close persona]
and official relations with him. I had only a
slight acquaintance with General Rusk prior to
his appointment as Secretary of Agriculture. The
bill creating the Department of Agriculture re
ceived the approval of the President on the 9th
day of February, 1889, only twenty-three days be
fore my inauguration. The probability that the
bill would pass had caused me to give some
thought to the fitness of several persons whose
names had been suggested; but no selection had
been made when I reached Washington on the
26th day of February. My reflection upon the
subject had resulted in the conclusion that the
Secretary of Agriculture should be a man who,

2 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

primarily, had a good practical knowledge of agri
culture — not of fancy farming, but of farming as
a business, as a means of getting a livelihood;
that he ought to come from one of the great agri
cultural states; that he ought to be a man in close
touch with the class described by Mr. Lincoln as
the "plain people;" and that, as he had a new de
partment to organize, and was to be an adviser of
the President on all public questions, he ought to
be a man experienced in public affairs and public
administration. The easiest part of the work of
an appointing officer is this work of sketching the
characteristics of the man the office calls for.
Very often well intentioned people came to me to
describe the kind of man that ought to be ap
pointed to some important office. This was not
very helpful, and I have often told such persons
that I could imagine as large and as perfect a man
as they could; that fancy sketches were not use
ful; that a portrait was wanted. Happy the Pres
ident who, when he has settled in his mind the
high and varied qualities that the public service
demands in a particular office, finds those quali
ties embodied in a man.

This good fortune and more was mine in the se
lection of General Rusk to be Secretary of Agri
culture. He not only filled the measure of the
man I wanted, but enlarged it. He was born and
spent his boyhood on a farm. Of such is the king
dom of the fields. The boy who has had the mis

PRESIDENT HARRISON'S TRIBUTE. 3

fortune to be born in a city can never reach the
33d degree in the mystic brotherhood of the
groves. The distinction between a pig-nut and a
shell-bark must be acquired very early. The
country boy has many tutors — the city boy only
one. Work that had other ends than a base or a
goal exercised the limbs and developed the char
acter of young Rusk. The implements of the farm,
ploughing, seeding, harvesting, the markets, and
all the close economies of the home became his fa
miliars. He imbibed the pride of a noble pursuit,
and never lost it. All of his reports as Secretary
glow with it:

"It may be broadly stated [he wrote] that upon
the productiveness of our agriculture and the pros
perity of our farmers the entire wealth and pros
perity of the whole nation depend."

He never ceased to be a farmer, though he was
much occupied as a soldier, and as a civil officer
in public affairs. From the head of the Depart
ment of Agriculture he went to his beautiful and
productive Wisconsin farm, and there resumed
those homely but sweet relations with his old
neighbors in which he and they so much de
lighted.

But General Rusk was not only a real farmer,
but a progressive and educated farmer. He did
not take fright at new things, but welcomed them
to friendly but strictly practical tests. He de
manded that science should come to the help of

4 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

the farmer, as she had done to the help of the
manufacturer. He was no theorist — he was above
all things practical — but he entered with keen de
light into the experiments of the chemist and the
investigations of the microscopist. He followed
the chase of some insect pest of the field or or
chard with a zest akin to that with which he had
pursued rebel bushwhackers. I have listened with
great amusement to his account of the pursuit of
a certain destructive bug which his agents had re
peatedly followed from Florida to Kentucky, only
to lose it there; and often called upon him to re
port progress. He was highly appreciative of the
scientific work done by his assistants, and his only
restraint was to insist that their work should
have a practical end in view, and one related to
agriculture in its broadest sense:

"The great nations of Europe [he wrote] strain
every effort to make science the handmaid of war;
let it be the glory of the great American people
to make science the handmaid of agriculture."

General Rusk was essentially a "plain" man in
the sense in which Mr. Lincoln used the word. He
was simple, natural, void of affectation, honest,
frank, open. He was himself at home, and what
is more, made others feel at home, in any company
of decent people, however unlearned in books, and
however untaught in the rules of etiquette. He
entered into their amusements with naturalness
and zest, and consulted with them as one who es-

PRESIDENT HARRISON'S TRIBUTE. 5

teemed them and sympathized with their pur
poses. This was not art; it was nature. He had
experienced their experiences. These qualities
not only made him a popular favorite, but pre
served him such.

He was a man of the tenderest feelings. A very
lion when confronting the assailants of his own
or of his country's honor, I have seen his eyes melt
and overflow at the appeal of distress, or as he
answered an inquiry as to the state of a son
stricken by disease, or by a pressure of the hand
offered sympathy to one in sorrow. His hand
could deal a blow that would fell an ox, or give
to a friend a touch as light and sympathetic as a
woman's.

I have never known a man that I would choose
before him to stand by and with me in any des
perate strait. His courage rose as the struggle
became desperate. It was not possible for him to
desert a post or a friend. You had no need to
look over your shoulder when Jerry Busk stood
between you and those who assailed you from the
rear. His loyalty was as pure as gold and as stiff
as a steel column. These traits were proved while
he was in the cabinet. No temptation could lead
him to seek a personal advantage at the cost of
what his high sense of honor deemed to be loyalty
to another.

In his intercourse with men he was always af
fable, save when some wrong stirred his indigna-

6 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

tion. His relations to the representatives of the
press were so cordial that he secured their aid in
disseminating the bulletins and other official pub
lications of his Department in an unusual degree.
He was no babbler; but, sympathizing with the
desire of the correspondents for news of public af
fairs, he always prepared for their use every im
portant transaction in his Department. The fa
vor and aid of the agricultural press he regarded
as essential, and sought by every means to make
it a channel of communication between the De
partment and the farmers. He was as willing to
receive suggestion and information as to give
them. One of his plans for keeping the Depart
ment in close relation with the farmers, and well
informed as to the progress of agriculture, was to
send a representative to each of the great agricul
tural fairs. Every Farmers7 Institute and College,
every Grange and other association having at
heart the farmer's interests received from him the
most friendly attention; and from them all he re
ceived commendation and assistance in his work.
He did not think, or act as if he thought, that he
knew more about agriculture than all the other
farmers of the United States; and so there was no
occasion for them to remind him that he did not.
Upon this subject he said in his first report:

"An immense amount of time and money is ex
pended in the aggregate upon these county fairs.
To what extent they may be made subservient to

PRESIDENT HARRISON'S TRIBUTE. 7

the duties of this Department is necessarily a mat
ter of speculation, but I am convinced of the pro
priety of endeavoring to utilize these gatherings
in some such way as I have indicated. Everything
that leads to a more intimate acquaintance be
tween the Department and the farmers through
out the country must be mutually advantageous."
(1889 Report, p. 12.)

Of the valuable service done by the press he
said, in one of his reports:

"These advance sheets are furnished to the press
associations, to all agricultural and many other
weekly papers, to agricultural writers, and any
journalists and editors applying for them. In this
way, during the fifteen weeks ending October 31,
no less than eighteen such synopses or resumes
were distributed as above. It is a pleasure to re
cord the fact that the agricultural papers gener
ally, and the press as a whole, have shown a most
commendable disposition to cooperate with the
Department in its efforts to keep the farmers in
formed as to all that may be of practical service
to them. In some cases a careful note kept of the
newspapers publishing such advance sheets,
apart from those covered by the press associa
tions, indicates an aggregate circulation of over
1,000,000 copies.

"A moment's consideration will show the value
of a plan by which the benefits of a bulletin reach
ing 5,000 or 10,000 copies, and that by means of a

8 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

circulation dragging along through many mouths,
are communicated immediately to a circle of read
ers aggregating over three million persons, or
nearly one-sixth of our entire adult farming popu
lation. Indeed this plan virtually covers the en
tire field, for the farmer who does not read some
paper devoted to his calling is practically beyond
the reach of intelligent effort on his behalf. It
moreover invites application for special bulletins
in advance of their publication by interested par
ties, an important consideration, for in the giving
of valuable information 'he gives twice who gives
promptly.' » (1889 Report, pp. 7 and 8.)

Perhaps the greatest work accomplished by
General Rusk in the Department was in connec
tion with the removal or amelioration of the re
strictions imposed by European countries upon
the importation of American live stock and meats.
In his first report he very wisely accepted the con
clusion that if we would put ourselves in a posi
tion to refute the statements made in those coun
tries as to the unhealthfulness of American
meats, we must make an official inspection before
the meats left our shores. Upon this subject he
said:

"Rumors of cattle diseases in this country hav
ing little foundation, if any, in fact, continue to
be widely circulated in foreign countries, to the
great injury of our cattle trade. The existence
of a demand for our surplus meat products in

PRESIDENT HARRISON'S TRIBUTE. 9

these countries is nevertheless plainly evident,
and it is in the highest degree desirable that the
Government of this country should adopt all
means in its power to secure for our producers
every opportunity to compete on fair terms in the
markets of the world for the disposal of their sur
plus production. I would therefore insist most
strongly upon the necessity of such a national in
spection of cattle at the time of slaughter as
would not only secure the condemnation of car
casses unfit for food, if there be any, and guaranty
the accepted product as untainted by disease, but
which should enable the national authorities to
promptly discover any cattle-disease centers, thus
putting it in the power of the Department to take
immediate steps for its control and eradication.
"While earnestly repudiating the captious ob
jections made on the part of foreign authorities
to the wholesomeness of our meat products, still,
as long as we neglect to take the precautions uni
versally adopted by the governments of those
countries in which we seek a market for these
products, and leave it to the officials of other
countries to inspect our live cattle or our meats,
it is impossible for us to present as forcible argu
ments as we could otherwise do against restric
tions on our trade, these foreign governments
claiming, with some show of reason, that they
have better opportunities for learning of disease
among American cattle than are enjoyed by the

10 JEREMIAH J/. RUSK.

American Government itself. It is time to put
a stop to this anomalous condition, and 1 there
fore earnestly recommend such an amendment to
the law under which the Bureau [of Animal In
dustry — a branch of the Department] is at present
organized as will provide for such official national
inspection as shall guaranty the fitness of our
meat products for food consumption under the
seal of the United States Government" (1889
Report, pp. 34, 35.)

On August 30, 1890, Congress, in response to
this appeal, passed a law providing for the inspec
tion of all cattle, sheep and swine, and of salted
pork and bacon, intended for export to countries
requiring inspection, or upon the request of any
exporter of meats.

It was made unlawful to import into the United
States any dangerously adulterated food or drink
intended for human consumption; and the Presi
dent was given power to exclude such articles, and
also to prohibit the importation of specified ar
ticles from any foreign country which should un
justly discriminate against the products of the
United States.

The work of organizing an inspecting force and
making such regulations as would insure perfect
results was a large and difficult one; and the rap
idity and effectiveness with which it was accom
plished showed the energy and organizing power
of the Secretarv.

PRESIDENT HA£JIISON>S TRIBUTE. H

In 1890 there were exported 394,836 head of cat
tle, 91,148 live hogs, and 67,521 sheep. Every in
dividual of these immense herds and droves and
flocks was to be examined. A plan of putting a
metal tag, marked with a number, in the ear of
each bullock, writh a view to tracing not only the
inspection, but of following the animal back to the
pen or pasture from which it went to market, was
adopted, that the history of the animal might be
disclosed in case of an allegation that it was dis
eased. Not content with this, the Secretary
sought and obtained, through the State Depart
ment, the consent of the British authorities to
have skilled American veterinarians participate
in the inspection at the British docks where our
cattle were required to be slaughtered. Of the
inspection thus conducted the Secretary said in
his report for 1891:

"But three allegations of cases of this disease
among American cattle landed in Great Britain
have been cited by the British authorities, each
of which wras disputed by our American inspect
ors, and in only two cases of them did the British
authorities adhere with some firmness to their
diagnosis. Thanks to our system of identifica
tion, these two cases were traced in the manner
I have indicated, and in every particular their life
history sustained the diagnosis of our inspectors,
which was, I should say, supported by many of

12 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

the leading veterinarians in Great Britain at the
time." (Report 1891, p. 16.)

The injustice practiced against us in continuing
the requirement that all American cattle should
be slaughtered at the docks roused the Secretary
to say:

"These facts, in my opinion, would amply just
ify this Government in making to the British Gov
ernment the strongest presentation of the griev
ance which our cattle raisers suffer unjustly at
their hands, by reason of the arbitrary regula
tions enforced against our American cattle in
British ports owing to an alleged dread of con
tagious diseases, coupled with an urgent demand
for the removal of obstacles which we have
clearly shown to be useless, and the maintenance
of which can only be regarded as an evidence of
unfriendliness. Justice as well as proper self-
respect demand such a course.

"Unless we can secure from the British Govern
ment the removal of the unfriendly restrictions
now bearing so hardly upon our cattle trade, I
shall feel it to be my duty to suggest the rigid en
forcement of the lawT now in existence prohibiting
the importation into the United States of all live
animals, a law which has only been suspended as
a matter of friendship to foreign governments.
That we have far more justification for the exclu
sion from the United States of all animals coming
from Great Britain and its dependencies than

PRESIDENT HARRISON'S TRIBUTE. 13

they have for the interposition of any obstacles
to our cattle exports from the United States, is
shown by the recent report of Prof. Brown, the
veterinarian of the British Privy Council, who ad
mits in the plainest manner that no hopes exist
in that country of ever absolutely suppressing
pleuro-pneumonia, and shows, indeed, that such
measureable success as he has faint hopes of at
taining in the control of it is to be obtained only
by methods which are nothing more than those
adopted by ourselves and to which, promptly and
vigorously enforced, we owe our present success
in the complete control of this disease."

The official correspondence between the Secre
tary of Agriculture and the Secretary of State
shows the unremitting industry of General 'Rusk
in bringing to the attention of our diplomatic rep
resentatives at the European capitals every fact
tending to show the healthfulness of American
meats and every consideration showing the un
just nature of the restrictive regulations imposed
by those governments upon their importation.
Having procured legislation providing for an offi
cial inspection and certification, and having or
ganized a careful examination of all animals and
meats intended for export, he was not only impa
tient but indignant at the delay in according
equal and fair terms to American meats in Euro
pean markets. General Rusk was not a diplo
matist, and did not see why the right should not

14 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

have instant way. He fought and quarantined
pleuro-pneumonia in this country until he was
able to issue an announcement that the disease
was extinct. He regulated the shipment of Texas
cattle, and with the cooperation of the railroads
and stockyards made such careful provisions for
the separation of such cattle, and the disinfecting
of cars and pens, that the spread of Texas fever
was prevented. He organized in the great pack
ing houses corps of inspectors with their micro
scopes, and gave to our export animals and meats
a more assured character for healthfulness than
the meats of any other country had; and when
the evidence of all this was submitted he was
ready to demand that the restrictions be removed,
and on refusal at once to use the retaliatory meas
ures provided by law. In his letter to the Secre
tary of State, of date of November 16, 1892, he
said:

"It simply means that an unjust discrimination
is to be enforced for all time against one of the
most important branches of our trade with that
country. Against such discrimination this Gov
ernment has a right to protest in the most vigor
ous language at its command."

In the same letter he showed that we had a
much better case for the quarantining of Cana
dian cattle, and added:

"I have delayed the quarantine restrictions in
the hopes that a further investigation would be

PRESIDENT HARRISON'S TRIBUTE. 15

made and a more liberal policy adopted by the
British Government. If such is not to be ex
pected, however, then I see no alternative but to
apply the same regulations, and for the same rea
son, to cattle imported into this country from
Great Britain and its dependencies."

And in February, 1893, he wrote:

"It is not denied that the Government of Great
Britain may properly take such action as is con
sidered necessary to protect the stock interests of
the United Kingdom from contagious diseases,
but it may at the same time be asserted that that
Government has no right to put the stigma of con
tagious disease upon the great export trade of this
country in live cattle without better evidence than
has so far been produced."

He did not succeed in procuring a revocation
of the English restrictions upon our cattle trade,
but the restrictions upon the importation of our
pork products did give way before his persistent
assaults. In January, 1891, he wrote to Mr.
Blaine:

"It appears from said dispatch that the only
prohibition now in force against the importation
of swine and swine products into Germany is the
one maintained against such importation from the
United States. For ten years Germany has con
tinued this unjust and unwarranted exclusion of
American pork from her domain, and I believe the
time has now come when the German Government

16 JEREMIAH J/. RUSK.

should be given to understand that there are eco
nomic reasons why this edict should be revoked.
The allegations made in 1880, at the time of the
first edict issued by the German Government pro
hibiting the importation of American pork into
that country, has been repeatedly shown by this
Department, by special investigations and reports
placed in the hands of your officers, to be untrue,
and it does not comport with the dignity and self-
respect of this Government to longer tolerate such
a policy as is being pursued by the Government of
Germany against the food products of the United
States.

"I would respectfully urge that our minister at
Berlin be promptly instructed to make a final ap
peal to the German Government to remove the
discrimination made against the animal products
of this country.

"Should this appeal fail I shall feel it my duty
to call the attention of the President of the United
States to this unwarranted discrimination, and
recommend the suspension, by proclamation, of
the importation into the United States from Ger
many of such articles as he may think advisable,
under the provisions of section 5 of the act of Con
gress approved August 30, 1890."

In March he repeated his recommendation for
retaliatory measures. The State Department and
our ministers cooperated and did excellent service,
but it is only the truth to say that the work of the

PRESIDENT HARRISON'S TRIBUTE. 17

Department of Agriculture was the basis of all
their appeals and the essential condition of their
success, and that the enthusiasm and vigor of Gen
eral Eusk could not have been spared. It is prob
ably true that the reciprocity arrangement with
Germany, relating to sugar, had a moral influence
in securing the decree of September 3, 1891, revok
ing the German prohibition, but the decree was
put upon the sufficiency and the acceptance of our
inspection. Italy, Spain and France followed, and
either rescinded or greatly ameliorated their re
strictions upon our meats. For many years this
Government had been vainly laboring to open
these valuable markets to our pork products, and
the victory was notable and highly advantageous
to the American farmer.

These are only some of the labors and successes
achieved by General Rusk in his Department. His
efforts to introduce the various products of Indian
corn to the tables of England and the Continent,
by maintaining an agent to provide the materials
and to instruct the people in their use, were meas
urably successful, and have opened a field of effort
that, if diligently and patiently cultivated, will
yield rich returns to American agriculture.

General Rusk had large views as to the proper
scope of the Department of Agriculture. He ad
vocated an inspection not only of meats for export,
but for domestic use and the inspection of all food
2

1 8 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

products in order to protect our people from adul
terated and unskillful preparations. He said:

"My second proposition involves the conferring
upon the Secretary of Agriculture of the fullest
powers necessary for the supervision and control
of all interstate or foreign commerce in agricul
tural products and of fraudulent and other substi
tutes therefor, for the investigation of all animal
diseases, and for the control of the movement of
all animals which may be affected by communi
cable diseases, and even within certain limits for
an adequate supervision of the trade in agricul
tural products in all foreign markets." (Report
1891, p. 59.)

"The object to be kept in view, and one which
ought to be dear to every American citizen, is
that, in so far as all American products are con
cerned which enter into food consumption, the
word 'American' shall be recognized the world
over as synonymous with healthful ness and hon
esty, and that, wherever it is seen, the certificate
of this Department shall stand for a brand of ex
cellence." (Report 1892, p. 62.)

This is a mere sketch of a few of the great trans
actions with which General Rusk associated his
name during his administration of the Depart
ment of Agriculture. He was a model Secretary
in his special work; and his large experience in
public life, as Governor of Wisconsin for three
terms, and as a Representative in Congress for six

PRESIDENT HARRISON'S TRIBUTE. 19

years, made him a valued adviser at the Cabinet
board. He was patriotic through and through,
and an American before all else. When any ques
tions affecting American interests, or the national
dignity or honor were under discussion, he was an
advocate of vigorous measures. He always "stood
in" with his colleagues, and sought no fame at
their cost. He stood by what was concluded,
though he had advised against it — for to him the
administration was single, and he a part of it.

My personal relations with him and with his
family were delightful, and the memory of them
is not marred by a single unpleasant incident. I
trusted him fully and he was true. His frame was
so stalwart that it seemed that it could defy dis
ease — and mind and heart were of the same large
mold. Like Lincoln, he multiplied small chances,
and on a hard and barren, youth builded a great
life. Men of other characters, and of other attain
ments are needed in American public life, but the
type of Jeremiah M. Kusk cannot be spared.

BENJAMIN HARRISON.

20 JEREMIAH M. EUSK.

CHAPTER II.
KUSK'S ANCESTRY.

The family name Rusk, a modification of Roux,
is of undeniable Celtic origin, and is known to an
tedate the present civilization of either Italy or
France, where its representatives may be found,
as well as throughout the United Kingdom. The
family was a migratory one, settled in various
parts, and in Ireland the name Roux became Rusk,
and in America it has remained without further
change.

The first American ancestor of General Rusk,
his grandfather, James Rusk, possessed traits of
independence, courage, and innate love of justice,
which certainly, if they were prophetic, bore good
fruit in the subject of this history. He was born
in the north of Ireland, near Londonderry, and
came to America while quite young, and under cir
cumstances not without a tinge of romance; That
was nearly a century and a quarter ago, just be
fore the outbreaking of the revolutionary war, in
the winter before the spring of Lexington. In Ire
land the systematic wrongs of absentee landlord-

R USK^S ANCESTR Y. 21

ism, backed by the extreme severity of the law,
the heartless administration of the crown offices,
and the intolerably oppressive practices of resi
dent agents, had provoked a spirit of resistance
neither more nor less than human, and in these
later days recognized as essentially American. If
we had to relate facts of history, now happily long
past, it might be well to dwell at some length upon
the conditions under which the earlier relatives of
Jeremiah M. Rusk endured to suffer, and which
served largely in the formation of their sturdy
character; but wrhile it is probably true that some
evil influences under which they labored still exist,
though shorn in a measure of their strength, it is
deemed that adherence to the purpose announced
in the preface deters the writer from making an
cient history of the life of a man of the present,
and that in giving only such facts as are essential,
and require no analysis, all1 really useful purposes
will be subserved; for, after all, it is only as an
American that General Rusk, his life and char
acter, stand before the world today.

James Rusk labored on an Irish estate, and the
legal agent of the absent landlord brutally in-
t suited his parents. He received from James a
blow which felled him to the earth, and the pen
alty of which, as the law then stood, was death.
Evading the officers of the crown, he quickly
reached the coast, and, aided by a band of smug
glers, was given over to the captain of a vessel

22 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

bound for America, under the condition that upon
his arrival here he should be sold in bondage to
any bidder who would pay the highest price for
his services for a time sufficient to make his pas
sage good. Arriving at the port of Baltimore,
which then had very few houses of which to boast,
he was duly sold, and retired for the term of his
service to a plantation in Maryland, then a colony
of Great Britain. Here he formed a close friend
ship with John Faulkner, at that time the leading
representative of his family in the colony, a friend
ship strengthened later by their years of service
together in the American army, which brought
them over the mountains, along the no^v nearly
forgotten Braddock Trail, and which bore them to
their place of death and burial, on a tributary of
the beautiful Muskingurn river, near to the birth
place of General Rusk, and only a few miles dis
tant from the earliest settlement in what became
the great Northwest Territory, which at the time
of its establishment included the present states
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wiscon
sin, together with a part of Minnesota.

By James Rusk the wrongs perpetrated by the
British Government upon its American dependen
cies were easily recognized, and when the war be
gan, when the battles cf Concord and Lexington
had been fought, his service under the strange
laws of those times, together with the natural in
stinct which aroused his ardor in fav^r of the then

E USK'S ANCESTR Y. 23

new patriotism, induced him to beg from his legal
owner the favor of a transfer from the farm to the
army of the revolution. This being granted, he
enlisted, together with Faulkner, almost at the
opening of the wrar; and the two men, remaining
together, did honorable service throughout the en
tire revolutionary struggle. Both became pen
sioners, and enjoyed the land bounties graciously
bestowed by a grateful government which they
had assisted in erecting.

This part of the life of James Kusk is not barren
of interest. Plis courage and daring became mat
ters of repute, and for much of the time he was
assigned to duty with scouting and foraging par
ties. One of his exploits, upon which he especially
prided himself, took place near the house of Mis
tress Mott, who is so well known in the romance
of those days. There was a little eating house by
the wayside, before which seven British soldiers,
unaware of the nearness of any patriot scouts,
had stacked their muskets, gone within, and en
tered upon a carousal of eating and drinking. It
so happened that James Busk, himself unseen, wit
nessed the inauguration of this business, and de
termined, alone as he was, to capture the men
single-handed or die in the attempt. Quietly get
ting to the stack of arms, he cocked and presented
a musket in the doorway, demanding instant sur
render. His enemies could not do otherwise, they
had to surrender, and James followed them into

24 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

the camp of his company, where they were thank
fully received as prisoners of war. Asked how he
had captured so many, he replied —

"By Gad, I surrounded them!"

Another anecdote of his revolutionary career
should not be overlooked. ITe always maintained
that on the fateful night of Paoli he had a true
presentiment of the attack to be made, and that
to the scouting party with which he was to be
located death was inevitable. He said to himself
that while no post of duty would ever be deserted
by him, unnecessary sacrifice of life might be for
once avoided, and, retiring to a point within hear
ing distance of his comrades, he witnessed their
surprise by a greatly superior force which killed
them to a man.

Shortly after the conclusion of the war James
Rusk married a lady named Ann Robb, who was
of Scotch-Irish descent. Her parents resided in
Maryland, and it is through their line that the re
lationship between the Rusks and the McLains
comes, as does that of the Rusks with the Faulk-
ners.*

The war ended, and James Rusk located near
Pittsburg. His wife bore him nine children, five

* This name has been corrupted. Originally spelled Falkner,
the I was afterward dropped, as we learn from written documents;
and the name Fakner is a corruption of Falkner, which is formed
by the dropping of the u in the name as now spelled in both Eng
land and Ireland.

J2USIFS ANGUS Tit Y. 25

boys and four girls, and all in the United States
who now bear the name are supposed to be de
scendants of these children, with the exception of
some in the South. It is known that another
branch of the family, not emigrating from Ireland,
settled in the Carolinas or Georgia, or possibly in
Louisiana.

Of James Rusk's children, John, the eldest, mar
ried and settled in Ohio, and the next one, Nancy,
married John Rattan, who never came so far west.
Sarah married one Singleton, who settled in Buck
eye and Prairie Counties, Ohio, and Samuel mar
ried a woman named Brown, also locating in
Prairie County. James, named for his father,
went to that part of the Northwest Territory
which is now Illinois, became prominent in the lo
cal affairs of the state, and we believe was at one
time a member of its legislature. He lived near
Chicago. William settled at Columbus, Ohio; his
sisters Margaret and Jane in the valley of Wolf
Creek, in the same state, near its first settlement
at Brown's Mills.

Daniel Rusk, the father of Jeremiah McLain
Rusk, was born in Pennsylvania, near Pittsburg
and the scene of Braddock's defeat. Jeremiah
was the youngest of eleven children, of whom the
others (named in the order of their birth) were
John, Annie, James, Ruel, Daniel, Elizabeth, Jane,
Simon, Allen and Margaret. Of these Daniel, Jane
and Allen survive.

26 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

Daniel Rusk's wife, the mother of Jeremiah M.
Rusk, was Jane, daughter of John Faulkner, who,
as has already been stated, came to this country
before the revolutionary war, settling first in
Maryland, and afterward in the neighborhood of
Pittsburg, near his friend, James Rusk. Her
mother's name had been Elizabeth ETanna, who
was a lady of Irish descent on the maternal side,
and resided with her father in Maryland. She was
the third of nine children, six daughters and three
sons, and was born in Pennsylvania.

THE VALLEY OF THE MUSKINGUM. 27

CHAPTER III.

THE VALLEY OF THE MUSKINGUM.

What memories cluster about this name! The
Indian called the river the Muskingum, which
means Moose Eye, because its waters seemed to re
flect the peculiarly beautiful tint of blue seen in
the eye of that noble animal, and perhaps there
only. At the mouth of this river the first settle
ment in the Northwest Territory was made, and
here it was that the earliest civilization upon soil
dedicated to absolute human freedom was made;
for by the contract under which the Ohio Company
held their rights, and indeed as a part of the ordi
nance creating the Territory itself, no man could
be a slave within the boundaries. In this section
of Ohio Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and
Rusk, and Hon. Stephen B. Elkins were born.

It was on the 26th day of July, 1788, that the
Territorial Governor, Arthur St. Clair, proclaimed
the establishment of the first county organized in
this new Territory, and to which, in honor of our
country's Father, he gave the name of Washing
ton. This county then embraced about one-half

28 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

of what is now the State of Ohio, and included
within itself almost the entire valley of the Mus-
kingum, which soon became the principal artery
arid highway of commerce for the great section
now including, on the one hand, Ohio, Indiana, Illi
nois and Wisconsin, and on the other Missouri and
Kentucky. Here was the home of that great, intel
ligent, and peacefully disposed Indian tribe, the
Del a wares, who, as is well known, were awarded
a high rank as men in the pages of our Cooper's
novels and in the published memoirs of the Mora
vian missionaries. That these aborigines were less
warlike than the other natives has been attributed
to the fact that as a tribe they more readily and
fully accepted the doctrines of our Christian re
ligion, and turned their attention from the paths
of war to those of peace. In this they presented
a most striking contrast to their ancient allies, the
Wyandots, who submitted their heathenism to the
better influences of our faith only through the elo
quence of such men as Finley. Their inflexible
character is well illustrated in an anecdote re
lated of General Wayne ("Mad Anthony"). When
the General took command of the post at Green
ville, in 1793, he sent for Captain Wells, who or
dered a company of scouts, and instructed him to
proceed to Sandusky, there to take an Indian pris
oner, from whom valuable information might be
procured. Now it happened that Wells, who in
his boyhood had himself been taken by the Wyan-

THE VALLEY OF THE MUSKINGUM. 29

dots, and held by them for many years, was per
fectly acquainted with their character. He said
to General Wayne:

"I can get you an Indian prisoner, but not from
Sandusky, sir."

"And why not from Sandusky?"

"At Sandusky there are only Wyandots."

"Will one of them not answer our purpose?"

"Oh no, sir!"

"And why not, captain?"

"For the best of reasons — a Wyandot wTill never
be taken alive."

Throughout our history, recorded and tradi
tional, with its great procession of events, the
war for the union, the extinction of negro slavery,
the burning struggle for the right of free thought,
which makes tolerance in religious matters possi
ble, and in all else of modern civilization which
has liberty for its watchword, there are points of
pleasant memory in this Valley of the Mus-
kingum, of which the following sketch is given
by Doctor James B. Naylor, of Malta, Ohio:

There's a valley that lies amid verdure-crowned hills,
And a beautiful river flows through it;

This river was fed by the most sparkling rills
In the days when the red men first knew it.

And these children of nature gazed into its reach,
Reflecting the blue of the sky,

And gave it the name — in their gutteral speech —
Of "Muskingum", which means the Moose Eye.

Visitors from the East have called the Mus-

20 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

kingum the "Miniature Hudson." It is situated
in the rough hill country of southeastern Ohio,
and winds its serpentine course for a hundred
miles through a valley replete with beautiful scen
ery. Precipitous hills border the valley, and from
their abrupt slopes project frowning ledges of
sandstone. These hills rise to the height of
several hundred feet above the bed of the river,
and are seamed and scarred by innumerable gul
lies and ravines.

Here the yawning mouth of a deep and dark
gorge opens up to the right or left, and there a
wooded promontory stands forth to intercept the
clear river washing its base. Just at the bend
above, where the green hills apparently meet and
present an insurmountable barrier to the spark
ling stream, nature's battlement of gray sand
stone furnishes footing to a gigantic sentinel oak
tossing its arms to the passing breeze, and serving
as a landmark for miles around; while at the bend
below a tiny sand bar reaches forth its shining
finger to toy with the elusive current.

"Over yander, where the willers
Lop their branches in the pool,

An' the waves 're gently lappin',
Sort o' lazy-like an' cool " —

a number of white-topped tents, peeping from

their cozy retreat, mark the site of an outing party.

At one point a village of white cottages nestles

at the foot of the hills, and at another a crumbling

THE VALLEY OF THE MUSKINGUM. 31

brick chimney indicates the location of an ancient
salt furnace, and stands as a monument to an in
dustry now dead.

A trip along this beautiful valley at any season
of the year amply repays the tourist, but the time
above all others is midsummer, when the trees
upon the wooded slopes are in full foliage, and
the golden grain and the sweet-smelling clover are
wooed by the fiery god, and kissed by the drowsy
winds.

The journey can be made either by boat or rail,
but the boat is the better w^ay. At every turn of
the river the panorama changes. Here one be
holds an ever-shifting vista of level fields, verdant
hill slopes, and towering precipices, and there the
water pours in a thunderous cascade over the
mossy timbers of a mill dam; and we see a rugged
fisherman, perched upon the sloping lockwall, and
dangling his feet in the frothy foam, fishing and
dreaming.

Before white men set foot in the valley it was
the home of the far-famed Delaware Indians, who
gave to the river its poetic name.

The lodge of the Delaware stood on its shore,
And his fragile canoe cut its foam;

His sinewy arm plied the light ashen oar
As he stemmed the fierce current near home;

While back in the forest when flowers were out-
And the sweetest of perfumes did blow,

The cliff and the hillside reechoed the shout
Of the copper-hued children below.

32 JEREMIAH M. BUSK.

From Marietta, TV here the Muskingum de
bouches into the Ohio, to Zanesville, a distance of
eighty miles, dams and locks have been placed,
about ten miles apart, and these are the source of
abundant water power, utilized by the mills and
factories upon the stream.

These public works have much changed the ap
pearance of the picturesque river. Now no longer
a swift dashing torrent, fretting its banks, tum
bling and frothing over the numerous rocky ob
structions in its way, it has been transformed into
a chain of placid lakes, navigable throughout their
course for freight and passenger steamers. The
steamboat has superseded the dugout canoe, and
factories now buzz where stood the wigwams of
the savage; and where he once chased the deer
and tracked the wolf we find cultivated fields and
white-painted farm houses.

A hamlet now stands where the wigwam of bark
Was outlined against the huge trees;

The fire of a furnace illumines the dark,
And the black smoke is borne on the breeze,

Where many moons past the tired warrior wound
The blanket about his great form,

And, throwing himself on the hard-frozen ground,
Would slumber protected and warm.

The Moose Eye rolls down from the north as of old,
But its current is hindered and stayed

By works that have called for both courage and gold —
Such dams as the beaver ne'er made.

No dugout canoe on its surface now floats,
And the dip of the paddle is still,

But the echoes are waked by the puff of the boats
And the buzz of the wheels at the mill.

THE VALLEY OF THE MUSKINGUM. 33

From one end to the other the valley is replete
with historical places. Beginning at Point Har-
mer, at the mouth of the river, the first white set
tlement in Ohio, the ascending tourist passes in
succession the scene of the block house massacre
at Big Bottom; the sites of the homes of the chris
tianized and hermitized Delaware Indian chief
tains, Silver Heels and Douda; the little and big
Ludlo's, where the keel-boat builders launched
their vessels in the early part of the century; the
precipitous point where brave John Morgan and
his band of taterdemalion raiders crossed the
river in the latter days of the war of the rebellion;
the log cabin where James A. Garfield taught a
school when a mere lad; the Whetzel Rock, on
which the famous Indian-fighter, Lewis Whetzel,
carved his name with a horn-handled hunting-
knife; Dead Man's Rock, etc. Messrs. James M.
Rusk, nephew of Jeremiah M. Rusk, and Jesse
Davis of McConnelsville, propose to mark with a
monument the site of the block-house massacre,
the bloodiest tragedy that ever occurred on the
now peaceful banks of the Muskingum. A re
liable account of that terrible affair will be of in
terest.

The first settlement in Morgan County, made at

Big Bottom, on the Muskingum, near the south

line of the county, was broken up by the Indians.

In the autumn of 1790 a company of thirty-six

3

34 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

men went from Marietta and commenced the set
tlement. They erected a block-house on the first
bottom on the east bank of the river, four miles
above the mouth of Meigs Creek. They were
chiefly young, single men, but little acquainted
with Indian warfare or military rules.

Those best acquainted with the Indians, and
those most capable of judging from appearances,
had little doubt that they were preparing for hos
tilities, and strongly opposed the settlers going
out that fall, advising them to remain until spring,
when the question of war or peace would probably
be settled. Even Gen. Putnam, and the directors
of the Ohio Company, who gave away the land for
settlement thought the adventure imprudent, and
strongly remonstrated against it.

But the young men were impatient, confident in
their own prudence and ability to protect them
selves. They went, put up a block-house which
might accommodate them all in an emergency,
covered it, and laid puncheon floors, stairs, etc. It
was built of large beech logs, and left rather open,
the logs not being "chinked." Here was their first
great error. Ceasing to complete the work, the
general interest was lost in that of individual con
venience.

Their second error was that they kept no sentry,
and neglected to stockade and set pickets around
the block-house. No system of defense and dis
cipline wras introduced. Their guns lay, without

THE VALLEY OF THE MUSKINGUM. 35

order, about the house. Twenty men usually
stayed in the house, but at the time of the mas
sacre some of this number were absent. One end
of the building was appropriated for a fireplace,
and at the close of day all came in, a large fire was
built, and the cooking and eating of suppers be
gan. The weather for some time previous to the
attack, as we learn from the diary of Hon. Paul
Fearing, who lived at Fort Harmer, had been
quite cold. It was not customary for the Indians
to venture out on war parties in the midst of
winter.

About twenty rods above the block-house, and
a little back from the bank of the river, Francis
and Isaac Choate, members of the company, had
erected a cabin and commenced clearing their
lots. Thomas Shaw, a hired laborer in the em
ploy of the Choates, and James Patten, another of
the associates, lived with them. About the same
distance below the garrison was an old "toma
hawk improvement" and a small cabin which two
men, Asa and Eleazer Bullard, had fitted up and
now occupied. The Indian war path from San-
dusky to the mouth of the Muskingum passed
along the opposite shore, in sight of the river.

The Indians, who, during the summer, had been
hunting and loitering about the settlements at
Wolf Creek Mills and Plainfield, holding frequent
and apparently friendly intercourse with the set
tlers, bartering venison and bear meat for green

36 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

corn and vegetables, had withdrawn early in the
autumn, and gone well up the river into the vi
cinity of their towns, for winter quarters. Being
well acquainted with all the approaches to these
settlements, and with the manner in which the in
habitants lived, each family in their own cabin,
unapprehensive of danger, the Indians planned a
war party for their destruction. It is said they
were not aware of a settlement at Big Bottom
until they came in sight of it, on the opposite shore
of the river, one afternoon. From a high hill op
posite the garrison they obtained a view of all
that part of the bottom, and could see how the
men were occupied, and what was going on about
the block-house. Having reconnoitered the situ
ation, they crossed the river on the ice just at twi
light and divided their men into two parties, the
larger one of which was to attack the block-house,
and the smaller one to make prisoners of the few
men living in Choate's cabin without giving the
alarm to those below. The plan was skillfully
arranged and promptly executed. As the party
cautiously approached the cabin, they found the
inmates at supper. Some of the Indians entered,
while others stood without by the door and ad
dressed the men in a friendly manner, who, sus
pecting no harm, offered them food, of which they
partook. Looking about the room, the Indians
espied some leather thongs and pieces of cord that
had been used in packing venison, and then

THE VALLEY OF THE MUSK1NGUM. 37

quickly seizing the white men by the arms, told
them they were prisoners. Finding it useless to
resist, the Indians being more numerous, they sub
mitted to their fate in silence.

While this was transacting, the other party had
reached the block-house unobserved. The door
was thrown open by a stout Mohawk, who stepped
in and stood by the door to keep it open, while his
companions without shot down those around the
fire. A man by the name of Zebulon Throop, from
Massachusetts, was frying meat, and fell dead by
the fire, and several others fell at this discharge.
The Indians then rushed in and killed with the
tomahawk all who were left. No resistance seems
to have been offered by any of the men, so sud
den and unexpected was the attack; but a stout,
backwoods, Virginia woman, the wife of Isaac
Meeks, who was employed as a hunter, seized an
axe and made a blow at the head of the Indian
who opened the door. A slight turn of the head
saved his skull, and the axe passed down through
his cheek into the shoulder, leaving a huge gash
that severed nearly half his face. The woman
was instantly killed by the tomahawk of one of
^his companions. This was the only injury re
ceived by the Indians. While the slaughter was
going on, John Stacy, a young man in the prime
of life, the son of Col. William Stacy, sprang up
the stairway and out upon the roof; while his
brother Philip, a lad of sixteen years, secreted

38 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

himself under some bedding in a corner of the
room. The Indians soon discovered the former,
and shot him while he was in the act of begging
them, for God's sake, to spare his life, saying that
he was the only one left.

This was heard by the Billiards, who, alarmed
by the firing at the block-house, had run out of
their cabin to see what was the matter. Discov
ering the Indians around the house, they sprang
back into their hut, seized their rifles and amuni-
tion, and, closing the door after them, ran into the
woods in a direction concealed by the cabin from
the view of the Indians. They had barely escaped
when they heard their door, which was made of
thin clapboards, burst open by the Indians, who
did not pursue them, as there was a good fire
burning, and food for supper was smoking hot on
the table. After the slaughter was over and the
scalps secured (one of the most important acts in
the warfare of the American savages), they pro
ceeded to collect the plunder, in removing which
the lad, Philip Stacy, was discovered. Toma
hawks were instantly raised to dispatch him,
when he threw himself at the feet of one of the
leading warriors, begging protection. The sav
age took compassion on his youth, or else his re
venge was glutted with the slaughter already
made, and interposing his authority saved the
boy's life. After removing everything valuable,
they tore up the floor, piled it on the dead bodies

THE VALLEY OF THE MUSKINGUM. 39

and set it on fire, thinking to destroy the block
house with the carcasses of their enemies. The
building being made of green beech logs, the fires
only consumed the floors and roof, leaving the
walls still standing wrhen visited the next day by
the wrhites.

There were twelve persons killed in this attack,
viz.: John Stacy, Ezra Putnam, son of Major Put
nam, of Marietta; John Camp and Zebulon Throop
—these men were from Massachusetts; Jonathan
Farewell and James Couch, from New Hampshire;
William James, from Connecticut; Joseph Clark,
Rhode Island; Isaac Meeks, his wife and two chil
dren, from Virginia.

After this the Indians bent their steps toward
the Wolf Creek Mills; but finding the people there
awake and on the lookout, prepared for an attack,
they did nothing more than reconnoitre the place
and made their retreat at early dawn, to the great
relief of the inhabitants. The number of Indians
who came over from Big Bottom was never known.

The next day Captain Rogers led a party of men
over to Big Bottom. It was a melancholy sight
to the poor borderers, who knew not how soon a
similar fate might befall themselves. The action
of the fire, although it did not consume, had so
blackened and disfigured the dead that few of
them could be recognized. The body of Ezra Put
nam was known by a pewter plate that lay under
him. His mother's name was on the bottom of

40 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

the plate, to which a part of the cake he had been
baking at the fire still adhered. William James
was recognized by his great size, he being six feet
four inches in height, and stoutly built. He had
a piece of bread clenched in his right hand, and
was probably in the act of eating, with his back
to the door, when the fatal rifle shot took effect.
As the ground was frozen outside, a hole was dug
within the walls of the house, and the bodies con
signed to one grave. No further attempt was
made at a settlement here until after the peace,
in 1795.

Midway in the valley lie the twin villages of
McConnelsville and Malta, connected by a covered
wooden bridge, and walled in by tree-crowned
hills. The country around about them is quaint
and delightful.

The most notable natural curiosity on the whole
river is the Devil's Tea Table, situated on the east
side of the stream, three miles above McConnels
ville. It stands on the bald top of a great hill,
and is a landmark for miles up and down the river.
From it the ground slopes rapidly in all directions,
giving it imposing prominence. It consists of a
quadrangular or diamond-shaped table of sand
stone, huge in size, and supported by a slender
base or stem of shale. Its dimensions are about
as follows: height, 25 feet; length, 33 feet; and
width, 20 feet. It is estimated that the table
alone weighs over 300 tons. The base is about

THE VALLEY OF THE MUSKINGUM. 41

40 feet in circumference, and seems all too frail
to support its cumbrous load. The ground in the
vicinity is strewn with fragments of shale that
have crumbled from the base in times past. From
whatever side the rock is viewed, it appears to
lean in that direction; and the timid observer
standing near it feels in danger of instant de
struction.

The origin of the name, "Devil's Tea Table," can
not be ascertained. As early as 1800 chance trav
elers in the valley knew it by this name, which
is probably derived from the fact that the Indians
held the place and rock in superstitious awe, con
sidering it the abode of evil spirits.

Several attempts have been made to overthrow
the gigantic stone table. In 1820 several keel-
boatmen made the effort, and many persons gath
ered to witness the fall. The forms of the boat
men have long since crumbled to mother dust, but
the sturdy stone still resists the leveling hand of
time.

Persons who saw the rock a half century ago
say that it looked as much like falling then as it
does today. Its equilibrium is perfect, and this
alone retains it in position.

Many theories have been advanced to account
for this curious formation, but undoubtedly its
real origin is as follows: It was a part of the
ledge of massive rocks that formed the crest of
the hill when the surrounding land was at a

42 JEREMIAH J/. RUSK.

higher level than at present. The ceaseless ac
tion of frost, wind and water crumbled and dis
solved the sandstone; the underlying stratum of
shale next yielded, until this great sentinel stood
alone.

As many as twenty-live or thirty persons have
congregated on the table at one time; and the
older inhabitants occasionally danced cotillions
upon its level top. Of late years, however, it has
assumed a more decrepit and tottering appear
ance, and only the boldest venture to mount to its
dizzy summit. Kecent observers claim that they
have felt distinct vibrations of the mass when
standing upon it. If this be true it will not long-
retain its present poise.

Many are the legends connected with the rock,
but no legend can add to the picturesque weird-
ness of the table itself. It has kept its watch
while nations have risen from obscurity, and gone
down into eternal darkness!

A monster rock! Firm-poised it stands
Upon a base of crumbling shale;

'Twas shaped by Satan's cunning hands
In ages past — so runs the tale —
And served hell's demons, great and small,
As table to their banquet hall.
Though countless years have rolled away,
The Devil's table stands to-day
As firm as when, with hellish glee,
The black imps held their revelry.

Beyond the blue Muskin gum's bed
It rears its gray and wrinkled head;

THE VALLEY OF THE MUSKINQUM. 48

Though aged, still erect, sublime,
It gazes on the march of time,
And towers above the verdant sod,
A monument to nature's God.
When years on years have hurried past,
Until God's dial marks the last,
Oh may the grim old rock still keep
Its vigil on the stony steep!

44 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER IV.
PIONEER DAYS IN THE VALLEY.

It was in this Valley of the Muskingum, near
the head waters of one of its main tributaries,
Wolf Creek, that Daniel Rusk, the son of James,
and the father of Jeremiah M. Rusk, located,
nearly seventy-five years ago; and here he carved
out of what was then primeval wilderness a home
for his family. He acquired a competence, and
took so great interest in the general affairs of the
community that even to this day he is remembered
as one of the few who assisted largely in the build
ing up of the stalwart civilization which has char
acterized the Valley from the time of its first set
tlement.

During the first fifteen years of this century the
great thoroughfare between Kentucky, Indiana
and the Eastern States passed through Zanesville,
and along the road the emigrants from the more
thickly settled East traveled, incidentally afford
ing occupation to some hundreds of tavern keep
ers, and consuming all the corn raised in many
miles to the north and south. Over this highway,

PIONEER DA YS IN THE VALLEY. 45

every spring and autumn, goods purchased at
Pittsburg were wagoned to their final destina
tions, and along it passed groups of merchants,
who always traveled by easy stages, accompanied
by led horses, some laden with Spanish dollars.
Usually these merchants banded themselves to
gether for mutual protection, and were well armed
with dirks and pistols. Goods which were not
wagoned were sent through from Pittsburg to
Zanesville by flat-boats or keel-boats, and it was
while acting as a hand on a keel-boat that Daniel
Kusk first became acquainted wTith the beauties of
the Muskingum Valley. This was in 1809, when
Zanesville was only a village. He attended a corn-
husking near Zanesville, and was the envied guest
of the evening, being the fortunate finder of the
first red ear, which entitled him to the privilege
of a kiss from the damsel he considered the fairest
of all present, and to her hand in the opening
dance.

Greatly impressed by what he had seen on this,
his first visit to the Valley, Daniel Rusk returned
to the home of his parents, near Pittsburg, and
urged them to change their abode, but failed to
enamor them with this idea. To their minds Ohio
w^as the far, far West, a country too remote from
civilization, and one in which the dog and gun
were of too great importance. The young man's
ardor was thus for a time restrained, but not for
long. His mother's sister had married a man

46 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

named Poe, whose Celtic family had come down
the centuries side by side with the Rusks (or
Koux), the original name being De la Poe. Edgar
Allan Poe belonged to this family. Two of Dan
iel's cousins, Andrew and Adam Poe, were noted
pioneers, whose names had long been household
words throughout Pennsylvania, Virginia and
Ohio for the qualities of courage and piety.
They, together with Lewis TVhetzel, were among
the most renowned "Indian fighters" of those days,
and we think that in the story of a life beginning
shortly after their time, it will not be out of place
to insert an extract from Doddridge's Notes, nar
rating one conspicuous deed of their valor:

"In the summer of 1782 a party of seven Wyan-
dots made an incursion into a settlement some
distance below Fort Pitt, and several miles from
the Ohio river. Here, finding an old man alone in
a cabin, they killed him, packed up what plunder
they could find, and commenced their retreat.
Among their party was a celebrated Wyandot
chief, who, in addition to his fame as a warrior
and a counsellor, was, as to his size and strength,
a real giant.

"The news of the visit of the Indians soon
spread through the neighborhood, and a party of
eight good riflemen wras collected in a few hours
for the purpose of pursuing the Indians. In this
party were two brothers named Adam and An-

PIONEER DAYS IN THE VALLEY. 47

drew Poe. They were both famous for courage,
size and activity.

"This little party commenced the pursuit of the
Indians, with a determination, if possible, not to
suffer them to escape, as they usually did on such
occasions, by making a speedy flight to the river,
crossing it, and then dividing into small parties,
to meet at a distant point in a given time.

"The pursuit was continued the greater part of
the night after the Indians had done the mischief.
In the morning the party found themselves on the
trail of the Indians, which led to the river. When
arrived within a little distance of the river, An
drew Poe, fearing an ambuscade, left the party,
which followed directly on the trail, to creep
along the brink of the river bank, under cover of
the weeds and bushes, and fall on the rear of the
Indians should he find them in ambuscade. He
had not gone far before he saw the Indian rafts at
the water's edge. Not seeing any Indians he
stepped softly down the bank, with his rifle
cocked. When about halfway down he discov
ered the large Wyandot chief and a small In
dian within a few steps of him. They were stand
ing with their guns cocked, and looking in the
direction of our party, who by this time had gone
some distance lower down the bottom. Poe took
aim at the large chief, but his rifle missed fire.
The Indians, hearing the snap of the gun-lock, in
stantly turned round and discovered Poe, who, be-

48 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

ing too near them to retreat, dropped his gun and
sprang from the bank upon them, and seizing the
large Indian by the cloths on his breast, and at
the same time embracing the neck of the small
one, threw them both down on the ground, him
self being uppermost. The small Indian soon ex
tricated himself, ran to the raft, got his toma
hawk and attempted to dispatch Poe, whom the
large Indian held fast in his arms, the better to
enable his fellow to effect his purpose. Poe, how
ever, so well watched the motions of the Indian,
that when in the act of aiming a blow at hia
head, by a vigorous and well-directed kick he
staggered the savage and knocked the tomahawk
out of his hand. This failure on the part of the
small Indian was reproved by an exclamation of
contempt from the large one.

"In a moment the Indian caught up his toma
hawk again, and approached more cautiously,
brandishing the weapon and making a number of
feigned blows, in defiance and derision. Poe,
however, still on his guard, averted the real blow
from his head by throwing up his arm and receiv
ing it on his wrist, in which he wras severely
wounded, but not so as to lose entirely the use of
his hand.

"In this perilous moment Poe, by a violent ef
fort, broke loose from the Indian, snatched up one
of their guns, and shot the small Indian through

PIONEER DAYS IN THE VALLEY. 49

the breast as he ran up the third time to toma
hawk him.

"The large Indian was now on his feet, and
grasping Poe by a shoulder and leg, threw him
down on the bank. Poe instantly disengaged
himself and arose. The Indian seized him again
and a new struggle ensued, which, owing to the
slippery state of the bank, ended in the fall of
both combatants into the water.

"In this situation it was the object of each to
drown the other. Their efforts to effect their pur
pose were continued for some time with alternate
success, sometimes one being under the water and
sometimes the other. Poe at length seized the
tuft of hair on the scalp of the Indian, by which
he held his head under until he supposed him
drowned.

"Relaxing his hold too soon, Poe instantly
found his gigantic antagonist on his feet again,
and ready for another combat. In this they were
carried into the water beyond their depth, and
were compelled to loose their hold on each other
and swim for mutual safety. Both sought the
shore to seize a gun and end the contest. The
Indian, being the better swimmer, reached the
land first. Poe, seeing this, immediately turned
back into the water to escape being shot, by div
ing. Fortunately the Indian caught up the rifle
with which Poe had killed the other warrior. At
4

50 JEREMIAH M. BUSK.

this juncture Adam Poe, missing his brother from
the party, and supposing from the report of the
gun that he was either killed or engaged in con
flict with the Indians, hastened to the spot. See
ing him, Andrew called out to him to kill the big
Indian on shore, but Adam's gun, like that of the
Indian, was empty. The contest was now be
tween the white man and the Indian as to which
should load and fire first. Very fortunately for
Poe, the Indian in loading drew the ramrod from
the thimbles of the gun stock with so much vio
lence that it slipped out of his hand; but he
quickly caught it up and rammed down his bul
let. This little delay, however, gave Poe the ad
vantage. He shot the Indian as he was raising
his gun.

"As soon as Adam had shot the Indian he
jumped into the river to assist his wounded
brother to shore; but Andrew, thinking more of
the honor of carrying the big Indian home as a
trophy of victory than of his own safety, urged
Adam to go back and prevent the struggling sav
age from rolling himself into the river and es
caping. Adam's solicitude for the life of his
brother prevented him from complying with this
request.

"In the meantime the Indian, jealous of the
honor of his scalp, even in the agonies of death
succeeded in reaching the river and getting into
the current, so that his body was never obtained.

PIONEER DA YS IN THE VALLEY. 51

"An unfortunate occurrence took place during
this conflict. Just as Adam arrived at the top of
the bank for the relief of his brother, one of the
party who had followed close behind him, seeing
Andrew in the river, and mistaking him for a
wounded Indian, shot at him and wounded him
in the shoulder. He, however, recovered from his
wounds.

"During the contest between Andrew Poe and
the Indians the party had overtaken the remain
ing six of them. A desperate conflict ensued, in
which five of the Indians were killed. Our loss
was three men killed, and Adam Poe severely
wounded.

"Thus ended this Spartan conflict, with the loss
of three valued men on our part, and with that of
the whole of the Indian party, with the exception
of one warrior. Never on any occasion was there
a greater display of desperate bravery.

"The fatal issue of this little campaign on the
side of the Indians occasioned universal mourning
among the Wyandot nation. The big Indian, with
his four brothers, all of whom were killed at the
same place, were among the most distinguished
chiefs and warriors of their nation.

"The big Indian was magnanimous as well as
brave. He, more than any other individual, con
tributed by his example and influence to the good
character of the Wyandots for lenity toward their
prisoners. He would not suffer them to be killed

52 JEREMIAH M. EUFK.

or ill treated. This mercy to captives was an hon
orable distinction in the character of the Wyan-
dots, and was well understood by our first settlers,
who, in case of captivity, thought it a fortunate
circumstance to fall into their hands."

The following addition to the above story, taken
from llenr}" Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio
(1854), will be of interest:

"Those of today can scarcely realize the inten
sity of delight with which the tales then current,
narrating the deeds of prowess and of magnanim
ity, both of the whites and the Indians, were re
counted by the early settlers. Time and again
they would meet at each other's homes, and
eagerly listen to these stories of adventure, and
by this means not a little of the courage, patriot
ism and manliness of their children and their chil
dren's children was thus instilled. The story of
the affair above given [which Mr. Howe quotes. —
Ed.] would hardly be complete without its sequel,
in which the brighter side of the Indian character
is revealed, and which may serve to indicate the
softening influence of Christianity upon these sav
age people.

"After the conflict of Poe with the Indians the
Wyandots determined on revenge. Poe then lived
on the west side of the Ohio river, at the mouth of
Little Yellow creek. Rohn-y en-ness, a Christian
Indian, was chosen as a proper person to murder
him and then make his own escape, He went to

PIONEER DAYS IN THE VALLEY. 53

Poe's house, and was met with great friendship.
Poe not having any suspicion of his design, the
best in the house was furnished him. When the
time to retire for sleep came, Poe made a pallet on
the floor for his Indian guest. He and his wife
went to bed in the same room. Rohn-yen-ness said
they both soon fell asleep. There being no person
about the house but some children, this afforded
the Indian a fair opportunity to have executed
his purpose; but the kindness they had both
shown him worked in his mind. He asked him
self how he could get up and kill even an enemy
that had taken him in and treated him so well —
so much like a brother. The more he thought
about it the worse he felt; but still, on the other
hand, he was sent by his nation to avenge the
death of two of its most valued warriors; and
their ghosts would not be appeased until the blood
of Poe was shed. There, he said, he lay in this
conflict of mind until about midnight. The duty
he owed to his nation and to the spirits of his de
parted friends aroused him. He seized his knife
and tomahawk, and crept to the bedside of his
sleeping host. Again the kindness he had re
ceived from Poe stared him in the face; and he
said to himself that it was mean, that it was un
worthy the character of an Indian warrior, to kill
even an enemy who had so kindly treated him. He
went back to his pallet and slept until morning.
"His kind host loaded him with blessings, and

54 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

told him that they were once enemies, but now
they had buried the hatchet and were brothers,
and hoped they would always be so. Rohn-yen-
ness, overwhelmed with a sense of the generous
treatment he had received from his once powerful
enemy, but now his kind friend, left him to join
his party.

"He said the more he reflected on what he had
done and the course he had pursued, the more he
was convinced that he had done right. This once
revengeful savage warrior was overcome by the
kindness of an evening, and all his plans frus
trated.

"This man became one of the most pious and
devoted of the Indian converts. Although a chief,
he was as humble as a child. He used his steady
influence against the traders and their firewater."

The tomahawk with which the Indian struck
Andrew Poe, as told in the story above, remains
in the possession of the Poe family, and it may
here be mentioned that the sword worn and used
in the revolutionary war by James Rusk is now
owned by the family of his illustrious descendant.

Daniel Rusk, upon whom the tales of his cous
ins' bravery had made a profound impression,
visited them at their home in Columbiana County,
Ohio, and this was one of the most important
events in his life, for it was at that time, noting
their firm faith in the souPs immortality, and their
strict adherence to the tenets of the most severe

PIONEER DAYS IN THE VALLEY. 55

Presbyterian sect, that his heart was turned to
the contemplation of the life beyond this world.
Accepting their faith as his own, he united with
the church and devoted himself to its interests.

It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader
that for a year or more preceding the war of 1812,
a condition existed which invited violence, es
pecially toward the weaker settlements in the
Northwest Territory, which were frequently
marked as the scenes of devastation perpetrated
by Indians, but instigated by the British govern
ment. The history of those times is still familiar,
and need not be again detailed here. All was un
settled; immigration was checked, and upon the
outbreak of the war was wholly suspended for a
year or two. But no sooner had the war ended
than the tide of home-seekers, so stemmed and
stayed for a time, moved forward — westward — in
a mighty wave. Very shortly after the good news
of peace which followed the battle of New Or
leans, Daniel Rusk, now a man of family, bur
dened a pack-horse with most of his earthly pos
sessions, shouldered his rifle, led another horse
bearing his wife and two children, and made his
way to the locality now known as Clayton Town
ship, Perry County, Ohio, near the head waters of
the Hocking. Here he erected a log cabin, and a
little later, in 1815, returned to Pittsburg,
whence he brought back the families of his own
and his wife's fathers, who then made their homes

56 JEREMIAH M. II USK.

near that of their enterprising and courageous
son. Their bones repose in the rural graveyards
of that vicinity. The grandfather of Jeremiah M.
Rusk was the first to be buried in the graveyard
of Unity Presbyterian Church, in the northeastern
part of Perry County.

In 1817 there happened an event which was
then of really great importance, though in our
own times it would hardly be more than a nine-
days' wonder. The President of the United States
made a tour through Maryland, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, New Jersey, Xew York and the New Eng
land States. He was everywhere received with
demonstrations of loyal attachment, the out
growth of the reverence in which men held their
high officials in those days. He was to stop at
Zanesville, and the day of his coming was looked
forward to as a great day for that section of Ohio.
Elaborate preparations were made for his recep
tion. The people came from very many miles
around in all directions. Hundreds camped out
over night, and perhaps no Eastern potentate was
ever accorded a more enthusiastic show of devo
tion than was given to President Monroe at this
time. Among those who attended the affair, to
pay respects to their ruler, as a matter of duty,
was Daniel Rusk, and to the day of his death he
cherished with pride his recollection of the trip.
The address of welcome, prepared by a joint com-

PIONEER DAYS IN THE VALLEY. 57

mittee of the citizens of Zanesville and Putnam,
was as follows:

"To JAMES MOXROE,

President of the United States.

"Sir: The citizens of Zanesville and Putnam,
through this committee, embrace with sincere
pleasure the occasion of tendering to you their
best wishes, and a cordial welcome on your safe
arrival at this place.

"Sensible that we have little to offer which can
be interesting to our Chief Magistrate, save the
spontaneous affection and high regard which a
free, independent and republican people entertain
for the distinguished citizen whom they have vol
untarily chosen to preside over the councils of this
nation, and whose administration has commenced
under the most favorable auspices, we forbear to
fatigue your attention by entering into a detail of
the various and important views necessarily con
nected with the occasion and the time.

"We, however, congratulate you on the fortun
ate circumstances that have combined to place the
American Republic in a more exalted station
among the nations of the earth, at the commence
ment of your administration, than at any former
period during the administrations of your distin
guished predecessors.

"Our confidence in your wisdom and fidelity to
discharge the high duties of Chief Magistrate of

58 JEEEMIAII M. RUSK.

a nation of freemen is founded not only in the zeal
and ability with which you have supported and
defended the best interests of the American na
tion, during- a long life of official labor, but, in the
motives that have induced your present tour, in
which we discover the most conclusive evidence of
your intention to qualify yourself in an eminent
degree to watch over the destinies of a great, free,
and happy people; and we trust that the benefits
to be derived from a practical view of the different
sections of the union will ampl}' compensate the
sacrifice of personal ease, through the additional
knowledge acquired of the means necessary to pro
mote the public welfare.

"The novel spectacle of beholding the First
Magistrate of a great people, traversing an ex
tensive empire in pursuit of such information as
will best enable him to discharge the important
duties incident to his station, affords the strongest
assurances of his entire devotion to the best inter
ests of his country, and excites in the minds of
his constituents the most agreeable sensations;
and amongst the incidents which will be recol
lected with pride and pleasure by the inhabitants
of our villages, none will leave a stronger or more
agreeable impression than the cordial visit of
their Chief Magistrate and his distinguished suite.

"The western people, ever faithful to the prin
ciples of liberty and the integrity of the Union,
will generally rejoice in the presence of their Chief

PIONEER DA YS IN THE VALLEY. 59

Magistrate, whose anxiety for the public weal has
brought him among them. And though our coun
try at present exhibits but a faint view of culti
vation and refinement, we trust our internal re
sources and natural advantages, with a disposi
tion further to improve them by industry and art,
will entitle us to a full share of the patronage and
fostering care of the executive government.

"Sincerely hoping that you may enjoy health
and comfort, and a safe return (after the accom
plishment of your further views) to the seat of the
general government, and the society of your fam
ily and friends, is the united wish of all our hearts.

"In behalf of the Committee,

"D. CHAMBERS, Chairman."

To this address the President made an extem
poraneous reply of considerable length. The fol
lowing sketch, taken from memory, embraces its
leading points:

He commenced by expressing his high sense of
the kind attention on the part of the citizens of
Zanesville and Putnam, and said that the splendid
etiquette of courts was not necessary to evince
attachment; that the unaffected manner in which
he had been received comported with his princi
ples and habits of plainness, and was most grate
ful to his feelings.

He was gratified to find that the objects of his
tour were so well understood and appreciated by

60 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

his fellow citizens. To provide for the public de
fense was the duty of the Chief Magistrate, and
for this purpose he had traversed the United
States from the eastern extremity to Detroit, and
had found a people, free, united, and resolved to
maintain and defend their republican govern
ment. The auspicious circumstances under which
he had commenced his executive duties were the
result of efficient resistance made to foreign ag
gression. We were now, he observed, in a state
of peace; but however desirous for its continu
ance, all history, and especially the history of our
own country, proved that we could not always
avoid war. Should this evil again assail us, it
was hoped we should be found prepared; but in
any event, the same zeal and courage of a free peo
ple which had already been displayed could again
be brought into action. For what was it that
had lately resisted effectually the powerful at
tacks of a ruthless foe, who desolated our coast,
and even let loose upon us the savages of the for
est? Was it not our army, our navy, and our
brave militia and volunteers — men to whom the
use of arms wras imperfectly known before the oc
casion wrhich demanded their employment? He
also noticed in terms of approbation the conduct
of the people of the Western States during the re
cently ended contest with Great Britain.

He remarked that as Chief Magistrate of the
nation he was always h'appy to meet his fellow

PIONEER DAYS IN THE VALLEY. 61

citizens; but in his intercourse with them, while
supporting the dignity of his station, he could
never forget that he was also a citizen; that in his
progress through the State of Ohio he perceived
with admiration and delight the improvements
made by citizens from other States, many of
whom, then present, must have found this coun
try in a rude, uncultivated condition; that he con
templated with pleasure such an augmentation
of its strength; that in a state of peace it is neces
sary to prepare for war; for who amongst us could
say how soon we might again be called upon to
support by force of arms the principles of our gov
ernment and the interests of the people? In the
event of another war he should do his duty, and
should rely on the cooperation of his fellow citi
zens in doing theirs.

If apology is necessary for the circumstantiality
with which this episode in the life of Daniel Rusk
has been introduced, it may be said that in his
lifetime the power of the public press was only in
its infancy. Only a very few in the great throng
that gathered at Zanesville to look upon their
President, and to listen to his words, had access
to a newspaper. The sterling Americanism of
Mr. Monroe's remarks and those of the reception
committee was to all who heard them a treasure
of the memory, and the man who had been at
Zanesville on that day, and could repeat the

62 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

thoughts there expressed, had become an educator
of the people. He was visited by all of his less
fortunate neighbors, eager to hear his account;
and from the simple story that he had to tell he
was able to derive lessons which assisted him in
the inspiration of his own family, and solemn
truths found lodgment in minds unreachable by
our more modern agencies.

BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY TRAINING. 63

CHAPTER V.

BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY TRAINING OF JEREMIAH
M. RUSK.

In 1829 the wave of settlement had forced itself
into the Valley of the Muskingum, and Daniel
Rusk, then a man of forty-three, having by that
time accumulated a fair share of this world's
goods, purchased about four hundred acres in the
town of Deerfield, Morgan County, adjoining the
Perry County line, and entered energetically upon
the work which was to constitute the last chap
ters of his life. He built what was then consid
ered a more than ordinary dwelling for a pioneer,
a double log-cabin, so-called, consisting of two
cabins, with a roofed space of eight or ten feet
between them. In this cabin, on the 17th day of
June, 1830, Jeremiah McLain Rusk was born.

Daniel cleared his land and planted one of the
most extensive orchards in all that section of the
country. Every year, in the fruit season, the Rusk
place was visited by neighbors for miles around,
to whom surprising quantities of apples, peaches,
cherries and plums were given away, there being

64 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

no sale for "green" fruit then, and canning being
at that time unknown.

His new home fairly established, General Rusk's
father engaged in the pursuit of what was then
known as "wagoning" — neighborhood transporta
tion, lie and one John Milligan shared the entire
express business of the district, conveying to mar
ket in great Pennsylvania wagons, with a capacity
of over three tons, and hauled by teams of five or
six horses, the products of the farm, and bringing
back from Zanesville, on the Muskingum, from
Marietta, where that river joins the Ohio, and
from other points, whatever was required for
home use and could not be home-made.

Daniel Rusk was a thoughtful, practical man,
who did his own thinking, and was also called
upon to act as a counsellor throughout the neigh
borhood in which he lived. He was a promoter of
the public schools, which in Ohio superseded the
"subscription" schools about the year 1825. He
gave aid in fostering debating societies, in that
day the people's oratorical universities. He was
a deacon in the church. He admired and sup
ported General Jackson, but the arbitrary acts of
his administration as President, the hard times
that followed, and the agitation of the slavery
question, caused him to reconsider his political
belief, and in 1840, at the time of the "Log-cabin"
campaign of William Henry Harrison, he joined

BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY TRAINING. 65

the ranks of the Whigs, to whom he contributed
his support until the day of his death.

He was a religious man of the old school. It
is now but a few years to the time when no man
living can say that he knew the piety peculiar to
those days and the days preceding them. The de
votional exercises practiced in the Eusk and other
households of that period are observed in no re
ligious community on earth today.

The time for rising was long before dawn; the
family were called together, the Bible read, and
a prayer offered by the father; and all in a solem
nity so profound that the smile of a child would
interrupt it, and be regarded as a certain indica
tion of depravity. Seated at the table, no matter
how humble the meal, all heads were bowed, and
all united in a solemn ceremony. Following the
day of hard toil came a night, the darkness of
which, if the moon did not shine, was dispelled
only in small degree by the imperfect lamps then
used. A wooden or pewter dish was filled with
lard, into which was dropped a rag tied to a but
ton or copper cent and lighted. As the time for
rest drew near all conversation in regard to secu
lar matters ceased, and the last hour before re
tiring was given up to meditation. No other than
religious subjects might be spoken of during this
time. At the awakening and upon the retiring
there was ever present that one great thought—
5

66 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

What is the chief end of man; what his duty to
his God, and how can this duty be performed most
acceptably in His sight?

Fast days were observed, and church days. It
was many miles from the Rusk homestead to the
Presbyterian church, but the very inconvenience
and discomfort of the weary travel was regarded
as a blessing by those privileged to make the sac
rifice.

Above all other days came the Sabbath — the
Lord's Day. It began at dusk on Saturday. All
secular labor had to be completed before sundown,
including the cooking of the morrow's food, and
with the falling of the evening shades came such
a withdrawal of the mind from all affairs of earth,
and such a contemplation of the higher life as is
not practiced now.

On the Sabbath morning there was no exception
to the rule of early rising, following which from
one to three hours were spent in the silent perusal
of religious works and study of the catechism, the
reading of the Bible, and family worship. Then
came the morning meal, cold from the day before,
and after this the study and the meditation were
resumed. There was no dinner. As late as three
or four o'clock the elder children were sometimes
permitted to take the younger ones, always walk
ing with regulated, Puritanical mien and step, to
visit the burying ground on the farm or in the
churchyard, if that were near. In the evening a

BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY TRAINING. 67

warm meal was enjoyed, and the family were al
lowed to indulge in lighter conversation.

At about the time of his removal to Morgan
County the mind of Daniel Rusk became disturbed
by reflections as to the example he was setting in
the way of a hard, rigid, almost intolerant re
ligious life. Always an exemplary man, to whom
those who knew him looked up for advice and di
rection, his sense of moral responsibility was far
greater than it is in most men. To him religion,
the proper devotion of man to God, was the upper
most thought and the grandest matter of fact. He
often quoted the poet Young —

' 'What, then, is unbelief? — 't is an exploit,
A strenuous enterprise. To gain it, man
Must burst through every bar of common sense, of common

shame —
Magnanimously wrong!"

However, a certain liberality which was within
him rose in protest against the chained belief
w^hich he had followed, and the faith to which he
had held was shaken and unsettled by new ideas.
More than now the various classes of Christians
antagonized one another, and the struggle for con
verts was especially fierce in the newly-settled dis
tricts of our country. This is well knowm. It
would be indecorous, as we think, to specify sects
in this connection, and we shall not do so. A re
cent writer has said of one of these, as it appeared
to him at that time, that as there were then very

68 JEREMIAH J/. RUSK.

few public entertainments, and religions meetings
took the place of these for nearly all the people,
things were carried to extremes, and devotional
enthusiasm and extravagant experiences were so
far cultivated, at the expense of propriety, that
many made of their religion a mere dissipation.
A certain sect, never numerically large, and now,
as we think, extinct, or merged with another, suf
fered some little persecution for a time, and the
spirit of fairness, so strong in the breast of Daniel
Rusk, prompted him to assist them by the erection
of a church building which he deeded to them for
their use, primarily, with the condition that it
might at any time be occupied by congregations
of other sects when not required by the one he
meant to especially benefit. This was a house of
hewed logs, long since superseded by a neat frame
structure. In the graveyard adjoining this church,
the spot appropriately marked by their loving and
dutiful son Jeremiah, the bodies of Daniel Rusk
and the wife of his bosom lie buried.

THE UNDERGROUND EAILEOAD. 69

CHAPTER VI.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.

Through Morgan County passed the line of the
"Underground Railroad," the route of transporta
tion from slavery to freedom. Of this mysterious
means of travel others have written, and it will be
written of hereafter; the exposure of its secrets is
no task of ours. The Underground Railroad, so-
called, was a system designed by haters of negro
slavery for conducting its victims from the states
in which that "peculiar institution" was legal into
states where it w^as not, or into the Dominion of
Canada. The organization of this system was al
most perfect. Its main line, the southern termi
nus of which was upon the west bank of the Ohio
river, was the old Lancaster road, running through
or near Chesterfield, Pennsville, Rosseau, Ring-
gold, Morganville, Porterville, Deavertown, and
onward, along the course of the Muskingum, into
Putnam. The equipment of the railroad was com
plete; there wrere regular stations, switches and
sidetracks, and a full roster of agents, conductors,
telegraphers and other officials, all men of inflexi-

70 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

ble integrity, fully appreciating their own rights
and those of others, firm in purpose to maintain
the former and accord the latter, at any cost. Of
the many hundreds of fugitive slaves who were
safely piloted through Morgan County a great
number found their way across the farm of Dan
iel Husk, whose sons inherited his love of freedom.
Every escape from bondage, every change from
the condition of a chattel to that of a man, in
volved adventure. We may be pardoned for in
serting one brief story in illustration of what fre
quently happened in those days of the past, and
can not have failed to exert influence upon the
characters of the men then young:

A caravan of sixteen negroes on the route from
the Ohio to Putnam once produced as much if not
more interest and excitement than would have
been caused by four times the number in smaller
bands. They came from near Parkersburg, Va.,
in the summer of 1342, to within a few miles of
Pennsville, where they remained from Tuesday
until Friday, when they left the station near
James Cole's, with the intention of going to the
river at a point near McConnelsville. After fol
lowing the road a short distance they heard the
sound of horses' feet and knew they were pursued.
Unobserved they secreted themselves in the woods
and undergrowth, so near the road that one of the
hunters who shot a squirrel which fell from a tree
close to where the negroes were hiding, made no

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 71

search for it, being in pursuit of larger game, but
passed on to Pennsville. After remaining several
hours, and consulting with a few of those who
were readily recognized as adepts, and who were
always on the alert for business, the Virginians
arranged the amount of consideration for effective
service, and left for McConnelsville, with the un
derstanding that future discoveries should be re
ported to them.

In the meantime the Underground officials were
not idle; and in anticipation of the return of the
Virginians and a search for the negroes before
they could be removed to a distant locality, the
idea presented itself that the silver glare might
have rendered the skill to scent somewhat obtuse,
and that a false trail would be readily followed.
After dark, while the colored people were safe in
Jehu Coulson's tobacco house, a company of thirty
or forty men, with less than that number of horses,
formed south of the town, and rode at a brisk trot
in the direction of Isaac Clendenin's house, thus
adding to the suspicion already existing that the
negroes were there. Isaac was informed of the
proceedings, and that the hunters would visit and
attempt to search his house, and was advised to
be prepared for them. During the excitement of
this parade, one Joshua Wood noticed at Esquire
Lent's office a number of persons, among whom
was a man named Young, who for a small requit-
tal would lend his mental and physical require-

72 JEREMIAH M. HUSK.

nients to the Virginians, and the sapient Joshua
said in a secret manner to Mr. Lent, "What a sillj
man Isaac Clendeuiu is to harbor those slaves;
these men will certainly search his house and find
them; but don't say anything about it, and per
haps they may not go there."

Young soon left, and in due time Joshua's pre
tended secret was divulged as he desired. About
noon the hunters were on hand, accompanied by
their employes and a number of citizens of the vi
cinity, as well prepared for shooting squirrels as
were the Virginians. Arriving at the house, an
immediate demand for the slaves was made. Isaac
replied:

"Friends, I have not thy slaves; they are not
here."

"But you have, d — n you! they axe here, and by
- we will have them. We intend to search
your house."

"Well, friends, I am a law-abiding man; has
thee a search-warrant?"

"No; but we intend to search."

"Thee can not search my house without a war
rant. I know my rights, and there are those here
who have not the conscientious scruples as to
shedding blood that I have, and who are able and
willing to defend themselves and others. Thee
must have a warrant before thee can search."

This argument was conclusive to the extent that
the hunters, deciding discretion to be more effec-

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 73

tual than bravado, reluctantly accepted the alter
native, and sent three miles to procure a warrant
When it came, after dark, the Virginians, certain
of success, deemed it advisable to wait for day
light; and in order to prevent a removal of their
human goods, a guard was placed outside, while
within there were a goodly number of "squirrel
hunters." During the night considerable rain fell,
which somewhat annoyed those upon the outside,
who took shelter on the porch; but their occu
pancy was made briefer than the storm by a per
emptory request to leave, writh which, under the
circumstances, they deemed it advisable to com
ply. In the morning (Sunday), when the warrant
was presented, the doors were opened and the
search was made. Chagrined by the result and
by the scoffs and jeers of the crowd, with angry
retort they wrere proceeding to another building
to continue the search, when they were stopped.
"Thee has a warrant to search Isaac Clendenin's
house, but that is my mother's house; thee has no
warrant to search it, and thee shall not." This,
accompanied with increased taunts and jeers, so
exasperated the men that one of them indiscreetly
presented a pistol in a threatening manner. The
dropping of rifles from the shoulders of the "squir
rel hunters" and the clicking of locks instantly
followed, and this demonstrative argument was
convincing. With the oozing of courage from the

74 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

slave hunter's soul his pistol was placed in his
pocket.

About this time the Squire, re-examining the
law, had ascertained that he had exceeded his au
thority, and when a messenger was sent for a sec
ond warrant he refused to issue it. Isaac, having
effected the intended object, which was to detain
the pursuers as long as should be necessary, gave
them permission to search, but having become im
pressed with the idea that they were on a false
trail, they made only a superficial search and
quickly abandoned the premises.

Among those anxiously interested to obtain a
portion of the §3,000 reward were several of the
younger denizens of McConnelsville. That night
the negroes were taken to Rosseau, where they
were placed in charge of William Corner and
James Xultou. On the next night they were
started for another station through a drenching
rain. On the road one woman was found to be
missing, and for the balance of the night the other
fugitives were sheltered in George Parsons' barn.
The lost one found her way to the residence of a
man named Garrison McElfresh, and inquired the
way to McConnelsville. He recognized her as a
runaway, and told her to wait until he could put
on his shoes; but she, suspecting that be had an
object in view other than pointing out the road,
left before he completed his toilet, and got to the
residence of Isaac Murphy, who, although an old

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 75

Virginian, gave the conductors notice of her
whereabouts. The next station was at Thomas
Byers', whose house had been searched on the pre
vious day. Thence they proceeded to Jacob Stan-
bery's, where they remained until night. During
the day the pursuers set guards west of Deacon
Wright's and at Campbell's mill, to keep watch
at the junction of the two roads, having been well
posted as to the route by the same persons who
were with them at Pennsville, and who occupied
the position of watchmen. Among the guards
was a pettifogger of the vicinity, who was confi
dent that the negroes were at Stanbery's. After
dark he placed himself horizontally in a fence-
corner, near the house, in order to verify the fact
and report. Soon after he had taken position,
and before he had gained any evidence in the case,
one of the conductors rode up to the fence, at the
point where the fellow was engaged in his investi
gation, and by the aid of a pistol compelled him
to remain there until the "train" left.

Although the departure lightened the watcher's
labors, the result of his work had to be reported in
propria persona at Malta. He had been admonished
by his proximity to a clock in the house that the
current of time had floated nearly to the "wee
sma' hours," and his attitude for observation had
enabled him to perceive that the curtain of night
had a sable lining which obscured all his rela
tions with the starry sky; and additionally, in

76 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

"summing up," he had become entirely satisfied
during his recumbency, and his observations
through the day, that there was a superabund
ance of moisture on the "Walker" line, which
(llobson's option) was the only one he could con
trol. But by it, with an occasional ditching and
now and then a run off the track in rounding a
curve, he was enabled to report at daylight. By
that time the Underground train was well on the
track, and the watchmen at Deacon Wright's and
Campbell's mill were foiled, as the conductors
took a branch track a short distance down Island
Kan, thence up to the head of Brush Creek, and
thence to the river, to a thick brushwood near the
mouth of the Moxahala, where they were met by
the train from Putnam.

The original narrator of this story, whose sar
casm, it is hoped, may be forgiven, states that the
§3,000 worth of negroes thus set free were the
property of Messrs. Henderson and O'Neill, of
Wood County, Virginia, and that in some of them
a Zanesville man had an indirect interest. While
en route for Putnam their owners were stopping
in Zanesville, watching the bridge which the un
derground train would have to pass. But the
bridge-keeper was in the service, and by the use
of closed carriages the crossing was made with
out accident, and the train arrived at its terminus
without misfortune.

LIFE ON THE RUSK FARM. 77

CHAPTER VII.

LIFE ON THE RUSK FARM.

Jane Faulkner Rusk, the mother of Jeremiah
M. Rusk, has been merely mentioned. She was
a woman of mark. In any age, in any country,
her strength of character could not have failed to
influence those around her. She is still referred
to by the younger people of the neighborhoods in
which she lived as "that wonderful woman."
When her husband changed his religion their chil
dren followed him into the new belief, but she did
not. The faith of her father and of her mother
remained her own through four score years, and
until her death the family maintained the severe
observances of pious life of which we have spoken
above. Her children loved and admired her, and
their characters bore testimony to her goodness.
Her death, which occurred at the age of 87, was
widely lamented. Daniel Rusk died in 1846, of
typhoid fever.

Life on the Rusk farm, as described by Mrs.
Jane Rusk Tomlinson, a sinter of Jeremiah, by
Doctor Daniel Rusk, a brother, and by others, was

78 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

typical of farm life throughout that section of
Ohio during the earlier half of the century.

Those living within ten or fifteen miles of one
another were called neighbors. On the forty
miles of road between Athens and Deavertown,
at the time when Daniel liusk settled near the
latter place, at Porterville, there stood but three
houses. The country thereabout was all thickly
wooded, and the rude roads cut out by the pio
neers were only of sufficient width to admit of
the passage of wagons through the forest. Men
had to help each other in those days. Unselfish
ness was necessary to existence, and generosity
was inculcated as a cardinal virtue.

The erection of a log-cabin required the work
of many hands, and was participated in by men
from a considerable distance around, who cheer
fully labored without price. The opprobrium vis
ited upon any lazy fellow who shirked his duty at
such times was hard to bear. If it ever came to
his turn to need like aid, his punishment was cer
tain. Humble in architecture as these comfort
able homes may now seem, their construction was
quite an elaborate affair. In such a cabin, through
a window covered with greased paper, serving the
purposes of glass, many a great man first saw the
light of day.

A fatigue party of choppers and teamsters
felled the trees, which were cut into proper
lengths and hauled to the site selected for the

LIFE ON THE RUSK FARM. 79

new dwelling. Especial care was exercised in
the choice of the tree from which the clapboards
for the roof were to be made. This had to be of
straight grain, and from three to four feet in thick
ness. The boards were not planed or shaved.
Puncheons for the floor were made by splitting
trees of about eighteen inches in diameter, and
cutting them to half the length of the cabin. Their
faces were hewed with a broadax. Usually one
day was given to the preparation of the materials,
and the actual work of "raising" the cabin was
done on the day following, when the neighbors
gathered at a very early hour for the task. Some
times the foundation would be laid on the even
ing of the first day. Four "cornermen" were
elected, their business being to notch and place
the logs handed to them, by the others. The posi
tion of cornerman was one of distinction, its du
ties demanding a high degree of skill. Only an
experienced man could fill the place. After the
laying of the floor and ground logs the other tim
bers were raised to the cornermen by means of
handspikes and skidpoles. The doorway, about
three feet wide, was made either by cutting
through the logs already laid or by laying short
logs on each side for a few rounds in height.
Above the opening the logs were nearly always
the full length of the house. The door was of
"splits" or clapboards, hung upon wooden hinges,
and fastened to wooden cleats by pins of the same

80 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

material. Blacksmiths were few and far between,
and very little, if any, iron work entered into the
material of such a house. Small windows were
cut through the walls. At one end an opening,
wider than the door, was made for the chimney,
which was built on the outside of the. cabin. It
was made of logs, with a back and jambs of stone.
The fireplace was sometimes wide enough to ad
mit logs six or eight, feet long. The framework
of the roof was formed by small, straight poles
laid about two and a half feet apart, and extend
ing from one gable to the other. Upon these the
clapboards, of straight-grained oak, were placed,
and secured in position by weight poles, laid
lengthwise of the roof. The clapboards were split
about five feet in length by means of a tool known
as a "frow," a heavy, straight blade, fixed at a
right angle with its handle, and driven by a mal
let. The cracks between the logs were chinked
up with billets made from the heart pieces of the
lumber from which the clapboards had been split,
and were also daubed with mortar made from
clay (lime was not then in use) until they were
practically impervious to wind and rain; but this
"chinking" had to be frequently renewed, as it
^ould not withstand the elements for any great
length of time. The cabin being finished, the
ceremony of "house-warming" followed. This was
a feast and a dance of a whole night's continu
ance, and was always greatly enjoyed.

Household furniture was usually of the simplest

LIFE ON THE RUSK FARM. 81

character, and very little attention was paid to
ornamentation of the home. Tables were gener
ally made of puncheons cleated together and rest
ing upon four posts, and stools and benches were
commonly home-made and rude, as were the beds.
The more well to do farmers, however, and among
them Daniel Rusk, enjoyed bedsteads of a style
then manufactured in Pennsylvania, built high
before and behind, and still remembered as being
very comfortable; but these have long since passed
out of use. The Kusk girls decorated their walls
with freshly ironed towels, and regarded pincush
ions of bright patchwork as finery of which to be
proud.

All clothing was of home manufacture, except
perhaps the shoes. Nearly every farmer kept
sheep and cultivated enough flax for the use of
his family. In a family as large as that of Dan
iel Kusk the women folk had plenty of work to do.
The flax had to be "hackled" and "scutched," the
linen spun, the WTOO! woven and dyed, and the
garments cut, fitted and made up. Mrs. Tomlin-
son (Jane Rusk) says that in one summer she,
with her mother and sisters, would make as much
as two hundred yards of linen, which was used
for all under garments, for bed-ticking, sheets and
pillow cases, table cloths and towels, as well as
for the shirts, trousers and short coats of the men
and boys, and complete outfits for the women and
6

82 JEREMIAH M. E USK.

girls. For all these purposes the finer linen was
taken. The coarser part of the flax was spun for
mill sacks and covers for the market wagons.
Thirty yards were required for the covering of a
wagon. Even the sewing thread was homemade.
They manufactured their own blankets. Wool
commanded no price. It was taken to the card
ing mill, a certain portion deducted to pay for the
carding operation, and the remainder returned in
the form of rolls, from which the stuff was spun.
The boys wore trousers of homespun linen and
roundabouts of the same material in summer, and
in winter they were dressed in homemade cassi-
nette. In summer the girls wore calico for better
dresses, and in winter homemade flannel. A com
mon article woven on the looms was linsey-wool
sey, of which the warp was linen and the filling
woolen.

In speaking of clothing, a garment then almost
universally worn by boys and men, should be men
tioned. This was the "wamus," or hunting-shirt,
a loose frock, opening before, and reaching below
the knees. It was made wide enough to lap over
a foot or more when belted, so as to form quite a
capacious wallet, and it served this purpose. Ac
cording to the season it was provided with one,
two, or even three large capes, and was usually
fringed with raveled cloth of a color different from
that of the shirt itself.

There were such things as silk dresses and

LIFE ON THE EUSK FARM. 83

"store-clothes" of doeskin and broadcloth, but
these were rarely seen. Very little jewelry of any
kind was worn. The corset was happily unknown.
While the diet of those days was certainly much
simpler than at present, there was no cause for
complaint in that regard. Appetites were better
then, and the people lived well. There were no
stoves. The baking was done in an oven of bricks
or clay, outside of the house, or in a "Dutch oven,"
a shallow, cast-iron kettle with a cover, over and
under which coals (of wood) were placed. The
boiling kettle and the long-handled spider or fry
ing pan were used in the fireplace. We are told
that such pumpkin pies as wrere baked in the Eusk
household now exist only in the memory, and that
corn pone, now made no more, was most delecta
ble. This latter was baked in the Dutch oven,
holding half a bushel or more. It was filled with
the mixture for the bread, and remained buried
in glowing coals until the time arrived for taking
out the great, round, black pone, which was put
away for a day or two to season, and then brought
forth amid rejoicing, to be cut down like a West
ern Reserve cheese. In the matter of the pump
kin pies, the visiting preacher had a bounden duty
to perform. He was abvays expected to eat, by
way of dessert, one full pumpkin pie of enormous
proportions — and he always did it, too. On fes
tive occasions, such as weddings and the various
social gatherings known as "bees," great dinners

84 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

were provided. At the marriage of Daniel Rusk,
the elder, a fine pig, stuffed and roasted, surveyed
the guests from the center of the long table,
propped up on forks in a very lifelike position, and
flanked by turkeys and other substantiate in pro
fusion.

Doctor Daniel Rusk, a brother of General Husk,
relates a humorous anecdote concerning the first
introduction of tea and coffee at his father's house.
He says: "The only coffee we knew of for a long
time wras made of roasted corn, and sweetened
with our homemade sugar and molasses. But one
day father butchered a hog and took him to Zanes-
ville, where he traded him off for forty acres of
land, some real coffee and the first lot of store tea
ever brought into the house. Mother and the
girls had no idea how to prepare the tea, nor of
wrhom to inquire about it; but we were all curious
to taste it, so they set to work experimenting, and
boiled it in the teakettle, producing a decoction
bitter as gall. After we had succeeded in straight
ening our wry faces, it was decided to keep the re
mainder of the tea for company."

The religious side of the Rusk children's life has
perhaps been sufficiently indicated. Sunday-
school was usually continued for about three
months in the summertime. The church was at
some distance from the house, and the hours of
worship began early in the morning. The chil
dren rose at four o'clock, as on week-days, and

LIFE ON THE RUSK FARM. 85

walked to the church after a light breakfast. The
services were of what would now be thought a
tedious length. A sermon lasting three or four
hours was not at all unusual. An intermission
would be taken at noon, and after dinner the
preacher would resume the thread of his discourse
and keep on until he got through, no matter how
long that might take. It was said of a man who
could reach his "lastly" in less than three hours
that he had no business in the pulpit. To sleep
or nod in church, to shuffle the feet, or manifest
weariness by any other sign was deemed a be
trayal of depravity.

86 JE HE MI AH M. HUSK.

CHAPTER VIII.
YOUNG JERRY'S EDUCATION.

Jeremiah M. Rusk's first instructor in such rudi
mentary knowledge as was obtainable from books
in the schools of that section of country during
the time of his early boyhood, was an elderly lady
named Broderick, who kept what was known as
a "subscription" school, and had but five scholars.
It is related that whenever his father asked her
how little Jerry was getting along, the reply was
invariably the same — "Oh, but he is full of mis
chief!"

Later, he attended for two or three quarters one
of the recently established public schools, the
humble forerunners of the excellent school sys
tems which now afford to our children the chance
of a full course of learning, practically free. At
that time the master wras Mr. James Newlin, a
man of sterling character and much more than
ordinary ability. He still lives, at the advanced
age of 92, and conducts a farm almost within
sight of the log schoolhouse over which he
once presided, and of the birthplace of General

YO UNO JEER Y> S JED UCA TION. 87

Rusk, whose first appearance before him, accom
panying his brothers Daniel and Allen, he well re
members. He says that the future great man was
a tow-headed, blue-eyed boy of eight or ten, wear
ing a hunting-shirt ("wamus") and mocassins; a
manly little fellow, modest to an extreme degree,
a quality, it may be remarked, that he never lost.
A brief description of this schoolhouse, a typical
one of its day, and of the opportunities it had to
offer to the young idea, may be of interest. It was
built of logs. At one end was a fireplace, wide
and deep enough to hold a backlog a foot long be
sides a goodly quantity of smaller sticks. The
master's desk or table was the only one; heavy
oak slabs, resting upon wooden pins fixed at a
slant against the wall, served for the use of the
pupils at the writing lesson; backless benches of
split logs answered for seats; there were no black
boards and no maps. The parents contributed
the fuel, which was brought in by the larger boys,
who also made the fires. Foolscap paper was
used for the writing exercises; the pens were
quills, and the ink was made from ink powders or
from oak and maple bark, to a decoction of which
copperas was added. Grammar was not taught,
and very little geography. The "Three R's"-
Reading, 'riting and Arithmetic — constituted the
main part of the curriculum. The practice of flog
ging was then in vogue, and the teacher had to be
a man of brawn as well as brain; but Mr. Newlin

88 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

was a kindly master, and loved to take part in
the games engaged in around the schoolhouse be
fore and after the hours of study, and at recess. A
spirit of emulation was thus early aroused in the
pupils, who lived in times when thought was
stirred to action willingly or otherwise. Play as
well as work required self-reliance.

The people of the vicinity were on very neigh
borly terms, and gladly rendered assistance in per
forming for a family any farm work beyond the
strength of its own members. The matter of
house-raising, already detailed, is one case in
point, and log-rolling another; if a man had a
piece of land to clear, the neighbors brought their
teams and axes and helped him do it. In the sea
sons of sugar-making, tobacco gathering, apple-
paring, peach-cutting, etc., the same friendly spirit
of helpfulness was evinced. The Golden Rule be
came well understood and appreciated.

PRIMITIVE FARM IMPLEMENTS. 89

CHAPTER IX

PRIMITIVE FARM IMPLEMENTS.

Living as we do in the enjoyment of more mod
ern means and methods, almost every class of
work presents a lighter burden. One contrast
may be found in a description of the cider-making
operation, as practiced on the Kusk place. The
cider press consisted, first, of a platform some
eight or ten feet square, raised two or three feet
from the ground, and resting on a solid founda
tion. Rising above this were two upright posts,
fourteen or sixteen inches square, with cross
beams. Between these posts was the "press ta
ble," four to six feet square, constructed of heavy
timber, the pieces of which were hewed down
smooth and fastened together to make the table,
which was itself fastened to the platform by
means of wooden pins. On this was built up what
was called the "cheese." Instead of grinding the
apples, as is now done, a great trough, something
like a canoe, was hew^n from an oak or poplar log,
over which, so adjusted that it might be raised
from or lowered into the trough, was a heavy
piece of wood, square, furnished with holes and

90 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

pins, and so arranged that it could be rocked back
ward and forward to crush the apples against the
sides of the trough, into which they were poured.
The troughs were made of various lengths — from
two to six feet, and would contain two, three, or
four bushels of the fruit. This rude machine was
worked by two strong men, who found the opera
tion no light one. A later form of mill used on
the Rusk farm was made by fitting pins in a round
piece of wood, placed in a hollow cylinder hold
ing the apples. The grinding was accomplished
by means of a sweep, worked by a horse. This
machine was a crude crusher.

The apples prepared in this way were shoveled
out upon a layer of straw on the table, two or
three bushels of the pulp being used in the mak
ing of the ucheese," which was some three feet
square and four or five inches thick. On this an
other layer of straw would be placed, then an
other pulp, and so on, until the cheese was of suf
ficient thickness, when the whole mass was bound
with straw, a cap placed on it, and the cider
pressed out by means of a long lever, the raising
and lowering of which required the force of two
strong men, it being a piece of timber twenty or
thirty feet long and from eight to twelve inches
in diameter; in fact, it was a big tree. Probably
the last of these old-fashioned cider-presses is now
destroyed.

In parts of the county a period looked forward

PRIMITIVE FARM IMPLEMENTS. 91

to with pleasure, although a period of very hard
work, and around which memories of many jolly
hours clustered, was that time in the fall of the
year when the tobacco was gathered, housed and
cured. Standing here and there may yet be seen
tall log buildings with rude stone arches, covered
with clay, mixed and daubed on until a furnace
was made. These arches had no chimneys. There
were usually two of them side by side, running
nearly through the building, and they wrere not al
together unlike the arches used for burning kilns
of brick. The furnace made, huge logs of timber
would be run in from either end, and the firing
would begin. This wras the season when the
neighborhood boys collected together, and the
sports would continue sometimes late into the
night, and sometimes all night. It was a period
when they would gather in the products of the
fields, and sometimes of the chase, and they would
occasionally visit the neighbors' henroosts and
poultry yards, and even go so far as to get pigs
and sweet potatoes and corn and melons, and so
on. It was a period of hard work, frolicking and
feasting. The tobacco, as it ripened, was stripped
from the stalk and taken to the tobacco house,
and there, sometimes without any shelter, the to
bacco sticks, some four feet long, or longer, would
be stuck into auger holes in the logs forming the
tobacco house, and at their other ends would be
placed what were called "spuds," heart-shaped

92 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

pieces of tin, probably two and a half or three
inches in diameter, each having a round tin han
dle or receptacle by which it was placed on the
end of the stick. Then the leaf was taken up by
the one who was spudding or stringing, and was
pressed against this tin, a slit made in it and it
was crowded back upon the stick. From one to
two hundred large leaves were put on a stick of
tobacco, which when full was carried out to the
scaffolding poles, set in forks cut from the woods,
and put four feet from the ground, and there these
sticks of tobacco were placed within a foot or so
of each other, and the tobacco wilted and gotten
ready for the house as soon as that which was in
it should be taken down and packed away; and
this was continued day after day and night after
night until the entire crop of the neighborhood
was cured. The season lasted about six weeks,
the workers going from house to house. It was
perhaps the least temperate season of the year.

The sugar-making, in the springtime, was
greatly enjoyed by the boys and girls, who then
got together and visited, one after another, the
several camps, joining in the work of the day and
in the succeeding pleasures of the evening, among
which courtship stood forth prominently, un
abashed by the restraints of the home life.

The sugar-troughs, made from split saplings,
were hollowed out with axe and foot-adze. When
these were ready, along in the warm weather of

PRIMITIVE FARM IMPLEMENTS. 93

March, the trees were tapped, spouts of sumach
or elder inserted in the holes, the sap collected
and carried in buckets to the place of boiling. The
troughs were about two and a half feet long, and
each would hold a bucketful — say three gallons.
These sugar-troughs were frequently used as cra
dles. "Sweets to the sweet!"

Other times of alternating toil and pleasure
were the corn huskings, harvesting bees, apple
parings, peach cuttings, apple-butter makings
and quiltings, all of which were sure to be well
attended.

94 JEREMIAH M. HUSK.

CHAPTER X.

HIS FATHER'S DEATH — THE CARE OF THE FAMILY.

At the time of his father's death Jeremiah, then
in his sixteenth year, and his sister Elizabeth,
were the only children remaining on the home
place. Up to this time he had done but little seri
ous work. The youngest of the family, he had been
the pet and constant companion of his father, fol
lowing him about wherever he went, and undoubt
edly deriving much moral benefit from their as
sociation. He had helped some little around the
farm after his tenth year, hauling hop poles,
mending barrels, cutting wood, etc., so that he
earned his living, but had not yet been obliged to
shoulder the burden of life. He was now a well-
grown young man, very strong and active, and a
prime favorite throughout the community, a wel
come guest at work and play. None of the gath
erings spoken of above seemed complete without
his presence. He excelled in dancing, and was
noted as a champion wrestler. His brief school
days had been brought to a conclusion under an
other teacher than Mr. Newlin, and under the fol-

CAEE OF THE FAMILY. 95

lowing circumstances: One of his brothers, who
attended the same school, was hard of hearing,
and the teacher undertook to thrash him for fail
ing to promptly obey an order. Young Jerry said,
"No, you don't do that; he didn't hear you." The
teacher thereupon turned his attention to the
younger boy, and a few moments later, after the
brothers had walked off together, picked himself
up from the floor, and resumed his place at the
desk, where he had leisure to examine his bruises.
The other sons had homes of their own. Jere
miah was now his mother's sole reliance. He at
once assumed the entire charge of the farm, su
perintending all the operations connected with
its care. This was a great responsibility to be
borne by one so young, but he was successful from
the very first. He soon became eminently dexter
ous in the use of all farm implements. Few in
deed could equal him in the handling of the sickle,
the scythe, the cradle, or the flail. His reputa
tion as a cradler spreading abroad, he was chal
lenged to compete for the championship with one
William Pickerel, who had long been regarded as
the best man in the section at that work. He ac
cepted the challenge, and the farmers came from
far and near to witness the contest. Pickerel had
more experience at his back, but Rusk was the
more powerful man. They met in a ten-acre field
of the heaviest wheat, Pickerel taking the lead,
and his antagonist following. When one entire

96 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

round had been made Pickerel stopped to whet
his blade. Whetting afforded time for breathing,
and it was a saying of the day that no time was
lost in whetting — in renewing one's strength for
further continuance. But Husk, aware of his ad
vantage, cried, "Go on!" In his might he could
force even a dull cradle through the strongest
grain. They went ahead, and before the second
round was finished Pickerel's scythe had so far
lost its edge that with all his skill he was unable
to cope longer with the young giant who swung
his cradle behind him, and the championship of
Deerfield Township passed to our hero.

The produce of the farm was marketed at
Zanesville, some twenty miles distant. The Rusk
place was highly productive, and there was al
ways much to sell in season. In the fall they
would load one wagon with wheat and another
with vegetables, and the trip wrould be made, re
turning in the night. There was, moreover, a
ready sale for the great crops of apples and
peaches yielded by the orchard. These wrere dried
in a kiln and in a dry-house. Hops were grown
for sale, and a large flock of geese furnished feath
ers for market. Eggs were but little used in those
days. Wheat sold for fifty cents a bushel, and
potatoes for twenty-five cents. Butter went as
high as ten cents a pound, but five or six cents
was the normal price.

Young Rusk was already an excellent horse-

CARE OF THE FAMILY. 97

man, and would ride the most spirited animals at
furious rates of speed. He possessed considerable
veterinary skill, and was often called upon to ex
ercise it in behalf of his neighbors. He was a
proud boy indeed when called upon by Messrs.
Neill, Moore & Co., of Columbus, to drive one of
their stage coaches on the line between Zanesville
and Newark, a distance of about thirty miles. The
coach was of the. old Concord pattern, and was
drawn by four horses, driven in army style by a
single rein, the driver riding the "near" wheel
horse.
7

98 JEREMIAH M. JR USK.

CHAPTEE XL

RUSK AND GARFIELD.

While young Rusk was manipulating his four-
horse team he became acquainted with a young
man of his own age who was engaged in guiding
the movements of a solitary mule along a tow-
path. It was in this wise the future Governor of
Wisconsin and Secretary of Agriculture began
his friendship with the future President of the
United States, James A. Garfield.

During a county fair he entered a wrestling
match with two other competitors. The first was
easily thrown, but in the struggle with the sec
ond Rusk had his hands full. Finally, by a tre
mendous effort, the future Governor threw his op
ponent completely over his head, stunning him
and breaking his shoulder. Rusk was greatly
frightened at the moment, thinking that he might
have killed his opponent, and from that time
never again engaged in a wrestling match.

The stage-driver and the canal boy became fast
friends. When years after, they met in Washing
ton as Members of Congress, they were fond of
bantering each other about their boyhood days.

RUSK AND GARFIELD. 99

"Oh, you're of no account; you're only a stage-
driver," Garfield would remark.

"Well, what were you?" Kusk would respond in
his bluff, breezy way. "What did you drive? I
handled four horses; you steered one little, insig
nificant mule."

Eusk enjoyed telling his reminiscences of this
period.

"Yes," he said on one occasion, "I think our
first meeting was at a wrestling match, when it
was announced that a canal boy would throw a
stage-driver. Garfield was a very heavy, rugged
youngster, and was a true friend to his comrades,
and always ready to stand by them in any kind
of trouble or contest. In those days he used fre
quently to speak of his future, and always as
serted that he intended becoming either a lake
captain or a lawyer. He left the canal after a
time and commenced going to school. We were
always close friends from our boyhood up to the
time of his death; but of course we knew little or
nothing of each other for many years, and never
met after he left the canal until the opening of
the war. He was on Rosecrans' staff when we
next saw each other."

The future Secretary of Agriculture joined a
man named William Pettit in the purchase of a
Grubber threshing machine — a machine which
bore about the same relation to the modern
header and thresher that the ox-cart of our grand-

100 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

fathers did to the present railway trains of palace
cars. It consisted substantially of a capped cylin
der, filled with long spikes, and revolved over a
curved floor or bed, also filled with spikes. The
wheat was fed in on one side of the cylinder, and
was supposed to be mashed out of the heads by
the time it came through on the other side.
Wheat, dirt, dust, straw, sticks, animals, and
everything else that went in came out together.
The man who stood at the mouth of the Grubber
machine stood at a point where the dirt and dust
were as thick as in a village on a windy day. Yet
this thresher was highly esteemed, being the first
improvement following the flail, the tramping out
of w^heat by horses on a barn floor, and the end
less chain, tramp-wheel machine. This partner
ship may be considered as the first business ven
ture of Jeremiah Rusk which brought him into
intimate business relations with others. From
six to eight horses would be taken along with the
machine, and from four to six men, the machine
requiring the services of a general manager, or
boss, a feeder, and a driver. At home in any one
of these positions, Rusk was so popular in all that
part of the country that the farmers would delay
the time of their threshing awaiting the arrival
of the new machine. Many are the stories told
by old people of the frolics of those days. After
threshing all day the boys wrould go and dance all
night, or, sleeping accommodations being always

RUSK AND OARFIELD. 1Q1

at a premium at such times, they would make
their way to the river, where they would fish and
swim; otherwise they would improvise some form
of sport, keep it up half the night, and make their
couches of the fresh straw threshed during the
day; thus leading a life which may be termed a
rural bohemia. The partnership lasted through
two seasons.

It may here be stated that in those times, when
whiskey was not taxed, there was a distillery in
almost every neighborhood, and a bushel of corn
or rye would purchase a gallon of liquor. It was
freely provided at all harvestings, threshings, etc.,
and social gatherings, even the women taking a
little, sweetened, and mixed with water. Prob
ably drunkenness, of a mild type, was no more
common than now, but it was regarded as less
heinous. Jeremiah M. Husk never knew the
taste of intoxicating liquor.

102 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER XII.

RUSK AS A RAILROAD FOREMAN.

The era of railroad extension had now arrived,
and everywhere roads were being projected and
their building commenced. Ohio offered a most
promising field for this enterprise, and the road
then known as the "Zanesville & Wilmington"
road (now the "Muskingum Valley") was in course
of construction. Among ambitious young men
all over the country excitement created by tales
of the discovery of gold in California, and of the
rapid rise of men engaged in railroad work was
rife. A large contractor on the road named was
approached one morning, at a point a few miles
west of Zanesville, by the tall, well-built young
Jeremiah Rusk, who made application for em
ployment for himself and team. He was engaged
and set at work wTith pick and shovel, but it was
quickly seen that the stalwart young fellow con
tained material too valuable to be thus used, and
he was made foreman over a gang of men. If the
sequel does not show that by the exercise of his
good judgment in making this promotion the con-

RUSK AS A RAILROAD FOREMAN. 103

tractor saved the life of one of bis sub-contractors,
it is at least probable that a theretofore unknown
power of directing and controlling others was by
this event brought forcibly to the attention of the
new boss. The Zanesville & Wilmington Rail
road met with the same vicissitudes that other
roads projected on a similarly magnificent scale
were destined to experience. The road was forced
into bankruptcy, and as a consequence of its fail
ure the projectors were unable to meet their obli
gations. Hundreds of men dependent upon their
wages for the very existence of themselves and
their families were thus rendered destitute. Rusk
was among the sufferers, but understood the situ
ation better than did the others; and when a mob
was organized to wreak vengeance upon one of
his associates, he placed himself between him
and the infuriated laborers, and then and there
made his first public speech. Just what he said
nobody knows at this day; it is supposed to have
been more forcible than elegant; but the men
were given to understand that before they could
reach the object of their w^rath it would be neces
sary to pass over the dead bodies of the speaker
and half a dozen courageous associates who stood
by him. His own men knew him; they consulted
together; they deliberated; and they lost the day,
while Jeremiah Rusk gained his first victory.

Shortly after this incident, on the 5th day of
'April, 1849, the subject of this history wras united

104 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

in marriage with Mary Martin, fourth daughter
of Abraham Martin, one of the most highly re
spected residents in all that section of Ohio. The
Martins were from Maryland, and the grand
father, Jacob Martin, served in the Revolutionary
war — receiving a pension the later years of his
life.

The ceremony took place in the forenoon at the
home of the bride, after which came the merry
making. It was the custom for a mounted caval
cade of ladies and gentlemen, headed by the
groom, to appear at the appointed hour at the
home of the bride, but on this occasion, besides
the ordinary guests, the groom was accompanied
by 500 men, marching in double file, bearing upon
their shoulders picks and shovels. These were
the men who had served under Jerry Rusk in
working upon the railroad, and they were come
with heartiness and good wishes to greet the bride
of the man in whom all took pride.

The men also accompanied the bridal party as
far as the fork of the road at the starting of the
procession to the new home near Porterville. This
was a ride of several days, as it was broken by
visits of a day and a night to each of the groom's
relatives within reach; thus the infare was cele
brated with much feasting and dancing at every
stopping place.

This wedding was one of great interest through
out Morgan and the adjoining counties, and is

HUSK AS A RAILROAD FOREMAN. 105

still remembered and spoken of with admiration
by those of the older inhabitants who partici
pated in its festivities.

Three children blessed this union — Charity,
now Mrs. Elmer H. Craig of Viroqua, Wisconsin;
Lycurgus J., who is counsellor at law at Chip-
pewa Falls, Wisconsin, and Mary J., who was
born in 1853 and lived but one year. This death
in the little family w^as followed in January, 1856,
by the death of the mother, Mary Martin Kusk,
at Viroqua, Wisconsin.

106 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER XIIL

KUSK AS A COOPER.

The improvement of the Muskingum river by
the general government had been undertaken
some years before this time. This improvement
was instituted mainly for the purpose of assist
ing the development of the salt industry, which
was now at the height of its success. The wells
yielded abundantly, and so near together were the
furnaces along the banks on both sides that the
boats passing up and down at night were never
out of sight of their fires. The industry furnished
employment to a great number of people, and es
pecially to those located at points where good
barrel timber was to be found. After his mar
riage Jeremiah Rusk severed his connection with
the railroad, and converted the log cabin first
erected by his father into a cooper shop. To this,
from time to time, as his business increased, he
made additions. He employed a number of
coopers, and engaged in barrel making, at which
he soon became expert himself. In this employ
ment he added to his reputation for reliability.

RUSK AS A COOPER. 107

The dealers whom he supplied, and who furnished
barrels to the salt makers, could always depend
upon his promises in regard to filling their orders.
At one time a competition sprang up which af
fected injuriously not only the barrel making car
ried on in his own neighborhood, but also the salt
industry in other localities, and lessened the de
mand for his product. In McConnelsville there
wras a prominent business man named Eli Shep-
ard, familiarly known as "Bully." He was about
as broad as he was long, and had a great head,
with massive jaws. He also possessed a determi
nation that brooked no disputing. He dealt in
nearly everything; he was a salt maker, a miller,
and a general wholesale dealer; he supplied bar
rels to the o w^ners of salt furnaces. Rusk made
a contract writh him early in the spring, before
the competition mentioned rose, to furnish barrels
at a certain price for the entire season, which
closed with the freezing over of the river, Shepard
agreeing to take at that figure all he could make.
The price was five cents less per barrel than was
paid to other coopers at that time. But Rusk was
far-sighted. He went home and worked along
quietly, but not slowly. The month of May had
not passed before what he had expected hap
pened; the market price of barrels dropped below
the figure of his contract. A number of good
coopers were discharged from other shops, and
Rusk employed them; a large amount of coopers'

103 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

material was thrown on the market, and he
bought it. Then he began to send in barrels to
Shepard. They went in at the rate of from one
to three loads a day. Shepard was dumbfounded,
but he only said, as each load came, "Great
heavens! not more barrels, I hope — not another
load?" But, fortunately for Shepard, he was not
a loser in the end, for in the fall another change
came, and he made money from the immense
stock of barrels he had bought and stored.

The episode, however, was not forgotten. Years
afterward, when Rusk was a general in the army,
he returned to McConnelsville to visit his brother
and his other friends in the neighborhood. Wear
ing his full regimentals, he walked over to see his
old friend Shepard, who happened to be sitting
away back in the far end of his store. Shepard
saw the tall, stalwart man enter the doorway, and
waddled forward from his desk to meet him. For
a few moments neither spoke a word of greeting.
Each had his eye fixed on the other. Then the
silence was broken by Shepard, who growled out:

"Hullo there, Jerry! I suppose, by heavens,
you have brought me another load of barrels,
haven't you?"

Jeremiah Rusk followed this business, with
varying success, until, in 1853, he felt impressed
to do as his father had done before him, to leave
the loved scenes of his childhood and go to the
then far West, the new country which seemed to

RUSK AS A COOPER. 109

offer better opportunities for success in life.
Hard as it was to sever the many ties that bound
him to his native place, there were many reasons
which urged the emigration. Land in the West
was easily obtained, and farming was his forte.
Perhaps his ambitious instinct told him that in
a new community a man of his character was
sure to rise. At that time the trend of emigra
tion was toward Wisconsin and Iowa. The gold
fever had not yet subsided, and caravans were
still, at intervals, made up for California, but the
greater number of the pioneers from Morgan
County, including his brother Allen, had settled
in Wisconsin, and thither, after much discussion,
he elected to go. WTith his brave-hearted young
wife and their two infant children, Charity and
Lycurgus, he made the long journey in a common
covered wagon of the emigrants.

Several times Jeremiah Rusk revisited the
neighborhood of his Ohio home. At the time of
the last occasion he was Governor of Wisconsin,
and came to see to the marking by a monument
of the graves of his beloved father and mother,
which lie side by side in the beautiful little rural
cemetery attached to the church his father built.
Standing by these honored graves, he said to his
sister:

"Were I to give way to my feeling, as I stand
here, I could not restrain my tears. During the
last thirty years hardly a day has passed in w^hich

110 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

this landscape has not spread itself like a pano
rama before my mind. I love this scene of my
boyhood days, the times when I lived by hard la
bor, and the times in which my associations
helped to form whatever of good character I have.
It was here that for fifteen years I had the guid
ing hand of a good father, whose precepts and
examples, more than anything else, made a career
for me possible; it was here that I gained the first
rudiments of knowledge; it wras here that I was
thrown on my own resources, at a time when
other boys were still at school, and was compelled
to battle with the world for the livelihood of my
father's family from the time of his death.

'This explains," he continued, "why, when
among the polished, and called upon to express
the thoughts I can turn into acts, my speech is
halting, and at times embarrassing to me; it is
the lack of early education. Yet there is this
compensation, when I reflect upon my defects in
this regard, that they are not the results of vi
cious habits, but came through my endeavors to
do my duty towrard those who otherwise must
have suffered in the hard struggles we made
here."

During his career General Rusk financially as
sisted many a poor young man in his efforts to
acquire an education. His ear was never deaf
to an appeal made in this behalf.

EMIGRATES TO WISCONSIN. HI

CHAPTER XIY.

EMIGRATES TO WISCONSIN.

A majority of the settlers near Viroqua at this
time were originally from Morgan and Perry
Counties, Ohio, and were all personal acquaint
ances of young Rusk, and this led him to locate
there.

His first occupation in his new home was that
of a tavern keeper, a vocation in which he was,
as in everything else, successful. He readily
adapted himself to the conditions and surround
ings, and at once became popular. In addition
to his duties as landlord of the Buckeye House,
he ran a threshing machine, and the old settlers
say that at the close of a hard day's work, feed
ing the machine, he was never too weary to join
a party and attend a country dance. His splen
did physique, his fondness for athletic training,
and his genial qualities soon made him ac
quainted with practically every resident of Bad
Ax, now Vernon County. He acquired the pro
prietorship of a stage line between Prairie du
Chien and Black River Falls, and part of the time
drove one of the stages himself, still retaining his

112 JEREMIAH M. It USK.

hotel, which was a very popular stopping place.
He did not entirely abandon the stage business
until after the outbreak of the Rebellion. He
held the contract for carrying the mails.

In 1855, less than two years after his settle
ment in Bad Ax County, he was nominated for
sheriff, and such was his hold upon the people
that his election met with no opposition. This
result may be attributed to an incident which had
happened a short time prior.

"Accident has occasionally been of essential
benefit to the Governor," said a gentleman who
had known him for many years. "For instance,
it was one of these lucky accidents that made him
sheriff. One morning there came to his tavern,
and asked for some refreshment, a man driving a
single horse to a buggy. He was given wThat he
asked for, and soon after drove away. Within a
short time some officers came along in pursuit of
a horsethief, and learned that the man who had
stopped for something to eat was the person for
whom they were in search. A hasty discussion
was held as to the course which the fleeing thief
had probably taken, and the sheriff's officers de
cided to follow one trail. When they had left the
tavern-keeper concluded to follow another course
which, as it seemed to him, the fugitive would be
more likely to take. He mounted a sw^ift horse
and pursued on the road leading to Kickapoo.

"After many miles of hot riding, he overtook

EMIGRATES TO WISCONSIN. 113

the buggy in which was the offender, fast asleep,
worn out with fatigue. Without a moment's hes
itation, the pursuer sprang from his horse into the
vehicle, and single handed, after a severe strug
gle, secured the criminal. The sagacity displayed
in picking out the route chosen by the horsethief,
the courage in attacking him without any arms,
and the strength shown in mastering the man,
suggested him as a suitable candidate for sheriff."
Mr. Rusk proved a very popular and efficient of
ficer, and retired with the friendship and good
will of every one in the county.
8

JEREMIAH M. A* USK.

CHAPTER XV.

ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE.

In 1861 Mr. Rusk was nominated on the Repub
lican ticket for Member of Assembly for the Sec
ond District, and was elected over Edward Sear
ing, who was afterwards State Superintendent of
Public Instruction of Wisconsin. At this time
the civil war had broken out, and the session of
the Wisconsin legislature of 1862 was the most
stormy one upon record. The Republicans and
"War Democrats" combined to secure the organi
zation of the Assembly, and after a protracted ef
fort, in which at times personal violence was
threatened, succeeded in electing Mr. Beardsley
as the speaker, and securing the organization of
the house. Mr. Rusk took a very prominent part
in this organization, and his magnificent physique
and commanding presence had much to do with
the success of the combination.

It was during this session of the legislature that
petitions were circulated for signatures through
out the county, praying a change of the county's
name from Bad Ax to Vernon. The name "Bad

ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE. 115

Ax" was in disfavor, and the impression among
people outside was that it was a rough country,
with poor thin soil. A popular prejudice existed
against the county, and the mention of its name
among strangers who had never been within its
borders invariably caused smiles. General Rusk,
in 1883, when asked as to the origin of the move
ment for the change of name, wrote the following
letter to the editor of a History of Vernon County
which was then being compiled:

"Executive Chamber,
"Madison, Wis., October 29, 1883.
"Dear Sir:

"Many of the leading citizens of the county be
lieved that the name Bad Ax was a detriment to
the future prosperity of the county. The Hon.
William F. Terhune went east about 1859, and
when he returned he was thoroughly convinced
that the name of the county was a great detri
ment to it, and from that time he strongly urged
the change. An effort was made to change the
name in 1860. In 1861 I was elected to the As
sembly, and a very strong petition was signed
and presented to me, urging the change to some
thing else, but not designating what. At that
time I was not very favorable to the change; but
when the Legislature convened I became thor
oughly convinced that the name was a detriment

116 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

to the county. Whenever I rose and addressed
the chair, and the speaker recognized "the gentle
man from Bad Ax," everybody in the chamber
turned to look at the member to see if he looked
like the rest of the members. I immediately
wrote Judge Terhune to select a name and I
would do what I could to make the change. Judge
Terhune sent me the name "Vernon," and the bill
was presented and passed that Legislature.

"Yours very truly,

"J. M. RUSK."

The name Yernon was finally selected. The
reason for its adoption was that the root of the
word, meaning greenness, was applicable not to
the people, but to the general appearance of the
county, covered as it was in many places with
green wheat fields. Moreover, the word was eu
phonic, and carried writh it a pleasing association
with Mount Vernon, the home of the Father of
his Country. This selection was made by the late
Hon. William F. Terhune. A correspondent of
the Yernon County Censor, in writing to that pa
per in 1869, relative to the change of name, says:

"For many years the county of w^hich Yiroqua
is the county seat labored under a great disadvan
tage in consequence of her taking to herself a
name that had neither meaning nor sense. Why
the settlers of the county suffered the name of

ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE. 117

Bad Ax to be fastened on them can not now be
ascertained. That the name blasted the county
so long as it was retained is a fact patent to all.
As soon as the name was changed to Vernon the
whole county began to flourish, and now Vernon
County has no small influence in the state."

118 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

CHAPTER XVI.
RECRUITS A REGIMENT FOR THE WAR.

Immediately upon the adjournment of the
Legislature Mr. Rusk, acting under a commission
given him by Governor Edward Salomon, began
to recruit the organization afterward known as
the Twenty-fifth Regiment, of Wisconsin Infantry
Volunteers, of which he was commissioned Major,
declining the Colonelcy for the reason, as he often
exj'ained to the writer, that he did not feel corn-
pet nt to assume command. The record of this
regiment, as officially summarized in the Annual
Report of the Adjutant General of the State of
Wi&fonsin, for the year ending December 30, 1865,
is as follows:

The several organizations composing this [the
25th] regiment, recruited principally in the river
eounUes, were ordered to rendezvous at La Crosse,
on the 4th of September, 1862. Regimental or
ganization was soon effected, under the direction
of Colonel Milton Montgomery, and the regiment
was mustered into United States service on the
14th. On the 19th they left Camp Salomon, at

MAJOR JERRY RUSK.

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 119

La Crosse, under orders to report to General Pope,
at St. Paul, Minnesota, for the purpose of sup
pressing the Indian difficulties in that State. On
arriving next day at St. Paul the regiment was
divided by order of the commanding general; five
companies, under command of Lieutenant Colonel
Nasmith, being sent to Sauk Centre, Painsville
and Acton; the remainder under command of
Colonel Montgomery, going to Leavenworth, Fair-
mount, Winnebago City and New Ulm, the regi
mental headquarters being established at the last
mentioned place.

In the latter part of November orders had
reached all these companies to march at once for
Winona, Minn., which place was designated as
the rendezvous for the regiment. The long march
of nearly three hundred miles, through a new
country, with bad roads and in the depth of our
northwestern winter, was at once undertaken.
The last company arrived, and the regiment was
reunited at Winona, on the 13th of December.
They arrived at La Crosse, in this State, forty
miles from Winona, on the 15th; whence they
moved to Camp Randall on the 18th. Of the ac
tions of the regiment during the Indian expedi
tion in our sister State, little can be said which
comes within the scope of such a sketch as this.
Scattered as they were over a vast extent of coun
try, they could be indebted to no esprit du corps
for stimulus to duty. It is not out of place to say

120 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

here that they performed their whole duty, some
times under circumstances of peculiar hardship,
to the satisfaction of their commanding officers.

The Twenty-fifth again left the State, for active
service in the field, on the 17th of February, 1863,
under orders to report at Cairo, Illinois. They ar
rived at that place on the 19th, and moved next
day to Columbus, Ky., where they went into camp
near the fortifications. With the exception of an
expedition in the latter part of April, for the re
lief of Cape Girardeau, when attacked by the
rebels under Marmaduke, they were employed in
the performance of post and picket duty at this
place, until the 31st of May, when they proceeded
down the Mississippi. Touching at Memphis,
Tenn., on the 2d of June, orders awaited them to
proceed at once to Young's Point, La., at which
place they arrived on the morning of the 4th. Pro
ceeding thence to Chickasaw Bayou, they were
ordered up the Yazoo river to Satartia, Miss.,
where they disembarked and went into camp in
the evening of the same day.

On the 5th of June the regiment was brigaded
with the Twenty-seventh Wisconsin and two other
regiments, and the colonel placed in command of
Montgomery's brigade, KimbalPs provisional di
vision. Leaving Satartia on the 6th, they marched
down the valley of the Yazoo, in intensely hot
weather, a distance of thirty miles, and encamped
next day at Haines' Bluff. Their camp was re-

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 121

moved four miles, on the llth, to Snyder's Bluff,
close to the bank of the Yazoo, forming the left
of the rear investing line of Vicksburg. Here
they remained, performing picket duty and work
on the fortifications and entrenchments, until the
25th, when the regiment, with a force of artillery
and cavalry, the whole under command of Lieu
tenant Colonel Nasmith, was ordered to proceed
up the Mississippi, for the purpose of capturing
guerillas. The expedition arrived on the 27th at
a point below Greenville, Miss., where the cavalry
disembarked at noon, and proceeded across the
country to that place. Failing to discover the
enemy, the cavalry again embarked next day, and
the expedition proceeded to Spanish Moss Bend,
a few miles above, on the Arkansas side, at which
place a boat had been fired into the previous
night.

Landing at this place, they marched into the
country in quest of the enemy. His pickets were
soon encountered and driven in. The pursuit was
continued for six miles, until darkness set in,
when our force returned to the boats, proceeding-
down the river on the 29th of June. While on the
way news was received that the enemy was at
tacking Lake Providence, La. Their speed was
at once increased, and the force arrived just in
time to save the place, the enemy decamping as
the expedition came in sight and landed. They re
mained here during the night, at the request of

122 JEREMIAH M. HUSK.

General Reed, who anticipated a renewal of the
attack, and returned to Snyder's Bluff next day,
resuming duty in the entrenchments.

While stationed in this sickly spot the health
of the regiment suffered severely. On the 20th of
July five hundred men lay sick, and not more
than one hundred were fit for duty. They left
Snyder's Bluff on the 25th of July, and proceed
ing up the river, the regiment, with the exception
of four companies left at Lake Providence, disem
barked at Helena, Ark., on the 31st. The regi
ment was reunited by the arrival of these com
panies on the 12th of August. On arriving at He
lena they were detached from the brigade, and
Colonel Montgomery was placed in command of
the District of Eastern Arkansas, the regiment
being detailed as provost guard of the post.

The Twenty-fifth remained at Helena, Ark., em
ployed principally in provost duty, until the 29th
of January, 1864, when they embarked, and pro
ceeding down the Mississippi, landed on the 2d of
February at Vicksburg, Miss. Marching under
the command of Lieutenant Colonel Rusk, with
the celebrated Meridian Expedition, under Gen
eral Sherman, they left Yicksburg on the 3d, and
moving in an easterly direction across the State
of Mississippi, reached Meridian, Miss., on the
14th. After a delay of two days at this point, the
march was resumed, and the regiment arrived on
the 26th at Canton, Miss., at the junction of the

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 123

New Orleans and Jackson, and Mississippi Cen
tral Kailroads, having marched a distance of two
hundred and seventy-five miles from Vicksburg.
They left Canton on the 1st of March, and march
ing by way of Livingston, Brownsville and Big
Black River, arrived on the 4th at Vicksburg,
where they went into camp and remained until
the 13th, at which date they embarked, and pro
ceeding up the Mississippi, arrived on the 20th
at Cairo, 111. On the 24th they wrere ordered to
Columbus, Ky., the terminus of the Mobile and
Ohio Railroad, and had proceeded by rail to
within a short distance of Union City, when or
ders were received to return immediately to Cairo,
at which place they again encamped late in the
evening.

Re-embarking at Cairo on the 26th, they as
cended the Tennessee river to Crump's Landing,
at which place they landed on the evening of the
29th and bivouacked for the night. On the fol
lowing day they marched a distance of thirteen
miles to Purdy, Tenn., where they arrived at noon,
having routed during the march a body of rebel
cavalry, under Colonel Wisdom. They returned
on the 31st to the transports, and resuming their
progress up the river on the following day, landed
on the 2d of April at Waterloo, Ala., and march
ing thence by. way of Florence and Athens, ar
rived on the 9th at Mooresville, Ala., seventy-

124 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

eight miles from Stevenson, on the Memphis and
Charleston railroad.

On the evening of the 16th they marched fivo
miles to Decatur, the junction of the Tennessee
and Alabama Central railroads, where they had
a sharp skirmish with the enemy on the follow
ing day, losing two men wounded. At this point
Colonel Montgomery resumed command on the
22d of April, and here the regiment was stationed
for the performance of guard duty, until the 1st
of May, when they marched to Huntsville, whence
they proceeded by rail on the 4th to Chattanooga,
Tenn., arriving at the latter place on the 5th.
They immediately moved forward to join our
forces under General Sherman, and marching by
Gordon's and Maddock's Gap, formed in line of
battle on the 9th at the bluffs near Resaca, under
the fire of the rebel batteries.

From this point they fell back with the army
to Snake Creek Gap, and fortified their camp.
This position they occupied until the 13th, when
the regiment took position in line before Resaca,
remaining until one in the afternoon of the next
day, when they were relieved and moved to tho
rear. Three hours afterwards the brigade was
ordered to the support of General Logan, whoso
column was giving way. At seven o'clock tho
regiment formed in line, and charging over tho
Thirtieth Iowa, drove two rebel brigades from the

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 125

crest of a hill, after a severe conflict, lasting two
hours, in which they lost twenty-seven men.

This position they held until the evacuation of
Kesaca, after which they crossed the Calhoun
river on the 16th of May, and having advanced
about five miles, encamped at three in the after
noon. An hour afterwards the Second division
of the Sixteenth army corps having been driven
from the front by the enemy, the regiment
promptly formed in line with the Fourth division
of that corps, retaining the position until the for
ward movement was resumed on the afternoon of
the following day.

Passing through Adairsville on the 18th of
May, they encamped on the following day near
Kingston, where they remained until the 24th, at
which date they were again put in motion, and
proceeding by way of Vanwirt, arrived on the
26th within two and a half miles of Dallas.
Forming in line shortly before noon, they were
engaged in skirmishing until five in the evening,
wrhen they advanced through Dallas, which had
been abandoned by the enemy, and bivouacked
for the night a short distance south of the town.
On the 27th they advanced to the front, and were
engaged during the three following days in heavy
skirmishing with the enemy, repulsing his at
tacks upon the picket line with heavy loss.

They occupied position in the front line until
the 1st of June, when they were withdrawn from

126 JEREMIAH M. E USK.

the trenches before daylight, and participating in
the general movement to the left to turn the rebel
position at Allatoona Pass, marched six miles to
Pumpkin Vine Creek, near which they biv
ouacked for the night, and on the afternoon of the
following day changed position a mile to the
right, where they were attacked by the enemy's
batteries, which were soon silenced by our artil
lery. Crossing the stream on the 3d, they ad
vanced four miles, and having erected breast
works during the night, occupied the position
until the afternoon of the 5th, when they moved
four miles to the right. Next day they were
again put in motion, and passing through Ack-
worth, encamped nearly a mile from the town,
remaining until the 10th, when they advanced
four miles, accompanying the army of the Ten
nessee in the movement to break the rebel lines
between Kenesaw and Pine Mountains. On the
following day, taking the lead of the Second bri
gade, they advanced two miles to the railroad,
where line of battle was formed with the enemy
on their flank and front.

While holding this position company C was de
tailed at three in the morning of the 12th to build
rifle pits in front, which they finished by daylight,
and next day company D was employed in open
ing a road through the woods in their rear for
more convenient access to the teams. In the
evening companies C, H and K occupied the front

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 127

line of rifle pits, and on the 15th companies B, D,
F, G and I, with six companies from other regi
ments, were thrown forward on the skirmish line
under command of Lieutenant Colonel Rusk, and
advanced one and a half miles, carrying the ene
my's skirmish line and front line of works, and
maintaining their position through the night, dur
ing which they were twice charged by the enemy
in the darkness. The position was retained with
heavy fighting and the loss of fifteen men until
morning, when they rejoined the balance of the
regiment, which had moved forward to support
the picket line against the anticipated advance
of the enemy.

The enemy having abandoned his line on Lost
Mountain on the 17th of June, they advanced on
the 19th across the rebel works in their front, and
in the afternoon advanced still farther towards
Kenesaw Mountain, establishing position on the
crest of a hill, which they proceeded to fortify.
Here they were engaged in siege and fatigue duty,
constantly exposed to the enemy's fire, until the
morning of the 3d of July, when they were put in
motion to accompany the movement of the army
of the Tennessee on the right of our forces.
Marching on the road between Kenesaw and Lost
Mountains, they advanced three miles, where they
constructed breastworks, and were ordered to
support a battery, under heavy fire from the rebel
artillery. They subsequently occupied the works

128 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

in their front, which were abandoned by the
enemy, and on the 5th continued the movement
to the right. Marching on the Sandtown road,
they encamped in the evening two and a half
miles from the Chattahoochee River, remaining
until the 7th, when they advanced two miles to
wards the river. They again moved on the 9th,
and passing through Marietta, where they biv
ouacked for the night, forded the Chattahoochee
on the following day, going into camp on the
south side of the river.

Participating in the general advance of the
army, they marched at noon on the 17th, and
crossing the railroad next day, passed through
Decatur on the 19th, encamping on the right of
the army of the Tennessee, in rear of General Lo
gan's command, on the following day. On the
21st, with a section of artillery, they moved back
to Decatur, under orders to guard the flank of the
army trains, and next day companies B, E, F and
I of the Twenty-fifth, with four companies of an
Ohio regiment, under command of Colonel Mont-

O

gomery, moved forward one mile; when company
F of the Twenty-fifth, with an Ohio company, was
deployed as skirmishers, under command of Lieu
tenant Colonel Rusk. These companies moved
forward, engaged the enemy, who was in greatly
superior force (two divisions of Wheeler's cav
alry), and were driven back upon the main body,
when the engagement became general.

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 129

Colonel Montgomery having been severely
wounded at the first fire from the enemy, Lieu
tenant Colonel Kusk took command of the regi
ment, and by order of General Sprague fell back
into the town. Companies D and G being de
tached on picket duty, the remaining companies,
C, H and K of the regiment, with a battery of ar
tillery, had been left in charge of the camp. After
a gallant resistance, the whole force retired to
the town, and retained their position for nearly
three hours of very heavy fighting and repeated
charges by the enemy. At this time they were
again ordered one and a half miles farther to the
rear, where the advance of the rebels was finally
checked. The trains were saved, but the regi
ment sustained a loss amounting to one-fourth of
the whole number engaged, the list of casualties
showing fifteen killed, fifty-seven wounded,
twenty-five missing and three prisoners, among
the latter of whom was Colonel Montgomery. On
the 23d, having buried the dead and provided for
the wants of the wounded, they marched through
the town, and proceeding two miles on the At
lanta road, erected breastworks and bivouacked
until the 25th, when they advanced three miles,
encamping in line, protected by breastworks.

On the 26th of July the regiment moved for
ward two miles on the Atlanta road, and biv
ouacked until midnight, when they passed to the
rear of the army, from the left to the right flank,
9

130 JEREMIAH M. HUSK.

a distance of twenty-two miles, and forming with
the brigade, drove the enemy from his position on
a hill, and having lain on their arms during the
night, they next morning took position and threw
up a line of works, which they retained under a
heavy fire during the battle of the 28th. On the
30th they moved a short distance to the right, and
next day the regiment was detailed as grand
guard, and employed on the skirmish line. Retir
ing on the 1st of August to the reserve line, they
remained until the morning of the 6th, when they
moved to the skirmish line, and at nine o'clock
they repulsed the attack of the rebels, who ad
vanced in a double line to the assault.

During the two following days they were held
in reserve, and on the 9th advanced to the front
line, and under heavy fire fortified a position
within five hundred yards of the rebel main lines,
which position they maintained, under constant
fire, until the evening of the 2Gth, when they were
put in motion, accompanying the movement of
the army of the Tennessee. Continuing the march,
they struck the Atlanta and West Point Railroad
near Fairburn on the 28th, and having spent the
next day in destroying the road, they resumed the
march on the morning of the 30th, and advancing
towards the Macon Railroad, bivouacked for the
night near Jonesboro. They were next day pres
ent at the battle of Jonesboro, but were not
actively engaged. On the 2d of September they

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 131

moved forward eight miles in pursuit of the re
treating enemy, when they fortified position near
Lovejoy Station, and remained until the 6th, at
which date the return inarch was commenced.
They arrived on the 8th at East Point, six miles
from Atlanta, on the Macon and Western Kail-
road, where they went into camp.

The Twenty-fifth Wisconsin, attached to the
Second brigade, First division of the Seventeenth
army corps, left East Point, Ga., on the 1st of
October, 1864, as part of a reconnoitering expe
dition, and having next day developed the enemy,
entrenched and in force near the Newman road,
on the Montgomery railroad, returned on the
morning of the 3d to camp at East Point.

Accompanying the Seventeenth corps, in the
movement of General Sherman's forces, to meet
the attempt of the rebel forces upon the communi
cations wTith Chattanooga, they again left East
Point on the 4th of October, the regiment during
the beginning of the march acting as guard to the
supply trains, which they wrere frequently called
upon to assist in their passage over the muddy
roads. They crossed the Chattahoochee River on
the following day, and passing through Marietta
and around Kenesaw Mountain on the 9th,
reached Ackworth and crossed the Etowah River
on the llth of October.

Continuing the march, they passed through
Kingston on the 12th, arriving on the afternoon

132 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

of the next day at Adairsville, whence they moved
by rail to Resaca, at which place they took posi
tion on the ground occupied by the regiment dur
ing the engagement of the 15th of May.

On the 15th of October they moved to Snake
Creek Gap, and the enemy, who had established
himself in the works formerly erected by our
troops, having been driven out, they pressed rap
idly forward in pursuit, companies F and G act
ing as pioneers, to clear off the obstructions which
the enemy, in his flight, had placed in the road.
Passing through Ship Gap, on the 16th of October,
and Summerville on the 20th, they crossed the
State line next day and bivouacked at Gayles-
ville, Ala., on Little River. From this point com
panies B, E, F, G and H were detailed to guard
the supply train to Rome, Ga., and rejoined the
regiment on the 27th at Gaylesville. On the 24th
of October Lieutenant Colonel Rusk rejoined and
took command of the regiment, which he retained
until its muster-out of service, with the exception
of eight days subsequently, when in the vicinity
of Pocotaligo, S. C.

The Twenty-fifth left Gaylesville on the 28th of
October, and marching to the southward, arrived
on the 30th at Cave Springs, Ga., having marched
during the month a distance estimated at two
hundred and seventy miles.

The march was resumed on the 1st of Novem
ber, and proceeding by way of Cedartown, Dallas

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 133

and Marietta, they crossed the Chattahoochee
River on the 10th and entered Atlanta on the fol
lowing day. Here they were engaged in various
duties until the commencement of General Sher
man's celebrated march through Georgia to Sa
vannah.

Accompanying the Seventeenth corps, and act
ing as train guard, the Twenty-fifth left Atlanta
on the 15th of November, and taking the road to
McDonough, passed through that place on the
17th, bivouacking on the road near Jackson. On
the 20th they passed through Monticello, where
the regiment was relieved from duty as train
guard, and rejoined the brigade. They arrived
on the 22d at Gordon, the junction of the Mil-
ledgeville and Eatonton, and Georgia Central
Railroads, where they were ordered to destroy the
road. Pressing forward from this point on the
24th of November, and destroying the railroad as
they advanced, they arrived on the 26th in the vil
lage of Toomsboro, where the regiment was de
tailed as pontoon guard, and the engineer corps
placed under the charge of Lieutenant Colonel
Rusk.

They crossed the Oconee River on the 27th, com
panies B, E, G and II acting as rear guard, and
on the 30th crossed the Ogeechee River and biv
ouacked, having marched two hundred and thirty
miles during the month. Resuming the march on
the 1st of December, they crossed Buckhead

134 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

Creek, near Millen, on the following day, and on
the 8th reached Marlow, a station on the Georgia
Central Railroad, twenty-six miles from Savan
nah, where the regiment w7as temporarily relieved
from duty as guard to the pontoon train.

On the 9th of December they encountered the
enemy posted near the west end of Long Swamp,
and the Twenty-fifth Wisconsin, taking position
in the rear of the brigade, wras shortly afterwards
ordered to support a battery. The rebels were
soon driven from their position, when the regi
ment moved forward through the sw^amp south of
the railroad to Station No. 1, where a number of
torpedoes had been planted by the enemy. Here
they took position and commenced the construc
tion of breastworks.

On the 10th they moved out in the rear of the
brigade, and having advanced about three miles,
again struck the enemy. The regiment took po
sition in the rear of the Third brigade, and sub
sequently moved to the right, fronting the Ogee-
chee Canal. Their position here being very much
exposed to the enemy's artillery, they forded the
canal and took position with the brigade within
five hundred yards of the enemy's fortifications.
At night they were ordered to advance the line
two hundred yards and erect substantial breast
works and rifle pits, when it was found that a
deep swamp extended in front of the rebel lines.
On the afternoon of the following day, during

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 135

which one of their number was killed and one
wounded, they were relieved by the advance of the
Fourteenth corps, and recrossing the canal, they
marched around the swamp, a distance of five
miles, "and finding a dry spot, bivouacked for the
night."

They took position on the 12th of December at
Dillon's Bridge, in unfinished works previously
erected by the Fifteenth corps, which they com
pleted and held until the 19th, moving on that
day to King's Bridge. On their arrival they were
ordered by General Sherman to return to the en
trenchments at Billon's Bridge, which they occu
pied, engaged in the performance of heavy picket
and garrison duty, until the 3d of January, 1865,
when they marched through Savannah and em
barked next day below the city at Thunderbolt,
arriving in the afternoon at Beaufort, Port Royal
Island, S. C., where they encamped three and a
half miles from the city.

They remained in camp on Port Royal Island
until the 13th of January, when they commenced
the march through the Carolinas, and crossing the
Pocotaligo River on pontoons next day, biv
ouacked within a mile of Fort Pocotaligo, which
the enemy abandoned during the night. On the
15th of January they advanced, with little opposi
tion, through several strongly fortified lines of the
enemy, which were very difficult of approach on
account of swamps and deep ditches, arriving

136 JEREMIAH M. lllrXK.

about noon at Pocotaligo, forty-nine miles from
Savannah, on the Charleston and Savannah Rail
road. In the afternoon they moved one mile to
the left, and encamped in the woods on the right
of the road, where they lay until ordered on the
18th to protect the forage train reported to be at
tacked by the rebels; in obedience to which order
they moved five miles towards McPhersonville,
and having participated in a slight skirmish, re
turned without loss to camp.

On the 20th of January they moved out on a
reconnoissance towards the Salkehatchie River.
Having marched about five miles, they encoun
tered the enemy, drove in his pickets, and dis
lodged a small force from temporary earthworks
in the road, thence moving down the river, which
they were unable to ford, returned to camp in the
evening. The regiment on the 23d was ordered
on fatigue duty, and moved towards Fort Poco
taligo, in the vicinity of which they Avere em
ployed in cutting timber and corduroying the
roads, which at this point were impassable for
teams, until the 30th of January, when they
marched nearly six miles towards the Salkehat-
chie River, encampii-g near Pocotaligo.

On the 1st of February they advanced thirteen
miles. Next day, having moved forward about
ten miles, driving the enemy from his entrench
ments as they advanced, the trains were halted,
and the Twentv-fifth ordered to take the advance.

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 137

Companies C, E, I and K, under command of Lieu
tenant Colonel Rusk, were deployed as skirmish
ers, and rapidly advanced on the left of a large
swamp, the remaining companies, under Major
Joslin, following as a reserve.

They were soon afterwards ordered to charge
the enemy's works at Rivers7 Bridge, on the Sal-
kehatchie River, and sustaining a severe fire from
the batteries commanding the road, they steadily
advanced, crossing several bridges, until their
progress was arrested by the Salkehatchie, an un-
fordable stream, on which the bridge had been de
stroyed by the enemy.

They were then ordered to shelter in the swamp
on each side of the road, where companies were
deployed, and advanced slowly through mud and
water, waist deep, to the bank of the river, on
which they retained position for several hours,
keeping up a steady fire on the rebels in front
until relieved in the evening, when they moved to
the rear and encamped, having sustained a loss of
three killed and five wounded during the day. The
night was occupied by the pioneers, assisted by
details from the regiment, in opening a way
through the swamp and timber on the left of the
road, and on the 3d of February the regiment
formed in line, and advancing over very difficult
ground, had obtained position within a short dis
tance of the rebel works, when the enemy aban
doned the post.

138 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

The forward movement was resumed on tbe 6th
of February, and crossing several swamps where
it was necessary to "corduroy" the road, and re
moving obstructions as they advanced, the regi
ment on the Sth struck the Charleston and Au
gusta Railroad at Midway, seventy-two miles from
Charleston. Having spent the day in the destruc
tion of the railroad near this point, they marched
on the 9th of February to the south branch of the
Edisto River, where the enemy appeared in force.

"The Second brigade, about noon, was ordered
forward, moved out to the bank of the stream,
which they crossed on pontoons, and advanced
through the swamp in mud and water, waist deep,
upwards of half a mile, when they formed in line
and charged the works, dislodging the enemy, who
abandoned the post and position. They w^ere sub
sequently ordered to erect works on each side of
the battery, and the men and officers, much fa
tigued, spent most of the night in drying their
clothes."*

The 10th of February was occupied in crossing
the teams and material; the brigade was ordered
out on a reconnoissance, and having marched five
miles returned to camp. On the following day
they passed through Roberts' Swamp and en
camped within five miles of Orangeburg, seven
teen miles from Branchville, on the Columbia

Official report.

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 139

Railroad. On the 12th the left wing, under com
mand of Major Joslin, was ordered on a foraging
expedition, and during its absence the right wing
moved to the support of the Third and Fourth di
visions of the corps, then engaged with the enemy.
At ten in the evening the regiment moved for
ward, passed through Orangeburg, which had
been captured by our troops, and encamped two
miles from the town. On the 13th they were oc
cupied in the construction of the Columbia Kail-
road, encamping near Lewisville. The march was
continued on the following day, and on the loth
of February they moved towards the Congaree
River, within four miles of w^hich stream their
course was changed to the left, the regiment on
the IGth going into camp in sight of Columbia, on
the ground previously occupied by our prisoners
in rebel hands.

They crossed the Saluda Eiver on the 17th of
February on pontoons, and moving thence on the
left to Bush River, encamped in the woods until
four in the afternoon, when they marched to and
crossed Broad River, encamping near the railroad
in the suburbs of Columbia. Next morning they
were ordered to destroy the railroad, and the
brigade having been appointed provost guard,
they returned late in the evening to Columbia,
where they were occupied in provost duty until
the 20th of February, when the march was re
sumed.

140 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

Proceeding northward, on the line of the Char
lotte and South Carolina Railroad, which was de
stroyed as they advanced, they passed through
Winsboro on the 22d of February, and changing
the route to the eastward, they crossed the
Wateree River on the evening of the 23d, and biv
ouacked next day near Liberty Hill. They crossed
Lynch's Creeks on the 26th and the following day,
and on the 28th the regiment, detached from the
brigade, was ordered to take possession of Wilkes'
Mills, in the forks of Juniper Creek, and grind
corn for the division, in which they were employed
until the 3d of March, when they rejoined the bri
gade, and marching with the supply train, crossed
Thompson's Creek and encamped at Cheraw, the
terminus of the Cheraw and Darlington Railroad.
Here the brigade was assigned to duty as provost
guard.

The regiment left Cheraw on the 5th of March,
crossed the Great Pedee River in the afternoon,
and passing through Bennetville next day, en
tered North Carolina on the Sth, the regiment, as
they advanced, corduroying the roads, which for
a great distance lay through swamps and timber.
On the llth they passed through Fayetteville,
N. C., and over the bridge on Rockfish Creek, near
which they remained in camp until the 13th, when
they crossed Cape Fear River on pontoons, and
participated in a slight skirmish with the enemy
near the river.

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 141

Resuming the march on the 15th, they passed
through Blockersville to South River, where a
body of rebels was stationed in charge of the
bridge, and ready to burn it upon an attempt to
cross. A regiment each of cavalry and infantry
was quietly formed, and supported by three regi
ments of infantry, including the Twenty-fifth Wis
consin, charged and routed the enemy, and cross
ing through a swamp, bivouacked for the night,
protecting the passage of the trains.

Passing through Brockersville on the 17th of
March, they proceeded by way of Clinton in a
northerly direction towards Dudley, and on the
20th, when moving with the brigade in rear of the
train as guard, were ordered forward to join Ma
jor General Howard at a point on the Goldsboro
and Fayetteville Road. Accompanying the bri
gade, they moved forward on the flank of the train
to the point designated, where, after an hour's
rest, they took position in rear of the Thirty-sec
ond Wisconsin as support to a charge made
against the enemy's works defending Goldsboro,
which were carried and occupied by our forces.
The regiment at dusk moved a short distance to
the rear and bivouacked for the night.

On the 21st of March they moved in rear of the
train, and on arriving on the right of our line the
regiment was ordered to support the Third Michi
gan battery. Companies A, F and G were de
ployed as skirmishers, with one company in re-

142 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

serve covering the bridge over Falling Creek; the
remainder of the regiment supporting the battery
and guarding the train. During the engagement
one man was wounded. Early next morning they
inarched into and occupied the rebel works, which
had been evacuated before daylight. Here they
were joined by the other regiments of the brigade,
and advancing on the 23d, they crossed the Neuse
River next day and passed through Goldbsoro, at
the intersection of the Wilmington and Weldon,
and North Carolina Railroads.

The Twenty-fifth established camp within four
miles of the city, where they remained, occupied
in various duties, until the 10th of April, when
they were again put in motion. Marching in the
general direction of the North Carolina Railroad,
by way of Boon Hill and Smithfield, they crossed
the Neuse River and entered Raleigh on the 14th
of April, encamping within one mile of the city,
which is situated near the Neuse River, at the
junction of the Raleigh and Gaston with the
North Carolina Railroad. In the movement
against General Johnston's forces they had ad
vanced on the 15th a short distance from the city,
when intelligence was received that the rebel
army had surrendered. They thereupon returned
to camp near Raleigh, where the regiment re
mained, furnishing occasional details for guard
and patrol duty, until news was received of the
President's disapproval of the terms of surrender.

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 143

On the renewal of hostilities the regiment, on
the 25th of April, marched ten miles to Jones'
Cross Koads, and General Johnston, having next
day accepted the proposed terms of surrender,
they returned on the 27th to camp near Raleigh,
where preparations were made for the homeward
march to Washington.

On the 29th of April they set out from Raleigh,
and crossing Crabtree Creek and Neuse River, en
camped in the woods ten miles from the city,
where they rested during the next day (Sunday),
in accordance with the instructions of Major Gen
eral Howard.

The march homeward was resumed on the 1st
of May. Passing through Forestville, on the Ra
leigh and Gaston Railroad, they crossed the Tar
River next day, and proceeding northward by way
of Ridgewray and Warrenton, they crossed the Ro-
anoke and Meherin Rivers on the 5th of May, en
camping on the Boydton plank road, in Virginia.
They crossed the Nottoway River on the 6th, and
proceeding on the following day, by way of Diu-
widdie Court House, to the canal near the Dan
ville Railroad, three miles from Petersburg, they
passed through that city in review on the 8th, and
crossing the Appomattox River, encamped on the
road two miles from Petersburg.

On the 9th of May the regiment, taking the ad
vance of the brigade, took the road to Manchester,
near which place they encamped in the evening,

1 44 JEREMIAH M. E USK.

remaining until the 12th, when they crossed the
James River to Richmond, and passing through
the city, encamped on the evening of the 13th near
Hanover Court House. They marched through
Chesterfield on the following day, and having ad
vanced sixteen miles, encamped near Hancock
Junction.

They crossed the Mat, Ta and Po Rivers on the
loth of May, and the Ny River on the following
day, when they passed in review through Freder-
icksburg before Major-General Sherman, and
crossing the Rappahannock at that place pressed
forward a distance of ten miles from the city,
and bivouacked for the night. Proceeding on
the 17th by way of Stafford Springs, they forded
the Occoquan River on the following day, and
crossed Acquia Creek on the 10th, went into
camp four miles from Alexandria, remaining until
the 23d, when they marched through Alexandria,
and encamped a short distance from the city, on
the bank of the Potomac.

On the 24th of May they crossed the Potomac
River to Washington, Avhere they participated in
the Grand Review of General Sherman's army,
after which they went into camp at Crystal
Springs, four miles from the national capitol.

Here the regiment remained until the 7th of
June, when they were mustered out of service and
set out for home. The}' arrived on the llth of
June, 1865, at Madison, Wisconsin, where they

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 145

were shortly afterwards paid and formally dis
banded.

At the close of the war the following report,
among others, was made by General Kusk to the
Adjutant:

RECAPITULATION OF BATTLES, ACTIONS, OR EN

GAGEMENTS IN WHICH THE 25th WIS. INFTY.

VOLS. HAS TAKEN PART DURING

THE WAR.

Siege of Vicksburg, Miss., from June 7 to July
4, 1863.

Decatur, Alabama, April 17, 1864.

Resaca, Ga., May 13 to 15, 1864.

Dallas, Ga., May 27 to 31, 1864.

Big Shanty, Ga., June 15, 1864.

Kenesaw Mountain, Ga., June 15 to 22, 1864.

Nickajack, Ga., July 4, 1864.

Chattahoochee River, south of Atlanta, Ga.,
July 9, 1864.

Battle of July 22 and 28, before Atlanta, Ga.

Siege before Atlanta, on the front line, from
July 31 to August 26, 1864.

Jonesboro, Ga., August 31, 1864.

Snake Creek Gap, October 15, 1864.

Before Savannah, Ga., December 11, 1864.

Rivers Bridge, S. C., February 2, 1865.

South Branch of Edisto River, S. C., February

9, 1865.
10

146 JEEEM1A H M. E USK.

Bentonville, N. C., March 21, 1865.

Many other places of less note are not men
tioned, but were consequent upon the exigencies
of the service, the regiment having been with Ma
jor-General Sherman during the whole of his great
campaigns from February 1st, 1SG4, to the close
of the rebellion, a fact, we believe, which no other
regiment, as a complete organization, can put on
record.

Respectfully submitted,

J. M. RUSK,

Lt. Colonel, commanding 25th Wis. Infty. Yols.

JOHN FITZGERALD,

Adjutant.

The regiment's mortality list is thus summar
ized in the official records:

1 officer and 30 enlisted men killed in action.

2 officers and 20 enlisted men died of wounds.

3 men drowned.

1 man died by accident (shot).

7 officers and 407 men died of disease.

A total of 471.

This was the largest death roll of any regiment
that left the state.

For the splendid discipline maintained by Lieu
tenant Colonel Rusk, who commanded the regi
ment on its long and arduous march, in February,
1864, from Vicksburg to Meridian, Miss., where it

RECRUITS A REGIMENT. 147

joined the forces of Gen. Sherman and engaged in
the celebrated Meridian campaign; for not losing
one man from straggling or inattention upon that
march; and for his soldierly qualities in general,
as then manifested, he was complimented in gen
eral orders.

148 JEEEMIAH M. R UXK.

CHAPTER XVII.
RUSK'S BRAVERY IN BATTLE.

Col. Rusk was brevetted Brigadier General for
conspicuous gallantry in the tight at the crossing
of the Salkehatchie River, in South Carolina, in
February, 1865, and his highly creditable be
havior on that occasion deserves to be given in
detail.

Gen. Mower commanded the division in which
was the regiment commanded by Rusk. The di
vision was moving north from Beaufort directly
toward the river, while the remainder of Sher
man's army was converging toward the same
point. Where the crossing had to be made the
enemy was in strong force on the other side, and
defending the crossing with a heavy infantry
column and batteries of artillery. The only ap
proach to the ford was along a narrow road
through a swamp, which was then covered with
water too deep to permit the movement through
it of cavalry or heavy guns. It was a position al
most as strongly protected and as difficult of cap
ture as the celebrated bridge of Lodi.

There was a race among all the divisions to first

E USK'S BRA VER Y IN BA TTLE. 149

reach the crossing, and on the morning, just be
fore the point was within attacking distance,
Mower's division was in the lead, and the brigade
in advance of the division was that to which
Kusk's command was attached. Mower rode up
with his staff, and could not find the commander
of the brigade. He inquired of Col. Kusk where
that officer was, to which the Colonel replied that
he did not know, but that he was ready to move
at once. Mower replied that he could not wait
for the return of the commanding officer, but
would move another brigade. Kusk was indig
nant that he should be ignored. "I did not wish,"
he said, "to be cheated out of the lead." Going up
to Mower, he said: "General Mower, I protest
against being left behind, because it is not my
fault that the officer is absent. I want the ad
vance." Mower, however, would not listen; he
went away, ordered the division forward, and put
the other brigade in the advance.

Later Mower seems to have recalled the protest.
He found the route to the crossing an embarrass
ing one; whereupon he said to one of his staff offi
cers, Capt. de Brasse: "Bring up that colonel
who objected to remaining behind, and we'll give
him a taste of what he's yearning for." Rusk re
ceived the order from the aid, rode up to Mower,
and asked him if he had any orders.

"None," he said; "drop right down there" (point
ing to the crossing), "throw your men in and clear

150 JEREMIAH M. HUSK.

that road. I wish to get to the river. If you
don't do it right I'll know it. That's all, now go!"

Rusk got his command in position, and charged
down the narrow causeway leading to the ford,
and swept by the shell and musketry of the en
emy. His men were cut down in dozens, but they
persevered and gained the position after a des
perate contest. In the charge a shell cut the
brow-band of the bridle of the colonel's horse,
which fell to the ground and threw the rider over
his head. He scrambled to his feet, and, although
considerably bruised, headed the column on foot.
The same shell took off the head of his bugler and
killed two other men who were immediately be
hind him. The tremendous cannonade demoral
ized the staff of Mower, who were following in the
rear of Rusk's column, and they took cover by
leaving the causeway and taking refuge in the
swamp, but finding that route impassable with
horses, they were obliged to dismount and make
their way on foot.

Col. Rusk carried the crossing. "I made a cross
ing," he says, "and was successful — as I thought,
very successful. I reported back to Mower, who
ordered another brigade in to relieve us, and then
we went back into camp."

He had scarcely reached camp when a messen
ger from Mower ordered him to report to head
quarters. Rusk was nonplussed at the reception
of this order, as he was not certain as to whether

R USJTS BRA VER Y IN BA TTLE. 151

he would be commended or reprimanded for what
he had done. "I was in doubt," said he; "Mower
used to get a little full at times, and I did not
know what to expect."

He "fixed up," and rode over to Mower's head
quarters. Col. Christiansen was standing in front
of Mower's tent as Rusk rode up, and offered to
carry in any message which he wished to send.
Rusk replied that he had been ordered to report
to Mower, and must see him in person. Just then
Mower from within the tent called: "Come in!
Come in !"

Col. Rusk pulled aside the flap of the tent, en
tered, and saluted the general. The latter glared
at him for an instant, and then said:

"Yes, sir; I sent for you. You are the only man
in this army, or any other army that I ever saw,
who could ride further into hell than Mower, and
I want you to take a drink with me."

"I thank you, but I can't do that, as I never
drink."

"You don't? Well, I should like to know how
a man can ride so far into hell without taking a
drink. Do you eat?"

"Certainly I do, and would be glad to do so
now, as I have not had a bite since morning."

Mower ordered supper, and "always from that
time on," said General Rusk, " he treated me with
the greatest kindness and consideration up to the
day of his death. I never asked anything from

152 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

him during the remainder of the service that I
failed to get. The last time I met him was at the
reunion in Louisville, shortly before he died."

Upon the muster-out of the Twenty-fifth Regi
ment at Camp Randall, officers and men united
in expressions of regard and esteem, and pre
sented the general with the following testi
monial:

A CARD.

American House,
Madison, \Vis., June 25, 1865.

We, the undersigned officers of the 25th Wiscon
sin Infantry, hereby take this opportunity, upon
the occasion of the disbanding of our military or
ganization, to profess our esteem and profound
regard for Col. J. M. Rusk. We part from him
feeling in our hearts that we have bid good bye
to our leader, than whom there is not one more
daring or gallant.

Remembering that he led us through Georgia,
dowrn to the sea, through the swamps of the Caro-
linas, ever mindful of our welfare, he stood by us
to the last; our prayer is that he may be rewarded
by the people of the State, and that his noble
deeds be not forgotten by the authorities. Never
despairing, but always hopeful, we remember how
he performed his arduous duties during the dark
days around and in front of Atlanta; and when
his regiment was called into action, we always

E USK> S BE A VER Y IX EA TTLE. 153

knew who was at its head. Asking nothing and
receiving little, he stood by the regiment at all
times, ever mindful of the interests of its officers
and men.

In parting with him our acknowledgment is, he
is a gentleman, a hero and soldier. His deeds do
show either of these.

Thomas Harwood, Chaplain.

John Fitzgerald, Lieutenant and Adjutant.

Z. S. Swan, Captain.

H. D. Farquharson, Captain.

Charles A. Hunt, Captain.

Bob Roy McGregor, Captain.

Warren C. S. Barron, Captain.

Edward E. Houstain, 1st Licuicnant.

John R. Cannon, 1st Lieutenant.

D. C. Hope, Quartermaster.
John R. Casson, Captain.
William A. Gott, Surgeon.

E. B. Waggoner, 2d Lieutenant.
Pleasant S. Pritchett, 2d Lieutenant.
Warren G. Davis, 1st Lieutenant.
Mortimer E. Leonard, Captain.
John M. Shaw, Captain.
Benjamin B. Gurley, Captain.
Daniel M. Smalley, Captain.

John T. Richards, 1st Lieutenant.
Julius A. Parr, 1st Lieutenant.
Oliver M. York, 2d Lieutenant.
To Col. J M. Rusk.

154 JEREMIAH J/. RlrSK.

When Gen. Sprague was transferred to a differ
ent field, he wrote the following letter to General,
then Colonel, Rusk.

Headquarters 2d Brigade, 1st Div.,

17th Army Corps, Near
Washington, D. C., May 29, 18G5.
Dear Colonel:—

As I am ordered by the war department to a
distant field, in a few hours I shall be compelled
to take leave of my old command. In doing so I
feel that I shall separate from very many that are
very dear to me, made so by being associated with
them in common toils and danger. I cannot leave
you, Colonel, without expressing my thanks for
that hearty support and co-operation which lias
ever characterized your actions and bearing in the
field. You have been very much in command of
your regiment, it has won a proud name, second
to none that I know in our armies. You, by your
faithful and untiring efforts, have contributed
largely to this. You. are entitled to, and I hope
will receive, the generous thanks of the executive
and the people of your State, for your faithfulness
to the troops entrusted to your care. The able
manner in which you have discharged every duty
in the field entitles you to the gratitude of all wTho
love the cause in wThich you have served so well.

R USICS BRA VER Y IN BA TTLE. 155

Please accept, Colonel, my sincere wishes for
your prosperity and happiness.

Your friend,

J. W. SPRAGUE,

Brigadier General.
To Col. J. J/. Rusk, 2oth Wisconsin Volunteers.

His command was in the 17th Army Corps, un
der General McPherson, and at the battle of the
22d of July, when McPherson fell, Col. Kusk was
in command at the front. Once during this fight
he was cut off from his command and surrounded
by Confederate soldiers, armed with saber bayo
nets. One of the soldiers seized the bridle of his
horse, another one his sword, and he was ordered
to surrender; but drawing his pistol he shot the
man at the bridle and, putting spurs to his horse,
broke through his assailants and escaped with
only a slight wound and the loss of his horse,
which was riddled by bullets from the Confed
erates.

156 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTEK XVIII.

KETUEN FROM THE WAR — PROMPT RECOGNITION OF
HIS SERVICES BY THE PEOPLE.

Upon the close of the war, General Rusk re
turned to his home at Viroqua, Wisconsin, and re
sumed the peaceful pursuits he had given up to
serve his country. In a little less than two months
after his return home, the Republicans of Wiscon
sin, in convention assembled, nominated him for
State Bank Comptroller, and he was triumphantly
elected in the following November. In 1867 he
was renominated, and at the ensuing election re-
elected. At the close of his second term as State
Bank Comptroller the office was abolished, Gen.
Rusk having closed out all of the old banks, which
had given way to the new national currency. Dur
ing his incumbency of this office he was distin
guished for thoroughness in business matters, and
for a sturdy determination to do what in his ex
cellent judgment was for the best interests of the
people.

During General Rusk's four years' residence
at the capital of the state, he formed a very wide

RETURN FROM THE WAR. 157

acquaintance, especially among the soldier ele
ment, and became one of the most popular citi
zens of the state. During his term of service as
Bank Comptroller his keen grasp of public af
fairs became so apparent to every one having
business with his office that prophesies were
freely made that he was destined to go still
higher politically. When it became known that
Cadwallader C. Washburn was to retire from
Congress as the member from the Sixth Congres
sional District, General Rusk's name was more
freely mentioned than that of any other, as his
successor. Upon his retirement from the Bank
Comptroller's office, in January, 1870, General
Eusk returned to his farm.

158 JEREMIAH M. HUSK.

CHAPTER XIX.

ELECTED TO CONGRESS.

In August, 1870, Gen. Rusk was induced to
become a candidate before the Republican con
vention for Member of Congress in the Sixth Dis
trict. His competitors for this nomination were
Hon. William T. Price of Black River Falls, and
Hon. John T. Kingston of Necedah. This district
had been represented for three terms with signal
ability by Cadwallader C. Washburn, who was
afterward Governor. At this time the district in
cluded nearly one-half of the territory of the
State, many parts of it, however, being sparsely
settled. It embraced twenty-four counties, and
extended from the Wisconsin river on the south
and east to the Mississippi river on the west, and
to Lake Superior on the north. To become ac
quainted with and to protect the diversified in
terests of this great district necessarily required
great labor and ceaseless care. To these inter
ests Gen. Rusk gave his undivided time and at
tention, and so well did he fulfill the trust placed
in his hands that two years later he was renorni-
nated by acclamation.

An incident in his first canvass furnishes as

ELECTED TO CONGRESS. 159

clear an indication of the character of the man
as would a long analysis. It chanced that in a
neighboring county an influential farmer had ex
pressed himself as "against Jerry Rusk for Con
gress," and it was quite important that he should
be converted; so in company with a friend Gen.
Rusk drove to see the objecting elector, and found
the farmer busy at the "cylinder end" of a
thresher. On the way out it had been agreed
that Mr. Rusk should say little or nothing but
let the friend do the talking. To take the farmer
from "feeding" would be to make trouble all along
the line, and indeed at first he was not disposed
to come down to listen to the arguments of the
mutual friend. Mr. Rusk quickly took in the
situation and said, "I'll feed while you talk;" and
to the surprise of the crew he stepped on the plat
form, and shedding his coat and pushing his
stove-pipe hat well back on his head he gave the
nod to the driver, who hurried the horses until
everything hummed. The band-cutter slashed
viciously at the rapidly pitched sheaves and
pushed them on to the self-appointed feeder,
whose ponderous body swayed slowly from side
to side as the golden straw, evenly shaken out,
fairly shot into the invisible jaws of the machine.
The stackers were in danger of being "strawed
under;" all were astonished, and the recalcitrant
farmer fairly awe-struck. Every man of the force
was working like a beaver, while the "sing" of

160 JEREMIAH M. R UXK.

the cylinder told that the straw was flowing in
as smoothly as the waters of a meadow brook.
All talk between the friend and farmer soon
ceased, the latter looking on with open-mouthed
astonishment. Suddenly he exclaimed, "You
needn't say another word; Pm in for any man -who
can feed a threshing -machine like that."

In 1872, under the decennial census of 1870, a
re-districting of the State was made, and the
lines of the old Sixth Congressional District dis
appeared, Yernon County being placed in the
new Seventh District. So strongly had Gen.
Rusk's record commended itself to the people
that no candidate appeared in the field against
him for the nomination, and he was triumphantly
elected in the following November.

In the Forty -third Congress Gen. Husk was
Chairman of the Committee on Invalid Pensions,
and also a member of the Committee on Mines
and Mining. Many of the very liberal pension
laws inuring to the benefit of the Union soldiers
may be accredited to his work in their behalf, and
his labors on this committee gave him an ac
quaintance with the veteran soldiers of the whole
country.

In 1874 he was again nominated for Congress,
and re-elected by nearly 4,000 majority. It will
be remembered that at the time of this election
the country was swept by a Democratic tidal

ELECTED TO CONGRESS. 161

wave. Among the congratulatory telegrams re
ceived by Gen. Rusk was the following:

"God bless you, honest old Jerry Rusk. I am
glad the tidal wave did not submerge you. — •
James G. Elaine."

Although this congress was Democratic, and
presumably on account of his services on the In
valid Pensions Committee, he was made a mem
ber of that committee, and was also placed on the
Committee on Agriculture. His service in Con
gress was marked by a strict attention to details.
It was very rarely that he made any attempt to
speak upon any of the questions before the House,
but his influence with the leading members of the
three Congresses in which he served enabled him
to protect every interest of his constituents, and
to succeed in procuring for his district that to
which he felt they were entitled. His only speech
delivered during his service in the House was
upon "The Tariff and Its Relations to Agricul
ture." This speech was printed and circulated all
over the country as a campaign document during
the campaign of 1876, when Rutherford B. Hayes
was the Republican candidate for President.

In the campaign of 1876 General Rusk was the
member of the Republican National Congres
sional Committee for the State of Wisconsin,
which committee was presided over by the Hon
orable Zach. Chandler, of Michigan. It became
the du^ of this committee to have charge of the
11

162 JEREMIAH M. It USK.

electoral count and to look after the interests of
the Republican party, in protecting the interests
of General Hayes. General Rusk devoted great
attention to the details of this work and was con
sidered by Senator Chandler his most valuable
ally.

Gen. Rusk retired from Congress on the 4th day
of March, 1877, and immediately returned to his
home in Viroqua, where, after resting from his
labors for a short time, in company with \Vm. F.
Lindeniaun, he organized the Bank of Viroqua,
with which he was connected up to the time of
his death. Nearly all of his time was devoted
to the cultivation of his fine farm near his home,
and he soon made it a model farm.

He was instrumental in procuring the construc
tion of the Viroqua branch of the Milwaukee and
St. Paul road. Ever since the settlement of the
county the farmers of Vernon had been obliged
to haul their products long distances, to Sparta,
La Crosse and the Mississippi river for market.
Efforts to procure a railroad had been made for
years without avail. As soon as Gen. Rusk had
the leisure to turn his undivided attention to this,
success crowned his efforts, and the people of
Viroqua were given an outlet.

DELEGATE TO NATIONAL CONVENTION. 163

CHAPTER XX.

DELEGATE TO THE EEPUBLICAN NATIONAL CON
VENTION— GARFIELD AND CONKLING —
AN ALL NIGHT INTERVIEW WITH
PRESIDENT GARFIELD.

In 1880 General Rusk was elected a delegate to
represent the Seventh Congressional District of
Wisconsin in the Republican National Conven
tion, and was one of the nine delegates who voted
for Elihu B. Washburn for President until the
break came to Garfield. Gen. Rusk was instru
mental in causing this. His wide acquaintance
acquired while he was in Congress enabled him
to play a very prominent part in bringing Gen.
Garfield's nomination about.

After Garfield's inauguration, upon his per
sonal invitation, Gen. Rusk visited Washington.
This was the time of the impending trouble in the
Republican ranks which culminated in the resig
nation of Roscoe Conkling and Thomas C. Platt
as United States Senators from New York. The
night before Gen. Rusk left Washington for home
he sat up all night with Garfield at the White
House, and discussed the situation thoroughly.

164 JEREMIAH M. 12 USK.

The President talked with him very frankly; told
him of Elaine's desire to have Eobertson ap
pointed Collector of the Port of New York, and of
his disposition to please Mr. Elaine. Gen. Rusk
was an intense admirer of Mr. Elaine, but he
was above all a party man, and here it may be
said that there never was a time during his po
litical career when he was not willing to see the
ambitions of a friend sacrificed to the interests of
the Republican party. He urged upon President
Garfield the injustice of doing anything to offend
Mr. Conkling, and reminded him of the fact that
when the Republican leaders were in doubt as to
success, in the campaign of the year before, Gen.
Grant and Mr. Conkling took the stump, thereby
insuring his election. He left the president with
the promise, at least implied, that nothing should
be done to offend ex-President Grant and Mr.
Conkling in this matter, but it seems the Presi
dent was afterward persuaded to make the ap
pointments which resulted in such serious dissen
sions within the party.

Mr. Conkling, it seems, became aware of this
conversation, for seven years afterwards he ex
pressed the opinion in New York that there was
no man in the United States so well qualified to
heal up all factional feeling in the Republican
party as Gen. Rusk, and that he believed he was
the most available man in the United States for
the presidency. He also intimated to a friend

DELEGATE TO NATIONAL CONVENTION. 165

that if he were permitted to be a delegate to the
National Convention of 1888 he would present
Gen. Rusk's name to that convention. Mr. Conk-
ling, it will be remembered, died before the con
vention.

President Garfield held the friend of his boy
hood in high esteem, and without first consulting
him in regard thereto sent the General's name to
the Senate as Minister to Paraguay and Uruguay,
a nomination which was unanimously confirmed,
but which was as promptly declined by its recip
ient, somewhat to the surprise and disappoint
ment of the President. As a reminder from a , -j-
man called upon to (tnechanically sign a great
number of state documents daily, Garfield had
written in one corner of the commission sent to
General Rusk at the same time that the nomina
tion was given to the Senate — "Jerry, J. A. G."
He had not affixed his signature in this instance
without bestowing a thought upon the old days
of their youth. Garfield also offered to his friend
successively the posts of Minister to Denmark and
Chief of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing,
but both were declined. "I have something bet
ter in mind," said General Rusk; <T11 go home
and run for Governor, and you'll see I'll be
elected." And he was.

This was in 1881. He returned to Wisconsin,
advised with his friends, and became a candidate
for the Republican nomination for Governor, and

3 66 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

notwithstanding his campaign was of less than
two months' duration, upon the assembling of the
convention he received the nomination over a
strong field of candidates. After a spirited and
active campaign, in which every effort known to
the opposition was exhausted, Gen. Rusk was
elected by a majority of nearly 12,000, and was
inaugurated on the first Monday in January fol
lowing. During this campaign General Rusk de
fined his position upon the prohibition question
in a letter to Hon. Edward Sanderson, Chairman
of the Republican State Committee, as follows:

"I am not unmindful of the evils which arise
from the abuse of intoxicating drinks, but I be
lieve that the temperance reform, like all simi
lar reforms, is to be promoted by moral agencies,
and not by the passage of laws which every can
did and intelligent person knows cannot and will
not be enforced."

Shortly after his inauguration he was con
fronted with a very perplexing problem brought
about by the failure of the Chicago, Portage &
Superior Railway, then in course of construction.
The company had failed, owing 1,700 laborers for
several months' work, and having practically no
assets.

THE RAILROAD TROUBLES. 167

CHAPTER XXI.

THE EAILROAD TROUBLES.

It is advisable to give a brief history of the
events leading up to this railroad trouble.

The Wisconsin Legislature, in 1874, granted to
the Chicago and Northwestern Pacific Air Line
Kailway Company a large tract of land, part of
the original lands granted to the State by acts of
Congress of June 3, 185G, and May 5, 1864, for the
purpose of aiding the building of certain lines of
railroad. The lands granted to the Air Line Kail-
road Company were the lands that were set apart
in the original grant to aid in building a road from
"St Croix river or lake" to the west end of Lake
Superior and to Bayfield. The road from St. Croix
river to Bayfield was being built by the North
Wisconsin Kailway Company, that company hav
ing received the lands applicable to the building
of that road. The Air Line company was trying
to build the road from the west end of Lake Su
perior—Superior City— southward to a point of
intersection with the North Wisconsin road in
Burnett county, the point of intersection being

168 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

known as Superior Junction. This company had
received from the Legislature, as before stated, a
grant of all the lands applicable to the building
of a road from Lake Superior southward to the
junction with the North Wisconsin road. In
January, 1882, the Air Line company had about
1,700 men working along its route, when suddenly
it collapsed, being deeply in debt to sub-contract
ors and laborers. This collapse turned loose on
the community in the winter time, 1,700 men,
many of them far away from their homes and fam
ilies. Naturally, the men wore desperate, and
the citizens became alarmed. This was the con
dition of things on the 2Gth of January, 1882, and
which called forth the following telegram:

"Superior Junction, Jan. 20, 1882.
"Gov. Rusk, Madison:

"The men on this end of the Portage and Su
perior road are taking everything within their
reach. We are powerless to protect our property
against 1,700 men, who have neither money nor
means of subsistence. They threaten to burn
houses and destroy everything here. We appeal
to you for protection. Can you send relief?

WALKER, JUDD & VEAZIE."

It may be here stated that Walker, Judd & Vea-
zie were prominent lumber men, located near Su
perior Junction and having extensive property in-

THE RAILROAD TROUBLES. 169

terests there; they were also the creditors to quite
an amount of the Air Line company for supplies
furnished.

To that telegram the Governor at once replied,
saying that the men needed bread, not bullets,
and requesting Walker, Judd & Yeazie to notify
theni that they must do no damage, and assure
them that supplies would be sent at once and
transportation furnished such of them as wanted
to leave and find work in other localities. On the
same day Walker, Judd & Veazie telegraphed
back to the Governor that the men refused to
leave without their pay; that they would have
their pay before they left or they would burn the
railroad bridges and destroy the track. They
also requested the Governor to send up 200 armed
men to protect property and preserve order. The
Governor replied in substance that the men
wanted bread — not bayonets! A great many tele
grams came to the Governor from different par
ties, showing a highly wrought state of feeling,
and great fear that the men would resort to riot
ous proceedings. A bill had been introduced in
the Legislature, and was then pending, to revoke
the grant of lands to the Air Line company and
confer it on the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis &
Omaha Railway Company. This bill had been in
troduced because the Air Line company had vir
tually forfeited its right to the grant in not build-

170 JEREMIAH 31. R USK.

ing the road within the limit of time specified in
the grant.

A happy thought struck the Governor. In re
voking the grant to the Air Line company and
conferring it on the Omaha company, the Legis
lature had ample constitutional power to attach
as a condition precedent to the grant the require
ment of full payment of the Air Line company's
indebtedness to its laborers. The Legislature was
not in session then, having adjourned over Sun
day a day or two before, and consequently Gov.
Husk could not communicate with it, but, keeping
his own counsel, he sent a dispatch direct to the
laborers, telling them that they must at all events
maintain order and respect persons and property;
that the State would not permit any violation of
the rights of persons or of property. He told them
it was not wise for them to stay there expecting
speedy payment from the Air Line company, and
advised them to appoint a committee to look after
their rights, and then go away and get work as
quickly as they could. The Governor's sensible
advice was followed.

In a few days the Legislature reconvened, and
the Governor at once sent in a special message
oivins: a full and unvarnished historv of the whole

o o

matter. He called especial attention to the fact
that a great deal of expense had been incurred in
feeding the men and furnishing transportation to

THE RAILROAD TROUBLES. 171

those who went away to seek work elsewhere, and
he closed his message with these words: "I also
venture to suggest that if the Legislature shall
transfer the grant applicable to the road from Su
perior Junction to the west end of Lake Superior,
to any company, it would be wise, under existing
circumstances, to require such company to provide
funds for the immediate payment of these labor
ers, and to reimburse the State for any expenses
incurred in taking care of these men in this emer
gency. I feel constrained to urge upon the Legis
lature some prompt action in the premises."

After the reading of the message to the Legis
lature, the attorney for the company seeking the
land grant which had lapsed by the failure of the
Chicago, Portage and Superior company called
upon the Governor, desiring to know if he was to
understand that any bill which did &ot provide for
the payment of the laborers would fail to receive
the executive approval. He was very plainly in
formed by the Governor that such was the fact —
that he would certainly refuse to approve any bill
which did not provide for their payment by any
company receiving the grant.

"These men," said the Governor, "are entitled to
an equivalent for their labor. If the lands which
the Legislature proposes to grant to another com
pany in aid of the construction of a road are of
any value to the road, they can well afford to re
imburse these men for their labor."

172 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

The Governor's suggestion was heeded, and on
the 16th of February following he approved an
act revoking the grant to the Air Line company,
and conferring it on the Omaha company. This
act provided that within three days after its pass
age the Omaha company should pay to the Gov
ernor the sum of $78,000, and* give such security
as the Governor should require, to fully indemnify
and save harmless the State against all liability
and expenses incurred in feeding the laborers,
should the sum of $75,000, part of the $78,000 paid
to the Governor, be inadequate to the full pay
ment of the laborers, and further provided that
the company within thirty days after the passage
of the act, should file with the Secretary of State
their authenticated resolution of acceptance of
the grant on the terms imposed by the Legisla
ture. The balance of the §78,000, being $3,000,
was reserved to pay the expenses of the agent ap
pointed to adjust the claims of sub-contractors
and laborers. The act further required the Gov
ernor to appoint an agent who should forthwith
investigate and ascertain the amounts honestly
and actually due for labor and supplies done and
furnished prior to January 20, 1882, on the Air
Line road. The Omaha company at once accepted
the grant on the terms proposed, paid over to the
Governor the $78,000, and gave the security re
quired by the act.

Governor Rusk's action in this matter showed

THE RAILROAD TROUBLES. 173

him to be the true friend of the laborer. His pos
itive and determined course procured for the men
what was justly due them, and his timely action
in their behalf was of more practical benefit to
them than all the dernagoguery and buncombe of
the professional agitators who live off the work-
ingmen could possibly have been. The real work-
ingman can easily convince himself as to which
is his best friend, the man who stands firm in se
curing to him his rights, or the one who would
lead him into riots, and who subsists upon the
hard earnings of the poor.

174 JEEEMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER XXII.

HIS LABORS AS GOVERNOR— HUMANE ACTS.

During Gen. Rusk's incumbency of the office a
vast amount of additional labor was entailed
upon the executive by the construction of the new
transverse wings of the Capitol, and by other re
quirements made by the Legislature. So great
was the confidence reposed in him that new trusts
were continually placed in his hands by each suc
ceeding Legislature.

In 1882 an act was passed wrhich permitted con
stables and police officers to arrest any man with
out a home and confine him in jail. This act Gen.
Rusk regarded as barbarous and contrary to good
public policy, and he very emphatically placed his
seal of condemnation upon it in a veto message.
His action in this regard attracted the attention
of the whole country, and drew forth much favor
able comment even from those politically opposed
to him. In speaking of this veto message, the
Chicago Herald, then the leading Democratic pa
per of the West, had this to say:

"Wisconsin's legislators have outdone them-

HIS LABORS AS GOVERNOR. 175

selves at last in their barbarous desire to crucify
a man because he is poor, and the Governor has
brought them up with a round turn by the use of
the veto. Never was the Executive power more
righteously employed.

"Several years ago a tramp law was enacted in
Wisconsin, which permitted constables and police
officers to arrest every man who had no home, no
employment and no money, and confine him in
jail. Under this act a man out of work, who could
not afford to pay railroad fare, and who took the
highways in his travels, was liable to summary
arrest and imprisonment. Zealous officials, anx
ious for fees, seized everybody who could not show
a bank account, and, as the law was specific, pun
ishment was inevitable after the complaint was
made. Of course many worthless vagrants were
apprehended, some of them criminals, doubtless,
but hundreds of honest men were also subjected
to arrest and imprisonment for no other reason
than that they were destitute. The taxpayers at
length found this policy an expensive one, and it
was abandoned.

"At the beginning of the present session of the
Legislature a bill was introduced reviving the old
tramp law, and catering to the economical ID-
stincts of the people by providing that every of
fender be confined in the County Jail on a diet of
bread and water for ninety clays. It seems to
have passed without much objection, but the Gov-

176 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

ernor of the State, Jeremiah M. Rusk, who was
once a penniless workingman himself, had the hu
manity to veto it and pronounce it cruel and un
usual. He has merited the praise of all men for
his good sense, and the legislators who have de
served his rebuke ought to be execrated every
where. The glibness with which men assuming
to make laws disregard the first principles of lib
erty shows that thousands of people are not fit for
freedom, and would themselves vote it away if
some strong hand did not interpose to save them
from their own stupid folly."

The full text of the Governor's message vetoing
the bill is as follows:

STATE OF WISCONSIN,

"Executive Department,

"Madison, April 6, 1885.
"To tlie Honorable tlie Assembly.

"I return herewith assembly bill No. 323, en
titled 'An Act in relation to the punishment of
vagrants, and amendatory of section 1540, Re
vised Statutes,' with my objections thereto.

"This bill, should it become a law, would au
thorize any justice of the peace, before whom any
person was convicted of vagrancy, to sentence
such offender to be imprisoned in the county jail
of the county not exceeding ninety days, and 'lim
ited to a diet of bread and water only for any or
all of said time.' By section 4726 of the Revised

HIS LABORS AS GOVERNOR. 177

Statutes, this class of offenders may also be sen
tenced to hard labor during their term of impris
onment.

"Should a sentence then be enforced to the full
extent of the law, it would be to imprisonment in
the county jail for ninety days, at hard labor, and
upon the diet of a prisoner, as a part of the execu-
said time. I can not but believe that such a pun
ishment would be both 'cruel and unusual,' within
that provision of the constitution wrhich says 'no
cruel and unusual punishment shall be inflicted.'

"The only limit now recognized by the statutes
upon the diet of a prisoner, as a part of the execu
tion of the sentence, is that prisoners serving time
in state prison shall be dieted upon bread and
water during their term of solitary confinement,
but not exceeding twrenty days at any one time.
This term of solitary confinement is considered
the severest part of the prisoner's sentence, and
it is justly so because of the restricted diet. Bur
vagrancy, if a crime at all, is not such an one as
would justify a sentence so severe as the one al
lowed by the proposed bill.

"I have been unable to find that vagabondage
was ever punished in such a manner; and there
are crimes which, during the times of terroristic
statutes, were punishable by death, that have not
now so severe a penalty. The bill was probably
intended to scare the offenders from the State or
keep them from the crime by the enormity of the
12

178 JEREMIAH M. E USK.

punishment. Wharton says: 'Terroristic penal
ties, viewing them in their crude shape, undertake
to punish the offender, not merely for what he has
actually done in the past, but for what others may
do in the future. Terrorism treats the offender
not as a person, but a thing; not as a responsible,
self-determining and immortal being, to whom
justice is to be distinctively meted, as a matter be
tween him and the state, but as an irresponsible
block of matter, without a right to justice for him
self, or a claim for sympathy from others.'

"Such laws have proven futile in all past gen
erations, and can not now, in this progressive and
enlightened age, be revived without bringing op
probrium upon that 'diadem of humanity' which
has been awarded this free republic.

"J. M. RUSK,

"Governor."

In 1884 Governor Rusk was re-elected by an
increased majority, receiving a much greater vote
than Mr. Elaine, who was the Republican candi
date for President. He had at this time occupied
the executive chair for three years, a constitu
tional amendment of the State having increased
his term one year. It was during his second term
as Governor, in May, 188G, that he was confronted
with the Milwaukee labor troubles wrhich resulted
in a formidable riot, still well remembered
throughout the country.

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THE MIL WA UKEE EIOTS OF 1886. 179

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE MILWAUKEE KIOTS OF 1886.

Everybody remembers Governor Rusk's famous
reply, "These men need bread — not bayonets," to
the application of certain officials for troops to
quell disorder among their laborers. He had
promptly investigated the matter, ascertained
that the men were simply clamoring for payment
due them and of which they stood in sore need,
and decided accordingly.

"Justice to all" was the motto which inspired
his whole career and led to the decision that so
cheered the workingman and discomfited the em
ployer. It was a time when strikes were occur
ring all over the land, when violence was rife and
when people still looked back with a shudder upon
the widespread destruction of life and property
that occurred during the railway riots of '77, and
the bloodshed and mob fury that accompanied
the destruction of the court house in Cincinnati.
Mob violence time and again had gone unpun
ished. Mob rule had triumphed over the state
troops, and had only been crushed by the disci-

180 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

plined front of the regular army. What has hap
pened in Chicago and Pittsburg, Scranton and
Cincinnati, Buffalo and Baltimore, can readily
happen here in Milwaukee, said timid business
men, for there is an element in our population
that will feed the flame of riot. It will certainly
happen in Milwaukee, said certain officials of
great corporations, for here we have no troops ex
cept those recruited from among the masses, and
our governor is avowedly in sympathy with the
working-men.

And so he was.

Abraham Lincoln, the greatest American that
ever lived, used to say that "God must love the
common people, he made so many of them," and
Jeremiah Rusk was the friend of every man, high
or low, rich or poor, asking of him only that he
should be honest and law abiding.

But people who thought Governor Rusk would
side with the masses, right or wrong, little knew
the stuff of which he was made.

Old soldier that he was, devoted to his com
rades of the Grand Army of the Republic, our
governor well knew that as years rolled by and
times and tactics changed, a new and younger
soldiery must be educated to take the places of
the veterans so rapidly dropping from the rolls.
He had not marked in vain the lessons of the
strikes of '77. He had not failed to note that
every such opportunity was seized upon by the

THE MIL WA UKEE RIOTS OF 1886. 181

criminal classes of the threatened communities
to swell the ranks of the strikers and incite them
to, and aid them in, the maddest acts of violence.
He had been well satisfied as a result of his ob
servations that had the state troops been properly
disciplined and properly led, there would have
been no need for demanding national aid, and al
most from the opening of his administration in
1882, Governor Rusk began his fostering care of
the then infant National Guard. It was at the
time only an agglomeration of militia companies,
scattered over the state, few of them uniformed
and still fewer drilled alike, but all, or nearly all,
in imitation of the militia of the ante-bellum days,
were dressed in swallow tailed coats and gilt
braided trousers. He summoned to duty as chief
of his staff the best organizer and most success
ful company commander the state had yet devel
oped, and bade General Chapman set to work on
the long, uphill task, while to insure uniformity
and precision in instruction, he called to his staff
an officer of the regular army, Captain Charles
King, a graduate of West Point who had had
years of experience as instructor at the National
Academy as well as among the troops in the field.
Under Rusk's supervision the scattered companies
were organized into battalions and regiments. At
his entreaty the legislature, hitherto deaf to their
needs, procured tentage for the state troops, and
summer after summer the governor appeared

182 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

with them in camp, a keen but kindly critic of
their work and a constant inspiration to their best
efforts. Like Lincoln, he had to do a vast amount
of harmonizing among the officers, many of whom
belonged to the old school and were fiercely in
tolerant of the teachings of the new. Like Lin
coln, too, he had to feel his way with his legis
lators; interest the people in these their future de
fenders, and so win for them the financial sup
port they needed. It was slow, patient, plodding
work, but he persevered when younger officers
grew wearied and impatient and "fell out." He
never missed one of the annual conventions of the
officers of the Guard, started as they were the first
year of his administration, but was always on
hand with counsel and encouragement, and one
of these conventions, that of 1885, became mem
orable.

By that lime the state had three good regi
ments of infantry, and, in the city of Milwaukee,
a four company battalion with a troop of cavalry
and battery of light artillery, the two latter ex
cellent commands, well officered and well
"manned." There had been trouble in adjoining
states. There had been a flutter at Eau Claire,
and the adjutant general had assigned to the one
West Point officer of the Guard — Capt. King, a
man who had seen service against rioters in more
than one section of the country — the duty of pre
paring a paper conveying instructions upon the

THE M1LWA UKEE RIOTS OF 1886. 183

subject of riot duty to the officers of the conven
tion. It was held in the senate chamber at Madi
son, and among the interested listeners were Gov
ernor Eusk and General Fairchild. Among other
points dwelt on by the lecturer was the necessity
of having in writing the order (from the mayor,
sheriff or other civil magnate to wThom the troops
might be ordered to report) in case firing upon the
mob was necessary. Cases had occurred where,
when the danger was imminent, such authority
had been hastily and verbally given by the official
and then denied when the deed was done. It was
for self-protection that the officers were so cau
tioned, and this was the result:

No sooner had the lecturer finished than right
then and there arose the governor and com-
mander-in-chief, six feet three in his stockings,
with head, mane and beard like a gray lion, mas
sive and impressive, the biggest man of all the
scores in the room.

"Gentlemen," said he, in a voice that rang
throughout the chamber, "I want to say one thing
right now. Of course the colonel is all right in
his warning about the orders of mayors and sher
iffs and so on, but don't you worry about that!
Whenever the time comes for you to tackle a mob
in this state I'll be there as quick as you can,
and you'll get your orders from me."

"The applause that greeted him was deafen
ing," said an officer who was present, "but, could

184 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

we have looked ahead a brace of years and saw
how thoroughly that stalwart promise was to be
redeemed, the dome of the capitol would have
cracked with the uproar."

As the spring of '86 wore on the signs of com
ing trouble were incessant, A concerted effort
was to be made by the labor leaders all over the
West to compel employers to reduce the number
of working hours to eight, even while maintain
ing the day's wages on the ten hour basis. Aided
by the anarchists and socialists of Chicago and
Milwaukee, and fired by the speeches of dema
gogues and fanatics, hundreds of honest and
hitherto law abiding men had been drawn into
the turmoil. The governor, coolly watching the
symptoms from his office at the capital, gave no
sign. He had one horror, — that of being consid
ered an intimidator; but through his adjutant
general and through a staff officer stationed in
Milwaukee, he was kept constantly informed of
what was going on in the metropolis. The latter
officer had received instructions to watch the situ
ation closely. The disaffected workmen were
nearly all foreigners and the days were few
when this officer was not riding through the sec
tion of the city occupied by them and watching
their meetings at night. The detectives were also
on the alert and willingly gave him all the in
formation in their power; but up to within a few
days of the great labor demonstration of Sunday,

THE MILWA UKEE RIOTS OF 1886. 185

May the 2d, th^ principal officials of the city of
Milwaukee seemed loath to believe that any
breach of the peace was in contemplation.

It was not until the night of Thursday, April
29th, that the mayor called into consultation the
staff officer of the Governor and informed him,—
what he already knew, — that the second-hand
shops and those of many of the cheap gunsmiths
had been gutted of their supply of small arms,
that the various societies of anarchists, socialists,
etc., of the city had bought up all they had.

And still the Governor gave no sign. He had,
as has been said, a horror of appearing as an in-
tirnidator, so much so that when some ten days
before the trouble began it was officially reported
to him that only three rounds per man of ball car
tridges were then on hand in the Milwaukee ar
mories he ordered a further supply, but had the
little boxes, each holding its thousand rounds and
weighing a hundred pounds, packed in innocent
looking dry goods cases, marked blankets or over
coats or something of that kind, and sent orders
to his staff officer to meet them at the Milwaukee
railway station. There they were loaded on
trucks and drays and drawn to the Light Horse
Squadron Armory, unboxed and stowed in the
vault, and only three men in Milwaukee were in
the secret that thirty thousand rounds were then
and there deposited ready for emergency. Report-

136 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

ers were full of bustle and activity just then and
eager to get everything or anything in the way of
news or rumors affecting the preparations for the
coming trouble, and these gentlemen the governor
especially desired kept in ignorance.

Illustrative of his sensitiveness on this point
too, is the following: When inspecting a certain
company in Milwaukee a short time previous, the
staff officer found that a number of the rifles had
broken firing pins, and so reported. The adjutant
general wrote to the captain commanding to have
the broken pins extracted and new ones inserted,
just as he did to other captains in other parts of
the state, but this happened to be a company com
mander who loved to see his name in print, and
was perpetuairv giving semi-sensational points to
reporters, and the next thing the Governor knew
there appeared in the Milwaukee papers an item
to the effect that Captain - - of such a com
pany, had just received orders from Madison to
have all his rifles put in order for immediate
active service, and this, coming just in the midst
of the meetings of the various labor unions, etc.,
was of grievous consequence to the Governor. It
was some time before either his adjutant general
or the captain referred to heard the last of it.

Along in mid April he came quietly to Milwau
kee, spending three or four days and consulting
with various prominent citizens, who somehow

THE MILWA UKEE RIOTS OF 1886. 187

looked far less anxious after he left. Then he re
turned to Madison.

On Saturda3^, May the 1st, the long projected
strike began. Many organized bodies left their
shops, but there was no disorder worth mention
ing. On Sunday, May 2d, led by Paul Grottkau
and waving defiantly the red flags of anarchy, a
great procession of socialists and anarchists
marched unmolested through the principal streets
of the city. Some of the divisions formed almost
immediately under the windows of the police sta
tion and the armory of the Light Horse Squadron.
A few policemen in the one, a dozen quiet looking
men in civilian dress in the other, peered curiously
out at the demonstration, but said nothing. Sun
day night there wrere excited meetings and
speeches and Monday morning, May 3d, the row
began in earnest. By noon a big mob had rushed
all the workmen out of the shops of the Chicago,
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway in the Menominee
valley, and the great iron works of the E. P. Allis
Company had to shut down. Ugly demonstrations
were made at the Bay View rolling mills and
other points, and the newrs was flashed all over
the state. In vain the mayor, sheriff and chief of
police plead and expostulated. The strikers paid
no attention, but went on with their work, driving
workmen from their benches and howling in their
mother tongue, "Eight hours," at the barred gates
of the rolling mills. Neither mayor, sheriff nor

188 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

marshal had sent for him, but at eight o'clock
that evening Governor Rusk was on his way on
a special train, accompanied by his adjutant gen
eral; he had sent for his Milwaukee staff officer
who was drilling the batterynien in the use of the
carbine at the moment, and late that night there
was held a most important conference in the
rooms of Mr. Roswell Miller, manager of the Chi
cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, at
the Plankinton Hotel. There were present the
Governor, Mr. Manager Miller, the mayor, sheriff,
Adjutant General Chapman and Colonel King, of
the Governor's staff. The manager pointed out
that all work was now at an end in his shops. He
had appealed to the civil authorities for protec
tion, and they were powerless. The sheriff's posses
were hustled aside without ceremony. He did
not believe the sheriff or the mayor could control
the mob, and urged that the situation be turned
over to the governor. The governor was of sim
ilar opinion, but declined to act until they did
turn over the situation. The conference broke up
after midnight, Mr. Miller giving orders to his as
sistant to close up everything, as he would not
subject his few remaining men to mob violence,
and he knew that the sheriff could do nothing.

And then came the eventful 4th of May. Early
in the morning, in vastly augmented numbers, the
strikers were at work driving would be contented
men from their tools and closing up of necessity

THE MILWA UKEE RIOTS OF 1886. 189

one establishment after another. Again the sher
iff and his posses interposed, and were tossed
aside like chaff. At eight o'clock he fled to the
calmly waiting governor, and at 8:45 the riot
alarm was sounding on the fire bells all over town
and the local troops were hurrying to their ar
mories. True to his word, cool as a cucumber,
fresh as a daisy, there in the headquarters room
of the Light Horse Armory was our war horse of
a commander-in-chief. The time had come to
"tackle a mob" as he had said, and he was on
hand, quick as the quickest of his men.

Just as predicted, the great rolling mills at Bay
View were the objective point of the mob on this
day, and while General Chapman was telegraph
ing orders summoning the entire first regiment of
infantry, covering the line of the St. Paul road
from Kacine and Whitewater to Darlington, by
special train to the city, the four companies con
stituting the Fourth Battalion, stationed in Mil
waukee, were hurriedly bundled into the cars and
sent under command of Major Traeumer, a vet
eran of the civil war, post haste to the rescue of
the great plant at Bay View. The guns of the
Light Battery were run down from their shed on
Farwell avenue to the central armory, and the
Light Horse, sixty strong, saddled and mounted
to meet and escort arriving detachments from Ra
cine, Watertown and Madison, and, later, the
companies from the southwestern part of the

1 90 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

state. Meantime, the companies of the Second
Regiment were held in readiness in their armories
at Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Oshkosh, Appleton,
Fond du Lac, etc., and the Governor received dep
utations of excited citizens at the armory. AYars
and rumors of wars came in all day. Owners of
dozens of manufactories, elevators or shops
wanted guards. Major Caldwell, of the First In
fantry, with two companies was hurried out to
the car shops. Another small detachment was
sent to the Allis works, and then came tidings
from Bay View. The mob had hooted and stoned
the Fourth Battalion, the Polish company espe
cially coming in for a hot time, and some few
men of this then undisciplined organization, had
turned and fired wildly over the heads of their
assailants. By afternoon, however, the command
was safely inside the gates and holding back the
throng.

That night on the south side and the west, at
the Milwaukee gardens and assembly halls, fiery
and furious speeches were made by prominent
leaders of the strike. Especial venom was dis
played towards the Fourth Battalion at Bay
View. Before midnight at the armory the Gov
ernor had the purport of all the speeches, and the
item of greatest interest was that the Polonia As
sembly and a host of supporters had announced
their intention of marching on Bay View in the
morning and pitching the militia into the lake.

THE MIL WA UKEE RIOTS OF 1S86. 191

The Governor grinned and ordered Companies
"A" and "B," First Infantry, two stalwart Ameri
can commands from Janesville, to proceed to rein
force the Fourth Battalion which was being much
badgered and bothered by the crowd still hanging
about the works, who set fire to the freight cars,
stoned the sentries and shouted direful prophesies
of what would happen to them on the morrow.
The two companies went down by train late at
night, and meantime impetuous citizens from the
south side had come up to see the Governor and
in excited speech to declaim against the outrage
committed by the troops in firing on peaceable
and defenseless citizens. The Governor listened
grimly, and then bade the emissaries go back and
say to the peaceable and defenseless citizens that
they would do well to keep away from the troops
until the excitement was over, and furthermore
gave them fair warning that if they proceeded to
molest those troops in the morning, as he was in
formed was their intention, they could look for
trouble. This time there would be no desultory
firing over their heads.

An excellent reason for believing that the Gov
ernor's warning was fully understood by the lead
ers and exciters of the violence on the south side
is that those parties kept well to the rear and out
of the way when, in the morning, they pushed
their misguided fellow citizens forwrard to resume
their attempt at Bay View. Just what they ex-

192 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

pected to accomplish is to this day a mystery.
That most of them were armed was proved by the
police, and the fact that those captured — even to
a school boy barely in his teens — had heavy re
volvers secreted about them. But, true to the
threats of the night before and to the tidings sent
the Governor early in the morning, towards nine
o'clock on the 5th of May on they came, in solid
column, covering the causeway across the flats,
far as the eye could reach. The Governor was
early at his post at the armory and close to the
telephone. He had already given his instructions
to Major Traeumer to receive them with a volley
if they refused to halt at his demand. He had
long since made up his mind that the true way,
the most merciful and effective way to put a stop
to mob violence was to hit it sharply at the start
and end it then and there. Suddenly came the
call from Bay View, "The mob's coming, sir, in
full force."

And back went the answer in the chiefs sten
torian tones, "Very well, sir. Fire on them." And
two minutes later crashed the single volley that
scattered the south side mob like so many sheep
and practically blew the back bone out of anarchy
in our midst. Not once again had trigger to be
drawn during our riots. The luckless victims of
demagogic oratory had learned that they had a
Governor who could command and soldiers who
would obey. That night while dozens of Chicago's

THE MILWA UKEE RIOTS OF 1886. 193

police lay stiffening, or writhing in agony, victims
of the cowardly bomb throwers of Haymarket, the
leaders of the Milwaukee riots, gathered in by po
lice and guardsmen during the day, were lan
guishing behind the bars of the central station,
and the mobs that had gathered at Milwaukee gar
den and defied and driven the civil officers of the
law had given way before the solid ranks of the
National Guard, awed even into respectful silence.
The Milwaukee riots of May, 1886, were prac
tically ended with that one volley at Bay View.
And while from all over the United States there
came enthusiastic plaudits for the Governor, and
for days he was deluged with telegrams, com
mendatory, congratulatory and full of predictions
of honors yet in store for him, he never forgot the
faithful and intelligent service of the men who
had aided him in the work of preparation. The
prompt "mobilization" of the First Regiment—
whose most distant Company, "K," at Darlington,
was in ranks and readiness one hour from the re
ception of the order — was rendered possible by
the admirable system which General Chapman
had introduced throughout the military establish
ment. Chapman knew every officer in the state,
had gauged his character and qualifications and
could unerringly select the best man for the work
in hand, whatever it might be. He had wrought
night and day to place the Guard in readiness for
service, to render it compact, coherent and dis-
13

194 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

ciplined. lie was enthusiastically devoted to their
best interests, and the Guardsmen were as enthu
siastically devoted to him. They looked up to
him and believed on him before the May riots of
'86, but after that he seemed to them infallible. To
this day, officers who won their commission under
his administration visit Madison as do the fol
lowers of the Prophet their Mecca, and the first
thought seems to be to go in person and call upon
their old leader now so sorely stricken in health,
and it was good to see them crowd about him,
when, during the encampment of the summer of
'95, as the guest of his successor and old friend
and associate, General King, he came to the Wis
consin Military Reservation to see the great im
provements that had been wrought from year to
year in the Camp grounds that he had selected
nearly a decade ago, and was mainly instrumental
in securing for the use of the state.

Governor Rusk was fortunate indeed in having
the services of Captain Charles King, U. S. A., re
tired, as the active field commander of the State
troops, and had a very keen appreciation of the in
valuable services rendered by this gallant officer.

GOVERNOR'S ACTION COMMENDED. 195

CHAPTER XXIV.

COMMENDATION OF THE GOVERNOR'S COURSE IN
UPHOLDING LAW AND ORDER.

The action of Gov. Rusk in quelling the riots at
Milwaukee, met with almost universal approval.
At the time, and for several weeks after, Gov.
Rusk received a very large number of letters from
prominent men all over the country, regardless
of party, endorsing his action in very strong
terms.

The following are only a few of the large num
ber received, but are indicative of the character of
all:

From Ex-Governor Salomon, of Wisconsin:
New York, May 8, 1886.— My Dear Governor:
Permit me to tender you my congratulations upon
the prompt, sagacious, fearless and successful
manner with which you have suppressed the An
archist outbreak in Milwaukee. * * * Your
courage has saved the good name of Wisconsin,
and the cause of civilization and good government
everywhere owes you thanks.

.Very truly yours,
EDWARD SALOMON.

196 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

From Ex-Governor Crittenden, of Missouri:
Kansas City, Mo., May 10, 1886.— My Dear Gov
ernor: I mail you today the Kansas City Journal,
with some strong complimentary editorials about
you. I think you deserve them. I endorse your
course fully and unqualifiedly. I am for the su
premacy of the law at all times and under all cir
cumstances, and against mobocracy, anarchy, so
cialism, red republicanism and boycotting at all
times, and under all circumstances. Your course
reflects great honor upon your glorious State.

Your friend,
THOMAS T. CRITTENDEN.

From B. L. Avers, New York:
Union League Club, New York, May 8, 1886.—
Gov. Rusk, Dear Sir: Thousands here speak your
praise and millions of Americans endorse all
these extracts say of your actions and words.

Respectfully,

B. L. AYERS.

From Hon. Wm. Purcell, Editor of the Roches
ter, New York, Union, a prominent Democratic
politician:

Rochester, N. Y., May 7, 1886. — Governor: I do
not know you personally, but I desire to thank
you for your answer to the aldermanic advocate
of the Anarchists and for the manner in which
your troops have taught whom it may concern the

GOVERNORS ACTION COMMENDED. 197

much needed lessou that liberty is .not license.
Thirty-nine years ago this day, May 7, 1847, then
a boy of sixteen, I left Kochester on a boat on the
Erie Canal for Buffalo, and from Buffalo travelled
around the lakes on a steamer with the late Jona
than A. Hadley to Milwaukee, and from there to
.Watertown, where I helped Mr. H. to establish
the Watertown Chronicle, a Whig paper in the ter
ritory of Wisconsin. * * * Through all these
years I have watched the progress of the state,
and it is the recurrence of the anniversary to it
that suggests the above brief expression of my ad
miration of the manner in which its Chief Magis
trate handles a mob.

Yours,

WM. PURCELL.

The newspapers of the country saw much for
good in Gov. Kusk's prompt and efficient action.
Below are given a few extracts from some of the
leading journals of the nation:

From the Philadelphia Times:

Wisconsin is fortunate in having a Governor
that governs. His name is Jeremiah M. Kusk.
He is an American in all that the term implies,
having begun life as a stage-driver, from which
lowly beginning he graduated by successive steps
to the Executive chair. His own history guaran
tees his entire sympathy with all honest efforts

198 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

made by real working-men to improve their con
dition. But be is American enough to be law-
abiding himself and to insist that the laws shall
be enforced and the peace maintained.

The militia that fired on the mob at Bay View
on Wednesday were acting directly under his or
ders and he assumes the responsibility without
flinching. Had the Governors of other Western
and Southwestern States shown the same disposi
tion to prevent disorder that is shown by Gov
ernor Rusk there would have been fewer lives lost
during the prevalence of the late labor troubles.

From the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

It is only in times of popular turmoil that we
begin to catch a notion of the importance of char
acter in our rulers. In our Democratic system
we have overlooked not a little the fundamental
principle, that the fittest should command. There
is something more in Democracy than the mere
skeleton of popular liberty. The people can be
free only when those whom they choose to stand
at the head of affairs are ready and able to help
them protect their freedom. It is when the
choice of the people falls upon a man fit to bear
sway, possessed w^ith the instinct of command,
and gifted w^ith a right royal sense of the magni
tude of interests committed to his charge, that
we are permitted to see the full excellence of our
system of government. The people of Wisconsin

GOVERNOR'S ACTION COMMENDED. 199

have given us that opportunity. They are to be
congratulated upon their governor, and they and
the whole country have a right to be proud of
him.

From the Oshkosh Times:

Every law-abiding and peace loving citizen of
Wisconsin will applaud the prompt, manly and
efficient work of Governor Eusk in hastening to
protect the lives and property of citizens of Mil
waukee from the assaults of mobs. Governor
Rusk has proven himself an energetic, vigorous
and attentive executive, and it is the duty of
every citizen of the commonwealth to accord to
him a full measure of praise for his excellent
work. He did not stop to ask whether the peo
ple would praise or condemn his actions, but as
soon as the peace of the community was threat
ened and a rampant and raving mob offered vio
lence to property, Governor Rusk promptly ap
peared upon the scene and by energetic action
quelled the insurrection with less bloodshed and
damage to property than would have occurred
had he shown the least weakness and hesitancy
at the trying moment.

From the Albany (N. Y.) Journal:

All honor, we say, to Governor Rusk, who,

when the crisis was precipitated in our state and

brought home to our very doors, manfully set

aside the possibilities of alienating a certain class

200 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

of the boycotting school, throwing aside the tin
sel and shame of political buffoonry, took up the
escutcheon of liberty and with a bold front drove
the minions and rats of socialism into their dens
and hiding places. Such promptness on his part
is deserving of the highest encomiums of the press
and the public, and the response will reach to
that high pitch of enthusiasm, that he will again
be the people's candidate for the office he has re
peatedly filled with so much dignity and honor.
Gov. Jerry M. Rusk is one of the old veterans of
the war. He has been time-tried and fire-tested.
No more gallant defender ever donned the blue,
and the laurels he has received are easily wrorn,
without the affectation which in no wise is a part
of his nature. He is a man of the people, staunch
and true to guide the ship of State.

From the Chicago Journal:

Governor J. M. Rusk of Wisconsin has shown
during the recent riots in Milwaukee conspicuous
courage and executive capacity. He made no
terms with rebels against the public peace, but
declared war against them at the first revolt.
Once having opened hostilities, he pushed the
fight with vigor. He gave the troops orders to
shoot when the rioters charged on them, and to
shoot rioters — not to shoot in the air. He had
a Gatling-gun ready to open on their ranks if
rifles had not done the required work. It may

GOVERNOR'S ACTION COMMENDED. 201

be significantly added that the Gatling-gun was
not needed.

Gov. Busk has shown that he knows how to
meet a threatening emergency. In such a crisis
what seems like cruelty is the tenderest part of
mercy. Dalliance with desperadoes and cut
throats only inflames their savage purposes and
re-enforces their numbers. Decisive and severe
measures are the best and wisest and are the
shortest road to peace.

From the Washington Star:

Although for the last twenty years a political
office holder, Governor Kusk, of Wisconsin, was a
soldier before that, and one of recognized cour
age. In the discharge of his present high trust
he maintains the same order of sequence and
makes the politician second to the soldier. One
politician — and only one, so far as can be learned
—has sent up a howl over the tragic end of the
riot. He thinks that the bullets which the mili
tia fired into the mob wrill cost the governor a
good many votes. Perhaps they will. But there
is not a law-loving citizen of Wisconsin w^ho will
not stand by Mr. Busk and approve his course
from start to finish. And, as for the law-loving
citizens of the United States outside of Wiscon
sin, they will desire his better acquaintance and
wish there were thirty-seven more governors just
like him.

202 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

From the Milwaukee Journal:

Rarely has the course of a public officer met
with such hearty endorsement as that adopted by
Gen. Rusk in dealing with the Milwaukee rioters.
Employes as well as employers feel that the
heroic measures resorted to by the authorities
saved many valuable lives and property. That
blood was shed, that precious human life was
taken, will ever be a cause of regret. Still, we
must remember it was better the law-breakers
should have been killed than the law-defenders.
Had the militia waited until it was attacked by
the mob, there would have been terrible slaugh
ter on both sides. Remembering these facts,
press and public have only w^ords of praise for
Oov. Rusk, under whose direction the soldiers
acted. It is gratifying to see the politician sink
in the citizen, as showrn by the comments of the
state press, democratic and republican, printed
elsewhere in today's issue of the Journal.

Shortly after the riots occurred, the Merchants'
Association of Milwaukee held their annual ban
quet and Governor Rusk was the honored guest of
the occasion. In response to the toast, "The State
of Wisconsin — within her borders no room is
found for anarchy and violations of sacred rights,"
the Governor spoke as follows:

"It seems to me that the toast just read was
pretty thoroughly answered the first week of this

GOVERNOR'S ACTION COMMENDED. 203

month, and I do not think there is any fear that
the intelligent people of Wisconsin will ever per
mit the red flag of anarchy to float within her bor
ders again. Your city, constituted as it is, with
its population made up of people from nearly
every country on the face of the globe, contains
many agitators who have been driven from the
Fatherland for violation of laws, and sought
refuge here under our free form of government,
believing they will be permitted here to violate
the laws, incite mobs and riots, and attempt to
lead ignorant people to do what they dare not do
themselves. Such men should not be permitted
to promulgate their doctrines in this glorious
state of Wisconsin, among her industrious, law-
abiding people. Wisconsin has plenty of unoccu
pied room for those who desire to become hon
orable citizens. Our factories, our forests and
our mines all invite labor, and it should be the
duty of every citizen to see that every man who
desires work shall be permitted to do so, unmo
lested by those who do not choose to work them
selves. And every citizen should be protected in
the management of his business against the inter
ference of all comers. This is the only way in
which capital and labor can be harmonious — with
out one the other cannot succeed. There is an
other class, which combine both capital and labor
within themselves — the farmers. By their indus
try and the returns from the fertile soil of our

204 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

state, they are able to produce what is so essential
for us all — the food we eat. They are the founda
tion of all prosperity, and upon them the future
success of this country rests. They are the con
servative, law-abiding people of this country, and
upon them depends the safety of the state. In
closing, permit me to express the wish that the
trade and commerce of this beautiful metropolis
of our state may continue to be prosperous in the
future, as it has been in the past."

NOMINATED A THIRD TIME. 205

CHAPTEE XXV.

NOMINATED FOR GOVERNOR A THIRD TIME — HIS
MESSAGE ON THE RIOTS.

So strongly was Governor Busk's course in the
suppression of the riots approved by the people of
the State and by the whole country that his nomi
nation for a third term was a foregone conclusion,
and when the convention assembled in the Capitol
at Madison no other name was mentioned, but
amid the greatest of applause, in the most enthu
siastic convention ever held in Wisconsin, he was
named for a third term, and _n November follow
ing was elected by a large majority.

Upon the assembling of the Legislature in Jan
uary, 1887, Gov. Kusk, in his biennial message, in
referring to the riots in Milwaukee, said:

"While thus congratulating you upon our ma
terial progress, it is with deep regret that I am
compelled to report that during the past year the
peace of our State has, in a few instances, been
interrupted by strikes and riots of greater mag
nitude, of more violence, and farther reaching in
their consequences, than ever before. In this con-

206 JEREMIAH M. BUSK.

nection you are reminded that it will be your duty
as legislators to look carefully into the causes of
these troubles; and wherein our laws for the pre
vention of wrong-doing, or the punishment of
wrong-doers, are found to be defective, it will be
your duty to perfect them by such new legislation
as recent experience and reasonable anticipations
for the future may indicate to be required. While
your own intelligence, aided by your investiga
tions and discussions, will, I have no doubt, lead
you to a satisfactory solution of all the problems
involved in this subject, yet I may be indulged in
a few suggestions, which I hope will not be found
either impertinent or unwarranted.

"The discussion of the labor and capital ques
tion has become so extensive, has taken such wide
range, and is being participated in by so many
people, representing such a diversity of views and
interests, that it is not strange if at this stage of
the discussion there is more confusion that clear
ness of thought upon it. To eliminate from all
this confusion and controversy what is essential,
concrete and practicable, and in accord with those
principles of justice upon which all good govern
ment is founded, and embody it in effective law,
is no light nor trivial task.

"It seems to me that a very important — I might
say vital — fact in this great agitation has so far
been almost lost sight of, namely: that a large
majority of the people of every city and every

NOMINATED A THIRD TIME. 207

State where the labor troubles have existed, and
an overwhelming majority of the whole people,
are not directly parties to the controversy at all.
The contention is between employes and employ
ers, and both classes combined are but a minority
fraction of the whole people, whose peace and in
terests are interrupted and their rights violated
by these unseemly and unnecessary disturbances.
It is the right and duty cf the people — that is, of
the great majority — to step in and say not only
"let us have peace," but "we will have peace,"
and through the law and lawfully constituted au
thorities to see to it that we do have peace, and
that disturbers are promptly and properly pun
ished.

"In a few communities, comparatively, there
are large bodies of workmen, or laborers, who vol
untarily choose to work for others, for wages.
These, by general usage, are called Vorkingmen'
—not the only laborers in the country. The great
majority of our people are workers, with hands or
brain, or both, and to all such belongs equally the
proud title of laborer. But farther, a majority of
the whole number who do manual productive la
bor, employ themselves, plan for themselves, work
for themselves, and take the whole product of
their labor to themselves, and find a market for
their surplus when and as they can. This great
independent, self-reliant majority is the bone and
sinew, the pride and glory of good citizenship.

9Q8 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

Among them there are no strikes or riots, no in
terference with the opportunities, liberties and
rights of others. That their rights and their inter
ests should be jeopardized by the restless conten
tions of a small minority who ridiculously assume
that they are the only laborers of the country, is a
wrong too manifest to be much longer endured.
If the parties to these ever-recurring disturbances
can not find a way of amicably settling their dis
putes, they must be made to submit to such legal
arbitration as will at least protect the peace and
dignity of a civilized commonwealth.

"In indicating that some additional legislation
may be required touching the rights of laborers
of all classes, and their mutual relations to each
other, only the most prominent fundamental prin
ciples of natural liberty and popular government
need be alluded to.

"It has already been assumed that where a per
son employs himself and works on his own prem
ises, and on his own material, with his own tools,
the product of his labor is all his own, to do with
as he sees fit. That he must be protected in the
full enjoyment of all the fruit of his judgment,
labor and skill, it does not require argument to
convince us. It is self-evident. But where one
person engages to work for another, on another's
premises and material, and with another's tools
or machinery, it is equally clear that the product
belongs to the employer; the workman's claim

NOMINATED A THIRD TIME. 209

ends with the receipt of his stipulated wages.
The State's duty and province in such cases is
simply to maintain individual rights and enforce
the fulfillment of contracts. Everyone's right to
•work for himself, or for any one else, on such
terms as he may choose to make, must be main
tained at all hazards. He who interferes with
this principle tramples upon the most sacred of
human rights, and upon a consecrated principle of
American liberty.

"Government should not be — indeed can not
afford to be — indifferent to the welfare of any
class of citizens; and it is a special duty to pro
tect the poor and weak against any possible ag
gressions of the rich and strong. To this end,
all the rights and interests of workingmen of the
wage classes should be jealously guarded against
injustice or oppression at the hands of their em
ployers. Corporations, created by authority of
the State, that in the nature of their business
must be large employers of labor, or that from
the nature of their business and their charges for
service may largely affect the value of the prod
uct of labor generally to the producer, must be
held to a strict and just accountability, and be
subject always to the control and regulation of
the State.

"With those agrarian and socialistic theories
of fanciful society that deny the right of private

property, or of each individual to full protection
ik

210 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

in the enjoyment and control of all his lawful
earnings, whether obtained by his own labor or
by contract, we can have no sympathy. They are
as un-American as monarchy, and as treasonable
as secession. They contemplate the destruction
of both justice and liberty, and would accomplish
the destruction of both if their application to ex
isting society were seriously attempted. We are
not prepared, as American citizens, to even con
sider a change in our form of government. Re
publican institutions and individual liberty go
hand in hand, and must and will be loyally
maintained."

This portion of the biennial message probably
attracted more attention than any utterance by
any state executive in the United States. News
papers of all political creeds commended it for its
sterling patriotism, and it was commented upon
on both sides of the water.

During Gen. Rusk's incumbency of the office of
Secretary of Agriculture many foreigners of dis
tinction, in greeting him, w^ould refer to this mes
sage, and in many departmental letters received
from the old world reference is made to the man
who had so fearlessly upheld law and order, and
suppressed anarchy.

DECLINES A FOURTH TEEM. 211

CHAPTEE XXVI.

DECLINES TO BE A CANDIDATE FOR A FOURTH
TERM.

Toward the close of Governor Rusk's third term
he was urged by many to become a candidate for
a fourth, and although he informed his friends
who approached him on the subject that he would
not do so, it was intimated in the public press
that he would not decline the nomination were it
offered him. To put an end to the matter he ad
dressed the following letter to the press:

"Executive Chamber,
" Madison, Wisconsin, August 6, 1888.
"As a portion of the press has misrepresented
my position in regard to the gubernatorial nomi
nation, I deem it proper at this time to announce
over my signature that I am not a candidate. To
all who have talked with me upon the subject for
the past year I have very clearly and emphatic
ally stated that I had no desire to continue in the
office and would not again be a candidate for the
nomination. My position was also so plainly

212 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

stated in several newspaper interviews that I
thought it could not be misunderstood.

"The position of Governor, while a high and
honorable one, is not one to be coveted for an in
definite length of time. It has many cares, anxie
ties and annoyances that I do not desire to as
sume longer. During the time I have held the of
fice I have endeavored to conscientiously serve
the people, and while I have many times been
compelled to act contrary to my personal feelings
and wishes, I have done so from a sense of official
duty. Without solicitation I was honored with a
nomination for a third term — a mark of confi
dence on the part of the people that I hold in
grateful appreciation.

"There will be presented for the consideration
of the Republican State Convention the names of
several gentlemen who are all worthy and compe
tent to serve the people well. I have faith that
the convention will choose wisely, and that their
action will be endorsed by the people. Believing
that it would be unwise and contrary to Repub
lican principles for men who are holding high po
sitions at the hands of the Republican party to at
tempt to control or dictate its nominations, I shall
refrain from taking a part in the interest of any
of the candidates, knowing that the convention
will be composed of intelligent gentlemen, having
the best interests of the party at heart.

"J. M. RUSK."

SENATOR SPOONEIV& SPEECH.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN [CONVENTION OF 1888—
SENATOR SPOONER'S SPEECH.

Gen. Rusk's prompt action in suppressing the
riots in Milwaukee, his wide acquaintance ac
quired during his three terms as executive of Wis
consin and as a Member of Congress, his splendid
military record, and his thorough devotion to
principle and to every duty, caused him to be con
sidered by the press of all portions of the country
as an available candidate for the presidency. The
Republican State Convention of Wisconsin with
great unanimity elected delegates favorable to his
nomination, and a very enthusiastic representa
tion of citizens attended the National Convention
at Chicago in 1888. A magnificent banner por
trait of the General was hung upon the walls of
the Republican Headquarters, containing the fol
lowing inscriptions:

THREE YEARS SOLDIER.

SIX YEARS CONGRESSMAN.

SEVEN YEARS GOVERNOR.

NOT A WEAK SPOT IN HIS RECORD.

L'U JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

The Wisconsin headquarters were visited by
thousands of people, all of whom had words of
praise for the gallant soldier from the Badger
State. The only work done in his behalf was to
call attention to his splendid record in every posi
tion in which he had been placed. No attempt was
made at combination. As one delegate expressed
it: "We offer General Rusk as a presidential can
didate because of his splendid record, and because
he would make a president with whom the inter
ests of the country would be safe. He is a sound,
level-headed man, prompt in action, and could be
elected by an overwhelming majority. There is
absolutely no unfavorable criticism to make of
his record."

Hon. John C. Spooner, the gifted and brilliant
United States Senator from Wisconsin, presented
General Rusk's name to the convention in the fol
lowing speech:

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention:

Fully mindful of the disadvantage on this occa
sion which lies in the fact that Wisconsin is last
in the roll-call of States, I turn, for courage, to
that other fact, that her stalwart and splendid Re
publicanism has placed her, and keeps her, always
well up toward the head of the column when the
fighting is on.

From the day when the second National Repub
lican Convention presented for the suffrages of th

SENATOR SPOONEWS SPEECH. 215

people the names of Abraham Lincoln and Han
nibal Hamlin, down to the fateful year eight
een hundred and eighty-four, when, under superb
and inspiring leadership, the Kepublican party
met unexpected and undeserved defeat, Wisconsin
has never failed you, or justly given you one mo
ment of solicitude. Today, for the first time in all
these years of unbroken fealty, she invokes for the
name and merit of one of her own loved and
trusted leaders your thoughtful consideration.
Happily for the party to whose fortunes we are
all devoted I am not able, with good warrant of
truth, to urge in advocacy of your adoption of her
choice, that you will thereby turn a doubtful into
a certain State, for without hesitation I declare
in this great presence, that to the nominee of this
convention, whatever his name shall be, and from
whatever State he shall come, will be given at the
appointed time the electoral vote of Wisconsin, as
usual.

I ought also to say that you sadly underes
timate the quality of our patriotism if there shall
gain lodgment for a moment here the belief that
we trifle with this convention, in this crisis of the
party's life and of the country's good, by urging
upon its notice a name simply by wray of compli
ment to a favorite son. Those for whom I speak
deem this an hour for w^ise counsels and deliber
ate judgment in the interest of the people, not for
compliment to any man. He who is to lead this

216 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

great party in the campaign upon which we now
enter must be chosen, not because his State asks
it, not because his friends demand it, not because
he wants it, but because the people want and need
him.

The order of the impending conflict is to be
quite new to us. The beating of the long roll is
not to summon us, as hitherto, from our tents to
repel attack. The bugle notes which call us into
action will sound the advance. Those who lead us
are to head a storming party against a foe, alert
and prepared to receive our onset, strongly in
trenched behind w^orks which they have been long
building.

The rank and file of the Republican party look
trustfully to this convention for wisdom, and they
will tolerate no mistakes. They demand for lead
ers those who have walked the mountain ranges
in full view of men, who have kept their feet out
from the swamps and the bogs of life, whose
careers are without ambush for the enemy, whose
adherence to the principles of the party has been
"without variableness or shadow of turning," who
are strong in the robust and attractive qualities
of leadership; men who come from the ranks of
the people, who have borne the burdens of life
common to the people; men whom the people may
cheerfully, and without mental or moral protest,
follow to the end for what they have done, and for

SENATOR SPOONEWS SPEECH. 217

what they are, and for what they may be reason
ably expected to do.

"Tall men, sun crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty and in private thinking."

Wisconsin sends you such a man.

Is it against him that he does not come from a
doubtful State? I deny that fidelity to Repub
lican principles has undergone such deterioration
as to diminish the availability of one's candidacy
in proportion as the unyielding Republicanism of
the State in which he finds his home has placed
her above suspicion of defection. If in this I
claim too much; if the voice of Wisconsin must
fall upon unwilling ears because of the steadfast
ness of her political faith, so be it; but "by the
same token" your candidate should not come from
Maine, or Pennsylvania, or Ohio, or Illinois, or
Michigan, or Iowa.

Holding, therefore, to the highest standard of
party duty, and demanding the subordination of
all personal ambition to party welfare, bowing in
advance to the decree of this convention, the Re
publicans of Wisconsin, with enthusiastic una
nimity, have instructed their delegation to name
to you, as their choice for the first place, one who
by a long life of conspicuous public service in
divers fields of effort has proven his right to stand
the peer of any man in stainless character, in
patriotic devotion to the best interests of the

218 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

country, in political sagacity, in unerring judg
ment of men, in heroic courage, — many times
shown amid the rush and whirl of battle, — and in
extraordinary executive capacity.

His name is not unfamiliar to the country. It
is Jeremiah M. Rusk, the honored Governor of
Wisconsin.

Governor Rusk possesses what seems in these
days to be by many considered a fundamental ele
ment of eligibility to such a candidacy: lie irux
lorn in the State of OJiio. He spent his youth and
young manhood in the rough but disciplinary
work of the farm. Over three decades ago he
sought a home in one of the newer counties of
Wisconsin. Rich in nothing but brain, and brawn,
and principle, and honorable ambition, accus
tomed to hardship and not ashamed to labor, he
cheerfully mounted the driver's seat of a frontier
stage-coach, as Lincoln in early life wTent out from
the rude cabin of his father with the ax upon his
shoulder to split rails the long day through, and
as Garfield sought and followed the towpath of
the canal, thence through a life of high endeavor
to enter the portals of the White House.

It is testified by those who knew the young
Ohioan in those days that he never wandered
from the road or upset the coach. Xever an office-
seeker, he drew to himself from the outset the con
fidence of his neighbors, and was chosen by them
to various county positions. Like one now con-

SENATOR SPOONEIVS SPEECH. 219

spicuous in public life, in no good quality or at
tainment his peer, he held and discharged the
duties of the office of sheriff of his county; but lest
prejudice arise from this similarity of career, per
haps I ought to say that capital punishment had
then been abolished in Wisconsin.

When the fearful cloud which had been so long
gathering in our political sky burst upon the
country with the fury of a tempest; when the flag
was no longer sacred from the assaults of treason;
when the Union, the source of all our strength
and prosperity and hope, was to struggle for its
life, he answered the call of Lincoln, and leaving
those who were dearer than aught else on earth
but his country, he sought straightway the front,
and there he rode again and again, calm and in
trepid, on bloody fields where the missiles of the
enemy "were weaving the air with lines of death
and danger" above him and about him; and he
turned homeward his face only when the angel of
peace gave the glad command "Right about," and
he saw the flag under whose folds he had marched
and fought with Sherman to the sea, the emblem
of a union redeemed and regenerated by patriotic
valor and blood, "with a star for every State and
a State for every star," and, under God's blessing,
the only flag ever again to float upon the breeze as
the ensign of our people.

Loved by those whom he had led, honored and
trusted by those under whom he had served, he

220 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

marched back, with the star of a general upon his
shoulder, well earned in the hell of battle, to give
again into the keeping of his State, stained and
tattered, but glorified by battle names never to be
forgotten, the standard which he had borne with
him to the front.

After serving with remarkable financial ability
as Bank Comptroller of the State, the banner Re
publican district of Wisconsin sent him to the
halls of the National Congress. There for six years
he rendered faithful, patriotic and able service
to the district and to the country. In the For
ty-third Congress he served as Chairman of the
Committee on Invalid Pensions, and as in that
day, both in Congress and at the White House, the
pension was held a debt of honor, to be cheerfully
paid, he was able to render to the surviving sol
diers of the Union army, and to the widows and
orphans of the dead, a service which they have
not forgotten or ceased to appreciate.

With the expiration of his present term the un
precedented honor will be his of having served as
Governor of his State for seven consecutive years.
He has so borne himself in every detail of duty in
this high office as to win the confidence and re
spect of his constituency, regardless of party
lines, and as to endear himself to every man
throughout the country who has the brain to dis
cern and the heart to appreciate that the only
sure guarantee of our liberties is in the prompt

SENATOR SPOONEWS SPEECH. 221

and strict enforcement of the law. It will be well
and long remembered to the honor of this man,
that when insidious and dangerous elements in
our midst, wearied of sapping in secret the foun
dations of our social fabric, came boldly into the
sunlight with the red flag of anarchy, when men
shrank back affrighted at the horrid sight of
death in Chicago's streets, when the cry went up
from the metropolis of Wisconsin to the chamber
of the executive for the protection which well-ex
ecuted law throws alike around the rich man's
palace and the poor man's home, it found there no
timorous, vacillating demagogue, to whisper
honeyed words into the ears of a mob, but a man
with clear eye to discover his duty, and the
strength of purpose to discharge it.

Tender and sympathetic as a woman, he met
emergency with a hand of iron, and, with the over
whelming commendation which his acts evoked,
he gave it to be understood, at home and beyond
the seas, that this is a nation of law; that this peo
ple has the strength and the will to purge itself
of hostile forces, and that neither anarchy, com
munism, nor any kindred abomination can find a
permanent, prosperous abiding place in this land
of ours.

The comrade of labor from his youth up, the fa
vorite of the farmer because himself a farmer,
with a just sense of property rights, but never the
ally or tool of monopoly, his career would success-

222 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

fully challenge the confidence of every deserving
class.

Take him, gentlemen of the convention, for your
leader, and the Republican party of Wisconsin
bids me pledge you that when the fierce white
light of the campaign shall beat upon him it will
disclose no weakness in his armor, no spot upon
his shield; and when our victory shall have been
won, you will have installed in the White House
once again an American President in favor of pro
tecting American labor and upbuilding American
industries, of enforcing to the full extent of ex
ecutive power the constitutional right of a free
ballot and a fair count; who knows this wise lib
erality is the only true economy, and that the
truest statesmanship, as well as the highest pa
triotism, is to strengthen and dignify one's own
nation.

?.

HIS STAFF OF MAIMED HEROES. 223

CHAPTER XXVIII.

HIS STAFF OF MAIMED HEROES — VISIT TO GENERAL
HARRISON.

Governor Rusk was one of the first to congratu
late Gen. Harrison upon his nomination, and was
one of his most enthusiastic supporters during the
campaign which followed. On his return from
the National Encampment of the Grand Army of
the Republic he called upon General Harrison at
Indianapolis, escorted by his one-armed and one-
legged staff. These maimed heroes attracted a
great deal of attention. The staff was made up
of* officials and employes of the State administra
tion, and accompanied General Rusk to a number
of encampments of the Grand Army during his
service as Governor. The following list will be
of interest:

George W. Baker, Private Co. G, 19th Wis. Vol.
Inf.; lost right arm at Petersburg, Va.

Eugene Bowen, Private Co. F, 92d N. Y. Vol.
Inf.; lost left arm at Cold Harbor, Va.

J. W. Curran, Private Co. G, 5th Wis. Vol. Inf.;
lost left leg at Sailor's Creek, Va.

Peter Delmar, Private Co. F, 17th Wis. Vol. Inf.;
lost left leg at Atlanta, Ga.

224 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

Henry P. Fischer, Private Co. F, 2d Mo. Vol.
Inf.; leg crippled at Perry ville, Mo.

Henry B. Harshaw, Lieutenant Co. E, 2d Wis.
Vol. Inf.; lost left arm at Spottsylvania, Va.

TV. J. Jones, Private Co. C, IGth Wis. Vol. Inf.;
lost right arm at Corinth, Miss.

TV. TV. Jones, Capt. Co. A, 2d TVis. Vol. Inf.; lost
right arm at Antietam, Md.

TV. II. McFarland, Private Co. B, 5th Wis. Vol.
Inf.; lost left leg at Salem Heights, Va.

F. L. Phillips, Private Co. A, 2d Wis. Vol. Inf.;
lost right arm at Spottsylvania, Va.

Henry Shetter, Private Co. D, 7th Wis. Vol. Inf.;
shot through thigh, Gravel Ivun, Va.

Benjamin Smith, Lieutenant Cos. B and A,
Quartermaster 5th Wis. Vol. Inf.; injured in left
leg.

Mark Smith, Private Co. H, 7th Wis. Vol. Inf.;
lost right leg at the battle of the Wilderness, Va.

David Sommars, Private Co. I, 12th W7is. Vol.
Inf.; lost left arm at Atlanta, Ga.

Ernst G. Timme, Private Co. C, 1st Wis. Vol.
Inf.; lost left arm at Chickamauga, Ga.

This was on September 14, 1888. The occasion
was a brilliant one. In the afternoon the streets
of Indianapolis were overflowing with marching
veterans from Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Wis
consin and Kansas, headed by the National Drum
Corps of Minneapolis, and commanded by Depart
ment Commander Col. James A. Sexton of Chi-

HIS STAFF OF MAIMED HEROES. 225

cago and a staff equipped with dazzling uniforms.
The great column passed through the city out to
the Harrison residence. Conspicuous at the head
of the line marched the distinguished Governor of
Wisconsin, surrounded by his staff.

Eighty members of the Woman's Relief Corps
accompanied the veterans, and were given posi
tions of honor at the reception. WThen Gen. Har
rison appeared he was tendered an ovation. Gov
ernor Rusk said: "Comrades — I consider it both
an honor and a pleasure in introducing to you the
President of the United States for the next eight
years — General Benjamin Harrison." (Cheers.)

General Harrison responded as follows: "Gov
ernor Rusk, comrades of the Grand Army, and la
dies — I did not suppose that the constitution of
our country would be subjected to so serious a
fracture by the executive of one of our great
States. (Laughter.) Four years is the constitu
tional term of the President. (Laughter.) I am
glad to see you. I return your friendly greetings
most heartily. Your association is a most worthy
one. As I said to some comrades who visited me
this morning, it has the best reason for its exist
ence of any human organization that I know of.
(Applause.) I am glad to know that your recent
encampment at Columbus was so largely at
tended, and was in all its circumstances so mag
nificent a success. The National Encampment of
the G. A. R. is an honor to any city. The proudest*
15

226 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

may well array itself in its best attire to welcome
the Union veterans of the late war. In these
magnificent gatherings, so impressive in numbers,
and so much more impressive in the associations
they revive, there is a great teaching force. If it
is worth while to build monuments to heroism
and patriotic sacrifice that may stand as dumb
yet eloquent instructors of the generation that is
to come, so it is worth while that these survivors
of the war reassemble in their national encamp
ments and march once more, unarmed, through
the streets of our cities whose peace and prosper
ity they have secured. (Applause.)

"Every man and every woman should do them
honor. We have a body of citizen soldiers in
structed in tactics and strategy and accustomed
to the points of war that make this nation very
strong and formidable. I well remember that
even in the second year of the war instructors in
tactics were rare in our own camps. They are
very numerous now. (Laughter.) Yet while this
nation was never so strong in a great instructed
trained body of veteran soldiers, I think it was
never more strongly smitten with the love of
peace. The man that would rather fight than eat
has not survived the last war. (Laughter.) He
was laid away in an early grave or enrolled on the
list of deserters. But he wrould be mistaken who
supposes that all the hardships of the war — its
cruel, hard memories — would begin to frighten

HIS STAFF OF MAIMED HEROES. 227

those veterans from the front if the flag was again
assailed or the national security or dignity im
perilled." (Applause, and cries of "You are
right!")

"The war was also an educator in political econ
omy. These veterans who saw how the poverty
of the South in the development of her manufac
turing interests paralyzed the skill of her soldiers
and the generalship of her captains, have learned
to esteem and value our diversified manufactur
ing interests. (Applause.) You know that woolen
mills and flocks would have been more valuable
to the Confederacy than battalions; that foundries
and arsenals and skilled mechanical labor was the
great lack of the Confederacy. You have learned
that lesson so well that you will not wish our res
cued country by any fatal free-trade policy to be
brought to a like condition." (Applause, and cries
of "Good! good!")

"And now, gentlmen, I had a stipulation that I
was not to speak at all. (Laughter.) You will
surely allow me now te stop this formal address,
and to welcome my comrades to our home." (Ap
plause.)

228 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER XXIX.
CHAUNCEY DEPEW ON GEN. EUSK.

At the close of the National Convention Col.
Eliott F. Shepard gave a banquet at the Hotel
Richelieu in Chicago, at which were present
Chauncey M. Depew, Senator Iliscock, Warner
Miller, and many other prominent Republicans,
and to which General Rusk was invited. Being
unable to be present he responded by the follow
ing eloquent telegram:

"To the delegates, a royal greeting; to the can
didates, an enthusiastic endorsement; and to the
platform, the highest praise, it being as specific
as the decalogue, as intelligible as the dictionary,
and as comprehensive as the constitution. The
grand triumphal march to victory begins in June
and will end in November. Wisconsin's motto
should be the party's watchword, — 'Forward.'

"J. M. RUSK."

Chauncey M. Depew, in responding to the senti
ment contained in Governor Rusk's telegram,
said:

"I had a profound respect for Gov. Rusk when

CHA UNCEY DEPEW ON GEN. RUSK. 229

he dared defy the enormous foreign element of the
State of Wisconsin and to exercise his power as
Governor to put down the Anarchists under the
conditions under which he did it. (Applause.) In
Milwaukee, w^hen he stood up for law and order
and for everything that a man loves to conserve
and stand by in the unity which has to live
against Anarchism, Gov. Rusk did just that thing
by showing his courage. He accomplished what
every man does by showing courage on the side
of right, secured his own re-election and a na
tional position. (Applause.) I received indi
rectly a letter from Gov. Rusk prior to coming to
this convention, and it amounted to just this: 'So
far as I can see, looking over the candidacy of the
various gentlemen wrho are to be presented to this
convention, there is one man who can carry New
York, and, so far as I can read the philosophy of
the Republican conditions at this convention, un
less New York is carried we are defeated before
we start in and our whole investment in the can
vass is lost; and if there is one man who can
surely carry New York that is the man for this
convention to nominate. Now, it so happens that
the man who can carry New York would also
surely carry New Jersey and Connecticut. Then
let New York present us a candidate. No matter
who he is, we will carry the West for him.' (Ap
plause.)

"That was courage, the sort of courage that is

230 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

rarely found in the world where a man stands up
and prefers the accomplishment of a general con
dition against a local condition which may be
beneficial to himself, in the sublime confidence
that if he is right the local condition will come
out all right, providing the general condition is
established. Gov. Rusk had the courage of his
convictions, and dared to express them. He stood
up and said just this:

" 'If the candidate of the State of New York,
who alone, by reason of his peculiar surroundings
and the conditions which now belong to him, can
carry New York, let New York take him and give
him her thirty-six votes. The people of the State
of Wisconsin are an intelligent people. On a dis
cussion of this question the people of the State
of Wisconsin will say: 'We separate the candi
date from his business and regard him simply as
he is — as a citizen/

"NowT, Iowa didn't dare say that; on the con
trary, she said : 'We dare not undertake the task/
Nebraska didn't say that, but she called upon me
and said: 'Mr. Depew, in five months we can not
separate you from your avocation.' Kansas didn't
say that, but she came to me and said: 'Six
months is not long enough for us to educate our
people up to that point.' Gov. Rusk thoroughly
recognized that a man is different from his avoca
tion, and in abandoning his avocation can assume

CHA UNCE Y DEPE W ON GEN. R USK. 231

another trust and take another retainer and be as
true to it as he was to the former. (Applause.)
Wisconsin was unanimous in supporting Gov.
Kusk as a Presidential candidate, and she was
right."

232 JEREMIAH M. EUSK.

CHAPTER XXX.

A JOURNALIST'S PEN PORTRAIT OF GOVERNOR RUSK.

In 1886 Franc B. Wilkie ("Pollute"), the jour
nalist and novelist, gave to his paper, the Chicago
Times, an article entitled "Portrait of a Gov
ernor," from which the following is an extract:

"The portly gentleman who well filled the
roomy chair in which he was seated was entirely
unlike the ideal which the visitor had formed of
him. He had supposed the Governor to be a
coarse, homespun character, slouchy as to shoul
ders, and rugged in feature and speech. Instead
of this he saw a man of commanding size (lie is
six feet two inches in height, and weighs in the
neighborhood of two hundred and fifty pounds),
with a massive head, whose effect was increased
by an abundant crown of gray hair, pushed back
from a wide and high forehead, and by a heavy
moustache and chin whiskers; the ensemble being
that of an ideal patriarch, at once venerable and
imposing. Although gray as to hair and white as
to beard, the Governor is venerable only in ap
pearance and not in years, as he is yet a long way

A JOURNALISTS PEN PORTRAIT. 233

from the three score and ten which are assigned
as the period of life's further limit.

"He has deep blue eyes that are always warm
and kindly, and which vary constantly in expres
sion, and writhal have a dominant expression of
sadness. In conversation, wrhile not always flu
ent in the utterance of words, he is ever interest
ing and interested, and pervaded with an expres
sion of consideration for the one to whom he is
speaking. His countenance has none of that gloss
which is seen on the faces of men who have worn
off the down of inexperience by much contact
with the world; he is still fresh, and without a
suggestion of a blase life in his tone or counte
nance.

"Looking at him from a purely physical point
of view, he is, with his shaggy mane, his deep
chest, his broad shoulders, his colossal neck and
thighs, a magnificent animal, and this without a
hint of anything gross or sensual. In fact, his
voice, the expression of his eyes, and his senti
ments negative any suggestion of a predominance
of the animal in his nature, for his expression is
one of gentleness and kindliness, and his senti
ments refined and genial. Not a single unkind
thought did he utter in the frequent conversa
tions with which he favored his visitor; he spoke
well of his political opponents, and in giving his
views of affairs and men in general he was always
courteous in tone and charitable in his estimates.

234 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

"By contact with him one learns in time that
he is characterized by a grand simplicity; that he
is without affectation, and generous and tolerant
in his Tiews, and still possessed of much of the
naturalness which has come up with him from
his childhood."

A CABINET OFFICER. 233

CHAPTER XXXL

A CABINET OFFICER.

It is not surprising that when President Harri
son was confronted with the duty of selecting his
cabinet, the vigorous personality and picturesque
figure of the stalwart Rusk should have been al
most from the first among those slated for a place.
Farmer and soldier, Congressman and Governor,
the choice of his State delegation for the Presi
dency, he was a typical representative of the re
publicans of the Northwest.

From the very first his name was included in
most of the "guesswork" slates which are so rife
among us during the period intervening between
a presidential election and the inauguration of
the new President.

Among Rusk's friends the place most fre
quently assigned to him among cabinet probabili
ties was the Secretaryship of War, and those who
knew him best are still inclined to believe that
his own bent would have led him to choose that
portfolio of all others, had he been invited to
make his choice.

Mr. Harrison thought differently. Any good

236 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

man can make a good Secretary of War, but the
new secretaryship of Agriculture, for the bill cre
ating the office was only signed February 9th,
1889, demanded special experience and special
qualifications. The elevation of the head of the
Department of Agriculture to a cabinet position
was in some sense an experiment — an experiment
undertaken largely in response to the demands
of the farmers of the country that their industry,
which employs nearly one half of the workers in
our busy hive and practically furnishes all the
others with employment and subsistence, should
have a representative at the council table of the
Chief Magistrate. Of all cabinet positions that
of Secretary of Agriculture is the one that is
chiefly what the incumbent makes of it. The
scope of his work is undefined. His commission is
to collect and disseminate by all the means at his
command whatever information he believes to bo
of practical value to agriculture. The only limi
tations to his undertaking are his own good judg
ment, and the Act of Appropriations. No Cabi
net officer depends more upon his own judgment,
therefore, to make or mar his reputation, and
there is none whose conduct of his Department
is liable to attach to or alienate from his party a
larger number of votes. Within two weeks after
the new portfolio had been created it had been
offered by Mr. Harrison to the Ex-Governor of
Wisconsin, and unanimously within his own

A CABINET OFFICER. 237

party, and very generally among democrats the
choice of "Uncle Jerry" for this place was ap
plauded.

Whatever may have been Governor Rusk's
views or feelings as to the place assigned him in
the Cabinet, and although there are some who al
lege that it was a disappointment to him not to
be made Secretary of War, it was not very long
before the new Secretary showed his appreciation
of a position which gave him, as he expressed it,
"full swing" and a chance to be "doing some
thing."

In response to some good humored banter from
a colleague, as to the propriety of his appearing
last at a cabinet meeting, inasmuch as he was
"the tail of the cabinet," he promptly retorted
that, like a good many other bodies, this Cabinet
expected the tail to keep the flies off, and he
would try not to disappoint them. This jocular
remark, all unpremeditated as it was, affords a
clue to the view he soon began to entertain of the
opportunities afforded to the Secretary of Agri
culture to achieve much for his constituents and
country, his own and his party's reputation.

How well he acquitted himself in proportion to
the opportunities afforded him, as an important
figure in President Harrison's administration, the
verdict of his countrymen w7ill declare.

238 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

It may not be amiss to here interrupt the bio
graphical narrative in order to take a cursory sur
vey of the Department over which Mr. Rusk was
called to preside.

Differing as it does in certain respects from all
other executive Departments of the Government,
it is perhaps, or at least it was at the time of Pres
ident Harrison's inauguration, one of the least
known and understood by people generally.

The unfortunate and shallow tendency so prev
alent among Americans dwelling in cities to look
with scorn upon agricultural matters, and to ridi
cule the tiller of the soil, had for years invited the
cheap wit of penny-a-line paragraphers to make
the "pumpkin seed" Department a butt for their
quips and jokes, and the free-gift seed-package en
terprise to which the intelligent and purposeful
efforts of Patent Commissioner Ellsworth had de
generated, had done much to encourage this un
fortunate condition.

In spite, however, of these drawbacks, many

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 239

capable and ambitious men, seeing no other
avenue open to them by which to achieve the ob
jects of their legitimate ambitions, had been at
tracted to the service of the Department and had
remained in it in spite of the inadequate remuner
ation awarded to even the highest positions
among them, largely from attachment to their
work. The work accomplished by these capable
and efficient men had for years commanded the
sympathy and encomiums of scientific workers
abroad, and had eventually, if tardily, secured the
recognition of scientific and thoughtful men at
home. The movement toward a higher plane of
intellectual life among the farmers, in which the
Grange and the Farmers' Institutes had been
active and influential agents, had led to a consid
erable extension of the appreciation due the De
partment among the class it was specially de
signed to serve, namely, the farmers themselves,
and it may be said that the period when General
Rusk entered upon his duties as Secretary was a
marked one in the history of the Department, a
circumstance that added to the responsibility of
its chief, at the same time that it offered him spe
cial opportunities for adding to his own reputa
tion.

The Department of Agriculture is the only one
of our executive Departments designed to directly
increase the wealth of the country. Its functions
are to conduct investigations and spread informa-

240 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

tion whereby not only our crops may be in
creased, but may be grown with wise discrimina
tion as to the demand existing for them in our
own and the world's markets; whereby the rav
ages of disease or of insect parasites upon out-
plants or domestic animals may be checked or
prevented; the ruthless destruction of our mag
nificent forest heritage checked, and a rational
policy of profitable utilization and preservation
substituted therefor; whereby the results of kin
dred work in all sections of our own land and in
all other lands, may be gathered and digested
and made available to the intelligent farmer and
agricultural scientist; whereby the soils and cli
mate of our vast territory may be known and
adapted to the purposes for which they are best
fitted. All this, with the plain, practical purpose
of adding to the productiveness, and hence to the
value, of every tillable acre — not only so, but to
render tillable lands, now unproductive, as the
growth of our population and the extension of
our markets may call for an increase of products.
In a word, the expenses of the Department, wisely
directed, should be charged by the American peo
ple, not to Expense Account, but to Investment
Account. Indeed it may be claimed, and justly,
that, to say nothing of the future, not a year
passes that the work of the Department does not
in numerous w^ays effect a saving for, or add a
benefit to, agriculture in some or many sections

DEPARTMENT OF A GRIG ULTURE. 241

of the country, largely in excess of its entire an
nual appropriation.

Such is the Department over which J. M. Kusk
of Wisconsin was now called upon to preside.
That he himself fully appreciated its importance
is amply proved by his annual reports, and the
conclusion of the first one is given here as fit
tingly presenting the views with which, a few
months after assuming office, he approached the
task imposed upon him as Secretary of Agricul
ture:

"It is to be assumed that when Congress, in its
wisdom, raised this Department to its present
dignity, and made its chief a Cabinet officer, the
intention of our law-makers was not simply to
add the luster of official dignity to an industry al
ready dignified by the labor of its votaries, but
to give it added influence and power for good in
their behalf. It will not be amiss, then, if here
and now I venture to offer some facts no doubt al
ready familiar to you, but which strikingly em
phasize the vast aggregate importance of the in
terests which it is the primary object of this De
partment to serve.

"As far back as 1880 the value of the farms of
the United States exceeded ten thousand million
dollars. To the unremitting industry of their
owners these farms yielded an aggregate annual
value of nearly four thousand million dollars, in
the production of which a vast population of
16

242 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

nearly eight million of toilers utilized nearly half
a billion worth of farm implements. The value
of live-stock on farms, estimated in the last cen
sus to be worth over one thousand five hundred
million of dollars, is shown by the reliable statis
tics collected by this Department to be worth
today two thousand five hundred and seven mil
lion dollars. A low estimate of the number of
farmers and farm laborers employed on our five
million farms places it at nearly ten million per
sons, representing thirty million people, or nearly
one-half of our present population.

"These few figures are surely enough in them
selves to convince every thoughtful man of the
responsibilities thrown upon the Department of
Agriculture, but even they do not permit of a
realization of their full portent, unless the cor
relation of agriculture with the other industries
of this country be properly considered. It may
be broadly stated that upon the productiveness
of our agriculture and the prosperity of our farm
ers the entire wealth and prosperity of the whole
nation depend. The trade and commerce of this
vast country of which we so proudly boast, the
transportation facilities so wonderfully devel
oped during the past quarter of a century, are all
possible only because the underlying industry of
them all, agriculture, has called them into being.
Even the product of our mines is only valuable
because of the commerce and the wealth created

DEPA R TMENT OF A GRIC UL T URE. 243

by our agriculture. These are strong assertions,
but they are assertions fully justified by the facts
and recognized the world over by the highest au
thorities in political economy.

"No wonder, then, that I appeal earnestly and
confidently for such support as will enable ine to
acquit myself creditably in the position to which
your confidence has assigned me, and to see to it
that the great wrork entrusted to my direction is
efficiently performed. Throughout the country
from time to time, and at all times in some parts
of this great country we find agriculture suffer
ing from depression, to diagnose the cause of
which is oftentimes a difficult matter for pub
licists and political economists, while our law
makers, both State and national, find their most
difficult task in the delicate duty of so adjusting
the respective rights of every class of our citizens
as to secure to each the full benefits of their in
dustry. This is neither the time nor place to
analyze causes of agricultural depression nor to
discuss at length the many panaceas proposed for
its relief, but I do feel that the agencies which
already exist primarily for the benefit of the in
dustrial classes must be extended to the full for
the advantage of the tiller of the soil.

"Protection of American industries is one of the
rock-rooted principles of the great party which
this administration represents. To all the pro
tection that wise tariff laws can afford, and to the

244 JEREMIAH If. RUSK.

fullest extent compatible with the equal rights
of all classes, which is a fundamental principle
of republican institutions, the farming industry
justly claims its inalienable right. In the diversi
fication of agriculture, which, I am thankful to
say, has taken place during the past few years,
and which I hope it will be in my power to greatly
encourage, the farmer has been enabled to pro
duce many articles comparatively unknown as a
home product twenty years ago. For all such
articles as our own soil can produce the farmer
justly asks that protection which will insure to
him all the benefits of our home market.

"Another agency looking to the important
well-being of the farmer is that which was called
into being by the creation of this Department, an
agency which, energetically and judiciously di
rected, will not fail of its purpose. Great as arc*
our crops in the aggregate, it must be admitted
that our broad acres are not as prolific as they
should be, and I am convinced that, with the aid
which can be afforded to agriculture by carrying
out to the full the purposes for which this Depart
ment exists, and thanks to the rapid growth of
intelligence and the remarkable efforts at self-
help among our farmers, the yield of every tilla
ble acre in this country can be increased 50 per
cent. More than this will science, properly di
rected, enable us to accomplish, for millions of
acres at present unproductive can, by its applica-

DEPARTMENT OF A GRIG ULTURE. 245

tion, be rendered fertile. The great nations of
Europe strain every effort to make science the
hand-maid of war; let it be the glory of the great
American people to make science the hand-maid
of agriculture."

As showing Gen. Kusk's estimate of the needs
of the farmers of the country, and of the import
ance of the Department of Agriculture it may be
well to insert here a letter he addressed to the
Hon. E. H. Funston, Chairman of the Committee
on Agriculture of the House of Eepresentatives,
on the 3d day of February, 1890:

"U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

"Office of the Secretary,

"February 35 1890.
"HON. E. H. FUNSTON,

"Chairman of Committee on Agriculture,

"House of Eepresentatives.
"Dear Sir:

"In accordance writh the verbal request which
you made to me, I enclose you a statement show
ing the employes of the Department of Agricul
ture now being paid out of miscellaneous appro
priations, whose salaries are estimated for spe
cifically in the appropriations for the next fiscal
year under the head of 'Salaries.' This statement
shows the salaries of such employes to be in the
aggregate, $54,160. The total difference in the
aggregate of salaries amounts in round numbers

246 JEREMIAH If. RUSK.

to $82,000, thus leaving some $28,000 to be ac
counted for. This last amount is made up first,
of the difference between the amount paid under
the re-organization of the Department to the Sec
retary and Assistant Secretary ($12,500) by com
parison with the amount formerly paid to the
Commissioner ($5,000). Second, of the amount of
salaries required for new divisions which I have
found it absolutely necessary to establish. Third,
of additions to salaries paid in the scientific di
visions of this Department, the necessity for
which is made, I think, sufficiently plain by what
follows.

"I desire to take this opportunity of laying be
fore you and the Committee of which you are the
Chairman, some considerations which I regard as
of the highest importance.

"This Department has no representation on the
floor of Congress except through you and your
Committee, which consequently becomes the di
rect representative of the agricultural interests of
this country before Congress. The farmers must
look to you for the adequate consideration by
Congress of their interests. I am sure, therefore,
that you will pardon me if as the official repre
sentative of the farmers in an executive sense, I
presume to tax your time and patience with a
somewhat lengthy communication.

"First, let me call your attention to the fact
that the limits and scope within which this De-

DEPA R TMENT OF A GUI C UL T URE. 247

partment was confined before the passage of the
law which made it one of the executive branches
of the government, and called its head to a seat
in the Cabinet, must not be regarded as a correct
basis for the consideration of its present needs,
and I, for my part, must absolutely refuse to rec
ognize any such standard of comparison.

"In my report to the President at the close of
last year, I said, 'for years there had been a de
mand on the part of a large majority of the farm
ers of the country, that that Department at the
seat of government, which was organized to rep
resent their interests, should be clothed with the
same dignity and powder that other executive de
partments had, and that it should have its influ
ence in national affairs and be recognized in the
councils of the Nation/ I desire to repeat those
words here, and to reiterate my conviction of
their truth. I will add that there never has been
a time in the history of this country, when the
farmers so imperatively needed all the aid which
this Department was designed to give them as
the present. More than that, there never has
been a time when the farmers themselves so thor
oughly realized the importance of the aid which
this Department, liberally administered, can ren
der them, nor when they were so united in the
determination that the promises as to the future
of this Department held out to them by the law
which re-organized it, should be fulfilled. More

248 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

is now expected by them, and rightly so, from this
Department, than at any other time in its history.

"If, when Congress, in its wisdom, re-organized
the Department and established it on its present
basis, it did not intend to give it 'the same dig
nity and power that other Executive Depart
ments had, and to recognize the due influence
and importance of the agricultural interests in
the affairs of the Nation/ then the law is a delu
sion, encouraging false hopes and holding out
false promises, and in the name of justice, I say,
let it be promptly repealed.

"A grave embarrassment confronts the head of
tl is Department in the difficulty of retaining in
the service scientific men of such attainments
and experience as they must have, in order to en
able him to administer the affairs of the Depart
ment with due regard to the great interests con
fided to him.

Measured by any fair standard, the salaries
paid to the chiefs of division in this Department
in the past, have been utterly inadequate, and
even as re-rated, they will be far from approach
ing a standard which can be designated as lib
eral. The United States Government cannot af
ford to employ cheap help, nor to invite efficient
service to labor for inadequate remuneration.
Even if it were mean enough to do so, competi
tion with private firms and corporations makes
it impossible for the government to command the

DEPARTMENT OF A ORIC UL T URE. 249

highest service without offering adequate pay
therefor. In the particular line represented by
the Agricultural Department , this competition
has been greatly increased by creatures of the
government's own creation. I refer to the two-
score Experiment Stations, drawing subsidy from
the National Treasury, and which within the past
two years, have created a greatly enlarged de
mand for the services of scientific agriculturists.
When I insist thus earnestly that this Depart
ment shall be dealt with liberally, and its wants
considered in the light of present requirements
and future fulfillment, I beg you to bear in mind
that I speak in the name of the agricultural in
terests of the United States, and I opine that no
member of either House will for a moment depre
ciate the extent, importance and influence of
these interests in this country.

"A glance at the record of our export trade
during the past twenty-five years will show how
large a proportion of it is made up of agricultural
products. An average of 444 million dollars per
annum, an aggregate for the quarter century just
elapsed of 11,100 millions of dollars, these surely
are figures, which it almost transcends the power
of the human mind to grasp, and yet they repre
sent but the surplus of agricultural products pro
duced by the farmers of the United States, over
and above our home consumption, and for which
this country has received pay from foreign na-

250 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

tions. Permit me here to call your attention
once more to some facts which I presented to the
President for his consideration in my annual re
port:

" 'It is to be assumed that when Congress, in its
wisdom, raised this department to its present dig
nity, and made its chief a Cabinet officer, the in
tention of our law-makers was not simply to add
the luster of official dignity to an industry
already dignified by the labor of its votaries, but
to give it added influence and power for good in
their behalf. It will not be amiss, then, if here
and now I venture to offer some facts no doubt
already familiar to you, but which strikingly em
phasize the vast aggregate importance of the in
terests which it is the primary object of this De
partment to serve.

" 'As far back as 1880 the value of the farms of
the United States exceeded ten thousand million
dollars. To the unremitting industry of their
owners these farms yielded an aggregate annual
value of nearly four thousand million dollars, in
the production of which a vast population of
nearly eight million of toilers utilized nearly half
a billion worth of farm implements. The value
of live-stock on farms, estimated in the last
census to be worth over one thousand five hun
dred million dollars, is shown by reliable statis
tics collected by this Department to be worth to
day two thousand five hundred and seven million

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 251

dollars. A low estimate of the number of farmers
and farm laborers employed on our five million
farms places it at nearly ten million persons, rep
resenting thirty million people, or nearly one-
half of our present population.

" 'These few figures are surely enough in them
selves to convince every thoughtful man of the
responsibilities thrown upon the Department of
Agriculture, but even they do not permit of a
realization of their full portent, unless the co-rela
tion of agriculture with the other industries of
this country be properly considered. It may be
broadly stated that upon the productiveness of
our agriculture and the prosperity of our farmers
the entire wealth and prosperity of the whole na
tion depend. The trade and commerce of this
vast country of which we so proudly boast, the
transportation facilities so wonderfully devel
oped during the past quarter of a century, are
all possible only because of the commerce and the
wealth created by our agriculture. These are
strong assertions, but they are assertions fully
justified by the facts and recognized the world
over by the highest authorities in political econ
omy.'

"So much for the class whose interests are en
trusted to this Department. Compare now, if
you please, the aggregate appropriations asked
for on behalf of agriculture wTith those of any
other Department of this government. Over 27
millions of dollars appropriated for the War De-

252 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

partment and Military Establishments, nearly 25
millions for the Navy, while even the Indians are
allotted nearly six millions dollars in the annual
appropriations. How do these compare with the
almost paltry sum, less than one million and a
quarter dollars asked for for the proper main
tenance of this Department? Consider the enor
mous expenditures aggregating some 300 mil
lions of dollars contemplated for building up the
Navy, whose sole purpose must be to defend the
wealth created by the great industry of which
this Department is the representative. It needs
no argument to prove, for this has been admitted
by political economists everywhere and at all
times, that the source of all rational wealth is in
the soil which we till. Millions for defense in
deed, but in God's name let there be something
worth defending, and it is to agriculture alone
you must look for this. A comparison between
the appropriations asked for for this Department
and the liberal appropriations devoted to the
service of agriculture by Germany, Russia,
France, Austria, Brazil, and the other sister Re
publics in Central and Southern America, is al
most sufficient to make the American blush for
the apparent indifference of ais government to
this primal industry which this would indicate.

"I have spoken at length, and I have spoken
strongly, yet I have but presented to you cold
facts, conservatively stated, but realizing as I do
how difficult it is, well-nigh impossible indeed, for

DEPARTMENT OF A GRIC ULTURE. 253

the farmers of this country to themselves repre
sent the interests of their class before Congress,
and that to you and your Committee alone can
they look for such representation, I should feel
that if I did not here and now, at the beginning of
this session, adequately state their case and plead
their cause, I should be recreant to the trust im
posed upon and assumed by me when I accepted
the portfolio of the Secretary of Agriculture, and
in that spirit, I respectfully, but most urgently
beg your attentive consideration of the present
communication.

"To your hands are confided the interests of
this Department in Congress, and to your friendly
spirit and appreciation of its usefulness, your
broad statesmanship and earnest advocacy, I ur
gently commend it, and rest assured that in
your labors to give it enlarged powers for greater
good, you have the cordial support of ten million
American citizens and their families.

"In conclusion let me say, that as earnestly as
I demand that these powers be dealt out to me
with a liberal hand, so cordially do I invite the
closest scrutiny by yourself and the entire coun
try as to the manner in which I use them.
"I have the honor to be,
"Sir,
"Very respectfully,

"J. M. RUSK,
"Secretary."

254 JEREMIAH J/. RUSK.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

SECRETARY RUSK'S POLICY.

Secretary Rusk's policy in reference to the De
partment was just what might have been ex
pected from his appreciation of its duties and of
its possibilities. The only question that arose in
his mind in deciding as to work of the Depart
ment was the plain and practical one, "Will it
benefit the farmers?" It is possible that some
anxiety was felt upon his advent to office, by some
of the scientific workers in the Department serv
ice, as to how far a man of his practical experi
ence and tendencies, and doubtless participating
more or less in the somewhat prevalent opinion
that the scientific work of the Department was
not sufficiently directed to practical economic re-
vsults, would be capable of sympathizing with
their work.

That Secretary Rusk was somewhat inclined to
share in this view, so commonly held among the
farmers, especially in the West, there is little
doubt, but his natural disposition to fair play—
"to give every fellow a show," to use his own

SECRETARY RUSK'S POLICY. 255

blunt phraseology — kept him from any hasty ac
tion. Moreover, the Secretary's experience when
Governor of Wisconsin had fortunately strongly
predisposed him to appreciate the value of scien
tific work in behalf of the farmer. During his ad
ministration the practical work for agriculture of
the University of Wisconsin had been largely de
veloped and had met with full sympathy from the
shrewd, practical man. During his administra
tion the Farmers' Institutes, those agricultural
colleges for the people, had been brought to their
fullest strength and perfection, and finally estab
lished by a law which he w^as always proud to
have encouraged and eventually signed, under
which the Institutes were recognized as a State
institution, and provided for by an appropriation
under which Institutes were regularly held
throughout the State, in charge of a superinten
dent appointed by the Regents of the University.

In spite, therefore, of some latent prejudice due
to the tendency in some of the Department publi
cations to shoot over the heads of the people, Sec
retary Rusk was fully disposed to recognize the
value of scientific work, and to let every man en
gaged in it have a fair opportunity to show the
value to agriculture of his particular branch, and
to demonstrate, if he could, his fitness for the
place he held.

The first important question to engage his at
tention was the selection of an assistant secre-

256 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

tary, in which President Harrison wisely allowed
him a free hand. In this selection he was chiefly
guided by the following considerations: First,
he must have a man sufficiently identified with
the work of scientific agriculture to not only ap
preciate its purpose and be acquainted personally
with the leading men devoted to it, but to be him
self known to and appreciated by them. Second,
he must have a man combining the practical ex
perience and training of a man of affairs with the
education and tastes of the scholar and student,
his purpose being to confide to the immediate per
sonal supervision of the assistant Secretary those
Divisions of the Department engaged especially
in scientific investigations.

The office wTas, after mature consideration, of
fered to Hon. Edwin AVillits, a man of large ex
perience in public affairs, who had served several
terms in Congress, and who, being a lawyer of
high repute, was yet most favorably known in his
own State, Michigan, as also widely throughout
the country, from his connection with educational
matters, more especially with agricultural educa
tion. At the time he was called to act as Assist
ant Secretary of Agriculture, for he fortunately
accepted the place without hesitation, Mr. Wil-
lits was the President of the State Agricultural
College of Michigan, and Director of the Experi
ment Station connected with it.

This is not the place to discuss the merits of Mr.

SECRET AR Y R USIPS POLIC Y. 257

Willits nor to review his work, but no biographer
of Secretary Rusk could perform a duty more in
tune with the record and with the disposition of
the late Secretary than to express briefly but
earnestly the value of Mr. Willits' services as
principal coadjutor of the Secretary in the im
portant work of laying the foundations for the
great and useful edifice, the Department of Agri
culture is bound to become. The feelings of mu
tual esteem and the cordial cooperation with
which the two men labored in the work which
was their pride, were alike honorable to both, as
they are doubtless the source of many grateful
memories to the survivor.

With the appointment of Mr. Willits the first
step was taken in the re-organization of the De
partment. The essentially scientific Divisions
were made directly responsible to the Assistant
Secretary, and the men in charge of every branch
of the work were bidden to move onward with
firm step and cheerful confidence, and informed
that by the value of their work and by that cri
terion alone should they be judged.

A disposition towards segregation, occasionally
manifested among the several Divisions as the
scope of the work was enlarged, and their number
necessarily multiplied, was unsparingly checked;
interest in each other's work was invited, a cheer
ful cooperation insisted upon, and every man was

early impressed with the fact that no part of the
17

258 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

work of the Department should be indifferent to
him, and that while all the latitude possible was
to be accorded to every responsible officer, each
one was to be held strictly to a recognition of the
allegiance he owed to the Department.

The next great step undertaken, affecting the
general work of the Department, was in regard
to the publications, a special Division being cre
ated which should have supervision of them all,
which should administer the printing fund, re
port to the Secretary or Assistant Secretary upon
the character and contents of each bulletin, and
advise with the several chiefs as to the style of
the publications, the size of the editions, etc.
With the establishment of the new Division the
words borne on the title page of each publication
—"Published by authority of the Secretary of
Agriculture" — ceased to be an empty form.

That Secretary Rusk fully appreciated the
value and purpose of the publications of the De
partment, as the voice by which it makes itself
heard by the public, is shown not only in the
great yearly increase of the publications issued
by the Department during his administration,
but by the following language in which, in his
first annual report to the President, he referred
to this part of the work and to the means he had
adopted for its better administration. He said:

"One of the first conclusions forced upon me
after a careful review of the valuable work of the

SE GEE TAR Y R USICS POLIO Y. 259

several divisions of the Department in its appli
cation to the economy of agriculture, was the ab
solute necessity for prompt and effectual means
of reaching the class the Department was pri
marily designed to serve, i. e., the farmers. The
very essence of the duties devolving on this De
partment of Government is that its results shall
be promptly made available to the public by a
comprehensive scheme of publication. Time and
expense, ability and experience, lavished on the
work of this Department, can have no practical
results unless we can lay their conclusions
promptly before the people wrho need them.

"The frequent issue of special bulletins from
the various divisions relating to the work under
taken by them, instead of awaiting the issue of
the annual report, already too bulky for the pur
pose for which I conceive it to be designed, meets
with my unqualified approval, and I propose to
greatly extend this practical method of intercom
munication between the Department and its con
stituents. To reach the farmers of the country
effectually, however, even more is needed than
the issue of frequent bulletins in editions of
5,000 or 10,000 copies. Many of these are essen
tially and unavoidably scientific, and the careful
record of scientific investigation by scientific men,
the value of whose conclusions must necessarily
bear the scrutiny of scientific investigators the
world over. The elimination of all scientific terms

260 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

and language from such reports is impossible,
while at the same time it is feasible and essential
that all practical conclusions arrived at, as the
result of scientific observation or investigation,
must be so expressed as to be readily understood
by all ordinarily intelligent people of average ed
ucation.

"Again as to the number of copies required and
the methods adopted for their circulation, it is
clearly impossible to reach every farmer on the
nearly 5,000,000 farms of the United States with
all the bulletins emanating from this Depart
ment, nor is it desirable that every bulletin
should reach every farmer. Farming is becom
ing more and more differentiated, not only into
main divisions naturally created by limitations
as to climate and soil, but into minor divisions or
specialties due to the larger experience, the
higher degree of skill required in the present day
to enable a farmer to prosecute his work success
fully, and to which but very few men can attain
in more than one or two specialties or branches
of farming. Herein we find another strong argu
ment for the diffusion of the results of our De
partment work, in the form of special bulletins,
convenient in form, promptly printed, and easily
distributed.

"The points to be covered in this direction may
then be thus briefly summarized:

"(1) Frequent publications of the results of

SEC RE TAR Y R US&S POLIO Y. 261

scientific work in the various divisions, in the
form of special bulletins.

"(2) The observance, as far as practicable, of
such language as will render the contents of each
bulletin available to the average layman.

"(3) A method of distribution which will se
cure the circulation of the Department bulletins
among those who will make practical use of
them.

"(4) The widespread publication of the prac
tical conclusions of the scientific observations or
investigations, undertaken in the various divi
sions, in a brief form and plain terms, and on a
scale so extensive as to practically reach all the
farmers of this country." (Annual Eeport 1889,
pp. 6 and 7.)

262 JEREMIAH 31. HUSK.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

SCOPE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT.

Secretary Rusk did not take long to discover
that tbe Department of Agriculture is practically
what its chief makes of it, and he promptly set
himself to consider in just what ways he could
render it most efficacious for the good of the
American farmer. We have already stated that
his views as to its scope and functions were broad
and comprehensive

He believed it to be one of the first duties of
the Department to keep in touch with all the agri
cultural interests throughout the country. For
this purpose he held it to be desirable that the
Department should be represented as largely as
possible at all important agricultural gatherings.
He further deemed it of the utmost importance to
acquire all the information possible that could be
of use to the farmer, whether through its statis
tical or other agents or by scientific investiga
tions, and to present to the practical farmer,
plainly and promptly, the results of the inquiries
so conducted.

"The Statistical Division," he wrould say, "is

SCOPE OF THE DEPARTMENT. 263

here to tell the farmer all he needs to know in re
gard to the commercial side of his business; not
only to inquire and report as to the condition of
the growing crops, but to inform him as to the
extent and value of all crops grown in the coun
try, of the demand therefor, both domestic and
foreign, and of the supply contributed by compet
ing countries; to investigate the condition and de
mands of foreign markets, that we may know for
which of our agricultural products a demand ex
ists abroad, which are the best and most available
markets, and in what form our products must be
exported to attract and satisfy the foreign con
sumer." He would often, in discussing this sub
ject, say with the practical, shrewd good sense
which characterized his consideration of these
subjects: "What I want to know the farmer is
pretty sure to want to know, and the questions I
want answered for my own information our sta
tistician must be prepared to answer for the in
formation of the public."

From the first, Secretary Eusk took a lively in
terest in the work of those divisions which seemed
to him engaged in the most practical phases of
agricultural science, such as the study of animal
and plant diseases, and of injurious insects by
which the value of our crops, both animal and
vegetable, are so seriously reduced.

Perhaps the best idea obtainable of Secretary
Rusk's views as to the scope and functions of the

264 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

Department may be found clearly and vigorously
expressed by himself in his last annual report,
from which we must necessarily quote frequently
and at length for the benefit of those who desire
to know just what was Secretary Busk's own ap
preciation of his work and duty in the great office
to which he devoted the closing years of, his life,
what were his hopes and aspirations in regard to
it, and how earnestly he commended it, in his lat
est public utterance in regard to it, to the con
sideration of his countrymen. He thus sets forth
"The Scope of the Department's Work" in the
report in question:

"Before proceeding to any detailed work of the
several bureaus and divisions composing this De
partment, I desire to present for your earnest
consideration some observations regarding the
general character, scope, and object of the wrork
of this Department, which I conceive to be not
thoroughly understood, or at least not fully ap
preciated, by many people in this country. In
order to fulfill its mission, this Department must
be prepared to do with reference to agriculture
all that our individual farmers are unable to do
for themselves. The great blessing which this
country enjoys from the fact that it is far less
than some other countries the home of large
landed proprietors presents to us certain difficul
ties wrhich it is the province of this Department
to remove. The absence of large land-owners,

SCOPE OF THE DEPARTMENT. 265

commanding extensive capital in our agricultural
industries, necessarily limits the lines of individ
ual experiment and investigation into those agri
cultural problems upon the solution of which the
future prosperity of agriculture depends.

"It is the duty of this Department to investi
gate all these problems, and in this work it is en
titled to receive the heartiest cooperation on the
part of the experiment stations in the various
States which are recipients of the national
bounty. But while the work of these must nec
essarily be differentiated, that of the Department
must be broad enough to meet the wants of the
entire country. Not only must the diseases of
animals and plants and the ravages of their insect
enemies be studied and investigated with a view
to prevention or remedy, but the condition of soil
and climate, rendering various sections specially
adapted to this or that crop, must be thoroughly
studied and understood. This Department must
be prepared to encourage agriculture on certain
lines in certain sections which are especially
adapted to them, and, on the other hand, to dis
courage certain lines in other sections. Again,
the farmer must always depend upon this Depart
ment for information in regard to what may be
termed the commercial side of agriculture, the
condition of crops at home and abroad, the ques
tion of the demand, and the question of the sup
ply of all great staple crops, not only as to extent,

266 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

but as to character. Only a thoughtful man, fa
miliar with the conditions of agriculture in the
country, can fully appreciate the vast breadth
and scope of the work required to enable this De
partment to adequately fulfill the mission I have
indicated.

"The commission of this Department, as I may
call the law under which it was orgiuially estab
lished, is broad enough to cover any work which
in the judgment of its Chief may have a bearing
upon agriculture in this country; but in its prac
tical application its work is necessarily limited
by the extent of the appropriations made for its
use, as well as by their distribution to special ob
jects. ^Yhile the appropriations which I have
estimated for have been estimated upon the most
economical basis adequate to carrying on the
work already undertaken with reasonable effi
ciency, I desire to state emphatically that a much
larger sum could be spent to the very great ad
vantage of agriculture in this country, and I will
add that I know of no way in which the people
of the United States can make a more profitable
investment than by supplying the funds neces
sary to an ample enlargement of our work, and
an extension of our facilities for the work already
undertaken.

"In this connection I wish to point out that the
Department labors under serious disadvantages
from the inadequate compensation wThich it is au-

SCOPE OF THE DEPARTMENT. 267

thorized to offer to the men of talent, scientific
education, and experience which it needs to carry
on its most responsible duties. In this respect
the Department's facilities will be found to com
pare very unfavorably with those of the other De
partments of the Government.

"There are in other Departments single bureaus
commanding the services of a dozen men drawing
salaries exceeding by $500 to $1,500 those paid to
persons performing corresponding duties or hav
ing corresponding responsibilities in this Depart
ment. In all matters pertaining to agriculture
this Department should lead and not follow in the
footsteps of State or private enterprise, and I
submit that without greater liberality in this re
spect, which will enable the Secretary of Agricul
ture to command the services of the best-
equipped men in the country for his purpose, the
Department will inevitably be relegated event
ually to a second place unw^orthy of a National
Department, and which will be sure to cripple its
usefulness." (Annual Report 1892, pp. 18 and 19.)

TWTO other important subjects engaged the Sec
retary's special attention and received his earnest
consideration. These wrere the necessity for a
wider representation of the Department at the
meetings of agricultural and kindred associations
in our owrn country, and for suitable representa
tion of the Department at important interna
tional gatherings devoted to agricultural matters

268 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

in foreign countries. We cannot refrain from
quoting, in illustration of Secretary Rusk's views
on these subjects, certain of his remarks thereoii
in his report for the year 1890. Speaking of rep
resentation at our own agricultural gatherings,
the Secretary said:

"In my last report I referred to the fact that
there are held in this country annually a vast
number of fairs — usually a State or Territorial
fair in every State and Territory in the Union,
many other large district or interstate fairs,
while county fairs are very nearly as numerous
as the number of counties in the whole country.
It is a very essential part of the duty of this De
partment to keep itself well-informed in regard
to the extent and character of the agricultural
resources of all sections of the country, and I
know of no opportunity for adding materially to
this information at so slight an expense of time
and money as is afforded by these exhibitions
which bring together in one place samples of all
the best that the country can produce.

"It is my desire that the representatives of this
Department should be found hereafter at all the
principal State fairs, under instructions to make
a thorough report on the character of the exhib
its, and at the same time avail themselves of
meeting, as they will do on such occasions, the
leading representatives of agricultural interests,
from whom much can be learned as to the wants

SCOPE OF THE DEPARTMENT. 269

of the farmers, the nature of their difficulties,
and the best manner in which the Department
can serve them. Furthermore, I desire to carry
this system of representation at the fairs as far
as possible, even to include county fairs, by avail
ing myself of the cooperation of the large staff
of voluntary correspondents of the Department
distributed through all sections of the country,
and to whose enthusiastic devotion to the cause
of agriculture the Department has already been
often and much indebted. It seems to me that
by such means a sort of bird's-eye view, as it
were, might be obtained of the agricultural re
sources of the country, with the result of supply
ing this Department with a vast amount of valu
able information which can not only not be se
cured so easily in any other way, but indeed can
not be secured at all except by these means.

"Among other services which these representa
tives could render the Department would be the
collection and forwarding to the Department mu
seum samples of the various exhibits which at
present are too frequently scattered and lost.
This subject naturally leads to a consideration of
the necessity for a more frequent interchange of
thought between this Department and the agri
cultural intelligence of the country. I called at
tention in my last report to the fact that there
had been, especially in the past few years in the
United States, an enormous development in the

270 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

agricultural organizations devoted to the fann
ers' self-improvement. Our dairy associations,
our horticultural, live stock, and kindred societies,
have not only multiplied as to number, but today
are far more active in holding meetings and con
ventions than they have ever been before. The
farmers' institutes are meetings of a general
character, attended usually by the best farmers
in the sections in which they are held, and bring
ing together the best agricultural thought and
practice. Not only do I deem it to be of the ut
most importance, indeed a solemn duty devolving
upon this Department, that these meetings and
gatherings should be encouraged in every pos
sible way by their representative Department in
the national government, but I conceive it to be
absolutely necessary for the intelligent conduct
of the work of this Department that it should be
frequently represented at such meetings, not
only for the encouragement and benefit of those
present, but for the benefit of this Department
and its division chiefs.

"Speaking from my own experience, I am
aware that in the large section of country with
which I am familiar, from an agricultural stand
point, most important meetings have been held
in recent years. Questions of the gravest im
port to the agriculture of this country have been
discussed at these meetings, and yet rarely in
deed has there been present any person repre-

SCOPE OF THE DEPARTMENT. 271

senting the National Department of Agriculture
who could speak for it, and what is still more im
portant, learn for it the views and wrants of these
people. This is a condition of affairs which calls
for immediate remedy, and in so far as the liber
ality of Congress will enable me to do so, I am
determined to provide that remedy. It is only
by the closest cooperation between this Depart
ment and the agricultural societies — the Granges,
the Alliances, etc., — that the work of the Depart
ment can be carried to its highest development
and attain its greatest usefulness, and I recom
mend that a special fund be placed at my dis
posal for this purpose."

Again, speaking on the same subject, in his re
port for 1892 (pp. 19-20) he said:

"As I have had occasion to say in former re
ports, one of the objects which I have sought per
sistently to accomplish, but only wTith moderate
success, has been the freer and larger intercourse
between the Department and the farmers, by
means of adequate representation at the prin
cipal gatherings of agricultural, horticultural,
live stock, and kindred industries throughout the
country. It is largely due to a lack of this repre
sentation that the cooperation in the interest of
agriculture which ought to exist between the va
rious bodies representing the several agricultural
industries and the State boards and colleges, etc.,
does not obtain. What I have been able to do in

272 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

this direction with the limited facilities at my
disposal has brought about results most gratify
ing, and, at the same time, such as afford an earn
est of what might be accomplished were the De
partment properly equipped with an adequate
force of intelligent, energetic special agents, well
acquainted with the agricultural interests in
their own section of country, and qualified to rep
resent the Department creditably on all public
occasions. To reach its full measure of useful
ness, it is essential that the Department be
brought home to the farmers in such a manner
that they will be made to realize that it is their
Department, and that they are acquainted with
it and it with them."

On the subject of representation of the Depart
ment abroad, Secretary Rusk used the following
emphatic language:

"I desire to record here very emphatically my
conviction that some method must be adopted
by which, as occasion requires and without long
delays, this Department shall be enabled to send
representatives to foreign countries in cases
where only personal visits can be relied on to se
cure much-needed information. The subject of
world-wide competition has been dwelt upon at
length on so many occasions that it would be
purely superfluous to insist here upon the active
competition which meets our own farmers in
every market where their products are offered for

SCOPE OF THE DEPARTMENT. 273

sale. The commercial side of this condition of
things is well understood, but it does not seem to
be so clearly understood or so well appreciated
that there is an intellectual competition which is
even more serious than the other, in that it is the
basis of the other.

"Where wise economic legislation is the cure,
the perfection of agricultural methods, which
means the maximum of production at the min
imum of cost, is the prevention of agricultural
trouble's. In our pursuit after this perfection we
must study the methods of all other countries
that attain or approach it in any branch of agri
culture. We must be prepared to learn all that
is to be learned elsewrhere, and then wisely adapt
the information so obtained to the conditions of
the American farmer. Consequently that infor
mation must be acquired by men who are them
selves familiar with our own agricultural condi
tions. This plan, except in so far as it is now of
fered on behalf of agriculture, is by no means a
newT or original one. It is but a few years since
that a commission of distinguished military of
ficers visited many of the European countries
and British India for the purpose of studying the
equipment of foreign armies with a view of
adapting to our own military service all that
might seem to be advantageous. I have under
stood that the report brought back by these gen
tlemen was regarded by high authorities as most
18

274 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

valuable. In this, as in many other respects, ag
riculture has not had the fair treatment which, in
spite of the fact that it is beyond dispute the
most important industry in the country, is, after
all, all that it asks for. The suggestion of send
ing a well-qualified representative abroad purely
in the interest of agriculture is cavilled at as a
means of affording a pleasure trip to some
broken-down professor. It is time that we rose
superior to such humiliating and unworthy
puerility.

"It may be well, perhaps, in this connection to
call attention to the fact that we are in this re
spect far behind the other nations of the world,
however disagreeable it may be to confess it. Im
portant gatherings of men devoted to agricul
tural science, and enjoying by the courtesy of the
government under whose jurisdiction they as
semble every privilege and facility for gaining in
formation in regard to the agriculture of that
country, are constantly being held in various
parts of the world, at which representatives of
this, the greatest agricultural country in the
world, are conspicuous by their absence; and
when we are represented, it is often by some
wealthy amateur enjoying his ease abroad, or, as
is sometimes the case, by some enthusiast, who,
at a sacrifice of time and money which he can ill
afford to spare, manages to attend; but officially
this country and this Department are very rarely

SCOPE OF THE DEPARTMENT. 275

represented on such occasions. A most notable
instance of our omissions in this respect was fur
nished during the meeting last September of an
international agricultural congress at Vienna, in
which we had been especially invited to partici
pate by the Austro-Hungarian Government, at
which over eleven hundred delegates were pres
ent, including distinguished representatives of
agricultural interests from every country in
Europe, from Japan, from Australia, from India,
and from South America, and at which were dis
cussed subjects of profound interest to American
agriculture. This was a meeting at which, for
many reasons, it was most desirable that the
United States, through this Department, should
have been officially represented. Unfortunately,
for want of adequate provision, the United States
alone, of all the leading countries of the world,
was absent.

"Let me here recall the fact that since I had the
honor to assume the office of Secretary of Agri
culture I have been visited by gentlemen from
Austro-Hungary, Germany, Bavaria, France,
Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Japan, and even from one of the native principal
ities of the East Indies, the official representa
tives of departments analogous to my own in
their native countries, traveling under orders
from and under the pay of their respective gov
ernments, armed with all the official credentials

276 JEREMIAH M. HUSK.

necessary to secure to them every attention and
courtesy necessary to the prosecution of their in
quiries. Thus do these countries indicate their
willingness to learn whatever we may be able to
teach them. Thus do they recognize the fact
upon which I have already insisted — that there
is an intellectual as well as a commercial compe
tition, to which the old maxim, 'Knowledge is
power/ applies with a force which all must rec
ognize."

In his last annual report (1892, p. 20) the secre
tary recurred to the subject, proposing for the ad
equate representation of the Department abroad
a plan which curiously enough has since and only
recently been adopted by Germany, the country
which of all others represents militarism in the
mind of the average American. On this occasion
he said:

"What has been done abroad in the interest of
Indian corn shows very clearly the importance
and desirability of having this Department repre
sented in foreign countries. These representa
tives should be charged not only with the duty of
spreading information abroad in regard to our
own agricultural resources and the availability
of our agricultural products for foreign use, but
they should also keep this Department thor
oughly informed in regard to all matters relating
to agriculture and to the markets for agricul
tural products in foreign countries, by which our

SCOPE OF THE DEPARTMENT. 277

own producers could be enabled to compete with
the foreign producers. To afford such represent
atives all the facilities they ought to have, and to
secure harmonious cooperation between them
selves and our diplomatic representatives abroad,
they ought to be, on the recommendation of the
head of this Department and with the concur
rence of the Secretary of State, attached in a
semi-official character to our foreign legations in
those countries where it may be found necessary
to station them. Such a course has already been
pursued with most satisfactory results in the
case of the agent of this Department in London."

278 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER XXXV.
EXPERIMENTAL WORK.

The second year of Secretary Rusk's adminis
tration was a busy one indeed. The difficult duty
devolved upon him of preparing in the fall of
1890 estimates for carrying on the work of the
Weather Bureau, which Congress had directed,
under an act approved October 1st, 1890, should
be established and attached to the Department
of Agriculture, upon which should devolve the
civilian duties of the signal corps of the army.
This transfer was to take place July 1, 1891, and,
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, estimates
had therefore to be prepared, as is customary
under our somewhat anomalous system in the
fall of 1890, with the added embarrassment aris
ing from the fact that Secretary Rusk had this
duty to perform in reference to a bureau practic
ally as yet uncreated, and to make provisions for
work entirely new to him. Obviously but one
course was open to him, and this he explains in
his report for 1890, as follows:

"Under an act approved October 1, 1890, Con-

EXPERIMENTAL WORK. 279

gress directed 'that the civilian duties now per
formed by the Signal Corps of the Army shall
hereafter devolve upon a bureau to be known as
the Weather Bureau, which, on and after July 1,
1891, shall be established in and attached to the
Department of Agriculture/

"In accordance with this act I have included
estimates for the ensuing fiscal year for carrying
on the work of the Bureau thus created in this
Department. I deem it evident from the discus
sion which attended the passage of this act, and
from the wording of the act itself, that in making
this transfer of the Weather Bureau to this De
partment, it was the intention of Congress that
the work of the Bureau should be extended, in so
far as might be necessary to a full cooperation of
this branch of the service with the work of the
several divisions already established in this De
partment for the benefit of agriculture, without
in any way restricting its general scope. In this
spirit I have submitted estimates for the coming
year on the basis of the wrider range of work thus
contemplated, and I take the opportunity of ex
pressing here my own conviction that in many
ways the work of meteorological observation
which this Department wrill be thus enabled to
carry on in conjunction with its other work, will
be found of great value to the farming interests
of the country. It is indeed self-evident that to
complete the study of soil conditions, of animal

280 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

and plant life, a study of the climatic conditions
of our country is indispensable."

The Artesian Wells investigation, under the
Office of Irrigation Inquiry, was undertaken
under a provision in the urgent deficiency act
approved April 4, 1890, and the work was so vig
orously pushed that a report of operations was
made to Congress, in spite of the lateness with
which the work was begun, on the 22nd of
August of the same year. This work was con
tinued under the act approved September 30,
1890.

Practically a new division was established for
the investigation of our textile fibre industries,
and a division of illustrations, combining under
one chief all the drawing, engraving and illustra
tion work of the Department was organized. Ar
rangements were undertaken for the preparation
of a Departmental exhibit at the World's Colum
bian Exposition in 1893, under the Assistant Sec
retary, acting as special representative of the De
partment of Agriculture on the World's Fair
Government Board.

An important modification was carried out in
regard to the monthly statistical reports, brief
summaries of which are sent out through the
press associations on the tenth day of each month.
The fact that this news was sent by telegraph
and could thus only reach business centers im
pressed the Secretary forcibly, and as the full re-

EXPERIMENTAL WORK. 281

port was a publication of considerable size, which
could only be issued in a limited edition and
after several days' delay, thus leaving an intereg-
num during which the information gathered es
pecially for the benefit of the producer was avail
able principally to middlemen and speculators,
he decided that there should be issued, simul
taneously with the telegraphic summary, a brief
but somewhat extended synopsis of the monthly
report, in a form so cheap that a copy might be
sent to every applicant, and so promptly that
every farmer, as soon after the tenth as the mails
co aid reach him, should be in possession of all
the information sent out by telegraph and even
more. One hundred and thirty thousand syn
opses are now sent out monthly to as many ap
plicants. This detail affords a fair illustration of
Secretary Rusk's practical nature, and of his de
termination that the work of his Department
should be directed primarily to the benefit of its
immediate constituents, the farmers.

The enlargement of the Department and the
great increase in the work devolving upon it, was
truly gratifying to Rusk's active temperament,
and it was characteristic of the man that the
greater number of important matters requiring
his attention and consideration, the happier and
more cheerful did he seem. He attacked his daily
duties with all the zest and energy of youth, and
fairly exulted in the amplification of each day's

282 JEREMIAH J/. RUSK.

work. It was in this year also that the important
step was taken of appointing a special agent in
Europe, charged with the duty of making known
to its people the value of Indian corn as an article
of human food. The agent chosen for this pur
pose was Col. C. J. Murphy, a gentleman who had
been engaged in this work for nearly two years
at his own expense, as a private citizen, and Sec
retary Kusk thus reported his action in the prem
ises in his annual report for 1890:

"I have long been impressed with the necessity
of taking measures to promote the consumption
of Indian corn in foreign countries. The facility
with which we can raise this cereal, its generally
low price, and the occasional glut in the home
market in years when the yield has been espe
cially large, make an increase in our exports of
corn extremely desirable. It is essentially an
American cereal, one which can be grown in all
parts of this great country, and the area adapted
to which is practically illimitable. Not more
than 20 per cent, of the crop on an average is
moved outside of the country in which it is grown,
and to the extent to which this indicates the utili
zation of the crop for feeding purposes on the
farms where it is grown this is well; but when we
realize that this fact is due in part at least, es
pecially in years like the last of an ample yield,
to the absolute wrant of demand, our home mar
kets being fully supplied, it is certainly a matter

EXPERIMENTAL WORK. 283

of profound regret that there does not exist a for
eign demand sufficient to relieve the glut at home,
and to secure for our farmers in the West a price
which would be adequate at least to save them
from loss on the growing of the crop.

"During the past ten years our exports have
hardly exceeded 3 or 4 per cent, of the total crop.
This is due largely to the fact that corn is utilized
throughout the greater portion of Europe solely
as food for animals, and then only when its very
low price tempts the feeders. As a food for hu
man beings it is practically unknown, save in
some sections of Southern Europe, while in the
greater part of that continent it can not even be
grown to maturity. I have recently determined
to avail myself of the presence in Europe of Col.
Charles J. Murphy, a well-known authority and
enthusiast on the subject of the increase of our
corn export, who has been commissioned by me
to make a report to this Department upon the
general subject of the promotion of the use of
Indian corn as a human food in European coun
tries. Colonel Murphy's report will be made the
subject of a special bulletin as soon as it shall
have been received, and will no doubt treat of
this important subject practically and well."

This year was marked by renewed energy in
the prosecution of the cane sugar experiments in
Louisiana and Florida, and sugar experiments
with sorghum in Kansas and with beets in the

284 JEREMIAH AL BUSK.

Northwest. The whole subject was gone into in
the fullest manner, under the capable leadership
of the Chief of the Chemical Division, both cul
turally and from the manufacturer's point of
view. In Louisiana the object sought was to so
improve the processes of manufacture as to add
to the sugar product, and in Florida it was sought
to establish the availability of the land for a
profitable cane production. In Kansas the ef
forts made were to improve the varieties of sor
ghum, so as to secure an increase in the saccha
rine matter, and to simplify and cheapen the
process of manufacture. In Nebraska and the
Northwest the experiments were specially di
rected to acquainting the farmers with the sugar
beet industry, and demonstrating the adapta
bility of that section of the country to this crop.
Thousands of pounds of sugar beet seed were dis
tributed among farmers throughout the country,
and numerous analyses were made of the product
to determine the sugar-producing capacity of the
beets produced on our own soil. This subject was
one which from the first engaged the Secretary's
earnest attention. He felt convinced of our abil
ity to produce our own sugar, and believed that
no effort should be spared to bring about a con
summation which should have so important an
influence in the much needed diversification of
our agricultural products, and which should
eventually transfer 120 million dollars annually

EXPERIMENTAL WORK. 235

from the pockets of foreign producers to those of
American farmers.

The Bureau of Animal Industry, combining as
it does large administrative duties with its sci
entific work, had special attractions for his active,
energetic and somewhat aggressive disposition,
but its work during this and succeeding years
was of such a special character and of such mag
nitude that it will be desirable to give it a chap
ter to itself.

286 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY.

The Bureau of Animal Industry had been es
tablished primarily for the eradication of con
tagious pleuro-pneumonia, but it was organized
for the general supervision of our cattle industry
and the investigation of animal diseases, and
thus combined the highest scientific work with
large administrative powers, though these were
found by Secretary Rusk to be as inadequate to
its responsibilities as were its accommodations
to its scientific work. His first efforts were di
rected to securing from Congress legislation
greatly enlarging his authority, and covering
such subjects as the movement of cattle from the
Texas fever region, a system of inspection of all
cattle, sheep and swine imported into the coun
try, and an inspection of all pork products.

The restrictions imposed by foreign countries
upon our cattle and meat trade were especially
galling to his intense Americanism, and he par
ticularly resented them not only as being, in his
opinion, in the nature of a subterfuge, an effort to

B UREA U OF ANIMA L IND US TE Y. 287

secure protection without honestly adopting pro
tective principles, but as casting a most unjust
reflection upon the sanitary condition of Ameri
can live-stock.

He was, however, quick to see that without the
exercise of the most rigid supervision and inspec
tion on our part, fully equal to that imposed by
foreign governments upon their own products,
and which alone could put us in the position to
guarantee, as it were, the soundness of our cattle
and cattle products exported, we could not pre
sent a strong case to foreign governments. In
spite, therefore, of many objections and sinister
prognostications as to the impracticability of
such a system of inspection as would satisfy for
eign governments, he secured the passage of
legislation authorizing inspection of the most
searching and comprehensive character of all cat
tle and meats destined for foreign markets.

When a movement was inaugurated looking to
discouraging if not practically prohibitive regu
lations of our live cattle trade by the British Gov
ernment on the ground of the ill-treatment of
animals in transit, he met this too by a law au
thorizing the inspection by the Secretary of Agri
culture of all vessels carrying cattle, and the en
forcement of such regulations as he might lay
down for the greater safety and humane treat
ment of all animals shipped across the ocean.
Armed with such drastic powers, Secretary Rusk

288 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

entered upon an aggressive campaign, the lead
ing features of which were the prompt and ef
fectual extirpation of contagious diseases among
our cattle, the establishment of the most rigid
and efficient inspection of all cattle and meat
products destined for foreign markets, the abso
lute control and restriction within its own area
of Texas fever, an efficient and humane regula
tion of the ocean cattle traffic, and, last but not
least, persistent efforts through our representa
tives abroad to induce foreign governments to
withdraw or at least to modify the objectionable
restrictions.

One of the first practical efforts in this direc
tion was the appointment of his own Veterinary
Inspectors in Great Britain, who should, with
the consent of the British government, exercise
a joint supervision with the British inspecting
officers of all cattle landed on British soil from
this country. This concession was obtained
through the efforts of the then United States
Minister in London, Mr. Robert Lincoln.

By this means and by a system under which
every animal inspected for export is tagged and
numbered, and is thus susceptible of individual
tracing and investigation, the many groundless
allegations made by the British inspectors of the
existence of contagious pleuro-pneumonia among
cattle landed in British ports from the United
States would, it was believed, be effectually dis-

B UEEA U OF ANIMAL IND US TR Y. 289

proved and the number of such allegations ef
fectually diminished. Such indeed was the re
sult to an extent even greater than could have
been reasonably anticipated.

Having taken all the measures possible to se
cure the immunity of American cattle from dis
ease; having established sueh a system of inspec
tion as would enable the prompt identification
and tracing to the farm whence purchased, of any
individual animal alleged to be affected, and hav
ing secured the opportunity for an inspection by
veterinary officers of the Department of any sus
pected case landed in Great Britain, Secretary
Kusk lost no opportunity to impress upon the
British Government through the Department of
State and our Minister in London the fact that
the restrictions imposed upon the American cat
tle trade by the British Government were unjust;
that the allegations of their inspecting officers
involved a charge against the sanitary condition
of our cattle which it was impossible for the Gov
ernment to justify upon any grounds — a charge
which was therefore unfriendly in its nature,
and which would justify any legitimate retalia
tory measures upon our part. At the same time
the Secretary resorted to the most energetic
measures for the eradication of pleuro-pneumonia,
with the result that whereas on assuming office
he had found the disease existing in four States,

he was able before the second year of his admin-
19

290 JEREMIAH M. E USK.

istration to report all but one State entirely free
from it, and the disease in that particular State
confined to a small area within the limits of two
counties.

The effect of these measures was quickly seen
in the great diminution of cases of disease among
American cattle alleged by British officers, and
in the few cases where such allegations were
made the value of the trans-Atlantic inspection
established by the Secretary was made conspic
uously apparent. In every such case the Depart
ment was promptly advised by its inspectors, re-
inspection of the diseased animal being in every
case quickly followed by refutation of the alle
gation on the part of the American inspector-
refutation which was in every instance supported
by leading European veterinarians and justified
by the life-history of the suspected animal, which,
being traced back by the system of identification
already referred to, to the farm where it had been
originally sold, was invariably found not only to
have come from a section in which the disease
was unknown, but not to have been exposed to it
for one moment while in transit. Finally, a pe
riod of six months having elapsed during which
not a single case of the disease had been discov
ered in the United States, notwithstanding the
fact that the force of veterinary inspectors was
not diminished in the meantime, and that, more
over, owing to the recently established inspec-

B UREA U OF ANIMAL IND USTR Y. 291

tion laws, the general system of inspection at all
the leading markets of the country had been
greatly extended, Secretary Rusk on the 25th day
of September, 1892, issued the following procla
mation announcing the complete eradication of
pleuro-pneumonia :

PROCLAMATION.

Eradication of Pleuro-Pneumonia.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

Of/ice of the Secretary.
To all whom it may concern:

Notice is hereby given that the quarantine
heretofore existing in the counties of Kings and
Queens, State of New York, and the counties of
Essex and Hudson, State of New Jersey, for the
suppression of contagious pleuro-pneumonia
among cattle, are this day removed.

The removal of the aforesaid quarantines com
pletes the dissolving of all quarantines estab
lished by this Department in the several sections
of the United States for the suppression of the
above-named disease.

No case of this disease has occurred in the State
of Illinois since December 29, 1887, a period of
more than four years and eight months.

No case has occurred in the State of Pennsyl
vania since September 29, 1888, a period of four
years within a few days.

292 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

No case has occurred in the State of Maryland
since September 18, 1889, a period of three years.

No case has occurred in the State of New York
since April 30th, 1891, a period of more than one
year and three months.

No case has occurred in the State of New Jer
sey since March 25, 1892, a period of six months,
and no case has occurred in any other portion of
the United States within the past five years.

I do, therefore, hereby officially declare that
the United States is free from the disease know^n
as contagious pleuro-pneumonia.

Done at the city of Washington, D. C., this 26th

day of September, A. D. 1892.

J. M. RUSK,

Secretary.

In accordance with Secretary Rusk's sug
gestion, copies of this proclamation were placed
in the hands of all the diplomatic and consular
representatives of the United States throughout
Europe. This action was followed by a vigorous
letter addressed, under date of October 3, 1892,
to the Secretary of State, on the subject of the re
strictions still maintained against American cat
tle by the British Government. This letter we
reproduce entire.

"U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

"Office of the Secretary,
"Washington, D. C., October 3, 1892.
"Sir: I have the honor to request that you will

B UREA U OF ANIMAL IND USTR Y. 293

take the proper steps to bring to the attention of
the Government of Great Britain the unnecessary
and injurious restrictions which are still enforced
upon all shipments of live cattle from the United
States to Great Britain and to Canada. The reg
ulations referred to require that all live cattle
landed in Great Britain shall be slaughtered on
the docks within ten days after quitting the ships
which transport them, and that all animals of
tnis species entering the Dominion of Canada
shall be held in a quarantine station for a period
of ninety days.

"It is almost unnecessary to add that such reg
ulations prevent the shipment of cattle, except
those intended for immediate slaughter. The
trade in pure-bred animals and in those for graz
ing purposes is entirely prevented, while animals
for slaughter do not realize the prices which they
otherwise would. These regulations, therefore,
cause hardship and loss to our shippers, and en
tirely prevent a trade which would undoubtedly
prove advantageous to both countries.

"The regulations in question were adopted in
1879 because of the supposed danger of the intro
duction of the contagious pleuro-pneumonia from
the United States. Since that time, however, this
Government has provided for the eradication of
that disease, and it no longer exists in any part
of the United States. A period of more than six
months has elapsed since the last affected animal

294 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

was slaughtered, and every precaution has been
observed during this period to discover the dis
ease in case of its existence. As no other cases
have occurred subsequent to that time, I have of
ficially declared this country to be free from con
tagion, and copies of this declaration were sent
you on the 24th ultimo.

''It should not be forgotten that during the
period these restrictions have been enforced upon
our cattle trade, Canadian cattle for sale in this
country and for export to Europe have been ad
mitted through the United States ports without
detention, and that those from Great Britain and
Ireland have been admitted, after a reasonable
period of quarantine, although it is well known
that pleuro-pneumonia has long prevailed in the
British Isles. It may also be said that there is
no disposition to enforce this quarantine after the
disease in question has been eradicated from
Great Britain and Ireland, provided these coun
tries remain free from other contagious diseases
dangerous to the stock interests of this country.

"I trust, therefore, that the British Govern
ment will see the injustice and unnecessary char
acter of the present regulations, and will be dis
posed to revoke them at an early day.

"J. M. KUSK,

"Secretary.
"The Secretary of State."

This letter was followed by further correspond-

B UREA U OF ANIMAL IND USTR Y. 295

ence on the subject in November of the same
year, and in February of the year following,
shortly before the Secretary's retirement from of
fice.

In regard to the prohibitions against importa
tions of American meat products enforced by the
countries of continental Europe for so many
years, Secretary Rusk was not less energetic and
persistent. The same principle dictated his ac
tion and controlled his administration. This was
to undertake a rigid inspection however onerous
or costly, sufficient to guarantee the immunity
from unsoundness of American meat products,
and thus to compel foreign countries to accept
the alternative of either withdrawing their pro
hibitions, or of assuming the distinctly illogical
and unfriendly attitude of declaring that com
mercial not sanitary protection was what they
sought, and that they would not accept any guar
antee of immunity from the American Govern
ment, however rigid the inspection upon which it
was based. The result of this policy in regard
to American pork products was more fortunate
than in the case of the British Government with
reference to American cattle, and Secretary Rusk
was gratified by the withdrawal in quick succes
sion of the prohibition against pork and other
manufactured swine products of the United
States, by the governments of Germany, Den
mark, Italy, France, Austria and Spain, and by

293 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

the adoption of a distinctly more liberal policy
on the part of all European countries in reference
to American meat products generally.

While, in spite of the evidence adduced as to
the freedom of our cattle from disease, and of
the frequent efforts made by Minister Lincoln to
this end the British Government has obdurately
adhered to its policy of protection. The course of
that government in regard to our pork products
has always been liberal, and they have been ad
mitted to the United Kingdom without restric
tion and even without exacting any certificate of
inspection by our government.

In marked contrast to this liberality was the
course which had been adopted by other Euro
pean governments which had maintained for
years an absolute prohibition against our pork
products. It was to render this policy impossi
ble without an admission that it was based not
on sanitary but on economic grounds, and that it
w^as to be taken as an evidence of hostile legis
lation, that Secretary Rusk carried out his plan
of a thorough inspection by agents of the Bureau
of Animal Industry, even to the extent of micro
scopical inspection for trichina. His plan proved
effectual and one after another these European
governments withdrew their edicts against the
American hog until finally its entry was secured
into every civilized country.

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HIS LAST REPORT. 297

CHAPTER XXXVII.

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT — HIS LAST REPORT.

The work done by Secretary Rusk in laying
down a broad foundation for the future work of
the Department of Agriculture was so univer
sally recognized that it needs no special testi
mony at the hands of his biographer, but without
some record of its growth and development a
sketch of his work as Secretary of Agriculture
would be manifestly incomplete. Fortunately
for the reader there is extant his own modest es
timate of the work of the Department under his
administration in the form of a "Retrospect,"
which formed a part of the Secretary's last an
nual report, that for 1892, which was written in
November of that year, nearly a month later than
usual, and which hence reviews a period lacking
barely four months of his entire administration,
In this review he thus addresses the President:

"I shall offer no apology, in presenting to you
this my fourth and last report as Secretary of
Agriculture, for submitting for your considera
tion a brief retrospect of the work accomplished
in the Department under the present administra-

298 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

tion. The passage of the law making the Depart
ment one of the Executive Departments of the
Government antedated by but a few wTeeks your
own inauguration and my assumption of the du
ties of Secretary of Agriculture. In consequence,
the entire work of reorganizing the Department
in accordance with its newT dignity, and to meet
the enlarged field of labor which I assume to be
the most practical result of its elevation, de
volved upon myself, with the assistance of the dis
tinguished gentleman whom you selected to serve
as Assistant Secretary.

"In my first report I said: 'It is to be as
sumed that when Congress in its wisdom raised
this Department to its present dignity and made
its chief a Cabinet officer the intention of our lawT-
makers was not simply to add the luster of official
dignity to an industry already dignified by the
labors of its votaries, but to give it added influ
ence and power for good in their behalf/ It is
with that sentiment ever in mind that I have pro
ceeded in the discharge of the responsible duties
imposed upon me. I may venture to recall the
fact that the work of reorganization was made
none the less arduous for the reason that the ap
propriations at my disposal, not only for the fiscal
year in which I assumed office, but for the fiscal
year following, had been made for the Depart
ment under its old regime, no further provision
being made for it as an Executive Department

HIS LAST REPORT. 299

than the appropriation for the salaries of the Sec
retary and Assistant Secretary in lieu of the sal
ary formerly paid to its Commissioner. A brief
enumeration of the practical features added to
the work of the Department since March, 1889,
can not fail, I think, to satisfy the most exacting
friend of agriculture of the earnestness with
which I have sought to increase the utility of the
Department and promote the interests of Amer
ican agriculture.

"My first step in the work of reorganization
was to divide the Department into two grand-
divisions, one embracing all branches wrhich in
volved administrative and executive features,
which I retained under my personal supervision,
the other embracing those branches engaged
purely in scientific investigations, the immediate
supervision of which I assigned to the Assistant
Secretary. In accordance with this division my
personal attention was devoted to the enlarge
ment of the scope of work in the interest of prac
tical agriculture, and particularly to three prin
cipal objects: The extension of the market for
the disposal of the surplus of our great staple
crops and of our vast animal products; the en
largement of our productive capacity with a view
to substituting as far as possible home-growTn for
imported products; and to bringing the Depart
ment into such close relations with the farmers
as would make them acquainted with our work,

300 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

inspire them with confidence in our ability to
serve them, and to impress more forcibly upon
the responsible officers of the Department them
selves the wants and conditions of the tiller of
the soil.

"The great enlargement of the scope of work
assigned to the Bureau of Animal Industry,
which resulted in compelling me to thoroughly
reorganize it administratively a little over a year
ago, has been especially marked along the lines
of the first of these objects. The thorough con
trol of contagious and other cattle diseases, in
volving a careful and systematic regulation of
our cattle traffic, and achieving, I am glad to say,
the complete eradication of the most serious of
the diseases with wrhich our cattle industry was
threatened; the comparative immunity obtained
from the ravages of Texas fever among Northern
cattle, and the establishment of a great sytsem
of national cattle and meat inspection with the
twofold object of guarding our cattle from the
possible introduction of communicable diseases
and of opening the markets of the world to our
meat products — these of themselves furnish suffi
cient cause for congratulation as the work of one
administration. The great results of this work
and the benefits secured to our cattle-growers
and the live-stock interests generally I have al
ready sufficiently emphasized in this report.

"The extension of our Division of Statistics so

HIS LAST REPORT. 301

as to cover the agricultural resources of other
lands, and the demand of foreign markets for
products which it was in the power of the Ameri
can farmer to produce, marks another and import
ant step in the same direction; and to this I may
add the establishment of an efficient agency in
Europe for the investigation of the feasibility of
extending markets abroad for American agricul
tural products, which, for obvious reasons, as al
ready explained, has been directed chiefly to the
introduction of our Indian corn to the people of
Europe as a cheap and economic substitute for
other cereal foods. In the efforts for the substi
tution of home grown for foreign products in our
owTn markets the development of a domestic sugar
holds an important place, and it is, I am gratified
to say, the work of the past three years in this
direction which has placed our domestic sugar
industry upon a footing which justifies and in
vites the extension of private capital and indi
vidual enterprise to its development.

"The development of the fiber investigation
from the point of simply gathering information
in relation thereto to the extent of practical in
vestigation and experiment has been accom
plished, and affords marked encouragement for
the hope that the time is not far distant when a
large proportion of the enormous sum now paid
to foreign producers for vegetable fibers and their

302 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

manufactures may be diverted to the pockets of
our own farmers.

"Investigations into the resources of the Rocky
Mountain region, together with the vast amount
of information collected and published in regard
to our facilities for irrigation both from surface
and subterranean supplies, and extensive experi
ments in the production of grasses and fodder
plants within the limits of the vast territory, em
bracing not less than 300,000,000 acres, outside of
irrigable limits, and which, as I have shown,
promise a reasonable degree of success, the value
of which to the country can hardly be overesti
mated, and the important and highly satisfactory
efforts made in the prevention or remedy for
plant diseases and in checking the ravages of the
insect enemies of plant and animal life — these
represent fairly some of the more important work
accomplished towards the development and ex
tension of our own domestic production.

"Of the twelve divisions of the work which I
found in existence on assuming control of the De
partment, one wThich was then but a section of
another division, Vegetable Pathology, has be
come a separate and distinct division, the import
ance and value of which has been widely recog
nized by horticulturists throughout the country,
while one, the Silk Division, has been discontin
ued owing to the refusal of Congress to make the

HIS LAST REPORT. 303

necessary appropriations therefor. Many new di
visions have, however, been organized. One of
these, it is true, the Office of Experiment Sta
tions, had been called into being a short time be
fore my assumption of office, under section 3 of
the act of March 2, 1887, which established the
State experiment stations. It had, however,
practically just begun its w^ork, and its entire
organization and development has been a part of
the work of this administration. Its utility as
the connecting link between this Department and
the stations and on behalf of the stations has been
shown by the unanimity w^ith which the directors
and officers of the various stations have sought
to have its appropriations increased; and while
this has been done, so that today the appropria
tion for this branch of our work is twice what it
was in 1889, its labors have been so far extender!
that the sum devoted from the printing fund of
the Department to its w^ork in the line of publica
tions alone exceeds the original appropriations
made for it.

"The Division of Kecords and Editing is an en
tirely new division and one which has had a large
share in increasing the influence and the effi
ciency of the Department and at the same time
in effecting much needed modification in its pub
lications and exercising general supervision over
its publishing interests so as to promote in a
marked degree the advantageous and economic

304 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

use of the printing fund. The increased appre
ciation of the character and utility of the Depart
ment publications has most fortunately led, in
accordance with my repeated representations, to
a large increase in our printing fund, the careful
and economic administration of which, however,
has been such as to secure a far more than cor
responding increase in the number of our publi
cations, to say nothing of the general improve
ment in their character, an improvement which
has been especially directed to subserve the needs
of the practical farmers of the country.

"The work of the Division of Forestry has been
so systematized and extended as to largely ex
tend both the influence of the division itself and
to awaken widespread and most gratifying inter
est among the people of this country in regard to
the important subject of our forest resources, the
preservation of our forest supplies, their condi
tion and character, and the climatic influences of
our forests, while, thanks to the enlightened ini
tiative of the Chief Executive, important steps
have been taken in the direction of administering
many of the forest lands of the Government in
accordance with the principles of economic for
estry.

"One of the most important additions to the
work of the Department has been made in the
transfer to it of the Weather Bureau, a transfer
calculated to greatly extend the work of the

HIS LAST REPORT. 305

Bureau itself for the benefit of agriculture and
supplying opportunities for the much-needed co
operation of this branch of the service with the
work of several of the other divisions of the De
partment — a transfer, indeed, which was abso
lutely essential in order to successfully conjoin
studies of animal and plant life with that of the
soil and climatic conditions, and, I may add fur
ther, a transfer which has elicited most gratify
ing evidences of general approval in all sections
of the country.

"To enumerate even a small proportion of the
valuable publications issued during the past
three years would be impossible within the lim
its of this report. They have been many, varied,
and most useful to the agricultural interests, and,
while the information to the practical farmer has
been, as I believe it ought to be, my chief care,
the interests of scientists and the students of
agricultural science have been by no means for
gotten. Congress itself has shown a high appre
ciation of the value of some of these publications
by ordering their reproduction in very large edi
tions for distribution by Senators and Kepresen-
tatlves, and I am gratified to be able to state that
educational establishments and agricultural as
sociations throughout the entire country have
shown a steadily growing and keen appreciation
of the publications of the Department and of

their educational value.
20

306 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

"In concluding this review of the work of the
Department under your administration, I may
properly say a word in regard to the earnest ef
fort which has been made to administer its affairs
with due regard to economy. References to great
increase of the annual appropriations of this De
partment during the past two years have been
not infrequent, but I think it will surprise those
who have taken these references at their face
value without much thought and consideration of
the facts underlying them to learn that, after de
ducting the appropriation for the Weather Bu
reau, which was not an increase but a transfer,
and the appropriations necessitated under the
law endowing the State experiment stations, over
which the head of this Department exercises no
control whatever, the total sum remaining of the
present year's appropriations barely exceeds the
total appropriations of the Department, less ex
periment station work, for the fiscal year ended
June 30, 1889. And this in spite of the fact that
the present appropriation includes sums devoted
to special features of the work not then in exist
ence nor even contemplated, such as fiber and ir
rigation inquiries, extension of foreign markets,
rainfall experiments, etc., to say nothing of the
large sum necessarily devoted to the work of
meat inspection. I will candidly admit that the
restriction of the appropriations for the work of
this Department within these narrow limits is

If IS LAST REPORT. 307

not my fault, but I think that it is not unreason
able that I should take some credit for the ac
complishment of the objects which I have enum
erated within the limits to which I was restricted
by a want of greater liberality on the part of
Congress."

If to the above retrospect we add the final rec
ommendations with which the Secretary prac
tically concluded his last report, we will have be
fore us, summarized in the present chapter, not
only Secretary Rusk's own estimate of the foun
dation work done, but his broad and statesman
like views as to the superstructure which the
future ought to see erected thereon. In this
sketch he outlines a plan of organization for car
rying on the future work of the Department
which has already received ample commendation
from many of those who are the best qualified to
judge as to how the work of the Department in
the future can best be carried on. We quote:

"Before closing this report it seems to me im
portant that, as the result of nearly four years'
experience in conducting the work of this Depart
ment, I should indicate, as definitely as possible,
some of the plans for its future administration
which seem to me eminently desirable in order to
maintain and promote its efficiency. Before pro
ceeding to state these plans in detail I desire once
more to emphasize the fact that, in all plans de
signed for the future conduct of this Department,

308 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

the future growth and development of this coun
try and of its agricultural resources, its popula
tion, and its standing among the nations of the
world must be duly appreciated and considered.
The possibilities of the present may do for the
consideration of private enterprise seeking im
mediate return on capital invested, but in the af
fairs of the nation true prescience is an essential
attribute to the wise administrator. I must not,
therefore, be deemed extravagant if I present de
signs for the future development of the Depart
ment which I conceive to be necessary to meet
the demands not only of the near future but those
of a score of years hence.

"One of the first difficulties confronting the
head of this Department under its present organi
zation is the fact that the number of responsible
heads of the several branches of the work who
are in direct consultation with the Secretary or
his Assistant is too great; and desiring to adhere
as closely as possible to the methods which have
been found satisfactory in the administration of
the other great Departments of the Government,
I should advise the application of the bureau sys
tem which obtains in most of them to the w^ants
of this Department. The grouping of the several
branches of the w^ork into various bureaus, each
one having for its chief the right kind of man,
would most sensibly facilitate the administration
of the work, reducing the number of persons in

HIS LAST REPORT. 309

direct consultation with the head of the Depart
ment from 18 to 20 down to about one-third of
that number, and placing the chief of each divi
sion, as at present organized, under a chief whom
he would find readily accessible, and who, on his
part, would secure thorough and systematic co
operation between the several divisions grouped
together under his control.

"Another advantage of this system is that it
would provide in the Department several offices
of sufficient emolument and dignity to attract
men of the highest standing in the several de
partments of the work which it maintains, men
thoroughly qualified to lead in their several spe
cialties, and to command the respect and appre
ciation of all workers on the same lines not only
in this but in foreign countries. Under our pres
ent system it is extremely difficult to retain in the
departmental service men combining the highest
attainments with administrative capacity. The
following groups, as the basis of bureau organ
ization, suggest themselves to my mind, without,
however, suggesting names at present other than
those necessary to indicate the general character
of each group:

"First, plant culture, which should embrace the
present Divisions of Horticulture, Vegetable Pa
thology, Pomology, Gardens and Grounds, and
the Seed Division.

"Second, biological, to embrace the Divisions

310 JEREMIAH M. EUSK.

of Botany, Ornithology and Mammalogy, and En
tomology.

"Third, statistical, the present division to be
made a bureau of agricultural statistics, and to
cover, in addition to its present work, the entire
field of economic agriculture, the extension of
markets abroad, and to embrace, say, three divi
sions, one of statistics of crop conditions, one of
agricultural economics, and one of foreign mar
kets and crops.

"Fourth, educational. This should control the
relations of the Department with the various
channels of agricultural education, such as agri
cultural societies, granges, farmers' institutes,
etc., and should include the present Office of Ex
periment Stations, the Division of Eecords and
Editing, the Division of Illustrations, the Library
and Museum, and the Folding and Document
Room. There should also for the present be in
cluded in this group a division of agricultural
engineering, covering the subjects of drainage,
irrigation, public roads, farm buildings, etc.

"The Bureau of Animal Industry is already or
ganized, and constitutes a well-defined group as
it stands, including divisions of inspection, field
investigation and miscellaneous work, animal
pathology, and quarantine.

"The Weather Bureau would also stand with
out essential modification. There remain, then,
not included in any groups enumerated, two

HIS LAST REPORT. 311

highly important divisions, one of which, how
ever, Forestry, will, I believe, ere long, if properly
fostered and administered, develop into a bureau
embracing at least two divisions, one of scientific
investigation and study, the other of an adminis
trative character and closely akin in its general
administrative features to the present organiza
tion of the Bureau of Animal Industry.

"To include the Division of Chemistry in any
of the groups enumerated would be impossible,
owing to the relations which it must necessarily
hold to the general scientific chemical work of
the Department, since the chief, with his princi
pal assistants, must be at all times available as
scientific chemical advisers in any branch of the
work requiring the highest chemical ability and
laboratory service.

"The work of the Department hitherto has been
but foundation work, as I may say. Moreover,
until the Department was given its present status
in the National Government it was impossible
that even foundation work should be undertaken
and carried on with any great degree of success,
from the fact that the ultimate plan of the super
structure to be erected upon it had never been
fully depicted nor carefully laid out. During my
administration as Secretary my endeavor has
been to gather together all that was available
for the future work of the Department, to reor
ganize, rearrange, fit, and combine the several

312 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

branches of the work, adding thereto all that
seemed necessary to lay a broad and lasting foun
dation for the ultimate carrying out of plans
which I have kept constantly in nay mind in per
forming the work assigned to me. If in the
future niy humble share of credit in the history
of the Department should be that I had been in
strumental in securely laying a broad and lasting
foundation for a magnificent superstructure of
which every American farmer, and, I may say,
every American citizen, will feel proud, I shall
be more than compensated for my labors during
the past few years.

"The motto of this Department must be 'ever
onward/ It has, in my opinion, succeeded dur
ing the few years since it has been an executive
department of the Government in impressing
upon the 10,000,000 of industrious citizens who
represent the workers in the field of agriculture
in the United States its capacity to advance their
interests, and with the growth of this confidence
on the part of the American farmers, we must not
forget there is a corresponding growth in the re
sponsibilities of the head of this Department.
The National Government has taken, as it were,
a contract with the farmers, and to carry it out
efficiently this Department must be prepared to
answer all reasonable expectations in bringing
into the service of agriculture all that science,
whether in this country or in any other country

HIS LAST REPORT. 313

upon the globe, has been able to evolve for its
benefit. The history of science is a history of
continual discovery, and all discoveries in the so
lution of agricultural problems calculated to
lighten the burdens of the farmer and increase
his profits must be made the property of the De
partment through the energy and intelligence of
its head and its responsible officers, and be thus
made available through them to the farmers of
the United States. I have already shown the im
portant part which agriculture plays in the com
mercial interests of the country, and in this re
spect also the Department must prove itself a
capable source of information, an intrepid leader
into new fields, and a worthy representative of
the interest upon which all other interests, and
thus the entire prosperity of our country, de
pends.

"In the earnest hope that the wisdom of suc
ceeding administrations may find the men and the
means to carry on the work of this Department
to the high destiny which I conceive it to be de
signed to attain, I have the honor, Mr. President,
to submit this, niy last report, and I desire, as my
last word, to express to you my profound appre
ciation of the cordial sympathy and broad intelli
gence with which you have uniformly, through
out your administration, heeded the needs of the
agricultural interests of this country. While no
one has been so situated as to understand and

314 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

appreciate this better than myself, I confidently
believe that the people, and especially the farm
ing people of this country, will learn to appre
ciate more and more the fact that the first admin
istration during which their representative de
partment held the rank of an executive depart
ment of the Government was presided over by a
Chief Executive who never failed to appreciate
the importance of agriculture, its dignity, and its
value to the country at large."

QEN. RUSJPS IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 315

CHAPTER XXXVIII.
GEN. RUSK'S IDEAS ON PROTECTION.

Secretary Rusk was always regarded as, in a
special manner, a representative of the farmers
in the government. He assumed the purpose of
the creation of a Secretary of Agriculture to be
a concession by Congress to the farmers, secur
ing to the latter, so meagerly represented in our
national legislature, and so helpless as regards
the maintenance of a strong central organization
of their own, a fixed representation in the coun
cils of the Chief Executive, and one who could
and would act as a special adviser in regard to
legislation needed for or affecting agriculture.

It is needless to say that Rusk w^as an ardent
protectionist, but he wTas not an extremist, often
declaring that the worst enemies of protection
were those who asked for too much, and he held
strongly to the opinion that protection should be
afforded to every product of domestic industry,
whether in field or factory, threatened or liable
to be threatened with foreign competition in our
home markets.

316 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

In the following article, in which he presented
his views as a protectionist to the News Record
of Chicago on October 5th, 1892, his attitude
toward the farmers is plainly seen:

"The question of protection has been the sub
ject of so much discussion, and discussion by peo
ple who looked at the subject from a single point
of viewr, that it has become very much involved,
and people frequently refer to it as a subject so
ponderous and so complicated as to make its con
sideration and its solution difficult for the ordi
nary individual. This is unfortunate, as it is a
question which is of special interest to the ordi
nary individual.

"The main difficulty lies in the fact that people
have mixed up in their discussion two things
which ought to have been kept separate — namely,
the principle of protection and its application.
You will find, for instance, a great many people
quoting Gen. Hancock's declaration that the tar
iff was a local question, and declaring that the
more they think of it the more convinced they
are that he was right. But it is impossible that
this remark could apply to the principle of pro
tection, while it must necessarily apply to the
application of protection. Consequently, to be
perfectly clear, when I speak of protection and
call myself a protectionist I refer to the principle
of protection — namely, the levying of a tariff not
simply for revenue, but for the purpose also of

GEN. RUSK'S IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 317

protecting our American industries from de
structive foreign competition. When I speak of
the tariff I refer merely to the application of this
principle; for the same reason I discard the terms
'high tariff' and 'low tariff' as expressing a prin
ciple.

"A low tariff may produce a greater revenue
than a higher tariff, so I may argue in favor of a
low tariff on certain goods and a high tariff on
other goods, as either seems to me necessary in
order to protect this or that industry in our own
country from a foreign competition that might
prove destructive, without in either case surren
dering one iota of my principles as a protection
ist. The principle I adhere to in both cases is to
give as much protection as is adequate to be thor
oughly protected and no more. I think if we
would steadily avoid confounding the details of
tariff legislation with the principle of protection
we would avoid a great deal of trouble; we would
clear the air of much misunderstanding and preju
dice, and, what is more, I believe firmly that a
majority of the American people would be found
to be protectionists.

"Now, when it comes to a question of the tar
iff, the principle of protection having been ac
cepted, the whole thing revolves itself into an
investigation as to the practical conditions of the
various industries of the United States, the cost
of producing certain articles in foreign countries

318 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

and the cost of producing them in the United
States, our duty being so to adjust the tariff upon
every class of goods as to equalize this cost and
not to allow any foreign producer to sell his
goods in our country to the disadvantage of
American labor. In other words, on all articles
except those we can not produce or manufacture
ourselves under any circumstances I would levy
a duty sufficient to make foreign goods cost, when
landed and duty paid in any port of the United
States, fully as much as the same goods in this
country amounts to; and this I believe in, with
out any reference to the old accepted argument of
'infant industries.'

"I would stick to this principle all the waj
through, except only in the case of foreign goods
coming from countries which could make such
concessions on American goods as would fully
offset any concessions we might make to them—
for I am a believer in reciprocity. In fact, so
long ago as April, 1890, in a communication
which I prepared to send to all persons — and they
were legion — who addressed me on the subject of
agricultural depression, I referred to the advan
tages of reciprocity as follows:

" 'Accompanying this principle of protection to
the American farmer is that of reciprocity, which
should invariably be applied whenever that of
protection is relaxed. If there are products
grow^n to better advantage in other countries, re-

GEN. RUSKS IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 319

mission of duty on which would seem to be in the
interest of a large portion of our population, such
remission should only be accorded as the result
of reciprocal concession in the way of a remission
of duties by such other countries on products
more readily grown here. Many of those coun
tries which would be specially benefited by a re
mission of the duty on sugar by our government,
would afford an excellent market for our bread-
stuffs and dairy and meat products were it not
for the high duties imposed thereon by them. So
with other products, and whenever duty on such
products is lowered or removed, and the protec
tion to our farmers thus diminished, it should be
as the price of concessions made to us in the tar
iff of other countries in favor of our own farm
products. In this way and in this way only can
our farmers be adequately protected, new mar
kets being thus thrown open to them for those
products which they can most easily and cheaply
produce.'

"At the same time I think it will very seldom
be found necessary to surrender adequate pro
tective duties on any foreign goods such as we
can manufacture in this country. Our reciprocal
relations w^itn countries in the temperate zone,
growing largely the same kind of agricultural
products and living under comparatively the
same conditions, will always be very limited. But
just as we have exemplified in the case of sugar,

320 JEREMIAH J/. RUSK.

of which, at present, we do not produce a quan
tity sufficient for our domestic supply, so in re
gard to tea, coffee and spices, which come to us
from tropical or semi-tropical countries, there is
a considerable opportunity for the exercise of this
sound economic principle. I would have America
buy these goods in countries that buy American
goods, putting a duty upon such as come to us
from countries that put a duty upon our goods.

"In the case of any new industry, such as might
properly be termed an infant industry, if it could
be shown to me that there was a reasonable pros
pect of such being eventually established on a
sound footing in this country, I should be willing
to afford them for a time even greater protection
than would be necessary to simply equalize the
cost of home and foreign products when offered
for sale in the United States.

"I can not see that there are any insuperable
difficulties in carrying out the principle of pro
tection in this way. It is a matter simply for
practical investigation, in order that wre may
know just what rate of duty will furnish our
home manufacturers and producers adequate pro
tection. I say manufacturers and producers, be
cause I w7ish to be distinctly understood as advo
cating adequate protection for all American in
dustries, and I have no more patience with this
free raw material talk than I have with free-trade
talk.

GEN. RUSICS IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 321

"It is American labor we want to protect, and
American homes, and I do not, as a consistent
protectionist, regard as a subject for free trade
any article into the production of which, in a
form available for use, American labor enters.
If the conditions are such, for instance, in Can
ada, that a Canadian farmer can raise certain
crops more cheaply than we can, I would protect
our American farmers by putting such a duty on
these products that Canadian farmers could not
undersell them. In the same manner I would pro
tect our fruit growers from Mediterranean fruits,
and would encourage the fibre industry in our
own country, so that eventually the bulk of our
hemp, flax and other vegetable fibres should be
produced at home. I am for the protection of the
American laborer's home and labor, but I am
equally intent on protecting the American
farmer's home and labor.

"Some time ago I received a letter from an
editor of a journal published in the south, asking
me if I was aware that the importation of
Egyptian cotton had greatly increased during
the last few years, and whether, that being the
case, I would favor protecting the cotton-grower
in this country by the imposition of a duty on
foreign cottons. I replied that if it was found
possible to grow cotton in this country possessing
the characteristics which induced our cotton man
ufacturers to send to Egypt or elsewhere for cer-
21

322 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

tain cottons, I certainly should, and I may state
incidentally that this department is now engaged
in cooperation with certain experiment stations
in the cotton states, in an endeavor to ascertain
whether these cottons, or cottons possessing the
same characteristics as those we now import, can
be produced in the United States.

"I trust and believe that as the result of care
ful experiment with foreign cotton seed we will
be able in time to produce every variety of cotton
needed by the manufacturer, and when that time
comes I shall be ready to give our cotton pro
ducers all the protection they require, even, for a
time, to the extent of imposing on foreign cotton
a duty so high as to be prohibitive. For the pro
duction of these new varieties of cotton in this
country would, in my opinion, properly come
under the head, for a time at least, of an infant
industry.

"The other day I came across an interesting
statement in regard to one class of foreign,
the imports of which have increased from four
teen bales in 1885, to more than 12,000 bales last
year; I refer to rough Peruvian cotton, which, I
am informed on good authority, is not used at all
by cotton manufacturers, but which is, owing to
its peculiar characteristics, exclusively used by
woolen manufacturers for admixture with wrool
in the manufacture of w^oolen goods. My in
formant added that 'if the framers of our last

GEN. RUSK'S IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 323

tariff had known of the peculiar qualities of this
cotton, it would doubtless have been subjected to
a good round duty in the interest of the wool-
growers of the United States.' And I will add
that I think it would, and that I, for one, would
have advocated it.

"It may be interesting to call attention to the
fact here that our total imports of foreign cottons
have increased from the fiscal year ending in
1885 to the fiscal year just closed, from 4,567
bales in the first-mentioned year to 36,000 bales
in the last. So you see we are not any too soon in
undertaking experiments with a view to supply
ing ourselves with a home-grown product to take
the place of these foreign cottons.

"There is another form of protection which I
firmly believe should be at all times afforded to
our people. I refer to protection from fraudulent
or adulterated goods. All such goods should be
subjected either to a tariff high enough to be pro
hibitive or should be prohibited absolutely.
Under the circumstances it will not be a surprise
that I should regard our present tariff as coming
nearer to the true standard of protection than any
we have had heretofore.

"The discussion of tariff details is not, in my
opinion, the essential thing in the present cam
paign. I would confine the issue to protection
or no protection, and, as I said before, I am firmly
convinced that the majority of the American peo-

324 JEREMIAH M. HUSK.

pie are in favor of the principle of protection to
American industries, whether these be repre
sented by manufacturers or by farmers. Such
being the case, there ought to be no question in
any man's mind as to leaving the tariff to be ad
justed by that party which is, and always has
been, the firm advocate of this principle of pro
tection.

"The argument that a protective tariff is un
constitutional will not stand for a minute. Con
gress has a perfect right to enact such laws as
are designed for the greatest good of the greatest
number. If it can be shown that a protective
duty on any particular article is not for the
greatest good of the greatest number, it can be
surrendered without any surrender of the prin
ciple of protection; but as long as the majority of
the American people are believers in that prin
ciple, the ultimate decision in such cases should
be left to those who are protectionists on prin
ciple.

"A great deal has been said as to whether the
tariff is a tax paid by our own people, or whether
it is paid by the foreign producer. So far as that
is concerned, I believe that the tariff is on some
articles and under some conditions a burden
borne by our own people, and in other cases it is
as clearly a burden borne by the foreign pro
ducers. In other words, it largely depends on
the question of supply and demand. Where con-

GEN. EUSIPS IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 325

ditions are such that the purchaser is in a meas
ure dependent on the seller, the purchaser must
pay the tariff, but where the seller must, to get
rid of his goods, offer inducements to the pur
chaser, the duty will be paid by the foreign pro
ducer, and this I believe to be the case in regard
to the largest number of articles upon which we
levy duty; but however it may be, I hold firmly
that the greatest good of the greatest number
demands the adequate protection of our home
grown or home-manufactured products.

"While I have the floor, as it were, I can not
drop this subject without reference to the vast,
and, at present greatly preponderating interest of
our farmers in our foreign trade. During the
fiscal year just ended, our exports, for the first
time in our history, exceeded 11,000,000,000; and,
at the same time, as though to emphasize the
relations of our agriculture and our foreign trade,
the proportion of agricultural exports increased
in the same year to over 78 per cent, of the total,
an excess of 3 to 4 per cent, over the record of the
last few years.

"The battles of the future will not be fought
with balls and bayonets for territorial possession
so much as with brains for the possession of
commercial advantages, and consequently I be
lieve that in the battles of the future between
rival nations, protection must play a very im
portant part. But it should not be considered by

326 J ERE Ml A II M. H USK.

itself alone, but as a part of a general system,
the ultimate result of which will be to furnish us
with large markets for our main products and at
the same time to secure to our own producers and
manufacturers our own home markets, free
from disastrous foreign competition.

"Protection must go hand in hand with reci
procity, by which we can afford to receive on
most liberal terms non-competing products from
countries that reciprocate with us, and it must go
hand in hand with the spreading of information
throughout all foreign countries of the character
and extent of our own products, with such efforts,
in fact, as I have exemplified, so far as my facili
ties would allow, in reference to the introduction
of Indian corn into Europe; and it must go hand
in hand with the application to our agriculture
in this country of brains, intelligence and study,
so as to greatly increase the number of articles
we produce for the consumption of our own
people.

"By reducing our wants for foreign products to
a minimum and enlarging by every legitimate
means the foreign demand for those products of
which we produce a surplus, and by a judicious
protection of our home industries, we Americans
can rest in the comfortable assurance of a grand
commercial future, wrhich will enable us to attain
a national prosperity hitherto unrecorded in the
history of nations."

GEN. RUSK'S IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 327

The above article contains an extract from a
general letter, issued in April, 1890, in reply to in
numerable inquiries, almost amounting to de
mands, for an expression of opinion on the gen
eral agricultural depression, which shows that of
all President Harrison's advisors Secretary Rusk
was the first to publicly advocate the principle of
reciprocity afterwards so clearly recognized in
the tariff act of 1890. At the same time it may
be noted that the retaliatory clause of the Act of
August 30, 1890 (Sec. 5), was more than once in
voked by him in reference especially to the
markedly illiberal policy maintained by certain
foreign governments towards our cattle and meat
products.

The general letter referred to, which was given
to the press, so fully states the views held by
Secretary Rusk at the time of its publication that
it is here quoted in full:

"U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
Office of the Secretary,
Washington, D. C., April 21, 1890.

AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION, ITS CAUSES AND POS
SIBLE REMEDIES.

For months past from all parts of the country,
there have reached me communications, many of
them from large bodies of men, all of them from
persons deserving consideration, and all of them

328 JEREMIAH M. E USK.

deeply in earnest respecting the present condi
tion of agricultural depression. In most cases
the communications suggest the conviction of
the writers, not only as to the gravity of the
emergency, but as to its cause or causes and pos
sible remedies, and all of them appeal to me for
some expression of my views on the subject. To
answer each one of these communications separ
ately, would be more than any one man can un
dertake to do, and, moreover, I am reluctant to
send out an expression of my views in letters con-
vering merely a phase or a portion of the ques
tions involved. Such a course would be unjust
to myself and to those who address me. I can
only consent to express my views, such as they
are, on the entire question, reviewing the whole
subject and considering it in all its various
phases.

It would be a work of superogation at this time
to undertake to prove the existence of severe agri
cultural depression. This is universally ad
mitted. Representative farmers and farmers'
associations are constantly calling my attention
to their condition, urging the necessity for some
measure of relief. The situation warrants all
the attention which our wisest minds can devote
to it.

What is to be done? Such is the question
which confronts every thinking man. Too many
of those who are giving the matter consideration

GEN. RUSICS IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 329

look at it from only one point of view. One
attributes the difficulty to one cause, and one to
another, and most people seem to regard two or
three causes at most as entirely responsible for
the present condition of affairs. This is a mis
take. The fact, however, explains to a certain
extent that some of the remedies proposed, bid
fair, if carried out, to bring about a result as ob
jectionable as is the present situation. Great
discouragement is very apt to lead to extrav
agance in devising remedial agencies, and we
must beware of remedies that may be worse than
the disease. It is only by a very careful diag
nosis of the case, that we can possibly attain to
efficient remedy. The present agricultural de
pression, it seems to me, can be traced to a com
bination of many causes, so many, that probably
no one man can enumerate them all. I will only
endeavor to point out some wrhich seem to me
more directly responsible. They may be divided
into two classes. First: Those causes inherent
to the farmers themselves, and for which they
alone can provide a possible remedy. Second:
Those over wrhich the farmer himself has no
direct control, and the remedy for which must be
provided as far as remedy is possible, by law, and
for such legislation the responsibility devolves
upon the legislative bodies of the States and of
the Nation.

I will confine mvself to a mere enumeration of

330 JEREMIAH M. RUSlt.

the first class of causes indicated. On many
farms, I regret to say, we find a depreciation of
the productive power of the land due to careless
culture. We find a want too often of business
like methods, due to the fact that in earlier times,
business training was not regarded as an essen
tial preparation for the farmer's work, whereas,
today with altered conditions, when every penny,
and I may say every moment of time has to be
profitably accounted for and in the face of world
wide competition, a successful farmer must be as
well trained and careful in business as the store
keeper, and his equal in intelligence and general
education. Nor are the important questions of
supply and demand of market prices studied with
the vigilance which characterizes the methods of
our merchants and manufacturers. These last
moreover, have the advantage of transacting
their business in immediate proximity to trade
centers, where the widest information in refer
ence thereto is readily obtainable. Our farmers'
organizations are wisely seeking to supplement
this want for the farmer; the agricultural press
is earnestly working in the same direction and
one of the most important duties devolving upon
this Department, consists in gathering and
promptly distributing reliable information on all
those subjects which are essentially interesting
to the farmer. It remains for him to avail him
self of the information thus supplied as his chief

GEN. RUSK'S IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 331

protection not only against over-supply of certain
products, but against possible over-reaching on
the part of purchasers. The farmer must look
with suspicion upon any attempts to abridge the
sources of his information. His advantage will
always be in the fullest knowledge of the facts.
He must carefully study the character and the
quality of his products rather than mere quan
tity, and always bear in mind, that whether
prices are high or low, it is always the best goods
at the best obtainable prices that are the most
readily sold. Many of our farmers have been
land-greedy, and find themselves the owTners of
more land than they can properly care for in view
of the comparatively high price of labor in the
rural districts, and in view of the fact that but a
small portion of mankind, comparatively, can
profitably control the labor of others. The pru
dent farmer will limit his efforts to that which he
can efficiently perform. Again, — more attention
must be given, especially on our Western farms,
to the raising by the farmer, for his own use,
everything that may be utilized by himself and
his household, as far as soil and climate wTill per
mit.

I have passed over these various causes briefly.
I do not deem it necessary to dwell upon them at
length, but will merely reiterate the fact, that
for them the remedy is feasible, and it depends
upon the farmers themselves to provide it. No

332 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

one can relieve them of this responsibility, but I
am thankful to say, that owing partly to their
own efforts, there exist today in many States, val
uable instrumentalities capable of materially aid
ing them in their work, and today in this coun
try no farmer need be without all the aid that
knowledge and science can impart.

FARM MORTGAGES.

The burden of mortgages upon farms, homes
and lands, is unquestionably discouraging in the
extreme, and while in some cases no doubt this
load may have been too readily assumed, still in
the majority of cases, the mortgage has been the
result of necessity. I except of course, such
mortgages as represent balances of purchase
money, which are rather evidences of the farmer's
ambition and enterprise than of his poverty. On
the other hand, those mortgages with which land
has been encumbered from the necessities of its
owner, drawing high rates of interest, often taxed
in addition with a heavy commission, have today,
in the face of continued depression in the prices
of staple products, became very irksome and in
many cases threaten the farmer with loss of home
and land. It is a question of grave difficulty to
all those who seek to remedy the ills from which
our farmers are suffering. At present prices the
farmer finds that it takes more of his products to

GEN. RUSK'S IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 333

get a dollar wherewith to pay back the dollar he
borrowed than it did when he borrowed it. The
interest accumulates, while payment of the prin
cipal seems utterly hopeless, and the very depres
sion which we are discussing makes the renewal
of the mortgage most difficult. Many people are
disposed to associate this phase of the subject
with the question of an undue limitation of our
currency. Many carry this line of argument to
extremes, but it is by no means impossible that
these subjects are corelated. However the ques
tion of currency is now receiving special atten
tion from another branch of the government;
legislation on the subject is now pending before
Congress and we can no doubt look for an early
and satisfactory solution of this vexed problem.

TRANSPORTATION.

The question of transportation is one of pro
found interest to the American farmer. The
trouble begins near home, between the farm and
the nearest railroad station. It would be diffi
cult to estimate the amount of loss in time and
labor, in depreciation and wear and tear of horses
and conveyances, entailed upon the farmers by
the wretched condition of country roads before
arriving at the station; he there meets the vexed
question of freight rates, a difficult one to settle
satisfactorily to all parties under any circum-

331 JEREMIAH M. EUSK.

stances, but in many cases still further compli
cated by the condition of our whole railroad sys
tem. Many of the roads were built at a time and
under conditions that greatly enhanced their cost.
Competing lines built under more favorable cir
cumstances, present comparisons of inequality
which often seem like injustice and on the other
hand it must not be forgotten, that many roads
are over-taxing their constituents in an effort to
secure dividends upon a total capital and bonded
debt, a portion of which is purely fictitious. That
many roads fail to pay any dividends at all, while
the total profits of the railroads throughout the
country represent but a comparatively small divi
dend upon the actual cost of construction, plant
and equipment, still in no wise palliates the griev
ous wrong of attempting to secure a profit upon
fictitious values. It is still too early to suggest
any important modifications in the Inter-State
Commerce law. A fuller trial is needed to judge
properly of its effects and to suggest judicious
amendments. The condition of our agriculture is
such that a large proportion of our farmers must
depend upon facilities for reaching distant mar
kets, and the law will hardly accomplish its pur
pose of securing the greatest good for the great
est number, if its ultimate result should be to
raise the cost of the long haul. Its most valuable
office will be to prevent injustice by forbidding
the granting by the railroads of special privileges

GEN. JKUSJTS IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 385

to certain classes or corporations, which are de
nied to the community at large.

THE MIDDLE MAN.

Another cause operating to depress the price
of the farmer's honest toil, is the undue increase
of the class of middle-men and the dishonesty and
greed of many of them. Hence the wide gulf be
tween the high prices charged to the consumer,
and the low prices paid to the producer. The
middle-man within certain limits must be re
garded as a necessity. There are many things
he can do for the farmers which the latter cannot
do so profitably for themselves, and under such
conditions it is wise to employ him. The evil
which exists at the present day in this direction
could undoubtedly be mitigated by, first, a fa
miliarity on the part of the farmer himself with
the market value of that which he has to sell, and
second, a better system of cooperation among the
farmers both in the disposal of their crops, and
in the purchase of their supplies.

GAMBLING IN FARM PRODUCTS.

Few there are but are familiar with and de
plore the conversion of our exchanges and boards
of trade, originally designed for the encourage
ment and convenience of legitimate trading, into

336 JEREMIAH M. HUSK.

vast gambling places, fraught with the gravest
danger to the country at large, but of which the
farmer, whose products are thus made the toy
and plaything of the game, is the immediate and
chief sufferer. The frequent and extreme fluc
tuations of price occasioned by the operation of
irresponsible speculators is the bane of the pro
ducer, whose best interests will ever be served by
the maintenance of a firm and reliable market.
To the allegation, not infrequently made, that if
at times prices are thus unduly depressed, there
are also times when they are unduly raised, there
is a simple reply. As already asserted, not only
are fluctuation and uncertainty the bane of the
producer, but the speculative combinations wrhich
result in unduly raising or depressing prices are
carefully calculated to raise them when the goods
are no longer in the producer's hands and to de
press them when they are. Unquestionably legis
lation is needed to remedy this evil, and it should
be based on the principle that the evil is not a
necessary one, requiring regulation, but an ut
terly inexcusable one, to be cured by eradication.

CONTROLLING COMBINATIONS.

Much has been said and written alleging the
existence of unlawful combinations for the ex
press purpose of so controlling the markets as to
lowrer the price of the farmer's products, and of

GEN. RUSK'S IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 337

other combinations whose object is to raise the
price of the articles which the farmer consumes.
That such combinations exist it is impossible to
doubt, and the serious results of their greed and
selfishness are enhanced by the grave difficulties
attending any effort to limit their evil effects.
This is one of those evils so closely allied to the
matter of interstate commerce, that its regulation
may possibly fall within the legitimate province
of national legislation. The great difficulty lies
in the close observance of that line of demarca
tion which clearly exists between combinations
for mutual self-help, protection, and the advance
ment by legitimate means of the interests of a
class, craft, or industry and combinations or
trusts inspired by greed, whose objects are unat
tainable save as they infringe upon the legitimate
rights of others. In spite of these difficulties,
however, there cannot be any doubt that an
earnest demand for adequate legislation on this
subject, sustained by popular opinion, receiving
the earnest attention of our strongest minds, will
eventually result in some adequate means of con
trolling this gigantic evil.

PROTECTION FOR THE FARMER.

I now come to the consideration of one of the
gravest causes in my opinion of the present agri
cultural depression, but which I am happy to
90

338 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

state can be effectually and directly dealt with
through national legislation. Few people realize
that our imports of agricultural products esti
mated at prices paid by the consumers are about
equal to our agricultural exports estimated at
prices paid to the farmer, yet such is the case.
Our imports of products sold in competition with
those actually produced on our own soil, amount
to nearly 115 million dollars and as much more
could be produced on our own soil under favor
able conditions. We must surely conclude that
we have here another cause of depression. The
subject is so vast that I cannot dismiss it briefly.
Indeed I can do no better than to repeat here
views already expressed by me on this subject.

IMPORTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.

Of all the wonderful phases of development of
which the United States furnishes such striking
examples, none is perhaps more remarkable, than
the wonderful increase, totally disproportionate
to our increase of population, in our imports of
products, which are distinctly agricultural. In
1850 the imports of such products amounted to
40 million dollars; for the fiscal year ending in
1889, they amounted to the enormous sum of 356
millions, an increase of nearly 900 per cent., while
the increase in population during the correspond
ing period, was considerably less than 300 per

GEN. RUSK'S IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 339

cent. This is all the more remarkable when
taken in conjunction with the fact, that this is
preeminently an agricultural country, opening
up year after year, with a rapidity which has
alarmed the producers of the Old World, immense
tracts of country to be devoted exclusively to till
age; all the more remarkable when we realize
furthermore that over TO per cent, of our total
exports are the direct product of the soil. Ac
companying this extraordinary movement, there
has been during the past decade, in which the
greatest increase of such imports has taken place,
a steady decrease in the prices of home grown products.
To any reasonable man the conclusion must be
obvious; namely, that in the line of products, writh
the exception of cotton, upon which our farmers
chiefly depend, there has grown up a well-nigh
ruinous competition in which the labor of the
peasant of Europe, of the miserable fellah of
Eg}-pt, and of the unfortunate half-starved Indian
ryot, working for pauper wages, neglecting all the
amenities of life in order that women and chil
dren as well as men may work in the fields, is
pitted against that of the American farmer, re
lying upon his own and his son's labor, or where
he employs hired help, paying them a fair rate
of wages according to our American standard,
besides providing them with the same food and
shelter as he gives to his own family.

340 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

Growing a surplus of wheat, that surplus,
whose price is forced down by the competition of
Russia and India, regulates the price of the entire
crop. The product of our vast corn fields, for
which a comparatively insignificant foreign de
mand exists, must be utilized largely by the
farmer for the raising of cattle and hogs. The
foreign market for live cattle which exists in
Great Britain is so hampered by the oppressive
regulations requiring slaughter at point of land
ing, as to exercise little or no beneficial influence
on the price of his product while the obstructive
measures adopted by several of the Continental
countries in regard to American pork has reduced
the exports of that product since 1881 over 40 per
cent, annually. Under such circumstances there
can be but one cause assignable for the neglect
by American farmers to turn their attention to
other crops in the line of such agricultural prod
ucts as we now import, and that is that in this
they would meet an even more overwhelming and
disastrous competition than they are now con
fronted with, in the raising of cereals and live
stock. Obviously then, the only course possible
to enlightened statesmanship, is to assure to the
farmer adequate protection in the diversification
of his crops and the production of a larger pro
portion of the articles which we now import.

These may be summarized as follows, the fig-

GEN. RUSK'S IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 341

ures given, being for the fiscal year ending June
30, 1889, and the values, those at the ports of ex
port:

Sugar and Molasses 93,301,894

Animals and their products, except

wool 42,263,014

Fibers, Animal and Vegetable 59,453,936

Miscellaneous, incl. bread-stuffs, fruits,
hay, hops, oils, rice, seed, tobacco,

vegetables and wines, etc 71,254,894

For obvious reasons I omit any reference here
to the 90 millions expended for tea, coffee and
cocoa, but omitting these, we have still the enor
mous sum of |266,2T3,738 imports of agricultural
products, the far greater part of which, amount
ing probably to not less than 240 or 250 millions,
could, with proper encouragement, be produced
on our own soil. The establishment of our Agri
cultural Stations, the energetic research by the
Department of Agriculture into the resources of
different sections of this country, investigation of
their soils and climate, and the application, in
general, of scientific principles to agriculture, all
combining, make this assurance doubly sure, pro
vided always, that this diversification be encour
aged and fostered by the application of the prin
ciple of protection to the development of new in
dustries on the farm. It is simply the extension
to our agriculture of the protection so bene
ficially extended in the past to our manufacturing

342 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

industries. In the days when the farmers were
prosperous, when good crops were accompanied
with high prices, and the value of agricultural
land went up accordingly, the farmers to a man,
stood by the principle of protection urged on be
half of the manufacturers, who, burdened then
with the heavy load of taxation imposed upon
them by the Civil War, were threatened wTith
grave disaster in the face of European competi
tion. XOWT in the face of the severe competition
which +oday confronts the farmer in foreign mar
kets, duty, fairness, and in the long run, self-in
terest demand that we should afford him the ben
efits of a home market for all that he may be able
to produce on our own soil. This includes all the
sugar and molasses, all animal products, wool,
silk, flax and other fibers, all our bread-stuffs,
fruits, hay, hops, rice, tobacco, vegetables and
wines; but many of these things will never, can
never be produced on American soil in competi
tion with the labor of European nations, espe
cially when, as in the case of sugar, the industry
abroad has been helped by liberal government
bounties. It is worth wrhile noting that the price
per pound of the great bulk of the sugar im
ported, was at the point of shipment, 2.91 cents.
It should also be borne in mind, that while we
estimate in our statistics the value of imports at
the price in the foreign port of shipment, the
value of the export is on the other hand estimated

GEN. RUSIFS IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 343

at the price at the port of shipment in our coun
try, so that to the former must be added, trans
portation, commissions, exchange and dealers'
profits, which, without the duty, would add fully
25 to 30 per cent, more to arrive at its value at
the point of consumption — this would bring up
the cost, to the consumer, of our agricultural im
ports, to nearly 500 millions, or, estimating solely
such as could be with proper encouragement
grown on our own soil, we have a value of not
much less than 350 million dollars as the possible
reward of diversified agriculture, a sum almost
equal to our agricultural exports, estimated at
farmers' prices — that is less cost of transporta
tion and commissions or other shipping charges
to point of shipment.

COMPETITION ON OUR OWN LAND.

Before leaving this subject, a glance at the com
petition which our farmers have hitherto been
compelled to meet, even on our own soil, will be
found most interesting. Of the 7 or 8 million
dollars worth of live animals imported into this
country, the greater proportion were of ordinary
marketable stock, as contra-distinguished from
pure bred stock imported for breeding purposes
and admitted free. Of all other animal products,
including wool, there is not one that cannot now,
indeed that is not now being raised upon our own

B44 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

soil, and yet, including wool and hides, the im
ports of these animal products amounted in the
year referred to, to over 60 million dollars; to
this add 20 millions for fruits; 8 millions for bar
ley; over 2 millions for hay and hops; 3 and one-
half millions for rice; 11 millions for tobacco; 3
millions for oils; 2 and one-half millions worth of
vegetables, the same of eggs; over a million dol
lars worth of cheese, — these represent some of
the imports, aggregating nearly 115 million dol
lars, which, in spite of the productiveness of our
own soil, are brought into this country and sold
in competition with our farmers. The region of
the United States where this competition is
doubtless most severely felt, is in Xew England,
the seat of manufacturing enterprises which owe
their existence to the fostering care of protective
tariff laws, and what is the result? That year
after year, farms in Xew England States are
abandoned and allowed to run to waste, while
in some of them so startling has this evil become,
that legislators are cudgeling their brains to de
vise some method of re-populating their aban
doned agricultural lands.

One glance at the comparative rates of duty
levied upon agricultural as compared with other
products, one glance at the free list, the greater
portion of which consists of agricultural prod
ucts, either grown or which could be grown upon
our own soil, and a comparison of these figures

GEN. RUSICS IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 345

with the average rate of duty levied upon manu
factured articles, ought to be sufficient to silence
forever, any opposition to the demand I have
made on behalf of the American farmer in my
Annual Iteport, namely — that by a wise applica
tion of our admirable protective system all the
benefits of our home market be secured to him
for everything he may be able to produce.

FOREIGN MARKETS.

Accompanying this principle of protection to
the American farmer, is that of reciprocity, which
should invariably be applied whenever that of
protection is relaxed. If there are products
grown to better advantage in other countries, re
mission of duty on which would seem to be in the
interest of a large portion of our population, such
remission should only be accorded as the result
of reciprocal concession in the way of a remission
of duties by such other countries on products
more readily grown here. Many of those coun
tries which would be specially benefited by a re
mission of the duty on sugar by our government,
would afford an excellent market for our bread-
stuffs and dairy and meat products, were it not
for the high duties imposed thereon by them. So
with other products, and whenever duty on such
products is lowered or removed and the protec
tion to our farmers thus diminished, it should be

346 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

as the price of concessions made to us in the tar
iff of other countries in favor of our own farm
products. In this way, and in this way only, can
our farmers be adequately protected, new mar
kets being thus thrown open to them for those
products which they can most easily and cheaply
produce.

To farmers producing, as do ours, a vast sur
plus of agricultural products the question of for
eign markets is and should be deeply interesting.
Not only do they offer an outlet for this surplus,
but if untramelled by irksome restrictions and
uncontrolled by combinations such as I have re
ferred to elsewhere, they serve as useful checks
upon those who might otherwise succeed in con
trolling our home markets. Unfortunately, irk
some restrictions do exist and especially is this
the case with reference to our live-stock industry.
Evidence is not wanting that a demand exists in
Great Britain for our live-stock, and but for the
oppressive restrictions imposed by the British
government, and said to be necessary owTing to
the alleged existence of contagious diseases
among American cattle, there is little doubt but
a large proportion of our product of live cattle
wTould find there a profitable market, thus greatly
relieving our home markets. So with our pork
products, oppressed by the embargoes placed
upon them by certain European powers, with the
result of an enormous decrease during the past

GEN. RUS&S IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 347

six years in our exports of bacon and hams; for
whereas these exports in 1879, 1880 and 1881
averaged about 745,000,000 pounds, they had
fallen in 1883 to less than 400,000,000, and until
last year never exceeded 420,000,000. The effect
of this has naturally been to greatly restrict com
petition among purchasers, and to seriously de
press the price of our hogs. Aided as the farm
ers and cattle growers must be by supplying them
with authentic statistics as to supply and de
mand of their products, much remains for them
to do directly through their own intelligent and
active cooperation directed to an intelligent con
trol of the supply. This is a matter worthy of
the earnest attention of our numerous farmers'
organizations. On the other hand, the national
government owes it to the farming and cattle
growing community that no effort shall be spared
to secure a removal of those restrictions upon our
live-stock and meat trade which we know to be
unnecessary, and therefore feel to be unjust.
First of all we must maintain an absolute and ef
ficient control of cattle diseases, and pursue with
the utmost energy the course which has resulted
today in the almost complete extirpation from
American soil of the most dreaded disease of all,
contagious pleuro-pneumonia. The energetic ap
plication of efficient measures must effectually
stamp out this disease from its last remaining
stronghold, and once banished from American

348 JEREMIAH M. RUSK'.

soil it must be kept out by the most rigid regula
tions. As to our meat products, I can see but
one way to accomplish the desired results, and
that is by the enactment of a thoroughly efficient
meat inspection law.

Another duty devolves upon us in connection
with our foreign markets, and that is a careful
study of their wants. It is a stigma upon Ameri
can agriculture that our butter exports, for in
stance, should be reported as small in quantity
and poor in quality, and that the South Ameri
can supply should be largely derived from Euro
pean countries.

Having taken all precautions necessary to
guarantee the immunity of our live-stock from
disease and the healthfulness of our meat prod
ucts, we must then protect them from unjust al
legations on the part of foreign competitors and,
as not infrequently happens, of foreign govern
ments or their representatives. To do this it be
comes necessary that we should maintain, at
tached to some of the American legations abroad,
a properly qualified officer representing the Agri
cultural interest, whose special duty it shall be
to watch over the interests of American agricul
tural products in foreign markets. With the
proper cooperation on the part of our Consuls
and others such an officer could be of incalcula
ble service in the manner indicated as well as in
supplying valuable information as to the demand

GEN. RUSK'S IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 349

existing in foreign countries for such products as
our farmers are able to supply, as to the best
manner of preparing the same to meet the wants
of foreign consumers, etc.

TAXATION.

It seems to me that our system of taxation de
mands improvement in certain directions. The
cost of supporting the government needs to be
most equitably adjusted among the different
classes of our people. At present in many States,
the burden of local taxation presses heavily upon
farm property, its very nature rendering it easily
assessable. Every corporation created by the
State, and to whom special privileges are granted
either by State, county, or incorporated village
or city, should be taxed in proportion to its earn
ings, and in all ways the principle of taxation
should be to place the burden of maintaining the
government, whether State, municipal or na
tional, upon the luxuries and comforts which the
wealthy enjoy, and to reduce it to a minimum in
its application to the hardly earned property of
the poor man.

No doubt many more causes could be assigned
for the present agricultural depression, still less
is there any doubt, but that other and more effi
cient remedies than those suggested might be
found, I may say will be found, to relieve it. I

350 JEREMIAH M. EUSK.

have merely tried to indicate what seemed to me
the more important causes and to point out such
remedies as a long and solicitous consideration of
the situation, and I may add, long familiarity and
sympathy with the hard working, frugal class
which is the immediate and chief sufferer, have
suggested to my mind as both necessary and feas
ible.

I candidly confess, that my personal sympa
thies are with the farmers, and they must bear
with me if I offer them an earnest word of cau
tion. No possible relief can come to them or to
the country, no permanent remedy for present
ills is to be found in measures which are rather
the outcome of resentment than the product of
reason. I would say to the farmers, stand firm
as the ever-lasting hills in demanding what is
right, and resisting any possible infringement on
your rights as citizens by any other class or com
bination of people, but beware, lest in your just
eagerness to secure your own rights, you seek to
infringe upon the rights of others. No measure
that conflicts writh the rights of any one class of
citizens, but what is sure to follow the course of
the boomerang and return to injure the hand
that shaped it. On the other hand, let it be borne
in mind by all other classes of our citizens, that
the present conditions demand consideration now
and that consideration must be full and fair; for
the time being it is paramount to all other ques-

GEN. BUSIES IDEAS ON PROTECTION. 351

tions and if necessary, every other interest must
be prepared to stand aside in favor of measures
looking to the relief of agricultural depression.

J. M. RUSK.

During his administration Secretary Rusk con
tributed to the North American Review two ar
ticles — one, which appeared April, 1891, upon
"The Duty of the Hour," and the other, in March,
1893, on "American Farming a Hundred Years
Hence." The first was an earnest plea for a bet
ter understanding of the farmer and his needs by
the statesmen and men of affairs of the day, and
a prediction, as it might be called in view of later
events, that like other patients, failing relief at
the hand of the regular practitioners, the farmers,
conscious of an unequal participation in the gen
eral increase of wealth and advance of civiliza
tion and luxury, and finding in the leaders of the
hour little sympathy, less understanding and no
relief, would in despair follow the demagogue.
He was particularly earnest in denouncing the
common tendency of those who are not farmers
themselves, to pooh-pooh the farmers' discontent
as groundless and to answrer all his complaints
with the assertion that he is better off and has an
easier time than his father before him. He
points out that this will be admitted even by
most farmers, but that what the modern farmer
complains of is that he has not shared equally

352 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

with other classes of citizens in the great increase
in wealth which has characterized the last half
century. These few extracts afford, in conjunc
tion with the views of the Secretary as to the
farmer's relations to the tariff above quoted, a
fair illustration of his broad sympathy with the
farmer's troubles and his clear appreciation of
the farmer's needs. At the same time the second
of the two articles referred to, "American Agri
culture a Hundred Years Hence," shows very
clearly that he fully understood what share the
farmer's own deficiencies had in his condition and
what radical changes must inevitably be brought
about in many respects in the personality of the
farmer before the full realization of the possibili
ties and pleasures of rural life among us.

FARMING A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE. 353

CHAPTER XXXIX.

AMERICAN FARMING A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE.

The following article by Secretary Rusk, origi
nally published in the North American Review,
of March, 1893, is here reprinted by the kind per
mission of Gen. Lloyd Bryce, editor of that excel
lent magazine:

What farming wTill be a century hence may at
first sight seem to be a matter of pure specula
tion; nevertheless, it deserves the most thought
ful consideration of those who take a patriotic in
terest in the future of the country with which
the future of our agriculture is indissolubly
bound.

To those who have the shaping of the country's
destinies in their hands the future must be ever
present. It is only the shallow, superficial or
selfish man, never the statesman, who considers
a subject affecting deeply the interests of his
country solely from the standpoint of present ex
pediency.

My recollections of farm life, with which I have
always been closely, and at times exclusively,
23

354 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

identified, go back over forty years, and retro
spectively I can thus gather material upon which
to predicate some of the changed conditions
which will attend the growth of our country dur
ing the next century.

My boyhood was passed on a farm in what was
then one of the Western States (Ohio) in the days
of the flail and the old-fashioned plow; of the
spinning wheel and hand loom, and homemade
clothing; when settlers migrated westward in
"prairie schooners," and business and professional
men traveling on business or for pleasure rode in
the old-fashioned mail coach or on the canal
boats; when the farmer's main object was to pro
duce on his land what he needed for his own and
his family's consumption, the home markets be
ing scattered and foreign markets hardly accessi
ble, when millionaires were unknown, and land
was plentiful — so plentiful that the possibility of
the exhaustion of the public domain in the life
time of persons then living could not have been
suggested without ridicule.

What changes have taken place since those
days are patent to all who use their sight and
hearing, and they may be readily divided into
four classes:

(1) Extent and character of our population.

(2) Methods of farming.

(3) Our trade relations, both interstate and
international.

FARMING A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE. 355

(4) The conditions of rural life.

Our population has increased in the past fifty
years from seventeen millions to over sixty-two
millions, while the population of our cities has
increased beyond all proportion to the general
increase throughout the country. The age of
steam and electricity, of speculation and monop
olies, with opportunities for accumulation of
wealth never before dreamed of, has drawn from
the healthful, peaceful and reasonably prosper
ous occupation of agriculture many of the brain
iest of our young Americans, and many who,
without being exceptionally gifted, have yet been
readily persuaded to abandon the certainty of
moderate well-being in the country for the de
lusive chances of fortune in the cities. Their
places have been largely taken by foreigners in
many States, and the result has been that in its
character, although not in ratio of increase, the
farming population has changed as much as that
of our cities. It is my opinion, however, that in
diversity of character the change in our agri
cultural population will be less marked in the
future than in the past, and this for reasons
which are set forth sufficiently in the following
pages.

Should our population increase as rapidly dur
ing the coming hundred years as in the past fifty,
it will be at the end of that period not less than
four hundred millions. I think it will not so in-

353 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

crease; for one thing, we will not have the same
inducements to offer to immigrants. When the
price of land goes up, as it is bound to do, and its
acquisition requires more money; when more cap
ital is required to undertake farming, except on
the smallest scale, and truck farms near cities
bring a high rent and call for the greatest intelli
gence as well as industry .on the part of the
farmer, one of the chief inducements to foreign
ers to seek our shores, namely the acquisition of
farms of their own, will disappear. At the same
time the liberal tendencies of all civilized coun
tries, even under monarchical governments, will
lessen the number of those who leave the older
countries for the sake gf greater political free
dom. Immigration to the United States will con
sist more and more of a few comparatively well-
to-do persons, seeking opportunities for the profit
able investment of a small capital, and who, pos
sessing some education and training in the art of
self-government, will readily amalgamate with
our own people; or of the poorest classes well con
tent to serve for a time in the ranks of labor, pro
vided the rate of wages is high enough to reward
their frugality with moderate savings.

While recognizing thus the changes which are
likely to occur in the character of the immigra
tion to this country, I emphatically do not wish
to be understood as opposing immigration. On
the field of battle as on the field of labor, I have

FARMING A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE. 357

found immigrants from foreign shores doing their
duty heroically and creditably, side by side with
their fellow citizens of American birth. I am not
insensible to the important part played by foreign
immigrants in the wonderful development of our
country during the past generation. It is not de
sirable to forbid immigration, though it is our
duty to control it. I am ready now as ever to ex
tend a wrelcome to every honest, hard-working
man seeking our shores to better his condition,
and to carve out a home for himself and his de
scendants in this land of promise. It is no of
fence that he is poor. Let us take precautions to
exclude the criminal and pauper classes, the po
litical maniacs who have declared themselves
enemies of all society and government, and then
with a proper enforcement of our laws, so that
every voter may recognize the full responsibilities
of citizenship, we shall have done all that in my
opinion is needed for the protection of our peo
ple and our institutions.

The most remarkable changes in the character
of our agricultural population will be found in
the occupation and the possession by private own
ers of every foot of land available for tillage.
From semi-tropical Florida to the State of Wash
ington, from the lakes and forests of Maine to the
orange groves and vineyards of southern Cali
fornia, every acre of land, save what is absolutely
untillable or necessarily devoted to the forest and

358 JEREMIAH M. BUSK.

the mine, will be taxed to supply the needs of
three, if not four, hundred millions of people, who
will doubtless be then, as now, the wealthiest and
least self-denying of any people in the world.
More bushels of wheat will be needed to supply
our own people with bread than our present aver
age yield of corn, which means three and a half
times more than last year's crop, the largest but
one of any wheat crop ever harvested in the
United States. Irrigation will be practiced as a
matter of course, wherever water is obtainable,
and millions of acres now unproductive will yield
rich harvests. American farmers will supply
American consumers with half a billion dollars'
worth of sugar, whether cane, sorghum, or beet;
the demands of our home markets for meat and
dairy products will be met by a system of care
and feeding which will convert the now com
monly accepted ratio of four acres to one cow
into something more like four cows to one acre.
Science, aided by necessity, will have solved the
problems of feeding, so as to secure the maximum
result for the minimum feed; waste products will
be utilized in a hundred ways not now dreamed
of, and we can readily realize that, besides the
increased yield due to a better understanding of
plant life and culture, and to the remedies for
the prevention of the injuries, whether by disease
or insects, whereby agriculture today loses hun
dreds of millions of dollars yearly, the applica-

FARMING A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE. 359

tion of every acre of our vast territory to the par
ticular uses for which it is best adapted will add
immensely to our aggregate productiveness.

What the worth of land will be in those days
no man can venture to estimate; but of one thing
we can all rest assured, and that is, that the rich
est inheritance a man can leave to his grandchil
dren and their immediate descendants will be a
farm of many broad fertile acres in the United
States of America.

It may not be uninteresting to point out a dif
ferentiation into classes among farmers, which I
can readily see will gradually take place in this
country, and which will have attained its full de
velopment before the period of which I write.
Every large city already affects the method of
farming in the country contiguous to it, and as
this suburban land becomes more and more valu
able every acre of it will be taxed to its utmost
capacity to supply the needs and the luxuries of
the city people. For these, glass houses will ob
literate the seasons, and strawberries and lettuce
in midwinter will no longer occasion surprise.
Such methods of tillage demand the best kind of
labor and the constant, personal supervision of
the owrner or farmer himself, and this of neces
sity means farms of a few acres. On the other
hand, the large farms will no longer be conducted
by men wrho, with their own hands, feed the stock
and milk the cows, and follow the plow or culti-

360 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

vate the corn. The exigencies of farm life in.
those days will tax all the brain power and busi
ness qualifications of a man whose life work will
demand a better education, in the scientific
branches at least, than that of the merchant or
the banker, or even the lawyer. The man who
farms a large farm successfully in 1993 must be
such a man as would be successful in any career,
whether professional or mercantile, and who, like
the merchant or manufacturer, must command
some capital, and be capable of utilizing profit
ably the labor of his fellows.

The natural evolution of agriculture, under its
changed and changing conditions, involves a sur
vival of the fittest, which will necessarily rele
gate poor farmers — I use the word "poor" in the
intellectual sense — not, let us hope, and I truly
believe, to the level of the English agricultural
laborer, but to the condition of a thrifty peas
antry, owning their own homes, with perhaps a
few acres of land, but depending principally for
support upon wages earned by laboring for
others.

In my opinion, the changes in methods of farm
ing in the future will be brought about by a wide
knowledge and application of scientific princi
ples. I do not think it probable that farm im
plements will be improved very much, although
doubtless on the larger farms means will be de-

FARMING A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE. 361

vised to perform certain operations by electricity
or steam. Nor do I lay any stress upon the pos
sible revolution in methods of farming antici
pated by those who think that the rainfall may
be controlled at will by explosives, a theory which
will, long before the time of which I write, have
been itself thoroughly exploded and given a place
among the curiosities of so-called scientific inves
tigation, in company with its twin absurdity, the
flying machine. There will be some change in
our methods, owing to a differentiation of farm
ing purposes brought about by the demand for
new products, and by the necessity, in order to
make farming profitable, of providing for the
home demand all that our soil and climate can
produce, and by the devoting of certain sections,
and even of certain farms, to those products for
which they may be specially adapted. Such spe
cialization will be rendered more and more easy
as the cost, if not the difficulty, of transportation
is reduced. Our means of transportation have
been so greatly increased during the past twenty-
five years that it is very difficult to imagine their
being carried much further; but means will
doubtless be found by which the cost of carriage
may be greatly reduced, with corresponding fa
cility and ease in transportation.

Our trade relations, probably, will not exercise
so great an influence in the changes of the future
as they have done in the past. Without in any

362 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

degree sharing the melancholy forebodings of
those who anticipate that a comparatively slight
increase in our present population will compel the
United States to become a large importer of food
products such as our owrn soil produces, I am of
the opinion that long before a hundred years have
rolled by we will have ceased to export food prod
ucts to foreign countries, with the exception of a
few products in concentrated form. Our trade in
farm products will hence be interstate, not inter
national, and will be regulated by the growth of
our population and the consequent extension of
our home markets.

It is the conditions of rural life to which I look
for the greatest change, amounting to a veritable
transformation in the future of agriculture in this
country. At first glance it may appear that I
have underestimated the transformation which
has taken place in those conditions during the
period covered by my personal experience. It is
unquestionably true that modern manufacturing
methods have entirely destroyed such home in
dustries as shoemaking, coopering, tailoring, spin
ning, weaving, etc., by which so many farmers ia
the first half of the century occupied their time
and added to their modest incomes during the
winter months. The farmer's grain is no longer
carried to the mill in a sack thrown over a horse's
back and kept in place as a saddle for the bare
footed boy who, taking the grain to mill, brought

FARMING A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE. 363

back flour Tor domestic consumption. The old-
fashioned bees, the husking and the corn-shelling,
with their accompanying sociability and the cus
tomary dance, have become almost obsolete in
many parts of the country, and with the excep
tion of the South, where, in spite of the changes
effected by the war and the abolition of slavery,
matters seem to go on in the country districts
very much as of yore, there are many features in
which farming life differs from that of forty years
ago. The difference is not always, perhaps, in
the line of improvement. But in the main, and
in its most important features, I believe the con
ditions of rural life to have changed less in the
past half century than the other features of farm
ing to which I have referred; for, while farming
implements have been practically revolutionized,
while our methods of farming, as, for instance,
in dairying, have undergone marked changes,
while our population has increased, and the trade
in our agricultural products has developed be
yond the most imaginative conceptions of the
farmer of fifty years ago, many of the conditions
of rural life, including, I am sorry to say, many
of those which are its principal drawbacks still
remain. There is today almost the same isola
tion, for example, as compared with the life of
town or city, the same unceasing round of labor,
beginning with the dawn and scarce ending with

364 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

the dark; our country roads are little, indeed, I
may say, no better, and school and church facili
ties in the country districts are not much greater
than they were. Xow it is in these very condi
tions that I look for, perhaps, the most marked
change to occur in the agricultural life of the
future.

In the first place, the average size of our farms
N ill be considerably less than now. There will
be large farms, no doubt; but under such a mod
ernized system of agriculture as will unquestion
ably prevail a hundred years hence, what will be
a large farm then would not be regarded as a
particularly large farm at the present day. More
over, for reasons which I have already indicated,
there will be a very much greater number of
small farms than now, not only in the neighbor
hood of cities, but in all those sections where ir
rigation is practised. The result of this will be
a greater concentration of population even in
rural districts, and hence far less isolation than
exists at present, and this isolation will be still
further diminished by good, smooth, well-kept
roads, bordered with handsome shade trees, and
available for travel at all seasons. With such a
dense population as we shall then have, electric
motors will be established, without a doubt, along
many of the principal roads, extending out sev
eral miles into the country from every town or

FAULTING A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE. 365

i

city of any consequence. The telephone will be
found in every farmhouse, and should the pres
ent Postmaster-General be privileged to revisit
the scene of his earthly labors, he will find his
dream a reality, with a rural mail delivery which
will carry mails daily to every farmhouse in the
land. The residents in the country will vie in
culture and education with the corresponding-
classes in the cities, while, with the disappear
ance of the many inconveniences which now prej
udice the wealthy against country life, the busi
ness and professional men will look forward to
the acquisition of wealth as a means for securing
a home in the country, wrhere they can end their
days in peace and comfort. No one questions the
healthfulness of country life, and its many advan
tages so far as physical well-being is concerned
over the city, and when the country home is equal
in comfort and culture to that of the city, no ar
gument will be needed to prove its superiority to
the latter.

It would take more eloquence than I have at
my command to present to the reader a picture of
agricultural life a hundred years from now as it
exists in my mind, but I trust I have said enough
to interest even those who are not directly con
cerned with agriculture in its future development,
and to impress upon them the importance of giv
ing to the agricultural interests due weight in all

366 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

plans or legislation looking to the future pros
perity of our great country.

It seems not inappropriate that I should take
this occasion to emphasize the fact that the De
partment which represents agriculture in the na
tional government is practically in its infancy.
That it does render good service to agricul
ture there is no question, although the total ap
propriation for its support, some three million
dollars, is considerably less than one per cent, of
the aggregate appropriations made for the sup
port of the national government. As the import
ance of agriculture becomes more and more ap
preciated by the whole people, and the large part
it is destined to play in the development of our
country is more widely recognized, it is reason
able to believe, and I personally have every ex
pectation, that the National Department of Agri
culture will become more and more liberally en
dowed, so that at the time of which I write the
appropriations made for it, by comparison with
those devoted to the other purposes of govern
ment, will be proportionate to its true position in
relation to the other industries of the country.

AN AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 3G7

CHAPTER XL.

AN AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS.

In 1889 General Busk delivered, upon invita
tion, the following address on Agriculture, at Co
lumbus, Ohio:
Farmers and Fellow Citizens:

Sometime ago I received an invitation of the
State Board of Agriculture of this State, to at
tend this imposing and interesting exhibition of
agricultural products today, and to meet here in
joint assembly the members of the two leading
agricultural organizations, and the farmers of the
State generally. I desire to thank the State
Board of Agriculture and those who united with
them in tendering me this invitation. I desire to
express my pleasure at meeting you, my appre
ciation of the generous welcome accorded to me,
and of the handsome compliment paid me in giv
ing my name to one day of the exhibition. I am
especially glad to have this opportunity to speak
to you upon some topics in which we are all in
terested.

My eyes first saw the light of day in this grand

368 JEREMIAH M. RUSK,

old State of Ohio, and as I rejoice today in being
again upon her soil, I am reminded that my last
appearance at an agricultural fair in this State,
was in 1853, in this very city, being then on my
way to Wisconsin to assume the duties of citizen
ship in that, my adopted State.

The third of a century that has elapsed since
that day has brought with it the ebb and flow of
prosperity and adversity; since that time many
a man who now listens to me has gone out from
his farm — and like Cincinnatus, left his plow, to
engage in the mighty struggle so valiantly fought
and gloriously won to save the union of States
and to preserve secure the liberties of men.

Like decorated china, baked by tire in order to
harden it and preserve its rich colors, the farmer
soldiery of this State passed through the fiery fur
nace of heated and blazing war, which forever
cemented their patriotism and loyalty, and they
stand today among the leaders, tried and true, in
their avocation of peace. Many an empty sleeve,
or missing leg, or painful wound, or honorable
scar, silently attests the loyalty of your citizens
in that crisis of the Nation's life.

During all that time, we, who were the early
citizens of Ohio, have witnessed the efforts of its
farming people to secure a livelihood, have noted
their indomitable energy, their thrift and perse
verance, triumphing over the hardships and try
ing surroundings of the farmer, and have seen

AN A GRIG ULTURAL ADDRESS. 369

grow up the firm, strong column of a sturdy citi
zenship, and listened to the tread of the builders
of this mighty commonwealth, today so remark
able for its enterprise, its industry, and its suc
cess.

Ohio is today a potent factor, not only in the
agricultural but in the commercial transactions
of the United States. It is the link between the
Western and Eastern States; though adjoining
an Atlantic State, its rivers drain into the great
Mississippi itself; it possesses two of the most
considerable cities on our northern boundary line,
important ports upon the great inland sea which
separates the State from Canada; while its prin
cipal commercial city stands at the very gate of
the great South, — that great New South which is
destined within the next few years to startle the
world by its extraordinary material development.

During all these years I have watched with the
keenest interest and pride the progress of events
in my native State. Her development and ad
vancement along the lines of civilization, agricul
tural, industrial, mechanical, and social, have
never failed to excite the pride of her citizens, the
wonder of her sister States, and she stands today
radiant and beaming, a bright jewel in the di
adem of the Union. I am happy to see arrayed
here in friendly competition, the products of your
toil and handiwork, and to discuss with you some

problems which affect the farmer's welfare — for
24

370 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

upon that all prosperity rests, and without it the
entire structure falls.

I ca-uot expect to review with you the entire
field of agriculture in the brief time that I shall
occupy. It is as boundless, almost, as the space
in which we move, and there are as many phases
of it as there are stars in the firmament above
us. But perhaps there are some questions which
bear directly upon your calling and which, being
uppermost in the minds of agriculturists at the
present time, may be discussed by us today with
profit to all concerned. First let me direct your
attention to some significant facts and figures
which relate to the general cause.

The development of agriculture in the United
States has been the wonder of the civilized w^orld.
The face of our country has only waited for the
plow and harrow to reward us with nature's gen
erous return, the blessing of a country to which
hunger or famine is unknown. On every side the
landscape has been painted in the verdure of
growing crops, while the world waited, open
mouthed, to be fed by the toil of our farmers.
Think of it — more than five million farms in this
country! This indicates such an enormous busi
ness that we cannot pay too much attention to it.
Governments, State and National, cannot foster
it with too much care, statesmen cannot discuss
it too much, and farmers, you cannot think too
much about it.

AN A GRICULTURAL ADDEESS. 371

Especially is this true, if YOU realize the respon
sibility which devolves upon you and upon those
to whom you win leave your precious inheritance.
Glance at the figures which show our population.
In 1870 we had a population of about 39 millions;
in 1880 it had increased to 50 millions, and now,
in 1890, wre have nearly 65 millions. The increase
in twenty years will make us at least 100 mil
lions, and in fifty years from now 190 millions of
people will wake up some morning wanting a
breakfast.

I don't mean by this to say that we shall have
trouble in feeding this multitude. The resources
of this country are sufficient to meet the demands
of three times that many souls. But the increas
ing demand upon our farm products between now
and 1940 must be met by methods unknown in the
agriculture of our forefathers. The future farmer
will be more enlightened than we are today in an
even greater degree than we are more enlightened
than those who preceded us — because of the
greater advantages he will enjoy.

The effects, aye! the necessity of the school-
house — the common school — the prime conser
vator of our language, our patriotism, and our in
telligence — the business college, the agricultural
college, the Experiment Station, all will be felt-
indeed they are now being felt, in a greater de
gree than ever. I know they are being felt, be
cause I recognize in the present unrest of the

372 JEREMIAH M. RUSK:.

farmers, in the present feeling of depression and
dissatisfaction, in the present stand for more free
dom of action in this demand for a larger partici
pation in the general prosperity of mankind, — I
say I recognize in all these, simply the signs of
the evolution through which the farmer is now
passing. He is no longer content to make a com
parison between his present condition and that
of his father, or his grandfather, in order to prove
that he is better off than they were. He is thank
ful for the many advantages of human progress
and social intercourse which he enjoys, and which
they had not; but his ambition now is, to enjoy
his share equally with the lawyer, the doctor, the
merchant and the resident of the city, in the
greater civilization, in the greater prosperity of
this country, to all of which he contributes so
much.

It is a mistake for farmers to assume that the
success of their calling depends entirely upon
this or that act of a political body. That man is
helped who helps himself, and there are many
things which will ameliorate the present condi
tion of the farmer which are within his own grasp,
and waiting to be utilized. The demand for his
products will have to be satisfied, for the most
part, from lands already occupied, as our unoc
cupied arable lands have dwindled to compara
tively small proportions.

It must follow that farms will increase in value,

AN AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 373

that the number of acres which any one farmer
can own and cultivate will decrease, and that
only the most intelligent and most wisely di
rected culture will insure profitable returns.
Hence it is that those who follow agriculture
must follow it in the near future as a profession
rather than as a mere occupation. Agricultural
education must point the way toward the highest
knowledge and most improved methods in tak
ing advantage of different conditions of soil, cli
mate, and nature's forces. The success of no
other profession on earth depends so entirely
upon seasons and varying climatic conditions as
that of agriculture.

Then let me urge upon you the importance of
such an education. Congress has been awakened
to this necessity, and has recently provided for
the maintenance of experiment stations in the
different States — and Ohio has a grand one, let
me tell you — indeed the present session of Con
gress has passed a bill which materially in
creases the scope and usefulness of our State
Agricultural Colleges, and that bill is now a law.
These advantages are within your reach and it
is for you to avail yourselves of them.

In other words, you should exhaust every
means known to science or business which will
aid you in getting a profitable return upon your
enormous investments — investments which repre
sent a sum of money beyond the comprehension

374 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

of the human mind. You have in this State 250
thousand farms. Their value amounts in round
numbers to the enormous sum of one billion and
a quarter of dollars; as much more is invested in
implements, machinery, and farm animals to ope
rate those farms, making a total investment of
nearly 2 billion 500 millions of dollars.

!Xow farmer friends, do you realize that that
sum — the sum of your investments in this single
State — exceeds by more than three times our
present national debt? And can we not, through
the application of better culture, better methods,
better farming, better business principles, better
understanding of the laws of supply and demand,
more intelligent observation, improved processes,
a larger conception of our duties, and last, but not
least, by a "long pull, a strong pull, and a pull
altogether," — can we not by all these, I say, in
crease the percentage of our return upon this
enormous investment? Even one per cent, in
crease would mean 25 millions increase in your
returns. I think we can.

Ohio has a prominent place among the States
noted for their wealth of natural resources and
agricultural production. It occupies a small part
of the national domain, only one and four-tenths
per cent, of the whole, yet its farm lands are over
four per cent, of the farm area of the country.
Ohio has the distinction of having the largest pro
portion of its surface occupied by farms of any

AN AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 375

State in the Union, all but 6 per cent, while the
older and more populous State of New York has
22 per cent, not included in farms, Pennsylvania
31 per cent., and the densely populated State of
Massachusetts has 35 per cent.

The farms of Ohio are small, averaging less
than one hundred acres, naturally productive and
well cultivated, and their value is more than one-
tenth of the value of the farms of the United
States. The tenth census returned the average
value of Ohio farm lands at $45.97 per acre,
higher even than the average for New York and
Massachusetts, and only exceeded by four States.
Only 40 per cent, of the people of Ohio are em
ployed in agricultural pursuits, a smaller propor
tion than in any other of the Western or South
ern States, which range from 42 in Michigan to
83 in Arkansas. This accounts for the compara
tive prosperity of Ohio farmers, as 30 per cent,
of the population is a proportion more than ample
to supply the wants of all the people under the
beneficent rule of an advanced and scientific agri
culture.

The farmers of Ohio are enterprising, progres
sive and prosperous, with fewer exceptions than
in almost any other portion of the cou-ntry. The
wheat product of last year was about seven per
cent, of the national crop, and that of corn was
about twenty-two bushels per capita. Other crops
in variety and large volume increase the resources

376 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

of the people for consumption, and swell the value
of the products of the farm.

The farmers of Ohio have a home market, and
prices higher than the average farm prices of the
country for nearly all the products of their farms.
It is true, these prices of late have been low, yet
marked improvement has already taken place and
everything points to a marked advance in prices
in the near future.

In the agriculture of Ohio wool has ever held
a prominent place; and now only Texas and Cali
fornia hold higher rank in numbers of sheep. Not
merely in the number of flocks, but in quantity
and quality of wool, does your State excel most
others. The medium Merino grades, character
ized by a long staple and dense fleece, have almost
entirely superseded the combing wool of the Eng
lish breeds, commanding prices relatively high.

Yet prices have been reduced by the injurious
competition of foreign wools, imported in extraor
dinary volume under the classification of car
pet wTool, and used for all purposes, largely for
fabrics similar to those into which these comb
ing wools enter, thus reducing the price of Ohio
wools.

In six years this competition reduced the flocks
of the United States by six millions. The law of
1881 and its hostile construction wrought great
injury to sheep husbandry; while a more just con
struction, and the prospect of a more protective

AN AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 377

law, have already advanced prices and assured
a brighter future for wool growing.

In the older States, Avhere agriculture is im
proving and lands are valuable, it seems to me
to be the dictate of wisdom, to give more prom
inence to mutton production in sheep husbandry.
The example of England and of the best districts
of France and Germany is worthy of our prac
tical consideration in this respect. Meat and
wool promise greater profit than wool alone, and
furnish a double incentive to effort for the high
est attainable excellence of product. "With a con
tinuance of the intelligence and zeal which have
characterized the breeders of Ohio, and by a wise
adaptation to existing circumstances, I firmly be
lieve that a future prosperity awaits their con
tinued efforts.

The State of Ohio has made a phenomenal ad
vance in manufactures during the past genera
tion, the value of which increased from 122 mil
lions in 1860 to 348 millions in 1880, when this
Western State surpassed the average production
of the country per capita. The workers in manu
factures and mining were then about one-fourth
of all in the State, numbering 242 thousand while
farmers and farm laborers numbered 397 thou
sand.

The State is destined to become populous and
opulent, with a profitable distribution of labor in

378 JEREMIAH J/. RUSK.

the various arts and industries. Its productive
lands, healthful climate, central position, and
large development of manual and mental culture,
will insure a high civilization and a large degree
of prosperity among all classes of people.

The farmers of this country supply material
for the food of 64 millions of people, who consume
and waste more than any 100 millions of any
other part of the globe. They last year pro
duced 53 bushels of grain for every man, woman,
and child in the land, while little more than 3
bushels per head of wheat and corn were mar
keted in foreign countries. They produced nearly
200 pounds of meat for every individual, while
only 25 pounds were sold to foreigners. They
made not less than 1C pounds of butter for each
inhabitant, of which but 7 ounces went abroad.

What do these figures teach? First, they teach
the relative importance of our home and foreign
markets, and justify all our efforts in the past to
expand and multiply our home markets. Sec
ond, they teach us that farmers must first of all,
cultivate the home markets and seek to so diver
sify farm products as to supply them with the
main portion of all they demand, instead of, as
now, allowing foreigners to supply them with
nearly as much as our own farmers supply to for
eign markets. Third, they show us that we have
a surplus, which, little as it may be, must yet be

AN A GRIC ULTURAL ADDRESS. 379

disposed of in foreign markets; but they do not
show one fact, which we must not overlook,
namely, that in some cases the price of a surplus,
small as it is, is fixed in the foreign market as the
result of competition, and that the price so fixed
plays an important part in regulating prices in
our home markets.

Now, what can we do to maintain a steady
demand for farm products? With the population
increasing yearly at the rate of a million and a
half our home markets must afford a rapidly in
creasing demand. But what if the increase in
the farming population maintains the same ratio
to the general increase as heretofore? Well, in
view of such a possibility, I have three courses to
advise:

First, for the 250 million dollars worth of agri
cultural products annually imported from foreign
markets, and for which American consumers pay
at least 325 millions, we must, by wise laws and
intelligent farming, substitute home-grown prod
ucts.

Second, we must limit our generosity in the
matter of homestead laws to actual citizens of
the United States. I would have no man Owning
and cultivating a farm in this land who is not
an American citizen. I say that those who come
to the United States to reap the reward and ben
efits that come from the soil, should be citizens of
this country, be enrolled under our flag and Con-

380 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

stitution, and be interested in their protection
and the promotion of only those interests which
are truly American and patriotic. There is room
for but one flag and one people in this country—
none for those whose allegiance is elsewhere; we
have room for those who seek our country for its
heaven-born liberties — none for those who come
here to breed discord and discontent and preach
their infernal doctrines of disorder and of anar
chy, which are as un-American as monarchy and
as treasonable as secession.

Third, we must increase and extend our for
eign markets by every legitimate means in our
power, by surrounding the manufacture of our
various food-products with such stringent regu
lations that the word "American," or the brand
"U. S.," on any food-product, will be recognized
the w^orld over as synonymous with the words
<kpure" and "wholesome;" by attentively watch
ing the markets in all foreign countries, and be
ing alert to seize every opportunity to supply a
want with American-grown products; by intro
ducing American products in sections where
they are unknown, as, for instance, our Indian
corn, w^hich is practically unknowrn abroad as hu
man food; and, lastly, by special treaties on the
basis of what you have all heard of in recent days
as reciprocity — a sort of "give and take" com
mercial policy.

The trouble has been heretofore that we have

AN A GRIC ULTURA L ADDRESS. 381

been giving all the time and never taking. We
gave up the duty on coffee, of which we import
75 million dollars worth yearly, and that act
transferred 17 million dollars from our Treasury
to that of Brazil, for as soon as we took off our
duty Brazil raised her export duty a correspond
ing amount. We gave up the duties on hides, of
which we annually import 25 million dollars
worth, without securing the slightest reciprocal
advantage in favor of American flour, American
meat and American dairy-products.

I presume there are some manufacturers in this

country who would be willing to sacrifice your

wool interests for a kind of reciprocity that

would benefit them as much as it might hurt you.

I am opposed to that sort of reciprocity. So far

as reciprocity means "never give something for

nothing," I favor it. Whenever it is evident that

a treaty of reciprocity means the benefit of the

larger part of the American people, I agree to it,

and whenever it is evident that reciprocity with

this or that country, or in this or that product,

would injure any industry or the larger part of

our people, I am against it. I am for America

first, last and all the time. I am attached to no

mere form of words, to no policy because of its

name. What I am after is results — results bene-

ficial to a majority of my countrymen.

Now I rejoice that I have lived to see a strong
combination of farmers associated together

382 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

throughout the laud for the purpose of discussing
these and other questions which especially relate
to their interests. The brisk competition and en
terprise of past years resulted long ago in com
binations, and associations, and organizations of
men in every avocation except that of agri
culture. The time has now come when agricul
ture, also, is to be aided by organized effort
through a union of farmers to discuss public
questions, to make themselves heard and felt in
public affairs; — a band of brothers who will op
pose a firm front to all wrong and injustice.
There is no man living today who believes more
firmly than I in the value and potency of such
organization. Self-defence is the first law of
nature — organization is a necessity of the times.

The farmer, isolated as he is, standing alone as
he did for many years, is like a single reed, easily
broken; an association of farmers, like the bundle
of rods in the fable, cannot be broken. All hail
to every known form of agricultural organization.
I hope the work will go on, and that its growth
wrill never stop until every farmer has been en
rolled on the lists of this agricultural host. But
now, my friends, I want to offer you some words
of caution. Let me say that there is danger as
well as hopefulness in such a movement.

You must keep in mind that permanent ad
vantage is only compatible with justice. If in
the enthusiasm of the hour you work a wrong to

AN A GRIC ULTURAL ADDRESS. 383

other classes of workers, that act will in the end
prove a dangerous blow to your own prospects.
Overreaching by other guilds may be combatted,
but it surely is not wise to meet it with similar
aggression. You must determine never to suffer
another wrong, come from what source it may,
but you must be equally steadfast in the de
termination and care to do no wrong to others. I
believe, with you, in the politics of agriculture.
But in this connection, there is a warning also
that should be given. Remember that in our
Government the majority must rule; that the in
dividual, sovereign though he may be, willingly
submits to limitations of natural rights if it be
for the general good, and gratefully accepts the
most that can be obtained whenever he fails to
secure all that he desires. Therefore, it is wise,
under the circumstances, to bend every energy
toward educating the public toward creating a
public sentiment which shall find itself embodied
in the platform of the strong parties now exist
ing, rather than toward antagonizing all existing
parties, disorganizing and scattering, which is
weakness and self destruction, and which is,
moreover, opposed to those principles which
were the very motive of association and the
promise of success. You can rely upon it, my
friends, that organization will prove a fruitless
resource unless accompanied with wisdom and
prudence.

384 JEREMIAH J/. RUSK.

There is another point which is vital to success.
You are to seek some amelioration of jour pres
ent condition through legislation. Let me direct
your attention to the importance of having all
those measures which are to be endorsed by you,
most carefully considered in their preparation,
and practical and efficient in their results. Keep
in mind the fact always that if wild and imprac
ticable measures are endorsed by you they may,
and probably will, fail of enactment, thus casting
discredit upon your judgment and impairing the
further influence of their promoters. Study
deeply, discuss thoroughhr, consider dispassion-
atety all measures intended for the statute-books
of the country, present only those which really
adjust present difficulties, which prohibit injus
tice and promote absolutely the effect desired,
which are conducive to the general welfare — and
you will not only compel the assent, but invoke
the cooperation of all classes of the great body
politic. Then will your success be assured, and
your victory permanent and secure.

Such are some of the problems of the day; such
are some of the transitions affecting agriculture.
I have endeavored to point out to you your own
responsibilities; I have endeavored to show how
far you must depend and insist upon legislative
aid; and I am not unmindful that you have a
right to look to the Department of Agriculture
for material aid, and that aid I cordially pledge

AN A GEICULTUI2AL ADVIZES S. 385

to you. The work of that Department is con
stantly enlarging, and I shall assume that you
are comparatively familiar with the scientific and
practical results we are securing.

There are some questions, however, in regard
to which I have thought it necessary for the De
partment to assume an aggressive policy, and
which I regard as so pregnant with important
consequences that I beg your indulgence for a
moment while I refer to them specially.

More than one-half of the income of the aver
age wage-earners of the human race is spent for
food. The Department's special sphere of work
is to enlarge the facilities for providing food.
Let it also be part of the special sphere of the
Department to see that the food supplied be pure
and wholesome. Every product must be sold for
what it really is. The adulteration of food is in
jurious to public morals. It tends to lower the
prices of the legitimate product, and hence in
jures the farmer. I am unalterably opposed to
any deception in the naming of any article which
uses the prestige of the farm to cover up the
fraud of the manufacturer.

Another important matter has been the sub
ject of much anxiety and solicitude on my part.
The experience of the older countries of the world
in dealing with animal diseases admonishes us of
their far-reaching effects and of the great diffi-

386 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

culty of controlling them when once they have
obtained a foothold in a country. In many
countries vast sums of money have been spent,
the struggle has been going on for years, and yet
the most strenuous efforts have so far proved in
effectual. Not so with us.

So far as pleuro-pneumonia is concerned, its
foothold in this country has never been firmly
established. We have secured results which jus
tify me in the conviction that before the year
1890 closes I shall be able to issue the official
declaration of the Government of the United
States, that pleuro-pneuiiiouia no longer exists
upon its soil. Even today I can state officially
that this disease has been eradicated from the
United States, with the possible exception of two
counties on Long Island, New York. These two
counties are rigidly quarantined, but a sufficient
time has not elapsed since the last case occurred
there to enable me to assert unqualifiedly at this
moment that the disease has been utterly
stamped out from that section, although there is
every reason to believe that it has been.

A most serious consequence of this disease is
the pretext afforded to European governments by
its occasional occurrence in this country, to im
pose the most vexatious restrictions upon the im
portation of our live cattle — requiring nothing-
less than the slaughter of every animal shipped
from this country to England on the docks,

AN AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 387

within ten days after arrival. This depreciates
the value of our cattle by at least ten or twelve
dollars per head, while Canada lands her cattle
without restrictions, thus giving her farmers the
benefit of the difference. It is this outrageous
injustice which I complain of and which I am
trying to rectify.

The moment I found it possible to declare
these allegations unwarranted, I requested the
Department of State to enter into negotiations
for their modification. As a result we have se
cured the removal of the restriction relative to
sheep, and a concession on the part of the British
Government, which permits our own veterinari
ans to inspect all live cattle landed in Great
Britain. This will enable us to prove the fallacy
of the charge made against our cattle, and com
pel the British Government to either withdraw'
its restrictions, or to admit the real cause of this
discrimination.

So far as our pork products are concerned and
the unjust war waged upon them by some Euro
pean governments, the meat inspection bill re
cently passed by Congress and which has become
a law, will enable us to warrant the wholesome-
ness of our food products under the seal of an of
ficial inspection; and, having proved the injustice
of those foreign discriminations, we can demand
their withdrawal, or else enforce retaliatory
measures against their exports to this country.

388 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

Already the good effects of this bill are found in
the attitude of the French press, which very gen
erally favors a modification of the restrictions
imposed by the French Government on our hog
products. Our cattle and meat industries aggre
gate such a vast sum annually, that they are well
entitled to a vigorous national policy for their
protection. We do not desire to interfere in any
way with the fiscal policy of any nation. A
majority of our own people believe in a policy of
protection to our home markets and home in
dustries, and we concede the same right to ever}7
other country, but this country must no longer
permit discriminations against our meat pro
ducts based upon false allegations of impurity or
disease. If, when all has been done that it is in
our power to do, they still refuse to deal justly
with us, they must take the consequences, and we
will try to make these equal to the occasion.

Again the Department is extending the scope
of its statistical inquiries, and promises to fur
nish to the farmers of the United States the latest
and best information at hand regarding crops
and markets. You have long been victims of the
greed and avarice of the speculator, the monop
olist, and combinations of wealthy operators.
Their circulation of false reports, their manipula
tion of the markets, their misrepresentations and
exaggerations have been the bane of the farmer's

AX AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 389

life, and their ill-gotten gains have been wrung
from the legitimate returns of your labors.

I am giving you on the 10th of each month
such a complete statement of the conditions of
crops and markets that you need not longer be
imposed upon. Study that statement; persist in
enlisting public opinion in your behalf and in se
curing legal enactments against the pernicious
operations of these people.

Finally, farmers of Ohio, the struggle for agri
cultural victory today is no less arduous or vital
than our struggle for national supremacy in the
past; but the present contest is one of peace and
not of war, the weapons are not swords but
plough-shares and pruning-hooks, and the results
to the Union will be no less important for the
cause is no less patriotic.

The destiny of agriculture is in your hands. I
invoke for you in your duties the blessings of a
wisely-conducted government economically ad
ministered, of beneficent laws which insure your
prosperity, and the blessings of a kindly Provi
dence upon all your aspirations.

390 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER XLI.

HIS DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION.

In 1892, during the pending campaign, General
Rusk prepared and delivered the following
speech, showing what the Administration, of
which he was an honored member, had done for
the American farmer and giving his reasons from
a Republican standpoint why the Administration
should be continued:

I do not appear before you today for the pur
pose of assailing any party or individual, but to
present to you my ideas on the great questions
before the country from the standpoint of a Re
publican and of a loyal citizen. I do not know
that there is anything I can say that will be in
structive. I simply want to tell you what I think
of the Republican party, of the present adminis
tration, and of what it has done to add to the su
premacy, the stability, and the prosperity of the
Republic. You are all reading and observing peo
ple, and have probably noted and appreciated the
work done by President Harrison and his admin
istration to enhance the material interests of the
people of this whole country.

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 891

I may be pardoned if I address you first in re
gard to those subjects with which I am most fa
miliar, and which for the past few years have ab
sorbed my attention in the Department of Agri
culture.

I desire to mention first, as one of the most im
portant works accomplished by the Department,
the complete eradication of the contagious pleuro-
pneumonia of cattle. This was the principal ob
ject in view in establishing the Bureau of Ani
mal Industry. The disease had been widely
spread, it was known to be extending, and it
threatened the destruction of the great cattle in
dustry of the country. The eradication was un
dertaken in the face of many difficulties. We had
no trained force accustomed to such work; our
laws were imperfect; our people did not under
stand the necessity of the measures which were
required, and were inclined to resist them. Not
withstanding these obstacles, the work went on
successfully, and in March of this year the last
affected cow was slaughtered. The States which
have contained the original and worst hotbeds of
this disease have been cleared of it during the
last three years.

Of the other great nations of the world which
were engaged in efforts to stamp out this disease
at the time we began, not one has yet been suc
cessful. Great Britain, France, Germany, Aus
tria, and Italy have all been endeavoring to ac-

392 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

complish what we have done, but although they
have had the advantage of having experienced
men, and stringent laws, and circumscribed ter
ritory, the disease still exists in all of these coun
tries. In some of them no appreciable progress
has been made towards its removal.

But while the eradication of pleuro-pneumonia
is a great work, and one over which our people
should congratulate themselves, it is only one of
a series of measures which have been undertaken
and carried out for the protection and prosperity
of the live-stock industry of the United States.
The regulations for the prevention of Texas fever
save three times as much money to cattle-growers
each year as is required to run the whole Depart
ment of Agriculture. By separating the infec
tious from the healthy cattle in the cars and stock
yards, and by requiring proper cleaning and dis
infection of the cars and yards, this disease has
been almost entirely prevented. These regula
tions have not only guarded against the direct
loss from the disease, but they have greatly fa
cilitated the transportation of cattle, and have
been the chief factor in securing the reduction in
insurance which saves, in that item alone, about
$5 a head on every steer exported.

Another measure which has had something to
do with this saving is the inspection of vessels
carrying export cattle. Such vessels must now
have proper fittings and ventilation, and must

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 393

carry a sufficient number of men to ensure the
comfort and safety of the cattle. This saves losses
from overcrowding, suffocation, poor care, and
breakage of the fittings, amounting in a year to
a considerable aggregate.

The losses at sea from Texas fever and all other
causes were greatly reduced during 1890 and

1891, and in the year ending June 30, 1891, were
only 1 3-5 per cent. This loss was considered very
small and the insurance rates were reduced from
8 per cent, on the value of the animals to about
2 per cent. During the year ending June 30,

1892, the loss has been still further reduced to
7-8 of 1 per cent. This reduces the loss about 45
per cent, in one year, and is a much better show
ing than any one expected could be made.

In addition to this the Department has insti
tuted an inspection of all live animals which are
exported. It also inspects all the dressed beef
which is shipped from one State to another, or
exported. Finally, it makes a microscopic ex
amination of all pork exported to the continent of
Europe. These measures w^ere necessary to re
store the confidence of the trade in our animals
and meats — confidence which had been shaken
and in some cases destroyed by exaggerated and
false reports of disease, circulated by our com
petitors abroad or by alarmists in this country.

If we w^ould understand the results of this pol
icy to the farmers of the country wre must recall

394 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

the condition of our trade before it was put into
operation. At that time our pork was absolutely
prohibited from entering the markets of Ger
many, France, Denmark, Austria, Spain, and
Italy. Our cattle, sheep, and swine were all killed
on the docks where landed in Great Britain. Our
trade in animals and meats was depressed, our
markets glutted, and prices ruinously low.

In 1881, the last year before these prohibitions
went into effect, we exported 104 million dollars'
worth of hog products. The next year our ex
ports dropped suddenly to 82 millions, a loss in
trade of 22 million dollars in one year. But this
was not the worst, for they kept shrinking more
and more until 1886, when they reached the low
est notch and were but 57 millions, showing a loss
in trade from 1881 of 47 million dollars a year,
or 45 per cent. From this time the recovery of
the trade up to 1889 was very slight, as it then
amounted to only 66 million dollars and still
showed a loss of 38 million dollars as compared
with 1881.

Today we find the situation greatly changed.
Our inspected pork is now received by all the
countries which had adopted the destructive pro
hibitions. The prohibition enforced by Great
Britain against our sheep has been removed.
The confidence of the trade has been restored,
and our animals and meats are now going abroad
in greatly increased quantities.

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 395

In 1889 we exported 205,786 head of cattle,
while in 1892 we exported 394,607, an increase
of 188,821 head, or about 92 per cent The value
of the exported cattle increased from $16,600,000
in 1889 to $35,000,000 in 1892, or 111 per cent.
That is, notwithstanding the great increase in
numbers, the increase in value was so much
larger that it showed the animals to be worth $8
per head more than in 1889.

The exports of dressed beef increased from
137,900,000 pounds in 1889 to 220,500,000 pounds
in 1892, or just about 60 per cent.

The removal of the prohibition against our pork
occurred so recently that its full effect upon the
trade has been manifested for only a few months.
Since this prohibition was removed more than
40,000,000 pounds of inspected pork have been
shipped to Europe. Comparing the trade in hog
products with Europe during corresponding
months in 1891 and 1892, we find that in May,
1892, there were shipped 82,000,000 pounds
against 46,900,000 pounds in the same months of
1891. This shows an increase of 75 per cent. In
June, 1892, the exports were 85,700,000 pounds
against 46,500,000 pounds in the same month last
year — an increase of 84 per cent. In July the in
crease was 41 per cent., and in August 55 per
cent, over the corresponding months of 1891.
Taking the four months of May, June, July, and
August together, we find an increase of 62 per

398 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

cent, in the quantity of hog products sent to Eu
rope as compared with the same period in the
preceding year. And this, in spite of an increase
in the price of the exported articles.

The great question is, however, what has been
the effect of all this upon the prices received by
farmers for the animals they have for sale? I
have taken as a fair comparison the quotations
for cattle in Chicago for the month of September,
1889 and 1892. Although there were 37 per cent,
more cattle marketed in September, 1892, than in
the corresponding mouth of 1889, there was a sat
isfactory increase in prices ranging from 24 1-2
cents per 100 pounds on common steers to 78
cents per 100 pounds on what is known as second
quality steers. The common butcher steers have
been shipped in such enormous numbers that it
is wonderful that they have held their own in
price. We find, however, that they have not only
held their own, but that their selling price in
creased 8 1-2 per cent. All other grades of steers
have done much better than this. First quality
steers increased 13 per cent.; second quality, 18
per cent.; good to choice, 181-4 per cent.; and
medium to fair, 16 per cent.1 This makes an
average increase all around of about 15 per cent.,
and amounts to from $4 to $15 per head accord
ing to the weight of each steer sold.

The price of hogs has increased to an even
greater degree. Taking September, 1890, the year

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 897

before our inspection began, and comparing the
price then with that of September, 1892, we find
an increase of 80 cents per 100 pounds, or 18 1-4
per cent, of the value. This adds an average of
$2 per head to the selling price of every hog sold
in the United States. Prices have been advanced
to this extent notwithstanding the heaviest mar
keting of hogs that has been known in the his
tory of the country occurred during the last two
years. Taking the two years ending March 1,
1892, we find there were marketed in the United
States 44,878,000 hogs as against 34,556,000 in the
two preceding years — an increase of 10,322,000
head, or 30 per cent.

If the average selling price of cattle has in
creased only f S per head — and this is a moderate
estimate from the figures just given — that would
make about 40 million dollars a year. Adding
to this the 45 millions increase in the selling price
of the hog crop, and we have a total of 85 million
dollars put into the pockets of the farmers by the
increase in price of their cattle and hogs sold in
a single year. Then, of course, the breeding stock
which is carried over is also increased in value,
making altogether an enormous sum which can
not fail to have a marked effect upon the pros
perity of those engaged in agricultural pursuits.

It is surprising how much alarm to consumers
arid howr much loss to producers have resulted
from the constant receipt of cattle at our great

398 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

stock yards affected with the disease known as
"lumpy jaw." Many steers in fine condition,
weighing from 1,200 to 1,800 pounds, and which,
if they had been free from this disease, would
have brought from TO to 90 dollars, have been
condemned and sold for a cent a pound. Many
others badly affected have not brought enough to
pay the expenses of their transportation and sale.
This direct loss, added to the depressing effect of
exaggerated and sensational reports concerning
the disease, was extremely discouraging to an in
dustry which is only beginning to recuperate
after years of depression. With this condition of
affairs existing, it was gratifying to learn of a
treatment that, could be easily administered by
stockmen and which promised much greater suc
cess than usually follows the treatment of other
serious diseases of animals. This treatment had
been used successfully with a disease of the same
nature in Europe and by one of our inspectors in
a few cases of lumpy jaw in this country. If uni
formly successful, it would be of so much value to
our farmers that I determined to test it on a large
scale. Accordingly, 150 head of diseased cattle
were purchased by the Department of Agricul
ture and put under treatment, which consists sim
ply in giving one dose of iodide of potash every
day. This experiment is not yet concluded. One-
third of the animals, however, have been cured.
Another third are so nearly cured as to leave no

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 399

doubt of the successful result of the treatment.
The remaining third, comprising the worst cases
and those animals last purchased, are still in
doubt. We know enough now, therefore, to make
this treatment a great success; for if two-thirds
of the diseased animals can be cured so easily
and so cheaply, the losses from this cause will no
longer have a serious effect upon the cattle in
dustry of the country.

Now, as regards the question of the tariff,
which has been made the subject of so much wild
discussion that people approach it with awe, it
is after all, so far as the present campaign is con
cerned, a very simple one. There is no occasion
for discussion just now as to the details of the
tariff; whether the duty on one article is too high,
on another too low; whether this should be ad
mitted free or that subject to duty — it is whether
the principle of protection to American labor is
to stand as the basis for our tariff legislation.
For many reasons I believe the present tariff to
approach more nearly to the standard of full pro
tection to American labor than any we have ever
had. To speak only of the benefits it has secured
to the farmers:

1. It has saved to the American farmer a home
market for his barley, worth over §5,000,000
yearly.

2. It has saved to the American farmer a home
market for his tobacco, worth f 7,000,000 yearly.

400 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

3. It has saved to the American farmer a home
market for his potatoes, amounting to $1,600,000.

1. It his saved to the American poultry-raiser
a home market for his eggs, amounting to §1,700,-

000 yearly.

5. It has saved to the American fruit-grower a
home market for his raisins, his prunes, nuts, and
other fruits, worth §5,250,000 a year.

0. It has saved the American wool-grower from
utter ruin by protecting him from a disastrous
competition with foreign 8-ceut wool, keeping the
price of American wool at an average of 30.5 cents
per pound by comparison with an average of 13.7
cents per pound, as shown by quotations of sim
ilar grades at corresponding dates in Philadel
phia and London. Difference in favor of the pro
tected American wool-grower, 10.8 cents per
pound.

This is good enough for me as far as it goes. I
am not a half-way protectionist. \Vhen I say I
believe in adequate protection to American labor,

1 use the term in its broadest sense, and seek to
protect it, whether it be labor in the factory or la
bor on the farm. Some people say, Would you put
a duty on raw material? My reply is: I would put
a duty upon every article, whether manufactured
or grown, which foreigners can manufacture
or grow so cheaply that they could, without
a duty, undersell our American manufacturers
and producers in our own markets. I do not dis-

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 401

cuss the question of a high or low tariff. These
are mere details in the application of the princi
ple of protection. A low duty may be adequate
in one case, while a high duty may be necessary
in another. The object is to make the protection
afforded adequate. Moreover, I am convinced
that the majority of the American people are be
lievers in the principle of protection to American
labor, and consequently, I hold that tariff legis
lation must be entrusted to those wrho believe in
it. Likewise it would be the height of folly to en
trust to those wTho oppose protection, either as
unconstitutional or as unwise, the duty of adjust
ing our tariff.

An official report of Great Britain, just issued,
affords interesting evidence, showing that if our
latest customs law is a tax, British manufactur
ers help to pay it. It shows that the value of
British and Irish produce and manufactures has
declined nearly 72 million dollars during seven
months of the present year, from January to July,
inclusive. This decline is due to falling off of
trade in part, but mainly to a reduction in price,
to offset the tariff charges which their goods meet
here. As prices have not advanced here, the
British are compelled to cut prices or fail to sell.
We are controlling our own market, keeping tens
of millions of money at home, and requiring for
eigners who want a share of our trade to pay for

the privilege.
26

402 JEREMIAH M. HUSK.

You will often hear the argument that protec
tion imposes a heavy tax upon the bulk of our
people for the benefit of a few. We distinctly re
pudiate the claim that it is for the benefit of a
few, our contention being that it is justified by
the fact that it is for the greatest good of the
greatest number, and that the whole country
shares in the benefits of a judicious protective
system. But we claim even more, namely, that
it is the only method of raising revenue by which
a share of the burden is thrown upon foreign na
tions. The question of who pays the tariff is a
good deal like that of wrho pays the transporta
tion on goods bought in our own country. If you
want goods very badly wrhich you can't get in
your own town, you must buy them elsewhere,
and in that case you will probably have to pay
the freight. On the other hand, where a factory
produces more goods than its home custom will
take and is compelled to find a market for them
elsewhere, it is very likely to have to pay the
freight to the point of delivery. So if we put a
duty upon things wrhich we can not produce in
this country, we are pretty sure to have to pay the
duty, or at least the largest share of it. But on a
great many articles, I believe most of the articles
imported from abroad, the duty or the greater
part of it, is paid by the foreign producer. This
will be disputed, of course, by the enemies of pro
tection, but I think I can cite one or two facts

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 403

which will convince you that such is the case.
First, as regards British trade. The reports of
the Board of Trade of that country — and the
Board of Trade there is a government institution
—indicate a large falling off in British exports
during the past twelve months; and they further
indicate that, while the falling off in quantity
was very small, the falling off in value was very
considerable. The total decline amounted to over
71 million dollars, of which by far the greater
part was due to the reduction in values, and this
reduction was particularly marked in the case of
textile fabrics and metal goods. Add to this the
fact that English papers are constantly criticis
ing our present tariff as hostile to the interest of
British manufacturers. Another instance I may
mention, and that is that there recently came un
der my notice an extract from a paper published
at Munich, Germany, in which, after referring to
the heavy losses imposed upon German manufac
turers by the present tariff in the United States,
Germans in the old country were urged to write
earnestly to their German friends and relatives in
this country, urging them to vote against the Re
publican party at the coming elections, and thus
help to effect a repeal of the present tariff law in
the United States. This fact will, I think, show
clearly enough whether the foreigners believe
and feel that a large portion of the duties levied
in this country comes out of their pockets.

404 JEREMIAH M. P. USK.

The allegation of some of the enemies of pro
tection, namely, that it is unconstitutional, seems
to me almost too absurd for discussion. What
we have to consider is what is for the greatest
good of the greatest number, and if on this basis
we decide in favor of protection, it is obviously
within the constitutional prerogative of Congress
to make such laws as will carry this principle
into effect; but if there are any weak-kneed ultra-
constitutionalists who have doubts on that score,
I would refer them to Mr. George Ticknor Curtis,
a Democratic lawyer who antagonizes Senator
HilPs allegation that a protective tariff is uncon
stitutional, by a reference to the first revenue law
of the United States passed in 1789. There were
in that House ten members who had been mem
bers of the convention which framed the Consti
tution. Mr. Madison was the leader on the floor,
and conducted the bill through the House; Wash
ington was President, Hamilton was Secretary of
the Treasury, Jefferson was Secretary of State,
and Randolph was Attorney-General. These men
ought to be pretty good authorities for Ameri
cans as to what was in accordance with the Con
stitution which they had framed. The preamble
of this tariff act, passed July 4, 1789, reads as fol
lows :

Whereas, It is necessary for the support of
Government, for the discharge of the debts of the
United States, and the encouragement and pro-

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 405

tectioo of manufactures, that duties be laid on
goods, wares, and merchandise imported: Be it
enacted, etc., That from and after the first day of
August next ensuing, the several duties herein
after mentioned shall be laid on the following
goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the
United States from any foreign port or place.

The subject of reciprocity must always be con
sidered in connection with that of protection. As
long ago as April, 1890, I had occasion to speak
in a discussion of this subject, as follows:

Accompanying this principle of protection to
the American farmer is that of reciprocity, which
should invariably be applied whenever that of
protection is relaxed. If there are products
grown to better advantage in other countries,
remission of duty on which would seem to be in
the interest of a large portion of our population,
such remission should only be accorded as the re
sult of reciprocal concession in the way of a re
mission of duty by such other countries on prod
ucts more readily grown here. Many of those
countries which would be specially benefited by
a remission of the duty on sugar by our Govern
ment would afford an excellent market for our
bread stuffs and dairy and meat products, wrere
it not for the high duties imposed thereon by
them. So with other products, and whenever
duty on such products is lowered or removed and
the protection to our farmers thus diminished, it

406 JEREMIAH J/. RUSK.

should be as the price of concessions made to us
in the tariff of other countries in favor of our
own farm products. In this way, and in this way
only, can our farmers be adequately protected,
new markets being thus thrown open to them for
those products which they can most easily and
cheaply produce.

I will add to the above statement that reci
procity, so far as it has been tried under our pres
ent tariff law, has not failed to effect some of the
good results which were then anticipated. In
the island of Cuba alone, the imports of products
of the United States showed an increase for the
ten months ending June 30, of nearly 6 millions
of dollars over and above the corresponding pe
riod of the year previous, while the total value of
our exports of domestic products to the countries
south of us from the time these treaties went into
effect to June 30 last showed an increase of more
than 8 millions of dollars as compared with cor
responding periods prior to the establishment of
reciprocal relations, an increase practically
amounting to 24 per cent, in that trade. We
must naturally look for an increase of our trade
by means of reciprocity to those countries par
ticularly which lie in the tropical regions, and
which, consequently, produce many things which
are not grown in this country, while they stand
in need of many things we produce. It is particu
larly desirable, therefore, for the benefit of our

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 407

American agriculture, that we should largely ex
tend our trade with the equatorial countries of
this continent. At the same time, there are many
ways in which foreign markets in other parts of
the world can be reached and a demand estab
lished there for our agricultural products.

I have already shown what has been accom
plished through the work of the Bureau of Ani
mal Industry, which, by the eradication and con
trol of animal diseases and by a careful inspec
tion of animals both live and slaughtered, raises
the estimation in which our animal food products
are held abroad.

But there are other ways to increase the* de
mand for products. I have been trying to do
what I could to extend our foreign markets for
American agricultural products by spreading in
formation regarding them. I have taken corn as
one of the most important of our staple crops,
and one of which we export but a very small pro
portion, on an average, about 4 per cent. Hereto
fore, when our corn exports have been large, it
has always been in years of great abundance and
very low prices. The reason is, that people in
Europe have heretofore used American Indian
corn solely as feed for cattle, and, consequently,
have only used it extensively when the price was
very low. I have been trying to show the peo
ple in that part of the world the value of Indian
corn as a food for human beings, so as to estab-

408 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

lish, if possible, a steady demand for Indian corn
or corn meal, or some of the other forms of Indian
corn so favorably known in the domestic economy
of our American homes. It has been difficult
work, because nothing is harder than to remove
prejudice, and when people have been accus
tomed for years to regard an article as fit only for
the food of cattle and swine, it is not easy to per
suade them to eat it themselves. Patience arid
perseverance have, however, at last succeeded in
giving us some good results. The work has been
directed especially to the markets of Great Brit
ain and Germany, the two countries in Europe
that are obliged every year to import a large pro
portion of their cereal foods. In Great Britain,
the use of Indian corn in some of its various
forms is slowly, but steadily and surely, gaining
ground. In Germany it has, for obvious reasons,
been more rapid, the main reason being that a
large proportion of the German people use rye
bread, and that last year the export of rye from
Russia, whence the Germans used to draw a large
portion of their supply, was cut off, with the re
sult of raising the price of rye very materially.
As soon as the Russian supply was cut off, I dis
patched our corn agent in Europe to Germany,
and he has been indefatigable in his efforts there
since that time, with the result that today there
are a dozen cities in Germany, outside of Berlin,
where bread is sold made of rve and corn meal

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 409

mixed, and there are no less than fourteen mills
to our knowledge into which corn-grinding ap
paratus from America has been introduced for
the purpose of preparing the meal. You will not
be surprised to know that as a result, the first six
months of this calendar year showed an export
of over 55 millions of bushels valued at 29 mil
lion dollars, against 11 million bushels valued at
$7,800,000 for the same period of the previous
year. But another gratifying fact is to be noted.
As I have already stated, whenever our ship
ments of corn abroad have been large heretofore
the price has been low, while this year such is
not the case. Thus in 1890, the only year in
which exports were as large as those of the past
season, the average price at port of shipment was
less than 42 cents, while the average price at port
of shipment in 1892, has been a trifle over 55 cents
per bushel.

Could we secure an advance of even 5 cents a
bushel on an average for corn during the next
ten years, which might well be done and still en
able us to supply the foreign demand at a price
far below that of other cereal foods of equal
value the result would be to add a thousand mil
lion dollars to the value of this crop during that
period.

It is gratifying to note in these days when so
many people are prone to raise the cry of calam
ity, especially as regards our agricultural inter-

410 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

ests, that our foreign trade for the fiscal year end
ing June 30, 1892, presents the most favorable re
turns of any year in our history, especially as re
gards agricultural products. For the first time
in our history our export trade has passed the
billion dollar mark, amounting to over 1,030 mil
lion dollars, of which 1,015 millions consisted of
domestic products, and of this enormous sum,
farm products furnished 78.1 per cent., or an ag
gregate value of 794 million dollars. This ex
ceeds by more than 150 millions the value of our
shipments of agricultural products in any single
previous year, while it surpasses the record of
1889, in which year the present administration
undertook the direction of affairs, by more than
2GO millions. In 1888 and 1889 the balance of
trade was against us by several million dollars,
while in the past fiscal year the balance of trade
in our favor exceeded 202 millions against 40 mil
lions last year. One of the most gratifying fea
tures connected with this most favorable showr-
ing is the fact that in the items showing heavy in
crease in shipments there is an increase in the
prices received. Xot only has the market been
larger, but the prices realized by our producers
were better. I have already shown this in de
tail in the case of our animal products, and also
in the case of corn. Our import trade for the
past fiscal year aggregated 827 millions, of
which it appears that more than half was made

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 411

up of agricultural products, these showing an in
crease of 18 millions over similar imports in 1891,
and of 53 millions over 1890. It must be noted,
however, that this increase is mainly confined to
such products as do not compete with our own
production. There are, however, among our im
ports a sufficient number coming into competi
tion with our own agricultural products to em
phasize the necessity upon which I have so often
insisted — of our making persistent efforts to en
large the scope of our agricultural production in
this country, so as to remove altogether our de
pendence upon foreign countries for such pro
ducts as can be grown in this country. All pos
sible encouragement should therefore be given to
efforts designed to substitute home-grown for
foreign products.

I need not enumerate to you the splendid
achievements of the administration in matters
affected by diplomacy, notably in the Bering Sea
matter, the Chilean affair, the Venezuelan epi
sode, and in the matter of Canadian tolls. These
are matters of history and have won the commen
dation and praise of patriotic citizens of every
political creed. The diplomatic policy of the
country under the preceding administration had
lessened the respect entertained for America by
every other nation on the globe. The weak, vac
illating, hesitating policy of this branch of the
Government under the previous administration,

412 J ERE MI A II M. R USK.

humiliating to every American and lover of his
country, will be well remembered by you all.
Happily for the nation's honor and integrity a
change came, all of these conditions were re
versed, and today the American flag is respected
and honored in every nation of the world.

The management of the national finances un
der this administration has been all that was
promised the people during the last campaign.
The public debt has been largely reduced, and
also the annual interest thereon. A two per cent,
loan has been negotiated, and an increase in the
circulating volume of the currency has been
made. The financial condition of the Government
was never better or more satisfactory than at the
present time.

The administration of the War Department
since the present administration came into
power has resulted in great good for the service.
The standing and efficiency of the Army have
been improved, and a constant effort is being
made to raise that standard. Encouragement
has been given to new methods and ideas in im
proved implements and munitions of war, and a
studied effort has been at all times made to place
our small standing army on a thorough war
footing.

The work of the Navy Department during the
present administration has been in the line of the
construction of the new navy which was com-

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 413

menced in 1883 under the administration oi
President Arthur. During this administration
the keels of twenty-three vessels have been laid,
these vessels aggregating 94,265 tons tonnage.
This tonnage is greatly in excess of that con
structed in the previous administration. Four
of these battle-ships possess in an unusual degree
a happy combination of the characteristic feat
ures necessary to produce vessels of the highest
possible efficiency as sea fighting machines.
These characteristics are those of high speed,
powerful all-around fire, and heavy armor. They
are vessels of a little over 10,000 tons displace
ment, and equipped with the most modern style
of war implements. When the vessels now in
course of construction are completed, the Navy of
the United States will consist of 14 armored
ships and 32 unarmored ships. Before this ad
ministration came into powder this country pos
sessed no armor-piercing projectiles, without
which it would be foolish to attempt to fight with
foreign armorclads, and there was no establish
ment in this great country which could manu
facture them. Through the efforts of the present
Secretary of the Navy, American firms obtained
the secret of the manufacture of two of the finest
types of armor-piercing projectiles known and the
service is now being furnished with these pro
jectiles of a quality equal to, if not superior to,
those of foreign make. The work of this Depart

414 JEREMIAH M, RUSK.

ment has been progressive with the single view
of placing our Navy upon a first-class war
footing.

The Department of the Interior presents an
other striking instance of the economy of man
agement which has characterized all of the great
departments of the Government under President
Harrison. To attempt a summary of all these
different lines of retrenchment would occupy
more time than I am able to give. This great De
partment embraces the General Land Office, all
Indian matters, pensions, patents, and the cen
sus. It is a vast machine, and under its present
management has proved of incalculable benefit
to the people. During the preceding administra
tion the work in the Patent Office was practically
at a standstill. Patents were withheld from
many thousands of applicants. When the pres
ent administration came into power a vast ac
cumulation of work was found on hand. This
great volume of business has been transacted sat
isfactorily, new applications have been attended
to and the Patent Office is now fully up with the
current work.

The record made by the Postoffice Depart
ment under its present management has given
marked satisfaction to the people of this country.
All of the people are vitally interested in an ad
equate postal service, and this has been given us.
During the present administration the Postoffice

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 415

Department has been reorganized, placed on a
broader and more effective working basis, and
has given better results with even less ex
penditure than ever before. The reduction in the
annual deficiency asked for from Congress in the
postal appropriation indicates a decided ap
proach to a self-sustaining basis. Efforts in the
direction of a universal free delivery are among
the possibilities of postal affairs under a continu
ance of its present management.

The Department of Justice, during the incum
bency of its present head, has increased in effi
ciency, and has given that faithful attention to
details which the important matters submitted to
it demand. Nothing has been slighted, and
everything has received conscientious attention.
The important work of this Department during
the past three and a half years for the commer
cial interests of the country can not be over esti
mated, and the work performed has received the
merited approval of the people of the whole coun
try. Among the many questions submitted to
the Department of Justice was the suit testing
the constitutionality of the McKinley tariff law;
the suit brought by importers to have the law
known as the Dingley law, providing that
worsteds should be classed as woolens, declared
invalid; the Texas boundary question; and the
enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Added to this was the immense amount of work

416 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

necessary to defeat dishonest claims against the
Government, in the Circuit and District Courts
and the Court of Claims.

Now I want to say a few words to you about
the Union soldier and pension matters. A few
weeks ago we were treated in Washington to an
object lesson in patriotism that will never be for
gotten by those who were fortunate enough to be
present and see the eighty thousand men who
had bared their breasts to the enemies of their
country marching in line with their tattered bat
tle flags over the same line of march pursued in
1805 by the victorious army which had put down
the rebellion. This procession was made up of
men who had all passed middle life, and all suf
fered untold privations and sufferings to main
tain their country's honor when foes assailed it.
During the administration of President Cleveland

o

about 1,800 bills granting pensions to these sol
diers were passed by Congress. Of this number
524 were vetoed by the President, who had not
participated in the war, who had not lifted his
voice in favor of the perpetuation of the Union,
and who had never uttered one word of sympa
thy during that great struggle for the men who
were at the front.

During President Harrison's administration
about 1,500 bills granting pensions to Union sol
diers have passed the two Houses of Congress,
every one of which received Executive approval.

DEFENSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 417

I ask the Union soldiers present to mark the con
trast between these two records — the first that of
a man without sympathy for the cause they rep
resented in the field, and the latter that of a com
rade who recently said — I quote his words exact
ly, for I think they will touch the heart of every
Union soldier — "The Union soldiers and sailors
are now veterans of time as wrell as of war. The
parallels of age have approached close to the cit
adels of life, and the end for each of a brave and
honorable struggle is not remote. Increasing in
firmity and years give the minor tones of sadness
and pathos to the mighty appeal of service and
suffering. The ear that does not listen with sym
pathy and the heart that does not respond with
generosity are the ear and heart of an alien and
not of an American. Now, soon again, the sur
viving veterans are to parade upon the great
avenue of the National Capital, and every tribute
of honor and love should attend the march. A
comrade in the column of the victors in 1865, I
am not less a comrade now." These are the
words of gallant Ben Harrison, your President,
the words of a patriot who was at the front dur
ing the whole of the war, and whose whole heart
and sympathies are with the survivors of that

war.

27

418 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER XLII.

SECRETARY RUSK'S LOYALTY TO HIS CHIEF.

It would have been a pleasing and grateful, as
well as an appropriate task, to supplement the
foregoing brief sketch of General Rusk's adminis
trative work as Secretary of Agriculture with a
picture of the Secretary at the President's council
table, and to speak of his place and work in the
Cabinet. The sanctity of Cabinet councils, how
ever, is never invaded. The veil of confidence
which shelters them from curious eyes is never
drawn aside. No man could have been more
scrupulous than was Secretary Rusk, even among
his closest friends, in observing absolute discre
tion as to Cabinet matters. We must therefore
be content to gauge his place among his col
leagues and in the confidence of his chief by the
unanimous tributes of respect and regard with
which they sought to express their sympathy for
his bereaved family, and their sense of their own
and the Government's loss in his death, and es
pecially by the introductory chapter of this work
which ex-President Harrison has himself con
tributed.

RUSK'S LOYALTY TO HIS CHIEF. 419

One fact which testifies strongly to the confi
dence he inspired is that almost from his first as
sociation with President Harrison as a member
of his Cabinet his relations assumed a confiden
tial and friendly character, which grew and
strengthened during every year of the adminis
tration.

As Secretary Rusk often said of himself, when
he gave a man his confidence he gave it to him
absolutely, and there was no man whom he called
friend but learned to appreciate the fact that no
stronger bond exists than that which represented
in Secretary Husk's mind the sacred tie of friend
ship. The confidence and friendship bestowed
upon him by his chief was reciprocated in the
highest degree. So well was this understood by
those who knew the Secretary best that many of
them, even without having addressed him on the
subject, unhesitatingly asserted his position in
regard to Mr. Harrison's renomination by the Re
publican party. They were not mistaken. When
the time came for an expression of his views,
Secretary Rusk spoke promptly, briefly and em
phatically. "I believe," he said, "that President
Harrison has made one of the best Presidents we
have ever had. I believe him to be one of the
most capable men in the Republican party. I
am convinced that that party can win with Har
rison if it can win with anyone, and that his re
election, followed by another four years of his

420 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

administration, would be conducive to the best
interests of the country. Mr. Harrison is willing
to serve again, and I am with him first, last and
all the time. I hope to see him nominated on the
first ballot." Such was the plain statement of
his attitude in anticipation of the Minneapolis
convention, and even when interested friends as
sured him that Mr. Harrison could not be nom
inated, and besought him to permit the use of his
own name, yes, even when some went so far as to
assure him that the Elaine men were ready to ac
cept him in place of their chosen candidate, that
nothing could save the Republican party but the
nomination of a "dark horse" candidate (and only
those who were very close to Secretary Kusk dur
ing those exciting days know how strong and
persistent was the pressure brought to bear upon
him), the grand old man remained unmoved to
the end until, finally, determined to put an end to
any possible speculation as to his attitude and to
any possible anticipation of his yielding to the
pressure of friends and the promptings of per
sonal ambition, he himself dictated to a repre
sentative of the press the following brief but
pointed declaration: "My name cannot be used
either singly or in combination against the Pres
ident, and no friend of mine wrill suggest such
use." His loyalty to his friend and chief never
wavered for an instant, and it will not be amiss
to reproduce here the personal letter with whicfc

B USK' S LOYALTY TO HIS CHIEF. 42 i

on the 3d of March, 1893, Secretary Rusk accom
panied his formal letter of resignation to the Pres
ident as Secretary of Agriculture:

"March 3, 1893.
"Dear Mr. President'.

"In forwarding to you the customary letter of
resignation I cannot refrain from adding a few
lines expressive of my warm appreciation of the
courtesy — I may add the friendliness, which has
ever characterized your intercourse with me dur
ing the four years that I have had the honor of
being so closely associated with you. That our
relations have been so harmonious and so con
genial, I attribute in large measure to the rare
good judgment, unvarying courtesy of manner,
and true kindliness of heart which so markedly
characterizes him whom I now have the honor to
address for the last time as my honored chief. It
is gratifying to me in the highest degree to have
been associated with the official life of one who
will, as tLo years roll on, stand higher and higher,
I am convinced, in the appreciation of his fellow-
citizens. Moreover, to the honor of serving in
your Cabinet, I now add the more than ever
proud privilege of calling you my friend, and I do
assure you, Mr. President, that above all the hon
ors and dignity, and the credit which perchance
I may have won as a member of your Cabinet, I
esteem that privilege of personal friendship with
yourself. My chief regret, believe me, apart from

422 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

that which as an American citizen I must always
feel in the retirement of one whom my every con
viction pronounces one of the best Presidents our
country has ever known, is that for the future my
intercourse with one whom I have learned to re
gard with so much affection and esteem, will be
interrupted. In retiring from the high office you
have filled so acceptably you take with you the
earnest commendation of all upright, thoughtful
men, of whatever political party they may be. To
this most gratifying reflection you can add that
which I am sure will give you almost as much
gratification, namely, that you carry with you
into private life the sincere friendship, the heart
felt regard and the warmest good wishes of those
who gathered around your official table as your
official advisers and who leave it, at the close of
your Administration, your earnest well-wishers
and most affectionate friends, than whom none
can subscribe himself more sincerely yours, Mr.

President, than

J. M. EUSK.

The President's note of the same date to his re
tiring Secretary was as follows:

Executive Mansion,

March 3d, 1893.
Dear Gen'l:

No man ever had a truer friend than you have
been to me. You have made reputation for your-

KUSITS LOYALTY TO HIS CHIEF. 423

self and for me in your department, but in part
ing with you I can think only of my friend. You
will always be a most welcome guest at my fire
side.

Most sincerely your friend,

BENJ. HARRISON.
Gen. J. M. Kusk.

424 JEREMIAH M. BUSK.

CHAPTER XLIII.
CLOSING WORK.

It was characteristic of Secretary Husk's en
ergy and loyalty to duty that after the election of
1892, in which the Republican party had been de
feated, and which had set a definite term to his
career as a Cabinet officer, he returned to his
work with zest and energy. He resumed his ef
forts through the State Department towards a re
moval of the restrictions on the American cattle
trade still persistently maintained by the British
Government in spite of the continued immunity
of this country from the contagious pleuro-pneu-
monia upon the existence of w^hich these restric
tions were based. Secretary Rusk had for some
time contemplated with grave concern the prac
tical effacement of our export butter trade,
through the persistent efforts of the Danish farm
ers, backed by their extraordinary skill in dairy
ing, which in that country had been reduced to a
science, and by the scrupulousness with which
they preserved the integrity of that product, and
he determined that one of the first steps to b<*

CLOSING WORK. 495

taken in the hope of enabling the American
dairy farmer to regain his place in foreign mar
kets, was to closely study Danish methods and
the conditions of Danish dairying, thus acquir
ing a knowledge of the causes which had led to
the wonderful success of this small and compara
tively insignificant country in almost monopoliz
ing the London trade in foreign butter. Al
though he knew that it would be impossible to
secure such a report in time for publication dur
ing his own administration, once his mind was
made up as to the value of it he did not hesitate
a moment, and as soon as he was able to engage
the services of a suitable person, he despatched
him to Denmark for the purpose of making a
thorough study of dairying in that country, with
the result that a most practical report on the sub
ject was published during the summer of 1893.

No chief could possibly have endeared himself
more to the employes of the Department than did
"Uncle Jerry," for many of them had adopted in
speaking of him the friendly cognomen bestowed
upon him by his Wisconsin constituents. His
genial, kindly manner, even the ring of the hearty
laughter which was often heard to emanate from
his room, impressed all his subordinates favor
ably.

Warm-hearted and kindly towards all those
with whom he was brought into personal contact,
purely democratic in the original sense of the

426 JEREMIA H M. JB USK.

word, he was nevertheless always dignified and
thoroughly observant of the proprieties which in
his position became the high office he held, al
though he never hestitated to ridicule an exces
sive assumption of formality and the exaggerated
tendency 10 multiply needless forms and cere
monies which seems to develop so naturally in
the atmosphere of the nation's capital, fanned as
it is by the presence of foreign diplomats to the
manor born as regards questions of etiquette and
ceremonial detail.

It always went hard with him to find fault with
a subordinate deliberately, though when ac
tuated by impulse he would often express himself
with such vigor as to positively startle the of
fender, until the Secretary's sudden transition
from apparently frenzied indignation to quiet
good humor, and the sudden conversion of violent
vituperation into a hearty laugh at his own ex
aggerated expressions of wrath, would convince
him that the bark was worse than the bite. Very
often a rebuke or criticism was followed by some
good humored remark calculated to restore the
victim's equanimity, such as, "If I didn't know
you were worth scolding I would not have jumped
on you. I never do scold a man unless I know he
is a good fellow and worth it." His favorite
method of reproof, if reproof it could be called,
which was rather an expression of dissent from
another's judgment than aught else, was to coin-

CLOSING WORK. 427

bine a humorous thrust at the object of his dis
approval with a flattering observation as to the
ability displayed.

Two of the most important publications which
ever emanated from the National Government
and which materially affected the interests of
nearly the whole people were the Special Report
on Diseases of the Horse and Special Report on
Diseases of Cattle, which were issued under Sec
retary Rusk's direction. These books were in
great demand and several editions were printed
by the General Government. In addition to this,
private parties issued editions of them and they
probably had a wider circulation than any books
ever issued in America. Of the work on Diseases
of the Horse Senator Joe Blackburn of Kentucky
made the statement on the floor of the United
States Senate that this book alone was worth one
and a half millions of dollars annually to the
state of Kentucky. These books were written in
plain English language, free from all technical
terms, and were within the comprehension of the
most uneducated farmer. The chapter on Shoe
ing of Horses, in the horse book, by the lamented
Dr. Dixon, is concededly the most valuable in its
results of any single chapter ever issued by an
American author, while the chapter on Feeding
of Cattle, in the cattle book, by Prof. William A.
Henry, Dean of the College of Agriculture of the

428 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

University of Wisconsin, possesses the highest
value to all intelligent cattle growers.

In 1892, Secretary Rusk accompanied Presi
dent Harrison on his trip to the Pacific Coast.
Next to the President himself, most eagerness
was manifested to see "Uncle Jerry," who had
made himself the idol of the Pacific Coast through
the interest he had taken in protecting their fruit
growing interests. At every point a scramble
was made to get to him and he was always heart
ily and enthusiastically received. The General
did but little talking on the trip; only when
called upon he w^ould indulge in a few little pleas
antries, leaving the crowd always in the best of
humor. At Omaha, on the return trip, the em
ployes of the Postal Service, all fully uniformed,
were drawn up in line to give greeting to Post
master General Wanamaker, who was one of the
party. Shortly after their procession had dis
banded an immense herd of Texas cattle, which
were being driven through the streets, passed by
the reviewing stand where the President and the
visiting party were, and about the same time that
General Rusk was called upon to make a few re
marks. He referred to the fact that his constitu
ents were not so well dressed and didn't make
such a good appearance as Postmaster General
Wanamaker's did, but that they were of the
greatest importance to the material interests of

CLOSING WORK. 429

the country. General Busk's quick and ready
repartee stood him well in hand at every point on
the trip and the recollections of the people of his
visit are borne very keenly in mind.

430 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER XLIY.

RETIRES TO PRIVATE LIFE.

On the 8th of March, 1893, General Rusk sur
rendered the trust as Secretary of Agriculture
which had been placed in his hands by General
Harrison, and which had been so faithfully ad
ministered during four years, to Hon. J. Sterling
Morton, of Nebraska, and after a short residence
in Washington to arrange his affairs retired to
his farm at Yiroqua. He assumed the active
charge of this beautiful farm of 400 acres, re
modeled his house, placed everything in repair,
and settled down to an agricultural life.

One of the Washington correspondents, ever
on the alert for news of their old friends, suc
ceeded in obtaining this information as to what
he was doing through a private letter, written by
a lady:

"I saw Secretary Rusk yesterday, and what do
you suppose he was doing? Building and fixing
up the house on his farm — papering, painting
and repairing it — and to this he expects to remove
in a very short time. I drove out to the farm, as

RETIRES TO PRIVATE LIFE. 431

I was told he spent all his time there. He re
ceived me in a long room, which had cheerful
double windows on all sides looking out upon his
broad acres. He gave me the one chair in the
room and seated himself on a pile of books, which
extended almost the entire length of the room.
He was attired in an old suit of clothes, which
bore evidence of the work going on, as here and
there was an occasional splash of green, white or
brown paint, and his hands, big and generous as
they are, showed plainly that he knew how to
lend a helping hand when occasion demanded.
He looked the farmers' friend, ready at all times
to work for their interest. He had none the less
the look of the statesman, with a broad idea of
life and people, ready to grasp the situation at a
moment's notice and act accordingly. I felt
proud of our Wisconsin Governor and ex-Secre
tary of Agriculture, and felt like crying, 'Hurrah
for Uncle Jerry.' He can always see what is to
be done, and does it."

The General was a thorough farmer, and it was
but a short time before his place was the admira
tion of all the surrounding tillers of the soil. In
deed it was referred to as the "model farm." His
guiding hand could be seen everywhere, and it
was his ambition to make it the best conducted
farm in the whole country. Here he received his
friends, and on his broad porch talked over na
tional affairs, in which he always felt the keenest

432 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

interest. Probably no other man ever held him
self so close to the wants and desires of the farm
ers of this country as did General Rusk, and this
he did by actual contact with the farmers them
selves. The interest he had manifested in their
welfare while conducting the Department of
Agriculture was not abated in the least degree
after his retirement. During his service as Gov
ernor he had paid especial attention to the inter
ests of agriculture, and had given encouragement
in every way possible to the upbuilding of its in
terests in the State. Called upon at the meeting
of the State Agricultural Society in 1887 for a
few remarks, the General had presented some
statistics which were surprising to those who had
not had occasion to look them up. The news had
leaked out that Gov. Rusk was coming to the
State Fair at Milwaukee, and would speak, and
the people rightly judged that the grand stand
was the best place from which to see and hear
Wisconsin's chief executive. He appeared on the
track at 1:30 o'clock, accompanied by President
Sanger, and was greeted with hearty and long
continued cheers by the 15,000 people present as
his carriage passed before the grand stand. Ris
ing in the vehicle, Gov. Rusk said:

"Ladies and gentlemen, fellow citizens: A few
days since I received a very kind and cordial invi
tation from the secretary of your society to visit
your fair and speak to your people. My time has

RETIRES TO PRIVATE LIFE. 433

all been taken up with other matters since then,
so that I promise you my remarks will be brief.
Then as I came upon the grounds I remembered
that a man who tries to speak against a horse
race is very likely to be left (laughter), which is
yet another reason why I should be brief.

"I have just returned from a gathering at
Columbus, Ohio, of the men who kept step to the
music of the Union in the dark days of '61--'65,
and I have not recovered entirely from the in
spiration I received at that grand meeting. One
of the objects of our visit to Columbus was to as
sist in securing the meeting of the Grand Army
next year for Milwaukee. In this we were suc
cessful, and this city will witness the gathering
of 250,000 survivors of the great patriotic army
who defended their country and her flag. Wis
consin is making rapid strides to the front in agri
culture and other industries. No State in the
Union stands higher for fertile soil, pure water,
good health and intelligent people. The indus
tries of the State are so diversified that prosperity
attends them all. While other portions of our
country are afflicted with contagious diseases, we
are free from everything of the description among
our people. Wisconsin is in the advance guard
of enlightenment in many respects. Our univer
sity has grown to be one of the leading institu
tions of the country for a higher education; our
normal schools and our public schools are among
28

434 JEREMIAH M. E USK.

the best of the land. Our farmers' institutes have
attracted the attention of the whole nation.
These are all the results of a liberal and progres
sive citizenship, without which laws could not
have been enacted for their maintenance.

"Wisconsin has this year an acreage of wheat,
1,000,000; corn, 1,500,000; oats, 1,500,000; barley,
500,000; rye, 250,000. Last year the money value
of grain raised was fully $50,000,000; of live stock,
$25,000,000; of hay, $15,000,000; of dairy products,
§21,000,000; of wool, $6,000,000; of potatoes,
$4,000,000; of tobacco, $2,000,000; of beans, peas,
sorghum, buckwheat and other products, $10,000,-
000; of fruits, $1,000,000; and of seeds, $500,000;
making a grand total of products of $134,500,000.
Our dairymen have a capital invested in their
business, including land, of $100,000,000. Last
year they produced 45,000,000 pounds of cheese
and 43,000,000 pounds of butter, valued at $11,-
000,000. Add to this the milk not included in
butter and cheese, and the entire dairy product
reached $21,000,000. This statement shows the
wonderful progress we are making in this indus
try, — a certain indication of prosperity. Those
of our farmers who have abandoned raising grain
for market and gone into dairying have bettered
their condition and the soil of their farms, worn
and weakened by years of wheat raising, is every
day gaining in fertility. I would not advise that
all farmers engage in dairying. To enjoy a full

EETIBES TO PRIVATE LIFE. 435

degree of prosperity we must have a diversity of
industries. The selection of profitable breeds for
beef and cattle must not be neglected. The im
provement of all kinds of farm stock should be a
constant study by the farmer who hopes to be suc
cessful in his calling.

"I came near forgetting one important product
of Wisconsin — that of poultry. Just think of it;
the product alone amounts to nearly ten millions
of dollars annually. The peaceful, unobtrusive
hen has finally, for the first time after all the
years of the existence of our country, had her
cause championed on the floors of the national
congress, and a demand made that her product
should be protected, and this was done by a Wis
consin man — Hon. Richard Guenther. The mod
est hen, heretofore considered an insignificant
quantity in our resources, has come to the front;
her star is in the ascendancy, and it is perfectly
safe to say that her sun (son) will never set.
(Laughter.) Sixteen million acres are owned by
our farmers, half of which are cultivated and the
other half is grass land and unimproved, all val
ued at 1350,000,000. The stock on the farms rep
resents a value of f 90,000,000 and the farm imple
ments a value of $20,000,000, making a capital in
vested of |460,000,000, yielding a product of $134,-
000,000. In addition to the capital invested to
produce this result, the labor of 350,000 people is
required.

436 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

"More than half the population of Wisconsin
live on farms. This great army of people repre
sent the sober, conservative element of the State.
In their quiet and peaceful homes and communi
ties riots and mobs are unknown. They are on
the side of law, order and morality. When the
flag of their country was fired on, the boys from
the farm quietly stepped from the plow to the
ranks, and when the great conflict was over and
the Union again restored, they quietly returned
to the plow and resumed their peaceful vocations.
The transition was complete — from the quiet
farm home to the battlefield and thence to the
farm again — all but those wrhose patriotic lives
were sacrificed for their country.

"Hardly a farm home in this broad country but
mourned the loss of a dear one who gave up his
life that his country might live. Our children
should be educated to a full appreciation of the
blessings bestowed upon us as a nation by the
sacrifices of the Union army, comprised in large
part by the boys who were reared on the farm,
and who received their lessons in patriotism in
the quiet farm home."

ILLNESS AND DEATH. 437

CHAPTER XLV.

ILLNESS AND DEATH.

In the fall of 1893, General Kusk was invited
by some large land owners to inspect and report
upon an eighty thousand acre tract of land in the
Kankakee Valley in Illinois, which they were
about to sell to a European colony. During his
tour of inspection of this land he contracted ma
laria and on his return to Chicago consulted a
physician as to his trouble. He returned home
slightly indisposed but paid little attention to his
trouble. A few weeks afterwards he was stricken
with inflammation of the prostate glands and con
fined to his bed. This, added to his original afflic
tion, made him a great sufferer and after an ill
ness of a few weeks the attending physicians de
cided, upon the advice of Dr. Hamilton, ex-Sur
geon General of the United States Marine Corps,
that a surgical operation was necessary. This
operation appeared to be successful but the pa
tient constantly suffered the most intense pain.

On the evening of the twentieth of November,
General Kusk for the first time believed that he

438 JEREMIAH M. RUSlt.

would recover from his illness. Prior to this he
had been very despondent and had little hope of
ever rising from his bed. On the evening in ques
tion he dismissed the writer from his bedside with
the remark that he believed his physicians had
pulled him over the rocky road and that he was
going to get well.

Throughout the length and breadth of the coun
try he had loved and served so well the press des
patches reporting Gen. Rusk's condition from day
to day were eagerly read and sympathetically
commented upon. The anxiety felt by his friend,
Gen. Harrison, is shown in the following letter:

674 North Delaware Street,
Indianapolis, Ind., Sunday, November 20, 1893.
My Dear Friend:

I have been so anxious about you during your
illness. The newspapers always make such things
worse than they are, but Mrs. McKee and I have
watched them daily for some news of you, and
when they failed I have telegraphed Mrs. Rusk
for information. Her answer of yesterday and
the press news of this morning seem to encourage
the hope that you have passed the crisis, and will
now gain strength and be soon well again.

And now if I can help in any way, body or
spirit, let me know, and I will put everything
aside and go to you, for I do very much value and
cherish you as a friend, and am very grateful for

ILLNESS AND DEATH. 439

your manly and loyal support, never wanting,
and always so unselfish.

God bless you, and give you many years and
every good thing that heart and soul can wish.
Most sincerely your friend,

BENJAMIN HARRISON.

At the last General Rusk's death wras entirely
unexpected by his family and by the attending
physicians, Dr. William A. Gott, of Yiroqua, who
was for three years surgeon of the General's regi
ment, and Dr. J. K. Schreiner, of Westby. The
improvement in the patient's condition which be
gan on the preceding Friday (the 17th) had been
steadily maintained up to within fifteen minutes
of the time of his death, wrhich occurred at 7:45
o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, November 21.
Indeed, so marked had been this improvement
that the general himself, who had been despond
ent ever since he had taken to his bed, had for the
first time expressed to his family and his friends
confidence in his recovery, and at 9 o'clock on the
evening before the writer had been authorized by
the physicians to give to the press a bulletin stat
ing that the crisis had been passed and that the
sufferer was out of danger, a bulletin received
with thanksgiving in all parts of the land. But
his time had come. His ever faithful daughter,
Miss Mary E. Rusk, watching at the bedside, no
ticed with alarm a sudden change in her father's

440 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

appearance, and immediately summoned Dr. Gott,
who was resting in a room below. In a moment
the doctor was again with his patient, and saw
that he was sinking. He quickly notified the
General's devoted wife, his son Elaine and his
daughter, Mrs. Craig, who at once joined Miss
Mary in the sick-room. The physician applied in
turn all the restoratives at his command, but his
efforts were of no avail. Jeremiah Kusk, only
able to articulate the words, "I am dying — I am
dying," passed away, seemingly without pain.

General Rusk had been a resident of Viroqua
for forty years. His private life during that time
had been as an open book to his neighbors and
friends. The record of the kindly deeds done by
him in that forty years in the community were
sufficient of themselves to endear him for all time
to come to those who were privileged to know
him. There are but very few of the older in
habitants of the community who have not at
some time or other received kindness at his hands.
His home life during the portion of that forty
years which had been spent in Viroqua had been
of the purest type. In his family circle he had
been a perfect father and a kind husband and at
all times had been the idol of his household.

He had been, as the Chicago Tribune said, "the
nation's Uncle Jerry," and the country mourned
his loss. Sectional and party lines were for the
time obliterated, and telegrams and letters of

ILLNESS AND DEATH. 441

heartfelt condolence were received by the sorrow
ing family from every hand. If more conspicu
ous throughout Wisconsin and in the city of
Washington, the general grief, widespread, was
none the less deep in other places where the strik
ing personality of the man as well as the wisely
and bravely ordered deeds of the officer were fa
miliarly know^n. At Madison and Milwaukee, in
Wisconsin, and at the Department of Agriculture,
in Washington, the flags were lowered to half-
mast in his honor. Many societies of which he
was a member, and many others to whose inter
ests he had been especially friendly, met to pass
resolutions in recognition of his worth and of
their own regret at his departure from the field
of earthly endeavor.

442 JEREMIAH J/. HUSK.

CHAPTER XLVI.
THE FUNERAL.

General Rusk's funeral occurred on Friday,
November 24th, 1893. On Thursday afternoon,
November 23d, after a brief private family serv
ice at the home, conducted by Rev. G. W. Nuzum,
the remains were removed from the pleasant home
where so much of happiness had been experi
enced, and in charge of a delegation of intimate
friends and brother Knights Templar, were borne
to the Methodist church where they lay in state
till the closing services on Friday. A guard of
honor from Alex. Lowrie G. A. R. Post took
charge of the remains during the hours that they
lay in state. An army of school children quickly
reviewed the familiar features of one whom they
were always glad to respect in life. Until late
at night a stream of sorrowing people passed the
bier. The throng was renewed at an early hour
Friday morning and continued till the church
doors were closed shortly after one o'clock.
Thousands of people from the surrounding coun
try took a farewell look at their old friend and

THE FUNERAL. 443

neighbor. Those who came on special trains
were permitted to take a lingering look at his
features between 12 and 2 o'clock. Many strong
men who had been with the general in war or
in public life gave way to feelings of emotion and
wept like children when they beheld the familiar
features and realized that he would be with them
no more forever.

The body was clad in a suit of black broadcloth
and in the left lapel of the coat was fixed the blue
and red button of the Loyal Legion with the regu
lation badge of the Grand Army a little below.
The left hand, thrown across the chest in appar
ently careless ease, clasped a bunch of violets.
The face was as calm and as peaceful in expres
sion as that of a sleeping child. The countenance
was but slightly wasted by the six weeks of ill
ness the General had endured and was surpris
ingly natural and life-like. The casket was par
tially covered with the folds of a beautiful silk
flag.

The interior of the church was heavily and ap
propriately draped in black. High up and to the
rear of the pulpit hung a large portrait of Gen
eral Rusk, with an American flag extending en
tirely across the wall. The pulpit and casket
were nearly buried by the floral tributes of
friends.

Not one-tenth of those who came from outside
of Viroqua to attend the obsequies, not to men-

444 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

tion the members of the various orders, could get
in. The honorary pall-bearers were: Attorney
General Miller, Assistant Secretary Willets, of
the Agricultural department, Senators Angus
Cameron, Philetus Sawyer, John C. Spooner, Gov
ernors Lucius Fairchild and W. D. Hoard, Judge
Cassoday, General F. C. Winckler, H. C. Payne and
W. G. Collins; they occupied the front seats of the
middle section, directly back of the casket. In the
next two rows sat the members of the family and
relatives, and ex-President Harrison. Behind
them were Governor Peck and other state officers.
On the front row of the middle section were the
active pall-bearers, all members of General Rusk's
old regiment — Major W. H. Joslin of Richland
Center, Dr. M. R. Gage of Sparta, Dr. W. A. Gott
of Viroqua, Captain C. A. Hunt of Melvina, Cap
tain R. J. Whittleton of Harvard, 111., Captain
John R. Casson of Viroqua, Captain M. E. Leon
ard of Sparta, Captain J. B. McCoy of Platte-
ville, Senator E. I. Kidd of Prairie du Chien and
Jesse G. Bunell of Richland Center.

The east section was occupied by the members
of the Wisconsin consistory of the Loyal legion,
the Masonic orders (the commandery and blue
lodge), the G. A. R. and the Odd Fellows in the
order named. The remaining seats and available
standing room was filled by the distinguished
people from various parts of the country and
those of the citizens who could get in.

THE FUNERAL. 445

Rev. Dr. Butler, of Madison, a profound old
minister of eighty years, a firm friend of General
Rusk, delivered the funeral discourse, taking as
his text the seventeenth verse of the forty-eighth
chapter of Jeremiah: "All ye that are about him
bemoan him, and all ye that know his name say
how is the strong staff broken and the beautiful
rod." Dr. Butler said:

"All they that are about him bemoan him, and
all they that know his name say how is the strong
staff broken and the beautiful rod." This is the
third time that I have used this text at a public
funeral. The first time was nearly half a cen
tury ago in Vermont at the obsequies of Ransom,
colonel of a Xew England regiment, killed at the
storming of Chepultepec and brought home for
burial where he and I were associated in a mili
tary academy. The next time was in our own
state capital over the remains of Theodore Read,
killed in a desperate endeavor, largely successful,
in Grant's opinion, to stop the escape of General
Lee. For years there was daily danger that Gen
eral Rusk's remains would likewise have been
brought home. But God saved him then, having
greater service for him in peace than in war.
What that service has been you know full well.
He has rounded the full circle; he has wTon golden
opinions from all sorts of people in all walks of
life; he has been clean in his great office — in all

44G JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

his offices. He had, as becoineth old age, honor,
love, obedience, hosts of friends.

We love to trace great things to their small be
ginnings. I have myself taken no small pains to
reach the very source of the Jordan. I love to
trace the great man who has fallen, to his boy
hood. Early bereaved of his father and thrown
upon his own resources, I love to observe his first
endeavors for making his way in the world.
Horses seemed to have been the most efficient in
strument of his early culture. His ability to
manage wild horses was the earliest talent he de
veloped — his first stepping stone to success. It
is noticeable that this was also the experience of
Alexander the Great of whom the first thing we
hear is the dexterity in training the wild steed of
the plain.

The child is father to the man, and in the sub
sequent career of Rusk we behold many repeti
tions of his childhood experience. It is a vast
removal from the seat of a stage driver to that in
a cabinet, where his influence extends from ocean
to ocean and from the great Gulf to the unsalted
seas. As sheriff he had wilder men to tame than
any horses. So he had gone through the war of
the rebellion. And during the anarchistic riots
in Milwaukee those riots he quelled seven years
ago so effectually that they have known no resur
rection. From first to last he has shown him-

THE FUNERAL. 417

self not only competent for every position he has
been called to fill, but equal to every emergency.
One is inclined to say he should have lived
longer — he should have died hereafter. Such men
are few; we need them longer — longer. lie still
lacked seven years of the psalmist's 70. We love
to imagine what in another score he might have
achieved — what greater influence for good his
long experience, his prestige and the hearts of
the people in his hand might have enabled him to
exert. Death has blasted our hopes, cast down
our high imaginations. We behold here the end
of earth. But is it the end? No — a thousand
times no! I call it the beginning. No feeling is
more pervasive among men than that this life is
the threshold of another. It has been my fortune
to circle the globe, traveling as far as the sun
travels, and from the equator, where man casts
no shadow at noon, to the land of the midnight
sun, where the night was ever as the day; but I
found no people who do not by their funeral cere
monies and monuments attest their faith in life
beyond life. The preaching of Paul was "Jesus
and the resurrection." Christ raised the dead
and rose himself as a pledge and a proof that He
shall raise our vile bodies in the likeness of His
glorious body — not having spot, nor wrinkle, nor
any such thing. It is an anchor to the soul when
bereaved to feel that What is sown in weakness
shall be raised in power; sown a natural body,

448 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

raised a spiritual body; sown in dishonor, raised
in honor. Strong is the consolation to feel that
the friend we bury has gone where he can know
God better and serve him more effectually than
belongs to the lot of earth.

Time would fail me to speak of the manifold
excellencies in the departed; of the popularity
that ran after him, but after which he did not
run; of his honesty — public and private; of his
temperance — I should say abstinence from his
youth up. His associates felt that he was so
good that they would gladly believe him great —
even greater than he was. He has left this life;
let us not lose the lesson of his death. Let it
cause the spiritual, heavenly, eternal and divine
to predominate in our souls. When wre lay down
this garment of clay in which we have ministered
here, may it be ours to stand in the host on Mount
Zion, who ascribe unto Him that sitteth on the
throne and unto the Lamb, power and riches and
wisdom and strength and glory and honor and
blessing — world without end. Amen.

When the Rev. Butler had finished, the choir
sang "Lead Me Savior." The Rev. Nuzum made
a prayer, closing with the Lord's prayer, and the
Masonic bodies then took charge of the remains.

It was an imposing procession that escorted the
remains of General Rusk to their last resting
place. From the church the procession moved
north one block, west one block to Main street,

THE FUNERAL. 449

thence to the cemetery. The Viroqua cornet band
led the way and played appropriate funeral
marches. Then came the Uniformed Knights,
Wisconsin Consistory and Blue lodge Masons.
Following these came the carriages containing
the honorary pall-bearers; then the funeral car
drawn by four bright bay horses. The carriages
containing the active pall-bearers, representatives
of the Loyal legion, the G. A. K. and the Odd Fel
lows, preceded the mourners. In the mourners'
carriages were the members of the immediate
family and relatives and a few intimate friends
of the family. The next carriage contained ex-
President Harrison. Then followed the carriages
containing distinguished guests from abroad and
citizens.

The last act at the grave was the firing of a
salute over the grave by the soldier comrades of

the departed.
29

450 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

CHAPTER XLVII.

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT — EX-SENATOR
SPOONER'S EULOGY.

Early in 1895 Alex. Lowrie Post, Grand Army
of the Republic, of Viroqua, asked permission of
the family to dedicate with appropriate cere
monies the monument erected on the family lot
to the memory of General Rusk. This permis
sion was granted, and upon invitation Senator
Spooner promised to make the dedicatory speech.

The monument is of the obelisk order, made of
Vermont granite, and its entire height is thirty-
three feet, the shaft being twenty-six feet and the
base and die seven feet. On the heavy base is
the family name, "Rusk," in raised letters, and on
the die block there is cut on the east or front side
a brief synopsis of the distinguished dead, as fol
lows:

JEREMIAH M'LAIN RUSK.

BORN JUNE TTH, 1830.
DIED NOV. 21sT, 1893.

Entered U. S. Vol. Army July, 1862, as Major
25th Wis. Infantry. "For gallant and meritorious
service during the war," and "For conspicuous
gallantry at the battle of Salkehatchie, S. C., was

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 451

breveted colonel and brigadier general of the U. S.
Vols., March, 1865."

Bank comptroller of Wisconsin, 1S66--1S70.

Member of the 42d, 43d and 44th congresses.

Governor of Wisconsin, 1882-1889.

U. S. secretary of agriculture, 1889-1893.

On the side of the shaft above the die is a
bronze shield, crossed swords and a pen with the
motto, "Non sibi sed patriae" — "not for hiniseli
but for his country."

On Memorial Day, May 30th, thousands of peo
ple gathered at Yiroqua to pay respect to the dis
tinguished dead, and to listen to the eloquent
words of his life-time friend. Rain fell in tor
rents but this did not deter the thousands from
standing in the streets and going to the cemetery
to look upon the monument to the man they had
all loved so well. People from all over Wiscon
sin attended the exercises which were held within
the Opera House, the largest building obtainable
in the city. Beautiful floral tributes were sent
from all over the State and every indication was
that the memory of the man whose services had
been so valuable to his State and his country was
still kept green.

Senator's Spooner's oration is as follows:

There could not be a more fitting thing than
that on this Memorial Day we should gather from
every section of our commonwealth around this

452 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

marble shaft, placed here by the loved ones of
his desolate home to mark the last resting place
of Jeremiah McLain Rusk, and pay special trib
ute to his honored memory.

The heart of Wisconsin is with us here today,
for he was of all her public men the best beloved.

Viewed from any standpoint, and subjected to
any test, his was a wonderful career. Born upon
a farm in Ohio sixty-five years ago, the death of
his father put upon him while still a boy in large
part the responsibilities of a man. Duty to the
widowed mother, whom he tenderly loved, made
of him a toiler from the beginning. There was
little of school for him but the school of hardship.
He wrought upon the farm, wielding the axe and
following the furrow. Barrels he made with his
own hands and transported them to the market.
He drove a four-in-hand, not the four-in-hand of
the city park, but the Concord stage of the olden
time. One might almost say that he had no child
hood. But such were the characteristics and fibre
of the boy that the self-denial and sacrifice which
were his lot, and the hardships to which he be
came inured, were great factors for strength and
good in his after life. He learned to love the
country better than the town. Toil gave him
strength and muscle, a clear eye and a healthy
brain. Responsibility taught him industry, de
veloped in him an indomitable energy, gave him
in abundance thrift, patience and endurance. He

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 453

was noted as a young man in all the region
round for his splendid physique, his great
strength, his willingness to turn his hand to any
honorable employment, and his absolute freedom
from every taint of dissipation. He laid during
those years, which from the luxurious standpoint
of this day might be regarded as harsh and ca
lamitous, the strong foundation of vitality, of
hopefulness, of courage and of self-reliance, upon
which was builded in after years the splendid
structure of a great life, which won the admira
tion and respect of the whole people.

He was wont, among his most intimate friends,
now and again to lament the dearth of early edu
cational advantages, but, looking at the man,
bearing in mind what he made of himself, and
what he accomplished, it may well be doubted if,
all things considered, he would have been
stronger, or wiser, or better, or more successful,
had the lines of his youth fallen in more pleasant
places, and had his early life been differently or
dered.

He was but twenty-three when he traveled with
his wife and two children by wagon, after the
fashion of the emigrant in those days, from the
childhood home in Ohio, to pitch his tent on this
spot, then fairly to be considered the frontier,
here again to take up the life and labor of the
farmer.

So long was he a conspicuous citizen of Wiscon-

454 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

sin, and so familiar have our people become with
the incidents of his early life within our borders,
that it is needless, if indeed it were proper, to re
count them. It is enough to say that from the
outset he was an attractive and popular man. He
was an excellent farmer; he was an excellent
tavern-keeper; he was a safe and skillful stage-
driver; he was an admirable sheriff; he was a
genial, courteous, kindly gentleman, albeit in
rough and homely garb; and by these traits he
won the confidence and affection of this people,
never in any degree to lose either.

It was altogether impossible that he should be
other than a leader, for he was born a leader.

He served a term in the legislature of 1862, se
curing, be it remembered to his credit, a change
of the name of this county from "Bad Ax" to
"Vernon."

War with all its fury was upon this country.
Everywhere was heard the music of fife and drum,
and on every hand were to be seen the rustling
flags and the moving bodies of armed men. It
was not possible that Jeremiah McLain Rusk
should remain in civil life during a war for the
preservation of the republic, and we find in 1862
our Ohio boy and stage driver, now a well-grown,
resolute, strong man, enlisting in the army of the
Union and bearing the commission of a major.
He turned back upon the little home which he
had builded, upon the farm w^hich he had loved

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 455

to till, upon the dear ones who had been the com
panions of his long journey, the inspiration and
encouragement of his toil and struggles, and,
with those who had been his neighbors and
friends, inarched away to the south, solemnly
vowing that he would never return until rebellion
had been suppressed and the integrity of the
Union restored.

He was a natural soldier; calm yet enthusiastic;
cautious yet daring; always ready for any duty,
however disagreeable or dangerous. Many of you
followed him upon the march, and in the charge,
and rallied around him on the field of battle, and
were bound to him by those strong ties of com
radeship and love which grow alone out of hard
ships borne in common and of dangers faced to
gether. You will bear witness that he asked no
man to go save where he led. He commended
himself to his generals by the fidelity, prompti
tude, persistency and bravery with which he dis
charged every duty of the soldier. He rose to be
colonel of his regiment, and marched with Sher
man to the sea, being breveted a general for gal
lantry on the field of battle.

It is said that on the second day of the battle
at Atlanta, he had ridden away, with an orderly,
from his command, and turning a corner, sud
denly found confronting him a Confederate sol
dier, with fixed bayonet, and rifle leveled at him.
It was a moment of extreme peril. He looked

456 JEREMIAH M. R USK.

death in the eye. With an audacity absolutely
characteristic of him in a time of danger, he thun
dered to the Confederate, "You fool, put down
that gun, or you'll shoot some one." So master
ful was the personality of the man, so sudden the
command , so bewildering and amazing the ef
frontery of it, that the soldier instinctively low
ered his gun, and the general dashed safely away.

He was as solicitous for the welfare and com
fort of his men as if they had been his children.
It was no wonder they grew to worship him, not
only as a commander, but as a comrade.

He led proudly back to the State of his adop
tion and love his decimated regiment with its
stained and riddled battle-flags, and was once
more enrolled among the workers of civil life.

He had in his absence attended another school,
and graduated from it with honor — the school of
danger, in which death lurked on every side,
where his faculties were hourly sharpened, and
his natural alertness of mind intensified, for upon
the strict, prompt and wise exercise of executive
duty life and safety and success vitally depended.
This experience to him was rich in discipline and
education. It aided in the essential development
of the man, and he came out of the war and its
dangers and vicissitudes stronger, abler, more
self-reliant and self-contained, and not less pure
in mind and unstained in personal character than
when he went from his home to the field of battle.

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 457

He was elected Bank Comptroller of the State,
and in that office served the people two terms
with ability and consequent credit.

Chosen, in the largest and most populous dis
trict of the State, to be a Member of Congress, he
was twice reflected. He made no speeches, but
he made many friends. There was never one
among his large constituency who called in vain
upon him for any honorable service. He was
prompt in the discharge of every duty, constant
in his attendance upon the sessions, and intelli
gent and industrious in the important but weari
some work of the committee room. He grew from
the outset in influence, and the strong men of the
house, Mr. Elaine, Mr. Garfield, Mr. Dawes and
others, on both sides, were drawn to him by his
many manly traits, by his intelligence, his gener
osity, his sincerity and patriotism.

In the last congress of which he was a member
he served as chairman of the committee on In
valid Pensions, and you need not be told that this
labor of love for the comrades of his army life he
performed with the utmost fidelity and persever
ance. It was mainly through his efforts that the
law giving a reasonable pension to those who had
lost an arm or a leg in the service was enacted,
and there were thousands of homes in the midst
of the people which were made happy and com
fortable through his labors, and in the precincts

458 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

of which he was revered as a deliverer of old com
rades from the paiii of helplessness and the pangs
of poverty.

In a little time he was nominated by a conven
tion of his party for Governor, and elected to that
high office, and of him alone in the history of our
State can it be said that he served seven continu
ous years as Governor. It may safely be declared
that, such had been his discipline in responsibil
ity, so developed had he been by the struggles of
his youth and manhood, by his experience as a
soldier, as Bank Comptroller, and as a Member
of Congress, that no man who ever served this
people as its chief executive brought to the dis
charge of that function a higher purpose to serve
them well, a keener judgment, a finer tact, or
more of dignity, integrity, and affability, than did
Jeremiah M. Rusk. There has not been, nor will
there be, an administration in Wisconsin either
possessing or deserving more of popular approval
and confidence than did his. He familiarized
himself with every detail of state affairs; he in
troduced economies; he reformed abuses, and his
appointments were of singular excellence. His an
nual messages were clear, practical, courageous
and business-like. He guarded with jealous care
every public interest, kept in constant touch with
the people, scanned with keen and critical eye all
legislation presented for his approval, and used
unsparingly the power of veto whenever in his

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 459

judgment the public interest demanded it, and no
bill was ever passed by either house over his veto.

In 1886 he was confronted by a situation which
brought out into the clear light of day, in the
presence of all the people, not only of this State
but of the country, his fidelity to duty and his
courage to discharge it. There had come among
us, and into our sister State of Illinois, insidious
and dangerous forces of anarchy and socialism,
plotters against organized society, men who cared
for no flag but the red flag of communism, who
recognized no rights of property, and whose phi
losophy was that by force those who had some
thing should be compelled to divide with those
who had nothing. In Chicago it had culminated
in the Haymarket slaughter, where the streets
had run red with blood, and law and order were
defied.

From the metropolis of Wisconsin came to Gov
ernor Rusk appeal for assistance in preserving
the peace and protecting property. He was at
the time a candidate for reelection to the office
of Governor. He said to an intimate friend, be
fore starting for Milwaukee: "I have sworn to
take care that the laws are faithfully executed.
I will maintain order in Wisconsin, and I will
protect property rights, if I have to shoot some
body, and if I must do that I suppose at the same
time I shall shoot to pieces my political future."
He was ambitious. He had good warrant to be

460 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

ambitious. A man without honorable ambition
is of little worth. Without ambition in the indi
vidual members of society there would have been
and would be little of progress in the human race,

But he had no ear save for the call of duty. He
sought no avenue of escape from responsibility.
He took no account of personal ambition, or of
his own future. He made no appeals for compro
mise to the mob. He saw only that it was his
sworn duty to enforce the law and to protect
property, and this he promptly did, with the
strong arm of military power, and at the cost of
human life.

There came up from every class of our law-
abiding citizens throughout the Union, and most
of our citizens are law-abiding, without regard to
party, as with a single voice, a message to him,
"Thank God, Wisconsin has a Governor who is a
man who thinks in the hour of peril of duty, not
of politics; who has the clear eye to discern that
there is no safety to the people, of whatever class,
save in the enforcement of law and in protection
from violence." He said to me shortly after, "I
hope no such duty will ever be put upon me again.
I saw enough of bloodshed on the field of battle
to make me value more than ever human life, and
I felt it to be a dreadful thing to be obliged to
turn the guns of a citizen soldiery against our
citizens; but it was my duty; I was sworn to per
form it, and I kept my oath."

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 461

You who were his friends and his neighbors,
who knew the tenderness of his heart, the quick
sympathy of the man for suffering and sorrow in
any form, can well understand that public ap
plause for his performance of duty was largely
robbed of its sweetness by the pain of his knowl
edge that it had caused the shedding of blood.

It is only within the truth to say of him that
the courage and promptitude with which he met
that exigency, by its example to the executives
of other cities and States, by the popular expres
sion of approval which his conduct evoked, as
well as by the object lesson which it afforded, had
much to do with driving socialism and anarchy,
like scourged and frightened reptiles, out from
the midst of our people.

He was triumphantly reflected, and in his first
annual message thereafter, recurring to the trou
bles at Milwaukee, he said:

"With those agrarian and socialistic theories of
fanciful society that deny the right of private
property, or of each individual to full protection
in the enjoyment and control of all his lawful
earnings, whether obtained by his own labor or
by contract, we can have no sympathy. They are
as un-American as monarchy and as treasonable
as secession. They contemplate the destruction
of both justice and liberty, and would accomplish
the destruction of both if their application to ex
isting society were seriously attempted. We are

462 JEREMIAH M. EUSK.

not prepared, as American citizens, to even con
sider a change in our form of government. Re
publican institutions and individual liberty go
hand in hand, and must be and will be loyally
maintained."

This is the language of patriotism.

He was a genuine friend of labor, for he himself
had been a laborer. None knew better than he
what it meant to earn daily bread by daily toil.
He would have resisted with all the strength of
his character and all the power of his office any
invasion of the rights of labor, and, as he was a
strong, just, brave man, he would not suffer from
any source an invasion of the rights of person or
of property. With the instinct and comprehen
sion of the real statesman, he saw that the per
manence of society, with its wrealth of blessing
and benefit to the human race, was absolutely de
pendent upon the firm and fearless enforcement
of wise and just laws, and that the moment the
law fails, through the weakness of executives, or
through overwhelming obstruction by force, to be
efficient for the protection of the rights of prop
erty and of person, that moment government is
gone and anarchy installed in its place.

He had given unmistakable evidence during a
prior term of service as Governor, when a large
body of men were, by the failure of employers,
thrown suddenly out of employment in mid
winter, of the vigor and firmness with which he

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 463

would take care of the rights of labor. He had
said, by way of indignant answer to a proposi
tion that he send troops to quell a threatened out
break: "These men need bread, not bayonets,"
and he had devised prompt and efficient measures
to secure to them both justice and relief.

When a partially constructed wing of the capi-
tol had fallen, carrying death and injury to so
many who had labored upon it, he waited for no
legislative authority, or appropriation of money
in form of law, but promptly expended, upon his
own responsibility, the moneys requisite to pro
vide for their comfort, trusting to the generosity
and fairness of the people to approve of what he
had done in the interest of humanity, but deter
mined, nevertheless, if not approved by the legis
lature, to pay it all out of his own scant purse.

He was ready with a solution for every diffi
culty, prepared for wise action in every emer
gency, and there was but one thing in the world
which he dared not do, and that was to do wrong.

So strongly intrenched had he become in the
affections and confidence of his party that at the
National Republican Convention of 1888 Wiscon
sin presented his name for nomination to the pres
idency.

When he retired from the office of Governor he
was invited by President Harrison to enter his
Cabinet as Secretary of Agriculture. He had de
sired to be Secretary of War. It was a pardon-

464 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

able ambition that this man, who had served with
distinction as a volunteer soldier, should aspire
to be, under the President, in practical command
of the military forces of the United States. A
complication prevented the gratification of his
aspiration, but it was to the day of his death a
satisfaction to him that instead of being made
Secretary of War he had been appointed Secre
tary of Agriculture, for the reason, as he put it,
that it gave him "better opportunity to serve the
people, and especially the interests of the farmer."
This was a new department, then recently cre
ated, and barely organized at the time he was en
trusted with the responsibility of its conduct.
Standing here beside his grave I do not hesitate
to avow my conviction that there was none in the
United States so well equipped in every way for
the wise and serviceable administration of that
department as our dead friend.

During all the years of his public service he
had maintained his farm, keeping control of it,
personally directing its operation.

He believed, and lost no opportunity to declare,
that agriculture was in the last analysis the most
potential of all factors in the prosperity of our na
tion, and that upon its development and success
depended in largest degree the happiness, inde
pendence and comfort of our people.

He loved the farm. There was no picture so
beautiful to his sight as a field of waving, ripen-

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 465

ing grain. He understood thoroughly the wants
of the farmers of the country, as a class, the vicis
situdes of their vocation, and the dangers of com
petition which threatened them.

It was his ambition to make of the new depart
ment a great department, to make it of practical
utility to the farmer, to bring it and to keep it in
touch with the agriculturists of the country, and
to aid, in an intelligent and laborious way, in di
versifying agriculture, and in benefiting every
phase of that great industry.

His success as a cabinet officer is known and
acknowledged of all men, never to be forgotten,
and justly made him illustrious. He inaugurated,
and was largely instrumental in securing, the en
actment of the meat inspection legislation of con
gress. He administered it with superb ability,
and history will accord to him a large measure of
credit for securing the removal by other govern
ments of the restrictions which had so long ex
isted upon the importation of American meat
products.

He sought industriously to stimulate the cul
ture of the beet for sugar. He gave unwearying
attention to the protection and development of
the great dairy interests of the United States. He
sought steadily and successively to improve and
render of growing value the Weather Bureau, in
the interest of the farmer and of general com-
30

466 JEREMIAH M. BUSK.

merce. He sent agents abroad to introduce
American farm products into otlier countries, to
popularize the Indian corn, and generally he
wrought in that great department with the con
summate ability and energy of a master. While
not a scientific man himself, he knew as well as
any man the value of science and scientific re
search and investigation in aid of agriculture.
Not an insect appeared anywhere in the United
States, to thwart the labor of the farmer and
bring loss and disappointment into his home, but
it was made by his direction the subject of in
stant investigation and earnest effort to secure
some means of protection.

lie brought his department into close relations
with the various agricultural colleges and experi
mental stations, and caused to be prepared and
distributed throughout the land publications of
conceded value and of the utmost importance.

His energy and industry were given without
stint to the work he had in hand. He gave no
heed to his own comfort, but devoted himself with
an enthusiasm and assiduity which knew no
abatement to the development and upbuilding of
that department. He was one of the few men
who can devise and carry forward large policies,
and at the same time give attention to almost in
finite details. While retaining the general direc
tion of the practical workings of his department,

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 467

he surrounded himself with able men and allotted
to each the duties for which he was especially
fitted.

And he had but begun. In his last annual re
port to the President he said, in explanation of
the purpose which had governed him:

"During my administration as Secretary my en
deavor has been to gather together all that was
available for the future work of the department,
to reorganize, rearrange, fit and combine the
several branches of the work, adding thereto all
that seemed necessary to lay a broad and lasting
foundation for the ultimate carrying out of plans
which I have kept constantly in my mind in per
forming the work assigned to me. If in the future
my humble share of credit in the history of the
department should be that I had been instru
mental in laying a broad and lasting foundation
for a magnificent superstructure of which every
American farmer, and, I may say, every Ameri
can citizen, will feel proud, I shall be more than
compensated for my labors during the past few
years."

The last time I ever saw him alive was after he
had retired to private life, and when he was on
his way to attend an army reunion at Indian
apolis. He said to me that, aside from the pain
of parting with the President, for whom he had
great affection, and with his associates, the only
regret he had that he could not continue another

468 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

term in that laborious position was that he had
left so many plans but partly worked out, and
therefore had fallen so far short, notwithstanding
all that had been accomplished, of what he had
hoped to do for the benefit of the American
farmer, and resultant advantage to the Ameri
can people.

Who will say that his w^as not a marvelous ca
reer? It was a long, eventful and toilsome jour
ney from the driver's seat of the Concord stage,
to a seat in the cabinet at the capital of this great
republic. But he sturdily pursued it without
wavering. He fought his way along it, overcom
ing every obstruction in his pathway by sheer
force of character, energy and courage, and by an
integrity of purpose and of conduct that never
was open to impeachment.

If I were asked, analyzing his character and
career, to indicate the strongest element in it, I
think I should be compelled to say that it was his
devotion to duty. This was fundamental. When
he lay upon his death-bed he could say without
reservation of every period of his life, "I saw my
duty, — and I did it." What mortal man could say

more than this? WThat more than this could be
i

reasonably demanded of any life. The call of
duty to him was, in every relation of life, an in
spiration. It was as "a silver clarion, wooing him
to some high festival." If it summoned him
along a pathway wrhich led to death, he was pre-

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 469

pared, with cheerful heart, and dauntless cour
age, to travel it to the end. In truth he did not
know how to shirk a duty.

He possessed in high degree the elements of
broad, strong statesmanship. In political sa
gacity he was without a superior. He knew, as
by intuition, the people, and the wants and wishes
of the people. lie was one of the people, and he
lived very near to the popular heart. He wTas in
capable of descending to demagogy.

He had, moreover, extraordinary executive
force and administrative capacity. His knowl
edge of men was profound, and his judgment of
men almost unerring.

Robust, simple and manly was his character.
One who watched his rise out of humble begin
nings, from station to station, higher and higher,
could not fail to perceive that added responsibil
ities and increased honors wrought no change in
his demeanor. He never allowed the false im
pression to gain lodgment in his mind, which
takes strong hold of some men, that political suc
cess, as through some magic, transformed him,
and that because there had been given to him
added evidence of public approval he was wiser
the day after than he had been the day before.

As new responsibilities came from time to time
into his life, while in no wise shrinking from
them, or apparently distrusting his ability to

470 JEEEMIA H M. R USK.

grapple with them, he seemed ever more and
more anxious to be right.

He possessed an inexhaustible wealth of saving
common sense. He wras a good listener. He
could make up his mind, when the emergency de
manded prompt judgment, instantly, and his in
tuition, if such it may be called, was rarely ever
at fault. If, however, he were confronted with a
situation complicated in its nature, he listened
patiently and gladly to advice, received it cour
teously and considered it fairly. If in the end it
accorded with his own judgment he adopted it;
if not, he rejected it. He was without obstinacy
of opinion, notwithstanding his self-reliance, but
held himself open to conviction, and he could
change his mind. He wTas large enough and
strong enough to reverse a former judgment, if
subsequent reflection satisfied him of error. He
seemed to have no fear, as weak men have, of the
taunt of inconsistency, and no man fit for the dis
charge of important public duties has any dread
of such a taunt.

It has been beautifully and truthfully said by
Mr. Lowell:

"The imputation of inconsistency is one to
which every sound politician and every honest
thinker must sooner or later subject himself. The
foolish and the dead alone never change their
opinion. The course of a great statesman resom-

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 471

bles that of navigable rivers, avoiding immovable
obstacles with noble bends of concession, seeking
the broad levels of opinion on which men soonest
settle and longest dwell, following and marking
the almost imperceptible slopes of national tend
ency, yet always aiming at direct advances, al
ways recruited from sources nearer heaven, and
sometimes bursting open paths of progress and
fruitful human commerce through what seem the
eternal barriers of both. It is loyalty to great
ends, even though forced to combine the small
and opposing motives of selfish men to accom
plish them. It is the anchored cling to solid prin
ciples of duty and action which knows how to
swing with the tide, but is never carried away by
it, that we demand in public men, and not ob
stinacy in prejudice, sameness of policy, or a con
scientious persistency in what is impracticable.
For the impracticable, however theoretically en
ticing, is always politically unwise, sound states
manship being the application of that prudence
to the public business which is the safest guide
in that of private men."

This is fair portraiture of Jeremiah M. Rusk.

Doubtless he made in his long public career
some mistakes. It were quite possible that it
should be otherwise, but I have diligently
searched my memory and the record of his life
for some of them, and I am not able to point them
out. It is certain that he never approved a bill,

472 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

proclaimed a policy, or entered upon a line of con
duct, which lost him or his party the confidence
of the people, or which cost him or his party any
loss of strength. There was abiding faith always
in the safety of his political leadership.

It is impossible to put a limit upon his capacity.
Certainly he had not reached it. He grew in men
tal strength and perception as the demands upon
him increased. One could not in his presence fail
to be impressed with the feeling that there was
in him a wealth of undiscovered mental resources,
of reserve power, equal to any emergency. It has
been said by some one that "The education of cir
cumstance is superior to that of tuition." Be that
true or false, we know that our dead friend wras
an apt pupil in the school of life. He never failed
in meeting promptly and wisely any demand upon
his ability.

Of noble presence, impetuous, genial and
kindly, he wras singularly winning in his manner.
Always plain, simple and dignified, without ef
fusiveness or affectation, there w^as in him a nat
ural grace, an inborn courtesy, which drewr and
attached people to him. Wise, witty, quick as a
flash in repartee, of keen sense of humor, enjoy
ing a good anecdote, and with an inexhaustible
fund of his own, he was a delightful companion
in any circle. To the end of his life, even amid
the engrossing cares of his public service, he en
joyed with the ardor of a boy all athletic sports.

RUSK MONUMENT.

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 473

Time covered his head with "the snow wrhich
never melts," and brought sorrow into his life,
but it could not bring hardness into his warm
and generous heart. It remained as young, as
fresh and as fragrant as the spring flowers of his
country home. Temptation fled from him. The
weaknesses and follies of fashion never touched
him. He could not become blase. He was year
in and year out, from first to last,

" Walking his round of duty

Serenely day by day,
With the strong man's hand of labor
And childhood's heart of play."

His presence was a delight to children, and it
gave him undisguised pleasure to make them
happy. Instinctively they loved and trusted him.
This man, without the learning and polish of the
schools, could with easy grace and tact, with un
erring judgment and courage, manage the con
cerns of a state or a nation, put down with strong
hand at the cannon's mouth turbulence and riot,
lead a charge with impetuous fury into the very
hell of battle, grow as interested as a boy in a
game of base ball, or win in a moment by his gen
tleness the love and trust of a little child. It was
a rare and happy combination of elements which
make such a manhood as this.

How well he loved to serve another! He used
the power which the people gave him, whether in
volving the distribution of patronage or other-

474 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

wise, not as if it belonged to him, but as if he held
it in trust for the public. He said "yes" to one
who sought his favor in a manner to give pleas
ure never to be forgotten; he would say "no,"
when duty required it, with a manner so charm
ing that it carried no sting with it, and left no
bitter memory behind it.

He never shut himself away from the public,
but was easily accessible to every one who had
occasion to seek his presence; and his courtesy
was so genuine, so natural and so uniform that I
believe no man ever went out of his presence with
an unkind feeling toward him in his heart.

He was of too large a mold, in both physical
and mental stature, to be vindictive or wanting
in magnanimity. It was easy sometimes to pick
a quarrel with him; it was always easy to "make
it up." He would always meet any worthy man
at least half way. And it may truthfully be said
of him that no man, of all the public men of our
day, did more kindly acts in, a political way for
friends, or remembered longer or more gratefully
a service, than he did.

Absolutely dauntless in physical and moral
courage, with a will of iron to do what he thought
was right, and to resist importunity, he was yet
as tender as a woman.

" The bravest are the tenderest,
The loving are the daring."

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 475

Through the strong and rugged fibre which
made the warp and woof of his manhood there
ran in rich profusion the golden threads of sym
pathy and tenderness.

He never wearied of helping his comrades of
the war. He could not pass a ragged, sobbing
child upon the city streets without stopping to
find if he could be in any way helpful. Nor could
he see without hot anger and rebuke cruelty or
unkindness to any living thing. Truly he was a
"knight without fear and without reproach."

His soul was full of chivalry and of loyalty.
There was something in his face, in the glance of
his eye, in the stalwart manliness of his physical
presence, wThich invited confidence. All men ir
resistibly trusted him. It has been truthfully
and beautifully written of him, by the distin
guished statesman who presided over the cabinet
of which he wTas a member:

"I have never known a man that I would choose
before him to stand by and with me in any des
perate strait. His courage rose as the struggle
became desperate. It was not possible for him
to desert a post or a friend. You had no need to
look over your shoulder when Jerry Kusk stood
between you and those who assailed you from the
rear. His loyalty was as pure as gold and as stiff
as a steel column. These traits were proved
while he was in the cabinet. Neither assault nor

476 JEREMIAH M. HUSK.

temptation could lead him to seek a personal ad
vantage at the cost of what his high sense of honor
deemed to be loyalty to another. * * * He
was patriotic through and through, and an Amer
ican before all else. When any question affecting
American interests or national dignity or honor
were under discussion, he was an advocate of vig
orous measures. * * * I trusted him fully,
and he was true."

With him patriotism was a passion. He loved
the flag with an idolatrous love. To him wher
ever it floated it was eloquent. It was the speak
ing emblem of liberty and good government. He
trusted no man who did not love it.

He could not be a bigot, and he was as free from
narrow^ prejudice as any man could be. He wel
comed, with sincere and generous hospitality,
men from every land to ours, of whatever race or
religion, asking of them only in return for what
he deemed the great boon of American citizen
ship, that they should love our flag, cherish our
institutions, and be true and faithful in their al
legiance to our government.

What a man was this, my fellow citizens, so
rugged, so strong, so fearless, so honest, so pa
triotic, so chivalrous! We shall not see his like
again. He wras the "last of the Mohicans."

Every state has its strong and able and patri
otic men in the public service. The country will
not be wanting in them in the future, but Jere-

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 477

miah M. Rusk was 01 a type, in this day, unique
and picturesque. He was of the Lincoln and
Jackson type, born of the environment of the
pioneer, coming out from among what Mr. Lin
coln was wont to call the plain people, self-taught,
masterful, genuine, accomplishing so much for
the public good without adventitious aids.

The frontier is gone, the school-house is every
where; the father of today of whatever condition
can educate his children. The pioneer is gone
with the frontier, and the circumstances out of
which grew the character of Rusk are not likely
to arise again.

Had it been God's will to spare him in health
and strength to us yet longer, I am firm in the be
lief that he would have been borne by the people
to the most exalted position within their gift. His
entire adequacy for the discharge of its duties I
do not in the least degree distrust.

That the people loved and trusted him was well
attested by the universality of the sorrow wThich
his untimely death called forth, and by the warm
and earnest words of eulogy which the press from
ocean to ocean published of him. Indeed the
press built for him writh pen and type a monu
ment of loving words and praise very rare for its
solidity and beauty.

He was a devout believer in the Christian re
ligion, and when the time came for him to die,

^ 7

when the ambition and cares of life had gone from

478 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

him, there came into his heart "that peace which
passeth understanding."

But one thought troubled him at the last.
Shortly before he died he called to his side a near
and dear friend who had been the companion and
confidant of much of his public life, and said to
him: "Do you know if I have wronged any one?"
"No, General, and I do not believe you ever
wronged any one," was the reply. After a mo
ment he said: "I expect I have, but God knows
I never intended to wrong any human being."

No, dear, brave, chivalrous, generous "Uncle
Jerry," you never wronged any one! You scat
tered with lavish and prodigal hand all along the
journey, from the plain of your humble begin
ning to the mountain top upon which you died,
kind words and kind acts which, now that you
are gone, bear a rich fruitage of gratitude and
love.

I have not spoken of his faults. lie honored
me through many years with his friendship, and
my heart would not suffer me to speak a word of
false or fulsome eulogy over his grave; but in
truth so overshadowed by great qualities and vir
tues were his few and trifling faults, that they
were, even in the conflicts of his life-time, quite
unnoticed or forgotten of men. They in no wise
marred the symmetry of his character.

What is said of him here will be little read and
soon forgotten. The sweet flowers which you

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT. 479

strew upon his grave will wither before the sun
set, and the night winds will bear away their
fragrance, but the memory of Jeremiah M. Rusk
will forever blossom in the hearts of men, illu
mined by the nobility and beauty of his great life
and redolent of a fragrance which will not perish.

4ttO JEREMIAH M, RUSK.

CHAPTEK XLVIII.

GENERAL EUSK'S FAMILY.

The surviving members of General Rusk's fam
ily are, his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth M. Rusk (formerly
Miss Elizabeth M. Johnson, to whom he was mar
ried in December, 1856), Mrs. Charity R. Craig of
Yiroqua, Col. Lycurgus J. Rusk of Chippewa Falls,
Miss Mary E. Rusk and Elaine D. Rusk of Viro-
qua, the two latter the result of his last marriage.
Two other children were also the fruit of this last
union, Miss Ida Rusk, who died in 1885, and
Alonzo, a son who died in infancy.

General Rusk's home life was a very attractive
one, and he was the idolized center of it. Dur
ing his incumbency of the Executive chair of
Wisconsin, the Governor's residence was socially
the most popular home in the city of Madison.
A cordial hospitality and hearty greeting was ex
tended to every one who entered its doors. The
family was sorely stricken in 1885 by the death
of Miss Ida, who had been a social leader at the
capital.

Daring their residence in Washington, the

GEN. RUSK'S FAMILY. 481

Rusk home, No. 1330 Massachusetts Avenue, was
always crowded on reception days, and none of
the cabinet families were in receipt of more
callers than that of the Secretary of Agriculture.
Mrs. Rusk's many womanly graces, and the quiet,
easy welcome accorded to all who came, by her
and Miss Mary, were so well known, that strangers
visiting the capital never neglected the oppor
tunity to call at the Rusk home.

Upon the General's retirement from the cab
inet, he and his estimable wife well illustrated
the simplicity and charm of their characters
by returning to their old home, and taking up
the thread of life where they had dropped it
twenty-five years before. The General took
charge of the work of the farm, supervising every
thing in connection with it, and Mrs. Rusk re
sumed her household duties with as much ease
and familiarity as though they had been dropped
but the day before. Through all their years of
official life the same unaffected simplicity of man
ner had pervaded their household, and it was
commonly remarked among the old neighbors
during all the years, that exalted position and
rank had made no change.

General Rusk thoroughly enjoyed his new life.

He was, it may be true, a little lonely at times,

and more keenly appreciative of company than he

would otherwise have been, for it was a great

31

482 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

change from the busy, bustling life of a cabinet
officer, with the direction of twenty-five hundred
employees, to that of a quiet farm life, but he
knew a peace and enjoyment which had not been
his for years. The writer visited him at his farm
shortly before he was taken ill, and was assured
by the General that never in his life had he felt so
well, and it was noticeable that never before had
he shown a keener interest in public affairs.
Everything connected with the department
which he had created and built up was of first
consideration to him. The Department of Agri
culture was his pet. He had fostered and pro
tected its every interest, and he watched its ca
reer with as much affection as the father would
watch that of his child.

GEN. RUSK'S CIVIL RE CO ED. 483

CHAPTER XLIX.

GENERAL RUSK'S CIVIL RECORD.

Elected Sheriff of Bad Ax, now Vernon, County,
.Wisconsin, in 1855.

Elected Coroner, same county, in 1857.

Elected a Member of the Wisconsin Legislature
in 1861.

Elected State Bank Comptroller in 1865, and
reflected in 1867.

Elected Representative to the 42d Congress
from the 6th Congressional District, Wisconsin,
in 1870; reflected to the 43d Congress from the
7th District, Wisconsin, in 1872; and again
elected to the 44th Congress from the same dis
trict in 1874.

Delegate to the Republican National Conven
tion at Chicago, 1880.

Nominated by President Garfield as Minister
to Uruguay and Paraguay, and unanimously con
firmed by U. S. Senate, in 1881. [This appoint
ment was declined.] He was also tendered the
appointment as Minister to Denmark, and after-

48-4 JEREMIAH M. EUSK.

ward as Chief of the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing, both of which he declined.

Elected Governor of Wisconsin in 1881; again
in 1884; and reflected for the third term in 1886.

Appointed Secretary of Agriculture in the cab
inet of President Harrison on the 4th day of
March, 1889, and served during his administra
tion.

CLOSING WORDS. 485

CHAPTER L.
CLOSING WORDS.

In closing this imperfect sketch of the life and
public services of General Rusk, it is proper for
the writer, in view of its imperfections, to say
that he only undertook the work to carry out an
oft repeated promise made to his dead friend- -a
work that should have been committed to more
competent hands.

If the private life of this man could be spread
before the public as it was known to his few in
timate friends, it would present a most charming
picture.

No man will be missed more by the people of
Wisconsin than will General Rusk. This will be
especially the case with his political associates.
At every convention of the Republican party in
Wisconsin the stalwart and handsome form of the
"Vernon Chieftain," as he was familiarly called,
was the most conspicuous figure present. He
was a good fighter within party lines, as many
prominent Republicans of Wisconsin well know,
but he was a manly fighter, and never took an un
fair advantage of an opponent.

486 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

General Rusk was the last of his type. No ex
alted position could change the simplicity of his
character, in which was found his true greatness.
With his old friends and neighbors he was the
same Jerry Rusk as when he came to Wisconsin,
a poor boy. lie never forgot his friends, and
when adversity had overtaken them, he was the
first to proffer assistance.

The night before his death occurred he talked
to the writer very affectionately about many of
his associates, and was as solicitous in his en
quiries about those who had served him in the
humblest positions as he was of those who had
traveled with him the higher walks of life. lie
was always a devout man; a deep vein of religious
belief pervading him at all times. He had the
highest respect for those who preached the gos
pel, and while he was not a professing Christian,
his life exemplified, in the highest degree, a Chris
tian character.

At this same interview he asked the writer,
"Did you ever know me to wrong a human be
ing?" to which reply was made that I did not,
and that I did not believe that he ever had
wronged a fellow being. He said, "I presume I
have, but as God is my judge, I never intended to.
I have been through many hard experiences in
life — have been in many trying places, but I
never, for one moment, forgot my God." He re
ferred, at this interview, to the late James G.

CLOSING WORDS. 487

Elaine, and to the proneness of the American
people to vilify a public man, even after he was
in his grave.

General Rusk had no fear of death. This he
expressed to the writer, with the remark that his
one regret came through leaving his loved ones
unprotected. He was the idol of his household,
and the idol of his political associates.

In the administration of the Department of
Agriculture it was essential that the Secretary be
secluded from nearly all of his official associates,
and it was rarely that any one lowrer in rank than
the Chief of a Division had an opportunity to con
verse with him, or, in fact to see him. The writer
has many times noted the pleasure depicted upon
the faces of the subordinate employee who was
so fortunate as to have a moment or two in his
charming presence, for to look into General Rusk's
beautiful blue eye was to see mirrored a soul as
pure and undefiled as that of a babe.

His presence brought sunshine to any gather
ing, and every one who came in contact with him
was the better for it. Deprived of the opportuni
ties of an education himself, he had, quietly and
unostentatiously, assisted in the education of very
many young men, trusting to their honor to repay
him, and, to the credit of the young men whom he
thus befriended it may be said that every one of
them acknowledged the obligation by repaying
him. These opportunities afforded General Rusk

483 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

much satisfaction. He frequently referred to
them, saying that nothing in his life gave him
greater pleasure than to aid a deserving young
man in procuring an education.

General Rusk's political foresight was marvel
ous. Sitting with a party of friends, among
whom was the writer, in 1893, a short time before
his last illness, he made the prediction that a Re
publican tidal wave would submerge the country
in 1894, and that Wisconsin would give a phe
nomenal Republican majority. He gave as his
reasons for this belief that there would be a re
turning home of all the wanderers of the Repub
lican party who had strayed away from the fold
in 1872 and since that time. It would not be new
converts — it would simply be the coining home of
those who had left us, and would return to their
first love. This was fully demonstrated in the
election of 1894. General Rusk was one of the
most painstaking and methodical politicians that
the country has ever known. In considering any
proposition, the present was entirely ignored,
and the effect upon the Republican party in the
future was the consideration.

He did nothing hastily — every proposition com
ing before him was carefully weighed. He made
no promises that were not fulfilled. His word
was sacredly and religiously kept in every in
stance. He was as careful in protecting the in
terests of the state as he was in protecting his

CLOSING WORDS. 489

own fireside. He was intensely practical. His
mind could grasp and comprehend a strong legal
proposition as vigorosly as it could the simplest
proposition coming before him.

The late Chief Justice, Harlow S. Orton, was a
great admirer of General Rusk. He had known
him intimately and wrell throughout his whole ca
reer, in war times and in civil life, as a private
citizen and as a public official, and he frequently
spoke of him as a diamond in the rough. He
had observed him closely from the earliest date
of his official life up through all the gradations
of the public service, which he had experienced.
He had noticed his sound judgment, his great fa
miliarity with public affairs, and especially that
quality which seemed to be intuitive of his knowl
edge of the constitution and the law, bearing
upon the many important questions upon which
the old Governor wras called to pass. He once
said when speaking of Gen. Rusk, that he was a
most wonderful man, that he had an intuitive
knowledge of every subject, that, while he had
never studied law or practiced it, he was, never
theless, a great lawyer. "Why," said he, with
that emphatic style of speech which oftentimes
characterized his utterances, "he will smell an un
constitutional or illegal provision in a bill be
fore him for approval, while perhaps the sharp
est lawyer in the state would fail to discover it."
This was true of Governor Rusk. No bill ever

490 JEREMIAH M. RUSK.

escaped that scrutiny which it deserved, if it was
one of doubtful character, or if there might be
found somewhere in its lines, that which was im
politic, illegal or unconstitutional, and perhaps
none of his predecessors, although they may have
been lawyers, were ever more successful in laying
bare bad legislation, or in bringing to bear upon
the consideration of all the legislative bills that
came before him, a greater breadth or compre
hension of the points involved.

In reviewing his life it is difficult for me to
point out a single mistake he ever made. He
perhaps made mistakes, but I loved the man too
well to see them. When the future record is
made up and the judgment entered, there will be
found as much to his credit as that of any man
who ever lived upon American soil. He always
intended to do right, and it is my belief that he
always did do right.

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