USA > Ohio > Representative men of Ohio, 1900-1903 > Part 5
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Two years later Judge Foraker and Governor Hoadly were again the party leaders, and this time Foraker won by the plurality of 17,451 votes. In 1887 Governor Foraker was nom- inated for a second term by the convention that met in Toledo, on the 27th of July, and he defeated Hon. Thomas E. Powell, then of Delaware County, by 23,329 votes. In 1889 Governor Foraker, against his own best judgment, but bowing to the demands of some of his enthusiastic friends, was a candidate for a third term before the convention that met in Columbus, on the 25th of June. His name was not formally presented with that of Hon. E. L. Lampson, of Ashtabula; Hon. John B. Neil, of Franklin; Hon. Wilson Vance of Hancock ; General R. P. Kennedy, of Logan ; General A. W. Jones, of Mahoning (whose candidacy was pre-
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sented by Major Mckinley) ; Hon. J. W. O'Neal, of Warren, and General R. R. Dawes, of Washington, but on the first ballot Governor Foraker received 254 votes, no other candidate receiving as many as 200, and before the result was officially declared enough delegates had changed to Foraker to give him the nomination.
It is a part of the history of Senator Foraker's political life that he did not want that nomination. He believed he had been sufficiently honored by the party in the State, and thought some other leader ought to be given a chance. Besides he was a poor man and was convinced that he should turn his attention to his profession of the law that promised better financial returns. But his friends were inexorable and in an interview held in the executive chamber it was determined that Governor Foraker should face the sentiment strong in the State and the Nation against a third term, although the position was reached only after the Governor had vehemently protested against again making him the candidate. The Democrats held their convention at Dayton August 28th and 29th, and Hon. James E. Campbell, of Butler, was nominated for Governor, defeating Hon. Lawrence T. Neal, of Ross, and Virgil P. Kline, of Cuyahoga, for the honor. The campaign was a strenuous one and Campbell was elected by a plurality of 10,872 votes. The balance of the Re- publican State ticket, however, was elected, but the Democratic majority in the Senate unseated Hon. E. L. Lampson, who had a majority of 222 votes on the face of the returns, and gave the Lieutenant Governorship to Hon. W. V. Marquis, of Logan.
The two administrations of Governor Foraker were wise, economical and approved by the people. Many judicious laws were enacted by the General Assembly, the State debt was largely reduced and the universal verdict was that the executive had been faithful to the people and alive to their best interests. In all the campaigns in which Governor Foraker was a candidate before the people the opposition press had no words of complaint in regard to the manner in which the affairs of the Common- wealth had been administered.
In every Republican National Convention, beginning with 1884, Senator Foraker has been one of Ohio's "Big Four." In 1896, at St. Louis, he was chairman of the committee on reso-
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lutions, and presented the name of William McKinley, of Ohio, for President; in 1900, at Philadelphia, he again offered Mc- Kinley for a second term in a speech that carried everything before it, brilliant in conception and delivery. In every campaign since 1883, when he stepped from the judgeship of the Cincinnati Supreme Court to the first nomination, his voice has been heard from the Ohio hustings, and in every national campaign since he became a figure in politics, Senator Foraker has stumped other States in behalf of Republican candidates and principles.
When Governor Foraker retired from the Governorship, in January, 1890, he at once resumed the practice of his profession in Cincinnati, but retained his hold on the affections and good will of his party in spite of his defeat. When the Republican State Convention met in Zanesville, on the 28th of May, 1895, the following resolution was adopted by a unanimous vote:
"The election of a Republican Legislature in this State next November will enable Ohio to send to the United States Senate a Republican colleague to that grand old statesman, John Sher- man, who has so long and so ably sustained the honor of Ohio as her representative in that august body. For this honorable place in the upper House of Congress the Republicans of this State have but one candidate, and we, their representatives here assembled, give voice to that unanimous selection in naming and recommending as their choice for that position that grand soldier, peerless orator and patriotic statesman, Joseph B. Foraker."
The venerable John Sherman was permanent chairman of that convention and voted aye for the resolution. The endorse- ment of a candidate for United States Senator was an innovation in Ohio politics for either party, but it worked so well that in 1897 the Republicans of Ohio paid a similar honor to Senator Hanna. The campaign that followed resulted in the election of Hon. Asa S. Bushnell, of Clark, for Governor, over Hon. James E. Campbell, by a plurality of 92,622 votes, and the Seventy- second General Assembly, chosen at the same time, was Repub- lican in both branches, - Senate, thirty-five Republicans; six Democrats, and one Populist; House, eighty-seven Republicans and twenty-five Democrats.
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With the resolution of the Zanesville convention in mind, there was no opposition to the election of Governor Foraker to succeed Senator Calvin S. Brice, and on the 15th of January, 1896, he was elected for the full term beginning March 4, 1897, and ending March 3, 1903. He took his seat with the inauguration of Pres- ident Mckinley, and at once assumed a leading position in the United States Senate. Senator Hanna had just been appointed to succeed John Sherman, who became Secretary of State in the Cabinet of the new President, and Senators Hanna and Foraker were colleagues in the Senate. In that distinguished body the reputation of the Senior Senator had preceded him, and it was not long until he was recognized as one of the ablest debaters on the floor. He was a staunch supporter of President Mckinley, in all his policies and a great aid to the Chief Execu- tive in the events leading up to the Spanish-American war. As in all matters of international significance grave questions arose- for consideration, and it was here the world first learned the true worth of Senator Foraker. His comprehensive knowledge of constitutional and international law amazed the Senate and the bulwarks of the sticklers looked like the fabled china shop after his masterly attacks. In all the one hundred days of the war that ended in the subjugation of Spain and the liberation of Cuba, he stood for the Mckinley administration and all it im- plied in the treatment of Cuba and the conquest in the Philippines. As chairman of the committee on Porto Rico he framed the policy for that island that brought order out of chaos and pros- perity out of want and distress. In a banquet given at the St. Nicholas Hotel, Cincinnati, soon after the close of the war, Senor Barboso, a Porto Rican statesman, declared this eulogy : "We love Senator Foraker. He is the father of liberty in Porto Rico, the father, I might say, of our new country. This great statesman, this citizen of Cincinnati, this man whom you all know and love so well, is not as well known personally in Porto Rico as he is here, but he is just as well known by reputation, and he is just as well loved. He framed and introduced a bill establishing civil government on the island. We had been under military government for four hundred years. The judiciary system was the system of favoritism. The Spanish governor was ..
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absolute. What he desired the courts did. There was no liberty of press or pulpit, no liberty of person or of property. The people were merely the unwilling children of a very cruel and thoughtless parent. Senator Foraker restored civil government. Ah, my friends, you who have never known what it is to live under a military government, do not and cannot appreciate the joy that was ours when the Foraker bill was passed and civil government restored. In that bill the great Ohio Senator met the ideas and the requirements of the people of the island in most essential particulars. Previously, the Republican party of Porto Rico was organized, and the first platform adopted in March, 1899, called for the very things that were afterward granted in the Foraker bill. Is it any wonder that we love your Senator? Is it any wonder that we hope some day to be allowed to vote, and then be allowed to vote for him for President of the United States ? "
With the brilliant record made by Senator Foraker in the greatest legislative body in the world, there was no thought of opposition to his return for another term. The convention that nominated Governor Nash, in June, 1901, adopted a resolution endorsing his candidacy, and when the election declared the success of a Republican majority in both branches of the Seventy- fifth General Assembly, only the name of Senator Foraker was on the lips of every Ohio Republican. As Senator Warren G. Harding, of Marion, said in his eloquent address, presenting the name of Senator Foraker to the Senators: "I am aware, Mr. President, that it violates accepted usage to name one's can- didate in the very first sentence uttered, but sirs, I could no more withhold his name than a glad courier, coursing homeward with the tiding of victory, could muffle his triumphant note."
On the 14th of January, 1902, Senator Foraker was placed in nomination in the Senate and he received the vote of every Re- publican member of that body, twenty-one in number. Hon. Chas. W. Baker, of Cincinnati, was the nominee of the Democratic minority, and he received the full strength of his party there - twelve votes in all. In the House Hon. F. B. Willis, of Hardin ; Hon. Charles F. Williams, of Hamilton; Hon. W. E. Guerin, of Erie, and Hon. L. F. Cain, of Noble, nominated Senator Foraker for the Senate, and then he received the solid Republican
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strength - sixty-eight votes, to forty-two for Hon. Charles W. Baker. At a joint session of Senate and House, held in the hall of the House, Senator Foraker appeared, and after a brief intro- ductory address by Governor Nash, delivered an able and eloquent address, thanking the Republicans of Ohio for the splendid honor that had again been conferred upon him. His second term began March 4, 1903, and will end March 3, 1909.
Senator Foraker, like many of Ohio's great sons, sprang from the common people. Born near Rainsboro, Highland county, July 5, 1846, his father was one of the early pioneers of the section, and at the time of the birth of the future Senator was engaged in running a small grist mill with a whip-saw attachment for getting out lumber. The elder Foraker died but a few years ago, after he had seen his son ascending the ladder leading up from the lowest rung to the pinnacle of statesman- ship. Young Foraker was brought up amid the hills of High- land county, and his education early in his youth was but of a limited character. He divided the hard work of the farm with a little schooling and knew much of toil and privation until until the bugle of war sounded for recruits at the breaking out of the rebellion. Although but 16 years of age, he enlisted in the Eighty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a private soldier, but within a year was promoted to the position of Sergeant, then to First Lieutenant, and finally to Captain of his company for distinguished services in the field of battle. He was a soldier in the ranks of that splendid army that unfurled the stars with Hooker "above the clouds," and swept like a thunder storm up the dizzy heights of Missionary Ridge; he was with Sherman at Dalton, Resaca and Kenesaw; he helped crush out the heart of the Confederacy at Jonesboro and Atlanta ; he marched through Georgia from Atlanta to the sea and bore to a waiting Nation the tidings of the fall of Savannah. For a time before the close of his term of service he was on the staff of General William Henry Slocum, and by his daring ride as the messenger of that commander he saved the Union left and made possible the cap- ture of General Joe Johnston. He was mustered out at the close of the war at the early age of but 19 years, one of the youngest soldiers who ever carried a musket in defense of his country.
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Returning from the army to the paths of peace, young Foraker felt the need of more education, and he entered Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, from which institution he graduated with honor in 1869. He studied law and was ad- mitted to the bar, taking up his residence in Cincinnati, at the hands of whose people he received his first official commission - that of Superior Judge - elected in 1879 and serving for three. years. His health giving way about that time he refused further service and was engaged in the practice of his profession when nominated for Governor by the Republicans of Ohio in 1883. Even at that time he was one of the party leaders in Hamilton county, and the Republicans of that part of the State turned as one man to tender him the flag to carry in that momentous campaign.
The career of Senator Foraker, distinguished and glorious in every department, shows what brains and energy can accom- plish in this country. He had none of the advantages that wealth, birth or friends can bring to an aspirant for political preferment, and like other famous Ohioans who have carved high their names in the temple of fame, had only his own in- dividual talents to recommend him to the people. In his early career he was impetuous and fiery, impatient with opposition and ready to do battle with an enemy four-fold as well equipped. as he, and regardless of consequences. But time has mellowed the chivalrous spirit of Senator Foraker and he has brought to his aid the suggestions of experience and a well-poised and dili- gent mind. He is now in the very zenith of his powers. He stands in the van of the great men of the State and Nation. In his career in the Senate he has divided honors with the gladiators in that arena and his wise statesmanship is reflected in much National legislation. He has been exceptionally val- uable in executing the policies of Presidents Mckinley and Roosevelt on the question of our insular possessions, and one of the really great speeches in the last (1902) session of Congress. was his eloquent defense of the American soldiers in the Phillip- pines. During the life of the martyred President he was one of the close friends of the chief executive, and to President Roose- velt he has brought the same wealth of devotion that he showered upon his predecessor in that high office. Mckinley and Foraker
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grew up side by side in Ohio, and when their services were trans- ferred to the Nation, they maintained the same warm personal friendship that always distinguished them in their native State. When Foraker was nominated the first time for Governor, Mc- Kinley was a member of the committee on resolutions from the Eighteenth district; in the second convention Mckinley repre- sented the Twentieth district on that committee; in the third and fourth Mckinley again represented the Eighteenth district on that committee. McKinley succeeded Foraker in the guber- natorial chair, with but a single interim, and together they be- gan service at the National Capital, one as President, the other as a member of the United States Senate. There never was a time from the first inauguration of President Mckinley until that great heart was hushed at Buffalo by an assassin that Mc- Kinley and Foraker were not close friends, understanding each other as they were perhaps understood by no one else.
When Major Mckinley was first nominated for Governor by the State convention that met in Columbus in June, 1891, Governor Foraker presented his name in a characteristic speech. In the National conventions of 1896 and 1900 he presented his name for President. In 1892 they were both members of Ohio's "Big Four," and in the National convention that met in Min- neapolis that year, Governor Foraker insisted upon McKinley's nomination for the Presidency to succeed Benjamin Harrison.
This in brief is the story of the political career of Senator Foraker. That it has been full of incident and spirit, not to say an epoch of strenuous effort, all familiar with it will admit. It can fairly be said that he has maintained himself with ad- mirable spirit wherever placed, and that his record as Governor and Senator has been of a character to commend him to the people of Ohio. He has been equal to every opportunity pre- sented and grown in the affection and good will of the State and Nation. To-day but few if any of the prominent public men of our time can match him in all the attributes that go to make up a leader of public thought. The master hand of Sen- ator Foraker has left an indelible impress upon national affairs within the past five years, and Ohio, a commonwealth of liberty lovers and progress worshippers, gladly yields his services to the expanded Nation to complete so great a task. 4
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General Charles Dick.
Ohio Republicans are proud of Senators Hanna and Foraker, but the names of these two great leaders are seldom mentioned unless that of General Charles Dick springs to the exultant lips as being the third distinguished commander of the army of Republicanism. He has grown so rapidly in the party estimation that he stands unchallenged at the post of the highest honor and consideration. For seven campaigns, beginning in 1892, (1892, 1893, 1894, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902,) he has been chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee, and the annual increase in the size of the party majority marks the quality of his work in organizing for victory. So successful has he been, so well does he understand political conditions in Ohio, so thor- oughly does he appreciate what is necessary to be done, and how it should be accomplished, that it is probable no other man will be at the head of the Republican campaign in Ohio so long as General Dick cares to direct its operations. To-day the name of "Charley" Dick, as he is familiarliy known, is the synonym for all that is best in political organization, generalship and an ability to secure results.
He began his political career as a member of the Summit County Republican Executive Committee late in the 80's, and attracted the attention of those engaged in the large field of state action. In 1892, in the second Harrison campaign, he was made Chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee, and pulled the state out of the fire, so to speak, for the Presidential candidate. His selection at that time was on the recommenda- tion of Hon. S. M. Taylor, the candidate for Secretary of State, who believed that he combined all the qualities of organization and equalization. That confidence was not misplaced. Other states were swept from their Republican moorings in that great contest, but Ohio remained true, one Democratic elector, James P. Seward, of the fourteenth Congressional district, only being chosen largely through the ignorance of the voter in marking his ballot, as the Australian ballot law was then but little under- stood.
The rare ability he manifested that year as a campaign manager, made him his own successor in 1893. Phenomenal
HON. CHARLES F. DICK.
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success attended his direction of Governor Mckinley's second campaign, and by common consent he was again selected to lead the Republican hosts to victory. In 1894 he rolled up a majority of 137,000 for Hon. S. M. Taylor, for Secretary of State, an unheard of figure, and only approached by the defeat of Vallan- digham by Brough in 1863, when the figures reached 103,000. He was closely associated with Senator Hanna in securing the nomination of the martyred Mckinley for the Presidency in 1896, and in that national campaign officiated as secretary of the Repub- lican National headquarters, subsequently being hade secretary of the Republican National Committee, and serving until June, 1900, when he resigned to assume charge of the Ohio campaign. In 1897-1898 he was prominently identified both with the work of the state committee and Senator Hanna's canvass for election to the United States Senate. He was chosen o represent his dis- trict at the Republican National Convention of 1892 and 1896, and in 1900 was one of the four delegates-at-large from Ohio to the Philadelphia Convention that unanimously re-nominated William McKinley.
His career in Congress began upon the death of Hon. S. A. Northway, of the Nineteenth district. That distinguished member of Congress died the day that General Dick reached Ohio after his return from service in Cuba in 1898. He was nominated and elected the following November as Northway's successor for the short and long term. In 1890 he was re-elected and in 1902 chosen for another term by a large majority. He was a member of the committee on military affairs and prom- inently identified with special work, notably the investigation of the Couer d'Alene mining riot and the hazing practice at West Point Military Academy.
Charles Dick was born and reared in Summit County, the son of Gottlieb and Mary Dick, born November 3, 1858. He was of humble, though sterling parentage, and early began to make his own way. His early education was received in the public schools of his native city, his first employment being in the store of Chipman & Boones, hatters and furriers, two years later he accepted a position as book-keeper for the Citizens' Savings and Loan Association. After six years he resigned to accept a similar position with the Empire Reaper and Mower Company. With
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this firm he remained two years, and in 1881 he associated him- self with L. C. Miles in the produce and grain commission busi- ness, the firm afterward becoming Dick and Peterson. In 1886 Mr. Dick was elected Auditor of Summit County, and three years later chosen for a second term by an increased majority. In 1894 he was admitted to the bar, and in 1897 to practice before the United States Supreme Court, being at present an active member of the law firm of Dick, Doyle & Bryan, of Akron, Ohio.
The military career of General Dick is no less brilliant than his political record. Starting as a private in the 8th Regiment O. N. G., he rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and in this capacity went with his regiment, known as the "President's Own," to Cuba for service in the Spanish-American war. He witnessed the surrender to General Shafter at Santiago and afterward went to Washington to present the condition of the American army in Cuba personally to President Mckinley. After the return of the regiment to Cuba he was made Colonel and subsequently Brigadier General, and then Major General, commanding the Ohio National Guard, which rank he now holds.
On June 30, 1881, General Dick and Miss Carrie M., daughter of Dr. J. H. Peterson of Akron, were married, and they have a delightful home and charming family in Akron. He is a Scottish Rite Mason, an Odd Fellow, and a Knight of Pythias.
Personally General Dick is the most approachable of men. His growth in the good opinion of all regardless of party lines, is nothing short of phenomenal, and among his political friends and associates, no man in recent Ohio history is more securely entrenched in their good opinion. He has won his spurs in the post of leadership by the exercise of uncommon ability and to- day there are none to dispute his pre-eminence. He is unassum- ing and unaffected, with such a plain, straight forward manner that he is known at his home and elsewhere as a most compan- ionable gentleman, whose knowledge of politics as conducted in Ohio is almost universal. And his advancement along these lines has not prevented his growth in the larger and greater duties of public service. He prepared himself for the bar in the interval of unusual activities, and his law firm enjoys a large and lucrative practice. He is a forceful and eloquent speaker, possessing a per-
GEN. C. M. SPITZER.
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sonal magnetism, one of the orator's most effective attributes. He is a busy man, but has an ability to turn out work that is little less than astounding. Few men are better read, no party man knows so many people, and especially the active workers of the organiza- tion. His prognostications of election results are marvelous, and this comes from an insight into political conditions possessed by but few public men. He predicted the first majority for Gov- ernor Nash in 1899, within a few hundred, and prophesied the result in 1901 with nearly the same fidelity as to figures. On Saturday before the general election in 1902, he said the total vote of the state would be about 800,000, and that the majority for Hon. L. C. Laylin would be close to 100,000 in that case. The result shows how closely he approximated the actual figures.
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