USA > Ohio > Representative men of Ohio, 1900-1903 > Part 4
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All these were elected President, but during the last cen- tury of the Republic there have been party champions who im- pressed their leadership upon the country, and occupied a niche in the temple of fame but little below that of chief executive. It is not the intention in this connection to recall all who have been in the fierce light of public opinion in that time, and whose shields were untarnished by criticism and the clamor of the hour, but among all such leaders but few have rivaled and none ex- celled in the qualities of natural leadership the subject of this sketch. His star has not been of the sort that shoots across the horizon, bright for a moment, only to sink beneath the sky line; but it has risen steadily, growing in brightness and power, and
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with each year since he was first mentioned in Ohio politics, has increased until the Nation to-day is ready to do him honor, even to conferring the highest gift. Through a storm of detraction and political malignity he has mounted higher in public esteem and good will, until he stands unchallenged the leader of his party, not only in the State but the Nation as well. This he has been able to accomplish by the exercise of those dominant powers which every man must use if he is to long endure in American politics. He has always fought in the open; he has stood for principles, not only for his party but for the people; he has been true to his friends and makes no promises that he does not fulfill, both in letter and spirit; beyond all he is the epitome of American force of character ; so admired even by his enemies, and the combination is one that appeals irresistibly to all.
Marcus Alonzo Hanna has grown with each year in public opinion since he appeared in politics. He has been more than equal to every emergency. In Ohio, before he as- sumed national importance, Senator Hanna's influence was felt; in two national campaigns he stood at the head of the Republican organization, and placed his friend, William McKinley, whom he loved as a brother, in the Presidential chair. With the death of that great leader, it was feared the country would lose the distinguished services of Senator Hanna, but he has taken a still higher place in the affections and good-will of the people, and as President of the National Civic Federation, has exerted a decisive influence in the settlement of a number of conflicts between capital and labor. He has thus demonstrated that he is able to crystalize party promises into literal fulfillment and proven his friendship for the wage-maker of the country.
Of all the Republican statesmen who have shed lustre upon the Buckeye State, none have outstripped Senator Hanna in the quality of national leadership or made so few mistakes to which serious objection could be raised. The sincerity of his motives has never been impugned and the man who made his first real debut in Ohio politics as a member of the Republican State Executive Committee, in 1884, has expanded into a national leader of his party. He has grown up to every occasion, been equal to every situation, and the love for the martyred President
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that caused him to assume control of his campaign in 1896 and 1900, has been transferred to the party of his choice, in whose behalf and for whose existence he is ready to do further battle. The political commander who appeared nearly a quarter of a century ago, no larger than a man's hand, has expanded in the affections of the people and all delight to do him honor. It is such a character that Ohio has given to the Nation; it is such a man whose career has been an unending advance along the line of national greatness that the country as a whole, claims the right to do him any service for past achievements. He has not yet reached the summit of his power. His great talents still reach out into unknown vistas wherein appear higher accom- plishments that will inure not only to the party of which he is the most distinguished champion, but to the people at large who are interested in the public weal. A Warwick in political contests, who has had the United States as an arena, Senator Hanna has set his course for the commercial development of the Nation that during the past five years has reached a shape bordering upon the phenomenal.
Senator Hanna is a product of Columbiana County, the cold type of the biographer tells us, born in Lisbon (then known as New Lisbon), on the 24th of September, 1837. His father came of that sturdy stock that emigrated from the East in the early days of the last century and settled amid the hills of Eastern Ohio. When young Hanna was fifteen years of age his father's family removed to the city of Cleveland, and he at once entered the schools of the Forest City to fit himslf for the commercial career, that he followed with such great success for years before he entered the arena of politics. He received his education in the public schools of Cleveland and the Western Reserve College at Hudson, graduating from both institutions with high honors in his class. At that time the present Senator gave evidence of those high and convincing qualities of leader- ship that have since impressed themselves upon the country and made him a significant factor in the story of the Nation's political and commercial progress.
His father was senior partner in a wholesale house in the city of Cleveland, and young Hanna entered the employ of the firm, determined to begin at the lowest ladder and working himself
3
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up by sheer force of character and strength developed as a busi- ness man. His father died during the second year of the civil war, and Mr. Hanna assumed control of his deceased father's interest in the firm when he was but twenty-five years of age. Five years later the business of the firm was closed up. Then he became a member of the firm of Rhodes & Co., engaged in the iron and coal business and the pioneer association of that character in Cleveland. At the end of ten years the title of this firm was changed to M. A. Hanna & Co., which still exists. Soon after his connection with this firm was consummated, Mr. Hanna married a daughter of Mr. Rhodes, the senior member of the firm, the result of that union being three children - Daniel Hanna, Miss Ruth Hanna and Mrs. Harry Parsons, nee Mabel Hanna. His home life is ideal. His unostentatous charities to the worthy poor are well recognized and universally commended.
For years Senator Hanna has been closely identified with the building and navigation of vessels on the great lakes, and the various forms of inland sea transportation. His firm has been among the leaders in that traffic and it has been very profitable. He is a director in the Globe Ship Manufacturing Company, that has sent from its ways some of the most palatial floating palaces on the lakes, as well as constructed many of the mammoth freight carrying vessels that have been such a dominant factor in the iron industry of the country. He is also president of the Union National Bank, organized in 1884; president of the Cleveland Street Railway Company and president of the Chapin Mining Company, of the Lake Superior region. In 1885 President Cleveland appointed him a director of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, the only office he ever filled at the hands of a Demo- cratic national administration.
Senator Hanna became a factor in Ohio Republican politics, as stated above, in the campaign of 1884, when with Charles Foster, of Fostoria; J. B. Foraker, of Cincinnati; B. W. Arnett, of Xenia; Charles C. Walcut, T. Ewing Miller and Smith L. Johnson, of Columbus, he was chosen as one of the additional members of the Republican State Executive Committee, having in charge the campaign that resulted in the first election of the late General James S. Robinson, of Hardin County to the post of Secretary of State. At the state convention of that year, held
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on the 23d of April, in the City of Cleveland, Senator Hanna was unanimously chosen one of the delegates-at-large to the Repub- lican National convention held in Chicago, in June, that nomi- nated James G. Blaine for the Presidency. His colleagues at that convention were Senator Foraker, President Mckinley and Judge W. H. West, of Logan.
An incident occurred in that convention that early marked the close friendship existing between President Mckinley and Senator Hanna. General Grosvenor was chairman of the con- vention and after Foraker had been named by acclamation, Gen- eral Grosvenor himself put the question electing Mckinley, also by unanimous vote. But Mckinley insisted that he should not be considered elected. He said he "promised his friends that he would not be a candidate so long as Jacob A. Ambler and Marcus A. Hanna were in the field, and did not desire to break his word." There were cries of "No," "No," and "You cannot withdraw," but he persisted in declaring that he was not elected. His de- cision was appealed from and voted down, but he still announced that other delegates were to be chosen. Finally, however, when his friend Hanna had been chosen by the unanimous vote of the delegates, Mckinley consented to serve as one of the delegates- at-large.
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On the 10th of March, 1896, the Republican State conven- tion was held in the Grand Opera House, Columbus, and with the nomination of a State ticket headed by Charles Kinney, dele- gates-at-large to the Republican National convention that assem- bled in St. Louis on the 16th of June, were chosen and Senator Hanna was one of the quartette. Even then the campaign that resulted in the nomination of Mckinley was well under way, un- der the leadership of Senator Hanna, and as Hon. W. C. Cooper, of Knox, said in announcing the name of Ohio's "Big Four" - Bushnell, Foraker, Grosvenor and Hanna - "Ohio is destined to make an important showing at the St. Louis convention. Protection will be the watchword in that city, and it is therefore necessary to select men who as leaders are greater and better men than most of the party, if possible."
The preliminary campaign that resulted in the nomination of Mckinley was under the personal management of Senator Hanna. He was the guiding force in that magnificent struggle;
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around him revolved all the forces that centered in the selection of that high priest of protection for the highest office within the gift of the American people. The detailed story of how that fight was organized and so gloriously won for McKinley, with Hanna at the head of the Republican national army, would make a volume of wonderful interest, for it must tell the phenomenal capacity of the great Ohio Senator, but it is only necessary for the present purpose to say that Senator Hanna was the man who marshaled the forces of protection everywhere for McKinley, the eloquent champion of the theory that has done so much for American capital and labor.
Governor Mckinley and Speaker Reed took the lead early in the race for the Republican nomination. Senator Hanna had charge of McKinley's fight, and he made the fight on the same lines that Samuel J. Tilden conducted the contest for his nomi- nation in 1876. His fight was won by well organized and earnestly directed contests in every debatable State, and for a year or more before the convention met Hanna was tireless in his work. He had a strong candidate in Mckinley; a man of blameless character, of admitted ability, a champion of pro- tection, a soldier who had carried his musket as a private in the flame of battle, and possessing inany elements of personal popu- larity. Reed, in his rough way, fought his battle more heroically than wisely, and was finally unhorsed by Mckinley sweeping some of the New England States from him. That defeated Reed, and McKinley's nomination was assured. The man who organized that fight and carried it to completion was Marcus Alonzo Hanna. He also made success at the polls the following November doubly sure by accepting the view of the gold standard Republicans, and incorporating the same in the national plat- form. In the previous March the Republicans of Ohio had adopted a money plank intended to be a McKinley platform that was not strong enough to please many of the ultra backers of the gold standard, and Senator Hanna was asked to incorporate what was afterward placed in the platform as the Mckinley deliverance on the money question. He acceded to the request and there was not from that moment any doubt of Mckinley's nomination.
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The prominence achieved by Senator Hanna before the country in the organization of the Mckinley victory, pointed unerringly to his selection as chairman of the National Executive Committee, and the same force and brilliancy that marked his preliminary campaign for the presidency, was exemplified again in his triumphant contest in behalf of his bosom friend, the great champion of protection. The power of his organization and his candidate was shown in the election returns, when he kept every Republican State in the Mckinley column, and added Delaware, Kentucky and Maryland, States that had not been carried by a Republican candidate for the presidency in all their previous history. Then it was that the country took off its hat to Marcus A. Hanna, and recognized his power and presence in political affairs. He was at one bound a national leader in his party.
The election of Mckinley in November 1896, and his in- auguration on the 4th of March, 1897, brought another honor to Marcus A. Hanna. Senator John Sherman resigned to accept the post of Secretary of State in the new Mckinley Cabinet, and there was a senatorial vacancy to fill. Governor Bushnell tendered the place to Mr. Hanna on the 2d of March, 1897, and it was accepted. Under the law the appointment could only hold until the next session of the General Assembly, or in January of the following year. The Republican State Convention con- vened in Toledo, in 1897, and a resolution endorsing Senator Hanna for the senatorship was adopted. A similar course had been pursued in regard to Senator Foraker's candidacy two years before, at the Zanesville convention.
The election for members of the Seventy-third General Assembly in the fall, of 1897, resulted in the success of a small Republican majority on joint ballot. It was expected that with the endorsement of the Toledo convention for Senator Hanna's election, there would be no doubt of his success, but immediately upon the announcement that the Republi- can majority was close, a movement appeared to deprive Mr. Hanna of the fruits of his victory. The opposition was purely factional in its character, the leader of which was Hon. Charles L. Kurtz, who had had some disagreement with the Ohio Senator on political matters. The Democratic members
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of the General Assembly, although in the majority, were induced to join with the handful of Kurtz insurgents in the Senate and House, in the task of defeating Senator Hanna's election, and the campaign that culminated in their defeat was one of the most strenuous ever developed in Ohio politics.
The first test of strength came in the organization of the two houses of the Seventy-third General Assembly, and in both the enemies of Senator Hanna were successful, the combine made up of the Democrats and a few anti-Hanna men in the House, and of the Democratic Senators and Vernon H. Burke, of Cleve- land, (a Hanna man, so elected, but who betrayed his con- stituent) winning out after a bitter struggle. The success of the antis only aroused the Senator to more determined effort, and as he told a newspaper man who called upon him to extend sympathy after the result of the Senate and House caucuses had been declared : "My fight has only begun."
There has been nothing quite so malignant in Ohio politics in recent years, as that contest, and the signal triumph of Senator Hanna was another tribute to his power as an organizer, and a leader equal to any emergency. He had personal charge of his campaign, and his headquarters at the Neil House were crowded to the doors for days before the vote for Senator was taken. The Democratic minority and Republican opponents of Senator Hanna were domiciled at the Great Southern Hotel, and these two places were the scenes of almost unparalleled political activity. In January, 1898, Senator Hanna's election for the unexpired term of Senator Sherman, and for the full term ending March 3, 1905, was signed and sealed, although by a bare majority of two votes, over Mayor Robert McKisson, of Cleveland, who was the candidate of the combine.
That signal victory still further endeared Senator Hanna to the great body of the Republican voters of Ohio, who looked with but little favor upon the efforts of a handful of factional enemies to deprive him of an election to the Senate, for which he had been endorsed the previous summer by the party, in con- vention assembled at Toledo. It added much to his prestige throughout the State and the country, for it had demonstrated his resourcefulness in a situation that would have tried the nerves of the oldest soldier of political fortunes. That contest again
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proclaimed him the coming man in national politics. It gave him a clearer title to the national leadership.
His seat secure during the Mckinley administration, Sen- ator Hanna at once took a leading part in the business of the Senate, and was at once recognized as a distinct addition to the highest deliberative body in the world. His relations with Pres- ยท ident Mckinley made him much sought after, and he bore un- sought the post of being the personal representative of the Chief Executive on the floor of the Senate. How well he bore that honor it will be the task of history to relate, but contemporary comment has shown no rift in the universally expressed comment that no man could have filled such a position with more credit than did Senator Hanna. He was still the counsellor and friend of President Mckinley, and assisted him in the solution of many of the problems that demanded the attention of the administra- tion. He filled the dual place with signal success, and there were none to suggest that he ever offended the ethics. or suffered in dignity. The same steady and patriotic purpose that he had em- ployed with such splendid effect in securing the nomination and election of William McKinley, he again used to assist his friend in the performance of his duties, as the head of the great Amer- ican Nation, and while the world has already woven a chaplet of fame for him who sleeps at Canton, it should not be forgotten that Marcus Alonzo Hanna had something to do and to say in that ever-memorable administration. This much can be declared without any desire to detract from the fame of William McKinley, whose place is secure in history ; nothing less ought to be said to be true to the record that Senator Hanna has made.
During the troublous days of the Spanish-American war, when President Mckinley was beset with conditions that would cause the stoutest heart to quail; when the ceaseless work that brought that war to an end in one hundred days, was telling on the Ohio man in the White House, it was Senator Hanna who divided vigils with the President and assisted him in more ways than the world will ever know in the prosecution of that war.
With that task completed, came on another Republican Na- tional convention. There was but one man to lead the Repub- licans, William McKinley; there was but one man to manage
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his campaign - Marcus A. Hanna. So the splendid body of Republicans who assembled in Philadelphia in June, 1900, had but a perfunctory duty to perform. Mckinley was renominated for a second term, and when the National committee organized Senator Hanna was again placed at its head. The result of that election was but little less complete than that of four years previous, the matchless management of Senator Hanna, who has a way of making everything count for the most, again impress- ing itself upon the Nation. For a second time he had won his spurs in a National contest and stood unchallenged as a leader of his party.
The assassination of President Mckinley at Buffalo on the 6th of September 1901 was a sorrow that fairly crushed Senator Hanna. No two men in public or private life had been more intimate. No two brothers were so knit together by the ties of friendship, that in this case were closer than those of blood. As soon as he heard the President had been shot he hurried to his bed by special train and did not leave it until Mckinley had become one of the immortals.
The day after the shooting the President's first inquiry was: "Is Mark here?" And upon being informed that he was, he ex- pressed satisfaction. When Senator Hanna learned this he said this sweet remembrance at such a time fully repaid a life- long devotion. The tragic and heart-breaking end almost over- whelmed Senator Hanna, and there were many who believed that with the passing of Mckinley the Senator would re- tire from political life. But the prophets were wrong. The cool heads and ripe experience of such men as Senator Hanna were needed in the Roosevelt administration, and it was but a short time after the new President had taken the oath of office at the Milburn home in Buffalo that Senator Hanna was personally assured of the admiration and friendship of the execu- tive, and his personal hope that he (Hanna) be his friend and counsellor in his (Roosevelt's) desire to carry out the policies of the martyred President. When the Congress determined the route of the Isthmian canal, it was the clear foresight of Senator Hanna that largely determined the selection of the Panama route as the best for the United States. His services in that regard were most conspicuous and the result of the great enterprise will
HON. JOSEPH B. FORAKER.
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show his clear prescience of what is best for the commercial in- terests of the country.
The growth of Senator Hanna in the popular mind has been steady and with undimmed lustre ever since he became a factor in politics. In every emergency he has been equal to the situation. In no case has he ever disappointed his friends. It can be said of him that his record has been steadily on the advance, never retrograding; every day occupying more tenable ground; every day being awarded that undisputed leadership to which his work in behalf of the party and the country so justly entitle him. There is ample evidence that the Republican party of the nation would be proud to honor him with the Presidency.
Hon. Joseph B. Foraker.
One of the features of the Republican State convention that assembled in Columbus on the 6th of June, 1883, was the speech of Hon. Ben Eggleston, of Cincinnati, placing in nomination his candidate for Governor. The convention was held at the old Metropolitan Opera House, and John Sherman was perma- nent chairman. When nominations for Governor were called for Mr. Eggleston rose in his place in the Hamilton county dele- gation, and after reciting some of the incidents in the life of his candidate, especially his experience as a soldier and his bril- liant record upon the bench in Cincinnati, concluded by saying : "In the name of his neighbors, of whom I am one, in the name of the representatives of Hamilton county, in the name of all the soldiers who have returned from the war, in the name of all the Republicans - and Democrats, too - I present Judge Joseph B. Foraker." Private Dalzell, who was one of the delegates from Noble county, tried to stem the tide that was setting in Foraker-ward by naming John Sherman for Governor, but that old commander declined, saying he could best serve his party and country in the United States Senate. Judge Foraker was nominated by acclamation, when upon the announcement of the result by Secretary George A. Grout, of Cleveland, a member of the Harrison county delegation brought out a tremendous
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demonstration by yelling at the top of his voice: "Who in the d-1 is Foraker?"
That question has been often answered since the day the brilliant Ohio statesman and leader made his debut in State politics. Twice elected Governor of Ohio and twice chosen a United States Senator, on both occasions without an opponent for the great honor and without a caucus, Joseph Benson Foraker to-day holds a proud position in the annals of his party in the State and the Nation at large. He stands among the unchal- lenged leaders of Republican thought and action, and has taken his place high among the men who have made history the past quarter of a century.
The campaign of 1883, when Judge Foraker stood as the candidate of his party, was one of the few disastrous ones in the history of the Republicans of Ohio. It followed closely upon the agitation engendered by the action of the Sixty-fifth General Assembly in enacting what was known as the Scott law to further provide for the evils resulting in the traffic in intoxicating liquors. In many of the larger cities of the State former Republicans took issue with the party on the liquor proposition, and the result was the defeat of Judge Foraker by Judge George Hoadly, also of Cincinnati, by a plurality of 12,529 votes. Judge Hoadly had represented the liquor interests of the State in the litigation before the Supreme Court that resulted favorably to them, for the law was declared unconstitutional, and when a candidate was sought Judge Hoadly was turned to, and he accepted the honor.
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